LinkedIn Trifecta Talks: New Year, What’s Your Focus? (Jan 2024) Ep77

Ready to give your LinkedIn profile the New Year's makeover it's been craving? Join the LinkedIn Trifecta Talks as we, Michelle Griffin, Michelle Raymond, and I, Brenda Meller, unveil our insider strategies to revamp your personal brand and optimize your presence on LinkedIn. Whether you're basking in the Sydney sun or bundled up in Michigan, our global conversation aims to transform your online persona from overlooked to overbooked.

This episode is brimming with insights on everything from leveraging the 'Open to Work' feature for job seekers to creating a buzz for your business with an impressive company page.

We dissect live profiles, providing real-time feedback and showcasing the impact of community accountability.

Find out why your LinkedIn headline might be the secret weapon you're not using enough, and learn the nuances of profile optimization that even Google appreciates. With a sprinkle of humor and a host of actionable tips, we guide you through refining your professional narrative for maximum impact.

Cap off your learning spree with our discussions on personal branding that extends beyond just your job title. From Susie's leap into entrepreneurship with Mad Little Marketer to Dale's seamless transition into consulting post-retirement, we share stories of real-world LinkedIn triumphs. And if mastering your LinkedIn headline for 2024 sounds like a daunting task, fear not—we break down the art of crafting an introduction that not only captures attention but also conveys your unique value proposition. Get ready to make your LinkedIn profile not just a reflection of your past, but a beacon for your future success.

Join Us LIVE
We go LIVE once a month on LinkedIn. Our next show is Tuesday, April 9 at 4:30pm ET. Listen / watch here:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/michellebgriffin/recent-activity/events/

Connect with Michelle B. Griffin on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/michellebgriffin/

Connect with Michelle J. Raymond on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/michellejraymond/

This episode originally aired Tuesday, January 16, 2024.

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15 LinkedIn Profile Tips for Coaches and Consultants

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This checklist provides 15 quick and easy ways to update your LinkedIn profile TODAY and help generate more leads for your coaching / consulting business.

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My name is Brenda Meller. I'm a LinkedIn coach, consultant, speaker, and author. My company is Meller Marketing and I help business professionals get a bigger slice of the LinkedIn pie.

Visit mellermarketing.com

Let's connect on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/brendameller
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Transcript

Brenda Meller: 1:01

It's the LinkedIn trifecta talks. It's your monthly boost of LinkedIn tips and inspiration and banter and whatnot, and I want to welcome all of you, whether you're watching us live or in playback. Maybe you're watching us on LinkedIn, on YouTube. My name is Brenda Meller, I'm one of the hosts of the LinkedIn trifecta talks, and what I'm going to do to start us off is just to welcome my two very special co-hosts Michelle Squared. We have with us Michelle Beeg Griffin, as well as Michelle Raymond, and why don't we start with Michelle Griffin? How are you doing today?

Michelle B Griffin: 1:35

Welcome. Happy New Year everybody. It's good to be back to LinkedIn trifecta talks to kick us off. I am Michelle Beeg Griffin, the brand therapist, calling and tuning in from Cold Pensacola Florida. We're 30 degrees today. Can you believe that it's crazy? I'm really excited to be here and talk all things. We're going to really make sure our profiles are in check for the new years. I'll be talking about that. I work with personal branding for professional women, with positioning, personal branding, pr strategy roadmaps and workshops in LinkedIn, of course. So it's good to be here. Let's get it going.

Brenda Meller: 2:11

All right, awesome, and Michelle Jay Raymond, would you like to take us next?

Michelle J Raymond: 2:15

I would love to, and I'm coming live to you from Sydney, australia. It's really cold here today, brenda. I just looked it up in Fahrenheit it's 88 to 88 F and I got to tell you like it's the humidity that's killing me. Can I winch about that while you're in a blizzard or something?

Brenda Meller: 2:34

You can. That's totally, and I did ask in the pre-show. I said remind me what time of day is it and what's the temperature, and you were so kind as to convert it to Fahrenheit for me. So thank you for that.

Michelle J Raymond: 2:45

And I just have it on standby for Michelle Griffin. So, welcome everybody, and, yeah, happy new year for me as well. I'm excited to get into this because I think it's that time of year where we're full of enthusiasm. Hopefully you've had a good break. And, for those of you wondering, I am Michelle Jay Raymond, based here in Sydney, as I said, and I love to help companies create LinkedIn dream teams by updating profiles or teaching them social selling and having a company page that rocks. So that's how I love to help, and this conversation every month is something that I end up probably learning as much as I give, so that's why I'm excited to be here as well. So, brenda, tell me, would I even comprehend how cold it is where you are? I always get fascinated by the fact you live in a place that snows, and I've only seen it twice in my life. So, yeah, I don't understand it.

Brenda Meller: 3:31

Yeah, and it's funny because we have actually had a very mild winter up until like a week ago we really didn't have any snow.

Brenda Meller: 3:38

It was very mild. We didn't get any snow on Christmas and we got to middle of January and then all of a sudden, mother nature said, okay, you didn't get enough snow, and then she flexed her muscles and she threw it all and she froze things down and we are on the verge of, I think, all the schools closing in our area tomorrow, because it's supposed to be like 20 below zero. 32 degrees Fahrenheit is freezing, and then below that your frigid and your hands are numb and when you get to 20 below or 10 below, it's the point where you walk outside and you can't even breathe because it hurts. It actually hurts your lungs.

Michelle J Raymond: 4:15

I don't understand Like I am sitting here sweating and it's only 830 in the morning. I can't even understand how you live somewhere like that Same.

Brenda Meller: 4:26

They make them tough. That's what we all hear. It's really nice to have the seasons. I do love spring. I do love summer, winter and fall and honestly, it feels like it's never going to go away. But the winter is not that long and the key is just layering. You need to learn to layer and I actually was thinking of you this morning, michelle Raymond, because I was going out to take my dog for a walk and we've gotten to the point in the season that my dog is now wearing a coat, like she's normally not cold but she gives out and she's. She's good for a walk, but she's cold and shivering. So I've got her coat on her and I'll post the picture later, but let's get our conversation started. I see your audience is starting to warm up.

Brenda Meller: 5:01

No pun intended, I'm LinkedIn and we're starting to see all kinds of great comments coming in and I realized I didn't even introduce myself. My name is Brenda Mahler. I am a LinkedIn coach. I specialize in helping job seekers, solopreneurs and business professionals to get a bigger slice of the LinkedIn pie, and each of us in the trifecta group we take turns here on rotating who hosts and when we host, we get to pick the topic. So the topic for today we're calling this trifecta talks, and let me just drop this into a banner here so you can see. So today's focus is for our LinkedIn.

