217: The Art of Making Connections

Melissa [: 00:00:00

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, 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.

Melissa [: 00:01:02

And I hope that you guys find as much value in the 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. Let's dive in. Alright, Tanya. Hello, Melissa.

Melissa [: 00:02:16

Thank you for having us.

Speaker B [: 00:02:18

Yes. So my background is health care, public health for 10 years. I left in 2013 and had a very similar background to you and then transitioned to a start up network marketing company until finally landing at Melaleuca in 2018. So very much up to this point have built the network that I had kind of gathered over the 1st 20 years, I would say. Instagram and Facebook, I think, were a good like, I never had the true attraction part of it, but people will go and check you out after you connected with that. But it was a good electronic business card. Right? So I'm trying to be much more strategic with LinkedIn. I'm really excited to be there.

Speaker B [: 00:02:59

I've dabbled in it before, so I have a little bit of a network built up in there. Mhmm. But my question is, like, I'm already going through a little bit of the month here, and I kinda know you guys have experience working with people with similar background as I do. So should I focus in on, like, the health care, the nurses, the public health that share a similar background to me so that there's relatability piece, and there's a lot of those in transition anyways. Mhmm.

Melissa [: 00:03:29

Do you

Speaker B [: 00:03:30

focus in on the open to work folks and maybe work on that connection and really connecting with them and that part of it. And then I've been putting content out primarily about education and ecommerce, more like general, like, life coachy type positive things. So first, like, where to focus a little bit that gets, like, gets the ball rolling or that you guys have maybe found the most success with as far as approaching on Totally. And then last but not least, I've been, like, putting myself in a tizzy trying to work through stuff fast, and then, like, I'm halfway in the middle on how should I go straight to the networking connecting to really know how to best connect with people that are already in conversation and in that network, or should I really focus in on working straight through the modules?

Melissa [: 00:04:24

Yeah. Okay. Let me address that one first, and then we'll go back. Really great question. And I highly recommend for all of you. I know that we're all antsy to grow our networks because that's what's gonna grow our business. But if we skip over really being about 80% confident with our profile and how we're representing ourselves, you're really losing a lot of opportunity. Because if you jump in network growth without doing the edits and the modification on your profile and getting really clear with a call to action, what happens is you're growing a network while you haven't fully represented yourself yet, and you're missing opportunity because you're connecting with people, they're coming to your profile and they're not as intrigued and they you've totally lost opportunity.

Melissa [: 00:05:10

And so there's a reason we want you building before driving. You guys remember that from launch? Build, drive, automate. Right? We really want you to build your virtual storefront first and get that audit from the team. Even if you don't have the audit yet, it's a level of confidence. Right? Like, I don't want you guys to be like, oh my gosh. I don't have my audit booked till next month, but I wanna grow my network. Well, that's okay. You don't have to have, like, the thumbs up of an audit to move forward, but you do need to have gone through the modules in thoroughness and made appropriate changes that you feel confident with before moving on to network growth strategy.

Melissa [: 00:05:52

That is my 2¢ because I think you're gonna leave a lot of money on the table if you try to jump the gun. So that's that's that. As far as who you should connect with, I truly this is just my 2¢ for those of you indirect sales, especially on LinkedIn. One of the best ways for lead generation is to connect with people that you have common backgrounds with. Because direct sales can be a hard pitch on LinkedIn because people have preconceived notions of it. They're high performers that have high salaries. They think they don't need it. Right? But on the flip side, there's also very open high performing, high functioning professionals who have an open mind about diversified income.

Melissa [: 00:06:39

Right? So what I find is that if you if you really focus on people who have a similar story to yours, then it's easier to create credibility and connection quickly. And that's how I was able to grow the company I grew while I was working in corporate because people would look at my background and be like, well, shit. She was a director in big pharma. Like, she's had this huge corporate background. And, like, if she's behind this, maybe I should take a look. Right? But because we had some common ground. They were in big pharma or they were a pharmacist. Right? And then when I would get into the DMs, it was very easy to really have conversations about pain points and the same thing with my content.

Melissa [: 00:07:22

So I highly recommend that you lead with growing connections with you know what they're talking about, you can speak their language. Right?

Speaker B [: 00:07:37

No need to overthink it. Like, that's what's naturally hap like, people that thought I was crazy for leaving 10 years ago, now they're reached out and said, how did you make it work? Yeah. So just double down. It's fine. Just go where the natural inclination is to go.

Melissa [: 00:07:53

100%. 100%. Yep. K. Awesome. My last little bit of advice on this we move over to Rhonda, this is for all of you. Don't connect with your competitors and don't connect with people for that you're financially tied to when it comes to network marketing specifically. So 2 different things, no matter what industry you're in, if you're in coaching, you're holistic energetics, like you're doesn't matter what industry you're in, do not connect with your competitors.

Melissa [: 00:08:20

It's bad for business. You can connect with them over on Instagram and Facebook, but you're using this platform for lead generation. And you don't want them hovering over and stealing your leads. Right? So there's that. Number 2 is, especially in direct sales, there's this culture of, like, supporting each other relentlessly with posts and stuff, so everybody tries to be connected. Don't do that on LinkedIn because then what's gonna happen is LinkedIn is gonna fill your feed with people from your company, and it's just really bad for business. Support them and be friends with them on the other platforms and tell them, hey, this is for lead generation for me. I'll support you and be your friend and business partner over here on the platforms, but let's keep our swim lanes clean on LinkedIn.

Melissa [: 00:09:05

Right? I had a LinkedIn expert request to connect with me during launch, and I was just like, no. But thanks. Like, I just know. Right? I'll hang up. Come follow me on Facebook and Instagram, but I don't want you hovering over my connections and connecting with all of them. That's what people do. It's what I coach you guys to do. Right? Is go look at your competitors and see who's in their network and connect with them because they're your ideal niche audience.

Melissa [: 00:09:31

So we just wanna protect our network. It's our asset. Thanks guys so much for listening in on today's podcast episode. And I can't wait for you to see my upcoming guest in the next episode. You are going to love this keynote speaker. Hey, here's the deal. If you like this, please subscribe and leave a review. And you want the latest online business growth strategies and exclusive LinkedIn pro tips sent straight to your phone? Text the word update to 704 318-2285.

Melissa [: 00:10:07

That is text the word update to 704 318-2285. Can't wait to see you guys. Come find me over on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, wherever you like to hang. Cannot wait to hear 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.