Northwestern University Alumni

Episode 70: Confidently Advocating for Yourself with Chelsea Hayes ’12 MS

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HELEN KIM: Welcome back to Northwestern Intersections. I'm your host, Helen, and Happy New Year. I know it's February, but it is the beginning of our new season of 2020. So our podcast team took a month break so that we can bring you the best of the best stories from your fellow alumni in the Northwestern Network. And an exciting news to share if you're an avid LinkedIn user-- you'll be seeing more of us in our Northwestern University Alumni Group on LinkedIn, where we'll post a feature quote of the week from our podcast episodes and our professional development webinars, which you definitely don't want to miss, and other ways we can help you advance in your career. If you didn't know we had an alumni group on LinkedIn, you could join us right now. We have about 44,000-plus members, both alumni and students. So go to LinkedIn. Type in Northwestern University Alumni Group, and you'll see us right there. Thanks for listening to us, as always. And here's our first episode of the season.

CHELSEA HAYES: When you talk about yourself, you are teaching other people what to say about you. So if you're meek or not sure or relaxed, when other people talk about you, they will be meek, unsure, and relaxed. That sounds scary, right? So it's a mirror. So when you talk about who you are and what you do, remember that you are in the role of a teacher.

HELEN KIM: So today we have Chelsea Hayes, who is the CEO and principal consultant of The Coaching Factory LLC, an innovative corporate training and development firm specializing in experiences for the Fortune 500 companies on leadership, influence, and inclusion. She's a proud member of Northwestern University's Council of One Hundred, an invitation-only group of Northwestern top female alumni executives. Being an executive coach doesn't happen to anyone overnight. So I would love to hear and see if you could guide us through how you went about your career path after graduating from Northwestern, and what did it look like?

CHELSEA HAYES: Sure, sure, absolutely. So I did my undergrad at Purdue, my master's at Northwestern. And while I was at Northwestern, I started working for the Chief Diversity Officer at GE, which was an incredible opportunity. I was her direct intern, and I traveled all over the world with her as she wrote speeches. And I really got a chance to see what it looks like to support people at work. And I said, oof, I love this. I knew that that part, I loved. I loved people. So I worked with her for a while. Her name was Deb Elam. She now owns an incredible company called Corporate Playbook Consulting based out of New Orleans. But at the time, she was the highest-ranking black woman in a company of 300,000, so that's how I started my career. I learned a lot from her. A lot. And you know, what we always say is, he or she who gets the most feedback wins, and I got a lot of feedback very early in my career. So I started working with her, and after that, I stayed at GE as an HR specialist at GE Capital, which was downtown Chicago. I loved that experience. I loved working in the West Loop. I felt very celebrated at GE. But then I said, uh-oh, there's a problem here. I don't want to continue on this path. I don't want my boss's job. I don't want my boss's boss's job. This is probably not good. I just knew that that wasn't a path that was going to make me happy. Mainly, I think-- this might sound kind of ridiculous, but I think it was the 8:00 to 5:00 thing. I just didn't like that. I felt very stifled by that. So I said, uh-oh, this is a problem. So I started to speak with some of the people who were mentoring and sponsoring me at GE. And they said oh, Chelsea, you're so great with people. It's probably just the function. Maybe you don't like the function of HE. So why don't you think about sales? And I said OK, OK, you're right. Maybe it's the function. So I stayed with GE. I moved to Dallas. And I worked on a sales portfolio. And again, I loved the people part of that. I enjoyed the managing piece. I was on the JCPenney credit card portfolio at the time. But I was still like, no, no, there's still something missing. So then I began speaking with one of the most incredible women I've ever met. Her name is Paula Madison, and she's a sponsor of mine, a sorority sister of mine. And she was living in LA, and I said, I think that-- I think I want to be in entertainment. I really like LA. And she said, well, why didn't you tell me? I said, this is me telling you. And she said--

HELEN KIM: [LAUGHS]

CHELSEA HAYES: --oh, well. Interesting enough, she said, I own a company, and you've been doing HR at GE, and maybe you can run HR for my company. And I said, OK, great. Her company at the time was the LA Sparks, the WNBA team. So I moved to the Los Angeles and I left GE. I left my 401(k). Also, the company had just moved me from Chicago to Dallas. So I had to pay back every single dollar, relocation fees.

HELEN KIM: Oh, wow.

