5 Ways to Professionally Develop Outside of the Workplace

Hi sweet friends, happy Monday! With Hurricane Florence hitting NC over the past few days, I have been pretty silent on the blog and social media to get my home secure and be there for friends/family. I am so grateful that no damage was done to my home and all my loved ones are safe and sound. After a few long days of being stuck in the house, I am excited to get out of the house today and work from one of my favorite coffee shops.

So, I am pumped about today’s post y’all! Many of you know that I teach at the community college and I have loved every second of being able to help people with workforce development and job preparation. Some of the most asked questions I get it are, “How can I continue training or building my knowledge outside of work?” and “How do I network with others in my field?” Today I’m sharing 5 easy ways and tools to use to get ahead of your own professional development.

1 | N E T W O R K – Okay, I know you have probably heard about networking but seriously, networking is key to succeeding these days. 80% of available jobs are not posted online, which is how job seekers usually find opportunities. Do you know how people get those jobs? Yes, you guessed it, through networking. Connecting with people inside and outside of your field is essential to your career. Here are some easy ways to network: Participate in your local groups such as the Young Professional Network or Small Business Leaders. These groups can easily be found on you town chamber social media or city website. Most of the time your first or first two visits to these groups are free to attend without paying the monthly or yearly free. I encourage you to attend one of the meetings or events before you pay for the membership. Plus, these events usually include food and drinks so even if you hate it, there was no loss on your end. Another easy way is to check Facebook for professional groups. My close friend is a flight attendant and one of the first things she did after starting her job was was join a huge Facebook group for FAs only. In that group, she can connect with others, share stories, learn from their mistakes and ask questions. Even if you feel like Facebook is dying on your personal side (with the people you are friends with/share with), the business side of Facebook and the use of groups is steadily booming.

2 | M E N T O R S H I P – Outside of work, there are a few ways that you can find mentors. If you’re recently out of college and had solid relationships with 1 or 2 professors, start there. Most professors and teaching instructors love to follow-up with students and serve as a resource for them, if needed. Especially if you’ve completed research with or was a teaching assistant for a faculty member, they would be the perfect mentor. Secondly, whenever you attempt to meet other professionals in your field, make a point to connect with at least two people who are seasoned or mid-career professionals. For myself, I connected instantly with one of the other instructors in my department who had 10+ years of experience . She was able to give me insight not only on teaching in our field, but also about our community college, since she had been there for 3+ years. A few weeks back I met an incredible woman with 25+ experience in my field and set-up a virtual coffee date (my absolutely favorite). It was amazing to chat with someone who has already done some of the work I hope to do in the future. It was such a breath of fresh air talking to someone who understood my field of workforce development and my plans on expanding in diversity & inclusion and conflict management. For myself, all of my mentors have been outside of the workplace, which is ideal because I can freely express concerns/issues/questions to them about work and not have to think twice about doing so. My best tip of advice for connecting with a desired mentor or networking IRL, is to ask that person for a coffee date. Here’s why: 1. Coffee dates are cheap. If I’m meeting with someone in person, I’ll pay for their coffee. It shows how appreciative you are for their time and takes the burden of paying off of them. 2. Coffee dates are short. If you don’t connect with the person like you thought, the time will go by quick since it doesn’t take long to drink one cup of coffee. 3. Coffee shops are usually busy/pretty populated, so if you’re meeting them IRL for the first time, you’ll be in a public place with a lot of foot traffic. 4. Coffee dates are very low pressure. You can keep the conversations on surface of basic career and questions, then chose to follow up accordingly. These reasons probably sound like dating rules (which I talk about often and why I do not ever do dinner on the first date) but are helpful when connecting with someone on the professional level for the first time.

