Young and Profiting with Hala Taha - Shanee Moret: Build a Community | Marketing | E88

Episode Date: November 9, 2020

Level-up your LinkedIn!   This week, I’m talking with Shanee Moret, CEO of MedSnake Media and a Linkedin mega-influencer. With over 20M+ views on LinkedIn and over 600k followers, she is one of the biggest influencers on the platform today.    In today’s episode, we’ll discuss Shanee’s childhood battle with cancer, the effects it has on who she is today, and her journey to entrepreneurship. We’ll also chat about how she created her business, the ways she built her LinkedIn following, and her top tips for creating LinkedIn posts that go viral.   Social Media:    Follow YAP on IG: www.instagram.com/youngandprofiting Reach out to Hala directly at [e-mail] Follow Hala on Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/htaha/ Follow Hala on Instagram: www.instagram.com/yapwithhala Check out our website to meet the team, view show notes and transcripts: www.youngandprofiting.com   Timestamps:   03:11 - Shanee’s Experience and Battle with Cancer 06:24 - Why You Should Be Vulnerable and Share Your Challenges in Life 08:42 - Shanee’s Journey to Entrepreneurship 15:27 - How Shanee Built Her Business 17:41 - Shanee’s Initial LinkedIn Strategy 19:14 - Why Shanee Started Medsnake Media 22:49 - How to Know When There’s a Demand for Your Services 24:50 - Story Behind Shanee Meeting Her MedSnake Co-Founder 26:16 - The Way Shanee Landed Her First Client 29:28 - Creating an Organic Brand 30:34 - Guidance on How to Start a LinkedIn Community 33:07 - Why to Post Different Types of Posts on LinkedIn 35:05 - Shanee’s Secret to LinkedIn Growth 39:12 - Story of Shanee’s Most Popular Post 42:01 - How Shanee Decides What to Post 44:20 - Discussion of Why HR Posts Do Well 45:45 - Formula to Going Viral 47:52 - Can you make an Income From LinkedIn? 50:30 - Shanee’s Next Big Moves 51:25 - Shanee’s Secret to Profiting in Life   Links Mentioned in the Show:   Shanee’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shaneemoret/ Shanee’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shaneemoret/?hl=en Shanee’s Website: http://www.growthacademy.global Shanee’s Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3Pta5QrU8dTZLRVfQpg-yA

You're listening to Yap, Young and Profiting Podcast, a place where you can listen, learn, and profit. Welcome to the show. I'm your host, Halitaha, and on Young and Profiting Podcast, we investigate a new topic each week and interview some of the brightest minds in the world. My goal is to turn their wisdom into actionable advice that you can use in your everyday life, no matter your age, profession, or industry. There's no fluff on this podcast, and that's on purpose. I'm here to uncover value from my guests by doing the proper research and asking the right questions.

If you're new to the show, we've chatted with the likes of ex-FBI agents, real estate moguls, self-made billionaires, CEOs, and bestselling authors. Our subject matter ranges from enhancing productivity, how to gain influence, the art of entrepreneurship, and more. If you're smart and like to continually improve yourself, hit the subscribe button because you'll love it here at Young and Profiting Podcast. Okay, welcome to Young and Profiting Podcast. I'm here with Shanae Murray. Welcome to the show. Thank you so much for inviting me. I haven't seen you in over a year. I know. We met each other at LinkedIn, Global, and New Jersey briefly, funny event, fun events, I should say. Yeah, it was definitely fun. It's great to see, like, how people have grown since then. And it seems like, just because of everything that's happened this year, that it was like five years ago, but it was only a year ago. That's crazy. I know. Can you imagine that

we actually got to meet people face to face last year? It's like you can't even remember those times, it seems like. So before we get started, we're going to just introduce you to our audience. Everybody on LinkedIn probably knows who you are, but I've got thousands of listeners on my podcast who might not know who you are. So introducing Shenei Murray, her story is one that emphasizes is the idea of overcoming challenges and building a dream life for her and her daughter. Sheena is a first generation Cuban American. And as a child, she battled in one stage four bilateral Wilms tumor cancer. And so I actually heard about a story about you, one of your first memories in the hospital holding a wagon when they told you like to walk and you didn't want to.

And that's when you first realized that, you know, there's suffering in life, right? Yeah. Yeah. So tell us about, you know, your experiences, having cancer as a child, what that taught you, how that shaped your worldview and perspective on life? Well, like, it's funny because people ask me that question. And so, like, you have to understand through my perspective, I didn't really know what being, like, living in normal childhood was prior to having cancer. So it's not like I was like 13 or 14 when I was diagnosed. Like, I was diagnosed very early. And thank God, right? Because my kidneys were enlarged. So usually if they're not enlarged,

they may catch it way too late. And I mean, I was stage four, and it was just like several times that, like they brought in the priest to baptize me because they, you know, they do that in the hospital when they think that you're going to not make it and not have a lot of time. So they told my mom a few times that, like,

