The Art of Networking: How to Engage, Connect and Build Your Tribe
Taught by Laena McCarthy and Ami Watkin
Laena is Founder and CEO of Anarchy in a Jar, a jam and mustard company based in Brooklyn. She's an entrepreneur, instructional designer, birth and business coach–empowering people through work, life, childbirth, and transformation. In her private practice, she coaches people who crave financial freedom and an integrated work/life/cycle.
Laena launched her startup, Anarchy in a Jar, in 2009. It has been featured in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Martha Stewart Show, New York Magazine, Food & Wine, and more. Laena's cookbook, Jam On: The Craft of Canning Fruit, was published with Penguin Random House in 2012. Her newest venture is Integrated Hustle, a firm that coaches and educates lean entrepreneurs.
Laena graduated magna cum laude from Mount Holyoke College, received an MS in Information Science from Pratt Institute, has trained as a birth coach and food scientist, and was awarded the United States Antarctica Service Medal by the Department of Defense for her work with the National Science Foundation.
When she’s not making it rain with mustard and startup nitty-gritty, you can find her dreaming about her next adventure and chasing her children around Brooklyn.
Ami is a lawyer, entrepreneur and side hustle coach who has started two businesses in the last nine months: her legal practice, Watkin Legal and CUBAFRIDA, a Mexican art and design company
She’s a committed dreamer, who has taken a deep dive on the good, bad and the ugly of how we define ourselves and self-worth. Ami excels at taking complicated ideas and tasks and breaking them up into bite-size pieces. She’s the one who fearlessly raises her hand with pride to ask the “dumb” or “obvious” question, because let's be honest - you wanted to know too.
Prior to attending law school, Ami worked in nonprofit communications, helping NGOs and progressive companies tell their stories in a way that was engaging, honest and true. Ami leverages her communications skills on a daily basis to make everything from contracts to the history of certain textiles more accessible. Ami has spent time living in London, different parts of Mexico and in Buenos Aires (and yes, she speaks Spanish).
Ami graduated from Vassar College with a B.A. in Hispanic Studies, and earned her J.D. from Brooklyn Law School. When she's not geeking out how to live an authentic life, entrepreneurial hustles or Mexican textiles, you can find her plotting her next international adventure, on the nearest beach or salsa dancing in her living room, attempting to nail those elusive double and triple spins.
Are you looking to foster a connected tribe of colleagues and comrades? Are you looking to advance your career, but don’t know where to start? Itching to start a side hustle, but have no idea how to test the waters? Does the word “networking” make you dry-heave? Then this is the class for you.
Join Ami Watkin & Laena McCarthy of The Integrated Hustle to learn about the art of networking, and how to leverage existing and new connections to gather valuable insights. Networking can seem slimy or tedious, but it shouldn’t be! At its core, networking is about interviewing people and really listening, so that you can find your tribe, learn more about career prospects and new business ventures, and come away from these interactions feeling energized and empowered.
In this one-session class, we’ll focus on how to question and listen in a way that creates lasting impressions and vital connection. We’ll look at examples of excellent networking, go over good practices and techniques, and take some time for group exercises. You’ll walk away with valuable know-how to take the next steps toward fostering a tribe of engaged comrades and colleagues.
