[00:00:00] Hannah: Hi, and welcome back to the Awfully Quiet Podcast. Episode 52 already. Can you believe it? We're coming up on a full year. November 14th, 2023 is when this journey kicked off and it's been quite the ride since then. It hasn't been, you know, a rocket to the top. I've talked about this, but we've seen slow and steady growth.

And that has felt really rewarding. This community is growing and I'm here for it. Now I'm thinking about doing something special to mark that one year milestone, maybe an episode sharing some of my experiences, lessons, and challenges, plenty of challenges. And if that's something that you're interested in, I'd love to hear from you.

feel free to. DM me on Instagram at awfully quiet podcast and share what you'd like to hear, especially going into year two. What would you like to hear more of? What are some of the topics, some of the speakers you'd like me to have on this show really is about you. And I want to hear from you now onto today's episode, which I'm excited about for the very first time, we've got a guest returning for round two.

And I think you'll understand why. We're talking about LinkedIn. Yeah, that platform we all seem to have a love hate relationship with, and I'm bringing back the amazing Abby Naylor. Abby is a personal brand coach and LinkedIn strategist based in Sydney. Since we last spoke, she has gone all in on her business.

And is thriving. She's booked solid as a speaker and coach. And she's proof that playing the long game and staying consistent really does pay off. This episode is packed with insights. And if you're like me and tend to avoid LinkedIn, I think this conversation might just change your mind. We're covering everything from how to use LinkedIn to get promoted, raise your profile, and even pivot into a new industry or grow your site hustle.

Evy's got a fresh take on navigating the platform without falling into the trap of over the top self promotion or inauthentic vulnerability. And here's something cool. Abby was recently awarded LinkedIn's top voice badge, and she's going to share how she earned that honor. Spoiler, it is not what you'd expect.

So grab your notebook because this episode is full of practical tips and real talk about LinkedIn and personal branding. Let's dive in. right, well, Evi, thank you so much for joining me today and welcome back to the awfully quiet podcast. You're my first guest to rejoin me.

[00:02:57] Abby: Oh, really? It's so, I'm so happy to be back and talk all things LinkedIn for your community. So I

[00:03:04] Hannah: Me too. I feel like we had such a good time the first time around, but I do remember leaving the conversation thinking. Where has the time gone? And there's so much more to cover. but before we get down to business though, I want to ask you a little bit more of a personal question that I'm asking my guests now, and it is, what is a quiet strength that gives you a little bit of an edge that gives you a little bit of a benefit and advantage in your business and in your career?

[00:03:32] Abby: love this question. I, I would have to say between being quite a reflective person, and also like curiosity. when, like, I am quite a reflective person, because I love to, even if it's like, with like, personal things that I'm like, okay, I've come out of a conversation that I can reflect on or a business opportunity.

I'm like, okay, well, went really well. And how can I improve for next time? Like, I'm kind of always in that reflective,space just because, yeah, I love improving and I think it just allows you just to kind of press pause and just jump off the hamster wheel. and yeah, with curiosity, that's why I love personal branding is because I get to.

hear a lot of career stories and personal stories of people of like where they have, like where they've ended up in the pivotal moments in their career or life that has led them to where they are. So I love that curiosity and listening kind of component to that as well.

[00:04:38] Hannah: Yeah, it's probably a lot of asking the right questions to, to like really get down to what somebody is about. And I really like that. Reflective is a good one. I feel like, you know, you have to be really in tune with yourself and you're probably somebody who can't shut it off either.

[00:04:55] Abby: no,

[00:04:56] Hannah: yeah.

[00:04:57] Abby: Once you're self aware and you're in that kind of pattern and mindfulness and things like that, it's a great habit to kind of be in. So, yeah, it does. It does help both personally and professionally.

[00:05:09] Hannah: I love that. Well, all right, get into LinkedIn. you know, I want to set the stage a little bit for the conversation. I have shared this with you before. Whenever I talk to my audience about LinkedIn, it seems like a little bit of a love hate relationship. Me personally, I always get the feeling I don't spend much time on LinkedIn.

Whenever I log on quickly lock off again, just because, you know, something creeps me out, but I do feel deep down. And especially after our first conversation, I do feel like I'm missing out on something. I'm missing out on opportunities. I know that for me, especially, you know, with the business, it could be extremely valuable to be more active on LinkedIn.

And so. What I want this conversation to help with today is almost like for everyone listening, leave with something that gives them hope, that motivates them a little bit, that gives them a reason to, to get on the platform and just to do one thing or like get started. So, a little bit of, of hope and inspiration is what I'm, is what I'm looking for.

Does that sound good to you? Can we

[00:06:14] Abby: Amazing. We can do that.

[00:06:16] Hannah: All right. So, you know, maybe we can start with What is something that you would like people to understand about LinkedIn? What's the current state of the platform? Where is it at? What do you, how do you feel about LinkedIn at the moment?

