Naomi Johnson on LinkedIn Profiles

Welcome to Building Better Developers, the developer podcast where we work on getting better step by step professionally and personally. Let's get started. Well, hello and welcome back. We are into a new season. Finally, we are in season 19. Some podcasts don't even last 19 episodes and yet we're in this multiple seasons and have outpaced them on a season per episode basis in some cases. But that doesn't mean that we're slowing down. We are right back into part two of our interview with Naomi Johnson. If you missed the first one, you probably want to go back. There's a lot of great information about LinkedIn there and turning your profile up a notch, Bam! like Emeril Lagasse used to say, or maybe still does. And we're going to dive right back into it. She's going to give us more hints and tips and tricks on how to use LinkedIn to get customers to get noticed. So let's get right back into our conversation with Naomi. Now, the only people that are going to go that far and read that much of the decision makers right at the last moment when it's, hey, let's work with Rob. I recommend Rob. And the guy who's met you and spoken to you is completely convinced by you because he's met you. But there's people around him that have never met you. And they're going to go, oh, I'm not sure about this. Who is he? They are going to come and deep dive on you and they're going to get it. And you're going to sell them on the problem you solve, why you're the expert and why your approach is necessary, which makes working together. The working relationship will be so much better because they get you. They get why you're good at what you do. Oh, that. Yeah, I get it. That's exciting. The other person who's going to read this is the person who's just bought and is having buyers remorse going, oh, I'm not sure about this. Or a family member, you know, maybe you've invested in the family business and they're like, well, what is this person? Why have you given shares away in this company? I don't get it. They're going to come and we need to talk to them and really build up that credentials. So that's the past experience is. The majority of people won't read it, but the people who do read it are some of the most important people. And I cannot stress enough how it changes the working relationship. And that's what's so important if they believe in you and they trust in you, they will be all ears. You make a suggestion and they're not sure if they don't really get who you are and where you've come from. They go, oh, no, no, we tried that. No, I don't want to do that. No, I don't like change. They're going to complete freak and they'll tell you about it. It'd be difficult about it. However, if someone has got their background research complete about you and they're like, I know this person, he's got good experience. He's worked with these companies before and he's got these results from them. And then you suggest making a big change. They go. Silent, silent, silent in their head. They were like, oh, my God, that's really threatening. I don't know if I can do that. I don't like the idea of that. What if it doesn't work? Well, he doesn't know what he's talking about. Remember how he did that thing for Koko Kojima? Yeah. Remember how he did that thing for Netflix? Oh, well, if he did it for those people, I must really trust him. It might be really good. Oh, OK. And then yeah, OK. And tell me more. And you'll have no idea. They just had this panic conversation with themselves. Right. They'll just be like, oh, yeah, go ahead then. But internally, they just had this massive battle of confidence going on. And they will be picking up on information you never told them, but you put on your LinkedIn profile. That's interesting. And that's yeah, I guess that's the kind of stuff you never really think of is that how how people get information about you, that you know, it's not often, especially these days. A lot of times it has nothing to do with something you said to them or directly had any interaction with. It comes from networking and other places that they found information that they they now have that as part of their, you know, their sort of CV about you. It's like these are the things that they know. These are the things they've heard. And that all is going to factor into those kinds of relationships. And one of the things with that as well is they'll they might go, I don't like this person today. I don't trust them. What they're doing. Yeah. But John said that he was really good and they did a good job for him. So that's OK. It's another transfer of trust, isn't it? It's another well, they work for John and John said he was good. So I better like it. I can like I can trust a little bit longer because I've been referred. So, yeah, it's another another example of that. That's excellent, because it's not just then it's not just about getting that customer, it's also about setting the stage for a good customer relationship along the way as well. Yeah. Especially if you're going in as the director, it's one thing to come in in the gig economy and just do what you're told and then say, well, actually, I