Ep. 75 The Stern Truth: Leveraging LinkedIn in Just 15 Minutes with Ashley Leeds

My guest on this episode is Ashley Leeds, known as The 15 Minute Guy, and, wow, just wow. Ashley dropped so many insights about LinkedIn that I could not wait to get this episode out.

Ashley joins me from Devon, England, and he helps founders, entrepreneurs, and business owners get visible on LinkedIn in just 15 minutes a day. Ashley does the math for us all—15 minutes a day, five days a week, over a year adds up to 65 hours on the platform. It's an action that might seem small, but it can have a big effect.

Less than 5% of LinkedIn users create content. That means if you start showing up consistently with posts, you are immediately ahead of 95% of people on the platform. Ashley's advice is to pick a specific day and time, stick to it, and let your audience anchor to you.

We get into the real strategy behind commenting. Ashley recommends commenting on at least 10 posts a day. Not a boring “I agree” but adding a bit of your personality while adding value.

A surprising few tidbits that Ashley also shared: hashtags on LinkedIn are now deprecated, so don’t use them. Your profile photo should be a close-up of your face with a coloured background, because 70% of users are on mobile. Polls are a wildly underused tool, not just for engagement but for gathering real data on your audience and then following up in a personal way.

This episode with Ashley is just non-stop golden nuggets. Grab a pen and paper, tune in, and start thinking about how just 15 intentional minutes a day could transform your visibility.

Connect with Ashley here:

Website: www.just.15mins.day
LinkedIn: @ashley-leeds-15-minute-guy
Take the Free Assessment Here: www.just.15mins.day/score  

Subscribe to The Stern Truth Business Unfiltered so you never miss an episode and receive a FREE GIFT: http://www.thesterntruth.com/

Join my Business Inner Circle Community for free here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/thebusinessinnercirclegroup

Book your complimentary business blindspot assessment with me here: https://attractwell.com/MarshallStern/landing/breakthrough-session

I encourage you to reach out with feedback, topic suggestions, and share your own entrepreneurial challenges.

Get in touch in the comments or head to...
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marshallstern/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarshallDStern
Email: marshall@marshallstern.net

Transcript

[00:00:00] Marshall Stern: My friends, today we have a very special episode. This is actually a bonus episode, so you're getting the Stern Truth Business Unfiltered twice this week. This is not a business Therapy Thursday. This is a bonus Thursday episode. And I'm fast tracking this publishing of this episode because Ashley Leeds is the 15-minute guy.

[00:00:23] When it comes to LinkedIn, you are going to learn some amazing – I actually learned some amazing strategies, tools, and insights about LinkedIn. I had no idea about. It is one of the most, I believe, one of the most underrated, misunderstood social media platforms out there for business owners. So, grab a pad of paper and a pen.

[00:00:43] Listen to Ashley leads from the other side of the pond, as they say on the special bonus episode of the Stern Truth. Enjoy.

[00:00:57] Hi, I'm Marshall Stern and I've spent over 35 years leading and growing multiple small businesses. I know firsthand the struggles of entrepreneurship, feeling isolated, lonely, overwhelmed, and feeling like you have to do it all by yourself. I've been through multiple recessions, and I have felt the highs and the lows.

[00:01:16] I've been there, and I get it. This podcast is here to change that. Every week I will bring you straight talking advice, real world strategies, and honest conversations about what it takes to succeed in business without the fluff, the gimmicks, or the sugar-coated. If you're ready to stop spinning your wheels and start making real progress, then you are in the right place. 

[00:01:40] This is the Stern Truth. 

[00:01:44] Welcome back everyone, to another episode of The Stern Truth Business and Filtered. Alright, I want to introduce everyone to Ashley Leeds, and I want everyone to guess where Ashley's from. Ashley, how are you? 

[00:01:58] Ashley Leeds: So, this is where I do a different accent, isn't it? And really throw all your listeners off.

[00:02:03] So, yeah. Yeah, you should be able to guess where I'm from, from that accent, shouldn't you? 

[00:02:09] Marshall Stern: I think, I think so. Yeah. We'll see. I want people to, I want people to comment how, how are, how's your day going? 

[00:02:14] Ashley Leeds: My day is absolutely fantastic. I've been really busy. I've just, just had a little break, and so when, when you, when you, when you run your own business, it's hard to take time out because you've got loads of things to do before you go and then loads of things when you get back.

[00:02:27] So, I'm just getting back into the swing of things and, and, and then we've got a weekend to look forward to. So, yeah, it's, it's all good. It's all good. Thank you very much. 

[00:02:35] Marshall Stern: Right. Nice. If you had said it's all brilliant, then everyone would know, okay. I know where he is from. 

[00:02:39] Ashley Leeds: Yeah, right, of course. Yeah.

[00:02:41] Marshall Stern: Okay. But I think the accent gives it away. Okay. So, where are you from? Where are you from? And, and what do you do? 

[00:02:48] Ashley Leeds: So, I live in the west country of Devon, so I've got a little bit of a, a west country twang. So, I've always lived down in, in where, where it's not so busy and I, I now live by the coast. I'm a 10 minute walk from the sea, so as soon as I finish there, it's going to go and just chill out by the sea.

[00:03:05] And that's a little place called Devon. And, yeah, so I am the 15-Minute guy and so I help people stand out and get visible with LinkedIn 

[00:03:15] Marshall Stern: In 15 minutes. 

[00:03:17] Ashley Leeds: In 15 minutes. A day. 

[00:03:18] Marshall Stern: A day, okay.

[00:03:19] Ashley Leeds: And this is, this is the thing, Marshall, you know, when, you know, when we book a meeting in, you know, our, our, our calendar of choice, it defaults to an hour or half an hour and you, you come on, you have a meeting with somebody and because you've got half an hour or an hour to fill, you just talk about the weather or the game last night or, or, or stuff like that.

[00:03:41] When it was busy during COVID, so many people wanted to talk to me, so I cut it down to 15 minutes and nobody turned around to me and said, Why are you only giving me 15 minutes? They was like, wow. He's respecting my time, he's respecting his time. Let's go in, let's get the, the job done. And in 15 minutes we were sorted.

[00:03:59] And so when I started training people on LinkedIn, I started doing exactly the same. And if you go in with purpose, you can get it done in 15 minutes. But here's the thing, Marshall, 15 minutes, five days a week over a year, allowing some time for holidays. You are doing 65 hours on LinkedIn. That's the thing.

[00:04:17] 65 hours adds up to an awful lot over the year, and it's all about the consistency. 

[00:04:23] Marshall Stern: Yeah. You know, it's interesting because I always talk to my clients about being cons, consistency and just, just a little bit. Just, just the 1%. Just a little bit. Which is, it's basically the same thing, but people don't realize there's also a compounding effect.

[00:04:37] People don't realize that over, I mean, when you see the mass 65 hours, that's, that is brilliant. 

[00:04:43] Ashley Leeds: Yeah. 

[00:04:43] Marshall Stern: But so how, how do we, what do you, before we get into the whole 15 minute part and, and what you specifically do. I guess it's all part of it. What, what do you see? Like, LinkedIn, I always say I have sort of this, this love hate-relationship with LinkedIn, and I think a lot of entrepreneurs do just because there's so much, so, so many, you know, salespeople, everybody wants business.

