1
00:00:06,373 --> 00:00:12,606
All right, Alan and Brad, thank you so much for taking the time to be here with me today
and to chat.

2
00:00:12,606 --> 00:00:16,253
I'm really excited to dive into our conversation.

3
00:00:16,253 --> 00:00:20,859
I think there will be a lot of ah-hahs for many people that are listening.

4
00:00:20,859 --> 00:00:29,823
But before we get to some of those, whether it's shocking statistics or tips and tricks
that you have for our leaders listening, tell us a little bit about yourselves, your

5
00:00:29,823 --> 00:00:32,503
partnership and the overall mission.

6
00:00:33,513 --> 00:00:34,335
your overall mission.

7
00:00:34,335 --> 00:00:36,539
guess I'll hard stop there.

8
00:00:38,326 --> 00:00:38,556
good.

9
00:00:38,556 --> 00:00:39,967
Brad, do want me to kick off or you want to start?

10
00:00:39,967 --> 00:00:53,191
Yeah, so we've been an employee advocacy tool for going on 10 plus years and the
partnership is kind of an interesting thing.

11
00:00:53,191 --> 00:01:01,303
I was snooping on my competitors and Brad was a VP of Sales at one of our direct
competitors and I booked a demo with him.

12
00:01:03,222 --> 00:01:05,264
And the rest is history, as they say.

13
00:01:05,264 --> 00:01:06,424
history.

14
00:01:07,624 --> 00:01:17,284
So Brad jumped ship to join our company, which I think is pretty, pretty strong indicator
of what we're doing and how we've, we've progressed and changed as a company.

15
00:01:17,284 --> 00:01:19,524
And yeah, our mission or our goal is pretty straightforward.

16
00:01:19,524 --> 00:01:32,184
We're here to help organizations activate their executives on LinkedIn, help them find
their voice, help them to learn how to grow not only for the brand, but their own personal

17
00:01:32,184 --> 00:01:33,644
reputations on LinkedIn.

18
00:01:34,340 --> 00:01:36,933
It's 100 % of our focus as a company.

19
00:01:37,129 --> 00:01:37,529
Amazing.

20
00:01:37,529 --> 00:01:46,518
And talk to me a little bit about when did you start this and why, you know, obviously
LinkedIn has exploded over the past couple of years.

21
00:01:46,518 --> 00:01:53,124
So from what I understand, you were early movers in this movement to move over to
LinkedIn.

22
00:01:54,224 --> 00:01:58,826
Yeah, we started, I mean, it's 12 years now.

23
00:01:59,927 --> 00:02:06,519
And I feel like that's a long time ago, almost like I sat next to Moses in high school.

24
00:02:06,519 --> 00:02:09,030
That's how long ago that feels like.

25
00:02:09,110 --> 00:02:14,192
And we started this 12 years ago with a real focus on activating employees.

26
00:02:14,393 --> 00:02:21,976
And what really helped us pivot, of course, we will always help employees with advocacy,
but...

27
00:02:22,532 --> 00:02:27,555
About two, three years ago, Pepsi came to us to one of our clients and they said, hey,
this is great, this is really working.

28
00:02:27,555 --> 00:02:29,306
Why is this working so effectively?

29
00:02:29,306 --> 00:02:33,037
And we had to do a deep dive on the data.

30
00:02:33,138 --> 00:02:44,104
And what we found out was that 73 % of their employee efficacy benefits, their engagement,
their comments, et cetera, was coming from less than 3 % of their employees.

31
00:02:44,356 --> 00:02:48,579
So of course, the next natural question is who are those employees?

32
00:02:48,640 --> 00:02:58,748
And of course, the answer is it was the executive teams, three or four really high profile
executives at Pepsi that were driving this massive amount of conversations and engagements

33
00:02:58,748 --> 00:03:00,369
around the brand.

34
00:03:00,369 --> 00:03:08,295
And of course, naturally, those executives themselves also enjoyed some of the shine of
representing the brand.

35
00:03:08,656 --> 00:03:13,828
So once we realized that executives have such a massive impact on

36
00:03:13,828 --> 00:03:16,728
success and failure of the brand.

37
00:03:17,388 --> 00:03:26,328
We realized, okay awesome, employee advocacy is great and it's always going to have a seat
at the table, but we really need to focus on helping executives succeed on social.

38
00:03:26,868 --> 00:03:30,228
And oftentimes, executives have a lot of the same challenges.

39
00:03:30,228 --> 00:03:34,048
We kept hearing them, the same handful of challenges again and again.

40
00:03:34,088 --> 00:03:35,788
You know, I'm too busy to do this.

41
00:03:35,788 --> 00:03:37,448
I don't know what to say.

42
00:03:37,648 --> 00:03:39,508
I don't want to get fired.

43
00:03:41,672 --> 00:03:42,182
you know what mean?

44
00:03:42,182 --> 00:03:52,036
Because with the cancel culture the way it is, you say the wrong thing one time and
you're, you know, eviscerating a 30-year career in 30 seconds.

45
00:03:52,177 --> 00:04:01,620
And then, you know, more practical concerns that a lot of executives had, stuff like,
don't want to share my password, are people going to be able to read my personal in-mails

46
00:04:01,761 --> 00:04:02,941
and stuff like that.

47
00:04:02,941 --> 00:04:10,004
So once we understood kind of the problem set of why a lot of executives were...

48
00:04:10,594 --> 00:04:12,045
reticent to jump in.

49
00:04:12,045 --> 00:04:18,971
That's kind what we tackle with our platform in terms of solving those basic problems.

50
00:04:18,971 --> 00:04:25,996
We call them table stake concerns, things that you need to do in order to activate some
executives.

51
00:04:25,996 --> 00:04:32,782
And frankly, from time to time, a lot of executives are a little bit older and maybe grew
up without social media.

52
00:04:32,782 --> 00:04:40,328
And so need a lot of coaching, need a lot of assistance, and have a lot of concerns around
what that means for them.

53
00:04:41,929 --> 00:04:45,789
Absolutely, and I mean, what data to share?

