Produced By - Selling Without Selling: The Psychology That Gets Buyers Saying Yes | #119: Xhoni Mimillari

Episode Date: September 22, 2025

Xhoni Mimillari is a LinkedIn coach who has helped more than 200 experts since 2019, including bestselling authors, high-performance coaches and CEOs with tens of thousands of clients. His clients have generated over $2.3M in inbound leads by combining human psychology, social selling and consistent content to help clients win more business and build brands people trust. With a background in sales and years of coaching experience, his approach focuses on trust, congruency and results that last long after the first conversion.Listen to this episode for a free deep-dive into turning LinkedIn into a steady source of clients. You will learn how to convert silent lurkers into buyers, position your brand so prospects trust you faster, and use psychology-backed storytelling to inspire action without sounding salesy. Drawing on years of consistent posting and over 100 client success stories, Xhoni shares exactly what works, what does not, and how to stand out in today’s competitive LinkedIn landscape.Connect with Xhoni:https://www.linkedin.com/in/xhonimimillari/https://xhoni-mimillari.mykajabi.com/https://mimillari-consulting-2.kit.com/4ded68faaahttps://www.instagram.com/xhoni__official/https://www.youtube.com/@xhoni96Timestamps:00:00 – Intro & why Xhoni is a trusted sales voice01:15 – How LinkedIn turned into £2.3M in inbound leads03:05 – From cold outreach to attracting ideal clients05:20 – Building authority without chasing virality07:40 – The mindset that drives consistent sales10:05 – What most “value posts” get wrong12:15 – Turning silent lurkers into active buyers14:45 – Why most LinkedIn DMs never convert17:05 – Sales lessons from years of client wins19:20 – Speaking to the driver behind every decision21:50 – Why authority beats attention in the long game24:10 – The underrated power of personal brand26:40 – How to build trust before you pitch29:05 – Common mistakes killing your inbound leads31:20 – The £2.3M sales playbook, step by step33:50 – Sales content that feels natural, not pushy36:15 – Leveraging YouTube alongside LinkedIn growth38:40 – The LinkedIn growth tactic anyone can use today41:10 – How to position yourself as a peer, not a follower43:05 – Converting comments into actual clients45:00 – Final mindset shift for long-term sales success47:10 – Where to find Xhoni & closing thoughts  Connect with Tomas:X: https://x.com/TomasLoucky⁠⁠⁠Stan: https://stan.store/TommenLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomasloucky/⁠⁠Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisistommen/⁠⁠Unproduced:Newsletter: https://unproduced.substack.comYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@unproducednotesSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033Ddo8ibDlLYoaP7FFLIWMore:Links: https://linktr.ee/produced_by⁠⁠⁠Newsletter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://producednewsletter.substack.com/⁠The Podcast Club: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/25420030/Tools & gear that support the show:Metricool: https://f.mtr.cool/HRJBZKRiverside: https://riverside.sjv.io/vDnDodFavikon: https://www.favikon.com?fpr=tommenRa Optics: https://ra-optics.myshopify.com/discount/TOMMEN?rfsn=8803777.591d19JamX: https://jamx.ai/podcasters-offer?ref_id=e02d48af-ef66-4e76-b804-c2e8d282a8bfSome links are affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. If you find them useful, using these links helps keep the podcast running. Thank you!  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Because when you're looking to succeed on LinkedIn, not only you want to build that connection and build trust with an audience and demonstrate how good you are and demonstrate a lot of things. Like if you want somebody to go from, I don't know you to I want to work with you, there are a lot of emotional conclusions that you need to trigger and a lot of things that you need to demonstrate to be true. And by the way, I think that's the most important skills I have nowadays is to turn somebody from a stranger to somebody that trusts you in weeks, not months or years. So the speedy with somebody goes from stranger to somebody that trusts you is an important component nowadays to build an audience that buys from you. But I think the thing that I will struggle with is understanding how do I demonstrate how good I am and how do I get people to some mental space where they want to work with me. But then how do I position it in a way that it doesn't feel like selling or it doesn't feel like I'm promoting myself? But also in a way that the algorithm will push a little bit more people. So I think finding this balance where I'm able to pose something that demonstrates expertise.

demonstrates trust. People don't feel like I'm trying to convince them or sell something. Before we dive into today's episode, please hit that subscribe button. Your support helps us grow and inspire more people on their journeys. Thank you. Hello, Johnny. Thank you for Jayden us today and welcome to the show. My pleasure.

Thank you for having me. So Johnny, for those who don't know you, can you please introduce yourself? Yeah, I'm a LinkedIn coaching consultant. I've been doing it for nine plus years. now. I come from myself's background. I used to sell instances to yacht and both owners. And I did that for a year and a half. Then I stumbled upon this online thing, selling information products online. And while I was having that role, I decided to quit it and go full time into my first online business, which was like an info product business. And then I started doing coaching around selling

and sales and how to sell better. And my first few clients actually got me to keep doing that. I got passionate about the one-on-one interaction. And since then, I've been doing coaching, consulting, experts, founders, CEOs. And in the last six years, it has been more around LinkedIn and how to leverage LinkedIn. So, yeah. In that sales, something that you've always been interested in. Yeah, yeah, the psychology behind it. And I think back then, it was a little bit different the way it is now. I feel like the environment has changed a lot in the way people perceive sales, selling and how you need to adapt to what the market has evolved into. Back then it was more like the tactical things.

