302: The Event Planner’s Edge: Social Selling that Drives Real Business with Richard Bliss

We are absolutely delighted to welcome Richard Bliss, the founder and CEO of BlissPoint Consulting, as today’s guest.

Richard has focused his entire career on helping people with their social selling behavior. He is well-known both inside and outside of our industry as a LinkedIn Top Voices Influencer and an experienced executive communications leader.

Stay tuned as Richard shares his story and offers practical insights on social selling, executive communication, and what truly builds influence on LinkedIn.

Richard’s Journey

Richard began his career with 14 years in the National Guard, earning the rank of Captain, before moving into early enterprise technology in the late 1900s. He became a global evangelist during the rise of email as a business platform, emerging as a leading voice in email security when internet-based threats first appeared. He has spoken in 22 countries, hosted international technology conferences, and built a reputation for helping individuals and organizations understand how fast-moving technologies affect both work and life.

Reinvention

After Richard served as Chief Marketing Officer and helped the startup grow from under $1 million in revenue to more than $10 million, the company abruptly let him go. That forced him to rebuild from scratch, relying on his personal brand rather than a company title. He launched a long-running podcast, self-published a book, taught himself about social media, and reframed LinkedIn as a business media platform rather than a social one. A pivotal $800-a-month consulting role with a senior NetApp executive reopened doors that ultimately led to Richard founding his own company.

Creating Opportunity

Richard believes opportunity comes from deliberately placing yourself where it can find you. What others might view as setbacks, he sees as sequences that lead to better outcomes.

Modern Credibility

In today’s digital-first world, people build credibility online long before they meet in person. Audiences constantly evaluate LinkedIn profiles, even when owners remain inactive. They judge professionalism, expertise, and trustworthiness based on what they see, which makes visibility unavoidable rather than optional.

Small Businesses Have an Advantage

Small business owners often outperform large organizations online because they speak in their own authentic voice. Without layers of corporate filtering, they can tell clear, personal stories and connect directly with their audience. With LinkedIn and generative AI, they can reach customers without gatekeepers, large budgets, or traditional media exposure.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn works best when treated as an ongoing conversation rather than a static profile or sales funnel. Profiles and posts should focus on the audience’s problems and opportunities, rather than one’s personal history.

Forming Relationships

Cold outreach and instant pitching undermine trust. Relationships form when value is given initially through attention, insight, and engagement. Comments, referrals, and thoughtful interaction create a natural sense of reciprocity, opening the door to future business conversations.

Building Real Engagement

Artificial engagement pods violate LinkedIn’s rules, so they are increasingly penalized. Genuine collaboration comes from consistent, meaningful interaction with customers, partners, and peers. Thoughtful comments on others’ posts help establish topic authority and increase visibility organically.

Using AI

Generative AI is most effective as a support tool, not a replacement for a human voice. While AI can help shape ideas and drafts, comments and conversations must remain personal. LinkedIn prioritizes authentic, real-time engagement and increasingly suppresses purely AI-generated content.

Practical LinkedIn Rhythm That Actually Works

Sustainable success on LinkedIn requires modest, consistent effort. A small number of meaningful comments each day and one to three posts per week outperform high-volume posting. Conversations should be allowed to develop fully before starting new ones, aligning with how LinkedIn distributes content.

Events, AI, and the Power of In-Person Connection

Despite advances in AI, live events remain irreplaceable. Shared physical experiences, eye contact, and informal conversations build trust in ways digital tools cannot. Competent professionals prepare for events by engaging attendees online beforehand, without pitching, so that in-person meetings feel like natural continuations of existing relationships.

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