WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.240 --> 00:00:00.560 Foreign. 2 00:00:07.360 --> 00:00:11.320 Welcome to Inclusion Bites, your sanctuary 3 00:00:11.320 --> 00:00:15.200 for bold conversations that spark change. I'm Joanne Lockwood, 4 00:00:15.200 --> 00:00:18.720 your guide on this journey of exploration into the heart of 5 00:00:18.720 --> 00:00:22.640 inclusion, belonging and societal transformation. 6 00:00:23.120 --> 00:00:27.040 Ever wondered what it truly takes to create a world? Remember, everyone 7 00:00:27.040 --> 00:00:30.760 not only belongs, but thrives. You're not alone. 8 00:00:31.320 --> 00:00:35.200 Join me as we uncover the unseen, challenge 9 00:00:35.200 --> 00:00:38.760 the status quo and share stories that resonate 10 00:00:38.760 --> 00:00:42.480 deep within. Ready to dive in? Whether you're 11 00:00:42.480 --> 00:00:46.400 sipping your morning coffee or winding down after a long day, let's 12 00:00:46.400 --> 00:00:50.360 connect, reflect and inspire action together. 13 00:00:51.080 --> 00:00:54.870 Don't forget, you can be part of the conversation too. Reach out 14 00:00:54.870 --> 00:00:58.670 to joe.lockwoodeechangehappen.co.uk 15 00:00:59.070 --> 00:01:02.590 to share your insights or to join me on the show. 16 00:01:03.470 --> 00:01:07.230 So adjust your earbuds and settle in. It's time to 17 00:01:07.230 --> 00:01:10.830 ignite the spark of inclusion with Inclusion Bites. 18 00:01:14.590 --> 00:01:18.590 And today is episode 174 with the 19 00:01:18.590 --> 00:01:22.550 title Proudly Authentic, Always Real. 20 00:01:23.030 --> 00:01:26.950 And I have the absolute honour and privilege to welcome Jodie Goodchild. No, 21 00:01:26.950 --> 00:01:30.710 you're not. You're Jody. One second. Let's do that again. Today 22 00:01:31.110 --> 00:01:34.950 is episode 174 with the title Proudly 23 00:01:34.950 --> 00:01:38.670 Authentic, Always Real and I have the absolute honour and 24 00:01:38.670 --> 00:01:42.630 privilege to welcome Jodie Goodchild. Jodie is an award winning 25 00:01:42.630 --> 00:01:46.460 community creator, author and LinkedIn trainer who 26 00:01:46.460 --> 00:01:50.180 empowers others to grow their brand and business with zero 27 00:01:50.180 --> 00:01:53.340 budget, but with 100% authenticity. 28 00:01:54.060 --> 00:01:57.900 And when I asked Jodie to describe her superpower, she said it is 29 00:01:57.900 --> 00:02:01.740 being able to create brave spaces where authenticity 30 00:02:01.740 --> 00:02:05.700 becomes your best asset. Hello Jody, welcome to the 31 00:02:05.700 --> 00:02:09.620 show. Hello. Thank you so much for having me. I've followed you 32 00:02:09.620 --> 00:02:13.380 for a long time and it's actually great to get to meet you and chat 33 00:02:13.380 --> 00:02:17.000 and talk to you in person rather than admiring your posts and 34 00:02:17.080 --> 00:02:20.920 TV appearances from afar. It was actually a real pleasure to have a 35 00:02:20.920 --> 00:02:24.840 guest on my show who is probably less than 10 miles away from where I'm 36 00:02:24.920 --> 00:02:28.520 sat right now. We're both pompy girls, pretty much born and bred 37 00:02:29.480 --> 00:02:33.000 in the not the sound of Bo Bows, but the sound of Fratton park probably. 38 00:02:33.480 --> 00:02:36.680 And as we're chatting in the green room, it turns out that my father taught 39 00:02:36.680 --> 00:02:40.520 at the school in the 70s that you attended in 40 00:02:41.000 --> 00:02:44.340 the 90s, I guess. Yeah, yeah. Small world. 41 00:02:45.220 --> 00:02:49.100 Yeah. And yeah, we're both lovers of the area, so 42 00:02:49.100 --> 00:02:52.020 yeah, absolutely fantastic to have somebody from 43 00:02:52.900 --> 00:02:56.780 here other than over there. So Jodie, 44 00:02:56.780 --> 00:02:59.740 we were chatting in the green room, we had a good natter for about three 45 00:02:59.740 --> 00:03:03.660 minutes, half an hour. And it's clear that you speak very 46 00:03:03.660 --> 00:03:07.180 powerfully about living as your true self. You would 47 00:03:07.180 --> 00:03:10.990 Recognise, like, even only last night with another award, and you were 48 00:03:11.070 --> 00:03:14.350 very proud of that. So what helped you embrace that 49 00:03:14.430 --> 00:03:18.430 authenticity and more importantly, I suppose, turn it into a platform 50 00:03:18.910 --> 00:03:22.910 for change? Yeah, well, firstly, yeah, I've got my shiny award here 51 00:03:23.070 --> 00:03:26.430 with me, which I'm really excited about. Entrepreneur of the Year. 52 00:03:26.990 --> 00:03:30.990 And I think it's just absolutely crazy that I've won 53 00:03:30.990 --> 00:03:34.870 that because, and this is to answer your question, there was a time 54 00:03:34.870 --> 00:03:38.790 that, you know, you listening might relate to this, that I didn't think that 55 00:03:38.790 --> 00:03:42.130 there was life past, you know, if I was to come out and tell the 56 00:03:42.130 --> 00:03:46.010 world who I thought I was. And being able to stand 57 00:03:46.010 --> 00:03:49.690 on that stage last night and win that