LinkedIn Sales Strategies for Manufacturers

Curt Anderson  00:01

Okay, I’m gonna start letting people in we’ll get the party started. So Ashley is here, Chris Timothy, Linda Nelson’s in the house today. John Lewis, Catherine a Diana’s here today. We’ve got some industrial marketing summit people here, Jordan, please. So we’ve got and welcome everybody. Good morning. Good morning. Good afternoon is afternoon I guess it is hey, we just hit 12 o’clock right Eastern time. So Damon it’s like breakfast time for you right? What was like breakfast at four and morning David gets up super early. So, okay. All right. We’re popping everybody in. And a there’s Nelson a Nelson. What’s up, dude, I do it. Good morning, Kyle. David, Chris. Happy afternoon Diana’s here. Hey, Diana. Okay. Letting people rolling. So hey, you know what, for our folks that come here promptly, why don’t we go ahead and we could get started. So let’s go here. Let’s go here. I’m letting smart people in. And alright. Hey, welcome. Happy Thursday. Anna’s in the house. Hey, Anna, how are you? Happy Thursday, happy Friday Eve to everybody. My name is Curt Anderson. What an honor. What a privilege. What a man how who put this esteemed panel together? I’m not sure who pulled that off. But we have a wonderful group of people here. I’m going to give up we’re going to go around doing intros I’m going to give a big shout out big thanks to our sponsors. We had the national tooling and machining Association sponsored us they are awesome. So if you’re in the intent NTMA good for you. If you’re a small manufacturer, machine shop, we encourage you invite you welcome you to check out and t ma we also had a bunch of the MEPs. If you’re a manufacturer and you’re not familiar with the MEP network, that’s the manufacturing extension partnerships. But we encourage you welcome you invite you to check out the MEPs we’ve got them all sponsored on here. I’m going to stop sharing I’m going to come back to you guys. And let’s do some intros to our panelists here. So I’m going to go by timezone so hey, I’ve got my dear friend Hallie Haupt Hallie from IQ manufacturing. Happy Thursday. How are you today?

Hallie Haupt  02:19

I am great Curt? How are you?

Curt Anderson  02:21

I’m doing phenomenal now you know what? I don’t know if you knew this hill I applied for a job at IQ manufacturing. You know why I didn’t get the job. Why? Because the name of the company Damon if it was called lower IQ. I might have got the job but they did not hire me. They’re smart people good judge of character. Hey, I’ve got Wesleyan Whittaker in the house down in Houston Wesleyan. Happy Thursday. How are you my friend?

Wesleyne Whittaker  02:42

I’m doing fantastic. And can I make a quick word?

Curt Anderson  02:45

If you absolutely I know where you’re going.

Wesleyne Whittaker  02:49

I would love to see faces that is so much easier to talk to faces than little boxes with name.

Curt Anderson  02:57

So hey, hey, you heard it from Wesleyan. She’s the boss here so Damon John Roos got to get their cameras on give a big wave a big hello so bustling I love when you do that. So thank you, Wesleyne and recovering chemist is here. So and why you’re why we’re here is you’re pouring in. Take a second, grab your LinkedIn profile, drop it in the chat box. If we were all in person, we’d be high fiving handshaking, handing out business cards exchanging links or Wesleyne up barcoding. Pete write little QR code BP people. So drop your LinkedIn in the chat. That’s a great opportunity to build up your network here. Hey, zoning your network. I’ve got Jordan. Jordan, how are you my friend?

Jordan Yates  03:34

I’m pretty good. I’ve got my coffee protein shake. So you know, I’m getting the energy to get this thing going. So I’m excited to be here.

Curt Anderson  03:44

Well, thank you, Jordan. You’re coming to us live from Houston as well. So I appreciate you being here. We’ve got a ton of dive in. In summer we got Daymond in the house. Damon is out in Seattle, a bright and early Damon Pustaka. From exit your way. How are you doing?

Damon Pistulka  03:57

I’m doing great today, Curt ready for this?

Curt Anderson  03:59

All right, let’s dive in. So again, welcome. You invite you drop questions in the chat box we would love to make this interactive is matter of fact. Let’s Wesleyne you’re great on questions. Let’s Let’s kick off with a question. If you want to jump in the chat box, are you newer? Are you new ish? Or are you a seasoned veteran? Where are you as far as your your LinkedIn journey? You want to drop in your LinkedIn chat, your LinkedIn profile, of course, but let us know like kind of where you’re at. Because we really want this to be so beneficial. So fruitful. We know how busy you are. We don’t take it lightly that you guys joined us and your time is precious. So thank you for being here. But we really want to address any of those questions strap them in the chat. Hallie, let’s start with you, my friend. You work for IQ manufacturing, just a marketing guru. Talk a little bit about how LinkedIn is really for manufacturing from your perspective. Not a nice to have. Must have let’s go there. Yeah,

Hallie Haupt  04:52

so with LinkedIn, I started about three and a half years ago, and I did not even like real eyes how beneficial it can be for like your companies. I actually, this was brought to my attention the other day. So I definitely want to bring this up. But I don’t think many, like companies realize how you can use LinkedIn as like a selling point, and not just like a social media platform. But um, if I ever if my husband ever watches this, I apologize in advance for like calling you out on this. But he works in it, right? So information technology, he’s in my corner, engaging with my stuff on LinkedIn. And he told me the other day that he didn’t realize that when he likes my posts, his connections, get that push to the top of his feed. And I was like, Hey, that’s a thing. So I don’t think manufacturers know that, like you can get in front of OEMs without being connected to them. It’s like if someone’s not connected with Jordan, but I’m connecting with her they’re seeing on their feeds. And actually, this is funny, somebody that I would High School with actually commented on Jordans post the other day, because I interacted with it. So it’s like you can get in front of OEMs you can get in front of big customers. And it’s like, I don’t think manufacturer like manufacturing companies or owners really realize how you can utilize that to sell like cold calling works. Getting in front of people works. But this is just another avenue and if your competitor is doing that down the street, and you’re not there ahead of you. Well,

Curt Anderson  06:21

that is fantastic. Great feedback there. And again, if you’re just a my my friend Elmos in house Alma, happy Thursday. So again, for folks that just popped in, drop your LinkedIn profile in the chatbox great opportunity to connect with our people. And it says I’ve been on since 2009. And we’re all learning together Dale, LinkedIn is like to go is like perpetual trade show and nothing but friends. Dale, I couldn’t agree with you more. What a great line there. Wesleyne just share a little bit as a recovering chemist. You know, fierce manufacturer, you’ve traveled and sales guru, you’ve been all over the world working in manufacturing, just share why LinkedIn is just so important. Sure, you have a funny story, actually how you got into it. Just hear that real quick?

