The Salt Sessions

Transcript

0:10
Hi, I'm Bev Salt, welcome back to the Salt Sessions.

0:14
This is my final episode in season 2.

0:18
Today I'm joined by Paul Ince.

0:21
Paul, would you like to introduce yourself to our listeners?

0:24
Thanks Bev.

0:24
Hi, I'm Paul Ince, otherwise known as Biz Paul Online.

0:28
Everyone seems to call me that, so that's where you will find me.

0:30
I run a company called Like Mind Media in Loughborough and Birmingham and we are a content marketing consultancy that specialises in just mapping, bring out content across the way from customer journey and sort of getting involved in all sorts of that fun content, really like video and podcasts and social media.

0:50
Brilliant, thank you.

0:51
Today we're going to be talking about LinkedIn, which is a key social media channels, especially for B2B businesses.

0:58
LinkedIn is a growing platform and believe it or not, Paul, and there are over a billion users of LinkedIn globally, but only 1% posts consistently.

1:10
So the majority of users on LinkedIn are actually lurkers.

1:14
And we're now in an era of dark social where people could be looking at your post, but they're not engaging, they're not even hitting like or leaving any comment.

1:24
So by consistently posting on LinkedIn, you are drip feeding contents into them so that when they are ready to make a buying decision, hopefully they'll remember your content and you will stand out.

1:37
Paul's joining me today to talk about content ideas for LinkedIn.

1:41
Because it's a very noisy platform now and people just scroll through.

1:46
There's so much content.

1:47
How do we create content that stops users from scrolling?

1:51
So the first thing I wanted to ask you was about videos.

1:56
So the algorithm has been favouring video content and there's been a 25% year on year increase with videos

2:03
Are there any creative ways that we can use videos without over complicating it?

2:08
And can you share any examples of successful B2B video content?

2:13
And I know that you use a lot of videos yourself.

2:14
I try to for that very reason.

2:17
I think what we know about LinkedIn and other social media platforms in general is that they are preferring to to show video.

2:24
And the reason for that, I think, is because that's what users want.

2:27
These platforms will absolutely push the type of content that's getting a good response from its user base.

2:33
Otherwise people won't use the platform.

2:35
So video is very much at the forefront of the strategy around LinkedIn, and they've recently introduced a video feed on the app, but also coming on to desktop as well to really help you focus on consuming video on the platform.

2:50
Now, of course, that's kind of in a response to things like TikTok, Instagram reels, YouTube shorts, this idea of short form video that people can get through at pace, learn, understand, get excited by, be entertained.

3:05
And you know, if you look at the data around short form video in particular, it shows that TikTok is the platform that has the most watch time out of any of them.

3:15
And it's because we are engrossed in what we're seeing.

3:18
So in a way, LinkedIn wants a little bit of that kind of action, but whether or not it's for B2B or B2C, or whether it's just for entertainment purposes, we know that video performs well partly because it's a really fast way to get information into someone's brain.

3:35
And from a business's perspective, if you're looking at video for something like LinkedIn, then that's a good way to get your message across really quickly when people are scrolling through a feed and trying to work out exactly what it is they're seeing and what's important to them.

3:50
Now in terms of things like creative uses, I think really what I see a lot of people do is, is try and overcomplicate something that really can be quite simple.

4:00
So whether you want to sit in front of a camera on your laptop and record a piece where you're offering some expertise, or whether you want to take your phone and shoot what you're doing behind the scenes, that type of content works really well on LinkedIn because people are interested in what other businesses are doing and what the business looks like.

4:19
It doesn't have to be all kind of multiple shots, throwing clothes on you or wiping makeup on or off or whatever.

4:27
The really talented what content creators do that have spent, you know, years learning how to how to do it.

4:34
That kind of puts a lot of people off.

4:37
But actually, I think if you compare it back and think, what does your customer want to hear from you?

4:44
It might be that they just want to see your face and they just want to see you.

4:48
And so although the question you've asked is about creative ways, and I think, you know, pairing things back to the level at which you're comfortable in creating video is creative enough for you as an individual at that time.

5:01
And people don't expect perfectly shot videos, do they nowadays?

5:05
And because we're so used to seeing content on TikTok that videos that are homemade, you can do it on your mobile phone.

5:12
And as long as there's sound quality is there, then anyone can stop making videos.

5:18
Yeah, 100% agree with that.

