I Have A Confession
Jan 12, 2021
Creating efficient systems, improving processes, staying active, being relevant, consistently bringing value, always learning, remembering to implement, generously giving, continuously innovating... My heart began racing just typing this short list of functions and, quite frankly, responsibilities that I own and that you own in business.
Prioritizing and delegating are certainly key, but if I can just be honest: It’s tough sometimes.
The well-known phrase “the cobbler’s kids have no shoes,” has never felt closer to home than it has since I launched McMillion Consulting. Trust me when I say, I do my darnedest to combat that phrase, but I fall short more times than I want to admit. Can you relate?
With that, I have a confession. I am vulnerably admitting that I do not have every system locked and loaded in perfect order when it comes to me, my team and our brand’s presence on LinkedIn.
Whether this is your first time here or we have worked together, here’s the gist: LinkedIn is my jam. In seven years, I have spoken across the country and internationally to thousands of leaders, sales, marketing and recruiting professionals and young rising stars on the topic of leveraging LinkedIn to connect with purpose and generate new opportunities. I have seen clients garner hundreds of thousands of dollars in commission within twelve months. I have seen college students learn how to schedule meetings with potential employers who are vying for their talent. I have seen leaders get access to the best candidates and continuously attract even more over time – All of these scenarios came from implementing what I taught them about LinkedIn. It’s incredible. It motivates me, inspires my team, and excites us for all of the people we have not yet met and impacted.
While the number of success stories I can share are countless, I’m not perfect. I have a lot of LinkedIn work to do in the areas of my personal brand, our company brand, and overall marketing efforts.
Are you surprised? I hope not, but if you are, my intention in sharing this is not that I leave you feeling disappointed or lose credibility with you, but instead that I empower you and give you permission to take the pressure off yourself.
LinkedIn is amazing. With that amazement comes overwhelm in the hundreds of ways to spend your time; it’s why choosing wisely what you focus on is a necessity.
Test out this 3-step road map that guarantees you will use LinkedIn effectively for the purpose you intend. I have implemented it myself and WOW does it loosen the “perfection pressure gauge” because ultimately, my goal is to make progress.
“The secret of getting ahead is getting started.
Step 1: Answer this question to give you the starting point of where to focus your efforts: What do you want to get better at professionally?
Here is a short, but certainly not complete, list of potential answers:
- Positioning myself as a subject matter expert
- Prospecting [for clients or for candidates]
- Networking to make genuine professional relationships
- Learning how to find an amazing company to make my next career move
- Organizing important professional relationships (current and potential)
You may want to snag all of these answers, but you must prioritize one right now for the next 30 days.
Step 2: Non-negotiable starting point to get traction: invest in updating your personal profile.
The foundation to all of your LinkedIn success begins with your personal profile. If you have not devoted time and effort into keeping it updated (or transforming it altogether), this 3-step process will not work. Check out this free guide to get you moving to action, Top 10 Ways to Stand Out on LinkedIn.
If you regularly update your profile, bravo. Continue on to step 3.
Step 3: Revisit your answer to step one's question and choose 1 action you will commit to implementing every day for the next 30 days.
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Build a LinkedIn content calendar that includes a combination of articles authored by you, articles written by other publishers and posts made by your network and company page. Then, post three times each week and remember to respond to people when they engage with what you posted.
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Invest in Sales Navigator. Use it daily to learn the ins + outs and become efficient in its capabilities of organizing, searching, outbounding, and staying in-the-know with news and trends happening to companies and people you care about most.
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Select 10-20 people and nurture them with the goal of having a live conversation. Nurturing can include a combination of connecting with them, commenting on their posts, direct messaging them, engaging with their company’s posts, calling them and reaching out to them outside of LinkedIn.
Note: A few examples of these people can include existing clients you want to support and ask for referrals, prospective clients you want to get a call scheduled with, potential employers who could hire you, and/or influencers who you want to collaborate with this year.
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Commit to actively building your network by sending personalized invitations and following up to your new connections to get to know them and start a conversation.
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Invest in LinkedIn training. This can be on your own terms via LinkedIn Learning if you subscribe to any version of LinkedIn Premium or The Complete LinkedIn Profile Course™ or for your team in a group setting.
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Invest in a LinkedIn profile overhaul. This can be on your own terms via The Complete LinkedIn Profile Course™ or a done-for-you approach via The Profile Transformer™.
Any more than the above ideas suggested creates the potential for overwhelm. We prioritize what is important. The choice is yours. If you only want to allot ten minutes to your daily commitment, you may not see as great of traction as you could if you chose to commit twenty minutes each day.
Here is your game plan:
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Answer the question
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Update your profile
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Select one action to commit to daily for 30 days
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Reflect on your wins and progress!
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Repeat
I recommend starting this game plan as a daily pre-email commitment; that is, you take action on your commitment in the morning before you go to your inbox and get sucked into the rush of the day’s meetings, projects and conversations. You must protect this time, otherwise your efforts will be fruitless.
Do not put so much pressure on yourself with the expectation that you can do all things at 100%, 100% of the time. Be selective and then get started—It’s my guarantee to you that you will make progress simply by starting.