award as an out and proud 58 00:03:49.930 --> 00:03:53.930 lesbian woman who now doesn't give a toss if somebody 59 00:03:53.930 --> 00:03:57.810 likes that or not, was just absolutely mind blowing. And it's actually made me feel 60 00:03:57.810 --> 00:04:01.530 really emotional today because I. And again, I'm sure people 61 00:04:01.530 --> 00:04:04.650 listening will resonate with this, but I actually 62 00:04:05.780 --> 00:04:08.900 didn't feel like I started living my life until I was about 19 years old, 63 00:04:08.900 --> 00:04:12.220 because I went through what most of us, well, all of us do in the 64 00:04:12.220 --> 00:04:15.780 LGBT community, which was, you know, not understanding who I was and 65 00:04:16.020 --> 00:04:19.540 being scared and afraid to talk to anyone about that because there was no education 66 00:04:19.540 --> 00:04:23.100 and there was nobody to tell me that actually that was okay. I was 67 00:04:23.100 --> 00:04:26.700 convinced that if I spoke my truth that I would be, you know, 68 00:04:26.700 --> 00:04:30.460 shunted away from my family and that, you know, I just really struggled with my 69 00:04:30.460 --> 00:04:34.020 identity. And the honest truth is that it was only 70 00:04:34.420 --> 00:04:38.390 really in Covid. Um, you know, we had lots of people that were passing 71 00:04:38.390 --> 00:04:42.310 away that made me sit there and think if it was my 72 00:04:42.310 --> 00:04:45.870 time to check out. And I was set, you know, sat in that waiting room 73 00:04:45.870 --> 00:04:48.630 and somebody comes around with their clipboard and says, right, you're just about to check 74 00:04:48.630 --> 00:04:51.909 out. Like, give us an evaluation of your time on this earth. You know, have 75 00:04:51.909 --> 00:04:54.750 you done everything you wanted to do? I kind of sat there and thought, no, 76 00:04:54.750 --> 00:04:58.710 I haven't. And it was that that really pushed me out of my comfort zone. 77 00:04:58.710 --> 00:05:02.710 I mean, I've had a really successful corporate career, but, you know, I wasn't 78 00:05:02.710 --> 00:05:06.670 happy. I had no purpose. Then started my own business. And 79 00:05:07.430 --> 00:05:11.430 just by being me and, you know, not acting like I thought everyone else, 80 00:05:11.670 --> 00:05:15.550 you know, should act, I've made a really super successful business. And 81 00:05:15.550 --> 00:05:19.270 what I now do is teach businesses in my community, we've just hit the 82 00:05:19.270 --> 00:05:23.230 90 number, which is crazy, just to be themselves and, you know, just post 83 00:05:23.230 --> 00:05:27.190 what they do on social media. So we. I teach LinkedIn and that's all about 84 00:05:27.190 --> 00:05:30.590 being authentic, you know, not worrying about what everyone's going to say, just saying what 85 00:05:30.590 --> 00:05:34.520 you want to say and being your authentic self. And that will attract 86 00:05:34.520 --> 00:05:38.400 people to want to work with you. And that's, I think, a 87 00:05:38.400 --> 00:05:42.120 long winded answer of why, you know, why I do what I do. 88 00:05:43.400 --> 00:05:47.360 It's a real challenge when you first come out as a small business 89 00:05:47.360 --> 00:05:50.760 owner, forget about your sexuality. You're used to hiding in 90 00:05:50.920 --> 00:05:54.880 corporate land, working for somebody else. You don't have a voice, you don't feel that 91 00:05:54.880 --> 00:05:58.720 you can speak on behalf of anybody and suddenly you're a small business and 92 00:05:58.720 --> 00:06:01.970 suddenly someone says, you can say what you like, it's your business. Yeah, 93 00:06:02.290 --> 00:06:05.210 yeah. But people go, what can I say? You know, what should I say? And 94 00:06:05.210 --> 00:06:09.130 there's this real nervousness about having an opinion sometimes. You know, if you look 95 00:06:09.130 --> 00:06:12.770 at LinkedIn, 99% of people are lurkers. Yes. Not commenters or 96 00:06:12.770 --> 00:06:16.490 posters. Yeah. So it takes a real bravery to overcome your own 97 00:06:16.490 --> 00:06:20.290 imposter syndrome. What has little old me got to say to the world? Yeah. 98 00:06:20.370 --> 00:06:24.330 So that's a coming out that Everybody does on LinkedIn, isn't it? Yeah, you're 99 00:06:24.330 --> 00:06:28.210 so right. You're so right on that. And that there's 1 billion, 90 100 00:06:28.290 --> 00:06:32.090 million people on LinkedIn and the stat is that whilst 101 00:06:32.090 --> 00:06:36.030 3 to 4% of those are active, they might, you know, they might use it. 102 00:06:36.350 --> 00:06:40.110 Only 1 to 2% of those people actually post. 103 00:06:40.590 --> 00:06:43.870 So what I say to people is, what a brilliant opportunity is that, because 104 00:06:44.110 --> 00:06:47.790 traditionally you'd have to pay thousands of pounds for marketing to get visible, whether that's 105 00:06:47.790 --> 00:06:51.750 an email campaign or some cold calling or direct mail. And you've got a platform 106 00:06:51.750 --> 00:06:54.990 available to you with. In portsmouth alone, there's 107 00:06:54.990 --> 