Networking Isn’t a Shortcut – It’s a Strategy

Krissy: Very impressive. Founded Rev Ops Village and she actually co-leads the Pavilion Women’s Group. Mm-hmm. She advises several startups and lives in Marin with her husband and two kids. So Ann, welcome to the podcast. Super excited to have you here today. Thank you, Chrissy. Um, I’m glad to be back. 

Anne: Yes, 

Krissy: I know.

Krissy: It’s, and, and we have, you know, a, a great topic, right, about networking, right? And how it’s not a shortcut, it’s a strategy. And I think in this time, you know, look, the market is heating up intensely, um, with hiring. But then you have all these folks that are still looking for jobs, right? And so it’s creating a lot of this push and pull, but also that anxiety, especially for leaders, is still there.

Krissy: And I think a lot of people really. Really misunderstand networking and how to make it a strategy. Right. And so wanna definitely get into that. But I’d love to start off with how has your network actually played a role in your own career by either landing a job or making a transition or, or even growing your business?

Anne: Yeah, I mean there, there’s numerous examples and the one that I’d really like to talk about was from probably, gosh, it was around. Earlier in my career, it was probably around 2009, 2010, I was working at Gilead Sciences. That’s at, that’s at $5 billion company. Well now they’re much larger, but they’re around that then.

Anne: And I was one of many people who helped contribute to that, not, not sole contributor. Um, I started my career in fp and a and I was on the commercial finance team supporting sales and marketing. I was also a very avid runner at the time. And so every Friday I would go out running and true story was. All the guys execs and me, you know, the, the senior financial analyst would go out running and I, I had been in finance for about five years and I went out running with DJ who was, um, the head of one of the heads of commercial at the time.

Anne: And I was, he asked me, you know, what are you thinking about your career? Like, what’s next? You’ve been, you’ve been in the finance team here at Gilead for a couple years, you’ve done well. And I said, you know, I’ve really realized I wanna get closer to the business. And, you know, finance is great. I enjoy it.

Anne: I’m good at it. But I, I wanna get more into the operations and really like how the business runs. And so that’s like the stuff that I’m looking to take. Yeah. It’s like, oh my God, Ann, we are gonna be opening a role for a new HIV analytics and operations manager, which was a couple levels above line. And I was like, oh, oh really?

Anne: And he’s like, you should a hundred percent apply for it. You should apply and you should tell them that I told you to apply. I said, okay. And in my head, you know what’s interesting is I don’t think I would’ve applied for it. ’cause it was two levels above where I was. And I was like, okay, am I ready for this?

Anne: But he saw that in me and it was a very casual conversation. Just, you know, going out, running. And so I applied, I got that job and I ended up doing very well with it and was really like, launched my career into operations and analytics. So really core piece of like, was I there? Like, I’m gonna go on a run with DJ and get a job.

Anne: No. I was just, you know, putting in the time and it naturally, um, revealed itself. 

Krissy: Yeah, it’s, you hear this a lot, but just community and inter, you don’t have to be, I think people think of networking as like, I’ve gotta be super social. Right. Which kind of like leads into the next question. When did you start realizing that networking isn’t just about being social or knowing people, but about actually using your relationship strategically?

Anne: Yeah. Um. I think there’s a level of like real intention about how you do it. Right. And it’s funny because I like to, you know, I’m, I’m 44, I turned 45 in a couple months and probably in my thirties I would be a self-described extrovert. And as I’ve people probably still think, and you’re very extroverted, but I, I think I’ve become more of an introvert as I, as I have aged, um, right.

Anne: Yeah. And had children. Yes. Um, and, and you know, when I think about intentional networking, you know, it, it, you have to put in some sort of effort. And you have to kind of spot those opportunities. So there was another moment from a different point in my career. This was when I was at Medallia. Um, this was around, gosh, 20 16, 20 17.

Anne: I, it was the first SaaS company I worked at. Okay. I had gotten a job as a director of sales, operations and analytics. So again, staying in that opposite analytics that started from Gilead, there’s that thread and, um. I had been working for quite some time for about nine or 10 months. I really realized that there was a desire for me to get closer to the data side of the house, and I was looking for maybe like there was no bi function at the company.

