December 26, 2024 • 43 mins
In this episode, Colleen Kranz interviews David Young about his journey as a solopreneur and podcast host.
They discuss the power of storytelling, the challenges of leaving a 9 to 5 job, and practical strategies for content creation on LinkedIn.
• David reflects on his personal journey and pivotal moments that sparked change
• The importance of storytelling in building a personal brand
• Overcoming self-doubt and taking risks in entrepreneurship
• Creating a consistent content strategy for audience growth
• The emotional impact of pursuing one's passion and authenticity
• Insights into client challenges and the significance of intention in content creation
• Memorable podcast moments and the importance of community building
This is an EP unlike any that has previously been released!
Colleen's LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/colleenkranz/
Colleen's Website:
https://www.catapultnorth.com/grow-north-thursday-newsletter
David's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-young-mba-indy/
David's Website: https://davidjyoung.me/
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Real you Podcast.
I'm your guest host, colleenKranz, and this is episode
number 26.
So I was guest number 8 back onthe show back in early June,
and today I am back to interviewthe creator of this podcast,
david Young.
So we thought this would be acool way to wrap up his first
(00:22):
year of podcast episodes.
A cool way to wrap up his firstyear of podcast episodes.
David started hissolopreneurship journey in July
of 2023 and launched thispodcast in March of 2024.
So he now coaches solopreneursand other coaches on how to
build their businesses onLinkedIn using the power of
storytelling in their contentcreation.
So today we'll recap hisjourney.
(00:44):
Talk about the podcast LinkedIncontent creation.
So today we'll recap hisjourney.
Talk about the podcast,linkedin content creation, the
future of this show and muchmore.
So I'm so excited.
I have never been a podcastinterviewer and now, david, you
are a guest on your own show.
Welcome.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Thank you, colleen.
I appreciate that, and this issuch a great idea.
This is solely your idea andwhen you came, on.
I don't even remember when werecorded.
I know it released in June, Ithink we recorded it in like
March or April, yeah.
And when we got done, you saidI want to come back and I want
to interview you and I thought,well, that's a great idea.
I never would have thought ofthat.
So here we are, making ithappen.
(01:22):
So kudos to you for an outsidethe box idea, which is brilliant
.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Well, you know, it was kind of selfish because I
always, like man, I think it'dbe so cool to have a podcast.
So this is kind of like mydiptoe in the water and building
my host skills.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
So there you go, a test run.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
Yes, Okay.
So first question on the powerof storytelling and I I am a
follower of yours on LinkedInand you talk quite a bit about
storytelling as being thecornerstone of effective
LinkedIn content and I see thisall the time in your content.
Can you share a story from yourown life that became a game
(02:00):
changer for your business andyour personal brand that you're
building game?
Speaker 2 (02:03):
changer for your business and your personal brand
that you're building.
Yeah, you know, what I'velearned in this journey and then
working with clients is peoplereally struggle to tell stories.
It comes really naturally for me.
So you assume that it comesnaturally for anything that
you're good at.
You just assume everybody'sgood at it, right?
I don't know why we do that,but we do so.
I just thought, well, likeeverybody has stories and
everyone can tell them, likeit's not difficult.
But people really struggle.
(02:24):
They struggle to identify themfirst, like what story should I
tell?
Because I have, you know, allthese things happen in my life.
But like I can't tell all ofthem, so they have trouble
distilling it down.
And then, even when they getthere, they struggle to
articulate, like the importantpoints.
And because in LinkedIn, right,you can't tell like the whole
(02:45):
thing, so you have to cutcertain stuff out.
So they have trouble thenidentifying like okay, well, I'm
going to tell this story andthen they write it out and it's,
you know, 4 000 characters.
Like, all, right, I gotta cut athousand characters.
Well, like what, what do I cut?
Like I need everything needs tostay and it's like it actually
doesn't.
So there's, it takes practice.
So it's been eye-opening thatpeople help, need help telling
the story and the best content,especially these days with so
(03:08):
much AI-generated content andcopy and paste GPT, you can just
tell not that you can tell whatit is, but you can tell the
posts that have some life tothem and ones that are just very
stagnant and very dull.
And I think that's especially asthe platform changes and the
algorithm changes and organicreach continues to drop.
Like that's kind of your ticketto still keeping people coming
(03:31):
back is that they know you havesomething to say and you're
going to tell it, you know, inan interesting way.
So, yeah, the storytelling isvery important In terms of a
specific story.
I think the main one is kind ofthe reason why we're here.
Story I think the main one iskind of the reason why we're
here, which is that day in thedriveway would have been June of
23.
With my oldest son, I wastrying to motivate him to be
(03:53):
more confident on the basketballcourt and to be more aggressive
.
I just kind of had that I don'tknow a strange moment in time
when I realized in this littlesliver I realized I was talking
to myself.
I'd been talking to him foryears with kind of the same
message and then, I don't know,it just kind of hit me, at least
(04:13):
from a career standpoint and awork standpoint which I'd always
struggled with.
So I was like, oh well, if Ijust keep doing it the way that
I've been doing it, not much isgoing to change.
I can change jobs andindustries and whatever.
Doing it the way that I've beendoing it, like not much is
going to change, like I canchange jobs and industries and
whatever, and maybe I'lleventually stumble someplace.
That is okay.
But it wasn't going to reallysolve the true like doing what I
want to do and not being tiedto someone else's schedule and
(04:35):
like all the stuff you have todo when you work for a company.
So that moment really was thefinal push to start creating
content, which was not intendedto become a full-time thing.
It was really just likesomething to do, an outlet, a
creative process, and thenwithin three or four months I
realized I'd kind of found it.
And then here we are.
So that story or that moment, Idon't know, without that I'm
(04:58):
not sure.
Maybe I would have stayed inthe comfort zone and never
actually pushed post on that.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
So that was a really pivotal moment for you and I
think that so many solopreneurswhen they're starting out it's
just scary and it's daunting,and in that moment that was a
pivotal point.
But how did you overcome thatself-doubt and the fear of
taking risks when you left yournine to five, and how would you
(05:27):
advise others feeling stuck intransition?
Speaker 2 (05:33):
Yeah, I think to get me started, I think it might
have been some desperation tothe motivation and realize I was
talking to myself.
But I tried so many things.
I had tried several careercoaches and therapy and I'd read
I don't even know 60, 80self-help, personal growth type
books, right, podcasts.
I mean I collected quotes.
I had a 14-page Word documentwith quotes trying to motivate
(05:54):
myself.
I tried a lot of things and Ijust hadn't gone.
I didn't feel like I was makinga lot of progress.
So when I had the idea tocreate content, even though it
wasn't long-term business andvocation thinking, there was
some desperation and I just hadto do something different.
And I'd never put myself outthere because I was very social
(06:14):
media averse no Facebook orTikTok.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
Instagram you were.
I didn't know that.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
Yeah, so I've never had any of those accounts.
I mean, I have a Twitteraccount.
I've never posted.
I signed up for a Facebookaccount many, many years ago and
the only reason I did isbecause a triathlon coach I was
working with that's how hecommunicated with the group, so
I had to get on there just toget the updates.
So that was it, and then, youknow, never had an Instagram
account.
So LinkedIn was the onlyaccount that I had.
It was relatively recent.
(06:41):
I didn't sign up for LinkedInuntil February of 18.
And even though obviously ithad been out many years before
that.
So I was late to that game too.
I had maybe 450 connections,which were mostly just people I
worked with or people that Iknew.
I just didn't have any socialmedia presence and I didn't
really want one.
I didn't want people to look atme.
I don't like looking at my ownphoto, let alone other people
(07:02):
looking at it.
I never thought I'd start apodcast, even though I wanted to
in my head, I didn't think I'dactually do it because I was
like, oh, just all the doubtthat we carry.
So that was part of it.
Again, I think the desperationwas like the final push in terms
of starting the business.
So once I realized that I wasgood at this and I wanted to
(07:23):
figure out a way to do it fulltime, it was a pretty quick
transition, probably withinthree or four months before I
quit, which I don't overlyrecommend, excuse me.
I would say if you're thinkingabout going out on your own, but
you are working full-time, Iwould stay in that as long as
you can, as long as it'stolerable and there's no really
adverse or harsh conditions.
It just makes it easier becauseyou keep the money coming in.
So then you're making decisionsnot based on revenue or sales.
You're able to do it.
(07:44):
You have a little bit morecreative freedom.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
So you can kind of like prove the concept of what
you're working on and then, onceyou prove that, you can kind of
it's kind of like testing onthe side.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Yeah, you can experiment more because you're
not worried about the outcome asmuch.
If you just up and quit I meanagain, depending on how much
money you have saved and whatyour resources are you can start
to feel a little bit ofpressure, and then you won't
make the same decisions becauseyou'll start making decisions
based on money and you might dosome things that you didn't want
to do, which isn't necessarilywrong, but you might not be that
happy.
And so then if you quit, ifyou're unhappy and you quit your
(08:17):
job, and then you start yourbusiness and you start doing
things that you're unhappy within your business, then it's like
a double whammy You're going tofeel resentful about it Right
and lose the.
Right, I put myself in this box,right.
So anyway, that's what would bemy first recommendation is
prove that you can make, provethat you can generate some
consistent revenue with yourmodel first, and if you can
(08:38):
start to do that kind of monthover month for three to six
months, then I think you justhave a lot more confidence in
moving away from the nine tofive, which of course it's
really false, because thesecurity of the nine to five is
an illusion, because you can belet go at any time.
It's probably not likely, butwithout getting into that.
(09:00):
There is some safety right inthe every other week paycheck In
terms of what you're going todo or making the leap.
I think it's just findingsomething that you're really
passionate, really interested in.
You know, like I love contentcreation, like it never gets old
.
Like creating content, engagingwith content, helping other
people with their content Like Ijust love it.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
Did you realize that you liked it so much Because you
you talk about kind of havingthis aversion to it you didn't
want to be too much in thespotlight?
Did you know you were going tolike it as much as you do?
Speaker 2 (09:30):
No idea.
I mean, if you had told me whenI started that this would
happen, I wouldn't have believedyou.
It just took a few months forme to really figure out a
cadence and a rhythm.
I started out posting two timesa week for the first month to
test it out.
Then the next month I moved tothree times a rhythm.
