Suggestions
Karen Wickre
Communicator and connector in tech
Karen Wickre is a seasoned communicator and content strategist based in San Francisco, California. She is the founder of Kvox Media and has extensive experience in editing, curation, and connecting people and ideas. Wickre emphasizes her passion for effective communication across various platforms, particularly in business contexts, corporate social media, and change management.
Professional Background::
- Expertise: Wickre specializes in business communication aimed at engaging visitors, customers, and critics. She is recognized for her skills in corporate social media strategy and fostering company culture.
- Publications: She is the author of "Taking the Work Out of Networking," which is available in multiple formats including paperback and e-book.
Wickre describes her unique ability as "common sense," enabling her to ask insightful questions that lead to practical solutions. Her approach often includes elements of emotional intelligence, positioning her as an effective advisor within organizations.12
Highlights
Once again, apologies. I got too busy to post on #wickrewednesday, but part of the busy-ness led to an observation I think you'll find useful. Yesterday I had a long-awaited first session with an excellent dog trainer for my newly adopted pittie girl, Franny. (She's nearly 5, and can get overly animated when she spots some — not all — dogs and even people on the horizon. Lots of theories about why; the main thing now is that she learns how to be calm and focused out in the world.)
Trainer Erika got right to work, and we spent an hour essentially practicing with Franny to refocus on me in a big park with lots of activity. We learned about purposeful U-turns, funny sounds, "find it" for hidden treats, and lots more, all so Franny learns to pay attention to me instead of whichever distractions. And to earn her attention and get that refocus, I must recognize her need for entertainment, stimulation, and reward treats.
This all came to mind later in the day when I spoke at a virtual meetup for a professional women's organization. One question I got (and often get): how do I avoid being too transactional when I need a favor?
Strange as it may seem, I flashed back to Franny's training a few hours earlier. With someone whose attention I need to earn (for an introduction, advice, etc.), I have to first focus on them: their interests, relevant context, mutual contacts, or some other alignment. Generally I think people are inclined to help, but they need information first in order to succeed. (Their reward is a good feeling, an appreciative contact, maybe the hope that someone will pay their effort forward.)
People are motivated by relevant engagement that draws them in. Franny needs my focus to help her focus. Both humans and canines need to keep practicing for ongoing improvement! Whether or not you think this tie-in from two hours of my day yesterday, I hope my point lands. And hello from Franny!*
*I'd love to include her pic here, but LinkedIn does not make it easy to correctly size photos for posts, and I didn't want a 12" Franny overwhelming a 4" post. Tips welcome!
Yikes! My #wickrewednesday moment is...on Thursday this week. Sorry about that — life got in the way yesterday.
On my mind today: The way we say goodbye to a client, company or colleague can reveal a lot about us, for good or not so good.
Something in this realm happened to me recently, with a corporate client I had for about two years. I collaborated regularly with four or five of the team on drafts and final copy for a wide variety of corporate and product posts and commentary. Earlier this year I observed internal upheaval, with reorgs and product pivots becoming more frequent. I assumed my contract wouldn't be renewed. (One clue: my original contact had left the company, as had her successor). I got confirmation from someone in accounting I'd never met, larded in legalese to let me know the deal was over.
Hey, these things happen. It's part of consulting life. But what annoyed and disappointed me is that no surviving member of the team reached out to say "it's been nice working with you" or a similar nicety. Yes, the survivors might be super-stressed and beginning to scramble themselves. But how much effort does it take to send a line or two of bland thanks?
For my part I thanked the accounting person (which confirmed to him that I understood the end was nigh), and I sent a separate note to a frequent collaborator cc:d on that notice to me, thanking her and the rest of the team for our time together. Then came the disappointment: no reply (it's been a few weeks now). She missed a moment to be gracious. I don't need much pampering, but a quick "thanks for everything and good luck" would mean I'd remember her as a stand-up gal. Without it, a slight irritation makes its way to this post, and I wonder how that lack of manners might inform any future encounters. Since we tend to live and work in small ecosystems, we might run across each other again.
So consider this a plea for bit of kindness and generosity on the way out the door, whether for a colleague or a contractor. #networking
People also viewed
M
Related People
Mesh is a relationship management platform that serves as a personal CRM, helping you organize and deepen both personal and professional relationships. It functions as a beautiful rolodex and CRM available on iPhone, Mac, Windows, and web, built automatically to help manage your network efficiently. Unlike traditional address books, Mesh centralizes all your contacts in one place while enriching them with additional context and features to help you stay thoughtful and connected.
Mesh works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Mesh offers several powerful features including:
- Comprehensive Contact Management: Automatically collects contact data and enriches profiles to keep them up-to-date
- Network Strength: Visualizes the strength of your relationships relative to others in your network
- Timeline: Shows your relationship history with each contact
- Smart Search: Allows you to search using natural language like "People I know at the NYT" or "Designers I've met in London"
- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
- Home Feed: Displays updates about your network including job changes, news mentions, and birthdays
- Groups: Organizes contacts into meaningful categories
- Nexus AI: An AI navigator that helps you derive insights from your network, such as finding contacts who have been to specific places or work at particular companies
Mesh is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Mesh is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Mesh as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Mesh offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
Mesh takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Mesh encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Mesh work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Mesh is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Mesh is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Mesh is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Mesh offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Mesh offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Mesh for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Mesh accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Mesh offers extensive integration capabilities. Mesh introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Mesh supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Mesh also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
Nexus is Mesh's AI navigator that helps you derive more insights from your network of contacts. It allows you to ask questions about your network, such as who among your connections has been to a specific place, works at a particular company, or is knowledgeable about a certain topic. Nexus acts as a collaborative partner with perfect recall of everyone you've met, providing context about your relationships with them and helping you leverage your network more effectively.
Mesh makes it much easier to stay in touch with the people you care about. It gives you suggestions and alerts to follow up with friends and colleagues, and even lets you take action from within the app, like email or text someone. Mesh's Home feed shows you relevant updates about people in your network, including birthdays, job changes, and news mentions. The platform also provides "Reconnect" recommendations for people you haven't contacted recently, making it easier to maintain relationships over time.
Mesh is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Mesh stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Mesh excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Mesh is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Mesh offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Mesh's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Mesh has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Mesh is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Mesh beneficial.
Mesh offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Mesh offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Mesh's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Mesh offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Mesh focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Mesh also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Mesh offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
Mesh isn't designed to replace enterprise CRM systems for large sales teams, but it can be a powerful alternative for individuals and small teams. Many people use Mesh instead of Salesforce, Hubspot, and Pipedrive. Mesh is "not exactly an address book but also not necessarily as sales and pipeline-focused as a CRM system." The founders refer to their app as a "home for your people," carving out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. For solo entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small teams focused on relationship quality rather than sales pipelines, Mesh can absolutely serve as your primary relationship management tool.
Mesh is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
Mesh's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Mesh has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Mesh a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Mesh's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Mesh's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Mesh has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Mesh's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Mesh as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Mesh eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.
People also viewed
MRelated People