How Authenticity Can Improve Your Marketing Efforts with Nedra Rezinas

Nedra is a marketing coach with 20+ years of business experience, including working with over 200 businesses on their websites and marketing decisions. She has been in a variety of roles such as business owner, web designer, project manager, consultant, teacher, mentor and contributor. Nedra loves teaching at the Small Business Development Center at Portland Community College and especially the lasting, amazing connections to my students over the years.

To contact Nedra:
Linked in: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nrezinas/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nrezinasconsulting/

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If you'd like to talk to Terry McDougall about coaching or being a guest on Marketing Mambo, here's how you can reach her:

https://www.terrybmcdougall.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/terrybmcdougall
Terry@Terrybmcdougall.com

Coaching Community:  https://www.subkit.com/coachterry

Her book Winning the Game of Work: Career Happiness and Success on Your Own Terms is available at Amazon. 

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Here's how you can reach host Terry McDougall:

www.terrybmcdougall.com

www.linkedin.com/in/terrybmcdougall

Terry@Terrybmcdougall.com

Her book Winning the Game of Work is available at Amazon

Transcript

Hey everybody. It's Terry McDougall with marketing Mambo. And today's guest is Nedra Rezinas of Nedra Rezinas Consulting. Nedra is a marketing consultant who helps service-based entrepreneurs. Learn to delegate and outsource so that they can scale their business and do more work in their zone of genius. She has been doing this for over 20 years and as I've said, many times. 

One of the best things that I love about being the host of marketing Mambo is how I get to talk to such great people that otherwise I'd probably never meet. And Nedra is definitely one of those people. She just has such a great vibe. And I enjoyed speaking with her so much that I actually worked with her to help me get more clarity on how I can market my own business better. 

So I think that you're going to learn a lot and come away from today's episode with more clarity on the whole idea of marketing, whether you're an entrepreneur, whether you're working in the corporate environment. Or whether you're just one of those people who enjoys listening to me talk to really cool people like Nedra. And speaking of helping people operate in their zone of genius. 

If you're feeling frustrated with what your work situation is. 

Whether you're a business owner or whether you're working in the corporate environment, I'd love to invite you to check out my book. Winning the game of work, because it's all about helping people have  happier careers and the success that they deserve based on the hard work that they're putting in. 

So listen, you don't need to sacrifice happiness for success. 

The formula for having more balance is to shift your mindset and learn a few new skills. And soon you'll find that you're able to balance Personal happiness with professional success. And that's really my mission . It's helping people expand that overlap between happiness and success and doing it on their own terms. 

So check out my book, winning the game of work it's available on amazon.com. And Barnes and noble.com. And now without further ado, let the Mambo begin.  

Hi everybody. It's Terry with marketing Mambo, and I am honored today to have as our guest Nedra  of network rosiness consulting. She is a marketing expert who through her work at the small business design center helps small businesses learn how to be effective marketers.

And speaking as an entrepreneur myself, it's something that all of us can use. So Nedra  welcome to marketing moms.

It's great to be here, Terry. Thank you. 

So would you take a moment and just give us a little bit more insight into who you are and what you do, and maybe how you got started in that?

Yeah. Yeah, I've been doing marketing for a long time  and being involved in web design and the online marketing business, since I think I started in 1999, it's been a long time. So it was a lot of change. And  one of the things that's been really exciting. Along the way is it being an early adopter of certain tools?

Like I was telling you earlier, I was mentioning that, as an early adopter of Twitter and MailChimp and all these different tools that have really shaped how we market today and,  how they've evolved. And it's been really exciting to watch.  And one of the things that I'm really excited about doing right now is,  because of my knowledge of I've been building websites for a long time, I've helped different businesses with their marketing aspects.

Like all different marketing channels  is the website is just, the hub is just the one piece of it. There's so many different pieces that have to come together and work like a machine. And,  it's so important to, remember back in the day when  somebody say, if I build a website, people will come, right?

I'm like, no, you gotta, yeah. Announced it on different platforms and use different channels to help drive people to your website, and then things will happen, but you can't just build a website and expect magic to happen. So what I'm really focused on right now is helping service-based professionals, especially ones that unfortunately have been burned by someone in my industry, too.

