LinkedIn Content Strategy For Empaths and Sensitive Women With Jen Corcoran
Rosie Parsons 0:00
Our guest today is LinkedIn expert and friend of the show Jen Corcoran, who's going to be sharing her top tips on how to get the most from LinkedIn.
Rosie Parsons 0:10
Hi, Jen, thanks so much for joining me and everybody today. It's really nice to have you with us. And so I thought we'd start by you introducing yourself.
Jen Corcoran 0:10
Hi, Rosie, thanks so much for having me with you. It's a great way to start my week with you and I love your pop of colour. So who am I? So I am an award winning LinkedIn trainer and consultant. And I help sensitive female entrepreneurs to attract and get more clients on LinkedIn. So my favourite clients are highly sensitive, either introverts or extroverts and the one thing they've got in common is that they're both empaths. So I help the people who feel - so it's all about preserving energy for them, and letting them use LinkedIn in a way that feels authentic and aligned. Because a lot of the LinkedIn trainers out there are not sensitive. And they're teaching one way of using LinkedIn, and it will feel absolutely gross for any sensitives. It just won't resonate. So I had to have those people who were kind of hiding in the background and lurking and overthinking to get our voice in the room. So that's what I love doing.
Rosie Parsons 1:15
Oh, that sounds great. And I've been very interested to see you've been a bit more out there recently, a bit more feisty, I'd say. And I just wondered if you could tell people more about that. What have you been doing? That's been a bit different?
Jen Corcoran 1:27
Yeah. So I think there is this, like perception of, you know, sensitive people that we're all crying, you know, all day. And it's like, but there is a feisty side to some of us as well. So on Halloween, I wrote a newsletter, a Halloween Horror newsletter, and I did a LinkedIn live. And I just called out all the bullshit, all the objections I hear in terms of LinkedIn, I actually called out some of my peers, who are professing to be LinkedIn gurus, the kind of dodgy peers, and I'm sure they're in every industry. So I called out a lot of stuff. So I really put on my consultant hat. Because I would say, for the last five and a half years, I've just been wearing my trainer hat where I've been teaching and educating and motivating. But I got to that stage, I think it was the Halloween vibes, that I just thought I need to call out some BS, because I keep hearing the same thing again, and again, and again. And again, I learned from people getting on sales calls with me or from peers, you know, hearing a bit of hot air and thinking actually, this is not helping people to get traction on LinkedIn, this is not helping people to get leads. So I use Halloween as the excuse, but I really that is me. I am quite ranty if you get me going on topic, but it's all tough love. And it's the side that my consulting clients and my family and friends know. Whereas before that I was just being very professional, just like Jennifer, the teacher. And then I kind of showed Jen, the gen version of me and DMS and comments. And then I brought out Jenny on Halloween, who is a bit more mean, she's like Jenny from the block, she's going to tell you how it is, she's not going to sell so it. And I have to say it was so much fun. Just bring myself and you think I would know this as a LinkedIn trainer, and I tell everyone, be yourself. But I had actually got into my head a little bit. And I wasn't afraid to bring myself to DMs because obviously they're hidden behind the scenes. I'm always myself and not afraid to bring myself to comments. But for some reason I was in my head about my actual content, I was in that professional mode. And don't get me wrong, it is good. Like it does resonate with some people. But I just decided I had to bring all of myself to the table.
Rosie Parsons 3:46
So what was the reaction from that?
Jen Corcoran 3:48
It's been great. On the whole, I would say within a day or two I had 10 sales calls book in, so it's been the most converting content I've ever done in my life. I had about five emails from people telling me their life story and why they want to work with me. Had one negative which was on my email list. It was a doctor, I won't name her. And she said she was highly insulted by my "American style". And she was unsubscribing and she wanted to tell me why. And I actually felt empowered when she said that because I thought you know my content is attracting the right people and repelling the wrong. For one thing, she's not a business owner, so she shouldn't have been on my list in the first place anyway. And I would say I'm more of a connection focused human beings, whereas I would say this particular lady is fact focused. So my teaching style will resonate more with her. So yeah, I was delighted, but 10 years ago would have been really sensitive about that. And I think we can get in our heads thinking, Oh, I don't want to offend anyone or people won't like us, but you know, you realise you know not everyone's gonna like you some people are gonna hate you! And that's okay. And that's life, you know, and you can't appeal, you never appeal to 100% of your audience. So if you are really clear on who you want to attract, and if you are being yourself, just be bold and do it because you will attract the right people. So I was delighted that she left. Well, I booted her off!
