VAs and LinkedIn with Sue Gresham

0:03 Hi, welcome to the podcast that explores what virtual assistants want business owners to know when they start asking themselves the question, hey, do I need a VA? I'm Rachel Davila. And after 18 years as a virtual assistant going it alone, I experienced the steep learning curve from the other side of the VA client relationship when I hired my own VA. Joining me on this podcast is a group of friends and colleagues. who all have their own take on what busy entrepreneurs need to know to find, hire, and work with a virtual assistant, and mindfully answer the question, hey, do I need a VA? Let's get this episode started.

0:45 Hi, everybody. Welcome back to a new episode of Hey, Do I Need a VA? The Podcast. I'm your host, Rachel Davila, and with me is Leanne Oremli. Quinn's behind the scenes. helping us out and Brie is actually on an airplane right now flying to San Diego so that Leanne and I can see her in person. Okay I will put my excitement away on that because we are welcoming a special guest Sue Gresham. So we've been working on the premise that this season of our podcast our specialist who kind of get lumped into the VA realm and social media is a big player and LinkedIn especially can be a very interesting place to navigate when you're a business owner just doing it. But then when you bring on a VA to help you with your social media, LinkedIn has all kinds of rules that Facebook and Instagram don't seem to have.

1:56 Sue Gresham is here to help us unpack LinkedIn strategies for clients and how a VA can help. So Sue Gresham is a LinkedIn strategist who helps professionals build genuine connections and visibility on the platform. She has years of experience helping business owners grow their presence authentically without falling into the copy paste trap. So in this episode, we're going to talk about what parts of the LinkedIn strategy you can delegate, what to keep on your own plate, and how to build a collaborative relationship that feels safe, authentic, and effective. So let's do it. Sue, you've been helping professionals make the most of LinkedIn for years. How did you get started and what drew you to specialize? What a great question. I got started back in 2009. And to be honest with you, it was because I'd lost my job in 2008. And LinkedIn has been known as the job search platform where people will go to find, obviously to find jobs and to connect with the employers and all of that. And so I jumped on LinkedIn for that purpose. But what I found out about LinkedIn is that it's so much more than that. The very, very quick story is when I lost my job, they took my computer, right? That's what they do. They take your computer, and that's

3:28 where all my people were. That's where all my network was. It was basically my Rolodex of everyone that I worked with for years. So when I lost my job, I was kind of out in the middle of nowhere. I found LinkedIn, I found it as a job search tool, but then I realized how important it was for relationships. And so I just fell in love with it and I became a certified strategist for social media and the rest is history. I started my business and LinkedIn is my go -to favorite, the one platform that sometimes bugs me the most, but is also the one that I feel is the best and the truest platform of all of them out there.

4:08 Obviously your favorite. What makes it better, more favorite for you? I love that because realistically, I don't like to sell. I don't like to be worrying about now. I know, I know this doesn't happen anymore, but if you look at the other sites, you know, you're not looking at cat pictures, right? It's really about the relationships. And to me, the greatest part about LinkedIn, it's yes, it's got this great place to put your profile and it's got this great ability to be posting content, but it's what you do behind the scenes. It's in the inbox. It's the relationships that you build and the conversations that you start to have and find people and then move off the platform to do your real relationship building and nurturing. And I love it because you can be your real self. My real self happens to be a business woman. And so it's a lot easier for me personally. to be on LinkedIn than it is to be a fake person on, say, Instagram. And to be honest with you, I don't take very good pictures anyway. So Instagram is not really going to be a great site for me, if you know what I mean.

5:20 So that's kind of why I love it the most. So as a strategist, what is a strategy that business owners can utilize with LinkedIn? You said it wasn't. just about the posting, but the stuff that happens behind the scenes. So it's interesting because even since we first talked Rachel back, what, six weeks ago, LinkedIn has announced some major changes. They've announced that they have a new algorithm and they've announced that they are kind of, I'm going to say ultimately kind of switching course a little bit. So I want to just mention what that means. LinkedIn is really, instead of just about jobs now, it's really a branding platform. And for a business person, what that does is it gives a business person a chance to show their real, their expertise, right? But on top of that, it's also the place where you can find people. You can get some internet traction. You know, your posts do show up on the Google search. But the best part is that it's when you get to meet people, it's networking.

