Click here to join me on Thursday, July 18th at 12PM ET. 

[00:00:00] Wendi: Hello and welcome to episode 227. Today’s episode has been inspired because I cannot contain myself. And I want to share with you one of the 10 common career mistakes military women are making as they’re transitioning into the civilian sector. And I’ll be sharing the 10 common ones in the LinkedIn live that I’ll be hosting next week on July 18th at 12 p.

[00:00:27] Wendi: m. Eastern Standard Time. So if you haven’t registered, I want to invite you to register today. All you have to do is scroll down to the show notes and click, click here to register for the event. And you’ll be registered where you’ll learn the additional nine. But today I’m going to give you a bite size of what to look forward to and dive a little deeper too on Why this is so important for you to do it now. And so I figured I didn’t want to wait. I wanted to share that with you today and go ahead and help you not [00:01:00] make this mistake, which is you not marketing yourself correctly on LinkedIn, on a powerful platform that is one, completely free, two, full of connections, full of people that are already wanting to help you.

[00:01:17] Wendi: And also, Employers, hiring managers, other connections that can connect you to an opportunity that you possibly don’t even have in mind. And so I want to urge you and encourage you to listen to what I have to say about not marketing yourself on LinkedIn correctly, and to take these steps. Three things that I’m sharing with you and go take action and go take care of it.

[00:01:43] Wendi: If this is something that you are also not doing, or maybe you haven’t done it correctly. And so I want to encourage you to, to do this and listen, the time that I have here on this episode is not going to Hope [00:02:00] you fix the entire LinkedIn profile, right? It’s not something that you’ll be able to do, um, within this episode or even just within the LinkedIn live.

[00:02:08] Wendi: So if you’re serious about marketing yourself on LinkedIn and you’re like, I really want to take that step and have a whole LinkedIn profile makeover, I want you to send me a direct message on LinkedIn and just send me LinkedIn profile and I’ll get back to you on how I can help you fix that. Make that makeover possible as quickly as possible.

[00:02:30] Wendi: All right. And so with that, I want to give you three things that I’ve noticed when I was looking at the women that are attending this event. And the reason I was doing that is because one, I want to connect with them, make that connection before our event, before they come and learn more about the 10 common mistakes.

[00:02:47] Wendi: But also to learn more about how I can provide as much value as possible before they even come to the event. And for me to help them and be prepared to help them on that day. [00:03:00] And so what I’ve noticed, these are the three things that I’ve noticed, and I encourage you to go fix for yourself or even go begin on your LinkedIn profile.

[00:03:09] Wendi: And the first one, Is your photo. Of course your photo is something that is going to give your connection, your future connection, an idea of who you are. And if you’re still in uniform, that’s not a great way to start. You want to be in a professional attire. If you are wanting to go into construction or into a profession that’s going to require an actual attire of that sort, take a photo in that attire.

[00:03:39] Wendi: If you’re going to work in corporate, you’re going to work, um, you know, for a corporate company, I want you to have an actual professional attire, right? And I encourage you for it to be. Um, shoulder width, um, and above, like you don’t, not shoulder width, shoulder length, um, or above. You want the person to actually see you.

[00:03:59] Wendi: It doesn’t have to be a [00:04:00] full body photo because then they can’t see your face. They can’t see your smile. And so you want to have a welcoming, um, appearance so that they’re like, okay, this person is ready to step into the professional sector. And so with that too, what I’ve noticed was that. You may have a photo, but it doesn’t show until you’ve connected with that person.

[00:04:22] Wendi: And so I want you to go in your settings in your photo and make sure that it’s available for everyone to see. Everyone that can find you, even if they’re connected with you or not, or maybe they’re only connected with other connections. I want you to go on there and make sure that it’s open for everyone to see so that they can connect with you.

[00:04:40] Wendi: Gives them an opportunity that three to five second window that they have to connect with you. And so if you’re like Wendy, I have one, I don’t have the budget or the time to go and set up professional headshots. I can’t make it. I’m in the field, whatever it may be, send me a DM on LinkedIn and I’m happy to help you with that.