I wasn't going to have a lot of time. But just like, so for me it was kind of like normal to be there. You know, so when I look at a hospital, I look at like, I feel like almost comfortable in a hospital just because that's the place for me that like helped heal me and help me get stronger, help me get better. When like a lot of people, adults and like teens, they kind of look at it like a place where like you, you know, you don't want to go to the hospital. Yeah. It's like a different perspective. But, you know, I will say this, that I credit a lot of.

why I survived, obviously to the medical doctors and stuff, but also to my mom because the doctor that was on my case, the lead doctor, he advised her to not treat me like I was sick. So he, like, told her to, like, discipline me, like, a regular child because what happens is, is, like, they don't. And then a lot of children that are sick may, like, be very aggressive towards their parents or have, like, serious temper tantrums that make the treatments a little bit hard, for the nurses and stuff like that.

So she was like kind of tough on me. Like the Red Wagon story, it was like she wasn't the mom that was like crying, you know? She was the mom that's like, well, if you're not going to walk, I'm going to make you walk. You know, and I'm sure she cried and was like devastated, but she never did it in front of me. And she would always kind of tell me like,

okay, this is like temporary. You're going to get stronger and stuff like that. So I think that like psychologically, that helped me a lot. Yeah, and probably because she made you feel normal and helped you maybe get normal faster because you believed that you were normal too. Right. I think your health has a lot to do with the way you think and like your mental health too. I've heard you say in the past that you suggest to differentiate yourself by embracing your darkness, embracing your scars, but there's many people who are, they feel embarrassed about their past, you know, and they're not

willing to really share their story. Why do you suggest that people be open, be authentic, and share the trials and tribulations that they've had in their life? Because it builds trust. Now, I will say, I will preface that by saying that there is like a fine art of vulnerability. So you want to be vulnerable and share, you know, the tough times that you've had, maybe certain circumstances that you could have made better decisions, so on and so forth. but you don't want to be so vulnerable that instead of gaining trust and respect that you gain sympathy and pity. So you don't want to victimize yourself through vulnerability.

So there is like a fine line, like on one side where it's empowering and you could inspire others and leverage that to like build a huge community that trusts you because you're open with them. But you don't want to push you too far that then like you're victimizing yourself and then people will do the opposite because nobody. likes evict somebody that's like always with a sob story, right? Yeah. Yeah. So that's why. It builds trust and it makes you seem real. And I can't tell you the amount of business opportunities that have opened up for me, not just with Med Snake Media initially, the first company that I co-founded,

but now with Growth Academy, just because people have heard my story. And when you also look at that, you know, people are much more likely to remember you if you have a story than if you're just sharing information and, you know, it's something that can't be replicated. They can replicate everything else, you're pricing, your product, but they can't replicate your story. I love that. That's such a good point. And I'm going to dig deeper later on in terms of how you develop your stories and some of your copywriting skills. Since we are live, I'd like everybody who's tuning in to tell us where you're located. We'll shout you out. We've got lots of folks tuning in already. So thank you so much. And if you have any questions for me or Chenet, just let us know. And we'll make sure to ask it if it's

relevant to the conversation. So speaking of, you know, your trials and some of your things that you've dealt with in the past, you actually left your full-time job because they would not let you take care of your daughter or you felt like you didn't have enough time to focus on your daughter. So tell us about that time. I think it was a turning point in your life. We share that story with us. Yeah. So, Liv, my daughter, she's a toddler now, but then she was like around six months, you know, six, eight months.

And she got a flu from like a certain type of influenza strain from being left at daycare because like most parents, I would have to like wake up super early, leave her at daycare at seven o'clock in the morning, work till five, and then go get her. So like I wasn't with her for basically. 12 hours and she was pretty young. And like I said, she was a pre-meat. So she was a little bit smaller and stuff like that. She got sick. So she actually ended up going to the hospital being, we had to stay there. Like, I had to stay there, me and my mom for 14 days. So around the 10th day, my boss at the time was like just getting irritated. So sending me texts like, hey, when are you going to like we need you back at the

office, like, you know, one after the other, like, just not understanding that I was, you know, not going to leave her there because I'm her primary caretaker. I was, I was at the time a single mother. And then finally, like, around 11 p.m. one night basically was given like an ultimatum of my boss at the time saying, like, find somebody that can stay with her, like, return or like lose, lose your job. So I was like, okay, well, I'm not returning. And it's crazy. It's almost like inexplicable how I felt in that moment. Like, it's hard to put into words. Like, she was, like, sleeping in her crib with an IV in her hand.

It was, like, a very tough thing. Like, they didn't have a bed for me to sleep in in the hospital that whole time. So, like, my mom had left because I'm not going to make my mom sleep in in a chair. I was sleeping in a chair for several days. And I was just, like, listen, like, to myself, I'm tired of, like, the limitations of my life. You know, I'm tired of not going. where I want to go, when I want to go. I'm tired of having to leave her in a day

for 10 to 12 hours a day. Tired of not having the resources to purchase, not even what I want to purchase, but what I need to purchase. I was making very little money because I had to pay for the daycare. So what are you left with after that? Like after daycare and rent,

you're really not left with anything. Daycare rents diapers and food and that's it. I had basically pennies after that. So in that moment, I really thought to myself because at that company, I was doing, like, copywriting. And I knew, like, I kept hearing of people that were making money online, just blogging. So for me at the time, I was thinking more like blogging.

