OK, ladies for today, we have 30 minutes together. And what I would like you to what I would like to ask you to do is to get a piece of paper and a pen with you. And that will be your first step to think strategically about your network.And we're gonna make some notes while I'll be presenting. So be ready, write things down if you feel that they are um important or useful for you. And I'm gonna start just now with the first slide and I would like to welcome you in this workshop in this webinar on seven people you meet in your network. Um As I said, please share in the chat right about the people who either supported you in your career in the past or just think about them or someone you look up to in a professional setting, people that you admire, people that you think were very useful or, or people that you admire, that you, that inspire you to reach for more in your career.

I will ask you to do that. You can write in the chat and we're gonna see. Hello to everyone who's joining us now. This is your first question for today. You can write it on the piece of paper that I ask you to have with you if you have it, otherwise it's all fine and think about those people that either supported you or to whom you look up to in a professional setting. These are the people that give you the inspiration, that show you that it's possible to have a great network to have a more meaningful career. So think about those people who supported you in your career or to whom you look up to in a professional setting. If you're too shy to write it in the chat, that's completely fine. You can just write it or think about it, uh reflect for yourself because that will help you later with um thinking more broadly about, about your network. OK? And now I will just quickly present myself. So my name is Magda Core. I'm originally from Poland, mostly based in Belgium. Although today I'm in my hometown Krakow and I'm very happy about that and a little bit about myself and my background, I started as a journalist in Krakow, then I moved abroad and then I spent seven years working at the European institutions in Brussels.

Uh And I basically did communication and within those seven years, I learned a lot. But also at some point, I realized that this was not the right environment for someone like me. I'm too creative, too much of a free spirit who want to change things and innovate the public sector is not exactly the right environment for that, as you can imagine. It was a pity that it took me seven years to realize that because I should have actually already make a step and changed my career earlier. But I was not aware about many things. I didn't have any career management plan, no strategy. I was just going from 11 day to another hoping that one day I'm gonna get promoted and I'm gonna have more um more space to, to, to show my true potential. So then eventually I decided to uh quit the the institutions just before the Corona started. As you can imagine, there was a very bad timing and of course, I couldn't know that it will happen, but that was a very difficult period for me. So during that time, I did uh coaching sessions, I actually also attended women in tech uh Global Conference 2020 as just as a, as a viewer, as a, as a participant. I loved it. I loved the uh inspiration, the energy that women were showing.

And I thought this is also what I want to do. And I'm so happy to be here two years later showing you what I did during those two years, sharing my path, my experiences and helping you get the network that will help you in your career development in the future. So nothing is impossible if today, you're just a participant. You don't know what to do with your career. You struggle, don't worry, in a few years, you'll be here just like me presenting today and you will uh you will find your way and it's great that you're already here today. It is very important that we can share this energy inspiration and help each other. So this is a little bit about myself, as I told you during that period, when I was pivoting, trying to find different jobs. I also came up with the idea of work ally, which is a community for women who want to pull each other up, who want to be allies to each other, who want to support each other, who want to make sure that we are a beehive and that together we have so much more power to break the glass ceiling, to get those jobs, those meaningful jobs that we all are seeking for.

So work ally is a community. We also give sessions 1 to 1 coaching and we also come to events like this today to spread the word, to show you what are the opportunities that you have and that you're not alone. We're all in this together. We want to help each other. Women have an amazing power. They are very good in long term relationship building. And this is what we need to use to our advantage and to support each other and make the best out of the world in which we are living. So this is how a, a few images just about what we do, we want to be together, we want to elevate, give you the wings so you can fly with your career and be there together because we believe that the future should be equal. And now what you are all waiting for today and this is the most important thing. Da da da da is the session about the seven people you need in your network. I hope that you're all ready with your little notebook and a pen because I will go through those profiles one by one. And then as I go through those profiles, I would like you to write down the name of the profile, perhaps a few notes about who those persons, those people should be. What is their, what are their characteristics? And also you can already reflect.

