Networking, Brand Building, and Finding Your Customers with Kim Kaupe

Thank you for tuning in to the True Grit and Grace podcast. I appreciate you being here.

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So once a year I hold the Unstoppable Life Mastermind and it's back.

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This is for ladies only.

And if you're ready to really build your influence, your impact, and your income, this is definitely experience that I would love to have you a part of, especially if you have a dream of writing a book, if you want to start your own podcast, if you're— you want to be on more stages or bigger stages, or just speak more to share your message, or magnetize your dream clients, then this is the mastermind for you. So I've got top podcasters coming in to share, top motivational speakers, elite coaches, and practitioners all coming in to share their wisdom, to open up their playbooks. There's live connection calls, there's one-on-one coaching. Uh, so if you're interested in a private girl gang, early bird access starts now. So go to unstoppablelifemastermind.com. You can also just shoot me a text at 818-214-7378. Just text me Mastermind, and I will get back to you with more details or jump on a call with you. So enjoy the show, and to all the ladies who are ready to make a bigger impact, I will see you in the group.

Thank you for tuning in to the True Grit and Grace podcast.

I'm Amberly Lago, and I'll be sharing inspirational stories of resilience And empowering ideas to elevate your business and your life, ignite your passion, and fuel your purpose.

Hello and welcome to the True Grit and Grace podcast. I'm so happy you're here, and you are going to be excited to hear from this legendary guest on the show. I have Ken Kaup with us today, and if you haven't already Google stalked her, I suggest you go right now. You will get lost in hearing her incredible talks that she gives on these stages. She has all these courses. You may have already seen her on Shark Tank, um, but she has worked with some of the biggest players out there in the industry. She's on a mission of investing in yourself, supercharging your career, and building your network, and it's garnered the praise of corporate clients such as American Express, YPO, TEDx, and LinkedIn. Y'all, she's a superstar on LinkedIn, so I have lots of questions to ask her about that. Her weekly live series is called Coffee with Kim, and she brings in experts, founders, and leaders to share tips, tricks, and strategies that help them excel. I'm excited to be on with you this week. Actually, I get to see you twice. She is also partner in a fan engagement agency, Bright Ideas Only, Working with A-list properties such as Paul McCartney, Oprah, the New York Mets, and Shawn Mendes— some of my favorites— to create marketing programs, new revenue streams, and branding. You might know her also, she's been a judge on the 2019 Miss USA pageant live on Fox and her various social media channels where she pushes out content daily. And she was named Inc.'s 35 Under 35, Advertising— gosh, Advertising Ages 40 Under 40, and Forbes 30 Under 30. Kim, you are—

30 numbers.

Oh my gosh, wait, Advertising Ages 40 Under 40. Wait, that, that's amazing. And Forbes 30 Under 30. I saw one of your talks when you were almost 30, and you're like, I'm, I'm turning 30 in 5 days. Does anybody have can get me, uh, in an under 30 category. And you did it. I just realized that right now because I stalked you, by the way. So welcome to the show. I could go on and on about you, but so grateful that you're here.

I am so grateful to be here. I've been looking forward to this all weekend. I was like, yes, I cannot wait to come on. You have such an amazing community and this podcast is so awesome. So I feel very honored to be a guest.

Well, thank you. You know, we were talking before we started recording That our mutual friend Mitch Matthews, who is just an angel in my life, he connected us and we jumped on a phone call and it was instant connection. And we have so much in common from activities that you like to do as a child that I like to do too. So I'd like to start with a little bit about how you grew up, because a lot of the things that bring us joy as a child oftentimes relate to what we end up doing in our careers. And I feel like your whole life has built built you up to be this expert branding and the way that you make connections and build communities and all the courses that you have. So, so could you tell us a little bit how you grew up and how you got to be where you are today?

Yeah. So I grew up in West Palm Beach, Florida, and I always say if I had to like pinpoint kind of where my curiosity started with branding yourself or with kind of building communities, it really started in elementary school. And I was an only child. And so I knew that if by Friday at 5 o'clock, I had not convinced other kids on the playground to invite me over or invite me to their birthday parties or sleepovers, that that weekend it was going to be me and my Barbies. And I love me and my Barbies. We had a lot of good times, but, you know, really it was, can, can Katie come over and play? Can I go to Natalia's Aliyah's house. And I sort of realized that, okay, I kind of have to market myself. I kind of have to be like, hey guys, I have some really fun chalk and jump rope and Skittles and things if you want to come over on Saturday. And they would say, oh yeah, let me ask my mom. And so I think from a young age, I realized like, okay, there's value in selling yourself really, whether it is as simple as playdates. And that, I think I realize now looking back, it only continues as we grow up, whether we're selling ourselves to get into college, or whether we are selling ourselves to get our first jobs, or whether we're selling ourselves to get a first date on Bumble or Tinder or Hinge or one of these apps, and, or a promotion or an award or an honor, you're gonna— we're always in the market of saying like, hey, pick me over here. Like, I'm pretty great. And so I think if I had to kind of go back in a time machine, that's when it really first started.

