00:01:21
So just in case you want to mess up with me, I'll tell you that I have four brothers. So, yeah, I am a LinkedIn strategist. So I have career pivoted seven times. I started my journey as a graphic designer. So and I was working, and then I thought, let's do something else. Let's try something else. So I started designing apps. I work in many companies with many agencies. I did freelance work as well. And then I was like, 'well, let's be a website designer.' And then I became a website designer. I designed websites. I even worked with Nottingham University. I worked with some well-known companies like Rainer Packaging and Gulf Union Foods. And then I made a I made a bad decision of becoming a thumbnail designer.
00:02:21
So I became a thumbnail designer, which was not a good decision at all. After a while, I started learning about coding. So I wanted to become an ethical hacker. But there were some courses that were that I couldn't afford. And I, I started this business where I used to help YouTubers grow their YouTube channel. That I worked with some clients. And after a while, I was like, well, let's try something else. And then I I started working as a video editor. And that was the time I came to LinkedIn in order to find clients. And I found a job. I worked in an agency. And that was the time I was exploring about LinkedIn. I was working on LinkedIn, and I was posting on LinkedIn, and I was learning about this platform.
00:03:18
And I realized that, man, I'm so good at commenting. I'm. I'm so good at LinkedIn. And I came across this profile of Jasmine Alec, and I studied him. I watched all his interviews on YouTube. I observed him. What is he doing? What does he do? And that was the time I just got your pivot and once again. And I became a LinkedIn strategist. So that was my journey. It was long journey. And finally, finally, finally, here I am, a LinkedIn strategist. Here we are. Have some Salman. You are really like an all-in engineer in the website, thumbnails, and everything. What the person actually needs in the digital age. And I really like your dynamic, your dynamic evolution in LinkedIn, and how you have evolved. What do you think?
00:04:21
That was the input that you said. Like, yes, LinkedIn; it is like now I will start on LinkedIn. Why you didn't start on, for example, Instagram or other platforms? Why did you choose LinkedIn? Because when I used to be a thumbnail designer, I was building my brand on Instagram, but that didn't work well for me. So I then when I became a video editor, I then decided that, well, let's try this platform. Let's try LinkedIn. And then it came here. I started learning about this. And I think it's a better platform because most of the CEOs and founders, co-founders, the owners of the businesses, the C-suite people, they are here. They're on LinkedIn. You can directly get in contact with them. You can talk to them. You can network with them.
00:05:15
So I think LinkedIn is the best platform to be on to grow your personal brand, to build your personal brand. So, yeah, that was the reason I'm here. And I think that you will definitely say that the most important thing on LinkedIn is commenting because you said that you discovered that you are really good at commenting. Am I right? Or what is the best thing on LinkedIn, actually? Yeah, commenting is very, very important and underrated. People underrate it a lot. People underestimate it a lot. So, commenting has, commenting is just wonderful. It does wonders. It gets you leads. It gets you noticed. It gets you followers. It gets you connections. I just love, I can do commenting for the entire day. I do. I do it.
00:06:11
So, yeah, what I do is, what I preach and what I teach as well on LinkedIn is do strategy comments on LinkedIn. And what I mean by strategy comments. Is commenting where your target audience or your ICPs are present in huge amount. Go to the profiles. You have to do research. You have to sit down and make a list of, you have to sit down and make a list of people, profiles, where your targeted audience or your ICPs are present in huge amount. And you have to comment there. And you have to comment your target and your aim should be. To comment within the 50%. 50 minutes of the post being published by the author, because the author of the post is active at that time.
00:06:59
So we get a reply and hence we appear at the top of the comment section. So the hundreds and thousands of people that will come after us will see a comment and then they will visit our profile. So we get, this is the way we get followers and we get leads and we get connections, valuable connections. And there are some trips. And trips that I use. That work very well. So when you publish a, write a comment or publish a comment under somebody's post, you have to add a reaction to it. So you have to read the feedback. You have to add a reaction to it. What it does is see, nobody's going to come and see who reacted. Nobody's going to come and say something to nobody.
