Episode Summary
No matter how successful you want to become, it’s important to realize that you have to start somewhere. It’s important to be honest with your peers and your online community by sharing your internal struggles. It’s important because others have struggles, too. And Linkedin is one of the best ways to share your experiences.
But most people, especially in the B2B community, use LinkedIn to share their latest promotion or how much money their company raised. And it’s clear their posts only highlight success stories. What about what’s happening behind the scenes?
In the new episode of Rep Your Brand, Nick Bennett chats with Robin Daniels, a three-time CMO who’s currently taking a break from work, life, and LinkedIn. They have a meaningful discussion about sharing struggles on LinkedIn, overcoming your imposter syndrome, and the importance of taking a break and doing what gives you joy in life.
Guest Profile
- Name: Robin Daniels
- What he does: Robin is a founding member, advisor, and investor at byFounders.
- Company: byFounders
- Noteworthy: Throughout his career, Robin has held executive leadership roles in high-growth companies, including Matterport, LinkedIn, Vera, Salesforce, and others. He's currently on sabbatical and living his best life.
Key Insights
- Give yourself a break and focus on what gives you joy in life. Robin believes that people should take a break once in a while to focus on what they love doing and do the things that fulfill them." Disconnect for a little while. Give yourself a little bit of a clean break because, that way, you can truly focus on what gives you joy in life. Sometimes, when you're busy chasing things and working hard, it's hard to reconcile that with yourself."
- Nobody's perfect. Robin suggests that social media may deceive us because people frequently use it to share the false perfection of their daily lives. So, he believes that it's more worthwhile to follow people who share their struggles with others. "Perfectionism is an unattainable standard. People who try to be perfect are inauthentic, and I don't like following them. It's much more fun to hear from people who have gone through struggles, who were down to their last penny, or who had to make a big choice in their life to do something radically different."
- Communication is a key skill to learn. Robin believes that communication plays a vital role in any job, as it helps us succeed and build solid relationships with other people and peers. "I've succeeded in my career because of the way I've communicated to my peers and my team. [...] Communication is such a key skill — to learn how to communicate right, with the right attitude, with the right people, and in a way that gets people engaged."
Episode Highlights
LinkedIn is Where We Showcase Our Real Selves
“LinkedIn is the only pure-play platform out there that’s very positive, very growth-oriented, and very authentic. That’s because people are showcasing their real selves and their real identities there. […] When you post something, people can disagree, and they often do, which is great because you learn more when people disagree with what you post. This is awesome, and rarely gets into the territory of trolling.
It’s a platform that’s changed my life. I connect with great people. I learned a lot of great things. And when I came to LinkedIn, I decided to step up my game and start posting more consistently. […] It’s a way for you to share your thoughts with the world, your learning, insights, inspiration, and all those things. And I do that frequently. It’s also a great way to communicate with people who you might be working with, whether they’re colleagues, people working for you, your coworkers, or even your boss.”
3 Reasons Why I Love LinkedIn
“One — it’s an amazing community with authentic, real people. I love connecting with people. I learn something every day. It’s like a mini TED talk for me every time I go on LinkedIn. Number two — I feel like, after 20 years, I have a lot to share. I’ve learned a lot — good and bad — and I try to share that. And hopefully, if it makes one person think differently and do better, I feel like that’s worth my time.
And thirdly — it’s a secret of internal communication. It’s a great tool to connect with your coworkers and other people who you want to communicate with, about what you do and what you think.”
As You Write More, You’ll Find Your Voice and Your Rhythm
“I get ideas [for LinkedIn posts] at the most random times, usually when I’m not trying to force it. Then I write them down in my notepad, and I rarely post anything live to LinkedIn. […] So, that’s my secret.
Take 10 minutes and write down five ideas. Tell the world about a failure you had and what you learned from it. Tell the world about a success you had and why. Tell the world about a brand that you love and why you love that brand. The mental barrier that most people have is because they care about ‘what if nobody reads it?’ and whether people think it’s stupid. But guess what? You’ll never know until you try. […] It takes practice, and you’ll find your voice, your rhythm, and your tone the more you do it.”
Storytelling Is at the Heart of Great Marketing
“When you look at people’s profiles to see their failures, I’ll be interested to see how they can change that. Because when you look at people’s profiles, everything is right. It looks great, sunny, and everyone’s getting promoted all the time and going from one great job to another. It rarely works that way.
If you wake up every day, and you’re not happy with your life, you’re not happy with where it’s going, and you’re not happy with the way you’re evolving or learning, you have to make a change, and it’s in your power to do so. It starts by getting inspired, and seeing how other people have overcome those challenges is a great way to get inspired to take that first step.
Storytelling is at the heart of great marketing, and it should also be at the heart of how you share your thoughts with the world. This is why I I write everything down first and try to make a story out of it. […] The best marketing is great storytelling, and that’s true whether you’re doing it for a company or you’re doing it for yourself.”
People are Great Storytellers When They Talk About Things They’re Passionate About
“Most people are really good storytellers but only when it’s about things they’re passionate about. On LinkedIn, you can tell when people are sharing personal stories. That passion radiates off the page versus somebody who’s coming in and saying, ‘Here at my company, we did XYZ.’ And you can tell they’re doing it because somebody is saying, ‘Go post this,’ versus them being super passionate about it. So, it’s a little bit of finding that passion in everything that you do.”
Nobody’s Expecting You to Be Michelangelo When Posting
“You could easily post, ‘I just had a great conversation with a friend of mine, and it really made me think about XYZ.’ It’s totally fair game to post things like that. Nobody’s expecting you to be Michelangelo. Everything that you post could be the small thoughts that you have. […] So, start small with things within your sphere that you can easily post about. Even if you think you don’t have any experience, you can post about your company, etc. Everybody has experiences. I can sometimes write about my childhood or my teenage years. Everyone goes through struggles in their teenage years. So, you share some of that, what you learned, and how it made you a better person. […] I’m sure most people have much more to share than they think they do.”
