The Exact LinkedIn Strategy That Grew 50K Followers in 12 Months, with Mischa Collins

Summary

Podcast Summary: Built In Public – "The Exact LinkedIn Strategy That Grew 50K Followers in 12 Months"

Host: Courtney Johnson
Guest: Misha Collins
Date: March 24, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this episode of Built in Public, host Courtney Johnson is joined by LinkedIn strategist Misha Collins, who shares the exact approach that took her LinkedIn following from zero to over 50,000 in just 12 months. The conversation digs into the nitty-gritty of building authority, clarity, and opportunity through LinkedIn without resorting to superficial hacks. Misha opens up about her post-layoff journey, the deeper mindset behind building in public, and the strategic frame that turns content into enduring leverage. Courtney and Misha also riff on overcoming self-promotion “cringe,” the real opportunities available on LinkedIn, avoiding AI “slop,” and actionable steps for newcomers.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Starting the LinkedIn Journey—From Layoff to Opportunity

• Misha’s Pivot Post-Layoff:

  • Misha candidly never intended to be an entrepreneur. After being laid off from a small startup despite heavy investment in the company ([05:55]), she realized the fragility of depending on employers and decided to build something for herself.
  • Quote:
    Misha Collins (07:13): "When that happened, I just, I kind of had this feeling of I, I don't want that to ever happen again... I can build my own. And that's when I started building my personal brand. I think from a desire of really just wanting to have something that was mine, which no one else could take away from me."

• Transition to Full-Time:

  • She eased into entrepreneurship, freelancing and working part-time for a marketing agency before going all in ([08:07]).

2. Overcoming Personal Branding “Cringe”

• Cultural Barriers and Vulnerability:

  • As a Brit, Misha struggled with self-promotion and vulnerability ([10:06]). Friends teased her at first, but over time those same people sought her advice. Her advice: “disassociate” and treat initial discomfort as temporary.
  • Quote:
    Misha Collins (11:20): "You've almost got to just kind of treat it like an out of body experience... Eventually it will become second nature and it will become habit."

• Content Without Self-Focus:

  • Misha and Courtney discuss starting with curation or analysis of others’ successes to ease into publishing ([12:08]).

3. Why LinkedIn? Unique Leverage in the Creator Economy

• Lower Barrier, Professional Context:
  • LinkedIn’s audience made it easier for Misha to break through, compared to the saturated environments of Instagram and TikTok ([15:35]).
    "On LinkedIn, you're competing with CEOs that like suck at post." — Courtney Johnson ([00:07], [15:35])
  • LinkedIn has become relevant even for “non-traditional” industries (tarot, personal styling, yoga mats) due to its broad business demographic ([18:03]).

4. What Actually Drives Growth—Strategy Over Volume

• Not Just “Post More”—The Strategy First Approach:

  • Posting consistently without strategy did little for Misha; it was only when she set intentional goals and alignment that growth kicked in ([21:22]).
  • Quote:
    Misha Collins (21:22): "If you are going to put the time, effort and energy into posting on LinkedIn, then you want to be doing it successfully and you want to be setting yourself up for success. So I always say that you've got to lead with strategy."
  • Defining your mission—the honest, personal “why”—is foundational ([23:47]).

• Profile Optimization and Gentle Entry:

  • Before posting, optimize your profile and start by commenting or connecting—small, actionable starts matter ([24:18], [24:54]).

5. Making Content Creation Easier, Not Harder

• Remove Decision Fatigue:
  • “Pick 3–4 content pillars and rotate through them” — this removes the friction of daily idea generation ([54:37]).
  • Use lived experience and recent stories for authenticity and engagement ([56:16]).

6. AI as a Tool, Not a Replacement

• Avoiding AI “Slop”:
  • Use AI (like Stanley.ai) for ideation and first drafts, but always inject your own voice.
    "You always need to be injecting like your special source or your personality into the post." — Misha ([41:00])
  • Read posts aloud and tweak to match your natural tone ([43:11]).

7. The Power of Engagement—Comments and Networking

• Strategic Engagement Beats Passive Posting:
  • Comments and DMs extend your reach much further than posts alone. Regularly engaging with a core group boosts visibility and builds relationships ([43:49]).
  • Quote:
    Misha Collins (43:49): "Engagement is as important as posting. It kind of is almost more important because you've got more opportunities to be seen with engagement."
• Compliment, Connect, and Collaborate:
  • Strategic networking opens doors—many career-defining opportunities came to Misha through inbound DMs, not outbound pitching ([28:17], [47:01]).

8. Normalization and Leveling Up Through Community

• Surround Yourself with Aspirational Peers:
  • LinkedIn makes it possible to connect with and befriend aspirational people—those whose “normal” helps expand your sense of what's possible ([31:03], [32:28]).

9. Repetition and Lurkers—Don’t Fear Posting the Same Ideas

• Consistency Builds Brand:
  • Most dissuaded by fear of repetition, but it’s repetition that builds recognizability and reach ([35:08]).
  • Most impressions come from “lurkers” who don’t engage, so don’t be discouraged by low engagement ([37:34]).

10. Tactical Tips & Notable Moments

• Start slow: comment, connect before heavy posting ([24:54]).
• Don’t get discouraged by low numbers, especially in non-marketing industries ([38:23]).
• Outbound DMs work for gigs, jobs, partnerships—even when “unqualified” ([52:28]).
• "Networking doesn't have to be this dumb...You can literally just be like, 'Hey, Misha, how can I help you?'..." — Courtney ([50:01])
• Strategic (and humorous) “problematic tip” for early engagement: accept connection requests from enthusiastic commenters for algorithm boosts ([53:25]).

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Memorable Quotes & Timestamps

• On Visibility & Ownership:
  "I don't want to build something for someone else...I wanted to have something that was mine, which no one else could take away from me."
  — Misha Collins ([07:13])

• On Self-Promotion:
  "It's always cringe until it isn't."
  — Misha Collins ([11:20])

• On AI Content:
  "You want to be using AI to help create the content, but you always need to be injecting like your special source or your personality into the post."
  — Misha Collins ([41:00])

• On Engagement:
  "Engagement is as important as posting. It kind of is almost more important..."
  — Misha Collins ([43:49])

• On Community’s Power:
  "The people that you get to surround yourself with...almost like level you up. Because their normal is like the thing that you're dreaming about."
  — Courtney Johnson ([31:04])

• On Not Overthinking Repetition:
  "People can't remember what they had for dinner last night. They do not remember what your LinkedIn post was a month ago."
  — Misha Collins ([35:08])

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Important Timestamps

• [05:55] — Misha’s accidental jump to entrepreneurship
• [10:06] — Navigating personal branding cringe as a Brit
• [15:35] — Why LinkedIn’s barrier to entry is uniquely low
• [18:03] — Unusual industries winning on LinkedIn
• [21:22] — Strategy vs. “just posting”
• [23:47] — The essential role of mission in strategy
• [28:17] — Examples of inbound opportunities from LinkedIn
• [31:03, 32:28] — Leveling up through LinkedIn connections
• [35:08, 37:34] — Don’t overthink repetition; most people lurking
• [41:00, 43:11] — How to use AI without losing your unique voice
• [43:49] — Why engagement is core to reach and opportunity
• [47:01] — The inevitability of opportunities via daily outreach
• [50:01] — Networking tips for introverts and job seekers

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Where to Find More

• Misha Collins on LinkedIn: [Search “Misha Collins”]
• Instagram: (Misha to share her new handle, check Courtney’s links)
• Level Up on LinkedIn Program: Details and upcoming sessions in show notes

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Summary Takeaways

• Success on LinkedIn hinges on clarity of purpose, strategic networking, and repetition—not volume or superficial hacks.
• Embrace self-promotion, even if you have to “disassociate” from initial discomfort.
• Use AI to support, but not replace, your voice; authenticity is your edge.
• Consistent commenting and targeted engagement outpace raw posting for growth and opportunity.
• Normalize stretching your ambition by building relationships with people who reflect your goals.
• Don’t get lost in metrics—depth, not just numbers, brings opportunities.