Well, I get that because I have 2 daughters, but it's like I have 2 only children because they're 13 years apart. And so other moms loved that because they would always send their kids over to our house. And I loved being the mom that had all the kids over to play and everything. But, you know, I, I can see that where you want to create that fun experience. So it's an experience and a feeling, and then they're like, yeah, I want to go hang out with Kim. Let's go to her house. And so I could see where that really started at a young age. And now you really help people live instead of by default, but by design. And you really help them curate their career and how they want to, which really, really hit home for me. And I'm like, I need to talk to her. Because after my book published, it was just like I was full throttle doing all these things. And this is the first time I've kind of put the brakes on. and really thought, okay, wait a minute, no, what, what is it that I want to do? How, how do I want to do it? And you help people really design what that looks like because I feel like we get this first impression when someone— and I know, I mean, look, we all— it's human nature to, to judge people by their first impression. And I feel like now, especially going back to in-person events and stuff like that, People don't ask for business cards anymore. They're like, what's your, what's your Instagram account? And they go look at your Instagram account and they're like, hmm, is this somebody that I'm going to do business with? Nah, I don't think so. You help people brand themselves and kind of brag about themselves a little bit. So it does create an incredible first impression. So I want to talk about that a little bit. What do you think? Because Man, you're killing it on LinkedIn. I, I mean, you've got like over— I don't know, is it— how many followers do you have over there?

I think it's like 35,000 plus now, maybe 36. It's a lot. It is a lot.

It's a lot. And you have an engaged audience. And I think that LinkedIn is like the real deal. I don't know if you can buy followers there or not, but I know with Instagram You can buy followers, which I never suggest anybody doing because then you don't know what's real. So when you go to launch that course, you don't know how many followers you have, but you're not going to get the engagement either. So is LinkedIn your primary hub or do you do other ones as well?

Yeah, I would say LinkedIn and Instagram are probably my 2 biggest, and then I'm going to start on Twitter. At least I keep telling myself that, uh, this month. But it's really LinkedIn is having what I'm calling Like a golden era right now. So just a little bit of background for anyone who's listening. LinkedIn has— it's one of the oldest social media platforms. So it is 18 years old. Most people don't realize that. So I always joke at 18, LinkedIn is about to go off for college. Uh, you know, they are a full-blown adult. And so it's the oldest social networking platform and it, it's really unique in that it is one of—

I didn't know that.

Yeah, I know a lot of people don't realize that, but it's really unique in that it is one of the only social media platforms that gets crawled by Google. So what does that mean? That means I meet amazing people all the time that put out really great posts on Facebook groups. They put out really valuable content on Instagram. They put out really valuable nuggets and information on Twitter, but What happens in a month? What happens in 2 months? That gets buried by more content, by more stuff that they're putting out. And Google never registers any of that amazing content. So if you are posting amazing top 10 lists, or here are the 3 books I think you should read, or here are 5 strategies for keynote speakers, here's 2 strategies for coaches on Instagram. No, Google is not able to access that valuable content. Whereas LinkedIn is one of the only platforms that's crawled by Google. So I always joke that after a decade in marketing, one of my favorite approaches is still like the lazy approach, which is, if you guys have ever heard that quote, if you want something done fast, give it to a lazy person because they'll figure out the fastest way to do it so that they don't have to keep working hard on it. You know, I am, I'm a lazy marketer. I want to do more with less. I want to, I want to pack a punch. I want to kill 2 birds with one stone. And so for me, what I realized is if I post content on LinkedIn, that content is getting crawled by Google. So it's a one-two punch. So if I write an article on LinkedIn that says why career capital matters and why you need it, not only is that gaining traction on LinkedIn, on, on the platform I posted it on, but if you were to go to Google and Google career capital and why it matters, or career narrative, my article is going to come up. So, you know, it's a one-two punch.

I never ever thought of that. And a lot of people don't. You post on Instagram, and I remember, you know what, last week Instagram and Facebook crashed, and I was like, I had created— spent like an hour creating this reel That I was like, oh, I created this fabulous reel on Instagram and oh great, Instagram crashed. So that went nowhere. I lost an hour of my life there. And so I did not realize that with LinkedIn, I am inspired to get on LinkedIn even more because that's actually kind of the last place I post. I'm always like, my Instagram is my hub. And I think—

It's the last place everybody posts. I mean, I get it. I feel like it's, it's like the weird uncle at Thanksgiving, right? Like it's not sexy. It's not an Instagram. It's not a TikTok. It's not a Snapchat. Like it's not the cool, sexy platform. And very much like TikTok and Instagram and Facebook has creators, they're trying to produce creators on the platform. And I highly suggest anyone listening, if you haven't heard of creator mode, it's a new mode. It is now public on LinkedIn. For a while it was only in private beta, only like select creators could get it.