6:28 And I think, you know, when I used to first start talking about this platform, I would call it a professional networking platform. And I firmly believe that that's exactly what it is. But now it's ramped it up just a smidge. So not only is it networking, but it's branding too. And so for a business owner, Those of us, you know, we know that we need people. We know that we need referrals. We know that that's how most people get their business. Right there, especially for smaller businesses, they don't have a lot of money for advertising. And so LinkedIn is a perfect place to be able to spend. Yes, a little bit of time capital, not monetary capital in developing those relationships, showing your brand and then being able to grow your business from that. The shift has been happening and it's been gradual, but it's finally at that point now where it really is a combination of networking and personal branding. and well, or business branding. I think that might explain some of the changes I've seen on LinkedIn recently. Yes, it's been crazy. It has been crazy. And there's been a lot of talk on LinkedIn about about issues with, you know, things not getting the traction about what you're seeing on your feed, about who is coming in front of you, who's showing up in your inbox, who's showing up your invitations.

7:51 All of that has been because Realistically, and I don't know the exact number, but realistically there were at least 25 different algorithms that were at play with LinkedIn. So there was all of these things that were really siloed. Now it's all under this one big, big algorithm that they've actually named. They've called it 360 Brew, and they've actually named it and they have explained what it's about. And for a business owner, what I think is one of the best parts of it now is it's language based. So your voice and the things that you say, I mean, it picks up the algorithm, the AI of LinkedIn picks all of that up now and is able to help you with a better experience. And this is brand new. I mean, this is like really crazy brand new coming out in the last month that people are starting to really understand how this new thing works. So I'm not an expert at that point yet, but we're getting there. But a lot of the things that I've been talking about for years have never changed.

8:50 And in fact, it's actually strengthening this, like the relationship building. So it's kind of cool, but it's frustrating too, because when it changes, it doesn't tell you it's changing. It's just all of a sudden, oops, there it is. Right, right, right. That makes sense. So to help with the frustration, can VAs do stuff and what should they not do? Oh, okay. So along with this new algorithm came out a brand new terms of service. And I think it's really important to speak about that for just a minute, because some of the many things that have been happening is LinkedIn has been kicking a lot of people off of LinkedIn. They've been really trying to hone in so that it is actually the authentic voices and authentic conversation. And so what has always been in the terms of service, but is now is being highlighted even more since literally, I think November 4th. Third was when it really came live. Um, and I looked at my calendar was no more allowing someone to log in and it always has been, but no more allowing someone to log in using your password. It is against their terms of service. They know because of the. Computer stuff that's above my head. They know when you're logging in. not as yourself but as someone else.

10:08 As a business owner if you ask a VA to do your work for you inside of LinkedIn and they are logging in as you then there's a very strong possibility that you will lose your account and they could lose theirs. So now are there ways to get around it? You're not going to hear this from me but from what I understand you can use LastPass to help you through that. However, from what I'm hearing is that, you know, LastPass will still talk about, it will still see the address that you're coming from. The computer address, you guys probably know it. The IP address.

10:53 Thank you. Thank you. it still could cause some issues. So there's other things that VAs can be doing for you without actually logging in. And here's the other thing. You're thinking of this as a networking platform. You don't want to be having someone that is answering all of your emails for you or all your inbox messages or sending your invites because they're not you, right? And there's nothing worse than having someone They're reaching out to someone and then you realize that it's not them you're talking to. It feels slimy, but it also feels as though you've been conned. So as far as what a VA can do for you, there's a lot of things, but to actually send your invitations and to actually comment and do some of those live things, it's against the terms for them to do that. So I hate to say it, but that's kind of the rule. It's kind of the way it is. Unfortunately, I do know people that have lost their accounts because they have used people to do their work for them. So, and that would be a shame. That'd be horrible. Just like there are right now, there are these agencies.

12:13 and I'm calling them agencies, and that you might even be getting hit up by them in your inbox where they're telling you that they can 3X your business or that they can get the comments for you or they can help build your relationships. Most of those are used by automation, by getting in and taking over your account. Literally, you give them your password or they can get into your account and they take it over and they act as you. Those are bots. Those are completely against LinkedIn's terms. And LinkedIn just this past week, one of their development people created a video that went out on LinkedIn saying that if you are using Chrome extensions to do your LinkedIn work and to get your list of people, to scrape your contacts, those kinds of things, you are susceptible to being kicked off the platform.

