How Landing Pages Can Fuel Company Growth With Tas Bober

Mind Your Marketing
27 Dec 202325:38

Summary

TLDRIn this engaging episode, the host welcomes Tess, a marketing consultant with a rich background in B2B marketing and digital strategy. Having transitioned from in-house roles to running her own consultancy, Tess shares her journey and insights into the power of niche marketing, especially focusing on landing page optimization to enhance overall website strategy. She emphasizes the significance of data-driven decisions in marketing and the importance of supporting your brand on LinkedIn through active engagement and content creation. Tess also provides valuable advice for those looking to establish a strong presence on LinkedIn, highlighting the impact of authenticity and strategic content on business growth.

Takeaways

  • πŸ‘©β€πŸ’Ό Tess transitioned from working in-house at B2B marketing companies to running her own consultancy focused on landing page optimization and website strategy.
  • 🎯 Landing pages are treated as a sandbox to inform the entire website strategy, using data-driven insights from traffic and user interactions.
  • πŸ“ˆ Tess developed frameworks like the 'Primary Manifestor' to structure landing pages effectively, covering key elements like the problem, target audience, features, and social proof.
  • πŸ”„ Landing pages allow for testing and iterating website content based on real data, rather than relying solely on stakeholder opinions.
  • πŸ“Š Tess advocates for a 'Platform to Pipeline' reporting approach, analyzing both on-platform metrics and downstream pipeline/revenue metrics.
  • 🀝 Building genuine relationships on LinkedIn without an agenda, by providing value through comments and DMs, has been crucial for her business growth.
  • ⏳ Tess is disciplined about the time spent engaging on LinkedIn, allocating specific windows and focusing on specific connections.
  • πŸ˜‚ Injecting personality and humor in comments helps stand out from robotic/'cringey' content on LinkedIn.
  • 🎯 For new content creators, defining clear content pillars/niches and sticking to them is recommended, instead of posting haphazardly.
  • 🌟 Consistently creating content, despite potential initial criticism, can build valuable brand equity and open up future opportunities.

Q & A

  • What is Tessa's background and professional experience?

    -According to the script, Tessa has worked in B2B marketing for the last 15 years, with 99% of her career being in-house. Over the last six months, she has been running her own consultancy.

  • What services does Tessa offer through her consultancy?

    -Tessa's consultancy focuses on treating landing pages as a sandbox to inform an entire website strategy. By analyzing how users interact with landing pages, she helps clients optimize their homepage, product pages, demo pages, and pricing pages based on data-driven insights.

  • What is Tessa's methodology for using landing pages to inform website strategy?

    -Tessa has developed a framework called the 'primary manifestor,' which involves creating a landing page that tells users why a product was built, for whom, what the outcomes are, key features, and why they should trust the company. This landing page acts as a testing ground to gather data on what resonates with users, which can then be used to update the main website.

  • How does Tessa's approach help clients make informed decisions about their website?

    -By using a data-driven approach based on landing page performance, Tessa can provide concrete evidence to support website updates, rather than relying on stakeholder opinions alone. This helps clients make decisions backed by user data, rather than just adding to the opinion pile.

  • How does Tessa measure the success of her landing page and website optimization efforts?

    -Tessa employs a 'platform to pipeline' reporting system, which looks at both on-stage metrics (impressions, clicks, conversion rates) and pipeline metrics (meetings, ICP percentage, opportunities, pipeline, and closed revenue). This holistic approach helps identify what's working and what needs improvement.

  • What role does LinkedIn play in Tessa's consultancy business?

    -According to Tessa, about 70% of her business comes from her posting on LinkedIn, while the remaining 30% comes from referrals. Building a presence on LinkedIn has been highly impactful for her in attracting clients and growing her consultancy.

  • How does Tessa approach content creation and engagement on LinkedIn?

    -Tessa focuses on creating high-quality, visually appealing content that provides value to her audience. She spends time creating graphics and representations of her ideas, even if it takes a few hours per post. She also engages with her network by commenting and having fun while maintaining a professional tone in her posts.

  • What advice does Tessa have for someone starting out on LinkedIn or creating content?

    -Tessa advises identifying clear content pillars or topics to focus on, rather than posting random, disjointed content. She also recommends niching down to a specific area of expertise. Additionally, she encourages being brave and putting yourself out there, as creating content is an act of leaving a legacy and building brand equity.

  • How can Tessa's approach to landing pages and website optimization benefit businesses?

    -Tessa's methodology can help businesses create a cohesive, user-centric website experience by using data-driven insights from landing pages. This can lead to improved website performance, better user engagement, and potentially increased conversions and revenue.

  • What platforms or channels does Tessa consider for content creation beyond LinkedIn?

    -While Tessa primarily focuses on LinkedIn, she mentions considering creating evergreen video content on YouTube, as it can be optimized for SEO and serve as a reference point for her frameworks and ideas.

