From Pipeline Slowdown to Smart Strategy: What’s Working Now for Independent Consultants
- Susan Tatum
- 21 hours ago
- 27 min read
Sarena Diamond returns to Stop the Noise with a follow-up to one of the most downloaded episodes in the podcast’s history. This time, she shares how the independent consulting landscape has shifted since 2023 - what’s changed with talent platforms like Catalant and BTG, how she’s navigating slower pipelines, and why relationship-driven visibility (especially on LinkedIn) is more important than ever.
Notes from the Show
The platform playbook is evolving. Catalant continues to invest in its expert community, while BTG has been quieter. Independent consultants who want to succeed on platforms need to treat talent sourcers as strategic allies, not order takers.
Small wins lead to big projects. While long-term strategic work has slowed, clients are still buying assessments, workshops, and leadership facilitation. Positioning yourself as a thought partner - even on small scopes - builds trust.
Visibility drives opportunity. After experiencing a lull, Sarena doubled down on LinkedIn—posting daily, engaging consistently, and showing both her expertise and humanity. She now sees LinkedIn as essential for staying top-of-mind and opening doors.
Informal communities matter. Sarena combats isolation by building deep peer relationships through networks like Success Champions and working groups. Accountability and mutual support help her stay focused and energized.
Use your network to help others and grow your brand. When she vouches for other consultants on platforms, Sarena strengthens her own reputation while giving others a leg up. It’s a win-win-win.
Quotes to Remember:
“If you don’t like business development and you don’t know another way to find clients, why wouldn’t you at least explore talent sources - where BD is their entire job?”
“LinkedIn is not a billboard. If you’re engaging in real interactions and building real relationships on the platform, you’re being rewarded.”
What’s Inside:
A downward shift in the consulting industry.
Working with talent sourcers when the job pool is low.
Why LinkedIn is king in business connection.
Doubling down on networking with virtual communities.
Mentioned in this Episode:
Transcribed by AI Susan Tatum 0:00
Welcome back to Stop the Noise. I'm Susan Tatum, and today I'm joined once again by Sarena Diamond, a transformation expert and one of the most popular guests we've ever had on the show. Last year, Sarena cracked the code on landing high value consulting work through talent platforms like Catalant and BTG, this time, she's back to talk about what's changed, including the slowdown in bid projects, what she's doing to keep her pipeline alive, and why building real relationships, both on and off LinkedIn, is more important than ever. There's a lot to learn here, so let's dive in.
Susan Tatum 0:40
Welcome back to stop the noise. I'm Susan Tatum, and today I have a return guest that I'm very excited to talk to. Welcome Sarena diamond.
Sarena Diamond 0:52
Thank you so much, Susan for having me back. So great to have you back.
Susan Tatum 0:56
So you joined me almost exactly a year ago to talk about you had, at that point, what I would say, crack the code of working with the platforms the talent you call them, talent sources.
Sarena Diamond 1:10
Talent sources
Susan Tatum 1:11
the Catalants, the BTGs, those folks and that conversation is one of the most requested and listened to and downloaded and referred episodes that all the Stop the Noise so, and there's been a lot of changes in the last since last May. So, so I reached out to you and said, Let's, let's catch up again. And I'm so excited that you're here and willing to share. Do you want to, like, just take 30 seconds and and for the folks that aren't familiar with you give them a story
Sarena Diamond 1:42
Sure, sure, absolutely so I am a recovered. I'd say recovered is in past tense, but 30 plus year corporate transformation executive who went out on my own three just over three years ago and found tremendous success in booking work. And I say that because I think one of the things we're going to talk about because there's more than just booking work, but in booking work, which is what everybody sets out to do, is to be busy. And I had a goal, that I wanted to have a pipeline of work the equivalent of my corporate executive salary. And I did that in spades, like that was not like, check the box. I didn't know that. I thought it was going to be harder, but I think that, and that's what we talked about the first time, is cracking the code, really being focused on building a business relationship with those people that do business development as their whole job. I have said since we talk, I have said to people many times, you know, if you don't like math, you're not going to do your own taxes, you're going to hire a CPA. If you don't like business development and you don't know any other way to find clients, then why would you not at least explore what's out there with regard to talent sources, people who have their whole job is to have relationships with bigger companies that are looking for talented, expert resources that they can hire on an interim or a fractional or project based, you know, engagement. And there's a lot of it out there. There's so much work like you say, it's the most referred every single time I talk to solo performers, which is several times a week, I have virtual coffees with people going out on their own, starting their own business, or in the business, and trying to figure out how to do better at their business, grow their business. And I refer them to this, this podcast, and I say to them the same thing. I say, you know, Susan's done so much stuff on stop the noise. That helps exactly like us, people that feel like we may be all alone in this soloperness, and yet, there's so many resources that your that your overall podcast, but this one is the one that I say to people do not think that business development has to be your only thing you do, because it'll make you it'll make you nuts.
