Podcast 14 min read

Demystifying LinkedIn

with Nicole Osborne

Chris Do and Nicole Osborne explain how stories, useful posts, and real conversations turn LinkedIn into a lead source.

Chris Do

Founder, The Futur™ · November 24, 2025

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The Salesperson Nobody Wants to Become

A creative business can look professional on LinkedIn and still give a prospective client no reason to care. The polish survives; the person disappears. Nicole Osborne, a London-based marketing coach for digital agency owners and founder of Wunderstars, works with talented people who struggle to promote themselves, making that gap between capability and visibility central to her advice.

Her conversation with Chris Do begins somewhere far removed from a corporate feed: a market stall selling sunglasses. Osborne recalls being a shy teenager helping her parents, who became market traders after losing their jobs following the fall of the Berlin Wall. They put her in charge of the sunglasses and paid her commission.

That arrangement made confidence practical rather than abstract. A customer needed a pair that suited their face and budget. Osborne needed to make a sale, but the shortest route was not pressure; it was paying attention.

She remembers watching faces, listening to budgets, and making the exchange enjoyable. A satisfied customer walked away feeling better, told friends, and sometimes returned. The transaction worked because the attention was specific.

Do tests that memory with an improvised sales exercise. Playing a customer, he questions the quality of the inexpensive frames. Osborne does not pretend the product can meet every requirement: someone seeking a more durable pair should consider an optician.

That admission does not destroy the sale. It clarifies it.

The glasses become a useful extra pair rather than an implausible substitute for something more expensive. Do buys two in the role-play because the offer now makes sense on its own terms. Osborne has neither inflated the product nor apologized for selling it.

Do identifies the underlying contradiction: people often sell in ways they would resist as buyers. They dislike pressure, scripted intimacy, and exaggerated promises, then reproduce those behaviors when a sales opportunity appears. The problem is not a shortage of techniques. It is a change in character.

Good selling preserves the buyer's freedom to say no. Osborne's willingness to recommend another option makes her attention credible. The buyer is being understood, not maneuvered.

That distinction also gives LinkedIn marketing a useful standard. If an approach would feel intrusive across a market stall, adding a professional headshot and a connection request does not make it considerate. The same test applies to the first message, the public post, and the eventual offer.

The question of reading another person's needs connects naturally with The Futur's The Skill You Need To Win Clients That No One Talks About. Here, Osborne supplies a concrete demonstration: notice the person before trying to move the transaction forward.

Her LinkedIn advice grows from that premise. The platform changes the setting, not the obligation to behave like a person.

Professional Does Not Mean Anonymous

Osborne encounters familiar resistance when she raises LinkedIn with agency owners. They describe it as corporate, boring, or spammy. Some have tried posting and found little reason to continue; others assume the platform belongs primarily to people searching for jobs.

She does not deny the spam. Instead, she points to email: an inbox can contain irrelevant pitches without making every useful exchange inside it worthless. Bad behavior on a platform is not an instruction to copy it, or sufficient reason to abandon the channel entirely.

Her alternative is relationship-building before proposing business. That sounds obvious until the typical cold approach is held against it. A stranger who immediately launches into a service pitch has skipped the part where either person discovers whether a conversation is worth having.

Osborne and Do's own introduction offers the smaller, more ordinary alternative. They met at a speakers' gathering in Newcastle, where Do had arrived as a last-minute replacement speaker. Osborne asked how he was enjoying the northern food.

It was not a disguised qualification question. It was an accessible subject connected to his actual circumstances. Travel supplied the context; curiosity supplied the opening.

For Osborne, professional visibility has the same requirement. The goal is not to become noticeable to everybody. It is to become recognizable to people whose needs and working preferences fit the business.

That distinction matters for creative agencies because their public language can become interchangeable. An agency can describe its capabilities accurately while giving a buyer almost nothing to distinguish its team, judgment, or approach from the next firm.

Osborne describes a designer whose early attempts at LinkedIn felt constrained by the need to be taken seriously. The response was to sound like everyone else. The eventual improvement came from allowing a more individual voice and making the offer more explicit.

Credibility does not require anonymity. A professional presence can communicate personality without becoming careless, and specificity without becoming self-indulgent. The useful boundary is whether the detail helps someone understand the person or business behind the work.

Osborne's examples include:

A team photograph taken during an ordinary lunch.
A business owner sharing family interests and a favorite sports team.
A specialist showing the person behind technical, data-heavy posts.
A founder explaining what changed while building an agency.

These are not demands for constant personal disclosure. They are options for making an otherwise abstract service easier to place in human terms. A local business owner can recognize shared priorities; a prospective collaborator can get a sense of the person across the table.

The starting point is therefore not a louder persona. It is a more legible one. That is a useful companion to Where To Start With Social Media: before choosing how much to publish, the business needs something recognizable to communicate.

The Story Is Evidence

Osborne identifies a missed opportunity among the designers she has examined on LinkedIn: they show the work but leave out their stories. The omission is understandable. A finished project feels professional and defensible; a personal account can feel exposed.

But a portfolio image and a story answer different questions. One shows what was produced. The other can reveal what happened when the work became difficult, uncertain, or constrained.

Do's account of preparing for his Newcastle appearance demonstrates the difference. He accepted the speaking invitation at short notice and planned to finish his presentation while traveling. That plan failed, as did the next opportunity at the hotel, leaving him finalizing the material on the afternoon of the event.

Then the presentation system failed to show his next slide.

For a speaker delivering familiar material, that would be one kind of problem. For someone presenting a newly assembled talk, it added uncertainty at precisely the moment certainty was expected. The story gives the audience a situation, a complication, and a reason to pay attention.

Osborne reads it as more than an entertaining backstage account. A future event organizer can see someone who accepted responsibility under pressure and continued when the conditions were imperfect. The commercial relevance sits inside the story rather than being attached as a boast.

A useful story makes professional judgment visible. It does not have to announce excellence. It gives the reader something from which to infer it.

That is why a difficult project can be more instructive than an unqualified success announcement. The detail that matters is not simply that the client was pleased. It is what changed, what the professional noticed, and how the situation was handled.

Osborne extends this principle to agency content. A shifting brief, a shortage of client feedback, or a decision between competing design directions can become material for explaining how the business works. The audience gains a view of the process that a polished final image cannot provide alone.

This emphasis sits alongside Storytelling Is A Superpower, another expression of the importance The Futur places on narrative. Osborne's application is specifically commercial: a story can answer a buyer's uncertainty without sounding like a sales defense.

There is also a difference between telling a story and closing the conversation around it. One example Osborne highlights ends by inviting readers to share experiences that shaped them. The invitation gives people an accessible way into a personal subject.

The author has not merely disclosed something. The author has made room for someone else.

For a creative business, that creates a better test than whether a story sounds impressive. Does it reveal a relevant decision? Does it help the intended reader recognize a concern or ambition? Does it leave space for a response?

A dramatic life history is unnecessary. The material can already be inside the working day. The task is to make its significance clear.

Proof Has More Than One Shape

Client work provides a second source of content, but Osborne treats it more broadly than a formal case study. Results matter. So do the moments that show how a working relationship operates before the results become a presentation.

She shares examples of celebrating a client's award recognition, hosting a visiting client, and showing an ordinary remote conversation. None requires turning a routine interaction into an elaborate production. The relationship itself supplies the subject.

That lowers a barrier for creative professionals who assume every public artifact must meet the standards of a major portfolio launch. If a simple photograph can make the collaboration tangible, elaborate presentation is not always the missing ingredient.

The distinction is between evidence and decoration. A beautifully designed post can still leave the reader uncertain about what happened. An ordinary image, accompanied by a precise account, can show something useful about the people and the work.

Osborne points to several ways client-centered content can earn its place:

Celebrate a client milestone rather than claiming all the attention.
Explain the transformation a project helped create.
Show the working relationship behind the finished result.
Share relevant performance evidence with enough context to understand it.

