#484: It’s Time to ELEVATE Your LinkedIn with Melanie Borden, Founder & CEO at The Borden Group

23:59But the second thing they see is your banner. What does your banner say? So what I tell clients is, what do you want as your number one goal? Or what is your objective of using LinkedIn? Are you looking to grow thought leadership? Are you looking to get speaking engagements? Are you looking to drive revenue? Do you have an event coming up? What is your number one goal? Is it driving revenue? What is it? Do you want appointments? Because LinkedIn has this option for us of branding ourselves. And it's this real estate that people aren't necessarily using. And I love calling it a funnel, your profile, because essentially you can direct the person who comes onto your profile to what you want them to do next.

24:38So if you want them to book an appointment with you, ask for the meeting. If you're looking to sell tickets for your event, make sure you have the information that's relevant about your event on your banner. If you're looking to bring in new clients, have social proof from another client who can speak to your experiences with them. And then all of a sudden, people have a different perspective because you're showing them what other people like them have said about you. And so your banner, if you're launching a book, make sure that you have your product there, or maybe you're going to market, you work for a tech company and you're launching a version 3.0 of a certain product, have that on the banner and have it synchronized across everyone in your company.

25:20So there's all these micro moments of conversion on your profile. And it really starts with your banner, with you telling them what to do or asking a question to really speak to the person who you're talking to ultimately in your content, who you want to work with. If your anxiety, depression, or ADHD are more than a rough patch, you don't need just another meditation app. Talkiatry makes it easy to see a psychiatrist online using your insurance in days. Talkiatry is a 100 % online psychiatry practice that provides comprehensive evaluations, diagnoses, and ongoing medication management for conditions like ADHD, anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, OCD, PTSD, insomnia, and more.

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26:45That's talkiatry.com slash confidence to get matched in minutes. So one of the things that you brought up gives me a reason to give everyone another challenge because I love giving people challenges. And it's end of year. It's such a perfect time to do these things, guys. So Melanie mentioned social proof, okay, which is testimonials. The easiest thing, and this is my challenge for you right now, is to go out and get some testimonials. Let me just tell you, I don't just tell you to go do the things. I walk the walk. So it's so funny. I was just on a group coaching meeting and I've been saying to everyone, guys, I need testimonials from you before the end of the year.

27:19and someone's like, can I do it the first week of January? I'm like, yeah, of course you can. But the point is ask people for what you want. You know, you can negotiate on the timeline on getting it back, but building an arsenal of testimonials is just further credibility for your business and further storytelling on what the outcomes are that you provide. So not only am I challenging everyone right now, I want you to get at least five testimonials on your business. How do you do that? The next time someone comes to you that says, hey, great job on blah, blah. Oh my gosh, Jim, would you mind shooting that to me an email that I could use as a testimonial online, or you send them the link to request a testimonial from LinkedIn.

27:54I don't love that approach as much, but it can work for some people you're close to, but really just asking people, hey, I'm wrapping up the year. I'm reflecting on our relationship. Your business means the world to me. I'd love to help other businesses like yours. Do you know any other businesses that I could add value to? And, or would you be willing to share feedback on working with me so that I could use that to help attract new clients into my business? Who would say no to that? Everyone's going to say yes. So Melanie, let's walk them through a couple of the different testimonials that we built as we've been working together.

28:23Yes, I love that idea. So since you and I have worked together, Heather, one of the most recent testimonials that we've received together was from the CEO and founder of a recruiting company. Her name is Kelly Robinson. And she mentions in her testimony, this is my second time working with Heather. The first time we met, I had just started my recruiting business, PKR, and she gave me a goal that seemed wild, but with her help and guidance, I crushed it. I am back now with Heather and Melanie learning how to best build my brand on LinkedIn. The live workbook they offer is super helpful and continuously evolving.

