His Secret To Blow Up On LinkedIn In 2024

Summary

In this 'Creative Elements' episode, host Jay Clouse interviews Austin Belsack, a LinkedIn influencer with 1.3 million followers. They discuss Austin's journey from a misdirected college graduate to a successful entrepreneur, leveraging LinkedIn for growth. The conversation covers overcoming fears, the importance of aligning with one's aspirations, and the strategy behind Austin's content creation. They delve into the power of networking, the evolution of Austin's posting habits, and his data-driven approach to understanding what resonates with his audience on the platform.

Takeaways

• 😀 Austin Belsack's success on LinkedIn is rooted in his data-driven approach to content creation.
• 😀 Austin's content fits well with LinkedIn's platform, helping him garner over 1.3 million followers.
• 😀 Despite starting with no clear career direction, Austin found alignment and success by shifting his focus to tech companies.
• 😀 Networking and referrals were crucial in Austin's job search strategy, leading to interviews and a position at Microsoft.
• 😀 Austin's LinkedIn content strategy evolved from long-form blog posts to short-form text posts, adapting to algorithm changes.
• 😀 Consistency in posting content on LinkedIn (five times a week) contributed significantly to Austin's growth.
• 😀 Gamifying the networking process helped Austin manage anxiety and improve his outreach effectiveness.
• 😀 Building relationships with other creators and leveraging their feedback played a key role in Austin's continuous improvement.
• 😀 Austin emphasizes the importance of taking advice from people who have achieved what you aim for, rather than from well-meaning but inexperienced sources.
• 😀 Authenticity and genuinely adding value to relationships are central to Austin's approach to networking and content creation.

Q & A

What was Austin Belsack's initial fear when he started using LinkedIn?

Austin was scared about what his employer, friends, and people on the internet would say. He had a lot of fear but recognized that LinkedIn was a clear path to major growth.

How did Austin's experience with a newsletter on LinkedIn contribute to his success?

Austin started a newsletter on LinkedIn as part of their beta program about two years ago. The growth was significant, with hundreds of subscribers per week, eventually reaching over 34,000 subscribers.

What was Austin's background before he became a successful content creator on LinkedIn?

Austin had a background in SEO and marketing, and he had been writing long-form blog posts about job search strategies. He had also gone through a traditional job search process and had to find an alternative way to land interviews at big tech companies.

What advice did Austin receive that significantly impacted his job search strategy?

Austin received advice from a friend to stop taking advice from people who haven't walked the path he's looking to walk. This led him to seek out people who had successfully made similar career transitions and learn from their strategies.

How did Austin's approach to content creation on LinkedIn evolve over time?

Austin initially struggled with creating content that fit within LinkedIn's character limit. He built a backlog of 30 to 50 posts to alleviate the pressure of daily content creation. Over time, he found a cadence that worked for him, posting five times a week on LinkedIn and once a day on Twitter.

What is Austin's current posting cadence on LinkedIn and Twitter?

Austin posts one post a day, five days a week on LinkedIn, taking the weekends off. On Twitter, he posts one tweet a day and one thread per week.

What is the minimum viable cadence Austin suggests for new creators on LinkedIn?

Austin suggests that the minimum viable cadence is probably three posts per week to start seeing meaningful traction.

How does Austin leverage data to drive his content creation on LinkedIn?

Austin keeps a spreadsheet to track the performance of his posts, looking at character count, hook rating, post structure, and themes. He aggregates this data to create a checklist that helps him align future posts with what has been successful.

What was Austin's reaction when he saw his face suggested as someone to follow on LinkedIn alongside well-known figures like Bill Gates and Satya Nadella?

Austin described it as insanity and surreal. He still finds it hard to believe and it never gets old. He considers himself a regular person and doesn't think of himself any differently than when he started on LinkedIn.

How does Austin approach relationships and collaboration with other creators?

Austin enjoys building relationships with like-minded creators. He finds joy in connecting with people who share his values and interests. He also sees these relationships as opportunities for learning, growing, and getting new ideas.

What is Austin's view on using a CRM for managing relationships?

Austin used to use a Google sheet as a CRM for relationships, tracking contact details, dates, and notes. He doesn't use it now, but he believes that having a CRM doesn't make relationships any less authentic; it's the approach to the relationship that matters.

Outlines

00:00

😨 Overcoming Fear and Embracing LinkedIn

The speaker discusses his initial fear of using LinkedIn, worrying about the reactions from employers, friends, and the public. Despite the fear, he shares his success with a LinkedIn newsletter and introduces Austin Belsack, who has 1.3 million followers on the platform. Austin's journey began in college, where he struggled with traditional career paths and eventually realized the need for better job alignment. This led him to explore opportunities in tech and eventually succeed on LinkedIn by sharing his experiences and helping others find jobs without traditional applications.

05:01

🌟 The Narrowing Scope of Dreams

Reflecting on childhood dreams and how societal expectations narrow acceptable career choices as we grow older, the speaker notes how aspirations like being a writer are often dismissed as unrealistic. The speaker's clarity about wanting to be an entrepreneur from a young age led him to pursue skills in digital marketing and work for companies to build expertise. Initially following traditional job application advice, he realized it wasn't effective and instead sought guidance from those who had successfully navigated non-traditional career paths.

10:02

🔄 Reinventing the Job Search Process

The speaker recounts his attempts to secure a job through traditional applications, which yielded no results. Disillusioned by the advice from well-meaning but uninformed sources, he shifted his approach by seeking advice from individuals who had achieved the goals he aspired to. This led to a targeted job search strategy focusing on referrals and showcasing his value creatively, ultimately resulting in interviews at top tech companies and a job offer from Microsoft. The lessons learned in this process were instrumental in his entrepreneurial and content creation journey.

15:03

🚀 The Power of Following the Right Advice

Highlighting the importance of taking advice from people who have achieved what you aspire to, the speaker shares his experiences of being discouraged by well-meaning but misguided advice. He emphasizes the need to seek out mentors who have successfully navigated similar paths and to use their insights to fuel one's own efforts. Personal anecdotes illustrate how external opinions, often driven by others' limitations or envy, can misguide us, and the value of using criticism as motivation to persevere.

20:04

💼 The Shift from Traditional Career Paths

The speaker details his journey of exploring various entrepreneurial ventures, from a music blog to an apparel company, learning valuable lessons from each failure. The turning point came with a blog post that gained significant traction, validating his alternative job search methods. This experience underscored the importance of persistence, experimentation, and the willingness to pivot, which eventually led to a successful content creation career on LinkedIn.

25:06

📅 Building a Consistent Content Strategy

Describing the struggle to create consistent content on LinkedIn, the speaker shares his method of building a backlog of posts before actively posting on the platform. This approach reduced anxiety and ensured a steady stream of content, leading to a successful posting cadence of five times a week. The speaker emphasizes the importance of developing a habit, focusing on volume first, and refining quality over time to achieve long-term success in content creation.

