088 – Think Bigger! Using LinkedIn to Skyrocket Your Business

Karen Yankovich 0:00

You’re listening to the good girls get rich podcast, Episode 88.

Welcome to the good girls get rich podcast with your host, Karen Yankovich. This is where we embrace how good you are girl, stop being the best kept secret in town, learn how to use simple LinkedIn and social media strategies and make the big bucks.

Hi, it’s Karen Yankovich. And I’m the host of the good girls get rich podcast one, Episode 88. And this podcast is brought to you by up level media, the proud sponsor of a simple relationship and heart based LinkedIn marketing system that gets you on the phone consistently with your perfect people, people that can take your business to heights that you could only dream of, before we had the ability to use these amazing digital tools we have now.

So it’s kind of like digital marketing with the human touch. And speaking of the human touch, if you check out our website, KarenYankovich.com, not only can you check out the LinkedIn services that we have there, but there’s a page that is Karen yankovich.com/events, and it lists all the places I’ll be speaking in the next few months, I’d love to meet you in person. I think that’s just a great way to develop our relationships, relationship marketing is what I teach, right? So check out that page and come join me at one of my upcoming events. I’d love to meet you in person, make sure you tell me you’re a podcast listener.

So we are talking today about you know about thinking big, okay about thinking big. And I was recently at a conference. And you know, I remember thinking of thinking big, I remember when I was first doing my business, the way that it pretty much the way that it is right now. Maybe like 2010 2011, I would see people going to conferences, and I specifically remember, people go into World Domination summit, which I’ve not been to yet and I have to get to, in thinking people justifying this expense, how are they justifying the expense of flying across the country in the hotel room, not to mention the cost of the conference? Right? I just didn’t get it because I wasn’t thinking big enough. I now know that going to conferences, allows me to build relationships, right, which is what I teach, build relationships. And it’s those relationships that helped me build my business.

So I recently took a course to help me grow my business, because that always helps me help you, right. And there was a live event that happened after the course. And it was in Toronto. And it was an incredible conference. It is a conference, I learned as much about running a live event as I did, when I went to go to the conference to learn right about the topic at the conference was teaching. So right there, I want you to kind of stop and think about that a second. Because I’m sitting in this room with 900 other people. And I’m watching and looking the money that was spent on the experience that the attendees would have. And 10 years ago, I never would have considered spending that kind of money on experience. Right? I’m like, people don’t want that. Nobody wants all the nonsense. They just want to learn from me.

And I’m not saying that, that they don’t want to learn from me. I do think that people come to me and they will listen this podcast, right? Because you want to hopefully learn from me. But I am. But it helped me understand that building relationships with people. There’s an investment to those relationships. Sometimes it’s a time investment. Sometimes it’s a money investment. But there’s an investment. And it was Stu McLaren’s event and the way he invested in that event was so eye opening to me, it really made me think bigger, right? I’m sitting here teaching you how to think bigger, but it allowed me to think bigger.

And listen, I don’t think you need to spend a half a million dollars as an event. Like baby student, I have no idea. But it seems as though that’s what he’s spent, by the way, the tickets to that event were free. Right? It was an investment where you got your money back. So it was a complete investment on his part in creating an experience his audience will never forget, I will absolutely go back next year. Not necessarily, for what I learned, even though I learned a ton, but for the relationships that I made and the networking that I did, and, and just every time you really look at one thing, even if you look at it the same way, you see something different, right.

But if it wasn’t for the experience, if the experience wasn’t so awesome, I might not be thinking about going back again next year. I mean, I’m two weeks away from the UK, it just happened two weeks ago. And I’m already thinking about going back next year, because I’ve learned how to think bigger, I’ve learned how these monetary investments and time let’s get real I was in his hotel, I spent five nights in his hotel. So there was a there was a monetary investment, and an investment of my time and going to this conference, something that 10 years ago, I never would have been able to dream for myself.

But there was one thing that somebody said and he had a few guests that were their guest speakers. And one of the guest speakers was Jeff Walker and Jeff Walker said at one point it really stuck with me is our job as as coaches and creatives and, and consultants that support our, the people in our programs and our memberships and, and our tribe, right? Our job is to think bigger for you, then you can think for yourself. And that was like such an that was such that really hit me hard that statement because it’s absolutely right. I can’t even tell you how often I have to push my people to think a little bigger. It absolutely nailed the work that I do it nailed why I do this podcast, right?

