Produced By - The Brand Behind the Scenes: Lessons From a Solopreneur Coach | #112: Luke Redhead

Episode Date: August 4, 2025

Luke Redhead is a personal branding and business coach, and the founder of Sentry Collective. After getting laid off from his corporate job without warning, he turned a side hustle into a full-time mission: helping solopreneurs grow through content, not cold DMs. With years of writing experience, a calm approach to strategy and a knack for simplifying personal brand growth, Luke now supports founders in building trust, showing up authentically and landing clients they actually want to work with.Listen to this episode to get inspired by Luke’s journey of discovering his passion without any formal education or clear roadmap. You’ll learn how to stand out online by focusing on real connection over dry impressions, how to build your brand on LinkedIn or any platform, and how to create content that not only looks good, but actually moves the needle.Connect with Luke:https://www.linkedin.com/in/lukeredheadhttps://playbook.sentrycollective.comhttps://sentrycollective.com/Timestamps:00:00 – What growing on LinkedIn really means00:58 – Podcast intro and guest welcome01:19 – Luke’s career: from IT to coaching02:55 – Starting freelance writing after moving out04:25 – The layoff that changed his life06:27 – Going full-time with his business07:25 – Why trying different jobs matters09:09 – Losing a job as a life catalyst10:28 – Comfort zones and taking risks11:26 – Overcoming inaction and regret12:04 – The “90-year-old self” decision method13:44 – Business expectations vs reality14:59 – Advice for new freelancers and solopreneurs16:21 – Why getting 2–3 clients is key17:33 – Learning through trial, error and coaching19:39 – Thousands of posts: how content reps work22:12 – Why he chose LinkedIn over other platforms24:19 – Repurposing content across multiple channels26:09 – Clients: psychographics vs demographics28:01 – The value of working with diverse clients30:02 – Success beyond metrics: mindset shifts33:50 – Common client mistakes and lessons36:00 – Building personal systems for content38:19 – Luke’s newsletter and deeper insights39:47 – How to grow on LinkedIn the right way44:32 – The truth about overnight success44:57 – Personal life: walking, nature, brand authenticity47:21 – Book rec: 1000 True Fans (article)48:11 – Where to find Luke and his services49:39 – Motorbikes, racing and personal hobbies50:43 – How Luke helps solopreneurs grow51:59 – Podcast closing and thank you 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.

When you say grow on LinkedIn, what does that mean? Because a lot of people, they always think, I want to grow on LinkedIn, and then they think about the followers and the likes and the impressions and things. And I'm not trying to give a politician's answer and get around the question here. But I think a lot of people, the question is why? Why do they want to grow? And a lot of people, I've seen it before. Someone said to be like, I want to hit 100,000 followers.

Why? What's the goal? And it's interesting because a lot of people, there's a thing out there called 1,000 true fans. It's a concept that it's been around for years, but it's something that I'm very, very big on. And it's essentially to build a successful online business, all you need is a thousand true fans that will buy from you. So if you have a thousand people that would pay you $100 for something, once a year, you've got a six-figure $100,000 business. You can play with the numbers. Say, you know, instead of it being $100, it's $1,000, where you only need $100 true fans.

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, Luke. Thank you for joining us today and welcome to the show. My pleasure, nice. Thank you for having me. Luke, for those who don't know you, can you please introduce yourself?

Yeah, so I'm Luke Redhead. I help as solo entrepreneurs and small business founders to build a brand and build a non-law business. Yes, I was having a look at your background on your LinkedIn look. I saw that before doing this, it doesn't really show any other type of experience. So I was curious if this is something that you always wanted to do. Yeah, it's not by any, not trying to hide anything at all. It was a couple of years ago and I can't remember why.

I did remove a lot of it. But yeah, prior to doing this, I was working, I started my kind of professional career as such as a IT support, you know, like service desk. And the team I went into were all very, very clever, very IT savvy, switched on people. And obviously, I was fresh out of school. I had nowhere near the experience that they did. But one of the things that they ended up asking for a lot of help with was, you know, writing replies to customers, you know, creating emails and things.

So I kind of ended up being more of the confidence. person and that kind of snowballed you know over the next coming years into more of the different roles that I went into it was very much around writing and communicating and creating and then about six years ago now I moved out of my parents house I got my first house you know I was living by myself I was really bored I had nothing to do I had no money I was like okay well this isn't you know, this isn't fun. So I was like, what do I do? I've got no money and loads of time.

I thought, well, why not use the writing and do it for other businesses as well in the evening and just see how it goes? If it doesn't work, at least I'm not bored. It does work. Great. I'm still not bored and I've made a bit of extra money. And that is what snowballed into me then coming on to LinkedIn. Then as I was doing that, I started to realize actually it's more than just the writing.

I can, yeah, still. And I always will love the writing and being a writer. and creating the content. But doing that for people, I was like, actually there's more to it. You know, they need to learn how to create offers,

how to have the communications, how to, you know, write in the DMs, how to communicate on a call, da, da, da, and that's what spiraled into this business,

solopreneurship area that I'm in now. So, so yeah, it's not, not hiding anything. I remember about seven, six or seven years ago, I remember removing the experience.