Now I think it's about more the emotional side of it and the trust-building process so that people trust you on a conscious, unconscious level and they can visualize working with you. And I think there is a lot of more human psychology than before that people need to tap into and leverage than before. I think it's also a really smart area or industry because that's something that's always going to be relevant. So once you learn it, I'm pretty sure that you're going to benefit from it forever. 100%. I think you can do a lot of things when you know how to sell. And when you have developed the skill of understanding what makes people buy stuff and what are the emotional triggers that

you need to tap into for people to see value in your offer to understand very well. what makes you different and to understand the components and the most compelling benefits of your offer. Because if I can visualize working with you and I can visualize what it will be like before, during, and after, a lot of things happening in the visualization process, not only I believe in the product and that it can work for me, but I believe that I can do it as well. And I feel like one of the reason people don't buy stuff is because their loss of esteem. They don't think they can make it happen. So I think part of knowing how to is to make the process believe in themselves that it's more doable than

they think. And I feel like understanding that component is crucial. Yeah. And is that actually something that you studied or you learned by self-education, by practice, or simply by yourself? Initially it was practice. Just getting in the game, calling customers, calling people.

And it was very uncomfortable initially. I think that's the secret if you want to accelerate your success. Get yourself in uncomfortable situations. because that's where you learn the most and observe and reflect in that initial period because most people it takes them three years to get in the game when like it takes a lot of time the decision to do it versus actually getting good at it.

Because if you get in the game and you get uncomfortable, it can happen in weeks where you can start learning a lot of things. And of course, later on for me was reading books, studying from mentors, studying from people, and diving into psychology. I got obsessed around psychology and human behavior. and that gave me a little bit of extra insights and knowledge and leverage when I will speak to prospects. And of course, when you speak with a lot of people every day, you get to see things differently.

You understand how people can be motivated by different things because not everybody buys something for the same reason. Some people may be driven by status. Some people may be driven by speed. Some people may be driven by efficiency. Some people may be driven by identity and who they want to become. And some people are driven by all of them. And I think like the secret is to understand what is the driving factor in somebody's decision to purchase something? Because when you understand that factor, you can sell so much better because even when you articulate your product and how we can help somebody, you don't just generalize it.

And you say, oh, I help people with coaching. And that you say, I help people with this. And I think this can be important for you for this reason. Because based on what you told me, this is what I think is going to happen. You see, now I can articulate my offering solution and reflecting back to the prospect because I know what is the emotion or what is the conclusion that I'm looking to trigger and what drives them. I think it's a great point because no wind of psychology, it's both really smart to know

how to use it so that, for example, you win the clients and at the same time, you know it so then you know when somebody is trying to use it against you, such as trying to sell you something or in other situations. So again, I think skill that is super helpful for the whole life. Indeed. I like the distinction because when you're genuinely interested in helping the prospect and seeing them doing well, they can pick up on that energy. Like they can sense it. That you're not there to make the sale. You are there to help them make the right decision. And whether it's not working with you, you are still going to go for that decision and support it. That's the most important thing. Because the relationship, if you go for the relationship

and for trust building, everything else will take care of itself. And if the cell doesn't happen, it's still good. Like, you don't want to go into the process of selling with the idea, I need to close this, but with the idea of can I really help this person? Let's see. I think so, too. And I also believe that it's important mindset, that even though you may not close it immediately, if you keep the relationship, you never know if they might need you in

a future. There may be other opportunities or any other kind of relationship. So I think that's a really good point. Yeah, and they think a little bit too short-term people with sales instead of like I had somebody investing my one-on-one coaching and she has been following me since 2019 on LinkedIn. She told me, I've been considering your coaching in 2022, but I didn't reach out because I just didn't feel. I wasn't sure why I didn't reach out.

And then like a few weeks ago, she was like, Johnny, I feel ready. Let's go. So it was a process of six years for her to make the decision to buy. And I doubt she would have bought if I wasn't consistent on LinkedIn or if I didn't post anything, right? So it was that level of consistency that made the prospect feel like, oh, and I should buy from this person because there has been congruency all over the place. Like throughout the journey, I think congruency is a big one if you want to succeed in sales and in LinkedIn. Because if people can sense that there is some lack of that where you say you believe in something, you say you value something, but then your content shows something else, then trust. you know, trust is, it's not going to be there.

And I think, like, it takes years to build trust and it can take, like, a few posts on LinkedIn to destroy it. So a lot of people put on this persona and mask of who they are. And slowly it reflects that's not who they are. And that lack of Congress can happen over a year. It can happen over two years. It can happen over four years. And it can screw it up, literally.

