How To Get Clients With A Lazy Linked In Strategy With Tania Bhattacharyya

TRANSCRIPT AUTOMATICALLY GENERATED Diane: [00:00:00] Hey, Hey, it's today's guest Tania Bhattacharyya helps overlooked experts become thought leaders through clear messaging and content on autopilot. I've avoided talking about LinkedIn on the show because so many experts that I come across have a real Broy hustle, cold call kind of vibe, which is just not my jam. But when I heard the words lazy, LinkedIn from Tanya, I was hooked. Hey Tanya. Welcome to the show. Tania: Hey, Diane, it's so good to be here. Thanks for having me. Diane: So let's start with a quick intro to you and your. Tania: Okay, sounds good. So I'm the founder of Lumos marketing and I work with social impact entrepreneurs and executives to really spark change and raise revenue by getting visible as a thought leader on LinkedIn. Diane: So for me, LinkedIn has some weird associations with my old corporate life. And frankly, Mine was so out of date that I was still getting headhunted for roles that I had in , 2015 when I left. So I've done a little bit of an updating, but it's still not a priority on my list. So before we dive into any strategy, can we talk about , why LinkedIn. Tania: Yes. Yes. I love talking about this. I kind of get on a little bit of a soapbox around this because so many people have just like what you said, this, this connotation of LinkedIn as being Uber corporate, Uber stuffy, kind of like the equivalent of a fluorescent. Like a fluorescent office, boardroom, you know what I mean? And nobody wants to go there anymore. But what I have found, and maybe, maybe the reason that I kind of realized this is I came from the social impact space. I come, I used to be a nonprofit executive director. Did a lot of fundraising, did a lot of community building. Did a lot of reaching out into the. You know, into the community, trying to get people interested in our mission and getting them to support. And so I always use LinkedIn from a really a like a community building aspect. And, you know, a lot of people have those connotations around LinkedIn as being stuffy, corporate, a place they don't wanna be because, you know, when it started, it really kind of was that way. It was used for [00:02:00] finding jobs, right. It was used. all of those kinds of really corporate things. But over the last couple of years, LinkedIn has really changed and much like the actual corporate world they're really working on becoming more human right there. There's a humanization of LinkedIn and they've really invested a lot in their creators. So I think for any lifestyle entrepreneur, it's a really fabulous option. Because, I mean so many reasons, but one of the reasons is because it's not yet saturated there's over 800 million people that use LinkedIn and over 12% of them visit the site daily. So they're active, right? They're on there, but they're just not posting for many, for some of the reasons that, you know, I'm sure we'll get into it's, you know, people are afraid. They think it's very, they don't know if they're professional enough. There's just something that stops us from posting on LinkedIn. There's some like, like some, some limiting beliefs I think. And so, and, and a variety of reasons, right? You you're, if you are fully employed, your boss can kind of see what you like, what you, what you comment on. So people aren't always engaging, but they are logging on. Right. They are lurking. There's a lot of LinkedIn lurkers. I like to say. And And for that reason, you know, because not a lot of people are posting your content has a really great shot of standing out for longer, you know, I'll post something. Today, I'll still be getting engagement on it two weeks from now, three weeks from now. And I think that's a re that's a really great reason that I love using LinkedIn. Cause I like to be lazy on LinkedIn. Right. I post once per week I encourage my clients who are busy change makers, right? Like they, they don't have to go on their every day. I was talking to somebody that we both know actually Diane and, uh, she runs a seven figure business and we did a V I P day together. And she's like, LinkedIn is so refreshing. That's not a word I thought I would. LinkedIn, you know, but she's like, I was just talking about TikTok and, you know, working with my team on making 10 talks a day, or trying to schedule three reels a day and you just don't have to do that on LinkedIn. You can have a life and, and be, you know, really be using LinkedIn to grow your [00:04:00] business. Diane: Yeah, I think I very much fall into that category of people who don't use it because you had a LinkedIn profile so that headhunters could find you for the next job, but you never wanted to be seen. On LinkedIn, right? You didn't want to be seen as having been on the site. So you weren't liking anything. You weren't commenting anything. You definitely were not posting anything. If you weren't in some kind of like business PR kind of role. And so I think coming from a corporate environment, you just don't think about posting. On LinkedIn, right? Cuz it's but you've been trained like this is