Good Girls Get Rich | LinkedIn Strategy for Accomplished Women

Your parents had pensions. You have a business. Nobody has ever asked you what it's worth, and you've never asked either, because it's a job you own, not an asset you built. This week that changes.

Andrea Johnston founded Pure Communications, grew it from a one-woman firm into an integrated marketing partner for biotech and pharma, sold it to a private-equity-backed platform, grew it again, and sold again. Now she runs Fuel for Female Founders. She walked Karen through how to build a sellable business even if you never sell it, because the things buyers check are the things that make a business worth owning.

In this episode:

• The four things a buyer looks at in a founder-led business: client concentration, margin, systems, and team
• Why "if it's still all on your shoulders, you're an employee, not a business owner"
• Why an exit doesn't have to mean an exit, and why women should think about being buyers too
• Karen's "sell it in five years" conversation with her accountant, and what it changed
• Do, delegate, drop: scaling your life to keep pace with your business

Your homework: say to your accountant, or to yourself, "treat everything I do as if I'm selling this business in five years." Then circle the one thing on the four-item list that would scare a buyer off today. That's your Q4 project.

Resources mentioned: Fuel for Female Founders https://www.fuelforfemalefounders.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/fuel-for-female-founders/

Ready to get seen, known, and chosen by the people who open the bigger doors? Watch the free Borrow the Stage masterclass!

Magical Quotes From The Episode:

"If it's still all on your shoulders, then you're just an employee. You're not a business owner." - Andrea Johnston

"Margin is really where the magic happens for buyers." - Andrea Johnston

"I'm not going to say it's the same as a pension, but it is an alternative to a pension." - Karen Yankovich

Help Us Spread The Word!

It would be awesome if you shared the Good Girls Get Rich Podcast with your fellow entrepreneurs on Twitter. Click here to tweet some love!

If this episode has taught you just one thing, I would love if you could head on over to Apple Podcasts and SUBSCRIBE TO THE SHOW! And if you're moved to, kindly leave us a rating and review. Maybe you'll get a shout out on the show!

Ways to Subscribe to Good Girls Get Rich:

• Click here to subscribe via Apple Podcasts
• Click here to subscribe via PlayerFM
• Good Girls Get Rich is also on Spotify
• Take a listen on Podcast Addict

Somebody you know is in a room right now. A board meeting, a group text, a conference hallway. And somebody just asked, "Do you know anyone who..." and described exactly what you do. Your friend has five seconds and no notes. What comes out of her mouth decides whether you get the call.

This week we sort what people actually say about you when you're not there, and build the one sentence that gets your name said with a reason attached. Last week the buyer at least had your headline in front of her. This week she's never heard of you, and everything depends on what somebody else can say about you from memory.

In this episode: - The five rooms where referrals really happen (and the newest one, with nobody in it) - The four piles: label, compliment, call, old job, and why your biggest pile is probably the least useful - Why nobody has ever asked "who do you know that's phenomenal?" - The three-step build: steal their words, put them in the frame, test it - Four places your sentence goes this week, including the intro everybody skips

Homework: one text to three well-connected people. "This is what I'm telling people now: [your sentence]. Who's one person who should hear it?"

Resources mentioned: Episode 394, the buyer's-chair game: www.karenyankovich.com/394?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=shownotes&utm_content=395 Episode 388, getting found when someone looks you up: https://karenyankovich.com/optimize-linkedin-profile-google-search/?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=shownotes&utm_content=395

Once you've got your sentence, the next question is how to get it into bigger rooms. That's the free Borrow the Stage masterclass, on demand: https://sheslinkedup.com/masterclass?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=shownotes&utm_content=395

Magical Quotes From The Episode:

"You don't have to be in the room, but your sentence does."

"The vaguer you are, the riskier you are to recommend."

"Your marketing language is what you wish people would say. Their words are what they'll really say."

Help Us Spread The Word!

It would be awesome if you shared the Good Girls Get Rich Podcast with your fellow entrepreneurs on Twitter. Click here to tweet some love!

If this episode has taught you just one thing, I would love if you could head on over to Apple Podcasts and SUBSCRIBE TO THE SHOW! And if you're moved to, kindly leave us a rating and review. Maybe you'll get a shout out on the show!

Ways to Subscribe to Good Girls Get Rich:

• Click here to subscribe via Apple Podcasts
• Click here to subscribe via PlayerFM
• Good Girls Get Rich is also on Spotify
• Take a listen on Podcast Addict

You have twenty-two years of experience. She has eight. She got the engagement, and it took the client about four seconds to decide.

