Transcript 115. How to Use LinkedIn for New Job Opportunities and Career Advancement.(Rebroadcast).

Click here to see the episode show notes.

Renata: [00:00:00] 

I believe that really LinkedIn has been instrumental in supporting my career advancement and my transitions at every point in time. So especially because in 2010, in 2012, in 2014, and in 2016, with the final role at Monash, these were not really roles. I apply for them, but I was tapped on the shoulder or I contacted people through LinkedIn to let them know that I was interested. 

hi, I've Renata Bernarde and this is The Job Hunting Podcast where I interview experts and professionals. Issues that are important for job hunters and those who are working to lead advance their careers. So, make sure that you subscribe and follow and let's dive right in. 

This episode goes live on the first week of [00:01:00] 2022, and I'm taking a break from podcasting to enjoy the Australian summer. And I'll be coming back with new episodes for you very soon today. I'm rebroadcasting an episode that I think is perfect for. Because did you know that during January job search spikes to a year high and many people also use the break to update their LinkedIn profiles. 

So in this show, I share my journey and evolution using LinkedIn, how I updated my profile and activity over the years in line with my career plans, I share the results I got and how they helped my career advance. And I also share how I use these same tips and ideas to help my private coaching clients and also to do my LinkedIn audits to help you further from the episode, show notes, you can download a free resource that I've done for you. 

It's my LinkedIn checklist. This will help you get started on your LinkedIn review and ensure that you're taking all the boxes on your LinkedIn to get your profile and [00:02:00] activity noticed in such a way that helps your career progression. If you want to take it a step further with your LinkedIn update after all LinkedIn is now critically important for career advancement, you can book a LinkedIn audit with me on my website, Renatabernarde.com. The audit is very comprehensive. I analyze your profile top to bottom, providing you with feedback and I analyze your activity and give you ideas and recommendations on how to best spend your time on LinkedIn. This is all recorded and the video is yours to keep. So, you can go back to it and do the updates one by one with me guiding you along the way. 

If you want me to review your LinkedIn. Go to my website right now and book a LinkedIn audit with me. There's a link in the episode show notes, or you can go to Renatabernade.com. It will be my birthday. The week that this episode is aired, I am turning 50 and it seems so surreal. I hope that I'm at the beach enjoying a sunny day with [00:03:00] my family and friends. And I'm wishing you a lovely start of the year. Now let's enjoy this episode and learn how to make LinkedIn work for you.  

You know, do I talk about LinkedIn too much? I don't know. I was thinking about this last night and I can't help myself. It's such an important aspect of job hunting and career advancement, career stability to be part of LinkedIn. 

And I'm always. I asked about this. People come to me for coaching about this. I do my LinkedIn audit. So of course I'm a big fan and Melbourne is yet again in lockdown. So all of the events and networking opportunities that we were hoping to do in the coming days are now canceled. That is the same for Sydney and many other cities around Australia and indeed around the world. 

So LinkedIn is our avenue. It's our opportunity to. Catch up with others, find out what others are doing and let others know what we're up to. Have you updated your LinkedIn [00:04:00] profile since you set it up or since you got your new job or on promotion in the last 12 months, have you updated your LinkedIn profile or indeed, have you posted anything of your own, not liked or commented on other people's posts? 

If not, you may be missing out on leveraging from LinkedIn big time. And this is what we're going to talk about. Today, in fact, I'm going to share with you my personal journey and evolution using LinkedIn, how I updated my profile over the past decade or so. And, um, maybe you can learn from what I've learned and learned from my mistakes and from my successes on this platform over time, I have changed careers, changed jobs, and I have had many good results through. 

LinkedIn. In fact, I believed LinkedIn has helped my career advancement big time. I can't do an exact correlation. LinkedIn update equals Renata got a job, but there are lots of coincidences. And you know what I say about coincidences, a lot of coincidence. [00:05:00] Is a pattern and therefore we can make some assumptions about it. 

So today, as I said, we're going to talk about my personal journey and evolution on LinkedIn. When it comes to my presence and messaging and how I have updated my profile and activity over the years, we are going to talk about the results I got and how I believe LinkedIn has been instrumental in supporting my career advancement and my transition into my own business and how I've been intentional and had a strategy in mind all of the time. 

