EP374: LinkedIn: Your Personal Brand’s Secret Weapon With Joel Freund

1
00:00:00,570 –> 00:00:45,020
Stacy Jones: Welcome to marketing mistakes and how to avoid them. I’m Stacey Jones and I’m so happy to be here with you all today. And I want to give a very warm welcome to Joel Froyan. Joel is the founder and CEO of Fluex Media, a marketing agency with a focus on building personal brands for B, two B executives. As an entrepreneur, Joel currently manages some of the largest personal brands on LinkedIn, helping executives maximize their brand visibility and increase their sales leads. His dedication has earned him recognition in leading industry publications such as Forbes, Entrepreneur, PR, After Hours, and others. Today, Joel and I are going to be chatting about how you can leverage LinkedIn to grow your own personal brand. We’ll learn what works from Joel’s perspective, what should be avoided, and how some just miss the mark. Joel, welcome. So happy to have you here today.

2
00:00:45,390 –> 00:00:47,020
Joel Freund: I’m happy to be here.

3
00:00:47,790 –> 00:00:57,310
Stacy Jones: Well, what I always love doing is starting off, how did you get here today? What made you the master of LinkedIn personal branding.

4
00:00:58,530 –> 00:01:05,441
Speaker 3: So, first of all, we have to establish that I’m the master. I’m not so sure about it, but, yeah, it’s a long story.

5
00:01:05,576 –> 00:01:09,522
Joel Freund: When I was 18, I couldn’t find.

6
00:01:09,576 –> 00:01:11,938
Speaker 3: My own name in English, believe it or not.

7
00:01:12,104 –> 00:01:19,734
Joel Freund: And today, we are sort of in a business that we’re writing professionally for.

8
00:01:19,772 –> 00:01:22,502
Speaker 3: So many great brands out there.

9
00:01:22,556 –> 00:01:32,026
Joel Freund: So it’s been a long story, but in my previous position, I was the.

10
00:01:32,048 –> 00:01:45,370
Speaker 3: CEO of a technology company that was in the telecom space. It was a startup when I came in. And as a lot of technology startups.

11
00:01:45,450 –> 00:01:47,914
Joel Freund: Work, they raise a lot of capital.

12
00:01:47,962 –> 00:02:06,422
Speaker 3: When they get started. In our case, they spend it all on development. And when it came to getting the product to market, to say the least, it was very few marketing dollars left.

13
00:02:06,476 –> 00:02:08,598
Joel Freund: In the bank and we had to.

14
00:02:08,604 –> 00:02:11,590
Speaker 3: Figure out how to get this thing off the ground.

15
00:02:13,450 –> 00:02:24,394
Joel Freund: Without a very big marketing budget. So one of the tools that I tried was LinkedIn, and it’s been an.

16
00:02:24,432 –> 00:02:42,400
Speaker 3: Unbelievable, powerful tool that I did not expect, I did not see that coming. And it opened up doors for us. I was in almost every single state. I broke into industries that was impossible. It was considered impossible to break into.

17
00:02:44,690 –> 00:02:52,382
Joel Freund: And since then, it’s been an amazing journey. And later on, companies approached us like.

18
00:02:52,436 –> 00:03:03,830
Speaker 3: How do you do it? They see me on LinkedIn in what’s the secret? Can you teach us? Can you tell us? Can you help us? And this is how Fullx Media was founded.

19
00:03:04,890 –> 00:03:13,980
Stacy Jones: Well, that is a very good story. So when you’re working with a new partner, how do you get started?

20
00:03:15,630 –> 00:03:26,414
Speaker 3: So what we typically do, the first step is we take a real deep dive into understanding everything there is to understand about a business and about the.

21
00:03:26,452 –> 00:03:30,890
Joel Freund: Person and about the person behind the brand.

22
00:03:31,050 –> 00:03:34,766
Speaker 3: So this is a very interesting marketing.

23
00:03:34,798 –> 00:03:38,354
Joel Freund: Approach that in the last I would.

24
00:03:38,392 –> 00:03:50,134
Speaker 3: Say last like 15 years, this has become the new norm. It used to be that people would buy and people would get sold into.

25
00:03:50,172 –> 00:03:57,266
Joel Freund: A marketing story of a company corporation.

26
00:03:57,378 –> 00:03:58,700
Speaker 3: A success story.

27
00:03:59,230 –> 00:04:02,394
Joel Freund: Like, who knows the name of the.

28
00:04:02,432 –> 00:04:08,998
Speaker 3: CEO of GM or Chrysler or Ford?

29
00:04:09,174 –> 00:04:10,042
Joel Freund: Very few people.

30
00:04:10,096 –> 00:04:19,822
Speaker 3: Unless you are an historian or you know how to use Google and read Wikipedia pages. But most people who drive a Ford or a GM don’t know the name.

31
00:04:19,875 –> 00:04:23,120
Joel Freund: Of the founder or the CEO or whatever.

32
00:04:23,810 –> 00:04:43,874
Speaker 3: Who knows the name of the founder of People. I think everyone knows the name of the founder. Even the people who don’t know what Tesla is all about. They know the name of the founder and you get the point. In the last 1520 years, this has became very much the new way of doing marketing.

