Podcast Episode:
LinkedIn is a very serious tool for making contacts and growing your business. We’ll discuss how to use it … on this edition of Frank Relationships.
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FRANK RELATIONSHIPS: RICHARD LOWE, GROWING YOUR BUSINESS RELATIONSHIPS WITH LINKED IN
Guests: Richard Lowe, Jr.
Date: September 26, 2016
Frank: LinkedIn is a very serious tool for making contacts and growing your business. We’ll discuss how to use it … on this edition of Frank Relationships.
Yes. As always, those are my babies. Thanks for getting daddy’s daughter today.
LinkedIn expert, Richard Lowe is with us today and I want to know how can my LinkedIn profile benefit me?
Richard: Well, that’s actually an easy question. I can use myself as an example. When I use LinkedIn and set up a good profile and now I get actually money paying leads off of it all the time… that support my business and support me and if your LinkedIn is properly created, you can do the same thing.
Frank: Is there a business type or a business model that’s more LinkedIn friendly than the others or… just more LinkedIn friendly, period?
Richard: It works with any business.
Frank: Really?
Richard: Yes.
Frank: Welcome to Frank Relationships, a show for you my brethren who like me, are too young to be considered old and too old to be considered young. It’s also for those of you that love and support us. We’re here to provide weekly wisdom, conversation and the information that’ll help create better parents and partners.
I’m Frank Love and you can find me, my blog and my various social media incarnations at franklove.com. If you’re listening to the show on Blog Talk Radio, please follow us and if via iTunes, please subscribe so that you can effortlessly get each week.
Also, if you’re enjoying the show and of course you are, please share with your family and/or friends on your favourite social media platform. We are looking to add new friends to our social media family over the course of the next week so please help us, help our community by spreading the word about the show.
Greetings to my super duper co-host, Nancy Goldring.
Nancy: Hi, Frank.
Frank: How are you?
Nancy: I’m well actually.
Frank: Great. The consummate generalist. You say “I’m well actually” meaning…
Nancy: Could be any number…
Frank: Are you ever not well?
Nancy: No… it’s true. I am generally well. ATLEAST well.
Frank: That beautiful smile is always here.
Nancy: Thank you. How are you?
Frank: I’m great. I’m great. Yes.
Nancy: Awesome. Awesome, awesome, awesome.
Frank: I got up, went to the gym 5:30 this morning…
Nancy: No….
Frank: Yes. Got it in. it was a tough one too.
Nancy: Really?
Frank: The trainer.
Nancy: Oh yeah, the trainer?
Frank: Yeah. Well he kind of…
Nancy: He’s there…
Frank: He trains everybody in the room.
Nancy: Okay.
Frank: Tells you what to do.
Nancy: Okay, okay.
Frank: You do a routine, workout and then you do your part and then you leave.
Nancy: Nice.
Frank: It was a tough one today.
Today’s guest is a passionate writer. He writes entertaining novels, uplifting stories, educational books. He also takes special joy in helping others write their books. He helps them keep their blogs up-to-date and create well-written LinkedIn profiles that show off their talent and skills.
So if you like me, want to know how to build a network of people who are like-minded and responsive to your message, you want to know how to build qualified leads every single day and what to do if your LinkedIn profile is collecting virtual dust, then stay tuned as your Frank Relationship Team tals with the author of “Focus on LinkedIn: Create a Personal Brand on LinkedIn to Make More Money, Generate Leads and Find Employment”, he is Richard Lowe, Jr.
Welcome to the show.
Richard: Well thank you. I feel welcome.
Frank: Before we get too deep into today’s subject matter, we always check in to see what’s going on in the news. Richard, please don’t be bashful. Do you prefer Richard or Dick?
Richard: Richard.
Frank: Alright. We want you to weigh in, want your thoughts too. Nancy’s looking like “why did he say that?” what did I say?
Nancy: Nothing.
Frank: Is that a bad—
Nancy: Nothing, Frank.
Frank: Was that a bad question, Richard?
Richard: It was fine. I did it occasionally.
Frank: Okay. Alright.
Nancy: I don’t think it’s done anymore, I don’t know.
Frank: Really?
Nancy: I don’t know. It’s been years since…
Jeff: Since she’s heard “do you prefer dick?”
Nancy: No…. Not exactly. Thank you Jeff for clarifying.
Frank: Richard, that was pointing towards Nancy.
Nancy: Oh my god… “it’s all pointing towards….”
Richard: [unclear].
Nancy: Oh thank god! I’m here for comic relief. Come on Frank.
Frank: Oh boy… Okay, okay, okay… A study published in the journal of social and personal relationships has found that couples who stay in and watch tv also record higher levels of commitment to one another.
Nancy: That’s surprising.
Frank: Is it?
Nancy: Well… yes, yes. I think a lot of times people put energy on jazzing the relationship up novelty, getting out, doing something different, [unclear] if you’re just staying home doing something basic and seemingly uneventful that you know… maybe you’re not…
Frank: You’re stale.
Nancy: Yeah. Yeah.
Frank: I mentioned this article to my wife this morning and she… the concept of what it means to be committed, that’s one of those things that different people got a different twist on.
Nancy: Sure.
Frank: I didn’t use that term. I said people who are staying and watch tv or people who stay in and watch tv are happier with one another.
Nancy: Okay.
Frank: I don’t know if it’s the same but that was my twist.
Nancy: Okay.
Frank: And I could see that. Based on just where I am in life right now. I actually like sitting in the house and watching television. This past weekend, I virtually did nothing and I am—
Nancy: Can you tell us…
Frank: I am poised to schedule nothing on my weekends…
Nancy: Yeah, yeah…
Frank: …for now ‘til I can remember…. It was great.
Nancy: Okay, okay.
Frank: I can see how not feeling the need to go out or the need to do something and just “Babe, let’s sit in, drink a glass of wine and a beer, kick your feet up and watch television or romantic comedy…”—now that’s twisted towards her, that’s her thing.
