230 Kait LeDonne - Community and Connection at Scale

Kait LeDonne is a personal branding expert based in New York, New York, who builds thought leadership brands using content marketing strategies and social media. She is regularly featured in national and international publications as a commentator on celebrity and corporate brands. She has trained corporations and organizations like the United States Air Force, Kia Automotive Group, and GGI Global Alliance on the science and art of personal branding.

In this episode, Jason and Kait discuss:

• Transition from finance to LinkedIn thought leadership
• Importance of fostering genuine online connections
• Value of quality content over generic posts
• LinkedIn’s long-term viability for personal branding
• Role of mentor-inspired lessons and personal milestones in building relationships

Key Takeaways:

• The transition from a finance career to LinkedIn thought leadership demonstrates a path to significant follower growth and business success, reflecting growing interest in this strategic shift.
• The cultivation of authentic online communities proves essential, as genuine relationships offer more value than merely increasing audience numbers.
• LinkedIn's focus on content that fosters meaningful dialogue stands out as more effective than traditional marketing tactics, driving higher engagement and impact.
• Leveraging LinkedIn as a professional platform reveals its potential for long-term, impactful personal branding, making it a strategic choice for sustained growth.
• Sharing consistent, mentor-inspired lessons is an effective personal branding strategy, enabling deeper audience connections and positioning oneself as a trusted authority.
  
  
  

“It's never been easier to create content, but it's never been harder to create connections. If you can make that your MO, you’ll stand out in a world where mediocrity at scale is common. Presence and connection at scale are not. Intimacy at scale is not. And that will be the currency of the future.”

 - Kait LeDonne

Connect with Kait LeDonne

• Website
• LinkedIn

Connect with Jason and Steve:

• LinkedIn: Jason or Steve
• Website Rewire, Inc.: Transformed Thinking
• Email: grow@rewireinc.com
  
  

Listen to the podcast here:

Kait LeDonne- Community and Connection at Scale

Hello and welcome everybody to this episode of The Insight interviews. This is your host, Jason Abell, and I'll tell you what. We were to the point now, three years into our podcast where we're very specific with the guests that we asked to come on, and we've gotten to the point now where we're really looking for people that walk their talk, not just thought leaders or people that fall under that category of thought leaders, but people that are actually walking their talk and our guest today, boy oh boy, does she walk her talk. Kate LeDonne is our guest today, and she is a personal brand and LinkedIn expert, and that's not just me saying that, that's not just Kate saying that, LinkedIn themselves say that she's a she's a top personal branding voice within LinkedIn. LinkedIn has actually said that themselves. Kate has over 52,000 people a week that subscribe to her newsletter, get information from her. I'm one of the 52,000. I feel honored to be in that group. The name of her newsletter is “Start small, Brand big”. I highly recommend it, by the way. And I will say this, Kate was on our show in episode 12, and now we're, I don't know what episode we're at, 240 or 250, and that episode, Kate, is one of our most downloaded shows, and just to see you, what you've done from a growth standpoint within LinkedIn, it's been just a pleasure and honor to watch it from the outside. But without further ado, I could have much more further ado, but without further ado, Kate, welcome to the show.

Thanks, Jason. It's great to be here. It's great to be back with your audience. An audience that sits very near and dear to my heart. We'll talk about why that is over the course of today.

A little teaser there. Kate, the world has changed. When you were initially on the show, three years ago, there was this pandemic thing happening, you had recently moved to New York City, I know your personal life was different then. Prerecording you gave us a bunch of really cool news on that, and then your business has, I'm going to use this word, because I've just observed it, exploded. We're not in a pandemic anymore, your business is so formidable within the LinkedIn and personal branding kind of realm, things are just different now. So, I've got 28 questions lined up for you about how things work with personal branding now and how things work within LinkedIn, but the very first question I want to ask is the same question that we asked you the first time that you were on. The same first question we asked you the first time you were on the show, which is, as you and I engage one another today mid-2024, who or what are you especially grateful for?

Oh, gosh. I think community is the first thing that comes to mind. It's interesting, in 2021 I probably would have said the same thing, but in a very different perspective, given we were in and out of lockdown and probably in again when we last spoke. There is this, for me. I feel this way, I think it's pretty universal, this hunger to get back to, or return to a semblance of real connection. I mean real real connection, because when we went through the great horrible experiment that took that away and made it look different, you know, you emerge from that and even living in New York, I mean, we were kind of Ground Zero, but being able to just go to a restaurant with a friend and have those formative and substantive conversations, seeing each other, that is something I will probably never take for granted, and I'm so grateful for it. And I'm grateful for what the insights of real connection has brought and how it has shaped building a brand online, because it has never been easier to grow a following, but it's never been rarer to grow a community or harder to grow a community. And I think that all the things that I picked up in that great reemergence and what really matters to people from a connection standpoint is pretty transferable online, but we might have gotten lost a little bit along the way or taken it for granted before that all happened. So that's the immediate thing that comes to mind for me.