Brenda Meller: 5:35

Trifecta talks is new year what's your focus? And I have to share with Michelle squared. Part of the reason I came up with this is, as we flip the calendar from December to January, I will do this on my own profile and on my company page, I look at what does my profile look like and what does my page look like and is it clear to my visitors what my area of focus is? Because I think a lot of us we tend to we set it and forget it. We set up our profile once and then we don't go back and look at it again. So what we're going to encourage you all to do in the audience today is to jump into the comments. If you'd like us to look at your profile, we'll be happy to do, and I think now with StreamYard, since we're not doing an audio event, we can actually pull a profile up on screen and we can maybe have some conversation. I don't think we did that. Did we do that last month, or do we just?

Michelle B Griffin: 6:25

do the no? Not yet.

Brenda Meller: 6:27

So maybe we could try doing that, If that would be okay. We might try and do that today, as that's on our right. And the good thing is, when you're hosting a trifecta talk, you only you know have to do a third of the conversation, but when you are the host, you get to this side, you're in the driver's seat, you get to drive and listen to me, and this is how it is. Tute that own horn Before we jump in.

Brenda Meller: 6:48

Actually, as we're waiting for folks to volunteer either their profile or their page for us to look at, and go ahead right now, go into comments and say look at my profile. Or, if you want us to look at your page, make sure that you tag your page and comments. It'll make it easier for us to find your page as we are coming in. Hey, I just got a notification on my phone. My kids' schools are closed tomorrow, so I knew it was going to happen 20 degrees below. As we are waiting for those to come in, why don't we just do a round table right now and talk about what is our individual area of focus or programs or things that we're working on for the year? Then I'll challenge our viewers and listeners to look at our profile and pages and make sure that we are doing the same thing that we're asking all of you. Make sure it's clear on our profile. Michelle Raymond, do you want to go first? Talk to us about what's your area of focus for the year?

Michelle J Raymond: 7:36

Yeah, that's really interesting. I'm going to go into this year with the words accounting sorry, planning and accountability, which are not very inspiring for most people, but for me. I recognize that they're the kinds of things that I need to do to grow my business. How does that tie into what we're talking about? That means I need to have a look at one of my business goals and then make sure that my LinkedIn profile is driving me towards those. I recognized, when I had a bit of a break over Christmas, that mine definitely was I don't know probably lagging behind, maybe a six month lag between where I'm at now and where I was. What did I do, brenda? I decided to run a free 30 day LinkedIn profile transformation challenge over on my YouTube channel so that, as I updated my profile, I'm just sharing that with everyone else and they can come along for the journey. What I realized is just how much you can grow and change in such a short period of time.

Michelle J Raymond: 8:34

What I'm doing right now is looking at what are my goals for this year for my business, and of course, there's financial goals. But what other ones? For instance, I've decided that international speaking seems like a really cool thing to do, so I'm going to aim towards different things like that, but that's not reflected very well in my profile right now. I also, over Christmas, had a look at some of the services and products that I offer and refine those, added some new ones through, some out, and I want to make sure that's clear. Like, how can you work with me on my profile? So I'll be rewriting my about section in the next week or so again, and for those of you who think that your profiles are set and forget, yes, it's something that should grow and evolve with you and, again for me, start with the business goals and work backwards and make sure it's driving towards that.

Michelle J Raymond: 9:23

So I've got a bit of work to do. Hands up, I'm putting my hand up, to confess, but I'm excited because it's when I do it and I know Michelle Griffin does the same but after I've done it, I'm like, yes, that fits, that's me, that sings, that's exactly what I want it to be. So it's worth the time and effort. So I absolutely recommend people. It's the time of the year, set yourself up for success. And yeah, michelle Griffin, I know you're the queen of tinkering with your profile, so where is yours up to at the moment?

Michelle B Griffin: 9:51

I think good, because I sat at the end of last year really self-reflecting, looking inward, and how I wanted to show up and serve who I wanted to serve. What made the best sense, who are the majority of my clients? And around September of last year I really decided to lean into helping women get out there, really with the trifecta of positioning, personal branding, pr, which is my early career background, and so I dropped my coaching program, like you, michelle, I got a new. I made action and simplicity action. So I have one service, a roadmap service from one-on-one. I also teach it as a workshop, and then I have a LinkedIn for leaders thing and a keynote speaks, speaking, training workshops or my consulting. I simplify it. Like you always say, michelle, simplify it, and I'm really excited about that.

Michelle B Griffin: 10:37

So I'm really working on my positioning, differentiating, which I want to say is hard because I can do it, as you, most of us can with our clients, but when we go inward it's hard for ourselves, even for me, which is what I love doing, but I'm really excited.

Michelle B Griffin: 10:50

So I flipped the switch in January and I rebranding the name of my consultancy, which I have to tell you the funny story of how that one ever was named, but it's now called standout women, because that really is my motto, my mission, my mantra to help more women stand out, and doing that by own their lane. And that's another thing, my only focus, other than financial and building my clients and all that. My one big thing this year is I want to write my second book on my process, called own your lane, and I'm really excited. I'm putting it out visibly everywhere I can because come February 1st, my four year anniversary, I'm going to make some bigger announcements, but I'm putting the baby steps out there which I always say start doing and make it public. Right, we all know Michelle would happen in 2021 when I did that. I'm making myself not fail that way. Let's put it that way. So I'm excited about this year and go check on my profile. Let me know if it speaks to what I just said. I'd love to test myself.

Brenda Meller: 11:45

And I have to ask Michelle Griffin is this your first solo book or have you done a solo book before? No so that's exciting too, right.

Michelle B Griffin: 11:52

Yes, and I want a full disclosure. I tiptoed around it, said it, I made like a one little post last year about it, even wrote this amazing book outline in Canva. It's all ready to go in the back end, and then I pulled the plug because I realized I was doing too much. I didn't feel right. As I said in our LinkedIn branding show podcast that aired this past week, I felt friction versus flow and I'm so glad because now I have more clarity on who I really want to narrow down. It was too broad, and that's the thing I do all along all the time that I was too broad and I was just ready for my landing space, and now I've found it, and so this program or, excuse me, this book, will be to that audience, which is so important. So yay to that. So please keep me accountable.

Brenda Meller: 12:32

Yeah, so I can't do it again. Since I'm hosting and I'm in the driver's seat, I'm going to do everybody who is listening to this live or in feedback. I want you you're connected to Michelle Griffin I want you to send her a direct message and wish her luck on her book and I want you to commit to checking in with her, maybe even do a little calendar reminder in two weeks, three weeks, four weeks Check and say I'm coming along because I really feel, like Michelle and Michelle Raven, you can probably attest to this as well Like having other people check in helps to keep you accountable and I feel, michelle Griffin, I feel as you're talking about it. I know it's a nerve, wracking process going through, but when you know you have supporters behind you lifting you up and helping to guide you every step of the way, it'll help you to keep accountable. I hope that's okay, but again, since I'm driving today, you have no choice.

Michelle B Griffin: 13:20

No, I love it. I'd love it and I'm going to be announcing more because I'm going to write in public, just like I did my challenge in 2021 when I posted on LinkedIn in public. I need that. I'm never going to I'll fail myself before I fail publicly, type thing. And so I also signed a blood sweat tier agreement with someone. We're going to write our books together, so have accountability, partner. We're starting. We're doing this back and forth it's not Michelle, by the way, unfortunately. This time we got, but we're writing our own solo books. That's going to help too. But I highly recommend what you say, brenda, because if you want something, you need someone to help you, because it's hard doing it alone, isn't it?

