Edition 11: Do What You Love and You'll Work Every Day of Your Life
There's a certain motivational poster quote that rubs me the wrong way. Also there's a big difference between developing a personality and being personal.
“Do what you love and you’ll never work another day in your life!” 💩
The Hallmark-greeting-card-ready quote you see above makes me cringe. As does the cat hanging on the branch telling us to hang in there. So I found something more appropriate for the occasion.
The quote is a beautiful example of toxic positivity.
And by beautiful, I mean horrible.
Toxic Positivity and Perpetual Perkiness are Close Relatives
Toxic positivity and perpetual perkiness are close relatives. They remind me of one another. People who are always positive and expect the same of you - context notwithstanding - tend to be the same people that are perpetually perky.
The type that seems shot straight out of the cannon as if they’re three cups of coffee deep at 8 am even if they haven’t drunk a drop.
Some toxically positive, perpetually perky person probably wrote the “never work a day in your life” quote at their desk in the quote factory.
I know I talked about this last week but I had to drive the point home.
Sue me. 🤣
Feel Free To Draw a Line Between Building a Personality and Being Personal On Linkedin
On LinkedIn, there's a difference between building a personality and being personal. Your comfort zone may be stretched but you don't have to abandon your values in the process.
To build a personality on LinkedIn:
* You need to know what you stand for.
* You need to take a stand for what you believe in.
* You need to have opinions about what you believe in.
* You need to sound like you sound. People know when it's fake.
(I say y'all 10K times per day, so I say y'all in my posts, for example)
* You need to be selfless and not expect reciprocity (even though it'll come in time the more you provide your community)
You need to build a personality, but you don't have to be personal:
* You don't have to talk about your personal life.
* You don't have to talk about that time you narrowly escaped death (sorry, guilty of this one in the past /cringe emoji)
* You don't have to share pictures of your dogs and cats.
* You don't have to give people more of a peek behind the curtain than you want to give them.
Build a personality. Be yourself.
Protect the private. No one expects anything less.
Please Use the Hard Sell in Your Content Sparingly, Y’all
There's a huge formatting mistake I'm seeing on some posts on LinkedIn. It includes a marketing element that's important. But that element's being misplaced far too often. With a simple shift in format, it could make a big difference for you.
Way too many people are hard selling their services, products, and offerings directly in the body of their content, without first providing value that would lead you to pay attention to what they're selling.
If people were engaged with your content up to the point of that hard sell, guess what? They won't be anymore when they hit your hard sell.
Food for thought:
1. Provide some free information that's valuable for your ideal client in the body of your post.
2. Do NOT sell your services directly in the body of the content.
2. Do a light sell after, and only after, your content is complete.
Ideally, this should be in the first comment following your content so it's not a part of what you're sharing initially. If the person interested in what you shared wants to learn more, they'll visit the comments.
I've been tracking how links I share in comments perform for months, now, and it tracks. There's a "funnel" here like any other type of content. If you hard sell in the body of your content you're cutting off your nose to spite your face.
That said, there’s nothing wrong with occasionally doing a straight-up promotional post. I’d recommend you don’t do it more often than one in every ten though. And use a disclaimer upfront that it’s what you’re doing. It breaks the ice and encourages people to go ahead and read.
The First Episode of the Solopreneur Spotlight Series Was… Well.. Interesting
Due to my apparent lack of understanding of technology, Episode 1 of the Solopreneur Spotlight Series got off to a rough start, but luckily I recovered enough to get something out there anyhow. 🤣
I had a fantastic conversation with Jason Nelson and am very appreciative of the crew of folks that joined us live, including:
Daniel Kading, Juma Bannister, Denise Lee, Yiz Segall, Michelle Griffin, Dean Bellingham, Shawn Crowe, Steven Arthur George, Dana Newell, and Melvin Hall.
Y’all are the best!
I can’t wait to chat with Kristi Mitchell on Episode No. 2 next Wednesday, July 14th at 11 am CST.
Click on the button below to register for the event and get a reminder when we go live!
Need Help Taking Your LinkedIn Game to the Next Level? I Can Help.
As a solopreneur, small business owner, or executive coach, time is the most valuable commodity. There's a constant evolution in the priority of the work to be done.
Content creation isn't a priority for one of several reasons.
You're experiencing one of these four mindsets:
1. I try to create content, but it doesn't "sound" like me.
2. Other people make content seem easy. It's not easy for me.
3. My connections find ideas with no problem and create constantly.
4. I don't have time to dedicate to content. It's probably something I should be doing, but where is the time?
You haven't created content - or stayed consistent with it - because it's on the back-burner due to all of the other hats you're wearing.
Or, you're stuck in analysis paralysis.
Or flat-out annoyed other people make it easy.
If this is gnawing away at you, we understand.
The good news is:
There's a solution.
Through Zanate Ventures, I provide custom-tailored coaching, batch content creation, done with you and done for you content strategy & ghostwriting services for solopreneurs, executive coaches, and small business owners.
Curious how I work?
Til next week:
Avoid the perpetually perky and toxically positive, y’all.
It’s important to build a personality as you’re building a brand, but that personality only has to be as personal as you want it to be.
Please use the hard sell in your content sparingly. Build content that builds trust, then sell me what you do every now and then. People will want to know what you do if they trust you. They do not care what you do if you never built trust.
Also, I’d LOVE to hear your feedback about Content Notes!
Like the GIFs? Think they’re annoying as hell?
Taking any value out of the content?
Too afraid to unsubscribe even though you hate it?
Hit me up at kris@krishughes.com and let me know.
I want to make this what y’all want it to be so we all have a good time with it!
Happy Weekend!