And it's amazing how, like, visions and things change with time, right? So, and for me, just replacing what I was making back then, which was, which was nothing in retrospect, would be enough for me if I could just make that doing what I love from home, because then I could spend more time with, her. Yeah. So long story short, I got on LinkedIn because I had like less than a few hundred dollars in my bank account, like a couple hundred dollars. And I spent like $50,200. I can't remember the exact price on this one course that teaches you how to make like a thousand dollars a month blogging. And one of the things in the course was, oh, make a LinkedIn and blah, blah, blah. So I made a LinkedIn. And I just, this was like probably four,

four to six months before I even created my first post. So I had just put up a picture and started you know just building relationships with people on the back end like messaging them and stuff. So before I left, but I had no experience. Like I had nothing to show for for a portfolio that was not related to my work, which I couldn't use. So long story short, before I left the hospital, so within the next 72 hours, I had already reached out to people and said, hey, I'll write a free blog for you if you write me a recommendation on my profile because I wanted samples of work to show people and I wanted recommendations on my profile to increase trust so I can get clients. And before I left the hospital, I had three recommendations. That's amazing. There's so many lessons to learn in that.

The first thing that really calls out to me is the fact that you invested in yourself. You took this course. That's one thing. And when I did it, it's crazy because when I did it, I'm like, you're insane. You may not have money for, like, food that you need. I mean, you know, I'm going to have to ask my mom for like 50 bucks or something. And I never am like that type of person, you know? So I was like, you know what? Like, I just felt like this like feeling. And I was like, what do I really have to lose? And I told myself, I was like, what do I really have to lose? Okay, like if all, if this truly fails, like in the next month, I'll lose my car. Like, I'll lose my apartment, but that's like basically it.

And then I'll just have to admit defeat and go live with my mom and then find another job. Like, that's like the worst that can happen. You know what I mean? Or if it works, like, there's a whole world out there that I don't even know. And I like had the dedication to like work till three o'clock in the morning if I needed to every day to find out if it would just replace that income. So before I left the hospital, I had those recommendations. and within four weeks, I secured my first contract in the retainer. Like, when I got that check, I, like, tears.

When I was walking back to my car, we're, like, literally pouring out of my eyes because it was $500 more than what I would have made the whole month at my previous job. Wow. And this was just to help somebody ghost write a book. So, and it was just the first check of, like, a six-month contract. So that was like the real validation to me. that like, okay, like, I do have what it takes and you can make real money doing what you love. And like from there was like, I'll never turn back.

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Get more with Northwest Registered Agent at Northwestregisteredagent.com slash yapfree. Yeah, that's absolutely amazing. Such an amazing story. So tell us what happened next. You know, you got these clients who were resourceful, you know, you took action, relentless action. You had the work ethic. You had the skills. So what happened next? How did you get more clients and build your business? Yeah. So that's a great question. So obviously after getting that one client, I was like spending more time on LinkedIn. I got a couple more like, but I wasn't posting yet. And I was watching. like a lot of people that were growing. And I was like, wait a second.

Like, what are these people doing? Like, because I like noticed patterns. And that's also around the time that like LinkedIn videos started to like really pop. So a lot of people were like, just post your first video or whatever. So I posted my first video in November, late November. It was like around Thanksgiving, like almost two years ago of 2018. And yeah, it did really well. and I thought it was a coincidence.

And then I just post my second video the next day and I did really well. So I thought it was a coincidence because the image quality, the sound, it was terrible. But like, it was doing well. And then the third video did really well. And I started noticing, like, I was getting a lot of inbound prospects. Like, I didn't have to message anybody. They were coming to me. And I was like, wait a second.

Like, there's something to this. Yeah. And I posted my fourth. my fifth video and they also did well. So I was like, okay, maybe it's not a coincidence. Why are people watching my videos? So that's when I started asking people. I was like, hey, why did you like this video if the image is terrible, if like it's shaky and the sound is terrible? And they're like, oh, because you're real or like it's because of what you're saying. And that's also something that like it just so happened at the time to a lot of other people that were showing up

on video on LinkedIn, we're doing it in a very corporate type of manner where they had to have their makeup perfect. They were in suits. And I was showing up kind of like this with just like a 30 second message. So like it was different. Yeah. I mean, success on LinkedIn is all about standing out. And you're right. When you first started, you were like so casual. You were just kind of like the girl next door who would hop on and everybody could relate to. And I think that goes back to the stories that you were talking about before and telling your story and sharing your story and made people feel, I think, connected to you. Yeah. Yeah. And I feel like, you know, since then, I never really prepped a video. Like, I was just doing a whole different strategy. And I didn't even

realize what I was doing at the time. I was just showing up, right? Because I was seeing the results. So I was like, I got to, I'm the type of person that I doubled down on what works and I released what doesn't. So I'll get rid of what doesn't. I'll double down on what works. But for me, it's all about numbers. So, Sheney, let's talk about MedStink Media. So you started this company, and I believe you helped people with, like, their marketing and even their billing and things like that. And so you had mentioned in previous interviews and things like that that that you feel connected to the healthcare industry. You feel like you love the healthcare industry.

