LinkedIn in 2025: The Know, Like, & Trust Strategy Escapees Need with Deanna Russo

Brett Trainor (: 00:01

Hi Deanna, welcome to the Corporate Escapee Podcast.

Deanna Russo (: 00:04

Thank you for having me, Brett.

Brett Trainor (: 00:06

Now it's, I'm excited anytime we get a LinkedIn expert. I'm excited because every time I think I've got this, this platform figured out, they changed the rules and then I want to give up and start over again. So I figured as we're starting to head into 2025, what a perfect time, right? Because LinkedIn is the, platform for most escapees. It's what we grew up on in corporate, probably using it for different reasons. So I thought it made a lot of sense to have you come on and, you know, kind of help us.

how should we approach it in: 2025

Deanna Russo (: 00:38

Yeah, I think that it's all about changing your mindset when it comes to LinkedIn. That if you think it's an online resume, change the way you're thinking about it. If you think that it's a big sales tool, change the way you're thinking about it. And instead of those, think about it as a big networking event. And we are on LinkedIn to know, like, and trust you. And the no happens in your profile.

The like happens in the conversations you're having on LinkedIn, and then that trust happens with your content. And so when I created this triangle strategy, it's not about just one thing. That's the reason why it's a triangle is all three things need to work consistently together.

Brett Trainor (: 01:29

Yeah, I like this. and you hit on a couple of things. love mindset, big believer networking. That's core to what we do as escapees. And then the trust is exactly, we've got the expertise. So now it's just a matter of building the trust with potential new partners. But before we go too deep into LinkedIn, I know you're also a, an escapee maybe out longer than some of us, but maybe just briefly share your, your escapee journey. Right. So.

Deanna Russo (: 01:45

Right.

Deanna Russo (: 01:58

Yeah.

Brett Trainor (: 01:59

what you were doing in corporate. know you shared your background. You had a pretty diverse, as some of us do as well, before you made the leap to an escapee. So if you don't mind, kind of share that story with us.

Deanna Russo (: 02:04

Mm-hmm.

cebook, Twitter, all of that,: 2007

and that company wanted me to use LinkedIn in order to bring in new business. And for them, they wanted me to take a script and to pitch people through the direct messages. And if anyone has been on LinkedIn any period of time, chances are they've seen one of these messages. And I still find myself apologizing to the people that I sent this to six years ago, because I'm not the same person as I was then.

But I stopped doing it because, it was weeks in, that because I got that light bulb moment, that it's not a sales vehicle. It's really about know, like, and trust. And it really has to be just about a big networking event. And if more people looked at it like, we're here to build relationships, and we're here to get to know each other, and we're here to get to like each other, and the trust also happens with what you share from your expertise.

So that's basically how it all started, is if it wasn't for that sales job, I don't know if I would be owning my own business and teaching people LinkedIn, but that's the way it worked out.

Brett Trainor (: 03:43

That's awesome. So maybe just quickly, because you were in corporate and sales, what was the light bulb moment that said, all right, I think I can do this on my own was did they sometimes corporate quits us and it says, all right, I think I can do this or were you in corporate going, this isn't working. There's a better way to do this. I think I can do it. What was kind of that the tipping point for you?

Deanna Russo (: 04:03

That company wanted me to transition from a sales role to more of an administrative role. And that's not what I wanted to do. That's not what I wanted to do. So I started looking for something else. And then next thing you know, everyone who I had been networking with both in person and on LinkedIn was saying, you figured out something because that triangle strategy helped me grow from 400 to 11,000.

And now here I am at over 30,000 followers on LinkedIn. It works. And so it's all about teaching people now how to do it. And I'm enjoying it. I enjoy helping people understand this platform.

Brett Trainor (: 04:34

remark

Brett Trainor (: 04:40

Yeah.

Brett Trainor (: 04:46

Got it. And if you don't mind me, again, people, our audience will ask his most and we're still in corporate, but thinking and trying to figure out how they're getting out is those first customers. Was that somebody in your network that you've reached out with? And did you have it all figured out when you went solo or did you kind of jump in? Okay.

Deanna Russo (: 04:53

Yeah.

Deanna Russo (: 05:00

I did not have it all figured out. I mean, I got all the paperwork started to form my LLC. And then a global pandemic wiped out all face-to-face networking events. And the timing for starting a LinkedIn centered business was pretty good. The timing for starting my own business as a pandemic was starting.

Probably not ideal. Probably wasn't the most ideal time. But no, I did not have it all worked out. But I did have clients within a month or so of me opening up for business coming in because I had already established that visibility piece. I've already, I'd already put the work in.

Brett Trainor (: 05:29

Right.

Brett Trainor (: 05:44

Okay, yeah.

Deanna Russo (: 05:46

and so when I decided that I was going to start my own, my own deal and announced it, had people that had been following me for awhile. And then I had people who I just started commenting on their posts and that led to a conversation. So when I tell people the profile and engagement and content strategy works, it works for me. So that's why I teach it that way.

