Ahhhhh, LinkedIn.
Let’s face it – it’s one of those platforms that you know there could probably be potential on, but so far?
It’s been all spammy connection request and stale, ‘professional’ posts with zero personality.
YAWN, right?
Well, today’s The Lifestyle Business Sweet Spot podcast guest and all around girl boss Ruby Lee is proof that it doesn’t have to be that way. In fact, LinkedIn is SO hot right now, and if you AREN’T taking advantage of it? Well, you’re missing out BIG time.
Ruby is a side hustle coach that has used LinkedIn, LinkedIn video and live video to build a sizeable coaching empire in just 12 months. She is currently travelling around the world with her little fam bam speaking at conference and events, commanding premium pricing for her offers and making a damn big imprint – all as a result of her presence on LinkedIn.
Wondering how to stand out on Linked In with Video? This is the episode for you!
So, let’s dive in!
Listen On: Apple Podcasts | Spotify
Here’s a summary of the things we chat about:
- How Ruby started her online business as a side hustle
- How to approach having a side hustle with your full time job
- Why Ruby decided to go with LinkedIn video as her primary content platform to promote her new business
- The LinkedIn algorithm is still in its adolescence
- How to approach your content strategy on LinkedIn
- How Ruby Lee got 1.5 million views on one post
- The virality of LinkedIn posts and how content is distributed
- The release of LinkedIn Live (currently unavailable in Australia)
- The dark side of LinkedIn (it’s not for the faint hearted) and how to deal with it
- How to get over the fear of putting yourself out there on LinkedIn
- The business opportunities that have come from Ruby Lee’s presence on LinkedIn, including Australian and international speaking gigs, brand collaborations and more.
- LinkedIn is the platform whether the decision makers are, and the huge opportunity that presents
- The simple sales funnel that Ruby Lee uses to turn her followers into paying clients
- The LinkedIn voice message option
- And more!
Transcript
STEVIE: LinkedIn is cool guys, do you want proof? In this episode,I’m chatting to Ruby Lee all about the LinkedIn video strategy. She used to get over 1.5 million views on her parties and a whole lot more.
Hey, guys and welcome to Episode 64 of the The Lifestyle Business Sweet Spot Podcast. Today we’re talking about one of those platforms that you know there’s probably potential on, you know that there’s a lot of decision-makers on there. But every time you jump on, it’s just spammy connection requests and really stale professional posts, right. I’m talking about LinkedIn.
And if that’s the way you feel about it, it’s the way that I feel about it, too. And what I knew was that there was a lot of potentials. And I needed to talk to someone that really understood the power of the platform. That’s where Ruby Lee comes in; Ruby Lee is a side hustle, courage.
And she has in the last 12 months taken her business from a side hustle where she had a full-time job and was doing everything on the side to a multiple six-figure business. She’s currently traveling around the world doing international speaking gigs. This girl is one cool girl, and she’s done it all harnessing the power of LinkedIn, or more specifically linked in video. Now, this is a killer episode for anyone that wants to know more about the power of LinkedIn, as well as the exact strategy that you can use to get similar results with your business or for your business using LinkedIn.
Now, if this episode, and LinkedIn, in general, is something that sounds appealing to you, as something that you want to dive more into, I have something for you, or rather, we have something for you. Ruby Lee and I are currently working together on a special LinkedIn training. Now if you came to get your hands on that it will launch in early to mid-August. What I want you to do is head over to thecoursecartel.com/64. There is a pretty cool freebie waiting for you over there.
Essentially, it’s a summary of the exact strategy that Ruby Lee goes through in this podcast episode for using LinkedIn video. It’s a 90-day strategy it is step by step it has all of the tips and things you need in there to actually execute it yourself. When you download that you will also be notified when the training goes live. This is a killer training guys. I don’t know if you’re excited, but I am very, very excited about this one. So that’s a little extra bonus for you.
All right, I’m going to leave it at that. Let’s get straight into this killer podcast episode. If you love it, let me know what you think. Send me a DM on Instagram stories, put it in your stories and tag me whatever you want to do. But let me know what you think. Hey guys, today I am so excited to introduce you to Ruby Lee. Now Ruby is a side hustle coach to help side hustlers. And I was definitely one and if you’re listening to this, maybe you want to turn this side gig into their full-time passion. Now I’m particularly excited to chat to Ruby today.
Because I think there’s some things that I’m going to learn as well as you’re going to learn because Ruby’s really kind of growing her business online through two platforms that I know either kind of scare the bejesus out of a lot of you or you just don’t know what to start with. And so that is LinkedIn and also video in general. So a big welcome, Ruby, and welcome to this The Lifestyle Business Sweet Spot.
RUBY LEE: Hey, Stevie. Hey, listeners, it’s so awesome to be on here. I am pumped to be talking about all things LinkedIn, and video.
STEVIE: Amazing. Now I’m super keen to start, I guess, with where it all started for you. Before we get into what it is you do now. Because I know it wasn’t that long ago that you’re a side hustles yourself. So tell us a little bit I guess about your journey and where you are now.
RUBY LEE: Yeah, so, around 12 months ago, as of this recording, I left my nine to five. So it has been relatively recent. And these last 12 months have been absolutely magic, since you know, going all-in with the business. But prior to being an online side hustle coach, I was in HR and recruitment.
