How To Boost Your Profile On LinkedIn In 2022

Deanna Russo, LinkedIn Strategist and Coach, and Annette Richmond, career intelligence Resume Writing, discussed how to leverage LinkedIn in 2022.    

Widely recognized for her LinkedIn expertise, Deanna helps her clients go from scrolling aimlessly to opening LinkedIn with a strategy. If you’re tired of wondering why LinkedIn isn’t working for you, don’t miss this opportunity to get advice from someone who grew her LinkedIn 25X in 12 months.  

Topics discussed:

✅ How to build your community to find a job or build your pipeline

✅ What makes an engaging LinkedIn profile headshot

✅ What to do if you haven't been active on LinkedIn

✅ How do people know what to write about

✅ The New LinkedIn Audio feature, how to find audio events

Smarter Career Moves LinkedIn Live Show (Previously Recorded) 

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Visit our website https://careerintelligenceresumewriting.com/

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(Previously recorded, Live Show)

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Transcript

Annette (00:09):

So, hello, thank you so much for everyone. Who's joining us live and to everyone who will be watching us in the, in the replays. And I'm, Anette Richmond and welcome to the smarter career moves. LinkedIn live show. I am so excited to have Deanna here as my guest today. I've known her. I don't know for, I think almost a year now. She was one of my very first friends in Clubhouse and we've chatted several times. So , she so generous with your knowledge and it's so much fun to, to talk to. So why don't you start and just tell people who don't know who you are a little bit about you and what you do. Sure,

Deanna  (00:53):

Absolutely. Thank you so much for inviting me. I just love you. And I can't when, when you invited me to take part, I'm like, yeah, where do I need to be? What <laugh> what, so it's a no brainer, no brainer. So a little bit about me. I have been on LinkedIn since 2008. For about 10 years I was treating LinkedIn the wrong way. I was treating it more like an online resume press release vehicle. It was all suit and tie. And the only reason I would go onto LinkedIn during that 10-year span was to change my jobs. Update my profile, maybe change a word here or there, but I was on consistently and until 2018, that was it. That changed everything. And what brought me to LinkedIn more actively was a job I was in, I was in a sales job and they wanted me to use LinkedIn as the primary way to bring in new business, but what they thought that meant and what I thought that meant was two different things.

Deanna  (02:09):

So really, and it's basically what I do now is to change that mindset, to shift that mindset from sending a copy and pasted message in the direct messages or emails to building relationships with people. And what's called social selling and showing people who you are and building the know, like, and trust that's what I essentially did in 2018 was I realized that copy and pasting a script is not going to get people to do business with me. Instead, what I did was I started creating content and that started at Halloween 2018. It was my very first video. And what I did was I then became more of a routine on the content as well as having conversations with other people on LinkedIn. So when I left that sales position, I then was looking for another job. And I had all of these people that were, I was having conversations with that basically said, what you're doing on LinkedIn is something that people just don't know enough how to do.

Deanna  (03:30):

So this is, this essentially could be your business. And so I started leverage up in March 2020. And the funny thing about that is the pandemic hit. And then within 10 days or so maybe it was, it was not even two weeks. It was about seven to 10 days. I got an email saying, congratulations, you're a business owner. I'm like and I look around and my kids are home. My husband's working from home and I'm like, how am I going to do this? Oh my God, I don't want a business. But looking back at it now I'm coming close to two years of doing this and I wouldn't have done it any other way, cuz I just love helping people. So basically what leverage up is, is a business where you work with me side by side and we work on the three components of a really good LinkedIn presence. I call it my triangle. It's both profile, engagement and content. And then we go from there,

Annette (04:36):

Based on knowing you and, and seeing all the, things that, that you that you do post and, and share on LinkedIn, it seems that your philosophy is really to, , as you say, help people and teach them to do it on their own. The whole idea of, teach a man to fish and he will be able to survive and not need you. And that's one of things that I, that I really love about about you. So , I know you have some strategies for 2022 and I'm excited to, to hear those. So, , we can jump right into those and then come back and talk a little bit about like maybe the profile or something i if you like.

