 Welcome to Keys to Success, which is live on the ThinkTech live streaming network series weekly on Thursdays at 11 a.m We are your host. My name is Danelia D-A-N-E-L-I-A And I'm the other half of the duo John Newman. Welcome to today's show. Mike Lowrie, president of Transcendent Consulting, was our guest on our last show and his words of wisdom can be accessed on Newman Consulting Services website NewmanConsultingServices.com or our landing page Danelia.org Joining us today in the studio as our honored guest is Mrs. Vanessa Perez, CEO of S3 Career Consulting and Network Guru Mahalo for joining us today Vanessa. Well, hi Danelia and John. Thanks so much for having me here today. It's a pleasure to join you Great to see you. Great having you on the show. Thank you so much. I don't know what I'm going to do between two Aussies You know, I can't understand anything anybody says. We'll try not to break out into any slang there John All right, all right. Okay. All righty Vanessa share with us a little about as career networking and consulting and What prompted you to to start the business? Yeah. Well, thanks. I created S3 career consulting about three years ago now and The driving force for me to do that was that I was working with transitioning military and training them to prepare for their next careers And I love the job so much and I knew that I had a lot to offer because I've spent most of my life recruiting and hiring people And I just wanted to do a little bit more so And work a bit more individually and have a wider reach than what I had in, you know, one particular classroom for instance, so So I knew I had a bit more to offer to help veterans prepare and posture for the current career marketplace So I started my business and Initially started writing resumes that got results, you know federal resumes private sector resumes and Really put a lot of emphasis on linked in as being that niche capability and that gap that I provided that Really isn't being provided well enough at the moment in the transition process I know they'll get it soon enough, but you know, it's an important aspect to getting Anybody ready for their next, you know professional opportunities I'm a 27 year retired vet myself. So I'm a veteran and I know exactly what you're talking about and I was there So I know That type of help is essential for our young men and women that are transitioning from the the military back into the civil sector So, yeah, we applaud you for that. Oh, thank you and you know, you know as well that my heart's with the veteran And the military community I served 23 years with the Australian army And as you know, my husband Bill was a 24 year Marine Corps veteran as well, you know, the military Community is our family and and I I do think when You know, people have knowledge that they can pass on That it's important to share that, you know, particularly if it makes a difference. So that's what drives me and I'm so honored to have worked with so many fascinating So many fascinating people at all levels of the military across all services and it's it's a joy to see that You know a little bit of coaching and a little bit of branding and marketing can make the world of difference To their next career success. Actually that that comes into the next question Which is how important is networking to growing a business a new job or advancing your career? Well engaging with people is essential for everything, you know, we're We're creatures that need social interaction and you know, when we're creating something new or when we're Looking at moving into a different area that we may not be familiar with You know, the first thing that you need to start doing is who can I align myself with that can coach me mentor me guide me teach me And who can I network with to promote what it is that I do or what I have to sell or Or what it is that I need to achieve with my goals Um, so professional networking is just a great term to actually encompass all of that And uh, you know, I know we're going to talk a lot more about LinkedIn down the trail But it's it's a really important aspect today to people posturing for career success business success Now networking done correctly could really transform a business and uh When it's done incorrectly it can stagnate a business as well So what are some of your top principles when it comes to good networking, you know I uh, it's a good question. John. Um, I think it just comes back to the importance of being who you are Being genuine authentic having the credibility there too in Giving people the confidence to know that you know what you're on about right If you're offering advice and guidance and wisdom about something You want to you want to really be established as a subject matter expert Or you want people to to perceive you that way or be able to research you and find out And then they can trust you they trust your credibility your professional credibility and Just being yourself and being authentic and genuine is just so important when you're Establishing trusting relationships, whether it be for career personal goals or for business And one of the things that we we say and we teach and our and our programs that In order to read someone's heart you have to come from your heart And once they know that you are genuinely concerned With their well-being and to help them grow and prosper They're very more concept or perceptive to what you have to give them Totally agree and you know when you say give that's really important with building trusting relationships and You know if you offer Your insight and wisdom In a way that allows people to learn from you or grow from what you teach them or that they Are able to create an opportunity or get a mutual benefit from that exchange That's really important. Oh, yes, and you know, it's If you can give without the expectation of something in return Um It's pleasing not only to you but when people can get a benefit from what you have to offer I think I spend about A minimum of 20 hours a week where I actually engage with people within my You know LinkedIn network and I offer insight and wisdom and tips and coaching and you know I write stuff so that they learn from and I wish I had time to do a lot more of it and I'll talk a little bit down the track of something