Do you have those people in your network? Do you have them or do you have contacts that could fill in this role? And that will be your first draft of a, some kind of a strategy or a plan for the network that you want to develop further in your future? So get ready, bring your pens, your notebooks or if you're writing digitally, that's completely fine. I'm quite old fashioned. Um And let's try to make it as concrete for you as possible. This session. OK. Just for a short introduction, this is a mistake. I made in my career in the past when I was still working in the, in the institutions, I thought that if I do my job, well, if I'm reliable, if I provide great uh results, everyone is gonna see me, Magda is great and Magda is gonna get a promotion. This was not true. And what I realized there. And also through my career, it's not about what, you know, or at least not only about what you know, what you can do, but also it's about who you know, because a lot of um career opportunities come through a recommendation come from someone who is higher up than you, who's gonna say Magda is doing a really good job.

We should appreciate her, she should get a promotion or a new opportunities training, whatever it is because she is good. If you are just continue doing those over hours working like a dog, always being there for others, the chances that are you're gonna be promoted or you, you have a more meaningful career are not that high. Not only, of course, you have to do it, you have to be good in what you do. You have to love doing what you do. But the most important is you also need to develop a support system and network that will allow you to get the visibility to show your amazing profile and stop being the world's best kept secret. And this is exactly the more important thing, someone that can pull you up, someone that can show to others that you are doing an amazing job. So never underestimate the power of networking of the network of the support system that you need to have in your work. I know it's difficult. We work so hard. We have social lives, we have families, we have all those other things that turn out to be priority over networking. But without that, it's extremely, extremely difficult to get higher in the hierarchy.

So think about it and make time and space in your agenda to cultivate your network because without that, it will be extremely difficult for you to move on. OK. And now a little bit again, um more of a background I wanted to present to you danar numbers. I don't know how many of you know it, but it's basically an estimation about how many meaningful relationships we can cultivate. And as you will see, there are all those different circles. The five best are the closest, closest closest people you have in your life. It might be your partner, your best friends, members of your family. But those people with whom you are basically interacting all the time, they know so much about you, you can be extremely vulnerable with them. This is a core of your group. Then if we go further, you see that you can have 15 intimate close friends, close connections, 50 people that you'll be able to see often go for a dinner, um a coffee discuss, uh call each other and so on. And then the further you go, the more people, the more difficult it is to remember who they are, stay in touch with them and so on. But as you see, in the very middle, we have 150 close connections and these 150 close connections are the people that you should think about. Also in terms of your professional network.

A few of them, of course, there's going to be your friends and people you met on your way that maybe have not so much to do with your professional life. But in those 150 people, it's also good to keep those principal people in your network with whom you will um connect and uh interact on a regular basis, whether it's once a year for birth for their birthday or, you know, um some celebrations, New Year's, uh a talk from time to time.

How are you doing this idea of cultivating and keeping alive, those relationships that are also professional and personal, it's always connected. But those people that will be there for you, that you, you won't have any problem with reaching out to them if you need something because it's not like you haven't talked to them for years and years and then you come and say, hey, I have this issue. Help me. No, these are the people with whom you regularly connect, stay in touch and they can help you because they are close to you. So think about those numbers and especially this 150 close connections. Part of them should also you should have that space and time to cultivate professional connections in this, in this 150 magic number. OK? And now I will go to the core of it because we only have uh half an hour left now. So seven profiles, it's not just people, it's profiles that you need in your network. I divided those profiles. There are seven principal profiles. However, I also divided them into smaller subgroups which hopefully will help you understand or illustrate what are the kinds of the people of the profiles that you need.

The first one, I call it the guardian angels and those people are usually people who are higher up who already, who can support you because they are in a more advanced stages of their career. They have wisdom, they might have some power for negotiating for you, for supporting you. These are the people, you know, let's call them professional healthy that I will be there to protect you to help you. They're not gonna do your job, they're not gonna, you can't just rely on them. You are the one who's responsible for your career, but they are the one who can provide you with a safer environment who can help you deal with the challenges. And the guardian angels is basically a group of profiles of those people that mostly will be higher up than you. And now we start with a sponsor. I think that you probably already heard about it from other speakers in the conference. I joined a few talks and I saw that there were uh talks about sponsors. Sponsor is a person that is usually much higher up than you. Someone who can pull you up, someone who mostly um comes internally from your organization. In those, when we think about sponsors, I think that the, the the ones that the the lowest in the hierarchy sponsor that you can get can be your direct line manager or head of department head of unit depending on your organization.

But of course, you can reach even further if you have those connections if you're able to um launch those relationships with, for example, members of the board, the president, people in the senior management, these people are enablers, they have some power, they can help you with the visibility.

