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[Music]
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welcome to two minds today with your
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host Charlene Authority and leadership
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development and Hala an expert Community
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Builder the Pod all about best practices
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to get you noticed and ahead in your
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professional life
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hello hello
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hi Charlene how was your week it was
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good it's a good week it's
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um yeah I feel like back to school both
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kids are in school now excellent so that
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is pretty good back to school is always
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exciting I think even if you don't have
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kids there's something about that
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heartbeat of summertime school time that
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like you carry with you through your
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entire life like even though like you
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don't work you don't operate like that
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anymore as an adult you still think
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about oh it's back to school time yeah
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there's like a seasonal there's a
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seasonal flow we finished Labor Day and
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absolutely some people I guess call this
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fall it's 100 degrees by me uh 108
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actually as I look at my computer
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um
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but I'm actually really intrigued by our
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title for today it is who called me from
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this number because I am like you know
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the queen of not answering phone calls
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even now my iPhone actually has like
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slipped in who it is so like American
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Red Cross I'm a blood donor calls me
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every three and a half seconds
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um and so it'll be like American Red
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Cross and I'm like oh okay thank you
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I'll I'll schedule um I don't answer the
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call I'm like and reject and I'll
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schedule on my own time so in this day
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of like where we know networking is so
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important and I I'm not answering my
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phone to people I don't know or even
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people I do know
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um we thought we would dive into
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networking and and I know this is just
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full disclaimer on this episode this is
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your Zone you're such a great Community
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Builder
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um and um I'm excited to learn from you
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today
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thanks so much Charlene yeah it's so
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true I agree with you like we're so
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reticent these days not just to answer
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the phone even to like respond to emails
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or text any form of communication yeah
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unless I know beforehand who it is we
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don't want to we don't want to connect
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with that person but you know okay so
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we're talking about networking and the
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reason we call this who called me from
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this number because because I think one
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of the biggest secrets to being a
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networker to having a good network is to
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be a connector and normally when you
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think about networking you think about
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going to an event where you get to meet
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a lot of people that's called networking
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I think the ultimate networking though
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is in being a great connector meaning
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that you hear of somebody who wants a
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florist and you introduce them to a
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florist you hear of somebody who wants
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this kind of product and you introduce
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them to somebody else who you know is
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selling that kind of product or thinking
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about a business with that kind of
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product and even though that doesn't
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seem like your network working the
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reality is that that people see you as
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the epicenter of someone who knows
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people and who can be who who knows
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everybody and can connect you to
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everybody so all of a sudden you'll get
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a phone call from someone and you're
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like uh who is this I I have no idea but
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meanwhile somebody else connected you
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now because they know that you know
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everyone and their mother yeah and I
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think it's it's and I've seen you do
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this by the way many times of of
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connecting other people and that I just
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want to say I've heard a tip of if
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you're actually in a room and you're
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socially awkward this is a great thing
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to do uh when like if Helen and I were
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standing around talking and like I feel
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like I don't I'm awkward and I don't
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know I haven't run out of conversation I
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turn to another person and be like oh
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John have you met Heller and um so a
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little tip for our introverts out there
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is like it's also like an easier segue
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conversation and then you're gonna have
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to carry the conversation as much so
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interesting I didn't know that that was
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a trick but I have recently started to
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think that I'm actually an introvert
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that has thought I was an extrovert my
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whole life because I have always done
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that and I do always feel very awkward
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in these major networking situations so
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like maybe I found the trick without
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even knowing it but I am always
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connecting to I'm like oh let me
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introduce you to someone so let's come
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and let's talk to each other but yep I
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agree with everything everything you
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said so this one I can speak to because
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I
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um I I am socially awkward
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um and I'm a weird extroverted introvert
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which we can get into at one time
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absolutely
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um but I feel like um hard work equals
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networking right it's like the idea that
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you know you can't get further if you're
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not really good at what you're doing so
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like just and that's really about
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building your brand brand unless in a
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showy Flash marketing way but in a more
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of how people can rely on you way
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it's so interesting that you said when I
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first started as an attorney my
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um the head of our department he was
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like fabulous attorney everybody knew
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him incredibly like you know the whole
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town I was in Philadelphia and he was
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like be it Philadelphia real estate
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attorney and he said the heck with
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networking forget about going out there
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and being in the bar association and
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meeting so and so and connecting with
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the other one just do your job and do it
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well and when you're the top at what you
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do everybody will come to you so it
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might not happen day one or two you
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might not seem like you've got everyone
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around you but over five to ten years
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all of a sudden like you've established
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how great you are what you do everyone
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else comes I think it's the real deal
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it's authentic Charlene yeah I think I
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wanna I 100 feel that way and then I
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want a flag that this only works if you
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if you're using that in combination with
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telling your own story telling your
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successes if you're the kind of person
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we've talked about this on a few other
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episodes that never ever and takes the
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credit never you're never gonna that's
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never gonna work right yeah so I think
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it works really well in tandem with
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accurately you know taking credit not
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taking more or less or you know and
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really being able to stand up for
