The Content Crib Podcast
The Content Crib Podcast is where bold ideas meet real execution. Hosted by Eric Anderson and Chris Grosse, this show breaks down how to turn content into trust, attention into opportunity, and your story into strategy. No fluff. No filters. Just what works. Welcome to the Crib.
The Content Crib Podcast
She turned a layoff into a 30-day, $30K blueprint for personal branding, social selling, and courageous action #14
A sudden layoff can shatter your plans—or sharpen them. When LinkedIn branding and sales coach Melissa Gaglione decided to aim for $30K in 30 days, she didn’t hide behind a polished funnel. She built in public, shared every step, and turned documentation into momentum. We dig into how she paired relatable, human content with tight, personalized video outreach to create trust at scale and conversions that cold calls rarely deliver.
We unpack the two-year foundation that made the leap possible: an hour-a-day side hustle, steady posting that felt like a person not a pitch, and early experiments with courses, events, and brand partnerships. Melissa explains why she launched eight offers at once to test both company and individual demand, and how the data—and her energy—pulled her toward a flagship cohort model focused on personal branding and social selling for B2B creators, founders, and sellers.
If you’re curious about where AI truly fits, Melissa shares the practical side: using tools like Claude and ChatGPT to accelerate research, drafts, CRM notes, and content ops, while outsourcing editing and admin to stay focused on relationships. We also get candid about the mindset work after a layoff—using a public goal to rebuild self-trust, choosing challenges you can sustain, and resisting the highlight-reel trap by showing the path, not just the prizes.
Ready to design your own leap? Listen, take notes, and then tell us the 30-day goal you’d commit to publicly. If this conversation helped, follow, share with a friend who needs a push, and leave a quick review so more builders can find the show.
Welcome back to another episode of the Content Crib Podcast, episode number 14.
SPEAKER_00:14.
SPEAKER_01:And this is gonna be a good one.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:This Content Crib Podcast, we know we dive deep into personal branding, content creation, and the art of building authentic connections online, specifically most LinkedIn. Today we have someone who's literally building her business in real time right in front of thousands of people on LinkedIn. Today we have the famous Melissa Gaglione, a LinkedIn branding and sales coach who's documenting currently right now her 30k and 30 days challenge as she transitions from side hustle to full-time CEO. I would think she you have almost 40,000 followers the last time I checked. Wow. And uh that is really impressive. Melissa, thank you so much for joining us because you are uh the gold standard out there. So hopefully you can inspire some of our listeners.
SPEAKER_02:Thank you. I'm excited to be here. Thank you so much for having me here. Let's let's get into it.
SPEAKER_00:Love it. Yeah, absolutely. What made you decide to go? You know what? I'm gonna do this challenge, and there's 30 days in a month, and I'm gonna do 30k. I'm sure I'm sure it was much more detailed than that, but well, you know what's funny is that it wasn't.
SPEAKER_04:Like I wish that I was like, wow, I sat down and I deeply thought about this, and I was like, here's how much money I I have, and here's how much I know I can make, and let me properly forecast this because I'm I was a sales leader. No, I did not do any of that. What actually happened was unfortunately I was part of a uh mass layoff at my company.
SPEAKER_00:Congratulations. That's awesome. I always say that when everybody's people say that. I'm like, congratulations, it's the greatest thing ever.
SPEAKER_02:I know. Um, thank you, thank you.
SPEAKER_04:And right when I was, you know, unfortunately part of that, within 24 hours, I decided that I was gonna make$30,000 in one month. Again, no plan. Can't say that I had this fully baked out for how I was gonna do it, but I knew that one, I needed to build myself up, you know, I could sit here and focus on the really bad things, or I can look at this as, oh my gosh, for the first time, I have 30 days that I can dedicate to my business. Can I do the impossible? Something I never thought that I would be able to do. And I said, let me let me go for it. And plus, 30k is a lot more than I was making at my regular job. So let's see if I can do that.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that's uh that's super inspiring. And I wanted to drop a tidbit in here too, because what makes you joining us today super special and synergistic is your strategic use of personalized video content and connecting with your ideal clients. We've as you know, we've also been using personalized video and teaching it for Eric, what is it, almost five years now?