[00:06:31] Abby: I, my love for LinkedIn obviously grows more and more every day because it does keep bias, I know, but it does continue to Just open up more opportunities and doors for personal brands and businesses every single day. So it continues to pivot and listen to the audience to see what's really working well, and what's not.

So, for example, there's. It's been quite a shift in giving more of the smaller creators that are just joining linked in a bit more of a chance, because there's a lot of like, linked in, like, influences with quite a big following. And I think that's what when people kind of land on the platform initially, and they see.

The, like, the, the bigger guys on there, they kind of, it's a bit daunting in the sense kind of thing, because, yeah, it can really hold you back and just go, oh, is this what the platform's all about? However, LinkedIn is, I can't stress this enough, but it's such an inclusive platform to be on. There's. You know how you jump on Instagram and TikTok and in the comment section, sometimes it can be brutal on there.

Like it can, you just never know what opinion you're going to get. I just find with LinkedIn, people are just there to support you. They are, yeah, even like people just want to see you do well. They want to support your business. They want to support your content. Yeah, when people are kind of 1st jumping on the platform, or if they've kind of started and stopped and then gone back on there, I think it's great that, yeah, LinkedIn is continuing to listen and just kind of.

What their, like, strategy is for, like, the smaller creators as well. So just giving everyone a bit of a chance and a voice. Oh,

[00:08:27] Hannah: well, and to be honest, I never know why I find it cringier than Instagram because obviously Instagram is very cringy too, but for some reason, things happen on LinkedIn that always like, and we're going to get into that. But when you talk about personal brands on LinkedIn, who do you mean? Because I think some of the audience might think to themselves, you know what?

I'm not a personal brand. I don't have a business. you know, who do you mean by personal brand? Who should be on LinkedIn? Is it also for people who, who quote unquote, just have a corporate job and want to get ahead in their career?

[00:09:03] Abby: absolutely. Like, LinkedIn is for like majority of people. It's for not just people wanting to build their audience and create businesses and get leads from the platform, but it's also for career goal is that. Also want to build a personal brand outside of their 9 to 5. So I work, I work with quite a few clients actually that want to improve their personal brand and how they show up on LinkedIn to get a promotion at work and to pivot into a new industry, for example.

So they have been like some people that are quite established in their career. For example, they want to pivot into a new industry. They're like, I'm just not sure because like my audience know me as this person that talks about this kind of stuff. How do I kind of pivot into this new niche or, you know what I mean?

How do I kind of, yeah, the transition. so yeah, a lot of, it's not just for business owners, it's for, and personal brands. Yeah, like I said, not just business owners, you can have a career, you, you know what I mean? It's yeah, it's very inclusive.

[00:10:10] Hannah: What I'm really interested in is the people you mentioned or the clients you mentioned who have a corporate career and sort of want to raise their profile, elevate their. A personal brand and potentially get a promotion internally. Now, I never thought about leveraging LinkedIn to get a promotion internally.

How do you, can you talk a little bit about this and how you, you know, what you advise your clients to do and what that kind of looks like?

[00:10:36] Abby: Of course. So when you are working for someone else, , it is really important that you commune, have like transparency and really strong communication with your leader, just so you understand you, you both have an understanding and that respect for each other of what, you're linked in, What your presence looks like, because at the end of the day, you are working for someone else.

And you are, even though you're representing yourself, you are representing the brand that you are working for. So it's just really important to initially have that conversation with your leader or boss. And then how that looks like, if you are going for an internal promotion, for example, and you're like, okay, how can I, how can LinkedIn help me get there? Just think of LinkedIn as it's your online online portfolio. So it's a great platform for you to share your message and share your expertise. So, for example, if you're going for a promotion, a leadership position, then you can start showing up and kind of. Representing, like, visualizing what that leader looks like and kind of creating content that aligns with that and educating your audience.

So when it comes to getting a promotion or pivoting to a new industry or, or a new occupation kind of thing, people will understand. You know what I mean, your expertise, what you're there for and help them. And yeah, it just because it's just such a digital age now where people are leaning more on employee advocacy and personal brands to really build that the company page and drive traffic to the website as well.

Because at the end of the day. Back in the day, it was more kind of business brands and like your Googles and your nikes and things like that. And now it's more like people just don't want to be sold to anymore. They want to and like, even with businesses and their employees, people want to connect with the people that are working with the brand.

and. Yeah, it's just more of that connection people are looking for and LinkedIn does provide that. Absolutely.

[00:12:51] Hannah: Well, you know, I love the, the, all of this, what you say around. driving advocacy. And what I think it is at the end of the day, it's, you're becoming visible to people in your organization who might not have you on their radar yet. And we, we do talk about visibility quite often because it's one of the top critical feedbacks introverts get in the workplace of like, you need to be a little bit more visible.

