The Clinician Transition

How to Write LinkedIn Messages That Get Replies

• The Clinician Transition • Season 1 • Episode 2

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0:00 | 25:49

Want your LinkedIn messages to actually get answered? We put real outreach under the microscope and show, step by step, how to turn a cold DM into a warm conversation without sounding robotic or pushy. After a quick warm-up about hidden talents, we map the moves that matter for clinicians pivoting into nontraditional roles and anyone trying to build genuine connections online.

We compare vague “I’d love to connect” notes with targeted, respectful messages that reference a specific role, post, or conference touchpoint. You’ll hear why the I:you ratio is a quiet deal-breaker, how a single clear ask reduces cognitive load, and why assumptive lines like “thanks in advance” can backfire. We also unpack a standout email that combined research, relevance, and low pressure that you can use to model in your own voice.

If you’ve been spraying templates and praying for replies, this conversation offers a better playbook. We talk quality over quantity, how to apply first then reach out, and why networking without an open role often yields more honest guidance. We share simple ways to use AI to draft smarter DMs - feeding it the job description and a recent post—then editing for tone, accuracy, and brevity. Most of all, we focus on mindset: detach from outcomes, gather data from each send, and iterate until your message sounds like a person you’d want to answer.

Ready to get more yeses and fewer ghosted threads? Press play, take notes, and try one improved message today. If this helped, subscribe, share with a friend making a career pivot, and leave a quick review so others can find the show.

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SPEAKER_00:

Hello, everybody, and welcome back to the Clinician Transition Podcast. You are here with myself, Emily Kelly, and my two wonderful co-hosts, Emma Brady and Casey Francis. Hello. And this is our second podcast in our re-emerging from podcast land after behind behind these beyond, behind, beyond these. All around. All around, behind, beyond, around, all of those things. Um, and with that little flop up, we're we're gonna remind you that this wonderful podcast is us with our unfiltered selves. We are gonna start today with a really fun little icebreaker um with our hidden talents. And then what else we have for you is we're gonna go through some examples of LinkedIn messages. And the the intent behind this is really to give you an up close and personal view of messages that have worked really well, that have piqued our interest, and messages that you know, there's nothing inherently wrong with them. They just didn't pique our interest enough to maybe respond to them. Um, so we're hoping this delivers a lot of value to you as you reach out to people on LinkedIn and try to network your way into a non-traditional career. Casey, I feel like you have these talents that I have no idea about.

SPEAKER_02:

But let's see. I thought, you know, I feel like I used to have but four children more time for talents. I feel like they've really minimized over the last eight years or so. But I will say I am very good at recognizing voices. So I don't know if this is because I'm a speech therapist and like I just after years of being tuned into vocal exercises and voice treatment, but oh man, I'm the first one I can play a game of like whose voice is that in a movie or an animated movie or something where you're not sure who it is, or from the other room, and I've got it. And then I think to go along with that, what's the other one? It can think of some random song that like anything can remind me of a song, it just will pop into my head. So if there was ever a game that was like, let me say this word or phrase, and then you have to think of a song that it can relate to or tie into, those pop in my brain all the time, as do puns. So, you know, you might hear some of that if your prompt customer ever come over to the uh educational training side and hear my videos, you'll hear a lot of my puns. But I I don't know if those are really talents, but just quirks.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes.

SPEAKER_02:

But uh what about you, M? Oh, y'all are both M. How am I gonna how am I gonna MK and Emma? Emma. What about you?

SPEAKER_01:

I'm gonna tell a a funny story as I think back to my days of my career transition where I was I was all over the internet. I'm hopping on random webinars, I'm in all sorts of networking groups, and I found myself having a lunch. I don't remember the exact event, and it was this exact question go around, go around and find your hidden talents. And of course, I get called on first. It always happens to me. So I tell them my hidden talent. This is something I'm very proud of. Where, okay, you know, when say you've hosted a dinner or you have takeout or something like that, and it's time to put everything in a Tupperware. I always choose the right Tupperware the first time. Nothing's overflowing, nothing's too empty. I'm not choosing something that's way too big. I it's always goes right to the line, and when you put the top on, nothing's coming out. And so I and everyone just looks when I say this, and everyone's giving like that nice little golf clap, okay, and then the next woman goes and it's I am raising the next generation of feminist men. And then and then the next person goes and it's I'm helping women in Africa get access to bank accounts with Bitcoin, and then the next person on appropriate clean water and oh my god, it was so I was so embarrassed, you guys. So the reason I'm telling this story is just if you're get putting yourself out there, just be who you are and it's all gonna be fine. And if you mess up, don't worry about it.