00:07:48
It's just, just add a reaction. What it's going to do. It. It's. It's. Your comment is going to stand out in those hundreds of comments. If you do this, the other thing that I do is I mostly 99. 9% I do comments that are hilarious, that are humorous, that are funny. So I add, uh, an emoji in that, uh, I had a smiley face :), a laughing emoji 😂. If you are, so some of my clients, they want, uh, serious comments. So I add a fire emoji, just avoid the rocket emoji because the rocket emoji is now linked to ChatGPT, ChatGPT use that a lot. So just avoid that rocket emoji. You can use the other ones, um, in your comments. So that's what I do.
00:08:41
And if you are writing a long comment, uh, just add spaces at empty spaces so that it's better to read for eyes. And, but it's better to write a short comment if you can go with that. So, yeah, that's what strategy commenting does. And, um, if you want followers, so go and comment on huge accounts, huge accounts, like, um, accounts, like Steven Bartlett, Gary Vee, Tony Robbins, Danco, Cody. So these kinds of people see. These people are not going to reply to you, and you may not, you might not get leads from these people, but you will get followers from here, and soon you can convert them. You can, um, you can launch a product for them. You can soon decide what you're going to do that, but you will get followers from here.
00:09:41
And if you want more post engagement on your post, if you want engagement on your post, go and support small accounts, small creators on LinkedIn. So what you have to do, you have to go research and find small accounts having from zero to around 50 reactions. We have to comment there. You have to support them and then they'll come back and support you. So you don't have to do the commit that, or do a promise to, um, in the DM. Some people are like, Hey, I'll do comment and you comment that don't do that. Just. Support them and they'll come back and support you. So, yeah, I really like your, yes, a really practical step. So I want to just repeat it, uh, in a one sentence.
00:10:34
So first you go to LinkedIn and you start to comment on accounts after somebody posts, uh, within 50 minutes, because that time the author of the post is active. This is how you start to get a live LinkedIn, because you. You start to appear on the top of, uh, of, uh, actually comment things and people can then interact with you. Uh, then you react on that post because it will just, uh, boost the engagement, uh, for you on a really big, um, big, uh, accounts. Uh, you want to also add, uh, emotions. You want to distinguish yourself from the AI. So like you are, for example, I think, uh, emojis, hilarious comments, et cetera, and then, uh, you also distinguish between if you want to do big comment with the different, uh, spaces, if you want to more get into the details for the readability, but, uh, also you are combining it with a short, uh, comments.
00:11:30
And the last, uh, is, uh, the distinction between, uh, engagement and the following. So if you want to gain the followers, you go on big accounts and engage with them. Whereas if you want engagement under your post, you go to the small accounts with zero to 15 um, uh, reactions. So then. Uh. You get a more engagement with them. So just in a nutshell, I really liked how you have elaborated on it, uh, more in details. And, uh, I have a question, a very specific, how many comments do you currently write per day? Approximately. On my profile for my profile, I write over a hundred comments every day. Oh, wow. Just for my profile. Yeah. That's crazy. So, uh. Uh, and, uh, you have also other profiles, like for example, your pages or company pages.
00:12:25
No, not company pages. Uh, I work for my clients, so I work on their profiles as well. Yeah. Nice. And, uh, so, uh, my next question would be also about, uh, a bit of a tool that, uh, are helping you to manage your LinkedIn profile. So do you maybe use some tools for scheduling? Or, uh, some tools for, uh, finding leads or, uh, any other software that might help you with the LinkedIn management? No, I don't use any tools for the LinkedIn management. No, not any, but I will use, there is a, there is a tool known as AuthorUp. So Jasmine and Alex suggest that a lot. So I'm going to use that. I haven't used it yet, but I will. Hmm. Hmm. Hmm. I am using it and I really like it.
00:13:20
It's, uh, what it does, it's, uh, it, uh, really show you how the post will look like. And, uh, also, uh, give you like, uh, some tips and how you can add, for example, our turn alternative text, uh, to your picture, et cetera, for better findability. Uh, I really like authored up. Uh, so definitely check it out. All who are watching right now, uh, because it's, uh, one of the tools that definitely can help you with, uh, getting more structure. And, uh, think about the structure of your post. And when we're getting, um, into the LinkedIn post, what's your process of writing your LinkedIn pro post actually? Because are you writing every day or, uh, how do you usually find, uh, ideas for writing your posts?