Jen Corcoran 5:19
So yeah, it's been it's been like really freeing. And Rosie, you know, just doing it. And it has been a bit of a lightbulb like, Ah, I don't know if you've heard the quote from Oprah. She said it years ago, "if I'd have known by being myself, I'd be this successful, I would have done it years ago." So it was a bit of that kind of flashing going, Oh, my God, just be myself. And it's going to be so much easier, and it's going to be so much fun. And I'm going to attract the right people and repel the wrong. So happy days.
Rosie Parsons 5:46
What sort of prompted you to kind of push yourself out your comfort zone, then?
Jen Corcoran 5:50
Yeah, I'm gonna sound a little bit crazy to the people that listening and watching this. So I was up in London for the weekend, visiting my friend Kate. And I had a great day chatting with three different friends. So I was a bit wired with the journey, a bit of adrenaline. So I had a little bit of insomnia. And I was lying in the bed about 4am. And I just thought, wouldn't it be great to call out people about the bullshit because myself and Kate have been chatting, she's a business owner, too. And I thought, yeah, that's a really good idea for Halloween, I'll do a kind of a nasty post. And then I lay back down, and I was like, Okay, I'll do that on Monday. And then one press, my brain was like, You're gonna forget this on Monday, you're gonna forget these ideas, start typing onto your phone now. And the other part was like my husband's voice in my head going, go to sleep, it's 4am you'll be up in a few hours! So I literally had this battle going on. And I sat up and down 30 times between 4am and 6am. And started to flesh it out. I sent myself like, 30 different messages. So I kinda do a bit and then lie back down and go, Oh, that was good. And then I get another idea. So I can only liken it to how an artist must feel when they're like I have to paint or a musician is like I have to compose and it doesn't matter what time so I kinda felt like, I just had to do it with a bit of a like an epiphany moment. And I've never felt like that before about a piece of content. I just usually go to sleep! So yeah, I don't know. Like maybe I was just super wired, the adrenaline the travel just got to that point.
Rosie Parsons 7:23
Yeah, well, like you say, like encouragement from your friend, as well as like people who love us, like encouraging us to step out of our comfort zones a bit more. And it's interesting, you're saying about like writing things down? When you get the ideas? Do you think that's like, I think that's like quite an important part of like coming up with content, do you think?
Jen Corcoran 7:40
Absolutely. And you can do it on LinkedIn, you can either do it on the desktop or the app, I get ideas all the time from other people's content. So I don't know if people know that you can save content on the go. And then you can go back into your profile and find it. So you go to the top right hand side of any piece of content, you'll see three little dots, three ellipses, click on it, there's a drop down menu, and then you can just save it and then you can go back to your profile. And in your resources section at the top of your profile, you can go into all your saved items. So I do in related this is probably a bit more boring and nerdy. But every month I released a newsletter on features and updates. So I'm not 100% clued into the updates, because that's not 100% my passion. So when I see LinkedIn trainers around the world go to spotted this, I've decided that I would like save, save, save, save, save, and they want to go back to do the monthly thing. I know which ones I've seen, and I know which ones are coming from them. So it really helps me It's so it makes that newsletter easy for me. And you can do the same what I do if I see any inspirational content kind of call people out or I just liked the way they phrased it, I just save it so that I can look back and always get inspiration. That's great. That love that tip. That's brilliant. So what would you say like the biggest mistakes that people are making on LinkedIn are two biggest mistakes. Number one is about knowing yourself and bringing it to the table. So this is gonna be the road, you're gonna be like, Why not talking about LinkedIn? But I think the first thing is most people don't bring themselves to LinkedIn, either because they don't know who they are. They've not explored, what are their personal values? What are their business values? What do they stand for? What's their mission? What's their purpose? What's their why there's none of that. There's no self development, or they've done all that and they're still blocking themselves and they're not bringing themselves to the table. And you can't see any of them in their profile or their content. It's very generic and bland. You know, and you'll see it on profiles. You read through and you're like, I know nothing about you. I can't connect you as human being. This is just very generic. So that's the first like not bringing themselves to the table or knowing themselves and then the second is not doing their customer research.
