180: Growing A Powerful Network Starts With Strategy

Melissa:

Hey. Hey. Hey. I hope you guys enjoy these, what I'm calling podcast shorts for my burnout to all out community. This is just a little peek behind the curtain of the coaching that goes on inside of my programs. We're bringing to you Some of the best nuggets and coaching I'm giving, within hot seats of all of our different programs, whether it's our LinkedIn Method Academy, our mini mastermind business basics all the way up to our higher level mastermind. If you're hearing some of these questions and you're like, man, I wish I could get my burning question answered by Melissa. Hey.

Melissa:

Guess what? You could be featured on my podcast. If you've got a question that you want answered and you submit it to my team and we pick it, we will bring you here to the podcast for our podcast shorts and, do a hot seat with you. Where can you submit your questions? Send them to team burnout to all out .co. We'll make sure we drop that in the show notes for our podcast shorts, and I hope that You guys find as much value in these shorts as our clients do inside the program. Need some effective tactical advice that actually helps you get results and makes a real difference in your life and business? You've come to the right place. If you're finding yourself here today, it means you're getting ready to gain serious traction in your business, rapidly multiply your income and impact, and you're ready to make it happen while living all out. Guys, I'm Melissa Henault, your trustworthy corporate dropout turned 6 figure business burnout turned happy and healthy CEO of a multimillion dollar online business, and you're listening to the burnout to all out podcast. On this show, we're serving up innovative growth strategies, simple implementation methods to put them into practice and action stimulating inspiration tailored specifically for the modern entrepreneur.

Melissa:

Let's dive in. How are you, Clark?

Clark:

Good, Amy. Hi. Good morning. Good evening to everybody. I'm not sure if it's a win, but so far since I've started with the Scratch profile, right now I think I only have 15, but it came through from Great effort of finding connections. So I think those 15 would be really our avatar, I think. So I have prepared couple of questions, but some of them has been answered already with some of the other guys' questions. But maybe just some follow-up questions.

Clark:

Given that our business is an HVAC business and we're based in Calgary, so these kind of businesses are Definitely location based. You mentioned that we need to engage. Right? So right now, I'm actually looking for connections trying to network Within our location. So it's it takes a lot of time, and then this was a question I think yesterday as well that they're having a hard time looking for the right people because There's a lot of people that when we engage do comment and we look into their profile, check check The people who's commenting as well and then check their location, sometimes they're not in Calgary, sometimes they're way in a different province, and definitely I'm not adding them, although I want to, because they're also sharing great content on their profiles. So how does that work? So if we are engaging, since we are a location based business, should we engage with people who are only falls into the target avatar plus Our physical location, just like what you mentioned, teaches LinkedIn in terms of how we're using the platform, But how does that work? Should we be capsuling or I I'm not sure if that's the right term. Should we just get into Those parameters or what would be the impact if we do engage or share some post that are In a different location.

Melissa:

Yeah. So great insight in question. 1st and foremost, yes, you should be strategically growing your network based off location since that's where you're gonna serve.

Clark:

Yeah.

Melissa:

However, you bring up a good point and everybody needs be thinking about this depending on your business and industry are the power partnerships and networks that may not necessarily be in your location per se, but have access to or networks to your ideal community. And so each of you, that's gonna be totally different depending on your business. So if you're someone who deals with bankruptcy, There's all these like interconnections between divorce attorneys and power partnerships and bankruptcy and relocation and there's different people who interface with the same client that you would for all of you and how can you leverage LinkedIn to network with those communities, professionals, business owners as well. So that's 1 bucket and then it's the actual network itself that you wanna be growing your networks with. So when it comes to Calgary specific, I wanna make sure I heard you correctly. So you've added 15 one five connections? Okay.

Clark:

15. Yeah.

Melissa:

So we need to be adding, like, at least 20 a week. Because what I want you to think about is and this is for all of you guys. This is why I want you to be at a critical number of at least 500 new connections, aspirationally about halfway through the program because on any given day, about 2% of your network sees your content. So if you have 15 people and you post content, it's not really being seen. Right? So it is a numbers game. It is the best platform for visibility by far versus the other platforms, but we do have to build a critical mass of network. So I think you guys specialize in HVAC, but also kind of, like, middle age, like, mid level kind of middle class Canadians. Is that right?

