Why 50,000 entrepreneurs signed up to this AI Linkedin App in 30 days.

Hello and welcome to this episode of the Unnoticed Entrepreneur with me in the uk, Jim James. And today we're going all the way to Brisbane, Sunny Brisbane, and we're going to meet a man who's building a better second brain. Jason Tan is the founder of a company called Engage AI. And Engage AI has managed to garner over 50,000 users in less than 12 months on less than $1,000 worth of advertising dollars. So it's a brilliant product and it's helping people like you and me engage on LinkedIn. So if you're trying to engage, and especially engage with personalization at scale, you know how much time that takes, just how difficult that is. And Jason Tan had that problem. He scratched the itch. He built the product himself. So Jason's going to tell us how he's done that and about Engage AI, but he's also going to tell us about some of the obstacles he's faced in getting to that 50,000 users, how he sold those obstacles and, and he's going to give us his big mistake and also his top tip. Jason Tan, welcome to the show.

Well, thank you so much. Jim has been a big fan for a long time, so thank you so, so much for having me. This and the opportunity to share what we do for helping the unnoticed SMB owner to get noticed.

Jason, wonderfully, you know, I reached out to you because of Engage AI, which I have as a LinkedIn plugin myself. So I was, you know, really, really delighted when you accepted my invitation to the show because, you know, I'm a fan, I'm a user. As someone that has now 12 and a half thousand LinkedIn connections, you know, it just becomes a bigger and bigger task managing those relationships. So tell us about Engage and how it works and what problem it solves for people.

Absolutely. So the biggest problem that we are solving for is for the SMB owner from unnoticed to get noticed. And there are many, many channel SMB owner, B2B SMB owner can go out there and market and advertise themselves. There are many channels. LinkedIn, though, is one of the very effective channel that SMB, especially the B2B SMB owner are using because it allows you to know exactly who the target audience is. And one of the very strategies that I and many of the SMB owner are using to get notice from our target audience, assisting client is commenting for attention. What does that mean, commenting for attention? Basically, it means that when your prospect, when your assisting client are making posts or sharing content on the LinkedIn platform, you want to be there to Say something insightful. You want to be there to support them. Because who doesn't want a bit of engagement when they spend all the time, the energy and the money in creating a post, right? So you want to be there. That has been a proven strategy for decades in many, many platform. The challenges however in doing those things is, is time consuming, it's energy taxing. Especially if you want to say much, much more than just thank you for sharing a great post. I love it. I mean who is going to look at Jason dad if he just keeps saying, I mean Jim, would you look at me, my profile if I continue to say thank you for sharing a great post. I mean you wouldn't care, right? But imagine if you were making post and I add some extra point help you echoing your message. I support you in whatever way. If I do that five or 10 times, you're gonna pay attention. You say who is this Jason 10 who has always been supporting me? Whenever I make a post you gotta have a look at me. And that is what the code so called commenting for attention. We are here to help people to get noticed. We help them to break the ice, we help them to start conversation and effectively that is what we do for Engage AI.

Jason Tan, you know it sounds like this show is built for you and Engage AI is built for the show, you know, for my fellow unnoticed entrepreneurs. Because most of us are really using LinkedIn, you know, solely and not relying on other platforms. Engage AI, is it working on LinkedIn alone or is it also helping on Facebook or X as it's now called or insta any of the other platforms?

Well, it is only working on LinkedIn at the moment. I believe the key target audience that we are helping is the B2B SMB owner. So LinkedIn is all my focus and rather than splitting our focus to get onto other platform, we continue to innovate, we continue to improve ourselves to make it working better and make it work for the SMB owner. And that comes with other few features and how we are thinking about it and how we have other features that continue to save time, continue to make it easier, continue to make the SMB owner to get noticed. So it works on LinkedIn only. But it's beyond just a chrome extension of making a few comments. We have a lot of things to help people to get noticed in a fraction of time.

