Make Real Connections Networking On LinkedIn! with Alex Sheridan

You can find Alex Sheridan at:
Website: https://impaxs.com/
Email: asheridan@impaxs.com
TikTok: https://vt.tiktok.com/ZSdcAxR37/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexbsheridan/

Win The Hour Win The Day
https://winthehourwintheday.com

Alex Sheridan Podcast Transcription

[00:02:36]Kris Ward: Hey, everyone. Welcome to another episode of Win The Hour, Win The Day. And I am your lucky host, Kris Ward. And I am lucky because today we have a treat for you. You’ve got to, I mean, I’m telling you driving, you’re going to want to pull over because you’re going to be needing to take notes. I have Alex Sheridan in the house.

[00:02:55] Now I found him on TikTok. And funny enough, I learned more about LinkedIn from him on TikTok than I have in the last 10 years on LinkedIn. I’m not kidding you. This guy is smart. He’s dynamic. He gives solid, tangible takeaways, crazy value bombs in the smallest little snippets of info. I can’t wait to dive into this. We’re going to learn so much. Welcome to the show, Alex. 

[00:03:20]Alex Sheridan: Wow. Thank you so much, Kris. I appreciate you. 

[00:03:24]Kris Ward: Yeah, I’m not kidding. I saved it. I pumped you up a little bit when we met, but I was like, no, no, we’re going to do this. Okay. You do a fantastic job. And we have had some amazing people on the show and specializing in LinkedIn and Marketing and all that type of stuff.

[00:03:39] But I’m telling you, I’m waiting for the day when you are too busy to take our calls because. LinkedIn themselves have reached out for you. So they need to get on the wagon. You do a wonderful job. So you know, and I am going to let you talk, but I got to spend five, you know, a few minutes telling you how great you are in case you didn’t know, nobody told you today.

[00:04:01] So what I would say too is you breathe a life into your LinkedIn content. You know, is exactly what it should be. And the reason why everybody else is kind of like, oh, it’s drawing and I’m avoiding it and stuff, but you’re kind of in there doing it. It’s really like opening the window on a fresh spring day.

[00:04:19] It’s like, ah, yeah. Okay. You can be like this on LinkedIn. You can do this. So why don’t we start with, I don’t, you know what you tell me where to start? Maybe talk a little bit about your video, but then I would love to dive into the engagement and conversational selling. Cause that’s something that I think we’ve been misdirected so many times on LinkedIn, here’s your script, send it out, blah, blah, blah. And it just it’s fail. So. All right. Let’s talk a teeny little bit about your video and dive into social selling if we could. 

[00:04:48]Alex Sheridan: Yeah, I mean, the first thing to understand is that LinkedIn has changed big time in terms of it’s now a legitimate content platform where you’re seeing all types of different content.

[00:04:57] Videos, edutainment videos, meaning entertainment mixed with education. TikTok videos are on there. You’re seeing personal texts posts about people’s lives and what they’re going through and their downfalls and their accomplishment, all types of different things. So the whole platform’s changed over the last really three years.

[00:05:15] And that’s something where I think a lot of people haven’t really recognized that because LinkedIn has been around for almost 20 years and unfortunately a lot of those years they built a brand off, like we’re kind of the professional resume database. If you’re looking for a job, go on LinkedIn. So it’s been branded in people’s mind that that’s what it is.

[00:05:32] Even though that’s not what it is anymore. When it comes to my video content, you know, it actually goes deep as to why I started doing some of the edutainment and the fun stuff. And you don’t have do rap battles on there, do all types of things and people are like, you do that on LinkedIn. But for me it goes really deep.

[00:05:47] And it’s part of my brand unleash the creative. I mean, I grew up. Uh, somewhat creative kid. I was writing raps and math class. I was failing out of school, but I had stories in my head that I wanted to deliver and make people smile and laugh. And I was always kind of that person. And then I kind of long story short, got into society after high school.

[00:06:04] Finally, went to college. Went into the more of the corporate world doing sales and thought I had to become what they wanted to become. I thought I had to become this corporate Alex Sheridan now. And I’ve gotta be like the 50 year old CEO of this company. I want to replicate all of these business people.