I think so, too. And I feel like that very popular word to use over a year, LinkedIn is authenticity, such as be yourself, be honest, and stuff like that. But then I feel like it's people posted, of course not everyone, but often people post it just because it's popular, because it resonates. But I don't really trust them always because then they, for example, try to pitch you something in DMs. You follow them.

So in other posts, you see something that doesn't really align with that message. So I think just to, you know, be aware of what. you are posting because people are watching and again you share just a great example that it takes time and even though that it might not seem like you're making any progress people still follow you so people see you so be aware of it oh yeah a lot of clients that i'm speaking with they have people buying from them because they've been following them for a year and they pull the trigger and you don't even know they are there like they are watching because the highest quality client somebody is going to get they are not going to like and comment on your post like i've noticed this in the last few years

are just going to watch silently, quietly, and look for congruency, look for, can I trust this person with my money? Can I trust this person with my time? Will this person be there for me after we conclude our work? Right. Can I look at this person and be like, they are legit? So there are all these questions that prospects have in their mind before reaching out that if you don't answer with confidence, uncertainty and you don't build that level of credibility over time, they're not going to feel confident enough to get in touch.

So they're watching. Yeah, they're watching. And I think I would just advise people to try to place themselves in the shoes of basically the clients, because if it was me, I would also be like following, watching and trying to basically recognize whether you're the right person and then reach out to you. because it's obviously quite a commitment and there's also big competition, whether on LinkedIn or other social media platforms because everyone is trying to sell something or win clients.

So it just takes time. And yeah, it's just about the quality. I think you said that perfectly. Nailed it. That's added to that, Thomas. If you're not good at what you do and if you can't demonstrate how good you are quickly, you're going to lose them. I think there has never been a time where people can sense expertise.

is like I can look over my feed and I can look at somebody's content. And I need a few seconds to understand if this person knows their stuff or if they're full of shit because of how they structure the thoughts of how they deliver their expertise. And here's the sad part is sometimes somebody is really an expert, but they do more damage than good to their brand because of how they position themselves and how they speak. And they go into this calendar content buckets, right, these content pillars. and they share a few tips because that's what they've been told by influencers. In reality, sending out, it's about showing how good you are

and people getting a sense of how skilled you are. And if they can get that with a few interactions, by reading a few of your posts, then they are going to subconsciously go, you're full of shit. And they should be like that. Because there has never been a time where we have so many wannabe experts who just change a niche one year, the other.

They have this niche. They have this other. niche, they go and chase what is the most popular and most profitable one. And I see these people and I'm like, you change your niche like nine months ago and now you help this other niche. I'm like, how am I going to perceive you as an expert really? You know? I feel the same. It's like, how can people take you seriously if you keep changing it? Of course, like it can happen. I don't know, you find out that it doesn't work or something like that, but if it's just for the sake of jumping on the next big wave, I don't know, for example, with AI or something or like doing it's too frequently,

you also need to think about how people perceive you, how they see you. And I would just like to emphasize that you, because as you mentioned, you've been showing up for a long time. So you've obviously been in a long-term game. So that's experience speaking for itself. 100%. And I believe that I will put it this way. When I engage with somebody's content and I don't feel they are good or skilled, they don't

have another chance. Like, you frame the relationship with the first impression, right? And I will tell you also this, two, three years ago when the personal branding thing became popular, like, I knew I will make so much more money if I branded myself as personal branding coach on LinkedIn, because I knew, like, that was the trending thing. But I was like, that's not what I do. Personal branding, it's not my expertise. I am a LinkedIn coach. I'm a LinkedIn expert. Like, that's my thing. And I know that will have made me much more money. And I know that will have made me much more money, but I know that in the long run, people could sense the lack of congruency because I chased another or I positioned myself differently because that was the thing back then. And, you know,

I have clients that don't do personal branding coaching and they have people that are like, can you help me with personal branding? Because it's that trendy. You know, so many people like are obsessed with personal branding. So sometimes he's saying, you know what, I'm going to lose on some profits and I'm not going to make as much money, but I'm going to choose congruency and I'm going to choose staying true to what I do because real experts, the real people that understand how the game works, they will notice. I agree. And with the personal branding, I haven't been on LinkedIn for such a long time as you.

And definitely not taking it seriously for such long time as you, but I feel like that lately every second person is doing personal branding. So it's such a right. I don't know if it's maybe just people that I follow. But I think the question is like if let's say a few months or a few years, how many people are going to be left there? Because as you said, if they jump on a wave, is it actually something sustainable, something that they enjoy or they do it just because it's popular now? Yeah. You know why?

