Craig Dean - behind every successful person there is a story. This is Craigs story!

Growing up with addiction, mental illness, and abuse in the family, Craig reached a turning point when he realized that it wasn't his fault. Craig Dean shares his story, and his journey out of the effects of childhood trauma. Listen and get inspired of Craigs story, that the past can´t get a hold on us if we not allow it.

 You will receive valuable advice about LinkedIn branding, which is Craig's area of expertise today. In the links section, you’ll find a link to the branding community that you can join at a very affordable price today. You’ll also find a quiz that will show you the health of your LinkedIn profile. I hope you enjoy today's episode as much as I enjoyed having Craig as my guest in the studio.

Craig Dean | LinkedIn

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Jag heter Lis Karin, har skapat House Of Fulfillment, ett utrymme i den digitala världen där vi utforskar sinnet, mindset, transformation och de djupa sanningarna som formar våra liv. Jag kallar mig en själfull strateg, kärleksdriven mentor och livscoach.

Min drivkraft är alltid kärleken till livet, och att få se hur människors liv förändras när de bryter igenom sina invanda tankemönster, som tidigare styrt deras liv mot ohälsa, brist, stress....och kommer ut i friheten att manifestera in ett överflöd av framgång från insidan där effekten blir framgång i sitt företagande, framgång i relationer, framgång i hälsa, ekonomisk frihet och ett liv i överflöd.

Jag har en bakgrund som specialistsjuksköterska inom den psykiatriska vården och 12 år i uppdrag som verksamhetschef för behandlingshem (KBT/DBT) och vårdboende inom psykisk hälsa. Nu önskar jag dig välkommen in i min värld.


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Transcript

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Lis Karin: You're listening to House of Fulfillment podcast and me, Liz Corin. And today I'm honored to have Craig Dean with me, a network friend from Uk, Hi Dean Dean, Hi Craig.

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Craig Dean: It's all right. I get that all the time. And people. I think it's my my mom and dad's fault for giving me 2 1st names.

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Lis Karin: Can't believe so.

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Craig Dean: Yeah.

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Lis Karin: Happy you are here, Craig.

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Craig Dean: I? I answer, I answer to most things, so I'll let you off.

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Lis Karin: That's good. Yeah. So I want to start with

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Lis Karin: how? Because I read last week, I think a content you wrote on Linkedin about your background, and that was not an

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Lis Karin: easy start for you in life. I would like to hear from you what that have meant for you

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Lis Karin: to be where you are today. So please tell us your story. Yes, sure. Tell us.

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Craig Dean: Yeah. Well, I I grew up in Oxford. Sorry I I was born in Oxford, and I grew up there for for a few years before. My mom and dad

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Craig Dean: parted, and and I and I then moved to Birmingham, and we lived with my Nan for a while, and then we moved to a little town called Beaudely, in Worcestershire and and then it was a it was kind of it was. It was a happy life to begin with. But

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Craig Dean: unfortunately my mom became very depressed, and she turned to alcohol. She was in a she remarried. With with my stepfather and

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Craig Dean: and yet they both became alcoholics. Essentially and so growing up wasn't wasn't great. They never had much money, probably because they were spending it all on on booze and and and and cigarettes, and so on. So so yeah, we were we. We never really had much growing up. But we were always quite, quite happy. But unfortunately, my mom she ended up

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Craig Dean: getting very depressed to the point where she had to go into D block, which was a psychiatric unit at Kidderminster Hospital.

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Craig Dean: and she was there for quite some time, and she had various treatments and electric shock treatments, and this, that, and the other

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Craig Dean: and

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Craig Dean: as a result of it, being in hospital for so long, and because there were, there was me, my 2 sisters my dad was unable to cope with all 3 of us because he was trying to work and everything else. And so A decision was made. I think there was some sort of social services interaction, and I ended up having to go and live with my aunt and uncle in the pub, that they that they run together.

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Craig Dean: Talk about out of the frying pan and into the fire. I ended up in a in a in a, in a

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Craig Dean: in an awful situation. Actually, because I was sexually abused by my uncle while I was there. And that's what the post was about.

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Craig Dean: Just telling this story. But

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Craig Dean: and I lived with guilt, I suppose, for many, many years. I blame myself for what happened, and and it it took years from the age of 13 to probably

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Craig Dean: my mid twenties before I really kind of came to terms with the fact and realized that actually none of that was my fault at all.

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Craig Dean: But what happened was when I reached 18 as an escape route. I decided that I wanted to join the army, and that's how that was. The kind of the everything that had happened previously in my life was a catalyst really for me, wanting to join the army and to get away from the life that that I once knew.

