I see a spark between us
I promised myself I was going to do a couple of things this year and I'm happy to announce to you that I am finally doing one of them right.
Hey there, it’s me again.
There are many things I have talked about doing or attempting in this newsletter and the more time passes, I become more intentional about doing them and I in turn get to check them off my list. I would mention 2 things that I have talked about doing and I would share how it has been going in hopes that it would inspire you to go after your goals too.
Hey, there once again. In case you do not know who I am, I am Ola Fakomi, a Visual & Product Designer. People and brands with strategic business needs come to me and I come up with solutions to solve those problems using design.
One of my goals for the year was to attend more events. I realised that one of the major influences on my growth as a designer is the people I have managed to connect with and keep around me. More than meeting and keeping them around me, my growth was also heavily influenced by those I have been able to exchange value with in one way or another.
So, when it became clear that I would be staying in Lagos after school, I made attending events one of my goals. So far, I have been to:
An Art Exhibition
A food festival - GT Co.
Untitled Designer’s Conference
My goal was to attend 5 tech events but evidently only 1 of the 3 events I have attended falls into the tech category so, I still have 4 to go. So help me God.
This is not the end of the newsletter but if you have ever been motivated, directed or helped but a single sentence or paragraph I have ever written now or in the past, Subscribe for more.
Unlike my typical experience at tech conferences, this one was different. It was almost like there was a spark, between me and the people I met, that didn’t used to be there.
Normally, I would come to the events (alone or with a friend) and get sucked into all the sessions and what was offered. Then when the time to network came, I would really struggle.
I would become very selective with who I approach, just to make sure I don’t get punched in the face. At least that’s how my brain used to think it would go down. I would only relate with familiar faces and unfortunately for me, I didn’t know a lot of people so, my interactions were extremely limited.
But at UDC, the Design conference I attended this week, it felt very different. The idea behind my sharing this is not just to brag about the growth I have experienced in my social interaction skills but to outline everything that made “Networking“ easier for me. At least based on my observation yesterday.
One thing I would like to say is that networking is not a one-day game. It’s not even a short-term game. It’s a whole pipeline.
In some cases, you would plant the seed for the connection today, establish the connection the same day and in a few weeks, reap the results of the connection.
In other cases, it takes time to establish and maintain the connection. In fact weeks, months or years.
I think the way networking has been preached to many of us has led us to believe that networking is all about meeting new people at events or staying in touch with colleagues. It’s more than that and I’m going to explain using my personal experience.
Based on this article, Master These 5 Stages Of Networking For An Effective Process, there are 5 stages to networking which are:
Planning: Come up with a strategy that considers why you want to network and the results you are hoping to get.
Targeting: Select the medium or channels you want to use to network and align your choice with your networking goals.
Interacting: Establish the first interaction with your targets. This is where they get to have an idea of who you are.
Follow-up: Intentionally build a rapport following your initial interaction.
Nurturing: This is mainly about building the connection, keeping it alive, being considerate and exchanging value.
Harvest: The publishers of that article did not add this part but there is usually an end game to networking and that’s how you measure if you are doing it right.
Step 1 - Plan
When the year started, I planned that I needed to be more visible and that that visibly was the key to my career growth. I need to work with more people, collaborate with more people and put my work out there more. Some of the plans I had to achieve were:
Attend 5 tech events
Post my work more on X.
Be more interactive in community groups.
And so far I can say I have been implementing them.
Step 2 - Targeting
I have managed to define my primary targets in line with my goals.
Designers - For me to learn from, collaborate with, exchange value with and generally be recognised by.
Clients - For me to offer my services to.
Step 3 - Interacting
This is the part I thought would require me to go to events but it turns out that being a little more active on Twitter (X) and in design communities seeded my identity in the minds of more people than I realised.
The trick to this part is just to be yourself and to prioritise putting value out there.
Answer questions people ask in groups
Engage with people’s posts on X or LinkedIn
Follow people you admire.
Give positive and negative feedback but do it sincerely.
Just be a good person and vibe well. These are the things I have been doing.
Step 4 - Follow-up
I knew I would suck at talking to people I did not know if I met them at events so I unconsciously put more effort into step 3. This was why the attendance to events, that supposed to be Step 3, allowed me to both interact and follow up.
I was easily able to spot people I had interacted with on X and introduce myself and that cured my natural anxiety around “Would this person punch me in the face?“
I even had people walk up to me because they thought they knew me on X. Lol, I’m sure they do not but yeah sure, my name is Ola Fakomi.
Step 5 - Nurture
This part was one I was really proud of, I met people I had worked with, collaborated with and met at other events and it was extremely easy to start and sustain a conversation.
So, I did not even have to kill myself by worrying about how these relationships would be maintained. I just kept doing my work and showing up as much as I could and it worked out.
Step 6 - Harvest
Don’t expect anyone to give you a job immediately. I know that is usually the desired result when most people try to get better at networking. Recognise that the networking benefits are in layers and you have to be okay with the results and simply focus on giving value rather than taking.
A Harvest could be:
A connection to a job/client.
A link to a resource
A free career advise
A new friend
and so on.
In conclusion, I can now confidently say that I have gotten better at networking and that I now have a healthier perspective towards it.
I hope you were able to learn a few things as you read this article and I look forward to sharing more of my experience for the purpose of your learning. Someday, you will feel the spark I saw with multiple yesterday too.
Cheers.
In summary
Networking starts when you understand who you are and what you want. Not how do I meet more people.
Be sincere and organic in your interactions, don’t try to follow every playbook and end up giving off robot vibe.