And I can't remember the logic why I did it. And I need to go and add it back to be fair, because it's a good point you raised. A few people have made seem to me. I just haven't. No, it wasn't that I would be trying to ask you about any secrets. I just saw it and I thought that maybe you were bought straight after your studies and you were like, okay, I finish my studies. I'm going to set up my business. I know straight what to do. This is it would be quite impressive. Completely opposite. Completely opposite. I left school. No idea about starting. No plan to start a business at any, you know, at that point at all.

I was 100% climb the corporate ladder and do well. I never actually went to university. I left school and I just went straight into work because I didn't, at the time, I was like, I didn't really know what I want to do. I'm quite like computers. I want to go and work with them. Obviously, got this job as an IT support, you know, a help desk technician kind of role. And after about a year of doing that, I realized.

I didn't like working with computers. You know, I didn't not like, I liked working with computers. I didn't like, you know, you did like taking them apart and doing it. I was like, this isn't what I enjoy as much. I like, like the writing and stuff. And I was like, and then it, it was a snowball effect. But it was about two years ago, you know, see, I was working, still had a, you know, my corporate role and everything there.

And I was doing, you know, working with a couple of clients. in the evening still at that stage. And I was laid off work with no warning. It was literally one morning, logged on. And I got a message, invite to a meeting. No description, nothing. It was just meeting. 10 minutes time to join.

And I was like, and I joined, and, you know, like we're talking now, and there was a guy on the screen. And then there was me and a hundred other people all sat there. And it was like, this isn't going to be good. Oh, good. Yeah. Was it all of those people? All of us, yeah.

Company went under the night before and that was it. You were all unemployed, effective immediately. So then I was like, okay. Is there a reason secret or can you share why was that? It was just due to investors and the company was going through a bit of a transition time. And yeah, one of the main investors pulled out and it was just, it just took it below. I think as far as I understand it, kind of. of below what the company needed.

So it just kind of ran out of money very quickly without any warning. But yeah, but it was for me, I was working, as I say, like I had a couple of clients. So I thought, do you know what? You know, I spent a couple of months looking for jobs. It was a very tough time with the job market. I literally got no replies. Like very, very, very few companies came back to me. And I was just like, look, I can keep doing this or I've got a couple of clients.

I know this thing works. I could just go for it, give it, and I did, I just said, three months, let's just see what happens. And in those three months, I got 10 new clients and, you know, my monthly revenue was the same. I think it was actually slightly higher than my old salary at that point. And then I was like, cool, I'm doing this. So yeah, so that's how I ended up in business as I am now. I never fully planned to actually go, you know, I never left school going. I'm going to start a business.

It's just the way life is turned out. But I'm glad it has. Yeah, I'm glad that I asked you because even though you spent a year working the job that you actually didn't like, at least you found out that you don't like it because sometimes people might be asking, oh, what if I tried or they may spend working there for much longer. But if you try, you know, it doesn't work, you switch. And that's how you discover what you actually enjoy. I completely agree.

And it's, yeah. And I say this like, you know, I didn't. I actually really loved the job itself, like, and I love the people. But for me, at the time, I was like, do I want to do this for the next 40 years, 50 years, whatever it will be? Because I was fresh, literally, fresh out of school, 18 years old. Do I want to do this? Motivated and full of energy. Something like that.

And I was like, do I want to do this forever? And I was like, actually, no. I enjoyed it, but I didn't want to do it forever. And that was the thing for me when I was like, okay. And then I was like, I actually really liked the communicating. the, you know, this side of it. And then I ended up, yeah, I was lucky I had an amazing boss who actually helped me move into other roles within the company.

So then I moved into like a project management role. And then there was parts of that. I thought, cool, I love this. And then this bits, you know, I didn't love this bit. And then I moved into other roles and stuff. But I think that that experience has, you know, taught me so much like now being a, you know, solopreneur and running this business. I know a lot about project management.

I know a lot about, you know, like, customer servicey things. I know a lot about a lot of things. But I wouldn't have known if I hadn't done all those jobs as well. So it's all positive. It's only helped me to get here. Exactly. And it might sound like a cliche, of course,

because when you lose your job, you don't, I mean, it's negative and bad news. But at the same time, it's been like a catalyst and the big moment for you that kind of literally changed everything because that's how you embarked on a new journey and a completely different career path. Yeah, you're absolutely right. I don't know if you're a big believer in fate and things like that, but it certainly made me think maybe there is a plan like the universe has an idea

because, yeah, it kind of, it forced me to take the chance. and I was always too scared to, you know. Like I always had it in my, in my mind. Like I'd love to start, you know, a business and work for myself and do this and do that. But I was just, you know, I had a good job. Like I had a lot of flexibility. I worked with great people. I had a nice salary.

