Trey Toler with 24 Seven Talent & Fuse

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Sandy Springs, Georgia. It’s time for Sandy Springs Business Radio. Now, here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here with Rachel Simon, another episode of Sandy Springs Business Radio, and this episode is brought to you by Connect the Dots Digital. When you’re ready to leverage LinkedIn to meet your business goals, go to Connect the Dots dot digital. Rachel, welcome.

Rachel Simon: Hi Lee, how are you?

Lee Kantor: I am doing well. I’m so excited about this show. You got a great guest.

Rachel Simon: Yes, I am super excited as well. Um, especially when you, you know, I get to invite friends onto the podcast. It’s even more fun. So today we’re talking with Trey Toler. He is the senior business development manager at 24 over seven talent, and he also serves in the leadership capacity for Fuse Atlanta, which is a networking group for marketing. We’re going to hear all about it. So Trey, welcome.

Trey Toler: Thank you. Thank you so much for for having me, Lee and Rachel I appreciate it. Excited to be here.

Rachel Simon: Yeah. We’re gonna have a fun time. So why don’t we start off why don’t you tell us a little bit about Fuse?

Trey Toler: Yeah, of course. That’s a great question. So Fuse is a nonprofit and we’re a marketing and advertising organization. And to boil it down, we are here to serve the community. So whether that’s giving folks that are in our industry access to colleagues to learn more or learn about what’s going on in the ecosystem, what are hot topics? There’s that arm of it. And then the other arm of it is we also give back to other nonprofits. Uh, specifically this year we’ve partnered with Black Girls Code. We’ve also partnered with an organization called Posh Pack, which is a non profit organization that helps young women have access to period supplies and underserved communities. So for every event we do, we try to give back.

Rachel Simon: That’s really awesome to hear. And it’s local to Atlanta. Correct.

Trey Toler: It is local to Atlanta. Yes.

Rachel Simon: Yeah. So you know Fuse I mean the goal is again to kind of bring people in the marketing space together. Is it primarily a networking organization, professional development? All of the above. Obviously there’s a component to it. Gosh.

Trey Toler: You just you know, it’s all of those things, right? I think it depends in what you’re going into it for. And specifically across the country and in our state. We saw so many people during the pandemic kind of retreat inward, and a lot of that was just where we were at that point in time. Part of the networking and in-person event space fizzled out during that time, and people felt isolated. They felt detached and with folks working remote. It was really challenging for people to ramp up and learn new skills in the same way they were prior to the pandemic. So, to answer your question directly, Fuse is all of those things you know, you can go there to network is a huge piece, but it’s it’s really about building your personal brand. And this is really important, especially right now. And I know this for the work that I do at 24 over seven, unfortunately, so many people right now are in flux between opportunities. Maybe they feel underemployed. Um, and just some folks just aren’t in a good space in general. So the beautiful part about Fuse and organizations like Fuse is when you network, you go to an event, you meet people, you learn something new, you have an interesting topic, you have a panel discussion, but you’re also building that personal brand. And rather than starting from the ground up for anyone that’s been let go or part of a workforce reduction, you already have that built in community. So you have a leg up to other people in that situation. And I just can’t emphasize enough the importance of of being part of that community. Right. And whatever way that you can. Yeah.

Rachel Simon: Well, you know, I love anything that has to do with building your personal brand. So you’re talking about kind of doing it in person, and I’m helping people utilize that on LinkedIn, where two pieces and applying those together, obviously networking ties all that in as well. So it sounds like, you know, it’s really helping people in that marketing space, whether they’re kind of in a role that they’re happy with or looking for their next opportunity to really just meet good people. You never know who can open a door for you, right?

Trey Toler: You know, and that’s a really beautiful way of looking at it. I know the work that you do and what you’re passionate about, and that’s such a huge piece of it. And when you take the two together, it’s it’s that holistic approach. You have your digital identity, you have what people can go on the internet and see at a quick glance. And then you have the other side of that, which is the spaces between, like, what can you not capture, um, online and just streamlining those together. So absolutely.