So I worked for some large companies around Australia, in health and in tech, and I was leading big teams recruiting lots of people into roles. But the side hustle really started when I realized that the majority of my role was to actually tell people that they didn’t get the job that they weren’t successful. And that to me was just really; really frustrating because I really wanted to serve and help those individuals just nail it the next time around, right?
There are unfortunately too many candidates in the market for the roles available. So I started a recruiting blog, I started to talk to candidates that missed out on what they could do better to improve their resumes to improve their LinkedIn accounts, to improve their interviewing skills . And the blog ended up getting so much traction, it was featured in different publications, it was a little sassy, definitely very much for the modern guy or gal who wanted to be able to just get in the interview room and just absolutely blow the socks off the interviewers.
And I love that side of things. So I started to gain quite a consistent following on LinkedIn, because I was just mainly showing up to present a lot of tips on how to become better at getting that next dream job. And I realized that oh my gosh, I have to do something about this. That lights me up – not to say my day job didn’t. But I certainly wasn’t getting the same sort of passion and fire in my belly as I did going to work every single day. So eventually, I ended up taking a bit of a step back in my job, I went part time, and went to four days a week, the day that I had off my side hustle day, I was hustling.
It’s so hot, I was building an Instagram following posting videos, and I was creating blogs, obviously doing client work, right still writing resumes. And I just felt that was the life I was meant to lead. So in March 2018, I told my employer that it was time for me to give this a go, I was very open with my side hustle. And that it can I
STEVIE: Did they know about it the whole way through.
RUBY LEE: They did my last employer knew about it, I was open from the very beginning, the employer prior so I side hustle for three and a half years, the employment prior to this last employer that I had, they were not supportive. In fact, I got a first and final warning, which in HR terms is basically if you know go all in with the side hustle, you know, we see you doing that, you know, in terms of jumping up on LinkedIn and talking about that a little bit more than it would be See you later.
So obviously, it was a misalignment of values. I left that employer and I found my last employer and they were fantastic. So yeah, went all in and it’s been such a ride because not only did I decide to go live with my business, I also decided to swap niches and leave the career coaching side of things behind and help people start their side hustles because so many people were asking me when I resigned, oh my gosh, how did you side hustle? How did you know what it was? How did you balance everything? And here we are today?
STEVIE: Oh, that’s so cool. And it’s so funny because I resonate so much with the side hustle side of things, I said before, but I basically was in a similar position to you where I was Okay, I want to do this thing on the side. And it was social media. So I was kind of reading a lot of blogs and doing all of the things on weekends.
But the reason why I asked whether your employer was kind of okay with it is because I just never knew how to approach it with them. So they kind of thought it was doing all of this stuff, but it was never really spoken about.
And it was just one of those funny things where I didn’t know whether they would think that I was being kind of dishonoring my job in a way or whether they would kind of think that it was something that was you know, find inspiring, and the fact that I was so proactive would be a good thing.
RUBY LEE: Yeah, oh my gosh,
STEVIE: yeah,
RUBY LEE: It is so mutual to every single employee, do you know what I mean? There will be some employers that will be completely offended by the fact that you had to start a side hustle in order to feel fulfilled in your career and the others that are just totally inspired.
And they’ll sit down, have a talk to you and say that’s how I started this business. Let’s have a chat. How can I support you? I mean, obviously, you’d love for most of your employees to be on that end of the scale.
STEVIE: Yeah.
RUBY LEE: With thousands of people that I’ve worked with in the side hustle space, I’ve just found it’s that 50/50 mark. I was reading an article though yesterday, which was released by AMP so one of the, you know, large financial institutions here in Australia. And they were saying that a third of Aussie’s now have side hustle.
The research piece was saying that it’s becoming more and more normal. And yes, side hustle is 100% the future of work, it is you have to have a day job. And then you have to keep your side hustle really quiet, a dirty little secret. It is actually becoming more accepted, and actually even more invited as a part of our corporate and you know, working for an employer, because you’re able to give so much more of yourself as well.
STEVIE: Yeah. And it’s so interesting, I think, when you were talking about people kind of coming to you and saying, how did you do that? I want to do that, I had this same thing with that as well. And I think people kind of see somebody doing it.
And they’re inspired you know what, maybe that is more than just kind of going to work every day and doing the same thing. And for me, and probably see you too is Ruby, it was really kind of a nice, positive, happy side effect of what I did is I kind of without ever meeting to inspire other people to start thinking about doing a similar thing.
RUBY LEE: Absolutely. And I’m coming to work and you know, the, you know, the morning coffee chats, you grab your cup of coffee, or you go to the local cafe, and everyone’s talking about the night before and they’re saying I watch this on tally, and whatever it is.
And oh, what did you do Rubes? And I’m oh, well, I just worked on my side hustle, you know, around on the website, wrote a blog. And you could just sre it in their eyes, at first, they were what? Why would you do that it just feels going to another job. But the more that I was lit up about it, the more I started to inspire those around me.
And it actually that inspiration brought that sort of hop in my step at work that it did actually bring more engagement meant to the team, people started to say that I was more, you know, excited to be at work. And I was able to pump myself up through the side hustle, which can increase my morale at work. It’s a strange side effect.
