Going Big on LinkedIn

In 2018, after 23 years of working in corporate London, I started posting properly on LinkedIn.

Like many people starting out, I struggled, so I focused on selling my debut book Everybody Works In Sales.

The book did amazing. Unfortunately, the generous royalties ran out after 3 months and major panic set in.

I no longer had big London corporate names behind me and as a result, nobody cared, Starting over aged 45 is difficult.

In 2020, my LinkedIn profile and business took off because I wrote about the unbearable pain of divorce and the loneliness of starting your life over again, this time at 47.

Suddenly, I connected with many people who were in pain and didn’t know how to express themselves. I found friendship with strangers reaching out. After years of having no voice and being ignored, people started to pay attention to what I said.

Lockdown made things worse and I couldn’t cope alone. After 25 years working in London, I finally moved back home to a small working-class town in Northern Ireland to be with my parents.

My father put me into therapy, set up a gym membership and got me books on emotional intelligence and God. Mum made home cooked food, showered me with hugs and listened to all my complaints.

It took me a year to heal from the trauma of divorce, loneliness and lockdown. Then I started online dating. I compared it regularly to sales and business, which helped me grow my business even faster. After all, people do business with people they like, know and trust.

 All of this was posted about on LinkedIn and my posts went viral several times I went from 1,000 followers to 17,000 in a year.

LinkedIn HQ awarded me Top Voice in Sales, given to only 10 people in the world per year for my voice, authenticity and helping others.

The numbers kept growing, I shared sales tips and LinkedIn strategies to help people. Not based on research which is often out of date, based on proven real-life strategies and techniques based on my client experiences.

1.It takes years to achieve anything worthwhile. Stop believing you can grow LinkedIn by 300% in 3 months. I know it sounds sexier than “work your guts out and fail over and over.” Good things take time.

2. Going viral is exciting the first time and wonderful for your ego. After that, it’s exhausting keeping up with notifications and comments. Of the 7 times I went viral, I only won business 3 times. Gary Vaynerchuck and Microsoft still haven’t called.

3. Help others as much as you can. Don't underestimate the importance of giving value upfront. Help those who are struggling to find work. You get so many recommendations from others by showing kindness. It’s like an unwritten rule of business.

4. Video generates the least amount of views and engagement, however, continued to be my greatest source of incoming leads. If it's not part of your marketing, you're missing out.  Just to be clear, video is hard, which is why most people don’t do it.

5. LinkedIn’s algorithm is changing. They want more business, less personal stories and selfies. Carousels are also not working as effectively as they used to.

I still write personal stories every week. Recently I’ve talked about marching in Pride, my mum’s birthday and our new kitten, which is my biggest post of 2023 so far. Carousels give tons of value to people and I generate leads from them so I will not stop. It’s important to understand the rules, then decide which one of them you are going to break.

Although large followers are nice to have, they don’t guarantee profit. Showing up daily, giving value and building relationships in the DMs is what made my business consistently profitable.

Thank you to everyone who follows me and has helped me reach 30,000 followers.

Details of my journey can be found in more detail in Business Growth: Lessons Learned from Dating, Divorce and Falling In Love Again.

If you want generate more sales in business and to kick ass on LinkedIn, contact me for 1:1 coaching or group training.