You know, I started out postingtwo times a week for the first
month to test it out, and thenthe next month I moved to three
times a week, and then Iactually did three times a week
for about six months before Ifinally went to, you know, four
(09:53):
or five times a week.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
Yeah, what I love is you incorporate those metrics
posts so you like go back andyou share with us, like, okay,
this is what I did in the lastmonth and this is the results
and here are some of mylearnings about it, which is
really helpful for people.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Yeah, that post does.
That post always does reallywell every month.
I really it takes a while forme to put that one together
because I pull the data and thenI put it in a carousel and it's
a little bit time consuming,but I enjoy doing that one and
people, I think, get somethingout of it just to see what other
people are doing and thingsthey can then implement into
their creation and content.
So I think that's been a big.
(10:32):
You know I've looked at thenumbers almost from the
beginning.
I know I built my own Exceldashboard that I use.
Obviously you can get themthrough third party sites like
(10:52):
Shield and Authored Up and manyothers if you're, if you don't
want to do the manual route, butI think it's important you
don't have to look at them asmuch as I do.
I probably look at them toomuch, to be honest.
But think a regular check-in oflike what's happening like now
with the you know the forwhatever reason, in december,
you know impressions are waydown for most people, um, and
they've been down.
They've been trending downwardfor two years and now in
december it's even a bigger drop.
(11:13):
So it's just, it's just good tobe aware of that and if you're
just kind of posting in the dark.
I mean, obviously you can seeyour impressions, but if you
don't know what your impressionsdid the previous couple months,
it might not be obvious thatthey're significantly lower.
It's just good to be aware ofwhat's happening and what works.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
Yeah, and there's so many different factors going
into that.
So starting to learn thescience behind it.
What does a piece of content doversus what's going on in the
algorithms all those differentfactors and we're starting to
get into trends and things thatyou're learning.
What are some other trends thatyou're seeing?
You coach so many solopreneurswith their content.
(11:51):
What's the challenges thatyou're seeing around trends with
your clients?
How do you help them understandit and navigate it?
Speaker 2 (11:59):
I think the biggest thing my post tomorrow is going
to be a little bit about this.
It's really about intentionwith your post and your content.
So it depends on where you arein the journey.
Right, if you're just postingto post because you want to
build followers and connection,that's totally fine.
But you're going to take adifferent approach than someone
who's trying to sell theirproduct or service right, it's a
(12:21):
different.
First of all, it's a differentmindset.
Second, you have to have muchmore intention in the content
when you're trying to movepeople towards eventually
working with you.
So if you were just posting toget engagement, that would not
be nearly as difficult becauseyou could do infographics and
selfies and very top of funnelcontent and it will typically
get more impressions and moreengagement, but it's not really
(12:44):
going to move people towardsyour business.
So, like a current client, whenwe started working together a
few weeks ago, she had someideas about what she wanted to
do, but there just wasn't a lotof intention about thinking far
enough ahead with her content,of how to attract people and
then move them into working withher, and so that was the
biggest change we made in hercontent was.
(13:06):
You know, I gave her post ideaswith the idea of letting them
know A who she was, why she'sdoing it and what she does.
And now that's pretty much allshe's talked about and in just a
couple of weeks she has a newoffer.
It's a three-day workshop inJanuary.
She already has two signups andshe has a third inquiry.
(13:26):
Awesome, yeah, it's, it's greatand so it just it isn't me,
it's.
I mean, she's written all theposts, but it's where I've come
in is just getting her to thinkdifferently about like what
she's writing and how she'swriting it in order to get
people into, because I just, Ithink for her, a lot of people
just didn't know.
I just don't think they reallyknew what she did.
(13:48):
It wasn't that I even said Iwas like I'm not really sure
what you do.
So you have to spell it out andyou have to keep talking about
it, because not everybody seesall of your posts.
You know people are worriedabout being redundant, but if
you have an offer, you have totalk about it pretty frequently
because, yeah, people are a youdon't know who's seeing it, but
even people that see a lot ofyour content, they're not seeing
all of it.
They're coming in and out, soyou have to be repetitive.
(14:09):
You don't have to be peopleoverhead with it.
I'm talking about it in everypost, but not every post needs
to be a sales post.
But you can still talk aboutwhat you do without selling, but
it has to be really obvious ifyou're trying to run a business
Like this is why I'm here.
This is what I do.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
Excuse me and this is .
Speaker 2 (14:27):
You know, this is what it takes to work with me.
So that, so I think, theintention.
I think even people runningbusinesses sometimes forget.
They just kind of, even if theycome up with a content plan,
it's very loose, like well, I'mgonna talk about, I'm gonna post
five days next week, and soI'll talk about these five
things, but I don't think theyreally sometimes think about the
point of what are those fiveposts doing?
Are they all working together?
(14:47):
Are they five separate posts?
Do they build off of another?
There's a lot more that's kindof what I talk about tomorrow in
the post is there's more to itthan just sitting down and
crafting and writing content andhitting posts.
You can do that but you won'tget very far or it'll take you a
lot longer.
(15:07):
But if you think moreintentionally and it does take
longer, like it's more effort,but I think you'll you just
you'll find you get resultsfaster because you have a plan.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
Yeah.
So, I see that being reallyhelpful one, because oftentimes,
when we're in our own heads, wemake an assumption about you
know well, they know this.
Well, maybe they don't.
And I also think it'sinteresting because you're
thinking about the journey ofhow the audience will perceive
that content, both when theycatch the posts and both when
(15:40):
they don't catch every post, andthat's kind of a difficult
bridge.
So that's important.
So you're getting at thestrategy in front of the content
and then helping someone beable to execute on that
effectively.
So that's really cool.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
Yeah, and it varies, right.
Like you know, she's not likethis particular client.
You know she'll run thisworkshop in January, but then
it's going to change for her.
Unless you know, Unless shewants to run the same workshop
in February.
She could, and then the contentwould be very similar, but
maybe she wants to pivot to moreone-to-one offering or group
coaching.
So then the message tweaks tochanges a little bit, right?
So you always have to kind ofbe aware it's not something that
(16:17):
you can just decide on one dayand then be like I'm all set
forever, right it can change.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
It's constantly changing.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
It can change week to week.
I've started to do some liveevents so I've done a lot more
posts about promoting the liveevent, right?
So if I wasn't running theevents then obviously I wouldn't
be writing content about it.
So that kind of stuff.
When you have one-offs ortwo-offs or six-offs throughout
the year, then you have to makesure you're building those in,
you're factoring that in to yourcontent.
So I just think, thinking alittle bit more seriously about
(16:48):
the journey, like I think youmentioned the journey like it's
the journey you want people togo on and that could be within
one post or it could be a seriesof posts or your entire plan.
But, um, you know, people kindof have to see themselves in
your content, to start toenvision working with you and
like how you work.
So that's why storytelling isimportant, because you want them
to see yourself again the story.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
I like how you phrase that.
People have to see themselvesin your content.
So, yeah, when?
When you work with people, dothey fit a certain role, or what
types of people do you workwith?
Speaker 2 (17:21):
I'm still kind of figuring that out.
I have to keep reminding myself.
It feels like I've been doingthis for a really long time, but
it's really only been abouteight months in terms of having
an offer.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
So I keep having to.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
So I keep having cause.
I didn't really.
You know, I quit February of 24.
I didn't have the first offeruntil April of 24.
Hey, that seems like a reallylong time ago, but you know it
really wasn't.
So I have to remind myself.
I'm still new, even though.
I don't feel like it.
Uh it, it depends.
Like I just I just haven'tgotten, I don't.
(17:55):
I haven't worked with enoughpeople where I'm like, okay,
well, I just work with these.
So I mean, most of the peopleI've worked with have been some
type of coach.
They have some type of service,consulting or coaching offer
and then you know, the idea isto get people into their
ecosystem and towards workingwith them.
That's been, that's been themost I would say popular for
lack of a better term.
But you know, I would saypopular for lack of a better
term.
But I kind of started out withjust content only.
But now that I've done enoughbusiness stuff with myself, the
(18:20):
current offer is more content isthe base, and so that's where
we start.
But it's really about usingcontent to grow their business.
Because content just for thesake of content, while it's nice
to get more impressions andreactions and comments, that
feels good, but it doesn'treally matter if you're not
ultimately moving people youknow closer to working with you.
So that's so now it's more ofkind of a hybrid.
(18:42):
So we work pretty closely on thecontent to get started, and
then you know like one wasworking, you know they were
doing a workshop.
She's doing a three-dayworkshop.
You know other people are doingmasterclasses, others are doing
just solely one-to-one.
You know 90-day or you knowsix-month coaching.
So you know it does.
It does vary but and maybeeventually it'll be like a
(19:07):
specific type of coach.
But I don't have enough data tosay yeah, you know it's, I only
work with people that you knowdo X, yeah, it's all, I only
work with people that you knowdo X.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
Yeah, and especially with with what you're learning
now, you can create impact forso many different types of
people.
So, yeah, you're kind of likeshowing those results and
building that body of evidence,which is really cool.
And that said, too, I mean hugethat you've now been like one
year into this podcast, Likethat's, that's a milestone from
(19:32):
I don't want know what I want todo in my life.
I'm like going through thisriver of like nothing feels
right to you, found content thatlike creating like content
lights you up, storytellinglights you up.
And now, like you're one yearin and you feel like way more
fulfilled it sounds like thanbefore in, and you feel like way
(19:54):
more fulfilled, it sounds likethan before.
So, like one, let's celebratethat milestone.
But also like what is oneeither interview or moment that
stands out to you that's beenlike especially memorable in
your podcast journey.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
Yeah, you know the podcast has been.
You know, like I said, Ithought about it for a while,
like I wanted to be abroadcaster as a kid and I was,
you know, podcasting didn'texist.
Then it was mostly sportsbroadcasting and then, of course
, I put it on the back on theshelf for 30 years.
And then, a few years ago, Ithought about doing I was going
to do a show with a couple offriends.
We were going to talk aboutsports, sports, gambling, and
(20:27):
then we were going to drinkbourbon during the show.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
Oh yeah, that sounds fun.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
Yeah, so it was like we had a title that probably
wasn't very good, but it wassomething about like bourbon
bedding and something.
So we did one.
It wasn't even a test episode,we just got on and recorded
ourselves talking and it wasjust literally us talking and I
listened back to it and I justdidn't like the way it sounded
and so I pulled the plug.
(20:56):
I was like, no, I don't do it,and so it was always there.
But again, that whole likeputting yourself out there and,
like you know, sound of yourvoice and will people listen,
and all this stuff.
