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Embracing Curiosity: How To Pull Out of Lulls & Find A New Path
44 Plays1 year ago
In this solo episode of the Attention Podcast, host Dan Sanchez discusses the challenges of growing an audience on LinkedIn and shares his recent findings. He emphasizes the importance of consistency, even during low points, and advises creators to try new approaches and topics to engage their audience. Sanchez discovers that posts backed by evidence and results gain more traction than mere pontification. He also explores the effectiveness of lead magnets and announces his plan to do a deep dive on the topic, sharing interviews and insights to help others maximize the benefits of lead magnets.
Timestamps:
[00:01:07] Consistency is key to organic media growth.
[00:05:47] Comment signals give content insight and value.
[00:08:57] Deep dive, authenticity, lead magnet, insights, success.
[00:10:14] I love connecting and hearing from you.
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Transcript
Introduction and Agenda
00:00:02
Speaker
Hey, welcome back to the attention podcast. My name is Dan Sanchez. My friends call me Dan Chas. And today it's just me. There's no guests. We're going to be going solo on the attention podcast today because I have some important lessons to share for anybody who's ever grown a audience organically on social media or any kind of place that has where you can just build an audience just through posting alone.
Lessons from LinkedIn Experience
00:00:27
Speaker
This message is for you today because I've been active on LinkedIn for three stinking years now. Like I've in social media years, it's just a long time for LinkedIn. It's a long time. Um, I've been committed to this platform posting multiple times a week for three years. I've seen highs. I've seen lows. I've, I've seen season. I've seen creators come and go on this platform. I've seen people build audiences fast and disappear. I've seen people grow over to long haul and build some pretty cool stuff.
00:00:56
Speaker
And I've been there, growing fast, and then it kind of slowed down. I've kind of plateaued at about 25k followers. And over the last couple of weeks, I've been hitting one of those lows, one of those spells where it's like, I keep posting stuff, and I'm just not getting traction. Very few people are commenting, posts aren't getting much reach, and it's just post after post, and you're trying out different things, and it can get discouraging.
00:01:20
Speaker
So that's what I want to talk about today and what I did to get out of it and what I'm recommending to others now because there's another friend of mine who has been hitting this thing kind of lull with his posts. And after sharing my hypothesis on what's happening, he was like, dude, you got to share this on LinkedIn. So I will share this on LinkedIn, but first for the podcast crew, this is coming to you first before it ever hits LinkedIn where I can give it a little bit more
00:01:48
Speaker
depth than just the short posts I'm going to post on LinkedIn later.
Adapting Content Strategies
00:01:52
Speaker
So everybody hits those lols. And one of the best things to do during them for sure, for sure, even when this advice is old and doesn't work anymore, what you'd still have to do is just keep going. You have to keep posting. I've had multiple lols where I've gotten out of it just because I kept trying, kept trying out new stuff, kept trying new stuff. And then eventually I kind of find something and find a new rhythm, new way of doing things that gets the reach.
00:02:17
Speaker
Engages people in new ways gets conversation started and gets things moving but that's what you have to do because the platforms change the algorithm certainly change and the expectations of what people expect to see on the platform changes so just society changes and what they used to like seen before is
00:02:38
Speaker
doesn't quite jive with them anymore. They get bored of things. They get used to hearing this and some information just becomes, well, pass age. They've learned it and they've moved on and now they're on to exciting things. And this could be a tough balance for creators or anybody trying to grow an organic following, whether you're an individual creator or a business. What do you do?
00:02:59
Speaker
So you still always try to stay focused on the problem that you solve. But the way you solve that problem might change. In fact, the problem might shift a little bit too, depending on where the market's going. But you should always try to be careful not to talk about totally new topics. You don't want to go be that great or always jump in from crypto to AI to whatever the new big trending thing is.
00:03:21
Speaker
But you do need, might need to change your approach. You might need to change how you talk about it or the angle that you take for it. Even trying out new, totally different approaches to the topic with a new premise. You might want to do it different ways, funny ways, authoritative ways. Speaking solo on a mic like I am or getting up on stage or having more conversational tones to it. You just have to keep trying different stuff.
00:03:47
Speaker
until you find the new way that works.