You're doing a great job. I see you doing a great job, but you know, other leaders in the business, other senior stakeholders are not necessarily seeing. You're doing a great job on a daily basis. So how do you become more visible? And I'm all for subtle strategies to do that. And for just kind of, you know, introvert friendly ways of getting notice and getting visible.

And I wonder whether a little bit of an. elevated or a race profile on LinkedIn, like showing up a little bit more could be a way of doing this in a subtle way and of kind of signalizing to leaders in the business who you might be connected with that you are active, that you are interested and that you are building this expertise.

is, is that sort of where um, with, you know, anyone who would, you know, want a promotion or just kind of build a little bit of a reputation internally? Braggie.

[00:14:14] Abby: stays with you when you are going through a promotion when you are leaving the company or anything like that. So, but we'll use the example of like. The visibility and going for a promotion and for introverts who like to kind of, kind of lay low and they're kind of, a successful behind the scenes kind of thing without kind of over promotional. I, a lot of introverts might look at LinkedIn and this might resonate with you as well, Hannah, but they might look on the platform and go, Oh my goodness, this is just too self promotional, this is just not who I am. yeah, however, what I coach my clients is ideas, promotion, the self promotion. So ideas promotion for me is having the understanding that when you show up on LinkedIn and you're sharing your expertise and your knowledge. You have your target audience in mind, regardless if that is your clients, if that is your, your employer, if that's you always have them in mind to add value to them kind of thing. So that kind of takes off that cringy self promotional kind of.tag, I guess that personal branding does have and I think that's what kind of holds back make like introverts a little bit.

Do you do agree? I

[00:15:39] Hannah: I really love ideas promotion over self promotion just because it takes the spotlight away from you and towards what you stand for what you want to be known for. And, I know last time we talked a lot about, actually interacting on the platform and just kind of being active, curating your feed, making sure that you interact with, you know, the, the right articles and just kind of like the, the people and the businesses that you feel could add value to you in terms of what you do.

Consume on the platform, but now I feel like we're sort of shifting into a space where we're also becoming a little bit more active in what we share on the platform. And that's where I want to spend a little bit of time is like, what works well on the platform? What is the kind of content? Somebody who never shares or who never, you know, shares their thoughts or articles or whatever they're seeing on LinkedIn to just kind of getting started step by step.

[00:16:39] Abby: would like to start with a lot of personal branding doesn't mean personal life. So it's. A lot of, yeah, a lot of people do get caught up in this as well. It's like, okay, what do I share? Is this too much? Is it not enough? Like they have this, yeah, they see some influencers on Instagram and they share their blogs from the moment they wake up to the moment they go to sleep.

however, yeah. However, with your, like your personal brand is, are in control of how you want to show up, especially on a platform like LinkedIn, where it's used to share your story, to connect with others and also to share your expertise and knowledge to build up your expertise and your reputation. and as well to help your clients or employers, and to grow your personal brand, for example.

[00:17:28] Hannah: What I really liked about what you said was that it doesn't have to be personal. And I feel like I feel like that's a very big distinction between. Instagram and LinkedIn and like what works on Instagram versus what works on LinkedIn. And all too often what I see people do is they repurpose the same content across both platforms.

And I think that's where it's becoming cringy.

[00:17:52] Abby: I was going to segue into the type of content that works really well on the platform. and that just kind of, I do have an afternoon brain, so you have to apologize. I have to apologize. So, The type of content that works really well is that personal content that connects with your audience.

When you're sharing your story, this is that's why I was kind of talking about, your, Personal life doesn't mean personal branding. It's what kind of the pivotal moments that have happened in your life that can either help connect you with your audience or yeah, just kind of share a little bit more into why you do what you do, like, into your purpose, because people don't just want to, like I said, they don't want to be sold to all the time.

And. Educational content works really well. However, people want to connect with you and the way to connect is through storytelling. So, sharing your story, sharing your client stories, if you work for someone, it's about having those conversations with, like, if an employee or your colleague comes up to you with a pain point and kind of just creating content around that because, like I said, I think in the previous episode that we've done together is, you just never know who you're inspiring.

You might think you feel like so repetitive with the content that you are creating, but yeah, you never know who is inspired by your story or the content that you are sharing.

[00:19:20] Hannah: Yeah, I really like the aspect of, like, the personal stories, and I want to talk more about how you actually find out what those stories are that are suitable to share on LinkedIn. But just to begin with, I think. What we often perceive as bragging on the platform are those like a disingenuine vulnerability stories where somebody like taps into something that's happened to them, and they kind of make it a promotional braggy story.

And I think that's where it gets really. Disingenuine. And, I see how this will have worked early on the platform and at some point in time, it will have been something that kind of cut through the noise of somebody who, you know, shares a vulnerability, and turns it into something that, you know, stands out about them.