Outlines

00:00

🀝 Tess's Journey and Consultancy Services

Tess shares her background in B2B marketing and her recent transition to running her own consultancy. She explains how she started as a fractional digital marketing lead, but then pivoted to focus on landing page optimization. Her approach treats landing pages as a sandbox to inform the entire website strategy, using data-driven insights to optimize homepages, product pages, and other key elements. By niche-ing down, Tess has been able to help numerous companies improve their online presence.

05:01

🎯 Landing Pages as a Testing Ground

Tess elaborates on her methodology of using landing pages as a testing ground to inform website strategy. By sending targeted traffic to landing pages, she can analyze what resonates with users and apply those insights to optimize homepages, product pages, pricing pages, and more. This data-driven approach helps circumvent the stakeholder mesh that often plagues homepage redesigns. Tess also discusses the importance of aligning ad messaging with the landing page experience, ensuring a seamless transition for users.

10:03

πŸ“Š Metrics and Reporting for Landing Page Optimization

Tess explains her approach to metrics and reporting for landing page optimization. She emphasizes the importance of looking at both platform metrics (impressions, clicks, conversion rates) and pipeline metrics (meetings, opportunities, revenue) to get a comprehensive picture of campaign performance. Tess advocates for a "platform to pipeline" reporting framework that considers the entire funnel, enabling data-driven decision-making and resource allocation.

15:03

🀳 Building Relationships on LinkedIn

Tess shares her strategy for building relationships on LinkedIn, which has been instrumental in driving business for her consultancy. She emphasizes the importance of engaging authentically without an agenda, providing value through comments and direct messages. Tess advocates for setting time limits for LinkedIn engagement, focusing on a curated list of connections, and injecting personality and humor into comments to foster meaningful connections.

20:04

πŸ“ Advice for Content Creation on LinkedIn

Tess offers advice for those starting out with content creation on LinkedIn. She emphasizes the importance of defining clear content pillars and niching down to provide consistent, focused value to the audience. Tess also encourages bravery in putting oneself out there, as creating content leaves a legacy and helps clarify thought processes. She suggests that even if the goal is not business-related, building a personal brand on LinkedIn can open up future opportunities.

25:05

πŸ”— Connect with Tess

Tess invites listeners to connect with her on LinkedIn and visit her company's website, Delphinium Solutions, for more information about her services and content. She expresses her willingness to engage with those who reach out and provide value through her expertise.

Mindmap

Keywords

πŸ’‘Landing Page

A landing page is a standalone web page distinct from the main website, designed to capture visitor attention and guide them towards a specific action, such as making a purchase or filling out a form. In the context of the video, Tess emphasizes treating landing pages as a 'sandbox' to test content, messaging, and value propositions before informing the design and optimization of the entire website strategy. She provides a framework for creating a 'primary manifestor' landing page that communicates the core offer, features, and value to the target audience.

πŸ’‘Niche Down

Niching down refers to the process of narrowing one's focus or specialization to a specific area, target audience, or service offering. Tess stresses the importance of niching down, as it allows for a more concentrated and tailored approach. She mentions that after niching down to landing page optimization and website strategy, she was able to better serve clients and attract more relevant business. Niching down helps entrepreneurs and consultants differentiate themselves and provide more targeted value.

πŸ’‘Data-Driven

A data-driven approach involves basing decisions and strategies on quantitative data and analysis, rather than relying solely on opinions or assumptions. Tess advocates for using landing pages as a data-driven way to test messaging, features, and value propositions before updating the main website. By analyzing visitor interactions and conversions on landing pages, marketers can make informed decisions about what resonates with their target audience and apply those insights to improve the overall website experience.

πŸ’‘Personal Branding

Personal branding refers to the conscious effort to establish and promote a specific persona or image for oneself, often through content creation and social media presence. Tess discusses how her active presence and content sharing on LinkedIn have significantly contributed to her business growth and inbound leads. By consistently providing valuable insights and building a following, individuals can establish themselves as thought leaders and increase their visibility and credibility within their industry.

πŸ’‘Content Pillars

Content pillars are the core themes or topics around which an individual or business structures their content strategy and messaging. Tess advises aspiring content creators to identify three content pillars and consistently produce content within those focused areas. By maintaining a clear and consistent subject matter, audiences know what to expect, and the creator can reinforce their expertise and value proposition more effectively.

πŸ’‘Champion

In a business context, a champion refers to an influential individual within an organization who advocates for and supports the adoption of a particular product, service, or initiative. Tess emphasizes the importance of equipping champions with the necessary information and resources to make a compelling business case for implementing marketing tools or strategies. By providing data, cost-benefit analyses, and clear value propositions, champions can more effectively sell the initiative internally and secure buy-in from decision-makers.