I am sharing my top three things that I think you should consider doing right now to elevate your executive presence on LinkedIn. Um, so those are a few takeaways from me, from what, uh, listening to this podcast. And I'm going to suggest, to you how you can take further steps to guarantee that the time that you spend on linked. 

Pays off and brings you the connections, the network, invitations, and opportunities in your career in the short, [00:06:00] medium and long-term. And when I say opportunities, I do mean job opportunities. We're not wasting any time here or beating around the Bush. I really want the LinkedIn activity to bring big results and that investment of time and energy to pay off. 

But before we dig in and work out all of those different points that I had discussed right now with you, I want to invite you to subscribe to this podcast. If this is the sort of content that is important to you if you are a professional in the. The corporate sector, not for profit or government. Then this is for you. 

If you're an executive, you could be in a senior position, you can be a middle manager, it could be a project manager and accountant, a marketing professional communications engineer. You are a white-collar worker. You're probably going to benefit from listening to this podcast. So why not subscribe, follow if this is the sort of thing [00:07:00] that you think to add value to your career, please rank it. 

Five stars wherever you found it. Normally it's iTunes like it and give us a review. It really helps. And in addition to the podcast, I have a weekly newsletter that comes out every Tuesday, more. Australian time. So you may get it on Monday if you are overseas somewhere. And I have a lot of free resources for job hunters. 

So you can go to my website. It's Renata bernardi.com, R E N a T a B E R N a R D e.com. And you can find. The addresses and the links on the episode show notes. So just look for the show notes, wherever you found this podcast, that will be lots of links and more information about me, my services and the free tools and resources that I give all my listeners to help them out. 

Okay. Now, They did my profile and activity over time in line with my career plans and the results that I got and how it helped my career [00:08:00] advancement. So I really want to share with you my personal journey and evolution on LinkedIn, because with your career that LinkedIn profile and activity needs to change and evolve and be elevated if your career advancing. 

And if you're changing jobs in sectors as well, like resumes, LinkedIn profiles should never be. A template that you copy out out for, from somebody else that it doesn't work that way. And when I do my LinkedIn audits, for example, I have to check where my client is from where they work, how they colleagues appear on LinkedIn. 

My client's ultimate goal is in order to develop the best possible recommendations for that client. So that's why the LinkedIn audit is so popular as a service. And also because it's a fairly inexpensive way to elevate your executive presence on LinkedIn. So go check it out if you're interested, but I started on LinkedIn. 

Back in [00:09:00] 2008, I've been on LinkedIn for a long, long time. And I found out I had to be on LinkedIn. I knew about the platform, but I found out I really needed to use it. And I use it professionally as well. When I went to the United States to visit. Eight universities as part of my job at Monash University, we were looking at some international accreditation's and also looking at student experience. 

Um, I received a fellowship from Monash to study student experience, best practices overseas, and I went overseas and they also asked me to look at our international accreditation opportunities as well, which is very important for university rankings. But that's by the, by you don't need to know about that. 

It's too much information, but I remember going specially to Northwestern. UCLA, which is not a coincidence because those two MBAs are fairly great for marketing people. And, you know, I'm not surprised that the two people that I met that were in charge of the student experience for MBAs told me about [00:10:00] LinkedIn and how important it was for their students and for the promotion of their MBAs and how students had to have their profiles. 

And I was sold. So I came back to my. And I said, okay, our MBA students, in fact, all of our business students and all of our master's students should have a LinkedIn profile Monash wasn't that king. And they asked me to instead set up a unique and tailor-made platform for the Monash students. Now you're laughing now, but back then I could understand the reluctance of going public and doing something very. 

Online, a lot of other businesses had similar concerns. I remember many of the consulting companies, especially Deloitte was really closed off and didn't want to be on platforms like LinkedIn. Nobody really understood yet the value of it. We created a platform for students to communicate with each other. 

Of course, it [00:11:00] didn't go well, it didn't, didn't go any further than maybe a couple of years, because the idea is not for students to communicate with each other. It's really the students promote themselves to the world. And on the side, I continued to, uh, insist that my MBA and master's students that I was saying in coaching, that they should have profiles. 