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Craig Dean: So yeah. So after I I went into the I took to the to the army. Really? Well, became a physical training structure in the forces. Loved the the traveling and everything else that we did. And yeah. Had a a really good time in in the British Army. I often referred to it as the the

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Craig Dean: like. My other family. It was like it was like the, you know, even when I left I remember the lad saying, you know you do realize you're leaving the family that loves you, and I was like, you know, you know you're you're absolutely right and

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Craig Dean: But then, when I came out of the forces I got into

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Craig Dean: I got into the a corporate job in the recruitment industry worked in recruitment for for many years, both here in the Uk and in Hong Kong

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Craig Dean: and

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Craig Dean: and then eventually, and my last sort of job was working with a company called Sift, which was taken over by indeed.com

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Craig Dean: and actually the the company became known as indeed flex, and I was, as I was, essentially a salesperson I was selling into the hospitality industry. And this was pre Covid, right? So so at the time hospitality was booming and but I hated selling. I hated picking up the phone and making sales calls with a passion.

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Craig Dean: So I was always looking for

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Craig Dean: another way to sell.

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Craig Dean: And that's when I discovered social selling

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Craig Dean: and and discovered that actually, there are ways to sell through Linkedin.

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Craig Dean: And I started my social selling journey.

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Craig Dean: Started to get really good at it while I was at, indeed, to the point where the sales director approached me one day and he said.

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Craig Dean: Hey, Craig, he said, I've been checking the Kpis.

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Craig Dean: and I couldn't help but notice that

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Craig Dean: you're booking in loads of appointments, which is great. However.

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Craig Dean: you're not making any sales calls. How are you doing it? So I said, I'll show you what I'm doing. So I showed him what I was doing.

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Craig Dean: and he was like, Oh, my God! In fact, it was holy, right? So so he was like, Oh, my God, yeah, like this is really good. I can't believe we're not doing this as a as a company. Would you be prepared to do a presentation to the rest of the sales team.

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Craig Dean: I'd never done a presentation before. Of any description. But I but I did that presentation, and it went really well, and the sales team then started implementing the exact same strategy that I was using to start booking in meetings.

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Craig Dean: so, although that was all great. Then Covid came along, and unfortunately, because I was selling into the hospitality industry, and so was many of us in the sales team. Many of us lost our jobs. So I was like, right? Well, I'd been kind of working on a little bit of a side hustle while I've been working, and it was my Linkedin side hustle that I've been working on.

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Craig Dean: Well, I was with, indeed, and

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Craig Dean: I thought, I've got 2 choices. I can either go and get another job in recruitment in a different that focuses on a different sector. Or I can throw myself a hundred 10% into this new side hustle that I've been working on.

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Craig Dean: and I opted for option B. And I've never looked back since. And that's how I ended up kind of feeling my way through Linkedin on this Linkedin journey. That was kind of what 4, 5 years ago now. And

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Craig Dean: and yeah, and it's just been an amazing journey, you know, from

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Craig Dean: from

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Craig Dean: really struggling on Linkedin, I mean, I didn't. I never really struggled because I had kind of like a a process that I followed. But that process has refined and got better and better and better over time.

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Craig Dean: So, and that's why I've ended up where I am today. I suppose, in this kind of crazy world called Linkedin.

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Lis Karin: Yeah, yeah, that's that's amazing. Thank you for sharing your story, Craig. And

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Lis Karin: what do you think is the most important thing? Yeah, you you flew, flew into into the army. But inside of you, what was the what's this to

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Lis Karin: most important thing

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Lis Karin: for you, or for probably every people to to be to get rid of the the pain from the past.

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Craig Dean: Hmm.

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Lis Karin: Beautiful ink.

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Craig Dean: I think I think it's easy, isn't it, to carry baggage around with you?

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Craig Dean: I say, it's easy. It's hard, but

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Craig Dean: we've all got junk in the trunk

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Craig Dean: right. We've all got like junk in the trunk that we need to

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Craig Dean: get rid of, and I think for me.

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Craig Dean: It was about

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Craig Dean: understanding that it wasn't my fault. It was about like really kind of

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Craig Dean: it was about speaking to people sharing it with my mom and dad. Eventually my mum got better, and I was able to share it with my mum as well, and you know my parents have passed away now, but.

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Craig Dean: it. It almost feels like, you know. My uncle and my auntie know have passed away as well. It's almost like all of that has gone now.

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Craig Dean: and I, and I've been able to

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Craig Dean: get to a point in my life now where I'm able to talk about it. But that being said when I posted about this the other day.

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Craig Dean: On Linkedin. I

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Craig Dean: I'd written that post

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Craig Dean: about 5 or 6 times and deleted it.

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Craig Dean: and it wasn't about

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Craig Dean: shame or anything like that. It was more about.

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Craig Dean: Am I? Am I oversharing, am I? Am I? Am I telling too much here?

