LinkedIn isn’t a stuffy, suit-and-tie platform. It’s an engaging tool offering B2B businesses unique opportunities.
We’re diving into a topic many of you have been asking about LinkedIn.
LinkedIn is a professional and engaging social media platform that has given me more success than any other social media platform.
I will share strategies and wins I’ve experienced since using Linked in the fall of 2022. If you’re a B2B business, check out this episode.
In this podcast episode, you’ll discover how to:
✅ Make authentic connections on LinkedIn
✅ Find specific professionals using the search bar and “free” filtering tools
✅ Enhance your profile’s branding so you’re searchable
✅ Find more time to prospect using AI tools for day-to-day writing
✅ Grow your networking to increase business opportunities
✅ Secure speaking opportunities and grow your credibility
Elevate your LinkedIn experience from mere scrolling to strategic networking by applying the actionable advice from this episode.
Marketing Strategies At Your Fingertips!
A failed campaign can feel like a step backward, but imagine what you could do with the help of a certified marketing consultant.
✅ A community where questions become your keys to success
✅ Exclusive LIVE group coaching to become proficient online
✅ Networking opportunities for meaningful relationships
Join and start elevating your online marketing game!
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ABOUT MARISA SHADRICK:
🎉🎊 As an online marketing consultant, I help independent coaches execute highly effective prospecting strategies to grow a client base that builds a profit-generating business.🎉
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Marisa Shadrick [00:00:00]:
Hello. Hello. Let me ask you something. How do you feel about social media? Wow, that’s a hot topic, right? Most likely you use social media because you feel you have to to be able to grow your online business. But if you didn’t have a business, would you still use social media? That is the question. We know a lot of the algorithms have changed. Lots of things have changed in the past years. And I want to share some tips of a platform that I have found a lot of success with.
Marisa Shadrick [00:00:31]:
I really love it. I’m there every day, just about, not on the weekends, but every day, and that is LinkedIn. So many people have asked me, what are you doing on LinkedIn? How is it working for you? What are you doing? Well, in this podcast episode, I’m going to reveal all, so stay tuned. Welcome. I’m Marissa Shadrick, host of the Resilient Faith online show. I’m an online marketing coach and certified copywriter. And in this podcast, you’ll find a different perspective on the external and internal challenges we face as online entrepreneurs. Join me for some inspiration and practical tips as we create positive change in the world.
Marisa Shadrick [00:01:15]:
To continue the conversation, join me in my private resilient creator community. Go to Marissashedrick.com Community. Hello. Hello and welcome back. The title of this podcast is clients, Connections and Collaborations on LinkedIn because that is exactly what I’ve been able to do. It started about a year ago when I decided to check out LinkedIn. A lot of things have happened, and this is my explanation as to why. LinkedIn is my favorite platform.
Marisa Shadrick [00:01:50]:
Now as far as finding clients, finding people, peer to peer connections, collaboration opportunities, even speaking opportunities. Now, last year I had a lot of things that went on with social media. I was on Meta and on Instagram. And although those platforms are great, I still use them, but I’m not there intentionally every single day like I am on LinkedIn. It’s more about taking content that I’m already creating for LinkedIn and then sharing it on those other platforms. But some of the things that happened last year was having my ad account hacked, and then I was closed out of Facebook a number of times, and it was just feeling unsafe. It wasn’t as reliable as I had hoped it would continue to be. And so I decided to wean myself away from Meta and close my private groups and just focus on LinkedIn.
Marisa Shadrick [00:02:43]:
And the results have been fantastic. So I want to share with you because a lot of people have been asking me about LinkedIn, and I have a lot of notes. So I’m going to focus on my notes because there were so many notes that I had to take to be able to share as much as I could on this podcast without talking too much about LinkedIn. But the algorithms were one of the things that had me take a look at LinkedIn now, I looked at LinkedIn some years back, but it felt very suit and tie. In other words, it felt very formal. And that’s not my personality, if you know me, I’m one of those people that likes to wear jeans and Vans shoes, and I’m pretty much on the cash side. And LinkedIn just felt a little too professional, more corporate, and I think it was back then. But I think things have changed.
