The Voice Behind the Profile - How To Leverage LinkedIn To Grow Your Business - Alexis Scott

This is the Beyond the Story podcast, a show that goes way beyond the story. And now, Sebastian Rusk Alexis, welcome to the show.

Sebastian Rusk

Thank you, Sebastian. Happy to be here.

Alexis Rivera Scott

Hey, I'm glad to have you here. Finally, we're able to meet the person on LinkedIn that I like to follow and has great content and helps other people do the same exact thing on there. So thanks for taking some time out of your day to hang out with me for a few minutes. I love telling people stories on this show. for context for our listeners. I like to back up to the beginning of the story, wherever the beginning is for you and help our listeners better understand where it all started. I know you've had quite the transformation, incredible transformation in your life and your act. You're, you're doing some incredible work, uh, with your clients and what you do on LinkedIn as well. So I want to talk about all the things on there, but let's back up to the beginning of the story.

Sebastian Rusk

Okay, I like to consider my life in volumes. So this is volume two. So the beginning of volume two really started in 2020. So in 2020, I was working at a travel tech company. I was leading a very large reservation sales team. I was managing seven managers, 70 reps, and I thought I was climbing the corporate ladder. big things are happening, going straight to the top, and then COVID hit. And like most of America, I got laid off, particularly I was in travel, which was hit the hardest. And in an instant, my dreams of climbing the corporate ladder fell to COVID. But the great part about that was that was where my LinkedIn journey started. So I knew that LinkedIn was the key to me getting hired again. And so I started creating content. I started telling my story. I started talking about unemployment. I started talking about the people that I was meeting, what it was like navigating COVID as a parent. And my story started getting noticed by people. So not only was I making great connections, but I started getting asked on podcasts similar to this one, to come and kind of talk about my story there. And ultimately, LinkedIn led me to my next opportunity. And it led me to that through connecting with the founders of a company called Aspireship. Kind of a funny story there, the founder of Aspireship messaged me on LinkedIn and he said, hey, I saw that you worked at Vacasa, which was the company that I had gotten laid off from. And he said, yeah, you know, the founder of that company was an investor in my first company. Just really cool to see you on LinkedIn. Like, how are things? And I said, not good. I don't have a job. And so we started chatting and he told me about Aspireship and how he was launching this company. And the entire purpose was to train people in software sales and help them get hired. And I remember telling him, that's really cool. I love that you're helping people, and you've figured out a way to make money from it. That's amazing. So fast forward a couple months down the line when they launched, and they said that they were hiring. And so I raised my hand. And at the time, they were hiring for two roles. They were hiring for a marketing person and a candidate experience person. And I applied to the Candidate Experience person, even though my background is actually sales. It's not Candidate Experience. It's not recruiting. And so right away, I got a reply from his co-founder, who I had met through networking as well. And she messaged me. And she said, hey, we're so excited that you applied, but we're just curious. Why on earth would you apply for Candidate Experience? You're a salesperson. And I said, I just want to work with you. There were two choices. One was head of marketing, and I know I don't have the skills behind that. And so I applied to the other one. I just want to help people get hired. This has been a really transformative experience for me navigating the job search. I want to help other people. And she said, OK, great. Hang on a minute. Replied right away with, we actually were waiting to hire this other job, but we want to bring you on to build out our partnerships program. which essentially was selling recruiting to startups in the SaaS sales space, software sales. And I immediately said, yes. So I joined that organization and I got really lucky. It's one of those like kind of unicorn organizations where everybody's friends, everybody's kind, tons of transparency. And they saw the value of me building my LinkedIn presence alongside of their company's presence and it worked. So the time that I was working with them, I went from, I don't even know, like negligible followers to about 35,000 by the time that I had left. I chose to leave. I had built out 150 plus partnerships with company founders, sales leaders. I had built a great community and network. But I was tired of sales. And I just thought, I'm ready to try something different. I think I want to move into marketing. And I wasn't quite sure what kind of marketing yet. In tech, it's very segmented. And so I took about six months to land. And I was consulting and doing things here and there. But I ended up taking what I thought was the coolest, big, real job in tech marketing that I could have ever gotten. And I accepted it with a company that had just raised $35 million in Series C funding. They were growing. They were super excited to hire me. And I was making the most that I had ever made in my life. And I thought, OK, here we go. We are on track. Things are going great. I have done it. And then I got in there and what was sold to me was not the case of what my job would be, the