πŸ’‘Platform to Pipeline

Platform to pipeline is a reporting framework that Tess employs to track and analyze the entire marketing and sales funnel, from initial platform metrics (impressions, clicks, conversion rates) to pipeline metrics (meetings, opportunities, revenue). This comprehensive approach ensures that decisions are not made based on vanity metrics alone but rather by evaluating the impact on actual business outcomes and revenue generation. It helps identify which initiatives are truly driving quality leads and pipeline, allowing for more effective resource allocation.

πŸ’‘Buyer Persona

A buyer persona is a semi-fictional representation of an ideal customer based on market research and data about existing customers. However, Tess challenges the traditional notion of relying solely on buyer personas, suggesting that it's more effective to consider the situations and contexts in which a brand or product will be evaluated and discussed. This approach involves mentally placing oneself in the room where internal champions are pitching the product against competitors, and tailoring the messaging and value proposition accordingly.

πŸ’‘Evergreen Content

Evergreen content refers to content that remains relevant and valuable over an extended period of time, as opposed to being time-sensitive or quickly outdated. Tess mentions the potential of creating evergreen video content on platforms like YouTube, where her marketing frameworks and foundational concepts can be showcased and optimized for search engine visibility. Evergreen content can serve as a long-lasting resource for both current and future audiences.

πŸ’‘Brand Equity

Brand equity refers to the commercial value derived from consumer perception of and attachment to a brand. Tess highlights how consistently creating and sharing valuable content on platforms like LinkedIn can help build significant brand equity for individuals. By establishing thought leadership and a strong personal brand, professionals can increase their visibility, credibility, and leverage when seeking new opportunities or clients. Strong brand equity can differentiate individuals and provide a competitive advantage in their respective fields.

Highlights

Tess shares her journey from working in-house for 15 years in B2B marketing to starting her own consultancy focused on treating landing pages as a sandbox to inform website strategy.

Tess emphasizes the importance of creating a primary landing page that tells users why a product was built, for whom, the key features, outcomes, and reasons to trust the company.

Instead of having stakeholders' opinions dictate the homepage content, Tess uses data from landing pages to inform the homepage and make it more user-focused.

Tess recommends reporting on both platform metrics (impressions, clicks, conversion rates) and pipeline metrics (meetings, opportunities, revenue) to get a holistic view of campaign performance.

Tess suggests equipping internal champions with resources to make a strong business case for adopting a product or solution, rather than just selling to them directly.

Around 70% of Tess's business comes from posting on LinkedIn, while 30% comes from referrals, highlighting the impact of her LinkedIn presence.

Tess spends time creating visually appealing graphics that represent her ideas, as these tend to perform better on LinkedIn and provide more value to her audience.

Tess intentionally interacts with a set list of connections on LinkedIn, focusing on those who provide valuable content and insights that she can learn from.

Tess suggests having a clear goal and identifying three content pillars to focus on when starting out on LinkedIn, rather than posting about random topics.

For those posting on LinkedIn for fun or personal branding, Tess highlights the potential to build brand equity and options for future opportunities.

Tess advises against dismissing content creation as cringeworthy, as it takes bravery to put oneself out there and leave a lasting legacy of expertise.

Tess recommends considering platforms like YouTube for creating evergreen video content optimized for SEO, as a complement to her LinkedIn presence.

Tess emphasizes the importance of niching down and focusing on a specific area to truly provide value and stand out in one's field.

Tess advocates for providing value and expertise for free, as it helps evangelize better marketing practices and positions oneself as a thought leader.

Tess shares her approach to engaging with others on LinkedIn, which involves maintaining a balance between serious, knowledge-sharing posts and more lighthearted, personable comments and interactions.

Transcripts

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hey what up Tess how you doing good how

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are you I'm doing well I cannot complain

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happy to have you on the show I know I

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had your arch nemesis Uh Kevin on a

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couple episodes

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so it'll be good good to follow it up

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and uh I'm excited to see all the

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comments that he leaves on this episode

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when we post it so he's an easy act to

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follow though so I'm not worried hey

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there we go um cool so give people you

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know a little context on I guess what

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you do your situation I know you were

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inhouse for a long time but now you have

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your own consultancy I guess we we'll

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call it what has the journey been to

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date and what do you offer now from a

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service standpoint yeah so for the last

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15 years I've worked um in B2B marketing

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accidentally or not and so I've been

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inhouse for 99% of my career and over

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the last six months have been running my

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consultancy at first it started as a

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fractional digital marketing lead but

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then companies were like well what what

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do I hire you for what's the burning

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problem and I got to speak to so many

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people who are doing stuff on their own

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right now including Anthony Pierry you

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should totally have him on the show by

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the way if you haven't already but

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Anthony has yelled at me multiple times

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about writing more about marketing and

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then he's like you need to Niche down

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and so I did and I married kind of my

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website experience with the 400 websites