13:12 So it kind of doesn't bode well for having that kind of thing happen. You put the fear of God in me. For our audience, Sue did an amazing workshop on, I think it was the 10 strategies of LinkedIn. And when she got to that point, My VA was logging in as me to just schedule things, not to interact in any way. And I wrote him right after that. I said, OK, we need an option that will do the same thing where it's not you. And that's what HubSpot can do for you. That's what any of those schedulers can do. So as a business owner, You can certainly, and I would highly recommend that you have your VA's actually load your content into those schedulers for you, because that's kind of a pain in the neck anyway. And that takes a lot of time. It takes a lot of time to be posting your own content all the time. So that is a, it's a great function for a VA to do. Great function.

14:15 And those are still okay? Yes, those are still okay. HubSpot. And buffer and there's quite a few of those out there. I can't think of all, all of the list of them, to be honest with you, but a number of them and HubSpot, by the way, they're actually partners with LinkedIn. And so using a scheduler that is one of those bigger name schedulers to do your loading in it is actually absolutely okay. And the other thing too, is that HubSpot and I used to use HubSpot a long time ago would give you some really good analytics. for what was happening above and beyond what LinkedIn offers. So that is also something that you can have your VA do is manage those analytics, provided they know how to do that. You know, that's always the thing. That particular piece of the puzzle is great. Have them loaded in.

15:08 Then the next piece of the puzzle is Having that communication with the VA so that you guys have figured out either you direct it or they decide based on their social media knowledge When these posts are going to be going then it's your responsibility as the voice as the person that is doing That is the creator of the content. It is your responsibility and your obligation I hate to use that word, but it's true to go in to review what's happening on your on your posts and for you to use your real authentic voice in commenting and answering the questions and being the person that does the commenting follow -up okay and you don't have to do it there used to be this rule about the magic hour and you need to do it within an hour posts are lasting staying online for you know they're they're staying live for what a week sometimes two weeks i had a post i did like two and a half weeks ago and somebody just commented on it yesterday Because it's and as long as it's still getting traction you as the owner of the voice you should be going in and commenting But here's the thing your VA can be the one to tell you when you have to go in So you can have your VA manually monitoring what's happening? You can also have your VA help you depending on how much your VA can do with your voice. And I think that's really critical. If your VA has your voice, if your person has your voice and can speak in the words that you're speaking, to have them

16:39 actually help craft a response. Or if there's a question to help gather some of the information that you may need to create that response, that's another really good thing that someone can do for you. But it's you that would then go in and be the person, even if you're copying and pasting. I do believe it should be your voice, but I understand how I could tell you that the VA that I've used, she writes way better than I do. And so I would much rather sometimes have her, you know, hey, how do I answer this one? And rely on her for her help for that. In past episodes, we've talked about the different types of VAs. Our terms are doer and collaborator. Doers are more task -oriented.

17:31 Collaborators are more of that solution, big picture types. At what point would a business owner talk to you about strategy? And then at what point then would they look for a VA for the implementation piece? And when they get to that point, what might be some things that a doer is better at than a collaborator and kind of maybe give some insight as to that? Yeah, you know, that's a that's a great question, too. So first of all, we can get all worked up about strategy. OK, and best practices. I like to think about best practices and strategy in the same in the same bucket, so to speak. OK, when someone is looking to increase their LinkedIn presence, the first thing is that. really determining what it is that they want to do, right? Why is it that they want to be using LinkedIn and why is it, or any site or anything that they're doing, what is going to be the desired outcome? So from a strategic strategy point of view, someone that understands social media, understands LinkedIn, understands what your business goals are, who your clients are, and that's so important. You've got to understand, and you have to think about who it is that you want to find, okay? And who do you want to find you? And what do you want them to do once they have found you? So part of the strategy piece of it is thinking a little

19:04 bit ahead about not just how you're going to portray yourself in your profile, that's one piece, but what is it you're going to do once you get those people coming in? So part of the strategy piece is what is your follow -up like? What will you be saying to them in the introductory stages of your relationship building within LinkedIn, and then at what point do you move them off of LinkedIn into your regular process, sales funnel, whatever you happen to call that. So the strategic piece of that, that's where that comes in. okay and that's where somebody like me or even someone that is a social media strategist expert you know somebody that's where those kind those people can help you marketing people are very good at that also your marketing person will help you figure out what what it is that you might want to get across right and your timing for it then the next piece is How do you make that transition, right? And I think that's what I'm hearing is how do you make that transition and how do you know when you want to do it? The doer person is the person that can actually take what you've given them. Like if you're creating your own content can actually take that content and then can load it in like we were just talking about earlier, like into your HubSpot or whatever you're using. OK, the doer person can look at the analytics.

