Stop Being a LinkedIn Ghost and Build Real Connections | Bill McCormick

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Entrepreneur DNA — "Stop Being a LinkedIn Ghost and Build Real Connections"

Host: Justin Colby
Guest: Bill McCormick (Founder, All Selling Is Social)
Date: March 11, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Justin Colby interviews Bill McCormick, a leading expert on leveraging LinkedIn for genuine business connections. Bill explains how entrepreneurs can stop being "LinkedIn ghosts" and start building real, human relationships on the platform to grow their businesses. The conversation unpacks Bill's journey, key lessons about authentic networking, best practices for using LinkedIn, and actionable strategies for both newcomers and veterans to maximize their presence and results.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Origin Story: All Selling is Social

[02:02–04:28]

• Bill and his wife began their entrepreneurial journey in 2013, using LinkedIn out of necessity to rebuild a client base.
• Realization: People were curious about Bill’s success on LinkedIn, leading to the launch of his consulting business.
• Evolution: Bill moved from being a strict advocate of social selling to recognizing value in multiple methods (e.g., cold calling, InMail).
• Key Insight: Every sales method has a social element, and even on social platforms, antisocial behaviors persist.

“There’s a social element to every sales methodology. Hence, all selling is social. And what’s really interesting to me is on a social media platform like LinkedIn, we see some of the most antisocial behavior.”
— Bill McCormick [03:40]

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2. What Makes LinkedIn Unique?

[05:02–07:59]

• LinkedIn is more than just a social network: It’s a multi-purpose platform (recruiting, marketing, sales, networking).
• Analogy: Compared LinkedIn to an American football team with many specialized components.
• Origin: Initially built to connect talent with recruiters, but now much broader.
• Update Frequency: People update LinkedIn faster than any other professional platform.
• Importance of Purpose: Users must clarify their goals (e.g., sales, networking, branding) for effective engagement.

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3. Building a Powerful LinkedIn Profile

[07:59–09:26]

• Reputation precedes you: Your LinkedIn profile is often the first impression.
• Avoid generic claims ("the best product/service"); focus on the specific value you provide to clients.
• Profiles should be value-centric: Articulate the transformation or benefit clients experience.

"What you want to do is create a value centric profile, a profile that highlights and spotlights the value you provide your current clients."
— Bill McCormick [08:28]

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4. Using LinkedIn: Best Practices and Features

[09:26–10:59]

• Premium subscribers unlock key features (e.g., more message options, video messages, dynamic billboard banners).
• Analogies help clarify concepts: Treat your banner like a highway billboard—don’t let it stay blank.
• Important to use all features available, but especially ones that drive authentic connection (personal messages, video).

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5. The Wrong Way to Use LinkedIn

[11:26–15:35]

• Common errors: Mass spamming, automation tools that violate user agreements, generic outreach.
• LinkedIn as a scaled outreach tool typically yields a poor "return on missing" (ROM) rather than ROI.
• Automation can backfire: Bots and cut-and-paste messaging erode trust and damage reputation.

"There's a return on missing, right. An ROM rather than an ROI."
— Bill McCormick [12:55]

• Bill shares real examples where AI-based outreach made embarrassing mistakes referencing the wrong work.

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6. Humanizing Your Outreach and Networking

[15:35–19:00]

• Selling remains a human endeavor, regardless of the platform.
• Entrepreneurs need to be where their customers are, whether B2B (LinkedIn) or B2C (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok).
• Success depends on systems, not just goals (“We don’t rise to the level of our goals, we fall to the level of our systems.” —James Clear, Atomic Habits).

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7. Who Should Use LinkedIn? (Best Business Avatars)

[21:21–22:59]

• LinkedIn is best for B2B businesses or those whose clients/referral partners are B2B-focused.
• B2C-focused entrepreneurs may see better results on other platforms.
• Assess carefully if your potential clients are actively using LinkedIn before investing significant time.

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8. Four Pillars of Effective LinkedIn Use

[21:54–27:31]

1. Profile: Value-centric, client-focused, succinct about-section, experience section for deliverables—not just career history.
2. Build Quality Network: Connect on purpose, follow up with every new connection, personalization is key.
3. Content: Address client problems, mix formats (text, video, curated/repurposed content), ask questions, and focus on sparking conversation, not just vanity metrics.
4. Conversations: Move from digital to real (Zoom, phone, in-person), use features like My Network tab’s catch-up, and always follow up.

"If your LinkedIn activity isn’t leading to conversations ... you’re just spinning your wheels."
— Bill McCormick [26:10]

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9. Overcoming Social Awkwardness

[27:31–29:41]

• Advice for the less social: Start by commenting on other people’s posts genuinely.
• Reach out referencing specific content or industry relevance.
• Remember, it’s usually easier to be authentic online—but also easier to fall into inauthentic behavior. Treat online connections like people across the table.

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10. LinkedIn Content Strategy: The Long & Short Game

[30:20–36:44]

• Don’t overcommit: Post 2–3 times a week, not daily.
• Mix up your format (text, photo, video) and focus on prompting discussion rather than “going viral.”
• The goal is quality conversation, not just impressions.
• “Content is the long game. Networking is the short game.”

— Bill McCormick [34:09]

• Leverage your connections to gain authentic introductions, always with permission; never be “scammy.”

