Happy 1st of July! 🥳
In the first exclusive blog, I’m going to go through how the Toolkit works and, hopefully, answer any questions you may have
I created the LinkedIn Toolkit because I had fallen into delivering LinkedIn training sessions on Zoom for networking groups across the country – and receiving a lot of positive feedback. I to-ed and fro-ed about creating a designated training course, which I may still do, but my concern was always around budget.
I am passionate about self-employment, particularly the notion of ‘freelancing’ (which is the subject of my newsletter Conversations By The Sea). I’ve found that those who get the most out of my LinkedIn Training are typically sole traders or owners of small businesses that don’t usually have £300 to shell out on a premium training course.
So, I wanted to create something that people could afford – but I needed to monetise it so I could put in the time you all deserve. If you’ve ever watched Parks And Recreation, you may recognise this quote I live by:
“Don’t half-ass two things, whole-ass one thing”
And that’s when the Toolkit was born. By creating the Toolkit on Patreon, I can support people on two tiers – and you can easily switch between the tiers or cancel altogether, should you not enjoy the Toolkit or not be able to afford it anymore.
Hopefully, that won’t be the case as the main point of this Toolkit is to make you more money!
And I am very open to feedback  – the Toolkit’s structure is not set in stone, so if you think there is something I could do to improve the platform, then please don’t hesitate to drop me a message…
And now onto the focus of this week’s content:
Fear
LinkedIn is often seen as a daunting place and, as a result, many people would rather say nothing at all out of the fear of saying something wrong.
On my virtual tour of the country with NetworkB2B, so many people would raise their concerns about the “LinkedIn Police” or simply the fear of accidentally causing offence.
We’ve all seen a rise of “cancel culture” and public shaming, so there’s no wonder that people are scared about posting anything on social media… but you have to remember that your network is what you make it.
If there are people on your LinkedIn newsfeed who are persistently negative, cruel and shaming others, I highly recommend unfollowing them – or you can even block them. If you unfollow or block someone, they will not know. However, if you choose to ‘disconnect’ then they are more likely to notice if they drop on your profile as it will say you aren’t connected.
And, if you choose to block someone – they won’t be able to find you in the search bar, see your content or if you comment on someone else’s posts. It is just like blocking someone on Facebook.
I’m starting with the basics because I hope this will help to slowly grow your confidence to begin posting. If you don’t post regularly, this strategy simply will not work. Â The optimum amount of times to post per month is 20 – so that’s basically every day Monday to Friday (although I wouldn’t count-out the weekend!).
Don’t panic – even I don’t manage five times a week every week. But I do aim for three – and that’s what I recommend to you all.
Three posts per week in July.
You have my 20 Post Prompts sheet and the eBook to inspire you, but I will also be sharing other prompts as the month goes on. If you are on the Premium Tier, I will be in touch over the next few days to book your 30-min profile review session and I will also be creating a poll to choose July’s Webinar Topic.
I can’t fully articulate how excited I am to have you all here and to watch the community grow from nothing. I want to thank you all for taking a chance on me and joining this community.
I specifically designed this Toolkit as a collaborative space to learn and grow on this platform together.
On that note, I’d love for you to introduce yourself in the comments and start chatting about why you joined the Toolkit and what you’d like to get from it!
Ellen x