I was so comfortable. And I thought, I don't want to throw all of that away for something that's, you know, not certain and scary. So, you know, I've never had that brave enough, or maybe even deep. been of desire to let go of all of that to then pursue the unknown, the uncertainty, the scary thing. I completely agree on last time. I was forced to. And I'm glad about it.

You know, it's worked out. It's really, really, it's fantastic now. But yeah, it was a very scary thing. And something that I would never have just done off my own. I would never have gone, do know what I'm quitting this job. I'm going to do it. I'm a big believer in enjoying life. And for me, I had a good job, flexibility.

I had the freedom to log off at the end of the day. I was out with friends. I had good money. What more did you need? That was kind of the way I thought about it. Yeah, I hope it inspires other people because even I know people who are not happy in the job they do. But when you talk to them, if they are going to do something about it, they're like, yeah, one day. But then you talk to them later.

So have you done it? Not yet. Yeah, it's such a common thing. And I think it affects everyone in different ways that, but I see so many people who, for example, like you say, I'll do something about it, you know, another day. I'll get there eventually things. But time is far too quickly.

I've learned. And honestly, I struggle with that disorder. It's why I like to talk to people and hear, for example, what you just say now as well, because it reminds me too. I always try to think that the regret of not doing something is the worst. Because in the future, if I'm thinking, oh, if I did this and that back then, it could have been totally different, you know. One thing I teach, you know, I share with all my clients and it's something that I've used a lot.

And it's a method. I call it like the 90-year-old self. And it's very simple. when you're faced with this kind of decision, you think when I'm 90, what will I think about the decision I'm taking? So for me, I'm going to get to, you know, 90 years old. I'll sit in a rocking chair and, you know, I'll look back over life. And I think now, like, obviously, you know, building a business, it's incredibly tough. Like, it's incredibly rewarding, but it's a very hard and very mentally hard thing.

But when I'm 90, I go, do you know what? I'm glad I did that. Like, I'm glad I went for it. Because at that stage, whether it worked or not, it won't matter. I just don't want to get to that age and go, do you know what, I wish I'd done it differently. I wish I'd tried something different. I wish I'd taken that chance.

Because that's, you know, we're not here forever. We've all got limited time. You might as well make the most of it. So that's how I think about a lot of those things, just to make sure, am I actually thinking about this? logically, am I doing the right thing? Or am I just scared? Am I worried? Whatever it is, it just helps to rationalize that thinking. No, I totally agree. And I think it's a great kind of exercise that makes you think

differently or think twice. And as you just, as we've just been talking about starting a business, before you started yours, whether it's like your company or being a solo prener, did you see it like exciting start that it's going to be kind of easy or were you scared or What are your feelings like? No, I'm terrified. No, that's a lie. I wasn't terrified. I was quite excited because I had the comfort of security behind.

So if I didn't have that, it would have been a lot scarier. But I was very excited. The hardest bit for me was when it didn't work out as I'd hoped it was. I went into starting this business with the mentality of, I know how to write. I can help. I can write for the people. I can do it.

Brilliant. And I made the mistake, I think a lot of people make of just going out and thinking, oh, yeah, people need content writing for them. I'll just say I'm available for work and, you know, a couple of people reach out. And then they didn't. And then I was like, wow, what do I do now? And that was the moment where I was a bit. And that was tough.

But exciting. but then scary. So based on this experience, is there something that you'd recommend people or advice to focus on when they are starting their own business or they want to be freelancers? Like maybe what not to underestimate in the beginning?

I mean, one of the hardest things any freelancer, you know, new business owner will face is the mindset challenges. And getting, you know, you can have all the right tools and everything. you need. But if you struggle to act on them,

you know, if you've got those doubts in the back of your mind, it's hard to then just mentally act through them as well. So for me, one of the best things that I did there was give yourself a good runway. You know, don't, people always say like,

you know, quitting a nine to five with no backup plan, but you know, start if you can, whilst you've got the comfort, build up a bit of a, runway and then when you know when you've kind of figured out what works you know once you've got a little bit of comfort with the business moving then then do the jump make it as easy as you can

for yourself that's the biggest thing because if you don't it is 10 times harder really tough yeah I can only agree like try to start as early as possible do it on the side so that there's not too much pressure. And then once you see that it's building up, growing, and you feel more comfortable, then maybe focus on it a bit more. So that's a good one. If you can get two or three clients, it's not a fluke. You've proved it works. And then you can go and get more. And then once you get more, then you can start to streamline, test. You know, you kind of get a gist of what's working. If you're doing, like building a brand and creating content, you start to learn what content resonates, what content attracts the right people,

but only because you've proven that. And I think if you can start, or if you were to take that leap with a good idea, actually, that kind of worked well or this has worked for me already, it's not a guessing game. You've got a strategy, and that will make it a lot easier. And I think it also makes you more confident

that you've got some kind of proof behind it that it's going to work, so you don't have any options makes me there. And as you said Luke before, when you started to focus on this type of career, how did you basically start learning or developing the skills? Because I know that you've been interested in it while you were working in our previous job. But did you like do, I don't know, some kind of course or self-education or just trial and error? Or how did you go about it?