Deanna  (05:19):

Absolutely. So one of the, things that I would love people to start thinking about this year is to jump out of your comfort zone. I was actually listening to and commenting into a LinkedIn live earlier this morning. And Nick Rayburn said it very well. He said, when you get out of your comfort own you could ha have much more opportunity to, to, to stay in what I call the hamster wheel of going around and around and around and doing the same thing because you might just find success when you jump out of that comfort zone. And for me on LinkedIn coming out of your comfort zone means creating content. It means writing a post, it means doing a video. It means doing something that you have never done before and giving it a try. But then once you do create that post don't become so wrapped up in the data that goes along with it, if it gets 20 views, that's 20 more views, then you would not have gotten, had you not created that post. If it gets 200 views, 200 views more, then you wouldn't have gotten, if you didn't create that post. So have to, don't be so bogged down into, oh my God, I got to get a million views. I got a get a million problems. I got . . . no build relationships because honestly I am creating content and creating views. And just because my post doesn't do so well, doesn't mean I'm going to just wave the surrender flag and give up. Just, you're going to try something else next time. That's

Annette (07:04):

All, , , that's so true and people do get caught up in the, , how many people are viewing it. Yeah, I do myself and it it's disheartening sometimes when you work really hard on something and you post it and , maybe 50 people look at it when you're hoping for, , maybe at least a hundred, but I, I love that attitude that it, and it's kind of like when you're looking for a job, it only takes that one. It only takes that one person, the right person. And I love that you mentioned Nick, because I'm a huge fan of his, a huge, I actually did a little bit of training with him when I was just getting into video. So he is a, a inspiration to me. So I appreciate that.

Deanna  (07:50):

Yeah. Fabulous person, fantastic person. So I, when I heard that he was going to be on Claire Davis' power hour Claire Davis and Dan Mot host the power outer. I'm like, oh my gosh, I got it. I put it out right on my calendar. And what else I did this morning? And that is right before your show. I was listening to LinkedIn audio, the brand new. So looking ahead to 2022, mm-hmm, <affirmative> pay attention to what LinkedIn is doing. Because again, if you go back to that hamster wheel and you go back to I'm doing it, this is the way I'm doing it. And this is my routine and you don't keep your eyes open to what's going on elsewhere. You're going to lose, like, you're not going to know what is going on and you have to just keep your eyes and ears open at all time.

Annette (08:41):

Oh, I couldn't agree with you more. I've listened to a couple of LinkedIn audios too. It's kind of hard to catch them right now since it's in beta. Not many people have them. And so when I, when I see something, I jump on there and, , I'm, I'm really quite impressed with it so far. , I'm really looking forward to , when it becomes a little bit more, I don't know if formalized is, is the best way, but maybe a little bit more topic driven than, than some of the ones. But I'm glad you mentioned that because I was going to ask you about that. And, , I, I would just like to throw out out there that LinkedIn has a free blog that you, you can subscribe to where they talk about when things are coming up, , you will get an, an email from them and they talk about the new features that are coming up and how they're going to be rolling them out. So I'm glad that you jumped right in there because I had that on my list to ask you about the whole LinkedIn audio. I'm wondering how they're going to be rolling it out. if it's going to be people with creator mode or people with huge followings, like you, I mean, my following is, , tiny compared to yours and, and many others, but

Deanna  (09:54):

I will just say I knew that it rolled out. And when I initially went to join a room, it, I had gotten an error message saying that my app needed to be updated. So I was chatting with Ariel Lee yesterday. Mm-Hmm <affirmative> and we were talking about LinkedIn audio. So, so what I did was I went on and I scheduled the rooms into my calendar. And then when I saw that it was coming up, I had the link to go in directly from my calendar. So I think that makes a difference that if , which events you want go to, it's one less step to go into LinkedIn, go into events. If you search audio on events, you can find all of the audio related events. But one thing I got out of it was, it looks so similar to Clubhouse. Yeah.