00:06:58.510 207,000 people on LinkedIn. You know, you've got 108 00:06:58.910 --> 00:07:02.440 presents you with brilliant opportunity. But I love that you've just said, you know, you 109 00:07:02.440 --> 00:07:05.960 have to almost come out because you do. That first post is so difficult and 110 00:07:05.960 --> 00:07:09.080 I've seen it almost, you know, 90 plus times of the people in my community, 111 00:07:10.120 --> 00:07:13.760 you know, they come in and they come in because they feel like they're scared 112 00:07:13.760 --> 00:07:16.960 of LinkedIn and they, you know, they don't want to post. And my job, I 113 00:07:16.960 --> 00:07:20.880 think that, you know, my mission is to make them feel comfortable enough to 114 00:07:20.880 --> 00:07:23.920 just talk about the awesome stuff that they know. Because you're right when you're in 115 00:07:23.920 --> 00:07:27.120 that corporate job, you might be selling. And I was selling, you know, I had 116 00:07:27.120 --> 00:07:31.020 a huge sales, sales role and a huge sales team. We were doing 117 00:07:31.020 --> 00:07:34.820 over £100,000 in sales a year. But when I became a business 118 00:07:34.820 --> 00:07:38.540 owner myself, mentioning even just, you know, a couple of 119 00:07:38.540 --> 00:07:42.460 grand to somebody for what I was doing petrified me, you know, and it's 120 00:07:42.460 --> 00:07:46.220 like, it's crazy. So, yeah, you're absolutely right. It is almost a coming out thing, 121 00:07:46.220 --> 00:07:49.780 isn't it? Hadn't thought about that. It is, yeah. I look at my own journey 122 00:07:49.780 --> 00:07:53.260 on LinkedIn. I used to run an IT company based in the Portsmouth area and 123 00:07:53.260 --> 00:07:56.600 I set up on my own and. And I was lurking like everybody else and 124 00:07:56.600 --> 00:08:00.360 I thought, well, what can I say? Because if I upset somebody by saying something 125 00:08:00.360 --> 00:08:03.920 they disagree with. Yeah. Then you have to sort of say, well, actually, 126 00:08:04.000 --> 00:08:07.840 forget about who you're upset, but think about who you engage. Yeah. And 127 00:08:08.160 --> 00:08:12.040 there's a great quote, if you remember the broadcast of Chris Evans, he said, 128 00:08:12.040 --> 00:08:14.960 you gotta be Marmite. Half your audience are gonna love you and half the audience 129 00:08:14.960 --> 00:08:18.120 are gonna hate you. Yeah. But then you stand for something. You do. If you 130 00:08:18.120 --> 00:08:21.980 stand for nothing. Nobody's engaged. Yeah. So find 131 00:08:21.980 --> 00:08:25.900 that polarisation and challenge people to think. That's what we want to do, 132 00:08:25.900 --> 00:08:29.860 isn't it? Create that thinking rather than 133 00:08:29.860 --> 00:08:33.020 just acquiesce to the majority. Yeah, yeah. 134 00:08:34.300 --> 00:08:38.300 Really cool video actually this week. Do you know Florence Given? You've probably 135 00:08:38.300 --> 00:08:42.220 heard. No, not come across. Brilliant, amazing author, writes some really awesome books 136 00:08:42.220 --> 00:08:45.700 for women, so definitely check her out. But she's. I stumbled upon her TikTok this 137 00:08:45.700 --> 00:08:49.290 week and then I ended up in a. In a. A good TikTok hole because 138 00:08:49.290 --> 00:08:52.290 you can get into the bad ones of, you know, getting sucked into all the 139 00:08:52.290 --> 00:08:55.370 bad stuff. But this was a good one. And she was saying, when you're getting 140 00:08:55.370 --> 00:08:59.330 that nervousness to do something and you hear that voice in your head that goes, 141 00:08:59.810 --> 00:09:03.650 I can't say that. Stop for a second and actually try 142 00:09:03.650 --> 00:09:07.530 and think about who you're thinking about is going to say something. Who is 143 00:09:07.530 --> 00:09:11.450 that person that you're thinking, oh, if I post that, they are going to, who 144 00:09:11.450 --> 00:09:15.370 is that person? And she literally just says, stick your middle finger up 145 00:09:15.370 --> 00:09:19.050 at them and do it anyway because they're controlling you and they own you and 146 00:09:19.050 --> 00:09:22.130 don't let them do that. And I absolutely love that. And she's got some brilliant. 147 00:09:22.130 --> 00:09:25.930 She's got some brilliant tiktoks. So definitely go check her out because I sat there 148 00:09:25.930 --> 00:09:29.090 and there was one of them that I've now committed to watching every day because 149 00:09:29.090 --> 00:09:33.010 it just, you know, when something really fires you up and I'll send it to 150 00:09:33.010 --> 00:09:35.490 You. And I put it in my community. Everyone's like, oh, God, that's brilliant. I 151 00:09:35.490 --> 00:09:39.370 need to watch that every day. But, yeah, you just need to think about who 152 00:09:39.370 --> 00:09:42.790 it is that you're. That's making you feel that way and just, you know, stick 153 00:09:42.790 --> 00:09:46.670 your middle finger up to them and do it anyway. Yeah. I stumbled across the 154 00:09:46.670 --> 00:09:50.550 Australian, I guess, polymath Tim Minchin, and I 155 