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Mastering LinkedIn: Strategies for Lead Generation with Colin Hirdman · Unstoppable Success Podcast

• 0:04
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to the Unstoppable Leadership of Life.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_01: Influential leaders and their game changing insight.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_01: I'm just the founder, CEO and founder of Leap Tier Six Towns.
• 0:15
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• 0:17
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• 0:22
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• 0:28
  SPEAKER_01: We'll leave the creators.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_01: So stick around to the end of the show, and we will share with you how you can be our next guest.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_01: So stick around to the 15 to 20 minutes.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_01: Let's be unstoppable.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_01: Well, hello everybody, and welcome to another amazing episode of the Unstoppable Leadership Spotlight podcast, where we hear from amazing leaders and their game-changing insights.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_01: You know, our goal on this podcast is to have and make great leaders even better because great leaders at great companies make great team members.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_01: So today we have Colin Herdman.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_01: He has a wealth of experience, but he has true great experience building companies and he has a new startup, Rainmaker, which is going to actually help you rein in all the leads and the sales that you want on LinkedIn.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_01: So love the name.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_01: I just have to also share he does have another company called Monkey Ventures, Monkey Island Ventures.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_01: And I had to mention that because my uh quote unquote spirit animal, I didn't share this with you, is the monkey.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_01: And I actually collect monkeys.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_01: So if you came to my house, monkeys all over the place.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_01: So some people collect elephants, I collect monkeys.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: So my grandma collected owls.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, there you go.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_01: So welcome to the podcast, Colin.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_01: So you have uh shared, you've had a great career.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_01: You started right out of college, right?
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_01: Working with your high school friends.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: Well, so um the uh first company I started a week after graduating from college um was not with my friends yet.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: So I had that company uh for a little over a decade.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I graduated with a criminal justice degree, which I never used, and I never took a business accounting or marketing class in college.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: So it was trial by fire.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: I learned entrepreneurship just by building that business.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: And then uh I sold that.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: And in 2007, uh is when Josh, Zach, and I uh came together.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and so I sold the business in 2006, 2007, just kind of serendipity brought the three of us together.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: Josh moved back up here from Uruguay, his dad's side of the family is from there.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, he's down there for about a decade.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: And then um Zach was uh helping a children's publishing company um get sold.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: And so he kind of worked himself out of a job.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and so the three of us, yeah, decided, you know what, let's go into business together.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: We've been kind of conversing and talking about entrepreneurship and business ideas and all that.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: And uh yeah, since 2007, we've built probably close to a dozen SaaS products over the years.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we um have three uh kind of service-based companies right now, uh uh Agurian, our digital marketing company, uh Cloudburst, our software development company, and uh Rainmaker, which is kind of our our LinkedIn um startup.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, you know, I think more than anything, you know, I've known those guys since we were all about five years old.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: And Monkeyland's named after a park the three of us used to play at when we were kids, located here in the Twin Cities.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: And having them as business partners has just been fantastic because we just know each other innately, uh, we trust each other, and we've always put you know our friendship and family ahead of money.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that has really allowed us to uh navigate a lot of the ups and downs of building businesses together.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: And we even came up with kind of the five F's as our core value, which is uh freedom, finances, family, friendship, and fun.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: And those are the kind of five core values that that that we live by.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: So uh yeah, it's just been uh a fantastic uh journey with them, and I'm look forward to um doing a lot more with them as well.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_01: That's really fantastic.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_01: So I just have to highlight this.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_01: So, listeners, that was a huge, huge insight.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_01: Your five F is your values, and having that would you know A that you as a as individuals live by, but as a as a threesome team company live by is so important for any success.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_01: And I think so.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_01: Tell me and tell the audience too, like how do those values come into the overall makeup, so to speak, of the company and how you guys lead?
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, that's a great question.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, the you know, the the other two, the the digital marketing company and the software development company uh that have employees and whatnot, uh, we use the EOS, the entrepreneurial operating system um and traction to to run those two companies.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: And that's where kind of we got the core values from.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but there's you know lots of other aspects to uh that program that you follow that really I think leads into uh leadership and uh really trying to you know look at, I'll use your term, all the team members, right?
