Despite the Snow, Others Were Likeminded This Morning

This Friday was as good a day as any to try likemind ny today. Little did I know that it would snow the day before Spring. Oh well. And being a non-Ne Yorker, I did not take the right subway and had to walk in the snow and cold. But once I got there, I got a large latte and settled into the corner of a family style table, along with 10 or so likeminded folks. As the morning went along, more came and went.

I have to admit, I was a little nervous. I am not the greatest schmoozer and often find that I don't have what it takes to talk the talk like others, especially planners, do. But I found this morning was good, even great.

I did drag a friend, which always make life easier. A good friend who recently lost her job at a small package design agency in the city. I thought to myself last night 'perfect opportunity for BOTH of us to network,' her for new gigs, me to meet and try this likemind thing. It was nice to have a partner-in-crime.

We actually had a nice discussion, the two of us, that coincidentally dovetailed into a few of the conversations we had. She's been doing a lot of thinking about her future, not surprisingly. She, like me, has a love of design, interiors and architecture. And through her recent work realized her interest in research. Plus, her background is branding, so to combine all these things into one new career was her recent epiphany. Like being a retail psychologist/sociologist. We talked a lot about that, and how my company is trying to forge ahead in the land of retail marketing. I talked to a number of people about that - as I said earlier, coincidentally - and even got a few names of organizations for her.

But I realized something through this likemind thing: talking to people helps me understand what I do. How weird is that?! Like I need to talk to others outside where I work/what I do in order to make sense of what I do. Or more straight to the point, what I HOPE to do. But that's for another day. I need to go to more things like likemind - talking to people, hearing what they have to say, listening to others stories, how they got to where they are. All of this is helpful for me to find my voice, for me to understand what I can bring to the table, what my value is.

As you can tell from recent postings, understanding and defining my value is the struggle that I am going through. It's a journey, and today likemind was a good experience to help me along this quest.

Thanks Noah, for seeing that, and bringing it to more people.