Marisa Shadrick [00:03:32]:
Like, everything has changed. And when I started taking a peek at LinkedIn last year, it was about this time of year, I think it was at the end of September that I was looking at LinkedIn and decided to just post every day. Literally, I was posting every day, even on Saturday and Sunday, for three months, from October to December in 2022, to just do a test. I didn’t know what I was doing. I didn’t know how I was supposed to post on LinkedIn. I didn’t know anything. I just started showing up and I started posting. And I knew people appreciate value, and that’s what I tried to do, is create value.
Marisa Shadrick [00:04:09]:
But I wasn’t even sure what all the rules were. I wasn’t sure how to post things that look like carousel posts on Instagram. How do you do that on LinkedIn? Because it’s a little different. And so there were a lot of things I didn’t know, but I wasn’t going to let that get in the way. I didn’t have time to really go deep dive and search for trainings or anything. I just started posting. And I found that within the first month, I was able to pick up a really great copywriting client. I was also able to secure an opportunity to do a workshop for a particular tool that I love, and I continue to make connections.
Marisa Shadrick [00:04:48]:
And recently, most recently, I’ve been able to secure speaking opportunities. I have one paid speaking opportunity that came up as a result of being able to connect further on LinkedIn. Also, there was another opportunity for me to speak at MGM in Las Vegas here in November. It continues to bring so many results for me, much more than the other platforms had all those years that I’ve been posting like a crazy woman, right? I think some of you can relate to that. And we felt like, pressure that we needed to be everywhere and do everything and post these things and then learn and change what we were doing, because then the platforms would change and not all of them were the same. And it was just a big hot mess. And I felt such relief when I just decided to focus on one platform. So there I was on LinkedIn and I was seeing some results and then after December of last year decided, this is going to be the platform where I show up every day and I’m going to improve my profile, I’m going to learn a little bit about LinkedIn and continue to improve just a little bit.
Marisa Shadrick [00:05:57]:
Even if it’s just 1% every month, I’m going to just improve, see what happens. And I’ve been able to grow my connections by about an average, about like one a day, which isn’t a lot, but I really haven’t been reaching out that much for connections. It was a result of people wanting to connect with me. So when I begin to double down now, as I start my second year working in LinkedIn, I’m going to be more intentional to find more connections. And I’m sure those numbers are going to get even higher. But here’s the difference. It’s not about chasing algorithms or vanity numbers. It’s about really identifying those connections that either you can serve and you can help, which could be potential clients or peer to peer or maybe business connections where you can collaborate in the future.
Marisa Shadrick [00:06:50]:
So lots of different ways that you can look at this. So it’s no longer that suit and tie type of platform. I find it that it’s refreshingly friendly and it is still professional. So you do want to provide professional content you can use like the 80 20 rule and occasionally you can put something personal in there. People always enjoy that. They’d like to know a little bit about you, but still kind of related to business. Maybe you’ve taken some time off from work, you tell a little bit about the type of work you do and you decided to take maybe a staycation or something. You can post something like that, but it’s not as much personal as you see sometimes on Facebook or on Instagram or some of the other platforms.
Marisa Shadrick [00:07:34]:
So you want to keep it professional. I look at it as if you think of the attire, business casual. I look at LinkedIn as business casual, not the stuffy suit and tie. The next thing I want to say is that adjusting to the current market now, the market has changed. And I’ve been talking about this since last year. The market has changed and consumer behavior has changed. The way we market online has changed. We have had to adapt.
