Produced By - How This Creator Builds LinkedIn Brands That Make Millions | #53: Shoaib Ahmed

Starting point is 00:00:01 Hello and welcome to Produced Buy. Just quickly before we begin, if we enjoy the show, please consider supporting it by joining our Patreon. You can choose from a list of memberships and we'll receive some exciting rewards. Thank you and back to the episode. Hello, Shweb. Thank you for joining us today and welcome to the show.

Starting point is 00:00:22 Thank you so much for having me, Thomas. I'm very excited for this. So can you please introduce yourself? Yes, I am Shweeb. I am a personal brand. agency founder, founder of Yellow Hippo. We essentially build personal brands for creators, CEOs, C-Suite execs, founders and help them scale visibility on LinkedIn through storytelling, value-driven and case-ready content. I also host a podcast, my own podcast, so that's called Rebels.

Starting point is 00:00:51 We're just about to launch season two, so I'm very excited for that. And I've just announced also that I'm a strategic advisor for a B2B tech startup, which again, very exciting. So, started my journey about three years ago, just through organically through LinkedIn. But I'm sure we're going to get into specifics of that. Yeah. So it's like a lot of exciting things to discuss. But before we dive into it, I always wondered, why is your company called Yellow Hippo? Great question.

Starting point is 00:01:25 There's no like, you know, particular reason. There's kind of a few mini reasons. So one of them is when I launched the business. personal branding, you know, wasn't really a buzzword like it is today. There's maybe three or four other known agencies who did personal branding, but it was fairly novel. It was fairly new at the time. This was Jan 2020, you know, kind of around that time when I start freelancing.

Starting point is 00:01:50 So I went to a name that kind of stood out, a yellow hippo. Obviously, it's like you never see a yellow hippo, so it stands out. But equally, as soon as you hear the name, you don't know what the business is, so it piques your interest and curiosity. and it's a great conversation starter, like you have just in this conversation. Most of the salescalls I have, that's the first question that people ask. I'm joking, a banter about it, and then we, you know, get into the core.

Starting point is 00:02:16 I think it's a really good way to build rapport. And then on another level, yellow is my favorite color, hippo's my favorite animal, put the two together. Take away the W, though. A lot of people always forget there's no W in yellow. That was the next question. Why is it missing? Yes.

Starting point is 00:02:31 So there's no W in yellow. because that domain was taken, to be honest, at the website domain. But equally, I think it looks aesthetically nicer. When there's five letters of each word, they both have a double consonant and then a O at the end. It's like yellow hit, so, yeah. That's the reason. Sounds good to me and to make sense.

Starting point is 00:02:55 It actually reminds me of a book from Seth Godin, Purple Cowell. I'm not sure if you're aware of it, but it's... similar concept so it's really smart yeah I've definitely heard of the book now since calling the business Yola Hippo it's been mentioned to me a few times so yeah so it's awesome so I always like to start with your background so can you tell us more about where we come from maybe something about your childhood as well for sure so I am from Pakistani heritage but born in the UK born in West Yorkshire near Leeds I you know State school educated didn't really come from a family of business owners.

Starting point is 00:03:38 My dad's an engineer. Mama worked part-time in the school. Kind of did quite well at school. Yeah, I did not really quite well at school, but I never thought I'd start a business. That was never the plan. I was always kind of business-minded. I love the concept, especially of like marketing and branding and community building,

Starting point is 00:03:56 but never really, you know, pursued it academically. I did a geography degree at university, It's a very, very different. Really? Geography. Yes, geography. Actually, also interesting in geography. It was my favorite subject at school, so I'm surprised.

Starting point is 00:04:11 It's a good subject. I chose it because I enjoyed it rather than I saw a career in that field. And I always thought I'd get into marketing business in some kind of way. I never really had a set plan, though, to get there. And then what happened was I did a year in industry, so like a work experience internship for a marketing agency in London, meets there, absolutely loved it as a very small company, a startup, got a lot of responsibility, had a great team around me,

Starting point is 00:04:41 got a lot of creative freedom to do loads of different things from newsletter marketing to copyrighting, blog writing, social media events. So it's really like a whistle-stop tour of marketing as an industry. Got a lot of good opportunities off the back of that. And then I start posting on LinkedIn. that was a trigger for all of this. I started posting on LinkedIn because the pandemic hit, and I was thinking, oh, you know,

Starting point is 00:05:05 it might be difficult to get a graduate job at this time. So I started posting on LinkedIn a little bit. I then created a little e-book to help people who are in the same position as me, help other students start on LinkedIn and create content and build that brand. It was a terrible e-book, actually, looking back at it. There's great fun of time, but LinkedIn's moved on massively. So I don't even know where it is that. I don't think you can't even access it.

Starting point is 00:05:32 We'll be curious to find it and see what it'll be like. Let's keep that in the text of the internet. But, you know, I launched that and maybe like 500 people have downloaded it, which was pretty good at the time. I was just a student, you know, I didn't really have a platform, a voice or a following. And then somebody saw that e-book who also at the time was starting a personal branding agency. he reached out to me, said, look, I've got a couple of clients. I need some support.

