Using LinkedIn to Build Brand and Grow Revenue w/ Rich Swerbinsky

Another fast-paced, tactical session showing how to:

• Grow an engaged LinkedIn audience
• Post content that consistently generates responses
• Convert engagement into booked meetings

Rich, the Executive Director of the OMBA, has over 31,000 LinkedIn followers. He walks through live examples, simple scripts, and a weekly routine that you can immediately implement into your own schedule to build your brand and grow revenue.

Originally aired live on 4/9/2026

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 1:50

All right. Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to the Ohio Mortgage Bankers Association podcast and webcast network. If you're watching this live, make sure to follow our podcast, Apple Spotify, the Ohio MBA Podcast Network. We're doing six to ten pods a month, trying to put some relevant content out there for our members. And we do these all live on Zoom as well, as those of you that are live here now can see. So if you're listening to this on pod, get to ohiomba.org and uh sign up for the Zoom versions of these as well. You can put faces with names, and we do a lot of cool content for the members. So this is a session that I like to do every month or two about LinkedIn. And uh it is a topic of passion for me, just because it has been, I think it was always a topic of passion for me. LinkedIn has been the biggest part of my career for a bunch of different reasons that I'll that I'll kind of get into. Um, but especially these last few years, really. Uh when I went out went out on my own three years ago, my past was I ran mortgage lending divisions for community banks for basically about 20 years and then uh joined a startup called the Mortgage Collaborative and kind of grew and ran that for like eight and a half years, and then three years ago went out on my own. Um, and it was primarily due to the fact due to my LinkedIn following. Um, I'd really grown, uh, worked to grow it. Um, and you know, I'd always wanted to kind of do my own thing in the mortgage industry, and it was really that following that allowed me to make that leap. So now coaching 35 to 40 executives across America, working with other organizations on growth strategies that involve LinkedIn, I've seen the impact of working with people, and it makes me super, super passionate about it. You're gonna see that these next 30 minutes, because I want to exude that passion because I know what is possible for people because I'm seeing it happen every day. And this is not that difficult. Uh, and it is free. It is free. I mean, I just built what I think is the biggest consultancy in the mortgage industry uh over the last two and a half years, basically, without spending one penny. Just LinkedIn content. So uh really, really powerful platform. Um, there's few things in life that you can say, I know this works 100% for sure. I know this works what I'm about to go through, 100% for sure, because I've done it with multiple companies and I'm working with tens of people that are doing it currently. So if anybody has any questions, just feel free to put them in the chat. I'll try to get to them um as we go through this. And uh, but let's go ahead and get started. As you see on the opening slide here, you know, it's really true. Your reputation is being built online, whether you participate or not. If you are, I mean, think about it. You know, think about the ways we promoted the mortgage industry in the past. Open house flyers, uh, you know, uh open houses, uh, bagels and donuts and realtor offices, uh, flyers, TV ads, radio ads, newspaper ads, like that stuff is all almost gone completely. The vehicles through which we promoted ourselves and companies, where did all of that go? It all went here. Like, how can you not be good on here? If you're a serious business person, it makes no sense to me. It doesn't mean you can't be a good business person without being good digitally, it just makes it a lot harder. And you can be an average business person and great digitally and have great things happen for you. So why does LinkedIn matter? It's the most trusted professional network in the world. It is where 85% of B2B business deals in America happen on social media. So it is uh, and especially for our industry. I mean, if you're an LO or you're a realtor, you should also be on Facebook and Insta, and I would argue YouTube and TikTok as well. But if you are a leader, uh, a decision maker, uh, anybody really in the mortgage industry outside of an LO, LinkedIn is the place to be. Our industry lives on LinkedIn. And uh again, it's I I've watched people build reputations and careers on by being good on the platform. I've also watched others get bled away and kind of die professionally because they don't take it seriously, and and more creative and ambitious people are always there, ready to take your spot. So um, you know, the other good thing about LinkedIn is you know, it really it people are on the platform in a business mindset, unlike other social platforms. So their MO when they're on LinkedIn is is a business mindset, as is, you know, it's you know, other social platforms, they're there for escape, basically, rabbit holes, you know, entertainment. Um, people are on LinkedIn, you know, for some entertainment. I do a lot of entertainment content, but it's a business platform. People are on there to do business. The algorithm is also different, it rewards