Become a LinkedIn Luminary: Elevate Your Personal Brand and Grow Your Business

Luminary (noun): a person who inspires or influences others, especially one prominent in a particular sphere. (credit: Oxford Languages)

LinkedIn has come a long way from simply being a job search platform and a glorified digital resume. Today, it's a dynamic and powerful social media platform where BIPOC entrepreneurs like you can shine as luminaries in your respective fields.

There are many ways to use LinkedIn to establish and elevate your personal brand and ultimately, attract high-vibe and values-aligned clients and collaborators. Here are some ways to use LinkedIn to start, grow, and scale your coaching, consulting, or contracting online services business.

1. Amplify Your Voice

Positioning yourself as a thought leader is one of the most effective ways to boost your visibility and establish your presence on LinkedIn. To become a luminary and recognized authority in your industry, consider these strategies:

• Optimize Your Profile: Ensure your LinkedIn profile is complete and captivating. Use a professional photo, write a compelling headline, update your about section, and use your banner as a billboard to drive clients to check out your website, book a call, or sign up for events.
• Create Consistent Content: Share insightful articles, updates, and industry news. Demonstrate your commitment to staying informed and become a go-to source for relevant information. You can also write and publish your own articles directly on LinkedIn to showcase your expertise and attract a broader audience.
• Engage Thoughtfully: Regularly interact with your connections' posts and participate in discussions with other influencers and in groups or communities relevant to your industry. Offer your unique insights, experiences, and perspectives to establish yourself as a valuable contributor.

2. Share Knowledge

Creating content that educates and resonates with your audience is essential for sparking meaningful conversations that attract potential clients and collaborators to you. Here's how to achieve this:

• Identify Problems: Understand the challenges your target audience faces and tailor your content to provide solutions or insights.
• The Art Of Storytelling: Craft compelling narratives that illustrate your experiences and lessons learned. Stories resonate with people on a deeper, more emotional level than facts and stats do.
• Share Success Stories: Share case studies or testimonials from satisfied clients or partners. Highlighting real-world success stories can build credibility and increase that know, like, and trust factor.

3. Expand Opportunities

LinkedIn isn't just a platform for making transactional and passive connections; it's a place where you can form generative partnerships, attract dream clients, and grow your business. Here's how:

• Community Building: Cultivating meaningful relationships with an engaged community is a two-way street. Learn from others and share your own experiences. Actively connect with entrepreneurs and professionals in your industry. Send personalized connection requests, and follow up with a friendly message to start meaningful conversations.
• Find Your Squad: Seek out and follow inspiring BIPOC entrepreneurs who have walked a similar path. Learn from their journeys, and consider collaborating with or featuring them in your content.
• Leverage LinkedIn Events: Host live streams, audios, and private workshops to share your wisdom, build networks, and give potential clients and collaborators an opportunity to do a vibe check and get a sense of your style and personality.

With over 900 million users and less than 2% of active users creating content, LinkedIn offers so many opportunities for BIPOC entrepreneurs to stand out and become luminaries in their fields. Using LinkedIn is the easiest and fastest way to exponentially expand your reach so start implementing these strategies, and let your LinkedIn journey begin! Your fellow BIPOC entrepreneurs and eagerly looking for you!

BUILT BY BIPOC

LinkedIn Live Q&A Tuesday

One of the biggest mistakes I made and see other entrepreneurs make when starting a business is trying to be everywhere and do everything all at the same time. While I love being a multipassionate, sometimes having too many options, especially in the early stages can actually slow you down rather than help you grow. Learn the benefits of focusing on one ideal client avatar, one product, and one platform to take your business to your first $100k and beyond in this next LinkedIn Live.

RSVP here to join the live.

LinkedIn Live BUILT BY BIPOC Interviews

My live interviews with fellow BIPOC entrepreneurs are baaaaackkkkkk! Kicking off this series is my client and teammate, Crystal Pope, CEO and Founder of Too Geek'd Marketing. Crystal has been helping me to multiply my content and expand my reach by repurposing all my lives and audios onto different platforms. She even helped me soft launch my YouTube channel! Come join me as we learn more about Crystal's journey of being a BIPOC entrepreneur and how she discovered her niche in creating top-notch video content and styling to amplify the voices of professional speakers.

Watch the live interview here.

CONSCIOUSXCHANGE EVENTS - LINKEDIN LUMINARY Free 3-Day September Workshop Series

Are you ready to unlock the power of LinkedIn to attract values-aligned clients and collaborators?

As a LinkedIn strategies and Top Voice, I always get questions about how to grow a business on LinkedIn. So I created a free workshop to help BIPOC coaches, consultants, and contracting online service providers to get started.

If you know that LinkedIn is where your clients are hanging out and you want to create a digital footprint so they can find you, want to create a sustainable pipeline of engaged leads easily and quickly, and are eager to build authentic, human relationships with potential partners, get on podcasts, land speaking gigs, and make magic happen in your business then come join me! Get ready to throw out the toxic capitalist ideas of perfectionism and scarcity thinking and audaciously dare to pursue your vision of freedom.

RSVP to join the Free 3-Day Workshop Series here

Building a business has its challenges but using the power of LinkedIn can absolutely make it easier and faster for you to make it happen. Don't forget your community of BIPOC entrepreneurs is here looking and waiting for you! So get out there my dear pioneer! And let's go design our liberatory futures, together.

In solidarity,

Carissa

About The First, The Only, The Other newsletter: The First, The Only, The Other newsletter is a weekly LinkedIn newsletter designed to help BIPOC entrepreneurs build their businesses and design their liberatory futures. If you found this newsletter to be helpful, please share it with others you feel would find value in it.

There's always a lot going on at CONSCIOUSXCHANGE so come say hi! To make sure you don't miss anything, join the CONSCIOUSXCHANGE email list here for more programs, events, and tips on product development, marketing, and sales.

This newsletter is curated by Carissa Begonia, a 2nd generation Filipina American daughter of immigrants and the first and only in her family to run her own business. Carissa is the founder of CONSCIOUSXCHANGE, a business coach for BIPOC entrepreneurs, a LinkedIn strategist and Top Voice, a certified Emotional Intelligence (EQ) coach, and a keynote speaker with a focus on Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion (DEI) in business and entrepreneurship. Her work has been featured in TIME Magazine and she has spoken at companies, institutions, and non-profits including Eventbrite, Calendly, Johns Hopkins, KPMG, and the YMCA.

Carissa's equity work is centered around revolutionizing how we work and creating an alternative to toxic workplaces that don't support those of racialized and marginalized identities by making entrepreneurship accessible and sustainable for BIPOC. Her vision is to create an ecosystem of BIPOC entrepreneurs who are pursuing time, location, financial, and occupational freedom for themselves, their families, and their communities. If you looking for coaching on how to build your business to 6-figures and beyond, visit the CONSCIOUSXCHANGE website to learn more about our individual and group services or book a call to discuss your specific needs.