How to Move a Mountain

Exactly 200 days ago I posted on LinkedIn for the first time. Every single one of those days has been building toward this article.

Since I moved to Asheville, North Carolina in July of 2017 I've been unemployed, started my own consulting practice and quickly dissolved it, co-founded 30 Days Social, and eventually decided to start job search again.

Though the past eight months have been extremely turbulent, I don't see this move as a mistake. I don't regret it. I don't think it happened by accident. There is a reason and value to everything that has happened.

Without this time of difficulty, I may have never found content creation on LinkedIn, I would have never built Quadfecta, never created 30 Days Social and impacted thousands, never met all of you. Even more importantly, during this time I've grown emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. My understanding of myself, relationship with my wife and God have all been strengthened more than I could have understood before going through all of this.

Through the course of this journey, I was forced to overcome so many challenges, improve myself, break down to get built back up, reach out to the Lord and fully trust Him, go out of my comfort zone more times than I can count, find my purpose, and drop my ego. I had to hit rock bottom and admit that I couldn't do this alone.

I am writing this article today because the darkness is finally over. The mountain has been moved.

In early January of this year, I applied for a job with a local digital agency. On March 9th I accepted a full time (90-day contract to hire) position as a Project Manager with that company!

??

I can't tell you how thrilled I am as is my wife and entire family. A massive weight has been lifted off of our shoulders. I am so happy to have the opportunity to show this team what I can do and how I can bring value to their business.

The Impact of LinkedIn on My Job Search

I want to tell you right now and make this extremely clear: Without LinkedIn, I would not have gotten this position.

I also want to explain something more difficult to wrap our heads around but a topic that needs to be addressed: How LinkedIn and moreover my actions and mentality made it (in part) more difficult for me to find employment.

Let's start with how it helped me.

Before becoming an active content creator on LinkedIn I was:

?? Nervous and anxious to even take a business-related phone call.

?? Afraid to present my thoughts, opinions, and ideas to an audience.

?? Terrified to be on video.

?? Completely unaware of my potential and lacking in confidence.

?? Out of touch with my ability to write.

?? Entirely down and sour on the state of social media.

?? Inadequately prepared for the business world.

The list continues on. I had no idea, but there was so much more to be understood about myself and my journey! Creating content on LinkedIn and being a part of this community changed all of that.

LinkedIn was and is a place of self-discovery. I believe every one of us is on that expedition. Especially if you consider yourself a content creator, you'll start to see that very quickly. The road is not easy! But I pray that if you are reading this and not creating content on LinkedIn that you consider traveling that route, even if only for a short time. This is one of the reasons I love 30 Days Social so much. It gives people an opportunity, a chance, and encouragement to begin a potentially transformative chapter in their lives.

Video Content

Although I focus mainly on writing now, I found that my time creating videos was incredibly important to my success in finding a job. Speaking in front of a camera for an introvert or someone generally nervous on video can be a horrifying experience. It took me 30 minutes of contemplating to hit record on my first time! But after months of creating video, both published on LinkedIn and behind the scenes for 30DS, I found myself a completely changed person. Not only was I not afraid to be on video, but I became a more confident speaker in front of people. What takes confidence to speak in a tense and important moment? Interviews. I directly attribute my newfound interviewing ability and confidence in speaking to recording videos for this platform and projects around it.

Written Content

Writing here started as a way to advertise myself. Then it became a way to build my personal brand. Now it's really just a journal for me to reflect and share my story and experiences with others. I love it. I just plain enjoy writing and creating written content. I don't love creating videos. It's fine, I've done plenty of it, and like I stated above, it had it's purpose. But I really just want to do what I enjoy here and I'd encourage you to do the same. I don't care what the algorithm says or what's popular to produce. I just follow my own inspiration and choose to do what's best for me. To continue showing up consistently week after week, that's what's necessary to keep going. Writing has allowed me more than anything here to learn about myself. Sometimes I start writing a post without knowing where it's going and often I'll end with a line that's not just a message to my audience but to myself as well. Writing is a way for me to meditate on my own life and remind myself what's important.

