Thank you for your interest in directly networking with me!

Connect to your LinkDaddy

My Personal Networking Contract shares a little about my networking philosophy and expectations.  If you have not come from there or seen it, please visit it now.  I'll wait.

Back so soon?  I used to connect on LinkedIn.  Thanks to LinkedIn's Connection Limit that no longer works.  Please   join the Blue LinkedIn Group that I run.  You can directly contact me there.   Now that you've joined and we're bosom buddies, let's talk about how I can help you.

Connect to my contacts

LinkedIn Introductions

Warning, danger ahead.  Fuggedboudit! I can no longer use LinkedIn as a platform for processing your introductions. 

I regret this inconvenience.  It's not that I don't love you (of course I do) and don't want to be supportive (ditto).  It is not my choice and has been forced on me by LinkedIn. Due to LinkedIn's many limits and restrictions I haven't been able to add any connections for over a year or send invitations for 3 years.  I have thousands of contacts through my many Networking Spheres that represent most of my business and networking activity.  I am forced to network directly with them outside of LinkedIn.  So that is how and where I process requests.  Please read below for current options.

Contact Options

The following are ways to connect through me.

Blue LinkedIn Group

You remember the Blue LinkedIn Group I mentioned.  Did I also tell you it has 30,000 members, including top networkers and executives not just from Dallas, but across the world.  Many of my contacts are there.  You don't need to go through me or anyone else! Surely that beats the painful LinkedIn process of using an Introduction or sending me an email, all of which can lead to unnecessary delays, blocked messages, and unsightly tan lines.

Find a mutual group

If the person you're trying to reach is not a Blue group member, shame on him and his camels!  But he may be a member of several other groups.  Simply join a common group and make direct contact.

Other connections

If your only recourse is a LinkedIn Introduction and you have a connection that is not me, use him or her. You're likely already on LinkedIn.  LinkedIn's set up and automated to smoothly send and process Introductions.  It's more of a hassle to have me manually handle this.  I'm just saying.

Send me an email

I ask you to follow these simple rules to minimize our time, effort, delays, and volume of emails flying back and forth.  It's just like a LinkedIn Introduction ... but manual!

Please review the following. 

• Direct. If we are all LinkedIn members, I cannot help you if I'm not directly connected to the person you want to reach.  Make sure that the recipient is 2 (two) connections away from you, that you and I are directly connected, and that I am a direct connection to the recipient. 
• Appropriate.  Please only use this direct email route for requests that merit this manual effort, i.e. you can't reach the recipient any other way or through LinkedIn and it's a substantial request (you're not just making contact to network).
• Personal.  Do prepare a quality request so you can get the result desired.

If I haven't chase you away, send an email to me at marc at dallasblue.com with the following.

• How you know me.  Let me know if you're a LinkedIn connection.
• Who you need to reach and why.  Include name, company, and any other pertiment info.
• Your request to the recipient.  If you're one my two good friends, you can skip this part.  Otherwise, let's make this as easy as possible for all parties.  At the end of your email append a separate section that is your specific request direct to the recipient, just like you're writing your own email to him and just like you do on LinkedIn.  Please make your message is professional, personalized to him, and self-explanatory in terms of why you are making contact and how he or she can help you.  This way I can forward your message with minimals edits and everyone is happy.  :-)

Thank you!  

Marc Freedman