Part 1 | Share Your Stories on LinkedIn | Stories With Traction Podcast

SHOW NOTES:

SERIES: This episode is a part of a two-part series regarding LinkedIn storytelling and strategy.

SUMMARY: In this episode, Rachel Simon and Matt Zaun talk about why it’s important for business leaders to share their stories on LinkedIn.

RACHEL SIMON BIO: Rachel is the Founder & CEO of Connect the Dots Digital, where she focuses on LinkedIn corporate strategy and how companies can utilize the platform with their employees for maximum results.

For more info, check out Rachel here:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/raksimon/

MATT ZAUN BIO: Matt is an award-winning speaker and storyteller who empowers organizations to attract more clients through the art of strategic storytelling. Matt’s past engagements have catalyzed radical sales increases for over 300 organizations that range from financial institutions to the health and wellness industry.

Matt shares his expertise in persuasion with executives, sales professionals, and entrepreneurs, who he coaches on the art of influence and how to leverage this for profits and impact.

For more info, check out Matt Zaun here:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattzaun/

*Below is an AI-generated transcript, which may contain errors

All through the lens of strategic storytelling. Enjoy this episode. I need to listen to you my audience more. December 1 of 2021 I put an episode out called How to connect the dots on LinkedIn with Rachel Simon. I expected the episode to get some traction but what I was not expecting was what came next. The episode was the most downloaded and listened to episode of all of 2021 and I received numerous messages from people asking for more. So with that said, I want to be mindful of that and offer you what you want, which is to dive deeper into LinkedIn. So decided to bring Rachel Simon back and she's agreed to do a two part series diving deeper into concepts on how you can take your stories and push them into the world more through LinkedIn. Rachel Simon, welcome back.
Hi, Matt. Great to be here. That makes me so happy that the first episode we did was so well received. I
was blown away and got a ton more downloads than I was expecting. I got a lot more feedback than I was expecting. And I think people want to know more about how they can utilize LinkedIn as a business tool. Everyone understands that there's tremendous value on social media in general, but specifically LinkedIn a lot more people are understanding, hey, if I share my stories on LinkedIn, it's going to get more traction. So I absolutely want to dive into that with you. But I feel like it's been some time I mean, the last time we had a conversation was in December of 2021. So a lot has changed. A lot has changed. So what are some things that you're working on right now with your clients in the last year or so that we've last spoken?
Sure. Yeah. So it's been a busy year. I know for for a lot of us. So with my clients, I'm working a lot still on, you know, the one to one making sure that the the executives the sea levels that business leaders, LinkedIn profiles are really adequately representing who they are, what they do, why they do it and who they do. It for building that great foundation, with that strong profile. But what I've sort of worked on in the last couple of months and identified is that there's a real need to be to build that beyond just the individual and to really get teams on the same page when it comes to LinkedIn. And that starts at the top. And what I mean by that is, you can have a team within a company, and they all are describing the company differently. They're all using different language and the way they describe what the company does, what the value proposition is, they may or may not have consistent branding through their profiles. And when things are so all over the place. It's hard to show up with that powerful message front and center. And so when everyone's on the same page, everything works smoother. So come teach sales teams that are using a tool like Sales Navigator. If their profiles are really consistently branded, that that investment in Sales Navigator is going to work harder. Leaders who have you know, are really showing their teams and setting a great example, are able to kind of disseminate that through the ranks within their company. So that's what my focus is moving forward is I really want to get those companies consistent so that LinkedIn works even better for them.
So I appreciate you mentioned that and I very much appreciate your willingness to do a two part series regarding this because I do think there are definitely two different stages. The first is the mind of the leader of how they are responding to LinkedIn and their day to day and then the second part would be really focused on once they learn what you're going to teach them. How do they apply to the team and create that company culture of storytelling on LinkedIn, which I think's gonna be so powerful, so what I just heard you say is really talking about alignment, getting everyone almost more of a unified message, or hey, instead of being so scattered and sharing all these different things, what if there's more alignment that we present these stories out into the world as a unified team, and I really like that so I want to dive a lot deeper into that but I also want to talk more about the mind of the leader because I feel like there has been at least my what I've received feedback wise from leaders is often they want to immediately delegate this. So like if I go in I'm talking to CEOs or VPS. And I mentioned what you're saying, Rachel, their immediate thought is this sounds great. I see value, how do I immediately delegate this? And we both know there's a little bit of danger in that I mean, obviously, there are different things that leaders can do to delegate but it's so powerful to make sure that their story is not getting lost to the delegation. So I highly recommend people check out the episode that Rachel and I did in December of 2021. I will post that link in the show notes that are really speak to the why the power and the why regarding LinkedIn, and it's still extremely relevant. There's a tremendous amount of power in LinkedIn for people to take advantage of. But let's let's talk to the leader of an organization that may be thinking to themselves, how can I immediately delegate everything that Rachel Maddow going to talk about today? What would you say to them to be more mindful of taking ownership of the stories they're going to be putting in the world before they get to that next level, which is more team focused?
