0:02 2 seconds All right, we are live. 0:05 5 seconds And I’ve said this a lot lately in my posts and some of the conversations that we’ve been having with each other. And 0:12 12 seconds that is that visibility is the new currency. And you cannot build an incredible company. Well, you can build 0:20 20 seconds an incredible company and you can have an amazing product and you can be brilliant at everything you do, but if 0:27 27 seconds nobody knows who you are, they can’t buy from you. They can’t partner with you. 0:33 33 seconds They can’t invite you into the room and they certainly can’t think of you for an opportunity when that comes along. And 0:41 41 seconds that’s actually part of the reason I started this show. I was listening to an interview with a LinkedIn executive and 0:48 48 seconds one of the things that he said was when asked how often should you be posting on LinkedIn 0:56 56 seconds and his answer was as often as you want someone to think of you for an opportunity. So I think it’s really 1:03 1 minute, 3 seconds important that we have this conversation today. But before we get started, I want to tell you a few things that I’ve learned firsthand and as the CEO of a 1:12 1 minute, 12 seconds technology company. And yet some of the most important things I’ve done for my business have absolutely nothing. 1:19 1 minute, 19 seconds They’ve had absolutely nothing to do with the software that we’ve created. 1:22 1 minute, 22 seconds They’ve involved me just showing up, sharing what I’ve learned, starting this show, and allowing people to actually get to know the person behind the company, the person behind the brand. 1:34 1 minute, 34 seconds But here’s the problem. For most CEOs, they are busy. Attraction operators, they are busy. General managers are 1:42 1 minute, 42 seconds definitely busy. So, how are you supposed to consistently show up and create content? How are you supposed to 1:51 1 minute, 51 seconds build a brand? How are you to run the company, lead your team, and still actually do your job while 2:00 2 minutes getting that visibility? And that’s what we’re going to be talking about today. 2:03 2 minutes, 3 seconds LinkedIn, personal branding, storytelling, automation, and how much leaders can be 2:12 2 minutes, 12 seconds or how leaders can become more visible without turning content creation into a full-time job. Woo! 2:22 2 minutes, 22 seconds Let me tell you, I understand that one. Well, I’ll see you after the intro. 2:28 2 minutes, 28 seconds [music] 2:32 2 minutes, 32 seconds What the 2:38 2 minutes, 38 seconds [music] 2:42 2 minutes, 42 seconds hey? 2:48 2 minutes, 48 seconds Hey, what the what the 2:54 2 minutes, 54 seconds [music] 2:56 2 minutes, 56 seconds All 3:14 3 minutes, 14 seconds right. So, it looks like we are having a technical difficulty with the intro. So, you get me. You get me for this intro. 3:23 3 minutes, 23 seconds So, let me just start by introducing myself. I am Sandre, CEO of Gatemaster Technology. And before we jump in, I’d like to thank our sponsor, Gatemaster 3:31 3 minutes, 31 seconds Technology. For more than 30 years, we’ve been building technology for the attractions industry. And today, we’re building something much bigger. Our 3:40 3 minutes, 40 seconds vision at Gate Master is to become the operating system of the attractions. One connected flat platform where pieces 3:50 3 minutes, 50 seconds operators need in their business actually work together. Ticketing, commerce, food and beverage, retail, 4:00 4 minutes memberships, access control, operations, reporting, guest data. Because I don’t believe good technology should give 4:09 4 minutes, 9 seconds people more things to manage. It should give them fewer things to manage. It should automate the repetitive work and 4:17 4 minutes, 17 seconds the repetitive tasks. It should connect the information, remove unnecessary friction, and give your people more time 4:24 4 minutes, 24 seconds to focus on the things that actually require a human. And that’s one of the reasons Patrick’s work interests me. 4:32 4 minutes, 32 seconds He’s applying that same philosophy to content. How much of the repetitive work can technology handle? 4:41 4 minutes, 41 seconds So the human can spend more time on the ideas, building the relationships, telling the stories and conversations 4:49 4 minutes, 49 seconds that actually matter. Before we get started, a quick hello to everybody watching or listening on the Live with Sandre podcast. And if you are watching 4:58 4 minutes, 58 seconds on YouTube, our new YouTube channel, we would appreciate a like and subscribe. that helps us keep this content going. 5:07 5 minutes, 7 seconds And now, let’s meet Patrick. 5:11 5 minutes, 11 seconds Patrick is the founder of VI Studios and the Big Break Foundation. 5:18 5 minutes, 18 seconds His work sits at the intersection of storytelling, professional development, personal branding, and technology. 5:27 5 minutes, 27 seconds Patrick helps founders and executives use LinkedIn to turn that expertise into content that actually builds their 5:34 5 minutes, 34 seconds personal brands and creates business opportunities. 5:39 5 minutes, 39 seconds And more recent, he’s taken that one step further, building a specialized web application designed to automate parts of the content strategy process, which 5:47 5 minutes, 47 seconds immediately got my attention. We actually had a conversation about this because if you give a CEO their time 5:56 5 minutes, 56 seconds back, I will definitely listen. And apparently Patrick’s non-negotiables 6:04 6 minutes, 4 seconds are keeping himself going through his daily workouts. Patrick, welcome to Live 6:12 6 minutes, 12 seconds with Sandra. Hey everybody, thanks for having me on and thank you to our sponsor, Gate Master Tech, that made this show available. So, I appreciate that. 6:22 6 minutes, 22 seconds Oh, hey. Well, thank you. Thank you for being here. And I’m really excited for this conversation today because you and I have had conversations around 6:30 6 minutes, 30 seconds visibility and content creation, especially with regards to LinkedIn. And I know that you’re kind of a superstar when it comes to helping people 6:38 6 minutes, 38 seconds accomplish this. But what I really want to know from you just is the introduction. And first of all, was that introduction okay? Is there anything you want? 6:47 6 minutes, 47 seconds Yeah. No, that was good. That was good. Okay. 6:49 6 minutes, 49 seconds I want to make sure that our audience hears from you exactly who you are and they’re going to get to know you a little bit more as we talk today. But yeah, 6:56 6 minutes, 56 seconds you know what I would love to understand from you because I think you can kind of put this in a way that our audience maybe would understand because I 7:04 7 minutes, 4 seconds understand to some degree like I’m learning and you see how much I’m working on this. But why should somebody watching this today, especially somebody 7:12 7 minutes, 12 seconds either in my position as a CEO of their company or somebody in management, what or or you know, I would love to hear who 7:19 7 minutes, 19 seconds should be worried about this, but why should somebody care about building their personal brand? 7:25 7 minutes, 25 seconds Yeah, I mean it’s a great question. I I think that the number one reason I would say is that there’s immense opportunity into doing it. So for those of you who 7:34 7 minutes, 34 seconds are on LinkedIn, watching on LinkedIn or, you know, or or are on LinkedIn, it’s like 95% of users don’t post. And 7:42 7 minutes, 42 seconds so that’s why when you go on LinkedIn, you see posts from like three weeks ago, two weeks ago, and they’re not even people that you know necessarily. And so 7:51 7 minutes, 51 seconds it it’s like this is why it’s so important that I I want I want a mission to try to help our industry share our 7:58 7 minutes, 58 seconds knowledge uh and share insights. And particularly that comes to um executive leaders and founders but everybody has 8:06 8 minutes, 6 seconds their own story to tell. That means if you’re a student, you’re an emerging talent, you’re in the job, you’re looking for jobs or not. Uh I think it’s 8:13 8 minutes, 13 seconds important uh or it’s at least be a better uh industry, right? If we’re sharing insights, we’re sharing our feelings, we’re having open discussions. 8:20 8 minutes, 20 seconds Um, in regards to personal branding, founders and executives who are trying to sell and and build their audience, they they can’t afford not to do it in 8:29 8 minutes, 29 seconds my I just think it’s it’s such a it’s such a a wasted of opportunity. And to put not to throw too much at you, but 8:36 8 minutes, 36 seconds just like you said in your introduction, you know, how much would you pay to go right now in front of a thousand people 8:42 8 minutes, 42 seconds today and talk for two minutes or uh or you know um a thousand people, 10,000 8:50 8 minutes, 50 seconds people. Uh executives will start to pay a lot of money for that, right? Well, that’s what LinkedIn is, is a bunch of people out there in the world that are 8:57 8 minutes, 57 seconds that are scrolling through and if you’re able to capture them, you’re able to share your story and you’re able to build a relationship with them digitally, that has uh that that then 9:05 9 minutes, 5 seconds there’s the ROI comes in and be able to follow up and and make business and all that that good stuff. Now, I will say too, students and emerging talent and 9:13 9 minutes, 13 seconds other professionals also, you know, you never know where your brand’s going to carry you. You never know when you may be looking for new opportunities or you find yourself in a business development 9:21 9 minutes, 21 seconds position or you see, you know, not to be too negative, but you you see yourself in a layoff and then wait, where’s my network? How do I get a job? And we know 9:28 9 minutes, 28 seconds how important is in being visible out there. 