Ep64 Aaron J. Weese - The Un-Social Media Truth: Why Your Best Clients Aren't Coming From Your Feed

Aaron J Weese  0:00  
But I feel like social media should really be called un social media. It's turned us into these just like regimented beings that like, oh, you say, good thing. I agree with good thing.

Suzanne Taylor-King  0:11  
And I think why am I doing it? Is the bigger question. Where are your clients coming from? And they're coming from being in the room with you, having an actual conversation with you, especially if your product or service is over $1,000 Hey, hey, welcome to a podcast where dreams meet determination and success is just around the corner. I'm your host, Suzanne Taylor King, and I'm here to help you unlock the full potential of your business and your life. Welcome to unlock your way with STK. Let's unlock your path to success together. Good morning. Good morning, everyone. Suzanne Taylor King, here for another Friday live of unlock your way with STK, and today we are here with Aaron Wiese, who I picked up on LinkedIn. He's a marketing consultant a LinkedIn, what, teacher coach

Aaron J Weese  1:13  
and strategist coach. And

Suzanne Taylor-King  1:16  
we're going to really get into it today, because we've never actually had a conversation before. This is very first time we're getting to know each other. Live right in front of you, and I do this pretty routinely, and I absolutely love when I find somebody who has a unique spin on things. And Aaron, you totally bring that to the table. So welcome.

Aaron J Weese  1:43  
Thank you. Thank you. Interesting to have someone say that I bring an interesting perspective the table. Sometimes, when you're living an experience, you know, lived experience doesn't seem very interesting to you. A lot of times it could be excitement, stress, anxiety inducing. So it's kind of interesting to hear, you know, kind of, you know how someone kind of defines, you know, your journey, so, but, yeah, definitely a journey.

Suzanne Taylor-King  2:10  
Well, I think it stands out, right? I think you know some of the things that you say about marketing and LinkedIn, I think it offers a really unique perspective in this, in this landscape of how social media is right now. So, what's your current What's your current thinking on social media, LinkedIn in particular?

Aaron J Weese  2:37  
Well, I, for lack of a you know, and this kind of goes, you know, I'm drawing from my experience the last couple years. But definitely the last few years of my life have been paradigm shifting. And, you know, a little background on that. Basically, around June of 2023, my mother in law, like she lived four hours away from us, and people are starting to she's acting a little funny. She came to visit us around she's acting really weird. She's really just, you know, you know, she was, she was, she was a very stern, direct person, kind of critical. And she was like, that was, like, just exponentially, you know, multiplied. And then we got a call finally in August, saying something really is wrong. So we went down and picked her up, and she turns out she had dementia. Wow. Um, so fast forward the next year through the next year, my wife and I basically had to step away from our careers to care for her full time with them show and I think in, you know, in the grieving and the healing and the kind of a rebirth process from that, I feel like social media, we waste a lot of time dancing around what we really want to say. Yeah, um, and, you know, also, too, I was kind of, you know, directly before this experience with my mother in law, so like that, I was in the cannabis industry, and I was kind of starting to kind of transition a little back out of it, because, like, my heart's always been with helping small businesses and solopreneurs and, you know, even just individual people build their own personal brand. And one of the things I saw about cannabis is, you know, everybody was just about looking cool, you know, like, you know, we want to be with the right people, be at the right parties. And, you know, I had a blast while I was doing it, but I realized I'm like, you know, I'm, spending a lot of time, you know, flinging myself across the sky in a steel tube to, you know, go to the next launch party. Go to this, go to that one. You know, what does that really produce? So I think kind of the point of that is I'm getting to, you know, kind of the point I'm at now with life through social media is, you know, we need to say what we you know, we, we're just going to need to say what we want to say. I mean, a lot of the people dance around you have this insane sense of confirmation bias, yeah, okay, like, you'll have someone post this hot take, and it's really crazy take. You're like, kind of going, Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, what are they saying here? And you have 100 comments, I couldn't agree more. You said it that, you know, and I'm. Do all these people really agree with that, you know, and you kind of, you kind of question like, are they just, are they just kind of going along with with the crowd to, you know, not ruffle the herd? Are they really being true to their personal brand and what they want to say? So, I think really, one of the things we're dealing with now, and it could go either way, with it, with with, you know, the expansion of AI is authenticity, right? Are we really being authentic with ourselves and being authentic with others? Yeah, um, you know, and there's ways to be authentic and not and still be kind. You can deploy kind candor. You can be critical of people and still be very kind about it. And I think a lot of us, I really feel like social media, and I'm trying not to go all the way down my whole Professor diatribe here, but I feel like social media should really be called on social media, because it's turned us into these just like regimented beings that like, oh, you say good thing, I agree with good thing,

Suzanne Taylor-King  6:05  
you know, well, but the so true because, you know now that AI comments, and you know, AI more people are posting because they're creating content. And I love AI. I love to create content with AI in my own voice and you know, but there's this feeling that whatever I post, it could be way to the left, way to the right on a topic, and I'm gonna get 3040, 50 people that agree, just like you said, Why are they agreeing? Why are they commenting? And I think, why am I doing? It is the bigger question. And when you really think about where your clients come from, and this goes to all the listeners, any of my followers, any of your followers. When you really sit down and think about where your clients come from, unless you're spending, you know, hundreds of 1000s of dollars on ads, where are your clients coming from? And they're coming from being in the room with you, having an actual conversation with you, especially if your product or service is over $1,000

