September 27, 2023 • 29 mins
In this Coaching Call style 10 Minute Marketing episode, Sonja Crystal Williams sits down with Cloe Guidry-Reed, who has journeyed from being a risk management consultant to a tech entrepreneur as the CEO of Hire Ground — a SaaS platform that connects diverse suppliers and enterprise buyers.
Throughout the episode, they outline the trajectory of Hire Ground's growth and Sonja underlines the significance of personal branding in humanizing a business and nurturing deep connections with customers. She also coaches Cloe up on how to leverage LinkedIn to enhance her personal brand and attract clients for Hire Ground, such optimizing her LinkedIn profile for enhanced visibility and engaging with digital communities for increased interactions.
As Cloe continues to grow Hire Ground, her journey offers insights for other entrepreneurs navigating their own branding and business paths. You can also harness power of digital platforms to boost your personal and professional brands. Whether you’re an aspiring entrepreneur or a seasoned business owner, Cloe’s story offers valuable insights and inspiration.
About Cloe Guidry-Reed and Hire Ground
An Agnes Scott College and Georgia State University Executive MBA Alumni and former SVP in two global brokerage firms, Cloe Guidry-Reed spent over 16 years successfully helping clients solve challenging issues around supply chain risk and human capital management. She founded Hire Ground, an online marketplace that connects corporate and government buyers with diverse suppliers, with the mission of providing new-majority business owners with more opportunities to win supply chain contracts while also enabling enterprise buyers to build and strengthen their supplier diversity programs.
As founder and CEO, Cloe is responsible for the overall success of Hire Ground by leading the development and execution of long-term strategies. She also co-hosts their Breaking Barriers podcast, speaking with leaders and rising stars in the increasingly vital field of supplier inclusion.
Follow Cloe on LinkedIn.
Learn More about Hire Ground and follow them on LinkedIn.
Tune in to the Breaking Barriers podcast.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Sonja Crystal Williams (00:09):
Hi everyone, welcome to today's
episode.
My name is Sonja CrystalWilliams and I'm the host of 10
Minute Marketing.
Joining me today I have CloeGuidry-Reed.
She is the co-founder of HireGround.
Cloe, I'm going to let you talka little bit more about what
Hire Ground is.
I had the opportunity in theearly days of you starting that
up to work alongside with youall in a few areas, but you all
(00:33):
are thriving.
You've grown quite a bit.
Would you consider yourselfstill in that startup phase?
Cloe Guidry-Reed (00:40):
I think startup phase is something that
we oftentimes get confused.
Startup, by definition, isreally meaning that you're in an
accelerated growth period.
Yes, I would say that we'restill in the startup phase
because we are growing veryrapidly and want to continue to
(01:00):
grow.
Sonja Crystal Williams (01:01):
Tell us more about Hire Ground.
Yes, I'm just everyonelistening?
Cloe Guidry-Reed (01:06):
Absolutely, absolutely so.
Hire Ground is a softwarecompany.
We do strategic sourcing andreally help enterprise
organizations with supplierengagement and governance.
Sonja Crystal Williams (01:18):
Awesome.
So you're working with a lot ofcorporations on really helping
fill their supplier chainpipeline as well as manage some
of the processes behind thescenes.
That's what the software isdoing.
Cloe Guidry-Reed (01:29):
Absolutely so, helping them with the sourcing
pieces all the way to theonboarding and the vetting, and
then continuing to engage withyour suppliers on a regular
basis.
Sonja Crystal Williams (01:39):
Very cool.
So with this business, I guesslet's kind of dig a little bit
before we talk about and soeveryone knows this episode
today is a little bit of acoaching call.
We're going to talk aboutCloe's business but also talk
about as she is in this phase ofaccelerated growth with Hire
Ground.
Really what are the things thatshe's putting in place that are
helping them continue to thriveand where are their best areas
(01:59):
of opportunity.
So we're going to spend sometime today really talking about
that.
But first, Cloe, I want to heara little bit about the
background of how you got intothis line of work.
It's a complex business problemthat you're solving, but how
did you even kind of figure outthat this was something that
needed to be addressed?
Cloe Guidry-Reed (02:20):
Yeah, so prior to me starting Hire Ground, I
was a risk management consultantand primarily worked with large
enterprise organizations thesame of our clients that we
service now and so help themwith risk identification across
their supply chains and acrosstheir purchasing and procurement
(02:40):
teams.
So that is where I really gotintroduced to all of these
corporations and theircommitments around diversity,
equity and inclusion,particularly around their supply
chain.
And originally a lot of ourclients were like could you help
us with finding and sourcingsome diverse own businesses
(03:01):
based on what we're trying to do?
And of course there was a lotin my network, but of course I
was like surely there's a toolor a marketplace or something
that I can find, because therehas to be other suppliers other
than just the ones that I know.
And so started really scouringthe internet to see if I could
find a solution that really wasan end to end solution that
(03:23):
could plug into some of their APsystems, and I couldn't find
anything on the marketplace.
And so that's what kind of ledme down this discovery path of
finding a solution to reallyaddress this problem, because
not only were corporations Iknew corporations were looking
for these diverse own businessesbut I knew diverse own
businesses were also looking forsome of these larger contracts
(03:44):
to expand and grow their theirbusinesses as well.
Sonja Crystal Williams (03:47):
Huge, huge, huge, huge and you hit on
a key term that a lot of us heretoday diversity, equity,
inclusion (DEI) which definitelyis a overall niche that needs
addressing, of course, across alot of businesses today, and you
found this I'm really happy tohear about that how long now
have you all been in business,or kind of officially, since
(04:08):
you've formed Hire Ground?
Cloe Guidry-Reed (04:10):
Almost three years, almost three, four years.
Wow, I can't believe it.
Sonja Crystal Williams (04:14):
Yeah, a lot happens in a small amount of
time, and today I mean you all,you have people dedicated.
Now, I mean, was that you inthe beginning that had to do a
lot of the legwork on the salesside?
Or, and now, do you have peoplein place for that?
Cloe Guidry-Reed (04:28):
Yes, yeah, it was me doing a lot of the
legwork.
It's still me doing a lot ofthe legwork on the sales side,
because no one can really tellour story the way that you know.
Someone from the beginning can,and, as as right now, while
we're still in this acceleratedgrowth period, I'm still the
best person to do that.
(04:48):
So some of the otherresponsibilities, from
operations to HR and some ofjust more the business process
and system things that we haveinside of our business those are
usually run by somebody else.
Sonja Crystal Williams (05:00):
Okay.
So I want to dig into that alittle bit more because, as a
founder of a software companyand of course tech is just such
a, you know, huge niche and kindof vertical to be in right now,
that's kind of a uniqueposition because, as you just
said, you're still out reallybeing the face behind the brand
right.
