Ever dreamed about writing a book to share your expertise and/or build your personal and professional brand? It's not as hard as you think!

This episode will teach you mindset, strategies, and practical tips to do just that. I interview Diego Pineda, a content marketing manager and a book coach to show us exactly how to write your first book in 90 days, plus learn why self-publishing is important.

NOTE: Check out the sister episode on how to self-publish your book in 90-Days

Diego helps solopreneurs, coaches, and consultants write their first book fast to become thought leaders in their industries, gain authority and visibility and make more money. He highlights how you can write a book to build a personal brand for your businesses and some mistakes people make.

Timestamps

[01:38] Diego’s background

[03:12] Where to start in writing a book and promoting your business

[05:31] Writing the book

[10:00] About Diego’s book

[12:10] Mistakes people should look out for a while writing a book

[15;00] Writing a book within 90 days

[16:14] Self-publishing

[19:20] Professional/personal mantra

Quotes

● “You want to align your business goals with the topic of your book.” (03:33-03:36)

● “Don’t write and edit at the same time.(11:14-11:18)

● “ If you are going to use your book as a marketing tool for your business and you want to get out there, do self-publishing. (16:14-17:53)

● “Moving fast and doing great things is the innovation mindset.” (20:15-20:21)

Michelle B. Griffin is a keynote speaker, personal brand and PR strategist, author, podcaster and LinkedIn® visibility expert who helps high-achieving professionals elevate their visibility and influence for business growth.

As the founder of Brand Leaders® Executive Branding and creator of the Own Your Lane® Recognition Roadmap, she helps B2B founders, leaders and industry experts position their personal brands and leverage LinkedIn + PR to grow influence, increase demand, and become top-of-mind authorities to accelerate business growth.

Book a chat with Michelle to discuss speaking, advising or workshops to scale visibility, influence, and business growth. MichelleBGriffin.com/chat

WEBSITE: MichelleBGriffin.com
EXECUTIVE BRANDING ADVISORY: Brand Leaders
READ: My Personal Branding Books
LISTEN: The LinkedIn Branding Show
CONNECT: With Me on LinkedIn

Getting out on LinkedIn is a goal for so many, but it's hard. What to say? What to write about? What will people think?

I've heard it all and told myself that too.

But those who put themselves out there are the ones getting noticed, known, and seeing opportunities and results on LinkedIn.

After waffling for too long, I decided to "go big" and on January 1, I started the #365challenge to post on LinkedIn every single day in 2021.

And to my surprise, hundreds of others felt the same way and joined me. The #365Challenge community was born, (now The #365Creators). What a journey it's been and still going strong with hundreds more. (see the link to join below).

In this episode, I interview two stars in the community, Michael Scott and Britt Crawford, who watched their personal brands on LinkedIn explode by posting content daily.

Here, 323 posts later, we share our lessons, successes, and failures and how you can "put yourself out there" and build your personal brand on LinkedIn.

UPDATE: On Dec. 31, 2021, I completed my challenge and posted 365 days on LinkedIn. I actually made 532 posts, and will detail more in a future episode)

Timestamps

[02:01] About Michael Scott

[03:41] About Britt Crawford

[07:25] Why we decided to put ourselves out there

[08:26] Michael's Lessons

[11:46] Britt’s story of getting out there from the company perspective

[15:35] Starting out on LinkedIn

[20:46] Benefits of putting yourself out there and how fast you saw them.

[25:51] Should people post daily?

[37:16] Britt’s Tiktok experience

[42:28] Advice and goals

[46:17] Parting advice

Quotes

● Don’t be over-complicated. You can definitely overcomplicate it, overthink, and then you just get stuck, thinking that your post was never old enough to post.” (17:33-17:46)

● “The other thing is just making it about you. It is all about you. Whatever you’re passionate about. (18:18-18:21)

● ‘Visibility is not vanity. It opens doors and unlocks opportunities.” (20:29-20:32)

● “I think establishing what boundaries are making them clear and then living within them posting within them is the important part.”(28:26-20:32)

● One of the gifts of putting yourself out there and starting to get in this mode.. the ideas start flowing. (35:00-35:05)

● Create content that you would be interested in.”(42:45-42:47)

● Just put yourself out there, whatever baby steps that it takes, just get out of that comfort zone becau

Michelle B. Griffin is a keynote speaker, personal brand and PR strategist, author, podcaster and LinkedIn® visibility expert who helps high-achieving professionals elevate their visibility and influence for business growth.