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11. The Art of LinkedIn Networking & Sales

[36:44–39:23]

• Move slowly to build trust—quality beats quantity.
• Example system: Ten quality connections weekly → Five real conversations → Two or more real opportunities.
• Ask thoughtful, value-driven questions before pitching.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “We need to be more social on social so that we can make connections with people and we’re just not collecting, you know, these followers and think that makes us successful.”
  — Bill McCormick [04:19]

• “People come in with judgment rather than curiosity ... They assume my content’s good ... They assume I need their help ... Rather than coming in and being curious.”
  — Bill McCormick [20:45]

• “If you’re in sales—and your sales is B2B—LinkedIn is the place you need to be.”
  — Justin Colby [38:06]

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Actionable Steps & Resources

[39:23–41:15]

• Find Bill McCormick on LinkedIn (send a personal note referencing the podcast).
• Access free resources: checklist for value-centric profiles, videos for entrepreneurs and sales leaders, and discount on premium DIY course (bit.ly/allsellingissocialfree).
• Download and review your list of first-degree connections; follow up with personalized messages.
• Commit to a 30-day LinkedIn experiment: 2–3 posts per week, comment authentically, build thoughtful outreach habit.
• Remember: Transition engagement from digital to real-world conversations whenever possible.

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• [02:02] Bill’s LinkedIn journey and early entrepreneurship
• [05:02] What makes LinkedIn unique for B2B
• [07:59] Creating a value-centric profile
• [11:26] The pitfalls of automation and mass outreach
• [15:35] The human element in networking
• [21:54] The four pillars of LinkedIn success
• [27:31] Tips for the less-social on LinkedIn
• [30:20] Crafting an effective LinkedIn content strategy
• [36:44] Authenticity, trust, and the slow game of sales
• [39:23] Free tools & how to connect with Bill

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Final Thoughts

Justin and Bill agree: Sales and networking on LinkedIn is about building trust, being curious, and leading with real value—not mass outreach, inauthentic pitches, or automation. Entrepreneurs, especially those in B2B, must understand how to leverage the platform’s features intentionally, prioritize conversations, and commit to consistent, human-centric activity.

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Call to Action:
Connect with Bill McCormick on LinkedIn, grab his free resources, and—most of all—start practicing authentic outreach today.

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This summary omits all ad spots and non-content segments for brevity and focus.

Transcript

[Justin Colby]

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[Bill McCormick]

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[Justin Colby]

ADP knows anything can change the world of work. Like what if a blocked shipping port caused a worldwide coffee shortage? Suddenly businesses are scrambling to manage an increasingly drowsy workforce. Productivity slips 20% just due to the extended time it takes to conduct a job interview while yawning. Anything can change the world of work. From HR to payroll, ADP helps businesses take on the next anything. ADP always designing for people. What is up Entrepreneur DNA Family I'm very excited about this next guest because if you are in business then you know you would need to understand sales. And if you understand sales, you know it is connecting to humans. And connecting to humans is social. My guest is the founder of all selling is social and he's leveraging LinkedIn as a human creating actual connections versus just collections. Bill McCormick is here. How are you my friend?

[Bill McCormick]

Just I am great. It's so great to be with you. I cannot wait for this conversation. We're going to have so much fun.

[Justin Colby]

Yeah, listen, all selling is social. Like that is just your business, your company, your tagline, the brand. I mean you couldn't have hit it more on the spot in my opinion. This is where you and I are in direct alignment on talk to about just the concept of how you created that.

[Bill McCormick]

Yeah. So my wife and I started our entrepreneurial journey in 2013. She we started our own print and promotional products company and she had been with another company. She left that company, left her email address. Everything was there. She had to connect and find her old clients. And guess where she did it. She did it on LinkedIn. I had never heard of LinkedIn. She, she was the one that turned me onto it and Being the salesperson of the company, I jumped in there, I began to learn about it. And you know, I was doing part time. I was, I was a 911 dispatcher and I worked really strange hours. So I always had two days off during the week and I would go out and sell. And I found that LinkedIn was where we could find our clients. And so fast forward a few years later, I'm able to leave my job. I'm doing really great. I'm using LinkedIn to find our clients, to connect with them, to convert them into, from, from prospects to clients. And people began to ask me in my, you know, BNI groups and my networking groups, hey, how are you getting clients? How are you? How you doing this? I go, well, I'm doing it with LinkedIn. They're like, oh, can you show me? And you know, I did it a couple of times for people. And then I'm like, wait a minute, I could charge them to do this. And so I got involved in that and I. And you know, this is a 2017. And in that time between 2017 and about 20, 20, 21, social selling, the idea of social selling really took off and I became part of the echo chamber of sale of, of sales trainers and social selling trainers that said, this is the only way do it. This is the only thing that works, because I wanted to sell you that. So it. And, but what happened is I got on and had actual conversations with, with people who were using cold calling effectively, who were using InMail effectively, and mass outreach effectively. And every time I would say, you shouldn't do this, I had people telling me, but wait, we're doing this and it makes sense. And I realized when I got away from that echo chamber that, wait a minute, you know what, There's a social element to every sales methodology. Hence all selling is social. And what's really interesting to me is on a social media platform like LinkedIn, we see some of the most antisocial behavior. And so that's kind of what launched it. I'm like, yeah, we need to be better. We need to be more social on social so that we can make connections with people and we're just not collecting, you know, these followers and we think that that makes us successful.

[Justin Colby]

Listen, Bill, I need to lean into my own personal issue, okay? And I think it's probably a lot of entrepreneurs personal issue. To your point, it's a social media platform that is like kind of not social. People don't treat it in a way that to be social, help me lean into how to utilize LinkedIn and I know we'll go deeper but like how can I better use use it? I'm so used to just like so many entrepreneurs these days, the other platforms, videos, reels and I know there's a component that you can still do that help me learn what is best practices for LinkedIn.

