Click here to join the FREE Beyond your First Million Facebook Group.
March 16, 2021

How to Prove Authority with your LinkedIn Profile with Belinda Aramide Ep. 9

With more than 1 million content views on LinkedIn and over 10 years of executive sales experience, Belinda is an expert in leveraging LinkedIn for thought leadership positioning and generating sales qualified leads. She believes that tapping into and sharing ones' vast professional experiences on the platform, in a way that adds to the conversation and highlights the great work being done within organizations, effectively generates industry respect and drives revenue.

She's since developed the Salesfluence™ Method to develop a strong personal brand (on LinkedIn) specifically for Thought Leadership Development & lead generation.

>> 02:39 So what drew you to LinkedIn as your focus for efforts on that platform

>> 06:16 What’s your differentiation point?

>> 07:24 What is something that went viral on LinkedIn?

>> 19:45 can you talk about the various places where you can create and share content on LinkedIn?

>> 23:42 What are the needs to create and share content?

>> 28:08 Are you doing one-on-one coaching?

>> 29:53 When will your course be launching?

>> 34:57 So what strategy will you be focusing on this year to grow your business?


Where to Find Belinda


Top Tech Tools

  • Airtable for content planning.
  • Clickup for project planning (Asana is comparable).
  • The Linkedin app
  • Slack for communicating with my team
  • Voxer for communicating via voice note/text with clients

SPONSOR

This episode is sponsored by Entire Productions- Creating events (both in-person and virtual) that don't suck! and Entire Productions Marketing- carefully curated premium gifting and branded promo items.

PLEASE RATE, REVIEW, & SUBSCRIBE on APPLE PODCASTS

“I love Natasha and the Fascinating Entrepreneurs Podcast!” <– If that sounds like you, please leave a rating and review of the show! This helps me support more people — just like you — to learn more about what makes the greatest entrepreneurs "tick" and become and stay successful.

Click here, open up the podcast in Apple Podcasts and click on "Ratings and Reviews". Tap to rate with five stars (thank you), and select “Write a Review.” Here is the link if you don't see the hyperlink: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/what-is-the-fascinating-entrepreneur-podcast-all-about/id1548836057?i=1000505269979

  1. Read or Listen to my memoir, Relentless- Homeless Teen to Achieving the Entrepreneur Dream
  2. ​Attend my free masterclass to learn how to write, publish and market your own memoir to a bestselling status: R​oadmap to your Memoir
  3. Want to publish your book? Poignant Press for more information.​
Transcript
Belinda:

I empower the people who spent the time, who are taking the time to really be masters of their craft and helping to take them out of their box and feel confident and powerful enough to really speak up and share what it is that they know.

Natasha:

Welcome to FASCINATING ENTREPRENEURS. How do people end up becoming an entrepreneur? How do they scale and grow their business? How did they plan for profit? Are they in it for life? Are they building to exit? These and a myriad of other topics will be discussed to pull back the veil on the wizardry of successful and FASCINATING ENTREPRENEURS.

I've written a book, a memoir. Really, a business memoir that follows me through my challenging life in Des Moines, Iowa, with all the twists and turns and inflection points to current day pandemic time, it will be published this year. So please go to natashamiller.co and sign up on my mailing list so you're the first to know when it's available. I'm also forming a launch team. So in case you'd like to be involved, I'll send you details about that too.

I immediately liked Belinda when I first met her. She has a warm, calm demeanor, is smart as a whip and kept me from investing about $110,000 in something that didn't really suit me at the time. She is a powerhouse LinkedIn marketer and has been teaching individuals and companies how to use influencer style marketing strategies with great success. Now let's get right into it.

Belinda:

I was a kid, always thought ideas of businesses that I wanted to have. And I just so vividly remember my dad always telling me that you need to be able to be in control of your career and have a business. Even though he's not someone who's ever owned a business. So yeah, I guess to simply answer your question, I definitely think and knew that I'd always end up here, but how it happened, I would have never guessed. When I started my business, my youngest was two.

