EP:29 - Entrepreneur Inspiration - Leveraging Today's LinkedIn for Job Search Success

I'll never forget the day I found my dream job through a post on LinkedIn. Who would have thought that a social network could become a game-changer in job searches? This week, we're chatting with LinkedIn dynamo, Lauren Surman. Lauren's strategic use of LinkedIn, and her commitment to posting daily for a year, not only landed her a performance gig at a major event but also built a powerful community. Her inspirational story led us to discover how LinkedIn can be leveraged to land job offers, connect with professionals, and help others in their career journey.

 Lauren's passion for helping job seekers shone through as she spoke about her affordable coaching services, providing job seekers with insightful advice, and walking them through mock interviews in their quest for suitable positions. We also delved into the crucial role of a good recruiter in navigating the intricate hiring process, and the significant impact of dressing appropriately for job interviews.

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Transcript

0:00:03 - Speaker 1
Good afternoon. Episode number 29 on the OWWLL podcast. We have Lauren Surman in the podcast studio right now. She's looking at me. I just badgered your name right off the bat, did I? Or did I get it right? 

0:00:15 - Speaker 2
I did get it right. Look at that. Well, I got to bring something up. 

0:00:18 - Speaker 1
You know so interesting. You know we always talk about building rich relationships on OWWLL right and and the money element doesn't really matter that much. You know, as you use out more and more people are starting to recognize that you know who cares about $10, you know you know to receive on a call to give some advice or to network. But you did something very interesting you pulled off calling someone from the shrimp tank that was on the other podcast I host and you ended up singing an event. Is that correct? 

0:00:44 - Speaker 3
Yeah. 

0:00:44 - Speaker 1
So tell, tell the world about how that all happened and I didn't get to tell you what happened that day. I did, and I've been on meetings all days. For the first time I've seen you. Yeah. 

0:00:52 - Speaker 3
I was actually going to bring that up because we mentioned on our last episode. So Ron Saunders, from our shrimp tank episode, hosts this big event every year with over 300 people. It's to raise awareness for cystic fibrosis and a lot of people donate a lot of money for the cause. I found out it's not, it's one of those diseases. It's not funded by the government, so it's it's tough. 

So we had this big event planned in Jupiter and as I'm driving to the event I'm like wow, it's really raining and I couldn't see anything. And I realized that I'm driving through a tornado because there was a tornado in Florida this weekend. And so I'm like I'm getting to this event and I'm like I can't see anything. I just put my flashers on and I'm like, hopefully this works. And so I get there and I'm looking and it's on this beautiful, like kind of farmish piece of land and I look up and there's this huge tent where the event was supposed to be and it's all completely knocked over. The sound guy's equipment was like so from this tornado that no one really knew about. So we ended up canceling the bigger event, but about 100 of the VIP people came to Ron's house, so it ended up working out. We did like a house concert, basically, and it was. I had no idea. 

0:02:17 - Speaker 4
Really, I haven't seen her since last. Well, I had lunch with Cindy and Cindy went oh wait, I didn't see her there, though. Well, Cindy told me all about it, she was there. If she wasn't there, I would think that Cindy was the one part of the details. 

0:02:28 - Speaker 1
Yeah. 

0:02:29 - Speaker 3
Oh, weird. I okay because I was like looking for her and I was like I guess she didn't show up weird. So it ended up being really cool. There were four other songwriters there and they were all like big time. I didn't realize like they've had like number one hits, like written for Kelly Clarkson and all this stuff. So it was really good networking for me and just everyone was super talented. Everyone loved it. It was a great event so it worked out, but like it was a little scary there for a minute. 

0:02:55 - Speaker 1
That is pretty scary, but you made it. 

0:02:57 - Speaker 3
Yeah, I think they're going to reschedule the big event for some time. So you know, keep your eyes open for that, the Florida people on here. But yeah, it will work out. 

0:03:07 - Speaker 1
You get two events out of this. It's not so bad. It's a little scary. Not always what you want to do is driving through a tour. 

0:03:14 - Speaker 3
You know, not to, not to self promote, but this weekend. I'm also performing at Sunfest on Sunday. So for all you Florida people in West Palm, I'll be performing at 1230. So come on out, it's going to be a big concert. The killers are performing that day Ziggy Marley, I forget who else, but those are the big names, so anyway awesome Water kicked in, I think. 

0:03:38 - Speaker 4
There we go, there we go. 

0:03:39 - Speaker 1
First she's like I don't know, I'm tired, I've been once the camera hit all these 75 hard, hard times. Now I'm exhausted. Now I was on boom. Yeah, water has kicked in. So, Lauren, let's kick off today's show. Tell us about why you are an expert on LinkedIn, everything about LWL, consulting what you guys do and how you're making an impact in this world. 

0:04:02 - Speaker 4
Well, first, thank you for having me on your podcast, super excited to be around more local connections this year. Linkedin is kind of very nationwide, worldwide, right, like connecting with people all over, and I realized at the start of the year I didn't have enough local people in my community. Now that COVID has kind of passed and we're all back in in-person events, I was like this is gonna be my focus of 2023. It's really building more of my local network. So thank you for having me. I appreciate that. And, yeah, I met you off of LinkedIn. Linkedin is obviously where everybody goes when you need a new job, right? So, like many people, that's where I found myself a long time ago on LinkedIn. I needed a new role and somebody posted something Darren McKee, it said if you treat LinkedIn like it's a job for a year, you'll never look for a job again in your life, and that moment. 