Marisa Shadrick [00:08:06]:
Now the thing is, everyone has had to adapt, even the so called gurus. Literally, it’s a level playing field now because a lot of the things, and I’m a copywriter, right, a lot of the things of that direct response marketing, and the way people would just continue to just promote, promote, promote. People are tired of that. People are tired of that and they don’t really respond as well to those things. They don’t attend webinars like they used to. Things have changed. This post pandemic and recession frustrated audience, they’re savvy and they’re tired of being told what to buy. They’re smarter than that.
Marisa Shadrick [00:08:48]:
So no one likes that in your face marketing. I don’t think they ever did. I think they tolerated it. I don’t like it and a lot of people don’t like that. People want something that’s genuine and something that’s authentic. And now we have also the AI evolution that’s going on, that’s not going away. That’s just going to be part of everything that we do. It’s just one of those things that have changed everything.
Marisa Shadrick [00:09:12]:
But it can work in our favor if we know how. And I’m going to talk a little bit about that in just a second. We need to continue to humanize our communication, especially now in an AI world. It’s so important, more so now than ever before, and not just automate until we alienate ourselves from our audience. We need to have our finger on the pulse of our audience and know what it is that’s going on, how we can help them. Because things have changed. If you try to market the way you did in 2019 or even 2020, it’s not going to land. It’s just not everything has changed, and I think it’s changed for the better.
Marisa Shadrick [00:09:55]:
I think we needed kind of this jolt to bring it back to human, to human, heart to heart connection and use more empathetic marketing, really put ourselves in our audience’s shoes. What is it that they need? What is it that they want? And so the next point I want to bring up is that valuable learning from last year, it really helped me to understand not only the shifts that were going on in social media, but also avoiding the solo trap of just not working in isolation. We need a network because you and I are not enough. I have said this before, and I will continue to say it because it was such a revelation for me last year. You are enough to be loved, to be respected, to be honored, to be given opportunity. But when it comes to the online business, we are not enough. On our own, we are not. We need to become those expert contributors on established platforms.
Marisa Shadrick [00:10:53]:
We can’t go one to one and try to get one person to download our resource and one more to download our resource. We need to talk one to many and try to find those opportunities where we’re talking to many people. And that’s one of the reasons why I’m doing more public speaking. The next point I want to make is a few of the strategies to dominate LinkedIn. I don’t know if we can really dominate LinkedIn, but to use LinkedIn more efficiently and effectively. And LinkedIn isn’t for everyone now. It depends on what kind of business you have. If you’re a brick and mortar and maybe you have a salon, it would be better to perhaps be on Instagram and show the beautiful hairstyles that you do.
Marisa Shadrick [00:11:37]:
If you’re a jewelry maker and you work from home, might be good to be on Instagram or Pinterest where you can show those images if you’re b to B. Like myself, since I help coaches and I teach about branding and online marketing and strategies and I primarily work with coaches. It makes sense for me to be on LinkedIn. So I just say that that it’s not a one size fits all. But if you are B to B, I would recommend to consider LinkedIn. And when we’re thinking about connections or building a network, I feel like I’m a little bit of a disruptor because I like to break rules a lot. And I realized that just recently when I did a workshop in Tennessee. It was an intimate workshop, and that’s we say intimate when it’s small, but it was small but mighty.
Marisa Shadrick [00:12:23]:
It was wonderful. But I realized I did this workshop with I co hosted it with Dr. Sheila Cornea, and she said something about people who are disruptors who kind of like break the rules, right? And I realized I think I’m one of those people because I don’t put a lot of emphasis on the number of connections. That’s what I call vanity numbers or followers. I don’t even put a lot of emphasis on the comments and the likes because that’s not my purpose for being on that platform. My purpose is what happens in the DM when I begin to make those initial connections or people make those connections with me, or they book a call with me. That’s how I leverage LinkedIn. It’s not so much about getting those numbers so that the algorithm will favor it and the post gets shown more.
