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This is the Executive Connect Podcast - a show for the new generation of leaders. Join us as we discover unconventional leadership strategies not traditionally associated with executive roles. Our guests include upper-level C-Suite executives charting new ways to grow their organizations, successful entrepreneurs changing the way the world does business, and experts and thought leaders from fields outside of Corporate America that can bring new insights into leadership, prosperity, and personal growth - all while connecting on a human level. No one has all the answers - but by building a community of open-minded and engaged leaders we hope to give you the tools you need to help you find your own path to success.
Melissa Aarskaug (00:01.662)
Welcome to the Executive Connect. Today I'm thrilled to have Fannie Dunovan here with us today, the CEO and content strategist at Pathway LLC. I want to showcase a little bit about you before we get started and talk about your background in video marketing, LinkedIn branding, and career development coaching. The interesting part about your background, Fannie, is you grew up
as a really shy, quiet kid and English was not your first language. So can you share a little bit about yourself and your journey from a corporate career at SAP into entrepreneurship?
Fanny Dunagan (00:34.462)
Yes.
Fanny Dunagan (00:48.648)
Yeah, absolutely. Well, first of all, thank you for having me, Melissa. Really excited to talk to you today on your podcast. Yeah, so I own a marketing agency called PathLinks and we help tech consulting firms with their content marketing videos as well as live streams and help build the thought leadership of their tech consultants as well as their tech executives.
So as far as my childhood, yeah, I was born in China, immigrated to Canada when I was six. And so literally fresh off the boat kind of thing, landed in Canada, not knowing how to speak a word of English. And I still remember going to English as a second language classes in elementary school.
I still remember my first English teacher, Mrs. McDonald. I really think she changed the whole trajectory of my life, you know, because she taught me English, she was patient with me. And so year by year, I got better. And, and now I talk for a living. So it's very ironic. But yeah, growing up as an immigrant in Canada, just
very quiet. Well, first of all, because I couldn't speak the language and then just very shy and just kind of fish out of water. And year by year and eventually going into consulting where you have to talk for a living, you're giving advice for a living. It just really kind of taught me the importance of communications and doing change management and training for SAP implementations.
in aerospace and defense companies, you're constantly presenting, you're constantly talking and engaging with clients. And so it became such an important skill. And now I get to kind of help others do that on video and live streams. And it's so, so rewarding because it truly is my mission and vision that everybody, especially us techie geeks and nerds be seen and heard.
Fanny Dunagan (03:03.336)
for our thought leadership.
Melissa Aarskaug (03:06.324)
Yeah, I love that. Now was there a specific event or what was the change catalyst from going to W2 employee to an entrepreneur? Was there something specific you can share?
Fanny Dunagan (03:10.25)
Yeah.
Fanny Dunagan (03:14.346)
Yeah.
Fanny Dunagan (03:18.538)
Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, I had, you know, three years as a civil engineer and then almost 10 years as a consultant. And so had that whole corporate career and then, you know, fell in love. Imagine that got married and wanted to have some babies. And there's no way in my, at least for me anyways, it's different for every woman. I could not juggle a consulting career that was
traveling Monday to Thursday and have children. And so I became a stay at home mom for several years. And when I was trying to figure out what to do next, that was when I was really lost. And I ended up just volunteering at a local outreach center and then eventually helping them do training programs and then organizing a job fair. And that was when I got into the whole world of doing
LinkedIn videos to promote the job fairs and Facebook videos. And I actually really fell in love with marketing and video content. It created this great connection with the community and building rapport with the audience. And from there, that's when the business was born. Eventually employers started asking for video marketing services and job seekers wanted to kind of build their brand on LinkedIn.
And then year after year became a business. And now I focus purely on kind of the technology industry. So it's a full circle, right? That I'm now back in technology, but I get to do marketing with them. And, and yet I understand the lingo and what it means to put through a technology project. So yeah, it was through being a stay at home mom and finding my way again and like kind of reinventing myself again.
Melissa Aarskaug (05:16.948)
Yeah, I love it. And I've loved getting to know you and talk about how much our lives and journeys have paralleled. I know, and we've talked a little bit about personal branding and the importance of it in the technology field, whether you're a civil engineer or a CIO. So can you share a little bit from your perspective the importance of personal branding today?
Fanny Dunagan (05:23.805)
Right?
Fanny Dunagan (05:37.598)
Yes.
