promoting professional geekery

Promoting Professional Geekery #50 – Get Others To Follow Your Lead

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(For more Promoting Professional Geekery, see this Roundup of past columns.)

And we come to the end of the series.  Yes, my challenge was to see if I could come up with as many ways possible to promote professional geekery.  What’s terrifying is that I’m ending it at 50.  I have more, but those will come in the future.

And this one of the final things you can do to promote professional geekery, the love of turning meekness into a career.  That is . . .

. . . get other to get involved.

You’re connecting with all sorts of progeeks, all sorts of people like you (if not as good looking and charming).  All of them have stories, all of them have tales, just like you.

Some of them, probably most of them, have experience and information to share that differf from yours, perhaps radically.  Each of them can make a unique contribution different from you.  You just need to prod them.

So get them to do all the things in this list.  Get them to work cons or write books or whatever.  Spread the word – and show them how easy it is with the examples from your own life!

Give them the list from this series for that matter.  There has to be something in there they can and want to do.

Done right this spreads the word even more.  They support progeeks.  They tell others the idea . . .

So there you go.  50 different ideas.  Start today and find a way to promote professional geekery!

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach for professional and potentially professional geeks, fans, and otaku. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/

 

Promoting Professional Geekery #49 – Be A Role Model

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(For more Promoting Professional Geekery, see this Roundup of past columns.)

It’s time to share your progeeky successes with people.  You need to tell people how you made it

Why would you do this, beyond sharing your own awesomeness?  That’s simple:

  1. You’ll be a role model, which I’ve noted is very important.  When people see someone and know they’re successful, they find it easier to emulate them.
  2. You’ll be inspirational.  People need to see being a professional geek can work.
  3. You’ll be educational.  If you can give detailed descriptions of what you did right and how you did it, people can learn.
  4. You’ll be a reminder that success is possible.  Believe me, people need that.

What format? So what’s the best way to do it?  That kind of depends on what’s best for you.  Among these columns I’ve suggested the value of blogs, books, guides, etc.  The best thing I’ve found is to:

  1. Pick a format that makes it work.  What method works best to share your success stories?
  2. Pick a format that works for you.  After all some methods just aren’t for you.
  3. Pick a format that reaches people.  This is one reason I like blogs is they’re around for a long time if you pay your server bills.

How should I do it?  This is actually simple – make sure you share your success story in ways that people can actually follow in your footsteps and apply your lessons.  This means:

  1. List how you did it, what you did, what you did wrong, and what you did right.  Let them see your path so they can duplicate it.
  2. Always, always include cause-and-effect when possible so people see how (and what) results should follow.
  3. Include resources you used so people no what to use.
  4. Include “Takeaways” and “To dos” to inspire people to action.

What about my ego?  If you’re worried you look like an egomaniac, then make sure your work keeps the audience in mind first.  Ask how you help them, what you can do for them, how this can pay off for them. It puts them in he foreground, your ego in the background, and you can stop worrying.

I’m sure you’ve got plenty of successes to share.  Get to it!

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach for professional and potentially professional geeks, fans, and otaku. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/

 

 

 

 

 

Promoting Professional Geekery #48 – Use Your Progeeky Viewpoint On Geeky Events

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(For more Promoting Professional Geekery, see this Roundup of past columns.)

Geek events are great for careers – they let you attend career events, network, etc.  You know I’m a big backer of going progeek at conventions and more.  I kind of write about it obsessively.

But there’s also a way to help people who do the events to make it pay off for their career no matter what they do.

That may sound odd – after all running a Hetalia game contest or a panel on the history of Star Trek may not sound that professional.  But it’s really all in perspective – you can help people see the professional potential in what they do.

See, running a con, running a fannish event, running a club, takes a lot of skills and abilities.  A lot of events are like businesses, or seminars, or other supposedly “professional” things.  The experiences of doing them could be valuable to careers – as long as people know how to leverage them and portray them to clients and employers.

That’s where you come in with this professionally geeky potential – helping people see the opportunities.

See you, the progeek, can look at these events and help people realize how to use them.  It just takes a little perspective, training your eye to see the opportunities out there.  For instance:

  • If people work together at a well-run con, they should act as references for each other.  It’s literally like working together.
  • People who do specific geeky events should put their skills on their resumes (and note their hobbies in more details).
  • Geeks who publish various progeeky/geeky things should put them on their resumes, LinkedIn profiles, use samples, etc.

You can probably think of many more opportunities right now just looking at that list.  For that matter, you can probably think of a few friends who should be sprucing up their resumes right about now.

This is because you have the experience to see the professional, and thus progeeky potential in people.  So start taking that unique viewpoint into fannish groups, cons, gaming teams, and more.  Start looking for the professional potential – and helping people realize it.

It’s all around you.  Trust me, I know . . .

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach for professional and potentially professional geeks, fans, and otaku. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/