Courtney Johnson (0:03)

Welcome to Slay the Gatekeeper. I'm your host, Courtney Johnson, and I am here to un gatekeep the gatekept. Thank you so much for being here. Enjoy. Hello, friends. Today's episode, I want to take you through my LinkedIn cohort. I get a lot of questions about my cohort. A lot of people are curious, a lot of people want me to go dive deeper into what actually happens during the cohort. So I want to take this episode to walk you through every single thing you're going to learn during the LinkedIn cohort. What it's like, different elements of it, some testimonials, et cetera. And I wanted to start with a background of the cohort. So the first iteration of the this class was actually created in maybe 2017 at my first or second ever job. I started creating personal brand trainings that I would give to the team and to clients. So this is really an iteration on what I've been working on for maybe like seven or eight years. And every single time I've done this training, I've improved it a little bit, I've refined it a little bit more, I've added more value. So this cohort is literally seven, eight years in the making. I want to first start with reading some testimonials from some of my alumni. This was a message I got last week, so I wanted to call it out. I just got my first inbound lead on a LinkedIn using your course's strategies, and it's from a 15 billion plus company. Thank you. Another testimonial. This cohort is one of the best investments I've made for my personal development. This course is packed with so much value, it almost feels like robbery. Courtney's an absolute genius and gives you every single thing you need to succeed in the game of LinkedIn if you put in the work. I've done my fair share of reading articles and watching YouTube videos about how to play the LinkedIn game, but none of it compares to having this container and having every detail laid out for you by someone who's actually walking the walk. It's a no brainer. That was a very nice review. Thank you. Yeah, one of the things I want to call out there is that this reviewer is saying that she had looked at all of the resources that LinkedIn gives and watches all the video. And the trick is you cannot follow LinkedIn's advice. And guys, LinkedIn has been one of my clients. I've worked with them, I've done advertisement for them. Like I've worked with them in so many different ways. And I've literally been working with LinkedIn in different ways for, I don't know, maybe five years now. LinkedIn's number one goal is revenue, okay? Their number one goal is their bottom line. I love LinkedIn. I love the team. They're awesome. But let's be real, they're. They're a publicly traded company. Their number one goal is shareholder value. So they are not going to give you tips in advice that's going to make you more money. They are going to give you tips and advice and frameworks that is going to make them more money. Don't hate the player, hate the game. Okay? There's nothing wrong with this. Every company does this. They're just contributing to their bottom line, not yours. So what I do is I demystify everything that LinkedIn tells you and only keep the bits that actually work for making you more money, not making LinkedIn more money. Okay, another review. Your LinkedIn courses have helped me so much. I've spent $10,000 on courses and this beats everything else out of the park. Seriously. Thank you. Courtney, I haven't told you, but I got an incredible offer for my career because of you and all the value you offered in your LinkedIn cohort. All I did was connect with someone and the rest is history. Then she goes into where she's working. I'm not going to read that. Thank you so much. You're so obviously walking in your purpose. This one isn't a review, but it was a comment. Somebody was, like, kind of talking shit about my LinkedIn cohorts. Someone like a random troll. Not anybody I know. They commented, what's the point or the end game of this? Honest question. And one of my alumni commented, I took Courtney's course and actively post on LinkedIn. Random people hit me up for paid consulting all the time now. Yeah, that pretty much sums it up. Okay, let's just go through the structure of the cohort. So the cohort is four weeks long, and there is a live session every single Monday. Right now I have two sessions. I have one in the morning for, like, the European or Asia folks, and then I have one cohort in the evening for Americans. You can go to either one or you can go to none and just get the recordings. It really doesn't matter. You can switch back and forth. I just wanted ultimate flexibility. And I also wanted to keep the group small enough. That's why I do two sessions every single Monday. So it's. You'll go for an hour of training. Every single Monday for four weeks. That is live, that is in a small group. I typically limit my cohorts to about 20 students. So typically in every zoom call there's only about 10 people. I like to keep the group small so we have time to answer questions, you can introduce yourself, et cetera. There's a couple of optional coworking hours as well throughout those four weeks. So these coworking hours is where you go, you set your intention of what you're going to be working on. And we work together for about an hour or two. What I love about these intentional coworking sessions is it is like guided, dedicated office hours time. So there's typically one or two of those throughout the cohort. Another thing that I have in the cohort is an optional but highly recommended EFT tapping session. So EFT tapping is subconscious reprogramming. You're getting back into your subconscious like brainwave state in order to reprogram it. So what we do in that session is we address the unconscious beliefs around the fear of being seen. So we're kind of hitting this from all angles. You're getting the tactical advice every Monday. You're getting implementation in the coworking sessions. And then you're also getting somatic experiencing that supports this. That is all included. What else is included is a one on one strategy session with me in this