19 May 5 Guest Kate Merryweather
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[00:00:00] Okay, so welcome to the Business of Executive Coaching podcast. I'm here with a very special guest today, Kate Merryweather. So I came across Kate on LinkedIn, I wanna say maybe a year ago. And since I've been following Kate on LinkedIn, she has shared so much gold about how we use LinkedIn that I had to have her on , the podcast.
And I won't lie, some of the things she say challenged me deeply. As well. So , there's some things and I'm like, I didn't know that. I don't wanna change. , but , I really deeply appreciate because she brings this energy of experimentation. I'm gonna ask her all about that. , so Kate, before I wax too lyrical about you, I would love it if you would share your story with our listeners.
Hi. Thank you for having me. I'm really curious to know what. What triggered you or challenged you. So we'll definitely have to discuss that. But yes, so I, , it was exclamation marks by the way. It was exclamation marks. Oh, that was just this week. Yeah. Kate has a [00:01:00] theory that we need to remove the exclamation marks in our
communication.
Sorry, totally just interrupted your story then. Absolutely. And I had a, I have, and I'm still trying to wean down my exclamation marks, but it's funny. I said, oh, you know, I don't use 'em anymore. And then I'm realizing I'm a total hypocrite. 'cause I do still use 'em all the time. Sorry. Don't listen to what a random person on the internet says.
If you don't like. I like that advice. I, I know I will continue to use moderate amounts of exclamation marks, but I think it's because I do deeply know that this is a, flaw in my communication. So I took it, I was happy. Yeah. Feminine thing to be like, women are taught like yes, it's smiley and happy and Yeah.
Positive and, , agreeable. Yeah, and exactly. Yeah, it's just a habit like anything else. But yeah, so I was a copywriter for many years and I was totally invisible. I did nothing to promote myself, and in 2020 I thought I need to have a grownup business. [00:02:00] And I started posting on LinkedIn and I did a few courses.
I remember one course I did, told me to post four times a day. Oh, and I did it for a month and I think I spent two days a week creating LinkedIn content. This is ridiculous. A lot. , so I quickly took what I liked from those courses and tossed what I didn't like and I had a bit of a formula for myself.
And I kept posting on LinkedIn, , promoting my copywriting services, and within about four months of showing up very regularly. I think daily on LinkedIn, I was starting to get leads coming to me saying, yes, I wanna book your, , writing packages, sign me up. And then a few months after that I was booked out.
So I had to put people on a wait list to work with me. And what happened then was my clients kept saying, what are you doing on LinkedIn? You're doing really well. Like my accountant said, every time I open LinkedIn, you are there. How are you? How are you doing [00:03:00] that? I said it's just 'cause I post a lot on LinkedIn and , so people kept asking me and then I went into a copywriting group to present some training on something else.
And then I said, right, any questions? And all the questions were about my LinkedIn and I thought, oh, I think this is a sign that I can teach this to other people. So that was in 2022. I stopped copywriting and I became a LinkedIn coach, and now I help people with LinkedIn. Oh, amazing. And Also, I love that evolution, right?
Because I think a lot of, so the listeners of this, podcast are mostly executive coaches, right? So we, go into the work because we wanna have an impact. We wanna work with people one-on-one, but often our. Our journey changes, we might take on different offers because of the experiences that we have and, the connection we make and the people who reach out to us.
So I think there's a lot of alignment there. [00:04:00] But my, I guess my first question for you really is. Why LinkedIn for business owners? Like, why, you know, because , when LinkedIn started, and I remember joining LinkedIn many years ago and we didn't do anything at that point. You never posted on LinkedIn.
You just sat there and like connected maybe with a few people, but it was like, I couldn't really see the, point of it. Now obviously I know, the point of it, but you know , why do you believe LinkedIn , is so effective for business owners? That was about five questions. I'm sorry, , I'm rambling, but you get my gist.
I do get it. So I'm gonna point to this little story that came to my mind, which is, and I can't remember who, but it was years ago in the old Western America, this bank robber was on trial. And they, you know, the judge said, why do you keep robbing banks? And the bank robber said, because that's where the money is.
Love it. And that's answer LinkedIn because that's where the money is. There's people with money on LinkedIn. Yeah, LinkedIn [00:05:00] helps you reach them. Like LinkedIn has a very powerful search tool that you can use to find the people that you want to find. Like if I wanted to find all your audience of executive coaches, I could type that in to LinkedIn and I can specify where I want them, how connected they are to me.
, and I could find probably a hundred. Pages of results of executive coaches who I could then potentially reach out to or connect with. And that is really powerful. So anyone wanting to use LinkedIn can use those search tools to build their own network of the right people, the people they wanna sell to.