think that we need to do this slightly different. And they go, oh, yeah, and they've thought of that. When you are directing the ship, you come in and said, do you know what the way you are to is built is fundamentally flawed. It's outdated. It's blocking your way forward. And you know these are the problems showing up in your business. And I'm going to come in and solve them. You're positioning yourself as the project manager, the director of the ship, and you're going to hire in when what time you need, when you need it and when you don't, you're going to let it go. You you're in control of it. You're going to be making shifts. You're going to be making changes, and that's going to be very threatening to people, and they're going to need to know that relationship of how you know what you know and that you're actually trusted by other people. All of it goes together to make that working relationship work, you know, for you to actually direct, for you to have authority because you can have supervision of it. But if you haven't got authority with people, they're not prepared to listen to you. And so you know, you're going to have to have that authority to make sure that you're not going to be it's going to fall flat. That's true. You've got to have that. You've got to have that connection so they will fall. I mean, you can lead all you want, but if nobody follows you, it doesn't really doesn't help much. Yeah, exactly. And all of these things go towards that. I mean, imagine, you know, if Richard Branson, which is a global name, most people know if he said, I'm going to partner in this business now, I'm going to do this for a month for one hour. Everyone would go crazy because he's got such a huge profile. They would be in awe and like get to work early and try and meet him, you know. And you want to create the same in your own little world where everybody in that organization is excited to have you, you know, in the industry, they're talking about you. Oh, my gosh, she's gone to work with this company now. He's making changes over there. I'm on his wait list. I'm on his wait list. And I'm like, Oh, I'm going to go to work with a company that's going to be a great business consultant for us later. You know, you can create that little bit of my desk, touch stardom yourself in the industry. And it's just how well you're showing up. You know, it's what you're presenting. It's your personal brand. It's what you're wearing. It's not necessarily what you're wearing, but like it's that impression that you put out the quality of the content you put out, how well you've put your profile together, how well you're presenting it, how well you're showing it. And then you get to the point where you can get how you give value. Yeah. It's it always helps to get that. It's that, you know, people buy from those that they, they know they like, and they trust. And if you can build those pieces in from afar, then, you know, that's how you can build your customers across the world. Basically where they are. Yeah. And not everyone can work with you, but they'll follow you. And then they'll be like, Oh yeah, cool. And then you get the client, you know? Exactly. So how did you, I mean, it's obvious that this is, cause we've just spent almost an hour talking to this. It's obviously something that's very much a passion of yours. How did you, how did you get into this? You know, I would say it's almost sort of a niche essentially. Yeah, it is. Cause I mean, you couldn't specialize in LinkedIn, but to actually specialize in the profile, it's a niche down again, isn't it? Or niche as we say in the UK. Yeah. So it's, it is, it is a very narrowed space I'm in. So what happened was, is I was running a coaching business. And so I, you know, I had all my coaching skills and things like that. Then that business actually went belly up in 2008 when the crash happened. And then I was like, Oh, I'm going to go to the gym. So I went to the gym in 2008 when the crash happened and all the drama going over in Canary Wharf. And I could see it from my bedroom window, but I can't say that the disasters over there had anything to do with my disasters completely separate, even though I could see them. It was, I just made every mistake in the book. So then I went to work with a lady who had a company helping people to do their marketing for themselves as coaches. And I was like, I was in a very difficult position to get the right information. And then I ended up getting a huge amount from her. I am running a business, but also in the marketing side and figuring out what I didn't. I hadn't known before. And I ended up actually writing quite a lot of the modules that she was teaching. And that was great because she was approving them and going, yeah, that's it. And then teaching it, which is great. And then she got head hunted and ended up leaving. And she didn't want to like, I guess it was a project that she was doing and she wanted to make money from it. And then I was like, I thought I would do a lot of marketing and I was like, what is it you wanted to take over the business? And I was like, yeah, all right. So I did. And then that evolved at that