the secret thing. Like, you know, we're all like hiding in the DMS on LinkedIn for me also, the other thing about LinkedIn is I find that every time I think, okay, I'm gonna do LinkedIn. Tania: yes. Diane: and I go and work with some LinkedIn teacher or cross creator or whatever the message is very much that you must post multiple times a day. These are all the types of content you must do all of them. And you do get that like, okay, great. So now I have to do reals. Instagram keeps changing almost every day. Then I'm also like, do I do Facebook, not do Facebook and now let's add LinkedIn into it. So it has this like intense hustle vibe. That also is kind of a, a turn off, but I do recognize what you're saying and that it isn't saturated. Like I still am on LinkedIn, but I see people's posts like people I actually know and I'm connected to. And when you said lazy LinkedIn, I was like, oh, I, I need to know everything. I need to like, just start at the beginning and like work through to the end of , how do I effectively use LinkedIn without creating a second? Full-time. Create a job for myself in my Tania: Yeah. You know, and that's such a good point. I think that certain there's a rigidity to the way that certain people teach about social media in general. Like I even did a post about being lazy on LinkedIn, you know, really talking about how I only post once a week and how much I love it. [00:06:00] And somebody posted in response, you know, and, and by the way, my philosophy is if I, if I get like a hater, then I'm doing something. So like, I, I like when I get people to, to troll on me, cause it means I, you know, I have a stand for something, right. But somebody commented and said, you know, you know, that's not gonna work this, you know, LinkedIn is real work. You gotta be posting every day. This is not a one to many PLA you know, he just, he just went off and it's just not true, you know, it's just not true. And I know that both you and I offer VIP days in addition to other things, but I have found that that LinkedIn works really well for that V I P day platform. And I will get back into ladies on LinkedIn in just a little bit, because I think when you have a V I P day, you are really positioning yourself as a go-to expert, as a, as a, as a person who can really create a transformation. Very quickly for someone. And I think LinkedIn is a great space to position yourself for that. And you just don't have to spend that much time on that because your content lives for so long. You know, another thing we didn't talk about yet around LinkedIn is they have a lot of different features, right? We all think about posting and your posts do last there for a really long time, but they've also got a feature called articles. So if you're writing longer form articles, or let's say you have a podcast and you decide to transcribe, you know what you say in there? You can get it up there as an article. And because LinkedIn is such a trusted platform in the eyes of Google that article will be indexed by Google and be found like an SEO search results for years and years and years to come. So I think on LinkedIn, there's more than you can do than on other platforms to really have like a longer term evergreen everlasting type of type of effect. Diane: And does LinkedIn want that content to be original? So let's say I transcribe my podcast cuz yes, this is my own private LinkedIn coaching session. I don't currently blog it on my website, but I do post the, transcript, but let's say I did blog it. You know, some people will take it and turn it into, into a blog with, with quotes. Does that need to [00:08:00] be original content on LinkedIn? Like how big is LinkedIn on everything must be original. Tania: that's a great question. And that's actually one that I, that I studied myself because I didn't want to post something as an article on LinkedIn and then also have it on my blog and have them compete against each other in Google. And so I haven't verified this Diane, but what I have read is if you wait just a little bit of time and then post the article on LinkedIn, like two weeks later, a month later, that gives Google time. I don't know, SEO is not my thing, but apparently that. That that makes it work right? That, that, yes, that makes it work. I don't wanna embarrass myself by using word big words that I don't really understand, but I SEO words. Right. But I have, I have read that, that, that makes it work. Yeah. Diane: so it's kind of like a repurposing. outlet for us, which we're always looking for. Okay. So let's go back to being lazy on LinkedIn. What am I posting? It feels really formal. Do I need to adapt my content, which is, tends to be a bit more snarky and a bit more relaxed on Instagram. Tania: right, Diane: How do I LinkedIn? Tania: How do you LinkedIn? That's a great question. So I think that a lot of people don't post on LinkedIn because they're afraid. They think they have to be very, very Uber professional, very glossy as if they're, you know, speaking in front of a, you know, in front of like a, like they're doing a presentation to their corporate board and that's just not how it is. I