How to Network on LinkedIn Without Connections (Even If You Hate Networking)
I moved 13 times before I graduated high school and I had no idea it was preparing me to know how to network when I didn’t know anybody. Almost every year of my education, I had a first day at a new school - an experience most folks only have 2 or 3 times as they move from one local school to the next age grade.
I had no planned strategy for how I’d meet people, but I knew that being funny was my way in. But I understood something about being funny: the joke has to be funny to that person, not funny to you. I learned what they cared about and laughed at, then made jokes about those things.
My ability to notice everything is what opened doors for conversations. I listened carefully to how people talked and the regional words they used like saying pop instead of soda. I learned what they cared about. That ultimately became the way I would find something to say. While I may not have always had the same sense of humor as the other kids, everyone loves to be noticed. Of course, I didn’t know that at the time. I just wanted to make friends. I did what I thought would work. The results? The people either became friends or bullies. I’ll tell the story about beating a boy up in kindergarten some other time.
In the rest of this blog post, I talk about how to actually make LinkedIn networking feel human again, including things like...
Why networking feels unnatural (and why your brain treats strangers like a threat)
How to prepare your LinkedIn profile so you don’t look like a bot or a ghost
Building a small, intentional list of people to connect with (instead of spamming everyone)
Using posts, comments, and shared experiences to create real conversation starters
Why asking thoughtful questions matters more than sending the “perfect” message
A simple outreach approach that keeps things human (and actually gets responses)
The mindset shift: you’re not “networking”—you’re just one person talking to another