Anne: I had invested heavily in my analytics, um, career, and I, I saw a real opportunity. And so we actually had a, a community event like, um, go and, you know, help paint houses of, of like a center? Yeah. Like Habitat and humanity type thing? Yeah. It was, it was like actually painting a center for people who were like in transition with their life, like reintegrating after, like, going through something.

Anne: And so we were actually refurbishing the center as kind of like our community event for the quarter. And so the entire, um. CFO and I think it was like the CRO org went, I was in the CRO org at the time. We had just hired a new CIO, um, Ashwin Baal, and I thought, Hmm, if there’s ever gonna be a BI team, it’s gonna be in his team, right?

Anne: And so I remember we got to this place somewhere in Palo Alto, and everyone was kind of like siphoning off into their teams. And my team was like, oh, we’ll just all be on a team together. We’ll all just stay in sales operations. And I said, you know, we spent a lot of time together. I think I’m gonna go join a different team.

Anne: And I looked around and I saw a team that was forming that had the chief financial officer, the chief information officer, and the chief accounting officer. I’m like, I’m gonna go join that team. And so I wanna like, I wanna get on the radar of these high profile individuals who I think will be good for them to know who I am.

Anne: I know who they are, and we’re gonna have three and a half hours to like paint walls together. Probably have a lot of conversation. And so there was an intent. There was no BI team though at the time. There wasn’t a function. However, we got to talking and I shared a little bit of my background with Ashwin and you know, and then we, we finished day and I moved on.

Anne: But what’s interesting is every time he saw me, he would come over, sit down, grab lunch with me and be like, Anne, how are you doing? How’s your career? What’s going on for you? You know, I’m thinking about launching a BI function, but not right now. And probably, I don’t know, a few months later. He, he’s like, Anne, do you have some time?

Anne: I wanna chat to you. He’s like, we’re gonna roll out a bi function. I’ve hired one of my deputies from my formal company to come in and be our vp. I want you to meet with him. I think you should come join our team. And I think about that. You know, I’d done the work, he created this opportunity. But honestly, like I put myself in front of him and was like, this is my background.

Anne: This is my experience. I’m interested in this. And you have to make sure that you’re like in front of that person or on their radar. So when the opportunity comes up. They naturally think of you, right? Yes. I 

Krissy: mean, 

Anne: if 

Krissy: that’s the clip that we use to show ev, that’s the clip. I, I talk to people all the time, right?

Krissy: We in our groups that, you know, we’re both in. Right? And I think, like I can tell that some people don’t understand that, right? They’re like, why would I talk to people if they’re not hiring? Like, how am I, it’s like, yeah, look, you have to find a way to connect with them, right? Whether it’s going to some type of.

Krissy: Event in your community or doing things that it can’t just be so narrow of like, I’m going to apply for a job. Mm-hmm. And ask for an intro of maybe someone that knows, like it has to be more strategic. We just have to get out of this mindset that networking is asking people to go to coffee. Um, and also that it’s about being social, right?

Krissy: Anything with strategy is hard. It doesn’t mean its easy. So if it feels weird, like even for someone that has grown up being a big extrovert, but now I, I do feel more introverted in some cases. Like I still have to push myself, but I’m always glad I did it. I’m never like, man, I hated meeting a couple more people.

Krissy: Like it’s. We’re just at a such a level where trust is so important. Right? And those things are just, they’re a part of what you have to do. You don’t have to be best friends or make more friends. It’s literally just meeting more people. And by the way, we’ll actually make you feel better about humanity.

Krissy: The more folks that you meet less, the more you connect. Yes. 

Anne: Really. And you know, I have to, I have to reject here ’cause we were talking a little bit about this in preparation. And you would talk about like the slimy aspect of networking. Yeah. Right. And and I, you know, I think we discussed this idea of like, I think I have to put in deposits.