Yeah, like I get it like leader company leaders have a lot that they're managing or they've got so many balls in the air things they have to deal with on a day to day basis. The challenge with offloading your LinkedIn activity is that there's only one of you. So having somebody to basically become you online is never going to be as authentic as when you show up for yourself. Now, there are certainly things you can do to help with the process. You know, again, I mentioned you know, I help a lot of leaders get their LinkedIn profiles to a place where it's really adequately representing them. That's a situation where I'm supporting them, but the words that we're utilizing in their profiles or their words, I'm just putting them all together in a narrative, because it's hard to write about yourself and it can be challenging to find the time to do it. The difference being when it comes to content, and activity and engagement on LinkedIn. When you have someone else do it for you, when leaders have someone else to do become them. It's the equivalent of going to an in person event, a conference and trade show a meeting and have someone where you know, a mask with your face on it. It might look like you. They might sound like you, but they're never going to be you. So an example you know I like to share is years ago I did actually do some Profile Management for a CEO This was probably about six years ago. I don't do that anymore. But at the time, I was helping this person and I sent a message to one of their connections. And this person was like a very, like personal had a personal relationship. With the CEO and responded with like, Why did I get this message? You know, we went to college together and it was super awkward. We don't want that to happen. We don't we want to avoid those weird, awkward moments. And the only way you can do that is when it's you doing it and not you know a VA or an executive assistant or somebody else.
And so here's why this is so powerful. And here's what I don't want people to miss. So you talked about engagement. And one of the things that's interesting to me is a lot of leaders will look at posts that have wild engagement, right because we were willing to pay significant sums of financial resources for attention for that engagement. And then we see something go viral. And a lot of times we question How in the world did something like that get that many views. So think about that from a business perspective, everyone listening? If you got tons of views based on a story you're sharing into the world through LinkedIn. How does that happen? And Rachel, I think a lot of it goes back to what you had said about being authentic. I recently saw a company share a story on LinkedIn and it literally went viral, millions of views. The reason for that one of the reasons so there are multiple reasons. We're not going to dive into all of them. But one of the ones that I want people to recognize is it went viral because it was authentic and the CEO of that organization was putting that message into the world himself. And that's a huge point that I want people to recognize is it wasn't delegated to use your example, Rachel, the mask where you know you're going into an networking event looking like someone else. It wasn't delegated or someone wrote it for this individual. This person shared it into the world, creating a personal brand himself, and it ended up going viral. So I really think it does start at the top of an organization a leader changing habits changing, you know, different routines, setting up a structure on how they're going to be sharing their stories with the world through LinkedIn. So let's talk a little bit more about that. So you mentioned being authentic. You mentioned that that'll lead to engagement. How does one create daily habits to start that process? I'm sure there's a lot of people listening to this thinking to themselves. I have so much going on. I'm already a little bit flustered, even the thought of sharing my stories into the world what would you recommend they do just to start that process?
And it's a great question. You know, I'm a mind that a little goes a long way. So slowly building habits over time, leads to ongoing building that success foundation and then you can go from there and increase. So if, if somebody can get one solid post up a week, and consistently do that, that is going to do so much more than the majority of users on LinkedIn. So I was listening to podcast this morning, talking about LinkedIn big surprise. On that podcast, you're this data lot that of the 800. And now I think it's 50 million users, something like that. 3% are sharing content. 1% of bad 3% post once a week is sharing content weekly. So that's a tiny, tiny, tiny fraction of the users. I really would be hard pressed to think that somebody cannot spend 15 minutes once a week to write a post and get that out into the world. And so honestly, the way that I recommend to my clients is put it on your calendar or schedule it as a task or an appointment to yourself on your calendar. You can also let's say today's tip, you know, when you're at the beginning of the month, take that first day of the month and say okay, I have four posts this month. I'm going to do posts one is going to be on this topic post two is going to be on this topic three on this and four on this so plan it out. Figure out what works for you and you're in your cadence in your planning. You know what makes sense in the way you'd like to plan your work and literally put it on your calendar and make it a non negotiable task.