Thomas? I believe because it's easy to demonstrate expertise, precede expertise with some niches. Because let's say that you get some visibility and reach. You can claim that you are a little bit of an expert with personal brand. Right. So or if you go a little bit viral and you go from 10 to 20,000 followers, now you have some proof that you can show. You know what? I know my stuff because I grew my following from 10 to 20,000. But it's difficult to say, I can help you generate business because I've helped a hundred people to actually almost get fully booked. Like not a lot of people can say something like that because it's based on business results, not just social media proof that I think it's easy to get. nowadays. It's not that difficult. I think that's probably a good point

and I can see that myself too. What is then like the situation when it comes to not personal branding but your niche? What is like the competition when it comes to LinkedIn? Oh it's big. It's big. I think LinkedIn coaching consulting is quite competitive nowadays because everybody knows that

there is a lot of demand and it's a growing market even though literally hasn't been as much. But of course when it's competitive, the skepticism is always very high. I've lost some amazing clients because they've had some bad experiences with other people. And I can't blame them because now they're like, can trust anybody here. But yeah, I think the skepticism is there. I think also people have a lot of things that they've learned from experiences

so they can spot an expert differently. Because I think there is a difference between knowing how to market yourself and knowing how to help somebody market themselves. These are two completely different skills, right? So you can see somebody marketing themselves very well, positioning their business to be expert-based. They know their stuff. But then it's another thing to tick somebody who is at a place where they're struggling a little bit and then help them market themselves very well. Two different skills, right?

And I think a lot of people have gotten lost to, oh, if that person has done it for themselves, they can do it for me too. Not necessarily. Because if somebody can do it for themselves is because usually they have. have a different personality. They've been doing it for longer. Maybe they've had a career where they've learned from some high level experts. So they might have, they may be even good looking. So there are all these factors that you need to consider that that's why I never say, I got these results for myself. I can help you too. Because how much I succeed in the results that I get for me has nothing to do with where you can't know. But let me show you the profiles of five people just like you.

and then you can make your own conclusion about whether it's doable or not. That's a different thing. Yeah. It's a good point. Always, I guess the best way just to prove it with evidence of the other people that you help. I think a good example would be outside of personal branding that we discussed, for example, with AI. Because obviously it's a big trending topic. And I think, honestly speaking, if you post about AI, I don't want to say it's easier.

but because it's trending, everyone wants to keep up to date. It might be a bit easier, like to grow. So then you may also use it, oh, I grew so quickly. But then what are the factors? It's actually your knowledge, your strategy, or is it the topic and posting breaking news, which then helps you to grow faster? Yeah, yeah, I like that one. I think there are different levels of expertise.

Thomas, there is the level of expertise of, I have done it for me. level one. Level two is, I've done it for me and I've helped somebody with that, right? Level three is I've done it through me and I've helped other people to actually get the same results. Then there is level four. I've helped hundreds of people to get a result. Then there is level five.

I've helped thousands of people to get that result. And then there is level six where, you know, you are basically so good and you've given so much so much success to other people that undeniably your view does the go-to-person. I'm in the hundreds now, so I'm getting to the 1,000. So I think I see it as levels and levels. And a lot of people are level 1 or level 2, but they publish their business and market themselves so well that you will think they are level 4, you know?

Yeah, yeah. But is it then true, actually? It's a tough one. One needs to be careful and I would say also a bit critical, like when it comes to people like this because you never know. Yeah, and I always say if you're looking to hire next message, it's like, ask them for proof or ask tough questions. Like, can you show me other people that you have helped recently?

Can you show me the profiles? Can you show me the work that you did? And go speak with their clients. Like all the people that I'm working with right now, like at least most of them, they get in touch with other clients and they can see actually that it's legit and it's not something that it's just well put on social. So I think doing the due diligence, I like people doing that because I think you can spot a lot of things from there. And doing your research also can help.

I think so, too. I only agree. Are you struggling to stay consistent on LinkedIn? Pen post helps you create high-quality posts in minutes so you can write faster, show up more, and stress way less. Built by creators for creators is the easiest way to grow your presents without burning out. Try it free at fanpost.com. Then from working with so many clients like you, I guess it will be quite a broad and tough question,

but what are some common mistakes or patterns or challenges that your clients struggle with? I will say not understanding very well the dynamic between social selling and psychology. Because when you are looking to succeed on LinkedIn, not only you want to build a connection and build trust with an audience and demonstrate how good you are and demonstrate a lot of things. Like if you want somebody to go from, I don't know you to, I want to work with you,

there are a lot of emotional conclusions that you need to trigger and a lot of things that you need to demonstrate to be true. And by the way, I think that's the most important skill to have nowadays is to turn somebody into a stranger from a stranger to somebody that trusts you in weeks, not months or years. So the speedy with somebody goes from stranger to somebody that trusts you is an important component nowadays to build an audience that buys from you. But I think the thing that I will struggle with is understanding, all right, how do I demonstrate how good I am and how do I get people to some mental space where they

want to work with me? But then how do I position it in a way that it doesn't feel like selling or it doesn't feel like I'm promoting myself, but also in a way that the algorithm would like that will push a little bit more people. So I think finding this balance where I'm able to pose something that demonstrates expertise, demonstrates trust. People don't feel like I'm trying to convince them or sell something. But in the same time, people want to engage with that post because there is some sort of

storytelling. There is a strong opinion. There is something interesting about that, that people want to join the conversation, which gives that a little bit more rich in visibility. But at the same time, it demonstrates that you can help somebody. And they can get to their own conclusions about, oh, this person knows their stuff. Or this person has helped somebody just like me. Or this person generally wants me to do well.

or this person understands me very well. So these are all conclusions that if you can trigger very well with your content, then people don't feel like you're trying to sell them or you're trying to convince them. That's where I think quiet influence happens. And it's one of those skills that I think people tend to struggle a lot with because they think it's about providing value. And let me tell you something. Value does not equal clients.

