Welcome to STANDOUT From The Crowd.
I'm Darine, and if you are anything like me, you have probably been through a few unexpected twist on your journey.
My plan A was to be a diplomat, but life had other plans leading me to become an impact entrepreneur and champion for women's leadership.
Sometimes life has a funny way of throwing us curveballs.
Right?
I have always wondered why fit in when you were born to Standout.
In this podcast, I sit down with remarkable women leaders who have embraced their unique path, defied expectations, and created lasting impact.
We dive into their stories, explore their mindset, their resilience, and the strategies that help them succeed even when left through stones in their path.
Whether it's insights on personal growth, strategies to amplify your visibility, or tips to boost your well-being and overall productivity, you will find the inspiration you need to unlock your full potential.
Join me every other Wednesday for conversations that will empower you to stand out in your career, in your life, and in everything that you do.
Because listen, here, we don't just follow the crowd. We STANDOUT.
Hello. Welcome to Season 4 of the STANDOUT Podcast.
I'm so happy to welcome you for this new season.
And we have a lot to talk about.
A lot can happen within a year, and a lot has happened to me since the beginning of 2024.
And so based on recent events, I wanted to start this new season with the topic of how the people you surround yourself with can significantly influence your personal and your professional success.
Are you ready?
Let's go.
Let's talk and let's assess the power of your network.
And I think it's important to talk about networking especially now in the post COVID era where I feel we no longer know how to interact with people and especially given that we live in a world where most of our professional and personal interactions take place online.
And still, networking is the key driver to your personal and your professional growth.
And something about us women is that we tend to have 2 lists.
We have the lists with our personal network, friends, family, close people, and then we have the professional list, right, with people we talk business, we talk career with.
And we are doing us a disservice here.
Oftentimes, and this is a key difference in networking between men and women, men didn't bother. They only have one list. Family, personal, professional, it's one list.
It's one network, and then they know who they can make an ask to, which we don't do.
And we double the work.
Like, we didn't have enough to do already.
And so I really, really through this episode, I really want you to understand the importance of being strategic when it comes to your network, to being mindful and very proactive when it comes to adding people in your network.
And when I talk about your network, I'm not talking about a list of 100 people.
Your network can be as small as 5 people or 10 people.
Okay? But you wanna make sure that those people share similar aspirations.
They have already succeeded or achieved the level of success that you want to achieve, and most importantly, that they are genuine about your success and that they want to see you succeed as much as you want.
Recently, I was presented with a great opportunity to present my new venture, Afroa Beauty in New York City.
If you don't know me, I'm based in Toronto, Canada.
And I recently launched a new venture, Afroa Beauty, which is the 1st Canadian eco luxury skincare and wellness brand.
I started building my network in the luxury industry way before I launched my 2nd venture. Right? Because I wanted to get a sense of how it works.
What do I need to know?
What type of information do I need to have access to?
What are the key players in the industry?
And the truth is that you don't know what you don't know. Right?
So you need to go and fish for information.
And in order to have access to the right information, you need to identify who are the right people. And I was having a meeting last week with someone in my network who is also working in the beauty industry.
And she told me, you know, Darine, there is this event I'm going to next week in New York City. You should attend.
I think it's a great opportunity for you to introduce your brand to the US market.
And I was like, oh, okay.
So send me information, and I will see if I can still attend.
And within 24 hours, I was on the list of Canadian woman founders who will be presenting their brand in New York City.
So that's what happens when you surround yourself with the right people.
Am I ready for this opportunity?
I don't know, honestly.
And the thing is you are never ready.
And this is what entrepreneurship is about, but I do believe this can apply to every part of your life.
But I said yes because I don't know when the next opportunity. Right?
So I said yes.
And then the same person introduced me to the key players and organizers of this event. Right? So they already know me.
Or at least they have seen my name and the name of my brand. So this is one aspect.
And it's important for me to give you concrete examples so you see how small or big it can be, but how impactful it is.
2 journalists reached out to me recently to write an article about me and Afro Beauty in their online magazine.
Again, I didn't even know those magazines exist.
I didn't know those people, but my name was given to them through the people in my network. And so they reached out to me telling me, hey! This person mentioned you.
This person talked about you. And so I would like to interview you for an article to be published on our online magazine.
The key here and the main thing that you need to understand is that success is not a solo India viewer. Okay?
And if you surround yourself with the right people, it will fast track your way to success.
It doesn't have to be overcomplicated.
You know, you don't have to hustle in whatever the Internet is telling you right now.
Keep it simple yet effective.
So now how do you do that?
And, again, you know me.
I like to keep things very simple yet very effective.
So let's talk about how you build the network.
Where do you get started?
You have to be proactive.
So step 1, obviously, is to set up your goals. Okay? Simple.
What do you want to achieve this year?
What do you want to achieve in the next 4 months?
Okay? Now you have identified your goals.
Then you reverse engineer the process.
If you know that 6 months from now, you wanna achieve a certain goal, who are the people you need to surround yourself with in order to help you achieve those goals or at least this goal.
Are these people already in your network?
If yes, good. It's time to start nurturing the relationship.
If not, okay.
It's time to start looking for the people that you need in your network, that you need to surround yourself with in order to help you reach your goal. Now it's important to be genuine.