Yeah, a lot of trial and error. We are in a, especially for what I'm doing with, you know, building brands and creating content on all of that good stuff. There is, we're all marketers at the end of the day. And we all have to test and bigger things out. So over the last four years or so, I mean, I think two, at least two thousand posts I've written, the amount of draft posts that didn't make it out, there must be another one or two thousand there. There's so many reps that have gone into that. there's a lot. And then I found I got to a stage where I kind of had,

I don't want this to sound gloaty at all, but I kind of had a lot of experience already from the work I've done previously. And I took all of that in, built basically the business around that. And then that's when I hit a stage where I thought, right, well, I know these are the areas I want to improve. Now I need to go and find someone two, three, four levels ahead of me

that I can learn from to teach me where to level this up and excel from there. So that's where I started investing in more coaches and getting more support from, you know, experts way higher than me, so that I could learn and I could level a lot more as well. So, yeah, it's a common thing.

I think a lot of people, they think they don't start because they don't feel that they're ready. But most people, you know, no one's at the top of their game. No one's perfect when they start. Yeah. But no one's at zero.

they've all got experience and a story and, you know, lived things that they've done. And that is often enough just to start. If you can use that and you can help someone get from, you know, level one to level two, that's good enough because you can learn to get from yourself from level two to level three to level four. And you keep leveling up as you keep bringing people with you as well. So, yeah, it's a lot of trial and error, a lot of self-learning. I mean, you know, hundreds of hours of self-learning. thousands upon thousands invested in coaches and things, but it's all worth it.

Yeah, it pays off over time, and I'm glad that you mentioned the number of posts, because as you've been showing up on, for example, LinkedIn for some time, and you know, you get into the rhythm, into the routine posting regular, but if you think about it, as you said, like if you post really irregular and how many posts it is, it's a crazy number, like, as you said, I don't know, 3K posts or how many was it? It's a real experience, yeah. Yeah, thousands. I mean, that's a cross for me and for clients I've done, you know,

written for in the past. Oh, yeah, clients on top of it, of course. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I did something about a year ago because I used to have a like a notion page of just drafts that, you know, I have an idea why I just took it in there and things. But it just kept growing to the point where I was putting more drafts in than there was people were coming out the other side. And I cleared that.

And I, yeah, this was, I've done it plenty of times just to keep it in the entirety. But that time I remember doing it, it was after I hadn't touched it for a couple of months. And I remember going through and it was like, are you sure you want to delete like three, four hundred entries? And I was like, no, I don't want to. Need to, but, you know, because I was never going to use it. You just need to create a new page. I know. That was the other problem.

I used to do it on my phone on the notes page, and that used to get so full that it would actually start to crash the notes app. So then I started and then it's, oh, it just got phrasing. It makes me laugh because I'm the same. I use notes on my iPhone because I've got too many. It's so extremely slow. I'm used to it. And I don't know. And I feel sorry to delete it.

So it just made me love that you just mentioned it. Yeah, I think we're older. You know, you're not the only one and I'm definitely not the only one in time. Are you struggling to stay consistent on LinkedIn? Fanpost 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.

And as you were starting out, when did LinkedIn come to the place? Or maybe why did you choose LinkedIn or not some other platform? I actually did. So, you know, I started on as a freelance platform called Fiverr. And so that's where I first started writing. And, you know, it was a slow start. But as momentum built, it really started to pick up. and there was a lot of little one-off literally five pound or five dollar you know little bits of

work there and stuff but you know I think it was about 130 140 clients through there some were big projects some were literally can you just you know proofread this this advert for all this sort of thing but yeah and then I thought you know what this is going well but I didn't want to solely build the business on of the platform where, you know, if something happens, like if they, you know, if they decide, you know, we've made it off money, we're going to shut fiver down now. Like, I didn't want my business to go with that. So then I thought I'd start posting on socials because I was doing a lot for clients on there, for their social content anyway. And very, very new to the game, I posted everywhere. So Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn.

And there was a fifth one that I can't remember now. But out of all of them, it was LinkedIn was one I enjoyed the most. And I actually saw, I don't know, it felt different to me because I was, I could kind of see more of a human aspect to that at the time. The style, the kind of people there were more aligned with what I was trying to do. So then I thought, well, let's just channel, you know, all this effort into one platform and see what happens from it. And yeah, the rest is history.

Been there since then? Literally, this was, yeah, that was back in 2020 once. That was four years ago. And yeah, and here we are now. And right now, do you still, as far as I've done the research, I didn't see, but do you still post on any other platforms, maybe with lower frequency or LinkedIn only? Not really.