They will be the one, let's say the company has some budget that was not spent on training. If you have a sponsor, this person in that meeting can say, oh, we have some budget left. Actually, Magda is very interested in agile coaching. Why don't we spend some of this budget for her training needs? And perhaps there will be other people, other suggestions, but your name will be mentioned. They will mention you when there is an occasion to have a promotion or changing a role or all those different opportunities that are there. So sponsors, they're very difficult to get. It requires time. You also, you don't get a sponsor from one day to another, but they are very, very important for you to have that very important ally to pull you up, to make sure that you get the visibility in your organization, that your name is mentioned. When opportunities arise, very important person. Don't worry if you don't have a sponsor yet, if you don't write it on your paper, if you think there are some people that could be good sponsors for you in the future, also write it on the paper. But this is the very important person to have in your network to allow you to grow. And now who's our number two guardian angel, you probably know very well.

And there's been a lot of talks about that da da da da mentor, of course, a mentor, an extremely extremely important person in your network. You can have one close mentor, you can have a few different mentors with whom you casually con uh connect from time to time. Mentors don't have to come from your organizations. They can be internal, they can be external. They are people who are wise, they have a lot of experience. They don't even have to come from the same occupation from the same field as you. But they can help you with those important challenges, obstacles, questions that you might have in your mind. So for example, um if you have two job opportunities, you don't know which one to choose because both of them have advantages. Disadvantages sound interesting what to do.

A mentor can be a person to whom you will go and you would say, listen, like this is what it is. What do you think? What does your experience, your wisdom tells you, how can I come up with the best solution for myself? They will advise you. They will probably ask you some additional questions. They will share their knowledge. But in the end, the decision will always be yours. So don't think about mentors as someone who's gonna tell you what to do and then you do it and everything is great. No, unfortunately, nothing works like that in life. But mentors are people that will be able to show you different perspectives, different angles of the issue, the challenge you're dealing with and also give you very valuable um tips and advice coming from their own experience knowledge.

They accumulated over years. When every time I go to talks with professional women that succeeded when they are asked, what is the most important tip you would give to other women? They always always or very often say get a mentor. So think about the mentor, think about it as a person with whom you have this direct click, you like this person. It could be your mother your granny, someone that you respect that you like that, you can be honest with someone who's gonna be there to help you, to provide you with advice with this wise words that will help you see all the perspectives. Now, for mentors, it's also beneficial to have mentees because they can learn from them as well. You know, it's not just one way street Street, it's a win win situation. Mentors can learn so much from people who are younger than them. You can also support them on their way. So I'll give you an example of my own mentor who's a life coach and an amazing woman who helped me so much, especially in that time when I was pivoting very like soothing my my soul basically. But she is at least 30 years my senior and she's not so technically um savy. So what I did once I gave her a little talk or briefing about how to use linkedin for the best for her.

So I not only learn from her, but I can also help her with some things. And this is the relationship you want to have with a mentor, you want to nourish this relationship and also give something to your mentor because mentors are uh they're giving you your their time, they're sharing their wisdom, but you also have wisdom, you have things that they are not aware of.

So use it as a win win situation and get a mentor or a few casual mentors that you can come from time to time and ask, I have this problem. I have this challenge. What do you think? What would you do? What kind of advice can you give me lessons learned from your own experience? A very, very important, I would say probably the most important guardian angel that you can get in your network. OK. Now we go to number three, which to some extent is a guardian angel. But they also can fit into a next group that I'm going to talk about. These are connectors connectors. We all know those people, right? Connector is a person. You go and say, oh I want to um learn something about, let's say um Python, this person will immediately tell you, oh I know this level. I know this person. Why don't you check this? Uh I can connect you with that and so on. Those people have an amazing ability to connect to keep more than 150 close relationships. I don't know how they do it. I have no clue but they are those kind of people. They have this superpower of knowing everyone very wide network that you can tap into and they are ready to share it with you.

Again, those people can be internal or external, very often, they're actually external and they are the ones that allow you to make the connections for all the other profiles that you might need. But also get all the kind of knowledge that is there to by connecting you with the right people. And I'm sure that each of you met at least one connector. And I'm sure that there are a lot, a lot of connectors today at this conference. So take this opportunity, find them and also become a connector for other people. Because once you become a connector, you are also helping others, you are creating very often valuable collaborations and you're part of it even if you don't take active, if you don't participate actively in it.