Marisa Shadrick [00:13:14]:
I mean, it doesn’t do me any good to have something viewed by 100,000 people if those 100,000 people aren’t aligned or aren’t my ideal audience. I would rather have it visible to ten people where nine of them are more my audience. And so I use LinkedIn in a strategic manner to find those connections that are very much aligned with me. Either I can serve them well or I can partner with them and collaborate with them. Or maybe they’re a podcaster. Maybe they could be on my podcast or I can be on their podcast. I view my wins with LinkedIn differently than most people do. Most people are trying to look at those numbers now.
Marisa Shadrick [00:13:57]:
Like I said, LinkedIn has grown. The numbers have grown just kind of organically without doing a whole lot because I didn’t know what I was doing last year. I’m being more strategic with it now, but you have to figure out what’s the purpose of it. And we can get so hung up on vanity numbers. And it really is about making those connections. So you do want to provide relevant and professional content as much as you can. You want to keep it short. You don’t have to make it that long.
Marisa Shadrick [00:14:25]:
It could even be 150 words if you wanted to. You don’t even have to have an image if you don’t want to. So you can mix it up and do different things. You could put a video on there if you want. A short video. I do videos usually on Thursdays, and they’re about 45 seconds. And then I just repurpose it, and I’ll put it on YouTube as a short, and then I’ll put it on other social platforms as well. So you can repurpose.
Marisa Shadrick [00:14:51]:
Since LinkedIn is my primary platform for creating content, I write the content and I’ll spend a shorter amount of time. I used to spend an hour to do this every morning, but now it’s a half an hour, and I’m going to explain why in a second because of the wonderful AI and Chat GPT, but I’m going to explain it in a second. So now it takes like, half the time. So I’ll write some content and I usually break it up. And I have categories. I’ll write about inspiration because I love writing about inspiration. I’ll write about marketing, I’ll write about branding, I’ll write about copywriting, and I’ll write about strategy. And so I have these, like, buckets.
Marisa Shadrick [00:15:27]:
And so I’ve used Chat GBT in a way to be able to create content ideas, so that when I get up in the morning, don’t have to really think about it, I just look at the idea and I just start writing. And you don’t have to make it long. It goes on LinkedIn based on the engagement. Or I have a tool that I use that helps me kind of monitor to see which ones people enjoy and which ones aren’t performing very well. And that’s called Shield App. I use that and then I’ll take a piece of content and I’ll use that for my weekly newsletter. But I’ll build it out a little bit more. I’ll put a personal story in it or something a little bit more for my folks.
Marisa Shadrick [00:16:07]:
And then those pieces, those campaigns that I send out, those newsletters, I take that and I archive that as a blog post. Now, here’s where I break the rules. Again, a blog post. If that is your main way of getting traffic to your site, then you need to focus on SEO. You need to make sure that the content is a couple thousand words, maybe 2500 words. You need to do more things to that blog post. If your purpose is to bring traffic, that’s not my purpose. Here I go, disruptor breaking rules again.
Marisa Shadrick [00:16:48]:
My purpose is to have an archive of these newsletters, so that when people come and they first sign up, if they’ve missed all of those newsletters, they have a place on my website that’s called Articles that has these little posts that they can read very quickly. And they have these tips that originally were posted on LinkedIn, and then they became a newsletter. And then from the newsletter, it became a post. And so that’s how I’m able to leverage and save time. And each time I post it, I add a little bit more to it, or I clean it up a little bit more. But it’s a great way to have one place where I start. So it’s not just posting on social to post. It’s very much a strategic plan to be able to use that content again in other places where it makes sense.
Marisa Shadrick [00:17:44]:
And if it’s really good, I can use that topic for a podcast. So, for example, this podcast, it originally was I had been a guest on someone else’s podcast. It generated a lot of activity on LinkedIn. I had a lot of DMs, I had even calls that were booked from that. And from there I realized that people were wanting to know more of how I did my process with LinkedIn, which is why I’m doing this particular podcast. So that’s my content creation process in a nutshell. And then engagement. You don’t just want to engage on posts on LinkedIn, although you can, and you should, because that’s really important.
