Day 22 - Activators vs. Cheerleaders: How to Find the Action Oriented Supporters in Your Network

In the first few months when I started The Niche Movement in January 2013, I had a growing number of supporters and advocates that initiated some early outreach. One advocate that really stands out and still supports my vision to this day is Katie Bean. I met Katie in 2006-07 when I started visiting Courtney in graduate school at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. They were both in the same student affairs program and became really close friends.

Upon earning her masters degree, Katie moved to Washington, DC in 2008 where she worked as the Assistant Director of Alcohol and Drug Education for three years. Katie is one of those people who has huge heart and believes in what she does in her job. She has a vision where every college student is properly educated and supported to make healthy lifestyle choices thus leading to a healthier and safer campus.

In 2011, Katie found a new opportunity and moved back to her hometown of Philadelphia where she took a job as the Assistant Director of Student Outreach at St. Joseph's University. In this role, she provides wellness, alcohol, and drug education, support, and programming. Part of her job at St. Joe’s is to lead a group of peer educators that are advocates for responsible lifestyles and link the campus to her office. Katie’s leadership philosophy, both with her programming and advising her students, is to empower people to make choices that benefit them. I love her leadership style because anyone that works with college students knows you can’t force a college student to do something, but you can educate and guide them to make healthy choices that lead to a happier life.

Katie was someone that didn’t just talk about change, she created it. That’s why her mantra is “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” The emphasis is on ‘be’ because she is an action oriented person. I didn’t realized it at the time, but I learned that this trait would benefit the Niche Movement tremendously. After telling her about my ideas it was only a matter of time before I saw something different than many of my other conversations with supporters...I saw her take action.

When I launched The Niche Movement’s first online cohort for college students to help them find their niche, Katie Bean was one of the first colleagues to share it with her network. Not only did she promote it, but she encouraged a few of her peer educators that were juniors and seniors who were looking for some direction upon graduation to apply to this program. I can’t thank her enough for her belief in one of my first initiatives. Because of Katie’s support, four students from St. Joe’s were accepted into The Niche Movement’s program. One of her students, Nikki Uy, has an incredible story that I will share later this week.

You will have friends along the way that will listen to your ideas, share their support with you and those all great people to have around you. However, activators like Katie are game changers. She took the conversation a step further by sharing it with her students and supporting their involvement in the cohort. That kind of action-oriented support is invaluable.

Just like many of the people I have talked about, Katie has been there for Courtney and I. She played an amazing role as one of Courtney’s bridesmaids, she has helped us connect with several other colleagues in the field, and has always been there to offer positive life advice. It is great to see her genuine personality shine through in both her professional and personal world.

What They Taught Me:

Everytime I talk to Katie she shares amazing stories of how she empowered one of her students or helped a struggling student on campus better themselves. She has taught me to never give up on a student and to find an outlet where they can be empowered.

How They Inspired Me:

Having Katie as one of the first advocates of The Niche Movement has really met a lot to me and establish a name for my passion project outside of New Jersey. Her encouragement and belief, along with many others, helps me recognize that I bring value to this subject of post-graduate life.

#Nichtip:

When you are finding your niche, there will be those that are cheerleaders and those that will be activators. The activators go beyond the cheers of support and they take action in ways that will amplify your message and help you reach your goals. Katie was an activator for me. I have lots of cheerleaders, but it is the activators that continue to help make this ‘dream’ a reality. Be an activator for someone else. There are many times throughout my story where I have done that for others, and I believe that is why I have been fortunate enough to see that kindness and dedication come back to me. If you have activators around you, thank them. They are critical to your success.

Day 18 - How I Learned to Get Things Done with Purpose & Personality

Over the last few posts, I’ve revealed a little more of how the last six years has helped me get closer to finding my niche. There’s been so many students, co-workers, projects, and experiences that I will never forget. However, before I move onto the third part of my “How I Found My Niche” series, I would be remiss to not mention two more people that I have had the pleasure of working with in different capacities at Rutgers.

This person (you’ll hear about the second on Day 19) delivered a t-shirt cannon gun to me with less than a 24 hours notice.

When Rutgers Habitat for Humanity was seeking sponsors for their Build-a-Thon this person helped secure space, provided staging, and connected the club with the right people to pull off this event - back to back years.

Back in May 2012, when many of us were planning the Big Ideas Conference, this person put together one of the most amazing and dynamic socials in conference history.

This person also played bartender for my rehearsal dinner.

She is none other than: Carey Loch.