Fanny Dunagan (05:44.03)
Yeah. I mean, we grew up thinking if we work hard, keep our heads down, we'll get the promotion and then like check, check, check, go up the corporate ladder kind of thing. And that's just not the case anymore. Right. Job security is definitely not as stable. We're victims of layoffs or, you know, know, reorganizations and things like that. And so
Nowadays, it's all about staying current and being top of mind. And we're all on our phones, we're all on LinkedIn, we're all scrolling. And LinkedIn has become such a great platform, not just for jobs, but to share what we know, to educate others, to share our knowledge, to share our experiences. And so by building a personal brand, even if you're not looking for a job,
even if you are not, you know, selling anything, it's so important to kind of like be visible. Right. And so by building a personal brand by sharing advice, tips, articles, all that, it becomes a way to become top of mind, not just for your own self in your organization, but also just to be top of mind if you suddenly lose your job, or you suddenly
there's suddenly a career transition. And you and I talk like you speak a lot, Melissa, right? And across conferences and panels, even just that visibility, right? Letting people know that you're an expert in A, B, and C, and then being invited to speaking opportunities. All that is part of personal brand and making yourself current and visible to others.
Melissa Aarskaug (07:39.476)
Yeah, absolutely. And I think it's, like you mentioned, it's really hard.
Melissa Aarskaug (07:48.916)
Bye.
Fanny Dunagan (07:53.706)
and
Fanny Dunagan (07:57.64)
I don't hear an echo. Interesting.
Melissa Aarskaug (07:59.306)
Do hear it now?
Melissa Aarskaug (08:11.338)
How about now? Can you hear it out? Test, test, testing one, two, three.
Melissa Aarskaug (08:24.65)
Okay, perfect. Thanks, Rob. Yeah, absolutely. And I know in today's, like you mentioned, world of corporate America, it's hard to really stand out when you're a program manager or a product manager and there's one job and 5 ,000 applicants for the job for some companies. Like, how do you make yourself, if everybody has the same degrees and the same background and the same experience,
Fanny Dunagan (08:25.148)
Okay.
Melissa Aarskaug (08:54.312)
How do you stand out to get that role?
Fanny Dunagan (08:57.332)
Yeah.
Gone are the days of trying to be like everyone else, right? The more different you are, the better actually. And in a lot of my trainings, I teach people that there are four ways, four aspects to differentiate yourself around when building a personal brand. Number one is obviously your expertise. So this is what you know, this is based off your jobs and experience. What advice...
So using your project manager example, let's say Melissa. So you're a project manager. What kind of advice do you have around project management, mistakes that people should avoid, best practices, all that, right? So there's that side of you, your expertise, right? Secondly is what are your values, right? Who are you? What do you stand for, right? Are you someone that stands for creativity, efficiency,
innovation, leadership, all those kind of things, right? So weaving in your values into your content, and like, declaring to yourself, what are the five values that I stand for? Right? And then thirdly is, then your strengths. I don't know if have you ever done your Clifton Strengths Finder, Melissa? Yeah.
Melissa Aarskaug (10:21.32)
I have, I have, it's great.
Fanny Dunagan (10:24.81)
Yeah, so those like you, it's a $20 assessment, you go to CliftonStrengths and you end up being shown your top five strengths. And so it's everything from strategy to empathy to connectedness, competition, all that, right? So then again, that gives you another five words to help define your personal brand. And then fourth is your interests. Now this is something that,
I found really, really resonates with people is when we share what we do on the weekends and then tie it to something in our career, our interests, like books that we've read, podcasts that we listen to, as well as sports that we might be into. And so when you look at your expertise, values, strengths, and interests, those four things then form your personal brand.
So I'll give you an example. Let's say you're a project manager and you love golf, right? So you might be sharing some project management expertise, but you can tie it to the game of golf, right? So you might have like you're teeing up and you you've to line up your shot and that's similar to setting your goals for your project and lining up your resources and whatnot, however you want to do it, right? And so that's a different way to share your expertise. That's different.
than everyone else, right? You're creating project management advice with a golf analogy, or you're sharing about project management and one of your values is being responsible, right? So honoring your deadlines and so forth. And so when you create content from those four aspects, then that makes you unique from every other project manager that's out there.
