The New Blueprint for Going Global with Your Personal Brand with Sandra Long

Michael interviews LinkedIn expert Sandra Long about building a global personal brand. Long shares how she moved from B2B sales to helping individuals and organizations leverage LinkedIn, and explains why global reach is easier post-2020 but requires intentional positioning through your profile, network, and content. They discuss defining “local” vs. “global,” the difference between audience and revenue over long time horizons, and the importance of values like Long’s “Be the Friend First,” including an example of a client from Serbia. Long recommends auditing connection geography with Sales Navigator, using warm connection paths (schools, former employers, groups), prioritizing commenting over frequent posting, engaging with posts in other languages via translation, and using AI to check cross-cultural risks and improve discoverability, while not obsessing over the algorithm.

Timestamps:
00:24  Welcome
01:46  Meet Sandra Long
03:24  Why Think Global
05:04  Local vs Global Defined
07:08  Audience vs Revenue
09:40  Be the Friend First
12:50  Culture and AI Checks
14:09. AI and Being Found
15:58  Build a Global Network
18:42  Groups and Search Tactics
20:05  Multi Platform Presence
23:42  Global Commenting Strategy
26:22  Time and Consistency
30:36  Avoid Algorithm Chasing
32:58  Key Takeaways and Wrap Up
35:04  Closing Question and Where to Follow
38:02  Final Thanks

Connect with Sandra:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/longsandra/
https://www.thesandralong.com
https://www.amazon.com/stores/Sandra-Long/author/B01LZRIURP?ref=ap_rdr&shoppingPortalEnabled=true&ccs_id=ef06a9f0-d106-453d-a74b-b0c52dce608c


Michael's National Workforce Study on Change Management:
https://www.michaeljlopez.coach/research

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to the Top Voice Podcast, where each week I sit down with leading voices in business, leadership, and transformation to unpack the issues that matter most. Together, we explore fresh insights, bold ideas, and real-world stories from people shaping how we think about change, culture, and what's possible. Hello and welcome to the Top Voice podcast. It is May 5th, the day after Star Wars Day. For those of you that celebrated Star Wars Day on Monday, I am one of those people. I'm excited to have with us Sandra Long to talk about going global with your personal brand. I think it's first of all, it's never been easier to reach farther. And we've talked about personal branding a lot on this show, but never from a global perspective. So, Sandra, I'm excited to have you here. I'll give you a chance to introduce yourself and tell your story in just a brief moment. For those of you who are tuning in live, please do let us know where you're tuning in from. Please leave us a comment or a question. We love to take those. It's a great way to engage our guest and the conversation. For those of you that are also listening on your favorite podcast platform, please do be sure to subscribe. And as we go through the conversation today, just a quick reminder for those tuning in, you'll see behind me a document called Rethinking Change Management. Just wanted to highlight once again that last month we released our study of a thousand workers across the U.S. on what really creates change within organizations. I'm excited to share that research with everyone and follow along and follow me to get updates on the amazing content that's in there and how it's changing the way we think about change. Sandra, let's jump in and talk about going global with your personal brand. Before we do that, tell us who you are and tell us what you do and how did you get into the space of global personal branding?

SPEAKER_02 1:53

Well, first of all, thanks for having me. I'm super happy to be here with you, Michael, and actually have this conversation, which I love. I started my career in B2B sales and I did that for quite a while. And then I transitioned into focusing 100% of my effort on LinkedIn, helping people with LinkedIn, helping people and companies and colleges and associations, you know, really leverage LinkedIn, the opportunities with LinkedIn. A lot of that's around branding, but there's much more than just branding. So I started doing that. I became an early adopter of LinkedIn in 2005. And yeah, this is while I was doing my B2B career. And I found I just was using it for my really research, sales research to get more, to be more knowledgeable about who I was partnering with and who I was working or trying to sell to. And over time, people were asking me for advice and tips. And then it's sort of that's how it, that's how I kind of migrated out from one to the other. So I've been doing this a while and I'm having a great time doing it. And it's very rewarding and fun. It's very fast-paced and changeable as well.