[00:05:05] Everyone's on LinkedIn reaching out and, you know, in-mailing and connecting and where's the power? How do you think people are not, how do you think people are misusing LinkedIn? 

[00:05:15] Ashley Leeds: Okay. Great question. What I -when I, when I teach LinkedIn to people. The first thing I say to them is, do you go networking?

[00:05:23] So in real life networking, I don’t know if you have BNI over there, but, you know, there's, there's, there's lunches and there's breakfasts and there's evenings and things that you can go to. There's, there's all, you know, if you type into Google networking events in my area and you'll, you'll get a few.

[00:05:39] We go to a networking event, we show up as ourselves. We may or may not take a business card with us, but we'll go and talk to other business owners. Hi Marshall, how are you? And you're like, you're soaking wet. I'm like, oh, is it still raining? Did you find anywhere to park? And we chat about other things other than our business.

[00:05:56] And you know, you're sort of like, is that an English accent? Where are you from? And we start chatting and they're like, you're, you're Canadian, and you, and, and we, we sort of like have those little chats, right? That's just human stuff. That's what humans do. That's how we've evolved.

[00:06:08] We like stories, we like being friendly, we like connecting with people. Also, at that event, I might turn around and say, oh, you know, I'm really struggling with my business at the moment, and oh, you can help me with this, you know, and, and, and you know, maybe we grab a coffee somewhere. Or maybe not does it matter, but while we're also there, I might turn around and go, you need to speak to Sally.

[00:06:28] She, she does websites and so you have a little chat with Sally and we we're just having these conversations with nice people. You go to a networking event, you spend a bit of time there, and then you go home. If you do LinkedIn exactly the same way. So, you come on, you say hello to Marshall, you say hello to Sally.

[00:06:46] You add a little bit of your personality with a comment or a post. People start seeing you showing up, and then when they start seeing you showing up more regularly, they get to know you. Then they get to like you. And then once all that's built up, they start to trust you. And then when they need somebody to help them with whatever it is you do, because they've been so used to seeing you, adding value, being there, being consistent, they go, that guy does LinkedIn.

[00:07:11] Let's give him a shout. This guy does business coaching. Let's give him a shout. Sally does websites. Let's, let's give her a shout. And, and, and that's, that's what we do. We don't go on and bombard people with messages because that's like going up to somebody at a networking meeting. It's all like, this is my, this is my business card.

[00:07:29] I do LinkedIn. Here you go. Here you go. Have that. I'm the best at LinkedIn. If you did that in networking event, you'd find an arch, arch around you because nobody would want be near you. And, but that's what people are doing on LinkedIn. But if you just act like you would a networking event. Then you are winning.

[00:07:45] Marshall Stern: Okay, so you've kind of answered the question, because so many people are doing that. Not, not doing what you're like, they are just like, it's the old, I don't know if you've ever seen it, the Saturday Night Live skit, back, and this is probably like 20 years ago, the business card, like bam. Right? It's sort of, everyone's just in your face.

[00:08:01] This is, you know, like, and ever since, I don't know if you've received this as well. I'm sure you like, ever since I started my podcast, which has been over a year now, I'm bombarded. My inbox in, in LinkedIn, my inbox and my email with people just, I can help you get, you know, for the YouTube channel or the podcast or whatever.

[00:08:21] I can just help you this, I can help you that. And it's like, okay, hi, who are you? How do you know I even want help? Or need help, right? So, it's all about them. So, where's the, where's the secret on LinkedIn? Where, what's the power of LinkedIn? Because you have, you have, we spoke about this before and I'm not the first one to say this.

[00:08:43] Like you have the perfect last name, like I have like the Stern Truth podcast using my last name. But you're the leads guy because that's what really we're talking about. 

[00:08:52] Ashley Leeds: Yeah, absolutely. And, and, and, yeah. Good, good, good point. Yeah, we do want leads, but, but what we're doing on LinkedIn, we're building trust.

[00:09:02] And we're getting people to know who we are. We're building our presence, we're building our personal brand, and so all the other stuff comes off the back of that. As long as we remind people, that's what we do, then the business does come. And, you know, people are sort of like, I've been watching you for ages, you know, I've been following you.

[00:09:23] I've, I've, I'm doing, I, I, I'm starting a brand-new training course this evening. It's, it's, it's sold out oversubscribed, so, so nobody else can join. But I've put on LinkedIn today that I'm celebrating five years in business. Someone else put on there that they are as well, and they've been following me for the whole of my business.

[00:09:41] They're coming on my training course today, five years. It's taken them to, to, to become a client. But every time I've been on LinkedIn, they're just going, that's the guy for me when I'm ready. That's the guy for me. I trust him. That's the guy for me. 

[00:09:56] Marshall Stern: Yeah. 

[00:09:57] Ashley Leeds: Yeah. And some people meet me for the first time and go, yeah, let's do this.

[00:09:59] I really need to do this. And other people, they've just been following me forever because they, they, they, they know who I am. And you know, they, they'll, they'll, you know, they'll turn, they'll turn around to other people. You need to go and follow this guy because he knows quite a bit. And if you are, you know, an accountant and you are sharing information about QuickBooks.

[00:10:18] Then I'm going to start recommending you to people, you know, oh, use QuickBooks. Do you? I follow this guy on LinkedIn. 

[00:10:24] You know, it's, and it's just those, just those little things. And it's like going to a networking event every single day, worldwide. I'm not just doing it in Devon, I am going worldwide.

[00:10:36] And so if someone writes a post and I go and comment on it, it's like, I've just popped up in another networking event. Hi, it's me. And, and that's all we're doing. And you don't, you don't go on and write, that's a good post. You go on and add a little bit of your value. Yeah, a little bit of your personality.

[00:10:53] Brilliant idea. I totally get that. But have you ever thought of this, this, and this, or you, you know, and so I love using emojis because then I can be a little bit cheeky without being rude. So, the one I use the most is the smiley face with the tears coming out because I, I'd like to be a little bit funny, a little bit cheeky.

[00:11:12] But sometimes if you actually write that down, that looks a bit condescending, rude, or what have you. But if I put the little thing there, say, oh, oh, it's just Ash being Ash. and, and so that's, that's my personality. 

[00:11:22] Marshall Stern: Right. So, okay. I know you're not going to give away the whole secret sauce because, and we're going to talk about like what you have to offer, your programs, how people can work with you and all of that.

[00:11:32] Because I do think LinkedIn is one of the most, and you're probably going to agree with me, I'm on this misused, powerful tools out there. There's just like everything else, there's so much information on how to use LinkedIn and there's all these like LinkedIn experts. Same thing with just social media generally and posting and, and blogging and everything, and YouTube or video content generally.

[00:11:55] So, I've been told go into LinkedIn. So I'm curious, this is a question for you. I, I'm, I'm picking your brain now. 

[00:12:01] Ashley Leeds: You carry, you carry on and I, I, I, okay. Look, I'm, I've not got secret sauce. 

[00:12:06] Marshall Stern: Yeah. 

[00:12:06] Ashley Leeds: I've just got experience and I'm happy to share, you know, you ask me anything. There's no boundaries. 

[00:12:10] Marshall Stern: So, people have told me go into LinkedIn every single day.