Starting point is 00:06:03 He was also a student at the time as well. So we were two students kind of juggling a bit of personal branding on LinkedIn with our degrees. That founder went on to scale his agency. It's called Coroga. Sam Winsbury is the founder. So I was kind of, I guess, his first employee in a way. Did that for kind of six, seven months. And then just had a different approach.

Starting point is 00:06:26 personal branding, had different ambitions with my wanted to go, had a lot of opportunities to come through my personal brand on LinkedIn. So I thought, okay, you know, I handed my notice and I thought, I'm going to give this a go. I don't know what I'm doing, but I'm going to give this a go. And now it's been, what, two and two years,

Starting point is 00:06:43 three, four months. And, you know, well, the rest of this history. And just as a single side note, I'm curious, because back before when you mentioned, you studied also geography. What did you have in mind that what kind of career would you want to pursue in geography? I didn't have anything in mind, to be honest.

Starting point is 00:07:05 I didn't have a plan. I didn't, you know, I've never had a specific career that I've wanted to pursue. I did geography because I enjoy geography. I went to university because I was told that's a thing you do. Looking back now, I probably wouldn't go to university and I'd get maybe a job and an apprenticeship, I'm working a startup and scale that way. But, yeah, there was no real intention behind it, to be honest. just, I enjoy this, so let's do it.

Starting point is 00:07:29 I'm a big believer in everything. Like, if you enjoy it, great. If you don't enjoy it, change something, so you do enjoy it. And I apply that to the business and hire on my business day to day as well. Yeah. And did you then finish your degree successfully? Yeah, I finished my degree. I got first, which is like the top grades you can get.

Starting point is 00:07:51 You know, did really well. It was a good university. And then I actually got a grad scheme. with a corporate company, Johnson & Johnson, which is like a pharmaceutical company. I rejected that and that's when I started working full-time with Sam for him. With his personal branding agency, I did that for kind of seven, eight months and obviously started on my own. Yeah. And why did you actually start with the LinkedIn in the first place?

Starting point is 00:08:19 Because, for example, from my own experience, back then I saw LinkedIn more as a, I don't want to say boring, but more like a people. corporate social media. What did you start there? 100%. It was definitely very corporate jobs platform. That's what it was. It was a career's platform. It's very professional, very dull, to be honest.

Starting point is 00:08:41 It wasn't a creator or a content platform like it is today. I was on there because I was just trying to get a work experience and build my CV and hopefully get a job in an industry that I enjoyed, which I was kind of leading towards marketing. So there was no real

Starting point is 00:08:56 intention. I never said, you know, I'm going to build my brand. I didn't even know actually what a personal brand was. I don't think that word was like in my vocabulary at the time. So, yeah, I just started posting on there with the hopes of something could happen, potentially. I'd maybe get job invites or I'd build a bit of a CV or a bit of reputation. So if somebody did then search my name on LinkedIn, there'd be something there that would separate me from millions of other students who were also graduating during a global pandemic. And for us who back then weren't present there or maybe were but not really active, can you try to compare it to what was it like before and what was it like now on LinkedIn?

Starting point is 00:09:38 Wow. Very different is the answer. Back then, I mean, there were some creators. There were definitely some people creating contact on the platform and, you know, copywriters and people who were just like documenting the journey. It's really cool now. Some of them are still doing it today. A lot of them kind of stopped posting and, you know, went on, with their lives in a different direction.

Starting point is 00:09:59 It was very, I would say, the platform wasn't as booming as it is today. There was not a lot of engagement going on. I think a lot of people used, you know, logged in, sent a few DMs, a platform for a few jobs and then logged out. That was it. Today, I feel like LinkedIn as a platform is part of people's every day if you're in the credit and marketing entrepreneurship space.

Starting point is 00:10:23 It's the platform for you to create content on, but not only create content, it's also the platform to generate leads, generate PR opportunities, attract investment for a company, attract talent for your team, source opportunities, generate leads, find customers. The pool of opportunity is immense, and it's right out of your fingertips. So today, obviously, there's even more types of content. So you've got like different formats, the introduction of video content. That was very, very, you know, it wasn't even really a thing back then. a few people sharing video content but today I think people are a lot more strategic

Starting point is 00:10:58 about building their brand intentionally rather than just posting job announcements or I'm looking for this or I've got this so it's a great time for me to start building my brand then because I got early with a advantage I was able to leverage like I was able to understand the platform quicker than most people at that time because I've been doing it for so long

Starting point is 00:11:21 so I was able to kind of find contact make grammar network a little bit, understand how to use the different features, optimize my profile, etc. And were there any creators that were inspiration for you back then? Creators who were inspiration? I'd say the one that kind of stood out to me was so familiar from Puttle Marketer. Funny story, actually, before I start posting the victim, got into personal branding, I worked for, you know, that marketing company that I mentioned earlier. And we actually connected then, me and Sophie.