[00:06:19] And I got to a point where I was like, it’s just not me. Like what happened to the creativity that I had inside? What happened to all this, this inner child that I had the playfulness, why am I not using any of that stuff? And so in 2019 and early 2020, I said, you know what I saw, I was getting ready to start my own business.

[00:06:36] Which I thought was going to be a sales consulting business. And I said, man, screw this. I’m being me. Like, I’m going to do my thing. Yeah. I rap. Yeah. I like to act. Yeah. I let the storyteller. I like to have fun, but I’m still serious. I get rid of business for Soltz. I’m serious about my goals and my accomplishments, and I want to really help people make impact. But I’m going to have fun while I’m doing it. And so I started…

[00:06:57]Kris Ward: Let me jump in there for a second. If I can, I want to unpack that for a second, because I think I’ve mentioned on the show many times before, is that you think, okay, I went to college, I went to university. I’m trying to be all growed up here.

[00:07:06] So I put this veneer on and I too had to learn because I thought my energy people would say, oh, you’re high energy. I thought sometimes that came across as juvenile. So I would be like, oh, look at me on polished. And when you get to know me better, I’m like this, but I think. You do so spectacular is even so many of us.

[00:07:24] It’s like, okay, I’ve learned that lesson, but yet I still think there’s some hesitancy when you show up on LinkedIn, like, oh yeah. You know who you are on this day is maybe not the person you were in visiting grandma. When you have cookies, it’s not, it’s just a watered down version of you. But I do think that you do that better than anybody else.

[00:07:42] Your guns ablazing on LinkedIn with personality and fun and charms and video. And it does. I just wrote the word down. Fun is like, okay, I’m not the veneer version I used to be, but I still could turn up the fun more on LinkedIn. And I think we all had it in mindset that wasn’t the place for it. So I think you just, you did that, um, unapologetically and it’s so refreshing. And so noticing.

[00:08:05]Alex Sheridan: Yeah, and I think that’s a great point. And I think if you think about business, I don’t know that the groups and the teams that you’ve been a part of, but when I was in business and working for companies, there were many days that we laughed, that we had fun, that we talked about personal stuff, and yet we get to a place like LinkedIn because it’s a business social media platform.

[00:08:23] And we think what that’s just supposed to disappear. And so I was like, I’m going to break it in, to be honest, Kris, I didn’t come from marketing background. I didn’t have a marketing degree. I didn’t know shit about marketing. I didn’t study it. I didn’t read books on it. I didn’t know nothing. I came from a sales background.

[00:08:37] So when I came into marketing, I, by default, I was doing things just literally, I didn’t know. And so I was like, mom, just going to create content and make people smile and have a good message behind it. I’m going to incorporate my wrapping, the building. Like I’m going to write some stories. Like I was just like, this is going to get people to smile.

[00:08:52] They’re going to feel something they’re going to, they’re going to finish my video. Go. That hit me like, yeah, I learned something, but I feel certain way now because of that video and just by not knowing certain things by not being the subject matter expert, I actually came in an innovated bus on accident.

[00:09:09]Kris Ward: Yeah. So I’m thinking too. I think if you go back, you will see it influence on some of my videos. So you do some, some of your funnier ones is when you’re having the two, uh, the two platforms. My gosh, it’s the two platforms argue, right? So you have two personas. You just dress differently and you’ve got TikTok arguing with LinkedIn, right?

[00:09:28] And so I did a different version of that. I was like, okay, the business coach talking to the entrepreneurs, struggling with burnout. But when I think about this talking to you is it was still a pain point. Like people could relate to it and you know, I’m rubbing my hair and the business coach is saying, well, You know, what do you do when you’re burnt out?

[00:09:45] And you’re like, well, I don’t know. I just have snacks at midnight, cause nobody else is up and blah, blah, blah. And we all did that. And all of a sudden you realize, well, this, this isn’t a tactic. This isn’t a plan. I’m just running myself into the ground. But now I think that’s great. I touched a pain point, but there must be a story I could tell when the coach asked, did you that.

[00:10:04] Funny answer and make it funny because pain is one thing, but who wants to be there all the time? I don’t. Right. So it does you keep pushing the envelope? Like you, you stop the scroll. Like, I don’t even know if my thumb does it anymore. The phone just goes like Vegas to get you to stop. If you see an Alex video stop.