0:04:53 - Speaker 3
I love that quote. 

0:04:54 - Speaker 4
that's awesome and that moment I was like bet, what's a year? I can post on LinkedIn every day for a year, let's do it. So I set the goal for myself to post every day for a year and at first it was just a post right, like, post and say something who's gonna listen, who cares? And then it started to be okay, you wanna build community and you're building this brand because there's people who can't say the things that you're talking about and there's people in the same position you were who need to know it's okay to look for their next role. So really started posting for that reason. That was why I first started building a brand on LinkedIn and then realized how many people you can really help because you can connect with so many people. So my mission really became to help as many people as possible when I got into recruiting and I'm just really fortunate I get to do that for companies and job seekers alike. And yeah, it's been a really wild ride on LinkedIn this last year. 

0:05:43 - Speaker 1
And of course, that's the most important thing in someone's life their job. That's where their peace and happiness is, every single day, practically right Monday through Friday. That's where they are. 

0:05:52 - Speaker 4
I tell people all the time I'm like this isn't your career, this is your life. Like with somebody lays you off. They're like don't take it personal. Like no, it's all personal, it's all personal. I understand that those decisions are typically made in a boardroom, but it's all personal, it's your life and you need to have somebody in your corner who recognizes that and understands that. 

0:06:11 - Speaker 1
Can you share a story where you just you got the tingles, how much impact you made on their lives by getting them out of a shitty position right and into a better one? When everyone's had shitty bosses, I'm happy to say I had a few and I got rid of them right and I just saw them just making people cry coming to the office every day and it was just like cancer in the office. They were so negative and then I'm happy I went through those situations because then you learn from them, even bad experiences like I'm never gonna be like that individual. I don't want people talking behind my back saying how bad of a boss I am and some bosses kind of think that that's the way to do it. They've never done it 100%. 

But you've made a major impact with some people's lives. 

0:06:55 - Speaker 4
So I kind of have an example in a little bit of a different way. In that situation, mostly I get women who message me who say, Lauren, what you're posting about I can't even like your content because my boss might see, but what you're saying is so real and it's giving me the courage to start looking and it's reminding me that I should be tracking my metrics and I should always have my resume prepared and that this job could say goodbye to me tomorrow. 

0:07:21 - Speaker 3
What. 

0:07:21 - Speaker 4
I like to remind people is if you lose your job, your new job will be posted. Like if you died tomorrow, your new job would be posted before your obituary. Like, think about that. It takes longer to write up and publish and print in obituary than it does for them to post your new job, and they've already stopped thinking about you that quick. So don't put all your eggs in that basket one. But what you're talking about like really making an impact. So this was amazing. This happened to me a few weeks ago. I do free 20 minute job search strategy calls with anybody who needs one, and I had someone reach out to me and they're not my typical client. There's somebody who's here and they need sponsorship to stay, and that's not something I typically deal with. I don't really help people get a visa, it's just not in my way, it's fairly complicated. 

0:08:07 - Speaker 1
I've had to deal with that in New York City with internships and I was not. I'm too busy running my business, we're not a huge organization. And then all of a sudden you're like whoa, like. I just said, pass on the future ones. 

0:08:18 - Speaker 4
So we review a resume and we look at a LinkedIn and I can give you some basic advice, but what can I really do for you? Right? And in that moment in my head I'm like well, my motto is like if I can't, my network can. So I said to him, I said can you please write a post, make it heartfelt about what you're going through? And I mean he delivered and it's like this is supposed to be the land of opportunity. Yeah, right, like I can't even say everything he said. But and then he finished the post and he was positive and uplifting and if you're going through this too, and I mean brought it around. And I was like that's perfect, we're going to share that with the network. We shared it. It went more viral than anything I've ever posted on LinkedIn. He had 11 interviews lined up in a week. 

0:09:00 - Speaker 1
That's awesome. 

0:09:01 - Speaker 4
I mean the kid who I literally said I can't help you, I don't know what I can do for you. I mean I get goosebumps still thinking about it and I'm still messaging him. He's still finishing interview processes. He had so many that he got so overwhelmed he had to push them out for three weeks. 

0:09:15 - Speaker 3
That's insane. That's amazing. He shared his post. 

0:09:17 - Speaker 4
And it wasn't just me, right, like I shared it first and then five other 500 people shared it, and it was those 500 people who matter. 

0:09:25 - Speaker 1
Yeah, and LinkedIn is so underutilized Most people jumped to Facebook, instagram, but LinkedIn's were. You know, all the professionals lie Right. Almost every CEO has a LinkedIn profile and last time you could message them, it's them. There's no assistant typically looking at all their messages it's them. It's really 95% of the time. Do I have that stat right? I don't even know. I just personal For the most part. 