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: And trying to elevate um them and uh also delegate in ways that uh allows them to become leaders.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: And um, you know, I think more than anything, uh what the three of us want is to you know build thriving businesses that uh are providing for you know us and on and our team members.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, you know, I think we do a really, really good job of that.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, I would highly encourage you know those listening that you know, if there are people in your life that uh could be uh a business in the ways that Zach and Josh are for me, um the ups and downs of entrepreneurship, you can't get away from that.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: It's just incredibly difficult.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: But having people that again you can innately trust and will be there for those uh ups and downs, I think just makes that journey so much more valuable.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no, and it's and I think that's really true, you know, really key to have those people, you know, you know, you need to always surround yourself, right?
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_01: Whether it's account with accountability partners and the people that you surround yourself with, and it's a the and the people that you're doing business with, it really does matter.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_01: And so how does that incorporate you know those values into you know what you actually do for business every day?
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, right now you you mentioned that you are working on uh your newer startup, Rainmaker.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_01: How do those values transcend over into Rainmaker?
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: So I think um more than anything, I think the you know, when you look at uh the five F's, I think part of what we want and what we've learned is creating businesses that uh that get traction to get customers.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I can say that you know we have built products in the past and we have thought you know the market needs this and we release it and it's just crickets, right?
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: It's not fun trying to grow a company that uh isn't getting traction.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: And so I think part of what those five F's do for us is also make us look at the reality of the situation.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: And so for you know, for for Rainmaker, kind of one of the reasons why we wanted to start it was um, you know, as a as another kind of revenue driver, so it fits kind of the finances component.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, it it leans in the way that the model is created to still creating you know freedom for for the three of us and um kind of uh lends itself well to the way that we want our business to function.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, you know, there's certainly an uh for me an element of of fun in you know launching something new and bringing that to market and getting customers and seeing traction.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: So so that's that's fantastic.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: And then you know, the friendship that and family, when we get together quarterly, you know, we plan uh events uh for the just the three of us, but then also we're doing stuff with you know um you know our wives together.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: And then we even uh will uh rent a like an Airbnb twice a year and bring our all of our families together and do one in the summer and one in the winter.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, I think just you know, more than anything, just having businesses that that work that are getting traction, um, that provides a lot of value um uh just across all those five F's.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: And then that um you know really kind of bleeds down into um everyone else that's kind of joining us through this journey.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_01: So I, you know, I looked, I was looking at the Rainmaker site, and as you're talking and you're talking about the F, I'm I'm thinking what Rainmaker also does is that it does provide some of those F's for your clients, right?
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_01: Freedom, finances, the financial part.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, um and it probably makes the calls or the conversations that they have a little bit more fun.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: No, very, very true.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: But no, I think that's that's exactly right.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I think on the freedom side, um, you know, because we're using an element of you know um automation on on LinkedIn, that's just freeing up time for the for the for the client.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: But then at the same time, um the finances part, I want LinkedIn to be a revenue driver for my company.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what my clients want as well.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I think a lot of times, you know, people get caught up in uh utilizing LinkedIn and really focusing, I think, too much on like posts and likes and comments and all those kinds of things, uh, and not focused enough on kind of basic, you know, business marketing and sales fundamentals and how you can use LinkedIn.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: And uh I can get into some of that at the appropriate time uh because I think some of that your audience and and you will really um enjoy because you could literally start applying that immediately after listening to this podcast.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, well, and actually that brings me to my next question, which is what got you started down the path of Rainmaker and starting LinkedIn?
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I will, you know, I looking at your at the site, you know, you know, one of the things it said it's like we all hate being sold on LinkedIn.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my God, the cringe, like you know, like and and I'm sure listeners, you've probably heard, you know, had this too.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_01: And I've made posts about this because it's nails on a chalkboard for me where it's like, yes, I want to connect with you.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_01: And I look at people's profiles, it's like I help coaches, blah, blah, blah.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, oh, I'm gonna connect with you, and it's gonna be a sales call, it's gonna be a pitch.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_01: And they don't want to get to know me.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yep, yep, yep, no, agreed.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's that's really a key component.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: So when I think of you know LinkedIn and the way that I've kind of broken out the way that you should approach it, it's kind of three levels.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: One is around the philosophy of how you should approach LinkedIn.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: The the level underneath that then is um audience building, and then um the the bottom layer then is activating that that audience.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: And so the philosophy really for me, it's it's very simple.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_00: Number one, you have to be authentic and genuine on LinkedIn.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: I think most people do a really good job of that.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_00: LinkedIn's not a toxic social network.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it is the only real business social network that people are participating in.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: So you need to be there.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and you know, you need to be authentic and genuine to yourself, but also to the brands uh that you represent.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: The second thing is you need to approach it with an educational mindset because, like you just said, nobody wants to be sold on LinkedIn.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: We all hate getting those messages where someone wants to sell us something or they want to book a meeting right away when they haven't done anything to kind of build relationships with us.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_00: And the last thing is, and this is where there's a lot of kind of um responsibility on the owner or the founder, or you know, the anybody that's sitting in the sales or marketing seat, which is you have to understand the pains and barriers your prospects are trying to overcome.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: And from that, you should start to identify, okay, well, what is it that they want to be educated on?