9:31 9 minutes, 31 seconds Um, so that I’ll leave it with that. I won’t ramble. I’m known to ramble, but I’ll leave it back and throw it to you. 9:36 9 minutes, 36 seconds No, no, I think it’s great and I love that. I I love that you’re even encouraging people who aren’t in those positions of leadership to get known 9:43 9 minutes, 43 seconds because it is it is you know most I I think we know you know through research 9:50 9 minutes, 50 seconds and and that most people find work through friends and it’s actually the best way to do it or find it through contacts through your network like you 9:57 9 minutes, 57 seconds mentioned what do they say your net worth is your net worth or something right like that that old saying um but 10:04 10 minutes, 4 seconds you know I I I have also found that people appreciate understanding the person behind the brand and the person behind the work. 10:15 10 minutes, 15 seconds Sometimes it’s not even a brand. 10:16 10 minutes, 16 seconds Sometimes it’s like you said it’s just a student or somebody the person behind the work that they’re doing or the work that they want to do. And I’m curious if 10:23 10 minutes, 23 seconds you see in the data with the or you know what do you see in the data with the clients that you work with in terms of how this is impro improving their 10:32 10 minutes, 32 seconds visibility and maybe even improving the way that their business? Yeah, I I I will say at the top of things is that 10:39 10 minutes, 39 seconds there is a sweet spot for founders of companies where they are the product that they’re 10:46 10 minutes, 46 seconds selling. So if a if a customer is upset, are you the person they’re calling? 10:52 10 minutes, 52 seconds If that is still the case, you are the product that they are buying. 10:56 10 minutes, 56 seconds And that is why it’s important for you to be visible out in the world. um and that they’re essentially selling they are you they are buying your insights 11:03 11 minutes, 3 seconds your and sometimes there’s co-founders involved in things like that but that’s kind of the sweet spot for people that I work with is just are you the product 11:10 11 minutes, 10 seconds and is your name on the wall are you the owner operator are you an executive and to be transparent the interesting thing 11:17 11 minutes, 17 seconds is that it can be difficult for business development people understand LinkedIn right we all know that there’s a ton of business development people on LinkedIn there’s posting they’re doing this but 11:26 11 minutes, 26 seconds people are actually buying the founders they’re buying the people who are responsible for whether it’s a creative company, whether it’s a ticketing company, right, like yourself, when what what is the when does the buck stop? 11:36 11 minutes, 36 seconds Well, that’s your product. So, that’s what I help with and that’s why it’s it’s important for executives to think of a strategy um without being 11:45 11 minutes, 45 seconds completely bogged down like you talked about. I mean, I’m sure we’ll talk about that a little bit. 11:48 11 minutes, 48 seconds Well, I think what’s really cool about what you’re saying is it’s not only like the the the the founder or the person behind the business is the face of the 11:56 11 minutes, 56 seconds company, right? And one of the things that I’ve I’ve noticed in not only coaching other people through what I’ve 12:03 12 minutes, 3 seconds done with my business and how um the the show and and some of the things that we’re doing with our marketing with 12:09 12 minutes, 9 seconds regards to to to what you’re uh what you’re saying about having that visibility, but I also think like it’s 12:17 12 minutes, 17 seconds important for the person who’s making the promises to be available, right? 12:22 12 minutes, 22 seconds Yeah. 100%. to to me that like was a big thing for me was you know I wanted to be accessible to people so that when my 12:29 12 minutes, 29 seconds product did get sold or purchased or used in the industry that there was a person behind the promises and I think 12:36 12 minutes, 36 seconds that that’s something that is really um I don’t know I really appreciate appreciate about this style of content 12:44 12 minutes, 44 seconds marketing especially on LinkedIn and we do have a very active industry on LinkedIn wouldn’t you say like I feel like one of our when I talk to other 12:53 12 minutes, 53 seconds people in other industries, they’re not seeing the kind of activity that we have on LinkedIn. 12:58 12 minutes, 58 seconds Well, that’s interesting. Yeah. I mean, to me, it’s kind of interesting because at least on I came out of the creative development side and I’d say that there 13:05 13 minutes, 5 seconds are like 10 to 15 people and I’d include you in one of them that you pop up in my feed, right? Um but there’s a lot of people 13:13 13 minutes, 13 seconds who don’t, you know, who are in that 90% that don’t pop up into it. And I think that um what that comes down to is what do I say? What should I be saying? 13:24 13 minutes, 24 seconds Everyone has a story to tell, but that not everyone’s a storyteller. You know what I mean? Although to be a founder and executive, you do have to somewhat be a 13:33 13 minutes, 33 seconds storyteller, but like you don’t necessarily need to be an amazing writer or be a captivating writer to be a founder or an executive of a company, right? So, that’s the kind 13:42 13 minutes, 42 seconds of stuff that I I try to help, not to get too salesy, but those are the kind of things that like we try to do is help people with is saying, you have a great story to tell. We’re going to help tell 13:50 13 minutes, 50 seconds it and make it interesting and help build your audiences and and get you views and things like that. 13:55 13 minutes, 55 seconds Yeah, I think that’s pretty I think that’s pretty cool and definitely like something that I I think that these these people who need you need, right? 14:03 14 minutes, 3 seconds Like because you’re right like I have I have uh I have friends who are CEOs or founders of their companies who are not 14:11 14 minutes, 11 seconds posting. In fact, they have like old outdated pictures of themselves on LinkedIn. They haven’t posted anything 14:18 14 minutes, 18 seconds in years. And it’s hard because I think what you’re to your point, they just don’t even know where to start 14:26 14 minutes, 26 seconds and what that story should look like because when I started, I mean it was a mess. 14:30 14 minutes, 30 seconds Yeah. I I say all the time like do not look at the older the older live with Sandre stuff. It’s cringy and I was 14:38 14 minutes, 38 seconds figuring it out. And I think I think that’s one of the things that you can collapse time for people is that they don’t have to figure it out in the public out in front of the 14:47 14 minutes, 47 seconds public. I mean I I’m I I quickly had to be okay with being uncomfortable 14:56 14 minutes, 56 seconds figuring it out for myself, right? And I think that’s something that we’ve talked about, that’s something that you definitely can help leaders with is figuring out what 15:04 15 minutes, 4 seconds that story looks like with your expertise as well as um what what to post. Now, I will say one thing like one 15:11 15 minutes, 11 seconds of my mentors always said like just do it like even if it’s bad. Yeah. 15:16 15 minutes, 16 seconds Right. Sometimes you have to just do the thing before it gets Yeah. And I think that like Well, yeah. 15:22 15 minutes, 22 seconds And I think that like when it comes to there’s a lot of different barriers that people have in their head. First off, I think time is just like they’re trying 15:30 15 minutes, 30 seconds to make the next sale. They’re trying to make the next thing. They don’t have they don’t think it matters, but it’s an opportunity that’s being missed, right? 15:37 15 minutes, 37 seconds So, it’s like it it and especially there is a sweet spot, right? Where b hiring a business development person is 15:45 15 minutes, 45 seconds really difficult. And I know that um you know smaller companies that have you know 10 to 20 employees like they will hire that business development person 15:53 15 minutes, 53 seconds but like it’s still difficult because the buck does stop with the owner the founder of the company and so that’s why you want to put yourself out there. Now, 16:01 16 minutes, 1 second look, the scheduling meetings and the follow-up and all that can happen, but you do want to be putting some sort of person. 