I Don’t Know to CEO Conference

Today’s the Stanford Women in Business conference, I Don’t Know to CEO, hosted at Stanford University, California. The panel, moderated by Larry Chiang, was half about mentoring and half about branding, however, it was supposed to be mostly about branding.

I went because my sister, Rebekah Austin, wanted me to go there for her and report on the speech by activist Ruth DeGolia prior to the panel. The mentor discussion would have been great for Rebekah to have participated in.

Panelists: Poornima Vijayashanker, Cathy Brooks and Rob Britton.

Tips to finding your mentor:

Poornima:
-tweet them questions or follow up on twitter
-Use tools like LinkedIn and facebook to contact them
-Brevity is key
-Play into being a college student if you are a student
-always ask for someone else to talk to

Cathy:
-Make it organic. Asking for someone to be your mentor is like asking someone to be your friend.
-Use the subject line in an email and make bullet points in your email
-Ask for a skype call instead of coffee

Rob:

-always try to meet face to face
-be persistent
-make your contact initiative volume driven
-get out there and don’t be shy
-maximize contacts

Larry:

-social engineer your contacts by playing dumb:
-contact them several times pretending it’s the first time you contact them