Deanna  (10:50):

And I have now been part of Clubhouse if it wasn't for Clubhouse, you and I wouldn't have met. Nope. But I've been on Clubhouse for over a, a year, a little over a year. And this sense of hearing people's voices, it takes you beyond just writing something. And I think it's fantastic that LinkedIn jumped on LinkedIn audio. I just want make sure that everything is ruled out the right way because there are technical snafus and there are issues I got kicked out of it two or three times when I was in the room. I've heard that I didn't press anything. I just sudden

Annette (11:29):

I've heard that. And, I so agree with you, there's that sort of, we, as, a people seem to have short attention spans and, , having that instant gratification and I have done that as well. I know someone's going to be in a room on Clubhouse and hopefully it will also be on LinkedIn that the same way. And I go in there because I want hear them and maybe have, and have the opportunity to go up and ask them a question directly. And these audio , features are, are kind of the only way to do that. So, so what else would you what else are you going to give us for? 2022?

Deanna  (12:13):

I would say content is a big one and the other one is never underestimate the power of shaking hands. And what I mean by that is when you post your own content, you are essentially jumping up to the top of a roof and yelling out with a big megaphone check. I can be out I'm here. However, if you shake hands with people and comment on their posts, you never know who will see you and who appreciates you. Mm-Hmm <affirmative>. So honestly, what I could have done before this LinkedIn live this morning is I could have wrapped myself up into doing something for my business, honestly. And what I did was I showed up for other people. I showed up for Claire Davis and her live. I showed up for Nick Rayburn, cuz I knew he was going to be there. I went into LinkedIn audio because I knew I had to get into a LinkedIn audio room. I had a feeling you would be asking me about it. So it's like, it's the little things that shaking hands makes a difference. And that's why when I'm talking about my LinkedIn strategy, you can have a really good profile, but if no one sees it, what's the point what's, you could have a really good billboard, but if nobody drives past it, it's going to, and the birds will see it as they're flying by.

Annette (13:43):

So that's so true. That's so true. , it's on a country road where nobody drives, , maybe one or two people a day. And it's true. I preach that all the time to the, to the people that I work with as well. , you can have the best profile in the world, but if nobody sees it and the they're not going to see it, unless you are, , engaging on LinkedIn. So I just want say hi to say it. I, I hope I'm pronouncing your name, correct? Correctly and our good friend. Gillian, Whitney. Hi Gillian. So hi you, we love you. And, but I also like the idea of talking about the engagement I like that you call that a handshake. I, I haven't, I, I like that phrase and it's so true if, if I'm looking at your content and I am commenting you in a thoughtful way, , I open myself up to the attention of your followers as well.

Annette (14:42):

Yes. And so, and one of the other things too, that I've actually had clients of mine tell me, , that, that do post content. And I say, well, when people comment, you respond and they're like, well, I don't know sometimes. And I'm, and you, I know my eyes love that too. <Laugh> it's kinda like, , Brenda Meller talks about it being , this, this sort of networking 24 7 networking event. And if you go, if you're in person at a networking event and somebody says something to you and you just, you wouldn't just turn and walk away from them, ? Right. You wouldn't respond and people, , I think they, and, and I, I am so guilty of this. It wasn't really until the end of 2020 that I started becoming active on LinkedIn. And it, , it has really, it has kind of changed, , my life, not just my business, because I've met people that I've connected with and who have supported me and it it's really, really different and another thing. And I think you'll agree. And you can maybe expand on this. Some of my colleagues say, well, you, , it's kind of boring. You go on LinkedIn. I have to go on there and look for something to comment on. And, and I'm thinking, well, if you were actually engaging, it wouldn't be boring. Right.

Deanna  (16:03):

Right. And what, what it boils down to is you need to find your people because if you are scrolling through and the first five posts you see are not enticing to you, the first reaction, the first impulse might be just a, eh, it's nothing it's not worth. But if you find your people, then you start to have conversations with them. And next thing , you see a net in your feed and you're like, there's my people. So it, it goes, the, your actions on this platform will then show you, show show you and show other people what you're all about. So you'll only see the people that you want to see as long as you are engaging with them. That's the way the algorithm works. So when I want to see Ariel, for example, I support her in her content. When I want to see Annette in her content, I support her in her content and the algorithm figures out that Annette is my people.