One example involves a vacation-rental marketing specialist sharing results after a client had questioned whether the approach would work. The post is not just a display of favorable numbers. It contains a recognizable commercial tension: uncertainty before commitment, followed by evidence.

Osborne sees the resulting reactions and comments as openings for conversation. A person who engages with a specific result has supplied more context than a stranger selected from a directory. A follow-up can begin with what resonated, rather than a generic description of services.

That remains an opening, not permission to overwhelm someone with a pitch.

The same restraint applies to expertise posts. Osborne praises Do's document posts, the sliding sequences that move through an audience problem and toward a solution. Their appeal comes from the relationship between the issue and the explanation, not simply from being presented as multiple pages.

Each page gives the next one a reason to exist. The reader continues because there is something useful still to resolve.

That is a different standard from publishing expertise merely to establish status. The practical question is whether someone can understand a problem more clearly after reading. A highly capable professional can still miss that standard by writing only for peers.

Osborne's examples leave room for technical results, visual explanations, client celebrations, and informal photographs. No single format carries the strategy. What connects them is a clearer view of the service and the people delivering it.

The evidence should match the doubt it is meant to address. Someone worried about results needs more than friendliness. Someone worried about communication needs more than an attractive final image. Useful content recognizes the difference.

The Empty Room After Publishing

A post can invite conversation and still fail socially if its author disappears. Do frames this as a hosting problem: nobody would invite friends and prospective acquaintances to a gathering, then decline to attend.

Yet that is how businesses often behave online. They prepare the announcement, publish it, and wait for attention while treating the responses as secondary. The audience is asked to participate in a relationship the author has not made time to sustain.

“You want to be a gracious host,” Do says.

The phrase changes the job description. Publishing is not only distribution. It is an invitation that carries an obligation to acknowledge the people who accept it.

Do suggests spending 10 to 15 minutes after posting with the people who respond early and contribute something useful. This is not a demand to make social media a full-time occupation. It is a way to prevent the act of publishing from becoming detached from the act of listening.

Osborne agrees, while emphasizing that the routine needs to fit the person's diary. An unsustainable expectation of constant availability would undermine the point. Participation should be deliberate enough to be useful and bounded enough to continue.

Her standard for commenting is specific: “treat every comment they make as a mini-post.” A brief expression of approval is polite, but it rarely gives the author or another reader much to work with.

A comment should continue the conversation. It can add a perspective, explain what resonated, or introduce an easy question. The purpose is not to sound more elaborate. It is to contribute something another person can answer.

That principle also applies when commenting on someone else's work. A specialist can demonstrate how they think without redirecting the entire discussion toward their own services. The contribution has value even before anyone visits a profile.

Osborne's emphasis belongs naturally beside Mastering LinkedIn, but the behavioral requirement is straightforward enough to survive changing features: an exchange needs more than one active participant.

There is no need to turn that into a promise about exactly how the feed will distribute a post. The conversation already has a direct use. It reveals what people understood, where they disagree, and which concerns deserve more attention.

Do describes this in response to Osborne's reading of his speaking story. Hearing her explain its meaning shows him that the intended message arrived. The response closes the communication loop.

For agency owners, that feedback can challenge an assumption that polished content is automatically clear content. A post that feels obvious to its author can leave a reader with a different interpretation. Comments make that visible.

The useful outcome is not merely more activity under a post. It is a better understanding of the people the business wants to reach, and a public demonstration that their attention matters.

Give Each Post a Commercial Job

Osborne does not suggest turning every post into a pitch. She asks for a more deliberate mix, organized around what the content is meant to accomplish. A post should have a reason to exist beyond keeping the account active.

She names four content aims:

Entertain the audience. Give people something enjoyable or surprising that fits the relationship.
Engage the audience. Make participation accessible and give people a reason to respond.
Convert interested readers. Present a relevant offer and make the next step clear.
Show expertise through useful content. Demonstrate knowledge by helping the audience understand something.

These aims can overlap. A story can entertain while demonstrating judgment. A client result can establish expertise while creating an opening for a commercial conversation. The point is awareness, not rigid categorization.

Osborne's entertaining examples are closely connected to the people posting them. One involves her observation that a much-loved spouse is not automatically the right person to provide business advice. The humor carries a distinction her audience of business owners can recognize.

Another example uses comics to reflect the experience of communications professionals. The format is distinctive, but the relevance gives it purpose. The audience recognizes its own working life rather than encountering entertainment pasted onto a business account.

Conversion content deserves the same specificity. Osborne highlights a designer promoting websites for contractors through clear benefits: fast turnaround, professional design, and a worry-free service. The offer names a buyer and addresses practical concerns.

There is no requirement to hide the sale. The problem is not an explicit offer; it is an offer that arrives without relevance or crowds out every other reason to follow the business.

Osborne also describes an event promotion built around a photograph of people dancing onstage and the fact that only one ticket remained. The image communicated an experience, while the availability supplied a timely reason to act. The urgency came from the offer's circumstances.

Polls provide another route into audience needs. Osborne cites a marketer asking whether people take courses during the summer holidays while preparing an online training program. The question was easy to answer and directly relevant to a decision being made.

The responses created opportunities to ask about preferred subjects, duration, and learning experiences. The poll was useful because the conversation could continue beyond the vote.

For a designer, Osborne suggests topics connected to whether a brand feels outdated or a competitor appears stronger. Those questions align with reasons someone would consider buying design services. They can uncover context without demanding a large commitment from the respondent.

The discipline is to connect format with purpose. A poll is not automatically research, a story is not automatically differentiation, and a sales post is not automatically persuasive. Each needs a relevant subject and a reader who can recognize why it matters.

Answer the Doubt Before the Inquiry

The final test comes when interest reaches the profile. Osborne compares the LinkedIn profile to a sales page or a shop window: it should make the most relevant parts of the business visible to the people it wants to attract.

She points to a designer whose banner and headline both communicate a distinctive offer: a brand launched in a day. The presentation does not require a visitor to decode a collection of general capabilities. It makes a specific proposition easy to find.

The same clarity should extend into the content, particularly around the anxieties that precede a purchase. Osborne argues that knowing the audience means understanding more than its job titles or sector.

A prospective client can worry about price, dislike the first design concept, struggle to provide feedback, or carry frustration from an earlier supplier. Those concerns influence the decision before a designer ever receives an inquiry.

Osborne recommends learning that language directly from clients. A conversation about what worried them before purchasing can be more useful than another round of assumptions about what the market values.

Her practical direction can be applied through a few connected moves:

Ask existing clients what concerned them before they hired the business.
Find out what prompted them to seek help at that particular moment.
Use relevant project stories to explain how those concerns were handled.
Make the profile's offer consistent with the expertise shown in the posts.

The timing question adds an important layer. A company can live with unsatisfactory branding for years, then seek help because competitors look stronger, leads are scarce, or its presentation no longer reflects the quality of its work.

Those are different pressures. Content that acknowledges them can feel more relevant than a general argument about the importance of design.

Process stories are especially useful here. An account of handling a changed brief shows flexibility in context. An explanation of how feedback works can make an unfamiliar engagement less intimidating. The professional is not promising a frictionless project; the professional is showing how friction gets managed.

That is the connection between visibility and trust. Being seen is only the beginning. The right person needs enough evidence to imagine a working relationship, understand the offer, and feel that their concerns will be taken seriously.

Osborne's approach does not depend on constant polish or a borrowed online personality. It depends on making real decisions, relationships, and expertise easier to see, then remaining present when someone responds.

The market-stall standard still holds. Recognize the need. Explain the fit. Admit the limits. Leave the buyer room to choose.

A profile can claim expertise. The next conversation has to prove it.