Anne: Put in deposits, and you don’t know if you’re ever gonna withdraw that. You might never withdraw, right. You might just be putting in the deposits, helping people, going to events, making connections, being genuinely interested in people and sharing your story. I have on the other side of this, I mean, people reach out to me often.

Anne: Yeah. Hey Anne, I saw you did this. Can you introduce me here? Hey on, there’s this job. Can you refer me? They’ve never reached out to me before. They’ve never said any. And suddenly they’re like, hi, this is what I would like. And sometimes, you know, I’m a person, I help a lot of people. I run a free community like I do women of pavilion and there are some people even where I have helped introduce, and this doesn’t happen as much anymore.

Anne: ’cause now I think about it when I help them. But I’ve like helped them in, in, and then I, I like never hear from them again. Yeah. And I feel used. I’m like, what was that? Right? That’s slimy. And then I’ve had other people where I’m like, you know, I don’t expect them to like send me a gift or all these things, although I have introduced people or they have introduced me and I have something gifts after I have done that.

Anne: You know, putting in deposits. And, you know, recently I introduced a couple women for, um, jobs and that I knew were out there that fit their profile. And I knew the hiring manager. And what was so fantastic is, and I, I stole this from, um, Amy Voles. She said this one, she’s like, you know, I’m gonna help people and I’m gonna introduce, my ask is you let me know what happened, no matter the, the conclusion whether you got the job you did.

Anne: And I think it’s so fair. So I started doing that. I said, listen, I’m happy to introduce you. I just want you to let me know how it’s going. I wanna know whether you got it or not. And people do that. And I had a woman recently that I introduced for a, a leadership in a rev ops position. In a rev ops role, I should say.

Anne: And, you know, she got an interview, she was meeting the team, and then she actually, very honestly, and I respect her, said, you know, I started to realize I don’t think this is quite opportunity. I have some other opportunities in the mix that I feel better about. It’s a lot to juggle all of them. I wanna focus in, I wanted to let you know.

Anne: I am gonna move on and share this, but I wanted to share it with you. Yeah. I was like, yes, and I’ll recommend that woman again because she really cared about the experience, not just from her perspective, but also from the company’s hiring perspective, also me introducing her. Right. 

Krissy: Totally. No, I think that is.

Krissy: Is so, uh, is so valid, right? Of just, it, it’s, it’s also part of like building that trust element too, right? Mm-hmm. And showing the respect. Like it has to be both ways, right? So I totally agree. I actually had the other day, this is interesting, and the candidate that I placed three years ago, right? That came from my network.

Krissy: Um, and, and we’ve actually, in the five years we’ve been in business, I don’t think we’ve ever had this happen. If it has, it’s been one other time. I can’t recall though. If this individual, the hiring manager calls me on the day they’re supposed to start right after we help them, you know, if they did the work obviously, but like get this job, everything.

Krissy: They’d reached out and done all those things and know them from a previous, oh gosh, I know where this is going, but I’m gonna wait for it. You know what? The first day I have to call and say, Hey, like, what happened? I got an offer at my current company I couldn’t refuse. And I’m like, I get it, but why would you wait till the day?

Krissy: Yeah, start with your, I was, I was shocked, right? I get an email recently saying, Hey, I know I put you in a tough position. Um, I’m in a tough position now. I know, but I called to apologize. Would love that. And I’m just thinking the audacity of not having the eq look, I’ve had people not sign. I signed offer letters not move forward.

Krissy: I’ve done that before. Right. It’s all about how you handle it, right? If you have to wait till your start date one just incredibly bush leak. Incredibly bush leak. Yeah. Selfish. Just selfish. Look, I don’t hold, like, I’ve moved on from it, but I’m not going to help you again. No. Like that, that bridge is burned.

Krissy: Yeah. And because it’s a, it’s a grudge. Like the fact that you think that you called me to apologize is nuts. Right. So it’s just an example of how those types of things like. Be mindful, right? Like I, a great candidate overall been like, I don’t trust that you have the emotional intelligence to know how to handle this.