[00:10:24] Right. And then I’m like, ah, okay, can I can, what can I learn from this? It’s just, it’s like little mini Steven Spielberg, social media clip, and I’m like, ah, I got to do better. So you’re always inspiring me. That’s for sure. So you do a fantastic job.

[00:10:43]Alex Sheridan: On that quick point. I mean, to me, that’s the difference between educate or edutainment entertainment?

Right? So what I really always tried to do, and maybe it’s not in a hundred percent of videos, but in 95% of my videos that are more the edutainment. I always think about the message first. What is the core message that I want to communicate to my audience? And then what I do is I go, how can I make this fly?

[00:11:04] Like, how can I build a story around this? Like the content or the LinkedIn content negotiator? I don’t know if you saw the video CEO was sitting there, I’m going to post these crazy videos that are going to hurt my brand and the hostage negotiators. Like don’t, don’t post that. Okay. I just took, like what I’m getting all these ideas from talking to prospects, from working with competencies, with training people, like I’m getting all these ideas from my audience and from comments and things.

[00:11:30] And I’m just saying what would be a cool way to tell this story so that people go, man, that’s a great point. And yeah, I learned a couple things, but I was also like highly entertained. I learned literally, without even realizing I was learning and that’s the art of education.

[00:11:44]Kris Ward: Yeah, no, you’re right. And I understand the concept, but I have never seen anyone display it.

So consistently is your videos. I’m not kidding you guys. I don’t care what you’re interested in. If you’re on TikTok, you must be on LinkedIn. You gotta be somewhere, but if you have a phone in your hand, Go check out Alex’s videos because it will just, it’s a game changer. It’s fun to watch, but he’ll just say, oh my gosh, I am, I can do more and I can be more myself online.

[00:12:11] So it really is inspiring me on so many levels. So yes, I’ve seen all your videos. In fact, I even got. If you search people, I’ll tell ya, ladies, you search is one where he goes through the whole day of what his life looks like. And there’s this snippet with him right after he’s worked out without a shirt on.

[00:12:25] So you have to pause the video, but you have to play it a few times, but it’s worth it to watch time. Wait, what was that? Yeah, very fit. And I have another shirt on does increase the watch time. So there we go, feminist and all the harassments are going to get 2222, but that’s fine. He put it out there. So, whatever.

[00:12:45] Okay. So with your personality in video, then I’m suspecting you do an equally good job on the engagement and social selling, which has been, I think, stifled and done poorly. So many times on LinkedIn. So talk to me about that.

[00:13:02]Alex Sheridan: Yeah. I mean, obviously I do have a lot of fun with the video stuff, but to your point, the LinkedIn, I mean, because I came from a sales background, I was in B2B sales for 10 years.

[00:13:12] So the sales stuff was, was kind of, I had that by nature almost because I was doing that for a living. And so what, the reason that marketing or social selling fails on LinkedIn, the sales portion of it is because people try to go for the fast, easy. I don’t have to do any work and I want all the amazing results.

[00:13:31] And what in life do we not do any work? It’s everything super easy. We just sit back, cross our, and then all these results compiling it. Nothing is like that, right? Yeah. For some reason, people think on LinkedIn, well, I’m in the automated, I’m going to spam people 60 times a day. And the problem with that is they’re not treating it like what LinkedIn really is, which it’s like a, it’s like a networking event.

[00:13:52] I mean, if you show up to LinkedIn, And you really think about that. Like there’s people on stage there’s round tables, where people are having conversations, there’s one-on-one conversations going on. Yet people show up to this networking event and this fun networking event and they show up and they go, ah, do you want to buy my stuff?

[00:14:07] Hey, do you need somebody for your company? Do you need this guy? We sell this product and service. Do you guys want to talk about it? It’s like, what are you doing? It’s not even the, my parts to even be talking about this. So my approach has always been. Approach the conversations with, Hey, I’m going to start a conversation with you.

[00:14:23] I’m going to add value with you. I’m going to get to know you. I’m going to build a little bit of a relationship with you, and then you started to move towards some of these business conversations. The problem with that is people don’t want to put in the time or the effort or the work. They just run their word and automate it and send 60 to a hundred messages a day.