Wesleyne Whittaker  06:59

Yes. So I started LinkedIn when I was in the corporate realm. And I was at a sales meeting one of my very first one that’s a brand new salesperson, and the president of the company, he said, does everybody have a LinkedIn profile? And I didn’t raise my hand and he was like, Leslie, why do you not have a LinkedIn profile? Like, I don’t know, what is that? I mean, I was in my 20s. I was like, What is this thing? LinkedIn is not actually a thing that is important to me as a 25 year old, like, who needs it. And so he made me have get a profile. And the funniest part of that is, the person who recruited me away from that company found me on LinkedIn, because my profile was so fantastic, right. And so it can be used for you as a resume to build your career. But it’s also I like to say to your personal branding, so for me, as a small business owner, I literally use my LinkedIn, when I meet somebody out and I’m networking, I’m like, Hey, connect with me on LinkedIn, they see my voice, they see all of the things that I’m doing. And yes, I’m a service provider. However, when you think about what you’re doing, as a manufacturer, you have to remember that people buy from people. And so you’re a person. And so it’s important for people to see the face behind the company.

Curt Anderson  08:15

Absolutely love it. So Hey, Jordan, let’s get you on stage shirt. If I’m going to ask a favor if you guys can mute yourselves, who is causing you to mute? Okay, there we go. So, let’s go here, Jordan, if we could do if you could do me a favor to share a little bit about why how your LinkedIn journey, how you started, and why personal branding has been so important for you, especially you’ve had a big year with speaking transitions. What’s going on there?

Damon Pistulka  08:46

Yeah. Branding. Yeah, I thought it was your company page. But

Jordan Yates  08:54

was there another question?

Curt Anderson  08:56

I think we’re good to go right ahead.

Jordan Yates  08:58

Okay. Sorry. I heard something. Um, I would say so i i Yesterday posted my like, content creation implementation for Beginners Guide. And like, I actually like, outline the story of like, you know why I decided to make this and it’s kind of funny, because I got into like a technical sales role. Like very early in college. I was like, 1920 years old. And I was studying engineering at the time. And I had like, no street cred. Didn’t know what I was doing. But I was supposed to be getting meetings with like, facilities engineers at upstream oil and gas companies. And I’m like, I’m just a girl. How do I know anybody? Like I? I don’t I’m not networked with these people. And so then I was like, Oh, of course, I’ll just email them. And then I was like, Wait, I don’t have anybody’s emails and like, you call the place and they’re like, no, like, who are you? Like, you can’t come and so I was like, Okay, how do I get in front of these people? And that’s when I discovered LinkedIn was the thing and I just could like, literally connect with somebody, talk to them there, set up appointments, get to know them, and then it just kind of took a lot I have its own. And then my first job out of college was sales and industrial automation. And I was like, I remember how I connected with customers before. And so I did it again. And then the sort of like content creation side of it came to life of, I don’t want to just like reach out and talk to people, I want to have them come to me. And so I was like, How do I do that? Well, I need to show them what I do. And so that’s when like the videos and all that came out of it. And then I eventually, like, started my own business from on the side where like, people were like, help us create videos. But then I’ve also kept a day job as well. Until February, when there was a huge round of layoffs. I lost my job there. But it was actually kind of fun. Because when I told my network Hey, guys lost my job. Like the amount of like overwhelming support and opportunities I got, literally immediately, same day was insane. Just because people already knew me. They knew my capabilities. And so everyone’s like, Oh, my God, are you okay? You got laid off. And like, this feels like my birthday, like everybody is just reaching out to me being so nice. It gets. It’s crazy. It’s like, you get so many added benefits that you don’t think about going into it. But it’s it’s really kind of magical. Like when you really put yourself out there and are honest and work to build it. So I don’t know if that answered the question. Well, but

Curt Anderson  11:15

it definitely did. And so if you’re not, if you don’t know, Jordan, get to know Jordan, she’s just in our all of our panelists here are just absolutely amazing. Jordan, I had the honor and privilege of catching Jordan on a panel at the industrial marketing Summit. Jordan, you just crushed it. And then you came on our live show, we do a LinkedIn live show, many of you know that. And you know, as you said, you were just you know, caught in a downsize, unfortunately, but you twisted that into an opportunity, thanks to this vast LinkedIn network. And it was almost seamless, you know, so I really credit you, you’re just full of I’ve got a round of applause for Jordan being such an inspiration. And just so courageous. You know, here, a young person dives into LinkedIn right out of college, you know, takes advantage of it. And then when an unfortunate circumstance happens, just you know, goes full throttle, you’ve built a nice business, you’re doing all sorts of things, speaking gigs. Daymond, my friend, let’s get you on the stage here. Damon Pistulka. Just share a little bit your perspective. Why LinkedIn is so important, dude, you’re like you’re crushing it on LinkedIn, what’s going on there? Where is he? Are you on mute?

Damon Pistulka  12:14

No, I’m not. I’m just full with Yeah, yeah. There’s always got to be somebody. So I thought I’d break the ice. Well, you know, it’s funny, because I listen to listen to the other people talk about this. And I think back to myself, in 2009, when I when I left corporate America, I was horrible networker, right and run companies. I knew I knew suppliers, new customers. That’s what I knew I didn’t ever think of going outside of it. And I realized, as I started to move into consulting and helping companies the way I do now, I had to get myself going. And I had, I had a LinkedIn profile. But it was like most people back at that time it was it was just a resume. And what I learned over the next next years, and over the time since then, is really, as Jordan has talked about, and Haley, and West lean as that LinkedIn is a place where if you use it, the way you can, you can get to know people, you can get to know your soulmate customers, in a no pressure atmosphere. By all the thing, like Haley said something at the beginning, I think that’s really important for people that haven’t been on LinkedIn, because you don’t have to be out there generating content to do this, engaging with the people that you want to get to know just engaging liking on their stuff. Drop a comment once in a while, just do that kind of stuff. It’ll start those things off. And then as you move into it, Wesley talked about the human to human connection. If you decide to make some content, it doesn’t have to be some spectacular thing. I mean, if there’s I see a lot of people I pull up a lot of LinkedIn profiles that are on here, a lot of er, machining people, right? Man, there’s nothing cooler than going out and just taking a picture of, you know, something running like a 510 second video of you just you know, making a machine virus because it’s gotten so much chips are something whatever it is in your company, and show people people will want to see that kind of stuff. And then just explain daily life things. It’s just to get to know these people. But what I’ve learned over the years, is that it’s about engaging with people and really just connecting on that eight states level at Wesleyan talks about the human to human and just getting to know people. And then when it’s time people will reach out to you and and you can start to do business. It’s a it’s a no pressure thing. It’s a long game, but it’s a no pressure thing. It’s

Curt Anderson  14:45

a long game. So So let’s dive into what we’re going to do again, through just popping in your head Greg Misha was here, Mr. Know, Like and Trust and so you know, he’s notorious for just sharing how to build those trusting relationships here on LinkedIn. So again, drop your LinkedIn profile in the chat At speaking on LinkedIn profile, let’s we’re gonna do a little let’s go a little black glass or gloss over, if you will. And we’re going to check out some different profiles. So hey, how about if we start with my friend Hallie? Hallie, let’s just talk about so for our manufacturing friends out there a Jamba gluinos in our house. I see John, they’re happy Thursday, brother. So, Hallie, just give us a little quick overview for our friends that are new to LinkedIn, especially our manufacturing friends, what are some tips, advice, suggestions that you would have to share on their profile?