So then I thought, okay, when Istarted creating and then had
some momentum, I was like, well,if I'm ever going to do it like
now's the time like there is,there's never going to be a
better time.
And so that's when I startedthinking about it and, you know,
started booking guests and so,yeah, we're episode 26.
I'm getting ready to record, Ithink, episode 32 tomorrow.
(21:18):
I'm planning on doing 50 shows.
I did 20, obviously about 25 or26.
In 24, I'm planning on doing 50in 25, which will be almost one
a week.
And I've just been really lucky.
Most of the people I've askedhave said yes, and it's been a
very diverse, very diverse groupof people.
So the stories and the insightand the lived experience and the
(21:40):
journeys have all just beenfascinating for me to hear and
learn and get to know people ona little different level.
Some people like yourself, likeI've met, we've met in person
and we've talked a few times.
So you know, it feels like.
I know you a little bit.
Other people come on.
I've never.
I've never talked to thembefore, like the interview is
the first time we've ever spoken.
Now usually I've seen theircontent, I've seen their
(22:01):
LinkedIn profile, so you know, Iknow a little bit about them,
but I've never heard their voice.
I think the one thing thatreally surprised me when I had
her name's Amanda Kwok.
She's a coach in Toronto andshe talked about being an
introvert.
And I'm a lifelong introvert.
(22:21):
But I always equatedintroversion and shyness as the
same and she pointed out thatthey're totally different.
So you can be introverted andnot shy.
You can be shy and not anintrovert.
And the introversion was simplyhow you get your energy.
So in groups of people,typically that's a very, it's an
energy drainer for introverts,whereas being in a small group
or by yourself, you know, isenergy a filling, and then vice
(22:42):
versa.
But it doesn't have anything todo with like, because in school
I was pretty shy, like I didn'tspeak up in class and I would
sit in the back and I wouldnever volunteer for anything.
So I just associated that withlike being an introvert.
So she was like it can be, butthey're two totally separate
things and that for some reason,just really really like stuck
with me.
It's like how am I this old andjust learning this?
Speaker 1 (23:01):
Fascinating Wow.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
Yeah, but it was really interesting.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
So, in your case, you get your energy from either
small one-on-ones or by yourself, but you still enjoy social
interaction.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
Yeah, the beauty, I think, of social media for me,
linkedin specifically is I canchoose when I get on and off.
So if it feels overwhelming orI'm not enjoying it or I'm tired
, or the content that day isjust boring and dry, I can just
log off.
I can do something else.
There's no obligation for me tostay on, whereas if I were to
(23:33):
go to a party it's kind of rudeif I leave early, right, like if
I'm there for 20 minutes andI'm like I'm actually going to
leave, I'm not, this isn't funfor me.
Then someone's probably going tobe offended, right?
So it's, you have much morecontrol over it.
But yeah, so if I so like, if Iwas either one-on-one or in a
small group and I'm comfortablewith you, you would see a
(23:55):
different version of me than ifI didn't know who you were and
we were in like a large group.
It would be almost like twototally different people.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
And that you know that about yourself too, so you
can play to those strengths.
So, like when, when you haveyour engagement time on LinkedIn
, do you find yourself needingto build in a break after that,
or decompressing?
Speaker 2 (24:16):
A little bit.
I'm usually on 7.45 am EasternTime and then I'm on pretty
consistently until probably 9.30or 10 Eastern Time, monday
through Friday.
That window is pretty set.
And then, yes, after.
So yeah, when that's over, I'mhere in my office.
Then I almost always get prettypretty set and then, yes, after
.
So yeah, when that's over, I'mhere in my office.
(24:37):
That I almost always.
You know, get up, go downstairs.
I usually let the dog out andif the weather's good enough,
like I'll go out in the yard andyou know throw the ball with
him or just, yeah, just takelike 10 or 15 minutes screen
free and maybe do some breathingexercises or just sit in
silence.
Speaker 1 (24:50):
Ooh what, what breathing exercises do you do?
That's cool.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
Yeah, so it's just a lot of deep breathing.
Some people call it boxbreathing.
Okay yeah, just differentbreathing patterns.
Just to break up, I'm a shamannaturally shallow breather which
I've just learned about myself,and so it's really just trying
to expand my lungs and my lungcapacity and just get more
oxygen in the blood, because Ithink most of us throughout the
(25:17):
day, right, you're just normalshallow breathing as you're
doing everything, so it's justpausing, it doesn't have to be a
lot of time, but it's justagain just trying to invigorate,
calm the nervous system and,you know, just kind of a little
bit more peace, like in yourhead and in your body.
So, yeah, so just a little, andI try to do that a little bit
throughout the day, so it's justnot, you know, nonstop just
sitting on the platform and Imean there's diminishing returns
(25:40):
, like anything.
If you stay on LinkedIn andjust engage and comment all day
like that's great but it won't,at some point it just stops
being effective and you have todo other you have to do other
things.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
So that is a great segue.
So I read this stat you grewyour audience by 548% in just 15
months.
That's really impressive andawesome.
Okay, so let's get maybe alittle bit into strategies and
systems and I'm curious if youcan share or are open to share.
(26:13):
What did you do to actuallyimplement it?
What did you do to make thathappen, and can you break it
down a little bit for anyonelooking to grow their audience?
Speaker 2 (26:30):
I think at first I didn't really know what I was
doing, other than just I wasbeing consistent.
So, like I said, it was twodays a week for that first month
and then three days a week, andI'm very process oriented, I'm
very detail oriented in terms ofI like things that repeat and I
like things that I can becomean expert at so that I can then
repeat them.
And what I didn't realize is,in those first three or four
months of content creation, Iwas creating a system that was
(26:53):
very easily repeatable for me,like I was doing the exact same
thing every day.
I was writing, I was writingposts the night before, posting
them, engaging for a certainamount of time.
I took a day off.
I did the same thing.
I took a day off and then itexpanded as I posted more, but
the process was the same.
It's a little off, and then itexpanded as I posted more, but
the process was the same.
It's a little bit different now, but and then engaging like
(27:16):
that, even the time that Imentioned again, it wasn't the
same when I was working fulltime, but that's 745 to kind of
939, 45.
I do it that way almost everyday, like it's almost exact,
like when I log on to log, loginto LinkedIn, like the way that
I do things are very systematic, like it's almost exactly the
(27:36):
same way and I don't thinkthat's super common, I think
that's just like how I do it.
Speaker 1 (27:39):
Yeah, and I'm so curious like what does that look
like for you?
Because here here I am in myhead like sometimes I, I like my
post goes up at 645 central,and then sometimes I'm post
posting while I'm getting mykids ready for bed and it's a
shit show, and then sometimes Ido it here and there.
But I can see how creating thatrepeatable system that's
(28:02):
realistic for you is superhelpful.
So we are David, we're loggingon in the morning.
What exactly does that looklike for you?
Yeah, so I log in.
First thing I do is look at inthe morning.
Speaker 2 (28:12):
What exactly does that look like for you?
Yeah, so I log in.
First thing I do is look atclear the notifications, see if
there's any notifications thatare either a comment that I made
on a post or somebody.
If there's a new comment onmine, then I'll go and respond
to those.
If there's any DMs, then I'llrespond to those.
Then I'll go to my homepage.
I'll check profile views or anynew followers, see if that's
(28:33):
changed.
I'll update metrics from what'shappened overnight and I'll
update my last few posts withimpressions and reactions and
then I usually then will checkthe.
I will have already written thepost for that day.
I'll usually pull that up andjust read it through one or two
more times just to make sureit's saying what I want it to
say, and then at that point Istart engaging.
(28:55):
So I have I created, I startedwith doing individual.
You can book people's activitylinks so you can just see all of
like one person's activities.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
But then people get-.
Speaker 2 (29:04):
You said, book people's activities, you can
bookmark, so like I can bookmarkyour activity and I can just
save that and then it would showme all of your posts, so it
would be like Colleen'sactivities, right?
So if you have a recent post,that would be on top, I could
see it.
So that's why I did it for awhile.
But then people kept pointingout that I could do these custom
searches, which was moreefficient, and they finally wore
(29:24):
me down and they were correct.
So now I have you can do savedLinkedIn searches by people.
So you can do a custom, you cancustomize your feed, basically,
so you can have up to 20creators in a search and then
you save that search.
So then you can just always pullup those 20 anytime you want
and if they've posted, you cando the last 24 hours or last
(29:46):
week.
I do the last week.
If they've posted in the lastweek, you'll see their content.
So I can go through in that7.45 to 8.30 before my post goes
live, because I posted 8.30Eastern time.
In that 45 minutes I cancomment a lot because I'm simply
clicking on the folder and justgoing through the saved people
and go and comment.
(30:07):
So I can knock out a lot ofpeople and then my post goes
live at 8.30.
And then I go right back intocommenting.
I usually let mine sit forabout 10 minutes, and especially
now because it's taking longerto start getting pumped out.
It used to happen prettyquickly, but just the way it
happens now it's a slowerprocess for people to start to
see it.
So I don't waste that time.
I go right back in and startcommenting and then, as comments
(30:28):
start coming in on my post, Irespond to those right away.
And then now these days myyoungest son he's 10, uh, fifth
grade his I start getting him.
I don't really have to get himready, but I just go down and
make sure that he's square anddidn't forget his ipad and his
earbuds and like all the stuff,and then and then I see him on
to the bus and then and then I'mback, so it's like a 15 minute
(30:51):
break.
Usually at that time I comeback.
There's been a few morecomments on mine.
I'll respond to those and thenit's just a.
It's a process of just engagingon others and come and
responding to comments on mineagain somewhere between nine, 30
and 10.
That's, that's how I do mostmornings every day.
Speaker 1 (31:08):
That's cool.
Thank you for sharing.
Okay, so the safe search ishuge.
I could see that as being areal time saver.
So you have just all thatlisted and I'm curious if we
could step into now like this isa piece of you know, career for
David.
But if you look at how being apodcast host and a creator like
(31:31):
has changed you personally, likewhat is there anything that
you've learned about yourself inthis process that you've gone
through?
Speaker 2 (31:38):
I'm a lot nicer and I have a lot more patience now.
Speaker 1 (31:41):
Really.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
Because I'm not miserable at work.
Speaker 1 (31:44):
Hmm, okay, wow so the whole.
Speaker 2 (31:48):
Like you know, you see a lot of posts about like
work-life balance and notbringing your work home, and
even when people were working inoffices and you know, leave it
at the office and when you comehome that doesn't happen.