Deanna  (17:17):

And that's, that's who I want to see. So if your reaction and your thought on LinkedIn is it's all a bunch of things that are just boring to me. And it's not interesting. It's because you haven't found your people, you haven't found your space. And I'm not telling you to go on there 24 hours a day, seven days a week. But that's why I go back to strategy over scroll, because you could be scrolling and not really know why you're there. Yeah. And that's why I talk about strategy. It gives you a, this is why I'm here. Mm-Hmm <affirmative>.

Annette (17:57):

So do you have these tips that you brought that up? And I know that your, , philosophy is to teach people to go beyond that scroll, scroll, scroll, and, and to have that strategy. So, how do you, how would I develop a strategy? , cause so many people, they put up their profile. Maybe they don't even do that, but, but let's say they have a good profile. What do they do that they want, to start

Deanna  (18:22):

When you are super happy with your profile and you are saying, okay, I can check that part of the strategy, the triangle strategy off, the next thing is engagement. And there, you need to find your, it goes back to finding your people. But if someone were looking for you, for example, this is one of my go-to strategies. So anybody who's on this LinkedIn live who <laugh> a note. Yes. Take them. If someone were looking for you in a Google search, what be the words that you would like to be found under, and then you take the, for example, if Annette is working with a job seeker, who's an accounts executive who's in sales, then what type of sales field is it? Medical sales, is it automotive sales? What type of field. And then you narrow down those keywords by finding the areas of LinkedIn, where people are having those conversations. And one of them that I work with my clients is ,hashtags. You just never who's following that hashtag and where those conversations are. So that's one, one example of finding the areas where you want to contribute and to have those conversations.

Annette (19:57):

Yes. And it goes beyond the, , great post. Oh right.

Deanna  (20:02):

Oh my God. Oh my God. I did. I actually did a post about great post. Thank you for, thank you. Or it was like five or six things that people always say that are two or three words. And honestly, if you were at a networking event back to networking event, if you were at a networking event and all you said to me in a group of people was thank you. I'd be like, huh, that's it.

Annette (20:29):

I know. And yeah. And people wonder why their why LinkedIn's not working for them. Right. I mean, right. <Laugh> right.

Deanna  (20:37):

You got to have conversations and it doesn't, again, you don't have to be on there 24 hours a day. But when you are on there, make the best use of your time. Mm-Hmm <affirmative> and you, you, before, it, you will be seen by people that you didn't even know were seeing you. And that, let me tell you the story, job seeker I worked with. Okay. So soon after I started this business, I was working with a job seeker who came to me and she said, I've been connecting with you for a while. And I'm so happy you're starting your business. And I want work with you. So I'm like, fantastic. So she said, I may be looking for my next job soon. I'm like, okay. So what we did was we worked on her resume. We worked on her LinkedIn profile. But then when we went into engagement, she started having conversations with people and started commenting on posts where she wanted to be seen.

Deanna  (21:36):

And a recruiter saw her a recruiter saw her. And within nine days of her finding out that that grant funded position that she was working in was going to be discontinued. That recruiter reached out to her and said, I you'd be perfect for this job. You never know who is going to see you. You never know. And with LinkedIn, there's second degree connections and there's third degree connections. So it's not just like Facebook, where you're commenting on someone and all that, all the your connection, your follower and see it. And, and that person's friends see it. There are multiple dimensions of people. It's a spider web effect where you just never know who will see you. Honestly, I don't know on first name basis. all of the people I'm connected to, but you never know when someone might need me. And who's watching me on LinkedIn. And when they'll reach out to me and that's where it goes into the business owner. But again, that job seeker, she didn't know this recruiter, she didn't apply to this position. And that recruiter reached out to her.

Annette (22:51):

Yes, I have a, a friend of mine as well, who actually was working for a company was not even looking for a job. And because other companies saw her what she was doing on LinkedIn. She had three companies buying for her and she did get a new job. And, , you just, just never know. So I just want say hi to John, our friend, John, thank you so much for being here. We were just talking about LinkedIn audio earlier and, we hope to both be on it as well. , in the, not too distant future. So very soon, very soon. Yeah. Yeah. We hope so. , I'm, I'm, I'm eager and get you get that. What is that fear of missing out was that FOMO that people like <laugh> I want that, and I had that for newsletters for a while, and then, I got that.