Lee Kantor: So now let’s get kind of granular about the membership. So who is that ideal member for you. Is it a young person that maybe has a marketing degree got their first job, maybe, like you said, got laid off or something happened and then they’re kind of struggling? Or is it the older person that maybe has been involved in marketing for a long time, maybe in a corporate setting? And then they are they got, you know, kind of laid off and then now they’re kind of struggling like, is it for everybody in that window or is it do you have a niche?

Trey Toler: It’s everybody within that window. And there’s such a beautiful component to that, right? I mean, speaking about people that are more senior in their career versus people that are greener, I think the organization serves a purpose for both of those people. Depending on where you are in your life, you’ll get the same thing in return out of it. Um, you know, from a mentorship perspective, once you reach a certain point in your career, most people want to do something, whether it’s in a macro or micro level, to give back. So I think it satisfies that need. But also at the same time, regardless of how long you’ve been in your career, there’s always something evolving, always something new to learn. And I think maintaining that cutting edge, um, is incredibly beneficial for everybody.

Lee Kantor: So it could be, uh, somebody who’s a CMO at a fortune 500 company could be a member as well as somebody that just graduated college and is looking for their first job or second job.

Trey Toler: Absolutely. We love, we love, we love them all.

Lee Kantor: Now, is there an education component as well where you’re kind of explaining or somebody a subject matter expert is explaining, hey, this is a trend or I are both talking about AI or this is how you leverage, uh, you know, an alum. Um, this is how you can use it for marketing. Like, is there education as well, or is it just everybody’s kind of it’s a mixer and we’re all kind of learning about each other.

Trey Toler: Oh, absolutely. No, it is a little bit of both. So the educational piece is really important. And typically for the educational piece we’ll hold a panel or a topic discussion. Um, and you mentioned I, we did a panel last year and spoke to the different ways AI is impacting our field. Right. And it doesn’t matter if someone is a creative or if they’re on the marketing side. This is a topic that comes up over and over again. Um, so that’s the educational piece. And then you mentioned like more of the mixers type thing, we actually have something coming up on June 27th at Bartaco Chastain. That is just a chill happy hour. We would love to hear what people want to get out of the community. What’s missing? What do you like? What do people want to see? So it is a mix of both.

Rachel Simon: So for something like that, like the um, and I love the name of it, thirsty.

Trey Toler: Thirsty Thursday.

Rachel Simon: Is um, how do you make sure people feel comfortable coming? Like, let’s say somebody has never been to a Fuse event before and they’re like, okay, I’m going to go to Thirsty Thursday. I don’t know anybody. Like, what do I do? Who am I going to talk to? Because that’s I think one of the barriers for people to attend these kinds of events is like this fear of how do they start conversation in a room where they don’t really know anybody?

Trey Toler: Yeah. No, I that’s a challenge. That’s a challenge for a lot of people. And and I can definitely spot that. And you know, my advice for people in that environment is the board that we’re working with, my partners in crime, very warm, very welcoming people. And as someone in a leadership role with the organization, I greet everybody with the same level of enthusiasm, whether I’m meeting them for the first time or we go back 25 years, um, regardless of where we are in our lives or our career, we can all tap into a place where we felt vulnerable, going into a situation where we didn’t know anything, we didn’t know anybody. So I think about things like that when I meet new people and trying to help them feel comfortable and safe when they’re in that environment, because there’s so much good that comes out of it, but recognizing that it is pushing some people out of their comfort zone to do things like that. So I think just leading with that empathy and implementing that is really important.

Rachel Simon: Yeah. And that’s a good thing. One time I went to a networking event, I won’t name the organization and I there were no name tags. There was no welcome table. I literally walked into this restaurant, took a loop and was like, walk right out. I’m gonna go now because it felt so right. It was so unwelcoming. And just knowing that, you know, you’re going to spot those people that are looking around like. Dewine. I don’t know anybody here.