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that I've managed and touched in my

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career with the digital side because

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I've managed the digital departments for

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a few B2B companies and this was a way

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to Showcase both but essentially I

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wanted to create a product and it sounds

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like landing pages sounded sound so

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rudimentary because it's like oh I can

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find a landing page specialist anywhere

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and I'm like that's not the point the

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point is treating the landing page like

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a Sandbox to inform your entire website

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strategy so how can you send a focused

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amount of traffic to a page see what

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resonates and then inform your homepage

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your product pages your demo Pages your

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pricing pages so there's a larger value

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that comes with that from someone who's

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worked in the space and actually since

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niching down it's been quite incredible

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I've been able to help a lot of

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companies and doubling down so if you're

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on your own definitely Niche down I love

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it yeah it's so true right the landing

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page I think people either just go one

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the either put it as like a subtask and

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it just kind of gets done when it gets

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done by a web dev team two they hire a

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designer not thinking about the copy and

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really shifting that process to think

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about it like on a first date if you

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showed up to the date you got to show

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okay I got to put enough out there

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enough information does this person want

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to come for a second date maybe I talk

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about some of my interest maybe what I'm

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into what I'm not what I can offer all

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these different things right I want to

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have be buttoned up take a shower that

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day I don't know all of those things and

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it's like a lot of those can be mirrored

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in in like a Business website it's the

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first interaction for a lot of times for

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a lot of people after clicking an ad and

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it's like there's such a disconnect I

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find from ads to the Lander to then the

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website experience is maybe so talk

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to me about how you go in now and the

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landing page can act as really this you

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know vessel to take the customer to

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different parts of the site but talk to

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me about marrying that whole experience

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from that first brand touch point with

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an ad and clicking that all the way

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through you know to hitting a contact us

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and booking and become a lead how do you

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marry you know that experience for the

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consumer so I have essentially six

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Frameworks that I came up with but the

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most important one is called like the

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primary manifestor your primary offer

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and in essence it's a landing page that

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will tell the user why you built the

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thing for who so that what are the

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outcomes talk about the features like

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maybe top three or four features that

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help a specific use case why people

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should trust you and in essence people

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will say hey Tas but that sounds like

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what the homepage should do yeah it does

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sound like what the homepage should do

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but the whole point is to send now

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traffic that you control via an ads

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platform you have your segmentation you

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can send your ICP there once your ICP is

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there now you can see how they're

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interacting with the content and now you

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can take this data driven approach to

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updating the homepage because what

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happens on the main website is that it

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is a quilt experience of all the

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stakeholders opinions right the homepage

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is HR wants our Awards on there product

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wants us to feature dump the CEO wants

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his picture on there and so it just

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becomes the stakeholder mesh versus

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making it conducive for the user you

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want to change one thing you got to get

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15 approvals so running it through a

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landing page exercise coming to them and

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saying hey we need to change the

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homepage and they say why or no we

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should do this and you're like well we

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tested this and this is what we see and

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these are the features that resonate the

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most the pain points that do the

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testimonials that do and now you can

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slowly inform the homepage Based on data

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and and then you don't look like someone

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who's just adding to the opinion pile

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you actually have something to back it

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up so that's kind of the the methodology

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that I came up with in order to do that

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and then you can reverse engineer that

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to the ads where you are essentially

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promising right you've promised them

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something they ad now you're delivering

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that on the landing page and I think

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that's the disconnect most people find

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it's like Old Navy advertising pants and

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then they dump you on their homepage

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like that's a problem right 44% of be

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add clicks go to the homepage that is

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the absolute wrong place for it to go

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yeah the message it's such a it's a

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misalignment of resources too putting

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all this money into the the spend and

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distribution but then not into actually

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where that traffic goes it's so

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interesting and I think you hit on

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something really important there which

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is especially with the website homepage

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that yeah a homepage should you know

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follow the structure of problem customer

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faces Stakes if they don't address it

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Stakes if they do how your product

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solves you know said problem sure pick

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any framework write it but that sounds

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easy to do but the minute there's a

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million stakeholders involved and a

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CEO's ego and HR it becomes for lack of

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a better term a cluster and the

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homepage turns into look how great we

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are look how great we are look how great

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we are feature one two three that

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doesn't serve any consumer and landing

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pages let you test that with you know

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copywriting Frameworks with different

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problems Etc and then bring that data

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back to be like yeah that consumers

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don't care about our Awards and here's

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the data that shows it because like you

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said otherwise it's just this opinion

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pile and it chefs in the kitchen and the

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amount of wasted time and resource and

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energy going in when people start

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arguing opinions on design it's like oh

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this is going

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nowhere that being said do you have

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metrics that you lean into outside of

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lead generation to test the viability of

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pages yeah so there are vanity metrics

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right which they get a bad repap but I

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do this reporting that I call platform

