 Yes. G'day, Australian. Welcome to the second 2020 episode of the Redback Business Skills Show. I'm your fortnightly host, Daniel Kim. And as always, it's great to have your company because we've got a big show lined up for you today. How to become a global influencer on LinkedIn is the topic. And we've all heard of influencers on social media. Is it all stuff from 2014? Is there a point to try and becoming one? And is it all too late if you do? Well, joining me live in the studio is a real-life LinkedIn influencer who spends a lot of his time helping people win big marketing mentor and master coach Edward Zia. Ed, welcome to the show. Oh, my God. It's a pleasure being here. I've got to say our viewers are just so beautiful and attractive, aren't they, Daniel? They absolutely are. They're stunning and brave. It's clearly a two-way video we've got. Totally. They're awesome. Each and every one of you. Yes. Now, 30,000 followers on LinkedIn. Your posts get seen by tens of thousands of people on a daily basis. How do you do it all? Well, there's three answers to that for the wonderful audience. Three answers to that. Number one is have a great LinkedIn profile. Number two is share great content. And number three is connect with people on a one-on-one personal basis. Now, when you've got 30,000 followers, is it possible to connect with people on a one-on-one basis? A hundred a day. So what I tend to do in what I do is I'll wake up, for example, I have like 30, 40 messages every morning. And during the day, I'll get a lot of messages, leads, inquiries. So every day, I'll speak to at least a hundred people over LinkedIn. Got you. And quite a lot of clients and a lot of clients to be. And it's a very profitable experience. Excellent. I mean, you know, there's also all the other different social media platforms out there. But if you're trying to build a professional career, or if you're in the B2B selling space, LinkedIn is the place to be. Absolutely. And just full respect to other platforms, you know, Facebook, TikTok, Insta, Twitter, even LinkedIn. I'll tell you now, and without sounding like I'm from Microsoft, I love Microsoft, you know, B2B LinkedIn is the place to be. Yes. So so much value to unpack in tonight's webinar. I said tonight, it's this morning tonight. And if you're watching on demand, there's no real difference. Anyway, is there? Totally. That's the magic of webinars. I know. Yes. So there's plenty to go through today. And if, of course, if you'd like to join the conversation, make sure you click the dark blue hand icon at the top of your screen. And if you're looking to run your own webinar program, there's some resources and a link for you to hop onto in the light blue button. It'll take you to the Redback Solutions page packed filled with lots of useful materials. So make sure you get your pause on those. If you do submit your questions for today, they will come through on this trusty old iPad of ours. And we'll get through to your questions at the end of the presentation. But Ed, before we get into all the hows and the techniques and all the nitty gritties, it's all about you for a bit, because you haven't always been an influencer. No, I used to actually be in the military and work for the government a long time ago. Really, the military? Yes, I was in the military in the Australian Army a long time ago and I was seconded to do special projects with the Australian government. All right. Are you allowed to tell us a bit about that? A little bit. Classified infantry. No, I used to do Federal Drug Enforcement and it was great. A long time ago, mind you. And it turns out that doing undercover drug workers very dangerous. Who'd have thought? Who'd have thought, right? And it turns out I wasn't vulnerable. So I got injured, ended my military police in Korea and I ended up going to uni, eventually studied marketing. I actually went in a real, I just fell in love with marketing and business. It was just a natural flow on from me. Yeah, right. And yeah. From drugs to marketing and business. Drug enforcement. I would say drug enforcement. When I bought drugs, it was legally on behalf of undercover workers. It was for testing purposes. No, it was to lock up bad guys. That's what it was. So many questions I want to ask you. What amongst all of that career transition made you want to want to try to become an influencer? Well, what happened to me was I made a few mistakes in my life. And before just before the age of 30, I ended up losing everything. I ended up becoming homeless. I had no money. And I actually used to live in my car for about 10 months. See, I was living in my car, right? I was on D.Y. Beach, though. So for the sake of the audience, D.Y. Beach is in the northern beaches of Sydney. And if you're going to be homeless, D.Y. May I recommend if you're ever going to be homeless, go straight to D.Y. Beach. Great people there. If you're going to do it anyway, pick a nice spot. Exactly. When I was living in my car on D.Y. Beach, which is a great spot, by the way, I just I was just thinking about my life saying what I want to do with my life. My life has just crashed. You know, I've got no life. And I wanted to start again. And I actually dreamt about, it was about 10, 11 years ago, that I'd love to be some kind of speaker. I didn't use the word influencer because influencer wasn't common in language then. But I thought I'd love to be some kind of like global speaker educator. Right. And I just thought I'd love to do that. And ironically, 10 years later, achieve that, you know. And it's been a life changing experience. So I suppose it was just sitting in my car at night just thinking, what do I want to do with my life? And I thought, I want to become some kind of global speaker and educator. So you reckon it wasn't like a specific moment in time. It was like a few nights on end. I don't know how long you were homeless for, but like all those nights in your car, thinking about what you want to do. Yeah, it's probably a period of a few months. I sort of formed those ideas. Fair period. Yes, I formed those ideas. And I thought, this is what I want to do with my life. Right. So restarted my life. And just just took gradual steps every day, just little baby steps every day to make that happen. What a powerful positive message. It's a reminder to all of us that if you put your mind to something, you