SPEAKER_00:It's almost five, yeah. Wild. Yes, five.
SPEAKER_01:Myself, I'm about through almost four, because I actually was taught by Eric and Matthew. Um and yeah, Melissa was the director of sales for SenSpark at one point, our now number one video uh tool that we promote to all of our students. Yeah, so that's pretty cool. And you're still I imagine SenSpark and using personalized video is still a huge part of what you're doing in your outreach?
SPEAKER_04:It is, you know, the and I a little bit of background is I've been in business-to-business uh sales for primarily, you know, I mean, all tech companies. It's it's been tech. Um, a lot of AI companies, um, but most notably I would say Deal is probably the most popular company. Um, I was a founding account executive there, bringing their global payroll product to market, which was great and big. And before that, I was at another AI tech company selling chatbots and automation. But my very first meeting that I ever booked was through cold video on LinkedIn. And I was like, wow, this is one way better than cold calling. Um and two, I started learning that the conversion was actually a lot better when you start off with a video than when you uh, you know, catch them at a at a good time during their day.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, the dreaded good time. I don't think there ever is a good time. Yes, I'd know exactly what should be. So you're so you just went blind and you just started, you decide to start sending videos.
SPEAKER_04:Oh yeah, yeah. Um before I was in sales, I was an elementary school teacher, turned on-air news reporter for CBS, turned salesperson. So when I was told to make a bunch of cold calls and to send a bunch of the same email, I was like, yeah, it just wasn't sitting right with me. So I said, you know what? I hear these voice notes on LinkedIn do well. Let me one up, let me make a video because that's something that I was very much used to. Um and from there, yeah, definitely was able to start booking better clients, honestly.
SPEAKER_01:Nice. So I have a question about that. So there's content creation and the social selling strategy and sending personalized videos. How do you decide when using public content versus personalized video outreach, or is there a special formula you use? Because you you get great engagement with all of your your posts and and then you know, also the wizard of sending personalized video outreach.
SPEAKER_04:You know, it kind of all helps each other, to be honest. Um, so when I first started prospecting on LinkedIn and social selling, I I obviously didn't have a brand. It took time to get that brand going. I posted like here and there, but I wasn't posting about my company. I was posting about like habits that I was creating. I was posting about how um, you know, at my lunch break I did a quick vacuum. Like remote work was still kind of new for people, and that was just something. So if a prospect went to my profile, they weren't like, oh, gross, she's a salesperson. Like it wasn't like an immediate, like, oh, she's gonna sell to me. It was like, oh, there's there's someone here. This is a person. So I immediately was trying to create content to be, you know, just sharing and being a little bit more personal. And then when you slide into someone's DMs with a video, like there's no other, there's no other more personal way to reach out. So to me, when you're creating content and video content, especially on LinkedIn, you're just trying to connect with people. And then doing that in the DMs, whether it's a prospect or literally a friend or someone that's just hyping you up, or someone that has maybe, you know, helped you out in the past or sent an intro or whatever it may be, just sending that quick video, not long, of just saying, you know, thanks so much. I appreciate it. It actually goes a really long way. So it it feeds off of each other, it's just all about building connections either at scale or you know, one-to-one.
SPEAKER_00:Well, that's great because that's what we obviously have been doing it for years, and I I don't know why it most people don't use personalized video. It's the craziest thing, and I'll talk about it, and people will go, uh, I don't know. Which is fine. Okay, you know, you don't want to do it, but it really is powerful to use for sure. Now, so you're sitting there, you've decided, okay, the best thing in the world just happened to me. I got laid off, and I'm going to start my challenge. And what's the first thing you decide to do?
SPEAKER_01:He's joking, but he's not just a four.