mean, I think you have to find a balance, right? Like I do, I've posted baby pictures of myself. I've posted pictures of myself on vacation. Right. I've posted pictures of my dog, but I always. Try to have the content of the post relate back to my ultimate like vision or my purpose or my, my mission, or like what I do. So for example, I once went on vacation in Hawaii and I went on one of those helicopters. Right. And I took a beautiful video of a waterfall from like, you know, many, many, many feet in the air. And I was thinking about how that work is so similar to this work. Branding personal branding thought leadership because when you are so [00:10:00] close to the work that you do, you can't really see you can't articulate its value. You're too close to it. You can't see the forest for the trees. And I remember in Hawaii, like a couple years ago I had been on a hike and I was like in the mud, right. I was gross. I was dirty. I was like, oh, this is hard. This is hot. And I didn't even realize how close I was to this beautiful view on top. Like I wanted to. I was just too close to it. I was like in the M, but when I was in the helicopter, looking down on that same sort of beautiful nature hike, I was like, oh, I can see how beautiful this is. Right. And that reminded me of this work of like getting above ourselves and, you know, and creating our branding, right. Creating our personal brand. So I did a post about that and, you know, and that's the kind of thing that I would encourage people to do is tell stories, you know, show your human side. I. Go as far as you know, like when I'm on Instagram, I use Instagram mostly for personal reasons. Like I'll post pictures of my avocado toast. And I wouldn't do that on LinkedIn. Like there is a, there is like a little bit of a boundary. Like I, everything I post on LinkedIn has a purpose. It, it, it, it comes back to really that, that, that thing that I'm trying to be known for in the world. Right. Cause thought leadership is not just about being known for as many, by as many people as possible. I think it's really about being known for something it's about making a stand for something. So what is that thing and how can you tie back your stories? To that thing, right. Don't be afraid of being vulnerable. I love some of my favorite things to talk about are like stories from childhood, right? Like that, that defining moment in fifth grade where you've realized you were different, that you know, that, you know, whatever, those, those stories that really shaped us into who we are. I think those are super powerful. I. Talking about like our, why I love talking about our, you know, our vision. I love telling stories that paint a picture of the world that we are trying to create as social impact exec, you know, leaders. And I love telling stories about collaboration. I think LinkedIn really is about like, if, if Instagram is [00:12:00] about like the visuals, right? And Twitter is about these like quick, quick little hits, these quick little news pieces, you know, every different platform has its own little. I don't know, niche space, specialty. I think LinkedIn is about connection. I think LinkedIn is about the quality of connection and so on LinkedIn, the more that you can do to really be in community, and I think turn your audience into a community and think of it less as you're one person speaking to many and more, I am one person sitting at a campfire of you. Dozens of people, even hundreds of people that I can build strong community with and relationship with. So, you know, another thing I love to do is tell stories about partnerships. I did that a lot when I was a nonprofit executive and I still do that a lot. Right? Like, I'll tell a story about all the people that I, that I referred business to that month because they do something similar but different. Right. I I talk about my clients, right? Every Sunday, I, I do a social impact story where I highlight. One of my clients and really talk about the change they're making in the world. And because I do that, like their, their work gets a lot more eyes just because of the way that LinkedIn works. I don't, we haven't talked about this yet, but another reason you can be lazy on LinkedIn is that the algorithm is so powerful. The algorithm is really built to get you in front of those people who can help you make shift happen. So let's say. Let's just say you're a nonprofit executive for, for this case. You, you know, if you're an entrepreneur, this works too, but if you're a nonprofit executive and you post a picture of you with your board, after a board meeting, tagging them, shouting them out, amplifying them for the work that they do, thanking them. They're gonna be so tickled and please, and like, oh my goodness, this is so I gotta shout out on LinkedIn. This is really amazing. And then even if they don't do anything at all, just the nature of them being tagged LinkedIn is gonna show your post to the people that they're connected with, even if you're not connected with them as a nonprofit executive. And so it just continually exposes your mission to more and [00:14:00] more people and plant seeds. And