Produced By - Viral on LinkedIn: The Untold Story of a Self-Taught Content Creator | #SPECIAL: Daniel Korenblum

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

Starting point is 00:00:25 So Dan, can you please introduce yourself? Sure. So yeah, I'm Daniel. I am 29 years old. I'm currently based in Germany. I was born in Russia, actually, in Moscow. I did grow up in Germany for most of my life been here as well. And I am currently building my personal brand on LinkedIn. I've been doing that for the past two months. It's been going quite well, actually, to the point where I actually decided to do that full-time as well.

Starting point is 00:01:01 And yeah, before that I've been for quite some time working within social media. A lot of startup companies, mainly within tech, within blockchain, Web3. And then somewhat rediscovered LinkedIn for myself to the point where I underestimated, I think, the power of this platform. But for me, it always seemed like it's more of a corporate platform. with lots of, yeah, just job search and essentially just connecting, but never really understood this whole content creation economy within it. And I think a lot of people might have that because if you're not in that bubble, you will not see that type of content. So I only really discovered it once I deep dive. And yeah.

Starting point is 00:01:58 You know, I felt like I had the same impression of LinkedIn. Yeah, yeah, no, no, it's funny because, and I think most people have that impression. And I think the reason for it is that this whole content creation economy is just getting bigger. It started to, I think, within the past years, but it's still super small simply because just not that many people actually end up posting on LinkedIn. For a variety of reasons, I think some are maybe concerned. with, you know, their reputation, what their, I don't know, company might think, what their bosses might think. And, yeah, I think it might be just easier for people to do that on Instagram or Twitter or

Starting point is 00:02:42 other platforms. So it does make sense, but I think that's pretty cool. And I think LinkedIn is also working towards embracing this new trend that's moving forward. I actually posted something about that. I think last week or two weeks ago, how they're now also introducing or have already introduced a new type of algorithm, which essentially helps you hyper-target your audience. And it's very different to other platforms where essentially people rather want to go viral.

Starting point is 00:03:16 And I think that's fine. It makes sense. And I think that's also good that you have the possibility. But LinkedIn went the exact other way where they're like just post good content, share your knowledge, help other people out. and will help you reach the exact target audience that you're looking for, instead of you just going viral and trying to just hit everyone. And I think this dynamic just really improves the quality of the content because people do not essentially create content to just go viral.

Starting point is 00:03:47 There's barely any, so to say, bullshit content that's just there to get the clicks, get the views and then move forward. it's quality content, it's knowledge, it's helping each other out, being kind, and I think that's really amazing. I actually remember it. I saw the post and I also read about the changes they make. So we will see where it goes. But as you said before, you were born in Russia.

Starting point is 00:04:14 Can you tell us more about your childhood and how you ended up in Germany? Yeah, sure. So I've only lived there for like two and a half three years, so not really long. and then my whole family decided to move to Germany. With everything that's going on, I think it was a pretty wise decision. And yeah, so I've been growing up in Germany. I'm sorry, what was the reason for moving there? Essentially, it's kind of ironic because it's the same situation that has been happening

Starting point is 00:04:50 for all those years. It's been the same then and it's the same now, only that now it's very visible to also the outside world. It's just been, people were just unsure what's going to be tomorrow, the economic situation, the political situation. It hasn't been great. And now it's just, yeah, essentially it's public now. Yeah. I think that's the part.

Starting point is 00:05:14 And I think a lot of people back then, it wasn't just my parents. It was actually a lot of people migrating in general out of the ex-Sovid Union. and yeah I think now you have even more proof that that was a good decision by my parents and Germany in general gave my parents as well as myself a lot of possibilities or Europe as a whole I think just out of curiosity your surname sounds German or am I wrong or how come yeah so I mean both my names got translated They did sound different in Russian. Okay.

Starting point is 00:05:55 So I think they got Germanized. So I think that's, yeah. Sorry for interruption. You can continue with after you move to Germany. Yeah, yeah, no, no, no. Of course, feel free to interrupt asking the questions. So, yeah, and then, yeah, I grew up in Germany. I went to school here.

Starting point is 00:06:20 and then after high school, I was kind of unsure what I wanted to study. For me, it made sense to study something that will just give me a lot of possibilities, and it's just a bit broader. So I ended up deciding to study business, which wasn't really a super niche, but I was happy I did it because it did end up opening up a lot of possibilities. possibilities for me. I studied in Rotterdam in the Netherlands. So that was actually quite cool because the whole city, but especially the university and the, let's say the people I was surrounded with, they were from all around the world, super international. I think that was

Starting point is 00:07:10 really useful to just get to know people with all sorts of backgrounds. And sort of why was that? Why didn't you study in Germany? So actually I wanted to study in English and the issue in Germany was that most universities were private universities. And then outside of Germany, you had the same issue. You had the option of, let's say, UK or the US, which is even more expensive. And then Holland was really close. It's still very affordable. And you get this whole international vibe.

Starting point is 00:07:49 it's still a new country and i think that's just how it got together did you learn dutch as well i did a little bit um i i had to actually take it for like a year um it's it's it's kind of weird especially if you do speak german it sounds just like a broken version of german um so um yeah i can i can barely say anything so please don't ask me um And did you then find it easier to learn the language? Thanks to... What do you mean? Because of...