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to Pipeline and so from the platform

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that's like on stage right it's the

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Impressions clicks your conversion rates

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that kind of stuff and those little

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things tell you what to troubleshoot

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first so for example if you get a ton of

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Impressions but not a lot of clicks you

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know that there's some adjustment in the

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ad copy that needs to happen right

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you're not going to run to your sales

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team and be like hey there's a problem

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here we're not getting clicks they're

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gonna be like okay what am I supposed to

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do with that so it's understanding way

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to troubleshoot the funnel when you're

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looking at the reporting full-fledged so

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one of the things I did with my agency

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partners too is expose what wasen behind

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the curtain because there could be an ad

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that's getting lower click lower

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conversion rate but they are driving

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more meetings more quality Pipeline and

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so that means you should double down

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right so it's making sure that you're

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not spending time and wasting energy on

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making bad decisions based on one piece

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of data and looking at it as a whole so

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I always help my clients do the platform

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to pipeline reporting which is front to

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the back is it working is it not working

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because if you just look at platform

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data you would have killed that program

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but that program's actually driving

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quality pipeline instead of revamping

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that program and seeing how can we up

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the conversion rate so we can get more

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quality pipeline because this program is

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actually working behind the scenes so I

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look at everything from what's on stage

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with the in platform metrics and then

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the pipeline metrics which is now

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whatever the company looks at right like

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meetings ICP percentage you know net new

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if that's what they want to look at

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opportunities and uh Pipeline and

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hopefully closed one Revenue as well

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yeah and then looking at churn even

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adding that on to be like are we

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marketing what we're selling does our

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product actually do or what we say I'm

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with you though on I think people hate

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on vanity metrics and to me I'm like

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they're all signals the idea that

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someone's going to make a linear

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purchase on six or seven figure software

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license is a hilarious concept and I'd

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even say having an ICP or having like oh

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our our persona it's like on the flip

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side the brand side you've been in

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there's 13 personas usually at the

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decision- making table so I've now moved

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to thinking more about what's the

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situation in which my like maybe not the

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buyer Persona per se but what are the

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situations in which my brand or the

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brand will be spoken about or evaluated

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okay it's going to be in an internal

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conference room someone has to be armed

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to pitch our product against a

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competitor and putting oursel mentally

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in that room is going to help way more

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than being like John has two kids and

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has a dog and makes 200k a year right so

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it's that next Evolution and I love that

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platform to pipeline about really that

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whole thing yeah very very cool in that

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regard yeah and I think the Persona

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thing is flawed right I mean it can help

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inform some of the audience targeting

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and stuff but I don't think I've ever

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been like okay now what is Sarah

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thinking about but I think the the

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biggest thing is you are equipping your

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Champion whoever that is with the

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information in order for them to make

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the business case when I was internal I

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had to do so many business cases to get

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any tool small or large the partners

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that help me formulate that business

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case and it could be like a five slide

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deck like five-page deck that was the

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goals why I'm identifying a problem that

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I need to solve why this tool does it

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giving them the options for here are

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some manual ways I could do it but this

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tool can also help us and so evaluating

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against like a bootstrapped way to do it

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another competitor and this this is how

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you know this is how much resources it

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would take this is how much money and

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budget and this is how quickly we can

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move with each option the partners that

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help me do that are the ones who won and

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so now I I think that that should be a

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part of the process where you not only

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sell to the champion but you're going to

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help them make that business case

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because they're not always the ones

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signing check you have like a boss that

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needs to sign off on the decision now

play10:44

you have the CFO involved in every

play10:46

financial decision marketing's making

play10:48

how do you help them make that case to

play10:50

the uppers and it's the same thing if

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someone's listening to this and they're

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direct a consumer it's the exact same

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thing you need to equip the husband to

play10:58

sell

play10:59

the reason he needs a new TV to his

play11:02

partner like it's the exact same concept

play11:05

we can stretch it across but it's so

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true he how can you equip the internal

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Champion that person who does believe

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with enough to go and actually because

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they're the ones ultimately selling for

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you when it comes down to it which is is

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interesting so making sure that they

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have the the appropriate uh resources

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and information to do so very very uh

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very important now all this is great and

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you've moved now to having this cons y

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but one of the things that be remiss if

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we didn't bring up is you are very

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active on LinkedIn building a you know I

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hate the word personal brand just being

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yourself on social media I guess how

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impactful has that been and then two how

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much time are you putting into creating

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content and being active on LinkedIn

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yeah so in terms of impact it's been

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high I would say that about 70% of my

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business comes from me posting on

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LinkedIn and about 30% are in referrals

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either from existing clients previous

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companies I've worked at other peers who

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see my content and then they refer me

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even though they've never worked with me

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so that's been awesome and uh so I can't

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deny the impact and when I first started

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on LinkedIn that was not my goal at all

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it was a creative exercise I was working