Jen Corcoran 10:00
And this is like the big one I say, and it's, you know, from for a variety of reasons, some, like, some of it is laziness. It's like, oh, that sounds like hard work. I don't want to do that. Or it's like, how do I do that. And it's like, there's so many ways to do it. Because by doing your research, then you will know the right content, the right words to use. And you can do easily so many ways to do research, whether it's, you know, deal with a poll, ideally, you'd want to do like a long form like questionnaire, or the best way is getting your your clients or prospective clients on a call like this on a zoom call or something. And if it's awkward for you pay someone else to interview them and get those nuggets because you need to have it in their words. Whereas a lot of people are like, Oh, I think you need to hear this. And I'm going to put it in my words. And it doesn't cut through - it's only when you use your clients words, will you get to those kinds of pain points. And will your content truly convert. So yeah, lack of research, either in terms of who they are or their client.
Rosie Parsons 11:03
Yeah, I love that I've sort of interviewed some clients and stuff before, and I've just taken them out to lunch and come out with a few questions. And then it's really interesting, you know, people really open up and it's like, you really get to hear what they're struggling with, and also get a really nice lunch, you get to know them really well. And it really kind of opened up my eyes as to sort of Yeah, to what people need, it's great!
Jen Corcoran 11:24
Yeah they'll say something that you wouldn't have thought of Rosie, because we're kind of doing this thing, so and we're experts to do what we're doing. So we can presume they have this block. But sometimes it might not be that at all, it'll be something completely different. And yeah, when you're so close to something, you can forget how it felt at the start. So sometimes I have to kind of like give myself a bit of a tap and go, you felt like this like six years ago, it's only because you're constantly going into your comfort zone and smashing it that you're on to another kind of problem. But you do forget, like how initially, like, for me, like the first kind of step and LinkedIn, it's not about finding the strategy. It's the mindset. It is, what is my mindset? Do I feel good enough to show up on LinkedIn? And you forget that that's actually the number one thing? And then the second is the energy? And what energy have I got? I don't know if I can cope with this. And then the strategy piece comes. But yeah, I think it's so important to interview either prospective clients. I know a lot of people are like, Oh, I'm new in business, I don't have them. But you can still do polls, you can still do questionnaires of your peers. Like when I before I set up in business, when I was creating my brand, I interviewed like 25 people short questionnaire, like five friends, five family, five colleagues, five peers, I can't remember who the last five were. But there was another five. And they all gave me words about me and told me things about me. And the word connect and connector kept coming up. And I was like, ah, that's my business, my super connector because I am a connector. And I don't think I would actually don't think I would have known that if I hadn't have sent that to them. Because they all kept saying the exact same words. So yeah, it's so vital to do your customer research.
Rosie Parsons 13:04
Oh, amazing. So what kind of content does work really well on LinkedIn? Would you say is it videos posts, like written posts? Images? What should people be posting?
