Why Growing Your Professional Network is Important to Your Success

Charissa Sims interviews Ram Castillo, an award-winning Design Director, Author, top-ranking Podcaster, International Speaker, CreativeLive Instructor and Approved Advisor based in Sydney. Specializing in digital spaces, customer experience design, branding and creative strategy. 

His parents originally came from the Philippines. And that’s his cultural background. His father grow up tough in the Philippines, lost his parents early at a very young age and the way out was really education. He was hardworking that he ended up finishing two degrees, Marine Transportation and Mechanical Engineering. But when they got to Australia, those two degrees were not recognized. And so their father did all the work, he worked at a factory just to support his three kids. Ram’s mother was one of five. And she had a mother who really raised them all through a little corner store to get by and a little sewing machine because her father was an alcoholic and wasn’t really around. They tried to ensure that they had opportunities for the future even if they only had a tablespoon of peanut butter and a piece of bread.

It is where the perspective quickly came to Ram, the self awareness of a different baseline. “You look at a world with decrease of getting anything, the patience, the decrease of resilience, because everything’s given to us. I’ve often said that the bar of convenience is so low, it’s so easy to be inconvenienced, that it can be quite dangerous nowadays.” Ram said.

When he was about four years old, he remember sitting in their apartment where they rented. His mother asked him what he want to be when he grow up? And Ram said, “I don’t know, Mom, I just want to make stuff and I was kind of distracted. I would collect empty tissue boxes, toilet paper rolls, I would make robots and cities.” And then she paused and said, “Well, remember whatever you want to do, make sure you dream really big. Dream much, much bigger.” “So she gave me at four years old, that gift, I didn’t know it at the time. But just go after whatever you want. There’s no set rule. There’s no permission that you need from anyone else. Whatever makes your heart sing kind of thing.”

Ram added, “there wasn’t this sort of, you need to pursue this path to be successful. I just never had those pressures. Yeah, granted that we weren’t wealthy, but I always felt that so financially wealthy, but I didn’t feel poor.” “And I guess it only came to high school where I realize that we didn’t have that much. You know, when my friends were getting brand new everything every year …But when I got home, I was so well fed. So well love, I felt safe.”

Ram said that he wasn’t the most intelligent in class. His grades were average or below. But he was great at art and that’s why he pursued design because I knew at a very young age that was for him. He would just constantly draw and make stuff and feeling and gaining a lot of confidence in art. And the thing that he loved most about art specifically and the same thing in design is you can impact someone without ever saying a single word.

Ram ended up wanting to go to a design school that his parents couldn’t afford and it was one of the top design schools in Australia. So what he did, he ended up applying to a no name college that wasn’t even known for having design as part of their curriculum. He took it because it was still the course that he could build his profession. He started in the mailroom career at Ogilvy in Sydney, one of the biggest advertising agencies in the world.

Ram may be over qualified for the job but he had met 350 professionals in his first week. He got to know them by name. He has to, he need to deliver their mail. And that has been the springboard to launching his entire career. Ram shared that when you’re around people, you get exposed to tools, systems, and processes. You get to observe the department stuffs. So you get to know pieces of one of the biggest companies in the world and you get to understand. “That was never taught to me in the course” Ram explained. “Or never taught to me in a book“. “The second thing is people started talking to me, I started building rapport.” Ram said, he basically has 350 coaches and mentors.

Four years after, Ram was already moving into midway designer role going up to a senior and because he was so much more equipped to do that. And then I just the trajectory just increased faster. I started then having to do pre round interviews for the company that I was in at the time, and I was interviewing people that I graduated with for more junior roles because they just didn’t end up getting a job. Ram navigated through and worked for other large agencies. The key part to all this is a multidisciplinary designer. He was able to even design probably one of the most fulfilling briefs that he ever worked on.

He specializes in human centered design, which is basically an application of design thinking methods, specifically there.

Ram’s definition of success is how well does he sleep at night. The reason is because, he had very little and he had a lot and he had everything in between. And if he is not sleeping well at night, then is that really wealthy? Is that really fulfilling? Is that really successful? I’ve had some nights where I’m like, could you have done better? Would you have been more honest? Could you have ever betrayed anyone? Have you ever been someone that maybe negotiated or compromise even their values? Did you disrespect anyone? Did you not?”

“You look at the lives of some very influential very publicly recognized people such as Celebrity Chef Anthony Bourdain. He died by suicide in the 18th of June 2018. Kate Spade, Three days before Anthony Bourdain, she committed suicide on the fifth of June 2018.” Ram said.

“Somebody, you would think that they have it all? Charissa emphasizes. “I mean both of them.” “And it’s just you just never know what’s going on the inside.”

Ram continued, “The most shocking for me was probably Robin Williams, you know, American actor, comedian, he died from suicide at the on the 11th of August 2014.”

According to Ram, success is only relative to the perspective or the operating system that we are viewing as successful. But he often asks people, “Do you know how much future you have left?” ‘And then they’re like, “No”.’ Ram emphasizes that we don’t have to do anything, everything is voluntary. Whatever version success means to you, we don’t have to do any of it. It’s all voluntary. Life is short not to be live. Even in life, there can’t be light without darkness. There can’t be courage without fear. There can’t be calm without chaos. And so when we talk about Zen success now, it’s what matters to you? And how well are you going to sleep at night?

Ram shares that among his interviewed there’s so many who standouts, One is his mentor named, Debbie Millman. She’s very well known in the world of design. She owns the world’s longest running design podcast. “And this will always sit with me,” Ram shared. “She said, RAM, the longer it takes, the longer it’ll last. The more you’ll be prepared for the success when it comes.”

Don’t feel like you have to go it alone. Seek for help. And that’s actually one of the fastest ways to get to where you want. Speak to people who have done what you ultimately want to do. Cut the guesswork.