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For more actionable LinkedIn wisdom, in-depth strategy breakdowns, and honest personal branding talk, listen to the full episode or connect with Misha and Courtney via the resources in the show notes.

Transcript

[Misha Collins]

My whole career, business, being able to travel and work from anywhere and come to the US has all been from LinkedIn.

[Courtney Johnson]

On TikTok, you're competing with really cute dogs and celebrities. Instagram, you're competing with world class comedians or whatever. On LinkedIn, you're competing with CEOs that like suck at post.

[Misha Collins]

Yeah, you stay silent if you're not posting on LinkedIn, if you're not sending any messages, if you're not commenting on any posts. How's anyone supposed to know what you do? How's anyone supposed to know how they can work with you? So. So you have to put yourself out there to become visible and attract these opportunities.

[Courtney Johnson]

We all see AI slop LinkedIn posts every single day. Welcome to Built in Public. I am your host, Courtney Johnson. I've been a full time content creator and a personal brand strategist for seven years and I really built my career sharing the process, not just the outcomes of personal brand Built in Public is about what it actually looks like to build a brand, a business and to build real leverage in the creator economy. We're talking strategy, systems, audience growth, monetization and that uncomfortable middle ground between. I have an idea and this is actually working. I'll be sharing what I'm testing, what's working, what's not, and I'm going to be bringing on people who are building their careers and companies out loud too. If you want honest conversations, practical insight and zero bs, you are in the right place. Let's build in public. Welcome back to Built in Public. Today I'm sitting down with Misha Collins. After being laid off in 2024, she completely rebuilt her career in public on LinkedIn and now she helps other founders and operators do the same. In less than a year, Misha gre her LinkedIn audience to over 50,000 people. Guys, that took me eight years to do. It took me literally a year to do. She turned that visibility into inbound opportunities, a very loyal community and a profitable business. Not through hacks or viral tricks, but through clarity, strategy and messaging. She has such incredible nuanced information and ideas around LinkedIn strategy. Totally opposite than me, guys. I am like host every day, doesn't matter what it is. Misha comes at LinkedIn from a very strategic perspective, which I love and you are going to love too. It's so complimentary. In fact, Misha co hosts level up on LinkedIn with me. Misha doesn't just teach you how to post. She really helps you align your content with whatever you're building long term. So in today's episode, we're talking about what actually drives growth on LinkedIn. How to think about authority without pretending to be an expert, and why having a clear strategy makes content so much easier, not harder. Let's get into it. My book, Career Cheat Codes, comes out on April 14, and pre orders are now open. I'm so excited if you have ever gotten value from any of my free content from listening to this podcast, whether that be YouTube, Spotify my posts, my free trainings and masterclasses and webinars, anything I've shared online. Pre ordering the book is one of the biggest ways to help this mission of un. Gatekeeping the gate cap, and this mission of giving people all of the autonomy that they need in order to create their dream in their life. Pre ordering the book is just the biggest way to help these ideas reach beyond this audience and this community. Pre orders actually don't count as, like, early sales. They actually signal demand to retailers. So, like, pre orders ride or what's riding on retailers wanting to carry the book. So it plays a really, really big role in how widely the book is seen once it launches. So this book is really the most complete version of what I've been aiming to teach for years. You know, how to build leverage, how to understand the real rules of the game, how to understand what's gate kept, how to build your personal brand and create career mobility on your own terms. Guys, I'm so excited about this book. Like, it has been such a journey and I packed as much value as I possibly can to transform your career. And if somebody else comes to mind, like a friend, a sibling, a mentee, a coworker who's navigating their career right now, it could also be a really meaningful full gift. You can pre order Career Cheat Codes. We're gonna give a link in the show. Notes would really, really appreciate it, and I know you're just gonna love it. Misha, welcome.

[Misha Collins]

Thank you. I'm so happy to be here and

[Courtney Johnson]

welcome to the States.

[Misha Collins]

Yeah, thank you.

[Courtney Johnson]

This is your first time here, right?

[Misha Collins]

Yeah, yeah. No, not my first time.

[Courtney Johnson]

Okay.

[Misha Collins]

So actually I've been to the. I've actually been to America quite a lot, but it's my first time kind of coming as a grown woman and being able to do it in my type of style.

[Courtney Johnson]

That's amazing. Yeah. It's also like raining in LA today, so I'm sad you don't get to see like the sunny.

[Misha Collins]

I know I brought that. I brought the rain with me from England.

[Courtney Johnson]

And San Francisco is going to be cloudy too.

[Misha Collins]

I think San Francisco, I think it's supposed to rain across California, you know, it hasn't. We haven't had a single apparently in the UK since 2026. There's not been one day where it hasn't rained.

[Courtney Johnson]

How are you not vitamin D deficient?

[Misha Collins]

Yeah, I wonder the same thing.

[Courtney Johnson]

You probably.

[Misha Collins]

I actually do take vitamin D. Yeah. Yeah.

[Courtney Johnson]

Or maybe it's just like your, I don't know, maybe your body like adapts to it. Because every time I travel anywhere in the UK I'm like, I'm so tired, sleepy.

[Misha Collins]

It's so miserable. But I did have some days of sun. The weekend was gorgeous here. So I was kind of just like I'm the only person in LA who's like walking around in a T shirt evening.

[Courtney Johnson]

Yeah, it's cool. I'm like walking around a full jacket. Well, I'm so excited to chat today and something I find really interesting is that we have, we have one thing, we have a lot in common, but one of the things we have in common is that we didn't have this big like crescendo of I'm quitting my job, I'm betting on myself, I'm going all in on my personal brand for both of us. We were laid off and that kind of pushed us into our personal brand. So I'm curious to hear about your journey and what kind of made that switch of like instead of scrambling for a new job, I'm really going to lean into my personal brand.

[Misha Collins]

Yeah, I think it's really interesting and it's a question that I get asked a lot because I will be completely honest, I had no intention ever of running my own business. I never wanted to be an entrepreneur, I never wanted to be a business owner. I've always had really high ambitions for my career and I've always really wanted to be successful, successful in my career. But I never had the dream of building something for my own. I was always very happy building something for someone else. And like I said, I wanted to do really well in my job. I wanted to be the best that I could, but not necessarily building my own thing. And I think when I got let go from, well, the last full time role that I had, I had given so much to the company and I'd felt like I'd really given my heart, my soul, everything and really help build their marketing department and when I was let go, it kind of made me realize how fragile we are. And that was for a small company, it was a startup, it was I think we only had 20, there was only 20 employees at the time and I was still a number on a spreadsheet type thing. You know, I didn't, I didn't mean anything. And that's a small company I can't even imagine in these big corporations. So when that happened I just, I kind of had this feeling of I, I don't want that to ever happen again. I don't want to build something for someone else. Why am I putting so much time and energy and effort into building someone else's dream when I can build my own? And that's when I started building my personal brand. I think from a desire of really just wanting to have something that was mine, which no one else could take away from me. And even when I started building my personal brand on LinkedIn, it wasn't with the intention of running my own business. I always thought I'll do this in the meantime and I'll build a profile so that then if I get a full time job and this ever happens again, I've got the security. So it was never with the, with the idea of going full time on my own. But yeah, I think it was just wanting to take control and to have ownership of something.