session. Typically what I do is I look at you fill out some forms. Not forms, but you fill out some questions when you sign up. I'm also like meeting you through these four weeks. I'm seeing you in the chat, I'm seeing what your goals are. And so I have a lot of notes on you when we go into the strategy session. So strategy sessions happens two ways. One, either I go through your goals and notes and I look at your LinkedIn profile. I tell you what needs to be changed or updated. We do a little strategy work around content or sometimes my students like to come in and just ask me questions for the whole strategy session. So it's also has a strategy session included in that as well. So again, over four weeks we have a live session every week. We have coworking sessions, we have somatic reprocessing, and we have a one on one session with me. Okay, let me pause for another review. I decided to join Courtney's level up on LinkedIn cohort after receiving the call a few times to start dipping my toes into the world of LinkedIn. Prior to this cohort, I despised LinkedIn. Not only did I find it boring and confusing But I thought I had no place there as an entrepreneur. All caps. Ha, ha, ha. I was wrong. Courtney's knowledge, confidence, and passion for what she does blew me away and actually stirred up excitement in me. Pause. Okay, this is a huge theme of people. Go from like, I hated LinkedIn. I thought LinkedIn was this disgusting cesspool. To me being so excited about LinkedIn. I'm now currently leveraging this incredible tool that's LinkedIn, and I have Courtney to thank for that. I would recommend not only Courtney's cohorts, but Courtney as an educator for anyone and everyone. Should be an incredible asset to just about anyone who's looking for more confidence and clarity around building a personal brand. So great to to have learned from her. I love that. That's so nice. Okay, now let's get into what each of the four weeks hold. So I'm just gonna go through my actual slides. The first thing we go through is some housekeeping. Just, like, what to expect, how to use the platforms, my intentions, my asks from you, et cetera. Then the first part is introduction to personal brand. So I teach you a little bit about what personal brand is, why it matters. Then we go into mindset work. So mindset work is a lot of reprogramming, how you see yourself, fear of being seen, fear of putting yourself out there, all of that. Then we do a quick introduction to LinkedIn, like, why are we even using LinkedIn? Then we do profile optimization. So profile optimization is essentially leveraging your profile to, like, like, not gonna lie, gaslight people into seeing you as a thought leader. So we do that in a couple of different ways. We do it through visual branding. We do it through your messaging. All of that. You leave the first session with a couple of pieces of homework. One is some posting homework, and another one is profile optimization, where I give you an entire profile optimization checklist. I also give you a ton of LinkedIn post ideas to start. I give you resources around. Actually, I have this free podcast where it's only for my students, but if you're feeling, like, overwhelmed about posting and it takes you like an hour or two hours to make one post, and you're like, there's no way this is sustainable. I have, like, a prerecorded podcast for you. I also, if you're the type of person that's like, I don't really know about my messaging, because I don't really know what I want to do. I have a purpose worksheet. I also have a worksheet around specific knowledge. Then I give you just a document with, like, a ton of other resources. All right, Week. Oh, and then in week one, we also have a coworking session to really cement your homework and give you time and space to do that homework, get support on it, et cetera. Week two, we go into positioning. So this is messaging in your content. So messaging around your headline, around your about section, around who your target audience is, your positioning statement, et cetera. Then after that, we go into positioning your content. So really, how to position your content to help your audience achieve their goals? We go into the LinkedIn algorithm. I walk you through it. We go into post ideas. Not just post ideas, but, like, how to think about posts. I am not the person that's like, I'm gonna give you post ideas forever. Actually, I do have that. You do get a document with 87 LinkedIn post ideas, I'm not gonna lie. But moreover, than just teaching you what to post, I wanna teach you how to think about posting so you don't need me, you know, so you can, like, go and take these and so you don't need me anymore. Okay? Then we talk about content curation, content systems, content analytics. I tell a nice little story, and then you go into your homework for the week. So there's two homeworks for the week. One is content. Why Worksheet. This gets into, like, psychological manipulation behind your audience's deepest subconscious desires and how to exploit them. Is that unethical? Maybe not, if you're using it for good. And then we have a Persona worksheet. Oh, wait, there's three homeworks. So we have the exploiting unconscious bias homework. We have a Persona work worksheet, which that's just your messaging. And then we have a worksheet with 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 12, 12, 12 different posts. And these 12 posts, I give you a literal template. Like, I give you fill in the blanks for 12 weeks of posts. Okay? So you can go off and create content with 12 weeks of posts using this template just to start getting you in the habit. Then I have more resources. I have some headline formulas, a cheat sheet, some tools that might be helpful. Then also at this time is usually when we do the EFT tapping. So at this time, you're kind of like, yeah, I'm starting to post. I optimize my profile, but I'm still feeling some fear of being seen. While you're going into eft tapping, Boom. Okay, week three, we go into engagement and audience building. So this is how to build a strong following, how to Engage with others, who to engage