Brett Trainor (: 06:12

Yeah. Do as I say and as I do one of the rare where you can do both. Right. That's awesome. And again, I also, I'm always curious about initial offers and cause one thing we get from a lot of new escapees is why I'm going to have my offer nailed. And like, you're really solving a problem and you can figure out how, I mean, you're probably going to get it wrong initially, right? You're, you're going to put in more hours than what you charge for or you're not, it's okay. Right. Unlike corporate where you can't make mistakes or very many mistakes.

Deanna Russo (: 06:14

Right. Right.

Deanna Russo (: 06:32

Yes.

Brett Trainor (: 06:40

This you can figure out as you go. So I'm guessing there was an evolution to your solution, right?

Deanna Russo (: 06:43

Yes.

Deanna Russo (: 06:47

Absolutely. It absolutely was. My one-on-one coaching has changed dramatically since I started almost five years ago now. It's shifted and what I realized is that I can teach people this whole strategy in six weeks and then they can go off and do it all because that's essentially what it is. It doesn't need to take months and it doesn't need to be prolonged.

it can be taught and then I'd have plenty of room to bring in other clients as well.

Brett Trainor (: 07:21

It makes sense. I've kind of adopted that approach as well, right? Because again, my target audience is all Gen X. So, everybody's pretty damn smart. They've had successful careers. They know what they're doing. So, you don't need to go through... When I first launched, I thought it was gonna be a lot of fundamental, like, 101 stuff. But quickly, I realized we can move through some of that. They get it. There's some foundational stuff. Just what you need to do as you're escaping. But, yeah, if I would have stuck to those guns, it would have been a...

Deanna Russo (: 07:46

Yeah.

Brett Trainor (: 07:49

a bad outcome, yeah, like I said, you figure out what your audience needs and, you know, adjust accordingly.

Deanna Russo (: 07:56

Yeah, yeah, it's just about flexing it. That's all just about flexing it. No one I don't know. I don't know if you'll ever find a business owner that starts one way and is the exact same way years down the road. And if they are, are they doing business? Are they I mean, are they are they becoming profitable because of it? So it would just kind of learn as we go and it doesn't all have to be figured out.

Brett Trainor (: 08:16

Yeah.

Deanna Russo (: 08:21

That's the one thing I'd like people to know. It does not all have to be figured out right at the beginning.

Brett Trainor (: 08:25

We're still at least in my case, I'm still figuring. mean, cause if you look at my five, so we probably left her on the same time. I've gone from solo consulting, diffractional leadership to advisory, some reselling now on Tik TOK, right? As a content creator, which is still weird to say.

Deanna Russo (: 08:41

Hahaha

Brett Trainor (: 08:41

in a community with corporate escapees that wouldn't have been on the radar. Never in my, even a year and a half ago, this wouldn't have been on my radar. So I think that your point of just staying open and seeing, again, don't give up too early on certain things, but just go with the tide. It'll, it'll take you, surprisingly in the right, if you're always fighting the tide, you're going to have a problem. think.

Deanna Russo (: 08:49

Yeah.

Deanna Russo (: 09:02

Right, yeah, don't fight it. Don't fight it. You got to stick to your values, but in the end, go with where it takes you.

Brett Trainor (: 09:10

And what you like to do, that's the other thing I've found really interesting with the escapees, because I talked a lot and I still do, because I still think the easiest path and you followed that was.

How do you monetize your corporate experience, right? Something you learned and it could be something you've been doing for 20 years in CRM or sales or finance. doesn't matter. There's small businesses that need that help. But what I'm finding a lot with at least my audience is there's a teaching component that's trailing behind it that in a lot of cases, that's what they want to do more of versus the monetizing of their corporate. They know that's going to pay the bills.

But if they can get this piece, the teaching piece, that's where they really want to spend time, which I had, wouldn't have again, wouldn't have been on my radar, but just talking and working with folks, you know, kind of the same thing. You're, you've thought, Hey, I can solve a problem, but now you're also teacher guide, whatever you want to call it. It's a, yeah, it's been fascinating. I think we're just in a really, really interesting time.

Deanna Russo (: 10:05

Yeah, yeah, it is. And I find that a lot of people are on LinkedIn to learn. And so that's why the whole teaching part of it totally makes sense. They're on LinkedIn to learn about anything, about everything, pretty much. And I think those are the two building relationships and learning are two of one of the biggest, biggest things. So it makes sense for everyone in your audience to be on it. But it's a matter of figuring out what

Brett Trainor (: 10:32

Yeah.

Deanna Russo (: 10:35

who you are, who you're trying to reach, and what your ultimate goal is before you start all of the stuff that I teach. I always say to get those questions answered first.

Brett Trainor (: 10:47

Yeah, it makes sense. And you're better transitioning into our topic than I was because I was taking this down rather old, but I think it's perfect. So I thought I was thinking for today, right? There's probably a thousand questions I can ask you. But if we started, let's start from the perspective of somebody Gen X are in corporate for 25 years, maybe use LinkedIn to look for jobs or comment on somebody getting a new job. not a content. So maybe just kind of help us. How would you think and advise folks that are in that to start mapping out?