Yes again, another “big sister” in my life. My country music lovin’, big sister from Wyoming. Carey Loch is the Director of Programs for Rutgers Student Life but her title is just the beginning of who she really is. Carey has her hands in several successful programs at Rutgers such as: Dance Marathon, Beats on the Bank, and all of Homecoming week including the legendary Bed Races. And these are just the big ticket events.

Not only is Carey a colleague in Student Affairs, a close friend to Courtney and I, but she is someone that I look up to because she brings the product and the punch. She has built a collaboration with our department to add a layer of “WOW” to some of our events like Mud Run, Color Run, and EDM Run. In a time when Athletics takes precedents, Carey has created partnerships with them that has been indisposable to the programming offered to Rutgers students.

I also have to thank Carey for helping take the Rutgers Habitat for Humanity club to the next level with their fundraising and outreach. As I mentioned in day 7’s post, I served as their staff advisor and have been in the process of raising $100,000 to build and dedicate their own house in Plainfield, NJ. In April 2013, Carey stepped into to help the club secure a location and partnership with Geek Week as they executed their first 24 hour Build-a-thon.

The following semester for Build-a-thon 2.0, Carey went a step further (completely volunteer) and helped them organize a location, bridge a partnership with Residence Life, and secure a stage for a concert. She saw the hard work, dedication, vision, and passion Punit Arora, club president, had. She genuinely wanted to help anyway she could. Both Punit, myself, and the rest of the members are forever grateful for her efforts.

Did I mention Carey does all of this with one of the brightest and most positive personalities I have ever witnessed? Because of this, she is sometimes rewarded with more work and more people wanting to work with her. So how does she do it? Why does she do it?

It’s simple - she has one philosophy: Principle. Product. Personality.

Principle: When Carey starts a project or partners with someone, she wants to make sure everyone involved is doing it for the right reason. In our world, it generally should be for the students or Rutgers community.

Product: For Carey, producing a quality product is a huge value for her. Especially, if her name is going to be on it. When she is working with others, she wants to make sure these people will walk the walk and not just “talk a big a game.”

Personality: Carey’s personality is contagious and anyone that gets to associate with her are lucky. So her third philosophy is clear - you better play nice in the sand box. She knows not everyone may be as upbeat as her, but you better be optimistic, be able to carry out a conversation, and share similar values as she does. Also, it doesn’t hurt if you like to have a good time while you work.

Even though Carey’s events are large scale and draw a lot of attention, a lot of times her work goes unnoticed. But she is ok with that. Just like a lot of people that I have introduced so far, she is selfless. If you know Carey, make sure you thank her the next time you see her. If you don’t know her, get to know her.

What They Taught Me:

Carey has taught me that when you work on projects that you are passionate about, everyone involved needs to put their agendas to the side and only leave room for one - the students.

How They Inspired Me:

As I continue to build my personal brand, Carey has inspired to be a better connector every single day. Whether it is meeting people to build my own network or finding ways to put two people in touch, I always come back to “How would Carey Loch approach this?”.

#NicheTip:

Principle. Product. Personality. Don’t forget it the next time you work on a group project - real world or in class.

Day 13 - Taking Advantage of an Opportunity

I started at Rutgers in August 2008 and I thought I would be a small fish in a big pond. However, like I mentioned in my post yesterday, my boss Paul Fischbach did a great job of helping me network and meet co-workers outside of our department. Coincidentally, it also helped that Courtney started working in Student Life a month prior. I took every opportunity to grow my network and enhance my professional development by attending workshops and events to meet other student affairs colleagues.

A few months into my new job, I met Avani Rana who was in charge of the student leadership for Student Life. I had shared my leadership background and the initiatives I helped create at Centenary College and we quickly connected to see how I could help her out and represent our department. That spring semester Avani invited me to sit on the Rising Leaders committee and I was able to offer a module on communication during the 13-week program for first year students.

This was not only a great avenue to meet new students and represent the Recreation department, but this also fulfilled my desire to present and engage students in leadership. A year later, I remained on the Rising Leaders committee with other deans and student affairs colleagues and Avani recruited me to help out with their weekend retreat in January. Over the next few semesters I was given the opportunity to help with retreats, present workshops on group dynamics, communication, and public speaking.

Avani also planned a leadership conference every March and recruited me to present in 2009 and 2010. However, in 2010 I decided to invite one of our student leaders, Dana Wise, to co-present with me to give her practice speaking in front of her peers. We ran a workshop for other students leaders on group dynamics and being a leader even if you’re not in a leadership position.

