Karen Yankovich Joins Us On The Steve Jobs Inspired Join Up Dots Podcast
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Introducing Karen Yankovich
Karen Yankovich is today’s guest joining us on the Steve Jobs inspired Join Up Dots business coaching podcast.
One thing for sure is this New York lady is a powerhouse in being social online
Readily admitting “She has been around the block several times” our guest has become the number one go to resource on how to take LinkedIn to the next level.
So this is an episode that I am literally straining my ears for the nuggets of gold she might just drop in front of us.
How can you take LinkedIn to the next level….isn’t it just a case of connecting with people that you have never met before?
Is it just a case of spamming aggressively, or is there a more subtle approach to connecting, and making people want to connect with you?
Well, our Karen certainly has the rapport building skill ingrained in her psyche after working in literally every corporate role you can think off in her career.
Customer Service – Sales Representative – Sales Manager – Account Manager – Marketing Manager – Director of Sales and Marketing – Vice President – President – Owner – Consultant – Administrator.
And now she can add podcast interview guest too.
Well let’s bring onto the show to start joining up dots, as we discuss the words of Steve Jobs with the one and only Karen Yankovich.
Show Highlights
During the show we discussed such weighty topics with Karen Yankovich such as:
How “Confidence” is this shows buzzword, and vitally important for anything you do in life!
Why she can’t get her friend to cook for her….even when she offers to pay!
How social media is about making sure you escape the noise and speak directly to your customers!
And lastly……
How LinkedIn is the resource to blow your business to the next level and then the level after that too!
How To Connect With Karen Yankovich
Return To The Top Of Karen Yankovich
If you enjoyed this episode of Join Up Dots then why not listen to some of our favourite podcast episodes such as Rick Calvert, Dan Lok, Sally Armstrong or the amazing Noah Kagan
Or if you prefer just pop over to our podcast archive for thousands of amazing episodes to choose from.
Audio Transcription Of Karen Yankovich Interview
Intro [0:00]
When we’re young, we have an amazing positive outlook about how great life is going to be. But somewhere along the line we forget to dream and end up settling join up dots features amazing people who refuse to give up and chose to go after their dreams. This is your blueprint for greatness. So here’s your host live from the back of his garden in the UK David Ralph
David Ralph [0:25]
Hello, everybody out there in internet land. Welcome to Episode 21. Yes, every single day for the last three weeks we’ve been coming to you is and when really, I’ve been absolutely delighted with this or powerhouse conversations that we have been having on a daily basis. And today is exactly the same. Because today’s guest is a powerhouse in being social and being social online. readily admitting she’s been around the block several times our guest has become the number one go to resource on how to take LinkedIn to the next level. This really is an episode I’m literally straining my ears for the nuggets of gold, she might just drop in front of us because how can you take LinkedIn to the next level? Isn’t it just a case of connecting with people that you’ve never met before? Is it just a case of spamming aggressively? Or? Or is there a more subtle approach to connecting and making people want to connect with you? Well, our guest certainly has the rapport building skill ingrained in her psyche. After working in literally every corporate role you can think of in her career. There’s been customer service sales representative, sales manager, account manager, marketing manager, Director of Sales and Marketing Vice President and vendor president, owner, consultant administrator, she’s really done a lot. And now she can add podcast interview guests, too. So let me introduce to you a lovely, talented New York living lady. No, not Carrie Bradshaw from Sex in the City. But the even better. Kevin Yankovich. How are you today? Karen?
Karen Yankovich [1:56]
I am great. Wow, an intro. That was amazing. I’m happy. Good to be here.
David Ralph [2:00]
Good. Well, we’re happy to have you here. So you live in New York currently? Are you a kind of Sex in the City kind of girl?
Karen Yankovich [2:09]
Well, probably I would have I don’t even think I could pretend to say yes. Yeah, I spent most of the past bunch of years of my life raising my kids. So. But now that they’re grown, it’s actually I’m actually turning more Carrey Bradshaw than I have been in the past. So now that I have a little more time on my hands,
David Ralph [2:29]
so I’m surprised that you do have any time on your hands because being the go to linked in person, you must be connected to the world, there must be no one who doesn’t know you, or is connected with you in somehow.
Karen Yankovich [2:43]
Well, I mean, I do. I do know a lot of people, that’s for sure. And I and that’s one of the reasons why I love social media, because I love being social and I I’m kind of a geek by nature, like my whole background has always been in it and project management. So So social media is the way for me to kind of build those two, my geeky, you know, talents with my love for being social and kind of bringing the social experience online into the tech world. It’s kind of my sweet spot.
David Ralph [3:11]
Are you naturally social in group scenarios, because I’m not I’ll be, I’ll be honest, it’s been a big sort of bumping of people laugh, whenever they meet me, put me in front of a crowd of 4050 100 people in a like a training course and I come alive. But me on a mic. I’m very comfortable. Put me in a one to one situation, I don’t like it at all.
Karen Yankovich [3:32]
You know what I probably I’m similar to that. Which is interesting, right? Because a lot of people say they don’t like to be speaking in front of crowds, I can speak in front of a bigger crowd as you want me to speak in front of, you know, it’s different when it’s when it’s one on one. And I it’s, it’s certainly something that you need to work out. Because especially if you’re an entrepreneur or business owner, you really need to make those connections, those one on one connections, as well as those one to many connections. So it is something if I had my choice, it would not be my top choice of places to connect. But a you know, it is it certainly is a way to really expand your world and expand your horizons.
David Ralph [4:07]
So So what’s the biggest crowd? You’ve spoken in Toronto?
Karen Yankovich [4:11]
Well, I did a Massachusetts conference for women and November at 10,000 people. So that was pretty big. And I was a speaker at that event. That’s around, isn’t it? Well, it was it was it was a there was a lot of people and doing a lot of things at the same time. But then I don’t really know how many people actually, I actually spoke to, but it was a massive event and so much fun.