Marisa Shadrick [00:18:33]:
But what I do is I engage on LinkedIn if there’s people that I intentionally want to connect with and get to know a little bit better. It’s all about touches. It’s all about leaning in. How close can I get to certain people, whether it’s going to be a client or peer to peer, whatever it might be. But it’s also taking advantage of other places where there’s engagement. Now, here’s where people kind of miss it. There’s a lot of webinars, there’s a lot of opportunities, like they call master classes, boot camps. There’s a lot of opportunities where you’re on Zoom and you’re there with other people.
Marisa Shadrick [00:19:14]:
Depending on the topic, those people can be potential connections. On LinkedIn, you already have something in common because you are attending something together and you’re already probably having a conversation in the chat. So an easy way to do this is just take a darn screenshot of the people that are in that group and then connect with them on LinkedIn. Now, that picture isn’t going to go anywhere. You’re not going to post it anywhere because it really drives me crazy when people take a snapshot and then they post it. And I didn’t necessarily want my picture on there, but you take the picture simply to see the names in the tiles, and then you reach out to him on LinkedIn and then you can say something intelligent, right? You can say, oh, we were in the same workshop. I had this great takeaway. And you share it and you say, I was wondering what you thought about it.
Marisa Shadrick [00:20:03]:
And what were some of the takeaways you got? You begin the conversation organically and there’s opportunities when you go to conferences or virtual events that you can do this. It’s not just commenting on LinkedIn posts, although you can do that as well, and that’s going to help as well. So there’s different ways of engagement. There’s another way that you can engage with people, too. If you read a book and you love the book, leave a review on Amazon, because people don’t do that. They just don’t. Poor authors have to beg for people to leave reviews. You leave a review, you’re going to stand out.
Marisa Shadrick [00:20:41]:
You’re on a podcast. Leave a review. Or if you’re listening to a podcast that you love, have you left a review? Leave a review. You’re going to stand out. Then find them and connect with them on LinkedIn. So they’re going to see you twice. First because they noticed that you left a review on Amazon, and then they’re going to see that same name or that same profile wanting to connect on LinkedIn. You’ve already had a first touch.
Marisa Shadrick [00:21:06]:
Now this is a second touch. So the engagement is not just, I’m going to like yours, you can like mine, I’m going to comment on yours, you can comment on mine. It’s about really showing an interest and giving first, leading with generosity. So that’s all I’m going to say about engagement. So there’s a lot more I could say about engagement, but it needs to be meaningful. And you will stand out. Because most people do not remember to say thank you. They just don’t.
Marisa Shadrick [00:21:35]:
And I’m guilty of it too. Sometimes I forget and then I remember. I make a note to make sure I can leave a review somewhere. So you can do that. So people are thinking, oh my gosh, this is going to take so much time. Okay, we are going to pay one way or another. We’re going to pay with expensive ads. We’re going to pay for a VA to do all this for us, or we’re going to pay with time.
Marisa Shadrick [00:21:57]:
And when it comes to building relationships, that’s one thing that I do not want to farm out or outsource. I want to do it myself. And so the time that you spend is going to be time well spent. And you don’t have to spend a lot of time if you even spent 10 hours a week or not 10 hours a week. What am I saying? If you even spent that’s a lot of hours. If you even spent I meant to say 4 hours. 4 hours a week. I was thinking 10%.
Marisa Shadrick [00:22:26]:
That’s 10% of your 40 40 hours week, right? If you work 40 hours, 10% of that is 4 hours. I did my math, right? And 20% is 8 hours. So how can you regain 4 hours a week when we’re so busy? Everyone says we’re so busy now. We are living now in the world of AI and Chat GBT, and there’s many other AI tools too, instead of really I think we’re past the point where we’re talking about it, hoping that it’ll go away. It’s not going away. It’s going to stay. So we can use these AI tools strategically, not to replace our writing, but to help us write faster the existing content that we write. Don’t add more because then you’re going to drive yourself crazy trying to keep up, right? Whatever it is that you do, do already have the AI help you with that and cut the time in half.
