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How 3 Simple Profile Tweaks Skyrocket Your Visibility on LinkedIn with Brenda Meller | Ep. 57

• Allison Lane

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Is your LinkedIn profile helping you get published or quietly holding you back? 

Allison Lane sits with LinkedIn expert Brenda Meller to break down the three profile tweaks that instantly boost your visibility and authority online. Whether you're writing your first book, planning a launch, or looking to grow your platform, this episode will show you how to position yourself as a credible expert and attract the right opportunities. 

Discover how to make LinkedIn work for you without spending hours on it. Listen now to learn how simple changes can elevate your author marketing and help you get noticed.

What You’ll Learn:

  • The three most important updates to make on your LinkedIn profile today.
  • How to write a headline that attracts media, readers, and speaking gigs.
  • Why your “digital resume” mindset is holding back your book promotion.

Resources Mentioned:

Timestamps:

  • [00:03:00] Why your outdated profile could be costing you opportunities.
  • [00:07:08] How to write a headline that opens doors.
  • [00:14:00] The fix that turns visitors into fans.
  • [00:25:06] Sto

Your book launch is your chance to build your visibility and grow your audience. In the Bestseller Launch School guided program, I'll show you how to get buzz before your book hits the shelves, master pre-orders and early sales to get attention and keep sales going long after launch day. Live trainings start April 30th - June 11. Grab your seat now: https://lanelit.com/bestseller 

 No matter how you're publishing, you need to launch your book like a pro. Join me 7-week guided program: Bestseller Launch School. Live trainings start April 30. Grab your seat NOW!  https://lanelit.com/bestseller  

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Brenda:

Like it or not, if you're active on LinkedIn or if you're not active on LinkedIn, people are visiting your profile anyway. Many people people are using it as an online business directory and a professional directory. So, they're reading your story. And I think you should be aware of what the story is that you have out there.

Allison:

Welcome back to the Author's Edge. I am your host, Allison Lane, and I am here for you because I wanna make your journey into authorship and as an author, easier and more exciting. And I wanna make sure that you know that it's supposed to be fun and it can be fun. And that's if we take the pressure off of all the marketing. You don't have to figure all that stuff out yourself. That is too much to take on. We are here to give you shortcuts and to open your eyes to easy ways for you to get ahead. That's why I am so excited to welcome my next guest on. She's a LinkedIn expert and LinkedIn is my social of choice. She helps busy business professionals and job seekers grow their presence and really enjoy a bigger slice of the LinkedIn pie. And what I mean by that is she makes it so easy and judgment free to help us turn our profiles into powerful marketing tools. And I always say you have to be your very best marketer and it really starts with choosing what goes on your social profiles'cause you get to control those and on your website. So whether you are an entrepreneur or a public speaker, or contributing to media, or you are leading a medical practice, or even looking for your next job. These insights are gonna help you stand out on LinkedIn and everywhere. So please help me welcome Brenda Miller. Hooray. And Brenda's here. I'm so glad to get into this today and let's just jump in. Pop quiz, Brenda, take it. The wrap of your choice. Okay. Let me just hop in here. Oh, and by the way, I definitely wanna talk to focus our talk today about people marketing themselves as thought leaders and experts on LinkedIn and getting away from, really common mistakes where that happen when somebody reaches a certain point in time where they're like, maybe I do want to eventually transition out of my leading HR role. And so, they've created a profile that's essentially, reflection of their job at one company where we need to elevate them.

Brenda:

Okay.

Allison:

And because it's not that people are trying to sell books from LinkedIn, it's that they forget that they're have to position themselves.

Brenda:

Yeah. talk wanna talk about marketing your book through LinkedIn profile though? Because I have some tips on that too. Okay.

Allison:

Sure. Now most people listening to this have an upcoming launch, or they want to be an author and I do an audit and I go I can't believe what a big deal you are. Huge effing deal.

Brenda:

Yeah.

Allison:

Your LinkedIn profile does not reflect your amazingness and it's a freaking downer. And I feel in an afternoon, I can change all that, but what hurts my heart is that they didn't take action, five years ago because it's such a simple thing. So, let me just jump in with what's a mistake people make when it comes to marketing themselves or representing themselves as big effing deals on social, especially LinkedIn? Which is my platform of choice.

Brenda:

I think one the of the biggest mistakes is that people neglect their own profile. They they may have set up an account on LinkedIn years ago when when LinkedIn first came outta the scene, or maybe it was when they were doing a job change and they were using LinkedIn for the job search Or other

Allison:

or other things, but they neglected it entirely.

