July 8, 2025 • 26 mins
We dive into the reality of using LinkedIn for lead generation and why audio content might be making a surprising comeback while video content becomes less effective for busy professionals.
• LinkedIn claims 80% of B2B leads originate there, but regional businesses may find better results on local platforms like Alignable
• AI-powered prospecting shows 30% higher conversion rates when properly implemented
• Video content gets higher engagement but requires significant time investment for both creators and viewers
• Audio-only content is experiencing a resurgence as people seek to reduce screen time
• Business forecasting parallels the recent tsunami prediction – preparation matters, but overreacting to hype wastes resources
• Consistency trumps production quality in podcasting – create 100 episodes before expecting significant results
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hello and welcome to the Trading Post podcast, where
we unlock the secrets ofbusiness to business trade, dive
into powerful networkingstrategies and share my exciting
journey of using a podcast tomarket my business instead of
relying on SEO.
I'm your host, trader Stu.
Hello everyone and welcome backto the Trading Post podcast
(00:28):
with your host, trader Stu.
This episode is sponsored bythe Michigan Renaissance
Festival and, of course, I'vegot to mention Metro Trading
Association and my in-personmeetup group that networks every
Thursday, first Thursday of themonth, called Networking with
Kids.
You'll find that on Eventbriteand Alignable and Meetup.
(00:49):
And, of course, be sure tocheck out the Michigan
Renaissance Festival this fallActually, it opens August 16th
and get your tickets and checkthat out if you haven't been.
Always a good time, always ablast, and I will have a
commercial for that here in themid-roll, so stay tuned for that
.
And what else do we got heregoing on?
(01:10):
Oh, I wanted to mention onemore thing.
I am playing beta testingwhatever.
I bought a microphone and thatis for interviewing.
My idea is to go out, to wantto go to networking events.
I'm at something probably everyweek, maybe twice a week, and I
just feel like it's a wastedopportunity to ask all these
(01:31):
entrepreneurs and businessowners and things like that,
just like maybe two, three quickquestions, you know, right
there at the networking event.
And so I'm actually testing themicrophone as we speak right
now and just seeing how itsounds, how it works, all that
good stuff.
So it sounds good in my headright now.
I've got the earphones on, butwe'll see how she produces here
(01:51):
once I get everything uploadedand edited and all that good
stuff.
But so far, so good.
I like it.
It's got the windbreak mic onit and it's actually for the DGI
microphone.
So if you guys are looking atdoing podcasting and you have a
dgi mic, that's all you need andget up and running.
You only need you need that.
(02:11):
That's actually kind ofexpensive for most people.
I think 300 bucks or two, Idon't know what they are.
I got the original, not the newone, they're probably 200 and
something you know for the doomlike.
Anyway, uh, let's get on withit.
This episode is.
I'm kind of correlating a coupleof different things here and
with hope, not hope and hype, Iguess hype, but I'm kind of I'm
(02:36):
going to be confessing to youguys real quick I'm a little bit
of a doomsdayer.
I mean I've been prepping sinceI lived in Florida, I'd have to
say so.
We're going back to 2000,.
Literally just 2000.
No dates after that 2000.
And hurricanes, you know, inFlorida I was down at the
(02:59):
Pensacola area and we got hit acouple of times with them.
So you know I always had MREsin the water, flashlights et
cetera and I just carried thatwith me and people thought I was
crazy in Michigan or whatever.
But you know what?
It doesn't matter, because mypreps turned into saving our
tails when I lost my job lastyear.
So you know what it worked out.
(03:21):
So, turning LinkedIn leadgeneration trends into real
world results, with a twist ofhope and hype and I'm talking
about hype with the tsunamis.
That's what I was getting atwith uh prepping, uh, the
tsunami and july 5th 2025.
At what was the time?
3 18 am japan time, so it waslike 4 18 our time, I think.
(03:45):
Pm july 4th.
There was supposed to be thatlady.
Uh predicted it.
I'll get into it later, but itdidn't happen.
Anyway, we're gonna talk aboutall that good stuff.
So the state of linkedin andlead generation I want to get
into that real quick because Ihave been striking out on this
LinkedIn game.
(04:06):
Man, I do the one post a day.
I like, I comment, I repost, Ipost.
You know I think I do get sometraffic on LinkedIn anyways with
the podcast here, because I geta spike in listeners when I
upload it to there.
So it does work for podcastingand I think that's my problem is
(04:29):
that for my, the main line ofbusiness that bread and butter
that feeds me and the kids inthe way is a Metro Trading
Association and it's just tooniched down.
I'm too regional for LinkedIn.
I think LinkedIn is great forbusinesses that are national,
maybe even international, butfor someone who's just trying to
drum up some business in likethe metro Detroit area, I think
(04:50):
it's an overshoot.
Which is why I think Alignabledoes so well for me, because
that is literally geared to belike a local social media
business to business.
Local social media business tobusiness.
(05:11):
I guess business to consumerthough I'm not sure how the
consumer thing would work.
I guess if I'm on there and Iget a cleaning service, I guess
I'm now a and it's for my home,I guess I'm a consumer.
But really, if you check outline of's, business to business
is what it's kind of geared for.
Anyway, this is saying thatLinkedIn is king for business to
business leads, with over 80%of B2B leads now originate from
(05:36):
LinkedIn, making it the singlemost powerful platform for
business networking and sales.
