Brian C Traichel (00:00)
the thing I've heard from my entire career is it's just another thing I need to manage. In my opinion, it's the one thing you should be managing first before you check all your other distractions through the day, because it's a time sensitive B2B platform.
it shouldn't take you all day, but it's designed to go to first because there's time sensitive things. People have birthdays, they change jobs. So you're really getting a pulse on a daily basis of what's happening in your network.
and may come up later in the conversation about how many people should I have on my network? And that's a personal preference. But if you really want to work LinkedIn to the degree that you are, ⁓ you're active, you're showing up. And it's not requiring a lot of effort, but it has to be focused and direct and blocked throughout the day.
Dee Davis (00:53)
Good morning and welcome to the management under construction podcast. I'm your host, Dee Davis, and I am here today with the LinkedIn wizard, Brian Traichel I call him the LinkedIn wizard because that's what he truly is. I was fortunate enough to be introduced to Brian through a friend of a friend of a business connection. And Brian has since introduced me to so many other wonderful people in my network. Some of them have also been guests on the podcast.
Thank you so much for joining us today, Brian. Tell us a little bit more about yourself.
Brian C Traichel (01:25)
Thank you, Dee.
Yeah, I appreciate being here. And yes, we're going to pull the curtain back if we want to use the wizard analogy a little bit. But just for some context, I never really strived to be this LinkedIn subject matter expert. It just happened over time. My background is sales. I started in title insurance sales, B2B, straight commission.
And LinkedIn came out around 2006. And it was a very small article on a Southwest flight saying things to watch in 2006. And it was called social media. And it said LinkedIn is coming. What is that? Right. So social media. And it might have been around before that. But my interest just kind of leaned in a little bit. OK, well, I'm going to check this out. So I ripped the page out, put it in my pocket. I'll check this out when I land.
So I created an account, played around, but then I started to realize how powerful it was in really doing your research and your due diligence before making a sales call, putting together a list of your leads, high quality, your ICP, ideal client profile. So I started using the platform to just get a better sense of what my audience was looking like. And it started to work.
And then over the years, people kept asking me, how are you continually getting these types of sales and meeting your quotas, exceeding quotas, growing your team? I said, I'm using LinkedIn. They go, well, yeah, that's just a place to get a job. And I said, well, for some people, yeah. I said, I suppose you could look at it that way. I said, for me, if you're in straight commission sales and you have no recurring revenue and every month you start at zero, every day that you go out and leave the house, I believe you're interviewing for a job.
So they go, okay, good point. But so here we are, know, 2026. And of course, with the pandemic in 2020 LinkedIn still hadn't really gained People were aware of it. They recognized it, but they weren't sure. Is it a business development tool? Is it a networking tool? Is it a place to find a job? It's all of those, right? It's just how you work the system. But when live networking went down, workshops,
in person, seminars, conferences, all that went away. Everyone was left to wait. I'm working from home. How am I going to meet people and what am I going to do? And they started to reach out to me and say, Brian, I remember you talking about LinkedIn a long time ago. Are you still doing it? I go, I've never stopped doing it. I said, it's part of my daily habits. So that's the long version of kind of where I've come to. But because of my time in grade and proficiency in hours, I've watched it evolve since Microsoft bought them.
and all the changes they make on a daily basis. So it was always going to be changing and dynamic. But I became a trainer and people just started asking me, how did you do it? What did you do? And I stopped selling and I started training. So that was kind of the genesis of how I help individuals like yourself and other people who are just looking to get a better brand, brand integrity, the mission statement. So I get into
a lot of brand strategy and marketing and sales strategy. So I try to stay out of the LinkedIn lane, but LinkedIn is the tool that I use to have that conversation to help business owners.
Dee Davis (04:43)
I've learned an incredible amount from you since we met about LinkedIn. And it is so much more than a
resume. I think a lot of people look at it like a digital resume and it is, but it's also so much more than that. But let's start with the very basics about LinkedIn. Why is it important as a professional to have a personal LinkedIn profile at all?
Brian C Traichel (05:09)
I think when it comes to your footprint, your digital footprint, LinkedIn is recognized as the place to go to do your research. Most savvy buyers are going to do pre-research before they meet with you or investigate your presence. And it's really kind of a curb appeal type thing. It's your first impression. It goes back to the Dale Carnegie You only have the one chance to make the first impression. And when you do a search, if you happen to Google yourself, you're going to come up one, two, or three.
in the search results if you don't have a website. So if you don't have a performing website with SEO, LinkedIn will be the first touch point. Now, studies have shown in the last six months into last year that the human attention span is approximately 8.5 seconds. So...
People are making snap judgments in eight and a half seconds, whether or not you're professional, whether or not they want to accept your connection, they're already making preconceived judgments based on what they see, because if we go back to people being 80 % visual, they're gonna do that. So they're gonna look at your background. Is there a logo in your company? Do you have a good headline? Do you have an about set? They might just stop there and go, not interested. The problem is that,
It probably is a good fit, but you haven't taken the time to really get yourself dressed up to go into the platform. And some people say, well, I don't use LinkedIn. It's not my lane. That's fine. But you're still showing up that way. we don't know how many lost opportunities you're getting because people have made a decision not to move forward with you because of what they saw.
It can be hurting you even if you're not using the platform. So my recommendation is go all in or do not have a presence on there, but you can't go in halfway.
Dee Davis (06:57)
And we'll talk about that a little bit more as we go on in the cast. I know that when I've been on LinkedIn for good golly, I don't know, 12, 15 years probably. And in the beginning, I used to call LinkedIn professional Facebook is what I used to call it. And I would go in every once in a while and update something or maybe make a post or whatever.
It's now part of my daily routine as well. I post daily to LinkedIn. I comment on other people's things. I have an actual presence. I've gotten to the point where I go to events in person and people walk up to me and say, you're the LinkedIn lady. So mission accomplished.