I do sometimes use, like, threads is quite cool. You know, I've seen a lot of people talking about substack as well. So I've got my eye on that. But it's one of those things is that, you know, I'm very mindful. Is this a need now? Or is this a distraction? And I think from my model, my approach, and this is what I do with clients, the whole idea is we use the socials to build this brand, to get their name out there,

to build this community and attract the right people. And I do a lot, we talk a lot about LinkedIn because that's where we do a lot of things. But it's not the only platform where people are. So instead, you know, all the content strategy, everything I teach in terms of how to write posts, how to structure them, you know, hook writing and the strategy about what to post and when and all of that, it's not necessarily LinkedIn specific. It's more focused for their audience. So if they were to go to Do what, actually, I'm going to try using threads and Twitter and just repurpose the posts there. It still works well. It's not LinkedIn specific.

It's still audience human focused. And then the ultimate goal is attracting those people and then just giving them somewhere to go. So for me, that's a newsletter and getting people onto that. It doesn't need to just solely be on LinkedIn for that as well. So, yeah, so I'm kind of thinking it's one thing I've got my eye on at the minute. it's start branching out on other platforms. But it's just not something I've done yet just because there's been other higher priority things going on. Yeah, totally understand. And as we are talking about what you do, actually, what is the like a type of clients that you work with? Are you specific to

certain demographics or can be anyone? It could be anyone. I'm not the biggest fan of demographics specifically, just because, you know, people are so varied in the way they think now more than ever. So instead, I'm set on what I call, well, what are known as psychographics. And it's more about, you know, instead of it being a demographic, this person who's this age and this job title and this location, it can be anyone in the world who's facing this problem and wants to get to this outcome and they're struggling with this and need help learning how to do this. And then it can be anyone.

So, you know, I've got at the minute, you know, one of my clients. he's had a great career in the corporate world and he's done some really, really good things. And he's older than me, but he's now wanting to go into the, you know, build his own kind of consulting business, like as a solopreneur and go into these businesses and help them to do the same now. Whereas there's someone else that I'm working with who's similar age to me. You know, they are early in their career, but they want to build this brand to get them opportunities and build this business early on.

rather than go into a nine to five because that's the life that they want to build for themselves anyway. So it's, yeah, it's very cool. But ultimately for me, it comes down to the solopreneurs, the small business founders. They want to build, like this personal brand. They want to get themselves out there. They want to attract the right people. They want to get a business that's not a massive business. It doesn't need to be.

But one that gives them flexibility, freedom. good money, work on their terms, work with the people they enjoy working with and do work that they enjoy so that they just ultimately enjoy life. That's the core focus for me. I think what you said before is something that makes it kind of beautiful or fun at the same time because if you work with different types of people from different backgrounds, for example, different ages, careers, goals, I think that's what makes it actually fun, challenging and unique because it's always a different challenge. difference of something exciting and or at least from my point of view that's what i would enjoy i agree

yeah it's you know it's nice because people are everyone's different but it's nice and this is where people i think get niching a bit wrong um or they make meishing harder for themselves and it needs to be you know everyone tries when they think about niching it's the demographics i need to find this type of person in this way daddla whereas if you can find people who have got the same beliefs and the same vision and the same goal and they want to do it in the same way, they can be completely wildly different, but they're all motivated by the same thing in the same way. And then you can just adapt the approach. So there's one client I'm working with a minute, fantastic writer, just naturally fantastic writer. So it's really fun to look at their posts and we can go, cool. This is

where we could tweak the hook, for example, or could do this. And then there's someone else who's not a natural writer and we have to put more structure in and say, okay, well, here's, you know, here's the flow of how to do this, here's where to get the ideas from, you know, here's why this hook works. And both people are working towards the same goal in the same way, but they just need the different level of support. And it's really fun to be able to do that, you know, rather than just chasing or trying to find repeats and copies of the same person. It's nice to have that flexibility. Yeah, I agree. And I think that in the other, it's also. about what type of people you work with.

So whether it's someone who needs more help or less help, as long as it's a nice person that you enjoy working with, for me, it's just the win. Definitely, yeah. And that's it. And it's, you know, if you can change their life for the better in some way, then that's great. And I think a lot of people don't,

a lot of people put pressure on themselves for one type of result all the time. you know so for example in this game you know everyone thinks about the number of leads or clients that you get or you know as a ghost writer it's always how many impressions and likes have we got but you know i mean one of my biggest wins this week is one of my clients we had a call on tuesday and in that call we were talking we had a big strategy session we planned things out and we realized that what they were focusing on their positioning there was actually a potentially a different way that they could do that and they could reposition their skills rather than just helping corporations and big businesses. Actually, they've got the skills to help anyone to learn, you know, like the communication and the negotiation skills and things like that. So we said, actually, why don't we reposition that? And it was that penny drop moment. You could kind to see it in the call and in their face. They were like, actually, yeah, that's, I like that. That's cool. there's no number against that there's no metric to measure but that's a moment that's so

I find those moments so good and that's I think it's a hard bit is people go oh but they've not got they've not got 10 times ROI and this and that but you know they've got such a you know renewed vision and excitement and passion and drive to make something that they love doing into a business again and seeing the path and the way to do it like that is it's incredible so yeah I think that's an important point as well. I agree, and especially for you, being the one who helps someone to discover it or steer them in the right direction so that they come up with such a realization, it must be great sense of fulfillment.