Brenda:

And where

Allison:

where they are now in their career and their business isn't being reflected on their profile because LinkedIn doesn't automatically pull that information and you gotta go manually in

Brenda:

and

Allison:

add to it

Brenda:

and

Allison:

also keep it fresh.

Brenda:

So what

Allison:

what you might see on your LinkedIn right now isn't representative of you today. It might be representative. Overview of five or 10 years ago,

Brenda:

And it's

Allison:

it's not accurately telling your story and helping you to connect with your ideal target audience.

Brenda:

And

Allison:

And maybe there's things that you have never filled in, you've never put a banner up on your profile, or you've never written an about statement,

Brenda:

just a just a huge opportunity. and something that you can easily correct.

Allison:

So true. Every time I see someone like a connection request, and I think you haven't even bothered to put your photo up, are you even active? Like why would you even be here if you're not gonna be here? Just to say you've, came and touched LinkedIn and leave. The other thing I think we all see is people using LinkedIn as their digital resume, which is a super snore.

Brenda:

Well, and it's okay if you're a job seeker in career transition to use your profile and activities to support your job search. But the reality is that more people are using LinkedIn for professional networking. And are using it for job search. And many people use LinkedIn almost like a like a professional directory. They look you up and they see where you are and they see what you're doing and they're not using it for the job search. don't I don't have a problem with it if you are in career transition, but I think you're done with that job change, you need to sure sure that your profiles actually reflecting you in your new role and how you plan to use LinkedIn in the future. It's It's probably Allison. A lot of it is More of of an unconscious or an or an unintentional side effect of not spending time on LinkedIn or not doing the updates when their updates are need to be made.

Allison:

Yeah. when people are using linkedIn or they've created the profile and then they go back to leading the emergency department at the hospital or teaching three classes a semester at the university. Their profile will read, professor tenured track or something, whatever the role is. Actually. Yeah, it's super factual and. Honestly, like a little diminishing, like I, I know professionally you don't want your peers to say Ugh, I can't believe they said professor, when they're actually an assistant professor.

Brenda:

They're not.

Allison:

or they're adjunct. We don't care.

Brenda:

Yeah.

Allison:

just wanna know. Or worse, it'll say teacher, if you are teaching at a university, we understand you're an educator, but please put professor,'cause it's just odd. Like your humility is getting in my way of understanding what the heck you do. So I see that and then I see, massive like super accomplished people and their profile still says. Professor when it could say nationally renowned speaker or something that's more of a, like an elevated statement because we wanna understand what the value is that they present to the world. Not just, can I offer a technique? Oh my God, please. And that is, I want you to think about, who is your ideal target audience? Who do you want reading your LinkedIn profile?

Brenda:

and

Allison:

In visiting and learning more about you.'cause I think a lot of people, what they get caught up in is almost treating

Brenda:

LinkedIn like

Allison:

like when you're applying to a job and you fill in this field, in that field and you're trying to be factual with all the information which is doing,

Brenda:

Instead of

Allison:

of thinking who is my ideal target audience? And let's take someone who's a speaker, for example, who wants to get more speaking opportunities.

Brenda:

So

Allison:

So positioning themself as a speaker throughout their profile, merchandising some of their speaker marketing materials, whether it's their speaker sizzle reel.

Brenda:

maybe a

Allison:

a book that they've published, maybe doing a bulleted list of their top three signature talks that they've done.

Brenda:

Once you

Allison:

you start almost like serving it up on a silver platter for your ideal target audience, your profile starts to

Brenda:

become more

Allison:

more interesting.

Brenda:

And

Allison:

And if you're struggling with,

Brenda:

I don't

Allison:

I don't wanna put this on'cause it makes it sound like I'm patting myself on the vacuum, which I want you to think about. You should be merchandising yourself and putting yourself in the best light possible for your ideal target audience.

Brenda:

if the

Allison:

If the information's gonna be beneficial, it's going to help them. There's nothing wrong with them.

Brenda:

that, and I

Allison:

I think sometimes that helps people to get over themselves

Brenda:

and put their

Allison:

put their pride on the side and make it more of like they're serving up information that their audience might be looking for.

Brenda:

for.

Allison:

And sometimes the audience is the person booking the speaker at the conference, or the journalist looking for a source for a contribution in their article.

Brenda:

Yeah.

Allison:

Especially if you think everybody knows that I'm, the leader in this field. No they don't. Only the people who really work with you know that

Brenda:

yeah.