16:08 16 minutes, 8 seconds What does it mean if I’m going to hire Gate Master Tech? What does it mean if I’m going to hire, you know, XYZ company out there? And LinkedIn is a great way 16:16 16 minutes, 16 seconds in a very casual way and in a very like drip drip drip drip drip drip drip way where you say, “Oh, I know this person. 16:23 16 minutes, 23 seconds I see them on LinkedIn and oh, okay, they they’ve helped me or I saw that insightful post.” And what happens with the people that we work with is they start getting that traction. they start getting that notice, people start DMing 16:31 16 minutes, 31 seconds them saying, “Oh, I saw your post.” And and there’s a few other things to it, but it it really does help them out. Um, so yeah, it’s such an untapped resource. 16:40 16 minutes, 40 seconds Um, in my opinion, I think so, too. And you know, I heard once somebody said like the um 16:48 16 minutes, 48 seconds the best way for somebody to get to know you is on a stage, right? Yeah. Like or for for lots of people to get to know you. And to your point, you know, the 16:57 16 minutes, 57 seconds CEO is the face of the company or the leader. I listen, I think I think even within the organization, you could have other influencers for sure. 17:06 17 minutes, 6 seconds You know, I I uh I’m sure you’ve heard of the DISC, you know, the disk assessment where you see all the different people who fit on the 17:14 17 minutes, 14 seconds chart where they are. I mean, I know within my organization, I have other influencers who belong on stages too, right? like my team has so much to teach 17:23 17 minutes, 23 seconds people and what they can learn. So, it’s it’s it I don’t think that it is just the leaders in companies, but I know that that’s something that you’re 17:31 17 minutes, 31 seconds helping them get started with. And I think it does start with the leader because I mean leader means you go first. 17:36 17 minutes, 36 seconds You get out there and you put yourself out there. Um, but what I and I’m going to share like one of my big secrets here, like what I found, and maybe you 17:45 17 minutes, 45 seconds found this too, is that when I do meet people at events, my show is a form of followup for that relationship because 17:54 17 minutes, 54 seconds they’re getting to know continue to get to know me through either the posts or the shows that we do. And granted, like 18:00 18 minutes I’m I’m my show is here to help people get to know people like you who are helping them do these things. 18:08 18 minutes, 8 seconds But the um but yeah, that’s kind of one of the things the unexpected things that like I said, I’m just learning from 18:16 18 minutes, 16 seconds sheer trial and error, right, as I go. I’m the first to say like, you know, this show 18:23 18 minutes, 23 seconds and a lot of what we’ve done with our LinkedIn marketing, a lot of it was trial and error, right? Yeah. Well, I 18:30 18 minutes, 30 seconds think that like one thing that is um one thing that is challenging and something that we had with some of our early like you know I had a lot of test clients of 18:38 18 minutes, 38 seconds like okay let’s iterate let’s figure out this is like okay so we’re posting we’re getting a lot of traction and this is when that application came in right so I 18:46 18 minutes, 46 seconds built an application web app that people use like how do I harness the people that I’ve used like we’ve talked about 18:54 18 minutes, 54 seconds this before the top of funnel how do I get them to funnel to be part of my business and that can be the funnel of business can be different. It can be how do I get a job? 19:02 19 minutes, 2 seconds How do I hire the right talent? How do I hire another person? Um or how do I get another the next you know the next 19:08 19 minutes, 8 seconds person to be my customer. And it comes down to building those rituals um daily actually. So you don’t know I don’t know 19:15 19 minutes, 15 seconds if I told you about this quite yet but that was part of the web application is okay we have this content going out. We have the the the why viewership. How do we harness that power? And so like part 19:24 19 minutes, 24 seconds of the VI studio system is actually like being a personal trainer and giving people daily tasks. 10 minutes a day. Do this, do this, do this. 19:35 19 minutes, 35 seconds Follow up with this person, follow up with that person, send this person a DM uh a few weeks ago. You had a post that went viral and all these people here 19:44 19 minutes, 44 seconds looked at it. Are any of these people of interest? Throw them into your pipeline. 19:48 19 minutes, 48 seconds So that’s when there was a bit of a, you know, big change of how we did it. It’s not just about like getting visibility. 19:53 19 minutes, 53 seconds It’s about sure how do we turn that into connections because you and you know you and I I’m sure we get these bombardment of emails or 20:02 20 minutes, 2 seconds emails or LinkedIn messages that are like hey 10 paragraphs let’s have a meeting. And I’m like I don’t know who 20:10 20 minutes, 10 seconds you are. I don’t need I don’t need what you’re selling. Right? That’s a big problem. I don’t want who you’re selling. 20:16 20 minutes, 16 seconds And I’m like how often does this actually work on LinkedIn to make business? You know what I mean? So that’s why it’s about building relationships and then putting them in 20:24 20 minutes, 24 seconds your pipeline. So that’s the that’s the application part that I think is the most effective of getting that ROI is okay, if you get one client, it all pays 20:32 20 minutes, 32 seconds for itself, right? If we can show you that that worked out and you got them your top of funnel, you got them to present, you do all your meetings with them and it all worked out. Uh so I’m 20:40 20 minutes, 40 seconds excited about it. I think it’s exciting for businesses and as a founder of things and organizations in the past, I know how tough it is out there. I know 20:47 20 minutes, 47 seconds how tough it is to like be told, hey, I’m going to hire a person or I’m going to hire a social media company and they’re going to bring in a ton of 20:54 20 minutes, 54 seconds people to the business and it never manifests. So, it’s more about like personally training people, business training, I guess, is a better word for it to be effective and make it all happen for them. 21:05 21 minutes, 5 seconds Well, and that kind of makes me I mean, and I don’t know if you can answer this question, but I I’m curious like, you know, one of the things that I had 21:13 21 minutes, 13 seconds noticed in the past, like probably even before the we started the show, was that a lot of the marketing that we were 21:20 21 minutes, 20 seconds doing was a lot of vanity marketing, but didn’t have, like you’re saying, the return or the conversion that we were 21:30 21 minutes, 30 seconds looking for, you know? Is there it does this tool help with that? 21:35 21 minutes, 35 seconds Yeah, I mean it does. It like I said it it sets out a plan of how can you start to not getting in too into the details 21:43 21 minutes, 43 seconds of it, but it says let’s put a plan in place to follow up with people cons. And it’s kind of funny because one of my people 21:50 21 minutes, 50 seconds uses it and they’re like we just say, “Okay, put them in the pipeline and then not to give too much away, but it says, “Okay, week one do this, week three do 21:57 21 minutes, 57 seconds this, week four do this.” And then you start to get these meetings and connections and things like that. 22:03 22 minutes, 3 seconds And when it comes to vanity marketing, our industry is full of it, right? Yeah. 22:08 22 minutes, 8 seconds Like we know is coming in up in a few months uh in November. You know, this this event’s happening. 22:14 22 minutes, 14 seconds This people just they just do these big events. they drop, you know, tens of thousands of dollars to be kind of seen. 22:21 22 minutes, 21 seconds It’s like Pepsi and Coke. Just so you know that we’re still around. We’re going to do the Super Bowl. You know what I mean? Yeah. 22:26 22 minutes, 26 seconds But is there the ROI? And I I think that there’s just like not to replace that, but I do think people can be more efficient with things and being more 22:35 22 minutes, 35 seconds tactful of, okay, how do we get to more people? How do we, you know, build visibility visibility? because you can have a party, but then you’re probably 22:44 22 minutes, 44 seconds inviting people you already know versus new potential customers, new potential business and things like that. 22:50 22 minutes, 50 seconds Yeah. Well, and I think what’s, you know, I think it one thing I’ve noticed in our industry is like everyone’s getting really good about posting these 22:57 22 minutes, 57 seconds like graphics with photos saying, “I’m going to be at this next event. Look, we do it too in in my company.” But I actually really love it. I love it for a 23:05 23 minutes, 5 seconds couple reasons. One, because I’m like, “Okay, cool. I’m going to see that person next week.” Yeah. 23:09 23 minutes, 9 seconds You know what I mean? like I I you know I don’t have to necessarily message them like I used to like are you going to be here because I can see they’re there. 