Linkedin lessons learned while teaching 1,400 customers my organic LinkedIn lead generation framework and building a 7-figure Linkedin business.

We all know today that LinkedIn is a gold mine for business owners whose clients are on this platform, and as a LinkedIn lead generation strategist helping over 1,400 customers accomplish and exceed their revenue and LinkedIn goals in the last seven years...

...there are some MAJOR lessons I've learned that I want to share with you in this newsletter every week.

When I started using LinkedIn back in 2013., the future, look and landscape of LinkedIn was completely different. Most marketers and business owners considered it a "resume" site and didn't pay much attention to the BIG opportunity for finding ideal clients and leads that the platform was offering - even back then.

While most business owners and service providers got slowly caught in the "one funnel away" and "digital nomad lifestyle" narrative - my business journey was quite different.

The primary reason I started to use LinkedIn specifically in December 2013. was to conduct research interviews with nutritionists for the web application I was planning on creating.

Polite and honest LinkedIn messages (I send hundreds of those manually throughout a time span of a couple of months) about the research I was doing for my app were mostly welcomed and answered - and I was able to book hundreds of Skype interviews with nutritionists to ask them about their problems, solutions they see working for them and at the end of the day...

...build a prototype and the first version of the web app that would connect nutritionists and their clients to work online and pre-sell the idea before we did a single line of code.

(Talk about lean ??)

All of that lead me to be the CEO of one of the first Croatian startups to get funded by a VC Fund in Europe.

Now, let's fast forward to 2016.

I was sitting at my home, defeated, lost, broke, and feeling like a failure.

What I didn't know at the time is that the idea of an online platform connecting nutritionists and clients to working online was SO early and revolutionary, that there were actually small chances of us being able to pull it off in the time when regulation of Medical Health Records and HIPPA-compliancy was at their early stage.

I didn't understand that at the time, and I felt like a loser. I gave my startup everything I got - my time, sweat and tears, my sleep, my personal life, my health, my free time. I played by the rules, I was always transparent - and yet - I failed and had to give up on my "baby".

That was my first BIG lesson in business - sometimes you just need to let ideas, projects, or whole businesses go - and it was a tough pill to swallow.

What I did understand, however, was that my startup was failing not because I did a bad job or didn't try enough - it failed because we build the whole app around a shaky and loose base.

Our software was built on top and around a nutritional database that, even though was bought legally, was not official and was completely inflexible for what we needed to build.

We literally had a crappy nutritional base that we built our whole app and business around.

Why am I telling you this and what does this story have to do with LinkedIn, you might ask?

Well, as I was exiting my startup, I realized I was actually very good at LinkedIn and getting people to talk to me - what you would call "lead generation and booking calls" today.

I had a system that worked and got a LOt of raised hands, and I decided that this is something I can teach others how to do, so they can replicate my LinkedIn success.

Little did I know that this would be the first step to building a 7-figure business mostly focused around LinkedIn and teaching business owners real, organic, and most importantly - classy and authentic LinkedIn lead generation strategies that bring in leads, clients, and sales.

LinkedIn lesson #1: If you build your LinkedIn lead generation strategy on the wrong foundation, your whole strategy and business will crash. Inevitablely.

As I started to build and test my whole LinkedIn lead generation Framework, I knew that if I start building my lead generation strategy on the wrong foundation - it will eventually crash, and I wasn't interested in quick money but a long-term game on this platform.

That was back in 2016 when (just like today), most of the LinkedIn communication, content, and lead generation strategies were focused around automation tools that would automate invites to connect, send bulk messages, and just put out content.

99% of LinkedIn gurus and LinkedIn agencies built their whole business and revenue models on these LinkedIn automation tools - and I knew it was just a matter of time when that will crash.

How did I know that?

Well, I learned my lesson in my startup and knew that if you build your strategy, business, and revenue model on another, outside tool or anything that is out of your control - eventually you lose.

"Game over" is inevitable with this type of approach.

While others were making "piles of money", "generating hundreds of calls" for their clients, I kept focusing on building, testing, and creatively coming up with strategies that are organic, elegant, and that just work.

I didn't make a "pile of money" focusing on quantity on LinkedIn, I wanted quality, replication, security in the strategies, and most of all - making sure that my or my client's reputation is untacked.

You know - people were laughing at me when, in 2017, I predicted that LinkedIn will literally sue and shut down all these automation tools. Nobody believed me.

(I knew that LinkedIn would build in automation within their model if they actually wanted to, but they didn't.)

They thought I was insane.

And then it started.

LinkedIn started using and shutting down all these tools. As they were switching to Chrome extensions, LinkedIn found a way to identify them.

Literally, thousands of LinkedIn gurus, agencies, and their clients lost their businesses overnight, with one switch of the LinkedIn button.

Lesson?

They built their businesses around tools they had no control over, and that backfired in the most brutal way - and even though you still have automation tools today - LinkedIn did a step further and is not shutting accounts from users that are using automation tools.