If you had a terrible day atwork, I don't know too many
people that can just literallyturn that off and be like
totally different for the nextfive or so hours with their
(32:09):
families.
Like that's really difficult todo, yeah, and I was not very
good at it.
So I you know I would bemiserable at work and then I'd
come home and be miserable athome.
And it wasn't on purpose, Iwasn't trying to take it out on
them, but who?
Like they're the people thataround you.
So of course they're gonna,they're gonna hear it and face
it, but I don't.
So I don't really have thatanymore because, like I wake, up
with energy and excitement andwhat I, what I'm doing, feels
(32:31):
good, feels aligned, and so I'mjust generally happier.
I'm not in a bad mood thatoften and, yeah sure, I get
frustrated and I wish thingswere different in certain areas
and all that kind of stuff,because that's going to happen
no matter what you're doing.
But just my overall generalsense of feeling is
significantly higher, so it'sjust easier.
(32:51):
I'm just easier to get alongwith.
Speaker 1 (32:53):
That is fantastic, and the fact that you know, when
you and I met, you had talkedabout working with many
different career coaches andthings that you've learned about
yourself, and the fact thatyou've come to a point where you
found what lights you up andcontent and storytelling is
something you truly enjoy, andhow it's impacted both your
career and your life.
It's it's really awesome andit's a cool story to hear.
(33:16):
Um, okay, so like looking backat everything that you've
accomplished this past year,like what stands out as
something that you're reallyproud of.
Speaker 2 (33:28):
That's a good question.
I will answer it in one second.
So just a quick point aboutyour point there about the
career coaches.
This is not to knock careercoaches in any way, because I
love them and, like I said, Ihired three of them and worked
with four or five, because oneof the places I worked with had
several.
I made the mistake with careercoaches, thinking they were just
going to solve the problem forme.
So I thought I will hire youand we will go through your
(33:51):
process and I'll take your testand then at some point you're
going to tell me you should dothis job right.
Speaker 1 (33:56):
You should do this and it's going to be perfect.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
Correct and that's going to be it Right, and that's
not true for any coaching,right?
No one is going to magicallysolve all of your problems.
That's not what they're thereto do.
They're there to help you andguide you and help you learn
about yourself.
Ultimately, it's up to you.
My point to that is none ofthose coaches ever said, no, we
think you'd be a great podcasthost and content creator.
(34:19):
That never came up.
That never, showed up on anytests.
That was never a conversationthat any of them ever had with
me.
So the point is that yousometimes just have to do you
can take all of that and it'sall great.
I'm not again.
I fully advocate for hiringpeople like that, but go into it
knowing that they're there tohelp you.
(34:40):
They're not there to solve yourproblem.
And they still might not tellyou the thing that you're
supposed to be doing, because Ikind of did it again out of
desperation and having a strangekind of white light type moment
, for whatever reason.
And then here we are.
So if that hadn't happened, Iwould have.
I was working with a careercoach at the time that I started
(35:02):
posting.
If I hadn't started posting, wewould have gone the traditional
.
During that time we wereworking on identifying two or
three industries where wethought that I would be a fit
and then identifying roleswithin those companies.
And then I would have followedthe traditional trying to find
jobs and reaching out onLinkedIn to people that work
(35:22):
there and all the type of thingsyou do to try to get in.
I would have done that.
I mean, maybe it would haveworked, maybe we would have
found something Probably not.
Or it would have been okay orbetter than what I was doing.
Right, because that's usuallyhow I was judging it.
Is it a little bit better thanwhat I'm doing?
(35:48):
Awesome, yeah, so you have tothink about that Again.
I just did something.
I just did it and then ithappened to be right.
But I think, people, if you havesomething inside of you that
you've been thinking about doinglike.
I've been thinking about mylike unfulfilled potential, and
that I had all this potentialfor probably 10 or 15 years.
When I was stuck in the cubicle, I knew I was capable of more
than just showing up at nineo'clock and punching numbers and
spreadsheets and going home atfive.
That seemed very unfulfillingto me and I was like this seems
(36:10):
like I'm wasting whateverability I have, like my short
time on earth.
This doesn't seem to be a greatuse of it, but I never knew
what to do with it.
So I had these ideas, but Ididn't know how to put them into
action.
Well, ultimately, it was takingaction which happened to be
creating content.
But that could be.
That doesn't have to be for you.
It's whatever you're thinkinginside, like if you're, if you
(36:31):
have something that like keepscoming to you and you're like I
wish I could do this, or I wantto do this, or I think I would
be good at this, or I would liketo try this right.
If you're having any of thosekinds of thoughts, you just have
to do it, even if somebodytells you it's crazy or they're
like that'll never work oryou're not good enough, whatever
(36:52):
.
People are very quick to shutdown your dreams, right, like if
your kids come to you and sayyou want to be an astronaut, the
first things you're going tohear like, oh, you're too old,
you're not smart enough, it'stoo hard, you know how long it
takes, it's very expensive.
Like, sure, you want to do that.
You just get hit with all thisnegativity, right, and that's
just how we're, that's justsociety.
So my point is if you'rethinking about anything, just do
it Again.
(37:13):
But you might just want to doit, so you'll never know if you
don't try and you can thinkabout it forever and that will
get you nowhere.
Speaker 1 (37:22):
Anyway, that was the no and I, I love that one
because, also, you finallysuppressed that nagging in the
back of your head Like you canfinally like that.
There must've been a weightlike that, that feeling like I
have this potential, I want totry this thing.
So I assume it being like,really almost like a weight has
been lifted and even for someonehaving that itch of doing
(37:44):
something, even just doing it,will allow that, that lingering,
to just subside and that, thatweight, which is fascinating.
Okay.
So tip here, paying attentionto what your mind is drawn
towards in those peacefulmoments.
Wouldn't it be cool if thoughtslike listening to those?
That's cool.
Speaker 2 (38:05):
David, thank you.
I waited too long, so if you'rehearing this, don't wait as
long as I did Act sooner.
In terms of the accomplishment,I don't know that's hard to
pick just one.
I think A just sticking't knowthat's hard to pick just one.
I think A just sticking with it.
It's very hard.
Starting your own thing is muchmore difficult than anyone talks
(38:26):
about.
You see a lot of stuff onLinkedIn people making $10,000,
$20,000, $50,000 a month andrecurring revenue and all this
stuff and that's great.
That's not common, so they'rein the minority.
There aren't a lot of peoplethat are doing that.
So it's hard.
It's hard financially.
It's hard to sign clientsconsistently and you have up and
down months and it's not likewe talked about with the nine to
five, where you're getting thesame money every other week or
(38:47):
every month and you can count onit.
So it's a totally different.
It's different psychologically,it's different emotionally.
So just the fact that I'vestuck with it feels good.
But the podcast I think mostpodcasts stop after I think it's
10 episodes and I think lessthan I want to say, like less
than five percent ever make itto to episode 20 and typically
the reason is people.
Just it's hard to get people tolisten and so you're like, well
(39:09):
, nobody's listening and sowhat's the point?
And so they just stop.
So the fact that I'm stilldoing it I have, you know, many
more planned that feels feels anaccomplishment.
But then, meeting people I cameto Minnesota and met you and
Lindsay and a couple otherpeople.
I'd never been to that statebefore, I hadn't flown in like
six years.
So just doing stuff like that,I went to Toronto.
(39:32):
Yes, prior to that, I met fivepeople in Toronto for three days
.
I've never been to Canada.
To that, I met five people inToronto for three days.
I've never been to Canada.
So it's like the expansion.
This whole process for me hasjust been one big expansion on
all these different levels.
And so that was traveling andmeeting people who were literals
A year ago, less than 14 monthsago, you didn't even know I
(39:55):
existed, right?
No?
So the magic of of social mediagets a bad rap for a lot of
negative things, and rightfullyso.
But there's a lot of good andpositive too, and so this is
like the positive power ofsocial media and being able to
find and connect with people, um, and build relationships and
then meet in person like that'sI again.
(40:17):
I wouldn't have believed you ifsomeone had come to me again
like two years ago.
I'm like this is what.
This is the next two years ofyour life.
Like you're completely makingthis up.
There's no way that like any ofthat's gonna happen.
Like you're completely I don'tknow what you're talking about.
Speaker 1 (40:30):
Yeah but, you followed that spark, that spark,
and then one step in front ofthe other, in front of the other
, and then some Colleen andDavid met on LinkedIn and
started building a friendshipthrough the platform and DMs and
supported each other.
I can think of numerous DMsthroughout the past year where
we asked each other questionsand we supported each other.
(40:52):
And then you come and visited usand we had dinner and you met
Ed, and so, for everything, Ithink that you hit the nail on
the head and something that youknow for its good and bad
LinkedIn.
You can make a choice to reallyfocus on leveraging the
positives, customizing your feedlike you talked about, like
(41:15):
using the platform to work foryou and help support the life
that you want to live.
I'm really grateful that we metand got to be friends and I'm
super grateful for thisopportunity to interview you and
be my first podcast host and beable to highlight your story,
because you have really beenbeautifully authentic and
vulnerable about the things thatyou've gone through and the
(41:38):
challenges that you've faced andturns that ended up going
sideways, and I think that thatvoice and that story is really
important in the world of AIbecause we can really create
that bridge and know that.
You know you don't have all theanswers, even people on
LinkedIn that create impact likeyou do, and the results that
you did.
They're constantly facingchallenges, but you made the
(42:00):
choice, so.
Speaker 2 (42:01):
Yeah, no, I appreciate you saying that.
It's very kind of you.
Same way, I'm very gratefulthat our paths crossed and your
story also is just so authenticand real and your plane building
and now the sauna and just theclose knit family life that you
lead and it's a beautiful thingand I'm happy to be a very small
part of it.
So you coming on my show andthen being able to meet you and
(42:24):
now coming on and interviewingme is I'm super appreciative of
you and what you stand for.
Speaker 1 (42:29):
Awesome, Super cool.
Well, thank you, David.
Again, if you want to listen toDavid and my conversation, it's
back, I think number eight.
Speaker 2 (42:37):
Episode eight Yep I'll link that specific episode
and I'll link the folder.
If anybody's listening thatuses LinkedIn and wants to
create the custom search, I'llput that in the show notes and
then we'll put all of yourinformation in there as well,
and you write one of the bestnewsletters.