Deanna Russo (: 10:51

Hahaha!

Brett Trainor (: 11:17

what a post corporate look like. That makes sense, right? So what you're doing today, or if you're not doing anything, how do you start to change what I love the mindset, right? To approach LinkedIn differently, to get started, how would you advise folks to, what's the first thing you need to do?

Deanna Russo (: 11:33

first thing is to make sure that you know your why and you know who you're you want to start those conversations with and then look at that profile and really figure out is that is this who I want to show up as and it's every single part of your profile to the profile picture could look awesome. Was it a recent picture was it taken within the past year or two is it 5 or 10 years old.

And then you start to look at the banner image and you start to look at the about section and we go through piece and every single piece of it to make sure that it speaks to what your ultimate goal is and who you're looking to connect with.

Brett Trainor (: 12:18

And just the, I think you're right. The consistency. The other thing I found, which I'm sure you're, you're going to talk about some 20 is being authentically you, right? So you don't have to, so many people that pretend and I would get confused as to who I am and what I'm trying to do. Once I finally stopped either content and profile, trying to make it seem it's like what everybody wants it to be and just be more of who it was. And it got a whole lot easier.

Deanna Russo (: 12:26

Yeah.

Deanna Russo (: 12:43

Mm-hmm.

Brett Trainor (: 12:44

once I simplified that. I'm hoping a lot of people in the audience are thinking, in corporate, we kind of play these personas, right, in order to get ahead and do the roles. Out here, you can absolutely be yourself, right?

Deanna Russo (: 12:56

Yeah, I always say to be authentic without even saying that you're authentic. Let other people say it for you. And that's what has happened is once you show people who you are and that's inside of your business and then that is outside as well. I mean, how many people have a Buffalo Bills fan thing on their banner image, you know, and that I'm a proud Buffalo Bills fan and that starts conversations with people.

or the purple squirrel that is on my banner image. It starts conversations with people. So think about, yes, you are who you are now, but who do you want to be? Who do you want to evolve into? And where do you see your business taking you?

Brett Trainor (: 13:42

Yeah, it's such a good point. is finding that one. I used to have a saying in there. Change is inevitable, but growth is optional. And the number of people that would comment on that, and I just had it in there as a throw away, right? It's just something that I do believe, but just, it was funny how you catch up and now that you mentioned the bills, yes, you're, saw somebody else that actually had the bills in their profile and you're right. It absolutely stuck with me that I'm like, huh, interesting. So

Deanna Russo (: 14:05

Nice.

Deanna Russo (: 14:10

Mm-hmm.

Brett Trainor (: 14:10

I like that part of the new LinkedIn, our new approach to it is it is more about you and your personality. So even if we dig into the about section, what would you call that? You get your profile pic and you get the sentences there, right? Because there's some people it has to be, meet the algorithm and put in X, Y, Z. What's your recommendation on?

Deanna Russo (: 14:26

The profile.

Yeah.

Brett Trainor (: 14:38

Right. Cause it used to be, put your job title, right. And maybe the company you work for. Headline. Thank you.

Deanna Russo (: 14:41

the headline, the headline, yeah. So LinkedIn gives you 220 characters to use for that now, which I mean, and that's been the way for the last few years, but the first 45 of those characters travel with you when you comment and when you post. So I always say to people that if you're a wine lover or a dog lover or something like that, husband, dad, mom, whatever it is,

You want to have that in the second half of your headline because you want the most important thing and the people, think about that primary goal. You want that to help you lead the conversations. And so while I'm a Bills fan, I'll never have it in the top parts, the beginning part of my headline.

Brett Trainor (: 15:30

Yeah.

Deanna Russo (: 15:32

because why I'm there is a LinkedIn strategist. And this is what I help people stand out and I help people attract and change the way that they think about LinkedIn. So that's what I lead with. And then toward the end, I'll say Bill's fan or whatever it is. Mom taxi, that's another one I use.

Brett Trainor (: 15:49

Yeah. I'm just looking at your, your, I changed the way you think about LinkedIn. It's about know, like, and trust what you talk about in the triangle strategy. Help me grow. I that's perfect. And I, again, you'll see mine change, but lately I've kind of left it with on a mission to help a hundred thousand Gen Xers, you know, escape corporate, right? I mean that anything right now, that's what I'm, it may change at some point, but that seems to be a good conversation starter at the moment as well. So.

Deanna Russo (: 15:58

Yeah.

Deanna Russo (: 16:12

Yeah. Yeah, for sure. For sure.

