#happyrecommendolidays, or What I Learned From Writing Twenty Two Recommendations In Twenty Two Days on LinkedIn

At the end of November as we in the United States celebrated Thanksgiving (and continued to try and comprehend the presidential election and political direction of our country), I began to think back on my 2016 and what I’m thankful for. I’m thankful for a lot, but LinkedIn isn’t necessarily the place to post about spending time with family or going for trail runs with the dog or the books I read as part of the #stlandaubookclub. What LinkedIn is for is business stuff: networking, thought leadership, making connections… and recommending our peers. I realized there were so many people in my professional life that I was thankful for and who have made a difference in my career, and I had written recommendations for only six people, or less than 1% of my contactsover the 8+ years of being on LinkedIn. This, I thought, I could do something about.

That something was the idea for #happyrecommendolidays. For the 22 business days in December, I would write a recommendation for someone who has made a direct impact and positive influence on my career. These 22 people are a small percentage of the 500+ connections I have, but their influence has been enormous. But before I get into what I learned from writing 22 recommendations in 22 days, let’s recognize this list.

1. Shaun Tinney
2. Mo Sherifdeen
3. JessyLynn Perkins
4. Daniel Kleiner
5. Matt Anderson
6. Erin Kurtz
7. Nathan Borchelt
8. Noel Franus
9. Nick Lawrence
10. Jeff Faulkner
11. Todd Davidson
12. Andy Taray
13. Alex Podlogar
14. Brent Rieck
15. Ian Dewar
16. Laurence Gellert
17. Jesse Keyes
18. Troy Thompson
19. Maria Pearman
20. Mark Koenigsberg
21. Annie Gilbert
22. Elona Landau

For many of these people, their influence has come from working with them, either as a co-worker or as a client. For others, our relationships have been built through conversations about travel, tourism, outdoor clothing and equipment, and agency life. Through these conversations, these people have helped me shape my ideas around Inspiration + Information, providing value to DMOs & CVBs, the future of interactive agencies, why you should hire a journalist, content strategy for adventure brands, and starting something new. (An extra bonus is many of these conversations were had over good cups of coffee or pints of beer. And sometimes both, though not at the same time.)

So What Did I Learn From Writing 22 Recommendations?

1. It doesn’t take a lot of time. On average, it took maybe 20–30 minutes to write a recommendation. Is that too much time to spend? Too short? For me, those minutes were a welcome opportunity to think about my relationship with that person, and were 30 minutes spent reminiscing about good times past and envisioning the good times to come. So even though it didn’t take a lot of time, it was time well spent as it had a positive effect on my personal outlook–it made me feel optimistic about the future. Which leads to 2…
2. It feels good. Every time I completed a recommendation and sent it off, I got a little endorphin rush. It feels good to do something nice for other people, and I certainly didn’t ignore this benefit.
3. It was personal. In each of my recommendations, I felt it was important to not just say how great someone is, but to acknowledge the impact they’ve made on my professional career. I wanted to explain to others how these people made a difference for me, which in turn reinforces how great each person is.
4. It’s habit-forming. Similar to what I found when doing the 100 Day Project, writing recommendations day after day becomes something you expect to do as opposed to something you feel obligated to do. And as it became an expectation instead of an obligation, it became a part of my routine that I looked forward to doing.
5. It made me want to be a better influence on others. For all the recommendations I wrote, I wondered if I was living up to my end of the bargain. Each of these people has a positive impact on my career; am I doing the same for them and for others? And if not, how can I change that? This is something I’m going to work on for 2017.
6. And hey, increased profile views. I posted a short excerpt of each recommendation as an update on my LinkedIn page to give some much deserved public recognition to the people who have made a difference in my career. So if you’re not motivated by feeling good, care to reflect on how others have made a personal difference in your career, or have 30 minutes to spend, and if profile views is a metric you use to determine how successful you are in your career, a side benefit of recognizing others is you could double* your profile views. *Personal results may vary.

Should you write 22 recommendations in 22 days? That’s up to you. But giving thanks to the people around you who have made a difference in your career is worth it to that person–they now know the positive influence and difference they’ve made in my life. And for that I’m eternally grateful to each one of them. So even if you don’t do it on LinkedIn, go up to someone and personally thank them for their contribution. Make it a habit.