54
00:04:45,789 --> 00:04:48,469
73 % comes from 3%.

55
00:04:48,469 --> 00:04:55,109
That really puts the 80-20 rule to shame, I think, you That's really impressive.

56
00:04:55,109 --> 00:04:58,649
And the fact that, yeah, there are a ton of concerns, and all the way down to compliance.

57
00:04:58,649 --> 00:05:00,229
I don't want to share my password.

58
00:05:00,571 --> 00:05:02,293
is anybody looking at my inbox, right?

59
00:05:02,293 --> 00:05:13,788
Those are all very interesting concerns, enough to dissuade someone from wanting to not
just take the time to do it, but to trust somebody else to do it.

60
00:05:13,788 --> 00:05:17,062
So it sounds like you've got to figure it out.

61
00:05:17,062 --> 00:05:18,944
You're working and then...

62
00:05:19,561 --> 00:05:25,381
Obviously we're always iterating and growing, but you achieving success, which is
fantastic.

63
00:05:25,381 --> 00:05:28,121
And we're going to get into that in just a second.

64
00:05:28,121 --> 00:05:30,061
But I want to flip it over to Brad for a second.

65
00:05:30,061 --> 00:05:43,701
So Brad, you jumped ship, came over, talked to me little bit about your role here and what
stood out to you as the biggest reason, the biggest why to come over and why you've been

66
00:05:43,701 --> 00:05:45,161
here ever since.

67
00:05:45,764 --> 00:05:47,327
Kendra, I'm interested in this.

68
00:05:47,327 --> 00:05:49,029
Why do you love me, Brad?

69
00:05:50,634 --> 00:05:53,484
It is almost Valentine's Day.

70
00:05:53,712 --> 00:05:54,694
Alan, set this up.

71
00:05:54,694 --> 00:05:55,786
You're actually being pumped.

72
00:05:55,786 --> 00:05:57,078
This is couples therapy.

73
00:05:57,078 --> 00:05:57,898
Right.

74
00:05:58,139 --> 00:05:59,879
I wouldn't put it past them.

75
00:05:59,879 --> 00:06:06,132
But I spent my time before social HP and technology and in this space, as Alan mentioned.

76
00:06:06,132 --> 00:06:15,266
And what really stood out to me in terms of what Alan was attempting to do and what the
platform does today is to give people an easy button.

77
00:06:15,266 --> 00:06:23,910
At the end of the day, we just talked about a lot of the challenges and Alan referenced
the fact that it takes a lot of

78
00:06:24,032 --> 00:06:31,469
oftentimes to get this stuff done and the smallest excuse to not do it is oftentimes all
anybody needs to not participate.

79
00:06:31,489 --> 00:06:37,505
You've got to really think of all of the angles and get everybody covered and frankly make
it easy for them to do it or they won't.

80
00:06:37,505 --> 00:06:39,037
It's just human nature.

81
00:06:39,037 --> 00:06:44,481
So the ability for our platform to enable teams of people that support.

82
00:06:44,660 --> 00:06:55,797
executives and give them the opportunity to roll out a plan that looks very easy and very
simple to their executives because part of it is just getting their buy-in and then

83
00:06:55,797 --> 00:06:57,358
something that they can actually execute on.

84
00:06:57,358 --> 00:06:59,660
It's going to provide value to them and their lives.

85
00:06:59,660 --> 00:07:03,402
It's going to provide value to the organization and to the executives themselves.

86
00:07:03,507 --> 00:07:04,499
Fantastic.

87
00:07:04,499 --> 00:07:06,322
I love that you said the easy button.

88
00:07:06,322 --> 00:07:13,372
I think years ago it was what 20 seconds that would cause us to choose a different path as
humans.

89
00:07:13,417 --> 00:07:16,027
20 seconds of something difficult or in our way.

90
00:07:16,027 --> 00:07:18,340
And now I think that's probably shortened.

91
00:07:18,377 --> 00:07:20,617
to far less than 20 seconds.

92
00:07:20,617 --> 00:07:23,917
So the easy button is what everybody's looking for these days.

93
00:07:24,117 --> 00:07:35,277
And I mean, whether it's executives or at the employee level, the fact that you're
advocating for them and making it easy means that, as you've said, are becoming more

94
00:07:35,277 --> 00:07:36,357
successful.

95
00:07:36,577 --> 00:07:42,337
And on LinkedIn, of course, we heard that you have to have a brand presence and a brand
page.

96
00:07:42,337 --> 00:07:46,177
And now what you're offering is that we shift over to

97
00:07:46,629 --> 00:07:52,531
individuals and executives and individual contributors having that social presence.

98
00:07:52,531 --> 00:07:58,834
So talk to me about some of the shifts that you've seen from brands having their
standalone presence.

99
00:07:58,834 --> 00:08:00,864
Is that a thing completely of the past?

100
00:08:00,864 --> 00:08:07,417
Is that still something that should exist or are we solely focused on the individuals that
comprise an organization?

101
00:08:08,622 --> 00:08:10,190
Brad, can I jump on that one?

102
00:08:10,190 --> 00:08:11,306
Go for it.

103
00:08:11,306 --> 00:08:14,057
Yeah, so there's two really interesting things.

104
00:08:14,057 --> 00:08:15,538
kind of goes back.

105
00:08:15,538 --> 00:08:25,502
and I think I mentioned this to you off camera before Kendra, last week we did a fireside
chat with LinkedIn in New York with a couple of the editors and chief from LinkedIn.

106
00:08:25,502 --> 00:08:28,143
And they mentioned something pretty interesting.

107
00:08:28,143 --> 00:08:34,326
They said that executives get four times the engagement that an average employee does.

108
00:08:34,546 --> 00:08:39,406
And we took that and ran with it and we analyzed the Fortune 500.

109
00:08:39,406 --> 00:08:43,260
brand pages versus the Fortune 500 executives.

110
00:08:43,260 --> 00:08:50,446
And what we found was executives get 100 times the engagement that a brand page does.

111
00:08:50,827 --> 00:08:57,783
And what was interesting about that, and I'm gonna quote Tanya so that I'm not getting
this wrong.