SPEAKER_00:No, no, I'm I think it's the most awesome thing ever. Um, because I I I love it when people say, Oh, yeah, I got laid off. And then usually in every single person that tells the story about them being laid off, and then within like six months, it was the best thing that ever happened to him. I don't know anybody who goes, you know what? I just went searching for a job again. It was the best because job the job was so cool. Anyway, um, you know, I I what what what where did you start? And I know you said you kind of said, Oh, I did, but what was your mindset? And where who did you who did who was your ideal customer? Or what were you thinking?
SPEAKER_04:So I have been building my business for two years on the side. Gotcha. I think it's a key point because it wasn't like, oh my gosh, I have nowhere to go, I have no audience, I have no brand, I have no offerings, I have none of that. Like, and the companies that I worked for knew that I had a business on the side and that I was selling on LinkedIn. So because I had a decent brand, it was also good exposure for the companies that I was working for for sure. However, I was very clear like, I've got a side hustle. You're not gonna see me working on it during hours, but you're gonna see that I'm working on it. Um, and so for two years, I was first building a brand. My first product was a video prospecting course that I took down after a few months because I was like, this is now outdated. Literally, because it evolved so quickly. Um, but that first course that I made, which was, I mean, I think it was 2023. I think I released that. I think I had like maybe 6K people on LinkedIn at the time, maybe. Um and it was wild to one money coming out of thin air. That was crazy. Um, but that was the beginning. And that was right when I started making that, I just said, okay, this is going back into whatever business it is that I'm building. Like I've I've still yet to ever pay myself from what I've started to create. And so I had dabbled in things like that from courses to random webinars to um then hosting events. I've hosted B2B yacht networking events where I rented out big yachts and invited B2B sellers, marketers, revenue leaders to come on this yacht, gotten sponsors, been dabbling in brand partnerships, things like that over the years. So I knew that no matter what, I was teaching people how to social sell on LinkedIn, had a video prospect on LinkedIn, but very broad. And so when this day happened, it was like, well, I had this plan to do a cohort in August. I have a course coming out in September, uh, teaching people how to build a B2B brand on LinkedIn. And so I just knew that that's I just needed to run at that so much faster. Over the 30 days, a lot has changed, to be honest. I'm starting to adapt and you know, evolve my offerings a lot more, but I'm all I only know that because I'm throwing it out there so much, and I'm seeing some of the areas of improvement too. So step one was really just literally telling everybody everything that I had on my roadmap to see what people wanted and what they did not want.
SPEAKER_01:So I think that um that's amazing. Thank you for sharing all that. I this so something really important you said at the beginning of all this amazing story is and when we talk to our content crib, so we have a twice twice a year in-person, kind of like your yacht event, but it's um we have it in Arkansas in beautiful fall weather, and then in Maine, where we do, you know, our our our tribe of content cribers get together, you know, generally in healthcare. We have a couple straggles outside of healthcare that see the value of what we you know we're doing. And some of them get started right away in building their voice and crafting their message and utilizing personalized video, and some of them take a little bit more time, and that's fine. But I think it's so important that you said you know, it's something you've been working on for years and the consistency that is so required in building a brand and crafting your voice, and it also connects so well to what you said about now that you become more experienced while you're putting products out there trying to like narrow down your ideal customer and the problems they have and solve it with the products that you want to offer. Talk to me a little bit more about that when things started to click maybe in the beginning when you first started the consistency thing, and then now trying to figure out you know where the products are sticking and how that's going.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. I mean, and to keep in mind, like the past two years, just to go back to that point. I mean, I've been working on my business um at least an hour a day for four to seven days a week. Like I've whether it is creating content or messaging people or trying out a website or meeting with people to ask them questions, like it has been quite a slow burn while climbing the corporate ladder from SDR to ahead of sales um in B2B tech. So it's been a grind. Um, but because of that, I'm like, oh my gosh, now I can dedicate whole time to my business. Like, I have so much that I need to do, and I there is no shortage. Like, I've been so many things.
SPEAKER_01:No, we're so grateful that you're taking the time to meet to do this with us.