5:19
I think actually getting started is perhaps the biggest hurdle to overcome.

5:24
So that's why I think if all you can do is get a tripod or something to lean your phone on and just talk to the camera as if you're talking to your ideal customer, then I don't think you can really go wrong.

5:37
I mean, obviously depends what you say.

5:38
There are some car crashes out there, but if you are able, just to talk about an issue that your customer might be facing or talk about your service that you offer or something that you've been thinking about and how your customer might be affected and maybe an action or two that they can take.

5:55
That really does build a more human connection between two people on LinkedIn, which otherwise would just be a little profile picture in a circle on the platform.

6:05
So I think it's fine to be simple and to just try something small and remember, you know, you can just record that on your camera phone and decide not to post it if you don't feel comfortable in IT.

6:16
People often say, well, how do I get started?

6:17
And I think for me it is taking the phone, recording some on your camera phone and then watching it and, and deciding what it is you want to to do with it.

6:24
You know, you don't have to post the first thing that you do, but it is good to get to get started.

6:28
And, and frankly, the sooner you get started with video, the sooner you will see results from it.

6:33
Absolutely.

6:34
And apart from video, what other content stops people from scrolling?

6:39
Well, at the risk of avoiding your question for a second, I mean, I think video really is up there.

6:44
But what do we mean by video is another question.

6:48
So technically a video is anything on LinkedIn that automatically plays.

6:54
So whilst it could be a video that you've created, it could also be something that sort of doesn't feel like a video, but actually is.

7:03
We in my team have a phrase, we call it make it move.

7:06
And to the idea with make it move is let's say that instead of doing a piece to camera, you wanted to show a product or you wanted to have a graphic that said, let's say, for example, you're a coach and you've got a new programme that you're going to run and you're launching it and it might say wait list now open or something like and you've got that branded up and it looks really nice from a graphic perspective.

7:32
Way to kind of help that along a bit, I think is to use basic animation tools, which you'll find in things like Canva or Adobe Express where you've probably created it to just make it move a little bit.

7:45
So use the sort of looping, entry, exit tools that just exist within those platforms.

7:50
It's really quite simple to do and make it move.

7:52
And what that ends up creating is technically a video.

7:56
So you'll download an MP4 file or whatever, and when you upload that to something like LinkedIn, it will play automatically as someone comes across it in the feed.

8:04
Well, that in effect is just a moving graphic, but it is a graphic.

8:09
So that sort of thing captures people's attention because it's automatically playing.

8:14
So the eyeballs are drawn to something that's moving because we want to know, well, what what is this?

8:20
What is it that I'm seeing?

8:21
And anything like that where there's some kind of intrigue or I need to interpret what it is, tends to do well, I think so another thing that you could do along that line is if you've ever seen like a where's Wally?

8:33
The idea that you are looking at a really detailed picture and trying to find Wally in that picture, well, you know, could you recreate something like that where maybe it's a picture of you in a really tiny place?

8:46
Or is there an object that you can ask people to find something that allows people to interact with that content and go, hmm, what is it that I'm looking for here?

8:56
And the reason to do that is to increase dwell time.

8:59
How long does a person dwell on that piece of content in that feed?

9:02
Because the longer a user dwells on a piece of content, the more positive that sounds to the LinkedIn algorithm and you increase the chance of being seen in your future content.

9:12
So, but that always works.

9:13
Another thing that works from an interactive perspective are documents, PDFs, PowerPoints, things that people can swipe through themselves.

9:22
That also increases dwell time, but of course it also allows you to get quite a lot of information across to the person looking at it.

9:30
So for example, it could be that you wanted to show multiple variations of a single product, or you might want to show the same product but with different colours.

9:40
Or perhaps it would be something like a Mother's Day gift guide or a Christmas gift guide where you are showing different gifts that you could buy.

9:50
Or indeed, you know, if you're a business that has a catalogue, it could be, I don't know, 100 pages long.

9:55
But if that catalogues in PDF and you upload it, then everyone suddenly has your catalogue or a PowerPoint pitch deck, you know, summarising who you are, what you're about, why somebody should work with you.

10:06
These things that people can spend more time with, interacting with the content that you produce will be the ones that guests get the best interactions.

10:15
And you know, you're right in what you were saying about how people engage less.

10:19
We've certainly seen with the many clients that we work with, engagement is generally down now.

10:25
I think that's because we've got so much content to get through as individuals.