Lee Kantor: It’s so important for organizations to understand that from the member state or potential member that that people need, like a Sherpa, they need like somebody that’s an ambassador that’s going to make maybe that first introduction for them, or put them in the least in the direction of the right folks that they could benefit from. Yes.

Rachel Simon: And have those people that, you know, are going to, like, start a good conversation like, hey, here, this is so and so like.

Trey Toler: It’s just connecting people. It’s like, you know, think about it. If you go to someone’s house and you know, they open the door and they’re like, oh my gosh, Rachel, get on in here. Lee is so good to see you. It’s been forever or welcome. We haven’t met yet. Whatever the case may be, the other person, the person walking into the door will automatically feel leaps and bounds more comfortable than if you’re like, all right, open the door and just kind of stand there. Are these my people? Can I touch anything in here? Can I breathe like, I don’t know? Where’s the bathroom?

Lee Kantor: Right, exactly.

Trey Toler: It’s just awkward. So I think it’s just helping people feel welcomed and warm. And that’s not something that you even have to say with words. It’s just an energy that you give off and and giving people that attention saying, hey, I know you’re here. What’s up? You’re welcome. Yeah.

Rachel Simon: It really makes a huge difference for sure.

Lee Kantor: Now can you share maybe your journey within the organization, like how did you hear about it, what kind of attracted you to it, and why did you decide to invest so much time and energy to take a leadership role?

Trey Toler: Sure. I joined the organization. Actually, um, my former HR director, when I was working at 360, I. Amanda Papini. Told me about this organization and she said, I really feel like you need to connect with a few people. And I was like, all right, cool. I’m totally down. I’d love to. So shortly after, I started volunteering with the organization and working on the events. So I focused on the events. Then the pandemic hit and, you know, everything was flipped upside down for quite some time. And in the back of my mind, and I guess the way that I’ve always been since I was a child is I like bringing people together, right? I mean, it doesn’t really matter how less than ideal a situation can become. I really do believe in my heart. There’s a lot of power and connection and power in community, and that really just motivated me to want to do more, to want to give back to the community. And I think hearing feedback from people like you made me feel really welcome. Or hey, I learned something about AI and now I’m not freaking out about it. I can approach this strategically, just hearing bits and pieces from people in the community. Is personally inspiring to me and it makes me want to keep going. But it’s also the team of people on the board and within the community. Um, that really just propelled me forward to want to to want to continue to get deeper.

Lee Kantor: Now, is there a story you can share, maybe a member story that you met somebody who was able to take their experience within the organization and kind of elevate their career to a new level? You don’t have to name their name, but maybe name the challenge that they were going through and, and how they were able to leverage what they were getting out of the organization to kind of grow their career.

Trey Toler: That’s a great question. And the first example that comes to mind for me, is that necessarily specific to someone who joined the organization? And, you know, kind of worked their way up into the organization rather. It’s someone who joined the organization, found a community, and then in turn found a job. Right. This was heavily last year with a lot of the layoffs going on. And there were there was an influx of people that were laid off. And I think when you’re in that situation, it’s really easy to feel like you’re the only person going through that, and it’s just really stressful. Through the happy hours and through the events that we had last year. There were a lot of people that were like, hey, you know, I know coming to these didn’t get me the job, but it opened the door and made it possible for me to have conversations with people who were either a in the same boat or b potential hiring managers. And two of the people that I’m thinking about are gainfully employed now. So I think that’s a huge victory.

Lee Kantor: And that’s something that I hear a lot about of so many people think that, okay, I don’t have a job, I’m going to go to all these job boards and put in my name 100 times in these things and just sit and wait. And and it doesn’t happen for them. And they’re like, well, I put out 500 things and I got no interviews or I’m getting ghost or whatever. And it’s much more fruitful, I think, to use your network and relationships to find an end and spend your time that way, rather than just kind of spamming a bunch of companies and hoping for an interview 100%.