[00:12:13] You are allowed up to 100 connection requests a month, a week, sorry, a week. It's 400 a month, so go in, 20, 20 connection requests a day. Just find out who you want to by industry or by title or whatever. Just connect. No message. Just connect, connect, connect, connect. It's a game of numbers. What do you say to that?

[00:12:33] Ashley Leeds: I call BS. Okay. It's not, it's not a game of numbers. It's a game of it's, so you are, you are, you are saying, or, or whoever told you that it's a game of quantity. Right. It's not a game of quantity. It's a game of quality. Okay, now I subscribe to this guy that creates a list every single month and every single month he has people who've got the most followers in the month.

[00:13:03] Okay? There's people on there doing 1500 new followers in a month. Okay? That's not organic. They're reaching out. Okay? Now, if I reach out to connect with 500 people in one month. How many of those people are going to go, oh, it's Ashley, how nice that is. I'm going to connect with him and how many other people are going, oh, it's just another connection.

[00:13:27] So, that's okay. I connect. I connect, alright. And the people that go, oh, it's Ashley. When I write a post, they're going, oh, I like that. And, and they're interested. Everyone else is going. All right. And so I don't reach out and connect with people. They connect with me, and because they're connecting with me, they obviously want to see what I'm doing.

[00:13:48] They want to get engaged, they want to learn from me, read my content. So, my content gets an awful lot of engagement compared to people who've got thousands and thousands of followers because they've just gone connect, connect, connect, connect, connect, connect, connect, connect. 

[00:14:01] Marshall Stern: Okay. So, is it, is this the – you don't have secret sauce, is the power then in –

[00:14:07] I've also been told the other, the opposite, not the opposite, but to go in, and you talked a little bit about this earlier to people's posts and, like, comment, exact, not just like, or whatever you do or support, but I, and not just say a hundred percent agree because then it's like, are you reading it And you have to be careful because if you're agreeing with something you don't even agree with, so commenting and engaging with them that way on their posts.

[00:14:32] And then that between that and your own posts being consistent. Every single day. 

[00:14:36] Ashley Leeds: Every single day.

[00:14:37] Marshall Stern: Or every, every second day. 

[00:14:38] Ashley Leeds: Go in every single day. I suggest you comment at least 10 times a day. So, that's 10, 10 different posts. Okay. 

[00:14:47] Marshall Stern: Okay. 

[00:14:47] Ashley Leeds: So, I saw a post today friend of mine. She was at a business show.

[00:14:52] She is a photographer, and she spent the whole day doing head shots. at this business show, she took 60 headshots and she put all of those, one of each person into a fast flowing video. So, you now seeing all these different people popping up, alright. It looks really good. It's fun. It's a showcase for her work, but it also shows what a great day she had and all the different people she met and stuff like that.

[00:15:18] So, it's a great bit of content and she's got about 20 comments on there and a few likes and stuff like that. I went on and commented on that and I said something along the lines of, oh my goodness, I missed you. I'm coming to your stand next, next year. I could have so enjoyed, you know, I, I, I think, I think she started off saying, most people say they don't like having the photo taken.

[00:15:37] And I, and I went, I love having my photo taken in capital letters. And then the next line. Obvs. Yeah, that's totally my personality. Those people that she took a photo of who I'm not connected to, are going to see that comment and they're going to go, oh, this guy looks fun, and they click on my, they click on my name and go and look at my profile and probably follow me or connect with me.

[00:15:58] Yeah. I've given my friend a little bit of a shout out because if you get comments on your post, then that helps reach your, get your post more reached. So, she's feeling happy that I've done that.  and I feel good doing it. So it's a win-win. And, and, and, and I'm behaving to, to, to Lucy how I would in real life.

[00:16:18] And I see if I see her at a show, hi Lucy, how you doing? And, you know, give her a hug and all that sort of thing. I'm not there with my business cards and she still haven't done that LinkedIn training course. We talked about, you know, when are you going to buy my services? And she's not going to turn around to me and go, when are you going to have a photo Ash?

[00:16:35] Alright. That's just the way it is. But the thing is, I'm now talking about her. So, you know that, that's great.  but, but you know, if, if someone turns around to me, I need a, I need a headshot. I need to go to Lucy. She's brilliant. Yeah. Because I see her popping up and vice versa. Why do I go for LinkedIn?

[00:16:53] Oh, go and have a chat with Ash. And so if you're, if you're showing up regularly, all right, so if you're go into BNI. Yeah. And you are at BNI and in your chapter there's a, you know, a butcher, a baker, a candlestick maker, you are somewhere else and you turn around and go, wow, I know this great candlestick maker.

[00:17:08] And then you bring that in introduction in next week. It's just the same, but you don't have to get dressed and you don't have to get up stupid early and eat and eat a really, a really sad breakfast. 

[00:17:20] Marshall Stern: I did, I, I did the lunch run. I couldn't do the breakfast, so I had to get my kids to school. So, I did the lunch run and it wasn't so bad.

[00:17:26] But, yeah, no, I agree. I mean, there's nothing wrong with BNI, BNI has its place. But it's, it is a lot of work that's on a different story, different point. 

[00:17:34] Ashley Leeds: No, but, but, but it is the same story because if you use LinkedIn like networking, it is exactly the same. 

[00:17:40] Marshall Stern: Yeah. 

[00:17:40] Ashley Leeds: I've, I've got a friend that goes to a local BNI and he lives a good hour and a half away, and it's a 6:30 start.

[00:17:49] Marshall Stern: Yeah, 

[00:17:49] Ashley Leeds: So, so that that guy's day is wiped out on a Wednesday. 

[00:17:53] Marshall Stern: Yeah. Yeah. Plus expense. I mean, you're talking about now like five hours or six hours of his day. Plus the cost of the breakfast. Plus, the cost of the gas. Unless he has electric vehicle. Right. 

[00:18:05] Ashley Leeds: And the membership. 

[00:18:06] Marshall Stern: And the membership. And in six hours, what can you do in six hours?

[00:18:09] Ashley Leeds: On LinkedIn?

[00:18:10] Marshall Stern: On LinkedIn? On LinkedIn. Six hours. 

[00:18:12] Ashley Leeds: Six hours, my goodness. You could do so much in six hours on LinkedIn, Marshall. 

[00:18:16] Marshall Stern: Yeah. Yeah. Plus there's the, the pressure of now having to give referrals. 

[00:18:21] Ashley Leeds: Yeah, yeah. 

[00:18:22] Marshall Stern: Right. Which is, which is another thing. Okay. So, we, you've already given so much, but we love golden nuggets on, on this podcast.

[00:18:29] That's, my father used to call it golden nuggets. Take golden nuggets. So, we like to give our, our listeners golden nuggets on different tools, strategies of how they can help their business. What would you say would be maybe your top two? Or three. Okay. 

[00:18:44] Ashley Leeds: Well, I know, I know that you like people to get their pad and paper out and write some notes.

[00:18:48] Marshall Stern: Oh, you've listened. All right. 

[00:18:49] Ashley Leeds: So, here's a few things that you could be writing down, dear listener. The first thing you need to write down is less than 5% of people create content on LinkedIn. because what happens is we go on LinkedIn and all this content, no one's going to want to hear from me. That's rubbish.