can really achieve it. I mean, here you are today. Yeah, I'm with this very handsome Korean man talking to you, who's also very good looking and beautiful and stunning and brave about how to wing globally. It's gonna be great. Yes, we're humbled to by the way, everybody. So let's get into your presentation. You've got becoming a LinkedIn influencer. It's actually a program that you run separately on the side, right? Yeah, exactly. So I'm a marketing mentor and master coach and got heaps of clients. And just for the sake of the audience, if you're watching, please feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn. Just so I know who you are, you need to say Daniel Kim is attractive when you connect with me on LinkedIn. And if you want to copy of these slides, send us a message and we'll get you a copy of these slides. No problem. It's like, just so I know that you're real and you're not a troll, you need to send us this message. Yeah, you're not a Russian troll who's stopping Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton from winning the election. Russian or Ukrainian or Ukrainian trolls. Yes, we shouldn't go into all of those details. But yeah, we changed the topic a little bit from being a LinkedIn influencer to being a global LinkedIn influencer. Tell us a bit about that. Yeah, well, what it is is that LinkedIn, which of course is owned by Microsoft, right? LinkedIn, what's, what's basically my story is about a year and a bit ago, I was very much a Sydney guy. I was very much my whole focus was Sydney and just clients from Sydney. And as I took off on LinkedIn with what we're going to talk about in this interview, a few months later, I started getting my first clients from the UK, North America, the Middle East. And six months later, it's like my wife and I were talking. And wow, we've actually got a global business now. And it happened very quickly. It sort of happened without realizing all of a sudden, hang on, we've actually got a global business, but no longer local small fry anymore. And what was fascinating about that experience was that as time and time passed, we're getting more and more clients from North America and also the UK, especially. And the beauty is, is that depending on your business strategy, you might be, you might want to be an influencer on a local basis, you might be targeting a particular niche, or you might be more in my camp saying you want to go global. The point is LinkedIn and Microsoft gives you this opportunity that's available to everyone. No, that's very interesting. Specifically speaking from a B2B or a professional perspective, people can think about the viral platforms and it's all about entertainment, but that is not necessarily depending on the language, but in a B2B or a professional setting, communicating that particular message is important. And often you'd feel restricted by the language you speak in, whether it's English or I don't know, Italian, French, German, Korean, Japanese, or North Korean. North Korean. LinkedIn gives you the platform to have to connect regardless of that. Exactly, exactly. And the thing that's so powerful about LinkedIn is that LinkedIn, ironically, you need to be entertaining. That's the actual irony of LinkedIn. So I'm getting an example. I did a video yesterday, I got seen 4,000 times and it was me literally doing push-ups outside the Sydney Opera House. I wasn't. So the irony is, is that on LinkedIn, yes, it's a professional platform, but you can't be boring. If you're boring, you're not going to get anywhere. You still have to be compelling. You have to be engaging. So you not only have to be educational, you need to be entertaining. Right. So that's how you become a local and then a global influencer. Exactly. The worst thing you can do is jump on and say, well, it's not going to work. You've got to be engaging. You've got to bring the audience into your universe so they become fans and follow you. What if you jump on and say, well, but you do it in front of the Sydney Opera House? Well, the Sydney Opera House is a great property, a great location for the wonderful people and it's, yeah, I think the Sydney Opera House is great. Let me know the next time you're going to do push-ups in front of the Opera House because that's when I'll do my video there and I'll have you in the background strategically play. That's good and that will make me get some Persian lunatic like me in the background doing push-ups. There you go. All right. Now, another big part of your life story is you're very grateful because going from where you were to where you are now, it hasn't been a solo effort. I know, absolutely. I've had a lot of one of friends, met my wife four or five years ago who's amazing. A big shout out to Lassie who might be watching this and also a big shout to my parents. So, you know, originally at the start it was a real solo effort but as things sort of picked up and I met great people and then I met my wife who I wish I met 10 years earlier, 20 years earlier, it's just been great and to me that makes it that's a really, really good point. Becoming a LinkedIn influencer is a team journey, okay? You've got to take your friends and family with you and when you approach it from that team perspective, that's what you do very well. Yeah, a lot of people think becoming an influencer is all about me, me, me, me and I get seen and it's about my image, my message. It's not. It's about the audience. Totally is, totally is and it's like that in business in general too. It's not about us and our staff and our processes as much as that's important, it's about the impact it has on the customer, the way the customers receive our services, yeah. Exactly, it's like when you look at top entertainers, right? Really top A-class entertainers only, wish I was one, right? The reason why, one of the reasons why they're entertainers is it's all about their audience. So, big shout, you know the film Joker, right? I haven't seen it because I'm not a movie guy but yeah. Outstanding. Pardon me, Joe Quinn Phoenix, right? Joe Quinn Phoenix, can't pronounce that, it's obviously a French name. Oh no, I think it's Spanish, I think it's Joaquin. Oh, there you go, Joaquin Phoenix, right? My apologies to that. He did such a great job in the role because you could tell he's a real pro, he just made it all about the performance, it was all about