STEVIE: It’s just so similar to my story. And it makes me so excited just talking to other people about it. Because I’m oh, it takes me back to that time. You know. Very cool. So where did she go? You kind of went through everything that you were doing in terms of your side hustle, but you’re obviously killing it. Now. Tell me about that pace between Okay, cool.
I’ve decided to leave my job. And then kind of what you did next in terms of building a personal brand and getting to where you are now because you’re only 12 months down the track, right?
RUBY LEE: Yeah, I’m only 12 months in. So the personal branding journey for me started, as I gave my notice to my employer, I had to actually give almost 12 weeks’ notice to leave. So I had a fairly big runway to really get my headspace into gear around transitioning out of my nine to five, sorry. Just before I left my nine to five, I started creating LinkedIn videos.
I know it speaking about that today. But I chose LinkedIn as a platform because as a recruiter, someone in HR, I had already used the platform for 10 years. So it was probably my most comfortable social platform. Which…
STEVIE: interesting because it’s not comfortable for anyone else.
RUBY LEE: Exactly. And so when I said to my coach at the time, you know, I’m going to LinkedIn as my primary platform, even though she was just why would you do that? Really right to me, I listened to my intuition. I had a huge network on the already maybe 4000 followers, because Canada, and LinkedIn had just come out with LinkedIn video.
And I thought, right, this is right at the forefront. This is a Greenfield opportunity. Let’s give this a really red hot crack. Now I’m a bit of a nerd, when I start any new job, I will always write a 90 day plan. I don’t know if you’re this as well.
STEVIE: I am such a geek and a detailed plan. So I’m glad someone else it’s the same.
RUBY LEE: In my 90 day plan journey of going into my own business. I was right, what does my social media strategy look like? And I know for me, it was LinkedIn. So I thought it was great, I’m going to commit to 90 days of LinkedIn show up daily, 90 days, regardless of how you feel.
STEVIE: Wow. That’s interesting.
RUBY LEE: Yeah. And I’m like, it wasn’t meant to sound a real prescriptive thing. I actually went in with quite a playful energy I went in with Hey, guys, so you see me on LinkedIn for you know, the last decade, basically talking about what jobs I’m recruiting for.
Things have changed a little bit in the last month. And I want to share this with you. And so I started documenting at my side hustle to main hustle journey as part of my personal branding strategy, really, because I thought if I was able to bring those 4000 alone and grow my following at the same time with people interested in the side hustle or in LinkedIn personal branding, then I was giving my business a red hot crack in terms of being noticed.
And in terms of being seen. And it just did an incredible thing to the business. It was awesome, from a financial perspective from being seen and heard. And then going on to work with brands and becoming an international speaker as well, all within 12 months.
STEVIE: Wow, that’s so impressive. So it was literally those 90 days you were doing a video it was it every day,
RUBY LEE: Every single day. And I went to some days; I’ll just keep it real with you guys. It wasn’t a, you know, mutually exclusive video for LinkedIn, I would repurpose. I would take videos from Instagram stories, I would, you know, post that 15 second clip, I would post a little Snapchat, and I might post a Facebook Live, like a portion of my Facebook Live.
And then you know, get people to come across to my Facebook group. So I was starting to play around with cross pollinating my social channels, from LinkedIn to Instagram to, you know, Facebook, I don’t have snap anymore, but I started a podcast. So I would then clip a bit of my podcast, I was just playing around with the platform because they still isn’t, by the way, there aren’t any set rules like other platforms, it’s still out of adolescence, it’s still so new and still fresh, that people are still trying to work out how you actually gain the most sort of engagement, which is of course, what Instagram was like, right? five, six years ago.
STEVIE: Yeah.
RUBY LEE: That’s what I love about it so far.
STEVIE: And I actually I always say with LinkedIn, and I’ve got so many questions for you, because it’s definitely not my main platform, but I get asked about it a lot. But my interpretation of it at the moment is a piece of content up right, and it will still be generating and it’s not video content. So it’ll generally be pretty much the content, so my podcast content or links to other things.
Whereas you know, if I put that up on, you know, Facebook or Instagram, it might have a 24 hour shelf life, right? If I put it up on LinkedIn, it’s still generating engagement, sometimes weeks later. And so it’s almost and I hate to say it, but it’s almost it to be the way that you said it actually. But my time was it was a week algorithm.
It just doesn’t seem it has the restrictions, as you said that, you know, Instagram and Facebook have and there’s so much opportunity because he can get that longer term, right?
RUBY LEE: Absolutely. And I say this to my clients all the time, stop trying to crack the LinkedIn algorithm, because there really isn’t one that’s, you know, set in stone just yet.
Right now, Microsoft bought LinkedIn not too long ago; they want to drive video engagement. So the algorithm is making videos
STEVIE: Is that right?
RUBY LEE: on LinkedIn thinking, I can just post articles or just, you know, comment on other people’s posts, know, l just think about the time that you have, if you have 15 minutes a day to spend on LinkedIn. And honestly, that’s all you need to create a video, write a meaningful post behind it. If you can add subtitles, use an app, clips, or whatever it is, and posts it.