[00:19:06] People aren't creating content. So, if you start creating content, do the maths, you are better than 95% of people on the platform. 

[00:19:13] Marshall Stern: Wow. 

[00:19:14] Ashley Leeds: How cool's that? 

[00:19:15] Marshall Stern: Yeah. 

[00:19:16] Ashley Leeds: And if you start a little regular thing, so a, a, a post on a, on a specific day of the week, then it's not going to take you long to start building up that momentum and the reason for doing a specific day per week.

[00:19:33] Alright, so I'm trying to come up with something for, for you. You, you, you could do Marshall's Monday. 

[00:19:40] Marshall Stern: So, you're talking about like themes, like a Monday's a theme, Tuesday's the theme like – 

[00:19:43] Ashley Leeds: Absolutely, absolutely. Marshall Monday. So, every single Monday we get the stern truth from Marshall. Alright, this is what you should be doing this week.

[00:19:52] To move the needle 1%. Alright, so every single Monday at 8:00 AM, 10:00 AM, four o'clock, it really doesn't matter, but at the same time, same day, every single week, we're getting this from Marshall. Alright? 

[00:20:05] Marshall Stern: That, okay, so on, on that. No, I love that. Okay, so on that you said doesn't matter if 8:00 AM, 12, does it matter?

[00:20:12] Does it really matter with the algorithms? I know people say social media, there's like different times throughout the day where it's doesn't matter or you just pick a time and try to be consistent on that time. 

[00:20:24] Ashley Leeds: Absolutely. As, as a story that I used to tell about a TV show, the Great British Bake Off, I don’t know if you have it in,  in, in Canada. 

[00:20:34] Marshall Stern: I think, I think so. 

[00:20:35] Ashley Leeds: Yeah. So, so basically you get these,15 people that, that baked cakes and you put them in the tent and it, it, it was, it was a big hit. They, it was, I think it was the BBC. And you could just imagine they must have had lots of different meetings of when they were going to put this show out. So, they've probably got this room and there's probably 10 execs in this room.

[00:20:56] Like, oh, we think it's going to be, Tuesdays at, at, at three o'clock. And no, no, no, no, no. Saturdays is the best day for a show like this, and we've got all this data to do all of this. And, you know, and, and eventually after 17 meetings, they prob they, they hit on Tuesdays at 8:00 PM. The show was great.

[00:21:15] Whether it was Tuesdays at 8:00 PM or Sundays at 4:00 PM or what have you, people would've found it and, and, and got there. They then sold the rights to that TV show to Channel Gour. Did Channel Gour have a meeting to work out the best time? No, they didn't. They put it on at eight o'clock on a on a Tuesday because that's where we've all anchored the Great British Bake off.

[00:21:38] So, if Marshall wants to do his post on a Monday at eight o'clock because that suits him, then that is the time we do it. Alright? And people will start gravitating to it. Now, don't go doing a post – so, so you, you go to bed. Let's just say you go to bed at 10 o'clock, don't do a post at 10 o'clock before you go to bed because you can't interact with it.

[00:21:56] Most people are probably going to bed at the same time. So, but, but pick a time that suits you. You said you couldn't go to BNI because you got your kids. Well, if your kids are getting in the way in the morning, then do your post a little bit later in the morning and then you are there to, to, to nurture it.

[00:22:12] Because if I go and comment on your post and you don't comment back, that's damaging your reach. So don't, don't do your post and then disappear. Hang around. So, you've got to find the time that suits you. And there's lots of people out there saying, oh, we've do load of testing and this is the best time to post.

[00:22:28] That's the best day to post. It's only for their data. It's only for their data. It's your data, it's your network, it's how you write what you do. Only you can test that. So you tell me what the best time is. 

[00:22:42] Marshall Stern: Okay. So consistent time. Love that. Okay. What else you got for, for us? 

[00:22:50] Ashley Leeds: Wait, so, so we've written down the less than 5% of people create content.

[00:22:53] Alright. And if you do something on a regular basis. Okay. 

[00:22:57] Marshall Stern: Yep. 

[00:22:58] Ashley Leeds: Then you start what, what? What actually happens, right, with your coaching, you probably know about the RAS, the Reticular Activation System. 

[00:23:06] Yeah. Basically, what, what happens is, is our brains have got like 40, 50,000 bits of information coming at them every day, and the brain takes shortcuts.

[00:23:15] But if you start turning around to your brain and saying, right, I'm going to do this on a Tuesday, that on a Wednesday, your brain will start thinking of those ideas. Okay. I, I work a lot with accountants and so I'd say to them, do a tax tip Tuesday. And so, if you do a tax tip Tuesday, you're like, alright, okay, maybe I can write about corporation tax and law 10329.

[00:23:38] So, they write that on Tuesday, but because they're thinking about tax tips. Their reticular activation system is thinking about Tax Tip Tuesday, and you'll see something when they're going out. They get a receipt, re receipt when they buy a coffee or something, it says VAT on it. Oh, I could do that.

[00:23:56] I'll save up a couple of receipts. And then by the time they get to next Tuesday, they've probably got two ideas and then they keeps going on and they've probably got three ideas the following, choosing before they'd know it, they've probably got 10, 15 ideas. For Tax Tip Tuesday. And so, you know, it's like when I break that down, actually there's three here for VAT, so I could do VAT on a Friday.

[00:24:14] Does that make sense? People turn around to me. Oh, I don't really don’t know what to write about the top tip here. I love this one. I love this one. Get your phone. Alright, so do please do this now. Please do this now. Get your phone and open up your photo reel. Okay. And just scroll through your photos.

[00:24:34] Okay. There's one here, right? This I – I, I’ve just come back from Malta. This is a tuna steak. It was incredible. I might use that one day. 

[00:24:46] Marshall Stern: Right. 

[00:24:46] Ashley Leeds: Okay. But I'm out and about and I see things. I'm like, oh, that's interesting. And I take a photo. Why is, why is that doing that? And I'll take a photo. And then one day I was like, oh, I don’t know what to write about today.

[00:24:56] Scroll through my photos, find something, put it up. And there you go. So, it, it doesn't, I, I don't talk about LinkedIn and, and branding every single post that I do, I talk about all kinds of things. 

[00:25:07] Marshall Stern: Interesting. Yeah, I can see that. Because, and I do my themes, I do my, have my theme day. So, I love that you said that because it sort of just confirms, okay.

[00:25:17] I, I'm doing part of it. Right. And I'll be out in a store because I, because of the reticular activating system, I, I didn't even think of it that way. I know I, I do posts different, like on mindset. I do Tuesday Tip. The Stern Truth is on Wednesday, although everything's the Stern Truth. Some of them were disguised, and I'll see like one of those photo, those, you know, in the, in the home, home decor stores.

[00:25:44] Okay. And I've done this and I've gotten great traction with posts and I'll see like a picture that'll be a motivate. You know, they sell pictures, like frames and they'll have like stuff, you know, quotes in it or something. I'll see something that is inspirational because I guess because it's the RAS I'm thinking that it's like, okay, I'm going to take a picture of that.

[00:26:04] And sometimes I'll actually post it. Like, I'll just do it, I'll post it and other times I'll wait till my scheduled time, which is probably the best thing to do. But I'll post it and whatever the, the,  you know, the text port part is I'll, I'll, I'll use, but it's the image, right. So I do have a question on that.