Jen Corcoran 13:21
I think any kind of content works if you do well. And just be mindful that everybody's target audience is different. So some people will like video, some people will like written posts, some people were like auditory, so you're never gonna get one magic content that is going to appeal to all. So I think the best type of content to do is always your favourite content, because then you're going to be excited to do it. So if you like the video, do video, if you like written posts, do written posts, and you will attract like minds. So for example, I know video is great in terms of reach, but so I've written posts and me personally, I'm a written person, I just like writing and most of my clients I attract are the same, they just like reading, whereas somebody else's audience will be completely different. They like video and they attract people who like video. And likewise, people who like auditory or podcasts, they'll attract that crowd. So I would say ask yourself, What is your favourite type content? What feels good for you? Because there's too much advice out there, you know, saying you know, write a newsletter, create a video, do this, do that. And I think it's all about you at the end of the day, because we're all different. And we will all connect differently, we'll on network differently. So I don't think there's one size that's better than the other. They all can get good reach. If you've got if you're showing up as you and if you are customer centric, then anybody's contact could cover and also be mindful sometimes you will do really good post and it won't get a lot of likes or engagement because you've triggered people and they're usually the posts were hardly any traction on that. I will get somebody DM me saying I think I need to work on my profile, can we chat. So don't get too hung up about the vanity metrics of the likes. And the comments, you know, your content is working. If you're getting DMs. If people aren't sending DMs, your content's not working, if they are is, yeah, amazing.
Rosie Parsons 15:15
So how often should we be posting on LinkedIn do you think? Is there too little/ too much? Like, should we be there every day or twice?
Jen Corcoran 15:22
Yeah. And my advice would be, never post more than once a day. Unless you are an influencer. And you have, you know, 30 or 50,000 followers - with the algorithm, you won't get any return on the second post. And then it's all about doing your research and know when your customer base is online. So every business is different, you know, my audience could be online at 9am. Rosie's could be online at lunchtime. It's all about trial and error, testing it out. And then in terms of the amount of posts, it's up to you, like, how many times do you want to post you can, you can post one day a week, three days a week, five days a week, you can even post one really good quality bit of content once a month, and get LinkedIn working for you as long as you're going into the DMs. Because that's what the role of content is - to always to start a conversation and you want that conversation to go in the DMS. So if you don't want to post, you don't have to post you can still get LinkedIn working for you, as long as you've got a really good profile, which to me is the ultimate content that works for you 24/7. And you're putting good content in DMs, you can get clients. So it's really how often do you want to show up? Obviously, if you're showing up quite a bit, it's great for you know, raising your business, brand awareness, your personal brand, but you don't have to post all the time if you don't want to. So this is why it's really important to to know yourself and your energy. And I know you're gonna have another question lead on to schedule it in a while. And I can touch on that as well.
Rosie Parsons 17:00
Yeah, that was with the scheduling I was interested in. If we're very busy. It seems quite a lot of effort to kind of log into LinkedIn every day and types of posts and stuff. Is it possible to kind of have one day a week where we're kind of like writing out our content and then schedule it for the week? Will that work?
Jen Corcoran 17:16
Yeah, I like years ago, I would have said no, be yourself show up. And the older version of me, the one that is in perimenopause, and it's all about the energy would say absolutely schedule, especially if you're sensitive and you're someone who gets in your head. It's a great way of getting it out there regardless, because the most important thing on LinkedIn is not your content. It's the engagement and the conversation. So if you've only got half an hour a day, just get that content out there. So you don't have to think about it and spend that half an hour doing outreach, reaching out to your ideal clients responding to DMS, if people have commented on your content, messaging them, it's all about spending that time wisely. And I think so many people fall into the rabbit hole of spending that whole