In this episode I introduce my 'shop window strategy' for making Linkedin less stress alongside some of the most common myths and icks' held about the platform.

Resources & Links

• Book your Linkedin Audit here
• Subscribe to Re-Introducing Ambition for more insights here
• Listen to Tummy Hurts by Renee Rapp ft. Coco Jones here

good day, folks.

2

Welcome to another episode

of After the Hustle.

3

very excited to be with you on this topic.

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any of you that know me, you know this

is one of my favorite topics to discuss.

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And in fact, this came about after

coming from the networking event.

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That I did in partnership

with Jess Sophia Bruno.

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I just got talking to a few of the

ladies at the event about LinkedIn.

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Now these are TikTok, Instagram,

Pinterest girlies by default.

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so when we were swapping details,

it was like, Should we do Instagram?

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Should we do LinkedIn?

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And I was like, can't lie to

you, LinkedIn's my default.

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You will find me on Instagram, but

will you find all my bits and bobs?

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You will probably not.

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LinkedIn is where I live.

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And I saw on their faces

just abject horror.

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And So I am here today at the urging

of the folks I spoke to who were

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like, actually Jaz, if you told me

what it was really like on LinkedIn,

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then maybe I'll give it a go.

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Um, and they also were very kind

enough to share some of the myths,

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the preconceptions, the, I guess

the poor branding that they'd gotten

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on what LinkedIn is and isn't.

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So that's what we're going to go in today.

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But before I dive in further,

let's let you know what I'm sipping

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on and what I'm listening to.

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So today we're keeping things a little

bit simple with a Lipton yellow label tea.

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So it's kind of like the English

breakfast sort of vibe, but we

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keep it really simple today.

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And what we're listening to is Tummy

Hurts by Renee Rapp featuring Coco Jones.

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I absolutely love this song

because it's kind of got that

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old school nineties ballad.

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vibe when it comes to R& B, like

they're both taking you on a journey.

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They're telling you a story, you

feel all their feelings, you feel

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their rage, you feel their apathy,

you feel all the things, right?

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So now that we know what we're

sipping on and what we're listening

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to this week, let's dive in.

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So I want to start off by letting you

know if you come this far into the

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episode, they lied to you about LinkedIn,

especially if you've come this far into

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the episode and you're like, really,

is this what we're talking about?

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Be sure.

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Like what the online CV thing, right?

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That's what we kind of all got told

and I got told that as well, right?

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But that messaging worked for me.

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I was in the first year of

university when I joined LinkedIn.

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I've been on LinkedIn for

a very, very long time.

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You know, and that worked because

what did I want at that time?

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I wanted internships, I wanted career

opportunities, and I absolutely loved

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the idea that I could share a little

bit around what I was doing and actually

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use my profile to reach out to absolute

strangers on the internet who were

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doing infinitely interesting things.

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It was a very different world back then.

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There were definitely way

less users on the platform.

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Um, it didn't have all of the features

that it has to this day and I'll

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talk into those on another episode.

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So for those of you who are listening

to this and you're like, eh, I'm

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okay with LinkedIn, but I don't

really know what I should be doing.

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Don't worry.

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There's going to be an episode for you,

but for today, I'm going to talk to the

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folks who have been lied to, the folks

who just feel absolute ick when somebody

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says LinkedIn, um, And kind of just go

through some of the key myths, really.

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Um, the first thing I want to say is

that LinkedIn doesn't need to be as

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hard work as a lot of other platforms.

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Yes, it is a social network.

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I will never deny that.

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It's meant to be the professional

social network, but it's a

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social network at its core.

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So you will see people share things about

family, about travel, life events, things

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that feel a little bit more personal.

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And I would say pre pandemic,

a lot of people would be

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like, this is not Facebook.

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Why are you sharing that?

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But I think post pandemic, we've

all created a lot more space and

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grace for people's actual lives

on the professional platform.

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And I think in some senses that's

brought a different environment there.

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Which is kind of forcing people

to be a little bit more authentic.

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But like with all social media, once

people start to be authentic, you then

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have to sift between the fake authentic

and the real authentic, should we say.

