Issue #6

This week's AI prompt: social network, globe, connected nodes, techie, illustration

Here’s your Issue #6! Spooky season is just around the corner 🎃 which means it’s the best time of the year for those of us who like a little scare (Jay). As for Zi...

Thanks to Fauzal Rizki for inspiring Issue #5’s Cynefin Framework overview and how to tackle ‘unknown unknowns’. If you have a topic that you’d like us to cover in our newsletter, reply to this email! We’d love to hear your feedback.

If you like our content, please share this with your friends / team! 🤓

And Happy Diwali to our friends who celebrate! 🪔

WHAT'S INSIDE

• 🌟 Build a strong, meaningful network both within your organization, and externally

• 🛎 Use the Eisenhower Principle, or the Importance-Urgency Matrix, to make sure you give your mind to the things that matter — and not to the busy work

• 🔎 Lead investments for the world’s largest crypto exchange, drive enablement solutions for a leading HR startup, and other great opportunities in the Jobs section

• 🔥 Which site started as a joke over 20 years ago and ended up giving rise to Web 2.0 and tech giants like Facebook and Youtube? The answer might surprise you!

A DEEPER DIVE: THE ART OF BUILDING CONNECTIONS

So, we’re not sure when it happened but networking has earned a bad rap. The word itself conjures up images of awkward forced small talk over crappy wine with a bunch of people wearing “Hello I’m x” name tags, disinterestedly exchanging business cards while they scan the room for the next person to talk to. And then, months later, out-of-the-blue you get that classic “I’d like to pick your brain” email 🤦🏽‍♀️

BUT - if done right, cultivating a good network has many many benefits. We’ve found a couple of articles with great tips on how to build long lasting connections, and how to add mutual value. Remember: give more than you take. And nurture it before you need it.

How to become insanely well-connected

What it's about: Chris Fralic is a Board Partner at First Round Capital, a guest lecturer at several top business schools, and was part of the team that helped start TEDTalks. Fralic shares how to be a genuine and highly-connective networker, how to propel your career forward with each interaction (while doing the same for others), do’s and don’ts for engaging influencers in your industry, and moving forward from that first touch point into a connection that has mutual purpose and positive impact. 

TLDR / Key Takeaways

• Make memorable connections: People can tell when you’re disinterested. Convey genuine appreciation, listen with intent, and end every meeting or conversation with the feeling and optimism you’d like to have at the start of your next conversation with the person

• Mini dossiers: If you’re headed into a meeting or event, and want to make a good impression on certain people, do a bit of research around them. But remember - fine line between being informed vs. creepy. Don’t reference an Instagram photo from 5 years ago 😑

• Create a dream contact list: Fralic recommends founders include a slide in their board decks that show the five most likely acquirers of their business, and what they’ve done to further those relationships since the last board meeting. And it’s not just for founders - when he was in the computer reselling business, he had a dream list of people at the top of his industry that he wanted to learn from, and actively set out to connect with them.

• Craft low-lift requests: When you’re asking for an introduction, send a forwardable email to make life easier for the person you’re requesting the intro from. And when you’re the one intro’ing others, always, always do a double opt-in.

• Follow up and follow through: This will go a long way to cementing your reputation as a reliable person

• Create a system for keeping in touch: Organize your contact list with updated information, and set a reminder for every 3,6, and 12 months to reach out to them

If you’d like to go deeper, check out this article by Mike Steib, the former CEO of XO Group (The Knot, The Bump) on how to build a meaningful network. He categorizes networks into four concentric circles: Unfamiliar, Familiar, Intimate, and Meaningful, and shares how to navigate each one. 

Networking sucks - so do this instead

What it's about: Karen Wickre joined a startup called Google in 2002 at the age of 51 (there you go people who are ageist about startups), and then went on to become the editorial director at Twitter. When it comes to networking, most people think externally. This article delves into how execs can build better networks internally, and expand their influence within an organization.