Brian C Traichel (07:37)
Yeah,
well done, well done. And it doesn't take a lot of time. And that's the thing, the thing I've heard from my entire career is it's just another thing I need to manage. In my opinion, it's the one thing you should be managing first before you check all your other distractions through the day, because it's a time sensitive B2B platform. If people are using it for what it was intended for, they're looking for a service provider in their network that does a specific trade or service or sells a particular good.
And that's where people go to first if they're searching for that to find out who do they know in their network who can provide that information. So it shouldn't take you all day, but it's designed to go to first because there's time sensitive things. People have birthdays, they change jobs. So you're really getting a pulse on a daily basis of what's happening in your network.
and may come up later in the conversation about how many people should I have on my network? And that's a personal preference. But if you really want to work LinkedIn to the degree that you are, you're active, you're showing up. And it's not requiring a lot of effort, but it has to be focused and direct and blocked throughout the day. So I usually do it first thing in the morning and before I close the day.
Dee Davis (08:48)
It's absolutely the first thing that I open. start my computer up in the morning, open my email, open my teams and then open LinkedIn and just go through any notifications that have happened overnight. that's about it. I pop in and I see, do I have any messages? that kind of thing. And I may only spend a few minutes on it in the morning and I usually will check it a couple of times a day.
Because I am so active on there. I do get communication regularly through there So it's very important to do that stuff. There's so many reasons why your LinkedIn profile is important when you pop in and you look at my LinkedIn profile That's Brian's work
When you and I worked together on my LinkedIn profile, I learned a ton about how LinkedIn works, which I didn't know before. But I never knew that all the little details were so important. So the way that Brian does LinkedIn updates and profile reviews and stuff for you and helps you get yours up to speed is he does an interview with you. And so when we did my interview,
to redo my profile, you gathered a ton of information about me and a lot of it seemed irrelevant. all the way down to what high school did I go to, which I would have never in a million years entered on my own. Why is that kind of information important?
Brian C Traichel (10:05)
Well, I think that speaks to, we all as a professional and we've had a career, we've also had a personal life. And a lot of the time when you're looking at professional networking, if it's apples to apples, you can provide the same service. How do you make that decision? But a lot of people will go deeper and say, well, maybe we both served in the armed forces together. So we have, you know, connection there or we have a fraternity or sorority we were a part of or we.
both played on the same baseball team or were from a regional area in the country, but were transplants in another state or region. So people like to have that commonality and believe it's a lost art because they go, that's not important, it was so long ago. Well, sometimes it is important, it can make the difference and it could be something as simple as you have a black belt in Taekwondo, but you haven't,
practice in years, that's okay, because the CEO of the company that fits your ideal client profile happens to also be a martial artist. Do you think that's an advantage in a conversation when you're building that relationship? I think it is, because people like to talk about things they have in common and in common interests. So, if you ride a motorcycle, and the thing is there's groups for specific things on LinkedIn. If you're a pickleball enthusiast, great. Guess what? The person you're trying to network with at a
local chamber or this, they might be in that group on LinkedIn. And you had no idea because it never came up because you're always talking about business and how you can support each other that way. But wouldn't it be interesting to go do something you like and enjoy and find out the person you're in that group with is your ideal client. So I just think it makes for better relationships and it takes the transactional piece out of the business relationship
I think what we were really trying to get at with that question.
Dee Davis (11:54)
Yeah, every one of those things that you mentioned is like a point in your bucket, right? Every time somebody is looking through your profile and they see, you coach youth sports. You went to the same college that I did. Every one of those things is a positive thing, even if it's subconscious. It's a positive point in your favor.
And the other person is liking you more and more as they're looking at your profile because they're finding these things out about you. And yes, a lot of it's business, but the personal stuff is important too. I've had so many great, linked in online networking relationships. and I think it has, changed my perspective.
as to the power that LinkedIn really can have as a connecting platform. We added things like classes that I've taken, classes that I've taught, events I've attended. Those kinds of details are what we're talking about. Can you give us a few other examples of things that are really important like that on your profile?
Brian C Traichel (13:01)
Yeah, I think that one expired certifications, personal and professional, right? because when I when I go to these interviews, people will always tell me, I'm not that exciting. I haven't done much. And I said, I really don't believe that. because you've discounted it as a metric inside of your own. it's almost like a personal KPI. So.
For example, if I saw on your profile that you had been in insurance, I would ask you, well, did you have a health and life and casualty insurance license? Yeah, but it's expired. So it doesn't matter anymore. Well, that's very specific industry related knowledge and skills that can be transferred over and leveraged with clients and show them how this is a benefit of working with you. it's an indicator of you had the time to take these courses. You have...
information so you can speak better to their situation if it applies. So that's one, is it expired certifications? Just put it on your profile as expired. I was a notary, I'm not, but I understand the process. I had a real estate license, but I moved. I had a mortgage license, so all those things count. And then of course, to get a license or certification, you of course have to take courses, right? So did you take one course to get your real estate broker's license or 10 courses? Now,
I can list the 10 courses that I took on my LinkedIn profile as well as the certification. So I'm double, triple indexing the key wording, which runs on that LinkedIn algorithm that really is mystery to everybody. But the reality is the most keywords win. So if you can put information in specific sections and be redundant, it's okay because one, people are not necessarily reading, they're scrolling. They're looking.
and they'll lean in where they see something that interests them, but they're not going to read everything. And it's okay because with the 22 sections, you're moving things around. So it doesn't look as if it's just a constant repeat. But the more words and indexing to that, you can start to get better visibility because you're showing up more for subject matter or whatnot. even things like, I ask this one all the time, those are only certifications I have. say, have you ever, you own a motorcycle?