0:09:50 - Speaker 4
You're hitting the right person. Getting them to respond is one thing right. 

You have to have great messaging to get them to respond. But you're hitting the right person on LinkedIn for the most part, which is really nice. But the other thing brands don't realize yet they're starting to like listen up Chanel and like Louis Vuitton. They advertised to me on LinkedIn because people on LinkedIn have money and jobs and they're not teenagers who are just liking your posts. To like your posts because they want to buy it in 10 years, like they start people with buying power. So if you're not advertising on LinkedIn and you have a service or a product or anything like, I'm sorry I don't know what you're doing right now. 

0:10:27 - Speaker 1
So the business you run, can you explain like the different avenues you help others with, like one obviously is there is getting a job, recruiting and placement, but what else? Are you going over their LinkedIn profile and charging them a fee to fix it up? Are you showing them message campaigns how to message people with the right copy so you get an answer? Kind of go into more details of the different verticals. 

0:10:51 - Speaker 4
So there's a few things. There's the recruiting aspect, which the main thing I'll say about that is understand the type of recruiter you're reaching out to. There's a lot of recruiters who do a lot of different things. There's internal, external, reverse recruiters. There's a lot of different kinds of recruiters, so learn what kind of recruiter you're reaching out to. But I do recruiting for SaaS and sales and executive search, specifically getting women in the space, very focused on getting more women into sales and sales leadership. I talked to too many, no offense, I talked to too many dudes in the C suite all day. We need more women in your C suite. 

0:11:24 - Speaker 1
Sales tends to be more. It's very male dominated. 

0:11:28 - Speaker 4
We need more women in the room. Women bring innovation. I'm sorry, it's a proven fact. Come in my DMs and fight me later, I don't care, but you need more women on your C-suite. So I'm super passionate about it. But specifically for job seekers, so what I found in the last year? I was working with a number of companies helping place talent and I was getting job seekers reach out to me and they're like Lauren, I need your help. I'm like that's not what I do, that's not what I do, that's not what I do. And I had people start like, no, we wanna work with you, we wanna work with you. I said, okay, how can I do this? And think about it. A lot of job seekers aren't in a place where they can spend thousands of dollars an hour for coaching. 

0:12:02 - Speaker 1
No. 

0:12:02 - Speaker 4
They need a job, people yeah it's reversed. 

So I tried to find a way where I could help people, give them some of my time, but still, like y'all, it's a business, I gotta charge something. So I have levels, I have tiers where I work with job seekers. So I do basic strategy coaching, where we'll review your LinkedIn, we'll review your resume, I'll give you some tips and some tricks and we'll go over strategy. Why are you not getting results? Like, where is it falling off? Do you need help with an interview? I'll set you up with people to do mock interviews. If the interview is the process like you're getting interviews but you're just not getting the offer, there's something there. That's where we're gonna hone in on. 

If you're applying to 500 places but not getting one interview, we're gonna figure out why and figure out what's going on there. So we really figure out the reason as to what's not working for you and then we come up with an approach. So for $2.99 a month, which is incredibly affordable it's like $37 a session, cause you get eight sessions. We do eight sessions where we really just make sure you're on track and I think of it more as like an accountability partner in your job search. So I'm making sure that you're on track, that you're not falling off, that you didn't get three nos this week and you're super depressed and you're not like continuing Cause y'all like job searching is almost sales these days. The market's horrible. How many people do you talk to who are like can't find anything? 

0:13:17 - Speaker 1
Well, there's so many jobs out there, but that's what I'm saying. There's so many jobs out there. A lot of business owners like myself I'm trying to hire right now. What do you need? Help? 

0:13:26 - Speaker 3
And I'm just like I see more in Florida too, the people I interview. I'm like. 

0:13:31 - Speaker 1
I can't take it serious if we have a meeting at two o'clock and then you're texting me at 150. Hey, how do you get to your office? I'm like it's called Google Maps. Why are you asking? 

0:13:41 - Speaker 4
me that question. Well, that's why you need to work with a specialty recruiter who takes care? Of all the nonsense for you. 

0:13:45 - Speaker 1
But then people show up and they act like they're the successful entrepreneur wearing a t-shirt and jeans, or just not appropriately fitted. So I just look at it as like you have to dress to impress. I come from the New York state of mind, where you always have to have a suit and tie on in every type of interview. 

0:14:06 - Speaker 4
Cause I financial services. 

0:14:07 - Speaker 1
At the end of the day, behind the scenes, you know, vowel. 

0:14:09 - Speaker 4
Show up looking like a scrub. 

0:14:10 - Speaker 1
Yes, and you don't have a job. You're interviewing her job and I feel like it's been so. This laid back mentality, in South Florida at least. I can't speak for other areas of the country, but I mean we talk about all the time. It's just like what we see with cancellations, like oh sorry, I had something to follow, like you know, and I and I could call it out. She sees it all the time. 

0:14:30 - Speaker 3
Like let's go. I'm gonna say the dating scene, the job scene. 