time, because we're talking 2010. Here LinkedIn was really starting to take off. So I started to offer some LinkedIn training workshops inside of that. And that caught the attention of a colleague of mine from a network that I you bought my training course actually on sales and we're selling LinkedIn training. Do you want to come and sell LinkedIn training? And I thought, yes, because that's, you're my mentor in sales and I want to learn from you and I get to work with you. And LinkedIn is a hot thing that everyone's talking about at the moment. So I went to work with them and I noticed quite quickly on that they didn't have a call to action. They didn't have a way of getting people on the phone to engage them in whether they needed LinkedIn training or not. So I came up with the idea of why don't we offer them a LinkedIn profile review, which was brilliant for me because I'm coming from this marketing background, marketing for coaches and most of these people are small businesses. And I'd also been on a course called Key Person of Influence and was hanging around with that crowd quite a lot. So I went on a lot of the training, a number of programs and iterations of it. So all of this kind of like dovetailed together to end up where I was offering these LinkedIn profile reviews. I was delivering really great insight from the reviews and then meeting the people at the training course that they bought because of what I'd said. And then I found that actually they hadn't put in place what I told them to. They were too close to their own business to have perspective on it. They weren't wordsmiths and they didn't have the time. And we kept selling the LinkedIn training. We were in a partnership with LinkedIn. We ran the Rocky Profile stand at LinkedIn's global conference twice, plus another one. So three times in total. And one day we were coming out of LinkedIn's head office and we're in the taxi on the way back to the airport. And I said, I just don't understand why we keep selling LinkedIn training to small businesses. And that's entirely what my focus in sales is about. When you've got LinkedIn right there, they're opening up their books to all of their major, major corporates wanting us to build a team and train all of their corporates on how to use the recruitment packages and the sales navigator, all of those things. Why are we confused what's going on? And with that, one taxi ride, the whole company changed its focus. We went completely down the corporate route, but I knew coming from coaching, coming from marketing, coming from key person of influence with all my LinkedIn stuff, I was just like, this is just not gonna be for me. And so I just said to a few people, you've not implemented what I said for LinkedIn profile, would you like me to write it for you? And they said, yes, please do. And I am a good copywriter, it turns out as well. So I'm very much a wordsmith. And so that kind of all came together that I would write people's LinkedIn profiles. And I did that for about 18 months. And then I started to work out that after 90 minutes of interviewing them for their profile, I'd solved a lot of issues inside their business around what is your call to action? What is your packages? That are all these different things. And sometimes pricing and much deeper issues. And I came to this point where I thought, do you know what is unethical of me to sell a LinkedIn profile to somebody who hasn't sorted these things out because the profile is just not gonna work. It's not gonna get returned an investment. And so then, I stopped, I would only take on a profile if those things were in place. And to the other people, I would say, actually, I've got this online training program and I do a coaching program. And so that's where my coaching program comes in is to build those foundations, to get them ready to have a good LinkedIn profile. And then I take them up to the next level of sharing content, building their network and working out which is the right ongoing lead generation strategy for them. So that's how it all came together really. Like just this, and it's a crazy dovetailing. And if I can say, when in the UK, we do something called A levels after school. And if I tell you what my A levels were, ah, it's actually shocking to think at the age of 18, I chose communication and media, business and psychology. And I use all three of those in what I do today. It's just absolutely insane. I sit going, how do I know this? Or sometimes I say, why am I using that particular phrase? That's a really weird thing to say. Oh yes, I have an A level in communication. That's why I learned it there. So it's all kind of like dovetailed perfectly to come to this place where, you know, this is what I do. And this is how I help people. And oh my gosh, you think I can talk for like 50 minutes? I could talk for five days. Just on the one topic. And that's exactly like you said, it dovetails right back to where we started is that everybody has that unique thing that you're like, hey, if you want somebody that can put together profile, give you the wordsmithing, all of the things that you need to do to really make it pop, then