Aaron J Weese  7:26  
Oh, yeah, of course. I mean, you know, the you know, the higher your the higher your entry price your product is, of course, a sales funnel is going to, you know, generally, get a little longer and stuff like that. So, yeah, exactly, um, but I think too, with AI. You know, the AI's natural, natural inclination is to be very polite, very complimentary, very supportive, you know. And I use AI very extensively in my work, and I think AI is amazing thing. I think it's going to change the world if we use it, right? Okay. Now, of course, on LinkedIn, you have some of these people who maybe have watched too many episodes of The Terminator, read the Skynet comic book series, but, you know, they are calling out AI use, and they're trying to really, really beat down AI use, and a lot of it is on very, very surface level reasoning, like, Oh, you have em dashes in your posts. Or, you know, I could see the writing patterns, and I'm like, Well, I'll tell you right now, I use the crap out of em dashes in grad school and chat GPT wasn't even a thing. My wife is a classically trained literature and Shakespeare professor, and a lot of times she has a hard time telling us Something's written by a decent AI model. So how do you have you know Joe in the sales department, all of a sudden, is a rhetoric expert.

Suzanne Taylor-King  8:58  
Do you think that comes from lack of knowing how to use it and lack of knowing how to use it so that it actually sounds like you

Aaron J Weese  9:16  
that's that. That's probably the case in a lot of scenarios there. But I think the big thing, and this is what drives a lot of people's actions. I mean, it's a no brainer, is the F word fear? Yeah, fear. Okay, we're afraid of what we don't know. And I was having a conversation with a consulting client. We're working on his LinkedIn, and, you know, I'm solidly in the middle of Gen X, and so is my client. And I go, Well, yeah, have you ever used spell check before? He's like, Oh, yeah, you spell check all the time, and use it for 30 years. Yeah, that's AI. Or do you remember Clippy from Microsoft Word back in the day? Remember when it was 98 Clippy? Clip is AI? Okay, so you know. Want to talk about, you know, some slippery slopes here, or whatever, but, you know, everybody's used AI, and I feel like, you know, I don't want to dog the people that are kind of coming down on AI, because I understand the reasoning is fear. Because if you look at most of these people that are coming down on AI, they're your creatives, and they're the they're the ones that that see their you know. You know, they're kind of their their career dissipation light blinking really quickly back here, you know. And maybe they're kind of at a stuck point saying, which direction do I go with this? But at the same time, I feel like the ones that are still doing that might be a little late to the game because there's a lot of people riding the AI train, and it's left the station, and anybody that's still really doing that is just shaking their fist at the clouds left. You know, the trains left?

Suzanne Taylor-King  10:52  
Yeah, I remember, about a year ago, I learned how to do AI photos, and they've gotten better and better and better, and I've gotten better at doing it. And I posted some of my results, not only my photos, but a couple clients in an AI group on it. And this is an AI group. This is an AI group. Well Facebook, that's huge that I'm actively posting in and learning from the group leader. And I posted all these photos, and there was all these wonderful comments, and then there was one comment and criticizing every photo. Oh, this is wrong. This is wrong. This is wrong. This is wrong. This is wrong. This is wrong. And it was, it had to have taken more than 20 minutes to invest the time into blowing up my images and saying that the hook on the doorknob was wrong and this was wrong and that was wrong, and, yeah, just out of curiosity, let me see what that person does for a living, or a photographer. And I thought, why are you in an AI group if you're going to criticize and be fearful of it? And that's when I started educating writers and photographers about it's not going to take away from your business if you learn how to use it, it's going to add a revenue stream. It's going to add to your skill set, not take away from and I love that perspective of yours. You know, when it comes to marketing, it's going to add to your marketing abilities. It's not going to get rid of marketing agencies or consultants, but those people who don't embrace it and at least learn it are going to be left behind. Imagine if you or I were still carrying around. Remember when the cell phone or wasn't even a cell phone? What was it? Satellite phone, the giant thing that we used to carry around in our car that was bigger than a bone. Yes, imagine if we were still showing up carrying one of those or a beeper. How about a beeper, a major that was super hot in the

Aaron J Weese  13:32  
80s? Yeah, it was, Oh, yeah. Totally, totally. Well, one thing I have learned you know throughout life is no one is more determined at the right than someone trying to make a point. Yes, okay. And a perfect example this morning, I ended up having to block someone about 40 minutes ago this morning because I had a post, you know, showing off one of my recent tattoos. And, you know, you see my post, I have, you know, I'll post some. I have a little marketing lesson. Well, this guy, straight up said, is, is, is that what you call a good tattoo? If so, you need a new artist?

Suzanne Taylor-King  14:08  
Oh, wow, yeah.

Aaron J Weese  14:13  
And I, you know, at first I responded like, I'm like, well, that's kind of a shitty thing to say. I mean, I think maybe we need to talk about how you communicate with people. And then he comes in with the Gaslight the Oh, I'm sorry, I hit a nerve guy. And you know, what was his whole point of that comment? Okay, there couldn't have been any productive meeting. And I looked at this person's profile, okay, um, I probably should send him some information on male pattern baldness, you know. But, I mean, hey, I'm 50, and I still have just about all my hair so, but, you know, you look at some people, some people's comments, and you kind of go, well, what's the point of that? Are they just trying to be an asshole? Are they just trying to, you know. What? What? There's no point to it, other than just to be a big jerk.

