Ted Jordan From Outsider To Ally - Cultivating A Network to Advance Your Career
Conversations on Careers and Professional Life
Ted Jordan spent 24 years at Microsoft as a global program and account manager before becoming a consultant, professional speaker, and guest lecturer at UW Foster School of Business. His talk — From Outsider to Ally — reframes how we think about networking: less about tactics, more about making the other person feel seen. In this conversation, Ted shares the specific approaches he used to build relationships inside one of the world's most complex organizations — and what he teaches MBA students about doing the same. What we cover The subject line that gets a response every time Why...
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The Layoff Journey: From Dismissal to Discovery, with Steve Jaffe
Conversations on Careers and Professional Life
Layoffs are back in the headlines. Job postings are down. Hiring cycles are longer. What does that mean for MBA students and other professionals navigating today’s market? In this episode, I speak with Steve Jaffe, author of The Layoff Journey: From Dismissal to Discovery. Drawing on his experience of four layoffs across a 25-year marketing career, Steve maps job loss—and prolonged job search—to the seven stages of grief. This conversation is both practical and deeply human. You’ll learn: Why career disruptions are emotional, not just logistical — and how naming the grief process...
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Slide Decks vs. Slide Docs: Why So Many Presentations Miss the Mark
Conversations on Careers and Professional Life
In this episode I break down the difference between slide decks and slide docs—and talk about designing intentionally for each. Many presentation problems don’t stem from weak ideas or poor analysis. They come from using the wrong artifact for the job. Slides overloaded with text are often treated as presentations when they’re really documents meant to be read. The result? Confused audiences, long meetings, and diluted messages. I explain why slide decks and slide docs serve fundamentally different purposes—and why trying to make one file do both almost always fails. In this...
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Make Your Insights Obvious With Effective Data Visualization
Conversations on Careers and Professional Life
Data doesn’t persuade. Insight does. In this episode, I break down what effective data visualization really means—and why most charts fail to do their job. This isn’t about making slides look prettier. It’s about helping your audience think clearly, decide faster, and trust your analysis. Drawing on lessons from Edward Tufte’s work and Good Charts by Scott Berinato, Gregory explains how to move from cluttered, confusing visuals to charts that make the point unmistakable. You’ll learn: Why every chart should answer one clear question—and how to define it before you design How...
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The Glance Test: Why Your Slides Must Make Sense in 3 Seconds
Conversations on Careers and Professional Life
The Glance Test is a simple but powerful rule for slide design: if your audience can’t understand the point of a slide within a few seconds, the slide isn’t doing its job. In this episode, I explain why slides that demand too much reading or decoding cause audiences to stop listening—and how the Glance Test helps protect attention during live presentations. You’ll learn how strong, message-driven titles anchor understanding, why visual simplicity matters more than precision, and how to design slides that support your voice rather than compete with it. The episode also explores the...
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One Idea Per Slide: The Rule That Will Change Your Presentations
Conversations on Careers and Professional Life
Many presentations fall apart not because the ideas are weak, but because the slides are doing too much at once. When a single slide contains multiple messages, charts, or competing points, the audience stops listening and starts decoding. In this episode, I explain why the “one idea per slide” principle is so effective—and why it’s one of the fastest ways to improve clarity in presentations. You’ll learn what “one idea” actually means, how strong sentence-based titles do most of the work, and how to use visuals that reinforce your message rather than compete with it. The episode...
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ENCORE: MBA Alums Offer Advice on Effective Interviewing
Conversations on Careers and Professional Life
Foster Alumni Share What They Listen For When They Interview Job Candidates Every fall and winter, MBA students gear up for behavioral interviews with an understandable mix of anticipation and anxiety. We spend hours coaching them on frameworks, stories, and delivery. But nothing beats hearing directly from the people on the other side of the table. On this encore episode of Conversations on Careers and Professional Life, I brought together four Foster MBA alumni—now at Accenture, Google, Walmart, and Goldman Sachs—to share what they actually listen for when evaluating...
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Students Reflect on Foster MBA Core Case Competition
Conversations on Careers and Professional Life
In this episode of Conversations on Careers & Professional Life, we go inside the Autumn Quarter Integrated Case Competition at the Foster School of Business—a one-week sprint where MBA teams analyze an acquisition case, submit a written recommendation, and deliver a 25-minute presentation to faculty, alumni, and industry judges. I speak with three students from finalist teams: Nat Fernandes (Class of 2027) – whose team placed third, emphasizing early alignment and organized execution. Josh Gonzales (Class of 2027) – part of the second-place team, highlighting team cohesion built...
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Engage First, Then Inform: A Better Way to Start Any Communication
Conversations on Careers and Professional Life
On this episode I share a principle that shows up again and again in great communication but is often overlooked by professionals: you have to earn attention before you earn understanding. Too many presentations, meetings, and messages begin with dense context, background, or data. But audiences don’t start in “information-processing mode.” They start in attention mode — scanning for relevance. If the opening doesn’t grab them, the content that follows doesn’t land. The core idea of this episode is simple but transformative: Engage first. Then inform. Attention Is the...