[Bill McCormick]

So first to understand is what your goal is for using the platform. Because you know, we say it's a social media platform, but it's actually several different platforms. And what I like to say is LinkedIn is a lot like an American football team. An American football team isn't one team. It's one large team that's comprised by a number of different teams. Right? So we know that the normal ones of offensive team, defensive team, special teams, but we forget there's a coaching team, there's a physical therapy and medical team, there's a back office team, a sales team that sells tickets, there is a stadium team that sells hot dogs and pretzels and beer and soda and all that stuff. Right? So LinkedIn is much like that in that it's one large platform, but it works in several different ways. Right. So it started out as a quiz time. Do you know what linked, how LinkedIn got its start, what it was meant to do? No. Okay, so Reid Hoffman, 2006, in his garage, I believe he wanted to link. He wanted to take recruiters and companies that were looking for, for, for talent and link, get them linked in together to find talent. And then people would come on the site, they would create their profiles and the recruiters could find them and introduce them to companies. And so that's how it got started. In fact, to this day, it still heavily kind of goes back to that resume type of thing. But it's also a marketing platform, you know, for your own personal brand as well as your company brand. It's a sales and business development platform. And if you don't believe that, just look at your inbox. I'm sure we help companies just like you is all over it. And then it's a networking platform and that's what I like to really highlight about it. And it's a networking room of a billion users that is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. And what makes it so powerful is people will usually update their LinkedIn profile before they update anything else when it comes to their professional world. So, so first figuring out why you, you want to use it and for you it's going to be sales, business development, marketing and networking, all those things. So how do you use it most effectively? Well, first of all, there's four areas that I help people in with LinkedIn, and the first is always profile. Right. Mark Hunter, my friend Mark Hunter, the sales hunter, he says our reputation arrives before us. And you can better believe that. You know, when I received an email from, from you about being on the podcast, guess what I did? I went to LinkedIn, I checked out this Justin Colby guy. That's what I do. That's what people do. People are doing research on you and finding out about you. And so what are they seeing? Do they see a profile that says, hey, I'm the best at everything I do? You should believe that, but nobody else is going to believe it. You know, when we say we have the best product, we have the best solution, we have the best company, we have the best customer service, it ends up not meaning anything because guess what? Everybody says that.

[Justin Colby]

Yeah.

[Bill McCormick]

Just if you think about the last bad experience you had with a, with a company, with a product, with a service, you go look at their website, you'll see they've gotten awards for the exact thing that you didn't get from them. Right. Because everybody has a different experience. So starting with your profile, what you want to do is create a value centric profile, a profile that highlights and spotlights the value that you provide your current clients. So that when somebody reads it, they go, oh, yeah, that's what I need. Right. So profiles is first and foremost, then you need to build a quality network. And you need to build it in the right way. And that doesn't mean you slip, you, you pitch, slap people. That's what so many people are doing now. But you connect on purpose and for a purpose, having some context, developing relationships. Right. So you want to build a quality network. And so those are the two things that I see people doing wrong the most that need to be changed. As well as utilizing all features. I sent you a video. You're a Premium subscriber from LinkedIn. And LinkedIn about 18 months ago started moving really into this pay to play model where if you're paying for a subscription for LinkedIn, we're going to give you more features than we're going to give free users of the platform. And among those are being able to send everyone that you connect with a personal message, which is so important. If you're using the basic video for

[Justin Colby]

clarity, I can video you because I'm a premium member. So I have a premium, I pay for it. I forget what I pay and I can literally say, bill, what's up, man, that was a great podcast. And I can send that as a message where if you aren't on premium, you can't.

[Bill McCormick]

So no, you're, you're close, but not quite so. Connection requests. When you send an invitation to connect with someone, if you're a free user, you're only allowed to send three personal messages that says, hey, Justin, just scheduled to be on the, on the entrepreneurial DNA podcast. Thought it made sense for us to connect. Take a look at my profile. And let's, and let's connect. Yeah, Once we're connected, anybody, once you're connected, anyone can send a video message and they're very highly effective, right? Yeah. But another thing is your banner image, that area that's behind your, your profile picture, I call it your billboard. You know, if, if you're in the Miami area, I'm sure there's a big highways down there, lots of billboards. And the billboard company came to you and said, hey, Justin, we're going to give you a free billboard. You put anything on it, you wouldn't leave it blank for long, right? You, you'd be right. But how many people have a blank billboard behind their page on LinkedIn? But listen, if you're a premium business, Premium above for LinkedIn, you can have a scrolling billboard that would be like the billboard company coming to you and saying, we're giving you an electric billboard that can have five different messages on it, right? Yeah, because that's how many. You can have five different slides on it. And I talked to so many people that they know have no idea that they're able to have that. So making sure you're using all the features that are available to you is also a huge point of link.

[Justin Colby]

You know, it's funny, just in transparency, I'm getting so much out of this first 10 minutes, I'm literally looking for a pen. I'm looking for a pen to be able to give the notes of, hey, are we checking these things to my team? Like, hey, have we updated? Like, yeah, this is so great, guys. So built. What are some of the bigger. I want to lean into what people should be doing. I also want to lean into and I want to understand how are people using LinkedIn incorrectly.

