hello hello welcome to today's session
of selling the couch I hope you're doing
awesome and having an incredible day so
just a heads up this will be the last
podcast episode for about a month I'm
going to take the next month uh just to
get ahead of podcast episodes and take
some rest and uh time to recharge and
all of those things but today's podcast
session is Guided by a question that I
get a lot recently which is Mel how in
the world do I optimize my LinkedIn
profile before we get too much into that
also just a heads up I've actually never
done this format before but if you're
listening to this podcast as an audio
podcast you're definitely going to get a
ton of value from it but it may actually
be more helpful to watch this on YouTube
so you can just find me um just SE
search for my name and the reason is
because I'm actually doing like an
overthe shoulder video as I'm recording
this so you'll actually see uh some of
the stuff that we're doing on our
LinkedIn profile and some of the lessons
that I've learned along the way but uh
you know this episode as I mentioned was
Guided by this question uh of colleagues
asking Mel I'm curious about LinkedIn
but I don't quite know how to get my
profile to be uh what it needs to be uh
I've been active on LinkedIn coming on
to 2 and 1/2 years now and uh I
literally started with um and I can even
as you're watching this on YouTube um
I'll share uh you know my stats but I
literally started with around 88
followers I think this is not actually
quite accurate I think it was quite L it
was more like 600 something followers
and uh over the span of the 2 and a half
years we've you know steadily grown as I
3,736 followers on LinkedIn um and over
that two just about 2 and A2 years uh
567,000 posts um in people engaging with
22234 so uh we've had some really good
growth and uh I am by no stretch of the
imagination and an expert on on LinkedIn
but uh I thought let me just share kind
of what uh has been helpful for us and
even as I created this episode or was
thinking through this episode I did two
things one is I didn't want it to be too
like heavily scripted because I wanted
to just kind of share things in the
moment uh the other thing is I wanted to
make this as Evergreen as possible so
I'm going to focus like less on quote
unquote like tactics that are working
now but more Timeless things that um
that I have found uh to be beneficial
uh when it comes to LinkedIn so um what
you're looking at right now is just my
own LinkedIn profile and um again you
can just look for my name and find me on
LinkedIn if um I'd love to you know
connect with you but the biggest piece
of advice that I would share with you on
LinkedIn uh or about LinkedIn is to see
your LinkedIn profile as a landing page
where folks who don't know about you can
learn about the products and services
that you offer so see it as a landing
page versus a sales page so um
practically what that means is you I you
know what I have found is ideally what
you want to use LinkedIn is to build
your email list and the content that you
create you want to provide value But
ultimately the intent is to take the uh
take the folks that resonate with your
message on LinkedIn to an email list
and underlying this is this concept of
rented versus owned real estate and so
uh I think as clinicians one of the
things we want to use these social media
platforms as a way to you know connect
with others and for them to know about
the good work that we're doing in the
world but ultimately we want to take
them into assets that we own uh IE and
email list uh that just makes it you
know that way you're not and the at the
whim of algorithms and a bunch of stuff
like that so okay so how uh how I think
about it let's like even start at the
very top so the very top likely the two
things that people will see is what we
have seen is they look at this Banner
image right here and then they look at
your profile picture sometimes it's the
other way around but usually what we
have found is you know Banner image to
profile picture um I actually had a
friend who's a graphic designer or
create this before that you can actually
if you're like hey I just want to get
started um you can go to canva and just
look um and do a quick search of
LinkedIn banners and there's a bunch of
templates that'll come up for you um
that you can just swap your content and
honestly that's like a a good place to
start so what I have found is um I as we
were designing this image what I wanted
to do is I wanted to give off uh A vibe
that I try to live in my life uh but
also communicate through STC which is I
to uh you know I try to be a friendly
and kind person so I wanted a a face a
picture that communicated that and then
um my uh the designer that we work with
Nashi uh and he you know was like why
don't you put like psychologist here so
people know who you are and so it's like
a very subtle thing um and the DME for
details which is basically uh references
this section right here so we were
trying to think of just like a a a
phrase or something that communicates
essentially what we do with STC which is
going from Clinical to online income and
specifically um my area is podcasting
and online course support for therapist
that's the stuff that I've lived and
breathed uh now over the past decade and
so uh what we did is just a very simple
text related to that we also included
some social proof so that might be
something to consider and think about so
if you've been featured in uh any sort
of Publications or anything like that I
think that can definitely uh give some
social proof as well and then the
graphics themselves what we really try
to focus on was you know something that
was catchy and so these aren't quite my
brand colors in terms of like STC being
you know it's usually kind of Reds and
oranges and yellows and Grays and stuff
like that but uh I thought it would be a
nice little contrast because so many