Susan Tatum 3:59
I will, and the platforms were where I saw it working. So last year, I talked to 100 plus folks that had come out, built these great careers in corporate had, but had escaped from there for whatever reason. And were and were doing independent consulting, and the way they were the top three ways that they were getting business, it was all about networking. Some of them were subcontracting with the boutique firms, consulting firms, or the bigger consulting firms that they'd worked for in the past. Some of them were just working their networks very, very intentionally. And the third thing, not necessarily in that order, was these platforms that they could go and bid on work. But they were, I was beginning to hear them say there was downward pressure on the pricing. There's a lot of competition for the work on there. We I, you know, I bid on work and I don't get it. And you came along and said, Well, that's because you're not treating these people like people and establishing relationships with i. Wanna put words in your mouth, but
Sarena Diamond 5:00
no, 100% I I am blessed with or challenged by having a very unique name, right? So I have always, my whole life, been very specific about making sure that once my name is out there, that it's only associated with treating people well, right? It's a it's about being good. I also, if that's been my whole, my whole life, so So treating business talent sourcers Well, treating them like they're on my side, like we're on the same team. We both want to do good for a client, was always how I approach it. It wasn't like I had to try. It was how I always I didn't take them, treat them like order takers. I don't treat any of my relationships like that, either, which could be why, when people talk about networking, they often think about and we can talk about that as well, but they often think about that, the BNI kind of networking, where it's very transactional in nature. And I'm not saying it's bad. It's just not the way for me, business feels good. Like I'm not a transactional person. I am a relationship person.
Susan Tatum 6:07
which is good when you're a high ticket consultant like you are, because it's got to be a lot of a lot of trust there in the relationship. Year ago, you, as I recall, had you had been in business two and a half, three years at that point, yep, and you had, I think there was something like you had worked every day that you wanted to work, with the exception of about six weeks.
Sarena Diamond 6:32
Yep, there's five weeks.
Susan Tatum 6:35
Five weeks okay
Sarena Diamond 6:36
until September of last year, I had worked every single day I wanted to work. I didn't take much time off for vacation, because I didn't know that entrepreneurs did that. But I had worked consistently, with the exception of five weeks where I was in between clients I had never had in between downtime and many of the really towards the end of 23 and into 24 I had work where I was couldn't take on more work. I had talent sorcerer phone calls. People were calling me to say, Do you know anybody that, or is there any possibility that you could just give them a day or two a week, and I was already overbooked, and so I actually was giving work to other people, like I was going out and saying, I can't do the job, but I know Susan, she'd be great at this job. Why don't you talk with her? I had one person that actually came in under diamond solution group and worked I technically had the gig. I did not do anything other than just because she was really starting out and had nothing established. So she looked like she was my subcontractor, but I wanted to make sure that I was continuing to serve clients that all changed in September.
Susan Tatum 7:47
And so, you know, you're tracing it to September.