what that does is even if those people don't, you know, go ahead. Connect with you right away. Even if they don't take action, you're planting seeds so that when you have your year end fundraiser, when you have your big, you know, walkathon, when you have your big thing, or if you're an entrepreneur, when you have your big next launch, your name will already be in their. You know, in their brain, in their orbit. So, and it it'll, it'll just continuously bring you down that no, like trust funnel in a really powerful way that I don't think other platforms do. Diane: so I'm with you on like, okay, let, we can tell any kind of story and any kind of post, really, as long as it's segues into something connected to our mission. So kind of connecting it back into business, which is why people are connected with you. That makes total sense from a CTA perspective, then are our LinkedIn CTAs different from say an Instagram, which is like, make sure you share this or follow for more or whatever it Tania: Yeah, that's a great question. So, because I'm lazy on LinkedIn and I really only post once a week, I make sure that the thing that I post is really like a, you know, some people would call it like a hero post. I don't love that word, but it's like, it's just a very, very value rich post. And there's always, I wouldn't use the CTA. Necessarily to share it. I might use to follow me for more, but what I would say there is LinkedIn now has a relatively new feature called like a bell. If you go to somebody's profile, uh, you won't see it on your own profile, so don't let that trick you. But if you go to anyone else's profile, you'll see a little. Bell on their top right corner of their profile page. And if you click that bell or hit that bell, you'll be notified of all of their future posts. And so that I've seen people say, you know, ring my bell for more or something like that. I actually use that strategy. I don't tell anybody to ring my bell, but I ring the bell of people that I wanna be more connected with people who are influential people, influential thought leaders in my field, you know, referral partners. I follow their bell so I can like really stay in community [00:16:00] with them. But to go back to your. A CTA that I might do. You know, when I post about my podcast is I will put the CTA to the blog on my website so they can read more. I always like to do a little bit every now and then I'll put a lead magnet in there, like I'll put my LinkedIn prompts, I'll put something that they can. Do to get more of what I'm saying. And so usually I'll use more of a CTA like that because I use LinkedIn kind of to wet people's appetites to make them interested to tell a really, really good story to make them lean in. Right. And then I want to lead them to somewhere where they can take that next. Good right. Action. You know, whether that's signing up for a webinar. You know, whatever that is the other CTA that I really like to do. And I've been leaning more into this early, late, uh, lately. And this relates back to what I was saying about turning your audience into a community. I love asking questions in the. In the, as a CTA, like that's my favorite CTA. And sometimes when I send out my weekly email, which is often just my LinkedIn content repurposed, I'll actually send them in that email to the link of my LinkedIn post. So I'll send them to my LinkedIn post and even the email, my CTA will be join in the conversation, cuz I am really trying to turn my content into a place where many people can then have relationship with each other. Right. So for example, last week. I did a post with a tip, which is like, if you don't know what to say on LinkedIn, go through your camera roll, go through old photo albums, go through old, you know, whatever, find old pictures that really tell a story and then back into the post, right. Start with the picture back into the post. And so I, my CTA in that, in that thing was to actually have people. Post a picture of themselves and tell the story around it. Right. And so people did, and it gets people excited. It's like a small, low lift thing that they can do to to show support, to be a part of, to, to engage. Right. So, yeah, that's my favorite CTA is to really ask a [00:18:00] powerful question that is easy enough for people to answer like a, do like people wanna go in their camera roll and share a picture of their dog. People want to do that. So, yeah, making it really easy for people to engage and start a conversation. That's my favorite CTA. Cause again, LinkedIn is about, that's what it's about, right? It's about community. It's about collaboration. It's but relationship. Diane: Okay. So I'm gonna go into LinkedIn once a week. I'm gonna share an epic story that segues beautifully into my thought leadership. And I'm gonna leave a CTA of like, like go somewhere for something that connects further or powerful question. and I'm just gonna do that once a week. So like in a quarter, I'm gonna do 12 posts. Tania: in a quarter. You'll do 12 posts. Exactly. Diane: Okay. What needs to be set up in my LinkedIn from a profile perspective or from like a connections perspective or