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in-house at a company and I just wanted

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to write and I thought a public setting

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would be great to get some feedback on

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writing because that's what I went to

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school for it was great and I got a lot

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of feedback and it just became this like

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side hobby for me that eventually gave

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me options when I went out on my own to

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you know create a business I that that

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was never ever on my road map ever but

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I'm glad that it happened and then in

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terms of how much time it takes a lot of

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time I mean I have two kids under four

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I'm busy and do I post every day

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honestly I can't if I post three to four

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times a week it's a good week for me but

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the content that I do put out I don't

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try to willy-nilly it because what I've

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seen that works is with something like

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mine Graphics tend to work a lot better

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when I visually can represent the

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information I'm trying to get across

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those tend to do a lot better well

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Graphics take a lot of time so sometimes

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it could be two hours that I'd work on a

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single graphic but I'd post that and it

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will pay me dividends for a couple of

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days at a time so it's almost like I let

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it breathe it helps me build some time

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until I come up with the next idea that

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I can visually represent as best as I

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can those always tend to do really well

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and provide people with a lot of value

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so that's kind of how I focus my time I

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don't try to stick to a number of times

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per week and stress myself out it's kind

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of like when I'm able to I have a

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conversation I'm like this is going to

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be a great topic that other people can

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benefit from then I'm going to do it so

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that's how I think about content as well

play13:53

I try not to overdo it and have the

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strict schedule that I can't stick to

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I also find like those schedules and

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folks who do that no shade but if it's

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so strict eventually the content is

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going to become mediocre and it becomes

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more of I need to fill this calendar

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versus I have something to say you see a

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lot of that can Bey on there so I'm with

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you and for those listening there's

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something with LinkedIn that I really

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like just from a technical side of it is

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the algorithm your content has way a way

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longer uh lifespan so people can see

play14:25

stuff that's a week two weeks old so if

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you're thinking like I don't have time

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to post I tell people I'm like post once

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a week post twice a month and that

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content will if it's good continue to be

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seen where other platform such as you

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know X that you're looking at a 24-hour

play14:39

window before that's up and smoke so

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working on a graphic for you know X

play14:44

Twitter might not have that same return

play14:46

doesn't I don't believe as LinkedIn so

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that's something that's uh definitely to

play14:49

be considered you know for anyone who's

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thinking about posting now do you

play14:53

posting is one part commenting is

play14:55

another part it's huge engaging DMS

play14:57

commenting how are you managing the

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relationship building side of LinkedIn

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without becoming a person who's like

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yeah awesome high five good job you know

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on on content how do you make sure that

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you can keep it you know real and really

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actually build those relationships I'm

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an extrovert by nature and building

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relationships actually comes quite easy

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to me because I walk in with zero agenda

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I'm not like this person's the head of

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marketing at this company so I'm going

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to just really kiss ass and and

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hopefully they'll hire me it's not about

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that I give away a lot of value for free

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whether it's publicly or even in the DM

play15:36

so if they have a burning problem

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they're going to ask me I'm not going to

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be like yeah sign up for my $250 power

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hour and I'll tell you I am just like

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what's your question does it take me two

play15:45

minutes yeah I'm just going to tell you

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because I just want to evangelize a

play15:49

better way to do marketing because B2B

play15:51

Marketing in essence sucks you know

play15:53

we're still operating from these 1997

play15:55

playbooks I've worked at companies that

play15:57

did that I see it all the time and I'm

play16:00

just kind of tired of it and you know

play16:02

what's the saying be the change you want

play16:04

to see in the world so for me that's

play16:07

just evangelizing a better way it just

play16:09

makes you a better human as well and so

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for me the commenting strategy is I try

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to cap myself because you could spend

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all day on LinkedIn and so in the

play16:19

mornings you know I give myself an hour

play16:22

to engage with a lot of the folks who I

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show support to or who are kind of in my

play16:28

marketing Niche and so this could be

play16:30

other creators this could be people at

play16:32

company thought leaders and that kind of

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stuff I don't spend a lot of time

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scrolling I feel like that's a black

play16:38

hole you can get into I have a lot of

play16:40

connections now who I'm not you know on

play16:43

like a necessarily a first name basis

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with just because I've been doing it for

play16:47

a while and so I think that can become a

play16:50

situation where you could spend two or

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three hours just scrolling and

play16:53

commenting on stuff so I'm very

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intentional with who I interact with and

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every once in a while if someone shows

play17:00

up on the top of my feed I'll comment on

play17:02

that but most of the time I have a set

play17:05

list of people that I interact with

play17:07

because I trust that their content is

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going to deliver a lot of value I'm

play17:11

going to learn something every day and

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those are the people that I show up for