0:14:32 - Speaker 1
I mean we go to raw juice and I'm like, yeah, the meeting's probably canceled, let me just text them, cause I don't want to rush back to the office for a canceled appointment. And I text like, hey, you know how, you know, just confirming we're good for two o'clock. My car broke down. I'm like, no, we did not. So I just think that it's two sided right. It's the people complaining because their expectations are the perfect job. It goes back to dating as well. It's like I need the perfect. You know, if you're a female, male right, and vice versa, males for females. But in general, it's just like that expectation is so high of the Google job. And you see more than this, more than me. 

0:15:06 - Speaker 4
I'm just speaking what I see on my other pockets the shrimp tank, which all it's not just curbing the candidate's expectation of the job, but it's getting the hiring manager to understand what's available, considering what they're looking for. So like, if you're gonna be very specific and you want something very, very niche down, but you need them to come into office four days a week, your pool's gonna be much more limited, right, like. So it's kind of curbing expectations on both sides. 

I think, you have to do that, but I also think that's where it comes into play of working with a good recruiter right, because it saves your time. That's what I talk to hiring managers about all the time. Exactly what you're saying it's a headache to hire. It's a headache to find the right person. You waste your time. 

And when I talk to CEOs, if you really break down, how much is your time worth, how much is your team's time worth, if you put a dollar amount next to every person who's attending your meeting? Think about this. Do this on your calendar for a week. Leadership You're welcome for this tip. Put a dollar amount next to all the people who are joining a meeting and look at how much these meetings cost you per hour for your team to attend. And then how much of that are you wasting on hiring? How much money do you waste just through the hiring process to only get a candidate who is, like you're saying, under qualified, doesn't take it seriously, only took the offer to take it back to their company to get a counter? There's plenty of reasons why you're just wasting your time. 

0:16:28 - Speaker 1
I absolutely love it because OWWLLs platform, of course, is cutting out all the BS, right saying hey, here's an individual, they're $10 for 10 minutes. Isn't that worth it to jump ahead of the line to Message them on LinkedIn or Instagram back Would you like to have a conversation? And then they say yes. One out of 20 say yes, and then what happens? Now You're waiting. Oh, what time works for you, what time works for me? Maybe they have a calendar like you schedule it. What happens? 

0:16:54 - Speaker 2
I know the odds are about 20 30% or no showed or canceled. 

0:16:58 - Speaker 1
Isn't that worth it? Just to pay to speak to someone instantly? 

0:17:02 - Speaker 4
and just be done with it right away and know right off the bat. You know. 

0:17:05 - Speaker 3
I don't know that, if it or it's not, may not be a ton of money at first, but to know that you're getting money for your time. Like you said, you can't just keep giving all these people on LinkedIn free advice and you had to create something right a package. So for all those I was talking to someone today. Actually, jason had asked me oh there's, there's someone new, you should give her a call. And it really worked out because we both had really similar career paths and now we're gonna collaborate, so it's kind of cool. But she was like this app is amazing because I've wasted so like hours of my time because I'm passionate about what I do and helping people For free, and now I can just tell them I don't have to give out my personal phone number and I can tell them to call me on here. 

0:17:50 - Speaker 4
So yeah yeah, yeah, no, I mean, I was perfect in the sense of you're really in sales, you're trying to set a meeting right. And how much work do we do just to set a meeting? You call, you text, you email, you LinkedIn, interact with their contents and the DM like send a pigeon whatever I don't know. You try so hard to get in touch with someone just just to book a meeting. 

0:18:12 - Speaker 1
I've sent shit to people's house literally. I think I at one point I got I wanted to mean so bad. I I did what somebody wrote in a book. You know they're always like send him a bad in a cell phone. I think I sent them like a hundred dollar gift and so I'm sure dashed people didn't even respond. I was really, oh wow. 

0:18:28 - Speaker 4
Yeah, I've door-dashed people food, like here's a coffee, whatever, I don't care, like just to get your attention, just to stand out, like you have to stand out these days, but OWWLL allows you to just break through the noise, like I don't even have to be live and somebody can request for me to go live. And all of a sudden I get a notification. It's like oh, I do have ten minutes, okay, cool, and I can just pop it in the middle of my day speaking of that really quickly, I just want to share with everyone out there in the OWWLL community. 

0:18:51 - Speaker 3
Make sure you turn your notifications on for the app, because we're getting a lot of missed calls right now and because people don't have their notifications turned on. 

0:18:59 - Speaker 1
So I'm just like throwing that out there for everyone that's watching, just as a little tip very important is OWWLL phone calls coming through a notification, so if they're off, the phone will not ring unless you're in the app and that's not and you're missing All in the connection and go live and go watch TV or go do email, do other work, and then when someone calls you, it will ring Right and if you've never taken a call Pro tip. 

0:19:22 - Speaker 4
The calls come in automatically on speakerphone. So if you're in a large group of people it's on the bottom right you can turn the speakerphone off. It took me a minute to figure that out my first call and I'm just looking around a room of like 15 people like I'm so sorry. 

0:19:36 - Speaker 1
You're like, actually everyone download OWWLL. Here's my referral code. 

0:19:40 - Speaker 4
Yeah, yeah it was like a parent teacher cover, like it wasn't like the right the right. 