Krissy: Right? And therefore, and, and yeah, it was a tough spot, but it looks worse for you. So all that to say, just, you know, I know that’s kind of an extreme example, but No, but it’s real and it’s, 

Anne: you know, what underlies it? What I kept thinking when you said that it’s social capital. 

Krissy: Yes. Yes. A real. Social capital, right?

Krissy: Right. It’s like people get so focused on the end result that they’re willing to discard all these other things that, by the way, like how many times do we say like life is full circle? Like you, you run into those things, keep all of those things warm and solid. Even if. They may or may not be a part of your story, but the chances one of them are in the future is huge.

Krissy: Right. So just moving on from that, like a lot of job seekers are tool just in network, right? So going deeper, like what’s missing from that advice as we, we dive deeper here? Yeah. 

Anne: Um. Some people don’t know this about me, it’s, it’s on my profile on LinkedIn. Um, but I, I got my MBA and I did my MBA in Africa in Cape Town, and it’s, it’s a little bit of a different MBA Programer.

Anne: It was when I did it in 2013, where you have to write a thesis, a master’s thesis, very hard, long slog. 400 hours of work. I’m glad it’s done. I’m never doing it again. And yeah, rank thesis, you know, I’ve always been kind of really captivated by this. Um. This topic of engagement, right? I tend to be a very engaged individual in things that I do, right?

Anne: I don’t do anything half, half-ass. Yes. I just said, ass on this podcast. You know what I mean? We can do it. And, and so I decided, you know, and I bring this up because I was so. Inspired to understand more about engagement. I’m like, I’m gonna write my thesis on engagement and what drives engagement. So read all these theory articles, interviewed a bunch of people, ran cohort studies, and I kept coming up with this, um, root of connectedness.

Anne: That was the word. Not just connection, but connectedness. You know, we studied weak ties, strong ties, theory around connection, and then I was like, okay, let’s follow that trail. What is it about connectedness? How do you create that? If that is the thing, creating this level of connectedness, which I think also applies to what’s missing or could be missing in, you know, how you network effectively.

Anne: You’re looking to build deep connectedness. So I was like, I wanna understand how you do that. So I was like, so I was like, what are the tenets of that? So I interviewed all these people who were identified by their communities internationally as connectors. Right. And what was fascinating is they all, and the research supported this, they all had the same five characteristics and this came out in different language, how they were described, impacts that they had.

Anne: And I’m gonna go from memory. Um, the five were authenticity, number one. I know it’s a word that’s thrown around a lot. But it comes back like, are you being authentic? Are you showing up as your authentic self? People can tell, yeah. Are you being really performative? Are you pretending to be something that you’re not?

Anne: I imagine in job interviews, you’re a recruiter and you run a recruiting firm, like is this the real deal? Right? Like, am I getting the real thing? Authenticity? The second was I described as openness, which also came through as fluidity. So you have a level of openness. This kind of a, this aspect of, you know, giving deposits, putting in the time and creating people.

Anne: Giving space for people to come to you and for you to come to them. So there was no like rigidity and close off. That was really, really key. The third one was provocation or disruption. People who say the hard thing, and I think this is important ’cause when I think about this in terms of both jobs that I have applied for and been in interview cycles for, or where I have interviewed people, I am looking for them to have a perspective.

Anne: I am looking to know, like what do they individually think? I’m not hiring them for, can they say the right thing? What do they think specifically? And you know, does that line up with what we’re looking for? But I want them to have a point of view and people who have a point of view that at times is disruptive, drive a lot more connectedness.

Anne: The last two are very closely related, specificity and relevance. And I described this, um, in that. People are like trying to figure out like, am I gonna connect with this person? Do I feel a connection with them? And so if you’re talking really vaguely up here, they can’t get into it. So you have to get really specific about what you care about or what you’re about.

Anne: And when I go to networking events, it’s like, don’t just say, you know, I work in B2B SaaS, I’m a fractional rev ops executive. What does that mean? What’s the impact that you’ve joined? Get specific. And people will be able to discern, is this something that’s relevant to me? And then they only connect, maybe they’re like, wow, that’s really impressive.