00:09:50.550 --> 00:09:54.030 watched some of his YouTubes and I was really transfixed by his. First of all, 156 00:09:54.030 --> 00:09:57.750 what got me onto it was his honorary doctorate acceptance speech 157 00:09:57.750 --> 00:10:01.590 in the University of Australia somewhere. And I watched it and thought, brimey, this 158 00:10:01.590 --> 00:10:05.470 guy's got some real insight that I resonate with. And I started going down that 159 00:10:05.470 --> 00:10:09.390 Rabbit hole on YouTube, watching all of his material, and I'm now a 160 00:10:09.390 --> 00:10:12.510 Tim fan. You know, he's absolutely. You know, he's got those wild eyes, 161 00:10:13.150 --> 00:10:16.950 eyeliner. He wears crazy hair. Yeah. But he just. He 162 00:10:16.950 --> 00:10:20.670 just cuts through the bs. And you say that middle finger. And 163 00:10:20.990 --> 00:10:24.990 I keep this. If you listen to this, I've got a jar of fucks, actually. 164 00:10:25.790 --> 00:10:29.150 And so I know I've only got so many I want to give away before 165 00:10:29.150 --> 00:10:32.510 I run out. So, you know, care about what you care about, 166 00:10:33.150 --> 00:10:36.190 but know when to stick the middle finger up and say, your opinion doesn't matter 167 00:10:36.190 --> 00:10:40.190 to me. And I guess you had that experience again when you had that 168 00:10:40.190 --> 00:10:44.150 epiphany where you have to have that opinion. When you come out as 169 00:10:44.150 --> 00:10:48.110 queer, lgbtqia, you have to get to that 170 00:10:48.110 --> 00:10:52.070 point where you can put that middle finger up. You do. Yeah, you do. 171 00:10:52.070 --> 00:10:56.030 And then I think there's a certain amount of. I don't know if 172 00:10:56.030 --> 00:10:59.990 you. Maybe power is the right word, but when you've been scared of doing something 173 00:10:59.990 --> 00:11:03.800 for so long and you fear the other side of the 174 00:11:03.800 --> 00:11:07.680 thing, and then you do it, and it's not easy straight away, but then 175 00:11:07.840 --> 00:11:10.720 you kind of think, well, if I could do that. And I thought there was 176 00:11:10.720 --> 00:11:14.320 nothing on the other side of that, like, what else could I do? And I. 177 00:11:14.320 --> 00:11:18.080 I say this all the time, like, LGBTQ plus. You know, we are 178 00:11:18.160 --> 00:11:22.160 a community of the most resilient and hardworking people you ever meet, because 179 00:11:22.480 --> 00:11:26.160 we've been through it, and we are tough. You know, you won't find more, you 180 00:11:26.160 --> 00:11:29.760 know, stronger people than our community, and I love that. 181 00:11:29.840 --> 00:11:33.400 Yeah. I cast my mind back 10 years when I first 182 00:11:33.480 --> 00:11:37.160 transition came out, was open, whatever phrase you like to use. 183 00:11:38.040 --> 00:11:41.880 And that line you have to cross, it feels like a chasm. 184 00:11:42.040 --> 00:11:46.000 It does. It feels like a cliff edge. Yeah. And you Step off it 185 00:11:46.000 --> 00:11:48.520 and go. Hang on a minute. That was only one inch. It was no. It 186 00:11:48.520 --> 00:11:50.920 was no big deal at all. Yeah, yeah. And 187 00:11:52.440 --> 00:11:56.160 the people who love you, love you. And the people who don't don't matter, you 188 00:11:56.160 --> 00:12:00.040 know, and there's lots of anecdotes and phrases about that, but I learned 189 00:12:00.040 --> 00:12:03.790 that my friends are my friends because they're my friends and 190 00:12:03.790 --> 00:12:07.430 those are the people that stick with you and the other people, they just don't 191 00:12:07.430 --> 00:12:11.430 matter and they drift off. Like leaving school, like leaving college, changing 192 00:12:11.430 --> 00:12:15.310 workplace. Some people stick with you, some people don't, and 193 00:12:15.310 --> 00:12:19.150 some people stick with the old person. And some people have come with me 194 00:12:19.390 --> 00:12:23.310 on my new journey. And yeah, having polarisation like 195 00:12:23.310 --> 00:12:26.310 that is actually a good thing because for me it was. I don't need to 196 00:12:26.310 --> 00:12:29.550 carry this baggage of expectation around with people I don't care about. 197 00:12:30.070 --> 00:12:32.950 Yeah. So, yeah, I'm sure you could be proud to you. 198 00:12:33.750 --> 00:12:37.750 And actually, you'll find you open up different markets. You do, yeah. 199 00:12:37.750 --> 00:12:41.110 And also you set the example for other people as well. You set the example 200 00:12:41.110 --> 00:12:45.070 that, you know, that there is life on the other side of that chasm that 201 00:12:45.070 --> 00:12:48.430 you once look at and think, you know, this is never going to happen. And 202 00:12:48.430 --> 00:12:52.230 if you can set that example to other people, then even if just one person, 203 00:12:52.310 --> 00:12:55.430 you know, looks at you and thinks, if they've done it, I can do it. 204 00:12:55.430 --> 00:12:59.100 That's all that matters, isn't it? Again, casting my mind back to 2017. 