Sarena Diamond 7:49
It was just, well, September is the point at which my last engagement that I had been working. I last year, I had the far extremes. I had a billion dollar professional services company contract. And I had a professional services company contract with that was approaching their first 100 million dollars. Similar work, different scope, but similar kind of work, where expertise was needed. Both of those things came to a conclusion of within the same within about 45 days of each other, and I had been working really hard, so I was planning on taking a little bit of time off. I wouldn't have been terribly upset if I'd taken the fourth quarter off, but I certainly thought that the work was going to be there, and I was still going to have to really actively try to not work. That's not what happened for myself, as well as a lot of people in my network said they saw fourth quarter and even some lagging into first quarter of this year, be crickets or worse. I had actually had four engagements get all the way through to the prospecting and the proposal stage and the negotiating stage, and then either ghost withdraw, pause, because of so much uncertainty, I think the uncertainty in the world, which is, you know, there is no way to say that there isn't uncertainty in the world. So there's a lot of business leaders that are struggling with, what are they doing? What's the right decision to do? And it's funny, because a lot of times you hear, I've heard people say, Listen, there's still business getting done. People are still buying things. People are still selling things. I'm like, I get that. But if you are distracted by the things that are going on in the world, it is very hard to make big decisions around strategy, around your business operations, around things that would help to lead your you're trying to just get by every day. Yeah, and hiring a thought partner, like a strategic consultant that's going to help you to deliver on the integration of a merger. I literally had one client that pause, they had not integrated. They wanted to integrate their acquired company, and they had it had been 17 months when they were talking with me that they hadn't integrated. They bought and held and now they were struggling. They really saw how poorly that lack of integration was affecting not just their employees, but it was also impacting their client base. They knew they needed to do it, but there were so many other distractions going on in the business that they said to me, after all of our discussion, we're just gonna have to hold it for a little longer.
Susan Tatum 10:36
I'm hearing that. I'm hearing that all over the place, but something you said made me think that, are you feeling a change now? Are things opening back up?
Sarena Diamond 10:44
I am seeing more more demand, more requests for proposals. I will say I've got a couple of things that are very small, very small workshop kind of activities, but I'm not seeing the big strategic projects I'm seeing, like, let's just do an assessment. We're not going to do the whole implementation of the whole roadmap, but maybe we could do like a can we do like a six week assessment? Which is fine, right? I do like doing some of that kind of work as well, but it's very funny, because before it was always, you know, six to nine months minimum, with a possibility of extension and big ticket, big strategy, big cultural shift movement. I think that what that reflects a lot of is how uncertain the leaders are feeling about their ability to predict the future of their own company so they don't know the answer. And the ability to be resilient is hard, right, and to navigate.
Susan Tatum 11:44
So this is very similar, although it's it's different, but it's very similar to what we saw in COVID. The decisions the year long, contracts just went away and but, but you could get some business and get started by like chopping off the first thing you know, whether it's a workshop or discovery thing or whatever, and just help help both you and the buyer by getting things moving so you can solve a small problem for them, but not the
Sarena Diamond 12:12
right? And what I've been seeing, and one of the things that we end up talking about, really, is, is how that work is happening. I see more of the how do I form better leadership consortiums? How do I form or increase the skill set of my leadership so the work that I am doing is is been investments in either a leadership strategy, cohesion, right, that we know what we are supposed to be doing, I need to help my leaders make better decisions, or I need to help my leadership team come together. I'm gonna, it's not a pause necessarily, but it is something where they're saying, I need to, we need to be working better as a guiding coalition. So I've done some strategic facilitation where I come in and I and I will. We have the strategy, we have the mission, the vision, the core values. Now, how do we take that and operate every day as though that was our our reason for being right, our lifeblood, and how do we share it that way with our teams?
Susan Tatum 13:13
So you're you've identified the problem or opportunity or thing that is important enough that they're going to invest in it now, and you do a little, you know, maybe a little bit of a pivot to be able to help them with that,
Sarena Diamond 13:25
right? For sure.
Susan Tatum 13:26
Yeah, that's makes total sense. So to get back to the the I don't want to call them agencies, but that's not it, the platforms. What's happening there with, I know, Catalant and BTG are your there is
Sarena Diamond 13:39
my go to Catalant has been very, very invested in their expert community. They call it practice communities. They have done an enormous amount of work. BTG, has been very quiet for me and others that I've heard, so I'm not really sure what's going on there. I haven't worked for them for about a year at this point, but catalent is like doubling down on partnering with experts. They are calling it consulting 2.0 right? They are being very clear. They are taking on the big consulting firms whose business opportunity has always been, I'll have one kingpin resource and then a whole bunch of staff. Well, you don't need all of that cost and that infrastructure for every engagement. So I've had a number of engagements. Actually have one you know that I'm working through the proposal stage right now, where what they want is somebody to be that expert person, just on their side, on their team, and be the bring that level of expertise without all the added challenges that go with the consulting staff and all of the artifacts that go there
Susan Tatum 14:47
so they that you come in and make it work with their existing people, correct?
