By Christy Rogers, Owner and Instructor at Training Umbrella
One of our newest client relationships started with a LinkedIn InMail titled “Presentation Opportunity”. At first, I was skeptical. If you have been on LinkedIn for any amount of time you are familiar with the unsolicited “check-ins” or “quick questions”. I’m pro lead generation and reaching out to people, but sometimes it doesn’t seem authentic.
However, this message was different. They were “looking for training and tips on how best to use the Google Workspace suite”. By doing a keyword search, they found me on LinkedIn. By they, I mean the Director of Programming with ADVIS – The Association of Delaware Valley Independent Schools. One mission ADVIS supports is the professional development of roughly 130 highly acclaimed independent private schools.
This LinkedIn message led to emails, leading to phone calls, leading to me hopping on an airplane from Kansas City to Philadelphia to deliver a session on “9 Tips and Tricks that Will Elevate Your Google Workspace Expertise”.
Here is one of the Google Workspace tips I shared:
Turn an email in Gmail into a task or calendar item in seconds.
Once you open an email, click the three dots (ellipses) in the top menu above your email and choose “Add to Tasks” or “Create event”.
Professional Development Workshop
The professional development workshop took place at the Inn at Villanova University. (Work perk! I was working but the hotel was amazing.) The event committee was on point. They were organized, helpful and know how to start the morning off with a delicious breakfast!
To me, this entire process reinforced the importance of having a clear, concise headline in your LinkedIn profile.
Using words that describe you and your talents in a way that people would search for is key.
Another takeaway I learned was that while the Director was searching my profile, she noticed my Honors & Awards section where I had posted my experience as a conference speaker. She specifically mentioned this in our phone conversations. It’s easy to avoid updating our LinkedIn profiles, but when we do, the rewards can be great.
If you are looking for a conference, breakout session or lunch & learn speaker, we can help with that! Just give us a call, we offer several technology and growth leadership topics.