Help them realize where they need to go. Like a lot of times they want to up-level their business. They want to achieve some marketing goals, but they don't even know where to start. They don't even know the how. And most commonly is usually when they want to rebrand or do something big. Maybe it's a big website redesign something that they're trying to accomplish.

So I can come in help create a custom 90 day marketing roadmap that will help them.  The path to take the how and help them figure out who to hire because,  they mostly, like I said, usually there there's been some problem where  somebody goes to them or overcharged them, or does something that's created a lot of mistrust and it's hard for them to invest that trust in someone else.

And I can help, bring people to the table, have a lot of vetted, trusted folks in my,  community. I can, bring in and. Actually get it done. It's pretty great. 

Yeah. Yeah. It's that old, classic, you don't know what you don't know, right? For a lot of business owners,  and you know, even marketing folks, we know that we need to do marketing, but sometimes we don't know how to fit it all together into a coherent strategy. And, we might literally know enough to be dangerous.

But  that can cause us to maybe hook up with people that lead us, lead us astray.  So it sounds like your role. Is really to be that, consultant, but really to help develop a strategy and then connect people with, with professionals that can help them execute on that strategy, which sounds very valuable.

Yeah.  What are some of the biggest challenges that you see that business owners face when they're starting to do market.

I think the number one challenge I see is  they think they have to do it all and that's where the burnout happens. And I've had some clients. Say, oh, I feel like I have to do everything. And so instead I need to be on Twitter, and that person over there so that I need to have a MailChimp list and I have to have it all figured out and then they just give up and I can understand that frustration of cause especially since COVID, I feel like the online world is so loud, everyone's just shouting and you gotta do this.

You gotta do that. So. I really like to take a step back and pause and go, okay,  let's take a big deep breath and go, where are your people hanging out? Are they actually on Twitter? Are they going to open your emails? That's the most important thing to ask is yeah.

Do you have to do all the things? No. I'm guessing you probably don't. And is there a few things that are working right now that we can resource and utilize and then add to that is my approach is much more conservative and, so slow pace then,  let's hop on and make you do ads.

You know, it's not my approach at all. It's definitely the opposite. And it's nice to help people realize that they don't have to do it all and give them permission to, just do a few things. 

Yeah, as you're talking about that, I can feel my shoulders lowering a little bit, like  not feeling that, that pressure that, I don't know what I don't know, but I do know that I'm not doing what I should be.  That feels bad. But especially as,  in my case, a solo preneur where, I have to deliver the service, but I also have to mark it right where I won't have anybody to deliver the service to.

So tell me, how did you get started in March?

Yeah, actually I was just temping at a corporation many years ago and they wanted me to convert some documents into HTML. And that was a pretty new thing at the time.  I realized, oh, wow, this is a great skill set I can learn. And so I just hopped on board and before I knew it, I was working on an internal intranet and helping record videos for promotions.

And,  it was just like the eclipse of this amazing revolution of, online marketing. And I got to be there at the right time, right place. And, I think being curious has really helped me. And being around people, a lot of my friends and peers.  Always early adopters of software.

So I think that's also influenced me and I've really, even in an early age, I had a computer and was figuring out how to program it and, reverse engineer things. And  it's mostly been, a very happy challenge. Nothing, not very frustrating as some people find it, but I find it to be, how can I get this to work and how can I get these things to do this together and, and make it so it'll do this thing, you know, 

Yeah, I can totally relate to that curiosity and willingness also, just to jump in and explore. So I know a lot of times in my career. 

 I would just be faced with a challenge. I didn't know how to do it. I'd never done it before, but I just figured, okay. I can get in there and figure it out. If you understand what the goal is, and then you can figure it out along the way. And you know,  it's fun.

I was around back when, at the beginning of the internet also, and a lot of us didn't really understand, we were hearing that, okay, the internet is this like great, special place. But I was in business school in the mid nineties.  I worked in the career center. Part-time as I was going to business school and it was the first place that I worked that actually had a website. It was like 1993. And I looked at the website and I was like, okay, so this is the internet. What does it do? No, I did not understand. It's so hard to understand, like how can you leverage this tool that everybody's saying is, and I'm sure that for a lot of people listening that, 

Weren't really aware back in this time. They're like what? You didn't get it, but no, it was like such a 

Hmm. 

way of being and even, like, oh, we can use it to take all of this print material and provide it to everyone. And. More immediate way and right at their fingertips for less money.

