Meet the adviser – Jennifer Corcoran

Irish born Enterprise Nation adviser Jennifer Corcoran was delighted to hear that Enterprise Nation is spreading across the Irish sea, giving her a chance to connect with her Dublin roots.

Jennifer tells us how she became involved with Enterprise Nation and also gives us a few tips on the mistakes we are all making on LinkedIn.

What is My Super Connector?

I'm a LinkedIn trainer and coach. My main clients, I would say, are service based female entrepreneurs. I help them to create a consistent lead pathway for LinkedIn that they can repeat month after month. I do this by helping them first to polish up their LinkedIn profile, and then teaching them how to connect in a way that feels aligned.

I believe we're all wired differently so I work one-to-one. I either do a one-to-one power session for your profile, or I've got a 90-day one-to-one program. It's about learning how to use LinkedIn in accordance to your personality and your energy and your goals – no one size fits all.

I’m basically helping people who are probably 5 or 10 years behind me on LinkedIn – I can remember what it felt like when I first came to it. I know so many single female entrepreneurs definitely hold themselves back and block themselves on LinkedIn - there's lots of mindset issues at work as well in terms of how they position themselves.

I just love helping them to get over those blocks, and to really toot their own horn.

How did you get involved with Enterprise Nation?

I've been an adviser member for about five years, and I first got involved with Enterprise Nation because when I started up my business, I had some coaching from another Enterprise Nation adviser, Alison Edgar - she's a sales lady.

I booked in for some coaching with her and as part of the package she gifted me free membership to Enterprise Nation - I was in business for less than six months so that was my first experience. And then before I knew it, I was invited to an event that Emma Jones was hosting with other business owners, so I got stuck into it pretty quickly and became an adviser quickly as well.

I’d never heard of it before Alison introduced me and I'm really grateful that she did. It's been really great in terms of me connecting with my ideal clients and getting visibility and raising my brand.

Which campaigns have you been involved in?

I've done quite a lot of different campaigns. At the very start, I was a Facebook #SheMeansBusiness trainer for a year and then I became part of the training for Amazon's small business accelerator during the pandemic.

I've also been a local leader. I was the local leader for Devon in the pandemic - supporting small business owners in my region, with the help of Enterprise Nation.

When I saw Enterprise Nation was going into Ireland, because I'm originally from Dublin and living in the UK 20 years, I wanted to be involved. I wanted to connect with more Irish people as well. I've done a few webinars now for Go and Grow Online in Ireland.

What are three mistakes people are making on LinkedIn?

Not optimising their profile - it's not filled out enough. It doesn't have the right key words so they're not showing up in a search for what they want to show up for. It's not branded well enough - they don't have a professional headshot or a branded banner so that first impression is not great.

Sending spammy DMs and trying to sell in the first message - that is a horrible thing that's happening at the moment. I’m not sure which trainers have been teaching that but I think so many people hear the term 'social selling', and they think they should go and sell. But social selling has actually nothing to do with selling - it's all about building rapport. Before you even get someone on the phone or zoom it can take us three to five messages. You don't fire off that salesy message first.

Being passive – just sitting there and waiting for people to come to them. They are not thinking about who they want to connect with, they are not using the search bar and they are not reaching out to their ideal clients. It doesn’t even need to be their ideal clients, it can be their peers, trainers or anyone that interests them, just reach out.