Here's why this is so important. And again, I don't want people to overlook this. So I know there's someone listening to this thinking to themself. Alright, I'm gonna post a story a week. And what is that going to do for my business? I may get some likes. I may get a couple of comments. You know, Rachel, I'm running a large organization and there's tons of people that rely on me and what I do as a leader, why in the world would I do that? So I want people to take Rachel's advice, but also think bigger with us and here's what I mean regarding that think bigger. I have not met a leader today and I think about all the differences in opinions we have as a culture. There are many. So think of all the differences of opinions people have I've never in my life heard a leader say I don't need to be an effective communicator. Fact. I can go a couple pegs down on my communication. It's not important. I've never heard that before. Because leaders want to be better communicators. They want to be more effective. They want to connect more with their teams and their clients. The task that Rachel is recommending right now is going to empower you to do that. Here's what I mean by that. My communication radically increased for the better by posting on LinkedIn because it is a testing lab. So when I post a story on LinkedIn, sometimes it's almost exactly what had happened. Rachel with the episode you and I did I was expecting it to do good. I was not expecting it to do great. It did very, very well. It did exceptional. That led me to believe okay, I should spend more time focusing on talking about LinkedIn and how people can share stories on LinkedIn because I got immediate feedback through numbers from my audience. The same is true with LinkedIn is when you share a story based on what you're mentioning, Rachel just just sharing one story a week. You're gonna learn Wait a second, here's some of the comments people are saying. Here's some of the questions people might be asking about that. Wow, I didn't realize that that story was going to hit a nerve. Maybe I should be sharing that story more, when you can then do is utilize those stories in your meetings to your team. So if you have an all hands on team meeting that's on a zoom. You might want to be sharing that story with your team. You might want to be sharing a story more and more with a sales pipeline. process with a prospect leading them from prospect to client. All that can be done with what Rachel's recommending just posting one story a week is going to be a phenomenal testing ground. So I'd recommend people change the mindset from I need to build this massive follower base. I need to have raving fans for my company that may come it will come if you stay consistent. But I want people to immediately start viewing LinkedIn almost as a testing lab on hey, I'm going to share this story. Here's the feedback that I'm getting and then what can I do with that? So what are your thoughts on that Rachel viewing it more as like how do we how do we get better at communicating by sharing stories on LinkedIn? Yeah,
I love that perspective. Because I think so many people have these unrealistic expectations. Or they get very impatient when it comes to engagement. You know, oh, I've been posting and my posts haven't gone viral, blah, blah, blah. Like, you know what my posts would never go viral. What what has happened is I build deep relationships with people. So what's more important having those deep relationships with people who know what you do understand you and want to work with you? Or getting a million eyeballs from people who may or may not care what you do. So I think getting a sense of what am I trying to achieve? And I do love that idea of like it is a test. I mean, we're testing content all the time. And see what resonates and sometimes posts do great. Sometimes they don't and if they don't, then it's an opportunity to look at that and say what what was it about that was it the time of day that I posted? Was it the format that I use? Maybe I should add a visual maybe I maybe it was too long, maybe it was too short, but take it you know, put it in a bowl, mix it up, break it up, start out you know, use the same basic format and sorry story and then repackage it in a different way. So the opportunity to really test and play and have fun is is so powerful. And that's what I think the mindset piece that you talked about is so important. You know, leaders have to do courageous things every day. LinkedIn can be scary. But when you just get over yourself, get out of your own way. And dive in and start engaging and start posting content and commenting on other people's content. You will find it to be fun and enjoyable because you build these strong relationships.