Like I said, I've tried it andI've also even tried the sales
navigator, and the salesnavigator thing didn't really
work for me.
I tried it for a month the freetrial.
I got no leads from it, notraffic, nothing more that I
(05:57):
didn't already get going fromthe you know free LinkedIn
version.
Anyway, maybe I didn't use itright, maybe I didn't put enough
time and effort into it, maybeI didn't commit to it enough, I
don't know, but I think thatsomething like that shouldn't be
so hands-on-y either.
I think it should be somewhatautomated set it up, do a couple
posts, do a couple emails.
(06:17):
I don't know.
Like I said, maybe I was justtoo niched down, but the average
b2b buyer does more than halfof their research online before
talking to a salesperson,meaning your linkedin presence
is your first impression.
What's funny is that I had alinkedin profile set up back for
(06:38):
my adt days and I really wish Ididn't delete that thing.
I probably could call them andbe like or message them.
No one answers the phoneanymore these days and say, hey,
I'd like to reinstate.
I had tons of people on there,man, but my other job I had
before I got back with MetroTrading is that I deleted
(06:59):
everything.
I even threw away my jacket forMetro Trading.
So I was like, oh, I'm going tobe here for the rest of my life
.
I don't need this, no more.
I don't need a linkedin profile, I'm not going to go nowhere,
my head, I'm not searching for ajob, I'm not trying to generate
leads, you know.
So goodbye, goodbye, got rid ofit.
Facebook dawn deleted that,deleted all my youtube videos,
my youtube channel.
I actually ticked somebody offone time because he lost some.
(07:22):
Something that I did for him,got paid for.
It was a video editing thingthat we did and I had it on my
channel and I deleted it, ofcourse, when the channel left
and I think I got it off thecomputer too, because it had
been years.
And he was like, hey, do youstill have that video you did
for me back at Cabbage PatchSaloon?
I said, no, man, like that wasthree years ago, dude.
He's what I'm supposed to donow, you know.
(07:43):
I'm like, well, I don't, Idon't know, it's not my problem
anymore.
You had the thumbnail and thenhe got back.
He just was too lazy to lookfor his thumb, not thumbnail,
thumb drive, my god, thumbnail.
And uh, he found his thumbdrive and all as well, but that
just goes to show that peopleare just would rather look for
the digital version rather thanthe physical format.
(08:06):
Anyway, so there's fivecutting-edge strategies for 2025
to look at for your leadgeneration.
That's intent-based prospectingusing AI to track behaviors
like content engagement.
Website visits.
Companies sees a 30% higherconversion rate.
(08:26):
So I'm going to confesssomething here.
Yes, I used AI today to buildthis script.
Yes, I did.
I went to, I tried doing my oldway of YouTube, where you go to
Google Analytics or no, googleTrends that's what it was Google
Trends and you can search foryour topic, right, and it shows
(08:46):
how many people there's like abreakout if it spikes.
There's a trending or ascendingor descending, whatever it's
called.
The unfortunate thing withpodcasts is that there is no one
search tool that you can findfor who's searching for what on
(09:08):
podcasts, right?
So today was a wild card for me.
I was just like you know what?
What's happening out there inthe world today.
There's supposed to be atsunami, there's AI issues going
on when the jobs are going away, world War III, right, what's
happening out there?
So I actually used Perplexity'sAI and I used that to say, hey,
(09:32):
what's going on out there,what's happening on Alignable
and LinkedIn and what are peopletalking about on Reddit and
whatever, right?
And it just generated thistopic for me to come up with, or
I didn't come up with it, hey,I did, and just to chat about
and I had it, I summarized itand all that good stuff, right.
So, and here I am uh, talkingin your ear about it because I'm
(09:53):
saving you the time from havingto do your own research.
And here you are, in the car orwhatever, listening to it.
So what else?
Optimized linkedin profiles,optimized LinkedIn profiles yes,
profiles of professional photosand clear headlines receive 21
times more views and nine timesmore connection requests.
Huh, I should really update myprofile photo, I think is I
(10:17):
don't know what it is, it's oldand the headline I don't know.
I'll look into it.
Like I said, kind of lost faithin LinkedIn.
But with that being said, again, you know, fourth wall break.
It's great for my podcast, forthis podcast, the Trading Post
(10:38):
gets traction on LinkedIn.
Honest to God, I get zero ontrying to find businesses that
would like to join metro tradingto.
You know, trade and barter, butyou know uh.
And then but here's a caveat sothe trading post podcast is
talking about, you know, b2bleads, uh, generation of leads,
(10:59):
whatever, networking, um, andhow to increase sales, which is
trade and barter.
And then, of course, I'mtalking to you about the pros
and cons, or whatever you wantto call it, the trials and
tribulations of using a podcastfor networking or for business
building.
Anyway, this was supposed to bea trending thing and no one's
(11:24):
doing it.
It's because it's like a lot oftime investment, right, using a
podcast to build a brand imageor whatever and to promote your
business is a lot, and so, yeah,so that's what we're doing
anyways.
Then what else we got?
Advanced LinkedIn tools salesnavigator users report a 15%
higher win rate.
(11:45):
Lead generation forms boostlead capture efficiency by 50%
or more.
Again, I'm not going to eventalk about that.
This is just a statistic, but Idon't have anything good to say
about Sales Navigator.
So on we go To the fourth oneContent-driven engagement.