Starting point is 00:08:26 Thanks to similarities to German one. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, no, no. For sure. It was definitely easy.

Starting point is 00:08:32 I mean, we've had also students from all kinds of countries that didn't have, let's a German background. And it was definitely more tough. Like, I could... Certain things, I mean, grammar, the structure, a lot of the words, they're very similar. So... it did come definitely easier to me. Yeah, yeah.

Starting point is 00:08:53 So how was it studying there? Yeah, overall, I mean, really one of the best times. I'm not going to lie, I met so many great people, still a bunch of friends that I hope I'll stay friends with, you know, for a long time. That's a really fun time there. Overall, I can really recommend it. It's also the country by itself, I think, is also very very, very, very, very, very. also very welcoming. It's Dutch culture is very, yeah, just very nice, super open-minded. In general, people within Rotterdam, but also, I think, across the whole of Netherlands,

Starting point is 00:09:31 super international. And I guess it's quite also benefited that it's not far away from Germany where you come from. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. So it was still, and I think also for my parents, there was, I think, a good selling point because they were like, okay, far enough but still close enough if something happens so no I think that overall a really good decision and out of curiosity were there any culture shocks that you experience after moving to different country I wouldn't say culture shock just because I've been to the Netherlands before and because it's so close it's it was somewhat familiar there are definitely some things or a couple of things that were different one thing that i found

Starting point is 00:10:25 really beneficial is that you can pay with card like anywhere and in germany that's still not a thing there's so many places where just have to end up paying with cash so that was quite positive that wherever you go essentially you just need your card um but like culture shock I wouldn't really say. I think it was still too close for me to be shocked by a different culture. Can you compare or if it's different Dutch education to German education? I can't fully compare it because I just didn't go to a German university from what my friends maybe told me.

Starting point is 00:11:13 I think, and it depends what kind of university, because I went to an applied university, which means that I had more of a practical part as well to the theoretical. But that also exists in Germany. So I think that concept isn't really new. That just also just was a better decision for me because I actually mentioned that also in one of my recent posts

Starting point is 00:11:34 that I'm just a person I'm better at learning by doing instead of just getting so much theory in me and then trying to apply it. But I think in terms of it makes sense and I can only agree that it's good to use more of practical education. They just learn in theory. And then once you go into the field, you're like, oh, what am I going to do now? Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. And yeah, so that was, I think, my adventure in Holland.

Starting point is 00:12:11 And afterwards, I still didn't really know what I was going. going to do. So it helped me in one way because I was like, okay, business is quite cool. I think I can definitely do something with it, but I've always had, let's say, a touch for creativity. Actually, I didn't mention that to you, but I actually also started DJing during my studies in Brodham. Wasn't expecting that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And we're doing that for quite a while. I still do that. I'm also a couple of clubs. Also helped organizations. I did that in Rott. I'm also a couple of clubs. also helped organize a couple of events there. But that's the one thing that I was missing.

Starting point is 00:12:52 And my bachelor, I needed more of a creativity aspect to it. And we did have, let's say, digital marketing courses, some web design, some basics. But it was still not super fulfilling to me. And so because of this, let's say, passion for music, I've also been into arts before. like when I was growing up, I was drawing a lot. It was also like spray painting and stuff. Just only legal, I'm sure. Of course, of course.

Starting point is 00:13:24 And yeah, because of this, let's say, passion that kind of got fueled within those years in Rotterah, I decided to go for Masters and Music Business Management. I thought that would be a great combination of essentially what I already had done. the business part and let's say my personal my personal level at my personal level to it and yeah started to do my master's in london actually funny enough i did not yeah yeah i was london university of westminster um funny enough it was during corona so i did not end up visiting london at that time it was all yeah it was all remote um we had the possibility so students were allowed to come to the university, but

Starting point is 00:14:14 for me it was like, is it worth it? Again, London, super expensive, getting an apartment there, and then also, you never know what's going to happen. That all time was such a mess from all angles that I was like, might just be better to stay at home. But, you know, sorry for interruption, but the reason why I was so surprised

Starting point is 00:14:34 that literally the same thing happened to me. I also studied Masters in London, but because of the because of the COVID I studied online so I was like I feel like never met anyone to whom this happened as well I have to find me someone and you have to add that for us I think it was still somewhat acceptable because we were at an age where we could deal with it but I think a lot of younger students in high school and it was was quite a difficult time because they got cut out from all of the social interaction. They were just at home 24-7. And I think that was, and I think there's still, I mean, there's a bunch of studies as well how that really affected a whole generation of kids that just got kind of got dropped,

Starting point is 00:15:30 essentially years of their childhood. So I think for us, at least from my side, I was able to deal with it. I actually, it was kind of also the first stepping stone into home office for me. That's kind of funny because afterwards I did get a job in an office working Berlin. But afterwards, I got stuck essentially to home office because I love that. And yeah, so overall, yeah. So how's the master's? The education was really good.

Starting point is 00:16:05 It was really, really good. funny enough it was much easier than my bachelor I think partly it was probably also the course the way it was structured but also because I was just more passionate about it I had more interested in it and I think whenever you whenever you follow something that you're really interested in just makes it much easier to study and learn it just comes

Starting point is 00:16:30 yeah and did you have a particular position in mind that what you would want to do after you finished master So also then I was kind of again a bit lost because now I got I deep dived of course into whole music business industry I was like okay I got the business part I got the music business part now so obviously now I have to do something with music business and the initial idea was I mean I applied for all kinds of positions after my master's the idea was I think I wasn't really an idea I just applied I mean it was from event management to artist management and just in general anything I could really find within the music industry.