Exploring Lead Magnets
00:03:51
Speaker
So I recently was going through this and I discovered something. I found a new way that worked when I started getting excited about a topic around lead magnets. So I started posting about it and I had a revelation.
00:04:03
Speaker
Because the way I'm approaching talking about lead magnets is, for starters, is not a new topic. Like, lead magnets have been around for a long time. I remember the first lead magnet I opted into as myself, my favorite blogger, or design blogger, when I was a graphic designer, in 2007. It's a long time ago. Lead magnets have been around even longer than that.
00:04:22
Speaker
to get people to offer a piece of content in exchange for opting into an email list or some kind of subscription feed of some kind. That's the lead magnet, right? Is to offer up a subscription in exchange for some new information. Um, and there's different kinds of lead magnets. I'll dive into that in a different, different episode. But I was talking about me going on a journey to learn more about them because just recently, Alex or Mozi, where is it?
00:04:49
Speaker
I've been talking about this a lot, $100 million leads, and I'm still reading and dissecting it. It's the best marketing book I've ever read. And if you are watching the video of this, you could see a massive bookshelf behind me where I have a massive, I have a pretty large library, and this is only half the library, it's the other half's on the other side of the room, of marketing books that I've read. And one of the things he emphasizes in this book are lead magnets. And as great as his framework was, and I'm like, oh my gosh, like,
00:05:14
Speaker
Alex Hermosi's playing on the, like the Olympic team for marketing. And I'm like, I'm the boy's JV volleyball team. Like still trying to figure out lead magnets. I'm like, clearly this is why he's gotten a hundred times, a thousand times more traction with this tool than I have as a marketer. But now that I have a vision of what's possible here, I want to do it.
00:05:35
Speaker
But as comprehensive as this book is, there's still a lot to be learned here. I'm like, wait a second. I still have a lot of questions about how he's doing this. I'm like, well, he didn't say it in the book. He didn't say it in his course. He didn't say it in the audio book either. So it's going to be up to me to connect the dots.
00:05:50
Speaker
between the major milestones of what he's laid down for lead magnets. I started posting about this to LinkedIn and a lot of people were nodding their heads being like, dang, we want to know that too. Yeah. Tell us what you learned. I put together a database to like, Oh, we want access to that database. I'm giving them early access to it. It's like pre, like barely pre-built outlined. And I could tell I'm getting traction because I'm hungry for it. I'm going somewhere.
00:06:11
Speaker
So it led me to an understanding of how things are going currently on LinkedIn.
Power of Authentic Storytelling
00:06:18
Speaker
There's lots of ways to win, but there's two ways that are working particularly well on LinkedIn. And I'd say this advice would go for Twitter, probably even YouTube, or any place where you're posting just general business.
00:06:30
Speaker
advice if you're in the business market talking about business or some kind of career advice or you're speaking to specifically to a business industry. So like cybersecurity professionals or whoever you're ever trying to recruit from a business perspective is people are getting tired of pontification.
00:06:47
Speaker
And I will say I've done it. Like I've been there saying like, we should do this. We should do that without really having. I've done pieces of it, but like, I still really haven't proven at all. I haven't, I don't have a case study to show you with hard evidence. People are hungry for that. I noticed those posts are getting pretty significant traction. If you have good stories to tell of awesome things you've done, especially if they're unique and new and exciting and you're getting fantastic traction, you're getting good numbers, you're got, you got great scores. People love those posts.
00:07:18
Speaker
It's always better to show rather than tell. And that's something that's been true for a long time. But now it's more true never because so many people are pontificating. The problem is and the reason why so many people pontificate is you can't always
00:07:35
Speaker
You just, if you're posting every day or multiple times a day, it's hard to come up with enough stuff to show, right? Unless you had like a decade of massive wins that you had never talked about before. It's hard to have enough of a library of your big case studies in order to talk about it every day and not bore the heck out of people with the same case studies that you've already beat to death. So, and those only come around. Maybe if you're working hard and experimenting, you know, a few times a year, maybe more if you're trying extra hard and putting a lot of time into trying out and experimenting and doing new stuff.
00:08:05
Speaker
So what do you do in the meantime? What do you do?