[00:14:36] But then you go two months, not only have you hurt your brand because you’re literally spamming people. I don’t care what anyone says. Our messages are good. Right? A really good fam it’s spam. And if you get two to three paragraphs and at the end, I’m not even reading one sentence of it. Cause I know right away, it’s a sales pitch. And I don’t know you, I don’t trust you. I don’t know your company. 

[00:14:54]Kris Ward: Let’s collaborate. That’s my, oh, I checked out your page. I think we can collaborate. All right. Whatever. 

[00:14:58]Alex Sheridan: The one actionable thing that I teach, like this is the process that I teach. And in a nutshell, it’s search, it’s engage, it’s connect and then it’s message.

[00:15:09] Notice messages last, right? And there’s a ton of different ways to do it. And I would say, depending on who your target audience is, how long the sales cycle is, it could depend on what that looks like. But at the basic you need to search for your people. And sales navigator is great for that. You can search by job title by company size, revenue, company growth.

[00:15:25] I mean, industry all types of different things. I know other platform is going to give you access to and there’s 800 million plus on LinkedIn. So your car, your customers are 100% there and you can even find who’s posted content in the last 30 days.

[00:15:39]Kris Ward: Yes I followed that video. Listen, I’m telling you you, if you have it on video, I know about it.

I don’t know what you do in your private time, but I’m aware of it. So let me ask you this thing. Okay. So I followed that formula. So what he, what Alex is talking about and sales navigator is a paid feature, but it really is worth it. And he is showing you check out his videos. I can’t impress upon that enough.

[00:16:07]So I did the search and then you show us how to break it down. So, you know, coming up and it’s really great. I’m trying not to get too techie cause it’s hard when it’s not visual in front of you, but you can. Somebody likes your posts, or you can look in the backend and LinkedIn will show you what, what are the titles of people that liked your stuff?

[00:16:26] So all of a sudden that feeds you information like, okay, they’re calling themselves owners, operators, business owners, whatever, or founders. So I’m realizing, oh, founders, like my stuff. Okay, great. So then you can go into sales navigator and you can say who’s posted last 30 days. Cause if they’re not active, we don’t want to reach them.

[00:16:42] We can key in the word founder. We can key in businesses size one to three people, whatever your profile is for your potential client. So that’s all that. So then great. I’ve been following the Alex videos. So then this is where I get stuck. It does give you a lot and you can narrow it down as much as you want, but now you can be looking

[00:16:59] Still a couple of thousand and I do subscribe to the idea of, okay, I should be going in and I should be connecting with them and liking their material and engaging with them. But I find because it’s such a pool of people I get lost. So I might now go, okay. I liked three of Alex videos. I made five comments, but LinkedIn gives me so many resources that I haven’t figured out.

I don’t want to use the word systematize. But then I’m rotating relationships instead of maintaining them. And I just get lost in the abyss and then I pull back. 

[00:17:32]Alex Sheridan: Yeah. So I think lead list would be really good for you in that circumstance. You can build out lead lists and it depends, right. There are, some are getting, you know, one customer is a half a million or millions of dollars.

[00:17:42] And if that case that’s the case, they might want to make a list of 50 to a hundred top dream clients build out a lead list. And those of them that are active and posting content in the last 30 days, and maybe spend a few more. Engaging on their content. And when you go to the lead list, LinkedIn sales navigator will show you you’ll make a mini newsfeed full of those leads.

[00:18:02] So when you log on, you’re seeing 10, 15 people that have posted in the last 48 hours, and they’re all your dream clients. So like, okay. So sometimes you got to work at slow like that. If you’ve got a smaller to medium sized offer, it may make sense to go in there and do kind of a one hit type thing where you’re going in, you’re engaging on a post or sending connection requests.

[00:18:20] And then maybe you bounce with a video, DM, try to start a conversation if it starts great, if it doesn’t you move on. So it just depends on kind of who you’re targeting, how many there are, what the size of the deal is, but there’s a ton of ways to do it, but, but lead lists are great for that because it helps you kind of like, CRM, organize that.

[00:18:36]Kris Ward: And now for you, you and I, this works, I think for you and against you as well, because you can look at their LinkedIn stuff and go, oh, I can help them with this. I can fix this. But for those of us who have things that are not as apparent, like, especially my audience, where they look good on paper, they may have a podcast and book and all this stuff, but they’re still working way too many hours where they thought they would be 10 years in.