Allison:

everyone else profile may have been referred to you. So now they're looking for validation of what they heard. What do other people

Brenda:

like?

Allison:

This person is an expert in their field now. They're looking for proof points. Is she posting or he posting and talking about this?

Brenda:

Are they

Allison:

Are they writing articles? Can I see examples of videos of them speaking about the topic?

Brenda:

help

Allison:

validate

Brenda:

That

Allison:

that referral that they've gotten to that person. Perfect. So when we talk about this view of what you're putting out there about yourself the, marketing jargony is building your personal brand and a lot of people that. Marketing language is cringey because they don't wanna be a brand. And we're not saying,

Brenda:

yeah.

Allison:

not saying that you yourself are, selling yourself. We're just saying please serve it up so we can understand better. So what's a big change you've seen recently in how people are using LinkedIn to build their personal brand?

Brenda:

I don't

Allison:

I dunno if it's change. Something recent, anything that's really changing, I've noticed some different ways that people are using their LinkedIn Over time, that's helping

Brenda:

to

Allison:

to make it more clear to profile visitors exactly who they are and what they do. And I'll use, for example,

Brenda:

your

Allison:

your headline field, Allison if you never change it on LinkedIn, your headline will pull from

Brenda:

your

Allison:

your current or

Brenda:

most

Allison:

recent job title at company. And that's all it'll list. So it would say marketing consultant at Miller Marketing, just for example.

Brenda:

But you

Allison:

But you can modify that.

Brenda:

And as

Allison:

As we're talking about building our personal brand, it's just really how you introduce yourself and what you wanna be known for.

Brenda:

So

Allison:

So instead of saying marketing consultant at Miller Marketing, you might say, helping the self-employed and executives to get a bigger slice of the LinkedIn pie Now I'm being a bit more expressive in what it is that I do,

Brenda:

problem that I

Allison:

that I solve in the audience that I work with.

Brenda:

So I

Allison:

I think this is a technique that I'm starting to see,

Brenda:

I

Allison:

More people trying different things within their headline.

Brenda:

and

Allison:

And not just using the default, but for a lot of people it's, still not having the awareness that we can have a modified that headline that we can do something

Brenda:

that

Allison:

is helping to tell our story a little bit more. And I hear what you're saying, personal branding might sound a little Yeah.

Brenda:

might sound

Allison:

Like marketing double speak. But I want you to think about, it's really what we're trying to do is to get

Brenda:

that

Allison:

ideal target audience.

Brenda:

To

Allison:

To take note of you because there's 1 billion LinkedIn users. You're competing with a lot of people on there.

Brenda:

So

Allison:

So when you're posting in the homepage feed, if you use something in your headline, especially in the first 40 to 70 characters,

Brenda:

that's that's gonna capture their attention. That's all it takes, Allison, to get them to click and come back to your profile to learn more about you.

Allison:

You probably didn't do this, but it's okay to pull my profile apart and tell me where I'm making mistakes'cause I wanna use my example. In the past when I had a corporate job, when I was leading PR for Burt's Bees or the Unilever. The title would say, it might have said my role, like director of PR and then finding your experience section, that's finding the, and then the switch was to PR leader And that might have been more generic. But now, after I quit my big time corporate job that came with healthcare and I started helping women get. Book deals and launch their books. Now, I think it says, I help women get book deals and launch their books successfully. I mean, Bestselling book coach, helping women experts become authors, and then and then you get into many women have expertise that deserves a wider audience, but getting published deals overwhelming.

Brenda:

I Simplify the journey post of Author's Edge. Edge.

Allison:

Oh, is that what I said? Okay, great.

Brenda:

That's your thing.

Allison:

Listen most of the time I find somebody else's profile that I like and I go, I like that structure. I'm gonna follow that structure and I remove their,

Brenda:

wrong with that.

Allison:

That's what they say in marketing. Steal with pride and then make it your own. I feel like that maybe that's even too long, but true. What I could have said is just book coach. But it still doesn't,

Brenda:

Yeah.

Allison:

it makes someone do gymnastic, like mental gymnastics to understand what do they do for me?

Brenda:

Yeah.

Allison:

Nobody cares. Whether I call myself a book coach or a publishing expert or whatever, it doesn't mean anything to the other person. So do I get an A or are the B minus? You definitely have a solid headline. I don't mind that it's longer. I always tell people, Allison, I'm an opportunistic marketer.

Brenda:

so if

Allison:

So if LinkedIn tells me you get a box, I wanna figure out

Brenda:

the

Allison:

the best way of using all the character limits. And how the field displays on your profile and everything

Brenda:

to give

Allison:

to give you the best chances for success.