Nancy: Right.
Frank: I don’t mind, I like it.
Nancy: Right.
Frank: I actually like providing that sort of…
Nancy: Entertainment [unclear]…
Frank: Yeah… So I could see how that works.
Nancy: Well it doesn’t imply that you have a certain degree of… a quite a bit of comfort. You feel at home with the person.
Frank: Yeah because you don’t have to like your partner… you don’t have to…
Richard: I would…
Frank: Go, go please Richard…
Richard: I would say it has to do with as compared to what… You just said they have a higher level of commitment as compared to what… I mean, if everybody else is working and doing their own thing, and then they’re sitting together watching tv, well of course it creates a higher level of commitment because they’re doing something together. But if you’re comparing it to something else like you’re actually actively creating their marriage and doing things together, then maybe the study would be different.
It doesn’t compare it to anything so it actually doesn’t have a lot of value to me.
Frank: It actually might compare it. I didn’t read the article, honestly.
Nancy: Oh you just… you’re a headline guy…
Frank: Yeah, yeah. I just figured I’d come in here and talk about it.
Nancy: Right… First slice, right, right, right… So in all fairness to the journal…
Frank: Yes, yes, yes… So Richard, do you think that—
Nancy: Are you married, Richard?
Richard: I was. I’m divorced.
Frank: Okay.
Nancy: Okay.
Frank: Do you think that staying in with your wife and maybe cooking together or staying in—maybe she cooks or maybe you cook, whatever… and eating a meal together, it may demonstrate a closer-ness than going out to dinner? Is that possible? Or do you see how that might be the case?
Richard: I would say that’s certainly the case because you’re doing something together. I would say that has a much higher possibility than watching tv also.
Frank: Okay, alright. What about you, Jeff?
Richard: Your focus is on each other as opposed to some tube…
Nancy: Right, right…
Jeff: Speaking of someone who’s an empty nester, for many years watching television or maybe even watching a movie was with the kids…
Nancy: Okay.
Jeff: …rarely if they were out or whatever as they got older, my wife and I would but it was occasional. I’d rather go out and do something as a couple. But now, it’s come home. We make or eat dinner together and it’s [unclear] last night we watched Ray Donovan which was on tape. We have certain shows that we enjoyed [unclear]…
Frank: Did you say it was on tape?
Jeff: I just… Yeah, a matter of speech. Oldschool. It was [unclear] on my DVR.
Frank: Okay, alright. You know, you might still have a VCR sitting at your house.
Jeff: It’s… I do. It’s dust in the basement…
Nancy: Jeff…. Just moving the piece around the board and you know…
Jeff: And we put a record on the [unclear].
Nancy: Indeed.
Jeff: But we do enjoy a bunch of shows together. And we watch The Voice, you know… Not much conversation when the shows are on except during The Voice when I’m yelling at the screen, stuff like that. But yeah, it’s another common denominator. We don’t have the kids to absorb all our time.
Frank: Right.
Jeff: And the sports, and their friends, and all the extracurricular. So yeah, tv has become that and it’s also affordable. If we were going to go out, whatever… we don’t go to the movies that often but when we do, that’s a $50 date.
Nancy: It sure is.
Jeff: You know… So it’s…
Nancy: And that’s without dinner.
Jeff: There were some shows while I saw a preview of just for example, Lethal Weapon. The series starts Wednesday, starts this week or started last week. Whenever you’re listening to this, just as good as the film in terms of action and cinematography and writing and acting and… That’s a fun show.
Nancy: Okay.
Jeff: Looking forward to that.
Frank: Are you serious?
Jeff: I’m serious.
Frank: Jeff, I’ve got a problem with you.
Jeff: Okay.
Nancy: Why?
Jeff: That’s not the first time.
Frank: I hope I’m not losing a friend in Damien Wayans but I can’t… I mean, number one, I get the appearance that the tables have turn. So instead of…
Jeff: Murdock and yeah…
Frank: Yeah, instead of the black guy being the…
Jeff: Straight man?
Frank: Yeah, the straight man and the white guy being the nut, now I think—just based on the commercials—I think Damien Wayans, the black guy, is the nut and the white guy’s a straight man. And who in the world would want to see Damien Wayans in an action movie? I don’t…
Jeff: Did you like Living Color?
Frank: Yes. He’s a comedian.
Jeff: Watch the show.
Frank: Okay.
Jeff: I’m telling you… I’m just talking about overall. I can’t tell you about plot or storylines or things like that. It’s beautifully done…
Nancy: Okay.
Jeff: The guy who directed Charlie’s Angels does this series.
Frank: Meaning, the television show or the movie?
Jeff: The director. Charlie’s Angels the movie. Drew Barrymore, Lucy Liu… I think she was in it… So it is a list action adventure, colors are bursting out of the screen.
Nancy: Nice.
Jeff: My point originally was television shows have as much production value, it’s a lot of movies…
Frank: That’s [unclear]…
Jeff: …these days… So from an affordable standpoint, to watch something entertaining and captivating or what have you, you can get it on the Boob Tube as much as you can get it in the big theater.
Frank: Yeah, absolutely.
Nancy: Cool.
Frank: Richard, you have the last word on this…
Richard: Well you’re actually talking to somebody who hasn’t turned on the television except to watch a movie on DVD for 10 years. I don’t watch TV at all.
Nancy: Lizzy said DVD.
Richard: Well Bluray. I just watch it on Bluray because I don’t like the commercials.
Nancy: Very good.
Frank: you don’t have cable?
Richard: I don’t have cable.
Frank: I love it. I got to talk to Richard offline.
Nancy: A man [unclear]?
Frank: Yes. I have cable and spend couple of hundred bucks on cable and it’s absurd. It really is. Every time I look at the bill, I’m saying to myself, I’ve got to wean myself off of this. It’s just… I don’t understand why I [unclear]… But the thing is also, it’s not cable everywhere today. We haven’t even gotten into the good stuff. Atleast I’m everywhere… maybe you should take the mic from me…
Nancy: Richard? Onward.