And I feel like that time is over now. So it's almost like we need to find a new thing. We need to, you know, find something that again cuts through the noise and is slightly different. And. That's where I'm getting really interested in, like, are there ways for us to show up on the platform that are a little unconventional, that are a little surprising, maybe even a little different, and therefore have the potential to differentiate and stand out more.

[00:20:34] Abby: So, I think at the moment, video is a massive component to. LinkedIn, so,that is being kind of trialed at the moment for and what it's doing. It's encouraging creators to show up more authentically on the platform and also to you've got your Instagram and your tick tock where Gen Z's are kind of following, they're showing up on platforms.

A lot more just like raw and like Rawly and like as less kind of curated, I guess, like, I remember when I first like back in 2007 or 9, whenever Instagram kind of came out, it was all about like filtered content and like the, the filters. Yeah, the filters and the captions and things like that. So we've, we've gone, we've come a long way since then.

And I think LinkedIn is finally catching up. And what video is encouraging creators to do is. To not just because, like, with writing, you can sit there, draft it, edit it, like, you know what I mean? But with video, it's kind of encouraging people to share up and show up and share more in the day to day or, you know, I mean, yeah, showing that the day to day things and.

The, like, something like a conversation that just kind of happened with a client and or like their employee, for example, and they just jump on and kind of create content out of that. So it's just a lot more kind of. authentic and also, yeah, video is quite popular now. So, yeah, it just kind of gives people that other option to kind of express themselves more kind of not behind the keyboard.

[00:22:18] Hannah: And is it, can I imagine that, like, similar to, like, reels on Instagram and Tik Toks? Is it like this kind of produced little, you know, video snippet, or is it more like, you know, people talking into the camera, sharing their stories or kind of a thought they had on, on that day?

[00:22:35] Abby: So it's a bit of a mix. So a lot of people are showing up just quiet, like, raw footage and just kind of like, walking, doing their daily walk with their phones and showing up in that way. Then there's others that are kind of sitting down, like, doing an interview, like, a podcast interview and a snippet of that.

And then it. I think what it comes down to is the type of videos that you are creating does have to align with your personal brand. So if you have quite like an established, polished brand, then I guess the videos that work really well for you is, yeah, the produced kind of videos and edited ones like that.

However, if you are building a personal brand, that is quite. Authentic and just aligns with your, like, if you're quite a casual person and just like grabbing your phone and less edits and things like that, then that raw footage, yeah, will work really well and yeah, connect with your audience. I find, because I think a lot of people, the polished content works well in certain scenarios, but I think, yeah, I think it just gets.

Missed it can get missed quite a bit sometime because it's there's a lot of it now kind of thing. So I think just kind of finding ways that are like, what's the term? I think it's pattern breaks kind of like, how you can kind of like, grab

[00:23:54] Hannah: It doesn't cut through the noise. Yeah.

[00:23:56] Abby: Yeah, so how you can, like, cut through the noise and things like that.

And when you were kind of talking about people kind of sharing, like, sharing the vulnerability, like, the vulnerable moments to kind of get more engagement, that has definitely shifted because I think we went too far on that, on that kind of scale. So I think we're kind of balancing that out a little bit more and it's, it's just kind of like showing up more any day today, how you're helping people.

Like, get the results that they want, even if you kind of have a lightbulb moment in your career or your life that kind of can help someone else. Like, it's just kind of like, yeah, what feels good for you and what's going to kind of like, inspire people.

[00:24:39] Hannah: Hmm. Do you recommend, you know, for somebody who is active on both Instagram and LinkedIn, do you recommend they do things differently across the platform? Or almost like take on, I don't wanna say a, a different personality, but almost like a little bit of a different hat when it comes to like, is LinkedIn more professional and then Instagram is a little bit more, playful, more personal?

Or would you say. with the evolution of LinkedIn, it's almost the same these days. Yeah.

[00:25:09] Abby: I think there is. A differentiation of both like, they both platforms are great for their own thing. I know there kind of can be a bit of confusion now that there's like that video kind of style coming out on LinkedIn and it's kind of like, it's copycat of like TikTok and Instagram.

However, they do have to kind of keep up with trends. I consider Instagram more of like, where I can be a bit more creative and like, kind of a bit more, like, create more story kind of content. So I'm just like, finished talking to a client or something. And I'm like, wow, I just jumped off a call with Haley.

She's really like, blah, blah, you know what I mean? Kind of thing, more like that, kind of just jumping up on a story. And yeah, that creativity, however, LinkedIn, I, you want to be like, you also want like, you want to be yourself. However, you've just got to keep your target audience in mind. So your target audience on Instagram and your target audience on LinkedIn are going to be, you know, I mean, like, they might be different people kind of thing.

So it's just like how you can get your message across kind of thing. And what's kind of going to align with them as well. Yeah,

[00:26:26] Hannah: And I would imagine also, you know, it takes a little bit of trial and error to understand, you know, to get a feel for your audience. I feel like that took, you know, took me a little bit of time on Instagram for sure. And I feel like it's going to be the same on LinkedIn where it's like, once you understand who is really out there.

engaging with what you have to say, you get a better feel for it.