Brenda:

in,

Allison:

in what you are doing with your profile,

Brenda:

very

Allison:

very first line of your headline, which reads, bestselling

Brenda:

coach,

Allison:

helping woman experts become authors,

Brenda:

That's the

Allison:

the line that's gonna appear most frequently when you're posting, when you're commenting, replying, or. If you're coming up in search results,

Brenda:

Most of it,

Allison:

of it, it might cut off after helping women or even helping in some instances, like on the mobile app.

Brenda:

So what I So what I look for is the first line written in a way that's appealing to your ideal target audience? You get an A on that first line. Ooh. All the other stuff that you have in here is helping to describe to and to keep the right person reading longer in there. I I personally like doing headline case in headline, which which means we capitalize every important word in there. So in the rest of your statement where you have many women have. that deserves a wider audience. The The only word that's capitalized there is many. would I would capitalize the W in women. The e in expertise. The D in deserves the W in wider, the A in audience. think think about a magazine or a newspaper article, headline, All all of the important words, except A and their those types of words would be lowercase. So if So if we put a uppercase in there, it just helps us to pop a little bit more. Yeah, in my opinion. And just keep it full reading through that headline. Other than that, you've got great keywords in there. written to to appeal to your ideal target audience. and And also it's gonna repel the wrong people away, which I think is really brilliant.

Allison:

Hear that folks go and check out my LinkedIn profile at Allison Lane Lit. That's my tag. So thank you that I got an A, that's what I was looking for. an Oh yeah. Good. Okay.

Brenda:

you've got a You've got a book emoji, is which is a green little book and

Allison:

emoji, and then you've got

Brenda:

the

Allison:

at the end host of Author's Edge, you have

Brenda:

the

Allison:

the headphones.

Brenda:

Assume Author's Edge is the name the name of your podcast. By reading that, which So it's, so I think you did a really nice job of using emotion, but theory, sometimes I see people using too many and it starts to look spammy on on there. But I think you've done so really nicely.

Allison:

Oh thank you. I follow your advice. So we're connected in another group, so I do what you say. So, when people believe a lot of myths when it comes to establishing themselves as like a leading voice or an expert or a thought leader. Some people cringe or they think I'm not an expert. I wouldn't call myself an expert, and then we wanna ring them. They're next'cause they're like, you don't have to call yourself an expert. If people are looking to you for guidance. Then you are, and just, you don't have to wear a sash that says expert. But I think people are getting in their own way probably when it comes to believing myths about LinkedIn thought leadership. And can you speak to maybe a belief or a misperception that people have about how to establish themselves in that way.

Brenda:

Yeah, I'm gonna quote a line from a TV show, mad Men. So, I remember in the show, Don Draper was talking to Peggy and and Peggy was saying, something along the lines of She doesn't have the reputation that she wants and her and her boss Don was like, Peggy, if you don't like the story that people are telling about it, you gotta tell your own story. And I'm paraphrasing. I don't remember the exact line, but I

Allison:

I think

Brenda:

that's that's what we need to do through our profiles. If you want to be known As a as a LinkedIn expert or as a bestselling book coach, you need to incorporate that into your profile. And maybe you feel like it's cringey to say, I'm a LinkedIn expert, or I am an expert book coach. Use different words, specializing in book Coaching for for women. So you can use different terminology essentially says the same thing. And I've And I've even heard. Some people say that I don't want to call myself an expert. Someone else can call me an expert. So you could say known as a LinkedIn expert by, and then, maybe tag organizations that have given you some of those credentials. Shouted you out and part of what you do. But I think you do need to be comfortable and confident with what you put in your LinkedIn profile, but sometimes talking to experts The LinkedIn experts that are out there. you're You're gonna find that we're all gonna say the same thing. We need to make sure that when we visit your profile, it's crystal clear who it is that you are trying to attract and appeal through your profile and what it is that you wanna be known for. So can't beat around the bush with that, you gotta get to the point quickly and capture our attention next on your profile longer.

Allison:

Yeah. One of the alternatives to Expert is leading voice, or sometimes I'll suggest, you know, advocate for.

Brenda:

Sure. Mm-hmm.

Allison:

of, if you're not a medical practitioner, but maybe your memoir is about navigating the you know, healthcare infrastructure, you don't necessarily need to put author'cause that doesn't tell anyone what they get out of what you do or what you share. But healthcare advocate certainly does, or media contributor even would help. Yeah.