SPEAKER_00 3:03

Yeah, LinkedIn's been through a lot. We'll we'll maybe talk at the end about a lot of people are always trying to hack the algorithm on whatever platform they happen to be working on. And maybe we'll save that for the end about how to optimize your presence based on maybe the changes that are happening. But let's maybe let's start at the beginning and and maybe at the top end about, you know, you've said that that personal branding is gone global. It's the topic of this conversation, but but a lot of people still sort of think locally. What's the tension or the opportunity that people are thinking about or missing and not thinking globally?

SPEAKER_02 3:41

Well, it's interesting because I've had people approach me and hire me for all, you know, people that wanted to stay local. And I've also had one of the inspirations I had for focusing on this topic is that I had a consulting company come to me and say they wanted to be more global. And that this was so I actually helped, you know, starting starting with that client. And it it made me think more globally about kind of helping them. So I think the the opportunity for many of us, we fell into it with the pandemic, right? We fell into it because if we were local or semi-local and then doing some online, and then all of a sudden 2020 came and we all became online, much, you know, it it changed everything. So the opportunity for for every one of us, whether you want to be global or not, it's all about how do you position yourself. So if your goal is I want to be more global, I want more global opportunities, then it's it's incumbent on you to make that happen with your presence. And that includes, yes, your profile, but also your network and your content all working together to create the you know the presence and and opportunities yourself. I mean, you it's all in your hands.

SPEAKER_00 4:59

Right, right. Let's define some terms here because we just started using them. Uh we all know what global means, but you've just mentioned locally. We're I'm here in California, you're in New Hampshire. I do a lot of my work in the United States. What does local mean? Is it your city, your town, your state, your country? And when you start to go bigger, do we think globally truly as everywhere in the globe? Or is it, you know, should I be more targeted in Europe and the United States or the Middle East and Europe or whatever it may be?

SPEAKER_02 5:30

Yeah. Well, I found most of the people that are looking to be more global are actually, like you say, targeting parts of the globe that they're they're interested in, not necessarily the entire globe. Um, and as far as the definition of local, I think that just depends. I mean, if you're, you know, if you're in California, it might be different if you're in New England, like me, right? So for me, local is New England, or you know, I I wouldn't limit myself to, you know, to to New Hampshire, right? So it depends. And I've had I had um a client who said they wanted to be local, they wanted to just stay in the UK to the whole country. So it really there's a lot of, don't you think there's a lot of variation in that?

SPEAKER_00 6:08

Yeah, it it seems to be context driven. And I think a lot of us, myself included, having start businesses, personal brands, we we just get going and maybe don't always have a thoughtful conversation about the end state. And so I was just wondering if that's something that that you've encountered where people maybe fall into a brand presence in a certain region, but they never really intended to be there or they never thought about where they would go next.

SPEAKER_02 6:34

Well, I mean, I again it gets back to being very intentional. So what so that the global person, you know, can be can can reposition their profile and their their network and and their content. And so can the local person. I mean, if you're a local realtor and you only work in one town, then you want to be the person for that town. You want to be known. And so you're so again, that that person has as much of a job to be hyper local as the person who wants to be global.

SPEAKER_00 7:02

Right, right. So let's maybe now think about, and and you've you've had this, it brings up a question for me that I wanted to get on maybe later, but let's talk about it now. The the difference between audience, maybe and and client or revenue. So when you're helping people, having a global brand could be just being recognizable, but maybe you're not doing business in that region. Somebody said something to me once that I I resonate with and I remembered, which is my audience doesn't always have to be my client. And people may find my brand all over the world, but I'm really kind of only working here. How do those things work together? And do we need to draw a distinction there between audience and client and revenue and just being known?