 It is pretty amazing how revolutionary it's been. What role do you feel like curiosity plays in being an effective marketer? 

Yeah, I think it helps. It really helps to reframe things when things aren't going so smoothly,  If there's a certain software,  like I use a scheduler for my social media, I think just yesterday or the day before they said, oh, because I got had legacy. Cause I've been using it for so long.

I  think I started using it 2008. And so I had these legacy posts I was able to do  for free for a long time. But yeah, I knew that day was coming. So it was all about, Okay.

now you only have this many posts for free, which is completely. Oh, my God. It's just so much smaller than I used to have.

So now I'm using my curiosity to find other solutions that are more affordable than what they're offering. And it's really about reframing and going, Hey.  How can I make this a fun game to solve versus like, oh, this is a slog. I hate this. Oh, you know, I think a lot of people, it's not their thing and that's not what their business is about.

They love doing what they're doing. If they're like,  if their attorney, their interior designer, if  they really love helping people solve this problem. The marketing  unfortunately is usually not the part that they enjoy. So it's hard to reframe that, but that's why I think I can come in and inject some, inspiration and, 

help folks kind of see things from a different angle that maybe they didn't before and give them the chance to see that they don't have to spend hours on this either. You know, one of the things I teach is setting boundaries around using social media and different tools and how to reduce your time on it.

Instead of having it just over, overwhelming overtake you. 

Yeah, that's great advice. And certainly, I think I gave myself some grace 

okay. 

towards the end of last year  to start putting limitations in place. Right. That I started actually. Unsubscribing from a lot of email lists that I've subscribed to at the beginning when I was first starting my business, because in the beginning I just wanted to learn so much.

But then I just found that it was like draining my energy to just even have to delete things out of my inbox, you know? Cause it, can be overwhelming and you're like, okay, is there anything good in here? So if somebody is a business owner and they're starting.  They're, they're listening to this and they're like, oh yeah.

Wow.  I need to get serious about how to market effectively. What besides calling you, what would you suggest they do to start.

Yeah, that's a good question.  I believe it's going back to, who are your best clients and where are they hanging out? One of the things I did.   It is about a year ago. I did the survey. I asked, my community, the best clients I have to say, Hey, what podcasts you're listening to?

what blogs are you reading? What are your hobbies? Like, it's just good to know the demographics of who you serve. And the more you get to know that, then,  it gives you more permission to be yourself and be authentic. And so when you do choose your marketing platforms, you don't have to put the mask on. I think it can be, cause what I've learned and this has been hard for me. And I think it's hard for a lot of us is you, the more you are yourself, the more you're gonna attract the right people. But if you start.  Putting on this whole charade of this is what you do, and it's really not who you are.

It's gonna fall apart. It's not going to work. And I definitely have had failures around that. I've seen other people do it too. And so just in the last couple of years, the more I've been able to let my own personality and, be able to write, and actually post things on LinkedIn that really reflect who I am as a person. And just my funny quirks, it actually attracts the people and, I have really great conversations and all of a sudden they become clients or they become referral partners or, you know, they become part of my community and that's great. So I think that, listening and hearing  to, pay attention to where your best clients and where they're, what they're doing and where they're hanging out is a first grade step.

And it's time well spent. 

Yeah, I love that,  advice to be authentic because as a coach, that's one of the things that I encourage my clients to find that sweet spot between, doing what they need to do to be successful at work, but also honoring themselves. And honestly, I do believe that all of us.

We're going to have a lot more energy to be productive if we honor ourselves. And if we recognize who we are at our core, and we show up that way, it takes a lot of energy to sort of put up a mask  or to do things that are out of integrity with who we are.  I feel like I kind of fell victim a little bit.

I mean, it was my own fault, but when I first was starting my business, there's a lot of, lead generation agencies that are out there that, will promise you the world in terms of how many leads they'll get you and all that kind of thing. And the first company that I worked with, they did get me a lot of leads and I got business from it.