leadership, what have you. So I entered a very dark time at that company. Um, but what it did do is it pushed me to hire a coach. And when I was working with the coach, she asked me something that many people had asked me along this journey, which is why don't you just start your own company? And I said to her what I had told everyone else, which was, I don't know. I like working with a team. I don't know. I'm an intrapreneur, not an entrepreneur. I just, I don't know what I would sell. And she said, Alexis, you are the opposite of most of my clients. She said, most of my clients have the idea, but they don't have the audience. you have the audience, you have people waiting to buy from you. You just need the idea. And that was like the really pivotal aha moment for me that caused me to start my first company, which is the very job mom. So fast forward a couple months, February, early March of 2023, I decide I'm doing it, I'm launching. And this is an interesting moment, friends, if you are ever considering starting a side hustle, listen up and listen clearly. My old boss, I told her that everything that was going on and she said, hey, are you gonna tell your boss? And I said, absolutely not. I'm not telling him, and she goes, Alexis, you need to tell him. She goes, he's going to be blindsided. It's better just set the stage, explain that it's not going to affect your performance, blah, blah, blah. I said, fine. OK, fine. So I slacked him the night before, and I said, hey, I'm just letting you know there's something I'm really excited about. There's a passion project that I have been working on, and it's going to launch tomorrow on LinkedIn. And I just want to let you know so that if anyone mentions it to you, you just have an idea of what's going on. And he wrote back, and he said, I support passion projects. One question, are you getting paid? And I wrote back, and I said, yes, I am. So OK, next day, get a Slack message from him. You are in violation of your contract. So I send him the contract, and I say, this is my contract. Show me where I'm in violation. Crickets. Fast forward to Friday of that week, a call from HR, and I get fired. So what went from a side hustle immediately became my full-time job in the blink of an eye, essentially. And I had to figure out, how the heck am I going to turn this hourly coaching thing into a viable business? So put together a program, a hire ticket program to sell, which has now kind of evolved as time has gone by. And I was an entrepreneur, so I was figuring out sales, marketing, you know, I'm a CFO, all of these things. So in that process, I met someone who would later become my business partner for a marketing agency. She was in marketing for many years. She asked me if I would be interested in launching a marketing agency with her. And I had to really think. That had never been my dream. I don't know. Should I? Had some really hard conversations with myself and with mentors. And I just kind of decided, although this wasn't my dream, if there was ever a person to do it with, this is probably a great one to do it with. And why not? Like I never want to live with regrets, so we did we launched and we worked together about six months and ended up dissolving the partnership, we were not meant to be partners, but I learned a ton a ton ton ton and. As the fairy job mom, I had actually acquired one ghostwriting client a couple of years before. So carry that with me. We had a lot of clients at the marketing agency who were interested in help with LinkedIn. And so I decided, you know what? There is a market for this. I'm going to double down on ghostwriting. So I have actually done that. So I do work as the fairy job mom. kind of more as my passion project. Truly, do I get paid for it? Yes. I do it because I love it, not because it's making me rich. I just genuinely love helping people market themselves and take their experience and be able to position themselves in a way that actually helps them get hired. That's one piece of what I do. And then I also now work with entrepreneurs, founders, executives, and I ghostwrite for them on LinkedIn to help them build their personal brand, to help them drive revenue, drive leads, take everything I've learned. Because remember, earlier in the story, I was at about 35,000 followers when I left Aspireship. I'm at 90 now. So there's been quite a growth curve for me as a creator. I partner with brands for influencer marketing. And I want to help other people build their brands. LinkedIn has completely transformed my own life. And so if I can help other people have it do the same, why not? So I've actually launched my ghostwriting business. It's called Heritage Narrative. It used to be kind of buried under the fairy job mom site, and now it's its own thing.

So yeah. Love it. Love it. Well, I think what's led to your success on LinkedIn is your transparency. because you're not showing up feeding people a line of bullshit. It's like, this is my life. This is actually what happens in my life. Oh, and by the way, here's what you should be doing on LinkedIn. Oh, by the way, here's what happened on this retreat in Phoenix last week. And like, so I, like you said, once people, you hopped on Zoom, I'm like, what's up, Alexis? How you been, girl? Like, I felt like I knew you already. And I think that that, those are the keys to the castle. is when you can show up as your authentic self sharing content transparently that people can resonate with. I think that, and again, that's my, that's, that's, that's, that's my, like, I don't want to say assumption, my experience online of you so far. Has that been kind of what, what you've experienced or your thought process or what you do to help clients?