CHELSEA HAYES: But you know, Helen, I didn't care. I did not care. Like, sometimes in your career, you get this feeling in your stomach, like, this is what you're supposed to do. And that was the best decision I had made in my entire life, to move to LA. So I moved to LA in 2013. I was the head of HR at the LA Sparks. And I loved it. I love sports. I love the city. I was really happy. And then Magic Johnson decided he was going to buy the LA Sparks. So that was a plot twist for sure. That was a really big plot twist. But I had this feeling that everything was going to work out. So I was also working as the head of HR at a television network owned by the same owners. So I kind of was left with like a half of a job, type thing. But I knew that everything was going to be fine. So probably sometime later, the same sponsor came to me and said that there were some opportunities for a project at the LAPD, a confidential project. And I took that project on in the HR space. And I loved it. And at the end of the project, I said, hey, would you mind if I used your logo on a website, and maybe I could get more HR projects? And they said, absolutely, Chelsea. We totally approve. So that was in 2014. And that was how The Coaching Factory was started. So I've had this firm now, and I love it. Every single day is very different. I started off by doing HR projects for different companies. Now my company is a corporate training and development firm, so we do very specialized, fun, interactive training experiences. And we teach on management, leadership, and inclusion. So that's what The Coaching Factory has morphed into. I think that by far one of the most powerful things to me is what women say to other women. Because you know, at a time in my career when I was very unsure, Paula pulled me aside, and she said, hey, you know, you can do this for yourself. And I said, do what? And she said, well, you can do HR work and companies will hire you. They'll pay you, and you can leave. I said, really? I mean, it wasn't something that had ever crossed my mind. So to every single person listening to this, you can say one sentence to someone and change the entire trajectory of their life.

HELEN KIM: OK, I just got the chills when you [INAUDIBLE].

CHELSEA HAYES: [LAUGHS] One sentence. It's amazing.

HELEN KIM: Yeah.

CHELSEA HAYES: I mean, I never looked back. [LAUGHS]

HELEN KIM: Right. And you're asking for exactly what you want in that sentence.

CHELSEA HAYES: Yeah.

HELEN KIM: Well, personally, for me, I just have a hard time asking exactly what I want. And I always find a different route to indirectly tell whoever I'm asking for a favor, that's what I want, but let me make it-- I don't know, let me sugarcoat it. But it just, like--

CHELSEA HAYES: Yes.

HELEN KIM: You need to be communicative to get to where you want to be. And it's-- I, personally, have a hard time taking that step forward.

CHELSEA HAYES: Yeah. Helen, I love that you shared that. I love that, because I work with women, especially extremely senior women, all the time, and they have the toughest time. Now, I read a book called Women Don't Ask, which changed my life, because after I read that book, it talks about how from such a young age, women are taught not to ask for the things that they want, but simply to oblige and say, OK. But now, as a business owner, my mind is constantly blown, because anything we ask for, we typically get it, because we deserve it. We're not asking for anything it's unfair. And also, since I own a company, especially in Los Angeles, I'm frequently surrounded by people who own companies who are male. And I watched the way that they ask for what they want. They ask for it as if it is already theirs, as if they own it, and it's mind-boggling. And so I think as a woman, we have to help other women do the same exact thing. Ask for what you want. You will get it.

HELEN KIM: Right. And as a CEO of The Coaching Factory-- so what does your day-to-day look like? I'm sure you spend a lot of time with people face-to-face, but typically, what does your day-to-day look like?

CHELSEA HAYES: I do. I do. So I work from home, which I love. I might wake up-- so my assistant tries not to schedule me for meetings until like 10:00 AM, but most of my clients are on the Midwest and East Coast, so there are occasions where I have to be up extremely early, which I love, and I don't mind. But I'll typically wake up, make sure there's nothing on fire in my email, and then I will eat something. I'll go to Equinox, work out for maybe an hour, shower there, come home, and then start project work. So project work means we may have a client-- take, for instance, General Mills or Eli Lilly or Genentech, and we have an experience date. So the date is typically six to eight weeks out. And we have an hour and a half slot that we know that we have with them. So me and the team will get together and talk about the content that we're going to present, how we're going to present it, what types of prizes are we presenting, who are the VIPs that are going to be in attendance, what type of attention do they need to get. So we'll start doing all of that typically a month and a half to two months out. So we'll start that project work. And then honestly, I'll probably eat again. I eat a lot throughout the day. And then at nighttime, I'll probably do something fun with my friends. I recently went to an advance screening of the new movie coming out called Just Mercy with Jamie Foxx and Michael B. Jordan. And so since I live in LA, there's so many opportunities to have a good time and really mixing those sectors, right? Entertainment, corporate side, et cetera. So yeah, that's what a typical day looks like.