SPEAKER_04:Oh no, these are the things that I've been wanting to do. Yeah, like being on more podcasts, talking to more people, there's nothing more important. Like, this is it. Um, anyway, so then now going into like the offers and everything like that. In the ideal world, while this was my side hustle, I was supposed to slowly drop each one of these things. The cohort in August, the course in September. I did a merch drop like two months ago. I had the yacht in eight in uh May. Um, so very slowly dropping everything. I've also been working with companies um at night during when I was when this was my side hustle and coaching their teams on how to sell socially and doing all that. So it was supposed to be a slow burn, but instead I said the very it was like day one I announced it, day two, I said, okay, these are all eight of my offerings. This is everything that I'm selling. Like I don't know exactly where the 30K is gonna come from, but here's eight things. Um let's see what sticks. And so it's interesting because a lot of people will say, one offer, talk about one thing, but I didn't know yet. I didn't know what was gonna work because I was doing this blend of, well, I'm a B2B seller, so it's really easy for me to prospect into a company and say, hey, I need X amount of money. That's easy to me. Individuals, that's a whole different story that I really was not used to. And a little bit of a fear of mine, like, would a would an individual buy something from me? Because I'm so used to selling to companies. So I put both types of offerings out there to see like what really stuck. But now I'm starting to narrow down my funnel and seeing where it is that you know the need and what people really want is.
SPEAKER_00:Well, it's fun, that was just about to be my next question. Like you you sound like you're you're you're kind of narrowing down here, ideal customer, as you're you're you're identifying who that is. Who you know, if is of the eight product offerings, what do you see is where do you see your business going? And I know it's you know early or 30-day challenge, you're probably at day 22 or whatever it is, but you've been doing it for two years, kind of where you see it going.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. And you know what? I also had to be mindful of what is it that people want, but what do I also like to do? Like, what are the pieces that I'm like, oh, I'm annoyed I have to do this? Like, oh, like this is taking up focus, you know. Like, I was also very mindful of, okay, I actually I really enjoy this piece or this piece. So for me, where I'm starting to focus, and the main offering that I really want to get people to know about is gonna be the cohorts. I really want to work in a cohort manner where we have different types of people from different industries. Essentially, anybody who is trying to make money on LinkedIn, whether that is your own company, a side hustle, or a company that you work for if you're a seller, I want to help you make money on LinkedIn through personal branding and social selling. Heavy on the personal branding, to be honest, because I think that a lot of people will understand the messaging or at least try that, but the branding, and that's a big piece of it. So the cohort is going to be the major focus.
SPEAKER_01:Nice. And I want to pivot a little bit because you talked about the AI companies you worked for, and you know, we're in the thick of it right now, trying to, you know, our listeners and navigating the best techniques to use, AI in their day-to-day. Uh, we talk about tools that we use from time to time and our kind of predictions and best practices at the moment. But coming from a professional that's actually worked in AI, what do you think are some of the best techniques for maybe beginner B2B users or even um maybe beginner to intermediates, some use cases that can help lighten uh lighten the load for some people out there by using AI?
SPEAKER_04:I use AI for everything, I use AI all day long. Um I don't know why I wouldn't use it. It's funny, when I first started selling AI, it was still machine learning. Um, so it was still like, hey, I'm gonna sell you a chat bot, but you have to write out every single prompt, and then the bot is gonna say, okay, this is the closest prompt to this. Like, it's not what it is today at all. Yeah, um, it wasn't yet, you know, beyond like the basic machine learning. So it's funny just how quickly that has evolved in in general. Um now it works as a brain. I mean, you guys know, like it's it's all these little, you know, brain neurons just connecting to each other and talking to each other and it's it's spitting, it's literally uh acting mimicking a human. Um, anyway, so a couple different things. I mean, depending on where you want to use AI or what it is, look at what is honestly, what is the most annoying part of your day? Like, what is frustrating you? Is it booking like calendars? Is it coordinating? Is it, you know, tracking your CRM and putting stuff in? There's a tool for everything. There's literally a tool for everything. The money is not infinite though. That's the hard part is like, okay, there's a tool that can fill my CRM, there's a tool that can help me socially sell and use um all different types of, it could use Claude, it could use ChatGPT, and you could use perplexity. And based off of the tool that I needed to use, it's going to tap in on that. There's so many different things that you can use it for. So first it's like, okay, well, what's really annoying me? Uh, what's taking up time? And if it is CRM input, then there's plenty of tools that you can use for that. Um, if you're seeing that your team isn't, you know, is losing time because they're not researching accounts or they're having difficulty researching accounts, then maybe looking for a tool that's going to be able to do that. I can name a hundred tools. Um, but primarily for me, I mean, obviously Claude is my main baby. I use it all day long for everything from anything from journaling to food recipes to um helping each other. Big Claude fan too. A thing. What?