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Many a time, just like you find

on Instagram, you start reading

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something thinking it's like a

genuine share from the heart.

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And at the end there's like a call

to action and you're like, Oh, okay,

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you shared this just to clickbait me.

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Okay, cool.

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Cool, cool, cool.

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Um, So, you know, that's one of the

biggest things when it kind of comes to

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LinkedIn that turns a lot of people off

is that it can just feel really authentic.

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It can feel like people just bragging

about themselves, sharing about,

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you know, Oh, I've got a new job.

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I've got a new certification.

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I've got all of these things,

kind of just the highlight reel.

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But I would also challenge those of you

who feel that way to recognize that every

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single social media platform is like that.

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So that's not going to.

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go away.

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As long as there's humans operating on

the platform, that's not going to go away.

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And one of the biggest ways

to really overcome that is

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to really curate your feed.

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So this is something that

I work with clients on.

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Um, when we implement what I

call the shop window strategy.

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So we start to refine their LinkedIn

profile and activity, um, and

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information based on the things that

they're genuinely interested in.

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So just like on any other platform,

if somebody is being obnoxious

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and annoying, you can block them.

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You can disconnect from them.

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You can choose not to be

exposed to their content.

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It's your world, they're

just living in it.

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So to that challenge of

authentic versus fake authentic.

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I would say just take

control in that sense.

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Another big thing and I agree

here wholeheartedly is the

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intrusive nature of things, right?

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it's very, very easy.

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And it's very quick for people

to reach out for what I think

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is a genuine connection.

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And then within 2.

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5 seconds, you're pitching your product

to me or you're pitching me for a role.

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I think what's so funny is at the

time of recording I literally have

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been a community manager for I'm

gonna say coming up to three years

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and I've been in tech for eight years.

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I still get people reaching out to

me with property management jobs

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and I have not done that for ages.

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Like they legit do not read my profile

and then on the entrepreneurial side of

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it I get people who reach out telling

me that they can automate my systems

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or design my website and it's like

if you looked at my profile you'd see

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have a website that has been designed.

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You might not like it.

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You might not think it's designed,

but I'm kind of happy with it.

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And what I would say to that is

again, don't let it affect you.

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You can decide whether you accept

people's connection requests.

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So even for me, going back to curating

your experience and your feed, if I can

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see somebody is connected to a number

of my entrepreneurial friends or their

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recruitment in a certain space, I do

not accept their connection requests.

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Like, I don't care, I don't need

to be nice, this is my world.

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Um, so I do not, I don't accept it.

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Now, if what they're doing is

interesting to me, but not right

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now, I will accept it and leave a

note to say, please don't pitch me.

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I'm not interested in your services at

the moment, but don't mind being connected

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because they will all come with these,

you know, these messages that are just

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dripping in honey of like, Oh, love to

connect with, love to support, love to

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find out more about what you're doing.

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And then you end up asking me some random

questions, like how's business going?

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None of your business, homie.

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None of your business.

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Okay?

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you just want to ask me that

so that you can pitch a thing.

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I'm a bit of a straight shooter.

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Those of you who are connected with

me on LinkedIn and have been for a

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couple of years, you'll notice maybe

a few times a year where I've got like

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a free event or an in person workshop.

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I'll drop you a message

saying, Hey, how you doing?

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I'm doing this thing over here.

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Feel free to click through

if you're interested.

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If not, no problem at all And that also

then means that if you get a message from

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me checking and seeing how you are, I

genuinely want to know how you are, right?

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I'm not waiting for you to reply.

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So then I can go, have you

thought about coaching?

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Never in my life have I ever slid

into anyone's dms to pitch coaching.

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Um, I don't think that will.

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ever be my vibe.

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But again, I, um, I'm not representative

of all the folks spamming you when

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you go on LinkedIn, but moral of the

story, ignore them, block them, remove

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them, ignore the connection request.

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You are in control of that.

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And to that end, um, the networking

style on LinkedIn, right?

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For a lot of people that feels very,

um, it feels a bit aggressive at times.