HELEN KIM: Yeah. And how many people are on your team, and how-- what is your leadership style like?

CHELSEA HAYES: So we have six. I'm constantly learning from them, because they're all way cooler than me. They're all way more relaxed than me. We all like each other a lot on a personal level. I think my leadership style-- you know, Helen, what I find is that I'm the same person at work and at play. Like, I'm really focused, and I want to work really hard, but I also want to play really hard. So yeah, I don't know how else to describe it. But I think we all work really well together. There's a lot of-- we're all working from different places, so we're texting all the time, FaceTiming all the time, emailing really well. We're all extremely responsive. And at The Coaching Factory, one thing that we say is that we protect each other fiercely. So we're always making sure, hey, have you gone on a walk today? How's it going with your mom? I know she wasn't feeling well. So that's something that's really important to me and that I never want to change.

HELEN KIM: Yeah. And I think that's something very rare. And it's so important to have good camaraderie among your teammates, because I think that's what really builds the foundation of a healthy company. And that starts with everyone taking that initiative to get to know one another on a personal level.

CHELSEA HAYES: Mm-hmm. And one thing that we do at the end of every week is we ask-- so this is a one-on-one conversation, and we say, what did we do really well this week with each other? And then what can we do better next week? And so I'm constantly learning, oh, man, I didn't give my assistant enough information to schedule this call, you know? And so it's just kind of blind spots that we all have. But we're doing that every week, so that way there isn't this big feedback time, or every half of a year we do this big annoying, cumbersome conversation. It's really, how do we make our relationship amazing every single week?

HELEN KIM: And now that we have you on here, I really want to ask you about just your perspectives on how to advance ourselves quickly in a workplace and build trust among our teammates and with our managers.

CHELSEA HAYES: Yeah. So one thing you mentioned was trust, and someone asked me that yesterday. I was talking with my really close friend who's actually a DJ. And she said, why do people trust who they trust at work? And I said, well, it comes down to one thing, and that one thing is safety. Do they feel safe with you? Do they feel safe to share how they really feel, to share what they're thinking, to give you feedback on projects, to talk to you about things happening at work, not at work? That's when you did the best from people. So I think all of us as people are so different, and we come into the workplace with all these different thoughts and ideas. I mean, Helen, I come into workplaces sometimes, and I meet people who have never been hugged before in their life. So imagine someone who's never been hugged before having to lead a team of 5,000 people. There are going to be issues. There's going to be some issues there. H

ELEN KIM: Right.

CHELSEA HAYES: And you know, me, my mother is psychotherapist. She's incredibly generous. She's so loving. I was raised very affectionately from both of my parents, and so-- which I love. And I think that-- I know that God did that on purpose so that I could love people in the workplace, too. It's hard, you know? We're all coming from different places. But we have to really be patient. We have to ask a lot of good questions and start there. HELEN KIM: What kind of people should we surround ourselves in, if we want to advance--

CHELSEA HAYES: Yes.

HELEN KIM: --and have a strong team culture?

CHELSEA HAYES: Yes. The largest, most important thing, and I'd recommend all of us to do this, every six months, take a look at the four people who are closest to you on this planet, that you talk to the most, and then ask yourself, do they know themselves? Do they like themselves? And finally, are they taking any big risks? The people who are excelling the fastest in their careers, they're surrounded by people who know themselves, like themselves. They're high performers. They're not confused about where they're going. And they have taken big risks. That answer is so important, because taking risks is contagious. And I've-- I'm coming from more of an entrepreneurial standpoint, because I did take a risk that was smart. [LAUGHS] And I'm really glad I took it now. But taking risks is like enthusiasm, joy, the flu. It's extremely contagious, and it's something that you want to catch, but you have to surround yourself with it. So watching the process of a human being setting their mind on something, working on it, believing they can have it, believing they deserve it, working for it, and then getting it is one of the most amazing things to witness up close. But you have to surround yourself with people who have track records of taking risks and winning. And that's why you see so many founders surrounding themselves with other founders and creative people, because you can catch it. And so I meet people who are like, well, I'm stagnate. And then I'll ask them, well, who are the four people you're talking to the most? Those four people are stagnant as well.

HELEN KIM: Very good point. I should look in my phone and see if I talk to. [LAUGHS] Because you're right. It is contagious. And you-- if you want to be a better person, like, you want to have those people that you trust, who are just like you, and so that you learn from them also.