professional expertise. It kind of sucks for me because I've spent decades building a huge following on LinkedIn. It really doesn't matter that much how big your following is anymore. The LinkedIn algorithm has changed. The biggest change I've seen with the LinkedIn algorithm these last couple years is good content finds eyeballs. I am coaching people that have just started on the platform. Five, six hundred followers that make great content that are getting 1,500 average impressions per post with 500 followers. How does that happen? Because their content's good. LinkedIn does all it wants is to show good content to people that are interested in it. The goal on LinkedIn is ultimately business conversations, right? It's not vanity metrics, you know, likes, followers. They're byproducts of what we're doing in the platform. But what you want to do is build familiarity, trust, reputation, um, exhibit your expertise, things that lead to real conversations, conversations that turn into clients or partnerships or opportunities that turn into money. I am not a social media person at all. I'm on no social, zero, outside of LinkedIn strategically. I'm not the take picture of your food guy. I am not the dopamine over like guy. I am on LinkedIn and have been on LinkedIn because it is insanely smart professionally for me to do so. I'm not on there for the reasons most people are on social media. I'm on LinkedIn strategically. Um, and it has been a great move for me because what does it do? It builds my visibility, right? Some running the LMBA consultant from, you know, small town in Cleveland, like, you know, I the whole mortgage industry knows who I am, you know, because I have made a commitment to the platform. Credibility, right? It just distribute it is a way to distribute to establish credibility. I do a podcast with Rob Krisman, I've been known for a lot of years. It hasn't really made me a lot of money. It takes a fair amount of time, but what it does is it builds credibility for me. Um, you were able to interview top people in the industry. Being consistent and present on LinkedIn, um, it builds credibility for you in the industry. The way people think of you changes, and then ultimately it builds opportunity. Um, opportunity to transact business, make hires, make deals, and make money. So um it is uh, and and you know, at the end of the day, that's that's you know what it's all about. So um, you know, we see that saying at the bottom, we know this to be true. People do business with people they know, like, and trust. And LinkedIn, it helps accelerate all three. So profile optimization. All right. So with LinkedIn, all right, I call it the three legs of the stool because the profile is easy. Like literally, every single one of you should do what I'm about to say today, ideally on this call while you're still on it. Just go to your LinkedIn profile, go to the bottom, scroll to the bottom of the profile, literally just copy and paste all the way up, scroll up, copy all the text in your LinkedIn profile, paste it into your favorite AI. Claude is by far the best. Uh anybody tells you any different, they're wrong. It's right now way better than all the other AIs. Um, but any AI will suffice. Paste that in there and be like, suggest robust LinkedIn profile optimization suggestions. Including sample replacement copy and explain to me why each change will help me professionally. You will be horrified at what it spits out in about three seconds. Um, it's gonna give you everything that you need to dial up with your profile. It's gonna actually give you the copy to copy and paste it in there to replace whatever you have currently, and it's gonna tell you why it's so important and how this helps you. So, um, what is most important? You know, obviously your photo and your banner are very important. Um, you know, and and this copy and paste exercise isn't gonna help with that because it's just gonna pick up the text. But uh everybody should know what a good professional photo looks like. Just have one, you know, no wedding photos from like eight years ago where you're like cropped, your head is cropped out of it. Um, you also should have a banner. Um, a lot of people don't have a banner. If you have a blank banner, it kind of just yeah, I think what this slide says is I don't care about my brand. Even if you use a company generic banner for now. Um, but again, AI can help you, you know, like that same copy and paste of your profile stuff. Um, if you could be like, hey, suggest five different LinkedIn banner ideas and tell me how to make them for free on Canva. So um, and then the headline, what's right under your name, right? This is like what you do. Um, and then the other one that's important is the about section where you kind of tell your story. So um, but AI can really help dial up your profile. Um, and this is the the slide about the about section. The about section is a bigger section. Some people don't even have one. It's a huge miss because it sits in prime real estate on your profile. The statistics say people will look at your profile for like eight to 12 seconds, right? So you want them to very clearly be able to take away important things about you. A professional photo, a nice banner that is kind of, you know, speaks to your brand. They'll see those immediately. They're gonna look at your name, they're gonna look at your headline right underneath it. So that part is very important. A lot of people have