But their approach to marketing was very much out of alignment. What I felt comfortable with and what I felt like was my brand and I sort of allowed them to guide me because I felt like I don't know what's gonna work. And it worked, but, eventually I just realized that it wasn't really worth me showing up in a way that's different than what I want to reflect to the world.

Yeah. And that's the story I've heard from a lot of my clients. You're not alone. Terry, that's actually a very similar story. It's so frustrating to feel that, and that's where it goes back to that trust of who can you trust is as far as, that marketing person that will help you or the web designer or somebody that's going to help you  take that,  goal or that task achievement and actually execute it properly for you, you know, and do it the right way. Yeah, I've I think I've had, different clients say that, they hired lead generation companies it was like somebody was doing some kind of law and they had someone do lead generation for some, it's a complete different aspect of law that they were doing. And it was just like, why am I even bothering with doing this?

It was so exhausting for them. And I think this happens a lot where like, oh, a lead is a lead. No, it's absolutely not. That's why I teach a lot about referrals, referral partners and putting a time and investment into them because. Lead is one thing, but actual referral is completely different.

It has a lot more value. And,  it's going to build trust and generate of really great client if it's done. Right. 

Yeah, I agree with that. I mean, what we're talking about is qualified leads. You 

Exactly right. 

actually buy from you. And I, that's another lesson that I learned, early on, I was yeah. Using the LinkedIn ProFinder app and, there's a lot of people out there looking for help.

And I was pitching myself to a lot of people and, I'm a corporate executive who had 30 years of experience in marketing and there's a lot of people out there that need help. It, wasn't a good match with me. Yeah. I can write people's resumes, but  that's not really the best use of my time.

And there's a lot of people that can use help with work, but not everybody is going to be able to afford to hire somebody with 30 years of experience. If they're in their second year of work, but  I learned that the hard way, right.  I got a lot of experience having. Sales conversations.

Didn't bring on a whole lot of new clients through that. And so,  I learned my lessons about like, okay, who am I going to send proposals to? And who will I, not just based on my experience. And so, it's kind of the classic, test and learn. Right. But, I find it's been interesting and a little, humbling too.

Recognize that as somebody like me who was in marketing for 30 years and did a lot of big things that it's a whole different ball game when it's your own business. And, to go from working in marketing for a large corporation, to being a solo preneur and having to develop my own marketing,  there's a lot of things.

That come easy for me, like some of the graphic design and writing and that kind of thing. But, from a strategic standpoint it's different and it also can be very difficult when you're the product in a way, like when I'm the brand for my business. it's very difficult to sort of step away and get enough of a perspective on.

What should I be telling people about me? I always say to my clients, it's hard to read the label from inside the bottle, right. You're just walking around being yourself. And it's very hard to see, what are the things that are valuable and interesting and good about me that I should be talking about.

 And I think sometimes working with somebody that can give you that perspective advise you on like, okay, well maybe you should try this type of messaging and see how it goes over. I noticed that, or like you said, doing the research and getting people that have done business with you to come back and say, this is why I hired you.

You know? And, I think, one of the things I've noticed is that often. People are blind to their own strengths  because it's just the way they approach the world. Right. It's like, Hey, this is just how I am. You know, you were talking about your curiosity. know that I've had some blind spots in the past, just assuming like what isn't everybody and the case, the answer is no.

Yeah. Yeah, no, that's a great point. And going back to,  giving some people feedback about their branding or how they come across, it is really hard to see that in yourself. And that's why I have my own coach.  I remember one of my coaches taught me to reach out to.

Top clients and get feedback before I do some big changes, like right now I'm actually working on some brand thing pieces  and some, other native material. But I know that I should run it past best clients first, because they're going to say, yeah, that resonates with me or no.

don't do that.

And that's going to be the best. Feedback I can get, I could ask my family and my friends, my peers, but they're not buying from me. My clients are buying from me. That's so important to remember that. And, another thing I want to say as far as branding goes is just being consistent.

I think that a lot of folks who are always trying new things out and. It gets really confusing if you're trying to establish even just like you said, Terry, like selling yourself and your own personal brand, if you just even use the same palette, the same font. And  if you're on a few different platforms, just keep doing that over and over.