Sarena Diamond 14:52
Yeah, I actually have had one long client conversation that's really talking about being the strategic thought leader. Year, and they're what they're wanting to have their staff be more AI oriented. So they're saying, instead of me hiring staff out of one of these big four consulting, I'm just going to get my my team to be using the AI cap applications that are available to do the stuff that a that a you know, junior staff person would have done out of a big four, which is interesting. I'm not sure how to work, but we will see how that that certainly is an interesting approach.
Susan Tatum 15:28
Yeah, but it makes sense, if you think about it, what kind of tips or advice do you have for consultants that are maybe are not. They're either not, they haven't tried the platforms yet, or they're not getting much out of it.
Sarena Diamond 15:44
Well, I think the thing with the platforms is that is, it's a momentum game, right? So you have to have, I have this unique name, so I have the ability to be able to be remembered, right? But there is something to be said for proven talent, and once you've done an engagement or two, then then the talent sources know that you you have good skills, you have good capability. You're right. If you're not one, I always say to people, make sure that people are you're vouching for. So I will say to people when they they when I'm having a virtual coffee or one on one, I always say, get on the platform. Do all the things that they say, you know, fill out your profile. Do all when you find an engagement, apply for it. Do not let me stand in the way. But then send me a note with the name of the engagement, and I will connect you to somebody in the talent pool that knows me and says, Hey, Susan, would like, you know, has applied for this job. Would you take a look? I can't get you the job, but I can 100% get you looked at now, that serves on a couple of ways. One, I want every, every person that's that's choosing to do this crazy solopreneur thing to be successful, because I truly believe that this is a game changer for the entire every leadership development person I know this is what's going to make the world better. Two, I want the talent sourcers to succeed in serving more clients. That makes us all successful. And three, I love the fact that those talent sourcers have my name as a reference associated with somebody else. That's good. So it's a win, win, win all the way around when we do it. The other thing I tell people that are just starting out and they are struggling with getting that, getting known, getting out there, is I ask them to think about, where else are they showing up on their behalf? So we started this conversation. We talked about sort of this thought leadership. How do people know you I will tell people, and I know people don't always buy into this whole concept of LinkedIn, but LinkedIn is where people are doing business, whether you like it or not. There's now over a billion I was, I think I mentioned I was just at headquarters, and I they have a ticker on the wall, and it's like a billion and a half business people registered at LinkedIn, even if 10% of that billion people are active, that's 100 million people, that's a big number. I don't care if 1% that's still a million people. So that's where you have got to be consistent. And I'm not saying you have to post every day, but you shouldn't be posting once every six months. I can honestly say I was really guilty of using LinkedIn as my online repository for my resume up until September. So I wasn't working in September a person that I think very, very highly of posted on LinkedIn. They were going to be speaking at the success champions network badass Business Summit in Dallas, Fort Worth I said, Oh, I have nothing to do that day. I'm getting on a plane. I went to see her speak, and I went to this summit. And I learned skills that I had never seen before. I learned about some of the thought leadership about networking, about networking differently, not the you know, let me glad hand everybody, because that, to me, is just icky and gross. But it's the building relationships with people that would help to talk about me when I wasn't in the room, that would have me to be better, because I would learn about them and their capabilities. And it opened up some new ideas for me about demonstrating thought leadership, about getting my brand known as someone that was, you know, consistent all around transformation. There isn't a single person at this point on LinkedIn that can't say that. In the last six months since I have been posting very consistently almost every day. I did take the week off that I went to Costa Rica on vacation, but with very little exception, I post every day at 8am Eastern, my own content. It's not generated AI, you know, like all of that, but I put a lot of effort into saying I have got things I want to share. And I think that other solopreneurs that go into this business yourself, that you should be doing, that you should be sharing what it is that you're thinking about the things that you can add value to the world. Because that is, I actually had had a client who said to me, I was he asked me about if I knew anyone for a role for a company that he was a colleague of his, and I had a perfect person. And I made the reference, and I, you know, just told him and and he said to me, is this the person? And he asked me the name, and I said, Yes, that's it. And he said, she's not very active on LinkedIn. Now, it's really funny, because I have had more people say to me, oh, no, no, the CEOs, the COOs, they're not on LinkedIn. I'm like, Oh, are they? Are they really not? Because business is being done 100 even if it's only 10% of all the subscribers being active, there's still 100 million people active every day. So if you're trying to network appropriately, be known for something, build your thought leadership presence, where else are you going to do it?