30 Days Social

Throughout this process, 30DS was a focus in several of my interviews. I had no problem with that of course, I love talking about it. It became a core piece of my story and one of my strongest assets. This entrepreneurial venture has been powerful and life-changing for so many and now myself. I have loved watching people get clients, internships, jobs, improve their writing, and create amazing personal brands. They've changed the game for themselves. Finally I'm able to say it's done the same for me. Without 30DS, I would have never had this opportunity. My deepest thanks goes to Josh Jurkovich and Eli Hochberg for their part in building this program and setting so many including myself up for success. And of course, to the now 2,000 people who have joined and helped make it what it is today - thank you!

Personal Branding

Before joining LinkedIn I honestly didn't know what a personal brand was and who had them. In short, it's everything about you and everyone has one. We're all just in different states of development. Personal branding is more than just how your headshot looks, what your summary says, and your job history. It's the way we dress, talk, what and how we comment, who we spend time with and engage with, what words and language we use, what type of content we produce, and so so much more. I believe building a personal brand is a lifelong journey. You don't just get on social media one day and declare your personal brand is complete. It's something that evolves and builds over time. That all being said, was my personal brand as represented on LinkedIn integral in my job search? No, I don't feel that it was. I do believe it was helpful to build and it was part of the puzzle. It led to self-discovery in so many ways. But listen, no matter how fancy or complete your profile is, it alone will not get you a job.

As a community, there is a ton of emphasis on creating an awesome looking profile and a swanky personal brand. But you do not need to put as much work into it as it may seem. Specifically regarding job seekers. There are much more important things you can do and focus on. Personal branding and the job search process takes place off LinkedIn as well. I believe that I personally put too much emphasis on LinkedIn alone. Which leads me to addressing part two of how LinkedIn impacted me.

How LinkedIn Hindered My Job Search and How I Allowed it to Happen

I love LinkedIn. I love what it's done for me. I love the people and the content. But it is so incredibly easy to drop into some serious pitfalls.

LinkedIn is an echo chamber.

If you let it be one. And oh did I let it be one. I let the choir sing to me!

I get it, LinkedIn is a professional platform. Be kind to everyone, don't be negative, encourage when and where possible. These are things we should be following in life in general though I find it especially encouraged on LinkedIn, which is great! But we have to be open to giving and receiving respectful criticism. Don't look at critics as trolls, they might just be the most important ones to listen to. The people willing to be openly critical of your choices are the ones that you should hold closest. Just like God loves us and because He does, he is not afraid to show us where we've screwed up and to address that. Anyone who doesn't speak up about your errors or potential blunders is doing you a disservice. Similarly, if you don't listen to the people that do, you are ignoring extremely important input.

Ultimately, we have to make our own decisions based on what you believe and who you really trust. Getting feedback from the LinkedIn community can be good, but that cannot be your only source of feedback. I made some poor choices to ignore and shut out criticism and concern from others and only listen to those in agreement with me. I'd like to encourage you to reflect on your own situation and think about who you've been listening to and who you've been neglecting.

Along the same lines of the echo chamber is the presence of what I call butterfly and rainbow stories. Those unbelievable startups that went from broke to millions, the candidate that got hired despite having to run 12 miles to the interview, or the person who invested in bitcoin and became an expert gazillionaire. For every one of those stories, there are thousands upon thousands of others who were broke and stayed broke, ran 12 miles and didn't get the job, invested in bitcoin and lost everything. You get the picture. Stories of success are great but there needs to be a better balance of reality. We all need to be aware of how our content can impact others and what we're contributing to the community.

LinkedIn can be a time sink.

Creating content on LinkedIn, building your personal brand, engaging with others, enjoying the community. It's all fun! It feels really productive too. However, it takes a lot of time and can be somewhat addicting. Thankfully I set up time constraint for when I allowed myself to be on LinkedIn but even then, reflecting back I feel that I spent too much time here. I was putting in months of full eight hour days! That's a serious amount of time to spend on any social media platform. No matter how productive it feels. There are other ways you can and should spend your time during a job search or employment gap. Especially time away from your computer.

LinkedIn can create distractions.

So maybe you've started posting on LinkedIn, launched a hashtag campaign, dabbled in video creation. Things have started taking off, you're getting tens of thousands of views on your posts and started to build a community. You feel like you're onto something. Like you finally figured this whole networking and branding thing out! You might have and that's awesome. But don't be like me and put blinders on. Tunnel vision is real. I'm aware now that I have the ability to fall into a one-track mind at times. I really did that in a harmful way during my time here. I got so focused especially on building Quadfecta and telling myself that was going to be successful that I didn't realize what was going on around me. I needed to be cognizant of my current situation and the impact my decisions would make on the future for my wife and I. As I've said in the past however, I don't see Quadfecta as a failure but as an extremely important and yet difficult lesson and stepping stone. I hope my errors in this can help others make better choices.