3 | B O O K S – When selecting books for professional development, I focus solely on books about skills I can put into practice. Instead of books about teaching or building curriculum, I focus on transferrable skills such as cultivating leadership, creating effective change and so on. The reason why I’ve chosen to do this is because certain skills, such as specific hard skills needed in your job, will at some point be taught to you and if you decide to leave that field, you may never use them again. Unlike learning soft skills which can be taken across work titles, companies, locations and more I 110% recommend: Lean In, GRIT and Dare to Lead. Here are a few more of my favorites:

4 | Electronic resources – Okay y’all, whoever came up with Ted Talks and podcasts are complete geniuses. I love both and use both to professionally develop outside of the workplace for two different reasons. Based on my listening preferences, I find Ted Talks usually talk about problems and podcasts usually talk about people. One of my favorite Ted Talks was by Rita Pierson, who shared  why students don’t learn from people they don’t like. Even if you’re not an educator, you can take these same principles about teaching into your leadership and training positions. For podcasts, one of my absolute favorites is Women, Work & Worth by Mavenly + Co. I have listened to episodes about everything from personal branding to productivity hacks to starting a business and more. What I love most is that you get to learn about the guests speakers and the hosts. I try to give myself a simple actionable item after each episode such as researching the podcast guests or considering a new book that was mentioned. Since podcasts don’t have visuals, they are perfect to listen to during your work commute. When I work from home, I may have a podcast episode playing and a notebook and pen to my right side. I do this to simply takes have notes for later and to remember anything that stood out to me. Even if you’re driving, you can always take mental note of episodes you want to rewatch or people you want to look up later on. I have learned so much about managing my business, increasing productivity and changing my mindset around money just through podcasts. Another set of electronic resources include learning platforms such as Udemy and Coursera. You can take classes in coding or marketing or history or teaching and more. Many classes have a free option to enroll and take the class (materials included) or you can receive a certificate for a fee (usually about $50). Some courses on these platforms are taught through Harvard, Yale, Duke and other elite universities. If you are low on funds and want to freshen up your skills or learn something new, start with one of these platforms and opt to pay the fee for a certificate of completion, if you so desire. These platforms save you from having to obtain another degree or sit in a traditional classroom everyday.

5 | B R A N D I N G – Y’all, this is something I preach heavily in classes. Building your network and your soft skills are great things to do to build your personal brand but creating tangible or visual aspect is even better. Even if you work full-time as a graphic designer or stylist or IT professional, working on those skills outside of the workplace such as teaching calligraphy classes, starting a fashion blog or taking on freelance IT or coding clients, all build your personal brand. Once you start doing the work, the easiest way to display and share your craft is through digital media: websites and social platforms. As we know, creating a social media account is free. It costs nothing but your time to create an Instagram for your calligraphy skills or YouTube for your styling services. If you’re looking for a simple and easy way to create a one page website (great starting point for most people with a few services or just beginning), use Landing Lion! I actually heard about this from the founders of Mavenly + Co through their podcast. Creating a one-page website using Landing Lion is free for up to 10,000 views per month! If you want to create a custom domain, it will only be $5/month. So, for only $60 a year, you can have an easily accessible online presence that can lead to more business and more money. Here are the websites for the 2 founders of Mavenly + Co through Landing Lion: Talia // Kate. With Landing Lion, you can integrate mailing lists platforms like Mailchimp and ConvertKit, to build a group of potential clients. There are so many other great features to creating a professional webpage with Landing Lion and I would 100% recommend it for everyone trying to build their personal brand in the digital age.

Okay friends, if you’ve read down to here, THANK YOU! I plan on creating individual posts for each of these topics to dig deeper at a later date. If you skipped down to the end, here are 5 actionable steps you can take right now:

1. Attend a local professional group meet-up: Young Professionals, Business After Hours, etc.
2. Ask someone you admire in the professional world to a cup of coffee. Pay for their coffee. This is the best $10 investment you can make.
3. Read a book to better yourself. Start with Lean In, GRIT or Dare to Lead
4. Watch a Ted Talk about a problem you want to solve or listen to a podcast on your morning commute. I recommend this Ted Talk and this podcast.
5. Create a digital space for your craft or side hustle. Landing Lion is a one-page website builder free for up to 10,000 views/per month or $5/month for a custom domain.

Well friends, that’s all that I have for today. I hope you have a beautiful week 🙂 -xo, Azanique <3