(12:05):
Sharing valuable posts,articles and especially video
content increases engagement andconversions by at least 50%.
So let's talk about video realquick, all right.
So podcasting is supposed to be.
I don't want to say it's thequick thing, quick, dirty way of
getting a message out there,but it's definitely far less
(12:30):
editing.
Maybe I'm over picky withlighting and cuts and camera
angles and transitions, but Itried doing the video podcasting
thing in my sauna.
I did the sauna studio and Iset up all the lights and the
audio equipment and all that andI just, I don't know, I didn't
get nothing out of it.
(12:51):
I didn't really see any.
I didn't like it.
I don't.
I prefer just audio only.
And, to be fair, anymore Ithink video is actually kind of
dying again.
I think we're on a trend ofgoing back in time to the radio
days.
My son has a Tony.
(13:12):
It's called a Tony.
It's a square box if you don'tknow what they are, and you get
these little figurines and youput these magnetic figurines on
top of the box and it tells youa story.
Or it tells you if it's aboutsea life.
It tells you all about octopusand sharks and how they hunt and
how they you know about sealife.
It tells you all about octopusand sharks and how they hunt and
how they.
You know, whatever it tells you.
All this stuff it's a story ofhow, of education.
(13:37):
There's even songs, there'swhatever.
There's Disney stuff there'syou can record your voice of,
like recording, like a tellingus, like a story.
So it's great for like peoplewho are on the road, you can
read your kids a bedtime storyand then they can hear it while
you're gone, you know, and thenplay it back.
(13:59):
Very cool, there's no video,it's just audio.
That's to help the kid to go tosleep.
Get off the screen time.
Everyone's getting away fromscreen time and I've mentioned
that before.
But when I am, I I follow this.
Like I said, I'm a doomsdayer,the prepper news guy in Canadian
prepper.
I'll, I'll do the share andcopy the link into perplexity
(14:24):
and I'll just say Cliff notes orSynopsis of, and then control V
, right Control, paste the link,hit enter and it takes an hour
and five minute long video whichis basically a podcast, cause
he's just sitting in front of amonitor or he's even in his car
with a video, like a camera onthe dash and he's reading his
(14:47):
script and and it's an hour longor whatever, or more or less,
just whatever.
But I can read his entire spielCliffsNote version summarized
up for me within, you know,several paragraphs.
Or I can even have it bulletpointed.
I'll just I'll say okay, great.
If it's a long like transcript,I'll say convert, great.
(15:08):
If it's a long transcript, I'llsay convert into bullet points,
done and it's gone.
I don't listen, I don't wastehours.
I did this morning, to be fair.
Yes, dude, this weekend was sohot I tried putting up a bat
house and I sweat my butt off,dude, so I had nothing left in
me, no juice this morning.
But usually I'll just read acouple of YouTube videos I'm
(15:31):
into and perplexity and I'll goout in the garage or tinker or
do whatever I need to startworking out, but whatever, it
saves me a ton of time as I'mgetting at.
So we're going back to readingand audio and like radio days.
I won't be surprised if theymodernize like the family radio.
How cool would that be?
(15:52):
Remember the old school tuberadios?
They were like a piece offurniture made out of like
carved wood with a that onespeaker on it and the dials.
I can totally see themconverting something like that
into like you know, you can puttony's on it, or they get
satellite radio am fm I thinkam's gone.
(16:13):
Who listens to am anywhere?
My grandpa did listen tobaseball games and that wasn't
always annoying, always thisfeedback and the static was just
always terrible, or I don'tknow whatever.
Cbs right hf maybe, I don'tknow.
But I think we're getting to thepoint in time to where video is
now too slow for us to keep ourattention spans, so it takes
(16:37):
too long.
It's a long, drawn-out processto tell a story and anymore all
the videos are on YouTube isjust telling a story, or they're
reading a script, or it's an AIreading a script.
I can read whatever you'retalking about in a minute for
your hour, right?
So I'm sticking with podcasting.
(16:59):
I'm only going to do audio only.
I'm not going to worry aboutthese people on LinkedIn that
are trying to get me into.
Hey, why don't you advertiseyour podcast with video TikToks?
Because, man for one, you wantto charge me money for it.
It's kind of like gold I like inpodcasting and social media and
trying to get social mediawealthy off of chasing gold.
(17:22):
Remember the Wow Wow West waslike come on up toifornia, it's
a gold rush and you'll, you'll,you'll strike it rich and you'll
make millions, right, peoplewent by the droves and, like you
never hear, I don't know whogot all the gold, but I do know
who got rich off of the peoplegetting the gold, and those were
(17:42):
the people selling the shovelsand pickaxes, right, or the
camping gear, or the tents andthe food and whatever right.
They're the ones who made themoney, not the fools out there
trying to make it rich.
Not saying they're fools, butfool's gold, you know, because a
fraction of one percent Foundenough gold to make it worth
(18:03):
their while and pay the bills.
Anyway, what else we got?
Ai-powered personalization isthe number five, so let me turn
the page here.
Like I said, I'm literally justprinted this out, and so AI
tailors the messaging andcontent, making outreach more
relevant and boosting engagement.
(18:24):
All right, the rise of videoand on-the-go interviews.
Video content, especially liveand short form, dominates
engagement.
On LinkedIn, live video gets 24times more engagement than
static posts.
Well, yeah, because people, itcatches your eye and if it looks
(18:46):
like a funny thing thing,you're gonna click on it.