0:19:43 - Speaker 1
Hopefully it was a silver lining. It was just it was fine. 

0:19:46 - Speaker 4
I was just like oh my god now, I know. Yeah, but yeah, taking calls on the app and getting to see who's live and like it's just like a wide variety of people, just kind Of how I really like. I enjoy LinkedIn because you meet so many people from so many different backgrounds and. The app kind of? Is that too? Like if I need to work on my content marketing I'm a solo printer I'd wear every hat right like five. An accounting question? I could probably find something and somebody like ten or two minutes. 

Yeah, answer my question for that. So I don't know the idea of being able to like have easy access to my fingertip. But no, I'm reaching out to like People who are leaders in their accountability. 

0:20:19 - Speaker 1
I built OWWLL when I was a power user on LinkedIn and I would get frustrated because I would jump on a zoom meeting and Then I'm like this person's not accountable. They said the meeting was gonna be about X and then also there's four more people in zoom meeting and then the other person's acting like I Join the meeting, you know naturally like yeah, we heard you came on the meeting because you wanted advice on HR for your company. I'm like time out. That was not the purpose of this meeting and like someone's putting word in someone mouth or you guys are just acting naive by passing it to the other is like the junior passing it up to the manager type of approach. No accountability. And they go on and on meeting to meeting. No accountability, especially with females. I mean you, you said it earlier, you know your your core basis females, right? How many men say inappropriate things on zoom? Not held accountable, right? 

so many but with OWWLL right of this, you know that person says something inappropriate, one storm and that's not gonna look good. They're shooting themselves in the foot. So it's really linked in on steroids at the end of the day, because we see what linked in's done and we all love it. But at this end of the day, really isn't the point to build connections. Right, it's not followers, it's connections. 

Yeah, right, and and then we're stuck with 75% of our inbox is pitches and then some of those pictures are actually good people, but we need a better mechanism to just go right to the source, which is connection at the end of the day. So I think, over time I think you're gonna fall in love with it because the recruiting aspect Really defining like what type of recruitment then the right people are calling you and then utilizing it as a tool to all these messages You're not sure of, some of you point them to book in a meeting, but then 90% to be like Auto, auto messing back happy to chat with you on OWWLL right, I priced $10 10 minutes of my time. Go there, call me and it's really simple. 

It's a tool for you, then. Yeah, 100% and also, you know, think about getting jobs. You could literally go right to somebody that's a CEO that happened to be in your town and, of course, just naturally, just be yourself right, because we do know that copy. You know you, especially with AI technology today, is not. Oh, it doesn't translate. People judge everyone. They look right at your headshot, they look at your sentence and go next. 

Yeah like it's a dating app, you know, but there's there's a normal person on the other end, right? I think that's that's what we like you know. It's like you know when, when we talk to be. It's like you just tell people you could tell more about someone. Just you know, just their verbal cues, of course 100%. 

0:22:46 - Speaker 3
Yeah, well, speaking of that, I think we should. 

0:22:49 - Speaker 1
Maybe it was a time we're gonna call some people Into the show from the OWWLL platform. So everyone listening We've just been trying this out last few weeks. At the end of the show, we start calling OWWLL experts that are active and Bringing them on, and then Lauren's gonna ask one of them a question once we hear what their expertise is. It's pretty cool, right. Learn to be able to call a live user like the. 

Z100 days back in the day. You know. I know everyone has different stations across the country. I was in New York City. It's like Z100. We're calling up the Elvin and Durancho. Okay, we're gonna give it a minute. It's ringing Tiana. Welcome to the OWWLL podcast. How are you doing this afternoon? Good? 

0:23:31 - Speaker 2
How are you? 

0:23:32 - Speaker 1
good, you have Lauren in the OWWLL podcast studio and she wants to know what is your expertise, and then she's gonna ask you a question. 

0:23:40 - Speaker 2
Okay, Sure Hi Lauren. 

0:23:43 - Speaker 4
Hi, how are you? 

0:23:45 - Speaker 2
Good yeah, my expertise. I'm in entertainment, so I'm into filmmaking, playwriting, and I also help writers turn their stories into scripts, ultimately for film, tv or for the stage. 

0:23:56 - Speaker 4
I Love that. So how long have you been doing like kind of like the script writing and how do you see like advertisements, kind of moving more to that like cinematic feel in this coming like I don't know? I feel like in 2023 I'm seeing a lot more like cinematic feel and advertisements. 

0:24:14 - Speaker 2
I yeah, it's great. I've been doing this since 2015 and, as far as advertisements, I think it's pretty cool. I think more people now, even in the cinematography field, are getting more jobs and work for advertisements to help people with their branding videos and different things like that. I get those calls often times for anything because people want to find some more excitement and ways to track more customers for their products and services and things like that. I think that's where we come into as videographers as well. 

0:24:47 - Speaker 4
What advice would you give someone who's just starting to advertise on Instagram for their services? 

0:24:55 - Speaker 2
Be consistent. Consistency is what's going to draw people, because if you are consistent with posting and every time people see your page and they see you promoting your business or brand, it's going to peak their interest as well. Anytime you're starting out, it's important to always be consistent in what you do and watch as people follow along on your journey and they'll be inspired by that as well. It'll definitely build your client tail. 

