TCC Podcast #238: The Business Marathon with Marietta Gentles Crawford

This week on The Copywriter Club podcast, Marietta Gentles Crawford drops the secrets to standing out on LinkedIn without changing who you are. Marietta is a Brand Strategist and LinkedIn expert whose focus is on growing a strong personal presence *like a real human.* Amp up your personal brand and LinkedIn profile by taking notes and following along. We also covered: The once upon a time of an about section. (Hint: It was called a summary section.) How to support the authority of your brand. Pulling quality traits from every experience you’ve had and why it’s highly-valuable to your clients. Why you should never have to chase your audience, and instead, keep them knocking at your door. What not to do on LinkedIn, so you can avoid being the pushy salesperson online. Why you shouldn’t change who you are from platform to platform. - Your voice should be the same everywhere you go. The secret to pitching to large businesses and landing the gig. LinkedIn for slackers 101 - Do more with less. How to turn your LinkedIn profile into a client lead magnet. Why LinkedIn is tried, tested, and true for growth and authority. The ins and outs of writing for yourself and why we tend to lose the clarity that we see in other people. The importance of visibility and becoming a highly sought-after copywriter. (People buy from who they know exists.) Why you shouldn’t chase squirrels and give yourself a break instead. How to structure your days for maximum productivity as a parent. The mistakes of underestimating how long a project will take and taking on projects just for the money. Defining what growth means for YOU, and why you need to run your business like a marathon. How to create more than just financial goals, plus the power of creating mistakes. Hit the play button and soak up the brilliance that is Marietta. Prefer to read? Check out the transcript below. The people and stuff we mentioned on the show:   Marietta’s Website Marietta’s LinkedIn guide Kira’s website Rob’s website The Copywriter Club Facebook Group The Copywriter Underground Think Tank Bree’s Episode Dave’s Episode Selena’s Episode      Full Transcript: Rob:  Is running a business, feel like a race against your competition or a race against yourself. You find yourself setting bigger goals, or working harder, and doing more only to figure out that you need to slow down and choose, maybe, a different race. Sometimes we chase the wrong goals, stuff like 10K a month, or six figure years, maybe even wanting to be a million dollar copywriter and our guests for the 238 episode of the Copywriter Club Podcast is personal brand strategist, Marietta Gentles Crawford. She compared her own business to running a race as we talked to her and she shared a lot of, really, good ideas for using LinkedIn more effectively. Kira:  Before we hear what Marietta has to share with us, this podcast episode is brought to you by the Copywriter Think Tank. The Think Tank is a private mastermind for copywriters and other marketers who want to challenge each other, create new revenue streams in their businesses, receive coaching from the two of us and ultimately grow to six figures or more. Up until last year, we only opened a Think Tank once a year, but today we invite a few new members each quarter. If you've been looking for a mastermind to help you grow, go to copywriterthinktank.com to learn more. Rob:  Okay. So, let's jump into our interview with Marietta with a first question about how she became a brand strategist and a LinkedIn specialist. Kira:  Okay. So, Marietta, we'd love to start with your story. How did you end up as a personal brand strategist and LinkedIn expert? Marietta Gentles Crawford:  I really stumbled into it, to be honest. I was an entrepreneur as I call myself, I was working within different companies as a technical writer and trainer, and I usually ended up hated my jobs and felt like I wanted to make more money, or I wasn't getting promoted, so I became what was called a job hopper at that time. And I was writing my resumes, and going through interviews, and through the whole interviewing process while I was trying to ruin my career, I realized that it was my communication skills that really allowed me to pivot in so many different directions from where I went to school. I graduated with a degree in English and I was able to translate my skills into accounting, and then to pharmaceutical, to retail, to education, all over place. And so, I realized through the process that it was less about my skills and more about the qualities that people liked about me, why they would hire me. And I realized that it was this whole thing at that time, we're talking about 10 years ago, over 10 years ago, that was called branding. So that's how I evolved into the whole process, because I became so great at it I started