Annette (23:42):

And then there's always something, , another little , bright, shiny object that everybody wants. So, , one of the things that I, I love about you and, , you, you are, I mean, I hate that word authentic because it's kind of so overused kinda like passionate, but you are really real on LinkedIn. And one of the things that, that I think makes that difference is the fact that you do, , you do video and, , I talk to people colleagues of mine, clients that I'm encouraging to do cover stories, client, , colleagues do video and they're like, oh no, , I don't like my phone voice. Hey, I don't either. I don't like my voice. I don't like my face on video, but what do you, what do you recommend to, , to kind of get people going to do that? How that that are resistant?

Deanna  (24:38):

I think the difference between writing something out and showing up on video is P people get to know you more. Honestly, I don't like my voice either. It's the reason why I was in broadcasting and I actually worked with someone and this is a long time ago, but I worked with someone at the news station I was working on, on lowering my voice. So it's not so high in pitchy. And as my husband says, annoying <laugh>, but, but it's, but so it's a matter of finding your space and what you're comfortable with, but again, I'm going to go back to what I said earlier. If you don't jump out of your comfort zone, you're going to be in that hamster wheel and going around and around. So honestly, when I started creating video on LinkedIn, it was it was specifically about recruiting because that was the space I was working in.

Deanna  (25:37):

So I started doing my videos about recruiting, but it wasn't just, as I felt like it, I had a schedule Tuesday and every Friday I was showing up for people and without realizing it, my following grew. So when people say consistency, that's a really big part of it. Consistency is so huge because if you don't show up, whether it's on video, whether it's on text, whether it's whatever way of content you're going to produce, you're not going to be visible to people. So it's about showing up. And honestly, Annette, I don't post seven days a week. I don't. But what I do is I make sure that I support other people on LinkedIn when I'm not crew that answer what you were saying. No, no, you, you

Annette (26:33):

Did. Absolutely. And , I, I have found because I was thinking about video, like for years, oh, I should do video. I see other people doing video and I just was so resistant to it. And then after I did it, , I don't know, half a dozen times, it just doesn't bother me anymore. , I'm

Deanna  (26:51):

Gets easier. It does. It really gets easier. The very first video that I created, I wish that I had had a YouTube channel that I stuck all of these videos on <laugh> it was it it's hilarious. I was so serious. And I was so like scripted and I'm like, oh my gosh. Now it's like, if I don't get it down in one take, I'm making a blooper, I'm messing up. I'm like done. I'm I'm just done. Cause you get so upset at yourself and visibly, I saw myself not taking, taking this too seriously, and I don't want people to see that. So you just got to go with the flow and if it doesn't work, then, then people see you're human.

Annette (27:36):

Yeah, yeah, no, it it's true. And , I, one of the things I, I think is is great about being yours. , I try to be myself. I'm, , I'm literally getting too personal sometimes, but is, is people who are not your people kind of self select away from you. And so that the people who are contacting you are people who, who they like you, the way you are, , they're not looking for someone and who's different. So we have so many comments. I just want say hi to some people. So Kim Conrad my buddy thanks you for talking about the Google search terms. It, it is such a great way to do that. I never thought about it either. And one of the things talking about, like with the creator creator mode using the hashtags at the top I was thinking that they were for people looking at my profile and John Esperian actually told me, no, it's for LinkedIn, that they're looking at those. And and, and , that sort of guides them. So here G so nice to see you here. She thinks of that constantly newer to link people, newer to LinkedIn, that you never know who will see you. And you

Deanna  (28:54):

Never know. I cannot tell you, G, how many messages I have gotten. In fact, I was thinking that this might be a good content idea of where the direct message to are set with. I've been following you for a while. I've been following you for a while, then you don't know who sees you. You don't know. So it's, it's under underrated, underrepresented. And just because they're not showing up in the comments doesn't mean that they don't see you.

