Lisa Rangel, Executive Resume Writer

Avil Beckford

Hi there. My name is Avil Beckford, and this is the latest episode of the One Problem podcast. We all know there are tons of problems in the world, but we don't want to get overwhelmed. We're going to tackle them one problem at a time. As you know by now, I like to bring on people who I have some prior relationship with. My very special guest doesn't know that about six, seven years ago, I was on one of her training webinars on LinkedIn. So today I'd like you to meet Lisa Rangel and she is an executive resume writer. Over to you, Lisa.

Lisa Rangel

Thank you so much, Avil, for having me. I'm honored to be here. And I love your book series that you put up on social media there for a long time, the 100 Day Project. I loved it. The problem that I'm going to discuss today is how to expand and nurture your network. I find that especially coming off of COVID people feel a little isolated. A more basic way of putting it is how to continue making friends, right, how to continue to nurture our relationships. So those are many titles to that same problem.

And so I'm going to give you some ideas today on how to do that. So the first step is really to look around you. We have a contact list on our phone. Go through your phone contact list and see who you haven't spoken to in a while. It doesn't have to necessarily be a business contact. It can be a friend from a long time ago. Someone you lost contact with just because life happens, and it goes in different directions. Just commit to reaching out. A second idea is most of us have LinkedIn profiles.

Lisa Rangel, Executive Resume Writer

Most of us have over 500 contacts. When was the last time you went through that 500 plus contact list and reached out to people just to say hello and just to see what they're up to? And just set up a networking meeting or a catch-up meeting. You don't even need to call it a networking meeting to say, hey, we haven't talked in a while, let's catch up. And either use a calendar function like Acuity or Calendly or TimeTrade. And just send them your link and say, or if it's easier, send me your link or send me what time works for you.

Have you read or watched?

1. Lucia Kanter St. Amour, VP United Nations Women (San Francisco)
2. Traci Lamb, TV Show Host For The First/Only Caregiver Show in Mass Media
3. Jane Lehman, Legal Shield – Affordable Access to Lawyers
4. Gena Cox, Organizational Psychologist, Executive Coach, Speaker and Author
5. Carla Leon, Chief Executive Officer, Just Like Family Home Care Canada
6. Lillian Davenport, Leadership and Career Strategist
7. Paulette Durepos, Women Entrepreneurs Working from Home Struggling with Isolation
8. Shelley Nadel: How to Deal With the Volatile Stock Market
9. Karen Wilson Robinson, The Importance of Protecting Your Intellectual Property
10. Maureen Chiana, How to Lead to Bring Out the Best In Employees
11. Ashley Brundage, Leadership and Empowerment Expert
12. Sandra Folk, How to Deliver Effective Presentations
13. Dorothy Vernon-Brown, Marketing Automation Strategist
14. Tessa Drayton, The Importance of Having a Crisis Management Plan
15. Safiya Robinson, Writing Coach, Editor, and Author
16. Robin Sacks, Confidence Coach: How to Flip the Switch on Negative Self Talk
17. Diane Darling, Professional Networking Strategist; Speaker, Instructor & Coach
18. Rosie Yeung, Founder and President Changing Lenses

Lisa Rangel

So just make it really user-friendly to set up a chat. Another way to come up with people to talk to is look at your college alumni. Look at your corporate alumni networks. People who used to work where you used to work, or people who went to school where you used to go to school, even if you didn't know them. You have in common that you used to work at that organization or go to that school, and you can use a search on LinkedIn for that.

You can contact local alumni offices at colleges. And some bigger companies now even have established corporate alumni networks because they see the value of people who used to work there as a place of making new connections and new friends. Number four is to commit to a certain amount of connections that you will make each week. So of these ideas I've just given, you say to yourself, I'm going to reach out to five people a week.

And if you can settle on one or two conversations a week from those five outreaches, because not everybody is going to get back to you. You're winning. And you'll start to build over time. If you can talk to one or two people a week over a year, you've just spoken to 52 to 104 new people. And you've reached out to about 250 people. Sometimes people, if they don't get back to you, they see that you've reached out to them. They keep you in mind. And so it's still not a failure, even if they don't get back to you. So the key is just the outreach. And as for having those conversations, just be curious.

Lisa Rangel

You can ask what people are up to. You can be a listening ear. Ask what's been interesting over the last few months, few weeks, few years in their life, what hardships they've had, what they've overcome, and then obviously, be open to sharing the same. So it's about just connecting. And honestly, things come from those conversations that you never even imagined half the time. So just be open, be easy, and just be regimented in the outreach. And honestly, magic will come from it. And that's my suggestion to expand and nurture your network. Over to you, Avil.

You know something? This is very timely and it's good for me. I'm one of those people who haven't taken myself out of isolation. Every now and again, I'll do something with one friend who I really trust. Most people reach out to me and I say no. So this is a safe way for me to do it online. So thank you so much.

Oh, you're so welcome. Honestly, it's a reminder for me, too. Even when I wrote the list in preparation to be on here today, I was like, I got to listen to some of this myself. So it's always a good reminder. None of us are amazing at it, and we all need to just do it and execute it in some way. And even if you don't do five, and you do one outreach, you're still winning. So there's no wrong way to do it other than not doing it at all.

Avil Beckford

Thanks. This has been so good.

Next Steps

1. Subscribe to my YouTube Channel
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3. Buy and Read, The Job Landing Mindset: How to Shift Your Mindset to Land Your Dream Job by Lisa Rangel

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