How this restaurant waiter used the law of reciprocity on social media to become a Linkedin Influen

It's literally the law of reciprocity. If somebody wants to get 1,000 views on a post and 100 likes, they should go through their newsfeed and they should look at 1,000 posts and like 100 of them. And something magical happens when you are liking other people's posts and consuming other content on what's now turned into a social media platform whose business model is to serve content to people's eyeballs.

Hello and welcome to The Unnoticed Show, and I'm delighted to have with me Corey Warfield, who's joining me In a bit of a sort of James Corden style with celebrity, he's in a car driving around Chicago. Corey, thank you for joining me.

Jim, it's an absolute pleasure. I went unnoticed for a very long time, and now I help people to get noticed day in and day out on the platform. I love your show and who you are, so I'm delighted to be here with you today.

You're very kind. Thank you. And look, you have an amazing background as a, you know, a waiter turned tech entrepreneur, and now you're a LinkedIn influencer. With hundreds of thousands of followers and you've got a podcast. It's an amazing story. So love for you to share with other entrepreneurs, how did you get noticed and have used LinkedIn? Let's talk about that to start with.

Perfect. So yeah, I guess I'll give a quick backstory and then a little bit of kind of some level setting that I think many people misunderstand about the platform LinkedIn specifically. So I spent about 20 years of my adulthood working in restaurants as a manager, waiter, bartender, and The schedules always changed and it made life really difficult to predict and forecast. And so a few years ago, out of a frustration, I created a platform to help the restaurant staff, their employees better. And 5 years later, we're still kind of a scale-up. We've raised some money and we've grown the team and product to where it is today. But the way that I was able to raise the money and get the team and get the companies that are using us to notice us was on LinkedIn. And it took me about a year of going all in full-time, life savings into the company, launching an MVP to the market, that I realized that I didn't have all the chops after 20 years in restaurants. And the way that I would really get noticed was social media and Facebook. You know, Facebook is a great place to catch up on family and people you knew when you were in high school, but people really aren't supportive there. People don't want to see others succeed there. I think people go there really to kind of, you know, journal and catalog their own life and And just keep up with people and judge them just a little bit. Instagram, nobody cares. Right. I don't have a 6-pack, you know, and back then it was even less of a 6-pack, right there. And I realized very quickly that LinkedIn was going to be the place for me. And this was about 3 years ago when people were starting to do videos there. So I just followed suit and started doing videos of myself and nobody cared. Nobody watched them. But what I did is I was tenacious and I kept going. And I really started to test the algorithm and A/B test a lot of different things. What time should I be posting? What time zones was I resonating in? What hashtags were working? Some of the really simple computer science. And once I started to apply my learnings of the algorithm with the psychology of the platform, which I'll go into in a minute, which I think is just such an underleveraged subject matter, that's where I started to get the attention and the views and the awards and the podcasts and the PR and ultimately the customers and then the investors and then the team. So it was a really just transactional way of doing this where I realized this is where I needed to be. There was a way to really get noticed there and turn that into a true business development channel.

I will tell you that he's not driving. This is not an autonomous vehicle he's in, but I thought I'd just double-check. Okay. So you had this sort of insight that LinkedIn would be the place to reach out, but How do you transition from, if you like, the waiter to entrepreneur to fundraiser? Because your history follows you to some degree, doesn't it, on LinkedIn? Very much so. So you had to rebrand and reposition yourself. Can you just talk us through how you did that, Corey? Because many people right now after COVID maybe have lost their jobs, or entrepreneurs in the making are having to really reposition themselves. I'd love to hear how you managed that.