00:14:06
So for writing posts, first thing I wake up in the morning. And then I panic because I don't have any content bank. Hmm. Hmm. The people watching, please, please do have a content bank. You must have. I don't have any and I'm ashamed and I'm guilty of that. So first thing, I panic for an hour on why I haven't built a content bank. And then I panic on why I didn't write a post early before sleeping yesterday. So then I start writing a post. Because I just write the way I speak and in the way I think, the way I speak. So I avoid the professional words. I avoid those professional advanced English language. I write in the basic English because when you use the basic English, you attract the massive audience.
00:15:09
So when you use advanced English, you may not. Most of the people may not be able to read that because not everybody is expert in English. Not everybody's first language is English. So try to use basic English. And if you want to post your picture, your selfie, your photo with a post, either use premium photos, premium looking fancy photos. Or either just avoid photos. Use graphics. Okay. Because if you want to attract premium clients, if you want to attract fancy clients, you have to appear fancy. You have to appear premium. So that's what I do. And when I write a post, I make sure that I have put and write at least three mini posts. Mini posts or pinned comments. So when you're publishing a post, write at least three, at least, bare minimum.
00:16:24
Three or three to five mini comments, mini posts under your post. That could be an announcement. For example, you're launching some kind of e-book. You're launching some kind of course. So there is some announcement that you could put. Or you can write. Write a salesy CTA. You can write a CTA. Book a call. Fill this form. I just want to jump into it. You mean a mini post like commenting on your own post, right? Like that you post a post. And then you write three to five comments that are like mini posts under your post, right? Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. Because that increases. Increases your post engagement. Post engagement is how long a person stays on your post. How long a person spends time on your post. Do they comment? Do they like?
00:17:27
Do they have a reaction? So that's what counts. People staying on your post. So you have to write pinned comments. That could be a joke. You could write a joke in your pinned comments. A quote, a CTA, an announcement, some bonus points. You get, you can elaborate that post, the post that you've written, you can elaborate that you can, um, add behind the scenes. So just try to, um, stop people in your peers, stop them for a while. And when I'm writing a post, I make sure that I don't end my post with a salesy CTA. What I mean by salesy CTA is. Book, book a call with me, download my ebook, uh, apply from my feature section. Don't end your post with this.
00:18:22
What it does is it ruins the whole vibe of your post and nobody likes to be sold. So just end your post with a question, a question, which is so easy to answer that, uh, that question should be so easy to. Answer, uh, uh, I, uh, so easy to answer that people could answer it in a yes or a no, just don't make your audience think, the quotient should be so easy as a easy question. Yeah, that's what I focus on. I'm writing a book. Nice. Yeah. It's a, it's a really a process, like, uh, from the panicking, uh, in the beginning of, uh, of your day. Uh, but, uh, Did, did you actually think about making a plan, a content plan that you would actually have the content bank or you just prefer to do it this way of, uh, uh, freestyling kind of that every day, depending on how you wake up.
00:19:30
I have been planning and I've been procrastinating on building a content bank. I have to build one. Actually, I will build one soon. Yeah, I promise. All right, this is, uh, then, uh, the moment that we will, we can replay that soon Hafsa Salman will have, uh, her content bank, but then I will be curious how, how it will look like, uh, when you will finish it, but this is also the proof that you don't need some really detailed strategy to actually build your brand on LinkedIn. You can really literally every day, wake up and make your content because. For me, I, for example, do the content planning, but then some situations happen and I think that it's much more interesting for me and also for the audience, then you are reacting to the situations.
00:20:26
So for example, when on a Monday, the market dropped by 5%, so I decided to record a video about it and I didn't put it in my content plan because I didn't know that this would happen. So, uh, it's always reacting. Yeah. Also to the recent, um, to the recent situations and what is exactly happening. Uh, can you also tell us more about why did you decide to proceed with the organic, uh, reach on LinkedIn and, uh, not with, uh, advertising, for example, did you, did you ever try paid, um, advertising on LinkedIn? Okay. So I haven't experienced and tried the paid advertising yet. On LinkedIn, I haven't, and why I chose the organic one is because it's more long-term, it's the long-term, the organic growth.