205 00:12:59.260 --> 00:13:03.140 I remember going to. I was 206 00:13:03.140 --> 00:13:06.900 trying to do radical failure, that sort of thing where you fail 207 00:13:06.900 --> 00:13:10.780 quickly and move on quickly. And I thought, well, gender transition. 208 00:13:10.780 --> 00:13:14.700 I thought, okay, how am I going to develop a new business, 209 00:13:14.780 --> 00:13:18.780 a new life, new career? I thought, I know what I got to do. 210 00:13:19.340 --> 00:13:23.020 I've got to find out where my edges are. So I started going to all 211 00:13:23.020 --> 00:13:26.710 these networking events in Portsmouth. I wanted to invent Bright. I. I joined 212 00:13:27.030 --> 00:13:31.030 Startup Disruptors at the Customs House at Gum Wharf, went there for a 213 00:13:31.030 --> 00:13:35.030 few times, met some of the people at Halpern House and those sort of communities. 214 00:13:35.590 --> 00:13:39.550 And I thought, I got wind of this Female Entrepreneurs Network evening 215 00:13:39.550 --> 00:13:43.510 at the Purple Door at the University and I turned up there, thought, 216 00:13:43.750 --> 00:13:47.430 okay, if I can get away with going to the Female Entrepreneurs Network, I can 217 00:13:47.430 --> 00:13:49.910 get away with anything. So I walked in there thinking, someone's going to have a 218 00:13:49.910 --> 00:13:52.960 go at me. Someone's going to out me, someone's going to drum me out of 219 00:13:52.960 --> 00:13:56.040 the room saying, you're not a real woman, get out of here. And at the 220 00:13:56.040 --> 00:13:59.440 end of it all I got was curiosity, warmth, love and support for everybody, I 221 00:13:59.440 --> 00:14:03.320 thought. And it's just those little testing moments that you. You take yourself 222 00:14:03.320 --> 00:14:07.240 a little test drive every so often and go, that worked. Then you realise that 223 00:14:07.240 --> 00:14:10.840 fear is just this. This thing that you make up, these lies you tell 224 00:14:10.840 --> 00:14:14.600 yourself. Yeah. And also there's. There's 225 00:14:14.600 --> 00:14:18.600 people that aren't against you, they just need educating because they don't 226 00:14:18.600 --> 00:14:22.530 understand things. And then you have a conversation with them and they're like, yeah, actually, 227 00:14:22.530 --> 00:14:26.170 that makes sense. And it's nice to be able to challenge that and 228 00:14:26.330 --> 00:14:30.130 go out and educate people and make them, you know, become a safe person 229 00:14:30.130 --> 00:14:34.090 in a safe space for other people to go into. Yeah. You mentioned 230 00:14:34.170 --> 00:14:37.930 the word authenticity or authentic quite a few times, and people 231 00:14:37.930 --> 00:14:41.490 sometimes confuse that word with being my 232 00:14:41.490 --> 00:14:45.050 obnoxious, authentic self. So how do we. How do we 233 00:14:45.440 --> 00:14:49.160 toe that line between sanitising ourself enough to be socially 234 00:14:49.160 --> 00:14:52.480 acceptable but not compromising our ideals as well? 235 00:14:53.280 --> 00:14:56.840 That's a really good question. And we've spoken about this. I think that the way 236 00:14:56.840 --> 00:15:00.800 that we look at it is that it's absolutely acceptable to be you. 237 00:15:01.199 --> 00:15:04.720 And you will have, like we've just said, you will have differing opinions. You know, 238 00:15:04.720 --> 00:15:08.640 if you're not, you know, getting people to say the opposite, then you're not 239 00:15:08.640 --> 00:15:12.280 doing it right. It is like Marmite. People either love it or hate it. But. 240 00:15:12.430 --> 00:15:15.470 But the way that I say this to people in my community is if you 241 00:15:15.470 --> 00:15:19.390 wouldn't say it in an office environment, probably don't say it on a 242 00:15:19.390 --> 00:15:23.350 social media platform because there is a line there of some things that, you know, 243 00:15:23.350 --> 00:15:27.150 are acceptable to say and have an opinion on. And then there's things that, you 244 00:15:27.150 --> 00:15:30.310 know, wouldn't be acceptable to, you know, to say. And you've. You've got it. You 245 00:15:30.310 --> 00:15:32.910 do have to be careful with that. But, you know, most of the things that 246 00:15:32.910 --> 00:15:36.550 people want to share about their journeys or, you know, how they started their businesses 247 00:15:36.550 --> 00:15:40.390 and all of that kind of great stuff is being authentic. It's not speaking 248 00:15:40.390 --> 00:15:43.190 in a voice. You know, we go on LinkedIn and we see people like Richard 249 00:15:43.190 --> 00:15:46.670 Branson, you see the Stephen Bartless of the world, Daniel 250 00:15:46.670 --> 00:15:50.630 Priestley's, and you think, oh, I need to speak in a particular tone on here. 251 00:15:50.630 --> 00:15:54.190 You know, and you see those posts that go up that say, exciting announcement 252 00:15:54.190 --> 00:15:58.110 Alert. And what I say to people in my community is, if you. 253 00:15:58.110 --> 00:16:01.470 You wouldn't go up to somebody at a networking event before you've even introduced yourself, 254 00:16:01.470 --> 00:16:04.790 