Oh, massively, massively. I mean, the numbers are nice as well, of course. Everyone, like, if you have like 1,000 engagement, of course. Yeah, I mean, so I did a workshop a couple of weeks ago, and I shared my content strategy of how to go pretty much from a blank page to a, you know, fully written post. And he was the strategy. And, yeah, I spoke to someone yesterday who joined that workshop. And I said, oh, yeah, how are things going?

And they said, you know, oh, yeah, it's been really helpful to know how to write, how to structure this, how to know who to write for, what makes, you know, to post engaging, what gets the attention and stuff. And they said, I actually had a post that went semi-viral. I said, what do you mean semi-viral? And this post, last time I checked, is at over 5,000 likes. God knows how many impressions. And I was like, that's a bit more than semi-viral. For LinkedIn, that's very viral. That's incredible.

But the win behind that was, you know, yes, those numbers are great. But for them, it was this, hang on, this is possible. This works. I can do this. That was the win in my eyes that they could go cool. So the next time they sit down to write this has worked like,

oh my God, imagine if I do that again. Like another post it does that. I've done it before. Or even more. The numbers are great, but it goes deeper. It always goes deeper than that. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And of course, you cannot probably generalize, but working with many clients. Are there like any common, let's say mistakes or obstacles that your clients or people that you work with, struggle with or face or approach you with? There always is. There always is. And it's one thing I'm always transparent about in the early stages. You know, when we first start talking, I always say this isn't a smooth, you know, straight path.

But that's the fun of it. There will be moments where we, you know, we learn, we test. Oh, that didn't work as well as it could have done. Cool. What's the data? Like, why? Why didn't it? what can we learn from it for next time? So there's always moments like that. I mean, I just shared then, obviously, that person whose post got, you know, five and a half thousand likes on it, you know, however many impressions it got.

But there'll be other posts that don't get anywhere near that. Of course, it's not a guaranteed hit thing. Also depends if LinkedIn algorithm likes it. There's a hundred thousand factors. There's a hundred thousand other factors that determine it. It's such a complicated game. Yeah, I mean, people make mistakes all the time and that's, but I think this is a good thing. You know, as long as these mistakes don't hurt anyone else, it's a good thing because it's a

lesson learned and it's a credibility thing. It's like if you do, I mean, I've done, like I say, you know, I've written thousands of posts, you know, most of them haven't performed that well when you look at the numbers. And that is great because then I can do, I can talk about I'd say like I've written, for argument's sake, I've written a thousand posts, you know, 700 often flopped. Here's why the other 300 didn't. Here's what I learned from doing that. And that's such a good position to be in rather than I wrote one post and it went viral

because you've got so much more of a relatable story, so much more credibility, that you actually become more valuable from doing that anyway. So, yeah, I think mistakes are a good thing, definitely. Yeah, no, I agree. and as long as you learn from it. And when it comes to improving yourself and learning, what are your sources of education or inspiration, whether it's studying from any specific people or any courses or any other resources?

Yeah, I mean, I'm a big fan of learn, you know, from those two steps ahead. You know, so the people that are just at that next level that have faced kind of the barriers that I'm, that? You know, how did they get there? What have they done? What have they learned and things? But also, like, what are my drawbacks at the minute? So one of mine, about two months ago, was that I was very unstrategic, I think. Not very, but there was a lot of, you know, oh, I need to do this and to that as quite scattered, rather than being very systemized. So I thought, okay, content was one. I'd sit down most days and be like, I need to write a post, where do I find a post, what can I do, what can I talk about, what's this, what's that?

So I was like, okay, fix that. So now on a Thursday, I sit down, I've got all these prompts to pick out the good ideas I need. I've got a strategy knowing who I want to write for. What do I kind of want the outcome of that to be? I've got flows to kind of guide my writing. And then I've got hooks there to inspire. different ways of grabbing attention and things like that. So now I sit down, it's never a, oh God, I need to write where can I get an idea,

what can I do, what can I do? He's all there. And it tells, yeah, this system tells me what I need to think about. Yeah. Rather than just, you know, rather than just give, write about this. He asks the right questions. Actually, I could talk about that happened this week. I could write about this and guide it here and here's how to structure it.

so then the thinking I do is that only creative thinking it minimizes the effort I need to do and the brain power so I can get more done quicker is the idea yeah so have you done your work yesterday I did I actually did yeah I wrote so yesterday I wrote six posts yesterday and I planned out my full like the newsletter I do it once a week at the minute and I planned out everything I to write about in there and then yeah after this i'm going to sit down and write the newsletter so yeah and that took me only a couple of hours yesterday to do it all which before would have taken me two days i understand and i agree and it's just speaking of a newsletter do you want to kind of promote it what is it that you write about tell us more about it yeah i'd love to so it's for me it's a place

to just share the deeper and the more i can say more insightful things so you know things that i'm working on at the minute or things that I've noticed or stuff that I'm working on with clients and I can just go really deep into the strategies why we're doing it that way or why this works. It's all the stuff that you can't cram into a single post. It's a lot deeper, you know, a lot more information but as well a lot more value in there. I won't lie and say there's not any offers in there because there is. But it's always stuff that I think is going to help people. So whether it's like a workshop I'm doing or whether it's I've got a couple of spaces or something like that, it's in them. But it's all with good intention of helping people.