[00:26:20] Before we go on, because there's all this talk about static posts on social media reels, video. For you, do you think there's a – should you mix it up? Is it one or the other? LinkedIn Lives? 

[00:26:32] Ashley Leeds: Mix, mix it up because? Because then, then you start, we start seeing different things. Okay. Because? Because the thing is like, oh, I don't like doing video.

[00:26:41] But there's a lot of people that like watching videos. I don’t know if you've heard of a channel called YouTube. People love watching videos because there's so many videos there. Alright. They wouldn't produce videos if people didn't like to watch videos. So, just because you don't like watching videos doesn't mean that other people don't.

[00:26:57] Now, the beauty about video and, and, and this is why I love doing these, these, these shows and, and stuff like that. Someone who's watching this right now are going to be seeing you and me for 30, 40, 50 minutes. It depends on how long we go, but they're going to get us for a long time. 

[00:27:15] Okay. This could be cut into short so we could use little bits and what have you, but they're actually interacting with us.

[00:27:21] They're starting to see us hear our mannerisms and, and our personality and stuff like that. Whereas a photo is just a static photo, but if we mix it up. We're getting everybody. Some people like long content. So, there's an article or, or, or a newsletter. Some people like a short video, so that's the LinkedIn video.

[00:27:40] Some people like a live or a podcast. Then they've got LinkedIn lives. Some people like lots of paper, lots of pages. So, you could do a document post. So, if you keep switching it up and, and the poll is another great fun thing to do because it's easy to engage with, but it's also very good to get a little insight into what your connections are doing.

[00:28:03] Once you've done a poll, you can go into the analytics of the poll and you can list everybody that voted for X, Y, Z. So, for example, I might be A-A-A-B-C and I'm not right. I want to know what software business owners are using. Are you using QuickBooks? Are you using Sage?

[00:28:25] Are you using Zero or, and the other option would be other, please comment, or you could put spreadsheet in there. So, you've got four options. But always put other police comment because everybody has an opinion on LinkedIn. What you can do is after the event, so a week later you can go in, alright? And if you are a, if you are a Xero expert and you've got a load of people that is, that, that prefer Xero and, and spreadsheets, you look at all of those names and say, Hey, thanks ever so much for commenting on my post or voting on my posts.

[00:28:54] I see that you are into Xero. I love Xero. Here's a little insight that I've done on Xero. And you know, here you go. That's, you know, something nice to give. I see you use a spreadsheet. Have you ever thought about Xero, his three things that you should be thinking? His three things that Xero does over a spreadsheet and all from a little post, but it's given you a lot more insights.

[00:29:17] And when you message that person and say, thank you for voting, it's not cold. They voted. They know that when they vote, their name goes somewhere, so it's not a bolt out of the blue. And if you are giving something of value, it's like, oh. That Marshakl's a really nice guy. And so yeah, it's another, and it's another way to, to, you know, gather a little bit of data, do a bit of good work, have a bit of fun.

[00:29:41] Marshall Stern: I love that. Yeah, I don't know if I've ever done a, a poll on LinkedIn. But I'm seeing them more. I am seeing – 

[00:29:49] Ashley Leeds: Give, give it, give it a go. Give it a go.

[00:29:50] Marshall Stern: I, I've seen, I've seen them more and more. I know I've done polls in Facebook groups than I that I've, that I'm in. Okay.

[00:29:57] Ashley Leeds: So, here's, here's one, here's one for you, Marshall.

[00:29:59] Marshall Stern: Yeah. 

[00:29:59] Ashley Leeds: Who do you seek advice from? Alright. Partner, coach, mentor, other. Please comment, see what happens. See what happens. 

[00:30:11] Marshall Stern: I might just have to do that. 

[00:30:12] Ashley Leeds: Yeah. 

[00:30:13] Marshall Stern: Yeah. You're going to see that. I'm making a note of that. I've got my own pad of paper and pen. 

[00:30:18] Ashley Leeds: Well, it's the law. I mean, listen to the Stern Truth.

[00:30:21] Marshall Stern: Listen to the, that is the Stern Truth. Okay. I want to hear, okay, before we go today, this is a big one. I would like to hear your stern truth on the utilization of AI on LinkedIn. 

[00:30:35] Ashley Leeds: Okay? Okay. It's a good one. This one, Yeah. Use it for everything that you do on LinkedIn. Because you don't want to be yourself.

[00:30:44] I was being ironic. 

[00:30:45] Marshall Stern: Right? Yeah. 

[00:30:46] Ashley Leeds: Okay. It's like throw, throw the AI away and be your natural self. Okay. I, I did a bit of filming a while back with this, with this guy. We're connected on LinkedIn. We've spoken a few times. I've brought up with him at events and events. It is really busy, so it's just like a quick.

[00:31:06] Two or three minute chat, and I did some filming with him. And before we, when we got to the venue, there was the, the cameramen and the audio team, they were setting it all up. So, we sat outside by the fire and, and had a, had a cup of tea together and we were chatting and what have you. And he turned around to me, he says, oh, I've been following you on LinkedIn actually, and you are just in real life like you are on LinkedIn.

[00:31:27] I mean, yeah, that's, that's the thing. That's how we have to be. And, and so if you start using ai. It's going to polish some of those blemishes, it's going to smooth over some of those cracks, and we need to be 100% authentic. You know, and, and now, and again, I get someone hammering the keyboard. because you've spout something wrong.

[00:31:49] Hey, I'm only human. Yeah. 

[00:31:53] Marshall Stern: My, my wife does that. She'll text me during the day. You have a typo in your post. It's like, yeah. 

[00:31:59] Ashley Leeds: Yeah. Yeah. I'm, I'm real. It's life. It's life. Yeah. As long as it's not a typo, that's really, really bad. Yeah. But, but yeah.  look, there's nothing wrong with using AI to help ideate some, some, some content ideas.

[00:32:12] Right. 

[00:32:13] Marshall Stern: Okay. 

[00:32:13] Ashley Leeds: There's nothing wrong to start writing a post and say, oh, could you help me with this? Or, what do you think about that? Should I, you know, what should I put this in? But please go through it and take out all the AI-ness out of it. You know, we see some – there's some words that AI uses that I would never, ever use.

[00:32:32] Marshall Stern: Well, and they do the, and ChatGPT does the dash, the hype, the whatever it's called. 

[00:32:38] Ashley Leeds: The em-dash.

[00:32:39] Marshall Stern: The em-dash, the em-dash, which you can automatically take out, but still, you can see, you can pretty much see. Okay. But with, with, with ai, because I'm, you can see what's AI usually. 

[00:32:49] Ashley Leeds: Yeah, you can, determine – 

[00:32:50] Marshall Stern: Right?

[00:32:51] Although, funny story, and I posted about it and I got great traction from it just last week or two weeks ago now, someone in one of my Facebook groups posted claiming that my post, she said, while, while I, I appreciate I've talked about this on the last podcast here, while I appreciate your viewpoint or post or whatever.

[00:33:11] This screams AI. Now the ironic thing is, and it was under some fake handle name. The ironic thing is, because it's my Facebook group, I could see who it really was, and she's a digital marketer. So, my response back was simply, while I have used AI in the past as a tool. This was 100% me. The backlash against this person from everyone else was t was tremendous.