(05:20):
It relies on you, as you all arein this period of growth, and
so, with it relying on you, Iknow one of the things you and I
kind of talked about previouslywas really putting yourself in
a position where that personalbrand really means something.
The way that you arerepresented, where you go out in
front of these customers, makesa huge difference.
Let me just kind of ask you whybecause that was one of the
(05:43):
things you brought up to me like, hey, this is something where,
like I want to, you know, kindof make sure I'm doing better or
staying on top of.
Why has that been an area ofimportance to you?
Because I think there's a lotof business owners and founders
out there that really need tohear that message.
Cloe Guidry-Reed (05:56):
Yeah, I mean, I think that you know, when
you're in an accelerated growthperiod, people want to know who
you are, not just what it isthat you do and what your
software provides, and so itadds a level of connectivity
that and humanizes our brand,our business, our story that
people can connect to, and so Ido realize that that's very
(06:18):
important.
It's just one of those thingsthat often you know we can
market Hire Ground all day long,but when it comes to like
marketing myself, sometimes it'sjust the last thing on my list
of things to do.
Sonja Crystal Williams (06:29):
Yeah, and you use a word I love to use
when I'm working with clients alot, which is humanizing your
brand, because you have to findways to connect, and it's so
easy to be so focused on growingthe business that some of the
things that we have to rememberabout ourselves, especially when
you're running the business, isimportant too.
But, like you said, it's oftenthe last thing on the list of
things to focus on In terms oflike how you position yourself
(06:54):
to grow your personal brand orthings.
And I mean you had a brand, Imean you were.
You were already thriving as anexecutive and a partner at a
risk management firm, evenbefore Hire Ground started , so
you've always had a visiblepresence.
What are the ways, at leastleading into Hire Ground, that
you feel like, well, I had apresence here or here with
people when it comes to likejust being visible online.
(07:16):
And then are there other placeswhere you've started to grow
there.
Cloe Guidry-Reed (07:20):
Yeah, I mean I had a presence, you know,
pretty much on most social mediaplatforms.
So Facebook, LinkedIn,Instagram.
I find that I've gravitatedtowards more LinkedIn.
That's where most of ourcustomers on both sides of our
platform are and most brands are.
I do have a Twitter account.
(07:42):
I'm not on Twitter as much Iknow.
That's where tons of people getinformation, or X now as they
call it.
Yes, X now yes.
And yeah, I mean I'm onInstagram for the purposes of
finding things and as a resource, but I don't usually I'm not
posting that much on there.
(08:04):
I find it difficult to maintainmore than one social media
platform right now for myself.
Sonja Crystal Williams (08:08):
Yeah, and I think that's true.
I think there's some socialmedia platforms that you might
just be an observer or a lurkeron, like Instagram, and it's
also kind of distinguishing.
As I have this business, whatlane do I want to be in?
Cloe Guidry-Reed (08:25):
Yes.
Sonja Crystal Williams (08:25):
I start to kind of figure out where I
want to go with that brand.
So LinkedIn definitely makes alot of sense in terms of focal
points.
I'm going to pull up yourLinkedIn Just so I have kind of
just in front of me and I'm notgoing to pull it up on the
screen for everyone, but just soI can look at it more.
So to kind of say what's thecurrent status of what Cloe's
(08:46):
profile looks like today as thefounder of Hire Ground and as I
do that.
Hire Ground has a LinkedInpresence as well.
Right, right, okay.
And is it a pretty activepresence?
Is there?
You got someone on the teamthat posts content on that?
Cloe Guidry-Reed (09:02):
Yes, regularly .
Sonja Crystal Williams (09:04):
It is very active, yes, so one
opportunity that I always sharewith businesses that are in a
position like yours is that thebeauty of LinkedIn is that it's
a platform where your companycan exist and you can exist.
But if you're willing to be, ina sense, an ambassador on
(09:25):
behalf of your company using aplatform like LinkedIn, it
really opens up a hugeopportunity.
In fact, there's a stat thatLinkedIn released a few years
ago that said profiles where youis like whether it's someone at
the company or you're thefounder of the company sharing
post off of the business page,it will increase that page's
visibility by up to six timesand get your business out in
(09:49):
front of a lot more people inyour own personal network.
Cloe Guidry-Reed (09:52):
Got it, got it Okay.
Sonja Crystal Williams (09:53):
So there's kind of two ways to
think about even how youapproach LinkedIn.
As I look at your profile today.
Right, you've got the basicsthat any founder should have.
You've got a great headshot.
You've got your you know yourname is there.
You've got kind of the basicson the job title CEO of Hire
Ground and you've got somekeywords in there that hit on
some of the things that you do,which is right now.
(10:16):
You've got it supplier,diversity and economic inclusion
advocate.
You all have a podcast, soyou've got your podcast on there
as well.
Yeah, and so I want to breakdown LinkedIn into a few
different areas, because if wewere to think about how do we
take this profile and, in asense, just kind of tighten it
up so that we can get more outof it, there's a few different
(10:38):
areas you could go in a fewdifferent areas that you can
update, in addition to justcontent that gets produced, that
goes out on that channel thatcan help you on the way.
So one is the background image.
So you've got your profileimage, and then behind on a
personal profile, your image islike the background image.
You've got it branded for HireGround and I would say that's a
(11:00):
good thing.
You can keep that as it is, oryou could think about if you
want something that's slightlymore personal to you but still
represents the work you do atHire Ground.
So it goes back to what youwere saying about humanizing
yeah, and.
Thinking about, well, what is itthat we Hire Ground at ?
And it's okay in that banner toeven have some of the words on,
(11:22):
kind of like, what you do orhow you're working with clients
and who you're working with.
You don't have to necessarilyput the names of those companies
.
I'm good put you know servingor bringing DEI, you know
software or programs oropportunities to enterprise
clients or something, but that'sgood, yeah, the action exactly
(11:50):
you can stick with.
So right now your banner hasAtlanta as the backdrop.
I recognized it because I knowAtlanta.
You could stay with that or youcould think about is there
something that's more meaningful?
That again might help peopleunderstand.
I'm gonna go to your websitebecause it's one of those things
where, like I know, yourwebsite's been updated as well.
(12:11):
Well, not updated fresh, fresh,but like I know it's what.
It's gone through manyiterations over the past three
years, and so I know that youall have kind of a unique look
with the type of graphics you'reusing on this site.
Yes, the color scheme haschanged a little bit, so so if
you want it to have that brandfeel a little bit tighter, yeah,
that's a good area opportunityjust on the graphic as well.
(12:33):
Okay, the beauty is what?
I would do yeah in your position, because you have the, the
support, because you have a team.
I would ask someone on the teamto do that so you don't have to
think about it.
But now you have a little bitmore direction.
You can give them on what youwant it to look like.