Trey Toler: It’s the intentional outreach and the intentional presence of wanting to move forward in a process like. It’s great to show those metrics and the effort of I’ve applied to 500 jobs, you know, per day. But at the end of that, I mean, is that the best use of someone’s time? Right? I mean, that’s a volume thing from the recruiting perspective, where, you know, recruiters physically cannot get through all of the candidates that are coming in, they just can’t. And on the other side of that, to your point, it is incredibly advantageous for people who have that soft end. And they’re like, hey, Rachel, I know that you work at company X. I know this isn’t in your department, but I really feel like I could crush this job. And here’s why. Rachel, if you’re comfortable with it, can I ask you for an internal referral for this? Boom. Easy enough. And most people want to help. Most people genuinely do want to help other people. And I think by. Yes, going out on a limb and it takes courage to do something like that. But it’s way more fruitful, like you said, than just applying aimlessly into a black hole.

Lee Kantor: Especially if it’s not working. Like if you got to 100, 200, 300. You might want to alter your plan here because it’s obviously not paying off.

Trey Toler: It’s not a good return.

Rachel Simon: Yeah, exactly. It’s not a good return. Exactly. And I mean, there’s such an opportunity to to like we’re leveraging our networks, right. The networks that we have in person, the networks that we have online. And we have to take advantage of those connections that we have. And to your point, something that I have been talking to my college age son about, you know, people want to help people, right? So, like, who are the people who are, you know, alumni of your school who are going, who are graduated with your degree, connect with those people on LinkedIn. Great advice, because at some point, even with a question of like, I’d love, what is the best piece of advice you could give me going into this major? People like. First of all, they love talking about themselves and they genuinely want to help people. Some people don’t. There’s always those people who are just like, I don’t have time for this, but most people are happy to give some guidance, some mentorship. Um, but we just have to identify and then ask those people for help.

Trey Toler: That’s right. And it’s kind of like a situation where, um. When you’re in the thick of a situation and something hadn’t happened suddenly, such as a job loss. You’re in reactive mode, right? Like you’re not necessarily able to think with the same clarity as if you’re thinking proactively. So again, it just goes back to if we can proactively network. Not for the sake. I almost have a weird taste for the word networking. I think people have an idea of what that looks like, kind of like speed dating. And yes, there’s some truth to that, but I think at the end of the day, at the core of networking, it’s who is the person behind the job title and figuring out what makes someone tick and learning. Just to have casual conversations with people, right?

Lee Kantor: It’s a human to human interaction. That’s right. It isn’t like a spreadsheet to spreadsheet interaction, which a lot of people want this to be, that it’s scalable, that I can just do this thing and then press a button and 100 things happen. And it just it’s this is the work that’s not scalable. It’s that effort and human to human interaction. What do we have in common? How could I help you? How could you help me? Let’s learn about each other and see if we can come up with something that’s mutually beneficial rather than, hey, can I do this one action? And it’ll just do a million more at a press of a button, and that just isn’t how you do it, I don’t think.

Rachel Simon: No. And honestly, you know, networking ultimately just I think often comes down to reminding people that you exist because it’s really hard to keep up with people. You people fall off your radar and just think about how many times you will run into somebody and you’d be like, My God, I totally forgot about that person. Like, I haven’t seen them and I like them ages, right?

Lee Kantor: It’s not even something negative, right? It’s just something that, look, we’re all busy and we all kind of get on our own rabbit hole, and then you just kind of grew apart for whatever reason, and now you just got to be mindful and reconnect with as many people as.

Rachel Simon: Possible and just be like, hey, remember me? Here I am. Exactly. And that’s.

Trey Toler: So true. I mean, it’s we live in an age, I mean, both personally and professionally. Where and listen, there’s this isn’t against anything digital, right? Like I’m a huge fan of it. I think it’s wonderful. I think the flexibility and the opportunities that exist because of what we can do online is. Incredibly fantastic. I think the flip side of that is sometimes people can lean too heavily on that, and with the digital landscape, we have the ability to curate the content and life isn’t curated right. I think we see things based on how the algorithm is working. And if to your point, like if someone is in your feed and they bump out for whatever reason, then you forget about them out of sight, out of mind. But when you see that person in person, you’re like, oh my gosh, like I remember, you know, they told me about their kids or they told me about their son at UGA or whatever the case may be. And you humanize, you humanize that. And that’s just so important, right?

