Today is another quick episode because I want to talk about the importance of finding a wing(wo)man.

As we all know, the wingman or wingwoman is the person that goes to the bar or the club with you when you’re single and helps you pick up chicks or dudes. Their job is to talk you up so that all of your awesomeness can be out there for the world – or just that person you have your eye on – to see without you having to be that arrogant obnoxious person bragging about yourself.

I was at an event the other day and one of my team members scolded me for not being willing to toot my own horn. It’s just something I’ve never been comfortable with, maybe because I’m an introvert, maybe because I’m a woman, who knows, but the way Jason did this was actually an amazing wingman play. He didn’t scold me privately about not being willing to brag about myself, he scolded me right in front of someone whom he thought it would be worth showing off to and listed a bunch of my accomplishments that he thought I should be sharing. Again, AMAZING wingman move because it allowed him to highlight the best of me hidden behind one of those interview-type weaknesses that aren’t really seen as huge weaknesses – the fact that I was too humble. If there was a gold medal for wingmanning, Jason would have won it in that moment.

Anyway, it got me thinking that everyone should have a professional wingman, not just a personal wingman. After this happened, Jason and I actually had a real conversation about how we can be very intentional with serving as each other’s professional wingman or woman in certain situations and making sure that the other gets recognition where recognition is due and I would highly recommend that every entrepreneur, or every professional of any sort, really, find a great professional wingman or wingwoman too.

Some tips for how to pick your wingperson:

1. They should be someone who knows you pretty well so the winging seems natural
2. They should be someone who’s also accomplished so their opinion that you’re awesome holds weight
3. They should be someone who’s in the same or a related industry so you’re at the same networking events regularly enough for this to actually work
4. They should be someone who complements you in a social situation so that the winging flawlessly goes both ways – if you’re an introvert, I recommend an extroverted wingperson who can help start the conversations and then you can take it home for them

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