Melissa Aarskaug (12:18.174)
Yeah, absolutely. I was thinking when you were mentioning that, like if you're, you know, competition or competitiveness is one of your top strengths and, you know, pickleball, as you know, is like a popular thing right now in Austin. So tying, like you were saying, your love for pickleball with your competitive nature and sales and bringing in finding the thread throughout all of the things that you do. Like you mentioned,
Fanny Dunagan (12:31.443)
Yeah.
Melissa Aarskaug (12:44.872)
your values, your job, your passions, and I think you're spot on in finding that thread and then creating value in your content that would resonate with your audience. And so can you talk a little bit about creating value through content?
Fanny Dunagan (13:07.23)
Yes, yes. And same thing with defining your brand. There's four things that I always advocate for when creating content. There's four purposes of content. Number one is to educate your audience, right? That's tips, advice, best practice, methodologies, right? That's number one. Number two is if...
you're informing people about different conferences you're going to webinars you're speaking to, right? Like you and I both met at InnoTech, right? So informing our audience that we're going to be speaking at InnoTech at whatever time and date and all that, right? That's informational kind of content, right? So educational kind of content, informational kind of content. The third piece is inspirational kind of content. This is when we share a personal story.
This is where we share maybe a mistake that we made and then the lesson we learned or a struggle we have and then how we overcame it. You'll see sometimes on LinkedIn somebody sharing a story and it will like get so popular even especially if you tie it into maybe something from your career and a lesson that's learned. Those always resonate with audiences. And then finally entertainment, right? Entertain your audience too.
If you're funny, can tell your story or give your advice in a funny way. I recently had a client that did their first video ever, right? And he's led the post with, yes, we're camera shy, but we wanted to get our first video out and share with you about this event that we're hosting and so on, right? So when you combine those four types of content, educational, informational,
inspirational and entertaining, then that's where you'll get the sweet spot, right? So you're never just one of all one thing, you're like four different things. And then it gives your audience a almost like a three dimensional view of you. And that way you connect with the audience. And just to differentiate it even more, the first two that feeds people's heads, and then the last two feeds people's hearts.
Fanny Dunagan (15:25.866)
Okay, so you educate them with facts and figures for their head, and then you touch them with your stories and your funny moments, and you touch their hearts. So we create content for the head and we create content for the heart.
Melissa Aarskaug (15:42.238)
Yeah, I love that. feel like it feels to me now, everybody's writing a book, everybody's creating content. Like I feel overloaded and bombarded with content and I'm somehow got subscribed to all of these emails with content and more content in it. And so I want to get your perspective on content overload, I'm going to say, and some of the challenges and struggles content creators have today.
Fanny Dunagan (15:56.905)
you
Fanny Dunagan (16:00.201)
Yeah.
Fanny Dunagan (16:06.858)
No.
Fanny Dunagan (16:12.478)
Yes, yes, it's almost like a machine sometimes, right? You gotta like feed the machine, feed the content machine.
I think it just depends on what stage you're at.
Fanny Dunagan (16:28.618)
Two scenarios, right? One scenario is you're in corporate and one scenario is you're an entrepreneur, right? In corporate, you you have a full -time job. You are, you know, already have all kinds of things going on. So the main goal is to be consistent. And you can just say, I'm only gonna post once a week. But when I post, it will be every Tuesday at 8 a right?
And that way you stick to it and that's all you do. And then the rest of the time you're spending that commenting or engaging with others. And so it's more important to be consistent than to be frequent. Then that way people know, okay, Melissa's always going to show up on Tuesday with a tip about security, right? Or something like that. And it's always Tuesday at 8 a And then that way it also gives the creator a schedule to follow. Right? So,
So that's one scenario. But if you're an entrepreneur and you're building your business and you use LinkedIn for lead generation or to get the word out and to drive opportunities, then you might want to post more often. You might say twice a week, right? And you can say every Tuesday morning at eight, I'll post something. And every Thursday at eight, I'll post something, right? And so that then is
a really good way to be consistent, but have a schedule where you are just over and over, you repeat, and then you're showing up for your audience in a consistent way. It's like when we were growing up, we always tune into a sitcom at that same day, same time. I remember Thursday nights, it was always Seinfeld. Maybe I'm dating myself, Melissa.
You know, like Thursday night, I'm always tuning in and watching like, you know, sitcom after sitcom, right? Same thing. So that's a by setting out those schedules. That's a way to beat that burnout and not overwhelm yourself.