30:06

📊 Data-Driven Content Creation

The speaker reveals his meticulous process for analyzing and improving LinkedIn content, emphasizing the importance of data in identifying successful post characteristics. By manually tracking and categorizing post performance, he adjusts his strategy to align with what resonates most with his audience. This data-driven approach allows for continuous refinement and adaptation to changing trends, ensuring consistent engagement and growth on the platform.

35:08

🔍 Experimenting with New Content Formats

The speaker discusses experimenting with new content formats, such as using carousels to share tweet threads on LinkedIn, which has shown promising results in terms of engagement. This approach is part of a broader strategy to test and adapt to emerging trends while being mindful of audience preferences and platform dynamics. The speaker plans to continue experimenting with this format while balancing it with other content to maintain audience interest.

40:09

🤝 Building Meaningful Relationships with Creators

The speaker highlights the importance of fostering genuine relationships with other creators, viewing content creation as a form of large-scale networking. He values the exchange of ideas and support that comes from connecting with like-minded individuals. By sharing insights and collaborating on content, these relationships enhance both personal and professional growth, providing a supportive community that drives success.

45:09

🔄 The Evolution of Relationship Building

Reflecting on his journey from being an introvert to mastering networking, the speaker shares how he initially gamified the process to reduce anxiety and track progress. Using a Google sheet to manage relationships helped him maintain meaningful connections. Over time, these systems became habits, enabling him to build a network that is both authentic and valuable. He stresses the importance of engaging with people who genuinely add value to one's life and work.

50:12

🎙️ The Power of Authentic Networking

In the closing paragraphs, the speaker underscores the significance of authentic relationships, emphasizing that the quality of connections matters more than the quantity. He encourages building networks based on genuine interest and mutual value, rather than transactional goals. This approach not only fosters more meaningful interactions but also contributes to long-term success and satisfaction in both personal and professional endeavors.

Keywords

💡LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a professional networking platform where users can connect, share content, and seek employment opportunities. In the video, it is highlighted as a platform that the guest, Austin Belsack, has used to grow his personal brand, amassing 1.3 million followers and hundreds of millions of views on his content. The speaker discusses how LinkedIn was initially overlooked but turned out to be instrumental in his success.

💡Fear

Fear in this context refers to the anxiety or apprehension one might feel when taking risks, such as starting a new venture or sharing personal thoughts online. The script mentions the speaker's initial fear of posting on LinkedIn, worrying about the opinions of employers, friends, and the online community, which is a common emotion for many starting on a new platform.

💡Content Creation

Content creation is the process of generating original content, such as blog posts, videos, or social media posts, to engage an audience. The video emphasizes the importance of content creation on LinkedIn, with Austin's story illustrating how consistent creation of valuable content helped him stand out and grow his following.

💡Growth

Growth in this script refers to the increase in followers, views, or overall visibility that a creator experiences on social media platforms. The video discusses Austin's 'insane' growth on LinkedIn, gaining over 34,000 newsletter subscribers and 1.3 million followers, showcasing the potential of the platform for creators.

💡Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship is the process of designing, launching, and running a new business, which often involves risk-taking and innovation. The script mentions Austin's desire to be an entrepreneur and how his journey on LinkedIn and content creation is part of building his entrepreneurial skills and brand.

💡Job Search

Job search refers to the process of looking for employment opportunities. The video's theme revolves around Austin's struggles and eventual success in finding jobs aligned with his interests and skills. His content on LinkedIn often focuses on job search strategies, providing value to his audience.

💡Networking

Networking is the act of building and maintaining relationships to exchange information and access opportunities. The script highlights the importance of networking in Austin's journey, as he leveraged connections to land interviews and later used his growing network on LinkedIn to further his career.

💡Digital Marketing

Digital marketing involves promoting products or services using digital channels such as search engines, social media, email, and websites. The video mentions tech companies like Google, Microsoft, and Meta, which are core to the digital marketing ecosystem and where Austin sought employment to learn and grow his skills.

💡Traditional Path

The traditional path in the script refers to the conventional methods of job searching, such as applying online, tweaking resumes, and writing cover letters. Austin initially followed this path without success, leading him to find alternative strategies that worked for him.

💡Data-Driven

Being data-driven means making decisions based on data analysis. The video discusses how Austin used data to understand what type of content performed best on LinkedIn, adjusting his strategy to create content that resonated with his audience and the platform's algorithm.

💡Influencer

An influencer is an individual who has the power to affect the purchasing decisions of others because of their authority, knowledge, or position in a particular area. The script mentions that Austin is one of the biggest profiles on LinkedIn, indicating his influencer status and the impact he has on his audience.

💡Cadence

Cadence in content creation refers to the frequency and regularity of posting content. The video mentions Austin's posting cadence on LinkedIn, which is five times a week, as a strategy that has contributed to his success on the platform.

💡Approval

Approval in this context refers to seeking validation or acceptance from others. The script discusses the importance of not relying on others' approval when starting a venture or pursuing a passion, as it can hinder progress and is often not necessary for success.

💡Carousel

A carousel on LinkedIn is a feature that allows users to post multiple images or slides in a single post. The video script mentions a recent trend of using carousels for posting tweet threads as images, which Austin experimented with and found success.

Highlights

The importance of overcoming fear and anxiety when starting to create content on platforms like LinkedIn.

The unexpected growth and success of a LinkedIn newsletter, reaching over 34,000 subscribers in a short period.

Austin Belsack's journey from failing college classes to landing a job at Microsoft, emphasizing persistence and creative approaches to job searching.

The realization that taking advice from the wrong people can hinder your progress, and the importance of seeking guidance from those who have achieved what you aim for.

The concept of building a backlog of content before consistently posting to reduce anxiety and maintain a steady flow of high-quality posts.

The effectiveness of data-driven content creation, using metrics to refine and improve posts on LinkedIn.

The shift in LinkedIn's algorithm and the need to adapt content strategies to maintain engagement and visibility.

The value of networking and building genuine relationships with other creators, leveraging shared knowledge and support.

The impact of personal stories and authentic content in resonating with an audience and building a loyal following.

The use of innovative formats like carousel posts on LinkedIn to increase engagement and reach.

The challenges and learning experiences from multiple failed projects before finding a successful path.

The importance of identifying and focusing on your strengths and preferred content mediums for sustainable growth.

The significance of creating a supportive and engaging community around your content for long-term success.

The strategy of using referrals and showcasing value beyond traditional resumes and cover letters to secure job interviews.

The realization that personal approval should come from within, rather than seeking validation from others.