And you will find you just said, Stevie, that the engagement on it continues weeks, months afterwards, I realized that I had a post that went out maybe two months ago, and it’s now had 1.5 million views on it, because it’s just been doing its thing. It’s just been going through that, you know,
STEVIE: it’s still generating now
RUBY LEE: still generating engagement. People are still messaging me from a post I made three months ago saying oh my gosh, that post really touched my life. And I was which post?
STEVIE: So it keeps running at the moment?
RUBY LEE: Yeah.
STEVIE: So is it engagement being it? So is it kind of with Facebook and Instagram, it’s that early engagement that will feed it more. Is it that or is it just they are just absolutely pumping video because it’s a priority,
RUBY LEE: Video is definitely a priority. LinkedIn is just relieved Lee released LinkedIn live, but it’s not yet available in Australia. As of this recording, it might be anytime now but as of this recording, it’s unfortunately not yet available. It’s only invite only. And I didn’t score an invite
STEVIE: You’ve got one for sure.
RUBY LEE: But I didn’t get one. I’m a lot of my American friends have it, which is awesome. But yeah, so how LinkedIn works, right is when you post a video, and someone let’s say Stevie you liked that video, that video then gets shown into your feed and to your network.
Now, you know, you might have thousands in your network that might see my video, they might go ahead like that video, and then it goes into their network and into their feeds. Did you see the power, the exponential power of how much video can be seen across multiple different networks in just a matter of seconds?
STEVIE: Yeah, I really do. And what it seems like it does as well as it seems like it shows it to more people in the feed of the person who liked it. So, you know, with Facebook, if you like one of your friends posts or whatever, it might show it to a few people within your feed. But it seems like LinkedIn really shows it to a lot of their networks. So
RUBY LEE: Yeah, absolutely.
STEVIE: Yeah, and one thing that I was kind of saying for a couple of real estate agent clients, I had like With that in mind, a really cool strategy is actually like, make friends and connections with similar but non competing businesses.
So like if you’re a real estate agent connects with every other mortgage broker in your industry, for example, because if they like your content, they’ve got the same clients that you want to attract. And it means that they see your content.
RUBY LEE: Yes, it’s so true. I’ve had people who have messaged me saying, Listen, I found your content through this coach, or I found your content through this personal branding expert. I’ve never seen someone talk about LinkedIn this way.
And it’s because that person’s liked or commented on my post. Now, it’s funny though, because on the flip side, I might be putting out some content around how to personal brand on LinkedIn, the personal branding expert, my then comment on my post saying I disagree, I don’t believe that that’s the way to do it. But it still puts my post on their feed.
And they get to see this debate; they get to see both sides of the coin. And obviously they come across and they might come in and ask me questions. So either way, whether it’s good, positive, uplifting feedback, or negative, challenging naysaying comments, your post, you’ll get seen everywhere. And that’s what I love about it. I love the open kind of Mike field to LinkedIn. Because Listen, the dark side of LinkedIn is that I the platform that I still get heavily trolled in more so than any other platform out there.
So you know, it is definitely not for the faint hearted for those of you that don’t want it and not for your message. Because there are a lot of people out there who are happy to be keyboard warriors, they’re sitting in just picture these guys.
They’re sitting in their jobs, and they get angry. And a very happy face or they see positive content going out there. They might see me dancing around my living room, like an idiot to, you know, my favorite tune at the moment. And I do post videos like that on LinkedIn, because I think it’s like really engaging, it’s different to see on a feed.
And they’ll just comment back saying, Oh my gosh, I get onto Facebook, or you know, who were you, you little girl or whatever it is right? Like comments like that. There’s way more nasty ones than that. But it’s okay, you take it with a grain of salt. And it becomes just a big part of you becoming a sassy, a more badass version of you. And, you know, I love it. I do love a good debate.
STEVIE: So how did you get over the fear of doing it knowing that they were going to be those kinds of trolls around because I’ve seen those trolls before? And you know, they are on steroids when it comes to LinkedIn because it is more professional, you know, and people aren’t used to seeing that stuff, right? Yes. How did you go? Okay, cool. I’m just going to start I’m going to do this anyway.
Because I know it’s that sphere. Often it’s the fear of that first video, or just getting started. And especially I would imagine for people that are still potentially in this side hustle are very, very early in their business journey they’ve still got, and I know it was exactly like this, for me, a lot of their kind of like past life, business connections on their LinkedIn. And often they’re the people were most scared of showing that we’re changing.
RUBY LEE: Totally, it’s your first degree connections. It’s the ones that you worked alongside with four years ago that might have you and have you seeing what Stevie’s doing? No. I definitely was, I’m not going to, you know, say to you guys, I was so bold. And I was, you know, really, I’m resilient. No, there were some comments that totally cut through like, they hurt so much.
And often they were actually from, like you said, the first degree connections, people that would just like, you know, say things and you actually know who they are, rather than the faceless, nameless ones that you’re kind of like, Who are you? And where do you live at it? Yeah, honestly, did definitely knock me about a bit at the start, I would be journaling about it, I would be going into meditations and trying to release it, I would be talking to my friends, my husband about it.
And obviously, because they’re not in that firing line or in the limelight, a lot of the feedback was doing worry about it, just let it go. But you know, you do sometimes, like allow yourself to take that all in, it comes with practice to release and let it go. I’m definitely a very, you know, spiritually attuned person, I do a lot of weird things like about releasing the energies that no longer serve me.