00:21:25
So I decided to build a personal brand organically, and that's what I do for my clients as well. I grow their profiles organically. So, yeah, if somebody comes up to me and he's just starting out. So what I suggest. Yes. And what I do for him is first, I focus on building his authority on LinkedIn. So I build his authority first, and then we focus on getting leads, getting leads or doing outbound or doing outreach. We focus on that later. First, we build the authority. And what I mean by building authority is, uh, getting enough engagement on his post, getting enough followers, making his profile premium, uh, getting endorsements, uh, writing his about section, his experience section. That's those are the things that we focus first, and then we will be um doing the outreach and doing the cold sending the cold DMs.
00:22:36
So yeah that's what I do mm-hmm and uh speaking. About the cold DMs, uh, how many DMs do you actually write to people on daily basis and how do you choose who to write on LinkedIn? Exactly. Like, is it like that you write, uh, the comments, uh, to people and then, uh, you see, for example, your, uh, potential, um, uh, customer avatar or like, uh, how do you assess who to write, uh, messaging? Okay. So for my clients, I haven't started providing the service yet. I haven't started doing cold outreach. I haven't started this service yet, but, um, for myself, yeah, I do cold outreach and I do do DMs. I send DMs and on what basis I decide is they are the CEO. They're the founder of the business.
00:23:29
They're the owner of the business and they are active. They are actively posting at least three times a week. So, they're posting content and, and they're from, they're from us. UK, Europe. That's the criteria that are my ICPs and target clients. Nice. I really like your strategy. And, uh, when we speak about the strategy on LinkedIn, what common mistakes do people make when trying to generate leads on LinkedIn usually? Yeah. So there are many mistakes that people do when they're building, building their brand on LinkedIn. So let's say. Let's start from the profile photo. So I see many people like many people, uh, their profile photo is their selfie with their dog, or they have a selfie where they're standing far away from the camera. So please don't do that.
00:24:33
Your profile photo should be your headshot. You looking directly into the camera. And it should be tilted shoulders. That should be a profile photo. And if you're just starting out and you haven't decided your brand colors, what I would recommend and suggest you is go with the light colors. Colors like white, uh, golden, yellow, orange, these kinds of colors, the colors that pop out on black, because most of the people on LinkedIn. They use, uh, LinkedIn app on dark mode. So when you comment somewhere, the people will see your DP with your profile photo. That will be just this small. And there'll be thousands and hundreds of profile photos. So in order to stand out, you have to do choose a color that pops up on dark screen. That's the one thing.
00:25:40
And the most important thing on LinkedIn are profile photo that we just talked about. The other thing is headline, LinkedIn headline. So when you comment somewhere, the two things that people can see before visiting your profile are your DP, your profile photo, and your headline. So these two should be so. You, uh, the headline should be so beautifully written and so, uh, it should clearly tell in easy English, what you do, who you help and how you help. So your headline should be clear and should be written in easy English, and it should make your ICP, your targeted audience, your clients, people, it should make people visit your profile. So these are the things that should be written properly. Uh, the other thing, see, so somebody just clicked your profile and just come to your profile.
00:26:48
They come to your profile. Now you have to guide them. You have to guide them on what to do next. So you have to add a CTA, a call to action in your banner. That CTA could be a subscriber newsletter. Follow me, book my call. Uh, that could be send me a connection request. That could be anything. So you have to add a CTA. You have to guide your clients on what to do next. The other thing that I see people doing on LinkedIn is, yeah, many people on LinkedIn are running after trends. So they are running after trends. They see this kind of, this topic is working. Let's start making content on this. So when the check GPT came out and people saw that, Hey, this topic is working.
00:27:42
So they started making content on check GPT, whether it's suiting their niche or not, whether their audience is expecting that from them or not, they're making content on it. And that's not the way to do. Don't chase trends. Don't. So, yeah, those are some of the things that people are doing. And yeah, uh, one more thing. There's a section on LinkedIn. Where we can add skills and get noticed. Means, so people are adding over 70 skills there or 50 skills there. Don't do that. What you have to do is you have to add one to three, at least three maximum three, um, skills there. And you have to, because nobody's going to click and go through your 50 skills and see what you have got and how skilled you are.