I don't read a lot ofnewsletters, but I usually read
yours, so if anybody's out therelooking for a good newsletter,
(43:00):
sign up for Colleen's, becauseit's one of the unique, unique
good ones.
Speaker 1 (43:02):
There's a lot of not good ones.
I appreciate that Awesome.
Well, thank you so much.
Look at the show notes for allthe awesome tips that David
shared.
Thank you, David.
Hope we get to talk again soon.
Speaker 2 (43:11):
Absolutely.
Thanks, Colleen Bye.
Welcome to the Real you Podcast.
I'm your guest host, colleenKranz, and this is episode
number 26.
So I was guest number 8 back onthe show back in early June,
and today I am back to interviewthe creator of this podcast,
david Young.
So we thought this would be acool way to wrap up his first
(00:22):
year of podcast episodes.
A cool way to wrap up his firstyear of podcast episodes.
David started hissolopreneurship journey in July
of 2023 and launched thispodcast in March of 2024.
So he now coaches solopreneursand other coaches on how to
build their businesses onLinkedIn using the power of
storytelling in their contentcreation.
So today we'll recap hisjourney.
(00:44):
Talk about the podcast LinkedIncontent creation.
So today we'll recap hisjourney.
Talk about the podcast,linkedin content creation, the
future of this show and muchmore.
So I'm so excited.
I have never been a podcastinterviewer and now, david, you
are a guest on your own show.
Welcome.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Thank you, colleen.
I appreciate that, and this issuch a great idea.
This is solely your idea andwhen you came, on.
I don't even remember when werecorded.
I know it released in June, Ithink we recorded it in like
March or April, yeah.
And when we got done, you saidI want to come back and I want
to interview you and I thought,well, that's a great idea.
I never would have thought ofthat.
So here we are, making ithappen.
(01:22):
So kudos to you for an outsidethe box idea, which is brilliant
.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Well, you know, it was kind of selfish because I
always, like man, I think it'dbe so cool to have a podcast.
So this is kind of like mydiptoe in the water and building
my host skills.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
So there you go, a test run.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
Yes, Okay.
So first question on the powerof storytelling and I I am a
follower of yours on LinkedInand you talk quite a bit about
storytelling as being thecornerstone of effective
LinkedIn content and I see thisall the time in your content.
Can you share a story from yourown life that became a game
(02:00):
changer for your business andyour personal brand that you're
building game?
Speaker 2 (02:03):
changer for your business and your personal brand
that you're building.
Yeah, you know, what I'velearned in this journey and then
working with clients is peoplereally struggle to tell stories.
It comes really naturally for me.
So you assume that it comesnaturally for anything that
you're good at.
You just assume everybody'sgood at it, right?
I don't know why we do that,but we do so.
I just thought, well, likeeverybody has stories and
everyone can tell them, likeit's not difficult.
But people really struggle.
(02:24):
They struggle to identify themfirst, like what story should I
tell?
Because I have, you know, allthese things happen in my life.
But like I can't tell all ofthem, so they have trouble
distilling it down.
And then, even when they getthere, they struggle to
articulate, like the importantpoints.
And because in LinkedIn, right,you can't tell like the whole
(02:45):
thing, so you have to cutcertain stuff out.
So they have trouble thenidentifying like okay, well, I'm
going to tell this story andthen they write it out and it's,
you know, 4 000 characters.
Like, all, right, I gotta cut athousand characters.
Well, like what, what do I cut?
Like I need everything needs tostay and it's like it actually
doesn't.
So there's, it takes practice.
So it's been eye-opening thatpeople help, need help telling
the story and the best content,especially these days with so
(03:08):
much AI-generated content andcopy and paste GPT, you can just
tell not that you can tell whatit is, but you can tell the
posts that have some life tothem and ones that are just very
stagnant and very dull.
And I think that's especially asthe platform changes and the
algorithm changes and organicreach continues to drop.
Like that's kind of your ticketto still keeping people coming
(03:31):
back is that they know you havesomething to say and you're
going to tell it, you know, inan interesting way.
So, yeah, the storytelling isvery important In terms of a
specific story.
I think the main one is kind ofthe reason why we're here.
Story I think the main one iskind of the reason why we're
here, which is that day in thedriveway would have been June of
23.
With my oldest son, I wastrying to motivate him to be
(03:53):
more confident on the basketballcourt and to be more aggressive
.
I just kind of had that I don'tknow a strange moment in time
when I realized in this littlesliver I realized I was talking
to myself.
I'd been talking to him foryears with kind of the same
message and then, I don't know,it just kind of hit me, at least
(04:13):
from a career standpoint and awork standpoint which I'd always
struggled with.
So I was like, oh well, if Ijust keep doing it the way that
I've been doing it, not much isgoing to change.
I can change jobs andindustries and whatever.
Doing it the way that I've beendoing it, like not much is
going to change, like I canchange jobs and industries and
whatever, and maybe I'lleventually stumble someplace.
That is okay.
But it wasn't going to reallysolve the true like doing what I
want to do and not being tiedto someone else's schedule and
(04:35):
like all the stuff you have todo when you work for a company.
So that moment really was thefinal push to start creating
content, which was not intendedto become a full-time thing.
It was really just likesomething to do, an outlet, a
creative process, and thenwithin three or four months I
realized I'd kind of found it.
And then here we are.
So that story or that moment, Idon't know, without that I'm
(04:58):
not sure.
Maybe I would have stayed inthe comfort zone and never
actually pushed post on that.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
So that was a really pivotal moment for you and I
think that so many solopreneurswhen they're starting out it's
just scary and it's daunting,and in that moment that was a
pivotal point.
But how did you overcome thatself-doubt and the fear of
taking risks when you left yournine to five, and how would you
(05:27):
advise others feeling stuck intransition?
Speaker 2 (05:33):
Yeah, I think to get me started, I think it might
have been some desperation tothe motivation and realize I was
talking to myself.
But I tried so many things.
I had tried several careercoaches and therapy and I'd read
I don't even know 60, 80self-help, personal growth type
books, right, podcasts.
I mean I collected quotes.
I had a 14-page Word documentwith quotes trying to motivate
(05:54):
myself.
I tried a lot of things and Ijust hadn't gone.
I didn't feel like I was makinga lot of progress.
So when I had the idea tocreate content, even though it
wasn't long-term business andvocation thinking, there was
some desperation and I just hadto do something different.
And I'd never put myself outthere because I was very social
(06:14):
media averse no Facebook orTikTok.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
Instagram you were.
I didn't know that.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
Yeah, so I've never had any of those accounts.
I mean, I have a Twitteraccount.
I've never posted.
I signed up for a Facebookaccount many, many years ago and
the only reason I did isbecause a triathlon coach I was
working with that's how hecommunicated with the group, so
I had to get on there just toget the updates.
So that was it, and then, youknow, never had an Instagram
account.
So LinkedIn was the onlyaccount that I had.
It was relatively recent.
(06:41):
I didn't sign up for LinkedInuntil February of 18.
And even though obviously ithad been out many years before
that.
So I was late to that game too.
I had maybe 450 connections,which were mostly just people I
worked with or people that Iknew.
I just didn't have any socialmedia presence and I didn't
really want one.
I didn't want people to look atme.
I don't like looking at my ownphoto, let alone other people
(07:02):
looking at it.
I never thought I'd start apodcast, even though I wanted to
in my head, I didn't think I'dactually do it because I was
like, oh, just all the doubtthat we carry.
So that was part of it.
Again, I think the desperationwas like the final push in terms
of starting the business.
So once I realized that I wasgood at this and I wanted to
(07:23):
figure out a way to do it fulltime, it was a pretty quick
transition, probably withinthree or four months before I
quit, which I don't overlyrecommend, excuse me.
I would say if you're thinkingabout going out on your own, but
you are working full-time, Iwould stay in that as long as
you can, as long as it'stolerable and there's no really
adverse or harsh conditions.
It just makes it easier becauseyou keep the money coming in.
So then you're making decisionsnot based on revenue or sales.
You're able to do it.
(07:44):
You have a little bit morecreative freedom.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
So you can kind of like prove the concept of what
you're working on and then, onceyou prove that, you can kind of
it's kind of like testing onthe side.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Yeah, you can experiment more because you're
not worried about the outcome asmuch.
If you just up and quit I meanagain, depending on how much
money you have saved and whatyour resources are you can start
to feel a little bit ofpressure, and then you won't
make the same decisions becauseyou'll start making decisions
based on money and you might dosome things that you didn't want
to do, which isn't necessarilywrong, but you might not be that
happy.
And so then if you quit, ifyou're unhappy and you quit your
(08:17):
job, and then you start yourbusiness and you start doing
things that you're unhappy within your business, then it's like
a double whammy You're going tofeel resentful about it Right
and lose the.
Right, I put myself in this box,right.
So anyway, that's what would bemy first recommendation is
prove that you can make, provethat you can generate some
consistent revenue with yourmodel first, and if you can
(08:38):
start to do that kind of monthover month for three to six
months, then I think you justhave a lot more confidence in
moving away from the nine tofive, which of course it's
really false, because thesecurity of the nine to five is
an illusion, because you can belet go at any time.
It's probably not likely, butwithout getting into that.
(09:00):
There is some safety right inthe every other week paycheck In
terms of what you're going todo or making the leap.
I think it's just findingsomething that you're really
passionate, really interested in.
You know, like I love contentcreation, like it never gets old
.
Like creating content, engagingwith content, helping other
people with their content Like Ijust love it.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
Did you realize that you liked it so much Because you
you talk about kind of havingthis aversion to it you didn't
want to be too much in thespotlight?
Did you know you were going tolike it as much as you do?
Speaker 2 (09:30):
No idea.
I mean, if you had told me whenI started that this would
happen, I wouldn't have believedyou.
It just took a few months forme to really figure out a
cadence and a rhythm.
I started out posting two timesa week for the first month to
test it out.
Then the next month I moved tothree times a rhythm.
You know, I started out postingtwo times a week for the first
month to test it out, and thenthe next month I moved to three
times a week, and then Iactually did three times a week
for about six months before Ifinally went to, you know, four
(09:53):
or five times a week.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
Yeah, what I love is you incorporate those metrics
posts so you like go back andyou share with us, like, okay,
this is what I did in the lastmonth and this is the results
and here are some of mylearnings about it, which is
really helpful for people.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Yeah, that post does.
That post always does reallywell every month.
I really it takes a while forme to put that one together
because I pull the data and thenI put it in a carousel and it's
a little bit time consuming,but I enjoy doing that one and
people, I think, get somethingout of it just to see what other
people are doing and thingsthey can then implement into
their creation and content.
