Why You're Not Getting Clients on LinkedIn

I heard a stat that less than one percent of people are 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 completely good value give it freely and opportunities arise I had a lot of best business opportunities by LinkedIn I can't believe you're selected for the LinkedIn accelerator program because so many people applied you're surely 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 [Music] 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 automicon and is 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 um 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 gonna go and one of those things that I like to do is I like to go for a walk and I run into somebody's like hey there's a speaker's party are you going to that like speakers 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 the story about how I met Nicole and so many other wonderful people at atomicon so Nicole Welcome to the show welcome I'm super excited because thank you so much for having me we 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 like he's like I'm Nicole oscon I'm a marketing coach on digital agency anus 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 my parents lost both of my parents lost their jobs and suddenly we had to make ends meet and the thing they did they set themselves up as Market Traders now you might think Chris um Chris Nicole why are you saying the story Nicole why are you saying with story and it is because actually they solved all the kind of things Eastern Germans couldn't buy for years and every weekends I was still a teenager I put me in charge of a sunglasses section so suddenly there was a really awkward side 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 with tours within their battered 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've clicked on really early with sort of 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 you know we're super talented today they do the most amazing creative designs and marketing campaigns but sometimes they sort of hit that wall maybe it's confidence or I don't know what to say to promote themselves and I love electable ladders and to really help them push through it so that's what I do with my company Wonder Stars I'm super excited to be here because 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 of the German I have friends that are British and you sound like somewhere in between it's wonderful I I have to ask this question before dive into today's topic which we'll get into one second which is what did you learn as a teenager 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 question um because I'm sure you know when you start walking around the market so you don't want to be bothered by all the Traders trying to Hard Sell and trying to better to buy from them so I knew if I looked and sounded relaxed and perhaps I I lift them in the eye even though I felt shy and I had a smile on my face and I really sort of looked at them carefully my face say because I mean 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 her budget so it's really sort of understanding what would work for them and just making it an enjoyable experience because either we want to have fun it was a weekend we're walking along with our friends uh so having that ease and interest a little bit of Banta building a report and I tell you what when you when you're teenager that easily easiest but I kind of learned you know to know what you call this is worth doing my parents were really clever but basically paying me commission so it was come on love your parents and some money is uh what you killed so you had to like make some sales otherwise you're just going to get a suntan out there exactly I want it more this was better things to do your time at the weekend when your teenage all right I'm gonna help your parents right so I'm going to ask you to do something a little awkward and unusual and every time I had the opportunity to do this I'm going to ask and if this is too weird we'll just we'll 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 like 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 to the way you talk to people back then and be like hey how are you doing are you looking for some sunglasses ah I don't know Fantastical it's really sunny day today are you enjoying it I am ah super like I spotted you looking at some of our sunglasses do you like to have a little try I mean would you would you like to um 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 wow this is definitely a good bet at Reigns not so that really really suits you how about how about we have something similar but perhaps in this stuff do you want to try it oh that look there's a mirror about as well and you can show your friends go on you want to try it on but sure okay well this one looks pretty cool oh what does this cause okay so as you can see all our sunglasses are 10 pounds 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's the day um 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 you are absolutely right I mean you can see with response by Hair Fair you're rewriting a little sign on there which should tell you how that works but you know if you 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 Rose 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 we can alternative for fun when you go into a party but if you really see this and you need to pair which you know lasts you for a long time I would definitely recommend maybe go to a high school 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 gonna cry my eyes out because I just get another pair because you know it's nothing worse right where I'm 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 can and perhaps even have the second one just in case sure okay you know what I don't have a friend I'm gonna 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 you're amazing thank you very much sir have a good date I'm too young for you to call me sir who are you calling sir and Tony you would say hair you're right I wouldn't maybe it was just you putting me on this spot slightly all right well done okay a couple of things I want to break down uh here's what I get from being a prospective buyer of sunglasses right you you pulled me in in a very gentle way it wasn't a hard sell you said I noticed you're 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 gauges 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 uh not 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 uh any anything else you want to add to that no absolutely and you know it's kind of um you can't make up but something is amazing quality if you're selling it at a market store and as you see someone needs something of a higher quality verse Opticians so no that was quite a challenging exercise Chris was it are you all sweaty right now I'm just a little bit but in a good way actually yeah you know I'm used to paying for sunglasses I'm not sunglasses glasses that range