Episode 267: Don’t Hide Behind The Shadows with Donna Serdula

Do you love the podcast but don't know where or how to get started? Visit www.upplife.com that's up l I f e.com to learn more about our coaching and mastermind programs and how you can join our community of growth oriented agency owners today.

Greetings everybody. Welcome to the next episode of the Unstoppable Profit podcast. I am excited because this topic is so near and dear to my heart right now. And when we start speaking things and thinking things into existence, guess what happens? Somebody comes along that has exactly what we need to take it to the next level. And that person who has it meaning intellectual, technology and so much more came along into my life. Donner Serdula, welcome to the podcast.

Hey Mike, thank you so much for having me.

You're welcome. I am super glad you're here. And if you've never heard of Donna Serdula, let me tell you just a little bit about Donna. And it's a long bio. I'm going to keep it very short so we can get into the meat potatoes of what we have for you today. But Donna has authored two editions of LinkedIn profile optimization for Dummies. She's been featured on Forbes, Business Insider, Times Money Section, Wall Street Journal's Market Watch, LA Times, NBC, Sirius, XM Radios, the Focus Group, and many other outlets. Donna has more than 45,000 followers on LinkedIn, 48,000 on X, and so much more. An absolute authority not only in LinkedIn, but branding and so much more business. Donna, thank you for being here. Let's help some independent insurance agents and all of those out there in unstoppable nations get their business in a better place so they can grow their businesses, create wealth and have more freedom to live life on their own terms. But anything else you'd like to add? Who is Donna Cula?

You know, it was a, it was a long time ago where I realized it was really hard for people to write about themselves and talk about themselves and understand their story and understand their value. And, and that was really the, the big eye opening moment for me. My epiphany. Right? My, my, my aha. Moment where people need help and I want to, I want to help them. I want them to help them understand how to brand themselves, how to put themselves out there so they collide with opportunity. So that's, that's really my why.

Yeah. And, and we're so much in alignment. We've been talking for the last 15, 20 minutes and, and I quickly observed that we're connected in that way. We just want to impact people's lives personally and professionally. But, you know, you just brought up something that. I also want to make sure we fold in somehow, some way today to help entrepreneurs and agents everywhere is the story. So let's make sure we wrap that around everything we're going to talk about today, because I'm currently working on that myself. We can never get good enough. And I like to use the word positioning a story and bringing a story to light to connect with people. Right. I mean, we think back to our early days at 1 years old to 2 years old. What were our parents or those who brought us up reading to us, right?

Absolutely. And, and also I, I, I want to, want to go back. What, what did you say in the very beginning of this podcast? Right. You said what we speak is what we get. Right. And, and there's also this overlap where when we tell these stories and we insert ourselves into it, we can also make that future happen for us. And so when we look at the LinkedIn profile, a lot of people think of it as a retrospective or a obituary. This is everything that I've done that doesn't really get people excited, Right. Especially potential clients. And so what we want to do is we want to be able to figure out a way that we tell our story in a manner that engages, but also takes us to our future, to where we want to go, what we are aligned to.

So the future, a vision. Right. So when people jump onto your profile.

It should take them to a place that they want to be to an extent.

Well, but also where you want to be, where you want to be, but also where they might want to be too, because you can help them, you can add that value to help them get to that future state. But also we don't want to brand ourselves so perfectly that we are exactly where we are. There's no room for growth. So a lot of times when I look at a person's profile, right, they updated it years ago, and it's who they were back then. And they don't even realize that it's holding them back because everyone who's looking at them, they don't realize that, oh, this was written 10 years ago or 5 years ago, but we need to really always think of it in that future tense, aligning it to where we want to go, aligning it to our goals so we can get there.

I love that. I love that. So let's tackle that one as a first one. How often should people be updating their LinkedIn profile, per se? What's A good rule of thumb.

You know, a good rule of thumb is can. Can you go in there once every three months and make sure that it's. It's. It's where it should be. But even so, I would say at least once a year, once a year, really do a deeper dive and say, wait, because it's so easy to lose track. You know, we're in the midst of our life. We're in this hurricane. And so oftentimes, and I know it, it happens to me. It happens to me. And all I do is talk about branding. And yet there's been times when I look and I'm like, wait, how did this happen? How did. How did it. How did I suddenly get beyond this? And yet I'm still, you know, tied to the past. So it can happen to anyone. It's very easy to. And so you want to keep it updated. You know, if you can go in three months and just make sure everything is up there. But then once a year, just do a one really big deep dive check and say, wait, is this still. I. Still on my path? Or maybe I surpassed it and I didn't even realize it because life happened so quick.

100%. 100%. So I've got a couple things that you're fueling a lot of thoughts for me. So what are. 1, 2, 3. Must have things on a profile that maybe people miss a lot.