[00:18:59] So in that I don’t really have any indicators of. Other than the fact that they would have a business of this size and be in business this length. So I just have to go on their, I guess, characteristics of their business versus where they are. They may be functioning really great working 25 hours a week and they may be working a hundred, but I guess that will just come out in the wash as I nurture and get more in there and follow through with is, is that cause you’re a lot of your clients would have the same problem that I have. They don’t have the beauty of just looking at the profile.

[00:19:29]Alex Sheridan: Right. I mean, all of my clients do not have what I have, where I could look at the profile and know exactly what’s wrong or what’s right. But I mean, there’s a couple, there’s a few different ways to approach it. The first thought is that, and then option is that you could approach with value.

[00:19:41] Hey, if you’re like most entrepreneurs, like, or like me to you five years ago, like I was struggling with sleep. I actually made this like checklist or whatever it is, or I created this, something that I’d love to share with you. If you’ve got a few minutes, like, I don’t know if that’s you or not, but if it is, I’d love to share this with you as life changing for me.

[00:19:56] That’s one option, right? You’re presenting something of value with no strings attached that will lead to a conversation. And the other one is just like, and I’ve been using this a lot. They at least just start a conversation. Just find something about their background. Oh, so cool. I saw you started this business or you worked here and there.

[00:20:09] I had a, I was in the industry for a couple of years. My gosh, it was, it was challenging, but boy, was it rewarding? You know, finding something to kind of relate with either the content they’ve posted or something on their profile that you’re just starting a little bit of a conversation. You’re going to find out real quick, but like, are people receptive?

[00:20:25] Do they want to talk. Uh, do they not? And that’s where it’s so important to have your profile really well done. So when they go to the profile, you know, if they are somebody that is potentially in need, they can see very clearly what you do. You’ve got testimonials on there, your banners well-written like, that’s why it’s so important to have that profile that converts, too.

[00:20:42]Kris Ward: I think to what I’m, what I would expect is there’s been times I’ve heard this before, you know, comment on something and engage them or whatever, and it still can come out dry, you know, or I certainly get them dry too. Like, oh, I find it. Whatever. You’d like ice cream or that’s fascinating. I saw your post about ice cream.

[00:21:01] What’s your favorite kind of ice cream? Or tell me why you started your business. Listen, frigging, look at the damn profile. Don’t ask me that. So you can see they’re just fishing, right? Yeah.

[00:21:12]Alex Sheridan:That’s the stuff that you want to avoid for sure. You’re exactly right. I mean, you don’t want to come in there with random questions where you don’t know where something’s going.

Like, so why did you start your business? It’s like, I’m super busy and you want me to take time out day to explain to a stranger why I started my business. And read about me. So you’ve got to be a little bit of intentional, and that’s why like a quick, short comment about something they did and related to it, that works.

[00:21:36] Cause you’re not asking for a lot at that point. You want to get away from asking for a lot. If you ask for explanation, they’re going to say, dude, I don’t even know you. It would be like cold calling somebody or going to a networking event. So tell me your life story. It’s like, what? No, I’m not telling you that right now.

[00:21:53] You know what I mean? So you gotta, you gotta be intentional with what you say and do for sure. I was just gonna say that’s the power of creating good content consistently too, is because what you’re doing as you’re bringing people to you. So not only inbound leads, which are great people, DM-ing me saying, man, your last video really got me.

[00:22:11] I got to talk to you. We’re not doing anything with LinkedIn and we know we should be, but on top of that, you’re also. It’s engagement. And I encourage people to go to your engagement and find prospects in there. And if you are engaging from sales navigator and LinkedIn with your target clients, often, they’re probably going to be your content is going to show up in their feed and their content is going to show up in their feeds.

[00:22:31] So you’re kind of training the algorithm, which I think is underrated. You have to sort of trade just like you went on TikTok, the things that you look at, the things that you watch, the things that you like, they’re going to show you more of that. And LinkedIn is going to be the same thing, except it’s a little bit more of a network type situation.