In this episode Karen Yankovich puts you in the buyer's chair to show you why. You'll hire one of two consultants, refer one of them to a friend, and then read your own LinkedIn headline the way a stranger with one problem would. Then you'll get the one sentence that makes you easy to pick, and three checks to run it through.

In this episode:

• The four-second hiring test, and why the more qualified consultant never makes the short list
• Why referrals go to the person a friend can describe in a single text
• Category first, credentials second: how buyers really choose
• How to write your "What is she for?" sentence, with three checks
• Why writing a paragraph instead of a sentence is useful information, and what to do with it

Your homework: Text three people who know your work and ask, "Quick question, no wrong answer. If someone asked you what I do, what would you tell them?" Don't hint. Keep what comes back. You'll need it next week. Once you have your sentence, the next question is where to say it so it travels. Watch the FREE Borrow the Stage masterclass.

Resources Mentioned In The Episode:

• FREE Borrow the Stage masterclass
• Episode 390: "Never Speak for Free" Is Keeping You Off Stages
• Episode 393: What Do You Charge? How to Answer Without Flinching

Magical Quotes From The Episode:

"They don't hire the most qualified. They hire the easiest to cast."

"The list isn't wrong. It's just in the wrong place."

"Nobody decided against her. She just never came up."

Help Us Spread The Word!

It would be awesome if you shared the Good Girls Get Rich Podcast with your fellow entrepreneurs on Twitter. Click here to tweet some love!

If this episode has taught you just one thing, I would love if you could head on over to Apple Podcasts and SUBSCRIBE TO THE SHOW! And if you're moved to, kindly leave us a rating and review. Maybe you'll get a shout out on the show!

Ways to Subscribe to Good Girls Get Rich:

• Click here to subscribe via Apple Podcasts
• Click here to subscribe via PlayerFM
• Good Girls Get Rich is also on Spotify
• Take a listen on Podcast Addict

She leans in and asks, "So, what do you charge?" You say a number lower than the one you practiced in the car. Then, before she's said a word, you add, "But I'm flexible."

Nobody asked you to be flexible. In this episode Karen Yankovich explains why that flinch is a hallway problem: it comes from what the prospect saw about you before the call ever started. You'll get the exact sentence for stating your rate, what to do with the silence after it, and what to say when someone tells you it's too expensive.

In this episode: - Why women who negotiated budgets for 20 years still discount their own rate - The hallway: what a prospect looks at in the ten minutes before your call, and how it puts a number in her head - The three things on your hallway walls: your profile, your borrowed stages, and visible respect from your peers - The rate sentence: the number, what it includes, then silence - Why you move the scope when someone needs flexibility, and never the price alone

Your homework: open an incognito window, search your name, click through to your LinkedIn profile, and spend ten minutes walking your own hallway the way a prospect would. Write down the number that hallway supports and the one thing you'd fix on your profile to raise it. Then post it on LinkedIn and tell Karen.

Resources Mentioned In The Episode:

• Build the hallway that backs up your number. The free Borrow the Stage masterclass is on demand: https://karenyankovich.com/masterclass?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=shownotes&utm_content=393
• Episode 392, How to Turn Free Advice Into Paying Clients: https://karenyankovich.com/392 - Episode 390, on getting paid to speak: https://karenyankovich.com/390
• Episode 388, How to Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile for Google Search: https://karenyankovich.com/388

Magical Quotes From The Episode:

"That's not a confidence problem. That's a hallway problem."

"The silence is her doing the math, and she's allowed to do math."

"The prospect who needed your number to be lower was never going to be the client who valued your work."

Help Us Spread The Word!

It would be awesome if you shared the Good Girls Get Rich Podcast with your fellow entrepreneurs on Twitter. Click here to tweet some love!

If this episode has taught you just one thing, I would love if you could head on over to Apple Podcasts and SUBSCRIBE TO THE SHOW! And if you're moved to, kindly leave us a rating and review. Maybe you'll get a shout out on the show!

Ways to Subscribe to Good Girls Get Rich:

• Click here to subscribe via Apple Podcasts
• Click here to subscribe via PlayerFM
• Good Girls Get Rich is also on Spotify
• Take a listen on Podcast Addict

She said, "This was so helpful." You said, "So glad." Three weeks later she announced she'd hired someone else, and that person isn't better at the work than you are.

