My First In-Person Class / Networking

Today was the day I finally got to attend class in person in the college!

I realized right off the start, that London (or British) time is much more strict that American time. In America, I had always arrived 3-4 minutes after lecture would start, and most of our teachers would not start until perhaps 15 minutes in. However, it seemed our lecturers would start right on the dot! I decided that I would try to be a little early each time to avoid being late. This is a habit I am continuously working on and was reminded of the importance of this small skill today.

Moving on, I had been a bit nervous about meeting my classmates after not seeing them in person for so long, but it was really nice that so many of my classmates were open to speaking with me! Attaching a whole personality to just a head was so nice, and it felt much more interactive to learn in class than through a computer screen. This I really appreciated. By the end of the class, I was much more relaxed, and extremely happy to be there!

Starting "Driscoff's What Model" :

1) What?

For this lecture, David invited Christopher Yu (Managing director of United Parfums) to give a short lecture about his experience as an entrepreneur. It was one of the first times I met an Asian entrepreneur, so I was really happy to see some more diversity in our lecturers.

Overall, I was really inspired by Christopher's story. He carried himself in a way that was both direct and humble. Particularly, the things he said that stood out to me were: "You must be willing to make trillions of mistakes. Ten million no's, one yes" and "Listening to the customer is important, but know that the DNA of your brand is uncompromisable". I definitely felt that this lecture would be much more relevant had I had an idea to start my own brand, but as I was listening more for inspiration and guidance as a fellow future worker, I decided to take each word in case I would need it in the future.

At the end of the lecture, David and Christopher both emphasized the importance of networking, and how it would lead to more opportunities. This, I mulled over particularly during and after class. I felt that networking was important, but to seem genuine in networking was something that I found more difficult to do. How do I network with people, without seeming like I am just "using" them? How do I network in a way that is both authentic to myself and the person I am speaking to? Is networking "authentic"?

2) So what?

After the class was over, I wanted to thank David for his time (also feeling bad that I was a few minutes late). However, my classmates were waiting for me, so I decided to catch him later, and finally when we were outside I thanked him for his lecture.

After thanking him, I realized that simply thanking someone for their talk was not a particularly high end form of networking. In order to network, I need to set my heart in it, and be more proactive about asking questions and building a bond. I trusted that our lecturers are highly skilled in their work, but I wasn't sure how to balance how I normally converse and get close to people, versus thinking of it as "networking". After mulling over some of the questions I developed today, here were some of my conclusions:

3) Now what?

-Don't compromise of your own values.

-Networking takes practice (so I will definitely work on it)

-Having more information allows me to network more authentically and creatively.

After the lecture, I decided to keep being proactive and added Christopher's brand "Ostens" immediately to my Instagram. I then researched more about his brand and was astounded that I hadn't known about perfume distribution prior to the lecture. After learning more about him and his brand, I immediately felt much more attached to his brand Ostens, and felt more compelled to find out more about the work in perfume creations. It was such a large field that I had never considered to go into, but the lecture had inspired me to learn more, despite perhaps not working it in.

Unfortunately, I couldn't find Christopher's e-mail or LinkedIn page after searching for it. But, I decided that if I saw him or found out about it later on, I would continue on my genuine connections, and continue practice his recommended skill of "networking". I decided not to stress too much about it, but it did help me to work on future skills that I knew would come in handy with a hard determined edge to network.

I'm still fairly new to this, and may be overthinking it, but I want to be as authentic and interested as possible when talking to the people around me. I also want to learn how to network properly, and be more practiced in this skill. So...cheers to practicing, and cheers to being interested in brands, and cheers to networking!