Marisa Shadrick [00:23:26]:
Or even if you can shave off like a quarter of the time, you start adding that up and you’re going to regain some hours during the week. So you can use AI for newsletters, you can use AI for blog posts, you can use AI for podcast show notes. You can use AI for those reviews on Amazon. You can use AI for the review on a podcast to help you crank it out a little faster. You can use AI for meeting summaries. You can use AI to respond to all those emails that you need to get back at. You can use AI in a lot of ways where you first start out and you write a draft and you put it in there and you say, clean this up for me, and then you’re going to have to clean it up after it, but at least there’s a little bit more structure to it. Think of AI as an apprentice who needs supervision especially.
Marisa Shadrick [00:24:14]:
You can even use the free version of Chat GBT, but you don’t have to pay for it. But you do need a good internet connection. That’s the only caveat with that. But these AI tools can help you shave off some of the time it takes you to do all these ongoing things week after week. And that time that you save, use that time for prospecting. Because business is a process of prospecting and selling. And I think to believe that we can just do direct response and get people to buy and browbeat them and just get them to make a decision. People aren’t they’re tired of being told what to buy.
Marisa Shadrick [00:24:53]:
You need to build a relationship first. Marketing is all about building trust. That’s all it is. Marketing is building trust. So it’s a longer approach, but it’s going to yield so much back, it’s going to be so much more effective because imagine the connections that you will make. Most of the income that I have made have had some origin of a relationship prior to the sales. There was some type of relationship going on that led to a connection, that led to a sale, that led to someone referring them to me. It really is interesting to look back and look at it and that’s why I was so convinced last year that this was the way to go when it comes to marketing and traffic, because traffic is the biggest problem most people face.
Marisa Shadrick [00:25:41]:
You can learn how to create funnels, you can create how to create courses, you can learn all about subscription memberships, you can learn a lot of things, but how do you get them there, right? Traffic is where everybody gets stuck and so this is something that can help with that. So if you apply the Pareto principle, the 80 20 rule, and you can find a way to reclaim 20% of your time each week, maybe you can break up that time doesn’t have to be all in a day, but maybe you can spend a couple of hours on prospecting calls. If you do 30 minutes discovery calls, you could do four of them. Or you can do maybe in a couple of hours you could do two podcast guests, right? You could either do be a guest on someone’s podcast and usually run about an hour altogether from start to finish. You could squeeze two in in a week. That’s eight of them in a month. That’s going to give you exposure. Or you can also spend that time maybe pitching to speak on a platform.
Marisa Shadrick [00:26:45]:
So there could be speaking opportunities that when you start doing that, they ask for a lot of stuff. Not only the title and the description and the headshot and your bio and everything else. You want to have that kind of already rewritten, but there’s a lot of forms to fill out and things like that. So it takes a little bit of time, but you would have the time to start doing that. And then maybe you can even have a couple of hours to do some networking and reaching out and finding those connections that you need. So being able to use these AI tools can be really helpful to be able to regain some time. Not to add more to your plate, but regain some time and then authenticity. This is the wonderful thing about relationships.
Marisa Shadrick [00:27:27]:
It’s so authentic. It’s going beyond just the transactional business and making those real connections. So how do we leverage LinkedIn tools? Now on the free LinkedIn, they have a little search bar. And if you use words like and or and not, if you’re looking for maybe some type of administrative leader, that’s not or you would put not and you would put not what that word is. So you can use titles and say, and this other title or this other title or that does not have this title. And you can do that in the filters to be able to really fine tune your searches. And then you can look at those searches and decide whether you want to connect with them or not. Also the visual branding, the banners and the profiles, your profile photo, that little circle you can go on your phone, you can upload a little video.