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yourself and and also this really works
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when you're past imposter syndrome
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because I I think I think those are
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things that impede people's perception
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of you and your hard work
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um but that's gonna be putting down what
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you do you can't be apologizing you
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can't be you know taking more of a blame
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when there's a mistake when it's
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actually not yours 100 I agree with you
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that's a really bad one Charlene yeah
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um so I'm excited by this okay so
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someone recently shared with me
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essentially LinkedIn is your modern day
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networking like the LinkedIn page
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um and post page is is like the
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equivalent of when we used to go and I
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think maybe some people still do go into
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big rooms and and meet in chat and I
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find this um terrifying from like a oh
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my gosh I have to put myself out there
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on social media
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um perspective and also like oh yeah
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that is probably accurate
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um from so many from so many ways I
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don't know have you thought about this
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at all Helen well I could tell you that
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um I have a very interesting comeback to
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law story I worked in the big law world
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for a number of years and then I left
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for about 15 years to do other things I
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wrote a book I worked in the non-profit
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world and then I tried to come back into
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big law Charlene that's almost an
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impossible Trek back it just really very
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rarely happens and I was able to do it
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and be the reason I was able to do it
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was because of LinkedIn would it happen
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was when I originally got into LinkedIn
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I connected with everybody that I knew
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from my previous life so I'd gotten into
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LinkedIn you know this is 10 years right
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at least 10 years before I'm looking to
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get back into law I had gone into
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LinkedIn and I linked with people that I
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knew in my you know from my days and not
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in my Law Firm days right yeah I wasn't
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looking to do law I wasn't interested in
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it I was like all right you know if
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LinkedIn is it's the world of people I
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know I'm going to connect with everyone
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professionally meanwhile I I had
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connected at that time with the head of
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my department uh who was and linked you
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know so he had seen over these seven
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years the fact that I'd written a book
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he saw that uh that I was like involved
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and out in the world he saw that I
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started going back into law and so when
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I applied in the big firm world to come
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back and I said to him hey do you mind
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pulling my resume out of the pile like I
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did Reach Out to him he's like of course
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I've been watching you over the years I
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saw that you wrote this book I was
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shocked I was shocked that he even like
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but I guess I came up on a stream
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occasionally right and so it reminded
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him of who I was and I was actually in
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that so 100 Network and I got back in I
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got back in because of LinkedIn I've
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heard social presence so now you know
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all these reality shows so even the
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cooking ones so there was somebody who
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um was posting about they went on one of
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the I think it was a cookie insert
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whatever the reality show is about here
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and now they're casting based on your
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Instagram and influencers or whatever it
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is so if you do not have a social
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presence you are probably not gonna get
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cast on One of These reality TV shows
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and and I think it is you know it's just
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sort of this world we're living in and I
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smell tip I think you need to have 500
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connections connects with us on LinkedIn
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um but it's and then and then they said
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it's you know 500 plus is all the same
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but
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um it's yeah I think it's just sort of a
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matter of of fact of of how we Network
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it this is just a part of it in 2023 and
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I and I and I wonder if there's like
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just a little bit of like social norming
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around what I would think are really
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cringy posts like oh my gosh
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congratulations but like I think that
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that's you know that social Norm is is
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when you're there
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here's what I would say and he'll tell
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me if you disagree great there's
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different rules of engagement when you
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are at a networking event then what you
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would probably do in your own social
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life right you know you're going in to
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this room in real life in real person to
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person you're going to and people are
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going to be pitching themselves and it's
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sort of like this acceptability and
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versus like when you're you know
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standing in line at your kids soccer
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game it's a little bit different and I
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think LinkedIn is that place where
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people know you are going and you're
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putting your best foot forward and and
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you're presenting yourself a little bit
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so I just I wonder that I do think that
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there is an industry-specific Behavior
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with this and also generational specific
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behavior so
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um and so that makes it a little bit
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tricky right and I my advice is always
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try and keep it as professional as
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possible when you're on LinkedIn and try
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and have some kind of a presence but not
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too much you have to be careful because
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certain industries would find certain
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posts not really classy and professional
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and so it's it's a little bit tricky
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um I assume everybody knows everything
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because like random people I barely know
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will like something and it'll flash up
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this person liked this so just be super
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conscious of that all right all right
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our net ring who called me from this
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member so let's talk about how we feel
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networking is coming around in 2023 so
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hello take us uh for the wrap up
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all right so hey be a connector yourself
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do the good deed connect people to each
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other it's a round World it'll come back
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and you'll see that that's become a form
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of networking for you
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be authentic as always I think this is
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Charlene's like go-to line I like I try
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and like internalize it and bring my
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inner Charlene to everything hard work
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really at the end of the day is the most
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authentic form of networking it might
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take a little bit longer to build but it
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really does pay off and the last modern
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day networking get on LinkedIn get on
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social media have a presence it's you
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know it is the equivalent of sitting
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around in a big conference you know at a
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meeting and bringing lots of people
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together so
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you could do it even from your own home
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I know well thank you everyone for
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joining us and as always we share that
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try and learn a little bit more every
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day and we'll see you next time we hope
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you found our discussion in formative
12:57
and thought-provoking be sure to
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