I mean, I created this podcast, if you go back and listen to Episode One, I created this podcast because I know know that there are so many people that I work with that need to learn how to think bigger, the things that they’re really good at. They think everybody can do. Right? Like we we you know, maybe you’re really good at writing blog posts, maybe you just love it, you love writing, and you’ve been a writer, since you’ve been a kid, you invite journals, and you wrote little short stories.

And when I say you know, oh my gosh, I need help writing my blog posts, people say what, you know, carry your blog posts are good. Like, that doesn’t mean that I can’t write blog posts, but you’re number one, you’re better at it than me. And, and I can outline or get started. But I want somebody that can do it better than me. And just because I can do something for myself doesn’t mean I should do something for myself.

So often, I have to help people think bigger and say no, this is a valuable service, this thing you take for granted, is a valuable service, people will pay you for it. And position properly. If you build an experience, if you build in amazing this, and transformation into the products and services that you provide. It’s going to it makes for an abundant life.

And that’s what good girls get rich is, right? Do what you’re good at, and then build a business and a life around it. And that’s where the abundance comes in. Can you relate to this? Can you relate to being good at something and then having a little like, but why would anybody pay me for this kind of thought? Or how can I charge $500 for this when everybody else charges $100? Well, I can tell you how I can tell you how all day long. And it isn’t about ripping people off or just increasing your price. It’s about building in value building and experience building and transformation.

So I mean, you know, think about we had Laura Wick on the show and Laura Wick and I had a conversation about teachers massage therapist, and you know, yeah, I could go to a massage therapist in a back room of a dry cleaners if I want pay 50 bucks. But I don’t come out of there feeling Amazing, right? Like, maybe physically I feel good. But I want to come out of it with an experience, right? I am happy to pay, you know, four or five, six times that if I’m not only getting a massage, but I’m getting an experience and I and I you know, I’m walking away with a transformation, not just loose muscles, right?

So that is what I’m talking about here today. How do you think bigger? How do you think bigger than other people that do what you do, and build, build a build your business in a way that it fully supports your life. And let’s get real. This is why I love LinkedIn. Right? It is the place where we can tell the world we want them to know about us. It’s the place where we can stand out from the people that are that are you know, the yoga teachers that do classes for $10. And your yoga classes, which are building experience around babies, not even your yoga classes. That is where your transformation comes in or where you’re thinking bigger is maybe it’s the yoga retreats that you offer. Classes are still competitively priced. But maybe you’re you have add ons that are full day workshops, or retreats. This is what I’m thinking about. And LinkedIn is where you can stand out from the crowd from all of the other people that do what you do.

Does that make sense? Okay, I want to give you a little push the one that makes you think a little bit bigger. And that’s what we’re gonna talk about here today. On the podcast, we’re going to fill in any holes that we might have in our profiles, we’re going to go back to basics here for a minute and take a step back and look at our LinkedIn profile. From the perspective of Am I thinking big enough.

Now I want to just jump in here for a second and tell you that we have a free challenge around this, that we are going to be running it you can find out the information about the challenge at linkedinprofilechallenge.com. So head to linkedinprofilechallenge.com and you can see when the next challenges, we don’t run them all the time. So if you go to linkedinprofilechallenge.com, we may be running it right now we may be running it soon. If not, they’ll be a place for you to get on the waitlist. So you can join us the next time, but it is very hands on, I’m in that challenge I want you to take, I want you to take this profile to the next level.

So we do this podcast, right. But on the podcast, I can’t look at your profile, I can’t be doing all that interactive stuff we can do on a challenge. So check out linkedinprofilechallenge.com, and join us for the next get yourself on the waitlist and join us for the next challenge. But for now, let’s dive in a little bit to how you can start to think a little bigger on LinkedIn.

Karen Yankovich: 10:36

So we’re going to start with your profile, you know, I will, I’m going to start with the end in mind. At the end of the day, when you’re ready to push, go and save and publish on your LinkedIn profile, I want you to be feeling a little bit nauseous, I want you to be like that, that feeling in your stomach going. Can I really say this about myself. That’s the place I want you to be in when you push publish. Because I want you to really reach for the stars, I want you to really claim your place as an expert in the world that you live in.

