Happy Accidents #026 - Hanna Larsson

Was it fate or serendipity that led Hanna Larson from her role at a unicorn company to become a successful solopreneur?

Get ready to be inspired as we dive into the exhilarating journey of Hanna Larsson, the accidental LinkedIn maven.

Let's dig in, shall we?

SETTING THE STAGE

In the world of career adventures, Hanna Larson is a force to be reckoned with.

Early in her career, she held several different roles. Sales, marketing, account management, you name it.

From 2008 until 2021, she was busy soaking up the skills and experience in these areas, meeting new people, and enjoying the journey.

She’s held positions such as Sales and Marketing Director at Applied Nano Surfaces, Growth Director at Hansoft, VP of Global Sales at Graphmatech, among others.

But in February of 2021, Hanna joined a young company called Remote as Director of Sales EMEA. And what a ride it was.

In just over a year, she and her team in EMEA scaled revenue 42x

She hired and built the EMEA sales team from 2 to 87 team members, distributed in 22 countries.

With her help, Remote became a unicorn company quickly!

Hanna had used Linkedin throughout her career but really saw the incredible power of it when she started posting regularly during her time at Remote.

THE HAPPY ACCIDENT

With all that revenue growth, she needed to hire....and hire fast.

Armed with a need for speed, she decided to take a chance and share her hiring woes on this professional playground. Little did she know this playful leap would set the stage for her LinkedIn breakthrough.

Her plan was extremely successful.

As Hanna posted about job opportunities on LinkedIn, the mission that Remote was on; to help people get access to work opportunities all around the world, a serendipitous spark ignited. The response was overwhelming, and she quickly realized the untapped potential of this digital platform.

It got her to thinking, how else could LinkedIn be a benefit to Remote? She soon found out.

Riding the wave of success, Hanna expanded her LinkedIn content to showcase her company's values, mission, and vision. Like a magnetic force, her posts attracted an engaged and appreciative audience, propelling her LinkedIn journey to unforeseen heights.

Suddenly, Remote was receiving a ton of inbound leads from her content. And just like Justin Welsh, Hanna became hooked on LinkedIn.

CAPITALIZING

Recognizing the golden opportunity before her, Hanna decided to take the plunge.

In January 2022 she decided to level up and started posting on LinkedIn everyday. At that point, Hanna had around 6000 followers on the platform.

But that was about to change.

By July of that year, her content was really taking off and her follower count grew steadily.

With unwavering confidence and an ever-growing follower count, she made the bold choice to leave her corporate career behind. It was time to bet on herself and capitalize on the momentum she had built through LinkedIn.

As Hanna told me "It was the right time for me to leave. I built an incredibly powerful, kind, and kick ass team in EMEA. We surpassed the North American market and we totally crushed all targets, KPIs and metrics. If you ever get the chance to hire any of them, you are so lucky. It was an amazing experience that led me to where I am today."

Now it was time for the next chapter. And Hanna had a plan.

Since stepping away from Remote, she’s been able to capitalize on her growth on LinkedIn acting as a strategic advisor, consultant, and investor for new startup companies and now also helps startup founders build a following on LinkedIn to fuel their company’s growth.

Hanna has also created a fast-growing newsletter on LinkedIn called The Future of Work that has over 29K+ subscribers at the time of writing.

Since leaving Remote, building her personal brand and audience on LinkedIn has been a complete game changer for Hanna. Today she has over 59K+ followers and LinkedIn is the foundation of her own company.

Her latest venture? In June of 2023, Hanna launched a new agency (HUNTRS) and newsletter that helps new startups with their go to market strategy.

All this from the accidental discovery of the power of LinkedIn!

Some fun facts:

• LinkedIn has more than 900 million members in 200 countries and regions

• Worldwide, men tend to use LinkedIn more than women. As of January 2022, 57.2% of users were male and 42.8% were female.

• More than 137 million US LinkedIn members use the platform daily

• Remote is one of 1,215 unicorn companies worldwide. See the full list here.

The lessons here:

• Seize the LinkedIn Wave: Hanna's story teaches us to harness the power of LinkedIn as a tool for professional growth and connection. Embrace the unexpected opportunities that this platform offers and ride the wave of engagement.

• Authenticity is Key: Hanna's success on LinkedIn was fueled by her genuine content that resonated with her audience. Be true to yourself, share your experiences, and let your unique voice shine through.

• Embrace Change and Take Risks: Hanna's decision to leave her corporate career was a leap of faith. It reminds us to embrace change, trust our instincts, and take calculated risks to create our own path to success.

YOUR Happy Accidents

Got your own Happy Accident story to share? Reply to this email and let me know about it. You just might end up in a future edition of the newsletter!

Hey, Dennis Geelen here. Author of the Happy Accidents newsletter.

Are you looking to bet on yourself? Here're a few ways I can help:

If you're looking to start your own one person coaching or consulting business (like I did), here's a couple of resources that might help:

→ The Accidental Solopreneur This best selling book brings you a gripping parable along with a playbook for leaving corporate and starting your own solopreneur business

→ The Solopreneur Playbook This 90 minute video course brings you a 6 step playbook (and workbook) for finding your niche, packaging and selling your offer, and building your audience.

Having trouble establishing or gaining credibility as an expert in your niche?

→ The Author's Playbook Establish yourself as the credible expert by publishing a great book. This 90 minute course teaches you everything I've learned about writing, publishing, and marketing best-selling books.

Need to work through some challenges in your business?

→ 1:1 Coaching Call Book at 60 minute coaching session with me. Together we can work through your niche, your branding, your marketing, your offer, or various other challenges you may be facing in your business.