We've asked that question over 200 times, and there's just been, it has run the gamut, the answers. In fact, we do a show the week of Thanksgiving that kind of is a compilation of that year's answers. That answer was so meaty. I feel like we could just go off of that, and then back and forth. I will ask one question based on it. Some of what I just heard you say was, it's never been so as easy or so easy, I'm paraphrasing you, to grow an audience, but then you kind of couch that a little bit about a real audience or real community. Just talk a little bit more about that, please.

You know, an audience is really a transactional thing and there's so many ways to hack it, right? You can purchase, you can be on a multitude of platforms. There's this phenomenon I learned the other day. I was horrified by it on TikTok called rage bait, where people make these videos just to annoy people, and they act absurd, and the whole thing is they want to tick you off just to get engagement. And so, effective at growing an audience and views, sure, absolutely, but when it comes to building a community where you genuinely care about their growth, they want to see not only what you're saying, but behind the scenes you feel like you all are rising together, and it's more relational and not as transactional or just the tippiest bit of the iceberg that's designed to arouse and rage, all those low hanging, low energy emotions that social media does particularly well and preying upon. And there's reasons for that, and there's reasons that certain platforms are more productive than others. I could build an online following tomorrow of 2 million. I'm sure of it, I'm sure of it. I would never want to, because I'm here to build and my goal is to build a community of deep relationships, and that's where I was going with I think if you took that away from the pandemic, what really matters, the relationship that really matters, what the great human experience is all about, is, you know, the relational health of things, then you're gonna come out of that looking at what you want to do online as a reflection of that in a whole different way than just, I'm gonna poke because I can and build that way.

Yeah, we're, we're diving in the deep end of the pool right away, talking about authenticity and real community and real connections with people. I want to take us back a little bit. You know, I've known you for several years now, and I know there's just all kinds of talent in there. How did you go from some of the industries that you were in earlier in your career, to like, okay, I'm going to be a branding expert, I'm going to be a LinkedIn branding expert, and now, you're one of the top voices on LinkedIn. Like, walk us through that progression a little bit.

You know, it's funny, because it's such a 180 in some ways, but in many ways, a 360, where it was like a return to center or start. So, I started my career at 21 in finance, and like, you know, the place where creativity dies. And I say that lovingly to everybody in finance who's listening. My best friend still to this day, we met in that firm, and he was head of compliance, and I always joke around with him that that's I would walk down with my tail between my legs to his office to just hear all the ways I couldn't do what I wanted to, for good reason. But as a young professional who quickly got promoted to management, I was just helpless, and the only place I saw to go and to find mentors was LinkedIn. You know this, you were young, and it was like, I'm going to go to LinkedIn and I'm going to find people who are smarter than I am, CMOs, and I'm going to follow them, and I'm going to try and build connections with them. And what happened was I started to learn out loud on the platform, because I was up against things as a marketing manager, like we were acquiring companies left, right and center. I think we went from six states to like 27 during my tenure there, because of portfolio acquisitions, and I really had to get my feet underneath of me, and so I would just post things about unifying an employee brand, like, what does that look like? Not just absorbing brands, but in absorbing whole swaths of employees and enrolling them into our culture and our internal brand, and those relationships and that learning out loud, that actually created my biggest surge of followers in the beginning, and in no way was I an expert. I was just clumsily figuring it out. And then as I went reflecting on what I thought I wish I knew and what I was hearing I should know and I wanted to provide that to others. So, first things first, there's a lesson, no matter where you're at in your career, if you're an SVP, if you're an intern, if you learn out loud on the platform and you share your findings, first of all, the algorithm loves it, and people love it, and usually when you do that, you're using story to share. Here's what we were going through, here's what we found, here's what happened. So, there's no threshold to entry in that way. There's no you have to be this experience to start publishing that when you're learning out loud, and because of that, actually, people started to ask me to speak places. They're like, hey, we follow you on LinkedIn, can you speak? And that, of course, snowballed into, I started to get business, that snowballed into, I think I can maybe do this on my own, and I'm young, and I have no dependents, and I'm just gonna go and do it. And one of my first clients in that space was a cannabis firm, and it was these two women, one was an engineer and a venture capitalist, and the other was a retired OB GYN, and they got one of the first licenses for a medical cannabis dispensary in Maryland, and we, the three of us, thought it was hilarious. Like nobody was laughing at that more than they were, because they were the suburban white collar, who probably never touched the stuff and told their kids never to touch the stuff, and all of a sudden, they're like, you know, legal kingpins here in a cannabis operation. And we were howling about it. We just thought, you know, we were in on our own joke. And so, we decided, why don't we just own that? And why don't we put you two as center of the brand and show that if the world's toughest critic, a mother and a professional mother, you know, a mother who comes from like a professional background is saying, this is a new dawn, and it's okay, and here's the medical efficacies of this, then you're going to win the hearts and minds of a lot of people that you would want to push into a medical application of this, who might have still been thinking about it in, like, the 1970s 1980s evil version, and that turned into them having a big online following that we helmed on LinkedIn, in particular, because we thought, if we could win white collar over you could win a lot of people over.

Sure.