Okay, so when you’re creating, let’s start with your header image, right, right at the top of the profile. You know, it doesn’t have to be anything fancy. You don’t have to pay a you know, a graphic designer or anything to do it, you can absolutely do this yourself. But I want you to position yourself right from the bat. Right? When people take the first look, they see your profile, they’re going to see that header image at the time that I’m recording this my header images, mute the microphone standing in front of a roomful thousands of people. I mean, that’s me, right. I didn’t fake it. It’s not a photoshopped image. But, you know, I want people to look at me and see that people have enough confidence in me as a leader in me as a speaker, they’ll put me in a room with thousands of people around me.

So I want you to think what can you do in that header image. And I know there’s something you can do, which is why we’re doing this challenge, right? Because I know you might need a little push for me a little support from here some ideas, but start with that header image and then move down to the headline, the headline is going to default to your most recent experience title. So it’s going to say something like accountant or CEO or attorney or, you know, yoga teacher, I want you to own claim your leadership status. In that headline, I want you to tell people who you are, who you help, and how you help them. And I want you to do it confidently. So when I say who you are, who you help, and how your how you help them very often when I look at people’s headlines there about them, right. And it makes sense. LinkedIn is about you. I told I say that all the time. It’s your personal brand. And of course, it’s about you. It’s not about your business, by the way, it’s about you. Of course, you are a big part of your business, or you are a big part of your career. So of course that plays into it.

But it isn’t about the products and services that you sell you offer. It’s about you as the as whatever it is you do, right? It’s your personal brand. But here’s the thing, I don’t really care about you, I care about what you can do for me. So tell me about you tell me, the who you are, who you help and how you help them about you, but make it about me.

So an example that you might have heard me use before, I’ve probably said this five times on this podcast, but I really think it stands out is you can say I am a financial planner. Right? There’s a lot of you and maybe a great financial planner, maybe you’re an amazing financial planner. But if you say I’m an amazing financial planner, that’s great. You’re at least claiming your expert status in that. But it’s still all about you. And there’s a whole lot of you on LinkedIn. If you say, I am an amazing financial planner, and I help women over 50 create enough wealth to retire at 60. Now I’m listening right? Good. Now you’re telling me about you, you’re making it about me. Right.

So that’s what I want you to do in your profile, I want you to own it, I want you to claim it, I want you to really step into the role that you were meant to be in. And and think big, right? So when we’re talking about your profile, you may have heard the expression dress for the job you want not the job you have. That’s what I want you to think about when you’re creating your LinkedIn profile. Put yourself in the position or in the situation like look at your profile, from the the vantage point of what are the most influential people in your industry, doing and saying about themselves. And I want you to position yourself like that. Position yourself like you are peers, with the most influential people in your industry.

I know it’s not always easy, but that’s why I’m here to support you, right, I’m here to support you with this, you’ve got to do this. And then taking this down to the profile in the about section, make it tell me this information person hooked me talk to me, right, I don’t want to hear Karen Yankovich is known for blah, blah, blah, I want to hear about the transformations that you make with the people that you work with, I want you to say when I see when I have a client that I’ve been working with for a month, and I see the light bulb go off, and they call me a week later and say oh my gosh, I just made $10,000 in my business, or I just had my first client lose the first 10 pounds, or I just got the job of my dreams, right? That is what I want to hear about in your about section. Because now again, you’re telling me about you. You’re telling me what you’re passionate about what you’re good at. But you’re giving me examples of people that have had success with you. So you’re making it about me.

Okay, so I want you to take another look at your profile today. And really go through your profile, and see where you can step it up, see where you can really own you’re worth and claim your leadership claim that spot in your industry that should have your name on it.

Karen Yankovich: 19:12

OK, the next thing I want to talk about is your LinkedIn network. So often we are reactive to the people that are in our LinkedIn network, we just accept connection requests, or we connect with our friends, if we want our family, I want you to think about 10 people 10 people that if they accepted your network, your connection requests, you’re going to be dancing around your kitchen, saying I cannot believe I’m connected to this person.

Because here’s the deal. You can be LinkedIn gives us the ability to connect top down, those of you that are, you know, I don’t make any bones about the fact that I’m in my 50s I remember the days where you had to get past the gatekeeper, I wanted to talk to the CEO, I had to get past the gatekeeper. I couldn’t get past the receptionist. Right when I called their main number, first I had to get past the receptionist. And if I was able to get past the receptionist, then I could maybe get to the admin or the secretary for the person I really want to speak to and I had to get past that person to now we can go right to that CEO, right to that person want to speak to, and and asked to connect with them.