See, this is what I want to doright here, user DGI Mike, to
capture authentic, in the momentinterviews at networking events
.
Yeah, adding human touch, ofcourse.
That's what I'm saying thereality versus projections,
learning from missed tsunamis,the powers and pitfalls of
(19:09):
business forecasts.
Every business makesprojections sales, growth,
market trends but reality oftendiverges, sometimes dramatically
.
Compare your plan to actualresults is essential.
It reveals what's working andwhat's not and where to pivot.
Reviews what's working andwhat's not and where to pivot.
So like, for example, I know abike shop owner.
(19:31):
They thought they were going toget a lot of sales but ended up
making more revenue by sellingfewer units at a higher price.
So you know it's easier to havea better bike and sell less for
more than it is to sell morebikes for less.
So the hopeful trends and hypecycles In business we often
(19:57):
chase the next big thing.
So there's AI, new platforms,viral trends, sometimes with
tsunami level expectations.
But just like the much hypedjuly 5th tsunami prediction by
baba vinga, which is a riotatutsuki I can't pronounce her
name, but that didn't happen andnot every forecasted event or
trend materializes.
(20:18):
I think I have a big lead up toit 1047 tremors this week alone
in japan, you know, and I waseven kind of smart.
I was like how many do theyaverage anyways?
Like 1,000 is a lot.
What's the average?
I was like 20.
So, okay, they were way higher,but how often do they go above
trend?
I don't know.
I think I'm so exhausted withjust news anymore.
(20:43):
I actually tried deletingYouTube.
I had it off my phone for, Ithink, a whole day.
Then I spent three and a halfhours in the Xfinity store
trying to upgrade our phones andI had a toddler with us and
guess what?
I had to get back on my phoneto keep busy while I talked to
business, because I could notkeep this kid, you know, quiet
(21:03):
enough to play with his cars andnot make siren noises while I'm
trying to over-talk him to theguy at Xfinity.
Anyway, you try, you do, youcome back.
I'll delete it again, I'm sure.
So the lesson is use hopefultrends and inspirations, but
always ground your strategy anddata and adaptability.
(21:23):
So the July 5th tsunami thatwasn't.
And here's what it taught us, Ithink.
And so in 2025, the artistpredicted mega tsunami for July
5th and that sparked a lot ofanxiety.
People actually canceled theirtrips to Japan.
The tourism took a huge hitfrom.
(21:44):
So, from what they were sayinganyways, social media buzzed,
but the disaster never occurred.
And a reminder that allpredictions come true.
And, if you don't know, shepredicted, I guess, supposedly
9-11 and Princess Diana's deathand what else?
Covid, a couple other things,but it's easy to say they
(22:07):
predicted something after thefact, right?
So here's the parallel.
Just as a business must, uh,prepare for worst case scenarios
, they already got prepared forthe non-event.
That doesn't happen when thebig prediction doesn't arrive.
And you hear about that all thetime, right?
Oh, we're expecting this hugebig christmas rush and they
order all this supply, all thestock that's non-retable,
(22:28):
non-refundable for the store tosell and the rush never happens.
Now they're stuck with 10,000units of whatever they didn't
sell.
That actually happened.
With what was that?
I wanted to get that mobilesmoker from Master Grill or
whatever they are, and you canbuy it lowest head them on sale
for like, I think, a hundredbucks and they're like a four
(22:51):
dollar unit anyway.
So overacting to hype can wasteresources, ignoring real trends,
and leave you behind.
Plan, monitor and adapt as thekey balance for that one.
So real-world voices atnetworking events and interviews
I have experienced.
So, yeah, you know what?
(23:12):
I just kind of browsed this one.
I don't really like it.
I'm not going to talk about it.
It's just talking aboutnetworking event interviews,
which, basically, if you want todo interviews, try and do it.
Go to networking events, talkabout things with everybody, or
just actually go to the businessand check them out.
And if you're doing b2b anywayor whatever, so there's that too
(23:35):
.
All right, so what instant?
In summary, so ai poweredprospecting, the impact is
usually 30 higher.
Uh, real world outcome is.
Outcome depends on theexecution.
But the lesson is use AI, butmeasure and adjust.
I'm using AI.
I don't use it for everything,but I do like it.
I think it saves me a ton oftime, it saves me from the
(23:57):
overwhelm and at least it givesme some predictors of or not
predictors, but like what topicsI could use and then adjust
from there.
Right, so that's it.
I mean, everything's meant tobe tried and true, or try that,
try it in trial and error.
So I would say just try, try itout, and while you're either
(24:18):
young in life or young in thegame I mean I'm still under you
know the hundred.
Uh, podcast upload thing.
I'm still young.
What was his name?
Jimmy?
Mr beast said you know, peoplewant to be YouTube famous.
He tells them tell you what?
Why don't you record a hundredepisodes first?
Then come talk to me, thenwe'll.
(24:40):
We'll see what we'll get a gameplan, because if you can't do a
hundred episodes, episodes justbecause you want to.
He was into it, he didn't care,he loved YouTubing way before.
He made all the money.
And people won't do it.
He says he never hears back,they never get to 100.
You know how many is 100?
It's a lot.
I'm already past all theYouTube videos I think I've ever
(25:05):
uploaded with the podcast here.
So you know, youtubing is hard.
It's a racket dude.