0:25:16 - Speaker 4
I love that. What's been the most inspiring part of your journey so far? 

0:25:21 - Speaker 2
The most inspiring part of my journey is my growth. Being able to go back on social media and see where I started from and where I am today. That's inspiring to me because sometimes we get stuck on obstacles and things and we focus on that. But when you're able to see your journey or growth and seeing how you've been growing in your business and your brand and it's always inspiring to me to keep going because there's so much more that's in store for me. 

0:25:47 - Speaker 3
Awesome, I was going to say. Actually, Lauren is a LinkedIn expert. She helps people find job positions through LinkedIn and she has a huge following. Do you have any questions for her about LinkedIn? 

0:26:03 - Speaker 2
Yes, I've been building my LinkedIn, but what are some advice for people? I know lately I've been getting more attraction, being consistent and posting on there. What is your? Me building my LinkedIn and trying to get more because I've been inspired by people who get a lot of likes and more attraction on their posts. What advice would you give to someone like me who's trying to build my LinkedIn audience and client tail? 

0:26:26 - Speaker 4
If you're really trying to build your audience. The first piece of advice I'll give you is to engage more than you post. Yes, you need to post. I know people used to say post once a day. Really, on LinkedIn, you need to post at least twice a day right now to have attraction and gain traction. But engage more than you post. My rule of thumb is if I know I need to post something, I'm going to go. Try to engage for 10 minutes before with as many people as possible. I leave comments and I interact with them and then I go post. Hopefully they're seeing my engagement on their post as I'm posting and it draws them back to my page and really just making sure that in the beginning you're replying and responding, like you said. How you're showing, like you told me to be consistent in my posting. You have to be consistent in your responding and getting back to people and showing that you'll be there for people on LinkedIn. I really say LinkedIn is like a giving platform. So give, give, give and you'll reap the rewards. 

0:27:21 - Speaker 3
Just like all sales. I feel like it's about giving we talk about that a lot Giving before expecting. 

0:27:27 - Speaker 4
People don't want to be sold to. For the most part, they want somebody who'll partner with them to solve their problem. So if you show up as a, as a partner, especially on LinkedIn, people are going to resonate with that. And then the other piece of advice I'll give you about LinkedIn is like do LinkedIn your way. Like three months into LinkedIn, somebody joked and they're like well, you're the bad girl of LinkedIn and it's because I post what I want and I say what I want and I curse when I want and I don't care. I'll post about being in the hot tub and then going back to close a deal Like I don't care, it's not what you think of as professional, but it's the new professional sometimes, so get used to it. So do LinkedIn your way and be who you are 100% be authentic. Don't. Don't be professional for the sake of being professional. 

0:28:09 - Speaker 2
I love that I'm writing this down Okay, awesome, great advice. You know that really opened up my eyes to posting on LinkedIn Now, so I appreciate that that's very helpful 100% happy to chat more about it. 

0:28:21 - Speaker 4
Maybe I'll call you on the app soon. 

0:28:23 - Speaker 2
Absolutely, and I'll be here to answer and I'll try to make sure I can give you a call as well. 

0:28:27 - Speaker 4
Awesome. Well, it's so nice talking to you, Deontay, here. 

0:28:31 - Speaker 1
Thank you for joining us on the OWWLL podcast and if anyone is in the Atlanta area, Deontay is doing the Bolden awards coming up, so he's. You want to say a quick word about the Bolden awards before you run off. 

0:28:44 - Speaker 2
Sure, it's where bonus meets greatness. We're going to be awarding an honor and those who have overcome obstacles and adversities while achieving excellence so we are honor and those who've been overlooked in the industry and various fields. So we have people coming who are older, you know, people who have overcome cancer and so many other things. And not only are we awarding people, but we are educating people on certain topics such as mental health awareness, autism, mental health awareness and so much more. Thanks, you guys, for reaching out to me. It's been great to be a part of this conversation Awesome. 

0:29:15 - Speaker 1
Thank you, Deontay. We appreciate you joining us on the OWWLL podcast today. 

0:29:19 - Speaker 2
No problem, have a great week y'all Later Okay we're gonna call one more person. 

0:29:24 - Speaker 3
That was why I screenshoted him. You probably heard that because I'm like, oh wait, I've been trying to get my music and like movie and TV sink like maybe he would know somebody. So we're just all connecting right now. It's great. 

0:29:35 - Speaker 1
And what's so cool about that is like there you go, we didn't, you didn't know Deontay from a hole in the wall and you just had a quick three minute conversation and look what just happened. Compared to like messaging, emailing, texting, no, like right there you heard and you're like we got to talk. You're likely gonna create an opportunity out of left field just from a three minute conversation. 

0:29:54 - Speaker 4
Yeah, and it was short and simple and to the point. Exactly Okay we are bringing on Brian Strubner. 

0:30:03 - Speaker 1
Good afternoon, Brian. You are on the Owl podcast. How is everything going today? 

0:30:08 - Speaker 5
Oh, we are doing quite well over here. How are you? 