Remember that post I wrote about attending my first NIRSA conference? Well, I stayed involved with NIRSA and became the State Director in 2011. As the representative for NIRSA I sat on various committees and helped plan the student lead-on for Region 1 at Syracuse University. Not only was this a “pay-it-forward” type of act, but I truly wanted to help students and connect them with the right professionals just like Jess Ward did for me. That’s how professional development works, you get involved as a new professional, start to carve out your niche, and then you help others find their niche.

Every year since I started at Rutgers, I had the pleasure of working with great students that were thriving in their roles with recreation, in student leadership, and NIRSA. There was something I started to observe. I started to notice that these great students were thriving in college and then after graduation, many of them struggled with being fulfilled and happy in their new post-graduation lives.

The conversations of “I think I chose the wrong major” and “I shouldn’t have decided to enroll in this masters program” or “I am bored with my job” was far too common. I would put the counselor/therapy hat back on and point them in the right direction.

Ultimately, it was these 3-4 years, that my calling to help students stand-out and give them “real-world” skills to succeed after graduation, started to become more and more important to my ‘why’ (why meaning, why I got up every morning). This was especially true when it came to pointing them in the direction to a more fulfilled life.

My initial conversations with Avani and ultimately that connection led to a realization that I could engage an audience of 50-100+ students. I was inching closer and closer to finding my niche.

What they taught me:

At the time I started at Rutgers, I was a bit nervous to be working at such a large institution. However, I learned how important outreach and exposure can be. Between the help of networking from my boss, Paul, and Avani continually inviting me to help out, I quickly established a name for myself based on my talents and skills.

How they inspire me:

The moments I have been able to run workshops, facilitate team buildings at retreats, and present to large groups has been invaluable to my work with the Niche Movement. Avani is one of many colleagues that valued the opportunity to give more people the chance to present and interact with other colleagues. This inspires me to ensure that I pay it forward and provide opportunities for young professionals to present to my students.

#Nichetip:

Early on in your career, take advantage of the committees or workgroups available for you to participate in, especially if you are passionate about it. At times it may feel like extra work, but in the long run it just may bring you closer to finding your niche.

Day 10- Learning Relational Leadership

As I mentioned in day nine’s post, I switched directions and instead of using my marketing degree and going into corporate, I started  working at Centenary College in August of 2006. The job at Centenary gave me the opportunity to build their campus recreation program from the ground up, develop student leadership initiatives, build a network of other student affairs professionals and work with incredible college students. In addition, this job allowed me to go back to school and earn a masters. Now, I didn’t jump right into a masters program - partly because I only started working there in August and it was difficult to enroll and be accepted that fall. Luckily, this timing allowed me some time to determine if I wanted to get an MBA or a Masters Degree in Education. In all honesty, I needed a few more months to clear my head of four straight years of college classes.

By that October though I started finalizing my options because a few of my colleagues, including my boss Kristen McKitish, recommended an amazing program to earn a masters in Leadership and Public Administration. She said the professors were some of the best professors she ever had and she had applied a lot of what she learned everyday. I applied, was accepted and signed up for my first class - Advanced Written Communication. This course was taught by Jeff Carter. It was a requirement in the program because of intensive writing required in order to successfully complete the program (when I completed the degree I had a portfolio of my papers from the ten classes in a four inch binder).

Jeff Carter was by far one of the best professors in the program. He was down to earth, treated us like adults and was one of the most efficient and well-prepared professors I ever had. I succeeded in the next 9 classes because of the discipline and attention to detail he instilled on the class. Our very first class he told us we would be writing a 20-30 page paper which I thought was a daunting task. However, he taught us how to research, how to write accurately in APA style, and chunk your writing instead of waiting until the last minute.

In addition to Jeff’s teaching skills, he captured my attention every class for each of the three courses I took with him. He was a retired police captain and was attaining his doctorate degree where he was doing a dissertation on Toxic Leadership. He matched the style of Ann Huser and Hart Singh, two of my favorite FDU professors, because he brought real-world examples into every classes.

What they taught me:

A lot of what Jeff Carter taught me has framed my leadership style: relational leadership. He was one of the main reasons I succeeded when it came to writing and presenting in each class as well as creating an engaging environment that made me want to go to every single class.

How they inspired me:

In a professional setting, Jeff has influenced me to be the best leader I can and provide the resources for those around me. In an academic setting, I strive to be a professor one day. His presentation style and ability to engage with his audience has spilled over into my presentation style.