As the founder of Brand Leaders® Executive Branding and creator of the Own Your Lane® Recognition Roadmap, she helps B2B founders, leaders and industry experts position their personal brands and leverage LinkedIn + PR to grow influence, increase demand, and become top-of-mind authorities to accelerate business growth.

Book a chat with Michelle to discuss speaking, advising or workshops to scale visibility, influence, and business growth. MichelleBGriffin.com/chat

WEBSITE: MichelleBGriffin.com
EXECUTIVE BRANDING ADVISORY: Brand Leaders
READ: My Personal Branding Books
LISTEN: The LinkedIn Branding Show
CONNECT: With Me on LinkedIn

What's the secret to writing engaging content on LinkedIn? What's the best approach to sharing your authentic voice in your posts? 

This might be the number one struggle on LinkedIn for new content creators.

I interviewed Merav Levine, a social media marketing consultant who shares tips on writing content using her CLARITY Method on LinkedIn.

Timestamps

● [01:58] Merav Levine's story

● [04:30] Where do you start?

● [09:33] The CLARITY method

● [17:18] Great insights on what keeps you out of content.

● [21:47] Avoiding being "Captain Obvious"

● [25:35] Takeaways in engagement and writing

Quotes

● “Find the balance of presenting yourself. Well, yes, being authentic and not pretending to be something you're, not because at the end of the day, that is going to implode on you.” (08:26-08:34)

● “When I talk about clarity, it's knowing who you would market to, who you're marketing to, and how they would describe the issues that you bring up.” (10:01-10:07)

● “Every single post has an actionable takeaway, so something that somebody could walk away from the computer being like. I am going to try that today .” (20:27-20:36)

● “Every post must have a call to action.” (25-48-25:50)

● “If we let our emotions take over. Yes, we won’t do half the things we know we should be doing and just knowing that it’s going to hurt and we're going to be scared, but you are capable of facing it.” (30:26-30:37)

Michelle B. Griffin is a keynote speaker, personal brand and PR strategist, author, podcaster and LinkedIn® visibility expert who helps high-achieving professionals elevate their visibility and influence for business growth.

As the founder of Brand Leaders® Executive Branding and creator of the Own Your Lane® Recognition Roadmap, she helps B2B founders, leaders and industry experts position their personal brands and leverage LinkedIn + PR to grow influence, increase demand, and become top-of-mind authorities to accelerate business growth.

Book a chat with Michelle to discuss speaking, advising or workshops to scale visibility, influence, and business growth. MichelleBGriffin.com/chat

WEBSITE: MichelleBGriffin.com
EXECUTIVE BRANDING ADVISORY: Brand Leaders
READ: My Personal Branding Books
LISTEN: The LinkedIn Branding Show
CONNECT: With Me on LinkedIn

I interview Jim James, founder of the international public relations agency, East-West PR, and the host of the Unnoticed Podcast. He is all about getting leaders, entrepreneurs, and personal brands noticed with this Active Communication Index.

Timestamps

[01:40] Importance of getting noticed

[03:21] Mistakes people make by not going noticed

[11:24] 3 key takeaways for people wanting to get noticed.

Powerful Quotes

● “The first thing that people look for is the quality and the integrity of the founder because when we're a start-up, we don't have all the backing of maybe venture capital, a big brand, or even a history that would reassure potential customers or potential employees or partners to work with them. So the personal brand carries the business for that first, I would say twelve to eighteen months, while the organization is getting established in the marketplace.” (02:05-02:32)

● “Someone who produces consistent, innovative content. Those are the people that everybody goes to.” (09:38-09:45)

● “Content doesn't have to be expensive, but it does have to be ideally original or interesting, creating content.” (11:53-12:00)

● “The rule of thumb is to be consistent rather than frequent, which is why, in my ACI, when I said at twelve and at six, it's consistent and inconsistent, it's not frequent and infrequent, and there's a key difference there.” (13:25-13:41)

Michelle B. Griffin is a keynote speaker, personal brand and PR strategist, author, podcaster and LinkedIn® visibility expert who helps high-achieving professionals elevate their visibility and influence for business growth.

As the founder of Brand Leaders® Executive Branding and creator of the Own Your Lane® Recognition Roadmap, she helps B2B founders, leaders and industry experts position their personal brands and leverage LinkedIn + PR to grow influence, increase demand, and become top-of-mind authorities to accelerate business growth.

