Floodgates and revelations
For the few decades I've been in LinkedIn, I never thought much of it. It felt like a less-friendly alternative to my beloved boomer social arena of Facebook — showcasing people who seemed less reachable because their profiles made them look like rock stars.
Truth be told, I've never known how to use the app to my business advantage, even though my now London-based daughter has sworn by it for years and offered me tips from time to time. In her best selling book, she talks openly about the beauty and ease of having connected with those on LinkedIn in a position to educate her, picking their brains with tactful queries as she climbed up proverbial cliffs. Some of those connections eventually became clients, investors, and even lifelong friends. But I couldn't fathom how. Until now.
The plain and simple truth? I've learned a lot lately.
During her recent visit from London after visiting family, I drove my daughter -- a well-known entrepreneur and author -- the hundred miles to my native city of San Francisco, where she had a number of business meetings set up. It was her birthday week, so we celebrated by staying at a gorgeous hotel, running around the city in Waymos, and dining at our favorite Greek restaurant. She loved our time together so much that she included me in a post on LinkedIn. And with that tag, the floodgates opened.
Suddenly people who knew her, wanted to know her, or were simply curious clicked on my profile. While these were not people who had any connection to what I do, the speed and breadth of the attention I got was breathtaking.
So I turned to my friend Claude (AI), offered "him" a glimpse of my profile and cv, and asked how I could get more documentary narration work using LinkedIn as my engine. I decided that although I still loved voicing audiobooks, these types of narrations were my niche after having recently completed a true crime documentary (now in post production). In other words, I had fallen in love with work that somehow suited my natural voice and delivery.
The method to this madness…
Claude rarely disappoints. Together, my AI friend and I came up with a plan. What's so funny is that once he reviewed all I had done so far in my field in such a short period of time, he pushed back hard on any hint of my impostor syndrome, kicking it to the curb entirely. No. I have not yet set him on “do not gush” mode. We made lists, tackled goals, and chatted about who I should approach and how to do it. If I got a brainstorm at 3 am, he would offer answers, then — like a wise human — tell me to go back to sleep.
Mind you, I had nothing to show anyone yet. I'm still on an NDA (non-disclosure) for the documentary. So all I could say in my messaging to these famous folks was that I had just completed a documentary narration, decided it was my sweet spot, and wanted more work like it.
Before I did all this, however, I made a sample reel I could share with them — one that contained my voice narrating three clips of the types of documentaries I'd like to do. Then I made it into a YouTube, complete with a flattering photo my other half took of me while recording. I was off to the races.
Each message contained basically the same information, but was customized to the person I was contacting, mentioning how I had familiarized myself with their background and was awed by their accomplishments and gravitas. I had always bristled at how many unsolicited messages I had received through the years from people who made it obvious they had never even viewed my profile — one of the reasons LinkedIn was not my social media venue of choice. I had even written about the phenomenon for Forbes, where I had maintained a blog about small business owners.
The neverending story…
Connections. At first they were the result of my outreach, which reaped some amazing introductions. Then I began receiving a steady stream of connection requests from people I had not approached. Was it FOMO? Were they seeing that some notable people were connecting with me and wanted to get in on the action? Not sure. But it convinced me that I could do more searches and simply invite more people to connect without even including a message. Activity breeds more activity.
So I'm on my way. Where, I am not sure, but I've had enough personal replies from people I never thought would message me back that I am losing sleep at night.
Keep you posted. As they say, it's always the journey, not necessarily the destination. Just wanted to share it all with you in case you doubt miracles can still happen.