Basically, I'm quite a cap evil capitalist really. Someone called me that once. so that you can attract leads to you. there's a lot of issues on LinkedIn with dm, so a lot of people send bad dms. And a lot of people teach, you know, like I follow a lot of other LinkedIn coaches who are all great in their own ways, but this [00:06:00] one is teaching, you know, literally saying spam the dms, like that's the, , approach that they're teaching, which I, groom us a bit because we've all been on the other end of those dms on in LinkedIn.
So that's one thing that I don't teach and I have alternative ways of showing up on LinkedIn without sending annoying dms. So. that's a long answer to your question , to why beyond LinkedIn? , I think that's exactly what, , you know, , I teach , in a different way, right? Which is we need to be in places where our ideal clients are and we need to have ways of, talking to them and reaching out to them and having them be drawn to us.
And what I'm hearing is that your strategy and , the things you teach are all about how do we attract those people to us. Rather than, , you know, feeling like we're, pushy and we're salesy, which is something that most coaches I work with are absolutely terrified of. Absolutely. And with coaching, it's a very personal relationship that you have with a [00:07:00] coach, so you wanna feel like you know your coach, you wanna feel like you trust them, .
You wanna feel like you can safely open up to someone and you can have that kind of intimate relationship that you need with a coach to get the outcomes that you. Expect from a coach. Mm-hmm. So I think in any of those kind of relationships where it's quite personal, like I always say, you know, divorce coaches or any kind of coach where you're just really relying on someone to, you know, work on mindset and limiting beliefs or whatever it might be.
Yeah. You really need to trust them and LinkedIn can give you that likability factor where you can show up. And my clients. You know what? Come to me and I want, I want them to get the outcome where people are saying, I've been following you and I really like you, and now I am ready. And that's a really lovely way to have that initial conversation where , the buyer is the one getting in touch with you.
Yeah. When they're ready. [00:08:00] And that, like I always say, and that's none of my business. When you're ready to work with me, there's none of my business, but I'm here in the dms, just DM me and we'll have a chat. And so they already trust you because you're not pushing them. Yeah. Particularly in the executive space, like these are pretty busy.
And like my husband's in corporate and he's a decision maker with a big budget company and he says, I get all these dms of people trying to sell me finance tools and do you wanna demo this and do you want that? And Do you wanna, you know, I will be your recruitment people or, and he says, I just get harassed so.
Those executives that your, , listeners are coaching, they're gonna be, they're gonna be experiencing that like my husband is. And the last thing they want is another, a coach saying, Hey, do you, yeah. Do you So coaching, right? It's interesting because actually outreach is something that we do. And you know what?
It's, an approach , that I talk about, but. Very much not cold outreach. Right? So we have , like what's, how, what's the difference [00:09:00] between having conversations with people who are already communicating with you in some way, right? People who are engaging with your posts. Like that being definitely a different process to those, those salesy, you know, awful.
Like, yeah. Check out my demo. I know, and I saw on your website this, phrase that I quite liked and this, I might have to tag this with an explicit. , podcast episode now it says get leads without being an annoying dickhead. Right? , and so, you know, sorry if you had kids in the car with you.
, but I think that is really tapping into a very deep fear that a lot of us have, , particularly when it , comes to promoting ourselves and visibility, and which is that, you know, we don't want to be annoying. We don't wanna be the person who is. You know, this example you shared right? About your husband receiving these horrific dms from, from people who are spamming them.
Like, we really deeply don't wanna be that person. , , so I think, there's so much value in, what you're sharing now. Yeah. What's, there's [00:10:00] a huge difference. Sorry. No, go ahead. You were talking about, you know, warm dms is totally different. Yeah. Like if someone's commenting, you can just start a conversation, say, thank you for commenting.
I really appreciate it. Yeah. , you know, I think there's ways to have those conversations. I hate the word, but authentically. Yeah. And, . Like this, coach I was mentioning before, one of the things he said was like, message people and then don't reply for a week. So they say that you're busy. And I was like, it's all very dishonest, you know, it's all smoke and mirrors.
So yeah, I think the opposite of that is more genuine. So , I message people a lot, but I don't, it's never like, Hey, bye. My thing. Like, thank you for your support, or I saw your comment. , you know, I can help you with, , if you, know, I'll give them a quick tip or something like that. Yeah. I think that's very different to the spammy dms that I'm talking about.
Absolutely. So I think it's important just to clarify that. Yeah. So I think we're probably on the same page. 'cause I think a lot of people think when I talk about outreach that I'm gonna be like, yeah, you gotta spend 10 messages to a cold [00:11:00] lead on LinkedIn. I'm gonna be ringing out. You like get the phone book out and .