Transcripts

i was scared man like i was worried

about what my employer would say i was

worried about what my friends would say

i would work i was worried about what

what people on the internet would say i

had all this fear

hello my friend welcome back to another

episode of creative elements i've been

spending a lot more time on linkedin

lately i think a lot of people are

sleeping on linkedin as a platform for

creators just about two years ago i

started a newsletter on linkedin as part

of their beta program and the growth was

insane i was picking up hundreds of

subscribers per week like 500

subscribers per week and today that

newsletter has more than 34 000

subscribers but that success pales in

comparison to today's guest austin

belsack austin has 1.3 million followers

on linkedin and more than hundreds of

millions of views of his content part of

the reason that austin is so successful

is just how well his content fits the

platform this company cultivated culture

helps people find jobs without applying

online and his story starts in college

when like many of us he was trying to

figure out what he wanted to be when he

grew up i really had no idea what i

wanted to do and i think that's that's

one of the disservices that our our

education system does to us is sort of

forcing us to choose

very early on and not giving us a ton of

options so with this persistent question

kind of weighing on me but no real

options for exploration i just kind of

went to what was familiar these like tv

careers um is is what my friend madeline

mann calls him she's another awesome

follow on on linkedin and other

platforms basically you know those

careers that you see on tv doctor lawyer

accountant you know so on and so forth

so i chose doctor and that made my

parents happy that made teachers happy

and made everybody else happy

didn't really make me happy so i get to

college

i fail a couple classes early on my gpa

is not in a place where you know med

schools are going to be taking a chance

on me

and i basically coast through the rest

of college because i'm pretty

disheartened and i don't know where to

go so when i graduate i end up with this

job that is totally not aligned with

anything that i want doesn't pay me

enough it's not really in an industry

that i was really psyched about it was

in healthcare

my boss was a jerk and i realized that i

needed to make this transition that lack

of alignment turned into frustration and

austin began looking for jobs that had

better alignment specifically he knew

that he wanted to be an entrepreneur one

day so we started to look at applying to

tech companies but unfortunately that

was not as easy as he thought it might

be you know think google think microsoft

meta so on and so forth all these

companies that are heavily involved and

whose products are basically the core of

the digital marketing ecosystem let me

work there let me learn let me get paid

well let me surround myself with amazing

people and then let me go figure out

that entrepreneurial thing i had 300

apps in i had five interviews none of

which came from those applications they

all came from kind of the the you know

family friend or networking or any of

that like people i already knew but most

importantly i got zero offers and the

definition of insanity right is doing

the same thing over and over again and

expecting a different result and at this

point i truly felt like i was i was

going insane which you know your

reaction kind of kind of testifies too

so austin found another way in he had a

really important conversation that we'll

talk about in the interview that helped

him to realize he was taking the wrong

advice from the wrong people he created

an entirely new process and approach for

himself that helped him land interviews

at uber twitter google and microsoft

where he eventually spent more than five

years working people began to ask him

how he landed this job at microsoft and

so he started writing on linkedin and

that is when things really took off

are you the most followed person on

linkedin i don't think so there are

definitely some other folks who have a

couple million more but they're like

celebrity people like yeah exactly it's

it's uh i remember i was helping a

friend of mine with their with their

profile and we were on linkedin and

there was like a suggested people to

follow and it was like bill gates satya

nadella and then like my face was there

and i was like this is

insanity and it's surreal like i

i'm like a regular dude like i'm not uh

i i'm not i don't think of myself any

differently than i did when i started on

linkedin and to see stuff like that

still just like blows my mind and it's

totally surreal and it also never ever

gets old but i have to pinch myself

still when i see that number it's insane

so in this episode we talk about

austin's approach to content creation

what is working today on linkedin why

good people give bad advice and why

being data driven has helped them become

one of the biggest profiles on the

platform i'd love to hear your thoughts

on this episode as you listen you can

tweet at me or find me on instagram at

jclaus tag me let me know that you're

listening or just leave a comment below

on youtube all right let's dive in let's

talk with austin

[Music]