SPEAKER_02 7:48

Well, it's an interesting offshoot of our conversation because I uh what's surprising is that a lot of people may know us because they've seen us and they it could they could take years to become a revenue opportunity, right? And I've had this happen, and I know you've had it happen, um, where you know, just by having that presence, by being visible, being active online, particularly on LinkedIn, and then opportunities come because you know, 10 years later, I've had this, I mean, I've had this exact same thing years and years later because they've seen you over and over. So um, so your audience, you know, your audience can very much become your revenue if you think about being I I try to I help my clients, and what I try to do for myself is become a helpful expert, you know, as as far as positioning myself. I don't want to be a braggart, I don't want to be a person who is obnoxious, I want to be a helpful expert. And so I try to say, how can I do that? And I most of my clients are drawn to me because they want to be a helpful expert, right? So being a helpful expert will mean that you'll have an audience, you'll have, and you'll have clients. I mean, all of it. And it's all about conversations, really, ultimately, what is leading to valuable conversations where you can help that person individually or their corporation, right?

SPEAKER_00 9:14

I love that phrase, helpful expert. I I've also heard people, I've said this on this podcast more than once, something else I remember, which is everyone on LinkedIn is trying to tell you something so they can sell you something, and there's a there's a gap. You've used a phrase which which is be the be the friend first, which feels really important about building connections, maybe playing the long game. Um, how does this uh change if we're thinking internationally? It's hard to be the friend internationally, maybe. Distance does play a role, even though we can connect with everyone. How do you think about that and how should we be thinking about our engagement style, our approach, our relationships scale where we don't always have the chance to be as frequently in contact with someone else?

SPEAKER_02 9:58

Yeah, well, I mean, actually, I think it's easier than it's ever been before to be a friend first across because of the tools we have, you know, because particularly I again, LinkedIn is my focus. But um I really believe that it's sort of like if you go to a networking event, you're in California, I'm in New Hampshire, if we walk into a if we walk in somewhere, and if our mindset is I'm here to make a sale, you're gonna have one kind of experience and people are gonna think of you in a certain way. Versus if you walk into that event with I'm here to make friends, totally changes the game. And it's the same thing online, it's the same thing on LinkedIn. So I've been able to meet people from all different countries. And how do you be a friend? Well, you comment, you support them, you congratulate them, you message them with a nice, you know, maybe you send an R, whatever, like you're you're that helpful friend in advance. You know, you're not asking for anything, you're not expecting anything, but it seems to work out really well to become become that way as a as a friend first. And I it's it's really funny because I want to talk about this for a second, if you don't mind. The val it's a value sort of like a value statement that I have that's tied to my brand. And I when I do my training, it's always part of it. When I train salespeople or whoever I'm training, whoever I'm speaking to in my books, and I have it on my profile and I write articles about it. So it's part of my brand, right? And I always tell people, what about your values can you share that is important to you that you can, you know, make a phrase for and and and make it a part of your system so that people know you. And that's and the funny story here it has to do with an international client that I had. I had a guy contact me from Serbia, it was in 2020 2025, and he reached out to me and he and ultimately hired me to do some LinkedIn company page stuff. And I asked him, like, why me? And he said on my profile, he read all about be the friend first, and that's what drew him to me. So I always advise people those those values are part of what are going to draw and attract people. Um, and it's also kind of a for me, it's been so not only is it part of my brand, but it's also part of my strategy, right? Does that help?

SPEAKER_00 12:25

It does, and I think you're you're hitting on something. Uh the old-fashioned MBA school phrase would be market segment, you know, would be customer segmentation, which is you're you're looking at the types of customers that want to buy from a certain type of individual. You're going to be that person, you're not going to try to be everything to everyone. I think it raises a good question about audience internationally. You have different cultures, you have different languages, you have different um uh industries that show up in different ways in terms of the way that business is done. I remember years ago I worked for an English company, and I was amazed at how different internally the culture was corporately from the US. And you think this is this is England, that this, they're like one of us. And you're like, no, it's very different. So, how do we think about that piece of it too, where where context and nuance of language and culture show up in our audience and the revenue that we were that we're trying to generate?