Anne: But they’re like, if it’s not relevant to me, I don’t really care. And so I think about that, you know, it’s a broad theory around how do you drive connection, therefore driving engagement. When you network, you’re looking to have engagement with people. And so I think you have to have at least one of those tenets represented.

Krissy: Totally. I, I, I couldn’t agree more. If, if we go and move to talking about hiring for a second. Mm-hmm. You know, when you’re hiring, how much does your network come into play and when do you bring a recruiter in? 

Anne: Yes. Um, gosh, let’s think about this. I mean, recently I’m thinking about the hires that I’ve made of late.

Anne: I, I really rely heavily on my network and also for jobs that I am advising. So, for example, for 

Krissy: sure, 

Anne: um, I was helping to hire recently a VP level position. I knew what the position was, um, because I’d done it before, it was in the rev ops space. Um, I’m quite connected in that. And so before we even started the hiring cycle.

Anne: I was like, here are five people based on type of company, stage of company, what you’re looking for, you know, level, chunk that I think you need to talk to. Right? Yeah. The person who got hired also was referred in by an internal person. So network really mattered, right? Yeah. Um, people that I have referred in, I just recently referred someone, um, she might listen to this.

Anne: You probably know her as she stamps Lafonte. Yes. Love. So I know she’s amazing. Best. Yeah, and actually two other women in my network, two A, um, who all got interviews in quite far in the interview cycle. Ashley was the one who ended up getting it, which is fantastic. They were all wonderful, high caliber, caliber candidates, but I referred them in to a company that I advise Quota Path.

Anne: Yeah. And you know, they reached out to me before they even posted the job. They’re like, Hey, we’re gonna post this next week. We know you love a lot of people in this space. Who should we be meeting with? So those are comp and this happens all the time. Yeah. I had another SVP of operations reach out to me before he posted a job and he’s like, these are the two roles.

Anne: Who should I be looking at? Can you share it with your community? I said, sure. Did I get paid to do that? No. Did I get a finder’s fee? No. Um, so I think network plays a role both in how I have hired Yeah. Um, how I have helped others hire. One experience from how I personally got a job, and I think this is important, the last company I was at, Maven Clinic, I had come off a sabbatical, took a few months off, just like 20 years.

Anne: Nonstop work was like, I need a break. Wow. And I was like, really use that time to think very thoughtfully about what’s the next step I wanna take. So I was doing, I realized I wanted to work in a very mission-driven organization. I wanted to really, um, take advantage of the skills that I brought from like a go-to-market strategy and operations perspective.

Anne: And Maven Clinic came onto my radar and I happened to see they’re hiring for a senior director of ops. Instead of applying, I was like, Hmm, I wonder who the chief people officer is. I looked that person up. I looked at their profile. They looked at my profile the next day, they inbounded to me and said, Hey, ’cause I knew I like read it.

Anne: I’m like, oh, this role was written for me. Yeah. But I wanted to check and I wanted to look around and before I even had a chance to reach out to him, he reached out to me and was like, I want to connect you with the hiring manager. I got the job and I leveled it up to a vp. But that was all about like bef not going the traditional route.

Anne: Like who’s the hiring manager? How do I create a personal connection with this person and get on their radar? It’s a short circuit, right? 

Krissy: Yep. No, I love that. I mean, you have to do the work, but again, that just goes back to the strategy of it, right? And sometimes it can be that type of setup of like looking and doing your research and that will happen.

Krissy: Like if you do all of these things enough, at the end of the day, they will result in success. Right. But you have to be consistent and you have to be thoughtful and again, strategic, which is like the word of this podcast right outside of networking. Um, so just kind of in, in closing here, right, a couple, a couple more things.

Krissy: What’s one mistake you see people make? And we talked about this a little bit, but when reaching out for intros and how can they fix it? 

Anne: Yeah, I mean it’s, it’s the aspect of the people who are like, I don’t know, you got 15 minutes to give me time and like, gimme some advice. I’ve never met you before. Have a perspective, know what I do.