something generic in there. Then they're gonna scroll down and they're gonna see your about section, which is your story. Well, your headline is what you do, you know, and the the about section is, you know, more detail on what you do, who you help, why it matters, why you're better than the competition. So the about section is very important. And again, a lot of people have a blank one, so it's a big area of opportunity. So the content strategy, all right. So fixing your profile is very easy, right? Making content that is of value to others is tougher, but it has never been easier, thanks to our old friend AI, right? Shouldn't be copy and pasting out of AI. Let's just clarify that right out of the gate. One, it's lame. Two, and more importantly, the algorithms know if you're doing it. You know, there it's not, it doesn't take a rocket science. We all can, you know, scroll through LinkedIn and and one out of every 20 posts we see, you just we can just tell it's just straight AI with those stupid long dashes and you know, all the things that AI does, you know, to post. So that said, AI is a lethal weapon in ideating content ideas. Um, and then taking you, you know, like a lot of times I'll copy and paste posts into Claude, and I'll be like, hey, it sounds too braggy, or you know, uh, I don't like paragraph two, or give me five ideas for a better opening hook. You know, those are some of the ways I use AI, but content ideation, I use it every day. It is lethal if you figure out how to do it, right? How do you make good content? You know, I would say the two biggest things for all the probably the vast majority of you out there listening to this, you're probably like everybody else. I've been on LinkedIn most of my career. I, you know, I post every once in a while some company stuff, I lurk people's profiles, check my DMs, like that's 95% of people. How do you get from there to I'm gonna start making content that can help me grow my business? Um the first thing I would say is this you're a good content strategy has to be completely selfless. If all you're doing is saying, buy from me, sell from me, or sell to me, uh, come work for me. Nobody wants to be sold to. Nobody. 0% of people want to be sold to. So if all you're doing is selling to people on your LinkedIn feed, nobody's gonna read it. They're gonna scroll right past it. How what determines what posts, how if posts do well or not on LinkedIn? How many people click that little more link after your teaser opening hook? That's a huge indicator of how well a post is gonna do. Opening hooks and posts as such, very important. Number two, how long are they staying on your content? Are they are they staying on it and and reading it, you know, fully? Um, you know, so so you know, you have to make content that is of interest and of value to other people, you know, and you know, at the end of the day, we're on LinkedIn to sell, but it can't be sell, sell, sell. It has to be give, give a little more, keep giving, give even more, and then subtly and kindly sell, where people will actually read that post and maybe want to do business with you because of uh, you know, something they've learned about you through their content. So, rule number one for content be completely selfless. What are how do I be selfless? I am a mortgage sales manager, I recruit LOs and produce. My audience is real estate agents, LOs, and other mortgage industry counterparts. Give me 50 ideas of posts that would be of value to that community, right? So you want to be a value to community. Two, I'm a big believer in like just being in the business of uh, you know, always have a content mindset, I guess is the best way to say it. All right. You hear comedians say all the time, like they I sleep with a notepad and a pen on my my nightstand because if a good joke comes to your head, you have to immediately write it down so you don't lose it. To me, that's what content is like. Um, I'm still an old school notepad guy. This notepad right here, this bottom section, it's just nothing but content ideas. Every single time in a conversation, something I'm reading, listening to, reading on LinkedIn, I see anything that could even be a component of an interesting post. I'm writing it down in this bottom section of my notepad. Sometimes I'll cross it out, sometimes I won't use it, but I've always got a repository of ideas. So uh with content, you want to educate, right? Um insights, lessons, learn, industry, trends, them your expertise for things you've done in the past, right? Um, engage with people, right? Ask people's opinions, talk about relevant issues going on in the industry, ask your feeds opinions on things, and then relate. Be relatable. In this day and age of AI, everything, and just digital throw up everywhere we look, being just an authentic real human has never played better digitally, ever. It is a huge part of my strategy on LinkedIn to just, I'm just a normal Midwestern dude that is like any other normal Midwestern dude that you know finds the same thing funny and you know, has stupid pets and idiotic teenagers, right? Like, despite talking about that stuff, people feel like they know me better, you know, and um, and you know, people want to do business with humans and not, you know, corporate ad producers. So, what to post? All right, and here's just some ideas, you know, there's so many, right? Market insights, behind the scenes. This is me and my team. Um, you know, client wins. Oh