Hi <<First Name>>,
November already? Really?
Last month I became a Canadian citizen, turned 30 years old and quit my day job for the second time this year to try to start my own venture.
Thanks to The Strength Of Weak Ties, I managed to cross paths with two very experienced entrepreneurs who were looking for a third person to execute their latest idea with. I'm thrilled to have the opportunity and have already learned so much. That's it! That was the cliffhanger of last month's newsletter!
I have to admit, quitting my day job for the second time was much easier. After failing miserably with my own product idea in March/April in the dead of COVID-19, I'm ready to dust myself off and try again.
I still feel like an imposter every day, but I've come up with a good way to fight this syndrome. Combine equal parts of:
For the latter, becoming a mentor for the UBC Lab2Launch entrepreneurship program has helped. I get to use my product management expertise to add value to young entrepreneurs starting their own early ventures.
Other than fighting the imposter syndrome, I've been expanding my LinkedIn network as much as humanly possible. This means that I've read through hundreds of people's LinkedIn profiles. I've discovered that there are two types of LinkedIn profiles:
I then decided to re-vamp my own LinkedIn profile to make it more results-driven, because frankly, nobody really cares what you're "fascinated by" or "have a strong passion for". They care about what you've succeeded in doing in the past, and what your specific skillset is.
I'd encourage you to take another look at your LinkedIn profile and see if you can improve it in that way. I'm no expert, but always happy to provide feedback if you need it!
Lastly, here are some cool things I've found on the internet over the last few weeks:
Salesforce came up with a new platform called Einstein Designer that will automate design processes.
My Twitter friend Preetam Nath wrote an excellent blog post called Lessons learned from growing 27 years young. Lesson #2 was my favourite.
My father sent me this hilarious video of a Dad outsmarting his daughter and it made me really miss my Dad.
That's all I got for now! I hope you learned something or at least were entertained for 2 minutes.
Anyway, how have you been? What have you been working on that's exciting (or daunting)? I'd love to hear about your world!
Stay safe.
Lena