Starting point is 00:17:15 I applied to a lot of record labels as well, Universal, Warner Brothers, Sony music. And yeah, the one thing that I was sure about, I actually wanted to move to Berlin just to live there essentially and also work there. so I was looking for jobs in Berlin. So I think that narrowed it down at least. But yeah, and that's funny because the first job I got then was at the music NFT startup. So I did end up mixing everything in. The position was social media manager. So I had the creativity part.

Starting point is 00:17:53 I had the music part. I had the business part. That was pretty cool. And I ended up staying also in Berlin for seven, eight months. Yeah, and also had a great time there. And why Berlin? I've never been to Berlin, so I'm curious. Yeah, I mean, Berlin is amazing. I think it might not be for everyone, because it's, it is a special place. But for me, I was missing the international part. So that's one thing that I was kind of following, especially after Rotterdam.

Starting point is 00:18:32 I just really wanted to be in a scene where I get to know people from all around the world. And that's why kind of Berlin happened because, let's say, outside of Germany could have been a possibility as well, but at that point, I still wanted to stay within Germany. And other than Berlin, there is really nothing comparable within it. So, yeah, sorry, yeah. I mean, yeah, that makes sense, yeah. That's why Berlin. So how was it working in this startup?

Starting point is 00:19:09 I guess it will be interesting since it was or it is NFT. So I'm curious to see what. Yeah. So the project by itself was very interesting. I think the idea was pretty cool. What they were doing essentially, they were releasing NFTs. So for people who might not know NFTs, essentially like those digital cards. at least for them there's different types of NFTs but they had digital cards similar to those stickers maybe you know them like back in

Starting point is 00:19:40 back in high school you used to have like those those little books with those football players and just collect the stickers and it was the same idea just with hip-up artists based on germany so you could buy them you could collect them you'd have different rarities and essentially also make money from it by selling them trading them with other players and And every week you'd set up a lineup of your top five artists. And based on that performance, on your social media score, whether they would release music and so on, they would get a different score. And the higher the score, the better your whole placement, the higher your placement, the bigger rewards you would get. So by itself, again, in terms of the project, I really enjoyed that.

Starting point is 00:20:26 I also enjoyed what I was doing there. unfortunately the management of the company wasn't that great i didn't say it was quite mismanaged and yeah that was the reason why i decided also to leave at some point um and i think yeah was a good decision i think afterwards also um it didn't really uh go that well for them um so was 100 percent worth the experience. I learned a lot of things actually. Met also great people there at the company. But yeah, you said as a stepping step. Do you want to share your honest opinion? You can maybe compare before and after about NFTs in general? Just curious? So it's funny because the second job I got then was also a blockchain startup. It was more within gaming. So I did stay within that.

Starting point is 00:21:23 industry. I think the technology behind it is super useful. I think blockchain in general is a good thing. I think it makes sense that you have a decentralized system, that no one has the power to do anything with your data. And the sole concept of Web3 makes perfect sense to me. I think that should be implemented. I'm surprised it's still not at a point where I thought it would be today, but the idea of it, I think, is great. I think the problem is because it's decentralized, you obviously run into other issues, which is a bunch of scams,

Starting point is 00:22:02 a bunch of illegal activities, a bunch of shady stuff, which unfortunately just comes with it, right? If you have no one to control it, then you kind of run into anarchy and chaos, and that's what happened. There are a bunch of great blockchain projects, cool games,

Starting point is 00:22:21 school and a T project valuable NFTs as well that actually have utilities but there's also just bunch of projects that you know put their stuff to the markets and then dipped took their money and left everyone with nothing and that's a shame because it put a I think a bad reputation on the whole industry on the technology and yeah I think that's just a small part of what it's about yeah I was just about to say that I agree with what you said and I just feel like that because there are obviously a lot of scams and a lot of people that try to make maybe quickly a lot of money. That's how it gained maybe negative reputation. Yeah, I agree.

Starting point is 00:23:06 And yeah, hype that wasn't probably positive. Yeah. So anyway, how did you find working in the second company, the blockchain one? Yeah, so the second company was a blockchain gaming startup. They were based in Switzerland. And that was also my first remote job. So that was a whole new world to me. After being in an office the whole day and doing overtime and so on, that was just amazing to me.

Starting point is 00:23:32 The management of the company was also much better. That was actually really cool. The company by itself, the size and the level at which they were operating was also much higher. So I could learn even more because, yeah, essentially they were just further in the process. and yeah, the position I had there was head of social media, so I also managed to level up in terms of my position. And it was pretty cool. I've been pretty much managing all of the social media from Twitter

Starting point is 00:24:05 to LinkedIn to Instagram to the Discord server. They had quite a big community also on Telegram. So it was also community management. It was also graphic design. It was kind of like the ongoing thing that like, and I think that's, a regular thing at startups where you get hired for one position but you end up doing like so many other things in between yeah um so but it's cool i'm not complaining i think um that was pretty amazing

Starting point is 00:24:33 because you get the chance to do so many things at once while just being hired for a particular position um and you just learn so many things just because you keep on doing stuff you keep on doing stuff and um you discover so much and i think that's also one of the reasons why um i ended up having such a success also within LinkedIn because I'm not new to it. I've just studied and learned like so many different aspects of social media on all kinds of platforms. And when you do that, not even social media, even let's say internet as a whole, we just start to see certain patterns. You see like how people work. You get also bit into psychology, how to communicate, how they react. And I think all of that just it's saved up subconsciously and then really gave me a good head start.