go, exciting announcement alert. Because they'd go Are you okay? Like, 255 00:16:05.710 --> 00:16:09.470 that was a bit weird. So just talk, like, you talk to people face to 256 00:16:09.470 --> 00:16:13.390 face and just be you. You don't have to use all of these, you know, 257 00:16:13.390 --> 00:16:17.390 fancy words that, you know, you think you need to, you need to speak. And 258 00:16:17.390 --> 00:16:20.870 I, I was talking to somebody actually this week and they said that they did 259 00:16:20.870 --> 00:16:24.790 that and they spoke almost in this corporate tongue on LinkedIn, and they 260 00:16:24.790 --> 00:16:28.750 tried to use big fancy words. And then when they met somebody in person, 261 00:16:28.990 --> 00:16:32.040 the person said, can I say something to you? And I don't want this to 262 00:16:32.040 --> 00:16:35.680 offend you, but I didn't think you'd be like this because you don't speak like 263 00:16:35.680 --> 00:16:39.680 this on LinkedIn. And they were like, God, that's actually a really good 264 00:16:39.680 --> 00:16:43.320 point. So they stopped trying to make a fake LinkedIn 265 00:16:43.320 --> 00:16:46.440 Persona and just post it as them. And I think that's what it's all about. 266 00:16:47.640 --> 00:16:51.160 I suppose what I try and do on LinkedIn is a kind of a cycle. 267 00:16:51.560 --> 00:16:55.520 So some stiffy corporate sound bites 268 00:16:55.520 --> 00:16:59.420 or articles and then some truth bombs in the 269 00:16:59.420 --> 00:17:03.300 middle of that, where I'm having a bad day or, wow, this has blown my 270 00:17:03.300 --> 00:17:06.500 mind. So you talk from the heart. Yeah, So I think it's trying to find 271 00:17:06.500 --> 00:17:10.460 the right cadence between. So you want to sell your professional side, but also give 272 00:17:10.460 --> 00:17:14.340 it humanity as well, don't you? Yeah, yeah. And it's that word, isn't it? It's 273 00:17:14.340 --> 00:17:18.220 social, you know, it's social media. So we're using it to be 274 00:17:18.220 --> 00:17:22.180 social, which is, you know, being authentic and real. You know, 275 00:17:22.180 --> 00:17:26.120 I don't want people. When I used to think about an entrepreneur, I would think 276 00:17:26.120 --> 00:17:29.960 of somebody that Woke up at 5am, went to the gym for an hour, drank 277 00:17:29.960 --> 00:17:33.880 protein shakes, then got into their Range Rover, you know, check 278 00:17:33.880 --> 00:17:37.600 the time on their Rolex, and then went into the office. And that's not real 279 00:17:37.600 --> 00:17:40.920 at all. And actually, I've not met. I think I've met one person that's like 280 00:17:40.920 --> 00:17:44.160 that, that's a business owner. The rest of them are just normal, you know, I 281 00:17:44.160 --> 00:17:47.080 know none of us are, you know, normal, but you know what I mean, like, 282 00:17:47.080 --> 00:17:50.280 you know, just people that, you know, might not get up till, you know, seven 283 00:17:50.280 --> 00:17:54.280 o'. Clock. Some days I might sit around in my pyjamas until 9:30 and 284 00:17:54.280 --> 00:17:56.890 then think, right, come on, we got to start the day. So. So I think 285 00:17:56.890 --> 00:18:00.650 it's breaking that, breaking that norm and making 286 00:18:00.650 --> 00:18:04.570 people just say it how it is. And like you say, you know, 287 00:18:05.130 --> 00:18:08.610 dropping in a few truth bombs and actually the format that I teach in my 288 00:18:08.610 --> 00:18:12.530 community is educate, engage, convert. So we, we 289 00:18:12.530 --> 00:18:16.410 say that you should post 80% of your content to educate and 290 00:18:16.410 --> 00:18:19.850 engage your audience. So that could be, you know, I've read this article. What do 291 00:18:19.850 --> 00:18:23.130 you think? Or it could be, you know, this is where I do my home 292 00:18:23.130 --> 00:18:26.620 office stuff and this is my favourite thing in the office. What's yours? That's all 293 00:18:26.620 --> 00:18:30.620 education and engaging. And then Your converts are 20% 294 00:18:30.620 --> 00:18:34.300 of the time where you then talk about your product or your service because people 295 00:18:34.300 --> 00:18:38.260 buy from people, you know, they don't buy from faceless brands anymore. 296 00:18:38.340 --> 00:18:41.620 And when you go on LinkedIn, you're not looking to be sold to, you're looking 297 00:18:41.620 --> 00:18:45.540 to make a connection with somebody and connect with something. And I posted a video 298 00:18:45.780 --> 00:18:49.540 this week that really explains this. Well, I was driving back from a meeting and 299 00:18:49.540 --> 00:18:53.260 I stopped my car to let a guy cross the road and he 300 00:18:53.260 --> 00:18:56.620 threw his ladder on one arm and he had a bucket in the other arm 301 00:18:56.620 --> 00:19:00.040 and he crossed the road. He's obviously a window cleaner. And in that moment I 302 00:19:00.040 --> 00:19:03.000 went, oh, God, I need to book our window cleaner in to get our, get 303 00:19:03.000 --> 00:19:06.640 our windows cleaned. He didn't sell me anything, he