Ring. Yeah. Well. I often tell a story of, , I went into recruitment early in my career after I left being a lawyer. And fair to say, I was not very good at it. , but one of the reasons was that we had literally this green book of all of the lawyers in Australia and New Zealand, and we just had to work our way through one by one and just cold call them and just hope for the best.
So. If anyone is worried that I will teach you cold calling or cold messaging, I have so much deep trauma from that, it will never happen. So, no, you're safe. , what, and, another thing that I was wondering , and would love your insight in , is it different in terms of how you show up and how you post if you wanna be selling to businesses versus individuals?
Yeah. So people have this idea that like. B2B like has to be corporate and professional because it's a corporate and professional space. . But they're still humans. Like my husband, the accountant, like he's still a funny guy who likes personality. And those, [00:12:00] that audience is actually really tired of the , same stuff they're seeing.
So they're really, I was gonna say like not vulnerable, but they're really, it's really easy to stand out. Yeah, from the crowd with, , , to stand, it's really easy to stand out from the crowd in that space by just having a little bit of more humanity, more humor, more personality.
. I think that can be your secret weapon in that if you're trying to reach that market, because everyone else is so beige. I love that. So the more, and, and especially for your audience of, , executive coaches, again, they wanna work with you. They want to know you. So they don't want to hear any, you know, in today's digital driven technology era, blah, blah, blah, like yeah.
They want real human stories and human connection, so, yeah. Yeah. Even though they're a corporate audience, yeah, they're still human. They're still people. Yeah, , so I think it's easier, like it's easier if you [00:13:00] are just a little bit brave about the way that you show up on LinkedIn. Mm-hmm. That you can steal all the .
Attention so easily. 'cause everyone else is boring. , what's your take on like being provocative? Right? So I've noticed a lot of people post on LinkedIn and it can almost seem like they're being provocative for the sake of it. , you know what , I'm really tired of is that, , the post that starts with.
Unpopular opinion, blah, blah, blah. Or I'm gonna get a lot of hate for this, blah, blah, blah. And then the opinion is so vanilla. I'm like, that's not an unpopular opinion. That's, the common opinion. Yeah. So people can try to, you know, use those attention getting TA techniques. , I think, look, I used to be a publicist and I'm like, yes, be controversial.
You'll get all the attention, but. I think if that's not your natural personality, , it's gonna cause you anxiety and stress. . , if you're gonna deliberately, you know, be really critical or controversial, you will get a lot of, you know, [00:14:00] what's the word? Like potentially negative attention.
Yeah. , so I think like one of my clients is . Very interested in disrupting her industry. And she's not afraid. And when you meet her, she's very ballsy, she's very direct, she's very blunt. That is her personality. So she's not afraid to call out the bs. We've already sworn. So like, I guess I can say bullshit again.
Yeah. We probably good. , and she does that. And that's, if you met her, that's what she would be like. So it's, correlates. Yeah. Whereas if you are timid and pretty mild mannered. Yeah. Then I wouldn't suggest courting controversy just for the sake of it, because if you get any kind of negativity that stresses you out, you'll Yeah.
You'll never put your head out up a, you know, LinkedIn's pretty nice though. Like everyone has their personal name and their personal profile, so you're not gonna get like trolls. Like I was talking to someone who's on TikTok and she goes like, the trolls are just, you know, people like you are ugly, you know, or fix your teeth or something horrible.
That's not gonna happen on LinkedIn because it's your. It's your photo [00:15:00] next to your profile and , your name and , your job, your employee or your business. . So people are really not gonna, but they will disagree like they will. Yeah. You know? Yeah. Okay. . So then like, , I think you mentioned like one of the things we're doing when we are posting particularly is we're sort of trying to build , this likability in , this sense that people know us and that , they can connect with us.
How is that different to thought leadership, for example? Right? So wanting to position ourselves, like, do we do both? Should we do focus on one? How do we decide what to post really is what I'm asking. Yeah, good question. So I think the likability can just be a little, I always say funny, but it doesn't have to be like just little personal bits like.
If you've got, if you're saying, you know, I'm happier, you might say a cliche is, I'm happier than a piggy in mud. So you might change that. To me. I'm happier than a girl with a box of barbecue shapes or something. That's one of my little things I've mentioned. Barbecue shapes. Nice. So you think of those little bits about yourself that are true, that you've [00:16:00] got lots of dogs or you love eighties movies or, , you know, your.
They're obsessed with skiing or something, whatever those little things are that you work in. I call it like essence of you. Yeah. You work that into your posts. . Really important with chatGPT and other AI tools that they can't give that. So I like to, when I write a post for myself or I write posts to my clients, I think, does this have enough of them in it?