TRANSCRIPT

Everything you post, ask yourself, you know, am I entertaining? Am I engaging? Am I converting people? Am I showing off my expertise? And ideally what you want to do is for each of your posts to hit one of these content aims. You know, it doesn't always have to be one at a time. You can combine it. But essentially be aware that people are on social media to learn something new, you know, to be entertained, to connect with new people, to add people to their networks. So honour these reasons why we are on social media. I want to tell a little story before I talk to my next guest. I was a last minute replacement. I hate to say I was a last minute replacement for Atomicon. And it was one of these things where I think I was traveling, doing something else. And I see this message pop up and somebody asking me, hey, do you want to be a replacement speaker? Somebody had a family emergency. We'd love to have you in Newcastle, which I've never been. It's the north of England, everybody. I'm like, yeah, I'm going to go. And one of those things that I like to do is I like to go for a walk and I run into somebody who's like, "Hey, there's a speaker's party. Are you going to that?" I'm like, "Speaker's party? I know nothing about this." But she said, "It's around the water. Just go down there and just follow the steps and you'll find it." And sure enough, I found it and I ran into all these wonderful people. And this is a story about how I met Nicole and so many other wonderful people at Atomicon. So, Nicole, welcome to the show. I'm super excited, Chris. Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it. Wonderful. I feel your energy right now. So this is going to be super positive, everybody. Now, Nicole, for those people who don't know who you are, please introduce yourself, say your name, tell us your story. Give us a little insight into who you are, please. Thank you. So I'm Nicole Ospon. I'm a marketing coach for digital agency owners. I'm actually based in London, but I'm from former Eastern Germany. And I say this because in 1989, when the Berlin Wall came down, it was a huge moment for me because it was super exciting. But at the same time, it was really tough because, well, both of my parents lost their jobs and suddenly they had to make ends meet. And the thing they did, they set themselves up as market traders. Now you might be thinking, "Chris, Nicole, why are you sharing this story?" "Nicole, why are you sharing this story?" And it is because actually they sold all the kind of things Eastern Germans couldn't buy for years. And at the weekends, I was still a teenager, they put me in charge of the sunglasses section. So suddenly, there was a really awkward, shy teenager thrown in the middle of having to sell something. And I really had to sort of step up my confidence And what I realized really quickly, and I loved it, if I could help people on the market find a pair of sunglasses which was within their budget and made their face just look amazing, they would walk away with a sort of spring in their steps and they would love it. and they would tell their friends and they would come back to my stand and I would earn more commission. So I clicked on really early this light bulb moment, "Gosh, if I can overcome my nerves here and learn how to build a report and really have lovely banter and make customers happy, that really works." So nowadays, I love to do the same with agency owners because they're super talented, they do the most amazing creative designs, and marketing campaigns, but sometimes they sort of hit that wall. Maybe it's competence or they don't know what to say to promote themselves. And I love to build ladders and to really help them push through it. So that's what I do with my company Wunderstars. I'm super excited to be here, Chris. Oh, wonderful. Okay. So those who are listening very carefully, you might hear a little German accent, a little English accent. It's a little bit going back and forth. It's hard to pin down. I have friends that are German, I have friends that are British, and you sound like somewhere in between. It's wonderful. I have to ask this question before we dive into today's topic, which we'll get into one second, which is, what did you learn as a teenager trying to sell sunglasses to people? What did you do? How did you get people to come to you and to try something on and to feel confident and comfortable to buy from you? Great. Great question, because I'm sure when you start walking around the market store, you don't want to be bothered by all the traders trying to hard sell and trying to get you to buy from them. So I knew if I looked and sounded relaxed and perhaps I looked them in the eye, even when I felt shy and I had a smile on my face. I really looked at them carefully, their face shape, because you wear glasses, so you know so well there's specific frames which will really light up someone's face and really work well for them, but also listen to their budget. It's really understanding what would work for them and just making it an enjoyable experience. Because, you know, we want to have fun. It was a weekend, we're walking along with our friends. So having that ease and just a little bit of banter, building a rapport. And I tell you what, when you're a teenager, that isn't the easiest, but I kind of learnt, you know, you know what you call this is worth doing. My parents were really clever about basically paying me commissions. So it was, come on, help your parents and earn some money as well. Okay, you eat what you kill, so you have to make some sales, otherwise you're just going to get a suntan out there. Absolutely, and I wanted more. Because there's better things to do with your time at the weekend when you're a teenager, right? Rather than help your parents. Sure, right. So I'm going to ask you to do something a little awkward and unusual, and every time I have the opportunity to do this, I'm going to ask, and if this is too weird, we'll just say hard pass and it'll be fine, okay? I want you to go back in time right now. I want you to pretend like you're that teenager again, and you're at your table with your sunglasses, and I walk up, and I'm of a similar age or something like that. I'm not like a 50-year-old man walking up to the stall. And I show some interest. I walk by and I kind of do a little look over my shoulder. I'm like, "Huh, take it away from there. Let's do a quick role play. Like, don't talk to me like the way you know how to talk to me now, but take me to the way you talked to people back then." - I'll be like, "Hey, how are you doing? You're looking for some sunglasses? I don't know. Fantastic. It's a really sunny day today. Are you enjoying it? I am. Super. Look, I spotted you looking at some of our sunglasses. Do you like to have a little try? I mean... Would you like to? Sure, yeah. Let me try this one on. This one looks pretty cool. Tell me about this. Who makes it? What's it all about? Oh, well, this is definitely a good budget range. I'm not sure that really, really suits you. How about we have something similar, but perhaps in this style? Do you want to try it on? And look, there's a mirror up there as well, and you can show your friends. Go on, you want to try it on, would you? Sure. Okay. This one looks pretty cool. What does this cost? OK, so as you can see, all our sunglasses are £10. So it's 10 pounds for one pair and it's 16 pounds for two pairs. So if you have a mate and you want to surprise them, go ahead. Today is the day. Okay, that's a pretty good price. Let me ask you this question. So I'm kind of particular about my glasses and sunglasses. You can see I need them. And oftentimes I find these, say, more budget pair, they're not as made as well. The plastic doesn't look as good and the hardware isn't great. What do you say about that? Ned, you know, you are absolutely right. I mean, you can see with these ones they have a UV rating, a little sign on there which will tell you how that works. But you know, if you're really concerned, perhaps it might just be an idea to go to an optician, you know, so that you can really get those glasses which are best for your eyes and also make you look cool. So maybe these are more sort of a sort of, you know, weekend alternative for fun when you're going to a party. But if you really see that you need a pair which, you know, lasts you for a long time, I would definitely recommend maybe go to a high street optician. Okay, so these are more like a pair where if somebody sits on it or I leave them on the on the cafe table, I'm not going to cry my eyes out because I just get another pair. Absolutely, because you know, it's nothing worse right than having a favorite pair of sunglasses and they're like so expensive. If you do lose them while you're having fun, you really regret it. So yeah, these are definitely more for fun. And you can try this pair and perhaps even have a second one just in case. Sure. Okay, you know what? I don't have a friend I'm going to buy a pair for, but I want that frame in that color and give me that one in the tortoise shell. Here's my 16 pounds. We're good to go. Oh, wow. You're amazing. Thank you very much, sir. Have a good day. I'm too young for you to call me sir. In Germany, you would say "her". You're right. I wouldn't. Maybe it was just you putting me on the spot slightly. All right, well done. Okay, a couple of things I want to break down. Here's what I get from being a prospective buyer of sunglasses, right? You pulled me in in a very gentle way. It wasn't a hard sell. You said, "I noticed you looking at a pair. Would you like to try some on?" I did. And the thing that you had was like this light effervescent energy. It was a little bubbly. It wasn't like pushing too hard. And there's a demeanor about your tonality and the words that you chose. that didn't make me feel like, oh my God, there's a high pressure squeeze coming on right now. Because oftentimes when people do that to me, I just walk away. I'm done. You know, like I'm sometimes I just need to be left alone. And so people have to gauge us carefully because I don't want you hovering over me. So I thought you did a really great job there. I also like that you were just super honest. Like when I ask you a hard question like, yeah, maybe these are not the best. It wasn't like you said they're not the best, but you really kind of told the truth without slamming yourself, which is if you want a different pair, you