[00:33:36] And she eventually deleted it because everyone was saying, who cares what he's doing? Like really in the end, like, why are you calling about, who cares? So, I reposted about this whole situation and I got like in my own words. And then at the bottom I said, by the way, this is, this is not, this is a hundred percent not ai.

[00:33:55] This is Marshall. But the, and it was an authentic post. Again, it was tremendous, the comments, the engagement, but on both sides. Some people said they would never use ai, right? And then, but majority of people are like, again, who cares? 

[00:34:11] Ashley Leeds: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's, it's, it's, at the end of the day it is a tool.

[00:34:14] Marshall Stern: It's a tool. 

[00:34:15] Ashley Leeds: Yeah. Why, why not use it? It's like, it's like, getting somebody out to, I don’t know, put some shelves up in, in, in my, in my, in my house and they get their screwdriver out and they do that. Why aren't you using an electric screwdriver? 

[00:34:30] Marshall Stern: Oh, I should have done that. You're right. Yeah.  okay. I have a question on LinkedIn.

[00:34:37] Another question on LinkedIn. Snd this is regards a AI as well, because I'm seeing more and more and more. How do you feel about long format versus short format? 

[00:34:48] Ashley Leeds: I, I love this question as well. I, I get it all the time. I look at my bookcase, okay. I got some thin books and some thick books. I read them all.

[00:34:58] I don't sort like go, oh, I'm not going to read that. because it looks really thick. 

[00:35:01] Oh, look at that, that, that, you know, that, that, that's, you know, that's great for a two-week holiday or whatever, you know.  and, and, and, and the same with short and long, short, I can't even say it long and short form video, 

[00:35:13] Marshall Stern: Right?

[00:35:13] Ashley Leeds: The, the, the, you know, the, the content should be as long as it needs to be to get that point over. Okay, so we've got a short attention span. No, because if we've got a short attention span, no one would go to the movies. No one would, Oppenheimer was like a big, big movie, right? It was a really long movie.

[00:35:34] No one would go, but they do. We've got a short attention span. Then why are they watching X number of episodes and seasons of shows on Netflix? So, you, you, you know, you some of these things. I'm, I, I don't watch an awful lot, but I, I, I'm trying to think of a big show that's been recently. Is it Stranger Things?

[00:35:56] And that was, was quite, that was quite a number of seasons and, you know, but if we've got short attention span, they wouldn't have made season two or three or four or what have you. You know, and we're all, we're all looking forward to the next reacher. And, and so, so don't fill it with fluff to fill it out, but if you've got something to say and it's going to take you 10 words instead of five words, then use 10 words.

[00:36:21] But if you can do it in five, do it in five. 

[00:36:24] Marshall Stern: Yeah. 

[00:36:25] Ashley Leeds: You know, you don't, you don't, you know, when you buy a book, you know what, why have they put that in? And Oh, just to make it a look thicker, there's no point. 

[00:36:33] Marshall Stern: Okay. I do, I, I lied. I have one more question. 

[00:36:36] Ashley Leeds: That's right. This is why's 

[00:36:37] Marshall Stern: Right. This is why – 

[00:36:38] Ashley Leeds: This is the trouble with LinkedIn, right?

[00:36:40] Because it's like, oh, hang on. Oh, I need to ask this a few times. And it's a good job. We're not live because we'd have other people coming in saying, oh, what have this? 

[00:36:47] Marshall Stern: Oh, I know. 

[00:36:48] I know. And you know what? Honestly, like everyone's Instagram, Facebook, I don't even want to talk about TikTok.  It has its place and everyone kind of knows what it's for.

[00:37:01] I still think LinkedIn's one of the most un misunderstood and mis misused platforms. 

[00:37:06] Ashley Leeds: Yeah. 

[00:37:07] Marshall Stern: Noo, I forgot my point. Got it. Back hashtags. 

[00:37:11] Ashley Leeds: Yeah. Wasted time. 

[00:37:12] Marshall Stern: Okay. Tell me more. 

[00:37:13] Ashley Leeds: Well, so, so LinkedIn did use them. Now they, they, they, they, they don't use them at all 

[00:37:18] Marshall Stern: Really? 

[00:37:19] Ashley Leeds: I think. I think. Yeah. The term they use is deprecated.

[00:37:21] Alright. And it's been like that for about 12 months. So, so it's, and, and, and again, this is, this is the, the cool thing. If you notice Instagram have gone that way as well. It used to be 30, now it's only five I think. I'm not on Instagram yet.

[00:37:36] Marshall Stern: I, I just, I, I just noticed that. Yes. 

[00:37:38] Ashley Leeds: Yeah. So, there's got to be something in it and, because you, you can tell if someone's come from Instagram, so, so they've, they've gone to a talk,  about using social media and they, they, they're always on Instagram and they're always using, you know, doing reels and all that sort of LA and the 30 hashtags.

[00:37:56] I said, oh, oh, try it on LinkedIn. It's 30 hashtags on LinkedIn. Like, oh, I know where you've come from. Right. So, yeah, don't, don't bother, don't, don't waste your time using hashtags. They, they don't do anything. 

[00:38:09] Marshall Stern: Hmm. Well, I had, I had no idea. 

[00:38:12] Ashley Leeds: The only, the only benefit if you wanted to is every single post that you do put hashtag the Stern Truth, and then you, you know, you'll always be able to find your content, but no one's going to follow it.

[00:38:24] They, they used to be able to follow, hashtags, but you can't follow them anymore either. So, yeah, I can go into search and, and find the Stern Truth. 

[00:38:34] Marshall Stern Right, right. 

[00:38:34] Ashley Leeds: Or the 15-minute guy. But I haven't put a hashtag on any of my posts for – all donkey shit.  

[00:38:41] Marshall Stern: Wow. Okay. Okay. Before we go, one final. Well, also – 

[00:38:47] Ashley Leeds: You said that for the last few questions!

[00:38:48] Marshall Stern: Because it's, it's such a hot topic.

[00:38:51] It really is.

[00:38:51] Ashley Leeds: It is, it is. And I love it. I love it. And, and, and I prefer this than, than other chats because I, I, I love the difficult questions. 

[00:39:00] Marshall Stern: Yeah. 

[00:39:00] Ashley Leeds: Because it's also given me an insight as to what other people are struggling in. And, and when I do my training, like, like this session tonight, the first thing I'm going to say to them is No such thing as a silly question.

[00:39:10] Marshall Stern: Yeah. 

[00:39:10] Ashley Leeds: So, carry, carry on, sir. Carry on. 

[00:39:13] Marshall Stern: Oh, I don't have a, well, my question is, what from you to you, one final golden nugget takeaway for our listeners. 

[00:39:20] Ashley Leeds: Okay, so this is the, the, the, the easiest thing that we can all do today. You get your camera on your phone, use the proper camera, get a friend to take the photo if you're indoors, get the friend to put their back to the window so there's loads of light on you, and you take a photo about that close.

[00:39:37] So, it's about six, eight inches. Alright. 20 centimeters in, in new money because we just want the face in our photo. 