like it's just like a unique color combo
what we did here with kind of the more
you know pinks um and purples uh here as
well so uh that's kind of the banner
image and again you can create that in
canva so just go to canva and search
right here for uh LinkedIn Banner image
and then um you should have some really
nice templates um in fact that's what I
would recommend just starting with when
you're first on LinkedIn uh I'm a big
believer in this philosophy of get going
then get good then get smart and so um
in the first year with LinkedIn
particularly it's just all about getting
going um before you like optimize too
much here okay so the second thing I
just mentioned was uh some sort of a you
know a profile picture that I think um
can be extremely helpful and uh and what
this is like such a basic thing but have
an image of you that's actually smiling
uh because I just think people connect
with The Human Side especially now on
LinkedIn LinkedIn is definitely shifting
from a at least from me traditionally
the way that I thought about LinkedIn
was okay this is just a place where I
like post job resumés and job updates
and stuff like that but LinkedIn now is
its own social media platform and so you
want to have something that's kind of
human and approachable and in fact if
you kind of look very subtly I'm
literally wearing like a a hoodie with a
shirt um and I went back and forth about
whether that was like too casual
especially cuz I'm like have all these
images in my head like this is what a
psychologist should dress like all of
that kind of stuff but ultimately we uh
relied on something that was a little
bit more casual because again uh I just
thought like I wanted to be about
approachability now what you can also do
within canva is um and I'll just show
you this like if you go and let's just
say like you pop in like one of your
pictures okay so I'm just going to
actually pop in the picture that I used
okay so what you can do is you can go
and click on the picture and then you
can hit BG remover and you have to have
a preo uh premium account for uh of
canva to do this but it will take out
the background and does a really good
job of like taking out the background uh
for you so see how the background got
taken out and so you can do um all sorts
of stuff like that for your LinkedIn
image and then um you can also then go
in and uh add a another background image
that may be or background color that may
be more aligned with your brand colors
so that's definitely what I do smiling
face um remove the background
potentially add like a branded colored
one um there and and go from there okay
so those are the two uh first two things
and you know uh to focus on now here is
where I I feel like this is really kind
of the nitty-gritty so this little
section right here which you can edit
just by clicking here and you can change
your name up uh and I did a audio
pronunciation so you can actually record
how to sound out your name uh because a
lot of folks get varges and they
mispronounce it um and I thought the
other thing is just like from a human
connection perspective someone being
able to hear your voice in a format in a
medium that is primarily text based I
thought that could be a nice uh unique
way to stand out and so you can then
change your headline here um I've seen
formulas um you know a common one is you
know helping whoever ever your ideal
client is get you know whatever the
ideal result is by providing you know
and then insert you know coaching
services or through an online course or
you know and then ending without you
know without the overwhelm or something
like that right um that's like a common
one I try to uh just be a little bit
more uh a little bit different of a
format so um I did psychologist and
proud girl dad because you know I think
for me personally is obviously I have my
professional identity but my identity as
a dad and especially raising a daughter
that's extremely important to me and I
really wanted to connect also with
parents who understand or who are
navigating that tension of uh balancing
both career and parenting and so that's
kind of what I did and then I did this
little you know the little line and I I
just said podcaster and course creator
since 2015 and so that was kind of a
credibility thing for me and so I uh
wanted to just share like you know the
stuff that I'm sharing is not just
because I found out about this like you
know podcasting and course creation like
a couple of months ago and I'm just like
sharing um it's more that I've kind of
been living and breathing it for a while
and then what I did is um I even shared
a little bit more social proof as well
um and I included emojis so there's a
emojipedia uh that I you can pretty much
find any emoji that you need so I
literally copied and pasted some emojis
from there and so I just shared some of
my podcasting stats so we've had 1.8
million downloads we're a top .5% Global
podcast uh and then in my own course
242 uh plus students and uh and then
327,000 in course sales so and then I I
just said helping therapist launch
podcasts and courses um and then I put
this last little part sharing my journey
because again my goal with LinkedIn is
to connect and share helpful content um
and uh I just thought like U that would
be helpful and then uh what I also this
is you can fill in some of this other
stuff with education and all of that
stuff helps so whatever you put in here
um ends up showing um as logo here and
the other most important section is down
here which is your website and so
LinkedIn allows you to add uh a link at
the top of your profile that connects to
anything that you want so I I have done
just one website so we have our course
creator starter kit which is our 7-Day
email course to validate an online
course idea we have that here so it goes
directly to the page but I've also heard
and seen folks do something like a link
tree um which is basically a simple one