And so I don't know if that's necessarily the most ideal time to start a business because he still wasn't sleeping through the night. But, I think after the year we've all had, when life throws something at you, you better be ready to catch the ball and run with it.

Natasha:

Yeah. I think sometimes having that chaos actually helps you focus and use your time wisely and squeeze out what you really want to be doing. So what drew you to LinkedIn as your focus for efforts on that platform? How did you choose that platform out of everything available at the time?

Belinda:

Yeah. So I guess this story, it really started back in 2017. So I was on an extended maternity leave of my own doing. I'm like, you know what, I'm going to hang out for a little bit longer.

And thankfully we were in a financial position to allow me to do that. And so I was like, okay, I'm ready to go back. And after I've been applying for jobs the traditional way, find a job, click apply. submit your resume in. That wasn't working. And that was getting really frustrating. And then I thought, oh yeah, things like LinkedIn, I should go on there.

So I went on there just really just to dust on my digital resume, try and find jobs over there. And when I signed in, I was like, what the heck is going on? The platform just wasn't what it was when I left it, probably back in 2015. Legit didn't log into there for two and a half years as I think a lot of people.

So I was able to leverage being on LinkedIn and building some connections on LinkedIn to get in front of hiring managers. Then I got a job and said, all right, sign our LinkedIn, this is great. But then once I got back into being in sales and just remembering how hard it is to get ahold of people by phone and my email.

Using LinkedIn. That's how I got this job. I wonder if it would work to get in front of prospects. And then I tried to use some of the same techniques that I did to get in front of hiring vendors to get in front of VPs of marketing, because that's who my target audience was. It worked. And I was like, oh, this is cool.

And that's really where it all started. It was out of a need to be seen by a particular person. And I think for a lot of people who want to leverage LinkedIn, that's where their story starts too.

Natasha:

And did you immediately log in as a pro user? Were you paying for the service or did you come to that later in the progression of your research?

Belinda:

Like I didn't come in as a pro user, so I have tinkered with it. And my thoughts with using LinkedIn premium is just like any other business resource. You've got to make sure that you're actually using it. LinkedIn premium isn't cheap. It's a very good investment, but only if you're actually using it and leveraging it.

So for me, I would say the majority of the time that I spent on LinkedIn before it became my full-time gig, I wasn't a premium user. I use the free version and a lot of what I teach people for how you connect on LinkedIn, having premium isn't going to make it easier for you to connect with anyone. It'll give you access to some more information.

But if you give me a book on brain surgery, I'm going to look at you and be like what do you want me to do with this? Having the data and the information isn't what makes you a brain surgeon? It's actually knowing what to do with the scalpel. And I am happy to leave that to the trained professionals.

Natasha:

We're going to dive deep into what you do and why and how it works. But in general, you coach people to, and I'm reading off your LinkedIn profile, confidently claim their space within their industry and business and sales strategies that allow them to build businesses that are in alignment with how they want to live their lives and whom they want to serve.

So I would like to know your process and what makes what you do for people on LinkedIn. What's your differentiation point?

Belinda 06:18So I think the first differentiation point with who I am and how it is that I teach things is one of the first things I tell people on like a prospect call is, listen, if you're trying to be a viral superstar on LinkedIn, like I'm not that person. I'm connected and have a personal relationship with someone who's really good at that. And I'm happy to put you in their direction.

Natasha:

Wait, who is a LinkedIn superstar? Give me an example.

Belinda:

I would say Shay Rowbottom. So her and I, we have completely different styles on how we approach LinkedIn, both of us successful in our own. And she knows how to make content go viral on LinkedIn. I know of the ways to make content viral on LinkedIn, but she's like really got that process down.

Natasha:

Okay, let's back up one second because something going viral on LinkedIn is a little bit of a brain shift from what can go viral on other platforms. So can you give an example? I know this is going away from what you do, but to illustrate the differentiation, what is something that went viral on LinkedIn?

