Interview_MG | networking-nerds

Long time educator shares her passion for effective communication and her role in developing a networking “curriculum” for her upcoming book about achieving success in the video game industry.

ME: Tell me a little bit about yourself and how you got involved with the website Networking Nerds?

MICHELLE: (laughs) How long do you have?

ME: Forever.

MICHELLE: I have almost seventeen years experience at the University where Rob and I both work. I came aboard first in 1997 and was hired as a course director to teach the game design fundamentals course that had not been launched yet. I was hired about eighteen months prior the launch so I was part of the initial creation and build up of the curriculum; all the early brainstorming and course description writing. Now I don’t come from the video game industry and didn’t have any game titles under my belt. My history was I had a position at Rollin’s college as the assistant director of writing programs—my educational background being psychology and writing. I basically ran the writing resource center there and I trained fifty-plus undergraduate students, who helped other students improve their writing. I had an adjunct professor approach me and say, “Hey we need a writing teacher at Full Sail,” and at first I was like, “What is that?” (laughs) But I wound up joining in 1997 like I said and during my career there have had my fingers in the mix of many degree programs, spanning several fields in entertainment technology, and was able to found an English department as well. Eventually I came to know Rob Coble. He and I struck it off when he first came to the school a few years back. Because he was going to serve as a liaison between our game development students and the video game industry he wanted to get a good taste of what their experience was so he literally sat in my class as a student for a whole month and we built a friendship from that point forward. He knows how incredibly passionate I am about Soft Skill Development and how important it is to cultivate those skills in students alongside all their technological skill development. Overtime we just had conversations about it and I said, “Hey we need to do some kind of additional work shops for students and even staff outside of the regular curriculum routine so we can get a little more education on the soft skill front.” He got super excited about that so a few years ago we developed what we call Networking Boot Camps. They run three weeks in a row, one each week for three hours in the evening. So we launched those together and they were greatly successful. In fact, after our first session we realized we had totally broken all fire hazard rules. It was quite impressive to see how many people took the content of networking and being a strong communicator seriously and that lead us to start brainstorming that perhaps we should craft a book and… yeah I guess that’s how it came about.

ME: Can you tell us a little more about your role in the development of the book, Professional Skills for the Digital Age?

MICHELLE: The book basically started with Rob doing a mind dump of all his experience over the last several years; being a leader in the career development department, assisting students with building resumes, improving their interviewing skills, and connecting with folks at conferences and social media. He scribed all of that and then handed it off to a gentleman, James Gregory, for editing and organization. My role in the book is I will take what James creates and I will imbed reflective thinking and tangible action exercises, humorous antidotes, and storytelling components into the text. That way the reader can not only better digest the points and suggestions we’re making, but can also put them into action because that’s the most important aspect of what we’re covering. You can talk all day about networking and you’re going to get everyone in the room nodding their heads and agreeing with you because at a fundamental level we get that it’s important, but the hard part is figuring out what to actually do today right now. How can I improve my networking skills this minute? So the little steps and exercises that I provide are those tangible actions the reader can put into place. That’s pretty much my role and when Rob and I do these sessions together that’s how we operate. He brings ideas and a wealth of experience, I craft the content and imbed the activities, and together we role it out and present it. We’re a good little group and I’m really excited to see the book get published.

ME: A large part of the book is focused on teaching networking and getting people comfortable with the thought of putting themselves out there. Was developing ways to teach those concepts hard?

MICHELLE: Yes, one of the greatest challenges we have is people thinking they already know how to network. What I mean by that is we’re dealing with skills that basically are put in place at a very young age. Believe it or not we have all our social skill development defined in us by the age of eight. From a very young age we begin developing habits that we take with us into adulthood about how to deal with social situations. So people come into this thinking, “Well, I already know how to get along with people. I have friends, I get along with my family, I get my stuff done, and I meet my goals.” A lot of folks come into it with the idea that they already know how to handle their lives and by no means is our approach to this, “Hey, you’re wrong, you don’t know how to behave appropriately.” What we’re saying is that we are all at a point where we kind of get it. We understand that it takes conversations and listening; it takes being nice and sharing, and all the kindergarten (laughs) rules we learned in order to be effective in our professions and our personal lives. But how do we actually do that? What can be done that proves we’re doing the best we can? That’s our approach: Are you doing the best you can? So what we do is try to open people’s eyes to how they’re currently operating. We offer reflective exercises that force you to think about how you are being perceived by others when engaging in a conversation with people or when typing an email. When you’re walking down the hall are you starring at your feet or are you looking at the faces passing you and offering some type of greeting? We do this reflective work so we can have a general idea of the landscape of our own personalities and then begin questioning where can we improve? The best way to do that is to set goals for what you want to accomplish. We start very small because one of the things a lot of people don’t realize is the easiest way to accomplish large goals is to first set up a series of smaller ones. They don’t have to be much, just little things you are able to check off a list and every time you are able to accomplish something you’ll have a surge of confidence at the realization of your own potential. Accomplishing those smaller goals naturally gets people excited and they naturally start looking forward to checking off the next goal on their list. That’s what I’m talking about when I say creating tangible actions for people. Putting the little stones into place so you have something to step on. First you’re kind of tip toeing on them because there’s not a lot, but the more you work the larger the stones get and the sturdier your path will become. Things will begin to become second nature to you.