Frank: It’s bundle. So you got your house phone, you got internet…
Nancy: Oh yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah…
Frank: And that’s $200.
Nancy: That’s how they get you.
Frank: And then if you just want internet, it’s $90.
Nancy: Oh wow.
Frank: They really… whatever. Anyway, alright Richard let’s get to the good stuff.
Richard: Alright.
Frank: Why LinkedIn? And what’s better about LinkedIn and Facebook or Google+ or whatever else there is out there?
Richard: Well LinkedIn is a business social network and it is intended to help you promote your personal brand which means it’s about you. Not so much about your business but about you. Facebook is a general social network, Google+ is a general social network, and then there are other ones that do other things. LinkedIn is the largest business related social network in the world. It’s got hundreds of millions of users now and Microsoft just bought it. So it’s going to get even bigger.
Frank: Yeah.
Richard: Because they spent a lot of money. That’s what it’s for and that’s why it’s better than anything else for promoting your own personal brand.
Frank: How did you get to become so interested in LinkedIn? What was your personal experience that did it?
Richard: Well that’s actually an interesting story. I used to be the director of computer operations for Trader Joe’s for 20 years.
Frank: Really?
Richard: And then I… Yeah. And I decided to take an early retirement because I had saved up enough money to do that and started to become a writer 3 years ago. So the first thing I did because I wanted to be able to pull in consulting business, [unclear] company called LinkedIn Makeover and said “makeover my LinkedIn” and they went to the whole process and worked me through it. I started getting business from it and I thought that it worked and then the lady who’s in charge of LinkedIn Makeover called me up and asked me to work for her about a year later… Become a branding expert which I did…
Frank: What happened in that experience that had her say that you were unique or interesting enough where she wanted you to do that?
Richard: Well I worked LinkedIn. I post things everyday, I post articles, I change things… I do—what we’re going to talk about later on [unclear] I’m sure… I do the things that you need to do to stay noticed. So she kept seeing my name come up on things that were of interest to her and she saw that I knew how to use LinkedIn so she offered me the job.
Frank: Okay. Nice. And on a completely different note, I am a Trader Joe’s fan and I got there, I got to that place… probably 10 years ago so it was while you were working there, we’ll attribute it to you.
Richard: Okay.
Frank: It’s because of you, I appreciate Trader Joe’s.
Nancy: Mercy.
Frank: Okay, tell us about the LinkedIn Makeover.
Nancy: Yeah so the makeover is how he got… So the makeover is how you got to be a consultant with LinkedIn. Is that correct?
Richard: That’s correct.
Nancy: Okay.
Richard: And I do about 20 LinkedIn profiles per month for various people all over the world.
Nancy: Nice. Okay. And so what does the makeover do? Is it the nuts thing… the—what do you call that? Ala carte, we’ll do this but we won’t do that, is it expensive… What’s the [unclear]?
Richard: If you sign up for LinkedIn Makeover, there’s three categories, three levels. You do the basic level which is you just send a questionnaire and we write your profile and put it up for you. The second level, we do an interview at the front and the back and put up the profile for you. And then the third one is the extensive one and that one is like the concierge service, hands held all the way through it, and we do it all for you. That’s the one that I bought 3 years ago… [unclear]…
Nancy: What’s expensive?
Richard: Expensive is $1000.
Nancy: Okay.
Frank: Per what?
Nancy: For the whole…
Frank: Oh for the—
Richard: for the whole
Frank: —package.
Richard: Package.
Frank: Got you, got you.
Richard: It’s 300, 500 and 1000.
Frank: One of the things that I am a huge fan of in LinkedIn is the groups. You can do an alumni, you could be a member of an alumni group, you could be a member of a group around a certain industry… and I met… When I was really active on LinkedIn, I met a lot of people…
Nancy: Okay.
Frank: …by posting my blog or my video, whatever have you. And had a lot of responses, a lot of interactions, some arguments—
Nancy: Yeah…
Frank: —and that sort of thing. Insults, people—
Nancy: Keep your eyes on that sort of thing.
Frank: But you know, I was interacting with people.
Nancy: Okay.
Frank: What are your thoughts on the LinkedIn groups?
Richard: Well LinkedIn groups are an essential part of your LinkedIn strategy. You have been in to 100 groups, and you should be in 100 groups. You make sure there are large groups with tens of thousands of people in each one and you make sure they’re relatively active.
Frank: Is there a way to do that? is there like a metric to look at to see if it’s active or do you basically sit in it and see what happens?
Richard: Just look at it and see one of the most recent post is.
Nancy: Okay.
Richard: The most recent post is 6 months ago, it’s [unclear] dead…
Nancy: Indeed.
Richard: And that’s certainly common. The reason why you want to be in a lot of groups is all of the people in your group are part of your network… which means that LinkedIn allows you to communicate via something they call In Mail which is their messaging system and it actually costs money if they’re not in your network and it’s free if they are. That’s to communicate with you and to communicate with others. So if you want people to talk to you, you need to add them to your network by either connecting with them or adding them to a group.
Frank: And what’s the… How do you know if somebody’s worth event talking to? I mean—
Richard: You look at their profile. Look at their profile. First, start with their picture and—I always stress this is the one of the first things I stress to people is your picture has to be perfect, it has to be professional, it has to look good, it has to characterize your brand. If your brand is a business person, you need to be in a suit and tie. If your brand is an engineer, you might be dressed more casually. My brand, I’m a… get somewhat in between. If your brand is a circus clown, you dress as a circus clown. You know… But it should be a professional photo with professional lighting who poses you and looks good and spend the money. I mean you’re professional. You should have the couple hundred bucks to spend money on a picture.
Nancy: Got it.