Lee Kantor: Because the algorithm doesn’t really include kind of these accidental con, um, synergies or collisions. It doesn’t it make for that it’s trying to be efficient. And this kind of random serendipity isn’t really part of that. And that’s where the humanness comes in. And how do you kind of reintegrate that kind of, um, serendipity into something? And I think that’s why it’s so important to have organizations like Fuse, where you’re creating these opportunities to bump into old friends and to reconnect with a bunch of people. And you’re doing the kind of the hard part of organizing this and inviting kind of this wide net of people. So they have a reason to all kind of come together.

Trey Toler: God. You said that very well. That was very nice, very consolidated. I’m very long winded. So that was impressive.

Rachel Simon: Not his first interview. Perfect. Yeah. No, it’s interesting because even thinking about, you know, you’ve got more of the casual meet ups which are very beneficial and have their purpose. But then the educational, um, events then not only are you providing, again, professional development for members, but then it is also a conversation starter for people who attend or maybe couldn’t attend. Right? So let’s say somebody went to the eye panel and they reach out to someone else in the organization, I’m going to say on LinkedIn, because that’s my my world to say, you know, did you have the chance to go to the views eye panel? What did you think? Right. It’s an opportunity to start a conversation where maybe they didn’t know how to start that conversation with somebody who potentially might be more senior than them, whatever the case may be. But it’s really giving that like little like push, like here, talk about this.

Lee Kantor: Right. It’s like a cheat code because now you can use the organization in a variety of ways. One, you can invite somebody who you want to connect with and go, hey, this you know, you were talking about this or I know this is important to you. Why don’t we go to this meeting together? Why don’t we learn about this together, where you can use it as a lever to meet or reconnect with somebody? Or you can find people there that you don’t know and say, hey, we were in this thing together. Let’s talk about it, or I have a question or you ask a great question. I’d like to understand more of what you’re thinking. So it’s a way that you can benefit. There’s multiple ways to kind of use it as a way to help you grow your kind of personal brand, like you were saying.

Trey Toler: Oh, 100%. And I love that you just stitched the two together with LinkedIn and the in-person stuff, right? Like I’m on LinkedIn all the time for work. And I think it’s an incredibly powerful tool. And sometimes I feel like the barrier with LinkedIn is, um, folks aren’t exactly sure how to connect with someone else. Like, what do you say in that message? You know, do you just do you just send it and not say anything, or do you put something? And if you put something, you put the wrong. It’s like this thing that we overthink. And then in reality, if you bump into someone in real life, like we were just talking about, whether it’s at the grocery store or you go to an event, that’s a super easy segue. Hey, loved your question at that event. Absolutely loved your perspective. You know, when you spoke on that panel, etc., etc. and tying that back, I mean, people, people like to see those dots connected and it makes it so much easier just to come up with the topic, something that’s genuine but also real and tangible. Um, to, to build your LinkedIn network.

Rachel Simon: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, honestly, even just saying great meeting you at insert event here.

Trey Toler: Absolutely.

Rachel Simon: Um, because the other thing now we are somewhat limited on how many personal like personalized connection requests we can send if you don’t have a premium account. But let’s just say we can send as many as we want. People like to know where you came across them like, because otherwise we have to spend so much time like sleuthing, researching.

Trey Toler: I feel like a true crime investigator sometimes. Like I go on these black holes.

Rachel Simon: Like, who is this person? How many people do we have in common? Where do they live? Why would they connect with me? Where would they come across my profile? But just to say, great meeting you at the Fuse event. Love to connect. Boom. Easy. Easy. Done.