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: And most importantly, what is it they can learn from you?
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_00: What can you teach?
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's really the the philosophy that can have you achieve a lot of success in growing in network leads and sales is being genuine and authentic, that educational mindset, and then figuring out what it is your audience can learn from you.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: What can you teach?
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_01: No, and it's it's I think that is so true.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_01: What can you teach?
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_01: And I and I think the other key part is you know what you said is like again, nobody wants to be sold to right at all, at all.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_01: And so it's like don't be that, don't you know, if you're worried about being cringy, then I guess what?
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_01: Then I'm gonna I bet your message is cringy.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: Agreed.
• 14:02
  unknown: Yep.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_01: If you're questioning it, uh right, exactly.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yep, yep.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: So then kind of that layer then underneath it, once you've adopted that philosophy, is uh building out like audiences of people that you actually want to start connecting with.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I typically use sales navigator, which is the sales tool that LinkedIn offers.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um but there's a couple of uh growth hacks that uh I've identified.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_00: So um one is LinkedIn events.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_00: So if you have any direct competitors that are putting on a linked event, or maybe there's an industry organization that's putting on a LinkedIn event that uh, you know, is around a topic that your business solves for, if you go and attend that event, you can also see everyone else that's also attending that event.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_00: And you can actually start building out a prospect list of people that are publicly raising their hand and saying, you know, this is who I am, and I'm interested in learning more about this topic.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: So that's one great way of starting to build out a prospect list of people that are already further down the purchase path.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and then uh another one is using a person as a proxy.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_00: So there's a woman named Brenda on LinkedIn.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: She has about 70,000 followers.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_00: She talks a lot about LinkedIn profiles and LinkedIn um posts and likes and comments and all those kinds of things.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_00: So I reached out to connect with her.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_00: She connected back with me.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_00: And because her connections are open, um, I can look and see, okay, who are the you know, second degree connections to me but are first degree connections to her that I would want to connect with, right?
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_00: So I could identify, you know, founders or sales executives, you know, in certain geographies, et cetera, that are following her, most likely, because they're trying to learn how to grow on LinkedIn from her content.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: Therefore, they'd be a good candidate for Rainmaker.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: So those are two kind of growth hacks.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: One is LinkedIn events, and the other is using a person as a proxy.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_01: Now, do you have to have sales navigator for to to to work that way?
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_01: To work those hacks?
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_00: Nope, nope.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_00: You can use regular LinkedIn search as well.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: You just don't get some of the other benefits of additional filters and save searches and so things like that that you get out of Sales Navigator.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_01: No, that's those are really, really great hacks.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_01: Listeners, really game-changing insights on using LinkedIn.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_01: So what made you like go down this path with LinkedIn?
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: Well, because I wanted to uh mostly for our software products, I wanted to get um gauge interest and get beta users.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: And so uh using LinkedIn, I could target people that would be good candidates.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I was able to get you know lots of um signups, like email addresses of people that were would be interested in our product before we even launched, and then also um getting beta users to um start uh using the software and giving us feedback and things like that.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_00: So that's that's kind of what um got me going kind of um deep into LinkedIn and how to use it.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um so yeah.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_01: So so I'm because I'm now like what is one of the biggest pet peeves you have?
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I know we've kind of talked about some of them, but like what's been like one just that you see on LinkedIn that you're just like, okay, please people don't do this.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I think people spend too much time and focus on organic posts and worrying about likes and comments and impressions.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, what what I was talking about, um, you know, kind of that the first layer philosophy, second layer audience.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the the bottom layer is activating that audience, right?