my god, like the you know, the the giant key, first-time home buyers sell at their closing with the keys to the new house. Um, quick tips, right? I do a lot of quick tips on like emerging AI stuff. Um I'm just very plugged into the the AI world, and I'm constantly looking for the best tools to help me run my businesses. So I like sharing that on LinkedIn. People love reading it. That's another great thing about LinkedIn. The algorithm tells you all you need to know. Every post, you're getting a grade on it, essentially, by how many impressions it gets, right? Lean into what's working and lean away from what's not. Lessons learned, so many different ideas of posts that always do good on LinkedIn. Um, some formatting tips. So strong, this is really important. Um opening hook is really important on LinkedIn. It just is like because how well posts do, it's largely tied to how many people click that little more link. You know, we're all on LinkedIn, so you know what your feed looks like, right? You see just the sentence or two and then that more link. So opening hook is vitally important. My number one AI prompt is I'll copy and paste the post in there and be like, give me, suggest five or ten better potential opening hooks. You know, so you don't want to be clickbaity, you don't want to use the word I or me. Um, you know, just some some general tips. But using AI to make sure you have strong opening hooks is important. My clients I work with 90% of the time when they come to me and they're like, oh my God, I thought this post was going to do great. It did so bad, it's almost always opening hook. Add visuals when possible. These just help. AI imagery is so good. Claude is the best AI for the stuff we would use it for, but for images, chat GPT is still the best. Google Gemini, also very good now with images. Um, but another one of my go-to posts, I'll take, I'll take a post, I'll copy it in the chat GPT. I'll be like, create hysterical image to a company. I would say like 60% of the time, the first image that I get back in like 10 to 15 seconds is awesome and perfect, and I use it. The other 40% of the time, maybe after, hey, fix this. I don't like the way this looks, I don't like the way that looks. Regardless, I'm it's a minimal time investment to get something that is going to make my post perform much better and have many more professionals see what it is I'm saying. Use short paragraphs in white space. I this is a balance, you know. I I think sometimes people get a little too carried away with this. What you don't want is like the one run on paragraph or like these big long blocky paragraphs. You want to let the let the content breathe. I think sometimes. The people that do one paragraph or one sentence for every paragraph, and you got to scroll for like 20 minutes to read an average length post. Like, I don't like that either. Either I never do that. I try to be like somewhere in the middle. Um, sometimes I'll do a one-sentence paragraph for emphasis. Um, but um, you know, I just think that you you do want to let the content breathe, it looks better and and flows better, but I wouldn't get too carried away with that. And just being consistent. Being consistent is so important. You know, one of the things I tell people more than anything related to LinkedIn, it's not hard to be good. I have watched tens of people terrified to post, terrified, that have become stone cold killers on LinkedIn that are using it to advance their career, revenue, salary, opportunities. It's not that hard. It's just a little bit of strategy with a shit ton of consistency. You have to be consistent. It's like exercise. It really is. I liken being good digitally professionally to exercise. You know, if you walk the dogs a mile or two three days a week, that's great. That's better than doing nothing. You're not gonna be in shape in a month, you know, you're gonna be in a little bit better shape now. You know, you you're you know, jogging the dogs four or five miles, three to four times a week. After a month, you're gonna be in pretty good shape. And after three months, oh my God, you're gonna be sleeping better, you're gonna be eating better. That's the way LinkedIn works. If you can be just average and be consistent, things just start to happen. New conversations, new relationships, new opportunities, new friendships, new knowledge just from being on the platform more. So I it's the one plea you know I make on all of these things. The stats say anybody that's on this now live or listening to it later, watching it later, 95% of you are gonna be like, oh my God, what an idiot. How have I not been doing this? And then all the stats also say like 90% of you three weeks from now will have completely abandoned all this. Don't be one of those people. This is so easy. More content examples that work, personal stories and professional lessons, vulnerability, things I learned. I wish I would have done this better, client success, uh, you know, without names, unless they're okay with you naming them. And then that's an even better post because you're paying some homage to a client while projecting upward growth for yourself and your company. Industry news, in your perspective, there's so much happening right now in the mortgage industry. Fanny Freddy, the the competitive landscape, FICO, vantage, credit, affordability issues. It's a there's a million different things going on right now. And a lot of people are like, oh, I don't know