SPEAKER_02 13:25

So for me, mine is pretty my my be the friend first is pretty low risk because it's it goes across different cultures and different countries. It's very um appealing. But if you have, if what you stand for or what you're doing, if there's any sort of question, I would use AI to say how what how what are the cross-cultural things or landmines that I need to be thinking about? Because I don't know the answer to that question that you're asking me, Michael, but I do know that using AI, especially if I had something that I wondered, if it's if there's any kind of um controversy or any kind of even uh question in the US where we are, then definitely make sure double check it and have AI double check you. I that's how I would do it.

SPEAKER_00 14:11

Yeah, yeah, what a great, what what a great uh recommendation. And you you now you just prompted a question for me. We're talking about engaging in terms of relationships, but everyone, I've seen this a million times now. AI can can run your LinkedIn page like a you know expert branding uh consultant for$400, they can re it can redo the whole thing and give your LinkedIn page over or whatever other social media you have. You're talking about using AI in context of engagement, but how does that how are you finding the AI experience influencing people go trying to go global with their brand?

SPEAKER_02 14:53

Okay, that's a like a huge question. That is um, so when it comes to AI, I mean I say the biggest thing that I've noticed, and it's been very recently, is that some of my clients who I work with one-on-one are asking me to help them not only be found, because I've always helped people be found on LinkedIn, but they also want to be found through AI. So that's like the biggest thing. And of course, what we do on LinkedIn is a feeder into AI, right? It's a huge feeder. Um, so that's just a quick answer, but the AI conversation could be like a whole nother show, Michael.

SPEAKER_00 15:32

We talk about it a lot here, but you inspired me to think about it. Um you recently wrote an article about this topic, and it's it's a great one. I know you'll tell us the link to it at the end, but in there, there's a lot of good tips, and maybe let's start to get into some of the practical side of this conversation. We've been dealing in the philosophical for a couple moments. So, what what are the first steps we take to building a global network? If I'm if my presence is just in one place, what are the first things I should be thinking about to start to move outward and and and more broad?

SPEAKER_02 16:11

Okay, so great question. Uh one of the things that I did first is I wanted to assess kind of where my connections were. Like just take a look, an audit, a self-audit. And I use Sales Navigator for that. And my in that article that I'm gonna link for you, it's there's a post on on that and showing. So I think it was like 70% of my connections are US, and the next number was Europe and Scandinavia. So I broke it down, I made a pie chart, I made a post about it. So I like, I wanted to get a sense um, you know, from where I could stand of my connections. Like so you can do that very easily. Um then um, you know, I think it's like you're thinking about your goals of your business. What, you know, what are you trying to do and where are you trying to be at? You can then from there assess, you know, how do you stack up with those various countries or companies? If there's companies, you know, focusing it on people, companies, and groups, particularly using searches, that will be something that will be um, let me just turn that off. Um, that will be something that will be really very relevant for you to do. And and and just use the the LinkedIn searches to see kind of where you stand.

SPEAKER_00 17:23

And then I'm I'm I'm imagining there's a part of this which is the target countries or regions that I want to go. How do I think about who to connect with on in those regions? Is it by industry? Is there an extension of people I already know? Second order connections, is there a strategy there? Is it or is it more open?

SPEAKER_02 17:42

I much prefer having some kind of a warm connection. So it's either through like just give you some ideas, right? So through whatever university you went to, like thinking about who what are the global connections for that university? Where you work, where did you used to work? If you worked at a big global brand company, you're in an ideal position. And even though you don't work there anymore, you can be connecting with people across the globe that you have something that's going to be a warm reason to be connecting. I much prefer that, or a group in it, if the group is connected to the industry that you're in or the functional area. So if you're a finance person or whatever, um, or if you're in a particular type of industry, um, that makes sense. People who are in these groups, they're there because they are interested in networking. I'm not a big huge fan of LinkedIn groups overall, but they do help you um identify where there might be people and opportunities.

SPEAKER_00 18:38

Well, I'm curious as to why you're not a fan of the of groups.