That turned into a book that turned into them going on the Today Show, and the Today Show turned into the website crashing, and people from all over the US saying, I just wish I could come here, I'm dealing with seizures or menopause or, you know, whatever it was, and that, I think, is really when everything boiled over. I was still always documenting all of that on LinkedIn, but when I saw the ability to take, and these women had no presence on LinkedIn, to take them from that to being on the Today Show with Maria Shriver, to their website crashing, to them then getting booked for industry conferences and being seen as the foremost thought leaders in growing a cannabis business, an industry that was so burgeoning, and these weren't like growers in Colorado. These were women who weren't in the industry.

I love it.

I think, when a lot of people came to me and said, okay, whatever you just did there, whatever that lightning in a bottle is for them, I need you to do it for me too. And I mean any industry, not just professional services, like roll up dumpster company CEOs, like, you name it, industrial cleaning supplies CEOs. They're like, we realize the value in this, we have something to say. We're not sure how to say it. Help us say it the way that they said it, and that when the wheels came off.

And when was that? When was the Today Show experience?

The Today Show was a month before lockdown. I'll never forget, because all of us had a cold after we're like, oh my God, and now in the New York and we were like victims’ number one, two and three. I could not get rid of that cough for a month. I still, to this day, I'm like, I'm pretty sure it was Covid, just nobody really knew it was.

Yeah, oh no.

It was really bad. I was living in New York. They came to New York, and for a month, we were all sick as dogs, and we were like, oh, wait.

What a great story. And now three, four years later, you again, you've taken that, and you're helping all kinds of industries now, and individuals and industries and personal branding and the newsletter. I mean, when we at Rewire, get the newsletter, it's so funny, and in fact, you and I haven't talked about this, we all read it first of all. So we don't just receive it, we read it, and then we have a weekly staff meeting on Mondays and it's not odd for the topic of your newsletter to come up, whatever it was, because we're always trying to try certain things and do certain things. It's the reason we have a newsletter ourselves now, and it's the reason we do our LinkedIn live, you know, because at some point in time you suggested those things, and we're doing it, and apparently 52,000 other people are doing the same thing. And so, it sounds like you took that experience and you are running with it big time.

And that, what you just said to me, means way more than 52,000,and that's going back to the community versus the following. And I don't just say that as like a nice thing to say, or as a bit or to make myself seem like a really ethical and purpose filled person. All of those newsletters, they're really, we think hard about them. They’re love letters to myself two years ago. I never want to publish, just to publish. I recently read somewhere that a seasoned poet was giving advice to a aspiring poet, and she said, you know you want to be a poet if it feels like death if you can't write. And that's kind of how I feel about branding and sharing my knowledge. It feels antithetical and weird to harbor all of it inside, and that's, I think, the biggest thing I want to say to everybody listening and everybody else, which is I see the nicest, smartest people get passed over online for the loudest, again, most like, I'm gonna go for the low hanging fruit and shock factor people that play to the algorithm versus play to real, real growth. And I think if somebody really asked me why I do what I do, it's because I want to empower and give those smart, kind, experienced parts in the right place, the people that should be on social media and would make social media a better place to exist, the tools to actually make that happen, because right now, the people who have those tools and not to like paint this as like every influencer, but it's usually wielded sometimes for not evil, but not the most productive pushing forward than it is alternative. And I want to be part of a tide that's changing that, and that people see social media as a resource for connectivity and not dysconnectivity, and right now, despite its promise, I think it disconnects us more than ever.

Well, I can tell you as somebody that does read your newsletter, and we have our own, you know, blogs and newsletters and in this format, and you know, I read everybody's a personal branding expert these days, like everybody's a coach. You know that our industry is like the wild wild west, and to some degree, I think yours is too. There's a difference between hey, ChatGPT, write me a personal branding article versus what you do. It is talking to you right now and reading your newsletter is a very similar experience, and it wouldn't be that way if you know you're just outsourcing the articles or having ChatGPT write it for you. There is an authenticity there, and that's why you know when, even in my introduction to you, the walk your talk thing, it's one of our values at Rewire that that is, man, if you don't have that, it's it'd be tough even for us to take you on as a client. We want to make sure that we're holding ourselves accountable to that and the people that we interact with, whether it's a guest on the show or even a client or vendors or partners of ours, that's just super important to us and I see that with you. So you know the purpose of this episode is not to be a commercial for you, but I will say this if you're listening to this, and you're thinking, yeah, LinkedIn, I know I want to be more of a part of that, I would definitely say at least subscribe to Kate's newsletter and read it and start dipping your foot in that pool, because you're going to get, you know, the real deal, the walk your talk type of thing that we're talking about.