And absolutely and you can deepen relationships that you currently have with your team and that's the power of what Rachel's saying that I don't want to be missed is some people may be thinking alright, what kind of stories am I sharing? Where do I even go with this? I recommend people look at a process or a challenge they're currently facing. So as an example winning the talent war, okay, so they want to bring in top talent from other organizations into their company culture. Well, if that's the case, you can take what Rachel is saying. And you can be very mindful of the values that you have and be sharing stories that really exemplify those values. So if you do have a value of high integrity in your organization, what story Could you point to that really exemplifies having high integrity? Well, you sharing that story is not only going to be seen by the different connections and followers you have on LinkedIn, but it's also going to be seen by your team. And a lot of times people want to work for great leaders, not necessarily an organization in of itself. They want to work for those great leaders. So what stories are being shared that would lead within the direction that you want to lead, which is building that vibrant company culture? So I think that it's really important for people to recognize because one of the things you mentioned, Rachel is having, I believe I'm paraphrasing but you talked about almost having different buckets of content, right, different different topic pieces, if you will, and that could be one of them. One of the topics could be company culture, okay. What kind of stories could really tie into company culture will be some of those other buckets that you'd recommend people to be be mindful of?
Yeah. And that's so funny that you said that because I that's how I describe it. When I teach about content is step one, and a content strategy is identifying your content buckets. So I think company culture is for sure one of those. You obviously want people to know what you do. So what is it? What are the problems that you solve the services that you offer? The challenges that you help your clients overcome? And sharing that from the perspective of clients so not from you know, we are so great at what we do? Self promotional, but you know, client X was facing XYZ challenge. And this then this happened to in a story but always from the perspective of what your what the problems that you solve. I think it's good to have a bucket that just is stuff that you like, you know, things that you're personally interested in. That might be causes, that might be sports, that might be your family. You know, your friends, travel. I mean, because again, Lincoln has changed so much in the last couple of years. COVID definitely helped. I think amplify that change. But, you know, it used to be like, we have to be so professional. This is LinkedIn, this isn't Facebook. What has changed is because we were I think so many of us were so isolated during the pandemic, we started showing more of our selves on LinkedIn and it's kind of hard not to when like your whole family's shoved in your house everyone's doing school and working and this that and the other. You kind of have to be real. That is that it open the door to show what workplaces really are like on LinkedIn. And I always use the example back in my days when I worked in an office. I didn't just talk about work from nine until five with my colleagues I talked about what TV shows I was watching and where I went to dinner over the weekend and a funny story about my kid or my husband or something like that. So they knew me as a whole person. And when you show up as a whole person on LinkedIn, people can relate to you and they and it's that know like and trust factor gets amplified.
I really appreciate you saying that there's so much to unpack with what you just said right? So so I want to dive in a little bit deeper with with all these different points that you made. One of my favorite things to ask a business leader and I want everyone listening to this to really think about this. I love asking a business leader if you were to ask 100 CEOs, the same question you may get 100 different answers and the question is what is professionalism to you? If you actually ask a business leader what is professional? What does that response I mean if they respond wearing an Armani suit to work? Well, most people were wearing PJs during 2020 working seriously, were they unprofessional? No, I think a lot of people delivered a lot of results for the organization literally wearing PJs behind zoom meetings. So I think our entire perspective on what is professional has changed as well. And also it also goes back to what you were saying Rachel about problems you solve with the clients perspective. This is very important when we're sharing stories is to be mindful of who our audience is. And if our audience is people that don't care how people are dressed. I mean, it's not going to I'm not that this is strictly focused on on dress code, but I feel like people need to be very mindful the stories that they're sharing very depend on who their audiences. So who is the community that you're serving? It's going to be really important to answer that professionalism type question. So as an example, I share a lot about my children, the through story, and I intertwine business themes will I do that the reason for that is 95% of my clients that I work with have children so I'd almost be far less not to mention something that my son does. I have an eight year old son that's obsessed with marketing videos on YouTube. I'd be an idiot not to talk about that. Like he's literally taught me how to be a better marketer based on Mr. Beast and some stuff that he's seen on YouTube. It's wild. So that's a story that I would be sharing or some people may think to themselves, why are you sharing a story about your eight year old son? Well, one there is a business theme intertwine. I am doing it with my audience in mind. But more importantly, it really connects to my audience. And the same is true with sports, right? So you'd mentioned stuff that you like, well, if you like sports, there's a lot of correlation between grit and overcoming in the sports world that can very heavily connected to the business world as well. So if it really matches up with your target audience, that's absolutely stories that you want to be sharing on LinkedIn that's going to match your audit so very much appreciate you mentioned that. Rachel, is there anything else that you want to dive into regarding that on those three buckets? You had mentioned company culture problems that you solve and stuff that you like? Anything else that people should be mindful of? What has they think of those buckets? Yeah,
I mean, I think you can drill down you know, like, you can even make like mini buckets in in each bucket. If you want to get a little bit more granular, but really thinking about starting at that high level about what it is that you want to talk about, that you like to talk about. Because if you don't really like talking about something, it's going to come through in your content that you're not super jazzed up about it and I also I'm just gonna go back to the sports piece, because I also, I like sports. I'm a baseball fan. I have two teenagers that have played sports since they were tiny. And I've taught I've done tons of posts talking about what I've learned from watching my kids. compete. And it's open the door to conversations with people because it's an instant point of connection, whether it's somebody else who's a baseball fan, or you know, my daughter is a swimmer. So somebody who swam in high school, like they get it, they totally get it and so being able to, you know, kind of expedite those connections with people make such a big difference. So maybe it's music, maybe it's, you know, movies or something along those lines, like show a little bit about the things that you enjoy, because you don't know if somebody in your target audience also is a fan of those things.