CHELSEA HAYES: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. But the knowing themselves and liking themselves, it's so important. Because when someone doesn't like themselves, you really can't predict what they're going to do. And not being able to predict what they're going to do is scary. That's scary from a leadership perspective. It's scary even from a friend perspective, right? You want to be able to predict what your friends are going to say around you, not around you. And that gets tricky with people who are insecure. So I think that people have to really take inventory about that.

HELEN KIM: Right. And just be really intentional about how they want to work on themselves and who you want to surround themselves with.

CHELSEA HAYES: Right. I have another point about intentionality. I talk to people sometimes who say, for instance, I love sweatshirts. I love sweatshirts. I want to make sweatshirts and sell them all over the world until I die. And I'm like, that's amazing. What kind of sweatshirts? What do you want the fabric to be? What do they look like? And then they'll tell me the answers. And then the next thing they'll say is, but I actually sell Popsicles all day. And I've been doing that for a while. And so when you listen to stories like that, it almost takes the wind out of you. Because you're like, no, wait, you just told me you really wanted to make sweatshirts. And so me and my friends, we have this growing hashtag, and we always text each other and say, #sweatshirtsonly. Like, all day long, I only want you thinking about what you actually want to do. And you can have it, you know? I think when I was younger, there's always this, you can do anything you set your mind to, and then as you get older, you write it down, and you're like, wow, I have exactly what I want. But only once I decided I could have it. And so everyone listening who is under the sound of my voice, I just want you to know that whatever you're thinking about doing, you can do it. It just takes one meeting, one person, one day, one opportunity, or even one client for you to have every single thing that you dream of.

HELEN KIM: Yeah. And changing that mindset a little bit to be intentional. And you know, it doesn't happen overnight. Like, you have to make it a habit.

CHELSEA HAYES: Yes.

HELEN KIM: Just practice little by little, and it'll come to you at the end.

CHELSEA HAYES: Exactly.

HELEN KIM: Let's talk about the relationships between managers and their direct reports.

CHELSEA HAYES: OK.

HELEN KIM: And I know you mentioned earlier about the ones who ask for feedback wins. And I would love to hear your perspective on just how to have a healthy relationship between your managers and your direct reports.

CHELSEA HAYES: Yes. Well, first thing is if you're managing people and you don't know how to manage people, then recognize that. Say that. You know, there are a lot of managers who are first-time managers. If you're a first-time manager and you don't know what you're doing, the very first thing that I want you to do is sit down and talk to yourself. And say, hey, I don't know what I'm doing, but I want to learn. And then you go to that direct report. And you say, hey, Helen, this is my first time doing this, and I'm not really exactly sure how to do it, but I really want to do it well. Can we partner up together to make that happen? That person is going to say, yes, let's do this. Let's make it happen. Where we get into trouble is where first-time managers don't know what they're doing, and they start designing things that are crazy. So I think that's the first step. Make sure you know where you're at. The second thing is make some structure around your relationship. If you guys are going to connect once a week, once every two weeks, it may take some time to get that structure correct, but design structures so that you can ask them questions. They can ask you questions. You can decide-- not even decide. You can really ascertain and determine what kind of leadership style they need. Every single person on my team needs something differently-- different from me, as a leader, which takes a lot of effort, a lot of energy. But you have to figure out how that person wants to be managed. Some people that want you to text them if you see something on LinkedIn that's cool. And other people don't want you to bother them. They want to ping you when they're ready. Take the time to figure that out. And also, ask them, and do fun things with them. It doesn't have to be, like, happy hour, or anything forced. It can just be a quick walk somewhere. But you have to understand their why, as a person, so that you can advance them in their career, because that's all-- that's why we're here. You know, we're all going to die one day. And when we do die, we want people talking about how we changed and influenced their lives. So you've got to keep the main thing the main thing. The main thing is not the product. It's not the bottom line. It's always the person.

HELEN KIM: And it sounds like you-- it requires a lot of vulnerability as a leader to open up and connect with your teammates.

CHELSEA HAYES: It does.

HELEN KIM: And just acknowledge that this is your first time leading. Yeah, that takes a lot of courage.