Now this profile piece has to be done first, right? Because if you want to connect with the most influential people you can imagine, you do look like you’re worthy of it right. So you have to do that profile piece first. But then think about 10 people that if you they were in your LinkedIn network, you would be, like I said, dancing around your kitchen. And it’s not necessarily just people that are influential. It could be people that would be your ideal client or your ideal opportunity.

Think about who’s writing about the people that you’re connected to right? Think about who writes about the the the things that are in your industry. So what are you expert in, go to your local newspapers online, right, go to their digital thing and go to the search bar, and type in the word like for me, I would go to my local news paper, the digital version, I’d go to the search bar, and I type the word LinkedIn in. And I would look to see who are all the journalists that are writing about LinkedIn, and connect with them. These are the people you’ve been reading the articles for 10 years, maybe they’re on the radio, maybe they’ve got podcast, and they talk about what you do. But these are people this is slam dunk relationship building, because they’re prolific, right? They’ve got content that you can read and connect to and say, Hey, I just read your article, listen to your podcast, heard your radio show, whatever, call something out that you loved about that, you know, I shared this one tidbit that you offered, because I never really thought about that way. share that with my audience. And I love to be connected to you here on LinkedIn.

So think big, think big, who are the 10 people in your network that is they can in the world, not in your network that you want to have in your network, that if they connected to you, you’d be jumping up and down. Okay, and then continue to build your network that way, I want you to be proactively building your network work with people that could bring immense value to your life and to your business. I know it happens that easily. And I can’t wait for you to find out how easy that is.

Karen Yankovich: 22:21

And then the third piece of this is you’ve got the profile done, right? So you look like a rock star, you look like the rock star, you are right, you’re now starting to fill your network with amazing people. Now I want you to engage with them. Right? So in one of these 10 people, except your connection requests. You were dancing around your kitchen when they accepted your connection requests, right? What are you going to be doing? You popping the champagne when they agreed to get on the phone with you? Right? So now I want you to think about that. How can you now engage with these people, and it isn’t about pitching them. Because nobody wants to be pitched. we’ve all gotten those connection requests on LinkedIn. In fact, we did a an episode, you’re spamming your LinkedIn network will link to it in the show notes.

I don’t want you doing that. I want you to think about, you know, you connected with these people for a reason, these people that could make massive changes in your life. And by the way, they don’t have to be famous to be making massive changes in your life. Right? It could be somebody not so famous, but you know, is the exact right person or you hope is the exact right person that can take your business to a new level of your life to a new level. What can you know, like, let’s just go back to the journalist, right, you can reach out to them, you say, Hey, you know, I can maybe share it now that you’re connected. Maybe you share their article that you loved, and tag them in it. And say, you know, at Joe Smith, I loved this article, really wanted to share it with my LinkedIn network, and then maybe tag a few of your connections that you think would love that article. Joe Smith is going to love that you did that. Right? He wants more eyes on his article.

And that’s the first step to engaging with these people. And the goal is to ultimately say, you know what, I think there’s some collaboration on opportunities here. I’d love to jump on the phone for 10 minutes and see if, you know, see what if we can shake something out. And I will tell you, and this is really important that that first call that you get on the phone with from people from your LinkedIn network is not a sales call, do not pitch people on that call, I make those calls deliberately short. I have a 15 minute window that I give people for that call. Because not only do I know that if they’re not if I get on the phone with them, and it isn’t what I thought it was going to be I’m not wasting a half hour of my time. But they know because it’s such a short window that I don’t intend to waste their time. I can’t probably Pitch Anything to them in 15 minutes, they’re more likely to accept that call request. If that call goes really well. And you’re probing on that call, right? What are the collaboration opportunities? Make it as valuable for them as it is for you, right? What can you bring? What value can you bring to their world.

And then if that 15 minute call is valuable, take notes. Because I’ve had those calls and then schedule the follow up calls and what the heck were we going to meet up and for us, it gets a little crazy. So take notes, and then schedule a follow up call. And now that follow up call, maybe it’s even lunch or coffee can be longer, because you have developed, you know, you you you now know there’s an opportunity, and you’re going to dig in and brainstorm a little bit about what that opportunity is. So engaging with these people. And again, thinking big, you cannot have coffee with every one of your LinkedIn connections, you’ll you’ll burn out, right, there’s just not enough hours in the day. So you want to find a way to support everyone.