Starting point is 00:11:58 So Sophie again was the early move. I remember when her business had pro-malmistress, I'd maybe a thousand Instagram followers. And now her community is like across different platforms. It's like 300K plus. That was amazing to see every day I'd go on like Instagram. I got, Jesus, she's like getting like 700 followers in like a day. And I saw that scale and I was like, wow, there's an opportunity here.

Starting point is 00:12:21 Then, I think later she moved on to LinkedIn and leverage platform building there. So I actually started a few pages on Instagram before I was on LinkedIn. Nothing really happened. I wasn't consistent. Maybe if I was consistent, I'd have an alternative version of a pretty little marketer. Who knows? But, you know, I found LinkedIn works because the algorithm was amazing. There's a lot of organic growth potential.

Starting point is 00:12:44 The features on the platform allow me to do a lot. The way the profile is built in terms of like the UX allows you to essentially treat it as a sales landing page. And also the best thing about LinkedIn is the audience. You have direct access to key decision makers at practically any company. So the return on investment, the return on time investment is like undeniable, especially if it's a B2B business service industry. Obviously if you're targeting customers and you need mass customers, Instagram, TikTok, that's a kind of platform to be.

Starting point is 00:13:17 but for B2B creators or B2B agencies, international entrepreneurs, investors, you know, LinkedIn is a red and bottom of what we do. Yeah. I think we will discuss more LinkedIn, but want to come back also to your journey, how you are starting with your own business. So can you explain more about the beginnings of starting Yellow Hipper?

Starting point is 00:13:41 Yeah, so I, after I quit my job, I started freelancing. So the first six months of Yellow Hippo were actually freelancing. I didn't have a company name or company brand. I remember I put a video post on LinkedIn and it was me and my parents living room with just on a mobile phone. Just some really bad subtitles and some free app on my phone shared that. And it's basically just set up like I'm going freelance and I don't know what this is going to mean or if it's even going to work out. But here I am, I'm going freelance. These are my services.

Starting point is 00:14:14 And then within like two weeks, I had about four clients signed, which is amazing. But obviously, I'd built my brand before this. So these things didn't just happen in a vacuum overnight. So it's very important to mention that I was building my brand for a good two years before this happened. And so I've already had people who kind of aware of me of what I do, have seen my brand scale as well, so I had the proof of that. So I worked for the few clients early on, over-delivered, undercharged, massively. You know, I was charging like three, four hundred pound a month for, for content and

Starting point is 00:14:51 getting results like one million impressions a month on content. Some of my clients were getting like 3,000 followers in a month, 3,000, 4,000 followers a month. So they had amazing return on investment. What that meant was I was able to turn then results into case studies, and then I shared the case studies on LinkedIn. So it had basically a snowball effect. I did work under-delivered, sorry, undercharged, over-delivered, turned it into case studies, shared it on LinkedIn, got more clients, and just repeated that process.

Starting point is 00:15:24 By month three, I'd say I had about 20 clients, 22 clients, and it was just me at that point. That's when I was like in peak business building mode. At first, the whole point of me starting a business was to earn the same amount of money as I was in my old job, but have more time freedom. And every entrepreneur says to that, And the opposite happened, right?

Starting point is 00:15:45 If you're successfully and you have a bit of luck, you earn way more money than you would in a nine to five. And you end up having no time freedom. You end up working crazy hours. So I started hiring a team at that point. I hired some VAs. I bought an accountant. I worked partnered with a designer to do some work for me and some video creators. And then I decided, okay, now's the time I need to turn this into a company, not just me.

Starting point is 00:16:13 because I think I thought it brought a lot more credibility. And it's distinguished me from a lot of other creators on the platform who had achieved good results for themselves, and were then selling personal branding as a service. Because I actually had proof that I was able to do this for a range of clients in different industries from different demographics, and we had cold, hard evidence, proof of the success that we'd had.

Starting point is 00:16:36 So I thought, let's amplify that authority that we've built through results, through brand. And that's when I created yellowhead. And as you said that you under charge and overdelivered, was that your strategy or you didn't know how to price it properly? At the time, it was a strategy because there was two or three main personal branding agencies in the space and I knew all their prices. So I thought, okay, I've worked in one of these agencies myself as well. I know how to do this. I've got the results for a few clients in terms of case studies.

Starting point is 00:17:15 But what I didn't have was company brand. I didn't have a team. I didn't have the systems and processes in place. And I didn't look like an entrepreneur, if that makes sense. I didn't have the slick polish. It was very much me, a 22-year-old posting on LinkedIn, like selfies, crap for video content. That was really poorly filmed. but like I said, I had the results to prove it.

Starting point is 00:17:43 So it was never an intentional thing to really underpriced myself, but I knew I had to undercharge a little bit for me to win clients. And over the time, obviously, I incrementally increased my prices. And now the same service I had delivered two and a half years ago, I charged four times the price for, at minimum. So I think a lot of it, again, comes to with the authority you build through your brand and people seem your content and perception really determines value

Starting point is 00:18:11 in many ways. As long as you've got the results, you can then scale that value exponentially through brand, which obviously why past your branding is so effective. If you want to boost your online presents, check out our digital marketing agency called Trailblazed. You can also enroll in a Skillshare course

Starting point is 00:18:30 called the 10 Tips on How to Succeed in Your Creative Career, which was inspired by the podcast. Lastly, make sure to subscribe to our weekly newsletter, called Creative Spotlight to stay up to date with the show and more. Links are in the show notes. Thanks. And can you introduce a bit more what kind of services were we provided? Yes, so it's kind of the same thing we do today, we did back then.