Yeah, yeah, or do you have a specific DMV designation on your license? yeah, I drive vans, passengers. Great, put it on your LinkedIn. Again, it just spits you out into different viewing algorithms for people to find you for those things. So it goes in, it pulls for those words. If you have that word, you'll get pulled into the search. Have you ever gone to Maui or the Caribbean and say, hey, let's get certified as a scuba open water,
Great, it's a certification. If you look at LinkedIn, what's funny is all the sections don't have instructions. It just says courses, certifications. Did it say professional certifications? We've just interpreted to say it must be business related only, right? Back to the martial arts, if you have a black belt, that's a certification. Took years of discipline, study, training.
pretty good metric to have for the right person to see that. Plus also if you're a job seeker, people can see your discipline, how you committed to a goal. So it does show personality and character traits about you. But we can go on and on in the various different types, but the reality is when it says courses, did it say college courses? Did it say, it just said give me the courses Dee that you've taken.
Is there an HR person that's gonna call you up and verify that you took these 50 courses? No. Obviously we wanna be honest and speak to that. But if you're a self-study person and you consume videos on LinkedIn learning, Udemy, Vimeo, those are courses. You can list those to show people. And then seminars, workshops you've attended. yes, I've been to that one. Great, that's an important detail. So when we get to education.
I always see, it just says education. And then people say college. Brian, I didn't graduate. And I said, well, that's not what it's asking. It's asking, did you attend college? Well, yeah, I took a few classes at Colorado State, but I didn't graduate. Didn't ask that. Put down that you went to Colorado State because you did. No one's asking you if you graduated or not. So people have a big fear about this.
I didn't finish my degree or I did this and then start stop, but you still did it. and there's always gonna be a level for comfort for each individual, but I do like to push it because it's all factual and true. So as long as you can speak to what's there and honest about it, put it on your profile because it's a talking point.
Dee Davis (17:45)
Yeah, absolutely. We have a tendency to talk ourselves out of things and talk ourselves into our very own corners that we've created. And I think, yes, it's that fear of maybe not being completely honest or giving an impression of something different than the reality. But the reality is, is we've achieved so much more. I did not realize
how much I done until you made me sit there and write it all down. And I'm a constant student. mean, honestly, for somebody like me to write down every course that I've ever taken, good Lord, I'd still be writing it down. You're gonna miss some stuff, but try to catch the big stuff, try to keep it updated. That's really the tough part is sitting down on a regular basis and going, I need to add that. I need to write that down. I need to put that in my LinkedIn profile.
Brian C Traichel (18:30)
Right.
Dee Davis (18:37)
In my view, there are four major sins when it comes to LinkedIn. Having no profile at all. Having an incomplete or sparse profile. An incorrect or outdated profile. And I can't tell you how many times I come across this when I'm talking with somebody with people that I've coached or even people that I'm just meeting, people that I work with.
Brian C Traichel (19:01)
Mm-hmm.
Dee Davis (19:02)
I'll pull them up on LinkedIn. That's what I do. It's the very first thing I do when I meet somebody is I go to their LinkedIn profile. It either doesn't exist. It's very incomplete and sparse and there's no activity at all, or it's just wrong. They don't even work there. They haven't worked at that company in 10 years and it still says that they work at company ABC. And then the last one is an absolutely no engagement profile. They've gone in and they've made a profile.
They've never commented on anything. They've never posted anything. They don't participate in anything. It doesn't look good. What is your opinion on these? And do you have any other sins to add?
Brian C Traichel (19:46)
Well, I mean, there's some smaller ones. Those are all good points, obviously. We can just go further on that. But one is having a custom URL. So when you're looking at your profile at the very top of your browser, you're going to see www.linkedin.com forward slash Dee. Davis. But then some people will have slash eight six four Y three Z. So that to me, when I see a URL with a link that's not customized,
you're missing an opportunity to really embed what you do. You could put in Dee Davis operations or real estate or whatever you want inside of that unique URL and it's clean. And then people who are doing job seeking when you have those numbers, those are numbers that LinkedIn gave you, like your own LinkedIn social security number, but it's not mandatory. You can edit that. So.
When I do see that, already know that they haven't really positioned themselves. And it tells me that they're not all in on LinkedIn just yet, if they haven't changed that. And again, it's probably just an oversight. You're not aware of it. But to other people who are on the platform, they take notice of that. So try to have a clean URL. Obviously, if you have a company, have a company page so you can have a logo. A lot of people will have blue, gray.
distinctions as far as the companies. When I see that, my first impression is that it's a small company or it's a one person shop. there's nothing wrong with that. But if you're trying to find your ideal client profile, and there's no logo, you're already giving people an impression that you're smaller than you could be. So it's about that perception again, eight and half seconds. So I'm only going to check a few boxes before I decide should I even accept that connection request.
when you're on LinkedIn and you've been on it for a long time, you may find that you have too many connections. Some people are like, need more connections. The reality is you don't. You need to go deeper with the people that you're connected to currently and find out who is already in my network that at some point we both thought it was a good idea to connect, but yet nothing ever happened, every day people are like, I need more leads, I need more opportunities. Great, you have them.
go into your LinkedIn, you have 3000 connections. How about have you spoken to all of those 3000 and then they have second degree introductions that they could make. No, but I'm buying more leads. I need more people to talk to. So I always try to do a pause and say, let's just go back up and go through your network and find out who is it you would like to speak to and how about this, Dee, do you think it's possible that anybody from your high school in your college alma mater or
the Navy is a CEO somewhere in the global landscape and is the ideal client profile that you're looking for that you could reach out to as a colleague rather than a prospect. And if you filter correctly, you'll be surprised that you start connecting the dots. Not only do they go to your high school, but they're the decision maker and you have 10 mutual connections. So, those are the things that I...
that people are missing because they're always looking for more and then they're afraid of accepting connection because they get spammed. There's a lot of spam, so don't send spam. If you're gonna connect, in your profile is great. If you know the person, maybe not put a note in there because they already know who you are. But if they don't have familiarity, don't pitch me in the connection request.
because it's called a connection request, right? And then there's a message afterwards. What people do is they combine the connection request with the follow-up message that comes off as I'm reaching out to you because I've identified you as someone that I could potentially sell to. So that's the biggest deadly sin on LinkedIn is to be pitching and noticing. And when people say, noticed your profile says blank.