Book a chat with Michelle to discuss speaking, advising or workshops to scale visibility, influence, and business growth. MichelleBGriffin.com/chat

WEBSITE: MichelleBGriffin.com
EXECUTIVE BRANDING ADVISORY: Brand Leaders
READ: My Personal Branding Books
LISTEN: The LinkedIn Branding Show
CONNECT: With Me on LinkedIn

If you are looking to move from corporate to entrepreneurship, this episode shares a personal story on what it takes.

I interview Lena Sersadic, a product manager who turned to entrepreneurship after working in corporate for seven years.

Lena gives us snippets of what the transformation to entrepreneurship felt like. Was she ready, or did she just leave blindly? She also gives us some recommendations and caution based on her experience.

Timestamps

[02:44] Snippet of Lena’s feelings after leaving corporate

[05:22] Doing it right after leaving corporate

[08:04] Lena’s next step after failure

[12:29] How long it took her before things started making sense

[16:44] Changing your headline

[19:52] Email Lists

[21:25] Recommendations and caution based on Lena’s experience

[27:22] Lena’s professional mantra

Quotes

● “Put yourself out there: Go help others. You’ll figure out all that, but also niche down. When you're learning, you know you can’t help everyone, the old cliche, and it's so true. Go get as tight and small as you can because that's going to be the fastest way to get noticed.” (18:50-19:02)

● “When you build your brand. It is you, but sometimes you don't know exactly what you want to be doing or you got to try things out but put yourself out there keep doing it.”(19:22-19:29)

● “A personal brand is created through action, so you have to do stuff to actually build a personal brand and develop it and scale it down the line, and that means posting on LinkedIn(21:50-21:59)

● “We can't help people unless they know how much we can help them and we step out there to help them.”(26:06-25:11)

● “Don't try and put a square peg into a round hole. Just let things come to you, and when you play the long game, the right opportunities kind of present themselves.” (25:31-25:38)

● Transparency attracts opportunities.” (27:32-27-35)

Michelle B. Griffin is a keynote speaker, personal brand and PR strategist, author, podcaster and LinkedIn® visibility expert who helps high-achieving professionals elevate their visibility and influence for business growth.

As the founder of Brand Leaders® Executive Branding and creator of the Own Your Lane® Recognition Roadmap, she helps B2B founders, leaders and industry experts position their personal brands and leverage LinkedIn + PR to grow influence, increase demand, and become top-of-mind authorities to accelerate business growth.

Book a chat with Michelle to discuss speaking, advising or workshops to scale visibility, influence, and business growth. MichelleBGriffin.com/chat

WEBSITE: MichelleBGriffin.com
EXECUTIVE BRANDING ADVISORY: Brand Leaders
READ: My Personal Branding Books
LISTEN: The LinkedIn Branding Show
CONNECT: With Me on LinkedIn

Too many of us want to get out on LinkedIn. But we stay stuck on the sidelines not knowing how. I interview Austin James, a certified financial consultant, and Sam Swirsky, a sales strategist on their stories of putting themselves out on LinkedIn for the first time. 

They get to share their inspiring journey on LinkedIn, steps to breaking out, and their successes and failures. They also highlight how you can balance your personal life and still remain genuine and authentic on LinkedIn.  


 Timestamps

 [01:50] About the Austin & Sam

[03:51] How they got started

[09:08] What’s the first step to breaking out

[14:40] Being intentional with your time[

15:57] How do you build who you are and show your personality[

22:57] How do you structure your content and the best content to post on LinkedIn?

[25:11] How do you know what to post?

[30:08] Successes and failures[

40:45] Professional mantra 


Quotes 

● “Having that personal touch, you know aligning it with who you are is what you do. Combine them with some strategy and you're on your way.” (05:13-05:20)

● “You can have your great ideas of what you want to talk about and things like that. But if you don't know exactly who you're talking to it's, going to be really hard for your content to kind of attract that ideal client.”(09:28-09-41)

● “ Linkedin people who only post perfect stories about themselves will get a lot of kind of followers at first, but it's usually people who are new to the platform, and they don't really understand the culture of LinkedIn, and then after a while, the followers begin to fall .”(20:45-20:57)

● “ People are not a means to an end, right. It’s not like you're using people to get what you want in life.” (37:08-37:11)

● “Give give without expectations, and it will come back to you.”(43:01-43:04)   

Michelle B. Griffin is a keynote speaker, personal brand and PR strategist, author, podcaster and LinkedIn® visibility expert who helps high-achieving professionals elevate their visibility and influence for business growth.