Brenda Meller: 13:57

Yeah, absolutely All right. So I'm in it. We're going to get into our first profile, because we already had one volunteer reach out with look at my profile and tell me what you think. And this is actually a monthly LinkedIn live event. I did have two LinkedIn lives today. I have a morning event, which is my standard Tuesday, and then I realized we had two live events today, but this is our monthly trifecta talk, so each of us take turns and we host the event, and today we are talking about we're in the new year, so we're talking about new year, what's your focus? And each of us are explaining what our focus is, and we're going to challenge all of you that are listeners to look at our profiles and make sure that it's clear to you when you go to our profile.

Brenda Meller: 14:35

I have a couple of programs that I'm working on right now. I did just launch a new checklist yesterday which is called do this first. It's for individuals who may be working but looking for a new job, and it's my list of things that you should do first before starting to ramp up your job search on LinkedIn to minimize that we're throwing off any red flags, that we're looking, and also to be aware of how our activities, the things that we're doing on LinkedIn, can help to support our job search and also to minimize the fact that our coworkers, our bosses, our clients those people know that we're looking for a job. So it's called do this. First, it's something that I am launching. You can go to my profile and find the resource. I'm not even going to tell you the link, because you should be able to find it from my profile. Followed up with that, I'm launching a program this month called marketing with Mellor a little play on my business name, which is Mellor marketing. So I decided to call it marketing with Mellor, and this is more for solopreneurs that don't have access to marketing resources. It's going to be a monthly membership program with an annual option, and the only people who will be invited to join this month will be people who are on my VIP email list. I'll be launching it out to the public later this year. So those are the things I'm working on. The marketing with Mellor is not on my profile yet because it's only going to be marketed through my VIP email list, but the new checklist is on my profile. All right, with that said.

Brenda Meller: 15:58

So I asked our audience. I said who would like us to look at your profile and provide you some feedback, and Nan was the first person who said yes. She said look at my page and she's actually referring to her profile here. So let me just pull this up on screen and then I would say let's, each of us, maybe we'll take some turns on what we think Nan's focuses for the year and then maybe we'll take turns and we'll see how this goes. But if it's all right, I'll start and then I'll pass the baton. We'll just go down the line here, like in the Brady Bunch format we're staffing.

Brenda Meller: 16:34

So, nan, first thing is when we land on your profile, I see that you've got the open to work around your head chat photos, so to me it looks like you're looking for a job. The next thing I'm wondering is what is she looking for? And it looks like you've got keywords talent acquisition, talent management, human resource, business partners. Okay, she's looking in the talent acquisition field. She's looking for an HR role. One thing I like to recommend is that if you're looking for a job, you have at least one of your targeted job titles in your headline field. My understanding is that helps you to come up in searches for that job title. Michelle Rayman, I see you're chomping at the bit, so you want to add something.

Michelle J Raymond: 17:13

I just have a question. I'm not sure that she is looking for a job, so I just want to throw that in there. Even though they're open to work circle, and this is is that open to work, looking for a job or open to work as a consultant? Now I get the impression she's a consultant. So, nan, like, maybe as we go down the profile you'll see, but just you can see how two different people looking at it with two separate survives can actually give you a different impression of the profiles. And the reason that I went that way Brenda, as much as I saw that is I saw she had a company page where she was the principal and it was her name. But this is where Clarity, which Michelle has drummed that lesson into me over many years. This is the thing. So what's your thoughts on that? Open to work, what is it You're looking for? A job? Is that the general way that people think about it and maybe that's distracting, or is it okay for consultants? I love your thoughts, brenda.

Brenda Meller: 18:07

Yeah, I personally don't have any problems with the open to work we're referring to. When you indicate to the public that you're open to work and you get that green scarf, so to speak, around your headshot photo. It does let recruiters know who are using the paid version of LinkedIn called LinkedIn recruiter. It does let them know your account is flagged, that you're open to new opportunities and new positions. I have heard a couple of people say what does that mean? Does that mean you're open to work for a new job or does it open to work for new clients for your company On LinkedIn? It really means you're open to a new job, a new position on there.

Brenda Meller: 18:38

So I do have to admit, though, michelle Raymond, before I looked at her headshot photo I was thinking, oh, it looks like she's self-employed helping people with recruiting. But then I saw the open to work and I immediately changed my way of looking at her profile. But you do bring up an interesting point and, nan, if you're watching this, go into comments and let us know if you are in fact looking for a new position, full-time in tail and acquisition, or are you hiring? Let us know in comments, if you could, while we're waiting to see if her comments come in. Michelle Griffin, is there anything?

Michelle B Griffin: 19:08

that's jumping in. Yeah, I want to clarify that because I think it's a. I'll just tell you my personal take. Everyone's different. When I have seen some people who are transitioning from entrepreneurship to corporate and so they put it up and it makes me say, okay, your door is closed. So if you're completely on the consulting side, take that off. If you're looking for a job, put that on, because that is. I just think it's confusing. So if you're trying to invite people into consult with them, it chases them away.

Michelle B Griffin: 19:34

In my book I would also get a little bit more clear on the headline because, depending on what we clarify this question, we need to solidify that a little bit more. On who you serve, because it's a little generic right now and the last thing we can go to town on giving her all the tips because she's amazing. But I would definitely want to solidify that. Change principle to something else, because when people Google your name, it just shows up as principle and that's losing a complete opportunity to tell us more about who you are, who you serve, how your position different, all those type things. So do we have an answer for Nan yet?

Brenda Meller: 20:07

She does, so I pulled her comment. She says I'm looking for a full-time job in tail and acquisition Okay. So when you said change principle, what were you referring to? I apologize.

Michelle B Griffin: 20:18

Oh, the experience section. We all know that when you Google your name, so they'll be checking you out. Nan, your first experience is what Google pulls and so it just says principle. We want to get more clear, especially now that we're going to position you and let me be clear, I'm going to mostly refer to Brenda on this because I don't do career space, job search, but I'm just talking overall positioning. You want to have that space to really define who you are and where you serve in all those areas.

Brenda Meller: 20:43

I would agree and add to that. So I think what Nan is doing is something that a lot of job seekers do, which is, if you do not have a current experience section or a current employer quote unquote in your experience section on your profile, you're actually penalized in search, meaning you're not going to come up in as many search results. So many people that are in career transition either create a consulting business that's just really a placeholder or they actually are doing consulting while they're looking for a full-time job. So it's not clear to us, by looking at this, which of the cases is this? And you could run into a situation where a recruiter or hiring manager sees this Nan and they say she's got her own business, she's not going to want to walk away from that business to find a full-time job. Or maybe, nan, you're just dabbling in this, you're just doing this for now, until you get back to work.