SPEAKER_02:

And you and if we have leftovers, we know who to talk to. I'm just gonna FaceTime you, you know, like help buddy phone a friend. Be like, which one should I pick, Emma?

SPEAKER_01:

I'm reclaiming it. I'm just as excited about it as I was I was then. I'm still really happy about it. Right after Thanksgiving, it comes in handy.

SPEAKER_00:

And you know what, Emma? I bet every single one of those women thought of you the next time they got done with you, they left. I will. I'm going to. That really is. That's fantastic. I was thinking about this ahead of time, and I was gonna go with like something just very basic, but I like what you guys did with like it's more off the wall. And is it off the clinic wall? Is it behind or is it behind or beneath?

SPEAKER_02:

It's off the wall.

SPEAKER_00:

Um, I have a talent, and Casey can vouch for this. I have a talent of coming up with an idea five seconds before a meeting ends.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, that is a good one. I thought you were gonna say showing someone, my gosh, I saw someone who looks just like you, and then you show them a picture and it's it's a bad talent, and it does not look like them at all. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

And you're like talent, and I should decide that one.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, don't do that because then it's offensive if it's not someone who they agree looks like them. But uh but I like that one at the end of the meeting. You'll be the first one to be like, oh, one more question.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, let me let me end on this, everyone. I don't actually, I don't think that's a talent at all. It's just more annoying. I think I have a talent for associating things, like, oh, what we're doing here, this concept reminds me of this other concept and linking things together like that.

SPEAKER_02:

Nice, but that's too high brow for this, Emily. We need a temporary example, but I do I do appreciate it.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, that is Emily is the Emily is getting uh bank accounts for people. Goodness.

SPEAKER_00:

All right, let's get into it. We are going to go through some messages.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, should we make it a game? Should we have should we say if we want to if we would Emily so Emma, do you want to read some and then Emily and I will say if we would respond to that or not?

SPEAKER_01:

Yep, yep. And a little bit more context to this is not meant to shame anyone. This is a learning experience. We're not gonna dox anyone. And when we say would we respond, we're not even saying it for ourselves personally, we're representing anyone that you're talking to. And do we think that person, what are the chances this message is going to get a response, whether it's us personally or anyone on the internet you are responding to. And this is a topic we've wanted to do for a very long time. So hopefully this is helpful to you all because we know it takes a lot of guts and effort to put yourself out there. So hopefully this will make your time more fruitful while you're doing it. Yeah, such a good point. So I'll read one first. So hi Emma. I am interested in prompt and came across your profile. Your background as a PT now transitioned to an account executive, caught my attention. I'd love to connect and possibly gain some insight into your experience at the company. Thanks, and I look forward to connecting.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, you can't see my thumb. I put a thumbs down for that one, everyone listening. I don't think that I would I think that one would get lost in the shuffle. Emily, what about you?

SPEAKER_00:

I I was gonna point out some things. So please do. Okay, so I want to like dissect it a little bit. I like that they said, I don't want to compliment sandwich though. So let's sidetrack. I'll just say like what I like and then maybe why it's not as compelling. I like that they did a little bit of research on you. They know you work for prompt. They probably looked into prompt and saw, oh, Emma Brady works here. They see that you have a similar background, um, and they want to connect. The less compelling parts of it are um they could have gotten, I guess, a little bit more specific um in what they were interested in and what they wanted to maybe like connect on. So it kind of, in my opinion, kind of blends into the rest of the messages that I get.

SPEAKER_02:

Right. There's nothing that makes it stand out or that makes you feel like they're showing you themselves a little bit more, you know, like what what or is their authentic self in that message? I can't find that.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, I like that call out because sometimes it's hard for me to know like what is it about messages that makes it compelling? And I think that is that's what you try to do, Casey. And I think that's that's a great call out.

SPEAKER_01:

Another thing to think about too when you're sending this out, I am interested. Caught my attention. I would love to connect. I look forward to you have to think about the I to you ratio. This is a very I, I, I, I message, and that's gonna make people glaze over to it's kind of similar to what you all have already said about make it about the person you're sending it to. And another thing is I am not an account executive at prompt. That is not my title. So again, I don't I give grace for people with that, but again, as you're reach reaching out to people, if you're getting their title wrong, way less likely that someone's gonna respond to you.