enough about that. You don't have to know enough. You're right. It's like, hey, I'm give me some information. Like this just changed in the mortgage industry. Help me work towards. I don't, I'm not incredibly well-versed on this. Help me work towards a simple LinkedIn post on the topic. Questions and invite engagement are also good, especially at the end of posts. Um, the algorithm does love comments. So if you can use a question that invites engagement, that's gonna help your content perform better. Um, engagement matters a lot on the platform, right? I call it like, share, comment. Um, it is important to do this. I coach my clients to time block 30 minutes every morning, like, share, comment, connect. In 30 minutes every morning, you can scroll LinkedIn, get your news, you can like some posts, which is important for a bunch of reasons. Just liking posts, which anybody just gotta hit the button. What does liking posts do? One, the people's posts who you like are gonna notice it. I'm not the social media dopamine guy. Even I notice everybody who likes my posts. So it's a good way to just drip on people you want to drip on. Two, it shapes your own feed, right? Like if you continuously like posts from people who you like their content, it's gonna show you more of it. Like if you go to LinkedIn right now and just put the word coffee in the search bar, and you'll start to you'll see a bunch of posts, you know, about the coffee industry from coffee. If you like like 15 of those posts, you will be seeing coffee content in your feed for weeks. That's how this works. So it's it's uh it's a good strategy to like, share, and uh comment. Commenting is even better, right? It's putting your name and face in front of people and uh maybe you get a reply, right? It's uh it helps relationship build. It's you know, every top prospect of yours, if a little hidden hack on LinkedIn, if you go to somebody's profile that you're connected with, there's a little bell in the top right corner. If you click on that bell and turn notifications on, you will see every post or every comment they make in your notifications feed. So you'll never miss it. What a smart thing to do with a company you want to work for, a leader at a company you want to work for, or a big referral partner you want to woo, or somebody you want to hire. I would want to see all their posts in my feed. So I know what they like, what they're talking about. And more importantly, so I can go in there and like and comment on it. How to do it right, um, you know, add actual insights, right? If you just do the great post, you know, I mean, I do that sometimes. I'm in a hurry, but you know, uh you that can't be your whole strategy. Give first. Like, I have clients of mine, they're like, Oh, nobody's commenting on my posts. I'm like, are you commenting on their posts or anybody's? They're like, no. I'm like, well, there you have it. Like, it's like real life. You're like, you know, if you just you know, give nothing and expect everything, then you're gonna get nothing. So be strategic, focus on people you want to build relationships with where you can use filters on LinkedIn. Oh my God. It's one of the great advantages of LinkedIn Premium, which is so worth the$43 a month if you pay annually. Um, but filters are left search filters on LinkedIn are lethal to find people to connect with and then to find people to message. And tag people when it's relevant. If you're making a post about a person, tag them in the post. Their feed will see it, they will see it. Uh, and it's just additive on all fronts. So, direct messages are another under you. I have so many clients that I'm working with that I'm just begging them to start to be more aggressive on DMs. This is how I've grown everything is with DMs. Make good content, follow up on the warm leads it produces, likes, comments, profile views, and just send people DMs. Like, hey, my name's Rich. I love connecting with other people in the industry. Would love to jump on a Zoom one day these next few weeks if you have time. That's been the same DM that I have sent for the last 15 years. Maybe slightly varied, short, non-salesy, sounds like a real human. That is what works best, right? Um, you should be DMing people that are business interests of yours certainly that interact with any of your content or view your profile, but even just cold people using LinkedIn searches, right? Go to LinkedIn, go to my network, go to connections, right? It'll show you all your connections. You could you could filter it by company or filter it by geography, right? And just start sending messages to people, just like getting together and meeting. This is I've been doing this my entire career, even before Zoom, it was conference calls. It has served me so well by just being a little bit uncomfortable and intentionally curious. Uh, there we go, being intentional, growing your audience, right? You can send almost 250 connection requests a week on LinkedIn. If you do, and it takes five minutes a day, if you uh use search filters or just use the LinkedIn suggested connections. Think about the math on this. All right. So if if you the clock resets on Monday mornings with LinkedIn connection requests. All right. So, and if so, if you were to just go on LinkedIn Monday, and I did this for years, years unknowingly, it was just a it was a recurring calendar block on my calendar. It said LinkedIn connections, 7 to 7:30 a.m. on Mondays. And I would just connect strategically with people until it stopped me. It stopped you at about 100 if you do it that way. What I later came to find out is that if you send 35 a day, you can send like 250 a week. So think about the math on this. Week one, you send 250. For argument's sake, let's just say 125, half accept, somewhere around that first week. You're plus 125 followers. Week two, you send another 250. 