Brett Trainor (: 16:17

Interesting. All right. So if I'm in corporate, I'm thinking, all right, now I need to kind of figure what and who I want to help. Right. Cause one thing I always come back and it's, it works for me is instead of thinking about solutions or roles or job descriptions, think about the problem that you want to solve. Right. I mean, yours is easy. You, you help people become more effective on LinkedIn, right? Whether that's selling more connecting more, whatever it is. And I think if people are exiting corporate,

what is that problem that you're going after? And I haven't found a better way yet, so I'm curious, right? Because I'm trying to break this into bite-sized pieces. And if you think about the problem you're solving, it'd be a good way to start with your headlines, right?

Deanna Russo (: 17:01

Yeah. And that's a way to position yourself in a phrase. What is the problem that you solve? I help people change the way they think about LinkedIn. And so think about not so much of your ultimate goal, but think about if you were having a conversation with someone today, how would you describe what you do and what your business is?

and then shift that into a phrase. And honestly, what you'll find is that that phrase will resonate with people now, and you will probably end up changing that at some point. It's never set in stone. This is never set in stone. It's something that works for now, might not work in another year or two, and you might change. But that's the same thing, same way to look at your business too. It will evolve.

Brett Trainor (: 17:46

Right.

Brett Trainor (: 17:58

Yeah, I think that makes sense too because if you try to lead with

how you do it, right? Or again, if you're helping a company grow or I help companies get unstuck or I help nonprofits do this, because then that is the conversation. Because the other thing I found is business owners, and that's mostly who we're going after, could be corporate, they only care about the problem you're solving. They don't necessarily care how you do it. But we always think we have to go into how we solve the problem.

Deanna Russo (: 18:30

Mm-hmm.

Brett Trainor (: 18:30

Because even looking at your headline and you talk you've got a framework or an approach Right that shows that you're different than maybe other folks, but it's not it's not the headline, right? So maybe that's So

Deanna Russo (: 18:41

Right.

Yeah, it's your how can be explained in your about section, but your how does not need to be communicated in your headline. They need to know who you are and what you do. And that's, that's essentially it. And, then the first, like I said, the first 45 characters really needs to lay it out for people so that they will then go to your profile to look at you closer.

Brett Trainor (: 19:04

And is that type? Okay.

Brett Trainor (: 19:14

And that goes back to your three, right? The know I can trust. And this is getting to know you with that. You catch the first 45 and you're like, interesting. Then I will look at the remainder of that headline just to see what else is in there almost all the time. Unless the first throat is not worth looking, then I don't. But assuming you catch my attention, I actually will read it. So I do get to know a little bit about. Then I will actually go down and look at some of the about and even.

Deanna Russo (: 19:27

Right.

Deanna Russo (: 19:35

Right.

Brett Trainor (: 19:40

job history to see if that matches kind of what you say.

Deanna Russo (: 19:44

Right. And you know what? A lot of people will say, well, how come I cannot put my job title in the headline? And my answer is if I were to go into LinkedIn and do a search for account executive, for example, I would find millions of people that are currently using that in their headline. But what makes Sally so much different than Jim or Susan so much different than Mike?

A lot probably. They probably just because they have the exact same job title doesn't mean that they're doing the same thing. But it's you have to differentiate yourself from everybody else who does what you do because if not, you're just blend in with everyone. And with LinkedIn, there's two, there's one billion people on this platform now, one billion people approximately.

Brett Trainor (: 20:29

Yeah.

Deanna Russo (: 20:38

And if you are not standing out from everyone else, you are blending in. And we do not want to blend in. We want to differentiate ourselves from everybody else.

Brett Trainor (: 20:48

Yeah, I always say different is better than better because better is so hard to prove. Even if you are, it's hard to stand out doing that. So different is definitely the way to do.

Deanna Russo (: 20:53

Yeah.

And you will prove yourself as time goes on and other people's words will prove that you're better. But it's a matter of giving people the bite size piece of here is how I'm different from everyone else.

Brett Trainor (: 21:13

Yeah, makes sense. okay. So assuming now we come up with a headline that starts to reshape and maybe, so maybe even two questions where you can answer them, whatever question. So if we go back to the know, like and trust, which I love that, cause if you're checking the box and I think know is starting, maybe you have to do some other stuff in LinkedIn with the know, like and trust. So how, again, what's

If I'm again starting fresh and I'm starting to map this out headline I think makes sense get you thinking about the problem that you're solving and what you want to be known people known for what's next what would you do what would you recommend the next step

Deanna Russo (: 21:48

Well, you gotta go through the entire profile to make sure that each part is optimized. But once you're all set with your profile, that becomes your billboard. And that billboard is only as good as the cars driving by it. And so visibility is so super important on LinkedIn. Because like I said, if you're not visible, you're blending in with everybody else.

So that's where the like comes in and the trust comes in because you need to have conversations with people. And what I do is I teach strategic engagement. And the best way to explain that is if you were walking into a networking event, imagine that there are people talking.

Brett Trainor (: 22:24

Okay.