Hallie Haupt  15:27

Yeah, so I think my biggest piece of advice is creating a profile that’s attractive. And by attractive, I mean, just having like, information on there for people to find, because I can’t tell you how many profiles I’ll go to where there’s like no profile photo, there’s no links, there’s no contact information. And I immediately turn away from the profile, because I’m like, they’re they either don’t want to be found, or they don’t know how to use it. But it’s not something I want to, like, scroll down and find more information about. So having the links there that people can find your information, your website, having a clear and concise bio is something that’s super important. And then being able to have like those images that draw people in. And I think what was Leanne was going to talk about that as well. But that that stuff is very critical when you want someone to find you and find information about you. Yeah,

Curt Anderson  16:20

thank you. That’s great. And you know what I love here you have, you know, women and manufacturing member, you’re very clear and concise. You know, I love that information you have on here, you’re super active. So you know, you’ve you’ve developed instant street cred for yourself with your profile, all sorts of engagement pictures, photos, that type of thing. So this is great Weslyne, let’s make you I’d like to clean of breaking down the LinkedIn profile, let’s just talk about like how you consult with manufacturers on how to build a better presence here.

Wesleyne Whittaker  16:50

So when somebody comes to your LinkedIn profile, and we’re talking about personal profiles, and I know a lot of people here, like, but I want my company profile to be fantastic, too. There is a two step thing that you need to do. Remember people buy from people, what building your company profile is important. But if you are in marketing, or in sales, you shouldn’t be shy of using your own personal profile for branding. Why? Because LinkedIn has really great search engine optimization. So when somebody types in my name into Google, the first thing that pops up is my LinkedIn. And so you see my LinkedIn and you also see my company name. So if somebody’s met me at a networking event, they may not remember my company name, but they’ll remember my name, right? And so once they click on my link, then you see my profile, you see all of my posts. And so right at the top of your LinkedIn profile, you have your banner, that should be your calling card. What do you do? Who do you serve? How can people how do people really know who you are and what you do? A few weeks ago, I helped a friend work on their LinkedIn profile. And within two hours, they were like, wow, this was so great. And it was literally from listening, what they do, who they serve, and how they help them. And then you want to make sure that it’s very clear, because if somebody comes on my profile, and they don’t have a field sales team, they’re gonna be like, she can’t help me. Okay, that’s great, because I don’t like tech people. They’re not my people. I like manufacturing, I like petrochemical. Those are my people. So I want it to be clear what I do, who I serve, and how I help them. And it should be very clear for you to do you help a specific industry in a specific part of the country. That was you want to make sure that you have on your profile.

Curt Anderson  18:42

Yeah, I love that. And you look at West things headline right here, you know, I empower leaders and fields, sales teams, to hit sales targets monthly. You know, if you’re looking for HR, you know, this is you’re not in the right place, operational excellence. But boy, if you need a sales guru, the recovering chemists coach extraordinaire, Wesleyan is your person and then you take a look at what she’s done in her about section. So again, please connect with Wesleyan as she does, she puts out incredible posts, inspiring messages on a daily basis. This is really a great profile to to benchmark your Jordan, let’s get you on stage. I have a couple of things I want to I’d love for you to break down a little bit of your profile. And I’d really like to get into the featured section that you taken advantage of vote what do you want to share as far as like banner headline? From a manufacturing standpoint? What are your thoughts?

Jordan Yates  19:28

Yeah, so I I’ve always struggled a little bit here because I like I said, have a full time job and then I have a side business and so trying to signal that like I do more than one thing has always been like a challenge for me. And so what I usually try to do is like the background photo at the top I have it signaled the industry I’m currently in and so right now my day job is I work with the offshore oil and gas companies and we do like you know, software there. So a lot of the people I’m connecting with our subsea engineer As blog presenter engineers, things like that. So I always want the image to signal the company that I work for like my day job. And then luckily, marketing engineers like a double entendre. For me, it describes like, I am an engineer, I do the marketing. And then the line below creating fun and relatable technical content. Like that is true for my day job. It’s true for my side business, and it’s vague enough to like, Spike some, like spark some interest, it’s like not as you know, precise as Wesleyan because she’s so like, on it and she has her like thing that she does, which grow I wish I had the like ability to zero in like that, but for my situation, it’s like, I keep that level of vagueness to where they want to follow me they want to like ask more, but it’s still like signals that we have possibly something in common there. And then I tried to like, you know, showcase everything in my featured of like, have something related to my job, but also something related to like my personal branding side of things. So I tried to keep a good mix, but honestly, I think that people get to know me best by following me for a while but to initially capture them like I said, I like the imagery and then the words to just make sense together. And then to Holly’s point, fill out your profile, have a picture like come on, guys. Like if you don’t have a profile picture, start there. Don’t overthink making it perfect. Just start by filling it out have something you know, or else it’s, yeah, that’s bare minimum have a profile. Now,

Curt Anderson  21:24

unless one of our friends out there in the witness protection program in Georgia, there might be a couple I won’t mention the names John vogliono. But you know, there might be somebody in the witness protection program. Just kidding. So I would I absolutely love and I’m not taking advantage of this. But take a look, this guy’s what she’s done. She has the services all filled out. I mean, just look at the credibility that you know, if you want to know something about Jordan, I mean, she’s putting all this information out here, all these feature posts, here she is on site, here she is, you know, the engineering Guru is just really rocking it here. We’re going to would do you know what, Jordan, they’ve got to wait, they got to stick around with us till the end because we’re going to show the guide later so we’re going to keep them holding on that. Damon Let’s go here. You know, in western you made a great point if you know if we don’t think people are googling us like we’re just you want to do business with them gaming is the first thing that somebody’s going to do, right is they’re going to Google this person right? Let’s just share a little bit your thoughts your feedback on your profile, dude 80 80,000 plus followers, My goodness, just share a little bit on your your takeaway here?

Damon Pistulka  22:24

Well, he first of all, I’m writing a lot of notes from everybody else I was talking because if you if you create a good headline have the good image, you know, I’m like Jordan, it’s awesome. Having your services thing set up. That’s it’s incredible. I had to do that in mind. But you know, the things that they when you do a Google search, LinkedIn has way more domain authority and power than you ever will with your company. And when you do that and learn how that works, your LinkedIn profile just think a customer potential customer is going to search for you they’re going to search for you and they’re going to search for your company and you will find all these things about you and your company and if you haven’t done this you need to do this to see what comes up right because there’s good and bad they’ll come up and but the LinkedIn the other social profiles will be some of the first ones that come up and if you’ve got a good because Okay, nobody goes down beyond the first section and Google when they do it, you know, you got the first three by it forgets like 90% of the people click on the first few search results. So if one of those is LinkedIn, maybe you’re lucky one of them is your website, they all need to be optimized so when people come to them they actually can learn something about you because if they hit your LinkedIn profile the set up in 2010 and haven’t put a profile picture or the headline it’s just isn’t going to do you any good and that’s really what what I’ve learned over are this the second thing is to is you know although my my picture is more professional you can be a human on on LinkedIn right? You don’t you don’t have to be stuffed shirt suit and tie if that’s not you, I think Haley you do that awesome hack girl right yeah, it’s just it just awesome it’s awesome you can be yourself and really do that and the right people will you will attract the right people I’m just been added a while