Yeah, very valid point. Also, I think this is a prime example as well under the bucket of stuff that you like, and I'm just going to take Rachel some of the stuff that you posted as an example. And this is really important for people to understand because I want them to understand the philosophy if you will, and the psychology behind the different buckets when it comes to even sports so as an example, I've never swam competitively, ever I mean for obviously leisure activities. I like going to the beach lounging around awesome I have never swam competitively, you posted something a while back regarding your children and competitive swimming meets right. That was super relatable to me because you become more of a human, not just someone on LinkedIn. So now I know a little bit about your background, your family's background, it builds it builds an element of trust, and you had multiple business themes intertwined even though I know nothing about sweating. I couldn't tell you anything about different means different timing. I don't know what's good. I don't know what's bad. I mean, if you tried to get me to grade a backstroke or a butterfly or whatever I couldn't do that right. But I immediately related to that post that you put out there. In addition, I don't know much about baseball. I've been to numerous baseball games like different business outings with clients. I enjoy sitting there and eating hotdogs and peanuts like anyone else but I don't know much about baseball. I'm I'm a big football guy. Baseball isn't my cup of tea, however. Right. So you posted numerous things about baseball, and they were they were very relatable from a storytelling perspective, with business themes intertwined. So I just want people to recognize even if your audience might not know a ton about the topic that you're talking about, does it build trust with the audience? Is it somewhat relatable to the audience? Rachel's posts were very relatable. It did build trust. I understood it from a business perspective. So I don't want people to overthink it thinking well, am I going to alienate people talking about a certain sport. Well, I mean, if it's super wild and unique, you might alienate someone. But But swimming and baseball. I think a pretty safe football is pretty safe, again, depending on your audience. So I just wanted to mention that Rachel. Yeah.
100% I totally agree. And again, like I said, it might be it might be something else like us. Eka. There's a friend of mine who, a couple months ago every Saturday was putting up a poll about like, what's your favorite 80s rap song? What's your favorite 80s pop song? It's more just like fun. Get to know your audience and get it and have a funny conversation in the comments. But it gives you know, now it's like, I know that, you know, we had the same favorite 80s rap song. So that's a little point point of bonding there. You know, and, and I think that the content bucket piece, what's important to remember is we want to pick from each bucket. So like, let's talk about the company, make sure we're hitting from all of them. company culture, really important. And I'm glad you brought that up because I had a conversation with someone recently who's in the talent strategy, like consulting space. And she was telling me that, you know, in that in the areas where there's a real, you know, challenge to find talent. Those candidates are looking at their potential managers LinkedIn profiles, they're looking to understand company culture from what they see from that company on LinkedIn. So you don't want to be the reason why somebody chooses to go to Company B. Because they didn't really like what they saw from Company A even though you might have an amazing culture, but you're not talking about it.