you know when you're able to walk and

talk you're like a little tyke you go to

school you know your teachers your

parents everybody asks you what do you

want to be when you grow up and it's

like you can say anything you want

astronaut nfl quarterback you know this

out of the other thing and everybody

cheers you on but then something weird

happens like you grow up the question

persists but the scope of acceptable

answers kind of narrows a little bit

right and now all of a sudden

being a writer is is not quote realistic

right you can't really make any money

doing that and being you know any of

these things that we might be passionate

about all of a sudden our parents our

teachers they sort of say well that's

nice that's fun maybe as a hobby but why

don't you get more realistic why don't

you go pick a career or a major or

whatever it is that will actually lead

to job opportunities one thing that i

did have a lot of clarity on from a

fairly early age was that i did want to

be an entrepreneur i saw that

entrepreneurs had a lot of control over

their outcomes and didn't necessarily

have to play by all of the traditional

rules in order to see success and that

really aligned with the way that i i

thought that i operated and when i saw

all the entrepreneurs who had the

businesses that i wanted to emulate

which were mostly you know these online

entities i thought okay well i need to

get

i need to get my skills up i need to get

in the game with this digital space i

need to learn seo content marketing you

know social media i need to figure all

this stuff out i also knew that i didn't

have the business savvy or experience to

really get out there and start my own

thing just yet so i thought why don't i

go work for one of these companies that

will help me build those skills but also

allow me to live the life that i want to

live the problem was i

only knew of one system and that was the

system that basically everybody

talks about everybody teaches us which

is this traditional path of tweaking

your resume writing a cover letter

showing up on job boards every day and

applying online i did that at first

because when i wanted to make the career

change i went to all the folks that i've

typically gone to for advice and i think

all of us go to for advice right we talk

to our parents we talk to our friends we

talk to whatever resources are available

to us in my case it was you know the

alumni services and career services at

my alma mater and they all told me the

same thing which was to go buy into that

system and so that's what i did for the

first month i started tweaking my resume

i showed up on linkedin you know i

applied for these jobs i applied for

about 100 jobs in the first month and i

got absolutely nothing out of that and i

went back to all these same people and i

said well what's the deal here you know

i'm doing what you have told me to do

you're the people that i've you know

trusted and come to for advice forever

can you shed some light on what i'm

doing wrong can you give me guidance and

this was kind of the first major red

flag where everybody kind of told me

well it's a numbers game and you just

need to keep getting out there and apply

for more jobs and that was confusing to

me because i thought well

now i've already applied to all the jobs

that i actually you know really want

that i'm excited about so if you're

telling me i need to go back out there

and apply for more jobs these jobs

aren't going to be the ones that aligned

with the criteria that i'm looking for

and so

that doesn't feel great but i do want to

get the heck out of my situation so okay

let me go about this and let me double

down because

if i'm really going to commit to this

and you're saying this is the path i

need to give it a fair shot so i

basically made it a commitment to myself

to apply to 200 jobs over the next month

and around that same time i had a

conversation with somebody else who went

to wake forest where i went to school he

was working at uber and he essentially

told me you know austin look

you're doing a lot of the right stuff

but you're taking advice from the wrong

people so your parents these career

counselors they may have your best

interests in mind but they haven't

walked the path that you're looking to

to walk you know they haven't gone from

somebody who had a biology degree and

terrible grades and a job in healthcare

to working at google or whatever it is

so what you need to do is go out and

find those people so i i left that

conversation feeling energized i went

home i made a list of the criteria for

my dream job which was you know working

at one of those fang type companies

living in a major city new york la etc

making six figures a year uh being able

to work from anywhere and then finally

being able to do all that before the age

of 25 26. so i took that list and i went

to linkedin and this was kind of when i

actually first started diving deeper

into linkedin and viewing it as more

than just a digital resume but i used

the platform to go out and find people

who had landed a job at one of those

companies who met all the criteria on my

list but who also came from a

non-traditional background so i reached

out to as many of those people as i

could i learned a ton from them and i

looked for common threads and i looked

for strategies that i felt that you know

played to my strengths and that i could

leverage and basically what i realized

was if i wanted to land a job if i

wanted to make this happen there were

two core things that i needed to

basically

like bring into my job search or build

my job search around the first was

getting a referral like literally every

single person that i spoke to had gotten

a referral at one of these companies

none of them had gotten the door via

cold online application so that was the

first piece the second piece was that

almost all of them had found some sort

of creative way to illustrate their

value that went beyond the bounds of a

resume or a cover letter so some people

were creating content some people had a

portfolio site some people had these

side projects or side hustles and so i

had to go figure out my own way to do

that so those were the two kind of core

principles that i said i was going to

build my job search system around and

then i kind of made it my mission to

get out there and just tear apart this

whole process and figure out how it

worked so long story short over the next

about a year and a half i i did a lot of

trial and error i made a ton of mistakes

i failed a ton but i eventually kind of

refined this system to a place where i

could effectively pick and choose the

companies that i wanted to land

interviews at and that led to interviews

at google microsoft and twitter and then

eventually the offer at microsoft that i

accepted on their partnerships team so

at a high level that that's that's kind

of my journey there but those same

concepts that i learned in principles

and strategies especially around

networking and especially around finding

innovative ways to showcase your value

those were also core principles that i

brought with me to my entrepreneurial

journey and my journey as a creator and

i don't think that i would have been as

successful as a creator and an

entrepreneur had i not gone through

that process man something i really want

to double click on real quick this

advice you got from your friend saying

you're taking advice from the wrong

people talk to people who

already have what you're trying to get

that is so important and when you hear

that for the first time you're like

light bulb duh but we spend so much of

our lives just thinking that our parents

all these adults and authority figures

around us they have answers to any

question right but

man i wish i could download that

knowledge and give it to everybody

because so many people follow

well-meaning advice

that is not helpful because it's

basically just people who are trying to

justify the choices and the path they've

taken not necessarily contextualizing to

you or for the outcome you're actually

trying to get so i really just wanted to

underscore that for a second it's so

important

definitely it's so important to realize

that

the person who's sharing this advice

in some cases they're trying to protect

you right parents friends they don't

want to see you struggle and so

a lot of times the things that we want

most in life require

taking a bit of risk and probably

require a bit of struggle and our family

our friends they just they don't

typically want to see that for us they

want to kind of fast forward through

that and and get to the outcome but

there's no way for us to do that so it's

important to understand that it's also

important to understand that there are

people who who see your dreams and goals

and realize that they can't have those

things for themselves and they push

their limiting beliefs or they push that

jealousy on to you and just one example

of this was in my junior year i was

taking an english course and when

midterms rolled around my transcript

said that i had a d in english so i went

to the the english teacher and i said

you know what can i do here what's wrong

how can i improve and he basically told

me you know effectively

don't get a job as a writer because you

are are gonna fail at it and you'll

never have this career and writing and i

didn't want to be a writer i wasn't an

english major i actually didn't love

writing but this guy was basically

telling me you know you better find a

day job somewhere else because you're

kind of a lost cause and now you know

fast forward to where we are today you

know my content has has seen you know

hundreds of millions of views you know i

have a million plus followers on

linkedin all these other things that

have stemmed from my writing and so if i

had just listened to that person and

taken what he had said as as the truth i

would have never gone down this path but

instead i tried to look at where he was

and and what he might have gone through

and maybe he had certain aspirations of

becoming a writer himself seeing some of

these things come to fruition maybe

those didn't happen and he still landed

a great job as a professor of

of english but there might have been a

little bit of you know i couldn't do

this and so you might not be able to too

especially given the fact that you know

your writing as as as far as i see it

kind of sucks and so

i i had to come to that realization i

had to accept that what this person was

telling me wasn't necessarily my truth

and then i frankly just used it as fuel

to say all right you're telling me i

can't do this i believe that i can so

every single time i don't want to write

every single time i'm frustrated every

single time i'm thinking about giving up

i'm going to go back to that

conversation and that's the fuel that

that i'm going to use to sit down and

crank out that post or do whatever i

need to do today to keep the streak

going i hope people are really taking

this start too because this is one of

the most difficult parts that i've dealt

with as a creator that i think a lot of

creators hit this point especially when

you

find consistency and you continue to

deliver over time when you initially say

hey i'm gonna do this thing a lot of

your friends and family they show up for

you and they're excited for you at least

outwardly but as a little bit of time

passes and if you are consistent and

you're actually making progress you

start to notice that those same people

that you were happy that they were happy

for you

stop being as outwardly supportive often

and i don't think it's a conscious

malicious thing but i do think it is

that

kind of deep-seated

reckoning with their own identity of

this person is pursuing the things that

they want to do and it makes me feel bad

because i'm not doing that and in some

ways

i've seen

friends people close to me

actively like work against me in small

subtle

weather conscious or subconscious ways

and it's hard it hurts it's hard to deal

with so throwing that out to folks

listening to this who are either

experiencing that now or may come to

experience that i think it's actually

very common to experience that

100

and it's so important to know that if

you're seeking approval from others

you're and that's the basis of your

you know

you're getting started you're never

gonna start and stick with it for

as long as you need to to see the

results that you want like the

permission has to be your own and you

have to

just get out there and not worry about

other people's approval because by the

time you get that approval which you

know i'm sure at this point jay you know

those same people might come back and

say your podcast is killing it you know

i love what you're you're doing on

twitter blah blah blah and you're like

yeah but you know where were you for the

the last you know however however long

when i really needed that support i

don't need it now i have this audience i

have this community i have this amazing

podcast like i don't need your approval

anymore and that's that's what i see

time and again by the time we get to the

point where other people finally give us

their approval we don't need it and so

if you're waiting for that you're going

to be waiting a long time and you're

probably never gonna get started

after a quick break we talk about how

austin became one of the biggest

creators on the platform and later we

talk about what type of content is

working well on linkedin right now so

stick around and we'll be right back

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welcome back to my conversation with