[00:04:57] Wendi: I use this AI tool and highly recommend it with [00:05:00] any photo that you have and you can really transform it into professional photo. All right. Send me a DM on LinkedIn, or again, you can, um, just connect with me on LinkedIn and let me know that that’s. The help that you need, and I’ll be happy to help you with that.

[00:05:13] Wendi: The second thing I noticed was the headline. Some of you don’t have a headline and listen, don’t panic. Don’t get stressed out. Don’t get overwhelmed. Here is a quick, especially if you’re starting to consider opportunities, you’re getting closer to the transition, but not too close. So you’re like within the one year to six month window.

[00:05:32] Wendi: I want you to go on there and just put the aspiring profession That you are looking into. So let’s say it’s a project manager, program manager, aspiring program manager, and then I want you to list out at least three skills that are going to set you apart. You have great negotiating skills. You are great with, um, budgeting, timelines.

[00:05:57] Wendi: You do great, you know, with a certain, [00:06:00] um, technology, um, system, Tableau, Monday. com, any of those things that will set you apart, put it on there. You can even put, um, top performer, women veteran, something on there that, you know, Is going to provide an idea of what you’re looking for in the skills that you bring to the table.

[00:06:19] Wendi: So I highly encourage that you do that. And again, that’s just high level things. There’s more to it, but if anything, just high level. And so the next thing that I want you to, um, focus on the last thing that I noticed was that you aren’t posting. There weren’t any posts. And so I want to encourage you to at least post once a month.

[00:06:42] Wendi: Once a week, really at minimum or engage in other people’s posts so that you are active on the platform. Because what you don’t want is for recruiters to find you or not find you because you’re not active. Or have someone be like, okay, [00:07:00] I’ll connect you with Wendy, but Wendy’s not posting, Wendy’s not active.

[00:07:03] Wendi: And so you will never really get found because you will be on page 35 instead of page 2 or 3 of the potential aspiring project managers, program managers. So highly encourage. That you post interact with other posts so that your connections can also when they see your post engage and um, actually engage within your post, then their connections, you have a wider reach.

[00:07:31] Wendi: Now their connections are seeing your posts and you want it to be relevant, right? And this is something that I help you with. This is something that I give you a specific thing for you to start posting based on what your career aspirations are. And so again, if that’s something that you need help with, and you’re like, Wendy, I’m serious about this.

[00:07:46] Wendi: I really want to take my profile to the next level. Send me a direct message and I’m happy to help you with a LinkedIn profile makeover because it’s very simple. It’s something that you don’t want to miss out on. And that’s [00:08:00] marketing yourself on the most powerful platform for professionals that we have, and it’s completely free.

[00:08:06] Wendi: So with that, I want to encourage you to, one, go on your LinkedIn profile, look at it, see if any of this applies to you. If it doesn’t, great. But if you’re transitioning and you’re like, Hey, I don’t want to miss out on maybe other things, the other nine things that I’ll be talking about. I want to invite you to come join me on July 18th at 12pm Eastern Standard Time.

[00:08:26] Wendi: Well, where you’ll learn the remaining nine common mistakes that you could be making and how to avoid them. Have So that you empower your military transition, that you get the most out of the time that you do have while you’re transitioning out of the military into the civilian sector, because listen, it’s key that we not only make the right connections, but we also talk about what exactly we’re looking for.

[00:08:50] Wendi: And that’s exactly what I’ll be helping you with. So I want to invite you, if you haven’t registered already, go to the show notes. Click the button there. And I also want to [00:09:00] share with you a button. If you listen to me on Apple or Spotify, you’ll notice a button that says send a text message. You can now send me a direct text message on there and letting me know if you need help with the LinkedIn, especially if you don’t have one say, Hey, I would like to learn more about LinkedIn.

[00:09:17] Wendi: I need your help. And I’m happy to help you there. All right. I hope that this episode was helpful and it encourages you to go take action now, go take action today so that you can not only be visible on a powerful platform that is all about networking and connecting you with opportunities, but also for you to be ready and prepared for that next chapter of your career.

[00:09:42] Wendi: All right. Have a beautiful rest of your day and I hope to see you next week at the LinkedIn live event. Bye.