Tiger Sisters - LinkedIn Masterclass: How to Fix Your Profile, Get Found, and Attract More Opportunities

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Starting point is 00:00:43 Wayfair every style every home LinkedIn is such a powerful tool and you're probably underutilizing it right now what is your online reputation and how do you create a narrative that you want before one is created for you You guys are basically getting a free Stanford Business School education, literally through this class, because Sherey teaches the class on LinkedIn at Stanford. The way that LinkedIn works behind the scenes is that it's all metadata. Talk metadata to me. Seriously. Is LinkedIn entering its post-cringe era? I think a lot of people have this sort of outdated mindset that, oh, LinkedIn is just for people

Starting point is 00:01:21 who are actively looking for a new job, but that's not the case at all. The whole point of your LinkedIn is to present your self. to the outside world because once you do that, more opportunities are available to you. I'm Sherey. I'm Gene. And we're the Tiger Sisters. We are your Wall Street and Silicon Valley Big Sisters. And we're a top 10 business podcast bringing late night sister talk meets boardroom strategy. Hi, Tiger fam. Welcome to LinkedIn Masterclass with the Tiger Sisters. In this masterclass series, I go through everything that I've learned, both at my career and in Stanford's business school to help you level up in your life. And today's topic, we're talking about LinkedIn.

Starting point is 00:02:02 I worked at LinkedIn when I first started my career out, so I was there for almost five years working on both the profile team and LinkedIn learning, their ed tech platform. And I teach a class at Stanford's Business School almost every quarter on LinkedIn and how to write a winning about me. So you guys are basically getting a free Stanford Business School education, literally through this class because Shiree teaches the class on LinkedIn at Stanford. And no big deal, she is a LinkedIn top voice with over 35,000 followers on LinkedIn. And because I used to work there, I have the inside scoop to help you improve your LinkedIn profile. So I know LinkedIn has a certain reputation, right?

Starting point is 00:02:47 So sometimes it can feel really cringe to post on LinkedIn. Everything that you see is all professional. Also, sometimes people are boasting or bragging on LinkedIn. It has a weird feeling. But trust me, LinkedIn is such a powerful tool. And you're probably underutilizing it right now. It's a way to talk about yourself. There's so much real estate that is not being taken advantage of on LinkedIn.

Starting point is 00:03:11 We're going to be talking about the About Me and the different sections on the profile. But it's all about personal brand at the end of the day. What is your online reputation? And how do you create a reputation for yourself that? you want, a narrative that you want before one is created for you. Yeah, and I think this is a very timely episode because I think that perception of LinkedIn being cringe is really starting to shift as seen in a recent New York Times article that was called, Is LinkedIn entering its post-cringe era?

Starting point is 00:03:41 And I think there's a lot to be said about that, which is that, you know, LinkedIn used to be kind of just this online resume of where you would list all your accolades. But now it's more so, it's almost your like online personal website. It's like your online front page where people can get to know you and not having a LinkedIn or not having an optimized LinkedIn is really a detriment to yourself. Yes. And I think no matter where you are in your career, if you're just starting out or if you're many decades into your career, you will definitely take something away from this conversation that you can apply immediately after. And if you're watching this episode on video, seriously pull up your LinkedIn so you can do like a split screen side by side. There's going to be opportunities where I'm sharing the different things. you should do to optimize your LinkedIn. You can pause this podcast. You can let it run in the

Starting point is 00:04:26 background. But you can use this as a real moment to spruce up your LinkedIn and implement the things that I'm sharing right now. It's very tactical. Yeah. Or if you're just listening to this while you're chopping vegetables or driving in your car, let it all sink in. Let it sink in. Let it sink in. Save this episode and you can implement it later. Yes. Okay, Sheree, let's start from the very, very beginning. The most basic question, why is it even important to have a filled out LinkedIn? Why does it matter? Yeah. So like you mentioned before, your LinkedIn is basically your personal brand these days. And of course, it has your work experience, but it also has all these other valuable pieces of real estate, is what I call