the audience experience. He just immersed himself in the role just to wow the audience and that's what made it make over a billion dollars. So, I watched Joker, I actually watched it in Gold Class and had a big Sunday and bringing it back to LinkedIn, the point was that actually educated me on LinkedIn because the passion he showed for what he was talking about, I actually started upping my own performance on LinkedIn. So, Joker inspired me to do better on LinkedIn. So, you're now a better Edward Zia. Yeah, with a few Joker traits. Probably not a good thing but the point is that it's about the audience and the more passion you put in to the audience is the better off you're going to be, the more money you're going to make. Yep, yep and even from a purely pragmatic perspective, you've got to invest in the right areas to get the return. Exactly and the beauty with LinkedIn is that you will know within half an hour whether your content's hitting or missing the target. Oh really? That's soon? Yeah, absolutely because let's say, this doesn't happen much anymore but I'll talk about when I originally took off. When I started taking off on LinkedIn, I was very hit or miss. I'm usually just hit, hit, hit, hit now, right? Because I know what I'm doing, right? But when I originally was getting into it, you know within half an hour whether you've got a viral hit or you've missed the target. But the beauty is that you can then look at your post and then scratch your head and say, okay, so this post went viral because of this reason. This post went nowhere because of this reason and after a while you get a very, so case in point, right? I once just did a video and I was just nearby the opera house, had a meeting with a new client and I decided to do a video in front of the opera house. It went viral. The video went viral which is me just talking about really nothing, right? And then I was like and I was sort of scratching like 10,000 years. I was scratching my head the next day going why was that? And I thought is that the Sydney Opera House that made it? Then I went back there a few days later and did another video. It went viral again. Yeah, okay. And then basically if I do a video of the opera house, minimum 4,000 views. That's right. That's the base. So you can now be doing push-ups in front of the opera house. You're not even saying anything and you'll still get a viral view. Exactly. And the point I'm making is that and shout out to the opera house is that, you know, great people. We love the Sydney Opera House and we fully stand by their efforts. But the point is that when you put our content on LinkedIn, be it text or whatever you're doing, you can diagnose pretty quickly what your audience loves and what they don't love and that helps you get your content, you know, beautiful. Right. So one of the one of the pointers from today already is to make sure you keep your finger on the pulse and you track and monitor how your posts are doing. That's pretty important. A lot of people would just like post and hope. Yeah. And that's a worse strategy and I used to do that, right? And hope isn't a strategy. That's the thing. Hey, yeah, I mean, hope is what Princess Leia says to do the Rebel Alliance. And they didn't go too well on the latest Star Wars films then. But in the original Star Wars, it went great. But hope is not a strategy. Right. You've got to make sure that your content's hitting the mark. Your audience loves it and they're being thoroughly entertained. Yes. Now, I've only ever seen episode four, which I think is the original one. Yeah. And then one of the two follow up ones. Exactly. Episode two, I believe. Yeah. I like the ones where you had young Anakin go crazy and turn into Darth Vader. I actually like them. I'm just not a movie person at all. So I haven't seen any of it. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. But I'm sure everybody who does love watching movies and particularly the Star Wars franchise will relate to you. Yeah. Just let's show. I'm the biggest. There is no one watching. I'm the biggest nerd on earth. There is no one nerdy than me on this planet. I don't know. I can think of a few people who can give you money. No, I'm a nerd. I'm the biggest nerd there is. Greatest nerd. The greatest nerd. No one's more. I created nerdiness. I'm a nerd. I'm the biggest nerd. Nobody knows more about nerdiness than me. I created it. It's my concept. Oh, right. Yes. I don't even know what to say now. Well, let's continue. Shall we? Shall we? So the story of a nerd becoming a LinkedIn influencer, the first thing you've got is take an idea and put it into action. Yeah. So one thing I really encourage the audience watching today is don't just listen to this and go that was nice. Take an idea. So get one idea from our discussion and put that absolutely into action. And one thing I want to talk to you about this is in the slides and just so you know with the slides, I'll just be lightly referring to the slides and I'll be skipping some slides as I'll say again. If you've got any questions, send us a message on LinkedIn. We can help you out. So when it comes to just say, I'm not talking LinkedIn for the moment, but talking persuasion overall, meet like no and trust. So when people, be it you're on Facebook, you're on Insta, you're meeting someone face to face at a business chamber. It's meet like no and trust. This is process that people go through trusting us. The beauty is, is that as you become an influencer, this okay, it's faster. And the other big point I want to say is we have the saying called your vibe attracts your tribe. So your vibe attracts your drive. So whatever you put out, you will get a mirror image of it back. And I want to use an example that you're going to like Daniel, right? Hit me. Hit me with a household break. So what it is is this, right? What it is is this. And I've seen a lot and I'm not criticising these people. I've had very good friends getting a lot of trouble, right? If you put out anything on LinkedIn or whatever platform with a hint of negativity, a hint of venom, or even a little bit mixed, it's going to go, it's going to float like a brick. Right. But if you put out really positive and helpful content, you get a mirror of that back. So you get out what you, you, you get back what you put out. So if you're putting out great content, you're being helpful, you're