Richard: That’s the [unclear] things people look at and they look at your title, get some keywords in there so I don’t just want your job title. I want to know what you do. It’s the second thing people look at. And then they look at your summary and those things need to be perfect. Everything else is secondary.
Frank: Does… What about relationships… You know, LinkedIn is such a business-geared tool. When I think of relationships, of course in order to do business with people, you’re going to create relationships so you’re getting to know people, there’s a relationship built in but is there a romantic component or possibility of romance or anything like that around the LinkedIn world?
Richard: Well… It’s a business professional network and that is actually somewhat frown upon and many of the businesswomen that I’ve talked to really hate that. I don’t know, I haven’t got the opinion of the men… It’s not meant to be a dating tool. Unfortunately a lot of men do use it for that because it’s an easy communication method and it’s a good way to lose a job or losing the possibility of employment as to make a path on the woman on LinkedIn. Just don’t do it. Since you got all these other social networks for…
Frank: That’s… like that advice is perfect.
Nancy: Yeah…
Frank: You save some guy from putting his foot in his mouth.
Nancy: Or losing his job.
Frank: Or los—
Nancy: Or an opportunity.
Frank: That’s great.
Nancy: Nice. However…
Frank: I’m listening.
Nancy: I’m thinking, now you have a quote in your book. You quote Tim Farris’ saying “Going on a date,c chances are your blind date has Googled you before you meet” and so I’m thinking well why Google the guy? Why not check his LinkedIn profile and see what he’s really doing? And so…
Frank: Is that what you would do?
Nancy: I’ve never done that before but I certainly found myself thinking, well if I was going—now Googling the person is fine and yet if I do a LinkedIn search on him, I actually on some level could find out maybe some subtle nuisances that would necessarily show up and in a more social platform. I know a couple of cases, I might Google a guy because I don’t quite understand what he does so then I go on a site like LinkedIn and to get a better idea of it without kind of bombarding him with seemingly ridiculous questions. I figured if it’s on LinkedIn, it’s designed for say the average person to understand . not necessarily but…
Frank: But what you’re going to talk about when you’re sitting there with them?
Nancy: Plenty. Because now I have sort of a background I can ask different questions, more intelligent questions.
Frank: What’s wrong with the stupid question while you’re having dinner? That’s part of getting to know each other.
Nancy: Is that part of your… Well I prefer to say my stupid questions when we’re sitting and watching TV…
Frank: Okay, okay…
Nancy: When we get to the TV level, I don’t mind you finding out that there are a couple of marbles that are out of place in that. So… But go on Richard.
Richard: Well first of all, if you Google somebody, you’re going to LinkedIn profile. It’s small written, it should come up first or second.
Nancy: Right. Okay.
Richard: So you’ll find it there and I do that and it’s given if I’m going on a date with somebody. The first thing I do is how to get her name, just Googling them and find out who they are because people do stupid things on social media and it’s often just fun to find out what stupid things they’ve got [unclear]—
Nancy: Wow… Wow…
Frank: Here’s a dating question… when do you ask a person their last name so that you can Google them?
Nancy: I ask a person their last name upfront.
Richard: Right away.
Frank: Okay, so how does that work? “Hey, how you doing?”
Nancy: My name is June. June what?
Frank: Okay.
Nancy: June July. I don’t care—
Richard: [unclear] I give them my name and then I ask them their name. if they give me their first name, I say exactly what you said “June what?”
Nancy: Right. Yeah.
Frank: That doesn’t seem intrusive like…
Nancy: Not at all.
Frank: Why are you asking me my last name?
Nancy: I call myself Nancy Goldring. What’s your name?
Frank: Okay.
Nancy: And when I put you in my phone, I put you in and people say “what is it with you and the government names?” so I [unclear] you in, your whole name and my phone and I might even note of how or from where I know you and any other little cues so that when you call me, first line of defense is am I answering? Second is, how do I know this person if you don’t already… you know, have some reason to stick out in my mind. But I’m not taking just your first name. No.
Richard: Well actually, I’ve actually been asked before “why are you asking me my last name?” and I answered, honestly “because I’m going to Google you, find out who you are.”
Nancy: Wow.
Frank: That is…
Richard: If the answer comes back, I don’t—“I’m not comfortable with that” then I automatically know that there’s something that they don’t want me to know.
Nancy: Disqualified.
Frank: So what you just said is exactly why I asked the question.
Nancy: Oh okay.
Frank: Because I mean what he said… What Richard said, because some people might very well be uncomfortable with you researching them, finding out where they live and that sort of thing.
Nancy: But you may not find out where they live.
Frank: It’s not—
Richard: Oh I got your name… I can…
Nancy: You could—well Richard, definitely…
Richard: [unclear].
Nancy: Get a picture of your house, what kind of flowers you’re growing outside.
Richard: Google Maps, satellite view, the whole thing.
Nancy: This is true, this is true…
Frank: Yeah… Yeah…
Richard: [unclear]…
Nancy: Well some place is just automatically you put it in and the picture shows up.
Richard: Yeah. It’s becoming an open world…
Nancy: Yeah.
Richard: But it also produces a conversation about social media sometimes but it can be fun. Because I’m a social media expert. I [unclear] expert and I’m going to look you up and are you comfortable with that… and it produces a conversation and we get to know each other a little better. Or I find out right from talking with them that they’re not interested anymore and that’s fine.
Nancy: Right. Don’t waste your time.
Frank: Right.
Richard: But you bet I’m going to Google them.
Nancy: Wow. Wow, wow, wow….
Frank: I’ve got a… I’ve got a question that takes us back like 15 minutes into… before we even got in the LinkedIn, I’m curious… when you’re sitting on the couch with someone—this is random.
Nancy: Okay.
Frank: Okay everybody understand that.
Nancy: That’s cool, that’s cool…
Frank: Jeff? When you’re sitting on the couch with your wife, do you feel the need to like have your feet touch or some body part touching?
Nancy: Yes.