Starting point is 00:05:02 them, that you can fill out to share more about yourself. So the whole point of your LinkedIn is to present yourself to the outside world, because once you do that, more opportunities are available to you. More people know about you, what you're interested in, what you're working on. And because of that, you can have more abundance of opportunities. I think that's such a great point is that I think a lot of people have this sort of outdated mindset that, oh, LinkedIn is just for people who are actively looking for a new job or actively looking to switch industries, but that's not the case at all. It's really a way to keep people updated on what you're doing, and that way there can be kind of organic opportunities that come your way, even if they're

Starting point is 00:05:40 outside of your direct career or your direct job that you're working on. One thousand percent. And the way that LinkedIn works behind the scenes is that it's all metadata. So basically, the more information you put on your LinkedIn profile. Talk metadata to me. Seriously. The more metadata you have, which of course is your past work experiences, your skills, recommendations, all these different sections on LinkedIn, the things you've volunteered in in the past, your volunteer experience, all the information you put out there is basically

Starting point is 00:06:13 stored, registered. And when people are looking you up or looking up an opportunity, your needs. name can come up in the search results. For example, if I'm a recruiter at a company and I'm looking for someone who lives in the Bay Area, who has ABC skills, who, you know, has this past work experience, the more that you have your LinkedIn filled out, the more that you are likely to show up in their search results. Right. So basically, you want to be discoverable. And LinkedIn is one of the best ways, having a filled out LinkedIn is one of the best ways to be discoverable by people that you want to find you.

Starting point is 00:06:51 Okay, so I'm convinced. You've convinced me, Sheree, on why I need to fill out my LinkedIn. So then why don't we talk about the About Me section? I've heard you say before that this is one of the most important things and the most underutilized areas of your LinkedIn profile. Yes, because the whole point of the LinkedIn, About Me section, I call it the three S's. This is the slide that I created for the lecture. proprietary information.

Starting point is 00:07:18 This is things, this is my framework that I've created for my lecture at Stanford's Business School where I specifically talk about writing an About Me section. Okay. So there are three S's of how to write a good about me. So the first one, to share who you are. This is real estate where people, of course, have your photo on your, on your LinkedIn profile, they have your work experiences. But this is a place you can tailor and specifically write in your own voice to share more about who you are and what you care about and what your goals are. So the second S is to sell what you do and what you offer. So if you are someone who is looking for opportunities, this is like you have your own consulting

Starting point is 00:07:58 business. Like this is something that you can share with other people so then they can reach you. The third is to become search optimized. So people actually want to find you. The whole point about having a LinkedIn profile and about me that is filled out is to actually be found. right you want to be search optimized so speak in the language that your audience searches for so basically fill out the metadata add in more we're talking metadata again put in more metadata through about me yes and in the next few sections

Starting point is 00:08:30 of this conversation i'm going to share exactly what you should put and you're about me in both the beginner intermediate and advanced examples because if you're starting from nothing i would prefer you just do the beginner thing and not skip to the advanced. But if you have something, we can talk about the intermediate and advanced. Okay, but before we move on, let me just get this straight. So your proprietary framework of the three S's, share, sell, search. Well, the last one is search optimize. Search optimize. Become search optimize. S-S-S-O. Propitary. Hey, Tiger fam. Take five seconds to subscribe to the Tiger Sisters podcast. When you subscribe, you are notified every single time a new episode drops. And if you're listening on Spotify or Apple

Starting point is 00:09:18 podcast, please rate us five stars and leave a comment about this podcast because it really helps people discover our content and it helps us to continue to make the show for you. Thanks. Now back to the show. Okay, so now let's go through the three types of profiles that we talked about. Beginner, intermediate, and advanced. So starting with beginner, I think the concept is something is better than nothing, right? Exactly. So most people, I mean, if you're listening to this right now, ask yourself, do you have anything in your About Me section? Most people don't. We usually do a, you know, hands up survey poll in the beginning of the class that I teach at Stanford. And basically, I ask the class, how many of you have the About Me section filled out? It's usually 50-50.