link but you get a whole bunch of stuff
that you can put like the podcast and
whatever like schedule a call with me um
I've gone back and forth on these but I
generally found like one single call to
uh versus like you know giving people
too many options but I've also heard
I've also seen folks do this on the Dre
so in short like I would experiment with
one um versus like doing like multiple
ones and see you know which one seems to
resonate for you and uh and for your
audience this is this section right here
will always be private to you um so it
just kind of tells you over the past 7
days how many people like how your posts
have done how often you've shown up in
search so we've had you know
3,282 views of our um content over the
past uh 7 days and we've had
428 profile views um over the past 7
days all right so again that'll be and
if you click the show all analytics
it'll you know show some more
interesting stuff like how your
impressions were um all of that stuff
and and then you can also click through
here and see of how things have done so
I you know I don't try to focus too much
on like seven days I try to always like
strap it out over many many months and
then you kind of see like it's been you
know pretty pretty stable so um I don't
get too wrapped up in the analytics um
because I've realized like trying to
play that game you're just it's it's
just asking for a lot of stress what I
try to do is just create helpful content
and what I'm actually trying to do is uh
the content that is most resonating for
folks so the ones that have the most
Impressions or even the most
clickthrough rates again we use a
scheduling software called Tapo um if
you'd like to support the STC blog um
you can go to selling theou docomo
that's an affiliate link but we use Tapo
to schedule out all of our posts the B
so basically I have like a que of posts
that have that are ready to go out the
other thing I like about Tapo is um they
you know theyve got some really nice
analytics so you can say for example
which post had the most engagement I
don't really focus to be honest on views
because that's I think a little too
algorithmically driven what I'm actually
trying to focus on is engagement
percentage so uh which you know which
posts are people really resonating with
and then what I personally do is I
create long form content from those
short fir posts because then that allows
to speak more on on that particular
topic but I also know it's a topic
that's resonating for people and for me
long form content is uh obviously the
podcast so that's another kind of side
strategy or things to think about is
using like posts that you create on here
to gather data and then creating longer
form content um in you know on on other
channels whether it's a blog post or
YouTube or a podcast or whatever it is
okay so now this is this brings us to
this about section there's been some
conversation of having this section
moved up further um and I don't know
like where they are with that but this
section is definitely an interesting
section in that it is a uh it's a
section that a lot of people will visit
and they will um they're going to want
to get to know you and and like hear uh
and just like hear more about your
journey the one of the most common
mistakes that I see on LinkedIn profiles
is they make this almost like a CV which
on LinkedIn there's definitely again a
shift from more academic and CV focused
to more St storytelling focused and so
personally for me I would tell it like a
story and so this is kind of what I run
uh you know I talked about my own
Journey you know getting license in 2012
as a psychologist working full-time
doing therapy testing and
supervision uh and then you know in 2015
ner and I ended up having to cancel 21
th uh FIFA service therapy clients and
we were saving up for the 20% down
payment on our home to avoid the PMI and
I talked about that then I talked about
our daughter being born and 2 months
premature and how that shifted my own
Journey about career and business and
what I wanted to prioritize and so that
story is basically captured here now
here's a little hack or a little tip
that you can do you can write um so
think about your ideal follower on
LinkedIn so ideally it should be
connected to the products and services
that you offer right and so uh speak to
them and ideally what I found beneficial
is again the level of self-disclosure
will always vary between clinician uh to
clinician so whatever feels the most
right and comfortable for you but you
know I found connecting your your what
your uh ideal profile visitor is share
is going to connect with to your own
story is like really beneficial so
personally what you can do is you can
write a you know what this is actually
what I did I wrote out a story and then
I plugged it into like I use Chad GPT
but you can use any of these llm models
but you can say like you know look at
this story Through The Eyes of a
seasoned copywriter and tweak it so that
it's more powerful and so that's kind of
what I did and I talked about the two
products or the you know services that
we offer and then uh what I did is I
ended up with again because I'm thinking
of LinkedIn as a landing page and I want
to give folks as many opport
opportunities to connect with me to join
our email list as possible and so at the
very end in the PS I basically did uh
two call to actions to our free
podcasting workshop and then to our free
course creator starter kit and so uh
again that takes our most interested
folks uh the folks that we've connected
with the folks that most resonate with
our message to an email list so that I'm
not like building an audience on
LinkedIn and then you know for some
reason I get you know banned from
LinkedIn or uh the algorithm changes in
our posts aren't doing as well I'm not
like riant on on that so okay which
basically brings us down here to our
featured section and so this is