[Courtney Johnson]

When did you decide like, okay, this is actually turning into a business?

[Misha Collins]

So I went freelance. So I, I, I, I started posting on LinkedIn, went freelance and that was it immediately. I was, I was very fortunate in terms of I picked up a lot of traction on LinkedIn very quick and managed to sign quite a few clients which allowed me to go freelance. I was working part time for a marketing agency up until last May. So, you know, eight months ago maybe. And I think it got, when it got to May and I stopped working at the marketing agency, that was when I thought, okay, this is something that I want to go all in on. And it was going really well and I was excited by it and I was enjoying the work that I did. So it was probably, it took maybe a year in for me to think, nah, this is really what I want to do long term now.

[Courtney Johnson]

Yeah, I love that you had that transition of like, you worked part time, you did kind of this other gig that wasn't a full commitment, but it was like a transition. I think that can be a lot less scary for people than just jumping in because some people think like, oh, I need to quit my job on Monday and by Tuesday I need to have my business up and running and there's really a lot more transition that that goes into it.

[Misha Collins]

Yeah, definitely. And I Think it's really nice speaking to other people. I actually had a conversation with a woman yesterday, and as you said, so many people think that there's this, like, big wow moment where it's like, I'm going to quit my job, I'm going to do all this. But actually, quite often you can just fall into things and you can just see how it goes, and that is okay.

[Courtney Johnson]

I get messages all the time that I cannot respond to because I don't have this experience, but all the time I get these DMS that are like, well, Courtney, this is all easy for you to do because you're American and you're so boisterous and loud and whatever, but, like, I'm from another place. I'm from. Actually, a lot of people say I'm from the UK or like, I'm from somewhere in Europe where I. It's just. It's not acceptable to be all about me, me, me, to build a personal brand, whatever. Like, did you have that feeling? And what would you tell those people?

[Misha Collins]

Yeah, definitely. And I think that as people, Brits, we are. We're so. We find compliments so awkward. We find self promotion so cringy. It is just not in our DNA. And it's amazing. When I've come over to America, I've obviously not been here that long. I've only been here four days, but everyone's so positive. And it's kind of that feeling of even if things aren't going well, people are just, like, putting on a brave face and being positive about that. You don't get that in the uk people are generally quite negative. We're always complaining, whether it's about the weather. It's either too cold or too rainy or it's too hot. There's always something to complain about. And I think naturally, as a. As a country, we are very. We find promoting ourselves incredibly awkward. So when I first started talking about myself and making. And being so vulnerable and being so open online, it was a really scary experience. And I remember I'd go to, like, you know, parties with old university friends and they'd say, oh, I've been seeing you post on LinkedIn. And I'd die inside.

[Courtney Johnson]

You're like, oh, my God.

[Misha Collins]

Oh, God. You see that?

[Courtney Johnson]

I thought I blocked you. Yeah.

[Misha Collins]

But I think you just have to disassociate in a way you can't. And eventually it's WhatsApp fairies. It's always cringe until it isn't. Yeah. And it feels cringe at the beginning and it feels really awkward. And then those same people who are kind of making fun of me or saying, oh, we see you all the time are genuinely people who reach out to me now wanting advice and wanting to know how they can do the same. So I would say you've almost got to just kind of treat it like an out of body experience. Just kind of disassociate from it. Just get it done. And then eventually it will become second nature and it will become habit. And also I do think it's something that people are becoming a lot more comfortable with. So. And you've just got to take like, own it. If you're doing well, own it. Like we should be more comfortable talking about our successes.

[Courtney Johnson]

Yeah. And a way that you can start creating content. You don't have to start creating content talking about yourself. Like you can start creating content and build the habit talking about someone. Other people. Right.

[Misha Collins]

You can.

[Courtney Johnson]

I see a ton of people, their whole personal brand they started on. I'm analyzing marketing campaigns and they're other people's campaigns or I'm talking about people that inspire me and it's other people's quotes and other people's stuff. So if you're really feeling the cringe and you want to take the focus off yourself, you can do that. I don't think that builds like the most effective personal brand long term. I think obviously vulnerability and connection does. But just to get the habit and get the reps in, it can take the pressure off.

[Misha Collins]

Agreed. And you talk a lot about it. It's curation. So you know, you can take, you know, your top 10 books which have helped you talk about that type of thing. Another really useful tip that I have is if you are nervous about posting online, whether that's on LinkedIn or Instagram or anything, schedule the content. Because when you schedule it, you can't go back on it. And I used to find at the beginning I would sit there editing and editing and even if I had the post ready 10 minutes before I was about to post, I'd be, you know, freaking out editing the post. Whereas when you press schedule, it's just gone, you know, it's happening and it's a good way to just kind of get over that fear. So I would say trying to like pre plan and then just getting it scheduled, it really helps.

[Courtney Johnson]

Yeah, I agree. Then you, especially if you schedule something out for like again, if you're just starting, I'm going to put this like on a Sunday. So I don't even see it. I totally forget about it. And I just wake up on Monday and there's some likes or whatever. The truth is, like, your first couple posts are going to suck and nobody's going to see them anyway, so you just got to get, get the reps in.

[Misha Collins]

That's why I told someone the other day, I said, if you get really embarrassed that your content got no likes, don't be embarrassed because no one saw it.

[Courtney Johnson]

Yeah, no, nobody thought it doesn't matter. When you decided to build your personal brand, why did you choose LinkedIn as your main focus?

[Misha Collins]

I think I chose LinkedIn. So I'd been, as I said, I'd been working for a company full time and LinkedIn was a huge focus for us. So it was a B2B marketing company. So naturally our ideal customer was on there and I spent a lot of time building the company page. At the time, company pages were still pretty important. And I also helped the founders and people within the company develop their personal brands. And so we really became known, and this was, you know, four years ago, three years ago, we really became known as a company for constantly posting. We were kind of everywhere when you went on LinkedIn and that had major success for us. So it was a platform that I was very comfortable with and I always liked the idea of being known in a professional element. So even though you get to know a lot about me and like you said, you know, being vulnerable and being open about things is really important, which I was at the very beginning, I kind of always wanted it to be tied to my career. So I thought LinkedIn was the best place, best place to do it. And to be totally honest, the barrier of entry is so much lower on LinkedIn. When, you know, when I first started posting consistently two years ago, TikTok was already majorly saturated, as is Instagram. Your quality of content and level of quant level of content has to be so much higher, whereas LinkedIn, it's definitely getting there. It's much harder to grow now. But the barrier of entry was way lower. Didn't have to be groundbreaking content.

[Courtney Johnson]

Yeah, totally. Like on TikTok you're competing with like really cute dogs and celebrities and like, yeah, Instagram, you're competing with like world class comedians or whatever. On LinkedIn, you're competing with like CEOs that like suck at post.

[Misha Collins]

Yeah, exactly. Robotic voices.

[Courtney Johnson]

Yeah, it's like really low barrier to entry, which, which I love. Why do you think LinkedIn is especially powerful right now?