might want to go see your optician and figure out that. These are more like, not disposable, but it's just an extra pair to have around in case you're like... doing some activity, you forgot to bring your sunglasses. And I like that level of honesty. And I think that is how you build rapport with people. You don't do the hard sell. You try to serve the client and you're not pushy. Anything else you want to add to that? No, absolutely. And, you know, it's kind of you can't make up that something is of this amazing quality if you're selling it in a market store. And if you see someone needs something of a higher quality, there's opticians. So no, that was quite a challenging exercise, Chris. Was it? Are you all sweaty right now? Just a little bit, but in a good way, hopefully. Yeah. You know, I'm used to paying for sunglasses, not sunglasses, glasses that range from anywhere between 400 to 800 dollars a pair. So I'm like, when you said 10 pounds, I'm like, That's like 20 bucks. That's not much at all. So, okay, I get it. All right. So the reason why I have this conversation is because I think people get this confused all the time that they don't sell how they buy. That they think in one instance this works and then they flip on a totally different brain and they go off and into social media or in a sales call and they act in a way that's not congruent with who they are. And I put out a tweet recently. I said, people do not need to learn how to sell. They need to learn how to be human first, to be a human-centric marketer, if you will, to look at the person that's in front of them and recognize them for who they are and what their needs and wants are. And sometimes you can serve them and sometimes you can't, and that's totally okay. So we're going to get into today's topic, which is we're talking about specifically about linkedin how to grow your influence and generate leads and you've got some ideas on how to do this so i'm going to turn this over to you and i'm in your hand so take it away oh chris thank you so much so ask us that super excited today to have the opportunity to share with your audience at your community five winning posts that help you drive leads and amplify your influence so when i say amplify your influence i really mean getting you seen by the right people so they know about you now This is one of my favorite all-time marketing quotes. Marketing is a contest for people's attention, and it's by Seth Godin. Everything you see in this slide is really underlined by this principle that it's a busy world out there. As a creative business owners, lots of competition, so what can you do to get noticed by the right people? Now, often I see that a lot of people on LinkedIn or even on the agency website, they're sound and look exactly like everyone else. And it kind of means you're blending in, blending in good in some scenarios. You know, I've got a nine year old, so I had to bring her a picture of a clownfish. In some scenarios, it kind of keeps you safe, right? The clownfish doesn't be caught up by the big fish. Or if you're a cheetah and you're on the hunt, you don't want to get noticed and you're really close to your prey. However, when you are a creative business owner, you want to get noticed for all of the right reasons. And it's a little bit, if you just blend in, it's a little bit like being trapped in one of these white transporters, you know, it's really hard to find you. And I know you deserve for your amazing work to get noticed and to attract more of us clients who bring you joy, follow your processes and all the fun stuff. So today, Chris and I, we're going to do our best to really show you How to get noticed by right people. Now, for people who are listening to this, this may work best as a YouTube episode because there are so many slides and visuals. But just in case, I just want to say if you want to get the resource that Nicole had mentioned, can you direct them to the URL, please? Absolutely. If you come to my website, wunderstars.com, forward slash the future. This is where you will find the resources and I would be delighted to share them with you to really inspire you to create some more engaging posts for LinkedIn for those moments when you don't have any ideas. Now Wunderstars is spelled W-N-D-E-R-S-T-A-R-S dot com. That's right. W-N-D-E-R-S-T-A-R-S dot com. And you might wonder why does Nicole spell this so weirdly? Well, it's my mom's maiden name. So I had to get the German as in my apologies. But yes, Wunderstars dot com. Is it pronounced Wunder in German? Yeah, Wunder. Perfect. Yeah. And if you think about it, I light people up and I give them energy to become the stars of their own marketing. So this was the whole thinking behind it. Excellent. Thank you very much, Nicole. All right. So quickly, what we do today. how can you get ready for linkedin success maybe also challenging some of your linkedin objections and some of the myths you hold about linkedin we're going to share some real life examples to inspire you things you can copy also some really great posts from chris because you know we love chris's uh content for our design community and everyone else wanted to grow their business there's got to be some free resources because i want you to have some additional ideas you can easily implement and then in the last part, so you got to stay with us, you got to stay with us because Chris always asks all the best questions. But we are also going to show you how to thrive on LinkedIn and how it all All right, very quickly, a little bit about me. I am so delighted to work with all these creative agencies, design agencies, web agencies across the globe. I actually started my career 21 years ago working at the Financial Times and I was always hot on developing new brands, launching them into new markets, and when I started working in the agency world, I actually worked with Mighty Social, and they became Europe's fastest growing paid media tech company. Throughout all my marketing time, I've always felt drawn to working with agencies. Actually, you see a picture here of my family, my close family, my husband, my child, my mom. and where one of the reasons I do what I do because I didn't want to be that stressed out marketing director coming home, not being in a good mood. So I set up my own business, Wunderstars, for some flexibility. But enough about me. I really want to offer you lots of value. I've chosen this picture of this gentleman because when I start talking about LinkedIn to business owners, creative business owners, agency owners, this is somehow the face I'm getting because there's lots of things perhaps you've tried LinkedIn before and it hasn't worked or you feel it's really stuffy, really corporate, And I know the biggest thing is probably that you're going to say it's spammy. And I agree with you, it can be spammy. But what I like to say and point out, you know, I show you here on the picture, on the left hand side is a really spammy looking email. And I'm sorry if you can't read it, but the essence is in our email inbox, we get so many emails which don't make sense. They haven't taken time to get to know us. It's totally irrelevant. And yes, we get the same on LinkedIn. But as long as you're not part of the spam society, that's all that matters. You know, we still are using emails and that works really well for us as business owners. So still give LinkedIn that opportunity to help you promote your business. So top guidance on this. I've been married now for 20 years, coming up 20 years. And when you're meeting someone new on LinkedIn, it's a little bit like taking them dating first. You know, you want to get to know them, you want to ask them great questions, and you want to find what you have in common. So that by the time you propose, and I think this couple definitely looks like they're going to both say yes, they already know you really, really well. So when you are reaching out to someone on LinkedIn, make sure you date first, because it's a bit like going to a networking event. You know, you don't just go in and say, "Hey, what do you sell? This is what I sell." You ask for things in common. I remember when I met with Chris at Atomicum, the pre-party, I think I asked him about how he's enjoying the northern food because it was like an easy topic. And I know when you're travelling, you know, food and getting to know the culture is really, really important. So you give it time and you ask some questions and you listen. So bear this in mind because in this way you won't be spammy. Now, the other thing you might say, it's boring, it's really corporate, it's only for job search and I really don't know what to post. So all I want to say, give it another opportunity. You know, I joined the LinkedIn Creator Accelerator program where I was chosen amongst 30,000 people who applied in the UK. So I've got lots and lots of advice for you on this and hopefully tips and encouragement. So give the platform another opportunity because it is the world's biggest business social media platform and people are on a business frame of mind. So that really, really works. I can't believe you're selected for the LinkedIn Accelerator program because so many people applied. Yours truly applied. I did not get accepted into the program. Like, what do I need to do? Apparently, I need to do what you're doing. So I'm leaning in right now. Oh, Chris, thank you. Thank you so much. You know, it's so funny when I applied, I didn't even knew there was also a grant to support the creators. I just thought, wow, this is amazing. Do you know I could talk to my audience? They're going to give me some coaching over six weeks. I want to do this. So I did. I was absolutely delighted. It was hard work, but we learned loads and lots of opportunities. And it really made me break down some of these objections I showed you earlier, because I think somewhere we all have them, right? Okay, well, thank you for letting me share that little story. So in essence, what do you want to do? Everything you post, ask yourself, do you know, am I entertaining? Am I engaging? Am I converting people? Am I showing off my expertise? Ideally, what you want to do is for each of your posts to hit one of these content aims. It doesn't always have to be one at a time, you can combine it. But essentially, be aware that people are on social media to learn something new, to be entertained, to connect with new people, to add people to their