Deanna Russo (: 22:33

lots of people, and there are signs hanging over the conversations telling you what everybody's talking about. Brett, I have yet to walk into a networking event where there are signs hanging all over the place, but it's the only way that I can explain how strategic engagement works because they're already having the conversations that you know you want to be part of. And so you are then walking over to those conversations on LinkedIn

Brett Trainor (: 22:56

Great.

Deanna Russo (: 23:01

and sharing your take, piping in, shaking hands. And so that's what I teach in the second part of my coaching is that strategic engagement, how to be part of the conversations that are already being had that you know you want to be more visible in. And then that trust part really comes with that content and it's consistent. It has to be consistent content showing up.

Brett Trainor (: 23:21

Yeah, that's

Deanna Russo (: 23:29

and speaking to the audience and you're not speaking to it though. I will say that your content they need to relate to you and your and the problems that you're solving and so if you're talking from the podium the whole time in the content and you're not shaking hands in the comments then you're only using that one part.

You're only shouting from the rooftop, but you're not getting down at their level to have the conversations.

Brett Trainor (: 24:00

Yeah.

Which makes sense. Yeah. And I love and probably should have allowed you to take us down to the networking analogy because now I'm in my brain. I'm tying it all back. Right. If we're going to a networking event and when I introduce myself to say, yeah, I'm I'm the director of sales for this. People like, good for you. But if I say, man, yeah, I work with small business owners helping them solve this a bunch better introduction. And then when you start to your point on the networking, if you're in a group of folks and you're just saying sharing your

Deanna Russo (: 24:22

Yes. Yes. Yes.

Brett Trainor (: 24:32

point of view, but not engaging with anybody, they're going to go, yeah, they're going to turn you out and get their group to go back and have small conversations. I like where you're going. This actually could, you could have shared this with me four years ago and saved me a lot of time, but it makes sense.

Deanna Russo (: 24:39

Right, right.

Deanna Russo (: 24:44

It's taking all of the emphasis off of, at me, check me out, I'm awesome. And there are plenty of those people still on LinkedIn, but they want to send you the direct message because they see you and they have been following you.

Brett Trainor (: 24:52

Yeah.

Deanna Russo (: 25:06

and they see that you are worth having a conversation with. That's the ultimate goal. So on one hand, visibility is so important. People who are working with me see profile views tick up almost instantly. But then we're about the inbound conversations. They're sending, and that's what happens when you get into those circles and you start to have conversations and then you create your content, people see you and then they

They say, I want to know more about this. I want to, and I had one of those happen over the weekend that I want to know more about the strategic engagement. So we have a call coming up. That's, that's how that works.

Brett Trainor (: 25:46

Yeah. And again, it's, love the simplicity. know it's harder in execution, but the simplicity of this, just makes sense. Cause even going back to those conversations, if you're ha even if you're having one-on-one conversations and you're not at, it's about me, me, me versus the adding value and listening to what that other person says. Again, human nature is you're going to turn that person off. You're just discount and good luck ever recovering from that. And cause people will tell you,

Always add value in your content and provide, which again, if you're having a human to human conversation or a small group, you do want to be adding value. You don't want to be talking. If somebody asks you a direct question, fine answer it. This is what I did. Cause obviously they're curious, but

Again, I see so many people on LinkedIn and you're more, you pay attention to this is just more of the, I'm an expert. Listen to this versus here's things that I've seen. Here's things I would have done differently, whatever it is. And, one of the things probably by accident, but now maybe you're confirming it for me when I tell folks about, starting content, right? So if I'm still in corporate and I know I want to start working small business, but I'm afraid that my boss is watching. They're going to see me putting out content. I'm like,

Start with a problem and you can say, this is 10 things I wish I would have done differently as a small business owner things. And cause you can always position it as I'm just giving back and sharing what I've learned and what I would do differently just to get the conversation started. So as I look back at my journey, like I said, this framework would have been super helpful because I've been across the board with everything.

Deanna Russo (: 27:24

Yeah, yeah, I think that the corporate escapee does not have to have everything figured out right at the beginning. And we've said that before, but when it comes to LinkedIn, if you are open to learning the platform, if you're open to the possibilities of what it is and how you can grow with it and how you can achieve your goals.

That's the most important thing. That's what you really need to focus on is how can I use this in order to bring in new business?

Brett Trainor (: 28:01

makes sense. Like I I'm a big believer of the 80-20 rule too, right? So if you get the 20 % right, a lot of the 20 % it'll start adding value before you over index or over optimize in exactly that right headline or the right hook or do I need to do three videos and one text, right? I think sometimes we get too caught up into that real execution versus just getting back to your no like and trust. If you're doing that, then you can start to figure out.

Deanna Russo (: 28:24

Yes.

Brett Trainor (: 28:30

you know, what's working, what's not working, right? Do you see newbies focused on the wrong things, I'm assuming?

Deanna Russo (: 28:32

Right.

