Everyone Is A Potential Contact
I’m from St. Louis, so I get it. New York City has exponentially more opportunities for those wanting to pursue a fashion and/or blogging career, but that doesn’t mean you can’t build a strong network from anywhere. I had zero connections when I picked up my life in Paris to move to NYC to take my shot at the fashion world (which I wound up hating lol), but I did what I had to do to create them and let me tell you, EVERYONE is a potential contact.
When I started 10 years ago, there was no blogger event scene, but I had an innate understanding of the importance of networking, so I would sign up for brands’ mailing lists to find out about in-store events and I would scour the internet for any mention of an event taking place in New York City.
I once came across this Paul Frank holiday event on Twitter. I thought it sounded fun, so I invited a friend and we got all dressed up, expecting to find ourselves at a holiday networking party. Not quite. We arrived as the only guests in our double digits, excluding the parents who had all brought their little 6 year olds to arts and crafts night.
We could have left, but we sat down in tiny blue chairs instead and got our glue sticks out. We noticed one other adult at the event who didn’t seem to be attached to any of the children, so my friend and I struck up a conversation with him. We quickly learned that he had not chosen to make a night of decorating holiday cards with pom poms and glitter, but was in attendance as the Paul Frank PR representative. Fast forward to today, he still invites me to events and I have since worked with his agency multiple times.
I can go through example after example of all the times I went to small, “insignificant” events that led me to meet the people who invited me to the BIG ones, but my point is that you never know who you’re going to meet and you have to view every single person as a potential contact.
I got a magazine cover through a childhood classmate who connected me to his editor friend and even multiple paid deals from a woman I once randomly stopped on the street to take my picture. Non-fashion people don’t always realize just how connected they are. You’d be surprised how many times I’ve mentioned a company I love to a friend only to find out they know someone who works there, so don’t be discouraged. Just keep talking.
x Esther