Yeah, and that gives you theopportunity, you know, and maybe
(12:54):
ask them to produce two tothree version, new banner
versions that you could run with.
Okay, okay.
And then when we get into theprofile itself, all right, so we
got the image part of theprofile that people are gonna
see and they're immediatelygonna form an impression there.
Then there's like when peopletype in LinkedIn in that little
(13:18):
search box if I typed insupplier diversity and inclusion
, what kind of profiles come up?
So one you do want to getdiscovered when people are doing
searches on LinkedIn.
Part of that we want to getdiscovered through the type of
keywords that we use in ourprofile.
That goes down to your title,that goes down to even in your
(13:41):
description, in the experiencesection of your profile.
I would say, maybe filling thatin a little bit more, because
that's a good place to also dropDEI, supplier diversity,
economic inclusion, some ofthose keywords that you're
really focused on.
But, definitely also.
I would probably and I'm goingto do it real quick for you On
(14:04):
LinkedIn I would do a littletest in LinkedIn search and I
would type in supplier.
Let's just type in supply chainsoftware.
The reason why I'm typing thatin is because I want to see what
people pop up related to that.
(14:25):
Those might be people in theindustry, those might be
competitors, and I'm usingsupply chain software.
That might not be the rightphrase, but I would play around
with typing different phrases inthat match what you do that
your audience think about.
How would my audience seek outpeople and try to write down a
list of what those phrases mightbe and then look them up to do
(14:47):
your test first, let's just say,if supply chain management were
one of those phrases, that'sthe phrase you're going to make
sure you get incorporated intoyour profile in more places.
Okay, so that's particularlythe two places where you could
get any of those keywordsrelated to what you do at Hire
(15:10):
Ground would be in theexperience section under Hire
Ground, and then the othersection would be above that.
On LinkedIn, there's the aboutsection, about.
Okay, got it that section.
You have a pretty long good.
This is good.
You have a pretty long kind ofdetails and backgrounds here.
(15:32):
What I would do to just makethat where people will read it
more, because you've got somewords.
I see diversity in here severaltimes.
I see equity in here Great.
I would break that up, though,into sections to make it more
skimmable, and so skimmablemeaning when people are on
(15:56):
social media networks today andLinkedIn is slightly different
people will spend a little bitmore time.
But the reality is most peopledon't read captions on post-word
for word Right.
Most people are used to justtaking their finger and
scrolling up the speed.
Yeah, anything that you put infront of them needs to be
digestible on that scroll Right.
So right now you have smallparagraphs on the profile, the
(16:20):
way it's written, but it's notskimmable.
Cloe Guidry-Reed (16:24):
Okay, it does, it does, it does.
Sonja Crystal Williams (16:27):
So how do we make it skimmable?
In a separate doc, because whenyou're in LinkedIn it's not
going to let you do bold, it'snot going to let you put emojis.
Okay, so in a separate doc, doit in Microsoft Word, because if
you copy and paste it out ofWord with bold text, italics,
anything you want to really use,it will stay in LinkedIn and
it'll let you save it that way.
Cloe Guidry-Reed (16:48):
Okay.
Sonja Crystal Williams (16:49):
So you could do things like put
headings over some of thoseparagraphs.
You know my background, who wework with or who I serve
opportunities.
I'm looking for people I help.
You could have headers likethat in place on that profile.
That can help you just breakthat up.
(17:09):
And then I would say, if youand this depends on the tone of
your brand and your comfortlevel, but you could also
consider breaking some of thatup with emojis, not really using
emojis, but like at the side ofeach section just to draw
attention and make it skimmable.
Cloe Guidry-Reed (17:26):
Got it, got it .
Draw attention to just thebreakup and yeah, okay.
Sonja Crystal Williams (17:32):
Okay, so that's just like functional
stuff.
The final thing, another areaof opportunity is your featured
section.
Cloe Guidry-Reed (17:40):
Okay Feature.
Sonja Crystal Williams (17:42):
Yeah, so there's a section right under
about.
So if I'm looking at a LinkedInprofile, you have the person's
banner and profile image at thetop and you've got all their
name and like where they went toschool or whatever, and then
below that is about, which islike a freestyle put whatever
you want, which I would also put, like, if it's okay to put some
of your clients that arerecognizable names, drop some of
(18:05):
those in there too, okay.
And then featured.
Featured is the section thatcomes after about, and this is
the section where you can put,and it basically produces a
carousel.
That carousel include, yeah, itcan include past posts.
It could include links toarticles often linked in or
(18:31):
graphics, whatever you put there.
You can choose to put whateveryou want in that section.
That's good real estate.
Cloe Guidry-Reed (18:39):
Yeah.
Sonja Crystal Williams (18:42):
Because what you can do there is put and
this depends.
You could put calls to actionthere.
Okay, so usually your firstthree.
If you do it like a carousel,your first three are going to
show.
So you might think about whatare the three most important
things I want people to knowabout me and my business
professionally when they scanthis profile.
Okay, it could be.
(19:04):
Here's a call to action.
If you all do demos or anythinglike that, sign up for your
demo and do a really goodgraphic, how some people have
those really nice thumbnails onYouTube when you're looking for
YouTube videos to watch.
Yeah, yeah.
You want to have a nicethumbnail like that.
Okay, on that carousel.
(19:25):
Okay, perfect, humanize it byputting sometimes it might be a
picture of you, but thebackground's removed, and then
it might say book a demo orsomething like that and it's not
necessarily with you.
It's going to take them to thewebsite or wherever you all
actually have a link that bookspeople.
But if you are part of thatpresentation, that's an
(19:46):
opportunity, perfect.
So you could have carouselsthat are that style, or it could
be a mix, it might be.
One is like book a demo orrequest a discovery call.
Another one might be, sinceyou've probably been featured in
the media, you know, and sotaking one of those publications
(20:07):
where you've been featured andalso featuring that on your
profile so that there's, youknow, of course, a little bit of
credibility there, right?
Someone's been in boards andenterprise and ink, you know
those magazines.
There's credibility there.
So they know oh, this is like alegit person, she's got a
strong business.
You know things like that, okay.
Okay, that's definitely helpful, so that's a huge opportunity,
(20:32):
okay.
And then we get into just kindof the activity of posting, and
this is where I think your teamcould help you because, as you
said, like you're busy, you'redoing other things.
This is where you kind of startto ask and this definitely
depends on relationship, comfortlevel with someone on the team
and I usually, like I usuallysay like a point to one or two
(20:52):
people, because you don't wanteveryone to have your LinkedIn
information at the company.
But if there's one or twopeople on the team that you feel
comfortable with turning overaccess to, then I would consider
giving them access and allowingthem from time to time.
And this is stuff you all haveto talk through.
So it's almost like you need astrategy.