Brenda Meller: 21:31

What I might suggest, nan, is that in your experience section you make it clear, and maybe even in the first few sentences, you say while I'm looking for my next full-time job in talent acquisition leadership, I'm taking on part-time and project work through my consulting business. So that makes it clear. Hey, recruiters. I'm looking for a job, but in the meantime I'm not just sitting around waiting. I'm actually doing some part-time project work. Michelle Griffin, how do you feel about that? Would that help from a personal branding perspective?

Michelle B Griffin: 22:00

Yeah, I definitely think that's a great idea. I would just like to say principle could mean anything. It could even mean principle of a school, right? So let's just say talent acquisition, senior leader or something that just shows how amazing Nan is. So get more specific in that language and messaging there. But I absolutely think you're right about having an active thing. So just between those two things, I think she's going to nail it, because Nan has a lot of experience. We want to get that out there.

Michelle J Raymond: 22:28

It's so interesting how we all look at profiles from different perspectives and take away different messages and I hope, as people listen to us workshop, how we look at them, you can see we're bringing our own experience, our different priorities on LinkedIn, how we go around it, and you can see just how open to interpretation that LinkedIn profiles can be for all of us. Us on stage are not excluded in this conversation. For those that are new to LinkedIn, you might come to our profiles and take a look and go what are they talking about? What is Michelle talking about? My profile shows up on Google. Why do I care about Google if we're talking about LinkedIn?

Michelle J Raymond: 23:05

So you can see why clarity is such an important piece of this puzzle and it's worth taking time. So I'm glad that we got it clarified. So she is open to work. I took a different impression away from it. I think, nan, if you can just take a moment and think, okay, if I definitely want to go for a job and I make that really clear, maybe sometimes it's stripping back some pieces of this puzzle to just make it a little clearer. So, yeah, that open to work does the job tick, big tick, that it's going to do that piece of the puzzle, but just for others. And if anyone in the comments has some thoughts, yeah, always add in because we love to read them.

Brenda Meller: 23:42

Yeah, so I did see this question. I wanted to bring this up on screen. I'm not sure if I'm saying your first name correct or not. Said I believe it is, but this is a really good question. Could refining my profile too frequently be harmful, especially concerning algorithms et cetera? I have some thoughts on that, but I'm wondering if either of you Michelle's are aware of any algorithm penalty that exists with updating too frequently.

Michelle J Raymond: 24:09

I think any algorithm something consideration. I normally throw those out the window and say in this case, you want to make sure that profile speaks to actual, real humans. Now, I know that the algorithm determines whether you show up in searches, and to a degree, but I think it's more important that when you're active on the platform, that it reflects you and we don't worry about the algorithm. But that's my personal opinion. Michelle Griffin, where do you sit on this one?

Michelle B Griffin: 24:33

Yeah, no, I agree with you. I know if you change that first section and experience where Nann will, it'll take a few days to populate. But otherwise you want to write for humans. But there are some times you want to make sure there's some appropriate keyword searches not overstuffing by any stretch of the imagination that are in the right strategic places so that you will be picked up. I'm always refining, testing. Last year I had the brand therapist in my lead-in and then I realized I looked at my stats and I was getting served ads for medical software and searches. I was being nurse doctors. You got to keep refining it based on what your feedback is. As Michelle said, it's not a set it and forget it. You always want to keep refining. So I think that's the word Refining.

Michelle J Raymond: 25:18

So the question is Brenda, a tinkerer, do you set a leave, come back in a few months. How do you approach this one?

Brenda Meller: 25:25

I'm a tinkerer. I feel like I certainly wouldn't want to update my profile every day, or even once a week, because I think there's something to be said with letting it simmer and cook and be found. If you think about the rules of SEO on Google and there's SEO rules on LinkedIn as well I don't think you want to change it too frequently because then you don't allow your profile some time to be found for those keywords and phrases. I just heard something like last week. I don't know about you, ladies, if you use the pipe symbol in your headline. This was a thread in one of the LinkedIn coach groups. It might have been a spresso plus. I'm not 100% positive, but it was one of the LinkedIn trainers or experts group.

Brenda Meller: 26:08

I think it was Kevin D Turner who said that the pipe symbol actually means something and it's not like an and or. I can't think of what it's. A Boolean search, I think, is the terminology he said. The pipe symbol means something. When you put it in between two keywords as a separator is actually telling the search results. I believe not to read the second work. If I'm understanding. He said, instead of using the pipe symbol, change it to use one of these. I don't know what it's referred to. It's like an emoji symbol for an up and down.

Brenda Meller: 26:39

If you look at my profile, you may notice my pipe symbol looks a little different because I'm using one of those. I changed it a week ago and I'm waiting to see if there's been any impact on search results. I haven't seen anything yet. I have to as a marketer and I remember in the research world you have to think about could there be any other variables impacting your results? The other thing we have to think about is January. We just came off of the holidays.

Brenda Meller: 27:05

First week of the month of January is always a little bit wonky. Now we're in the regular pattern of things. My search results could be coming up because people are coming back up. I'm looking to see if there's a significant increase in searches based on that change that I've made and then I'm going to wait. Going back to Said's question, I don't recommend updating your profile every day, every week, every month. I think tinkering, as Michelle Raymond said, is a better way. You want to modify your profile when things have changed significantly enough to warrant those changes being made and that what you're reflecting on your profile is consistent with your business or your career goals. I'm going to keep this moving along because I saw another person who said yep, you can look at my profile and let's see if I can share my screen.

Michelle B Griffin: 27:51

As you pull that up, brenda, will you share that emoji with us in the comments later, because it looks like the pipe's similar to me, although your pipe has a lot of spaces around it. I'm curious to know what that emoji is.

Brenda Meller: 28:03

Yeah, the hack for that. I don't like to use the word hack because that sounds negative. Just go and copy it and then paste it, it looks like it might take up extra symbols.

Michelle B Griffin: 28:13

Sometimes, like in the about section, emojis and stuff will take up a couple of characters. I wonder if it eats some characters.

Brenda Meller: 28:20

I'm not sure I didn't get a character limit. I typically will try to get as close to the 220 as possible that are inside.

Michelle B Griffin: 28:27

Okay, so I didn't mean to interrupt you. What was the cut and paste?

Brenda Meller: 28:30

symbol. So just go over highlight, I highlight, and I'm in a PC and I just do control C for copy and then control D, as in Victor, for paste. I don't know if Mac users, if it's different, but that's what it is.

Michelle B Griffin: 28:43

Oh yeah, I'm a Mac so I don't even know what that is. I'll have to. We'll talk offline. You can tell us and maybe later come back and put it so we can try ourselves.

Michelle J Raymond: 28:51

While you guys sort that out, can I just say I love the words on this banner. I'm a words person when it comes to banners and, jane, I am drawn to yours 100%. So while they do that, I just want to say love those words. I think it's really powerful and strong. There's a couple of other things that I would add, but I just want to throw that one out there while we're here.

Brenda Meller: 29:12

No, Michelle, why don't you keep going? Any other thoughts on Jane's profile?