And so that has become a really big part of my practice, where I’m able to let that negativity go and turn that into a powerful platform, where I’m able to just stand strong and stand up for what I believe in. But I think with LinkedIn, the reason why it is so amplified when someone comes across your content, and they basically either pull it down, or they have something negative to say about it is because it is a professional platform, it is ultimately still a professional, mostly white collar platform.
So when someone says something, it feels like reputational damage, it feels like you are being knocked about from an expertise perspective. And it’s magnified from that point of view, right? So in order to honestly with LinkedIn, how it’s worked best for me, in order to move past that I’ve chosen to do like one of a couple of things.
One is, if the comment isn’t trolling, so just identify whether it’s a troll, or whether it’s someone who just has another opinion. If it’s someone who has another opinion, then go back at them and just like say, hey, like I appreciate your comment. Interesting views. Never thought about it this way. But here are some more contexts around what I meant. Blah, blah, blah, and off you go. Debate.
STEVIE: Yeah,
RUBY LEE: People love that on LinkedIn actually builds your credibility when you’re able to stand strong, rather than just ignoring it. If you do. Yeah, if you do just have a horrible troll who’s just commenting on how you look, and they just obviously, really awful, nasty negative, I do this thing that I learned from Gabby Bernstein, forgive and delete, just forgive them, send them good vibes, whatever it is that made them comment that way, if they’re hurting in some way, forgive them and just block and delete.
That is one of the easiest functions you can have on LinkedIn, you can just click on the profile, block, delete, they’ll never see your content again, you’ll never come across them again. And then it’s great, because you’ve just released that energy from you know, your platform.
STEVIE: Yeah, I think it comes down to the fact that especially with how saturated things Facebook and LinkedIn are these days, it is hard. And it’s really, really hard when you’re first standing out to kind of, you know, stand out and actually be seen and heard.
I think it’s kind of just having the courage to go, Okay, look, I’m going to be going on LinkedIn, where it is really professional platform and people aren’t used to the fact that you can still be professional and have personality, which she absolutely can. But it’s still not something that’s kind of not accepted, but it’s just not the norm yet on LinkedIn.
But on the flip side, it’s the way that you stand out. And it’s the way that you get seen, and it’s the way that you attract the right people to you. Right. And I think that’s something you’ve done. So well,
RUBY LEE: Yeah, that’s it. And there is no normal LinkedIn anymore. Let’s just blow that shit up. It doesn’t exist, because things are changing so rapidly. The people that have been on it for 10 years posting jobs, they’re going well, how come? I’m only getting that one on this? Because,
STEVIE: yes,
RUBY LEE: Only
STEVIE: because they’re doing the same thing. Everyone else, right,
RUBY LEE: Yeah, it is time to evolve is time to try out different things. And the thing that comes down to LinkedIn is, if you’re creating content on Instagram, let’s say you have a social media business, and you’re talking about all the tips from a social perspective, or you because Instagram is such a highly visual platform you’re talking about, you know how to gain better lighting how photos really impact your post on LinkedIn, it’s going to be perhaps a little bit different.
Change the frame a little bit with the content you’re putting out there and talk about business, talk about your career, talk about what you’re doing from a commercial perspective. Because if LinkedIn is a professional platform, that’s what they’re going to want to hear about, they’re not really necessarily going to want to say, a really beautifully done.
In fact, the more done up you are on LinkedIn, the less engagement you’re going to get hundred percent that is the case, I don’t know why it ended up being that way. But the role videos that I made just through your iPhone, and up getting way more engagement than a really professionally shot video that’s beautiful,blur in the background and professional music later on, that sort of stuff does not fly on LinkedIn, it just doesn’t they just want to see the real you.
So talk about things from a commercial from a business from a career perspective. And you’ll start to see that your content really starts to stick.
STEVIE: Yeah, I like it. So it’s kind of more that. And you’ve definitely done this, or you did when you first started out that business journey and kind of going, this is where I’m at, this is what I’m learning on my business journey.
And it’s almost not the value content, although I would imagine that would potentially do well, depending on what your mission is. So educating and things but more that connection content. So actually showing people a little bit of the behind the scenes of what goes on in what you do professionally.
RUBY LEE: Yeah, I definitely feel the documentation process was a huge factor in why my LinkedIn account grew so fast, my followers per se quickly. But also, inspirational content actually flies really well on LinkedIn. So think about your audience,
STEVIE: Because everyone wants to get out of their jobs.
RUBY LEE: Exactly, So think about your audience who is watching on. So for me, my audience is those that are sitting in the nine to five, maybe commuting to work on the train. And they’re going oh my gosh, FML this is awful. I see my, you know, my content saying, guys, I was there. Listen, 12 months ago, that was me getting into work every day.
This is what I did to move the needle and to change my life. This is what I did to make that decision to move that sort of real content, where it’s linked to your own stories is just about absolutely. Welcome to LinkedIn.
STEVIE: So let’s talk about some of the opportunities that have come to you from what you’ve done on LinkedIn. Because I think I remember you saying in a podcast episode and guys, Ruby has an awesome podcast called the O’Neill hustle podcast. So if you’re a side hustler, check it out. But I remember you saying I think on one of the episodes that you’ve never had to do a cold call or a sales pitch, and literally from what you’re doing without being salesy, with the video that you’re putting on LinkedIn, you’re having the opportunities come to you. And I know that’s been my experience as well.