networks. So, honor these reasons why we are on social media. The biggest thing, and Chris knew that I was going to highlight this first, I was asking his permission, because I did quite a bit of research, you know, looking at designers on LinkedIn and just showing how you represent yourself. And I found some amazing example. But the one opportunity I thought you are not tapping into is actually sharing your stories. Because stories is what makes you you, and it's a really easy way to connect with your audience. And one gentleman, George Lucas, the creator of Star Wars and Indiana Jones, I mean, he's just the master of storytelling, isn't he? I mean, I'm sure many people in the audience love it. Tell us in the comments if you love Star Wars or Indiana Jones. But he basically said it, when people get to know the people behind your product and how it's made, they talk about you more. So when you show up as yourself and show some of the processes, how you make your work happen or what you are about, that really connects with people. And the master of doing this is our very own Chris. Chris, I absolutely adored this post because what Chris said, and he told you the story, he shared the story at the beginning of us chatting. Do you know how he was asked at such last minute to be the keynote speaker at the Atomicking event in Newcastle? And he said, yes, he's really brave, right? He said, yes. His plan was to finished his slides either on the plane, that didn't work. Went in the hotel, that didn't work. So he ended up really finalizing his messaging and his slide deck in the afternoon of the event. You think, "Okay, Chris is an amazing speaker, he can do this." But listen to this, so the audience was already standing when he entered the stage. I mean, I was there and we were all really excited that Chris was there to share his sales insights. Suddenly, Chris realized that the tech system wasn't showing his next slide. Now, if this is a talk you deliver many, many times, you'd be like, "Okay." But because Chris had done it bespokely for this event, because that must have really thrown you but it didn't it really didn't and it's so lovely how you how you tell that story and you encourage your audience to trust themselves if someone is asking you to deliver a talk you are the expert and i love the way you talked about this experience and encouraged all of us so amazing storytelling so thank you so that's a really good example to follow Thank you, Nicole, for sharing that. And you did a great job of retelling the story and the takeaway. That's wonderful for me to hear because part of communication is I'm the transmitter, you're the receiver. And when the receiver sends back the feedback, then I know the communication loop has been closed. You got the essence of the story about what I wanted you to feel and what you to think. And this is what I do. And this was unprompted, everybody. It's not like I bribed Nicole to tell their story. She said, I'm going to pick something. I'm like, do what you want. I'm going to trust you. And so here we are. No, it's an amazing story. And if you think about it, Chris, you are positioning yourself to other events organizers in Europe, across the globe. And you're not just showing up like, hey, I'm the best. I mean, we know you are amazing, right? But you do it in such a humble and endearing way. And you're bringing in the audience. Yeah, beautifully done. And everyone, I had to get this picture of Chris and I on there because I wanted to see how nervous I actually was, even though he's like the most approachable guy. But it's Chris Doe. Are you nervous in this picture? You don't look nervous to me. Oh, I am Chris. Are you really? I remember asking you, "Chris, would it be possible if we took a picture tomorrow?" And you were like, "Come on Nicole, let's do it now." So, thank you for that. I really appreciate that. Okay, so back to stories and a little bit more on Mad. I just wanted to briefly introduce you to someone else in my network who I actually met at the LinkedIn Creator Program. Now, this is Adi Funky-Larigo. She is not in the sector of being a creative business, but what she does, she basically helps adoption and foster panels in the UK to be more diverse. I love her course and I'm a great supporter of her, that's why I wanted to highlight. Look at this post, a little bit different style from what Krista stands. She creates some bullet points to reflect on some of her life experiences. And it's really easy to read. And she's got this beautiful picture of her amazing family. And she talks about, you know, she had her mum dying at a young age, her experience as a social worker, a sense of adventure. She was a changemaker. And now she's got her own agency. And a couple of things I wanted to highlight. She does a really clever thing at the end of her post. She brings in the audience, she brings in us, she makes it easy for us to comment. She basically said, "Now over to you. What's made you who you are today? Share a couple of things in the comments below." I thought it was ingenious because this is quite a deep post, but she makes it actually really easy for us to share something positive. And you can see by the stats, I don't know if you can recognise them, over 30 comments, 150 reactions. So now she can interact with all these people and really champion her message. When I spoke to Adi about this, I said, "Adi, I really love your work. I want to mention this in Chris's presentation, if I may." She said to me this, "Who you are is who you bring to the job." I think that's so important across any sector because people do buy from people and they want to get to know you. I hope this inspires you. Adi, if you're watching this, great job, carry on. First type of post, we now had stories. Then the next set of stories, or post is actually talking about your clients so you're probably thinking social proof testimonials case studies showing the transformation and all of these things are true what you want to achieve is fear of missing out so you want other people in your network to see oh wow um John is doing an amazing job. I want to work with John. You want to keep top of mind with your existing clients because how nice is it for them to be tagged in a LinkedIn post and then to be able to comment on it. And that is really great for referrals because I know many of you will rely on referrals and word of mouth to get in front of more people. You also show your expertise in a non-boring way and we impact your work as that because I would imagine often with design work, it's something which happens right away, but then also we added impact over time of having a beautiful brand presence, of having everything looking consistent or whatever it might be what you produce for your clients. So just some examples, some of my clients. So left-hand side here, Travis, he flew over 7,200 kilometers from Vancouver in the US to London to join us at an event. I was so excited to host him here, so I posted about this on LinkedIn. In the middle, there's Jess and I. She's an amazing speaker, and we were allowed at the Google office in the heart of London. So it was just such a lovely moment where I celebrated her being shortlisted for an award. A little bit behind the scenes, John and I in the corner, just looking like this, how we are on Zoom. The reason I wanted to show you these examples is that you don't always have to produce it to such a high level. It's a human story you're sharing. It's showing how you work with your clients. I hope that really encourages you to give that more of a go. And here, another really talented designer from the US, Kimberly. I love the way how in this simple post, she celebrates how important it is to have a really good brand. And she has created a brand for Knox Solution. Apologies if I don't pronounce it well. And, you know, she encourages us to be proud of our brands. And if we need some help with this, let's get in touch with her. I think it's an amazing... sales posts and amazing posts to show of her client work. So really simple style and it's really on the money. I really love this one, so I wanted to share this with you and Kimberly is really, really talented. Here, just a totally different take. Conrad, he actually specializes, one of my wonderful staff, he specialized in vacation rental marketing, very data-driven guy, really, really interesting. He shared some statistics and he told the story of how he was working with a client and they weren't so sure yet if it was going to work. Now, he just sent a picture of their results, which shows actually, yeah, it's green, so this is good. All these people who commented, 11 people, 28 people who celebrated the post or liked it, he can now reach out and engage. And it's a quite natural kind of conversation. Do you remember how I said at the beginning, get to know people first, build that relationship before you go in with a proposal? Sorry, this was inverted commas now. When you see someone interacting with you on one of these posts, it's quite easy to jump into direct messenger and just say, "Hey, what resonated with you? How are you finding your own results and having that natural conversation?" It's very much what Chris said earlier about that Twitter post. A sales conversation can go either way, but it's about listening and getting to know that person and having back and forth and like a natural human conversation. Great example here to follow. I believe it's now the next one. Of course, I know you are talented and you have a lot of expertise. And you know what? LinkedIn is the platform to show off. Because just to give you some stats, it's now 20 years old, 930 million members in over 20 countries, 63 million companies are listed, and four out of five members actually drive business decisions. So it's the platform to be, right, Chris? It really is. There's so much you can achieve organically and our post ideas today will really enable people to really take advantage of it. So how do you show your expertise? I had to refer to the master office. I absolutely adore your document posts. What I mean by that, these sliding images, which take really poignant points, your challenges, your audience's faces, and you give them a solution, and you do it in such an impactful way. It's addicted clicking through, because you want to know what's next. You can see your audience really loves them. You get amazing amount of comments and some really engaging