basically a section where you can quote
unquote like pin SE pin post that you've
created uh any of that stuff so you can
actually if you just go here you can do
uh feature on top of my profile and so
you can actually add that into here and
so uh what personally I would do is I
would do at three is a good number but
all of them I think what I would think
is these are folks that are just getting
to know you and how can I connect with
them at a deeper level so again we have
our course creator starter kit here we
have our free webinar for our podcasting
Workshop here and then I have a link to
the STC podcast here Naf was awesome and
created this cool little Banner which
basically like you know kind of plays
the whole keeps that image going uh
across all three I don't know how to do
that yeah and that is definitely not
essential when you uh first you know get
on LinkedIn but it definitely gives them
more more Pro look if you're like hey
about I would say about a year and a
half to two years on LinkedIn this is
something I would start to do cuz I just
think it gives a we're again thinking of
it like a landing page it gives a A vibe
and so with each of these you can do
um so it's just like a simple called
action and so you can edit them here and
do like really simple um what I would do
is just like a sentence about like what
this is you know um just so that folks
can um folks can like most connect with
it I actually need to tweak this a
little bit cuz the you can see these two
lines are good but this is like a little
bit off so probably needs to add a
little bit more text here um to make it
resonate for folks so or make it make
these lines line up okay so which
basically then brings you to the
activity section so these are where
anytime you create a post on LinkedIn uh
do a video on LinkedIn or a carousel
post all of that stuff is going to be
featured here um I am constantly
experimenting with like how frequently
to post all of that kind of stuff um we
currently as I'm like recording this
um say one two three four about seven
times a week uh but when I first started
I posted like one or two times a week
I'm honestly just trying to find a
Cadence that's like sustainable for me
so I'm like constantly experimenting up
and down to see uh what resonates and so
uh what I generally the question really
you know folks always ask me is and this
was probably a whole other episode that
I'll uh make a note to create but in
terms of what type of post to create
broadly what I would do is um share
stories and personal experiences related
to the products and services that you
offer um again you want to be aware of
privacy and all of that kind of stuff uh
the second one is I would share uh like
expertise so like tips or strategies or
any of that and then the other third
type is promotional type content so uh
generally what we have found is
promoting an email uh often tends to do
better like a free Workshop tends to do
better than outright like selling a
product or service but I think it's
definitely something you can experiment
with uh speaking of which going back to
this feature section I've also heard
I've also seen folks like put um if
you're advertising for your therapy
services for example a link to your
scheduling link uh that's in your EHR um
that could be a really good call to
action here um could also be like a good
call to action right here at the very
top of your profile so to be completely
honest there's these two sections right
I I have not focused a lot on this and
to be honest this is one area that I do
need to focus on which is
recommendations so folks that I've
connected with and gotten to all
LinkedIn I can can give recommendations
to them and then I can um also get
recommendations the benefit of that is
like it's like social proof right so
particularly rely on colleagues uh that
you've connected with and build trust
with uh to give recommendations uh and
then projects I think this is still
something I'm experimenting with but if
you have case studies or again be super
aware of privacy but if you're like a
course creator or something like that
you have like case studies and stuff
like that that could be really
interesting um stuff to put here and
then the skills in education honestly I
just kind of filled it out but I haven't
quite done like a ton with it I don't
think those are as um as relevant as the
top section here the about section uh
the featured section obviously the
content that you create and then these
two sections the projects and the
recommendations so that's kind of a a
highlevel overview I'm hoping it was
actually more than high level I'm hoping
that it was really helpful for you um
but that's basically you know what I
would do to optimize a LinkedIn profile
again I try to make this as Timeless as
possible so for example LinkedIn
actually has a new feature where you can
do multiple Banner images so you can
almost like story tell through a banner
um I haven't really experimented with
that yet uh but I know like at least
having one Banner is better than you
know most of us may not be at this point
where we're trying to create like five
different banners so that's why I didn't
like quot include it in in this podcast
I hope you found this helpful and uh I
would love to connect with you here uh
on LinkedIn um and if you'd like to kind
of share or um see what I'm doing you
know feel free to again follow me on
LinkedIn uh within the SGC newsletter
which is over at selling theou docomo
it's our Weekly Newsletter where I share
like the post that I made our most
recent podcast episode and all that
there's actually a section there that
has my uh my updated LinkedIn stats so
you can always see how my posts are
performing and all of that uh that was a
little bit scary to put that out there
but I figured being helpful uh is the
most important thing all right have a
great rest of your day and I will see
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