What are you telling me? I already know that. I put my profile together, so you don't need to acknowledge that you noticed something about my profile. Just say something else, right? So with the say and spray mentality, you're going to start to see that if you're not already, that people aren't really being genuine in their connection requests. It's just a potential, and they just play in the numbers. And that's why LinkedIn has gotten a little bit,
bottlenecked Because you're trying to filter with so much time in the day important messages You're getting five to seven spam follow-up messages that are pushing down the things that actually require your attention Which is why you should go in every day and Reconcile so you don't miss an opportunity because there's not much time For response two three days at best to get back to somebody
it can go on and on and we guess we don't have six hours for the podcast but the reality is that there's a lot of a lot of things that I do but you do them very quickly but you have to decide how you want to use LinkedIn and Not stay in there all day. Just go in for what you need and then get out and then do your other day to day things Otherwise you will get pulled in but just make your comments maybe post check out a few groups send a few messages
and get out, but make sure that you're current with all of your inbox.
Dee Davis (24:57)
Yeah, it is social media. I mean, let's not make any mistake about that. It is social media. So the universe is out there. If you're active on LinkedIn or even if you're inactive on LinkedIn, you're gonna get those spammy people. It's pretty easy after a while to identify who those people are. Like you said, they're trying to sell you something before you've even connected or immediately following. That's a really great way to get me to unconnect you.
by the way, if, and if your profile starts with, help businesses, then don't even, ask to connect with me because the answer's going to be no. and you have to get very discerning about, curating who your audience is and who you're connected with. this is something that Brian taught me with, I was connected with people, tons of people that I never met, which was fine.
Brian C Traichel (25:34)
I mean.
Dee Davis (25:47)
except they were people that were not in my industry. if you start connecting with people overseas that you don't know and don't have an industry connection with all of a sudden you'll get tons of inquiries from people from that country to try to connect with you. And, it, it, can become a whole thing. It's okay to unconnect with somebody. It's also okay to say no.
Brian C Traichel (26:01)
and
You can remove it.
Exactly. And again, a lot of people are not waiting around for you to accept their connection request. You've been identified as a potential prospect. So we don't have to respond right away. You can ignore it altogether or just think about it later. Don't look at your inbound invitation as an inbox I need to clean out because there is gold hiding in there.
but don't just dismiss it without doing your full research, because I have had people where I've worked with them. I have 67 invitations here. I'm just gonna delete them all. go, wait, because if you think about what actually happened is you didn't do anything. This came inbound. They found you. So from a posture standpoint, they're asking you to join their network and you took no effort whatsoever. So the fact that they are interested in meeting with you, there's a reason behind that.
whether they do need your service, they want to collaborate, joint venture, or sell you something, that's irrelevant until you take the time to read and see where the dots connect. But to simply zero out your invitations because you don't want a notification is a bad practice. So when you're ready, take the time and accept or ignore, but don't just blanket delete, because I've had people about to hit the delete button. I said, wait, don't hit that button. Why? I go, because that person is your ideal client.
How do you know that? I can tell you it is. Let's click on their profile and dive deeper. And I started saying, this is what you're looking for, correct? Yes. Okay, they checked that box. They're in the same network. my gosh, this is a great client. go, exactly, and you were about to delete it and would have lost this opportunity. Where are they now? They go to each other's Thanksgivings now three years later. From the same person who was going to delete it because it was an annoyance or a hindrance because I didn't like seeing all that.
invitation notifications, right? So be very careful. the purpose is why you want to clean out your inbox. Same thing with your messages. Just take the time and sort very strategically.
Dee Davis (28:10)
Yeah, that's great advice. I actually had a meeting with somebody a couple, of days ago. We met through a mutual client and we've been connected on LinkedIn and kind of kept track of each other for a number of years now. long story why we ended up talking, but I said, you know what, we kind of do the same thing. We're in different parts of the country. I've got an overload of work right now. He's looking for something. said, let's get on a call and see if we can find a way to work together. And.
It's that LinkedIn connection that we've maintained all these years of keeping track of each other, occasionally saying, Hey, what's going on? I see this. You're working on this. That's really cool. You know, whatever. And we haven't actually talked to each other in a number of years, but we got on the phone and we have a follow-up phone call scheduled for next week because he's got some meetings and I've got some meetings and we're going to come back together. It really LinkedIn buddies are a thing. And it, I have.
Brian C Traichel (28:59)
Mm-hmm.
prize.
Dee Davis (29:06)
My favorite LinkedIn story so far is that there is a gal that I met on LinkedIn. would just, play in some of the same sandboxes. We know a lot of the same people. She has an expertise that's related to my industry and it's a topic that I really nerd out on and I love her content. And we just started engaging with each other's content a lot on LinkedIn. Fast forward a couple of years, I invited her to be a guest on the podcast.
Yes, I'm talking about you, Sharron Halpert. she was a guest on the podcast at a great episode on fire stopping. Well, I was in her hood as in close to the same state for business travel. She drove two hours to come and meet me when I was out there on a business trip and we got to meet for the very first time in person. Love it. Absolutely love it. That would have never happened without LinkedIn.
that's my favorite LinkedIn story so far. There's, are real people out there people just say, it's just too many people. And there's just a lot of, it's all sales. It's not, she's never tried to sell me a thing. I've never tried to sell her a thing. We just have a lot of common interests and a common industry. And, we have a friendship now. It's awesome.
Brian C Traichel (30:19)
That's amazing story and it happened and that could happen over and over again if you go deeper and the challenges that you said the word sales is that everyone is looking to sell where it was created to build a professional network, And I've always looked at semantics, It's a connection request. It's not a sales request. It's not a this request. It's called a connection. Why? You're looking to make a connection with someone that has a service that can benefit your community.
your network. So you have to build these bridges to find out if they're a fit for your culture, your mission, your vision, and all those things related to business and have someone when the time comes, right? So when I talk about marketing, marketing's function is awareness. So a lot of times we think we have to have a first meeting agenda and go into what do you do? How can I help you?