People will remember that, but if you, On a Wednesday or if some random Wednesday, I'm going to just do this and go crazy. Yeah.

That's great. But that doesn't being consistent and doing it over and over and over is what helps people remember you and, getting wild hair is fun and everything, but that's not good marketing practices.

And so, I can see this in a lot of people and, and it's always baffles me when I try to help them and they don't listen. It's also how you look professionally, you know, if somebody has really great material and content, but then they're pictures.

 high-quality,  they're sloppy with their fonts. They're sloppy with, how they put together a website. That's going to make it really uncomfortable for me to recommend them, you know,  , it's very confusing, communication and messaging.

So I just want to speak on that and I'm just curious, Terry. If that's something that pops up working with your clients too, and helping them see that that's not helping their image. And it's very confusing to the other people in the outside world. 

Yeah,  I'm a executive and leadership coach, but I do work with a lot of people in marketing. And, I think  something that's relatable. There is the personal brands, right? Where in and consistency is that's the bedrock of a strong brand.

Right. I completely agree with you in that,  if there are issues with the brand or the way that somebody is showing up and they're inconsistent and how they're talking about the services that they offer, or there are, mistakes or. doing different types of things.

 I think that whether it's fair or not, people do make the assumption that the way you do one thing is the way that you do everything. And so, they may have doubts or there may be confusion about what do you do again, or,  if you're using a word. Wrong or the spacing in your copy looks weird.

Even though that's marketing and maybe you're doing something different, like you're a lawyer or something like that, they're still going to question like, okay, well, if they're sloppy here, are they gonna be sloppy? If I hire them right. That may or may not be true, it might just be like, Hey, I'm not good at marketing, but you still have to be responsible for the way that you show up in the world.

And you have to realize that people are watching you. Right. And so if you're all over the place, they're going to be like, I don't know what to think about this person or this  organization.

right.  It goes back full circle of, that is something you can't control. So, we were talking about earlier, like spreading yourself too thin, like let's rein it in. If you're feeling that overwhelming,  like completely burned out.  usually what I'm seeing when that happens is someone's trying to do too many things.

And so what I usually do is recommend to solve this as, to like,  just take a pause and  let's just work on your website or let's just work on this piece because once we have that hub or whatever is central to your business, that's an L polished and clean and looks great.

Then you can roll out the rest of it. And that's a lot of times I speak with, clients about rebranding. Cause that's a pretty big one that is very overwhelming. I can see that because usually there's like,  an email change and then there's like software changes and then there's, maybe you have to hire the lawyer to get the LLC or the name change.

It's just, there's a lot of pieces to that. And like, where do you start with that? And, I've gone through this a few times in my life. And so I can lend advice and go, Okay.

 This is the path of least resistance here. Let's take this one and, have you just, step-by-step go through the motions and get it done and know that you're doing it right.

Versus just rushing through it. And then things are gonna come back to haunt you because actually that's usually what happens when people try to do that. And don't think about the whole picture. They just think about a few pieces of the puzzle. 

Yeah. You know, it's funny. having worked in corporate market. As long as I did, I was party to many rebrandings, over the years and the amount of time and money and energy that we spent on doing the rebrandings was significant,  and,  lots of research, lots of focus groups working with the agency to do surveys because, Your brand is you,  and even though you may have an inkling that like, oh, if we change the name or we changed the logo, maybe it's going to modernize us.

Some people are going to look at us a different way, a more positive way. We can only assume that, we have to go out and really test it. And even if we decide to do it, maybe. We glean some information that we can use to communicate it more effectively when the time comes. And so, to your point about, if somebody decides that they're going to rebrand their small business, recognize that, we see bigger companies doing it all the time where they're going to update the logo or. 

Sprint

is now T-Mobile right. That realize that behind the scenes, there was lots of work going on there and  you're going to be doing yourself a favor if you understand. What this means,  because there's nothing worse than rebranding to something. And then realizing after the fact, like you've put a lot of time and energy in it and people, don't understand what your business does because you've changed the brand to something that's not descriptive or, your logo looks weird and people think it's something that it's not.