[Misha Collins]

I think LinkedIn, LinkedIn is really having a moment. It's really interesting to see Because I actually first started working in the fashion industry. So when I first went into work, I was working in fashion and LinkedIn was lame. LinkedIn was a lame platform. Even when I first started posting properly two years ago, it was still kind of lame. And now it's really funny because I go to events. I went to an event the other day and the MD or head, MD and Head of brand from Look Fantastic, which I don't know if you have it over here, but it's essentially a beauty platform. It's where an online beauty platform where you can go and buy all your beauty products from makeup to skincare, everything super popular in the uk. They were there and they were saying, oh my gosh, LinkedIn is something that we really need to put more attention in. We've been wanting to do it for ages. And I was kind of mind blown because that never, never, ever would have been the response. Even a year ago if I'd have said I worked in LinkedIn, people would have been like, okay. Whereas now people within the fashion industry, but within the beauty industry, they see the power in it. And it is because every, pretty much every single ideal audience, every single ideal customer is on the platform. Whether you are a window cleaner, Most people in LinkedIn live in the house, they have windows. Whether you're a lawyer, a lot of people on LinkedIn need, need lawyers. Whether you're a personal branding expert, obviously LinkedIn is now helping people grow these personal brands. All ideal audiences are on there. And it's a really easy way, especially if you work in corporate and you want to target people who are, you know, within the business realm. That is the platform that they're on and they're checking it every day. So it's just a really rare find that you can have that amount of people who would be willing to buy from you on one platform.

[Courtney Johnson]

Yeah, one girl that went through level up on LinkedIn last year, she's a tarot reader and I was a little nervous because I was like, you signed up for level up on LinkedIn, you're a tarot reader. Like I'm, I can pretty much guarantee I can give people success and level up on LinkedIn, but I'm like this, she's making me nervous. Right. Like, like that's a little crazy. Well, turns out she got like a year long contract with Apple. No. To go do their holiday parties, their pop up event events, like all of this stuff. And now like literally she's full time employed with Apple as a tarot reader.

[Misha Collins]

Oh my God, I love That I

[Courtney Johnson]

think her official title is like event marketer talent or something. But she's just a pop up tarot. Like it's crazy, it's so cool, but truly anything. I also have some, some clients and friends that are personal stylists and they were also a bit hesitant to go on LinkedIn but it makes so much sense. Like yeah, personal styling for executives, for

[Misha Collins]

speakers and I actually recently started working with a personal, personal trainer and he's like a personal trainer to high performing people. It's the perfect place for it because everyone on LinkedIn is, is in that world. So a lot of people come to me and they say, oh, do you think it'll work? I'm in this industry. And I reply with pretty much, much everyone in every industry is on there. So. So yes, if you get it right, it will work.

[Courtney Johnson]

Yeah, some, some other funny industries on Linked that's in like gray space like drugs, like weed or psychedelics. They're on LinkedIn because LinkedIn.

[Misha Collins]

Yeah, yeah they are.

[Courtney Johnson]

LinkedIn doesn't have rules against it where other platforms do. And I actually, I used to have a yoga mat company and so I started on LinkedIn posting about like yoga and fitness and stuff. Yeah. And it was really, I mean I same, I was like yoga, like who's gonna want to talk about yoga mats on LinkedIn? But I ended up getting a ton of corporate deals where like hotels would bulk buy yoga mats, events, retreat coordinators. And that was all from LinkedIn. Yeah, just. Cause I was like adding these people on. So it was really, it was majorly successful just because of LinkedIn. Even though it's not traditional.

[Misha Collins]

Yeah, exactly. And I do, yeah, I see the craziest things on LinkedIn. And you might not have tons of engagement. You might not. Because I actually spoke to someone who I was working with, someone who helps people in recovery. So when they have drinking issues or it is mainly alcohol recovery. And I said to her, I was like, look, you're never gonna get tons of engagement on your posts because people aren't gonna raise their hands and say I have a problem. But if you do all the other things, if you're adding the people, if you're DMing them, if you're engaging with other people's content, you will see success. It just might not be that you'll get a huge following on it.

[Courtney Johnson]

Yeah, I, I have a client that's also, she's a recovery coach and she has an interesting LinkedIn angle. She's kind of talking about like the non alcohol beverage space. And it's been interesting, she's had some opportunities to like consult for some of these non alcohol beverage spaces, like retreats, stuff like that. So it's. Yeah, I mean, no, Lily, any, any space you can, you can make it work on, on LinkedIn. It's really cool. If somebody wanted to grow on LinkedIn, they're listening to this and they're like, yeah, I want to grow on LinkedIn, I just don't know where to start. Whereas like, first starting point, they finish listening to this podcast, they go do this one action.

[Misha Collins]

So controversially, I always say that I think the advice of just post is a bit rubbish because I think, and don't get me wrong, breaking that barrier of feeling of, of being scared of visibility and just hitting posts and getting out there, it's really, really important and it's a great thing to do. But I also think if you are going to put the time, effort and energy into posting on LinkedIn, then you want to be doing it successfully and you want to be setting yourself up for success. So I always say that you've got to lead with strategy. And the reason why I'm so passionate about this is because I actually was posting on LinkedIn for probably two or three years before I started to see success. So I, I probably have been posting on LinkedIn consistently. So when I say consistently, I mean most days for about a year and a half prior to that, for maybe three years before, I was posting ad hoc with no strategy and shock. I didn't get anywhere. I didn't get any results, I didn't get anywhere. And as soon as I thought, I'm gonna do this properly, I'm gonna take it seriously and I created a strategy for myself and started being consistent. That's when everything changed. So I would say that the one thing that you should do if you're listening to this podcast and you wanna start posting on LinkedIn is you wanna really get in touch with your mission and the reason why you are doing it. And we talk a lot about this. We say we, we kind of have the, a very similar view on it. You can say, oh, I want to post, I want to grow a following on LinkedIn because I just, I just want to be famous or oh, I want to have speaking opportunities. But you need to go deeper than that. So why do you want to be famous on LinkedIn? Why do you want to have the speaking opportunities? And it's really good exercise to be, be really honest with yourself. So, you know, maybe it's that I want to be famous on LinkedIn because I didn't have very many friends at school, and now I want to show the world that I can be popular and that type of thing. Or maybe it's that you want to have speaking opportunities because you want to be seen as a thought leader and you want to provide a. You want to make money so that you can provide a better life for your family. I think it's really, really important to be honest about why it is that you're doing it and to really channel into your mission, because that's what's going to help you stay consistent and help you continue to show up on LinkedIn authentically as you as well.

[Courtney Johnson]

So what I'm hearing is like, the way to figure out that base point for the strategy is figuring out your mission. And that's like, why do you actually want to do this? Because if you're listening to this episode and you're curious about LinkedIn or you're already posting about LinkedIn, you're doing it for a reason. Like, even if that's, like, subconscious, you got to dig down a little bit, you're not doing it accidentally. Right. You want to make a certain impact, you want to accomplish a certain goal, you want to change the world in some way. Or maybe it's like you want to be like, fudge you.

[Misha Collins]

Yeah.

[Courtney Johnson]

But when you get clear on that, it becomes easier. The direction.

[Misha Collins]

Exactly.

[Courtney Johnson]

Yeah. I also think optimizing your profile and connecting with people on LinkedIn is so helpful. Like, yesterday, a random student in my. My town connected with me and I saw that she spoke Spanish, that she worked for, like, medical devices, and she was like an intern. And just by seeing those things in her headline, I messaged her and I was like, hey, my friend is looking for, like, a intern for medical device whatever right now. And so even just if she'd never sent me a connection request, I wouldn't have seen that and she wouldn't have got the opportunity. So also, yeah, starting. Starting to expand your network.