Starting point is 00:25:23 Yeah, yeah. So after this company, did you continue to different one or is that when you decided? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So there I also switched to another company then, which was still in tech, but it was a cloud consulting company. And when was it based? It was also remote. I was a German company, but for that company I was also working remote. It was a smaller team, but also they're really helpful.

Starting point is 00:25:54 I did that because the founder actually did have his own personal brand on LinkedIn. He was quite big, especially within the whole cloud industry. And that's actually like my first stepping stone into building a personal brand. I mean, the concept itself wasn't new to me, but I ended up managing his personal I revamped his whole profile or did his content strategy, ended up doing his content, creating his content, writing his post. And that really opened my eyes in terms of the power of LinkedIn and how different it is. And also in my perspective, how much easier it also is to grow on LinkedIn compared to any other

Starting point is 00:26:37 platform just because you have less competition. You don't actually have that many people. I don't want to say that other creators are your competitors. That's not the case. Everyone can win in whatever they're doing simultaneously, while everyone else is winning. But it gets tougher, the more people are doing the same thing that you're doing. And I think platforms like Instagram, Twitter, X, sorry, X not Twitter,

Starting point is 00:27:04 and TikTok there at a point where the whole industry is so oversaturated, where no matter what you want to do, there's already 10,000 people, that do it better, they do it longer, they do it more successful. And that makes it quite frustrating to start and try something by yourself simply because you won't see the results you might want to expect. And you have to pray a lot to the algorithm that it catches up to you. And that was, let's say, how I got into LinkedIn, how I understood the value of it. If you want to boost your online presents, check out our digital marketing

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Starting point is 00:28:01 stay up to date with the show and more. Links are in the show notes. Thanks. As you are managing the brand of the founder, did the founder see basically as you were building his online presence on LinkedIn thinking long term or was it just like a necessary part of being a founder of a company because as we know or as we discussed the LinkedIn is or was perceived

Starting point is 00:28:27 more as a formal social media platform where basically companies need to be so what was his you know reasoning behind it I think he really understood the value of it he um he um he um got into it already quite early, made his, like, build up his network. One thing that helped him a lot was there is a bunch of AWS certificates, which you can essentially do. Amazon Web Services, exactly from, and don't ask me about the details. I'm ashamed after working a couple of months with his company. But, I mean, from DevOps engineers to a solution architect and I don't know what,

Starting point is 00:29:11 building crazy things in the cloud. And he was one of the first ones, or maybe even the first one in Germany, to get all of the 12 or 13 certifications, which is not easy and did also take him quite some time. And that helped him to really just get a massive boost on LinkedIn because a lot of people obviously then saw him as an authority with reason, because he had it.

Starting point is 00:29:38 Not a lot of people have this. accomplished. And yeah, so he very, he definitely understood the value of it. And let's say he just needed some help in terms of the social media aspect, just in terms of the branding, strategy. And yeah, that's kind of where I came in. So I was doing that. I was also helping or managing the company part of it. So it also doing the content for the LinkedIn page. But of course, the personal brand was the focus and it makes sense because if there's one thing that I learned that people don't really care about your company it's it's unfortunate I mean people care about the people behind the company and that just really helps you to to boost your own company

Starting point is 00:30:29 boosting yourself is how you boost your company and yeah that's pretty much did you then start building your own brand along the way while were working that? No, no, no, no, no. Actually, not at all. I did, I did slowly start to, like, play around with that thought that like, okay, like this is actually working and it's quite easy to me at least, it seemed because I've had, of course, because you had a following, it was already easier because you just had to hit the right post and you started to see a pattern once you got into that pattern. It was very easy to get quite viral posts continuously. And because of that, I was like, okay, like, I'm doing that with not a lot of effort.

Starting point is 00:31:17 Like, it's working quite smoothly. What if I started doing this by myself? And I was debating for quite a while. I was generally also unsure because it's one thing if you, I've tried building a bunch of pages, especially like on Instagram, on Twitter as well. But all of these pages weren't personal brands. They were all a bunch of motivational pages. I was doing music stuff, like some mixtapes.

Starting point is 00:31:43 I don't know what. And it never really worked. I guess it was a multitude of reasons. But I think one of the main reasons was not showing your face and not putting yourself out there. I think that's really sometimes. I think it's possible to do it without it. But if you do end up connecting just human to human, that just builds a whole different

Starting point is 00:32:07 relationship and just can really boost your whatever page you're working on simply because it's a human you're talking to and not just a random page which you have no connection to. And yeah, so that's pretty much, let's say, how I get inspired to do this. And then, yeah, unfortunately, then we had to end the contract with just some financial issues. classic startup just happens so i guess that's the trade-off when you uh when you go for a startup um and yeah that was like okay you know now i got the time i think uh it's it's perfect let me give this a try time and all the knowledge and information exactly exactly yeah yeah exactly um and that's pretty much yeah how i um then just decided i think for like a month probably or something

Starting point is 00:33:07 I was just doing really, I deep dive because also what the founder was doing is very different to what I was doing. He was, of course, focused on the cloud industry, on spreading knowledge about that, the certifications and everything. So for me, I had to deep dive in a whole different space within LinkedIn. I did my research and studied, you know, all of the top creators and upcoming creators. And that's in general, like a huge advice I can give to anyone who wants to build a personal brand. find people that are already doing what you want to do really successfully, right? And don't always look at the numbers necessarily because I think what matters the most is check the engagement. I think that's like a huge signal because on LinkedIn, it's quite easy to get even 10,000 of followers over a couple of years by just sending out connection requests.