Suzanne Taylor-King  15:03  
That's how you know you've made it honestly when, when you're able to be on social media and actually receive criticism or get nasty comments, that's how you know you're doing a good job like I think that should be the goal. The goal should be to strike a nerve or up, not upset. I hate to use that term, but if I am standing in my true authenticity and I am provoking thought. Some of those thoughts are going to be negative, yeah? And that's okay,

Aaron J Weese  15:50  
oh, it's perfect. It's perfectly fine. And, you know, but there, you know. And the thing is, is there, and I always try to look at it this way too, is a lot of people in society nowadays are hurting, yeah, you know, we have a mental health crisis in this country. And, you know, so you kind of gotta look at it with that perspective, yes. And, you know, I actually believe it or not, I learned a lot of the skills that I use for engagement on LinkedIn from when I was, you know, I was late to the game to get my college degree. I got my Bachelor's of 43 masters at 40 or Bachelor 41 matches of 43 immediately got hired on SNHU to teach. I've been teaching there for six years now at 49 so I was kind of late in getting my degree. But one thing I really learned was, you know, I was taking online courses, of course. And, you know, we had those threaded discussion boards. You know, if you ever taken an online class, you have these, okay? And I'll tell you, 95% of students that take online courses phone it in for those. Okay, you I don't, I can't tell you how me, I still have not figured out how you can write a five paragraph response just saying, great post. You know, it just, it's, it's,

Suzanne Taylor-King  17:04  
I don't know, I, I can, I've been in those courses. And, yeah, that's a skill.

Aaron J Weese  17:14  
So, yeah, exactly. So I try to kind of take that, I kind of try to take that skill and kind of direct at the right direction, and I go, and this is exactly where, how I, you know, kind of be, the place I grade from, is, does this can further the conversation in a productive manner? And I think everybody that posts or replies should maybe, maybe kind of look at things with that eye and say, okay, yeah, is this gonna further the conversation? Or what I call, what I call a brick wall post, okay, those, oh, great, you know, great post. I I agree that's a brick wall. Okay. What are you gonna respond to? Uh, thanks. Okay, so I tell, I tell my students and also my consulting clients to do one of three things when you respond, okay, either agree and add okay. Don't just agree, agree and add okay. And if you have sources or can show receipts, even better, disagree why and make your point in a kind manner with proof, or ask a probing question, one of three things, okay? And those can almost guarantee engagement in a LinkedIn post or online class or anything, okay, because it almost obligates the person to respond. And a lot of times when I when I respond like that, or reply with a probing quest or something like that, and I get just dead noise from them. I go, okay, they're putting their their posts in, forgetting for posterity, you know they're not necessarily interested in the engagement. Now, you have some, you have some of these gurus that you know they'll get Seven 800 comments on a post. I get it. You're not going to respond to my comment necessarily every time. That's cool, right? But I do see people with like three to five to seven or well under 10 comments not even taking the time to respond to a meaningful reply to their posts. Yeah, so you know, either they have they either their strategy on LinkedIn isn't tight, their engagement strategy, or they're just posting for posterity.

Suzanne Taylor-King  19:13  
Well, I think that's a huge misconception about social media in general, and there's a couple of people that I follow you know that have 300,000 600,000 followers on LinkedIn. So every post make 1000 2000 comments. And you know that, like you said, that would be impossible to engage with all of those people, but I noticed that most of those comments are just comments for comments sake. It's just to be noticed on that person's post, like, who's going to be the first to comment and get, you know, 1000 views of their comments? So they try to be lengthy, they try to be smart, they and they're using AI to do it, because all the comments kind of read the same. I'm not that popular that that happens to me. I get pretty genuine comments. And yeah, I think what's interesting is, two of those people who I've been following for years, have decided that they don't want to interact in the comments any longer be they're just, they're still going to post on LinkedIn, and they're they're still going to share value, but they want to have, they want to take the conversation into a more private space that can't be infiltrated with automations and bots and algorithms,

Aaron J Weese  20:53  
yeah, and that's, that's, you know, kind of takes, takes to another point where there is a, there is a, you know, Large rising in in small communities nowadays, yeah, you know, with, like, with my small business clients, you know, the own your marketing concept. You know, I try to take, you know, with small businesses, when I talk about own your marketing, I try to take their foundation off of social media. Because, no, you can't control social media. You're not. You shouldn't put your business in the hands of it. So I tell you know, these in a lot of companies love you. Oh, you, you should. You know, social media is a valuable tool you can't just not use. So I'm not saying not use social media. I'm saying use the crap out of it, okay, but use it smartly, and not just post and try to get your customers from social media. You always want to try to get them into a funnel that you own. Yeah, so I am seeing a rise in interest in small, owned communities. The dive shop, I have a local dive shop that's a client that we built out, and actually the owner, there's a husband and wife to own the shop, great people. And the wife was like, you know, I really want to build a dive community around here, because we have, we have a quarry about 45 minutes. I was a great scuba Park, okay, it's a great place. And she's like, I want to be able people be able to find a dive buddy when they want to go dive into quarry, or they want to go out to the North Carolina or something. So she was trying to do this whole, like, phone tree list thing and stuff like that. And when we started talking about redesigning their website and kind of pulling their marketing, you know, to ownership, I said, you know, it would not be a hard lift to build an online community that is hosted and based on your website that you own, and we did that. I'm not saying it's got 1000s upon 1000s of members, but it's got a healthy number of members. I think we're about the 60 or 70 now of local divers that just want to interact with other divers, and it's completely off of social media. So I think especially as social media starts to kind of do what social media does, like I've noticed some, noticed some changes in LinkedIn lately where they're really trying to push me to boost my posts and pay to get exposure from my Yeah, and it's, that's, that's, you know, that's kind of like, I don't, I'm not a big fan of that, because it took me years to build my following, you know, I don't want to have to pay to have my followings and my messages. So there is a large rise in online communities. But also to, you know, some of those, like just the circular comments like that, a lot of some of these, you know, these bigger influencers, you know, a lot of that's engagement pods. What do you