33
00:04:43,922 –> 00:04:48,474
Joel Freund: People like to understand the person behind the idea.

34
00:04:48,592 –> 00:05:17,554
Speaker 3: They don’t want to be sold on the corporate America dream. Professional story. The polished picture, the finished product. Give me the story give me the journey give me the struggle Give me what’s going on behind that company. How did it happen? What’s the story? And this is where personal branding comes in. People need to understand.

35
00:05:17,752 –> 00:05:25,380
Joel Freund: What is it that drives you? They want to connect in a meaningful way, human to human.

36
00:05:25,850 –> 00:05:29,942
Speaker 3: And the companies who do it well the companies who understand it and do it well.

37
00:05:29,996 –> 00:05:33,030
Joel Freund: Those are the companies who are extremely successful.

38
00:05:36,010 –> 00:05:54,574
Speaker 3: When we engage in business with anyone, any new company comes on board. The first thing is we take the time to not only understand the company every nuance and every detail, but we also take a deep dive into the founder, whoever that person is. Sometimes it’s the founder, sometimes it’s someone else in the company.

39
00:05:54,612 –> 00:05:58,286
Joel Freund: But there’s always a person behind in.

40
00:05:58,308 –> 00:06:06,994
Speaker 3: The background, sometimes even behind the scenes. It’s not always the person that is in the forefront, but sometimes it’s the.

41
00:06:07,032 –> 00:06:09,794
Joel Freund: Person behind the scenes who is the.

42
00:06:09,992 –> 00:06:17,414
Speaker 3: Driver, who is the person behind the brand. And we get to learn their story, understand everything there is to know about.

43
00:06:17,452 –> 00:06:21,222
Joel Freund: Them so we can take their story.

44
00:06:21,276 –> 00:06:25,240
Speaker 3: And share it with the world. That’s the essence of what we do.

45
00:06:25,930 –> 00:06:33,450
Stacy Jones: And so do you think I know you just said human to human, but do you think this applies to both B to B and B to C brands?

46
00:06:35,230 –> 00:06:42,640
Speaker 3: So, yes, I do think, and I do believe strongly that it applies to B. Two B and B to C. Obviously.

47
00:06:43,650 –> 00:06:47,198
Joel Freund: The higher the stakes are, the more important it is.

48
00:06:47,284 –> 00:06:53,206
Speaker 3: It’s one thing if I’m going to buy let’s say, for example, if I’m going to buy a piece of jewelry.

49
00:06:53,258 –> 00:06:58,606
Joel Freund: That cost $1015, most likely I don’t.

50
00:06:58,638 –> 00:07:00,546
Speaker 3: Really care who the manufacturer is.

51
00:07:00,568 –> 00:07:02,754
Joel Freund: I would just go on Amazon or.

52
00:07:02,792 –> 00:07:04,834
Speaker 3: On ebay and I would search for.

53
00:07:04,872 –> 00:07:08,262
Joel Freund: That item and I would just sort.

54
00:07:08,316 –> 00:07:24,186
Speaker 3: It lowest to highest price included shipping. And whoever comes up the cheapest price, I’ll just buy it. If it has good reviews, I don’t really care who’s the manufacturer, but if I’m looking for, let’s say for a.

55
00:07:24,208 –> 00:07:26,986
Joel Freund: Hip replacement surgeon, would you still go.

56
00:07:27,008 –> 00:07:29,862
Speaker 3: On Amazon and search lowest to highest?

57
00:07:29,926 –> 00:07:30,298
Joel Freund: No.

58
00:07:30,384 –> 00:07:37,600
Speaker 3: I need to know who is that surgeon? What’s their background? Where they’re coming from? What have they done in the past?

59
00:07:40,130 –> 00:07:41,342
Joel Freund: I need to get their trust.

60
00:07:41,396 –> 00:07:44,434
Speaker 3: I need to be able to trust that person that they know what they’re doing.

61
00:07:44,552 –> 00:07:50,642
Joel Freund: So the concept is, the higher the stakes, the more trust we’re looking for.

62
00:07:50,696 –> 00:07:53,710
Speaker 3: In order to engage in that transaction.

63
00:07:53,870 –> 00:07:59,426
Joel Freund: So, yeah, in the B to B space, typically we’re talking about, I’m trusting.

64
00:07:59,458 –> 00:08:11,100
Speaker 3: My business, I’m trusting the well being of it. It doesn’t matter what it is. But we have clients in software development, we have clients in all different industries. But in the B two B space.

65
00:08:11,470 –> 00:08:18,858
Joel Freund: Trust is a huge factor. It’s not just price, it’s not just quality of product.

66
00:08:19,024 –> 00:08:23,440
Speaker 3: Trust is a big deal. So, yeah, authority and trust and everything.

67
00:08:23,890 –> 00:08:27,280
Joel Freund: I need to know who is the person that I’m engaging with.

68
00:08:28,210 –> 00:08:55,480
Stacy Jones: Now, you used Elon Musk as an example earlier, and some for many, actually, he’s very polarizing. Right. And when you’re working with B, two B brands, my assumption is the goal with LinkedIn marketing is not to necessarily be polarizing, but to still be authentic and to get your message across while working, to still traverse the landscape of not hitting any minds along the way.

