Open Letter From the #u30pro Team

Confession: We’re bored.

And no, I’m not talking about making fun of Spinksy all the time. That’s still fun, and encouraged. #teamspinksy

The team (Scott, Dave and myself) have become too familiar, too in the zone, too in our own comfort zone. As our topics have gotten more specific, we have almost tuned out our community and what YOU want to talk about. The chats have slowed down a bit, and we take the blame on that one.

Feel free to virtually slap us on the wrist – we deserve it. We’ll just high five you back. Nothing but love and awesomeness.

We have been hashing out a lot behind the scenes lately – some stuff we can’t make public yet, but other stuff we can. We want to make this OUR community again – the go-to for everything related to those under 30.

From our standpoint, we have had our own re-committment ceremony…. to #u30pro. We’re back, and better than ever. You can expect to see us pushing out more blog posts from our favorite u30pro bloggers and being advocates.

And that is where you all come in.

We want to hear from you in comments on this post – what do you want to see, what kind of topics will rock your world, what you see as the future of #u30pro. This has never solely been about us – more about the community we built on a strong foundation and have grown to love.

So, let us know. You can always reach out to us on Twitter –> @davidspinks @cubanalaf @sjhalestorm, or by e-mail at u30pro@gmail.com.

You guys are awesome. Now go rock it.

- L, D and S

Dig what you read? Share with others:

Robert Innis

It is tough to sty on top of each chat from week to week, but getting the updates are key in keeping me engaged. I would like to hear more about what other people like me are doing? (The ones who have been out of school for X amount of year, but still has 0 years of relevant experience, compared to the recent college grad with the ill portfolio)

What can we do to keep ourselves from constantly comparing ourselves with more successful Gen Yers in the same age category (and beating our selves up from makeing the wrong post college career discussions)?
https://confusedyetamused.word...
laurenfernandez

Awesome, thanks for the topic suggestions, Robert!
Rich Pulvino

Agree with the toughness behind the freestyles. I like the idea, but it can get pretty hard to follow the conversations because so many different questions and answers keep popping up. I really like the idea behind extending the conversations beyond the 8-9pm time slot. #u30pro tweetups, or something of the sort, can help diversify the channel in which the network communicates with each other. Sitting on conference panels - awesome idea! A lot of students and young professionals attend conferences looking for career advice and this could be a great learning tool for them. Either way, pretty pumped for the re-energizing...keep up the great work!
laurenfernandez

Im glad many agree about the crazy of freestyle - although Spinksy loves 'em. :-)

Hmm... tweetups is an interesting idea. Do you think it will only focus on certain areas where a lot of community members live? Or will it bring in others?
Rich Pulvino

I would hope that the tweetups would bring in others, but I think that they'd start in areas where a lot of community members live. Also, encouraging people to set skype meetings could be another way to help the community. Can't beat face-to-face networking, and since the u30pro network is so dispersed, it could brings things a little closer.
Erica Lawton

I have to echo a bit of what's already been said; I think having another platform to connect with and promote each other would be a positive way to expand. Even though the digests are great to skim through, it's just not the same experience and you're missing out on the group dynamics and networking opportunities.

I think it's fantastic that the three of you are so committed to the chat and its continued improvement - good work, folks! :)
laurenfernandez

Thanks, Erica!

It's definitely something we have been mulling over - how can we really connect besides just on social networks? Do we need to utilize our Brazen community page more? We are currently in the works to get a Web site up, so we will definitely be asking you guys for opinions on that. :-)
emilyjasper

I feel bad because summer (and moving) is going to take me away from a lot of the live chats. But I agree with Jackie and other comments below: it'd be great to have some other ways for us to connect all the other hours of the week to share info when we may not make the chats. Also, in the moment, it's a great way to have some conversations, but that next step of sharing resources might not happen once the hour is up. It'd also be a great way to keep people feeling in the loop about inside jokes and getting to know contributors on other levels.

I enjoy the topics a lot, though I admit I have a hard time with freestyle. I'm just one of those people who like parameters...

Keep up the good work!
laurenfernandez

Thanks, E!