Susan Tatum 20:59
Yeah, yeah. I've been changing. So I've always thought, I mean, LinkedIn is the thing for B2B people. I mean, why? Why would you even think about anything else? I mean, I know Twitter was, was big for a while, but, you know, haven't heard anything good about that in a long time. But from, from my work, because my work is more focused on getting getting conversations back as fast as possible. It was what really mattered was that you had a great profile and you were active because of the very reason that you just said, people look and they want to see that you're doing stuff. And when they look at your profile, they'll see that they'll get an idea of what you're you're about, you know, what's important to you and what you're doing to help other people. And you know LinkedIn, now you have this like in with LinkedIn, so you probably know their headquarters, there's like 85% of the people that do go to LinkedIn regularly, don't comment, don't like, don't do anything. So you are being seen even, even during the time that you think that you're not, but I've, but I've been seeing, especially when there's a bit of a lull going on, and so everybody's not quite as busy as they used to be. Get on LinkedIn, go meet some people, share stuff
Sarena Diamond 22:10
the ability to meet people. And you know, there is something to be said for post COVID. One of the I have been known to be labeled as a silver lining seeker. I will find the positive outcome in just about everything. It was very annoying to my ex husband, but I will, I will find those silver linings. And I think that one of the silver lines that came out of COVID was not that we could create relationships, but we were more we were more willing to be authentically ourselves in a virtual space that we are open to and and we relax the muscle that says, If I haven't met you in person, I'm not trusting you. We are at a place where I know I personally, there are people that I feel like I have this deep sisterhood with these people that have helped me. I have shared more business Intel, things that I've shared proposal work that I'm in development for scopes of work that I'm actively working on. I've shared a workshop that I have not yet delivered real intellectual capital that belongs to me and people I've never met in real life, and some five years ago, you might have said, What is wrong with you, that you're crazy. That's never gonna work. Somebody's gonna just take your idea. But what's amazing in the post COVID world is that we've all seen that barrier break down. You don't have a choice. So the woman in Florida and the woman in Denver, who both I see every single Wednesday afternoon, we work together on things that are consistent with our branding and our work. We're collaborating. Never met them
Susan Tatum 23:52
the one you are talking about what I would call informal sort of groups that you get together that either either to just sit there and write at the same time, or you're helping each other out, or you may be strategically coming together to go after a bigger project, or something,
Sarena Diamond 24:07
all three of those, right?
Susan Tatum 24:08
I for the last couple years, and in talking to these, these ex big company folks that are now on their own, the word isolation comes up so much, and the need for that kind of community makes such a difference that so how did, how did it come about that you and these, and these two women are are doing this.
Sarena Diamond 24:32
I went looking for something to really combat that isolation, right, and to learn better about how do I network better? I've been a member of Chief the entire three years that I've been on my own. And while that was a good thing for education coming together once a month with a group of people that I have only ever met, it really wasn't doing it. I actually joined the success champions network. There's a number of them out there. I think one of the ones that you would recommend. Collaberex was also one of the groups I found a real kinship with people in the success champions network, because they were also trying to do the same thing, build a business that was really central to who they are and what they can do. But they were also need to fight the as you call it, isolationism, the feeling that there's got to be an easier way to do some of these things. Learn from other people that are that are overcoming some of that. One of my colleagues in success champions refers to it as entrepreneurial ADHD, right? You find a ton of things to do that have nothing to do with doing the business development meaning to do, doing the things you don't like to do, doing the invoicing your client, whatever it is that you need to get done that's on your to do list for the day, you'll find a million other things to do. Because this is just uncomfortable. And I do believe that the accountability that comes from partnering with other people that are also going through that same thing, that's that sense of community and the relationships that get built is so important, and that's what I truly believe makes a difference for solopreneurs. I don't feel I use the word solopreneur because I am myself in business. I don't have a staff. I have resources that I could tap into if I had a large project, but I don't have a team of people. I don't ever want to be in a team of people again like that? I've done that through my corporate career, but I never felt alone since I made real effort to form community right, to find relationships with other people and really nurture those through giving. Right, that whole give, give, give, give, get, give, kind of model, but I make a big point to say, what can I do to help others, especially solopreneurs? Because if they get on their feet, they're gonna, again, remember my unique name, and they're and they're gonna, they're gonna move forward,
Susan Tatum 26:53
you know And it's this, is this is such a great time to do that and to get out there and to talk to people, because we're all, we're all feeling a little bit like we don't know what's going to happen. You know, it's, it seems that to be a bit of a whiplash going on. So and everybody is, I find, and this was true after COVID, too, a little more open to giving time to each other and having these conversations. And what I hear you saying, Sarena, is the network you've doubled down on networking. You were a networker anyway, but you're really double down on it and LinkedIn, you have just jumped in with both. So when you say you post every day, is it every work day or literally every day?