00:28:43
Nobody's going to do that. So you can just see two skills from outside. And then when you click, you can see more. So you have to add three skills there. You have to add three skills there and you have to get endorsements. So the proper way to do it is to get endorsement from your clients, but we all know that. Our clients are founders or co-founders or business owners, and they're busy people. And to just sit and wait to get their endorsement and hope they'll endorse you one day. Um, it's just not a practical, practical way to do. So what you have to do is go and leverage your connections, utilize the skills of your connections and ask them to endorse you back. And people will do it. People will endorse you back.
00:29:44
So do that and get at least at least 50 endorsements on three of your skills on each of your skills. The three skills that you've put there, get endorsements there that matters, that truly matters. Wow. Really practical. I really liked, uh, again, like, uh, how you gave really practical tip to somebody. Can do immediately, like with endorsement, light colors, a headline, uh, trading posts, et cetera. Just one question. What is the DP? Because you mentioned it a lot. Uh, what does it mean? DP DP, the profile photo. Ah, okay. Yes. I just, also for our audience to be on the same side. Yeah. All right. Uh, uh, so, uh, we mentioned also that a lots of people, they do, uh, a lots of mistakes, but mainly we were speaking about, uh, uh, how to, uh, not do the profile picture.
00:30:51
So for example, you mentioned that, uh, how they can avoid it. So like, uh, with the profile picture that you should have, uh, like a really clear centered camera that you should have the light colors, et cetera. Um, are there also some other mistakes that people do that? You are seeing, and it's a really like a driving you crazy. Like, uh, why, uh, these, uh, why they don't see that this is like really not any more like modern or something like this. Yeah. So most of the people are using, uh, to AI tools like chat GPT to write their whole post. See, if you want to write a post using ChatGPT, there's nothing wrong with that. There's nothing wrong with that. But. Learn how to use that tool.
00:31:41
First, learn how to use Chat GPT. First, learn that from experts. Um, uh, people like Luke Matthews teach how to write your entire post using ChatGPT. He teaches that, and he has videos on LinkedIn on how to write a post using ChatGPT. So go and learn first. You have a, there, there are a lot of things that Chat GPT does, and when you, um, copy and paste. Do your entire post from chat GPT to LinkedIn, people can easily spot that you have, uh, you have not done work and you just have, uh, put prompts and you're a lazy person. People can easily see that. So you have to do work. You don't use, there's a dash that there's a dash, um, that I don't know what's that called, but chat GPT adds that a lot in its writings.
00:32:37
So avoid that. And there's a sky rocket emoji that chat GPT adds so that, um, see, I personally, um, I teach students and I teach people not to use chat GPT for writing your entire post. Don't use it, right? Just use your brain, use your human brain, write your posts the way you, the way you speak. The way you think, write it and yeah, you can help. Sorry. I'm totally with that. Uh, I totally agree that, uh, people are getting lazier and lazier. Just, uh, use your brain. You can use to GPT for like a planning and for content, uh, brainstorming, um, but, uh, then write your post by your own words. I want to hear you. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Be authentic, right. In the way you speak. Yeah.
00:33:37
You can define that. You can, you can refine your post. You can ask chat GPT to write it in a better words. If you want to, for example, you have wrote a line and you, a statement, a sentence, and you think it could be said and wrote in a better way. You can ask chat GPT to write it in three better ways or five different ways. Ask chat GPT to write and he will, chat GPT will write. Um, if you. If you really want to use it, experiment, the AI tools, learn them and then use. So, yeah, that is the mistake that people are doing. I really liked it. Uh, and you have a really big career in, for example, the website and thumbnails and, uh, also applications, uh, graphic design, et cetera.
00:34:31
Uh, if somebody doesn't know really their authentic self and, uh, when they start with LinkedIn. Uh, there is a lots of templates and a lots of, uh, let's say buzzing, a lots of people are just like telling, use my template and you will gain so, so many like followers, et cetera. Ah, what would I advise to the people who are starting with their own brand right now? How they should find their authentic self? Like, how did you find your authentic brand that, uh, who you actually are and that you want to write these silly and, uh, funny comments. And, uh, how did you find your own style on LinkedIn? Okay. So the advice and the words that I'm going to say, most of the people are not going to agree with, and most probably I'm going to get hate on this, but see, when you're just starting out on LinkedIn, you don't know what to do.