You got to have a team editors,sound video editing, whatever.
It's all tough man.
It takes forever.
It's a time hack from your life.
So do it while you're in highschool and you got nothing else
to do.
Maybe I don't know I did, but Ipartied too much so I was still
(25:25):
distracted.
So at any rate, that's it fornow.
Whatever you do out there,y'all be good or be good at it
Until next time.
Hello and welcome to the Trading Post podcast, where
we unlock the secrets ofbusiness to business trade, dive
into powerful networkingstrategies and share my exciting
journey of using a podcast tomarket my business instead of
relying on SEO.
I'm your host, trader Stu.
Hello everyone and welcome backto the Trading Post podcast
(00:28):
with your host, trader Stu.
This episode is sponsored bythe Michigan Renaissance
Festival and, of course, I'vegot to mention Metro Trading
Association and my in-personmeetup group that networks every
Thursday, first Thursday of themonth, called Networking with
Kids.
You'll find that on Eventbriteand Alignable and Meetup.
(00:49):
And, of course, be sure tocheck out the Michigan
Renaissance Festival this fallActually, it opens August 16th
and get your tickets and checkthat out if you haven't been.
Always a good time, always ablast, and I will have a
commercial for that here in themid-roll, so stay tuned for that
.
And what else do we got heregoing on?
(01:10):
Oh, I wanted to mention onemore thing.
I am playing beta testingwhatever.
I bought a microphone and thatis for interviewing.
My idea is to go out, to wantto go to networking events.
I'm at something probably everyweek, maybe twice a week, and I
just feel like it's a wastedopportunity to ask all these
(01:31):
entrepreneurs and businessowners and things like that,
just like maybe two, three quickquestions, you know, right
there at the networking event.
And so I'm actually testing themicrophone as we speak right
now and just seeing how itsounds, how it works, all that
good stuff.
So it sounds good in my headright now.
I've got the earphones on, butwe'll see how she produces here
(01:51):
once I get everything uploadedand edited and all that good
stuff.
But so far, so good.
I like it.
It's got the windbreak mic onit and it's actually for the DGI
microphone.
So if you guys are looking atdoing podcasting and you have a
dgi mic, that's all you need andget up and running.
You only need you need that.
(02:11):
That's actually kind ofexpensive for most people.
I think 300 bucks or two, Idon't know what they are.
I got the original, not the newone, they're probably 200 and
something you know for the doomlike.
Anyway, uh, let's get on withit.
This episode is.
I'm kind of correlating a coupleof different things here and
with hope, not hope and hype, Iguess hype, but I'm kind of I'm
(02:36):
going to be confessing to youguys real quick I'm a little bit
of a doomsdayer.
I mean I've been prepping sinceI lived in Florida, I'd have to
say so.
We're going back to 2000,.
Literally just 2000.
No dates after that 2000.
And hurricanes, you know, inFlorida I was down at the
(02:59):
Pensacola area and we got hit acouple of times with them.
So you know I always had MREsin the water, flashlights et
cetera and I just carried thatwith me and people thought I was
crazy in Michigan or whatever.
But you know what?
It doesn't matter, because mypreps turned into saving our
tails when I lost my job lastyear.
So you know what it worked out.
(03:21):
So, turning LinkedIn leadgeneration trends into real
world results, with a twist ofhope and hype and I'm talking
about hype with the tsunamis.
That's what I was getting atwith uh prepping, uh, the
tsunami and july 5th 2025.
At what was the time?
3 18 am japan time, so it waslike 4 18 our time, I think.
(03:45):
Pm july 4th.
There was supposed to be thatlady.
Uh predicted it.
I'll get into it later, but itdidn't happen.
Anyway, we're gonna talk aboutall that good stuff.
So the state of linkedin andlead generation I want to get
into that real quick because Ihave been striking out on this
LinkedIn game.
(04:06):
Man, I do the one post a day.
I like, I comment, I repost, Ipost.
You know I think I do get sometraffic on LinkedIn anyways with
the podcast here, because I geta spike in listeners when I
upload it to there.
So it does work for podcastingand I think that's my problem is
(04:29):
that for my, the main line ofbusiness that bread and butter
that feeds me and the kids inthe way is a Metro Trading
Association and it's just tooniched down.
I'm too regional for LinkedIn.
I think LinkedIn is great forbusinesses that are national,
maybe even international, butfor someone who's just trying to
drum up some business in likethe metro Detroit area, I think
(04:50):
it's an overshoot.
Which is why I think Alignabledoes so well for me, because
that is literally geared to belike a local social media
business to business.
Local social media business tobusiness.
(05:11):
I guess business to consumerthough I'm not sure how the
consumer thing would work.
I guess if I'm on there and Iget a cleaning service, I guess
I'm now a and it's for my home,I guess I'm a consumer.
But really, if you check outline of's, business to business
is what it's kind of geared for.
Anyway, this is saying thatLinkedIn is king for business to
business leads, with over 80%of B2B leads now originate from
(05:36):
LinkedIn, making it the singlemost powerful platform for
business networking and sales.
Like I said, I've tried it andI've also even tried the sales
navigator, and the salesnavigator thing didn't really
work for me.
I tried it for a month the freetrial.
I got no leads from it, notraffic, nothing more that I
(05:57):
didn't already get going fromthe you know free LinkedIn
version.
