Putting the Pieces Together
"Making It"
Knowledge, Wisdom, and Guidance
by
David Hamilton


 Building to the Network with Candy Nichols ( Oprah Winfrey Show )
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When I was working in North Chicago / Milwaukee, I trained a lot of up and coming talent. I had close to 20 interns under me that are all doing incredible radio ! While I was on air at V-100, my Program Director, Tony Fields asked me to help this new girl with in studio board work and production ! I was working with an air talent named Candy Nichols..... Candy was brilliant, very creative, and wanted to learn every function of the on air studio in one day regardless of the mess we made. Every couple nights Candy would come into the studio to learn some techniques, and eventually she built her way up to being on the radio. I would produce commercials and put her voice in the commercials to help teach her how to produce radio commercials, and from there she took off. She also worked with some other incredible talents in our building and she grew from the guidance to be outstanding in media. When you lend your hand out to help guide someone in the direction they want to go, they will never forget the encouragement you gave them to succeed. This brings us to the next chapter.... Candy is now a producer for the Oprah Winfrey show in Chicago, and she is excellent. This goes to prove that the people around you that you work with are headed in the same direction as yourself. You can learn from them as they learn from you, and networking with them is essential to grow in all dimensions.  You never know who your going to meet as you build up your talent and ability, and the people you do meet all play an important part in what you do and will do as well. This is why it is so important to build yourself up slowly and certain to make the right decisions about who you are surrounded by. This is the start to a network of people you will meet. If you are a model, you will meet plenty of photographers, sales people, marketing people, and if your an artist, you will want to meet gallery owners, designers, and future managers. If you are like Candy Nichols and you want to produce television, you will want to put yourself in the presence of people like Oprah ! Once you reach a certain point where you are comfortable to promote yourself and start to market yourself in some fashion, your next goal is to learn how to NETWORK !!!!! Networking means reaching out to people and introducing yourself to them, asking questions, and always looking to meet people that may be able to help you. Networking can start the minute you say to yourself, it's time to meet people and promote myself, or, it's time to start asking questions. On the next page you will see how every day networking can help you, even by simply sending out e-mails and asking questions.
 

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