Melissa Aarskaug (18:43.422)
Yeah, absolutely. And you're not dating yourself. On Sunday nights, I used to watch the Disney Channel. So I agree. think it's being consistent. You're spot on being consistent with the content. The other thing I want to mention, and I hear a lot of people say, well, you have more time to do all this stuff and post and create your posts and all those kind of pieces. But I will tell you that
Fanny Dunagan (18:50.048)
huh.
Melissa Aarskaug (19:11.912)
there is a very secret feature on LinkedIn where you can schedule your post. And I think that is key. So a lot of people are like, how can you post at this time every week? And I'll tell you, I'm not posting ever during the week and ever. All my posts are done over the weekend and they're scheduled during the week. So to your point, Fanny, I could be consistent with what I'm posting.
Fanny Dunagan (19:16.744)
Yes, yes.
Melissa Aarskaug (19:38.93)
and I don't have to worry about, it's Tuesday at eight, I need to get my post out. So I want to pivot a little bit and talk about how people can leverage LinkedIn for their own branding and really discuss the power of LinkedIn for professional branding. Can you share a little bit about your insights in that capacity?
Fanny Dunagan (19:39.156)
Yes.
Fanny Dunagan (19:50.212)
Fanny Dunagan (20:00.392)
Absolutely, yeah. So of all the platforms out there, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, all of them, LinkedIn is the most affluent network out there, right? It's the most affluent platform out there. It is where, it's the only platform where you can see where somebody's working as well as their job title or role, right? So.
It becomes a great platform for networking as well as for opportunities, business opportunities, as well as job opportunities. And I'm going to throw some stats at you, okay, Melissa, for all us geeks here, as well as in your audience, right? Right? LinkedIn has 1 billion global users right now, right? And, but of those 1 billion people in the last week,
maybe only 0 .4 % posted. However, in, I only know Dallas Fort Worth, right? There are about, I think, a hundred, one million users in Dallas Fort Worth, but only 4 % posted in the last month. However, there are about 47 % of users that are constantly on the feed looking and scrolling.
I call them the silent lurkers. They're not liking or commenting on anything. They're just scrolling. So what that means is you got 47 % of users looking with eyeballs on the feed and only 4 % that are actually creating. So the demand for content is so much higher at 47 % than the supply of content, which is at 4%.
And so if you're one of those creators creating and posting, even though your feed looks busy, right? Then you're going to stand out amongst your peers and your competitors. Right? Again, it's about being top of mind. There might be a hundred speakers around security, but because you're the one that's visible and out there, then you're going to be the one that people think of when an organizer of a conference comes up and needs a security.
Fanny Dunagan (22:21.178)
panelists, they'll think of you first because you're showing up in their feed. Right? So LinkedIn has that power to really kind of set yourself apart. Whereas the other platforms like Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, they're quite saturated. So it's really hard to get organic reach without having to pay for ads. But LinkedIn, you can still get tons of organic reach without having to pay anything.
Like you can be on the free account, you don't need to pay ads, and you can still reach a wide audience.
Melissa Aarskaug (22:57.13)
I love that you're mentioning the lurkers because I'll have people that always say, hey, I saw two months ago you posted this, but people are watching to your point. People are watching, they are paying attention. They may not engage and your competitors are watching the people that you work with that wanna give you a hard time about LinkedIn, but then.
Fanny Dunagan (23:00.152)
Ha ha ha ha!
Fanny Dunagan (23:08.19)
They are.
Melissa Aarskaug (23:22.526)
you know, won't post, right? Everybody is watching it. And you're right, it is a platform to get your content out there and get your brand out there. So I want to talk a little bit about your approach to helping people turn their messaging, their pictures, their video into actually engaging content that people want to click down and read or listen to. Can you share a little bit about that?
Fanny Dunagan (23:50.674)
Hmm, yeah. I'll share firstly about the the number one type of content that gets the most reach and most attention. And that is photos. So anytime you are at an event or you presented something or you're networking or you went to a conference, whatever it is, take a photo and and share that.
especially if you're in the photo as well. That will always perform the best in terms of attention, likes and comments, because your audience is seeing you and almost like a behind the scenes of what you're up to, right? And with those kind of posts, you know, definitely share like if you're at a conference, five takeaways you got from that conference and so forth. So it's not just like, look at me, here I am at this place. It's also
I learned these five things and now I wanna share it with you, the audience. So 100 % image posts always work. And then secondly, videos are always popular. Those create like a connection with the audience, right? It's like somebody getting to know you even before they even meet you. And if you show up authentically and speak from the heart,
or you're very open and transparent and honest. And you don't have to get super personal, but you're honest, right? And those create a huge connection with your audience. then people feel like they know you. And over time, we do business and we work with people that we know, like, and trust, right? And you build up trust at scale. that's, videos have definitely that effectiveness.