else That I'm just about to start doing that will enable me to give back more great So what's the difference between a networker and like a highly effective networker? And what's a masterful networker because I've heard these terms And I was curious to if you could give us some insight on that, right masterful is a good word, isn't it? I tend to use the term strategic Networking and strategic engagement. Yeah, and I suppose The proof's in the pudding really isn't it? I mean, you know, you're good when you get results Just I suppose the the When you see results come about from what you do Not only for yourself or your business or your career when you see other people Um gaining successful opportunities Because of your networking or your ability to introduce them to an opportunity and I do that daily, you know And it's exciting So It might be a good time to actually talk about strategic networking and and how people can actually use LinkedIn or other sorts of events to do strategic networking and engagement Just just before we get there one of the one of the things and you know in talking to people We all have different personalities. Oh, yes, and you know, many people are apprehensive About networking because they feel that they have to sell themselves, you know, they have to market themselves and they're uh, you know individuals become very Introverted, you know, and they've just Kind of had that fear to get out there and introduce themselves and all that sort of thing So, you know, what would your advice be to people who've fallen in this category? You can't get more opposite than my husband and I I am like Um, glass overflowing a room full of a hundred people and I want to meet every single person And my husband is terrified to go into a room, right? So we're totally extreme introvert extrovert And so I get it. I get that people are fearful meeting strangers or You know talking about themselves and military are a classic example of Feeling like they're bragging or somehow coming across as in genuine if they talk about themselves Um, I try to get them to talk about their experiences and their expertise instead of themselves But there's a couple of things that I like to challenge veterans to do or anybody that I work with in coaching them If they feel nervous or uncomfortable or introverted and shy One of the best challenges you could set yourself is to meet new people And I like to say your challenge now is to meet four new people every single day It doesn't really matter where you meet them in the car park in the lineup for starbucks While you're getting coffee go and help a mum carry her groceries and Chance meetings Can flourish if we had a chance meeting when we first met So you know and I have a darling friend lifelong friend like you a really great lifelong friend Emma Chapman. Hi Emma She laughs all the time and she says you're the best thing I ever found at Costco And we will be lifelong friends through a chance Meeting you know when you feel nervous about meeting strangers one of the best things you can do is just pay a compliment It starts a conversation Makes the receiver feel fantastic And you know what when you when you give a well-received compliment, I guarantee it'll put a spring in your step You know, actually that's how we met because you walked over to me and said oh my gosh somebody else's dressed as professionally as I am I said, oh, we like the only two people in Hello You're gonna Let's get back to a question. Okay. How does someone network If they want to grow their business, right? Wow Um, I say LinkedIn LinkedIn LinkedIn and a range of other things, right? And I I'm if I might just Cap on a couple of other things about people who are nervous or anxious about you know, meeting strangers as well and You can grow that confidence By choosing your own setting a setting that makes you feel comfortable So if you love to go hiking Join a hiking group and meet people who share an interest or a passion with you And then the interaction can be a lot more comfortable That's a great situation if you don't feel comfortable in a room of a hundred people sipping champagne Don't Don't force yourself to do those things But you know another really great tip as well is Toastmasters is a fantastic organization That really instills confidence in people who aren't accustomed to speaking in front of audiences or speaking in front of people they don't know and it It's a great way for people to build confidence in You know, right being able to engage and interact public speaking is one of the most feared things for for most people You know, uh, they would jump off Mount Kilimanjaro But they are afraid to stand up in front of 20 people and speak their mind In fact, um, they say that 78 percent of men Are more fearful of public speaking than death Yeah, we totally agree. I tend to agree with you. We're going to take a short break Um, this is keys to success on think tech live streaming network series Vanessa Perez president of s3 career consulting regarding network Networking's keys to success. That's actually our theme for this show. My name is danilia d a n e l i a And i'm now the half of the duo john newman. We'll be returning in a minute. So please stay tuned for more keys to success Hi, i'm chris litham with think tech hawaii and i'd like to ask you to come watch my show the economy in you Each wednesday at 3 p.m Aloha, i'm chantel civil host of the savvy chick show on think tech hawaii and i'm going on tour I'm taking you around the world. We're going to canada and then we're going to well We're in america then we're going to san francisco So keep staying tuned 11 a.m. Every wednesday on the savvy chick show. We'll see you next time Aloha, my name is richard emory and i host condo insider We talk about issues facing the condo association throughout hawaii and talk about solutions When you think about it about one third of our population lives in some form of common interest real estate We broadcast every thursday at 3 p.m. Please tune in tune in and thank you. Aloha Welcome back. This is keys to success on the think tech live streaming network series We encourage you to call our hotline at four one five eight seven one two four seven four to join our conversation Or tweet us at think tech h i if you have any