00:35:30
You don't know what to write. You don't know how to write. You're new to this world. So what I would say is: Copy others, copy; get inspired, study, study the, uh, the LinkedIn creators, creators like Jasmine Alec, Lara Acosta, Matt Barker, Luke Matthews, go to their profile, study them. How do they comment? How do they write their posts? What do they do? Study their carousels, study their graphics, study their way. Go on YouTube, search them, search; um, there's a person, Harry, Harry Foku. I. I'm I hope I'm pronouncing his name, right? Harry, I'm sorry if I'm not, so go and search him, um, on YouTube. He does podcast and he invites these people, Luke Matthews, Lara Acosta, go and watch that, uh, study them and get inspired and copy them. Okay.
00:36:28
Um, that's not a good word, by the way, copy, but get inspired and start creating. Content, start writing comments, and yeah, you soon find your voice. That's what my words are. That's what I would recommend you to do. Nice. I really like this answer. And, uh, what if somebody doesn't really have time, for example, for the LinkedIn, because they have nine to five, like, let's say that you live, for example, uh, in, uh, Pakistan or here in Europe and you have different full-time job from nine to five, where you don't really have access to the internet. You cannot really go on the LinkedIn during your working hours. And therefore you are also missing the peak hour when actually the people are on LinkedIn because, uh, you are usually targeting, uh, the audience in your country and people are usually using the LinkedIn during the working hours.
00:37:28
So, how would you recommend, uh, proceeding if you would need to like, uh, advise someone with this, uh, lifestyle? How they can start on LinkedIn to, uh, build their brand when they have nine to five and not a lot of time to be on LinkedIn. Hmm. So then what you can do is you can hire a legend like me. I will help you. I will build your brand. No, no, no. So, um, uh, what you can do is you're just starting out and you started from zero and you have a new account. You just have created that and you want to build your brand there. So. At the start, you will be interacting with small accounts and when you will be, um, commenting and engaging with them in order to get engagement on your post, because when you're just starting out, your target is to build your authority.
00:38:25
And what I mean by 30 is having enough engagement on your post, having enough reactions and comments under your post. So that's what you're targeting. When we are engaging with small accounts, we will not be following that rule of commenting within the 15 minutes of the post being published by the author. We will not be following when we are interacting with smaller accounts. So you can easily go and search and do research on smaller accounts and you can comment on their post, even if that post is, uh, public. Like, oh, wow. Have you ever seen a post that was published 17 hours ago? 15 hours ago. So you can comment there. When we are commenting huge accounts, like Alex Harmouzy, Laila Harmouzy, that's when we follow the rule of commenting within the 15 minutes of the post being published by the author. So, yeah. That's what you have to do when you're just starting out.
00:39:34
I really liked the. The. The example of Leila and Alex Romozy, I really like them. And I also follow their posts, etc. But I never heard about this rule of 50 minutes after the outer posts. So definitely there needs to be maybe also some settings of LinkedIn that you can tweak a bit so that you receive the notification when the outer that you want to target so that you can be there within like 50 minutes so you don't need to sit in front of the computer all the time, I guess. Yeah, but like from my own profile, I am on LinkedIn like 24-7. I'm there working because there's a list that I've prepared of people that I interact with. And they all are posting on different timings.
00:40:29
Some of them are posting in the morning. Some of them are posting at night. So all day somebody's posting. So I have to be there. I am on LinkedIn. I'm working and I'm interacting with them. So yeah, that's how my routine looks like. Nice. And how then the client acquisition works on LinkedIn? Because like, for example, like on Instagram, it's more about that you have like paid advertisement. So you just pay like the advertising. You get actually. Like you collect people from the form that you have pushed with your money. And then you start to send them the emails. And they are buying like, for example, from your email list. But how does the client acquisition usually works on LinkedIn? Like do you ask people inside the DMs?
00:41:24
Like can you send me your email so I can add you to my email list? Or how do you usually start to have clients on LinkedIn? How do I? So my business till now is based on inbound leads. So people apply from the form that I've put in my profile. In my feature section, I've put in form. So people come and fill that and I get a notification. And I see if they're my targeted client. And if they're my ICP and I want to work with them, I send them a link to book a call. And then we get on LinkedIn. And yeah, we just start working. So that's how it works for me. Yeah, it's really, I just, I'm just looking right now at your form.