Now.

Now everyone can get it, totally open to the public. In fact, I did a 15-minute video giving you a step-by-step tutorial of how to turn it on, what it is, what the different new features are. And if you go to turnoncreatormode.com, you can access that 15-minute video for free. It's a great kind of step-by-step, and I highly encourage everybody to turn that on as soon as they hear this, like as fast as humanly possible.

Wait, I'm taking notes. Like turnoncreatormode.com. creatormode.com.

Yes.

Okay, so Kim, I got that notification on LinkedIn about Creator Mode and I'm like, what, what is this? I don't know what to do with it. And we are always learning new things. Like, it's just when I think that I have Instagram figured out, it switches, you know. Just when I think, okay, maybe I have this LinkedIn figured out, they add something new. So I think it's important to keep Learning. So with that creator mode, what are a couple of things that you're able to do differently that makes it a little more sexy on LinkedIn?

It's, it's a really great new way that they've created for people to find you. So if anybody remembers back in the day in LinkedIn, if I wanted to connect with Amberly, I would go into the search bar and I would have to type in A-M-B-E-R, and, you know, eventually your name would pop up, would autofill with your name. Now they have switched the search bar on LinkedIn to now function like the Google search bar. So what does that mean? Let's say you have a new course coming out. Let's say you're a speaker and you want to speak on something. You can say, hmm, do I know anybody that's a podcast host? Do I know anybody that's a podcast editor? Maybe you can go on the LinkedIn search bar now and you can type in podcast editor, or you can type in podcast host. and press enter. And what it will do is it will show anybody in your first, second, or third degree connections that has those keywords, podcast host, podcast editor, whatever it is you're searching for in their profile, like in their search functions.

Oh.

So what's great is like, for me as example, if I decided, you know, I wanna do some podcasts, I would go into my LinkedIn, I would search podcasts and who would pop up? You would probably pop up. Mitch would probably pop up. Um, our friend Antonio Neves, would probably pop up. Any, any of our friends that have a podcast that has the word podcast somewhere in their profile, that would now come up. And so what this creator mode does is it gives you more opportunities to optimize around keywords like that. And so it's a really great, and I tell people the reason I'm so like bullish about it right now is everyone remembers back in the day, whether it was on Facebook or Instagram, and now we're seeing it actually with TikTok is that you, can access your entire audience.

Mm-hmm.

So we all know now, unfortunately with Facebook and Instagram, while you might have 150,000 followers, you cannot access all 150,000 of those without paying some big moolah over to Mark Zuckerberg. It's like, okay, you can promote on this platform for $1,000 to reach, you know, your entire audience. And right now with LinkedIn dumping a lot of money into this algorithm, a lot of money into creator mode, The organic reach is crazy and it's free. It's my favorite price. It's free 99. It costs nothing. And so I, to use myself as an example, I always like hearing real metrics and numbers on podcasts like this, you know, year to date, it's October of 2021. I've garnered almost 1.6 million impressions year to date on LinkedIn, and I have paid zero Wow. And so I encourage people to go on Facebook or go on Instagram and see what it would cost you to get 1.6 million impressions, because I guarantee you the price is not free. Well, that's just not how those platforms are optimized.

Yeah, that's what blows me away about social media. So, you know, my, my youngest daughter was like, I said, well, I want, maybe I, I'll do TikTok. And she's like, oh mama, you're too old for TikTok. And I was like, oh, then I'm definitely gonna do that. Yeah. And I posted my first video. Well, I think my first video was our horse tap dancing. My second video was me tap dancing. It was the first time I tapped since my motorcycle accident. That one video, and I just was like, I had all these surgeries and they said I'd be in a wheelchair forever. Like I did this whole story. I barely knew how to po— you know? Upload that TikTok video, it has over 600,000 views. Whereas on Instagram, I'm lucky to get on a video that I posted at the same time, you know, 20,000 views, which is just insane. But I remember when I first, you know, started doing speaking and one of my mentors said, get a LinkedIn profile. I was like, what's that? Now this is like 10 years ago. And so that's one of the things that I tell people right away. Get your— all your profiles out there. So get your LinkedIn, your TikTok, your Instagram, your Facebook, your Pinterest, all, all the social media that you can, but make sure you appear the same on each. So if somebody goes to LinkedIn, you don't have like some— a totally different headshot than you have On TikTok, or do you say— what do you suggest for people to do if they're just— if they're listening to this, they're just starting, they want to be an entrepreneur, they're on that journey, and they are starting with their, you know, all their different accounts? What are some things that you would suggest for them to do as far as like starting their branding?