conversation. Chris, I wanted to compliment you, not because you are featuring me, but I love it that you have such a big network, but you're always active on all the platforms. So on LinkedIn, you make time to reply to people and people really respect that. And everyone who's posting anything, if you get a comment, please make time to regularly go on the platform and acknowledge that because your audience is giving you time and Chris, you do that so well. I really struggled with which post to pick. because they're all really, really cool when you do these kind of posts, Chris. Thank you for making our LinkedIn experience better. Thank you. Time for a quick break, but we'll be right back. What's the best time of day to get a deal? All day. With Jack in the Box's all-day big deal meal, you get to choose from four entrees like the Supreme Croissant and five tasty sides, plus a drink starting at $5. So hurry in or take your time. You've got all day. At Jack, every bite's a big deal. Marketing is hard. But I'll tell you a little secret. It doesn't have to be. Let me point something out. You're listening to a podcast right now, and it's great. You love the host. You seek it out and download it. You listen to it while driving, working out, cooking, even going to the bathroom. Podcasts are a pretty close companion. And this is a podcast ad. Did I get your attention? You can reach great listeners like yourself with podcast advertising from Libsyn Ads. Choose from hundreds of top podcasts offering host endorsements or run a pre-produced ad like this one across thousands of shows to reach your target audience in their favorite podcasts with Libsyn Ads. Go to LibsynAds.com. That's L-I-B-S-Y-N ads.com today. Marketing is hard. But I'll tell you a little secret. It doesn't have to be. Let me point something out. You're listening to a podcast right now, and it's great. You love the host. You seek it out and download it. You listen to it while driving, working out, cooking, even going to the bathroom. Podcasts are a pretty close companion. and this is a podcast ad. Did I get your attention? You can reach great listeners like yourself with podcast advertising from Libsyn Ads. Choose from hundreds of top podcasts offering host endorsements or run a pre-produced ad like this one across thousands of shows to reach your target audience in their favorite podcasts with Libsyn Ads. Go to LibsynAds.com. That's L-I-B-S-Y-N ads.com today. Before we get back to this week's episode, I want to check in to see if you are an established creative service provider, coach, or consultant looking to take your business to the next level. If so, I want to personally invite you to join the Future Pro membership with instant access to over 600 hours of exclusive content, live calls with myself and guest experts, and a community of peers to support you every step of the way. We hold nothing back when it comes to scaling your business. Go to thefuture.com/pro to learn more and join us inside. Welcome back to our conversation. There's this idea that the word social media has this word social in it. And the way I like to explain this to people is you would not invite a bunch of your friends and people you want to network with or become friends with to a party and then not show up to your own party. You want to be a gracious host. It's like you want to introduce people, you want to hang out, you want to make sure everybody's having a good time. So this is how we become so self-centered in our marketing efforts that we create posts that we hope people like, engage and share with, but then we don't hang around. This is very problematic. And I think it's just this one simple thing. If you don't walk away with anything more today, besides telling a story, having a call to action to prompt people to comment, And then what you need to do is you need to stick around for a period of time. You don't need to make this your entire job. It's like to spend 10, 15 minutes after your post, engage with the people who comment early and who provide something of value to yourself and to the people who are reading the post. And what happens is every single time somebody comments, it gets put back into the feed two more times as I've been explained. So this is how posts go viral in air quotes, right? So every time somebody interacts, you get the chance of reaching two more people. And if those two people interact, you get the chance of reaching four more people and that's how it goes. So very important for you to be social on social media. - Absolutely, and on LinkedIn commenting is really your superpower because as you said, the reach of the posts of the author, but also your own reach increases. And I like to encourage people to treat every comment they make as a mini-post. So try and be really meaningful. Don't just say, "Oh, this is great," or, "Thank you very much." Try to continue the conversation and add your own take and even add an easy question. But just commenting and for the author, for you to go in and being active You know, I think sometimes people say do it within an hour of posting and then again within a day, but make it work around your diary. We're not expecting anyone to be on social all the time. That's actually not good lifestyle. But yes, the power of commenting. Absolutely. Thank you, Chris. Now, we touched on this a little bit. I think both of you and I, we talked a little bit about entertaining and engaging. This is why people aren't social, right? It's to be sociable, to learn something new. LinkedIn now being 20 years old, I love how many improvements they've made in terms of making it easier for us to learn new things. Absolutely spot on in terms of a platform. But what can you do with your own posts? Just some examples here. I often work with agency owners who are family people themselves. Every now and then, I post a surprising picture with my family in there, my husband and my boy here. In the first post, I actually take a little bit of Mickey out of my husband in a good way. I'm basically saying, after eight years of being in business, I realized that I love my husband dearly, but he's not the best person for taking business advice because he's an electrical engineer, so he really doesn't get it. It's good to work with a business coach. And look at all the people that really resonated, you know, 30 comments, lots of people liking it, so I could engage with that. Now on the right hand side, a dear friend of mine, Helen Reynolds, will be delivering a LinkedIn marketing class for her as well in the autumn. And she has got this really unique style. So she works in a community of communications professionals, often in for local councils in the UK, for government organisations and life can be a bit serious. So Helen has come up with this unique style. She is absolutely adorable in making these mini comics and so saying, you know, what is in your kit bag? What do you need for being a comics professional? Tell me. And when you see that in your feed, you know, immediately it's from Helen. She's found a way to really stand out and to engage with people in a way they really love. So if you want to get some inspiration, definitely check out Helen on LinkedIn. She does an amazing job. Conrad here on the left hand side with his love, I mean, come on, who doesn't love a small dog, right? And Conrad normally likes to talk about data and marketing theories, but I challenged him a little bit. And here this post was really, really lovely because it was a little bit behind the scenes. He's got a new dog and he chills out of them. And then the post on the right hand side by Alison, I thought this was really intriguing. Now, Alison is a print and brand specialist. When I spoke to her, she knew she was going to be in this talk. She said she found LinkedIn quite stuffy, a corporate place, she didn't know what to say. But then she realized by being active on LinkedIn, she could actually build connection with the kind of people who could lead her to new clients. When she's on LinkedIn now, she posts advice for social media managers, for web agency owners, for copywriters, because all of these people have networks of potential clients themselves. themselves. And I thought this post is such fun. So she basically went on holiday and she saw all these transporters. It was beautiful wrapping, but there was one thing missing. And maybe tell us in the comments if you can see it. Basically, there are like no contact details. There are basically no contact details. So how does this business hope to get additional bookings? But what a fun post, really easy and engaging. So well done, Alison. Do more of it. We love it. Now, we said earlier we wanted to convert as well. So some of our posts, I invite you that they push you offers, maybe if you have a timely offer, or you encourage them to download a freebie or hand raise a lead magnet, and a couple of examples of how people do this. Kimberly, I thought it was such a clever post. Here in this post, she directly addresses a niche of contractors and she's promoting budget websites for contractors. Why I love that is it's so succinct. If you need a fast turnaround, if you want a professional design, if you want a worry-free service, why not visit our website to learn more?" It's such a beautifully designed post and it wouldn't have taken her that long. It's really great way of every now and then have a sales message for exactly the service you are promoting at that moment. Well done, Kimberly. Here's a dear friend of mine, Lee Matthew Jackson. He runs agency events in the UK, web agency events. And come on, how often do you see people on the stage dancing at an event, right? So when he posted that on LinkedIn, he had like only one ticket left and it really sort of caused some excitement. So great technique there, having a sense of urgency, having a really sort of eye-catching image. And yes, I'm one of the people dancing on the stage supporting another speaker. So Lee, thank you very much for doing that great LinkedIn post there. Okay, the next area is actually, you know your audience, you know what they're struggling with. So how can you create a poll on LinkedIn giving people some easy options to let them tell you what their worries and concerns are or their preferences? And someone who does this super, super, super well is Amanda Webb. And Chris, you might have met Amanda as well in Newcastle. She was there in Newcastle as well. And I know she absolutely adored