with, who to add as connections. We go in some really sneaky, like, plays. Um, and this is where I also have templates for you, like templates on how to reach out to someone on LinkedIn. Then we talk about commenting, engaging on your own posts, engaging on hashtags. And then we get into my favorite assignment. And my favorite assignment, I'm actually not going to say it because that's reserved for the cohort, you know. Okay. Then we have week four. Also in week three, we do another co working session. Just so you can, if you want support in doing the homework, you can do that at the coworking session. All right, Then we have week four. Week four is plays, hacks, content systems, and lessons learned. So plays and hacks are essentially like if you're in sales, you know, you can run different plays to get people interested in you, to get people to reach out to you, to reach out to others. So we do some plays, some hacks. I teach you how to repurpose content, I teach you other places to find content, for example, Reddit, Quora, YouTube, all that. And then we go into some lessons learned. So I talk about some lessons that I've learned in my content creation journey so you don't have to learn them the hard way. We talk about permissionless leverage. We do a little Intro to Digital products and then how to expand beyond LinkedIn. And then that kind of concludes the cohort after that. That's usually when we do one on ones. I found that when I was doing one on ones during the cohort, people were asking questions and I'm like, oh, I'm going to answer this next week. So I didn't feel like it was the best use of my time. So what I decided to do instead is save the strategy sessions till after. So after the cohort wraps you, you know, you're in the habit of posting. You have an optimized profile. Usually this is a point where people start reaching out to you if you're applying to jobs that's being accelerated, all of that. And then we have. It's. It's on Maven. So Maven is a hosting tool for live cohort based classes. So it's essentially like a college course. Like, you know how in a college course you have, or like an online college course you have like chat rooms, you have maybe messaging, you have a place where you could submit your assignment. That is what Maven is. So on the back end, I can see your assignments. I'm giving you feedback on assignments. I'M seeing the chats, you're asking questions, et cetera. So like, every day you can go in and ask questions if you would like. That is Maven. Maven's been, like, a really awesome tool and partner. Okay, I'm going to read another review. I literally got a job because I joined your previous cohort. I was scouted and got a 20k pay bump. $20,000, baby. And it's with a nonprofit, which I've been trying to pivot into from the private sector. I've been looking for five months. Started my personal brand and got recruited. Thank you. Love that. Okay, another review. Courtney is a weapon. Just when you think you know everything about a platform, she comes in and knocks you upside the head. I learned so much from this cohort and would highly, highly recommend it to anyone looking to step up their game in major ways. I love that. Yeah, it doesn't matter if you're, like, already an expert in LinkedIn or in content. This. I have a complete. Like, if you've worked with me before, you know that I have a completely unique approach to content, to personal brand, to all of it. I am not like. Anyways, you'll. You'll see. You'll see. And then I also have a review from Kat, Kat Sosnik. You guys have probably seen her on the Patreon. Maybe you've seen her around. She's great. She says, as one of the alumni of this course, please feel free to message me if you have any questions. It's an outstanding course to build your LinkedIn presence. Cannot recommend it enough. Oh, I love that. Guys, I love these reviews. I'm literally, like, getting emotional seeing them. Guys, I used to be, like, afraid to read reviews. Like, I was afraid to accept compliments. And now I'm really working on it. Anyways. Okay, again, what else to expect on level up on LinkedIn accelerator? I'm gonna go through some questions that people often ask. The biggest question that people ask is, what if I miss a session? Well, if you miss a session, you get access to the recordings and you have access to the recordings literally forever. Another question is, who is this for? I would say it's for high achievers who know the value of a personal brand but need guidance or need help in actually executing it. So there's really two types of people that come. One person needs a lot of, like, emotional support of overcoming cringe mountain. Which, by the way, this is why I do this live. Like, I could easily just record this and sell it as a asynchronous course. But the reason why that doesn't work as well is because when you're setting an intention and doing this with everybody around you that's also supporting you, that's when results happen. Because it's so easy to just buy a course and leave it on your desktop and never touch it. I'm like, no, no, no, we're going deep together. Also, typically people are either full time job folks just wanting to level up their career, they're freelancers wanting to get more clients, or they're business owners either wanting to get more clients or wanting to get funding for like a startup. Also, if you go to the landing page maven.com CourtneyJohnson personal brand, you can actually scroll down and see a real clip from this cohort. Another review. Okay, so total fanboy moment. This post I had shared about the design I did for the gala while the head EVP slash head of communications for Showtime MVP and Paramount just reacted to it. Squee. Holy crud. This stuff does work. Lol. I love that. Okay, another review. I'm still not posting content on social because there are family hardships due to the war. That's very fucking sad. So this was a client that went through my cohort that was like, look, he has like family in Ukraine. And he was like, I can't fucking be posting right now, bro. And I'm like, yeah, maybe don't post. But he says, since