20:31 The doer person can help do some. research on some of your competitors within LinkedIn and find out about who they are. They could do a little bit of the search to help you find people, keeping in mind though that the search function on LinkedIn... If you have a paid account, it's different, but most people don't. So I'm going to talk as though you don't have a premium account. If you don't have a premium account, the search function is really the basis of who's actually doing the search. And it looks at that person's network versus the overall network and things. So your virtual assistant may not have the same level of network that you've got. But if you have a paid account, then you can do some of that research and then you can have your virtual assistant, go in and actually search themselves once you give them the name and see if that person is someone who you want to be following up with.

21:28 Okay, so that those are some of the things that a doer can do. A doer can also help you with some of the follow -up later after you've gotten off of LinkedIn, okay, and can do some of that research for emails and that. So those are the things that a doer could do. A collaborator could be someone that could be writing your content for you. It could be somebody that is helping you with a strategy and helping map out what you want to post and when you want to post, or can help you figure out who it is that you're trying to find and do some best practices like that. At this moment, I do want to add one more caveat. We all know AI is amazing and wonderful.

22:12 Part of this new algorithm is that LinkedIn is very aware. It is now its own AI. So it knows when AI is speaking to AI. It knows when it's AI content and when it's your voice. And so part of this deal now with this new algorithm is that if LinkedIn The LinkedIn algorithm senses that the articles in the posts are really heavy AI generated and they're not your voice. It will downgrade and you will lose the traction of that and people won't see it. So a collaborator VA now in this case is going to have to be able to take whatever research is being done. And because we know everybody uses, we know, I mean, it's just a thing. We know that we're using AI now, Jatton and Claude and all the rest of those to help us with our, with our work. Okay. Just make sure that it's being rewritten in your voice.

23:14 So that means a collaborator is gonna have to know what your voice is too. I used to write for people I will be honest with you. I can't I can't be your voice You know, so some people have that great skill. It's not something that I can do But so those are the I think just those are some of the things that they can be doing There's another thing they could be doing too is they could be doing the research For on the AI to get you what you can be talking about and that that could be a depending on on your level of VA that That would be a great thing is helping you decide what content to post and what to do. They can be the ones that are going into your Canva or into their Canva and creating those beautiful carousels, okay? And they can be the ones that are monitoring that. So there's actually a lot in the posting world that they can do.

24:02 In the networking world, it's really more of a search function. It really needs to be your voice and your invitations, but they can help you craft the invitations too. to connect, you know, but that's kind of so that I think is the difference between the two. You're hitting all the all the topics. Go girl. One of the things that I have found that is like a big mistake. OK, and I have made this mistake so I can talk from personal experience is I have anticipated that my person that I've hired could do more than they could. And so some of that is for me not being very clear on what I wanted. her to do, the other is not asking the right questions.

24:47 And so I highly recommend that as you are looking at this, and here's the thing, a good VA, I mean, LinkedIn is only one of the many platforms. You may very well want to have a presence on TikTok or Instagram or Facebook. What else is there is Pinterest? I mean, there's a lot else. Oh, and by the way, that's a whole nother thing too, is a VA could take your posts and pin them on your Pinterest for you very easily. So that that, which is a huge search engine. So that's another thing that they could do. I just thought of that as I was talking about Pinterest. Just double check that they actually have the experience of using LinkedIn themselves. Okay, because a VA that uses LinkedIn themselves understands how the platform works. And they're understanding the things to look at and they're understanding and they're seeing with their own eyes, some of the things that are working and some of the things that aren't working, but they're also then they know how, how to anticipate some of the glitches and some of the things that can happen. Unfortunately, LinkedIn tends to change things and they don't tell people. And they roll things out very slowly. So the other thing too is you're LinkedIn may be at a different spot