from anywhere between 400 to 800 a pair so I'm like when you say 10 pounds I'm like that's like 20 bucks that's not much at all so okay I get it 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've 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 I have prepared a little presentation so I'm going to share it now it's just because it's such a visual platform I thought it works really really well if I can share some examples because people often learn best when seeing some examples now at Chris just checking in with you can you see the slide deck I can see it there we go it's full screen now yes amazing house yeah for everyone in the audience I'm crossing my fingers 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 I know about you nope this is one of my favorite all-time marketing codes marketing is a contest for people's attention and it's by Seth Godin and everything you see in this slide is really underlined by this principle that it's a busy world out there it's a creative business owners lots of competitions 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 my agency website they're kind of sound and look exactly like everyone else and it kind of means you blending in blending it in some scenarios um yeah I've got a nine year old so I had I had to bring a picture of a clownfish and some scenarios that kind of keeps you safe right the clownfish doesn't be caught up by the big fish or if you see turns you on my hand you don't want to get noticed and you're really close to your prey however when you are creative business owners 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 first 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 and I've chosen this orange transporter is completely against my brand colors apologies but I thought I did such a beautiful job do you know I have his lovely orange wrapping it shows exactly what we offer it's a constructing company and I'm walking along and I'm rain more entice to contact them and ask them for a quote because it shouts quality it shouts they really made an effort so we're going to show you today hopefully all the things you need to do on LinkedIn to be that beautiful orange transporter which actually does exist so hopefully we're getting lots of calls now worldwide all right so quickly what we do today how can you get ready for Linked In success maybe also challenging some of your LinkedIn objectives and some of you missed you hold about LinkedIn uh we're going to share some real life examples to inspire you things you can copy or some really great posts from Chris because you know we love Chris's content for our design community and everyone else wanted to grow their business it's got to be some free resources because I wanted to have some additional ideas you can easily Implement and run in the last class so you've got to stay with us you've got to stay with us because Chris always asks all those questions but I will also going to show you how to thrive on LinkedIn and how it all sounds great thank you fantastic thank you very much all right very quickly a little bit about me um I am so delighted to work with all these Creative hsc's Design agencies web agencies across the Glo I actually started my career 21 years ago working at the financial times and I was always hard 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 there became New York's fastest growing paid Media Tech company so throughout all my marketing time I've obviously felt drawn to working with agencies and actually you see who picked a view of my family and my close family my husband my child my mum and we're 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 won the stars for self-flexibility but enough about me I really want to offer you lots of value I've chosen this picture of a sentiment because when I start talking about LinkedIn uh to business owners creative business owners agency owners Mrs some have a face I'm getting her because with lots of things perhaps you've tried LinkedIn before and it hasn't worked uh or if you feel it's really stuffy really cool bread and I know the biggest thing is probably about you're going to say it's funny and I agree with you it can be spam you but what I like to say and point out you know I showed you here on repeater on the left hand side it's a really spammy looking email and I'm sorry if you can't read it but the Essences and our email inbox we get so many emails which don't make sense but I haven't taken time to get you to know us it's totally irrelevant and yes we get the same on LinkedIn but as long as you not part of response Society that's all that matters um you know we're still 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 unlink them it's a little bit like taking them dating for us do you know you want to get to know them you want to ask them great questions and do 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 but 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 atomic number pre-party I think I asked him about how he's enjoying the Norman fruit because it was like an easy topic and I know when you're traveling you know food and getting to know Ricardo is really really important so you give it time and you ask some questions and you listen so bears in mind because in this way you won't be spamming 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 took eyes so all I want to say give it another opportunity do 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 goofy platform will never 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 can I say this before you continue go on 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 do you know it's so funny when I applied I didn't even knew I was also a ground to support the creators I just thought well 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 no I was absolutely delighted and it was hard work battery light lights and lots of opportunities and it really made me break down some of these objectives 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 you want to do every everything you post ask yourself do you know am I entertaining am I in dating 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 honor these reasons why we are on social media um so biggest thing and Chris knew that I was going to highlight this first I was asking his Commission 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 you know one gentlemen George Lucas the creator of Star Wars and Indiana Jones I mean he's just a master of Storytelling isn't he I mean I'm so 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 I talk about you more so when you show up ask yourself and show some of her processes how you make your work happening or what you are about that really connects with people and we must of doing this is our very own quiz Chris I absolutely adored this post because not Chris said and he he told you the story he said the story at the beginning of of us chatting do you know how he was asked at such last minute to be the keynote speaker