Why Your Dormant LinkedIn Connections Are Your Biggest Opportunity

[00:00] She’s Not a Stranger — Your LinkedIn Network Is Full of Gold

Karen: Hello and welcome to the Good Girls Get Rich podcast. I’m your host, Karen Yankovich, and this is one of my favorite topics today. I think you know exactly who I’m talking about. You’ve probably thought about her more than once, and maybe you’ve even gone as far as checking out her LinkedIn profile once or twice — and then you close the tab because you’re like, “What am I going to say? I don’t know what to say.” Right? Like, “Hi, remember me from 11 years ago? I need something.” So you don’t send it, and nothing happens.

Karen: Here’s what I want you to hear before I continue: She is not a stranger. She is not a cold lead. She is someone who already knows you’re good at what you do, and that is the single most expensive thing to build. And you already have this.

Karen: So think about it. Think about how many LinkedIn connections you already have, and then think about how many of those connections you’ve actually spoken to in the last few years. This is about reconnecting. That’s what this is about.

Karen: Think about people you’ve met at a conference a couple of years ago. You connected, and then you check out their LinkedIn profile a couple of years later and you’re like, “Wow, when I met her she worked at ABC Company, and now she works at XYZ Company. I wonder what happened.” Maybe it was a project you worked on together years ago. Maybe it was five years ago, maybe ten. Maybe you were together decades ago, sitting in pods next to each other. These are the things that might be stopping you — and they’re also the opportunities to reconnect, because you just don’t know where these conversations can go. This is where the gold is in your LinkedIn network.

Karen: I get a lot of pushback on this in our She’s LinkedUp ecosystem of programs, in our Visibility Salon, and in the private work I do with people. When I say, “Let’s look at your existing network,” they say, “Oh sorry, Karen, I already know there’s nothing there. It’s all people I used to work with.” And then I push the issue — I go all Jersey on them — and I say, “Let’s look anyway.” And then they say, “Wow, I didn’t realize this person doesn’t do this anymore. I would really love to know what happened here.” These are conversation starters, and they happen fast. They bring opportunities, because remember, they’re just as interested in what you’re up to as you are in what they’re up to.

Karen: So reconnecting with people is how you dive into a LinkedIn network you may have thought was dead. But it’s not dead. If you look at your LinkedIn network and it hasn’t been touched in forever, it’s unmaintained. It’s spoiled. It starts to dry up. But when you water it a little bit — like I talk about watering our money tree — that’s where you start to build up those opportunities again.

Karen: These are people who know you’re good. They knew you when. They had a reason to be connected to you in the past, and that trust doesn’t expire just because years went by. It just goes quiet. So the awkwardness you might feel about reaching out isn’t a reason not to reach out. All it really means is that you’re the only one keeping score of how long the silence has been. That person isn’t sitting there thinking, “Karen never called me.” She’s living her life. The silence is something loud in your head — not hers.

[04:02] The Rutgers Study: Why Dormant Ties Outperform Warm Ones

Karen: And chances are, she’s going to be happy when you reach out.

Karen: There was a study done a couple of years ago at Rutgers in New Jersey — which, you know, is where my heart always is. Executive MBA students were asked to consult on a real work project with dormant contacts — former ties they’d lost touch with. Those conversations took less time than the ones with their current contacts, and the executives ranked them as just as useful, or more useful, than the people they were already talking to.

Karen: Reconnecting with once-strong ties delivers two things you normally have to choose between: the novelty you get from a distant contact, and the trust you get from a close one. She’s been away, so she knows things you don’t — but she still trusts you.

Karen: The study also found that people had at least ten dormant contacts worth reconnecting with. Not one. Ten. And that was just executive MBA students ranking their own conversations — a small study, not thousands of people. But it lines up with what happens when I push my clients to do this. It’s real, and the opportunities are real.

Karen: I’d bet you’ve been around a couple of decades, so you probably have more than ten. But let’s not worry about that right now. Let’s just focus on ten.

Karen: I want you to literally go back to this episode if you’re listening in your car or on a walk, because I want you to go through this step by step. Go to LinkedIn. Go to “My Network.” Go to “Connections.” Filter by past companies or the school you went to. Give it some kind of filter so you can eyeball it, and think about anyone you’d probably have grabbed lunch with in the past. Put their name on a list.

Karen: If you have Sales Navigator, create a LinkedIn list. If you don’t, open a Google Doc or grab a notebook and write it down. Build a list of ten. No qualifying them. Don’t say, “Yeah, but I don’t know what she’s up to now,” or “She’s really senior now,” or “She probably doesn’t remember me.” She does. She’s not too senior. It’s all good. And who cares anyway?