[00:26:49] Abby: I have an error because I just feel like everyone, it's different for everyone. It's not a one size fits all. Like, when I work with my one on one coaching clients, it is not. Yeah, it's not a one size fits all because everyone has different lifestyles. Everyone has different goals and things like that.

So, yeah, it's really a platform where you can make work for you and like work. Yeah, like, help you in, like, achieve your goals kind of thing. And it doesn't like, for example, I was working with a single dad who was a director. his goals are going to be different to another lady that I was working with who,

was just kind of fresh in her career and didn't have any other responsibilities more than just to, yeah, kind of like, starting her career and kind of build her way up kind of thing. So, 2, People. so yeah, it's the beauty of LinkedIn is you can. however, it works, you can make it work for you.

[00:27:46] Hannah: Yeah, but what it sounds like is what helps is to become intentional with what it is you're looking to get out of it. So instead of just kind of seeing it as a tick in the box, I need to post something on LinkedIn. It's almost like, well, let's start with, you know, what is my ambition? What are my objectives?

What are my goals? What do I want to achieve in general in my career right now? How might LinkedIn help me? Who am I talking to? So who's my audience on the platform? And then what's the type of content I want to share? What's the kind of message I want to land? And what is what I want to become known for?

And it feels like a lot more strategic. And then once you have that lined up, it likely becomes a little bit easier to like, motivate yourself to go about it. Did I miss anything in that lineup?

[00:28:34] Abby: No, and no, not at all. And a lot of people, like, I saw someone post the other day on LinkedIn and he shared, he's like, I prefer to do text posts because he. That's how he feels more comfortable. He likes writing and he's not. He doesn't really like showing up on video his post perform really well, because he writes really well and he knows what he what the message he wants to get get across to his target audience and yeah, he's quite intentional with the type of content that he does share.

So, my advice would be just to trial and error what works best for you and your audience. So. You might not like video, or you might prefer video over carousel posts or text posts and things like that. So, yeah, it's all about just finding what works best for you. And it's not kind of following, like, not necessarily following the trends.

As well,

[00:29:30] Hannah: Yeah, I like that. when I looked at your LinkedIn profile and your profile online, what You know, what I see is, a lot of, that sentiment of like building influence. And I really, really like that. it really resonates with me. And I was wondering, you know, how you go about building influence on LinkedIn.

I think if, if you do this well with like the personal branding online, what It ends up doing for you is it almost creates this reputation and enables, you know, people to know you for something and to build a little bit of an expertise, a reputation of like, here's what I stand for. Here's what I do. Well, and at the end of the day, what I think this can lead to is people.

Coming to you for things. And like people, you, you don't have to push out your message at the end of the day. It's almost like this pull effect of like, you have just kind of established what you stand for, who you are, what you want to do more of. And suddenly people come to you instead of the other way around.

how do we, how do we do that? Because that is something like I would sign up for instantly.

[00:30:38] Abby: look, I, I'm not 1 for the quick hacks or, you know what I mean? That a lot of people kind of do sell. And I know a lot of people kind of want these quick hacks to get them the results and the followers and things like that. However, I, I think it's all about the long game. Like, I think it's a bad deal. One, like 1% effort every single day just to compound.

So just what LinkedIn really likes is consistency. Consistency with your message, consistency with your, for example, the, quality over quantity. So I think that might resonate with introverts because they're like, oh my God, do I have to post like five to seven days a week to be build this big influence and things like that?

And, and that's not all the, that's not the case. It's about. The quality content and the quality connections that you are making that build that influence over time. Because, yeah, a lot of people, you hear a lot of advice to say, yeah, you need to spend so much time on the platform and connect with 50 people a day and slide into their DMS and you know what I mean?

Do and create content like 7 days a week. However.

[00:31:46] Hannah: method. I think, yeah, showing up consistent consistently that aligns with your goals and your lifestyle as well. You might have a side gig like, as well as a corporate gig or, you know what I mean? Everyone's lifestyle is really different.

[00:32:02] Abby: however, yeah. Focusing on quality over quantity and just yeah. And, and consistency as well. That's what's going to build that influence and just listening to your audience and what they kind of need from you and the help. So for example, like in my first year of business, it was kind of just trial and error and it was, and over time I, that led me to, you kind of feel like.

You're not making any progress and you're like, oh, do I just feel repetitive? Or I'm like, I'm just sharing the same content. And does anyone find this valuable? And then I, like, when I do these podcasts, like, I had someone reach out to me and I think had listened to your podcast recent, like, our 1st episode together and they reached out to me and they're like, hey, just listen to this, Podcast. Yeah. And I had another 1 as well that I did this time last year as well. And they reached out to me to say. I'm like, I listened to this podcast and it really helped me. I'm like, pivoting into a new industry. So you just never like, this is what I like to just like, always hone in on is like, you just never know who's listening.