Brenda:

Yeah, Just so we know, like sometimes I used to call myself a self-proclaimed LinkedIn ambassador, Which which means, self-proclaimed means I'm calling myself that LinkedIn is not calling myself that. Using the The phrase ambassador, gives you these feelings of somebody. Who's there to guide you around and to act as your advocate and help you on behalf of whatever place, or place you're visiting, or topic that you're learning more about. So yeah, there's certainly different ways you can embrace that terminology that you're you're comfortable with. Yeah.

Allison:

Yep. What I love about your advice is that whatever you do within that profile and the decisions you make, you can copy and paste and use that on your website because it really, in the LinkedIn form, I'm gesturing now of the form. there are character maxes and it really requires that you make decisions and your sort of B level language doesn't fit. And so, once it doesn't fit, put it in a parking lot document'cause you're not gonna end up using it. You won't need to say I'm an expert, a leading voice. Choose one and stick with it. And the other one can go, all the rest of the words that didn't end up in the final version. Put in a document and then put the document in a drawer.

Brenda:

Sure. And there should be continuity, You know, I come from a corporate marketing background and I'm always guiding guiding people, not just on LinkedIn, but from a marketing perspective we want to know who our ideal target audiences, our company goals goals and objectives are, but we also wanna think about key messages, And we Should have some some grand continuity and messaging continuity from our linkedIn profile to our website, and even to some of our other social media property. So for for example, today, Allison, I was on Instagram this morning. I briefly went on TikTok and then I go on LinkedIn and I'm looking at You know, how does my bio my bio read across all three platforms so that if, on where depending on where my audience finds me first, they're seeing some continuity in that language. And it's making sense. It's not that they one find me in one place and they go to another and oh wait, do she doesn't do marketing, she's doing this. We wanna make sure that there's some continuity. So they feel like it's all. Part of one cohesive story. for you.

Allison:

Yeah. And I bet your picture looks pretty similar too. That drives me nuts when I am looking for someone, and not only is their picture different, their bio is different, and their profile title is different, allison Lane versus Allison Lane Lit. Like now I have to remember that too. Please make it easy. You know we want the gar animals of digital marketing and choose one photo and if you can get it,

Brenda:

photo too, if I

Allison:

I might. Oh my gosh, yes. What I see sometimes people doing is they pick a photo

Brenda:

that that they love of themself at someone's wedding. 10 years ago. and It's always awkwardly crap. You can see somebody's shoulder is Yeah. cropped out of Outta it or we all age, I'm starting to get little sparkles. I like I like to call them a gray here and there and we highlight and we do our hair and things like that. But I wanna make sure if sure if I show up at an event, or Someone is meeting me virtually the first time through LinkedIn and then I get in them a podcast interview like we're doing today, I don't want you to go. Brenda is is that you? Like, I want you to, yeah. see TV and you're like, yeah, that's the right person. I I think having, for me, when you said my headshot photo, yeah. It's consistent. I get a new headshot photo every two years and and I use that photo in all of my social media properties. So there's consistency all the way down to We we are on innovation when we do our speaker on Friday, zoom calls with the full group. And I And I even use that same photo in my Zoom. my

Allison:

Email. It's amazing. It's like everywhere.

Brenda:

And

Allison:

and I think especially for authors,

Brenda:

you

Allison:

you pick a photo that goes maybe on your book jacket

Brenda:

and

Allison:

and then maybe it's been five or 10 years since you've booked, been published, you probably have a new updated photo that you're using elsewhere. You don't have to have continuity. With something historical, you can have continuity with a current photo.

Brenda:

I think is the point. Yeah. That's a load off. I think people are thinking like, oh my gosh, what if I don't look like that anymore. Nobody looks like they did five or 10 years ago. We are all, the world turns for all of us. Age

Allison:

Age is a gift,

Brenda:

right?

Allison:

right? Yes. Yes it is. So can you tell us a popular tactic or activity on LinkedIn that's no longer working maybe that people need to let go of.

Brenda:

So something that they're trying to do that's no longer working. I am gonna I'm gonna give you an example, maybe something slightly different, Allison, and that is, with the increase of people that are on LinkedIn, you probably also are seeing an increase in direct messages that are sent to you. Oh my God. And some are relevant. Maybe just

Allison:

you just need to. Some small talk follow up, others are just spamming irrelevant.