[Misha Collins]

Yeah. And I think you can start slow. So maybe it's that you don't feel ready to post on LinkedIn. So start commenting, start leaving. You know, set yourself a task of, I'm going to comment on five people's posts today, and I'm going to send out 10 connection requests. And even that starts to flex the muscle. It starts to get you comfortable with, okay, I'm putting my opinions out here. I'm allowing my voice to be seen to other people. I always recommend starting small. So many people think, oh, I'm going to give LinkedIn a go and I'm going to post every single day for the next three months. And you're almost setting yourself up for disaster because it's really hard to achieve those goals if you've never done it before. So set yourself a realistic target. Maybe it's that you're going to start with comments, maybe it's that you're going to post once a week and then stick to that. Set yourself a realistic achievable goal. Stick to that, and then you'll get that quick win, you'll build up momentum, you'll feel good about yourself and that will then help you want to keep going.

[Courtney Johnson]

I know a lot of you guys are founders and a lot of you guys are looking to hire talent. And I get messages all the time of being like, courtney, how do I find somebody to hire? How do I hire this type of person? Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And guys, I don't know shit about hiring. I've literally like manifested every single person I've hired. No joke, like crazy coincidences. I've never done a traditional hire, but obviously if you're starting a startup, you can't just like twinkle in fairy lights. Manifest everybody. So I want to talk about my friend who actually graduated level up on LinkedIn. Her name's Holly Maglin. That's H O L L Y M A G L I N Like go at her on LinkedIn right now and she helps you recruit early career talent for your startup. Holly has this idea that like the traditional career fair is dead. If you're a founder or a lean startup team that's trying to find your next star hire at like a campus booth career fair, you're lost. If you have a team with a small budget, you don't need a bigger budget, you just need a better strategy. Like, especially when you're hiring Gen Z, like they're not looking for this glossy 90s brochure career fair. Like, there's a totally different strategy. Gen Z really wants authentic connection. I think hiring people right out of college is so awesome because you get to kind of develop them. You get to get a new, fresh perspective. Anyways, so Holly Maglin, she created the Holly Magellan method. And it is such a cheat code for modernizing how you hire. Even if you're starting from scratch with like zero experience hiring, if you need a full audit of your current current plan, if you need ground up of a new strategy, Holly has got you. Okay, again, if you guys are startup founders, you're looking to Hire early career talent. Go add Holly Mad on LinkedIn right now. She's even sharing a free campus engagement execution matrix with all of our listeners to show exactly how she does it so you can get her entire strategy for free. Anyways, just wanted to throw this in there because I know a lot of you guys are hiring, I know a lot of you guys need support right now. And Holly's just, just an amazing woman. And I wanted to offer this free resource for those that are listening that are like, I need some examples. I find it helpful to give people examples of like what you've actually accomplished. So I love to say like, we, we live an inbound life. You know, our life is inbound. We don't have to go outbound to find opportunities. Right. Things come to us. So what are some opportunities that you've gotten inbound, maybe in your LinkedIn DMS by building your personal brand?

[Misha Collins]

Yeah, I mean literally everything that's happened to me, I am really bad at outbound. I will put my hands up. I don't do much of it. I really should. My business could probably be way bigger if I did, but I, yeah, I don't, I don't, I don't do much of it right now. And so pretty much every single opportunity that has ever come to me since starting my own business or even going free freelance has been through inbound. So when I first left my full time company, I posted about it on LinkedIn. Two of the po. I did two posts about it and they both went pretty viral. And from that I signed three clients. So three, three freelance clients which then allowed me to go freelance. I've had a billion dollar marketing company land in my DMs when I only had, I think I only had like 13, 000 followers on LinkedIn then, so it wasn't even a huge amount. I had them land in my DMS because they wanted me to do LinkedIn content for their CMO, CFO and their VP. And they're a huge, huge, huge company. I genuinely thought I was, I thought I was being pranked. I was like, no, this can't, this can't be true. I was googling it, being like, does this person actually work there? Major imposter syndrome. The reason why I'm in America, that is all through LinkedIn. So I work with a company called Stan John, who the co founder DMed me on LinkedIn. He messaged me and that's how I started working for them. That's why I'm in la. I went to see them in their office. I'm also going to work for another company next week, which was from a. From a LinkedIn DM. So honestly, everything, my whole. My whole career, business, being able to travel and work from anywhere and come to the US has all been from LinkedIn. And on top of that, like, way more amazing things, like just making friends with people and making friends with people who I genuinely get so inspired from and motivate me. And I think that's something that's been huge for me because I've always kind of capped my potential or, you know, I think you're so good at, like, dreaming big. And like, we talk about it now in terms of, like, having these, like, delulu dreams. Like, you want to dream so big that it almost feels crazy. I was really bad at that. Whereas, because of the people I now surround myself with, who I met mainly from LinkedIn, and it's allowed me to think, no, I can do more and I can achieve more and I can dream bigger. And you have to have. You have to unlock that to even get to that stage of life.

[Courtney Johnson]

Yeah, that's so important. That's something I haven't consciously thought about, but you're so right. Like this, this is the people that you meet from LinkedIn, the people that you get to surround yourself with that you. That you get to be friends with.

[Misha Collins]

Yeah.

[Courtney Johnson]

Almost like level you up. Because their normal is like the thing that you're dreaming about. Right. Like, maybe you get to be around people who, of course they have their own company or of course they got funding, or of course they're booked out for a year and they're freelance, like, duh, that's just part of their life. And when you see that and you see those people accomplish those dreams and goals and it be so normalized, it becomes normalized to you and you can accomplish so much more.

[Misha Collins]

Yeah, exactly. And I think LinkedIn is a really unique place where I had kind of a list of probably 10 people who I was obsessed with on LinkedIn and would dream of being friends with. And I would probably say out of those 10 people, I've definitely spoken to every single one of them. And I'm probably friends with at least half of them now. And it's because there are much less people posting consistently and there's a lot more. Less people engaging on LinkedIn. You know, if I did that on TikTok, I think that'd be way harder for me to get to, like, my dream person. On TikTok, the stepping stones to get to them is so much harder. Whereas LinkedIn, if you show up consistently on these people's profiles, commenting, engaging with them, you naturally do form a bond and it's much easier to become friends with these people. And I think, as you said, that has completely allowed me to level up because I've seen people do all these things and. And it be normal. And that's then encouraged me that I can do it too. And us.

[Courtney Johnson]

Yeah.

[Misha Collins]

You message me on LinkedIn. I know the reason I'm sat here.

[Courtney Johnson]

Literally. What is your dream? Oh, good question.

[Misha Collins]

It's really funny because I think when I first started building a business, I was like, oh, yeah, I'm just gonna go down the solopreneur route. I don't really want to grow anything bigger than myself. That's too stressful. Whereas now I definitely want to expand and I want to build a proper business with employees and people who work, work with me, and I want to build something bigger than just myself. A big dream of mine this year is I really want to move off LinkedIn. So I'd quite like to grow a following on. Or I shouldn't say I quite like to. I will grow a following on other platforms. So I'm going to take on Tick Tock and Instagram and also just get. Build my personal brand to a bigger scale. So do more speaking opportunities and kind of. Yeah, I don't want to just be cornered into LinkedIn. I don't just want to be there. I want to be across channels.

[Courtney Johnson]

Yeah. What's really great about that. And I did the same thing too. I was on LinkedIn for probably two years before I joined Tick Tock, and then it was like two more years before I got on Instagram. What's amazing is you have so much content already.

[Misha Collins]

Yeah.