TLDR / Key Takeaways

• Become a convener: Inviting people to something is a great way to connect with them. Start a cross-team happy hour, or host sessions where you bring in outside guests for a lunch-and-learn. One of the things we loved doing when we lived in Singapore was hosting dinners or weekend wine and cheese sessions with startup people. Even as digital nomads (currently in Mexico City), we find opportunities to pull together like-minded people for food, drinks, or excursions.

• Spread knowledge: When you attend workshops or conferences, take some notes and share that with your organisation. If you don’t already have an internal wiki, consider setting up one!

• Skip level meetings: As an exec, you’re probably interacting with your direct reports and your bosses. Start having “skip-level” meetings with more junior team members and connect with people across teams. It doesn’t have to be formal - a 30 minute coffee meeting will do.

MENTAL MODEL OF THE WEEK: IMPORTANCE-URGENCY MATRIX

Don’t you hate when a whole week goes by and you feel like you have nothing to show for it? Whether it’s because you were stuck in meetings that led to nowhere, or you had to scramble when an unexpected ‘fire drill’ put you on your back foot, it’s always tough to know if you’re prioritizing the right things. Let’s talk about the Importance-Urgency Matrix, and how you can use it focus on the most impactful tasks at hand.

In a 1954 speech, former U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower said: "I have two kinds of problems: the urgent and the important. The urgent are not important, and the important are never urgent." While there are in fact some things that are both urgent and important, the general sentiment still holds. This "Eisenhower Principle" is said to be how the former president organized his workload and priorities, and has served as an example for business professionals ever since.

For: Prioritization

What is it: A system of decision making to manage ourselves against our own priorities and expectations

When it’s used: Work and team tasks, individual / personal tasks

When it’s NOT used: When there’s room for misalignment in the definition of “important” or “urgent” (which might occasionally be the case with your romantic partner… 👀) tread carefully 😅

First, let’s start with some definitions:

• Important activities are proactive and drive outcomes that lead to us achieving our goals. When you’re thinking about what’s important, consider Jeff Bezos’s “Regret Minimization Framework” to see how important that activity really is. If you not doing that activity or task won’t lead to any major feelings of regret later, it might not be that important.

• Urgent activities are reactive and demand immediate attention. These are often associated with achieving someone else's goals. Urgent activities have near-term deadlines because the consequences of not dealing with them are immediate. If you’re not sure if something is truly urgent, consider the repercussions of delaying it - if there’s no major consequence, perhaps it’s not urgent.

Now let’s break down the quadrants:

Quadrant 1 (Q1) - Important and Urgent. These are things that must be done, and must be done in a hurry, so prioritize them. Often these take the form of crises, such as finishing a client project, handling conflict between team members, or rectifying a partnership deal gone bad. Caution: too much stuff in this quadrant is a recipe for burnout! Take a look at what’s in this quadrant for you and how it ended up there in the first place. Over time, try to reduce the number of items that surface in Q1 by properly addressing them in Q2 before they become urgent.

Quadrant 2 (Q2) - Important and Not Urgent. Because there’s no time risk for Q2 activities, they are easy to procrastinate on. Q2 activities might be upkeep activities such as those that pertain to your physical or mental health, daily planning, or networking (see how we stayed on-theme? 😉). Be sure to schedule these into your days and weeks so you don’t let them slip and transform into Q1 monsters 🧟‍♂️ (yep, we also threw in a Halloween reference for good measure).

Quadrant 3 (Q3) - Not Important and Urgent. Q3 tasks tend to be draining or time consuming, largely because you’re not the best person for the job. If there is urgent work to be done that doesn’t require your specific skills, empower your team to assist with them or look for ways to automate these tasks away. Even if it seems like these are tasks you could do, take a hard look at them and see if they really are things you should do. Trust your team, trust your tech, save your sanity.