23:17 23 minutes, 17 seconds Now I just go hey I saw you’re going to be here right and that’s let’s get together let’s do this um or whatever that looks like you know because a lot 23:25 23 minutes, 25 seconds of what we do is very much about relationships and getting together with each other. That’s why people are throwing parties with the people they know. Right. 23:35 23 minutes, 35 seconds Yeah. like you’re saying, like it’s getting together with the same people, you know, but you know, how do you extend past that group? How do you get 23:41 23 minutes, 41 seconds the the the marketing to go past that group that you already know? Oh, sorry. Go ahead. No, no, please. 23:50 23 minutes, 50 seconds Well, yeah. I mean, I I love those posts, too. I’m going to this event and all those things. 23:53 23 minutes, 53 seconds Yeah, there are so many different types of posts that people can make um on LinkedIn, right? So, you could say, I’m going to this event. there’s and this is 24:03 24 minutes, 3 seconds I think was like the ones that people understand like oh I just got a new job they’re gonna post about that or I’m leaving this job I’m not going to tell 24:11 24 minutes, 11 seconds you where I’m going next but I got this you know like there’s that those things that people get like okay I’m going to post about it I have to post about it I feel obligated to do it and then there’s 24:19 24 minutes, 19 seconds just like what about thought leadership because if you’re running a company and you are this far and you’re you’re 24:27 24 minutes, 27 seconds doing well you have a lot to share with people And even your employees can see that and be inspired by, oh well that’s interesting. 24:35 24 minutes, 35 seconds I saw that and oh this is or I’m going to hold them to that standard. They said this post here, hey well I saw you in that LinkedIn post say that you believe in kindness or whatever it is, right? 24:44 24 minutes, 44 seconds Well, okay. Maybe this wasn’t the way it was supposed to be. 24:47 24 minutes, 47 seconds Um so yeah, I think there’s just so much um so many different posting people can make that well that that’s okay to do 24:55 24 minutes, 55 seconds those posts, right? It’s okay to just do a little selfie share. Hey, I’m here or I’m there because people like that. 25:00 25 minutes That’s part of social media. It can’t just all be, you know, one type of post. 25:05 25 minutes, 5 seconds But what people struggle with is when they don’t have that moment. That’s where I can come and help, right? When I don’t I don’t know what to post. 25:13 25 minutes, 13 seconds I don’t it’s it’s August or it’s October. I don’t know what I should be talking about. That’s where we can come in and try to help with that. 25:21 25 minutes, 21 seconds Yeah. I love that. I mean, I love that because like I said, you know, in the very beginning, it was a mess for me. I didn’t know what to post. I mean, 25:28 25 minutes, 28 seconds listen, I’ve I’ve always felt like there was a part of me that had to be shared with regards to like just I mean, I don’t know if you know this about me. I 25:36 25 minutes, 36 seconds I’ve been coaching business owners to their first million for many years. So, I have a big group of businesses outside 25:43 25 minutes, 43 seconds of our industry in our industry just um and they were primarily womenowned businesses. But what I found interesting 25:50 25 minutes, 50 seconds was most of the people that were coming to me needed to um they needed support to stay in their business. 25:59 25 minutes, 59 seconds Mhm. 26:00 26 minutes Right. They were like, “This is really hard.” Right? And nobody told me how hard it was going to be. I’m sure you know how 26:08 26 minutes, 8 seconds hard it is as a business owner and somebody who started organizations. It is really hard to do this work, especially as a founder or somebody 26:15 26 minutes, 15 seconds who’s getting started. Um, I I thank my I I I am so grateful to be past the part 26:23 26 minutes, 23 seconds of just getting started, but I often think about what if I had had tools like this back then. Could it have collapsed 26:30 26 minutes, 30 seconds time? Could it have changed things? And I know the technology didn’t exist back then, but do you feel like those owners, 26:38 26 minutes, 38 seconds those CEOs, executives, or the people who are leveraging visibility, do you feel like that is going to 26:45 26 minutes, 45 seconds collapse time for them? especially those that are building in their organizations and maybe even finding it hard to stay in it. You know, a lot of the business owners I work with, they’re like, should I really even be doing this? 26:55 26 minutes, 55 seconds And I think some of it is they’re missing that visibility piece. So, it does make it more difficult for them. 27:02 27 minutes, 2 seconds Yeah. And I I I would say this that I think that like you know our industry as a whole is very can sometimes you know stem back to the wall Disney days of 27:10 27 minutes, 10 seconds being old-fashioned relationship driven and shaking hands and being in the room and all that but we’ve had a virtual 27:19 27 minutes, 19 seconds environment for two probably solidly for two decades now. Yeah. 27:24 27 minutes, 24 seconds And so there can be there are people who are early adopters like yourself that are like no I’m gonna I’m gonna post this. I’m going to be on there. And then 27:31 27 minutes, 31 seconds there are not who are who maybe have never locked in, you know, logged into LinkedIn, you know what I mean? And depending on where they are as a company 27:39 27 minutes, 39 seconds and it’s to their detriment that they’re not doing it. Um it’s really a shame that there are so many you know so many founders, executives, people with so 27:48 27 minutes, 48 seconds much like you know tribal knowledge of just what it means that would have tons of followers of upand cominging emerging 27:55 27 minutes, 55 seconds talent, other businesses, potential customers that want to hear their insights. 28:01 28 minutes, 1 second Um so I hope that kind of answered your question a little bit. Sometimes I can go on tangents like I said. 28:05 28 minutes, 5 seconds No, no, I I think that that’s fantastic because I agree with you. There are so many people that are pioneers in this 28:12 28 minutes, 12 seconds industry that still are here, exist, and we’re not hearing from them. And I do believe that social media is probably the easiest way for them to get that 28:21 28 minutes, 21 seconds information out. And that’s actually why we started our our instudio show, right, was to tell stories. 28:29 28 minutes, 29 seconds Yeah. 28:29 28 minutes, 29 seconds Outside of just teaching people things, let’s tell these stories of the people in the industry. 28:34 28 minutes, 34 seconds Well, I have a a question for you because especially, you know, somebody who’s been doing as a CEO who’s been doing this for my company, but I’m sure 28:42 28 minutes, 42 seconds there are a lot of other people like me who or people who want to get started doing these things. 28:49 28 minutes, 49 seconds And I’m curious what you think may be the biggest mistake you see CEOs making when they first start trying to create 28:56 28 minutes, 56 seconds their personal brand, if any. I mean, I know it’s a mistake not to, right? But besides that, what do you see and what 29:04 29 minutes, 4 seconds do you think would, you know, how could you help them with that? 29:07 29 minutes, 7 seconds Yeah. And I, you know, it’s kind of a thing where I’ll apply this to anybody, right? So whether you’re a CEO, a founder, or you’re, you know, you’re a 29:14 29 minutes, 14 seconds student or you’re a management, it is about being intentional and being deliberate and setting up your routine 29:23 29 minutes, 23 seconds of doing I’m going to do this. And if if you feel like you don’t have any words to say, which I can understand, like 29:31 29 minutes, 31 seconds sometimes you have writers block or sometimes you don’t think you have any, you know, meaningful why no one’s want to hear this, no one wants to see this, or you feel like, well, I’m not a bisdev person, so I shouldn’t be whatever the 29:40 29 minutes, 40 seconds case may be. Everyone has writer’s block. Everyone doesn’t feel like they have what it takes. But you have the 29:47 29 minutes, 47 seconds audacity to say, I’m going to start. I’m just going to do it. And that same thing happened to me of August of last year. I 29:55 29 minutes, 55 seconds said I was focusing a lot on other wasteful content on other social platforms. I’m like, you know what? I’m gonna focus on posting three times a 30:04 30 minutes, 4 seconds week. And I set a goal. You have to set a goal. I’m going to post three times a week. I’m going to look at I’m going to shift my time and do this. And it 30:12 30 minutes, 12 seconds doesn’t mean you need five hours of time on it, right? It’s just, yeah, I’m gonna wake up in the morning. I’m in bed. I’m gonna look here and I’m gonna like some posts. I’m going to engage with posts. 