Michelle J Raymond: 29:17

Yeah, absolutely so. I love the words. I think they're really powerful and strong and direct and they really speak to me. I guess on the opposite side to that, we've got the profile photo, which is a little bit blurry. It might be my old lady, I sitting back further from my computer than usual, but the picture doesn't feel clear, a little bit far away and a little bit small. So for me I think if you've got a new photo and you don't need to go and get a professional head shot done, you can do a pretty good job with iPhones and etc these days with the cameras that we've got. But I like a photo that takes up around 70% of that screen and I don't know what you look like. So I don't know if it's a current photo or an old photo. The record during my profile. Challenge Brenda, one of the persons that's updating their profile, guess how old his profile photo was from, and I am not lying 20 years ago.

Michelle J Raymond: 30:09

Yep 2004. So if you have a profile photo that's not from within the last couple of years, please take a moment to update it. So for me, there's lots of other things here. That's the two things that really capture my attention so strong, powerful banner. And then the profile photo. For me I don't know the right word, but I'll say like weak compared to that, if I use the same analogy and I think it would just be so easy to fix and it would be a big win, because we want to build trust. And how do we do that? We're judging people. Anyone that pretends we're not looking at photos and judging people is just a liar. We all are. It's what we do and so, yeah, I think you could fix it really quickly and easily.

Michelle B Griffin: 30:49

I'm going to say, jane, I think your first impression factor, which is I call, when you get on someone's profile, your banner, your picture, get it clear and you're I like it. It's very inviting and everything looks good. My only suggestion you because I know you've hit the nail, you've won the banner, the headlines and Triggy I would make your about section match that, because it feels a little bit resume and I think it's more per. You should be more personalized because you're dealing with all this amazing brain stuff. I'd love to see that a little bit more written. I know you have the writing chops, so I'm sure it's just a matter of getting to it.

Michelle B Griffin: 31:20

And again, michelle and her founder, you are so much more than a founder, jane. That's what your experience section says and that's what people when they Google you and they do. You're so much more than that. So maybe you could update that to show all the amazing work you're doing with brain fitness. So, other than that, I haven't gone to everything else, but those are just some top, high level, easily fixable things. So thank you for sharing that.

Michelle B Griffin: 31:42

Oh, company page, yeah, company page. Did I miss that? Did I miss that? How did I miss that? I was so upset. I knew about founder.

Brenda Meller: 31:49

Yes, I was trying to figure out from her profile, from Jane, from your profile, who it is that you're serving and are you self employed, are you looking for a job or you're an employee of a company. I was trying to figure out that as we were, as Michelle Raymond was talking, and then I saw, okay, you got a business page or you had created a business in your experience section, but there's not a business page next to it. So I would echo to say set up a free company page. It's easy to do. You can Google how to set up a free company page. You need to have a logo, but then you won't have this weird gray avatar.

Brenda Meller: 32:22

And going back to Michelle Raymond's point of you've got a really strong image in your header paired with a blurry photo. And then I think about the same thing with your business page, when you have that avatar next to it, which is a nondescript. It's not the logo. It makes me question this is really a legitimate business? Is Jane working out of her basement? Did she just get started with this? Is this not a real full-fledged thing? As opposed to if I saw a logo next to it when avatar or something like that, I get that warm, fuzzy, feeling like this is a legitimate business. So some of these things, jane, are just. These are cues that we get because we don't know you, we've not met you, we're just looking at your profile. So sometimes fuzzy photo can denote lower quality, or older photo, as Michelle Raymond was talking about earlier, can mean you're not keeping current or you're hiding. Like what else are you hiding from me If you're not showing us your age, your real truth for today? So that's one thing I was thinking and the other, as Michelle Griffin was talking about, the about statement.

Brenda Meller: 33:20

Sometimes I'm like I want to just add to this. I like to think about your about statement is what you would say to me If we read an event and I looked at your name tag and I said oh, jane, I see you work with Brain Fitness Academy. Tell me about that. And then you turn to me and say and my pet peeve on this is it's written in the third person you wouldn't turn to me and hold out your hand and say Jane is an award winning brain, fitness and high like you would say I am. So I am, and would you say award winning in your introduction to me.

Brenda Meller: 33:49

You might say I'm a brain fitness and high performance strategist. I work with my clients to help them do X, y and Z, and I created my business in 2019. And I'm so proud because I've actually won awards for my program, which have really been a great industry design, so I want to hear it like to be a little bit more conversational. That's one thing that was coming out at me. Either of the Michelle's, did you want to add anything to that? Before we move on?

Michelle B Griffin: 34:17

No, I think I know I've seen Jane in the comments. She's lovely and I think she's amazing, so I'm sure these little updates will make her just have our profile. That rocks it even more.

Michelle J Raymond: 34:25

So thank you, jane for sharing, and I always think about it, like when you're writing those about sections, think about the person that's reading it. Why do they care about what you've done? If those awards mean that I'm working with the best, it means that you've studied more, you've got access to the latest information and technology and how to help people and make it really clear what problem do you solve? And I think, for me, we forget that businesses exist because you solve a problem and you charge people money to take away that problem. So I like to say, yeah, I'm amazing, I'm the best, but here's your problem and how I take away those kind of things.

Michelle J Raymond: 34:59

So, finding the right blend. If you're a business owner and I think it's still the same for people looking for a job or employees Like you still solve a problem for a company, to make that clear for people. But, yeah, it's exciting to see how you can see how quickly and easily you can make a couple of changes and it just elevates your profile so quickly. So, yeah, I love all the advice that we're giving out today While we're waiting for the next one can we be our own guinea pig?

Michelle B Griffin: 35:26

I just got a message and someone said, michelle, when I search your name you don't come up, oh gosh. And so she said, could it be the capital letters? And I've had capital letters for three years. Is that true? I?

Michelle J Raymond: 35:40

actually think you are harder to find, and I only say that when I'm typing in my direct messages, of which I send you a million. So do you think it's capitals?

Michelle B Griffin: 35:49

Because I tried to do capitals to stand out, but sometimes I could hurt you, right?

Brenda Meller: 35:53

I don't know, I searched for your name just now and I didn't type in capital or lowercase on anything and it came up. Just fine for me. I think it probably recommends, because we talk a lot.

Michelle J Raymond: 36:05

So maybe that's what makes it easier I was looking for one of my contacts yesterday and I haven't spoken to them for ages and I couldn't find. It was actually my business mentor. I was like where is her profile? Is it disappeared? So yeah, I think that's part of it.

Michelle B Griffin: 36:19

That's good to know. Wow, yeah, so yeah, if you have all caps, which not many people do, it might be a good idea to make sure you're in search. So I might go back to lower upper, lower. So good to know All right.

Brenda Meller: 36:33

So this is going to be a fun one, susie Bowman, and I love it. There's so many things I love about this. Susie says look at mine if you have time. I just started a new business on my own and was running a digital agency for years before this, and I think all three of us can relate to this, because we were all doing something, we were all working for someone before we launched our business. I think this is such a fun profile. So who would like to start here and we're looking at? Is it clear to us what Susie does with her business? Who wants to start on this one?

