BOTAO Ep 172

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[00:00:00] Um, but after attending the content, uh, audit call, there was a talk about the transition from academics. To, um, the space and how to transition the writing and everything. And one thing that that really led me to, which I've struggled with. And if you go to my website and everywhere, it's different because depending on who I talk to and where I'm at, my answer to this changes titles.

Should we in this space. Be using them are not and now, namely mine, because even in the course of the last three weeks since I joined this program, I've been changing it. Should it be the PhD at the end? Should it be at the doctor at the front? Should I just be dropping it and they can look at the credentials?

And when I'm working with entrepreneurs like this, and especially in my space in academics. That doctor means something. [00:01:00] So curious to get some input here. Um, Brandy and I are talking tomorrow morning to discuss it because she was the other one on that content call. Um, and it just I know it's a little thing, but at least in computer science in that space that I'm also in.

It, it just has so many connotations to it. And, but again, that comes from the students and their disrespect. And so this, it's a heated thing and I've done the reading on it, the research and every article goes one way, whether it's a male or female writing it or with a title as to whether you should or you shouldn't.

So, okay. That's my story with that. Who's your ideal audience? Who are, who are you planning to market your stuff to? So it's truly people like you and you know, that are at this point where you have a program as I've been digging in since, um, I talked with Jackie on one of her calls. I'm realizing it's really those [00:02:00] people, not necessarily that are just getting going, even though I wouldn't mind having an offering like that.

It's really more about leveling up that content, leveling up. How you're developing the courses, how, you know, a lot of what you're doing. I laughed when I was talking with Jackie, cause I'm like, Oh my gosh, that's exactly. I mean, I truly I've joked, I think on that call too, I want Jackie's job, just not for someone like you.

I mean, for you, I mean, I don't want to take hers, but I want her job. If that makes sense. I love this conversation. Okay. So you're asking me, I'm an N of one and I have a doctorate and I'm in this coaching space. I'll give you my two cents. Take it or leave it. Academia has a massive ego around titles. When you get into the entrepreneur space, nobody gives a flying, you know what?

Um, I, I like [00:03:00] rarely ever use the word doctor. Is it in my name up here now, Melissa Hinault. Right. Um, it's funny because some of my friends, I've been guest speakers places and, and, and the facilitators will introduce me as Dr. Hinault and I'm like, Oh yeah, I do have a doctorate, but, um, it is an ego thing.

My, all my really close friends who are still in like clinical pharmacy, who have these 12, 000 acronyms for certifications after the name for all their residency, post residency, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Like it is an ego thing on LinkedIn for all of that to be listed out. And entrepreneurship, people just want to know if you're going to get them results, if it's going to impact their bottom line, are you going to change their life?

And if so, I gave a, you guys, a lot of you've heard the story, Preston smiles. He doesn't have a doctorate in anything. I gave the guy 40, 000 to work with me as an energetics coach for three months. He had no certifications, no PhD, no doctorate, right. But he was making multiple millions, you know, um, and living the [00:04:00] life.

Energetically that I wanted to live and I didn't care. I didn't give a fly and flip what his certifications were. Right. So I'm an end of one. You're asking my personal opinion. I think there's a lot of ego in academics, but the reason I asked about your target market, cause we do have clients whose target market is in academia.

So they have to tow that line and put it out there. And so if you're going to be. Marketing to that group, then you have to know their ego and you have to make sure you have those box checked. But if your mainstream audience is just, um, you know, mainstream entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, that's not aggregated or segregated into the academic space.

I wouldn't worry about it. Okay, because I've dabbled both ways and I even just recently thought I'd see if engagement, if that impacted or not, and I have to say, I didn't notice a difference one way or the other, but I've also tossed it at the end with the PhD. Um, But yeah, when I talk to people, [00:05:00] no, don't unless, yeah, it's just, you guys will love this for any of you with degrees, higher level degrees, we run the analytics on our, my account every single week, and we present it to the team on Mondays.

And one of the, one of the data points that we look at is the most popular job titles of people who research you. Right. And for the last two or three years, pharmacists and people with a doctorate were like the top people on the search function. And this sounds horrible, but we were like, that is not our audience.

How do we get these? How do we get this out of the algorithms? And so what do we do? We, we dumbed down my title. We pulled it out because people were certain the wrong people were finding me on the internet that we didn't want to market to. We wanted to be marketing to founders, entrepreneurs, right? And so the more we hyped up that degree and the more it was [00:06:00] discoverable in my summary and my career history, the more the search engine was like putting me in front of the wrong people.

So that's something to think about too. So, okay, I just real fast then since you headed down that path because my other piece and I know that this isn't supposed to be my resume anymore. And that's where it's been and how it's been. What do I do with that though? I mean, because do I put a background in the about section?

Because I mean. Even when I'm working in this space, the fact that I've developed courses and programs for big names like MIT, Southern New Hampshire, Western Governor, I mean, that means something because it's that program level stuff. Totally. I think you can put that in your summary session. Like, I, I haven't, we had a client who, um, she was a social media manager for Justin Bieber.

And Chick fil A and Lowe's. Right. So what we did in her summary and she invested in our LinkedIn program, just saying, um, and in her [00:07:00] summary, we put that right. Like, um, you know, worked with, you know, fortune 500 and celebrities and listed them. Right. And people are going to sniff you out. Like how many of you guys went into my profile?

It wasn't in my summary, but you could see my career history. I was a medical director here. I worked at GlaxoSmithKline. I was a pharmacist. It's there. Right. Um, it's just not in my summary and it's not in my title and my headline. Okay.