10:30
We kind of just scroll because we know we'll never get to the end, so we don't give as much of our attention to each of the different things that we see.

10:38
And so if you can create things that are more likely to slow that down, whether it's tactically moving, whether it's interactive, that is going to increase, I think the chance that somebody understands the message that you're giving and increases the chance that they will interact with it there.

10:54
Have you used polls?

10:56
What are your thoughts around using polls?

10:59
So I think polls can be really useful as a way of helping the user, helping the audience interact with you.

11:07
Because of course, if you're asking a question and you're giving people a couple of options to select from, people simply has to choose one or the other.

11:15
Now I think it depends on the question that's being asked and whether or not that's useful, but I think that it's helpful for the person publishing the poll as a piece of audience research.

11:27
Now, sometimes people don't answer polls because they know, and LinkedIn will tell you this, that the person publishing the post can see who responds with which answer.

11:40
So I think you do have to be careful what sort of questions that you ask because if, if it's like giving too much information away that they feel uncomfortable with, then you won't get people respond to that.

11:53
But I'll tell you a story about a sort of inadvertently super successful poll, which I did once, which was it was sort of coming out of lockdown and we were sort of noticing shifting patterns in, in marketing spend.

12:06
And so I asked a very innocent question, which was, is your budget for marketing more or less than before COVID?

12:14
Yeah, Now, because I could see what everyone's response was because it was like, is it more the same or less?

12:19
I sort of inadvertently found out who'd got more budget.

12:23
That's not what I set out to do.

12:24
But that was that was the result.

12:26
So I think, you know, you can use polls as a good way to sort of do some do some research.

12:31
And I think the other thing with anything like that, any questions that you ask is what you then do with the information afterwards.

12:37
So let's say it is a poll that's do you have more budget or less budget and we're not looking to find people who've got more budget.

12:44
If it was 60% of people say they have less marketing budget, then I can use that statistic for subsequent posts to say in our question, 60% who responded to this question said that they have more budget.

13:01
Isn't that interesting?

13:02
This is what I think that means.

13:04
You know, you can absolutely use that questioning of the audience for further content and actually customer research, audience research, asking questions is a really good thing to do because firstly it gets people interacting with you.

13:16
But then the the thing that people don't remember is that you can then use that data or use that information to create further pieces of content that is kind of uniquely yours.

13:26
It's your data, it's your research, your audience said this, then you can see what people think about that.

13:32
Yeah, that's a good idea.

13:34
I see a lot of businesses create really salesy type posts and they're not really thinking about their overall customer journey.

13:44
Do you have any advice around that?

13:46
I think for me, customer journey and understanding the pathways that people take to having a problem or learning about something that they might be interested in through to actually committing to buying something.

14:00
It's something fundamental that every business really should try and understand now to what extent they understand it.

14:06
That does take a little bit of work, but at a very basic level, if you've ever made a sale at all, you will have an idea of how your customers buy from you.

14:14
Sometimes when it comes to what is the trigger, it could be that you are creating a need for somebody by introducing something that they didn't know they needed before.

14:24
But it could be that you're talking about a specific problem that the customer is experiencing and people will go, well, that's the experience that I have as well.

14:33
And that's that's a problem that I want to resolve also.

14:37
So you need to understand that.

14:38
I think you will also know how your customers interact with you, what the process is as well.

14:44
And then you've just got to plug the gaps in between.

14:47
I think research is absolutely critical to understanding how they buy.

14:51
I would be asking questions of my existing customer base to ask them, you know, how they felt about working with us or where did they go.

14:58
You want to be looking at what social media platforms they're on.

15:01
You want to be doing research on like your customer persona, you know, who are they?

15:05
Where are they?

15:07
What?

15:07
What do they respond to?

15:08
What's on their mind?

15:09
What are the topics of the day?

15:10
Who do they follow?

15:12
You know, are they, are they watching the new With Love Meghan show on Netflix?

15:15
Are they watching Love is Blind?

15:17
Are they watching Coronation Street?

15:19
Are they interested in geopolitics?

15:21
What do you know about them?

15:22
All these things come together to then try and work out what steps that they will take.

15:28
There is a fundamental change in the way that people behave in a world that's very online and very digital.

15:36
And that is because of the volume of information that is readily available to us just by asking a question to Google or Perplexity or other AIs or whatever it is now.