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Craig Dean: And so I. So so that's what kind of led me to kind of keep deleting the post, but

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Craig Dean: the more I thought about it, and eventually, like as I kind of.

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Craig Dean: I suppose, built up a little bit of courage to to share that story.

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Craig Dean: I kind of felt like I had a duty

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Craig Dean: to give other people the courage to share their stories, because I know that there's a lot of people out there that

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Craig Dean: have got amazing stories to tell.

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Craig Dean: and for whatever reason they feel

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Craig Dean: whether it's imposter, syndrome, or or some other kind of fear that prevents them from doing it. But I think it's important for me as as an influencer on Linkedin

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Craig Dean: to say, Hey, like guys like posting personal content on Linkedin

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Craig Dean: is what makes you relatable. It's what builds familiarity and likability.

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Craig Dean: And we all know that we buy from people that we know like and trust. Right? So like is a huge part of that. And if people can relate to you and

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Craig Dean: feel like you're kind of on the same page as them. I don't mean in the kind of the same circumstances, but they they can see that you are sharing

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Craig Dean: personal content. Then they will probably or

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Craig Dean: hopefully get the courage to do the same.

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Craig Dean: So I suppose I felt like I had a a duty to do that as a as a mini influencer on Linkedin.

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Lis Karin: Absolutely. I really.

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Lis Karin: I agree with you, and I am so grateful you did, because

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Lis Karin: I really believe that

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Lis Karin: authenticity. We speak a lot about authenticity. What is that? But I believe this is authenticity when we can share our shadows or the the dark part

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Lis Karin: to share that. And

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Lis Karin: I believe that, and a key is, as you said.

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Lis Karin: I recognize it's not my fault.

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Craig Dean: It's fine.

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Lis Karin: My fault because I have gone through the same, not the same circumstances, but other things. And I I think a lot of people, a lot of children when they grew up in circumstances that are not the best.

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Lis Karin: Take the

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Lis Karin: the the guilt on themselves, take a possibility that is not their thing to do and feel guilty, and then come shame

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Lis Karin: and to grow up. With that it really increased a person.

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Craig Dean: Hmm.

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Lis Karin: Increase, no decrease the the shrink, decrease.

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Craig Dean: Yeah. Decrease, yeah.

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Lis Karin: I mean decrease. Yes.

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Lis Karin: it, and on that I I think you have have made inside of you that this, the the commitment to to forgive.

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Craig Dean: Hmm.

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Lis Karin: Your abusers.

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Craig Dean: 100%. Yeah.

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Lis Karin: Yeah.

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Craig Dean: Yeah 100%.

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Craig Dean: you know, it's and and it's very easy to become a victim, isn't it? Of you, of your past and

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Craig Dean: I think it's fair to say that for most people

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Craig Dean: or for for all people that are that have been subject to something

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Craig Dean: adverse in their, in their history, in their, in, their, in, their, in their past life.

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Craig Dean: that it's very easy to well, you you either go one way or the other.

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Craig Dean: You either do become a complete victim of that situation and go in one direction, or you use it as a force for good, and you go off in the other direction.

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Craig Dean: For me it was definitely the latter, because it. What I found is that it?

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Craig Dean: It gave me my grit. It gave me my determination and probably my motivation. I want to prove to my kids that like, even though they they don't know that about me, and I don't feel the need to tell them that at this moment time I kind of don't want them to be exposed to that at at their ages.

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Craig Dean: but I never. I would never want that to ever

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Craig Dean: happen to them. Right? So for me, it's about proving that proving to myself and proving to the people who do know that actually.

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Craig Dean: you, you can make a success of your life, no matter what your start in life was. Yeah. And I think that's really important that it's. It's it's very much a conscious decision that you make

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Craig Dean: to to go in that to, you know. Imagine you're at the crossroads. Go left or right. It's up to you which direction you go. I actually say to myself, and I've I've said to

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Craig Dean: to many people, family friends, that one of the mo. The proudest moments of my life was the moment was the the decision I made to join the forces because

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Craig Dean: I was actually on the road to nowhere. Before that I was

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Craig Dean: I I probably shouldn't say this on on air, but I was. I was breaking and entering. I was. I was joyriding in cars. I was

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Craig Dean: out with my friends like doing things that we shouldn't be doing right, and my only

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Craig Dean: saving grace was that number one. I never got caught.

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Craig Dean: but no doubt I would have done at some point right. Eventually I would have probably ended up

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Craig Dean: in prison, or something like that.

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Craig Dean: But it was that conscious decision and that realization that I was on the road to nowhere. It was like, you can't continue like this. You've got to do something about it. And I also. So I kind of wanted to escape that and everything else in the past. And that's what led me down that road to joining the forces, and that was my escape route. That's how that's how I got out of that situation and turn my life around.