at the atomicing event in Newcastle and he said yes he's really Brave right he said yes um his plan was to finish his slides either on the plane that didn't work I went in my hotel that didn't work so we ended up really finalizing his messaging in his slide deck in the afternoon of the event and to be okay Crystal's 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 inside and suddenly Chris realized that the tax 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 then it bespoke me for his event because I also 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 himself if someone is asking you to to give her 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 and thank you Nicole for sharing that and you did a great job of retelling the story and the takeaway that's wonderful for me here because part of communication is I'm the transmitter you're the receiver and when the receiver sends back the feedback that I know the communication Loop has been closed you got the essence of the story about what I wanted you to feel and want you to think and this is what I do this is and this was unprompted everybody it's not like I I uh bribe Nicole to tell their story she said I'm gonna pick something I'm like do what you want I'm gonna trust you and so here we are no it's an amazing story and if you think about it and Chris you are positioning yourself to other events organizers in Europe acrossberg live and do not just throwing up hey I'm the best I mean we know you are amazing right but you do it in such a humble humble and endearing way and you're bringing the audience yet beautifully done then everyone I had to get this picture of Chris and ion though because I want you to see how nervous that actually was even though he's like the most approachable guy but it's Crystal are you nervous you don't look nervous to me oh I am Chris are you really would it be possible if we took a picture tomorrow and she's like come on Nicole let's do it now so thank you Mama I really appreciate that okay so back to stories and a little bit more on mad I just wanted to briefly introduce to someone else in my network who I actually met at the LinkedIn Creator program now this is Adi Frankie larigo she is not in this sector of being a creative business but what she does she basically helps adoption of foster panels in the UK to be more diverse so I love her course and I'm with great support of her that's what I wanted to highlight and look at this post a little bit different style from what Crystal 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 experience as a social worker a sense of adventure she was a change maker and now she's got her own agency and a couple of things I wanted to highlight she does a really clever thing on at the end of her post she brings in the audience she brings an ass she makes it easy for us to comment she basically said no over to you what's made to who you are today share a couple of things in the comments below Alpha Earth's ingenious because you know this is quite a deep pose but she makes it actually really easy for us to share something positive and you can see by the stance I don't know if you can recognize them it's like 30 comments 150 reactions so now she can interact with all these people and and really tempting her message and when I spoke to Ali about this I I really love your work I want to mention this in Chris's presentation if I may and she said to Luis who you are is who you bring to a job and I think that's so important across any sector because people do buy from people and they want to get to know you so I hope this inspires you and ADI if you're watching this great job carry on okay so first type of post we now had stories and then the next set of stories or posts is actually talking about your clients so you probably thinking social proof testimonials case studies showing the transformation and all of these things are true uh what you want to achieve is be off missing out so you want other people in your network to see overall um John is doing an amazing job I want to work with John uh you want to keep top of mind with your existing clients because how nice is it for them to be tacked in a LinkedIn house and then to be able to comment on it it's 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'll also show your expertise in a non-boring way and we impact your worker set because I would imagine often with design work it's 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 client so just some examples um some of my clients um so I've left inside here Travis you know he flew over 7 200 kilometers from Vancouver in the US to London to join us at an event and I was so excited to host them here so I posted about this on LinkedIn um on in the middle there's Jess and I she's a speaker 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 um you know Elizabeth 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 says you and story you saying as showing how you work with your clients so I hope that really encourages you to to give that more of a go ha and see it just another really talented designer from the U.S kubali I love the way how in this superpowers she celebrates how important it is to have a really good brand and she has I 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 of this let's get in touch with her I think it's an amazing um sales post an amazing post to show of her client work so really simple style and it's 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 and two just a totally different tag Conrad uh he actually specializes one of my brothers specialized in vacation rental marketing very data driven guy really really interesting so he shared some statistics and he told the story of how he was working with a client and the ranch so sure yet if it was going to work and now he just said a picture of their results which shows actually yeah it's green so this was good and all these people who commented you know 11 people so 28 people who celebrate at the post are lighted he can now reach out and engage and it's a quite natural kind of conversation do you remember how I sat at the beginning get to know people first build that relationship before you go in with a proposal so the source inverter comes now and when you see someone interacting with you on one of these close 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 and it's very much what said earlier about that Twitter post you know the sense conversation can go either way but it's about listening and getting to know that person and having it back and forth and like a natural human conversation so great example here to follow right I believe it's now a next one of course I know you are talented and you have a lot of expertise and you know what Luton is for platform to to show off um because just to give you some stats it's now 20 years old uh 930 million members in over 20 countries 63 million companies are listed and four out of five members so that was a little bit high pitched four out of