112
00:08:57,783 --> 00:08:59,495
Her exact words were,

113
00:09:00,836 --> 00:09:08,719
The reason that people are getting into posts and executives to post rather than companies
from their company pages is because like everyone else, you want to see a person across

114
00:09:08,719 --> 00:09:11,960
from you and you don't want to interact with an entity.

115
00:09:12,281 --> 00:09:20,484
And so they told us during that fireside chat that LinkedIn is really leaning into
activating executives on LinkedIn.

116
00:09:20,524 --> 00:09:29,856
In fact, they've created a whole new community, internal community team called leadership
and executive communication managers.

117
00:09:30,062 --> 00:09:35,918
Their sole job is to activate and help executives carry content on LinkedIn.

118
00:09:35,959 --> 00:09:39,602
And she mentioned that, in not so many words,

119
00:09:41,220 --> 00:09:44,162
they're giving these executives a better and bigger voice.

120
00:09:44,162 --> 00:09:54,628
In fact, that they're picking some of these executives for editorial pieces and they
really are leading into the creator side of things from the opposite end of the spectrum.

121
00:09:55,368 --> 00:10:00,652
Instead of just, you know, coaching and creators, they're actually trying to activate
executives.

122
00:10:00,652 --> 00:10:04,854
And so just wanted to tie back to one of the things that you were talking about earlier.

123
00:10:05,114 --> 00:10:07,875
Obviously we're all seeing the bloodbath that's happening.

124
00:10:07,913 --> 00:10:08,972
you

125
00:10:08,972 --> 00:10:11,774
industry-wide layoffs everywhere.

126
00:10:12,275 --> 00:10:21,283
Two really close friends of mine who are deep into their careers were let go recently and
I was very surprised and shocked by that.

127
00:10:21,444 --> 00:10:29,971
And I had a kind of aha moment, was both of them were at companies that are massive.

128
00:10:30,254 --> 00:10:32,105
They were there for over 10 years.

129
00:10:32,125 --> 00:10:34,466
They hadn't posted on LinkedIn in 10 years.

130
00:10:34,686 --> 00:10:35,967
And they got let go.

131
00:10:35,967 --> 00:10:42,510
And I just looked at it said, gosh, you have not spent any time building your personal
brand.

132
00:10:42,771 --> 00:10:51,916
And the number of people who are swimming out there now, you're competing against a
massive amount of other really massively qualified people.

133
00:10:51,916 --> 00:10:53,836
What does your network look like?

134
00:10:54,257 --> 00:10:59,820
You kind of rested on your laurels sitting on that Accenture, IBM.

135
00:11:00,386 --> 00:11:09,559
whatever name brand company, job, Amazon, wherever you were, and you're like, I didn't
need to do that, I'm working for Amazon, I'm on Easy Street.

136
00:11:09,559 --> 00:11:15,321
Well, when Easy Street ends, you're up Schitt's Creek, let's call it what it is.

137
00:11:15,461 --> 00:11:22,183
So what you should be doing is, this is one of the few circumstances where it's a nice
win-win.

138
00:11:23,104 --> 00:11:24,344
Driving.

139
00:11:24,420 --> 00:11:33,360
your thought leadership on your personal brand helps the company exponentially, but it
helps you personally because then you become a thought leader within whatever industry or

140
00:11:33,360 --> 00:11:34,420
vertical you're in.

141
00:11:34,420 --> 00:11:37,640
You become a voice and now it happens.

142
00:11:37,640 --> 00:11:39,180
It happens to all of us.

143
00:11:39,180 --> 00:11:47,880
At some point in time, the sun stops shining and or maybe you make a move up the ladder as
a result of the network you've built.

144
00:11:48,180 --> 00:11:54,716
So it's kind of interesting on the one hand LinkedIn saying, hey, they're raising their
arm and saying this is the most

145
00:11:54,716 --> 00:12:01,092
thing in 2025 for LinkedIn, it's way more important than your LinkedIn personal, your
LinkedIn corporate page.

146
00:12:01,092 --> 00:12:05,156
And from the company side, they're looking at it going, this is super important to us.

147
00:12:05,156 --> 00:12:07,759
LinkedIn is telling us that they're supporting it.

148
00:12:07,759 --> 00:12:17,487
And from your personal perspective as a middle manager or upper manager, this should
literally be one of the most important things that you're investing your time in because

149
00:12:18,028 --> 00:12:26,897
your network is your net worth right now, especially in this era that we happen to be in
right now.

150
00:12:26,897 --> 00:12:27,347
Absolutely.

151
00:12:27,347 --> 00:12:28,028
And what do they say?

152
00:12:28,028 --> 00:12:29,679
Clothes, mouths don't get fed.

153
00:12:29,679 --> 00:12:30,139
Right?

154
00:12:30,139 --> 00:12:33,581
If you're not, yeah.

155
00:12:33,682 --> 00:12:34,252
Thank you.

156
00:12:34,252 --> 00:12:35,293
Yeah.

157
00:12:35,293 --> 00:12:41,157
If you're not putting your words out there, letting people know that you, you're
available, what your skills are.

158
00:12:41,157 --> 00:12:43,019
It's true.

159
00:12:43,019 --> 00:12:43,465
Right?

160
00:12:43,465 --> 00:12:46,029
were jealous of my network.

161
00:12:47,514 --> 00:12:50,492
And yet there was a little bit of one-upmanship there is what I felt out of that.

162
00:12:50,492 --> 00:12:51,951
All right, I got you.

163
00:12:51,951 --> 00:12:59,944
as you liked it, you know, then we'll just award one point and we'll see what else comes
out of the conversation.

164
00:13:01,006 --> 00:13:04,071
Which I think is, you know, you're absolutely right though.

165
00:13:04,071 --> 00:13:05,152
This is...

166
00:13:05,295 --> 00:13:09,220
not the first round of Mass.afs we'll see.

167
00:13:09,220 --> 00:13:12,994
certainly, or it hasn't been the first, I should say, it certainly won't be the last.