Starting point is 00:10:03 Sometimes it's like 70-30. Most people do not have their LinkedIn about me profiles filled out. even, you know, this is a class full of Stanford students. Right. These are all business students who have worked in business who are probably on average five years. Yes. And like you would think they would have their LinkedIn About Me's profiles filled out, but they don't. So take that, keep that in mind. Something is better than nothing.

Starting point is 00:10:26 I'm going to bring up a couple of examples that are short and sweet, just a few sentences long that I think are a really good place to start if you're feeling intimidated or you don't have anything in your LinkedIn profile. These are examples that I really like. Okay. Also, if you are not watching this right now, we'll also read out the examples so you can hear them. But if you have the opportunity to turn video on on Spotify, turn on your video now because we'll show some examples on the screen. So these are all real examples that we're going to read out loud.

Starting point is 00:10:55 So the first one is by a vice president of product management. Thereabout me says, I pride myself most on the products I've helped create, ranging from the first U.S. Hybrid SUV to a, number one app to a much loved children's book to some parts of this page smiley face this is a very simple i think it's maybe one sentence long in total maybe one and a half sentence long in total several commas yes with several comments but you know what this person is about they've talked about some of their professional accomplishments all within the same sentence and it's quite varied right so they've been accomplished from creating the first u.s hybrid SUV to the number one app i like that because they have a simple number, being a number one app is pretty sick.

Starting point is 00:11:39 And they're able to put some quantitative, slip in a quantitative feature in there, the number one app, to a much loved children's book, which I know this person has written a children's book with their kid. So it's very diverse and varied. And you kind of get a little bit, a little bit of insight into who they are. A little bit of spice. Right. With the smiley face.

Starting point is 00:11:59 Into their career to some parts of this page, which means this is a person. This was my former boss who. led the LinkedIn profile. Two and five Canadians will hear the words, you have cancer. That's why every step and dollar raised matters. On September 19th, join thousands in Toronto for the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation Walk.

Starting point is 00:12:21 Challenge yourself, friends, and family to walk 21 kilometers in support of life-saving research. Together, we can carry the fire and help create a world free from the fear of cancer. Register today at PMCF Walk, Yeah, I think as far as single sentences go, this one packs a lot of punch. It's very strong. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:12:43 It packs a lot of punch? It packs a lot of punch. It packs a lot of punch. It packs a lot of punch, guys. It packs a lot of fruit punch. It packs a lot of punch. And that phrase is proprietary. Another thing to consider is that you want to have your About Me section to be one in a million versus one of a million.

Starting point is 00:13:03 So that is something that my writing professor, Glenn Kraman, says all the time. And that applies to the about me. Because the one that Jean just read can only be written about one person in a million people. Yeah, that's a really good example. Do you know what I mean? Yeah. The U.S. hybrid, number one app, the children's book, all of these two things on this page. Like, this describes one person completely.

Starting point is 00:13:26 And so we're going to read another example that I really like. Wait, before we get into it, I just think it's cool that this person, at the person, it a smiley face at the end. Yeah. Why? Because it shows they're not too serious. Yeah, you're like, wow, this person is obviously extremely accomplished and they don't take themselves too seriously. They can have a little smiley face. I think that's something that can work in your favor if you are more senior and you are trying to connect with people with just like a, I know we're like over analyzing a smiley face, but I truly mean this. But if you are more junior in your career who are who's trying to look more serious, I wouldn't put it.

Starting point is 00:14:03 a smiley face or too many emojis. We'll talk about emojis later on in this episode, but I really think it does work in his favor because he was so senior. He is so senior. That kind of works for him. Okay. So the second example is by a founder CEO and there about me reads, my goal is to teach you how to start your own business one day. Follow to get my lessons learned building a billion dollar company. So I really like this simple about me. It's not as clear who this person is because I think a lot of people can write something of this nature. However, I really like that they are selling themselves. They have a clear CTA in their, I don't know, two sentences, one sentence that they have here, follow to get my lessons. This is someone who is trying to build

Starting point is 00:14:51 their LinkedIn profile and their LinkedIn following for people to come look at it. So they have a clear call to action for people who are reading this one line. I'm not saying you should have this one line, but maybe if you are selling something. Well, it's interesting because this person clearly has a different goal than the first person. This person wants to build their following. So they just have one sentence and they say follow me. Exactly. I also like that this starts with their goal. Their purpose. My goal is to teach you how to start your own business one day. This is a very mission driven about me. You know what they're all about. And everything on their pay. is going to be around this goal ostensibly.