And then thirdly, carousels. We've kind of see those kind of things, or you can scroll across and like kind of like a slide deck. Those are a great way to share three ways to improve something, five mistakes to avoid something or whatever it is. And those are an effective way to share content as well. So those are just some different formats that people can adopt to create that connection with the audience.
Melissa Aarskaug (26:16.724)
Yeah, you took my next thought was gonna go to the video piece. Like, live stream and video content seemed to be the thing on LinkedIn right now. And I wanna hear a little bit about some of your clients and maybe even a case study where one of your clients was able to use some of their video content and that significantly impacted their personal brand. Do you have any case studies that you can share with our listeners?
Fanny Dunagan (26:21.567)
and
Fanny Dunagan (26:26.804)
Okay.
Fanny Dunagan (26:32.404)
Fanny Dunagan (26:44.934)
Absolutely. Actually, I have two. One from a business perspective and one from a personal brand perspective. The first one was a technology consultant that we got on video. And we just did it to promote an event that they were attending and they wanted to tell the audience to register for the event and come join them and see them at the booth.
And because he's never done video before, and it was kind of like his first post almost, it got all this attention because people had never seen him on video before and he doesn't post often. And so somebody he worked with from like over 10 years ago reached out and said, hey, so -and -so saw a video of you, let's reconnect.
And as a result of that, even though it had nothing to do with the conference that he was promoting, it ended up being a six figure deal that he brought to the table because they worked together before and it kind of like popped back up, right? He became top of mind again, right? And it was a client from 10 years ago, but because they had such a great relationship, it brought him back to mind. And then he had a problem that, you know, my client could solve. So from a business perspective, just showing up.
Right? Because you may be states away, you may be in different cities, but you worked before. And so it jogs people's memories. So that's one example. A second example is another client that I've been working with and she's not looking for a job. She's not looking to sell anything, but she does want to get on more stages and speak and share. And her mission is about raising the visibility of women in tech.
And so she was consistently creating content. And as a result, she got invited over the six months to like 13 different speaking engagements. And again, that helps to build her visibility, build her thought leadership, right? And so even if you're not selling something as a entrepreneur, think of that like almost like bargaining power you have by being
Fanny Dunagan (29:04.116)
you know, needed and in demand by the market, speaking at different conferences, all the exposure that you're gonna get. You can ask for higher salaries as a result because you're in demand, right? So that's two case studies of, you know, the impacts of showing up.
Melissa Aarskaug (29:25.832)
Yeah, I'm curious, from your perspective, is it important to have a content strategy and maybe even a content calendar? Is it or is it not?
Fanny Dunagan (29:37.266)
It depends how aggressive you want to get with what the goal that you have, right? Like if you, if you're just wanting to be kind of like top of mind and just kind of have something to share with your community, then then no, you don't need to have lists, this elaborate content plan, right? You can just post based on an event that you went to or something that inspired you to share.
But if you wanna get very aggressive with your content strategy to drive business, to drive leads, then 100 % have a content plan. So when I work with my corporate clients, we have content plans. So month to month, of, know, January is this topic, February is this topic, March is this topic, and so forth, right? And so January.
We then break down that topic into four subtopics where week one, we talk about this subset of that topic and then this subset week two and so forth. using your project management example, right, Melissa? The project management topic might be January, right? But week one, you might wanna talk about resourcing in week one. Week two, you might wanna talk about
The project management tools that you most prefer, right? Week three, you might want to talk about project management mistakes that people want to avoid. Week four, you might want to talk about project management enablers and so forth, right? So if you really have a targeted goal that you're going after, like in business, then absolutely you need a content calendar. And the best way to do that is by topics.
and by months and then by weeks.
Melissa Aarskaug (31:32.68)
I love it. I want to get your perspective and maybe any tips you can share with our listeners about, you know, creating, editing, developing, producing video content and anything that you can share that would make people's videos better.
Fanny Dunagan (31:51.678)
Yeah. If you're starting out, your smartphone is your best friend, right? Because our iPhones, our Androids, they're like 4K. You can get 4K video of our little phones, right? So if you're starting out, just use that. You don't need elaborate equipment. Don't let the thought of, need all this fancy equipment, because that ends up just stalling you, right?