In fact, if you go to my LinkedIn and you look at my recommendations, you will see that there is a, time between 2008 to 2010, that I got lots of reviews or recommendation. From, from those amazing students who are now doing so well. And so well, professionally and I I'm in touch with many of them still. 

And that was because we were all setting up our own LinkedIn profiles and using all the different tools and recommendations were already a big thing back then. And, you know, Playing it safe and being quite considerate of our employers. And I remember also that my boss and [00:12:00] I decided to invite, I think it came from our office in the invitation for this guru, from overseas to come and talk and call movings the powers that be. 

At D university adopting LinkedIn was a good thing. And I think after we got that message across, it became easier and easier for LinkedIn to be adopted by also our academics and a professional staff and the whole faculty, in fact, and that's, you know how it is now, every university, every business. Big big presence on LinkedIn these days. 

And I, in 2010, I was, I received a phone call to apply for a role in an, a professional association. So the equivalent of CPA and a U S they're called a chartered accountants in the UK and in Australia. And it's a professional association, but also a very strong. Let's say lobby group working, uh, with government, they, before, uh, the international accounting standards, the chartered [00:13:00] accountants in Australia set the accounting standards here. 

So they have a very strong thought leadership still in influencing policy in that area and sectors as well. So I decided to move across to a professional association, really enjoy that. And that's why my LinkedIn became more and more. Tool for work. And that's how I reached out to members, reached out to potential members and did a lot of my work using LinkedIn. 

It was completely okay for my employer to have my LinkedIn open all the time. And it's the nature of being in a relationship management position. Then became even more. So when I took a national role at a think tank slash industry association called Cedar here in Australia, the committee for economic development of Australia and at Cedar with that national role, I never missed an opportunity to add people that I had just met at an [00:14:00] event. 

I was traveling around Australia all the time. I used to spend full weeks every month in Sydney and attending see that before. And hosting see the events and everybody that I'm at, I would try to find them on LinkedIn. Many of them are already there and connect with them and that's how my connections grew. 

So part of my work was attending, networking and connecting. To build bridges and collaborations with these numbers, which were usually, you know, uh, large corporations in Australia or federal and state, uh, departments and senior staffers of politicians and whatnot. So I would connect with them and keeping touch with them through LinkedIn. 

LinkedIn was also an avenue for us to continue to promote the seed, a white papers and research reports and events. So it was really a big part of my job to, uh, use my platform, to help see that expand and reach out [00:15:00] to more connections. I was completely okay with that because I love seeing. To this day, I still do. 

And same with the chat at accountants, which we did early beginnings in terms of LinkedIn promotions, but we still did a lot back then as well. And you know, when you are a hundred percent committed, aligned with the culture of your employer and the purpose, it's so great. Support them and help them. But I think that LinkedIn is also a platform for you as a professional to expand your opportunities. 

And you can balance that off so that it's, some of it is exposure for your employer. And some of it is exposure for you. And that's a really important aspect of how I coach and what I discuss with clients. It really, again, depends on the sector and how comfortable they are in helping their employees and so on. 

So we, we discussed that and we find the right recipe and balance, let's say, um, to help them leverage [00:16:00] LinkedIn for themselves as well. Or a hundred percent for themselves if either their employer doesn't have exposure on LinkedIn or they don't feel comfortable, or their jobs are not really about Moxie and communicating on LinkedIn, which mine, you know, where it was part of my, my job as a business development person and relationship management. 

In 2014. At the end of that year, I took a CEO role with a not-for-profit organization and things had to change a lot on my LinkedIn. When I took that role, there couldn't be any conflict of interest. I was the top cat and it was a top job. For an organization that dealt directly with ministers and the prime minister and CEO. 

So, I had to find a new tone, find a new narrative and understand that as the CEO, I was, uh, one of the key advocates and champions for my organization. And in fact, uh, if you are in that situation, it's [00:17:00] really important to have a good conversation with your senior as X or your board to identify who the right spokes put people are for your organization. 