30:22 30 minutes, 22 seconds Um, particularly if you are a founder or an executive and things like that, your voice carries a lot of weight. And I notice when people comment on my content 30:30 30 minutes, 30 seconds who might be founders and companies, that’s very interesting to me. Oh, wow. 30:34 30 minutes, 34 seconds Okay, that that that piqu their interest, right? Um, so setting those rituals that I’m going to commit to the 30:42 30 minutes, 42 seconds daily routine. That’s the number one thing you need to do. Um, but we all know people hire personal trainers 30:49 30 minutes, 49 seconds because they can’t. It’s hard to they need an appointment. They need somebody to help remind them. That’s where I come in to kind of help with that. Not to do the sales plug again, but that’s kind of where it is to kind of help with that. 30:58 30 minutes, 58 seconds Yeah. No, that’s fair. 30:59 30 minutes, 59 seconds Yeah. You cannot make a mistake on LinkedIn, right? Right. You really can’t. You can post on it. We all know kind of the boundaries of like, okay, no 31:08 31 minutes, 8 seconds politics, no religion. Other than that, share away. Just, hey, what’s the interesting new thing you did today? Um, you know, everybody has their own storytell. And I tell this to students. 31:18 31 minutes, 18 seconds Where are all the interesting ideas? 31:20 31 minutes, 20 seconds What are we doing wrong? You know, I’ve been in this industry for many years as I know you have as well. I don’t know what the latest coolest thing is, you 31:28 31 minutes, 28 seconds know, like what what are we missing? Was that when I was coming up, I had a ton of ideas of how to improve the industry, right? So those like that would be very 31:36 31 minutes, 36 seconds interesting if that people students could find their voices. You want to go to school for, you know, for our industry? 31:42 31 minutes, 42 seconds Well, what are we missing? How do we make it better? Right? Like those are the kind of posts that I like to put out there of like, okay, I had this experience. How would I improve things as a creative guy and creative director 31:51 31 minutes, 51 seconds in past lives? It’s like, okay, how do we improve things and make them better? 31:55 31 minutes, 55 seconds Hey, hi Emily. Well, speaking of you can’t mess up on LinkedIn, we’re delayed by a minute. So, [laughter] yeah, no worries. 32:04 32 minutes, 4 seconds If you’re still here, Emily, hello. Thank you for stopping by to say hi. 32:09 32 minutes, 9 seconds Well, I love I do love what you said about, you know, sometimes we do have to we do have to hire a personal trainer. 32:15 32 minutes, 15 seconds The other thing I think that you can help with is accountability because if you are setting those goals, you know, that was in the early days of my show, I remember we had set the goal of one show per month. 32:25 32 minutes, 25 seconds Yeah. 32:27 32 minutes, 27 seconds Which we thought was crazy back then, right? Like let’s try and do one show a month. Now we’re doing one a week. Yeah. That’s a hustle. 32:34 32 minutes, 34 seconds And Yeah. But it was through those goal, setting those goals and then seeing that we could do it that we were able to then 32:43 32 minutes, 43 seconds raise the bar, right, and change the belief. And I think that that’s really cool that you can help people figure out what that goal should be. And I agree 32:50 32 minutes, 50 seconds with you, like I would just tell myself in the mornings because I like to sit and drink my coffee and scroll. That’s like the one 32:57 32 minutes, 57 seconds time I let myself scroll. I’m really I I mean I’m on social media, but I’m not on it if that makes sense. I’m not in consuming as much content as I probably put out. 33:07 33 minutes, 7 seconds Yeah. 33:07 33 minutes, 7 seconds Don’t tell anybody even though we just said that to the whole world. But if that makes sense, right? 33:13 33 minutes, 13 seconds So, one of the things like you said, you don’t know everything. Um that these young people know and they can share these information. They could create 33:21 33 minutes, 21 seconds these platforms for themselves to share information and for people to see their ideas to become a thought leader I think is very interesting, you know. Um, a a 33:30 33 minutes, 30 seconds very interesting uh I’m trying to think of how to say this, but like a 33:37 33 minutes, 37 seconds I think everybody can do that, right? You don’t even have to be an experienced person. You can be a young professional and still be a thought 33:45 33 minutes, 45 seconds leader because maybe you did learn something in your studies or in one of your roles that allows you to share that information with other people so they 33:53 33 minutes, 53 seconds can get better because there is going to be new innovation constantly happening. 33:59 33 minutes, 59 seconds I mean, listen, my kids are teaching me stuff all the time. How not to be cringey, first of all. 34:04 34 minutes, 4 seconds Well, and it’s like we when we say thought leadership, it could sound intimidating. Yeah. Really, it’s what’s your point of view? Yes. 34:11 34 minutes, 11 seconds You know what I mean? And like I um I started off, you know, LinkedIn came around when maybe I don’t know when it was, but I was trying to make my break 34:20 34 minutes, 20 seconds into the industry and all that. And every single person I encountered, hey, connect with me on LinkedIn, connect with me on LinkedIn, connect with me on LinkedIn. and then suddenly suddenly you 34:28 34 minutes, 28 seconds have a lot thousands of followers more than many executives in this industry right like you know okay well you just built this network um there’s nothing 34:36 34 minutes, 36 seconds stopping from students because you could be a thought leader of your segment of students of emerging talent of management or whatever it is um and you 34:44 34 minutes, 44 seconds know the ROI can become a little clearer when you’re a founder or an executive trying to make business but the 34:51 34 minutes, 51 seconds long-term professional development it’s kind of like well I have a job now or I’m going to do an event in a few years. 34:59 34 minutes, 59 seconds I need to make some calls. You want to be visible in this industry and I don’t I don’t think anybody in here would say I’m not visible in the industry. Um but then people have never heard of you, you 35:07 35 minutes, 7 seconds know, which is interesting. So, well, you know what’s interesting about you to me is 35:14 35 minutes, 14 seconds you always seem so fun. Before I knew you, I was like, “This person just seems so fun.” And like, so it isn’t just the 35:21 35 minutes, 21 seconds ideas that you were putting out. It was also like that vibe that you’re giving that I think is is is interesting that people the impression that people have 35:29 35 minutes, 29 seconds of you when you put yourself out right and because of that because I was like this person seems really fun. I’ve always wanted to get to know you for 35:37 35 minutes, 37 seconds that reason because I don’t know if you know this, I have a saying like I just want to go do cool stuff with cool people, right? 35:43 35 minutes, 43 seconds So, I am looking for people that are one getting the work done, but also having fun where they do it. And I don’t know, 35:53 35 minutes, 53 seconds I I think there’s maybe the there’s maybe some people out there that don’t believe that work should be fun, but like if I’m going to spend like 36:00 36 minutes majority of my life working, I want it to be fun. Well, and especially when you’re, you know, you’re tackling 36:08 36 minutes, 8 seconds something about your personal story and trying to figure out is this of interest. I was talking to one of my 36:15 36 minutes, 15 seconds clients the other day and they’re like, because there’s a whole process we do where we talk and they’re like, you know, they they came out of their show working at Disneyland in the 80s. 36:23 36 minutes, 23 seconds I was like, that’s so cool. Like, oh my gosh, you were doing this this. And of course, I relate to it very much because I used to work in operations and things like that. And you know there’s so many 36:32 36 minutes, 32 seconds interesting stories to tell um with that and coming out of it. Now we have a question I would love we can ask answer this. 36:40 36 minutes, 40 seconds Yeah this is a great question so I can read it from Brian. I don’t know how to pronounce that last name if you do. 36:49 36 minutes, 49 seconds All right Brian. Thank you. Question. 