69
00:08:57,950 –> 00:09:02,154
Joel Freund: You are asking the billion dollar question.

70
00:09:02,352 –> 00:09:08,186
Speaker 3: And that is actually the question that most people have when we’re talking about.

71
00:09:08,208 –> 00:09:16,880
Joel Freund: Personal brand reality, is that it’s almost impossible to create a personal brand without.

72
00:09:18,930 –> 00:09:30,866
Speaker 3: How do I say it in a nice way, without offending someone. If you are going to stand for something, you’re probably offending someone. But let me tell you this, if.

73
00:09:30,888 –> 00:09:35,766
Joel Freund: You’Re not standing for anything, you’re not talking to anyone.

74
00:09:35,868 –> 00:09:37,474
Speaker 3: You’re not making a real impact.

75
00:09:37,522 –> 00:09:42,054
Joel Freund: So, yes, I’m not advocating for being.

76
00:09:42,092 –> 00:09:48,714
Speaker 3: Polarizing or engaging in politics or any of that stuff. If you look at my content on.

77
00:09:48,752 –> 00:09:51,900
Joel Freund: LinkedIn or any other platform.

78
00:09:53,630 –> 00:09:59,900
Speaker 3: I’m not engaged in political or polarizing conversations because.

79
00:10:00,350 –> 00:10:02,458
Joel Freund: To be honest, I don’t care about it.

80
00:10:02,624 –> 00:10:14,594
Speaker 3: It’s not my thing, and I don’t have a strong opinion either way. If you’re asking me about politics, I probably hate both sides of the aisle equally. I don’t want to offend anyone, but.

81
00:10:14,632 –> 00:10:16,882
Joel Freund: The reality is that’s not my thing.

82
00:10:16,936 –> 00:10:18,740
Speaker 3: So I’m not talking about it.

83
00:10:19,430 –> 00:10:24,386
Joel Freund: But you have to be able to stand for something in order to be.

84
00:10:24,408 –> 00:10:27,350
Speaker 3: Able to resonate with your audience.

85
00:10:27,690 –> 00:10:36,840
Joel Freund: So I don’t think it’s a good idea to hold back. I think you should speak your mind.

86
00:10:37,470 –> 00:10:42,182
Speaker 3: And even at the cause of alienating.

87
00:10:42,246 –> 00:10:45,402
Joel Freund: Some audiences, because this is the best.

88
00:10:45,456 –> 00:10:55,630
Speaker 3: Way how you can resonate with your audience. If you are going to try to satisfy everyone, you’re not talking to anyone, you might as well just give everyone.

89
00:10:55,700 –> 00:11:00,622
Joel Freund: Ice cream because you’re not selling anything to anyone.

90
00:11:00,676 –> 00:11:32,906
Speaker 3: You’re not resonating with anyone. You have to be able to stand for something. It’s a long topic. I don’t know if we can cover all of it today in this format, but it is a big topic and I think people in today’s day and age are very much afraid of speaking up and standing for something because of the cancel culture and everything. But the reality is those who have the courage to stand up for what they believe in, those are the people who make the big difference. Those are the people who resonate with.

91
00:11:32,928 –> 00:11:35,482
Joel Freund: Their audiences the most.

92
00:11:35,536 –> 00:11:40,874
Speaker 3: And it doesn’t matter whether it’s politics or business or anything.

93
00:11:40,992 –> 00:11:43,806
Joel Freund: Whatever your agenda is, you want to.

94
00:11:43,828 –> 00:11:53,674
Speaker 3: Make a difference, you have to stand for something. Go look around at both sides of the aisle. I can give you examples, but I think you don’t need my examples.

95
00:11:53,722 –> 00:11:57,330
Joel Freund: Just everyone knows what everyone will understand.

96
00:11:57,480 –> 00:12:07,320
Speaker 3: It doesn’t matter which side of the aisle you’re looking at on whichever topic you want touch. You’ll see the people who are unafraid to speak their minds. Those are the people who make the difference.

97
00:12:08,170 –> 00:12:24,810
Stacy Jones: It’s interesting with cancel culture because you will offend someone. But most cancel culture is revealing today that you’re not doing overtly long term harm to your brand because you’re not offending those who actually are appreciating what you’re saying. With some exceptions.

98
00:12:25,470 –> 00:12:54,546
Speaker 3: Exactly. Again, don’t be stupid. You don’t need to say some people. It’s very easy to get sucked into the social media phenomenon where all it matters to you is the fame and the likes and the comments and engagement. And then you’re just saying things just to offend everyone so you get more engagement. It’s very easy to fall into that trap. Never forget what your main objective is.

99
00:12:54,728 –> 00:12:58,998
Joel Freund: Never forget that. But yes, stand for something.

100
00:12:59,164 –> 00:13:04,182
Speaker 3: And that is going to if you are going to make an impact on.

101
00:13:04,236 –> 00:13:07,560
Joel Freund: Someone, you are also going to offend someone.