Yeah, you know, well, there's. There's certainly the imagery part, right? It's having a great background graphic, you know, something that really illustrates your brand. You don't want anything gray and stripey, and you don't want anything that's totally off brand either. So you might really love the shore, but. Or the beach, but, you know, do you really want it? There might not be the right thing. You want to make sure you have a great profile picture, one that's up to date, and it's, you know, professionally taken. Those are. Those are. Those are things that you just have to sit down and just get that done. But. But once we start to move down, like, what else do you really need? You want to have a narrative. You want to have that story, and you want to make sure that it's. It's. It's providing your audience with your value, your value proposition. How can you help them? Why does it matter? Right? That's. That's an important. That's an important part. And when you go down, when you look at it, you also have to almost put yourself in the. In the mind of that target audience. Do they want to read something that's dry and dull and boring or, or do they want to read something that's conversational and peppy? Right. I think it's conversational peppy. They want to because they know it's you. Like, right. You, you're the one that owns it. So, you know, like, stay away from that third person. Even though it's easy to copy and paste a bio. Like, yes, it's easy, but it's a cop out. So you really want to take the time and, and, and create something that's, that's you and, and it's AI to generate content. It's very easy to generate content. And, and I think it's, it's absolutely something that you can use, but at the same time I wouldn't just generate content willy nilly. You really do need to have that strategy and that vision and the idea of what it is that you need to convey. Because if you just let AI to, you know, generate language, oftentimes it's flowery and it doesn't really get to the point quickly.

Yeah. It brings a lot of adjectives to the table, I've noticed.

Yes. It always seems to bring in the word beacon. I've noticed that.

Yeah, it does. Yeah, it does. We teach. And, and I started teaching this because fortunately I was an early adapter because of Peter Diamandis out of the Silicon Valley, who I heard say early on when AI came out, he said, ten years from now there's going to be two kinds of entrepreneurs. There's going to be entrepreneurs who've embraced AI and who are using it effectively.

Yeah.

And there's going to be those who are out of business.

Yes.

It's your choice. Right. So I take the 80:20 rule, the Pareto principle into play. So if you enter something in, don't use 100% of what comes back at you. You got to put at least your 20% and maybe more.

Yeah. And I think what I've noticed with AI when I use it, it's, it's important that I have a vision of what it is that I'm after.

Right, right.

That I'm not just saying, hey, just write ME A, a LinkedIn summary about section, but rather this is really what I'm, I'm, I'm going for. And oftentimes you don't. Sometimes you need a person, you know, sometimes AI is just not going to help you. You know, And I, I've also often found that for a lot of people, even sitting there with AI, it's Just another blinking cursor and it's still. I don't have the vision. I don't know what to say. And even if it spits something out, is it right? Is it going to be helpful to me? And so sometimes it is worth working with a human being who cares and can talk to you and really help bring that story to life.

And we talked about that. We were talking about that before we started. So let's go there right now. You know, we want to humanize who we are online. We want to convey the fact that we are real people. We're not just some other words or maybe even another photograph. How can we do that better?

Well, you know, one of the things. And actually I'm looking at your profile.

Ah.

And you do not have the verified symbol next to your name.

I've. It's come at me multiple, multiple times. So thank you for saying that.

Yeah.

I've clicked on it multiple times and I feel like. And answer me if I'm wrong. And I'm wrong. I'm totally okay with being wrong. I feel like it's going to take me five to 10 minutes.

It's going to take you about three minutes.

Okay, fair enough. To go retrieve my identification and everything, too.

Yeah. You're going to need your, your, either your passport or your driver's license, unless you already have a clear account. Some people who, Some people do. So that's nice when you have it. But here's the thing. I've. When LinkedIn first introduced it, I was thinking, oh, this, this seems rather silly. You know, what is the. What's the point? But there is something to be said about it because there's a lot of fake accounts on LinkedIn.

Aha.

And when you see that shield, you know that person is real and they're serious.

Aha.

And that's a lovely thing that will.

Be taken care of before I go to bed tonight. Thank you.

Fabulous. And anybody listening, take a look. If you haven't logged into LinkedIn for a while, log in and LinkedIn is going to be. They're going to get pretty in your face about it, to be honest. But definitely go through, go through, log in, you know, upload the image and make yours a verified profile.

Yeah, absolutely. And I just did some updates within the last months, so FYI. But let's use me. I, I am totally good with that. What else do you see on mine that could be bettered or just brings to mind things that people should be thinking about with their own online profile and LinkedIn?