I learned a lot from Cedar on what to do and what not to do in terms of identifying spokesperson for advocacy and communicating key messages. And I had that discussion very early on with my chairman. I remember that clearly. And we had to identify who was, who in the zoo, but still, uh, and I, and, and, and it was her, I felt it had to be her and she agreed, but still as the CEO, there's a lot of responsibility and I am spokesperson for the organization because of my role. And people will come to me for opinions, advice, and so on. So you have to really redo your LinkedIn and redesign it, not just the LinkedIn, but really your whole sort of professional. Day to day life changes. I had to step down from boards that I was in and advisory boards and committees that I was [00:18:00] in and so forth. 

So those are the sort of things you need to consider and do the big cleanup before starting the role. And that's why the first 90 days. It has to stop before you actually start the row. And, and we talk about that in the job. Hunting made simple program, and I discussed that a lot with my clients. I have done a podcast about the first 90 days, so I can link below if you're interested in learning a little bit more about that. 

When I left that role, it was the whole, when was it? 2016, end of 2016, I can't remember. And I, there was a sense of freedom and liberation. That was really important to me. So am I God named leave and, and my, you know, a timeless op I redid my LinkedIn. Not only because I had to look for work and I took time off and I rested and I, um, had a wonderful supporting friend, coach and Suzanne and [00:19:00] two coaches to help me step in and then step out of that role in Andrea Hall brown and the knees Fleming they're well-known leadership and executive coaches in Australia. 

So I had a lot of advice from them, but you know, you take the advice and then you make it your own. And I. Kick started my job hunt with, uh, an article that I posted on LinkedIn. And I will link that article below because it went viral big time. It has been published in magazines in a couple of countries. 

It has like 40,000 views. It's quite big. And, and it resonated with a lot of people. I made some great friends on LinkedIn, people who are now still following me since that day, the article reached them and they read it and people still come to me to say how important that article was. And it was really about stepping out of a big role and, and finding yourself again. 

And finding that, you know, you're not lost at your notch. You'd, haven't lost [00:20:00] your identity, your network and your connections. I was really surprised with how many people reached out to me and offered me opportunities. When I left that CEO role, I was in a great position of the, of even picking and choosing what I wanted to apply for an end consider, which I really. 

Afraid of stepping down from that role. And it was actually a very good thing that happened to me. And that freedom allowed me to write and express myself in my own way with my own voice, which you can't do when you are in a senior executive position. And that freedom, I, I made the most of it until of course I got another job and went back to Monash university. 

And had a great time working initially as kind of a chief of staff to a new deputy vice chancellor, and then moving on to, for reasons of it being a startup portfolio and sort of lots of, sort of convoluted things that happened in the environment, [00:21:00] politics and how things were evolving. Probably biting way more than people thought I was supposed to or responsible for and had a very interesting time at Monash until I was made redundant at the end of 2018. 

And again, when you're joining a very big bureaucratic bricks and mortar institution, you have to adapt your LinkedIn yet again, to match what the expectations are for that organization. I was lucky that I had a boss in the vice chancellor Ken's salon, who is now going to be the vice. For university in the UK. 

So he's leaving Australia. He had a very big presence on all social media platforms, his Facebook, his LinkedIn, his Twitter. He's quite good at using social media himself. And I often cite him as an example to, to follow and. I think that it has helped his career. So I felt that I could also continue to use LinkedIn in a way that was unique and authentic to myself, but also [00:22:00] of course, having that big role within an organization, managing the portfolio alongside him, made. 

Sort of take stock and be more careful about what I was posting enough course use my platform and the connections that I had to help build that portfolio. And you can do that through LinkedIn, for sure. As you know, I, I left the organization in 2018. It was a shock at the time, but I was actually, it was, I was ready to move on. 

I just didn't know. Back then I was quite surprised that I was made redundant. I knew redundancy packages were going to happen. I just didn't know I was going, but I saw some of my colleagues at my level leave quietly. And then I, I realized that, yeah, this could really happen to me too. And you, you know, you're when you're in that situation, when you're quite senior, you are given lots of options and, you know, I, I had a great boss as you know, and the. 