I mean, all of these things have happened to much bigger and better funded companies and they have to backtrack. So, if you're a small business, And you're thinking about doing this. It's probably even more important to be very thoughtful and deliberate about going through the steps. actually changed my logo a couple of years ago.

Because I worked in marketing so long,  I had met someone who was a graphic designer and just in talking to her,  I recognized that she was very high level professional. And, even though I didn't have a lot of money. I was so thankful because she led me through a whole process.

That was really similar to what I had experienced in the big corporate world with some of the branding agencies that are out there. She spent hours with me just sitting down and saying, okay, well, talk to me about your process. Talk to me about the people that you work with and what is the impression that you want to have, and, really kind of going down to a real conceptual level about, and even like, what colors do you like?

And I was so thrilled with what she came up with for my logo. I'm so proud to put it out there because I feel like it's on the level with, a big corporation that would have spent a lot more money than what I did. I think I caught her at a good time because she.

Had gotten divorced and was just restarting her graphic design business. And she just wanted to build her portfolio, but it was really great to go through a very deliberate process with somebody who knew what she was doing. And there are lots of people out there like that. So, if you're thinking about doing this, not going to say that, some of the platforms like Upwork or Fiverr. Aren't good, but  realize that it's not just about having a symbol, but it's like, does that symbol reflect who you are as a business? And what are people gonna think when they see that? And sometimes you may need the help of somebody like you Nedra to 

Sure 

have people think through all the aspects of what that means.

exactly. 

So Nedra one of my most important channels and marketing is LinkedIn because I'm an executive and leadership coach, and that's where people are, who are serious about their careers. So, what are you seeing as the trends and so forth on LinkedIn from a marketing standpoint?

Yeah.

It's been a pretty big. Platform, especially since the pandemic, it was starting to become that, but then it really shifted. And I took it upon myself to learn the ins and outs of using it as a business owner, because, it's been known as a tool to find a job, or,  if you're a recruiter, use that to.

Find people for jobs, around think it was like 2019, my business coach at the time she was, challenging me too. Meet more people on LinkedIn. And at the time my rule is I only connect with people. I know. And she's like, no, that's not how it works. You actually need to, branch out and meet new people.

And, it took me awhile to be like, it's kind of processed that, be Okay.

with it. Cause it was just really uncomfortable. But then I realized that she was right. And so I think she challenged me one month to meet five new people. A week. So maybe like 25 people in a month. And it felt a little awkward at first, but then it got easier.

And that's the thing about a lot of these tools are, social media platforms is the more you play on them and experiment the easier it gets. And, I actually took a class or two to learn. What I should be doing. I'm like dead to really connect with people because,  the secrets I've learned is the direct messaging is kind of like the sweet spot.

It's where you really can talk to people and have these really amazing conversations with people, and strangers, but the key is to be. Yourself and being friendly because I don't know about you Terry, but everyday I get these canned responses. They're very robotic about,  let's set up a call and we'll do your white labeling website or something like that.

And I'm just grown and sometimes like, Actually the other day, I was trying to get somebody to be like, Hey, are you real? It was like pushing them to be like, Hey,  can you just tell me why I should get on the phone with you because  my time is precious. Why are you different?

And of course they didn't respond very well. Just more robotic stuff. But the key to the direct messaging for everyone out there is to be friendly and thank people for. Starting to acknowledge them if they have like something on your posts or if they commented, or even if you have somebody in common, , it's always nice to do that.

I mean, of course after a while, you may not have some of the people in common if you're starting to get to know people and you're just connecting. But, that's why there's the LinkedIn profile. You can go in there and see if somebody's where people went to college, what hobbies they have.

If they know a language,  there's a lot of amazing things that you can. Basically gleam and learn about somebody. If you take the time and that's what was really matters. And so it makes an impression on people, if you do take the time to learn. And so I've been having a lot of success, just being friendly and nice on LinkedIn and connecting with people.

Getting clients and referral partners. And I've even created a LinkedIn masterclass, a self-paced course people can take, I launched it in January and people are really having a lot of success learning how to use LinkedIn and not spending hours a day on it. Either. I've devised a way that you can basically spend 15 minutes a day connecting with people.