You bring up two really good points that I want to unpack. The first one is what you just said, doing mild research, you can find out a lot about a person based on their social media profiles. It's scary, somewhat creepy, but it's also the world we live in. I mean, it is right like I mean, you can just go on LinkedIn, you can even check different Facebook pages, Twitter accounts, like if you start seeing stuff where it's like, oh, I don't want to work, or even do business with that person. That's not good. Right. So like, it's very important. The stories we're sharing into the world that it really matches with the values that we have and the culture that we want to create. So I very much appreciate. You mentioned that and it's not like someone's doing intensive opposition research like from a political campaign. All they have to do is go through someone's LinkedIn account. You can literally see all the activity, everything that they've posted. Do you really want to be linked with that person? From a I want to be an employee of this company perspective, so very much appreciate you mentioned that, Rachel, that really goes back to the very first point that you mentioned about alignment, and truly creating that company culture of storytelling that we will dive much deeper into into the second part. But it's really getting your leaders aligned with the stories that they're sharing. So I very much appreciate you mentioned that. Another thing that you mentioned regarding the music because I think sometimes, especially leaders may be thinking like oh my goodness, How can music really tie in with business? So I just want to I want to let everyone know that when I do strategic storytelling workshops, a huge element of it is unpacking different elements of music. Because a lot of times the way songwriters write their songs, there's a lot of correlations with how you can write a masterful story. So obviously I'm using a business point to express that but it's also it also ties into my target demographic and my target audience with a lot of my audience are into their their into classic rock. So I'm, I'm a millennial. Most of my clients are Baby Boomers and Gen Xers but I would be a fool not to know different elements of Queen Zeplin of you know, some quote unquote classic rock bands because that's going to come up when we're talking about the song piece. So back to Rachel's point I could be sharing stories regarding music from what I just mentioned with a business theme in our twined it's going to be a lot more relatable to my audience so very much appreciate you mentioned that Rachel. There was a really good point. That's, that's fun. I'm gonna go to that workshop. Like I've got guns and stuff. It's like what Freddie Mercury we talk about maximum nominal songwriter. So there's yeah, there's a lot that we can unpack with music. So based on what you said, Rachel bought 80s Rap there is different elements that could tie into your audience. So like, let me give you a very brief example regarding that. There's a lot that we can learn regarding stage dynamics for musicians. So stage dynamic is stage dynamics, generally speaking, is how one actually dominates their stage, different staging elements different different positioning on stage Taylor Swift is genius. That does I mean, whether anyone listening to this podcast episodes, likes or doesn't like Taylor Swift music, just realize she's masterful at staging share stage dynamics are off the charts. It is all practice. It's gone over. Its strategic. She absolutely knows what she's doing. Again, if you like pop rock or not it's really important to recognize, especially as a leader, I often talk about Steve Jobs and how he dominated his stage with different Apple rollouts. That was not winging it. I mean, someone like that literally understood the different elements of stage dynamics and positioning with what that individual was doing with what he was doing sharing different stories into the world. So I mentioned that Rachel because someone might be thinking, oh my gosh, like ABS wrap, what in the world? There's a lot of different elements that you can learn from business regarding that and people always talk about creating a vibrant, incredible, enthusiastic tribe of people. around them, what better individuals to look to the musicians. So again, I appreciate that for sure.
And we're big Taylor Swift Fans in this house. So I totally and yeah, we got to see her a couple years ago and she puts on an amazing show. I mean, she puts on an incredible performance, and that's very fun. What if I like I said, I want to come in here, you break down bad. So
Alright, so let's talk about Taylor Swift for a minute. Again, here's a prime example. Right? So we're doing right now. The music example, with a business point intertwined Okay, so this for everyone listening this is how you take a music music example like this with a business theme in our 20 Taylor Swift has a staging facility 45 minutes from where I live in Lititz, PA. Okay, so for those of you listening that aren't familiar with that, Lititz, Pennsylvania, there is a building that is Taylor Swift's staging center where basically she comes in and her entire team which is very large, has a massive team behind her to pull off something like that they do all the staging they do all the lights they do. She has different trainers that literally teach different steps, all of that. This is all done in a way to create the maximum experience for the end user and hurricanes, her fans. So Rachel, what you are experiencing is step after step after step that's been gone to 1000s and 1000s and 1000s of times. So she actually has trainers that will figure out when she goes to the stage and she looks up left in the lights here. It's going to be during this part of this song and more than likely there's going to be a crazy scream in the audience when she does that. That is all staged. So it is insane. And that's why she has been able to build a massive Empire a massive music empire because she is literally a genius at what she does. Now. I may say that to a baby boomers CEO and they may want to stiff on the notion that there's a lot that we can learn from Taylor Swift, but from a business perspective, there is a lot that we can learn from someone like that that's done what she's been able to do. So again, this all ties back into what you're saying Rachel about a testing ground. I mean Taylor Swift had to do rep after rep after rep to figure out how to put on a phenomenal concert. We need to do rep after rep after rep when it comes to sharing stories on LinkedIn because by doing that we're going to become more effective communicators and we're going to create that company culture of storytelling.