102
00:13:07,930 –> 00:13:17,020
Speaker 3: But if you know your audience, you know who you’re looking for, you know what you’re saying and you know what you stand for, that won’t be a problem.

103
00:13:18,430 –> 00:13:41,730
Stacy Jones: So let’s move back into you’re working with a client and you’re helping them determine what their personal brand actually is and they’ve come up and they’ve figured out who they are. What do you do at that point? How do you fully leverage LinkedIn? It’s more than just building a profile. It’s more than just posting on occasion. What is your strategy?

104
00:13:43,270 –> 00:13:56,742
Speaker 3: So the strategy is, number one, learning everything there is to know about the audience. In a way, having like an avatar of who is your ideal customer, who is that audience that you are talking to?

105
00:13:56,876 –> 00:14:00,966
Joel Freund: When you understand that perfectly, then you’re.

106
00:14:00,998 –> 00:14:13,600
Speaker 3: Not just putting out content. You can have great content with great engagement and not make a single sale. I know many of them. I have a lot of clients who come to me.

107
00:14:14,210 –> 00:14:17,886
Joel Freund: They have an amazing engagement ratio, but.

108
00:14:18,068 –> 00:14:22,234
Speaker 3: Sales is not happening. So you need to understand your client.

109
00:14:22,282 –> 00:14:26,194
Joel Freund: You need to understand how to connect with them.

110
00:14:26,232 –> 00:15:00,766
Speaker 3: And then once you understand them, then we build a strategy around that, building the authority, building the connection, building a relationship that your target audience should appreciate who you are and what you stand for, what you’re selling. And then eventually that leads to business. So it’s a comprehensive strategy, not only on content, but also on engagement. And it takes into account everything from.

111
00:15:00,948 –> 00:15:05,374
Joel Freund: Growing the following connections private messaging, taking.

112
00:15:05,412 –> 00:15:22,994
Speaker 3: Care of the private messages, the inbounds and the outbounds, and engaging with other people’s, content in your target, everything. It needs to be comprehensive. You cannot expect to go in to.

113
00:15:23,032 –> 00:15:26,660
Joel Freund: Walk into a community and just post.

114
00:15:27,110 –> 00:15:39,642
Speaker 3: Your own stuff and expect people to connect with you, engage with you. It’s almost like you’re walking into a I always use this example because this is the easiest to understand. Imagine you walk into a networking event.

115
00:15:39,776 –> 00:15:43,014
Joel Freund: And all you’re doing is you’re telling.

116
00:15:43,062 –> 00:15:44,860
Speaker 3: Everyone how great you are.

117
00:15:45,390 –> 00:15:48,746
Joel Freund: No one is interested. Everyone is there to do business, and.

118
00:15:48,768 –> 00:15:51,630
Speaker 3: Everyone is interested in themselves. They’re not interested in you.

119
00:15:51,780 –> 00:15:53,440
Joel Freund: No one is interested in me.

120
00:15:53,970 –> 00:16:05,326
Speaker 3: The way I get people interested in me is by me becoming interested in other people. I need to communicate with them. So I would spend more time listening.

121
00:16:05,358 –> 00:16:09,060
Joel Freund: To other people than having other people listen to me.

122
00:16:09,750 –> 00:16:19,606
Speaker 3: So 10% of the time is me talking, but 90% of the time is me listening to other people. And this is what you’re doing when.

123
00:16:19,628 –> 00:16:23,538
Joel Freund: You’Re engaging on the platform, you’re commenting.

124
00:16:23,554 –> 00:16:41,086
Speaker 3: On other people’s posts. You’re messaging other people, but not in a way like, here’s my product, I’m the best, I’m great. Buy from me. We’re all used to those private messages where everyone is pitching their product to us. We’re getting hundreds of those every day.

125
00:16:41,268 –> 00:16:46,880
Joel Freund: Stop. Become interested in other people. You’ll be amazed of what it’s going to do.

126
00:16:47,650 –> 00:16:49,914
Speaker 3: The most important book to understand LinkedIn.

127
00:16:49,962 –> 00:16:55,130
Joel Freund: Is it’s going to sound funny, it’s going to sound interesting, but read the.

128
00:16:55,140 –> 00:17:06,150
Speaker 3: Book how to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. I know LinkedIn didn’t exist when he wrote that book, but those principles is exactly what you should be doing on LinkedIn.

129
00:17:08,250 –> 00:17:25,339
Stacy Jones: And so what that means is not just doing a newsletter, not just doing social posts, more so going in, joining groups, looking at what’s showing up in your feed, commenting on those that you know, commenting on those that you don’t know. What else could someone be doing?

130
00:17:26,510 –> 00:17:38,110
Speaker 3: You want to be connecting with your target audience. Understand who is your client, who is your ideal client. Connect with them, but don’t just send a connection request.

131
00:17:39,090 –> 00:17:40,078
Joel Freund: Look them up.

132
00:17:40,164 –> 00:17:45,380
Speaker 3: Spend three minutes of your time, not more. I promise you, it doesn’t take more than three minutes.

133
00:17:46,550 –> 00:17:47,490
Joel Freund: Spend three minutes.