being constructive, you're going to have the right people follow you, you're going to get great leads, you're going to make a lot of money. Some people I know who are good people, I'm not criticising the person, I'm criticising their behaviour where what they do is they say something negative or they turn around and have a, they have a shot at someone or a company. Oh, right. It goes very, very badly for them, right? Because you just get that push back. Got you. I'll use an example. I'll use a political example, right? Again, I'm not, I'm not being political here, but I kind of am. Remember Hillary Clinton, right? And in the, in the 2016 election? Yes. Remember that time that Hillary Clinton, she called Trump supporters the basket of deplorables? Did, oh yes. Remember that? Yes. What a way to, whenever we're going to base. Well, that was such negative so much. And by the way, I like Hillary Clinton, I got no problem with Hillary Clinton, but the point is is that that venom just better. And I think Hillary Clinton even, you could even tell, this is my opinion, by the way, you could even tell after she said it, you could see her go, oops. Yeah, she, I think even she knew, whoa, this is not going to, and didn't go well. It went so badly because the point is that amount of venom she accidentally put out just bit her right back. And to me, the opposite is true. It's when you put out that incredible, you know, you use Barack Obama, for example, right? Obama would just put out positivity all the time. But whether you like Obama or not, he was an amazing speaker, because everything he says is positive and upbeat, whether you like him or not. He's always saying great stuff and positive stuff. Yeah. And that's, that's the kind of things we look for in a leader, to be honest. Yeah. And an influence as a type of leader. Exactly. And the more positive you are, is the greater the impact on the more money you're going to make. Yes. Which is absolutely true. And the other quick point I want to make as well is LinkedIn is all connected. So LinkedIn is not your business. It can be a real hub that brings everything together. And as a point as well, LinkedIn of course is owned by Microsoft and we love Microsoft around here, Microsoft best. This is a Microsoft surface. Shout out to Microsoft. We love Microsoft. Microsoft, if you're watching, know that I love you. Have to give Microsoft a plug. And just a bit of, just an honorable mention too. One of my wonderful mentors and friends is Scott Adams. Great guy. He's been very kind to me. He is the creator of Dilbert. Dilbert. Yeah, yeah. Scott Adams. This book that I'm recommending you has changed my life. It's called Wind Bigly. Yes. And the book is Persuasion in a World's... It's Persuasion in a World where facts don't matter. Does it come with illustrations of Dilbert? It actually does. Oh. Oh, she's... No, it's old. It does have a few. I'm persuaded. Yeah, I'm persuaded. Buy it, get it kindled. Yeah, hardcover. This book changed my life. Did it? Absolutely changed my life. It changed my view on sales and marketing. Yeah, okay. So out of the books, this totally impacted my view on sales and marketing because I used to think, say, I used to think, Persuasion was all about facts. No, no, no. That's not how we geared. It's all about the emotions. All about the emotions. Isn't it? If I tap into my sales background, it's fear and greed that the two big emotions you've got to tap into. Okay. Yeah, that's all the book's about. It's incredible. Oh, is it? Yeah, yeah. So this book... Get the book Highly Changed My Life. And just to give you a few quick things as well, I want to say. Your LinkedIn is as good as the connections you have. So whilst I'm going to be talking about LinkedIn, don't neglect, and I'm talking more business to business here. Don't become part of your local business chamber. Attend local business breakfasts. Go to meet up groups. Don't just sit at home on LinkedIn and pray to the Microsoft God to help you, right? As much as I love Bill Gates, right? Do stuff in the real world because the stuff you do and the people you meet in the real world, you can add them on LinkedIn. It's all connected. Does that make sense? No, it's because then you're creating synergies like they'll be seen on your network. You'll be seen on their network. Yes. I think it's got this great feature and it's sort of like Facebook, I suppose, where if I click like on something, other people see that I've clicked like on something. Exactly. Exactly. If I get tagged somewhere, people get on their feed. Daniel's been tagged. Exactly. And that's the beauty of the platform. Just an honorable mention as well. I've got a great influencer sales and marketing plan template in Docformer. If you want to copy, send Daniel or I a message, we'll get it to you. I want to go through a few questions just to sort of bait what we're doing. Go for a few points. The big thing I want to say to, and I'm asking you this rhetorically and feel free to get your questions through. Number one is, why do you want to become an influencer? Okay. Why? You need to clearly answer it. The second point, again, we're talking linked in here, how will you work linked in on a daily basis? And thirdly, how will it monetize? How are you going to make money out of this? So I'm not, I'm not like one of these people going, oh, you need likes and comments and, oh, it's all about the, the engagement and the unicorns. I'm not that guy. I'm here. I'm here to talk about money. Right. How is this going to make you money? And you need to think that through. You've got to make sure, are you putting out the right content that brings in the right people that turns and leads, that makes you money? Right. Business. Totally. It's, it's another marketing channel. So you're a Korean guy, I'm a Persian guy, we love money, right? Guilty. Yeah. You like hot pots and money. I like hummus and money. There you go. H&M. There you go. H&M. Hot pots and money and. H&M. Isn't that Swedish retailer? I don't know where they're from, but yeah, it's retailers. I think they're Swedish, yeah. We've mentioned way too many brands on today's app. Yeah, no, no, no. You don't want to say Swedish, but then Greta will go, how dare you? Do you know how Greta's going? How is Greta going, by the way? I haven't got a clue. I don't, I don't follow her. Oh yeah, I might give