Karen: Then stop at ten. This is a week’s project, not a doctorate thesis. And remember — this isn’t a list of people you think can help you. It’s a list of people you enjoyed, and who maybe enjoyed you. That’s it.

[07:48] How to Write the Reconnection Message

Karen: Now let’s talk about the message.

Karen: No apologies. Don’t say, “I’m sorry I fell off the face of the earth,” because that puts her on the defensive — she didn’t reach out to you either — and now you both feel uncomfortable. So don’t apologize.

Karen: Name the specific thing. “Oh my gosh, I was thinking about when we worked together at ABC Company,” or “when we met at that conference,” or whatever the truth is. If there’s something you can pull in — “I still dream about that BLT we had at that conference,” or “remember that client from hell?” — specificity is the proof that you’re real. Some of you listening might even remember the New Jersey conference for women where the fire alarm went off and the whole conference had to stand in the parking lot. That kind of specific memory is exactly what I mean.

Karen: Then say what made you think of her now. Maybe you saw she got a promotion, or her book came out, or you were scrolling LinkedIn and her name popped up in a thread and you wanted to see what she’d been up to. Or maybe you drove past your old office and thought of her.

Karen: And that’s it. Full stop. “Hey, reaching out — was thinking about you. Hope you’re well.” Full stop. No ask. Don’t say, “Let’s grab lunch,” or “Jump on a call,” or “Let me know if you’re open to…” Don’t say, “Since we last spoke I’ve done this, this, and this” — she didn’t ask, and it sounds pitchy. Don’t immediately ask to reconnect, because then she’s thinking, “Well, what does she want?” And don’t send a message with nothing in it either, because then there’s nothing for her to reply to. Give her something to respond to — a specific memory, a “LOL, I remember that conference!” Something real.

Karen: Keep it to three or four sentences. If it’s more than four sentences, that’s not a reconnection — that’s a presentation. And you don’t want her to feel like you’re presenting to her, because you’re not. You’re genuinely looking for opportunities to collaborate. It might be that you open up an opportunity for her. Maybe in six months she opens one up for you. So have no expectations.

Karen: One more tip: look for people who are active on LinkedIn. If you pick ten people who aren’t active, this dies right there. But if you reach out to people who are active, the replies come warm, and they come fast. It’s really about the conversation. And if there’s an ask, it lives in message two or three — something like, “Let’s jump on a quick Zoom, I’d love to see your face and catch up.” Some people won’t reply. That’s fine. Don’t read anything into it.

[11:19] Where These Conversations Can Lead

Karen: The goal here is to put calls on your calendar. That’s the number one metric we’re always looking at in our Visibility Salon and our She’s LinkedUp programs — what are the calls on your calendar?

Karen: Depending on how you follow up, maybe you move these to an Asana follow-up or whatever system you use. If nobody responds, don’t worry about it. But if people do respond, start a little chatty conversation. If the conversation dies, let it drop, and maybe pick it up again in a week or two. It’s about conversations. And if the worst thing that happens is that somebody you haven’t spoken to in a decade continues not to speak to you — oh well. You didn’t lose anything. You just know now.

Karen: This is how simple it can be, because what we’re looking for are a couple of success stories. Your network isn’t cold. It’s sleeping. And there’s a real difference between someone who doesn’t know you and someone who simply hasn’t heard from you in a while. That second group is your low-hanging fruit. And the opportunities aren’t “ask them for their credit card.” Maybe they’ll say, “I just joined this networking group and you’d be a great speaker for that.” Maybe they can introduce you to someone. So be open to where these conversations go. That’s the hard part — not having a predisposition for where you want it to go. Just be open to it.

Karen: If you’re doing this a couple of times a week, the opportunities are endless. Ten names, one message. Not ten messages — one message. Pick the easiest name on the list and send it. Maybe do one more, to someone you genuinely want to hear from. Send a three- or four-sentence message about your specific memory, or why that person came to mind, and then close your laptop.

Karen: Understand that this move is one piece of something bigger. Reconnecting is how you get known again. But the reason it matters is what it opens up: rooms you don’t have to build, audiences you don’t have to earn from scratch, opportunities other people can introduce you to. That’s what I teach in my Borrow the Stage masterclass. It’s completely free, about an hour, on demand — the whole method for how to get seen on stages that already have your people on them, so you can go one to many.

Karen: I’m all about using LinkedIn to build simplicity into your networking, and turning the biggest opportunities out there into work you get paid for. I want there to be more wealthy women in the world, and this is how we do it. Go to SheLinkedUp.com/masterclass to check it out — the link is in the show notes. Next week, we’ll talk about the first thing she’s going to do after she answers your message. I will see you at the table.