I just got back from an incredible trip to Chevron Business and Real Estate Services in San Ramon, California. I was a guest speaker for the Administrative Professionals Forum. While I was only there 4 hours, I absorbed much and have several tips I want to share with you so I will break this story up into a few blogs.

I was invited to speak on Earning Your Place on the Executive Team. To give you some background, this particular group at Chevron has viewed my webinars 26 Weeks to Administrative Excellence, own my 2 books (Become an Inner Circle Assistant and Underneath It All), and are attending the Star Achievement Series being taught by Linda R., their Administrative Sponsor. So the attendees were familiar with me through my materials and teachings. They were very eager to meet the real Joan Burge and I was eager to meet them.
Nancy F. is an individual who has been attending Star Achievement classes. One of the classes was on goal setting. Nancy had gone above and beyond what was requested in the class and came up with a fabulous post class activity. It was forwarded on to me and I was impressed. I had been meaning to call Nancy and ask her if I could share her idea with other Star Achievement facilitators in other companies but due to my heavy speaking schedule had not accomplished that before my trip this week.

When I arrived at Chevron, the group was having lunch and there were several little tables with attendees from which I could choose where to sit. I glanced around thinking where should I sit? I saw this very professional looking woman sitting by herself and there was 1 empty seat next to her so I sat there. I introduced myself and saw her name tag which only said Nancy. When she introduced herself and said her last name, I was pleasantly surprised that this was “the” Nancy! We struck up a wonderful conversation. I found Nancy to be articulate, bright, fun, professional, engaged, interested in talking with me and more. Through our conversation, I learned that Nancy has a journalism background which piqued my interest because I have been on a search for a professional to do some high-end editing, writing, etc. We had a wonderful conversation and I told her about my search.

I asked Nancy to send me some writing samples so I could get a feel for her style and if I thought it would mesh with mine. I was back in Nevada that same night – I got in around 6:45. Low and behold, there was an email waiting for me from Nancy with several samples of her work! Talk about being on the ball.

I’ve already read one of her articles which we will post as a Guest Blog. Plus I know I will be having some serious conversations with Nancy regarding using her talents outside of Chevron and helping us.

What’s the point? You are always on stage. You never know what can happen when you meet people or when people see you stand out in a crowd. Always be professional, have a great attitude, be interested in others first, and toot your own horn. Who knows what wonderful opportunities will come your way.