SPEAKER_02 18:42

Um, okay, that's a null, that's again a whole nother question. So I think that like I think you see a lot more the functionality and features that are kind of missing from LinkedIn groups. And um there's not a lot of action. There's uh a lot of a lot of a lot of them are dead. Um some of them are very well managed, but very few. Um so what happens and a lot of times, um, and LinkedIn has done certain things to fix the groups, but I think they could do more. Um, so I think for a lot of people that want to really want to be in in a lot of groups, they use Facebook because Facebook groups are very active. I'm it's talking about the activity level. Um, but there are things you can do in groups that are that are you can send messages in groups, you can join the groups, you can see what the conversations are, you can engage with those groups. I'm just saying to be sensitive to your time. Um, so I would put that as like a secondary. I think the people search and the company search are going to be more valuable. So you can easily either using AI or LinkedIn identify companies in that geography that are that are your target and then look at how are you connected. So, do you know what I'm saying by that, Michael? Yeah, yeah. That's to me is a really if you're looking to do comp you know businesses with companies, um, using the company search would be really great.

SPEAKER_00 20:00

Yeah. We're we've got a comment in the chat that I want to read in a second, but I want to stick on this tools piece for just one moment because you're obviously focused heavily on LinkedIn, which is great. We are live right now on LinkedIn and YouTube. There's all there's a lot of other social media. There's TikTok, there's Instagram, you mentioned Facebook. A lot of people are writing on Substack now. When you think about a global presence, how do you advise people on working across that ecosystem? I understand you're primarily in the LinkedIn space, but it all has to work together. And do you have any advice, recommendations, practical steps of thinking about all of that together when you're working with someone?

SPEAKER_02 20:44

Yeah, no, no, it's a great point. Uh I find that people might find me on Amazon from my book, they might find me on YouTube for one of my talks, but then they ultimately most of them reach to me, reach out to me through LinkedIn. Maybe it's because I'm known about, you know, they know me for LinkedIn. So I'm sure each of us has their own, like own ecosystem. So if you're on Substack, if you're on TikTok, I mean it so for so for me, I've got certain pieces and we we all have to build that. And it does work together. So you want to make a pathway for people to be able to reach you and find you, and you want to be able to say the best way to reach me is here and and and make links and make make things easy for people to flow because they're gonna flow where they want to flow, right? They're gonna if they're used to, if they're not, if they don't like LinkedIn, they're not gonna come to me on LinkedIn, right? So I've got to have another way for them to get me. So that's so thinking about how that person can reach you and and and and directing them.

SPEAKER_00 21:44

Yeah. I I'm gonna tell maybe a personal story, a personal anecdote. My my website, which I has evolved quite a bit and is the central landing place for all of my background and my my book and my work and my research and all of this. That my media appearances and all of that, but it's it's the least trafficked location for my content because it's just it's you know, people don't really use web pages, but you need it to have a place where everyone could go and branch out from. I love this idea of flow and giving people pathways because we're always trying to navigate the metrics. How many clicks am I getting? Who's here? Impressions and this and that. But I don't know. I've always found it to be uh kind of a fool's errand. You could you could chase that stuff forever. And I'm much more in your camp of put out great content. And I think people find you that are looking for the help that they need in that in that space.

SPEAKER_02 22:39

Well, yes, and I I want to add about one thing about content, which we really haven't talked about, and it's a huge piece for me, is commenting. So it doesn't have to be, I mean, obviously creating content is great, but being an active commenter is even more important and absolutely fits in with the global, connecting with global, being engaging with global. I mean, I think that should be really at everyone, top of everyone's list is commenting. Yeah, valuable commenting.

SPEAKER_00 23:05

Yeah, let we're we're gonna come back to that. I want to hit this question or this comment from from Alex uh in the chat, which is brand is what enhances your value to justify your hiring. Value is the perception that drives the company's decision to hire you versus other candidates. I'm interested in your I I think that's a really elegant description. I'm interested in your reaction to that characterization.

SPEAKER_02 23:30

No, I like I like what he wrote. I like that. That that's it seems uh it seems I'm I'm all with that. That's great.