Right, you need to talk throughit with your team, but you may
(21:15):
want to think about what are theposts that go Hire Ground's on
LinkedIn that I feelcomfortable with resharing on to
my profile, and that might be afrequency of once or twice a
month Doesn't necessarily needto be all the time, yeah, and
then for other post content,whether you're doing it or
someone else on your team isdoing it.
(21:35):
I would say probably justthinking about if you're
participating in conferences, ifyou're attending conferences,
if you're speaking on panels,any of that, push it out, push
it out, push it out and try tostay on a consistent schedule.
If you're not going to be theone posting it, then just be in
sync with someone on the teamwhere at least you get the photo
and you text it to them orSlack, you know.
(21:59):
However, that works.
Yeah, make sure that someone'sgetting that and then maybe it's
a quick phone call and you givethem the context, but you can
remove yourself from it.
Ok, the more you count onyourself to do it, the less
likely it's probably going toget done, and I know that from
the experience of working with alot of people again in your
position.
It's less likely to get done.
It's better for you to just bethe observer of seeing it happen
(22:22):
on your profile and then, youknow, still guiding your team on
the language, right On how todo that.
Cloe Guidry-Reed (22:30):
Perfect, that's another piece, ok, these
are good suggestions.
These are yeah.
Sonja Crystal Williams (22:36):
And that's just.
That's just like the profilestuff.
Now, the other thing you saidwas I really would want someone
to guide me on like what groupsshould I be joining Right?
Like what are the things Ishould be a part of?
Cloe Guidry-Reed (22:47):
like the digital communities and making
sure that you have a presence inthem.
Sonja Crystal Williams (22:52):
Yeah.
So the one thing I'm gonna sayon LinkedIn groups aren't what
they used to be there, used tobe a time, I would say about a
decade ago, where groups werejust like popping and there's
still some, some activecommunities on LinkedIn.
So I'm not gonna say all groups, but I'm gonna say if you post
most groups in most groups,you're not gonna get much
content or much likes, comments,shares, not gonna get much
(23:14):
engagement on posts.
However the reason why joiningthe group still can be powerful
is because you can join thatgroup and now you have access to
people in that group to connectwith one-on-one.
Okay, that's the biggest valuein groups.
So that would go into thestrategy bucket of working with
(23:35):
someone on your team and askingthem to produce a list of
potential groups you could joinand I definitely in the supply
or equity.
You know diversity, equity andinclusion in supply chain world.
Those groups exist, right, weknow there's number one all of
the majority supplier groups allhave groups on LinkedIn and
(23:57):
there's gonna be the nationalone and then there's probably
one at each state level.
Some of them you might have toformally be a member of, but
some of those groups you don't,and so I would look for those
opportunities.
I would also look foropportunities within your alumni
networks where you went tocollege and then and then again,
it's not so much about, onceyou're in that group, posting
(24:20):
anything in the group.
It's about finding people inthat group, because once you get
in the group, you can search byjob titles, people in the group
, right, and now when you reachout to them, you can say, hey,
we both went to Blank Collegeand I'm looking to connect with
more alumni in this role.
You know, can you?
(24:40):
You want to connect?
And then it's just hey, now wehave a connection on LinkedIn
and then maybe from there it'smessaging to start that digital
relationship If they're inAtlanta eventually.
I always tell people within twoto three messages.
You know, nowadays it might notbe coffee, but in person, but
maybe it's a Zoom call.
Yeah, and I try to get them outof LinkedIn after the first
(25:00):
couple of messages, because ifyou keep messaging in LinkedIn,
somebody's gonna fall off atsome point.
Yeah, so true, so alumninetworks right, which I would
imagine you're probably a memberof some already.
I am, but they're mine.
Cloe Guidry-Reed (25:16):
One of them's active, the other one's not as
active.
Sonja Crystal Williams (25:21):
Yeah.
So that's where I would say youleverage it.
The one that's not active, gofind the people in that group
and then connect with them oneto on one, and then the one that
is, maybe that's an opportunityto kind of you know bridge into
another conversation.
So, alumni networks, anynonprofits you volunteered with
or been a part of, those aregood opportunities.
(25:41):
Any clubs, organizations, evenif you did it in the past
National Black MBA, any of thosetype of organizations get into
those groups and then again,they probably aren't having big
conversations on LinkedIn.
They're probably.
You probably just need to findthem one-on-one.
The place where, if you do wantto find groups to actively
(26:02):
participate in, it's, honestly,facebook right now.
Okay.
So this is where, again, itjust depends on how you want to
utilize Facebook.
Yeah, you know what I mean.
And if you wanted to likeupdate your profile where it's
personal, but only personal tothe extent you want it to be
(26:22):
personal, yeah, or you know.
Or if you just want to likemake it where that profile isn't
necessarily searchable orpeople don't see all your stuff
unless they're your friend,right, and they still
participate in groups withoutpeople seeing or having access
to all these parts of yoursocial life that you may not
want people to see unless yougive them access.
Yeah, but Facebook groups, thatis where people actively talk,
(26:49):
communicate, there's lots ofconversations.
So I think, yeah, I think youhave the bones.
Yeah, yes, it's really justprobably rewiring the profile
Just to make it, and morediscoverable, yeah, more
discoverable, okay.
When people land there, theyinstantly know what you do and
(27:12):
they feel to your point thathuman connection to some degree,
right, where it feels like thisperson is accessible, right and
talk to her, and it's not justthe corporate stuff listed in
the profile.
Cloe Guidry-Reed (27:23):
Yeah.
Sonja Crystal Williams (27:24):
Yeah.
Cloe Guidry-Reed (27:24):
And I mean, and with these, these groups on
either the the platform, itsounds like it's a great place
to build community.
Sonja Crystal Williams (27:32):
That's the thing.
Yeah, it requires legwork andtime, which is limited for you,
right and it, so it will makemore sense for you to lay out
this is the approach.
You'll have to invest the timeand the strategy and the
approach you want to take andthen try to find someone on your
team that you trust to managethe day to day activities.
(27:53):
Right With monitoring andoverseeing it.
Cloe Guidry-Reed (27:57):
Wonderful.
Okay, that sounds good.
All right, this has been superhelpful.
Thank you so much.
I'll have to come back on theshow and tell you yeah, just
sort of the feedback that I getafter I implement some of these
suggestions.
Sonja Crystal Williams (28:13):
This is really good, and I think this is
yeah, I think this is thestarting point.
I think there's going to bemore that you're going to
discover you can do, but I thinkthis is the starting point that
leads you down that path.
And then, once you tighten itup like what am I going to put
in the featured section, andthen the stuff that's there
might not stay there forever, itmight rotate.
That'll help you along the way.
Cloe Guidry-Reed (28:33):
That sounds wonderful.