Absolutely. So I think I was fairly fortunate because as a waiter and bartender and even a manager, you're always on stage. So you're talking to strangers anyway. They want to hear about your life, where you're from, you know, what big plans you have just to make the world a better place. So I'm used to putting myself out there and talking, and I'm used to kind of selling without selling. People that came into my restaurants were hungry. They knew what kind of food we served, right? They didn't have a choice whether I was their waiter or not. They were in my section. So I kind of just approached social media the same way. I'll just put myself out there. And what I did understand is the concept of the red water, blue water, where you don't want to be where everybody else is in the feeding frenzy. And so I started to post early in the morning and late at night because I knew other people weren't. I started talking about the restaurant industry specifically because nobody else was, and it was where I came from. But I knew that rather than talking about entrepreneurship or anything like that that everybody else was talking about, I really needed a differentiator. And I think A lot of early, earlier entrepreneurs miss, miss the mark on having a unique selling proposition. Like you've got to be different. So that's what I did on LinkedIn. I realized that was a deficit. People weren't really talking about working as shift workers. A lot of people couldn't relate to it though. So I needed to branch out and just really not only talk about that niche, but also, you know, drop the really wide net and go for the whole buckshot and learned what was really resonating at a bigger level, which was talking about job seekers, how to get jobs. That's what the platform's for. But I think. what I'll do is I'd like to talk about kind of my epiphany on the platform and how to reach people, but I'd love to let you set the stage as well.

Well, Corey, you're the guest and you're the knowledge, so I'd love to hear what you were going to say next. I think that what one of the central questions, I think, for many people on LinkedIn is how to get the people to come, because you could be posting seemingly endless content that you think is valuable But you're kind of like in a field and shouting and no one's coming to listen. So maybe we can start with the content strategy and the timing, but also how did you get people to find you?

Yep. Well, everybody thinks that what they put on LinkedIn is valuable, right? And I'll be honest, it's not. Almost nothing anybody puts on LinkedIn is valuable. Nobody cares what's worked for you in your sales in the past. Nobody cares what awards you won at a company. Nobody cares that you're there to help people. They truly don't. Right? And that's where I think people don't understand it. If I just put all my teachings out here on LinkedIn, if I just tell people about other people that I know and, um, and really supportive— no, nobody cares about any of that, right? So the first thing, and I'll get into this in a minute, is the law of reciprocity. On any social media, especially LinkedIn, what you put out is what you get back. But more so than that, fundamentally, and here's where people get it wrong, everyone's on LinkedIn talking about themselves. What don't people want to hear about? Others, right? So everyone's talking about themselves. Nobody cares about them. People are on LinkedIn for a very specific reason. And then I'll put some bullet points to it. But everyone is on LinkedIn to sell something, to make money, right? More generally, they're there to sell themselves, or they're there to sell a product, their coaching, their book, their product, or themselves as a job seeker or a candidate who can do a job because they're a recruiter and they'll make money. Everybody is on LinkedIn to make money. So if I'm on there talking about myself, the only way that's going to resonate with people is if they can make money with it. But all of a sudden, if anyone's on there talking about how to find a job on LinkedIn, that's what people are there for. Wow. Right. All of a sudden, if you start to ask people what they are finding in the job market, how they're selling on LinkedIn, everybody wants to offer their opinion and their advice. People just don't feel like they're asked it there. So conceptually, The whole thing is talk with your audience, not at them. Everybody's on LinkedIn trying to talk at their audience and everyone's saying, hey, look at me, let me tell you something. And it's so condescending. It's so condescending to say, let me— like, Jim, you've had an amazing career. You more than almost anyone are qualified to show up and say, hey, let me tell you about how I grew a many million dollar market in this industry or that industry. Let me tell you about these cool cars, right? Like, But no, but you really— nobody cares, right? You're like, you know what, let me get people that have cracked the code and let's figure out how to get people around the world that need the code cracked to crack it for free, freely, with no expectation. And that's the law of reciprocity. You're putting it out there, it's coming back to you. People can come find you and look at your profile and go, wow, he's an amazing man who's done amazing things without you having to talk about it. And so that's really where I think people don't understand LinkedIn. Yes, it's a social media platform, but unlike Instagram where people want to see your abs and what you had for lunch, and unlike Facebook where your ex-girlfriend wants you to know that she's aging gracefully, and unlike Twitter where you go and you talk about the other political party and you delete it an hour later because you don't want to be, you know, labeled as this or that, right? Like every platform is for a very specific reason. No one's on LinkedIn LinkedIn to do anything but make money somehow or another. So once people understand that, you start putting out content that helps people make money. Hey, how's this for a post? What are you selling? Please drop a comment with why I should buy it. Who doesn't want to— I mean, that's a conversation people want to have on LinkedIn. How about this? Are you looking for a job? I'm gonna get a bunch of recruiters to engage with this post. Drop what you're best at in the comments. And if you need to be local, or if you can do this remotely, and let's get you some jobs. And then the algorithm says, there it is, they get it right. That's what LinkedIn is there for. I've got a friend that was the co-founder of LinkedIn, and I talked to him and he says, the reason that we started this platform is so you could look people up and see what their career is like and who they are as a professional before you hop on a call with them. That was it. It wasn't intended as a social media platform. So when people are on there talking about what time they wake up in the morning, what their favorite kind of coffee is, who their favorite author is, Again, nobody cares. And it's a really brutal message, but 90% of people don't understand it. So when you're in that 10% of the people who do get it, it's— it becomes this really easy replicable computer science where you just play the algorithm, give your direct audience what it is that they want on LinkedIn, and then people come to you. And I want to give you a chance to jump in, but where we'll go with that is how do you get those people to come to you? And what do you do when they're there? Because it is a free global 24/7 networking site.