Belinda:

Yes. So virality really is different for different people.So if you have, let's say 500 connections on LinkedIn and a post of yours gets, let's say 15,000 views, that would be considered something that went viral. Because based on how many people, your content would have been exposed to with the algorithm, compared to how many views you went, obviously the algorithm picked it up and showed it to a bunch of people and it kept moving to the algorithm until it stopped.

Versus let's say somebody has 20,000 connections on LinkedIn and they get the same 15,000 views, that wouldn't be considered a viral piece of content because. Their content would have been exposed to that many more people. The more connections you have or followers that you have, and this is the same on any platform, really, because they're all just copying each other at this point.

But the more followers and connections you have, the more views you need to have in order for something to be considered viral. But as a general rule of thumb, if a piece of content gets like a million views, it's pretty much fire.

Natasha:

What is the limit of people that can follow you on LinkedIn?

Belinda:

The limit of followers? I don't believe that there's a limit of followers. There is a limit to how many connections you can have. So in terms of first degree connections. So these are people who can direct message you. You click the invitation and you say, yes, that's 30,000, which is a lot. I can't remember 30,000 people.

Do you think they limit it, so they limit the automation and the robots and the false connections?

From what I understand, for the founders of LinkedIn, their idea was that they wanted people originally to only connect with people that they knew. So for us, oh gee, LinkedIn users, there was a time where like you had to have someone's email address and you have to write, how do you know this person? What company do you know them from?

They really wanted all the details. And if you didn't have that information, they're like, you don't actually know this person. They wanted to facilitate connections online for people who knew each other offline. And so things have opened up a lot, which is great. But the basis of the platform really was to allow for people to connect with their professional colleagues online that they knew offline.

Natasha:

So let's get back to you and what you do within your business for people on LinkedIn and outside of LinkedIn.

Belinda:

Yeah. So since I don't turn people into viral superstar, really my focus is helping people who are experienced, are a subject matter expert and they essentially are looking for others to know this. For them to build a personal brand that sells and that they can leverage for the other components of their life that they're looking for.

So maybe they're looking to get featured in Forbes and they'd like to be approached by these larger publications. Or they have a consulting business and they want for when people to search them and look for their name and their profile to come up, that people feel at ease and they feel like, okay, you're someone who can handle this level of business.

Those are the people that I'm really targeting and that I work with. So I really enjoy working with experienced professionals because I find that experienced professionals, the overachievers, are the ones who don't like wave the flag of this is how amazing I am. And it drives me crazy because we have a bunch of little squeakers at the bottom who like know nothing.

And they're the ones who speak up the lettuce. So I empower the people who spent the time, are taking the time to really be masters of their craft and helping to take them out of their box and feel confident and powerful enough to really speak up and share what it is that they know to position them as experts, but also to attract the kind of people that they want into their professional networks.

Natasha:

So let me ask you to give an example. So behind you is a book by the incredible Chris Voss who is just blowing my mind this year. Now he has a platform. A lot of people know him. A lot of people don't know him. And I'm going to make the assumption that his LinkedIn profile probably a day isn't as robust as it could be, because it doesn't need to be because of his platform currently.

But what if Chris Voss didn't have the platform he had? How would you guide him? Because he is absolutely an expert in his field. How would you guide someone like him to have a presence on LinkedIn in order to get books sold and clients booked, et cetera?

Belinda:

Absolutely. So what I would say is for people to think about LinkedIn as the way that people buy.

So when I started out in sales, more than 10 years ago, salespeople were the gatekeeper. If you wanted any information about anything, you have to go through me, the salesperson. Nowadays, people are spending probably 70% of the buying process, just looking up information. So with that in mind, If someone's looking up online to see, are you the real deal or not?

That means your LinkedIn profile needs to be really strong. Your profile needs to be speaking to someone and not just speaking about you. I always tell people that the glory is in your story. So you want to share your story of who you're trying to impact, and also why you are an expert in what it is that you do.

So I'd say, Chris, you got to make sure you have a really strong profile. Who are we speaking to?

Natasha:

And speaking in first person, that's how you advise?

Belinda:

Yeah.

Natasha:

Even from at his level? Yes.

