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The most important thing you can do for your career, networking

  • Gone are the days of NEEDING to network in person, events, conferences…. In this economy? At least not all the time, or relying on whatever job is open, vs intentionally curated leaders and companies you want to consult & work hard for, solving problems you want to solve, with buyers and industries that you make an impact in.

  • It also makes no sense, for a c level exec, to try to find niche talent, reactively vs having reps & peers in the network proactively – start building that intentional pipeline TODAY

Make it your priority EVERY single week to max out your connections and build your center of influence

The more success and consistency you have intentionally building a network of execs and peers with credibility, the more your inbound leads will increase – don’t wait for a job to open! Get recruited by existing ☺

Executives do NOT want to pay niche headhunters fees to bring them talent, they want NICHE passive top performers to know where to find them and seek them out – do it.

Instead of reactively looking for positions, limiting yourself to whatever is open – get your receipts on lock, and intentionally build a network of people who can pay you, and peers who have the jobs you want.

If you take any professional advice ever, it is max your connections out no matter what, every week.

You get to send out about 120 connections a week, if you do not use em, you lose em

Happy networking (from your phone)

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�Get your receipts on lock, before networking via Linkedin

  1. Optimize your linkedin – you are only as good as your receipts

  • Be sure to add PRODUCT skill sets at the bottom of your page, to show up on more sourcing reports – save these to use when adding executives who “own” these spaces – you can find these from current and past orgs, and pay attention to the companies that reach out, how do they classify themselves? They are reaching out to you for a reason, look at competitors and “people also viewed” to have as many relatable key words on your profile as possible to get your bag – someone who understands the industry they serve has a lot more value than someone who doesn’t

  • As you source product-based specialty key words, save them in “job seeking” google folder – so you can use them to find executives who have hiring power, in these niche's and industries – using Boolean searching Chief Executive officer AND cloud spend AND series b startup

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�Get your receipts on lock, before networking via Linkedin

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Building your center of influence – make time for it

Your network = your net worth

✅ Maxing out your connections weekly NO MATTER WHAT

15 min a day task - add a time block reminder

  • Don’t over think it, pick one persona to start – Vice President of Sales – software development industry filter
  • Couch in the morning, bed at night
  • Add peers, executives, hiring teams

Once you have gotten a good habit of this, or if you want to be VERY intentional

  • Use specific industry filters

  • Use the "people connected with" and "people who follow" to use people already in your center of influence, to intentionally grow your community

- Use Boolean strings to use keywords to narrow in on your niche: AND infrastructure/series B startup

When busy execs pay us to build their center of influence with candidates, peers and other companies they want to work for, the first thing they say is “I wanted to do this for myself, but my wife was upset I would be on the phone at night, morning etc”

Reality is, this is such a “simple” task most people don’t make time for it, but it is the most important thing you can do to increase your visibility – make no excuses! Start simple and add more key words ☺

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Building your center of influence – make time for it – no matter what

Add executives who can pay you

You can find companies by finding execs within certain niches, or the peers who have the jobs you want (account executive AND supply chain software AND series D startup)

YES, you can add executives into your network without there being an open job, just like you can source passive talent, when they aren’t looking for a job.

Maybe your approach needs to be a little more proactive, because you are looking NOW, or you really want to build credibility within an org

In any case you want to maximize your reach, be sure to ADD all executives there, at the end of the day these people are within your niche, and will go to many different companies, you may be a fit for – add them.

Go to the “people section” on their company page – type in founder, owner, chief (then chief spelled wrong!) then head of and add everyone there, being as intentional as possible.

As your center of influence grows, and these people add you, find a way to “teach them something” via dm, then ask for the meeting via email if you REALLY want to show them you are serious (or build a job search cadence/sequence)

If you are an executive, proactively adding talent, this is great time to build a relationship, good talent doesn’t just wake up one day and decide to move ☺

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Linkedin is a search Engine

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Use Boolean Strategies to source a community of people who can intro you & pay you

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Profile & Adding Connects Keywords – examples – start paying attention & saving

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Product & Key Words

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Product, Industry & Tool keywords

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Use Boolean Strategies to source a community of people who can intro you & pay you

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Use Boolean Strategies to source a community of people who can intro you & pay you

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Use Boolean Strategies to source a community of people who can intro you & pay you

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Connecting with a niche community of executives, peers & teammates

Founder AND direct to primary care AND GTM

Founder AND Product Officer AND AI

AI Scientist AND product roadmap AND startups

VC AND startups AND $100m in funding

Venture Capitalist AND SaaS startup AND hiring sales

Founder AND she/her AND AI

Chief executive officer AND cyber security AND series b

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Always pay CLOSE attention to “people also viewed” & “people similar to”

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Personalizing Invites

Is personalizing an invite worth it? 50/50 debate in the sales community

There is a lot of science on the GOLD that is a disrupter – if it is boring and of no value, better to leave blank

Quick Personalization: referencing mutual connections, sharing an industry article, event or content

Since the most important thing is VOLUME AND CONSISTENCY when networking, do what is easiest or you

You should be maxed out if you spend 15 min a day on this, or you can cram and do it all in one day – they restart on Saturdays

If you DO write personalized invites, save them somewhere to rework and use later save broken by persona – your google drive with all of your career receipts is helpful

If you find yourself NOT maxing your connections, less is more – point is you do it!

Especially with executives, where the more you care the more they can avoid you – a delicate balance ☺

Adding a call to action like “are you forecasting any q3 headcount, I have closed $x in new logo revenue at another seed stage startup selling into marketing execs”

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Know your channels

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Know your channels

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Always pay CLOSE attention to “people also viewed”

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Use specialty key words sourcing from specific channels, like VC Alumni

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Friday or one day a week – do a “who added you” audit

  • see who added you & who within their circle you should connect with

  • how do they set up their LinkedIn

  • how do their companies classify themselves, what specialty key words should YOU be using/explore to stay in the same circles ☺

  • Do they have news, or information they sharing that you should be aware of, or should save to influence other members of this niche community? Don’t forget to save certain resources in your “news, article, blogs, events” category to teach others something

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Setting expectations & an away message

Not missing a time to connect - setting a LinkedIn away message

Since you will be adding people at scale, you can add an "away message“ with LinkedIn premium

This can be a great time to share your expectations:

- I am open to w2 salaried roles as an Ent. AE

$150k base, $300k OTE, $1m+ quota

email: Destiny@jobs.com or use my scheduling link

- Selectively open to consulting check book and invest in services here: topmate.io/join/destiny_brandt

you can check out my sales gtm frameworks here too ^

https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/a550614/