David Ralph [4:35]
It wasn’t like it. I thought for a moment you like Bruce Springsteen in front of about 10,000 people?
Karen Yankovich [4:41]
No, nope, nope, nope, no, no, but it was a large crowd. And I just honestly don’t know how many people were there. But I know that’s what the attendance at the conference was. So I kind of feel like it gave me reach to those 10,000 people with my name on the building. And, you know, the follow up and all that other stuff. So
David Ralph [4:57]
this is one one of the things that has been coming coming out in many different conversations, people that have said to me literally on a daily basis, but the moment they started getting their name out there, and the moment they started connecting was the moment that their business actually took off. It really sort of emphasizes no man is an island, but in your case, no woman is an island did have you really had to force it by being social.
Karen Yankovich [5:26]
You know what, um, yes or no, I mean, you don’t have to force it. But you have to be consistent, right? If you, you know, if I, if I, if I close down shop and pull the, you know, pull the shades down for a couple of months, people I think would quickly forget who I am. So it’s important that you that you’re consistent with your social media with your networking. And that doesn’t mean it has to be daily, but it has to be consistent. People expect to hear from you once a week, then, then it’s kind of important that you that you make sure that they do hear from you once a week.
David Ralph [5:54]
So how do you make your voice heard above everybody else on Twitter, and Pinterest, Facebook, and all those kind of things? Because there is so much, you know, I’m now doing this. And I realized very early, I’ve got to get some kind of online presence. But leading up to that I’ve been an advocate against things like Facebook, I would look at it over my wife’s shoulder and think, why somebody’s talking about what they’re having for dinner. Why is somebody going, oh, I’ve been so busy all day, but they’ve got time to go onto Facebook. And it kind of, I couldn’t see the logic of it. Now on a business side, I can, but I’ll be honest, I still can’t see how you can make your voice more listenable to then all the other stuff out there. So how do you do it? How have you managed to do that?
Karen Yankovich [6:40]
You know how you do it, you turn that around? And you don’t you don’t become the person that you want everybody to hear you become the person that is speaking to the people. In other words you want you don’t want to always be shouting, you want to be offering, sir, you want to be offering help. So for me Twitter, I love Twitter. I think we met on Twitter. Yes, we so so I love Twitter. And Twitter’s a great way. Like if you picked 10 people that you think would be valuable to taking your business to some place and next level, whatever it is you want. And you kind of just, you know, I’m not gonna say stock, but I’m gonna say you’re gonna kind of pay attention to what they’re doing. And you know, retweet them, but retweet them with comments or kind of talked to them, it’s easy to get your name in front of people, and you can talk to anybody. Right? Even if you know, Oprah, Bruce Springsteen, anybody, I mean, maybe it’s not them that are seeing it. And certainly they probably have thousands of people every day that talk to them on these social media sites. But it illustrates the point that you can reach anybody directly through Twitter, so and I don’t reach out to people and say, buy my stuff, or I’m so great, I reach out and say, let me help you with this. Can I help you with that? Who needs some help with this? And, you know, how do you think about that, or i or i comment on their stuff in an authentic way, so that I am authentically saying, I listened to your show, I loved your show, I never have thought of this or that. And and that’s kind of how you get your name out there, not by shutting it out there. But by by bringing people into your world. So it’s inbound marketing, it’s just keeping your name Top of Mind by by having that consistent presence. And then, and then, for me anyway, I like to always be a resource. And that tends to be what brings people into my products and services, as opposed to me saying, I got the best to this or that.
David Ralph [8:22]
So you are all about building relationships as a start.
Karen Yankovich [8:27]
Absolutely, absolutely. And that’s one of the reasons you know, I said I love Twitter. But LinkedIn is the the best and easiest way to to forge those one on one relationships. Twitter is like one on many, right? You definitely can start to connect on an individual basis with people and get to know people like we did. But it’s, it’s there’s a lot of noise on Twitter, LinkedIn, there’s a lot less noise, it’s a lot easier. All those people that I said, to retweet and to comment on their posts, nobody’s really doing that on LinkedIn. So when you do that on LinkedIn, you’re much more noticeable, much more recognizable, for helping them out by commenting or sharing their LinkedIn post, because not everybody else is doing it.
David Ralph [9:05]
Right. LinkedIn is fascinating. And I’m going to come to it. But leading up to that obviously, this show is join up dots and it’s all to do with the stumbles, the falls the the career path that you chose. Now, every single person I’ve spoken to has got to a level of success, or they’re working on a level of success. But they can honestly say that there wasn’t a great panning involved in there, it was very much that they they fail, they were frightened, they tried things, they reacted, and then they found their path, you did a hell of a lot of jobs. And I was looking down that list. And I’m looking at it now because it’s done in front of the screen, there’s not many other than cleaner, suppose that that’s not on there. Which which were the ones that really sort of set you apart from the others and started pushing your career to where it is now.
