Written by Destiny Henschel
On September 10th, 2019, Concordia University Chicago’s (CUC) College of Business hosted its first guest speaker for the 2019-2020 academic year. Matt Baron, the founder of Inside Edge, inspired numerous CUC students and faculty members. Giving insights and examples, Baron shared his greatest advice for students with the future in business. With experience writing for the big ten football conference, reporting in the Chicago area, and being a freelance writer for public relations and media services, Baron spoke to CUC students for an hour regarding advice for improving communication.
Through his experiences, Baron told the audience how he “learned to pay the bills,” on his own and how he learned to “own [his] own business.” With years of experience under his belt, Baron told CUC students they have to network. After a member of the audience asked how to network, Baron told them about, “just talking to people.” Basically, if there is something you want to achieve in life, go achieve it. Do not let the position or superior people scare you or make you timid, but rather be upfront and aggressive.
Money. Next in the service, Baron compared people to money and capital. Basically, if you have a good platform to network on, you are rich. He said, “when you reach out to people, have [sic] you built up capital, relationally.” So if you are scared to branch out to network, don’t be. Most people want to talk and they want to share their knowledge. If you want to build your network of people, Baron ensured the audience that “a lot of little steps” will put you in the correct direction when you are starting out. Simply stated, it is not an overnight process.
During the final moments of the event, a guest had asked Baron to tell guests his four best tips for effective communication. The first tidbit of advice is to add value. In your everyday life and in your workplace, find a way to create a purpose for every task. When talking about your credibility in every instance, Baron encouraged the audience to “show, don’t tell.” Prove your life is purposeful.
The second tip was to practice active listening. Whether you are in an interview or talking to your peers, active listening can help you find new information that you wouldn’t traditionally find in an interview setting. In listening, you actually achieve and learn more than you would when talking.
“Value ALL people” Baron mentioned was his third tip for effective communication. As humans, we all have different qualities that we can add to a conversation. Relating to his first tip of adding value to our own everyday lives, allow other people to add value to our lives.
Baron’s final tip of the service was to “expand your comfort zone.” He provided various examples through reading, listening to or performing music, writing poetry, performing science experiments, and many more. Becoming well rounded in many topics will make you a better conversationalist and communicator. In closing the service, Baron wanted students to stay in touch with himself and gave students his website http://www.insideedgepr.com /.