Suzanne Taylor-King  23:26  
say when, when somebody asks about that? I mean, I have my standard response, you know, I I have a group on what WhatsApp of my clients, of my community members. And we do share our LinkedIn, you know, posts, not everyone. I think there's 30 some people in that thread on WhatsApp. And we do share our LinkedIn posts, five, six, maybe 10 of us, and we're not asking each other for comments, per se. It's like, hey, read my post. If it resonates with you. It would be helpful to have my tribe comment on it. I think a mistake comes in is when you're obligated, oh, there's 30 people in this group. You have to make 30 comments every day. Oh my gosh, that sounds like Chinese torture to me. Like, I don't want to

Aaron J Weese  24:27  
tell by, I tell people, like, because, like, the example you gave, I mean, you have your tribe, you have your community. There's a purpose to that. Yeah, okay. Engagement pods are simply to boost engagement. Now, here's the thing about engagement pods is it's like a snake eating his own tail. Yeah, yeah, you're not going anywhere because you have, like, the algorithm is going to see these same 30 people are liking your liking your posts. So it's only going to start and then it's going to be train the algorithm to only serve up to those people and maybe a handful extras. So and. Are those people really your audience? Okay? Because I'll tell you, there's a, there's a number of pods out there that just has marketers in it. I'm like, I don't want to just talk to other marketers. I mean, yeah, there's professional, you know, debate and stuff. But I need clients. I got a mortgage to pay, you know, I have a travel, travel addiction I gotta feed. You know, I'm I'm not, I'm not here for fun, right? So eventually my message has to hit someone that is, or could be, maybe someday, if you shift the win, interested in my service, right? Okay, and I feel like pods and like true and real engagement pods is like a snake in his tail. It's, it's, I mean, we could sit there and all day on this, on this chat, and tell each other how awesome we are all day, and then we can come back tomorrow and do it again. But what is that? I mean, eventually, you know, after two or three days, we'll probably get tired of feeling so good about ourselves, or it's like, now I'm done,

Suzanne Taylor-King  25:56  
yeah, oh, to feel like crap about myself for a few days first. Yeah, exactly. You said something really important there so many times, whether it's networking groups, engagement pods, or who you're hanging out with, I'm a coach. I mean, if I hung out with other coaches all the time, my ideal client is an entrepreneur, a doctor, a dentist, an attorney who has intellectual property they want to get out into the world. They have a bigger message, right? Yeah, well, if I hang out with other coaches all the time, how is that going to work? And so many times, networking groups, I remember one a long time ago that I was in that was full of service professionals. And at the time, I was a health coach. Now there might have been 40 people in that group, attorneys, financial services people, accountant, you know, all of these service providers, yeah, not one of them ever hired me. Not one of them understood the value of health coaching, being in shape, losing weight, doing all the things that I used to preach about, yeah, and they weren't comfortable enough asking their clients to hire me so they they weren't able to refer business to me. And I spent two years in that group like scratching my head, like, what? Why? Why is my message falling flat? And it's because I was hanging out with people who did not understand the value of what I'm doing, or the value in reciprocity and introductions and and referrals. And when you hang out with people who do the same thing as you and that, that can be really, really valuable at a high level in a mastermind group, yeah? But if that's all you're hanging out with, how are you going to ever meet your clients?

Aaron J Weese  28:18  
Yeah, it's not a solid lead gen strategy. That's

Suzanne Taylor-King  28:21  
no, definitely, not, definitely,

Aaron J Weese  28:23  
like I was, you know, I, you know, I joined a couple of, like, local networking groups, and I had a very similar experience, um, you know, like, you know, one of the groups is a very popular national group, um, local chapters. And they said, Oh, well, we have a space for one person in digital marketing, okay? And that was like, Well, I mean, I kind of can do, and sometimes do digital marketing, but that's not really my stick. My stick is, you know, getting the getting the clients set up 12 to 18 months down the road. They're good, good to go. I'm, I'm not really going to do a lot of hands on running digital, but that's the only real option they had. So I'm like, Okay, I'll give the trap a handful of meetings. But I was kind of pushed into this little i this little box to say, Oh, this is Aaron. He offers digital marketing. So do I either say, okay, screw it. Anybody that comes from this, I'll just have to do social media strategy for whatever, because then, you know, I need clients at that time. Or do I take the time to cook? Take Well, actually, the group said that was the spot, but this is really what I do. And a lot of times, I would say, my experience, 80 to 90% of the people in those groups were not there necessarily to network. They were there to get business. So they would only, they would only open their ears and eyes when they were given their pitch at the group. And, you know, so it was like, I would get up. It's, you know, these meetings were always early as boring too. So like, What a shock. In the morning.

