Today I'm launching my own version of the “100 Person Project”.

Introduction

Some ago now, I was reading an article on 99U, a resource and event blog for creatives by Adobe, where they talked about this 100 Person Project.

The article, called The 100 Person Project: Crowdsourcing Your Next Career Move, written by Chris Guillebeau and taken from his book Born for This, describes an interesting project set up by Shenee Howard, a friend of the author.

At a certain point in her career as a brand strategist, Shenee found herself at a dead end: no clients and no money. But rather than running straight into the arms of the many gurus, coaches and mentors out there to find what she was doing wrong, she decided to reach out to one hundred ordinary people by offering free 15-minute meetings, where she would put her problem-solving skills to good work (provided these problems were work-related, obviously).

Now, the point of these free sessions was not to take the opportunity to just sell more paid services, but rather to find out two things:

1. What the most common problems in her network were.
2. What their most valued skills and characteristics were.

The experiment was a success.

Soon afterwards, many of the people who had benefited from Shenee's advice became her clients, others wrote positive reviews about her professionalism, and it led to productive collaborations with others.

Since Born for This and the 99U article were published, other professionals have used this method to find out not only how best to approach potential clients, but also as a tool for introspection.

As Chris Guillebeau says,

Shenee’s success story is inspiring, but the greater point is that you can tap into the wisdom of 100 people to help you get closer to figuring out the work you were born to do. The key is to use the experiment not to drum up business but to get feedback on which of your skills and talents are most valued — and maybe even test out how much demand there is for the product or service you think you can offer.

The project

As I already discussed in another blog post, I'm naturally drawn to many different topics, but I find it hard to pin just one down.

I have also decided to give this project a try, not so much with a view to expand my professional network, since the translation agency I run is still operating (although that will also be put to the test by the current state of emergency and the ensuing economic crisis), but rather with a view to see the landscape of my surroundings more clearly, and get a sense of how to make the most of the skills I have.

That is why today, Monday March 30th 2020, I am officially launching my very own 100 Person Project, albeit rebranded as “A Joiner of Dots at Your Service”.

How it works

In order to take part (and you are all most welcome to do so):

1. Book yours online and choose from the available time slots.
2. Write your problem or query in the "How can I help you" field (see form below).
3. After booking your slot, you'll automatically be sent a confirmation email with the video-call details.
4. You might receive another email with any comments I might have about your request.
5. When the agreed date and time arrive, you can access the video-call by clicking on the link received in the email.

What I ask in return

Just to send you a short questionnaire after the session. Other than that, if you are satisfied with my advice, please share your opinion on social media and tag me (@marcocevoli on Twitter, for example) along with the hashtag #joinerofdots.

Since this project only makes sense when done with a wide range of people, I'm asking for your help to bring the number of people I help up to 100 as fast as we can. Just include a link to this same page: https://marcocevoli.com/en/blog/phone-a-friend.

In order to use the service in accordance with current regulations, participants will also have to give their express permission me to store their email address in a database (this request will appear during the reservation) and agree to receive my messages.

Thank you all for your help.