[00:22:46]Kris Ward: I think too, again, pulling it back to your videos. You really just come at it from like, I don’t even know how to explain it, but it’s, I guess getting for me would be getting out of my head. Right? So like I have come far understanding these have to be more interesting and engaging. Stop putting your shoulders back, trying to be a professional, but I think you really do it like on par, like just flawlessly, as far as I am completely out of my head, this is going to be fun.

[00:23:13] And I think too, if we take that approach and we put it in the content and the engaging and stop thinking that I’m at my work desk in the middle of the day, and I could be texting a business friend. Cause I mean, frankly, The clients that I have now, we have a policy. If I wouldn’t spend time with them, like if I wouldn’t go to lunch with them, I’m not taking their money.

[00:23:33] Like I, anybody that works with me could be my friend if they were close. And so then that really should be how I can communicate with everybody online, where I think we all, especially with LinkedIn and everywhere else, we get this Headspace and okay. I’m working here. Right? So I think pull it back.

[00:23:52] And what you’re seeing is just have little chats with somebody and just engage in real conversation instead of trying to hulk or present or have a process. 

[00:24:00]Alex Sheridan: Yup. And you mentioned something too about getting in your own head and I see that a lot with video content, especially where people have imposter syndrome or they worry it’s not good enough.

[00:24:09] They don’t think they’re going to camera. They hesitate to put out content because they’re worried someone might say something or it might not, it might not perform. And I judge I’m here to say, like I have all of those insecurities and doubts and fears and wonders, too. I mean, I’m not immune to any of those.

[00:24:24] I know people see me on video and they think I got everything figured out. I dealt my content all the time. I think things, certain things aren’t good enough. I almost have not posted certain things. I still delete videos that I don’t think are good enough. Like, you know, I have all of that stuff. I have posts types, periods of time when my posts don’t perform very well now.

[00:24:42] On my, where I’m at today, maybe different than where someone else is at or where it was at two years ago, it’s all relative, but I’ll have weeks where I’m like in weeks in a row where I’m like, man, why is it not hitting? And I look back and I try to learn, and it can get you down for a second, but my thought process.

[00:24:56] And then I have weeks that they do really well. And I’m like, oh my gosh. And so I try not to walk, ride the wave when it’s high and try not to ride it when it’s too low either. And the thing that I pride myself on is I just keep. Yeah, you move it forward. I’m not going to focus on one post or a couple of weeks performance.

[00:25:12] I’m going to focus on my craft. I’m going to focus on being a better business person, a better human being, a better father, everything that I’m trying to better video creator, I’m going to continue to push on. No, one’s going to stop me. I get I’m going to get punched in the face and knocked down and kick while I’m on the ground, but I’m going to get back up every single time.

[00:25:27] And that’s why you’ll see me. I’m consiatent. I show up for creative videos and content every single week, unless I’m may be taking some time off, but it gets consistency and it’s keep coming forward

[00:25:39]Kris Ward: I think of that on two levels. One, I think I’m always, as much as I don’t particularly enjoy winter in Canada, I find it astounding that you can take a snowflake and put it in your hand as melts.

[00:25:50] And yet enough of them fall consistently in a short period of time, you can shut down a city. Like it’s just accumulation of that, right? Thank you see, I’m smart too. Everybody. I was smart enough to get him here, so that’s good. Right. And I think too, what I found TikTok to be very generous about.

[00:26:08] And I’ve only been on there a short period of time is what I’ve learned from that is you put it out, you put it out, you put it out and the idea of trying to get it right. You, you can put out 20 a hundred different things. And by the virtue of putting it out, you will find what works, where so many of us with all the other platforms we’ve been, you know, you think, oh, I have to get this right.

[00:26:29] And figure it out. And then you put one thing out that you’re like, oh, I’m not good at this. Let’s try something different. But TikTok is very forgiving with that one is just saying, you know what? You can’t get it wrong, but you can keep trying and your, you know, all the options you give, then we’ll find, you know, you’ll figure it out. You will get it right. You just have to keep doing it. 

[00:26:49]Alex Sheridan: Yes. I love that about think back to where it is a little bit more on the quantity versus the quality, even though I think that will change with time. Of course. But yeah. But yeah, it’s interesting. And, and I think if you relate it to anything in life, whether it’s a sports person, you admire a famous celebrity, a business person, uh, just a coach.