half an hour on their content. And it's like LinkedIn doesn't work. And I'm like, well, you're not having any conversations. You're not chatting to your ideal client, you're just posting and running. So I would say yeah, definitely schedule, especially I know a lot of my clients, they cringe at testimonials. And even at a bare minimum, if you just schedule one testimonial a week to go out. So you kind of get over yourself, do it because you need to have that kind of post out there at least once a week so people know what you do and how you can help them. So you were saying about reaching out to people in the DMS, like how do we do that without being spammy? Yeah, it's not always about I'm a big fan of warm outreach. I don't like cold outreach. So I don't really reach out to anyone, I don't know, there always has to be some kind of a common thing going on. So again, it boils down to customer research. And for me, LinkedIn is a great accompaniment to network. And so if you do any kind of network, and I didn't know we're about in Six Degrees and extra, so shout out Sarah Jepson. So to me, that's an obvious line. I'm a member of Six Degrees, I'm gonna find all the members and I'm going to reach out to them on LinkedIn and say, Hey, Rosie, I'm a member of Six Degrees, I'd love to connect. And likewise, if you're a member of a chamber of commerce or a BNI, that's always a great place to start. Because if you meet them in real life, or on a zoom event, you're going to want to connect anyway. So to me, that's warm, it's not cold, there's a network in common, or it could be an association. So for you, it could be some association to do with photographers, you know, so if you've any kind of thing that you belong to, that's accredited, and within your industry or a network, they're easy places to start. And before you know it, you're gonna have a few 100 people, peers that are, you know, hopefully like minds with you, so I'm all about the warm outreach. I don't just send, hey, you're a coach or a consultant. I hate that as a sensitive person that is icky. I hate when people do it to me, when they reach out to connect with me. And then the first message is about them selling to me, like, I don't like that, you know. And of course, it won't be just networks, it could be people that you admire. On the homepage, you see a great bit of content, and you're like, Oh, I love this, whether it was, you know, clever or funny, just reaching out to that person. So I really loved your post today, it really made me think of X Y, Z, just being a human being. And making people feel special is how you start off the relationship and the DMs, it's not making it about you, and like so many people even say, you know, I think it's silly, like, Hi, I'm Jen, I'm a LinkedIn Trainer, it's obvious. And if it's not obvious from your profile, you need to work on your profile! So you do need to say, Hi, this is who I am, that feels like you're going into a pitch, it should always be about the other person. So like remembering that every time you send somebody a connection request or a DM, you want to make them feel special, it should never be about you. Whereas so many people out there, it's bad practice as well, other people telling you to do it, it's like it should never be about you, it always should be about how you're interrupting their day, in a positive way, saying to them, you know, hey, I'm running this great podcast, I'd love to have you on as a guest, or we're part of the same network or I loved your content, or we both know Mary, just always about them. And being a human being so no cold, you know, you never need to do cold or LinkedIn, you never do unless, you're not a good networker. And if you're not a good networker, you need to find a network that resonates, otherwise, you're gonna be like one of those people who's just looking at LinkedIn as this, you know, Amazon Marketplace to sell your things, and it's just gross. So find a way in, you know, for you. And I'm sure we're all like, if you're a business owner, you really need to be in some kind of a network, or association. So that's always the obvious place to start or another one that people can do if they've been to university, there is an alumni group for every university, go in there, you never know how your peers can help you. You know, so there's groups and on LinkedIn for your hobbies! You might be reaching out to people because you both like horse riding, you know, so just start off as a human being. And I think so many people, they don't show up as human. They're like, Oh, I've heard LinkedIn is great for sales. I'm gonna go on like Amazon and just pick it out. I heard somebody say the other day that's so 2020, and I'm like it really is - it's just so gross. It just doesn't work anymore.
Rosie Parsons 22:36
That's really good tips. So what would be your three sort of biggest sort of takeaways or tips for kind of growth on LinkedIn? Like where should people start?