ME: That is so true. Everyone comes in with an idea of what networking is supposed to be and sometimes those ideas can be based on misconceptions. I actually read an article in the Wall Street Journal that advised people to stop networking and start making friends instead. On the other hand some people think networking is only for extroverts. Do you find yourself having to work on breaking down these misconceptions first before you can make progress?

MICHELLE: Yes, one of the first things I do is ask, “What is networking?” I’ll get a lot of head nodding and hands raised. So then I ask, “Okay, so what does it mean?” Often times we only get the general sense of a word and the answers I get are that networking just means being good to the people around you. Yes, that’s a component of it, but to truly break down what the word means you need to look at the behaviors that go along with it. There are a lot of specific actions and behaviors, which support the word. So I ask, “What is networking?” I’ll get a variety of different answers and sometimes I do get the standard typical response—you shake hands, you meet someone—it’s a way of introducing yourself. You know I hear a lot of things that are definitely benefits and outcomes of networking, but at its root true networking means that you are aware of your behaviors and employ refined behaviors in moments when you need them. When you go to an interview you are going to pull a certain set of behaviors out of your toolbox in order to make the impression you want. It’s not being someone else, acting fake, or being someone you’re not. It’s about using those skills in those given situations. Many times people think networking is when someone comes up to you and says, “Hey, I’m Dave, who are you?” Well that’s not the case, networking means you got be courageous, got to set some goals, and put yourself out there. The very first Game Developers Conference I went to, back in 1999, I was terrified. I barely spoke to anyone, the only people I spoke to were people who came up and really talked to me. It was a huge eye opener for myself because I left that first conference realizing I had only gotten about 35% of what I wanted out of it. A lot of that had to do with me not taking risks to put myself out there. The lessons I teach about networking, the challenges I give, are never challenges I haven’t lived or learned myself. That’s important to me because when we teach these strategies we have to be able to say, “Hey I know this works. I’ve tried these skills and I’ve used these tools and this is what happened.” Sometimes you may try something that doesn’t work the first time. For example I used to have a student who would get very nervous. In his culture where he came from he wasn’t allowed to smile as much as we do here in America because smiling would convey a sense of confusion or disinterest. He realized that in order to network in the American culture he would need to become comfortable with smiling. So he started practicing smiling, but all his smiles were plastered on his face. It was like they were painted on, very clown-like, very exaggerated, and it was quite humorous in the beginning. The first challenge I gave him was to smile and say hello to three random people a day. The first couple days he reported back saying people looked at him weird and it was most likely because of this plastic painted grin. However he continued to work on it and a good ten months later when I saw this student in the hall he smiled at me and I was just kind of struck. I stopped in my tracks. His smile was amazing, it was so natural and so beautiful and intentional and I felt it. He got all excited and said he had been working on it over time. He’s a great example of someone who had to conquer a tool that you’ll read about in a million different articles that make smiling sound so easy. He literally had to change an innate cultural behavior to make that work for him. So once again, networking is you’re aware of your current behaviors and you know how to employ the proper ones given the situation. It’ll take time and practice and people need to know it won’t overnight. It takes life experiences and that means you have to actually play them out in real life situations. If something bombs when you try it then it bombs, you just try it again. You got to give yourself room to make errors because that’s the only way that we can learn.

ME: Something the entertainment industry struggles with a lot is cynicism. How does the book encourage others to not become cynical so they can be receptive to everyone they may potentially meet?