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: And the way that I'm typically activating the audience uh for myself and clients is, you know, once um once I have the audience identified, the number one thing that I need to do is, and what I tell your audience needs to do is start building out those first degree connections.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_00: And our cadence is reaching out to 25 people a day, Monday through Friday.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_00: So 125 people a week, 500 people a month.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_00: You're typically going to get about a 20 to 25% connection right back.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we're almost never using a connection message.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: And if someone doesn't connect back within 30 days, then we'll go and withdraw the invite.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then there's a three-week period of time in which you can't reinvite that person, but you could after that three-week period of time is up.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_00: So everything I talked about there, uh, your audience could go do manually right now.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_00: You can go withdraw invites, you can start identifying people that you want to connect with, you can start connecting with 25 people a day.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I think too many people undervalue the value of a first degree connection.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_00: You know, once you get that first degree connection, then it's about relationship building, right?
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_00: And there's all these different ways in LinkedIn that you can use to actually start building relationships with those first degree connections.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, the a few things that we that I would recommend you do after you get that first connection, um, one would be building out like a message campaign.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, with a message campaign, again, you need to be like a, I don't know if you've read the book, the go giver, but you have to provide, right?
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_00: And without expecting anything in return.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_00: And so that message sequence that we typically use is that first message, you know, goes out one to three days after someone connects with you.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_00: That's just thanking them for the connection authentically.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_00: So you're not selling anything, you're not even trying to help, you're just thanking them authentically for the connection.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_00: And if uh they respond, great, take that conversation wherever it goes.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_00: If they don't respond, then maybe a second message would go out seven to 14 days later.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_00: So I'll use myself as an example.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_00: I was connecting with sales executives here in the Twin Cities and created a list of around 300, about 120 connected back with me.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, my first message was thanking them for the connection and something about, you know, both in the Twin Cities.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then uh my second message was asking them if they knew of any good networking events here in the Twin Cities, right?
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_00: And so I started to get some, you know, response from some of those people, which was great.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_00: The third thing I did was invited them to participate in a LinkedIn poll that was focused in on kind of the pain that they have around using LinkedIn and not able to generate leads and sales, and what do they see as the biggest problem to that?
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I got uh about 40 of the 120 to participate in the LinkedIn poll.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_00: And then the the last thing that I did, which is really my favorite B2B tactic on LinkedIn, is I invited them to one of my LinkedIn live streams where I was I teach how to grow your network leads and sales using LinkedIn.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_00: And I got around 60 of them to register for for that event, um, that live stream event.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, that kind of example that I gave, if you'll notice, number one, it has nothing to do with organic posts.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_00: It has everything to do with understanding your audience and reaching out to them in ways that isn't spammy, it's not selling anything.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_00: And what it does, it starts to open up the opportunity then for you to um engage in a meaningful way, not only in sharing your knowledge and positioning yourself as a thought leader, but for example, the LinkedIn live stream to those, you know, 50 or 60 sales executives that signed up.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I send a message at to all the um attendees after the event.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_00: And the message is typically like, Hey Jacqueline, thanks again for uh registering for the LinkedIn live stream that I led.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_00: Here's a link to the recording, right?
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_00: And the recording still lives on the LinkedIn event page that they can go and watch if they weren't able to make the live stream or if they wanted to watch it again.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_00: And then underneath it, you can have different calls to action.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_00: My favorite call to action is if you ever want to chat LinkedIn strategy, feel free to grab some time convenient for you here.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I give them my calendarly link, right?