[00:39:45] Because if we have the whole body, or I've seen people with the whole body and the Eiffel Tower behind them. 70 – fyou want to write this down in your pad. 70% of people are using LinkedIn on their mobile phone.

[00:40:00] If you put a comment on my post, that little circle that's got your photo in it is four millimeters big. 

[00:40:08] Marshall Stern: Yeah. 

[00:40:09] Ashley Leeds: Or four millimeters small. All right. And if it's your whole body, I was doing something with, I was doing something with a, a, a lady the other day, and her photo was her wearing jeans, sat on a white chair wearing a white t-shirt with a white background on, on, on the photo.

[00:40:29] And all you could see was her legs and two brown arms and her face. And she was quite a way back. You couldn't see anything. So, so what you do when you've done, when you've got just a photo of your face, you then put a color behind it so that everybody starts recognizing you. And so obviously I've got yellow behind me, but it's yellow, smiling face and looking at the camera.

[00:40:50] You've got to look at the camera and you've got to smile with your teeth and your eyes. Alright? Not a passport photo, because our brain relate releases oxytocin when we see somebody smile. So, and, and when, when I, when I, when people, you know, connect with me, I, I send them a message, Hey, why did you connect with me?

[00:41:08] Was it my smile? And people say, yeah, you, you, you know, your profile looks fun. You know, you, you've got a nice smile. All that sort of stuff. And, and it, it, it really does help. And so many people think it's corporate, so I've got to put a corporate photo, and they got, you know, look all stuffy and they're like – 

[00:41:22] Marshall Stern: Yeah. 

[00:41:23] Ashley Leeds: Aall you're doing is turning me off, you know?

[00:41:25] Marshall Stern: Interesting. And you're very, I'm on your, I'm on your profile now and you're very like, it. It's. It's, there's no question what you do. Like, your, your core, your core offering is, it's screaming. Like in a, in a nice way. In a fun way. And that's the other thing. And that's the other thing, like you're a fun guy.

[00:41:43] Ashley Leeds: Yeah. 

[00:41:44] Marshall Stern: So, that comes across in, in everything we're talking about, authenticity. So, the way you are in, per the way you are online needs to be the way you are in person or in, you know, virtual. 

[00:41:54] Ashley Leeds: Yeah. 

[00:41:55] Marshall Stern: Okay.  because I always, I, I see people like. You know, posting a certain way and then you kind of meet them, it's like, oh, this is like completely different.

[00:42:03] Bbecause they're trying to be, because you could be any way you want. 

[00:42:06] Ashley Leeds: Yeah, exactly. Exactly 

[00:42:07] Marshall Stern: rRght. Which it doesn't work. Like why would you even do that? It's a bait and switch. It's like any of these dating apps, which I've never been on. But if you, if I've heard, heard you hear the 

[00:42:16] Ashley Leeds: Story, you hear the stories,

[00:42:17] Marshall Stern: Then you hear the story, it's like, that's not what –

[00:42:19] Ashley Leeds: Six foot three, six foot four and full of muscles. And it turns up that he looks like me. 

[00:42:25] Marshall Stern:  Okay. I do have one more question, then I'm on, I'm on because I'm on your profile. It says, and I want people to hear this and I want people to check out your profile and check out. All your stuff will be in the show notes.

[00:42:37] And I want you to, if you've got something, an offer or something like that, you can definitely mention it because I think it's so valuable. It says in your LinkedIn, header or banner, I'll make you visible on LinkedIn to grow your business in just 15 minutes a day. I mean, that's like, there's no question of what you do.

[00:42:54] Ashley Leeds: I, I was, I was talking to someone earlier and their banner, okay, was just the name of their company. 

[00:43:00] Marshall Stern: Yeah. 

[00:43:01] Ashley Leeds: Alright. That's great. If you're McDonald's or Apple, we know who you are, but Smith and Sons. 

[00:43:09] Marshall Stern: Yeah. 

[00:43:09] Ashley Leeds: What do you do? 

[00:43:11] Marshall Stern: Yeah. 

[00:43:12] Ashley Leeds: So, yeah, I, I do practice what I preach. 

[00:43:14] Marshall Stern: Okay, so practicing what you preach, I'm just scrolling through your LinkedIn.

[00:43:19] Gang, you got to scroll through his LinkedIn and, and connect and all that kind of stuff because it's, it's great. It's it, this is what you get. What, how can you help our listeners if they're, if they're confused about LinkedIn and they want to get some help, some guidance on LinkedIn, what are your different, options?

[00:43:36] Ashley Leeds: First, first thing to do is go on and you can book a, a, a quick call with me. It's okay. It's, it's only 10 minutes because that people want me all the time. So, it's just 10 minutes and just jump on and ask me anything. Alright. DM me a question. It's really not a problem. Also, on that, you'll also find my website, which is actually taking you to my quiz.

[00:43:56] And that's questionnaire that asks you some questions. Now, when I teach, I've got five pillars of content, sorry, five pillars of my framework. Alright? So, I've got this, the five Cs of LinkedIn. And so, I ask you three questions for each one of those pillars, and then I deliver a report to you. Okay? And in there is a score for each band of that, of, of, of each one of my pillars and then an overall score.

[00:44:25] And then for each section, why don't you try this? Why don't you try that? You've said, you've got this, this, and this. And so it's, it's practical, it's helpful.  I used to do a, a, a thing where I would record what I see when I look at your profile. That took me loads and loads of time. So I've invested in this tool that will, you know, if you, if you get, get 30%, it'll turn around and say, look, you're obviously struggling with this, so try doing this.

[00:44:52] Alright. Hmm. So, so it's a free, it's a free thing to do. You just pop in and then it will give you a report and give you an idea of what you need to focus on and give you a, a rah-rah if you're doing some things. Good. So, so yeah, go, go, go and help yourselves to that. And, okay, you know, fill, fill your boots.

[00:45:08] But, but yeah, just, just reach out, connect with me. I love connecting with people and I, I, I do courses. I do one-to-one. I've got, I've just launched a brand new online course, so you can just go and watch a load of videos, but I've got over 700 videos on YouTube, so go and watch some of those. Go and look at some of my content.

[00:45:24] There's loads of helpful stuff. Yeah. And then that's, you know, then you'll get to know me. You'll get to like me, you'll get to trust me and, and you know, if you want a bit more of a hand, then let's have a chat and see if there's, I can do anything else to help. 

[00:45:37] Marshall Stern: Okay, that's perfect. And I'll put all that information down below in the show notes.

[00:45:40] Maybe just read out your, maybe your website or something. because people are, don't see the show notes for whatever reason or really lazy to scroll. What's the, what's the easiest way to get in touch with you? 

[00:45:49] Ashley Leeds: The easiest way to get in touch with me is to Google – if you Google he 15 Minute Guy, you'll find me.

[00:45:56] That's how powerful.  personal branding can be, and it's so, and it's so, it's so important to me now. I've just paid to get it registered, so it's now a registered trademark, the 15 Minute Guy. It's very cool, isn't it? 

[00:46:10] Marshall Stern: So, it's interesting. Before we go on that note, so it's interesting because we talk about branding and I, I, I, I see from your shirt, Full Cup Coaching, I believe that's the, is that your actual company name?

[00:46:20] Ashley Leeds: Correct. 