0:30:10 - Speaker 1
We are doing good. Start things off. Can you tell the audience what your expertise is? 

0:30:16 - Speaker 5
So I am a business and relationship coach, basically helping people take their business idea from concept and turn it into cash flow. 

0:30:24 - Speaker 1
Okay, so Lauren is joining us here on the Owl podcast today. She's going to ask you a quick question about your expertise, okay. 

0:30:32 - Speaker 5
Okay. 

0:30:33 - Speaker 4
All right, hi Brian, how are you? I'm well. Thank you for asking. How are you today? 

0:30:37 - Speaker 5
I'm doing quite well, so what's your question? I'm curious. 

0:30:40 - Speaker 4
I guess, with what you're doing, what do you think is the coolest idea that you've seen come to fruition from like an idea that was presented to what you saw all the way through for a customer or client? 

0:30:51 - Speaker 5
So probably the coolest one was a number of years ago I helped a company that had an internet advertising idea where they paid people to look at the ads and to go to the company websites. Whatever company was advertising their website, you would literally go to their website, for I think it was 10 seconds and you could click around on their site etc. 

And I helped that company go from zero to 90 million in less than six months Wow so that, to me, was one of the coolest ideas I've ever seen, and it was virtually instantly available because it was electronically delivered where you know. If you're you know manufacturing something, it's pretty tough to deliver that much volume that quickly. 

0:31:32 - Speaker 4
Right, right. So somebody comes to you and they're like this is my idea, like what's kind of the first step, like where does somebody begin? 

0:31:38 - Speaker 5
So usually the first thing I do is help them explore the idea and then look at market and, you know, do a little bit of market research, more or less, to figure out where they're at, where they're going, what their true goal is and whether the market can either sustain them in their vision or you know what the market really needs, because if it's not a need for that, it may or may not go, and so we need to look at, you know, what need they're fixing or filling or what need they have a solution for. 

0:32:05 - Speaker 4
Yeah, that makes sense so important. 

0:32:08 - Speaker 1
It's so true Cause so often people have these ideas. But you're like are you really solving a big enough problem? 

0:32:13 - Speaker 4
Yeah. 

0:32:13 - Speaker 1
Really, are people going to change, you know, based on that solution? And often the answer is no. Like I think somebody just told me sorry, yesterday, that was in my office about the ring doorbell. Right, it's like you had to make it the same, because if you swap it, it's like no one's going to change their patterns. Right? And and I I see this all the time A bunch of my friends work at banks and literally the interest rate has been 0% for years and years. 

And now you get 4% by switching to a new account and it'll have an individual and is in the bank, like at Chase or Citibank, and like hey, by the way, if you started a new account at our same bank, you will get 4%, and you have a million dollars in your account and you will now get $40,000 of interest for free. And then now I'm good, and he just is like what do you mean? You're good, it's the same thing. And they're just like, yeah, that's I. Like that account number, I've had it for years and that's an example is like people often are just not willing to change it. It has to really fix a large enough problem. Yeah, Right, or you could throw a lot of money in the garbage, unfortunately. 

0:33:13 - Speaker 4
Yeah, no, that's for sure. Yeah, great questions, though. I talked to a lot of sellers and it's important that the thing you're selling has a good market fit, because the sellers we make a big commission, right? So if the thing you're selling doesn't have a great market fit, you're not going to be able to sell as many. 

0:33:28 - Speaker 5
And without selling, you're probably not going to be in business long 100%. 

0:33:32 - Speaker 1
Cool. Well, Brian, she's a power user on LinkedIn. Do you have a question for her? 

0:33:38 - Speaker 5
What do you think is the easiest way to get your LinkedIn audience to interact with you know your posts or content on LinkedIn. 

0:33:47 - Speaker 4
I feel like it's lame. I have to give the same answer you have to engage. I know that's like very boring and cliche, but cliches are cliches for a reason y'all. You have to just engage. You have to like don't pitch, slap your audience and we talk about that all the time. That's super popular on LinkedIn. Don't pitch slap. Don't ask for 30 minutes of someone's time right off the bat. Don't like DM me and offer to help grow my LinkedIn following when you don't even interact with my posts, like. There's so many things you shouldn't do on LinkedIn, but the number one thing you should do is be engaging and just try to leave comments that you could turn into content. I tell people that all the time If you're leaving a comment that's complete thought and it really matters and you've put value into the post. 

It should be something that's great enough that you could create a post from that comment. So that's really how you could get a lot of people to come back and engage and interact with you is by creating better conversations in the comments. 

0:34:42 - Speaker 5
No, absolutely, and I agree with you on that Funny story. I'm like then I had a guy that literally messaged me and, like you said, pitch, slapped me about, you know, expanding my LinkedIn audience, and I went and look he had less than a thousand followers and I had 30,000. I was like, did you look at who you're messaging here? It goes, yeah, he goes, I can help you. I'm like how? 

0:35:02 - Speaker 1
It is funny. You see that on Instagram all the time as well. 

0:35:05 - Speaker 5
I just like how could I take you? 

0:35:06 - Speaker 1
serious. You're a marketing company. You're going to expand my brand, but your brand doesn't have it on Instagram, and then they always have the same name as well. We don't really focus on our brand that much. We're focused on our customers and clients. 