austin belsack with 1.3 million

followers on linkedin austin is easily

one of the biggest accounts on the

platform so i asked him to walk us

through how he got here

yeah so it goes back to that that

overarching goal of wanting to be an

entrepreneur and i was always looking

for ideas so in college i started a

music blog my junior year and i think

like i think that the site got like 250

visits total like in its multi-year

lifespan before i got too busy and shut

it down but that taught me how to build

a website i built it on wordpress i did

it all myself then a couple years later

i wanted to do this apparel company

which like you know we've all had the

idea for the apparel company at some

point and uh obviously that didn't work

out but i worked with vendors and

designers and freelancers and so i got

that knowledge and then

after i graduated i wanted to build an

app and i started you know i hired a

developer we started wireframing we did

all this stuff and then three

venture-backed companies all came out

with the same app in

the span of 30 days and i was like well

you know i'm screwed so i dropped that

project but i learned a ton about

like how to build an app and and do all

this this stuff that you basically need

to learn in order to

basically be competitive in in today's

world on the internet so i had all these

failed projects and i say all that to

say that one you have to fail a lot

before you find something that clicks

but

that leads to the the idea that

eventually did work which is once i got

this job at microsoft a lot of people

kind of came out of the woodwork and

they were like austin especially they

were mostly people from college and they

were like awesome like

you never studied you had horrible

grades you worked in healthcare like

what is this how did this happen

and

first off i i laughed with them i'm like

i don't i don't know this is still like

crazy to me

but i walked them through that whole

basically what i told you like look i

was going through this traditional

process it wasn't working and so i had

to find this other way and every single

person that i spoke to kind of had the

same reaction which was like

thank you like thank you for saying this

because

i too

am going through the traditional process

and getting absolutely no results and i

didn't know there was another way to go

about it

now you've given me that other way so

after

the 20th 25th person you know reached

out to me and we had this conversation i

thought that there might be something

here so i wrote up this massive blog

post it was like 8 000 words or

something and it just chronicled

everything that i learned and the whole

system that i had built so i built

basically a one-page wordpress site the

only page was this blog post it was it

looked super low budget but i just

started contacting influential

publications and people and all that in

the industry and i sent them the article

and i basically said hey

you know you have an audience full of

job seekers who probably have the same

goal that i did they're probably

struggling with this online application

process i wrote up this whole article

that that walks through the system i

used to go from you know where i was to

microsoft and i actually got a lot of

promotion behind it so that blog post

ended up getting like 60 000 views in

the first 30 days which was wild to me

and that was the first piece of

validation that that i was like okay we

might be onto something here

so it wasn't for another couple years

that i started on linkedin i was really

into seo that's my background in the

marketing space i built out all these

long form blog posts and then all of a

sudden somebody like it's so funny jay

like i don't know if you've ever

experienced this but sometimes somebody

just says something to you that's like

so obvious but it it just comes at the

right time and one of the people in my

audience was like why aren't you on

linkedin and i was like

i don't know like i've just been doing

the seo thing i've been focusing on one

thing like that's a great point so i

tried to get started um and it actually

took me three separate times to really

get started on linkedin uh so the first

time i i got on there and i was scared

man like i was worried about what my

employer would say i was worried about

what my friends would say i would work i

was worried about what what people on

the internet would say i had all this

fear but i also knew that this was a

very clear path to major growth and that

i the content that i had you know what

better platform than linkedin for job

search content so i started posting on

the first time around i just kind of

lost steam like the fear got the best of

me and nothing bad happened but i just i

wasn't seeing any engagement i wasn't

seeing any traction and it just felt

like a lot of anxiety for not much

return so i stopped and then a couple

months later i decided i want to get

started again so i overcame that fear

but then the next issue was having

enough content like i just couldn't

generate enough content to post on a

regular basis i made it for about three

weeks and then i ran out of ideas i got

massive writer's block and it shut down

and were you writing at that time about

job search or careers in particular did

you have like a narrowed scope or were

you just writing about all kinds of

things so this was

two and a half to three years into my

business so i had been writing about the

job search for two to three years in

these long form blog posts i probably

had you know 100 of them on on the site

and i had all this long form content but

what i was really struggling with was

taking you know

i knew how to write a 3 000 word blog

post and that's all i'd ever done and

that had seen a lot of success to take

that and try to condense it into 300

characters

looking back i'm like yeah it's easy

like

you just take a little snippet out and

you build out a post like why was this

so hard at the time i didn't have any

systems i didn't have any reps i didn't

really have anybody to speak to about

this either and so i really struggled

with even a small idea in one of those

long-form articles i struggled to write

it in a way that fit in the character

limit and also resonated with the

audience and that's why you know i had

all all this this reference material for

content but i just couldn't couldn't

overcome the hurdle of converting that

into posts so then finally a couple

months later this whole you know these

three tries happened in the space of

about nine months finally i sat down and

i said here's what i'm going to do i'm

going to sit down i'm going to write

linkedin posts and i'm not going to

publish them i'm just going to sit down

every day i'm going to write a post i'm

going to save it and i'm just going to

build a massive backlog of content and

that's what i did and i basically built

out like 30 to 50 posts i don't remember

the exact number and then i said okay if

i post a couple times per week i

basically have several months of content

here and if i can write one or two new

posts every week that backlog is just

gonna keep extending and hopefully that

gives me enough runway to figure this

thing out and that's exactly what

happened i started posting semi-weekly i

had the backlog i dedicated time every

day to writing and

that clicked and that eventually worked