Brenda:

And then

Allison:

And then there's others that might be like, someone might reach out to you, Allison, and say, oh, I'm thinking of writing

Brenda:

my

Allison:

my first book next year. I'll definitely be in touch with you. So you wanna remember that person and make sure that you're following up with'em later. But you're you're in the midst of juggling a bunch of things. You popped in a message to look for something else and you saw that, so you don't wanna lose track of it.

Brenda:

So I'm So I'm gonna highlight something that is a feature that you might not even be aware of. Is if

Allison:

Is if you go into your messaging section

Brenda:

in

Allison:

and in your middle pan, if you're communicating back and forth and there's a woman who says, I wanna publish probably next year,

Brenda:

you can

Allison:

you can star that message.

Brenda:

if

Allison:

So if you click on the Little star feature,

Brenda:

it's almost like favoring

Allison:

when I get it in your email,

Brenda:

then

Allison:

then in your messaging navigation at the top, you're gonna see along the top Focus Jobs on Red, my Connections in mail and starred.

Brenda:

And if

Allison:

And if you click on Stard, it now goes into that category.

Brenda:

so you can do some

Allison:

some follow up. I did not know that. I love learning new things. Can you also please pass on that? The people who connect and immediately try and sell me something, pitch slap

Brenda:

Slap, what it's called.

Allison:

I do not love it.

Brenda:

Yeah.

Allison:

And I get two or three a day,

Brenda:

I'm

Allison:

I'm

Brenda:

coming

Allison:

doing a.

Brenda:

Inspired in

Allison:

in part by that, which, I'm calling it stop chasing clients on LinkedIn. Start attracting them.

Brenda:

because I

Allison:

'cause I think what's happening is a lot of people are getting so aggressive in some of their approaches and the pitch slap is one of those very common.

Brenda:

They

Allison:

They send an invitation to connect probably without a note. Maybe it's a somewhat generic looking note and you accept it

Brenda:

and

Allison:

and then immediately after you accept like within 30 seconds.

Brenda:

You're

Allison:

You're getting that and it's probably automated that message coming back saying,

Brenda:

thanks for

Allison:

oh yeah, we're accepting.

Brenda:

click

Allison:

here. Let's schedule a Calendly and I'd love to get on you

Brenda:

calendar so I

Allison:

so I can tell you all about our enterprise solutions and how we can help to save you money and I can learn more about you and we can provide for, and you're like whoa.

Brenda:

I

Allison:

I just connected with you here.

Brenda:

Down a little bit on there.

Allison:

Yeah.

Brenda:

I

Allison:

I think people in general need to.

Brenda:

that LinkedIn is a long game.

Allison:

It's about building relationships in the long run. Not going in with the assumption that the people that you connect to this week

Brenda:

are

Allison:

are gonna become customers for you next week.

Brenda:

I think

Allison:

Then slowing down that process, earning their trust, building up rapport.

Brenda:

to

Allison:

To me that creates that steady steam,

Brenda:

steady

Allison:

steady stream, of new clients.

Brenda:

and referrals

Allison:

Referrals and VIP partners over time. Oh my gosh. Yeah. And you could still be a real person. You can DM someone who you think, wow, I'd really like to work with them. But if you come in blazing hot, people shrink away. Scare them

Brenda:

scare them

Allison:

They do and I feel like everyone uses the same language to start out. Let me read you one, not even a. Dear Allison, would love to know something. Allison, You could fill in the blank so you can reach expert status. Would you let FAME get to your head? What are you do please I responded. Please stop selling in dms.

Brenda:

I had

Allison:

I had one recently

Brenda:

and I

Allison:

and I could tell it was a real person. We were messaging back and forth. She was commenting on a post.

Brenda:

joking

Allison:

around about, some of the things that we see people doing.

Brenda:

And

Allison:

And then she went into the Brenda, what would it be like if you had more clarity and

Brenda:

hours in the

Allison:

in the day as an entrepreneur? Is that something you're interested in my help with?

Brenda:

I was

Allison:

I was like,

Brenda:

we were

Allison:

We were just chatting, having a nice conversation. And she just went like completely 180. A different drive. Like

Brenda:

talking

Allison:

like she got, she jumped the gun. And also just that, that like question format

Brenda:

Yeah.

Allison:

screams sales script. And I felt like I was backed in a corner at that point, I don't know about you Allison, but what I started doing is when they sell to me, I immediately turned it on full Salesforce back to them.

Brenda:

instead of

Allison:

of saying, yes, I wanna have you Save me time, I said,

Brenda:

sounds like

Allison:

like you're using LinkedIn for link generation. Linda, and I'm making up a name. I offer power hours where I can help you to optimize your time and efforts on LinkedIn.