Clark:

Yep.

Melissa:

I know you have some other outfits too. Like, I feel like maybe you have some, like, Something for retiring or, like, aging parents.

Clark:

Yeah. For, what do you call this, like, aging in place kinda thing. So In terms of networking, I've been sending out invites to connect. So I followed them and then I hit connect and then send them a quick message to to invite them and connect with me. So far with the best effort, that's what we have so far is the 15.

Melissa:

How many requests to connect are you sending out daily right now?

Clark:

Like, maybe an average of 30.

Melissa:

Oh, okay. Okay. So maybe it's the messaging. I'm curious what your messaging is that you're sending out.

Clark:

Right. The message I took is that it's part of The downloadable

Melissa:

Okay. The scripts

Clark:

are in there? The script. Yep. The script. Just like, we like your post, like how you're engaging, want to see your post on my feed and stuff like that. Yeah.

Melissa:

When you're sending the request to connect, before you hit the request, are you looking at the profile and checking out their activity and making sure they're actually active before you send out the request to connect?

Clark:

Yep. Sometimes I even Maybe up until a month of activity or a week or so activity sometimes. Okay. Sometimes it's I think it's there's scarcity because sometimes when I take time to to look for people and it's hard to find the one that's within our location and that's who's Really, really active. So sometimes I also invite even if their last post was a month ago or 2 weeks ago.

Melissa:

Gotcha. Okay. Gotcha. Just Just wanted to make sure that was on your radar, and this is important for all of you guys. Because sometimes what we'll see is the reason people have a low response rate to request to connect that they don't realize They're requesting with people who just don't use the platform. And so we wanna be make sure we're requesting the Right. With people. Another angle is, are there some main companies based out of Calgary? Like, What is the infrastructure, the economy there? Like, what drives it?

Clark:

Well, it's oil and gas, primarily, when it comes to The region.

Melissa:

Because I'm thinking about active users on the platform. Right? So, like, I'm wondering if you could go to, like, The big you could even Google this. Get off of LinkedIn and Google this. What are the big industries in Calgary? What are the big, big companies that drive the economy? And then go connect with those companies on LinkedIn. Find the employees that are in those companies. When you're following those companies, you're gonna see people engaging with those companies that are active users of the platform, employees locally. Like, there's strategic ways to kinda back door, back your way into a local community, especially using a professional B2B platform where people go there for work in business.

Clark:

Mhmm.

Melissa:

So I would kind of like reverse engineer how you're finding these people through the major industries in the area and grow your network that way versus the search function of kind of finding a needle in a haystack

Clark:

Yeah. Trying to

Melissa:

find people who are active there. Does that make sense?

Clark:

Yeah. Actually, I haven't thought about that. I I think that will be good. Like, it it will give you it will show more of People who's really in the locations engaging with that with industry. So I think we're good because one of the avatars that we're looking are, let's say, health Practitioners like doctors, physicians, and all that. So maybe instead of looking for Calgary physicians or physicians in Calgary, We can go towards groups of doctors. I already did that, but maybe hospitals or Any other institution?

Melissa:

Yeah. And then what happens is when you follow the hospitals and the institutions, The people who are active users of the platform, who are employed and work for those institutions are gonna be the ones that engage with that stuff on the platform. So then you're finding the needle in the haystack a lot faster because you're going and following those companies and seeing the people who engage there, and then you can instantly send them messages to connect.

Clark:

Okay. Yeah. Okay. Cool. Cool beans.

Melissa:

Yes. Yes. Keep us updated, And let me know if that works a little bit better for you.

Clark:

K. Awesome. Thanks so much.

Melissa:

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Melissa:

Can't wait to see you guys. Come find me over on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, wherever you like to hang. Cannot wait to here, how you are enjoying and applying what you're learning. You guys reach out to me over on social because I love hearing what's resonating with you. When you reach out to me and you send me those personal DMs, they really do impact the content I continue to bring forward to you. So, again, come find me, melissa_henault over on Instagram, melissahenault over on LinkedIn and Facebook. Can't wait to see you guys over there.