Starting point is 00:15:35 And I would argue that this is still a one in a million person because they are the founder CEO of a billion dollar company. So like how many founder CEOs could there be of billion dollar companies? It's pretty unique. True. This person has not yet built a billion dollar company. But I think they are trying to. Okay.

Starting point is 00:15:57 Yes. They're in the process of building a billion dollar company. Correct. And follow them to get their lessons learned on building. building the billion dollar company. Okay. So semantics. There are semantics at play.

Starting point is 00:16:08 Yes. But there are things to take away from the first example and also the second example. Yeah. And so do you think it's okay that this person is kind of, you know, sort of fudging a little bit? Like maybe they're in the process of building a billion dollar company. Maybe they have a billion dollar company. Like it's kind of okay because it's like the lead in to see more details about them. Right.

Starting point is 00:16:27 Correct. I think that's absolutely right where there's more context on their profile. file and more links to what they're building and the company and their employees and all this stuff. So I think it's totally fine so long as it is supported by other parts of your profile. Yeah. So this one number two, heavy on the cell. Heavy on the cell. Heavy on the cell. Heavy on the cell. The second S. Yes. Okay. The third one is by a chief operating officer and there about me reads product executive, former engineer, BJJ Brown Belt, dancer, powerlifter. Always learn always trying new things cool so I like this one too because they have a lot

Starting point is 00:17:09 going for them they have both they're sharing both the professional and personal aspect of who they are because it makes up a whole person it makes them more interesting I like to think about the about me you know when you have a resume on the bottom of your resume you're like your extracurriculars I think this is similar sort of similar to that where you can include more interesting facts about you because this person is very accomplished they're already a product executive. They're already a former engineer. And here are the aspects of them that make them more unique and more interesting in addition to their professional accomplishments.

Starting point is 00:17:41 I think what's interesting about the fact that you have highlighted this one as like a top tier example is the fact that this person spends more than 50% of their like one line on their personal attributes. So which is kind of, I think to some people might be surprising. Like some people are thinking oh LinkedIn is supposed to be all about the professional it's supposed to be all about my professional accomplishments but this person only listed five things two of them are work related product executive former engineer and then the last three are brown belt dancer and powerlifter so they spent more real estate on their like personal attributes yeah that being said I know that the fullness of this person's LinkedIn profile also supports this this person this person

Starting point is 00:18:30 has gone to Harvard. This person has worked at Google, has worked at LinkedIn, and is now a chief operating officer. Name them. I mean, just kidding. Hey, Albert. My former boss. But like this person, obviously, I think it's a balance, right? Like, if you're first starting out in your career and you want to be taken more seriously, highlight the more serious professional stuff. And if you are more senior in your career and you are trying to connect with the younger generation or seem more approachable, can list more of the personal flavors and flares. Yeah, I think that's a good call out because all three of these people are, even if they're not old and age, they are in very, I think, advanced roles, right?

Starting point is 00:19:13 So vice president and product management, founder, CEO, and chief operating officer, they are at a certain point of their career or in a leadership role that they've placed themselves in. And so I think your call-outs are good. They've earned the right to put a smiley face into their about me. Okay, so I think the takeaways from your examples are you could keep it one to three sentences, short and sweet, doesn't need to be a novel, and it can include some personal elements. Absolutely. I think the personal elements make it more you. I like thinking about how can you be one in a million versus one of a million. Hi, guys. If you're listening to this on Spotify right now, take this opportunity to turn on the video. Especially in this episode, we are looking at real LinkedIn profiles, so it's very helpful to see it on screen.

