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We are delving into the common mistakes mid-career professionals make on LinkedIn profiles and how you can avoid them. 

Jo Watson, a talented copywriter, shares her expertise in crafting authentic, engaging profiles that make great first impressions. We discuss the dangers of trying too hard and the importance of genuine interaction over superficial efforts. Jo also provides practical questions to ensure your profile stands out for the right reasons.

[00:10] Meet Jo Watson: The Copywriting Expert

[00:58] Common LinkedIn Profile Mistakes

[01:31] The Problem with Trying Too Hard on Linkedin

[03:39] The Importance of Authenticity on Linkedin

[07:02] Practical Tips for LinkedIn Success

Cringeworthy posts, the itchiness of trying too

hard and how not to mess up your first impression on LinkedIn.

Today, I'm going to introduce you to someone who can

help you with all of those.

Jo Watson is a copywriter for people with good taste in copywriting.

I must be one of those, I hired Jo maybe six, seven years ago, when I

just couldn't articulate my process of discovering someone's superpowers.

When I saw what she wrote, it was like she'd gone inside my head,

pulled out all the bits that mattered, deleted the rest, and then crafted

them into something that made sense to other humans, but sounded like me.

She is fierce and funny.

Let's dive in.

Jo, I'm so excited to ask you these questions.

Let me start with number one.

What are some of the real life worst examples of things people

write on LinkedIn profiles?

I think if you'd have asked me this years ago, it would

have been the people who are talking about themselves in the third person.

You know, Jo is an accomplished writer who serves many industries and all that.

And that still exists.

So that is.

Why?

Yeah, that is why.

There you go.

There's my summation of it.

It still exists, but it's not the main one for me anymore.

It's the people who are trying too hard.

And I don't blame them because LinkedIn in itself is saturated with personal

branding experts, and don't ask me what that means because I don't know, but these

personal branding experts are forever saying, you know be yourself use your

personality and i'm there thinking I've met some of you people in real life and

you should absolutely not be yourself if you want to attract customers because

you are just a disgrace of a human being.

I won't name any names.

So I'm there thinking, Oh God, don't be yourself.

That's awful advice.

But people who are trying too hard because everyone out there is saying

you've got to have personality and I'm one of those people who believes you

should bring personality to the table.

I am.

However, bringing your personality to the table is very different

to trying to create some kind of personality and rubbing it down

people's throats so that you can be out there and all singing, all dancing.

No, we just want a bit of normal.

Personality can just be low key.

It can be mellow, all of these things, but people on LinkedIn at

the moment are trying too hard.

And in fact, what I'd say is I'm going to throw this question back on

your listeners, Lucia, I really am.

Go and pick 10 random profiles and read the LinkedIn bios and list the ways in

which you think this has made me cringe hard and then make a vow to yourself.

Don't do that in your own.

But tell me why do you think some people are getting this so wrong?

The whole LinkedIn, why are they getting it so wrong?

It's just so saturated.

That's why.

Not only is everyone doing what we do, because we're not the only

person doing our job, unfortunately.

Yeah, we could sit there and argue.

Nobody does it as well as we do, of course.

But, if you look for a copywriter on LinkedIn, I think there

was something like 800, 000.

And you can't possibly stand out from all of them.

It's just not humanly possible, but by God, it doesn't stop people trying.

And the more people try hard, the worse it comes across.

It just, it becomes so fake.

It becomes so in your face.

And I think people need to stop listening to these experts and gurus

and influencers and just do their own thing because You've just got to think

what works for me, what works for me.

And I know my profile works, not just because I'm a good writer, because

I've been someone who comes across in a way that people think, yes.

I like this or I want this or I want to engage with this kind of person.

I don't think we can say that very often though because

people are following templates.

They're following advice that is suited for the person it

worked for and not for them.

And they're just trying too hard but with it being so saturated.

I can understand it because everyone's saying, stand out.

And you're there thinking, oh my God, just put a clown hat on me.

Then

I'll do anything.

I'll do anything to be noticed.

It's like reality TV.

Yeah.

It really is.

I'll do anything to get noticed, anything, even if it's not me,

even if I hate myself afterwards.

But that's what LinkedIn has become.

It's a cesspit, Lucia.

And there's, but there's a whole group of people who see that.

Yeah.

And who, who are just disengaged, but somehow, and to be fair, the listeners

here are mid career professionals who are in some way, they need some presence.