15:47
And that is that if somebody has a question, they can go online and they can find an answer, might not be the right one, might not be the one that they like.

15:53
They can go and find that information.

15:55
So what we've observed is that people are much further down that journey process before they reach out to somebody.

16:02
And all the things that you do as a business, like blogging, like your social media profiles, the past comments that you've made on social media, the videos that you do on YouTube, the little press release that you issued and got published or whatever it is, these all contribute to how somebody feels about you as a business.

16:21
And they are taking decisions on what they think about you before they fill at that contact form.

16:26
And The thing is, you won't have any influence in that and how they think whatsoever.

16:32
The thing that you can control is what you put out there.

16:34
And so my recommendation for people is to think about what does this customer need to see at this stage?

16:40
Where does this blog post come in?

16:42
How is that helpful?

16:43
Have we got price on our website so that when they say how much is it, they can find something?

16:48
Is it easy to contact us?

16:50
Is the form simple to complete?

16:51
There's so many different ways now that people can get in touch that understanding where people could possibly go and it might be chaotic and fairly random.

17:01
Understanding that and just creating some content that meets different needs, I think is the way to to look at it.

17:06
Yeah, that's good advice.

17:07
Since you've mentioned AI, is it actually helpful or is it a hindrance?

17:11
Since AI has become mainstream, people have been using it to create content, but we know that AI generated comments and imagery gets much less engagement than a human written content.

17:25
What are your thoughts around using AI as a tool and, and keep your content authentic and human?

17:31
Well, I think those are the keywords there is does it feel authentic?

17:34
Does it feel human?

17:35
I think it's about trust actually.

17:37
Does the person looking at that piece of content trust in what they're what they're seeing.

17:42
So if, if they're seeing something that is clearly AI, you know, perhaps it looks quite cartoony and it, you know, we can tell when something looks AI really even like human sort of characters that look like AI.

17:55
If we if we can see it's AI, we go, well, that's AI.

17:58
So that's that's fine.

17:59
We don't have an issue with trust.

18:00
It's authentically AI.

18:02
If that's not a contradiction, if we suspect that all is not what it seems for whatever reason, maybe you spot an erroneous finger because it's these tools seem to have a problem with fingers.

18:13
They're not good with hands.

18:14
Some of them aren't very good with eyes writing in a picture consistently dreadful if what they see if, if they if the audience feels as though this is trying to be something that it's not.

18:27
I think that's where there's a risk there that the customer loses trust in what it is that they're seeing.

18:31
The gap.

18:32
This is this is AI, this isn't this isn't real.

18:34
Whereas if it's obviously AI, then they go this is obviously AI.

18:38
So I think the tool that you use is important because if it if it's not that great at all and you're trying to create something that's realistic, that can be a problem.

18:48
I think it does get a bit dicey when you're using it to show product because if there's any suggestion that a product looks a certain way and then when they get that product, that's not the reality.

19:00
Well, that's actually a trades description issue and you can find yourself unstuck there.

19:04
But things like like generative AI video tools, there are some great tools out there that really help you produce content.

19:13
So things like generative fill tools where you're saying I've got a shot of somebody walking for seven seconds, but it needs to be 8 seconds.

19:25
Rather than trying to slow the walk down, tools can just take what they've seen and fill in the extra second and it will be pretty perfect.

19:33
You probably can't, can't tell.

19:34
That's great removing background images or you know, if there's an erroneous wall socket behind you you didn't on that there or a person looking a bit odd, you know taking those out.

19:45
I don't think people mind those at all writing I think is challenging.

19:50
I think people find it easy to ask ChatGPT write me a blog about this and some tools will do better than others.

19:58
But I think the danger of allowing tools to write a lot of content or even to a certain extent create social media copy is you will have to really train it on your tone of voice to get that right.

20:10
And I think if.

20:11
If it doesn't sound like you people spot that a mile off and then people just sort of scroll past it.

20:16
And so writing a blog, there's a lot of what we call AI slop in there.

20:20
You know, people, you know, you would write or see things rather that have really AI based words like energise or elevate is a big word that a lot of AI tools use.

20:32
And so like I say, for me, it's about trust.

20:35
Can we trust what we're seeing?

20:36
I do use AI.

20:37
I think AI is here to stay.

20:40
I don't think it's going anywhere.

20:41
I would use AI to help me with some structure sometimes.

20:45
So if I'm I never get AI to write content, but I might say here's what I want to write about.