[00:27:06] You have whatever it is. Anyone that’s ever built anything of value or substance has gone through challenging times and always will. And it’s a tough road and you hear, you see people when they’ve already made it by the time they hit your radar. And I say made it, but I mean, when someone hits your radar, they’ve already put in so much work to get on your radar.

[00:27:26] At that point, in most cases, You didn’t get the seed the first year, the second year, all of the downfalls, all the doubts, all of the people that said you weren’t gonna make it. You know, all of the internal struggles, you don’t get to see that by the time they hit your radar, they’ve pushed through all of them. And that’s why only a certain select people hit your radar. 

[00:27:44]Kris Ward: So let’s go back again to the conversation you make so many valuable points I could talk to you forever. Let’s go back to the conversational selling with the engagement. So couple of things, one is when you get to that point and you say, okay, listen, Hey, I, this changed my game because we’re always looking to work less.

[00:28:01] Here’s 12 tips, you know, may I send that to you? My concern too is then do the, I think what you’re saying is, look, if you are just a person having, you know, small talk and then it grows from there and you’re engaging with people and really, truly networking, they’re going to check out your page.

[00:28:17] They’re going to like your content because it’s me fresh. And it’s going to be under the Alex Sheridan model of edutainment, and just, you know, really enjoyable to experience. And so you’re already, you’re working different levels instead of just the inbox. So that’s step one, right? Your profile is good.

[00:28:34] Your videos are interesting. You seem interesting. And you’re now you’re just having chit chat and it’s growing from there. You’re building a relationship then I guess I’m kind of maybe answering my own question, I guess then when you go to offer them something like here’s some tips or a download that helped me, maybe I’ll help you.

[00:28:49] I guess in the past, I would be thinking dinging day are right here. It starts like here’s the hook, but I guess that’s when the preamble part hasn’t been done well, so it will follow suit and everything else has done one. So I will always been afraid of offering that again. Cause then it looks like that. Hi, I was nice to you for 30 seconds and now you’re hitting on me kind of deal.

[00:29:09]Alex Sheridan: I mean, but in a lot of ways, Right. Right. So like, there’s just no other way. I mean, again, there’s different paces depending on what you do. If you’re trying to reach certain C level folks at a certain level, maybe you might wait a few posts before you actually send those DMS or maybe the first DM

[00:29:29] is just thanks so much for connecting with me. Like I loved your thought about this, this, this, and this on your post for Tuesday, and then maybe there’s another DM that falls a week later, man. You’ve been pumping out content consistently. I hope you’re seeing mine. I’d love to keep supporting you. And then it’s the third week.

[00:29:43] And so there’s a ton of different ways to do it. I really don’t space it out that much. The other thing I would say is that video DMs are an actionable thing that you can do that do change the game and get you better results. If you’re willing to send a, you know, and I would recommend under 60 seconds after you’ve connected with that person, after you’ve engaged with their content, you’ve created some context.

[00:30:04] You gotta think people on LinkedIn are posting their content. They want people to see it. It’s not like people are posting content hoping to it tanks. They want people to see it. But most of the time, not a lot of people see it because maybe it’s not the greatest content. Maybe they don’t have a strategy they’re just kind of posting or sharing things.

[00:30:17] So when you show up as a support, And you like it and you drop a thoughtful comment, uh, that that’s hitting the radar as well. This person’s really like, thank you. That was awesome. Unlike my post from today, and you were the first person to come in there and can drop a comment and then you send a connection request.

[00:30:32] And what you say in the connection request isn’t Hey, my name’s Kris and I help entrepreneurs help you. No, that’s not what you do. You just say, Hey, I just saw your post on X, Y, and Z. And I thought was a really good thought. I just dropped the comment. I’d love to connect with you and help support me. And then when they go, wow, that was really nice.

[00:30:47] They commented and liked my post, the connection request wasn’t pitchy. And then at the end, so like, you know, Hey you again, thanks for accepting the connection request. Now you’re on a video DM, and now you’re saying, you know, your post really made me think about my first couple of years in entrepreneurship.

[00:31:01] And it got me thinking about sleep and how important it was. And I know for me, I struggled with it. A lot of my clients struggle with it..I’d love to talk to you. I just created some super cool free tool that I’d love to talk to you about. I would try to go for some type of conversation versus here’s a guide.