Starting point is 00:18:58 So it goes right in LinkedIn content, managing the growth strategy in terms of like content pillars and positioning, doing a lot of engagement on accounts as well. So industry engagement, connecting with the right people, create a lot of storytelling led content, essentially building in public. I was using the model that I'd done for my own business and applying it to other more established business owners. The benefit to them was they had all the results. They had all the teams, the 10 years worth of experience, the stories, the successes, the failures. So they had everything there to work with, but it just didn't have somebody who understood the algorithm, who understood content creation and the different modes of storytelling, you know, the techniques and methods that really work in terms of the algorithm. So I was able to, like, essentially interview on board those clients, do a lot of research work, one to one quite collaboratively with them.

Starting point is 00:19:57 Until I was there, I essentially became their second brain or like a diary for them. So I would interview them, they'd send me voice notes, I would turn that into content. Once they start seeing the results within a couple of weeks, we scaled up. Today, we offer a bit more

Starting point is 00:20:14 in terms of the service. So we do all of that, but we also do, I've built websites, I've built e-books, leads magnets, done some design work for clients. We even done some Instagram work

Starting point is 00:20:24 in the past, TikTok video scripts, directing photoshoots, that kind of thing. So we essentially didn't add their service with purpose. It was more so we've worked with a client. They'd said,

Starting point is 00:20:37 oh, I really like what you guys have done with My LinkedIn. Can you support me with this? Can you advise me on this? And so naturally and not quite organically, we diversify our services because we could do the work and clients trusted us enough to reach out to us rather than other agencies for that.

Starting point is 00:20:53 And how many employees does the Yellow HIPPO have now? So we have three staff. It's a two full-time staff. I have executive assistant who's brilliant and she's kind of working part-time supporting me and reporting of clients and doing quite a few different things so that's the direct team and sometimes we work partner with a graphic designer or a partner with the video editor and obviously having a count as well on the team but in terms of full-time staff day to day there's three of

Starting point is 00:21:26 including myself and Laurel, who's RVA. Yeah. And when it comes to your role, are you still creative? Or are you, you know, business person? Or what is your job like? A bit of everything. A bit of everything. I do write a lot of the content.

Starting point is 00:21:44 I look for a few clients. I review everything. I edit everything that goes up. So I see everything that goes to a client. I think that's really important because a lot of clients work with me for me. for my personal brand. And so I never want to fully outsource things and not have that kind of personal relationship.

Starting point is 00:22:04 We actually cap the number of clients for take on at any one point. So my intention is not to scale the agency massive. I think there's other agencies who've done that very well. There's other agencies who've often not very badly as well. My intention is to do neither and work with a select few clients on a more in-depth basis. So yeah, my role is if you're writing, editing,

Starting point is 00:22:24 managing strategy, I'd say, is kind of the key one. So clients will message me directly and say, okay, I've got this launch coming up or I've got this event coming up. I've got a webinar. And how do we market this? How do we infuse this messaging through my brand? Or I'm launching another business.

Starting point is 00:22:40 Can you help with the kind of direction of the marketing of that? So a bit of strategy as well. And then also like a lot of my time goes into my content creation as well. For your personal profile, right? For my personal profile. So I create content for me. The podcast, Rebels. which is season one was last year,

Starting point is 00:22:57 season two is about to launch. And then also, obviously, all the business stuff that comes in it. So all the sales calls that I do, systems and ops, I also do a bit of a 360, like generalist, I would say. But I can drop in and out of things very quickly. So if I need to be here, I'll be there.

Starting point is 00:23:17 And if I need to, you know, my attention needs to be somewhere else. I can divert quickly. We have a small agile team, like we're quite dynamic. And everybody's quite, proactive as well. So it doesn't matter too much.

Starting point is 00:23:29 If my attention needs to go elsewhere, it doesn't actually have the delivery or the quality of work produced. And when it comes to creative side, versus the business side, is there one that you enjoyed more? I love the strategy behind brands, I think.

Starting point is 00:23:52 I don't talk about this actually enough, I think, on my own LinkedIn, but I've really enjoyed in the last six months working on my own brand. Because over the last two and a half years, I've built over 100 brands for other people. And now I'm like falling in love with building my own brand again. Because I just didn't have the time or the energy or the headspace to do that before. But now we've got data as an agency, which is amazing. We've written over 10,000 LinkedIn posts.

Starting point is 00:24:18 So we have some solid data that shows us what works and what doesn't work. I'm implementing a lot of that with my own brand now. So I enjoy that. But then I do also enjoy the growth element, you know, taking some calls, meeting different people, finding new opportunities, and seeing how the team and also the business scales over time. We're not going to, you know, we're not going to, you know, we're not going to, you know, we're not going to do that.