Sometimes you can just have a conversation and have just two colleagues talking with no agenda and move the needle that way because that's what you do a lot. The networking events, if you find someone who's interesting, and people know when you're there and you're desperate for business or you're just pushing and pitching, those aren't fun people to be around, right? But what would happen if you just said, okay, I'm gonna go into this meeting and just meet this person.
And every time I've done that, said, so what's next steps or what are we going to do? I said, whatever, that's up to you. said, I really just thought your background was interesting. Your professional opinion and insights were valuable to me. And I wanted to make that connection with you. And they go, okay, so there's nothing you want to sell. I said, not particularly. I go, the more you get to know me, maybe there's someone in your network that can use my services. We can talk about it, of course.
person actually did hire me, but I never even brought it up. I never talked about how I can help them. I just explained my expertise and it goes, you know, that makes sense. How much is it? Yeah, let's do it. Let's do that. So I think if you go for a longer term in your process and whether you're filtering and vetting, your network, it's a good idea just not to go and pitch with the PowerPoint or share this and that. So there's a lot of other things.
But it does work and how many people do you need to be working to hit your key metrics? People don't even know their myth their matrix when it comes to their numbers, so Depending on what you sell go to back to sales 101 how many calls does it take how many touch points to get on an appointment how many appointments and presentations and you know the challenge with LinkedIn and I'll stop at this is that When people see that they have this long list go. Oh, these are all great potential leads
They're not leads, they're opportunities. An opportunity is before a lead, which isn't talked about in sales because everyone's like, need the lead list. I would call it an opportunity list and if there's an interest, now we have a lead. But a lead isn't a lead until they connected with you. Just somebody who fits what you're looking for. And there's no one call close on LinkedIn. If you think that you're going to send me a connection request or anybody and then a message,
and then get a contract or a sale, I'd like to see your data on how many times this happened.
Dee Davis (33:31)
Well, you bring up great points as always. If you like what you're hearing, don't forget to boop the like button and share this episode with a friend. There's so much here that we've talked about on the podcast before. We've talked about personal branding. We've talked about sales and marketing. And I think you bring up a good point. I think the salesy people.
kind of wreck it for the rest of us. make the rest of us hesitant to engage because nobody wants to be sold on anything. And that's an excellent point. That is not what LinkedIn is about. LinkedIn is about networking. It's just a digital platform for networking. It expands our reach on an international level, which by the way, we had a guest on an episode just a few weeks ago, Angela Hucker from Australia.
I would have never met Angela had it not been for LinkedIn. She's a fantastic voice in the construction industry. got to get her point of view from around the globe. And that would have never happened without LinkedIn. And we have some other international guests coming up on the show as well. And 100 % of it is due to the networking that I do on LinkedIn. So
it's way more than a digital resume. It's way more than a sales platform. And I think looking at it like a digital resume is what a lot of people do. And they only want to pay attention to it when they're looking for a job. Maybe not even then I've had a few people that are looking for jobs and they contact me for a little bit of coaching. And the first thing I do is pull up their LinkedIn profile. And I'm like, man.
This is, you have some work to do here because this is the first thing an employer is going to do is pull up or even, maybe you're already working and somebody's interested in seeing if you want to change jobs and come work for them or come consult for them. Even worse, if you have an open to work banner on your LinkedIn profile and you don't check your messages, I know this happens.
because I've come across people that have an open to work profile and I happen to know of an opportunity and I'm like, look, I don't know you, but I know of an opportunity that you might be interested in and I send them a message, never get a response. That's another sin, I suppose.
Brian C Traichel (35:54)
Oh, absolutely, I do that on a daily basis. I've made introductions, people have come to me and said, Brian, I see you have some connections with this. I said, yeah, I'd make an introduction if you'd like. You're looking for work, they'll least give you a lay of the land and see if there's an opportunity. Make the introduction, no response. And then follow up with an email, hey, did you check your LinkedIn? They told me they wanna talk to you because, they're looking for work, never happened because...
they didn't take the time to check the message and that's the problem. And you'll find that after you finally decide to go into LinkedIn and you're gonna kick yourself because you're like, geez, it was right here and I missed it. Don't miss it. Spend 15 minutes a day, whether there's something of value or not, just make it a habit because it will be that one opportunity that you've been looking for and telling everyone this is what I'm doing, this is what, can someone help me out? And it's right there, but.
you decided LinkedIn wasn't important and that's okay, but don't blame anybody, but your daily time management and time blocking workflow because LinkedIn should be a priority if you're in the B2B, even to some degree B2C business. It's about speed and people want something, they want it now. And if you respond, you're already too late, even after a few days. So once in a while, you'll get a grace period.
where you can say, sorry, I missed it because I had so much spam, which is true and people will accept that, But you can't, you only get that get out of jail card so many times, right?
Dee Davis (37:28)
In season two, we had an episode called networking is not a dirty word. And in that episode, we talk about the hidden job market. The hidden job market is the unpublished jobs that are out there that are existing in your network that never hit.
the LinkedIn job board that never hit glass door, never hit any of those online profiles or any website anywhere. They exist internally in organizations and guess who knows about it? That's your connections on LinkedIn. That's your network. That is the people who work in these organizations or know somebody who works in these organizations. It is estimated that up to 70 % of jobs are never advertised anywhere.
So if you are a job seeker and you are spending all of your time applying for jobs that may or may not be ghost jobs out there on some job board, you're wasting most of your time. Your best opportunity already exists right here in the LinkedIn network, in the professional organization network, whatever your professional organizations you might belong to, you've got to go out there and talk to people.
because the likelihood of you landing your next job faster is doing that, not going to job boards and spending all your time filling out job board postings all day long. That has been proven over and over again in this digital age not to be the way to get a job. So go back into season two, take a listen to that episode.
And when you're listening to this episode, it all comes together for you. It's going to be awesome. It will save you tons and tons of time.