And, it's more about engaging than posting and figuring out,  What are you focused on, on LinkedIn? What are you trying to achieve and who can you connect with to achieve that and making sure your profile looks good to, you know, a lot of people have these outdated pictures, they haven't updated what they're up to, and there's the about us section on LinkedIn.

And it's just this like goldmine of things you can put in there. It's like this blank slate of really. Amazing opportunities for you to share what you're working on, provide testimonials. I think a lot of people don't realize as a business owner, what LinkedIn can provide. And I think that I'm on a mission to help educate and change that, which is really exciting. 

Yeah,  it's definitely my social channel of choice. , I remember back in 2007 when, sorry. Invited me to get LinkedIn for the first time I called her and said, is this a real thing? But you know, so it's going on 14 years since I've been on LinkedIn. And my,  attitude towards LinkedIn was much like yours in the beginning that I felt like, oh, I have to really know people well, and that's kind of funny because it really should be the opposite.

Like if you know people extremely well, you're going to stay in touch with them no matter what. But, I tell people now, get linked in with everybody that, you know, will get linked in with the person that sits right next to you at work. Once we can get back to the office, because there will be a time when.

You don't know how to get in touch with them. And I've had experiences. I've actually have a client right now who is the nephew of somebody that I met when I was 22 years old at my first job. And after many years of her and I just staying in touch through Christmas cards, She hired me.

But this isn't necessarily, we are on LinkedIn, but,  I just want to illustrate the fact that your network can pay dividends for you even decades later. this person contacted me a few months ago and said, my brother's son needs some assistance with his job search. He's kind of at a crossroads and.

So I was introduced to him and he hired me. And,  it's just funny about how things that you just don't know what might happen. And of course, this person wasn't even born when I met the person who referred him to me. So  it's amazing the things that can happen. And, at some point, I became an evangelist for LinkedIn and I started to realize like when I went to conferences and I was collecting business cards from people at the lunch table and stuff like that, I come back to the office and I had just like boxes of business cards and I'm like, I don't even remember who's in here.

I don't remember what these people look like. And I got in the habit of just. Getting linked in with everyone instead of keeping the business cards. And, there's a lot of advantages, right? You can, it can refresh your memory. You can even put notes in there about how you met the person. And  I went from a few hundred connections in the beginning of people that I knew very well and I was working with directly to, a couple thousand, 

by the time I started using the lead gen companies and then they quadrupled the number of people, but I'm still really active in. Getting connected with people. you've probably had this experience and certainly I have to that, you can become friends with people that, you know, you have something in common.

I mean, I've identified a lot of people, you and I met on LinkedIn. And I have you on as a guest now. And I think that we'll stay in touch because we have a lot in common, but  I've literally become friends with people that,  it just started with a direct message and that's really cool.

Oh, I'm so glad that you can agree with this Terry and it's nice when. You hear other people having similar stories and I've made new friends over the last year on LinkedIn too. And it's been incredible because I think a lot of it's just because we're not seeing each other a lot and it's a safe space.

I feel like to talk to people and, , it was a little bit of personal, but mostly business and, I'd like to ask these questions when I post on LinkedIn and sometimes the answers just blow my mind and people are becoming more vulnerable and themselves, and it's just so nice to see people opening up and sharing experiences of their lives and helping other people realize that it's Okay.

to be human.

You know, like I think I posted this really vulnerable post.  Teaching at the small business development center. When I was first asked by my mentor, Jackie, a couple of years ago to teach a three hour class, I was terrified because I had only maybe spoken in front of a group for 30 minutes, but three hours was just like, oh my God, how am I going to do that?

And so. Outline this post on LinkedIn and explain that I just had to suck it up and practice and practice and I was scared and  I practiced from my dog. It took me like many, many times to teach those classes till I got comfortable. But just to admit that and share that was, something.

I don't normally tell people, but that actually has led to some really great connections with people and conversations I didn't think was possible. And I think that's really the secret is to, work up to that, to be a little bit more vulnerable and share those so that you can connect with other people that identify with that and relay.