questions or comments We've been talking about with venessa pares ceo of s3 career consulting. My name is danelia d an e lia And i'm gonna have to do old john newman. Welcome back to the show Vanessa, all right. Good on you. I know you just Overflowing with information that you want to share. Okay. Alrighty, so let's get right to it. You know What does network What is successful network networking? And uh, when did you Feel that you have become successful in networking, right? I would I would cap on what I touched on a little bit earlier And I think when you start to see results of the professional networking and the professional engagements For instance, um, I've been able to We talked about face-to-face networking and that's a whole lot different to Networking professionally online using platforms such as linked in which is the largest professional networking platform on the planet So I feel like I've really been able to leverage and take Professional networking to a whole new level. I can absolutely meet new people face-to-face in a room and build trusting relationships But then you remove that element of personality and energy and enthusiasm And you're looking at words only To create that relationship to build and nurture that relationship It's a whole different kind of engaging all together. Well, it's interesting because I've watched you I say work a room, but I've watched you network a room and I was in awe of watching you Oh, yeah, you were absolutely fantastic But I'm into you for people who are a little more apprehensive about doing that and not comfortable linked in is a great avenue for them to Absolutely But let's let's look at that. Let's just go back to that. Okay interface-to-face communication. Right. Let's talk about that What do you feel are some of the Key questions that you should ask You know, it's a good question because what you ask people Really allows you to build that relationship and what you ask allows it determines the swiftness of that trust, right? Correct. Um, I love people like I don't feel like I Work a room in a traditional sense because I actually genuinely want to be a hundred people and I want to learn about them and I want to Find what is passionate what they love what drives and what motivates them and what they're interested about And if you want to learn something about somebody really quickly and engage with them on a level We enter maybe an element of vulnerability Find out what they love what they're passionate about. What do they do when they're not working? I can talk to people for an hour and not even know what they do I've known people for years and I didn't even know what they do for a career Because I get fascinated about them and what they love to do and and so I think when you're meeting people that you've never met before your Ability to establish a report instantly is really important and I love to teach veterans how to handshake. Oh, yes Well, that's a part of our Not only not only veterans just anybody no because women usually Feel that they shouldn't give a strong handshake I mean and a man tends to feel that they shouldn't give a woman a strong handshake But that's disrespecting that woman because that woman is a person just as Astute as you are. You know, she's just as professional as you are. I mean you're a king. She's a queen So you meet on that level and you shouldn't you shouldn't give a Fish, what do you call it baby wet fish? This makes and breaks deals Anything is I contact the smile the handshake the right handshake and you know, if you mess it up Just do it again. You know, you could go. Oh I was going to say something Australian Let's don't do this. Let's don't hold on too tight and too long Three shakes is enough So those those that ability to connect Physically with people And when you do it well, it allows you to establish those trusting Relationships or build it really swiftly. So those things are really important How do you connect then because you're not able to handshake with somebody on linkedin or online? How do you connect with somebody online? You know It's all about trust, right? And that one of the first things I say to people when you want to build a swift relationship fast That's based on trust is people need to know more about you If they know more about you they'll determine whether they want to engage with you or not And linkedin's a perfect opportunity for people to create their authentic genuine career story or their professional story and when you let people know about you You know in a way that allows them to get to know you what your expertise is what you have to offer Um, and you present that in a beautiful way you use images to complement the content, right? Then and you have a photo a good quality photo that lets people know who you are How you present what's your style like and if you can and if you can add video And multimedia elements to your portfolio. It helps people get to know you quickly They get to see what energy and enthusiasm is like your style your charisma How you present how you communicate and when you Look at linkedin as not an online resume But a portfolio Of your full body of work and you provide examples and samples and video and images And then you have that content validated by Other network professionals other professionals in your network where they endorse your skills and your expertise And they give you recommendations then all of those things wrap up into The ability for someone that doesn't know you to trust who you are and what you've done Now what you just said is one of the key factors in our program which we Compliment each other our firms Presentation. Oh, yes is Everything it is is how you present it and that's something that people need to focus on I don't care how much you know or how wonderful you are if it isn't presented correctly You're gonna lose. It's one of the unique things that I bring to the table. You know, I serve 19 of 23 years in Australia. I serve it within special operations commands I'm a bit unconventional And I do things differently and it and it and what I do gets results and when people who are changing Career and particularly veterans when they realize that To be postured for success in the current global career marketplace It's about branding and marketing That's