168
00:13:12,994 --> 00:13:24,608
So now more than ever is a time to get serious about what you're presenting to the world
and building that network and net worth to give you that shout out back.

169
00:13:25,028 --> 00:13:25,885
You

170
00:13:25,885 --> 00:13:30,787
But another thing that I think, and tell me your thoughts on this because I'm very
curious.

171
00:13:30,787 --> 00:13:35,810
So now I'm looking for a role, let's say hypothetically, I'm looking for a role.

172
00:13:35,810 --> 00:13:44,874
go onto LinkedIn and I'm looking for an organization that aligns with my values because we
know that people are very values driven in their job search these days.

173
00:13:44,934 --> 00:13:56,221
So I'm looking for a company that's aligned with me and I can't find anything beyond their
website on LinkedIn versus I see a company and I can get a

174
00:13:56,221 --> 00:14:07,469
for the authenticity of their senior leadership or really any leader in their
organization, any individual contributor, and I can sense and put the pieces together.

175
00:14:07,469 --> 00:14:10,600
Here's what they're all about.

176
00:14:11,201 --> 00:14:16,725
Chances are I'm going to go with the brand or the company with more visibility.

177
00:14:17,007 --> 00:14:19,860
and more authenticity from the human connection side.

178
00:14:19,860 --> 00:14:26,906
Do you find that that's a very useful tool for recruitment as well, not just obviously for
sales?

179
00:14:27,908 --> 00:14:29,268
Brad, what do you think?

180
00:14:30,046 --> 00:14:40,857
79 % of job seekers say one of the first two things they do is go to the CEO's personal
LinkedIn page of the prospective company.

181
00:14:40,857 --> 00:14:47,613
So it's a massive statistic again in terms of what could be employees.

182
00:14:47,613 --> 00:14:49,284
What's that talent pool looking for?

183
00:14:49,284 --> 00:14:51,525
They're looking for an individual person.

184
00:14:51,768 --> 00:15:00,542
who has a presence that they can connect with, they can see what they're all about, they
make the assumption, and oftentimes appropriately so, that that person is representing the

185
00:15:00,542 --> 00:15:01,162
company.

186
00:15:01,162 --> 00:15:03,744
How are they gonna feel working for that person, for that company?

187
00:15:03,744 --> 00:15:05,544
What are the values of that organization?

188
00:15:05,544 --> 00:15:09,506
So there's a huge impact in talent acquisition.

189
00:15:09,506 --> 00:15:11,827
There's also an impact in talent retention.

190
00:15:11,827 --> 00:15:20,171
Because the same types of things that people look for in a leader that they're gonna work
for, they also wanna stay with that leader as well.

191
00:15:20,171 --> 00:15:21,782
So you're not only getting the best talent,

192
00:15:21,782 --> 00:15:27,452
but you're keeping the talent for longer periods of time at a higher satisfaction rate.

193
00:15:28,568 --> 00:15:39,391
Visible leaders, I'm trying to think of the right word, but it's still a 5X longer
employee duration than non-visible leaders.

194
00:15:39,391 --> 00:15:49,444
And I actually think that was, we found that on Edelman, if I'm not mistaken, Brad, as
part of one of their Edelman reports, a trust barometer, has a massive impact on employee

195
00:15:49,444 --> 00:15:52,815
trust over a duration of time.

196
00:15:52,855 --> 00:15:54,456
And even just kind of...

197
00:15:55,726 --> 00:16:05,180
Just to further Brad's point, one of the other interesting things that they talked about
last week was how millennials are acquiring their information now.

198
00:16:05,340 --> 00:16:12,159
And our parents' generation got their news from ABC News, Channel 7 at 11.

199
00:16:12,159 --> 00:16:14,544
Are your kids home by 11 o'clock?

200
00:16:14,744 --> 00:16:17,146
And that's just not a factor anymore.

201
00:16:17,146 --> 00:16:24,113
More more people are, and I think it was some crazy statistic and I don't want to quote it
because I don't know the number, but it's some insane amount of information that

202
00:16:24,113 --> 00:16:29,548
millennials are getting in terms of their general news from TikTok, Instagram, LinkedIn.

203
00:16:29,548 --> 00:16:32,760
They're actually using it as their primary news source.

204
00:16:32,881 --> 00:16:36,483
And of course we all know what an impact it has on

205
00:16:37,028 --> 00:16:45,948
elections and stuff like that and elections are the absolute power rod of determining how
people are making their choices and their opinions.

206
00:16:46,008 --> 00:16:54,868
Well if people are going to choose their political leaders on TikTok or LinkedIn or
wherever and you're trying to persuade someone to buy your widget, where do you think you

207
00:16:54,868 --> 00:16:59,008
need to be in modern times persuading people to buy your widget?

208
00:16:59,328 --> 00:17:03,408
And it's not on ABC News at 11 anymore.

209
00:17:04,647 --> 00:17:06,579
Yeah, no, you're absolutely correct.

210
00:17:06,579 --> 00:17:10,124
And I love that you guys are coming to the table with all of these statistics.

211
00:17:10,124 --> 00:17:19,576
think it's, you know, just to think about the opportunity that exists for not just brands,
but also for individuals is immense.

212
00:17:19,576 --> 00:17:22,559
And so I'm a huge advocate for what you're doing.

213
00:17:23,795 --> 00:17:32,052
And in thinking about, okay, so we've talked about retention, we've talked about why it's
important for brand recognition for executives to be online.

214
00:17:32,232 --> 00:17:42,420
And now this is one of my personal gripes and questions for you as somebody who has
recently started to become consistent in the LinkedIn space and it is.

215
00:17:43,143 --> 00:17:50,738
Brad, when you say like people need an easy button, I would sign up for the easy button
and a heartbeat because it's no joke creating that content.

216
00:17:51,739 --> 00:18:02,207
So how do you help executives stand out from the chat GPT rocket ship emoji?

217
00:18:02,207 --> 00:18:05,269
Drop a thumbs up down below.

218
00:18:05,841 --> 00:18:13,161
Here's what I'm thinking regurgitated information, what goes into the process to help them
become the thought leaders in their space.