36:51 36 minutes, 51 seconds Just say Brian. Brian. And then you got to tell us how to say that last name. 36:56 36 minutes, 56 seconds Yeah. Brian Sloowski. I apologize if I if I go what makes an organization or individual worth following on LinkedIn rather than 37:02 37 minutes, 2 seconds simply visible. So this is an interesting thing I’m going to tell you. 37:08 37 minutes, 8 seconds The algorithms kind of choose who shows up in your algorithm and in your feedback loop and what you see. So 37:17 37 minutes, 17 seconds LinkedIn is making that decision. Um, so like you could follow me, you could follow Sandre, you could follow all these people and it might up your chances of seeing our content, but if 37:26 37 minutes, 26 seconds our content isn’t engaging enough, you’re not going to see it. Um, so that I I don’t I don’t know if that really answered your question or was very 37:33 37 minutes, 33 seconds satisfying. Um, but hopefully that helped out a little bit. Did they do you think that was the right answer to that question or did I misinterpret it in 37:41 37 minutes, 41 seconds some way? Well, I think that’s a good answer because I think that is something that they that people need to be aware of is that the algorithms do exist and 37:48 37 minutes, 48 seconds they are going to uh influence how content is being shared and received, right? But also I think you know one of 37:57 37 minutes, 57 seconds the things that I personally feel cuz I see a lot of people doing the thing right they’re putting out 38:05 38 minutes, 5 seconds content but you know for me I feel like if if the organization or the individual if 38:12 38 minutes, 12 seconds it’s highly transactional like to me that’s that’s maybe the difference between 38:19 38 minutes, 19 seconds being just there and visible and then offering something to people like that’s I say all the time like selfishly I love doing this show because I’m learning from you. 38:31 38 minutes, 31 seconds Yeah. 38:31 38 minutes, 31 seconds Actually that’s what the founder of my company when he first hired me that he used to say to me. He was like you’re a sponge. [clears throat] Anybody shares 38:39 38 minutes, 39 seconds information with you, you’re they’re in trouble because you’re going to remember it all. And I do you know and I and I love that. I love this that I’ve created 38:47 38 minutes, 47 seconds because I do get to speak to experts like you. And I think that because of that, I also have a duty to share it and 38:55 38 minutes, 55 seconds so people can also learn from it. And I appreciate people like you coming on the show to share their expertise because you have something that could really 39:04 39 minutes, 4 seconds help people. I know a lot of business owners and CEOs that are not doing this right now and I’m trying to sell them on it, but they see me and all the pictures 39:13 39 minutes, 13 seconds and all the things and they’re like, I can’t possibly do that. 39:18 39 minutes, 18 seconds But they have to because of where I think business is going. Don’t you agree? 39:24 39 minutes, 24 seconds Yeah. It’s like a it’s a chicken under the egg, right? Like I want business to get the ROI, but I don’t have the time to do it. And so that’s why it’s like, 39:32 39 minutes, 32 seconds okay, can you invest in bringing in people that can help you do it, right? because that’s that’s kind of what I do is okay, 39:40 39 minutes, 40 seconds we’re gonna we’re gonna, you know, we we’re very reasonable at how much time it takes from executives and founders to make it all happen and and kind of turnkey the whole thing. 39:49 39 minutes, 49 seconds Um, so it’s it’s it’s like how do you convince them it’s viable, right? How do you how is this make it worth your while? 39:56 39 minutes, 56 seconds And then also, which is important because this is the missing key. Okay, we have visibility, but does that convert or are these actually being 40:04 40 minutes, 4 seconds connections that I can connect with and do that? And it does require work because I’m I’m not going to go in and you know, we can’t you can’t impersonate somebody. Your business development 40:11 40 minutes, 11 seconds person can go so far, but really they want to get to know you, but how do we get that to a manageable thing for somebody to do? Okay, I’m glad we we answered Brian. Brian said very helpful. 40:21 40 minutes, 21 seconds Thank you, Sandre and Pat. I’m glad we got that because I was I wasn’t sure if I interpreted right. 40:26 40 minutes, 26 seconds Well, and I like what you’re saying though about and and you know what, please finish and I’ll I’ll share that. 40:33 40 minutes, 33 seconds No, no, no. I think I wrapped it up. No, you’re good. Yeah. You know, I think I think what’s really interesting to me about this whole thing about being 40:40 40 minutes, 40 seconds visible and knowing if you should be out there is um you know, I I think businesses are going to have to especially with AI. 40:50 40 minutes, 50 seconds Like we haven’t really talked a lot about AI, but I know AI is a big part of the conversation. There’s so much digital information that is now be and 40:58 40 minutes, 58 seconds content that’s being generated by AI, including clones. Look, there are full clones doing shows. I’m I’m not going to 41:05 41 minutes, 5 seconds lie. I even look at like cloning myself because a clone can create more content than what I could possibly ever do. It doesn’t have to have its makeup done. 41:14 41 minutes, 14 seconds You know what I mean? 41:15 41 minutes, 15 seconds And it would be locked in time at this age that I am. But at the same time, 41:23 41 minutes, 23 seconds it’s not human and people buy from people. People have relationships with people, 41:30 41 minutes, 30 seconds right? So, I’m very torn by this whole idea, even though I think it’s a very cool concept and and and and and amazed by what we can do today with technology. 41:40 41 minutes, 40 seconds But I think that’s a big thing that I hope that a lot of people listening understand is like when we when you know 41:48 41 minutes, 48 seconds because I’ve had people tell me like, “Oh, you’re oversharing. 41:51 41 minutes, 51 seconds It’s too much.” You know, and to me, I just kind of ignore that kind of stuff anyways. But yeah, because anybody who would tell me that 41:58 41 minutes, 58 seconds it’s too much doesn’t understand the size of my goals, right? Yeah. 42:05 42 minutes, 5 seconds And I know that that’s something that concerns people watching this today. Like, is it going to be too much? 42:11 42 minutes, 11 seconds Or could anybody possibly want to hear from me all the time? But what they don’t realize is people do want to hear from them, especially if they’re leading companies and they are brands that 42:20 42 minutes, 20 seconds people need to engage with and understand and get to know. And I do think and and and please correct me if I’m wrong, but I think the future of 42:27 42 minutes, 27 seconds business is going to be personal and corporate, you know, personal brands working side by side with company brands because we’re going to want to know that you’re a human. 42:38 42 minutes, 38 seconds Yeah. Well, let me let me touch on a AI and then if I forget to talk about the last thing you said about personal 42:45 42 minutes, 45 seconds branding and let me know. So, okay. You know, we know AI is a hot topic, right? 42:50 42 minutes, 50 seconds And yes, um admittedly the software I built there was I I used to build it because I had ideas what I wanted to build and then Okay, 42:58 42 minutes, 58 seconds so there we go. It’s a to I I see it as a tool. When it comes to AI writing and 43:06 43 minutes, 6 seconds being able to tell your story, um, I find it people can detect things that are just strict AI schlop on your 43:15 43 minutes, 15 seconds posts or whatever, but that point of view is the most important thing. 43:20 43 minutes, 20 seconds Yes. Because you know look if an executive is listening to me right now and they say I want to post on on LinkedIn and they don’t know where to 43:28 43 minutes, 28 seconds get started say yeah go go go to cloud go to open AI talk into the thing and tell them a story and then say hey write a LinkedIn why not try it out see how it 43:35 43 minutes, 35 seconds goes um there’s a lot in the mornings that happen with that but it’s better than not posting and if you’re getting your point of view in there and it’s 43:43 43 minutes, 43 seconds interesting and there’s a moral to your story good but I don’t know if AI can really do all that right AI is not going optimize AI is not going to understand 43:52 43 minutes, 52 seconds all that now at least right you had to hedge your bet on that like at least now I don’t you know it’s not going to do that um but I used AI effectively what 43:59 43 minutes, 59 seconds happened in my business is start off with a few early clients realized that a lot of my time was just managing 44:06 44 minutes, 6 seconds approvals and this thing and discussions and and things that like okay I can I can handle this through AI and and build a software program to do this and it and 44:14 44 minutes, 14 seconds it made it me more efficient so I can bring my prices down so that was good for the customers it was good for me and then was gotten a lot more organized out that software. Um, if any business 44:23 44 minutes, 23 seconds leader is not using AI in some way that they have to, right? You have to use the latest tool, you know, and I I see it. 44:30 44 minutes, 30 seconds Um, I’m not going to say it’s a direct correlation, but it’s the same thing that happened when, you know, Adobe Illustrator was invented, Photoshop is, you know, it was all heresy and it made 44:38 44 minutes, 38 seconds things more efficient. Um, now if you’re just going in there and creating an AI image, now we’re talking maybe a little bit different. You know, there’s a lot 44:45 44 minutes, 45 seconds of other tools you can use, but you have to use AI. There are ways to use AI to then focus more on your storytelling 44:53 44 minutes, 53 seconds when it comes to your personal brand that I wanted to talk about. Not knowing what to say, right? Not knowing if I’m important enough and all that. That’s 45:01 45 minutes, 1 second that’s the writer’s block. That’s like the I’m so entrenched in this. I’m so entrenched in the other thing. But what a missed opportunity, right? 