Get out your phone and you can start with that. Get a lapel mic, because audio is important. So then there's tons of $20 lapel mics that you can buy. Plug it to the phone jack, and then that way you'll just have a nice warmer kind of audio. From there, you can upgrade to cameras and lighting.
Lighting is probably the next thing that you can invest in is just having good lighting. And it can just be the fact that you're facing a window. And so it lights up your face really well. And then from there, then you can escalate to higher quality cameras and things like that. But your phone is your best friend. And then follow the rule of thirds, right? The rule of thirds is that
When you look at the camera, your eye level is one third from the top. And then you can either be in the middle of the screen or sometimes you could just be one third of the way from the side of the screen. You'll see a lot of like news reporters. They're like one third of the way on the screen. That way allows for like captions and things like that to fly in from the other side. So that's some tips. and then on, when on your phones, turn on your grid, right? So
There are grid lines that you can turn on and then that way it'll tell you where the one third mark is on your screen. And then you can use that as like a marker for where your eye level should be. So those are just some quick little tips that they can do now.
Melissa Aarskaug (33:55.946)
That's great. I know there's so many things to remember when we're recording. There's so many things that I know I've had people tell me, okay, make sure you're holding your phone vertical, not horizontal because social channels like it that way. And so is there some common mistakes people are making that you can share with our listeners to not make when creating video content?
Fanny Dunagan (33:59.604)
There's tons.
Fanny Dunagan (34:23.838)
Yeah, well to your point about vertical videos, by the way, there is now a video feed on LinkedIn, where if you click on any video, like click it itself, then it puts you into a vertical video feed like TikTok. So that has now come to LinkedIn vertical video. So yes, definitely have vertical videos, but if...
Sometimes for corporations, it's still good to have the horizontal, because that way you can still post it on YouTube and so forth. Because you can always take a horizontal video and then crop it to vertical. But you can't go the opposite way. You can't record in vertical, because it'll always have those black lines if you try to make it horizontal. So if you want the most flexibility, record in horizontal, because you can always crop to vertical.
But as far as mistakes, I think number one, making sure that you're looking at the lens instead of the image, right? So if you're recording in selfie mode, don't look at yourself in the video. Make sure you're looking at the lens, right? So right now I'm looking at the lens of a camera versus looking at Melissa, which is on my computer screen, right? So like that little thing there.
And then when you start a video, there's no need to introduce yourself. People can find your name, title, company, all from the feed. When you're doing videos, especially because we live in a short attention span world now, try to keep it to be about a minute and then start right into your topic, right? Three ways to improve whatever, right? Let me share with you the three ways to do this and so forth. There's no need to say,
Hi, I'm Fanny Dunnigan and I'm blah, blah, blah, blah, then get into it. It's too much. Just go straight in with a headline, with a question that you're going to answer, and then that way you grab people's attention and they're in from the beginning.
Melissa Aarskaug (36:36.458)
I love it. I know you mentioned at the beginning, your values. One of my values is community. I really believe in creating a community around you no matter what you're passionate about, whether it's tech or golf or pickleball, but creating community. And so when we think of creating community, it's not just face -to -face, but it's also using our content that we're creating.
and creating a community and really focus in on what, like you're saying, bring your heart and your head together. So can you talk a little bit about engaging community and communities in your personal branding?
Fanny Dunagan (37:23.454)
Yes, absolutely. It's so important to build community and a big part of that can be done through comments. So every time you post something, at the end of your write -up for the post, ask your audience a question. So you might post something about, know, something you're sharing or educating the audience on, and then you might ask your audience,
What tip would you add to this list? Or what are your thoughts on this? Or do you agree or disagree? Comment below. And so when you create those kind of questions, then it facilitates or enables your audience to then comment. And then from there, you can have a whole discussion in the comments. And in fact, comments have huge power on LinkedIn because the algorithm loves comments.
When they see a post getting lots of comments, then the algorithm then turns and spreads it to more of your network. And then the more you comment, the more you engage, and it just gets wider and wider in terms of where your algorithm is sharing the network. So commenting, asking your audience questions. And then there are days that I don't post at all, and all I do is spend.