Starting point is 00:24:48 But it's nice to know that if we needed to, we could. could jump straight in and we could scale. Yeah. And you've got all the best knowledge, you've got all the inside experience and now you can apply to your own profile and make the best use of it. 100%. I mean, the priority will always be clients in terms of everything we do. And that's just the way that I work and their agency is built. But now, because we cap the number of parts we take on,

Starting point is 00:25:13 because we have a team, it's not just me anymore, I'm able to invest a little bit more time in my brand. And use my my link to as a real on experiment, really. see what works, see what does some of the different content formats, and then apply some of that learning also back to the clients to help their accounts grow quicker. Yeah. So as we discussed both your company and your personal stuff and also the podcast, how do you actually manage to stay on top of everything,

Starting point is 00:25:39 do everything 100% and have such great results? Good question. This week has not been a great week in terms of balance. I quite to obtain balance. This week has, that doesn't happen. But typically, I mean, there's a few things I've done. I've implemented a few, like, rules that I make myself follow and set better boundaries. So I'll say no more than I say yes.

Starting point is 00:26:06 I'll say no to things about 80% of the time. I say yes, about 20% of the time. And that's because before in the past, I felt like I was obliged to do stuff. I felt obliged to take this client on that I felt obliged to say yes to the time. this opportunity, whereas now I'm much more comfortable and confident in what we do. I know where my skills are and I know when I need to outsource. So outsourcing just helps with some of the design works, some of the accountancy, some of the videography, they're not my strong seats, but we have great partners that we work with.

Starting point is 00:26:38 Obviously got a team to support as well, which just helps massively. But more of it is just, you know, I think it's a confidence thing. It comes over time because I've done it now for two and a half years, I know what things I should be doing. I know what I shouldn't be doing. I know when I'm procrastinating as well. I know when I said yes to something to avoid doing something else, I can spot that now.

Starting point is 00:27:00 So I'll make sure I don't do that. And then you know, day, like week on week, it's just making sure I turn away from work as well. I feel like when I'm in a habit of working constantly, I crash and that has happened a few times. So now I make sure that there's evenings in the week, weekends I take off. I try to be as flexible as possible. I don't take many meetings either. One, because I don't think you need a lot of meetings and business. And secondly, I don't really enjoy

Starting point is 00:27:30 having meetings. So yeah, there's a few things. So what does it that helps you to switch off? Switched off. Just like chilling with friends, music, I go to a lot of music festivals, concerts, Let's travel. I've got four holidays booked in the next four weeks, which I'm very excited for. Change of scenery. I struggle to work in one place for a long time. So moving between places is really good for me. You're working in the cafes, right? Yes. Yeah, yeah. So right now, for example, I'm taking, filming this podcast in my bedroom because I don't even have a proper office. I like to move about a lot. So different cities, different coffee shops, different environments. I'm working with different people as well.

Starting point is 00:28:17 I very much love the concept of being a digital nomad. I can pack everything I need in one suitcase and go away and do it, which is actually what I'm doing over the next four weeks. So yeah. Do you want to reveal where are you about to go or not? I'm going to Valencia. So my EA, my executive assistant, is getting married. I've never met her, but I'm going to meet her on her wedding day.

Starting point is 00:28:43 which is a funny story she's based in Valencia she's getting married there so I'm going to go there and then I've got can I even remember off the top of my head I've got Paris I'm still humming and a ring about that one but there's a conference there that I've been invited to

Starting point is 00:29:01 so I might go there I've got Malaga in Spain I've got Italy the week after and then New York the week after that oh wow that sounds awesome and exciting Yeah, amazing. A year ago or two years, I definitely couldn't have done this because I was working in the business rather than on the business. I was doing crazy days. My workload was, I mean, my workload still today is like always full. My to do list is never empty. But I have way more control over things. I'm able to, you know, work abroad, take some days off totally away from my laptop, which, you know, would definitely recommend. But I think it's important at the beginning that you have to go through that hustle. mode. It really does fast track your growth. You learn a lot in a short space of time and you can

Starting point is 00:29:48 read five steps ahead of other people who are starting at the same time as you. So I don't regret working really long hours, hard work, taking a rows of clients because it was amazing. It was an amazing learning curve. Obviously now that's not sustainable and now that I've got a team, my responsibilities have shifted, my priorities have also shifted and I found more purpose as I've been on this journey. Are you even thinking of moving somewhere for a longer period of time? Potentially, potentially next year. Discuss that with a few friends, potentially Southeast Asia for like two to three months

Starting point is 00:30:26 and testing that out. But again, I like to have the flexibility with the business. It's fully remote. The team is international. We've got Gabriel in South Africa, Charlotte in Newcastle, so in the UK with me. And then we've got Laurel in Valencia. So I don't have an office. I'm not obliged to be anywhere at any given time.