They helped you, you know, be able to survive when you were younger. How come you didn't decide, like, to be a doctor or nurse? Like, why did you decide to, like, kind of go on the outskirts of the industry? Um, that's actually a great question. In college when I started, I was in pre-med and stuff, but I just, I wasn't really like passionate about it. And I always love to write. So like when I was in cancer treatment, a lot of the times like my kidneys would hurt and stuff. Like I would have to like lay down and just like even afterwards, you know, so even to today, like sometimes, because I had surgeries on my kidneys. So the scar tissue will hurt and I'll just have to like rest.

for like a day. Like my body will kind of like let me know in a way. So when I had like downtime, I would love to read. Like I was like one of those kids when I was young that like read Harry Potter in one day, like a 500 or 500 page book. And so I would read and I would write. So when I was like in pre-med, I kind of felt like I was like in this conflict of like, okay, I do like the idea of health care, but like I would really love to be a writer.

And it's so funny because back then, you know, when I was in college, you know, tiny years ago, you kind of had to write a book to like build a community. And now it's like the opposite where it's like publishers won't even take you on unless you have a community already. And then your community is kind of at the point where they're demanding a book. So it's amazing how like things have changed. But in my mind, I was like, okay, well, healthcare writing, healthcare writing. And that's kind of how I got into like marketing,

but I didn't really tie it to my story or to healthcare until I got on LinkedIn and I was passionate about it. And that's like one of the main things with copyrighting. You have to write what you know, what you're passionate about. And obviously things have evolved from there. Like, you know, I just launched Growth Academy two months ago. But with Med Snake, it was like I really understood healthcare when a lot of markets, and stuff didn't. So we helped a lot of facilities. And that's like the number one complaint that

we would hear is like these facilities would spend a lot of money with marketing companies, but then they would have to kind of explain the healthcare space to them. And, you know, when you're marketing for a facility, when you're doing their marketing, let's say they want to attract Medicaid patients. It's completely different than attracting private pay patients or attracting private insurance patients. It's a completely different demographic. If you don't really understand healthcare, you're not going to understand that. So we continue to serve them. But like, it was just a great thing because it opened a lot of doors where people are like, okay, she understands the healthcare space. They remembered me for the story. And then, you know, in meetings, I would obviously

prove our proficiency and stuff. So. Yeah. So when it comes to, like, when you were building your business. How did you know that there was actually a demand for the services that you wanted? How did you decide that, you know, the demand was big enough to go after? Like for copywriting, for marketing and stuff? Yeah. So, okay, that's a good question. It's all about like I listen to people. And I think that's where I was going in the previous question. Like, how did I build a business, right? So when I really started getting consistent with video, especially within the first 30 days, I saw like a huge increase in like the amount of of people reaching out to me in like messages and I kind of saw how the process would go and I'm a

quick person so I would immediately and this is one tip for people like don't hang out in the DMs so somebody's like interested in your product or your service or wanting to learn more like I don't message back and forth a million times I set up a call immediately for like today or tomorrow because the faster you move the faster they move so I see a lot of of people even trying to close deals in the DMs. And it's like, that's, it's going to take forever. And especially on LinkedIn where the LinkedIn messaging is not like the best. So I saw the demand. And then like when I would get on the phone with them, there was a recurring need in healthcare where a lot of them had no idea how to even approach marketing where a lot of them, they just really wanted to

build an organic brand rather than to pour money into ads and stuff because a lot of these startups fail because of their marketing misspens. So they wanted to go lean. And they were thinking long term. So a lot of that had to do with, you know, video content, copywriting and just fulfilling their needs. It was really like a custom kind of thing. But it would all kind of be the same.

We noticed that pattern very early on. Mm-hmm. Yeah, I think that's really interesting. Okay. So how did you end up meeting your co-founder at MedSink Media? What's the story there? So she actually reached, out to me on LinkedIn.

And it's funny because you said, hey, people can relate to you. And that was kind of her message to me. Like, hey, your videos are so relatable. And then we built a friendship from there. And then we found the demand because she's doing medical billing and credentialing. So once the facility is up and running, they would always ask her like, okay, we're ready for marketing.

Do you do that too? And she'd be like, no, I don't. But she kept referring people to me. initially. And I was like, okay, well, why isn't there like a one-stop shop for all this? So that's what we created. I know that you had a big break. You had one of your first clients was pretty big and significant. And it helped you kind of have a new life. It helped you start a new life. And I can relate because I worked full-time at Disney streaming. I just started a podcast marketing agency. And I just got like three pretty huge clients. And now everything's taking off. I'm ready to quit my job.