SPEAKER_01:Big Claude fan as well.
SPEAKER_04:Oh yeah, it's the best one.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Yeah, I I use Claude. I I use Chat GPT quite a bit. I I like I I always have the windows open. So I'm I'm always like, and I'm the I I hate to type, so I I just love that, you know, I hit the microphone, I talk into it. Yeah, and I just it just I I need you to help with this, this, this, this, this, and boom, it's you know, I've got the the information that I need, which is which is fantastic. But we talked to, you know, our our content crib cohort. We're gonna start one content crib our x cohort that starts next month, and it's you know, everybody's asking about AI. They want to know what they can use to it's funny. I just saw a uh an interview with Sam Altman. He goes, There's gonna be a billion-dollar single person company because of AI in the next five years, which is wild to think about that you don't have to have a slew of people do all these things for you, so which is which is wild. So I that's what I was gonna ask you. Do you have a team or what does it look like for you?
SPEAKER_04:No, um, I think one day I do want to have a team just because I feel that it's my purpose to lead people in an environment where they're happy. I do feel that like a purpose of mine is to create opportunities for people, uh, truthfully. Um just because I think I'm a nice person, I think people should have a nice boss and probably like a four-day work week and things like that. That I just I just feel like someone's gotta do it, so it's gonna be me. I'm gonna create a great environment for people to work in and everyone's gonna be happy. Like that's just kind of what I really want. Uh, but for now, I mean, it's it's me, but I have I outsource a lot. I outsource so much stuff. And I think that we're gonna see that. Yes, the billion-dollar, you know, solopreneur, but that solopreneur is also using a service for an EA, a vendor for that. They're using a vendor for um, you know, maybe editing content or video edits for them. They're using a vendor for um, you know, their agent for partnerships. These are all things that I use it for. Um, so I think that we're gonna also see, yes, the billion, the billion-dollar solopreneur, but more and more solopreneurs are gonna be coming out. I think that we have just experienced that the regular job is not the safest job in the world and you have to protect yourself. It's only gonna get harder. More and more companies are gonna continue to slim and trim the fat. It's up to you to acquire the certain skills so that way you can operate on your own if you ever need to. And I think also everyone should have something on the side. Everyone should have an additional revenue income, whether that's a rental that you have or maybe you're Uber driving or something like that. We all need a little something just in case.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I I preach that all the time. I always talk, you should always have a side hustle. You should always have something you need to diversify because if you're relying on one source of income, being laid off is awesome until it's your one source of income. And then it, you know, then all of a sudden people go, Oh, well, that kind of stings. What am I going to be doing here when I get up on Monday for sure?
SPEAKER_01:Talk to us a little bit about what else is going on, or if you want to talk about the current challenge you're in now, or what else you have going on this this fall and to the end of the year.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. So it's day 27, and I know that this comes out a little bit later, but it's day 27 of my challenge to make$30,000 in 30 days. Um, I can successfully, and you guys don't tell me when this because it's still early.
SPEAKER_01:I won't say that.
SPEAKER_04:I can successfully say that I have hit that goal, which is bravo, bravo.
SPEAKER_01:Congratulations.
SPEAKER_04:Thank you.
SPEAKER_01:Uh well earned, well earned.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, still can't believe it. Um, I I can't.
SPEAKER_01:I never had a doubt. I really didn't. I mean that it's awesome.