134
00:17:47,560 –> 00:17:50,254
Speaker 3: Look up their profile. Look what they do if they’ve posted.

135
00:17:50,302 –> 00:17:54,498
Joel Freund: Something in the past. Look it up. Try to understand them.

136
00:17:54,584 –> 00:17:59,542
Speaker 3: If they have a website, you can find it in literally 3 seconds. Google is going to give it to you.

137
00:17:59,676 –> 00:18:01,558
Joel Freund: Find it. Look it up.

138
00:18:01,644 –> 00:18:03,826
Speaker 3: Are they posting on other social platforms?

139
00:18:03,938 –> 00:18:04,534
Joel Freund: Find out.

140
00:18:04,572 –> 00:18:11,626
Speaker 3: It doesn’t take more than three minutes, literally, of our time to find out everything that’s available about the prospect that.

141
00:18:11,648 –> 00:18:13,226
Joel Freund: We’Re looking to engage with.

142
00:18:13,408 –> 00:18:16,454
Speaker 3: Spend that three minutes. And then when you send a connection.

143
00:18:16,582 –> 00:18:22,486
Joel Freund: Request, write a custom message. Customize it. It’s a human being.

144
00:18:22,528 –> 00:18:31,342
Speaker 3: This is not a plastic screen. People tend to forget it. They sit at a computer, they think it’s just a video game. It’s not.

145
00:18:31,476 –> 00:18:33,310
Joel Freund: Those are real people behind that.

146
00:18:33,460 –> 00:18:52,162
Speaker 3: Engage in a way that you would engage if you meet this person face to face, what would be the conversation? And it’s an unbelievable opportunity that we have so much information at our fingertips. It literally takes no effort, zero effort, to find out so much information about that prospect.

147
00:18:52,306 –> 00:18:53,320
Joel Freund: Use it.

148
00:18:53,930 –> 00:19:15,840
Speaker 3: I’m telling you. Ninety nine point nine percent of people who are on LinkedIn or any other social platform who are doing virtual outreach are not doing it. So it’s so easy to stand out because all you need to do is spend that minute or two or three, find out what you need to find out, and just message them and connect with them in a meaningful way.

149
00:19:16,450 –> 00:19:17,822
Joel Freund: It’s going to blow your mind.

150
00:19:17,876 –> 00:19:21,630
Speaker 3: What it’s going to do to your LinkedIn strategy?

151
00:19:22,870 –> 00:19:30,130
Stacy Jones: Is there any other suggestions that you have? Where are other ways that someone could improve their own presence on LinkedIn?

152
00:19:32,870 –> 00:19:38,174
Speaker 3: Content is a very strong way on how to present yourself to your audience.

153
00:19:38,222 –> 00:19:41,350
Joel Freund: In a very non threatening way.

154
00:19:41,500 –> 00:19:51,290
Speaker 3: Usually people are very turned off. Every time you approach someone, the first thing that comes to mind is, what does this person want from me?

155
00:19:51,360 –> 00:19:54,218
Joel Freund: What is he going to sell me? He wants something.

156
00:19:54,304 –> 00:19:56,938
Speaker 3: What’s his agenda? That’s the first thing that comes to mind.

157
00:19:57,024 –> 00:20:07,774
Joel Freund: And it’s a huge turn off. Content gives you the ability to present yourself in a way install in their.

158
00:20:07,812 –> 00:20:11,274
Speaker 3: Brains, in your prospect brains. In your prospect’s brains.

159
00:20:11,322 –> 00:20:15,178
Joel Freund: You can install information that you want.

160
00:20:15,204 –> 00:20:23,714
Speaker 3: Them to know about yourself before you even reach out to them the first time. And it’s a very natural way you’re putting it out in content.

161
00:20:23,912 –> 00:20:25,010
Joel Freund: It’s not direct.

162
00:20:25,160 –> 00:20:35,720
Speaker 3: You’re not pitching. You’re just letting them know. What is it that you want them to know about you? So when you get to talk to them face to face, they already have.

163
00:20:36,090 –> 00:20:39,100
Joel Freund: A preconceived notion of who you are.

164
00:20:39,870 –> 00:20:41,226
Speaker 3: What is it that you want them.

165
00:20:41,248 –> 00:20:43,946
Joel Freund: To know this is what you should.

166
00:20:43,968 –> 00:20:50,154
Speaker 3: Be sharing on LinkedIn. Share your story. Share how you got into what you.

167
00:20:50,192 –> 00:20:53,600
Joel Freund: Got into it, to whatever it is that you’re doing.

168
00:20:55,170 –> 00:21:01,120
Speaker 3: People are always telling me their biggest challenge is how to come up with ideas of content, how to do content.

169
00:21:03,270 –> 00:21:06,626
Joel Freund: Anyone who is in business, anyone who.

170
00:21:06,648 –> 00:21:11,090
Speaker 3: Is doing anything in business has so much to share.

171
00:21:11,240 –> 00:21:15,986
Joel Freund: You just need to look at your calendar, look at.