Karen Yankovich [9:57]
Well, you know, even though even the jobs that were sales related, were
even the jobs, you know, the jobs that were sales related to the jobs that weren’t sales related, they were all really about connecting with people, right? So customer service was connecting with people when I was in sales, it was always technology, I sold data networks, and I could build a mean high speed data network across the world, if you’re interested. I could do that, you know, but it was, it was all about really connecting with the people and seeing what was going to be helpful to them. And then building it from there, I was never really the person that sold things that were just like, you know, in volume, I was more about relationship selling. So it was so all of those jobs had relationships in common. That’s really where, where I had my what my strengths were. So as I evolved into different jobs and different industries, and some of those were, you know, I had a couple kids. So I, you know, I left I came back, I worked from home, I started companies, I you know, I did all these different kinds of things. And what I found, by the way, when I started the companies that once the the higher up I got in the company, the less I was doing what I loved, which was connecting with I was worrying about payroll and keeping the lights on and what the budgets were. And I didn’t want to do any of that I wanted to to continue to do what I was doing. So I sold that company and started working as a consultant. And then kind of what happened was, as technology, you know, as things change, right, social media wasn’t really in existence, when I was doing all of this stuff. I kind of learned online marketing, just because I was helping out a friend who was looking to do some things. And I got really good at it pretty quickly, I came really naturally to me. And what was happening was I was having people come to me saying, you know, will you help me do this? Can you help me do this? How did you get, you know, thousands of Facebook followers? How did you get all these Twitter followers and eventually, I was like, Well, you know, when does the wall have to fall in on you to realize that this is what you should be doing? Like this is what people are asking you for. And and you love doing it. So, so then I just started to shift gears from my consulting practice from consulting, it was always business consulting, but instead of consulting on their communications network, I was coming holding on their, their, their marketing, right, and their social media and their marketing. So it kind of just shifted what I was doing. And then it just all started to click because this is really what I love doing.
David Ralph [12:10]
So you found your unique self, your authentic self. So,
Karen Yankovich [12:16]
I think so?
David Ralph [12:18]
Well, I think so as well, because everyone says the same thing. Every single person says, once they found that thing that was uniquely them, things started to become easier, and they shifted gears and they started to make more money, they enjoyed themselves. And that really, you know, I keep on coming back to it on a daily basis. But that is the message of the show. If you are in a job that you don’t like, and you are struggling to get through a day, there’s opportunities out there and you can get another job to a start, if you want to remain the employee. You know, I’m not saying for a moment, create your own business and go off and, and you know, set the world on light. But you don’t actually have to live in a life of struggle. And it took me is to realize that I used to travel two and a half hours up to London every day. And I used to be there at six o’clock in the morning, and I believe at 11 o’clock at night and I’d come back and it killed me. But I felt that that was the only path you could have to build a career. Now I look back on that. Now I join up my dots and look back on it. I think No, there was too much effort involved. Too much effort must admit I was meant I was on the wrong path. To think that yeah.
Karen Yankovich [13:27]
Yeah, I do think that. And I think that when you look at the things that you do that you would do, whether people paid you for them or not. Those were the those are the things you should be focusing your career on. Right? Because those are the things you’ll you’re doing not because you want the money but because you love doing them. And then if you look at those things, and you think about how can I monetize that? And and that’s not a bad thing, right? Because we will have to pay the bill. Yeah. So you know, you think about the things that you will do, whether people are paying you or not things that you’ll talk about when you’re at one of those networking events, or even just at a party or with friends or family, what are the things you’re talking about? And what are the things that get you excited to talk about? And then think about, what can I How can I monetize those things into? And, you know, often we think, Well, everybody knows how to do that? And the answer to that is no, they don’t like we think that the things come naturally to us come naturally to everybody, and they don’t. So. So those are the things we sometimes that’s the last thing we think about doing for a career, when it really should be the first thing we think about doing.
David Ralph [14:29]
Do you think everything can be monetized? When so if somebody’s sitting out there, and they’ve got some kind of idea in their head of a passion that they love? Can they make money from it?
Karen Yankovich [14:40]
I think I would say yes. I’m gonna say yes. And I, you know, will they know? Can they? Yes, I think they can. I mean, there’s something everybody needs something, you know, things that things like, I’ll give you an example, I have a friend who, you know, is looking to make some extra money. And she, she she really loves to cook, and I have said to her 10 times, cook for me, I’ll pay you I have no time. Cook for me, you know, like I’ll give you whatever it is I’ll pay you what the ingredients are. And I’ll pay an extra $50 a week, hundred dollars a week. She’s like, That’s ridiculous. You can cook for yourself. I’m like, all right, I’ve offered you 10 times. Right now she loves to do that she’s looking to make extra money. But she in her head, she just can’t connect the dots. That that is that that’s her path to making some extra money. You know, because she just thinks that’s why can’t you just cook for yourself. Everybody can cook for themselves. I can cook for myself, but I don’t have time. So how many other people like me are there that might pay her every week, make a couple of meals for them so that they don’t have to make their lunches so they don’t have to bring, you know, go out at lunch every day if they’re running around. So so there’s so I do think that very often. I can’t think of anything that you can’t monetize. I’m sure that somebody can prove me wrong. But I think it’d be hard
David Ralph [15:54]
because I don’t get your friends logic on that. Because what’s the difference between that her cooking in when you paying for it and you go into McDonald’s? I’ve never been to McDonald’s once and they’ve said, Oh, just have it for nothing. You pay Yeah, you pay for a service, don’t you? She’s providing?
Karen Yankovich [16:09]
Absolutely. But she doesn’t, she doesn’t see the value in it. So she doesn’t see the value in in that because she think because it comes so easy to her. So that’s what I mean, when I say there’s so many things that the things that we’re really good at are often the things that we don’t even see should be our, you know, our path. Let’s I mean, like, I don’t know, let’s say you’re a really great, you know, I don’t know, tennis player, and you just, you would play tennis all day long every day, you’re not going to make money as a tennis player. But, you know, maybe there’s ways that you can monetize that. And and if you find if you stop and think about ways that you can do that. And it might not be the traditional way by giving lessons or whatever, maybe it’s, I don’t know, maybe it’s creating tennis parties for kids. Or maybe it’s, you know, there’s just so many angles that you can create, but you think, well, I just like to play tennis people are going to pay me for this because it’s my hobby, not my career, you know, so if you take that same logic, you know, you abuse sounds like you have an entrepreneurial brain. So for you, it’s probably hard to even imagine that. But think about the people that you know, and the thing that things that they love to do, they’re probably not making a living at them. And they probably don’t even realize they can be,
David Ralph [17:12]
well, I’ve only got that brain now that brain has kicked in in the last six months. And it’s kicked in big time. Because basically, I’ve done all my bridges, I decided there was there was a moment in my life that I had to make a transition to earning my own income. And since Ben Yes, I think that Brian has shifted gears and I was talking to a chap the other day and I called it the hustle muscle, where you suddenly think bloody hell am I going to pay the bills? I gotta do this. I’ve got to connect with people. Now. You know, that’s one of the reasons I connected with you. If we went back eight months, nine months, I wouldn’t have dreamed of doing that. Because I would think, oh, Kevin Yanukovych in New York, she’s never going to talk to me, she’s never going to be on my show. But when when you do burn those bridges, and when you do mentally think right, the only way that I can operate now is moving forward. vein is a different brain brain pattern isn’t a or whatever it is, it’s it’s an ability to overcome the fear that will stop people taking that that little bit of action.
