Week 37 - How to make new connections feel like old ones 🤓

This week, there were 3 main things on my mind:

1. Good ideas come randomly.

2. Updating the “About me” section on LinkedIn.

3. Pre-connecting with people who are going to the same event.

So the more I talk to people, read books, listen to podcasts, the more I have these “a-ha” moments when suddenly some dots in my mind connect, and I have some great things to try.

For example, I’ve been trying to reach a potential partner for freelancermap, and I’ve already met with one person, with whom we had a rather good conversation, who introduced me to another person, who’s dealing specifically with external talents, and then… silence. And no matter how many emails and messages I’ve sent, nothing has happened.

Still, while recording the next episode of The Independent Workforce podcast with Steve Rader, from NASA, I was so inspired by him that I decided to invite the CEO of that company to be my guest, too. Long story short, I’ve sent him a message (somehow he even accepted my LI connection request before), and he even answered me 😲 And even though the answer was a decline, still, I thanked him and asked him to point me to a person with whom I need to speak to move things forward in our potential collaboration.

He answered me again (no way!!) with the name, and it happened that the first person I’ve met knows this person (it’s their boss), and even was happy to make an intro, and as a result, now I have connection with a most suitable for making collaboration happen person, powered by referral of a CEO of the company 😎

And yes, it’s not the end of the story, I bet we still have many conversations in the future, still, it happened because of the random idea that came to my mind after talking to a totally unrelated person!

So the main takeaway: “The more things (not always right) you do, the higher the chance that you’ll randomly get lucky” 😉

The next big thing was updating the “About me” section on LinkedIn because my latest update was 3 years ago, and it was just a huge piece of text that I bet nobody hasn’t even read 😝

So “What’s hard?” - you might say, just go and update it. And you would be right, still, there is more than one way to be right 😏 The hardest is to make it small, insightful, straight to the point, and interesting to read while showing at least a small part of my personality so that we can click with a similar person who will read it.

I tried my best, and hope it worked. You can even check it on my profile, and I’ll be mega-super-duper thankful for your feedback 🤗

And the cherry on top of this week was a secret I tried only on Thursday, and I still don’t know why I haven’t tried this before, even though I always told other people to do so 😅

So it was an in-person event, and on its LinkedIn page, when I clicked “Attend”, I was able to see a list of 80 other potential participants, and I’ve just checked each profile one-by-one, and sent a nice connection request to those where I saw any potential intersection with what I’m working on, or where I can potentially share some personal experience, and help them:
“Hey Name, I've seen that you're one of the attendees at today's meetup name, so happy to connect with a fellow participant, and maybe we'll even meet there very soon 🤗”

I’d say out of 80 people, I sent such a request to nearly 10, and most of them accepted. Even though we haven’t met with everyone, I still had 3 very good first conversations (and it’s more than enough for the first time). With others, we’ll definitely meet either via a coffee chat later or next time at the meetup (since it’s not a separate one but a series).

And the main thing why I loved this approach was that I didn’t really have to go and introduce myself at the event, but we kinda met already beforehand, were able to check each other’s profiles, so we just “sealed the deal” in real life, and definitely had a much precise and focused conversation!

So that’s it for this week, and one more thing to finish with is the latest small motivational video about whether AI will take our jobs 😝

Thoughts of the week:

• AI can’t go to a party for you, it can’t shake hands, it can’t look someone in the eye and laugh. - Creator Spotlight newsletter

• If you share your own weakness, it reduces the impact of the negative element and boosts the credibility at the same time. - Nudge podcast

• If you can create memorable moments for others, they will remember you and spread the word to others. - Oz Pearlman, DOAC podcast

• You don’t have to be a center of attention, but as long as you’re a connector, eventually things will come back to you. - Eric Siu, Personal IPO podcast

• Enjoy the little things in life, for one day you'll look back and realize they were the big things. - Kurt Vonnegut, Sahil Bloom’s newsletter

Song of the week:

Book and quotes of the week:

Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel H. Pink

“One source of frustration in the workplace is the frequent mismatch between what people must do and what people can do. When what they must do exceeds their capabilities, the result is anxiety. When what they must do falls short of their capabilities, the result is boredom.”

“The path to mastery—becoming ever better at something you care about—is not lined with daisies and spanned by a rainbow. If it were, more of us would make the trip. Mastery hurts. Sometimes—many times—it’s not much fun.”

“Being a professional is doing the things you love to do, on the days you don’t feel like doing them.”

Tools that I use with referrals:

• Descript - for anything around podcasting and video editing

• Manus - for building complex systems and projects

• Beehiiv - for a newsletter (that’s what you receive 😅)

• Text Blaze - to access message templates with shortcuts (like “/ty”)

• Exali - promo “FROMYURII” - indemnity insurance for independent experts in Europe

Daily actions:

• invite 1 person to give feedback about how I helped them

• tell 1 person what I’m thankful to them for

• read a self-development book/listen to a professional podcast for 15 minutes

• make a valuable post/comment on LinkedIn

• tag 30 people in my database

• participate in a secret LI support group

• invite 5 people to check my website and ask them for advice (postponed)

Weekly actions:

• transcribe one new episode of the Creator Spotlight and Personal IPO (bi-weekly) podcasts, learn something from them, and connect with guests on LinkedIn

• transcribe two new DOAC videos, learn one thing from them, and make 1% posts in the DOAC community

• connect 2 people who I believe need to be connected.

If you have any thoughts, ideas, or questions, please 👇

And if you’d like to walk The Road To $1M+ Freelance Business with me 👇

See you next week! 👋