Starting point is 00:33:56 But then I see so many profiles where you then head to the post section and you just see there. First of all, they're barely posting, but they're also barely getting any engagement, which is just a sign for me that you've got the connections, but you did not end up building your personal brand properly. So really, like, pick good profiles that have really managed to build a proper community around them, proper following, and get inspired for them, like really analyze every little bit of them, what visuals are they using, how are they writing, what kind of voice are they using, how they're engaging.

Starting point is 00:34:33 And so on. And a lot of them, I mean, same with me. Like, you get so many DMs and I reply to every single one of them. Don't be afraid to ask. Now you said that you may get spammed after this. Yeah, yeah. Maybe this was a mistake. But I mean, it might take me a couple of days, but I do try and end up replying every single message. Because it's also amazing for me, right, that there's people that I can just help out with something.

Starting point is 00:35:01 I think that's a great feeling and that's also one of the reasons what keeps me going, you know, that I see my content is reaching the right people and then I get people tagging me in their post and I see my, I see them being inspired on what I do. They start using similar designs, similar wordings, similar structures. And they're tagging. I'm like, yo, Daniels, thanks so much. Like, that really helped me. And I think that's super cool.

Starting point is 00:35:28 And do you want to name some people that were your inspirations? when you were starting? Yeah, I think the big three within, let's say, the personal branding scene, it's, of course, Jasmine, it's Luke and it's Lara. I think those were definitely huge inspirations and funny. I knew it. Yeah, of course. Yeah, yeah, of course.

Starting point is 00:35:53 And it's quite funny because the first post I made was a carousel about Jasmine. and that post actually went, I'm going to call it semi-viral, because I think it was at like 30,000 impressions, which compared to my 300 followers back then, not being in that space whatsoever and having connected with only a couple of other creators, that was quite massive. It's still like one of my top five, top six post.

Starting point is 00:36:21 And I think Jasmine, I think he liked it. maybe he also commented, but definitely all of all three of them actually ended up engaging with some of my content in one way or another. Funny enough, Lara actually added me to a newsletter. What was it yesterday or two days ago? So I was pretty amazing. Jasmine also messaged me actually a couple of days ago. It was nothing, I mean, nice inspiration and support. Yeah, for sure, for sure.

Starting point is 00:36:51 It was nothing crazy. We didn't actually have a, I mean, I'm not sure how much I should share, but it wasn't, it wasn't. wasn't anything crazy. I mean, he just, because I started off with my emoji, so I wasn't really showing any pictures of me. And then he saw that I ended up uploading like a real picture of myself. And he just commented, oh, so he doesn't have a face. I felt the same when I saw it. It was like, wow. Because when I reached out, actually, you still had an emoji before. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I thinking, wow, who's actually behind this? I'm going to be surprised and then there was a picture and I thought is it actually I'm like I had I had couple of

Starting point is 00:37:30 messages as well and comments like you know actually I thought for a sec that someone is copying your profile then I realized it was you just changed the picture so so that was quite funny but yeah back to your question so I think those were really let's say the top three but apart from that can't name exactly like proper profiles but bunch of upcoming traders which let's say I picked just different parts from it. Some were really cool at design. Some were really cool at the formatting. Some were really good at their writing.

Starting point is 00:38:06 And just generally, yeah, being a lot in the feet and just trying to understand how the game is working, what the rules are and how you can play it. So basically, you don't have any education when it comes to graphics and design, right? It's funny. And I think this goes back to me, even before I was working at those startups, just trying everything. And one of my best friends kept on saying that it was like my biggest mistake to like always try to do everything at once. And on one hand, I think that was a reason why I did not end up seeing success in certain things because I just wanted to do everything. On the other hand, I did manage to just acquire such a big special.

Starting point is 00:38:54 of different kinds of skills, not even social media. Like I've been also doing web design, I've been also doing call it graphic design, the writing, just in general management of company profiles, and so on and so forth. And I think all of that, even though I, let's say did not become a master of any one of these things, I did end up getting really good at all of these things.

Starting point is 00:39:21 And I think that helped me because then, once I started actually building out my personal brand, it wasn't just the design part, it wasn't just the writing, it wasn't just the whole structure and format of it. It was a, I'd say, a well-rounded picture. And I think that did help me. But yeah, fact, the question, no, design. I mean, I did not take a single course. I've been just using Canva for years. I mean, easy, I think, six, seven years, maybe even longer. and yeah it's really hard to believe because when someone sees your design and your content I'd say oh this guy must be a pro like well educated when it comes to design and this and this and it's nice to hear yeah yeah appreciate it and that's actually also a thing I've been sharing that the tool doesn't matter that much it's the skill behind the tool and you just putting in the time putting in the work and just mastering that tool and really getting good at that particular skill. Because at the end of the day, like, no one cares about the process.