Annette (29:23):

Yeah. Yeah. I know a lot of people think of people who are not commenting as sort of LinkedIn lurks, but I've heard recently people talk about say that they are LinkedIn learners. And so I, I kind of like that better. So I've been kind of going with that and I have there's Gillian commenting the same things that I love about your videos, that you are always you and I am,

Deanna  (29:48):

And there's no disguising a Gillian <laugh> I show up, I show up as I am <laugh>

Annette (29:56):

And , the thing is too that, ,I mistakenly thought this way myself, , I've been on LinkedIn since 2008, and it was only 2020, the end of 2020, where I kind of woke up and went, Hey, there's all this stuff going on. And , when you start thinking about LinkedIn as people, , people to people, and it's not a play to , just make connections and to, to further whatever it is, you you're trying to get clients or find a job or whatever, , it really is about, , interacting with other humans. And, and that's what I think people people, people forget that you

Deanna  (30:43):

Yep. And what LinkedIn is noticing that too, because I have noticed that in their commercials, they're now saying being professional is also this, like it actually is showing. So it's LinkedIn itself is trying to change the way that this platform is viewed 800 million people are on this and that 800 million people that are humans that get up every day and they have breakfast. They get up every day and they walk their dogs. They, I mean, it's, there were all people. So honestly, and when I work with my clients, I say, if you lead with the professional, people will get to know you on the personal side too. So when I started creating that, those videos, I didn't talk so much about the fact that I had three kids. I didn't talk about the fact that I was walking 'em through the snow, to the bus stop.

Deanna  (31:41):

I talked about the recruiting side and I talk, I led with my experience. And when I post content, now I talk about LinkedIn because that's how my business is. And that's how, but then if you throw in the fact that you were digging a welcome mat out of a snowblower a few days ago, that you're, that you're real Talar, who also, I met on Clubhouse a year ago. We're now in a Clubhouse together on Friday mornings. And she commented on the picture of this welcome mat. And she's like, what is that? I'm like, it's a piece of the welcome mat that I dug out of the snowblower. So we'll get to

Annette (32:26):

Know you. Yeah, no, it's true. I, I love the the post that you do your kids play sports, right. And you, I do. Yeah. And you, and you've, you've written about that on, on LinkedIn and, and I've, I've heard you talk about it. The idea that you have a, a notes app or, or a pad or something with you. Yes. And you make notes about content. And I, I wanted to actually ask you to share some ideas because people, they don't know, , content, what do I post? I get the idea. So, right. What can you share a little bit about how you go about

Deanna  (33:03):

That? Yeah. So sometimes in my, the notes app is on my iPhone. Sometimes I will just write a few words and it actually occurred to me a few weeks ago. My husband and I were out to lunch. And I said, that would be a perfectly, and what, Annette, it's been almost a month and I haven't written it yet, but I know that that's in there as a possible inspiration for our content. And then there's other times where I'm sitting at gymnastics practice, she's there three hours every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and another three hours Saturday. So there's plenty of time. I'm not, I'm not sitting there 12 hours a week. Don't get me wrong. There's plenty of times I'm dropping her off, but I'm, if I'm sitting there for the last half hour, 45 minutes and I don't, and I'm watching her, I can sit there and write up a LinkedIn post about out something that has occurred to me.

Deanna  (34:02):

So it's, it's making the most of your time. You don't necessarily have to be sitting in an office at a laptop writing for a LinkedIn. You can be doing it where your life is taking you. So it's, it's about making the most of your time. So yeah, that notes app was very handy. Honestly, I have written it straight on the platform before using the app. And it was soon after LinkedIn rolled out the app that I would put it all in there and then I would press a button and it was all gone. The notes app is super good because if you write it in advance and you've got it someplace, if that app goes down, you have it all saved. Whether it's just a few notes or whether it's the entire post.

Annette (34:52):

Yeah. So, so I have a question for you, and this is something that I kind of struggle with, cuz I, this is one of my, , my word for 2022 is to be, is, is it intentional? So I'm trying to be intentional about, about what I do at the beginning of this year has gotten off to a bit of a bumpy start. But do you plan in advance? I mean, do you have the strategy , for say a month of, , three times a week, I'm going to post this and this and this, or do you do it more on the fly?