Jen Corcoran 22:45
Yeah, so like I said before, definitely the research. But if we're kind of past that stage, step one : profile, optimise the shit out of your profile in terms of branding and positioning, keywords, customer centric, all of that. Your LinkedIn profile is a website. So you have to put as much effort into it as your website. The second one is build your network. There's no point posting out content. If you've got no network, you've got 10 connections. So get strategic and start building it with like minded people in similar networks, people you admire, because most people who say they don't like to LinkedIn is because they're connected to spammy people. They're like passive, and they're waiting for people to come to them. And they're like, should I ignore or accept? And I'm like, that's not the question. You should be taking control of your network and thinking, who do I want on my podcast? Who do I want to connect to who I love their content, and the more you have that amazing network, the more you're gonna like LinkedIn. So people might not be aware, but you can send 100 connection requests each week, and I'm not saying you have to do this, this is, you know, it's up to the person. So in theory, you can send 5000 connection requests a year, I'd have that network five times and within a year, you don't have to you might, you know, for you, it could be you know what I'm going to do 10 a week, I'm going to add on 40 people, and maybe I'll have 500 new new connections. So you don't need to have 20,000 connections or followers on LinkedIn, you could have 200 connections, and if they are quality and the right people you will generate leads as a business owner because it will be about referrals, getting the introductions, tapping into their network, which is a lot bigger than your immediate. So number one, profile. Number two, build your network. And then number three, decide how you want to show up whether it's on the home feed, whether it's in groups, or DMs or a combo because we're all different. Some people will love the home feed and there'll be amazing at it like Rosie because she's visual, she's got amazing photos. It makes sense for her to be on there. Other people might cringe. They might be like super introverted, and just not gifted at content or not want to show up. So especially if you're dealing with corporates, you don't need to have content, you can go straight into the DMs. And other people might want to hang out in groups like mine and network, or do research or ask questions in groups. So it's kind of like getting to know yourself and getting to know what time you have to commit to LinkedIn, what energy and what doesn't feel gross, what feels good for you.
Rosie Parsons 25:20
Amazing. So you've got a course coming up haven't you soon? Do you want to like tell us all about that?
Jen Corcoran 25:26
In January, I've got my first kind of public workshop for the year about maximising your LinkedIn profile to attract clients. So it's gonna be like two and a half hour interactive live workshop, I'm going to take you from the top to the bottom of my profile - over 30 touch points, and show you what you need to be doing with each section and how to add sections on. I know a lot of people don't even know how to add on parts of their profile, there will be a little bit of q&a at the end, and there will be accountability. So in the last one, there was about 25 minutes where I got people to turn off the camera and take action. And it was great to see the things that people did you know. One lady went away and created her video cover story. And we all give her a round of applause. And another lady like tightened up all of her skills and other lady reached out for testimonials. And other lady worked on her about section. So it's, it's not just me teaching you and saying, there you go, I'm actually making you accountable, I'll put in in the chat box of what you do. So you will come away, having started on it, and then that makes you want to finish it. So yeah, I'm really looking forward to it. They're always really fun. And it's a great way to start your new year, because like I said, the profile is step one. And then then it makes you more confident makes you ready to mingle to do step two. And I think a lot of people, they jump straight to content, and it's like if your profile is shocking your content could be amazing. But people are always going to be nosy and go, who is this person and if the profile lets you down, it's like, it's like having a poor website, you're like you're shooting yourself in the foot. So definitely a good place to start. And it's all on Zoom. It's all virtual. And there's a there's a replay as well. So even if you think and I can't attend on the day, there is a replay. So you can do it in your own time.
Rosie Parsons 27:16
Oh, that sounds amazing. And I'll be sharing about your competition that we're going to be running to win some spaces on that in a moment. So keep listening for that. But thank you very much, Jen. That's been really, really helpful. I really appreciate you joining us today with all those amazing tips.
Jen Corcoran 27:30
Thank you for having me. Always a pleasure to chat to you lovely. And if anyone doesn't know, look me up on LinkedIn. Rosie did my headshot she's she did the photo in my banner. She's amazing. So she is a great person to have on board as well when you're coming to LinkedIn.
Rosie Parsons 27:46
Great. Well, I'll pop those the links to both of us on LinkedIn in the show notes and then everyone can find us on there.
Jen Corcoran 27:52
That'd be great. Yeah.
Rosie Parsons 27:56
So as you heard, if you fancy winning a space on Jen's January LinkedIn workshop, then you're in luck. We have three free seats to give away on her course, usually worth £397. What you have to do to be in with a chance to win is to subscribe to the build a brand with Rosie Parsons podcast and leave a rating in your podcast app of choice. Then send me a screenshot of your review to Rosie at Rosie Parsons photography.com. With the subject line LinkedIn competition. The competition is open until the 5thJanuary 2023. And winners will be contacted by email so get entering now!
