Learning how to Lead with Intention: The 2022 Annual Purdue Women’s Conference (4 of 4)
On June 9-10 I had the privilege to attend the Purdue Alumni Network’s Annual Women’s conference. Organized and hosted by Purdue for Life, the overarching goal is to motivate, uplift and connect.
This year’s conference, held at the Alexander Hotel in downtown Indianapolis, focused on wellness and growth in both our personal and professional lives: in no particular order, I am going to dive into my main takeaways.
TAKEAWAY 4: Growing as a business owner
In addition to keynote speeches, conference attendees were able to attend four breakout sessions to dive deeper into areas of interest. I’ve collected bits of information from all these sessions in hopes of sharing what I found to be the most helpful as a new business owner.
Developing a personal branding strategy: This can be a simple exercise or an entire job, depending on your goals. My main takeaways? Find what makes you unique and run with it. It’s important to know what people associate you with and be sure that it matches who you want to be. How do you want to be known? What words do you want people to use when they describe you? Everything you do should embody these words, and when people hire you, it should be for these reasons. They can hire any consultant, why should it be YOU.
Not sure where to start on your own or how to take your business to the next level? Don’t recreate the wheel, work with what you’ve got. You can always improve on a skill, elevate an existing process, or turn a hobby into an opportunity. Had a great coworker? Use that relationship. Had a favorite project? Explore what made it work and why. Take your experiences and talents and turn them into what makes you unique and desirable.
What is your zone of genius? Meaning: Where do your experiences, passions and skills align. How can you use those criteria to find your niche and set your goals? When your passions and your skills meet the needs of others-not only will you be happy, but you can offer something that will help others (that they’ll pay for) and will make them happy too.
Set a path, not a goal. Emmanual Acho once said “if you set a goal, you just might reach it”. If you set an objective of growth, instead of a single goal, you can constantly check with yourself to see how you are progressing, and modify your plans to continue to evolve. If you have an end-goal, then your journey ends!
Keep connecting. Whether that means liking a LinkedIn post, attending a lunch + learn, or saying hello at a corporate happy hour, every “touch” is one more time that someone will remember your name, and a chance at a new opportunity. As a designer with limited business experience, the idea of “business development” can be daunting. Taking baby steps, like a share on social media, can be an easy way to start building that network!
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This concludes the “leading with intention” series…I hope the reflections I’ve shared can help you grow and learn as much as they’ve helped me!
Got a question? Want to work together? Reach out!
