Q:
What is your favorite part of being on the SPACC YPro Committee?
A: I love collaborating with people that I wouldn’t have otherwise met and brainstorming innovative event ideas for YPro! It’s fun to work with the events team to think up ideas that we haven’t tried before and incorporate SPACC member companies that you wouldn’t always think of for networking events.
Q:
What is an interesting fact about you?
A: I sing in a professional choir called MPLS (imPulse) that a good college friend of mine started 5 years ago. We perform in unique venues (like a planetarium, a pool, and a distillery) and sing music by living composers (our next concert has a song by Dessa!).
Q:
Who inspires you professionally and why?
A: One of my good friends from Gustavus is an incredible advocate for herself – both her career needs and work/life balance needs. Her roles have been tailored to the type of work she wants to be doing and the work schedule and location that works best for her family. She’s also an incredible networker and is great at making connections.
Q:
Any tips for networking?
A: There’s a great Dale Carnegie principle of “Become genuinely interested in other people.” I think the key to networking is listening and having genuine responses to what you hear (no “Oh yeah.. Uh huh…” while eyeing the room to see who else to talk to.) It’s amazing how impactful a “Tell me more about…” follow up sentence can be!
Q:
What skills have you found essential for success?
A: It may sound cliché, but I have found that being honest and kind are are the best tools for success. You can still negotiate and make your case while being kind. And honesty, as they say, is always the best policy.
Q:
What one thing would you do if you knew you were guaranteed to succeed?
A: I’d be a beekeeper! I love bees!