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I absorb their content more like my

play17:16

daily reading and just think about

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interesting ideas to apply to my

play17:20

business so that's kind of how I focus

play17:21

there and then the other piece is I I

play17:23

try to have a lot of fun um my posts are

play17:26

pretty serious and very showcase of

play17:29

knowledge and expertise but I call it

play17:31

like the LinkedIn mullet where I'm very

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business with my posts and I'm party

play17:36

with my you know with my comments and so

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I love to troll people and sometimes I'm

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like ah I don't always have something

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valuable to say but I'll make a joke and

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and then it's a hit and it gets a

play17:46

conversation going and that's kind of my

play17:49

my strategy to just like have fun we're

play17:51

all people on that we don't have to be

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these like professional robots you know

play17:56

show a little personality people will

play17:57

notice shows you're a real person

play17:59

especially with the amount of people

play18:00

using like AI commenting and yeah it's

play18:04

out of hand AI commenting and hiring a

play18:06

VA to do your comment it's all out of

play18:08

hand it's uh it's it's gotten it's off

play18:11

the d-bend um for sure so that's that's

play18:14

awesome I really like putting the time

play18:16

the you know binding yourself with time

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to say I have an hour to do this and

play18:19

just seeing you know how that can help

play18:21

the business right it it really does

play18:23

separate you from other people in a way

play18:26

that it just keeps you top of mind when

play18:27

people eventually have that problem

play18:29

there's also another thing with LinkedIn

play18:31

that I think doesn't get discussed

play18:32

enough amongst creators is context of

play18:34

seeing the content so the user opens up

play18:37

LinkedIn because they're thinking about

play18:38

their career or their business from a

play18:41

like they clicked on that little Li

play18:43

versus the Tik Tok or Instagram because

play18:45

they're they're thinking in a different

play18:47

like a different want different need

play18:48

they're in a different mindset you know

play18:50

I used to create for Instagram and do

play18:51

all these things so much time to create

play18:53

a video for Instagram and I realized

play18:56

it's like all my friends seeing it

play18:58

right so it was like oh I need to

play19:00

separate what my fun social is from my

play19:02

work social now my Instagram is like

play19:04

photos of my dog do you post on other

play19:07

platforms or use other platforms I do

play19:09

not I barely have time for LinkedIn but

play19:13

my second consideration I was talking to

play19:15

uh Lee Lewis you should definitely have

play19:17

her on the show as well but I was

play19:19

talking to her about it and we both

play19:21

talked about potentially doing even just

play19:24

like 8 to 10 videos on YouTube they're

play19:27

Everlasting they're optimized for SEO

play19:30

people will search for stuff on there

play19:32

and just showcasing our Frameworks and

play19:34

stuff for free there so people actually

play19:35

have a reference point and just letting

play19:38

that kind of sit so if I were to adopt a

play19:40

second platform I'd go that route before

play19:42

I went another social media platform so

play19:45

it's just a matter of finding the time

play19:47

to do it and making sure that I have

play19:49

something that's lifelong on there

play19:50

because one of the things is that I am

play19:52

pretty early stage right six months in

play19:55

and so my Frameworks have adapted a lot

play19:58

and I just don't want to don't want it

play20:00

to be a situation where going back and

play20:01

updating it constantly on a platform as

play20:04

well I can almost test the concepts on

play20:06

LinkedIn a lot faster and get that

play20:09

feedback loop going and then have

play20:11

YouTube handle more of the foundational

play20:13

elements that I want to be kind of

play20:15

Evergreen but I'm still just kind of

play20:17

refining what those are right now yeah I

play20:19

like that if you're going to do things

play20:21

like video thinking in you know terms of

play20:23

permanency where can you create

play20:25

something that this video this video

play20:27

we're doing right now is going to go on

play20:28

LinkedIn or sorry on Youtube it'll be

play20:30

there forever you know and people can

play20:32

search your name my name see it and I'm

play20:35

a big fan of that from a video

play20:38

standpoint but creating fleeting video

play20:41

that is very uh juice doesn't equal to

play20:43

squeeze for me when it comes to that I'm

play20:46

with you cool now before I let you go

play20:48

any advice you give to somebody who's

play20:51

you know starting out on LinkedIn or

play20:53

creating content on what they should do

play20:55

where they should start my husband's

play20:57

actually trying to start start growing

play20:59

on LinkedIn and he's realizing the pains

play21:02

that I I went through when I first

play21:03

started 9 months ago and realizing that

play21:06

it's not as easy and so one of the

play21:08

things is it's easy for the lurkers and

play21:11

the people who aren't posting to point

play21:14

fingers and say it's cringy and do all

play21:16

of those things but in my opinion

play21:18

posting content and posting your

play21:20

expertise out there is is an act of