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Structure Matters: Why Good Ideas Need Great Organization
Conversations on Careers and Professional Life
Structure isn’t a formatting exercise. It’s the foundation of every clear, persuasive communication. Whether you’re giving a presentation, writing an email, or leading a meeting, structure is the difference between an idea that gets ignored and an idea that creates action. In the latest episode of Conversations on Careers and Professional Life, we explore why structure matters so profoundly — and how leaders, students, and professionals can use it to communicate with more clarity and impact. Why Structure Matters Human beings aren’t wired to process information in random fragments....
info_outlineOn this episode, I talk about something that comes up all the time in my coaching sessions with MBA students—and that’s networking. I've talked about it before on the podcast on episode 1202 "Reframe the way you think about networking and asking for help" I'll drop a link in the show notes. I encourage you to go back and give that one a listen.
As generative AI has proliferated on both sides of the job search with candidates using it to submit more and more customized applications, and recruiters using it to filter through piles of hundreds or thousands of applicants, relationships are once again increasingly important in learning about opportunities before they are public, and securing interview invites.
So many job seekers have what I call the hunter/gatherer mindset in their job search: they scour job boards for opportunities, and submit applications. I would encourage anyone in an active job search -- or anyone who thinks they might be in an active job search in the next 6 to 18 months, to adopt what I call the gardener mindset.
Let’s dig in. (no pun intended)
If you’re like many MBA students—or honestly, professionals at any stage—you may have a complicated relationship with networking.
You know you’re supposed to do it. You’ve heard it's important.
But maybe it feels awkward. Transactional. A little sleezy even. I picture Christian Bale as Patrick Bateman in American Psycho with his heavy-bond embossed business card.
Maybe you don’t want to “bother” people. Or maybe you're waiting until you have a clear goal or ask before reaching out.
I get it. That hesitation is totally normal.
But here’s the thing—networking is not a one-time transaction. It’s not about reaching out only when you need something. It’s not just about collecting contacts on linkedin like pokemon cards.
Networking—effective, sustainable, authentic networking—is about building relationships over time.
That’s where the gardener mindset comes in.
Imagine you're a gardener.
You don’t just toss seeds into the dirt one day and expect to harvest a salad the next.
You prepare the soil. You plant a variety of seeds. You water them. You protect them from frost. You wait. You come back to check on them. Sometimes they sprout. Sometimes they don’t. Different plants mature on different schedules. Some may require years before you are ready to harvest anything.
The same is true for relationships in your professional life.
When you meet someone at an event, or reach out for a coffee chat—you’re planting a seed. Having that conversation is watering it.
Following up with an authentic note is watering it.
Another follow up after you took some advice they gave you… is watering it
Sharing an article or podcast with them, or an update on your journey—that’s watering it.
When you refer someone else to them, or cheer on their LinkedIn update—that’s tending the garden.
You’re not always sure which seeds will grow or when they’ll bloom. But if you keep showing up, nurturing those relationships, you’ll start to see the garden take shape.
And here’s the beautiful thing: relationships compound over time.
Opportunities, referrals, mentorship—they often emerge from the people you’ve been in touch with for years, not just weeks. But you have to invest in those relationships before you “need” them.
So how do you network like a gardener?
It's like the old saying, when's the best time to plant a tree? 20 years ago. When's the second best time? Today. So Here are a few quick tips:
- Start early. Plant the seeds now. Just like a health garden will be diverse, you need a diverse strategy: reach out to current contacts, reconnect with old contacts, attend events to make new contacts.
- Be curious, not transactional. Ask questions about their path. Their decision points. What they’ve learned. I love Steve Dalton's TIARA framework for informational interviews, that stands for asking questions about Trends, Insights, Advice, Recommendations, and Assignments they are working on. Listen to my conversation with Steven, I'll drop a link in the show notes.
- Follow up thoughtfully. A quick note saying “Thanks again, I found your advice helpful” and specifically name what was helpful! A personal message -- it doesn't have to be long -- will go a long way.
- Give back when you can. Share an article. Introduce someone. Celebrate their wins. Ask them if there is anything you can do for them in return. That kind of reciprocity can build rapport.
- Track your outreach. Not to be mechanical—but to stay organized. Relationships grow with attention. Especially when you are in a more active phase of your search, develop a system for tracking your contacts. This can be as simple as a spreadsheet, or something more robust like a CRM.
Networking isn’t about having the perfect pitch--or heavy bond, embossed business card. It’s about building trust, credibility, and rapport.
It’s about investing in people and communities over time—knowing that some of those relationships will blossom into opportunities in ways you can’t predict right now.
So as you move through your MBA, or any career transition, I invite you to think like a gardener.
Be patient. Be intentional. Keep planting. Keep watering.
And trust that the harvest will come.