Newsletter

Hindsight is 20/20

Hot Takes…

On Personal Branding

If I could go back in time, I would have grown my network entirely differently.

You see, back in 2020 when I started spending more time on LinkedIn, I made a very common mistake:

I assumed that if people had a large following, it meant that they must be super active and creating great content.

So I would connect with anybody that had 10,000 followers or more, without checking their activity.

Sales Navigator tells me that less than 50% of my connections posted on LinkedIn in the last 30 days.

I’d bet that 5,000 of my connections never show at all.

And that’s a high percentage relative to most.

It’s rumored that 25% of LinkedIn’s membership logs in monthly to the platform.

Less than 10% create content.

This checks out in sales nav most of the time.

So If you want to build an engaged audience on LinkedIn, you need to connect with people who are active here - posting and/or in the comments - and build relationships with them.

Otherwise you’ll just drive yourself mad posting into the ether and wondering why no one is engaging.

Once you’ve mastered that, you’ll realize that LinkedIn is a giant word-of-mouth machine.

And we all know how high quality a WOM referral is!

On Business Innovation

Remember the early days of the internet? AOL, Compuserve, Netscape…

I was about 10 when we got our first personal computer — an IBM Aptiva — and I spent many, many hours enthralled in AIM & ICQ chats with people all over.

I look back on that time and wish I was older, wiser, more aware of the opportunity that the worldwide web presented. It revolutionized how businesses went to market, got found, and made money.

31 years later, I’ve got that same feeling about AI and its ability to revolutionize how humans go to market, get found, and make money.

There are so many tools incredible tools at our disposal, many for single digit monthly subscriptions, waiting for us to figure out how to leverage them for our own personal and professional gain.

One of the posts I saved recently came from Greg Isenberg, who is a really great thought leader on business innovation online.

In it, he talks about how “everyone is now a [insert function here]” thanks to various software tools out there that empower us to be and do things we never thought we could before.

Personally, I don’t think there’s ever been a better time to start your own business — be it full-time or on the side.

Anyone with the brains, common sense, and guts to go out on their own now has an army of software to facilitate that growth as a one-person business.

How exciting is that?

I’d love to know what your most valuable software is. Reply & let me know!

On Hot Sauce 🌶️

This week’s Scoville Sunday hot sauce review featured Chakalaka Habanero “Sauce with Soul” and it did not disappoint.

This habanero-forward (1st ingredient!) sauce packs a smokey punch that is very unique and different. Most habanero hot sauces are pretty fruity, tropical, and vegetal, but there’s a bit more “bite” to the Chakalaka sauce, likely due to the incorporation of serrano peppers.

All in all, a very flavorful sauce that I’m glad to have in my collection.

Heat Score: 7/10

Flavor Score: 9/10

Verdict: worth a try!

On Working Together

You didn’t think I was going to share all of this goodness without also sharing how I can help you amplify your personal brand to attract opportunity, did you?

Remember: it’s okay to sell your skills & services if you deliver value up front. Even those in your network who may never work with or buy from you won’t mind because you’re still delivering value.

If you’re thinking about investing in your personal brand and building a social selling strategy, here’s how I can help: