124 | How to Make a Great LinkedIn Profile That Attracts Clients

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Most coaches I work with tell me

the same thing about LinkedIn.

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I know my profile is out of date,

but I have no idea how to make it

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look shiny and relevant like all

of these other people out there.

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And yet it can make a huge difference

to have a professional looking profile.

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So today I'm gonna walk you through

the essential ingredients for that

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great LinkedIn profile, one that

positions you clearly, builds trust

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and attracts your ideal clients.

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Welcome back to this episode

of Women in the Coaching Arena.

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I am Jo Lott, a business coach

who helps qualified coaches get

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clients with honesty, not hype.

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I built a coaching business around

school hours, term time only.

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And I want the same freedom for you.

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So let's get your LinkedIn doing

some of that heavy lifting.

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So depending on where you are in your

journey, you may either, if you're

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starting out, have a profile that

looks a bit like a CV or if you are

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years into business, you may have a

profile that's just a bit outdated

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When you are creating a profile

for your business, you really want

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people to land on your profile

and think, I know who they help.

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I get what they help with.

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I can see that they're credible, and

I feel something, a spark connection,

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a sense that this person gets it.

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And that means we need to

inject some clarity, relevance,

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and warmth into your profile.

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Let's start at the top with

your headline that matters most.

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So that is the line underneath your photo,

which says who you help or what you do.

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So you might have your job title,

essentially things like executive

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coach, career coach, business

coach, or you might have an I help

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statement such as, I help busy moms

redesign their career without guilt.

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So it should really reflect

your niche, your result, and

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a sense of tone or energy.

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I would recommend yes, having your

job title in there, but more so

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towards the end of the profile.

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I would really want to see immediately

who you help and how, and then

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use these straight little lines.

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So on my keyboard now looking, it is the

bottom left hand side of the keyboard.

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If you press shift and that button

next to the slash, that will give you

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that clean line where you can share

more than just your I help statement.

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You can add in things like your title

or what people might be putting in that

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search bar to find someone like you.

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Your about section is the next one.

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So start with why you do what

you do, a real human tone moving

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into what you help with and how.

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Speak to your ideal clients.

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That kind of third person

will create a disconnect.

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Try and keep your ideal client at

the center of your about section.

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Generally you want to say, you.

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So you may be stuck in

a career that you hate.

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Maybe you are wondering if you'll

ever find anything that suits

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the hours you want to do or

suits the income that you want.

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So speak directly to your ideal

client then leading into how you

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can help them to solve that problem.

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Next up is your banner and photos.

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So this is where design really counts.

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Your banner is valuable visual real

estate, and it's really hard to

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create things without looking like

a 5-year-old created them in Canva.

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So don't waste the space too much on

a stock image or something like that.

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Really use it to reinforce

your positioning.

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Maybe mentioning either your

program or your newsletter.

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Or exactly what people will

get from following you.

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So mine, for example, says, helping

coaches stand out, sign clients and

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succeed, learn proven strategies to

build a thriving coaching business.

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So I'm speaking to the person who is

looking at my profile and wondering,

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should I follow this person leading with

what they would gain from following me.

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Next up is your profile photo, and yes,

you might think you can get away with a

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photo where your partner has taken it of

you standing by the fence in the garden.

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I certainly had one of those

when I started my business, but

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it makes such a huge difference

to have a professional photo.

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Show that you value yourself,

show really clearly who you are.

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And so there are many people that do

things like mini branding shoots, so

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it doesn't need to be a full three hour

shoot that's super expensive or anything.

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The person who did mine

is called Vicki Knights.

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She, for example, hires a

hotel and has 25 minute slots.

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So you get to get your profile photos

done and get some other amazing

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shots, but without it taking hours.

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Therefore, she can do it at a better

price 'cause she has lots of people

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going to that hotel on that date.

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So if you are nearby where I live, she

does that in Guilford every now and then.

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You can look her up by

Googling Vicki Knights.

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That's Vicki with an I.

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I'm sure no matter where you

live, there will be other people

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doing mini branding photo shoots.

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Next up comes your featured section.

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So most people are not

using this effectively.

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This is where you showcase not just the

posts that are performing well, but use

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this to take people into your next step.

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So that might be your lead magnet or

newsletter, maybe a podcast episode,

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a free workshop, your sales page to

show people what you are offering.

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It could be case studies or

testimonials, and this is where

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branding really helps as well.

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So I will share at the end a branding

kit that we have made to make this

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really, really easy for you to have

a professional looking profile.

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I only just revitalized mine last

week, and now I'm like, oh my gosh.

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I can't believe how bad it was looking

with me personally, designing all of

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my own Canva images, which all look

slightly different and not very cohesive.

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So excited to share that LinkedIn

branding kit with you with 20% off at

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the moment so it's an absolute bargain.

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I will talk more about it as we continue,

but you will find the details in the show

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notes if that is what you need right now.

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Next up comes your experience section.

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So you don't need to list

every job you ever had here.

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If it's not relevant, feel free

to strip it back or reframe it.

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Focus really on showing your

expertise and how people can

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benefit from working with you.

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It's sometimes a tricky one though,

because I do like to have some

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of my previous experience in case

people want to see your background,

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but it just depends, I guess, how

many employers you've worked with.

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So feel free to tweak that so it

makes sense for you and your profile.