I always say, again, you know, if, if you think about who, what you're doing and what the purpose is, I always say fish where the fish are. So if you're saying, I, you know, I have an Etsy store, I'm making this up, I don't know. I have an Etsy store and I am a B2C business. I really need lots of consumers, or I run an Etsy store and you know what, I wanna get into some wholesale stores. You know, I wanna get into Target or I wanna get into some of these big retailers. Mm-hmm. I always say, okay, fish where the fish are. So if you have one section that's like, okay, consumer base, maybe TikTok and Instagram are great avenues for you. If you then say, okay, I want to kind of go a wholesaler route, how can I get my product into Whole Foods? How can I get my product into, you know, Target or some of these other places? I would say, okay, LinkedIn, go find out who the buyer is for the arts department at Target. Go find out who the buyer is for Whole Foods. And so I say, so then maybe in that case, Twitter, Or Facebook doesn't make as much sense for you. I think that it's, you know, we were talking about this a little bit earlier. You can't be all things to all people. You know, unfortunately now with so many platforms and post once a day to every platform, I mean, my God, you'd spend the whole dang day posting to these platforms for free.

You could, you could spend hours. I mean, it's literally—

yeah, exactly. Pick 2 to 3. Focus on those 2 to 3 and really say, I'm gonna make an effort with these, instead of running yourself crazy trying to post on every single platform every single day, and you don't even know why other than people told you that that's what you're supposed to do.

Yeah, and it's so important to know where your customers are, but you know, I think sometimes you don't even know where they are when you're first starting, and it's kind of figuring out as you go along. And, and, you know, it was just, gosh, 4 years ago that I was told, you know, I got a publishing deal and they're like, we don't do any marketing or branding for you. If you want to do that, you have to do it yourself. We don't do any of that. And I'm like, oh my gosh, I don't know how to market or brand. What do I do? And I, I didn't have the, you know, money saved up to be like, oh, let's put in a ton of money and do this big book launch. And so I spent like making an effort. I spent every single day, I woke up extra early before my daughter had to go to school, before I had to get to, you know, get to work. And I made an effort to start posting on Instagram and I would post on Facebook too. And for some reason it just grew a little differently, bigger on Instagram. So that became kind of my main hub. And I noticed though, you know, I had a goal, I had an intention of I want to be able to get 10,000 followers within a year because that's how much time I have to where my book comes out. And I want to be able to do that swipe up feature. And so I literally spent every single morning, I dedicated some time to creating a post and I shared it on Facebook and it just kind of grew more on Instagram. And, and people have asked me often, well, how did you grow your following? And I was like, well, I was intentional about it, but it took a lot of blood, sweat, and tears. I spent, you know, and I hear a lot of big thought leaders and, and successful New York Times bestseller that they're like, oh, I spend maybe 20 minutes a day on social media. And I'm like, dude, I spend like 3 hours a day. And now I spend that much time on it because I want to be honest and keep it real. Like, no, I actually spend time on those platforms, but that is where I've made some meaningful connections there. That's where I have, you know, found people like Mitch who connected us. That's where I actually got booked for my TEDx, from Instagram. So I think it's finding, you know, kind of where your message is resonating, but being really intentional about it. But do you think that LinkedIn is the place for people to go more when they want more like business connections? We talked about it. You were saying that definitely post there because they're going to find you in the Google search. So I'm definitely going to go do that, start being more intentional about LinkedIn. But do you think it's a place to go if you want more event planners, um, or maybe like you were saying, wholesale clients, that sort of thing? Is LinkedIn more the place to go rather than Facebook or Instagram?

I think that LinkedIn is one of not only the most used social media platforms, but especially now as we look at the creator economy and, and what that means is that creators are And again, that could include coaches that can include keynote speakers that can include authors. It could include entrepreneurs, you know, really at the end of the day, you are the CEO of your business and it's up to you to network with other CEOs and to learn what they're doing and what's working for them. And for them, LinkedIn, you know, I always tell them, well, 18 million C-suite executives from around the world log into LinkedIn daily.

Wow.