28:58We have a messenger to support and guide each other between our Monday coaching sessions. The women that are in our group are go-getters and looking to take their brands to the next level. They are smart and inspiring. We all learn from each other. Heather and Melanie have offered so much valuable information, encourage us to continuously work on our goals. Love them both and love the group of baddest women I have met. I mean, that's amazing that she feels that way after just, I mean, we're almost through the bootcamp, but we're a little bit more than halfway through, but it's definitely something that you don't know until you actually put yourself in the position of, okay, I'm going to challenge myself.

29:34I'm going to do something that might not necessarily be something I would do on my own, but I know that these women have done it before. There's also another woman that's in our bootcamp as well, who I worked before with previously and her name is Michelle Bufano. And she did the bootcamp and said, I found this to be such a useful, amazing experience. Like I've said before, I thought I was proficient in using LinkedIn, but I was so wrong. This has made me realize how much more I can utilize it. I absolutely love the experience and I highly recommend the course. So it's something that I definitely think no matter who they are and what they do.

30:10I mean, you're talking about Michelle's in the legal industry and you have Kelly who's in the recruiting space. It doesn't matter the industry. And this comes up a lot because I have had conversations with people and they say, well, you work with personal brands and marketing, or I'm sure you've Heather, I've heard, oh, well, you're a speaker. So it's different. so it's very different you do coaching so it's easier for you no no it's you have to put the work in but it's every industry it doesn't matter the industry you could be selling robots or you could be selling hardware it doesn't matter what it is you can create a presence and you can monetize your business but it requires work there's no magic pill but there is two magic people who have done it before.

30:56And that's us. When you take direction from people who have done the things you want to do, you move at lightning speeds and leapfrog over everybody else. All right. I want to read a testimonial that just came in for me yesterday that I love. It's actually from my elite mastermind, but guys, just to understand my elite mastermind only opens up once a year. It's an annual commitment. It's huge money, right? So I'm not sharing that with you, enticing anyone to join because you can't join. However, you can join our eight week January and February bootcamp. So let me just give you the feedback from this woman, Stacy, that just sent this into me because I did ask a bunch of my clients, Hey, I want it before end of year.

31:29Send me a testimonial. Heather Monahan's mastermind has been an absolute game changer for me, both personally and professionally. This is what happens you guys. When you invest in yourself, I swear life changes. Heather's contagious confidence and ability to reframe fear as a green light have fundamentally shifted my mindset, empowering me to take bold strategic action and starting and growing my business. Her coaching isn't about motivation. It's packed with practical, actionable how-tos and valuable connections to the right people, accelerating my growth beyond what I thought possible and faster than I ever could have imagined.

31:59Thanks, Heather and our incredible peer group. While I'm in business for myself, I never feel by myself. Having invested in countless programs over the last 15 years, I can confidently say that Heather's program is the most valuable and beneficial investment I've ever made in myself. The confidence, clarity, connections, and support I've gained through her coaching have allowed me to dream bigger, execute smarter and move faster. If you are ready for more and are seeking clarity on your goals and practical direction, how to get there from someone who has been there, Heather Monaghan is a coach you've been searching for.

32:30Okay. So not only do you get Heather Monaghan in our coaching program, you also get her partner, Melanie Borden, which I have to tell you guys, Melanie is my yin for my yang. Like everything I'm not great at. I'm not great at organization. I'm not great at Google Docs. I'm not great at turning things into PDFs and email formats and eBooks. This woman is brilliant. And so we work incredibly well together. You get two totally different coaches that are very, very much aligned, not only as business partners, but as friends, as people, and in believing in people and wanting to do good in the world.

33:04By the way, that's an amazing testimonial that you got. That was incredible. Oh my gosh. Well, can I just say, I'm so proud of her, but I'm all proud of me because this woman and guys, this is, you know, I just spit truth. So this is truth. Her name's Stacy. I'm going to say Stacy K, but she's from the media business. She left the media business since we've been working together. She was unhappy in her business. I had to talk to her for an hour to talk her into making the leap. Again, it's a big financial commitment, my annual program for an hour. I've talked to her about it. I'm like, you're short changing yourself.