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Craig Dean: So I've got.

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Craig Dean: I've got a lot to be thankful for

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Craig Dean: from

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Craig Dean: from from from my regiment and from from, you know my military career, for sure.

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Lis Karin: Yeah, yeah. And I,

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Lis Karin: I have always believed, or

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Lis Karin: for a long time I I called you a diamond.

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Craig Dean: Diamond in the rough.

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Lis Karin: No, you aren't, really. You're not. But I mean you. You were because a diamond, you know.

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Lis Karin: You don't listen, and maybe all have this

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Lis Karin: and carry around with all these stuffs, and are a victim, still

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Lis Karin: rise and shine, because that's the purpose of your life. And I believe that the background. We have.

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Lis Karin: I say it, very weird.

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Lis Karin: Not so easy, but I think that it that our background have to do with our future future like a diamond to be the most precious diamond. With all these colors

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Lis Karin: it has to gone through a very, very hard pressure, very hard.

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Craig Dean: Center, yeah.

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Lis Karin: The the roses. If they should be really beautiful and much flowers, they have to be cut down. They have to be schooled. I don't think if you say so. Yeah, so.

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Lis Karin: And I feel I can feel it in you and other people that I meet, that I feel so much in my heart, for I feel so.

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Craig Dean: Yeah, yeah.

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Lis Karin: And it comes up after a while. Yeah, they have gone through a lot of difficult things in life, and we are not responsible for what have happened to us. That's so important to to also say. But we are responsible to do things today with our lives.

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Craig Dean: I totally. I totally agree. I I did a post a while ago, and I and it. What you're saying reminds me of that post. And I was.

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Craig Dean: Everyone talks about Linkedin influences, right? And and you know, yeah, that's great and everything. But for me, one of the best influences ever is adversity.

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Craig Dean: and you know, when I I talk about the best you know, you could talk all you want about Linkedin influences, but by far adversity beats them all hands down because the lessons that adversity teaches you

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Craig Dean: it adversity shapes you into the person that you are right, and equips you with the tools that you need to be able to cope, that it gives you those coping mechanisms for the future. And

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Craig Dean: and I I'll be. I'll be honest with you. I don't think there's really anything in this day and age. Now, at this state, you know, I'm 50 now, right? So I don't think there's anything that life can really throw at me that I can't handle, that I can't handle in some way, shape or form.

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Craig Dean: Take, for example, the conference that's coming up soon. I'm absolutely shitting myself about speaking on stage, but I know I'll I know I'll do it, because I won't allow myself not to stand up on stage for the 1st time, and prove to myself that I'm capable of doing it, and it will be the lessons that I've learned from

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Craig Dean: past experience that that is pushing me and making me go for that, you know it's again. I didn't get asked to speak on stage. I I approached Jamie.

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Craig Dean: I said.

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Craig Dean: can I be one of the speakers on stage, even though I've never done it before?

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Craig Dean: But again, you know, I've I've had to work with Jamie through some nlp

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Craig Dean: training and and and coaching sessions, because

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Craig Dean: again I part of my child because of my childhood

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Craig Dean: I really struggled with. I I ended up with things like wetting the bed. I had issues with.

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Craig Dean: Speech. I had a speech impediment which I had to go for

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Craig Dean: speech, therapy sessions for

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Craig Dean: And so I had this kind of little bit of a stutter, and

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Craig Dean: but again, like speaking on stage, even speaking like this, sometimes it sometimes enters my head. You know that limiting belief. Oh, what if I start to stutter?

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Craig Dean: And what if I can't get my words out? And so, yeah, I have to kind of keep.

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Craig Dean: You have to keep pack, you know, shutting the lid on that box and saying, No, you're you're gonna be fine. You're going to be absolutely fine.

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Craig Dean: So yeah, so so yeah, it. What you just said there about the the kind of the diamond and the pressure really kind of resonates.

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Lis Karin: Yeah, it does.

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Lis Karin: That that's so

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Lis Karin: amazing, amazing story to tell for you. And it's important that you do it. I'm so grateful for it. And

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Lis Karin: I'm honored that you do it in my podcast.

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Craig Dean: Not too

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Craig Dean: anytime anytime.

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Lis Karin: And today I am in your community that you have with Imran about brand the branding community.

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Lis Karin: Yeah, you help people to be more visible, and

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Lis Karin: do better things on Linkedin to use Linkedin to market themselves and to.

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Craig Dean: Absolutely. Yeah. So the branding community. We launched it about nearly 6 months ago.

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Craig Dean: with a view to helping people win on Linkedin. That's all we wanted. We wanted to equip people with all of the knowledge that we have

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Craig Dean: over. You know that we've acquired over many years between both myself and Imran

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Craig Dean: to to enable them to get from A to BA lot lot quicker to not make the same mistakes that we made all those years ago.

