Career Club CornerJob search is a team sport. This is your team.
Join Bob Goodwin, a LinkedIn Top Voice, and dozens of fellow job seekers as we bring order to the chaos, build community with one another, and find encouragement. Bob teaches from his book, Making Your Own Weather, a five-step process that will renew your job search. It's FREE and we would love to have you join us Monday, August 3 at 12:00 ET.
Register for August 3 at 12pm ET →
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Networking
- Reimagine turns networking into a working target list. Open Go-To-Market in Reimagine and it builds a list of companies that fit your brand and the lane you picked, then points you to the people worth reaching. You start from a named list instead of a blank search, and the built-in help feature carries the Making Your Own Weather method as you go.
- Weak ties open more doors than close ones. A 1973 study and a 2022 LinkedIn analysis of twenty million users both found that second-degree connections are about twice as effective as first-degree ones for landing your next role. The people just outside your inner circle reach rooms you cannot see from where you stand.
- Lead with the most useful question you can ask. "How can I be of help to you, personally or professionally?" puts you in the giver seat and turns a favor into a relationship. It moves the conversation to mutual value and sets you apart from everyone asking only about openings.
- Build the list by who will help and who sits near the work. Rank your LinkedIn contacts on likelihood to help, people who have helped before, and proximity to your target companies or industry. Salespeople and friendly former colleagues make strong first calls.
- Prepare first, then run the meeting as a conversation. Research the person, remember who introduced you, and have your Tell Me About Yourself and target roles ready. Open with small talk, share what you are looking for, offer help back, and ask who else you should speak to.
- Close the loop every time. Send thank you notes to the person you met and to whoever introduced you, then follow up on anything you committed to. When outreach feels off, ask upfront what the call is about, and keep applying while introductions develop.
- Networking widens the surface area of your luck. Relationships create openings that never get posted, so keep nurturing your network even after you land. A steady habit of building and giving is what turns chance into opportunity.
- Build your target list in Reimagine. Open Go-To-Market, pull your list of target companies and the contacts worth reaching, and start there instead of a blank search. Plan about twenty minutes.
- Work your weak ties first. Pull your LinkedIn contacts and prioritize former colleagues, salespeople, and second-degree connections. Lead each note by offering to help.
- Prepare for each conversation. Research the person, know your target roles, and have your Tell Me About Yourself ready before the call.
- Close the loop. Send thank you notes to the person and the introducer, and follow up on any commitment you made.
Where we are in the 14-week arc
Staying on an even keel through the search: know you'll land, expect the emotional ups and downs, expect the best of yourself and others, and let go of past resentment. You are not a victim of your circumstances; each day you still choose your attitude and your actions.
When you cannot change the situation, you can still choose your response. Drawing on Viktor Frankl and Stephen Covey, we looked at where meaning comes from in the uncertain middle of a search, why putting energy where you have control beats spending it on worry, and how helping someone else builds the kind of resilience that leaves you stronger than it found you.
The four Cs of personal brand: convictions, clarity, confidence, and contagiousness. Convictions are the values you would be willing to be fired over, clarity turns them into a focused message, confidence rests on evidence you can point to, and that energy spreads to the people deciding whether to say yes. A clear brand beats a long list of skills, and putting your accomplishments in numbers gives it something concrete to stand on.
Strategy week: two doors in Reimagine and three lanes your background can take. Build your personal brand from your inputs, then either run a live job description through the opportunity playbook or open the three lanes, Familiar Ground, Industry Insider, and Work That Matters, to see where you fit. Income Now sets up consulting or gig work for the near term, and the tool sharpens as you correct it.
Turning your value proposition into words you can say out loud: a Tell Me About Yourself answer built on Personal, Relevance, Pursuit, drafted in Reimagine and pointed at the lane you picked. Blend your experiences into one brand rather than choosing among them, and keep a networking version broad while the interview version gets specific to the role in the room.
Getting your value onto paper and onscreen: a resume and LinkedIn profile built on the XYZ formula, accomplished X as measured by Y by doing Z. Upload both into Reimagine to rewrite them in that format, run a live job description through the opportunity playbook to tailor the resume, and build separate versions for the human reader and the applicant tracking system. Your LinkedIn profile outlasts any single resume, so lead with who you help and mirror the keywords recruiters search.
Reimagine turns the curriculum into work you can do
Reimagine
Built on the Making Your Own Weather framework, Reimagine takes each week's teaching and turns it into work you run in your actual search. The curriculum and the tool move together. What you learn on Monday becomes what you do in Reimagine before the next call.
What one conversation produces
- Answer "Tell me about yourself" with confidence
- Discover new viable career options
- Tailored LinkedIn and resume
- STAR interview prep from your own stories
- A negotiation playbook
- A targeted company list with live research
Affintus Assessment
Free assessment built for job seekers. Surfaces your natural wiring so the brand work in Reimagine builds on what is already true about you.
Take the assessmentSCOPE Framework
Worksheet for sizing a specific opportunity. Bring the output into Reimagine when you are targeting a role.
Open the workbookPut community to work
Networking Sheet
Add your name, your search focus, and how others can help. Find people in adjacent roles, industries, or cities.
Open the sheetInvite a Friend
Know someone who would benefit from the Monday call? Share the registration link.
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Book a 1:1
Want time with Bob to work through your specific situation? Book a paid consultation.
Book a sessionBeyond the Monday call
Making Your Own Weather
The book. A complete job search system from mindset through negotiation. Eleven lessons, drawn from twenty years of coaching.
Get the book
Reimagine User Guide
How to get the most out of Reimagine, step by step. Especially helpful for the go-to-market and outreach phases.
Read the guide