And Corey, that was what I was going to ask you next, was that if you're putting that content out, maybe give us a specific example of a quality post, as you can do that, because you've talked about the need to create content that is more sort of interactive and interrogative rather than sort of selfish. Can you give us a practical example? And then yes, how do people then find that? Because people, I think, have been experimenting with polls, for example, with what are your 3 best pieces of advice for this and May not get anywhere. So how does that work?

Yeah, so I think what it would be challenging for me on a podcast with this wide and broad of an audience to say what kind of posts would do well. But what I can say generally is the very short videos do well, and really high quality still images do pretty well when they're accompanied by a question that there's actually a what's in it for someone else to answer. But with the short videos, it has to catch the attention of an audience Instantly. And it's got to either make them say wow, make them say aww, or make them laugh instantly. Because people are going through their newsfeed and there's 10,000 posts that are vying for their attention. How do you get them to stop? Right? And it's— some of it's that first line as well. And if you ask a question, it can draw people in. But a lot of it is visual. But I think what's more important than that even is understanding how important the headline on LinkedIn is. The headline is what's right underneath your name, and everybody gets it wrong. People will say Vice President of Sales at Hertz, or people say I'm here to help, or people will say top podcaster host, or people will say all kinds of things that no one else is on LinkedIn to find. Nobody is on LinkedIn to find a business development manager at Hertz. If they were, they know where to find them, period. Nobody's on there to find a top podcaster. No one went to LinkedIn going, well, I wonder how I could find a top podcaster. So that headline needs to be something people are on there looking for. Someone sees that and goes, wow, there he is, there she is. I've been looking for this person. That headline needs to start a conversation. And the amazing thing about that is it can be whatever you want, and it can resonate only with people that you know it'll resonate with. And then every time you engage with anyone anywhere on LinkedIn, ever your headline and your name and your little picture come up, whether it's commenting under their stuff. So now you can go to a company you want to work for, you can go to a company you want to sell something to, you can go to a professional that you want to have a conversation with, you can go to a prospect that you just want to send you a connection request, because everything in this world should be inbound, right? It's very doable if you're using psychology to get everything on LinkedIn to be inbound. That headline is so important. So Mine says something like restaurant worker turned tech entrepreneur, you know, or waiter turned tech. People every day reach out and go, wow, I saw that headline, I had to talk to you. And who are they? They're people looking for restaurant tech. Go figure. I started a technology company that serves into the restaurants. That's my ideal client. How powerful when those people come to talk to me. I'm not prospecting them. And I've now taken the approach, I'll almost blow them off. They have to chase me down. So they want what I'm selling. By the time they get on my calendar, they've already decided. They just want to know how much it costs and how I'm going to help them roll it out and what it's going to do for their life. And that's what— that's how I get my clients for my coaching. Uh, that's how I get my investors for my various initiatives. I'm launching my own cryptocurrency. I've got people— I changed a couple of the headlines on Twitter and, and I think TikTok to talk about the, the Corey Coin coming out, and people are already having those inbound conversations, and I'm able to deflect those to my teams. But it's all about getting that headline out there. Right. And very soon when we drop this coin, my headline's going to say something about that. And I'm going to have more inbound conversations daily than I know what to do with.