Curt Anderson  24:28

and do me a favor Yeah and again so you know we’re so on Daymond now that Damon that’s many many years of intentional building on your profile. Again, Jordan and Haley you guys came into rally relatively quickly you built very vast followings quickly. So just back to Jordan, you know on her featured section Damon you’ve had a lot of success here. This is a tip that you picked up and when I tell you dude what I admired about you, you know, you have this vast following and you hear your pencil on hand you’re taking notes learning just how to you know, write my saying he’s always hungry how to learn more. I can’t tell you it’s one of the greatest treats about you, but just share, like how these checklists. And again, I don’t care if you’re a machine shop, I don’t care what you’re doing that everybody wants to know that checklist, you know, the tagline that we love to use is how do you teach the competition you know, be that fierce educator, Damon just share like how these these checklists work for you? Well,

Damon Pistulka  25:18

yeah, these are just these are just guides that you create, you can create them on something about how to design a CNC made park or how you make something a fabricated metal. But this I used to have this section set up with YouTube videos that we had done on certain subjects and never got, you know, a view one really. But it with this section setup like this, people come to my profile, they see my image and me I need to work on my image. But I’ve even got the little QR code people can do that takes them right to the resource center on our, our website. But these things, I’ll tell you, they get almost a download today, off of these three guides that are shown in there. And that’s that turns into people that can be into your nurturing campaign, you can reach out and make sure they’ve got their questions answered all the kinds of things you can do. And again, nothing about selling. It’s just about creating a relationship and making sure people get the information they need. And, you know, I’m in a business where I talk to people for years before they ever would have to do any business with would ever choose to do business with us. And I love it because all I do is provide information all day long. Right.

Curt Anderson  26:26

Excellent. Okay. Yeah. And ask a great question. Awesome feedback Damon again, we encourage drop those questions and ask Do you have influence or the meta description that shows your LinkedIn profile? John says yes, it comes from your route. So let’s take a look here, right so if we look at my Slean contact Wesleyan. Here’s her LinkedIn. Here’s where it’s pulling right here. And then I think one thing I saw it again down here it’s pulling her headline right there. Okay, if we take a look at demons so we pull Damon Pistulka. Looks like it’s grabbing. Looks like in scramble your testimonials say that’s another great way, right?

Damon Pistulka  27:01

Yep. Okay, that’s another one of our websites is pulling the other stuff. Yeah. Yep.

Curt Anderson  27:05

Perfect. Okay, Haley, I’m gonna gonna come back to you. So anything else that you want to add as far as profile before we dive into engagement? Any other thoughts is everybody want around that you want to share? As far as any tips here for our new our friends that might be newish to LinkedIn? Yeah,

Hallie Haupt  27:20

I guess I’ll piggyback off the featured section. Everybody. Obviously, everyone here who’s been talking about it uses their featured section for something different and it’s great because it’s working for all of us. For mine, I know like when I first started in the industry, someone gave me the nickname hat girl. So I was promoting other people’s companies with those hats. So it’s not only a way for me to promote my company, but it’s a way to promote those who have helped me get through and grow as well. Also, I don’t know about you guys, who are the panelists on here, but do people go back and like I got a comment from a post a year ago that’s in my featured section, because like they’re still interacting with it and still finding that information relevant. So I definitely agree with that about like the featured section. It’s very useful.

Curt Anderson  28:07

Yeah. Excellent. Okay. Let’s type so guys any any again, keep those questions coming. If you have any questions, we’d love to answer those, you know, Haley Barbour here shirt a little bit just for everybody get an understanding like who is IQ manufacturing? How do you guys make the world better place? And then we’re gonna dive in how you’re specifically using LinkedIn to to help spread that word.

Hallie Haupt  28:27

Yeah, so IQ manufacturing. We are a job shop headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan. So we machined components for the aerospace, automotive, defense and automation industries. We started in 2015 in the corner of pole barn, 600 square feet, one machine, one machinist. And then nine years later, we’re in a 30,000 square foot facility with 25 people, two shifts, 18 machines, and it’s just grown a lot. Yes. Kudos to

Curt Anderson  28:55

run applause for the inspiring team at IQ manufacturing way to go really, yes. Inhaling doing an amazing job. You know, our little shameless tagline is how to stop being the best kept secret. You’re doing an amazing job helping IQ to not be a best kept secret. Just share a little bit your journey, how you came in, and what I love when I point that out, whenever you and I do something together, what I admire most is how your company leadership has just embraced the culture. They let you run with it. Just share a little bit of that if you would, please.

Hallie Haupt  29:26

Yeah, so when I first started an IQ was in April of 2021. And I was brought on to be an administrative assistant. I was supposed to help with payroll. I was supposed to help with documentation and I still, to this day, haven’t touched a single thing that has anything to do with any of that. I was here for three months before they kind of saw some more skills in me and they moved me to some of the marketing and now I’m doing purchasing so my favorite thing that I love about the ownership here is that they do really invest in us and when they see a skill or a talent They want to push us to keep pursuing that and keep pushing forward. So at the marketing, they really do give me the creative freedom to do what I do on there. And I think that a lot of companies need to do that as well. Obviously, find someone that you trust to be able to give out the correct information, and who will represent you in a good way. But I really do think that my company, like one upped themselves by being able to give me that platform, excellent.

Curt Anderson  30:25

Took it to the next level. So let’s, let’s dip our toe, let’s start talking about a little bit of engagement. Okay, you have just wonderful, I’d say your engagement is just off the charts, just share a little bit of you know, your ideas, your concepts, what works, what resonates. You know, we’ve done programs together, where you showed, like, hey, this was me in early stages, not a lot activity, you know, we’ve got you, you know, grow mature, you know, season, whatever, however you want to describe it, but just share a little bit of her journey and how you’re posting.

Hallie Haupt  30:54

Yeah, so I’ve been posting consistently, almost every single day for three years. So I think consistency is a big thing. People get to know you, they want to come back and read the stories. And like Jordan, I do things a little bit more on the personal side as well. I’ve said this on a recent jam session with you, Curt, it’s people want to know, when you’re a person, you have hobbies, you have things you like doing. And it’s not just all business. And I think that that’s important to showcase. And I get a lot of engagement from that. And being able to engage back with people is very important as well, because it’s not only boosting that post, but you’re also gaining relationships and creating that bond with other people. So I think that’s very important. I think every panelist here does that very well. Yeah.

Curt Anderson  31:39

And we’re going to come back around, but before we before I leave you, Haley, I just I have to man, my fur hat girl, my hat is off to you 6000 followers for a 25 person manufacturer. Like that’s insane. You think like a marketing agency would would have that? What’s your key? Any tips, suggestions for our manufacturing friends out there of like, Man, I’m just trying to get to like a couple 100 You know, any thoughts there as far as building the company profile?

Hallie Haupt  32:06

I think the biggest thing is like know your audience, like the people that are looking at that content, because the people that are looking at my personal stuff aren’t necessarily the same people who are coming to the company page. And so like, I’m not as personal or I’m not as laid back on the company page as we are on like personal pages. So really diving into what people like seeing on a company page is very vital. And I think someone I’m not sure who did mentioned the like, small videos, like people love that those are our best. Like, those are the best posts, we get engagement on like these small videos like this one right here. People love seeing that. And I think that’s a good tactic that we’ve used to get more engagement on our posts. They want to see the people working, they want to see the people engaging. It’s just something that’s worked for us.