anything like that? Outside of this 12 posts? What is my LinkedIn setup in order to allow me to be lazy on LinkedIn and still get an ROI from Tania: Yeah, that's a great question. I'm so glad that you asked that. And even before I get into that, you know, you mentioned I'm gonna do this for 12 weeks for a quarter. And that in and of itself is an important part to this LinkedIn lazy on LinkedIn strategy. Cuz if you post once a week, One time it nothing's gonna happen, right. Or even, or even maybe three times or four times, it takes consistency to get there. And it takes a strong profile so that when people find you from your content, let's say your content shows up in their feed because you have a mutual friend who liked it, or, you know, left a comment. You're gonna wanna a strong LinkedIn profile for when that happens. And that does happen because for example, this is so random, but earlier. a couple weeks ago. I literally just told somebody happy birthday. So I was their birthday. I commented happy birthday. And then later that night I got a message from somebody who said, Hey, I see that you do thought leadership from your LinkedIn headline. This is so serendipitous. I just, we don't know each other. I just literally saw your comment. And I was looking for someone who ne who could do this [00:20:00] and you came up and it was amazing. And so there's a couple things that I would really recommend that you do. And I, you know, you don't have to spend a bunch of time on. again, I'm all about lazy on LinkedIn. So set aside 20 minutes, 30 minutes and do do these things, right? So your headline is really important. And the automatic thing that's gonna show up, if you don't change anything about your LinkedIn is your title and your company. So for me, the automatic thing that would show up is founder at Lumos marketing. but if somebody doesn't know what Lumos marketing is, they're not who cares. Right. Who cares? And so I always encourage for people to change their headline into their, what, you know, people, people in the branding world might call a positioning statement, kind of like your I help or I guide, or I work with statement, right? So, you know, mine is I guide social impact leaders to spark change and raise revenue by becoming thought leaders kind of. That's not exactly what it is, but so do that and then, you know, make sure your headline is, you know, you make sure it's, you know, make sure it's a good picture. But in addition to that, especially if like you, you haven't updated your LinkedIn, maybe since you were in the corporate world or maybe even in college Ch, uh, one of the things I would encourage you to do is change your cover banner. That's that, you know, blue rectangle that shows up on the top of your page, if you haven't changed anything that is really, really high, like really important real estate, because it's one of the first things that people see. So just go into Canva. You know, search for LinkedIn cover banner, you'll get, you know, hundreds of pages of templates that you can use, but definitely change that to something that really showcases your brand. Right? If, if you're a public speaker, change it to a picture of you speaking. If you're a social, if you're a nonprofit ed, maybe change it to a picture of you like with the community that you serve in action. Right? So those are some things I'd suggest. Take a look at your about section. The about section is super important. This is like the, about me, of your website, which statistically like. People always check out before they buy people wanna know the face behind your brand. And you know, as a life, as an entrepreneur, like you are the company. So tell your story there. Right? Tell your story. [00:22:00] That's a really powerful place to tell your story. Two more things that I would say are like a must do. One is to activate your featured section. This is relatively new. This wasn't around when, uh, when probably you were, you know, you. Running eight figure businesses in the corporate world, right? This is a relatively new section where you can really feature the things that you're proud of. So, and that, and it actually shows up above your about section. It shows up above your content. So this is really high. And so I feature a link to your website because then people, if they like what they're seeing on your profile and you're in a content. They can immediately just click through to your site, easy peasy. So I do that. I would do maybe a podcast. You were on maybe a video that you've done, cuz again, people consume content differently. I'm more likely to listen to a podcast and watch a video. so have different types of content that really showcase who you are showcasing your, your thought leadership. You can, you know, feature a LinkedIn post that did well. There. There's so many things you can do, but activate your featured section. And the last thing that I would do again, this is like the speedy. This is the, this is the lazy version. This is like I have 30 minutes and then I wanna go lay by the pool and I don't wanna look at my computer anymore. The last thing that I would do is ask for some recommendations