Anyway, maybe I didn't use itright, maybe I didn't put enough
time and effort into it, maybeI didn't commit to it enough, I
don't know, but I think thatsomething like that shouldn't be
so hands-on-y either.
I think it should be somewhatautomated set it up, do a couple
posts, do a couple emails.
(06:17):
I don't know.
Like I said, maybe I was justtoo niched down, but the average
b2b buyer does more than halfof their research online before
talking to a salesperson,meaning your linkedin presence
is your first impression.
What's funny is that I had alinkedin profile set up back for
(06:38):
my adt days and I really wish Ididn't delete that thing.
I probably could call them andbe like or message them.
No one answers the phoneanymore these days and say, hey,
I'd like to reinstate.
I had tons of people on there,man, but my other job I had
before I got back with MetroTrading is that I deleted
(06:59):
everything.
I even threw away my jacket forMetro Trading.
So I was like, oh, I'm going tobe here for the rest of my life
.
I don't need this, no more.
I don't need a linkedin profile, I'm not going to go nowhere,
my head, I'm not searching for ajob, I'm not trying to generate
leads, you know.
So goodbye, goodbye, got rid ofit.
Facebook dawn deleted that,deleted all my youtube videos,
my youtube channel.
I actually ticked somebody offone time because he lost some.
(07:22):
Something that I did for him,got paid for.
It was a video editing thingthat we did and I had it on my
channel and I deleted it, ofcourse, when the channel left
and I think I got it off thecomputer too, because it had
been years.
And he was like, hey, do youstill have that video you did
for me back at Cabbage PatchSaloon?
I said, no, man, like that wasthree years ago, dude.
He's what I'm supposed to donow, you know.
(07:43):
I'm like, well, I don't, Idon't know, it's not my problem
anymore.
You had the thumbnail and thenhe got back.
He just was too lazy to lookfor his thumb, not thumbnail,
thumb drive, my god, thumbnail.
And uh, he found his thumbdrive and all as well, but that
just goes to show that peopleare just would rather look for
the digital version rather thanthe physical format.
(08:06):
Anyway, so there's fivecutting-edge strategies for 2025
to look at for your leadgeneration.
That's intent-based prospectingusing AI to track behaviors
like content engagement.
Website visits.
Companies sees a 30% higherconversion rate.
(08:26):
So I'm going to confesssomething here.
Yes, I used AI today to buildthis script.
Yes, I did.
I went to, I tried doing my oldway of YouTube, where you go to
Google Analytics or no, googleTrends that's what it was Google
Trends and you can search foryour topic, right, and it shows
(08:46):
how many people there's like abreakout if it spikes.
There's a trending or ascendingor descending, whatever it's
called.
The unfortunate thing withpodcasts is that there is no one
search tool that you can findfor who's searching for what on
(09:08):
podcasts, right?
So today was a wild card for me.
I was just like you know what?
What's happening out there inthe world today.
There's supposed to be atsunami, there's AI issues going
on when the jobs are going away, world War III, right, what's
happening out there?
So I actually used Perplexity'sAI and I used that to say, hey,
(09:32):
what's going on out there,what's happening on Alignable
and LinkedIn and what are peopletalking about on Reddit and
whatever, right?
And it just generated thistopic for me to come up with, or
I didn't come up with it, hey,I did, and just to chat about
and I had it, I summarized itand all that good stuff, right.
So, and here I am uh, talkingin your ear about it because I'm
(09:53):
saving you the time from havingto do your own research.
And here you are, in the car orwhatever, listening to it.
So what else?
Optimized linkedin profiles,optimized LinkedIn profiles yes,
profiles of professional photosand clear headlines receive 21
times more views and nine timesmore connection requests.
Huh, I should really update myprofile photo, I think is I
(10:17):
don't know what it is, it's oldand the headline I don't know.
I'll look into it.
Like I said, kind of lost faithin LinkedIn.
But with that being said, again, you know, fourth wall break.
It's great for my podcast, forthis podcast, the Trading Post
(10:38):
gets traction on LinkedIn.
Honest to God, I get zero ontrying to find businesses that
would like to join metro tradingto.
You know, trade and barter, butyou know uh.
And then but here's a caveat sothe trading post podcast is
talking about, you know, b2bleads, uh, generation of leads,
(10:59):
whatever, networking, um, andhow to increase sales, which is
trade and barter.
And then, of course, I'mtalking to you about the pros
and cons, or whatever you wantto call it, the trials and
tribulations of using a podcastfor networking or for business
building.
Anyway, this was supposed to bea trending thing and no one's
(11:24):
doing it.
It's because it's like a lot oftime investment, right, using a
podcast to build a brand imageor whatever and to promote your
business is a lot, and so, yeah,so that's what we're doing
anyways.
Then what else we got?
Advanced LinkedIn tools salesnavigator users report a 15%
higher win rate.
(11:45):
Lead generation forms boostlead capture efficiency by 50%
or more.
Again, I'm not going to eventalk about that.
This is just a statistic, but Idon't have anything good to say
about Sales Navigator.
So on we go To the fourth oneContent-driven engagement.
(12:05):
Sharing valuable posts,articles and especially video
content increases engagement andconversions by at least 50%.
So let's talk about video realquick, all right.
So podcasting is supposed to be.
I don't want to say it's thequick thing, quick, dirty way of
getting a message out there,but it's definitely far less
(12:30):
editing.