33:32You got to believe in yourself. Take the leap. As soon as she did, everything started changing for her within three months. She started saying to me, I think I need to quit this business. I'm not happy. I'm like, I know you're not happy. I see it. Like since the day I met you, you got to quit. Let's give you a deadline. We gave her a deadline. Guys, she left that company and industry six months before her deadline that she had. I just want you to know, I just jumped off of our group coaching meeting this week and her new client that she's working for a very small percentage of a week, just like as a, I think it's like 15 hours a week.

34:04she's making more money than her whole old full-time job paid her, right? So I want you to understand, you might not know exactly where it is you want to go. Maybe you just want to get promoted. Maybe you want a board seat. Maybe you want to speak up for yourself at work. Maybe you just want to be seen as a thought leader. Maybe you want to get paid more in 2025 and you just want an increase. Maybe you want to change jobs. Maybe you want to start your own company. I don't know what it is. I just know that it's possible and that Melanie and I can teach you how to do it because we've both been there.

34:32I made it to the C-suite in corporate America. That was not by chance. That was strategic. Melanie started her own company. Melanie has started marketing for some of the biggest freaking companies out there in the world and has succeeded at it. There's a reason we know what we're doing and we can teach you how to do it just like we're teaching these people that we're working with. Let's talk to them a little bit, Melanie, about not only how we've done it for personal brands, but how you and I together did it for a tech company. Yeah, that was a lot of fun, by the way. So January, 2024, when we started that.

35:02I know. I can't believe that was almost a year ago. Time flies and you're having fun. We have had a lot of fun though. And I think that's really important too, that people need to know is that when we work together, we have a lot of fun and the people that we're working with are having fun too, because they're experiencing the fun that we're having too. So we started working for this tech company, advising them and working with them on their executive team and the company's overall go-to-market strategy with their personal brands aligned with the whole company's holistic marketing strategy. It was an unbelievable undertaking.

35:39And one of the things that we saw and that we see all the time is that many times there are so many companies, and this is one of your lines, Heather. So many companies are in the work that they don't have time to work on themselves and on the company where they don't necessarily know how to go to market as a unit for their company if they have a revenue goal. Or maybe let's say, for example, they have a new product launch, or maybe they're looking for thought leadership and they haven't been able to figure it out. So when this tech company contacted us, they wanted us to work on a couple of different things.

36:14One of their goals was thought leadership. Another one of their goals was they had some new products that were rolling out. They had partnerships in their industry. They also wanted all of their executives to be posting and all of their executives wanted to be posting. They just didn't know how to start. And so we worked together with their team. We also were on all of their weekly meetings as a company where they would get together and we would train their whole company. And there was what, like 150 people in the company that we were training on how to use LinkedIn and how to go to market and really teaching them week by week, different golden nuggets.

36:51Essentially, if you take this conversation that we're having about all these little pieces that someone can use, we were teaching them how to do this over a period of time. And so when we did this, there were some really stunning results that we ended up seeing. So their CEO was not active at all on LinkedIn. And when he was active, he wasn't seeing the results that he wanted. And he really wanted that thought leadership. And this is something so common that we see all the time where you have these influencers, not influencers that you see on Instagram or on social media. You have these industry influencers that have spent so much of their career building up their brand in their industry, but they haven't transferred it, whether it's they haven't had the team to put together to help them, or they just haven't been able to transfer what their success was offline, online.

37:43And that's really where we came in to help them. And we saw just some of the numbers that I have offhand from when we were working together. So just in a few months, we saw for their CEO an increase of 108%, 108 % just in impressions initially, just from the start, from when we started working together, which might not necessarily seem like a lot. But when you're talking about someone who has a relatively sizable network and who hasn't had as much engagement, this is pretty game-changing because all of a sudden people in your industry, and this is one of the other tricks too, when you go to market with multiple people who are on a team in the same company, in the same industry, they have both connected and similar networks.

