You Need a Visibility Plan: Finding Your Voice and Building Real Connections
Jan Eden has spent decades connecting people in Calgary. On the very first episode of The Global Nomads' Podcast, she argued that newcomers do not only need a network. They need a visibility plan, and the courage to use their own voice.
Everyone needs a visibility plan
We make sales plans, marketing plans, and business plans, Jan points out, but almost no one makes a visibility plan, and it matters just as much. Being visible is not about ego. It starts with being kind: holding a door, paying attention to how a new place actually works, and getting involved where you already are. One concrete on-ramp she recommends is Toastmasters, which helps you own your voice through public speaking and builds a small community around you almost immediately.
Network with intention
Jan walks into a room with a plan. First, intention: she enters meaning to meet someone new. Then a sincere compliment, which creates curiosity and makes the other person feel valued. Then real engagement, listening rather than talking about herself, until there is a genuine connection and an exchange of contact information. And then the step almost everyone skips: the follow-up. As she puts it, the follow-up is where the needle moves, and the responsibility to continue a conversation belongs to the person who started it.
Be a connector, give forward
Jan sets out to meet ten new people a month, often not for herself but for other people she can introduce them to. Generosity, she stresses, is of the soul, not the wallet, and it has to come without attachment to what you get back. When you operate that way, it returns to you many times over, and it becomes your brand: people learn they can count on you to open a door.
You are not your job
At networking events, everyone recites what they do. Jan's advice is to say who you are instead, because people are drawn to who you are, not your title. She builds portfolios rather than resumes for the people she develops, capturing how they think and what they are proud of, because that is what creates real connection and lets others see value the resume never shows.
Grow on purpose, and keep your contacts
Her one regret is the contacts she did not keep over a career of meeting thousands of people, because, as she believes, no meeting is an accident. Growth takes discomfort, so have a plan for it, and hold on to the people you meet along the way. And the lowest-pressure way to start being visible, she says, is to volunteer: you give back, you meet people, and it never feels as intimidating as a networking event.
Key takeaways
- Build a visibility plan the way you would a business plan.
- Network with intention, lead with a sincere compliment, and always follow up.
- Give forward. Generosity of spirit is the most durable brand there is.
- Say who you are, not just what you do.
- Volunteer. It is the gentlest door into a new community.