You never know who's inspiring and there's not everyone is going to engage with your content. There's going to be. Conservative people on the platform that 1 don't want to be kind of seen engaging with other people, people's content, or they might be scared because they might like work for someone else.

And they, you know what I mean? So they don't want to be seen agreeing with like, an opinion that might kind of upset someone else. Or there's so many different reasons. Like, I have people still reach out to me and they're like, oh, I love your recent post in DMs. However, they haven't engaged with my post at all.

so. Just building that influence is it's a, it's a patient's game as well. And just that showing up, like just when you don't feel like it as well, just. Yeah. Cause you just, it, the 1 percent eventually does compound. And for example, recently I have been named top voice on LinkedIn and that didn't happen overnight for me.

That was a four year journey for me showing up. And I initially started just posting once every fortnight. And then I started to learn the platform a little bit more in my audience a little bit more. And then I was like, okay, I'm going to start posting once a week. Then I said twice a week, and then I built it and I continued to kind of reiterate, like, iterate kind of thing.

What was, yeah, when my confidence started, like, to grow and what I was learning about my audience and things like that. So, yeah, it's my advice to introverts, especially if they're kind of, like. Thinking it's all about quantity quantity and getting content and like posting a lot and trying to engage with 50 people a day kind of thing.

Yeah, it's, you've just got to find something that aligns with you nail it then continue to just kind of grow from there.

[00:34:56] Hannah: Well, congratulations. I wanted to touch on that. you know, you becoming a top voice, how, how do you become a top voice? and what does it help you with now?

[00:35:05] Abby: So, a top voice. There's only 300 people from LinkedIn that are selected each year as a top voice and the way that, yeah, and the people that are selected are people that have been showing value on the platform and that actually, yeah, so that they're adding value and they have consistently and, Yeah, so they're kind of like making an impact on on the on the platform, for example.

So that's just the way I'm not sure how it works behind the scenes with the LinkedIn team. But all I know is that it is, yeah, 300 people are selected across, like, the globe kind of thing, which is a phenomenal thing to achieve kind of thing. And. I don't think I, there's no really, there's, there's no really kind of like checklist.

It's more just like consistency, I think. And you know what I mean? Kind of having my audience in mind when showing up and in really leaning into that ideas promotion more than that self promotion and yeah, adding value to my audience. So I think that's really kind of. What's helped me gain that influence and gain the top voice badge.

And then from here, what that does is it kind of helps you with more reach. So, obviously, that builds your credibility. If you're.

[00:36:30] Hannah: Yeah,

[00:36:31] Abby: If you're a top voice people, it kind of backs up what you are saying as well. So, yeah, it's a massive credibility piece there.

[00:36:39] Hannah: I love that. And it's like 300 people across the world. This is amazing. did you have to nominate yourself or did they just kind of You know, see your profile or notice your profile you were doing while you were doing things consistently. And that's how you got it.

[00:36:54] Abby: I think the people, yeah, I think I was just noticed because I, yeah, it wasn't a nomination thing unless and I don't think anyone else can nominate you either. yeah. Yeah, so, and I, for example, like, I don't have a huge following on LinkedIn. I'm very much. On the fence of, I'm very much more an engaged community over a lazy, big audience, for example, so, yeah, I didn't get the top voice for having 100, 000 followers on the platform either.

Like, I'm sitting around the 3000 mark. You know what I mean? You don't have to have this big, big, crazy audience. Like, I think these days, Hannah is even you'll notice on Instagram. Do you get invited to a lot of like channels on on Instagram? Yeah, so, like, people are kind of making more like community channels now because people are, like I said, we're looking for that connection and.

I think with such a big following, sometimes your message can get lost because the big following might not necessarily be your target audience. They're just kind of, yeah, it's kind of like a bit of a lazy audience. So I don't think necessarily like a big audience does provide a lot more visibility.

However, it doesn't necessarily mean more money and it doesn't really necessarily mean more influence because it might not be your target audience might not even be following you. So, yeah, I think. yeah, it's I'm prime example that you don't need a big crazy following to building, like, have influence on the platform.

[00:38:27] Hannah: I really love that. You remember when I said at the beginning, I wanted people to take something away that motivates them. I think this is going to be the thing for me is like, that gives me hope or confidence in LinkedIn as a platform in terms of like, Just kind of honoring the people who are out there doing things, you know, in the dark consistently without necessarily seeing, you know, that many results yet, but it's just kind of rewarding that showing up, you know, interacting with your audience, building an engaged audience.

And then, you know, they kind of become aware of your profile, which I think is really, really nice. and something that I feels really interpret, friendly and subtle too. So I love that for you and I'm well done.