As the founder of Brand Leaders® Executive Branding and creator of the Own Your Lane® Recognition Roadmap, she helps B2B founders, leaders and industry experts position their personal brands and leverage LinkedIn + PR to grow influence, increase demand, and become top-of-mind authorities to accelerate business growth.

Book a chat with Michelle to discuss speaking, advising or workshops to scale visibility, influence, and business growth. MichelleBGriffin.com/chat

WEBSITE: MichelleBGriffin.com
EXECUTIVE BRANDING ADVISORY: Brand Leaders
READ: My Personal Branding Books
LISTEN: The LinkedIn Branding Show
CONNECT: With Me on LinkedIn

Want to grab attention more attention in your social media content? 

I interview Wendy Margolin, a social media strategist and founder of Sparkr Marketing who specializes in social media content for the healthcare industry.

Learn how to translate the attention of our story for more awareness, engagement, and connection, and more.

Wendy highlights the four stories that we need to be telling, structuring a good story and the epitome of a good story. 

Timestamps

[01:30) Wendy Margolin's story

(04:32) Four stories we need to be telling

[10:11] Starting with “Why”

[11:33] How to do your introduction posts

[17:26] Finding your differentiation

[20:21] Structuring a good story

[23:24] Ideas on getting these stories

[28:40] Three key takeaways on storytelling

Quotes

● “Having that first line that really grabs attention and then that last line that really you know encourages engagement.” (04:47-04:54)

● “Start with the “Why”. Try to go for the big one, if not the little one or a mixture.” (09:48-09:51)

● Because we put content out daily or frequently, not everyone sees it. Still, so many people don’t see it. So, finding a way to keep re-introducing those content, cornerstone themes without exactly repeating it. It's so smart, so it just forms a connection.” (12:01-12:17)

● “You do get better with these stories, as you tell them. Yes, don't wait for it to be perfect, start telling it and by telling it will get much stronger:” (13:13-13-32)

● “Even if you are private, find a personal side that you can share.” (13:13-13:22)

● “Even though it's your story, it's not about you, the content you ever write Even in your bio is about your audience.” (28:53-29:00)

Michelle B. Griffin is a keynote speaker, personal brand and PR strategist, author, podcaster and LinkedIn® visibility expert who helps high-achieving professionals elevate their visibility and influence for business growth.

As the founder of Brand Leaders® Executive Branding and creator of the Own Your Lane® Recognition Roadmap, she helps B2B founders, leaders and industry experts position their personal brands and leverage LinkedIn + PR to grow influence, increase demand, and become top-of-mind authorities to accelerate business growth.

Book a chat with Michelle to discuss speaking, advising or workshops to scale visibility, influence, and business growth. MichelleBGriffin.com/chat

WEBSITE: MichelleBGriffin.com
EXECUTIVE BRANDING ADVISORY: Brand Leaders
READ: My Personal Branding Books
LISTEN: The LinkedIn Branding Show
CONNECT: With Me on LinkedIn

It's no longer hard work and talent that keeps us top of mind.

For corporate women, being highly visible is directly tied to better opportunities and career advancement. I interview Mel Stanley personal brand and career strategist for women and founder of the UK-based, First Women, which empowers women in corporate and leadership roles to articulate their unique strengths and qualities.

Timestamps 

[01:46] Mel Stanley's story

[05:24] Roadblocks women have in a corporate setting

[08:59] Changing your mindset

[10:46] Mel’s strategy in shifting and getting women out there

[12:39] How do you capture opportunities to get noticed?

[16:10] Tactical ways for women to put themselves out there and build their brand

[23:25] Three key takeaways for women aspiring to get themselves out there


Quotes 

● “The decision-making unit for your career is not just who you work for, being able to be seen by the other people beyond your immediate superior is absolutely key.” (12:27-12:38)

● “As long as your name is associated with the positive and the right thing, then that just builds your reputation, and that's what branding is all about, at the end of the day is reputation. “(13:13-13:21

)● “That's why you want a personal brand, because you may change your mind if that brand stays with you, no matter what it is, you define it, differentiate it, develop it! (14:52-15:03)

● “Hard work and competing won't get you success. You need to be visible as well.”(23:36-23:41) 

Michelle B. Griffin is a keynote speaker, personal brand and PR strategist, author, podcaster and LinkedIn® visibility expert who helps high-achieving professionals elevate their visibility and influence for business growth.