your talk. Amanda, in the summer, was planning an online training program. It was to do with a switch over from Google Analytics. So she created this post. And now look at this question. Do you take courses and online programs during the summer holidays? And she had over 30 people reacting to this. and she could now follow up with everyone individually, asking them what kind of courses they're looking for, what do they enjoy in the course, the duration thereafter. Amanda actually regularly does this and it's a really good business driver for her. Perhaps you could turn it into a poll about, is your brand currently out of date? Have you seen your competitors doing something better? whatever might drive your potential customers to look out for a talented designer like yourself. So polls are a really great way of doing it. And it's great for engagement because it doesn't take much commitment for people to answer. So we've given you different post types, sharing your stories, talking about your clients, doing posts which convert, doing posts which uphold. I want to show you now how you can really explode your results on LinkedIn. So let's do this. Now, the first thing you need to bear in mind, how easily are you found? Is your LinkedIn profile optimized? A LinkedIn profile homepage is a bit like your best sales page or a physical shop window page. So are you displaying all the best things which will attract your kind of people? So consider that and try to always optimize that. Now, someone who's done this really, really well, and I've come across the lovely Angela, because she's actually one of your alumni. And I contacted her and I said, "Do you know what, Angela? I absolutely love what you do with your LinkedIn profile. I think it's so on the money. Angela has this amazing image, you know, launch your knockout brand in just one day, seriously." And it's kind of really stands out, it grabs your attention, right? And you probably also noticed how she has a really cool headline, you know, knockout brands that get you noticed, launched in a day. And it's really bold and it really supports our branding. So well done, Angela. And I'm really, really happy you allowed me to feature this. Now, Angela, when she started using LinkedIn, she literally sent you this today overnight. You know, she really thought, oh, my God, I don't know what to say. I'm sounding like everyone else and I want to be taken seriously. By sounding like everyone else, she didn't do herself any favors, but she now loves the platform. She loves learning from others, smart people she finds there, and she's inspired to share her stories and her expertise in a unique voice. I wanted to give you courage because this is Angela saying, "Look, in the beginning, I really froze and I buttoned up and I didn't know what to say, but But I allowed myself to show my true personality, which is a really great way of not blending in, of becoming that orange transporter I showed you at the beginning of standing out in a good way. And just how do you stand out? How do you get seen? Well, your content you're posting needs to be as juicy as bees to honey, by which I mean really, really irresistible. So how do you get there? Angela does this really, really well. She works with business owners who want to get a business growth. And here in this post, she shares her own story and some of the struggles she has experienced growing her agency. Things she learned like listen to your guard, pushing yourself past your comfort zone, finding what lights you up. And she posted this beautiful image to go with it because we know on LinkedIn, if you have an image, you're twice as likely to get comments. So well done, Angela, really beautiful story post, talking about the struggles of your audience and really making yourself relatable. Because if I'm looking out for a designer, I might be worried, will they be charging too much? Will they like my first design? What are their processes like? Will they be on time? And by being so approachable and really showing how you understand your audience, top notch. So Angela, well done. And thank you for letting me share this. Understanding your audience. This is a term, like Chris, we throw around all the time. But what particular do you need to know? And I recommend that you really understand what keeps them awake at night. What are their worries? What are their aspirations? If company owners hire you, they probably have limited budgets, or they've seen a competitor who's doing really well, or they want to feel more professional, really, really level up. So talk to these various because like the likelihood is that someone has perhaps maybe had even a negative experience in the past with another designer. So it's hard for people to know who to trust. You know, what if as a prospective client, I don't like the concepts you're presenting, or maybe I'm so busy in my own world that I won't have enough time to share feedback, or I don't know whether my feedback will be any good. Or maybe you're just too expensive and you don't have a budget. So if you know these are the kind of things, the kind of objections people have to potentially working with you and you learn these through really listening carefully, you can use them and you can address them in your content on LinkedIn. Then the other thing you want to know is why now? What triggers them now to look for a design? I was really fortunate. I reached out to one of my good contacts actually, Jennifer Borns, the CMO of Motivations AI. She's a top-notch designer and she really is a great content marketer and she helped me with this. So thank you, Jennifer. You know, sometimes it could be that you don't have enough clients or you don't have enough leads. Maybe you even feel embarrassed about your branding, about your website, about your social media appearance, or you want to look better than your competitors, or you really want to level up. You know, you know what you offer is amazing, but you don't feel people really get what you're offering. And this is why people will think of hiring a designer. Now, I know you will know your audience better and there are lots and lots of more. but really think about what could be the objections and how can I address those in my content? Because what you want to give on LinkedIn is that reassurance and that peace of mind. And if you share stories, for example, where you worked on a project with a client and maybe you've overcome some of these things, maybe we didn't have enough time or the design brief has changed midway through a project, we all know these projects. It reassures people that you've had that experience and you know how to deal with that. It gives them confidence in considering you as a potential supplier to put you onto that brilliant shortlist when it's time for them to look for a designer. I've given you some hints on how you know your audience. The best thing is always is to pick up the phone and ask them and even your current clients, what were you worried about when you purchased from me? What were some of the things you searched for on LinkedIn and use that in your content. But I want to give you some more tips here on how to thrive on LinkedIn. And Chris has already elaborated on some of them, which is amazing. It's a sociable platform, right? So you've got to be sociable. And I cannot imagine many sectors when it's not appropriate to be sociable. So see it as that social media platform. People want to have some fun. They want to be You want to connect with new people, people you are interested in, but also people's networks you're really interested in. You want to comment, Chris said that earlier. Commenting really is a superpower to really place meaningful comments which go beyond three or five words and really add some value. You want to post regularly, have a variety of posts, review how you're doing, learn, Also use LinkedIn to learn all the latest features because since Microsoft has taken them over all these years ago, they're constantly turning up new features and it's lovely to get involved with them and make the most of them. In essence, if you want to get noticed by the right people, the people who give you joy and you would love to work with, be more you, try and stand out. And I wanted to give you a couple of examples. So this is Tom, Tom Amos from Designvox, one of my original wonder stars. And they've also created my website and my brand, which I absolutely love. And I can tell you, Tom was really, really LinkedIn resistant. So what we did, we updated his profile and he applied some LinkedIn hacks. And actually, you know, he got a new project, which was 15 times worth the kind of projects he normally gets. Wow. It's good, isn't it? It actually developed into a niche for his business, which he absolutely adores. This was LinkedIn to him. To this day, he uses it for referrals. We're actually catching up soon because he wants to be a bit more active again on LinkedIn with his personal brands. But well done, Tom. What a beautiful picture of his team, right? It's nothing fancy. We went out to a team lunch. I think we all have these moments in our working life, I call it behind the scenes content, that we could show off what we do. It doesn't have to be fancy. Looking at different design drafts, where do you get your inspiration from? How do you make decisions? What does your office look like? Obviously, tidy it up a little bit. But there's simple things you can do to show up for your audience in a way which reflects your personality and what you are about. Because people want to get to know people on LinkedIn. You know, just talking about values, John, I've got to mention John because Chris, John and his team are so exciting that you and I are getting to talk because they completely follow you and they love your advice. And John was the reason why I reached out to you while I was in Newcastle because I was brave on his behalf because I wanted to send a picture. Oh my God. You know, I say all these because I know I don't come across as an introvert or shy, but I am as well sometimes. So I have John a lot to thank for and he's an amazing client. And you know what I love about John is he has packed his LinkedIn profile with personality. He's shown a picture of his adorable family. He talks about how he used to be into hockey and he still watches us and he says who his favorite team is. So all of the typical things you might not associate with a boring or dry