[00:31:17] They’re probably not going to consume it, or they will, unless on like a great funnel that you want to take people in or something like that. But I would probably go to, I’d love to talk and we’ve got just a few minutes, like, it’d be great to connect with you anyways. I always try to get to know my LinkedIn connections and trying to see I can bring value. So I love connecting either way, but I’d love to show you this and no strings attached. If you like it. Great. If you don’t. No worries, you know, but, and that’s how. 

[00:31:40]Kris Ward: That’s a really good point because I do work really hard. Now I, of course we all understand our network is our net worth. And you know, in the past, you it’s really easy to fall into play of your rotating relationships instead of maintaining them.

[00:31:52] So it is really interesting to me if it’s done well, when somebody reaches out to me and they just want to hop on a call for what? Right. Like I’ve got family I could spend time with. Right. But I do think the way you planned it out there. If we are engaging in having, you know, having starting to have a relationship, Hey, I’m all.

[00:32:09] And you’re right. Like, I want to know how I can support you more. I want to, you know what, I do have a little podcast community. I saw your last thing on this. Yeah. Right. So if I could start it in a meaningful relationship way, like any other relationship and just get the LinkedIn and the systems out of my head, then it, then, then you just go back to being the nice person that you, how you made friends in this school yard.

[00:32:32]Alex Sheridan: Exactly and that’s exactly right, Kris. And that’s exactly what I’m trying to get people to realize that again, picture LinkedIn like a cool networking event. We’re going to bet that you just showed up to what would you do there? You’d show up there and you’d go, Hey, what’s up? My name’s Kris, what’s your name? Todd.

[00:32:45] Oh, Todd. Nice. Like what do you, what brought you here today? Like what do you feel like? You just start having conversations and then you get to, oh my gosh. I remember being in that position and like, Hey, what are you doing about this? Or I’m curious about this. That’s something in the round table earlier that I really liked.

[00:32:57] What made you say that? Like. Those are just the conversations that we’re starting. And again, it’s sales. So we’re talking about sales, you’re going to mix, you’re going to strike out probably more than you hit home runs. And that’s the reality of it too. So I may give the greatest video DM to somebody that literally gives them value.

[00:33:13] That shows my personality. That is personalized. I do everything right. And they go, Nope, not interested. And so that’s just part of the game too. You got to know that some are going to be home runs and some are not.

[00:33:23]Kris Ward: Right, but it’s the wise, Gretzky says you miss a hundred percent of the shots. You don’t take the exact Canadian. We closed that a lot. Okay. 

[00:33:31]Alex Sheridan: And Kris, this is why always the power of building content and building a real brand is that you’re going to get way more people to come to you over time. But the social selling stuff, the LinkedIn sales navigator stuff, that stuff that I teach my clients how to do. And within a week or two we’re booking meetings, even if they haven’t posted content.

[00:33:48] So that’s the short term like I need short-term results. Cool. Then you need to go into sales. Like, that’s not building a brand, right. Building a brand and creating content. That’s a longer play. You could post a few videos and get a lead. Don’t get me wrong. But for the most part, if you’re not willing to invest. 12 months, two years, three, like don’t even start it, right?

[00:34:06]Kris Ward: Yeah. A hundred percent Alex, you are a treat and I can not in case I have not mentioned this and I have not impressed this upon you guys. You have to check out his content. You truly do. If nothing, you’re definitely going to learn something you’re going to be entertained.

[00:34:20] It’s going to inspire you. But it, you know, for having your own business, it really will just free you and open you up to the potential of what we could all be doing. And, yeah, you got to check them out. So I, you know, I won’t speak for you, Alex, where should people be finding more of your brilliance?

[00:34:38]Alex Sheridan: Well, definitely LinkedIn is where I’m probably most active at and Tik Tok. So LinkedIn and TikTok, Alex B. Sheridan. And you can find me there. If you want to set up a talk with me or chat with me, you can reach me @alex / asheridanimpacts.com or go to my website, impacts.com.

[00:34:54]Kris Ward: Fabulous. This has been a blast. Everyone else. We will see you in the next episode and thank you so much, Alex. 

[00:34:59]Alex Sheridan: Thank you so much. I appreciate you. END[00:35:01]