Brenda:

I've

Allison:

I've put the link below where you can schedule your first one hour session,

Brenda:

me. I.

Allison:

and then I think another week or two went by and she came back with another sales pitch to me, and I returned fire again with them.

Brenda:

But,

Allison:

But I,

Brenda:

It the best

Allison:

the best of my time. I, but it makes me smile a little bit and I think just illustrating to them, you just.

Brenda:

me.

Allison:

Maybe we'll cause them to think a little bit differently about doing that pitch in the future. Yeah. at least it would've been a good choice for them to actually work with you.

Brenda:

Yeah.

Allison:

The, my favorite is when they, somebody waits a week and then they reach out again and say, did you notice my previous message? Yeah. And then I say, you are killing me softly. Aww.

Brenda:

Aw.

Allison:

And some after that, sometimes they stop. But if they come back a third time, I will be like doing a screenshot. because it's not nice, it's not nice people, please be better.

Brenda:

It's

Allison:

It's almost like people, Allison, that you connect with them on LinkedIn

Brenda:

and

Allison:

and then a week or two later you start noticing you're getting their email newsletter

Brenda:

and you

Allison:

and you never subscribe. To it, which is odd and it's a little bit offputting. Yes. And I think they're taking liberties. It's a little bit of a gray area.

Brenda:

Now,

Allison:

Now all the email service providers out there nowadays are saying we need express opt in permission.

Brenda:

That

Allison:

That means I am intentionally subscribing to your newsletter.

Brenda:

Connecting with

Allison:

with someone on LinkedIn doesn't give you that. So what I started doing when I get those messages

Brenda:

is I

Allison:

is I look them up on LinkedIn. I look at, oh yep, we just connected about two weeks ago.

Brenda:

The

Allison:

And the only interaction I've had with them was through that.

Brenda:

Now they're

Allison:

Now they're adding me in. So now what I do is I reply back and I'll say,

Brenda:

thanks,

Allison:

thanks, Theo, for adding me

Brenda:

Theo,

Allison:

Theo, for your message. It looks like I've been added to your email newsletter

Brenda:

regarding

Allison:

leadership strategies.

Brenda:

I've

Allison:

I've just added you to my newsletter as well, where you're gonna start to receive LinkedIn and marketing tips from me.

Brenda:

Have a

Allison:

Have a great day. That is very passive aggressive. I like it. I didn't realize that is why I've been getting signed up for so many emails.'cause I emailed people back and go, please take me off. I did not sign up for this. I wrote your own list, Allison. And I think what's gonna happen is

Brenda:

feel

Allison:

feel guilty on subscribing from your list.

Brenda:

Maybe in the

Allison:

Oh, and maybe in the process they educate and they learn more about what you do as a book coach. And maybe they start sending some. Business your way. I'm gonna go in the best possible scenario. That's, you're very generous. That's very kind. Let's pivot for a second because I did ask you for a book recommendation, which I love. I love the book that you mentioned, but do you remember what it was?

Brenda:

Was it Mike Malowitz,

Allison:

Mike's puppeteers? No, although I have it behind me.

Brenda:

What

Allison:

it was Mel Abrams or Abraham.

Brenda:

was

Allison:

was it what book I'm reading right now? Yes.

Brenda:

Yeah.

Allison:

Just tell me what's a book that you think that everybody should read. a book that everyone should read if you're self-employed is Mike,

Brenda:

Mike Kellow. It's Profit First,

Allison:

hold on, let me hold it up'cause I have it.

Brenda:

questions asked, especially if

Allison:

if, I am a marketer, not an accounting,

Brenda:

not

Allison:

I'm not a finance person. The premise of this is like an envelope system. So money comes into one account called your profit account, and then you distribute

Brenda:

Twice a

Allison:

a month or weekly

Brenda:

into your

Allison:

your owner's compensation, operating expenses,

Brenda:

your

Allison:

your tax fold, and your profit fold.

Brenda:

And

Allison:

it forces you to be more intentional about how you spend your money,

Brenda:

which we're

Allison:

we're going. Through different economic cycles and things have been very interesting over the past five years and I think they're gonna continue to be interesting in the future.

Brenda:

And what I

Allison:

And what I see a lot of people that are self-employed doing is

Brenda:

They don't

Allison:

they don't make it through those first five years'cause they don't know how to manage the cash flow and the money that's coming into your business. Yeah. They can follow the Profit First system taught in that book.