Which is incredible. So when you hear about these things that so-and-so creator is now a brand ambassador for Nike, so-and-so coach is now a brand ambassador for Kajabi, or, you know, some of these other platforms or programs, or so-and-so person signed with Simon Schuster for a new book deal. I mean, a lot of these executives, these scouts, these managers, they're on LinkedIn. They're looking and seeing what people are talking about, what's buzzing in the industry, what's the industry news. And so I think LinkedIn is again one of those platforms that right now, especially, it's such a golden time to get on the platform because they are investing so much in creators because they are really amping up their algorithm for that sort of viral reach like TikTok does. And unfortunately, you're just not going to get the same ROI out of Facebook. And Instagram. Not these days. That ship has sailed. You know, now they're in the pay-to-play model. Uh, if you have money, you can access things on that network, but I'm sure what will happen, what we'll see in the next year or 2 years or 3 years is TikTok and LinkedIn will probably also eventually go into pay-to-play. And then there'll be some new platform that is. So for right now, I would say those 2 platforms are sort of the golden age of free impressions, free viral opportunities, and it's not a pay-to-play model.

I'm not on TikTok a lot. I've posted a few videos there and it's just, it's fun. My daughter loves TikTok. Are you on TikTok?

I am, but I'm just, I'm, I'm sort of in the same stage as you where I'm just like throwing spaghetti against the wall.

Yeah.

And that's actually been really fun. Like, it's been fun.

So what kind of stuff do you post on there? Because You know, at first I'm like, oh, it's all these trends and that's so not me, like doing trends or whatever. I'm like, I don't want to do that dance or whatever. Tap dance, yes, because I love to tap dance. But all— and I was trying to, I was trying to figure out how, what, because I think we post different content on different platforms. Like what I would post on Instagram that might get the, the highest insights would not go over well on LinkedIn. It's a little bit, you know, it's like not as professional. Maybe it's a little bit too vulnerable. I don't know, but it doesn't go over well on LinkedIn. On TikTok, some of the things I talk about, it's like I've seen my daughter scroll through TikTok. Their brains, they're just conditioned now where, you know, used to have a few seconds to capture somebody's attention. Now you've literally got 1 second. to capture somebody's attention. And I see it because I see my daughter scroll quick, like she's like so fast. And so what kind of stuff for a successful, you know, business leader like yourself, what kind of stuff do you post on TikTok?

I think for me, when I think about TikTok versus like a LinkedIn, I think about LinkedIn as someone saying, I like Your mind. I like seeing how you think about these things. And TikTok is more like, I like you. It's your personality. It's a little more fun. It's a little more playful. It's— you can give, you can give tips or tricks or advice, but you're probably doing it in a more playful way.

Mm-hmm.

You know, whether that means making up funny characters or whether that means telling a story about how you got where you are and, and that, that sort of motivational side of you. And I think LinkedIn is more of the place of someone going, huh, that's a really good point Amberly made. I never thought about it that way. Or, hmm, if Amberly said that this is the best business book that she's read in all of 2021, maybe I should check that out. Um, you know, LinkedIn is really the place where, you know, I like to joke that it's where I do all of my copying of the homework, if you will. It's, it's the place where I like to say, hmm, what is that smart CEO doing? Or how is that social media strategist thinking about this? Or what is that person using to organize their social media planning? Because I'm going to steal whatever it is that they're using because their stuff looks pretty darn great. So it's really, to me, it's meeting other smart people on the platform and saying, I'm just gonna copy your homework. I'm not gonna try to do it myself. I'm not gonna try to test 3 things and see what works. I just wanna copy what it is you're doing. Whereas on TikTok, it's a little more like, I, more of a discovery platform.

Mm-hmm.

More of, oh, you're interesting. And if I think you're interesting, then I will dig further. Then I will go on your Instagram. Then I will go on your LinkedIn. I'll kind of dig a little bit deeper into who you are and what you do.

Yeah. And by the way, I'm taking notes and I'm big on highlighters too. So I'm highlighting. So after this, I'm gonna go to my LinkedIn and just as you're talking, I'm like, gosh, you know, like I was just in a magazine and, and I never posted that on LinkedIn.

Yeah.

I need to be doing— I was a brand ambassador for Kajabi. I never shared that. Like, there's so many things that I could be doing. I need to turn creator mode on, on LinkedIn. All these nuggets that you are giving us, and again, you help us stop living by default and start living by design. So I'm literally making a design and plan as you're speaking. Um, so I am interested because you also Talk to people about curating kind of what shows up online? Because I know the first thing that I do when I have— even when I have a guest on the show— is I go and I Google them and I see what comes up. And I suggest anybody who's listening not only Google Kim, but also Google yourself and see what pops up. It's very interesting to see what pops up. How do you help people kind of curate what pops up on Google search or just online. If— because, you know, there's some people out there that are stalking and they're going to be Googling you. They might go to your Instagram account. I mean, my husband does it all the time. I mean, maybe it's the cop in him, but I was just talking about one of my favorite speakers, Dan Clark. I love him. We did an event together a couple of weeks ago and I was going on and on about this guy, Dan Clark. I was like, he's amazing. He's the real deal. And my husband went to his Instagram. He goes, I don't know, he's not verified on Instagram. I'm like, no, he doesn't use Instagram that much. No, you need to like check out his website. And then my husband was like, oh wow, like this is amazing. How do you curate what pops up? Because at first, if I wasn't sitting there telling my husband how amazing this guy was, You'd be like, uh, he's not verified on Instagram, he must not be that amazing. And I'm like, crazy how a little blue check mark, people will think you're important or not. So how do you, you know, re— which I don't think that's true at all, um, but how do you curate how you pop up online?