Of course, you know that in England, you're going to have a problem because the Corrie here is Coronation Street. So when you announce the current— the Corrie coin, everyone's going to think that Coronation Street has got its own money since leaving Europe. Now, Corrie, just go back then if we can, because we've only got another 5 minutes left. You've got your content that you talk about being interactive and asking questions and solving problems for people, but how is that then found? How are you able to attract such an amazing audience, what you call inbound? Because that seems to be the missing part of most people's LinkedIn strategy.

Yeah, well, so the good news is that's the easiest question to answer and the easiest strategy to implement. If somebody wants a post of theirs to get 10 likes and 100 views, they should scroll through 100 posts in their newsfeed and like 10 of them, right? It's literally the law of reciprocity. If somebody wants to get 1,000 views on a post and 100 likes, they should go through their newsfeed and they should look at 1,000 posts and like 100 of them. And something magical happens when you are liking other people's posts and consuming other content on what's now turned into a social media platform whose business model is to serve content to people's eyeballs. Something really magical happens when you spend a little bit more time on the site and when you're intentionally and deliberately engaging with other people on there. It's magical. They come to your profile, right? And they look at your about and what you've done, and they look at your content and it's just this law of reciprocity. And if you think about it on a very conservative side of things, if you should give 90% more than you're expecting on the social media platform and you give people some likes and some comments and you're thoughtful and you're engaging with other people. It does come back to you, and it comes back to you very quickly. And so now when you're strategic, especially engaging with second and third connections so that your name gets out to people that you are not already familiar with, and 2, it comes back to you, I mean, instantly and in a big way.

And Corey, can I just ask you a question about technology? Do you think that's necessary to do that as an individual? Do you use a tool For that outreach?

No. So I, not only do I not use any tools, nor do I recommend them. I'm not even familiar with any anymore. The algorithms and the computer science picks up on those. It penalizes pattern matching and automation and anything like that. And I need to have that personal relationship. So, you know, whether I have 250,000, 300,000 followers on a certain platform or whatever it is, I'd rather ignore people's comments or messages accidentally and have them just kind of extrapolate that I'm probably too busy rather than have a computer or somebody else. I have people on my team that I deflect people to, but I don't have them respond as me either. I figure my personal brand is my asset, is my currency, and I have to be very guarded with that. And I like the personal touch. Now that said, at Corey Connects, we are building a growth bot that, uh, as Grammarly does. So when you're on social media, it will give you little tips and tricks. Hey, maybe you should move this hashtag. Maybe you should engage with this post, but it's only putting opportunities in the user's hands that they can then do personally as well. It's not automating anything.

That's really interesting feedback that you should still be authentic. And that's kind of a recurring theme in all the conversations I'm having, that whilst sort of automation and personalization at scale is possible, we still have to be intimate and directly personable with people, or we lose that connection, right? So that's essentially a good humanist message. So Corey, if people want to find out more about you, you've got Corey Connect, you've got the Corey Coin coming out. You also have mentees. You you help people that want to learn how to use LinkedIn. How can people find you?

Yep. So right now on most channels, I am both personally and now with my team represented as Cory Connects. So it's C O R Y C O N N E C T S. That podcast is on virtually every channel by the same name. So Cory Connects is a great way to kind of see what I'm up to and to get involved in. Again, in different capacities, I have different team that helps me handle things like PR and the clients for the growth coaching and things of that nature. I'm involved with a platform called Influencer Active as well right now that's offering influencer marketing to, you know, solopreneurs and startups as well. That's pretty cool. We just launched and have been doing some fun things there. I am a managing director with Founder Institute. We do have an international presence as well. So anybody that's in the Founder Institute network or thinking about starting a company, That's a great place to go. And I can be found on all the social platforms under my real name, Cory Warfield, C-O-R-Y W-A-R-F-I-E-L-D. And I always try to respond to everyone that I can with the caveat that I can't respond to everybody. So patience is a virtue and I always appreciate it.

Cory Warfield, thank you so much for joining us today from his car in Chicago. You've been listening to the Unnoticed Show. And I think really the key takeaway really about LinkedIn and focusing on that is the need To have reciprocity as your guiding light, right? That you should be willing to give and to share and to serve, and to some degree trust the platform and, and the goodwill of others to bring back to you.