Maybe I'm over picky withlighting and cuts and camera
angles and transitions, but Itried doing the video podcasting
thing in my sauna.
I did the sauna studio and Iset up all the lights and the
audio equipment and all that andI just, I don't know, I didn't
get nothing out of it.
(12:51):
I didn't really see any.
I didn't like it.
I don't.
I prefer just audio only.
And, to be fair, anymore Ithink video is actually kind of
dying again.
I think we're on a trend ofgoing back in time to the radio
days.
My son has a Tony.
(13:12):
It's called a Tony.
It's a square box if you don'tknow what they are, and you get
these little figurines and youput these magnetic figurines on
top of the box and it tells youa story.
Or it tells you if it's aboutsea life.
It tells you all about octopusand sharks and how they hunt and
how they you know about sealife.
It tells you all about octopusand sharks and how they hunt and
how they.
You know, whatever it tells you.
All this stuff it's a story ofhow, of education.
(13:37):
There's even songs, there'swhatever.
There's Disney stuff there'syou can record your voice of,
like recording, like a tellingus, like a story.
So it's great for like peoplewho are on the road, you can
read your kids a bedtime storyand then they can hear it while
you're gone, you know, and thenplay it back.
(13:59):
Very cool, there's no video,it's just audio.
That's to help the kid to go tosleep.
Get off the screen time.
Everyone's getting away fromscreen time and I've mentioned
that before.
But when I am, I I follow this.
Like I said, I'm a doomsdayer,the prepper news guy in Canadian
prepper.
I'll, I'll do the share andcopy the link into perplexity
(14:24):
and I'll just say Cliff notes orSynopsis of, and then control V
, right Control, paste the link,hit enter and it takes an hour
and five minute long video whichis basically a podcast, cause
he's just sitting in front of amonitor or he's even in his car
with a video, like a camera onthe dash and he's reading his
(14:47):
script and and it's an hour longor whatever, or more or less,
just whatever.
But I can read his entire spielCliffsNote version summarized
up for me within, you know,several paragraphs.
Or I can even have it bulletpointed.
I'll just I'll say okay, great.
If it's a long like transcript,I'll say convert, great.
(15:08):
If it's a long transcript, I'llsay convert into bullet points,
done and it's gone.
I don't listen, I don't wastehours.
I did this morning, to be fair.
Yes, dude, this weekend was sohot I tried putting up a bat
house and I sweat my butt off,dude, so I had nothing left in
me, no juice this morning.
But usually I'll just read acouple of YouTube videos I'm
(15:31):
into and perplexity and I'll goout in the garage or tinker or
do whatever I need to startworking out, but whatever, it
saves me a ton of time as I'mgetting at.
So we're going back to readingand audio and like radio days.
I won't be surprised if theymodernize like the family radio.
How cool would that be?
(15:52):
Remember the old school tuberadios?
They were like a piece offurniture made out of like
carved wood with a that onespeaker on it and the dials.
I can totally see themconverting something like that
into like you know, you can puttony's on it, or they get
satellite radio am fm I thinkam's gone.
(16:13):
Who listens to am anywhere?
My grandpa did listen tobaseball games and that wasn't
always annoying, always thisfeedback and the static was just
always terrible, or I don'tknow whatever.
Cbs right hf maybe, I don'tknow.
But I think we're getting to thepoint in time to where video is
now too slow for us to keep ourattention spans, so it takes
(16:37):
too long.
It's a long, drawn-out processto tell a story and anymore all
the videos are on YouTube isjust telling a story, or they're
reading a script, or it's an AIreading a script.
I can read whatever you'retalking about in a minute for
your hour, right?
So I'm sticking with podcasting.
(16:59):
I'm only going to do audio only.
I'm not going to worry aboutthese people on LinkedIn that
are trying to get me into.
Hey, why don't you advertiseyour podcast with video TikToks?
Because, man for one, you wantto charge me money for it.
It's kind of like gold I like inpodcasting and social media and
trying to get social mediawealthy off of chasing gold.
(17:22):
Remember the Wow Wow West waslike come on up toifornia, it's
a gold rush and you'll, you'll,you'll strike it rich and you'll
make millions, right, peoplewent by the droves and, like you
never hear, I don't know whogot all the gold, but I do know
who got rich off of the peoplegetting the gold, and those were
(17:42):
the people selling the shovelsand pickaxes, right, or the
camping gear, or the tents andthe food and whatever right.
They're the ones who made themoney, not the fools out there
trying to make it rich.
Not saying they're fools, butfool's gold, you know, because a
fraction of one percent Foundenough gold to make it worth
(18:03):
their while and pay the bills.
Anyway, what else we got?
Ai-powered personalization isthe number five, so let me turn
the page here.
Like I said, I'm literally justprinted this out, and so AI
tailors the messaging andcontent, making outreach more
relevant and boosting engagement.
(18:24):
All right, the rise of videoand on-the-go interviews.
Video content, especially liveand short form, dominates
engagement.
On LinkedIn, live video gets 24times more engagement than
static posts.
Well, yeah, because people, itcatches your eye and if it looks
(18:46):
like a funny thing thing,you're gonna click on it.
See, this is what I want to doright here, user DGI Mike, to
capture authentic, in the momentinterviews at networking events
.
Yeah, adding human touch, ofcourse.
That's what I'm saying thereality versus projections,
learning from missed tsunamis,the powers and pitfalls of
(19:09):
business forecasts.