Learning in the Light Concept
00:08:08
Speaker
This is what I found out recently with this whole journey up on lead magnets. And it's not the first time I've done it. That's why I'm like, oh, this, this is a thing because it's worked for me before, but it's working particularly well now. If you can't show, don't tell. Instead, take people on a journey of where you're going. You're like, you know, I don't know the answer.
00:08:26
Speaker
but this is what I'm going to figure out. This is why I'm going to figure it out and particularly excited about this tiny niche within the thing that I usually talk about and just take people there with you.
00:08:36
Speaker
Don't tell them what you're going to accomplish. Just tell them, hey, I'm going to figure out how to, I'm going to learn everything there is to learn about this thing. This is what I'm doing. Who's got stories to share about this? Those are people to interview on your podcast. Who's got book recommendations? Those are books you should read and then report back on your podcast or your LinkedIn feed or whatever, but take people with you on a learning journey. It's something I've blogged about recently at danches.com called learning in the light.
00:09:01
Speaker
Because if people watch you learn and grow, they'll know that you know, and you will gain authority on the topic. And it won't be fake authority because you'll actually be reporting back on the things that you're learning, maybe even experimenting with and having something new to show because you're learning about something new in a new way.
00:09:17
Speaker
And I can tell you that this hundred million dollar leads book has kicked off a journey for me on lead magnets. And I really want to learn it. I'm genuinely curious. I want to know everything there is to know about this stuff. So I'm documenting all the lead magnets, creating a database of every type of lead magnet and examples for all of them. Right.
00:09:34
Speaker
People are getting excited. And I'm like, I've done this before. I did a big deep dive on B2B growth when I was hosting that podcast on thought leadership and then ended again for account-based marketing. And then I've helped one of the producers on the team do it for demand gen. It works when you take people with you on a journey. On those journeys, I was diving deep by doing a podcast episode every day and reading every single book on the topic to do it all.
00:09:58
Speaker
and sharing like my personal insights and little solo episodes along the way and those series worked really well so I'm like dang it's time to bring that back because clearly pontificating everyone's getting tired of that on LinkedIn probably getting tired of that everywhere so let's get back to sharing what we know and it can show results on or get back to at least bringing people with us on a new journey
00:10:22
Speaker
It's kind of one or the other. Pick one. Try it. See how it works for you. If you've been in a lull, try this. Try this for a month and go deep in a topic. The worst that could happen is that you become really educated on a tiny little niche, like lead magnets, like really small, little tiny facet of what you do and you get really good at it.
00:10:41
Speaker
There's nothing wrong with that. There's no, there's no loss. So if you guys are excited about this and you're listening and be like, dang, Dan, I, I think I want to learn about lead magnets now. All good news. I've been posting about it on LinkedIn so you can go and follow what I'm talking about there, but just stay tuned on this podcast because you're going to be bringing in lots of guests who have freaking killed it with lead magnets and they have their own stories to tell on insights that share and numbers to show.
00:11:08
Speaker
people who won't be pontificating on lead magnets. They're going to be people who have put up some score on the scoreboard.
00:11:15
Speaker
And I'll be posting my solo episodes as I learn from them, read some books on it, and continue to dissect what Hermosi has put down and experiment with it with myself and with clients in order to see what's
Inviting Audience Engagement
00:11:28
Speaker
working. So if the topic of lead magnets is interesting to you, again, subscribe to the show. Follow me on LinkedIn. Make sure you subscribe to the Sanchez newsletter at danches.com slash newsletter. And you get to walk through this whole journey with me.
00:11:43
Speaker
And if you are like me and got stuck in a rut where nobody was watching your post or reading your post for a while, try this out. Try going on a learning journey. Even model, follow my journey and see what I do and just do the same thing but for your audience in your own unique way.
00:12:00
Speaker
That's the best advice I have for you right now. So give it a shot. Let me know how it goes. If this episode resonated with you, I always love to hear from you directly. So reach out to me at linkedin.com slash in slash digital marketing, Dan, tap that follower connect button, shoot me a DM. Let me know. I love I get them every once in a while. And man, it makes my day every time I hear from somebody who's listened to the show and told me that it was awesome that they did this because of the result.
00:12:54
Speaker
So, next week, let me know.
00:41:52
Speaker
you