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_00: So because they're opting in to learn from me, they find that the content is interesting, they see me enough as a thought leader that they and trust me enough that they click the attend button.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_00: When I send that message, after the event is over and give them my calendar link, it doesn't feel spammy, it doesn't feel icky in any way.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_00: It's just a natural next step for them to potentially interact with me and learn more and and um further the further the relationship.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_00: So all that is just kind of a I think the right way to to use LinkedIn and um that's why I've been using it for five years and have been doing it for about a year now since I stood a brainmaker for my clients.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_01: You know, Colin, I absolutely love it.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I talk a lot about you know two steps like the two steps that you need to take um to create momentum.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_01: And you know you could break down your follow-up sequence almost like you know it's like two you know the first two steps and then the second two steps.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_01: And it's it creates a really great pattern.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_01: And it's but part of that too is as you as you share you're giving information and and creating the trust with with somebody and you're making the connection and building the relationship versus just throwing up on them.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_00: That's right.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah so part of it is yeah really knowing and understanding your your audience and you know one of the things I've I've um created first connections across um a number of different verticals um typically it's founders fractionals sales executives EOS implementers and business coaches right and so I can tailor my messaging to each of them I can tailor uh you know my my live stream content um to them uh even though the live stream content itself the deck that I use is almost the same to each of those verticals when they get to the event page uh like the image I use will say LinkedIn growth webinar for founders or for sales executives right and so even though the content's essentially the same when they get to that page they see the topic and that's interesting but then they also see oh it looks like this was made just for my title or for my industry right so and that's just a great way to um uh increase your uh attendance rate no that absolutely I love that because it goes back to one of my first loves uh and what I grew up in is actually direct marketing yeah and you're directly marketing to the right person you're speaking to them their language their benefits it's you know it's you know it's using somebody's first name in a message and sharing their their title it makes it so much more relatable.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely yeah yep nope that's that's exactly right and um you know with uh you know if you think about you know if you're growing out that first degree network week in and week out and you're doing some of these other activities an authentic kind of go giver mindset well when you do post organic posts um now you have a larger audience of ICPs that might see it and when those people see that it's also kind of getting meshed in with the other things that they're seeing from you that uh we've discussed so that makes your organic posts even that much more impactful.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah no I I I I you know all those activities because when you do again as you just said as you make those other posts then it also makes you more relatable because people start to see you in a different way.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_01: So it creates that full package it's it makes it so that the posts that you're doing aren't a waste.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly right you know that you know at least some of your ICPs are going to see it.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_00: I think you know for any given organic post you do maybe 10% of your audience sees it and what percent of that are ICPs that you really want to get it in front of if you're not building that out then it's gonna be a a bunch of people that you might have worked with before and friends and stuff like that.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_00: So um you really that that whole process that that I discussed you know your audience should go back and listen to that and just start doing that.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_00: That will help you start to turn LinkedIn into um more of a a lead and sales generator.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_01: You know Colin I I I love this conversation and I love also like just you know the audience to really take you know we're talking about LinkedIn and we're talking about you know the Rainmaker the company and and Colin and what he's doing but also think about these key tactics not even just for LinkedIn but how you also are doing and how you're communicating with your team in your sales because it's about building the relationships that you have the more you can make those connections again with your team members and and outside people as well the bigger you are going to grow and the tighter the relationships and people love doing business as we all know with people they know like and trust to build those relationships that don't sell.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_00: Agreed absolutely agree with that everything you said perfect.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_00: So with that note Colin how can people find you and connect with you yeah uh Rainmakergrows.com is the website uh so you can learn more there um on the resources page you can actually download a one page pdf that outlines my entire uh live stream process from beginning to end on how they should do it there's also um a PDF um that talks about uh kind of uh uh sales growth um on on LinkedIn and uh the free consultation button uh just connects to me the calendarly with me I'm the only person right now in Rainmaker so it would it would be with me and then I'm also the only Colin Herdman on the internet so feel free to reach out to me on uh LinkedIn and I'll connect back with you.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_01: Oh well that is fantastic and we will put all of those links in the show notes as well.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_01: So Colin thank you so much for being an amazing guest and my audience thank you so much for listening.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_01: If you have gotten amazing tips from this or insights which I'm sure you have please do me the favor of hitting the subscribe button and also share the Unstoppable Leadership Spotlight podcast with your friends and colleagues because if we can help make more leaders that are amazing and unstoppable we'll make a world that's also unstoppable as well.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm Jaclyn Strominger your host and I thank you all for listening and again thank you Colin for being a great guest.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much I'm Jaclyn Strominger and I want to thank you so much for listening to the Unstoppable Leadership Spotlight Influential Leaders and their game changing insights podcast.
• 28:32
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• 28:41
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• 28:59
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• 29:12
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• 29:17
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• 29:20
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• 29:34
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• 30:00
  SPEAKER_01: So thank you so much for listening and remember be un