Starting point is 00:30:46 Some of our clients we've never even met in person. In fact, most of our clients we've never met in person. Because the model of our business works, we're able to work remotely. And we have really good systems in place and communication processes and systems that allow us to work very collaboratively and in depth with clients where we almost feel like they are friends, even though we've never met most of them. So, yeah, I have the capacity to pack a situation. and just move somewhere,

Starting point is 00:31:12 which I'm not saying I'm going to do that all the time because the business is a priority. It's a lot harder, actually. Maybe this is something people don't mention. It's a lot harder to, when you're out of your normal routine, to like find deep focus. Yeah. Because it's, yeah, I understand because it's just different.

Starting point is 00:31:31 But I was wondering how did you hire people? Because it may be a bit difficult if you don't know the person, if you don't meet the person from face of time. So can we talk more about it? Yeah, a lot of it is like, well, the first one was recommended to me through somebody else. And then if I had to put in a call and act, to be fair, at that point I was so overwhelmed with business that I just needed help. And I wasn't, well, I didn't do like a formal interview or anything. I was like, okay, you say you're a copywriter.

Starting point is 00:32:05 Here's what we're going to do. We're starting one day. Let's do it. So that was like, I just jumped straight in. He's still with me like two years later now. That works out. And then the other two in my team, Charlotte and Laurel, they followed me on LinkedIn for a while and engaged with my content.

Starting point is 00:32:22 So they understood the platform, the landscape, the crater economy. And this supported my content a lot over the years. And I thought I'm going to give them a shot, you know, because they've done that. And yeah. Yep, it makes sense. Yeah. And when it comes to your podcast, why did you actually start or what was your motivation behind it

Starting point is 00:32:44 you know what I started because I thought this is going to be fucking fun I thought this is going to be fun let's do it why not was it fun yeah it's been really fun that is one thing I can guarantee it's been really fun sometimes it's been a bit stressful they're like post editing and production and all that stuff but when I sit in that chair and I have a guest next to me I love it Absolutely love it. I would love to do it forever. I'd love to do it. We're actually just in the process of finding sponsors for season two. Nice. Because I'm some good sponsors. I'd continue the podcast for as long as I could. As long as I was enjoying it, I'd continue it.

Starting point is 00:33:23 And at the moment, I'm really enjoying it. And do you do it all by yourself or do you outsource, like, editing, I don't know, booking the guests and stuff on? Yeah, and it's fully outsourced. I don't touch editing. I just have a time to do it, to be honest. A lot of the production, we work with a studio, so it's all set up. I go in, sit down in the chair with my guest. I still source the guests and do a lot of marketing and branding around it, but we definitely have support with that because there's no way. You know, podcasting is a full-time job in itself, so I definitely have support with that.

Starting point is 00:33:56 Do you want to introduce podcast a bit more? What is it focused on? What type of guests do you invite? Yeah, so it's called Rebels, and it is desired for anybody who, just is wants to get inspired, informed, motivated to develop business-wise or in terms of personal growth. So we have a range of guests from kind of all different backgrounds, mainly in marketing, but not strictly marketing, and people who have built something amazing from something very little. So the whole part of rebels is people who've gone against the grain. So we've had

Starting point is 00:34:33 guests who, you know, didn't go to university. It came from like a very underprivileged backgrounds, maybe even made some bad choices in life. And then went on to build something incredible through like tenacity, grit, personal determination. And so it's really inspiring a lot of the episodes. And we tap into loads of different topics like entrepreneurship, leadership, mental health, fitness and well-being, work-life balance. And there's a lot of practice. And there's lot practical tips in there as well. So it kind of juggles personal storytelling, which gives some of inspiration, and then also like actionable practical tips that people can apply in their day-to-day lives. Because I've tried a podcast myself that did both. It was even a very storytelling

Starting point is 00:35:21 based about a person, or it was very like, this is how you do this. This is a tip of this. And I wanted to blend those two together. What podcasts or podcasters are your inspiration. Great question. I love Mel Robbins. Not necessarily like somebody I try to emulate in my podcast, but I love listening to her podcasts.

Starting point is 00:35:50 Honestly, I don't listen to a lot of podcasts. There's loads out there. I see clips and stuff, but I think with me, like when we start the podcast, there was no real strategy behind it. I just thought, this is going to be fun. I'm just going to message a few people on LinkedIn, see what happens. And it kind of snowballed from that.

Starting point is 00:36:09 So there's no like sit down, you know, let's look at the data. Let's look what other people are doing. Let's carve out a strategy and a plan. It really is like a, we're building this in public. Like what you see on LinkedIn, like the chaos of it all. That is what is going on. For example, season two was supposed to launch two weeks ago. It's still not, the first episode is still not upload a teacher on Spotify.