Frank: You do?
Nancy: Yes.
Frank: Jeff?
Jeff: I don’t feel the need but it does happen.
Frank: Yeah it does.
Jeff: Just organically, yeah.
Frank: Richard, when you’re with that special someone, or your former partner, what do you…. Is that—did you say you’re widowed?
Nancy: Yes.
Frank: Yes, okay.
Richard: Yes. 10 years widowed.
Frank: Got you, got you. When you sat on the couch, did you feel the need to touch feet or even when you were in bed? Did your feet touch or something like that?
Nancy: The whole deal.
Richard: Oh I’m one of those strange people who likes his own space so I prefer—
Nancy: Get out of my [unclear]…
Richard: —touching [unclear] to be more a little less all the time. I like a little bit of distance.
Frank: Got it, got it, got it…
Nancy: You can get that one, I’ll go to work… There are circumstance under which if we’re in the same space together, then I would like some proximity…
Frank: You got to [unclear]…
Richard: Well that’s fine. I don’t mind that. It’s just that I don’t like that all the time.
Nancy: Got it. Yeah. Not like smothering… not at all like smothering. And I feel you have to… in the natural course of getting to know each other, know when you need to kind of back up and kind of ebbing flow in that energetic space but… yeah…
Frank: Back to…
Nancy: The interview?
Frank: …the interview, yes.
Nancy: Indeed.
Frank: What if you don’t have an online presence at all, Richard? What if you’re just not into the virtual world?
Nancy: The social media thing.
Frank: Where do we go? Or what do you say to that individual?
Nancy: Is that—
Richard: Well first of all, you’re on the internet whether you like it or not unless you are one of those people who are in a bombshell or in Oklahoma or something like that… just paranoid about the world. And even in, you’re probably on internet somewhere… atleast the deep internet.
Nancy: Right.
Richard: If you’re not on social media, it’s just strange nowadays. You atleast need to be there a little bit. If I’m looking to hire you and you’re not on social media, we’re going to have some questions. Because especially because I’m going to be hiring technical people or writers or something like that… or marketing people. Why aren’t you on social media, and that’s going to be accusatory. You need to be there. You actually need to be there and you need to be cleaning it up and you need to be controlling it. Because what I’m going to find if you’re not there is other people talking about you perhaps. Maybe not, you know what I mean? I’ll find anything. It’s an oddity nowadays.
Frank: Are there common mistakes that people make regarding their LinkedIn profile or how they use LinkedIn besides asking someone for a date?
Richard: Well, the most common mistake is having a lousy photo. You’d be amazed with some of the photos that I get. One of them has a cemetery in the background.
Nancy: Wow.
Richard: It was—his father died and he thought it was an important picture of him. Yeah, it’s also turning away all your customers.
Nancy: Yeah…
Frank: So he—
Richard: And the other one had this horrible selfie, beer bottles in the background obviously [unclear] liquor bottles and things… Just don’t do that kind of stuff.
Nancy: Well I have to say Richard, excuse me for cutting you off… Not having a picture at all is starting to give me the creeps.
Richard: Well he’s red flag.
Nancy: Okay.
Richard: Put up some picture. If you don’t have a picture… Now a lot of people make [unclear] only network can see their pictures. You have to keep that in mind.
Nancy: Oh okay.
Richard: But if they don’t have a picture at all, then it’s another red flag.
Frank: Is it a red flag to have it set… And I didn’t even know that that was the setting…
Nancy: Me either.
Frank: …where only people in your network can see you. But is that a huge red flag to have it only where people in your network can see you?
Richard: Well a lot of people do it but you’re on LinkedIn to be seen so make your photo visible. It’s not like Facebook where you may not want to be seen. This is LinkedIn. You’re there to be known. You’re there to make your presence known. You’re there to be [unclear] shouting to everybody “Who am I?” and if you’re not doing that, then you’re not using LinkedIn right.
Frank; Is there any correlation or connection between Facebook or LinkedIn?
Richard: Well, Facebook can also be used for business. I use it for business as well because I have, I mostly [unclear] photographer and a lot of my [unclear] friends are on there and from products that they like. But yeah, there is a correlation between them. First of all, they should match up to a certain extent. So if your LinkedIn says you’re a radio show host, your Facebook probably shouldn’t say otherwise. You also should make sure your Facebook doesn’t have any pictures that make you look like an idiot like drinking pictures or vomiting pictures… They’re common actually…
Frank: Vomiting pictures are common?
Richard: Call [unclear]…
Nancy: Scary, yeah…
Richard: …to enjoy that kind of thing… Parties and [unclear] “Oh is that a picture of Joe?” [unclear] great. And unfortunate if someone else is tagging you so it’s harder to clean up.
Frank: But you can un-tag yourself, right?
Richard: You can un-tag yourself. But it can be more difficult because they can put your name in a text form obviously and that could be finable to the internet. So… actually one caution that I have, I’m actually writing a book about what you need to worry about on social media is that everybody carries a camera nowadays. Actually everybody carries several cameras quite often. That means that anything you do stupid in public, can wind up in the internet. BAM.
Nancy: Right.
Richard: On to 6 o’ clock news. You need to watch what you do. I mean, don’t watch it to be internal or anything but if you’re going to be drinking, make it private, you know. If you’re going to be vomiting in public, don’t be surprised if it shows up on… somebody’s—
Frank: Everywhere.
Richard: Everybody, yeah. Because it’s funny.
Nancy: So you could have let’s say… a class A LinkedIn profile and yet your Facebook page could be a disaster.
Frank: [unclear].
Nancy: Yeah.
Richard: You could undermine your LinkedIn, your professional… and I’ve done that. I used to Google and I hire people [unclear] and I would look… just like your Facebook page, makes you look like you’re a [unclear] idiot. You think I’m going to hire you? But your LinkedIn page is perfect you know…
Nancy: Right.
Frank: And so you… When you’re working with a client, do you look at their Facebook page also to give them—?