[Bill McCormick]

So they're seeing it as another scaling automation and mass outreach opportunity. And one of the things I'll tell, and I tell all my clients is if you're doing something on LinkedIn that's working for you, keep doing it. Don't stop doing it just because I say you shouldn't do it. The only exception to that is when it comes to automation, you should really check to make sure your, your account's not going to get restricted. Because most automated software that connects to LinkedIn, the software is. Okay, is. Is legal for them to create it. It's illegal when or not illegal. You. It causes you as a user to violate LinkedIn's user agreement. So be careful of that. But what we've seen probably since about 2018 or 19 and especially ramped up during the pandemic, was people. You know, we had, we had cold calling. Right. And then we had email and spam email. And now they see LinkedIn is this place where we can find people. We can do a search of titles, find all the people that are podcast hosts. And if I do podcast video editing and, and promotion, I can send you a connection request, a mass connection request that says, hey, Justin, we just checked out the entrepreneurial DNA podcast. You're killing it, man. We help companies just like you to do da da da da da da da da. Yep. And you know, that's transactional. You know, you're just, they're just trying to sell service. And yeah, that may work with one person out of hundreds.

[Justin Colby]

Sure.

[Bill McCormick]

Because you have a team that's doing that. Right. They reach out to me all the time about growing my podcast. I'm not trying to grow my podcast. Right. So that's not really working. And one of the things I say all the time about scaled outreach on LinkedIn is there, there's a return on missing. Right. An R O M rather than an roi. And you know, you, the thing when you cold call me, I see a phone number, I don't pay attention to it. I ignore it. When you send me a, a, a, a mass email, it either goes to my junk folder or I look at it and I delete it. I don't. It doesn't have an impression on me. But when you reach out to me on LinkedIn with a, with a spam message, I see your picture, I see your name, I see your company. I probably look at your profile. Right.

[Justin Colby]

Even if you're still looking me up. Right. So if I spam you and say,

[Bill McCormick]

hey, on LinkedIn, absolutely, sure.

[Justin Colby]

And then based around best practices, which we'll get into here shortly, Bill. But like, then you say, ah, who's this Justin Colby? And all of a sudden my profile is built the right way, it's robust, it clearly defines what I do and how I do it. And you might say, okay, he spammed me. But, but it Might be worth engaging with him. He actually is the real deal in one, two, three ways.

[Bill McCormick]

Right? Yeah. Or, or if I look at your profile and you only have 20 connections, you know, and there's not a lot there, I look and go, is this even a real profile? Because there are, there are bot profiles on LinkedIn. LinkedIn's trying to battle that, but it happens. I was just, I'm part of a LinkedIn training group that I pay to be a part of and we help each other out, we're global. And so I was reaching out to them today because I got connection requests from three people from the same marketing agency, all with the exact same message and with very few connections. I'm pretty sure that they're. That their robot connection. I'm going to report them later. But what was really weird is they referenced, they said, we saw the recommendation that Karen gave you for the website you built her. Justin, I can guarantee you that if I built a website for anyone, there's no way they're recommending me. Right? Because I don't do it. The thing is, is that Karen built my website and I wrote a recommendation for her. So they're using some kind of automation or AI that got the wires crossed. Right? And so there's, there's the problem too. You don't have a human doing it. And when I replied back to them and said, hey, this is confusing, nobody replied back. Right. Because the robot doesn't care, the automation doesn't care unless I say yes. Right. So, so that's a big mistake, I believe, is trying to use LinkedIn as a scaled outreach tool when it's really more about one on one networking and connecting the right way with people.

[Justin Colby]

Well, selling is human, right? I mean, that's in so social. Your brand is selling you social. Like, yeah, in old days. Let's remove social media for a second, right? You and I have enough gray. Well, I don't have any left, but it's gray if it was up there.

[Bill McCormick]

You're smart, you got good.

[Justin Colby]

And so, you know, it used to be networking meetings. You talked about being I right B. And I was kind of the first, at least what I think would be kind of the first business networking type meeting now, now meetup.com came around and people have created all these social in person meetups. That was the only way essentially to engage and to have prospects and sell your prospects is belly to belly, face to face, hand to hand combat, I call it. Right now we have these amazing platforms and LinkedIn, to me, I personally am A statistic it. Like I just don't use it efficiently. I'm there. I don't even know how many. I'm. I'm sure I have a thousand thousands of whatever. But like, am I leaning into it? I'm not. And that's why I'm, I'm personally interviewing is like, all right, team, I'm looking for pens. I'm like, we gotta lean into this. Because you're right. Like it creates a. Yeah, like I don't like automation within social media. I have an in person team. I write my own copy, I create the videos. It is me. This is not, you know, AI and I know that's a big subject, but because I believe in the same thing you believe. If I need Bill to be a client of mine, I need to go talk to Bill. Now I have a new platform called LinkedIn or Instagram or Tik. There are platforms now I can directly communicate with you, but I'm going to do it right. I. Anyways, I just.

[Bill McCormick]

Well, and so, and so let me, let me lean into that because here's the thing. You've got a team, but most entrepreneurs, they're all alone. And so they're like, but wait a minute, I don't need another platform. And so my question is, where are you being the most effective? Right? Because listen, if you're in B2B sales and your customers. Customers, right. Who they sell to, if they're B2B also they're going to be on LinkedIn. It's a great place to find them. But if you're B2C then it's probably Facebook, it's probably Instagram, maybe it's TikTok. It's someplace else. You have to spend your time wisely. And I get that. I know that totally. And so I always tell people, listen, you have to be where your clients are and then you have to engage them in the, in the right way. You're familiar with, with the Craig Groeschel leadership podcast. Craig Groeschel is the past senior pastor at Life Church in Oklahoma. Right. So he has a huge following. So I do some consulting for them and when I started working with them for the Leadership Podcast LinkedIn page, it was at like 7,000 followers, which is not bad. Well, we've grown it to over 56,000 followers. Right. I say we. They've done the work. I've just kind of given some advice here and there. But here's the thing. That small, that's small things to Craig Groeschel. Craig Groeschel's started his TikTok page only probably about four or five years ago. He's got over a million followers. He's got 1.2 million on Instagram and three quarters of a million on, on Facebook. Guess what? LinkedIn's not the priority. Right. So you have to figure out, and that's where I come back to, you know, what's going to work for you? What's your goal? And then if you figure out, yes, LinkedIn's it, you don't have to stay all day on it. You don't, like, I'm on it all day, but that's what I do. Right. But have you ever read Atomic Habits by James?