So yeah. And people can subscribe on your website, right? Absolutely can, yeah. I will add the link to the show notes. And I'm sure, look, this is probably a little bit maybe annoying question that I'm pretty sure you get a lot as well. but when someone asks you like on LinkedIn in your DMs, like look, what's the advice how to grow on LinkedIn? What do you say or what would be your answer? Because I get this question as well and I want to hear what would you say.

Yeah, I had this either day. I mean, when you say grow on LinkedIn, what does that mean? Because a lot of people, they always think I want to grow on LinkedIn and then they think about the followers and the likes and the impressions and things. but and I'm not trying to give a politician's answer and get around the question here but I think a lot of people the question is why you know why why do they want to grow you know and a lot of people I've seen it before someone said to be like I want to hit 100,000 followers like what what's the goal and it's interesting because a lot of people you know there's a big there's a there's a thing out there called a thousand true fans, which is a concept that it's been around for years, but it's something that I'm

very, very big on. And it's essentially, you know, to build a successful online business, all you need is a thousand true fans that will buy from you. So if you have a thousand of people that would pay you $100 for something, once a year, you've got a six-figure $100,000 business. and you can play with the numbers. Let's say, you know, instead of it being $100, it's $1,000, where you only need 100 true fans. Let's say you have a coaching program and each client, you know, is worth $10,000 over the course of a year.

Well, now you only need 10 true fans. And I think that's, you know, when you get clear on that, that's when you can properly start to grow on LinkedIn and other platforms. Because then you know I'm trying to reach the truth answer. The people that I can help get from A to B, you know, the people facing this problem, the people that are stuck at this point and want to be here, the stories that, you know, I can share that are going to inspire them to make them go, actually, you know, he's done it, I could do it as well.

Or he's done that and learned from it and I can learn from him as well. But that's when you can start to build a real community of people who trust you, who want to hear from you, you know, who like that. the content you're sharing, but it's with the good intention. There are actual people you can help. So yeah, you may grow, you probably will grow slower. If you were to spend hours researching what the algorithms are doing, you know, what topics they're pushing, how many words your posts should be, you know, what, you know, should I do an infographic

or a video or this or that? You can get the impression by doing that. people were doing when videos first boomed on LinkedIn a couple of months ago. You know, I saw people getting millions, literally millions of impressions on a video. And then saying, yeah, I think they referred to it as dry impressions. Because they said they had a normal post that they did the day before that maybe got a couple of thousand impressions, same number of likes, same number of comments. and then another post that got over a million impressions, the same number of likes and the same number of comments.

And they said it's so many people saw it, but it didn't matter because it didn't care. Yeah, then it's true. So I say, you know, absolutely, the way to do it is the authentic way. And it's to share, it's to know who it is you're trying to reach, is the main thing.

And then it's the stories to inspire, the stories to build trust with you as a person and put yourself out there. and then the expertise, you know, the things that you've done, the things you're seeing, the thoughts, the opinions that you have, there's things that you've done with clients or the things that you would do if they were facing this problem, you know, all of that good stuff, that it can reach good people, you know, it can reach a good number of people. But it's not going to just reach aimlessly. It's going to reach people that are more aligned, better fit, you know, will spark deeper conversations and, you know, connection and trust and relationships. rather than just drawing impressions. So, yeah, so I think it's, yeah, there's plenty of ways to grow on LinkedIn.

It's a great answer. And I'm glad that I asked this question. And I think another great lesson or point here is that you often ask or sometimes ask those people for how long they've been showing up. But as we've been just speaking, they can hear, like, for example, when you sign up on LinkedIn that you haven't been like for a few weeks, but it's been some time. And also that you put the reps in that we also discussed how many posts,

for example, you've written. So obviously you've got experience and it hasn't happened just overnight, which I think is also the secret that people often are looking for. Yeah, tip of the iceberg. People see, you know, they see the good results at the top, but not the huge, you know, all the work behind the scenes that happens often. Yeah. Exactly.

And look, just as we will be approaching the end, I've got a few lighter questions. So what is it that you enjoy doing in your free time? Or what are some of your hobbies? I'm a big fan of walking. I'm a big fan of nature, full stop. So if you could see in my office now, I've got loads of like plants, like house plants over there in like a cabinet. I've got a few on my desk. There's some behind me over in that corner.

you could see. I love nature. I love plants and things. So, you know, getting out walking, bike rides, all of that good stuff. I just, I love it. I don't like being cooped up inside for too long. But believe me or not, but I thought so based on the pictures that you share on LinkedIn, because so many times I see like a beautiful mountains or countryside or a place like that as well. It looks like. Yeah, it's nice. And there's logic behind those pictures as well. It's authentic. It's very me. Most of those, most of the pictures there are where I do a lot of thinking anyway and have ideas and, you know, and solve problems in my own head, which is nice. But it's also, I mean, I've got a client I'm working with now. And he reached out and he said to me, he said,