SPEAKER_00 23:36

Yeah. Yeah. So let's talk about those two phrases, brand and value, in the context of content. Because in order for me to build a brand, I have to be known for something. And in order to be valuable, that something has to be differentiating, impactful in some way. So when you talk about content, whether it's my organic posts or my comments, how do you advise people going global there? What does that look like? Does everything have to have a certain tone? Does it have to have a certain identity? Can it be more open-ended? Does it does it matter?

SPEAKER_02 24:13

So, you know, everyone's again, it's everything is personal to what people like to do, what they gravitate to. Some people like to write, some people want to do videos, etc. Um, some people are more comfortable commenting. Um, I um I think you have to make the plan that's gonna that you're gonna actually stick with and follow through and and that works for you. Um, I did do a post that's in that article that I think the audience here will like very much because um I the the the post I wrote about, and I I do this quite often, is is commenting on posts that are in other languages. So let's just say I'm in the US, I want to um improve my business in France and Germany. I know some people that are in France and Germany that are in a similar space to me. I like what they're doing, I follow them. Maybe I click on their bell, I get notified of their posts, right? I see their posts. They're posting in French or German. I go onto that post, I click on translate, and then I and then I can read what they've written in English. I I don't speak French or German, right? By the way, I don't speak anything but English, right? But I so I've been doing this for quite a while. Then I add my comment in English, and so they come back and they're delighted. So they've got their post in French or German, and and they see all the French other comments, and then they see mine in English, which is a pretty much universal business language, and it and it's they're delighted to have it, and then we start engaging in the conversations. So that's a great way to build to build your network, to be seen and to and to get to know what people are talking about in those geographies. So that's that that's a post I have that is part of that.

SPEAKER_00 25:59

Yeah, it's a great tip. And I think it's something that we wouldn't naturally think about as we're going through our day, thinking about comments. And so it's just a great reminder.

SPEAKER_02 26:08

We don't just have to follow people that speak English.

SPEAKER_00 26:11

I love that.

SPEAKER_02 26:13

We just follow people that speak English, we're missing a lot of good stuff.

SPEAKER_00 26:16

Yeah, yeah. Uh Sandra, we're we're coming up on time already and we could keep going. I I do want to ask a couple more questions, so we might inch into the next half hour a little bit because I think this is really, really good. Somebody watching this, listening to this, is probably thinking to themselves, wow, okay, so I've got to I've got to audit my network, I've got to look at countries, I've got to find second order connections, I've got to read their content, put something custom in their feed to know that, let them know that I've read it, maybe look at different languages, and they're thinking, wow, this takes a lot of time. How do we think about time versus maybe investment? We talked about some tools that can make things a little easier. Uh, give us the straight talk on how much time does it really take to think and grow globally.

SPEAKER_02 27:06

Well, whether that question is the same as if you're talking about growing, going glow, growing globally or growing locally, people ask me that question. How much time? Like, I don't have time. And so I always say it depends. How important is your brand and your network for you to grow your business? Like for some people, if it's not important, then no, don't spend the time. But if you believe your business is going to be growing because of your brand, being a helpful expert, being that thought leader, right? Being connected, um, having conversations that start the the conversations just start online. That's just the beginning. Then you take them offline. That that's the real one, the real deep ones about doing the work together. So you really have to assess how important that is. And there are lots of ways that you can do things to um, you know, for time saving. And again, that's uh that is another podcast on time saving.

SPEAKER_00 28:08

You should do how to save time on yeah.

SPEAKER_02 28:11

I mean, there that is another that is another topic. Um, and how to prioritize, but again, I get I get I get back to each person is gonna make that individual piece. And um I that's that's why I love commenting because not only is it strategic and it's visible, but people freak out about oh my gosh, I've got to do three posts a week. They freak out and they don't have time, they freeze. I say, don't worry about it, just find the people that are really good connections, be that friend for start involved in those conversations. You don't need to write three posts a week to be visible.

