In Fall 2014 I left Microsoft, In April 2015 I shaved my head...

I left Microsoft after a series of 'I'm over this place' events that helped me see it was my time to leave - to break free of my golden handcuffs.

I'm fortunate that I chose my exit.

I know many of you have been laid off so it's not a choice – but regardless you're on the outside now just like I found myself.

One of the first things I did after leaving was shave my head. You can see I didn't go full Britney but it was a bolder move than I'd ever made before.

And I think it's because I had felt for a long time that the company was sucking my soul.

Now I don't think it was Microsoft necessarily, I'm a creative and I was in a job that had high pressure and not as much freedom as I was craving.

And doing that for 13 years had a compounding effect.

So when that pressure-veil was lifted I was FREE to be creatively me and out came the clippers!

Creative expression aside... I had to figure out how to get money flowing again.

After a brief stint at a Creative Agency as the Studio Director...

I decided to carve my own path instead of working for the man again...

This meant I had to sell.

Sell what?!

I was used to being a Principle Program Manager in Bing Engineering, a Chief of Staff to the Microsoft CXO. Those labels had value inside Microsoft. Yet no value on the outside, other than a credibility boost.

So in addition to figuring out how to make money, my business identity needed an overhaul.

Essentially if I was going to make it on my own I needed to figure out "My Street Value"

How I discovered My Street Value

The most impactful thing I did was to go on no-agenda coffee chats.

They helped me determine my Street Value - what will people hire me for? And 33% of these chats turned into paying clients.

If I was in your shoes, starting from scratch, I would do these coffee chats all over again – so I wanted to share...

4-Step Playbook to Booking Coffee Chats

Credit to Adam Tratt who was in the Tech Stars program so I'm guessing this was part of their playbook...

For Coffee Chats – you're going to just go grab coffee with people, no agenda other than to learn about their job, what they do and see where the conversation leads.

Step-by-Step:

• Step 1: Find someone in YOUR network that's connected and see if they'd be willing to make some introductions.
• Step 2: Find someone in THEIR network you genuinely would like to meet and send your friend a personalized " Favor?" email.

• Step 3: Have your connector friend fwd the email with a private message asking if it's ok to make an introduction.

• Step 4: Wait for the Yes, schedule the meeting and show up with no agenda!

Street Value - Find your new label

Almost all of my meetings ended with "I think I would hire you to do our Marketing." And I was so confused because I had just spent the last 8 years in Engineering and I had no idea that the way I talked and my skillset was a fit for Growth Marketing.

Perhaps the brief stint at the Creative Agency had more of an impact than I realized, but whatever it was that was catching people's attention... my new label became 'Marketing Consultant'.

Street Value - Find the money

Next up, I had to land a client. Eventually two of the coffee chats turned into paying clients, but here's how I landed my first one...

Once I knew I was going to be a Marketing Consultant, I gave myself 2 months and a deadline of Sept 30th, 2015 to sign my first client (or I would start looking for a job.)

Two months flew by and I only had one potential client meeting with Waterways Cruises - I was so nervous and talked so fast, using way too much engineering language.

They ended the meeting early saying, "You're clearly very smart but we have no idea what you're talking about!" (P.S. read to the end this gets even better.)

I was discouraged but I dug deep and decided to reach out to someone who I knew was looking for Marketing help (or was a couple months ago). His name was Jim and he had a bad taste in his mouth from the Creative Agency I worked for.

I reached out anyway... and on Sept 30th, my last day, Jim reluctantly agreed to grab coffee - he said later, "I knew you were going to try to sell me and I wasn't interested."

But I had done my homework, I was prepared for the meeting... and he agreed to hire me hourly on a one week trial.

A ONE WEEK trial... Not very long to prove myself, but I did it!!! My very first paying client.

By day 3 he had fired his marketing agency and gave me the contract and the rest is history (more or less).

That summer sent me down the Growth Marketing path that I'm still on 11 years later.

So when you find yourself on the outside, wanting to carve your own path but need to figure out what your 'Street Value' is, book some coffee chats and see where the conversations go.

What if you don't have a connected friend you can ask for intros?

Join Slack Communities that coordinate networking events.

I'm involved with multiple but two of my favs from a networking perspective are:
1. Lenny's Newsletter: They help coordinate local meetups. Join one in your city or become a host.

2. Health Tech Nerds: They have zoom networking roundtables every 2 weeks. Show up and be randomly placed in a series of 8 min 1:1 conversations.

When you show up to an event, don't try to sell anything, you're just learning right now – so give a short intro and let them know you're in learning mode.

That opens the door for you to ask questions. It removes any 'Sales pressure' so you can have a genuine conversation and make a connection.

After you've made a connection, you can follow up and further the conversation.

What do you think? Are you going to try some 'No-agenda chats'?

If you do, keep me posted! I'd love to hear how they impact your trajectory.

P.S. Here's the view from the floating home I was renting during my transition year, I watched the Waterways Cruises ship go by DAILY, reminding me of my failed pitch. And every time it went by I thought... their loss ;)