As the founder of Brand Leaders® Executive Branding and creator of the Own Your Lane® Recognition Roadmap, she helps B2B founders, leaders and industry experts position their personal brands and leverage LinkedIn + PR to grow influence, increase demand, and become top-of-mind authorities to accelerate business growth.

Book a chat with Michelle to discuss speaking, advising or workshops to scale visibility, influence, and business growth. MichelleBGriffin.com/chat

WEBSITE: MichelleBGriffin.com
EXECUTIVE BRANDING ADVISORY: Brand Leaders
READ: My Personal Branding Books
LISTEN: The LinkedIn Branding Show
CONNECT: With Me on LinkedIn

In this episode, we speak with Dan Roth, an executive technical trainer at Amazon. He is all about helping people identify your unique value proposition when looking for your dream job.

How do you tailor your resume? How important is networking? Dan highlights some of the things recruiters look for and how you can get started.

Timestamps 

[02:36] Where does one start, and what do recruiters look for?

[05:24] How do you start on what makes you unique and stand out?

[13:55] What makes a good resume?

[15:22] LinkedIn profile

[25:54] Certifications

[27:07] Recommendation

[29:40] Three key takeaways

Quotes 

● “ When people notice you, that builds your value, and that value is what establishes your brand well.” (04:43-04:47)

● “When the time is right, you're going to figure it out.” (09:30-09:40)

● “Networking is one home, most critical and underutilized components of the job search in general.” (11:32-11:40)

● “Do not leave out the things that show who you are in value just because you feel like you're, worried about being having a bias against you.” (23:58-24:06)

● “Do not use the easy apply function.”(30:47-30:49)

Michelle B. Griffin is a keynote speaker, personal brand and PR strategist, author, podcaster and LinkedIn® visibility expert who helps high-achieving professionals elevate their visibility and influence for business growth.

As the founder of Brand Leaders® Executive Branding and creator of the Own Your Lane® Recognition Roadmap, she helps B2B founders, leaders and industry experts position their personal brands and leverage LinkedIn + PR to grow influence, increase demand, and become top-of-mind authorities to accelerate business growth.

Book a chat with Michelle to discuss speaking, advising or workshops to scale visibility, influence, and business growth. MichelleBGriffin.com/chat

WEBSITE: MichelleBGriffin.com
EXECUTIVE BRANDING ADVISORY: Brand Leaders
READ: My Personal Branding Books
LISTEN: The LinkedIn Branding Show
CONNECT: With Me on LinkedIn

Connection, community, and content. These are the strong foundations you need to succeed on LinkedIn.

I interview Tara Horstmeyer, a content creator and Founder of Happy Words, on how to best create and use content to build relationships with your audience on LinkedIn

How do you initiate a conversation and write relationally? Tara highlights some tactical and relational writing tips to build your personal brand on LinkedIn.


Timestamps

[01:17] Tara’s backstory

[03:21] How to get started

[10:40] How did you attract such a wide fanbase from people

[12:43] What triggered Tara’s journey to entrepreneurship

[14:18] Tactical tips to relational writing

[17:41] Relational connecting

[19:36] Tips to being more relationship-driven on LinkedIn

[22:58] The key takeaways on writing relationally

[26:30] Professional/personal mantra


Quotes

• “It's not that your content is bad, it's just maybe not hitten, but at some point, even if we impact one person, that's how that’s all it takes one time.” (10:11-10:18)
• “To connect with people, go where they are if you want to write more relational. (15:24-15:34)
• “So start to unpack your own content, and then, when you do, I think you're going to start to connect with yourself, which is the number one way to connect with others.” (16:57-17:04)
• “Make sure that you are writing daily, like creating something daily, even if you do not post daily. So I always say right. I right privately before you write publicly.” (24:13-24:19)

Michelle B. Griffin is a keynote speaker, personal brand and PR strategist, author, podcaster and LinkedIn® visibility expert who helps high-achieving professionals elevate their visibility and influence for business growth.

As the founder of Brand Leaders® Executive Branding and creator of the Own Your Lane® Recognition Roadmap, she helps B2B founders, leaders and industry experts position their personal brands and leverage LinkedIn + PR to grow influence, increase demand, and become top-of-mind authorities to accelerate business growth.

Book a chat with Michelle to discuss speaking, advising or workshops to scale visibility, influence, and business growth. MichelleBGriffin.com/chat

WEBSITE: MichelleBGriffin.com
EXECUTIVE BRANDING ADVISORY: Brand Leaders
READ: My Personal Branding Books
LISTEN: The LinkedIn Branding Show
CONNECT: With Me on LinkedIn