Progress Update 003: The Rug, The Buffer, and the 18.6%

Life is a movie, and mine might be a horror film.

This week I had a discovery call and 8 minutes in, my puppy proceeded to be violently ill all over my brand new area rug.

But don't worry. At least I had my space heater set up one foot behind the mess blowing hot disgusting air into my face as I tried desperately to listen to this founder tell me about his product. (Stupid renovation. Stupid winter.)

Did I close the deal? Did I book a follow up? I literally do not know. I blacked out. And then I burned the rug because it was beyond repair.

In all seriousness, they weren't a fit. Learning who my best client is has been a challenging but super valuable process. Sometimes saying "No" is a good thing.

All in all, we closed one new deal this week and had a super successful client kick off. As we approach the end of Feb, I am sitting at 18.6% of my annual goal, and I am pushing hard to land closer to 22% by month-end. I'll let you know next week where I land.

In-person events are BACK in a big way. Lots of folks posting about SKOs, President's Club, Company Kick-Offs and industry wide events. The two posts I am seeing most (and they're all popping):

"I just got back from X and here was my biggest takeaway" — accompanied by multiple photos from the event.

OR

"I am headed to Y this week and here is why I am excited/what I am looking forward to" — accompanied by a photo or video of packing, being at the airport or traveling to the destination.

It's a chance to tag and shout out peers. An opportunity to talk about why you're going or a bat signal for people to try and meet up IRL.

(P.S. If you do meet up with someone IRL from LinkedIn, take a photo with them and post about it. Those always pop.)

You'd think my sh*tty discovery call would have been my L of the week—you'd be mistaken. That same call? I was rushing to prep for it because someone booked it just 14 minutes before start time.

Lesson learned. Set your calendar tool to have a booking buffer. Whether it's "no same day bookings" or "4+ hour buffer" most of these tools have settings that can prevent people from booking a call too soon in the future.

I had almost 0 prep time. I was rushing through the house to get set up on camera properly. It was a mess, and it was totally preventable.

Word to the wise (or the unwise I guess), use those booking settings and block out specific times where people can and cannot book meetings.

I just updated mine to a 4 hour notice minimum. Lesson learned.

I pulled the data of all my LinkedIn content from the past 365 days. My top 50 posts had a MAJOR trend.

88% of my posts (all over 100K impressions each) had "I", "me", "my" language in the first line of the hook.

Yep. That's it. By making the hook feel more personal, I actually won over more people. On TikTok and IG, using "I" in the hook tends to have the opposite effect.

On LinkedIn, people engage with stories.

"How I did XYZ" will land better than "You should XYZ."

So the next post you write, revisit the hook and find a way to tie the hook to a real story or outcome, then, give them the playbook that helped you achieve it.

Hits harder than just reading "advice" from a stranger on the internet.

Catch ya next week,
—Zo