Starting point is 00:20:03 So turn on your video on Spotify. Thanks. Now back to the show. So let's move on to the intermediate profile. If you already have this beginner profile where you have the one to three lines that really hit, what do you do to level it up to be intermediate? Yeah, so I'm going to bring up an example and we'll read through it again. But if you look at the screen, this is a LinkedIn profile that I pulled up. And it looks like a string of random facts. But I love this as an intermediate profile because you get to know who the person is. They have a lot of quantitative figures in there. So you can really root their professional accomplishments in numbers. And they also have a personal flair and personal touch as well.

Starting point is 00:20:48 So it goes like this. This is crazy. So Gene, do you want to read it out loud? Yeah. So it starts with random facts. smiley face. And each of these random facts, it's basically a bulleted list, but each instead of bullet is an emoji. So emoji of an iPhone. And then it says spent 20 plus years in various exec roles in Silicon Valley tech companies between 1 to 25,000 employees. Prior to joining LinkedIn,

Starting point is 00:21:12 mostly spent my time in startup scaling companies from 1 to 250 employees during periods of massive growth. So love to get shit done and expect that for my execs. The second bullet point is a little taxi and it says Uber rating approximately 4.98. What's yours? Yes, I'm a nice guy. Okay. The third one is an emoji of a bag of cash and it says raised 10 million plus of VC funding as a co-founder in my early 20s. Next is a basketball emoji and it says used to be a semi-professional basketball player in Europe. The next one is a cup of tea and it says love to find and prepare the highest quality teas. I usually travel with my own tea. Next is an arrow and says,

Starting point is 00:21:54 used to rank in the top three an archery in Germany. Okay. And the last one is a meditating person. It says, meditated a few months with the monks in caves and also became a yoga teacher at the foothills of the Himalayas in Rishikash, India.

Starting point is 00:22:10 So this person, I think, would either be like my best friend or totally insufferable. Okay. Okay, well, so let me. Those are my initial thoughts. Before we debrief on this, I'll say I like this style and this format of profile because, one, it's super unique.

Starting point is 00:22:31 I think it's very memorable. Like, using these bullet points, it's very easy to parse through. If you see some about me's, many of them are paragraphs upon paragraphs, unreadable. So I like that these are short, simple points about this person that are memorable. Yeah. If they're insufferable, we'll get to that. But at least you know who this person is, both in the professional realm in the first few bullet points and in the personal realm in the final few bullet points. And what I will say is that in general, it is always harder to write with concision and to have something short and sweet versus a long paragraph.

Starting point is 00:23:07 Especially with AI these days, like you can generate like long paragraphs like in one second. It's more so like boiling it down to these really specific sentences. Yeah. I like the use of emojis because I think it. It also breaks up the paragraphness of everything you see on LinkedIn and on the internet. So it makes it really easy to parse through. One thing I will note is that a lot of AI generated content has a lot of emojis today. So it's kind of weird where you're playing this game where you're like, I don't want it to sound

Starting point is 00:23:38 like it's written by AI. So like let me like figure out how to remove the emojis. But I think at the end of the day, use emojis that makes sense. AI usually throws in a bunch of random ones. that aren't as specific to the content that follows it. So here, where he's talking about archery, he has an arrow, where he's talking about basketball, he has a basketball. Like make it make sense.

Starting point is 00:23:59 And I think that's one way to make it feel less AI generated, even if you are writing it yourself. I'm still just dead over all of these. Well, how do you feel about the Uber rating? What's yours? Yes, I'm a nice guy. Like, this one is super controversial, because whenever I teach this in my Stanford class,

Starting point is 00:24:16 we also take a poll around the classroom. Okay. Are people like, are you like, do you hate this guy? Do you, or do you love him? 50, 50. 50% of the class is like, that is so cringe. Like, I hate this person. I hate this personality of this person. And the other 50% of the class is like, that's hilarious. Like, I like this person is like a little bit spicy. Yes, I'm a nice guy. Like, they get who he is and he's very much himself. I guess I'm already revealing who this person is by giving his pronouns. Well, I will say at the very, very least, this person is. memorable and they leave an impression, right? They're not, this is following your advice of the one in a million. This could only be about one person. This could only be about one in a billion.

