Lessons - How To Hit The Ground Running After Massive Change | Milan Fatoric, Product Marketing Manager at WorkTango

Hi, it's Scott here. On these lessons, episodes of my podcast, I'll be selecting my favorite lessons from various guests and episodes of Success Story. Today you're going to hear from Milan Fatoric. He is a product marketing manager at Work Tango. Now Milan has worked in marketing for his entire career in a variety of different industries in some of the fastest moving SaaS and tech environments. Today he's going to speak to you about something that affects anybody. You could be in product, you could be in sales, marketing, finance, HR. He's going to speak about change. He's worked in such disruptive companies. He knows a thing or two about hitting the ground running after massive change, after massive disruption. This is a great tip for entrepreneurs. This is a great tip for people that are moving into a new role. So this is Milan teaching you three tips on how to hit the ground running after massive change in your business or in your life. Hi, my name is Milan Fatoric and I'm a sales and marketing coordinator for Work Tango. Today I'll be covering my top three tips to hit the ground running after change. Now this can be after graduation, layoff, career change or taking the plunge to start your own business. These are tips that I've used personally and that have helped me immensely early on in my career and I'd like to share them with all of you in the hopes that it helps you in your future endeavors, whatever those may be. Now these are some things that I wish others in academia and in my professional career would have told me earlier, so I'm going to tell you to save you the time. Now without further ado, let's get right down to it with my first tip. Tip number one would be to find your skillset, understand what you want and then go out and execute. So when I first talked to recent grads since I was one myself a little while ago and my advice would be to look beyond your degree. You're not limited to the field you chose at school and why it may help you to get a job in that sector, don't limit yourself if you're interested in something else. Upward mobility comes from experience, not necessarily education, so don't put yourself in a box before ever trying your other areas of interest. This also goes for those starting their own business. You don't need an MBA or a business degree to start, just the idea of what you want to do and the willingness to execute is enough to get you started. Immediately after change, you are likely nervous and anxious of what's to come in the future. So to help mitigate those feelings of uncertainty, I found it helpful to sit down and physically write down, yes, get out a pen and paper and physically write down what your ideal situation is. And ask yourself questions like, what work do I enjoy doing and what am I good at? Then make a plan that balances those two answers and it will put you on the right path to a successful future. When you found out what you're passionate about, you get the motivation to keep moving and working. And when you find out what you're good at, it makes it easier to double down on your ideas since it's right in your key skill set. In the end, what we're all looking to be is our idea of success and what success means is really the fulfillment of your dreams. Now these questions in this exercise helped me to nail down what I wanted to do with my future. And even if you're not successful, you still fill the time with something you'd love to do, which is something that many people don't get to say. To put this into perspective, many successful musicians spent years of their lives doing unpaid performances and the only reason they kept playing was because they had, because they loved to perform. So when you find your skill set and what you love to do, keep at it and don't put down that instrument. My second tip would be to stay positive while failing, changing and adjusting. Now positive outlook and mental state can go a long way in motivation, productivity and your sense of self. This goes back to my first tip, where in order to build your skill set and understand what you want, you're going to have to make continuous adjustments and changes to truly figure out what works best for you. So you can't be afraid to fail, change, adjust, and then fail again and again. It's a part of life and although it sucks in the moment, you always learn way more from your failures than your successes. So take it as a learning opportunity and move on. So sitting around doing nothing or staying in the same uncomfortable spot you're in now will do you no good. In your career, school, or whatever change you're going through, you're expected to and should make mistakes. Nobody's perfect and the earlier on you can fail, learn, and move on. The more compounds over time and then the next thing you know, your few years ahead of where you would have been had you not taken the plunge and been mentally prepared to mess up and pick up the pieces. Mental health plays a huge part in this. So take time to focus on your mental health as much as you're focusing on getting to that next step in life. Get outside, spend time with friends and family, and especially while working from home, create a clear line between work and personal time. Do whatever releases stress and tension in your life and I found to be much and I found myself to be much more productive when I take care of my mental health and studies have shown that it positively influences productivity. Now you can change paths as many times as you like in life, but you only have one brain and one body. So take care of it, stay positive, and don't get discouraged. The path to success is never linear, so keep at it and you will, not might, get there someday. Finally, the last tip I'll leave you with is be proactive. Now this is a big one. So once you've even partially figured out, you don't need to have every last detail figured out, be proactive and take the first step. This can take on many forms and one of them being learning and training, even online courses to arm yourself with the knowledge to get started. It doesn't happen in a classroom and you now literally have the world of your fingertips. So use it and spend time learning, absorbing information and doing your best to put it into practice. I read a quote once that said something along the lines of, a man who reads 10 books but doesn't change is the same as a man who reads no books. And I think that rings true to what I'm saying now. I mean, it's great to learn in your own time, but you have to be proactive and get out there and put it into action. If not, then you risk wasting the time you spent learning by not putting it into practice. Networking is also another form of being proactive in my eyes. This is a tough one for introverts, but try and build connections through networking events, cold emails and LinkedIn messages or any other way you can think of. Be prepared when reaching out to the person and also let them do the talking, but be present in the conversation. Soak up as much as you can and learn from them. This is a great way to learn business lessons from others, challenge your way of thinking and build an index of people that might be able to support you and vice versa. This also improves your chances of landing a new job. People who know someone in the industry often land a more coveted job than those that are simply applying to the postings online. I've used this personally without trying to land a job by setting myself a goal to network with a set number of people this year. As a result, I've met some amazing and smart people that have helped me tremendously in real estate and put me in contact with their network that have been a big help to me as I begin to build my real estate portfolio. Networking is one of the most powerful tools in your kit and it's something I didn't fully appreciate until recently. So go out there and network. Even in these remote times, it's easy to network with people because they don't even have to leave the comfort of their own home and neither do you. Every organization's most powerful asset is their people. So go out there and connect with them. You never know where it may lead and it's extremely valuable to continue learning once your education is complete. And a great way to do that is to be proactive, network, and then get to work. From all the wealth in all of human history, one thing that has never been bought is time. So use it wisely, get out there and get moving. Time waits for nobody and being proactive and networking is a great way to, is a great first step. Well, that concludes my three tips and that's everything for me. So I want to thank Scott so much for having me on the show and I hope to see you all in later episodes. If you want to connect with me, my LinkedIn can be found in the description of this podcast. Take care.