Brian C Traichel (39:17)
I think when it comes to the job seekers, are spending a lot of time. It is a full-time job to get a job. Applying is great, it's activity, but also catering your resume to each job description is a whole science to meeting that. Now we have AI and everyone has tracking systems and filters. That methodology is a numbers game, I get it, but wouldn't it be better to call someone who works there and ask them,
How has it been your experience working at XYZ Company? I'm thinking about coming out into the job market and it's on my list of companies I admire. Is it a good place? yeah, actually. We have a few positions coming up. They're not posted yet, like to your point. mean, if you have an interest, why don't you send me your resume and I can see about moving that along. So when you're in sales mode, you're still selling yourself to a company.
vice versa, recruiter, what have you, or they're selling to you to attract you as a talent to their company. But it doesn't just because you did 400 easy applies does not mean you're even getting seen. So that's where I came back to the high school in the armed forces and the college alumni and all the clubs. Look for those people who have a sphere of influence that you might be able to say,
I do know someone that might be worth talking to them. And you're to have to talk to quite a few people until you get to that final destination. But that's what networking is all about is out of the gate may not be the right person, but their introduction to three other people down the road becomes the ideal job that you are looking for.
Dee Davis (40:55)
And that's exactly how it works in consulting. I don't go apply for posted things when I'm looking for work. I contact my network and I talk to people. just landed a major contract that's going to keep me busy for a long time through somebody that I know. they tell two people and they tell two people and everybody knows everybody. And then pretty soon you've got a major opportunity that
was never written down or posted anywhere. I had zero competition for this project because I knew somebody and I talked to them. It was, that simple. And that is how it's really always been done before the digital age of online applications. That's how business has always been done. And here's the secret. I've had tons of people try to convince me that it has changed. No, it hasn't.
it's all different now. You can't walk in and apply to places. Yes, you can. You absolutely can. You can talk to people. You can walk in their front door. You can hand somebody your resume. You can network your way to an opportunity, whether it's a consulting opportunity or a regular job that is absolutely still how the majority of it works. That's not what you see and it's not what you hear. So you think that it doesn't work anymore, but it absolutely does.
In addition to your LinkedIn wizardry, you're also working on a new area of your business that helps people find their business brand voice. So we have talked about branding before on the cast. We've had branding experts come in and share their insights about personal branding, business branding. How does your new brand business voice work?
Brian C Traichel (42:40)
The brand voice is called the brand voice interview and it's not my IP or technology, but I was introduced to it early last year in February. And when I saw what was happening, I said, this is a really great product because if you're in marketing and you're going to go to market, you have to create your story, your image, your persona, your collateral. All of these things start to add up and a lot of marketing agencies
You know, there's a price is you know from five hundred to fifty thousand dollars depending on the scope or do I need a website? Do I need a landing page? So all those marketing conversations have dollar signs attached to them But I started looking at the process and what was actually happening is they have to understand you So Dee tell me who do you want to work with? Give me the demographics etceterea when I found the brand voice interview. It's a one-hour conversation that we have together. It's not a podcast. It's an internal
conversation that we record. And it goes into 15 different sections of the business building package, brand development, mission, vision, values, differentiators, competition, landscape, competitive landscape, origin story, et cetera, et cetera. And I conduct that in a one hour interview. And I asked those questions different ways. There's different order. but it's very free flowing and you're not buttoned up when you come here. So the less you prepare, the better that
the actual output is. So I'm getting your raw natural responses of how you tell people the answer to, what do you do for a living? How do you help people? Now you may say, well, my USP applies to every situation, but I can guarantee you that you don't say that at a wedding when someone asks you or a barbecue or a Superbowl party, that you have a different version, right? You have a different version in the networking space. You have a different version on the Zoom call.
You have a different version at the Chamber of Commerce or whatever. someone may have it across the board and tightened up, but it's not always applicable to each situation or context. So I want to flush out every way that you would communicate your service and value prop to me. Once that's done, I aggregate that entire conversation through an AI platform and it produces a blueprint. That blueprint has now captured your persona, your jargon, your language patterns, your ideal client profile.
So really any personality quirks, characteristics, things like that, that a chat GPT will not. People say, well, I can do that myself. Everybody can do a DIY Chat GPT, you can't interview yourself. You have blind spots you're asking a prompt to tell you who you are. So I'm gonna flush that out. So you can do it, but you won't get the same output. Now imagine if you,
had a blueprint and you prompted with your blueprint for output, whether it's social media content, whether it's building landing pages or anything associated in the marketing mix, it's not gonna sound like you. So if you compare a chat GPT versus one with a brand voice interview, it's more likely to say, think Dee wrote this, it sounds like her. But better yet, if you have a VA who's trying to capture your authentic brand voice,
They have a tool that they can use for building out that content and reference it as if you were writing it yourself. So you can multiply your brand voice with that blueprint. It's a very easy process. It's unlimited opportunities. And I think it's of high value that replaces in some places, startup companies that have to hire a CMO. You can literally be your own CMO in the beginning stages until you get the exact...
go-to-market strategies that you want. And the great thing is marketing companies love me because they don't have to spend the time to go through those questions. A lot of professionals have to do extra work to do their work. And every consultant I've talked to, I said, does it ever happen that you're trying to help somebody but they're missing pieces and that's not your lane or your wheelhouse, but you could do it? So people are calling me and say, I have a client, they're ready to go to market or they're ready to do this, but they're not ready for me.
Can you do the brand voice so I can take the output and work with them using their blueprint? So the tool becomes passed on to the consultant. It doesn't have to spend three to five hours to get them to that stage, and that costs money. So you are saving a lot of money and time, and the accuracy is very, very good. I've had great feedback, and I believe you've been through it yourself, Dee. So you could probably speak as well as what you thought, but thank you for bringing that up. So that's been a fun new edition.
because now it's helping me even fine tune more the LinkedIn process by prompting and using their voice. So I found it to be very valuable.