45:09 45 minutes, 9 seconds Yeah. Like you can’t afford not to do that. 45:12 45 minutes, 12 seconds And in regards to oversharing, you have to do what’s comfortable for you. you know, what would you share at a business dinner, a business lunch? We all know how we all get personal with people, you 45:21 45 minutes, 21 seconds know, out in the world when we’re at dinners and things like that. Whether it’s comfortable for you to share that to that knowledge or or what level, that’s okay. It’s up to the personal, 45:30 45 minutes, 30 seconds you know, the personal person’s um thought. But with me, everything I do when I help people, right, is like, let’s have a strategy behind it. Let’s have what are you trying to share to the 45:38 45 minutes, 38 seconds world? What’s your core pillars? We call them pillars of what you want to share out there and help them share it. and through a through line repeat, you know, 45:46 45 minutes, 46 seconds repeatedly over time. So, um there’s a lot to it, but if you’re if you’re if you’re worried about oversharing or undersharing, underssharing, you know, 45:54 45 minutes, 54 seconds you’re that’s the worst thing you can do, right? You want to be sharing. You want to be doing that. Um particularly if you have a lot to gain from it, which founders, executives do. 46:03 46 minutes, 3 seconds Yeah. Well, I feel like a lot of times the the voices or the people who say like, “Oh, you’re, you know, aren’t you worried about oversharing or it’s too 46:11 46 minutes, 11 seconds much?” I do think that’s like to me I always say like those are the haters, right? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you’re going to have those too. 46:18 46 minutes, 18 seconds And that’s something. Are you doing okay on time? Cuz I uh Okay, this is so good 46:25 46 minutes, 25 seconds what you’re saying. And I do think like um I I think maybe one of the things that people are afraid of is, 46:34 46 minutes, 34 seconds you know, what that might look like for them with regards to am I going to have I’m just going to call them haters, okay? cuz 46:43 46 minutes, 43 seconds yeah, just for the sake of this conversation, but it could be just anybody who’s just not really uh aligned with whatever your 46:50 46 minutes, 50 seconds big goal is. Cuz that’s that’s to me I I don’t necessarily think that everybody’s hating, but I do think that they don’t maybe understand the goal. 46:58 46 minutes, 58 seconds And if I’m being completely real, it’s more likely that my grandma is going to say it’s too much than somebody I’m working next, you know, working alongside, right? Like cuz she doesn’t understand, right? 47:08 47 minutes, 8 seconds she just sees, you know, all that’s happening on the internet maybe. But that being said, I mean, do you feel 47:15 47 minutes, 15 seconds like a lot of people who are hesitant in taking these steps are afraid of maybe what the public would think about them 47:22 47 minutes, 22 seconds when they put themselves out there? And if that is the a common thing, um maybe that it is 47:30 47 minutes, 30 seconds holding them back, you know, how would you help them overcome that? 47:34 47 minutes, 34 seconds Yeah. I mean, I I think that it’s like I’ll be to use Yelp. There’s a lot of selection bias on Yelp. You have the five star reviews and you have the one 47:42 47 minutes, 42 seconds star reviews. Your grandma’s going to give you the one star review. Hey, you’re posting a lot. And that’s happened with people because it’s a jarring thing. Oh, suddenly I’m seeing this person all of a sudden, right? 47:50 47 minutes, 50 seconds But then three months down the line, you’re in a you’re in a conference and I’m sure you have this happen all the time. 47:55 47 minutes, 55 seconds Hey, I know you’re from LinkedIn. I see your post. I love them. Right? So, for every one person that’s like, “Oh, interesting. They’re popping up more.” 48:03 48 minutes, 3 seconds are the others that are being visible too, right? So, yeah, that’s that’s normal. And I I think that it’s like it’s about having the audacity, right? 48:13 48 minutes, 13 seconds So, if you founded a company or you’re an executive, you are a lot of audacity to get where you are. 48:20 48 minutes, 20 seconds And there’s a lot of like a little bit of stigma around like influencers and oh, they’re just influencers or this that the other thing. Not that it’s so 48:26 48 minutes, 26 seconds much on LinkedIn, but like no, you are an interesting person. It’s you like I don’t want to say you owe the industry, 48:34 48 minutes, 34 seconds but the industry would be better if you were able to share your insights and your knowledge. Yes. And if we had more cross-pollination across the industry 48:42 48 minutes, 42 seconds from the different vendors, the different attractions and our learnings because why not? Because not everyone’s in direct competition to each other. 48:48 48 minutes, 48 seconds And imagine what would happen if I knew more about a vendor, I knew more about an attraction and their needs because, you know, as somebody who’s worked in 48:55 48 minutes, 55 seconds Crave Development, Crave director, I’ll use that. I’ll remember that. Oh, okay. 49:00 49 minutes Interesting. I I saw so many posts from a fabrication company that when we get this type of scope or this, you know, this directive, it’s really difficult or 49:08 49 minutes, 8 seconds it could have been done better, you know what I mean? Like why don’t we share? 49:11 49 minutes, 11 seconds And LinkedIn’s a great place for that, you know, and it’s interesting and and uh you know, and all that. 49:18 49 minutes, 18 seconds Well, I I love that. I love that you’re coming from a place of abundance of sharing, right? Like and getting to know people. People do want to know you. 49:28 49 minutes, 28 seconds I mean, I do I want to know other people. This is one also one of the reasons I love doing this show. I love getting to know people and I love knowing who can help someone else. 49:39 49 minutes, 39 seconds Yeah. 49:39 49 minutes, 39 seconds Right. It’s really important in our industry is is understand and and what a better way to get to know how you can help somebody than getting to interview 49:48 49 minutes, 48 seconds you and and hear from you and learn from you. Um well, since we’re bumping up against time, you you have to come back 49:56 49 minutes, 56 seconds because I think we could do a whole other show. I have so many more questions that I think you can help people with, 50:04 50 minutes, 4 seconds especially in our industry with regards to understanding, you know, what is all this about, you know? Um, and and I do want to say one thing 50:11 50 minutes, 11 seconds before we before we wrap up here. I got really nervous in the beginning, just like everybody else. Like I’m I I don’t even know that I would consider myself an extrovert. 50:21 50 minutes, 21 seconds Yeah. 50:22 50 minutes, 22 seconds This show has helped me in a lot of ways. And when we started this show, I was really nervous about thought I thought it was a crazy idea. I I I look 50:29 50 minutes, 29 seconds back at that all the time like it was one of the best ideas we ever had, but it was a crazy idea at the time to me 50:36 50 minutes, 36 seconds and a lot to wrap my head around and I really just had to jump in, right? Like just jump into it. But when I knew that 50:45 50 minutes, 45 seconds I was doing the right thing was like you said at I would go to events and I cannot tell you how many people have 50:52 50 minutes, 52 seconds said to me, “This helped me.” Yeah. 50:56 50 minutes, 56 seconds And if you’re watching this and you’re wondering, should I be creating content? 51:00 51 minutes There are so many people that you are probably missing out on helping because of the fear of of what you’re talking about, but they also can find people 51:09 51 minutes, 9 seconds like you who can help them get started with it, right? Yep. Who learn the ways. 51:14 51 minutes, 14 seconds Well, and that’s the interesting thing is like when I do my like calls with the executives and people, I say, “Let’s just have a conversation and we’re going 51:22 51 minutes, 22 seconds to talk.” It’s like almost like a podcast. Like imagine you’re filming a podcast, you know, recording a podcast and then from there we get the content to then, you know, go out into the 51:31 51 minutes, 31 seconds world. And I mean, and I got to say, you know, for people who are in our industry, I apping 51:38 51 minutes, 38 seconds on LinkedIn, you have nowhere to begin, you know, it you you should be doing it right now. Like getting out there um because it takes time for accounts to be 51:46 51 minutes, 46 seconds kind of what’s called like warmed up where you’re out there and you’re being visible and you’re sharing it. And the other thing is it’s like it’s like working out or trying to lose weight. 