Career Arc Stories, A Conversation with Nicole Felter

Is there someone you know who has the kind of spark and enthusiasm that empowers you to shine every time you talk to them?

Nicole Felter is that person to me. It’s no surprise that she’s channeled this superpower into her work and leveraged it to be a successful community lead, events manager, and connector. Learn how Nicole discovered that she developed her community building skills well before her professional career began and how she found an opportunity that propelled her career after experiencing an unexpected personal health setback. 

Did you choose your career or did your career choose you? 

It’s funny because I don't really consider myself to have a career. Although, I guess I do. I feel like I have a set of interests that I like to follow professionally. On the outside I'm sure somebody would say, she has a career in community or in marketing. 

When it comes to finding myself and finding the roles that I’ve had, I think they found me. One thing that's common in the community industry, which is essentially events and community building, people are typically in these types of positions earlier in their life. For example, when I was in college I was in a sorority and one of the positions that I held with my sorority was Vice President of Programming. That experience translates well into a community role. Just being involved in a lot of roles like that, things that I really liked doing, kind of shaped my future without me even realizing it. 

Looking back, what I thought I really wanted to do, what I thought my skills were, and what my skills are, helped me realize the potential that I had. 

I think my career found me. I'm glad that it did because I feel really empowered in the work that I do. I enjoy the work that I do. Even when it's difficult or rough. 

How did your upbringing or personal experience influence your professional career? 

An important skill that I have and a skill that I think is good for people to develop is being adaptable. When I was growing up, my parents had to work and so I went to a babysitter. My babysitter was Puerto Rican. She and her entire family were all from Puerto Rico. They moved to New York shortly before she started watching me. Because of this I learned a lot of things growing up translated backwards. For example, instead of paper towel, I learned ‘towel paper.’ Then, when I was in kindergarten until middle school, I went to a friend's house after school every day. They essentially became family to me. 

I mentioned these two things because they had an impact on my ability to adapt to certain situations and to be open. I approach my work and my life in this way. What do I mean by that? A subset of the work in the community is diversity and inclusion. Had I not had those experiences growing up, I wouldn't be able to be so interested in this work. 

I approach different situations in a non-judgmental way. I think those two experiences growing up and studying abroad in Argentina really opened my eyes to the world. Then, trying to find work while I was living in Argentina. Those experiences taught me a lot. 

What was a major obstacle, setback or challenge that you overcame? 

When I graduated from college, I had participated in a lot of different programs. I was a part of an executive board for Up ‘Til Dawn for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, a volunteer for the student alumni program, and in a sorority where I held various positions, to name a few. I didn't realize the potential that all these things had. 

When I was getting into the “real world” I didn't feel like I had any value to position myself with. I didn't look for jobs that I was actually qualified to do, mostly because I didn't know the kind of work that I could do with the skills that I gained in college. So, I moved to Argentina after living in the U.S. for a little bit and I began working teaching English. 

I was teaching English in Argentina when I got pregnant. During my pregnancy, I suffered from severe Hyperemesis Gravidarum and ended up moving back to the U.S. to stay at home with my family for most of my pregnancy. It was miserable and I didn't have any work to do. Two months after I had Gabriel, I thought that I wanted to be a stay-at-home-mom. However, I slowly came to realize that I didn’t like being a stay-at-home-mom. It's great for people who can do it, but it’s not for me. I found myself becoming depressed and anxious. I was in a really bad economic situation because I didn't have a job and was drowning in student loans. I nearly had to defer on my student loans. It was a horrible time to say the least. 

Luckily, that’s when PowertoFly came in. They gave me an opportunity- they took a chance on someone because they realized the potential I had that I was unable to recognize. Getting into that organization opened doors for me and propelled my career. 

What role did networking play in your career success? 

A huge obstacle that I overcame was postpartum anxiety and depression. When I was depressed, I felt like I didn’t have a lot to offer. Getting into PowertoFly, meeting all these different people, getting this community role I have today is because of networking. It’s important to have a foundation of people that you connect with. It's so important to make those connections and build out your network. 

Make time for networking in your month or week. Whether it's just sending an email and saying, “Hey! I wanted to catch up. I want to talk to you about this...” Or, reaching out to people in your organization and saying, “Hey! You're doing this and I'm really interested in it. Can you tell me a little bit more about what you do?” You never know where these conversations can go. 

For example, I was really interested in building a place at PowertoFly for parents. So, I helped to start these parent’s panels. I started with the person in charge of marketing. From there, I took a course on social media through HubSpot. Then, when a role opened in marketing, she contacted me. She said, hey I have this role that's opening and I think you would be perfect for it because I know that you're also learning more about marketing. Would you be interested? That would not have happened if I didn’t connect with her. 

Even just looking at my career now and the work I'm doing, building out a network of people to reach out to about different conversation topics is so valuable in other ways. When people reach out and say, hey I'm looking for someone for this role or people post on LinkedIn that they’re looking for a certain role, I have people I can recommend to them. I definitely attribute a lot of the work that I've been able to get and what I'm doing now to my network. Especially these two last roles that I held. People referred me for those jobs. 

Your response to this question and your personal experience is going to be so valuable for a lot of people who read this. People often don't realize how valuable these relationships are over the course of your career.
Yes, I echo everything that you're saying, and I truly believe that the foundation of everything is relationships. Even if that means you just take 30 minutes each Friday to connect with somebody. Put yourself out there. It could be your next big career move. People will be thinking of you the next time they have something that could be of interest to you. 

One of the biggest things that I've learned is people love talking about themselves. If there's someone you're really interested in talking to, just let them talk about themselves, about their career path. You don't have to do too much talking. Just go to the conversation prepared with three or four questions. For example, “I've seen that you've been working on this or that you're in this industry. Can you tell me a little bit more about that? How did you get there? What are the things that you've found most surprising about the industry that you're working in? Where would you like to go from here? If you could change anything about this industry, what are those things?” 

Again, people love talking about themselves which can take a lot of the pressure off you as you’re trying to build your network. 

What advice would you give to your younger self? 

Stop being so hard on yourself. I’m still giving myself this advice.

Also, don't waste time with people, things, jobs, or places that don't fill your cup. Looking back, I spent a lot of energy in the wrong places. Recognize and understand your value. 

What is your personal brand in 10 words or less? 

Working to build a more inclusive world. 

More about Nicole Felter 

Nicole Felter is a passionate community builder who cares about intentionally building diverse programming, supporting underrepresented groups, and being an advocate for equity. She’s an active listener who's always looking to improve the community experience. Constantly looking for feedback to ensure that when things are growing, they are also improving those users' experiences. Nicole has become skilled at making magic happen through my resourcefulness and love growing ideas into reality. 

Nicole is the Founder of Gagoni Solutions LLC, a consultancy that helps startups and Fortune 500 companies build a diverse and equitable company culture through curated events. She also serves as Community Manager at Zeit and Event Specialist at Girls Who Code. Learn more about Gagoni Solutions LLC at www.gagonisolutions.com.