Greta a call after this and say how she's going. Oh well, how dare you, Ed? I miss Greta. She's awesome. Number two. This is a big thing. I used to be a real fat slob. And it's hard being an influencer, not just on LinkedIn, but anywhere if you were a slob like I used to be. So that's a good picture of yourself you've got up there. I look very handsome. I'm having difficulty imagining you as a fat slob. I was a very fat slob and I had my wonderful wife, Lassie, help clean me up. So you need a good woman to clean you up. And but also too as well, it's not just, I'm not just saying, I'm not fat shaming or anything, I'm just saying fat, but basically I was a bit of a slob. I used to be a bit of a slob. Yeah, okay. Right. And it took me a lot of personal style and a bit of help to sort of clean up my acts so I could deliver it. Right. So for some of you, some of you will, you'll already be there. Right. You'll already have the look like me. I didn't have the look. So I had to make a lot of changes to develop that look and style to really stand out. So and you can get, I'm like, you can get like a makeover. You can get a really good fashion coach. I am one of my really good friends are fashion coach me. And she was awesome. Big shout to Anne Vodico. You know, so I had some really good help there. You know what I mean? Reading between the lines, it's not as much about the physical appearance as it is about the effort it takes for you to get from that slob to a presentable appearance. Exactly. Because that also, then people will see, has underlying implications about the way you run your business, the way you hold yourself, the relationships that you have. Exactly, exactly. And bring it back to LinkedIn, of course. What's important is that as you improve yourself personally, you do a better job of engaging a LinkedIn audience. Yes. Which is great. So great point. And now just to, I was going to say, I was going to dive into a bit of technical detail. Did you want to ask any interesting questions before I put the audience to sleep? Well, I don't know about an interesting question, but one of the points you made before about surrounding yourself with positive people, getting out there, and what was the other bit? Being grateful on the journey and having good people in your life. In the online world, regardless of whether it's a professional platform like LinkedIn, or it could be like, you know, your old Twitter or Facebook or those kind of platforms, you will encounter negativity. You'll get calls, you'll get people giving criticism. How do you deal with all of that while you're trying to build an online presence that's positive without sort of shunning fair criticism? Absolutely. Now, I suppose a few points is firstly, of course there are trolls on LinkedIn. However, very few compared to the other platforms. Okay. So I remember I used to be, I used to be moderately okay on Facebook and I used to get 10, 20 trolls a day. Whereas on LinkedIn, you barely get trolled, right? You get trolled, but it's minimal, right? LinkedIn's won, Microsoft's done a great job. LinkedIn's a great platform. So firstly, it's not LinkedIn or Microsoft's fault. There's a few lunatics out there, right? Now, the beauty of what LinkedIn allows you to do is, and LinkedIn's great, it has beautiful delete and block. Okay, you can delete and block people and it's stunning and brave, right? So for example, and it depends what the criticism is. Like, to me, someone asking a critical question with good intent, I welcome it. It's when it's, there's not that good faith behind it, right? The venom you were referring to before. Yeah, so I'll give you an example. One of the people, and they actually left some criticism on my post, but they did it in a way that empowered me. They said, they actually said, asterisks, not a negative comment, right? And then they asked a legitimate question. Right. And the fact that they said not a negative comment, that was them saying, hey, look, I'm not trolling. I'm genuinely, and it was actually quite a critical question I was able to answer. Whereas sometimes you'll get people that just simply say, that'll just insult you. Yeah. Or something like that. So a critical question is welcome. It's the personal insults or it's just the overall drab and negativity, you know? And I hope to say as well, sometimes you get very sexist or racist based trolling as well. So I blocked someone on my LinkedIn feed who was just saying weird stuff to women on the platform. Oh, right. So I actually reported them to LinkedIn. Yeah, that's not on. Yeah. And it was, it wasn't like, it wasn't like the extreme Harvey Weinstein creep factor, right? But it was more like, you're a nice lady, you're a great lady. It was using the word lady, but you could tell. In a patronizing manner? But yeah, there you go, patronizing. You could tell it was clearly a sexist gender. And one of my friends, amazing woman from the UK, she's a very wonderful Black British woman. And yeah, she had a few people trolling her for being black and female. Oh, right. Oh, it was appalling. She was crying. She was sending me screenshots, right? Oh, that's disappointing. Very rightfully upset. And but the beauty is that's not LinkedIn's fault. She could, she could, she reported them to LinkedIn and you delete and block. Yeah, nice. And so what I encourage people to do is some people's brands, they love negative comments. My brand personally, I mean trolling, right? I don't like trolling because I want to create a safe space on my feed. So someone trolls they're out, delete and block. Yeah, that's a fair comment. Yeah, that's a fair policy. Yep. I can see where people might ask you questions about censorship, but if your policy is to create a safe space, because you, when I look at your comment section, it's like a huge online positive communities whizzing with energy. Which is what I want. Yeah, which is what I want. It's, you know, you know, Debbie Downers or, you know, or negative Nellies aren't welcome. Oh, gee, I was the master of the price. Oh, I can, you know, because I think the other day, let's just, can I just be honest with you in the audience? Would you want to be honest with us? No, I was lying before. I was lying. No, I was telling the truth. Trolls are losers. Now, I'll tell you a few funny stories, actually. I know we're going to stick to the type, but I've had a few people troll me on LinkedIn. Oh yeah, how? Oh, just, just say whatever crap, right? Yep. And then I bump into them in the street. No, really? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And just so you know, I'm almost six feet tall. I'm ex-military. You know, it's, you know, there's a time of life where I was in more fights than hot meals, right? So I know how to fight really well, just through tragic experience, right? Anyway, and I've seen a few cross the street. Oh, right. Make eye contact. And they're like, it's, it's like, it's a bit like aliens. They sort of see me. And they just like cross. Is that a few cross the street? Yes. And one I actually encountered face to face. And I was pretty, I was pretty, I was in a real attitude mood that day. And they just pretended like, they didn't even bring it up. They just acted like they were my best freaking friend. You're kidding. I'm just a complete cockroach, right? I'm just a cockroach, right? And the point, the point I'm making is that trolls are weak and significant people because behind a keyboard, they'll get you. But face to face, they're chickens. You're right. The old keyboard warriors, maybe it's part of their quest to find significance. Exactly. I'd respect them more if they, if they walked after me and said it, I'd actually respect them. Hey, Ed, I just think you're a loser and I hate you. I'd actually have some respect for that. Yeah. Okay. Not just crossing the crossing the road when Ed walks by or just leave a comment the next time. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, it has been. Yeah. Go back to Iran, you Persian loser. Yeah. Just, just say something racist. That'll be funny. No, but seriously though, um, but trolls are losers. Yeah. Yeah, see. Well, yeah. Thank you very much. That was my interesting question. So, yeah. So what I'll do is I'm just going to go through a bit of technical detail. If you want to leave the webinar now, it's the time to do it. No, please stay. We're going to go through a bit of technical detail for that. I apologize, but please stay on. We're going to make it with you all. Now on the slide, and I encourage you, please connect with Daniel Kim and myself. You're very welcome to. Have a look at our profiles and see the way they're done. Now, just based on the slide that you should be able to see. I'm just going to talk to you a bit about a, a bit of detail that you'll see there. You'll notice on the slide that we've included, is that, you know, have a really good photo. Number one is getting your profile right. Very important. Have a really good photo close up of your face, because a lot of people use LinkedIn on their mobile phones. So some people will take a shot like this. On a mobile phone, your face is like that big. You know what I mean? Yeah. So keep a good close up on your face so it's still visible on a mobile phone. Okay. Use your name. Don't use nicknames. Okay. And have really good biotech. So you notice there's marketing mentor and master coach, creating master persuasion. Be very, don't use funny marketing language. Be very clear and specific. Now, even though you can, you notice as well I've got this banner strip. Use a really good banner strip. Okay. And quick shout out as well. You notice there's a photo of me at LinkedIn. That's LinkedIn, Martin Place and Sydney. All some Neil Isdale next to me. Great guys, help me a lot. It's a big shout to Neil Isdale. You're a great guy. Then as well, I know it's not the slide, but as you scroll down in the profile, write a really good summary like the about us, just a few paragraphs, just about you, and make sure you update your LinkedIn profile. Make sure your experiences are up. Spend a day or two on it and make it really good. Just update it all. Yeah, I see. On that note, if you'd like to see a live feed, if you click the light blue button on your screen, there should be a link to ads LinkedIn profile so you can see literally what he's talking about. Oh, very good. Very, very good. So yeah, check it all out. Spend a few hours on it and keep tweaking it. It's worth it. It is 2020 after all. We can do things like links. Links, there we go. It is 2020. Now, I do like what you've done with your profile and the background banner picture there because it's social proof. Yep. It's not just me saying, hey, I'm an influencer, honest, trust me. Yeah. These are the people I hang out with. Yeah, exactly, exactly. And create some points. So on the right is myself and the awesome Neil Isdale from LinkedIn and shout out to Neil, great guy. The other image is myself with a few of our awesome friends, Reena, Brooke, and Zachary from WeWork. The other one's a photo of me and the awesome Marcy Walker in Meetup New York. On the left is Brendan Rodgers and I running an event. So what I like, this is an able to... That's not Brendan Rodgers' football manager in England, is it? No, apparently it's the same name. It's not him. But Brendan Rodgers is actually a great guy on the Central Coast. See, I'm not a movie guy, but I'm a sports guy. I know nothing about sports. I'm terrible. Together, we will rule the world. We shall rule the world. Yeah, it's the Korean and the Persian going down. So we can do an arm steal. So what we can do is... That was a joke, by the way. I'm sorry, AFP. So anyway, make your profile good, good banner picture. And feel free to spend some time on Daniel and my own profiles. I just have a look and it'll give you some ideas. Yeah, I think my profile, I've got a picture of me out of Mike doing a voiceover recording. Which makes sense. And my background picture though, it's just like a shot of Sydney at nighttime. I don't know if that's going to be useful for me. I think you can update it. Yeah, I think I should update it. Yeah, now, and just in all fairness to the wonderful audience, you may have no cool images at the start. Maybe use just a background image of Sydney or wherever you are, right? Wherever you are around the world. But as you get cool photos, put them up there. So personally, I've used a collage. You'll notice I've got four images. I just use Pick Monkey to make it a collage. Or you might have a really good widescreen sort of image. But it is like a narrow strip graphic. And if you don't know how to do it, I'm sure there's somebody in your office who knows how to work the magical computers. Yeah, so