updating my profile page, I had four inquiries from potential clients and two additional sales calls set up for this week. That alone is a tremendous improvement. I'll be creating content and adding it to a doc and then I'll schedule it out for the next few months. The thing that works so well about LinkedIn is so little people do it that even if you do like 50% of what I tell you to do, you're probably still gonna see results. Another review. Big thank you Courtney. I've been hitting LinkedIn hard since your cohort. It's been a wild ride. I was contacted yesterday because of my LinkedIn presence by an organization asking me to do a speaking engagement with their group regarding into breaking into cybersecurity. Hell yeah. That's a really powerful thing that happens to a lot of people. Like people will get either a lot more consulting, a lot more speaking opportunities, a lot more like people reaching out to them to be on podcasts. So if that's something you're interested in, definitely, definitely would recommend another review. I never realized the true power of my personal brand. Courtney really helped me put myself out There I had recruiters in my DMs the first week. It was crazy. Courtney helped me see I could actually do it. I switched roles to a new company and got a raise over $40,000. Hell yeah. Okay. Love that. I also have another gift for you guys if you go to the landing page, which is maven.com CourtneyJohnson personal brand. There is a LinkedIn profile checklist and this is the actual checklist that we use during the cohort. So if you want to go check it out, see how in depth it is, definitely check it out. So yeah, if you want higher paying jobs, if you want more clients, you want increased revenue, you want to become a thought leader. Like you're an ambitious, accomplished, high performer that knows the value of a person. Personal brand. Like you've seen other people do it, probably other people that are not as smart or talented as you. But like you haven't gotten around to it. You're held back by overwhelm, procrastination, cringe mountain imposter syndrome. Like not having a clear plan, not knowing where to start. You're like feeling very stuck and overwhelmed. Or maybe you're posting and nothing is happening. You're like, what am I doing wrong? Maybe you're already spending time on LinkedIn, but you don't know how to optimize your time. Maybe you've let your fear of posting and I'm calling you out. Maybe you've let your fear of posting and your fear of being seen keep you from making money and keep you from career and business value and keep you from those clients or those jobs or those opportunities that you know you deserve. Or maybe you've watched like friends or colleagues like blow up overnight and you're like, how did they go from like zero to all these opportunities so fast? Or maybe you've watched other professionals that are not as talented as you take your clients or your opportunities just because of their audience size. Like, I know that's frustrating as hell. I'm trying to, trying to get you into that position. So anyways, in my cohort, you're going to learn the system, strategies and process to master LinkedIn in order to get more clients, job opportunities, press opportunities, all of that. My next cohort is January 6th through 27th. I really hope to see you there. Oh, one more thing. Sorry, I'm going to add in one more thing. I want to talk through my intentions for this cohort. This actually happened. I go through this during session one, but my intention is one, to make you a thought leader like Period. That I want you to become a thought leader. That is my intention. Another intention I have is to 10x your investment over your career. I don't take this lightly. I know this is an investment of your money, your resources and time, and I do not take this lightly. My intention is for you to go through this cohort and say, wow, that was the catalyst. Like, that was the change. That was the marker to this new era of my career where I stepped into thought leadership. Okay. I. My goal is to 10x your investment over your career. Personal brand is a monetary investment. And my other intention is to make a massive impact on your career. Again, I want you to look back and say, wow, this cohort is what changed everything or what pivoted or what accelerated me. And then my asks from the students is first to take what resonates and leave what doesn't. For some of you, there might be some things where you're like, that actually does not work in my company culture or in my situation. This is not a prescription. These are suggestions. You know what's best for you. I want you to, like, tap into your intuition and know what to keep and what to leave on the shelf. I also ask for a commitment of one post a week for one full year from my students. The reason why I asked that is because that's automatically going to put you in the top 1% of all of LinkedIn. There's a billion users on LinkedIn. Less than 1% of those billion post once per week. So if you can just post once per week, you're going to be in the top 1% of all of LinkedIn. Okay. Like, it's. It's really that easy. There is a ton on top of that. I want to make sure your content's good. I want to make sure your profile is optimized. I want to go through the plays, but that's what I ask. So if you're. If you're committed to that, if you're like a, hell, yes. And you're committed to, like, all right, I'm committed to going through the homework. I'm committed to going through this cohort, and I'm committed to posting once per week for a full year. I. I hope to see you. Would love to see you. Anyways, so next cohort, January 6th through 27th, it's already halfway filled up as I am recording this. So if you're still seeing it on the landing page, that means there's still spots available. Again, that is maven.com CourtneyJohnson personal brand and I hope to see you there. Okay, y'all, if you like this episode, you would love, love my Patreon. Okay? You get exclusive access to me, exclusive content, tons of other resources, and a lot of juicy shit, okay? So I hope to see you on my Patreon.