Yeah. You know, there's, there's, there's a. There's a slew of things that we can do to really make you stand out. And one of the things that actually hit me as soon as I popped on this podcast and you opened up your mouth and I heard your voice, and I thought to myself, he should be using the name Pronunciat on the profile. So here's. This is a strange thing. So if you're used to using LinkedIn on your. On your laptop or your desktop, there are a whole bunch of other things that you can do on your, Your mobile app that you can't do on the desktop. And one of them is when you go in, you click on edit and you can actually record your name, but it got a full 10 seconds. So you can actually go a little further and say something funny or, you know, give them an Easter egg or even just an elevator. But it's something that it's really easy to do and it's so easy to. For that person who's viewing, to click to get a. Just to get a flavor of who you are. And I think that would work fabulously for you. So I would say use your. Use your. Use the phone. Use the app on your phone and record. Record a name pronunciation for yourself.

Got it. Can do.

The other thing. When I scroll through your profile, you know, you're using the featured section well, but I would love to see more pictures of you as a human. Ah. You know, and also maybe even more videos of yourself. Now if I click, I think I do see something here with you on stage, which is nice, but I just feel that right now when I look at your. Your profile, I just want a little bit more you. Some more pictures of you and I. You could do that through the featured section.

Got it.

Okay.

There. There is a lot to add for sure.

When I look.

Oh, sorry, go on.

No, no, this is totally conversational. Like, we do a weekly money making strategy feature for independent insurance agents. So money making strategies that comes out every Tuesday. I could add that there as an example. That would be an option for a video. They're just quick snippets. That would be helpful. So. Yeah, thank you.

Yeah, that would be great. I think that would work really, really well. You know, and the other thing is, you know, when I look at your about section and this is Mike. This is something I see all the time. But the about section should be your. Your digital introduction. Right. It's that first impression. It should really convey who you are, what you do, how you Help what you stand for and why all of it matters. Right. Like that's what I want that about section to be. And you have over 2000 characters, close to 2500 characters in fact. So you can say quite a bit in that area. And you know, I would love to see more about you. This is all about your company. But people are here for you. They want to know who this guy is. Who's this guy that is going to be speaking, who's this guy who has this podcast they want a glimpse of into you.

And this is where you can really give them that. And that's true to your audience, all of you out there. When a per. Maybe, maybe you're connecting with people because you belong to the chamber of commerce or you went to a networking event and they're seeing you in this business type of situation. They want to know more. They want to know more. They're going to be. Maybe they are really thinking about working with you, but they want a little bit more information. So oftentimes they go to the LinkedIn profile because one, it's easy to find. They can stay in touch with you. They know they're not messing with anything else. This is truly. You give them what they need, give them the peak. That idea of who you are and what you do.

That. That is absolute gold. And you don't know this, but I'll just go ahead and say it here. We were connected. I think if you keep digging to lower levels on how you and I got connected, there's a guy named Bob Berg. I don't know.

I know Bob. Bob is. He's a. He's a. He's a go giver, isn't he?

He's a go giver among many other things. But he's a good connector as well. He. He spoke at our Be Unstoppable Boot Camp 2022. And I've got to know Bob quite well as well. Great guy. Great guy. And it followed him via endless referrals back to 2003 or 4. But you know, Bob says people refer and do business with people they know like and trust. We've taken his words and we changed it to love. Like love. But that's the bottom line. And so what you're telling me here is that people can't refer and do business with me and the liking and the trusting part because they don't know me.

Not, not from this profile alone. Boom.

I'm good with that. Thank you for sharing that. And so I hope everybody out there either watching or listening to this Podcast also picks up on that, and it causes you to go back to your LinkedIn profile and make sure that you're sharing that human piece of who you are.

Yeah.

Because.

And Mike, you're fun. I've been smiling ever since I got on the phone with you.

There's this energy about you, and I want that energy to ripple through this profile.

Yeah. I've been looking for the answer to that for a long time. By the way, if there's anybody out there listening or watching and you have the answer to this, will you contact me, please? And just email vipplife.com I'll slow down. Vippplife.com I will cut you in as a partner because I have told. Many, many people have told me, how can I get some of your energy? I'll be happy to bottle it up and we'll make a deal.

I don't know, I was just super blessed to be given it, I guess, at birth. But anyway, back to, Back to the. Helping everybody, an unstoppable nation who's watching or listening. So great stuff. Humanize it. Let people get to know you. Be vulnerable to an extent.

Right. Be human, be real. And, and, and there's nothing wrong with saying, hey, I love the Eagles, or I love doing this, or I have kids and I have this hobby, or, yes, all of those things. You know, we want to. We want to be able to let people in. We want to let people in.

Aha. That's. That's really what an online presence begins to do. And you're inviting people. Go ahead.