Belinda:

Even someone at his level, because it's about creating that human to human connection. I always compare it to having a bond fire versus you being on the stage, pontificating down onto every people beneath you.

Natasha:

Is there any time when the bio should be in third person? And your opinion? Like Barack Obama?

Belinda:

Yeah. Even Barack Obama. Because when I'm going to his profile, I want to see him as a person because it's a personal brand. And when you think of your personal brand, yes, it's about you, but it's also about connecting personally to other people.

Yeah. I want to take this time to stress for all the listeners that once upon a time, my bio was in third person. I thought at the level that I was in the world, that I needed to have a more professional output and then I've heard on and on, it should be, "I," "me," like I'm talking about myself and I really hesitated and I did change it.

Natasha:

And I just wondered from experts like you, does that really apply to everyone? So you answered the question. So if you're listening to this and you have a third person bio, as if somebody wrote it about you, consider changing it if you want to get more leads or if you want to get more connections with the people that you're trying to target.

Okay. Keep going Belinda.

Belinda:

And to expand on what you're saying. The third person creates space, because I remember too that when I started out, I felt like I need to be in the third person to exude myself as this, someone of stature. But when you are trying to get people to connect with you, you want to minimize the amount of space that you have between you and the person and what is going to elevate you.

What is going to make the people take you seriously is the story. Barack Obama has the respect that he has because he was the 44th President of the United States. He doesn't have to talk to the third person. We all know who he is. So people will respect you because of how you tell your story. And that's, what's going to carry you.

That's that, make sure you have a really strong profile that speaks in the first person to who you want to speak to and about you as well. The second thing that people want to, or that Chris should take into account is creating content. So the value of information is not at being in here. If you think of J.K. Rowling and the Harry Potter series, it started out in her head.

If it was still in there, she wouldn't then be like the bajillionaire. So you become a bajillionaire there because you share what's in your head and you put it out into the world. So that's where creating content comes in. But the power of LinkedIn, I would say, is in commenting and connecting with people on a commenting level.

And I'm always bringing my clients through and I'm like, okay. The water's cold. I understand your creative going in the water. Let's just put our foot in first. And so you put your foot in by commenting and you start out with saying, Hey, this was a great post. This is really interesting. But then you need to expand on that.

Then you tell people why you thought it was interesting and you start sharing your perspective. So if I was coaching, Chris, I'd say, all right, so you are really get great at negotiating. You could give advice about two salespeople on posts. So let's say you see a post about getting a prospect to say yes to our meeting, and then say as an ex-FBI negotiator, hostage negotiator, I mean my experience, this is how I got people to say yes to the things I wanted to say. And then now you're sharing your expertise in a comment until you're adding to the conversation that's happening on LinkedIn and without getting too crazy. The algorithm actually shares your comments the same way it shares content.

So it's a really great way for you to get your expertise and your knowledge out into the world without necessarily having to put out new pieces of content every day.

Natasha:

That's a great tip right there. Because what I think you're saying is your comments and your interactions via the algorithm count just as much as you publishing a standalone piece.

Belinda:

So the next time you go onto LinkedIn, I want you guys like all of the listeners to take a minute. And when you go into your home feed at the very top of a piece of content, it's going to say Jane Doe commented on this, or Tom Jones liked this post. What happens is, unlike a lot of other social media platforms, LinkedIn is going to show you certain content based on the activity and behaviors of those that you're connected to.

The longevity and the power of comments is just explosive on LinkedIn. And then lastly, the power of LinkedIn is in who you're connected with. So it's not just connecting with people with whom you're hoping to do business with, but also people who you think are interesting or maybe they're funny, or they do something.

You're never going to sell them. They live in Dubai, so you're never going to see them, but they just have an interesting business perspective. And you're just curious about what they have to say. I follow advice of resume writers all the time and it's not like I'm polishing off my resume, but they're just interesting people who have interesting perspectives. And the best content creators on LinkedIn aren't only talking to their prospects. They have content that is applicable to everyone and not just to their prospects.