Suzanne Taylor-King  29:45  
I'm no 730 in the morning nonsense. Stop it.

Aaron J Weese  29:49  
Yeah, I don't, I don't, I don't get it. But, yeah, it was like, I'm up. I'm up this early in the freaking morning. And, you know, I and then some of these networking groups, they. The costs of membership is insane. And they they frame it like, oh, well, this whole group of 150 people referred $5 million in business last year, which sounds impressive, until you have realize you have a handful of commercial real estate agents in there. Yeah, that's one or two transactions pass back and forth. It. They're, you know, they're basically, you know, putting the whole weight of the group on, yeah. So I think with networking groups, I think you really have to find the right one. And I think that's the challenge there. Do you do you actually are going to network, you know, do this to get leads? Are you just going to do it to, you know, be a lead?

Suzanne Taylor-King  30:44  
Yeah, I don't, I don't think any networking, no matter what level. I don't think you can do it to get you have to be in the position to be the giver. And I look at it kind of differently when I think about people to interact with. Do they have people? So if I'm going to provide value to a community or give a talk or have a referral partner? Does that person have people? And I mean that in kind of like three different ways. Do they have a list? Do they have an established presence on social media? Doesn't have to be huge, but are they posting? Are their profiles set up properly? And then how are they currently attracting their clients? And if it doesn't add up to me, then I kind of know that that person is not going to have extra people for me. Yes, and the you know that go

Aaron J Weese  32:11  
ahead, I think that that that and that you know, like you said that VI, that kind of one person you know, a lot of times that viable kind of go to a large, large population of that group to where that, you know, and I'll be honest, I'm an introvert. Part of what I teach at college personal branding is MBTI. So I, you know, I know where my MBTI type is, and trust me, there's no part of my MBTI that says I'm cool with 7am roundtable networking meetings. So I tend to be, maybe I don't say a little extra, not extra critical of them, but I do take them with kind of a, you know, definitely a critical eye to, you know, because also too, especially now in my life, you know, this, this kind of the post mother in law, you know, rebirth thing. I guess, for lack of a better term, I don't have nearly the capacity for bullshit.

Suzanne Taylor-King  33:01  
Oh, isn't that the Yeah, yeah, I think through something like that. How long did you take off from work?

Aaron J Weese  33:12  
Completely? It took. Well, I it took a we cared for her for a year. Then she passed, and probably I took about another four months to kind of get my head like, I'm like, Okay, I'm at a point where I could focus on my work. I'm interested in my work again, you know. And honestly, you know, I'm not completely full, you know, through the grieving process. But luckily, my wife and I were, we were smart enough, in hindsight, that when this started coming. And we started. We brought my mother in law home. We're like, this is going to happen. So we both got into grief counseling right off the bat, nice, um, and we started. We started really, really kind of taking a look at, you know, how are we processing this? How are we being better to ourselves and stuff like that, yeah. And actually, the kind of, the, just the big gist of it is, is, yeah, your capacity for, for just the bullshit, it goes down to nearly nothing. So I really, like, especially like, when I teach college and my students, you know, I deploy kind candor, but I'm very, I'm very, I'm a lot more direct with my students, you know, like, you know, before, like, a student coming to me, Hey, can I get an extension on this? I'm kind of behind, and, you know, before, I be like, Yeah, whatever. I'll, you know, we'll see what that happens. And, you know, a lot of times a student would fail on that, or whatever. But now I'm like, Okay, let's look at this whole picture. Have we solved the problem that caused this? Yet? Are we just creating more problems and perpetuating this down the road by me giving you extensions, and that same thing kind of goes in the, you know, professional world and the LinkedIn world is, you know, when I look to reply to something, I go, Okay, can I reply and add something, you know, like the one of the three, okay. Can I do that well? And while still being kind, you. Yeah, and I think that's a, you know, a different lens than before, where I was just, you know, let me support, let me raise up, you know, that kind of thing, to where now I realize, you know, I want to get my work done so I can go enjoy my life, so I can go hang out with my wife, so I can go scuba diving, whatever. Yeah. So definitely the hustle, grind culture, that desire, kind of goes away. When you have something like this happen your life, you kind of have to rebuild yourself a little bit. But yeah, definitely the capacity for the Bs is like there.

Suzanne Taylor-King  35:37  
Well, with everything we've talked about today, I'm wondering what's what's really working right now in your mind on LinkedIn as a content creator, what does it look like? And if you could drop a couple tips for our listeners, that would be awesome.

