LinkedIn Newsletter: Why Brand isn't always the answer to making more money.

Dear strange people,

Welcome to my experiment. This is a newsletter where I dive deep into the decisions that I am making (and learnings) when it comes to my personal brand, community, and business.

At the end of last year, Izzy & I sat in our weekly meeting with our business coach Rebecca. We were talking about the year and to be frank 2019 was a good year [technically our best year] but it was also a rough year. I told Rebecca that if we didn’t hit our sales goal (a large number that I threw out) by the end of January then I wanted her to fire us as her client. Because I was sick of feeling like our team was on a hamster wheel. If I’m being honest a part of me didn’t think we would hit it. But we did. And then a crazy thing happened. We past it. And kept passing it. I'm focused AF (as the kids would say) this year & I want to see more people in my networking getting after it as well.

This week I'll be covering a new study I'm putting together, internal changes, a conversation I had, and things i have implemented to help me reach my podcast goals.

Focused on the Wrong Things?

When we first launched our company we were trading space for our services. We weren’t making a lot of money. Then what felt like overnight we closed a lot of deals and were forced to make some hires, move into a new space, and grow up a little bit. A few months in we realized we weren’t equipped to handle any of the growth. We hired with no direction and no clarity. We took on projects with no real systems & processes. And because of that we had to slow down on sales to fix the constant issues we were running into. We were “playing” business and not building a business.

*A fairly accurate depiction of us playing business*

Since that conversation with our business coach I’ve stopped doing whatever I deemed unnecessary (which is most of what I was doing). Instead I've been focused on sales and my relationships (as well as some research and leadership tasks):

My first viral post (at least at the time for me it was viral) was about a prospect meeting I had with a business coach & that call opened my eyes up to what I was really capable of.

That moment was a huge wakeup call for me, just like the wakeup call I recently had. We are ready for the growth this time and I don’t plan on slowing down anytime soon. 

A study on Influencers ????

I test everything. It’s in my nature. Our Influencer Accelerator program is going incredibly well but I want to take it to the next level. I’m running an experiment on my girlfriends LinkedIn account, doing a LinkedIn influencer study, and running a handful of experiments on my own account alongside that study. Make sure you subscribe to this newsletter to stay up to date with my findings.

LinkedIn Tips on YouTube ????

There was a comment on my YouTube channel last night that said this:

“I seen your comment on One of Gary’s videos. What I see is you have Whats soo good content here on YouTube but you don’t interact with people even saying thank you to them for taking time to write you a comment on a video, if you watching Gary so much that’s number one rule he’s saying to grow your “brand”... aka connect with people and be grateful ... peace ?????”

Brand is an interesting thing. I think a lot of us think we are a lot bigger than we are. A lot greater than we are. When all we are really looking at is a bunch of numbers appearing on this thing we call the internet. And it’s taken me having those things, to realize that they don’t really mean anything. The guy that commented that was right.

Be grateful. “Don’t expect people to follow you. Give them a reason to.” I say that in almost all of my speeches. And I’m going to devote more time into my social platforms & YouTube specifically. So if you’re looking for LinkedIn tips, vlogs, or just my random rants/explanations then go subscribe! 

(You can also find me on just about any other social media platform @TagjustQ ??).

My business > My content

I believe everything I stated above wholeheartedly. Be grateful. Invest in your community. Engage. But where I went wrong in 2019 was focusing more on my content than I did on my business. The bigger we grow the more I’m finding (at least for the most part) the people that make the most money aren’t the loudest on social media.

Influencer culture has painted this picture that if we post some videos then the deals will just start rolling in. That we NEED to be crushing it on social media to build a successful business. This may be an unpopular belief, but honestly sometimes all it takes is to start picking up the phone and making some calls. Social media is important. Personal branding is important. But having an actual business model is more important. Working on your business is more important. It's when you're doing both that things really start to come together.

I don't bring on personal branding clients anymore unless I'm confident we can find our fee and beyond. I want them to 10x their business. And that is a lot easier when they actually have a business ??. Just something to think about for those of you in the early stages. I'm not saying STOP all personal branding efforts. But a personal brand won't matter if you're not able to pay your bills. You'll just end up back in that job you hate.

Conversation with Andy Weins ??

Someone asked me recently how I juggle two podcasts. And to be frank -- I don’t do the best job ?? -- but I think what is most important to me is that I love both. I love business. I love entrepreneurship. I love creatives. And on the other end for my personal podcast, I love video games and esports. And because of that it’s just second nature for me. Like turning on a Netflix show. Granted, I have zero involvement of the production of our show so it’s not much work on my end. I guess the point I’m trying to make here is this: get into podcasting for the right reasons. Not just because you’re wanting to take advantage of the potential exposure.

Andy said something that stuck with me in this episode. “I surround myself with like hearted people.” I don’t think there is a greater feeling than being surrounded by people that are doing what they love. It’s why I started building my own group years ago, because it felt like no one around me was doing anything. If you’re looking for like-hearted people (and you don’t think I’m bonkers) feel free to join our Facebook Misfits community.

Humans that Game

I’m heading back to my hometown, Minnesota for the inaugural Call of Duty tournament at the end of January. I’m nine episodes in and I already have people flying into Minnesota to come meet me for the first time. 

I’ve gotten messages on LinkedIn that have looked like this, “Hi Quentin, I saw a video you posted about your own brand and couldn’t help notice the Apex characters. I’m also a huge Apex fan (Pathfinder Main and just got my 2k damage badge.) I would love to connect with you… maybe even get a couple of games in!” 

When you speak about something & you really believe in that something things start happening. I love my gaming/esports podcast and it’s going to be a HUGE focus for me over the next few years. Check out the latest episode!

How I'm Staying on Track with Humans that Game

1. Having a set time to send out messages to potential esports / gaming guests
2. Building out my needs for a small team
3. Leveraging my personal brand & business to get in the room with esports professionals with no intention to sell. 
4. Having a guest criteria for those that ask me who I’m looking to interview.

About Me — I'm just Q ??????

I co-founded Urban Misfit Ventures. We are a small startup, team of 7, based out of Milwaukee. We own two companies. 1). A video agency. Our team helps people, companies, and brands tell their story, build influence and make more money through video storytelling. And 2). an events company focused on creating signature experiences for our community.

I was also one of the first video creators to use LinkedIn. Collectively my videos, thoughts, podcasts, and writing have been viewed over 10 million times across platforms. I spend most of my time (outside of my company) speaking, creating, running experiments, learning about everything video games/esports, and petting way too many dogs. I'm also set to appear in the Amazon Prime TV show, The Social Movement in 2021.

That's me. And thank you for reading this edition of the 'Dear Strange People' newsletter. For those that have already subscribed, welcome to the madness. I'm looking forward to taking this journey with all of you. Smash the subscribe button to keep up with this experiment.

And if you've read this far, comment below: introduce yourself and let everyone know what's your main goal for 2020. I will read & respond to them all! :)

Stay strange,

#justQ ??????