Deanna Russo (: 28:37

Yeah, and when I started creating content in 2018, it was just two videos a week. But the thing is, Brett, I kept that up for over a year and I knew consistency was a really big part of it. And I...

knew back then that it was, but now I teach that no like and trust and profile, engagement and content, it can only be, that triangle can only be 3D when you bring that consistency into it. Because it's rare that someone is going to see one post from you and then reach out. But if they see a post and then a post and they get to know you in the conversations,

Brett Trainor (: 29:11

Yeah

Deanna Russo (: 29:23

then they're more likely to start that conversation with you. So it's really about consistently doing all of it. And I always say that you do not have to show up on LinkedIn seven days a week, 24 hours a day. But the groundwork that you're going to lay down is going to essentially allow people to get to know you and get to like you and get to trust you.

when you're not there. I mean, that's what it all boils down to is we all have lives. We don't have 24 hours a day, seven days a week to spend on this platform. But it's about what you're doing now that will allow people to see that this is who she is and what she does. And then open up plenty of conversations with people.

Brett Trainor (: 29:54

Yeah.

Brett Trainor (: 30:18

Yeah, it's a good point and go right back to your networking or cocktail party, right? If they run into you in a different few different small groups and you're saying the same things and adding the value and being engaging with folks, they're going to start to remember, yeah, I did see her at this and this and that's what she talks about. You're right. You can do it once and you have a good conversation. You may or may not remember or you'll think, who was that? I don't remember, but start popping up in a couple of different places consistently. It's gonna, yeah, it's definitely going to help.

Deanna Russo (: 30:22

Yeah.

Deanna Russo (: 30:47

And the thing with adding value is it's about taking the conversations that you are having offline and bringing them to LinkedIn because you're already talking about it on a one-to-one with someone. But then how much more, and that person is responsive.

And then how much more could you educate people when you are taking those offline conversations and putting them into a piece of content? And there's still just a very small percentage of people that is creating content on LinkedIn. It's so super small. And I always say that there is plenty of room for everyone in the big pond that is LinkedIn. Plenty of room.

Brett Trainor (: 31:34

Yeah. Especially when you think about what most of the scapees, right, with solo businesses, we're not looking for a hundred customers. It's two, three, maybe five. So it can be super targeted of who you want to go after. Interesting. All right. So I think we got the no like and the trust. that consistency? How do you, how should we be thinking about the trust aspect of this?

Deanna Russo (: 31:42

Right.

Deanna Russo (: 31:47

Yes.

Deanna Russo (: 31:57

The trust, when we say add value, we also want to allow people to relate to us. And telling stories is one of the best ways that I have found to get people to relate. When there's a beginning, a middle, and an end. And then also the trust happens when you are not showing up in the exact same outfit every single day. And what I mean by that is,

Brett Trainor (: 32:05

Okay.

Deanna Russo (: 32:25

show up in different ways and different pieces of content and expand their idea of who you are. So show up on video, do a poll, do a LinkedIn newsletter, but to show up the exact same way every single time, I mean, it gets boring after a while. So you gotta mix it up.

Brett Trainor (: 32:46

Yeah.

Makes sense. Yeah, because one of the things that I've found to again, my own expert opinion is the powers are in the lurkers, right? You may not have a ton of people that are commenting or engaging. I have almost found seldomly do that the highest engagement folks actually buy from me. It's the people that are sitting in the back row going, all right, and just like they're taking notes, they're watching, then all of sudden, it's going hit that point, they're ready, they're going to reach out, you had no idea they were even in the audience. So I do caution people to say just because you

Deanna Russo (: 33:15

Yep. Yep.

Brett Trainor (: 33:18

don't see a ton of engagement, it's okay. People are listening. Assuming your message is, like you said, no, I can trust in that. It's adding that value. People will be listening even if the algorithm or the stats don't show it.

Deanna Russo (: 33:32

Yep. And honestly, what I have found is keeping the consistency up allows people to get to know you and like you and trust you. when you are consistently showing up and you know why you're there on LinkedIn and people know by going to your profile, they get to know you and they get to understand

Here is the ultimate goal of why this person is there. And then they get to like you when you're having those conversations. The trust happens when you know that this is what I need to post about. These are the types of things. Here are my buckets. I have a professional bucket. I have a bucket of something that really lights me up and that really drives me.

Brett Trainor (: 34:14

Yeah.

Deanna Russo (: 34:25

And then I have a bucket of here's who I am outside of my business. So that's really where it's not always even when you're dividing it up. Because especially at the beginning, you want people to trust you. And the only way to really earn that trust is for you to take us behind the scenes and show us why you earn that trust.

Brett Trainor (: 34:45

Right.

Deanna Russo (: 34:54

why we should trust you. And so the other two buckets can be, can be really, or peel away that onion as much as you want and dip into that bucket as much as you want. But at the beginning, lead with the professional and tell us why we should trust you.

Brett Trainor (: 35:14

Yeah, that makes sense. And one thing I found too is, and maybe it's just because I like to do it more when I started writing, not that I didn't in the early days in my own voice, but it was overthought and it was longer and it was super structured. And now, honestly, I know that content creators roll over when I tell them this, but you know, I wake up the morning and that's when I create whatever stream of conscious in the morning. It just works better for me because I can write and I think I'll have some prompts and ideas that I think of.