Demonstration equals clients. You can provide value as much as you want, but if you don't demonstrate how good you are or how you can help somebody, it's not going to do anything. So a lot of people are obsessed with, oh, I'm going to share some value. I'm going to provide valuable tips. Yeah, good luck with that. Like, you can keep going for another 10 years. If I don't get to the conclusion that you can help me or that you know your stuff very well or that if I work with you, the likelihood that I get what I want is very high, doesn't really matter. So I think demonstration equals clients.

and the better you are at the game of demonstrating specific things that will trigger a purchase decision, then the easier the game gets. I like it and I think you explained it really well because as I've been posting regularly for a while too, I know because you want to obviously make a post that will get, I don't know, some engagement, it looks good, but at the same time, try to nail it so it achieves the results that you want,

such as to get clients or such like that. It's not always easy. So I think that's something that probably differentiates people because as you said, you can be posting value. And yes, you get followers, people who learn from you. But actually, are you getting any clients from that? So I guess that's a real mastery. So good takeaway from this. I work with people with 900 followers and with people with 230,000 followers.

And the person with 200,000, like 200,000 followers, they will make less money than people that I work with 3,000 followers. I got work with somebody like that. It was making 5K per month, right? And we worked together. She made 30 plus K then. But to realize, understand that somebody with 3K followers was making 7, 8K per month and somebody with 200,000 followers

and an engaged audience, like 1,000 likes proposed and already like a proven offer and a very specific niche. But, you know, the other person with 3,000, 2,000 followers was generating more revenue. So when I look at that, I'm like, Is it the quality visibility? Yes, it is. Is it the way you monetize? Yes, it is. Is it the way you build trust? Yes, it is. Because how good you are at that, like if you're very good at conversion and monetization, you don't need a lot of attention to understand that or to test it. Like, you might need 10 ideal clients every week to see your content and you can see some momentum. You can see inquiries with little attention if you do it right. But of course, there is the benefit of the more people you reach, the easier it gets. But as I said, there are people with a big following struggling to win clients.

I agree. I heard that from some previous guests as well that it, of course, might have large following, but it doesn't necessarily equal, that it brings you, for example, a number of clients as the lower following. So don't always assume that that's the case. Yeah. Then, Johnny, from your long experience, as you've been showing up for some time, got a lot of experience, but are you someone who kind of learned everything already, or do you

keep learning regularly? Of course, because everything is evolving. And if so, how do you learn? What is it, you know, like any resources or sources or in what ways do you keep improving? Very question. Of course, it's like reading from experts and I think there's a little free content, but at the moment I'm leveraging AI a lot to understand a few things and to speed up the process of learning. But I like to learn from people and observing how they market themselves because I can see what they are doing and I can potentially replicate it, not for myself, but to create a structure and a framework or a blueprint that can, you know, be replicated as a result of that person doing that thing. But I learn a lot from observing, from, of course, learning from experts that I

think know their stuff and consuming their content, buying their books. If they have courses or that sort of stuff. I learn a lot that way. I like learning that way with courses. And also having people around me, like I'm building a team slowly right now. So I have people who know a lot of stuff. Like the person that is helping me with my email, like he knows so much about psychology. And also Thomas, like the clients that I get to work with, they know a lot of things. Like I work with somebody who sold over 12 million books. And he knew about human nature and human psychology extremely well. Even though I got, to teach him stuff, I learned a lot. And one of his books that sold millions of copies, it's about human nature, right? It's about human psychology. So when you get to work with people

like that, in the session, you help them. But then you're like, holy shit, I learned a lot. I didn't know the thing. So I think through that way, I think that's why I like my work a lot. I get to work with very smart individuals. But yeah, that's my learning process and how I move. I like the mindset because of course everything evolves. Competition is coming and they want to improve too. So it's kind of never-ending journey, isn't it? I learned that the hard way. The worst period on LinkedIn where I slowed down in the learning and evolving my game.

And I saw it had an impact a little bit on conversion because I was focusing on clients' work and I was focusing on and I got a little bit distracted maybe by just thinking, okay, I just need to improve my product and that's it. or I just needed to focus on clients and that's it. But in reality, I needed to evolve my marketing and how I will communicate. So I felt that here I was a little bit behind, but then I was like, I realized here what's happening. But you need to evolve.

You need to get better every day. And you need to look at what does need to happen for me to stand out from the rest. And then you're a reverse engineer and you're putting the work and you get there. That's true. And I agree. As you mentioned, are there, or would you be willing to mention any names such as people that you learn from or that you follow if there are any specific ones? Yeah, Thomas Erickson is the author that I just mentioned that I worked with.