And I try and put just little. Not always, just little aside. So that's kind of your personality likability factor. Mm-hmm. Whereas thought leadership is more, you know, opinions that are , genuinely different, new, clever, thought provoking. So I think a lot of people talk about thought leadership, but they're not really sharing true thought leadership.
. , LinkedIn is great for thought leadership, and sharing. Really questioning, like the client I mentioned before that is really like, I don't like that she's in, you know, the marketing space and she doesn't like the agency model is kind of her enemy that she talks about. So she's really questioning this [00:17:00] agency model, , and positioning herself as an alternative.
, so her thought leadership is just saying, you know, this is , the way things are done and are they. The best way anymore, and here's some of the flaws of this model and . You know, the clients get charged an arm and a leg for bugger all and all that sort of stuff. so I think thought leadership is harder to do, genuinely.
Like if, like I always , say you're a web developer and , you develop really nice websites and you use WordPress and you're really good at your job. Mm-hmm. , and you know, WordPress inside out and you make great looking websites, do you really need thought leadership around that? Like, are you really.
. , yes, you're really good. Yes, you've got a great portfolio. You can show up on LinkedIn without using for, you know, amazing ideas and mm-hmm. , things like that. Whereas , if you've got like a software tool that is really disruptive, it says this tool takes over six tools you've already got and we're asking you to change your ways and, try a different approach.
And that kind of person may be. Thought leadership could be really beneficial because you are asking people to drastically [00:18:00] change the way they do things or to, you know, say, forget zoom, you know, we're gonna, we've got something else, or whatever it might be. Yeah. So , that's the difference for me.
But a lot of, like, as I said, if you are that web developer, or in your case, like your executive coach listeners mm-hmm. , how dramatic and controversial and opinionated do they need to be? Not, very. Not, not, not very. Yeah. So, then in terms of like for executive coaches for example, they want their ideal clients, usually, , often HR decision makers or sort of owners of business functions or small business owners.
They want their to see that they are credible, right? That they are coaches who have experience, who understand the depth, they understand their challenges of their clients. That coaching would be a solution for like what would. What should they be posting to attract those leads? Right. So there's something about personality showing themselves.
Yeah. There's something that's sort of not quite thought leadership. Yeah. How do they decide what to post? So [00:19:00] the things that I, this is kind of my go-to strategy is like problems, goals, fears, so. Thinking of your audience, and I think anyone can kind of do this exercise with themselves and put yourself in the mind of your audience or your ideal client , and have that sentence so you write down, I don't know, and then you finish the sentence.
So, I don't how to, empower my team to be better managers. I don't know how to bring the best out of my leaders. I dunno how to fix , . A team that's not cohesive. . And then, , their fears. I mean, , I'm afraid I'm gonna spend all this money and get no result, I'm afraid. . , that, you know, the HR director will be banging on my door.
The CEO's gonna hate it. and then the next one is, I want ., ., .. What do I want? I want. It's quite often the opposite of the, fears of the, I don't know how I want to have a great solution that makes me look good, or whatever it might be. So if you think about, you can have a little brainstorm with yourself using those, you know, I want, I don't know how, [00:20:00] and I'm afraid, ... , and then you can talk about, so are you afraid that you'll spend a lot of money on a coach and you won't, you'll just get a lot of fluff.
, here's what I say. Yeah. Or are you afraid that, , your coach really won't understand your specific circumstances? His, and here's what I say about that. Yeah. , so you can, use those prompts. I think if you focus very much on your audience and solving problems, helping them reach goals, you can say, you know, if you want to blah, blah, blah, then blah, blah, blah.
Yeah. So, . Sharing what I call value content is an important part of the strategy. Mm-hmm. Where you're showing off, you're giving free advice. , we all follow people 'cause we want free advice. Yeah. so I give very generously free advice on LinkedIn. . And, my clients do as well on all sorts of topics.
And then people come to you saying . They start to believe, well, , they really know what they're talking about. Mm-hmm. Because look at all the free stuff they're giving. Mm-hmm. , and then they, also think, [00:21:00] wow, this person gets it. This person understands it because they're talking to my fears, my problems, and my goals.
Mm-hmm. So they feel very understood by you when you talk to those things. I love that, and I think in my mind, that's what I've been thinking of as thought leadership content, but you're right. What it really is, advice and tips and strategies and. Yeah, reflecting that deep understanding of the context of, of your client, which is a little bit different to thought leadership, which is more, you know, actually this is something new or different or, , you know, cutting edge in, the field.
no, , that's super helpful. And I think, so you're like, would you say like, I could imagine with that model, like I want, I don't how I'm afraid. Like if people put themselves into their ideal client's heads, and they did like a big brainstorm, like they could easily come up with, you know, a month of content Right.