Well, let's then talk about direct application of that, because I think there's something that everybody, it's right here, and you just made mention of it, and it goes back to probably my hearty response in the beginning of really valuing community and relationships. The reason that I believe your experience of my newsletter and hopefully any of my posts is that is because when I write, I always write it to one individual. So literally, you know, Wednesday afternoons are my content creation time. We're filming on a Tuesday. You've given me just in this conversation, a lot of things to think about. Tomorrow when I go to write a newsletter, I will start it as dear Jason. Now I always back it out of that, but I want the experience to be very intimate in that way, and that's where I'm going back to, if you can take what the magic of actual human relationships are and start to integrate it in your brand, you'll see success. And a lot of us who have creator's block, I won't even say writer's block, because there's so many different mediums that you can put content out. Now, the biggest thing I tell all of my clients is, if you're writing, started with a salutation to a client you really care about, or an audience member you really care about, if you're filming, say, you know, hey, Jason, I just want to show you this really quick video about three things I think you can do on LinkedIn, and then cut it for three things I think you can or should be doing on LinkedIn, because it's going to keep you grounded and focused on who you should be focused on, which is the person you actually want to help or share wisdom with, rather than placate or try and use tools and tricks that appeal to the masses, which ultimately never get you anywhere. And so, that's where I'm talking about that low hanging fruit application that if we just can take the insights we see on one to one and then expand it to create one to one at scale versus one to many, that's how I want you to think about all of your content.

                                                                                                               
                                        "You're not doing one to many, you're doing one to one at scale."

That's a tweetable right there. You're not doing one to many, you're doing one to one at scale. You're making me think of a story that I haven't thought of in years. In a former life in corporate America, I was asked to speak at a conference, and backstage, Ben Stein was back there. I was following him, and there were a lot of people that wanted to talk to him, and, you know, there was a buzz around him. And for those of you that are too young and might not know Ben Stein, that's Ferris Bueller's Day Off, you know, fame and others, and he came up to me, and for that five minute, seven minute interaction that we had, I was the only person in the world in with him. He asked me very specific questions. We both come from the Washington, DC, Maryland area, and he had very specific questions about that. And I just remember that. I'm like, and this guy's got everybody wants a piece of him, his autograph, this, that or the other, but, man, he was locked in on me and it makes me think about what you just said about writing your newsletter. And I've heard this advice before, but not the way that you just kind of nuanced it, is that when you're writing, you're literally writing to one person, and then you let it go to scale or not, but it doesn't sound like you're trying to like nuance in a way where, what's everybody gonna like? What's hot right now? You're doing your thing to one person, and then I'm guessing there are some things that you post that fly and some don't. That's part of creativity, but you're staying in your lane of that building community, one person at a time type of thing.

Yes, absolutely. It's so interesting you just said that about Ben Stein, because I took a leadership development program, and you know, as with any kind of training, there's a lot of content that you receive, but then there's things you remember. And one of the people who taught the training of one of my biggest takeaways was when he dialed in on you. I mean, this man would peer into your soul. It was almost a little disarming at first, because you realize how rare it is that someone gives you the gift of their complete attention, particularly in today's world where, again, it's easier than ever to be in a pattern of overconsumption and overstimulation. And that's where I think if you can even, you do that in real life, and then you do it online, you are going to take an alternative path to success that I believe truly will be the hardest thing, but the most coveted thing going forward, because of the proliferation of AI, because it's never been easier to create content, but it's never been harder to create connection. If you can have that as your MO, then you're going to stand out in a world that mediocrity at scale is happening, but presence and connection at scale is not intimate. Intimacy at scale is not and that will be the currency of the future.

Kate, you're blowing my mind. Just wrote that down too. It's never been easier to create content, but it's never been harder to create connection. So, you've already given us a lot of practicality so far, the writing to one, the creating to one. Expand on this piece a little bit more just what you just said there. I think everybody can get it's never been easier to create content. Screen grabs, AI, whatever you know, being crazy online, you know, whatever it is I get that part. Never been harder to create connections. Talk a little bit more about that, but not just the challenge and the problem side, but the solution side, because that's where I think you really shine. So, the challenge and the solution is, according to Kate.

Yeah, I think the challenge is, again, we're so tempted to go the one to many route, and so the easiest barrier to entry is the content itself. The harder part of that is then having a meaningful dialog off the back of this, because we're so busy. And this is not exclusive to LinkedIn, but I will tell you directly from the mouth of their Editor in Chief, they are looking at posts, and they want to see three to four very specific things from you. Number one, they want to see that you are speaking to a target audience. Now that doesn't mean you have to explicitly say it, but it should not be generic platitudes. It should not be the copy paste wisdom, the quotes, the like that anybody can do, and that's actually great, because then they're going to repopulate it to more of those people. So, they're seeing every post as having its own unique audience, or, in our case, its own unique connections.

Yeah.

Back to that number two, they want to see that you are pairing that with meaningful experience shares. And so, it's not just, here's a great way to do one to one check ins with your employees as a manager, it's when I first started in management, I had no idea how to run a one to one. It was this loose conversation for 10 minutes that I was probably just talking way more about their tasks and not actually about how they're feeling, and that's the kind of actual story that LinkedIn wants to see from you, that they you can't get from AI or other things, where you can rip and stick. But number three, they really want to see, well, let me just say one other thing before number three. They're going to cross reference your post to your profile, and they're going to make sure you're talking about what it is you say you should be talking about. Meaning, I'm a personal branding expert. If I ever put a post out there talking about supply chain efficiency, it's going to look at the post, it's going to quickly look at my profile and be like, one of these things is not like the other. And that's what I really enjoy about LinkedIn. They're gonna raise voices that are actually experienced to talk about the things and not just propel the loudest voices. They've actively tried to demote people who are saying things that aren't qualified to say things, because they want the best and most pertinent information to shine. So, this is a good thing.