Maria Malik is the influencer that I work with that had a big, big following. Ned Dean Stanton, she has like a consulting business that helps lawyers. She has like a big training company and we worked together and I helped her with LinkedIn and actually promoting her event. Misha Rubin, very successful executive coach that has trained hundreds of people in, you know, in Wall Street also. Right now I'm working with Rajesh guy. He has trained over 40,000 and coached over 40,000 executives

over his 30-year period career. He's a like serial entrepreneur and he has his own business. Like he's a serial entrepreneur, like the business owner that you say, that's if you go on on LinkedIn. So he's extremely smart. He understands leadership, how to build engines, leadership. And he helps people making millions to actually scale. And his hope clients actually generate an additional 3.8 billion U.S.

dollars. So those sort of clients. I think it's great evidence behind your work in clients. Oh, yeah, yeah. We're with some incredible clients. I have a big name. Soppa Agbe Luzi. He has an incredible, like his work for Spotify, very successful coach and business

owner as well. Cathy Jean Romaine, one of the most successful coaches in Australia, in my opinion, go to career coach. And she was making about 100K per month when we work together on LinkedIn. So, yeah. Have you got a dream client, someone that you would love to work with? There is somebody that I spoke with recently. He's a former $1 billion CEO. That sort of client excites me a lot. And there is somebody who is actually a billion dollar exited CEO that could also be like it. Like people like that who have been in the game and have gotten incredible results with their business, whether they've sold their business for a billion dollars, whether they've led a business that was a billion dollar company or still their entrepreneurs,

eight figure entrepreneurs and coaches and experts. Those type of people are exciting to work with because there are little tweaks that can be made in their strategy to stand out from everybody else and they have the work ethic and the beliefs. So there's nothing to change there. They just any direction and strategy. I was about to ask you if you still find new clients challenging, because after all the experience and just the names that you mentioned, if it feels like still exciting, but I guess what you just said now,

that there are still new challenges and interesting clients to work with. Yeah, yeah. And the more you go for those clients, the Tafri gets because the decision-making process is so different for them to feel that you are legit, there needs to be a lot of touch points. So it's different. It's more difficult, but I think it's worth the effort when you go for it.

And that's the thing about LinkedIn. Like the quality of international clients that you can land is insane. I don't think you can attract people like this on tiki-talkie, as I like to call it, or Instagram. I think they're hanging out on LinkedIn. And if you position your software as well, yeah, there's a great opportunity. And, Janie, what would you advise to someone who wants to start a similar career as you, who wants to become also LinkedIn expert or a coach or work on LinkedIn like you do? What would be like advice for someone who doesn't have any clients,

so basically no proof behind their work? Good question. The easiest part is try and develop a really strong foundation around what you do, your expertise, and the site to study the game very well. Like spend two, three months, even more than that, to really understand the basics, human behavior, psychology, how people engage in the platform. And then go help 10 to 20 people for free.

Give them results. Create yourself some proof. Give yourself some real word experience. And develop your program and improve it from there based on the feedback that you get from those clients that you help for free. And then the proof. So there is a lot of advantages. you're like, all right, I'm studying out and I want to become an expert.

Let me develop some solid foundation. Let me take 10 to 20 clients for free. Let me use that experience to improve my program to get proof. And also, I believe it can be the fastest way to get your first few clients because if people are happy with their experience, not only they can refer other people and give you the testimony, but also they can be like, I like working with you. I found benefit. Let's keep working together.

So I think like you don't become an expert by reading books only or just watching videos. You've got to get in the game and you've got to get that practice. And I don't think you are worthy of charging money until somebody says, I see value, let me pay you. And you get to that point by getting people helping them free. I think so too. Because it's obviously challenging. There is a competition. So don't get afraid. And you never know. It might just start growing from there. You said, even before I mentioned a few books. What will be some, recommendations, whether related to psychology, sales, or any other helpful ones. Yeah, I like exactly what to say. I don't know the author. I think I have the book here,

but it's exactly what to say by John Jones was the name, I believe. The other one is surrounded by idiots by my client, Maserickson. Very good book. Very solid one. I heard of that one. I have a lot of red. Have you? Yeah, yeah, very interesting read. It shows the four different personalities and people and he divides them by number, by color, sorry. red, green, yellow, and blue, I believe. So that's an interesting one. Like, I learned a lot from atomic habits. Like, even though it's about habits and how to actually stay consistent and future identity,

there is a lot about psychology that I learned from atomic habits, which is very interesting. Let me see here, man, but I have another one that I can give you. Yeah, never split the difference. That's also, like, very interesting about psychology. Like, Christos. Exactly. Exactly. He's like a negotiation expert, but in those negotiation ideas, there is a lot of brilliance around decision making and what influences people. So those are very good studying points as works.

I really like Atomic Habits by James Clear. I think it should be like a compulsory book for everyone. Not only about the sales, as you mentioned, but just for the life, I feel like that that's the book that will be probably relevant forever. Yeah, yeah. You just keep selling that one. My goodness. How many copies sold? Exactly.