MICHELLE: There are always going to be people who feel like they already know all of the material and yes there are the neigh Sayers, those who will not be open to some of the techniques. The way I deal with that… I think you have to approach everything with the idea that no one is the ultimate expert. First of all this is a skill that is practiced in all industries and you are going to naturally see some variations. Every industry has slightly different nuances on how it likes to conduct itself. So we go into this saying this is the video game industry we’re talking about and there’s no perfect way for how to network; however, there are a vast number of tools and strategies that can be examined and shaped in order to improve ourselves. So that’s the way I handle it and I’ve had it happen in our boot camps where someone questions the technique because they tried it and it didn’t work. My response to that is why do you think it didn’t work for you? What do you think went wrong? Because many times we don’t take ownership of our own contribution to the failure of a situation. Many times we realize that maybe the reason it didn’t work for us was something we were doing or something we weren’t doing in order to foster a more positive environment for building relationships. You have to look at things in context and say in that situation that would be a good way to network in a phone conversation and use specific tools to your advantage. Because all communication fundamentally involves three major components and our spoken words are just as equally important as our non-verbal queues. So we have to breakdown the actual components of our communication during those moments. Your question was how do I handle the cynicism? Well we approach networking by saying that we don’t have all the answers, but you won’t know what works until you’ve put these strategies into practice. Lucky enough Rob and I have enough years of experience so we don’t preach anything we haven’t put into practice ourselves. We have plenty of horror stories, but thankfully many more successful positive stories from which to draw from.

ME: What do you think will be the hardest concept from the book for people to master?

MICHELLE: Off the top of my head I would say taking what we suggest and putting it into action. To be honest that’s my biggest concern with the book. When a reader gets to the end of a section how are they going to test what they’ve learned? We don’t want them to just hold the idea in their mind for a couple of minutes and think, “Well, yeah, that’s kind of cool. I feel lightly inspired.” Then turn the page and keep reading without retaining the information. We want them instead to pause, close the book and say, “Alright I’m done reading for the day. Now I’m going to go put this into practice for the next week and then come back to read more.” I think it’s important to know that we’re not approaching this as something we want you to read in a couple of hours. No, we crafted it to be digestible in small pieces. I want people to take the book one bite sized chunk at a time, then close it so they can go out and put the material into practice before coming back to be reflective... Other than that, I could see a lot of people struggling with the social media component simply because they are terrified of using it professionally or we have the opposite situation where someone has been using social media for a number of years, but never took it seriously as a professional development tool. It was more of a way to hangout with friends and they’ve crafted a reputation for themselves that may not be the one they want projected in their industry as a professional. So having to go back and clean up what we call digital hygiene is probably one of the more difficult tasks to master.

ME: So the development of the book has been just as much about putting words on paper as it has been about creating these techniques and exercises?

MICHELLE: Exactly. In our live sessions we have a variety of techniques we can use to get people out of their seats. Putting that experience into written words takes a lot of that away, such as the non-verbal component and even tone of voice. So we crafted the book with a welcoming tone, which invites the reader to participate in what we’re presenting because we want everybody to be awesome in networking situations. Often times this involves embedding the action in the text, breaking it down into tangible steps so people don’t feel like we’re expecting them to walk outside and shoot rainbows out of their eye sockets. We have to start out with small tasks. Because a lot of it is big idea—I mean, let’s be honest—a lot of it is, “Hey if you make relationships out there you can get places.” Doors will open for you and it’s absolutely true. We have numerous stories about students who landed jobs before they graduated because they networked. I have students who were in my class just a couple months ago who already have potential interviews lined up for them or have been guaranteed an interview when they graduate a year and a half from now. It’s because they took risks and put themselves out there.

ME: What are your personal goals for the book? What do you hope to see it accomplish?

MICHELLE: I guess for me I want the book make a difference, to become a useful and recommended resource inside the industry. I try to plan everyday of my life in such a way that I will be able to make a difference for others. I hope to make an impact all throughout my day, but I start out waking up and thinking, “Today I’m going to make a difference.” It’s the same approach I have as an educator; I walk into a classroom and we have assignments to complete, but at the end of the day if all my students get is some inspiration or motivation to make a difference in their lives or someone else’s than I feel like I’ve done my job. I want them to go out there and understand that every single moment they have an opportunity; they have a choice to make a difference out there. That’s what we’re really talking about when thinking about non-verbal communication, thinking about tone of voice, thinking about the proper way to shake somebody’s hand, thinking about how to write an email. Every moment of every day you have an opportunity to make an impact and we can make quality choices to do that. So my drive is to get people to realize they have that kind of control… The control and ability to change their lives. So yeah, pretty cool stuff.

Professional Skills for the Digital Age is being published by Needle Rat Press and is set for a release date later this year. To read more about Michelle Gaudette, her co-authors, and their amazing new book or for more encouraging words, inspiration, and advice for achieving your dreams please visit their website at www.NetworkingNerds.net.