Yeah.

This is a good thing for us, even if ultimately, reach is curtailed. It's the right connection we're talking about.

It sounds like an extension of just niching, right? This is marketing 101. Or when you start a business, people go, I want to help everybody do everything. No, you want to help one person do one thing, and then, like you say, do it at scale. So, sounds like number three is just another version of really making sure that you're niching.


Yeah, but can you imagine if every platform did that, Jason? I see people on, you know, TikTok and Instagram talking about sugar intake, and you look at their you look at their credentials, and listen, these people probably know more than I do about this, but their degree is in like pharmacy, they're not nutrition experts, or they aren't nutritional scientists, and I think that platforms do a uniquely shit job of saying and flagging to people, hey, this is this person's experience where LinkedIn is like, no, no. Not only are we going to say that by way of your title, but we're not even going to put you in a position to talk about something at the mass that you are not qualified to talk about. That is part of their ethical duty. I love that they took that stance. But number four, and this is the real core, is they want to see meaningful conversation as a result of this. And I will tell you I am criminal number one at this. I will put out a post in the morning, and then your junior day gets away from you, right? And then people ask really good questions, if the post is meaningful and contextual, and then it's like, I won't get back to it until a day later, which is fine, I'm still getting back to it, but you'd be shocked at how many people put something out, they have even five comments, and they don't respond to them. Like, this is where the community happens. The post was the original thing, the conversations, the connections are happening, and then I'll take it a step further and message them after I respond to them publicly and say, now, this takes time, but I really appreciate the question you put on there, here's some other resources, and you've given me something to think about for my next newsletter.

                                                                                                       
"Every newsletter you read is because somebody had a question or an idea, and that's where I'm talking about the, it's never been easier to create content, it's never been harder to create connection, because that's the conversation you'd be having in real life with someone."


Yeah.

But all of a sudden, on an online world, we think we're immune to treating it like that, and then we wonder, why aren’t we having sales? Why aren't we having relationships? Why aren't we being seen as a trusted person? Why do we have 50,000 followers but when we put out a call to action, nobody responds. Train them to be transactional with you. That's how you're you are with them. They're going to respond in the same way.

I heard a few years ago, maybe from you, also this whole thing about comparing LinkedIn to other social media platforms in the way of LinkedIn as such in his infancy, and you know, it's not like too late to jump in and be effective with your social media presence on LinkedIn from a business standpoint, but that was a few years ago. I don't know. What would you have to say about that now?

You know, LinkedIn just crossed the threshold last year, and you could debate whether this is the real number or not like any platform, but they have crossed the threshold to 1 billion members, and that's something in social media. There's only like three others that have gotten there. And so, it's funny, because LinkedIn itself has been a slow burn. You would say it's in its infancy, but it was actually founded around Facebook, like the time of Facebook, the OG. And so, it's interesting, and I actually appreciate LinkedIn for this, because they didn't explode in the way that others did. They were very methodical about their value proposition, and so, just to get really specific about what I mean there, Facebook took off, Instagram took off, and TikTok took off because they will promote any kind of content designed to really spur an intense reaction

Yeah.

And then because of that, more and more people join. And then because of that, advertisers are there, and then they want to make the platform they want to monetize. That's business. And so then you start to appeal to the advertisers, and then church and state get very muddled, like, very, very quickly, who is running the show here? And then you reach a point where, you know, ask anybody who is on the early days of TikTok versus now, and they're like, it's just all ads, it's not the same. It's lost its magic. They burn brightly. It is like a meteoric rise. And I don't think TikTok, despite legislation, whatever like, I don't think it's really going anywhere. But when you look at the viability of LinkedIn, and much like a business, they were like, no, no, we want to be here for the long haul. This is our value proposition. We'd rather do this over a 20 some year period, just kind of where they're at, but we want to stay true to, again, not just promoting the easiest thing, not appealing to advertisers, even the way their business model was built underscored that. So, the majority of its revenue is from subscriptions, recruiter, navigator, premium, not from ad dollars, and because of that, they're going to do what's best for members, not for companies, and they can really have a heavy hand in that. And so, it's funny to watch it finally get to a tipping point over that 20 plus year burn of 1 billion. But because of that, to your point, it’s the perfect time to jump in, because they're barring all the things that those other platforms did really well, but they're introducing them methodically, and so you get this intersectionality of the best features meets the best intentions, and you can still gain a lot of momentum on this platform, faster than any other platform I've seen, because of their adherence to that intersection.