Natasha:

If you haven't heard about Anchor, it's the easiest way to make a podcast. Let me explain. Number one, it's free. Number two, there are creation tools that allow you to record and edit your podcasts, right from your phone or computer. Anchor will also distribute your podcasts for you so you can be heard on Spotify, Apple Podcast and many more. You can also make money from your podcast with no minimum listenership. It's everything you need to make a podcast in one place. Download the free Anchor app or go to anchor.fm to get started.

There's great ways to create and share content on LinkedIn.

And let me ask you a question. So I am getting content pushed to me from Kara Golden, who is the founder of Hint Water. She just launched a book and she's very successful. And so I'm getting her, I think, newsletters to my inbox because I probably have opted in. So can you talk about the various places where you can create and share content on LinkedIn?

Belinda:

Yes. Okay. If you asked me this about a year and a half ago, it'd be a lot easier. Because LinkedIn has come up with a lot. So there's the basic text post, content post, if like a word document. 1300 characters, say we want to say and click publish. You can also share photos. You can also upload PDF documents. So this is a really great way.

If you have a lot of really interesting content for you to repurpose it into a PDF document and put it onto LinkedIn and the algorithm really likes when people post documents. So there's a fun little tip for you. LinkedIn has polls, which is interesting. So you say, Hey, what's your favorite color? Blue, yellow, green, red.

Natasha:

I'm going to say stop you there at polls because I did a poll on LinkedIn. I've only done one. And the question I had was about LinkedIn. And this is the question, and I love to know your stance on this too. Do you accept requests for connection from people you don't know?

Belinda:

This is a complicated answer. So I need everyone to just hear me out through to the end. I think that, yes, you can. I should say, can accept connection requests from people who you don't know because, let's say for instance, who you don't know, may be the person who is going to help you elevate and become the next step in your career. You just never know.

But with that being said, I do believe in people's right to not necessarily have a completely open network where they just accept anyone. Because at the end of the day, as I mentioned very early on in this episode, once you become a first degree connection with someone, they have a lot more access to you.

So now they can start sending you direct messages. I've had people send me direct messages that are less than positive and you only have 30,000 of them that you can have. So I'm not one of those LinkedIn quote unquote experts who believes in, oh, you should connect with anyone because I don't believe you can go. And you can't do business with everyone.

It's just from a capacity perspective, you can't the reason why you have Target versus Walmart, right? So you can't do business with everyone. I think that it does make sense to be a little judicious on who you do welcome into your network. But I do think that it is in your best interest to at least be open to connecting with people, with whom you may not know because you just never know. But also be just as happy to disconnect with people who don't seem to take a hint, because it is your social media platform. Like you control your experience on it. So if someone's harassing you or you just don't like the way someone is talking to you, you don't have to ask permission.

Just say, you know what? This is not working out for me.

Natasha:

So if you got a connection today after this, would you qualify them? Would you do a quick search to see, does it in general feel like a good connection?

Belinda:

Yeah. So I do judge people on how they treat others on LinkedIn. So if you are a racist or a bigot, if you don't like black people, you probably not going to like me.

And that's the free country do what you want, but I will judge you based on the content of your character. So if I see you treating other people poorly, it's a good chance that you're going to treat me poorly and I'm not going to walk you into my network. And I do like to see profiles, and this is not a steadfast rule, but this is my suggestion to anyone who is actively connecting with people.

It is a good idea to have a profile picture up there and fill out some information. It's if I was shopping on Rodeo Drive and there is a store like with nothing on the clothing racks. Am I going to go into the store? I'm going to go. They're probably not open for business. So if you can add a little bit of something to your profile to make it seem to people that you are active on LinkedIn, that would be a really strong suggestion that I would make.

Natasha:

Okay. Continuing on how you can create and share content. What are some other needs?

Belinda:

So polls, then LinkedIn has their own version of stories which I'm personally not in love with. There's a lot of things that is left to be desired with the UX or user experience, but stories do exist. You can upload videos, and if you're uploading a video, I would suggest that you upload a video native to LinkedIn versus a link from let's say it being hosted on Vimeo or YouTube.