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Craig Dean: And what better way than you know, building a community of like minded people? And I, I keep saying, you know why, go alone when you can go together. Why why not kind of help each other along? If if we're all kind of heading in the same direction, let's let's pull each other along and get there, as you know in it.

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Craig Dean: What? What's that saying? It's something like if you're

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Craig Dean: I can't remember it now. It's it will come back to me. But the the point I'm making is it? It does it? It makes sense to kind of go together. Rather than kind of go it alone. Now we I've just actually announced in the community that there's we've got a big announcement coming up, and I'm not going to go into detail yet. It's a bit of a it's a it's a bit of a secret. But there's gonna be some big changes in the very, very near future. With the branding community. As far as we're concerned. Now, we've got what 100 and

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Craig Dean: about 100 4,040 members in the community. And the goal now is to kind of take start taking it to the next level, introducing new things. We want to introduce things like networking within. So it makes sense that, our community members are able to support each other in business as well as well as on Linkedin. So that will be something that will be coming soon.

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Craig Dean: It will probably go through a bit of a brand refresh and everything as well. And yeah, and

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Craig Dean: we really just want to shake things up a little bit and give even more value to

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Craig Dean: the community members. They already get tons of value. We've we've worked very hard to.

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Craig Dean: We've started structuring the community in such a way that instead of it, just being kind of like an information overload where we've dumped lots of modules and things in the classroom for everyone to make use of.

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Craig Dean: It's now got a more structured approach so that people can start on module one, and then once they complete, they can't start Module 2 until they've completed one. So it's kind of taking a more of a kind of a structured approach to to the Linkedin journey. As you know, we have group coaching calls as well. Bi-weekly group coaching calls. We're going to increase those we used to offer replays. We're gonna stop doing that because what we realized is that

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Craig Dean: the people who are getting the most value from the group. Coaching calls are the people that turn up on those sessions and actually ask the questions that they need answering.

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Craig Dean: They're the ones that are actually progressing on Linkedin, whereas the people that just turn up or sorry just watch the replays.

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Craig Dean: They can't ask their questions. They're not getting the opportunity to speak to me and Imran one on one so we feel like if we remove the replays.

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Craig Dean: there's going to be more of a need for people to actually show up to the to the sessions. So so yeah, so lots of changes come in that there's just a couple of them. And we're we're really excited about it. So so yeah, so it's going really well in the community. At the moment.

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Lis Karin: Yeah, it's it's so good your your tips. What? What is the most important? The 1st thing? Or if if you see someone that doesn't know anything has been random on Linkedin. What is the most important thing to start with on their profile? What would you say.

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Craig Dean: So profile optimization is, I always say it's the foundation of everything else that you do on Linkedin

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Craig Dean: and optimizing your profile for a specific audience, knowing that

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Craig Dean: letting your audience know

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Craig Dean: what it is that you do

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Craig Dean: who you do it for

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Craig Dean: and what they're going to get.

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Craig Dean: So, for example, if you look at my Linkedin banner.

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Craig Dean: it says exactly what I do, you know, building high, converting Linkedin profiles for coaches and consultants so they can capture leads. So it's what I do. Who I do it for, what they're gonna get.

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Craig Dean: So that's 1 thing. I think.

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Craig Dean: ensuring that you've got a way of capturing leads, because I see a lot of business owners, coaches, and consultants at the moment. They're all very, very busy creating content.

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Craig Dean: putting content out there, spending maybe hours, creating content each week and posting it on Linkedin.

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Craig Dean: driving traffic to their profile, which isn't optimized at all.

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Craig Dean: They have no way of capturing leads on their profile, and as a result of that they're getting they're getting profile views.

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Craig Dean: but not getting any leads.

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Craig Dean: And then they're like, Oh, well, Linkedin doesn't work, or the Linkedin's algorithm is against me. But it's not like I. I showed evidence of it today in my post today.

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Craig Dean: where I took a screenshot of. I did a post on Linkedin, where I gave away some value for free. I had a call, simple call to action. Get your free Linkedin profile score, which is a lead magnet on my profile.

