In most of the world, it’s been pretty hot, and many of you are either on holiday, or getting ready to leave for holiday. I know that the LAST thing you want to think about is building relationships for business development. But I’ve got an easy challenge for you that will set you up nicely to return to the office in September with some stronger connections and potential for added business, while your colleagues are working to catch up.

Every day, for the next month, reach out to three of your connections on LinkedIn by email.

Now, there are some rules, here, of course.

  • Before you send them an email, you should first look at their profile and their recent activity to see what they’ve been up to lately. In reaching out to them, you want to make your email about THEM, and not about YOU.
  • Your email is not to pitch them on anything or remind them of services you offer, even if you’re reaching out to a potential client. I know for 99.9% of you reading this, that’s obvious and I don’t even have to say it. But for that 0.1%, I do, so I’m including it.
  • Bonus points if you reach out to people who are in your city and offer to meet up with them for coffee or lunch in the next four weeks too. Since it is the end of the summer, you may want to suggest this for September instead, but at least put it on their radar for the future.

We all have a lot of LinkedIn connections these days (it’s really easy to say yes to them!), but how well do we know our connections, and how well are we actually connecting with them? If you’re like me, even if you log into LinkedIn (which I do actually do daily), you’re only scanning through your feed and maybe “liking” a few updates, adding a “congrats!” here and there for an anniversary or new job, and maybe clicking on one or two interesting articles that someone has shared.

So there’s a huge opportunity to amplify my LinkedIn community efforts by better engaging with my network there every day. If I email three of my connections every day for the 31 days in August, that’s 93 people I will have reached out to by the end of the month.

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Photo of Lindsay Griffiths Lindsay Griffiths

Lindsay Griffiths is the International Lawyers Network’s Executive Director. She is a dynamic, influential international executive and marketing thought leader with a passion for relationship development and authoring impactful content. Griffiths is a driven, strategic leader who implements creative initiatives to achieve the…

Lindsay Griffiths is the International Lawyers Network’s Executive Director. She is a dynamic, influential international executive and marketing thought leader with a passion for relationship development and authoring impactful content. Griffiths is a driven, strategic leader who implements creative initiatives to achieve the goals of a global professional services network. She manages all major aspects of the Network, including recruitment, member retention, and providing exceptional client service to an international membership base.

In her role as Executive Director, Griffiths manages a mix of international programs, engages a diverse global community, and develops an international membership base. She leads the development and successful implementation of major organizational initiatives, manages interpersonal relationships, and possesses executive presence with audiences of internal and external stakeholders. Griffiths excels at project management, organization, and planning, writes and speaks with influence and authority, and works independently while demonstrating flexibility in thinking, especially in challenging situations. She also adapts to diverse and dynamic environments with constant assessment and recalibration.

JD Supra Readers Choice Top Author 2019

In 2021, the ILN was honored as Global Law Firm Network of the Year by The Lawyer European Awards, and in 2016, 2017, and 2022, they were shortlisted as Global Law Firm Network of the Year. Since 2011, the Network has been listed as a Chambers & Partners Leading Law Firm Network, recently increasing this ranking to be included in the top two percent of law firm networks globally, as well as adding two regional rankings. She was awarded “Thought Leader of the Year” by the Legal Marketing Association’s New York chapter in 2014 for her substantive contributions to the industry and was included in Clio’s list of “34 People in Legal You Should Follow on Twitter.” She was also chosen for the American Bar Association Journal’s inaugural Web 100‘s Best Law Blogs, where judge Ivy Grey said “This blog is outstanding, thoughtful, and useful.” Ms. Griffiths was chosen as a Top Author by JD Supra in their 2019 Readers’ Choice Awards, for the level of engagement and visibility she attained with readers on the topic of marketing & business development. She has been the author of Zen & the Art of Legal Networking since February 2009.