You didn't get outsold. You paid the Good Girl Tax, the old rule that says you can be as helpful as you like as long as you're never the one who brings up money. In this episode Karen Yankovich gives you the exact sentence to say the moment someone tells you "this was so helpful," plus the message that revives a conversation that already went quiet. Neither one has a price in it, and neither one is a pitch.

In this episode:

• Why goodness is never the problem, and what the Good Girl Tax really is
• Why Chosen is the one rung of Seen, Known, Chosen where the tax shows up
• Why the more accomplished you are, the more every free hour costs you
• The restaurant check: a better picture of what the ask is
• The sentence for the live call and the revival message for the quiet thread

Your homework: find one conversation from the last 90 days where someone said some version of "this was so helpful" and money never came up. Send the revival message this week. One message, one person. Then tell us you sent it in the LinkedIn for Women Community.

Resources Mentioned In The Episode:

• Borrow the Stage masterclass (free, on demand)
• LinkedIn for Women Community on Facebook

If the work was never the gap and what's missing is the visibility and the ask, the free Borrow the Stage masterclass is the next step. Get seen on stages that already exist, get known by the right people, and get chosen without being gross about it.

Good Girls Get Rich is hosted by Karen Yankovich, LinkedIn and PR strategist and founder of She's LinkedUp. If this one helped, follow the show wherever you are listening and leave a rating - it is how other women find us. Connect with Karen on LinkedIn and tell her you are a listener.

Magical Quotes From The Episode:

"This is not a skills gap. Nobody listening to this needs sales training. You need permission and you need a sentence."

"The check isn't the interruption. The check is how the meal ends."

"The sending is the win. The reply is her job. The ask was yours."

Help Us Spread The Word!

It would be awesome if you shared the Good Girls Get Rich Podcast with your fellow entrepreneurs on Twitter. Click here to tweet some love!

If this episode has taught you just one thing, I would love if you could head on over to Apple Podcasts and SUBSCRIBE TO THE SHOW! And if you're moved to, kindly leave us a rating and review. Maybe you'll get a shout out on the show!

Ways to Subscribe to Good Girls Get Rich:

• Click here to subscribe via Apple Podcasts
• Click here to subscribe via PlayerFM
• Good Girls Get Rich is also on Spotify
• Take a listen on Podcast Addict

She accepted your connection request four days ago. The message box has been open in a tab ev

In this episode, Karen Yankovich breaks down the warm open: the one-sentence, zero-ask messag

In this episode:

- Why "thanks for connecting" is the same as sending nothing

- The three things every warm open needs: a real reason, a specific detail, and zero ask

- The 50-people test that separates a warm open from polite spam

- What to do when there's no reason to reach out (yet)

- Why "later in the year" is an appointment nobody put on your calendar - and how holding the

Your homework is one message. Find one person who said yes to you and got silence back - a we

Resources Mentioned In The Episode:

Ready for the whole system - how to find stages, get on them, and turn one room into the next four? Grab Karen's free Borrow the Stage masterclass (about an hour) >> Borrow the Stage Masterclass

Visibility Salon: Karen's membership community, home of the Borrow of the Stage initiative

LinkedIn for Women Community: Karen's free Facebook group where listeners post their weekly 20-minute windows for accountability.

Work with Karen: Book a call to talk through your own visibility strategy.

Magical Quotes From The Episode:

"Nobody handed you bad character. They handed you bad advice."

"The absence of an ask is what makes the reply honest."

"The follow up is not an imposition. The follow up is the second half of the same sentence."

Help Us Spread The Word!

It would be awesome if you shared the Good Girls Get Rich Podcast with your fellow entrepreneurs on Twitter. Click here to tweet some love!

If this episode has taught you just one thing, I would love if you could head on over to Apple Podcasts and SUBSCRIBE TO THE SHOW! And if you're moved to, kindly leave us a rating and review. Maybe you'll get a shout out on the show!

Ways to Subscribe to Good Girls Get Rich:

• Click here to subscribe via Apple Podcasts
• Click here to subscribe via PlayerFM
• Good Girls Get Rich is also on Spotify
• Take a listen on Podcast Addict

Somebody told you never to speak for free. Know your worth, exposure doesn't pay the mortgage - and it sounds like respect. But that rule is written for people who already have a fee. In 2019, Karen spoke at a conference for free - a breakout room, about 40 women - and that one free session turned into four paid speaking gigs. Seven years later, a woman from one of those audiences just messaged her on LinkedIn asking her to speak again.