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Craig Dean: so anybody can visit my profile and get their Linkedin profile score by visiting the bio link, and when they click on that link

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Craig Dean: they part with their information in exchange for their Linkedin profile score. So I capture their their information, and I can then follow up with those prospects

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Craig Dean: after they've taken the quiz. So it's

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Craig Dean: So I think it's really really important to make sure that you've not only got an optimized profile, but also to make sure that you've got some way of capturing those leads. And for me I use something called Score App, which is for me, is a game changer. It really connects the dots for me, and score App

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Craig Dean: is just quiz software that

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Craig Dean: really enables you to

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Craig Dean: go through a discovery process with your prospects

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Craig Dean: without even having a conversation with them, because you're asking them questions and you're identifying pain points through through strategic questioning

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Craig Dean: which enables you then to not waste time with

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Craig Dean: all of your leads. You can just focus and cherry pick

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Craig Dean: the people who have answered the questions in a certain way

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Craig Dean: which enables you then to reach out to those people

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Craig Dean: and say, Hey, thanks for taking my quiz. Congratulations on your personal branding score of 100%. For example, however, I couldn't help but notice that you're unhappy with the number of leads that you're getting on your Linkedin profile. If I could guarantee your way of generating leads on Linkedin, would that be worth a conversation?

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Craig Dean: Well, they're not going to say no, because they've already indicated. They've got a problem in that area

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Craig Dean: you and I've indicated. I've got a solution. So it doesn't make sense for them to go. No, thanks. I don't want the solution to my problem. They're much more likely to go. Yes, absolutely. Let's jump on a call. I'd look. I'd love to hear more, and and it's on the call, then, that you have the opportunity then to to shine, I suppose, and

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Craig Dean: project your personality a bit more, build, trust and credibility and demonstrate exactly how you can help them

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Craig Dean: achieve what they're looking to achieve on Linkedin, or or whatever it is, whatever your products or services demonstrate how that's going to help them solve the pain point that they're struggling with.

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Craig Dean: So yeah, so it's not rocket science. It's relatively easy. But a lot of people, miss

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Craig Dean: crucial elements. And they just think, oh, if I just optimize my profile, that's enough. Well, it's not.

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Craig Dean: If I just create content, that's enough. No, it's not. You've also got to think about direct outreach and doing.

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Craig Dean: actually reaching out to people, because

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Craig Dean: commenting on their content is one thing

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Craig Dean: that starts to build a bit of a relationship. It get it gives you visibility. People see you.

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Craig Dean: They visit your profile, they see what you do. But you know, sometimes

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Craig Dean: people don't always take action. You've got to be the one to take or to take the 1st step in that relationship building process. So if I see people that match my Icp

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Craig Dean: that engage with my content. I'll look at all the likes every single day. I'll look at the likes. I'll look at the comments, and if I see my Icp in there, I'll reach out to them with A with a DM. And I'll just quite simply say, Hey, thank you so much for supporting my content. Really appreciate it. It means the world to me. So how's everything going for you on Linkedin?

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Craig Dean: I start a conversation. It's a conversation starting question.

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Craig Dean: I don't pitch a product or a service at that point. I just simply ask that question.

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Craig Dean: To break the ice and to build a bit of report in much the same way that you would do if you went to a networking event. Right? You you wouldn't walk into a, into a into a networking event and go, hey, list, buy my shit. That's that doesn't happen right. Instead.

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Craig Dean: instead, you you strike up a conversation, you ask questions. You exchange pleasantries, and

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Craig Dean: gradually, if you know how to move a conversation in the right direction.

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Craig Dean: What naturally should happen is that you should.

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Craig Dean: You should be looking for signals in the way they respond. So, for example, if somebody's

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Craig Dean: giving me long answers, like long answers in in messages, and they're really conversational. That's a signal. That's positive. Right. If I see

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Craig Dean: lots of

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Craig Dean: emojis in their in their text that again indicates that they're very friendly type. People

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Craig Dean: that are investing in this kind of online conversation.

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Craig Dean: and it's then just about kind of you you've connected. You're engaging.

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Craig Dean: You are

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Craig Dean: building rapport and nurturing that relationship.

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Craig Dean: but it's only by looking out for the signals. Can you then take it to the next step, which is then to well, you'd start, like to identify potential pain points through through questions, discovery questions that you might ask

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Craig Dean: and then depending on how people respond to those questions, then positions you to be able to then respond in a

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Craig Dean: in a in a way that deals with that pain point, or at least

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Craig Dean: uses the power of suggestion. Well, look, I've got this

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Craig Dean: X, I've got this solution potentially, that could solve that problem

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Craig Dean: and then maybe try and incentivize them to book a call with you.

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Craig Dean: and there's a number of different ways of doing that that. But

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Craig Dean: that's the advice that I give to people like be really conscious of. You know the people that like your content and comment.

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Craig Dean: they're your. They're your fans. They're the people that are.

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Craig Dean: They're your cheerleaders. They're they're kind of behind you right? So look out for those people that are commenting and try to identify.

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Craig Dean: Could I help this person? Is this somebody? Because I don't? When I reach out to somebody. I'm not thinking I'm going to sell them my products and my services, I'm thinking.

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Craig Dean: if I genuinely feel like that's somebody I can help.

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Craig Dean: and and they would benefit from

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Craig Dean: from what I do. Then I'll reach out to them in the Dms. For sure.