Because that's social proof. Right. And that's powerful social proof because like testimonials on your website, you, I'm not saying anyone does this, you know, Yeah, I'm not saying anyone does this, of course, but you could kind of just make up a testimonial and stick it on your website. But on LinkedIn, those recommendations are attached to someone else's profile. They have to leave it for you. Right. You have to ask them to do it and they write it and then it shows up on your profile. So there's even more trust. There's even more credibility to those. So, yeah, I'd ask like three people that represent the audience. You're trying to reach. For a recommendation and that will show up forever on your profile as like a great glowing testimonial. So that's the quick down and dirty of what I would do. Diane: Awesome. We like the, the lazy LinkedIn optimization ahead of the lazy LinkedIn. I would also just like to say thank [00:24:00] you for saying that I might not have updated my LinkedIn since college as if LinkedIn was around when I was in college. So. I just, I just wanna appreciate you for that moment. it's made my day Oh dear. So is there anything that we need to know about the types of posts? Cause I see like polls popping up now and I know you mentioned articles, but then we had the story. Is there one that just does better than the others? And so for 12 weeks we can just do the one thing or should we be trying to play around with different types through those 12 posts? Tania: that's a great question. That's a really great question. And I do encourage people to try around, to try the different types of posts more than anything to see what they really resonate with and what feels good. I would say if you wanted to stick with just. A carousel post does really well. I have noticed that carousel have a little bit of an inflated engagement right now. Polls used to have a really inflated engagement. If you did a poll, it would automatically get like thousands and thousands and thousands of views because it was a new feature and LinkedIn wanted people to use polls. I have seen that go away, but right now, carousel still get a great, uh, a great reach and you can create carousel by essentially uploading. And it looks like you're uploading a document. What I would do if you use Canva, which like who doesn't use Canva is create something in there and then download it as a PDF, then upload it into LinkedIn as a document. And it will show up like an, like a carousel that you can just kind of scan through. So those still have a little bit of inflated engagement. Polls are. Diane: Is it, is it like document shaped? So in Canva we need to create it like a four letter. Tania: it doesn't have to be. It can be Instagram, it can be square. It can be a four, it can be anything. That's, that's a really good question. It doesn't matter. It can be, it can be anything. I would definitely try polls because again, if we're, if LinkedIn is about community, this is a way to really ask your community and get their buy in on things. How I love to use this. I'll, I'll do an example for nonprofit folks. First, if they're thinking about having, [00:26:00] Spring fundraiser, but they don't know whether they should have a gala or a golf tournament or a fashion show or whatever, if they don't know what they want, if they're gonna do, they can create a poll and ask their community who are on LinkedIn. And what's so great about that is many things are great about that, but who like, if their thing wins, they have buy-in. Right. They, they feel a part of, and then you can come right back around and say, oh my gosh, thank you so much for voting my poll. We ended up going with your option. How would you like, would you like to get involved? You know, we'd love to have you here in any way that you feel good about, and because they've already taken like a micro step of involvement there by just voting in the poll, they're much more likely in primed to do, to do that. If you're an entre. you can ask a question about a trend that is, you know, related to your field. Like for example, I have clients who work in this space of like, helping people who are burnt out. Right. And so a question that they might ask is something around like where they're at right now. in their burnout recovery journey, how they're feeling, how they're taking care of themselves. I don't know. There's so many things that they could ask, right. And it has to be a multiple choice. I can have up to four options, but what's really cool about it is people. Other people cannot see how folks have voted in the poll, but you can see how people have voted in the poll. And then there. Easy little button LinkedIn puts in there so that you can send a direct message to everyone who has voted and you can send them a personalized note based on how they voted and, you know, follow up with a follow up to support them. So polls are really great for that reason articles don't get as much engagement articles are those longer form things. , they don't get as much engagement in the moment. Like they're just not gonna get as many likes. I don't know why LinkedIn doesn't. It just