Karen Yankovich [18:12]
Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. And, you know, you’re, you’re kind of stepping in and, and having confidence in yourself, right, it takes a little bit of confidence to reach out to people. And literally, me, certainly me, but everybody that is, you know, more well known for what they do that they’re you know, you sit them in a room, and you can talk to them just the way you talk to everybody else. So it’s really just about understanding that we are all the same. And there isn’t any, you know, anybody that’s any better or whatever, then you they’re busy. They’ll tell you, they’re busy. But maybe they’re not. And maybe they’ll help you out, you know, so it’s always worth the conversation.
David Ralph [18:44]
How do people overcome that fear, Karen, because you sound like somebody that really has no fear at all. But somebody who is sitting there listening to this, and on the bus, or they’re sitting in their car, whatever. And they’re thinking, Oh, it’s so lovely to do something for my self, but from the moment you kind of go through school is you got to get a job, you got to get a job. And we’re sort of programmed to do that. Now with the internet exploding, or it has been exploding the years, you’ve got opportunities of being entrepreneurial, which wasn’t there before. But there’s still that that brainwashing isn’t there. But it’s, it’s becoming an employee, which is the most important thing. Don’t you overcome that fear to throw that out the window?
Karen Yankovich [19:25]
Well, I think it helps if you’re doing something that you know, you’re really good at. And if it’s something that you like, it’s probably something that you know, you’re really good at. So, you know, if you’re if you’re if you’re if you work in a situation where you have a boss and a boss’s boss, and there’s 13 levels above you, then you’re naturally going to feel like you’re not, you know, as worthy, I guess as the people that are above you. But if when you’re when you are doing something like you said, if you’re doing something to support yourself, and you have to say, Okay, how am I going to pay the bills this month, then you’re just it’s kind of just trusting in yourself. And how do you do that, I mean, it takes guts, it takes guts to do what you did, by the way, it takes guts to do what you did, and and, you know, good for you for doing it. And I hope it works out for you. And it’s you know, I don’t know that it’s always the right choice to kind of just jump off the cliff, you know, but I’ve done that a few times myself, so I get it. But just know that if you jump off the cliff, and it doesn’t work, there’s always more jobs, you know, like, it’s, it’s not, it’s not, it’s a decision for today, it’s not the decision for the rest of your life. And if things change, and as you can see from my jobs, my jobs have, you know, a lot of those jobs with the same company, I didn’t have 30 different companies that I worked for, but you know, you can always move on to something that that is more suited for you. And I always say even like, you know, in, in, in New York, and in the United States, and I’m not sure, you know, probably the world economy is not so great. So people are looking for jobs, I never worry that I’m not going to have a job because I always know that I’ll be able to find a way to make some money, you know, and if it means I have to cook lasagna and see if I can do I can sell it to that’s what I’m going to do. You know, like there’s always, if you have the confidence in your self that you will always be able to provide for yourself, then you’ll always be able to provide for yourself, and you just have to have that confidence. So I guess the long answer to your question is, you just have to just have to find the confidence somewhere in you what is it that you’re confident in and and then just kind of close your eyes and jump in and start doing it. Start volunteering, if you have to, you know, it doesn’t have to be you know, you have to quit your job to do something, find something that you love to do and start volunteering to help people with it. And then as you build up some testimonials and another that’s another thing LinkedIn is really good for it’s it’s really good for letting people you know, recognize you for the things you’re really good at, then you can start to transfer, you know, transition to something a little more. A little scary, or maybe so so what what
David Ralph [21:43]
frightens you? What frightens Karen Yanukovych?
Karen Yankovich [21:48]
Oh, well, I mean, listen, I I support myself, I support my family. So I guess there’s always a part of me that, you know, while I say I know, I can always make some money, there’s always a part of me that is going to say, Well, you know, let’s push the there was a part of me that worries about that. Right. But you know what, I guess what frightens me? You know, I mean, I guess it takes me to being a mother. Right? What frightens me is that my kids aren’t going to have that confidence to do what I think is the right thing for them to do or what they think is the right thing for them. But I think it’s the right thing for them to do what they think is the right thing for them to do and having the confidence in themselves to, to really do what makes them happy. You know, I You’re right. We are in this world. And you know, I’m a little older than you. So the world I grew up in was everybody. You know, there’s there’s this, there’s actually a pretty interesting story. It was the guy that was the CEO of I think, Hallmark cards, did you I don’t know if you know the story, no, but he used to give talks to schools, about, you know, you know, hits the president of Hallmark cards. So when he would give talks to kindergarteners and first graders, he would say, who in this classroom is an artist, and almost every kid would raise their hand and say, I’m an artist. By the time he got to third, fourth and fifth grade, almost nobody raised their hand and said they were an artist, because we teach our kids that you have to be a doctor or a lawyer, you need to be good at math or science, right. But I think that’s shifting a little bit, I think the world is shifting a little bit to, to really valuing more right brain talents. So I hope that that continues, and that our kids learn that they you know, if they are an artist, that they should be an artist and be proud to be an artist, and be the best artists, they could be and not be told they shouldn’t be an artist.