[00:39:12] Abby: Thank you so much. There's also, I just wanted to mention as well, there's a few new features on LinkedIn that might be quite introvert friendly. So. Things when since we last spoke, they've come out with LinkedIn lives. So you can create your own events on the platform, but also audio events. So, yeah, so you can do more audio events.

So I've done 1 recently, actually, and. Yeah, it's kind of just like listening to listening to a podcast kind of thing and people you kind of just promote it on your LinkedIn or wherever you want to promote it and people can join in and they can leave comments and you can kind of talk on the comments as well.

So, I feel like that is, yeah, that's a really great feature as well to kind of lean into if people don't want to kind of do video. However, they kind of want to get a little bit creative of how they connect with their audience.

[00:40:08] Hannah: Yeah, I really like that. like the audio events, and it feels like, especially for podcasts as well, LinkedIn is a big, big space, isn't it?

[00:40:17] Abby: yeah, and how do you find voice notes? Like, you know, how in messages and things like that, do you use voice notes a lot?

[00:40:24] Hannah: I do do.

[00:40:25] Abby: Yeah. LinkedIn now has,leans on voice notes as well. So, on your mobile app, not on your desktop, but yeah, on your, yeah, on your mobile, you can record a 1 minute video. Yeah, voice note kind of thing.

So, for example, if you have a new follower and instead of like, you kind of get caught up in that. I don't know what to say kind of thing in terms of like, writing something. Sometimes maybe voice notes can come across. A lot easier for some people. I found that as a really cool feature as well, because you can kind of do it as you're walking to meetings.

And yeah, and it just kind of gives you back some time a little bit.

[00:41:03] Hannah: Yeah, no, I, I really like voice notes. I once got a voice note from somebody on Instagram and I was like, Oh my God, this is really nice. It feels like that instant personal connection. and, and this is actually the one thing I also wanted to touch on is like, You know, building genuine connection on the platform and potentially reaching out to somebody directly.

you know, I feel like halfway through my Instagram experience, I kind of figured it out. And so, for example, when I'm now looking for podcast guests, I will often reach out to them, Over over Instagram and will, you know, as you say, slide into their DMS or like, interact with them. and just kind of, see whether they're they'd be interested to join me on the podcast.

And that has been working super well for me. But at the same time, I was always thinking, well. There's a lot of super interesting people on LinkedIn that I'd love to have on the podcast too, but to this date, I have not been successful in reaching out to someone on LinkedIn and get an answer back or get a, get a reply even, you know, even just like a no, or I'm not interested.

how do you, how do you reach out to someone on LinkedIn? How do you get in touch with some someone, on LinkedIn in a way that is not cringey and. Spammy.

[00:42:20] Abby: DMs are like a great way to obviously connect with people and ask them, like, ask them to come onto your podcast. However, some people may have been burnt by spam messages and things like that. So I think what's really important is just building that rapport, I think is really important for LinkedIn.

So it doesn't feel like there's. And a cold call or a cold message kind of coming, not that you would, but just as like a general rule is people. Yeah, looking for that, yeah, that report build at the start. So I highly recommend when you go to message someone on LinkedIn is kind of jump onto their profile and.

Just have a, yeah, just kind of have a look through their profile. See if you can kind of find any common ground and like, have a look at their most recent posts, just to see if anything kind of like aligns with you or the message or like the podcast episode that you would love to kind of, Feature them on things, so just kind of like, yeah, not initially just like offering them something straight away.

It's kind of just like, hey, hey, Hannah. I had just had a quick look at your, profile 1 of your recent posts on this popped up on my feed recently, and I really resonated with it. what I do is I run a podcast, helping introverts. Feel more comfortable like in the workplace and I feel like you would be a really great person to feature on that platform.

let me know what you think and you know what I mean, just kind of like, yeah, finding that you might already kind of do that on Instagram.

[00:43:54] Hannah: That's what I do on Instagram. Yeah. Well, and obviously not everybody replies on Instagram either. Right. So there's always, it's just, and obviously I've done a lot more on Instagram than on LinkedIn. So I've probably had two experiences and then called it a day. So,

[00:44:11] Abby: advice. Yeah. My advice also would be is to engage in their content. So say if it's something for a company, and. You know what I mean? It's really hard to get to the leader of that company. So you kind of like go into the company page and see who else works for that company and start to follow the employees and the leaders and start engaging with their content and getting your name out there because that's just that visibility piece, right?

And that's a great way to connect with someone without kind of like Jumping into DM straight away. So,yeah, so I would highly recommend kind of, yeah, just being really intentional with, like, the industries and the leaders and employees that you kind of want to connect with. And, yeah, start engaging with their content and supporting in that way.

So when you kind of do kind of jump into DMs and things like that, your name is already visible to them.

[00:45:02] Hannah: yeah. Yeah. That definitely happens for me. I kind of know who, you know, interacts with my posts on Instagram, for example, and who kind of tends to comment or reach out to me. So you just kind of know, who are your people.that is so true.