Yeah, I really appreciate the explanation of that. Not only the answer, but then you've got the backing and the data behind it. I can't tell you how many coaching sessions I've had, and I've heard this from our coaches as well. At some point in time or another, the topic of, hey, should I be on social media? And if so, which platform? Probably LinkedIn, if it's a business scenario, and then how do I dive in? I don't know where to start. How much content? How little content? Again, it's invariable that topic comes up somewhere along the line when we're coaching people. Where would you have somebody start? And again, we're an executive coaching company, so we're coaching executives, we're coaching startup founders, HR directors, C suites. Kate, where would you have somebody start, if they're like, yeah, I'm LinkedIn, curious, but I don't know what to do? Where do I start?

You always want to start almost ironically or paradoxically to the term personal branding, you think you have to start with yourself. Let me figure out my strengths, my experiences, everything about myself, and then publish online, or create this avatar online of that. That actually sets you up to fail. You need to start with the audience. Who do I want to serve? Very specifically, who is that one person at scale? And who do I want to help? So, for a lot of managers or executives, that can be my employees and other employees of different companies that look like mine, it can be shareholders. You know, it can be depending on your position in a company. CMOS might have a little bit different of an answer than a CHRO. One might be more shareholder, like, let me talk to you about the story of this company and how I see it, versus a CHRO who's thinking, I want to talk about two people, and current people and prospective people that we would hire. But when you don't start there, you can quickly burn out, because talking about yourself, it's exhausting and it's hard. It's hard to be You in your day to this. It’s why we have coaches. We want somebody outside of you to help you, think about how other people are going to perceive you, but the easiest way to do that is to think about, what do these people need to hear? And I think that's how I ass- backwards made it happen when I was 21 is because I wasn't thinking, I want to make a name for myself, I was thinking, I have this unique problem where I very quickly got promoted to marketing management, and I don't know what I'm doing, and I think other people might feel the same way. So, my audience, whether I would have consciously stated it, and I wouldn't have, at the time or not, was other young marketing managers who fell up the creek without a paddle because they were working for like, a mid-sized organization, and the CEO was like, it's time to get a millennial in here to do some marketing.



Right.

But like, you know, now it's different, but you didn't, you felt under resourced. And so I thought, if I could just be someone who shares that and lets other people know they're not alone, and provide some of the insights I'm getting for people way smarter than me, which is hilarious too, because actually, you will appear very smart if you share what you've heard smarter people say to you and your journey.

Well, that's how it happens in real life, right? Like it's the same. Back to your point of being authentic and genuine and building connections, that's what you would do in real life, if you're mentoring somebody one on 1 on 1. Sure, you've got your own experiences, but you learn that somewhere from somebody, and now you're passing it forward. So, it's the same.

Jason, it's so funny what you just said, and I'm having a little bit of an aha moment. For those of you who are getting started, think about this as mentoring at scale. What do you wish somebody would have told you? What do you think people should know? What was the hardest learning lessons you had? And again, that can be mentoring someone internally or mentoring someone externally, but LinkedIn is not anything, according to their value proposition, if not really the world's best resource of mentors in a professional capacity.

Big time, yeah.

And if you can slip into that, you're actually you're gonna do yourself a diservice. Because I was saying to Jason before we got on here, I'm so envious of many of you who work in corporations, because you're actually the people that LinkedIn wants to make influencers. You're in a unique position to understand what's happening in the workplace, what's happening in your industry, you have a title and a company behind you, and they want to see you mentor out loud, and then they want to give you a platform, a boost, in some cases a badge, you know, the verified check mark, so that other people can learn from you and do that. And there's no coincidence that the highest number of blue badges given out on LinkedIn belongs to Google employees, not to like celebrity Bill Gates, not to the Richard Bransons, and sure, of course, these are household names, it would behoove them to ordain them on the platform, but what they really want to identify is you. They want to say who are the people who are leading in certain industries that have these unique insights that can peel back the curtain, say where trends are going, say where mentors are, that we can put out there? Because we know no other social platform has them. And so, if you can mentor out loud and tell stories that match with that mentorship, you're in a great place. But that's where you need to start is, well, then who do I want to mentor at scale? What is the one to one I want to create at scale? The one to one only happens at scale if you know the receiving part of that one to one formula.

Yeah. That's so true. The people that do end up getting started, another problem I see is just the consistency of it. And you said something before we recorded about, you know, how much is too much and less is more, and just that topic. Would you help our listeners in that way just think about that topic?

I think, like anything, I'd rather see you get strong crawling, instead of running and breaking your leg, and then have really shyness as to coming back, or you're one hit wonder, and then it feels hard to keep doing that magic. And so even if you're posting once a week from a thoughtful perspective, you are going to be leaps and bounds of many people. I mean, really, like, we're still seeing of 1 billion people, like, 3% post regularly, and they're going to identify regularly air quotes as once a month, not once a week. So, I'm talking about four shares a month, not one share a month, because that's how they identify regularity on the platform. Now the other question is not a quantity perspective, it's a context perspective of what is too much or too little, and I just want to share about too much from a context perspective.

Yeah.