for me so that was the genesis of of

getting started it was knowing the

potential of this platform but it wasn't

just you know austin was like yeah let's

post on linkedin i showed up i started

posting and boom like everything

exploded it was really a struggle to

even just get to the point where i

started and where i started was 3 000

followers that were basically 90

of

people who are the sales contacts and

people in my network that i built just

from job searching and and microsoft

like it wasn't even people who followed

me for content so i started from

basically zero i had no idea what was

going to come from this and then the

next couple of years were just

absolutely crazy uh and a journey that

like i'll never forget and will forever

be grateful for i love that approach and

i don't know why more people don't talk

about that or do that of i'm going to do

the input activity but i'm not going to

publish yet i'm going to build the

backlog because i imagine that removes

so much anxiety on a day-to-day level of

like right now as i'm taking linkedin

more seriously there's a refrigerator

home level of anxiety every day of i

need to write something and post it on

linkedin today because i don't have a

backlog to just like say no actually i'm

going to sit in the cave for a few weeks

and build up the backlog and do that so

so smart i don't know why more people

don't do that on any platform really i

think you know dickie bush um he and i

recently connected on on twitter and he

just shared a great thread today where

he he basically walked through like some

of the systems for getting started with

writing and the first thing he said was

was developing the habit and to me that

that's exactly what what led to my

success when i started writing the first

couple times both for the long form blog

and for

social in in any capacity i was so

obsessed with the result you know i want

to write the viral post i want to have

you know great content that resonates

immediately i want all this stuff and

all that pressure made it so hard to

create because

when we feel stressed when we feel

pressure to perform

that creativity diminishes right

creativity is is almost you know fueled

by by boredom and yes limitations in in

some capacity but not stress not anxiety

and so when i said let me throw that out

the window and just focus on this habit

like let me sit in my chair for this

period of time every day and whether i

write one sentence or 10 posts that's a

win that's really what changed the game

for me was developing the habit first

then focusing on the volume and then

optimizing and refining for quality that

stage that process is basically what

enabled the success to happen because

if you go in the reverse order which is

typically what people do one you run the

risk of never getting started because

you're always looking for the perfect

post and you can always refine a post

more and more and more

and that leads to overthinking that

leads to more anxiety that leads to

all these things that prevent us from

doing exactly what we need to do to be

successful which is basically

crank out content on a consistent daily

basis for a pretty long period of time

before we start to see results so i'm

looking at your linkedin here and you

posted today yesterday the day before

that then six days before that what is

your content cadence that you hold

yourself to now you know you said you're

starting your kind of semi-weekly do you

have a hard expectation for yourself now

i post every single weekday on linkedin

i take the weekends off i always have

i've basically been doing five posts a

week for

95 of the time that i've been on

linkedin which is now coming up on i

think four years and i started off with

that semi-weekly because that's what

worked eventually the systems kicked

into place and i was able to scale up to

five days a week and that's been working

for me i tried doing twice a day um that

didn't work for me and that wasn't fun

or creative so i stopped doing that and

the weekends you know it's so important

to recharge and give your brain that

kind of diffuse space where it can

connect the synapses and come up with

ideas and do all that and so the weekend

is that for me so i found that this

cadence of one post a day five days a

week which is basically monday through

friday for me that's worked really

really well and then once i got started

on twitter it was kind of the same thing

which you know i just got started on

twitter about four months ago and

i initially started with two tweets a

day and one thread per week and that

that didn't really work for me either so

now i've backed it off to basically one

tweet a day and one thread per week and

i just layer that in with my my linkedin

cadence and that's been really really

nice it's good to hear those cadences

because

you know a lot of people listen to the

show we get conflicting advice from

people or we we model after people who

have different strategies you know

justin welsh on the show recently he's a

two times per day guy on linkedin and

when i've tried that he's three now wow

see when i try that that seems to

cannibalize some of the posts almost

it's like linkedin doesn't know which of

my posts to send to my followers that

day so it's good to hear that volume

isn't necessarily the answer to win on

these platforms all the time yeah and

there is a critical mass right like if

you post once a month are you gonna

get a six figure following probably not

if you post once a week

still probably not i think that the kind

of minimum viable cadence is probably

three posts per week in order to start

seeing meaningful traction and then i

found that the sweet spot again is

probably around that five posts per week

mark once you get to a certain level

you can increase you know justin's able

to to

you know do the three times per day

because he has a really great loyal

sizable audience on linkedin and that

makes sense

but the biggest issue i think for new

creators is the one that i i ran into or

at least one of the biggest issues is

creating a certain volume of high

quality content and so if if posting

twice a day is is creating that anxiety

for you and forcing you to put out stuff

that doesn't really feel like it's the

quality that you want that's not really

serving anyone it's not serving you it's

not serving your audience and so if you

can find i think it's better to start

small and then work your way up but then

also quality absolutely wins out at the

end of the day you know if somebody's

sharing

five tweets or three linkedin posts a

day that are just junk versus somebody

who's sharing one post today that's

really high quality that person who's

posting once a day is is probably gonna

win out in whatever metric and category

you you want to compare the two across

so there is a minimum you know viable

cadence that we want to align to but

once you're hitting that and you kind of

find your sweet spot there isn't really

a need to go higher

unless unless that need justifies itself

and i think for a lot of people it

probably won't

when we come back austin and i get

specific about what type of content is

working right now on linkedin and how

that has changed over time right after

this

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hey welcome back even though austin is