That's one book and can be selling that forever for the rest of the light. Crazy. Johnny, then when it comes to LinkedIn, because obviously it's our favorite platform and the audience is there, I'm sure that you get a lot of messages like this. I do as well. But I have to ask you this question. So if anyone asks you how to grow any type of advice or tips, what is it? that you would tell them.

Try and become the go to person for one specific niche. I know there is a lot of conflicting advice around niching down or not niching down, but I think it comes down to what is the objective. If you're looking for conversion and you're looking to improve that part and get people to reach out, you should look to become the go to person for one niche in your positioning, in your marketing message, in your content and how you talk about what you do, in your indirect selling and all that stuff. Like people, when they engage with your brand, they need to get a sense within a few

seconds, what you do, who you do it for, and what makes you different. And it's very tough to trigger that if you try to speak to everybody, right? So that is very important to get right for conversion. But if you're looking for audience building and personal branding, I think still you should ask yourself, instead of that, you should ask, what do I want to be known for and how do I want people to recognize me within the brand and what I do? And I think you should talk about things and post things where there is some sort of controversial take, and you have some strong opinions, and you are polarizing. And either that or you are very engaging in the way you talk about specific subjects, right?

So I think if you're going to build an audience and personal brand, then grow debt, and then you want to monetize it. I think you should start with talking about things that people are already consuming, connecting with people who are very active in content similar to yours. and then connecting and really networking with those people. And then if you want to monetize it, try to niche down from the go-to-person for one thing and showcase how good you are every week with your content. What makes you different?

And making it easy for people to picture the most compelling benefits of your offer. So there are two components to that. And I think you can do both at the same time. I think which one you want to prioritize. But I think understanding the psychology of the platform and how it works and the mechanism and the algorithm. and how people engage and where they engage. If you can be a little bit strategic with how you network with people,

you can do both very well. Because when I look at, I want to increase my followers. I want to increase my engagement. I will go and engage and I like this rule of building 20 good relationships per week with people. I think it's a rule that compounds and you get to a point where you have so many good connections that engage in your post, like your stuff. And I think if you want to go in that direction,

you should find content similar to yours and go engage with people who engage in that sort of content. Look at who is engaging, look at what they like. Because if they're already engaging content around the same things that you talk about, they're already active in the platform and you engage with those every week or every day, the chances are that they're going to engage back

with your content as well if you talk about the same things. So if you're looking to engage and increase your following and impressions, you should go best mode with that. Then for conversion, into identifying where are my ideal clients engaging? And you want to find buyers based on behavior. You don't want to find them based on their title or their LinkedIn headline because there is no clues whether they need your help or they're aware of the problem. But you can find where

they could be engaging and the content they could be liking that gives you an idea of where they are or if they struggle with something. So for example, if you help somebody with anxiety, you can find them in content about anxiety, but you can also find them in content about high performance. Because people struggling with anxiety, sometimes they're interested in how to increase performance. So you find content like that and you likely find people who can be struggling with that. So the most important thing about that, either way you go, is that your intention with who you connect and how you build relationships and that you develop that a structure, like a daily workflow that you can be consistent at.

and you try and make it enjoyable so that you can stay at the game. You said that all that I would advise as well. I think the last point that you said is one of the most important ones just to find something that you enjoy about it so that it's consistent and you just enjoy it more. And also don't look for any shortcuts because what you said, if you engage with those 20 people per week, of course, like in a week you're not going to probably grow by thousands.

But imagine when those weeks compound and remember it, it's a long game. It's not something that you want to grow viral overnight. Yes, people probably often expect that, but it's not really a reality. So find a structure, something that you will follow and will be sustainable. And again, John is the proof that playing a long game works and don't give up, trust the process and enjoy it. So really well said. Yeah, and it takes time. That's the thing that I don't want people to set the expectation.

wrong. I was chatting with his client yesterday and he was studying from scratch with LinkedIn and he didn't even have like a super proven solid offer. And we worked together for three months. He got something about leads. He got one client and he was like, but Johnny, this feels so slow. And I was like, dude, in three months, you got results that it will have taken maybe nine months to get. And I feel like people are so not patient with it. They're like, I want things to happen in three months or in two months. But if you're going to play this game well, you need to think about, you know what, I'm going to put my head down for a year, a year and a half, two ears, and I'm going to see where it goes. Because building an audience that buys from you and an audience that its quality doesn't happen in weeks or in a few months. So set the expectations right of what you will take.

And the fact that it's hard now what is to stand out more than ever. So you've got to consider that into the equation if you want to build something because people, you know, don't follow. somebody easily nowadays unless they're something unique to offer. That is very true and I think people also often see the results of or maybe not results, but posts of other people where they break or show I got this and that number of leads or results like this and people then tend to compare. But then you don't know what's the whole story, how long they've been showing up, what's the background, if it's even.

true. So I would just recommend to see it as inspiration, maybe learn something from that, but at the same time, don't compare because you don't know the whole story. Exactly. And you don't know how much work and how many years they've been at it. So you assume

that they did the same thing as you or they've been the same journey. But there are people that have been at it for two, three years. They didn't get resolved the first year, but they kept at it. And now you see the success where you don't see the effort and the struggle and the failures and the investment. really put into it.