20:51
These are the key points I'm trying to make.

20:53
Can you give me a structure or an outline and then I can go and actually write it?

20:57
Or I might use an AI to say take this and sort of like tighten it up a little bit.

21:03
I was pointed to a tool just the other day called it's called Reach or something like that, but it's it's it by the website is societies.io.

21:13
And you can go on that and you can paste what you're going to put on LinkedIn and it will assess it and give you a score based on how many reactions it thinks it's going to get.

21:24
And then make some make some suggestions, some alterations.

21:30
And these sorts of tools are quite good, I think because they're not, they're not doing the hard work, but they're helping you sort of tweak or or be better at what it is that you're trying to put up there.

21:42
So those, those things I think can be helpful.

21:45
I think what one thing that is quite interesting about AI and where we're going with it is being open and identifying what is AI generated or to what extent.

21:53
And so there's a sort of, I guess it's a scheme or an initiative by Adobe, the graphics people, software people called content credentials.

22:02
And the idea is that if you use AI in any way or you amend images, tools will stamp it with certain credentials so that anybody that wants to see can check, you know, what what was made here and what has been altered.

22:17
And I think that's quite a good idea for people to be able to see, yes, this was fully written by AI or this was just tweaked or amended or helped.

22:25
And I don't think people mind that, by the way, I don't think people mind seeing AI.

22:28
It's just can I believe what I'm seeing?

22:32
Yes.

22:33
I think with things like AI generated images, I'm still not sure on copyright.

22:38
So if I use AI to create an image, who owns that image?

22:43
So it's still a grey area for me.

22:45
I haven't ventured into imagery at all until we know what the legalities are around that.

22:51
But yes, I think it is here to stay.

22:53
So if you have pay for LinkedIn, Sales Navigator and people might use it to write in-mail messages.

22:59
And I must say that does actually annoy me on LinkedIn when I get spammed with DMS mainly from people who have not even read my profile so don't know what I do and they're trying to sell me their service.

23:12
That is completely irrelevant.

23:14
Do you have any advice for users who want to to get their In-Mail right to get the right messaging?

23:19
I think you've hit the nail on the head actually, Bev about, you know, how does it, how does it sound to the person receiving it?

23:27
What, what would their initial reaction be?

23:30
I think where people go wrong is they they're also accidentally making it sound less human than the person who's actually sending it.

23:39
So if it's convoluted and it has a really dry opening and it feels like too contrived to put together, I think it's a turn off when people are going, who is this person?

23:49
I don't know this person.

23:50
What do they want?

23:51
Because that's actually what people are are thinking now.

23:53
I've had some success actually with using in-mail and LinkedIn advertising through LinkedIn in-mail sponsored messages, which people go, Oh no, why would you do that?

24:04
Where it's been successful actually is being really upfront about why you're there.

24:10
So campaigns that we've run for LinkedIn messages nearly always start with something in, you know, to the effect of, you know, look, you totally understand that we are paying to be here, you know, paid LinkedIn to, to enter your inbox because they know that really.

24:29
But this is what we're doing and we think you would be a good fit for it.

24:34
Here's the key information.

24:35
Let us know if that's something you would be interested in.

24:38
Like really short to the point.

24:41
If you're going to disrupt people by going into their in mail unsolicited, I think you, I think it's respectful to give them the information as early as possible for them to decide whether or not they want to say no, thank you, go away or whether they go, well, tell me more.

24:56
Yeah, definitely.

24:57
Let's face it, most businesses use things in to sell, right?

25:00
And that's why we're on there.

25:01
That's why we actually use it.

25:03
So how do we strike a balance between producing content that actually adds value with posts that come across as too salesy?

25:12
Well, that's a really tough question.

25:13
I think.

25:14
See, I'm of the view that if you need to sell, then sell.

25:18
You know, we're probably all selling something on LinkedIn.

25:22
I know if you're, you know, in corporate land and you've got a very safe job, you're probably not selling, you might just be telling people what your career update is.

25:30
But for small businesses, if they're using LinkedIn, they're probably trying to to sell something.

25:35
So I always kind of think, well, what do I want somebody's impression of me to be overall?

25:41
And if someone feels that all they hear from me is buy this, buy this, buy this, buy this, that is going to be the impression that they have that I'm always trying to sell them something.