Anne: Maybe have engagement, maybe like come to my community, I run a free community. You wanna come and ask a question every month. I have that. We have opportunities for people to ask q and a come to that. Yeah. Like put forth some effort. And that’s the other thing, I, again, highly engaged person. Um. Hard worker have always been that way.

Anne: And when people come to me and expect me to do all the work to help them, it’s lazy. Mm-hmm. Come on. Yep. You know, like it, like I’ve gotten to where I’ve gotten today because I’m not afraid to do the hard work. Yep. So show me you’ve done some work. Yep. Go and do some work and then come to me, tell me what you’ve done.

Anne: Make it really easy to help you as well. 

Krissy: Yeah. 

Anne: Right. I’m gonna say 

Krissy: this again, and it might really bother some people. Asking people to go to coffee if that is your network approach. It is lazy and it is ineffective. And maybe those are strong words. I’m not saying you shouldn’t ever bring people to coffee, but you all, if you’re reaching out to people for helpless, people are probably super busy, and that shows that you’ve not taken any time to understand them.

Krissy: Right. The, and again, I, I know the intent is not bad, right? Mm-hmm. As you do, but it’s still, it’s not, it’s not to be sensitive. It’s just a little offensive. It’s like, do you think. I have time to go live somewhere, even if it’s 10 minutes away, to sit down for 30 minutes and not really know, like if you understand what I do and also like what the value is of meeting right outside of just having, which is okay.

Krissy: And then because you may or may not buy me a $5 cup of coffee, like. You know, so it’s, it’s just one of those things that, that is not bravery, that’s not networking, that’s not strategic, that it’s very old school. And that by the way, that that used to be a way that people did things back then, like, you know, 20 years ago.

Krissy: I’m not saying those things haven’t ever worked before, but where we are today and how we’re busier and a lot of things are digital and the access we have to learn about people. ’cause that’s how we had to learn about people. That we didn’t have social media, we didn’t have. We had Google, but it wasn’t as strong.

Krissy: It’s very different now. So you’ve had to meet in person. We’re not there anymore. And I’m not saying you can’t ever meet in person, but that can’t be your go-to, because to me that’s only a big red flag of like, you don’t understand what I do in my role and you’re not taking the time to value that. 

Anne: Right.

Anne: So Absolutely. And by the way, I realize I didn’t answer one of your questions earlier and I wanna make sure I answer it. Oh, go for it. ’cause you asked me, you know, what role has a recruiter played? Either how you’ve hired, maybe been hired, and I wanna share that. ’cause I think it’s important. When I moved back.

Anne: From, so I was in Africa before I moved back to the United States. Yep. And, um, joined a SaaS company and so I’d been out of like market for like five years. Yeah. You know, I never worked in SaaS. Um, I had a market, but it was all like biotech. And so luckily my sister, she is actually an executive, um, recruiter.

Anne: Fun fact. Um, and I was like, I’m moving back. I’m applying to these jobs. I’m not sure which one. And bless her, she’s like. I’m gonna connect you with a woman who worked at her firm who’s like, she works in Silicon Valley. She works specifically with tech startups, and she, and I’ve asked if she wouldn’t mind sitting down with you to like.

Anne: You can ask her questions, you can understand what the market, what the market rate is. I mean, that is an amazing amount of personal that I, I had access to someone like that, but I also had to show up really prepared. Right. And you’re like, these are the companies I’m looking at. This is my experience.

Anne: This is why. Yeah. And, and she really helped me level set to know like, what is benchmark? So that’s one way I’ve used it as an applicant. Right. I’ve also, um. Partnered with recruiters to help me get jobs for the first time. I moved to San Francisco many, many years ago, like 20 years ago. And then how I have partnered with recruiters is on like very specialist hiring.

Anne: For example, when I was at a company, we were hiring for sales directors and VPs of sales, and we had a really specific market and we needed somebody who understood that market and who had a strong network with. Experience, sales profession that could get them to us quickly because we had to hire and we had to ramp and we had to get going.