Dee Davis (47:30)
Well, and any of our recurring listeners are going to know that I am an AI skeptic, but Brian is a good friend and I trusted him when he told me, look, you're going to love the result. I promise. said, okay, let's do it. So we did, and we did a brand voice blueprint for the Yellowstone professional education part of the business. And it was kind of fun we went through the interview, which was.
You know, he asked some deep probing questions in lots of different ways and he knows me well enough that he could redirect me when I was going off the path there. And it was kind of fun to get the result. And he spent some time with me and my marketing team to teach us how to use it. And, you know, also with his LinkedIn.
if he does your LinkedIn profile, which he did do mine, he teaches me about my LinkedIn profile and how to use all those connections and how to get more information out of LinkedIn, all that stuff. He doesn't just do it for you and then hand you a product and go, okay, you're good. He teaches you about the product that he's done and helps you learn how to do better on your own as well. So that's one of the big benefits of going with Brian in,
going through your LinkedIn profile and going through your brand voice blueprint. As he doesn't just hand you a product, he spends time with you to teach you how to use it. He's always available for questions. I found it really fun and interesting. My team uses it to help write a lot of the marketing for Yellowstone. I think we did that maybe five or six months ago. And I can tell you that my team is, is better at writing in my voice now because of that, blueprint.
Brian C Traichel (49:13)
I appreciate that testimonial Thank you. And it really is a great product. I wouldn't be using it if I didn't believe in it and I really stand behind it. I didn't have it before, but it really has made the process better for people to get their head around. How do I want to position myself, especially in a world where people are judging your presence and visibility in eight and a half seconds? Right. It's a very slow one, though. Yeah.
Dee Davis (49:35)
Well, and my discomfort
with AI is all the bad AI out there, like the chat GPT and stuff like that. And I had a meeting yesterday with a fractional CMO ⁓ that we're probably going to be bringing on later this year. And we talked about
Brian C Traichel (49:45)
Bye.
Dee Davis (49:52)
My hesitance with AI because I said, listen, my inbox gets spammed all day long. My email inbox, my LinkedIn inbox, like all of it. I just get spammed all day long with stuff that is disingenuous. I can tell it was written by AI. I can tell they went and scraped the internet and it's terrible.
delete, delete, delete, delete. You're right. In less than eight seconds, I'm deciding, nope, nope, nope, nope, delete, delete. I'm not even reading it. ⁓ I don't want to be that person ever. I don't ever want my company and my brand to sound like a bot and to sound like some automated thing and my customers and my clients to think that we don't have time.
Brian C Traichel (50:21)
Mm-hmm.
Dee Davis (50:37)
to pay attention to their needs and answer their questions in a way that is helpful. Who hasn't been stuck in some chat bot loop where you're just like, my gosh, this stupid thing is not even getting it. It's not answering my question. It's just wasting my time. And then you get mad and you say, forget it. I'm not dealing with these people. I don't ever want to be that business. I don't ever want an AI bot answering my telephone, for example. I will answer my own phone.
for my own clients. I don't ever want to get so big. can't do that. that's my fear and my reservation with AI. I don't think it's coming to take our jobs for the most part, people. really don't. I don't think you can replace human beings. But what we can do is we can use it to help us be more consistent.
I would say that that's one of the problems that I've had as a business owner that I've had as just an individual human out there trying to engage and send a message is I feel like I always have to start from scratch when I'm going to go write something. And that's ridiculous. We shouldn't be doing that. We're reinventing the wheel every time where the brand voice blueprint can help us not start from scratch every time and be more consistent with our answers, which is the benefit that I see.
Brian C Traichel (51:57)
Exactly. And it's just a baseline. It's not going to produce exactly because it can't, but it could. But I don't rely on 100 % accuracy. So I do believe the human element has to come in and refine that initial prompt and collateral that you're creating or whatever the artifact is. But what's interesting too is that just like the LinkedIn profile, your brand voice is going to change. Right? So.
Because you did it in 2026, two years from now, you might want to say, has my business changed? Has my attitude changed? So you can still update the brand voice as long as you're prompting and saying, this is what's changed. We're eliminating this. We're going with that. So it's a constant evolution, just like your LinkedIn profile, which is why maybe even put in your calendar as a recurring event once a year, which is.
Review my profile at the minimum, maybe even once a quarter, but depending on how many new activities you're doing, but keep it fresh. And then, Recommendations is another thing that I look at.
Recommendations on LinkedIn, they're great to have. There is some work required to get people to write them because not everyone has good intentions, but not necessarily follow through. But what I find interesting is that most people, their last LinkedIn recommendation was in 2012. So what does that tell me? Are you still in the business? mean,
You haven't had any accolades in 14 years Try to have something fresh or at least 2026. And it doesn't have to be I worked with Dee. It could be your friend who gives you a character reference. I've known Dee my entire life. She's always been this, this and that. That's still a recommendation. But what I'm looking for is a date stamp, time date stamp that says this is relevant and current, not
15 years ago.
Dee Davis (53:48)
that's a very good point. And I bet you if I went and looked in my LinkedIn profile right now, I can't even remember the last time. I think maybe I got one a year or two ago, but most of mine are pretty aged I have sent many requests in LinkedIn to people asking and you're right. People don't do it. Do you have any advice for getting people to do that?
Brian C Traichel (54:12)
But it's not that they won't do it, they're not seeing it, because back to our initial conversation about managing your profile and your inbox and all that, it gets pushed down by the spam. So that recommendation is still there. The person probably doesn't know it's there, forgot about it. So what I do is I literally will just resend it. I will copy the initial message, because you can only send out one. And once it's outstanding, can't delete it, it just sits there. So in order to get top of mind,
Copy and paste the actual recommendation request that says, you know, Dee would like a recommendation and resend it again in LinkedIn and it'll still work.
Dee Davis (54:51)
just send it to them in a private message. Okay, yeah, because I've tried to do that. I've tried to go back and resend or delete it so that I could resend it and it won't let you. Once it's sent, that's it. You're done. So, okay, I will do that.