Starting point is 00:40:31 No one cares about how you've done it. What matters is the end result. And that's why you should just pick whatever tool is working best for you. And for me, because I mentioned earlier, this whole learning by doing, Canva is just the best platform for me because with Photoshop, one of my best friends he's actually doing the one I also mentioned he's doing actually I mean he's doing web design but he's also he's also graphic designer um he also got me to like open Photoshop a couple of times and it was just not for me I just couldn't deal with it like you can't just open a Canva and

Starting point is 00:41:09 then just start playing around like you need to watch your tutorials you need to like start to understand every single click every single item every little tool there is and then within that tool there is 10 tools that you can adjust. So that's just not my way of learning. I'm pretty sure I could also master it, but it would just take me way longer. And with Canva, I just learned it by doing, doing, doing, trying different stuff and just understanding how it works. That is again something I can relate to because I use Canva as well, because as you said, find it easy or easier maybe than other softwares, other tools. And I was surprised because recently I saw your post

Starting point is 00:41:54 when you mentioned that you use only Canva for your designs. I was always thinking, well, behind this, there must be such a process and some kind of magic. It's a great example that you can master Canva, so it looks so beautiful as you can make it. I appreciate it. Appreciate a lot. Yeah, I think the issues also,

Starting point is 00:42:15 and the same was also for me when I was starting off, that I used to overcomplicate things. I think you can make really good content, even without super crazy design. I think it helps. Don't get me wrong. But the most important part is what you actually portray with it. And that just has to match yourself and the voice

Starting point is 00:42:38 and what you're trying to get across. And all of that, I think, starts with properly understanding who you are as a person, understanding what you're good. at what your values are, what's your general, like philosophy. Because once you have that, that's essentially what you can sell. Even though if you're not selling it actively, your content is a way of selling, right? You're selling, even if it's just your own profile, you are selling it through your content, even if you just want to get a follow or like or whatever from it. And you can sell something if you don't know what it actually is. So I think

Starting point is 00:43:15 that's the first step of it. And everything else comes. afterwards. I think if you have that, then you already master like 50% of your personal brand because you have a clear positioning and what you're doing, who you're targeting, and how you can help these people. And that's already super valuable. And would you be willing to share us more about your kind of LinkedIn strategy, such as when it comes to your posts, when you post, how you post, what kind of post and some kind of introduction? Of course. I mean, I did start to develop a strategy before I made my first post. But because I didn't expect to get that much traction so fast, I'm going to be honest.

Starting point is 00:44:01 I expected for like a month, easy, get like a couple of likes. And I went in there with that mindset. I'm like, okay, it's fine. Like, it's part of the game. You know, I'm going to have to embarrass myself, so to say. I'm not going to get any likes. No one's going to engage. I'm going to feel cringe.

Starting point is 00:44:15 Everyone watching it in my network is going to feel cringe. It's fine. And, you know, I went in there with a mindset and I think it was good. But that whole mindset then changed once I literally after the first post, it just went again, viral, so to say. And then I was like, okay, I have to readjust my whole strategy because now there is actually like already the community behind me that I have to nurture. Now I have to double down. And I also didn't plan on. posting every day back then. Now I switched back to posting every second day. So that was a time where I was like, okay, now is the time. Now I have to double down. I started posting every day and was just honestly kind of winging it. There was then, yeah, just day by day, just getting inspired, going even deeper into, okay, what can I post? What should I do? I think the general the general idea that I always had, and that's actually, I have that post schedule for seven. It's a post about that the best content you can share is essentially you providing solutions to problems you had in the past.

Starting point is 00:45:35 Because whatever content you have is essentially helping people that are just a couple of steps behind you. That's just how it is. And you don't have to be at the top of the ladder. You can be somewhere in the middle, even at the bottom. But you'll still have people that have not even started that process yet, which you can help. So it doesn't matter at what level you are. There's still going to be someone that you can help with for a multitude of reasons. And I think this underlying idea of how I create content is just what kept me going,

Starting point is 00:46:06 because whatever I post is helping someone. And I think that just makes it really valuable because no matter what, what I post, someone will look at it and be like, oh, I didn't notice. That's really cool. It's useful. It's helpful. And let's say that's how I move forward. And since you mentioned with the time, so I was playing around a bit, but because my first

Starting point is 00:46:30 post just seemed to work and I posted, I think, at like 7 p.m. in the evening, I just kept on going with that time. It's a time frame between like 6.30 to 7.30 p.m. depends on just whether I get the post done. on time. I think you don't have to post exactly in that minute, but it should be, let's say, at least within a certain timeframe. And then because I was just overloaded with work, and I also had slowly clients coming in, I just needed some more time. And also I did, let's say some research and just understood that maybe posting every day was even a bit too

Starting point is 00:47:07 much. And essentially, yeah, switch to every second day. So now it's between three to four times per week, which is working quite well because now I don't have that pressure so much. And it's also, I realize I put out more quality content rather than focus on the quantity. So that helped me a lot. And then, yeah, in terms of the time, always like every second day at like 630 to 7.30 p.m. Do you post for some specific demographics? I mean, I do target creatives, professionals, founders, just in general, LinkedIn users that want to improve their profile. But if you're like talking about demographics in terms of, let's say, certain countries, certain regions or certain age spectrums, not really. I wouldn't say so.