HR manager, [00:23:00] Bridget Connors was fantastic. And they had given me a lot of freedom and opportunity to choose how I exited the organization. But I said, no, I want to exit. And let people know that I'm being made redundant. You know, a lot of people in senior roles don't let others know that they have been made redundant. 

They made it make it look as it was their own choice. And that's fine too, you know? No judge. Chris, you have to think about what's best for your career, what you will feel more comfortable with, but I was completely comfortable leaving and I didn't want people to think that it was my choice because it wasn't. 

And because I was really committed to my role and that portfolio, and I wanted it to succeed, despite all of the terrible federal politics, frankly, that we have in terms of research and development in Australia. And it, you know, I really wanted that role to become bigger and that portfolio to succeed. So it wouldn't make any sense for my personal branding. 

If I had told people that I, it was my choice to leave. So I had to say, no, I was made redundant. And this is the reasons why [00:24:00] X, Y, and Zed, and I was comfortable with that, but I'm very thankful that they allowed me all of those opportunities. And of course it is a privilege. Not everybody has that, that opportunity to make a choice. 

And I left. And a couple of weeks later, I was, I received a call from a friend who is a researcher. And she said, look, there is this great CEO role for you. And it was a foundation. It was the size and the scope and the network. That would be a very smooth transition for me and my heart just sank. I didn't want it. 

I didn't want it. And I didn't know what. Tell her, because she was so keen for me to come in for a chat with the powers that be, and for me to be considered for that role, she thought it was a good fit. There were other people that were also talking to me about the fishing fact, the person who started that foundation, uh, and chaired it original. 

But still, I didn't want it. And I, and I decided to take a big leap of faith and bring forward my plan to have my own [00:25:00] business. Now, this plan had always been in the works and I, it was always something that I wanted to do. I just didn't think it would be in my forties. I thought it would be in my fifties. 

I thought I had a few more. Executive jobs in me before I started my business. And in fact, if I want to shut down shop now and go back to the corporate sector or the not-for-profit sector, I feel like I can do that. And it would be fine, but I just really love having my own business. And I started off with consulting and that went really well up until the COVID times. 

And then. Pandemic started March, 2020. I lost all my retainers and they were really interesting retainers, but they were very bricks and mortar and they were retainer's that four priorities that have seen disappeared. You know, we had green projects and physical incubator projects and, uh, just being, you know, with, um, water.[00:26:00]  

International looking, taking care of and running physical events in their new office. In fact, I don't even know what happened to that beautiful new office because I don't think anybody's back there yet, or if they are, they're definitely not. Full-time. So, as you can see, all of the projects were really, you know, 2019 and, you know, transforming a very large organization, transforming their energy to green energy when nobody's actually physically there, you know, now for the past year and a half, it just makes no sense. 

So those projects were canceled. And we haven't picked him up. And in fact, I'm transitioning the Pantala business consulting brand to be an outplacement solution for businesses that want to restructure and lay off staff and want them to be very well taken care of. So I want the programs that I'm running for you for individuals to also be available for corporations and companies and [00:27:00] businesses that want me to take care of their people. 

And I'd love to do that. So that's something that I plan to do more formerly. I do that informally and I have quite a few clients that have come to me through their. But I wanted to really go, you know, and challenge the traditional placement solutions in a very near future. So if you have any ideas from you would like to discuss this with me, look at the episode, show notes, find my email and getting in touch. 

I'd love to talk to you about outplacement solutions for organizations. And I had to change my LinkedIn again when 2018 came. Right. So I did that. It had to become more of a LinkedIn for business. Different. And it's one of the biggest mistakes people make when they start following me is that they start following me and doing what I do on LinkedIn forgetting that I'm not an executive anymore. 

And I wouldn't recommend my clients to do what I do. What I'm doing is I'm promoting my business and that's very different. Now we're in 2021 and my [00:28:00] business is doing so well. The career coaching, the group coaching, the programs that I have on demand on my website in other consultations, linked in audit the researcher career workshop, which is on demand. 

It's all going so well that I have reinvested in branding. The podcast has a new brand. You may have seen it. Mark. Uh, LinkedIn profile has changed. I opted out of working with mine tribes because I don't feel like I have time to dedicate to working with that team anymore. And they're such a lovely group and I'm still consulting and collaborating with them, but not formally on my LinkedIn. 