Anne: Yeah. So like that is where, when, when we are like dealing with something very specialist that like, I maybe don’t have access or understanding of or network. I’m gonna call in a recruiter a strong recruiter like you and your firm to help me. 

Krissy: Yeah. No, I think, I think that’s a great point, um, in, in highlighting that of, of where it makes sense to bring someone in and then when it doesn’t, right.

Krissy: And what you can start with. Yeah. So, final thought here. One intro that changed your career and why it matters. 

Anne: Ooh, one intro. I’ve been really lucky. I’ve had some fantastic mentors and sponsors and people who have really looked out for me and kind of like I’ve been like on their mind. I think the one that I wanna speak to is, um, Yusef Khan.

Anne: So Yusef, I actually met through Ashwin the law that’s CIO of Medallia, who has also been an incredible sponsor. Um, I was working, I, I was running the BI function and kind of like also. Rev ops before it was rev ops and systems integration and, um, we were building a product, a Medallia product for CIOs.

Anne: And I was working with the CIO who’s a very commercially minded CIO Ashwin to take it to market and. He said, you know, we wanna test this with some CIOs. He’s like, so I’m gonna bring in some CIO friends that I have and I’m, and they’re gonna give us raw feedback on this. I’m like, okay, great. And he’s like, and you’re gonna pitch.

Anne: And I was like, okay, sure. And so Yusef was one of these people that he brought in. You know, I, I did the pitch. I was basically like the solution consultant and the ae and like prepping the product. And so we did the pitch to him, um, and, and then he left. He was a wonderful guy and I, I got a message from him soon after that on LinkedIn that was like, basically like, I, I really enjoyed meeting you.

Anne: I would love to stay in touch with you and I would love to mentor you in your career. I was really impressed by you, which I was like, wow. Amazing. Thank you. And so I was like, okay, yes, let’s take, I didn’t know where that would go. 

Krissy: Yeah. But 

Anne: I knew this person to take it, so we, we stayed in contact once in a while, message each other on LinkedIn.

Anne: And when I moved back, we, um, from Africa to the or not from Africa. When I decided to move on from Medallia, I reached out to him, um, also for some advice, ’cause we’d put some deposits in and we started having like monthly or quarterly catch ups. And he has introduced me to a number of companies, um, that he’s been an advisor for or a board member like, you should come hire Anne.

Anne: That’s happened a few times. He has actually brought me on to Ridge Ventures as a venture advisor. I have helped him before I was a venture advisor, just like Anne, come tell us what you think about this product. He’s introduced me to companies. That I now advise and he is one of those people talk about somebody who just is always putting in deposits and expects nothing back.

Anne: That is Yusef. But if Yusef calls me and says, Ann, I need your help. I am there right away. Because he has helped me so much and he’s also helped be like a, a sounding board for when I’ve had to make some pretty, like, crucial transitions in my career. Somebody who I have just such deep trust and respect for.

Anne: So that’s probably, that’s probably the person I would say, 

Krissy: oh, that’s such a great, um, example and, and, and one to end it on. Right. And it just takes one connection like that to change everything. Right. Again, it’s not like being, being over social. We’ve gotta like get outta that mindset, um, and really look how to capitalize on this in a way that’s efficient.

Krissy: Right. But it does make a difference. It will actually help you feel better, even if you don’t wanna do it. But I’ll let it, it really 

Anne: will. It 

Krissy: really 

Anne: will. 

Krissy: Yeah. It, it, it will, it will help so much. But I know that’s all the time we’ve got for today. And thank you so much for being with us. Of course, this has been a course, great conversation.

Krissy: I hope everyone is taking notes or at least mentally taking notes. Listen to this ’cause you have, uh, dropped some absolute like nuggets here that are gonna be powerful and important. They might seem simple, they’re deceivingly easy is what I say. But, um, you know, for the talent GTM podcast, right, you can always discover our hiring insights with other leaders like Anne.

Krissy: And if today’s conversation really piques your interest, make sure to subscribe to our podcast on Spotify, apple Podcast. Or our website and never miss another episode. Until next time, we’ll see you later.