I want to live like you do in the pictures. And he said he's got, he said he's in a good job. He's got a great career. He's earning good money. He wants the freedom. Like he wants to go on these big walks and things during it. He wants to be able to do all of that. And that's the main reason that you reached out was just because of the pictures. So it's actually partly brand now, but it's just me. And I think at the same time it's smart because, for example, when you scroll your feet and you see, let's say, motivational images, AI images,

this and that. Then there is like a beautiful countryside, a beautiful shot, and you sitting on a rock or something, it just catches my attention. it does it's why my you'd never think that this was a good idea but it's why my profile picture on LinkedIn is me wearing

sunglasses you know I never said I never I didn't make my account and go I'm going to do this picture you know I thought it was a brand kind of idea someone said to be like

you should you should do that because it links in with what you do and who you are and I thought I'd give it a go and see and it became a known thing like you know it just became a thing of me wearing sunglasses

because I was always outside. But yeah. Yeah, it's good and I like you. And then, Luke, do you read any books? And if so, have you got any good ones to share? I mean, I don't do as much reading as I should. It's one of the things I want to do more of.

So I've not got many book recommendations, but I would highly recommend, if you just Google 1,000 TrueFams, it's only like a blog article. But it's, I mean, it's been around since I think 2008. It comes up straight away. I highly recommend reading that. It's five, ten minutes read.

But it's very, very eye-opening about how the bar isn't probably as high as many people think it is. I will have a look as all because what we discussed before it got my attention and sounds really good on to miss. Then look, we discussed all the stuff, but can you summarize where people can find you, follow you and promote any of your services. Awesome. Yeah, thank you. So LinkedIn is probably the best place for me at the minute. You can just search my name, Luke Redhead. I'll come up, look for a guy wearing sunglasses and you'll know it's me. From there, obviously I've got, you know, my newsletter as well. I launched a playbook last month before. And in that playbook, I've kind of summarized the strategy that I use.

So, you know, it talks through how to build a business, keeping it simple, the content side of things as well of how to attract the right people and the things to kind of talk about. But there's a section in there that I think will be quite interesting for anyone out there who's, you know, wants to be a solo entrepreneur in that kind of game. And there's a section of it that's called it a different kind of success story. It was quite an honest right that I did, but it talks through, you know, what success can mean, you know, what it could be. it talks through, like for me, being able to be present for like family and the flexibility and, you know, the kind of success that it's hard to put into numbers, but it talks through a lot of that and I found it quite interesting when I was writing it. So a few of the people have said it was quite interesting.

So there's that as well, which is out there. Completely free. It's on my profile. And if you grab that, obviously, you can get into the newsletter and start getting emails from me as well. Sounds great. And actually, you reminded me, I was about to ask you when I was asking you about the hobbies, if you don't like motorbikes or I guess you know why I'm asking?

I do, I do. It's, uh, I've got a triumph in the garage at the minute that, um, it's, there's a little bit of work I'm doing on it, but, uh, yeah, I do. I love it. I've always been a fan of anything with an engine to it. I grew up with the Formula One on every Sunday. My dad was a huge fan as I grew up and it just, I never got into football or anything like that. I always got into like motorsports and things. So yeah, there's quite

a few pictures of me on LinkedIn stood next to a racetrack. You know, change your scenery. But it's cool. I enjoy it. It's good fun. It's nice to go out and just go for a spell of it as well. Yeah, make sure to scroll through Luke's history of posts on LinkedIn.

You'll see a lot of greenery. Yeah, yeah. And look, then the very last question, is there anything that I should have asked you already not or any final message that you would like to share before we finish? I don't think there's anything you should have asked. I think the only other thing I'd want to share maybe is maybe a little bit about how I can help people, if that's okay. Yeah, of course.

But yeah, I mean, my whole focus, as I've mentioned, is helping people to build a, basically to build a life through the business and through the content. So, you know, for me, it's not about how, you know, getting as many clients as possible. You know, it's about having the right, you know, the right handful of people, knowing how to find them, how to have those conversations, have a few high-ticket people that just you gel well with, that you work well with. And, you know, it just makes work fun, building the brand, getting out there, meeting people, you know, opening doors to opportunities and things like that.

You know, all of that good stuff is what I help with. So for anyone out there, if you're interested, if you want to hear more, more than happy to just have a conversation, show you a little what it looks like and see if it's good fit. Yeah, make sure to reach out to look. I will add any links to the show notes. And look, I just want to say a big thank you. I really enjoyed it. You share great content on LinkedIn.

I wish you all the best. I'm happy to stay in touch and do SQL anytime in the future. So thank you and wish you good luck. Thank you very much. The same to you. It's been a pleasure. Thanks for listening to Produce Buy with Tomlin. Check the show notes for all the links. And don't forget to subscribe, like and share your feedback. Speak soon.