Really simply just by going through a brainstorming activity easily. And they should, like , if you can't think of those, then you don't really know [00:22:00] your audience that well. Yeah. , so one thing I did at the start of the year. You know Denise Duffield Thomas? She, I do, she's had like an end of the year challenge that was like, write down, I think it was 50, like amazing things you've done.
Yeah. And I did that and you know, I got to 10 and I was like, oh, what else? You know? And then eventually start getting on a roll. Mm-hmm. And so that inspired me and , I wrote down 50 questions I could answer. Of my clients. So similar kind of, exercise in the one I mentioned was, and I was forcing myself to get, and I think I got to 55.
Mm-hmm. And I said, , just keep going. What can you answer? So executive coaches can answer, you know, how do I get, how do I get to the C-suite? How do I, how do I hire the right leadership team to work under me? How do I empower that team? How do I delegate to them? How do I, yeah, and you can. Quite easily get this huge bundle of questions that you can answer.
Mm-hmm. And then if you're posting once a week and you've got [00:23:00] 55 questions, then you're good. Yeah. Sweet. So how often should be people be posting? Like what , is there a magical number? No, I don't like prescribing because. why don't I like prescribing? Because I think everyone has to use LinkedIn for their, , the way that suits them.
Mm-hmm. And it depends on your time, energy, motivation. If you've got clients knocking down your, on your door, but you still wanna be a bit present on LinkedIn, just to have a bit of visibility, that's totally different to someone who's like, I need to get attract leads, and I've got, I'm in this growth phase of my business.
Mm-hmm. , so the goals are completely different in that space. So this is a long, , let's say we're in growth's. Say we're in, well, two to three would be what I would say. Yeah. Yeah. It's often you. More than you want to and more than you think you should. Yeah, because, no, like I remember my neighbor came over for a consult and she's like, I'll post once a month.
And I was like, no, that's great. Once a month. No, please. No. She was ched when I said no. I mean, I post every day. There's a huge benefit to getting into a [00:24:00] routine of posting really often, and there's ways that you can do it that make it doable, sustainable, and repeatable for you. Mm-hmm. but people feel really nervous about that.
So I say like, start with twice. Yeah. Get that going. The thing is, with social media, with any social media. That the reach is 5% is considered good. Yeah. So if you're posting twice a week and you're getting, and say you've got a thousand followers and you, I don't know what the maths is, but like, you are not getting huge visibility.
So it's, the more that you post, the more people will see you and the more quickly you'll achieve your goal if you're wanting to attract leads to you. Mm-hmm. Like I had a client who, joined my membership and , she posted every day and within seven weeks. She got started getting leads coming to her, and she got two on the same day.
Mm-hmm. She was like really excited, like, oh my God. So yeah. For seven weeks. But she was posting every day. , I love that reality check though, actually, which is you can't post every day for a week and expect the same results as someone who does it consistently for [00:25:00] seven weeks. Yeah, right. And it took me four months, so she did it a lot faster than I did when I first started.
And as I said, you can't control when people come to you. , there's no guarantee with anything like that. Mm-hmm. , but , if it depends how urgently you want the results. Yeah. How much time you have. Like if you're super busy, you just don't have time. Like it takes time to produce all that content.
It does. And when you're a beginner, you don't have the skills to write a post or, you know. Your production systems aren't smooth and seamless and fast, so it might take you all day to write a post. Yeah, hopefully not. oh, . Hopefully not. And, I do, I'm always encouraging people to like I. Actually have that mindset of experimentation, which is do something, yeah.
Have some boundaries around time. Get it out there, see what works, see what doesn't. I mean, yes, definitely. And so, that, I mean, you obviously, I, I've seen you go through a few experiments now over the time. Oh yes. Following you, including video, and I think there's been a few others. Tell me about your [00:26:00] approach to experimenting with different strategies on LinkedIn.
Well, I test everything and I feel like it's my job to test these things because I'm a LinkedIn coach and I wanna say I tested it. I know. Mm-hmm. , so one thing I did around late last year was I did, I posted twice a day for six weeks. Mm-hmm. And I called that like my sprint. Yeah. Yeah. And I really liked, it's obviously a lot of content to produce.
Yeah. But , I liked that, , I got a lot more visibility in that time and it was really interesting. I thought I'd get like. More followers, which I did. But what I really got was a lot more engagement from my existing followers. So I really reminded them that I exist. So that was really useful. That's so interesting.
