Are you familiar with calendar wars? 

I wasn’t either but they are all the rage (pun intended). A week ago, I ended up in one, on LinkedIn. See my story below, but first, a little background on how I got drawn into a Calendar War. 

Background - Networking is Dead

One of the major problems of the coronavirus pandemic, from the point of generating new prospects, is that the opportunities for networking and meeting new people has shrunk to... well… LinkedIn. That’s about it. Sure, there are Zoom meetings. There are some opportunities for networking BUT most of these groups are homogeneous - meaning that the people attending are basically the same as me and unlikely to be prospects. 

In this environment, LinkedIn has stuck its head up to be more than just a recruiting tool or somewhere for fish to swim - big and small. Microsoft bought LinkedIn on June 13, 2016. That’s over 4 years ago. To be honest, I was pessimistic. I should have been optimistic because Microsoft has a strong track record of buying or copying great ideas and making them theirs - often making the product better than the original. Think Word from WordPerfect and Excel from Lotus123 - to name just two. 

So, with a pessimistic face, I stuck with it.

Background #2 - LinkedIn to the Rescue

I’ve been on LinkedIn since 2004. Here’s how to find out when you joined.

If you are logged into LinkedIn, try this link: https://www.linkedin.com/psettings/data-log

However, in the six months, I have been focusing more and more of my time on learning what LinkedIn has to offer and how to use it for meeting people and prospecting. Here’s a quick summary and my opinions.

Okay, But Not Super Valuable

• Publishing articles - Useless. Don’t waste your time.

• That Voice thing by the profile picture - Interesting but I’m not sure how valuable.

• Providing services - Okay but not super helpful.

• Your Dashboard - Almost useful. Needs the number of impressions, not just views.

• Experience section - Okay. This has been a feature for, like, forever.

• Education section - Same thing here.

• Licenses & Certifications - Good. I recently added a certificate. 

• Skills & Endorsements - Useful for seeing a list of skills that people have.

• Interests section - Meh. Good for lurking but I’m not sure how much value there is.

Awesome. Valuable. Useful.

• Messaging - I’m using this feature more and more often. It is a good alternative to email. Clumsy but useful. No automation but still useful. Limited but still useful.

• Commenting on others’ posts - Pretty good for keeping top of mind.

• Creating your own posts - Fantastic but you need to know what you are doing.

• About section - Excellent if you use it correctly.

• Featured - Interesting but it requires continual tweaking.

• Activity Followers - Nice stat. I’m now over 10,000 but not nearly as high as the pros.

• Recommendations - This was cool when it came out, but it seems stale now.

• Accomplishments - Useful. I have a few.

• Sales Navigator - For a long time, I thought this was the worst waste way to spend $90 per month. But now it’s useful. Maybe I needed an excuse or maybe I just needed to learn how to use it. But if you are in sales, then this gets my “buy now” signal.

• Filtering - Seriously, this is one of the best features of LinkedIn. It’s amazing how you can fine-tune the criteria to suitable criteria for a market segment. 

• The path for Filtering is: My Network \ Connections \ Search with filters \ All filters. Try this link: https://www.linkedin.com/search/results/people/?network=%5B%22F%22%5D&origin=MEMBER_PROFILE_CANNED_SEARCH

More Background - Learning LinkedIn

We are getting there. I’m almost ready to tell you about my calendar war. One more section on the background. 

My friend, Dan Frederick (on LinkedIn), and I have been experimenting with LinkedIn for a while. Dan is an IT guy that can be trusted (Dan, you owe me lunch). He found a coach for LinkedIn out of New York City (read: pricey) by the name of Joe Apfelbaum (on LinkedIn). See Evyrgreen Networking (on LinkedIn). His model for using LinkedIn is logical, engaging, AND IT WORKS - see the image below.

https://www.evyrgreen.com/landing

Included in his pricing are training videos and group coaching. He is funny, passionate, enthusiastic, and interesting. The videos are interesting, valuable, fresh, and not too long. I actually learn stuff from him, even on coaching Zoom calls. To be honest, he is brilliant. 

A week ago, Joe hosted an online conference featuring a bunch of speakers. Most were pretty good. Some were pretty impressive.

The Battle of the Calendars

Okay. We are now at the scene of the battle.

I’m sitting in my comfortable office chair from Lifeform (thanks Sonja Schneider and Michell McDougall - both on LinkedIn). I’m attending the conference. I’m watching a presenter present on Zoom. One of those “fabulous, amazing, famous” people is sharing their wisdom, and trying to be humble when it’s obvious that they are full of themselves. Don’t get me wrong, the content is good, the tips are valuable, but the attitude and body language are pricking me. I’m feeling like I should go and make a cup of tea, and a washroom break, and while I’m up, why not lunch? (I’m really trying not to say the name of the person presenting, but it’s tough to hold back - real tough).

While I’m listening, but getting more and more Zoomed-out, I figure I might as well link with the guy (oops a clue). I copy his name from Zoom, flip over to LinkedIn, do a search, and send him a request to connect.

A few minutes after he has finished his presentation, I get a message saying that he has accepted. I’m thinking: “That was quick. Cool. He might be interesting.”

The content of his reply is:

I wasn’t going to reply but then I thought: “WTH. Hmm. A sales & marketing audit. That could be interesting. Sure, I might learn something.”

So, I message back:

I’m smiling. I’m optimistic. But then this is what I get back.

Seriously? He wants me to use his calendar. WTF?

My enthusiasm takes a hit.

Long story short, we send messages back and forth. He sent a video with an apology suggesting that maybe he could improve his messaging. (Again, I’m holding back from embedding that into this post. To be honest, I had another look at this profile - no link - and part of his title has the words “…).

I’m thinking: “No s**t. Look buddy, you are the one trying to sell me something, not the other way around.”

I message back. 

AND HERE WE ARE, IN A BLOG POST, FOR THE WHOLE WORLD TO SEE.

He finishes up with:

(I almost included his picture and his name. Almost, but not quite.)

My thoughts: “I DO want to talk. I sent you a calendar scheduling invite FIRST. BUT, and I hope you do mind, I don’t want to be FORCED to use your calendar and your process. NOT yet anyway. You are ACTING like a child.”

As I re-read that, I can see that quite a few words have been capitalized.

Conclusion

While I was re-watching the video that he sent to me, I started to think: “Maybe, he’s the better man. Nah, that can’t be true. I just got my CMC (on LinkedIn). Let’s see, who can I call to support my point of view?”

First Responder: I called Dan Frederick and he said: “Your approach is off. This is what I send in my emails and messages:

Awesome. If you have a calendar link, please forward it on. If not, please pick a half-hour slot on my calendar at https://claritech.ca/meetdan.”

Second Responder: I was zealously telling my wife, Josie, about my concern about people starting calendar wars. She is always supportive. She asked me to explain.

That was my second mistake. Her reply: “Men and their egos. Who cares? Maybe you would learn something.!”

WHAT IS Your response?

What do you think? Who’s right? Do you see me standing tall on a rock or up to my neck in powdered snow?