And there are articles. I really like articles because you have a lot of space to really show the depth of your knowledge and your expertise. There are newsletters which are different from articles in the sense that people can subscribe to them. So if you had a newsletter within a newsletter platform, they have the same thing on LinkedIn. And is there anything else?

There's a live feature now. So live, I hate to mention. Exactly. I only just got live like maybe a month and a half ago and I still haven't done anything with it, but I was like very vocal about it until everyone I'm like...

'Cause I'm like a child where I just wanted it because everyone else had it.

And then the moment I got it, I was like, oh, okay. That's it. I just wanted it. That's all I did, but didn't actually want to do anything with it.

Natasha:

You share your videos on LinkedIn all the time. Why not go live? What is that stop gap for you?

Belinda:

I think for me, I'm still in the part of my life, where I had a two and a half year old running around.

And it was like, I could have five minutes of free time, but minute six and I've got a kid running in and my son for any of my clients, he's met all of my clients. And I'm talking about CEOs. Like he could give to. I've run workshops with 30 people and some Fortune 500 companies and he's waltzing in cause COVID and he's hi guys, what you doing?

And so I just think in my mind, I'm still at that beginning stage where I'm just hoping I can make it through. I do have plans to go live. It's just, I got to pull the trigger.

So I want everyone to know because I really trust you. And because of the way we met, because of how you helped me, which is a whole another story, how you helped me not spend $110,000 a month on digital marketing.

I'll always be thankful for that. But I'd love to have people understand what the process is to work with you. And so let's talk about that as if I'm hiring you, which I very much likely will be doing after this. So for someone at my level, or a little bit higher, or a little bit lower, what are your options for working with you?

So moving into 2021, things are quite interesting. So I'm in the process of creating a self-paced course for people, where the information that I teach my one-on-one coaching clients and synthesizing it into a whole course for both individuals as well. Really, the push is from a corporate perspective, corporate, like we want online learning and I'm like okay, sure. I can do that.

So it's a self-paced version, bringing people through my framework for how to leverage your personal brand on LinkedIn, so there's that. And in the past I've done things like masterclasses. So back in December, I had one where I was focused on direct messaging. I think people don't talk enough about direct messaging.

Natasha:

Everyone needs to learn how to do that because everyone's doing it wrong.

Belinda:

I know because everyone keeps spending 20 bucks a month to get a bunch of automated messages sent and I'm hoping, stop doing it.

Natasha:

Yes, it's tragic.

Belinda:

But I think that the reason why people do that is because there's still that old school frame of mind where it's like spray and pray.

Just get through your book of a thousand people. Someone's going to buy from you. It's just so easy for people to ignore you now. Whereas before it's like people always pick up the phone. Like I remember when I started, I would call and someone would answer or they would have returned my voicemail.

Natasha:

I will only answer my phone if I see your name coming up.

Belinda:

Exactly. I don't know you, leave a message. And even then I think I have five more friends right now. But there's no guarantee you're going to get me just because you leave a voicemail because I don't know you.

Natasha:

So are you doing one-on-one coaching? Are you still doing group coaching?

Belinda:

Yes. So I do for a very select few people one-on-one coaching. And the reason why for anyone who is doing any kind of consulting work or coaching, the one thing that no one seems to talk about is you have to be really selective about who you choose to work with. Because especially coaching, it's a very intimate experience and there's a big energy exchange and there's what you're giving.

We are also taking on a lot from the client too. So I think this whole idea of I'm going to get as many clients as I can, which is one again, there's only so many clients you can take on. But when you're working with people, one-on-one, you've really got to not just love what you do, but you got to love the clients too.

You don't want to 10 minutes for the car, like oh my gosh, how am I going to make it through the next hour? Because then you're not going to be able to show up as the best version of yourself too. So it's a very select group of people or type of person that I'll work with that starts with, you have to have a minimum of 10 years experience.

I'm not the chef who's going to go into the fridge and find leftovers and turn it into a Michelin star dinner. That's not what I do. I work with people who have the experience and returning come to me with clay and then we can turn it into something really magical. But don't come to me with some dirt and some water and say, let's do something.