corporate kind of presence on LinkedIn. But you know, John likes to work with people who are local businesses. So for him, sharing his personality and his family values is really, really important and it's working well. So I hope that encourages you to give it a go and to just open up a bit more what you are about as a person. And finally, I showed you Conrad earlier, He's really experimenting on LinkedIn and having fun with it. You can see this from the range of images. For him, the purpose of stepping up on LinkedIn was to get more leads and to get more high-quality leads. He's doing amazingly and he's really embracing the platform. We're having lots of fun. The next area we're really working on is more of a story sharing. At the moment, it's quite tech and very thought-provoking, but we want to get some more story sharing in. Well done, Conrad. So if Conrad can have fun, we can all have a bit more fun and just experimenting and enjoy that learning curve. So, you guys ready to thrive on LinkedIn? I think let's go. Just one more goodie. I promised you a goodie. I would invite you guys to come and download a small booklet with over 30 ideas, particularly for agency owners. Content ideas which will help you to engage, which will help you to convert, which will help you tell your stories. So, come to our website. This is the link I would love for you to get this freebie. And thank you so much, Chris. This is me. I clearly need to get a new Photoshop done, which I'm doing tomorrow with my curly hair. But I would love for people to reach out, to connect on LinkedIn. This is where I hang out. So yes, Dankeschön, which is in German and means thank you. Okay, let's talk a little bit. Now, you shared earlier the story about how you got your foray into sales by helping your parents' business out by selling sunglasses, but also to make some pocket money, I think. And then over the last 20 years, you've done this professionally as a coach and someone to teach other people how to grow in the digital space. Do you exclusively work with creative agencies and entrepreneurs, or do you work with all types of entrepreneurs? Do you know, great question. I find it so important to niche down in your content, because if you are there for everyone, you don't get noticed. And I early on decided I'm so passionate about agency. So all my content, all my marketing is focused on that. But now by now, I'm really, really lucky, you know, I work with entrepreneurs in the online space. So yes, for me it's more about what do I need? Can I help? Will we have fun working together? But yeah, predominantly it is in the agency space, but just to keep things interesting, right? It's really cool to work with different sectors. As I mentioned just earlier, speaker, and award winning speaker and I also work with a lady who runs her own membership and it's nice to face these different marketing challenges. So yes, I do work with other people as well. It's just in my content and marketing I'm really focused on agencies because I want to help them and my content is all about helping agencies. Wonderful. If people want to find out more about you and they want to dig a little bit deeper or maybe on social, where's the best place for them to find out about you? The best place to connect with me is on LinkedIn, Nicole Oswald, and on my website, wonderstars.com. Excellent. Thank you very much for sharing that presentation. I think you gave people a masterclass on what they need to do on LinkedIn. So if you've been struggling, if you've been on the fence, I want to say this one last little bit, which is I heard a stat. and unless that has changed, I think it's true, that less than 1% of people on LinkedIn actually ever create any piece of content, anything. So there's a lot of people that are on there. The competition is relatively low. And I have to tell you, I mean, if I were looking for a job, this would be an amazing place. Or even if I were looking for clients, because when I look at the analytics, as to who's engaging with my posts. Many of them are founders, are in the C-suite, like CEO, CMO, CRO, something like that with the C, from some of the most successful and valuable brands and companies in the world. We're talking about the Fortune 100. So one day, if it ever should happen, should Fortune no longer favor me and I have to go crawling back to the corporate world and get a job, I know I'll be on LinkedIn and there'll be many people there that I can connect with that'll hopefully open doors for me. And I just want to maintain those relationships. The last thing I want to say is this, and I think some marketers get this all wrong, especially as a creative person, you sometimes slip into a space where you feel really desperate and you need work and you need opportunities. The worst possible thing that you can do is not to listen to what Nicole is saying. Where you slip into the DMs and you start pitching and selling right away. It's a massive turn off, massive turn off. So what you want to do is you want to build a relationship that's coming from a genuine place of you exchanging value with someone else. where you're able to build rapport and you engage naturally in a way that's beneficial to the person that you're talking about, they will ask you, what do you have to sell? Now, I've been speaking at different conferences and what's really cool is if I do my job well, which is to deliver massive amounts of value, then people naturally come up to me and start asking me hey what else you do what programs are you are you running can i get coaching from you or can you speak at this other event and that's really what i'm there to do i'm there to give value and then the opportunities materialize do you have any other thoughts on that nicole completely give value give it freely and opportunities arise i had all my best business opportunities via linkedin so i completely buy into listening to people commenting and gating and and just the global nature of it is so amazing. You could be working with people anywhere and it feels like you're at a networking event. So, no, it's amazing. Just be yourself. You know, don't be all corporate and stuff. We don't want that. We're people. It's okay to show your flaws. You know, particularly since the global pandemic, we work from home. Everyone now works in hybrid environments. It doesn't always have to be perfect. Show up as yourself. We are humans. And yeah, be supportive of other people as well. You know, if you have few creators in your space, there's always enough cake to go around, interact with them, support each other. That's a social kind of behavior, right? Let's not forget we're human people first. So yeah, no, embrace LinkedIn. I'm obviously a fan. Okay, one last little question. Where are you speaking next? Maybe I'll run into you at the next speaking engagement. Oh, I have to keep a wraps on it yet. Oh, you can't announce? I'm really hoping Brighton SEO in April because you know Brighton is such a beautiful city and the SEO agencies are amazing. But like everyone else I'm applying to, they have a really fair process. So yeah, I'm keeping my fingers crossed. But Chris, I hope you're in the UK again soon. So I'll come up anywhere where you are. Well, the number one place I visit the most in Europe is London. So if you're around, I'm sure we have an opportunity to get together. That would be adorable. You know, I live in London, so yeah, let me know. I will drop anything. Okay, and you won't be shy next time, right? No, no, I'll just remember how approachable you are. I have to say, I didn't fully believe your answer there because you kind of looked away for a second. I'm still a bit shy. I guess. And that's okay. I'm shy too. So I need someone less shy than me so that we can actually have a real conversation. I hope, like many things, things begin on social where people get to know you first at a distance. And then when the opportunity happens and when you share physical space together, there's an opportunity to build a greater bond or connection at least at the minimum. And then if you keep not being a weirdo, maybe things get better and we'll eventually feel like, "Hey, old friend, how you doing today?" And we'll see each other in the streets and I'll say, "Hey, there she is. She's walking right there." - I need to come over to California. That will work. - Well, I can promise you this. The weather is a little bit better than where you're at. Just a little bit. - And the food and the seaside, all of it. I love it. I absolutely adore it. - Okay, maybe I'll see you stateside then. - Definitely. It's a promise. - All right. Thanks so much, Nicole. I'm going to keep you to that promise. My name is Nicole Asporn and you are listening to The Future. Thanks for joining us. If you haven't already, subscribe to our show on your favorite podcasting app and get a new insightful episode from us every week. The Future Podcast is hosted by Chris Doe and produced by me, Stuart Schuster. Thank you to Anthony Barrow for editing and mixing this episode and thank you to Adam Sanborn for our intro music. If you enjoyed this episode, then do us a favor by reviewing and rating our show on Apple Podcasts. It will help us grow the show and make future episodes that much better. Have a question for Chris or me? Head over to thefuture.com slash heychris and ask away. We read every submission and we just might answer yours in a later episode. If you'd like to support the show and invest in yourself while you're at it, visit thefuture.com. You'll find video courses, digital products, and a bunch of helpful resources about design and creative business. Thanks again for listening, and we'll see you next time. But I'll tell you a little secret. It doesn't have to be. Let me point something out. You're listening to a podcast right now, and it's great. You love the host. You seek it out and download it. You listen to it while driving, working out, cooking, even going to the bathroom. Podcasts are a pretty close companion. And this is a podcast ad. Did I get your attention? You can reach great listeners like yourself with podcast advertising from Libsyn Ads. Choose from hundreds of top podcasts offering host endorsements or run a pre-produced ad like this one across thousands of shows to reach your target audience in their favorite podcasts with Libsyn Ads. Go to LibsynAds.com. That's L-I-B-S-Y-N ads.com today.

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