38:34So all of a sudden, it feels like every single person on LinkedIn is talking about this company. So if you have a revenue goal to hit, or if you have a product launch, this is an organic strategy that is one of the most effective and also cost-effective strategies for someone if they're looking to achieve something by going to market this way. The results were stunning. And what they were able to achieve with just creating the visibility and awareness and getting all of these micro, we'll call them influencers within their company, people who were never active on LinkedIn, all of a sudden we're grabbing the microphone and having conversations and talking.

39:10And it's great for their customer teams too. It's great for customer attention. It's great for customer acquisition, which were a couple of the goals also that they had.

39:29I ask you to try to find your passion. One thing I want to add to that is there's such value in bringing outside eyes and perspective into your organization. A couple of key things, not only to teach the things that Melanie explained we executed on, that they had very clear deliverables that were, as Melanie said, stunning in the results. But above and beyond that, it was our ability to say, wow, there's a lack of clarity in communication. And here's where we're seeing the breakdown. Here's where the bottlenecks are occurring that they did not realize. They didn't understand why things were taking longer.

40:01Because when you're working in the business, you can't work on the business. You can't see the forest through the trees. It was very easy for us to come in as outsiders and say, oh, it's very clear. Here's what's broken. Here's where it's broken. Here's why it's broken down. Here's a lack of clarity. Oh, and they're saying, oh, that didn't ring true and travel down to everyone. No, it hasn't yet. So here's another way that we're seeing other companies, other industries do it successfully. Let's test and try and see which one feels right for you. There's a lot of value. And again, whether it's working with Melanie and I or other consultants to bring people into a different organization and lend that value and insight very quickly, you can fix some problems that maybe people are just learning to live with or work around.

40:42Okay, so enough about that tech company. We need to move on right now. I want to share with everybody because I think they're going to get a lot of value. Melanie, you're incredible at this. You've completely, so many people talk about using AI to save time, save money, grow revenue, whatever. I'm not buying it. I've worked side by side with you and you've completely restructured your company all around AI. Can you talk a little bit about some of the things that you've been teaching to our bootcampers in the Q4 bootcamp and that you'll be teaching in the Q1 bootcamp as well? Yeah, absolutely. AI has totally, completely restructured my business.

41:17And I don't know if it was a fear factor, probably. I think a lot of times when I talk to people, it's fear, lack of knowledge. And it's very similar when someone's going to market on social media too. It's the same kind of thing. Fear, lack of knowledge, not understanding it. But once I fully immerse myself in it, what I realized is that once you figure it out, you can scale everything that you're doing from a content perspective. And also in inner workings of a company, you can also create systems and processes that you may have had in place, but that not necessarily have come to fruition. So one of the things that I talk to everyone about is recording your calls.

41:58Okay. One of the things that I cannot live without, I'm probably too dependent on it, but that's why I have a notebook, is recording my calls with some sort of an AI technology. And I use a company called Otter AI Zero Affiliation. Although if Otter wants to sponsor both of us, we are open to that because we love your platform. So we use Otter for every single call. So I record every single client call. We're recording all of our bootcamp calls. So it gives you almost a safety net if you forget something that you need to ask. Let's say, for example, you talked about something very specific that you might have missed taking a note on.

42:35I like Otter and any sort of AI platform as a CYA. I also like it to use for content creation. So when earlier this year, I had lost a copywriter who was on my team and we had a few deadlines a few days after she left. And I'm a writer, but I didn't think that I was going to be able to spin up all the deliverables and I thought everything was going to be late. So what I realized is that I had all of these recordings that I had already been doing because I had been using Otter for years. I've been using it for several years, but it was more just for CYI versus content. And so what I was able to do was really take those recordings and turn those into content, turn it into posts, turn it into blogs, turn it into newsletters, turn it into eBooks.