didn't pass me a leaflet, he 304 00:19:06.640 --> 00:19:10.360 didn't stop my car and say, exciting announcement alert, you can book me to clean 305 00:19:10.360 --> 00:19:13.440 your windows. He just walked across the road and he was just doing his thing, 306 00:19:13.440 --> 00:19:17.120 but visibly. And that is just being yourself on 307 00:19:17.120 --> 00:19:21.080 LinkedIn in, in my world and making people connect with you. 308 00:19:21.080 --> 00:19:25.000 And then you either remind somebody of something they need or you educate 309 00:19:25.000 --> 00:19:27.840 them on something that they don't yet know that they need, that they then go, 310 00:19:28.270 --> 00:19:31.390 that makes a lot of sense. I need that. So rather than saying, buy my 311 00:19:31.390 --> 00:19:34.190 stuff, you know, I've got this cool stuff. It's like, you know, this is a 312 00:19:34.190 --> 00:19:38.110 problem that I'm facing and this is how I'm finding people, solving it, getting into 313 00:19:38.110 --> 00:19:41.990 conversations with people and then before you know it, you've got an opportunity from 314 00:19:41.990 --> 00:19:45.350 somebody having a conversation. And then when you have to sell to that, it's not 315 00:19:45.350 --> 00:19:48.790 selling at all because they're already brought in and they'll probably say, how much would 316 00:19:48.790 --> 00:19:50.870 it be for you to come and do some training? I've seen all the great 317 00:19:50.870 --> 00:19:53.990 stuff you've done. Brilliant. You don't have to say, you know, let me just get 318 00:19:53.990 --> 00:19:57.670 my three pages of objection handling out, because I knew you were going to say 319 00:19:57.670 --> 00:20:00.990 this and I'm going to objection handle you. It's already done. Yeah, 320 00:20:01.950 --> 00:20:04.910 well, we can do that with ChatGPT now, can't we? We can just paste the 321 00:20:04.910 --> 00:20:08.910 problem into it and say, dispel these myths, please. Yeah, yeah. 322 00:20:08.910 --> 00:20:12.870 And it helps you with that. Got an article? Yeah. I made a conscious 323 00:20:12.870 --> 00:20:16.670 decision seven or eight, six or seven years ago probably to stop being a lurker, 324 00:20:17.150 --> 00:20:20.910 to stop being a commenter and resharer 325 00:20:21.920 --> 00:20:25.600 or commentating on somebody else's post because I thought 326 00:20:25.600 --> 00:20:29.480 everyone's doing that. Where you become recognised as a 327 00:20:29.480 --> 00:20:32.800 thought leader is to originate ideas and content. 328 00:20:33.440 --> 00:20:37.080 So I took a very practical thing now is I almost deliberately 329 00:20:37.080 --> 00:20:41.080 don't share other people's posts or just comment on them other than unless 330 00:20:41.080 --> 00:20:44.800 I've got something value add, because I want to originate that. Really. 331 00:20:45.360 --> 00:20:49.160 That's what sets you apart from your competition sometimes is that thought leadership 332 00:20:49.160 --> 00:20:52.730 piece, isn't it? Yeah. There's a really good book actually called Key Person of 333 00:20:52.730 --> 00:20:56.570 Influence by Daniel Priestley and I would recommend to 334 00:20:56.570 --> 00:21:00.490 anyone listening to get a copy of that 335 00:21:00.490 --> 00:21:04.490 book because I genuinely believe that's one of the reasons why things have gone so 336 00:21:04.490 --> 00:21:07.490 well for me in the last two and a half years. Because it really sets 337 00:21:07.490 --> 00:21:10.170 out what you need to do to be a thought leader and to create a 338 00:21:10.170 --> 00:21:13.730 personal brand. Daniel's just been on Stephen 339 00:21:13.730 --> 00:21:17.450 Bartlett's Diary of a CEO again recently and said that the future of business 340 00:21:17.530 --> 00:21:21.490 is personal branding. That doesn't matter whether you're a one person band 341 00:21:21.490 --> 00:21:25.250 or, you know, a giant corporate. Even in a big corporate, the CEO 342 00:21:25.250 --> 00:21:29.090 has to be present on LinkedIn and have a personal brand or business just 343 00:21:29.090 --> 00:21:33.050 won't move forward because we don't buy from cold calling. 344 00:21:33.050 --> 00:21:36.810 I've done two workshops recently and I've had 28 businesses in each 345 00:21:36.810 --> 00:21:40.690 workshop. And I said to them, right, hands up. I'm not talking about 346 00:21:40.690 --> 00:21:44.250 the last week, the last six months, in the last 12 months plus, 347 00:21:44.920 --> 00:21:48.400 put your hand up if you've brought something from a cold call, not one of 348 00:21:48.400 --> 00:21:52.320 them put their hand up. Because we've moved away from sales being transactional 349 00:21:52.320 --> 00:21:56.160 now. You know, cold calling is harder than ever. You're sending emails, it's 350 00:21:56.160 --> 00:21:59.920 harder than ever to get through to people's inboxes because they're spammed all 351 00:21:59.920 --> 00:22:03.760 day. You know, it is just a world where the transactional 352 00:22:03.760 --> 00:22:07.160 sales is, is I, I almost believe it's nearly dead. And