This is Part II of the conversation with Dr. Ray Sylvester  where we discuss the more practical application of digital identity for college students. With so many mixed messages and nuances to this arena people at all ages and stages are confused about the idea of authentically participating in professional networking, especially on a platform. However, we believe this is incredibly important for a college student. This conversation covers all of that and concepts for an approach to LinkedIn as well as an assignment of an informational interview that the students are about to embark on for this amazing course that Ray is teaching this year. If you missed Part I, we laid the foundation of  WHY Ray and I find this to be critical for young people, how it fits into our own research, life experiences, and journey, and more. 

After almost two years, here I am! I have had quite a bit of personal and professional change since I last recorded an episode (haven't we all?! It's the 2020's after all!). My good friend and colleague Dr. Ray Sylvester, who you will recall from Episode 9 and Episode 28, is teaching a course on personal brand management and suggested the best way to have me as a guest speaker on digital identity, story telling, and LinkedIn for his students was to record a podcast. This is Part I of the conversation where we lay the foundation of a WHY Ray and I find this to be critical for young people, how it fits into our own research, life experiences, and journey, and more. Join us for Part II where we discuss the more practical application and approach to LinkedIn and an assignment of an informational interview that the students are about to embark on for this amazing course!

Meet Ryan Sawrie who, after a decade in digital content creation has written a fantastic book, one which I am now a super fan of, Build Your Digital Strategy: Every Step From A to F

Ryan's book is a concise guidebook that I found to be applicable to many areas of your personal and professional life. True to the purpose of this podcast, I challenge Ryan to take us through this 7 steps as they apply to our personal growth and experience. You can tell from this episode that he's as talented as a spouse and father as he is a digital strategist.

Visit the link above to find the book on Amazon. This is the book's website which is full of resources!

So much around quitting is negative, especially with older generations and outdated mindsets. This can be related to a career, a friendship, relationship or even family. In a time when mental and emotional health is finally taking a front seat, quitting is a positive and can actually be the best thing you can do for yourself and your relationships. This conversation focuses on how you know when to quit and why it is so tied to our self worth. Here are the resources mentioned in the episode:

NPR article: Setting Boundaries
LinkedIn article: Why Quitters Are Often The Real Heroes Behind The Story
Annie Duke's Twitter thread on quitting
Fast Company article: Ask Yourself These Four Questions Before You Quit Something

Moving toward better self monitoring on a journey toward authenticity, we have to understand that we are natural storytellers and also how we tell those stories internally.  This episode is meant to serve as a reminder that your patterns, self-talk, and your inner dialogue are a result of your experiences, your self worth, and often your mindset. You also need to constantly seek the input of other voices in your story.

The TED Talk I referenced in this episode can be found here.

Based on questions from Gen Z in college classrooms around the difference between being authentic and being socially aware/politically correct, I started to research this a bit. This episode and these links are what I found to be helpful in explaining true authenticity and also self monitoring:

Psychology Today's Self Monitoring Assessment
Have We Got Authenticity Wrong?
Adam Grant: “Unless You’re Oprah, ‘Be Yourself’ Is Terrible Advice.”

Brené Brown: “My Response to the Adam Grant’s New York Times Op-ed: Unless You’re Oprah, ‘Be Yourself’ Is Terrible Advice.”

I had the opportunity to hear a professor talk about the dominate type of your Myers Briggs Type (MBTI) recently, how pairing around your type works, and more importantly how different types take on and react to stress. WOW! I was blown away that I didn't realize the power of the information available around the Myers Briggs!

Here are the links mentioned in this episode:

https://eu.themyersbriggs.com/en/Using-Type/Stress-heads-Type-table

https://ap.themyersbriggs.com/content/Quick_Tips/VT_Type_stressors_and_reactions.pdf

https://www.psychologyjunkie.com/2015/08/02/how-each-mbti-type-reacts-to-stress-and-how-to-help/

https://www.myersbriggs.org/my-mbti-personality-type/understanding-mbti-type-dynamics/function-pairs.htm

Transferrable skills are a difficult list to cultivate if you are not living your truth. If you don't believe in YOU and if you aren't doing what fulfills you then it is even more difficult.  In this episode I challenge you to think about your transferrable skills, the evidence you can offer to demonstrate these skills, the social proof around them, but more importantly how you can ultimately describe then confidently to someone else so that they know what skills and value you offer. 

I'm seeing too many people right now still focused on the "what". What does the job title say, what does the job do, what does the job pay, what does the upward mobility look like, what will I tell people about it, how will it look on my resume? Not enough WHY but that's because the why is hard and it is directly related to YOU and your ability to live in your truth. I hope this episode gives you something to think about. I want you to intentionally research and start to list/explain your own transferrable skills!

If you don't know yourself, love yourself and live your authentic life you will often find yourself defining yourself by your career, your to-do-lists, your outcomes and others. You have to find times to constantly sit with yourself and evaluate. This conversation is about helping you identify those times and boundaries.

The Brene' Brown Wholehearted Inventory
Excellent article from Vox on dealing with the post pandemic pressures

I had the occasion to hear from a Gen Z connection about some confusion and desperation regarding a career path. This was truly too good of a textbook case study on starting with YOU and allowing that to lead your career search, not trying to fit in many boxes and compartments that aren't made for you.