And I know that’s so untraditional for people that are so used to cold calling and pitching and traditional marketing. So I’m so keen to hear a little bit I guess, about the opportunities that have come about from what you’ve done.
RUBY LEE: Yeah, and, and everything you just said is completely true.I have just shown up on my videos, I started off with 90 days, and then it just became a habit. And I still show up daily. So in doing that I have attracted things like speaking gigs, I’ve had over 40 speaking opportunities come my way, just in Australia. So that’s just Australian based.
Recently, I have gained three international speaking opportunities, all expenses paid, plus my full speaker fee to show up. So in the US in the UK, in New Zealand, it’s just absolutely humbling and amazing.
STEVIE: I think that’s because people are seeing you on video, and there’s no need for them even to get to know you anymore.You’ve kind of done the interview via the LinkedIn videos that you’ve been doing every day.
So it’s kind of they see you, you don’t even need to really chat to them. I don’t know if this is true or not. But you don’t really need to go through and sell yourself it just you’re the person for me.
RUBY LEE : Oh my gosh. So last night, I got a message through LinkedIn, direct message. And then I brought them over to email. And the email basically said, Hey, Ruby, my name is blah. I’ve been following you for the last three months. I’m the Marketing Manager for x company; we think you’d be an absolutely perfect ambassador for us for x campaign. Would you be willing to speak about this? This is our budget, it’s $5,000, we’d love to talk about how you can you know, show up as a brand ambassador on LinkedIn as an influencer? Is this a campaign that would be you know, appetizing to you? Or is it in line with your brand? We think it is we’d love to work with you.
Can we chat? These are the messages that hit my inbox weekly. You know, there will be some Oh, that’s a bit random. No.I didn’t know the others that I just like this one that just, you know, ticks all the boxes, and then it’s oh, my gosh, that sounds incredible.
But you’re right, because you’ve continued to build credibility, regardless of you know, and you’re showing up regardless of whether you think anyone’s watching, because LinkedIn is the platform where the decision makers are
STEVIE: Yes,
RUBY LEE: Okay, so it’s an Instagram for sure. Yeah. I am not discrediting Instagram, because I love it. But LinkedIn is the place where the CFO was there, the Marketing Manager is there the CEO is there the decision makers are there and they are looking at your content collectively, who knows, they might even be sharing your videos amongst them to go trekking, this is a good candidate,effectively, it’s almost just like without knowing it, they kind of auditioning you they’re working on and that you’re a good fit for their business.
And, you know, I never went out on LinkedIn, with the intention of being an influencer, or a brand ambassador at all,it wasn’t on my 90 day plan. Just so happened to have organically grown that way, which was just amazing. But you know, some of the other things as well, just from my own business perspective, I grew my multiple six figure business just by showing up on LinkedIn, because people would sign up to my coaching my one to one programs, because they saw me talk about it on LinkedIn.
STEVIE: So what’s your like, as I know that we’ve spoken about this before, but I think it would be really interesting for people to hear what kind of your sales funnel is with that, because it’s not the traditional,you’re posting content on LinkedIn, and you’re getting people off social media, and then into your email. It’s small,content straight into a direct message, right?
RUBY LEE: Yeah, exactly. So I studied marketing funnels and online funnels for the first three months of starting my business. And when I study, I went real data, you know, I was signing up to different courses, and just getting my head around it.
And I tried it once I did the whole,launch campaign thing, where it was opt in, webinar, email list. And no one signed up to my course, it was so sad. I was so just, I didn’t even know….
STEVIE: Yeah, everyone’s had an elite experience like that.
RUBY LEE: And I’m like, you know what, it’s not the fact that funnel doesn’t work at all. It just didn’t work for me and my vibe; I knew that I had to just throw that out the window. It was a limiting belief of mine that the only way to earn money was through that process. But I just reprogram myself to believe that if I showed up, and I talked about what I believed in and who I am and my expertise, I could just make the sale of that. So I did that I just put a call to auctioning.
So I’d be talking about LinkedIn personal branding, the three steps that I’ve taken to grow my account from 4000 to 15,000, in less than three months, this is what I did. And people would say that and then I’d say if you’re interested, come on over to my masterclass, here is the link to sign up. It’s $150 to come and join.
And I ended up getting 75 registrations that first time that I ever did that. And I’m like, oh my gosh. I just made it easy. I made it flowing, I made it fun. And if you’re in a process where you set up something in your business where it feels really restrictive, just check in with that energy.
STEVIE: I just think it’s really clever, because I think that traditional sales funnels definitely still work.
RUBY LEE: Yeah,
STEVIE: And I’m not saying that they don’t work. But what I find is that a lot of people are overwhelmed by the idea of it, especially if you know you and I have gone deep into what they involve. And there’s a lot of, you know, moving pieces, and it can seem a little bit overwhelming.
And I think that just stops people from doing anything at all. And I love your approach because it doesn’t have to be difficult,you can make it suited to use suited to your personality. And it can be a great tactic as well, just kind of gauging interest in potential offers, you know, just put it out there. And then the process is basically really valuable content, share your personality, get people to kind of find out what you’re all about.