Trey Toler: Easy. You connect the dots, you’re like, great, this is how I know you. This is what’s going on. And yeah, I couldn’t agree more. I think the two are very much hand in hand. Like I’m a huge fan of LinkedIn and. I think if we use the in-person stuff and the LinkedIn stuff and merge them together, it’s like the best of both worlds. I think it’s just incredibly powerful. Linkedin is beautiful at showcasing. Again, it’s it’s, I hate to say one dimensional because that’s not the word that I’m looking for, but you only see one side of the mirror ball, right? Like online with anything. And it doesn’t have to be LinkedIn. It can be any social media. But in person, like you realize that we are all dynamic humans. And while you may not agree with someone’s marketing strategy, or maybe you don’t like the creative they executed on a certain campaign, there are still other things that we have in common, and I think that’s the value of in-person networking. Where that comes from, right, is you. It’s like we’re giving ourselves reminders that it’s okay to be, you know, multi-dimensional human beings.

Rachel Simon: Now, ideally, we are showing up in person in a similar way, the way we’re positioning ourselves online, because then otherwise it gets a little bit weird sometimes.

Lee Kantor: Oh gosh, it has to be authentic. I mean, you hope in whatever world they’re in, they’re kind of true to themselves.

Rachel Simon: Exactly.

Lee Kantor: Now let’s talk a little bit about your day job. Well, what’s your day job?

Trey Toler: Yeah. So, um, I specialize. I work on the sales side of 24 seven, and we’re a holistic talent solutions provider, so we’re essentially a one stop shop for embedded teams. We have an in-house design firm, of course, freelance and full time staffing and the areas we specialize specifically, it’s, uh, creative digital advertising.

Lee Kantor: So and then is it local to Atlanta and Georgia or is it, uh, candidates can come from wherever.

Trey Toler: That’s a great question. So we are global. We’re a global company. Um, we are across the United States. I’ll focus focus specifically on the US. My team is in Atlanta. Um, we have an awesome team, but it’s really a great company across the board. Any person can be a candidate. And that’s the beautiful part. About 24 seven is we do not have candidate ownership. So let’s say, for instance, one of my colleagues in Los Angeles recruited for a design role that’s specific to that market. Well, one of my colleagues in Atlanta can recruit the same candidate if they fit the bill for what a client is looking for. So at the end of the day, I think the beautiful part about that, it’s not only very efficient, but it’s also, you know, we’re we’re serving the candidate and we’re serving the client. It’s it’s not about, um, I guess marking your territory. We’re really in it to make sure that it’s a win win on both the candidate and the client side.

Lee Kantor: So now who’s the ideal client for 24 over seven?

Trey Toler: You know, that’s a great question and I don’t have a concise answer for you. I think the ideal client is really anyone who is looking to move the needle forward, and they’ve had challenges, whether that’s due to limited resources internally, um, cutting headcount, cutting funding for staffing or hiring. But it’s also for that small business who may not can afford a chief marketing officer. So they need someone who’s a fractional CMO, or they need a marketing director to come in and help them get over the hump. So that’s another thing that gets me excited is there’s not like a strong profile in either direction, right? I mean, if it falls in the wheelhouse of creative digital and marketing, I mean, we can touch it from, you know, individual two person shops to fortune 100 companies.

Lee Kantor: And it’s full time as well as like a project.

Trey Toler: It is. Yeah. So full time freelance consulting. So project based deliverables or SSW work. Um, we also have the ability to provide embedded teams, and we have a design firm that we acquired last year and it’s killer. It’s a really, really cool shop.

Rachel Simon: Very cool. That’s awesome. So you’re basically like any marketing need, you’re going to find the right resource for whatever. Absolutely. And how do organizations find you. Like how do they understand, how do they need have this need. And they need to find somebody who can help fill it, you know.