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Lis Karin: Yeah.

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Craig Dean: Sorry. That was a long answer to a short question.

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Lis Karin: Yeah, but it was very good. There was very much value in it for for me, for the people that listen.

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Lis Karin: Is it? How important is it to have the the paid version of Linkedin?

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Lis Karin: What do you call? I forgot the name.

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Craig Dean: Yeah, so this premium and this sales navigator.

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Lis Karin: Yeah.

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Craig Dean: There's

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Craig Dean: yeah, there's there's there's a couple of other options as well, which are probably not relevant. But

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Craig Dean: I have sales. Navigator. I've had it for years, and I always get a lot of value from it.

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Craig Dean: But I wouldn't say that it's necessary for everybody. I think, before anybody takes out a sales navigator subscription, for example.

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Craig Dean: that they should absolutely

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Craig Dean: understand how it works. First, st get get a trial of it, and

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Craig Dean: don't just like, have a play around with it for a day. If you're going to take out a 30 day free trial, use it, actually use it for 30 days. Make sure you're planning in time in your calendar to actually get the most out of that platform.

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Craig Dean: There are a lot of

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Craig Dean: good features with things like sales. Navigator, like being able to exclude people that are not active on linkedins by clicking on a filter that says, You know, I only want to focus on people who posted on Linkedin in the last 30 days.

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Craig Dean: because that can that can exclude, let's say, 3 quarters of an audience. Well, if you're doing outreach.

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Craig Dean: for example, to, you know, let's say you've got an audience of 4.5,000 people, and you click that filter and it knocks it down to 1,000 people. There's 3.5,000 people there that you could have otherwise spent a lot of time doing. Outreach to that are never going to get back to you in a million years, because they're not active on Linkedin, right? So so that so that filter in itself is probably makes it worthwhile for me.

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Craig Dean: also the fact that you know you can. You can reach more people. You can send more messages and and so on, and so forth. So, and also the fact that you can save your lead lists and and everything else. So but I'd say, yeah, it's not necessary for everybody.

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Craig Dean: In fact, I think I've always said that probably

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Craig Dean: one of the

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Craig Dean: most underrated features of Standard Linkedin

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Craig Dean: is the search tool, the search bar

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Craig Dean: when you know how to use that search bar and Linkedin standard filters.

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Craig Dean: Well, if you know how to do Boolean Boolean searches, if you don't know what Boolean searches, look it up. B. 00. LEAN. If you don't know how to do Boolean searches, then I I recommend you, you Google, that. But it's but that in itself.

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Craig Dean: and using the filters can really help you identify your your target audience well on Linkedin, and

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Craig Dean: you know I've I've I've shared, shared. I think I shared my little strategy for for comments as well recently right, which is, you know how to save your lists as well, and bookmark your lists of people who who you're going to comment on?

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Craig Dean: So yeah. So it's just about having a

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Craig Dean: it's. It's just about understanding the difference between standard Linkedin and a premium Linkedin. And then making a conscious decision. Do I need the more premium version is that gonna benefit me? If it's not, don't spend the 70 80 quid extra month and if it does, and if let's say you use it for a month, and you, you know I don't know. You get some lots of meetings booked in with you. Icp. Then maybe it would be worth you using it.

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Lis Karin: Yeah, because I have

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Lis Karin: recognized that it's not so easy. You have to know how to work with Linkedin to get. Yeah, the value of it.

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Craig Dean: Yeah.

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Lis Karin: And that's why I mean I am in your community, and I can honestly say that I it has been quite much so. I am, have not been so engaged as I should be, but I went back into the community anyway, because it's for you that listen so so.

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Lis Karin: sheep

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Lis Karin: it's I mean, it's

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Lis Karin: 9,

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Lis Karin: not what it depends on. What currency.

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Craig Dean: 9. Yeah, 9 $9 a month is I always. I always liken it to like buying a coffee and a cake each month. That's the cost of the community. A bit of a spoiler alert for you, though. It's not always going to be $9 a month.

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Lis Karin: You can't have it like that.

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Craig Dean: For for our founding members yourself included.

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Craig Dean: for the lifetime that they stay a founding member like. If you were to leave, then it wouldn't apply. But in in the, in, the, relatively, in the not too distant future, shall we say the price is going to go up?

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Craig Dean: And that's primarily because

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Craig Dean: whilst we want to it to be a vet whilst we want it to be accessible to everybody.

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Craig Dean: We're also mindful that we're giving away a lot of value. And we're spending a lot of time in the community with our community members in. So we're investing a lot of time. And

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Craig Dean: we're going to be share. We're going to be. As I mentioned, we've got some new things coming. That will

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Craig Dean: more than

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Craig Dean: more than justified the price increase.

