So I received a long WhatsApp message from my friend Phoebe. Phoebe is one of my mentees. She’s the daughter of my friend Dana, and she’s a real whippersnapper. She’s one of those kids that’s always been a hustler. She’s always worked as the camp counselor, the babysitter when she was too old to be a babysitter. She’s that kid who raises their hand to do anything to make an extra buck. She’s organized, motivated, and she thrives on hard work. In working with her, one of the things we’ve been doing – and it’s not only with Phoebe, it’s with a couple of other people – we talk about how to shape their story. It’s easy to feel when you’re in a job search or you really want something that you have to sell yourself, and you focus on what the company wants, what the job is, what you think they want to hear. And I like to bring it back to the person and get them to be really clear on the three or four things they want people to know about them.
In the case of Charlie when he was looking for a job and interviewing – Charlie is one of my friends I’ve spoken about in the past, the son of one of my besties, Lisa – and one of the things I told him to say in the job interview is that he’s always been an early bird gets the worm type of person. And he’s always been the guy that hustles for a dime. He was selling toys when he was like10 years old. He’d go and collect people’s unwanted toys, take them in a wagon to the schoolyard and sell them. And in an interview you can sound personable and reveal something critically important about yourself that a smart interviewer will pick up on.
In the case of Phoebe, she’s always loved fashion. She looks really good, she dresses well, and she’s had experience in fashion but that’s not where she wants to go. So when she’s speaking to companies – one company she’s interviewing with is in a media relations, another company is in design services – I helped her weave into the story the fact that she comes from a family that has been operating in the entertainment business, television, music, and her mother is a decorator. That’s relevant to who she is. It gives context to the type of background she has. I also got her to talk about the fact that she takes a lot of initiative, and she thrives in environments where she can get her hands dirty and dabble in many different things. So, I got her to frame that as she likes to be a big fish in a small pond.
Anyway, I got off track. What I want to say is I opened my messages yesterday and I got a beautiful thank you from her. I had set her up to speak with a very senior executive in a hot company. She told me what she said. She gave me some sense of what he had asked her and how she had responded and how she had integrated everything we talked about into her responses. And I was very grateful for the thoughtfulness of her follow up. I felt like she was acknowledging what we had done together. She was showing me how she had put it in action. She thanked me for making the introduction and it made me feel good.
It got me thinking about when we carry around those thank you notes in our head and we walk around thinking oh, I should let her know that this happened or that happened. Follow up counts. Acknowledging people and saying, thank you, it counts so much. And I don’t mean to sound preachy. I am saying that also to myself – note to self. It felt so good to be acknowledged and thanked and to receive the follow up. And it really got me thinking this morning about who I owe a thank you note to who I need just to send a simple text to, to say, Hey, wanted to let you know.
Open loops leave people hanging. And we all know that doesn’t feel good. So again, I’m just saying I really noticed how satisfying it was to be on the receiving end, and it really got me thinking about who I need to do that with. And that includes some people who have reached out to me who I really have not followed up with myself and need to either make a date or let them know that I don’t have time. I’ve just left them hanging. I also received a really nice thank you gift, and I know you’re not supposed to say thank you for a thank you, but it’s something that has brought me tremendous joy and I walk around thinking, oh, I really should let that person know how beautiful their gift was, and how much I appreciate it. So after receiving that call yesterday, I think I’m going to spend some time today just saying thank you. Acknowledging people closing loops and following up. It makes me feel good too.
I don’t know who needs to hear that, but I thought I’d offer that up for. That’s all for now. Until next time, from my heart to yours.