So I think that's been a big.
(10:32):
You know I've looked at thenumbers almost from the
beginning.
I know I built my own Exceldashboard that I use.
Obviously you can get themthrough third party sites like
(10:52):
Shield and Authored Up and manyothers if you're, if you don't
want to do the manual route, butI think it's important you
don't have to look at them asmuch as I do.
I probably look at them toomuch, to be honest.
But think a regular check-in oflike what's happening like now
with the you know the forwhatever reason, in december,
you know impressions are waydown for most people, um, and
they've been down.
They've been trending downwardfor two years and now in
december it's even a bigger drop.
(11:13):
So it's just, it's just good tobe aware of that and if you're
just kind of posting in the dark.
I mean, obviously you can seeyour impressions, but if you
don't know what your impressionsdid the previous couple months,
it might not be obvious thatthey're significantly lower.
It's just good to be aware ofwhat's happening and what works.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
Yeah, and there's so many different factors going
into that.
So starting to learn thescience behind it.
What does a piece of content doversus what's going on in the
algorithms all those differentfactors and we're starting to
get into trends and things thatyou're learning.
What are some other trends thatyou're seeing?
You coach so many solopreneurswith their content.
(11:51):
What's the challenges thatyou're seeing around trends with
your clients?
How do you help them understandit and navigate it?
Speaker 2 (11:59):
I think the biggest thing my post tomorrow is going
to be a little bit about this.
It's really about intentionwith your post and your content.
So it depends on where you arein the journey.
Right, if you're just postingto post because you want to
build followers and connection,that's totally fine.
But you're going to take adifferent approach than someone
who's trying to sell theirproduct or service right, it's a
(12:21):
different.
First of all, it's a differentmindset.
Second, you have to have muchmore intention in the content
when you're trying to movepeople towards eventually
working with you.
So if you were just posting toget engagement, that would not
be nearly as difficult becauseyou could do infographics and
selfies and very top of funnelcontent and it will typically
get more impressions and moreengagement, but it's not really
(12:44):
going to move people towardsyour business.
So, like a current client, whenwe started working together a
few weeks ago, she had someideas about what she wanted to
do, but there just wasn't a lotof intention about thinking far
enough ahead with her content,of how to attract people and
then move them into working withher, and so that was the
biggest change we made in hercontent was.
(13:06):
You know, I gave her post ideaswith the idea of letting them
know A who she was, why she'sdoing it and what she does.
And now that's pretty much allshe's talked about and in just a
couple of weeks she has a newoffer.
It's a three-day workshop inJanuary.
She already has two signups andshe has a third inquiry.
(13:26):
Awesome, yeah, it's, it's greatand so it just it isn't me,
it's.
I mean, she's written all theposts, but it's where I've come
in is just getting her to thinkdifferently about like what
she's writing and how she'swriting it in order to get
people into, because I just, Ithink for her, a lot of people
just didn't know.
I just don't think they reallyknew what she did.
(13:48):
It wasn't that I even said Iwas like I'm not really sure
what you do.
So you have to spell it out andyou have to keep talking about
it, because not everybody seesall of your posts.
You know people are worriedabout being redundant, but if
you have an offer, you have totalk about it pretty frequently
because, yeah, people are a youdon't know who's seeing it, but
even people that see a lot ofyour content, they're not seeing
all of it.
They're coming in and out, soyou have to be repetitive.
(14:09):
You don't have to be peopleoverhead with it.
I'm talking about it in everypost, but not every post needs
to be a sales post.
But you can still talk aboutwhat you do without selling, but
it has to be really obvious ifyou're trying to run a business
Like this is why I'm here.
This is what I do.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
Excuse me and this is .
Speaker 2 (14:27):
You know, this is what it takes to work with me.
So that, so I think, theintention.
I think even people runningbusinesses sometimes forget.
They just kind of, even if theycome up with a content plan,
it's very loose, like well, I'mgonna talk about, I'm gonna post
five days next week, and soI'll talk about these five
things, but I don't think theyreally sometimes think about the
point of what are those fiveposts doing?
Are they all working together?
(14:47):
Are they five separate posts?
Do they build off of another?
There's a lot more that's kindof what I talk about tomorrow in
the post is there's more to itthan just sitting down and
crafting and writing content andhitting posts.
You can do that but you won'tget very far or it'll take you a
lot longer.
(15:07):
But if you think moreintentionally and it does take
longer, like it's more effort,but I think you'll you just
you'll find you get resultsfaster because you have a plan.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
Yeah.
So, I see that being reallyhelpful one, because oftentimes,
when we're in our own heads, wemake an assumption about you
know well, they know this.
Well, maybe they don't.
And I also think it'sinteresting because you're
thinking about the journey ofhow the audience will perceive
that content, both when theycatch the posts and both when
(15:40):
they don't catch every post, andthat's kind of a difficult
bridge.
So that's important.
So you're getting at thestrategy in front of the content
and then helping someone beable to execute on that
effectively.
So that's really cool.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
Yeah, and it varies, right.
Like you know, she's not likethis particular client.
You know she'll run thisworkshop in January, but then
it's going to change for her.
Unless you know, Unless shewants to run the same workshop
in February.
She could, and then the contentwould be very similar, but
maybe she wants to pivot to moreone-to-one offering or group
coaching.
So then the message tweaks tochanges a little bit, right?
So you always have to kind ofbe aware it's not something that
(16:17):
you can just decide on one dayand then be like I'm all set
forever, right it can change.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
It's constantly changing.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
It can change week to week.
I've started to do some liveevents so I've done a lot more
posts about promoting the liveevent, right?
So if I wasn't running theevents then obviously I wouldn't
be writing content about it.
So that kind of stuff.
When you have one-offs ortwo-offs or six-offs throughout
the year, then you have to makesure you're building those in,
you're factoring that in to yourcontent.
So I just think, thinking alittle bit more seriously about
(16:48):
the journey, like I think youmentioned the journey like it's
the journey you want people togo on and that could be within
one post or it could be a seriesof posts or your entire plan.
But, um, you know, people kindof have to see themselves in
your content, to start toenvision working with you and
like how you work.
So that's why storytelling isimportant, because you want them
to see yourself again the story.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
I like how you phrase that.
People have to see themselvesin your content.
So, yeah, when?
When you work with people, dothey fit a certain role, or what
types of people do you workwith?
Speaker 2 (17:21):
I'm still kind of figuring that out.
I have to keep reminding myself.
It feels like I've been doingthis for a really long time, but
it's really only been abouteight months in terms of having
an offer.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
So I keep having to.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
So I keep having cause.
I didn't really.
You know, I quit February of 24.
I didn't have the first offeruntil April of 24.
Hey, that seems like a reallylong time ago, but you know it
really wasn't.
So I have to remind myself.
I'm still new, even though.
I don't feel like it.
Uh it, it depends.
Like I just I just haven'tgotten, I don't.
(17:55):
I haven't worked with enoughpeople where I'm like, okay,
well, I just work with these.
So I mean, most of the peopleI've worked with have been some
type of coach.
They have some type of service,consulting or coaching offer
and then you know, the idea isto get people into their
ecosystem and towards workingwith them.
That's been, that's been themost I would say popular for
lack of a better term.
But you know, I would saypopular for lack of a better
term.
But I kind of started out withjust content only.
But now that I've done enoughbusiness stuff with myself, the
(18:20):
current offer is more content isthe base, and so that's where
we start.
But it's really about usingcontent to grow their business.
Because content just for thesake of content, while it's nice
to get more impressions andreactions and comments, that
feels good, but it doesn'treally matter if you're not
ultimately moving people youknow closer to working with you.
So that's so now it's more ofkind of a hybrid.
(18:42):
So we work pretty closely on thecontent to get started, and
then you know like one wasworking, you know they were
doing a workshop.
She's doing a three-dayworkshop.
You know other people are doingmasterclasses, others are doing
just solely one-to-one.
You know 90-day or you knowsix-month coaching.
So you know it does.
It does vary but and maybeeventually it'll be like a
(19:07):
specific type of coach.
But I don't have enough data tosay yeah, you know it's, I only
work with people that you knowdo X, yeah, it's all, I only
work with people that you knowdo X.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
Yeah, and especially with with what you're learning
now, you can create impact forso many different types of
people.
So, yeah, you're kind of likeshowing those results and
building that body of evidence,which is really cool.
And that said, too, I mean hugethat you've now been like one
year into this podcast, Likethat's, that's a milestone from
(19:32):
I don't want know what I want todo in my life.
I'm like going through thisriver of like nothing feels
right to you, found content thatlike creating like content
lights you up, storytellinglights you up.
And now, like you're one yearin and you feel like way more
fulfilled it sounds like thanbefore in, and you feel like way
(19:54):
more fulfilled, it sounds likethan before.
So, like one, let's celebratethat milestone.
But also like what is oneeither interview or moment that
stands out to you that's beenlike especially memorable in
your podcast journey.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
Yeah, you know the podcast has been.
You know, like I said, Ithought about it for a while,
like I wanted to be abroadcaster as a kid and I was,
you know, podcasting didn'texist.
Then it was mostly sportsbroadcasting and then, of course
, I put it on the back on theshelf for 30 years.
And then, a few years ago, Ithought about doing I was going
to do a show with a couple offriends.
We were going to talk aboutsports, sports, gambling, and
(20:27):
then we were going to drinkbourbon during the show.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
Oh yeah, that sounds fun.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
Yeah, so it was like we had a title that probably
wasn't very good, but it wassomething about like bourbon
bedding and something.
So we did one.
It wasn't even a test episode,we just got on and recorded
ourselves talking and it wasjust literally us talking and I
listened back to it and I justdidn't like the way it sounded
and so I pulled the plug.
(20:56):
I was like, no, I don't do it,and so it was always there.
But again, that whole likeputting yourself out there and,
like you know, sound of yourvoice and will people listen,
and all this stuff.
So then I thought, okay, when Istarted creating and then had
some momentum, I was like, well,if I'm ever going to do it like
now's the time like there is,there's never going to be a
better time.
And so that's when I startedthinking about it and, you know,
started booking guests and so,yeah, we're episode 26.
I'm getting ready to record, Ithink, episode 32 tomorrow.
(21:18):
I'm planning on doing 50 shows.
I did 20, obviously about 25 or26.