'cause I'd always heard, oh, you can't post more than once a day on LinkedIn. Like the algorithm will punish you for that. So obviously not. Well look, if you follow the algorithm. You just don't know, like there's so many factors that could mm-hmm. Influence it. [00:27:00] Like if you are posting good stuff, but realistically, the more you post, the more people see it.
So, yeah. Okay. That was when I came up with the idea of a sprint, which is just, we can't keep that on sustainable level, but you could do it, say you've got a big launch, say you've got a course coming out and you've got, you're launching it in, you know, in a couple of months where you can go hard for a short period of time.
To serve, to build excitement and serve you for that launch. And then once the launch is over, then don't just stop completely, but dial it back. So I really love the idea of dialing it up and down. Like one of my clients is a professional organizer and she said, December, forget it. No one wants to talk about organizing in December, but January is yes.
Massive. Mm-hmm. See, you know, everyone like, right. I'm. Get my diary organized, I'm gonna declutter my house and she's there in January with all her decluttering and yeah, time management and sort your life out stuff. Mm-hmm. Because that's the time that her audience is open to those right [00:28:00] opportunities. So if I, so the sprinting , , is a great way to do it.
With the asterisk of it. Doesn't mean go completely quiet for three months. Because then you don't wanna get the reputation of, oh, this person I only post on LinkedIn when they've got a launch, or they wanna sell something and then they go quiet when they're not selling. Mm-hmm. Like , that's the last thing you want.
Yeah, I like that energy of sprinting as well, which is that, you know, like I'm going to give it a crack, really lean in and then afterwards go into a more sustainable rhythm until, yeah, I feel like, and it doesn't have to be, I mean, often most executive coaches don't have like a launch cadence, right?
We're not, it's not that sort of work. Courses or things or group coaching programs, potentially. Yeah. Or, but , what they might do is say, okay, well it's coming up to budgeting season, right. For corporates who are planning out their budget for the next year or the next financial year. What I might do is work on my visibility around that point or something like that.
Yeah. And financial year, like, oh, was a copywriter I used to get, I'd be so busy in June, so we've got money to spend quick.[00:29:00]
So I'd be there in June and then July I'd be busy doing all the work that I was signed off for June delivery. Yeah, yeah. But my income doubled in June, but then in July it was nothing. So it all worked out. You're . Too busy working. Yes. Yeah. So I've also experimented with like images, so , I was noticing that less images later lately.
Is that, am I. I have opinions mm-hmm. On images, on LinkedIn, but I did an experiment where I posted a selfie, , with every single post. Mm-hmm. And my reach and visibility went up. Yeah. 15%, which is pretty good. Very good. That means every post is working harder for you. , I'm not. Very photogenic or good at taking selfies.
And I don't, there's this, , awesome LinkedIn creator that I follow and she shares lots of selfies and she's always out at the beach or at some amazing event and looking gorgeous. And, Ellie will testify, like, I'm just here at my desk looking pretty scruffy, so it's not, not a, oh, but [00:30:00] I do, , I find that is like, I'm always like, oh, whenever I think about taking a selfie, I'm like, I'm walking the dog.
It's the same Yeah. Every time. And I'm like, didn't put any makeup on, you know, walking in a so just, , I do look half decent. I never think of it like I'm not, yeah. I think people who are Instagram natives are just used to documenting themselves and just do it organically without thinking. Yeah. I'm just, I just don't think of it.
But, but it's effective with regard to images in general. very often I think the image detracts, so selfies are the exception because selfies are showing your face and there's something about, , what does make up this without having any, you know, source. But I think that, I think there's something about seeing people's eyes and the way that people see someone smiling , in their face, that they feel a connection or something like that.
Mm-hmm. Very scientific evidence I presented for that. I'll accept it. So , it's good. Self is aside. I think Tom, sometimes the images tend to detract from the post. Mm-hmm. , you want people to click [00:31:00] that. There's a little button called more. Yeah. And that is assigned to the algorithm. If people click that, then the algorithm knows everyone's clicking.
If all the information. In the image that you don't need to click, the more then the image is actually ah, reducing the reach. That makes sense. That is so interesting. You see people, like people who are, they're creating content for Instagram, may as well just post it on LinkedIn as well and it has to have an image with Instagram are post, and.
Yeah, we'll put it on. Mm-hmm. And it's got, you know, here's my amazing thought, like, you know, how to fix this problem, blah, blah, blah. And it's in the image. There's no reason to click the more button. Yeah. So it's gonna take, oh, that's me. Kate and I have been doing that recently and noticing numbers go down when I've got like, those sort of, almost like a graphic as a, with, writing on it.