00:42:15
It's a really easy like Google form that you can like do also with Calendly and with any other form. I also heard like from Yasmin Alic that he was recommending to put off offer usually, that you should usually ask for money immediately in like the CTA. Okay. He's not really big fan of like exploratory calls or something like this. So what is your opinion about this? Like, should people immediately like ask money for like putting something in their headline as a CTA or it should be rather like exploratory? Yeah. So it does depend on how strong your personal brand is. If you are something, something, something like Yasmin Alic. So you can go with that. It depends upon how busy you are. See, so my, so the form that I've put, people come and fill that.
00:43:14
And now I have to decide, I go and check their profile. Are they my ICP? Are their founder, co-founder? What is their business? What kind of business they do? Where do they live? Are they posting at least three times a week? So then I see. And what are, what are their goals? And then I study them. And then if I'm okay with that and I'm okay, then I get on a call. Then I start, I get on a call and yeah, I do charge upfront. So I charge monthly and I charge upfront. So that's how my business works. And who is your ICP? So if you can disclose us, like who is your ideal client? The clients that I want to work with, they should be, they should be founder or co-founder.
00:44:10
They should be the C-suit people. They should be from US. They should be from Europe, UK, Australia. And yeah, and they should have a business like, well, because yeah, they should have money to spend. And basically they should have money to spend on LinkedIn. And do you have some vision? Like, do you have a vision to, for example, like help some people with something XYZ? Do you like, did you state it to your mission and vision already? Do I have a vision? I do have people. I do have people that come in my DMs and are asking questions. And they want help. So today somebody came into my profile. There was this lady and I published a post today about profile photos. How should be a profile photo?
00:45:14
What kind of profile photos work and what doesn't work? And we were having a conversation about how she can create a better profile photo. And she said, Hafsa, I thought that you would charge me for that, but you didn't. And I respect that. And I was like, 'Yeah, why not?' Yeah. Okay. I'm okay with that. And I helped her. So yeah, I do help people. Nice. And if you're looking back in your start of your journey with your business, with the graphic designer applications website, if you really go back in the time, what would be the advice you would give yourself that you were struggling with the most? And you'd like to change it, do it slightly differently? Or what would be the advice you would give yourself really at the beginning of Hafsa Salman branding?
00:46:12
Oh my God. I would have told her that cry less. Yeah. I would have told her that Hafsa, please cry less because I used to cry a lot. Like a lot. Yeah. Because of my career, because I career pivot seven times. I even started my YouTube channel. And there I used to read funny comments of people under somebody's video. I even created about 30 videos and then I deleted that. I did that. And yeah, I used to cry a lot. I used to cry a lot because I used to worry a lot about my career. And then you just kept going. You kept showing up on LinkedIn or different platforms. And then it just evolved. And like, I guess this crying is just not necessary. Like it's like journey.
00:47:15
It's journey as any other. There are ups and downs. And it's important to enjoy it rather than make it more difficult than it is probably. It wasn't easy. It was difficult. It was very difficult. And like I have, we are nine siblings. I have eight siblings. So there is this competition. Like nobody says anything, but there is a competition. And like you have to be somebody and you have to be serious about your career as well. So yeah, I used to cry a lot. That must be an unexpected answer. Yes. Definitely. Definitely a honest answer that we were waiting for. So thank you so much, Hafsa. Do you have something to mention at the end right now that you would like to tell to our audience that we probably didn't give attention to?
00:48:09
Or you would like to mention it now at the end of our podcast episode? Yeah, I would like to say to people that if you're going on LinkedIn and if you're creating content on LinkedIn, please be hilarious. Be funny. Be humorous. Be weird. There's enough. There's enough serious content on LinkedIn. And I'm bored of it. I want laughs. I want jokes. Okay? So be just weird. And spread love. I really love it. And I can just support this one. So that brings us to the end of this podcast episode. I hope you enjoyed this episode of Your Brand, Your Business. Thank you so much, Hafsa Salman, for sharing your insight with us and to also our listeners. Thank you for tuning in. If you enjoyed today's episode, be sure to subscribe and leave a review. And I'm Marie, and I will catch you next time all. Bye-bye.
