sarahingcoaching.com

sarahing·Nov 20, 2023

Posted in:Personal Growth Productivity Tech Career Growth

✨ Let's try something new. ✨

In January I'm going to run a "Make 10 Friends" Challenge.

It's 7 days and free of charge.

The goal: Make 10 friends. Expand your network and sense of possibility. Connect > Network.

The what: prompts to curate your outreach & messaging, a Slack channel to connect with fellow challengers, and a recap at the end

If you're down, comment or message me "10 friends!" or sign up here: https://tally.so/r/nro6gL.

Disclaimer: I am a coach who helps women in tech fall back in love with their careers. This challenge isn't trying to sell anything and is strictly for learning purposes, to better serve my clients in the future.

<3 Sarah

Iynna·Nov 21, 2023

Love this! last year, as I was considering a move back to Europe, I decided to meet one new person everyday from mid-December to March! Network grew like crazy in just a few weeks (as you can imagine a lot of these people didn't respond but those who did proceed in making other intros etc.) it was amazing!

sarahing·Nov 21, 2023

Wow, that was an ambitious goal! And for such a long time. I'm curious - what were some of the benefits from growing your network?

Iynna·Nov 21, 2023

Haha definitely a bit much but I loved it! It's tough to say now (it's like early stage investing you don't really see the returns until later), but I guess now I have built a network of operators and coinvestors with whom I can share deals, I have met people I can now go see in person when I'm in London/Paris. Not all will sustain but even if 5% of that lot ends up being some solid professional or even personal relationships (like friendships) then I'm happy!What do you hope to accomplish with the 10-friend challenge (besides making new friends)?

sarahing·Nov 22, 2023

Great question! The accomplishment would be making our online space feel a little less lonely. And inviting more possibility into our lives. I don't think there's anything more than making new friends -- that's exactly it and that's enough.I've been tremendously lucky making friends with strangers and it's helped not just my career, but my life. I want to help other people do this and add real intentionality and care behind it. It's a good reminder (for myself too!) that a network is really just people and connection.

Iynna·Nov 22, 2023

Yay that's amazing! You're right in our world everything can feel a bit transactional. I've had calls with women here on Elpha that were "no agenda" ie. I just wanted to chat and get to know them and I always said, my intention here is to make friends, I don't need anything to come out of it professionally (ofc it is great if it happens, but whatever is meant to happen will happen)

sarahing·Nov 22, 2023

Ah yes, I was lucky enough to have one of those calls with you. You're great at that!

Iynna·Nov 22, 2023

Aww right back at you! I can't wait to meet you IRL hopefully in a few months!

kchasarik·Nov 21, 2023

This is a great idea!

sarahing·Nov 22, 2023

Aw, thank you! I'm having a bit of a "oh holy crap!" moment because over 20 people signed up in the last day. It's exciting but ahh - time to get ready. Woohoo!

clairmclafferty·Nov 22, 2023

Definitely interested! I moved to Charlotte last year and got injured a few months later, so I did something similar that kinda tapered off this year.

Iynna·Nov 22, 2023

I hope you're better Clair, injuries are no joke especially when you are new to a city and perhaps without networks :(

clairmclafferty·Nov 25, 2023

@iynna Definitely better now, but am also keen to be more intentional with making connections in the new year!

helenhensell·Nov 26, 2023

Would love to connect with more people

ruthieberber·Nov 29, 2023

just signed up! love the idea :)

Iynna·Feb 05

How did the challenge go, Sarah! Or is it currently ongoing? Any initial learnings you can share with us?

sarahing·Feb 06

Good memory @iynna!It went well BUT it was way too fast for just a week. We've all got jobs! So, in the future it'd be over a month.Also, there were so many interesting, incredible people who signed up. And a lot of them! Instead of befriending people outside of our network, it would have been better to make use of the community we created internally. Because, we were all open-minded about meeting strangers and weird enough to join the challenge.I'll likely host another one in the future when my schedule gets a little less busy ::runs around like a chicken with its head cut off::

Iynna·Feb 06

Aw this is so neat! I'm so glad it was meaningful and I agree a week is short but then you also have a lot on your plate so finding that balance is key. I'm glad this served as a great experiment though! YES to being less busy, I'd recommend looking at the summer months, when things quiet down a bit!

sarahing·Feb 06

yes and NOT kicking it off on a US holiday. Lesson learned!