That’s why I do this podcast, right? It can support bigger numbers of people by sharing this podcast. But then, you know, then love go narrowing it down, narrowing it down, narrowing it down, the more access, I give people to me, number one, the higher the investment in my products and services, but to the bigger the opportunities need to be right for me to be putting it on my calendar, especially if I’m going to meet you in person. So I want you to think big you absolutely can. And when you think bigger, it can change everything in your life in your business.

Karen Yankovich: 23:08

So let’s just kind of look at recap this a little bit thinking bigger first in your profile, might positioning yourself in your profile, as if your peers with the most influential people in your industry. And then building out your network full of people that are going to have you dancing in the kitchen dancing on the porch dancing at the beach, when they accept your connection request. And then Holy Moly when you get to when you start engaging with them, and can actually get them on the phone or get have a meeting with them in person. Right? How exciting can that be?

This is how I think for you. And this is how I want you to think for yourself. You know, often when I asked to speak like I’m interviewed on podcasts or on summits or whatever, very often people say you know, what is one piece of advice you would give people that are just starting out in business. And my one piece of advice very often double your prices. And people are like why wait, why don’t why prices? Like Yeah, because if you’re charging $100 for something, I want you to think about if you’re going to charge $200? What amazing other things can you add into that product or service, I want you to be delivering the products and services that people are going to be talking about for weeks and months and years. And that happens when you’re not afraid to charge for that.

I’m not saying you don’t again, I put a crap ton of time into delivering this podcast, which hopefully is bringing you a lot of value. So it isn’t about not wanting to give people anything without taking a lot of money from them. It isn’t about that at all. It’s about thinking bigger thinking outside of the box thinking bigger than most other people in your industry. And when you and it sometimes it starts with the money. Right? And it’s it’s really not about the money. But sometimes it starts with the money. Right?

I mean, I’ve often said to the people that are in my private groups, you know, if you could spend a whole day if somebody was going to give you $5,000 to spend a whole day with them, what crazy amazing things can you put into that day, and then they just start to brainstorm, right? They just went, Oh my gosh, I could do this, I could do that. Like sounds amazing. Who wouldn’t want that, maybe you start out by only offering it for two or $3000. Okay, because you’re still now making a profit. But now as you’re delivering it, at that, you know, pilot price, you’re able to start to think about all the other things you can incorporate into it by thinking bigger, okay, so think bigger, I want and by the way, this reduces your overwhelm, because you’re not selling, you don’t have to sell a million hundred dollar things, right? To make 100 billion dollars, you only have to, you know, so you can create a business that doesn’t have as much churn in your time, when you think bigger, okay, it keeps it reduces the number of things on your to do list. And it’s so powerful, it’s so powerful.

Most of the work on this is up front, it’s really just incorporating that mindset, that mindset. And again, I’m here to help you think bigger for your for you and your business in your life than you have dreamed of even thinking for yourself, you know that I’m here to support you with this. That’s why I do this podcast. We have got a free Facebook group that I’m in all the time, we do pop up live strategy sessions, and so much more. We’ll put a link to that in the show notes also, or you go to Karen yankovich.com, slash Facebook group. Remember, get on the waitlist for linkedinprofilechallenge.com, because that is that we haven’t done this. And we’re not at a time that I’m recording this episode 88 is time that it’s going live, which is I think, September of 2019. We’re doing this for the first time. So we are thinking big. We’re thinking how can we provide a huge amount of value in a week for a short link to profile challenge so that you can can take that next step confidently, to starting to build your network to think bigger about your life.

And again, this five day free challenge is solely being created to support you and thinking bigger in the first step to thinking bigger around your business and your life. And if you got value out of this, I’d love for you to help me out. Take a quick screenshot of this episode on your phone and share it on social media. tag me I’m at Karen Yankovich. Use the hashtag good girls get rich. If we can see it, then we can share it. And then we can share it with our audience. And it gets both of us more visibility. And of course we love your ratings and your reviews on whatever pod catcher you’re listening this to Apple podcast, Google podcast, Stitcher, Spotify, we’re all over the place. Give us a rating and review there that helps us understand the kinds of content you’re loving. And it allows us to tailor this podcast to be more about you, to you. The bottom line is I want this to be simple for you. I want you to think big in a way that doesn’t eat up every minute of your life. That’s my goal for you is to help you use LinkedIn to think bigger and grow an abundant business and a life using this amazing platform. And it can be simple. So let it be simple. I will see you back here next week for another episode of the good girls get rich podcast.