Brian C Traichel (54:54)
correct.
Right, or send
it, copy and paste it on email and say, hey, it's been a while. Maybe you haven't been on LinkedIn. I'm really trying to grow my presence. And for that, I'm looking to get more testimonials for more relevance and time. I had sent this a while back, but maybe it was missed. Would you mind sending it? And if you want, I'd be happy to help you. And here's my BrandVoice Blueprint that I wrote already.
and you can have your BrandVoice Blueprint write the recommendation for them to sign off on.
Dee Davis (55:36)
had somebody one time when I requested a recommendation after a project, they said, yeah, write it up and send it to me. Wow. That felt really uncomfortable. I'm like, write my own recommendation. That's pretty, I understand why they're making that request, but it felt very uncomfortable for me to write my own accolades, I guess you would say, and send it to somebody. But, yes, that might be what it takes to get it done.
Brian C Traichel (56:03)
Yeah,
I do have a formula, but that would be a trade secret that I won't reveal today, but I do have very high level ways to go after that initiative.
Dee Davis (56:14)
I bet you do. What is your advice for somebody that either has no LinkedIn profile or a very sparse one and needs to get it updated?
Brian C Traichel (56:23)
I think there is no option. It's either 100 % in or not be there. Maybe you don't even know they're there, but it really is hurting your professional brand, your image, your credibility.
even if it's not your platform, because it's so highly indexed and your first impression is all you get. And coming from a B2B standpoint, that's your only opportunity outside of your website to have that first business impression about the caliber of professional you are in the services and if it's just not there.
it's gonna work against you. So it's okay, build it out and people, as long as you have the major checks, we're not looking at your numbers, it's okay if your connection is not 20,000 people. But put a little effort into it. Would you leave the house not dressed up or make sure you're buttoned up?
when it comes to the profile and really pay attention to small details, because those are the things that matter. And whether even if it's a typo, and it could be a typo in mine, we're not perfect beings. But if I do see something on someone's profile, whether I know them or not, if I'm connected, I will reach out to them and say, just as a colleague and part of the community, FYI, the word real estate is spelled wrong, or it's in all caps, or something I will say, just so you know.
And they go really? Yeah, I'll fix it. It takes a minute, but if I noticed that other people might
Dee Davis (57:44)
Well, in this day and age.
Brian C Traichel (57:44)
And do you want a real estate attorney
doing your paperwork if they can't spell correctly, right?
Dee Davis (57:51)
Well, in
this day and age, there's no excuse for not spelling correctly. We have so many tools to help us. And believe me, I'm all about spelling things correctly, but I get stuck too. I mean, raise your hand if you've ever changed the word because you just can't spell it right in that very moment. You're like, wait a minute, is that E-I or I-E or is that an S-A? Like, my goodness, I'll just pick a different word. That's fine. Pick a different word, but spell it correctly. Spell check it if you're not sure.
You get that little squiggly red line underneath anything that it thinks isn't spelled correctly. So make sure you take the time. There's nothing worse as a job seeker than to have your resume. Digital or otherwise with spelling errors in it. That tells me, I don't care how many degrees you have. If you get out of college and you can't spell, I don't know. It's just an automatic black mark against you. And why do that to yourself? It's so easy to.
fix those kinds of problems in the digital world. ⁓ How can people best contact you, Brian?
Brian C Traichel (58:53)
Yeah.
Well, the best way to contact me is to reach out and say, saw you on Dee's podcast and would like to learn more or just get connected because I think we could both add value to each other's networks. So find me on LinkedIn, send me a connection request and put a message in there and I'm happy to connect. And otherwise, it shouldn't be hard to find. If you look around, you'll be able to contact me.
Dee Davis (59:19)
We'll make sure that we get a link to your LinkedIn profile in the show notes so people can just click on that and find you readily. Do you have any other closing thoughts for our listeners?
Brian C Traichel (59:28)
I actually have one last
parting gift. I don't know if I can put it in a chat for the audience, but I do have a LinkedIn assessment that you can use to give yourself a grade. if that's of value, I'd be happy to agree.
Dee Davis (59:47)
Okay, send that to me. Yeah,
send that to me and I will put that link in the show notes so that people can check that out.
Brian C Traichel (59:55)
Yeah, I just put together an assessment of what I would ask you if we were having a one-on-one Zoom call and I thought it would be very efficient to just give yourself a quiz and an assessment to find out where am I at? And it's not all bad, right? There's some positive things, even if you think your profile is not good, I'm not looking to focus on it, it's terrible. How can we make it better? So it'll tell you suggestions, what you can do. It's almost as if I'm consulting on a one-on-one.
But the assessment really does do that and that built about six months ago. So I'm pretty happy with the output of that. But yeah, it's free and I'll send you the link for that.
Dee Davis (1:00:31)
Nice. I will do that myself because even though I had Brian do my, my profile, I would say that was maybe two years ago that I had you do that. I bet you I'm still have holes and gaps and things that I've forgotten and things that I can do better on my profile. it's an, ongoing thing. it's not static. So whatever you've got going on, you do it. It's, perfect today.
Brian C Traichel (1:00:52)
Right.
Dee Davis (1:00:56)
Next month, next year, it's going to have some more holes and need some more tightening up. So it's an ongoing process. Brian's the perfect person to help you with your LinkedIn profile and your brand voice blueprint. So give him a call and connect with him. He is by the way, a master connector. Brian has introduced me.
to more people, I can't even tell you how many people he's introduced me to. And those people are master connectors and they've introduced me to more people. My network has grown substantially since I met Brian Traichel. Everybody knows who he is. It seems like I come across tons of people who just like, I know Brian, we go way back. So if you wanna get connected, he's the guy to connect with. Thanks so much for joining us, Brian.
Brian C Traichel (1:01:34)
Haha.
Brian C Traichel (1:01:45)
Thank you, Dee. It was really been fun.
Dee Davis (1:01:45)
And ⁓
all right, thanks everyone. We'll see you next time.