CHELSEA HAYES: Yeah. And by the way, the same thing works if any of you are married, and you're-- the same thing works. If you don't know what you're doing or you need help or guidance, say that. And this is totally Los Angeles of me, and I know that the West Coast listeners are totally going to understand. Going to therapy here is so popular. Like, when we go to lunch, we're always like, what did your therapist say this week? And so for me, people who talk with a lot of people, thousands and thousands of people at one time, it's almost irresponsible to not go to therapy or to not have that sponsoring or mentoring or coaching from somebody who can really help you dig deeper and figure out, why is Chelsea the way that Chelsea is? Why is Chelsea the kind of leader that she is? What types of things do I need to work on and grow through? Most recently, my therapist has asked me to start sleeping with my phone in the kitchen, so I'm trying that. And that's new for me.

HELEN KIM: Put your phone in the kitchen? CHELSEA HAYES: Yes. HELEN KIM: Oh, so that-- wow.

CHELSEA HAYES: Yeah. Because I would wake up at sometimes 4:00 in the morning and check a really important email, and go back to sleep. And she was like, we don't want your sleep interrupted. The same email will be there at 7:00 AM. So I'm working through that, Helen.

HELEN KIM: Oh, true.

CHELSEA HAYES: I need to buy an alarm clock. I need an alarm. [LAUGHS]

HELEN KIM: That makes me now want to talk about relationships with ourselves and how we come to work as our whole self. And I think that also includes or involves learning how to talk about yourself to others.

CHELSEA HAYES: Yes, yes. When you talk about yourself, you're teaching other people what to say about you. So if you're meek or not sure or relaxed, when other people talk about you, they will be meek, unsure, and relaxed. That sounds scary, right?

HELEN KIM: Mm-hmm. Oh, yeah.

CHELSEA HAYES: So if you say-- oh, yeah. If you say, oh, I'm working on a little project that just got unveiled, then other people are going to pitch you and say, she's working on a little project that just got unveiled. Terrible. So it's a mirror. So when you talk about who you are and what you do, remember that you in the role of a teacher. And business owners, if you own your own business, this is so important, especially women. I was sitting over Christmas break, and I have a nephew who's four. And he was making a gingerbread house. And we lost one of the pieces that he needed. And then we found it. Actually, he found it. And so at the end of the gingerbread, he said, look, it's done. And it's all because of me. And I said, [GASPS] I love that. I love that, that he said that. And then just yesterday, I was talking with another friend, who's also a male. He's in his early 40s. And he was telling me about a deal he had in progress. And he said, yeah, but you know, they don't even know each other. This is all just happening because of me. And I said, wow. You know, some people might find that cocky, but for me, I just-- I was so fascinated by the language that both of those males used. And I said, hmm. Hmm. I just-- I'm thoughtful about it. So I'm thoughtful about what types of things I need to be saying about myself and how I can be even more confident in the things that God has allowed me to do in my life and in my career.

HELEN KIM: Yeah. CHELSEA HAYES: Mm-hmm. Have you heard people talk like that before? It's amazing.

HELEN KIM: I have. And I always-- I'm also fascinated, too. Like I--

CHELSEA HAYES: [LAUGHS]

HELEN KIM: [INAUDIBLE] myself like that in a lot of settings. And that's-- you know, that's one of my goals for 2020, to just focus on that. If I do have a big project, I sometimes don't give myself enough credit for it.

CHELSEA HAYES: Mm-hmm.

HELEN KIM: And when I try to explain it to somebody else, that's how they're going to perceive it.

CHELSEA HAYES: And you've got to explain it how Cory would explain it, my nephew, you know? [LAUGHS]

HELEN KIM: Yeah, right.

CHELSEA HAYES: And there are lots of articles written about using "we"s and, you know, on teams, and I support that. However, I don't believe in lying. If you did something, then say it. If it was a team effort, then it needs to be a team effort. I don't think that we should be dishonest.

HELEN KIM: Right. Just being extremely clear about who did what.

CHELSEA HAYES: Mm-hmm. And why, and what was the bottom line? You know, what-- how did this impact the company?

HELEN KIM: And Chelsea, I really want to talk to you about how Northwestern has played a role in your life, even after graduating. And I know you were really involved with Council of One Hundred. For those of you who are not really familiar with Council of One Hundred, it was created by a hundred alumnae in 1993 to connect successful Northwestern women with female students and recent graduates to help them out, launch their careers after graduation. But now, it's expanded to support women throughout their careers so that there are networking events throughout various cities, held by C100. And all female alumnae and students are able to attend these events, but I know that in order to be a member you have to be invited or nominated. But I would love to hear your experience through that.