We're just gonna end up with dirt and water. And so, I work with experienced professionals who have a passion for what it is that they do. That's really important. You want to go on LinkedIn because you want to be famous again. That's not me. You're already passionate about what it is that you do when you're just trying to translate it into the way people are doing business and how they're showing up in 2021.

Natasha:

And when will your course be launching?

Belinda:

So my course actually launches on January 17th.

Natasha:

Is it evergreen or are you dripping it out?

Belinda:

It is evergreen. So the version that goes live over the next four weeks from the 17th, it's my beta version. So that's where I'm asking everyone to I'm like, you guys tear this apart. You can tear me apart.

It was trash. This part was great. Or, Hey, this was way too high level. You needed to go a little bit deeper because you have blind spots once you've been doing something for a very long time. So it'll be the beta launch for four weeks into February. And then after that, it's going to be available evergreen for people. You just land on our website and you say, Hey, I want to get LinkedIn smart. There you go. You can grab the blooper.

Natasha:

I love it. I'm so glad that you're doing that. So I'm curious about how being an entrepreneur in Canada is different from here in the US and in your opinion, what benefits do you enjoy? And do you even know?

Belinda:

Okay. So I'm like the worst Canadian where you ask this question because, about 98, 99% of my clients are American. Like I am the Canadian when everyone's oh, America this, America that. And actually, those are my friends. We're not going to be mean to the Americans, okay.

Natasha:

I mean it's very challenging time right now, but I apologize on behalf of our crazy country, but continue.

Belinda:

It's one of those things where I describe it. Everyone in their family has that drunk uncle. And depending on what alcohol has, it was like, is this the fun, this is the fun uncle, or is this the uncle who has drank way too much right now?

I feel like uncle has drank a little bit too much, and we just need him to sober up. And that's what the world is waiting for. As the Canadian, I just want y'all to fix it. Cause I want the border to open up because I'm in the states all the time. My family, we are suffering. My kids are like, mom, when can we go back to Florida? And I'm like, honey, I don't know.

Natasha:

So you guys won't let us in at all and I don't blame you. But as far as entrepreneurship.

Belinda:

Okay so, entrepreneurship. I think that when you're trying to build a business and I think that it's both a blessing and a curse when you're building a business and you're not worried about losing health insurance or trying to make enough that you can quickly afford health insurance. It puts you in a privileged position. I think that our social system-

Natasha:

Especially for you, you have a family.

Belinda:

Exactly.

Natasha:

Less risky if you were single. That's a great point. Okay. Keep going. I knew you would be able to answer this well.

Belinda:

Thank you. So I just think that when you have certain social supports and I know that there are other social supports that I never took advantage of just because I have an ego. But at the very basic one, if we're comparing Canada and the United States, it's knowing that if I get sick and I didn't make a dollar for the next three months, I would be okay. And that's a huge privilege, but I think that the curse part of that is sometimes you don't have that fire. And I think that's what makes America, oh God, I can't believe I'm going to say this. That's what makes it-

Natasha:

Don't say it, don't say it!

Belinda:

-great.

Natasha:

Oh god..

Belinda:

She said it. But I didn't go all the way with the thing, but that's what makes America great full-stop. By the innovation is so amazing. Don't hate me. I do think that there are certain things that could be done with some changes, but I'm Canadian so don't listen to me. But I do think that there are certain structural reasons why some of the greatest, coolest, most amazing things come out of the United States.

And it's because there's this under you when you know that if I get sick, I'm on my own. And that makes you think about things really different. It makes you get your butt out of bed at three o'clock in the morning. And so it's something where I always respect just American ingenuity. It's just really cool.

So I think that's the biggest thing, it's just the social setup. But then again, I find that Americans are really easy to do business. When I talked to Kenny, oh, what's it like working with Americans? And I'm like, they're freaking awesome. I find that Americans are really open to new ideas and that's great for someone like me.