that's what I've been 353 00:22:07.160 --> 00:22:10.920 saying for, you know, for months I've been saying there's 1 354 00:22:10.920 --> 00:22:14.480 billion, 90 million people on LinkedIn, 3 to 4% of those are active. Get on 355 00:22:14.480 --> 00:22:18.440 it. And Daniel Priestley said that exact statement on 356 00:22:18.440 --> 00:22:21.440 the diary of a CEO podcast recently, and I was listening to it in my 357 00:22:21.440 --> 00:22:24.800 car and almost screeched the brakes on because, you know when you have that moment 358 00:22:24.800 --> 00:22:28.360 where you're like, oh, my God, like, this is exactly what I've been out there 359 00:22:28.360 --> 00:22:31.320 saying. And it kind of gave me that boost as a thought leader to say, 360 00:22:32.200 --> 00:22:35.680 I've been saying this, and now one of these biggest names in business has just 361 00:22:35.680 --> 00:22:39.630 said exactly the same thing. And, yeah, I'm really passionate about it 362 00:22:39.630 --> 00:22:42.270 because I've been in sales and I know how transactional it can be and how 363 00:22:42.270 --> 00:22:45.950 expensive it is. And that's why I've started what I've started to almost break that 364 00:22:45.950 --> 00:22:49.790 barrier down for people. Yeah. What you're saying there completely 365 00:22:49.790 --> 00:22:53.670 resonates. And I'm always a great believer that your personal brand, how people 366 00:22:53.670 --> 00:22:56.710 feel about you, what emotion do you create in people? 367 00:22:57.510 --> 00:23:01.510 And it can be quite tricky sometimes. When we first spoke, I 368 00:23:01.510 --> 00:23:05.240 think in the introduction, he said how much you've been looking forward to this. There 369 00:23:05.240 --> 00:23:08.840 was obviously some recognition of my personal brand, how you've seen me on LinkedIn, how 370 00:23:08.840 --> 00:23:12.720 you're really honoured to meet me. And that's quite humbling 371 00:23:12.800 --> 00:23:16.720 for me to hear someone say that, because I'm not ego driven. And 372 00:23:16.720 --> 00:23:20.000 the number of people I bump into who go, oh, my God, I've finally meeting, 373 00:23:20.000 --> 00:23:23.280 I've been looking forward to it. It's like, whoa, how am I having that effect 374 00:23:24.000 --> 00:23:27.920 on somebody? And that's the personal brand I'm trying to create, is 375 00:23:27.920 --> 00:23:31.540 this connection. Yeah. At a personal level, an emotional level with people 376 00:23:32.420 --> 00:23:36.380 where I. What I talk about is generating change in their 377 00:23:36.380 --> 00:23:40.300 life. And that's the magic, isn't it? How do you 378 00:23:40.300 --> 00:23:44.180 note to that in people? Yeah. And it's, you know, what I will 379 00:23:44.180 --> 00:23:47.260 say on the back end of that is you never know who's watching. I was 380 00:23:47.260 --> 00:23:50.060 saying that earlier this week, like, you know, you might be doing all this stuff 381 00:23:50.060 --> 00:23:53.500 and thinking, you know, no one's liking or commenting, but the amount of 382 00:23:53.500 --> 00:23:57.400 opportunities I've had that have come through from people that have never 383 00:23:57.400 --> 00:24:01.400 liked or commented or even spoken to me before, and they are the lurkers, like 384 00:24:01.400 --> 00:24:04.040 you say, that kind of just lurk in the background and they consume all of 385 00:24:04.040 --> 00:24:07.920 this educational content that you share, and then they go, you know, actually, 386 00:24:07.920 --> 00:24:11.680 I'm gonna. I'm gonna reach out to this person. So the question that you asked 387 00:24:11.680 --> 00:24:15.200 was, how do you nurture somebody to just be themselves 388 00:24:16.000 --> 00:24:19.320 in my. The idea of my community, I was going out and I was doing 389 00:24:19.320 --> 00:24:22.840 networking events, as you've mentioned you did. I was probably doing two of them a 390 00:24:22.840 --> 00:24:26.790 month, maybe three. And they cost me about £15 a time. I was 391 00:24:26.790 --> 00:24:30.710 probably spending close to £50amonth on doing networking events. And 392 00:24:30.710 --> 00:24:34.430 when I kind of went to them, I'd get a good social buzz from them 393 00:24:34.430 --> 00:24:38.430 because I felt like I'd been around people and, you know, as a small business 394 00:24:38.430 --> 00:24:40.990 owner, it's just, you know, when it's just you and your partner at home and 395 00:24:40.990 --> 00:24:44.390 you'll resonate with that as well, can get a bit lonely and you need to 396 00:24:44.390 --> 00:24:46.830 be around people. I used to work in an office where I had a department 397 00:24:46.830 --> 00:24:49.950 of 70 people, and when I wanted a little chat or a mess about, I 398 00:24:49.950 --> 00:24:52.960 could go to the, you know, one of their desks and do that. But when 399 00:24:52.960 --> 00:24:56.200 you're at home, there's only so much you can annoy your girlfriend before she tells 400 00:24:56.200 --> 00:24:59.920 you to leave the house. So I was going to these networking events 401 00:24:59.920 --> 00:25:03.120