25:50
Whereas if perhaps I'm offering some help and advice on some post without asking for anything, maybe maybe I'm showing a few things about what my life is like so they get to know me a bit better.

26:02
Maybe I'm doing a few odd things or funny things or, you know, things that are just not very LinkedIn like frankly, then that sort of helps paint that picture.

26:12
And then when I do have a request to make, would you come to my workshop or take our service or whatever, then I think people don't mind that because that's not the overall impression that they're going to have.

26:24
It's, you know, it's the mix, isn't it?

26:25
I guess.

26:26
Yeah, it's good one.

26:28
But this happened to me recently and it's never happened before on LinkedIn, but I actually got a negative comment.

26:34
I wasn't expecting this.

26:35
And it took me a while to work out how to deal with it, whether I should ignore it or engage.

26:41
If I do engage, what tone of voice should I be using?

26:45
Do you have any advice of on dealing with negative comments on LinkedIn?

26:49
Well, sadly, we live in a world world where negative comments do exist because people have the ability to do it.

26:56
You know, we've sort of got to a point in culture, I think, where people feel completely able to take a thought from their head and put it out, type it out onto onto a comment.

27:06
I think that's kind of unfortunate because it means that people don't really consider how another person might feel with the negative comment.

27:13
Now, over time, I would say I've developed a thicker skin to that than I used to have.

27:19
I used to take it very, very personally.

27:21
What I do is, you know, I am very active in hiding comments or deleting comments that I think, let's use an example where someone is, is leaving a negative comment and it's actually not true what they're saying.

27:34
You know, well, you don't really want to get into an argument about that really.

27:38
You just want to like remove it from your life and either delete it or hide it for everybody else or whatever.

27:44
I think the minute that you engage with people it, you know, it asks them to call back.

27:51
And actually I had an incident myself quite recently where I created a video was about something that a person didn't like.

27:58
They wanted to counter argue it and I could tell from the the the wording of the comment that really what they wanted me to do was to respond to to that comment and like get involved in the argument.

28:13
And I wasn't prepared to do it.

28:15
I thought, well, I know that's what they want.

28:17
So actually I'm not going to to give them that.

28:20
And I think for any creator out there on any platform, protecting yourself, protecting your mental well-being, protecting the image of your business is important.

28:32
So if something isn't true and it looks as though that is damaging to, to the business.

28:37
And I do think there's a place to respond and say that is a lie or that is not true or whatever.

28:42
But I don't think anybody wins by getting into an argument online.

28:45
Yes, very true.

28:46
If there is one thing that our listeners should implement today on LinkedIn, LinkedIn strategy, what would your advice be?

28:54
Well, I would say getting your profile spot on is paramount.

28:59
And I think people should review their LinkedIn profiles much more regularly than they probably do.

29:04
I think your profile needs to say who you are now and less about what you used to do.

29:09
So your experience section with your career history is fine, but I would very much go and adapt every single job role on my LinkedIn profile to support what it is that I do now.

29:21
You know, when I first started my career, I worked for Next, worked for Next as a trainer in their head office because their head office in in Leicester and I was training computer systems.

29:30
Now that's not really anything that I do now, except that I do a lot of workshops, webinars and speaking.

29:36
So I've adapted that to kind of, you know, tell people that look, I've been doing this for a long time.

29:41
So if you book me for a workshop, you know, I'm no one doing because I've been doing it for 20 odd years.

29:46
And here's the career history to to prove that I'm not talking about customer services strategies or the technical aspects of that computer system.

29:53
So I think people should absolutely update their profile.

29:57
They should update their cover photo, a nice new recent picture.

30:01
Keep updating that picture as you see fit.

30:04
We don't want to look like, and it's great how you looked like 10 years ago, but you don't look like that anymore.

30:08
So get that updated featured post.

30:12
I think people should update that on their profile as well.

30:15
But the strategy really should be about content creation, you know, regular posting, forming a habit on LinkedIn as I think really helpful, even if that's 15 minutes a day, you come in before you start work, you go and engage with a few posts, you create something yourself, Bosh, they go, you've you've done it.

30:33
I mean, I'm going to say video as well because I think video is important, but I think the habit and and making your profile really stand out is something that I think is something anyone can do.

30:44
Yes, I think that's very true because when people joining thing they might fill in the profile and then 15 years later not updated it since.

30:52
So yes, getting your profile source here, posting consistently and making use of videos I think is great advice.