#NicheTip:

When you are in a position of leadership, don't stand on a pedestal. People want to connect and relate to you, so give them stories and open yourself up to be able to do that.

Learning to write and present is so important for someone that is carving out their niche. Look for any opportunity to fine tune those skills. This will ensure that when you have figured out what your message is to the world, that you have the skills to share that message.

Day 9 - The 2nd Pivot: A New Career Path & a Boss That Believed In Me

I graduated Fairleigh Dickinson in May 2006 with a marketing degree in hand filled with unforgettable memories and experiences that prepared me for the real-world. However, I was caught in the silo of “you earned a degree in marketing, you have to get a marketing job.” I was still with the PR company I mentioned in yesterday’s post, still earning “intern” money but now commuting 90 minutes each way, sitting in an office with no windows, and not working on anything that inspired me. May turned into June. June quickly turned into July. In July, I shared with my boss at the PR firm that I was accepted to go back to FDU to earn a masters in Communication but I was still looking for full-time work. There was no opportunity for financial assistance from the firm or a significant increase worth the 90-minute commute.

That’s when I realized just two months after I graduated, that life was SLIPPING by. Courtney and I had less than a month left until she left for Pittsburgh for graduate school - so I called out sick and we packed her car with her yellow lab Bailey and we headed into the city. Since we had her dog, we went right to Central Park to lay out. That is when I discovered I needed to leave this job and not go back to school for communications, but to apply to work in any student affairs job I could get.

I quickly moved all my co-curricular activities (Habitat, Marketing Club, Programming Committee, etc) to the top of my resume. The three internships moved below. I applied for entry level jobs from Boston to North Carolina - coming up empty. Until I found a job for the Coordinator of Recreation Programming at Centenary College in Hackettstown, NJ. I went on two interviews and landed the job - complete with salary, housing, and allowance to take three classes a semester in any graduate program.

This is where I had met one of the top 3 bosses I’ve ever worked for - Kristen McKitish. She was the Director of Student Activities and we shared an office in 3rd Floor Ferry. The previous position only left behind a key to the office and manilla folder of previous invoices. The slate was clean, but more importantly Kristen was the perfect boss for this entry-level position.

One of the best things she did was trust me. On my very first week she asked me to stay late for one of her events. I was able to connect with new students and I had a sense of responsibility right out of the gate. Kristen helped me connect with the right people on campus, delegate the politics and red tape, and helped me only when I needed it. She would always say, “You good Kev-O? If you need my help just let me know.” There were times I definitely needed her help or assistance at a late night program but most of the time the “show” was all mine.

When I look back it, the environment Kristen instilled was all about autonomy and not taking life too seriously. Yes, I was hired to run and grow Centenary’s recreation department. However, I was able to volunteer late night with our Hurricane Katrina Disaster Relief Trip, help bring our first ever Student Leadership Retreat to campus (with Stacy, Neil, and Kirsten), and create marketing strategies for our Student Life entire office. All while going back to school part time for my Master’s degree in Leadership with a focus on Student Leadership.

Kristen was like the mayor of 3rd Floor Ferry - she got along with everyone. She knew how to work with anyone, but also knew when to keep her head down and work or help out those around her. She was great with students and taught me a lot about how to supervise students while still building a respectful rapport with them even though I was only two years older than most of them.

Kristen’s philosophy on work is when it’s done - go home. Monday through Thursday evenings and occasional weekends kept us very busy. A lot of times, I would be on campus 8:30am-11pm only taking a break for dinner and my 2-3 hour class. Come Friday’s, should say “What are you doing here, you’ve already put in 40+ hours.” If my work was done, she would force me to leave and go home to relax.

What they taught me:

Kristen taught me how to lead others and create an environment where your people can thrive. She taught me how to give others trust, and how to find that sweet spot between the micro-managers and the missing in action managers. A lot of how I lead my staff today is grounded in what I learned from working for Kristen.

How they inspired me:

Kristen inspired me to carve out my niche on Centenary’s campus. I’m sure she had plenty of ideas on how she would have run the recreation initiatives, but she let me have a vision and “run with it.” After feeling burned out from the PR internship, this opportunity to carve out my niche on campus served was exactly what I needed to feel inspired again.

#Nichetip:

If someone gives you the opportunity to build something from the ground up, take full advantage of it. Use it as an opportunity to figure out your niche and build upon that. I have seen too many people start a job in an autonomous work environment and run scared because they are afraid to mess it up. Believe in yourself, and make the most of these opportunities.

If you manage others, give them autonomy and instill trust in their abilities. This is a very motivating management style.