219
00:18:17,764 --> 00:18:18,663
Do want to jump on that brother?

220
00:18:18,663 --> 00:18:19,191
You got it.

221
00:18:19,191 --> 00:18:20,872
yeah, I can jump in that one.

222
00:18:20,872 --> 00:18:24,765
In a word, you've got to have your own authentic personality, right?

223
00:18:24,765 --> 00:18:35,024
We've all seen too many times the drop a like, subscribe here, click below, all the click
bait, all the paid for advertising that happens.

224
00:18:35,024 --> 00:18:46,053
You need to understand, first of all, what resonates with your audiences, what your goals
are, whether that's talent acquisition, partner development.

225
00:18:46,872 --> 00:18:47,932
closing new business.

226
00:18:47,932 --> 00:18:50,354
We've all got multiple things that we can do on LinkedIn.

227
00:18:50,354 --> 00:18:53,425
The great news about LinkedIn is that every single one of those audiences are there.

228
00:18:53,425 --> 00:18:56,507
There's over a billion users on LinkedIn.

229
00:18:56,507 --> 00:19:00,568
There's every single audience that's important to businesses are there.

230
00:19:00,648 --> 00:19:10,533
And what we do to help people make this easy for them and to help scale this is we start
to align what we call their content pillars, which are the various pieces of topical

231
00:19:10,533 --> 00:19:14,295
content that they have in the organization and align it with the leaders that ought to be
delivering that message.

232
00:19:14,295 --> 00:19:16,956
So you can boil down to

233
00:19:16,956 --> 00:19:28,366
a couple of variables what content needs to be delivered through what bullhorn to which
audiences and then you can assign various goals to those channels and you can develop

234
00:19:28,366 --> 00:19:33,590
voices for each of these executives that really resonate and impact those audiences
appropriately.

235
00:19:35,735 --> 00:19:36,381
Please.

236
00:19:36,381 --> 00:19:38,942
things that we're finding is way more powerful.

237
00:19:38,942 --> 00:19:49,165
And I think this kind of goes to your point, Kendra, is we've moved away from Chad GBT and
we're moving into a partnership with Perplexity AI.

238
00:19:49,186 --> 00:19:56,002
And one of their kind of claims to fame is they do research-backed.

239
00:19:56,002 --> 00:20:10,328
posts and so you know marrying what Brad has said we could identify an executive like
yourself let's say you're the VP of aerospace defense we go out we source content that's

240
00:20:10,328 --> 00:20:13,852
currently exists in the

241
00:20:14,582 --> 00:20:27,868
internet world at large, we read it, we regurgitate it, we digest it, and then we use
perplexity AI to kind of map that against what's happening data-wise, and then create

242
00:20:28,449 --> 00:20:33,815
thought leadership that's a level deeper, that is science-backed, data-backed.

243
00:20:35,178 --> 00:20:38,851
and again to Brad's point, maps back onto your personal voice.

244
00:20:38,851 --> 00:20:49,961
So we do the research for you and that's really 90 % of it and we do research back posts
which makes you look like you're not an idiot just to be completely blind.

245
00:20:49,961 --> 00:21:02,101
So instead of going you know, LOL emoji rocket ship, I love internet, you know, we help
you find topics and posts that are trending within your industry that are meaningful and

246
00:21:02,101 --> 00:21:03,091
important.

247
00:21:03,428 --> 00:21:13,758
do some research to help you understand what your position is on that and then we generate
a post as a jump off point that helps you look like you've done all the hard work and

248
00:21:13,758 --> 00:21:16,179
heavy lifting even though maybe you didn't.

249
00:21:16,429 --> 00:21:18,842
Right, which is fantastic.

250
00:21:18,842 --> 00:21:21,454
I mean, what a life hack there.

251
00:21:23,037 --> 00:21:23,778
Amazing.

252
00:21:23,778 --> 00:21:28,763
And do you also generate the media and the different mediums for people?

253
00:21:28,763 --> 00:21:32,397
it simply text posts?

254
00:21:32,397 --> 00:21:36,511
Do you also generate images or share images?

255
00:21:36,532 --> 00:21:37,743
What is that?

256
00:21:38,350 --> 00:21:39,700
Yeah, we have a couple of solutions for that.

257
00:21:39,700 --> 00:21:48,511
Obviously, we use GenAI as one of the options, and then we connect into Pixels, Unsplash,
and a few the third-party.

258
00:21:51,972 --> 00:21:55,385
generic royalty free stock images.

259
00:21:55,385 --> 00:22:01,840
So you can pick from that library and then of course you can upload your own assets if you
want.

260
00:22:02,099 --> 00:22:02,719
Okay, brilliant.

261
00:22:02,719 --> 00:22:06,591
So there's many options that people can kind of choose from.

262
00:22:06,632 --> 00:22:07,572
Okay.

263
00:22:07,572 --> 00:22:17,418
And I mean, this is a bit of a crystal ball question, but do you think that LinkedIn will
still be the number one spot for people to go to for the foreseeable future?

264
00:22:17,418 --> 00:22:20,580
Is there any other competitor creeping up?

265
00:22:20,580 --> 00:22:25,903
mean, I don't think the majority of executives spend time on Instagram.

266
00:22:25,903 --> 00:22:29,407
Is that something that you would expand into or?

267
00:22:30,020 --> 00:22:32,763
can't imagine it happening in our life, like in the next 10 years.

268
00:22:32,763 --> 00:22:44,193
And the reason why is at least when you have Facebook, you could see Instagram, TikTok,
you could see other companies coming, trying to erode that B2C space.

269
00:22:44,254 --> 00:22:54,543
I mean, I can't, other than Blue Sky, which seems to be kind of a scientific nerd hangout,
I can't think of any incumbent right now.

270
00:22:55,524 --> 00:22:56,445
It's not even on my radar.

271
00:22:56,445 --> 00:23:01,881
don't know if you, anyone else on this call knows of anyone that's, that's my conflict.

272
00:23:01,881 --> 00:23:02,531
That's the thing, right?