Sarena Diamond 27:36
No, I only post every work day. Occasionally, if something strikes, I will post on the weekend, but rarely I will sometimes comment. If some one of my colleagues is posting something on the weekend, I may comment on them, but I make a very specific point of it's an 8020 balance for me, 80% of what I post is thought leadership or expert hints tips, things that I could give away to other people, and 20% of it intent, very intentionally, which is usually on Thursdays, but is about me like I will make a point to share something that is about me as a human because one of the things that I learned that was so appealing to me with when I joined success champions Network was people buy me, right? They are looking to right? And that was made very clear right from the get go. So if they don't know you, if all I'm doing is posting, you know the I'm reposting an article, or I'm posting about some metric that was posted in a McKinsey report, they don't really know me. What is my opinion about things? What would I bring to the table if I was to work with them. So it became very important to me. Now I almost always find I can't I can't avoid it. I find leadership development lessons in flowers being planted out front like I find those things naturally. It just comes where, where it's coming from. But I do think that doing that, and I make a point to post about the kinds of things that I'm doing with clients, or in some cases, the things that I've done in the past with clients, where I will talk about successes. I never talk about, you know, specific client engagement, because that's really inappropriate, I think, personally, to share. But I do share challenges, so I will try and share a challenge that a client overcame or was facing, because back to that comment that you made about isolationism, nobody is is winning in this leadership. I don't care who you are. I don't care how big a name you have or how you know big an organization you have. Nobody is winning in this highly distracted, fractionalized, kind of mindset that everybody is dealing with in the world. I have yet to find one leader that goes, no, no, that doesn't affect me. It affects everybody, and it affects their people too. And so I am spending a lot of time talking with leaders about, how do you stay resilient. How do you stay nimble? How do you take care of yourself and your people? How do you help them as an organization and not abandon yourself? Very similarly to the when we've had other big impact in the world, COVID being one that most people can remember, but there is that concept of making sure that you are being consistent. So yes, it's five days a week, work days, but I'm not just posting and running away. I am interacting with my own posts because I spend a lot of time understanding the LinkedIn algorithms is hard because they change often, but I do, but I also do recognize that when I interact with my own posts or other people's posts and comment and have conversation, because LinkedIn is really trying to build that community. So that means that you're not, it's not billboards. You're not posting, you know, like a post, it can post in the morning and go away. Is this not a billboard, but if you're having that conversation, but if you're engaging in real interactions, building real relationships in on the platform it is you're being rewarded and when you're personal. I had one post that it went viral for me. I mean, it was crazy, right? You know, I'm not getting hundreds of comments and 1000s of impressions with it, and that doesn't it's I don't need that if I can help someone, I've had people comment and or connect with me and say, I saw what you posted, and I would love to chat a little bit more about that, not business. But yeah, I love when that happens, because this is it could be an echo chamber if you're not there to connect with real people, which is also why I spend a lot of time actually commenting on other people. And I will, I will go looking for I One of the things that the success campaigns network CEO is a very big one, is the search bar is your friend, right next to the little LinkedIn that search bar will help you to find people that are like you, that are doing things, that are like what you do, whether they be your personal you know, your 20% of your things that you're sharing that's authentically you, or whether that be your professional and I do search for people that are known in leadership development in this kind of space and see what they're talking about. That's it. That important aspect right is to I'm constantly learning and improving my skills by listening and learning from others as well.