172
00:21:16,008 –> 00:21:38,042
Speaker 3: Your schedule, look at your to dos. There’s always something happening. Just share your journey. It might seem like it’s not interesting. It might be not interesting to you because you’re dealing with it every day. Most people don’t deal with what you’re dealing with. Most people don’t know what it’s like to be in the business that you are in.

173
00:21:38,096 –> 00:21:47,118
Joel Freund: They just don’t know it’s interesting. They want to know, have you ever watched a movie? Yeah.

174
00:21:47,204 –> 00:21:50,480
Speaker 3: Have you ever watched a behind the scenes movie? Like, how it’s made?

175
00:21:51,010 –> 00:22:03,300
Stacy Jones: Well, I will say, since my industry is in Hollywood, where I work with brands and put them in movies and TV shows, I have watched more movies, probably, than all of our listeners combined at this point.

176
00:22:03,670 –> 00:22:08,520
Speaker 3: Okay, so how do you like to watch the behind the scenes, the making of.

177
00:22:10,250 –> 00:22:39,280
Stacy Jones: Real life? To me? Yes, I am. And it’s interesting because it gives you the part of the access that most people don’t get to have. When we bring in clients to a production, when we’re shooting a movie or TV show and having their brand become part of that storyline, one of the first things that we typically try to do is get the client. On set because it’s way more interesting to them to be able to see that versus just the end product. Because they want to know the story of the making up.

178
00:22:39,810 –> 00:22:50,900
Speaker 3: Exactly. And it’s not only business, it’s just real life. Real life is people want to know.

179
00:22:51,270 –> 00:22:52,494
Joel Freund: They want to get a scoop.

180
00:22:52,542 –> 00:23:00,050
Speaker 3: They want to know what’s happening behind that finished product, that fancy screen, that beautiful scene.

181
00:23:00,210 –> 00:23:01,480
Joel Freund: What is it like?

182
00:23:05,290 –> 00:23:12,220
Speaker 3: What’s happening backstage? And this is what you can give them in your content. This is the best format of content.

183
00:23:12,590 –> 00:23:14,346
Joel Freund: Just share with them.

184
00:23:14,528 –> 00:23:46,050
Speaker 3: Everyone is so fancy. Everyone has access today. Like, I remember 20 years ago, when I was trying to put up my first website, I needed to spend a lot of money, a lot of skill. Today, everyone has a fancy website. It’s so easy to do it. Everyone is having a fancy phone system. You call in even if you have a one man shop, you’ll get those fancy recordings. For customer service, press one. For this, press two. Everyone is so fancy and everything is so professional. That doesn’t sell anymore.

185
00:23:46,210 –> 00:23:46,774
Joel Freund: Okay?

186
00:23:46,892 –> 00:23:52,146
Speaker 3: People want to know the real story behind it. They want to see behind the scenes.

187
00:23:52,258 –> 00:23:57,990
Joel Freund: And when you share content, you share authentic. Authentically.

188
00:23:58,570 –> 00:23:59,730
Speaker 3: Share your struggles.

189
00:23:59,810 –> 00:24:04,066
Joel Freund: Share the real story, share the imperfections.

190
00:24:04,258 –> 00:24:34,260
Speaker 3: What’s so interesting about seeing a behind the scenes movie? What’s so interesting about it? It’s interesting because the imperfections, the mistakes, the shots that did not work out, how many shots did it take to get it right? This is the real thing. This is what connects. If you want to connect the characters to the audience, there’s nothing like it. And you can do it in content so easy.

191
00:24:34,870 –> 00:24:36,582
Joel Freund: All you have to do is just.

192
00:24:36,636 –> 00:24:41,350
Speaker 3: Be willing to be vulnerable and open and share. That’s all you need to do.

193
00:24:41,500 –> 00:24:49,782
Joel Freund: And I’m telling you from experience, there’s nothing that sells like vulnerability.

194
00:24:49,926 –> 00:24:50,620
Speaker 3: Nothing.

195
00:24:51,310 –> 00:25:43,100
Stacy Jones: Now I will share. I do a weekly newsletter and the newsletters I write, where I share, where I’ve screwed up, where I’ve had setbacks, where I’ve had massive learning lessons. And I’ve been in this industry for 26 years. I’ve had a lot of screw ups over the years. I’ve made a lot of mistakes. And that’s what’s valuable about people working with me is I know how to have them not make the same mistakes. But it’s those messages that I have where I get the highest engagement, the highest feedback, the comments of I can’t believe you shared that story. I had the same thing happening. And you start relating on a different level versus just saying here it is in my pristineness of perfection. Because no one is perfect and people want to know how they can basically avoid screwing up. Which is why this podcast is called Marketing Mistakes and how to avoid them.

196
00:25:43,710 –> 00:25:50,162
Speaker 3: That is so true what you just said. This is if people ask me all the time, like what is the secret?

197
00:25:50,246 –> 00:25:52,000
Joel Freund: Like best content.

198
00:25:52,370 –> 00:25:54,670
Speaker 3: What is the secret? What you just said.

199
00:25:54,820 –> 00:25:55,950
Joel Freund: That is it.

200
00:25:56,100 –> 00:26:00,320
Speaker 3: That is content. That is it. Nothing else.