Trey Toler: Well 24 over seven talent. Com is our website. And we do have a job board on there. Um, personally Trey Tolar on LinkedIn. And you just reminded me of something that I wanted to share. And I know in sales in general, like, I, I love working in sales and I think. I think there’s a misconception of the value that a salesperson can bring to any organization. Right? And specifically, I’ll focus on staffing. It’s when you have the right people in place and they serve as an extension of your team. It’s just such a wonderful situation, and I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had a client or a prospective client. I’m like, man, I’ve just I’ve waited so long to have this meeting with you and you know what’s going on in your world and. It. Just the amount of work that needs to be done with fewer resources is incredibly overwhelming, and it’s present across every organization. I mean, every organization right now, people are talking about how they’re like literally giving their kids a bath while they’re trying to get off of a zoom call, and it’s just never ending. So I encourage people and listen. I work for 24 over seven, of course. I love the company. It’s a great company, but any outside resource just give people a chance. Like, you know, there are so many good people out there that want to work and there are so many good people out there that just want to partner and troubleshoot and try to help make your life easier. And I think it just goes back to my passion about networking is we’re so quick to want to close the door on conversations or people before we even give them a chance. And I just think that’s really important, especially where we are right now.

Lee Kantor: Now, at the end of every episode, we ask Rachel for a LinkedIn tip. And since I have you here, I would like both of you to chime in about this tip. Now, from your perspective, what would a candidate who wants to be found? What are some best practices when it comes to LinkedIn and maybe in your world, what would you like to see more when you’re searching for that perfect fit for your clients? Like what do you want to see from that standpoint? So together, maybe you can share with the listener some really great, uh, tips for candidates.

Rachel Simon: Okay. I’ll start. Um, well, on the on the LinkedIn side. And again, I don’t work as much on the job seeker side, but I’m going to just speak to general best practices, which is having that complete profile with great photos, a headline that is a lot more than just your job title. You want to know what you do, what is the value that you bring to the table when you just say, I’ve seen this all the time, project manager. Of what? What company? What exactly do you manage? So we need more information. Um, having an about section that really is telling your story. Don’t just plop the top of your resume in there. Give us a narrative. Write it in the first person. Uh, but the other piece, besides just checking all the basic boxes, right? Having your experience section well filled out with accomplishments is the skills, and I’ll be curious to know what your thoughts are on. I think the skill section is one of the most undervalued parts of the profile. Nobody’s looking at your skills. However, that is what LinkedIn is using to bring you into searches. And so you have to have those right keywords in your skills section. And if you haven’t looked at your skills section in a minute, it’s time to take a pass and make sure that it’s actually relevant to what you currently want to be found for. So that’s that would be my advice.

Trey Toler: That is great advice. And it’s it’s incredibly accurate. So while I don’t sit on the recruiting side, I do want to echo what you just said. And it’s really important that your profile, if you are a job seeker, is 100% current on all the things that Rachel spoke about. And the reason why that’s important is on the back end for a recruiter, when they’re using LinkedIn recruiter, everything is keyword based. So the more intentional you are with highlighting certain programs, certain projects, certain things that you’ve done on your portfolio, your profile, you’ll get pulled up. So that’s incredibly important. I think in terms of what I use LinkedIn for and in general, um, it’s really just leading with authenticity. I think people can write a million articles about, you know, I don’t sleep because I’m too busy getting everything done all the time. Grind, grind, grind, hustle, hustle. Like get off of your, like, off brand Ted talk. And just like, be a real person, right? Like, talk about real things that matter. Like period. I think authenticity is crucial, but also bring value and just show that you’re real. And, you know, some people might find that off putting, but. You know, I think at the end of the day, that’s all we have is just show up as who you are. Everybody else is already taken, you know?

Lee Kantor: Now try if somebody wants to connect with you. What is the coordinates for Fuse and also 24 over seven.

Trey Toler: Sure. So for 24 over seven our website is 24 seven talent com for Fuse. Fuse is Fuse atl.org and to connect with me directly and to have links easily clickable. Um connect with me on LinkedIn Trey Toler and that will link you out to both 24 over seven and to Fuse.

Lee Kantor: Good stuff. Well, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.

Trey Toler: Thank you both for having me. This is awesome. I love the show. I’m so happy for you guys and thank you so much for having me. I’m really grateful.

Lee Kantor: All right. This is Lee Kantor for Rachel Simon. We’ll see you all next time on Sandy Springs Business Radio.