five members actually drop gift business decision so it's the platform to be right Chris it really is right there's so much you can achieve organically and our post ideas today will really enable people to to to Really take advantage of it so how do you show your expertise how to refer to a master of this I absolutely clearly fangirl absolutely adore your document paste so what I mean by that these sliding images which take really poignant points your challenges your audience's faces and give them a you give them a solution and you're doing such an impactful way it's kind of a dick to clicking through right because you want to know what's next you know um and you can see your audience really last time you get amazing amount of comments and some really engaging conversation and because you know 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 of the platforms so on LinkedIn you make time to reply to people and you know people really respect that and everyone who's posting anything if you get a comment please make time to regular go on the platform and acknowledge that because you know your audience is giving you time and Chris you do that so well I really struggled with Rich post to to pick um all really really cool and you do these kind of Palace Quest thank you for making our LinkedIn experience better thank you can I say something about listen 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 just 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 you 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 on LinkedIn commenting is really your superpower because as he said we reached off a post off the offer but also your own reads increases and I like to encourage people to treat every common vermic as a mini prize 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 at your own take and even at an easy question but just commenting and for we all free for you to go in and being active you know I think sometimes people say I do it within an hour of posting and then again within a day but make it work around your diary not expecting anyone to be on social all the time that's actually not good lifestyle but yet the power of commenting absolutely thank you Chris no let me test on this a little bit I think both of you you and I we talked a little bit about entertaining and engaging and this is why people aren't on social right is to be sociable to learn something new and you know 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 um absolutely spot on in terms of a platform but what can you do with your own posts just some examples here um and so I often work with agency owners who are family people themselves so every now and then I post a surprising picture with my family and me and my husband and my boy here and in the France folks I actually take a little bit of the Mickey out of my husband in a good way I basically say after eight years of being in business I realized that I Love My Hair Skin dearly but he's not the best person for taking business advice because you know he's an electrical engineer so he really doesn't get it so it's good to work with a business code and look at all the people that really resonated you know 30 Commons lots of people liking it I couldn't engage with that now on the right hand side um dear friend of mine uh Helen Reynolds I will be delivering a marketing a LinkedIn marketing class for her as well and reorter and she has got this really unique style so she works with a community of comfort Communications professionals often um for local councils in the UK for for government organizations and life can be a bit serious so Helen has come up with his Unique Style she is absolutely adorable and in making these mini comics and so saying you know what is your in your kit back what do you need for being a comps Professor or another tell me and when you see that in your face in your feed and when you see that in your feet you know immediately it's from Helen she's found a way to really stand out and and to engage with people in a way they really love so if you want to get something to write then definitely check out Helen on LinkedIn she does an amazing job uh congrats here on the left hand side because I mean come on who doesn't who doesn't love a small dot right and coconut normally likes to talk about data and and marketing theories but I challenge them a little bit and he at 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 pace on the right hand side by Alison I thought this was really intriguing Now Alison is a print and brand specialist and when I speak to her she knew she was going to be in this talk she said she found LinkedIn quite stuffy uh a corporate place she didn't know what to say and 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 so when she's on LinkedIn now she posts advice for social media managers for web agency owners or copywriters because all of these people have networks of potential clients themselves and I thought this poster such fun so she basically read a holiday and she saw all these Transporters of this beautiful rapping but there was one thing missing and maybe tell us in the comments if you can see it basically where like no contact details where basically no contact details so how does this business hope to get additional bookings but what a fun post really easy and engaging so so well done Alison do more of it we love it no we said earlier we wanted to convert as well so some of our posts I invite you that they pushy offers maybe if you have a timely offer or you encourage them to download a freebie or hand raise Elite magnet and a couple of examples of how people do this Kimberly I thought it was such a clever prize so here in this post she directly addresses a niche of contractors and she's promoting budget websites for contractors and why I loved it is it's so succinct right you know if you need a fast turnaround if you want a professional design if you want a very free service uh why not visit our website to learn more and it's such a beautifully designed post and it wouldn't have taken you that long it's a really great way of every known brand have a sales message for exactly the service you are promoting at that moment so well done Kimberly um here just um a dear friend of mine Lee Matthew Jackson he runs agency events invis UK rep agency events and come on how often do you see people on the stage dancing at an event right so ready posted that on LinkedIn it had like only one ticket left and it really sort of caused some excitement so a great technique there having a sense of urgency having and really sort of eye-catching image and yes I'm one of the people's bouncing on the stage supporting another speaker so Lee thank you very much for doing that at a great link to post there okay the next area is actually you know your audience you know what we're struggling with so how couldn't you create a poll on LinkedIn giving people some easy options to let them tell you what memories and concerns are or their preferences and