273
00:23:02,531 --> 00:23:09,078
Obviously these double-ended marketplaces take time to build because no one wants to be
there until everybody's there.

274
00:23:10,060 --> 00:23:14,744
And so it's always difficult to build marketplaces.

275
00:23:14,945 --> 00:23:17,448
I am not aware of anyone who's even trying to do one.

276
00:23:17,448 --> 00:23:18,404
I'm not aware.

277
00:23:18,404 --> 00:23:19,905
that's on any radar.

278
00:23:19,905 --> 00:23:25,048
So what's your alternative to LinkedIn in the foreseeable future in the next five years?

279
00:23:25,048 --> 00:23:27,949
Maybe it's there, but I'd be very surprised.

280
00:23:27,949 --> 00:23:31,831
But of course, we live in the era of surprises.

281
00:23:32,832 --> 00:23:37,855
There's been many, many, many surprises in the last six months.

282
00:23:37,855 --> 00:23:47,168
And so not sure what's possible, but if I was to put all my eggs in a basket, I would
certainly be putting them in the LinkedIn basket right now.

283
00:23:47,168 --> 00:23:47,962
you

284
00:23:48,145 --> 00:23:49,392
So that makes perfect sense.

285
00:23:49,392 --> 00:24:01,572
is this, so it doesn't really matter even if a new incumbent comes along, the principles
of what you want to be doing in order to create your own network are the same and you know

286
00:24:01,572 --> 00:24:13,692
Brad and I have had the pleasure of working with Amanda Coffey who's a really fantastic
real-world networker and she's shown us the power of her personal network and happens to

287
00:24:13,692 --> 00:24:15,492
be in New York.

288
00:24:15,492 --> 00:24:16,772
It's incredible.

289
00:24:16,772 --> 00:24:24,212
It's incredible what she's able to do, who she knows, the strings she's able to pull, the
door she's able to open.

290
00:24:25,212 --> 00:24:30,432
And you know, being a nerd and sitting behind a computer being a programmer never really
resonated with me.

291
00:24:30,432 --> 00:24:33,132
I was just like, I'm gonna nerd my way into this.

292
00:24:33,132 --> 00:24:37,912
Me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me,

293
00:24:38,114 --> 00:24:51,751
masterfully negotiate and navigate their personal network for the outcomes that they're
hoping for, you get a real quick understanding how important it is to start to build

294
00:24:52,052 --> 00:24:54,373
relationships and bridges and connections.

295
00:24:54,373 --> 00:25:00,329
And so it doesn't matter if it's LinkedIn or whatever the next LinkedIn is, those are
skills that you're gonna want forever.

296
00:25:00,329 --> 00:25:00,729
Absolutely.

297
00:25:00,729 --> 00:25:07,514
Well, LinkedIn is essentially the opportunity to be able to find those connections and
then it's up to you to maintain them, right?

298
00:25:07,514 --> 00:25:10,316
And to build that relationship on a deeper level.

299
00:25:10,497 --> 00:25:19,964
And so what I've been hearing a lot and I mean, seen it in action as well is when you take
those connections offline and now you're building that relationship, whether that's over

300
00:25:19,964 --> 00:25:21,604
coffee, over lunch.

301
00:25:22,157 --> 00:25:31,764
and ensuring that you're just, you're not connecting with people on LinkedIn, and correct
me if I'm wrong, but you're not connecting on people with LinkedIn the way you would go to

302
00:25:31,764 --> 00:25:37,368
a networking event and hand out your business card and move from the next person to the
next person to the next person.

303
00:25:37,368 --> 00:25:46,284
You're sharing thought leadership, but you're also making sure that you're cultivating,
you're cultivating people that you want around you to a certain degree and that align with

304
00:25:46,284 --> 00:25:50,457
who you are and what you're showing up to be talking about, right?

305
00:25:51,374 --> 00:25:57,514
Yeah, it's one of the big advantages to social media as opposed to other marketing options
is it's a two-way street.

306
00:25:57,794 --> 00:25:59,094
It's what makes it great.

307
00:25:59,094 --> 00:26:04,994
It's what makes it scary for aging executives, as we mentioned, and what makes it special.

308
00:26:04,994 --> 00:26:13,014
And part of what we help leaders do is identify and connect with the other members on
LinkedIn that are relevant to them.

309
00:26:13,014 --> 00:26:15,820
So we need and want to be.

310
00:26:15,820 --> 00:26:17,632
good members of a community.

311
00:26:17,632 --> 00:26:25,569
And my community might be different than yours based on what we do, what our goals are,
but understanding what our community looks like, who's involved in that community and

312
00:26:25,569 --> 00:26:32,349
being able to have a back and forth with them, an actual discussion is something we can
facilitate on LinkedIn and it's very rare in the marketing world.

313
00:26:32,349 --> 00:26:34,531
Yes, absolutely, absolutely.

314
00:26:34,531 --> 00:26:37,773
Understanding that it does flow two ways.

315
00:26:37,773 --> 00:26:38,344
I love that.

316
00:26:38,344 --> 00:26:39,854
LinkedIn is the place.

317
00:26:40,856 --> 00:26:44,999
Now thinking about employee advocacy, because we've spoken a lot about executives.

318
00:26:44,999 --> 00:26:56,998
So thinking about employee advocacy, because obviously the numbers are very mismatched
between the number of executives and the number of individual contributors that are able

319
00:26:56,998 --> 00:26:58,771
to start a personal brand on LinkedIn.

320
00:26:58,771 --> 00:27:01,523
as well, or that exist in an organization.

321
00:27:01,623 --> 00:27:12,841
If I'm somebody that's in middle management and I'm looking to start to think about my
personal brand in knowing that it's something that my organization is really advocating

322
00:27:12,841 --> 00:27:15,433
for, what's my first step?

323
00:27:17,220 --> 00:27:22,480
Yeah, there's the first step is always the hardest, is, you know, how do you eat an
elephant?

324
00:27:22,480 --> 00:27:25,600
And it's one bite at a time.