201
00:26:01,650 –> 00:26:04,774
Joel Freund: Because after all, we’re human beings.

202
00:26:04,842 –> 00:26:16,114
Speaker 3: No one is perfect. And when you are portraying a perfect picture, when you’re saying you’re flawless, when you’re just showing up as the perfect company, you know what you’re telling everyone else?

203
00:26:16,232 –> 00:26:18,850
Joel Freund: You’re telling them that they are inferior.

204
00:26:18,930 –> 00:26:34,214
Speaker 3: You’re telling them that they’re not good enough. You make them feel like this person will never understand me. They’ll judge me or whatever it is when you’re showing up, the real thing, no, we’re all screwing up, we’re all making mistakes.

205
00:26:34,342 –> 00:26:35,670
Joel Freund: We’re human beings.

206
00:26:35,750 –> 00:26:44,270
Speaker 3: And now the audience feels like, okay, this is someone that is going to understand me. This is someone I can trust. This is someone who’s not going to judge me.

207
00:26:44,420 –> 00:26:45,738
Joel Freund: I feel a connection.

208
00:26:45,834 –> 00:26:48,160
Speaker 3: This is someone I can engage in business with.

209
00:26:49,330 –> 00:27:02,660
Stacy Jones: So how do you take this from your writing on LinkedIn, your video on LinkedIn and really construct this into a story that’s ongoing with an actual plan in?

210
00:27:05,510 –> 00:27:16,082
Speaker 3: So the first step is getting a deep dive and understanding everything there is to know. And it’s not only about understanding the business and the person, but it’s also understanding their voice.

211
00:27:16,146 –> 00:27:18,906
Joel Freund: We’re taking their voice the way they.

212
00:27:18,928 –> 00:27:25,754
Speaker 3: Would write, the way they would speak, their expressions, words they use, words they.

213
00:27:25,792 –> 00:27:28,970
Joel Freund: Don’T use, the vocabulary, everything.

214
00:27:29,040 –> 00:27:31,294
Speaker 3: That all the nuances to be able.

215
00:27:31,332 –> 00:27:34,474
Joel Freund: To properly present a personal brand.

216
00:27:34,522 –> 00:27:42,782
Speaker 3: So remember, it’s one thing to present a company, but presenting a human being, presenting a personal brand is a whole new level.

217
00:27:42,916 –> 00:27:46,590
Joel Freund: So we need to be able to do that properly.

218
00:27:46,670 –> 00:27:48,798
Speaker 3: So first of all, we build out the foundation.

219
00:27:48,894 –> 00:27:55,430
Joel Freund: Once we have that, we start we’re doing a weekly content call, that is.

220
00:27:55,500 –> 00:27:57,254
Speaker 3: We get on a weekly phone call.

221
00:27:57,292 –> 00:28:00,360
Joel Freund: Which takes about 30 minutes, where.

222
00:28:02,970 –> 00:28:22,480
Speaker 3: The client doesn’t even know what we’re looking for. We have the strategy, we know exactly which pieces of content we need according to the strategy. And then we will just have a conversation, just like we’re having right now. We’re asking the questions and we allow the prospect, the client to speak.

223
00:28:22,850 –> 00:28:24,414
Joel Freund: We let them talk.

224
00:28:24,612 –> 00:28:43,026
Speaker 3: They don’t even know what we’re looking for. But through the conversation, throughout the conversation, by having this conversation, we pick their brain and we get out what we need in terms of content. And then we use their own words and we turn that into whatever we.

225
00:28:43,048 –> 00:28:48,040
Joel Freund: Need to turn into, but whatever.

226
00:28:48,570 –> 00:29:02,394
Speaker 3: And it’s always their voice, their content. It’s not just ghost writing. It’s one thing to be a ghostwriter, look up and research and write, but this is taking personal branding to a whole new level. The person doesn’t need to think about content.

227
00:29:02,592 –> 00:29:04,474
Joel Freund: The person doesn’t need to come up.

228
00:29:04,512 –> 00:29:25,940
Speaker 3: With ideas of what to post or how to post or we’re doing it all. And it’s all their own words, their own language, their own insights, their own information. When they read back, we have an approval process. They have to read the post and approve it before we put it out.

229
00:29:26,630 –> 00:29:28,786
Joel Freund: When they read it and they look.

230
00:29:28,808 –> 00:29:53,660
Speaker 3: At it’s like we had a client express it’s an interesting expression, but he said this is creepy. I’m reading it and it sounds to me like I’ve written it, but I didn’t. This is me. Like how did you got into my brain to be able to write the way I write? This is how far we take it.

231
00:29:54,910 –> 00:29:56,874
Joel Freund: So this is the content piece.

232
00:29:57,072 –> 00:30:29,350
Stacy Jones: I don’t know if you use Chat GPT or any other AI, but I’ve written so much, just a ridiculous amount of content on our blogs. We have over one 6000 hundred on our agency. And I’ve done a lot of interviews with Press, but it’s gotten to the point where I can literally go into a chat GPT scenario and say, write in the voice of Stacy Jones of Hollywood branded. And it will. Write and I’ll give its topic and it will write something and I will say I have a hard time telling if I wrote it or if Chat wrote it. So the fact that you guys can do that as well is fantastic.