there's Canva, Pick Monkey. Those programs do look great. I mean, clearly Ed knows how to do it himself. But yeah, if you are getting stuck yourself, you've got an IT team. I'm sure somebody can help you. Exactly, exactly. Somebody switched on in marketing. They're very visual people. Oh yeah, marketing are very visual people. I work in marketing. Oh my God, I'm Edward and I work in marketing. I like pretty colours. That sounds good. It's my Mickey Mouse impersonation. That was actually pretty good. Now that you said Mickey Mouse. Mickey Mouse. Yeah, I didn't pick it. Hi, I'm from Disney. And I'm going to do different stuff to Star Wars. Sorry, I'm still not over that. Last Jedi, you know what I'm talking about. Okay. The other key point as well, and this is more of a real world comment actually, real world comment, is that LinkedIn is not its own reality. LinkedIn is part of your real world. So for example, as you go to events, says you meet people. Adam on LinkedIn. In this case is a photo of myself and the awesome Karen Lipsant. I kind of never pronounce the name. And Allison Atard. For those who are watching this, you know there's beautiful lavash crackers in the supermarket? You know that blue box? There's beautiful lavash crackers. Oh, what's a lavash cracker? Okay, I'm Middle East, you guys see them. I'm a little bit uncultured, sorry. Yeah, so in the cracker section, right, like a biscuit section, they're like a beautiful, beautiful box. They're more or less than a lot. And we love Woolworths, great company. And what it is is that they're like these little, they're like gourmet crackers, right? Gourmet crackers, right? And they're really good. And this is me, and Karen's the creator of it, right? Oh, right. So come the lovely lady in the center. She's in the business world, she's quite an influencer. And I got to photo with her, put it up. So you meet great people, you connect with them, you make it all good that way. So it's, so you make it part of your real world. Add everyone you know, which is really good. Now the other bit, it's going to be hard for me to demo this in this live webinar forum. But what I encourage you all to do is please follow me, connect with me on LinkedIn. Look at the posts that I'm doing, because you're only as good as the content you share every day, okay? So now there are different types of content that you can share with people, okay? You can share content such as videos, photos, texts. There's a lot of great bits of content you can share, but here's the point. You want to share content that energizes the audience and educates them from your viewpoint. Right. This is similar to what you're saying before about not spitting out venom, but being positive and contributing. Yeah. And also keeping it professionally relevant. So for example, I'm not a personal trainer, okay? So I'm not going to do videos giving personal training tips, because I'm not qualified to do it. Yeah, right. And I wouldn't do it, right? However, I'll only talk to topics I understand. That are professionally relevant. Understand. So I'll ask you a question. If you're an accountant, what sort of topic should you talk about in your videos? Balancing your sheets. Yeah, there you go. Accounting. Accounting. Yeah, there you go. Done. If you're an accountant, should you talk about heavy machinery? If you're an accountant for the mining industry, maybe. There you go. Exactly. But no, in general, no. Keep it professionally relevant. And the thing on LinkedIn, people on LinkedIn are smart. They're very smart. They're smarter than me. I'm the dumbest person there is on LinkedIn. They're very smart, right? But the people on LinkedIn are very intelligent. You cannot... Don't even try. The moment you start talking about something you don't know inside out, you're going to look like a goose. So I only talk about stuff that you know. And I'll never ever talk about a topic I don't know. I'm just going to stay out of it. Yeah, okay. Such as sport. I know nothing about sport. So I'll stay away from the nerdy topics on LinkedIn. Yeah, because I'm the biggest nerd there is. There is no one watching that's nerdy than me. Understand that. Yes, got you. Yeah, cool. Talk to us, please. So you had up just a moment ago because it's an anytime fitness background that you've got and you're not a personal trainer. What message were you having up here? Great point. Great point. So this is our Anytime Fitness in North Parramatta, which is a really good gym. We love Anytime Fitness. And in this one, a great gym full of winners, Anytime Fitness, Anytime Anywhere. So what it is is that at Redback Connect, we love you. And what it is is that in Woolworths, your great company Woolworths. So I'm sorry. I'm just wearing a radio background, but I'm used to like not bringing up company names. Ah, OK. But I mean, by all means go for it today. Yeah, but Woolworths is a great company though. I think they're doing a great job. Yes. We've actually had one of the managers from Woolworths be on a panel here in this first video. No way. I'm Kevin Figueroiro. Here we go. I'm going to do one of my own shoutouts. Kevin, if you're watching, Kevin was part of a World Suicide Prevention Day webinar here that we did with Suicide Prevention Australia. Kevin was a practitioner, so to speak, because he was the manager of group health and safety and wellness. Wow. So that was part of his policies. We had somebody from... We had Mark Leopold from Beyond Blue, and we had Chris from Maintenance and Construction. That would have been great. Yeah, it was a great topic. Yeah. So yeah, so what it is... So in this case, I'm at Anytime Fitness was during a workout set. Now, I'm not talking about PT, but I just did the video at Anytime Fitness. Now, why am I doing videos at Anytime Fitness? It makes me look good. OK. OK. Because even though I'm like an influencer marketing sales guy, I love doing videos at cool places such as Anytime Fitness, because it subconsciously gets across that I'm into fitness and health. Got you. And I want people to know that, because ultimately, people know I'm a dedicated character. It's good. It works out great. And interestingly enough, my videos... If I do a video with a blank wall, I might only get 500 views. If I do a video at Anytime Fitness, I'll get like 2,000 views. The lesson I've taken from you today is doing at the Opera House. Opera