And then kind of take them into it private platform, whether it’s DM, whether its email, whether it’s a phone call, it can be whatever, but one of the simplest ways is just literally a DM, and you can literally make a sale from that. I think it’s so simple and so cool.
RUBY LEE: It’s so simple. And honestly, you guys, I was already at rock bottom, I just came off a long memory sales what was the worst that was going to happen?
STEVIE: Totally.
RUBY LEE: LinkedIn has just not just in the last couple of months, released the voice options for DMing in yet through LinkedIn inbox, which is so awesome. So now you’re able to leave one minute voice messages, which is also how I convert a lot of my inquires.
STEVIE: Yes, sorry. Voices everywhere at the moment, by the way. So I originally came across freebie for everyone that’s listening on Instagram, and I sent her district traditional Instagram. DM I love what you do. And you came back to me with a voice DM and I was what is this? The most backwards person in the world that I’m not using this yet? And then literally, it seems like when was that a month ago,
RUBY LEE: A month ago?
STEVIE: In the last month it is blown up and everyone is using voice dm and I just think it’s quite cool, isn’t it because nobody calls each other anymore. But it’s just a more intimate way of messaging someone and getting to know them
RUBY LEE : Yes. 2018 was the year of video and it still is in 2019. But 2019 is the rise of voice. And for me I use voice for everything just even communicating with my besties or communicating with Alexa, communicate, you know, whatever it is, but when it comes to your social platforms tries out voice because it’s just too warm, too.
STEVIE: Yeah, it’s so yeah.
RUBY LEE: It’s like you know each other.
STEVIE: Yeah, I love it. And it’s not intrusive either. So you can kind of you know,I just never answer my phone ever.My partner’s grandma was calling me the other day. And I didn’t realize that it was her anyway, she called me three times. And then she said, you know, Stevie doesn’t talk to me. I was like, it’s not you. It’s that I started answering the phone to anyone.
RUBY LEE: What’s wrong?
STEVIE: But I think it’s a generational thing.It’s just not done. And what I love about voice dm is you can basically say something to someone, send it to them, and they’ll get back to you in their own time. Right. So I think that’s very cool. So that’s on LinkedIn now.
RUBY LEE: Yeah, it is. And it’s so good. It’s not enough people are using it. And every time I do or if I get, let’s say an inquiry or in a traditional marketing sense, if I get a lead, and someone says, Hey, is this the right course for me? I will always voice DM. It will take one to two dams, and they’ve signed themselves up.
STEVIE: Awesome. That’s so cool. I’m going to start using that.
RUBY LEE: Almost tricky. Don’t worry it’s definitely good.
STEVIE: Yeah, awesome. Oh, my god, there’s so many more things I could ask you. I might just before we finish, I’ve got a few kinds of little technical questions that I know that people will kind of ask me so much buy them at you. And you can let me know what term position on it.
RUBY LEE: Let’s do a Q&A.
STEVIE: Awesome. Okay, so how long should LinkedIn videos be?
RUBY LEE: Less than three minutes?
STEVIE: Why?
RUBY LEE: Because think about your audience. They’re sitting there, they’re at their office, they don’t have time to watch a long video, and especially if they’re commuting, you know attention spans quite low on LinkedIn. And there’s so much video coming out. Less than three minutes. Some of my most effective videos are 15 seconds long.
STEVIE: Wow.Okay,so what about the size? Because obviously, I’m most people watching them on mobile? Should they be vertical? Should they be square? Should they be 16/9?
RUBY LEE: They should be very cool. If you can,I’m so sorry.They should.They should be
STEVIE: Another way,
RUBY LEE: Landscape, if you can. So I find that on your desk talking about once again, during the day, people might have their LinkedIn accounts open on their desk. So I always try and film landscape. But honestly,the 15 second videos that I take from Instagram, they it’s not as though it really affects engagement
STEVIE: Right at all. Interesting, isn’t it? Because most people will be logged into LinkedIn thinking about it on their desktop at work.
RUBY LEE: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. I have two screens, right. So at my desk, I’d have a screen with LinkedIn on it, because I was recruited us, I’d have to refresh. And then on the other page, I have emails,spreadsheets, whatever. So you know, the double screen,I always have that image that if my video drops down as a refresh page,I want my whole face to fill up that landscape space. Right?
So it’s just,it’s just thinking about it once again, where your audience, if your audience is real estate agents, and they’re mostly on their move, and they own their car, then how that’s going to work in terms of maybe it is just mobile view, right? But yeah, don’t overthink it. Because ultimately, people just want to hear your message.
STEVIE: Okay,so how often should we be posting?
RUBY LEE: You know, I’m going to say daily,
STEVIE: Daily.
RUBY LEE: Daily was the content daily was the way that I started to gain traction. If you are serious about it, and you want to be competitive, I would challenge you to at least go daily for 30 days, one month daily, and then you can drop back because you want to be able to gain a following you want to engagement.
As soon as someone starts to comment and live on your videos, you’re going to show up on their feed first. But you want to be able to create that behavior with the very weak LinkedIn algorithm that you’re always showing up at least in that first 30 days. And then people will just recognize you as a name and a brand on there.
STEVIE: Love it. Okay, what do you film with? My iPhone?
Yes. Okay, that’s easy. I like that.