Curt Anderson  32:51

Yeah, you’re you’re personalizing the business, you know, in Damon. Like you always love to say human, it’s not b2b. It’s not b2c, it’s ah, the agents human to human. Wesleyne, let’s get you up here you post man, I tell you are you are fierce. And you are posting on a regular basis. Here’s your featured absolute love this. Talk a little bit about your mindset, how you’re sharing your messaging, let’s go there. So

Wesleyne Whittaker  33:16

for me what I always want to think about I do things intentionally. And so just this week, I had a post about how much I hated going to trade shows when I was a salesperson. And I hated going to trade shows because I would just sit behind the booth and people will come up and it was just a complete waste of my time. So what I did was I actually use LinkedIn as a part of my strategy, when preparing to go to trade shows, I would either ask, Can we buy the list, I would go I would follow that page for that person for the organization that was having a trade show. And I will start connecting with those people and setting up meetings intentionally before I even got there. Right? So really thinking about what is my goal? What is my intention? So for this quarter, for this month for this, whatever you may say, what I really want to do right now is I really want to people to understand what we do as an organization. So think about what do we do? And how do we do it? Literally, you just sit down and talk about what you do every day to start up the plant, right? Maybe view your operations manager and ask them so what are the things that you do to make sure that we’re safe that everybody goes home on time intact, right? People want to know the story behind the company. And so literally, that’s what I do. And lately, anyone who’s just starting to dabble into LinkedIn, people have been complaining about the logarithm. Oh, my goodness, all my posts aren’t getting as much likes. They’re not getting as many comments. And what I would say to you is I had a meeting just yesterday with someone who I connected with in 2021. We had zero messages together. She has probably commented or liked my post once or twice a year, and she said, I’ve been calling you for the past three years. And now’s the time that I’m ready to do something. So people are consuming your content, they are reading what you’re writing, but they may not be in the place to pull the trigger right now, they may not actually need your product at this moment. But the goal is to be consistent in what you’re writing, share the story behind the brand, share what your employees are doing, why they like working for you, why your customers enjoy working with you. And that’s how you set yourself apart from your competition competitors.

Curt Anderson  35:35

Yeah, you know, whistling I know you have one more unfair advantage does this How about this million dollar smile right here? My goodness, gracious. Man, I was at the dentist this morning. I was like, Can I have that smile right there. So Wesleyan, you’re just such a breath of fresh air. Great tips. Great advice. I strongly encourage welcome encourage everybody, please connect with all of our panelists. Follow their posts on a daily basis. Just tons of inspiration. Wonderful. Content, Mike. Real Mike. Good afternoon, happy Thursday says what’s the optimal length of a video posting for on LinkedIn? Who wants to grab that one? Go

Wesleyne Whittaker  36:13

ahead. Just do it. It doesn’t matter if it’s 10 seconds or three minutes, just do it.

Jordan Yates  36:21

The algorithms always changing. So stop trying to like please the algorithm and just put out content that feels good, in my opinion. That’s right.

Curt Anderson  36:29

Well, Jordan, let’s you teed that up perfectly. My friend, let’s dive into your tie. Just walk us through, like, maybe you even want to go through like a gradual process when you first started posting to now like, what’s your what’s your, what’s your intention, and strategy today?

Jordan Yates  36:45

Um, so I’m not even the most creative person, like naturally, I’m an engineer, like, I’m very, like, analytical. And so my thought was, like, how will somebody know what I do? And I was like, how will they know my products are related to me. And I was like, I should just post a selfie with my product, because it’s my product, and it’s next to my face. And so therefore, the association is there. And to me, that was pretty plain and simple. And then I was like, also, okay, there’s also not a lot of women that do my job because like, you know, the the manufacturing industry, there’s still like a lot of men that do the engineering and stuff like that. And so I hadn’t seen a whole lot of other women out there to where when you see a woman with like a VFD, it’s like, oh, that’s different. And over the last three years, honestly, like, between these ladies here, the automation ladies and like so many other the manufacturing influencers, it’s become so much more normalized, but at the time, it was a big pattern interrupt like it was weird. And people are also like, Why is she calling a VFD? Q like, that is so like, alarming? They’re not Q and I’m like, it’s like a three quarter horsepower. Yeah, of course, it’s Q and so like, I don’t know, I just just started like, associate myself with it. And that was kind of how I got started. And then when I would see people like this, or I just get an idea, I would just do it. And I’m like, well, I could type this long caption about how close product is. Or I could just record myself saying, Hey, guys, this product is so cool. Like, I love this product, because XYZ and a lot of its stem from laziness of just like this is the fastest way to tell everybody about my stuff. And then eventually I was like, No, how can I do better and then it became less lazy and stuff like this, where I actually edit add captions, but I really just kind of like followed what I felt like I would be doing if I knew someone in person, what I’d want to show them and I just kind of put it out there and then hope for the best and then take feedback and just keep following. I guess. I don’t know. I guess that sounds like the most strategic advice but

Curt Anderson  38:46

you know what, my favorite word Jordan lazy, I absolutely love that. Damon we use that word. It was lame. We use that all the time. And just we kid around lazy just how do you be as efficient with your time as possible? You know, we can talk vanity metrics, but this is you know, putting your you know, talking about stuff being the best kept secret, you know, 100 and you know, over 100 likes here, you have over 100 here with your sister, you had 300 back up here. So again, it’s just it’s just putting yourself out there because you just you’re casting a wide net and you just never know who that’s going to resonate with. I wouldn’t let’s talk about this for a minute you know, I had the honor and privilege met you in person we had a great and I’d say as great as she is in online she’s wonderful in person. We had a great conversation. You spoke at the industrial marketing Summit. How was your LinkedIn journey help you with public speaking or just kind of being a you know, a face of a young woman in manufacturing which is so exciting. What are your thoughts there?

Jordan Yates  39:38

Public speaking I feel like it used to be incredibly anxiously growing up and I anytime we get in front of a crowd like I would just be like drenched in sweat and red and just like talking so fast and blacking out. And then back in 2022 I decided to become a cycle instructor randomly because I was living in a small town and I was trying to make growth Friends and I didn’t know how to meet people in my adult life. So I became a cycle bar instructor. And there’s something about having to like yell at people and like, encourage them on a bike for 45 minutes while pedaling up just like it really gets the muscle of like public speaking down, especially when it’s like, you look disgusting. It’s kind of embarrassing. Like, you know, you, you get out of your head and just become like, one with the crowd. And then you’re watching them and you’re like, Hey, I see you back there. Like, I see that you’re, you’re struggling, like, you got this girl, like, keep it up, or hey, like, check that for him, you know. And so it’s like, you get used to kind of engaging with the crowd and just being authentic. And I felt like after that, like my public speaking, just really clicked. Like, I felt very comfortable. I felt like okay, well, this is a lot easier talking and showing your presentation than riding a bike while talking. So it just was like a relativity thing, I guess. And then just realizing that if I mess up, it’s okay. And like the world’s not going to end and like the anxiety portion of it just chilled out. And it also helps when you talk about things you know about. Because I’ve been lucky to all the panels I’m on it’s stuff I’m an expert on. And so it’s I just am honest, I talk from experience, and don’t try to show up as someone I’m not. And so it’s just talk from what you know, then it’ll feel, I guess, like relatable, so relatable