And I wanted my LinkedIn to be really sharply about career transition, career advancement. And I had. Redefine my, my LinkedIn profile yet again, to align with where, where I'm going professionally. And I'm very, very happy with the results. So I did a very soft, low key LinkedIn update recently. [00:29:00] Maybe three, four weeks ago. 

And again, I have seen that, um, it's giving me more clients, probably more clients that I can take. And it's all about how you position yourself, how easy it is for people to contact you and how, how easy it is for them to understand what you do. And I think that that's something that I've been quite good at achieving over the years. 

I believe that really LinkedIn has been instrumental in supporting my career advancement and my transitions at every point in time. So especially because in 2010, in 2012, in 2014, and in 2016, with the final role at Monash, these were not really roles. I applied for them, but I was tapped on the shoulder or. 

Contacted people through LinkedIn to let them know that I was interested and the fact that they could then jump on LinkedIn and check my profile and check my activity and see that I would be a good fit for the opportunities. I believe was instrumental for me to get the opportunities that I got. Right. 

[00:30:00] So this is really about being intentional, being consistent, having a strategy in mind, updating your LinkedIn to match that strategy. And sometimes you need help to do that. So I I've always had support and bounce back ideas with others before taking a new leap and a new tipping point in my career. And always the messaging has to be really good and sharp and clear. 

So that connections, headhunters, recruiters, colleagues, like-minded people that find you on LinkedIn and the stand, what you do. And I get a lot of messages. So this week, for example, I got maybe two new clients from LinkedIn and four or five messages about people that want to connect with me. And they have bought, they have booked a time in my calendar to do so. 

And. Very strongly believe it's because of the recent updates that I've done. Yeah. And, you know, I think that I'd love to share with you the three things that I strongly believe you should do right now [00:31:00] to elevate your as active presence on LinkedIn. So these are the takeaways for you, your top banner owning tint, the one that has your photo and the background photo, your, the heading dedication, where you work, et cetera, contact details. 

That's your blue-chip real estate investing. Getting. Right. If anything, if you don't have time, if you don't want to do it, at least that top heading needs to be spot on. And it's important for you to understand what spot on yes. Spot on is not do what Renard is doing, which is unfortunate is something that a lot of people that don't, that are not clients of mine, but follow me. 

They tend to follow what I do. And replicate, and I ha I just wished that they could talk to me first. So, um, you have to adapt it to your country's sector, industry profession. And I, I do that all the time for my clients and my LinkedIn clients as well, my coaching clients and my LinkedIn clients. So get that top heading spot [00:32:00] on. 

That's really important. Don't. You mutate others, it won't work for you. Okay. So that's my second tip, which was kind of blended with the first day. But I guess, you know, now that it's important for you to not only find what fits your sector, industry, country, profession, and seniority level and your, if you're young or if you're a more senior, but it's also important to find your authentic voice and not to be afraid to use it. 

So do your research find out okay. Is the best practice for your sector and where you are when your career, and then find your personal voice. It's really important to, don't try to imitate others because you're just going to blend in. And, you know, an example of that is when I land on a profile and it's all jargons everywhere and keywords everywhere, even the sentences don't make any sense. 

And they are long and difficult to read and it's just, you know, it's boring really. So you have to really find your [00:33:00] voice and your activity is, this is my third recommendation for you. Your activity is just if not more important than your profile. Okay. So setting up your profile and then disappearing from LinkedIn is not going to get. 

Any results whatsoever. Minimal results possibly. Okay. But depending on your sector, it's even more important that you spend time on your activity. Daniel profile. Some clients have very minimal profiles. If they are in a governance role, risk management role, you know, sectors like banking and finance. Or government may require their profiles. 

Remember what I said about my CEO role? You know, my profile was really minimal, but my activity was really empowering and powerful, both for the organization I worked for, but for my own thought leadership and executive presence. So that's where you show your knowledge. That's where you show. At what level you [00:34:00] operate, let's say you are a CFO and you work for ASX top 100, you know, fortune 100 companies and you have no presence on LinkedIn. 