SPEAKER_02:

So true.

SPEAKER_01:

So true. Okay, great.

SPEAKER_02:

Give us another one.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, I'm gonna put my hand up for a sec. Oh, sorry. Yes. Okay. When we're going through these, it this just popped into my brain. I also don't want to discourage you from reaching out to people if you don't have like the perfect message. Like reaching out is always better than not reaching out. And what was it? Like 66% of people just won't get back to you. So, like, just keep keep on keeping on, try to keep it quality, but also like just persevere. Anyways, okay, I just want to get that out. Let's keep it going.

SPEAKER_01:

I came across the associate customer success manager role at prompt and was really excited because it aligns well with my background in healthcare, client-facing work, and digital operations. I've spent the past few years running a healthcare-focused platform called Name. I would love to hear more about your experience at Prompt and see if you might be open to a quick call. I have already applied and would be truly grateful for any insight or the chance to interview if the team is still hiring.

SPEAKER_02:

Thoughts, Emily? I I would say that's a little bit better, I feel like, than the last one, just because they've actually already applied, which I feel like is a good uh good thing uh to take the initiative and look at the actual open position. So you're doing some of the legwork um and saying you know about the company and about the position. It's still obviously very I oriented, this message. So I would I, Casey, would love to hear less I in this message, but I'd give it like a medium to not as likely to respond. But what do you think, Emily?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, this again kind of falls into the category of it. It sort of like blends into the rest of my messages. And to your point before, Casey, it doesn't really uh sound like like a person. It just kind of sounds like a you know, and yeah, I agree with that the eyes, it's very focused on them and not how can I help you? What did you think, Emma?

SPEAKER_01:

I agree. This is better than the last one, where the area for opportunity for me is I would love to hear more about your experience is so broad. When if I'm right, if you're reaching out to people, I have a ton of content about many things on LinkedIn. So, what would take this from like a B to an A would be I applied to prompt. I saw your post about this. Could you tell me about that? Just take a tiny bit more. To Emily's point, if you think of it like a school of fish, this you're look just looking like every other little fish. Like you want to be that giant tuna that's coming through and breaking up the school of fish. This isn't quite that. It might be, but it could be with just a tiny bit more effort. So to Emily's point earlier about don't give up, send up send out messages. In this day and age, when it's really easy to copy and paste and spray and pray a message, you're much better off doing just slightly less touch points that are higher quality. That's much more likely to yield you a response than any a message that could be sent to any person out there.

SPEAKER_02:

That's so true. And I love what you said about like do some of the I just really appreciate when they do some of the research. Like watch some of your material, use some of the resources that you've publicly shared and and show that. And then you've already got a head start. I mean, you've already you've already connected on some level, even if it wasn't directly, it was like through that the resources we've sent. So that's such a good point, too. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

And it shows that they're really invested. Like they their time into really like reading one of your articles, Emma, or reading one of your LinkedIn posts.

SPEAKER_01:

So should we shift Casey to want to read yours?

SPEAKER_02:

Yes. So I oh, well, I'm gonna give away my okay. Y'all tell me. Is this would you respond or not? I'm not gonna say anything else. Thank you so much for reading this message. I know you're probably very busy. Um, I get a lot of messages from strangers. I appreciate your time and any advice you may offer. Thank you. I see that you're a speech language pathologist like me and have transitioned to non-clinical roles. I love that you're in the education realm of things, and I have been looking into similar roles myself. I'm currently redoing my resume and networking. I'm curious to hear your thoughts on how to stand out for any education, training, implementation, or customer success roles. Is there anything that you would recommend? Also, if you have time, I would love to hear more about your day-to-day activities in your role or similar roles within your department. Do you have time to share more about that? Again, thank you in advance for any advice. I would love to hear advice from you. I've been following prompt closely and they seem like an amazing company to work for.