Yeah. So I think the graphics. Should. So if you can post that post without the image mm-hmm. Then do, so obviously selfies serve a different purpose Yeah. Particularly for your audience. Yep. , you know, [00:32:00] infographics and things like that can work really well. Mm-hmm. , but , , they're, what's the word?
They're supporting the point or they are the point, like they're showing a flow chart or they're showing a process or like carousels work really well. Yep. , yep. And they're very cliquey. So every time you click, it's like a signal to the algorithm. So carousels can, , go very well though. They, take more effort to, , create and produce obviously, but if you can post that post without the image and , it makes sense.
Mm-hmm. Then probably best not to, obviously screenshots of testimonials are great. You know, here's my email that says I'm awesome. Mm-hmm. You have to have that. For the post to work. So those images totally make sense. , if the images just for pretty decoration. Mm-hmm. I would not bother pitch it. Okay.
And yeah, that's less work. Hey, and I'm telling people to post on LinkedIn a lot, the last, you know, so I enjoy those opportunities where I get to tell people, don't worry about that. This is so much I'm telling people to do. I love it. And, [00:33:00] and I recall, so , I'm gonna ask you if it's all right, some sort of, some fast, fast questions Okay.
To go through it. Okay. But before I really, this one's like a semi fasts one. I remember you saying a little while back that. It's not as crucial that we have a note with our connection requests anymore. Is that still? Yes. Yeah, that's, I mean, that's kind liberating. Yeah. Just add away, get the connection. I get loads, I get a lot of connection requests and I very rarely get one.
So they're not, if you're like, oh, it's so rude to not send one. Not at all. Like I get loads. Mm-hmm. , LinkedIn is limited on the free. , as well. So that has really killed them. Mm-hmm. Because if , you only get to send a few , with the notes. I have been building my connections proactively and I reckon about 80 to 90% of my connections have been me sending connection requests for five years without, and if people don't wanna connect, that's fine.
Yeah. , I love that. So, okay, that's a tip to everyone. Don't labor over your connection [00:34:00] request messages, and that will open up that you can do more if you are not, , a premium subscriber. Okay, so first, you know, rapid round question. Is LinkedIn Premium Sales Navigator business? Is it worth the investment?
Ooh. , start with Sales Navigator. It is very much if you're a sales team and you are. Doing a lot of outreach and you need to have, , you know, lists and you can put people in groups and these are the people we wanna talk to and these are the people we have talked like, , it is really complicated and clever.
So I always think sales Navigator is for sales teams. Like, , one of my friends is, , the head of sales for like a, , a home builder and you mm-hmm. You know, display homes and she uses it and. They have a lot of corporate relationships and things, and it's really good for that. , so , it's very complex.
So, , for your typical executive coach, I would say no, it's good for outreach and that's not, as I said, cold outreach is not something I hugely recommend. So premium is [00:35:00] good. It gives you some extra features. , one thing that I like that it gives you is on every post it has a link. So if you look at my post, it says, visit my website.
Mm-hmm. So that can drive people to your website, which is great. Yeah. , I love that it gives you things like a carousel banner so you can put. Add that it gives you a bit more visibility, I think like, , it promotes, you know, like it's gonna suggest , you are, going to appear as suggested connections as a LinkedIn.
It's gonna look after you basically. Okay. , , , if you're like, right, I'm, getting into LinkedIn and I, you know, log in, you're like, oh, I've only got 180 connections 'cause I've neglected it for years. Mm-hmm. It would be really good to. Join premium pay by the month and spend three off a month really building, sending connection requests with no invitation of course, and building up mm-hmm.
, , you know, your following. And then you could, you know, do it for a few months. So , if you're really in a growth stage of growing connections, the free [00:36:00] platform will limit you. It'll limit the amount of searches you can do, and it'll limit the amount of. Connection requests you can send. Mm-hmm.
, you know, that coach that I was working with who sold me to post four times a day also said, send a hundred requests a day. Oh, pretty sure you get banned if you do that now. Yeah. And then, , she ended up changing that advice because all her, all her audience was sending a hundred a day and, . , LinkedIn literally limits you now, so you're not going to, , be able to send as many, so premium will be let you go a bit nuts.
So if you just wanna go on a, or even if it's not that you've got, you don't have a good number. But the, like one of my clients, he's. Moved industry. So his connection, yeah, he's got like 6,000 connections, but they're all finance guys. Yeah. And now he's in, , food, the food industry. So he's using it to just go nuts and build his connections.
Yeah. So that he can be better known in the sector that he's now [00:37:00] in. Yeah. Yeah. Perfect. And I think that is, that was actually quick fire, and I wasn't quick. No, no, no, no. It's great. All right. Here's a rapid fire one. , is it still bad to put links in your post? It does reduce the reach. Mm-hmm. So , if it's ever like an optional link, like you're just linking to some research mm-hmm.