I've been going around telling people up until maybe middle of last year, the idea of someone, yeah, I'm gonna teach about LinkedIn. They're like, who, what, why would I do that? But at least most people in America are at least open. They're like, okay if you're teaching about LinkedIn, there's probably something about that I don't know. So let me at least think about it.

Natasha:

That's an opportunity, we see everything as an opportunity. I wonder, and I can look this up, if there are more entrepreneurs per capita in the US compared to Canada.

Belinda:

I would bet like a thousand dollars on that. I just think, yeah, I think that research is probably up there and probably, there are more entrepreneurs per capita in the USS than there are here.

Natasha:

So what strategy will you be focusing on this year to grow your business? We've already touched on it because of your course coming out, but is there one special sauce strategy that you're really going to focus on?

Belinda:

Things are changing in the Belinda world of marketing, but I think so there being more, which is before, all of my marketing and my strategy was all in the confines of LinkedIn, all LinkedIn all the time. What's next? So I'm building up more of my personal brand where I'm doing some stuff on LinkedIn. Oh my gosh. See, like it's like default, but I'm doing some stuff on YouTube. I am building my brand over on Instagram, some more, which has been really fun.

Natasha:

Are you on Clubhouse yet?

Belinda:

I finally registered. Okay. So this is the whole story.

Natasha:

Are you in?

Belinda:

I am. I'm in.

Natasha:

Okay, 'cause I was gonna let you in.

Belinda:

Oh my gosh.

Natasha:

I'll find you.

Belinda:

Thank you. So I have, and for those of you who are listening, I'm about to pull up. So I've got an iPhone and then I switched to frickin Android. Cause my husband, bad idea. I know, I know.

Natasha:

Then you don't have access to Clubhouse.

Belinda:

But I do because one of my friends gave me an invite like months ago and then I finally used it.

And so I powered this up so that I could get on Clubhouse. I think it's a really cool. It's really cool. But that wasn't part of my strategic plan a couple of weeks ago, but I do see me leveraging the platform. But I'm a lurker, I'm someone who will alert and see what's going on. And then I'll pounce.

So to answer your question, I'm doing more YouTube, more Instagram. So just really showing people a little more of Belinda holistically and not just Belinda the super professional and then also more email marketing. Oh and I also have a podcast. See, all the things. So my podcast is all around Claim Your Space.

It's called The Claim Your Space Podcast, and really it's about helping people to claim their space in their industry. So if I can help people visualize, and I explained it in my very first episode, like what the heck is claim your space. But women will understand this more so than men. But there's always people who will sit down a chair and they'll open their legs and just take up the space.

And that's what I want people to do within their industry. Sit down, spread your books and just own it. Claim your space because there is a seat for you at the table. But if you do not take the seat, somebody else will. And that's it. You just got to move in and be like, I'm taking it. I am here. I worked hard in order to get the level of success and experience and expertise that I have.

And I'm about helping people like just own it. Be proud of it, be unapologetic about it. And that's what the podcast and just make greater personal brand is really all about. I think that the word empowerment is overused. It's become like a buzzword, but that's really what I'm about. If you've earned it, now go and enjoy it.

And it's like having a bunch of money and just letting it sit in the bank. Let some of it sit in the bank and then go enjoy the rest of it.

Natasha:

So we learned about various elements of how to market on LinkedIn, what makes LinkedIn content viral, and how to build your personal brand and leverage it, for more information about Belinda Aramide and her LinkedIn course, go to the show notes where you're listening to this podcast.

I'm putting the finishing touches on a digital course for entrepreneurs to learn how to scale and grow their companies and find more profit than their current revenue. To download the free Profit Finder Guide that I've created and also to put yourself on the wait list for the course, go to natashamiller.co.

For more information about me, go to my website, natashamiller.co. Thank you so much for listening. I hope you loved the show. If you did, please subscribe. Also, if you haven't done so yet, please leave a review where you're listening to this podcast now. I'm Natasha Miller and you've been listening to FASCINATING ENTREPRENEURS.

Belinda AramideProfile Photo

Belinda Aramide

Owner, Salesfluence Consulting