Richard: Yes. Of course.
Frank: Okay, okay.
Richard: And I don’t necessarily use that information for anything other than… Usually when I’m looking for a client, I Google them, I look at their stuff just to find out more so that when I talk to them, like you were saying on a date, so that you know something to talk about with him.
Nancy: Yeah.
Richard: You don’t want to walk into a client cold like “Who are you? What do you do?” You should already know that information if they have an internet presence all. If they don’t have an internet presence, that’s just weird. To be on the web, they’ll probably have a website or blog, Facebook, LinkedIn maybe Google+. Not a lot of people really do much without anymore.
Frank: I never did. I don’t even know when you say anymore… I can’t relate to ever…
Nancy: Right, right, right.
Richard: Yeah I got one I haven’t maintained in years because it’s kind of dead.
Nancy: Is that part of your consulting, Richard? The Facebook? So if a person to a pace say the $1000, $500 and you say “Hey, listen you need to…”
Richard: No.
Nancy: “…get a handle on your Facebook”? Okay, okay…
Richard: You focus specifically on the LinkedIn profile. We don’t even look on social media. That’s not part of the [unclear]… And by the way, I’m a consultant and I’m also an author. I wrote the book “Focus on LinkedIn” just so you know.
Nancy: Yes.
R: It’s not related to LinkedIn Makeover.
Nancy: Oh okay, okay.
Richard: That’s my own book that I wrote because I wanted to help people learn how to do it.
Nancy: Okay.
Frank: You’re listening to Frank Relationships and we’re talking with the author of “Focus on LinkedIn: Create a Personal Brand on LinkedIn to Make More Money, Generate Leads and Find Employment”. He’s Richard Lowe, Jr. Richard, please tell us what you’re up to and how we can find you.
Richard: Well you can find me on thewritingking.com and if you want to see my books, you can got to coolauthor.com. That has all my Amazon, all my books o Amazon. Atleast one under my name…. because I write under some [unclear].
Frank: Okay.
Richard: And what am I up to? Well at the moment, I’m getting ready for the holidays which are of course, big days to sell things and I’m working on a series of coloring books.
Frank: Okay.
Richard: It’s kind of a new thing for me as an artist and together we’re creating a series—I used to be a belly dance photographer when I was in California. I photographed 18,000 belly dance shows and have 12,000 dancer friends on my Facebook. I have those converted to… some of those pictures converted into sketches and I’m making coloring books out of them. The dancers are going crazy, the love it.
Nancy: Nice, nice, nice.
Richard: And it’s fun. It kind of gets me back in contact with my old friends because they’re all friends. What came form that by the way, there’s pictures of me all over the internet, there’s women hanging on me, models and supermodels and dancers and stuff… Somebody asked me, “How do you have so many women hang on you?” So I wrote a book which is on sale tomorrow actually for $0.99. “How to Make Friends with Women”, “How to be Surrounded by Beautiful Women Without Being Sleaze”.
Frank: Okay. Alright well give us something from that book.
Richard: Well basically, in the book instead of focusing on what they usually focus on, which is you know, treat women right, good relationship stuff… It focuses on human rights. When men violate human rights with their women, just saying that violates the woman’s human right because a woman’s not a property. So when you say “my woman”, what? Is she your desk, is she your chair? No, she’s a human being. She’s not your woman. She’s a human. She’s…
Nancy: A woman.
Richard: [unclear]. Hm?
Nancy: She’s A woman and she’s with you.
Richard: She’s a human being. She’s a person.
Nancy: Right.
Richard: She’s a soul and you shouldn’t be treating her as an object. That’s what the book focuses on because it’s a different slant and it’s a different viewpoint. It’s a correct viewpoint. If you treat a woman as a human being, you’d be amazed what you get. That’s why I’m going to write a follow-up book called “I’m Stuck in the Friendzone”. That’s coming out later this year. It’s the same slant—
Frank: You seem to be—
Richard: [unclear] You have a friend. What are you complaining about? Grow up. I’m not sympathetic towards some guy who’s like on the friendzone, it’s like, “Yeah so? I have 12,000 belly dance friends. I’m in a friendzone with every single one of them. It’s great.”
Frank: Well hopefully you’re not friendzone with somebody that’s—
Richard: Well of course.
Frank: Okay. So I think that’s what the gripe is for. Whoever is—
Nancy: They want to be in another zone.
Frank: Right. With somebody.
Nancy: Who’s got them in the friendzone. Right, right… the perpetual friendzone. That is the communication though… if you are stuck in the friendzone.
Richard: That’s a whole different show.
Nancy: Yes. Now isn’t it? Isn’t it? That’s the one we may be should have booked.
Frank: We can have it more later…
Richard: Oh I’ve got a book coming up probably in the couple of months… “Help I’m stuck in the Friendzone.”
Nancy: Oh nice. Alright, aright.
Richard: My book on how to be friends with women goes on sale tomorrow.
Nancy: Nice.
Frank Now you’re cranking these books out pretty regularly. It sounds like—are we talking about a book that’s 20 pages or are we talking about a book…
Nancy: 200 plus…
Richard: Well my book’s ranging anywhere from about 160 pages for the LinkedIn book down to about 50 pages for the “How to Be Friends with Women”. Kindle tends to favor shorter books. People want to be able to read them over lunch or dinner or on a break. So I’ve got a lot of short books. I just published my 50th book called “Unlikely Hero”. It’s a science fiction book and it’s only 30 pages long.
Frank: And you ghost write also don’t you?
Richard: I’ve done 12 novels and books on ghost writing also.
Frank: The book… So, when you say “on ghost writing”,—the topic isn’t ghost writing but—
Richard: Oh correct. I ghost wrote 12 books.
Frank: Wow. And how do those relationships… How do you do that? In fact…
Nancy: [unclear].
Frank: Yeah… In fact, so and when you ghost write, you purposely don’t discuss that client, is that correct?