really humble about how big his linkedin

following is it's the biggest following

i've seen of anyone who is literally not

a celebrity or an influencer on the

platform so i asked him what makes his

approach or what makes him different

that helped him get to that level

i'm very data driven and i think that

that's one of the things you know people

always love to ask me like austin why

what set you apart from all these other

people who have you know six figure

followings why do you have a seven

figure following definitely part of it

is is is luck you know i can't sit here

and tell you that there's so many people

who work hard and write great content

justin's one of them he and i kind of

you know grew up together on linkedin if

you will his content's amazing sometimes

i look at his posts and i'm like holy

crap like this is like this is an

amazing post i wish i wrote that like

i'm gonna learn from this yet like our

followings have have a difference in

them and i told him on a call the other

day the only difference between you

you're following in mine is is luck and

i've gotten lucky with linkedin's

algorithm their recommendation you know

i mentioned you know me alongside bill

and satya there is a helpful thing to

have for followers and all that so luck

definitely plays a factor but

you need to show up in order to be lucky

and so one of the things that's that i

can point to that i've specifically done

that's differentiated me from other

creators is

actually using data to drive my content

so when i started and one of the reasons

why that minimum viable cadence is so

important is because you need volume in

order to understand what's working and

what's not so i went and i posted for

several months and i just tried to to

just throw the kitchen sink at the

platform i tried different styles

formats topics you know mediums

everything and initially what stood out

was that short form text posts were far

and away the medium that generated the

most visibility and that's still true

today i think the most important choice

you can make as a creator is finding a

medium that really

gives you energy for me video like i

hate video and i hate visuals and not

you know being on video here with you

but

reproduction

exactly

all the production that goes in i had i

mentioned madeleine my friend earlier

she got started on youtube she said she

invest 10 to 12 hours creating one video

for youtube when she got started and i'm

like good lord i i that would that would

crush me and i would just not be able to

create so finding that medium that that

resonates with you for me it's writing i

wouldn't choose a medium just purely

based off of visibility but i would try

to choose the medium that gives you

energy and the highest visibility and so

for for me what i saw was that short

form text post so that's why i create

those but then what i do is i keep a

list of my content i have a whole excel

spreadsheet linkedin doesn't love

third-party tools in the same way that

twitter does and i don't mean the

creators like the platform itself

doesn't yes they're like you know shield

app and all these other ones that people

use i personally keep track of things

manually and the reason that i do that

is one to avoid linkedin jail but two i

find that by forcing myself to go in

every day and look at how my post

yesterday did and to

categorize it and give it different tags

and look at the length of the post and

all these data points if i'm doing that

every single day there's no way that i'm

not going to pick up on different trends

there's no way that i'm not going to

start to see you know different

opportunities pop up and so that manual

work is stuff that a lot of people don't

want to do i share that with my clients

i show them the spreadsheet and they're

like holy cow i can you know this is so

much work how do you do this blah blah

blah

that work is so worth it to me because

of the data and so what i'll do is ev

every when i started i did this every

month now i do it about every quarter

but i'll go back and i'll look at like

the top five to 10 posts and i'll look

at a whole bunch of data points so i'll

look at the character count and i will

also

give myself a hook rating which is on

linkedin the hook is kind of when you're

scrolling through your feed you have

those those first it's basically you get

five or six lines that show up above the

fold and then there's a little see more

button if you don't hook people in with

those lines you could have the best post

body that's ever been written on

linkedin nobody's going to see it it's

just not going to get any traction so

the hook is the biggest component to

seeing success with linkedin posts i

give myself a rating i try to be

objective obviously there's some bias

there so for folks listening you know if

you want to find other people who who

are willing to give you that advice

maybe other creators that can be really

helpful but i give myself a hook rating

and then i i look for different

different templates and structures of

posts and then i also look at the themes

so you know different structures and

templates i have my own names for these

but they can be a comparison where it's

kind of like you know a lot of sales

reps do blah blah blah blah but the ones

who close the most deals do blah blah

blah blah like that's just a template

that i'll have a personal name for that

i see other people use or that i use and

i'll write that down and then i'll look

at the topics so

is this a personal story is this an

inspirational or motivational post is

this a contrarian take is this calling

out a broken system any of those things

i'll aggregate that data across all of

the top posts that i have and then i

will basically create a checklist to say

okay my top posts for the last quarter

have an average of i think when i looked

at it most recently was like 552

characters so every time i write a new

post i'm going to try to be within 100

characters of what i'm seeing be most

successful and then obviously you know

the higher the hook rating the better so

i'm going to try to write the best hook

that i can and then i'm going to try to

make sure that my post aligns to at

least

a good structure or a good theme that i

know is successful

and it's really interesting because this

changes so to give you an example of why

this is important if we rewind about a

year and a half ago like or even going

back to the beginning on linkedin i

would max out the character limit i

would hit 300 characters every single

time and sometimes it was a struggle for

me to shave it down to that and all of

my posts were these like how to like

super valuable like okay you know if you

want to if you want to learn how to be a

great networker here are the five steps

and i go deep with the five steps i'd

include email templates and all this

other stuff and those posts crushed it

that's how i i grew to essentially

i think about 500 000 maybe even a

million followers through that content

and then all of a sudden

back in q4 of 2021 something changed

with the algorithm and those posts

actually became my worst performing

posts like these boats were doing

you know let's call it a thousand to

2000 reactions on average now all of a

sudden they're doing 250 to 300

and that was that was a shock to me and

i had to figure out what was going on

and i also had to figure out how to

pivot and so i went and i did that

analysis not for my own not only for my

own content but i also i went and looked

at you know justin's content i went and

looked at you know all these other i had

10 people who i i really admired who

were doing well i looked at all their

content and i said where's the gap what

am what am i doing differently from

these people and then i looked at you

know posts in my feed from random

creators who

were doing really well like these posts

were seeing tons of reactions i dumped

all that and put it through the same

process and then i looked at the data

and aggregate across my content the 10

creators that i really looked up to and

then you know what's working well on the

platform and basically what i saw was

just a total shift towards a different

style of content and then i shifted my

writing and i shifted the way that i

created my posts and the structure and

now this year i've seen you know some

some some of my best performing posts

and that's totally a result of having

this framework that that's data-driven

instead of just kind of throwing stuff

out there and crossing my fingers and

hoping that it works man that's so good

i i see a recent new trend that looks

like you

tried out last week which is like this

carousel of pages which are basically

images and seems like people are using

that to capture

images of tweet threads which is like so

interesting at a meta level are you

seeing that as a promising trend are you

still collecting data on whether that's

working well yeah so still collecting

data um you're like super fresh uh with

that question jay because it's so funny

one of the the folks that i've met on

twitter you probably know as well zane

khan he

got started on linkedin he made the jump

a couple months ago and we hopped on a

call i kind of talked him through my

system he's given me a bunch of great

info for twitter we've just been going

back and forth on these different you

know ideas and and tactics and

experiments and this was one that he

tried he took his tweet thread he put it

in a carousel he dropped it in there i

think it exploded to like 20 000

reactions or something and he was like

dude you got to try this so that's

exactly what i did i took actually a

recent tweet thread that i put out there

a couple days ago

that was actually on linkedin it was

about linkedin you know uh different

tactics that you can use on the platform

i did the same thing and my blog i think

it's like on target for for 10 or 12 000

reactions so that's a great start but

we'll see what happens uh my plan is to

kind of continue to do that once a week

and just kind of capitalize on that

without overwhelming my audience because

i do think that you know there's folks

on linkedin are very loyal to linkedin

it's really interesting you see a lot of

bashing of other platforms like oh tick

tock is for you know these types of

people and twitter's for these types of

people and linkedin is for us

and i think a lot of platforms do that

right i think twitter is very into

twitter and not other reddit very into

reddit and not other platforms so i

think that's that's fairly common across

the board so i don't want to do this so

much that people are like good god i'm

just like this is just austin's twitter

twitter feed on linkedin and this is

exhausting but i do want to

capitalize on you know what might be an

interesting growth hack so uh that's

that's the cadence that i've sort of

agreed upon with myself and i also think

we're going to start to see a lot more

of that as as

that information is spread and people

tap into it and it'll be interesting to

see how long it lasts because as you

know with all this content creation

stuff these trends come you can ride the

wave and then the wave kind of you know

hits the shore and dies off and then we

got to find something new it's

interesting you said it's it's on pace

for 10 000 to 12 000 reactions it's at 9

500 right now and you posted it

yesterday but the between the line thing

that you're saying there is that this

isn't done and that's something that's

interesting about linkedin i think that