SPEAKER_00 28:50

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 28:51

It it's it's a huge time saver, Michael.

SPEAKER_00 28:54

It is, and I would add that uh, you know, when I first started really posting, I started with a lot of long-form content on LinkedIn. I I mean I was filling up the character limits, and people were asking me, number one, do people read that? Like it's a lot, and then number two, how much time does it take you? And in some cases, it would take me 90 minutes to write something thoughtful, but it was thoughtful, it was content rich, and it became a bit of my signature brand in terms of the what I was posting. Now I do other things now. I do this podcast, I do link, I do videos and all of this sort of stuff, and maybe things that are more pithy. But I guess I share that because I think there's such a desire for people to just use AI to generate content and try to and try to meet the volume metric. And I think there's a real trade-off happening between your authentic voice and insights and just straight volume because it I can see an AI generated post a mile away. And I honestly I've I've just stopped reading them because there might be an original thought in there that the person used to generate the the content, but I know that it's wrapped around a style and a framework and a tone that's written by somebody else. And it just, I don't know, it it sort of rubs me the wrong way.

SPEAKER_02 30:13

I agree. You can tell it. I don't like it, whether it's content. I got yesterday two invitations to connect with a little message that were the identical.

SPEAKER_01 30:23

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_02 30:24

And it was like, you know, 20 words, and it was two people identical messages. So obviously that's AI. I mean, it's yeah, it's crazy. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:31

Yeah. So let's let's let's wrap up. We got a couple wrap-up questions here a little bit, but we we mentioned this before, and I just I think it's implied in what we were just talking about chasing the algorithm, trying to crack the code, trying to game the system. I I'm going to assume that being the friend first means we don't spend a lot of time trying to game the system, but I'd love to just hear from you. How do you advise people about this, you know, algorithm hacking obsession that we seem to have as platforms evolve?

SPEAKER_02 31:03

Yeah, I think it's an overblown obsession totally. And it the other thing is LinkedIn changes it constantly. Um, it's not a published thing. And there's supposedly there's multiple algorithms. So um I think that I what I what I would say is just pay attention to maybe some major trends. Like one of them right now is that having your posts saved is a really good way to to do well in the algorithm. But I again, I don't I don't bother with um spending a lot of my time. People don't hire me, and I don't want them to hire me because they think I'm gonna beat the algorithm. That's not what they hire, they hire me because they want to increase their business by having those friendly relationships.

SPEAKER_01 31:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 31:48

That's there's different people you would go to for different things. And and I mean, I think it's important to know about it, but um, when you when I say a post is saved, meaning it's so valuable that people are gonna save that post. That that's a that's a that's a good key.

unknown 32:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:02

Yeah, I I think that's great. And I've I have I have heard this many times again, and I've had people approach me. Anyone who tells you they can they know the secret for going viral is not telling you the truth. I nobody knows the secret. It is just it happens, and I think we sell a lot of services by tempting people into going viral, but I don't know, I've never seen it quite work out the way people suggest.

SPEAKER_02 32:29

I I I I had someone that I knew that uh was doing some very good content and they switched the gears into this algorithm chasing. I couldn't stand the content I was seeing. And yeah, they were getting a lot of comments, but it was to me juvenile stuff. So I I'm like, I I don't, yeah, you gotta be careful who you follow.

SPEAKER_00 32:52

Yeah. Uh Sandra, we have talked about a lot of stuff in a very short period of time. And I'd love to sort of sort of summarize, you know, what are two to three things that you want the viewers, listeners to take away from this conversation about building a global brand and a global presence?