RUBY LEE: Can I just say my iPhone 8, I didn’t even have a phone iPhone x yet? Which I….
STEVIE: I have an iPhone 6, love.
RUBY LEE: You if I can me probably have willed.
STEVIE: Just smash every friend I have. And the fact that I’ve had this one for so long. I will keep it for as long as it stays together. Oh, good. Okay, sound on or sound off?
RUBY LEE: Sound on for sure. And subtitles if you can, although it’s kind of you can say
STEVIE: So the people listen with sound on or sound off, I guess you know what I mean?
RUBY LEE: Oh, okay, there’s so much, you know, out there, right. And some, some statistics will say 90% of LinkedIn, users watch videos with the sound off. And then there’ll be others that will argue Yeah, but all your right clients will turn the sound on and they’ll run into you.
So it just really depends, trial it out for yourself to see what your audience prefers. Some of the subtitle clips that I’ve tried clips, if you’ve got an apple, if you’ve got just an iPhone clips is really good. Also, cc is another app that I’ve tried recently. And also rev.com. If you are doing kind of a three minute longer form launch video of some kind, then it’s actually quite effective.
STEVIE: I actually use headline on that’s another good ones. Not cool. Love a good app? I’m going to look that up after yes. Okay. And then last question, the structure of the video, do you have a structure in terms of Do you get straight into it to do an introduction? What’s your general flow of your videos?
RUBY LEE: Oh, I don’t do an intro, not a YouTube video where you’d say Hi, I’m Ruby, you know, side hustle, coach, drop that and just go straight into the crux of it. No fluffing around at the start. And you know that kind of thing. People just want to watch a video and see what value you’re giving. So just, you know, go at it straightaway, I’m here today to talk about personal branding tips. I’m going to give you three today and just dive in.
STEVIE: Amazing. Okay, you kind of inspired me. So I feel I need to do a 30 days of video on LinkedIn.
RUBY LEE: Definitely.
STEVIE: Just scares me going back to what I was saying before, because all of my old lawyer connections and all of my old you know, job connections, they’re all on there. And they’re the people that would be most interested.
And you know what; it’s probably only my head positive about what I’m doing. But it’s just one of those things that it’s the last frontier for me; I’m totally comfortable in every other channel. But yeah, you can.
RUBY LEE: You know, I have to say, I was speaking to my lawyer the other day, and he’s, I saw I keep seeing your videos on my feet. And I said, Ed, you need to get on LinkedIn. Do you know how many lawyers are not doing it? And how refreshing would it be? And he’s just say no, but the industry just wouldn’t understand.
STEVIE: Yeah. I actually have a lot of solicited that follow me. And on this podcast, I’ve got a friend Clarissa Wrightwood, who has a podcast called the Happy Family Lawyer. And so she basically does law really differently. And talks about how you need to be happy in your profession, and blah, blah, blah. So I think those guys if any of those guys are listening, I feel if any lawyer is actually going to jump on and do things differently, I’ll be one of you guys. So jump on and do it.
RUBY LEE: Do it. Yeah. It’s, it’s honestly, I think, you know, you have an opportunity now think about if you started on YouTube, and in the first year that it didn’t think about when you if you had dominated on Insta and I and you know, on Facebook, LinkedIn is there right now.
Right now you guys in olden days? Yes, it’s the golden days. And, you know, I just think give it a bash, have fun with it. And just let those moments where it might seem challenging, just let them roll a few backup message Stevie and I will pump you up.
STEVIE: thank you so much, Ruby. Where can people find you if they want to find out more about everything that you do?
RUBY LEE: Yeah, so I’m on LinkedIn, Ruby Lee you can find me there. And also Instagram, I hang out every day and show you guys behind the scenes of running my business. And I’m at _rubylee_ So come on over. And I also have a free Facebook group. If you’re a side hustler, there are almost 2000 side hustlers in there now, which is awesome. Just search on your hustle on Facebook.
STEVIE: Amazing. Go and follow her guys because she’s about to head off on the most amazing around the world adventure. And I will be following closely because his goals you’re heading off pretty much everywhere on me doing the states. Yeah, Europe.
RUBY LEE: I am following my speaker trail. So because of LinkedIn, and I’ve been asked to become a speaker, I’m going where the opportunities are. And so first stop New Zealand, then LA, then Austin than Atlanta, and then the UK. So we shall see where it takes us.
STEVIE: Amazing. Thank you so much, Ruby.
RUBY LEE: Thank you so much Stevie. Thank you so much listeners. It was awesome to be on here.
STEVIE: And there you have it, guys, I told you that this would be a killer episode. If you’re thinking about diving into LinkedIn. I know that I’ll be looking into it a lot more after this particular one. Now, just a reminder, if you’re interested in the LinkedIn training that by Ruby Lee and I will be putting together and launching in early August.
Make sure you head over to thecoursecartel.com/64 and grab the freebie for this episode. It is a pretty killer freebie in itself. It literally lays out step by step, the 90 day content strategy that Ruby lay used to basically make the most of LinkedIn video.
You can grab that data and will also notify when the training goes live. Now if you enjoyed this episode, make sure you hit head to iTunes and leave a quick rating and review but more than that, subscribe. You want to be notified when new episodes go live every Tuesday. All right, I will leave it until the next time I will see you there.
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