It's like just crazy. I can't even believe like how fast we're scaling. And it's just like goes to show the power of LinkedIn. Like once you have a brand on LinkedIn, you can literally start anything, you know? So tell us about this story. How did you land your first client? Did you have a website already? Did you have a logo already? Did you just go for it? I don't even know if we had a website already, but he reached out on LinkedIn. It was like very short. It was literally within one month of December. So I think it was like it was like, like in late December or early January, right when I had just started in the first month of posting videos and he just reached out and he was like, hey, how much do you charge for copyrighting services, blah, blah, blah? It's funny because like I did the first project and then like his wife saw it. It was like, wait a second, who wrote this? And then they, that's how they got us on retainer because she loved it. And they had so much more work. So, yeah, it was life change. changing and I was like, wow, and we still have that relationship till today. And then my, I would say

like my next big impactful connection came six months later when a random connection that, again, just watch my video content very frequently, reach out, and I was like, hey, I have a friend, a colleague, he lives in West Palm, he's close to you. I'd love for your, you know, for you guys meet. I would love to introduce you to him. I don't know if you guys can work together, but just whatever. And that's when I was introduced to Christopher Hummel. Yeah, I know he's one of your major clients. Yeah, he's like my mentor now. I would say more than anything.

Yeah, that's amazing. And it just goes to show, like for me too, like I didn't have a website. It's more important to just get the clients, show them what you could do, prove to them through actual work or past experience. Oh, yeah. You don't need to have everything ready and perfect. Just get started and start to get clients. Yeah, I don't know why a lot of people spend weight.

too much. Like branding is not brand. I always say that. Like you can have the best logo. Like, and I'll give you a great example. So look at Quibi. Quibi just like they said that they're like calling it quits or whatever. They had like the best team. It's like I guess they try to compete with like Netflix or something, but they got like billions of dollars in investment. They had like the top talent. They had all the branding. They had blah, blah, blah. They even were started. They launched with like 100,000 subscribers that they had. And 93% of the subscribers dropped off after the first month. And I mean, so you could have the best talent.

You could have the best branding. You could have the best this. But their marketing strategy was antiquated. You know, they went after like high ticket celebrities to do like commercials and Super Bowl ads and stuff like that. And when they should have been doing stuff like to get, you know, influencers with millions. followers and stuff on TikTok because they were trying to reach like the 18th to 30 35 markets.

So it just goes to show. Like you can have the best of everything. But if you're not, if you're not like adapting and if you're not like super hyper focused on your customer, you could fail. Yeah, totally. And it's all. And I think sometimes when your back is against the wall and you have to be resourceful, that's when people get the most creative and actually, you know, grow an organic community

because they're yeah i didn't have an option yeah yeah and that's one thing that's that's a blessing in disguise for for us it's like when we launched med snake i didn't have an option to spend like thousands in facebook ads like i didn't have any of that so i was forced to create an organic brand and that's like the best decision that that i could have um made and been consistent with because like if you have an organic brand, you could always add in paid advertising, but it's very difficult to sustain something with only paid ads. Totally. You know, long term, yeah, an organic brand will, the trust is just, you can't beat it.

Yeah, people think that paid ads are the way to go, but you're not retaining anything. You're just going to have to keep paying and paying and paying and paying. So it's really important to grow that organic community. So you mentioned earlier that when you first started on LinkedIn, you actually invested $100 into a LinkedIn course, $100 that you didn't have. If you were giving somebody guidance today in terms of how to start their organic LinkedIn community, what would you say? I would say, find somebody that has done what you want to do and learn from them and apply

what they teach because, like, the learning curve is just going to be cut in half or cut 30%. Like the things that I had to, like, slip up on and the tests I had to run along, the way. And that's really where, again, demand, I listen to people, why I launched Growth Academy around, like, I would say, like, March of this year, I started getting a ton, a ton of messages every single week. Like, hey, do you have a course? Do you have this? Do you have a program where I could learn how to do what you did? I'm like, no. I was like, okay, that's kind of like coincidence, like blah, blah, blah. Then like in April, especially as like the corona, you know, the pandemic was like really getting serious, I was getting probably like 50 to 100 messages a week. And I was like,

okay, the people need this. So that's why I did that because I was like, okay, there's definitely a need and people want me to learn. Like I could cut their learning curve in half. So. Yeah. So you have a course available or do you offer consulting for that? It's more than a course. So and that's another thing. When I did the research, you know, people buy courses, but what's a course? So like you really watch videos and stuff and like who's going to be there telling you to apply who's going to be there telling you to tweak this tweak that so when people join growth academy they not only get the course which has over 40 videos but they get live weekly trainings for me and from Chris and if they can't make the live trainings then they get the

the recordings they also get to join a private community in Slack where like we track their growth and we we give them tips every day and stuff like that and they get to work with all the other members. Right now we have a Spanish group and an English group. We have, that's awesome and very creative. So we have a question from Adam Posner. He says, what about the copy and paste posts and I don't know what MLM stands for, but I guess he's saying engagement pods. Like, I guess he's, I guess he's saying why post the same things over and over again? What's your strategy around that? So it depends on the post. So for me, like the connection post, is not really for me

and more for other people to connect. And if that works, then it works. Like, people have gotten jobs from it. They've, like, message me like, hey, Chenet, I grew like 500 connections this week and I haven't grown that in, like, months.

