Missing Link Profile Top Fold

Hello and welcome to the Missing link. In this video, we're going to be looking at your profile and specifically the top fold, which if you watched the last video, you'll know is the most important part of your profile. So we're going to be starting right at the very top with your banner. And if you don't know what the banner is, it is this image that is right behind my profile picture. This is something that you can edit and actually you can have five of them and have them be a slideshow. I only have one. But if you have multiple programs, if you work with multiple different clients, then you can absolutely add more. For those of you who are just starting out, however, one is going to be perfect. Okay, so I'm going to go through and explain all the things that need to be on this banner. Okay? So first and foremost, one of the greatest tools you will ever discover in running your business is Canva. On Canva, you can design your own banner. And if you do that, you do have to put in custom sizes. So it's going to be 1584 wide by 396 tall pixels in the Canva machine. And once you set that sizing, you'll have your blank canvas and you want to go and design it. So first and foremost, we want to have your name or your company's name in a prominent position here. So you can see I have Katie McManus. Now, this is my old branding. I have new ones coming, but I didn't have them done in time before I did this recording. So we have your name and your business name. We have what you do and who you help. Right? So brave business coaching, stop being a weenie and start your business already. I have this as a pattern interrupt, right? Because no one expects to be told to stop being a weenie on LinkedIn. However, it does indicate this is who I help. If you're thinking about starting a business, I'm the person to go to, right? Okay. So we want to indicate what you do and who you help. We also want your email address here. So if someone really does want to get in touch, they have a way to do that. If you have a website, then we also want to have that listed here. But if you don't have a website, don't worry about it. And lastly, this is so important, you want everything to be right, focused. The reason being, let's go back to the last slide. Your profile picture is going to be right over the left hand side. So we don't want any of this writing behind here that's going to get blocked. Okay, so everything should be over here to the right. All right, so that is your background. And of course, like, make a few different versions of this. You can edit it, you can change it, you can update it as many times as you want. There's no such thing as perfect. Like I said, this is my old one I'm soon to be updating with my updated one. All right, next, let's talk about your profile picture. There are a few things that really matter when it comes to your profile picture. First and foremost, a closeup of your face. Okay? I don't want to see you super zoomed out. I don't want to see, like a whole portrait of your whole body. I want to be able to see the features of your face. Okay. If I'm walking down the street, I want to be able to be like, hey, you, I know you. We also need to have direct eye contact. So if you have a great picture of yourself where you're wearing sunglasses. Sorry, that's not the picture you're going to use. You have to make direct eye contact with the camera. And what that does is it makes people feel like you're looking at them and building that relationship with them. It's small, it's psychological, it is subconscious, but it really does make an impact. Next, we want to make sure that you seem approachable. Okay? So I know I hate it when people tell me to smile, but genuinely, if you're smiling, if you seem open and warm and approachable, you are going to be approached far more often. All right? Now, I know I already kind of said this, but it does have to be recognizably you. So if you look wildly different on your day to day zoom calls than you do in your profile picture, then I want you to use a profile picture that looks representative of you on an everyday kind of basis. Okay? I don't want the. The profile picture is you, like, super glammed up for your wedding when you're never glammed up and ever in your life. All right? We want this to be recognizably you. Now, of course, I look a little more done up in this picture, but it's still me. There's, like, not a lot of, like, contouring and things. And, you know, my hair is the same color, it's the same length, all that stuff. Your picture should be up to date as well. If you're using a picture from like 10 years ago and say you have some more gray hairs or you have changed body shape since Then make sure that you're using something that looks like you today. And I can't say this enough, but do not use an AI image for your picture. There is nothing that undercuts trust that you are a real person on the interwebs more than using a digitally manufactured image of yourself. Now, tagline, now this is kind of an art form. Now, your tagline is what people are going to see when they see your content. It's going to be the thing that's right under your name when you comment on other people's content and when you respond to comments on. Okay, so it is incredibly important because it's really your first shot to tell people who you're useful to. Okay, so what matters in a good tagline? Okay, so number one, it has to immediately grab attention of the reader. Okay, now this can be through a pattern interrupt, which is what I have. That whole stop being a weenie is something that you just do not expect to see on LinkedIn. Or it has to identify your ideal client. Okay, like this is who works with me, right? Because the folks who are your ideal client who recognize with that title will think, oh, cool, this person's relevant to me. I should