Jason. I think that's a brilliant strategy. And more and more people are focusing in fact on one platform and that being LinkedIn. If they're doing B2B. Yeah, tell us how does it work from a practical point of view? Because many people are either outsourcing to a va. I tried that and then I worked with Simon Chapazo, who's a LinkedIn expert, and he said, you know, let's look at that. And I was posting too frequently using a va and actually my engagement levels were terrible because I was kind of in effect asking someone to speak on my behalf. So we cut it right back to me, posting only. And Simon has this strategy called a sandwich where you comment and like on two or three other people before you post your own post, post, and then you again post comments and likes and shares on other people's sort of way of engaging. Tell us, from a practical point of view, with Engage AI, what work would I still need to do? But using Engage AI instead of spending what could be an hour of expensive time actually trawling through a feed, and sometimes I miss the people I actually want to comment on. I just kind of see who's most recent in my feed. Take us through the workflow of how you solve that problem.

Well, there are so many, many things that unpack for what you have to say that you literally touch on three different things. And these three different things are, number one, posting content. Posting content itself is a different strategy. Number two, using a VA to make a comment. A lot of people do that. I myself do that as well. And then finally using the strategy of commenting first before posting. So we will talk very quickly in detail on how those three different strategies. But there are literally three things that you just unpack. So the first thing first is posting content and getting engagement and also getting traction. Getting view is almost like advertising, right? So I often say in the old world, you know, we advertise on newspaper, you will know that certain number of people look at it because that is this volume of newspaper that they sell. In the new world of the online platform, there's no guarantee because they got millions and millions of free content created for them. They are not going to show it to all of them, to everyone. Instead, they rely on the algorithm to be able to show that. Now, to get eyeball for your post, really come down to have a punchy headline, have a clickbait title. Like it or not, it is a world that we live in because there are just so many free content. We need to be able to draw people in, tell a good story, make use of different formats. I really think that is really one of the key points of getting eyeball. So good content, good title, good starting point. Using format is the Only way to get eyeball. You probably want to work with some of the people to get a little bit more eyeball. That is really the first point. Your second point in hiring VA or getting our own team member to manage our LinkedIn account to do that. That is actually one of the problems that many of our user are solving with our tool now now hiring a va, whether they are on sought or they are off sought, it doesn't matter. The biggest problem of having a VA is they don't necessarily have the diversified knowledges on different topics. They are not necessarily going to speak in your tone while they speak perfect English with a lot of vocabulary. The biggest problem is how do they, how do you get them to speak in the way that it sounds like an expert but not going overkill? That is where Engage AI is coming into the picture and the very first screen that you were showing is when using Engage AI, the first thing engaged AI does is it analyzes what exactly is the post is about. Then it choose the tone that you use, the tone that you choose that we pre configure. Or you can write your own custom prompt to build your own custom tone. So that being said, whether is VA doing it now, who can now speak in a very diverse topic or equally even when you are using it yourself, Sometimes you've got the writer's block or sometimes you're not familiar with the topic. You can still very quickly come in, come up something that is relevant to say and that is the power of Engage AI. That's the power of using AI that would take over the challenges that you have with the va. Coming back to the last point before we go on to the workflow, I think we can talk a bit about the workflow shortly. But commenting as a strategy to get your post, I have read that before, I think I have tried that before and I'm not too sure if that is a very effective strategy. I know that myself and many of our users are not really using that strategy. I think really is about that engagement that you can do to get more view to your post. I think if you do it enough in your other time that will accumulate anyway. But to get view to the post it really comes out to the content, the way of structure and the way of writing. So that is my three things that I have to say. Content First 1 Good content, good starting point. Make people want to click to read to see more. The second one is how engaged AI is solving the problem when you are outsourcing the work to VA when they cannot speak in A diverse topic like an expert including you can use it for yourself. And then finally commenting to get more view for the post. I am not 100% sure we will talk about the workflow in a second, but did I, did that, did that resonate?