And if it helps the people, and obviously it's not being shut down by LinkedIn, then I think that there's a reason for. I think that they obviously want other people to grow as well. Yeah, totally. I mean, you have to think. Like, they want more people on the platform. So they definitely want posts that endorse more people to stay on the platform. Yeah, completely. And you know what? In terms of the engagement pod, I think that there's lots of engagement pod communities out there that are actually real communities. I think there's a lot of like hate out there in terms of the engagement pods. But honestly, there's a lot of communities out there where people actually are friends with each other. They care about each other. And they want to actually see. other's posts. And when you become an influencer, you start to lose sight of your friends' posts.

And it's actually very helpful to have a chat with everybody's posts in one place where you can keep in touch with the people you actually care about. And so I think people have this like weird idea about engagement pods that it's fake, this or that. But I would like these people's posts if I had seen them in my feed, but I don't control the algorithm. And this is a way to control the algorithm. So I think everybody's hate about engagement pods is a little bit of jealousy mixed with other things. Yeah. All of the first. is like it's easy to critique. Everyone's always going to have something to say, but like I said, at the end of the day, if LinkedIn wasn't for it, they would shut down the post.

Yeah. So what would you say is your secret sauce when it comes to your growth on LinkedIn? Because like we said, all of a sudden you had this huge, actually, we were talking offline when we were talking about this. So let's talk about your tipping points. So when we met at LinkedIn Global, that was in 2018, me and you had like the same amount of followers, right? And here I am. like only doubled my growth and you've like 10xed your growth. So what would you say was the tipping point? Like when did you start noticing like, oh my God, like things are just escalating quickly? Because there's really not that many people who have over 30,000 let alone, you have 600,000 followers on LinkedIn. How did you get to that point? Yeah. So it's crazy because last September

I did have like what at LinkedIn global event, like 30,000 followers, something like that. And then I just, I stayed consistent. So I started posting more. Again, I would double down to what was working in terms of like what my audience wanted. Like, I'm super hyper focused on my audience. So if my audience is going to gain benefit from a certain type of post, like, that's what I'm going to post. I'm thinking about less of myself and more about what people want. So, and I determine that through numbers.

Like, I don't let like my personal, perspective, kind of like, be like, oh, well, this post should have done amazing, but it got no engagement. Well, that's because people couldn't relate to it. When people relate to a post, it gets high engagement. So, like, it just, like, I kept doing that. I kept staying consistent. And then in January, I'd say, like, late January of this year is when I really had my tipping point, that Gen Z post that I wrote, it just like, I didn't even expect, I thought it was just going to be another post. You just never know what's going to go viral. And it wasn't. It wasn't. It wasn't. I was a like super viral. Like it got like over like 240,000 likes, over 12 million views. So then through that month,

but there's like a secret to that. So through that month, I grew a lot. And it's not like I like let my foot off the pedal because one post went viral. Like what's one post? I posted more and I really took advantage of the momentum. And then I had another post that went viral. But somebody on LinkedIn took a screenshot of the post that I had no idea who they were and they posted it on Facebook. And then it also went viral on Facebook. Yeah, I got 150,000 shares on Facebook. And like, it was crazy. People were like messaging me and they were like, hey, I saw you on Facebook.

And I'm like, Facebook. Like, I'm never even on Facebook. And then after like the 10th message that day, I was like, can you like tell me where you saw me on Facebook to some random person? And they're like, yeah, I'll share the post with you. And it was just a girl who took a screenshot. And she was like, hey, I saw this on LinkedIn and I had to share it. And it like blew up.

And then like 20 other pages shared it. And it also went like 50,000 shares, 8,000 shares. Like I had people all over the country that were messaging me being like, hey, Cheney, like people from high school. I saw your post on Facebook. Oh, my God. That's so insane. And it wasn't even, like it didn't even get credited to you as some other girls

pages. No, it did because like she had, the way she screenshot, it had my name. It said like, Okay, okay. And that's how like all these people, like there was like even one page, it went viral and like put your job. Like my guy friends were like messaging me like, oh, she went viral and quit your job. Like it's crazy. What happens when you go viral on Facebook? What's up? Young and Profiters. I remember when I first started Yap, I used to dread missing important calls. I remember I, remember I, lost a huge potential partnership because the follow-up thread got completely lost in my messy communication system. Well, this year, I'm focused on not missing any opportunities. And that