43:23And so what that taught me in a very short period of time when I really needed it, because I didn't think I was going to be able to hire a copywriter in a couple of days and be able to teach them everything. And I knew it just wasn't reasonable. I was able to produce all of this content where now I realize I don't necessarily only need copywriters because you do need copywriters. However, I also realized that I needed project managers who could use and write and train AI on client voices with the recordings that we already have. So one of the things that we're talking to the people in the bootcamp about is how do you create content?

44:01How do you create your tone of voice? How do you make it sound like you? One of the ways that you can make it sound like you is when you're recording yourself, as an example, our podcast today, someone's recording us, they can take this transcription, they can upload it into chat GPT, and they can say, Heather Monahan is an award-winning speaker, author, podcaster, et cetera, giving it the information about you, Heather. can you please tell me what her tone of voice is? And it will give a tone of voice guide. And then you have a channel that you can write in. So for someone who is looking to scale their content and says, I don't have the time to do this.

44:42I need an admin or someone else, but I don't necessarily have a budget to bring an agency in. So how am I going to create content? You can create content at scale with something you're already doing, which is recording your meetings, recording your podcast, recording your conversations, doing a voice recording while you're talking on the phone, which by the way, there's a new feature where you can record your conversations on Apple. So there's all different ways that you can find content and what you're already doing. And then you could find posts that are really amazing, that go viral, that are relatable and say, this is a viral post by this person.

45:17I don't want to copy and plagiarize them, but I love the format of this post. I want to be able to create multiple posts like this, but use this recording of me talking about X, Y, and Z. And so creating content at scale is something that is not easy to do, but it's something that anyone can do when they know how the basics work. And that's something that everyone is really excited about in the boot camp. Here's the thing, though. And guys, you know this. We get information from everywhere. Anything that we're teaching, you can go online, Google, and find for yourself. The problem is this, and there's millions of books and TED Talks, and it's all out there, right?

45:54The problem is this. We get over-inundated with information. We're like locked in, like, that's what I want. That's what I want. I love that too. Then life hits. We get back in the business, back in the day-to-day, back in being a mom, back in cooking, cleaning the house. And next thing you know, a month's passed, two months passed, and we haven't implemented AI in our life. And we're like, shoot, I didn't even get the freaking honor subscription. Here's what's different. Information is omnipresence everywhere. Application is what's missing, right? So we've got the information. Now we need the application.

46:22And what happens when you're part of our eight-week bootcamp, January and February, you are going to have us ingrained in you. Here's the how-to. Someone gets stuck somewhere. We're like, here's the workaround. Here's how you get through that breakthrough. We're going to hold you accountable. Next week, I need you to come back and I need you to deliver on this. And we, Melanie, you know we do this. This is where I come in heavy. It's like, you've got to commit to me that next week you're coming back with it. It's okay to come back next week and say, Heather, I tried. I did get jammed up here. What do I do now?

46:48Right? Like, that's okay. we'll help you get through those. And then our group chat helps people get through it as well, because we're there to support in real time during the week. You'd be like, no, don't give up on that. You got to keep moving. You got to do this, that, or the other thing. So we really are there not only to give you information, but to walk you through how to implement it and then apply it to actually your business, your industry, and then hold you accountable to deliver on it. And I think that application and the accountability is where most people are missing. Wouldn't you agree.

47:16Yeah, absolutely. It's definitely something where we all are so busy. I mean, and we're all so distracted and we're over inundated with all the things, you know, house and family and work and this and that and social life and all the things. And how do you find time and how do you make time? And there are ways that you don't have to start from the beginning, learn from other people who have already done it. I call it trial and terror. Don't go through that. You don't need to. You can learn. I mean, and that's why this workbook is so great. And we're updating it in real time based on what everyone in the bootcamp needs.

47:51And that was one of your suggestions, Heather, because when we were building it out, we started going through all of it. And you're like, let's just wait until we hear what everyone in the bootcamp is experiencing. And it was the best idea because now it's relevant. It's up to date and it's based on what their actual needs and their hurts are that they're having so we can help give them the best information possible that they need. Yeah, I'm super proud of what we've built. Our team is incredible. And now we are bringing the new team in. And I hope it's you. And we are going to give you reasons to join because we are big fans of incentives.