And I apologize, I apologize. I'm just so excited by what it does that I've been bundled in. But also as we know, managing your LinkedIn is such a big part of people's jobs. So just to be clear, if I use Engage AI, I'm training it in if you like my vernacular, my tone. So for example English or American English or Southeast Asian English. Does it also work across different languages? So French, Spanish, Mandarin, for example?

Yes, it works in multiple language. And the best thing about it is it automatically figure out what the native language of the post is and then it just write out in that language. So I have seen like how people were writing in French and Hebrew. It's just amazing that how it figured that out and then it's just right in whatever the structure at this stage. It doesn't train on your personal tone. Training on your personal tone is our is in our product roadmap is the thing that we will be doing. But you have the ability to write your own custom prompt. So rather than just choose the prompt that we have already pre configured, you could tell it to say here is the way that I want you to say it. I don't want you to stay over three center and I want you to edit by asking a question. So that can be done in a custom prompt.

Okay, that's really nice. And then would it reference the content from the post that I'm commenting on? So would I say interrogate the post that's been just being posted? I'd like you to reference that post and add a comment of no more than three sentences with a question like how do you feel about that? Is that right?

Exactly, exactly. So it will always speak in that occasionally you make mistakes. My AI is not perfect, but otherwise it will always reference to that pose. And that is the thing. The beauty about it is it doesn't speak nonsense, it doesn't hallucinate as much. I think partly I would say that it doesn't hallucinate much is because if you think about commenting, commenting is actually very short. Usually it's 2 to 3 or maybe maximum 4 to 5 sentence. So the very fact that it will hallucinate the chances has always been decreased dramatically. So it doesn't hallucinate much yet.

That makes a lot of sense Jason, because the Context of the content it's commenting on is much more limited, isn't in terms of its parameters as opposed to an open general search. And do you set it and forget it or do you have it there and you need to go in and if you like choose the post that you want to comment on and that is the piece that then you could outsource to the va, isn't it? Because it's not a sort of an auto generate across all, Is that right? Tell us about how you can track certain people, Jason, that you might want to come in.

That is a great question and there are two parts to answer that in terms of the philosophy what we were thinking about the Engage AI and that is very, very important. Let's address the biggest elephant in the room. First, you have 13,000 LinkedIn connection. I have about 10 and a half. The truth is I probably do not know 95% of those people. As a B2B business owner, I only care about 50 to 100 people at any given time. The very fact is If I have 100 B2B business client, enterprise client, I would be very, very, very happy already. However, when I go to LinkedIn, LinkedIn doesn't sell me those hundred people that I care about. They sell me whatever they want to sell me. And for me just to find those hundred people that I really trust, that I care that I want to sell my service, where I want to provide expertise, I need to find them, I need to go to their profile, I need to check whether they post or not. And all of those things is time consuming, it is tedious work manual work that I don't really want to do. So Engage AI have this platform where if you tell me exactly who they are and I will monitor for you. In other words, when you log into LogEngage AI on our website, which is not on the LinkedIn, you will be able to see that at least of the people that you want me to monitor, you will be able to see that who has posted what that post is exactly about. In summary. And when you click on the link, it will take you directly back to LinkedIn and you can engage that way. If you just saw that 100 people, your VA can take care from it right from there. And then finally so in that sense you sort of like set and forget you monitor rather than having to remember to go and visit each of the profile. However, the actual commenting itself, we want to have human in the loop. So we, we are not automating that it's not going to automatically comment for you it's not and then press the button of posting because we believe that you should always have the chance to have the final say. Do we want to have human in the room? We, we don't want to build another spot to spam everyone on LinkedIn.

I think that is principle, Jason. I think it's great. And at the end of the show we're going to give people a coupon code so that they can try Engage. Dai Co is the website. We're going to give people a coupon code. So stay around, listen to Jason Tan explain a bit more. Jason, we could have a whole show about Engage AI. But you know, this is also a show about entrepreneurs and you are an entrepreneur. You built an amazing customer base of 50,000 users in less than a year with only $1,000. What obstacle have you faced and overcome in building out from Brisbane a global brand?