I have a hard time with freestyle too - I complain about it constantly. It's why the boys call me Mom. :P

I've thought about publishing excerpts from our behind the scenes Skype chats - so you guys can see what we are doing behind the scenes, inside look at our jokes, etc.

I love the idea of different ways to share once the hour is up. It's definitely going on the list.
Scott Hale

Sharing and continuing conversation/relationships outside of the one hour dedicated to #u30pro is definitely something we could do better. There's great content flowing through the #u30pro tag throughout the week, and there's no doubt we can all benefit from continued & deepening relationships with other young pros and the vets who are kind enough to share some knowledge.

If we set up a tag cloud for behind-the-scenes chats, it would be dominated by the words "BOOM" and "truth"
Jackie Adkins

I'd love to see you guys give some of the #u30pro participants voices away from the chat. The first medium that comes to mind is of course a blog, but it could also be recorded skype calls w/ someone about a certain topic, or even trying to line up #u30pro panels at events.

Whatever it is, know that you guys are doing a great job and everyone really appreciates the work you put into it each week!

You guys rock! Big time.
Scott Hale

You're the man, Jackie. Like Spinks said - the first thing we realized is that we need a better platform to highlight the ideas and work of our community. A one hour chat isn't enough to get that done effectively, so you'll be seeing some expanding efforts and your ideas will propel that.
David Spinks

Thanks Jackie,

That's definitely one of the first things we decided we want to put more focus on...a platform for our community members to share their specific ideas.

An interview series could be a great way to do that.

...and #u30pro panels would be great.
Tim Jahn

Agreed about the Skype calls. I'm a big fan of interviews and listening to (or even better, watching!) them.

In fact, if you need someone to do video interviews... :)
Jackie Adkins

Very smooth, Mr. Jahn :) I hear you have done an interview or two before.
laurenfernandez

NO WAY YOUVE DONE VIDEO INTERVIEWS?!

:P I crack myself up.
Melissa Breau

The only thing I can think of to suggest is a method for more than advice - the u30pro crowd is full of resourceful individuals, most of whom love to network but I wonder if there is a better way to actually help each other advance. I think we each try to establish ourselves as "experts" in given categories. I recently used #brazen (brazencareerist.com) to create a conversation about mentoring - how I could help someone else, and areas in which I could use mentoring - and having a platform that was more dedicated and conducive to that type of thing would be fantastic. If you want to check out the thread its http://bit.ly/bWKqf0 - Don't know if that helps or not, but I love what you guys do and wanted to offer something :-)
David Spinks

Thanks Melissa,

We hope to do this with our site and we're just trying to figure out the best approach. We definitely want it to be a place where any young pros can turn for advice.
thao le

You guys are awesome, even though I've missed 3-4 months worth of #u30pro! I would like to see more topics like when to quit your internship, navigating career changes, couch surfing, volunteering abroad/NPO work, an office politics series, burning bridges (sometimes you just have to?!), startup life, gen-y generalizations, networking style (in-person), and so on...I may have repeated some topics, since I've missed out on a lot! Keep up the great work!

@lethao
laurenfernandez

Hey, thanks! Even though people miss, we always encourage them to come and go as they can make it. We know how it can be to get busy, so totally understandable.

Great suggestions - we will go look at the topic list and see if we have already discussed. If not, on the list!
Jenn pedde

Wow, love the re-energy! Honesy I've been living the specific topics as of late. They aren't the generic job searching things that seem to be everywhere. I think the lesser amounts of tweets might just be because it's just about summer for most, the kids are out of school, and Thursday is prime party time. I'm with you guys all the way, but stay true ponyboy. #u30pro is still awesome. :)
laurenfernandez

I definitely dig specific topics - but we are looking into how we can make it a bit more in your control, whether it is picking out a topic and you guys throw out questions, etc. We love suggestions and hope the summer fever gets everyone to keep coming in!
heatherwhaling

You guys are great! This is exactly how communities *should* evolve. Congrats to you for taking a step back and refocusing on your core purpose. That's why u30pro is such a strong group -- and apparently on track to be even better! :)

Heather
@prTini
David Spinks

Thanks so much Heather (= Your support means a lot to us.
laurenfernandez

ROCK ON, Heather. Means so much coming from you!