doesn't. But it has that perk of being found on Google, like forever, you know, like I'll do an article and it will be found in a Google search way before a blog on my website will be found just because LinkedIn is so trusted by Google. Right? So those are three things. That'd encourage you to try. I mean, I would, I would try those. And then of course, just normal posts and then play around, try one with just text, try one with a [00:28:00] picture, try one with a video, you know, but if you are gonna do a video, upload it natively, don't put the YouTube link, just upload it natively. And, and that will do that will do good. But yeah, I would, this is a type of experimentation and I always tell people, you can't really do this wrong. Like you can. Screw up at this, like, see, and this is a, this is a time where you can really treat the next 12 weeks, you know, say like I'm gonna do 12 posts and this is a time for you to discover what you like doing and what feels good. And I always want people to be in the space where they wake up in the morning. They're like, yay. I cannot wait to post my LinkedIn post. Not because it's necessarily even so great, but because it's like, who's who am I gonna become friends with from this post, who's gonna discover me. And like, they have this problem that I solve and they don't even know about me right now. Like that's the approach that I love. So many people think of LinkedIn as a chore, but how can you reframe it into being a space where like you get to be discovered by the people who so need what you have to offer. Right. Diane: I love this. So I'm very enthusiastic. I cannot wait to go and do my like 12 LinkedIn posts, all the friends I'm gonna make a, son's very exciting. And I know exactly what's gonna happen tomorrow morning. I'm gonna wake up and I'm gonna be. Woo LinkedIn. And I'm gonna be looking at a blank Google doc with a flashing cursor as I try to write one of these posts. So I know I'm not alone, cuz lots of us are tortured slash held hostage by the blinking cursor. I know that you have a little something, something that can help us just get, get ourselves started on. Tania: Yes, yes. I have found that to be the case for many people. The blinking cursor is the bane of my existence, even as a writer, right. Like I grew up, I, I love to write writing is my happy place and I still have. Blinking cursor, fear. So I have a resource it's like 14 LinkedIn prompts that you can use to really get the ball rolling and get the ball started. And it's just, they're really designed to ask you questions to think of things that are interesting, but that will also build trust with your audience, right. Content. [00:30:00] that really showcases who you are as a person who you are as a specialist, as a thought leader, and really showcasing, you know, how to get involved with you and how to build that relationship with you. So, yeah, I have a resource I'd love for you to download. It's just 14 content prompts that will really help you get there. But beyond that resource, the tip that I'm getting ready to share is, is valid. Whether you're gonna use LinkedIn or you're gonna use do content elsewhere, but I just carry around wherever I am. I have a little notebook. I have notebooks all around the house. I have notebooks in my car because, we have thousands and thousands and thousands of thoughts every single day. And you. Time's up by seven. You have so many thoughts in a week. I guarantee you that one of those thoughts is interesting enough, valuable enough expert enough wise enough, you know, passionate enough to share on LinkedIn. So just get into the habit of when you have a really interesting thought, just write it down and collect it somewhere, and then when it becomes time to create your content, you'll. Bank of interesting. Like I call it cookie dough, like half baked ideas that you're, that are ready to form and put in the oven and come out as like delicious, hot, fresh baked cookies. Diane: I like that. And I like that there are 14 prompts, so like that's gonna cover my 12 posts. Right. So if anybody else is also sitting there going, oh, I've gotta do 12 posts. It feels like a lot. We can just do one content thing a week. I'll be sure to link all of that in the show notes. So it's easy for peeps to find. So to finish up, I always ask my guests the same two questions. First of all, what is your number one lifestyle boundary for your business? Tania: Ooh, what is my number one life? So, well, well, one of the things that I will say is I love to sleep. I love, love, love. Maybe it's my Pisces nature. I don't know. I love to sleep. And so at least one Workday a week, usually it's Friday. Sometimes it's Monday. I won't schedule anything at all and I will just not set my alarm and I will just sleep until I'm ready to wake up. And sometimes that's like 11:00 AM, you know? [00:32:00] And I will say, I don't have children. I have a little fur child, but he likes to sleep in two. Gary loves to sleep in. And so I. At least, at least one Workday a week. Right. I do that on the weekends too, but at least one Workday, I will just, and, and what I found is the rest of that