[Justin Colby]

Course. Top five books.

[Bill McCormick]

We don't, we don't rise the level of our goals. We fall to the level of our systems. So you can have a goal to use LinkedIn more, but what's your system? And so that's one of the things I help with. And the great thing about you not having a pen to take notes is there's a free resource link that's going to be in the show notes that's going to take you to a video that explains the features for LinkedIn Premium, a video that's going to be for small business owners and entrepreneurs on whether they should be on LinkedIn. Right. It's basically the three levels of LinkedIn use and also a video for sales leaders on how I can help their team better, better help better leverage the platform. There's also going to be a DIY checklist for your profile to make it more value centric. So, you know, I love to give away resources because I just want to help people. If I make some money doing it, great. But what I want to do is help people with this platform because it's being used, it's being misused so much. You know, there's so much antisocial stuff happening. Let's make it social again. You know, let's start. My friend Larry Levine wrote the book Selling from the Heart and he talks about the trust formula and that we can develop trust when we do two things, build authentic relationships and provide meaningful value. If you can do those two things, you build trust with people. LinkedIn is a great place to do that, but you have to be authentic when you're building those relationships. Another big thing I see with people is they send the same message to everyone. I can't tell you how many times I get a message that says, oh, hey Bill, you're, I love your content. It's so great. I think we should connect on LinkedIn and I'll go back and look at my content. They haven't given it a thumbs up, they haven't commented, they haven't done anything. And I'll go back and say, what about that? And I never hear from them, right, because they say that to all the guys. Right. They say that to all the coaches. Right. You, you have to make it more personal. And yes, that takes more time. But guess what? You'll be more successful when, when you do that. What I say is people come in with judgment rather than curiosity. And what I mean by judgment is they assume, and you know what, how that breaks down when you assume something. They assume that my content's good, or they assume that I need their help doing X, Y and Z rather than coming in and asking questions and being curious because then that makes it about the other person and that's what you want to do.

[Justin Colby]

I'm curious, I don't want to assume. What are the best practices specifically for LinkedIn? Who would, in all your experience, who's the right business avatar to utilize this? Because I actually believe, by the way, and I'll, I'll reframe the question, I actually believe all platforms are built slightly different. There's similarities for sure, but like depending upon what you're actually trying to achieve, I think there are better platforms for one than the other. Right. So let me ask it that way. What is the best practices specific to LinkedIn?

[Bill McCormick]

So your, your clients have to be B2B. You have to be in the B2B space.

[Justin Colby]

And what I've say is probably not the best platform.

[Bill McCormick]