House is great. Opera House is great. And really good. I also see the point here, because your post itself says, I can't statements are poison to the soul. And so, clearly, you're at a gym where the whole vibe is I can, I can. Exactly. One more, one more. Yeah. Yeah, I get that. It's just a bunch of connection you're making there. Yeah, I actually didn't pick that. There you go. So, there you go. But yes, that's really good. So, the trick is having interesting environments and I'm keeping as great as possible. Yeah, sure. Now, the next point I want to make is you've got to make money out of all this, right? And what's very important to make money out of LinkedIn is you need to share what we call call-to-action posts. So, quite often on LinkedIn, I'll use LinkedIn to promote my mentoring programs and I'll often promote live webinars, okay? Because the way it works in my business is that live webinars are a great... Well, it's a live webinar now. It's great lead gen. People watch your content, they enjoy it, they then subscribe, they then sign up to stuff, right? Yeah. So, you need to really think, putting out fun content is all awesome. But you need to put out stuff that encourages people to buy your services. And you've got to make money out of all this. You've got to make sure you're putting out great content that engages people, but content that also encourages people to buy your stuff. Yes, of course. Otherwise, why are you doing it, right? Yeah, yeah. Because again, I'm not selling my bathwater on Insta. You know, it's serious business services, right? Buy my bathwater. I'm on Instagram. Oh, David. Oh, a big shout to my friend, Marika Halloran. She's an amazing woman, one of my great friends. And here's the big thing as well on LinkedIn. Like, share, and comment on your friend's post. It's not about you. What I love doing is if I'm on LinkedIn, I see one of my friends post something. I'll like, share, comment. Yeah. Like, share, comment. Yeah. Because the more you support your friends, you're going to support your back. Yeah, absolutely. Give us gain. Absolutely. There you go. And just before we close it, back to you as a quick recap, what do you think we should cover for the audience? Recap questions. What do you think, Daniel? Recap questions. Well, I think a lot of what you talked about without mentioning it explicitly is your intentions. Like, what's your intent behind wanting to become an influencer? Because if it's all about me and if it's all in the wrong place, you're not going to get there and people aren't going to help you get there. Exactly. Exactly. And that's a key point. It's all about your audience. So, yes, I'm in a lot of my videos, but I'm an actor in my content, which is about the audience. Yes. Yes. Never ever forget. Never ever lose sight of that end goal. Yeah. That's like anything. If you look at politicians or sporting figures or, you know, celebrities, the moment they make it all about them, that's when they get trolled, you know, they get, you know, nuclear level trolling. Got you. Got you. Okay. Well, we've got about a minute and a half to go on the program. So, we'll go through some of the questions that we've got. Here's a really good question from Colleen. And Colleen's a very long-time customer of ours. Can I, Colleen? Colleen asks, good morning and thank you. Any suggestions as to how I can find out about the basics of using LinkedIn, an example of how to find potential contacts? Yep. Great point. Is it cream? Is it? Colleen. A Colleen. Colleen pleasure. And thank you for being a great client of Redback. So, one of the best things you can do is we use and recommend LinkedIn Premium. All right. So, yeah, LinkedIn Premium, yeah, I think it's 60, I could be wrong. I think it's 60 dollars a month, something like that. But if you upgrade to LinkedIn Premium, if you're not already, it allows, it gives you very advanced searching functionality. So, you can search exactly for your potential customers and you can message them directly. So, we haven't spoken about that. We spoke more about content, but LinkedIn Premium, put in exactly who you're after, search from it will give you a list and you can just reach out to people directly. It's a great way of going after those exact contents, those exact contacts you want. So, once you've got those contacts, you just message them directly and then hope for the best from there? Yeah, well, several things you can do. Best thing you can do within LinkedIn in terms of conditions is that you have what's called, in LinkedIn Premium, you have what's called a LinkedIn in-mail. In-mails basically, you can message someone you're not connected to. Or if they're on Premium, they'll get your message free. You can send them a message directly saying, hey, you know, you can say, hey, this is what I do. Love to connect and play it from there. Yeah, great. Yeah, thank you very much, Colleen. That's a great question. Sarah has given us a comment. It's not so much a question, but, you know, we're talking about pictures before. Yes. How to create those banners. Sarah said Canva is great to create banners like that. Oh, yeah, spot on. I personally use PicMonkey, but everyone tells me Canva's better, actually. So, probably, great points, Sarah. I probably need to upgrade to Canva as soon as I can. I haven't touched either of those programs. Yeah, I should have. A few people said I should upgrade to Canva. I should stop being so inflexible. Okay, well, that is the time allotted for today's webinar. That is, unfortunately, all she wrote to the folks. So, that is, yeah, we'll call it a day there, unfortunately. Edward, thank you so much for your insights today. It's been a pleasure. Thank you. Thanks for coming in, of course. And of course, if you have any other questions, you've got eds and contact details. I was going to say eds in mind, but I'm going to really help you. You've got eds, contact details on your screen there, so do get in touch with him. And before you go, please complete the online survey to which you'll be redirected to shortly. Your feedback means a lot to us and to Ed, of course. So don't be afraid. Click that button, get in touch with love to hear from you. And thanks for your company once again. I hope you win big, as Ed would say. Go forth, share the love and become influencers. From us here in the studio, it's goodbye for now.