Every business makesprojections sales, growth,
market trends but reality oftendiverges, sometimes dramatically
.
Compare your plan to actualresults is essential.
It reveals what's working andwhat's not and where to pivot.
Reviews what's working andwhat's not and where to pivot.
So like, for example, I know abike shop owner.
(19:31):
They thought they were going toget a lot of sales but ended up
making more revenue by sellingfewer units at a higher price.
So you know it's easier to havea better bike and sell less for
more than it is to sell morebikes for less.
So the hopeful trends and hypecycles In business we often
(19:57):
chase the next big thing.
So there's AI, new platforms,viral trends, sometimes with
tsunami level expectations.
But just like the much hypedjuly 5th tsunami prediction by
baba vinga, which is a riotatutsuki I can't pronounce her
name, but that didn't happen andnot every forecasted event or
trend materializes.
(20:18):
I think I have a big lead up toit 1047 tremors this week alone
in japan, you know, and I waseven kind of smart.
I was like how many do theyaverage anyways?
Like 1,000 is a lot.
What's the average?
I was like 20.
So, okay, they were way higher,but how often do they go above
trend?
I don't know.
I think I'm so exhausted withjust news anymore.
(20:43):
I actually tried deletingYouTube.
I had it off my phone for, Ithink, a whole day.
Then I spent three and a halfhours in the Xfinity store
trying to upgrade our phones andI had a toddler with us and
guess what?
I had to get back on my phoneto keep busy while I talked to
business, because I could notkeep this kid, you know, quiet
(21:03):
enough to play with his cars andnot make siren noises while I'm
trying to over-talk him to theguy at Xfinity.
Anyway, you try, you do, youcome back.
I'll delete it again, I'm sure.
So the lesson is use hopefultrends and inspirations, but
always ground your strategy anddata and adaptability.
(21:23):
So the July 5th tsunami thatwasn't.
And here's what it taught us, Ithink.
And so in 2025, the artistpredicted mega tsunami for July
5th and that sparked a lot ofanxiety.
People actually canceled theirtrips to Japan.
The tourism took a huge hitfrom.
(21:44):
So, from what they were sayinganyways, social media buzzed,
but the disaster never occurred.
And a reminder that allpredictions come true.
And, if you don't know, shepredicted, I guess, supposedly
9-11 and Princess Diana's deathand what else?
Covid, a couple other things,but it's easy to say they
(22:07):
predicted something after thefact, right?
So here's the parallel.
Just as a business must, uh,prepare for worst case scenarios
, they already got prepared forthe non-event.
That doesn't happen when thebig prediction doesn't arrive.
And you hear about that all thetime, right?
Oh, we're expecting this hugebig christmas rush and they
order all this supply, all thestock that's non-retable,
(22:28):
non-refundable for the store tosell and the rush never happens.
Now they're stuck with 10,000units of whatever they didn't
sell.
That actually happened.
With what was that?
I wanted to get that mobilesmoker from Master Grill or
whatever they are, and you canbuy it lowest head them on sale
for like, I think, a hundredbucks and they're like a four
(22:51):
dollar unit anyway.
So overacting to hype can wasteresources, ignoring real trends,
and leave you behind.
Plan, monitor and adapt as thekey balance for that one.
So real-world voices atnetworking events and interviews
I have experienced.
So, yeah, you know what?
(23:12):
I just kind of browsed this one.
I don't really like it.
I'm not going to talk about it.
It's just talking aboutnetworking event interviews,
which, basically, if you want todo interviews, try and do it.
Go to networking events, talkabout things with everybody, or
just actually go to the businessand check them out.
And if you're doing b2b anywayor whatever, so there's that too
(23:35):
.
All right, so what instant?
In summary, so ai poweredprospecting, the impact is
usually 30 higher.
Uh, real world outcome is.
Outcome depends on theexecution.
But the lesson is use AI, butmeasure and adjust.
I'm using AI.
I don't use it for everything,but I do like it.
I think it saves me a ton oftime, it saves me from the
(23:57):
overwhelm and at least it givesme some predictors of or not
predictors, but like what topicsI could use and then adjust
from there.
Right, so that's it.
I mean, everything's meant tobe tried and true, or try that,
try it in trial and error.
So I would say just try, try itout, and while you're either
(24:18):
young in life or young in thegame I mean I'm still under you
know the hundred.
Uh, podcast upload thing.
I'm still young.
What was his name?
Jimmy?
Mr beast said you know, peoplewant to be YouTube famous.
He tells them tell you what?
Why don't you record a hundredepisodes first?
Then come talk to me, thenwe'll.
(24:40):
We'll see what we'll get a gameplan, because if you can't do a
hundred episodes, episodes justbecause you want to.
He was into it, he didn't care,he loved YouTubing way before.
He made all the money.
And people won't do it.
He says he never hears back,they never get to 100.
You know how many is 100?
It's a lot.
I'm already past all theYouTube videos I think I've ever
(25:05):
uploaded with the podcast here.
So you know, youtubing is hard.
It's a racket dude.
You got to have a team editors,sound video editing, whatever.
It's all tough man.
It takes forever.
It's a time hack from your life.
So do it while you're in highschool and you got nothing else
to do.
Maybe I don't know I did, but Ipartied too much so I was still
(25:25):
distracted.
So at any rate, that's it fornow.
Whatever you do out there,y'all be good or be good at it
Until next time.
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