It's, it's not going to, I mean, yes, your clients are all probably there, but you're not able to reach them at that, at that level. You, that's your, your Facebook, your Instagram, that, that kind of thing. But even your, and then your referral partner should also be on, on LinkedIn. In fact, in fact, the, the video I have in the free resources, the three levels of LinkedIn use for small business owners and entrepreneurs. If your clients are on LinkedIn, yes, you need to be there. If your referral partners are on LinkedIn, that's another great. That's the second level because you can, you can reach that, right? So, so that's the thing is they have to be there. But not only do they have to be there, but their clients should be too. So I have a friend that does a lot of work in the food service industry. Food service industry is B2B, but the businesses they sell to are B2C, right? Their client, they're not on LinkedIn, right? What's another good companies that do payroll or do credit card processing services for restaurants. And I call them door pullers, right? They walk through a main street and they're going to pull doors and go in and talk to them. Right? They're B2B. But that business they sell to is strictly retail. They're selling the customer. So that doesn't work for them. So if your clients are on LinkedIn, then yes, you should be there. You know, that's the best place because they're going to be there and you're going to be able to reach them. How you reach them, that's the key, you know, so some best practices. And I said there's four areas I train on profile. Building a quality network, using content effectively and then conversations. So I'll kind of just take you through those. We've already talked about profile bit, a value centric profile. A profile doesn't say, hey, I'm the best. I'm so great at what I do because nobody cares. But hey, here's the value that my clients get for working for us and making it human. Using your, your about section, not to tell your whole life story because again, nobody cares. But, but what are the challenges your clients face? What the, what's going to resonate with them? That when I read that, I go, that's me. I want to know more, right? Using your experience section to not do your climb up the corporate ladder. Because again, unless you're looking for a job, who cares? But using your experience section for your deliverables, for the things that you offer. If you go look at my experience section, it shows me owner and founder, I tell a little my story and then I have my video courses and my podcast and the trainings that I do. My complimentary webinar I offer for sales teams, right? Using your experience section that way so when people read that, they get a better sense of what, of what you do, right? So that's the first thing we talked about, building a quality network. You want to reach out the right way to people. But here's the key then don't ignore them, right? If somebody accepts your connection request, actually go back and thank them, actually send a note, right? It's being social. You know, here's what happens on LinkedIn. You connect with somebody and that's it. And that's like me walking up to you in the networking room and say, hey, Justin, I'm Bill McCormick. And you say who you are and I turn around and I walk away and you're like, that is rude. Well, that's what we're doing at LinkedIn. We're just ignoring people, right? Have a follow up message, have a next step to take with them. Again, be curious, want to know more, right? So, so that a lot of people don't know. You can actually download your first degree connections on LinkedIn and I'll throw that in the, I can add that to the resources. I'll do that because then you can look at the last 10. Are these clients, are they prospects? What are they? How can I reach out? How can I connect with them? Content. All right, gotta slow down. I get excited. This is. So when we talk about content two, I always get the same questions. I don't know what to post or I don't have time to post. Okay, you need to make time. It comes down to a system. But listen, what are the problems that your client, your current clients are facing that makes great content? Because if they're having that problem, other people probably have that problem. You know, curate content, use content from another source. But listen, just don't repost it. Put your own thoughts there. Show that you have a brain and that you use it and that you're a thought leader in your area. Get that content in front of people. Don't, don't just wait for the algorithm to do it because the algorithm always changes. But think about people who may benefit from that content and send it to them. Use it in blog posts on your website. Repurpose that. But the fourth thing is the most important thing and that's conversations. If your LinkedIn activity isn't leading to conversations, what I say, going from the digital space to the face to face, then you're just spinning your wheels or you're, you know, you're, you're performing for vanity metrics. It's not moving the needle on your business. You have to have conversations. And that's an art. It's one of the things I, I, I train, you know, one of the things, One of the least used areas I find for people in LinkedIn is the My Network tab. If you go to My Network tab, there's two, there's your incoming invitations, but then there's something called catch up. And no, it's not the condiment, catch up, catching up with people. And it gives you all the changes of people in your network. New job changes. What a great time to reach out to someone, right? They change companies. There may be another opportunity there. But just to say, hey, congratulations, I want to Hear more about that. Right. Looking for opportunities to have a face to face, whether it's on Zoom or in person or on the phone conversation with someone and find out more about them. Right. Because if you're not having conversations, then you're just spinning your wheels and you're probably doing random acts of LinkedIn which gives you random results and gets you bored real quickly and then you're on to the next shiny thing.

[Justin Colby]

Yeah. What about the people who say, like, I'm not the most social, I feel like it's awkward. How, how do we get the people that don't really understand the power of what you're talking about? How do they start taking action? What would be their first handful of steps?

[Bill McCormick]

Yeah, so first of all, go search some people in your, in your industry, especially people who, who post content about your industry and just go into the comments section and, and make some comments, make them authentic, you know, you know, really read the content and give some thoughtful interaction and you'll be surprised how many people will actually respond to that. But even from that, then you can reach out to that person, you know, hey, Justin, I just read your, your, your, your post on, on, on the real estate market and I found it really insightful. I thought it made sense for us to connect. And one of the things I, I throw out there all the time to people is, hey, take a look at my profile and if you think it makes sense, let's connect. Right. Then you put the ball back in their core. You know, be bold, but don't be so bold. Be curious. You know, be bold and curious. You know, taking small steps. You're behind a screen, right? You're not, it's not like you're, you're front and center with somebody. You have to go up and talk to them. You know, you probably remember when back in my day, you know, we didn't send girls text messages, we sent them notes. It was much easier for me to write a note and ask a question and hand to somebody, you know, do you like me? Yes, with a check mark. No with a check mark and give that and wait for the answer. Then let me go up and ask the girls right in front. Right, Right. So it's easier, I think, digitally to do that. But here's the key. We have to treat the people on the other side of the profile on the other side of the screen the same way we would treat them as if they were on the other side of the table with us. And, and that's that this is the weird dichotomy here because it is easier to comment and do these things. It's also easier to be inauthentic because we're not, you know, we tend to see people, oh, they're a prospect. They're a dollar sign in my CRM or a dollar sign in my quota. No, no, no, they're people, they're human. We need to treat them that way and they'll appreciate that a lot.

[Justin Colby]

Yeah. Best practices for posting. I think most people, at least what I see most people, lean into trying to go viral on Instagram and TikTok and things of that nature. I don't believe that's even a thing on LinkedIn. What would be your best practices for your first, you know, 10 day commitment? I'm going in, Bill, I'm listening to you. I'm gonna go, let's say a 30 day run at LinkedIn. What would be your starting point? What are the sequences? What are the best practices that you would suggest? Like even what, whether it's a photo or a written post or a video, what would you suggest in that thing?

[Bill McCormick]