LinkedIn can create false hope.

This one is epic and multifaceted. It is so unbelievably important.

First, no one and I mean NO ONE will hand you over a job on LinkedIn. You will have to earn it and work for it. If they do, you have been either scammed, ripped-off, tricked or lied to. I don't know why and I've seen this with myself and others here but I thought one day someone would just message me and say "Hey, I'm the CEO of XYZ Successful Startup and I noticed your impact and presence here on LinkedIn and want to extend an opportunity for you to join our team! We think you'll be a valuable contributor to our success." Or something along those lines. It's really embarrassing to look back on it and think about it but I know I'm not alone. This doesn't happen and won't happen. You can get a job lead on LinkedIn through content creation and personal branding. But no one will ever just hand you a job. That's not how it works!

Secondly, profile views and content views do not equal finding employment. Over the course of my time here I've estimated that I have around 30,000 profile views and well over 5 million post views. None of that gave me a job directly. Part of what it did do was give me the belief that I would find something. Hope is great but putting your faith is a number is a mistake. You would think that 10,000 profile views in 90 days would bring someone to your profile that could lead you to a job right? Not necessarily. There is so much more you need to do to gain employment. Stop thinking someone will come to your profile and save the day.

Ignore the numbers and focus more on actionable steps toward getting a job.

My Advice to Job Seekers

Here are my two cents, looking back on my full experience thus far. Yes, get active on LinkedIn, produce content consistently, start improving your personal brand, grow your network, etc. But do not let LinkedIn be all that you do. Do not get sucked into the echo chamber and be wary of the miracle stories. Be aware of your personal reality and assess the situation with your loved ones. Limit your time on LinkedIn and do your best to not become obsessive. Ignore numbers especially post and profile views. Ultimately that's not what matters. Getting a job is what matters.

If you decide to take on an entrepreneurial venture during your time of unemployment, I congratulate you on your bravery. Here is the most important thing you can do: Keep looking for another job and get something part-time as a safety net. I ignored that with my narrow perspective in favor of protecting my ego. Businesses take a seriously long time to develop and make a sustainable income. This is not a short, quick-cash solution. Reflect on the reality of the time frame that it may take and the risk you are putting on yourself and others. I personally realized I need to be working with an existing and developed company in order to responsibly take care of my family and achieve my life goals. Having my own business would be great and is still something I'm pursuing but I now see how important it is to have something outside of that that I can rely on and grow with. Carefully analyze the right approach for yourself.

Is creating content on LinkedIn worth your time?

Yes. But maybe in all the ways you're not expecting it to be. Managing expectations is important. Creating content on LinkedIn is the long game. Short term, I don't care how much "growth hacking" you do, you just won't see the same benefits from this platform as you would if you stay consistent over the long haul.

Will I continue posting content here?

Yes. But less. This isn't because I have a job now so LinkedIn is useless to me. It's not like that at all. I've already been slowing down my frequency. I will still be consistent, I'll still be posting here, just less often. It's a strategic and calculated approach with a purpose. Mainly I just want to avoid burnout. As long as I am enjoying this, I'll be here. If you decide to take a break or move on, just remember you have no one to apologize to. Life happens, things change, it's OK to pivot.

Why I am Thankful for These Challenges

I am thrilled to go through these difficulties! I hated it at times, it sucked, I didn't understand it. But now I'm joyful and thankful. I understand God was preparing me for something better. Breaking me down to make me stronger in the end. I know now that being able to have hope and trust in the Lord even during times of despair and realizing He is leading me to greener pastures is so incredibly important. It wasn't until I laid it all out, gave up on doing it alone and handed my life to God that He moved the mountain. Learning this lesson was monumental and I thank God for it.

"...We boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope." Romans 5:2-4

I am unendingly thankful for the support I've had from wife through even the darkest times. She has always been there to support me and continues to prove that her vows weren't just words. This chapter of our lives wasn't easy but it strengthened our relationship immensely and she was by my side every step of the way.

The Future

This season of my life has finally come to a close. I can't wait start with my new employer and excited for what we can accomplish together. Thank you to everyone who has supported me, there are so many of you! Keep spreading the love and keep creating.

How to move a mountain: Not alone.