play21:22

Bravery because it is scary to put

play21:25

yourself out there you're opening

play21:26

yourself up to

play21:28

heavy scrutiny validation too but heavy

play21:31

scrutiny and but you're leaving a legacy

play21:34

behind right cuz now I have years worth

play21:37

of content that I've written I mean if

play21:38

you think about nine months at three to

play21:40

four times a week I have stuff that I

play21:42

didn't even know I knew about that I

play21:45

posted and the amount that I've learned

play21:48

in that time just Clarity of thought

play21:50

like you can ask me about landing pages

play21:51

today you can ask me about a compelling

play21:53

CTA or ads distribution and I've already

play21:55

thought about these things because I've

play21:56

posted them so so you can articulate

play21:59

your thoughts a lot better and it is a

play22:01

it is a difficult thing to do and keep

play22:03

doing it's like how do you come up with

play22:04

ideas every single week but it does take

play22:07

a lot of practice and ironically it gets

play22:10

easier over time to keep putting

play22:13

yourself out there and you learn what

play22:14

works you learn what doesn't work and

play22:16

you keep putting it out there I think

play22:17

the biggest thing before you even start

play22:19

though is to figure out what is your

play22:21

goal my goal was never to start a

play22:24

business but once I started a business I

play22:26

knew that I needed to be a lot more

play22:28

focused with my content in order to

play22:31

drive more inbound drive more

play22:32

conversations that had meaningful

play22:34

Financial impact I mean no one's doing

play22:36

this for nonprofit here you know we all

play22:39

are in for-profit businesses but that's

play22:42

when the the stuff change so I would say

play22:44

if you're focusing on helping build your

play22:46

business pick three content pillars that

play22:49

you want to talk about and stick to

play22:50

those three people need to know what to

play22:52

expect from you rather than one day

play22:54

you're posting about your dog the next

play22:56

day you're talking about a reporting

play22:59

dashboard and then the next day you're

play23:00

talking about events I mean like they're

play23:02

all discombobulated they're not going to

play23:05

understand what you're offering so be

play23:07

very very clear about that and then

play23:09

secondly if you are on your own and

play23:11

working through stuff always Niche down

play23:13

that's it was so uncomfortable for me to

play23:15

do so but there really is riches and

play23:17

niches so I would definitely try to do

play23:21

something around that but if you're

play23:22

posting just for fun there's tons of

play23:24

CMOS there's tons of uh CEOs heads of

play23:27

marketing who are posting and they're

play23:29

in-house they don't want to necessarily

play23:31

advise other companies but what it does

play23:33

is it gives you options because now when

play23:36

that announcement post comes at some

play23:37

point where you're saying hey I'm moving

play23:39

on to my next opportunity you're going

play23:42

to have so much brand Equity that people

play23:44

come to you you're not going to be

play23:46

competing with a thousand of your best

play23:48

friends for the next application for the

play23:50

next head of marketing it's going to

play23:52

give you options so cringe or no cringe

play23:55

in the beginning all my friends were

play23:56

like oh it's so cringey and now they're

play23:57

like oh you're LinkedIn Powerhouse

play23:59

you're on all these pods and you're

play24:00

posting I love your content so that

play24:03

mindset changes so you just want to

play24:05

drown out the noise and just know what

play24:07

your goals are and focus on doing that

play24:09

because there's no downside to building

play24:11

any brand equity and I have never met a

play24:14

person who's had success online call

play24:17

another person creating content cringe

play24:18

it's always someone who's never done

play24:20

anything so that's my thing is nobody

play24:22

punches down I'm like oh okay anytime I

play24:26

felt that way it's always been I'm like

play24:28

oh it's somebody who's never posted is

play24:30

being like commenting on my video with

play24:32

some hate and they're really just

play24:33

projecting some versus yeah

play24:35

handling their own so I'm with you there

play24:38

and people who want to get started yeah

play24:40

I think that's a great uh you know

play24:42

framework you've set up there if people

play24:44

want to connect with you on LinkedIn or

play24:46

your website where uh where's best

play24:49

LinkedIn is best even though I have my

play24:51

company uh the name's Delphinium

play24:54

Solutions but even though I have my

play24:55

company I am the company you know I'm a

play24:58

I'm the human behind the brand so come

play25:01

connect with me on LinkedIn I love

play25:03

talking to people send me a message tell

play25:05

me that you uh heard us on the podcast

play25:07

that would be so meaningful to me and if

play25:10

you do want to visit my website and see

play25:11

more about what I what I do it's

play25:13

Delphinium solutions.com also linkable

play25:16

from my LinkedIn profile so you can just

play25:18

kind of go there and do some exploring

play25:20

and let me know if you know you see any

play25:23

content that you like or have any

play25:24

questions I'm happy to answer amazing

play25:26

and I'll put a link uh to both those in

play25:28

the show notes page Tas thank you so

play25:30

much for coming on today thank you for

play25:32

having me all right everybody that's it

play25:34

for this episode as always I'm your host

play25:35

Jordan Shelton and I'll catch you next

play25:37

time

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