So I'd say don't do, don't do every day in a row. You know, keep it to two to three times a week, right? Because listen, if you're not posting on LinkedIn now and you say I'm going to post every day, you're not, right? You're, you're not, you're going to do it once or twice and then you're going to be like, whatever, you know, and calendar it Monday, Wednesday, Friday, right? Make it, make the post short. You can, you can, you know, change it up. Do a, do a text post, put a video out there, do, do a picture. You know, I don't know if you've seen the new ChatGPT cartoon characters of people. All right, so I did mine today and I look like Tim Walls, which is really weird. I look like his brother. I said younger brother, but I think I'm older than him. It's just strange. But, you know, but I posted that I wasn't going to do it, but I'm like, hey, you know what? Because they really captured the, all the, all the wording around it really captured what I do. And so I was, I like that. So look for things like that to do, but don't, don't try to hit a home run your first time up at that. You know, you're not going to go viral on LinkedIn, right? Some people do. But, but you know, I mentioned, I mentioned the Craig Groeschel leadership podcast and we'll do posts and they'll get 15,000, 20,000 impressions. That's pretty good. But so you know, an impression just means somebody saw your post, they scrolled past it, you know, you know, but it's all LinkedIn gives us. What you want is conversation. You want conversation in the comment section. So what I say is your post is a lot like your house on your street, right? So your house is your post, the street is your newsfeed, and the cars that drive past and the people that walk past, those are the people on your newsfeed. And if somebody drives past your house, it's an impression. Did it really make an impression to them? No. If they wave to you, that's a, like, you know, they gave a reaction. But if they pull over to the curb and they get out and they knock on your door or they come to your porch and they sit with you and have a conversation, that's a comment. And that's really what you want to go for, right? So look for ways to ask questions in your posts that you want to know the answer to so that, that gets people in your comments commenting and answering the questions and figure out what you're trying to do on LinkedIn. So what I want is I want to have conversations with people. So if I do a post and it only gets 500 impressions, but a number of people have commented on it and some of those people are second degree, which means I'm not connected with them and I can reach out to them and say, hey Justin, thanks so much for your comment on my post. I thought it made sense for us to connect and you connect with me and then I send a thank you note that says, hey Justin, thanks so much. Hey, I was checking out your profile and I really like X, Y and Z that you're doing. I'm just curious if you're open for 20 minute networking call just so we can get to know each other a little better. Easy peasy. You say yes or no. You say no, I go to the next one, you say yes, we schedule it, right? So figure out what am I trying to do on LinkedIn, right? You, you want to be a thought leader, you want to put out educational content, then make sure it's educational. It's okay to put some sales stuff out there, like, you know, you're launching a new community. It's great to put that out there. That's fine, right? But just don't make it that all the time. I know people, so, so I do some training in the promotional products world. Because that's what I came out of, and that's. I use LinkedIn to build our promotional products business. And man, people, all they do is post new products and new this, and you look and nobody's commenting, nobody's looking at, nobody cares. Yeah, right. So, so, you know, there's no real easy answer to this, unfortunately. But you have to experiment, you have to try different things and you have to be in it for the long haul. You know, content on LinkedIn is the long game. Don't expect that you're going to post something and somebody's going to reach out and then you're going to get business. Right. Networking on LinkedIn is the short game. Right. So if so, let's say that I sell to. To. Well, I do. I sell. I sell the sales leaders. Right. You and I are connected on LinkedIn. I can now go into your connections and I can search them for all the sales leaders and I can see who, you know, that I want to know. And then I can have a networking call with you. I can share my screen and say, hey, Justin, I was looking through your connections. There's 15 sales leaders that you know, that I think would be good introductions for me. Can I take 10 minutes just to review this list with you? Because let's face it, out of 15, you may only know three or four or five.

[Justin Colby]

Right, right.

[Bill McCormick]

But, but, but hey, that's great. That's three or four or five more than I had before.

[Justin Colby]

Yeah.

[Bill McCormick]

And then of those three or four or five, I can say, justin, are you comfortable introducing them to me? And if you're not, that's fine. Okay, great. Can I reach out to them and say that you and I were talking and I asked about them and they said it made sense for, for you said it made sense for me to connect with them. You're going to say yes to that all day long, but make sure. I have to make sure I have your permission to do that. I just don't want to do that. Right. And so that's the short scammy part,

[Justin Colby]

is if you just go out there and do that, then there's no connectivity.

[Bill McCormick]

You know how many times people say to me, hey, Bill, I see we have some mutual connections. So did you look at the mutual connections? And sometimes I'll look at that and they'll say it plural, and we have one mutual connection and I have no clue who the person is. And I'll come back and say, yeah, we have one mutual connection and it's somebody I don't even know. Your point is. And they don't reply, they don't, they don't respond to me, to that, because I caught them, you know, so. But if I can say, hey, I see you're connected to Justin, and him and I were talking this morning and he thought it made sense for us to connect. If somebody comes back with a connection on the crest like that, to me, I'm going to accept it all day long, right? Because I know you, I know them, of course I'm, or I don't know them, but I know you, of course I'm going to accept that. So that's the short game on LinkedIn, connecting to people. But then you have to move it into your sales process. And that's the hard part, you know, and that takes some finesse and that takes some curiosity. It doesn't say, it doesn't take, oh, hey, Justin, so, you know, Leah said that we should connect, and so we connect. I say, hey, I want to really help you with LinkedIn. Let's get on a call. I can tell you how I can help your team and you. And you're like, wait a minute, who said I was interested in that? Where rather I can say, hey, I'd love to hear more about what you're doing with your community. And I took a look at your LinkedIn profile and I'm happy to give you some free insights on that if you're interested. But what I really want to know is more about you. You know, that's what, that's what works.

[Justin Colby]

People want to know you're interested, you being interesting. Right. And that's key. I'll tell you, I fall for that all the time. I'm a natural salesperson. But when someone inquires about me, this is my favorite subject matter. So I'm going to start leaning into it. Right?

[Bill McCormick]

It, yeah, it's, it's, it's everybody's, you know, and typically it leads to them asking about you. And it might not be on that call. And that's why you have to go slow, to go fast. You know, I, I think it was Covey who wrote the sales at the speed of dirt, sales at the speed of trust, trust at this. I don't now, I can't remember it now. Somebody's going to bash me in the comments. That's okay. But, but that's it. To build trust, you, you have to go slower. Takes time until, until it gets faster. And, you know, people want that easy button and they want to send out that one email that goes to 10,000 recipients and they want to get hundreds and hundreds of replies back. And usually they get two or three. But. And because that's easy. But is it really. It's easy, but is it effective? That's the real question. And so, you know, by slowing things down and making 10 quality connections a week, then having five quality conversations from there, usually you can come up with a good couple of, of opportunities that come out of that.