I would probably say there are primarily two big obstacles. Number one is the transition of running a consulting business to build a product business. So I have to pick up a lot of things that I never really understood. So I have to pick up a lot of new skill set and then equally finding the people who build the product that is for global audience from the very day one. So that is probably the very first obstacle. Number two is about like many other entrepreneur or SMB owner thinking outside the box how to get northeast with limited budget and get get all those 50,000 people. I think that was a challenge, but I'm glad that we solved that. But otherwise transition of the consulting visa to a product reason. And equally how to get noticed, how to acquire user at a fraction of the cost.

And how did you do that, Jason? What's been the secret sauce?

Well, the secret sauce is what I call eating our own dog food. So in the very first one or two months when we first launched, literally we were using Engage AI to go out commenting. Now the differences of the strategy that we were using back then though is because I recognize that my product is a $30 monthly subscription. So I don't comment on my target audience directly. Instead I comment on their target audience. My target audience is the B2B SMB owner. But if I were to acquire a thousand of them, I need to comment on a thousand of them. And then the ROI is only $30 if they subscribe, it makes no sense. Now if I flip the table the other way around, the asset B2B SMB owner, their target audience is the CEO of the MNC. Their target audience is the senior vice president of the fnc. They are trying to sell to those big corporates. So what we did is whenever those big SVP C level of these MNC they make a post we have a LinkedIn profile to go on and comment on it. So that. So all of those SMB owner when they comment on it they see us. And then when they see us I make sure that I have a profile title. I have something that is interesting on the profile to make them to say who is this person number one who is this person making this really good comment? I have to check it out. When they visit the profile that is an offer that entice them to go to our website to try it out. That is interesting. That is eye catching. So that is actually how we got started that we acquired the very first three to 5,000 user in the first, the first and the second one.

Jason, that is absolutely brilliant. Using sort of if you like the go to the honey pot which as you say the the MNCs and the CFO CEOs that's good. Those people are saying and you're kind of in the crowd with the people that are also trying to gain the attention but actually you're then getting the attention of those people you're standing next to that. What a brilliant. Now you're a smart man and I know you've got postgraduate degrees in AI as well. So we haven't had a chance to go into your background. But you understand AI. But plainly you also marketing are very, very astute. Especially making the transition from selling like high value low volume consultancy. You've completely flipped that on its head to high volume low value or rather low price but high value AI. Is there a mistake Jason, that you've made in the last couple of years as an entrepreneur on the marketing and getting noticed front that that you suggest people don't try at home my fellow unnoticed entrepreneurs, something to avoid doing.

I probably would say switching from the selling to B2B for a large ticket item to a small ticket item as a product is a completely change of the mindset. I think that is probably number one. Number two, that I would say the biggest mistake I would probably try to avoid that. I did it myself as well, especially for Engage AI. But I'm glad that we managed to control the damage so the spending was not crazy, which is about the advertising. I really think that advertising is getting really really expensive these days and while we are still in the early stage it's better off to speak with user try to think outside the bomb rather than spending all the money on the ppc, whether it's from Google or it's whether for Facebook. If you are not 100% clear about how you are serving your customer, how you are solving your customer, and if you are not a funded company, PPC is best to avoid. Until you figure out your funnel, your key messages, your usp and exactly, you will be able to retain the client. So I think we spent about a couple hundred dollars in the ppc. We probably got less than five clicks. So I, I say, you know what, we gotta stop that. We tried something else.

Isn't that interesting? Because one would have thought that a product like yours would be eminently ppcable. But you're not the first person to say that. The advertising on LinkedIn Facebook X as it, you know, is now has, has yielded almost no ROI for them. So that's very, very interesting. Jason Tan is the, you know, CEO, founder of Engage Dash Co AI, which is a brilliant, brilliant product for those SMEs and those entrepreneurs working to get leads and generate Demand out of LinkedIn and, and also avoiding the, just the generic spam of Inbox, which is actually getting more and more people to just feel abused. Right. And I now just mark, you know.

