Many of my consulting and job-searching colleagues feel stuck in finding clients or jobs. Social media used to work, but it doesn't anymore. But people actually have more options for discoverability (aka marketing) than ever before. That's writing, speaking, and connecting people who might not know about each other. The more we write, speak, and refer, the more likely people notice us.
(A slightly geeky aside: I like to think of this as flow efficiency thinking for our various communities. We increase our personal capacity, and the community as a whole.)
While writing and speaking are long-term strategies, you can use referrals—that connection idea—as a way to help you and others now.
Here's how all three work.
Write to Learn
Some people think writing is about showing other people what you know. That's true, up to a point. In reality, the more we write, the more we learn about our topic. (Yes, this happens even with extroverts.)
Writing requires that we think and learn as we write. Since we need to write to learn what we know, we have to iterate over the piece. (See Writing Secret 12: Subheadings Help Guide Readers Through Your Content for my writing process that shows my cycling.)
However, once we finish a piece and publish it, other people can find it and read it. While the social media splintering doesn't make discoverability easy, you can post your content on several sites so people can find your work.
However, the more you write, the more you realize what you know. If you're like me, you write to learn about a specific topic. Then, since I have now learned what I know, I sound more confidence and assured when I speak.
Speaking Markets Your Knowledge
If you're not a consultant, you might have missed this post: Consulting Tip #6: Use Your Intellectual Property to Build Political Capital. But speaking isn't just for political capital for consultants. Job seekers can use speaking to explain their specific value for the work they want to do.
Consultants and job seekers both need to describe their value. See the series that starts here for ways to describe and increase your value: Unemployed Agilists: How to Show Your Value to Support What Managers Want, Part 1.
Tangible value, the work that saves time or money or increases revenue helps managers see why they should hire you now. Your intangible value is about the environment you create as you work. And the peripheral value focuses on the future, and how you can make that future better. (See How to Describe All the Value When You Want to Influence for more details.)
The more you speak, the easier it is for people to discover you. Especially if you speak virtually and the meeting people record your talk and post it on YouTube or Vimeo. That's a great way for your talk to live on.
But there's another tip that too few of us use enough, and that's the connection or referral action.
Connect or Refer People
When you connect people with similar desires, you're giving credit to both of them. It's the same way when you refer people to other consultants or job seekers.
Giving credit means that credit reflects back on you and your leadership. While I've written about this before from a management perspective (Leadership Tip #6: Give Credit as Often as Possible and Management Myth 24: People Don’t Need External Credit, the principles are the same for consultants and job-seekers.
You might wonder if there is enough work for everyone who wants it. Right now, managers are afraid to hire anyone because a US presidential election always increases angst about the economy. That means managers worry longer term consulting contracts.
However, here's my experience: Show your worth by writing, speaking, and referring others. Yes, we have economic uncertainty now. However, the US fundamentals are strong, and the election is just 12 weeks away from the time I published this. At some point, managers will relax when they realize the sky is not falling.
Want My Support?
I can support in several ways. First, read my books:
- Successful Independent Consulting: Relationships that Focus on Mutual Benefit
- Manage Your Job Search
- Free Your Inner Nonfiction Writer: Educate, Influence, and Entertain Your Readers
The next writing workshop starts September 3, 2024. Register on that page or sign up to know when I offer the next workshop.
If you want specific advice, I can be your Personal Trusted Advisor.
Whatever you do, start now so people can discover you. Sure, the “best” time to start speaking, writing, and referring might have been 5, 10, or 20 years ago. The next best time is today.
Help yourself by helping others. That's how you both benefit.