Yes.

So let's not say the personal branding thing, but they need some presence

because it's weird not to have a

presence

Of course it's weird not.

I'd want to, if I met you somewhere or, we had a conversation

and I thought, you know what?

I wouldn't mind finding out a bit more about this person.

I'm going to go to your LinkedIn profile, but remember that I'm not

just looking at that profile they're going to look at what you're doing.

And.

If all you're doing is just posting stuff for the sake of it, because

you know what, you haven't posted anything in 40, 14 minutes and God,

what if people forget about you, the stress, what if you don't stand out?

What if people think you don't exist anymore?

Then I'm looking at you, I'm thinking this reeks of desperation.

It really does.

I'd much rather see less from you because then in my head, I'm thinking,

yeah, you're off doing your job.

Good.

You're off doing the thing that you're good at.

You know that, that's fine.

That's fine.

Go and work with people.

But likewise, I'm looking at what are you interacting with other people.

I'm looking at your activity.

I want to see are you commenting at all on anyone else's stuff?

Because if I see someone who posts but never interacts with anyone,

that tells me all I need to know

about That person

That is just me, as opposed to giving, sharing,

communicating, connecting, real stuff.

exactly.

Sadly, for a copywriter, this is quite sad, but you know what, if it works.

I would say I get the majority of my leads based on people seeing my

comments on other people's stuff.

It's not an exact science, I can't prove it, I can't prove it.

But if I post something out, It's very rare.

I'll get an immediate message saying, Oh my God, love that post.

How do I work with you?

It's very rare.

That happens or someone will often contact me and say, I saw what you

said to this person loved that you said what we were all thinking.

I thought it was a unique perspective, whatever, or just, it wasn't any kind of

perspective at all, but it made me laugh.

And how can I work with you?

We can't underestimate just how important the interaction is.

Let's go really practical now.

So the listeners out there, mid career, a bit itchy about LinkedIn, probably more

on the hiding end rather than the me end.

But The comment about commenting and sharing and interacting is fabulous.

But tell me maybe three questions that you would suggest that our listeners

would ask themselves to make sure that they do not mess up that really

valuable first impression on LinkedIn.

When somebody's maybe met you at somewhere or heard about you and

just takes a look at your profile, how can they not mess it up?

This this shouldn't be a challenge for me to answer this

question, Lucia, because I did create somewhat of a little resource

about a year, maybe two years ago.

And it's actually 25 questions to ask yourself to make sure you don't.

F up your first impression.

And and I love all of those questions, obviously, but my favorites are the

ones that I think are most useful.

Would you be comfortable if what you'd written was read out in a room for peers?

So if you were sat there in a room of peers you really wanted to work with.

Or people you really, I'm not going to say wanted to impress, but wanted

to make an impression on so that they go, this might be the person for you.

You be comfortable if someone got up on the stage and either

a read your profile out or on a massive screen and displayed it?

So yeah, would you feel comfortable with what you've written being read or placed

out, or would it make you go, Oh my God.

That I just want to die.

I want to die.

If it makes you feel like you want to die because you think,

why have I just said that?

Yeah.

Then, it's not right.

You need, you need to go back and do some work on it.

So it sounds comfortable.

Another question for you to ask, do you show or tell?

Okay.

So a lot of people, they talk the good talk.

Don't they?

I do this.

I get solutions for people.

I get results.

Tell me how, because anyone can go out there and say, yeah I do

great copywriting for people.

All right.

Tell me how, what do you do?

What's the process?

What are the stages that follow?

What are the things that people have said?

And can you back it up with a link to where they've said it?

And the other thing I would say, the other question to ask yourself is,

have you got something of a tagline in there either to open up the intro?

Or to close it off because it's nice to be able to have not an ad campaign as

such, but where a tagline that people go, ah, yeah, I know which one you are.

So mine, for example, copywriter hired by people with great taste in copywriters.

And I just think it's something nice to do.

It's a little bit different.

So have you put one on there?

And if you haven't, could you play around with something to just

give people a little bit more?

If you enjoyed this, you might also enjoy my

Life Satisfaction Assessment.

It's a 30 minute program where I guide you through a deep dive into 10 areas

of your life to assess what's bringing you joy and what's bringing you down.

I call it D Railed.

It's a fabulous place to begin a joy at work redesign.