Michelle J Raymond: 37:04

I'll start and just say I think it's fabulous. I think that it's so good to see something different, something fun and something that stands out. Of course, I'm going to mention about the company page, which I think Susie should set up, because those little gray boxes that are sitting there on just a mad little marketer, they don't look like they're part of the team, they're licking the team down. So I think, very quickly, if you had a company page, even if you just set it up, you may not put a lot of effort and time into it, but it will just legitimize the business and bring it in line with that branding. But I reckon, for those of you that are watching this, I think let Susie know how awesome this is, because I just love this personality and I can't wait, and I hope that 2024 is a year on LinkedIn we see some more personality out there, because it's getting a little bland. I love it.

Michelle B Griffin: 37:51

Yeah, I think this is cool. It's so much fun. It stands out, that first impression factor pops. And I see, susie, just like yesterday, you announced your new role, your new company, so congratulations. That's so exciting. It's just, we all know the feeling and we just wish you all the best. I think you were like remember what Brenda said just a few minutes ago? Your ballot section should be like tell me about yourself over Zoom or in person, and you start that off really well after 12 years running successful digital marketing, blah, blah, blah. So I think it's short, but I think you can add a little bit more. As Michelle says, talk about the problem and stuff. I haven't read it all, but I think you started off really great. Maybe add a little bit more. You definitely have more room to talk about some of the things you do and all those accolades.

Michelle J Raymond: 38:37

So that's my two cents. Oh sorry, brenda, I was going to say Susie says she's got one a company page, but it's not showing. Can you show her how she could fix that?

Brenda Meller: 38:46

if it exists. Yes, and actually I noticed part of the reason I noticed she had one is in her post that she's did. She said I'm happy to share that I'm starting a new position at Mad Little Marketer. When I clicked on that, it actually opened me up to the company page. So the way that you'll need to change that, susie, is you'll need to go to your experience section and in your version of your profile you're going to see a little gray pencil icon off to the side here and then, when you click on that, you'll be able to go in and you just need to go into the company name field and backspace until you see the company dropping appearing in the dropdown. Since I have the floor, one other thing is Susie, congratulations on starting your own business. It says I'm starting a new business on my own and was running a digital agency for years before this.

Brenda Meller: 39:29

I'm assuming, susie, that you are not yet independently wealthy and you actually are looking for clients paid clients. My concern is I love that you're giving people marketing advice for free, but what is your service? That's my suggestion for you to think about. I think it's great that you're bringing people in for impartial, free marketing advice, but then your headline reads, happily unbiased because my motive isn't to get work from you. Are you not looking at all for any paid clients?

Brenda Meller: 39:58

I could be mistaken, maybe you're not, maybe you're just out there, and I'll use another person as an example Jeff Young. He is retired and he does not do anything for paid. He just does it out of the goodness of his heart. He's out there working with people and he's not looking for any paid clients. He's just looking to share his expertise with others. So I want to help you, susie, at the beginning of your business journey. If you are in fact launching your business to try to get paid clients, I want to make sure it's clear to be where I can go to do business with you or to pay you money if I want to get your expertise.

Brenda Meller: 40:31

I don't know if either of them is telling you if you want to add to that. No, that's a great catch, brenda.

Michelle J Raymond: 40:37

I didn't pick that up immediately, but now that I read it I'm like, oh, I can just get Susie to do everything for my business for free. Yeah, that sounds like a great thing, and you might end up attracting the wrong audience. So, yeah, great catch. I didn't see, I didn't notice that, to be honest.

Michelle B Griffin: 40:51

Yeah, let us know who you're really targeting. To go even deeper on that and I think some tweaks, but I love the branding, I love the positioning, but just connected to either a bowl of. Hami or business, what's?

Michelle J Raymond: 41:02

that she has a business where, basically, she doesn't do the work. She matches clients, basically.

Michelle B Griffin: 41:08

Marketing matchmaker.

Michelle J Raymond: 41:10

Yeah, great name Michelle.

Michelle B Griffin: 41:12

Great name, yeah, yeah.

Brenda Meller: 41:14

Okay, so go in and if you're still watching us, susie, go into comments and let us know. And if you provide any clarification. I see she's saying yes, that's it, I'll do that. I'm thinking she's referring to the business page here and her next comment and I apologize, I'm going to take her off because we're covering the show. She says yes, that's right, I don't want to do the marketing work. I match clients and marketers because they just join people up. The marketers then pay me a referral fee.

Michelle B Griffin: 41:39

Yeah, I would say something like a marketing referral, or matchmakers, the Tinder marketing or something. Okay, no, that's not a good thing. The marketing matchmaker.

Michelle J Raymond: 41:48

I think we'll stick with that one. Yeah, I think that's a lot better. The Tinder of marketing.

Brenda Meller: 41:55

We got about 15 minutes left in that. I'm having an issue lately with StreamYard. Ladies, I don't know if you find this as well, but all the comments that are coming on LinkedIn are not coming to StreamYard, can you?

Michelle J Raymond: 42:06

we're going to record this because and I'm going to send it to StreamYard because I complained about the same thing yesterday and so they told me to reconnect the account just by the by reconnect your LinkedIn account and see if that fixes the issue. So I'm going to tell them.

Brenda Meller: 42:19

We're in the middle of a session. If I do that right now, I wouldn't even end the stream.

Michelle J Raymond: 42:24

Probably not right now, but yeah, afterwards.

Michelle B Griffin: 42:26

I think we'll. I'll try to go back I know I do and look at any comments, especially if you have any specific to tag all of us or one of us and cause a lot of people watch on the replay and we can come back and help them later as well.

Michelle J Raymond: 42:40

So what's interesting is I can see all the comments, brenda, but yesterday, as host, I couldn't see any of mine.

Michelle B Griffin: 42:45

So I feel like maybe it's a host thing, jinx yeah.

Brenda Meller: 42:48

Yeah, I'm trying to refresh and you know how it is too when you're a host thing or doing pilot and co-piloting.

Michelle B Griffin: 42:53

Yes, it's hard. We almost seen a moderator and if we disappear.

Brenda Meller: 42:58

goodbye everyone, You're going to do that. So I'm just going to do a refresh inside LinkedIn, because I feel like right now I stream yard comments are unreliable. I feel like the baton's not being passed over on here, but on LinkedIn. I can see everything that's coming inside here. Okay, so let's see. There was a net hit a comment. She said I find names in all caps sometimes hard to pull up, particularly when I'm trying to tag someone. Have you all had that experience too with when tying, trying to tag? Actually, now that Annette mentions that, when I do the post about this event, I do sometimes have a hard time getting Michelle B Griffin's name to load when I'm tagged.

Michelle B Griffin: 43:36

Well, geez, that's killing me. Right now I'm going to have to run away and after this and go lowercase. Can't have that happening. Good to know we found a thing. So we are learning as we go in our own giddy pigs. So thank you, annette, I appreciate that.