233
00:30:29,850 –> 00:30:32,598
Speaker 3: So I imagine that at a certain.

234
00:30:32,684 –> 00:30:35,800
Joel Freund: Point, AI will be.

235
00:30:38,170 –> 00:30:49,386
Speaker 3: I think someone is going to develop it, but if not, I think we will do it eventually. Develop a tool through Chat GPT where we can plug in the data points.

236
00:30:49,488 –> 00:30:52,362
Joel Freund: From our voice guide for the client.

237
00:30:52,426 –> 00:30:54,446
Speaker 3: And then the Chat GPT will be.

238
00:30:54,468 –> 00:31:03,806
Joel Freund: Able to create posts in that specific language, because, after all, we have a.

239
00:31:03,828 –> 00:31:14,098
Speaker 3: Very detailed voice guide. And I wish there would be a tool where I can just plug it in. Yeah, famous voices out there. When you have enough data on the.

240
00:31:14,104 –> 00:31:17,202
Joel Freund: Internet from a certain character yes.

241
00:31:17,256 –> 00:31:21,714
Speaker 3: Then Chat GPT has a lot to base it on. But we’re working most of our clients.

242
00:31:21,762 –> 00:31:24,726
Joel Freund: Are not famous people, not people that.

243
00:31:24,748 –> 00:31:28,120
Speaker 3: Have a lot of content out there and we have to create it from.

244
00:31:29,930 –> 00:31:32,246
Joel Freund: Yeah, I hope someone will do it.

245
00:31:32,268 –> 00:31:35,418
Speaker 3: One day, and if not, maybe perhaps we’ll do it.

246
00:31:35,584 –> 00:31:39,386
Stacy Jones: If you do it, I think a lot of people will sign up for it. So that would be something that would.

247
00:31:39,408 –> 00:31:46,510
Speaker 3: Be very but I suspect that someone, or maybe multiple people already working on something like that.

248
00:31:46,660 –> 00:31:48,400
Stacy Jones: Yes, that is better.

249
00:31:48,770 –> 00:31:56,100
Speaker 3: There is a clear science to it. That’s all I can tell you. There is a science to it and.

250
00:31:58,390 –> 00:32:02,980
Joel Freund: There’S nothing creative about it. It’s very simple.

251
00:32:03,430 –> 00:32:10,550
Speaker 3: There are many courses on the topic. It’s not so hard to create a voice guide.

252
00:32:11,370 –> 00:32:18,070
Stacy Jones: So how can our listeners reach out to you? Where can they find you? And I bet you’re going to say LinkedIn is one of those platforms.

253
00:32:18,510 –> 00:32:36,350
Speaker 3: Yeah, LinkedIn is going to be the easiest way to get in touch. Joel Freund. It’s on LinkedIn. You can message me or our website, Fluxmedia.com. That’s the easy way to get in touch. And I have a special offer to all your listeners.

254
00:32:39,010 –> 00:32:40,320
Joel Freund: We spoke about.

255
00:32:42,050 –> 00:33:06,290
Speaker 3: What is the right way to send a connection request. And a lot of people have this question, like, how do you do it? Right, I just said spend three minutes to research, but really, how do you do it? I’ve recorded short video, like a 50 minutes video, where I show you step by step how we do it in LinkedIn and influex how we do it for clients.

256
00:33:06,450 –> 00:33:07,794
Joel Freund: Everyone can do it.

257
00:33:07,932 –> 00:33:11,994
Speaker 3: Again, nothing we do is rocket science. Everyone can do it.

258
00:33:12,112 –> 00:33:13,660
Joel Freund: I have this video that.

259
00:33:15,550 –> 00:33:28,142
Speaker 3: I want people to learn how to engage in a meaningful way in a virtual world. And anyone I’m giving it away for free. Anyone who wants it can just email.

260
00:33:28,196 –> 00:33:30,654
Joel Freund: Us or message me on LinkedIn or.

261
00:33:30,692 –> 00:33:37,860
Speaker 3: On the website or just email us at [email protected] and I’ll be happy to send you that training.

262
00:33:38,550 –> 00:33:43,886
Stacy Jones: I too look forward to watching that training because I am sure we can improve massively.

263
00:33:43,998 –> 00:33:45,540
Speaker 3: Your insights amazing.

264
00:33:46,630 –> 00:33:54,630
Stacy Jones: Well, Joel, thank you so much. For joining us today. I learned a lot. I know our listeners learned as well. Really appreciate your time and thoughts.

265
00:33:55,210 –> 00:33:57,270
Speaker 3: Thank you so much. It’s been a pleasure.

266
00:33:57,930 –> 00:34:29,020
Stacy Jones: And to all of our listeners, thank you for tuning in to another episode of Marketing Mistakes and how to avoid them. I am sure you learned a lot because I did. I look forward to chatting with you this next week. And until then, if you have any questions about how to leverage your brand through third person content, whether that be a movie, a TV show, a podcast, a music video, an influencer or celebrity, keep Hollywood branded in mind, reach out. I’m happy to connect with you or with our team. Have a great one.