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Lis Karin: Yeah.

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Craig Dean: But but for anybody that's a member, their price will stay the same. So so they they won't be affected by the the price increase. It will only be new members. Founding members are our founding members, and they'll be

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Craig Dean: they will have that Perk of the the $9 a month price point for sure.

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Lis Karin: That's generous, and it is a thing with with the pricing that

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Lis Karin: when people pay a little bit more, a little bit more.

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Lis Karin: they also

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Lis Karin: become more engaged in it.

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Craig Dean: I think so.

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Craig Dean: yeah, I think if if something's too cheap, then it's kind of take or leave it kind of thing right? And it doesn't matter how much value you give. I think if you don't

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Craig Dean: it, you want the the value that you're giving to feel

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Craig Dean: like it's it's it's it's worthy, you know, and I I think that I think the value we give is definitely worthy of a of of a higher price.

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Craig Dean: But at the same time. Like, I said, it's it's a it's. It's a constant balance between wanting it to be accessible to everybody.

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Craig Dean: versus

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Craig Dean: making sure that it's viable for us to continue, you know. So yeah. But something. Another thing like a a hidden surprise that came from the community, that we were not ready for

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Craig Dean: was that. And this is why I believe that communities are the new social media. Because they're not governed by algorithms. Right? You're able to

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Craig Dean: complete, have complete control over you, not control over the community itself. But you have. You have control over what you can do and what you can't do in that, in that.

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Craig Dean: in that type of environment.

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Craig Dean: so

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Craig Dean: I think, what? What I, what I really love about the community is that

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Craig Dean: we can.

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Craig Dean: We can

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Craig Dean: call the shots. We can take it in whatever direction we want. But the hidden surprise for me was quite simply that

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Craig Dean: even though it was only $9 a month for someone to join.

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Craig Dean: After about 2 months we were. We were promoting it on on Linkedin. Of course we were. We're sending out posts and people, would, you know, creating posts, telling people about the community, and people were joining.

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Craig Dean: and

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Craig Dean: but after months and months and months of promoting it.

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Craig Dean: It got to a point where I was like. Hang on a minute, Imran, like we're spending all this time promoting a a product or our community.

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Craig Dean: and we're only earning $9 a month per person.

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Craig Dean: So

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Craig Dean: after all this time of doing what we're doing, we're only earning just over a thousand dollars a month from that community which is nothing compared to our high ticket priced

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Craig Dean: products and services.

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Craig Dean: So something's got to give. We've either got to increase the price, or we need to just ditch it completely and and move on and try something else.

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Craig Dean: And then all of a sudden, we started to

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Craig Dean: when projects

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Craig Dean: for varying amounts, high ticket

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Craig Dean: projects. You know anything from sort of 5 to 10 K projects.

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Craig Dean: And when I, when I looked at all the people that we were working with around that time.

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Craig Dean: They're all people from the community

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Craig Dean: they were, they were. They were coaches and consultants that joined the community, and I got to a point where they thought, you know what

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Craig Dean: I am. I don't want to do this for myself anymore. I don't want to learn. I just want to get these guys to do it for me, because they know what they're doing, and I don't.

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Craig Dean: They can get me from A to BA lot lot quicker.

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Craig Dean: So

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Craig Dean: and why would I? Why would I go anywhere else? Because I know these guys and I trust them because they've provided me with so much value already.

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Craig Dean: So

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Craig Dean: just at the point where we were about to throw in the towel

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Craig Dean: with the community was the exact point that we discovered that actually we were. We were winning business from the community, and then we and then we got it. We we figured it out. We were like holy shit. The reason with this is working is because

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Craig Dean: these guys they've got to know us. We built the know, like and trust factor with them.

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Craig Dean: And we are the obvious choice

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Craig Dean: to these, to these people when they when they need our services. So so, yeah, so that was a bit of a that was a bit of a a game changer and a realization.

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Lis Karin: Yeah.

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Craig Dean: After about 2 after our 1st sort of 2 months of running the community. Yeah.

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Craig Dean: yeah, so yeah.

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Craig Dean: so, yeah, so I love the community, and it's got it's got loads of potential. So so yeah, so let's see, let's see, see where it goes. I'm looking forward to seeing like you know where and what? Where we'll be in another 6 months from now, for sure.

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Lis Karin: Yeah.

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Lis Karin: thank you so much, Craig, for.

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Craig Dean: For me.

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Lis Karin: Have shared. There's so so much value in so many ways.

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Lis Karin: so and we will for you that listen. You will find Craig's Craig's contact info and the link to the branding community.

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Lis Karin: in in the

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Lis Karin: in. In this episode, when you go in. So thank you for you that have. Listen and see you soon. Bye.

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Craig Dean: Very much, Liz.