doing it for other people and charging, and that's how I started on my business as a side hustle, helping job seekers. Rob:  So, tell us how you went about finding those first couple of clients that you started working for. What were you doing in order for them to say, "Yeah. I want to work with Marietta." Marietta Gentles Crawford:  Now in 2021, or where we are now, I can say that it was content marketing. In 2014, around 2013/2014, LinkedIn was this thing that people didn't know what to do with, everyone plopped their resume, or copy and paste it there, and we knew that job seekers were there. And then there was this thing called a publishing platform. I love to write. So, I basically, just started teaching what I know. I started talking about my experiences, how to land interviews. I really just started writing. And as I was starting to write, I realized that people were sending me messages like, "Oh, okay. How can I work with you? I saw your article that was very inspiring." Or people would find me on my website and say, "I saw your article on LinkedIn and I want to leave my job too." So, it became this thing that even before it was a thing, I was selling my skills through my expertise. I was writing about what I know, not only through my personal experience, but how it can help other people who were looking for jobs, who were transitioning career, who were starting businesses, and I was able to turn this into, "You know what? It's more than just your skills. It's about what makes you unique and what makes you different." And that's how I was able to transition from not only because of having a side business, but in real business, and eventually working with entrepreneurs and small business owners who wanted to use LinkedIn to do the same thing. Kira:  Let's talk more about LinkedIn. What's, really, critical today, especially for the copywriters listening. If they want to build their expertise, they feel like they don't stand out online anywhere and they want to focus on LinkedIn. They know their clients are on LinkedIn. So, what can they start doing today on LinkedIn? Especially because it does feel in a way really crowded on LinkedIn. It feels like there's so many copywriters on LinkedIn. Is it even worth it? And what do I need to do to stand out in a crowd of platform? Marietta Gentles Crawford:  I love that question. It is getting more crowded than now that people are like, "Oh, it's actually cool to be on LinkedIn. Gary V is on LinkedIn, other writer are on LinkedIn." But I would say that the thing for copywriters that are looking to leverage LinkedIn, or there to get a copywriting gig, whether it's a freelance gig, an agency, in-house or their own business, is to start from the point of your personal brand. I'm going to remove the buzzword out of it. Because I know some people don't even love the word. Let's start from a point of your personality, your characteristics, other than your skills, because the thing about it is that the reason why it's hard for some people to stand out is because everybody is saying the same thing. If you are a copywriter and your niche is beauty, you're going to pretty much say, hey, you have proven skills in beauty writing, you've worked for certain agencies or certain companies, you're excellent writer. And that's one of the favorite things I see when writers, we say, where excellent writers, and it's like, "Well, it's supposed to be." So, I would say start from what makes you unique. A lot of times it's that story. It's your personal experience that makes you a better writer and not necessarily those skills, like attention to details, and researcher, at maybe people may think, "Okay. This is what I'm supposed to focus on." Rob:  In addition, then, to that personal, "Here's how you get attention," what do you do then on LinkedIn, maybe other platforms as well, but on LinkedIn, particularly, in order to build credibility and your authority so that it's not just, "Hey, I noticed Rob on LinkedIn," but, "Look, Rob is definitely the preeminent person in this industry." Or, "This is definitely somebody that I want to connect with." Marietta Gentles Crawford:  I would say first thing is taking an advantage of, about section, because it really a missed opportunity for many people who don't necessarily understand the importance of it. For example, I like to show how LinkedIn has evolved, because if you recall, the about section, actually used to be the summary section which is a summary and then they rebranded it as the about. And this is a great opportunity for copywriters because that's what we do. That's what you do. You tell a story. You do it for your clients, you do it in a way to inspire people to act. But, yes, it's a missed opportunity for your own LinkedIn profile, where maybe you don't tell a story about your unique skills or what brought you to the path that you are. So,