There was during the pandemic, this explosion of sharing on LinkedIn, as we all were trying to navigate this unique experience we were going through, and because the lines of home and office were not only blurred, but nonexistent anymore, LinkedIn started to see a lot of content pop on the platform that was probably more traditionally suited towards like a Facebook or an Instagram. Like, yeah, hey, it's Tuesday, and here's my kid, and, you know, dirty diapers abound, and blah blah, and it was sweet, and we were all going through it, and so we could all kind of commiserate or come together on these things, but then when things started to find its new normalcy, LinkedIn needed to course correct. And that was the era where people were like, why are you sharing this? This isn't Facebook. This is LinkedIn.

I remember seeing that, yeah.

You know, for a while it was permissible, because we were all going through something really crazy, and then they were like, we got to get back to the value proposition. We got to get back to mentorship. And so that is when they put in all those four things that I just spoke of, where you can't just get popularity by sharing a picture of your pet on LinkedIn, which maybe actually could have happened for you in 2020.

Yep.

And so then there's the oversharing perspective of, okay, well, then how do I be personal without flagging that? And this is what I always coach people on. If you are sharing something, what is the lesson behind it? And if there's no lesson, you're probably sharing it from a vanity perspective, and it's better suited from for another platform that has a value proposition that tilts more to that. Example, I fancy myself an amateur cook. I'm like, no way good at it, but I watched British the Great British Bake show enough to convince myself, like, maybe I could.

Sure.

So if I was going to post on LinkedIn about something I was preparing, I want to ask myself, knowing my audience, what is the lesson of why I would share this? And if I was going to do that in a cooking perspective, it would be the other day I made this zucchini pasta, and it was my fifth time trying it. And like every single time I had to use data, feedback from myself, feedback from my husband, iteration, write it down, analyze, look at it, and at the end I was like, this is so funny. This is not unlike me making any product that I make for my business, it's like, this good is better than non action and I'm gonna make it, and I'm gonna assess it, and I'm going to come back to it. That's a post LinkedIn would say, oh no, this is good because she's finding the intersectionality between that. She's sharing a lesson. Cooking a recipe is not unlike baking a business. Like, here's what I found here. But if it's just like, here's the zucchini pasta I made, then yeah, you're over sharing, or you're not over sharing, you're under delivering. That's what it really is. You're under teaching. And so that's the real barometer you always want to assess here is what and why? What is the lesson and why am I sharing this? And if you don't have a really good answer to that, flick, post it to a story on Instagram. Yay. Zucchini pasta, which I also do.

Zucchini pasta. I love that.

You know, people might love that and like oh, cool. Like, that looks good, good for you, but that's not what I would post on LinkedIn at least.

That's right. No, the zucchini pasta that goes on LinkedIn, there's a lesson behind it. It's not yay zucchini pasta. Actually, I'm having fun with that story, but what a great litmus test. I mean, that's what I find a lot, and it shocks me in particular, but a lot of our clients are like, I need a litmus test. Like, it can't be too ethereal, it can't be whatever. That litmus test is great if it's something that it's a vanity standpoint, or there's no lesson behind it. Yeah, maybe not LinkedIn. It could be the same exact thing, but then, hey, this is the lesson behind it. Great, go for it. So good litmus test.

I’m actually going to share a very quick one that just happened two weeks ago on Instagram. I just had my one-year wedding anniversary, put a picture.

Congratulations.

Happy one year anniversary. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you, thank you. Happy anniversary. Blah blah. Life with you is great. I don't know. That's not to be dismissive of my husband, that's just probably a statement I said.

I'm laughing because I'm watching my body language.

Blah blah, blah, blah blah. You know, you're wonderful. All that stuff that I feel about my husband. But on LinkedIn, it's actually one of my highest performing posts ever, and here's the difference. I was like, why would I acknowledge this on LinkedIn? What is the lesson? And the lesson I really wanted to give to other, in my case, you know young women, because I got married, quote, unquote later, I was 34, is like, wait for a real partner and me waiting for a real partner actually gave me a big competitive edge as an entrepreneur. This person has heard my 2am thought, they have lent me money when payroll was between cycles, they had unwavering faith, and my big lesson, if I was going to share it with what I know my audience was, was never underestimate how influential your partner is in your career, and that is why it would fly on LinkedIn, and I did, and it went like gangbusters. And the stories that came out of it in the comment section that I responded to, every single one was I felt this exact same way, it’s why I didn't get married until I was 40. I was so happy that I went, it was beautiful. I mean, talk about community. It was really, really wonderful to see.

Well, that goes back to creating a connection, as opposed to creating content. And so, yeah, great, great story. Kate, I want to go on for an hour, two hours more.

We'll just do an annual update of this episode.

I like that. No, that's perfect. That's a perfect idea. Is there anything, I feel like there's 38 things, but is there anything in particular about what you do, from a personal branding standpoint, from a LinkedIn standpoint, that I haven't asked, that you're like, oh, we gotta get this out there in this episode?