Starting point is 00:25:02 Which parts of the top three in archery, the semi-professional basketball player, 10 million in VC funding. I usually travel with my own tea. True. True. I will say, Jean is roasting this person, but I have a lot of. a lot of admiration for this person in real life. Yeah, no, I'm only roasting them because I'm like, I would either be best friends with this person or find them insufferable. You would be best friends with this person. Yeah, I mean, probably. Another thing I'll call out that's very

Starting point is 00:25:33 good about this profile is that they have a lot of numbers, right? Even in their Uber rating, like, I know they're trying to prove that they have a good Uber rating and they're likable and not like, you know, a bad customer. But like 4.98 Uber rating, 20 plus years in, exec roles, companies of this size, raise $10 million of VC funding. Like, these are concrete numbers. And the more that you can have quantitative figures in your About Me or on your resume, the better. Okay, the last thing I will say is that upon reflection, I do think that the person who

Starting point is 00:26:07 would write this type of style of about me is self-aware. Like, they are doing it on purpose. They're doing it on purpose. like I usually travel with my own teas. Yes, I'm a nice guy. Like those are sort of, I think they sound tongue and cheek to me. And they're kind of like, L.O.L. Like this is a joke. You're laughing with me. And once again, the last thing I'll say, it is heavily personal. I'm kind of surprised by that actually. Yeah. I mean, this person is more senior in their career. So they're able to be more personal. I think going back to that point. But I think anyone can have a.

Starting point is 00:26:46 bit of flavor and personality injected into their about me. And we're about to go into my about me, which I'm not that senior in my career, but I do have more personal stuff too. Is yours the expert? No, mine's also intermediate. Okay, a self-aware queen. Okay, so instead of talking through your entire profile, Cherie, why don't we have you call out one to three things that you think make your profile good? Yes. The first thing is my mission statement is at the very top of my profile, so you know exactly what I'm about. I'm going to read it very quickly. My mission is to empower one billion people to advance in their careers and be the trusted voice that women ages 13 to 35 turn to for career and personal growth advice.

Starting point is 00:27:30 Glenn Kraman, my professor of this writing class, always says that this is something that sticks out to him. Like, he says that I have one of the best about me profiles he's ever seen because my mission is. And that's why she's the professor of the LinkedIn class. And that's why he recruited me to teach the class, but my mission is at the very forefront of my profile. So people know what I care about. So the question I would ask you, if you're listening or watching this, what matters most to you and why? And including that in your profile so people have a better sense of what you care about. Because yes, I think a lot of the profiles I've seen, they just list their career experiences, but not the why behind it. I do think, though, maybe you're not giving yourself

Starting point is 00:28:13 enough credit in that you listed yourself as an intermediate example because I think it's really hard to come up with a mission for yourself for most people. I think most people, if you ask them, what would you say your mission is if you had to write it on your LinkedIn? It's really, really, really hard to come up with. Yeah. So you think I'm advanced. I think at least in this one aspect, you are very advanced. I don't think I can't call myself advanced in the class though because I'm the professor and I feel kind of like bashful. Why? bashful. I don't know. That's imposter syndrome. You're literally teaching the class. That's true. Of course you're advanced. You're like the most advanced. I think having the mission top of the profile is something that you can think through. The second thing that I think is good on my profile is that I have a call to action. So in the bottom, almost bottom, I say looking to collaborate and then I say partnerships at tiger sisters.co. I have our partnerships email there because this is the point where I am. selling myself.

Starting point is 00:29:14 And that's Partnerships at tigersisters.co. Once again, partnerships at tiger sisters.com. If you are the representative at Amex, Delta, Cometeer coffee. Call them out. We'd love a partnership. Sondro. Sondro, Marge, Dior. Jimmy Choo.