In this episode, Karen breaks down the plan that makes a free stage pay: who actually books you next (it's not the organizer), the one-sentence test that gets you recommended, and exactly what to say when someone asks your fee.

In this episode:

• Why "never speak for free" is incomplete advice, and who it actually protects
• Row six: the person who books you next is almost never the person who booked you
• The one-sentence test - could a stranger repeat what you do to someone with a budget?
• What to say when they ask your fee: ask your questions, say a number, stop talking
• "We don't have a budget" is the start of a negotiation - recordings, introductions, attendee access

Your homework: write your sentence - under 15 words, with a verb, repeatable by a stranger to someone with a budget. Post it on LinkedIn, tag Karen or DM her the link.

Want help with it? Bring it into the LinkedIn for Women community

Resources Mentioned In The Episode:

Ready for the whole system - how to find stages, get on them, and turn one room into the next four? Grab Karen's free Borrow the Stage masterclass (about an hour) >> Borrow the Stage Masterclass

Visibility Salon: Karen's membership community, home of the Borrow of the Stage initiative

LinkedIn for Women Community: Karen's free Facebook group where listeners post their weekly 20-minute windows for accountability.

Work with Karen: Book a call to talk through your own visibility strategy.

Magical Quotes From The Episode:

"Free isn't the problem. Free with no plan is the problem." "Stop speaking to the front of the room. Speak to row six." "When somebody says we don't have a budget, that's the start of a negotiation, not the end of negotiation."

Help Us Spread The Word!

It would be awesome if you shared the Good Girls Get Rich Podcast with your fellow entrepreneurs on Twitter. Click here to tweet some love!

If this episode has taught you just one thing, I would love if you could head on over to Apple Podcasts and SUBSCRIBE TO THE SHOW! And if you're moved to, kindly leave us a rating and review. Maybe you'll get a shout out on the show!

Ways to Subscribe to Good Girls Get Rich:

• Click here to subscribe via Apple Podcasts
• Click here to subscribe via PlayerFM
• Good Girls Get Rich is also on Spotify
• Take a listen on Podcast Addict

You got booked on the podcast. It went great. The host said it was one of her favorite conversations, and then the episode dropped, you posted the link, and your sister-in-law liked it.

That is not a visibility problem. That is a continuation problem, and it takes about twenty minutes to fix.

A podcast has no way to keep you. There is no follow button that means anything for a guest, no messages tab, no way for the woman who thought "oh, she's good" to ever find you again. The show hands you forty minutes and then it takes the room back. LinkedIn is where you keep the room.

In this episode:

• Why the guest list matters more than the download number, and how to pull it
• The connection request to send the host on the day you record, not the day it airs
• What to put in your LinkedIn Featured section, and why you rewrite the title
• The post that is not "so honored to have joined"
• The one question to ask when somebody messages you about the episode

Your homework: find the last podcast you were on, even if it was two years ago. Pull up the episode list. Find ten guests who came on right before or right after you. Connect with five or ten of them on LinkedIn this week, each with a note referencing their episode. Ten people. That is the whole assignment.

Resources Mentioned In The Episode:

Borrow the Stage Masterclass: Free on-demand training on building your speaker kit and using LinkedIn to book stages

Visibility Salon: Karen's membership community, home of the Borrow of the Stage initiative

LinkedIn for Women Community: Karen's free Facebook group where listeners post their weekly 20-minute windows for accountability.

Work with Karen: Book a call to talk through your own visibility strategy.

Magical Quotes From The Episode:

"The stage gets you seen. LinkedIn is where you get chosen." "Exposure doesn't pay. We want the access, and access has a shelf life of about a week." "The audience was the borrowed stage. The guest is the borrowed network. These are not the same asset."

Help Us Spread The Word!

It would be awesome if you shared the Good Girls Get Rich Podcast with your fellow entrepreneurs on Twitter. Click here to tweet some love!

If this episode has taught you just one thing, I would love if you could head on over to Apple Podcasts and SUBSCRIBE TO THE SHOW! And if you're moved to, kindly leave us a rating and review. Maybe you'll get a shout out on the show!

Ways to Subscribe to Good Girls Get Rich:

• Click here to subscribe via Apple Podcasts
• Click here to subscribe via PlayerFM
• Good Girls Get Rich is also on Spotify
• Take a listen on Podcast Addict

Someone Googled your name this week - and whatever came up was your entire first impression. Did your LinkedIn profile hold up its end of the deal?

In this episode, Karen walks you through the exact incognito-browser test she uses to see what the internet says about her, and shows you why your LinkedIn profile - not your latest post - is the single biggest lever for controlling what people find when they search your name.