But I don't have a two month content calendar and you know, just, it just works better for me. And I've also found shorter is better, right? You don't have to solve every problem in one post, try to pick something that just right is, and again, that's not my expert opinion on that, but.

Deanna Russo (: 35:46

Nope.

Deanna Russo (: 35:55

No, you don't.

Deanna Russo (: 36:00

Get to the point and tell us why we should pay attention to you. Tell us why we should pay attention and what you're trying to tell us. And sometimes it's quick and easy. You're in, you're out, you're done. Lesson learned.

Brett Trainor (: 36:15

Yeah. And I think even I'm still mostly probably 90 % professional with it. And the other thing I try not to do, maybe this is a better not to do section is right. The people like, well, you can learn these lessons from, you know, running a marathon, like 10 things that sales taught me. And maybe there's people that respond. I shouldn't be critical of that. But again, it's just as things make me think of things, I'll relate it back. I'm

getting better at being able to tell the stories, but stories definitely do work better. We're either at something that didn't work for me or it did work. And typically the ones that didn't work for me that I learned from do the best.

Deanna Russo (: 36:47

They really do.

Deanna Russo (: 36:55

Yeah, yeah, learning opportunities and failures. How many failures have people bragged about on a regular basis? We all fail at some point or another, and we all learn from those experiences.

Brett Trainor (: 37:10

Yeah. And again, I'm going to use this, this kind of your back to your, cocktail party, the networking event, right? So if you're going to tell this story in a networking event, what is the reaction you're going to be? And if people are going to be like, that's boring or I don't care. Don't write it. You're better off saying, Hey, I just heard, you know, something you heard or relate to just again, if you were in a conversation, would you write this again? I wish I would have had this probably would have saved me.

Deanna Russo (: 37:25

Right? Right?

Brett Trainor (: 37:38

you know, hundreds of posts at this point in time, but it was, if it, you wouldn't say it in a small group or a cocktail party, then it's probably not going to add value in online. Is that a safe? Do you think that's safe?

Deanna Russo (: 37:40

Hahaha

Deanna Russo (: 37:49

Yeah. And you know what? You can miss this spot so much in your content. And what is the worst that can happen? If you have a post go flat. What is the worst that can happen? It's social media. People forget. People do not remember one day to the next. And so their attention spans are very short. And so just get back on and try again.

Brett Trainor (: 38:08

Right.

Brett Trainor (: 38:16

And I find LinkedIn, I don't, there's people, love their content and I don't see it that often. So it's not always getting presented to me when I see it. So if you think somebody's reading your content, they're not.

Deanna Russo (: 38:27

The best way to engage with the people or to get to see those people that you want to see is to engage with them, is to comment on a regular basis. And the algorithm gets trained so that they know, the algorithm knows, hey, Brett wants to see this person. So commenting is really good for training.

what you want to see and what you and the other thing is in your feed, there are three little dots in your home feed and every single post has those three little dots and you can click on those and you can unfollow that person. can mark that that topic is irrelevant to you and the same thing goes with ads that you see. You can curate your feed so that you're not getting bored when you come there and that you do see who you want to see.

Brett Trainor (: 39:16

No interest.

Brett Trainor (: 39:24

Super interesting. No, that makes sense. And it may be, I know we're really running out of time and I appreciate you. But we didn't really talk about the commenting strategy and that may be a good early. I'm curious, your opinion, is that a good early strategy? You're just getting going, spending more time commenting on other folks.

Deanna Russo (: 39:42

For some people, yeah, if people just have questions about like, do I post and I just don't know yet from my content, commenting is a really great step into that because what you are writing in the comments could essentially be a post. So yeah, you can get really good ideas by commenting on other people's posts for sure.

Brett Trainor (: 40:08

And is there value? I mean, with you with your 30,000 followers, if you had to post and I would be like the 110th person to comment, is there any value for me? the commenter that far down or does the algorithm really? I know we're getting a little bit tactical, but appreciate the early comments versus the later comments.

Deanna Russo (: 40:27

I appreciate all of my commenters. I appreciate all the ones who react to the posts and comment. But I will say that commenting is so much stronger in my eyes because nobody walks into a networking event and does this. Or does this.

Brett Trainor (: 40:43

Yeah, yeah, yeah,

Deanna Russo (: 40:45

They don't give a thumbs up. They don't give a heart. They don't give a celebrate. They have conversations. And so that's the way that's what we need to do is have conversations. And if people are commenting on your content, please respond to those comments because otherwise they're not having a conversation with themselves. They want to have a conversation with you and with other people. So yeah, it's not, I don't look at it as the 30th

Brett Trainor (: 40:51

Yes

Brett Trainor (: 41:06

Yeah.