about how you present yourself and your expertise or what it is that people need to know about you It's if you and you must have an online identity and online reputation Like stay away from any kind of online Branding at all. It's essential today. Nobody's going to trust your hire unless they know about you People don't realize that every single day. There are two billion names googled. Oh, yes And you will be looked up. So when you're searched What do people see on you? Do you like it? If you don't if you have nothing there And you don't like what people see then you need to shape that And create a brand and identity And Be unique and be different, you know businesses businesses get ahead by differentiating themselves from Their competitors and they don't need to to reinvent the wheel But the key thing is they need to take the time to google themselves And you'll be surprised what you see I mean, we've had people come back to us and said they had a picture of me when I was 12 How did they get that picture of me? You know, you'll be surprised what's out there? And as you said, you need to know what's out there You do need to know what's out there and not only about yourself, but people who share your identity Um, and you'll notice that that when I'm My online identity on linkedin. I'm venessa machin pares Because I'm the only one with that name on the planet It's like 10,000 venessa pares's and I think there's about six in hawaii alone. Is that right? Yeah, I think oh, I have a criminal record which isn't good So so what I need what I do and I teach people to do is differentiate themselves So you don't have mistaken identity. What makes you unique and different right? Yeah, businesses do it Individuals need to do it. Yes in by 2020 it's predicted that 40 percent of the entire global workforce Will be freelancers contractors Um subcontractors, they'll either own a global small business or they'll work for one And and we all know that people aren't working for more than three and four years at a time with organizations Now they're doing gigs and they're doing contracting work And just like any musician who's already launched their last album when they create their next one They have to rebrand, right? You've got to know about branding yourself And what it is that you provide So that people will hire you buy your product or service And and we need to start thinking about ourselves as individuals as a commodity Well, what kind of mistakes did you make through your networking career? And how did you push through those hard times? No, no, we only have a certain amount of time You know one of the things I've produced a couple of books. So I type like this like hello. I can type faster than I speak Me too. I can too Well, look, I'm not going to fall into that trap I'm just going to say yes to you One of the things I do too much of and I've learned to wind it back in and reel it in You know when you are developing relationships with people And professionals online particularly is don't flood them with too much Like I used to write messages this long, you know, and I sometimes a bit too honest You know, I got that honest candid australianness about me And I'll offer people tips about their LinkedIn profile because I because it okay. Oh my god. Like, what are you thinking? Like, I've got to tell you this right and then before you know, they've never met me. They don't know anything about me And I've given them all these things to say this is what you need to fix So I take it back a notch and I just have a couple of exchanges before I Move forward and I ask permission now of people. Oh, yeah, you know, I say may I offer you a few tips? And they don't cry And you know, not only that, but you know, one of the things I mean, I I learned how to network by watching John Because when you watch somebody, you know, I'm I'm more of an introvert and John's more of a, you know, extrovert and so I watched him network and I actually learned by watching him And so, you know, LinkedIn when you're looking at networking, you know out In networking a room or something, you know, watching somebody who Does it right? You learn so much. Yeah. Oh, yes. Yeah. Now. Now. This is keys to success And we have a signature question that we asked all right. Yes. All right. This is the 64 000 dollar question What are your three success habits My three success habits your networking success my three networking success habits I'm going to go back to what I've already mentioned before because I think it's critical Be yourself. Be yourself. Be genuine. Be honest Be vulnerable Give back when you're growing relationships with people offer give back Help them get ahead and Connect people. There's so much opportunity out there and when you introduce people who have shared interests or goals Connecting that connecting those individuals can create magic Stand back and watch it happen. It's exciting. All right. That's that So what is the last piece of council that you could give our viewers and listeners regarding networking keys to success? And um professional networking keys to success is um, I say If people want to be Postured for the current career global marketplace. Okay, whether it be for personal Reasons business or career They got to be on LinkedIn. Yes They've got to be on LinkedIn. You've got to create Your authentic career story make it engaging. You've got to grow your network. You can strategically Target the people that you need to network with for your business for your career. Okay. You can find your next boss Thank you We're out of time. We'll have to wrap it up Vanessa Perez's words of wisdom with regards to keys to networking success can be found on Newman consulting services web page newman consulting services.com and landing page denilia.org Thank you so much Vanessa for joining us today and sharing your insights to networking success Think tech is the success will be back next thursday at 11 a.m We ask that you tune in again and ask your friends and family to do so as well My name is denilia dea and elia and i'm the other half of the duo John newman and in closing today denilia and i would like to share a quote from ed mat man, which says Perfecting your presentation Perfecting your presentation is the most important work you can do Thank you all