SPEAKER_01:

I like that. Emma, do you want to go first? Yeah, so I'm gonna tell you a story about the Stonewall Kitchen, which is very similar to William Sonoma, if you haven't heard of it. And they they saw all sorts of kitchen wares and some food. And a long time ago, they used to sell, I don't know what the number was, 50 different types of jam, and no one bought it. They had a whole wall of jam, no one's buying it. So then what do they do? They go down to three flavors of jam. And what what do you think happened? People could buy it. Sell they could choose, yeah. So this message is uh is reminding me of that a little bit, where there's a lot of asks coming in a single message out of the blue. So it's it's more specific, it shows enthusiasm, but to the person who's receiving it, you're it's this is a lot of work. And that's something for pe when you're messaging people like us or whoever else you're messaging, you're someone who's gonna respond isn't one gonna give you a lazy answer. They're probably so they're gonna they're more likely to say, I can't, I'm not gonna respond than give this person a lazy response. So set the person up for success by asking one question. Like what it and I I'm not looking at the message right now, but pick pick one message, one thing from the message, and then if you get a response back, then maybe go for the dialogue. Because you can also think about most people are opening this thing up on their phone. So if you're on your LinkedIn and you open up a huge block of text on your phone, that's also gonna just eyes are gonna completely glaze over, most likely.

SPEAKER_02:

That's how I felt. I felt like you said, like, I'm gonna fail this person because I don't have the time to write out from A to Z all of this stuff. So I don't even feel like I have time to start trying. That's exactly you you nailed it on how I felt.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Emily, did you have any? Oh, I have one more. If do we have time for me to do one more? Because this one I thought is it's a good um contrast of Hi Casey. Hope you're doing well. I came across your profile in LinkedIn and wanted to reach out. I connect with your background and with Prompt Health's mission. I actually had really hoped to visit the Prompt Health booth at Asha in DC a few weeks ago. I'm a medical SLP with a strong adult neurogenic background, and I recently noticed the posting for Associate Clinic Success Manager position. Over the past several years, I've been navigating a career transition that blends clinical expertise, academic experience, and learner-focused program development. I'd love the chance to learn more about this role and explore whether you think my skills might be a good fit for your team. If you're open to a brief conversation, I'd truly appreciate the opportunity. Thank you for your time. I look forward to connecting. But Emily, do you or Emma, anybody? I'll give you all mine.

SPEAKER_00:

I liked it. It was a little bit shorter. Followed the same pattern as the other ones of like lots of eyes. But yeah, overall, I would say more on the positive side.

SPEAKER_01:

Something that stuck out specifically is the em the one you m read before, it said thank you in advance, comma. Was there a sign-off? That is essentially saying, I already know you're gonna answer this. It's very assumptive versus this message said, if you're open to it, would you be open to a brief call? Either way, thank you. It's less of an expectation that you're going to respond.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. I really liked this one, and I'll tell you why. One, she knew we were in, I wish, I mean, it would have been really great if she had stopped by the booth, but you know, she didn't have time. I get it, everyone's busy. But she knew we were in DC at the Asha conference. She knew we had a prompt health booth. She'd done some research about what the role that was already posted. She knows and she had me a specific ask of like, do you think we could connect and talk about this role and my skill set? Like, that's an a specific ask that I can wrap my brain around and go, yeah, I could totally do that. And then she said, a brief conversation. Love that. Set me up for a brief conversation, please. Anytime I'll I'll say yes to that one too. And then again, it was like low pressure, and it was just she was open to it, and she felt like it was just like a cheerful open ask and not necessarily it didn't make me feel bad at the like I didn't feel guilty if I didn't respond either right away. So that's always good too. So yeah, those were mine. Did you have any others you wanted to share, Emma or Emily?

SPEAKER_01:

Do you have or any frequently asked questions y'all get? I have one. I want to do one more. Okay. So it's this is an email I got. This isn't even a LinkedIn message instead. My name is Casey, and I was an attendee at the Rehab Tech Summit. I actually got to see you speak about working at startups with these three people. I'm at I'm an SLP at heart, specializing in adult cognitive communication, but for the last three and a half years have entered the business side of healthcare and utilization management because I have a passion for personal and professional growth. I really identified with a lot of what y'all spoke to, and it was wonderful to be with like-minded people in the rehab world. Anyway, I really enjoyed the whole weekend and joined your clinician transition group shortly after. A few days later, I saw your post about the job opening at prompt for the customer success manager position. I felt the timing was too serendipitous to pass up, so I applied last night. I just wanted to reach out and say thank you for the inspiration and let you know your session at the summit was. My official segue into finding this role, which I mentioned in my cover letter. Regardless of if our paths end up crossing in the future, just wanted to say thanks for being a leader in this niche and helping to create a community where we can come together and celebrate and support each other.

SPEAKER_02:

I mean, that is a throwback. That almost made me tear up because look at where it led. I feel I feel that so much still to my core.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh. That's the tuna. That's like the Mac Daddy tuna right through that school of fish. You guys. Where to begin? On probably if top three, if not the top cold outreach I've ever gotten. Big time. Where to begin?

