Hi, it's Helen from the Squiggly Careers podcast.

And you're listening or perhaps watching another one of our squiggly shortcuts.

These are weekly episodes designed to be deliberately short to make it easier for you to fit them into your week.

We always focus on a very specific topic and give you some easy actions to get started with.

And today I want to borrow a bit of brilliance actually from, from International Women's Day, where this year the theme is give to gain. And this really aligns

with what Sarah and I talk about in building your squiggly career community, which is that really

we want to use this idea of people helping people as a way to make sure that we're building

strong relationships. So it aligns

with this idea of give to gain. I want to talk about why it aligns and why it matters and then

how you can do it. So let's talk about the why for a moment. Why does give to gain matter for

your squiggly career? Two, two reasons, relationships and reciprocity. So the first is building relationships. It is easier for our brains to engage with helping people than it is for our brains to think, what can I get from them. So when you are building a new relationship with somebody or you're trying to build a better relationship with somebody,

if your starting point is, what have I got to give? How can I be helpful? That is just

mentally easier for our brains. We get this thing called the helpers high and it's just a

better starting place for us. So easier to build the relationships that you need, new ones and invest

in existing ones when we start with what have we got to give. Now the second reason that this

works is that that then results in reciprocity. Do you build a better relationship that results

in reciprocity, i.e., those people want to help you back. And I really think the best person who's shown research and done work on this is Adam Grant.

Very good TED Talk on the topic of kind of give and take.

Really, really, really useful.

So I dive into that if you want to learn more.

But what I really wanted to share with you is three ways in which you can give.

Because the hurdle I find when I'm talking

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