[Courtney Johnson]

Like, you can just recreate a lot of those, use them as video scripts, recreate them as carousels. Like, you really don't have to start from scratch on any other platform. What do you. What are you starting with? What other platforms?

[Misha Collins]

So I'm going to start with Instagram.

[Courtney Johnson]

Okay.

[Misha Collins]

Yes.

[Courtney Johnson]

Excited.

[Misha Collins]

I know, I'm excited. I actually created. I've got the profile. I just need to now start. Start creating the content.

[Courtney Johnson]

Okay. Very exciting. Yeah. Just come to content club.

[Misha Collins]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I need to know. I'm excited. I also, I feel very. I enjoy being on camera, I enjoy chatting, I enjoy. I don't have that awkwardness of, oh, God, I can't film myself or anything like that, so. And also I think, think even though I started on. It's funny because we were talking about it. Even though I started on LinkedIn because I wanted to keep it professional and I obviously do still want to be known for my career and that type of thing, I want people to see a bit more of me because there's a. Because I really channel my personality through my LinkedIn content. I think you have to. If you want to be successful, you have to be very authentic. But it's easier to do that on video and on. On other platforms. I think you'll see a. A more real side to me.

[Courtney Johnson]

Yeah. Oh, I can't wait. Yeah. Because video right now, on LinkedIn, at least for me, like, isn't performing as great.

[Misha Collins]

No, it doesn't perform well, but it

[Courtney Johnson]

performs really good on every other platform. What do you think people overthink on LinkedIn? That actually doesn't matter that much.

[Misha Collins]

I think people overthink. Oh, so this is my one. The one thing that people always get wrong on LinkedIn is the fear of repetition. So they overthink repeating themselves and they overthink the type of content they're creating. And they think, oh, I posted about that a month ago. I can't possibly post about that now. But people can't remember what they had for dinner last night. They do not remember what your LinkedIn post was a month ago. And you have to repeat yourself. You have to be repeating the same messages, the same stories, the same lessons to become known for something. I think that's something people really get in their heads about. They really overthink it and they don't like repeating themselves. But it's literally necessary if you want to grow a following or if you want to grow any form of personal brand, because you have to stand for something. And if you stand for something that has to be shown through your content consistently.

[Courtney Johnson]

Totally. Yeah. Let's say that you were, I don't know, a school teacher and you transitioned into tech and you always wanted to get into tech. Now that's a story how you transitioned from being a teacher into tech that you can say over and over and over and over and over and over again in multiple different ways. Right? And yeah, I actually had a ghostwriting client that would be like, oh, well, I can't post about that lesson I learned from my dad because I posted about that six months ago. And I can't post about empowering women because I posted about that three months ago. And I can't post about this, like, sports analogy because I posted about that a month ago and I'm like, girl, you gotta post about all of those things literally a hundred times.

[Misha Collins]

Exactly. Because also, well, there's lots of reasons for it. A, if you're doing well, you should be continuing to add followers to your account, in which case those people haven't heard those stories. Also, LinkedIn, you know, a good LinkedIn post kind of gold standard is a thousand engagements. If you're consistently hitting a thousand engagements, you are doing that's, you know, top, top class, class standard. A thousand isn't that much. So there are lots of people who are logging onto LinkedIn and they've not seen that story. Even if they are following you, they've not seen that story, they've not seen that message. So you have to be repeating yourself so that if, if they haven't seen it before, they know and for all new followers. And also it's the memory of it, you know, you can't. People need to hear things so many times these days to, to remember it. So repeating yourself is, is essential.

[Courtney Johnson]

Totally. And yeah, I think this is important. Tip is also on LinkedIn, the numbers are kind of lower. Like for me, a thousand on LinkedIn, a thousand engagements is really good on Instagram, I'm like 10,000 engagements is really good. So if you start posting on LinkedIn, you're like, oh, I'm only getting 25 likes and 10 comments when I'm starting. That's actually really, really great. I get that when you post your bachelorette pictures on Instagram, you get like 500 likes. And like I get that it's more. But LinkedIn is like, there's just more people that are watching and lurking than actually commenting. And if you think about your own behavior, maybe you spend 30 minutes on Instagram every day commenting on your friends posts and liking, maybe you lurk on LinkedIn. So also you don't need to be discouraged if you're starting and you're getting 10, 20 engagements.

[Misha Collins]

Totally the. It is a, it is a lot lower. And like you said, there are so many lurkers on LinkedIn. And it's really funny because when you start posting you'll notice that because people always message me saying, oh my God, I love your LinkedIn content. Oh, I saw this. I'm like, why the hell are you

[Courtney Johnson]

not like, yeah, where's your comment? Especially you see someone in person and they're like, it's great. And you're like, where are you?

[Misha Collins]

I know.

[Courtney Johnson]

What do you mean?

[Misha Collins]

It's like a, there's like a meme on TikTok which I always see, which is like, if you're my. If you're my family and you're seeing my TikToks and not engaging with it, like, you're dead to me.

[Courtney Johnson]

So real. No, same. I'm like, you have to like all of my content. Yeah. Also, different industries is different engagement. I find that like marketing, marketing, sales, HR, just people who are on LinkedIn a lot, you're probably going to get a lot more engagement. I manage a personal brand for my partner and he's in like the medical world. They just don't.

[Misha Collins]

Yeah. Like.

[Courtney Johnson]

And like legal, they don't do it. Like I. There's just certain industries where it's going to be lower now. You're still going to get the same opportunities. Like he, we go to a conference and everyone's coming up to him. I love your LinkedIn getting speaking and consulting, but you're not going to get as many likes and comments and that's okay. Don't compare yourself to other industries ways, especially not marketing and sales.

[Misha Collins]

Yeah, exactly. And there's stuff, you know, I post about LinkedIn content and how to create good content, in which case I'm in the perfect niche for engagement. Like I'm. If you're on LinkedIn, you want to learn how to grow and you want to learn how to post and it's. You're. I'm setting myself up for success. But as you said, if you're in the medical world, that might be a bit harder. I. I also, I manage a personal brand for the MD of. It's like a homeware company and we track success a lot on the messages that he gets. So last week he had like a really low week for engagement, which is quite rare because actually his stuff gets really good engagement. But he sent me four dms, four screenshots of DMS from people being like, this was amazing. I'm so happy that you said this. And this was super thoughtbreaking. And to me that's actually way more successful than a. Like, if someone's taking the time out to send you a DM to say we love your content or you've inspired me, you've done this, that is like a sign that you are doing right. Yeah.

[Courtney Johnson]

Because that's like such depth in that relationship with that person too. Like that that's planting a seed that is going to blossom into something.

[Misha Collins]

Yeah.

[Courtney Johnson]

Sometime. How are you using AI with your personal branding with LinkedIn and how can you use AI as a tool that's not in a boring way? Because we all see AI slop LinkedIn posts every single Day.