someone who does is super super super well is Amanda web and uh Chris you might have met Amanda as well in Newcastle Super Fan Newcastle as well and I know she absolutely adored your top uh Amanda in the summer was planning a online training program it was to do we were switched over from Google analytics so she created this post and I look at this question did 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 into Italy asking them what kind of courses they're looking for or do they enjoy in a course the duration thereafter and Amanda actually regulars and it's a really good business driver for her so perhaps you could turn it into a poll about you know it's your brand currently out of date have you seen your competitors doing something better whatever might drive you a 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 give you different post types um sharing your stories talking about your clients doing posts which convert doing pay switch up holes I now want to show you how you can even 10x your results 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 links which will attract your kind of people so consider that um and try to always optimize that now someone who's done this really really well and I've come across with lovely Angela because she's actually one of you alumni and um 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 much 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've probably also noticed how she has a really cool headline you know knockout brands that get you noticed launched and day and it's really bold and it really supports her branding so so well done Angela and I'm really really happy you allowed me to feed service now Angela when she started using LinkedIn she literally sent us today overnight you know she really thought oh my God I don't know what to say um I'm sounding like everyone else and I want to be taken seriously um and by sounding like everyone actually didn't do herself any favors but she now loves her platform she loves learning from Abbas smart people she finds there and she's inspired to share her stories and her expertise and a unique voice so I wanted to give you courage because this is Angela saying look in the beginning I really froze and I buttered up and I didn't know what to say but I knocked myself to to show my true personality which is a really great way of not blending in of becoming that orange chance quarter I showed you at the beginning of standing out in a good way and um just um how do you send out how did you get seen what your content you're posting needs to be as juicy as Beast to Honey by which I mean really really irresistible so how do you get there and there's a desk is really really well she works with business owners who want to get a business grow and here in this house she shares her own story and some of the struggles she has experienced growing her agency do you know things to learn like listen to your guard pushing yourself past your comfort zone finding what lights you are and she posts at 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 you know if I'm looking out for a designer I might be worried we're going to be chanting too much but then 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 say this um so understanding your audience you know this is a term why Chris we throw around all the time um but what particular do you need to know and I recommend that you really understand what keeps them awake at night uh what are their worries what other aspirations you know if company owners hires you they probably have limited budgets or may have seen a competitor who's doing really well or I want to feel more professional really really level up so talk to these words um because you want to talk to these various because life will actually it is that someone has maybe had a negative experience in the past with another designer um 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 to share feedback or I don't know whether my feedback will be any good or maybe you're just too expensive um 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 and you learn these through really listening carefully you can use them and you can address them in your content on LinkedIn and then the other thing you want to know is why now what triggers them now to look for a design and I was I was really fortunate I reached out to one of my good contacts actually Jennifer Barnes with CMO of my devices 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 do 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 when you're competitors um or you really want to level up you know you know what you're offering 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 lots and lots of more reasons 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've worked on a particular client and maybe you've overcome some of these things maybe I didn't have enough time or would design brief has changed Midway through a project we all know about his projects it reassures people that you've had that experience and you know how to deal with that and it gives you confidence in considering you as a potential supplier to put you onto that brilliant short list when it's time for them to look for a designer so I've given you how you know your audience you know best thing is always is to pick up a phone and ask them and even your current clients you know 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 on how to thrive on LinkedIn and and Chris is already elaborated on some of them which is amazing it's a serviceable platform ride so you've got to be sociable and I cannot imagine many sectors and it's not appropriate to be sociable so see it as that social media platform people want to have some fun where I want to be entertained you want to connect with new people people you are interested in but also people's whose you want to connect with people and people's adworks you really interested in you want to comment because of the earlier comment commenting really is a superpower to to Really Place meaningful comments which occur Beyond three or five words and really add some value you want to post regularly have a variety of posts in a review as you're doing learn and also use LinkedIn to learn all the latest features because since Microsoft is taking them over always years ago May constantly turning out new features and it's lovely to get involved with them and make the most of them so in essence if you want to get noticed by the right people the kind of people who give you Joy and you would love to work with BYU try and stand out and I want to just give you a couple of examples so this is Tom uh Tom a was from a design box one of my original stars and we've also created my website and my brand which I absolutely love and I can tell you that was really really LinkedIn resist then 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 and uh it's good in an essay developed into um Niche for this business which she absolutely adores so this was LinkedIn to heaven and