Great, great, great, great.
Thank you so much.
Sonja Crystal Williams (28:37):
Thank you, Cloe.
Thank you so much.
Let me just kind of close outand just also saying yes, we'd
love to have you back in thefuture.
That way, everyone can kind ofhear how things are moving, what
you're journey.
For those of you listening, ifLinkedIn is a place where you'd
like to grow, implement some ofthese suggestions.
You know, listen to thispodcast, drop me a DM or comment
(28:58):
.
I'd love to hear how this isworking for you and Cloe.
For people that do want tolearn more about higher ground,
where can they find it?
And if they want to connectwith you, where can they find
you?
Cloe Guidry-Reed (29:08):
Yes, yes, if you want to connect with us @
Hire Ground.
And if you want to connect withme, you can find me on LinkedIn
at @ Cloe Guidry-Reed.
Sonja Crystal Williams (29:22):
All right.
Thank you so much forparticipating.
Everyone thanks so much again.
Have a great day you too.
Hi everyone, welcome to today's
episode.
My name is Sonja CrystalWilliams and I'm the host of 10
Minute Marketing.
Joining me today I have CloeGuidry-Reed.
She is the co-founder of HireGround.
Cloe, I'm going to let you talka little bit more about what
Hire Ground is.
I had the opportunity in theearly days of you starting that
up to work alongside with youall in a few areas, but you all
(00:33):
are thriving.
You've grown quite a bit.
Would you consider yourselfstill in that startup phase?
Cloe Guidry-Reed (00:40):
I think startup phase is something that
we oftentimes get confused.
Startup, by definition, isreally meaning that you're in an
accelerated growth period.
Yes, I would say that we'restill in the startup phase
because we are growing veryrapidly and want to continue to
(01:00):
grow.
Sonja Crystal Williams (01:01):
Tell us more about Hire Ground.
Yes, I'm just everyonelistening?
Cloe Guidry-Reed (01:06):
Absolutely, absolutely so.
Hire Ground is a softwarecompany.
We do strategic sourcing andreally help enterprise
organizations with supplierengagement and governance.
Sonja Crystal Williams (01:18):
Awesome.
So you're working with a lot ofcorporations on really helping
fill their supplier chainpipeline as well as manage some
of the processes behind thescenes.
That's what the software isdoing.
Cloe Guidry-Reed (01:29):
Absolutely so, helping them with the sourcing
pieces all the way to theonboarding and the vetting, and
then continuing to engage withyour suppliers on a regular
basis.
Sonja Crystal Williams (01:39):
Very cool.
So with this business, I guesslet's kind of dig a little bit
before we talk about and soeveryone knows this episode
today is a little bit of acoaching call.
We're going to talk aboutCloe's business but also talk
about as she is in this phase ofaccelerated growth with Hire
Ground.
Really what are the things thatshe's putting in place that are
helping them continue to thriveand where are their best areas
(01:59):
of opportunity.
So we're going to spend sometime today really talking about
that.
But first, Cloe, I want to heara little bit about the
background of how you got intothis line of work.
It's a complex business problemthat you're solving, but how
did you even kind of figure outthat this was something that
needed to be addressed?
Cloe Guidry-Reed (02:20):
Yeah, so prior to me starting Hire Ground, I
was a risk management consultantand primarily worked with large
enterprise organizations thesame of our clients that we
service now and so help themwith risk identification across
their supply chains and acrosstheir purchasing and procurement
(02:40):
teams.
So that is where I really gotintroduced to all of these
corporations and theircommitments around diversity,
equity and inclusion,particularly around their supply
chain.
And originally a lot of ourclients were like could you help
us with finding and sourcingsome diverse own businesses
(03:01):
based on what we're trying to do?
And of course there was a lotin my network, but of course I
was like surely there's a toolor a marketplace or something
that I can find, because therehas to be other suppliers other
than just the ones that I know.
And so started really scouringthe internet to see if I could
find a solution that really wasan end to end solution that
(03:23):
could plug into some of their APsystems, and I couldn't find
anything on the marketplace.
And so that's what kind of ledme down this discovery path of
finding a solution to reallyaddress this problem, because
not only were corporations Iknew corporations were looking
for these diverse own businessesbut I knew diverse own
businesses were also looking forsome of these larger contracts
(03:44):
to expand and grow their theirbusinesses as well.
Sonja Crystal Williams (03:47):
Huge, huge, huge, huge and you hit on
a key term that a lot of us heretoday diversity, equity,
inclusion (DEI) which definitelyis a overall niche that needs
addressing, of course, across alot of businesses today, and you
found this I'm really happy tohear about that how long now
have you all been in business,or kind of officially, since
(04:08):
you've formed Hire Ground?
Cloe Guidry-Reed (04:10):
Almost three years, almost three, four years.
Wow, I can't believe it.
Sonja Crystal Williams (04:14):
Yeah, a lot happens in a small amount of
time, and today I mean you all,you have people dedicated.
Now, I mean, was that you inthe beginning that had to do a
lot of the legwork on the salesside?
Or, and now, do you have peoplein place for that?
Cloe Guidry-Reed (04:28):
Yes, yeah, it was me doing a lot of the
legwork.
It's still me doing a lot ofthe legwork on the sales side,
because no one can really tellour story the way that you know.
Someone from the beginning can,and, as as right now, while
we're still in this acceleratedgrowth period, I'm still the
best person to do that.
(04:48):
So some of the otherresponsibilities, from
operations to HR and some ofjust more the business process
and system things that we haveinside of our business those are
usually run by somebody else.
Sonja Crystal Williams (05:00):
Okay.
So I want to dig into that alittle bit more because, as a
founder of a software companyand of course tech is just such
a, you know, huge niche and kindof vertical to be in right now,
that's kind of a uniqueposition because, as you just
said, you're still out reallybeing the face behind the brand
right.
(05:20):
It relies on you, as you all arein this period of growth, and
so, with it relying on you, Iknow one of the things you and I
kind of talked about previouslywas really putting yourself in
a position where that personalbrand really means something.
The way that you arerepresented, where you go out in
front of these customers, makesa huge difference.
Let me just kind of ask you whybecause that was one of the
(05:43):
things you brought up to me like, hey, this is something where,
like I want to, you know, kindof make sure I'm doing better or
staying on top of.
Why has that been an area ofimportance to you?
Because I think there's a lotof business owners and founders
out there that really need tohear that message.
Cloe Guidry-Reed (05:56):
Yeah, I mean, I think that you know, when
you're in an accelerated growthperiod, people want to know who
you are, not just what it isthat you do and what your
software provides, and so itadds a level of connectivity
that and humanizes our brand,our business, our story that
people can connect to, and so Ido realize that that's very
(06:18):
important.