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Next up comes your

professional company page.

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So you are best off using your personal

profile for promoting your business,

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but so you can add a little logo in the

experience section for your business.

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You do need to create a company page.

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So this has slightly different sizing

just to make it really complicated.

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So you have to have a different

banner for this section.

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But it is worth creating one.

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You don't gain the reach as such

by posting on it regularly, but

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it does feel professional to

have that company page as well.

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There are also other benefits of having

that company profile page so you gain

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that professional presence and trust.

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It's great for Google

indexing and discoverability.

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It's just another place to showcase

your offers and you can gain really

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good analytics on your company page.

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You can also use it to run

ads if you ever want to.

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In summary, I use my personal page

to post because that is what gets

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reached because obviously if they

know you are a business, they really

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want you to pay for that reach.

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So you could possibly repurpose the

same stuff, but I would say always

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lead with that personal profile because

that is gonna get the biggest reach.

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LinkedIn newsletters is another

feature, so the benefit of a LinkedIn

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newsletter is that it can be branded.

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So again, it looks super

professional in the feed.

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It also is emailed by LinkedIn

to those who choose to

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subscribe to your newsletter.

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It's not as good as having your own

newsletter where you own the data.

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In other words, the email

address of that person.

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But it is useful perhaps if you've got

loads of followers on LinkedIn and you

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want to get them over to your own personal

newsletter where you do own that data.

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So what I've often talked about to

clients that have got that big presence

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is you could set up a newsletter and

at the bottom of that newsletter be

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trying to drive traffic to your lead

magnet or to your personal newsletter.

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The benefit of setting up that email

list is that then, for example, when

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you are running a webinar or have a

promotion, you can email those people.

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Whereas sadly, if you have

everything owned by LinkedIn,

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LinkedIn get to decide whether to

show your things to their people.

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So when I promoted my webinar,

for example, LinkedIn do not want

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people to click off their platform

to sign up to my webinar so they

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won't show that post to many people.

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Whereas if right from the beginning I

have prioritized building my own list,

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then I can advertise my webinar to them

and there's no one stopping me from

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getting that email into their inbox.

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So it's sometimes a tricky one- should you

do a LinkedIn newsletter or shouldn't you?

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It really depends on personal preference.

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I currently do both the LinkedIn

newsletter and an email to my list,

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but save the best for your email list

because again, that is the most powerful

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thing we can do in our business is

have some sort of behind the scenes

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special information, special deals,

etc, for people who do come closer into

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our world by joining our email list.

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So if you want help having a super

professional LinkedIn profile.

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Then I have got something for you.

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Inside our One-Stop Coach shop, we have

created a LinkedIn profile branding kit.

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I used it myself this week.

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If you wanna check out what my page

looks like right now, it includes

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beautiful, professional, designed

banners, which actually fit the

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text where they're meant to fit.

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It has featured section designs

all beautifully made for things

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like podcast, newsletter, webinars.

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So instead of you messing around in

Canva when you have something new

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going on, we have already designed

podcast ones, newsletter ones, so

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there is no messing around to be done.

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So you still retain that professional

design and your profile does not

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look like a 5-year-old created it.

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If you do have a LinkedIn newsletter,

there are beautiful LinkedIn newsletter

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banners there, so you can have that

professionally branded newsletter.

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There are also your LinkedIn

company page banners, which

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again, are all different sizes.

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So for less than 50 pounds right now,

you can get a professionally designed

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LinkedIn profile that will make your

profile look professional, credible, and

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build huge trust with that cohesive brand.

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All of the colors, fonts, everything

can be changed to suit you and your

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own branding, but retain all of the

professionally branded elements because

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a designer has taken 15 hours to create

these, and there is a lot more to design

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than a non-designer like me knows about

how to help things to really stand out.

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The discount code for 20% off the kit

for the month of July only is LinkedIn20.

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You will find the link to

the kit in the show notes.

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Its amazing value.

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Even if you have missed the 20% off

discount, I would honestly grab it

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because a professionally looking

LinkedIn profile is a vital part

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of the ecosystem of your business.

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If you want to see what that kit looks

like, you can look at my variation of

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it so your LinkedIn profile isn't just

a static page, it's a living, breathing

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space where you can build that trust,

create real opportunities for yourself.

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So don't let it look like a messy room.

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Get it all professionally branded

and ready to work hard for you

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when people find your profile.

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So grab the kit, set aside an

hour or so and jazz up your

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profile so it looks amazing.

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Once you have done it, do drop

me a message on LinkedIn letting

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me know, 'cause I cannot wait

to see what it looks like.

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So thank you for listening.

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I hope today's episode was useful.

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And like I say at the end of every

episode, trust yourself, believe in

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yourself, and be the wise gardener

who keeps on watering the seed.

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Microphone (Samson Q2U Microphone):

Thank you so much for listening to this

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episode of Women in the Coaching Arena.

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I have a mess of free resources on

my website joannalottcoaching.com.

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That's Joanna with an A

and Lott with two T's.

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joannalottcoaching.com.

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And I'll also put links in the show notes.

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Let me know if you found

this episode useful.

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Share it with a friend and

leave me a review, and I will

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personally thank you for that.

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Remember to trust yourself, believe

in yourself and be the wise Gardner

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who keeps on watering the seed.

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Get into the arena dare, greatly and try.