Latest / Founder Unfiltered - What Founders Think But Never Say / The Most Selfish Thing You Can Do Is Keep Your Expertise to Yourself

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The Most Selfish Thing You Can Do Is Keep Your Expertise to Yourself · Founder Unfiltered - What Founders Think But Never Say

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  Welcome to another episode of Founder Unfiltered.
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  This is what founders think but never say.
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  It's the show to really go deep into the founder experience and
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  how we can make this more sustainable for everyone.
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  My name is Bradley Jacobs, I'm your host, the founder and CEO
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  of my lands. Today I'm going to bring you
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  actual questions, thoughts, curiosities, let's say that
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  customers have had or potential customers have had because I
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  know if they're expressing these doubts and concerns that you
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  have them too. And before I get into it, the
• 0:39
  product that we have built has taken a whole new level.
• 0:43
  Customers are really raving about how it's actually learning
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  to write like you. We bring in trending news
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  articles. We now have an image generator.
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  Scheduling and posting the LinkedIn is super, super easy.
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  Like I spend under 5 minutes per post right now.
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  So it's, it's been really amazing and we give you a free
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  positioning now. So come check it out, go to the
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  website mylands.co and get your free positioning.
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  OK, with that said, I'm going to just read to you an e-mail I
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  got. It's from a potential customer
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  and he's kind of gone back and forth and whether he wants to
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  really use LinkedIn to grow his business or not.
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  And I'm not really in the business of convincing somebody
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  to use LinkedIn. Like if you don't see the value
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  of LinkedIn, that's not going to be my my job.
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  It's more about if you want to use it and you don't know how to
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  use it most effectively to bring in clients, bring in customers,
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  get your name out there, then I'm your guy.
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  So anyway, he says. I think that it's the fact that
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  it feels disingenuous to me. Like I feel like both I know and
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  the people reading the post know that this is just about getting
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  my name out there and making sales.
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  And so it feels hollow. And then he goes, does it make
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  any sense? Have you forced your way through
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  that feeling or do you see it differently?
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  And I think this is a fascinating mindset, frankly,
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  like having been in this world for so long, it's not right or
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  wrong. I think it's totally normal to
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  feel this way of like, I'm only showing up on LinkedIn basically
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  so that so that I can get customers.
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  And so I know that and they know that.
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  So this doesn't work. The mindset that he's having is
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  totally normal and not going to get him anywhere, right?
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  That's almost like saying like, I'm not going to write a blog
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  that adds value, that showcases a interesting person, a case
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  study or talks about a topic. Or frankly, let's just say this
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  podcast. I'm not going to record this
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  podcast because I know that you guys know one of the main
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  reasons I do this is to get awareness and build trust and,
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  and add value so that you think I'm legitimate and then you come
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  by my product, right? Does that make me disingenuous
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  for sharing this podcast with you?
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  And the way that I think about this in total transparency is I
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  think about how much value can I add to you?
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  Genuine value, right? How can I teach you things,
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  inspire you, motivate you, connect you to good people, you
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  know, great people that I have on the podcast guests.
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  And how can I just deliver value, deliver value, deliver
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  value because the end of the day, my product is also
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  valuable, right? It is way more valuable than
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  what I charge for it. So I am giving you value.
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  Yes, I'm building up trust with you and I'm growing the
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  awareness so that when you come check us out that you've heard
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  about it from podcast or LinkedIn or wherever.
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  And there's also some trust built up.
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  You know, this isn't some like a random software product they
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  threw together in five seconds. And then if you do buy the
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  product, you're getting even more value.
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  So like everybody wins, I win, you win, everybody wins.
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  So he's coming from the standpoint of like, I am not
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  delivering value in my content or my service.
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  I'm actually taking. And because I'm taking and I
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  feel like I'm taking and then you feel like I'm taking.
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  It all feels gross, right? What he says, it feels
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  disingenuous to him. I'm going to share some more
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  quotes I heard. I was on a call actually
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  yesterday. And she is really concerned that
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  showing up on LinkedIn feels desperate.
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  She used that word a bunch, especially about posting
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  multiple times per week. She said, everyone will know I
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  left my job. I can't be too specific because
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  I might need these people later. When she talked about like, how
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  we're going to work on her niche, she's like, I need to be
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  really, really careful about what I say.
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  What if, you know, the tool misfires and then it posts
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  something random? There's all of these fears
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  running the show of if I haven't been posting on LinkedIn and
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  then I start posting on LinkedIn, what is everyone going
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  to think that to me is the course?