Starting point is 00:29:33 Just to name a few, Massica, we love your product. I'm just kidding. No, I'm not. I'm very serious. But so, right, the first part where I talked about. my mission on my profile, that's sharing. The second part where I have a call to action, mine is to have more partnerships on the podcast, that's the selling. And the last part of my profile, I just have the fun facts, which is borrowed from that person I just shared as the previous example,

Starting point is 00:29:59 that make it more one in a million. So I once lived on a small family-owned Japanese tea farm. Jean and I started her own macha company called SistersMacha. That's sistersmacha.com. I love Broadway shows. Hamilton is my favorite. That is a talking point, right? Because if people have professional, you know, interests with me, that's great. But if we can connect on something personal, that's even better.

Starting point is 00:30:25 Yeah. The last one is I'm a LinkedIn learning instructor. And so that's just like another, that's like a flex for sure. And I want to include that on my profile and a potential talking point. So I think it's having your mission improve, having something to sell. And also fun facts to make it personal is how I've structured my profile. I mean, I can't wait to see what the advanced one is because this seems really advanced to me. I mean, this feels like a perfect about me.

Starting point is 00:30:52 You think I'm perfect? I think you're about me is perfect. Two and five Canadians will hear the words you have cancer. That's why every step and dollar raised matters. On September 19th, join thousands in Toronto for the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation walk. Challenge yourself, friends, and family to walk. 21 kilometers in support of life-saving research. Together, we can carry the fire and help create a world free from the fear of cancer. Register today at pmcf walk.ca. Well, so the advanced one, which we'll move to

Starting point is 00:31:30 next, is not so much a perfect profile. It's more so I wanted people to see an advanced tactic. Ooh. Yes. Hey, guys, so it's come to my attention that many of you don't know, Gene and I have a matcha brand called Sister's Macha that we created and founded ourselves. What? No way. A Macha brand? Yeah. We started it in October 24. Gene and I have worked and lived on this Macha farm in Japan. It's sourced from Wazuka, Japan, which is an hour and a half outside of Kyoto, and the brand means the world to us. It is a small family-owned farm, and we actually travel back to the farm and handpick the Macha ourselves. So you can find out more about Sisters Macha to try it, check it out, buy it at SistersMacha.com.

Starting point is 00:32:18 That's sistersmacha.com. And already, back to the show. Okay. So it's an advanced tactic, but it is with a caveat. So we'll pull up the example on screen. And I'm not saying this profile is a good profile because I think the beginning of the profile is very one of a million. It could be about anyone, really. I've never seen this before. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:32:41 So in the beginning, this person writes passionate about solving complex product challenges, collaborating, and driving results. I don't think that's good. I actually think that's bad. So please do not do that because it is so generic. It actually sounds like it's written by AI. This person also says, I welcome conversations of any kind. Like, obviously, you're looking at this profile and like you're trying to welcome any conversation. So I'm saying the first part, do not do that because it is pretty generic.

Starting point is 00:33:06 but the bottom part of this profile I found is so fascinating. They have a ton of keywords, and I know this person. This is a friend of mine. So I'm like kind of roasting them ingest, but like they have so many keywords of companies that they've never even worked at, right? This is the craziest thing I've ever seen. But you understand. Can I read them out loud? Yes, but do you understand the, I understand why.

Starting point is 00:33:31 So the very end of this crazy list of items, it says in parentheses, These keywords are in place for testing out SEO terms on LinkedIn for sales navigator. So that is their point, right? They're listing out all these things because these are things that recruiters search for. So they want to be, this is their metadata dump, right? So it says computer science, technology, education, AI, machine learning, artificial intelligence, Google, Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, Apple, LinkedIn, Netflix, Microsoft, Amazon, McKinsey and Company, BCG, Goldman Sachs, Goldman Sachs, Tesla, Y Combinator, YC, Harvard, Bain, Software Engineer, Cambridge, Forbes, CNN, New York Times, product manager product design Washington Post,

Starting point is 00:34:09 TechStars, Alphabet. Literally, it goes on. I've only said half of them. Well, so the whole point of this, and I'm not saying to do this, but I think it's really interesting what they've done. They have a caveat, like, ha ha ha, I work for LinkedIn, so I'm dumping all these terms in here. Yeah, this is a test. This is a test.