So connector is a very important role and it's great. It's like your telephone book. You know, those people, you go to them and then they know um they know basically everything they will know to whom you can go with your specific question, issue problem and so on. So think about it again, I'm encouraging you to take some notes and think, do you already have connectors in your network? Who are they? Who could they be how to get them? Number one Patricia, I would just say it was a sponsor and I hope you're gonna see it in the recording. Uh But connector, remember about that. Very, very important. This is where you'll be able to get to know those other people that have similar interests, passions um connect to get the opportunities to work together. OK. This was all about our guardian angels. And now I'm going to something that I call a knowledge hub. So the knowledge hub are the people who da da, da da have the knowledge that you need. Very simply, I divided them into two categories. One is more general one and this is someone that I just call an expert, an expert is your point of reference for many different topics or um expertise that you want to know about.

If you have a specific question, if there is something that you need to know, you need to find, identify those fields and those experts in those fields that can help you. Uh you need to have many, many or at least several different experts in your network that fit into different types of expertise that really know a lot about that. I will give you again an example from my own journey. So when I decided to pivot my career and from communication, I wanted to move into agile project management. I love the whole philosophy about agile. I read a lot of materials, but I didn't know anyone who was an agile coach. So what I did was basically, I got connected via a connector with a person who's an agile coach. And every time now I have an issue, I, I have some uh I don't know how to, to, to deal with certain things I can call him. I don't do it very often, maybe once a year, but then I call him and I ask, listen, I have this specific problem. What would you advise me? Are there any materials that I can reach? Is there any training that I can do? What is your experience from the past? Those experts?

This person is, has a very deep expertise in agile project management and I can already learn something from him and get those very important sources, advice uh ideas from him of how things can be done because he knows so much more than me. So think about the experts, what kind of expertise you want to uh to, to have, what do you want to develop or what are the things that you know, even sometimes let's say you need a lawyer or someone else that maybe it's not related to what you do in your life, but has the expertise that will be very, very useful for you.

So these people are the wealth of knowledge and it's very, very good to have this relationship with them, to be able to ask them simple or maybe sometimes more complex questions. OK. So expert as such is uh one general um profile that you should definitely look into. But there is one very specific expert that it's very, very good to have in your network. And this person is basically uh the recruiter or an hr specialist. When we talk about um hr specialists and recruiter, I put it together in one group, but there can be actually two different profiles. So for the recruiter, it's quite obvious they are your best friends. When you're changing jobs, they can share information about the job openings that are there. They can also put you on the radar, they can send your CV over even if you maybe don't fit the profile 100%. Almost no one does. But recruiters can be extremely, extremely useful for you to get new, um, opportunities for new jobs. What I did again, going back to my example because that's what I can share with you. That's what I know is when I started pivoting, I was applying for many different jobs without even being called for an interview because I didn't have those skills yet.

But in the meantime, I managed to make some friends with the recruiters and very often it was because I called them while I was applying to ask some additional questions about the job to flag myself so that they would actually look for my CV and the pile of CV S that they received and so on.

And I managed to make some good friends there because sometimes, you know, you start talking about something more personal or something that you have in common or that you like together and so on. And even though I didn't get a job through those recruiters that I met, also, the timing was very bad because I was looking for consultancies at, during COVID times. Very bad timing, but they are still a very relevant part of my network. So I like their um comments or post on linkedin. I sometimes share the job openings that they have to show them. I'm here for you as well. And I know in the future when I will be changing jobs, if I knock to their door, I say, hey, Magda, today is looking for a new job. Do you have anything I know that they will spend this time to flag my profile to others to think where I could fit based on the jobs that they have there. So try to make friends with recruiters because that will be extremely useful for you every time you'll be changing jobs. And they are really nice people. Usually they are extroverted. They are very curious about people.

They have soft skills, that's their job to be able to connect with people, so connect with them. They're really, really, really nice people. I can tell you. Now, another part for recruiters slash hr is the specific expertise in hr policies that it's very, very good to have access to. And here we're talking mostly not so much about recruiters, but people who work in hr departments who know all the legal tips, who understand how the regulation works. I don't know how about you, but I am uh an a migrant, they call it immigrant expert. However, you want to call it, I live in a different country than the country from which II I come from. Meaning I'm not a native speaker, I don't always understand those little regulations. What's possible, what's not in terms of the hr labor regulations and so on having an hr person whom I can ask about things where I think, hm. Is this really like that? Am I, you know, entitled for a recuperation if I worked on weekends? Things like that, it's very, very important to have that and it can be just one person that keep that person close because they know everything, all the changes and regulations that might come that might affect you. They can be extremely useful.