Deanna  (35:25):

Both. Both sometimes. I have an idea. I did a poll recently about what people needed the most help with. And honestly, as much as people, bad mouth poles, if you use them in a way to get a sense of what's going on with the people you're connected to, it can be very helpful. So there is a lot of value in polls. So I did a poll about what people needed most help with, not to clients, just to see how I could help them in my content. Mm-Hmm <affirmative>. So I did a series of posts on, on things you could do with your profile. I did a series of posts on what you can do with engagement. And the one that I did about the snowblower was simply about content, about how you can to write stories about what goes on in your life and its content.

Deanna  (36:21):

And you can, you can share those. Another person I met on a Clubhouse was Jennifer Jennings and she actually does this really good. She writes a post about her life, and then she works in she's a wealth advisor and she works her business into there too, and talks money. And so you just, if you can tell the story, whether it's on video or whether it's then your storytelling is huge. Storytelling is so huge on LinkedIn. So it's, it comes easy to me for writing. No, it doesn't come easy for everybody. So, and whereas Julian's skill is that video component. I wish I could show up more on video now. Like I'm doing it, I'm doing more on the text post, and I'm trying to show up more on video. But it's, it's going back to, to what your strengths are, but then coming out of that comfort zone coming out of that hamster wheel.

Annette (37:25):

Yeah, yeah. I'm another huge Gillian Gillian fan. , I had her, help me a little bit with with some of my Streamyard stuff. So I'm, I'm a huge fan of hers as well. And , and when you talk about personal, I mean, I don't talk a lot about like real personal type of things, but I have talked several times about, your dream job. Cause so many people think, oh my dream job, my dream job. And , I work my way through college. Full-Time working, going to of class at night. I wanted to be a writer and I STR it took me like, I don't know, seven years to get my degree. And then I finally, after looking around, I got a job as a magazine writer.

Annette (38:12):

I was writer associate editor and it was my absolute dream job. Oh my God. I was so happy. The first time I saw that byline, , by Annette Richmond, it's going out, , it was not a huge publication, but it was, , national and right. Industry publication. And but , what else I got to do when we had the photographer come in to take pictures of, , the products say, after the, the annual trade show, when we have, I don't know, maybe a hundred products or more in, I got to sit down at a typewriter, an actual typewriter and type up the labels for all of the boxes to send them back now, , was that fun? No. , it's not people have to realize that, I think that there there's never a job that's going to be so dreamy. I mean, I hear famous actors say that, , they have to sit on the set and it's so boring. It's like watching paint dry if they're not actually performing. So there's always things you're, you're just not going to like right. So guess I'm kind of digressing there talking about the story. Yeah, it's true

Deanna  (39:18):

Though. Honestly, my husband told me about a conversation that he had with someone about goals. And she mentioned to him, I'm not reaching all of the goals that I had set up to when I took this job. And so he said, are they happy with you? And she said, yeah. And he goes, are you getting a paycheck? Are you happy with your paycheck? She said, yeah. And he goes, well, there you go. So it's not, you don't necessarily have to check all the boxes to be happy with what you do. But if you check off some of the boxes, then there's still room to check that last box.

Annette (39:57):

Yeah, yeah. That's so true.you just never know. So we're, we're getting, , we're not at the end, but you want throw in, can you throw in a few sort of profile tips for people who, who are watching now we're on the replay.

Deanna  (40:14):

Where can I start? Okay. So the very first thing I'm going to get excited about profiles. The very first thing that people look at when they want to connect with you is your profile. Picture that picture. If it is, if it's on a mountaintop, you might have really nice scenery behind you, but how much do people learn about you by that scenery picture? Mm-Hmm <affirmative> Dean's way far away as opposed to a head and shoulder shot where they see Deanna smiling. Yes. Okay. So save those pictures for Instagram. Save those pictures for your family albums, but LinkedIn show up as professional and professional. For some people could be a hoodie. They could be the way that they show up to work. Yep, exactly. I'm not saying everyone has to dress in a suit and tie. I'm not, I'm just saying show up and smile. And that will go.