125 immediately accept. You're gonna get another 20 to 30 stragglers from week one that don't check their LinkedIn, whatever, they didn't see it. Week three, you send another 250, 125 immediately, accept, 20 to 30 stragglers from week two, another 10 to 20 stragglers from week one, and it just creates this perpetually growing network filled with people that strategically you want to be connected with because you're the one sending them the requests. It is, I truly believe, the best ROI of your time that you can spend as a business professional because it takes five minutes a day. I don't personalize my, I know it says personalize on here, you know, and you can if it's somebody you know, but you know, and it does increase acceptance rates a little bit, but I just hit the connect button and send it without a message. When I get personalized requests, it seems salesy. Everything I do want I want trying to seem un salesy because I know nobody wants to be sold to. Zero. No people want to be sold to. So I try to never act in that way. So the other beautiful part about this is the data. So much analytics on everything you do on LinkedIn. What is working, what is not, what posts, what topics, what is falling flat, right? Um, identify patterns on times to post, double down on what works, right? I am a big calendar block nerd. I am I block time blocked every day on my calendar for LinkedIn, scroll like comic connect, and also to make content. I spent a lot of time making content, and it is time well spent. How does engagement actually turn into sales, though? Right? How does this actually happen? I've done it. I have 82 clients, I think, now for my consultancy. I went from zero to 82, all on LinkedIn, all without spending one penny. How does that actually happen? I make good comment content or comment on somebody's post, right? I'm on their radar. Maybe they like the comment or they like the post. I see that. I have time blocked every week to follow up with people that are viewing my profile and regularly liking my content. I send them a DM that doesn't all acknowledge, it's not like, oh, hey, I saw you viewed my profile. It's, hey, my name's Rich. I just love connecting with other awesome industry professionals. If you got five, 10 minutes to jump on a call one day these next few weeks, no, I'd love to. That leads in a lot of clay cases to a reply, which leads to a conversation, which now you have a relationship. We all know the second that you see and and talk to somebody, virtually or in person, it changes things, right? Changes your odds to make a deal big time in your favor. So um, and that's the game. Time management. I am a huge time management geek. And I, you know, because it's it's incredibly impactful, being very cognizant of how you use your time. Uh, I time block for LinkedIn, I work with all my clients to do the same. Uh, I would advocate everybody to do it, right? Um, you know, it's treat these things like meetings. If you're just doing time blocks and then burning past them, then it's just wasted time and energy. What I tell people is start with 15 or 10 minute time blocks. And if you can't make them, move them, right? If if it says Thursday, you know, 10 a.m. 30 minutes of LinkedIn content or 15 minutes of of LinkedIn content ideas, and something you get a call at 9.59, you have to take. Don't just blow past it. Move that block later in the day or in the evening or later in the week or next week, you know, and I think that's the best practice I've seen on time blocking. So AI is a lethal weapon. A lethal weapon. Claude is the best, I would argue, right now. GPT is still number two. Gemini, this is just for prompts. Uh I would say is three. Copilot four, probably for the big four. They're all gonna be viable. So if you are co-pilot only, don't worry. Copilot today is better than whatever the best AI was a month ago. It's incredibly powerful. You don't think Microsoft is gonna let copilot suck, do you? You don't think Google is gonna let Gemini suck, do you? Honestly, if I was betting money on who would be the best at AI 18 months ago, I'd probably bet on Google Gemini. They have the most cash and the most to lose. AI is completely eradicating search, and search revenue is a massive part of Google's business plan. So we've talked about the ways to use AI to help you. It is if you're not spending at least an hour a day farting around with AI, I would argue it's very, very short-sighted, given the power of that technology, that it's free and how it just helps you do everything quicker and better. Who does not want that? We all have parts of our job that we don't like. Why spend more time on those things than you have to? That's my thing. I want to spend the most minimal time possible on things I don't like or that are low impact. So I can use all that time on big impact stuff. Common mistakes to avoid. We're almost done here on LinkedIn. I know I went a little over. Um, overpromotional. Again, nobody wants to be sold to. One out of if you're selling on LinkedIn, I make probably 15 LinkedIn posts a