CHELSEA HAYES: Absolutely. Absolutely. Northwestern-- and I tried to find another word to describe it, but I can't say, so I'm hopeful that this will be fine. But I believe that going to Northwestern in any city, it's kind of-- when you're in an alum, it's kind of like a mafia. Like, you just say-- if you say that, people want to look out for you. They want to connect with you. They want to lift you up. And I have found that to be so true. But in terms of Council of One Hundred, what's interesting is when I moved to LA, I started going to the summer parties that they have. They have summer parties at another alumni woman's home, where you just get together and explain what you're up to. You have really good snacks. And everyone goes home. So I started going to summer parties. And then I got involved in small group mentoring circles. So those are even more specific. And then Northwestern unveiled a blind match program. So there are no pictures, no names, but you could actually go online, type in what you're interested in, fill out a profile, and they matched you with a mentor and a mentee. And you could actually be both a mentor and a mentee. So I said, this sounds like a great idea. I want a mentor. So I went online, and I saw what-- a profile that really appealed to me. And I ended up with-- it's really kind of-- really fun, because it's kind of like, you don't know who it is. And then we ended up meeting, and her name is Michelle Madigan. And as soon as I met her-- she's been a producer at NBC Dateline in LA for a very long time. As soon as I met her, I was like, I found my person. We go on walks all the time. I know her family. We're extremely close. And it turns out that Michelle was already in the C100, which I didn't know. And so then, yes, correct, C100 is an invitation-only group. So she ended up nominating me, and I got selected. And so that's how C100-- my moment happened. We meet twice a year. I'm absolutely obsessed. We go to Northwestern football games together. And it's so intergenerational. It's diverse. And it's really been something really powerful in my life that I'm-- get to be a part of. I feel really blessed. And one thing about the C100 story that I want to make sure that I mentioned is there are a lot of young women who approach and say, hey, how do become a part of C100? And you just have to be nominated, right? But what I think is so cool is that I actually had to do something to initiate that process. Like, I actually had to make a decision that I was going to get involved with the Northwestern University mentor/mentee program, which led me to C100. So I think even if you think about your life, Helen, or to the listeners, if you think about every single thing that has happened in your life, you had to take one step. You had to do something to start that ball rolling, to start that activation. So what are you going to do today to activate the next thing you want? HELEN KIM: And I know that you mentioned that you met your person through the mentorship program. [LAUGHS] So how was it? How has your mentor played a huge role in your life? And do you also have a mentee in your life? CHELSEA HAYES: Yes. I don't just have one mentor. I have so many. But we know that sponsorship is what's really important. So getting women into the rooms that really matters. I think I have been blessed with a handful of those. And I have so many mentees all over the world who reach out and ask questions. And sometimes it's something simple, like they want to show me their outfit for an interview and I can weigh in. Other times it's more complex. They're making a very serious career decision, and I'm happy to help. But every single time I meet a new human, my thought is, what can I learn from this person? And you can learn so much that way. I also love reading books, anything by Bob Goff or Jon Acuff or Stormie Omartian. Reading is a big part of my life, mainly because you know all these CEOs say that it is important, so I'm like, oh. [LAUGHS] If they say it's important, I should do it. And now I--

HELEN KIM: I should do it.

CHELSEA HAYES: Yeah. Now I've fallen in love with it. And so I'm grateful. I have friends, and we kind of switch books. We'll just read them and then switch between each other. So it's fun. HELEN KIM: Well, to close off our interview, I would love to ask you if you have any advice that you would like to share with the Northwestern Network.

CHELSEA HAYES: Sure. I think I've shared a lot during the podcast already, but one thing that I want to make sure that I share is when we go to any event, really, deeply understand who is going to be there, with names, faces, especially if they're people you want to connect with. And I don't mean stalk them. Of course that's weird. But you should know what school they went to. There's probably tons of articles on them. Read that stuff. Do a deep dive and research. Because going to an event and not knowing who's going to be there is like showing up to a mall with no money. You can look around. You can observe all you want. But you can't buy anything. You have no currency to purchase. People want to talk about themselves. So in order to facilitate that, you have to know something about them. So don't leave your wallet at home. You have to make sure that you know something about people. And remember that he or she with the most information frequently wins.

HELEN KIM: Thanks for listening today. And to check out more of our episodes, you can go to Northwestern.edu/intersections. You can also send us feedback through the website, or if you know fellow Wildcats out there that you want a nominee to be interviewed on our show, fill out the comments form, and you might get to hear from them one day. Have a great rest of your day, and go Cats.