26:17 than your VA's. And so having that conversation with them It may make a difference in what they can and can't do for you. And what I'm speaking about right now is that the algorithm, not the algorithm, the analytics, they rolled out a bunch of changes in analytics and things that people could see and things that were available. And in the short thing of that, it took them three months to roll it out, two months. So your VA might have something, they may have something else. And I just thought of something else a VA could do for you. I know. It's like all of a sudden this brainstorm is just popping here. Love watching your brain work. I love watching your brain work. Here's another thing a VA could do for you is in this relationship building, people are looking at your profile. So what you can do for your VA, what you can do is you can take a look at who's viewed my profile. Oh, I guess I'm going to tell you how to do this too.

27:18 Look at who's viewed my profile. All right. And you look at the person. You know, it shows you who they are. What you can do is you can go look at their profile. Right and you can share that with your VA on LinkedIn or you can grab their LinkedIn URL and share it with your VA and Have your VA then do more research about what you want to how you might want to manage them So that that way and and for you It's just a matter of okay quick grab the URL and flip it over very possibly that might be something that you could do too to help you with the Finding out who's looking at your profile and what's going on with that? That might be something that they could also do with you. So in reality, you know what?

28:00 I need to write an article about this. This is making me think this. I need to write an article because we just came up with a bunch of things that could be done that really make it manageable for help with your, and that's the whole thing. You want to have help. That's what you're looking for is you want to offload the stuff that's tedious and the things so that you could do what you do best. And so by giving some of these you know, other ideas and things to your to your assistants and your VA, it's a win win for you for sure. Well, and it's interesting too, because what it sounds like is there's still a number of components that are still within the client realm before it can get to the VA support realm. Because I mean, Half the stuff you shared, I'm like, I don't do that. You want to connect? Let's connect!

28:55 Woohoo! A lot of the strategy, I don't have that. So, like you said, knowing your why and what you want out of it, I'm just learning. I'm not necessarily that type of goal setter. But, you know, two years ago, I told Leanne, I just want to get to 500 plus connections on LinkedIn. Like that was my goal. But I knew subconsciously that I wanted to do that organically and not just accept everyone that came my way. I wanted people in my connections that I'd met, that I'd talked to, that I'd interacted with in some way. So I guess I did have a goal, but I didn't necessarily set out for it. Yeah. And as a business owner, we network all the time. Right? You know, we go to events, whether they're online or in person, and we meet people, you know, in the, in the old days, the old days, they used to hand us a business card, right? Now that they might be showing you their QR code of their LinkedIn profile.

30:03 Okay. Well, and that's great and connect with them that way and do those kinds of things. But then you can, but then you can use someone else to help you do a little bit more research about them so that you can figure out who they are and they can do that. a VA can go in and look at someone's profile. Okay. So, and if you've given them the ideas, like for instance, if you decide that Rachel and Leanne, as an example, as you guys are looking, you know, and you've got your podcast and you're looking for guests, right? You can do a search on people who are speakers, right? But, Not everybody tells people on their profile their speakers. So your VA can be on the lookout and take a look at the profile and maybe read it a little more in -depth than you would to see if that's something that they do. Or take a look and see what they've been talking about lately and if they happen to talk about it. So there's a lot of things that you can have help with that can then be implemented for you. I'm a big proponent and I try. I wish I could tell you I was perfect because I'm not.

31:11 But I'm a big proponent of trying to have a conversation with everyone that you connect with. And that means in that connection process, so you click accept. Hey, thanks. I'm so glad we're connected. And then take a look at, and you take a look at their profile and you see what they're about and you just ask them a question. And if they're interested in conversing with you, then that kind of keeps moving them along on the track, so to speak, right? You know, it might take them a week to do it because they're only using LinkedIn once in a while, just like you as business owners are probably not going in there every day, right? You know, I get it. I was not on LinkedIn on Wednesday at all because I was swamped with all sorts of other things. So I totally get it. I totally get it. But again, these are things that a strategist can help you create your strategy, but it's not just a checklist. Okay, there's a there's got to be a reason behind why you're doing what you're doing. Yeah, I've got one more for you, Sue. So our listeners in some cases are overworked, overwhelmed business owners, and some are just starting. Yes. When would they come to you? And what can you do for them? I love that question. Thank you for asking. I love it. Well, there's a A number of different ways or different reasons and times to come to me, okay? One of them is when they're first starting out, helping them create their brand on LinkedIn.