I think that's why I'm such a cheerleader and so bullish on LinkedIn is because most people don't realize, again, Because LinkedIn is the oldest social media platform, because it is crawled by Google, it is one, it is always on page 1 of everybody's search results.

Wow.

99% of the time. And it is usually in the top 5. It is usually on that first, those first couple of results. And I'm sure there's 2 types of people that are listening to this right now. One person who's listening, maybe they're walking their dog and they're saying, yeah, Kim, but that doesn't apply because my name is Adam Schwartz, you know, or I have a very, you know, you're Kim Kalp, it's Amberly Lago. You know, you have very unique names. Of course it's gonna show up. You know, I have a name that's Adam Schwartz, or I have a name that's Jenny Thompson, something that I'm— there's a million Jenny Thompsons, or there's a million Adam Schwartz. And, and what I always say to this is whether we like it or not, Google is very, very smart and Google is very, very stalkery. So even if you put in one or two keywords, even if you say, Adam Schwartz, New York, or Adam Schwartz, T Public, the name of where somebody works, or Jenny Thompson, Bank of America. Google is smart. Google will cross those kind of key factors and they will find you. And what will come up first is your LinkedIn. I do this at dinner parties all the time. It's a fun little parlor trick, but this works with everyone. And I do mean everyone. And one of the 2 examples that I always like showing people, cuz I think It's quite funny is let's look at billionaires, okay, who arguably have accomplished quite a bit. We can look at Sara Blakely, first self-made billionaire woman with Spanx. My God, she's won every award under the sun.

She's one of my favorites, by the way. And I saw on your post on Instagram, I was like, yes, we need to get Sara Blakely on Coffee with Kim for sure.

Totally. Like presidential honors. I mean, the woman's done amazing things. If you Google Sara Blakely's name, you know what does not show up in the top 5? Doesn't show up a lot of her awards and honors. It doesn't show— her LinkedIn is the number 5 thing that shows up on Google.

Wow.

It's bonkers. And then you can play that game again with somebody who was supposed to be going to space this week, although I don't think he's going anymore, but Richard Branson. And, you know, his, his Virgin Galactic and Virgin Airlines and all that sort of stuff. Again, a million awards, a million accomplishments. You Google the name Richard Branson and the number 4 search result is his LinkedIn profile.

Wow.

And this is freaking Branson. So I tell people like, you know, I am so crazy, you know, about LinkedIn only because It always shows up as your number one Google search result. And people are, and to your point, sometimes people's Instagrams are private. Sometimes it's more like for friends and family and their Facebook is private, but 99% of the time people's LinkedIns are public. You, you know, they're not a private, you're not showing pictures of your kids. You're not showing pictures of your food.

Yeah. So that's actually the first place I look when it's for business or if it's somebody going to be on my podcast is I go to LinkedIn. Well, I go to Instagram, but to get information and see more about them and their bio and everything, I go to LinkedIn.

And to see who they're connected to. You know, it is sort of—

That's important.

It's an instant sort of, you know, the thing I always like to tell people to use an analogy is if you're going on a blind date you're probably going to be kind of nervous. You're like, I don't know, this could be a serial killer. Like, who am I going on this blind date with? Whereas if you go on a date and maybe one of your best friends from college set you up and all of your college friends know this person, but you just happen to not know them, you're a little bit like, okay, I'm going out with this person. It's a blind date, but like all my friends love him. So like, how bad could he be? Or how bad could she be?

Yeah.

You know, you feel a sense of like, okay, well, this This person kind of passes the friend check. And so, what's so great about LinkedIn is you can meet somebody new and see, oh, I have 6 people in common with this person. Mitch knows them. Amberly knows them. Kim knows them. Antonio knows them. Like, this person must be good people because they're connected to all the people that I love and like.

And there's power in proximity.

Absolutely. And that's another thing that people can look for on LinkedIn. So again, it just, it really packs a punch. So I always tell people, your time is limited. You want to spend time with your friends. You want to spend time with your family. You want to spend time with your dogs. I'm always looking for the platform of what's going to do the most. Where, where's my buck going to go the furthest? Like, where's my time going to make the most? And for me, that, that's been LinkedIn. And for most people, Even the billionaires, it's also LinkedIn.

Well, I wanted to ask you next, how do you leverage mentors and advocates? So the people that you meet, the mentors, connections that you make, what are some ways you can leverage that?