And then you can both be like, yeah, I've experienced that too. And,  it's kinda magical when it happens.

agree. A hundred percent. And being a coach. You know, it's really funny. Some of the things that people will ask me, some are in session and a lot of times they'll say,  am I the only one that asks you questions like this? Or am I the only one that experiences this sort of thing? And I'm like, no, this is the reason why people have coaches so that they can let their hair down.

They can. Be in a safe place to talk about the things that concern them and,  well, I guess I'll be vulnerable in a way as a coach that, sometimes when somebody reaches out to me, sometimes I'll check them out on LinkedIn and I'm like, oh my gosh, this person  they look so successful.

Like what in the world would they need from me? Right. And I think that very often we can just look at sort of the.  Exterior,  just the impression that we're getting from people, but, behind the nice suit or the title or the company, it's just a human being, and we all experience, insecurities at times, we're all uncertain at times.

And I do agree that if we can share that with others, it just makes it okay for other people to show up as human as well. And when that happens, we can connect on a real level, which is great.

Yeah, exactly. And it just takes down those barriers so that you, feel like you can be yourself. I think maybe, I don't know. I think Kobe has actually helped increase that quite a bit. I've noticed that with people, have opened up to me a lot more and maybe I've created a safer space, but that's, what's really interesting when I take on clients  or even have discovery calls.

A lot of times I could go and similar to you, I could go look at their LinkedIn profile, look at their website and go, wow. What can I do to help them? Oh my gosh. It's never what I think it is ever. So I just stopped looking because whatever they're going to tell me is never gonna match what is going on.

It's going to be a complete different story because it's all behind the scenes and they're trying to get help and figure it out. And it's usually none of it's visible or public. And so I've learned. Be an open book or just open to people and be like,  just tell me what's going on  and be a safe person to talk about because, well, that's how it was marketing.

It goes into personal, it all kind of comes together. Cause I work with a lot of folks that tend to be more introverted because so then the whole question of visibility is really big and how they put themselves out there and how uncomfortable that is and helping them realize that we can take small steps towards that and they don't have to do everything.

Yeah. No, giving them permission to, maybe video is not the thing for you. So, and then don't feel like you have to do that. Maybe blogging and writing articles. This is a great outlet for you and that's totally fine. And nobody has to tell you otherwise, and just giving people the, authority to, just to move forward with that and the direction and paths.

We'll allow them to do that. I think that that's a lot, what people are dealing with right now is especially because video is so prevalent because in the last year that's been kind of like our substitute for real life people. And it's a lot of pressure. 

Yeah, totally. And this gets back to something we were talking about earlier that. There's not really a cookie cutter approach to marketing, we've been talking about personal identity, but also brand. And the reality is brand is the identity of the company.

It's the reflection of what the organization is about. And believe that everything that we've been talking about with LinkedIn and being out there personally and being authentic, it relates very much. How to stand out as a marketer as well. You know how to market your business, like show up as you are, be present, be there, like be seen, but be seen in a way that feels comfortable for you.

And, don't be, forced, like I was to be forced into marketing in a way. Didn't feel in alignment how I wanted to show up.  There's no. Benefit to giving up something that's very important to you so that you can get more business, right.

It just it's out of 

right, exactly.

You just won't have the right kind of clients either. It just, doesn't magnetize the same way. And I imagine that's what happened with you. And I think he even said that It just was not, it wasn't the most ideal clients that you got from that situation? 

Yeah, exactly. I got a couple of good ones, but I almost feel like it was accidental in a way to tell you the truth, which is kind of funny. Well Nedra thank you so much much for being on today. I just really loved this conversation and I loved how it really aligned marketing with individuals, having the courage to show up as they are authentically.

I think that's one of the things that, we as humans and, the brands that represent our organizations have in common. And you've certainly given me a lot to think about even with my own day. And I may reach out to you after this is over to check in to see how you might be able to help me as well.

So tell me, how can people get in touch with you now?

Well, the easiest thing is just to go on LinkedIn and I'm hanging out there a lot and engaging and having fun. So, you can look me up there and then my website, just my name.  dot com. 

Okay, great. I'll put the links in the show notes as well. So I appreciate you being on today and have a great day now. Nedra

You too, Terry. Thanks so much.