[00:45:19] Abby: that's a great thing about LinkedIn is you can be really intentional with who you connect with as well. And I think we touched on this in the 1st episode that we did, but yeah, it's, it's a great platform in that sense, because you can kind of join groups and you can meet people that are in, like, the similar interests and industries and things like that.

And you can kind of connect with people in that way. and also. I just think it's a great feature when you do like, interested in a certain industry, then you can kind of search the business brand and then find out who works for them and kind of be quite intentional with the way that you connect with people like that as well.

Connecting with people in supporting their content, which I call kind of digital karma. The more that you support others on the platform, they're going to support you. And a little trick as well, like, when you are in DMS, the more you engage with certain people in DMS, and then on your feed as well, what that's going to do is it's going to influence your feed.

So, the more people in that industry and in that niche are going to pop up on your LinkedIn as well. So it's a platform where obviously it happens a lot on the other platforms as well, but you can kind of coach the algorithm in a sense of, like, you're interested in talking to so they can bring more people like that to you.

[00:46:36] Hannah: Yeah, you kind of set it all up and put it out there and you get more of the same back. Yeah. Yeah, I like it. It

[00:46:44] Abby: digital karma. I don't know where I got that.

[00:46:47] Hannah: I really, really like that. Abby to like wrap it all up. I have so many gold nuggets that I just noted down in terms of like things that I genuinely learned that I didn't know about before.

And, some of the things that are really giving me, you know, a little bit of hope for, for the platform and I'm overdramatizing this, but, just to end on a positive note, what's something that you want the audience to leave with? what's an action that everybody can take, what is, you know, a little glimpse of inspiration that, you know, might help them log on in the first place and then potentially engage, become a little bit more intentional.

And yeah, as, as you said, some of your client stories, I think are really, really impressive in terms of like, what that does for you and what it enables for you at the end of the day.

[00:47:35] Abby: Exactly, so my advice would be is just to start small and reiterating like quality over quantity. So that could be you. Just really refining what your personal brand message is and the message that you want to get across to your clients or your employer or the, or your target audience. And yeah, it's just, you might want to focus on that focus on just, optimizing your profile, like bit by bit kind of thing.

So, you know, I mean, just taking those small 1%, kind of movements every single day, cause that's really what's going to compound. Cause a lot of people do. Think I just need to do it all optimize my profile and start posting content straight away. it's not the case. I highly recommend just kind of easing your way into it and finding your feet and starting slowly engaging with people and just building your confidence that way.

because what it's done for me is I've been able to quit my corporate job. and you know what I mean? Meet you, Hannah, for example. And you know what I mean? Come on this podcast.

[00:48:34] Hannah: it's worth for.

[00:48:35] Abby: Yeah, and you know what I mean? I've like, yeah, I've been able to book speaking events and yeah, across Australia and and things like that.

So, I just, yeah, I just think it's such a great platform for you to get your message across and show up in a way that feels really genuine to you and your audience as well. So. Yeah, I, yeah, I highly recommend, yeah, just starting small and just building your way up from there. Because honestly, you never know who's watching and what opportunities and doors are honestly waiting for you when as soon as I quit my corporate job, I had, it was like 1, it was really symbolic, like 1 door closed and then all of these opportunities just started.

Falling into my inbox, because what had I done is I'd, I'd spent four years on LinkedIn, building my presence bit by bit. So that would be my kind of message to your community. If they're kind of wanting, yes, starting out.

[00:49:35] Hannah: I love that. and truly, ever since we last spoke, you skyrocketed. I see you on so many different, you know, events like speaking, coaching, and, I feel like you do this very authentically in terms of like, whenever I speak to you is when I am most motivated to actually go on LinkedIn and, you tap into that platform too.

But, yeah, it just kind of goes to show, that, you know, you've done it in a very introvert friendly way. And I think that's what I love most about it. It's not about, you know, the flashy numbers, the overnight success or the big following is really about that subtle influence and it couldn't be more on brand for me.

So, thank you so much for joining me. where can everyone find you? connect with you if they, you know, want to work with you, what's the best way of contacting you? I

[00:50:25] Abby: So most people can find me on LinkedIn under Abby Naylor. They can also find me on Instagram. At underscore bold mood. and also my website, www. boldmood. com. au. So that has all my services on there and also a little bit more about me and how I can help you. So feel free to just reach out. Like I say, slide into my DMS if you have any questions for me, because honestly, I, I love chatting and meeting new people and, and connecting.

So yeah, please reach out.

[00:50:55] Hannah: love that. Well, we'll put all of that in the show notes and Abby, two times a charm, maybe a third one. in the future, I would love to connect again. I'm having so much fun on these conversations. So thank you so much for joining me.

[00:51:08] Abby: Thank you so much. And I really appreciate you having me on this show twice and yeah, three, third time's the charm. So fingers crossed.