Starting point is 00:34:25 Ha, ha, ha. But like, really what they've done is curated metadata at companies that are highly searched for by recruiters and other people and somehow included in their profile. So I'm not saying have a a random list of things. But I'm saying use the SEO feature, keep the SEO features in mind and know what you are putting on your profile. Do you have proof that this works for this person? Like, no. But I know that like all these are scraped in when recruiters are looking for key terms.

Starting point is 00:34:54 So let me see that. Yeah. So why don't I be like, I know how the product was built. Yeah. I know how the LinkedIn profile and also the LinkedIn jobs products are built. and they are scraping all of the features on your profile and registering it and making sure that it shows up where it needs to. So you're saying this is insider information. Yes. And I don't want you to think that you should put all these random terms in. I think just put in the terms that obviously are applicable to you, but you can also have,

Starting point is 00:35:24 you know, some skills that you put in there that are related to your profile. Yeah. So, you know, use your judgment. use this advanced tactic tactically yes i mean all that to say lincoln is a search engine the goal is to be able to use you know this industry language very naturally in your profile and to mention like jobs titles skills industries tools expertise that actually apply to you so you get found um one question from your uh students which is me and the tiger sisters community community is that I think a lot of people are using AI to help them write their LinkedIn profiles,

Starting point is 00:36:10 which I think is legitimate. But like what are the best practices to make sure that it doesn't sound like AI and it still hits? Yeah. I mean, they even have an AI feature, an AI writing feature in The About Me. If you go and try and edit it, you can try and AI generate something. the things that I write by myself currently are better than AI right now. So you can use that feature if it's kind of like a Hail Mary. You don't have any time. You don't want to think about it. Yes.

Starting point is 00:36:38 But I think we can do a better job creating it ourselves. After this episode, you will 100% do a better job. I think something that also helps differentiate your profile from AI ones is writing it in first person. A lot of people ask like, should I write it in first or third person? first is saying I, my accomplishments, my work history, third person is, third person is talking it about your name, like Cherie is an accomplished expert in blah, blah, blah. So I prefer writing it in first person. It's a stylistic choice, but also if this is one of the few places that you can really take advantage of and have your own voice shine through, hell yeah, why not write it in first

Starting point is 00:37:25 person. I'm trying to remember if mine is first or third person. I'll have to check later. If yours is in third person, I would consider writing it in first person and see how that feels. It makes it a lot stronger anyways. And also like it's a little bit funny because like the people reading your profile know that it's written by you and not like a publicist. Most cases. But I will all once again represent the community and say that maybe a lot of people feel like writing something in first person is harder because it feels more boastful versus if you write it in third person, you feel like it's like you're removed from it a little bit and you're not showing off about yourself. You're just like, oh, well, this is a neutral profile. I think pros and

Starting point is 00:38:07 cons, right? Like, I think the pro of third person is you are removed from it. The con from the third person is you are removed from it. It feels less personal. More like biography versus autobiography. Sure. I'll consider. Okay, guys, so we have one mini exercise for you to wrap up this episode and it is open your profile and answer just one question. The question is, what is the one sentence you want people to remember after reading your about me section? And if you can answer that easily, then it means your about me section is dialed. And if you can't answer that easily, go back to the beginner, intermediate, and advanced sections and see what you can do to adjust it. Okay, that is part one of our LinkedIn masterclass. Come back for part two next week, where we go into some of the

Starting point is 00:38:54 profiles that you submitted into us, we're going to roast them kindly, provide feedback and advice that are helpful for that person specifically, but you also can take away a lot of the learnings as well as we're going through those profiles. So we'll give more of those reactions in part two of our LinkedIn Masterclass. Thank you guys so much for tuning in and we'll see you next time. Bye. Two and five Canadians will hear the words you have cancer. That's why every step and dollar-raised matters. On September 19th, join thousands in Toronto for the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation Walk.

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Tiger Sisters - LinkedIn Masterclass: How to Fix Your Profile, Get Found, and Attract More Opportunities

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