What are you thinking?

Full disclosure. I am not shy nor have I ever been shy. I am actually an extroverted introvert but we can save that one for another day.

In this season of my career I am asked to keynote geospatial science conferences or share quantitative storytelling workshops. No problem. I thrive on the stage. I love talking to you and creating a cinematic experience where we journey together asking big heavy questions and pondering on the space they hold.

The dilemma is that at face value I don’t understand the fear others have of meeting new people but I can sympathize. Public speaking also isn’t for everyone but I still believe with a little coaching there will be other tasks you might hate more.

I traveled the country interviewing pulmonologists while they were being filmed by a pharmaceutical company creating stories around their drug and COPD. An elderly physician with a brilliant mind had a distracting tremor in his hand visible on film. I held his hand off camera for 30 minutes and not only did it stop the tremor, his voice carried authority and confidence now that he only had to focus on speaking.

I worked for a medical speakers board and was helping a thought leader minimize the “umm” factor. I discovered that if I taught her how to send each sentence out on a light breath -- no “umm”-- you can’t inhale while exhaling.

My point is that we can make anything better -- once we know it ain’t great.

Linkedin makes it easy to reach out and meet your colleagues. Sure Premium can be a wrinkle but there is often a way around that as well. I spin Premium around the block on occasion when it is offered to me for free but otherwise I try to be accessible outside of the paywalled gates.

But with this open access, hmmm, how do I put this? In spite of this being a professional platform there are many that are not behaving professionally. I thought I would share a few habits that might serve us all well.

Please feel free to add your own. Let’s be honest. All games have rules.

Create a professional profile

• I don’t know what to do with emoji laden profiles so I usually pass on connecting. I don’t want the visual assault. Spend some time looking at a few successful profiles -- those that make you want to interact or engage
• Write a 1 or 2 line story by way of introduction

Ask?

My youngest son has this fairly humorous response to unsolicited advice from his mother. He will just respond with “Ask?” to drive home the point he did not ask my opinion.

I think this might work for all of the sales pitches sent out blindly from new connections or brand new Premium subscribers drunk on their new found reach. Seth Godin has perfected permission marketing (https://amzn.to/4cz6EGt).Look into it. *Amazon associate.

Networking

It is obvious to most of us with a little mileage on our tires when you did not spend much time learning about us.

For example, the questions asking about "how did you got to where you are blah, blah, blah?".

Or asking to be mentored on a specialized skill. You know -- that skill that you are paid for so that you can pay your mortgage and keep your gummy bear habit funded.

Most of us with seasoning have options that are win, win if you do your due diligence.

For example, I have a Substack newsletter (3 in fact) and post quite a bit on Linkedin. Most of my Substack is public facing and I only charge $70/year for a paid subscription. For less than 20 pennies a day now you can have office hours and chats.

Don’t follow algorithms. Be authentic and vulnerable. If you want to connect with someone think about why.

And then share that story...

Bonny writes on Substack at these links.