Marisa Shadrick [00:28:28]:
It looks like a short video, like a reel. And you can upload you can record it and you can upload it. And then it’s important to have a good description. That opportunity I had to speak, that just got secured and I’m speaking at MGM in Las Vegas because I had on my profile that I was a speaker. And so that helps as well. And make sure you leverage that link that you have on LinkedIn. There’s one link that’s very visible on your profile below your picture. You can leverage that.
Marisa Shadrick [00:28:59]:
And I use Sensepark for that one so that when they click it. They see a video where I’m talking to them. So there’s lots of things that you can do. Because I know when people reach out to me, I go to their profile first. I don’t just accept. I go to the profile and I look at their links. I go there and I look to see if they have a website, because some of them just have LinkedIn. That’s it.
Marisa Shadrick [00:29:21]:
And so that’s kind of a flag for me, that they don’t have a website. So I go to their website and I look at their website to see who they are. And I also look to see if they’re posting, if they’re actually active on LinkedIn. Because if they’re not active on LinkedIn, I’m not going to be able to have a conversation with them. I’m not going to be able to engage with them if they’re not active. So I’m not going to connect. Because it’s not just about vanity numbers. So there’s things that you can do to minimize the spamming that goes on.
Marisa Shadrick [00:29:52]:
And it will go on regardless because we’re spammed all the time in our emails and I have to go through so many hoops to make sure that I can’t even email myself, because the thing goes into spam folder. When I email myself, if I want something that I’ve written or I’m emailing it to get it goes in the spam folder, I’m going it’s me sending it to me. It’s crazy, but all these spammers get in and our phones, text messages, it goes on and on with spamming. But it is what it is. So leverage all of the pieces on LinkedIn and make sure you complete it as best as you can and use that. Live LinkedIn. Use the free tools. I have not yet used the paid tools.
Marisa Shadrick [00:30:31]:
I am now thinking of using the paid tools simply because I told myself if I was consistent and I used LinkedIn consistently and I saw some results, then after a year, I would consider the paid tools. So it’s been almost a year. So I’m considering the paid tools now because I’ve created this habit, this momentum of posting Monday through Friday. So use those tools and then continue to play it safe on LinkedIn. You can stay clear spammers if people are spamming you. Sometimes I just kind of say if they send a message and they’re telling me trying to pitch something they’re selling, I say, wow, you really need how to know how to talk to people in a DM message. I don’t even know you. We just connect and you’re already selling to me.
Marisa Shadrick [00:31:19]:
If you need some coaching sessions, I can give you some pricing of some coaching sessions so that you can do your outreach a little better. So I just pitched them back. But it happens is what I’m saying. It happens. So check their profile, see if they have other links. Are they posting regularly? Who are they connected to? Are they people that are connected to other people that, you know, sometimes I get those that I don’t know them, but I know the people that they are connected to are people that I’m connected to. So I figured that they probably found me that way. And then also the organic way to connect on LinkedIn.
Marisa Shadrick [00:32:00]:
I mentioned earlier, any zoom calls, anything that you do, even if it’s not virtual. Now, if you’re out of town and you’re at a conference, you can take your phone, click on LinkedIn, and right at the search bar, right there on the search bar, on the right hand side, you’ll see a little square. And the little square, when you tap it, is your LinkedIn profile, and it shows a QR code. You could just tap right there inside the little search bar. Tap that and a QR code shows up and you can share that. And I did that just a week ago when I ran into someone in a lobby and they wanted to connect with me. I just opened my LinkedIn, tapped in the search bar, that little square, and gave him the QR code. And of course he’s asking how’d you do that.