It's just one of those thingsthat often you know we can
market Hire Ground all day long,but when it comes to like
marketing myself, sometimes it'sjust the last thing on my list
of things to do.
Sonja Crystal Williams (06:29):
Yeah, and you use a word I love to use
when I'm working with clients alot, which is humanizing your
brand, because you have to findways to connect, and it's so
easy to be so focused on growingthe business that some of the
things that we have to rememberabout ourselves, especially when
you're running the business, isimportant too.
But, like you said, it's oftenthe last thing on the list of
things to focus on In terms oflike how you position yourself
(06:54):
to grow your personal brand orthings.
And I mean you had a brand, Imean you were.
You were already thriving as anexecutive and a partner at a
risk management firm, evenbefore Hire Ground started , so
you've always had a visiblepresence.
What are the ways, at leastleading into Hire Ground, that
you feel like, well, I had apresence here or here with
people when it comes to likejust being visible online.
(07:16):
And then are there other placeswhere you've started to grow
there.
Cloe Guidry-Reed (07:20):
Yeah, I mean I had a presence, you know,
pretty much on most social mediaplatforms.
So Facebook, LinkedIn,Instagram.
I find that I've gravitatedtowards more LinkedIn.
That's where most of ourcustomers on both sides of our
platform are and most brands are.
I do have a Twitter account.
(07:42):
I'm not on Twitter as much Iknow.
That's where tons of people getinformation, or X now as they
call it.
Yes, X now yes.
And yeah, I mean I'm onInstagram for the purposes of
finding things and as a resource, but I don't usually I'm not
posting that much on there.
(08:04):
I find it difficult to maintainmore than one social media
platform right now for myself.
Sonja Crystal Williams (08:08):
Yeah, and I think that's true.
I think there's some socialmedia platforms that you might
just be an observer or a lurkeron, like Instagram, and it's
also kind of distinguishing.
As I have this business, whatlane do I want to be in?
Cloe Guidry-Reed (08:25):
Yes.
Sonja Crystal Williams (08:25):
I start to kind of figure out where I
want to go with that brand.
So LinkedIn definitely makes alot of sense in terms of focal
points.
I'm going to pull up yourLinkedIn Just so I have kind of
just in front of me and I'm notgoing to pull it up on the
screen for everyone, but just soI can look at it more.
So to kind of say what's thecurrent status of what Cloe's
(08:46):
profile looks like today as thefounder of Hire Ground and as I
do that.
Hire Ground has a LinkedInpresence as well.
Right, right, okay.
And is it a pretty activepresence?
Is there?
You got someone on the teamthat posts content on that?
Cloe Guidry-Reed (09:02):
Yes, regularly .
Sonja Crystal Williams (09:04):
It is very active, yes, so one
opportunity that I always sharewith businesses that are in a
position like yours is that thebeauty of LinkedIn is that it's
a platform where your companycan exist and you can exist.
But if you're willing to be, ina sense, an ambassador on
(09:25):
behalf of your company using aplatform like LinkedIn, it
really opens up a hugeopportunity.
In fact, there's a stat thatLinkedIn released a few years
ago that said profiles where youis like whether it's someone at
the company or you're thefounder of the company sharing
post off of the business page,it will increase that page's
visibility by up to six timesand get your business out in
(09:49):
front of a lot more people inyour own personal network.
Cloe Guidry-Reed (09:52):
Got it, got it Okay.
Sonja Crystal Williams (09:53):
So there's kind of two ways to
think about even how youapproach LinkedIn.
As I look at your profile today.
Right, you've got the basicsthat any founder should have.
You've got a great headshot.
You've got your you know yourname is there.
You've got kind of the basicson the job title CEO of Hire
Ground and you've got somekeywords in there that hit on
some of the things that you do,which is right now.
(10:16):
You've got it supplier,diversity and economic inclusion
advocate.
You all have a podcast, soyou've got your podcast on there
as well.
Yeah, and so I want to breakdown LinkedIn into a few
different areas, because if wewere to think about how do we
take this profile and, in asense, just kind of tighten it
up so that we can get more outof it, there's a few different
(10:38):
areas you could go in a fewdifferent areas that you can
update, in addition to justcontent that gets produced, that
goes out on that channel thatcan help you on the way.
So one is the background image.
So you've got your profileimage, and then behind on a
personal profile, your image islike the background image.
You've got it branded for HireGround and I would say that's a
(11:00):
good thing.
You can keep that as it is, oryou could think about if you
want something that's slightlymore personal to you but still
represents the work you do atHire Ground.
So it goes back to what youwere saying about humanizing
yeah, and.
Thinking about, well, what is itthat we Hire Ground at ?
And it's okay in that banner toeven have some of the words on,
(11:22):
kind of like, what you do orhow you're working with clients
and who you're working with.
You don't have to necessarilyput the names of those companies
.
I'm good put you know servingor bringing DEI, you know
software or programs oropportunities to enterprise
clients or something, but that'sgood, yeah, the action exactly
(11:50):
you can stick with.
So right now your banner hasAtlanta as the backdrop.
I recognized it because I knowAtlanta.
You could stay with that or youcould think about is there
something that's more meaningful?
That again might help peopleunderstand.
I'm gonna go to your websitebecause it's one of those things
where, like I know, yourwebsite's been updated as well.
(12:11):
Well, not updated fresh, fresh,but like I know it's what.
It's gone through manyiterations over the past three
years, and so I know that youall have kind of a unique look
with the type of graphics you'reusing on this site.
Yes, the color scheme haschanged a little bit, so so if
you want it to have that brandfeel a little bit tighter, yeah,
that's a good area opportunityjust on the graphic as well.
(12:33):
Okay, the beauty is what?
I would do yeah in your position, because you have the, the
support, because you have a team.
I would ask someone on the teamto do that so you don't have to
think about it.
But now you have a little bitmore direction.
You can give them on what youwant it to look like.
Yeah, and that gives you theopportunity, you know, and maybe
(12:54):
ask them to produce two tothree version, new banner
versions that you could run with.
Okay, okay.
And then when we get into theprofile itself, all right, so we
got the image part of theprofile that people are gonna
see and they're immediatelygonna form an impression there.
Then there's like when peopletype in LinkedIn in that little
(13:18):
search box if I typed insupplier diversity and inclusion
, what kind of profiles come up?
So one you do want to getdiscovered when people are doing
searches on LinkedIn.
Part of that we want to getdiscovered through the type of
keywords that we use in ourprofile.
That goes down to your title,that goes down to even in your
(13:41):
description, in the experiencesection of your profile.
I would say, maybe filling thatin a little bit more, because
that's a good place to also dropDEI, supplier diversity,
economic inclusion, some ofthose keywords that you're
really focused on.
But, definitely also.
I would probably and I'm goingto do it real quick for you On
(14:04):
LinkedIn I would do a littletest in LinkedIn search and I
would type in supplier.