Oh, I feel like if I could get in a little time machine and go back 10 years to when I was starting my marketing agency, I would have been like, find more mentors. I think, I think we have this thought process when it comes to work that it only— it's whoever grinds the hardest. It's whoever writes the emails on a Sunday night. It's who wakes up early, last to leave, like this kind of grind it out mentality. And so what I found with mentors and advisors is it's a Disney FastPass. It's a video game cheat code. It's someone who, you know, when we were talking earlier, one of my big goals for next year is to speak more, I can call up somebody like you or Mitch Matthews and you can be like, oh, Kim, don't do this, do this. You gotta have this, this. And you probably saved me 6 months worth of trial and error. And I tried this thing and it didn't work. And I could talk to someone and Mitch could say, oh, I could have told you that. I could have told you that didn't work.

That's why I was so inspired to start my mastermind. And I can't wait to have you speak in the mastermind because I, gosh, I just want to give people that fast pass, how to get to point A to point B and not go through all the mistakes that I made or, or have to jump over through so many hoops. Or it, you know, if we can just give them the fast pass, that's what the— that, that's why it's so important to have Mentors, coaches, masterminds. I invest in— I invest in myself, so I invest in other people's masterminds all the time. And yeah, and when you can come together, it's like, oh, it also— it— I have to say, um, it just makes you— it makes me feel better. You know, I was having a rough day the other day. I'd been in my office all day, and you kind of get in this tunnel vision. And I get a text message from our friend Antonio, and I was like, oh, I'm taking a break right now. You just made me feel better. So when you can come together with some like-minded people and you really feel seen, heard, understood, it just— it, it just— it's like a breath of fresh air.

Absolutely. And I think anytime you're getting— you know, I— we always used to hear that saying you know, you are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with. That was sort of like the age-old saying. And I think now, if I could do a remix, you know, on that saying, I always say you're the summary of the 5 people you also digitally spend the most time with. So especially now, you know, with the pandemic, it's not just in person.

Mm-hmm.

It's not just the 5 humans that I interact with all the time. It's digital. So whether that means joining a mastermind that you're joining via Zoom once a week, or it's getting in a Facebook group, or it's going through a Kajabi course or somebody's program, you need to surround yourself with humans that are smart and talented and ambitious and learning, because you will soak in that energy and it will put you on a higher playing field.

Absolutely. And you know, that's the importance of making the investment in yourself. That's how you get to be on a Zoom and ask these, you know, leaders or best New York Times bestselling authors or celebrities questions. You know, how did they get from point A to point B? You get to, you get that connection. So that's, I love masterminds. And I love going to events, whether— I've always loved going to events. I learned that at a very young age when I was a dancer. I came from this small town and we would go to Dallas once a year for this big conference, and I got to see these incredible dancers on stage. And they had, you know, their assistants that would teach the steps, and they got to be on stage. And I remember it like, you know, I was like 9, 10 years old, and I said, someday I'm going to be dancing on that stage. Someday I want to be traveling with this certain conference. It was called Joe Tremaine. And that inspired me just to be around those people. So at age 18, I was like, I am gonna— and I did everything I could to save up enough money, and I'm gonna go out there and I'm gonna show up and I'm gonna take class every day just so I can be around those people. And eventually I got on scholarship and I got to be with those people. And then I got an agent. They, you know, they took me under their wing, they showed me the way. And so yes, be around those people who are doing the things that you want to do. And I mean, I share that with my daughter too. Like, she was getting in trouble at school one day and she goes, but Mom, I wasn't doing that thing. I'm like, but you were around people who were doing that thing. So eventually you're going to be doing that thing if you don't watch out. And she started crying and she's like, but I didn't. And I'm like, who we hang out with, it makes a huge difference. So I'm just grateful. I want to hang out with you all the time.

Me too.

So you have all these courses, by the way. The courses that you teach make me want to take every single course that you have because it's so much about your branding and making those great first impressions, how to use LinkedIn, um, and just be a better leader. So how many different courses do you have? Because I literally was stuck on one and actually even took a screenshot of it because I was like, yes, I need to work on this. I need to work.

Yeah, so I started back in 2019. I was approached by LinkedIn to create an Entrepreneurship Foundations course with them. So if anyone listening is maybe thinking about being an entrepreneur or maybe a new entrepreneur, kind of thinking about that journey, I have a course on LinkedIn Learning that is Entrepreneurship Foundations. It is a 60-minute, take it whenever you want, 2 in the morning, 4 in the afternoon, choose your own adventure. style course. That's sort of a 101 of everything I wish I had learned when I was starting a business.

Mm-hmm.