I know strategy may sound inauthentic, but most people like to use the word supportive network. It sounds more genuine. I genuinely love and appreciate every single person that is in my network.
And I really want them to succeed as much as I want to succeed.
This is a drive that we are sharing.
And because I'm launching a new venture in the luxury and beauty industry, I have surrounded myself with people who share the same values and vision as mine.
So there is a connection on a deeper level. It's not about, oh, yeah.
This person can help me achieve that.
This person can help me achieve that.
Now, see, how can we collectively help one another succeed and elevate one another?
If this is not the type of conversation that you can have with the people in your network, then it's time to assess your network and change your network.
Now let's talk about something that I feel nobody is talking about.
It's how do you seize opportunity with a short term result versus a long term mindset. Oftentimes, when people seize opportunity, they expect quick results, and then they are disappointed because they get a no.
I like to say NO stands for Next Opportunity.
What do I mean by that?
I mean that I'm going to New York tomorrow.
I will be introducing my brand, Afroa Beauty, to venture capitalists, key industry players, other founders, and entrepreneurs.
Will I get a purchase order from that meeting?
Probably not.
Will I get VC fundings from that meeting?
Probably not.
And I'm not ready in honesty for that next step to happen in my business.
But I will start building relationships with new people, and I will start building my personal brand equity and my business brand equity, Afra Beauty brand equity.
So now people who don't know that I exist, that don't know that my brand exists, now they will know it.
And moving forward, it is my responsibility to ensure that I make myself visible and my brand visible to them.
So I stay top of their mind.
Here is the thing.
Oftentimes people, they are like, oh, yeah.
But what I'm going to get from this opportunity?
You might not get anything right now.
That's why the short result mindset to me is a dream killer.
Because there is a compound effect to everything that we do and to all the relationships that we build, and it takes time.
Success takes time.
Otherwise, we will all be successful multimillionaires, billionaires, and we would live private jet life and on a yacht and whatsoever. Okay?
So this is very important to understand that what you are doing now will bring you results later in the future as long as you are strategic in the way you do things.
Keep it simple yet very effective.
Know what you need to prioritize.
What are the steps?
What are the action items that you need to prioritize in order to reach your goal 6 months from now?
This is a podcast episode, but I feel like this could be a workshop.
I hope you are taking notes. Right?
And if you like this episode and if you find value in this episode, we would like the team and we would appreciate it if you could give us a 5 star review and leave your comment.
Share this episode.
This is how you start building relationships when you help one another towards their success. You share valuable resources.
And this is something that is free to do, so why not?
If you wanna go back to the nitty gritty of things, focus on practical tips.
One, leverage your network.
And I have told you how to start building a supportive network by being strategic.
Then once you are surrounded with the right people, what do you do?
How do you provide them value?
And what can you ask them?
Can you ask them for introductions?
Can you ask them for recommendations?
Practical tip number 2, be strategic with your presence.
Again, this one is super important. Be strategic with your presence.
You don't have to be on social media every single day.
You don't have to attend all the events out there in your industry.
You have to be selective about what social media platform you choose to build up your presence as a person and as a business owner or as a professional, and what are the industry events that are key for you to attend.
For example, when it comes to building my personal brand and showcase my expertise to the world, LinkedIn is my primary platform.
This is where I share personal stories, lessons learned.
This is where I share the work that I do with the Smart Woman Consulting, which is my first primary and primary business.
This is where I share the building of my second venture, Afra Beauty, and the why behind and everything behind this, new concept of and everything behind this, new concept of eco luxury skincare and wellness because this is where key professionals and key leaders hang out.
So I want them to know me, to know my story, and to know why I do what I do. Okay?
So they understand my mission. They understand my values.
They understand where my passion is and all of this.
So those people, when they know me, if they have an interest in Afro Beauty, they can click on LinkedIn and find relevant information.
If when I talk about my consulting work, they have an interest, then they can go to my LinkedIn page also and find information about my consulting services.
So LinkedIn to me is key and is strategic. If you are not visible, you do not exist.
Because keep in mind that when people hear your name or will hear the name of your brand, the first thing that they are going to do is to Google you.
And what are they going to find about you and your expertise and your brand?
And practical tip number 3, it's important to learn how to evaluate success not in terms of image out result or in terms of financial gain, but also to consider metrics such as brand equity, brand awareness, new connections, and who gets to know, trust, and like you.
And I have a specific episode on how to build your know, like, and trust factor, and I will share it in the episode description for you to listen to it.
So now if you have to remember one thing of this entire conversation is that you are painting the seeds today for future success.
If you start implementing the practical tips and strategies that I share with you in this episode today, I can guarantee you that if you are consistent and serious about it, you will start seeing results and you will get closer and closer and closer to your goal, and you will feel how satisfying it is.
And this is what I want for you.
If you feel like you need more support when it comes to assessing your network, identifying who are the people you should surround yourself with and what should be your next step, then I will put the link also to 2 of my books, networking in the new world of work and STANDOUT From The Crowd where, again, I provide you strategy and practical tips for you to be effective about the work that you do. That's all for me today. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a review.
Your feedback helps us continue to grow and bring more valuable content. Until next time. Bye.