[Misha Collins]

Yeah. So this is something that's been really playing on my mind recently because LinkedIn has become extremely. Well, I don't. That was probably a bit much, but LinkedIn has become a little bit negative and it's mainly negativity around AI. So I see so many posts from people complaining about AI comments and AI generated content. But for me, and I'm actually, I should do a LinkedIn post on this, for me it's e. It's bigger opportunity to stand out. If you've got a load of AI slop like you said, if 90% of people are creating crappy LinkedIn posts, which you can tell are AI generated, that is the perfect opportunity for you to stand out. So you want to be using AI to help create the content, but you always need to be injecting like your special source or your personality into the post. So a tool that I absolutely love when we were talking about it just earlier is Stanley. It's an incredible tool for creating LinkedIn content. It matches with your profile, it downloads your tone of voice, and it really does kind of take on your voice is amazing. So I love using that. Would I ever post direct? Would I ever ask Stanley to create a post and then post it directly on LinkedIn? Never, ever, ever. Because you can always add tweaks of things that Stanley doesn't know. You know, so maybe something that happened to you yesterday, or maybe it's a certain word that you like to use. So what I use, what I tend to do is I, I either use AI to help me with ideation, so I might be send it a load of thoughts and say, compile this into a post. Or I might say, you know, give me some ideas for a post and then I'll get it to do the first draft because that's always the hardest. And then I'll always tweak it. And my biggest piece of advice to everyone is read your LinkedIn posts out loud. So before you hit publish, read out loud. If there's a word in there that feels uncomfortable, if there's a way that you've kind of said something that doesn't feel right, change it. And you know, add abbreviations like add stuff like TBH or what else slay or add the things that you say because that's what shows your personality and makes your, makes your content still feel authentic even though you're using AI.

[Courtney Johnson]

Yeah, One of the biggest edits that I always make is I'll like, not misspell things, but I'll turn it from like, like, yay, to like, yay with like 10 lives. Because that's actually how I would like. It's like, how would you text a friend about this? Would you say tbh? Would you like add bullet points? Would you kind of misspell something to be funny?

[Misha Collins]

Yeah.

[Courtney Johnson]

Or would you like change the. Like, it wouldn't be such proper uppercase lowercase periods. Right. Like, you would make it a little bit more casual. How do you think about LinkedIn engagement in your strategy, like comments, DMS, etc?

[Misha Collins]

Yeah, so I think engagement is as important as posting. It kind of is almost more important because you've got more opportunities to be seen with engagement. So if you think about posting, you should only really post one once a day, like some people do post twice a day. And that is just crazy. There was actually an algorithm report came out at the beginning of this year that showed that if you're posting twice a day, it negatively affects nev. Negatively affects your impressions. You get low, you get lower reach. It's just not what LinkedIn wants.

[Courtney Johnson]

Yeah.

[Misha Collins]

So you, if you are posting once a day, you're giving yourself one opportunity of being seen. If you're leading, leaving 10 comments a day, you're having 10 more opportunities of being seen. Because if you comment on something that's going to pop up on my, my, my, my newsfeed, so you're getting more eyeballs on your name and your thoughts and your opinions. So when it comes to engagement, again, I think you need to be really strategic. So you've put the strategy in place for creating your content. You also want to be strategic with engagement because otherwise you can spend hours doom scrolling and not really getting anywhere. My advice would be choose. And this is if you're at the beginning, so you don't want to go too hard, choose 10 creators. They could be a mixture of peers. So people who are on a similar level to you or people who, you know, who you've worked with, they can be big creators. So people with more followers than you and they could be maybe an ideal customer if they're posting on LinkedIn. And what you want to do is you want to be commenting on their posts daily. So Maybe you choose 10 people and every day before you hit post, you go onto those people's profiles and you comment and engage with their, with their LinkedIn posts. And the reason why it's important to be targeted is because you want to be engaging with the right people, because you want your name, as we said, to be showing up on the right news feeds. And also it really helps with that networking piece. So if you're consistently showing up in my comments and I see that you're liking my content every day, and you're in there leaving really great comments, I'm then going to know you. I'm gonna get to know you. I'll probably send you a DM saying, thank you so much for supporting me. Like, I've noticed that you're always in my comment sect and you start building that, that network and that, those friendships that we were talking about at the beginning. So that's one of the biggest reasons why I think it's important to be strategic. And then again, there's more stuff that you can do, like send five DMs a day. Maybe it's just, maybe you're not trying to sell anything. Maybe it's just trying to build a connection and it's saying something as simple as, like, I loved your post earlier. This part really resonated with me. We always talk a lot about how compliments always work when you're sending a dm. People love an ego stroke. So if you're going to to someone, giving them a compliment always works.

[Courtney Johnson]

Yeah. The again, the opportunities that can come out of it are really amazing. I DM somebody a few weeks ago just being like, hey, I really like your content. It's great. I'm happy to be connected. We ended up in a conversation. We went to dinner twice over the last few weeks. And now we might do a collaborative offer together.

[Misha Collins]

Yeah.

[Courtney Johnson]

For like this certain industry. And it's just really cool what can come out of just, just a conversation. Especially, like, there becomes a point where it's inevitable. It can't, like, statistically not happen. Like, if you're sending a message every day of just like, hey, like, I want to connect. It's great to chat with you. I'm really happy that we're following each other. Thank you for commenting. It's really cool what you're doing here. Like, giving them a compliment. You do that every day for 365 days. Ten of them are going to turn into a client, an opportunity, a speaking gig, a paid thing, a job. Like, just statistically, it's bound to happen.

[Misha Collins]

Totally. And you're right. I actually this happened to me yesterday. I reached out to someone. Oh. Someone sent me a DM saying we wanted to connect because we're both female founders. We hopped on a call yesterday and then she said at the end of the call, oh, I'd really love some support with LinkedIn content. And now I'm going to help her with LinkedIn content. And that all came from. It wasn't a sales EDM whatsoever. It was just her reaching out, saying, would be really nice. It was a coffee chat that we were essentially going on. So these opportunities do really come from. From those, from those messages. And that's why it's so important.

[Courtney Johnson]

Yeah. And level up on LinkedIn. We have some scripts around this. But one of my favorite things is just asking people, like, how you can help them. Like, hey, Misha, I. I love what you're doing. Like, how can I help you? And genuine, like, be genuine. You might be like, you can comment on my post, or I actually really need help with this thing, or could you refer me to this person? I see we're a mutual connection. Like, if you genuinely just reach out to people and be like, how can I help you? It's again, it's going to turn into something totally.

[Misha Collins]

And I think it's that positive message. Like a big thing that we, I used to, at my old company was we would encourage kind of if we couldn't help them directly with our service, it might be okay, well, could I introduce you to someone? And when you. I almost kind of think it's a level of, like, manifestation as well. Like when you're DMing people and you're putting yourself out there. Well, people, I. I saw something the other day which said that apparently. Well, it was saying that creating content is almost like the highest level of manifestation because you are literally putting yourself out there into the world. You are saying, this is what I'm doing. This is what I'm here for. And that then allows, like, the positive energy to attract you. And I think that goes for everything. When you're DMing people and you're messaging them and leaving compliments or asking how they can help, you are putting yourself out there and you're. You're moving one step further to kind of making your goals happen. You know, if you stay silent, if you're not posting on LinkedIn, if you're not sending any messages, if you're not commenting on any posts, how's anyone supposed to know what you do? How's anyone supposed to know how they can work with you? So you have to put yourself out there to become visible and attract these opportunities.

[Courtney Johnson]

Yeah, I have some people that will message me on Instagram and they'll be like, courtney, it's so unfair. I can't get a job. I've been looking for months and months, and I'm like, go do these things. And if you still can't get a job, you can come back and complain to me. You can't complain without doing these things.

[Misha Collins]

Things.

[Courtney Johnson]

I'm like, here's what you're gonna do. You're gonna optimize your profile. You're going to post consistently, and you're going to reach out to one person per day. Like, that's it. If you're not actively reaching out to people right now, it's really fucking hard to get a job. Yeah, you got to be networking. And networking doesn't have to be this dumb. Like, I'm going to this networking event. No, you can actually do it, like in your PJs, from your bed, Just message people, say, hello, connect. Like, it doesn't have to be this big formal thing. You can literally just be like. Like, hey, Misha, how can I help you? Or, hey, Misha, I'm looking for a job right now in marketing. Is there any way you could help?