Deanna  (41:21):

That will go really far. That's your profile picture. Your second is your headline for the love of all. That's holy, please stop putting your job title in your headline. Please, please, please, please. Because that you will end up there's 800 million people on LinkedIn and how many millions of people do you think have the word account executive in their headline or manufacturing product development. What do you do that takes you beyond your job title? What kind of person are you that makes you so good at what you do? You take those products and you take them from the ground level to popularity. That's what you do. So take it out of product development and take it into, this is what makes me so excited to get up every day and then take what you do that gets you so excited and bring it into your about section and open up to people open up and share. What gets you excited about what you do about what makes you unique from all of those other people who do product development. Yeah. Right. Absolutely differentiator your unique factor.

Annette (42:48):

A absolutely. And , one of the things that, that I often , do with the, the clients that I work with it is, , there's so many people that, that want say, oh, I'm passionate about this. I'm passionate. Hear all I'm passionate. It means like nothing really. But the one, one example that I use all the time when I talk to people is I worked with someone who was a CTO and started, , as a, a computer programmer, went to school for engineering. , a lot of people that are in that, in leadership, that's how they started. And one of the things this person told me was that when they were young their, I think it was their brother was given the parents, gave the brother a computer and the brother went, oh, okay, nice put in the corner. And this person pulled it out. <Affirmative> and started writing software when they were a kid. And that kind of led them to their career. So, I mean, you don't want spend the whole 2,600 characters talking about that, but a few lines talking about that demonstrates the passion. You don't have to say I'm passionate because there you go.

Deanna  (43:53):

Right. It's just like, say that you're authentic, the same thing. You're going to use the word, or you can then show people that you're authentic. So show them what you, what, what was, what was the light bulb moment that brought you into doing what you do? I have a client who is a, a big star wars book. So his entire about session talks about the ways of the force and how he learned from his father. So he goes back and he uses all of that. And when I, I show it to my clients as an example, <laugh> and if anybody is watching this go to Chris Karel, C H R I S K A R E L. And read his about section. But, and I tried to do the voice of Yoda in that, because honestly, in that not too many people are reading about section aloud, talk to people, use passion when you're talking, we're going to,

Annette (44:57):

Yeah, yeah. Use

Deanna  (44:59):

That, vocalize it. And it will be, it will take those words off of the screen or off of a piece of paper and make them more vital and make like mean something. Because if you put passion in what you do on LinkedIn, whether it's your profile, whether it's engagement, whether in content, people see it, people get to know you and, and they like you. So, and then they trust you.

Annette (45:28):

So, I thank you so much for everything you have shared. I knew you would, is there anything that you'd like to, , have closing thoughts, something you'd like to share and, and please people do put questions in the comments. We will be going back and checking your comments and, , responding to you. I think I put most of them on the screen. I may have missed a couple of people. But what are your sort of final thoughts for people that are watching now, or we'll be watching on the replay

Deanna  (45:56):

And that all of us are humans. All of us are real people. And if you want to get to know someone better, send them a direct message, write a comment, show up a little bit. And you never know I've, I've gone on, I've had phone calls with people that I've never met before, and you just never know where that relationship is going to lead. So it's, it's a matter of taking, try to take those conversations offline. If you can, if the, if the opportunity is there, because you just never know, like we met on Clubhouse, we've been connected on LinkedIn for a year now. And I'm happy that you are part of my people. Like you're, you're my you're in, you're in my circle. So it's, it's taking those conversations offline and you never know where it's going to go. So I would say that's my biggest closing, closing thought is you don't want to just stay on the platform because there's a lot of possibility when you take it off the platform.

Annette (47:00):

Yeah. Oh, I agree with you. And , right back at ya, , I'm so happy that that I met you. And again, I will never forget that you were my very first friends when I went on there and I was wandering around and , here you are just being you. So and I, are you open to connecting with people on LinkedIn if they'd like to?

Deanna  (47:19):

Absolutely. Absolutely. If you're,

Annette (47:21):

If you're not brave enough to connect with her, please do follow her because she's so smart. And she shares the great information. When you're

Deanna  (47:29):

Connecting with someone, send that message, send something, write something that is making you want to connect. I've done that in comments. I have said, I like your post so much. I'm connecting with you now.

Annette (47:45):

I love it. Well, thank you so much. And thank you to everyone. We've had a few people stay with us the entire time, and if you're watching on the replay, thank you so much and have a great rest of your day. So.