people underestimate there's more

staying power to posts that are getting

reactions there than a tweet like a

tweet it seems at this point like you've

got about 12 hours of life in that thing

and it's dead but linkedin sometimes all

go into my home feed and the thing

that's the top of the page is five days

old it's a huge difference between the

platforms like you nailed it if i put a

tweet thread out there it's good for 36

hours it usually takes about six to

eight hours to pick up

the the steam that it needs to get going

and then once it has that steam it lasts

for basically

24 maybe 30 hours something like that

and then it it just dies off on linkedin

you get about three

sometimes four days usually about three

days worth of of a really good post and

so it's definitely

a significantly longer period of time

and the organic reach on linkedin is is

still pretty unbelievable i think that

window is closing a little bit it's

definitely not what it was a year ago or

two years ago but it's still really

really good compared to other platforms

so they're definitely

these interesting nuances between any

platform that that you're kind of

comparing but yes linkedin is definitely

a little bit kinder to the longevity of

post which is nice for us creators right

you can get a little bit more juice out

of the squeeze which which always feels

good especially in an ecosystem that is

not evergreen and is really reliant on

showing up and creating every single day

it seems like you are incredible at

building and fostering relationships

with other creators you know in a recent

issue of justin welsh's newsletter he

talked about how you reached out to him

and when i asked you to come on the show

since then you've actually checked in

pretty consistently and made me feel

like really nice

and i get the sense that you're probably

doing that with

a good number of people which seems

difficult to manage so how do you

approach relationships and collaboration

with other creators to me that's the fun

part of of creation as somebody who you

know growing up i kind of struggled with

the proximity based relationships i

didn't really

find too many other folks in school and

you know in college who like really

shared my values and my way of thinking

and all this stuff you know i have i

have some incredibly close friends from

you know that time period of my life but

they're there i can count them all in

one hand when i started creating online

the coolest part about it to me was hey

i can pick and choose

people who who think like me and who

have the same goals and who understand

you know why i care so much about this

thing or why this thing matters to me or

is also interested in this esoteric

niche hobby or whatever it is and that

was the coolest part so that's what i

love most is is seeing people because

content creation is is basically it's

networking at scale right when you put

content out there you are

you are basically

showing everybody here's who i am here's

what i believe in here's the message i

have to share here's what i care about

here's my personality here are my quirks

right you're putting all that into your

content and so the cool part about that

is your vibe attracts your tribe right

when people see that content they can

either choose to

say you know austin isn't for me which

you know many people do and that's

totally fine but there are other people

who say well this awesome guy you know

is very much aligned with how i think

what i want to do you know all these

things let me reach out to him or if i

reach out to them they've seen my stuff

and there's a basis for who i am and and

where this relationship might go

and so

that's been the coolest part is

connecting with folks because so many

things come out of that so we've

mentioned a few names on on the show

here i mean justin for example

we we got connected on linkedin i think

it was like three years ago now and

since then like you know we we started

like we do craft beer exchanges with

each other like he's down in nashville

and i'm up in in new jersey new york and

we like send each other beer because we

we are both into that and like we also

swap like i'll send him uh like i'm like

dude i had this idea for a post for you

like like take it and let's see how it

performs and he'll do the same thing for

me he's like man you got to talk about

this and all of that like that's how you

learn that's how you grow and that's

also how you get ideas that you would

have never thought of like you know zayn

is another great example i would have

never thought to take a tweet thread put

it into a carousel and dump it on

linkedin if i hadn't had this

relationship with zane who who suggested

it and so those are obviously very

tactical content related stuff but this

extends to you know life philosophies

and personal development and business

and anything else that that you know

we're thinking about or caring about

other people are just going to help you

level up and it also makes life more fun

right so

that's that's where where i come from on

this and yeah building relationships

with people i mean that's that's

essentially what i built my whole brand

around i had to learn how to do this

from xero and as an introvert who was

terrified of talking to people you know

when i was going through the job search

but once i learned that you know it is

possible to reach out to this person who

i honestly never would have thought

would talk to me and they say yes i will

have a conversation you know once you

learn that and you start to build that

confidence

the door opens and so

now i i've you know come to learn what

networking is all about and that's

exactly what i teach all of our clients

and students and really what it comes

down to is you know the feeling that you

described like making other people feel

seen heard recognized important like all

that

is is how you do it and that typically

comes by adding value to folks showing

them that you actually care about them

and doing that authentically like those

messages those comments that i sent you

it's not because i'm like man i wanna

you know get jay in my network and i'm

gonna have like i'm gonna put him in my

spreadsheet and now like yes like i'm

one step closer to world domination no

it's like

i listened to a couple episodes your

podcast i listened to one with sam parr

and steph smith and a couple of the

others and i was like this guy's awesome

he's also getting married which like the

day i got married was like the second

best day of my life now behind when my

son was born but and i think i don't

know i think i think my wife will be

cool with that but um but like

that's what it's all about is connecting

with people that you're really genuinely

excited to chat with and that's where

the magic happens i know you have a

background in sales uh do you does this

all come naturally or do you have any

type of tracking of that i know like

there's a connotation that well if

you're tracking your relationships in a

crm it's not as authentic but it could

also just be seen as like a nice

augmentative tool uh do you do any of

that for your business i used to i don't

do it anymore but a lot of this stuff

didn't come naturally to me you know

like i mentioned like i was growing up i

was an introvert i didn't want to you

know cocktail parties uh events you know

meeting new people all that stuff like

just sent my anxiety through the roof

but i sort of got to this point where i

realized that if i wanted to achieve the

things that i had envisioned for myself

i had to find a way to overcome this

hurdle and so i actually turned

networking into a game like i gamified

the whole thing because that removed a

bit of the pressure and it also enabled

me to

chalk up the losses as wins and what i

mean by that is you know when i started

i sent cold emails to people that's

that's that's you know before i really

got into linkedin and all this other

stuff and i had this whole spreadsheet

and i would send out an email and i was

like okay this is template a or b or c

here's how many people replied here's

how many you know

informational interviews i booked here's

how many referrals i got blah blah blah

and all of a sudden a no wasn't a

personal attack on me and my character

and my value it was a data point that

could be used to inform my decisions

moving forward and so now all of a

sudden noes became you know not quite as

valuable as yes's but much much more

valuable and less anxiety-inducing than

they were before that's how i i was able

to get started and then you know you

build up these small wins but one thing

that i did was i actually did have a

google sheet which was my quote crm for

relationships and basically i would have

everybody's name i would have the date

of last contact and then i would have

notes and i would basically have

a little blurb about what we talked

about last time and so you know if i

continue to do this i might say okay you

know today's

june 23rd you know i chatted with jay on

the podcast he mentioned that he went to

x y and z places you know for his

honeymoon and that his bag you know that

he lost might be arriving so maybe i

check in with you then 30 days from now

and i say

jay dude like did you get your bag like

i remember the last time we talked like

did was that actually the package or did

lufthansa send you like you know like a

chocolate bar and they're like we hope

this makes up for the troubles right oh

god

i hope not either and like i know your

bag is coming so i'm just putting that

energy out there but but that's what i

would do because that was the way that i

could

manage all of this now i don't have the

pressure of like i need a job or i need

all of these relationships so now i just

do it more naturally i also have those

systems built out as habits at this

point because i've been doing it for

six seven eight years and so i don't

really have to think about it so i don't

do that anymore but that definitely was

something that i did when i started and

i don't think that having a crm makes

your relationships any less authentic i

think what makes your relationships

authentic or not is how you approach

them and if you find people that you're

genuinely excited to connect with to

chat with to engage with like if you

look at this person and say no matter

what comes out of this relationship

having this person in my network will

improve my life and make me happier

those are the only people that you

really should be engaging with and

who cares if you have a crm to make sure

that you are are keeping those people

around

thanks for listening to this

conversation with austin belsack i hope

you found it helpful and i hope it gave

you some ideas for how you can approach

linkedin if you want to learn more about

austin you can visit his website

cultivatedculture.com

or search austin belsack on linkedin or

even twitter where he's been putting

more time and effort and already has

more than 50 000 followers there thanks

to austin for being on the show thank

you to connor coniboy for editing this

episode thank you nathan toddhunter for

mixing the show and brian's heel for

creating our music and emily clouds for

creating our artwork if you enjoyed this

episode you can tweet at me at jclaus

and let me know i love hearing from you

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sure that you subscribe if you have not

already thanks for listening and i'll

talk to you next week