[Misha Collins]

Oh, yeah.

[Courtney Johnson]

Still, like, you get to be forward with what you want, and there are people out there that are willing to help you.

[Misha Collins]

I work with loads of people who slid into my DMs, the graphic designers I work with. Like, a lot of the people who I work with now are people who just shoot the shot.

[Courtney Johnson]

No save.

[Misha Collins]

I don't.

[Courtney Johnson]

I don't put out job applications. If I'm gonna hire someone, it's because they DM me something. They DM me. Hey, like, somebody DM me the other day, say, courtney, I think your newsletter could use some work. I would improve it in these three ways. I was like, okay, send me a proposal. Oh, my God. I didn't put out a job application for a newsletter writer.

[Misha Collins]

Yeah, exactly. And that happens all the time. That genuinely happens all the time. And I think it's. It's giving the value, isn't it? Saying something like, I could help you do this, or I've seen this isn't quite right, or offering you, like, a free example. But coming back to the job point, something that really blows my mind is a lot of people, they apply for a job and then they don't really think to do anything else. But reaching out to someone on LinkedIn, whether it's the hiring manager, whether it's the lead of that team, is such a good thing to do because it shows that you're going above and beyond. It shows that you're really wanting that job. And this literally happened to a friend of mine the other day. She applied for a job, didn't hit anything back for two weeks. I said, why don't you message him on LinkedIn and say, I've applied for this job. She messaged the marketing manager, or whoever it was who was going to be hiring for that role, and she got an interview that day.

[Courtney Johnson]

Wow.

[Misha Collins]

And so few people are doing it. And yet you're applying for these jobs, which have thousands of applicants, and you're expecting people to sift through your CV and then reach out to you. You need to be doing more to get in front of these people.

[Courtney Johnson]

Yeah. I have a level up on LinkedIn alumni that gets international paid speaking gigs multiple times a year. I'm talking, like, every month. She's flying to a new place and she came on my podcast and I asked her, her, how are you getting so many speaking gigs? Like, you're applying to these.

[Misha Collins]

How.

[Courtney Johnson]

How are people saying yes to you? Like, she's not the most qualified. She says, oh, I just messaged them on LinkedIn, Hey, I just applied for that speaking gig. She's like, it can be that simple. But she says consistently, she's the only person messaging after the application saying, I applied for the speaking gig.

[Misha Collins]

Yeah, exactly. And then that also just. It just shows the employer, whoever's. Whoever's organizing these speaking opportunities. Okay. This person really wants it. She's gone and followed up.

[Courtney Johnson]

Up. Yeah, exactly. I have a problematic tip on how to get engagement on your own posts on LinkedIn. It only works if you're a young woman. And I. I haven't posted about this on social because it's problematic, but I'll. I'll talk about it on here. So what you're going to do is you're going to find, like, you know how sometimes you have, like, just like these random guys from India in your connection request, you have to accept them, then you have to send them, like, a nice message, like, it's so great to be connected with you. You're so amazing. And then they're gonna comment on all your posts and be like, my beautiful princess. Then it boosts engagement. I love that.

[Misha Collins]

Yeah, let's not write about that on LinkedIn.

[Courtney Johnson]

No, I'm not gonna. No, that's a secret hack.

[Misha Collins]

Yeah.

[Courtney Johnson]

I was gonna make an Instagram post about it, but I'm like, no, this is gonna be buried in a podcast. It is a good tip.

[Misha Collins]

That is a really good tip.

[Courtney Johnson]

It's a good tip, but it's a little problematic.

[Misha Collins]

I also think that's something that people don't tend to understand is when we were talking about lurkers earlier is on LinkedIn, the chances of your Ideal audience or your ideal customer. Sorry, not audience. Your ideal customer. Commenting on your post is probably, depending on who you work with, is probably quite low.

[Courtney Johnson]

Right. Like it's gonna be like your friends and yeah.

[Misha Collins]

I typically work with founders or C suite senior execs at companies. They're not commenting on my posts, but they're still seeing them. Most of the people who are commenting on my posts are people in a similar industry or people who just want to be my friend or my friends.

[Courtney Johnson]

Yeah. Or people that want to sell you. People that want to sell you are going to be commenting. Let them.

[Misha Collins]

Yeah, let them be like, hell yeah, keep going. It's a flower. It's credibility.

[Courtney Johnson]

Yeah, exactly. What would you tell someone that feels like they're running out of content ideas or they don't know what to post today?

[Misha Collins]

If you don't know what to post today? Well, I think this is why it comes back to strategy piece. So I spoke about the mission at the beginning. I build it on a thing called a map. So you've got your M, which is your mission, A which is your authenticity. So. Or your authority. So what makes you uniquely you and why someone should follow you over someone else who's in a similar industry. And the P is your content pillars. So you need to be choosing around three to four content pillars that you're always sticking to. And it's really. That's one of my biggest pieces of advice if you're running out of content ideas because it leans itself into that repetition side of things. So if you choose four content topics that you know you have to be posting about each week, it removes the friction and the decision making or decision fatigue of knowing what to post about because you've already chosen your content pillars. So I would say always go back to your content pillars if you're not sure what you want to post about. But also just think about what's happened to you over the past two weeks. One thing that I've noticed be really successful on LinkedIn is lived experience. So recent lived experience. So if I start a LinkedIn post with, with yesterday I spoke on Courtney Johnson's podcast, that's most likely going to do well. Or you know, it can be something as simple as 2 weeks ago a client said this to me. I think the reason why that's become really popular is because it's stuff that AI doesn't know, it's stuff that you only know it's storytelling. So I would just genuinely think about, okay, what's happened over the past week or two that would be interesting to my ideal audience and most likely something will be there. Yeah.

[Courtney Johnson]

Document what? That's already happening.

[Misha Collins]

Yeah. Or look back on photos. Yes, that always helps.

[Courtney Johnson]

I love that. Well, if you guys want us, Misha and I to work together to help you build your LinkedIn, you can join Level up on LinkedIn. I'll put all the info for the next one in the show. Notes and Misha, where can people follow you? And let's all go spam your Instagram. Let's. Let's spam your Instagram as you're growing it. Please do.

[Misha Collins]

Okay, you can follow me on LinkedIn. Misha Collins. You know what? I've actually forgotten my Instagram. Just Google Ms. Misha Colin something. I'll. I'll send it to Courtney and you can put it in there. But yeah, please go follow me on Instagram. And as Courtney said, we're doing the next level up on LinkedIn and everyone in this cohort loved it. Yeah, we've never had. I mean, everyone was so engaged and they really went for it. So if you want to grow your LinkedIn, it's the perfect place for it.

[Courtney Johnson]

Amazing. So you guys in level up on LinkedIn see that I do have an ask for you guys before we go. If this podcast has benefited you in any way, if you have gotten a tip that you've really loved and you've implemented it, if it's given you some sort of inspiration, if it's given you some sort of motivation or clarity, my ask is that you leave a five star review. I would appreciate it so much. It helps spread the message, it really helps the show grow and it helps more people get access to this information. My deepest desire is un gatekeeping shit. I want to un gatekeep information. So anybody that desires to build a personal brand, to build a business, to create this success in their life and to live their dream, I want them to have all of the information. And I don't hold shit back on this show. Okay, we are not holding shit back. So in order to get this message to more people, in order to get these resources and tips to more people, your reviews go a long way. I appreciate you so much. Thank you.