I’m not a hero or celebrity who can save the world. I’m just trying to help people as I can. — A conversation with Ira Bowman.
By: Abhishek Thakur
Tags: Maice, Interview, Recruitment, LinkedIn, Employment

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last 3 months, you would’ve heard about Ira Bowman and #projecthelpyougrow. Today we talk about the “Human” side of him and why he decided to start the project. Follow Ira on LinkedIn by clicking here.

Q. We have more than 70 mutual connections on Linkedin. Everybody knows you as this “LinkedIn guy who is trying to help people out”. I wanted our readers to understand who Ira is outside of LinkedIn?

First off, I am nobody special. I’m just a human being who spends a lot of time volunteering and helping my community. I love LinkedIn because over there, borders don’t matter. In fact, I used to be a very selfish person who was constantly worried about himself and himself only, but as I grew older, I realized that success can never be achieved by being selfish. I had to lift other people up and help them. I started off small; volunteering with soup kitchens and with the local church. I was homeless for 6 weeks as a child and that is something very close to my heart and I care deeply about poverty, pain and the mental depression that comes with it.

I have a full-time job selling large format printers. I have a small territory or around a 100-mile radius. I call businesses in and around that area and try to sell them my products. I have been married for 18 years and I have 8 children. I spend a lot of time trying to raise my kids and instil the same values in them that I grew up with.

People need to make a living, but If our only motivation in life is to make money, I think our priorities are due for an update. I’m not a hero or celebrity who can save the world. I’m just trying to help people as I can. 45 days ago, I didn’t even know this was possible. Honestly, it started out as a quest to help people grow their connections. I wanted to grow my connections too and I figured it was better to help other people do it alongside me.

Q. You have been a Salesperson and have worked in marketing as well. Let’s keep all the selflessness aside for a moment and talk about how you’re using LinkedIn to connect with people all over the globe. Is that something that comes naturally, or did you have to learn it?

Being a trailblazer is always the harder role than the person following the path. I think my methodology might be difficult for somebody to emulate especially if they don’t have a marketing degree like I do. Having said that, the whole purpose of projecthelpyougrow was to blaze the trail for other people and help show them how to do it. I try to give out as much coaching as they might need to help them in some way. The only advice I would give to somebody is to be consistent and put in the work. Because it’s not a magic pill, you’ve gotta put in the effort.

#projecthelpyougrow

Here’s an example: I’ve had 400+ registrations on my website in the last 12 hours. It is amazing and exceeds every target I had set, but there’s a problem. Almost 300 out of those 400 members haven’t filled out their profile correctly. There is a lot of missing data and the recruiters who are applying filters and searching for relevant people can’t locate the ones who have an incomplete profile. That is where the “work” comes in. A lot of people are looking for jobs maybe millions and millions of them, but a simple error like not updating your profile correctly can be the difference between getting noticed and being ignored.

Q. You have been giving out free coaching to people along with tips and tricks on how to use LinkedIn and other tools. How do my readers get in touch with you for that? What are the criteria for them to be considered for a free session?

First off, the criteria is simple. You’ve got to be clear about what you want. Location is no boundary for me. I’ve spoken to people in Africa, Europe, Asia who belong to a lot of different countries, but the one thing I always look for is the clarity about what they need from me. There are a lot of ways to get in touch with me. LinkedIn is probably the best tool, but I’m also on Twitter and other social channels. I can be reached via email on irambowman@gmail.com. In fact, my website has my profile section that gives out most of my details and links to my channels. This is something that all members can use to link their profile to their social channels.

Q. There are other people on LinkedIn who employ storytelling as their content strategy. Fake stories, maybe. But stories, nonetheless. Is that something you believe in too?

I think it comes to relatability. If every post comes off as commercial, then you are gonna lose your audience. This is something Oleg and Bridgette do extremely well; They tug at people’s heartstrings. They use words like “inspire” and “encourage” that people can easily relate to. Where they fall short, and I’m not being critical here, is they do not have any mechanism to actually help people other than giving them some temporary exposure. For example, if Oleg or Bridgette like/comment on your post, it can bring a temporary influx of visitors on your post that will last about 5 minutes. Then it goes back to being normal. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying it doesn’t help, but surely there is a better way.

If I could talk to Oleg or Bridgette, which I have openly asked them to, I would like to tell them about projecthelpyougrow because I feel they come up short in the help mechanism. Imagine the power and ramp-up on my website and the number of people I can help if one of them decide to even just share my post/website. They ask you to Like/Tag them to get extra views and attention. How about you give people a method to get exposure from recruiters and also engage with recruiters and figure out what they need and how it can be made better. I respect them both and follow them like most people. I can’t help but wonder about the large-scale change they can bring if they decided to do something about the gap in their helping mechanism.

Q. Before we end this discussion, is there something you would like to say to our readers who want to increase their connections?

Adaptability is key. The LION mentality that might have worked 2 years ago, doesn’t really work these days. People are wary of their connections and add people who provide value. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a recruiter, a potential job seeker or just somebody trying to promote themselves or their company. Adapt to your audience and give them something of value.