Starting point is 00:48:06 I mean, it's pretty much open to anyone. I think building a personal brand should be relevant to anyone. I guess because LinkedIn is more of like an, let's call it, 18 plus platform just because it's business oriented. You could say 18 plus, but I mean, I've also connected with a bunch of users who are below 18. So I think anyone who really finds it interesting and wants to build that personal brand. I read it only on LinkedIn or even on other social media platform. So in terms of my personal brand, it's only LinkedIn.

Starting point is 00:48:41 I do have like a private Instagram. I was thinking about also starting Instagram and possibly also X slash Twitter. But for now, I don't want to overdo it in a sense that I'd rather just focus on one thing, because I think it's once you've built a certain following, I think it gets much easier to then transfer that following onto other platforms. So yeah, just want to, yeah, I try to learn from my mistakes and not do everything at once. So just focus on LinkedIn first, like really set up a proper community there, you know, build out my clients, hopefully be able to scale all of that.

Starting point is 00:49:26 And then once I have that, I think I might even consider outsourcing certain things, whether it's the design, whether it's even the writing. just to then have more time to build out other platforms, getting more clients, and just be able to scale all of that. You've probably answered my next question, which was, what are your plans on LinkedIn or, you know,

Starting point is 00:49:50 kind of where you see yourself in the future there? Yeah, so kind of what I said before. So for now, just building out my profile. It's still a lot of, experimenting. Actually, like the post I'm going to share today is a different format. So it's like a quote, so to say, in like a form of a tweet, only that I don't have Twitter. So I just read it to design myself.

Starting point is 00:50:20 I've seen a couple of times. Also, again, the big three have been also using that, especially Lara. So just trying, let's say, a different format. The idea is also that I want to, um, also I have more time because like designing those carousals and infographics, it does take me quite some time to do that. And I'll say that's one part of it. So I want to reduce the time and I think I don't need to post a carousel every second day or

Starting point is 00:50:48 every day. And the second aspect is that I actually also end up improving my writing because I think my writing is still is definitely pretty good, but it's not as good compared to my design. And if I have a more text-based post that just forces me to get better at the writing part because I can't compensate with a crazy design. So that's let's say one thing. And then, yeah, pretty much what I mentioned before, just keep on pushing my LinkedIn, getting more clients. And then, yeah, hopefully be able to scale that, build a team. I'd love to actually build a company around that as well.

Starting point is 00:51:29 and yeah but that's let's see I know we discussed your first post that went viral but can you remember a post that for some reason stuck in your mind and will be worth sharing maybe something that also you didn't expect to go well or was fun for some reason or challenging um

Starting point is 00:51:54 um mom mom it definitely had one Let me think and I think. Oh, yeah. Or maybe a fail. That failed. Okay. So a post that kind of went crazy without me expecting. This was, and it's still, it's my second best post.

Starting point is 00:52:11 It was a LinkedIn graphic size guide. So I made like an infographic of what the size of a banner is, your profile picture, carousel, your featured section. And that post didn't take me that long. First of all, I spent way more time on like certain carousals. like, yo, this is super crazy. And that just went viral. And afterwards, it did make me realize there was a multitude of factors. One was definitely that I just managed to target so many different users because anyone

Starting point is 00:52:42 who wants to post something or even doesn't want to post simply wants to upload a banner, needs to know those sizes. So I managed to just target so many people. Plus, it was then, let's say, a cool design that just managed to attract so many people that yeah a pretty simple post just went super viral and i doubled down on that because i realized okay this works and i then made a carousel out of it with essentially the same information yeah you might have seen it like it was like last week or something um and that went absolutely crazy it's my top post by far it's nearly at 100 000 impressions i hope after this after we release this podcast we will not see

Starting point is 00:53:24 this type of posts from all the other users i mean i'll be honest here i've seen it and that's how i got inspired i mean this isn't and that's a funny thing like posting those graphics sizes it's it's not a new concept and to be fair anyone can google it um but even for myself i don't remember them i couldn't i wouldn't be able to tell them now i could maybe tell you the carousel size but i constantly i just duplicate because i don't want to look for it so it made perfect sense that even for someone who is doing this by day, you just forget it. You don't remember, and that's why that was super useful. So I'd say that was quite an unexpected win, which I managed to, let's say, double down on,

Starting point is 00:54:06 just because I realized, okay, that's working. A fail, I mean, probably some carousouts where I was like, okay, this is like super crazy, and I expected more engagement. But one thing that did surprise me, so I think it was like two weeks ago maybe or something, I posted a guide on how to get LinkedIn certified. So I have this batch LinkedIn Certified Marketing Insider, which is a combination of three different certificates within marketing, content creation. And I had a couple of questions asking me like, oh, what is that? How did you do that?

Starting point is 00:54:45 So I was like, okay, perfect. Like if people already asking me, that means they're interested in it. Let me just make a guide on that. And it was literally one of my voice posts. In terms of engagement or feedback or why? Yeah, engagement. Engagement. Engagement.

