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Following Up Without Feeling Awkward

Following Up Without Feeling Awkward

‍Level Up: Insights for Impact

‍Welcome to Issue #2 of our newsletter, Insights for Impact! This newsletter is designed for technical professionals who want their expertise to land, their ideas to stick, and their impact to be visible. We provide monthly tips and templates to help you take your career to the next level.

Most Opportunities Die in the Follow-Up

Meeting someone new isn’t the hard part. Following up is.

 

Many technical professionals worry they’ll seem annoying, salesy, or awkward — so they don’t follow up at all. The result? Good conversations fade, relationships stall, and opportunities quietly disappear.

 

A thoughtful follow-up isn’t an interruption.  It’s a signal of professionalism.

Use the tools you have at your disposal: email, LinkedIn, or the conference communication platform. Whatever works. Do the work and do the follow-up.


‍Quick Skill Upgrade: The Low-Pressure/No-Pressure Follow-Up 

Good follow-ups do one simple thing: They remind the person who you are and why the conversation mattered.

 

You don’t need a long message. You don’t need a clever pitch. If you read our last newsletter, you know not to overload your new friend. You just need relevance and timing.

 

Best practice:

  • Follow up within 24–72 hours
  • Reference something specific you discussed
  • Keep it to 2–3 sentences max

Don't ask for anything right now. Instead, offer a resource or an article that is related to something you discussed when you met. Or maybe not. The only requirement is the three bullets above. Keep it Simple.



‍Template: The Follow-Up That Feels Natural

 

Use one of these depending on the situation:

After a meeting or event: “Great meeting you at [event/meeting]. I enjoyed our conversation about [specific topic]. Would love to stay in touch.”

 

After an internal conversation: “Thanks again for the chat earlier. Your point about [topic] was helpful — I’m going to think more about how it applies to my work.”

 

After a referral or introduction: “Thanks for the intro. I appreciate you making the connection — looking forward to continuing the conversation.” That’s enough. Short beats clever, every time.

Challenge! 

  1. Think of one person you met recently — at work, an event, or a meeting.
  2. Send a follow-up using one of the templates above.

 

No optimization. No overthinking. Just send it! Let us know how it went. We'd love to hear about your experience.



‍Join us on March 13th, 2026, for Connect with Confidence, a workshop on practical strategies for building meaningful professional relationships without relying on forced conversation.

 

Learn:

  • Where to network
  • How to introduce yourself with confidence
  • How to leverage your personal and professional interests to connect with others

 

 

‍Upcoming Events!


Did you miss our Ask Me Anything session on March 6th? We had a great time and answered questions about why you should use a microphone, and how to answer difficult questions from the audience when you present.  If you'd still like to send us a question, we will answer in one of our next AMAs or via video. Send us a question, and we'll contact you once we've answered it.

 

 

 

‍Help Us Grow! 

If this issue was useful, please forward it to a teammate who’d appreciate leveling up their networking and career skills.

If someone forwarded this to you, please subscribe to receive future issues here.


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