David Ralph [23:21]
But you know, little kids will believe that they can be anything. If you sat in a room with five year olds, and you say what you’re going to be when you get grow older, they’re going to say astronauts are going to say doctors are going to say all these kind of things. But by the time you get to 16, and it’s funny, because my two youngest ones, my daughter is eight, and my son is 12. When my daughter was sort of like two or three, she used to say, My name is Ashley cane, and I can do anything. And so she was so gung ho, she almost drowned a couple of times, because she would just throw herself in in the pool thinking that she could swim before she could swim. And we were saying not like that kid. Yeah, we were saying no, you can’t you can’t No, I’m actually can I’m actually can. Now she’s eight. And she’s already had you can see that negativity on I’m not going to do that. I’m not very good at that. And it kind of creeps in. By the time they’re 16. You sit them and you say what do you want to do? They can’t think of what they want to do. Oh, I don’t know, just get a job, I suppose. And it is sad, isn’t it? how those dreams and aspirations but a bear to be nurtured? So a five year olds just kind of get lost in the mix somewhere?
Karen Yankovich [24:25]
I agree. I agree. And I think I do think it’s changing a little bit, I do think that we’re being more supportive of our kids and in the different things that they that they want to do. I you know, I listen to there’s a lot of pushing everybody’s you know, you see a lot of people pushing their kids into different sports and things like that. And I guess that’s always going to happen. Because we want what’s best for our kids. And I think we always think we know what’s best, but but I think, and that’s one of the things that I’m really passionate about is helping business owners. Be be what you know, be really good at what they love to do. And again, I mean, I always think everything goes back to LinkedIn, right? I want you to tell the world how good you are at things, nobody’s going to tell you that you’re better at things than you think they are, you need to have that confidence. And you need to be proud of that confidence. And I think that I think that I’d like to think that I’m a role model for my kids, that they you know, that they see me just kind of jumping off these clips every now and then. And, you know, I think the scariest words my kids ever hear is, How hard can that be? You know, because the next thing you know, they’ll be ripping a wall down or something I’m like, come on, how hard can that be? And so I’m a fan of figuring it out. And I think that that taught my kids to do that, and I and I liked and I think that that’s why I’m good at helping my clients because it’s like, let’s figure it out. If that’s what you want to do, we’re going to figure it out. And we’re going to make you the best at that.
David Ralph [25:43]
figuring it out is it is so simple, isn’t it, you know, but it is so powerful as well, you know, I’m doing this, I’m doing this on a daily basis, and wonderful come into my mind. And it was purely, I was listening to a podcast of somebody else. And I thought that sounds bomb, I reckon I could do that. And it was just bad. But at fault just kept on going round and round in my head. And you do figure it out on you, you work out how to do these things. The old Napoleon Hill book, Think and Grow Rich, you know, it is all about having that idea and working it working it working it until it becomes realized.
Karen Yankovich [26:17]
And so many people want to help you. Right? There’s nobody’s you know, we worry that there’s going to be all of these roadblocks, but we create those roadblocks. Right, most, you know, there’s so many, especially in with with the internet, as it you know, and technology and resources so available to us. There’s I mean, you know, short of paying me, you know, if you want to help me set it up, I can, every resource, I can set your whole business up using free resources, you know, because I know where they all are. And you can find them without me, you know, but if you want to do a quick or you can hire me, and I’ll help you. But there’s so many free resources to get your business off the ground, and to do what you want to do and to promote it. You know, I mean, people are paying still for billboards, and radio ads and newspaper ads, it blows my mind when they’re doing that and not using social media, right? I’m like, social media reaches so many more people, and it’s free, you know, so so there’s so many free tools to be able to take that idea of yours, and help you make it a reality.
David Ralph [27:15]
But it is a mindset with the internet, isn’t it? You know, my my father, he’s got brick and mortar, I’m Casper sharp. And he’s 75. And he still wait until recently, he was working full time. And I went on a road trip through Italy with him. And he was saying, I’m never going to get out of this shop, you know, I’m gonna die in this shop, you know, and it’s quite obviously, he possibly was. And I said to him, Look, I will take control of this, I will build you the best website you’ve ever had, we will double the profits of the shop, and then you’ll have enough to have somebody else come in and take over from you, you know, and he couldn’t see it. He just could not see it. And even though I was doing that for him and working at it, and the profits were going up, and customers were coming in that they’d never seen before and people on a daily basis, we’re going I never knew you were here, even though I was just down the road. He couldn’t see it at all. Because if you are of that mindset, the internet is is it’s a mystery isn’t it is a mystery, and you can’t see how it’s going to impact your life in a positive way, until somebody actually demonstrates how it occurs.
Karen Yankovich [28:20]
Yeah, and even when they do like you did, it’s still sometimes it’s hard to see. Right? I mean, you know, I was talking to somebody the other day about social media. And I was like, it was a networking event. So I wasn’t really pitching in my service. But he was asking me about my services. And I said, Well, you know, he had an alarm company alarm business. So I said, Well, did you pay for yellow page ads, because oh, we paid $80,000 a year for yellow page ads, I go, Well, we do with $80,000 now, because I know you’re not taking out yellow page ads anymore. You know, put it into your social media, you know, cuz you’re gonna get 10 times more than you ever got out of yellow page ads and invest in that. And he’s just like, they think of a lot of people think of social media, the way you started out this conversation like Facebook, who cares what I had before lunch, you know, they don’t really see the power in, in using social media strategically. And by the way, if you’re not using it strategically, you’re just making noise. So you know, you do have to have a plan, and you do have to have a strategy and but having all of that in place, that definitely can replace that budget that you had for marketing in these ways that just don’t work anymore.