Richard: I’m not allowed to [unclear] I signed a nondisclosure so that the client’s written permission. I can’t even disclose that I worked on a book for him.
Frank: Yeah. So—
Richard: Unless the contract says I can.
Frank: How do you a good job ghost writing a book for somebody?
Richard: Interview them a lot. Work with them. It’s a relationship…. Requires a lot of communication back and forth and so on. It’s not cheap. If you’re a ghost writer, I actually have a book on ghost writing and it’s free actually. One of the quotes in it is “if your ghost writer is charging you less than 20 grand for a book, he’s an amateur.” He needs to be charging a lot of money because it’s not easy on trying to take something from your brain and put it on paper…. That’s not something you can do for $500 or a $1000, or $2000. It’s something that takes a lot of work. And you have to spend the money and spend it right or [unclear] going to get a junky book—you don’t want that because then you just wasted your money.
Frank: Okay, I decide I want to find a ghost writer, I go on to LinkedIn, I see… have many people—let’s say 20 people come up. How important are endorsements to…
Nancy: The profile?
Frank: Yeah. To the profile, to me selecting you as even someone to interview, to consider you ghostwriting my project… In other words, how important are endorsements? And should you ask for them?
Richard: Well endorsements are almost worthless because LinkedIn does it automatically and there’s no validation of them. What is important is recommendation.
Frank: Okay.
Richard: But you want to look at it as the recommendation that somebody has, of course all of the recommendations are going to be good because nobody’s going to write—no you can decline a recommendation… You’re not going to have a bad recommendation. But you can look at them and look at the wording and see how many there are and… First of all, if he doesn’t have any recommendations and only has one from his previous boss, that’s a red flag. You need to have some recommendations.
Frank: Okay.
Richard: I’ve got a several dozen from people I’ve worked with over the years. Every week actually you should be asking people for recommendations. There’s [unclear] asking by the way. You give it to them. You say, “Please recommend me and here’s my suggestion.” Write it for them. Because, the people you want to recommend you are keynote speakers, speakers, authors, famous people, [unclear] level, you know, CEO, CFOs type people, high level people, people who have a name. They’re busy. So you want to write your recommendation for them in the ask for recommendation box and say, “If this is okay with you, why don’t you recommend me using this text.” They’ll change a word or two and send it back to you 90% of the time. If you don’t give them a recommendation, 2% of the time because they’re busy. They’ll tell you “For sure, I’d be glad to” you’ll never get it.
Frank: Now when you say they’ll send it back to you, they don’t have to go into their own LinkedIn profile in order to recommend or you?
Richard: They “okay” it. They say “[unclear] this recommendation’s fine.”
Frank: Oh so I can write it myself and send it using LinkedIn? I can write it, send it to you and say “would you approve this?”?
Richard: Yeah. LinkedIn allows you to put in a comment field when you send the recommendation and usually people just take the please recommend me default but you can put text in there that says “Please use this text” all they have to do is copy and paste that into the field.
Frank: Okay.
Richard: And then you’ve got it. Saves a lot of time, you get a good recommendation and you should have a lot of those. They should be from high level, well-known people.
Frank: And that can result… You have seen where that has some positive or significant results?
Richard: Yeah, I’ve used it… vetting employees, vetting potential suppliers and vendors… You don’t got any recommendations dude, what’s going on? You don’t know how to use LinkedIn which [unclear] as a red flag in the modern age or people don’t like you. Which one is it?
Nancy: Wow.
Frank: Okay.
Richard: And that’s a frank conversation by the way.
Frank: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Nancy: Yeah.
Frank: Should you accept any request? I mean just any request that comes through on LinkedIn? Or how do you vet people that you don’t personally know?
Richard: I read the summary of their profile. I’ll first look at the picture and then the headline and then the summary. And then if I still don’t know, and it’s just a glance… If I still don’t know, you can message them once they connect for free and you send them a message saying “Who are you? Why are you connecting with me?” and usually you’re going to get a “Well because you were there,” okay… “Thank you for the connection [unclear] good bye.” I like having a reason. I don’t report people for spam.
Frank: Okay.
Richard: Because [unclear] called a Lion LinkedIn open networker which generally means all network with anybody but I actually get a subset. I won’t report you for spam but I’m not going to network you if I don’t have a use for you.
Nancy: Got it.
Frank: I used to—
Richard: I don’t have the time to have a 50,000 network.
Frank: Got it. When I use to post things in one of my LinkedIn groups, I was popular… and I don’t remember what that popularity was called… Do you know what it is, Richard?
Nancy: There’s a name for it?
Frank: Yeah, there’s something… It’s like you’re an influencer or something like that…
Richard: That’s the name.
Frank: Is that—? That is what it’s called.
Richard: You become—well there’s an official influencer that LinkedIn actually creates. People who are influencers, become influencers on LinkedIn. But then you also become an influencer, people know that you’re somebody they can go to for help… for knowledge. If that’s what you want to be.
Frank: Okay. And there’s some kind of article or there’s a way you can respond to questions, right? Somebody can post a question and you respond to it and you can be rated… not berated, not be berated…
Nancy: Right, right.
Frank: But you can become—
Nancy: Get a rating.
Frank: rating.
Nancy: Yeah.
Frank: Based on whatever your response to it and that helps you also? Are you familiar with this? Because I—
Richard: No I’m not.
Frank: Okay.
Richard: I don’t believe that’s on LinkedIn.
Frank: Okay, alright.
Nancy: So Richard, what do you do if what your… how you want to brand yourself is not necessarily related to what you’re actually doing?
Richard: Oh you have a complete control over what’s in your LinkedIn profile so you can write anything you want. So if you want to brand yourself as a paper hanger but you’re actually a writer,—
Nancy: Yes.
Richard: —then write yourself up as a paper hanger, and you’ll be branded as a paper hanger. You just need to be… That’s the way you need to work LinkedIn.
