Being on the receiving end of vague questions and outreach certainly humbles you and makes you more self-aware about how you make use of another person's time.

Asking better, specific, and intentional questions can make the difference between an opportunity or a closed door.

The truth is, not everyone received the training and mentorship to understand how to polish their professional communication. Instead of vilifying folks for it, we can push back, gently, ask for more and better.

For our younger one (the 20-somethings), we have to teach.

I'll never forget when I was working in beauty and an incredibly polished and seasoned professor/beauty executive let me pitch an idea to her. She gave me harsh but helpful feedback about my proposal. It stung a bit, but she helped me to elevate my work.

She provided me a resource for templates (this was pre the explosion of things like Creative market and Google slides) and even let me shadow her.

I am a visual learner and had to pick up much of my style by watching others. Folks watch us as well.

There is a distinction, however, when people are just severely underprepared. Protect your time at all costs.

But also consider when people just really don't have the seasoning and might need a bit of a "teachable moment".

Grace is required, for us all.

I cringe every time I think about my professional missteps, particularly when I was learning and had to gather information in passing. My family couldn't teach me how to walk through the world, and "level up" as they say.

When I was an intern at Jones Magazine, it was an older fly executive who gave me her ticket to a fancy media party and sent a limo to my hood-ass apartment in Harlem. It was such a dream. I had to look through magazines and have my friends dress me so that I "looked the part".

It's scary walking into territory you're unfamiliar with or don't know the answers to the questions. This is why I admire the plethora of "Teachers" who proffer their knowledge via podcasts, books, guides, workshops, Youtube, and across social media. I WISH I had this coming up.

I took my first international business flight and learned to run trade show events as a salesperson because my mentor and big sis @browngirlmktg took me under her wing, sent me on my first trip to Paris, and gave me some coaching. #MentorshipMatters

I know, we're all so very important, and busy, and high caliber, and efficient, and meeting with VCs and looking like pseudo-celebrities on social media.

But honestly, behind the scenes we're all learning how to walk into rooms we're still growing into.

Grateful for the platform providers and folks I listen to and learn from RELIGIOUSLY because you know what? I have ABSOLUTELY no idea what I am doing roughly 50% of the time.

I'm just trying to build things that matter, honor my friends, this life, & pay off my student loans.

I will always share the content that has helped to shape me like @myleik's podcast, @MindaHarts and @raven_solos's books, @marshahbarnes financial resources, @Latesha_Byrd's coaching (I sponsor a few sessions a year) with my mentee and those who don't have folks developing them.

Lastly, keep in mind that millennials DID not get coached. We graduated and were expected to take our fancy degrees into a workforce that said we didn't have enough experience to get paid in an entry-level job. NO one was training us in mainstream corporate environments.

I had to read and watch @ramit to learn how to interview based on the market, not on antiquated advice that did not match that of a super high-tech environment.

There was no IBM training program. Perhaps a few orgs here and there. Companies were looking for the cheapest labor.

The startups I worked in did not offer mentorship programs. So professional development is unfortunately a solo mission.

Give those development books out for Christmas, Hannakuh, Kwanzaa, and Eid. We have to prepare the next generation for what we can't see yet.

I sat on the porch of @jentrification when I first moved to Charlotte, and just listened and watched the caliber of how she communicated her ideas and was unapologetic in her intellect.

She's my advisor today & provides thoughtful critiques that make me & my work better.

There are so many women and men of all backgrounds who have poured into me, whether formally or informally.

Who are you pouring into? Even if you can only do so a few times a year?

We're responsible for helping others, who desire to learn, to learn to walk.

Lastly, help folks out that you can see are true hustlers and help them clean up a bit.

I liken that flex to the old Motown way. Teach them how to present, walks, interview, etc.

That's what digital society provides us: finishing school via podcasts and video.