Susan Tatum 32:23
Well, I have seen over and over and over again for at least back to COVID, and maybe even before that, that posting on other people's comments. I see it with myself, and I see it with my with my clients, and I said that backwards, commenting on other people's posts can bring more awareness faster than your own, your own post. Not that you shouldn't do your own, your own stuff, but how much time do you spend a day on LinkedIn? I
Sarena Diamond 32:50
I spend an hour. I spend an hour. There's there's a term that many people use. They call it the golden hour, the Power Hour. I typically spend 15 minutes before my post. So if my post is going to go live at 8am Eastern, then I will by 745 I will start to interact with other people, see what they're posting, comment on theirs. My post will go, usually, truth be told, usually that's my frantically time finishing or finding the right graphic. It's for my 8am time limit, and sometimes it's 803 because I haven't found the right graphic that I wanted, or I'm still in fighting with my Canva account, because I'm not as Canva literate as I would love to be. But and then I spend, I try to spend the next 45 minutes. They call it an hour, but interacting with my own post as well as others, because your activity on LinkedIn is what people are expecting now, and that's what is helping the the algorithm also fuel I. I used to do more with things like commenting on those on the top voice and the articles and all this stuff. But with the advent of AI, they have become, for me, they they become so fake feeling that I didn't really want to be terribly associated with them. If they come back and they're better at some point, maybe that will be the case. But I was much more important to me to be interacting with human beings, real people, real you know, where they were. So I spend, I try and dedicate that hour for sure, in the morning. But I also, I think I told you, I have a second monitor and I have it up. It's the only thing that's up on that monitor, but I have it up during that and I will get notifications that somebody sent me a message. It's fun, because that's actually how I sometimes I'll get the notification and someone will say, I heard you on Susan Tatum's podcast. I love chatting, which is like, I always feel like I'm a rock star when that happens. Because I'm like, wait, you probably had a podcast, but I I have been at this point. I mean, you know you were the first but this is now the recording number 20 of podcasts for me. You started it. You started it all you created.
Susan Tatum 34:54
I take full credit.
Sarena Diamond 34:55
You do. I love the fact that right on my podcast list, you're the first one. And I. Have loved doing podcast guesting, because I really love the idea that I could help other people with my experiences. If I can make one person's journey a little less difficult, because I learned the lesson the hard way, and they don't have to, I'm happy, and it's weird to say that that's all it takes, but really it is if I can make other people's lives easier, I am very happy person.
Susan Tatum 35:24
I can tell your face lights up when you start talking about stuff like this. Really good, as I predicted when we started to record, we've gone over time. So anything that you just have to say that we didn't get to,
Sarena Diamond 35:38
I think we got to everything. I I just so, I so enjoy talking with you, and I love what you're doing, and the fact that I can continue to refer other people that are trying to go out on their own to the work that you're doing. Because I really, truly believe that when we talk to people and we create community, even if it's somebody you've never met in person, the ability to say there's there are resources out there, there are people out there that believe in me, even when I don't necessarily believe that I can do it myself. That's huge. And I love the fact that you know the work that you're doing with stop the noise is helping people. It really is making a difference. I know that that's a huge legacy. You know that right right there. So
Susan Tatum 36:19
I love hearing that. So now that you've offered to have anybody that's trying to get on one of the platforms, get in touch with you. How's the best way to do that?
Sarena Diamond 36:30
The best way is LinkedIn. And what I have discovered is, if you spell it correctly, my name spells S, A, R, E, N, A, I am the only Sarena Diamond in a billion and a half people on LinkedIn. Isn't that cool? There's lots of Sarena diamonds spelled differently, but if you spell it right, as my mom would have said, If you spell it correctly, I'm the only one.
Susan Tatum 36:53
All right, we'll put that in the show notes, but it's S, A, R, E, N, A
Sarena Diamond 36:58
correct
Susan Tatum 36:59
Diamond spelled the usual way. Diamond spelled the usual way. All right. Well, thank you so much for being here and sharing so much with us. It's another great episode.
Sarena Diamond 37:05
Thank you, Susan, so much Appreciate it.