Nancy: Okay.
Richard: That can happen when you’re trying to start a new job or you’re trying to change careers like I changed from computers over the writing.
Nancy: Right.
Richard: So you…
Nancy: And I think you say in your book that you can do that but you want to discuss what you used to do and how it—
Richard: Correct.
Nancy: —helps you be what you’re becoming.
Richard: Well, your LinkedIn profile should be one integrated story. If I read the whole thing which I’m probably not going to, but if I did—
Nancy: Right, right…
Richard: —I would want to be able to know how you got to where you were and how were you started from supports where you are.
Nancy: Okay.
Richard: It needs to be a story that I can read “Okay, so this person went to college and wanted to become a doctor but he decided to be a geologist and then he went and became an aerospace engineer, well that’s kind of weird.” But mention all links together somehow. In writing, we would call it a transition.
Frank: Do you… Are there any underused features with LinkedIn? Stuff that you say… You tell your people that “Look, a lot of people use these things but I strongly suggest that you do.”
Richard: Well the most underused feature of LinkedIn is LinkedIn itself. A lot of people… First of all, the majority just throw up their resume. And that’s a mistake. LinkedIn should be in the first person. It’s as if we were in a room together and I was talking to you. So I’m going to say “I”, “my”, “us”, “we”… I’m not going to say “Richard did this” in my own profile. That’s just silly.
The second thing is, is that if you hired LinkedIn Makeover to write your profile and the you came back in 6 months and say, “Hey it ain’t doing nothing for me.” I would know you’re not actually using LinkedIn. Which means, you need to be on it all the time atleast several times a week, writing things, posting things, changing things, updating things, getting recommendations, you need to be doing all that stuff because it’s networking the influence is on the word “working”. As if you were walking a trade for or a convention or something. You walk around, you shake hands, you got your business cards, you handout fliers, you listen to people, you talk to people… This is what you need to be doing in LinkedIn. Or it’s just another social media thing with the page sitting and it’s kind of dead. You need to make it alive. If you’re not doing that, you’re not going to [unclear]. You’re not going to get people connecting with you and nobody even care.
Frank: What are some of the things that you suggest posting regularly? Is it your own content, other people’s content, a mix?
Richard: Yea. It’s a mix. What I do is I’m a writer, so I’m on the internet researching all the time. So also when I cross an article, I’ll post it. I’ll say “I found this article on Correct Spelling of this word and I think you all should read it. I think you’d find it funny.” I’ll find it interesting. I also post my own articles because I have a blog so I post links to those. You just post a mix of things. You try not to overdo it. Don’t post a few things a day. Don’t post math questions, don’t post political stuff. Political stuff has no place unless you’re a politician or unless your brand is politics. It has no place on LinkedIn because you’re going to basically alienate people. Keep it to business. Post a lot. Because it falls off the wall really fast.
Frank: Yeah, okay, okay. What’s I the future for LinkedIn particularly now that they have Microsoft behind the and what’s just in the future of public, on social media networking with business, period?
Richard: Well that’s a very interesting question. We could do another whole show on it. I’m actually ghostwriting a book about the internet of things. I’m not going to get any further than that but it’s going to be published early next year and the internet of things is coming big time. What that means is the amount of data that is kept about every single person in the cloud is dramatic where if I have access to that information, if I was an advertiser and things, I would know everything about everything that you do all the time and I can predict. I know you’re very uncomfortable with that but that’s just the way it is. You’re going to have a home alarm system, you’re going to have… lights that follow you around, you’re going to have a smart thermostat, you’re going to have a smart car, all these things report back to the cloud and LinkedIn is also in the cloud and linked together and form a coherent picture of you that can make your life a lot better.
Frank: And worse.
Richard: Well…
Frank: Depending on who has the information.
Richard: [unclear] incorporations, not the government. Government won’t have access to most of this data. This is for corporations to use so that the corporations in the district and the power companies can go, “oh you’re using this—it’s hot today. We need to give Richard more power because he has more computers than most people and he’s going to drink more water so we need to make sure he’s got more water. Well we don’t want him to use his laundry because it’s hot. So we’re going to turn off the laundry thing so he can’t do it so we can preserve energy during the day.” Those are the kind of things that’s going to decide for you.
Frank: Interesting.
Richard: And LinkedIn is an integrated part of that in a way because it provides data about a person that’s put into the whole picture.
Frank: Okay.
Richard: It’s fascinating and… it’s coming and it is amazing.
Nancy: The internet of things…
Richard: Yeah. We could do… when the book comes out in a couple of months, we should do another show on it. You’ll be amazed.
Nancy: Okay.
Frank: Alright.
Nancy: Cool.
Frank: You’re listening to Frank Relationships and we’ve been talking with the author of “Focus on LinkedIn: Create a Personal Brand on LinkedIn to Make More Money, Generate Leads and Find Employment”. He’s Richard Lowe, Jr. Last time Richard, would you let our folks know how they can find you?
Richard: To buy my books, you can go to coolauthor.com and they’re all listed there. if you want to find out more information about me, go to thewritingking.com. I also have a personal website richardlowe.com.
Frank: Along today’s journey, we’ve discussed how to create a great LinkedIn profile, what to post on your profile and why it is important to use LinkedIn. Thank you to my co-host, Nancy; thank to Jeff Newman, my engineer; and thank you to my super duper guest, Richard Lowe. You’ve been great.
Richard: Thank you.
Frank: I hope you’ve had as much fun as I’ve had hanging out with today’s ensemble.
As always, it’s my wish for you to walk away from this conversation with a heaping helping of useful information that I hope you create a relation that’s as loving and accepting as possible.
Let us know what you think of today’s show at facebook.com/relationshipflove, on Twitter at @mrfranklove or at franklove.com. If you’re listening via Blog Talk Radio, make sure you like us there and if via iTunes, make sure you subscribe so that you can get the show each week.
This is Frank love.
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