#24 Starting conversations

Hey there,

“I'm crazy busy today, but I'll give you back shortly to say something more intelligent.”

Say what? That’s a real DM Nick got on LinkedIn last week. A day later, he got a similar one:

“Hey Nick. The rest of the day is a bit hectic for me, but I'll circle back soon with something more intelligent to say. In the meantime, I'll take a quick glance at your profile.”

We know you’re deeply curious, so the answer is yes, the guy circled back:

“Diving more into your profile and business got me wondering whether LinkedIn is your main engine for finding new opportunities.”

Oh my.

This is an example of how not to start conversations. It’s giving zero personalization, effort, care, or human-ness.

Why are we telling you this?

Because today’s episode is all about starting conversations. Too many solopreneurs wait for conversations to come to them instead of being proactive about starting them.

Why?

Largely because they don’t know what to say or how to say it.

So we figured we’d start the episode with what not to say for a collective laugh, before pivoting into what to do and say instead.

You'll hear us unpack the difference between being reactive and proactive with your outreach, why creating content is primarily a catalyst for conversation, and how to turn those conversations into real relationships (not just LinkedIn connections).

And because we're human just like everyone else, Erica admits to dropping the ball on her own DM conversations and almost getting shadow-banned for trying to respond to two years' worth of messages in one day.

Cheers,
Nick and Erica

(00:00) Intro
(03:06) Promoting The Recognition Gap mini book
(06:01) Why LinkedIn DMs matter for business
(06:26) Reading absurd LinkedIn cold outreach messages
(20:07) Fake personalized videos frustrate prospects
(21:42) Sharing examples of genuine LinkedIn outreach
(22:42) Human connection beats automation every time
(23:48) How to continue DM conversations naturally
(29:22) Approachability as a LinkedIn growth strategy
(31:21) Conversations drive referrals and business opportunities
(34:07) Posting content to spark real conversations
(40:44) Closing thoughts on LinkedIn message etiquette

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