Exactly. That is where it's true. Johnny then, as we will be finishing soon, want to ask you a few lighter questions. So what is it? Did you enjoy doing in your free time or what are some of your hobbies? Okay. Beach Valley, tennis, beach volley a little bit less bad,

I play tennis. And I really like to just travel when I have a chance, honestly. But I think it's something where I sacrificed in my journey early on, like the first five, six years. My business, I didn't travel, really. I didn't get to do a lot of things that I enjoy because I thought that I shouldn't have. I shouldn't give myself those self-care routines. So I enjoy myself because I wasn't at a point where I deserved it, right?

And I think that's something a lot of people can relate to. But I think once you get some point that you feel like things are working, you should, you know, give yourself a little bit of space to reflect and travel maybe a little bit more. The things that I enjoy is tennis and travel a little bit when I get the sense spending time with family and having good quality moments with family. I think there is no better experience in life than being in nature with some good food, with people that you love and just having good conversations. That is true. What is your favorite place you visited or what is your dream place to visit? These are not light questions. I will go with Hamburg, Germany and Cannes, France.

I wouldn't expect Hamburg. Why is that? I've never been there, so I don't really know. I went there. I loved a lot, like, how clean it was, the space, how much nature there was. And, like, I believe that you should be all seasons in one place to judge it. I was there in summer. Like, if you go there in November, good luck going out of home with that cold.

I enjoyed actually how, like, the space, it was, like, very chill. It didn't feel like there were a lot of fun. people and even though there is like over a million people are living there. There is no small because a lot of people go with bike. They're very like the people around the place that you live in or that you stay have a lot to do with the place itself. But I enjoyed, I went there for holiday and I loved that part of the place. I'm good to hear that. And I asked you before about book recommendations, but what are some of your favorite movies? Movies. The one with, I'm not sure if you know the name of this Thomas, the one with DiCaprio,

Mark Wahlberg and that one with, man, I don't know. From Scorsese? I think it was Scorcezo. Isn't it departed? Exactly. Nailed it, departed. That one of my favorites. Yeah, the one is brilliant.

The Gladiator, I would say. And the second one is the one with the Niro and Apocino. That one is called, what is that one called? Something with Mafia? Maybe. I don't know. But I bet it's from Scorsese as well. Yeah, yeah, Scorceze.

Yeah, Scorsese seems to be like, but I think he was. Yeah, it was the hit, he was the name, yeah, hit. Okay, okay, yeah. I don't know if I've seen that one, but I will check it out, and those are definitely good picks, great ones.

Yeah, what are yours? Mine, I would go for Dark Knight from Chris Snowland. I'm a file of superhero films, and I think Dark Knight is just perfect film. Yeah. And the whole trilogy I recommend it to everyone. Johnny, then, Yeah.

Can you please summarize where people can find you, follow you, and promote any of your services? You can go on LinkedIn, follow me there. There is a five-day LinkedIn course for free that people can access and learn a lot of stuff that I believe some people charge money for so they can get a lot of value there. Another place that I'm trying to be a little bit more active is Instagram. So following me there also, I will be more active. But those are the two places that people can start to follow me and, you know, to get to learn more about my approach and what I do. I will as always add any links to the show notes. And then the very last question,

is there anything I should have asked you and did not or any final piece of advice or anything you would like to share? Good question. Yeah, I think the thing I will leave people with even though might not feel as helpful is to not be boring on social media. In the sense that if you value somebody's time, they will value your message.

and a lot of people, even people with videos like introducing themselves, and I'm like, what are you introducing yourself for it? I can see your name. It's up there. So value people's time. Don't be boring. I'm like, hey, I'm James from James Marketing.com. I'm like, good, James.

Get to the point, dude. So that's the thing. Like, if you value people's time, you're not boring, and you can add some sort of entertainment around your message so that people can learn, but also not go to. sleep, that's a good combo. I like it. And I agree because it's like when you get sales pitches in your DMs and there

is a long paragraph about the introduction of the person than trying to praise something about yourself that obviously is AI generated. I'm like, come on, just get to the point. Let's respect each other's time. It's much easier and much better. Exactly. Exactly. I receive sometimes in my inbox, like the first chapter of a book. I'm like, dude, I'm not on LinkedIn to read a book. I'm on LinkedIn to get it's enough to do business. So they send me these messages. I'm like, holy shit.

Yeah. I like it. It's a good one. Then, Johnny, I think we can finish it. I want to say a huge thank you. Yeah. Not only that I've been following your content, which is always valuable, but also appreciate that you join me.

It's been definitely very valuable to me with many takeaways. So thank you so much. keep doing the great work and I will keep following and supporting so thank you very much cheers to that cheers i enjoyed it thank you thanks for listening to produce by with toman check the show notes for all the links and don't forget to subscribe like and share your feedback speak soon