In 24, I'm planning on doing 50in 25, which will be almost one
a week.
And I've just been really lucky.
Most of the people I've askedhave said yes, and it's been a
very diverse, very diverse groupof people.
So the stories and the insightand the lived experience and the
(21:40):
journeys have all just beenfascinating for me to hear and
learn and get to know people ona little different level.
Some people like yourself, likeI've met, we've met in person
and we've talked a few times.
So you know, it feels like.
I know you a little bit.
Other people come on.
I've never.
I've never talked to thembefore, like the interview is
the first time we've ever spoken.
Now usually I've seen theircontent, I've seen their
(22:01):
LinkedIn profile, so you know, Iknow a little bit about them,
but I've never heard their voice.
I think the one thing thatreally surprised me when I had
her name's Amanda Kwok.
She's a coach in Toronto andshe talked about being an
introvert.
And I'm a lifelong introvert.
(22:21):
But I always equatedintroversion and shyness as the
same and she pointed out thatthey're totally different.
So you can be introverted andnot shy.
You can be shy and not anintrovert.
And the introversion was simplyhow you get your energy.
So in groups of people,typically that's a very, it's an
energy drainer for introverts,whereas being in a small group
or by yourself, you know, isenergy a filling, and then vice
(22:42):
versa.
But it doesn't have anything todo with like, because in school
I was pretty shy, like I didn'tspeak up in class and I would
sit in the back and I wouldnever volunteer for anything.
So I just associated that withlike being an introvert.
So she was like it can be, butthey're two totally separate
things and that for some reason,just really really like stuck
with me.
It's like how am I this old andjust learning this?
Speaker 1 (23:01):
Fascinating Wow.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
Yeah, but it was really interesting.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
So, in your case, you get your energy from either
small one-on-ones or by yourself, but you still enjoy social
interaction.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
Yeah, the beauty, I think, of social media for me,
linkedin specifically is I canchoose when I get on and off.
So if it feels overwhelming orI'm not enjoying it or I'm tired
, or the content that day isjust boring and dry, I can just
log off.
I can do something else.
There's no obligation for me tostay on, whereas if I were to
(23:33):
go to a party it's kind of rudeif I leave early, right, like if
I'm there for 20 minutes andI'm like I'm actually going to
leave, I'm not, this isn't funfor me.
Then someone's probably going tobe offended, right?
So it's, you have much morecontrol over it.
But yeah, so if I so like, if Iwas either one-on-one or in a
small group and I'm comfortablewith you, you would see a
(23:55):
different version of me than ifI didn't know who you were and
we were in like a large group.
It would be almost like twototally different people.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
And that you know that about yourself too, so you
can play to those strengths.
So, like when, when you haveyour engagement time on LinkedIn
, do you find yourself needingto build in a break after that,
or decompressing?
Speaker 2 (24:16):
A little bit.
I'm usually on 7.45 am EasternTime and then I'm on pretty
consistently until probably 9.30or 10 Eastern Time, monday
through Friday.
That window is pretty set.
And then, yes, after.
So yeah, when that's over, I'mhere in my office.
Then I almost always get prettypretty set and then, yes, after
.
So yeah, when that's over, I'mhere in my office.
(24:37):
That I almost always.
You know, get up, go downstairs.
I usually let the dog out andif the weather's good enough,
like I'll go out in the yard andyou know throw the ball with
him or just, yeah, just takelike 10 or 15 minutes screen
free and maybe do some breathingexercises or just sit in
silence.
Speaker 1 (24:50):
Ooh what, what breathing exercises do you do?
That's cool.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
Yeah, so it's just a lot of deep breathing.
Some people call it boxbreathing.
Okay yeah, just differentbreathing patterns.
Just to break up, I'm a shamannaturally shallow breather which
I've just learned about myself,and so it's really just trying
to expand my lungs and my lungcapacity and just get more
oxygen in the blood, because Ithink most of us throughout the
(25:17):
day, right, you're just normalshallow breathing as you're
doing everything, so it's justpausing, it doesn't have to be a
lot of time, but it's justagain just trying to invigorate,
calm the nervous system and,you know, just kind of a little
bit more peace, like in yourhead and in your body.
So, yeah, so just a little, andI try to do that a little bit
throughout the day, so it's justnot, you know, nonstop just
sitting on the platform and Imean there's diminishing returns
(25:40):
, like anything.
If you stay on LinkedIn andjust engage and comment all day
like that's great but it won't,at some point it just stops
being effective and you have todo other you have to do other
things.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
So that is a great segue.
So I read this stat you grewyour audience by 548% in just 15
months.
That's really impressive andawesome.
Okay, so let's get maybe alittle bit into strategies and
systems and I'm curious if youcan share or are open to share.
(26:13):
What did you do to actuallyimplement it?
What did you do to make thathappen, and can you break it
down a little bit for anyonelooking to grow their audience?
Speaker 2 (26:30):
I think at first I didn't really know what I was
doing, other than just I wasbeing consistent.
So, like I said, it was twodays a week for that first month
and then three days a week, andI'm very process oriented, I'm
very detail oriented in terms ofI like things that repeat and I
like things that I can becomean expert at so that I can then
repeat them.
And what I didn't realize is,in those first three or four
months of content creation, Iwas creating a system that was
(26:53):
very easily repeatable for me,like I was doing the exact same
thing every day.
I was writing, I was writingposts the night before, posting
them, engaging for a certainamount of time.
I took a day off.
I did the same thing.
I took a day off and then itexpanded as I posted more, but
the process was the same.
It's a little off, and then itexpanded as I posted more, but
the process was the same.
It's a little bit different now, but and then engaging like
(27:16):
that, even the time that Imentioned again, it wasn't the
same when I was working fulltime, but that's 745 to kind of
939, 45.
I do it that way almost everyday, like it's almost exact,
like when I log on to log, loginto LinkedIn, like the way that
I do things are very systematic, like it's almost exactly the
(27:36):
same way and I don't thinkthat's super common, I think
that's just like how I do it.
Speaker 1 (27:39):
Yeah, and I'm so curious like what does that look
like for you?
Because here here I am in myhead like sometimes I, I like my
post goes up at 645 central,and then sometimes I'm post
posting while I'm getting mykids ready for bed and it's a
shit show, and then sometimes Ido it here and there.
But I can see how creating thatrepeatable system that's
(28:02):
realistic for you is superhelpful.
So we are David, we're loggingon in the morning.
What exactly does that looklike for you?
Yeah, so I log in.
First thing I do is look at inthe morning.
Speaker 2 (28:12):
What exactly does that look like for you?
Yeah, so I log in.
First thing I do is look atclear the notifications, see if
there's any notifications thatare either a comment that I made
on a post or somebody.
If there's a new comment onmine, then I'll go and respond
to those.
If there's any DMs, then I'llrespond to those.
Then I'll go to my homepage.
I'll check profile views or anynew followers, see if that's
(28:33):
changed.
I'll update metrics from what'shappened overnight and I'll
update my last few posts withimpressions and reactions and
then I usually then will checkthe.
I will have already written thepost for that day.
I'll usually pull that up andjust read it through one or two
more times just to make sureit's saying what I want it to
say, and then at that point Istart engaging.
(28:55):
So I have I created, I startedwith doing individual.
You can book people's activitylinks so you can just see all of
like one person's activities.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
But then people get-.
Speaker 2 (29:04):
You said, book people's activities, you can
bookmark, so like I can bookmarkyour activity and I can just
save that and then it would showme all of your posts, so it
would be like Colleen'sactivities, right?
So if you have a recent post,that would be on top, I could
see it.
So that's why I did it for awhile.
But then people kept pointingout that I could do these custom
searches, which was moreefficient, and they finally wore
(29:24):
me down and they were correct.
So now I have you can do savedLinkedIn searches by people.
So you can do a custom, you cancustomize your feed, basically,
so you can have up to 20creators in a search and then
you save that search.
So then you can just always pullup those 20 anytime you want
and if they've posted, you cando the last 24 hours or last
(29:46):
week.
I do the last week.
If they've posted in the lastweek, you'll see their content.
So I can go through in that7.45 to 8.30 before my post goes
live, because I posted 8.30Eastern time.
In that 45 minutes I cancomment a lot because I'm simply
clicking on the folder and justgoing through the saved people
and go and comment.
(30:07):
So I can knock out a lot ofpeople and then my post goes
live at 8.30.
And then I go right back intocommenting.
I usually let mine sit forabout 10 minutes, and especially
now because it's taking longerto start getting pumped out.
It used to happen prettyquickly, but just the way it
happens now it's a slowerprocess for people to start to
see it.
So I don't waste that time.
I go right back in and startcommenting and then, as comments
(30:28):
start coming in on my post, Irespond to those right away.
And then now these days myyoungest son he's 10, uh, fifth
grade his I start getting him.
I don't really have to get himready, but I just go down and
make sure that he's square anddidn't forget his ipad and his
earbuds and like all the stuff,and then and then I see him on
to the bus and then and then I'mback, so it's like a 15 minute
(30:51):
break.
Usually at that time I comeback.
There's been a few morecomments on mine.
I'll respond to those and thenit's just a.
It's a process of just engagingon others and come and
responding to comments on mineagain somewhere between nine, 30
and 10.
That's, that's how I do mostmornings every day.
Speaker 1 (31:08):
That's cool.
Thank you for sharing.
Okay, so the safe search ishuge.
I could see that as being areal time saver.
So you have just all thatlisted and I'm curious if we
could step into now like this isa piece of you know, career for
David.
But if you look at how being apodcast host and a creator like
(31:31):
has changed you personally, likewhat is there anything that
you've learned about yourself inthis process that you've gone
through?
Speaker 2 (31:38):
I'm a lot nicer and I have a lot more patience now.
Speaker 1 (31:41):
Really.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
Because I'm not miserable at work.
Speaker 1 (31:44):
Hmm, okay, wow so the whole.
Speaker 2 (31:48):
Like you know, you see a lot of posts about like
work-life balance and notbringing your work home, and
even when people were working inoffices and you know, leave it
at the office and when you comehome that doesn't happen.
If you had a terrible day atwork, I don't know too many
people that can just literallyturn that off and be like
totally different for the nextfive or so hours with their
(32:09):
families.
Like that's really difficult todo, yeah, and I was not very
good at it.
So I you know I would bemiserable at work and then I'd
come home and be miserable athome.
And it wasn't on purpose, Iwasn't trying to take it out on
them, but who?
Like they're the people thataround you.