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Um, you know, LinkedIn itself

as a platform will be suggesting

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people for you to connect with.

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You can ignore what doesn't fit.

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It's really important to pull

your LinkedIn activities through

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the filter of where you are in

your career and your business.

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So if you are open to roles, then

think about that when you look at

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those different people it's suggesting.

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Um, you know, another thing that

it does automatically when you

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join a new company, it suggests

you connect with your colleagues.

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If you feel comfortable

doing that, crack on.

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If you don't.

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That's absolutely fine, right?

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It's, it's really important for you to

understand that every single feature

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that it creates is a suggestion.

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It's not that you will be banished to

some sort of LinkedIn jail if you do not

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accept the things it's throwing at you.

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The other thing, speaking of

LinkedIn themselves, is the

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pressure to upgrade to premium.

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So I get this a lot with folks

who are looking for new jobs.

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Because naturally premium will

tease you with the fact that if

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you upgrade to premium, I'll show

you how many people have applied

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for this job and I'll show you how

many of your skills match this job.

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And there's a few other things.

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It definitely does, but it definitely

gets the job hunters with those

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two features in particular.

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And for the biz folks in the room,

it can get you by going, you know,

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you can see who views your profile.

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Now I say, this is somebody

who, um, I went to an event at

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LinkedIn and I got a complimentary

six months access to premium.

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Um, and I used some of

the premium features.

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Um, so I've used the premium

features to apply for roles before.

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So to see what I am matching

with definitely have done that.

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Um, and also in terms of people viewing

my profile, I'm able to then see who

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viewed my profile and connects with them.

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Cause very often there are people who,

um, who will stumble across my profile

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or find it, um, intentionally and not

realize that I'm very open to connecting.

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And also when you connect with

somebody, you can send a message.

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Whereas if we follow, it's just

like following somebody on Twitter.

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You just see, sorry, X, you

just see their content, right?

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And I'm a big fan of a

deeper connection there.

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So sometimes depending on, um, what I

see from their profile may reach out

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and pop over a connection request,

especially when my profile is set up

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where the follow button is bigger and

the connect button is tucked away.

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Um, I never want it to seem

like I'm not open to connection

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requests cause I genuinely am.

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I just will filter them through

my good old spam filter.

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The other thing, um, that folks, find

challenging about LinkedIn is that

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it can sometimes be very cluttered.

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It can be very confusing.

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It can be difficult to navigate.

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And for that I would say is

go back to curating your feed.

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Yes, there are a lot of

ads that will pop up.

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You can click those ads and say,

don't show this to me again, right?

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I've got a particular four

ads that seem to be stalking

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me for the past three months.

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And I'm like, I'm just not the

target audience for this thing.

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But okay, cool.

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This is, This is how the

cookie crumbles, right?

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LinkedIn is free to use for you

as an end user, but their business

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model, those ads, their business

model, you know, is those premium

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memberships at LinkedIn sales navigator.

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So we have to be really honest about it.

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You know, I remember starting

off in tech, um, and actually

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this was an interesting event.

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It was the first time that they had

released the IBM Watson, um, which

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for those of you who don't know the

technology that is basically inside

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your Alexa and all of those things.

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it was the introduction of me talking

to a device and going Alexa switch

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off my lights or Watson switch off my

lights in my house and it would do that.

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And I remember listening to the keynote

and they essentially were saying

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something that I agree with to this

day, which is that if the product

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is free, then you are the product.

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So your engagement on linkedin the

organic content that we create on

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linkedin the network effects, right?

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Even when we think about me and what

i'm doing right now When I go to these

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events and I go connect with me on

LinkedIn instead of Instagram, I'm

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forcing more people to log on to the

platform so they can connect with me.

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Even if they don't log on ever again,

I am enhancing that network effect

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so that they can grow the audience

of people that they advertise to.

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They can grow the audience of

people who are creating content and

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taking meaningful actions on there.

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So just like any other social

media platform, if it is

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free, you are the product.

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And that being said, the concern

with data privacy exists with a lot

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of platforms, um, you know, where a

lot of folks are concerned about how

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LinkedIn will use your personal data.

