Focusing on you a little bit, Sandy, is you have a very impressive following on Twitter, LinkedIn, across social media, as well as publications, and have been the recipient of many women in leadership awards, including one of the most influential women that were named by Fast Company. For those of us who want to improve or expand our network while maintaining a full-time role, what tip or tricks do you have to share? Then also, how can you network while also maintaining authenticity? That's a lot of questions. But let me take them one at a time, and Nancy, you're so good at that. To build your influence, it really takes you being ridiculously valuable to your customer and your company. Having influence isn't just about your tweets or about speaking up in a meeting. It's about really understanding who your customer is, what your technology is, what your product is. If you can make your content ridiculously valuable, people are going to follow you. They're going to come after you for advice and for counsel and seek you out. To me, it's those leaders that are very inspirational. I was asked earlier today, did you seek out these awards? Did you really go for these awards? The answer is no, I actually never even thought about it. What I love to do is I love to share my experiences. I love to "teach", if you would, or share shortcuts of things that work for me so maybe others don't have to go through those same problems, issues, challenges as they're building their business. For me, it's really about how do you build that influence and add value. You're coming in and you're learning a new skill. Let's say that you're a great product manager, but you've never done networking, or you're great networker but you've never done product management. For me, it's always about learning and being curious about something and learning a new skill, but at the same time, showcasing your value, being "ridiculously" valuable in something that helps you to build that particular level of influence. Now, your second question, remind me of your second question again. My second question, a lot of students have asked, beyond a certain point you have to stop applying for jobs. You've built out enough influence or your personal brand or your niche of whatever it might be that you're just really good at, that others will actually come out and seek you, as I'm sure they've done for you for many of your roles. What does it take for someone to get to that inflection point, and how can they continue building their network with authenticity? Yeah, that's a great one. Four things. One, I think when people see you passionate about what you do, they want you on the team. I think when it becomes a rote task that people are like, "No, I'm not 100 percent sure. " I think people look for you and seek you out when they sense that energy, that passion, and that you have a point of view. That doesn't mean that your point of view is going to be different than your company, but it means that you're so passionate and so supportive of that point of view that others seek you out in that area. I think that's when you reach that inflection point and people start approaching you about opportunities, some of which you may never even expect. I just got invited to speak on a topic and I was just commenting on certain things. It's not really my area of expertise, but they were like, "Well, you're very passionate. You have a very unique point of view on that. Could you come and speak on this particular topic?" Which was a big surprise to me. I think in terms of just networking, a lot of people view networking as an "extra activity". It's something I have to learn to do, it's something that I have to build in. I find that a lot of people are natural networkers and they don't know it. Just being curious like Nancy, what is your current job? Can you tell me about it? That's very interesting. If you can just find some time during the day to sit down and do that, I think it's a great way to let others know how much you're interested in them, which in turn allows them to be interested in you. I just read a really interesting statistic that said that most men sit down and have lunch with somebody. Even in this area of virtual working, a lot of men will do virtual Zoom lunch with each other, talk about what they're working on, engage each other and learn from each other, and then "network". A lot of women, because they're so focused on performing, they'll run to their kitchen and they'll grab their lunch and they'll get back on the next meeting, and not really sit down and share their skills and allow others to know what their skills and their talents are. I think there's a really good lesson on that. I started trying to book at least one virtual lunch a week, which is very hard for me. I'm not used to doing that. I can imagine with your schedule, that's going to be challenging. Yeah, but I do like it. I think that it enables you to showcase areas of skills that others might not know that you have. Then I would say the last one is, not when you're just telling yourself, but that when you're talking about your team and the leaders that are on your team and who have helped you really pull something off. When I find out you're really good at this, at celebrating your teammates. I, see others. That catches my attention. I think that's another way that you hit that inflection point when it's not just about you, when it's really about your team, and you serve as an enabler to help make your team successful. I think others really take notice of that. I think that's another big inflection point as well.