Curt Anderson  41:19

and natural so i Perfect. Thank you, Jordan, I appreciate that can connect with Jordan on LinkedIn, Nelson dropped to know, I’d like to share a couple of really valuable tools. Nelson does man Nelson was on our LinkedIn live show a few weeks ago, Daymond. And it was just what a powerful conversation that was connect with Nelson here on LinkedIn, he’s got all sorts of great stuff. For manufacturers Damon, you post on a daily basis, Dude, you are fierce. Just share a little bit of your you know, your approach, how you share your content, and what it’s done for you and your business? Yeah,

Damon Pistulka  41:51

I have virtually no creative skills. I’ll just start there. I am an engineer by my training, you know, so of Jordan, you’ve you’ve you’ve exceeded far beyond my expectations of myself. I have to post goofy videos like this. And people used to say, hey, what I used to think why would you post goofy videos like this, and someone really showed me that, you know, the, the personal videos are a lot better. These, these, these videos are scroll stoppers, really, to get people to read what I’m talking about. And it’s just a strategy that I use that I always my post format is pretty much the same. It comes from my reading life, I think about things in business and client situations and everything. And then I just, I just tried to put something that’s either relevant with a post or something that makes me laugh like crazy. And, and I, I don’t know it, you know, I’m a, I’m a crazy Nitro Circus fan. So those people are nuts. But anyway, you know, it’s just, that’s just me, that’s just, that’s just kind of how I do it, then I you get into a rhythm, you get into the rhythm of, I read, I write my notes in my phone, as I’m reading, I do a lot audible and do that. And that gives me the ideas to post. And pretty soon the rhythm comes and the rhythm comes. And then you create, I started, I think I look back now is like 2019, I started posting a few days a week. So this is a long term process, right? This didn’t just happen yesterday. So I started posting a few days a week. And then I started posting, I think, five days a week. And actually few of those were our live shows that we did. So that was taking up a few of them. That was pretty simple. And then that went into seven days a week, about a year, year and a half ago. And you create a content library. And for those of you that are on here, one of the things that is really beneficial is a content library, because you go back and I’ll say, you know, I really feel like talking about something about leadership, I can go back and I’ve got 27 posts on leadership, my God, this is kind of what I’m talking about, I need to edit it, I need to put it back in and reuse it and still has relevance. And that’s really that’s what I do. And and my my approach has always been like the 8020 rule might be right might be wrong. One or two posts a week are going to be about what I do, the rest of them are going to be about life leadership and just stuff. Right. Right.

Curt Anderson  44:21

And just built a vast network in the process. So let’s go round again. Any questions? Let us know we’re going to come in we’re rounding third base here. Hey, Alisa. We’re good. We’re taking it home. Let’s talk dollars and cents right? It’s great be on LinkedIn, social media. Can you know if you have ownership leadership executives are like, Hey, this is great that we’re posting a lot of fun things like vanity metrics. Let’s talk about converting this into livelihood revenue sales. Take us there what have you seen for yourself at IQ? What is this done for your company? Let’s go there.

Hallie Haupt  44:53

Yeah, so I think the main thing is like Damon has said It’s kind of a long game. So it’s not like the snap of your fingers. It’s not going to happen overnight. But with the visibility that we have now, and the following that we’ve gained, it’s turned into customers, the visibility has given the customers an avenue to contact us and many people in the company and then all the information, they need to reach us multiple different ways. And then the visibility also helped us with employees, we’ve grabbed employees from LinkedIn got three guys on the floor right now that we found from LinkedIn or found us from LinkedIn. And then a lot of people who see like what we’re doing, we’ll want to get in here. And I think that this isn’t something that’s talked about a lot. But we’ve had, we have machines on our floor, where they’ve given us significant discounts for us to help market it and post it on our pages. Or we have vices in here and cutting tools in here that we are testing for other companies or making videos for them to post as well. And that’s something that can benefit the company as well. So I think that’s important to note as well, because I don’t think that a lot of people think about that. People will be like LinkedIn is turning into Facebook, and I’m like, okay, but like, if you’re using it in an advantageous way, it can be very beneficial to you,

Curt Anderson  46:16

man, drop the mic right there. How about that one, bam. So that one of my favorite words that I hear collaboration, so this is an opportunity. So say, you know, whatever, you know, if you do CNC machining, maybe you want to partner with a wire harness assembly company, or the PCB board company or something that’s in a totally different space, 3d printer, whatever. So Hallie, what I’m hearing is there. This is putting you on the on the radar of a lot of other companies. You’re a small company, 25 employees, and now people are reaching out to you to collaborate, discount, help promote, build relationships. Is that what I’m hearing? Yes,

Hallie Haupt  46:53

yep. And we are both able to grab from that. Because when they posted on their page, they’re being directed to us. And when we post it on ours there, we’re directing our people to that. So it’s cross collaboration, and everyone’s benefiting from it. Yep.

Curt Anderson  47:08

And then the other thing is, I just want to reinforce is I you know, so it’s always like, you know, oh, we need sales, sometimes there’s manufacturers Mamre capacity, we couldn’t take on another customer, but boy, do we need people on the floor. Did I hear you correctly there you have two people on the floor. Thanks to LinkedIn.

Hallie Haupt  47:23

Did I hear three people? Three people? All right, thank

Curt Anderson  47:26

you for correcting me three people. So again, so if we’re, hey, we need teammates, we need folks on the floor. What a great resource here so whether you need someone on a professional level on the floor engineering, marketing, what have you LinkedIn? So again, LinkedIn, it’s not. Haley, is it a nice to have or is it a must to have? You need to have it right. And we have no skin in the game. Like we don’t work for LinkedIn. Like we’re just we’re just here just promoting, you know, our company. Hey, we’ve got a couple of questions here. Damon. I saw you answered someone, Linda Warner. Linda, thank you for joining us again, thank you, everybody for joining us here today. Linda says free account or premium LinkedIn. Go David says premium gives you featured section better analytics Damon. Anybody else on the panel? You guys want to chime in on premium or free?

Jordan Yates  48:10

I like premium because if you’re wanting to stock other people’s accounts, and you don’t want them to Yes. I don’t know if that’s relative to this conversation. But wait

Damon Pistulka  48:23

answer. It’s a good feature. Yeah, I didn’t Yeah,

Curt Anderson  48:26

Damon anything else that you want to add? No,

Damon Pistulka  48:28

I just think it’s if you’re going to use LinkedIn, you may want to consider at least get things set up. Before you jump into premium. Make sure you’ve got things set up look at the search features. I mean, when you go to search people on LinkedIn with the premium, you get all these different filters that you don’t get in the free version. So it helps with those kinds of things. But then the analytics to like who has viewed your posts, you can go down and see exactly who’s viewed your posts where you can only see a few or whatever it is on the free version. There’s just those kinds of things that it’s really going to help you if you want to use this for business development. That that helps a lot.