32:43 And I really don't like that word brand, but that's the one that everybody uses. But it's really helping them keep, you know, like what is it that they want to say about themselves on? How do we get that message across in their profile? Okay. So I can help them set that up. I don't set it up for you because it's against the rules. So I'm not going to go in and do it, but I give my clients all the help they need and the word smithing and all of that to help them so they can just pop in the profile. That's the very basics that and, and helping them figure out what is their goal. You know, so many people, and in fact, I'm doing a workshop next week and I'm calling it emergency. And I know it's too late for this podcast, but I'm, I'm doing an emergency. profile rehab next week because of this change in the algorithm. The very first question I'm going to ask is, what is your elevator speech? And does your profile talk about the things that you talk about in your elevator speech?

33:36 And if not, we need to put it in there. So that's one thing. The other thing then as they get moving along, I can help them work on the things like finding their connections. How do we actually use the search function here? And how do we reach out and helping them come up with that strategy for those next steps? The other piece too is about best practices for posting. Okay. And not even just posting. I think I said this earlier. I'm a huge believer in the conversations in the inbox. I'm going to take you as far as what you're doing on the feed. And these days, commenting and coming up with comments and being engaged in the conversations that are on the feed are just as important and sometimes much more important than the actual posting because that gives you some visibility. So there's some... There's some really great ideas and strategies that I can offer. Um, I also am launching in January, a membership where people can be member part of my inner circle and get the latest and greatest updates because LinkedIn keeps changing. So I will be doing workshops every month for my, for my inner circle and helping them learn about some of the new things that are happening, like how to use AI with LinkedIn, right? You know, there's so many things, you know, how to create a carousel. I'm not a carousel expert, but let's talk about what works well in a carousel. Um, and just those kinds of things. So there's a

35:07 lot of stages along the way where someone can work with me and I'm available for anybody. And I think you'll have my links so they can, from this podcast, they can send me an email and we can, we can talk about it. Yes. We will make sure to include your LinkedIn. Yes. I'm a big proponent of that, too. She's very knowledgeable. I just did one workshop and came away with a whole host of things. Not all the things I implemented, but I did enough. Like the public URL, the public, right? The things that's not inside LinkedIn, but if someone sees you on Google or something.

35:48 I didn't know that was a thing, y 'all. You know, so Sue is a plethora of knowledge and information. And even if you don't take all of it, probably the stuff that you'll walk away with and actually do will be just as growth worthy. You know, one thing at a time, right? One thing at a time. And the one that you saw me at was it was like it was like a top 10 things. So you got a list of 10 things versus a typical, you know, let's work on one thing at a time. Yeah, there's LinkedIn can do so much for people. And that's why I'm so excited about it. That's why I really think that business owners are missing the boat. 1 .3 billion people are on it. And you never know who knows who. And I think that's the key. I mean, Leanne and I met someplace totally different earlier. We actually had a coffee earlier, I think it was earlier this year, like in the springtime or early winter of this year. Totally, totally different place. And you never know who's going to know who and how that works out. So it's great.

36:54 I'm going to stop playing the six degrees of Kevin Bacon and just start doing the six degrees of Rachel Davila. All right. I love it. I love it. Is there one takeaway that you want our audience specifically to know, consider, think about when it comes to LinkedIn? I really would like people to think of it as just another place where they can find their ideal clients, their ideal partners. And that's a whole nother thing. We didn't even talk about collaboration partners, you know, and vendors and all of that. I mean, again, here we go. But think of it as an ideal place, not only to find them, but to start that conversation.

37:40 Most people are very comfortable starting a conversation. If they're using LinkedIn, you'll know because you'll see that they've got activity or you'll see that something's been happening when you look at their profile. You'll be able to tell. You'll also be able to tell if they're spam or icky guys. But if you think about LinkedIn as being a place to start the conversation, Have a few pieces of conversation use it as a place to validate who you say you are and validate who other people say they are and Then move offline and grow that relationship that way and have the conversations, you know the schedule of coffee conversations that take 15 minutes 20 minutes an hour if you really hit it up, right? You know, I think that if you look at it as from that point of view There's nothing scary about it. And if you think about what you're doing with your networking time, just incorporate LinkedIn as part of your networking time. That would be my bestest advice for everybody, for everybody. Well, there's that mindset piece of, I'm a business owner. And I mean, I think this goes to VAs and the clients that we work with, right? both businesses. And you never know who you're going to connect with who knows somebody that you want to work with.