325
00:27:25,600 --> 00:27:34,380
And interestingly, we were at an event, I guess, three weeks ago, and we were helping one
specific company that's very large, and we were working with their employees.

326
00:27:34,380 --> 00:27:37,500
we did, let's see, there was almost 200 employees.

327
00:27:37,520 --> 00:27:43,020
And we did what we call a stack rank to determine who the most effective employee was
currently.

328
00:27:43,020 --> 00:27:47,204
And the employee who had shared the most frequently out of 200 employees

329
00:27:47,204 --> 00:27:53,304
had posted 14 times in the year, the entire year.

330
00:27:53,904 --> 00:28:04,624
So the interesting takeaway that Brad and I had when we were kind of just talking with the
room at large is, hey, look, it doesn't take a lot to be the most successful influential

331
00:28:04,624 --> 00:28:08,844
person out of this team of 300, 400 people.

332
00:28:09,124 --> 00:28:11,564
The bar is generally set so low.

333
00:28:11,904 --> 00:28:12,604
That's the first thing.

334
00:28:12,604 --> 00:28:15,364
The second thing is we're

335
00:28:15,502 --> 00:28:20,400
We've talked to lot of HR representatives, departments, so on and so forth.

336
00:28:20,400 --> 00:28:29,172
And what we've been hearing more and more, and this is anecdotal, so I don't have any hard
stats for you, but a lot more companies now are looking at your...

337
00:28:30,766 --> 00:28:35,540
account and the number of times you're posting and your influence when they're making a
hiring decision.

338
00:28:35,540 --> 00:28:45,447
So let's say you know I'm deciding between you and Brad and for all intents and purposes
it's apples to apples, the deciding factor on whether we're gonna hire you or not is the

339
00:28:45,447 --> 00:28:47,649
amount of influence that you have online.

340
00:28:47,649 --> 00:28:55,655
So you know companies are paying attention, it's super visible in terms of if you're
engaging with the other executives, if you're posting.

341
00:28:56,478 --> 00:29:07,215
And if you're the type of person who has any sort of ambition to climb the corporate
ladder and do better for yourself, make more money, have a better position, it's

342
00:29:07,215 --> 00:29:13,099
unfortunately now kind of table stakes in this modern world of working in an office.

343
00:29:13,099 --> 00:29:19,523
You need to learn how to navigate and be successful on this platform or you're going to
get left behind or remain stagnant.

344
00:29:19,523 --> 00:29:21,228
mean, obviously if...

345
00:29:21,228 --> 00:29:29,922
If you're riding the desk and you're in position that you're happy with and that's where
you want to be for rest of your life, that's one conclusion that you can come to.

346
00:29:29,922 --> 00:29:35,874
But if you have any sort of ambition at all, it's kind of must-see TV.

347
00:29:35,874 --> 00:29:39,456
It's something that you have to invest in as soon as possible.

348
00:29:39,509 --> 00:29:44,389
And to your point, investing doesn't mean every single day for four hours a day.

349
00:29:44,389 --> 00:29:51,271
You can start off small and let that snowball or continue to remain consistent.

350
00:29:52,158 --> 00:29:58,947
Well, we think you can even become a professional lurker and benefit from that.

351
00:29:58,947 --> 00:30:07,844
And what I mean by that is comment on other people's posts, but not awesome rocket ship
emoji, like meaningful dialogue.

352
00:30:07,844 --> 00:30:09,625
to engage with other people.

353
00:30:09,625 --> 00:30:18,549
There are content creators even within your own company or within your own industry,
whether those are customers, whether those are prospects, whether those are connections,

354
00:30:18,549 --> 00:30:19,850
they're generating content.

355
00:30:19,850 --> 00:30:26,693
And so you can put on your professional lurking pants or shoes and invest and engage in
that.

356
00:30:26,873 --> 00:30:29,794
That's gonna help with your own personal visibility.

357
00:30:29,794 --> 00:30:33,464
And a lot of times, of course, people have writer's blog or...

358
00:30:33,464 --> 00:30:38,031
gunshot, there's a million reasons why you may or may not want to get involved in stuff
like that.

359
00:30:38,031 --> 00:30:46,703
And hopping on the common bandwagon is a great place to like a jump off spot to get
started and get going.

360
00:30:47,750 --> 00:30:56,460
And I mean, one of the things that I find interesting too, and I've obviously been, you
know, being in the space and trying to be consistent myself is that these things take time

361
00:30:56,460 --> 00:30:57,281
as well.

362
00:30:57,281 --> 00:31:03,047
You don't post once and then all of a sudden you have a thousand likes and your inbox is
full.

363
00:31:03,047 --> 00:31:07,211
It takes time and consistency to show up.

364
00:31:08,145 --> 00:31:17,744
I think it's important that people recognize that you can't just post once and expect it
to be a miracle and give up, but that you can consistently share a message and that people

365
00:31:17,744 --> 00:31:21,438
aren't really paying all that much attention to you all the time.

366
00:31:21,438 --> 00:31:28,644
So if you're fearful of it, chances are for the first couple of posts while you're finding
your legs, they might not see it anyways, right?

367
00:31:29,401 --> 00:31:32,102
So there's those fears that pop up.

368
00:31:32,102 --> 00:31:42,533
But I think one of the things that internally I would be fearful of as an HR leader,
coming back to the fact that you said you speak with lot of HR leaders, is what are people

369
00:31:42,533 --> 00:31:43,533
saying?

370
00:31:43,594 --> 00:31:45,085
Are they compliant?

371
00:31:45,085 --> 00:31:47,587
Are they sharing anything that doesn't align with the company?

372
00:31:47,587 --> 00:31:51,891
And do we have a pulse on how they're representing our organization?

373
00:31:51,891 --> 00:31:56,324
And so I think that's where you come in, in providing that.

374
00:31:56,933 --> 00:32:08,120
you know, that filter almost for whether it's executives or for employees, just making
sure that there isn't anything slipping through the cracks that way.

375
00:32:08,941 --> 00:32:09,642
Is that correct?