Curt Anderson  49:04

Perfect so Wesleyne, let’s go here your dollars and cents gal. You and I do one amazing work together. I’m just so blessed. so fortunate to have you in my life. We work with numerous numerous manufacturers through the MEP network, any of our MEP friends out there, give a little raise, raise your hand or jumping on a chat box. If you’re a manufacturer, you’re not familiar with the manufacturing extension partnerships. We strongly encourage you We invite you we welcome you We implore you to check out your local MEP. There’s an MEP in all 50 states they are there to help you. They do wonderful services, Westling let’s talk dollars and cents. What does LinkedIn done for you professionally and for your clients in manufacturing? So

Wesleyne Whittaker  49:44

what we have to remember and realize is that it takes 12 to 15 touches to convert someone. And so when we talk about converting that is from somebody who was out there in the world to saying okay, I’m gonna submit a website inquiry form Then it takes another 12 to 15 touches to get them to the next stage. Right? So when we think about our sales cycle on our sales process, how do we use LinkedIn to make our touches more valuable. So instead of just calling or just showing up or just emailing, you can use LinkedIn to engage with your ideal clients show up for their posts, they typically a lot of your ideal clients, they’re not having a lot of interaction on their post, they may have one life, who was probably their wife, or their husband or their kids. And if you show up and like and comment, and then they get an email from you, the next day, they’re like, Wow, I remember that person, I’m going to respond, because you know what they showed up and supported me. So for me, in my business, I get probably about 50 to 60% of my business inbound through LinkedIn. So that doesn’t mean that somebody is commenting on a post and saying, I want to buy from you today. But it’s somebody who’s been following me, they sign up for my newsletter. Okay, that’s a valuable conversion point for me. So from getting on my newsletter to then get into the next step, there are other things I need to do. But what you have to think about is, what is the entry point into your sales funnel? Whatever the entry point of your sales funnel is, your goal is to get people to get started. So how can you use LinkedIn to help you do that, and when I work directly in sales, and when I work with clients, I have them have build your hot list, who is your hot list of target customers, figure out how you can socially surround them. So that means engaging on their content. That means sharing a link when you your company posts or you post and that means connecting with them and having valuable engagement. And the last tip that I will share is once you’ve connected with someone on LinkedIn, on your phone, there’s a little microphone and you can send them a voice memo. And so as soon as somebody joins my network, I send them a voice memo. And I say, Hey, thank you so much for joining my network. I’m curious about XYZ, and that sets you apart, because they’re hearing that you’re a human and that you’re talking to them and that you actually care about what they’re doing. So that is

Curt Anderson  52:08

a brilliant tip. Another drop the mic right there. So how about that one when you connect with somebody, and again, as Damon said, you know, not necessary being salesy, just a little voice message, we’ve got a couple of questions here. And before I grab those, I want to make sure Jordan that we have time before people jump off or if they have a call the top of the hour, you have a little content NAT little this is on powerhouse monster, my goodness gracious. Talk a little bit about this guy that you’ve created.

Jordan Yates  52:34

Um, so I’ve spoke at a few conferences, and obviously, like grown my own network, and I, for my business of like content creation and marketing for like industrial companies, I have gotten all of my leads, and not even leads, customers come directly to me asking me to like help them out to where like, I’ve always had too much work to do where I have to turn people away. Because LinkedIn has been such a strong sales funnel. I don’t even bother with my website, because it’s like, I’m always so many leads from LinkedIn. And so when customers ask me, like, how do I do this, and salespeople, like, how do I do this? And it’s like, I feel like sure, it’s great to go speak at a conference and tell people, This is how I did it. And I’m doing so great. And I’m like, That’s not applicable. Like I need to help somebody like something applicable, rather than just telling them, let me literally write it down and show you so I brain dumped so hard, like, I’ve defined poker, but I like literally like the week after I got laid off, I wrote down every single thing I could think of it and I made like a little like mind map of it. And then I extrapolated on each of those topics. And then it took me a while and I organized it. And I was like, if somebody has never, like done this, and everyone’s always like you have to do LinkedIn, it’s so important. It’s overwhelming, like, where do I start? Where do I begin, and so I wanted to put myself back in their shoes of like, maybe you’re just building a profile, maybe you’re just getting into content, but like, here’s everything from like, how to connect with your ideal audience who you should be connecting with the kind of content that you can post and right there a starter kit, you want to get started with content, here’s how you record it. Here’s the type of content to record. Here’s how you edit it. Here’s how you implement it into your marketing plan. Here’s how you do it for your personal page and your business page. And it was just like, I not gonna say I’m like the smartest at this, but I was like, I feel like it’d be fair to just put everything I know into it and like the quirky ways I go about it, and then let people do with it what they want. So I yeah, I thought that this would be helpful and I hope that people find it helpful and maybe a little elementary for some but I think that there’s so many people out there that just have no clue where to start. And I hope that this is the beginning for that. Yeah,

Curt Anderson  54:46

this is awesome. So again, please connect with Jordan. He has dropped chatbox if you want to drop it again, Jordan just to get it fresh into the chat box. Connect with all of our panelists, please, you guys will manage your screen you’re just gonna be a better person. isn’t hanging out with these four people. But I love this comment. You know, like, you know, if you’re new to LinkedIn, you’re like, Gee, I’m not sure how to connect you, you know, hey, I’d love to add you to my network looks like we have similar interests. So that’s just a great line. Let’s grab a couple of questions here. Before we wind down Anna, my dear friend, Anna says, Do you suggest using the boost feature or pay for campaigns and grow your page? Or your company page, my esteemed panelists who would like to grab that? Jordan, did you raise your hand?

Jordan Yates  55:29

I’ve never really seen much benefit from using the Bose boosting like, never I’ve done it with a couple of my companies I run their pages for and like, you get a lot of impressions. And so maybe if you did it, like for multiple posts, over time, it would add up, but I’ve never seen an ROI on it personally, not to say you can’t but I haven’t. And so I think really just like what gets people is the like, long term consistency that Holly said in the beginning is like you just have to keep posting and people eventually, like getting the right like place and they’ll start to trust you. But I mean, it never hurts to experiment, like experiment with everything. Maybe it works for your company better. But I haven’t seen success with boosting post.

Wesleyne Whittaker  56:09

Any other comments. LinkedIn campaigns are very, very expensive. And so you should really focus on the organic growth before you start investing because you know, on Instagram or Facebook, you can get like 510 15 cents per click on LinkedIn is like $5. So it’s really, really expensive. And so that’s not where I would suggest that you invest your marketing dollars. I would say pay for premium over investing in boosting post.

Jordan Yates  56:39

I think it works better in b2c and b2b. Yeah,

Curt Anderson  56:43

yeah. Good. Good point. Okay. We’ve got Kyle, but and I think Greg Michoud Greg’s you’re still here. I know. I believe you do fair amount with LinkedIn paid. So maybe connect with Greg issue, he might be a great person to address that question deeper. Anna, thank you for joining us, Linda. Thank you all your questions, Kyle says any advice on how to narrow down to find your niche when you’re able to offer a wide variety of services and skills? Kyle we have a tagline, Wesleyne Damon that we love to use. We call it niche down till it hurts. But any entails has a nice comment here. Maybe start with the customers you’ve been with the most successful and focus their first day I’ll hop off man, I’m giving you a little comment dropped the mic there. I love that answer. Any our panelists anything that you want to chime in as far as niching, down? Wesleyan, anything that you want to chime in as far as niching down, I was saying before we go there, when we try to be everything to everybody, my friend, what happens?