Let's just type in supply chainsoftware.
The reason why I'm typing thatin is because I want to see what
people pop up related to that.
(14:25):
Those might be people in theindustry, those might be
competitors, and I'm usingsupply chain software.
That might not be the rightphrase, but I would play around
with typing different phrases inthat match what you do that
your audience think about.
How would my audience seek outpeople and try to write down a
list of what those phrases mightbe and then look them up to do
(14:47):
your test first, let's just say,if supply chain management were
one of those phrases, that'sthe phrase you're going to make
sure you get incorporated intoyour profile in more places.
Okay, so that's particularlythe two places where you could
get any of those keywordsrelated to what you do at Hire
(15:10):
Ground would be in theexperience section under Hire
Ground, and then the othersection would be above that.
On LinkedIn, there's the aboutsection, about.
Okay, got it that section.
You have a pretty long good.
This is good.
You have a pretty long kind ofdetails and backgrounds here.
(15:32):
What I would do to just makethat where people will read it
more, because you've got somewords.
I see diversity in here severaltimes.
I see equity in here Great.
I would break that up, though,into sections to make it more
skimmable, and so skimmablemeaning when people are on
(15:56):
social media networks today andLinkedIn is slightly different
people will spend a little bitmore time.
But the reality is most peopledon't read captions on post-word
for word Right.
Most people are used to justtaking their finger and
scrolling up the speed.
Yeah, anything that you put infront of them needs to be
digestible on that scroll Right.
So right now you have smallparagraphs on the profile, the
(16:20):
way it's written, but it's notskimmable.
Cloe Guidry-Reed (16:24):
Okay, it does, it does, it does.
Sonja Crystal Williams (16:27):
So how do we make it skimmable?
In a separate doc, because whenyou're in LinkedIn it's not
going to let you do bold, it'snot going to let you put emojis.
Okay, so in a separate doc, doit in Microsoft Word, because if
you copy and paste it out ofWord with bold text, italics,
anything you want to really use,it will stay in LinkedIn and
it'll let you save it that way.
Cloe Guidry-Reed (16:48):
Okay.
Sonja Crystal Williams (16:49):
So you could do things like put
headings over some of thoseparagraphs.
You know my background, who wework with or who I serve
opportunities.
I'm looking for people I help.
You could have headers likethat in place on that profile.
That can help you just breakthat up.
(17:09):
And then I would say, if youand this depends on the tone of
your brand and your comfortlevel, but you could also
consider breaking some of thatup with emojis, not really using
emojis, but like at the side ofeach section just to draw
attention and make it skimmable.
Cloe Guidry-Reed (17:26):
Got it, got it .
Draw attention to just thebreakup and yeah, okay.
Sonja Crystal Williams (17:32):
Okay, so that's just like functional
stuff.
The final thing, another areaof opportunity is your featured
section.
Cloe Guidry-Reed (17:40):
Okay Feature.
Sonja Crystal Williams (17:42):
Yeah, so there's a section right under
about.
So if I'm looking at a LinkedInprofile, you have the person's
banner and profile image at thetop and you've got all their
name and like where they went toschool or whatever, and then
below that is about, which islike a freestyle put whatever
you want, which I would also put, like, if it's okay to put some
of your clients that arerecognizable names, drop some of
(18:05):
those in there too, okay.
And then featured.
Featured is the section thatcomes after about, and this is
the section where you can put,and it basically produces a
carousel.
That carousel include, yeah, itcan include past posts.
It could include links toarticles often linked in or
(18:31):
graphics, whatever you put there.
You can choose to put whateveryou want in that section.
That's good real estate.
Cloe Guidry-Reed (18:39):
Yeah.
Sonja Crystal Williams (18:42):
Because what you can do there is put and
this depends.
You could put calls to actionthere.
Okay, so usually your firstthree.
If you do it like a carousel,your first three are going to
show.
So you might think about whatare the three most important
things I want people to knowabout me and my business
professionally when they scanthis profile.
Okay, it could be.
(19:04):
Here's a call to action.
If you all do demos or anythinglike that, sign up for your
demo and do a really goodgraphic, how some people have
those really nice thumbnails onYouTube when you're looking for
YouTube videos to watch.
Yeah, yeah.
You want to have a nicethumbnail like that.
Okay, on that carousel.
(19:25):
Okay, perfect, humanize it byputting sometimes it might be a
picture of you, but thebackground's removed, and then
it might say book a demo orsomething like that and it's not
necessarily with you.
It's going to take them to thewebsite or wherever you all
actually have a link that bookspeople.
But if you are part of thatpresentation, that's an
(19:46):
opportunity, perfect.
So you could have carouselsthat are that style, or it could
be a mix, it might be.
One is like book a demo orrequest a discovery call.
Another one might be, sinceyou've probably been featured in
the media, you know, and sotaking one of those publications
(20:07):
where you've been featured andalso featuring that on your
profile so that there's, youknow, of course, a little bit of
credibility there, right?
Someone's been in boards andenterprise and ink, you know
those magazines.
There's credibility there.
So they know oh, this is like alegit person, she's got a
strong business.
You know things like that, okay.
Okay, that's definitely helpful, so that's a huge opportunity,
(20:32):
okay.
And then we get into just kindof the activity of posting, and
this is where I think your teamcould help you because, as you
said, like you're busy, you'redoing other things.
This is where you kind of startto ask and this definitely
depends on relationship, comfortlevel with someone on the team
and I usually, like I usuallysay like a point to one or two
(20:52):
people, because you don't wanteveryone to have your LinkedIn
information at the company.
But if there's one or twopeople on the team that you feel
comfortable with turning overaccess to, then I would consider
giving them access and allowingthem from time to time.
And this is stuff you all haveto talk through.
So it's almost like you need astrategy.
Right, you need to talk throughit with your team, but you may
(21:15):
want to think about what are theposts that go Hire Ground's on
LinkedIn that I feelcomfortable with resharing on to
my profile, and that might be afrequency of once or twice a
month Doesn't necessarily needto be all the time, yeah, and
then for other post content,whether you're doing it or
someone else on your team isdoing it.
(21:35):
I would say probably justthinking about if you're
participating in conferences, ifyou're attending conferences,
if you're speaking on panels,any of that, push it out, push
it out, push it out and try tostay on a consistent schedule.
If you're not going to be theone posting it, then just be in
sync with someone on the teamwhere at least you get the photo
and you text it to them orSlack, you know.
(21:59):
However, that works.
Yeah, make sure that someone'sgetting that and then maybe it's
a quick phone call and you givethem the context, but you can
remove yourself from it.
Ok, the more you count onyourself to do it, the less
likely it's probably going toget done, and I know that from
the experience of working with alot of people again in your
position.