there's one person to call or actually one site to go to, depending on how you wanna do it. So it's interesting how you look at that. And I think it is where you step back and say, what is the problem you wanna solve? And sometimes as in your story, you start with a problem and then you realize that, oh, wait, I've got something a little more specific or even a little more specific to that. Or maybe it's a little bit of a, to use the word, probably overused pivot kind of thing of you're going one direction and you realize, wait a minute, we're ahead of the game or we're not exactly where we need to be to make this product valuable enough. And so that is sometimes where you go into that niche and suddenly it's more valuable because all of that other work, like in this case, that pre-work they needed to be done is out of the way. Now you're dealing with the people that actually can leverage what you give them today as opposed to having to go through all of this work and get their ducks in a row to be able to utilize it. Yeah, yeah. And it's surprising how many people think that they've got those things in place, but actually they don't have those things in place. Oh yeah, I have packages. It's 5,000 pounds for eight group coaching sessions and you're like, so what's the value? Why would I come for 5,000 pounds? That's a lot of money to sit in a Zoom group with people and it's not gonna sell, it's not gonna fly. And it does take, often people want quick wins, they want it really fast, but actually there's really diving down into the intricacies of why this, how does that work with your market? How are they gonna respond to that? I like really figuring it through. And I think that's why a lot of people, I mean, you'll see on my LinkedIn profile, it talks about like why LinkedIn profile, your activities on LinkedIn fall flat. And it's the same reason that you frustrate a marketing person. You go to marketing person and social media person and say, can you make me some stuff? And they're like, oh yeah, sure, I'll work with you. And then they go, hang on one minute, you've not got half the things in your business that you need. In fact, you're not even clear about your problem that you solve. You're not sure about why you're good at what you do. And so all of these things need to be thrashed out to make a really good LinkedIn profile. There are ways of starting without that, but to really grow a good business, you need that call to action, you need that sales funnel, you need the products, the product system, because the products that you do repeatedly are how you create assets in your business, worksheets, methodology, processes, all of those things. So every time you work with a client, you go around the cycle like a tree, the tree gets thicker and thicker and thicker. And eventually you've got so many assets and a proven way of doing things that you've got a big oak tree that can't be easily blown over. And that's where the value in the company comes from. And that's what can be sold, is having assets in the company that are scalable. And so, yeah, that's a lot of the work I do with people. I'm not saying they're ever gonna sell their company. But there's the potential of it. And there are a good number of people you can show who have done it. So yeah, there's a lot that goes into it, as you can tell. Definitely. So to go a different direction slightly as we're getting close to wrapping up here, what's maybe one thing that most people could do, I guess today or quickly to look at their profile to improve what they've got, what they get out of LinkedIn? Yeah, I would say definitely think about that problem that you solve. What is making you stand out that's different? And get that into your about section and into your headlines so people come to the profile. Don't leave them hanging. Give them something to like reach out to you with to book themselves in for an appointment. Because that would be the minimum. This is the problem I solve. This is why I'm good at it and passionate about it. If you have this problem in your business, then book yourself in for a conversation as a minimum as a conversation. But obviously I like it when I do a call to action. But that would be the main thing. And make sure that when someone looks at your profile, they instantly get what it is that you do. And you don't leave people confused. The person who I connected with today, I'm so confused. And then he tells me it's my fault. He says, it's my fault I'm confused. I should have looked at his featured content. And I was like, no, I'm looking at your... Before I click on your featured content to decide to come off of your profile, I want to know who you are and what you do. And you've just told me all of this stuff that I just don't like, so you do this. And you went, no, I don't do that. Why are you confused? And I'm like, because it says it right there. I guess, no, that's old. I'm like, I don't care if it's old. It says it right there. What do you want me to do about it? You just gotta be really clear. So now we've had plenty of time for everybody in the audience to get to know you. So what are the best ways for them to get