week. Um, like two are directly selling what I'm doing. One out of every five is the way to think about it. Think about that. Most people, every single post they make is selling themselves, and they wonder why 14 people look at it, right? It's you can't, it has to be give, give, give, give, ask. Give, give, give, give, ask. That's the way to make money digitally. Posting irregularly, you know, it's like exercise, right? You go crazy for a month and then you stop exercising for three months. You're like back to square one. LinkedIn is the same way. Ignoring engagement. If people make comments, if it's appropriate, comment back, right? It's it's common courtesy. Uh, treating LinkedIn like Facebook, you know, you don't want to go into any of this stuff, right? If any po I talk about politics all the time, actually, because you can't, it's so woven in the mortgage. But nobody knows if I'm Republican or Democrat. Nobody. I have a group of 20 people that I work with on a group call. I polled them live on Zoom. I'm like, would you think I'm a Republican or a Democrat based on my content? It was 10 and 10. Yes, it's exactly what I want, right? Anything political is idiotic. Like, why? 30% of the people will hate you immediately. Things are so divisive right now. Sales is hard enough where you're eradicating 30% off the rip. No, thank you. Um, pitching in the DMs immediately, you know. People call this the pitch slap when somebody connects with you and you're you're selling them in a DM right away. And this is the biggest one quit, giving up too early. It takes like 90 days to really get into a rhythm. This is like everything in life. Business owners, like it's just tough to anything good in life is difficult. And 90% of people don't have the intestinal fortitude to fight through the hard parts to get to the good part. LinkedIn is no different. Your action plan this week, get your profile taken care of, your headline, your about section, your banner, uh, your photo, make sure that's all dialed up, right? Beyond that, try to get into just posting two, three times a week. Put on your calendar, 30 minutes, like, scroll, like, comment, connect. It's great. 30 minutes. First part of the morning is the best time. You get your news from the mortgage industry, get some likes and some comments out there. Maybe get some time to think about some posts, send your connection requests out, and then just let it build upon itself, right? Take solace in the fact everybody I've ever worked with, pretty much, is where you all probably are right now. Like, oh my God, this seems kind of crazy. Can I do this? Yes, you could do it. It's easy, it just requires a little bit of strategy and a lot of consistency. Being committed to it is the biggest thing. Oh, most people give up. So that's it. There's my contact info. This stuff really works. Um, it really, really, really does. I can tell you because it's happening for me. It allowed me to go from a job I love with a great salary to going to zero. And I'm my own boss for life now. I mean, that's the ultimate, that's an extreme case of it. But I'm watching recruiting sales managers that recruited one person all last year that have recruited four in Q1 this year. You know, I'm watching people that have no following, that never been on the platform, they're getting thousands of impressions per post. Like that can happen immediately for you, honestly, if you are good enough at it. So it's worth the time and the energy. And again, in today's business world, if you're not here, you're invisible, increasingly so every day. Like anybody that thinks that I mean, I, you know, I coach a lot of like LO's and production. Oh, I've got my 10 realtors, like, you know, they're so locked in, I'm never losing them. You know, they all give me six to eight deals a year. You will be bled away by psychopaths like me that just keep coming and coming and are very, very good at creatively staying in front of people. That real estate agent you think you have lockdown on, there's people coming after them every day. So if nothing else, moat your damn castle. Even if you're like, you know what, this guy, maybe there's some credibility to what he's saying. I kind of get it, the business world's changing. I still I'm not a social media person. You'll get bled away. It just the question is how fast and and how soon. Um, and you know, for no other reason than to have some presence digitally, you have to remind your people that are important to you, you exist and what you're good at, or they'll forget. So good stuff there. Um, and uh, if anybody has any questions, I'm so way over already. I'll allow a minute or so for those. But uh I want to thank everybody for coming on live. Um, and uh, those of you listening to this on pod or watching this on YouTube, um, OhioMBA.org. We're doing so many awesome things with Ohio MBA right now. Um trying to put content more content like this that can be a value of people regularly. So um, yeah, so it's you can sign up for all the live versions of everything we're doing there. So all right, cool. Well, good stuff. Always enjoy doing this. If anybody has any questions on any of this stuff, DM me, email me. I'm the most easy person in the world to get a hold of. Uh I love helping people out. I love helping people get motivated to get started. So if you need that kick in the ass, shoot me a note. And I really appreciate you guys taking some time with us today. All right, take care, everyone.