Week 43 - Serendipity of human connections ✨

This week, it finally happened: I’ve reached that mythical limit on LinkedIn that I’ve heard some legends about, but have never seen in real life 😲😅

So here is what led to it: I’ve decided to add some serendipity into my life, and this week connected with people because of the following:

• they liked some of the posts around Community ROI, Humans of Business, or liked The Independent Workforce podcasts

• I’ve seen them in the “More profiles for you” section on profiles of recruiters, freelancers, or community builders.

Here is how it works: I am passionate about those podcasts, community building, and freelancing, and if someone liked any of those posts, or if we have more than 10 mutual connections, there is a high chance that we’ll click, or… not 🤷‍♂️

For example, after one of my messages, I got the following answers:

• Hold on, where did you get the information about working with or wanting to work with freelancers from?

• Bruh where did you see _company name_? I’m happy to help you with search filters if you’d like, but also keen to understand how you define leads that work freelance - could be useful for me in a couple of ways

So maybe it’s me, but they didn’t look super friendly. Of course, it could be just me reading someone’s text in my mind, and still words like “bruh”, and questions like where did I get some info, looked like the dialogue went in the wrong direction.

But I chose not to ignore this message or answer in a similar manner to how I felt about them. Instead, I continued a friendly conversation explaining why I reached out to that person, and being curious about what I could learn from them, and in a few messages, the conversation shifted to a much nicer stream, and I’ve even learned about how to make better searches on LinkedIn to ensure I get the right people to connect with, and also how ChatGPT can help me with that!

tl;dr: Being curious and not reactive definitely leads to a much better connection and learning experience!

Another example is that I’m going from time to time to in-person events, and usually, before the event, I check the list of participants on LinkedIn, and if I see that with some people we’re working in some similar directions, or it’s just an interesting person, I send them a connection request telling them that we’re going to the same event, so happy to connect with a fellow participant.

From my experience, we rarely meet at that exact event because people are not going there, or we just missed each other, etc., but the funniest thing is that I keep following up with them, asking what they learned, how frequently they go to such events, and propose meeting sometimes at the next event.

With some people, we really meet afterwards, and usually have rather good conversations, and one person messaged me recently: "What’s your response success rate with those messages, I wonder?"

Of course, I've done the math for them (I have a mathematical background, huh 😏), and out of 20-30 messages I sent about that specific topic, 12 people accepted requests, which is like 40% if we go with max 30, and 5 people actually continued the conversation, so overall conversion ratio was close to 16%.

Still, for me, it's not about numbers because I'm very open to serendipity, and I had so many moments when just one conversation influenced our lives so much!

For example, once, I connected with a person on LinkedIn, and we met in real life afterwards, and they told me:

"You know, when I saw your message on LinkedIn, and even another message later, I thought like 'What does this weird guy want from me?'" 😲😅

The fun thing is that this "weird" connection led to some more connections, and then to this person delivering a presentation on the topic they are passionate about for a great community!

tl;dr: If you are open to possibilities and don’t have any expectations, life can bring you some great people and opportunities!

On another note, it’s great to make professional connections, but we need to remember about human part first. So this week I attended the Business Club event, and everyone was so professional, wearing suits, expensive watches, etc., and telling how amazing businesses they run and all the millions and billions they operate with, and I was in my usual Yurii’s T-shirt, and talking about growing the freelance market and building communities.

Don’t get me wrong, all was great, I just didn’t feel very confident, even though I liked talking to some of the folks very much.

Still, there was a person wearing a lot of bracelets on his left hand. So, we were going down together in the elevator, and I thought, “Should I ask him about the bracelets, or not? Will it be weird? What will he think about me?”

But I silenced that voice, and just asked: “Hey, you have so many interesting bracelets, what is the meaning behind them?” And he told me that he’s into Chinese Zodiacs and astrology, and those are the bracelets with specific stones that he made together with his children, and he believes they bring him luck.

Oh, wow! In just a few minutes, I got to know this person better than during the whole 2 hours of professional talks and conversations! 😲 And it always works like that for me, one personal question builds so much stronger a connection than dozens of professional ones, and I can definitely ask those questions afterwards if I need to.

tl;dr: Get to know someone’s human side first, and continue professional conversations afterward.

Of course, there is no one-size-fits-all all. When I talk to CEOs of big companies at a business meeting, I operate with numbers and facts, and go straight to the point, and still, whenever I can, I will always try to get to know someone’s human side first! 😊🤓

💡 What influenced me this week 💡

Thoughts of the week:

• “You don’t win by being better, you win by being understood.” - StoryBrand podcast

• “People hate being sold, but they love shopping with friends.” - The School of Hard Knocks

• “If you want to get an idea across, wrap it in a person.” - Ralph Bunche, The Economist newsletter

• “We turn not older with years, but newer every day.” - Emily Dickinson, The Economist newsletter

Song of the week (hello from Twilight 😁):

Book and quotes of the week:

The Good Life by Robert Waldinger

“The problem is we’re so good at being ourselves, we don’t always see that there might be another way.”

“In the beginner’s mind, there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s mind, there are few.”

“The good life is not a destination. It is the path itself, and the people who are walking it with you

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”)

• Scripe - to write better posts on LinkedIn

• 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 (I don’t really know if I’ll keep doing it)

• 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

• ask 30 people about what they want to learn about Community ROI.

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! 👋