Block, block, block, block.

Right? So, so that's a very smart strategy. If there's one thing that you've done that you say really doesn't move the needle as a, as an entrepreneur, what would that be?

Oh, what is one thing that I do that doesn't move the needle?

No, no, that does. Does move the needle. Yeah, no, not, not doesn't. But one thing, that. One thing that moves the needle that you go, okay, if you've got, you know, as an entrepreneur and you need to get noticed and you're down to your last few dollars, what would be the one thing you do recommend?

I, I would highly, highly say market positioning. And, and I would give a lot of credit to the market positioning, I must say, I must admit that to a lot of extent we were lucky we got into this AI hype because of the ChatGPT. There's no doubt about it, we part of that cycle. But market positioning, I think, is why we got to where we are today. The very reason why I'm saying that is because before we release the Engage AI, I was absolutely clear that I would not be another AI copywriting tool, because before we launched, there were literally already hundreds and thousands of the AI copywriting tool already. So I know if I just position myself as another AI marketing tool, I would go nowhere. There's no way I would be able to compete with the well funded Silicon Valley company. So what I say is, you know what we know commenting for attention is a proven strategy. We all use that. We know a lot of people are using that equally we know that is a pain that a lot of people are facing. So our market position is we are the LinkedIn AI commenting or we are the ChatGPT for LinkedIn commenting and it is what we are and that is all we do. So because of that as a first mover the market positioning was very clear and because of that a lot of people can quickly understand that a lot of people can quickly relate that to that. A lot of people are trialing that out and equally it give us all the exposure that the organic and the unexposure, the earned media that we don't have to go out and earn. Myself lots of blog, lots of influencer, lots of LinkedIn posts, lots of Instagram all of them when they want to say top 52, top 10 to blah we were always there. So market positioning is really the one that I would say think about yourself to make that clear. You will move the needle like crazy.

Jason Tan, you've moved the needle in you won number one on product hunt. I can see there for example by by by being laser focused. Jason Tan, you mentioned a coupon something for listeners to to have take take us to where people can get a.

Trial for Engage AI so they can always start it for free. They can even sign up a pro account for free get a few they will get a full access to all the premium feature at zero cost for two weeks and should they decided to go for it to and decide this is really the right tool for them and also we are building more and more feature but if they want to be the early adopters supporting us like many of our existing early supporter use the Coupon code of BF2 3 so I repeat is for character B for boy F my best friend yeah 2 and then numeric 3 bf33 to get $23 off and try it for $7 in the first month and no no contract, no commitment. No no long term commitment. They can cancel at any time Jason.

Tan I wouldn't want to cancel you at any time. It's been a wonderful wonderful conversation than Jason Tan if you want to find out and find you where can they do that?

Well link it on our website Engage AI co but otherwise I am spend a lot of time on LinkedIn to to be helpful to people but I equally understand how the platform works so we can continue to improve Engage AI for SMB owners.

Jason Tan, thank you so much for joining me today on the show.

Thank you so much. The pressure in mind. Thank you so much for having me.

Well, hasn't it wonderful, Jason, thank you for coming. And you know, we met on LinkedIn and I saw Engage and I saw the difference between what you're doing with Engage AI and all the other writing tools. Credit to them for what they're doing. But your application is unique and special. So for those of us that are listening, if you've got a desire, go to Engage AI Co Free trial for the first couple of weeks and then Money off. Best Friend 23 is your coupon for us at the Unnoticed Entrepreneur. If you've enjoyed this, please do rate the show on your player and follow the show because I wouldn't want you to miss another great tool and another great entrepreneur story. Like we've heard today from Jason, we've run over a little bit. Normally the shows are 20 to 25 minutes, but we kind of got a bit deep because loving what Jason's doing, I think it's so, so useful for you to understand what tools are available. So I'll rush off now. Thank you for joining me, Jim James, and until we meet again, keep on communicating. And with Engage AI, you can keep on commenting too. Cheers.

Thank.

You.