0:35:17 - Speaker 4
I'm like BS, I just started on YouTube and I'm getting the pitch slaps for the YouTube all the time. They like take a screenshot of my page and circle how many subscribers I have in red, like it's horrible and they're like I can help you grow this. I'm like one. That's kind of rude, like that's like telling the girl like oh, you look fat in that dress. 

0:35:35 - Speaker 3
Like don't do that Right? I just always respond I'm like for free question mark and then I never hear anything. 

0:35:42 - Speaker 2
That's my go to, because I'm like that. 

0:35:44 - Speaker 3
They just want money. That's a lot. Of them are scammers, like whatever you all are doing it wrong. 

0:35:49 - Speaker 1
All you got to do is message every one of them back by. Oh my God, this sounds absolutely amazing. I love to speak with you. Here's my referral code to use on owl, and I'm live every single week, Of course they'll tell me your place. They go into our next year. $25 for 10 minutes of your time. That's up to them. They really want to speak with you. Then they're messing back hey, your price is 25. Like, yeah, that's why I charge, and then, and then, if they don't call you. 

I do have a question about how filter and you get, you pick up the $10 referral bonus. 

0:36:15 - Speaker 4
Yeah, I have. I do have a really good question about how, though, so for owl, people can sign up anywhere in the world, right? No, no, no, no, no, no. 

0:36:21 - Speaker 1
Usa only because all the real money scenarios going on, we want to start with a United States only and then Canada, and once you start adding other countries on, you have to go through their regulations with the real money. So we wanted to just start things off slow before we get ahead of ourselves. So one day, you know, when we're at hundreds of thousands of users, then we'll start going country to country. 

0:36:43 - Speaker 4
There we go. 

0:36:44 - Speaker 1
We had to be extremely careful with the regulations out there. 

0:36:46 - Speaker 4
There we go. Well, half of those people I'll never be able to send the link to then, but for the ones that are in the United States, this helps me know who I can send the link. 

0:36:54 - Speaker 1
I completely understand where you're coming from. Often, a lot of those are the pitches, though Exactly. Right, Right, you know hey we could do your website over again and this and that so. 

0:37:02 - Speaker 4
I want to write back like are you saying my website is bad? 

0:37:04 - Speaker 3
Yeah, A lot of those folks in the United States, though, so they are in the United States, that can download it. 

0:37:12 - Speaker 1
Yeah, so you know, just because it says India, uk, london, like they travel US, so when they do, then they'll download it, of course. 

0:37:23 - Speaker 3
They have VPNs. They know how to get it there you go Right All right, Brian. Well, thank you for chatting with us today. Absolutely. 

0:37:31 - Speaker 5
Cool Thank you Brian. Appreciate it. Thanks, bye-bye. 

0:37:35 - Speaker 1
Okay, Lauren, that ties up today's episode on the OWL podcast for audience listening Can tell everyone your LinkedIn, handle your Instagram, handle your website and then, of course, they can reach out to you on the OWL platform. It's spelled S-U-R-M-A-N her last name. 

0:37:52 - Speaker 4
Surman yes, so lessons with Laurencocom. That's not a typo, it isco. You can catch me live every Friday. I have my own live show on LinkedIn, youtube and Facebook where we bring on sales leaders, marketing leaders, try to help you with your job search and just level up. If you're in that kind of community, obviously you can catch me on the app or on LinkedIn and trying to slowly grow my YouTube. So subscribe to my lessons with Lauren YouTube channels so these people don't keep sending me these horrible pitches to get me 5,000 followers. 

0:38:25 - Speaker 1
They're real followers. Lauren, Come on Sure they are. It's only $39.99 and all those followers will engage with you. Come on. 

0:38:32 - Speaker 4
Have you seen on LinkedIn LinkedIn's removing all the bots? Have you had that happen? 

0:38:35 - Speaker 3
to you. 

0:38:35 - Speaker 4
No, I logged on to LinkedIn the other day and I was a thousand followers down overnight and. I was like what? Because, like, I'm sorry, it's not about the numbers. We all know the number, so I logged on them down a thousand followers, and there's a notice from LinkedIn that they're removing hibernated accounts. Bot like all these different accounts. So that's going to help your content get to the people who need to see it, because any bots and all that stuff like they're just bogging down the algorithm. 

0:38:58 - Speaker 1
Is that why, when I see a profile blank, but they've sent me a message, I go to the message and it doesn't show an individual. 

0:39:04 - Speaker 4
So they've been removing all those profiles. 

0:39:05 - Speaker 1
Those are bots themselves Very, very interesting. 

0:39:09 - Speaker 4
Yep, so kudos to. Linkedin for getting the bots out of our inboxes, yeah. 

0:39:13 - Speaker 1
Cool. Well, thank you again for joining us on the Owl podcast. Everyone listening, take care everybody. Bye, peace, hoot, hoot. Awesome, good show, good job, that was awesome. You have fun, yeah, cool. 

0:39:26 - Speaker 4
Need to have you come be on mine too aren't you Absolutely.