day. I'm so happy. I'm so refreshed. I'm in such a good mood, you know, and maybe sometimes that becomes like a content batch day, just cuz I'm like feeling so good. So, so yeah, if you love to sleep, give yourself space to sleep. If you can, Diane: Yeah, I think there's nothing more jarring than having to wake up to an alarm clock. I'm I'm one of those people who I wake up at the same time, pretty much. every single day in winter, I wake up at 5:00 AM and then when the clocks go forward, I wake up at 6:00 AM. I don't have to sit an alarm, you know, like give or take a few minutes. I have done it my whole life. Even if I can go out for a big night, Like I could get home at two and go to bed and I'm gonna be awake at five. Right. So I have like really early, like grandma bed times, but I find the alarm clock, just, it just has like a really detrimental effect on the day. Tania: Yes. Yes. It's jarring. Yeah. It's like it, it jerked you out of your cozy, cozy sleep. That the sound is never fun. Yeah. I'm so with you, yeah. I'm glad you agree. Diane: takes you back to like dragging yourself out of bed to like go to school or a job, or just so many bad, so many bad connotations. Okay. Finally, what is the worst piece of cookie cutter advice you've been given as an entrepreneur? Tania: Oh, there's so many pieces and this is a really big thing for me. Uh, a big journey that I've been on is really, really being able to discern what is for me and what is just noise. And I've even gotten to the point where, you know, when you start off as an entrepreneur, you follow everyone on Instagram or LinkedIn or you a, you sign. Everybody's link email newsletter, right? And then your inbox is like flooded with everyone else's advice, but then you can't hear your own inner wisdom. Right? So this is a big, big thing for me. I'm so I love this question so much. Ugh. [00:34:00] You know what? I'm gonna take it back to what we were saying earlier. I think the worst piece of cookie cutter advice is to like, Post every day on LinkedIn, or really do anything that you don't wanna do that makes LinkedIn feel like a chore or makes showing up in general as a thought leader, feel like a chore. Cause if it feels like a chore, you're not gonna do it. You're not gonna wanna do it. It's gonna come off in the way that you show up. And like, why, like why did we start a business to just like have more chores? Right. We started business is to, to have freedom. And so I think Structuring your thought leadership strategy and your content in a way that is sustainable and in a way that makes you feel good in a way that makes you feel excited to show up is, is really, really key. And for me posting every day was not, was not that, so, yeah. Yeah. That's it taking it back to full circle. It's the beginning of our conversation. Diane: Full circle. This has been fab. I can't wait to try lazy, LinkedIn. I can't wait to go and Snoop on your profile as well to see lazy LinkedIn. I'm one of those people, like, if I can see it in action, that'll, that'll help me like put everything into its correct box. And like, you know, build my checklist. Where is the best place? I'm sure we can all guess for everyone to carry on a conversation with you on the socials about all of this stuff. Tania: I mean, you got it. You, you, you I'm sure you've guessed it. It's definitely LinkedIn. I'm on there all the time. If you, if you're on there, you know, connect with me, I'd love to connect with you back start a conversation. So LinkedIn is definitely it. And then if it's not the socials, I have a website which is just Lumos marketing.co. Diane: I love that. So when people are connecting with you in LinkedIn, do you want them to tell you why they're connecting with you? I find it really weird to get like connection requests. And I'm like, if I don't know you, I mean, if I know you, obviously that's totally fine connect, but I would always much rather you went, Hey, I heard you on this podcast. Or I saw this piece of content, just like, give me some context or like, Hey, I saw your profile and it looks like we have some overlap. Tania: Yeah. A thousand percent. Yes. Yeah. I can't overstate how important this is. Especially when you [00:36:00] get to a certain point. I don't accept any requests from people. I don't know who haven't shared, how we met, why they're connecting something from my profile. It takes, Maybe 10 seconds to see something from their profile and find a common similarity and something that you, you know, that you resonate with. It just, it takes so little time. So definitely yes. Take that time to really put in the personalized connection request, why it is that you're connecting. And that will just really from dis like step one, just really, really create that really enriched relationship, which I, which is, I think what LinkedIn is about. It's about relationship. So be in relationship. Diane: Awesome. And you can practice on both of us cuz I'm now apparently going to be very. On LinkedIn once a Tania: yes. yes. I Diane: awesome. Thanks so much, Tania. This has been great. Tania: Thank you for having me. I really, really love this conversation.