The Foundation of your LinkedIn strategy is the most important thing.

If you build it on the wrong foundation - you lose.

I didn't, and that's why I and my clients won.

Lesson #2: Your LinkedIn profile is your biggest asset on LinkedIn (but not in a way you think.)

While patiently building my organic LinkedIn lead generation strategy that would be and feel authentic, I understood the importance of the LinkedIn profile.

While most were talking about profile optimization, how to talk about yourself and your accomplishments, how to use keywords, and all of these things, I understood that people come on the other person's LinkedIn profile with only ONE question:

"What's in it for me?"

They actually don't care about you or where you worked, or whom you know, or how cool you are.

People ONLY think about what's in it for them.

And if you talk about yourself in your LinkedIn profile, you will lose opportunities.

Your only job is to tell the story of your ideal client on your LinkedIn profile.

Your LinkedIn profile needs to leave people with a feeling of "this person is in my head" VS "look at all the things this person knows".

The difference in experience is HUGE.

If they have a feeling you are in their head, reaching out to you is going to be a necessity for them. They won't be able to NOT contact you.

(Say goodbye to chasing your ideal clients around.)

And one more thing.

LinkedIn profile as a sales page?

Absolutely no.

LinkedIn profile as a segmentation tool that uses storytelling?

BINGO.

This leads me to...

Lesson #3: Your ideal client is not the "title" as much as it is "the stage of awareness" and psychographics.

Most of the people using LinkedIn for lead generation focus on what title their ideal client has and then use the search tools to find these people.

I am not saying you should ditch the title part of your search, but what is much more important is understanding the stage of awareness your ideal client is in and their psychographics.

Let's take an example.

You are a consultant or a coach or an agency that serves CEO-s and their companies with marketing and growth strategies.

What people usually do is just find CEOs within a certain country, with a certain amount of employees and they just start connecting with them, writing content, and sending messages thinking that they've done their job at identifying their ideal client for LinkedIn.

Well, wake up call.

Let's say that the CEOs you are looking to connect with have no idea that their funnel, marketing, and growth strategies are actually not working.

They are not even aware that they have a problem, and here you go talking about their problem.

They won't relate, because their stage of awareness is not even near understanding that there is something to fix.

Another scenario is the CEOs that understand that their marketing and growth strategy is not working (they are only pain aware) but they have no idea that there is actually a solution.

Now you might be thinking - well, I have the solution, won't that mean they'll just start working with me?

Well, no.

If they're just pain-aware, your job is to educate them that there IS a solution to their problem, which takes time. YOU need to bring them to the solution-aware stage - and that lengthens the sales cycle.

Pain-aware businesses only understand that they have a problem, and what most of LinkedIn users don't know - that does not mean they will take your solution.

Because they first have to become aware that there actually IS a solution.

Then, they have to become aware of ALL the different solutions out there.

Then, they need to make a decision that they actually WANT to solve their problem.

And then - they go and start trying all these different solutions - meaning that they often get burned because they are unaware of what solutions fit them.

By the time they become aware of your solution and understand that you are the best and only solution for them - this will take a lot of time.

You'll talk to people that will either not understand your business, offer or they'll have money objections.

Because their stage of awareness won't be in the right place.

And that's why I see SO MANY business owners talking to the right audience about the wrong thing, or to the wrong audience about the right thing.

Another, super important thing is psychographics.

You see, you are dealing with humans, not leads.

You are dealing with humans that have beliefs, experiences, decision-making problems, resistance to change, desires, and aspirations.

We are so complex and beautiful at the same time - and if you focus your ideal client on the title and optimize your profile for that title, it will take you forever to start getting through to the right audience that will hear clearly what you're saying.

There are other BIG lessons I will share in the upcoming weeks, and it's going to give you a completely different perspective on writing content, messaging, interacting, and activity in general on this platform.

I'll share things you probably haven't heard before, because honestly - a lot of the "LinkedIn gurus" you see today actually learned a lot of these things directly from my free FB group.

(I even certified some of them in my Framework, so they know EXACTLY how to serve and help their clients. Yup, I actually have a program where I teach LinkedIn coaches about LinkedIn strategies.)

These are just some of the things I want to share in my first newsletter and I hope you got a different perspective on how you can use LinkedIn in a classy, easy, and organic way.

I am looking forward to helping you understand what LinkedIn content is, how the algorithm works (also will share some strategies I came up with that work incredibly well), and one of my favorite topics in the last 6 months - DM communication.

Until then, I want you to do a couple of things.

1. If you liked this article, push on the subscribe button. I will be putting out one of these value-bombs on a weekly basis and this way you can get notified once I publish a new article
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3. I have a membership program where I teach this framework on weekly basis with 4 certified coaches. You can explore the Inner circle with all its benefits with a 3-day trial. Just check it out - you have nothing to lose and everything to gain! :)