Wesleyne Whittaker  57:39

We become nothing to no one. And so when you’re thinking about all the products and services that you have, it is very important when you’re on LinkedIn or any social media platform to focus on like I talked about what is the entry point into your sales cycle into your sales funnel? What is the thing you want to be known for, figure out that product, figure out that persona, that person is and target them. Once you get somebody on the phone or once they submit a contact form, you can then sell them and talk about whatever you want to, but you have to be focused on something or you’re going to be so diluted and it’s going to be hard for people to know when to come to you when they need products or services.

Curt Anderson  58:19

I love it focus on what we’re absolutely best at and just you know, give it everything you’ve got me we Damon we talk about that all the time. shamelessly. Hey, and join us we have a little LinkedIn live show on Mondays and Fridays called manufacturing ecommerce success. Love to see you there where we have wonderful folks like these lovely ladies here. And we just do deep dive discussions on all things wonderful about manufacturing, digital transformation. That type of thing. Nelson, my dear friend says thoughts on using LinkedIn as your business card. Wesleyne, you gave a great answer. Do you want to just chime in there?

Wesleyne Whittaker  58:50

Oh, yeah. So again, on your phone in the search area of the LinkedIn app, there is a little button at the top there’s a QR code. And so if you can tap on that QR code, and people can scan it from their phones, when you’re out networking or doing anything and you can also scan that person’s QR code. And so absolutely use it as your business card. Why? Because the business card is static. It’s a piece of paper that people throw away. But LinkedIn, if you’re posting if you’re connecting, it is a living thing where you’re always updating who you are and what you’re doing. So it’s much better than a business card. That’s

Curt Anderson  59:25

right. Alright, so man, I ran us right up to the top of the hour. But I know people are probably jumping off at the call tonight. Coming up here. How about a huge, huge thank you in a round of applause for our wonderful panelists. We’ve got Hallie, we’ve got Wesleyne, we’ve got Jordan Damon Pistulka. So guys, thank you. Thank you. Thank you for sharing your time, your passion, your energy, your expertise with everybody all about LinkedIn strongly encourage everyone connect with our team here on LinkedIn. You’re just got you can just thank us later. They’re just wonderful, inspiring every day have as we wind down first of all, I want to thank everybody here for joining us. I appreciate you, thank you. We’re gonna be sending the replay out for anybody that missed. And we had over 100 people signed up, I think I saw we had over 40 people here today. So that just makes our we’re just thrilled. I want to give a thanks to our big to our sponsors, Hayley, parting thoughts, words of wisdom that you would like to share with everybody as we close out on this wonderful Thursday?

Hallie Haupt  1:00:23

I think the only thing I want to touch back on was something that I think Jordan mentioned was about like being yourself on your platform. I think one of the worst things is like if someone sees you being like bubbly and like open and whatever it may be on like a platform like social media and then meeting you in person and it’s not that way. So I think it’s very important to be yourself and be who you are in person so that when people meet you, they don’t know any difference. Great,

Curt Anderson  1:00:50

man. Haley, another drop the mic right there, Weslyne. What do you thought Wesleyne and you’re going to learn this new hashtag it’s called Wesleyne wisdom Wesleyne, any wisdom that you’d like to share as we close out today?

Wesleyne Whittaker  1:01:02

Yes, do something. You don’t have to do everything we said. But just commit to doing one thing? Is it updating your profile? Is it posting once a week? Is it spending 30 minutes a day on the platform connecting with someone just commit to doing one thing and then take your next step and your next step? Because if you leave here with all this information, and it sits in your notebook, and you never do anything with it, then the next time you come to a LinkedIn Strategy Workshop, you’ll be like, oh, man, I missed that on that so commit to doing one thing today.

Curt Anderson  1:01:34

Awesome. Thank you connect with Wesleyan she’s an amazing human being wonderful mom dear friend bustling, appreciate you lots of love. Jordan, my friend take us home words of wisdom parting thoughts, how they connect with you get that guide any anything that you want to share there? Are you on mute?

Jordan Yates  1:01:55

Sorry. Don’t let overthinking lead to underdoing my friends just put yourself out there don’t get stuck in the analysis paralysis as I know many of us technical people do and then figure it out as you go Don’t be afraid to figure it out as you go and be honest about it. I mean, there’s a million resources out there of how to get better at this but you can’t get better if you don’t start so give yourself a starting point and just look at it as data you know take the data learn from it. Keep going keep moving but you’re not going to get better if you don’t try so apps

Curt Anderson  1:02:29

love it another job to Mike from our just in Spoken like a true engineer absolute love that follow the data right not on our emotions. Follow the data Damon, another engineer. Take us home brother, your words of wisdom parting thoughts that you want to share? You

Damon Pistulka  1:02:43

know, I think listen to the three people that just said what they said I mean, it’s your just be yourself. Just go out there. I mean, show live show business, you know, just have some fun with it. People, the right people will engage with you if you’re just put yourself out there and just share what you’re thinking.

Curt Anderson  1:03:00

Absolutely love it. So I want to give another huge thank you. How about a round of applause one more time for our wonderful panelists. For everybody who joined us here today, I’m giving you round applause for just sharpening your pencil to get better on LinkedIn. We wish each of you just massive, incredible success. We’d love to see you on LinkedIn connect with all of us, we would be an honor and privilege to have you in our network. Again, I’m going to be sending out the replay. I’ll stick around. If there’s any questions, please drop them into chat. And it says I’m guilty of being an overthinker. And and God bless you. Thank you for sharing. Guys. Thank you for joining us today. We wish you just tons of success this week. And we will see everybody soon. One more question. Does anyone else find that company that people from across the world start targeting you to connect and saying they work for your company? Any comments on that one? Happy Thursday to you man, thank you for the question. Any comments there?

Jordan Yates  1:03:55

You’re allowed to ignore people? Yeah,

Curt Anderson  1:03:57

that’s right. Just just you know, it’s what people do to me just ignore it. And I’m just kidding, Haley. So yeah, just to those folks out, you’re gonna get those, you know, it comes with the territory, you’re gonna get the little, you know, hey, you know, you’re gonna get the SEO guru or somebody is trying to hit you up for something. So just kind of blocked those folks. But any other questions? We’ll stick around for another minute and anybody needs a wrap, get going on your day. Anything else? Anybody else? Going once, twice? If not any big day. It’s Father’s Day coming up? How about Happy Father’s Day to the fathers out there. So give. Haley I think you had a birthday last week. Right? It was your birthday the other day? It was and she had all sorts of excitement for her birthday. So I guys, we’re gonna close out. Thank you. Appreciate you. We’ll see you at the next jam session. Westling, Jordan, Haley Damon, thank you guys. We appreciate you.

Damon Pistulka  1:04:50

Thanks for having us.

Curt Anderson  1:04:51

See, you guys. See you CSU. Okay, thank you Haley. Oh thank you Damon Thank you Wessling we’ll see you guys