I actually, spent almost every day at least 10 minutes just commenting on other people's feeds. And that's a great way to kind of like build relationships online. I've, I've met clients and friends and partners and collaborators simply from commenting on a post that I like. And maybe we shared a similar value. We shared a similar hobby or we shared a similar industry. I'm like really enjoyed your article about whatever.
would love to learn more about you or perhaps we can collaborate on this and so forth. And so it's a great way to network online and find people that you wouldn't normally at in -person events. So commenting, asking questions, and then doing outreach, right? Like, so you might be interested in, let's say, creative writing.
Fanny Dunagan (39:42.184)
And so you can put in creative writing into the search bar. And from there, it'll pull up posts related to creative writing. And then that way you can find other creators, other industry leaders that have similar interests as you. And then you can build a network that way as well. So these are just some, you know, three examples of how to build community.
Melissa Aarskaug (40:07.39)
That's great, Finny. Circling back around to the beginning when we talking about being shy, I absolutely identify with you with being shy. And I would say in my younger years, I was afraid to speak up. I was afraid to post on LinkedIn. I didn't want people to know a lot about my personal life and what I liked and the mistakes I made because I felt that I would be considered less of an expert, less competent.
Fanny Dunagan (40:14.154)
Thank
Melissa Aarskaug (40:35.952)
fear of being judged. And so for all the listeners out there that are scared to post, scared to comment, scared to make a video, baby steps. Like Fannie mentioned, posting your thoughts in somebody's, your comments in somebody's thoughts or engaging online. Maybe that's step one. And step two is, like you mentioned, posting something that you're gonna be at an event soon.
And maybe step three is creating your own video of something that you're an expert in. So I think, you know, just to all the people out there that are thinking, I'm not extroverted, I can't do it. I'm here to tell you, you can do it. It's, we all started somewhere at the beginning at small baby steps. So, you know, feel comfortable doing it at your pace. It is not a sprint, it is a marathon.
And so just kind of in closing, Fanny, I want to get any of your final thoughts or anything that we may have missed that you want to share with our listeners.
Fanny Dunagan (41:42.282)
Well, just expand on what you said, Melissa. One of the things I tell my clients a lot and just people in general, that fear hits, especially because we might fear judgment, we might fear disapproval. I don't look good enough today or I put on some weight or whatever it is, right?
I would say focus out instead of focusing in. When we focus in, then we're in our heads and we're like worried about how we sound, how we look and all those kinds of things. Will we be judged and all that? But if we focus out, we start to think about what can I say today to inspire somebody? What can I say today to brighten somebody else's day?
What can I say today to help somebody with their job search? What can I say today to help somebody grow their business? What can I say today to help somebody solve a problem? Because I've gone through it and I want to share with them. So when we focus out that way, then all those inner securities tend to kind of like recede into the background. And then that way we come from a space of service.
and servant leadership versus anxiety and like analysis paralysis. So always focus out and how can I help someone today? And when we come from that space, then it becomes really natural.
Melissa Aarskaug (43:25.086)
Yeah, that's great advice. I think back to last year I presented at a conference and I was the person that was moving the slide, which I couldn't see behind me. I was literally a slide ahead on my visual screen versus the people that were moving the screen and for the audience. I wasn't even talking on point on slide. And it's funny to me Fanny that
people came up to me and they're like, wow, that was great. And I was so judgmental of myself. And I'm like, my God, I totally blew that. I'm sure nobody understood the first half an hour of my speech, but sometimes I think we're more critical of ourselves and our content than the other listeners and people. So you hit on it a few times being, you know, going for the emotion, being vulnerable, talking about the mistakes you made and realize
Fanny Dunagan (44:09.875)
Yes.
Melissa Aarskaug (44:22.46)
Nobody's perfect and the only perfect people that are doing it are in the movies, on the movies, they're professional actors. And so we're all just doing our very best. And so to give yourself some grace and patience with the process, you'll continue to get better.
Melissa Aarskaug (44:42.994)
I love it. So thank you so much, Fanny, for being here today. I appreciate you sharing insider tips and advice and things not to do. so I task all the listeners to try it. Use one of her tips that she shared with us today, or don't do one of the things she suggested not to do. And follow Fanny online.
Fanny Dunagan (44:46.43)
Thank you, Melissa.
you
Fanny Dunagan (44:59.508)
Yes.
Melissa Aarskaug (45:10.31)
Follow us on the Executive Connect podcast on YouTube and LinkedIn. And we love to hear from you and what you want to learn, what you want to hear about. So engage, message us in the content, and that's the Executive Connect podcast.