Brenda Meller: 43:50

Okay, so I see a comment that came in from Dale on LinkedIn. Okay, it is in stream yard. Here it is. So Dale had a question what if you're open for contract work but are not actively pursuing it? Need a little bit more information from you on this day. Or are you working full time as an employee and trying to do like a side hustle with the contract work, and is that why you're not actively pursuing it? It's not worked into your profile. That's my initial thought on there. Michelle Raymond, do you have any thoughts on that?

Michelle J Raymond: 44:20

Or Michelle, yeah, I don't know if you can be half in and half out, but and I know that this is a challenge that comes up for people that have side hustles as well, or working full time and trying to build something else in the meantime I've had many people reach out recently about that. Okay, so how do I write an about section where this is what I'm doing now, but I'm trying to build this? Or how do I have a LinkedIn profile that reflects where I want to be when I'm currently working somewhere else, which is one of those juggling acts which I don't know, that there's a one size fits all because comes down to a trying to hide something from an employer because you don't want them to know, or you don't want to get too busy because you're not quite ready. There can be so many different ways, I think. Michelle Griffin, what do you think about this?

Michelle B Griffin: 45:03

First of all, I know people personally who work full time jobs and their company is pretty cool and lax and they all they do is talk about their side brand, or whatever Side brand is what I call it, versus side hustle, and so obviously you'll pay attention to what your company mandates and depending on that avenue. So I almost like to say you almost need to get into it. If you're equipped enough and you're ready to start taking clients and your company is allowing it, it's totally cool. There, I would say, what's holding you back and when it's going to start believing you? Until you start talking about it, start talking about the pain point and all the things you do. So I would position yourself for what you want, not for someday down the road.

Michelle J Raymond: 45:40

So it says he just retired as a full time professor.

Michelle B Griffin: 45:45

Okay, well, he is on the retirement. Yes, he is ready, you are so ready to reposition that? Makes sense.

Michelle J Raymond: 45:50

Yes, that makes sense.

Brenda Meller: 45:52

I was going to say from.

Michelle J Raymond: 45:54

Sorry, I was just going to say. Isn't it funny how, from a few words, all of us have this perception of what it might be, or our brains go to these different places. The words that we choose are so powerful. Words matter, and when they're missing we just make stuff up Like we've gone all off on tangents. We go in the blanks.

Michelle B Griffin: 46:11

That's why a personal brand goes with you everywhere, like when you develop your personal brand. And sometimes I even see people who are full time and still, if their company is cool, they'd have their Michelle B Griffin, whatever. So it's always like you're developing your personal brand. You're supporting your company while you're working with a company, but when you leave that company, you got to take it with you. So that's why I'm always advocating to have your own entity. So you're ready, dale, go for it.

Brenda Meller: 46:36

So, dale, I would do what Michelle Griffin did earlier. She announced it about her book. She like told people hey, I'm going to do a book this year, so start, dale, by announcing it, and maybe you do it in a LinkedIn post. I'm going to be starting to do contract work where I'm doing consulting or coaching in the areas of X, y and Z, and you could even put it out to an ask to your network any advice for me as I'm getting started or you could just let people know that I'll be opening up a website or a company page or something like that soon. I'm just planting the seeds and I think a lot of people, especially people that aren't comfortable with marketing they feel like everything needs to be perfect before they go out and launch.

Michelle B Griffin: 47:12

But announcing to the world, even people who are comfortable with marketing.

Brenda Meller: 47:15

They're scary.

Brenda Meller: 47:16

Right, but I think it's better to do the. I've been talking about this marketing with Mellor program for two months now and you can't find anything on my website about it. Nothing exists yet. But I've got people that are like checking in is it ready yet? Can I enroll? I'm trying to build up a little bit of interest and momentum before it's even there. And Dale, if you're not ready yet, or maybe you're not committed to doing a website yet, you could just create a company page and not even link it to your profile until you're ready to make that announcement. That will help that grant process when you are starting to actively pursue it and try to get some clients. All right, I see one more and we got about 10 minutes to go here, so I think we might do this might take us towards the end here.

Brenda Meller: 47:57

Telev had a question and I apologize if I'm saying it incorrectly. Hopefully I got that right. But he says I'm curious, what's one game changing tip you'd recommend for optimizing our LinkedIn headlines to stand out and connect better in 2024? Ooh, this is a good question. All right, who would like to start on this one? I'll do it.

Michelle B Griffin: 48:19

Okay, other than the obvious of being clear on who you are and who you serve and how you do it, nail that front, load the good stuff. Okay, don't put empowering in the first 50 characters, because you and thousands of people do that. I wanna know, in the busy feed and the comments and everywhere it follows you, what you do. So my antenna goes up, it anchors in my brain. So the first 40 to 50, whatever it is be a little clear on who you serve, so I can not scroll past you if you're someone who can just completely change my life. So that's that. Oh, and use wordcounternet to count those characters.

Brenda Meller: 48:58

Work, doesn't it? Haven't heard about that yet. Okay, all right, michelle Raymond Boom in the spotlight, one game changing. I feel like she stole the good one.

Michelle J Raymond: 49:07

I know right.

Michelle B Griffin: 49:07

Oh, sorry did I I thought it was like the less important one, but okay.

Michelle J Raymond: 49:12

I tell you what, because I'm literally re-work, shopping my own one at the moment and maybe I can offer some advice. At the moment, it's not what I like and I just changed it once yesterday to mess around with it. Those first 50 characters are definitely important, but I'm struggling at the moment between do I put just down some of my credibility pieces or do I do something creative which is more in line with my personality. But creative and clever is not how people find you on LinkedIn, because it means something to me and may not mean something to other people.

Michelle J Raymond: 49:46

Just like Michelle said before with the LinkedIn brand therapist, I think I'm probably having a similar issue with creating LinkedIn dream teams online. So I think my tip would be based on my own experience that I'm going through right now is choose clarity over clever, because things that sound cute don't always translate well to other people. So maybe workshop it with some people around you. But yeah, I don't know, I'm struggling between the how do you be different? And what works, cause I think it's fun to have different headlines, yeah, but yeah, I don't know.

Michelle B Griffin: 50:22

Clear, different, incredible to get the trifecta and, speaking of trifecta, to nail that man, that's.

Michelle J Raymond: 50:28

That's one of the latter .220 characters, or whatever it is to nail all your work experience, who you are as a person, what values you have what you do for a business in 220 characters.

Michelle B Griffin: 50:37

It's the hardest part on LinkedIn. It is the by far the hardest part to nail on LinkedIn.

Michelle J Raymond: 50:43

But I would say, what you do, who you do it for and the transformation you give is probably my simple tip.

Brenda Meller: 50:49

Yeah, that's good. So I'm going to add on to what you both said and Michelle Griffin was talking about the character limits and Michelle Raymond was talking about using the right keywords. I'm going to add that it's similar to what both of them said and this is what I would do if I were you. To lab is go to your activity feed section and look at your latest posts and look and see what you can see in the previewable area, because Michelle's saying 40 to 60 and you actually seeing what the characters are. I think it can help you to visualize that. And then look at it on the mobile app as well, cause you'll notice it might be a little bit shorter there. And then I look at your comments as well. You should be commenting, by the way, cause that headline follows you around when you reply, when you comment, when you post. So make sure that you're commenting and look at your comments and see what's in the previewable area. There it's usually pretty close to what appears when you post, but sometimes the character's a little bit different there and I want you to think about when you read that. When you see your name, your photo and a portion of your headline, is it interesting to you. That's.

