STEP 3 OF 4
Garden Networking
Garden networking is the slow, steady work of building relationships before you need them. You do it in two ways: keeping in touch with people you already know, and getting introduced to people you don’t. The goal is to be the person someone thinks of when an opportunity comes up. It works best when you’re at least a year from your next job search, and you keep doing it even after you’re hired.
YOUR ASSIGNMENT
Make a plan to reconnect with 3 people you haven’t talked to in 4+ months, and ask 1 contact for an introduction to someone new.
Before getting started on these exercises, make sure you have your Networking List handy, and know how to download a LinkedIn profile.
Keep in touch with your “Warm” and “Lukewarm” contacts
These are the people on your Networking List that you already know
Review your Networking List and find one “Warm” or “Lukewarm” contact you want to reconnect with ― choose someone you haven’t spoken or messaged with in over 4 months. Download their LinkedIn profile.
PROMPT 1
Attached is the LinkedIn profile of someone I’d like to stay in touch with. Based only on what’s here, tell me what seems to matter to them professionally: their priorities, what they seem proud of, and challenges they may be facing in their role. Tell me which points are stated directly and which you’re inferring.
Attach their LinkedIn profile and any recent LinkedIn posts
NOTE: make sure to stay in the same chat for the next prompt
PROMPT 2
Based on what you found about [name] and what you know about me, what do we have in common? Give me two to five points, ranked. Don’t invent anything that isn’t in their profile or my background.
Attach your Base Resume and Target Job Profile
Review the chat response, check it for accuracy, and revise as needed. Open your Networking List and in the “Notes” column, add a couple of sentences about your areas of common interest.
Staying in touch with co-workers, volunteer colleagues, and group members is easy because you already have built-in touchpoints: the workday, the volunteer shift, the monthly meeting.
It’s much harder to stay connected with people you don’t see on a regular schedule. This exercise will help you brainstorm ways to keep those relationships warm.
Before you begin, have your Networking List handy. The more detail in the “Notes” column, the better ― it should have info about your common interest areas.
PROMPT
Brainstorm 3-4 natural reasons I could reach out to [contact name], based on our common interests. Keep them low-pressure and genuinely useful: sharing an article, congratulating them on something, making an introduction, asking a thoughtful question, or inviting them to an event.
Copy and paste contact info from your Networking List
Copy and paste the chat response into a word processing document (Google Docs, MS Word, or other note-taking application). Review the response and edit it:
- Delete suggestions that don’t work for you
- Keep suggestions that do
- Add any of your own ideas
Either take action immediately, or schedule a day and time in your calendar to do it.
In Step 2, you learned to curate your LinkedIn feed to follow only the people who matter to you. Now you’ll learn how to raise your visibility with your contacts ― and you don’t need to post anything.
Commenting on another’s post is a gift to your connection. It shows their post to more people, and it tells LinkedIn’s algorithm the post is worth sharing even more widely. Here’s what you do:
- Go to your LinkedIn feed
- Scroll down around 10 or 15 posts
- Select All (“Ctrl + A” on Windows or “Cmd + A” on a Mac)
- Copy (“Ctrl +C” on Windows or “Cmd + C” on a Mac)
PROMPT 1
Of these posts, which ones would be worth commenting on to stay visible? For each one, suggest an angle for a genuinely useful comment.
Paste the copied posts and attach your Target Job Profile
If you want additional help drafting a comment for an individual post, you can ask your AI assistant to dig a little deeper.
PROMPT 2
Here’s a LinkedIn post from [contact name]. I want to leave a comment that adds value and sounds like me — not generic, not sycophantic. I’ve attached information about myself. Draft two or three options.
Paste the copied LinkedIn post, and attach your Target Job Profile and Base Resume
Either take action immediately, or schedule a day and time on your calendar to do it.
Get introduced to your “Cold” contacts
Strategically expand your network by asking for introductions. LinkedIn is a good place to see if any of the cold contacts on your Networking List know someone you know. Here’s what you do:
- Find a name on your Networking List that is a “Cold” contact
- Open LinkedIn and search for them by name
- If there is a “2nd” next to their name, that means you know someone who knows that person
- Click their name to open their profile, and you’ll see who is a mutual connection
PROMPT
I want to ask [contact name] to introduce me to [target contact]. We know each other from [context]. Draft a short, easy-to-forward message that makes it simple for them to say yes.
Attach the LinkedIn profiles for both contacts
Review the draft, make sure it’s accurate, and revise as needed to make it yours. Then, either send the message now or schedule a day and time in your calendar to send it.
Meeting new people
Too often, we attend networking events but aren’t sure how to follow up with someone we’ve met. This prompt assumes you got their business card or otherwise know their email address.
First, add the person’s name on your Networking List. Then, do the following prompt.
PROMPT
I met [contact name] at [event] and we spoke about [topic]. Draft a short email as a follow-up. Here’s my background and what I know about them.
Attach their LinkedIn Profile and your Base Resume
Either take action immediately, or schedule a day and time in your calendar to do it.
Plan your garden networking
You’ve now got the tools for garden networking:
- Research contacts to find common interests
- Find reasons to reach out
- Ask for introductions
The last step is to turn them into a plan you’ll follow. Garden networking is a marathon, not a sprint, so a small, steady habit works better than a burst of effort. This prompt helps you build a plan that fits your schedule:
PROMPT
Help me create a long-term garden networking plan I can keep up for years, even when I’m busy or employed. I want to keep my professional relationships warm and meet new people over time, without it feeling like a chore.
Here’s what I can commit to: about [number] minutes per [week or month]. The people I want to stay connected to are on my attached Networking List. The ways I’m comfortable connecting are: [for example, email, LinkedIn, coffee, events].
Create a plan with:
- A simple recurring rhythm, so I’m not contacting everyone at once.
- A way to decide who to prioritize, and how often to contact each group of people.
- A short menu of low-pressure actions I can choose from.
- A way to meet new people, such as asking for introductions or joining a group.
- A quick check-in once a quarter to review what’s working.
- A plan for when I fall behind, so I can restart without guilt.
Keep it to one page. Use only what I’ve told you. If you need more information, ask me first.
Attach your Networking List
Review the plan and edit it so that it works for you. Edit your calendar so that you’ve set specific days and times to implement your plan.