• You can't delete the internet, but you can outrank it - and LinkedIn is your fastest, free tool for doing it.

• Your privacy setting is a revenue setting: if your LinkedIn public visibility is off, turn it on today.

• The first 30–40 characters of your headline are your billboard on Google. Write them for a real person, not a keyword filter.

• Your About section works like a Google meta description - open with what you do for people, not your résumé.

• Recommendations are other people's praise, indexed and working for you 24/7 - turn that toggle on too.

Hit follow so you don't miss next week's episode on what to do after someone lands on your borrowed stage. And if this helped, share it with a woman in your circle who still Googles herself and gets nervous about what she'll find.

Resources Mentioned In The Episode:

Borrow the Stage Masterclass: Free on-demand training on building your speaker kit and using LinkedIn to book stages

Visibility Salon: Karen's membership community, home of the Borrow of the Stage initiative

LinkedIn for Women Community: Karen's free Facebook group where listeners post their weekly 20-minute windows for accountability.

Work with Karen: Book a call to talk through your own visibility strategy.

Magical Quotes From The Episode:

"She is not a stranger. She is not a cold lead. She already knows you're good at what you do — and that's the most expensive thing to build."

"Your network is not cold. It's sleeping."

"The silence is something loud in your head — not hers."

Help Us Spread The Word!

It would be awesome if you shared the Good Girls Get Rich Podcast with your fellow entrepreneurs on Twitter. Click here to tweet some love!

If this episode has taught you just one thing, I would love if you could head on over to Apple Podcasts and SUBSCRIBE TO THE SHOW! And if you're moved to, kindly leave us a rating and review. Maybe you'll get a shout out on the show!

Ways to Subscribe to Good Girls Get Rich:

• Click here to subscribe via Apple Podcasts
• Click here to subscribe via PlayerFM
• Good Girls Get Rich is also on Spotify
• Take a listen on Podcast Addict

You know exactly who I mean. The person you've thought about reaching out to on LinkedIn more than once — and then closed the tab because you didn't know what to say. This week, Karen makes the case for why she's not a stranger, and why your dormant LinkedIn connections might be the single most overlooked opportunity in your business.

Karen breaks down why the people already in your LinkedIn network — old coworkers, old clients, people you met at a conference once — are worth more than a brand-new cold connection. Backed by a Rutgers study on reconnecting with dormant ties, she gives you the exact, no-pressure way to build a list of 10 and reach out without it feeling awkward, pitchy, or forced.

• Why a dormant LinkedIn connection is more valuable than a brand-new one

• The Rutgers study showing reconnected ties often outperform current ones

• How to build your list of 10 dormant contacts in under a week

• The exact reconnection message formula — no apologies, no asks, no pitch

• Why the metric that matters is calls on your calendar, not likes on your post

If you've been sitting on a LinkedIn network you think is "dead," this episode will change your mind — and give you a simple weekly habit to start turning it into real opportunities.

Loved this episode? Subscribe to Good Girls Get Rich so you never miss one, and share it with a friend who's been avoiding that one LinkedIn message. Ready to go deeper? Grab the free Borrow the Stage masterclass at SheLinkedUp.com/masterclass.

Resources Mentioned In The Episode:

Borrow the Stage Masterclass: Free on-demand training on building your speaker kit and using LinkedIn to book stages

Visibility Salon: Karen's membership community, home of the Borrow of the Stage initiative

LinkedIn for Women Community: Karen's free Facebook group where listeners post their weekly 20-minute windows for accountability.

Work with Karen: Book a call to talk through your own visibility strategy.

Magical Quotes From The Episode:

"She is not a stranger. She is not a cold lead. She already knows you're good at what you do — and that's the most expensive thing to build."

"Your network is not cold. It's sleeping."

"The silence is something loud in your head — not hers."

Help Us Spread The Word!

It would be awesome if you shared the Good Girls Get Rich Podcast with your fellow entrepreneurs on Twitter. Click here to tweet some love!

If this episode has taught you just one thing, I would love if you could head on over to Apple Podcasts and SUBSCRIBE TO THE SHOW! And if you're moved to, kindly leave us a rating and review. Maybe you'll get a shout out on the show!

Ways to Subscribe to Good Girls Get Rich:

• Click here to subscribe via Apple Podcasts
• Click here to subscribe via PlayerFM
• Good Girls Get Rich is also on Spotify
• Take a listen on Podcast Addict