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  Like what are other people going to think about me, especially
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  the people that my LinkedIn community might be made-up of
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  past Co workers, past managers, maybe investors, like people
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  that I really respect and look up to.
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  And I don't want them to think I'm a desperate fill in the
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  blank, right? So we're all, we're trying to
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  manage other people's perceptions of us and frankly,
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  we're suffering in the process because here's what's true.
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  I post on LinkedIn every single day.
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  Sometimes I post twice a day. And here's the reason why I
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  don't think twice about doing that is because I know that my
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  followers connections, whatever you want to call them, they
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  aren't seeing. Like, it's not like when I make
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  a post 25,000 people all see it at one time.
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  And then if I post again an hour later, they all see it again.
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  That's not how it works. And if you think about your own
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  feed that you get right when you're scrolling, it's not like
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  you're seeing, oh, Bradley made another post, right?
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  You might see it a few hours later.
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  You might see it a few days later.
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  You might see it a few weeks later and you might never see
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  it. I would venture to guess you
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  listening to this, you probably see one in four or one in five
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  posts that I make. The algorithm doesn't work where
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  it's just going to constantly show you my stuff.
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  Like that would be a horrible user experience, right?
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  I could post every hour and it's not going to do that.
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  So you got to think about what is it really like from your
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  user's point of view? It's not what you experience.
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  So that's a big, big part that we get to really untangle.
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  She's like, I don't know, I kind of only want to post once a
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  week. I'm like, look, you can post
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  once a week. She's like, I'm going to make it
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  a really high quality post and I'm like, that's great, but not
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  everyone's going to see that post.
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  And if you're willing to show up three times per week, right,
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  then you are one, increasing the odds that your post resonate
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  because we don't know exactly what's going to resonate.
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  We have a good idea, but we don't know exactly.
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  And two more people are just generally going to see your
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  content over time because that one piece per week is just not
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  going to get that widely distributed unless it like
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  happens to just like take off, which is relatively rare and
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  frankly like not what we are searching for, fishing for,
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  optimizing for. It's like we are optimizing for
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  consistency overtime with yes, high quality, but it does not
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  need to be perfect. And we're completely taking that
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  off the table. The mindset here, all these
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  objections, all the fears, all of the like.
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  What if it looks desperate? This is what I really want to
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  spend the rest of the time talking about because how we
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  think other people are going to perceive us.
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  We are never going to win that game.
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  Never. We can't control other people's
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  perceptions. Like I had a post once and I
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  told her this on the call. It was like I had a post that
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  literally left myself a note in the middle of the post and I
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  said like, finish this edit later or finish this draft
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  later. And I accidentally posted it to
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  LinkedIn And I have like 25,000 followers, right?
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  And someone or two people wrote like, this is what happens when
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  you use AI. Like they tried to like, you
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  know, catch me. And I was like, hey guys, well,
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  you know, thanks for the call out.
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  Appreciate, appreciate holding me accountable here.
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  And actually, this wasn't AI. This was me.
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  This was my own honest mistake. Yes, I am human.
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  I made a mistake. I posted something before I was
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  ready. You guys got me right?
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  It's like, and frankly, I don't even think anybody like, how do
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  you even respond to what I said? I don't think anybody even
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  responded to it. And I ended up finishing the
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  post, right? And then that was it.
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  It was over. Did I lose tons of credibility?
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  Do people think I'm like some major fuck up because I made a
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  mistake on LinkedIn? Like no, right, and but we make
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  the we like over dramaticize how we're going to look.
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  And so, you know, I'd love to really hit on the IT feels
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  desperate that everyone will know I left my job and are just
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  looking for clients. And first of all, if everyone
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  knows you left your job, I think that's kind of a good thing,
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  right? She's specifically looking to go
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  into consulting. And so if everyone knows that
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  she left her job, then they could potentially hire her.
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  So I think one, that's a good thing.
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  I think she's fearful of being seen in transition or having it
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  look like she got laid off or something like that, which she
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  didn't, but it doesn't matter, right?
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  She's she's trying to keep up appearances, but I think leaving
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  your job is a good thing if you're trying to get hired as a
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  consultant or trying to find customers for your company,
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  because now people know what you're up to and that's a good
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  thing because then they can come hire you or work with you on
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  down the line. As far as the IT feels
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  desperate, I think that's really interesting.
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  Again, from the standpoint of what is desperate about sharing
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  your expertise on LinkedIn, I actually think you could reframe
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  that to say sharing your expertise on LinkedIn is one of
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  the most generous things you could do.