Quadrant 4 (Q4) - Not Important and Not Urgent. Q4 makes me think of the “Squirrel” scene from the movie “Up” - pure distraction. Just like that dog, we often confuse activities in Q4 as belonging in one of the other quadrants (i.e. we classify them as important and/or urgent when they’re really neither). If you have activities that are not important for your goals and aren’t urgently solving a problem, they are definitely in the clutter quadrant. Now, there is still room for some not important and not urgent activities: maybe you aren’t interested in a certain movie but you still go see it with friends anyway, or you decide to indulge in some junk food knowing that it’ll make tomorrow’s gym sesh a little tougher. You’ve gotta live a little. Just be sure not to take on things in your work or personal life that leave you feeling remorseful, or give you the illusion of keeping busy. Declutter Q4 and keep it Marie Kondo clean - if it’s not important, not urgent, and not bringing you joy, scrap it 🗑!

Additional resource: Marie Kondo's methods at work

YOUR NEXT STRIDE

We’ve streamlined the Jobs section to make it more scannable. Here are our 5 top jobs of the week!

• Vice President, Investment, Binance Labs Binance. Binance Labs is the VC and Accelerator arm of Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange by volume. Role will be responsible for identifying new investment opportunities in the blockchain and cryptocurrency ecosystem 📍Global, Remote

• Vice President, Global Customer Operations Eventbrite. Global self-service ticketing and experience technology platform. Role will manage all of the operations functions across Eventbrite. Listed NYSE:EB 📍US, Remote

• Director, Omnichannel Customer Experience Glossier. Digital-first beauty company. Series E. Total Funding: $266M. Investors include Lone Pine Capital, Index Ventures, and Thrive Capital. 📍New York

• Director, Enablement Rippling. Employee management platform that manages payroll, benefits, HR, and IT. Role will own vision and strategy for enablement across product lines. Series D. Total Funding: $697M. Backed by investors like Kleiner Perkins, Sequoia Capital, and Bedrock.📍San Francisco

• Head of Professional Services Searchlight. Predictive talent platform that helps companies hire better. Series A. Total Funding: $19.5M. Backed by Accel, Shasta, Kapoor Capital, and Operator Collective. 📍San Francisco

OFF HOURS

Wellness 🏅

Jay starts each day by adding a functional mushroom supplement in his coffee for general health & wellness. This Beginners Guide to Mushrooms helps explain what compounds like “beta glucans”, “triterpenes”, and “sterols” are and what they do for your body and mind. Some types of mushrooms can even help your dog! 🐶

Watch 

Our Great National Parks Move over Attenborough. Narrated by Barack Obama, this series offers stunning visuals (much like BBC’s Planet Earth), and reminds us just how beautiful our world is 🌍

Read 📚

The Psychology of Money: Timeless Lessons on Wealth, Greed, and Happiness by Morgan Housel. With markets the way they are 😩, this is a pretty good read right now.

Listen 🎧

Need to work? Time to chill? LoFi Girl on Youtube or Spotify has the perfect compilation of music to help you find your zen state. The channel’s nearly 12 million subscribers agree!

RANDOM BUT INTERESTING

This section is going to feature one material a week that we found interesting - but couldn’t really fit it in anywhere else. You can think of it as coming down the rabbit hole of curiosity with us just because — or fodder / anecdotes for your next speech 🤷🏽‍♀️

Is this what shaped the social web?!

If you remember the early days of the internet, you probably also remember Hot or Not. The site was founded 22 years ago (3 years before Myspace), and some believe it to be the precursor to Web 2.0.

The premise was simple: users uploaded a photo of themselves, and other people from all across the web would submit a 1-10 score on their physical attractiveness. Now, one can certainly debate the merits - or ethics - of crowdsourcing anonymous ratings of people’s physical features (and, to the founders’ credit, they did intentionally exclude conventions like comment sections and forums to prevent cyberbullying), but looking back at it now, Hot or Not was a fascinating window into very early user generated content and social interaction online. Several multi-billion dollar tech businesses including Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and Tinder all took a ton of inspiration from Hot or Not 🤯.

SHARE THE LOVE

That’s all for this week. Have a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ week ahead!

If you've liked what you've read, share with your friends - https://stride-newsletter.beehiiv.com/ ✨

 👋🏽

​Jay & Zi