And now another important thing with hr and that unfortunately, very often relates for women are potential issues with sexual harassment, mobbing all those things that are so difficult to go through in an organization. In many cases. When that happens, you will not, you might not feel comfortable to go to your hr person from your organization and say, for example, I I, you know, sexual harassment case you very often there, it is not enough of a safe environment. You don't know what to do, you might feel victimized and so on. And this is where those hr external hr people can be extremely useful. They will explain to you how it works from a legal point of view. They might also share experiences how it works in their organization, what you can and what you should absolutely not do. So think about that because they can be an extremely um important people that can provide you with the specific knowledge about your working conditions, about your well being as well if it's threatened in any way at your work. And another thing, for example, with hr that can be useful, sometimes you might think about changing a job, but you don't want to ask people in your organization, what is your, how many weeks in advance you have to give them the notice or you know what's gonna happen?

What kind of rights do you have? So then again, with all those controversial topics that you don't want to share with hr people in your organization, it's good to have an external friend, contact, close connection from hr with whom you can be open and asked about those important things that are, well, the most important for your, basically for your rights, your working rights as an employee as also freelancer and so on.

What is it, what is a legal framework for you? So, never forget about specifically an expert in hr OK. So this was our knowledge hub. And now I want to go to my favorite, favorite part of the network that we need to have. And I think that you already have quite some people there. And this is something that I call a fun club because in the end, all of us are a star. You know, we all rock, we all have people that admire us that love us, that want the best for us and they can be part of our fun clubs that are so important to feel well and self-confident in our career. So where is your paper? I hope that you will be ready and you already have some ideas who can be the people in your fan club. And I'll start with the one that is more mundane, which is an internal ally. So with work ally and with everything we do, we're all about allyship about women, supporting women, being honest with each other, sharing information, sharing support and it doesn't have to be a woman, but you need to have internal allies in your organization. And here, this is very important.

This is internal, this is a person who works in the same place as you. And this needs to be a person with whom you connect with whom you like, with whom you can easily go for lunch or a drink after work. You know, tell them about things that bother you at work, knowing that you can trust them, that they're not gonna um stab you in your back or tell other people. Magda told me that she's unhappy. You know, you need to have, find that person that can be your ally in those situations where you may be not feeling so well or maybe where you do and you need to have some additional information. This person can help you. These are the people who know ins and outs of your organization they know all the gossips, they know the power dynamics. They know if there is budget or if there is no budget, if the organization is blooming or in crisis, who is, what kind of personality? So they are your informants? And like there's nothing more valuable in your organization than having access to intelligence. Because then you will know is it a good time for me to go to my boss and ask for a promotion? Perhaps the boss is having a very bad period with personal life. Not a good moment.

The internal ally can tell you that because they are gonna know all those things that I mentioned before about the budget, about good bad timing and so on conflict situations, internal ally can be there and has your back, very important person. And now what I wanted also today about say about internal ally is they don't have to be high up in the hierarchy. They are far from being a director or a member of the board. Those people you keep them as your sponsors, maybe mentors, potentially connectors, but mainly mainly sponsors. Internal ally is usually someone who's been in the organization for a very long time and who knows everything. So I would say secretaries a very good first point of reference.

If you're looking for an internal ally, they are very often they meet so many people, they have access to all those emails, agendas of directors, head of departments. And so on and they are very often uh just, you know, normal people with whom you can go for lunch, who are gonna have time for you who are happy to connect with whom you can, you can, you know, nice to them as well and we should be nice to everyone, but they will definitely appreciate that secretaries, personal assistants, those kind of roles.

These are where you can look for internal allies because they will know a lot about the organizational knowledge, everything that is going on there. So think about that and of course, you need to be sure that you can trust them. So it's important that the information you share with them, it's not gonna be forwarded to everyone else, maybe, you know, especially with your name on that. So it needs to be a trusted source of intelligence in your company. You can think about it a little bit as if you are a spy in a, you know, James Bond movie or something. It's maybe a funny um metaphor. But basically these are, these are the, the, the informants, the people that will share the intelligence that is so important for you to make sure that you are in the right in the right place. And now number seven, the last one, but very, very important we're going to a cheerleader, cheerleader is as you see, there is not even any text because we all know what cheerleaders are and what they do. They are your friends. They are people that cheerer for you that support you that want all the best that can happen for you. These are the people to whom you can go when you have a problem, when you feel down or something went wrong. When you feel like, oh my God.