David Ralph [29:22]
So I think I’m making noise. I don’t think I’m I’m doing it well enough at all. Is it just because I’ve got so much on my plate at the moment? I’m not focused on it? Or is there an easy way of being socially efficient?
Karen Yankovich [29:39]
Wow, that’s a big question. Um, you know, there’s no easy way that mean, it’s not hard. It’s just, you just need to step back and see what’s working. And you know, what you’re doing and how you’re doing it. You know, so for your dad, for instance, you know, if he said to people, when they walked in the door, and people buy things at like a register? Yes. Okay, so let’s say they bought something that’s 20 bucks, right? He can say to them, you know, listen, anybody that checks in on Facebook gets 10% off their most expensive item, it doesn’t cost them anything except the 10% off the most expensive item. And he just told every one of the persons Facebook friends that they’re at his store. And so and he didn’t have to do anything, right, it didn’t take any time out of his day, it’s just have a sign checking on Facebook, you know, check in when you’re here and tell you, you know, on Facebook, and you’ll get 10% off your largest order on Wednesdays or something if you want, if you don’t want to do that every day. And then you’re advertising it and you know a lot of these people that work and have 500 Facebook friends, and they just want 500 people that they’re at your father’s store, you know so so there’s there’s strategies that you can use that aren’t necessarily time consuming. And that aren’t really you making noise. You know, another another really great strategy for people that have in person businesses, I’ve actually seen, I’ve clients that do this, they have stores, let’s say they have, you know, they have stores and they have kids that work in their store. So even if it’s a deli, or if it’s a clothing store or whatever, want to make the job description of the people that work for you make make it a part of their job description to interact on social media. So I had people that their their employees have a requirement every day to Instagram one picture, and geo tag it from the store they work out. So now again, it’s the same thing. They’re telling all these people that they’re in your store, and that your store exists, and they’re taking a picture of something. So that may or may not work for everybody, right. But if it’s a deli, and they’re going check this roast beef sandwich that we have on special today and take a picture of it, and the Instagram and and they tag it. Now that’s going to go to you know, that’s going to anybody that happens to be seen on Instagram, I look at that and go, Wow, I completely forgot about that Delhi, I wonder what else they have? Or I need one of those sandwiches. So these this their strategies that don’t even require you to actually be doing anything. And then the other strategies are involved, you know, like, you know, how often are you posting when you posted? are you engaging people? Are you having maybe contests? Or, you know, what is? What is your strategy? What’s your end goal with your social media? Are you looking to get clients? Are you looking to get leads? Are you looking to get speaking engagements? Are you looking to sell books, you know, what’s your, what’s your end goal, and then you kind of work backwards from there.
David Ralph [32:17]
So we’ve linked in, which is you know, where you’re supposed to have your your names become famous and synonymous to? how, you know, everyone knows Twitter, everyone knows Facebook, but with LinkedIn, as I said in the introduction, as far as you kind of see, it’s just that you, you connect with people. And that’s it. And hopefully you get higher and higher and higher up the line and till you get somebody that can you can provide value to and maybe they will throw a few crumbs your way? Is that a very naive view of it? Is it a lot?
Karen Yankovich [32:47]
Oh, my gosh, yes, it is. There’s Yes, it is a very naive. Yes, there’s more to it than that. Um, yeah, I mean, you can put
David Ralph [32:59]
your new yorker You say, Well,
Karen Yankovich [33:03]
you know what, here’s the deal with LinkedIn, you are not looking to talk to thousands of people, and you’re not looking to connect with thousands of people, you’re looking to connect with your next customer, and your next customer after that. It’s about connecting with one person at a time. So you know, so so with LinkedIn, there’s, there’s some value to numbers, right? If you go on to my blog, you can there’s a, I did a post recently about, you know, LinkedIn and why the numbers are important. And and the reason that is, is because you when you do a LinkedIn search, and when other people do a LinkedIn search, you can only search your first, second and third degree connections. So so you want to have the more first degree connections you have, obviously, the more second and third degree connections you have, and that and that grows exponentially, then every time you connect with another person. So So now you’re building this network. Now you have a lot of people and you’re like, what do I do with this? Well, you know, I find that well, first of all, you have to have your LinkedIn profile, you have to be comfortable with it, you have to be confident that it represents who you are. So there’s confident word again, right? So. So if I google your name, right, now, you have a pretty common name. But if you Google my name, or if you Google, you know, pretty often most people’s names, their LinkedIn profile is going to come up pretty high, if not on the top. So you can ignore your LinkedIn profile, but the rest of the world is not ignoring it. Yeah, right. If I’m buying something from you, if I’m spending more than 20 bucks with you, I’m probably throwing your name into a search engine, and your profiles, your LinkedIn profile is going to come up. So it’s your golden opportunity to tell you tell me what you want me to know about you. Right? So that’s step one, fill out your profile, tell the world what you want them to know about you, then from there, it’s simply it’s so simple. And it’s and that’s why it blows my mind that people just, you know, they they, they get they think LinkedIn is boring. I hear that a lot. But LinkedIn makes me more money than any other social media site. And money is not boring,
David Ralph [34:50]
because I’m on my knees. But I really am amazed. I know, I’m sitting here listening to you, and everything you’re saying makes sense. And when you say you make money from LinkedIn, I still kind of go How?