376
00:32:09,642 --> 00:32:17,617
And through the, yeah, this just the security piece and the peace of mind for the HR
leaders and the folks who are saying what's being said about us, the reputation

377
00:32:17,617 --> 00:32:20,209
management, let's say that's out there.

378
00:32:21,149 --> 00:32:25,938
their workflow is in the tool to enforce compliance and that's looking at it from one
perspective.

379
00:32:25,938 --> 00:32:30,865
So if I want Alan to lead the charge with a message.

380
00:32:30,946 --> 00:32:37,069
I can create that message, can make it look perfect for him, I can get it approved by
compliance and all the good stuff that I need to do.

381
00:32:37,069 --> 00:32:43,612
However, there's another aspect of that challenge, which is what is Alan doing on his
mobile phone on the train ride in?

382
00:32:43,612 --> 00:32:54,997
He still can post anything that he wants natively on LinkedIn, as can any other employee
that may or may not be part of an employee advocacy or an executive leader-led program.

383
00:32:54,997 --> 00:33:00,840
So if it's coming from within the platform, it's easy to lock in compliance and make sure
that nothing is going wrong.

384
00:33:00,840 --> 00:33:11,431
But there's an audit tool that allows you to identify individuals and say, geez,
regardless of whether or not we posted it and approved it, show me what Alan posted on

385
00:33:11,431 --> 00:33:12,092
LinkedIn.

386
00:33:12,092 --> 00:33:14,514
And I can get a full feed of everything he's posted.

387
00:33:14,514 --> 00:33:17,207
And if it's a native post, I have insight into that.

388
00:33:17,207 --> 00:33:20,820
And I can go, geez, look what he's doing on his free time.

389
00:33:21,966 --> 00:33:27,906
you know, let's go tap Alan on the shoulder and say, wow, you know, this is impacting more
than just you, Mr.

390
00:33:27,906 --> 00:33:29,946
CEO, this is blowing back on the organization.

391
00:33:29,946 --> 00:33:34,526
So that's a big concern and we can address it from multiple different perspectives.

392
00:33:34,539 --> 00:33:38,507
yes, to have full visibility in that is very, very helpful.

393
00:33:38,507 --> 00:33:41,821
And you can say, Alan, we tried to do this to make it easy for you.

394
00:33:42,223 --> 00:33:45,089
And now you've just made life harder for everyone.

395
00:33:45,089 --> 00:33:46,013
you are.

396
00:33:46,166 --> 00:33:46,938
I get beat up?

397
00:33:46,938 --> 00:33:48,520
Are you guys looking at my pose?

398
00:33:49,058 --> 00:33:49,947
Hahaha.

399
00:33:49,947 --> 00:33:52,172
is also couples therapy and a live audit.

400
00:33:52,172 --> 00:33:54,687
So Alan, we have a couple of things we need to tell you.

401
00:33:55,557 --> 00:34:01,777
I made one MyPillow post on LinkedIn one time like hump the brakes guys one time

402
00:34:01,777 --> 00:34:05,220
pillow, jeez.

403
00:34:05,220 --> 00:34:15,709
Part of what we help organizations with, at various different aspects, it's not always
wrapping your head around data first or wrapping your head around better intelligence

404
00:34:15,709 --> 00:34:17,190
after you've invested in a program.

405
00:34:17,190 --> 00:34:22,756
It depends on where you sit and how comfortable you are with social advocacy as an
organization.

406
00:34:22,756 --> 00:34:25,958
But part of it is just educating.

407
00:34:26,126 --> 00:34:28,417
Organizations on what the status quo is.

408
00:34:28,417 --> 00:34:29,527
Where do you sit?

409
00:34:29,527 --> 00:34:31,077
Where do the rest of your competitors sit?

410
00:34:31,077 --> 00:34:32,378
What does your industry look like?

411
00:34:32,378 --> 00:34:34,548
What are your audiences responding to?

412
00:34:34,548 --> 00:34:45,982
If you have that information, you're much better equipped to push your current strategy in
a particular direction or develop a new strategy that can help you activate employees with

413
00:34:45,982 --> 00:34:53,734
the right messaging, identify key leaders, and start to build a brand around each of them
that can also impact your organizational goals.

414
00:34:54,171 --> 00:34:55,381
Absolutely.

415
00:34:58,042 --> 00:34:59,613
No kidding, no kidding.

416
00:34:59,613 --> 00:35:05,845
And I feel like through our conversation today, we started with an elephant and we have
just been taking bites out of it.

417
00:35:05,845 --> 00:35:15,988
So I want to thank you both because I think that there's so much insight and information
and very healthy statistics as to why somebody should, if they haven't already, start to

418
00:35:15,988 --> 00:35:18,529
cultivate that personal brand.

419
00:35:19,047 --> 00:35:21,719
And with that, I'd love to ask, where can people find you?

420
00:35:21,719 --> 00:35:22,680
How can they get in touch?

421
00:35:22,680 --> 00:35:29,185
Because I think there will be a number of folks just chomping at the bit to chat with you
and to see how you can help them.

422
00:35:30,882 --> 00:35:33,203
Well, surprise, you can find us on LinkedIn.

423
00:35:35,105 --> 00:35:37,617
Surprise, you can find us there.

424
00:35:37,617 --> 00:35:44,452
can connect with us, obviously, there on LinkedIn, but socialhp.com is the website.

425
00:35:44,452 --> 00:35:47,494
And you can find all of our contact information there as well.

426
00:35:47,581 --> 00:35:48,702
Beautiful, beautiful.

427
00:35:48,702 --> 00:35:50,222
Well, thank you both.

428
00:35:50,222 --> 00:36:02,108
And I hope this will be the first of many chats because I know that as you continue to
grow and evolve and as things change, hopefully not too rapidly or we don't encounter too

429
00:36:02,108 --> 00:36:05,580
much more change, but I know that you will always be at the forefront of it.

430
00:36:05,580 --> 00:36:12,153
So I look forward to more conversations and you can download them for us in the future.

431
00:36:13,246 --> 00:36:14,195
Thanks so much, Kendra.

432
00:36:14,195 --> 00:36:15,330
Thank you.