Brenda Meller: 51:51

I think that's an important. It shouldn't just be job title at company and it shouldn't just be a helping statement or what did you say, michelle? Empowering, like not just that magic tip. But I want, when you read it, I want you to get, I want you to be like excited about what you're seeing in that statement as well. And I think, above all, we're talking about today, our whole focus. Today is new year. What's your focus? So is it clear to people visiting your profile who do you work with, what do you help them with and how you're gonna help them. To Michelle Raymond's point with the transformation, what is working with you gonna do to help them?

Michelle J Raymond: 52:31

The hint is, if people aren't reaching out to have conversations with you, it's not working. There's something in your profile and I went through a little bit of this as I'm trying to move into wanting to work with corporates who would be to be and do bigger training sessions I realized that a lot of the consultants that I typically work with have dropped off, and so I'm going through like this awkward phase of I wanna get here, but right now this is where I am and this is where I'm working with people. How do I have my cake and eat it too, which is never really gonna work. So trying to find that balance is tricky. So if you've had some problems with it, totally we all can sympathize with you on that one, but for me it is if you don't get the right people reaching out to you to work with you, or the right job employers kind of thing, it's time to do some tweaking.

Brenda Meller: 53:22

All right. So I think what we're gonna do now is we're gonna start to wrap up and I wanna just give each of us the floor for some final comments, because what is this? This has really been for all of you today. It's a free sample. You got to hear from, and learn from, michelle Squared, michelle Begriffin, michelle J Raymond Today. You got to hear from me Brenda Meller today as well, and this is what we do for a living, and we love to come together once a month and offer you advice and be here with all of you, but we wanna remind you that we are all I like to say enthusiastically self-employed, because I think that's a nice way of categorizing this. We do, but we do not get paid unless we get clients. I'd like to end us with just a reminder about, if you're interested in working with each of us, a quick summary of the services that we are offering. Michelle Raymond, I'm gonna pull you into the hot seat.

Brenda Meller: 54:12

Especially like to go first.

Michelle J Raymond: 54:14

I will go first. So, yeah, how do I work with businesses? So I love to work with people who are looking to leverage LinkedIn to grow their business. So that's essentially how do I do that. Training is my specialty, so I'll teach you how to actually have a process in place that is designed for you to sell more and attract better opportunities on LinkedIn. Also, rewrite LinkedIn profiles. It's something that I never thought I'd say I love doing, but it turns out. I just use my sales experience to find out what makes you unique and special.

Michelle J Raymond: 54:46

And one shout out I am running my 30 day LinkedIn profile transformation challenge over on my YouTube channel. It is 100% free. At the moment, michelle Griffin is going mad at me in the background, going I'm crazy for doing this, so it might be the very last time that it's ever free, but I'd love it. I put the details over in the comments and if people can come over and all you need to do is subscribe to my channel, watch the videos, you can play catch ups or choose which pieces of the puzzle you really need most help with. And yeah, I put a lot of effort into it, I can assure you, but it is part of my kicking off my year planning and accountability, said I'd do something, making sure I do it. So more power to everyone else and good luck with whatever your focus is for this year to grow your business. So, michelle B Griffin, over to you.

Michelle B Griffin: 55:32

Thank you, thank you, yeah, I'm excited to wrap this up and look forward to next month. But if you're a professional woman that are just ready for that next big thing, you're tired of feeling hidden, held back, unsure how to introduce yourself, talk about yourself, communicate what you do and you are ready for something big and better. That's exactly what I do as the brand therapist and I've narrowed it down to make it super easy. I help you create your own visibility, personal brand positioning and PR roadmap. I make that in a one-on-one setting 30 days or less, to be a visible brand authority, and it's an accelerator roadmap all the tools you need to stand out, step out and get ahead and then also teach that in a workshop and also work with organizations and groups and event planners to empower their empower there's that word in this setting is perfect. They're female audiences with LinkedIn and personal brand training, speaking and workshops. So I make it pretty easy because, at the end of the day, I'm really helping you own your lane for opportunity, impact and outcome.

Michelle B Griffin: 56:30

So if you're ready to get started, head on to my profile. I also, if you're someone who's on the sidelines on LinkedIn, been there, done that. I have a free community of 1700 people plus. Head to my profile and come join us. It is peer run, peer supported. And think of it as your training wills to start getting at LinkedIn. That's what we're here for. So over to you, brenda.

Brenda Meller: 56:52

All right, awesome, and my catchphrase is I help you to get a bigger slice of the LinkedIn pie. So first I'm gonna start with a soft kind of a fun ask If you ever come across pie memes, pie humor, pie trivia, send them to me. My husband just emailed me and he's did. You know that January 23rd is national pie day? I did, but I forgot about it too. So January 23rd you'll be seeing a pie day post from me. Part of that is I think business should be fun and I think we should have something that's a part of our personal brand, that's non-business related, because when you think of pie, I want you to think of me, and when you do see anything pie related, I want you to send it to me. A lot of times I'll feature those as posts.

Brenda Meller: 57:34

With that said, I do work with solopreneurs, with job seekers and with working professionals as well. I do some LinkedIn team training, I do some online courses and I've got a lot of really exciting things that are coming up. Best thing would be to get on my VIP email list. If you go to mellermarketingcom slash subscribe, I send out weekly emails with LinkedIn strategy tips, podcast notifications and then, of course, announcements about my new offerings. So, with that said, we're gonna wrap this up. We are gonna be meeting monthly. I believe I'm passing the virtual baton to the host position for Michelle J Raymond for next month. I don't know if we can pass up a ton virtually or not, but I think date is TBG.

Brenda Meller: 58:17

We try to do this around Tuesday, maybe second ish or third Tuesday of the month. So stay tuned for or Tuesday our time, but Wednesday your time.

Michelle J Raymond: 58:26

I should say so stay tuned for Michelle Might be a little bit earlier. Just flagging that because I'll be in the US. Yeah, so I head to the US in the middle of February for three weeks, so look out, well, I'm coming. So you might have to adjust those dates.

Brenda Meller: 58:40

All right. More information coming soon. As soon as we get the date locked in, all three of us start promoting it, so just make sure that you're following us for those updates. With that said, ladies, thank you so much for joining me. This is a great chat today. It was great to see you.

Michelle B Griffin: 58:53

Thank you, Brenda. Bye everybody, take care, have a great day.

Brenda Meller: 58:57

And I'm gonna do a countdown checker as we roll off here, because there's always a little bit of a delay, but the countdown is just to end us. So, with that said, have a great evening, have a great day, and we will see you all on LinkedIn. Take care everyone.