So that course is awesome. It's, it's again, a very 101 course for anybody who's thinking about becoming an entrepreneur. I then did a follow-up to that because we were getting a lot of feedback saying, how do I do a business if I'm bootstrapping? Because my marketing agency was bootstrapped. We never raised money or outside venture capital. And so we were getting a lot of questions like, how do I bootstrap a business? How do I start with no money? And so we did another course all on that, on bootstrapping a business. So that is also on LinkedIn Learning. And then what I realized is, wait a second, for the last 10 years in my marketing agency, I have helped amazing A-list artists and talent and sports teams really connect with their communities and connect with their fans and connect by representing themselves as an amazing brand or person or band or whatever it is that you want to get to know more of. And so I thought, I bet I can start doing that with people. And so I sort of took 10 years of everything I learned in the marketing agency, working with the likes of Paul McCartney and Oprah and Shawn Mendes and Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber and all these amazing people and saying like, how can I take everything I learned here and distill it into everyday leaders, everyday executives, everyday entrepreneurs, everyday CEOs. And, and so that's what really started this year in 2021.

Wow.

So now I have a 5-week cohort-based course where you will join other leaders and founders. And for 5 weeks, we will meet twice a week, digging into your career narrative, digging into leveraging your network, digging into just increasing your knowledge of how to represent yourself and talk about who the heck you are and what you do.

Oh, that's incredible. I mean, you've worked with some of the biggest names out there, and then you've also been on Shark Tank. I mean, how was that?

It was an amazing experience. It was really fun. And, and most people don't realize it's quite fun because it's the gift that keeps on giving. So yeah, because Shark Tank runs in syndication on MSNBC and a lot of these other networks, I would say our episode Every like 8 to 12 weeks we'll re-air and I'll see like a little spike. That is incredible.

Yeah.

That's like winning the lottery.

It really— I feel really lucky to have been a part of the show and it was an amazing experience and it definitely has catapulted, you know, the, the way that the trajectory of our business.

Yeah. Well, so where can people find your courses? What's the best way? Your website or LinkedIn?

I would say all of the above. I would say my website, my LinkedIn. You can find it from my Instagram. I always give this like funny analogy because we were talking earlier how my last name is so hard to spell and pronounce and whatnot. But, but I realized this when I was watching a friend do it. If you, let's say, open up your Instagram profile And you start typing in K-I-M-K-A, there'll be Kim Kardashian, number one, and then there'll be— I'll be right under it.

Wow.

I'll be Kim Kauz. So I always joke that you're gonna see one Kim K who has very little clothes on, sort of naked, and then you're gonna see me, and I'm the Kim K with her clothes on. So if you start spelling out K-I-M-K-A, Just choose the one that has more clothes on, and that, that will be me. Wow.

You know what? That's amazing though, that you— because there's a lot of people that might go, oh, Kim Kardashian. Whoa, who's this other Kim?

That—

I mean, that's incredible.

They might be a little shocked because they'll be like, wait a second, this one has way too many clothes on. Uh, she doesn't date a rapper. So it might be a little bit of a letdown. Um, but yeah, it's just because, um, That, that very beginning part, K-A, although mine goes into the letter U and hers goes into the letter R, but close enough.

Well, there's something that you say that I really— that is inspiring. You said, you know, hope is not a strategy. We have to take action. And it's great to have hope and have all these high hopes and manifest and dream big, but I love that you're like, no, We need to take action. You need to have a strategy, and you've given us so many different ways right now to just leverage our LinkedIn. So thank you so much for all the tips and, and tools. And there's one last thing I want to say. There's something that you say that I think definitely should be in the Webster's Dictionary, and you said You talk about like it's important to have bragability and be Instagrammable. So I hope that y'all all go out there and create some bragability stuff and some Instagrammable stuff and, and really take action on what Kim has shared with us today. So again, give them their— your website so they can find you and your courses.

Sure.

The website is Kim Kalb, my name. So that's So it's K-I-M, K-A as in apple, U as in unicorn, P as in Peter, E as in elephant. KimKalb.com.

Yeah. And you know what? This will be in the show notes. So if you're out for a run or something, it'll be in the show notes. Don't worry about it. You can find her and then take a screenshot, y'all. This is how you meet people. I want you to grab Kim's attention. Take a screenshot of the episode and tag her on your Instagram. Y'all, that gets people's attention. That's how you get to meet people and connect people. So take a screenshot either on YouTube or, or whether you're listening on podcast, Apple, Stitcher, whatever. Take a screenshot, tag us, let us know that you're out there on creator mode making a difference and you're curating your career. So Kim, you're amazing. I can't wait to talk to you again. I get to talk to you on Wednesday for Coffee with Kim. I'm so honored to do that. Thank you for being here. It's always such a fun time getting to talk to you. So thank you.

Thank you. This is so fun, and we'll have to just do it again soon.

Yes.