Brenda:

it

Allison:

It helps to be more aware of when you need to cut your expenses so that your expenses are in line with your revenue.

Brenda:

also when

Allison:

when you have some additional funds to invest in an outside expert or finally get that signed up to work with Allison on getting your book

Brenda:

published and

Allison:

and getting that work done.

Brenda:

it

Allison:

But it teaches you that system of going through it. It's something I learned when I first started my business fulltime in 2018,

Brenda:

and it's

Allison:

and it's.

Brenda:

model that I still

Allison:

Still follow through this

Brenda:

day.

Allison:

Yes. I love that we both follow it. It is pretty eye-opening too of oh, a dollar comes in and this percentage, it really takes out like all the subjectivity out. I just, I like to be told what to do. Just tell me what it is and I will do it. I just need the formula.

Brenda:

Exactly.

Allison:

Yeah. So what is the other book that you said that you can't wait to read?

Brenda:

I don't remember what I told you

Allison:

Mel. The Mel that you're currently readings

Brenda:

I'm

Allison:

I'm reading the book right now, so I'm

Brenda:

more

Allison:

than halfway through the book. So

Brenda:

basically

Allison:

talking about managing your money, personal finances, and

Brenda:

your

Allison:

your wealth over time and different strategies

Brenda:

for

Allison:

for getting that process into place. And

Brenda:

just,

Allison:

just, I find that

Brenda:

If

Allison:

if you want

Brenda:

certain

Allison:

certain things in life, I think surround yourself with other.

Brenda:

Who are

Allison:

Who are doing those things already,

Brenda:

But

Allison:

but also let's learn from the people who've been there, done that,

Brenda:

who

Allison:

and who have strategies to help us to get to where we wanna go.

Brenda:

my

Allison:

as my business continues to grow and evolve, I wanna make sure that

Brenda:

I'm

Allison:

I'm building it in a way that's helping to support my financial goals, my personal goals as well.

Brenda:

I

Allison:

I really like his style. He is very conversational.

Brenda:

in his

Allison:

In his book and

Brenda:

Great

Allison:

got some great strategies that I

Brenda:

up along

Allison:

along way. Awesome. Thank you for that. Now, before we call this podcast complete, what's one thing you want people to take with them? What's one thing that they could do to make their LinkedIn profiles and their presence improved?

Brenda:

Oh, great

Allison:

Oh, great question. So I think one thing you.

Brenda:

if you wanna

Allison:

Improve your LinkedIn presence

Brenda:

is

Allison:

is go onto your profile

Brenda:

and

Allison:

and imagine that you are your ideal target audience looking at your profile

Brenda:

give

Allison:

and give it a once over from top to bottom. Expand all the fields, read the information you have in there.

Brenda:

sure

Allison:

Make sure that things are accurate. And it might take a little bit more time than just one visit in 10 minutes to make the changes that you need to update it,

Brenda:

at

Allison:

but at least having some awareness of what's in your profile.

Brenda:

A

Allison:

A simple strategy that you can do is omit anything that's no longer relevant or dated.

Brenda:

And make

Allison:

make some notes on things that you'd like to work on and get updated later, but at least having an awareness of what's in your profile.

Brenda:

Because like it or not, if you're active on LinkedIn or if you're not active on LinkedIn, people are visiting your profile anyway. Many people people are using it as an online business directory and a professional directory, so they're reading your story and I think you should be aware of what the story is that you have out there. You can't change unless you're aware first. I love it. Oh, thank you so much, Brenda, for everything, for giving us so much to think about and do and ways to improve. We appreciate you. And hey listener, I know that you're sitting in the target parking lot and you're thinking, I'm taking notes and I'm gonna do this later. All you have to do is download the episode and you can go back to it later when you have a moment and you're not waiting for your daughter to come out with the latest pink drink craze. And I'm just speaking for myself. This is my life. I think that's Starbucks, isn't it? Or, yes, there's a Starbucks in the Target. Okay. Gotcha.

Allison:

Okay gotcha.

Brenda:

All

Allison:

Yep. And that is her Starbucks of choice her preferred location. The in and Out.

Brenda:

Sometimes it's easier to

Allison:

Yeah. So take the action and give yourself a little leeway. It's not now or never just bookmark it and you can take the action later. And also, this is an action packed episode. Share it with someone who you know is trying to do the same thing. And we wouldn't hate you if you left a five star review because it helps the algorithm and you know all of that. Internet magic works. So, do all the things. We appreciate you and especially for showing up for yourself. We will see you next week.

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Allison Lane

Host

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