48:26We are big fans of ending a year strong. And I just real quick want to share this with you guys. Both Melanie and I have letters on LinkedIn. If you guys aren't subscribed, please subscribe to them. They're so freaking good. And we also put our offers out there and incentives in there so you can get those in real time. Every year I write down what I've achieved in a year, what I struggled with, what my concerns were, what my goals, aspirations were. And then I do that, you know, consecutively every year, like at the end of December, beginning of January, my big goals and plan, as well as my one word that I'm chasing down this year.

48:54It was faith. I haven't come up with my new one yet for 2025. I'm sure it's going to be amazing, but I really am big into tracking and writing things down for reflection because I forget how far I've come. You forget how far you've come. Like we all do, right? So I went through the exercise yesterday, pulled all the papers out of this bin, and I sat down and went through, and it was so cute. 2018, I got fired at the end of Q4 2017. I was reading the 2018. It said, wow, 2017 was a tough year, right? So it's funny now because it's so long ago, but I was remembering how I felt. And then I said, this year, I want to write a book.

49:30I hadn't written a book yet. So I'm like watching through the eyes of Heather right after she got fired. And she's saying like, I want to write a book. I don't know how, but I want to, I want to become a bestselling author. I want to live a life of purpose and passion. I want to heal my back and run again. Yes. I just went for a run today. Like you don't know what the future has to hold. So it's so important that we cast out these big visions in these windows, like right now today, but not only just stop there, like some of the key things I did after I wrote that, I hired an editor. I hired a PT person to help me work on my back.

50:06I hired someone to rehab my running. Like I invested in myself so that I could leapfrog everybody else and work with someone who'd written 19 books because I'd written zero at the time. Now I've written two, right? So it's like in order to get to the places you need to go or you want to go, invest in yourself and you can move so much faster and without the pain points that other people are going to be confronted with, stuck with, and not able to move beyond. So that's why I love our eight week bootcamp. If you have big goals and dreams for 2025, if you haven't been living up to your potential within you, this is the game changer.

50:38We are going to show you how to do it. We're going to help you apply it to your life and your business. And then we're going to hold you accountable to ensure you have deliverables at the end of this eight week money. Where do people go to check it out? I think we're doing it on Tuesdays. We give us a little bit more detail on that. Yeah, sure. So elevate your influence, bootcamp.com. That is the website where you can go, you can learn more information about what we're doing, what all the details are, everything that's involved, the link to get started. We also have a code until the 13th, which is next week until Friday, the 13th, a very spooky day.

51:12So until then 50 % off using the code elevate. And then next week on Tuesday afternoon, 5.00 PM Eastern time, we're also going to be hosting an audio event, a Q &A where anyone can ask us anything. So we're going to be promoting that as well. So come to our audio event, ask us anything. And if you've thought about working with either of us over the course of time, since you've seen us on LinkedIn, you and I, Heather, it's similar to when you're working on a team, right? You and I have similar and connected networks. So some of the people who are in your network are also in mine and vice versa.

51:49And so if someone is hearing what we're saying and it's resonating with you, there's a reason that you're seeing this. There's a reason that you're hearing this. So this is the time to make those decisions. And it's the perfect time of year to do it too. Use the code, elevate, get 50 % off, make the investment in you. You will not regret it. We have worked with countless people over the last couple of years together through our programs and the transformations have been nothing short of amazing. We will be here to help you apply it to you, help take you to the next level and make you the thought leader that you should have been seen as in 2024.

52:25Giddy up, let's do it for 2025. Don't sleep on this. Melanie, thank you so much for being here. And of course, I will see you in our bootcamp this week. I decided to change that dynamic. I couldn't be more excited for what you're gonna hear. Start learning and growing. Inevitably, something will happen. No one succeeds alone You don't stop and look around once in a while You could miss it I'm on this journey with me