Marisa Shadrick [00:32:47]:
But it’s really easy to be able to connect with people. And it’s very organic, right? It’s very organic. Mastermind groups. Again, you can connect with people on LinkedIn Webinars when you’re reaching out to people, or if they send you a text, sometimes people send you a text message. I get people sending me text messages. There’s so many apps now that they’re coming from everywhere. It was like crazy. But see if you can get them on LinkedIn, because it seems like there’s more conversation going on there that if you were to say the same thing in an email campaign and say, let’s have a conversation, they won’t necessarily do that, but on LinkedIn they will, they will respond.
Marisa Shadrick [00:33:31]:
And so I find that that is probably the best way to have conversations there. I didn’t really experience that with Instagram or some of those other platforms. I don’t know why. I just never did. But LinkedIn, it seems like it’s very friendly, and it seems like there’s still a window of time to be able to make those connections and remember that it takes multiple touches before you make an ask. So maybe even think of the 80 20 rule, right? And I do ask for appointments, one on one appointments, but only after we’ve had multiple touches and good conversations in the DM. And then it doesn’t feel icky or spammy or any of that. It feels very natural.
Marisa Shadrick [00:34:14]:
And so you can do that as well, or you can offer them a free resource. And so I’ve been updating some of my resources, and I’m going to be doing that here in the next three months, toward the end of the year, offering my free resource. So I feel like relationships will always beat algorithms. Again, I’m not against social media. It’s just I’m using it more as a tool. I think of it more as a little employee. It’s got to work in a way that aligns with my business goals, and if it doesn’t, I’m just not going to use it as much. And so LinkedIn does.
Marisa Shadrick [00:34:51]:
Some of the other platforms don’t, and so I just look at it as a tool. So sometimes we have to retire certain tools. And the other reason why I like just building these relationships, if we can’t control the algorithms, but we can control how we show up and how we serve people. So to bring this all and to land this plane, let me just say that I know some people feel uncomfortable about reaching out. Just get comfortable talking to strangers. We need to talk to strangers. We need to initiate a conversation. I’m an introvert by nature.
Marisa Shadrick [00:35:26]:
I’m an introvert. But I’ve learned to be able to be the first to step up and want to help someone or give assistance or see if I can in some way serve them, because I get it. I’m the same way. And I’ve had a lot of insecurities in the past, and I’ve struggled with perfectionism. There’s a lot of things that I struggle with. It did not come easy at all. But I discovered that my mindset was putting my life on pause, and I didn’t want my life on pause. I knew that I was made for more.
Marisa Shadrick [00:36:01]:
And I think, you know, you were made for more. Nothing came easy when I first started writing and speaking and building a business, nothing came easy. Nothing came on a silver platter. But I knew my business would never move beyond my limiting thoughts. So I had to change my thinking, and I decided to take one day at a time and simply execute 10 seconds of courage every single day. And that’s how I was able to make progress. Execution 10 seconds a day. And yes, sometimes we feel like we’re just leaping off of a cliff and we don’t know if it’s going to work.
Marisa Shadrick [00:36:43]:
We don’t know if we’re going to fail. And even when I did this workshop, I thought, what if nobody signs up? What if nobody comes to Tennessee? And here I am with an event room with nobody. You know, all those thoughts, my view of these thoughts is, okay, they can come. I just don’t camp there. I don’t pitch a tent there. I just visit it, and then I move on. So my encouragement to you as I bring this to a close is to keep pushing boundaries. Continue diving deep into discomfort because everything does feel uncomfortable when we begin to work beyond what we’re accustomed to and continue to evolve and trailblaze your unique path.
Marisa Shadrick [00:37:30]:
And in every interaction, every post, every message, serve like there’s no tomorrow. Continue to provide great customer service before they become a customer. There you have it. So I hope you enjoyed this podcast. If you enjoyed it and you want to ask me a question about LinkedIn, go ahead and reach out. Reach out and connect with me on LinkedIn. LinkedIn. And then I’ll be happy to answer any questions in a DM.
Marisa Shadrick [00:37:59]:
So that’s it for now. I hope you have a wonderful rest of the week and I will talk to you soon. Take care.