SPEAKER_04:Thank you. Because um, I definitely stayed up at night a lot. Like just thinking about it, not even like acting. I was like, I was like, I gotta sleep, but like this will be so humiliating if I don't hit it. But then the other side of me is like, this would be so cool if I do hit it, and like what a what an what a win, you know, what a nice feeling. Because it wasn't about the money, it was about building myself up because that getting laid off hurts. It messes with you. You gotta heal from it.
SPEAKER_00:Yep.
SPEAKER_04:It's it's a whole emotional roller coaster for sure. Um, so I'm very happy that I that, but the way that I went around it is that every single day I documented every single day. So here's what I'm doing today, here's what happened yesterday, here's my offerings, to the point where I have people messaging me that are tracking what I'm doing. I'm like, wow, you guys are thinking about this way more than I am. So it's like I just wake up and I'm like, well, this is what I'm doing today, or like this is my new offering, or like I'm trying this, or here's a tool that I've checked out, or hey, can someone put me on a podcast? Like things like that. So it's been interesting to build and do at the same time. However, I don't know, do I keep going with it? My thing is that do I now do 100k and 100 days? Which can I emotionally handle that?
SPEAKER_00:Well, how about this? Just split the difference 50k in 50 days. How about that?
SPEAKER_03:Oh, yeah. Wait, that's actually that's way better.
SPEAKER_00:We keep Eric around. That's it. That's it. I'm done. That's that's the end, that's the end of my contribution for this podcast.
SPEAKER_04:And then I'm trying to think to myself, like, is this just something that I just always keep going? I don't know. Is this something that after I hit 100k, then it's like 200k and I set a certain timeline or something like that? Because I think that sharing every step of the way, like I'm trying to also not saying that this is the right way to do it. I have I truly don't know what I'm doing, but at least it gives people exposure into like their possibilities and what they can do as well, and like maybe learn from it because I don't know, everyone should be able to make their own money doing something.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, absolutely. Yeah, I mean, you've been extremely inspirational for a lot of people, which is because there's so many people that are in we're in your situation and you've given them hope, and that's pretty cool. You know, a lot of people, that's probably why you have so many followers. They're like, I can totally see this happening to me, and Melissa's showing me the way.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, because I don't want it to be like sometimes when you're scrolling on any platform, you could see someone doing well, and sometimes they could hurt, you know, sometimes like, oh shit, like I how come that's not me, or like what are they doing, and things like that. I feel like when a lot of people just like, look at the Lamborghini I have, like, look at the house, like look at the but they're not showing you a path or like explaining that. It's like, well, why the why do they have that? Like, what did they do? And you start to also not really believe them, slash, it's like like, is that even real? Like, so I wanted to be, you know, honest.
SPEAKER_00:Well, yeah, the truth is they probably rented it the Lambo for the day to take pictures in front of, but anyway, that's a whole other business. See, look, somebody could start that business.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, sure.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_01:Well, this has been amazing. Uh Melissa, thank you for joining us. Uh, we've had a lot of fun on this one, and uh, yeah, it's been it's been incredible.
SPEAKER_02:Thank you. Well, good luck to you guys.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, thank you. So if people want to find out what you're doing and want to, this will probably be your challenge maybe. Well, I don't know, maybe your challenge may be roaring by that point in time.
SPEAKER_04:It might be going on. Like we might be, we might have just you know continued on with it.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, you were gonna do 300k in 300 days or something. Um, where can they where where can they find you?
SPEAKER_04:On LinkedIn. LinkedIn is my primary channel. I do TikToks, which weirdly, TikTok is so hard, so weird, in my opinion. LinkedIn is so straightforward and clear, but LinkedIn, Melissa Gaglione, TikTok, Melissa Gaglione, Instagram, Melissa Gaglione. So uh catch me there.
SPEAKER_00:All right, we'll do that for sure. Well, thanks again, Melissa. Really appreciate it and congratulations.
SPEAKER_02:Thank you.
SPEAKER_00:All right, bye bye.