I think this goes back to crawling. It's better to crawl and keep crawling than to run and fall flat on your face. The rarest of all human qualities is consistency, and when you meet someone offline or online, who is consistent, it stays with you because it is so rare. It is so so rare for humans to be consistent creatures, and consistency is the hardest thing to do, especially when it comes to putting out content, because it's the easiest thing to push to the bottom of your list. But don't think of it as creating content, think about it as this is the one thing I'm gonna do a week that builds connections at scale, and you're gonna outpace people that have the best whiteboard strategy on their wall, but then revisit it and ride the wave of inspiration, because inspiration is a failing strategy.

Yeah, for sure.

You know, consistency is the only way to make it happen. And so, I just want to challenge you to be the atypical human being that says I'd rather do four posts a month than four a week and then ghost for or, you know, disappear for three months.

Yep.

Because think about it in relationships too, and connection to the same thing, relationships with people who consistently show up in your life, again, that's the same thing online. There's the fast friend who popped and you did this and you had this moment of life, but they didn't consistently show up time and time and time again for you to build trust and reliability, and so don't go for the fast friendship on LinkedIn, go for the solid, sturdy, reliable person in people's lives, and you will be good. You will be better than good. You'll be great when other people so so easily go for the alternative.

Again, just like real life in person, it's the same exact thing. You're always keeping things fresh and new. Any particular projects or anything that you're working on right now that you're especially excited about?

Yes, we're actually doing our fall cohort of Brand Launch. So, it's the six part system to keep you consistent and to get your compelling message, and to make all of this, which feels so unwieldy, and because it's never been a more phenomenon, there's never been more opportunity that can actually put you in paralysis, Brand Launch is really about what are the six simple things to do to build this brand? And it is based on my over a decade of doing this and doing this with 1000s of people, and like, simplicity will win. Let's dial into the magic of you, to the simplicity of you, create the connection at scale. That's why we designed the program. And I love, love, love, working with with people through it, and talking about connection at scale. It is not just a oh, here it is, and DIY and fill out your worksheets. I check in with them, and we meet because I want to ensure sometimes, you know, you have a training and you're like, I think I'm doing it right, but I just need an expert to, like, sit down with me and make sure.

So true.

We really built it in a hybrid way, because my goal is not conversions, it's forced completion, and if we sell a lot, but I don't see the completion of that happening, we actually deem that as a failure. So that's Brand Launch, and it's my baby.

Nice. Brand Launch. Normally, at the end, I ask guests where people can best find them? I'm thinking, it's LinkedIn, but where do people go? What do people do? How do people find you?

Speaking of connection, when you find me on LinkedIn, please, you know you can hit follow, but if you hit the three dots, it'll let you send a message. Please send me a message that this is why you are following me, because of this conversation, because that creates a whole different relationship and connection for you and me, then again, just a passive follow. I'm not interested in the first listen follow along. I’m happy to have it, but I really challenge you to then to then shoot me that message, and not for any other reason than I am very invested in you doing this, and I do want to know that by listening to this, this is something that matters to you, and so it matters to me, and I want you to let me know that.

Perfect. So good. Kate, gosh, we did it again. And I think I heard a promise in there to maybe have another conversation in the future. I don't know. Maybe you won’t.

I smell an annual revision. I was gonna say we shouldn't wait three or four years before the next one. So maybe annually. That’s like a lifetime, a universe in social media like the algorithm might completely be different. So, yeah.

That's exactly right. Oh, the changes. Well, thank you for just this great conversation. I've learned a lot. I took a took two pages worth of notes here. Can't wait to dive in myself. Thank you for what you're doing to create real, genuine community and gosh, we wish you the best. Can't wait for our next check in, Kate.

Thanks, Jason. Thanks so much.

Well, I sure did have a lot of takeaways and insights from that second conversation that I have had with Kate LaDonne. Gosh, things that stuck out to me, the idea of community and genuine, authentic community. I feel like that was a thread throughout our conversation, and just things that she said there. It's never been easier to create content and it's never been harder to create connection. Oh, so true in this world of 2024 that we live in. And then she gave very specific ways to not just create content but create that connection. And I love some of the stories that she told, and then very practical advice as we're communicating. She was talking specifically about newsletters and LinkedIn posts and things like that, but write to one person, and then that way you're being very specific in your thought process as you create your content or your information, and then it will end up being good for many people. And just this whole idea that there's no threshold to entry, like anybody can start posting right away. It doesn't need to be perfect. You can iterate along the way, and it was just good to just relearn that. And then just this whole idea of being yourself. You don't need to think about what the audience will like and what your clients might like. Just be yourself online, create that authentic connection. And yeah, Kate, I just, I really appreciate those insights and those reminders. So, as we say at the end of every episode of The Insight Interviews, it doesn't much matter what me as the host what my insights were, but dear listeners, what were your insights?

                                                                                                             ---

Thanks for reading. If you got any value at all from this episode, a little nugget all the way up to some big, huge insight, please do us a solid by subscribing, recommending, rating, and reviewing us on Apple Podcast, Spotify, or Google. That stuff matters to us, and it allows us to continue interviewing more awesome people.

Important Links

• Apple Podcast – The Insight Interviews
• Spotify – The Insight Interviews
• Google – The Insight Interviews
• LinkedIn: Jason or Steve
• Grow@RewireInc.com