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That's funny. I've never been viral on Facebook. so I've only been viral on LinkedIn, so that's all I know. So what was so special about that post? Let's dissect that Gen Z post. What was it about? Why do you think you went viral? I do know. So when I thought like it was doing well and doing viral, I thought it was because it was about Gen Z. So I was like, oh, it's because like Gen Z sharing it so much, blah, blah, blah. But when I actually started looking at the shares and what people were doing with the shares, what they were saying, So it's actually targeting the people that want an opportunity now, the Gen Z population, but then a lot of the older people were resharing it and saying,

I'll never forget my first manager that gave me an opportunity. Please pay it forward for somebody. So it was like targeting like people my mom's age and they were like resharing it like crazy, thanking the people that had given them the first opportunity. And then it was also the Gen Z were resharing. it. But I thought it was just the Gen Z that was making a viral. It wasn't. A lot of older people were paying, like, thanks to the people that had given them an opportunity. I guess just for context, if, like, I don't remember the Gen Z post. So, like,

what was the, like, what did it say? What was it about? Well, the general gist was just like, hey, because an intern, a paid intern, I just started with us. And I was like, hey, you don't, you know, this person doesn't have experience. But, I mean, for me, it was so basic. But sometimes the post you never expect to will go viral. So the person did everything right during the interview. And I believe if somebody does something right during the interview, even if they don't have a lot of experience, it doesn't mean that they can't be effective.

And I always say that. Like when people come to me and they're like, oh, I have 10 years of experience, what does that mean? If you can't translate what you've done in those 10 years to be effective, then it's just like how long you've been doing it, not what you've done within that amount of time. Totally, totally. You know, that's kind of how the post is, like, what it talks about.

And then it just says, like, gives somebody a chance. Leaders, create leaders, and it, like, blew up. And then that's it. So when it comes to your LinkedIn, like, you talk a lot about, like, HR stories and things like that. Are those, like, your stories or those stories that you, like, find? How do you decide what to post? Well, so, like, the ones that.

I say, or mine or mine. I just can't, like, some people are not going to tell me, allow me to share their names. Other people, like, I get probably hundreds of messages a week with people being like, hey, can you please share this story on my behalf? Obviously, they don't want to be tagged because they're going to get fired or whatever. You know what I mean? But yeah, I could have a whole blog with, like, people being like, hey, Shene, this happened to me at work today. Can you please share this story? You're like, hey, I was shut down for the fourth time. for my dream job and they'll like they'll get into really what happened. It's interesting. And so what I guess the moral of the story that I want to tell here is that

you actually don't need to have your own interesting stories like if you want to be a content creator, especially on social media and things like that. You can find other people's stories and people will relate to them and you can put your own perspective on that story or your call to action or whatever like points that you want to point out. But it's that, story that gets people talking and connecting and sharing. People love to hear a good story. Yeah, they do. I mean, listen, it's how our brains are wired. That's one thing that I've also done differently is I've shared a ton of stories. Like, you know, the other, the one that went viral on Facebook was from a friend that, like, his boss was being a jerk just because he was late to

work. Something so simple, but something that a lot of people can relate to. So it has to be relatable and it has to be just, obviously, there's a science to copywriting, and that's a different discussion in and of itself. But basically, if you position something as a story, it's going to be more likely to be remembered. People are going to connect with them more, which means they're going to connect with you more, and they'll forget information a lot more quickly.

Yeah. So I noticed that a lot of the influencers, like, who are really huge on LinkedIn, like you, Oleg, Bridget, everybody's talking about a lot of HR and recruitment content. Do you think that LinkedIn favors that type of content? I don't think that LinkedIn favors that type of content. I think it's obviously like supply and demand, right? So if there's millions of people that are laid off,

then when you talk about getting laid off or you give them tips to find a job, they're going to like the post. You know what I mean? Like it's just, again, it's less thinking about, what you want to create and what your brand is about and relating it to like what people need. And people are like, why does inspiration do so well on LinkedIn? Well, people are having a hard time. They're isolated in their homes, away from their family. And a lot of them don't have a job anymore and don't have benefits coming in either. So, you know, reading a post, like I've had people saying,

like, basically your posts have saved my life during the pandemic. people now more than ever need positivity. Yeah, I totally agree. And I can totally really, and especially on LinkedIn, people on LinkedIn are really into like self-improvement and bettering themselves. That's why that kind of content always works. So in terms of writing a story, you obviously are super talented when it comes to getting things to go viral, getting people to actually connect with your stories. So is there like a certain framework or recipe or formula that you have when it comes to creating a good story. I mean, I wouldn't say that I am like amazing at going viral. You just need like a few posts to go viral. I will say that my consistency, like your consistency can

lead to your virality. So when you look at like the data like a lot of posts and a lot of people, like somebody may be posting 30 posts a month and I'm probably posting 300. So it's just a matter of time. Like I'm increasing the probability of my posts going viral. So that's another thing. Like people, you know, like they don't break down metrics. They don't know how to break down numbers correctly. And it's like if you want to post once a day or once every week, that's fine. But don't expect your percentage of going viral to increase. Like the more you post and the more you get engagement, the algorithm is going to favor one of your posts to go viral. It's numbers. Yeah. That's pretty eye-opening for me because I post like one or two times a day. And I think that's