SPEAKER_02 33:10

So I guess the first thing I would say is it's be to be intentional, to to plan out how you want to come across. And that means adjusting your profile and just simple things like using the word global, telling your story, sharing some of your insights, um uh thinking about every part of that profile is an opportunity to position yourself globally, every single part, you know, languages. I also have another post there. You can have uh English language uh profile, and you can have another second language profile. So check check out the article on that. So really it positioning yourself for the people that you should be working with. And then the next piece is expanding to the people that you should be working with and using the warm connections um and hopefully the be the friend, you know, a friendly strategy of connecting where you've already got some little starting point and and starting to engage with people and you know, commenting and liking and introducing and inviting all those kinds of things, not coming on and slanting, not coming, not coming in and pitching them, right? So all that, and then the content is have fun with it, like make it work for you that for your time and your calendar. Like if you want to be posting, if you want to write long form articles, if you're good at that, you love it, you should do it. But if you're busy and you can't and you that's not your thing, then get really good at commenting. Um, and don't just stay in the English language, things expand out um so that you can have the conversations that you should be having. So those are just a few things.

SPEAKER_00 34:50

Yeah. Uh what I mean, that's that's literally a masterclass in in in two minutes. So that's really fantastic. Sandra, thank you for your expertise. Uh, as you know, we have a closing tradition on this podcast as well, which is the last guest leaves a question for the next guest. And it's always great to just get to know our guests at a different level. Sometimes they're highly connected, sometimes they're they're they're not. I have a feeling this might be. So the question that's been left for you is at what point in your career did you stop defining yourself by what you do and start defining yourself by the impact you create and what made that shift happen?

SPEAKER_02 35:27

Hmm. Wow, that's a deep question.

SPEAKER_00 35:29

I didn't come up with it, somebody else did.

SPEAKER_02 35:31

No, that's that's nice. I mean, I feel like hopefully, I'm not sure I can point to a day or time. I can say that as we get older, I think the the impact that we have becomes more important to all of us. And I feel like, and we can make an impact for an individual, we can make an impact for an organization. Um, it seems like the ones that mean the most are the individuals, right? So if I'm working with a company, it's the employees who tell me how much this helps them. That that really seems to me that so to me, it's a a one-on-one thing, even though you might be working with companies.

SPEAKER_01 36:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 36:10

And you know, providing that impact is it's it's a it's what keeps us going. Like if we weren't providing the impact, how could we just keep doing what we're doing? Like going around. I mean, I so thank you for that. And I hope that you know, I I that's what I live for is to provide that valuable impact for my clients. So thank you.

SPEAKER_00 36:30

Yeah, and to Alex's point in the chat uh about value and brand, and he's left some other comments about services and benefits that I think are also really helpful. Uh, Sandra, as we close here, uh, where can people follow you? Where can people learn more about your work? You mentioned we mentioned an article. Where can we find all that so we can include them in the notes?

SPEAKER_02 36:48

Okay, so my LinkedIn profile, Sandra Long, um, would be the number one. I'm all also on Amazon. I think that I think LinkedIn is your going to be your very best place to find me. Uh, I'm in many other places, but that's where I that's where I focus. And um, the article that I wrote is the global article. You'll see it right on my profile. If you scroll down, you'll see it right there. It's got a little globe spinning. And I'll give Michael the link and love to hear your comments on that article or on the post that Michael will do for this podcast.

SPEAKER_00 37:20

Yes, we will include all of those links uh as well as, as you mentioned, to Amazon, to your books and that sort of thing. So we'll make sure that we have all of that available and accessible to everyone. Uh Sandra, thank you so much for just uh an episode chalked full of practical wisdom and strategic guidance. I think it was such a nice blend of how we should think differently about our brand, how we should think differently about where we're headed, but then practical tips on how to use the tools and AI and relationships that we have to make that happen. So excited to share this one with everyone. Uh, and just thank you so much for being part of this conversation.

SPEAKER_02 37:56

Thanks, Michael. I had a blow.

SPEAKER_00 37:57

Thank you. And for those of you tuning in, Alex, thank you for your comments. Uh, as I mentioned, for those of you that followed along or you're listening on your favorite podcast platform, please do subscribe. It's the best way to support the show. And once again, please do check out our recently released research rethinking change management. It is a game changing look at the world of organizational change. Uh, to download that, go to michaeljloopez.coach slash research. Thanks again for being a part of the Top Voice podcast, everyone, and we'll see you next week.