You know, I'm not good at it. I will never be able to get this job. Cheerleaders are there to tell you. You're amazing. You did all those things, don't forget about your successes. Come on, you can do it. And it's extremely, extremely important to have cheerleaders. It's because they're gonna put you in this positive mindset and because, uh, our brain just works like that. It works in this way that if we think we can achieve, if we can do something, we have a better chance of actually achieving it. And that's why looking into this, you know, um, well, sometimes, maybe even with pink glasses, but having this person that's gonna tell you all the best things about you yourself. It's extremely important. And then with cheerleaders, there's also another thing coming with that, which is cheerleaders are usually, it can be your family, it can be your friends. They don't have to work with you. They can be doing something completely different, being on ad in a different country. It doesn't matter, but they are close with close enough with you to be also a truth teller because we are just humans and sometimes, you know, we might be biased ourselves or feel bad or, I don't know, make maybe are about to make a wrong choice. So they can also use be your truth tellers. They're gonna show you a mirror and say magda, ok, listen, maybe this time you should rethink that. Maybe you're not looking at all the perspectives.

Maybe part of the problem is you and I know it's sometimes difficult to take, but it's easier to take it from your friends from the people that cheer from you on a daily basis anyway. And that you can trust them. They don't compete with you. They are not in your organization. It's very, very useful to have those cheerleaders and of course, to be a cheerleader for them because everything I'm telling you here, it's not just, you know, take and never give the networking and especially for us as women, it's about long term relationships when we take.

But we also give a lot. So be a cheerleader to your cheerleaders, be a cheerleader to yourself and never forget the importance of having that crowd that is there to show you how wonderful you are and help you boost your self-confidence. And now these are the seven principal people. So I hope you already put some names on your paper or maybe some ideas of who could those people be. And before we finish, because we have very little time, it was very short. I just wanted to tell you another important thing, which is the inner circle of 323 other women, sometimes more. There are studies that show that for women being part in this, I call it the witch circle. But having circle of other women is extremely beneficial for their career.

More women, women who have those internal circles are more likely to achieve executive positions and also higher pay because they work as a pack together. And what does it mean? It means, you know, we all know there is so much um there is so much unconscious bias about women, the discrimination that we uh we we experience on a daily basis if you have other women with whom you can talk about it, with whom you can find the best ways of dealing with it.

This is something that is gonna help you progress in your career and be less bitter and be more into ok together, we can do it and then again, with work all like this is exactly what we want to do. We want to provide this platform for women to meet, to talk about those issues, to talk about discrimination, you know, sexist remarks and how we can deal with it to make it's better for ourselves to deal with that in the best manner to actually still achieve what we want to achieve.

So remember, this is a scientific study. I can actually send you just after that. I'm gonna send it now. Wow. Everything works. Here is a link to an article exactly about that about why women supporting other women are more successful. So think about that and of course, this can be also your cheerleaders. And now as I said, this is just, you know, for you to, to, to sink in this information, women are crucial for each other's career development. Without other women, we'll have a much bigger problem with getting to the top. If you're just one single person, it's gonna be much more complicated than if you have the support group of other women who are in the same situation as you. So never underestimate that. And now at the end, we have five minutes, three minutes left, I wanted to see if you have those people, you can put them on your list and this should be your starting point for making your network even stronger even better. So think about who are the people you already have, which of those profiles you don't have yet and who could potentially be those people. And as we all know, I know it's extremely difficult to from one day to another to completely change your network and connect with all those people. I had exactly the same problem when I was finishing work at the commission, I had 300 connections on linkedin.

Now I have many, many more because I came out from my comfort zone and started proactively connect with people, ask them about things and that help. So remember, the first step is the most challenging and the mastery comes with practice. If you connect with one another person, you get a few cheerleaders may be an internal ally. Eventually, it will be much easier for you to get to that sponsor who's so complicated to take. And now for the very, very last um slide for today and then I'll leave you for some questions. I'll leave some space is an action that I would like you to take today. And this action is to start working on your network today, meaning please connect with each other on linkedin. I saw that some of you are already putting your linkedin here, do that, connect with each other and make as many meaningful connection at this conference as you can and schedule at least one coffee call with someone from this conference today. This is gonna help you to, to be more open and make it easier for you to connect with other people in the future. And this is a safe environment, women who want to help each other. So take the best out of it and use this opportunity.