51:53 51 minutes, 53 seconds I’m not sure if you’ve ever been on a weight loss journey before, but it’s takes time to see the results, right? 51:59 51 minutes, 59 seconds There’s no quick ROI, quick this, quick that. Oh, I had this. It’s it takes time, but when you make that investment of your time and you know, and getting 52:08 52 minutes, 8 seconds help if you need it, it pays off over the long term. 52:12 52 minutes, 12 seconds And and I would say even like how often do you you know somebody and you worked with them before and they 52:19 52 minutes, 19 seconds come back to you saying, “Oh, I saw this thing that you posted.” And then that’s a potential another, you know, business for you, right? Like that wouldn’t have happened without LinkedIn or without your social media presence in the show. 52:29 52 minutes, 29 seconds So, it’s important. 52:30 52 minutes, 30 seconds Yeah, it is important. And the good news is is that when you’re first getting started, and maybe it is a little cringey in the beginning, right? 52:39 52 minutes, 39 seconds Because it is. You’re learning. Yeah. 52:41 52 minutes, 41 seconds You don’t have the visibility that you have when you start getting better. Yeah. 52:46 52 minutes, 46 seconds Which is why you have to just start, right? like you’re saying. 52:52 52 minutes, 52 seconds Well, and I and I would say if you’re a business development person that has a founder that’s what you’re reporting to, you need to get them to be posting on 52:59 52 minutes, 59 seconds LinkedIn because business development people, they they’re sales people. 53:03 53 minutes, 3 seconds They’re not the product, right? So, there’s a bit of a there’s a bit of a, you know, tension there. You know what I mean? Like that’s that’s where 53:10 53 minutes, 10 seconds there’s a there’s a whole thing that can flow. And as somebody like I said, I’ll say this just a quick little thing. like you know I’ve started a business before and I’m sold to build a gold good goods and I 53:19 53 minutes, 19 seconds know what it can feel like to work with people who don’t perform or over you know over you know they overcommit they don’t deliver I try to not make that 53:26 53 minutes, 26 seconds happen like I want to be realistic with people and and help them be their best selves and do the work help them coach them through that whole like business 53:35 53 minutes, 35 seconds personal training kind of thing so that’s what it’s all about well Patrick this is such an awesome conversation yes I’m going to tell Maria 53:43 53 minutes, 43 seconds our producer that we need to have you back because I think I have like 50 more questions for you. Yeah, of course. 53:49 53 minutes, 49 seconds Um and and I’m sure the audience with feedback, we’re going to have more questions after people watch the show, but if anyone watching or listening 53:58 53 minutes, 58 seconds would like to get a hold of you and learn more about VI Studios, the Big Break Foundation, everything that you’re building, what uh what’s the best place for them to find you? 54:08 54 minutes, 8 seconds Yeah, LinkedIn’s great, right? I mean, obviously um Patrick Clling on LinkedIn. I’m sure I’ll pop up and you’ll see me. 54:14 54 minutes, 14 seconds you can send me a DM if you want to talk further about it. Um, and that’s the best place to follow me on is on LinkedIn. So, 54:21 54 minutes, 21 seconds I love that. I was I was like, why am I even asking this? Because I’m pretty sure you’re gonna say LinkedIn [laughter] is the best place to go. 54:28 54 minutes, 28 seconds And I and I will be honest with you, I haven’t I went on a vacation and I haven’t posted in a few weeks and now I feel totally out of sync. So, like I’m saying, hey, it’s important to post on 54:36 54 minutes, 36 seconds LinkedIn. So, if you go to my latest post, I don’t even know how long it was ago because I went on some vacations and got sidetracked and other things, but post on LinkedIn. It’s important. 54:46 54 minutes, 46 seconds Yeah. No, I appreciate you being here and I appreciate what you’re teaching all of us and supporting leaders through this time where we need to be visible 54:54 54 minutes, 54 seconds and understand that visibility isn’t vanity, right? Like I think that’s the other thing a lot of people are afraid of and and you’re helping them 55:02 55 minutes, 2 seconds understand that there is a a real strategy to this. 55:07 55 minutes, 7 seconds Well, and if you if you you know if you invest your time and resources into making sure that you have a great content strategy and it lands you a huge 55:14 55 minutes, 14 seconds client, what what are we even talking about here, right? This was just it needed to happen. It’s another channel of business um that people need to be doing or they’re doing themselves a disservice. 55:25 55 minutes, 25 seconds Well, thank you again for being here and like I said, we’re going to get you back so we can keep going with this conversation, help people out. 55:32 55 minutes, 32 seconds Um, but yeah, so I will see you in November, right? 55:37 55 minutes, 37 seconds Yep. I’ll I’ll I’ll see you in November at AOPADS. 55:40 55 minutes, 40 seconds All right, Patrick, I’ll see you in November. 55:44 55 minutes, 44 seconds All right, guys. So, I hope you enjoyed that conversation as much as I did. And I genuinely mean this that there is so 55:51 55 minutes, 51 seconds much more that I would love to ask Patrick with regards to this strategy because I can firsthand say that content 55:59 55 minutes, 59 seconds has been a great way for me to build relationships and an incredible way to meet people to start conversations like 56:07 56 minutes, 7 seconds this. conversations that I probably would never have had and really like conversations that I would never have had because, you know, it’s hard to be 56:16 56 minutes, 16 seconds brave and put yourself out there like this. And and yeah, I mean it when I say like I knew I was doing the right thing 56:23 56 minutes, 23 seconds when people would come to me and say, “I learned this from your show or you helped me 56:30 56 minutes, 30 seconds be bolder in this part of my life or business um because you were willing to share.” And yeah, I just think that 56:39 56 minutes, 39 seconds every everybody out there on LinkedIn has something to share and there’s people that need to know you. And so I kind of want to leave it at that today. 56:47 56 minutes, 47 seconds But before I finish up, I just want you to know that technology should help us do more of the work that actually matters. And that is exactly why at 56:57 56 minutes, 57 seconds Gatemaster, we are building the next generation of attraction software. And we’re building towards becoming the 57:04 57 minutes, 4 seconds operating system for the attractions industry. Not another piece of software that has to have a team manage it. We’re 57:12 57 minutes, 12 seconds building quite the opposite. One connected operating platform designed to reduce fragmentation, 57:19 57 minutes, 19 seconds connect your data, automate repetitive work, and give people a clearer picture of what’s happening across their entire 57:27 57 minutes, 27 seconds operation. Because the future isn’t humans or technologies, excuse me, human or technology. It’s 57:36 57 minutes, 36 seconds humans using technology and working alongside technology to become better at 57:43 57 minutes, 43 seconds the things. Humans are uniquely good at building relationships like we talked about today, creating experiences, solving problems, and telling stories. 57:55 57 minutes, 55 seconds And I hope you can apply some of Patrick’s philosophies to your content and we’re going to be applying it to or 58:02 58 minutes, 2 seconds apply it to the attractions and our operations. And I think ultimately where technology becomes really powerful is 58:12 58 minutes, 12 seconds that it doesn’t replace people, it just gives people more. And so I hope today’s show 58:21 58 minutes, 21 seconds is helpful. I enjoyed having you all here with us today. If you have any questions or any comments, if you’re watching this on replay, please be sure 58:29 58 minutes, 29 seconds to hashtag replay so that we know you are here. And if you’re watching on YouTube 58:36 58 minutes, 36 seconds or if you’re watching, actually, if you’re watching anywhere, head over to our new YouTube page. We’re trying to build up the content that we have there and continue to create this content. 58:46 58 minutes, 46 seconds It’s also a great place for you to see past episodes. 58:50 58 minutes, 50 seconds and give us a like and share with a friend. If you’re listening on one of the podcast networks, thank you for being here with us today. Thank you for 58:59 58 minutes, 59 seconds spending your time. Uh I can’t think of a better uh you know, a better compliment than 59:05 59 minutes, 5 seconds knowing that you are all out there listening. And if you’ve got an idea for a future show, feel free to visit us at livewithsandre.com. 59:17 59 minutes, 17 seconds We’d love to hear from you. And until next time, be great.