Starting point is 00:36:30 like things through very quickly this is like the the chaos of trying to juggle like two i guess two businesses at the same time um but yeah i think it's honestly totally understandable after we heard what you know what you're juggling and the running a business and this so it makes sense i think also i've stopped applied pressure to myself to do certain things so season one it was a bi-weekly podcast so there was eight episodes, well, eight episodes and there were a bonus episode with Luke Matthews, which absolutely blew up. Season two, we're going to have eight episodes again

Starting point is 00:37:08 with a bonus episode, and I know what the bonus episodes is going to be, but I'm not sharing that yet. That's very, very, very exciting. But when I film the podcast, record them and release them, that's still, like, unknown as of yet. Yes. Because I know what to share something if I feel like it's really,

Starting point is 00:37:27 you know, to the quality I need, it to be. I don't want to rush anything. So I'll drop the episodes as and when they're ready. Almost like, I guess it'll be a little bit of a surprise to people. I'll just wake up and go on. Yeah, and at least helps to build expectations

Starting point is 00:37:44 and, you know, we are eagerly awaiting. Yes, yes. It's been amazing, the response from season one was amazing. Again, I have no podcasting experience. All the episodes are unscripted. So when I sit down in the chat, I have no questions. apart from the last one which I ask all my guests

Starting point is 00:38:01 but everything else is just a very organic conversation and the feedback's been brilliant so that's what really inspired me to do season two because of the reception we got yeah and have you got a dream guest

Starting point is 00:38:14 would it be in Melorobitz a dream guest wow you know what I've never thought of that question that's such a good question who will inspires me I honestly, I couldn't think on the spot. I think what the guest has to have is a really powerful story.

Starting point is 00:38:39 Yeah, yeah. So if somebody comes out and is unwilling to share that story and be personal, again, this is when the whole personal branding thing comes into play. I need somebody who's willing to divulge, like, the deepest, darkest extremes of their life. Like, the amazing things, but not the amazing things as well. and like the full real spectrum of life experience of life experience of life experience

Starting point is 00:39:02 they're the type of guests that I want on rebels people have no filter they come on they're really transparent they don't have like an alternative motive they're just there to be really honest being vulnerable at times that's part of their story and just give something to the audience to the listeners

Starting point is 00:39:21 yeah that's completely understandable and I would be curious the same question but when it comes to your business and the marketing what's your inspiration in these areas when it comes to like the marketing of the business it's really fully through my brand so the personal brand is our marketing channel my LinkedIn is our hundredth set our marketing channel everything we've done has been inbound I've never done a Google ad a paid ad you know paid newsletters or anything like that

Starting point is 00:39:49 or you know paid marketing it's all been I'm creating content on my LinkedIn people from that go to the website, you know, Google us, DM me on LinkedIn. So the actual strategy, there hasn't really been one, because I realised my personal brand can do all the work.

Starting point is 00:40:06 In the future, if I wanted to scale, obviously I would look up other marketing channels to scale more effectively, increase the repeatability of lead acquisition and also to secure,

Starting point is 00:40:19 like, a reliable source and income of leads. But at the moment, that's not all. goal. So my brand is doing more than enough work. We actually have a waiting list of clients willing to work with us. So that's just fully organic through my personal brand. And when it comes to some specific people or creators or companies that you like to follow for their content or for or even motivation or inspiration, can you name any? On LinkedIn, I would say people like,

Starting point is 00:40:49 Leah Turner was a big inspiration when I first started and she was also the first guest in my podcast, which is a full circle moment. I think pretty cool that you managed to invite her on. Sophie Miller was a big inspiration as well. Carla McNeillage is also a big inspiration in terms of the way she writes and tell stories. And, you know, there's loads of people. Elements of Luke Matthews brand I also really like.

Starting point is 00:41:16 There's elements that I equally don't like and don't want to use in my brand, but it worked for him. And I, you know, I hundred percent admire what he's built. and Lara Costa has done some cool stuff as well. There's a lot of my clients that I'm really inspired by. Clients that we have today, clients we've worked with in the past.

Starting point is 00:41:35 Because all my clients are founders, creators, senior leaders, you know, when I start in my business, I didn't have that life experience. Yeah, yeah. I say that my clients have been my, like, unofficial business mentors and business coaches. Because I'm on the call with them asking them about their business and do that process very organically I'm learning a lot

Starting point is 00:41:55 that I can then apply to my own business that's a real advantage when you work in the personal branding space yeah yeah and are there any specific projects or clients that you worked with or you worked on and for some reason are worth mentioning maybe it was something funny or something that you particularly enjoy we did an Instagram brand or it's different to LinkedIn but there's one of our clients who the Instagram pages are over a million followers and we did a like a brand audit for them.

Starting point is 00:42:27 And they wanted to kind of re-energized their page and increased following and diversify their content and they needed a bit of a strategy. So that was cool because we did that brand logic for them. And even to this day, we're seeing them implement the things we told them a year ago and like how they've brought to life like a 15 page report that we've created and they've actually done it. And we can be seeing amazing results for the back of it. So that's been pretty cool. There's also like some kind of case to this that just been brilliant. So one of our clients, two co-founders, we took them from practically zero presence on LinkedIn. Now between them, they have over 100K followers.

Starting point is 00:43:03 A third of their business income comes through LinkedIn, and they're making three to four million pound a year. So that's a million pound organically through two founder profiles that we essentially launched and have worked with for over a year. So that was amazing. There's another kind of ours who we've worked with for now two. I signed her in the first three weeks of me starting a business, and we're still working together to this day. And she's planted loads of amazing opportunities, keynote speaking internationally with brands like SAP,

Starting point is 00:43:34 the economist, PWC, you know, really big credit, Amazon business, really big credible brands. So it's amazing to see like how the credibility we've built through LinkedIn has reported the PR, the brand awareness, the opportunities that have come. This person already. was an amazing ex-peating their field. But having that online brand as well has really elevated what's been able to come out of it.