Yeah, I mean, I would say most calls I get on people start with, I feel like I already know you, which is very intentional. I mean, that is my content strategy, my content style by nature. I'm a sharer, like I'm very open, I'm very honest. I don't keep secrets. I don't pretend like everything is fine when it's not because that's not realistic in life. And I also think there's some sense of peace when you can find other people going through similar things that you are. So how do I know you're going through things, or how do you know I'm going through things if I'm not willing to share so I try to be really open and connect with people who maybe need support. And I also. I started this journey very much because I felt like it, not with like intention, I guess is the word. Like I knew in my head, like I needed to create content so that people would know I was alive. And somehow that was going to connect me to someone who was going to connect me to an opportunity. And I still kind of carry that with me today in the sense of, yes, I write strategic content that have calls to action and describe what I do and educate and all of these things. But what I find, actually, is that when I lose my original content style, which is just being me and being honest and sharing things about my life, all the engagement drops. yes, people care about LinkedIn, but people care about me. And I think that that's kind of a differentiation of myself and other creators where, you know, some people are not willing to share personal information about their life. And there are some big creators like that, where if you notice and you really read their content, it's very surface level. They're not telling you their deepest, and not that I tell my deepest darkest secrets, but I share things more than most. And so, If you start to pay attention, you will see some people are very open and some people are very not. And that's okay. That's totally fine. It's your prerogative. I just err on the side of openness because I know that it creates deeper connections. And by the time someone gets to me, they start the call with, I feel like I already know you.

Yeah. It doesn't always, good content on LinkedIn doesn't always translate to the person being a good communicator is what I've learned. Because I've reached out to a few like just absolute badasses with the content. And when it's time to, A, let's get you on the podcast, I mean, there's, they just won't do it. Like they just refuse. And I, maybe it's extreme introvert. Maybe it's unfamiliar. Maybe it's again, I, I go where I'm celebrated, not tolerated. So I, I'm not, not, not too concerned, but I always find I'm like, this person has to have some sort of like your content matches up with your personality. But I guess it doesn't always, it doesn't always translate to that, but I'm a, I'm a, introverted extrovert. I rejuvenate by being an introvert, but I'm a natural extrovert, obviously, on there. But I always thought that was interesting on how people show up in certain ways there. So why does a business owner, thought leader, CEO, entrepreneur need to have a LinkedIn strategy?

Well, the first is simply math. I mean, when you look at reach of a post and you look at a corporate post reach versus a personal post reach, it's exponential. So I don't know what the actual number is currently, because it fluctuates. Just Google personal post reach versus corporate post reach on LinkedIn, and you'll see the numbers. So your message coming from you as opposed to your business page is going to reach so many, so many more people. And then the second piece is exactly what I said that I have cultivated for myself, which is you want your clients to feel like they know you and trust you by the time they even talk to you, right? We all know in sales, I think the average number of touch points you need for someone is like seven before someone will even consider doing business with you. And so how do you create those touch points and create a magnet, essentially. That's how I liken it, right? Yes, you can go outbound and sell, and yes, that is important, but while you are doing that, it is also important to become a magnet. and create opportunities for yourself that come towards you, not just having to go away from you and go outbound. And so it's a critical piece of marketing, in my opinion, to have people know who you are, know what you do, know what your business does, know how you can help them, know the impact that you're having in your industry and your community. Those are all benefits. So why wouldn't you do that? I don't know.

Let's talk about LinkedIn newsletters for a minute. It's a love-hate relationship because I started one a year ago. grew it to about 1500 subscribers, which I thought was pretty quick for 12 months. The engagement's crazy. Everyone gets an email when a new edition goes out on here. Uh, but then we've got sub stack and all these other beehive and all these other alternatives. And now that we're in this newsletter and new, new found newsletter era that we're in deep, do you dabble at all in the LinkedIn newsletters at all?