consistent. How many times a day are you posting? Well, it's like also a compound effect. So like in the beginning, you can post once a day and then like maybe after three months, rev it up and after nine months, rev it up. But like I've never stayed complacent. That's, that's like another thing. Like I always try and test different things to see what works better. Now I'm posting probably like four or five times a day, depending on the day. I'm going live a lot more because, you know, people love when you go live. It's like, you know, you're the realest thing that you can get. It's an unfilful form of content creation. So, yeah, people love when you go. I get so much engagement. If I just go by myself and I'm just like, ask me any question. I'm here. And like, you can tell somebody these things and then they won't do it.

And then they're like, why am I not growing? It's like, well, you haven't applied anything that works. Yeah, totally. So we have a question here from Brenda. Does going viral result in income from LinkedIn. Absolutely. And it's mostly from leaves. It's not like YouTube where they're going to pay. Oh, yeah. You're not like monetizing it. But I mean, again, it's numbers. So it when, if you get a post that is seen by 12 million people, you know, even if like 0.01% of those people are your, you know, quality prospects, like if you message them in a certain amount of time, like reply to them and stuff and you're hyper aware of who's looking at your profile and just stuff like that. And you could close the deal through a phone call and stuff.

And absolutely. Obviously, everybody's skills on the phone and back-end development are completely different. That's another thing. Like you have to, like I said, prior, you have to really take it off of LinkedIn. And you have, I mean, that's where like sales and those type of skills come in. Awesome. Well, if anybody has any more questions, please feel, free to comment in the chat.

Would love to hear what you guys want to add. I know, it's like boring. I don't have a secret formula. Like my secret formula is just like consistency and doubling down on what works. Like, I don't think that's boring at all. I think that's real advice, you know? I know. You suggest

like keep doing what works. Like, look at you. You don't even, you're not even in the HR space, right? So this is a lesson from your book I need to take. You're not even in the HR space, but you're building your business by putting out posts that are related to the HR space because they blow up on LinkedIn and they bring you visibility. And you know, like the text post could be HR, right? But like when I go live,

it's completely different topics. It's more like business focused and entrepreneur focus. Another thing is like it's again about numbers. If you're able to attract 100,000 people to your profile every month or 50,000 or 5,000 or whatever, no matter what you're posting, if your profile is optimized correctly for your target audience, they're going to reach out and at least be curious as to how you can help them. But without consistency, without being in their feed every single day and building that trust and being someone that they remember, you know, it's very difficult for them to reach out. Yeah. So, you know, you've grown your following so much on LinkedIn. You've got over 600,000 followers. You've got a growing business, Med Snake Media. You've got several businesses, in fact,

So what's next for you? Do you have any big moves? Yeah. So I, yeah, moving into 2021, more my focus will be in Growth Academy. And, you know, we've reached over 30 countries already. We're in two languages and we're expanding into five more. So obviously, you know, my heart is with the e-learning space. I love to teach and I love to see other people grow. So that's going to be where my focus is. And then, yeah, I have some other things coming up as well. You know, surprise. I'm like a surprise person where I just like launch something.

Like no pre-launch, no like. You're just going to go with it. Yeah, I'm just like, hey, guys, I have this. Like, I did this. And they're like, what? And the last question I ask all my guests is what is your secret to profiting in life? Exceeding expectations. Because when you are excellent at whatever, you could have one chance with one customer.

But if you exceed their expectations and if you give them excellent customer service, they're going to go tell 10 friends. And then that one chance turns into 10 chances, which could turn into 100 chances, which can turn into a huge business. So a lot of people, they overpromise and under-deliver. So then they're constantly trying to recruit new customers over and over again, then retaining ones that they have. And then if you have very, very happy customers, they should bring in referrals. They should bring in trust to your brand by giving you recommendations. You know, there's a lot of

other things that go into that, but exceeding expectations and doing more than what's expected, always going above and beyond. I love that. I couldn't agree more. Giving 110. 10% and everything that you do. They say how you do anything is how you do everything. And I think that's a good gem to always keep by your side. So thank you so much, Sheney. I think this was such a great session. So happy that you joined us today.

Thank you so much. I appreciate it. And yeah, like I just really appreciate the time and continue to grow. You'll get to 100,000 soon. I hope so. Yeah, you will. Bye, guys. Thanks for listening to Young and Profiting Podcast.

If you enjoyed the show, please write us a review or comment on your favorite platform. Nothing makes us happier than reading your reviews. We'd love to hear what you think about the show. And don't forget to share this podcast with your friends, family, and on social media. I always repost, reshare, and support those who support us. You can find me on Instagram at Yap With Hala or LinkedIn. Just search for my name. It's Hala Taha.

Big thanks to the Yap team. As always, this is Hala, signing off.