And I am also putting my linkedin account. I'm always very happy to connect with all of you. As I said, I was exactly here as a participant two years ago and here I am now sharing my experience, so extremely happy to uh to share with you more and stay in touch and if you want, this is just a little bit about. Um Basically, if you want to, to connect with work ally, this is our website and linkedin and we will be trying to connect and help women even more support each other. So, thank you for this. I think my time is uh out uh uh in one minute, but I just wanted to see if there are any final comments that are questions that you have before we finish this um this call here. So I see that you're all connecting with linkedin. Very, very good, very happy. Thank you, Ludmila. I'm happy that you like this session. And um yes, let me know if you have any questions, if there's anything I can help you with, with making, you know, taking those first steps into a rich health, healthy network that will help other women and that will help you to make the best out of it.

Remember together, we are much more strong. So we are stronger together and we should take advantage of that. Ok? I see you're still sending linkedin um um links to each other. Very good. Don't forget to schedule this coffee with at least one woman. Ask her what she's doing how you can help each other, you know, inspire each other. Be those cheerleaders, you know, that will tell each other you're amazing. You're doing this thing and wow, this is so important for us to be more self-confident and reach for more. Thank you all. I think it's time for me to stop sharing because I think the time is up and I don't know if the, what do you think of having more people in one person? Yes, this is a very good question and very relevant. And I definitely, if you can have more people in each of those roles, do it, do it, especially for experts. Very important cheerleaders. Um, very, very good with some. It's gonna be more complicated with sponsors. It's difficult to get one sponsor. But if you can have two or three or five, it's even better, the more the better. So when I say seven people in your network, it's at least seven people, but mostly it's seven profiles. I would like to ask how to find the best mentor, what things to consider. I think there are also called um different talks about that. So I'm not going to go into details, but I think the most important thing is your inner compass.

You know, if you feel that click that with that person, if you think like, wow, it's so nice to talk to her. She inspires me. She shares some kind of she or he shares the knowledge, the wisdom that speaks to me. This is your mentor and don't be shy if you feel that, you know, if you feel that spark between you ask, hey, can you be my mentor? I'm not going to take a lot of your time. But let's connect from time to time with each other that can be extremely useful. There are also a lot of programs either in your organization or uh private groups. I know that women in tech are also organizing mentoring uh programs where you can apply to have a mentor. These are all those things that can be useful. But I think the most important is meet that person and see if the connection is there because it has to be an emotional connection as well. Ok? Any further questions, the best mentors in people that were not trying to teach me something. But when talking, I was learning a lot. Exactly, mentors are not there to tell you, you know how it is and, and treat you in this way that you're inferior. And I know everything this is it. Mentors are people that want to nourish you that want to tell you what they did without telling you, you have to do it as well. We're all very different.

And I always say, you know, if you're a fish, you will never be a monkey. So if your mentor is a monkey, he can't really or she can't really help you because you are different people, you are different um personalities. So in the end with a mentor, you always need to do what is right for you. But they can show you all those other perspectives, they can share lessons learned, the mistakes, they made in the past so that you don't have to make the same mistakes. OK? I see that Simon. Thank you very much. It's putting all the uh all the, the, the profiles I've talked about. I will just very quickly. Maybe if we have time, I don't know, I will go here and here. You have all the seven profiles sponsor, mentor, connector, internal ally, expert recruiter slash hr expert cheerleader. And never forget about the, the the support that you can get from women. Pacs. Thank you, Mary is also doing that. Perfect. How do you recognize these seven people's simple yet, most complicated question. Indeed. Very complicated question. And again, gut feeling is something that can help you talking with them with experts. It's easy. You can see it on their profiles, linkedin wherever these are who they are, but with others, it might be a little bit more complicated. Recruiters are also easy, but you need to see, you know, give it time, develop, establish that relationship and see where it takes you.

Whether it is possible if someone has all those connections, are they ready to share it with you or not? If they're not, they can be your connector. So uh you're gut feeling and I'm sure you're gonna do. Great. Thank you everyone. I think I should be leaving now because there is another talk coming. It was a pleasure and I'm very happy to connect with all of you. All the best luck and women are stronger together. Remember about that? Thank you.