Aaron J Weese  36:02  
Um, don't be authentic. Be your real self. I mean, you know, maybe most people aren't comfortable sharing things like I am, okay, but to me, the sharing is is a lot of the healing part, okay, yeah, maybe people are very private people, okay, but you can be a private person and still be authentic. You could still be very real. Yeah, I think a lot of times people, they, you know, the I spent, you know, several years in the corporate world back in my 20s, before I realized it just wasn't for me. And I think the reason why was you just have so much that surface level, you know, how's the weather, water cooler, talk, yeah, okay, where people don't really learn, because all business, everything is transactional as people, okay, you have to understand people, someone with great communication skills and great people skills and a solid level empathy, in my opinion, can write their own ticket in most any professions, aside from the ones that, like you require advanced training, okay? But really, you know, because one, I don't care how par, how high performing you are, no one wants to work with an asshole, right? You know, and but you want to, you know, and life happens. We're all going through things in life, okay, so, and you know, maybe this comes from kind of a place for me, of I have, you know, I really, I learned a term about six months ago called empathy burnout. And I don't know if you're familiar with that term at all, or anything like, Yeah, but you know, we've all came through. We've all come through covid. It's like, show grace. Show grace. Be empathetic. Show grace, you know. But see, a lot of times, you know, when you're showing that empathy, you forget to be show yourself empathy.

Speaker 1  37:57  
Oh, so true.

Aaron J Weese  37:59  
Okay, so at the end of the day, you're like, why am I so anxious? Why am I stressed out? Why is my heart pounding all the time? And it's because you're giving and giving and giving, but you're not worried. You're not caring for yourself. You're not feeding the child inside that that needs to hear. Great posts. I appreciate you. Yeah, you're right. I support your post, or the any of the other 100,000 AI generated comments, yeah, you know, so I, and that's kind of where I'm at is, you know, I, you know, I am an empath. I do feel others pain a lot, but at the same time, I have to protect myself a little bit. So, you know, something's not worth my time, or something I see could be toxic, or something like that. I you know, I don't wait for all the red flags to pile up anymore. Yeah, I show myself empathy. I show myself empathy because you can't pour from an empty cup. And that's one thing I learned as being a caretaker, because being a caretaker, especially for someone with dementia, will rip you down to your core. It will take you down to your bare studs and to where you're like, Who are you when no one is cheering for you? And then you realize that at the end of the day, you have to love and cheer for yourself. Yeah, and I feel like in the past several years, the whole gist of the world is, you know, everybody's got problems. Show all the empathy to others, but you're no one ever says, You know what? Love yourself, care for yourself first, put your own oxygen mask on first.

Suzanne Taylor-King  39:34  
That's part of authenticity to me, is honoring that I don't start work till 10 o'clock. You know, that morning is for me, that's my deep work time, that's my exercise time, that's my you know, I do have some family time in there too. And then Fridays, I'm done at three o'clock. I don't want anything on my calendar after three o'clock. And as the summer comes. Comes, you know, it's going to be one o'clock, and that's how I take care of me. I don't, I don't. I think authenticity is about being real. Yes, I'm, I'm very transparent about my business journeys, my partnerships. Like things that I go through, but there's certain things I don't talk about on social media. It's none of anybody else's business, right? And I there's, there's a way to be authentic, to be in touch with yourself, to know yourself, to give to others while still taking care of yourself, keeping some things private. And my mentor said something to me, and I think you'll like this. She said, Be approachable, but not accessible. And so to me, as I grew in popularity and more and more people wanted a piece of STK. They wanted time with me, or they wanted to be able to text me, or, oh, let's have a weekly call. No, that's for clients like as more and more people wanted a piece of me. I still wanted to be warm and friendly and authentic, but there had to be a separation, approachable, but you can't just get on my calendar for free. This is a business

Aaron J Weese  41:34  
over here, right? Absolutely, absolutely.

Suzanne Taylor-King  41:36  
And it was, it was like she gave me permission to still be myself, but yet, put some sort of boundary in place, not only on the calendar, but of your time, because that's your most valuable asset as a business owner,

Aaron J Weese  41:58  
absolutely, absolutely, and that's Like, you know, you talk about time, you know, like, and that's one of the things I'm kind of wrestling with coming back into my profession, is, you know, how do I, you know, how do I, you know, how am I accessible or available to my clients without burning myself out? And I, you know, I started by setting very like I, you know, I still have an open calendar. You can go on there and book a 15 minute meeting, but the slots are only going to be Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, between 10 and two. Nice, okay, if you want me anytime outside of my established office hours, you know, I'm going back to the professor thing. Office hours, yeah, there, there's, there need, yeah, there needs to be an amazing reason. Okay? Because maybe if you catch me on that Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, 10 through this week, catch me next week. But if, I mean, you know, send me a message. You think, you think it's way more important, and I'll decide if it is or not, right, but it's, it's definitely going to be a big lift to get me outside of those times on just an intro call.

Suzanne Taylor-King  43:01  
Yeah, I love that, because I had a meeting a couple of weeks ago with a very brand new person who was introduced to me, and that's the only way to get on my, you know, free 15 minute call is if one of my valued connection set introduces us, and typically it's for complaint like, oh, you should talk to sue. She could probably solve your problem. And if she's not the person, she'll refer you to who is great, yeah. Well, I met someone new that way, and right away he wanted to introduce me to like eight people. And I was like, Whoa, I I don't have time for all that. And he said, What do you mean? I said, I have three get to know you calls on my calendar a week that you know, my referral partners, that that's for them to, you know, refer me clients or whatever. And I said, if you can introduce me to eight random people who you just think I should have a conversation with. I said, my calendar is going to be full. There'll be no room for prospects and and that just doesn't make sense to me. If you think one of those people could be a client for me or a member of my group, then, yes, absolutely. But just see people to me, I stopped doing that a long time ago.