Karen Yankovich [35:01]
Okay, so here’s how. So the more so so let’s say, so I’m going to assume you’re getting involved, I’m assuming your profiles, rocking, and you know, and you’re confident that it represents you the way you want to be represented, right? And for you, if you’re promoting your podcast, that’s what you would want to focus your LinkedIn profile on. So then from there, you might want to join some groups, right, and you wanted may want to join some groups on podcasting, or even just on business, general business, maybe you’ll find some guests, right, maybe you’ll find, you know, listen, a lot of people want to get their name out there. So so if you join business groups, you’ll probably book your show every day, you know, out for six months, if you just join some groups and LinkedIn and just and I’m not saying pitch, do you want to be a guest? I’m saying just start to get active in and start to answer questions for people that ask, start asking people questions, you know, I’m doing this podcast, what kind of topics Would you like to hear, you know, like just be really, really just be a resource and, and be genuinely just, just networking, not pitching, just networking. And what happens when you do that is people start to connect with you. And as those people start to connect with you, and this is what everybody should be paying attention to this next tip is when people start to connect with you go in once a week, search your connection, sort your connections by the most recent connection so that the most recent ones are on top, and just send a quick note to the last five or 10 that says something like, so nice to connect with you. I was just checking out your profile, I see that you do this, that sounds really interesting. What kinds of things can I help you with? Is there people I can connect you to, you know, tell me what you’re looking to use LinkedIn for. And if I can help you, I’m happy to. And I would say if I send out 10, I probably get seven back that say, thank you so much for asking, that’s so nice. And here’s what I’m looking for. And of those seven, I probably turn to over into actual phone conversations I want I want to take that offline then, and see if I can have an actual sales conversation and whether that’s selling my products, or, you know, whatever it is, maybe they’re looking for speakers, or whatever it is. And sometimes they will sometimes what what helps them is I need to hire, you know, maybe I’m hiring them for something, I hired a copywriter that way, you know, they I followed up with a note saying, you know, really interesting, and after my conversation on the phone with him, I hired him as a copywriter. So so it’s kind of like about making those connections on LinkedIn, and then taking it offline. But that tip to just drop a note to people after they connect with you saying, thanks so much for connecting, what can I do to help you you’re going to get you’re going to, you’re going to get so many more authentic connections that way. And if they don’t respond, then they probably are one of those people that are just connecting for the sake of having, you know, more connection. Yeah. But if they do respond, you know, that they’re interested in you.
David Ralph [37:39]
I’m writing that down as we speak, I’m gonna I’m gonna do that tomorrow. As soon as I wake up in the morning, I’m going to do that. We’re recording this in April 2014. And I’ll give that date just in case somebody comes across this sort of 10 years down the line or whatever. But this month or last month, maybe there was a kind of global news story when somebody try to connect on LinkedIn and this CEO of a company were quite nasty in response. Did you obviously saw that story over in in America? I did? I did. What What did you think when you saw that?
Karen Yankovich [38:13]
I think it’s 2014. And if you think anything you say on social media isn’t going to be on the front page of, you know, the New York Times Sunday, then you’re naive, you know, anything you do on social media could be, you know, couldn’t can be shown to the whole world. So if that’s, you know, I can’t even believe anybody would would write something like that, in this day and age,
David Ralph [38:33]
because in the story, in case you want us all Google this, and you haven’t seen this, and it is 10 years down the line. A chap I think it was a chap try to connect with a CEO in in America. And normally, you would just kind of ignore it or whatever. But this lady came back with, with pretty much a diatribe of abuse really.
Karen Yankovich [38:54]
Like Who do you think you are trying to connect with me? I’m so wonderful. Yeah,
David Ralph [38:57]
absolutely. And so the person who was saved it back just basically took it to the press. And yeah, it was a big story. And that that woman, it was the center of the world for a while wasn’t it?
Karen Yankovich [39:09]
It was and you know what, sometimes that’s, you know, sometimes it’s sometimes it happens inadvertently. But this was just clearly who this woman is, and maybe she was having a bad day, but you know, she never gonna have a day like that, again, can assure you, she’ll never do that again. Right. So you just have to, you know, if that’s how you treat people in person, that’s how you’re gonna treat people here. That’s who you are. But if, you know, if you’re a business owner, you know, you need to be careful about what you write, you know, you can always just connect or just if people connect with you, and you don’t want to connect with them, you can just, you know, there’s really nice ways I actually just saw something. Today, I didn’t actually read it, but it was it was an It was like a here’s a really nice way how to say no, thank you. When somebody wants to connect with you on something. You know,
you just have to there’s there’s ways to get out of things in a in a
in a kinder way, then
Unknown Speaker [39:58]
just don’t.
Karen Yankovich [40:00]
Yeah,
David Ralph [40:00]
just don’t call them naive. That’s the nicest way.
Karen Yankovich [40:06]
You called yourself. I just jumped in. I like
David Ralph [40:09]
what you did. I like you. You pushed it back. That was that was a womanly way. I live in a house full of women. And I can always turn the conversation back on me. So So I salute to, you’re exactly the same characters across the pond. So if we can sort of, you know, your LinkedIn now, and you’ve gone through all these jobs, just joining up the dots again, where where do you think it’s going to go now? Where can you see Karen Yankelovich in the sort of next two or three years? Is LinkedIn going to become bigger and bigger and bigger? And it’s just your thing? And you’re going to stay with it? Or can you already see sort of natural progressions to the next level?
Karen Yankovich [40:44]
Well, you know what, I mean, I am a social media strategist, I don’t do just LinkedIn. But I pretty much because of the fact that LinkedIn and Google are so tightly interwoven, and because of the fact that LinkedIn gives you the opportunity to really shine your genius to the world, it’s kind of where I make everybody start. So I do think LinkedIn is just going to continue to grow, I think that people are starting to see the benefits of LinkedIn, you know, I have a, my business coach, actually, I’m all up on her to get on LinkedIn more. And she emailed me a couple of weeks ago, and she said, Oh, my goodness, I offered, you know, I went on LinkedIn offered, you know, free sessions to six people got three sessions, and all three of them bought my program, it’s like, see, you know, so when people start to play with it, they see the power in it. And it’s the and it will start to grow. But you know, it is it is, you have to really be be, you have to if you if you think it’s not going to work for you, it’s not going to work for you. So you have to, you have to just go into it with an open mind and do your best to do some networking connecting there. And most importantly, you need to have a great profile so that when people do come to you, you know that it’s representing what you want them to see about you. So that’s not going to change anytime I can see in the next few years, right, LinkedIn is still going to be the place where you’re going to be able to shine your own genius, where all the other social media sites are not necessarily that same focus. Yeah,
David Ralph [42:09]
absolutely. And it is becoming a slightly more based Facebook, isn’t it really, with the sort of posts and stuff that’s going on?