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  You are opening people's eyes up to what you know in a broad
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  sense. Meaning like I make one post and
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  it could hit 100 or 1000 or 10,000 people.
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  I'm sharing my expertise that they're not going to learn
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  otherwise. That is one of the most
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  generous, powerful, loving, kind, caring things I could do.
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  I know personally a ton of shit about go to market strategies
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  from Uber, marketplace launches, consulting businesses, pricing.
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  Imagine if I just kept all of that information to myself and
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  I'm like, I'm not going to share.
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  I'm not going to share because I'm scared of how you're going
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  to perceive me. I'm scared about how you're
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  going to think about me. I'm scared about whatever story
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  you're going to make up about who I am.
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  And honestly, my guess is 1 in 100 people of my LinkedIn or
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  this podcast or whatever probably think I'm full of shit,
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  right? One in 100 judge the shit out of
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  me or think I'm disingenuous or whatever, right?
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  That's just going to happen. And I would venture to guess
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  that the 99 people out of 100 that don't think that are at a
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  minimum, like feel nothing about my podcast or LinkedIn.
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  And in the best case scenario, love what I do, get value, share
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  it with friends, come back to me and say thank you.
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  I learned a lot from like I had a guy, he just made a LinkedIn
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  post this morning and he wrote, based on this conversation with
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  Bradley, I started adding new connections and sharing content
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  on LinkedIn and my network has completely transformed.
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  So even from one person, I'm like, OK, this is worth it.
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  This is worth it because part of my purpose here on this planet
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  is to support others in their dreams.
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  And so even producing the free content on this podcast and
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  LinkedIn like I am, I feel amazing about that.
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  So the one person who judges the fuck out of me can have their
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  fun with that, right? It doesn't really need to affect
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  me at all. It only really affects me if
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  they start doing a massive marketing campaign trying to
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  like slander me, which is a huge amount of effort and they should
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  probably just do that for their own business instead of trying
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  to take me down, right? That just makes no sense.
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  So if we can let go of the fear of judgment, of the fear of what
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  other people are going to say, fear of this stories and realize
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  we are never going to be able to control somebody else's
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  perception of us. All we can do is show up
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  authentically, honestly, adding value to the world, adding value
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  to everyone we can interact with, right?
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  Start to like fill our own cup always, and then bring our gifts
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  to the world in the most authentic way possible.
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  And then if somebody wants to judge us, let them judge us just
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  like it's OK, right? What happens when you get
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  judged? The answer is, if you don't let
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  it affect you, the answer is nothing, right?
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  OK, That person who judges me, they're not going to be a
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  customer. Cool, right?
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  But the 99 people that I'm either adding value to or feel
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  indifferent about me, I have a potential to work with them.
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  I have a potential to get my product in their hands and help
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  them. Because when I get my product in
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  their hands and then they grow their businesses through sharing
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  authentically on LinkedIn, then everybody wins.
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  And I feel amazing inside. So I'm willing to risk it.
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  I'm willing to risk that person that tells me I'm full of shit.
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  Let's say they get loud and they're like, probably you're
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  full of shit. I'm willing to face that in
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  order to add value to dozens, hundreds, thousands of people.
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  And frankly, if you're going to be a business owner, that is
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  what you are agreeing to. You are agreeing to be somewhat
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  polarizing. You are agreeing that people
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  aren't going to like you, that you're going to get rejected,
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  that you're going to get judged because in order to grow
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  awareness of your service product, whatever it is, you're
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  putting yourself out there and that's just what's going to
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  happen. So I hope this was a really
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  helpful reframing episode, sharing genuinely of what I
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  experienced sharing what my customers are saying and how you
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  can think about it instead. That's hopefully really, really
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  empowering for you. With that, I'm going to sign
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  off. I hope you guys got value out of
• 14:24
  this episode means a ton. If you just take one second to
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  give us a rating, give us a review.
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  Honestly, just like give us a rating means a lot.
• 14:32
  Share it with a friend, come chat with me on LinkedIn means a
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  lot and come check out our product.
• 14:37
  It's really incredible. You get free positioning and we
• 14:40
  are working on a free a free tier entirely.
• 14:43
  So you can use the product completely for for free.
• 14:45
  I really want you guys to experience it and if you want
• 14:47
  the full functionality, we'll give you the paid version of
• 14:49
  course, but more of that coming soon.
• 14:52
  Come check it out, my lance.co. Give us a review.
• 14:55
  Have an amazing, amazing day and I'll talk to you guys soon.