Highlights of WLGYL's 'Squeeze the Day' Event: A Memorable Start to 2024!
On the 24th March 2024, When Life Gives You Lemons hosted its second event, presenting valuable insights on how to build your own ‘professional brand’ on LinkedIn alongside ways in which we can limit our self-deprecating tendencies. Under the theme “When Life Gives You Lemons… Squeeze the Day," this event underscored a commitment to women’s empowerment as well as interactivity with the help of the amazing Elinor Honigstein, who works in Business Development at LinkedIn, who ran the workshop.
Building Your Professional Brand on LinkedIn
The workshop commenced with a brief insight into how we can showcase our ‘professional brand’ on LinkedIn and make our profiles stand out from the rest. For many, simply creating a LinkedIn account may appear sufficient for attracting the attention of relevant individuals however, Elinor emphasised the importance of developing your profile slowly and carefully. Key considerations that were highlighted to effectively sell your ‘professional brand’ included the selection of an appropriate profile picture, a thought-out headline incorporating your current or desired job title using industry-specific terminology and relevant experience you have and the skills you acquired.
Growing Your Professional Network on LinkedIn
Elinor also highlighted the importance of growing your professional network through interacting with others and engaging with their content. It was interesting to learn about the different degrees of connections we can have with others and how our 2nd-degree connections are usually the ones that serve as our primary source of opportunities. A prime way in which we can effectively reach out to potential connections which stood out to me was to ask ourselves beforehand - “How can I bring value to them”? You want to ask yourselves this as when you do end up reaching out, it will demonstrate familiarity with that individual which can establish meaningful engagement. However, if you are not brave enough to send that message, engaging with their content whether that be liking or commenting is still a step in the right direction towards growing your professional network!
Mitigating Self-Deprecation - #IamRemarkable
The workshop ended with an inspirational discussion on limiting female self-deprecation and how the use of the powerful #IamRemarkable statements can be used as a guide to overcome our limiting beliefs.
A few of the key takeaways that really stuck with me:
"It's not bragging if it's based on facts"- we are usually so worried about what others may think of our successes that we don't end up sharing it. However, if we don't share your successes, how will the right people know that we are the perfect fit for them?
"You don't need to be an 'expert' to talk about your accomplishments"- Whether that is landing your dream job or running a half marathon, your accomplishments matter! You have the right to share it and be so proud of what you have achieved.
A way in which we can avoid self-deprecating thoughts- change the narrative you are telling yourself. It all starts with you! If you are confident enough to know that what you are sharing will value someone viewing your content, it is very likely that it will impact the right person!
Keep the lemonade flowing, see you soon!
Jennifer, Brand Ambassador for WLGYL