100% Yeah. And I would imagine that as you know, using her continue to use her as the example as she was working on out certain things didn't land and then you go back and figure out well, what didn't work with this one. So same thing as leaders are thinking about starting a content strategy and, and sharing their stories. Everything's not gonna land. You're gonna have some poems that are total duds. That's okay. Don't throw in the towel. Figure out why or just move on. I mean, I've kind of personally given up worrying too much about like, how many views my posts get, because I know that I'm resonating with my target audience and that's what's most important.
Sure. I'm gonna say this people can quote me on this. Taylor Swift is a business genius. Like I would recommend people go look up, like what actually makes her not just from me again. I don't care if you love or hate her music. She knows what she's doing. She really knows what she's doing. She is a business genius. I'm surprised no one hasn't written a book regarding like different elements of the business empire she's created around her maybe maybe there is I don't I'm not aware of it. Maybe someone will one day it would be a phenomenal read. So with that said ending with Taylor Swift. Let's do a recap. Let's do a brief recap before we dive into the second part. So I got three big takeaways from our conversation, Rachel that I want to dive into that I think are going to really lead into the second part. The very first thing that you mentioned I very much appreciate it was authenticity leads to engagement. So I want people to recognize that you mentioned that Rachel with what happened with COVID a lot of things changed culture wise. It's actually led to a surge of authenticity. People are just sick of the ask. They're sick of like the cookie cutter like straight clean, like they want people to be more authentic. So I very much appreciate that. I don't want people to miss that authenticity leads to engagement. The second piece that you mentioned, was just start just to start sharing one story a week. I really appreciate that challenge. And I think that that is a very realistic challenge. I think everyone listening to this can put aside and prioritize time to share one story a week. On LinkedIn. Schedule it as a task. You said Rachel, and then also recognize that this will lead to you being a better communicator, because what is going to do is you're going to use it as a test ground and you will quickly learn, hey, this story that I thought would be awesome to share with a prospect. It was a dud, no one cared. But I shared this story. It got so much engagement, I was blown away. Now that might be something you want to put in to your sales pipeline process and teach your sales reps to do the same thing. So I very much appreciate it. That second point that you made Rachel In addition, you mentioned identify content buckets. And then we talked about company culture, a problems that you solve with the client inserted as the hero. I love that. You also mentioned stuff that you like, that could be sports, that could be family, there's different it could be Taylor Swift. They can be things that you're tying in with a business point intertwined. So those are the three takeaways that I got. And in the next part that Rachel and I are gonna do, we're gonna focus on taking those points and creating a company culture of storytelling on LinkedIn. How do you do it as a leader that was part one, the second part is how do you take this and really coach this into your organization to really create that alignment that Rachel had talked about? So with that said, Rachel, I know there are going to be people that have additional questions before we close out where's the best place that they can go to to get in touch with you ask different questions even be a client of yours, where's the best place that they can go to do that?
Surprise, surprise, it's LinkedIn. That's
awesome. I'm so glad that you sent it. If it was something else, it would have been horrifying when the
best place to find me is on LinkedIn. And if you just drop in if you want to connect with me, I'd be happy to connect with anyone listening. Just drop the podcast, you know, name in a connection request in the message and just say I heard you on Matt's podcast. If you want to tell me what you thought was the best part. Maybe you're a Taylor Swift Fan. That's cool. But it's really really helpful just to include a really brief note as to why you want to connect or where you came across somebody because otherwise I don't really know. And, and, and yeah, that's an enemy. You can find the ABA website to connect the dots digital.com but very active. On LinkedIn. And that's where Matt and I met. So for
sure, for sure. Again, to make it extremely convenient for everyone. The link will be in the show notes just clicking go right to Rachel Simon's content on LinkedIn. If nothing else, follow her on LinkedIn because our content is absolutely incredible. You will learn different elements of how to structure your posts by following her on LinkedIn and then also