to the stage you know he uses it for referrals are we actually catching up soon because he wants to be a bit more active again I think David was personal Brands but well then Tom you know what a beautiful picture of his team right it's nothing fancy where 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 and it doesn't have to be fancy looking at different design drafts where do you get your inspiration from um how do you make decisions uh what does your office look like obviously tied it up a little bit but there's several things you can do to show up for your audience in a way which reflects your personality and what you're about because people want to get to know people on LinkedIn you know just talking about values um John I've got to mention John because I Chris John and his team are so excited you and I are getting to talk because they completely follow you and they love you um advice and um John what's 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 it's in our sales because I know I don't come across as an interworld or shy but I am as well sometimes so I have done a lot of thankful and he's an amazing client and you know what I love about John is he has Cactus LinkedIn profile with personality he's sewn a picture of his adorable family he talks about how he used to be into hockey and he still watches us and he says whose favorite team is so all of the typical things you might not associate with a boring or dry corporate kind of presence on Leighton but you know John likes to work with people who who look 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 to condo earlier he's really experimenting on LinkedIn having fun with it I mean you can see us from a range of images like and for him where Packers are stepping up on LinkedIn was to get more leads them to get more high quality leads and and 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 the story sharing so at the moment it's quite Tech and very thought-prooking but we want to get some more story staring in but uh well done Conrad so if conraders 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 Legion I think let's go just one more goody I've promised you a goodie um 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 link I would love for you to to get this freebie and thank you so much Chris uh this is me actually need to get a new register done which I'm doing tomorrow with my curly hair um I would love for people to reach out to connect on LinkedIn this is where I hang out um so yes thank you sir which is in German and means thank you now for people who are listening to this um 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 if you come to my website rondastass.com forward slash the future Mrs fair you will find the resources and I would be delighted to share them with you to really inspire you to create some more getting posts on LinkedIn followers moments when you don't have any ideas excellent thank you very much Nicole okay let's let's step out of the uh presentation 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 yeah and then over the last 20 years you've you've done this professionally as a as a 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 uh a great question I find it's so important to niece 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 HSC so all my content all my marketing is focused on that but no by now I'm really really lucky you know I work with uh entrepreneurs and we online space um so so yes you know for me it's more about what what do I need can I help will we have fun working together uh but yeah predominantly it is in the HSE space but just to keep things interesting right it's really cool it's to work with different sectors as I mentioned just earlier as speaker and award-winning speaker and I also work with a lady who runs her own membership and it's nice to face with different marketing challenges so so yes I I do work with other people as well it's just through my content and marketing I'm really focused on agencies um because I want to help them and my content is all about helping agencies wonderful um 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 Oswalt and on my website winterstars.com excellent thank you very much for sharing that presentation I think you gave people a master class 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 the stat has changed I think it's true that less than one percent of people are 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 if 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 uh most successful and valuable Brands and companies in the world we're talking about the Fortune 100 so one day if it ever should happens 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 will be many people there that connect 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 and I think some marketers get this all wrong as a special 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 were you 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 will 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 good value give it freely and opportunities arise I had all my best business opportunities for LinkedIn so I come gating and and just the global nature of it is so amazing you could be working with people in your end so no it's amazing just for yourself you know don't be all corporate and stuff we don't want that we people it's okay to show your flaws um you know particularly Global pandemic um 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 the social kind of behavior right let's not forget the human people first so yeah no Embrace LinkedIn obviously a fan um okay one last little question where are you speaking next maybe I'll run into you at the next speaking engagement oh I had to keep a box on it yeah you can announce I'm really hoping I'm really hoping uh Brighton SEO in April because city of Brighton is such a beautiful city and uh we SEO agencies are amazing But like everyone else I'm replying to it I have a really fair process so yeah I'm keeping my fingers crossed but Chris I hope you can be UK again soon so I'll come up anywhere where you are well the the number one place I've visited the most in in Europe is London so if you're around I'm sure we have an opportunity to get together that would be adorable act you know I live in London so yeah let me know I'll drop anything okay you won't be shy next time right no no I'll just remember how approachable so I didn't fully believe your answer there because you kind of looked away for a second 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 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 minimum and then if you keep not being a weirdo maybe things get better and will eventually feel like hey hey old friend how you doing today and we'll see each other in the streets and I'll say hey there she is you just walk 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 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 Gonna Keep you to that promise foreign