It's less likely to get done.
It's better for you to just bethe observer of seeing it happen
(22:22):
on your profile and then, youknow, still guiding your team on
the language, right On how todo that.
Cloe Guidry-Reed (22:30):
Perfect, that's another piece, ok, these
are good suggestions.
These are yeah.
Sonja Crystal Williams (22:36):
And that's just.
That's just like the profilestuff.
Now, the other thing you saidwas I really would want someone
to guide me on like what groupsshould I be joining Right?
Like what are the things Ishould be a part of?
Cloe Guidry-Reed (22:47):
like the digital communities and making
sure that you have a presence inthem.
Sonja Crystal Williams (22:52):
Yeah.
So the one thing I'm gonna sayon LinkedIn groups aren't what
they used to be there, used tobe a time, I would say about a
decade ago, where groups werejust like popping and there's
still some, some activecommunities on LinkedIn.
So I'm not gonna say all groups, but I'm gonna say if you post
most groups in most groups,you're not gonna get much
content or much likes, comments,shares, not gonna get much
(23:14):
engagement on posts.
However the reason why joiningthe group still can be powerful
is because you can join thatgroup and now you have access to
people in that group to connectwith one-on-one.
Okay, that's the biggest valuein groups.
So that would go into thestrategy bucket of working with
(23:35):
someone on your team and askingthem to produce a list of
potential groups you could joinand I definitely in the supply
or equity.
You know diversity, equity andinclusion in supply chain world.
Those groups exist, right, weknow there's number one all of
the majority supplier groups allhave groups on LinkedIn and
(23:57):
there's gonna be the nationalone and then there's probably
one at each state level.
Some of them you might have toformally be a member of, but
some of those groups you don't,and so I would look for those
opportunities.
I would also look foropportunities within your alumni
networks where you went tocollege and then and then again,
it's not so much about, onceyou're in that group, posting
(24:20):
anything in the group.
It's about finding people inthat group, because once you get
in the group, you can search byjob titles, people in the group
, right, and now when you reachout to them, you can say, hey,
we both went to Blank Collegeand I'm looking to connect with
more alumni in this role.
You know, can you?
(24:40):
You want to connect?
And then it's just hey, now wehave a connection on LinkedIn
and then maybe from there it'smessaging to start that digital
relationship If they're inAtlanta eventually.
I always tell people within twoto three messages.
You know, nowadays it might notbe coffee, but in person, but
maybe it's a Zoom call.
Yeah, and I try to get them outof LinkedIn after the first
(25:00):
couple of messages, because ifyou keep messaging in LinkedIn,
somebody's gonna fall off atsome point.
Yeah, so true, so alumninetworks right, which I would
imagine you're probably a memberof some already.
I am, but they're mine.
Cloe Guidry-Reed (25:16):
One of them's active, the other one's not as
active.
Sonja Crystal Williams (25:21):
Yeah.
So that's where I would say youleverage it.
The one that's not active, gofind the people in that group
and then connect with them oneto on one, and then the one that
is, maybe that's an opportunityto kind of you know bridge into
another conversation.
So, alumni networks, anynonprofits you volunteered with
or been a part of, those aregood opportunities.
(25:41):
Any clubs, organizations, evenif you did it in the past
National Black MBA, any of thosetype of organizations get into
those groups and then again,they probably aren't having big
conversations on LinkedIn.
They're probably.
You probably just need to findthem one-on-one.
The place where, if you do wantto find groups to actively
(26:02):
participate in, it's, honestly,facebook right now.
Okay.
So this is where, again, itjust depends on how you want to
utilize Facebook.
Yeah, you know what I mean.
And if you wanted to likeupdate your profile where it's
personal, but only personal tothe extent you want it to be
(26:22):
personal, yeah, or you know.
Or if you just want to likemake it where that profile isn't
necessarily searchable orpeople don't see all your stuff
unless they're your friend,right, and they still
participate in groups withoutpeople seeing or having access
to all these parts of yoursocial life that you may not
want people to see unless yougive them access.
Yeah, but Facebook groups, thatis where people actively talk,
(26:49):
communicate, there's lots ofconversations.
So I think, yeah, I think youhave the bones.
Yeah, yes, it's really justprobably rewiring the profile
Just to make it, and morediscoverable, yeah, more
discoverable, okay.
When people land there, theyinstantly know what you do and
(27:12):
they feel to your point thathuman connection to some degree,
right, where it feels like thisperson is accessible, right and
talk to her, and it's not justthe corporate stuff listed in
the profile.
Cloe Guidry-Reed (27:23):
Yeah.
Sonja Crystal Williams (27:24):
Yeah.
Cloe Guidry-Reed (27:24):
And I mean, and with these, these groups on
either the the platform, itsounds like it's a great place
to build community.
Sonja Crystal Williams (27:32):
That's the thing.
Yeah, it requires legwork andtime, which is limited for you,
right and it, so it will makemore sense for you to lay out
this is the approach.
You'll have to invest the timeand the strategy and the
approach you want to take andthen try to find someone on your
team that you trust to managethe day to day activities.
(27:53):
Right With monitoring andoverseeing it.
Cloe Guidry-Reed (27:57):
Wonderful.
Okay, that sounds good.
All right, this has been superhelpful.
Thank you so much.
I'll have to come back on theshow and tell you yeah, just
sort of the feedback that I getafter I implement some of these
suggestions.
Sonja Crystal Williams (28:13):
This is really good, and I think this is
yeah, I think this is thestarting point.
I think there's going to bemore that you're going to
discover you can do, but I thinkthis is the starting point that
leads you down that path.
And then, once you tighten itup like what am I going to put
in the featured section, andthen the stuff that's there
might not stay there forever, itmight rotate.
That'll help you along the way.
Cloe Guidry-Reed (28:33):
That sounds wonderful.
Great, great, great, great.
Thank you so much.
Sonja Crystal Williams (28:37):
Thank you, Cloe.
Thank you so much.
Let me just kind of close outand just also saying yes, we'd
love to have you back in thefuture.
That way, everyone can kind ofhear how things are moving, what
you're journey.
For those of you listening, ifLinkedIn is a place where you'd
like to grow, implement some ofthese suggestions.
You know, listen to thispodcast, drop me a DM or comment
(28:58):
.
I'd love to hear how this isworking for you and Cloe.
For people that do want tolearn more about higher ground,
where can they find it?
And if they want to connectwith you, where can they find
you?
Cloe Guidry-Reed (29:08):
Yes, yes, if you want to connect with us @
Hire Ground.
And if you want to connect withme, you can find me on LinkedIn
at @ Cloe Guidry-Reed.
Sonja Crystal Williams (29:22):
All right.
Thank you so much forparticipating.
Everyone thanks so much again.
Have a great day you too.
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