I love gardens.
I also love to plan my garden by deciding what kinds of seeds to plant, where I will place them in the garden, and what type of soil will reap the best harvest.
Planting seeds requires planning.
After leaving the corporate world and becoming a freelancer, I wanted to grow my network.
I sent connection requests to anyone that had a shared connection. Just clicking the CONNECT button and maybe, including the LinkedIn suggested, “Let’s connect.”
I was scattering seeds with no planning and expecting them to grow into potential clients.
Ilise Benun’s 21-Day Challenge taught me that LinkedIn is more than just getting your number of connections to 500+. It’s about selecting the right ones.
Not only did I learn how to select potential connections, I also realized I was missing out on opportunities by not sending personalized requests or follow-up messages after my request was accepted. Using what I learned, I have begun to grow my network and started reaching out with greater confidence.
On Facebook, it’s ok to click ‘Like’ and scroll on.
On LinkedIn, I learned that it’s better to include a comment with my thoughts when sharing and liking a post or article. This small step helps to establish who you are and what matters to you.
The live sessions with freelance copywriters sharing their experience and wisdom helped to reinforce the daily lessons.
Holly Morris and Beverly Matoney were my favorites. I even went back and watched the replay to capture more nuggets of their wisdom.
Holly, a tourism and travel industry writer, shared how she was pivoting and shifting as the market changed. How it’s essential to keep up with your market and expand services depending on what’s happening. When travel slowed down, she shifted her marketing to the growing travel insurance industry.
Beverly, a writer for the homeschooling market, reached out to clients providing curriculums for homeschoolers. She offered to help with marketing and shared ideas she had to expand their reach and bridge the gap between the company and the customer.
They also shared several of their LinkedIn tips, such as working across the top bar when opening the app. I tried this and liked how it kept me focused and moving through the different parts of LinkedIn.
The daily lessons were about more than learning how to navigate LinkedIn, compose invitations and thank you messages.
Ilise let us know it was ok to be nervous. It was ok to make mistakes.
But it was not ok to give up.
I have stopped scattering seeds on LinkedIn. I am planning and planting seeds to grow my connections and business.
