So you’re thinking about going after your first corporate board position. Unfortunately, it’s not just a matter of applying and hoping for the best — there’s a lot that goes into finding the right role, evaluating the company’s values, determining the skills you bring to the table, and actually sitting down and filling out the board materials that could get you that coveted role.

At the Women in Retail CEO Experience in New York in February, five executive-level women who have decades of combined corporate board experience shared their tried-and-true methods for what to do when you’re thinking about your next (or first) board role. (Women in Retail Leadership Circle is the sister brand of Women Leading Travel & Hospitality.)

1. Network and cast a wide net.

Jyothi Rao, who serves on the boards of J.Jill, Bubble Beauty, Contentsquare, Careismatic Brands, SALUTE, and Boston Consulting Group, said your network is the most important asset you have during a board search. “Most board roles get filled through the network of the existing board, like it or not,” Rao said. “That is the name of the game.”

Public boards have a process, including hiring a search firm to kick things off, but Rao said there’s always a short list from the network of existing board members. Rao’s advice is to find every single person you know who’s currently on a board, even if their board doesn’t have a position open, and let them know you’re interested in board work.

Rao’s second piece of advice: “Don’t fall in love with your dream board list.” She advises casting your net wide and thinking about all of the types of companies where your skills would be valued.

2. Let your intentions be known.

“Some people think if I ask for a board role or I let my friends know or my network know then I’m full of myself; that’s not the case,” said JuE Wong, CEO of Performance Beauty Group who also sits on the boards of FireFly Automatix and The Honey Pot Company. Echoing Rao, Wong also advises being very clear in what you can do for the company you’re interested in. Wong said her pet peeve is when someone says, “Anything you want me to do, just call me.” Instead, she wants to hear exactly what you can do for her; in turn, she will share exactly what she can do for you.

Wong shared how she got on FireFly Automatix’s board: While taking her former company Olaplex public, Wong formed a solid working relationship with the liaison officer at Nasdaq, who told Wong that of all the companies working on IPOs that year, Olaplex was the only one that felt like everyone was working together. When that Nasdaq liaison officer began serving on FireFly Automatix’s board, she thought of Wong when another board position opened up.

3. Figure out your value.

Nancy Freda-Smith, who was most recently a board member of the Texas-based Tex-Mex restaurant chain Chuy’s, said it’s important to identify the values and skills you bring to that board as you’re writing your board application materials.

4. Don’t discount LinkedIn or your current company board.

Two of Jennifer Carr-Smith’s board roles came from LinkedIn connections. Therefore, she advises keeping your LinkedIn profile current. Carr-Smith is a board director for Woolworths Group, Perdue Farms, and Local Bounti.

Carr-Smith also suggests to CEOs not to discount their companies’ current boards. She said it’s a good idea to tap into the network of your current board because they’ve seen the way you work and are well-connected. “They could be your best advocates,” said Carr-Smith.

5. Seek out governance and risk experts.

Lisa Shalett, co-founder of Extraordinary Women on Boards, recommends getting curious about the people who are dealing with governance and risk that you work with every day but who you may not have had detailed conversations with. “Those people can be super helpful in just giving you additional perspectives on how to think about risks, which is a very important role that boards play,” she said.

6. Use ChatGPT as a tool.

Shalett also suggests dropping your bio into ChatGPT and asking it what skills are listed in the bio that would be relevant to a board position, and why. She also suggests asking ChatGPT what the top 10 risks that boards are facing and how does your background address those risks.

“It’s incredible what kind of brainstorming dialogue you can have that way that can get you thinking about things you want to learn and ways you can prepare for positioning yourself,” noted Shalett.