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It does ask you some intrusive

stuff like where are you

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located and things like that.

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Um, and it's really important to

just remember that you get to decide

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what you put on these platforms.

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So yes, it may ask for your location.

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You don't actually have to complete that.

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That's not a compulsory um field now

naturally what ends up happening is say

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if you're applying for jobs and stuff

like that you'll want to um indicate that

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further on in the process But does that

need to be on your profile that you're

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based in London or you're based in?

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Germany, like no, not necessarily

even down to like the security on your

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personal details and things like that.

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If you want to create a separate

email inbox to use with LinkedIn,

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you can go ahead and do that.

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You don't have to have your

email showing on your profile.

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In fact, I don't really recommend

it unless you're a business owner.

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I shouldn't be able to come

to your profile and see, you

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know, blah, blah, blah, gmail.

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com.

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If you obviously use LinkedIn for work,

like I said, so a business purpose,

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or, you know, some of you may be in a

sales role, you know, of course put your

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business email there, but it doesn't

need to be your personal thing there.

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Another field that you see

in there is data birth.

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You don't have to fill that in either.

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So really be empowered in

the data that you give it.

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And also remember, just like any

other platform, you can do, um, a

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data access request to say, oy oy,

give me everything that I put on there

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and delete it from your systems now.

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Um, and they can do that.

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And you can do that probably without

talking to somebody, I think, in

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the back end of the security bits.

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So those are just a few

things to think about.

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And then another big thing is the content.

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So I work with folks across

different industries.

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I work with a lot of entrepreneurs

who don't know how to find their

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space, or freelancers, in fact,

creative freelancers, right?

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So I've got a client who

works within production.

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I've got a client who is a photographer.

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And ultimately their first

thing is jazz, like why?

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And I remind them it's

a shop window strategy.

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Now I've touched on shop window before

and I'll do a deeper episode on it, but

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the whole point, my ethos when it comes to

LinkedIn is to set out your shop window.

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So when you think about walking place,

walking past places like Selfridges,

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Harvey Knicks, back in the days Topshop.

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but walking past those windows that

you know, effort has been put in and

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it's attractive and it's stunning

and even if it's not for you, you

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respect the level of creativity that's

displayed there and you respect the

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fact that this display has been created

to give me a hint of what's inside.

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So I use Selfridges as a good example

because typically their windows, they

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will have things from multiple ranges,

multiple floors of the building, right?

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So if they've got a picnic scene, best

believe all of the, the tableware.

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even, you know, they might

have some jars of preserves.

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They might have glasses as well

as the outfits on the mannequins.

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All of that is available in the store.

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And this is what your LinkedIn profile

page should be like, should give

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people hints of what's in the store.

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And it doesn't necessarily mean that

you're promising and committing to be

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on there, but if you are a creative,

post your work on there, right?

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Pin that to the top of your profile.

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link people out to your

preferred platform.

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There's nothing wrong with that, right?

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It's the same thing with

the Selfridges shop window.

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Within the window, occasionally,

they'll tell you which floors

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to get certain things from.

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It's like when you go to the pages of

a magazine, like a fashion editorial

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magazine, and you see a look that looks

really cohesive, and then you see that

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the shoes were from H& M and the belt is

Gucci and the handbag is Louis Vuitton.

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They're always really,

really super luxury brands.

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I want somebody to do something

with like high street brands.

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Or like, I just want to see a magazine

that just goes vintage, vintage, vintage.

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Anyway, I digress.

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I'm going off on a side quest.

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But to come back, You do not need to

do the most when it comes to LinkedIn.

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Set up that shop front, which lets people

know who you are, what you do, what you

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can help them with or what you bring to

the table as an employee, and then send

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them off to somewhere more useful for you.

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Right?

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So when it comes to the content,

the content is no different.

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Storytell the recent

shoot that you've been on.

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Storytell the client

that you've worked with.

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Post the visuals of your product, right?

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Don't be afraid to embrace video.

