A really great story - Don Kerr and Kevin Pashuk

How Kevin and Don met in person after connecting on beBee. What do a CIO and a professional storyteller have in common? It’s not the beginning of a joke, it’s affinity networking in the making!

Don Kerr and Kevin Pashuk separately read about beBee on LinkedIn and as both of them are fond of writing , they decided to give this social network a try and start publishing on its on-site blogging tool, Producer. As it turns out – and as they eventually came to learn – they live only a few miles apart from each other, and once they found out how much they have in common and how easy it was for them to meet up, they decided to take networking to the offline world.

We obviously wanted to know all about this great experience, so we got in touch with Kevin and Don and here is their story, that shows how beBee takes networking to a whole new level! Read up!

FIRST STEPS ON BEBEE

Kevin Pashuk

How did you come to be a part of beBee?

Kevin: I had come across the profiles of Paul Croubalian and Jim Murray on LinkedIn. Before too long, I noticed that they were starting to bemoan the algorithm in control at LI, which was significantly impacting their recent engagement on their articles. I am a regular blogger and had noticed the decrease in activity on my posts, so when they started discussing the virtues of beBee, of course I was interested.

I dipped my toe in the water with beBee with a couple of posts, and was absolutely gobsmacked at the amount of activity on these test cases. I then started moving posts over from LI as well as writing new ones.

Don: Within what seems like minutes I was engaged at a high-level by the affinity nature of the site. Then, when Javier reached out to me I was first of all gobsmacked that the CEO of the platform would make and take the time. I was secondly engaged by exploring a few of the hives and thinking that they might resonate more directly with my interests.

DON AND KEN’S AFFINITY

beBee gives people the opportunity to get to know each other in both a personal and a professional way, and this was key for Kevin and Don to discover the many interests they have in common.

“Leadership, education, photography, smart-ass quips, non-conventional thinking, location and as it turns out, some common history.” These are some of the interests that these two professionals discovered they had in common , according to Don. As Kevin says: “Don had a writing style that was professional, but down to earth with a bit of humour thrown in. If you read my posts you will see that I obviously salt my writing with humor and stories to make a point. I’m a firm believer in the power of storytelling. Don’s profile indicates he is a professional storyteller. How can I not like him?”

How did beBee’s hives help you connect and realize you shared common interests?

Don: Kevin has a powerful creative streak in him including some remarkable photography skills. He’s also in possession of real insight and interest on the leadership front and that, from my perspective, what first attracted me (you know, in a manly, intellectual fashion!) to him. That presumption proved accurate and I have found genuine enjoyment interacting with him and his perspectives.

Kevin: Don’s posts started showing up in my beBee feed, and as is the case at beBee, those of us who regularly comment on other’s writings started commenting on each other’s posts. Don has a marketing background, I have a technical / organizational development background. Because beBee lets us reveal our whole self, not just our professional one, we discovered different aspects of each other that did indeed reveal affinity.

How do you think being able to share not only professional, but also personal interests influenced your connection?

Don: Immeasurably. I cannot now truly separate my professional self from my real self. The two aspects have integrated and what I do to earn money is not substantially different from what I do to get through each day – live in the present moment, be insatiably curious, rekindle a childlike sense of wonder, celebrate small victories and try like hell to face adversity with hands open rather than fists clenched. I sensed this in Kevin through his writing and although we’ve only met in person once I think the transparency and authenticity he portrays on line is entirely consistent with his ‘real’ persona.

Kevin:  We talked about this today. I opened the conversation with stating that I hoped I didn’t look like a much older version of my profile picture… in essence trying to show the beBee world that I have a perfect life. beBee is real, posts by people such as John White are willing to show the challenging times as well. On beBee you get a better idea of the whole person.

How would you say this improves networking in general?

Don: Immeasurably. If one believes in work/life integration, authenticity, transparency, and has progressed beyond purely commercial pursuits while still seeking to engage with genuine individuals.

Kevin: On LinkedIn I’ve had a number of offers to meet for a beverage. I’ve never felt compelled to accept any of them since I couldn’t help but feel that the intent was purely professional, meaning ‘You are a CIO and I sell things to CIOs so we should meet!’ A genuine conversation was never the goal of these types of meetings.

AFFINITY NETWORKING GOES LIVE

Don Kerr and Kevin Pashuk meet in person after connecting on beBee

So, how did you guys decide to meet up and take online networking to the real world?

Kevin: One post in particular about Don’s new book (coming out soon) about his journey as a caregiver when cancer shows up in a partnership was particularly poignant for me. We then started a more regular comment/reply cycle. One post in particular about coffee inspired us to actually schedule a date to meet. I first started posting to beBee in the middle of April, making it two months since I joined. We connected in the middle of May to discuss connecting, and finally made it happen today.

Don: It didn’t take long. I don’t remember who first suggested it and it doesn’t matter but I think I threatened to arrange a rendezvous with Kevin and Jim Murray. It was easy for Kevin and I as we’re so close geographically (and it would be a pretty long bike ride for Jim). Within a couple of days Kevin and I had the time and date set.

In short, how would you define this experience ?

Kevin:  Connecting with someone on beBee, particularly those who are producers, gives you a fulsome picture of the person. Facebook only shows the ‘wonderful’ life they have (even though much is manufactured). LinkedIn is the professional side of the person – an online CV for the most part. beBee has captured the essence of meeting someone virtually to the point of when Don and I met this morning, it felt like we were continuing the conversation that had already started.

Don: Excellent and I hope to do it again. I am a big supporter of beBee for the reasons stated throughout my responses and in some of my postings to the Hive!