Starting point is 00:43:58 We've helped them launch second business based on the back of the success of their LinkedIn. Yeah. Wow. Sounds like amazing work. Yeah. And it will be shame not to ask you. But can you share some LinkedIn tips and advice and maybe something for people that are looking to start there? Yes.

Starting point is 00:44:18 Some quick tips. Like when you create content, create for a reader. Very obvious when everybody says this, but make people feel seen in your content. Whether it's someone in your ICP that you're trying to solve to, what are their problems, what are they facing, agitate those problems. How does it feel? What is their lived experience of what you are describing? When people feel seen in their content and when they trust that you understand their problem, it's much easier for them to trust that you will have the solution. that's one piece of advice.

Starting point is 00:44:51 Be personal, again, very obvious. A lot of people say it, but work with universal themes, things that are must relate to, things that people can relate to. So failure, success, mental health, leadership, entrepreneurship, culture, marketing, you know, all these things, everybody has a touch point with. You're either affected by these things or you affect them. So it injected in your personal story and opinion and statement. to those bigger themes, helps you, A, be seen by lots of people

Starting point is 00:45:21 and be relevant to a lot of people, but equally, it helps people understand you, and your content is distinguishable from everybody else's content in that field. So never sit on the fence.

Starting point is 00:45:34 There's another one I'd say. Be bold with your opinions, be honest. Because if you're trying to build following or build community, you have to have something like you stand for. There has to be purpose to what you're saying or doing. If you sit on the fence, you're not going to roll you're trapped either side.

Starting point is 00:45:49 It's very neutral. I think equally be consistent. I've been doing this for four and a half years now. And so some people, you know, expect to achieve success over the results. But I'm seeing, even to this day, like this week, somebody messaged me who's been connected with me on the 18 for three years, who has never engaged with my content. I didn't even know this person existed. And they don't want to work with me now three years long on.

Starting point is 00:46:15 So the effects of personal branding are a lot of. long term, we've got to be in it for the long game. Yeah, yeah. Sounds great, yeah. Great tips, something that I will also need to learn from. And as you've been to through quite a few podcasts as a guest, is there maybe a question that no one ever asks you, or maybe something that you wanted to share?

Starting point is 00:46:37 And so if there is such a one, you have space now. I've been asked a lot of questions. I probably say, I mean, something I'm really passionate on now is like healthy hustle. So like hustling, but with purpose, ultimately. So it's easy to get lost in the chase, especially on the platform like LinkedIn, where you're chasing kind of arbitrary goals.

Starting point is 00:47:03 So, you know, I want to hit XK a month. People set a goal like that, but they don't understand why they want that goal. And I used to do it as well. That's why I can make this comment because that person was me. And then I hit that goal. and then I set another goal

Starting point is 00:47:17 and then I hit that goal and set another goal and I realized okay this is never going to end like never earning Chase exactly and the only thing I'm doing in this process

Starting point is 00:47:26 is losing time sacrificing in my health and well-being and having like a lot of stress like in my life so now I think I'll just say it's very important while you're building

Starting point is 00:47:40 build it with purpose and intention does it help you get close to your goals what are those goals are they like realistic goals or are they goals or are they goals? are the goals that somebody else has that you think should be your goal. And then reverse engineer from that.

Starting point is 00:47:50 I think, okay, what do I need to lift this type of lifestyle? And for me, that's time flexibility, time freedom, financial security, and the ability to work with those of interesting people. Now, for that, I don't need to earn millions of pounds a year to achieve that. So I'm not going to kill myself in the process trying to do that. And I'm okay with that. And if you want to hit like five, 10, 15 billion pound companies, amazing if that's your goal but equally it doesn't have to be your goal.

Starting point is 00:48:18 Yep, yeah, amazing, great piece of advice. And to be aware of time, can you share where people can follow you or your company or even if this your upcoming work? Okay, so on LinkedIn, Shrevehawad, Yohippo is the company name, so 2.0.Yahu.com without the W.Rubbles by Shrey Barmad is on your HIPO is on your company name, so 2WW.W.2.0.0.0.com.com without the W. Rambles by Shreve Arnard is on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, but everything's on my LinkedIn. If you click on my link to my bio, everything is linked up there. So yeah.

Starting point is 00:48:51 Yep, sounds awesome. I will add it to the show notes and make sure so that people can find it if they want to follow you. So I want to say a huge thank you. It was really privileged that you joined me because I'm also one of the people who have been following you for a while. You are inspirational for me. I enjoy. your content. So thank you so much for time. It was pleasure to meet you. Thank you so much. Thanks for having me. Thank you for listening. If we enjoy the show, please leave us a five-star review on your favorite podcast app, get in touch to provide your feedback or share any ideas for future guests. Thank you and see you soon.

Produced By - How This Creator Builds LinkedIn Brands That Make Millions | #53: Shoaib Ahmed

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