So of course they're gonna,they're gonna hear it and face
it, but I don't.
So I don't really have thatanymore because, like I wake, up
with energy and excitement andwhat I, what I'm doing, feels
(32:31):
good, feels aligned, and so I'mjust generally happier.
I'm not in a bad mood thatoften and, yeah sure, I get
frustrated and I wish thingswere different in certain areas
and all that kind of stuff,because that's going to happen
no matter what you're doing.
But just my overall generalsense of feeling is
significantly higher, so it'sjust easier.
(32:51):
I'm just easier to get alongwith.
Speaker 1 (32:53):
That is fantastic, and the fact that you know, when
you and I met, you had talkedabout working with many
different career coaches andthings that you've learned about
yourself, and the fact thatyou've come to a point where you
found what lights you up andcontent and storytelling is
something you truly enjoy, andhow it's impacted both your
career and your life.
It's it's really awesome andit's a cool story to hear.
(33:16):
Um, okay, so like looking backat everything that you've
accomplished this past year,like what stands out as
something that you're reallyproud of.
Speaker 2 (33:28):
That's a good question.
I will answer it in one second.
So just a quick point aboutyour point there about the
career coaches.
This is not to knock careercoaches in any way, because I
love them and, like I said, Ihired three of them and worked
with four or five, because oneof the places I worked with had
several.
I made the mistake with careercoaches, thinking they were just
going to solve the problem forme.
So I thought I will hire youand we will go through your
(33:51):
process and I'll take your testand then at some point you're
going to tell me you should dothis job right.
Speaker 1 (33:56):
You should do this and it's going to be perfect.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
Correct and that's going to be it Right, and that's
not true for any coaching,right?
No one is going to magicallysolve all of your problems.
That's not what they're thereto do.
They're there to help you andguide you and help you learn
about yourself.
Ultimately, it's up to you.
My point to that is none ofthose coaches ever said, no, we
think you'd be a great podcasthost and content creator.
(34:19):
That never came up.
That never, showed up on anytests.
That was never a conversationthat any of them ever had with
me.
So the point is that yousometimes just have to do you
can take all of that and it'sall great.
I'm not again.
I fully advocate for hiringpeople like that, but go into it
knowing that they're there tohelp you.
(34:40):
They're not there to solve yourproblem.
And they still might not tellyou the thing that you're
supposed to be doing, because Ikind of did it again out of
desperation and having a strangekind of white light type moment
, for whatever reason.
And then here we are.
So if that hadn't happened, Iwould have.
I was working with a careercoach at the time that I started
(35:02):
posting.
If I hadn't started posting, wewould have gone the traditional
.
During that time we wereworking on identifying two or
three industries where wethought that I would be a fit
and then identifying roleswithin those companies.
And then I would have followedthe traditional trying to find
jobs and reaching out onLinkedIn to people that work
(35:22):
there and all the type of thingsyou do to try to get in.
I would have done that.
I mean, maybe it would haveworked, maybe we would have
found something Probably not.
Or it would have been okay orbetter than what I was doing.
Right, because that's usuallyhow I was judging it.
Is it a little bit better thanwhat I'm doing?
(35:48):
Awesome, yeah, so you have tothink about that Again.
I just did something.
I just did it and then ithappened to be right.
But I think, people, if you havesomething inside of you that
you've been thinking about doinglike.
I've been thinking about mylike unfulfilled potential, and
that I had all this potentialfor probably 10 or 15 years.
When I was stuck in the cubicle, I knew I was capable of more
than just showing up at nineo'clock and punching numbers and
spreadsheets and going home atfive.
That seemed very unfulfillingto me and I was like this seems
(36:10):
like I'm wasting whateverability I have, like my short
time on earth.
This doesn't seem to be a greatuse of it, but I never knew
what to do with it.
So I had these ideas, but Ididn't know how to put them into
action.
Well, ultimately, it was takingaction which happened to be
creating content.
But that could be.
That doesn't have to be for you.
It's whatever you're thinkinginside, like if you're, if you
(36:31):
have something that like keepscoming to you and you're like I
wish I could do this, or I wantto do this, or I think I would
be good at this, or I would liketo try this right.
If you're having any of thosekinds of thoughts, you just have
to do it, even if somebodytells you it's crazy or they're
like that'll never work oryou're not good enough, whatever
(36:52):
.
People are very quick to shutdown your dreams, right, like if
your kids come to you and sayyou want to be an astronaut, the
first things you're going tohear like, oh, you're too old,
you're not smart enough, it'stoo hard, you know how long it
takes, it's very expensive.
Like, sure, you want to do that.
You just get hit with all thisnegativity, right, and that's
just how we're, that's justsociety.
So my point is if you'rethinking about anything, just do
it Again.
(37:13):
But you might just want to doit, so you'll never know if you
don't try and you can thinkabout it forever and that will
get you nowhere.
Speaker 1 (37:22):
Anyway, that was the no and I, I love that one
because, also, you finallysuppressed that nagging in the
back of your head Like you canfinally like that.
There must've been a weightlike that, that feeling like I
have this potential, I want totry this thing.
So I assume it being like,really almost like a weight has
been lifted and even for someonehaving that itch of doing
(37:44):
something, even just doing it,will allow that, that lingering,
to just subside and that, thatweight, which is fascinating.
Okay.
So tip here, paying attentionto what your mind is drawn
towards in those peacefulmoments.
Wouldn't it be cool if thoughtslike listening to those?
That's cool.
Speaker 2 (38:05):
David, thank you.
I waited too long, so if you'rehearing this, don't wait as
long as I did Act sooner.
In terms of the accomplishment,I don't know that's hard to
pick just one.
I think A just sticking't knowthat's hard to pick just one.
I think A just sticking with it.
It's very hard.
Starting your own thing is muchmore difficult than anyone talks
(38:26):
about.
You see a lot of stuff onLinkedIn people making $10,000,
$20,000, $50,000 a month andrecurring revenue and all this
stuff and that's great.
That's not common, so they'rein the minority.
There aren't a lot of peoplethat are doing that.
So it's hard.
It's hard financially.
It's hard to sign clientsconsistently and you have up and
down months and it's not likewe talked about with the nine to
five, where you're getting thesame money every other week or
(38:47):
every month and you can count onit.
So it's a totally different.
It's different psychologically,it's different emotionally.
So just the fact that I'vestuck with it feels good.
But the podcast I think mostpodcasts stop after I think it's
10 episodes and I think lessthan I want to say, like less
than five percent ever make itto to episode 20 and typically
the reason is people.
Just it's hard to get people tolisten and so you're like, well
(39:09):
, nobody's listening and sowhat's the point?
And so they just stop.
So the fact that I'm stilldoing it I have, you know, many
more planned that feels feels anaccomplishment.
But then, meeting people I cameto Minnesota and met you and
Lindsay and a couple otherpeople.
I'd never been to that statebefore, I hadn't flown in like
six years.
So just doing stuff like that,I went to Toronto.
(39:32):
Yes, prior to that, I met fivepeople in Toronto for three days
.
I've never been to Canada.
To that, I met five people inToronto for three days.
I've never been to Canada.
So it's like the expansion.
This whole process for me hasjust been one big expansion on
all these different levels.
And so that was traveling andmeeting people who were literals
A year ago, less than 14 monthsago, you didn't even know I
(39:55):
existed, right?
No?
So the magic of of social mediagets a bad rap for a lot of
negative things, and rightfullyso.
But there's a lot of good andpositive too, and so this is
like the positive power ofsocial media and being able to
find and connect with people, um, and build relationships and
then meet in person like that'sI again.
(40:17):
I wouldn't have believed you ifsomeone had come to me again
like two years ago.
I'm like this is what.
This is the next two years ofyour life.
Like you're completely makingthis up.
There's no way that like any ofthat's gonna happen.
Like you're completely I don'tknow what you're talking about.
Speaker 1 (40:30):
Yeah but, you followed that spark, that spark,
and then one step in front ofthe other, in front of the other
, and then some Colleen andDavid met on LinkedIn and
started building a friendshipthrough the platform and DMs and
supported each other.
I can think of numerous DMsthroughout the past year where
we asked each other questionsand we supported each other.
(40:52):
And then you come and visited usand we had dinner and you met
Ed, and so, for everything, Ithink that you hit the nail on
the head and something that youknow for its good and bad
LinkedIn.
You can make a choice to reallyfocus on leveraging the
positives, customizing your feedlike you talked about, like
(41:15):
using the platform to work foryou and help support the life
that you want to live.
I'm really grateful that we metand got to be friends and I'm
super grateful for thisopportunity to interview you and
be my first podcast host and beable to highlight your story,
because you have really beenbeautifully authentic and
vulnerable about the things thatyou've gone through and the
(41:38):
challenges that you've faced andturns that ended up going
sideways, and I think that thatvoice and that story is really
important in the world of AIbecause we can really create
that bridge and know that.
You know you don't have all theanswers, even people on
LinkedIn that create impact likeyou do, and the results that
you did.
They're constantly facingchallenges, but you made the
(42:00):
choice, so.
Speaker 2 (42:01):
Yeah, no, I appreciate you saying that.
It's very kind of you.
Same way, I'm very gratefulthat our paths crossed and your
story also is just so authenticand real and your plane building
and now the sauna and just theclose knit family life that you
lead and it's a beautiful thingand I'm happy to be a very small
part of it.
So you coming on my show andthen being able to meet you and
(42:24):
now coming on and interviewingme is I'm super appreciative of
you and what you stand for.
Speaker 1 (42:29):
Awesome, Super cool.
Well, thank you, David.
Again, if you want to listen toDavid and my conversation, it's
back, I think number eight.
Speaker 2 (42:37):
Episode eight Yep I'll link that specific episode
and I'll link the folder.
If anybody's listening thatuses LinkedIn and wants to
create the custom search, I'llput that in the show notes and
then we'll put all of yourinformation in there as well,
and you write one of the bestnewsletters.
I don't read a lot ofnewsletters, but I usually read
yours, so if anybody's out therelooking for a good newsletter,
(43:00):
sign up for Colleen's, becauseit's one of the unique, unique
good ones.
Speaker 1 (43:02):
There's a lot of not good ones.
I appreciate that Awesome.
Well, thank you so much.
Look at the show notes for allthe awesome tips that David
shared.
Thank you, David.
Hope we get to talk again soon.
Speaker 2 (43:11):
Absolutely.
Thanks, Colleen Bye.
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