hold of you to say, hey, I could use some of that help. I'm in the right place. I need somebody to help me out with it. What is the best way to reach out and contact you? Yeah, so LinkedIn is gonna be obviously the place that's great to find me. So you can find me on there. It's Naomi Johnson, UK. So you'll see my shiny face and it says expert LinkedIn profile writer. And Naomi, N-A-O-M-I, and then Johnson, J-O-H-N-S-O-M, and then UK on the end. That will make my profile come up for you. And then the other thing as well is that if people wanna come and take the scorecard, that is on the profile too. Come through, click on the scorecard, go through there, answer the questions, see how well you score. And there are different things that I do. I've got a seven day challenge coming up to write your own LinkedIn profile. So just keep an eye out for all those things. The website is www.theprofile.company. That's the full word, company, the profile.company. And you can book yourself in there for a LinkedIn profile and strategy session with me as well, which is half an hour. And that's where we're gonna get right down to the problem that you solve. And I give very practical feedback on what to do with your LinkedIn, what to write in a profile. You're very welcome to take that information and to do it yourself. Or you can say, Naomi, actually, I just can't do that myself. Can you do it for me? So people can book in for LinkedIn profile review. And you'll find the link for that either on the website or by going through with the scorecard from my profile. Okay. Well, thank you so much. The time has flown right by as it tends to do, particularly when somebody like yourself really enjoys what they're doing and can just dive right into. A lot of, there's a lot of great information. I appreciate that. And I'm sure the audience does, although they may be a little tired from taking notes and saying, oh, I've got to change that. I'm gonna look at that. I've got to review that. Make sure that their profile actually is current information and not something from years ago. Not so confusing. So thank you so much for coming on and I hope you have a good rest of your day and get out there and everybody else go out, check out your LinkedIn profile and check out our site and see if she can't help you out a little bit. Brandon, thank you so much for having me. And that will wrap it up. I hope that you got, Hash, if you just got a 10th out of that, this last two episodes that I did, then you're already thinking, man, I have got to go jump out on LinkedIn. I've got to go do some updates. I have got to review what I look like as in that profile sense, when somebody looks me up in LinkedIn and think about what is my story? What do I want to do to draw people in and to basically sell them on myself, my services, my product, my company? We'll have links in the show notes. You can reach out to her if you have more questions. She loves this stuff. Just once we stopped recording, we still talked for quite a while afterwards. She was having a blast. As you can tell, she brings a lot of energy to it. I think if she just went to every LinkedIn user and said, hey, I'm going to spend 10 minutes making you want to do more about your LinkedIn profile, there would be a hundred percent increase. Everybody that was on LinkedIn that she talked to, they're going to go out and do that. It's just that kind of a person. And these are simple things that we can change. So it's a great way to make yourself look a little more current or a little more professional, depending on where you're at, and maybe even set yourself up for whatever that next career step or technology job is, or whatever it is that you're going for next. Now, hopefully you've got a few more tools to make that happen. We're not done with our interviews. We'll be back next episode and we will have yet another, start with a whole new episode or interview and go for two episodes again, just as we've been doing. And we're not done. There's a lot of good content yet out there. There's a lot of people that know a lot more stuff than any of us and probably all of us combined in some cases. So pencils down, go out and try to just, you know, spend a little time and try to absorb this a little bit and see where this can help you out. And then we'll come back next time around and do it again. So until then, go out there and have yourself a great day, a great week, and we will talk to you next time. Thank you for listening to Building Better Developers, the Develop-a-Noor podcast. You can subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Amazon, anywhere that you can find podcasts, we are there. And remember, just a little bit of effort every day ends up adding into great momentum and great success. Hi, this is Rob from Building Better Developers, the Develop-a-Noor podcast. We're excited to be on Alexa now. You can enable us by simply saying, Alexa, enable Building Better Developers. And we will be there ready for you every time you want to listen to your now favorite podcast. Whether we are your favorite podcast or not, we would love to hear from you. So please leave a review on Amazon.