Up and To the Right

I have 30 min to write this. Setting timer.

I like LinkedIn a lot, 2nd would be Skool, but LinkedIn is just so cool--especially if you like data, and growth, and marketing...

Why are most people on LinkedIn?

1. To find a job
2. To find clients

Which when you think about it, is quite similar. A job is really just one big client and I think over the next decade or so, it will become more so. Fractional work appears to be growing - I've heard some say you can't support yourself from just one job anymore.

In this post, I will break down the steps I've synthesized, used, and succeeded at in finding jobs and clients.

• Zero: Figure out what you want to do
• One: Make a list of the companies you would like to work for (works for clients too)
• Two: Find people at those companies that you can schedule informational interviews with (or initial consultations)
• Three: Meet with people, share your value, sell your skills

Zero: Figure out what you want to do

I added this in later, but this comes before making the list.

One: Make a list of the companies you would like to work for (works for clients too)

Google searching, ChatGPTing, companies that come to mind, groups of companies that come to mind (think directories, networks, industry lists). The size of the list can vary - 40 is a good number for job searching, may want to spread a larger net for clients.

Two: Find people at those companies that you can schedule informational interviews with (or initial consultations)

I heard about the concept of "informational interviews" from Sarah Johnston of Briefcase Coach: Executive Resume Writing, Job Search Strategies and Interview Coaching .

LinkedIn is very handy for creating these lists. You can do it manually - search one company at a time, find people that work there with certain titles or you can do it in bulk using Sales Navigator or several other LinkedIn searching tools. The picture below comes from HeyReach.io and demonstrates the many different ways you can search LinkedIn and create a list.

Three: Meet with people, share your value, sell your skills

Connecting, InMail-ing, cold messaging, emailing, calling, knocking on the door and leaving your resume (or flier) -- there are many ways to do this. Some best practices I've learned:

• Don't send more than 400 LinkedIn connections per month (or around 13 per day).
• Focus on your 1st and 2nd connections - those that you are already connected with or someone you know is connected with
• Don't ask them to marry you in your first message. Informational interviews are much less direct than "hey, I'm looking for a job, can you hire me?"

Again, there are ways to automate these processes: ads, tools like Expandi.io , mailers vs. knocking on doors - but they all have their pros, cons, nuances

A word on vanity metrics: likes, comments, followers... It's so easy to get sucked into these when they may not actually be bringing you any value or helping you reach your goal.

I recently demoed CoPilot AI , which I think does the LinkedIn outreach process very thoughtfully. It doesn't have even half the bells and whistles of Expandi, but has a very singular goal which it does very well - booking calls. Using AI to focus your outreach on the most likely people to respond, it increases your connection rates, message receptiveness, and # of booked calls (informational interviews or initial consultations)

1 min left!! I better do a quick read-through!

Hope this is helpful!

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