[Justin Colby]

Your suggestion for anyone in sales, and I think it's vertical agnostic. But if you are in sales and Your sales is B2B, LinkedIn is the place that you need to be.

[Bill McCormick]

Absolutely a hundred percent. My guess is your company has a LinkedIn page and they're producing content on a regular basis. That's probably pretty good. Maybe it's not, but most companies produce really good content. So that's a good place to start reaching out to your marketing director, say, hey, I need help with LinkedIn. Usually they can help to do that. Or if you're a sales leader and you have a sales team, I offer a complimentary LinkedIn for Humans webinar where I teach some of what I'm speaking now so that they get some value from it. Again, complimentary, just to see if your team is like, okay, yeah, this is really good. You know, I did one for a team and they came back and said, yeah, this is okay, but we just don't see it working for us. Great. I don't want to train you because you're not going to use it. And then you're going to, then, then I'm going to get a bad name. Right. So really, if you're in B2B sales, you really should have a presence on LinkedIn and you should be creating some opportunities there again by being curious. And it's an art form. You know, it takes time and it, and it takes practice to do that. But I'm here to help. I'm like a coach.

[Justin Colby]

Yeah. And everyone go, where do we want to have them find you?

[Bill McCormick]

Yeah. So we'll put the link in, but it's a bitly link. It's bit Lee slash. And I wrote on my whiteboard, all selling is social. 3 not feeling it social free. Not that it's social free, but the content is free and you know, you can sign up there for. So that's a free course that I have on my website that just has again, it has a DIY checklist for your profile to create a more value centric profile. It has a number of videos, it has a link to my podcast all Selling is social which I've had some great guests. I mentioned Larry Levine, I mentioned Mark Hunter, they've both been, been on it. You know there's a number of, there's a couple slide decks in there, some videos and also in there I've got a 40 video paid, paid course on everything I talked about. It's a DIY course. It's normally 499. I'm giving your. Use your, your folks, your listeners a coupon so they're only going to pay 249 for it and so that'll be in there too. Happy to do that. And also a link to my, to my calendar for a 30 minute complimentary insights. Call with me again I'm not going to sell you but if you want to ask me some questions about your profile, if you want to know premiums for you, if you're thinking about we didn't touch on sales Navigator and the powerhouse that that is, you know I'm happy to answer those questions or just, and just help you on your LinkedIn journey because that's what I want to do.

[Justin Colby]

Is there a fast pass to get to. Can they just go to your LinkedIn profile and actually connect with you?

[Bill McCormick]

Yeah, yeah just connect with me and again send a note if you're able to. Right. And just say hey I saw you on entrepreneurial DNA with Justin. If you can't send a note be ready for me because I send a message to everyone that sends me a connection request without a note telling me why they want to connect.

[Justin Colby]

So my suggest is all of you go connect with them on LinkedIn. Yeah, this is interesting which is should I ask? This is damn interesting to me. Right.

[Bill McCormick]

Like yeah so when and when I asked you, you know where you found me, tell me here and I'll and I'll connect with you and we'll, we'll get a call and I'd be happy to, happy to do that.

[Justin Colby]

So the website all selling a social.com forward/free, is that correct?

[Bill McCormick]

So it's a bitly link bitly/all selling

[Justin Colby]

issocial free bit.ly all selling is social free free and then go find him on LinkedIn. Bill McCormick m c c O R M I C K correct with him and he will actually send you a message back and inquire more about your business, who you are guys and gals. LinkedIn is something I personally also can say I'm not utilizing at the use case I should be. If you're serious about sales, if you're serious about your business. I have Bill on here as a resource for you. So and lastly, if you're not a part of the Entrepreneur DNA community on school, if you go to school and just look us up, go to school. S k-o l.com forward/the entrepreneur DNA join that right now it is 25amonth, every month for the lifetime of your membership. And that is going to double here shortly. But you're going to be able to directly connect to Bill because Bill is knowingly or unknowingly going to come in and teach this at a much deeper level for you guys. So again, the Entrepreneur DNA community.

[Bill McCormick]

Yeah, I'm already a member. I joined, I joined over the weekend so you can connect with me there, too.

[Justin Colby]

There you go. And make sure to reach out. And Bill, you and I will do a great training. If you guys think there's some people, you know that need to lean into LinkedIn and they need to hear this, make sure you share this with the least to your people. I'll see you guys in school. I see in the community, Bill, this has been Great. That's Bill McCormick. I'm Justin Colby. This is the Entrepreneur DNA. We'll see you on the next episode.

[Bill McCormick]

Thanks so much.

[Justin Colby]

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[Bill McCormick]

Learn [e-mail] Sapphire Reserve cards issued by JPMorgan Chase bank and a member FDIC, subject to credit approval. What does leadership really look like? On the Power of Advice, a new podcast series, Capital Group. You'll hear from athletes, entrepreneurs and executives who've led on the field, in the boardroom and in their communities. It's not about titles. It's about impact. Discover what drives them and the advice they carry forward. Subscribe and start listening today. Published by Capital Client Group Inc. ADP

[Justin Colby]

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[Bill McCormick]

If you like the show, please take a moment to rate, review and subscribe. It really does help the show to grow. Thank you for listening.