[00:46:21] Marshall Stern: Okay. But I just saw that, I think I remember that from before because I think he might have been wearing the same shirt or something, Full Cup Coaching, but I remembered the 15 Minute Guy. 

[00:46:30] Ashley Leeds: Yeah. Yeah. And I, I talked to people and they, people come to me and they go, right, so I've got this business and I, I need you to do a business page.

[00:46:37] And I go, no one cares about your business. 

[00:46:39] Marshall Stern: Yeah. 

[00:46:40] Ashley Leeds: They don't care about your business. In fact, do you know the name of my business? And they look all embarrassed and sadden and, and what have you? It's not a 15 Minute Guy, is it? And I go, no, no, but do you think I'm bothered that you don’t know the name of my business?

[00:46:53] No. No, I don't actually. And, and that's the key thing, all right? People remember Ashley Leeds, the 15 Minute Guy, and that's who they're working with. I'm, I'm, I've got 15,000 followers on LinkedIn. Guess how many my company pages, got Marshall? And, and bearing in mind, bearing in mind, I am a, a, a LinkedIn guru.

[00:47:14] I know this stuff. 

[00:47:15] Marshall Stern: Yeah. 

[00:47:16] Ashley Leeds: Guess how many, guess how many followers? 

[00:47:18] Marshall Stern: Not many. A few hundred. 

[00:47:19] Ashley Leeds: 300. 300. 

[00:47:21] Marshall Stern: That's – 

[00:47:22] Ashley Leeds: Like, like that for personal and down here for, yeah. It's because nobody cares. 

[00:47:28] Marshall Stern: Yeah. 

[00:47:28] Ashley Leeds: We care about the person. 

[00:47:30] Marshall Stern: Unless you're the Amazons and Apples. 

[00:47:33] Ashley Leeds: Yeah, but that, that's a totally different thing. 

[00:47:35] Marshall Stern: Yeah, yeah.

[00:47:36] Ashley Leeds: Isn't it? Yeah. But, but you think about some of the companies that you deal with,  locally you are only going there because Sally's really sweet when, when you turn up for a meal or Dave's, Dave's a nice guy, or Bob always makes sure you get a decent table. 

[00:47:53] Marshall Stern: Yeah. 

[00:47:54] Ashley Leeds: And if and if Bob went and worked at a different restaurant, you'd go there.

[00:47:58] Marshall Stern: Yeah. Yeah. 

[00:47:59] Ashley Leeds: It's all about, it's all about the personal brand. 

[00:48:01] Marshall Stern: Yeah. And, and honestly that's the way it was. Like, in our, in our parents and our grandparents' days, we went to the tailor or the, the butcher Right. Or the bakery, because of Yeah. They, the food was good or they had good service, but it was, well, they had great service, right?

[00:48:17] Yeah. And it was about, oh, hey, hey Ashley, how are you today? Like, I remember just going, dropping off my laundry, you know, growing up to the place I went to, and they knew my name. 

[00:48:26] Ashley Leeds: Yeah. 

[00:48:26] Marshall Stern: Or the sandwich shop. And they knew my name and they knew my order because I always had the same thing. And I didn't even have to say what it was they said.

[00:48:32] Okay, the usual, right. That's the stuff. And then we got away from that a little bit with social media at the beginning and all this online stuff. And, but I think it's all coming back to that personal branding, the connection, this. 

[00:48:45] Ashley Leeds: Yeah. Can I relate to this person in front of me? 

[00:48:48] Marshall Stern: Yeah, yeah, yeah. 

[00:48:49] Ashley Leeds: That's it.

[00:48:50] And, and by using LinkedIn, you are showing that you are relatable. And, and I, I totally get that this bouncing yellow guy from the UK isn't everyone's cup of tea, and that's absolutely fine too. 

[00:49:04] Marshall Stern: Have you ever thought of moving to Leeds? 

[00:49:06] Ashley Leeds: Uh, no. 

[00:49:07] Marshall Stern: Okay. I've never been there, but – 

[00:49:09] Ashley Leeds: It's,  it's, it's – there's nothing wrong with Leeds.

[00:49:12] It's, it's lovely, but I've, I, all of my family are down in the west country. I love the – so, Leeds is in the middle of the country, whereas, well, I, I like, like I say, I'm going to pop down and see the sea now. 

[00:49:22] Marshall Stern: Okay, well I'll let you go do that because that'd be the trifecta because then you'd be the leads guy, Leeds, the leads guy from Leeds, right.

[00:49:29] And be like, that'd be just too confusing. 

[00:49:30] Ashley Leeds: Too confusing, wouldn't it? 

[00:49:31] Marshall Stern: Yeah. Too confusing. Okay. Ashley, this has been amazing. So, thank you so much, gang. Get your, like – go, go check him out. Connect. Connect with him on LinkedIn, check his videos. Go to his website, do the assessment. I'm going to go do the assessment.

[00:49:45] I'm very curious as to what the results are. 

[00:49:49] Ashley Leeds: Be honest, when you're answering those questions, please, Marshall.

[00:49:51] Marshall Stern: Be – well. Well, yeah. I'm going to be, I'm going to be honest. I'm going to Oh, I'm brilliant. Brilliant. It has been amazing. Thank you so much. And, we might have to have you back because there's just so much knowledge that you have and I, I'm telling you, just from all the business owners that I coach and the people I meet in my groups, my Facebook groups and networking events that I run.

[00:50:08] LinkedIn is always that one sort of confusing platform. And I, and I don't know many people who are actually leveraging, including myself, who are leveraging, leveraging the power that it really is and they're misusing it and misunderstanding it. So, I do appreciate you clearing up some of these. And I just, I, oh my God, like I had no idea about the hashtags.

[00:50:29] Less than 5%. I, I can see that, because I do see a lot of, like, you see a lot of those, I know I'm going on about this, but you see a lot of profiles like with no picture. 

[00:50:38] Ashley Leeds: Yeah. Yeah. Why? 

[00:50:40] Marshall Stern: Right. Or profiles or people out there with zero posts. 

[00:50:44] Ashley Leeds: Yeah. 

[00:50:45] Marshall Stern: It's never on it, so they think that they need to be on it.

[00:50:47] Thank you, and we'll have to have you back. 

[00:50:50] Ashley Leeds: Yeah, my absolute pleasure. And thank you for the great questions. I love this. And, yeah, thank you very much.

[00:50:55] Marshall Stern: I might, I might be messaging you other questions because I, I, I'm sure I forgot some stuff. So, anyways, again, check them out. Stuff is in the show notes.

[00:51:02] Thank you so much. Also, rank this podcast if you really enjoy it as a Five Star podcast, so other people can catch Ashley's episode with us here today, and we'll see you guys again next week on another episode, the Stern Truth Business Unfiltered. 

[00:51:16] Ashley Leeds: Cheerio!

[00:51:19] Marshall Stern: Thank you so much for tuning in to the Stern Truth. If you found today's episode helpful, we would love to hear from you. Please like, share, and leave us a review. Also, if you'd like to be a guest in an upcoming episode or join us in one of our Moment Accountability Group sessions, simply email me to marshall@marshallstern.net.

[00:51:39] That's marshall@marshallstern.net. And don't forget to hit the subscribe button so you never miss an episode. Until next time, keep pushing forward and leading with confidence.