2019 Launch Yourself Event

I attended this personal branding “Launch Yourself Event” at the Park Theatre in Eindhoven, the Netherlands on Monday 24 June 2019. It was aimed at two target groups – those looking for work, and those with their own business.

Despite the English language event name, it was held completely in the Dutch language. I’m fairly good at understanding this but still found it a bit of a challenge. I did want to practice by attending an event where I am familiar with the type of content as this is an area I teach in.

Here is what the event description promised (translated from Dutch):

All the knowledge you need to make yourself visible, with diverse masterclasses from top speakers
A theatre performance where you learn how to more effectively become visible to find your dream job, new clients or projects, to network, and boost yourself and your business
The opportunity to network
Have a professional photo taken

Eindhoven is quite a journey from The Hague, especially when my direct return trains were cancelled for a few hours! On the way there, it took around 1.5 hours from Delft station, but on the way home, I needed to go via Utrecht and it took me over 2 hours. It cost me more than 40 euros return on a train ticket, so I appreciated the fact that the event was affordable at only 15 euros.

Pelpina Trip: Video Strategy Masterclass

I’ve known Pelpina for several years, and she lives not too far from me, so it was funny that we met up in Eindhoven instead! She gave a great Masterclass on using video in business, filmed with your smartphone. A few of my notes from her session:

Upload your own thumbnail video
Use subtitles
Use the 3 P’s: People, Platform, Purpose
Understand how your video is for and speak to them
LinkedIn is great for video of 1-2 minutes. Use a beginning that gets attention or allows people to connect with you – not a logo.
Keep videos short (1-2 minutes max), especially if your audience don’t yet know you well. Later once you are more closely connected, you can share longer videos with those who want to hear what you have to say.
Don’t use scripts – reading these is not natural
Be Yourself
Work on technique, such as thinking about movement and removing distractions and getting to know how to use audio and light well.

For more tips covering these in more depth, visit https://pelpina.com

Marcel Molenaar: LinkedIn Masterclass

Marcel Molenaar is the Country Manager for LinkedIn Benelux so is of course an expert on the platform. He gave us a number of tips to ensure we are making the most of LinkedIn. Some of my notes:

Make sure your profile is complete: basic but majority of people don’t get this far. Add/update your photo, cover image, location and industry. You can use icons as well – but not in your name field.
In your photo – look at the camera. Set your photos to public visibility (edit this in settings), otherwise it’s like networking with a bag on your head! Personalise your URL as well.
Have at least 40+ words and use media in your summary to give viewers a more complete understanding of who you are.
Include your contact details, especially if you are job hunting and would like for recruiters to be able to contact you directly from app
Add personal messages when you send link requests. Though this can sometimes no work easily on the app, do this via a desktop, or at least go to the profile and make it a personal invite.
Tag posts and photos with the relevant people/organisations
Use the new reaction emotions to more suitably respond to updates
Try out LinkedIn Live

There were some others speakers and the theatre performance, however I have to say that I didn’t follow them too well in Dutch. Still, was interesting to still listen in to parts of it. I didn’t really learn anything new as this is my own area of expertise, but was good to see it from another perspective.

The theatre performance by Ralph Kolen had audience members following along with “bullshit bingo” – from what I understood, he was asking which kind of words people were using in their LinkedIn Profiles, such as being passionate, enthusiastic etc. I agree that many of these words are overused and this was a fun way to get that message across.