Nobody knows, you know, how you work or what your voice is, what you read. And, you know, all of that, it would be important for you to share at least the articles that got your attention that week, and like, you know, you, some of your peers and colleagues, like some of their posts and comment. So showing that activity on LinkedIn is where you make LinkedIn work for you is where people will find you and say, oh, what's that comment that Renata just made. 

I will. Come in and talk to her. I had a call. So rotation this week with somebody I kid you not. I made a comment on somebody else's post and she decided to book a consultation with me. I was so like, I'd had never seen this happen. She had never listened to the podcast or anything. She actually didn't know much about me at all, which is unusual. 

Usually [00:35:00] when people book time with me or a LinkedIn audit, Coaching, they already, I don't even need to say much. They already know me so well. And they feel like they know me because they hear my voice on the podcast. But now she said, no, I, you, your answer was just so spot on. I found your profile and I booked a consultation with you. 

And I'm like, okay, this is cool. So this can happen to you too. You know, if, if somebody is looking out for talent, they may find you. The activity. Now, I want to suggest how you can take a step further to guarantee the time you spend them on LinkedIn pays off and brings you the connections, the network, the invitations that will support your career in the short medium. 

And long-term, you have to think long-term about these things and you have to be consistent. And remember that. If you do a LinkedIn audit with me, which is my first suggestion, right. It's really cool. Like I have a lot of clients and testimonials, which I am yet to update on my website. So I really hope to do that in the [00:36:00] coming months that tell me that once they activate the recommendations that I make for the LinkedIn's. 

Profile boosts. They get more views, they get more connections, they get more messages and I get amazing feedback. And even screenshots of the insight. You know, when you see the statistics of clients showing me how much more exposure they're having and how many more people are looking at their profiles downloading. 

Profile their resumes. So they can see that if they're job hunting, I have a lovely client. He's a big fan of Excel spreadsheets. So he has sent me an Excel spreadsheet that shows clearly the before and after. So before the LinkedIn audit, he was getting very little, no views. Basically nobody was downloading his resume when he was applying for LinkedIn jobs. 

And then all of a sudden he got way more views. Everybody was downloading his resume. It was really cool. Coaching is really important. I'm starting the group coaching again. So you may get a [00:37:00] little message throughout this podcast. When I do that, because the group coaching will be open and you can try to do that with me for seven weeks because that the LinkedIn or the resume or the cover letter. 

Instruments. Right. And what you need to do possibly is some work before you actually activate your LinkedIn to understand who you really are and what you really want. Dig deeper into your value proposition as a professional, because LinkedIn is just a mechanism to get that out. It's like a car you want the car to take you places. 

You need to know where you want to go. I mean, you could just, you know, go off and into the world with. And not know where you go, it's quite romantic, but to get you to where you want to go, you need to have a strategy, a map, a plan, and that will get you the results that you want on LinkedIn, especially if you're job hunting and very keen on Korea, advanced. 

Get started by at least downloading the [00:38:00] LinkedIn audit checklist, which is one of my free tools that you will find on my website. And that LinkedIn audit is a sort of a shorter version of the LinkedIn audit checklist that I do with my clients. I don't know if you know, if you haven't heard of. Uh, what the LinkedIn audit is. 

It's basically a 60 minute, 40, 45 to 60 minute video of me looking at your LinkedIn profile and activity top to bottom, and then sharing with you some ideas of how to improve it based on the feedback that you've given me when you booked. And again, as I said, when I say LinkedIn will support your career, I really mean it will get you new job opportunities. 

If you are like me and you do that consistently over time, you will see that there are lots of coincidences about those opportunities coming. When you have been very good at maintaining and using LinkedIn to your advantage, and you will start to see why it's so important. So I hope that you have found [00:39:00] these tips and my personal story. 

Important. And that has motivated you to do your LinkedIn profile hopefully this week. And let me know, I'd love to hear from you. You can get back to me by finding me on any of your social media channels. I'm on Instagram. LinkedIn of course, and Facebook. Ciao for now. And I look forward to chatting to you again, next time. Bye.