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You know, I know a lot of folks who

are really active on Instagram who

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are now seeing really great results

through posting their reels, like

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literally just the same reel captions

and everything on to LinkedIn.

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And it's with the same branding and the

color and the personality and the style.

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And it's perfectly acceptable to LinkedIn.

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In fact, it helps you stand out.

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One of the biggest things that I started

to experiment with, I probably say

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about two years ago on LinkedIn was

posting, um, visuals to stop the scroll.

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So where I felt tempted to write

maybe a more verbose caption, I was

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like, let me put a picture on there

with a quote or a picture of me.

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And those always performed really high,

you know, and again, people will go,

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well, LinkedIn's not a visual platform.

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It kind of is like PDFs, files, photos,

videos, all of the above lives, all

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of that can be done on LinkedIn.

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So just bring your style over

there when it comes to what kind

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of content that you decide to post.

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And then you can make it your own because

that combined with you curating your

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feed, you know, disconnecting with people

who are just irrelevant, ignoring the

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spammers, You know, all of those things

you can do to make LinkedIn your own.

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And then the other thing that I

want to touch on is that There

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is a showy offy nature, right?

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There is a focus on credentials.

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There's a lot of people who I work with

and they're quite surprised at the things

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I told them to take out of their profile

because they put every certificate

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underneath the sun on the platform

because it gives you a space to do so.

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But the reality is, is

that adding to your story?

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Is that adding to the, who you

are, what you do, how you can help,

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what value that you bring to the

table and the impact you bring?

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Probably not.

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Right.

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If I use myself as an example, um,

if I kept updating and announcing

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that I have a mental health first aid

certificate, we'd get bored real quick.

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Yes, that's a nice to know.

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But is it a need to know?

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No.

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Right.

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Even a lot of folks who have a lot of

degrees, they're surprised when I say like

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take off the year, take off the modules.

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Just put that you have a degree.

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Right?

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Because unfortunately, in this day and

age, there's still a lot of roles who go

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you need to be degree educated, right?

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But in terms of your modules and

stuff like that, we can pull that out.

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But I totally get that the way that

the platform is designed, it makes

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you feel really pressured to have

something to put in every section.

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Recommendations is another one as well.

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I don't have any recommendations.

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Now, that's nothing new.

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Do you have somebody who you could give

as a reference if you applied for a role?

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Do you have a past client who

would talk to a prospective client?

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Probably so.

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Did they write a recommendation?

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Probably not.

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But can they vouch for you?

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Yes.

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So don't get overwhelmed and feel

pressured by all the different areas

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of endorsement and credentials and

stuff like that Even the skills

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area fill that in lightly fill it

in strategically So there's so much

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within there that you can actually

ignore to again get that shop window

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Like I said self reduce is beautiful.

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It's aesthetically pleasing It gives

you the need to know information and

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not a lot of the nice to know like man

This is additional stuff if it did it

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wouldn't be beautiful to look at That's

why it's called the shop window strategy.

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So when it comes to you learning to

like LinkedIn or hate it a little less,

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which is what somebody else spoke to

you last week said, um, it's just really

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important to think about these things.

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My whole modus operandi of this episode

is to get you to just rethink LinkedIn.

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And of course you could rethink it and

go, no jazz, it's still not for me.

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Or you could rethink it and

go, let me give it a go.

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Right.

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Another top tip that I'd recommend

for those of you who think I'll

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feel a bit out of place over

here, it's too buttoned up for me.

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Find the most creative creators

that you follow on Instagram,

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TikTok, Pinterest in life.

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Find them on LinkedIn and

connect with their content.

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Cause again, just like any other

social media platform, it's got an

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algorithm that will suggest more of

that good, juicy, creative stuff.

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Like I follow a lot of my friends

in business that have bright

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yellow and hot pink and Don't

talk in full sentences, right?

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Talk in slang on LinkedIn and

it's absolutely fine and it's fun.

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Are they any less professional?

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Hell no, right?

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So make it your own because the thing

is there are opportunities over there.

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And the thing that I always say to

people, because I had this conversation

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when I chose to come off of Instagram

for my business, is I reminded

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people, most of the people who are

on Instagram are also on LinkedIn.