Aaron J Weese  44:52  
I think you bring you bring up an amazing point with that is, you know, especially like, you know, at my point. In my life. And you know, you know, you kind of hit a certain age where you just kind of understand where you need to be, yeah, and especially when you run, whereas you run a small business, you go, Okay, this is, these are the, this is, this is the type and number of clients I really wanted, I want to take on, because this is what's going to effectively pay my bills. And I really don't feel like doing anymore, you know. So, you know, you're very tight with your time. And you go, okay, I can, I could take on this many clients, this many consult clients, this many marketing clients. Yada, but, you know, aside from that, I refer it out because, you know, the hustle years I think are really way behind me. I have no interest in, you know, doing the whole bro hustle porn thing. You know, I did that for years, um, but, you know, give me a handful of clients that I work very well with that can be very effective with, and I'm good. The rest of the rest is I'm going to protect my time, yeah, you know, seeing however, you know, however that looks, that looks, yeah, and however that looks, that looks different to every person. So I can't sit there and be like, Sue. This is exactly how you need to protect your time, step, step and step, a step and because that main that's not going to work for you, right? You know, we both have different lifestyles, different obligations outside of our work. So, and that's kind of one of the, one of the jokes I make in my in, you know, on my personal brand is outsmarting the gurus. Is because a lot of the gurus out there said, My way is the way you're going to do this. Only this and you'll be successful. Nine times out of 10 are probably not successful because, you know, one method does not work for that person and that, you know, so. But I feel like, you know, kind of, kind of taking this a little, kind of, maybe off the off the side here. I feel like a lot of times, especially on LinkedIn, we spend so much time trying to put each other in boxes. Okay, how many posts do you see a day? Sue. You should post this way on LinkedIn because it's effective. You shouldn't post this way on LinkedIn if you want to be successful on LinkedIn. Do it this way. And it's, it's almost to the point where by nine in the morning I'm fucking nauseated, sorry, but because it's like, all the same, and it's, and then they keep talking. You know, they're all the gurus are, oh, niche down, niche down, niche down. And it's like, what if I want to offer a couple lines of service? You know what? I offer LinkedIn consulting for professional solopreneurs and executives that want to build their LinkedIn presence, and I offer marketing consulting for small businesses and solopreneurs. That's two bit, that's two offerings there. Yeah, the LinkedIn police going to come and arrest me, you know, so I feel like LinkedIn two very

Suzanne Taylor-King  47:43  
distinct ideal clients. And you know, one is for my membership, and the other is to work with me, one on one. They could be the same person, you know, one of my membership people could turn into one of my one on one clients. But when I think about how many times I was told you can't do that, you can't do that, you can't do that, no, I and I think what you're talking about putting into, you know, a framework or a box or, you know, I think that's why I'm so passionate about coaching in general, consulting in general, because it's for you. It's not about my modules or my framework, or you, you trust me. You trust that I have the experience in the real world, and we're going to do what your business needs, not what I want you to do, because it's not about me. And I just think I love that you said that, because it's really, really important to understand when, when you're in the marketplace choosing someone to work with that you understand that it's about you and your business when you hire Somebody, not how they want you to do things.

Aaron J Weese  49:23  
Abs, absolutely, absolutely. So, I mean, yeah, it's just, you know, people just, I feel like you know, if it's your business and you want you know, because you have to ultimately run it and live in it, right, you know. And if you're not cool, if you're not cool in your own skin, and life's gonna suck. And also, I mean, you know, I have, you know, yeah, I have, I like you. I have, I have two Sep, two different offerings. A lot of times they mesh together in some way. But I have two separate offerings. I'm running completely contrary to what the guru say. And I mean, I'm circling 20,000 followers for the next month or two. I don't think. Doing horribly there. I think I've found my tri. I'm found my tribe, and I'm continuing to build my tribe, because if you, you could have 10 offerings. But if you, if you convey your message right, connect with and connect with the good people. Be authentic. Your tribe is going to follow you wherever you go. You know, I still have a lot of people on LinkedIn in the cannabis industry that still cheer me on. I have, I have a huge cheering section of people that work in the weed industry. I love it, okay? I love because, I mean, I, you know, I, you know, honestly, the cannabis industry is not the place for me right now, but I had a great amount of I loved it in the cannabis industry. Had a blast in it, and I met some of the most supportive people out there, even though they're totally not in my ICP, Yeah, guess what? They're supporting me still, you know. And I think there's a lot to you know. I think the niche down thing maybe, maybe works when you're first starting out. You have to have that really, really really fine focus, you know. But, you know, once you get to a certain point where you're actually getting in clients and you want to do something else, you know, like, I just launched, I just launched another line of service, mainly my LinkedIn consulting. But, you know, I'm direct, you know, because I do work, you know, my wife is also a professor. I do work in education. Is the job market that he's, you know, a lot of these high school college students come in. Just horrible. Okay, so what better play, you know, the parent you know going to the parent, hey, you know, don't get your kid a stupid tie for graduation. Get them, get them a set of LinkedIn consulting, sets of sessions. Let them build their online presence. Let them build their personal brand, and start building relationships with key decision makers while they're going through college, so that way, four years later, they have a hell of a network, a hell of a following, and they could basically write their own ticket.