SPEAKER_02:

I could have asked for. So amazing.

SPEAKER_01:

And I'm not saying you have to go to the tech summit and butter me up. That's not the point of this message. Like that's not what I'm trying to say right here. What I'm trying to say, it's very personal. And it what while it showed Casey's relevancy and what she was excited about, it very much wasn't about her. It wasn't assumptive. And it still had a very clear enthusiasm, you know, uh regardless of what ended up happening.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. I feel like I can hear your voice saying it.

SPEAKER_02:

And it's kind of like Emma, you taught you've taught me so much about, I mean, sales. And I don't know if this, but like something in life too, is like det just detaching from the outcome. Like that's kind of how I feel when I send, I mean, I truly did just like send it out into the universe, and that's how my feeling was. And I detached from the outcome, whether or not I got a job. It was just a meaningful experience for me, and I wanted to put that out there. So I think that works too. And you're not necessarily having, I don't want you all to think about this as selling yourself, but it feels like it's better if you release your expectations and detach from the outcome when you send these messages out and just be present in that little box in LinkedIn and say what you feel and what really did draw you to that person and what you are hoping to learn, and just be who you are and and what you bring to the table too in that way.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. And I would respectfully challenge that a little bit too. You don't have to sell yourself. There's nothing wrong with sales if you believe in what you're selling. That's right. I'm talking to the sales queen. You are selling yourself. You are selling yourself, you guys. Lean in. You're selling yourself. So the there are ways we're being honest. We believe in what we're saying, and there are certainly ways to get it out there. This is a master class. On all of you have the same or very similar background to Casey, Emily, and me. There is nothing holding you back from sending a message like this, besides just a little bit of effort and putting something out there. You don't have to go to a tech summit to send this email. You just have to listen to a webinar, read a LinkedIn article, do some research on a company, and you're more than capable of sending a message like this. And this was sent before AI, or maybe AI exists and we weren't using it. Like this is this is all think about having AI now to help you get start, to help you get started. Right. You know, here's hey, hey, Gemini or Chat GPT, whoever your AI friends are. Copy and paste the job in, copy and paste some stuff from their LinkedIn. Copy, hey, I want to write a nice message to this person, help me draft it. This is it'll help you.

SPEAKER_00:

Like, I don't know, yeah, talk to it or something.

SPEAKER_01:

That's true. Or or take the this message and say, help me write a message just like this one. Like take a good one and have it model it.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, yeah. There you go. Like I'm hearing a couple of concepts show through. One is from sales, which is like if you want to sell something you have, which in this case is yourself, it helps to focus more on the like the other person. Casey, I've got to have an authentic voice.

SPEAKER_02:

So I think that's that's just like sales too. Like people aren't gonna connect with you if you're not the be a tuna, not a school fish.

SPEAKER_00:

And the deta like you said, Casey, the detaching from the outcome. I I feel like if if you know there's a job opening that opens up and then you message someone at that company about that job, it's it just feels a little bit more robotic, which brings me to another point of like you don't only have to message someone if there's a job opening at their company. Right. You can just message someone to network, and a lot of times it's even more effective if you're networking and there's not this. Sometimes I get messages and I'm like, I I'm just feel uncomfortable because there's an opening, and is there now an expectation of them to like for me to pass their name along and stuff like that? There's a lot less pressure if there's actually no openings at the time. I could see that too.

SPEAKER_02:

I just want to say, um, to Emily's point, keep after it, you know? Like just keep messaging, put yourself out there. Emily has a great post somewhere in her LinkedIn history of grit. And I think that's the word too, is just you gotta have grit and you gotta, even if you have how how many did y'all say? 30, 60 percent, some percentage don't get responded to. Um, don't take it personally. Detach yourself and keep sending messages, keep feeling inspired and keep after it.

SPEAKER_00:

And you can experiment, it's just like an experiment. Like send one out. Oh, that didn't get one, that's data. Send another one out that's a little different, and then you can kind of find your voice as you practice.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, the bar is low, guys. Really will not just a little extra oomph, and you're gonna stand out and be super successful. Yes.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, and if you like this episode, make sure to share it with your friends. Thanks for remembering that.

SPEAKER_00:

Send it along. Yes, until next time.

SPEAKER_01:

Bye.

SPEAKER_02:

Good luck out there. Bye.