Karen Yankovich [42:17]
It is it is and now LinkedIn also now gives you the ability to, to publish their, and that’s really, you know, like, every time I actually have not everybody has the ability to publish on LinkedIn. But I do believe they’re going to roll it out to everybody at some point. But you basically it’s, it’s a publishing platform. So when I create a blog post from my website, I also share that blog post on LinkedIn as a LinkedIn article. And it gives me twice the bang for the buck for that blog post, which just gets my name out to people even more quickly. So there really are, they really are starting to do a really good job of positioning themselves as the place that you really want to, to center your social media efforts on.
David Ralph [42:57]
So as a podcaster, and I’m releasing an episode every day, Ben, I should be connecting my episodes through LinkedIn.
Karen Yankovich [43:06]
Absolutely.
Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, it’s just a matter of, you know, when you when you release an episode, you go on LinkedIn, and you just create a post, like you would on Facebook, today’s episode, you know, and then you can go, you can actually use media in your profile itself. So you can have a running list of all of your episodes, you can put it in publications or in projects if you want, but you can literally link each podcast episode right within your profile. If you have pictures associated with the podcast, you can even you know, you can even use those. So there’s so many ways to use more rich media and LinkedIn then there was a year ago,
David Ralph [43:40]
where you have convinced me Cameron, you you have turned me around in 44 minutes to, to the powers of social media has gone, I I can honestly see that I am dabbling, I felt that I was being productive, but I’m not I’m doing it in the wrong way. And I bet there’s, there’s thousands and thousands, millions of people out there, that’s probably saying exactly the same thing. So um, so thank you for that, um, there’s lots of sort of nuggets and gold. And I’m sure there’s people out there scribbling away on their desk, on their arms or whatever they’re sort of wearing at the time, trying to get all that content. Just before we sort of say goodbye, voted the very end of the show, is what I like to call the Sermon on the mic. And this is when be current Karen Yanukovych, goes back in time and gets to have a, a one to one with her younger self and, and drop some pearls of wisdom and a bit of advice on how she should lead her life. So I’m going to play the music now. And as I always do, once the music fades out, I’m going to hand the presenting duties over to you, and it’s all yours. This is a sermon on the mic.
Karen Yankovich [45:09]
So younger Karen and all of you teenagers and 20 somethings that are listening.
I wish that I wish that you had more confidence as a teenager or, or you know, as much confidence as a teenager or as a 20 something as you do now confidence has seems to be the word of this, this podcast and you know, you listen to a lot of people that think that they know what was best for you. And really, if you know it’s okay to have confidence when you know that something is right or wrong for you. It’s okay to be strong in those convictions. And you don’t have to just listen because people think you know, they’re older than you. And they tell you what they think, even if it’s me, if I’m telling you what to do, if you believe otherwise, I want you to tell me why you believe otherwise. Because you know best it’s inside of you. It you know what is best for you is inside of you. And if you listen to that as a teenager, and really have faith in your ability to know what’s right for you, and, and build on that faith, then you are building the foundation for an amazing, amazing life. So have confidence, have confidence as a teenager has confidence as you as you get older and just grow that confidence. Learn. I mean, you know, have the confidence to know that you don’t know things as well, you know, to say, I am not really sure about that. Let me get back and you know, check and get back to you. That doesn’t mean you know everything. But it means that you’re confident in what you do know and you’re confident what you don’t know and you’re willing to learn, learn, learn, and just grow that natural ability that you have.
David Ralph [46:43]
Karen Yankovich she’s been an absolute delight to have you on the show. We really have learned so much in such a short period of time, if anyone wants to connect with you, and I’m sure there’s there’s thousands of people out there, hopefully do it.
Karen Yankovich [46:56]
Well, if you’re interested in LinkedIn, I actually have a free LinkedIn video at WWW dot LinkedIn stores.com sta ers. If you go to LinkedIn stars, com, you’ll get a free LinkedIn. I think it’s like a half hour video and talks to more about LinkedIn and the benefits of it. So that’s one way you can learn more about some of the things that I do. But my website just Karen Yankovic com has all my social media icons. And I’d love for you to connect with me, I have a couple of different free things on my website, the best the first three things you need to do on LinkedIn. And actually, I’m not really sure, in April of 2014, when we’re doing this, I’m about to, to change up and put a new, free option on my website, which is just how to grab all of your personalized URLs on all of your social media sites. So you’re again presenting yourself as a professional. So that’s about to be released too. So if you go to my website, keep an eye out for that. And that’s all free. And then on my website, there’s ways that you can work with me so you can just drop me an email or send me a comment on the website and I’ll get in touch with you and can talk about what we can do to get your social media rocking for you
David Ralph [48:04]
couldn’t have said it better myself. Karen Yankovich, thank you so much for being on the show today. Just being so open and generous and of course, talkative. And as I say to all our guests, please come back in the future because the beauty of join up dots is it keeps on growing into the future. And I believe join up dots is the only way to build build a future
Outro [48:26]
doesn’t want you to become a faded version of the brilliant self you are wants to become. So he’s put together an amazing guide for you called the eight pieces of advice that every successful entrepreneur practices, including the two that changed his life. Head over to join up dots.com to download this amazing guide for free and we’ll see you tomorrow on join up dots.