30:58
Now I have a bonus question which I am asking all my guests for season 2.

31:03
So Paul, what is a small daily habit that has had a big impact on your success?

31:09
Right.

31:09
So I've got loads to choose from here because I do loads of things daily.

31:12
I mean, I could, I could say like the obvious things like, you know, going to the gym and looking after my well-being and things like that, which I do do.

31:20
But for me, probably the thing that helps me the most is reading.

31:25
So I try and read as much as I can.

31:28
I read a combination of business books, I read fiction, I read biographies.

31:33
Like I read a variety of different things.

31:35
And I do that because learn from it.

31:38
And I think it's always good to learn, but I also think it makes me a better writer in particular, which is something that I want to be.

31:45
I used to write a lot of poetry when I was younger, and I've just started doing that again in 2025.

31:51
And that's been a really nice process to try and think about how words are used and how to express an idea.

32:01
And I think when I think about what it is that I do in my job, which is about communicating an idea or putting an argument across, poetry makes you do things succinctly.

32:11
And so I think that's really helped me in the sort of language that I use in the way that I communicate.

32:16
That's really interesting.

32:18
You should say that because I feel like it's actually the same with reading.

32:22
So I'm in a book club, there's quite a few of us, and what happens is each person chooses a book and then and we all get to read that and then come back and discuss it.

32:33
But because it's a book club, I read books that I wouldn't necessarily choose myself.

32:38
So most of the time I'm reading, you know, someone elses preferred genre.

32:42
I found out that's maybe open my mind to whole new different genres because personally I love them.

32:49
sci-fi, magical realism, they're the books I would choose.

32:53
I just absolutely love reading the language and I sometimes reread sentences I love over and over again.

32:59
You know on the Kindle you can highlight passages, can't you?

33:02
And I do completely agree.

33:04
It just helps you with writing, doesn't it?

33:06
Even in my book club listen to books, but I can't do audio.

33:08
I mean, I because I want to see the words and I enjoy seeing the words.

33:13
I just can't listen.

33:16
So I'm, I don't know if this is radical or not, but I write in my books.

33:20
So I get a pen out and I mean, I love a highlighter, but you know, I will happily highlight text in a book.

33:27
I mean, as long as it's not a library book.

33:28
Like I love the library and I don't do that in library books, but I do go to the library books.

33:32
But if it's mine, I will get highlighters out.

33:35
And I just think the process of rereading something or highlighting something like really makes it sink in.

33:40
But I love the fact that you're in a book club.

33:43
Can I ask you a question So in your book club, So what is the best book that you've been surprised that that you've enjoyed?

33:51
One of my favourite books is called Still Life.

33:54
I think it's the author is Sarah Winman.

33:56
I thoroughly recommend that book, but it has forced me out of my reading comfort zone.

34:01
I would say just some choosing books I wouldn't normally choose.

34:05
You will be a better, richer person, I think for for doing that.

34:09
And, you know, I think you might be surprised how influential something like that can can be and how that can have a positive impact on your own writing.

34:17
Yes, definitely.

34:18
And Paul, if our listeners had any questions, I've wanted to contact you.

34:22
What is the best way for them to find you?

34:25
Is it LinkedIn?

34:25
I'm pretty much everywhere.

34:27
LinkedIn is a good place to start.

34:29
It's probably the best place to start, particularly you want to have like a sensible conversation.

34:34
Also, Instagram is a place that I hang out that tends to be a little more unhinged in terms of the content that I create.

34:40
I do, I do create videos quite a lot and put them on both of those and I'm at Biz Paul everywhere.

34:46
So you'll be able to put that in and search for me or you can find other writing on the like my media website as well.

34:54
And there you'll find blogs.

34:57
We tend to talk about ideas a lot rather than some practical stuff.

35:01
And we've just released a report on how people make decisions in the the buying journey.

35:09
The thing that we talked about before we've oh right, we did quite a big piece of research from about 500 odd companies and it's got some quite good insights there.

35:19
I think if people are interested in what sort of content they should creating, that's also something that maybe people might want to look and where would people find that like my media website for that, which is just like mind dot media and then it'll it'll pop up somewhere for you to download.

35:36
Great, thank you.

35:37
Well, thank you so much for your time today, Paul.

35:40
I've personally found that really interesting and I'm sure listeners will do as well.

35:45
So thank you very much.

35:47
Thanks, Bev.

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