at least click on their profile and go and check them out. All right, we also want your tagline to name the transformation that you offer your clients. So when we name the transformation, we can do it really obviously or we can do it in an implied way. Right? So an obvious way of naming the transformation is saying, burned out professionals who feel like they're falling behind in their career work with me to get the promotion, get the pay raise and work less. Okay, so we're talking about that transformation that your clients go through when they work with you. All right? It can also be more implied. Mine is more implied in this version of my tagline. Okay, stop being weenie and start your business already. People already know that transformation. They also know that there's a difference between starting and scaling or growing their business. And really, this is something that you're going to play with. You're going to change it a bunch and don't worry about getting it perfect on the first try. Now, the next thing is really important because this, it can look like a big block of text that's hard to read. So I want you to break it up visually. Now, I have chosen to break it up visually with some hot dogs and a rainbow. You can do that with emojis, you can do that with symbols, you can do that with spacing. Whatever feels like is most aligned to you, stylistically, I want you to go for it. And of course, again, you can change this as many times as you need to. Now, you can have titles in here. I do have my title in here. Practical Business Strategist. And I also have President of the Gay Birthday Club nonprofit. You do not need to have titles, however. Okay? Most of the time, your ideal clients do not understand how your title is relevant to them. Okay, so you can have a title. If I were to edit my tagline and change anything about it, I would honestly probably take out the Practical Business Strategist because it's not relevant. Right. I might put something that is more aligned to what my clients are going through right now in this moment or something that they really want more than anything. Rather than talking about myself, there's this great book that I recommend to all of my clients and anyone that I ever speak to about branding. And it's. It's called Building a Story Brand by Donald Miller. And the whole philosophy of building a story brand is that you are not the hero of the story when you're doing marketing for your business, your client is the hero of their own story. Okay? So we don't use any language that is about us. We don't use any language that, like, has us positioned as the hero of the story. That's why you're very rarely going to hear me say anything about how I help people or how I support people. Right? It's all about my clients go from here to there. And they want help. They want to invest in someone who's going to support them along the way. They work with me so that they can get to this goal. All right? You're going to start playing with this as well, and you're going to see the magical difference that it makes. And if you want to go and find that book, it is Building a Story Brand by Donald Miller. Okay? Now this is. This next one is very optional now because of the state of the world right now. I wanted to make sure that I was attracting people who are aligned to my values. Okay? So that is why I have it listed that I'm president of the Gay Birthday Club nonprofit on here. Um, you can do this. You also don't have to do this. I can also say that I'm liberal af. You know, whatever it is that you feel like is going to be that flag that, like, signals to your people, I'm one of you and I'm safe. You can go ahead and do that. But just know that this is totally optional. It's not something that you need to do. And lastly, I know I've said this a bunch, but everything is iterative. Okay? So I have changed my tagline so many times over the years, and I've also changed it back to things that it used to be. All right, so if you want to keep a Google Doc where you have all the different iterations of your tagline and you may be like, keep track of the dates it was up and how many sales calls you got in that time, that is excellent data that you can use to track what works in your marketing. Now, I say that to you as a great idea. I have never done that myself because I'm not that organized and I don't track things that way. But. But that's totally an option for you if you really like looking at data and seeing the efficacy of things. Hopping back over to my profile to show you this next portion. Now, down at the bottom here, if you have the paid version of LinkedIn, and if you don't have the paid version, you don't have this. Don't stress it's not 100% necessary, but you can absolutely have buttons here that allow for people to book a call with you. All right, so this just opened a link to my calendar. So how you would change this if you wanted to is you go over to this little pencil here and you click on it. This is your little edit button. And then I want you to scroll all the way down to the premium custom button, portions all the way at the bottom. And we want to edit custom button. Now, I like having book an appointment because that's usually my call to action for most things. Right? And so when people click on book an appointment, it takes them to my booking page for a strategy call. This is something that you can absolutely do. You could also have people visit your store, visit your website, see your blog, view your newsletter, whatever. And you can also toggle this button. This is very handy so that this will actually show up at the top of each and every post that you share so that folks can just immediately go and book an appointment with you. All right, now that is the top of the fold. I will see you all in the next video where we talk about other parts the of of your profile.