But you obviously wanna include links 'cause you wanna sell. Yeah. So, , yes, your reach will reduce with the link. So there's a few things you can do again. Mm-hmm. You can put it in the comment, it's probably one you can do, but what I generally do is I just take the hit and think it's easy for the audience to just click the link within the post that's best for the audience.
And that's, you always want it to be best for the audience. So I think just take the hit and, the workaround of that is you post it again. You post a, you take that post and you post it again. Within a week or, you know, , don't post. You know, if you're like, Hey, my, , you know, , book my offer, or buy, you know, book a call with me, here's the link.
Just post it twice and then , you'll, that is cancel out any [00:38:00] so sensible. And I have never thought about that. , is there any detriment to deleting old posts? , no. But there there's no reason to. No. Unless you've said something, you know. I love Donald Trump. And you, you no longer agree, for example, let them and you're embarrassed.
Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Okay. , perhaps, , if someone is really stalking you, they can scroll back through your post, but who's no? Yeah. , , . Okay. , I don't see why you would No. . I, there's no reason to. Okay. Unless it's embarrassing to you. Yeah. Okay. , hashtags in post yes or no? No, no, no. Ditch 'em. Yeah.
Okay. That's good. , scheduling tools. Yeah. So the best one is the LinkedIn native scheduling tool. Okay. . Technically LinkedIn doesn't like third party scheduling tools. Mm-hmm. If you are not sure, I would test So , post your LinkedIn content for a week with the native tool. Mm-hmm. And then post a similar frequency type, style of [00:39:00] content the week after with your scheduling tool and pay attention to the results.
Yeah. Yeah. . I've heard that scheduling tools can reduce reach, but you have to test it for yourself because everyone uses different tools. So the LinkedIn native tool is the best one to use. , do you schedule your posts? Yes, I do. Okay, fantastic. Who's gonna, there's no way , you have to plan and schedule because, .
Otherwise it just doesn't happen. Yeah, yeah, exactly. , I've fallen off the scheduling bandwagon and it just, it sometimes doesn't happen. So I, yeah, I'm getting back on that bandwagon. , Kate, thank you so much. , before we wrap up, I would love to hear how do you work with people? How can they find you, you know, who, are the sorts of people who could get a lot out of working with you?
Yes, thank you. So, , my favorite offer is my membership, which is, , super affordable. It's $47 a month and I have a little bit of training in there so you can join up. And, some people do. They join up, they pay $47, they do all the training and then they cancel. And that's [00:40:00] a little bit heartbreaking, but it's fine.
That's what it's for, to create something really useful and helpful and, . , so I have lots of, you know, events every month and a Facebook group people can ask questions and I have accountability there. So every Monday I am like, what are you gonna do this week? Nice. And then I'm like, okay. Did you do it?
Yeah. And, what's that called? Sorry. It's called the Show Up School Membership. Perfect. And, , I can't give it a LinkedIn name because LinkedIn doesn't like, . Products called LinkedIn. Something on LinkedIn. Mm-hmm. Because I'm profiting off, even though I'm encouraging people to use LinkedIn, I'm technically profiting off LinkedIn's ip.
Got it. , but yes, it is a LinkedIn membership. Mm-hmm. And I really enjoy helping people in there. And as I said, the, the woman who posted every day and started getting leads in seven months, she, is a member. Mm-hmm. . And then I obviously, , if you just say, look, I don't wanna learn, I just want you to do it for me, then that's something I can do as well.
I can write your LinkedIn content for you or write your profile for you. I do a lot of that. Mm-hmm. , [00:41:00] excellent. Or you can just say, have, spend some time with me one-on-one and work out what the hell you're doing. Brilliant is the other thing. So I do that from time to time as well. Okay. And where is the best place for people to find you?
I'm assuming it's LinkedIn. LinkedIn, but there might also be a website. Yes, I do have a website, which is a little, , Ellie very nicely pointed out that it's my, about page has gone to heaven. , so I'll go and fix that, , , before this episode comes out. Yeah. , but yeah, it's katemerryweather.com.au
Brilliant. So we are going to link to all of those things in the show notes. And look, Kay, I'm so, grateful for your time today and that advice, because I know that executive coaches are asking me these questions and I'm often having a crack. But to have someone who is an expert really give, some useful info information is, so valuable.
So thank you for being with us today. My pleasure. , any chance to talk about LinkedIn? I'll do it. I know, I know. Me too. All right, thanks. And, , everyone else, I'll see you next week.