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Now, the difference is where I'm a career

coach, you're on LinkedIn thinking about

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your career in some way, shape or form.

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Now, yes, you might be.

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On Instagram, thinking

about your career, right?

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I had a great, very many fun years

on Instagram, you know, working

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with people on side hustles,

getting out of their jobs.

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Like we, we can have some good, good chat

over there, but it's the same people.

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It's the same people and ultimately

it works for me because I show up as

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me like I I'm in Canva for my LinkedIn

content just like I was for my Instagram.

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In fact, even more so, I

do more video over there.

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I just have fun with it and play

around with a lot of features.

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So really want to encourage you

to make it your own and all of

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the things that give you an ick.

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You don't need to do that.

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You don't need to be that way.

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You don't need to be

exposed to those people.

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So those are my top tips for hating

LinkedIn a little less, overcoming

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the LinkedIn lies, as I like to put

it, and really challenging some of the

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myths that are really easy to pick up.

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And like I said, at the top of the

episode, I met LinkedIn the same

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way that you met it, the online CV.

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So I thought, let me upload my CV into it.

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And voila, Bob's your

uncle, friend's your aunt.

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That's everything.

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no, no, no, no, no, no.

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There's so much more to it than what

the marketing of 10 or 15 years ago was.

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So I really want to encourage you

to get curious because like I said,

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the same people who are on your

Pinterest, who are on Instagram, on

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TikTok, they're also on LinkedIn and

depending on what kind of opportunity

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you're looking for, if you're looking

for a new role, shop window strategy.

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If you're looking for

clients, shop window strategy.

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If you want to build your SEO footprint

online, As a business owner or as a

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creator shop window strategy, it works for

all of those use cases, but it's really

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about asking yourself, What do I want?

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Why do I want to be on here beyond

jazz told me to on her podcast, right?

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Why do I want to be on here?

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What do I want to attract?

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And I would say that that is the

key difference between LinkedIn

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and some other platforms.

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Namely, Instagram is that it's much

more about attraction and curation

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than it is about push, push,

push, and post, post, post, right?

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There are posts I posted three months

ago that somebody liked this morning.

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The algorithm is very, very friendly.

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Again, it's because they don't make their

revenue stream all the way to the top.

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Off of mere mortals like us, they make

it off the folks who are doing ads.

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They make it off the businesses

who are advertising roles.

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They make it off of the folks who are

using those premium subscriptions or the

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sales navigator tool and things like that.

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So I want to encourage you, even if

you're already a LinkedIn user, Hop

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on it and see how that all goes.

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And like I said, this is something

that I support my clients with.

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Um, quite often, uh, we are doing a

resetting of the relationship with

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LinkedIn to set up that shop window

strategy, to make sure that is pointing

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in the direction of the type of

opportunity that they want to reduce

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those spam messages from the wrong types

of recruiters to increase visibility

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to those desired and dream clients.

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and more than anything to feel less of

an ick around it personally, so that

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when you are networking, when you are

out and about connecting with folks, you

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don't feel shy to share your LinkedIn

or you don't want to throw up the minute

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they go, should we connect on LinkedIn?

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Right?

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it's about feeling confident and

comfortable with what's going on

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there, because ultimately I wouldn't

want you to miss out on opportunities.

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And that's what it's about.

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It's about being available and

being seen to be available for

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certain types of opportunities.

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Not everything but certain types of

opportunities are waiting for you

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over on LinkedIn So get involved.

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Like I said, I work with folks

on setting up that shop window

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strategy in private coaching.

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But if you also hop over to just jazz.

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co forward slash LinkedIn,

you'll see a cheeky little audit.

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So for those of you who have no

clue what to do, you can fill in

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a lovely little form and then you

can receive a comprehensive loom

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video with action steps that you

can take to set up that shop window.

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strategy.

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I am here to help.

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So if you want that additional

help, so separate to full on private

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coaching, you can go to just jazz.

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co forward slash LinkedIn

for my LinkedIn audit.

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Speak to you next week.