Deanna Russo (: 41:14

comment on it. I look at it as this person took the time to comment. I am going to respond and I try to respond every single comments and even the posts that are days old. I'll go back in and try and respond to those comments for sure.

Brett Trainor (: 41:21

Yeah.

Brett Trainor (: 41:30

That's a great idea. Great. Going back to the original, like if you were in a cocktail party or networking event, you're not, if somebody, Hey, I really liked your, I thought this was this and you just ignore them. They're going to be like, huh. Right. mean, it's just completely valid. And even that would even tell me if you're in a, you know, a networking event and you get like a hundred different people coming, you've hit a nerve, you've hit a topic that's interesting to people and it makes sense to keep the dialogue going.

Deanna Russo (: 41:56

Yes.

Brett Trainor (: 41:56

Even if I'm in and you're having a conversation and I hear this and then I add my two cents in even if it's this conversation has been going on for six hours, there is value to it. This really changed my way I'm thinking about.

Deanna Russo (: 42:07

There is definitely value, regardless of how old the conversation is, for sure.

Brett Trainor (: 42:14

maybe in the human aspect to LinkedIn. So worth the, again, what I'm going to do in my framework for 20, cause I'm, I'm do as I say, not as I do with the commenting. I'm okay with it, but I need to, I just need to build it into my, my process that I will continually to do that. so I'm going to, that's going to be my takeaway is to think about it from, you know, as what would Deanna say, is this a conversation? If it was in a networking event, would you do this or would you not do this and use that as your.

Deanna Russo (: 42:17

Yeah.

Deanna Russo (: 42:28

Yep.

Brett Trainor (: 42:43

guidelines and you can always second guess if you could have said it smarter or whatever but that's when you're getting your level 2.0 when you get to that point right so if you do all the fundamentals then then you can start thinking about that.

Deanna Russo (: 42:51

Right.

And then think about how it's just social media. It's just that no one's sitting. If you comment, no one's going to go into it and say, my goodness, I can't believe that exact wording was used. No, no, they may just continue to scroll. They may respond, but it's people are, people are not remembering one thing to the other, but they will get, they will remember who you are.

Brett Trainor (: 42:58

Yeah.

Brett Trainor (: 43:10

Yeah.

Deanna Russo (: 43:24

and what you say and how that you make people feel. That is the bigger, not everyone remembers every single post that I've posted for the past six years, but they will remember how I made them feel when I responded to their comments and when I posted what kind of feeling they get from interacting with me.

Brett Trainor (: 43:29

Yes.

Brett Trainor (: 43:48

Yeah, makes sense. No, it's so true. is back to the same thing. You had a cocktail party. I may not remember exactly what you said or maybe something that's not in me, but I can remember the emotional aspect of how I was feeling. Yeah, no, I think it's spot on. Now I do have a couple more topics, but I think I may reschedule you for another session because we didn't even get into some of the outreach, but I think where the audience is, let's get these fundamentals down. And then I think

Deanna Russo (: 44:07

Yeah, we'll have to do it again.

Brett Trainor (: 44:15

where people really struggle. And I think this is its own episode is around outreach and LinkedIn and things to do. So if you're up for it, I'd love to reschedule a part two on this. and I'll come in with some much better questions. So today I was, wanted to focus, let's get the basics right. And then we can worry about, outreach, but based on this conversation, I think there'd be some really interesting approaches that we could leverage. So, so what's there.

Deanna Russo (: 44:21

Yeah.

Deanna Russo (: 44:26

You got it.

Hahaha

Deanna Russo (: 44:34

Right.

Deanna Russo (: 44:40

Absolutely. Sounds good.

Brett Trainor (: 44:42

Anything that we didn't cover on the the 101 version of this that you think is important

Deanna Russo (: 44:46

No, think we got it all. I think we touched on a little bit in every single bucket.

Brett Trainor (: 44:52

we did, which is fantastic. Well, I appreciate the time. And if folks out there want to connect with you and find you, I'm going to guess LinkedIn is a really good place to do it. Anywhere else, or is it LinkedIn?

Deanna Russo (: 45:00

LinkedIn is a great way to go.

LeverageUpLLC.com is my business website and there you can read testimonials. You can find out more about my services. You can see more appearances that I was on. But LinkedIn is where if you search Deanna Russo, chances are I will be one of the first ones to pop up there.

Brett Trainor (: 45:23

That is true. on the website, you can find the Know, Like, and Trust triangle if you have any doubts. That's a good way to start. So, well, Deanna, thank you so much for joining us. And yeah, I think we need to have you as a reoccurring guest coming back because this is the predominant platform for escapees. So I think the better we get, the more value it would have. So thank you again.

Deanna Russo (: 45:27

Yes.

Deanna Russo (: 45:47

Sounds good and I fit that Gen X category so this totally makes sense.

Brett Trainor (: 45:51

and the escapee GenX category so you you check both boxes which is is awesome. All right well thank you very much for your time we'll catch up with you soon.

Deanna Russo (: 45:54

Yep.

Thank you.