Suzanne Taylor-King  51:50  
I love that. I love that. And and shout out to Maximus, sure. I'm gonna send him this episode and have him connect with you. He is a college senior. I was introduced to him by his dad, and he's in the AI space, and he's doing an internship, and he is starting his LinkedIn profile. And I said, whatever I get you to support you. That is such a great message to to do it before you finish college, to establish some key connections in a couple different industries, really smart.

Aaron J Weese  52:34  
Well, I think, I think it's, I think it goes Paul, you know, it goes a long way also too, is, you know, instead, you know, if you go through LinkedIn through college, if you're on link, I can on LinkedIn all through college and again, you only got to be 16 to start a LinkedIn account. You can start one of the junior in high school. But imagine if you built your LinkedIn throughout late high school and all through college. You're posting your trials, your tribulations. Oh, my God, this class sucked, and this is why. But this is how I overcame it. Guess what? You have five years of case studies and track record any employer is going to go through and say, You know what? This person maybe, maybe a little while in their freshman year, a little funny story about them getting arrested for drunk in public, but look at how they progress through college. Oh, my God, we have to hire them. Yeah, you know. And I think a lot of it comes down to Yeah, you just knowing people. And when you apply for that job, you're not the unknown.

Suzanne Taylor-King  53:28  
Yes, yes. I love to share a story about a Doctor Who and his name is slipping my mind right now, but he was recording YouTube videos all about med school, being a resident, and productivity, how he got stuff done, how he got studying done, and still worked a full time job and and his YouTube channel when he finally became a full fledged Doctor, his YouTube channel was making him more money than his doctor salary. Now, wait, I'll tell you his name. Hold on, uh, I have his book and feel good productivity. Ali Abdal is his name, Ali Abdul and so he writes this, writes this book, feel good productivity. And he left being a doctor to travel the world and write about productivity and his life satisfaction went through the roof. He is working so much less, you know, two or three hours a day writing. And it was such a powerful message about establishing your personal brand. Understand that it really stuck with me, because he had no intention of becoming a productivity expert and speaker and author when he was in college, but he just started documenting his journey and being open to where it led.

Aaron J Weese  55:22  
Great message, yeah, I think, I think, yeah, it's a, and that's, that's a story that that's actually not too uncommon. Um, because people love a people love a good story. They love a good hero story, comeback story, whatever. Um, and, you know, like with my want to, you know, going back to my mother in law and how I kind of was very, very open with that on LinkedIn. That actually started because I was like, you know, I'm not, I gotta, I'm gonna shut down my LinkedIn. I just gotta focus on this, you know. And but I had, I started having a lot of go for my network messaging me, saying, Hey, how's everything going? Are you cool? Is, you know, like, genuine messages of support. And I go, You know what? I have a lot of people that are that care about me, that want to know what I'm going through and just get an update. So I started posting updates. And you know that now is just, is part of my brand story? Yeah, you know, every everything trial and tribulation you go through is going to be part of your brand story. And you know it's up to you and how you craft your personal brand, how you want to share that, how much you want to share. But I feel like, once people feel like they know you, they know the person behind a LinkedIn profile picture, you know, they're all, I mean, some of these, some of these, some of these are just great, you know, like, I mean, mine, heck is a cartoon. I think, I think, you know, accident, you're talking about AI images, you know, I think, like that is a that really came out, dope. So I'm gonna use that for my profile picture. But, you know, like LinkedIn, if you just look at someone's LinkedIn profile a lot, you know, the way they're laid out functionally is kind of sterile, yeah, um, you know, I almost wish we could go take LinkedIn back to like, 2003 MySpace. I mean, we, I swear, we were all coding HTML like we were hackers. Man, it was great.

Suzanne Taylor-King  57:10  
This is, this has been so awesome. Aaron, how can our listeners get in touch with you besides your LinkedIn?

Aaron J Weese  57:18  
If I'm, yeah, find me on LinkedIn. My website is we stock consulting. I actually got one of those dot consulting domain names. I was actually trying. I'm actually trying to buy an AI, a.ai domain name, unless you've looked but those are insanely expensive, like 200 bucks a year on godaddy right now. But yeah, we stock we stock consulting. If you want to email me. It's Aaron at we stock consulting, but yeah, I mean, if anybody wants to chat, hit me up.

Suzanne Taylor-King  57:48  
Well, thanks so much for today, and an hour flew by so quickly. Thanks for being willing to have a totally cold conversation and appreciate the new connection. Thank you for tuning in to another empowering episode of unlock your way. I hope you found today's discussion inspiring and you're ready to take your business and personal growth to that next level. If you're feeling as fired up as I am and eager to unlock that full potential, I'm here to help you on your journey and provide that personalized guidance tailored to your unique goals and challenges. Simply book a one on one coaching call with me, and we'll dive deep into your business aspirations and see how we could co create a roadmap for your success, and whether you're striving to scale an enterprise or just getting started, I'm here to support you every step of the way. To schedule your coaching call, simply visit the website at unlock your way with stk.com click on the book a call button, and we'll turn your dreams into that reality. Subscribe and review on your favorite podcast platform and on YouTube, plus you can join over 800 entrepreneurs in the IDEA Lab Facebook group. Let's make success as an entrepreneur happen together until next time I'm SDK, keep dreaming big, stay focused, and most of all, have fun while you're doing it.

Speaker 2  59:33  
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