39:04 And I think that's been a big shift that I've had over the last probably two years is networking isn't just to get clients, the clients will come right, whatever industry you're in, especially now, it's not what you know, it's who you know, and building that Rolodex, making those connections, knowing that, you know, Leanne and I collaborate all the time because we fill in each other's gaps. And I like how you said you can look at their feed and what they post and what they share to kind of see that person behind a well -crafted post. So I appreciate you pointing that out because I really am firming up that belief that it is relationships that create the businesses that we want. And our focus really is relationship building, not transactional, really, you know, not transactional. So. Having this extra place to kind of go. Oh, I met so and so at this networking event and now we're connected now I can see more about them to determine Do I really want to schedule that one -on -one with them or what am I gonna get if I do? Kind of thing. I never thought about doing that because you know time but the premise

40:34 of saying hey, I've got these five meetings this week and asking a VA to kind of vet or create some kind of talking points. Yeah, I'm writing that down. Here's the thing too. And I guess I wanted I do want to say this, LinkedIn is not a Monday through Friday place, you know, so you know, as business owners, when I said to you earlier, you know, you really need to go in and you should go in and you should respond to your own comments and things like that and go in there. Keep in mind that you don't just network Monday through Friday. You do things on the weekends. Also, you meet people on the weekends. There certainly is nothing wrong with going in on a Saturday morning as you're watching whatever you're watching or, you know, waiting for the laundry to finish. You could be online looking at your LinkedIn. doing your little bits of comments and things like that so it's kind of a in some ways it's actually easier when you think about it that way because then it doesn't become so overwhelming and I love your point about looking at profiles and seeing about that because really again no like and trust right it's all about no like and trust and you're And so as you're building your relationship, you're starting with getting to know somebody. Your VA can help with some of that basic no, but when it comes into more no and like, that's where you've got to

42:05 take over. And that's what LinkedIn will help you do. And then the trust, that's the whole next step. So if you kind of think of it that way too, maybe you just get them in the mode of the no piece. and to know enough so that then you can move into the better know and the like. Yes. And I love how you're making LinkedIn not just a relationship building platform, but it's also a tool to deepen those relationships and to vet them. Absolutely. And the other advantage to this too is that you may have people that you've done business with a while ago that you've lost track of. And if you could find them on LinkedIn again, you know, so here's another thing for a VA. If you've got your old list of people that you know that you want to reach out to, give them that list and let them do some of the legwork and look to see if that person's on LinkedIn or what they're up to. Right? That's one of the beauties of LinkedIn too is that as long as people keep their profiles current, you're always going to know where they are. That's another thing that you could have someone help you as long as you know what you're looking for and you figured it out and you give them the good directions.

43:21 We will put all the information about where to find you in the show notes. And thank you. Thank you for being here with us, Sue. This was a plethora of information and I love how the conversation just flowed for all of us. So thank you for being here. Thank you for sharing your wisdom and knowledge. And to our listeners or viewers, hi. If you have any questions about what we talked about today, you can email us at heyvapodcast at gmail .com or use our Linktree link to reach out to any one of us. We will make sure to put Sue's information in the show notes so you can reach out to her directly and find her on LinkedIn and connect because she knows her stuff. One more thing.

44:15 No, go for it. If you're listening to this podcast, don't forget to look for Rachel and Leanne too and connect with them on LinkedIn. Thank you. I don't think about that. I figured they already would or have, but I'm glad you pointed that out that I can't assume that about people. Sorry. No, don't be sorry. That was totally awesome. Totally awesome because I don't think about it, right? You got to ask people these things. So, another ask is if you enjoyed this episode, give it a like, a comment, or a share, and we will see you next time. Thanks for joining us. Thank you for joining us on this episode of Hey! Do I Need a VA? The Podcast. If you found this episode helpful, please leave a like, comment, or review, and feel free to join our Facebook group. Find, hire, and work with a VA. For more tips and tools, if you have any questions, please email them to hayvapodcast at gmail .com. Thanks. We'll see you next time.