Starting point is 00:55:01 I'm just like engagement. I mean, some people definitely found it useful. But it was just not that many. It was way on. It could have been other reasons. But I think it was the content itself. It wasn't like any other, let's say, factor. I think, yeah, it just didn't resonate that much, but also I don't see anyone else with that badge, at least like really creating content.

Starting point is 00:55:27 You reminded me, I was about to ask you as well. Yeah. I don't remember anyone or I don't know. I've seen that and how did you get it? And actually, what was the reason for getting that? Yeah, so the reason going back to my past job was a certificate. of the founder. So I thought, okay, I mean, I do have experience in terms of my jobs.

Starting point is 00:55:50 I've been in this industry for a while, but I do need some authority stamp to just give me instantly like a boost. It can be anything small, but the idea was just that people go in my profile or see my post and be like, okay, this guy knows something. And I didn't have something like Lara, like I've been in Forbes. I've worked for, I've managed the personal brand of, I don't know. crazy founder X or Y. So that was like an easy hack for me to just get like, let's say, yeah, essentially like the stamp of

Starting point is 00:56:25 approval. And the certificates, they weren't like that difficult. It's like, again, a mix of three courses with like a couple of smaller courses within. And you just have to do like an exam. You get practice exams and so on, 20 questions. Once you pass all three of them, you get this combination of all of them, which is the marketing insider badge. And do you feel like it actually helps you?

Starting point is 00:56:57 I think for someone coming outside of LinkedIn and social media, I think it's definitely a good foundation. But, and it makes sense what LinkedIn was doing there, it's mainly focused on companies and especially on LinkedIn ads. because obviously it's a company and companies need to be profitable. And if you want to be profitable, you have to sell your services. One of their main services on how they generate revenue is their ads. So that's like a big part of what the course were about.

Starting point is 00:57:29 There was also some content creation. Also, let's say some parts about like target audience, persona and so on. But a lot of it always came back to creating ads on LinkedIn and spending money on their platform. which again, it's something like I'm actually, I'm going to be honest with LinkedIn ads. I'm actually not a pro whatsoever. So that was quite interesting. And I think if you are going that route, I think LinkedIn ads are quite useful if you use them in a certain way. Again, to boost your company to actually end up selling a certain product or service.

Starting point is 00:58:02 It's definitely a good way to just get started. And plus you get the cool certificate. You can add it to your LinkedIn. I think that's always a win. so yeah so just to be aware of time I think it will be a sin not to ask you so can you try to summarize

Starting point is 00:58:20 or give some final tips when it comes to LinkedIn yeah so the first thing I would say is it's not one thing in a sense that don't look for a shortcut don't look for like a one time hack or

Starting point is 00:58:38 something that will just like make it crazy and yeah that just doesn't exist I think you need to put in the time you need to put in the work you need to do your research as I mentioned you need to be sure of what you have to offer and who you are as a person and then get inspired get inspired to do analyze upcoming creators analyze big creators and really try to understand and like one thing that helped me I I'm going to use that as a design example but it actually also works for formatting and for writing copy one-on-one like actually steal it i posted this quote a couple of times it's like on pablo Picasso like good artists uh copy great artist steal

Starting point is 00:59:21 and it sounds so wrong but it's so true like what i was doing is i literally pick the crazy graphic i thought it was super cool i put it on canva i set it as a background and i started to dissect it layer by layer i copied the font i copied the shadows i copied the elements certain graphics, everything one by one. And that helped me to just understand why it's working, why all of that adds up. Because if you have the end product, it's sometimes very difficult to understand why it works as a bigger picture. So you really have to zoom into every little part.

Starting point is 00:59:59 And within a personal brand, there's so many different aspects, right? It's starting at your banner, your featured section, your writing, your formatting, your design, your connection, recommendations, your offer. million things and make a list of all these things like dissect a bunch of profiles from really top to bottom and that will help you to really set foot in the door because once you have that you'll start to subconsciously just save it up and then when you start up with your own content with your own writing with your own design building out your own profile I think that will just give you a really good foundation because you will not start from zero you'll have a foundation

Starting point is 01:00:45 on which you just can build out your own brand yeah that sounds great even something that i will it will be takeaway for me yeah for sure for sure yeah so then uh final question is there something that you would like to share or something that i should have asked you and didn't ask you um no i think um I think you asked me, I think questions were pretty great. I think I've shared everything. Let me just think if there was anything. Then feel free to promote yourself. Yeah, I mean, only LinkedIn so far.

Starting point is 01:01:25 The profile I have, I'm sure you will share it somewhere in the buyer as well. Yeah, feel free to follow me if you want to level up your LinkedIn game. I help people build up their personal brands and friends of the content they're writing the design and everything in between and further than that I'm sure that people will have big expectations after this chat

Starting point is 01:01:50 I hope I'll be able to match them then thank you so much it was great to meet you because also been following you for a while love your content love your design so your inspiration for me as well. It was great to learn more about yourself, about your story and get to know you.

Starting point is 01:02:12 So thank you very much. And anytime in the future, we'll be happy to catch up again. That's it. Sounds amazing. Thank you for listening. If we enjoy the show, please leave us a five-star review on your favorite podcast app, get in touch to provide your feedback, or share any ideas for future guests. Thank you and see you soon.

Produced By - Viral on LinkedIn: The Untold Story of a Self-Taught Content Creator | #SPECIAL: Daniel Korenblum

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