So I started one called Dear Fairy Job Mom when I started The Fairy Job Mom, and I grew it to, I don't know, 15,000 followers in like the blink of an eye, okay? Here's what I can tell you. Number one, when I first launched it, LinkedIn supported it greatly, right? Oh my God, getting all this reach, great engagement, what have you. Each subsequent issue was worse with the impressions and with what was happening. And so eventually, I just stopped writing it because I said, this is silly. Why am I spending all this energy? Now, here's what I will say. Diversify your assets. So if you are writing a newsletter anyway, and you're sharing it via Substack, Beehive, whatever it is, 100% just pop it into LinkedIn and create a newsletter. Why wouldn't you? You have the content already. If you are not sending out a newsletter already, you probably should. I need to eat my own dog food, take my own advice because it's on my to-do list and I just haven't done it. You know, I would not put all your eggs in the LinkedIn basket for newsletters. Like I don't necessarily think that it's like, is the juice worth the squeeze for that? For me, it wasn't, I didn't feel like it was driving anything. But if I was sending out a newsletter for my business in general, I would just pop that content in LinkedIn and for sure have that going anyway.

Yeah, I don't think anybody's called me and said, I found you from your newsletter.

Right. Exactly.

And I guess that's the way you, I mean, as marketers, that's how we're able to really, I mean, that and analytics, obviously, but the analytics don't really mean anything either if they're not converting to sales, right?

Right. Well, and that's, you know, that's the thing too, is like, I, I try to tell my clients it's for ghostwriting. It's like, of course we want to grow your followers. Of course we want great impressions. Of course, of course, of course. But the true test that I have for my work for you is, If your goal is to drive revenue and leads, is that what's happening? And if the answer is yes, the other stuff is great, but it's vanity. I'm not as concerned as I am with your business outcomes. That's what really matters. Because I had a client go viral. This is how aligned we are. He didn't tell me for a week and a half. And I checked in on him to book our next call. And he goes, oh yeah, did you see my post went viral? And I said, what are you talking about? And I went and it had gotten millions of impressions. It had over 5,000 likes, all this crazy stuff. And he was completely unfazed. He's like, yeah, isn't it cool? Like he just like, if I had a post go viral and someone had written it for me, I would be like immediately, you know, Hey, check this out. This is so cool. And you know, to him, it was like noise, which is great because we are in alignment. That's not the point of me writing for you. The point of me writing for you is to get you business, right?

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I had the same thing happens to me with podcast clients. I was playing golf with a client a couple of months ago and we walk out of the clubhouse after having breakfast. And he was like, Yeah, so the guy I had on the show last week, that ended up converting to a $50,000 deal. And I'm like, you said that casually. He texted me again last week. The guy's made $190,000 in 15 months by interviewing people on his podcast. And he sells retail point of sale services to retail businesses. So it is a it is a shaking hands and kissing babies, you know, business out there networking. You got to get more more handshake, the more money you make thing. But, you know, it works if you're willing to show up and leverage it. But some also are like, yeah, I mean, it's cool. Yeah. And meanwhile, I want to like bring in the, bring in the marching band. Well, it's been great to, uh, to get to know you and better understand exactly how things are working in, in, in, uh, in the LinkedIn world. I'm stoked to be connected with you and to learn more about what you're doing for people. If you're listening to this interview and you're like, hold on a second, I need her or LinkedIn profile is going to be in the show notes. That's the description of this podcast episode is you were wondering what the heck up. uh, show note is on there, but Alexis, I appreciate your time. So great to finally meet you. Any final thoughts for our listeners?

No, just, you know, LinkedIn is an incredible, incredible platform. There's two, no, not two, 1 billion users on there. But if, if you think that there is opportunity on the other side of the computer screen, there is so get on there, get active, make friends, build community, share your story. Don't be shy, just post it and watch the magic happen. It's incredible.

Those are great final thoughts. Thanks again, Alexis, I appreciate you.

Yeah, thank you, Sebastian.

My pleasure. Until next time, friends. Thanks so much for tuning into this episode of the Beyond the Story podcast. We sure do appreciate it. If you haven't done so already, make sure you're subscribed to the show. This way you'll get updates as new episodes become available. If you feel so inclined, please leave us a review. We sure do appreciate it. Signing off from the podcast, Launchlab.com Studios. We'll talk to you next time.