I'm so sorry. I. I was, I was going to say, and this is the foundation piece. We're not even talking about getting loud on LinkedIn and posting. This is just the foundational piece where you say, hey, this is who I am.

Right, Right. Fantastic. So let's talk about people and their story, because you have great expertise about positioning in the right way on LinkedIn and you understand branding like very few do, and I love that about you. But stories, I, I feel that, you know, if I could drop something into people's water and help them, it would be the ability to get really good at telling a story, telling their story, the story about a client's success because of them, and everything related to that. What are two or three things that we can help people with today in that realm?

You know, I, I think one of the. The issues is we say, well, tell a story. Go ahead, tell a story. Tell your story. You have a story there. Go ahead and tell it. It's not that easy. Right. And so when we work with people on their profile, when we work with people on their marketing materials, it's not about saying, tell me your story. It's tell me a time you mentored someone. Tell me about the questions that you ask to qualify a potential client. You know, tell me about a time when you solved a person's issue. Tell me about your favorite book and what it means to you. Like, we start to ask different questions and all of these questions, eventually something comes up. Tell me about a challenge. Tell me about a time when, you know, you. You experienced a great success, or tell me about a time you experienced a terrible failure, but what happened afterwards. Suddenly, those are the types of questions where a person goes, wait, you know, I. Something did happen. I. Maybe I do have a story to tell.

Yeah.

But it doesn't come when you just say, tell me a story. You need to sort of. You need to get a little bit more granular.

Yeah. So you need to position it with the right wording and maybe a bit of emotion and context to get them to open up their mind so they can go to that place when that might have happened or something related.

Oh, absolutely. But I also think people need to have that person who says, you know what? You really do have strengths. What you do is different, and not everyone can do it. Because oftentimes things come so easy to us, you know, and we're in the midst of it. It didn't seem like a hardship at the time. You know, hey, survivors surv. But, you know, sometimes you do need to have that person who can listen and say, you know what? That is special, and that is a strength that you have, and that is a superhuman talent you've got there. That's your. That's your superpower. Because a lot of times we don't recognize it, and oftentimes we also have imposter syndrome, so we tend to, you know, deflect it. Oh, no, it's. That's. That's. That's something else. That's.

That's a real thing, the imposter syndrome. I've had people, I'm gonna say, mostly within the last year or so. It keeps coming up. And I remember speaking with one of our members, I don't know, two or three months ago, and this member has become very successful in their own right based on what they want to do to grow their business. I mean, phenomenal numbers. And this member said to me, you know, I'm going to tell you something that, you know, I've never repeated. It was Something to the effect of, I just don't feel that I'm worthy.

Yeah.

And if I'm not mistaken, that's an exact example, per se, of imposter syndrome.

Yeah. And they even feel as if they're just a fraud. Like, oh, someone's going to figure out that I really don't know what I'm doing. You know, I might seem like I might be experiencing success, but it's not really me. It's not, you know, it's, It's. It's something that I think everyone grapples with.

Yeah.

But at the same time, you know, people want to do business with you. They really do, and they want to know more about you. And it's so easy to dismiss and say, no one really cares. No one. No one wants to know about me. No one. You know, like, it's not that big of a deal. It's just easier just to put some information about my business and hide behind, you know, the shadows of it all. But the truth is, I, I do want you to show who you are and why you do it and why it matters, you know, because when you, when you talk to a person who, who has that passion, that invigorates you, and so, Mike, why are you energetic? Because you have that passion and you care.

And so that's what I want for the people listening. That's what I want for all, all people out there who want to be successful and who want to do good. Let's don't be afraid to tell that. To tell that story.

So, in essence, sharing is caring.

Yeah. And my. One of my very favorite people, Lee Hayes, she said, and the one big issue with AI is that AI doesn't care.

So if you ever do wonder, you know, how can we, how can we stand out and, and, and deal with AI, just know that one nice thing is that we. We do care. We do.

We do care. We do care. So thank you. Thank you for sharing on the stories. I got one other item written down and love to hear your comments on it because we're Talking about leveraging LinkedIn to brand yourself, and we've talked a lot about share more of us. Right. Don't hide behind the shadows is what I just wrote down. I love that you said that. And.

Brand yourself as an industry expert. So I want to hear your thoughts on how you can be branded as an industry expert, because something that I picked up two decades ago or more was why should people do business with you over and above any and all other options available to them? Why? Why why? Why? Why? It's partly because of who you are. Share more about yourself, don't hide behind the shadows, but your expertise as well. And so your answer to that question, because they don't need you. They've got lots of options out there, but they might want to do business with you. How can they put their expertise out there in a better way?

Oh, and you know what? LinkedIn has so many options now where it's, no, it doesn't even rely specifically on the profile now. You can get onto LinkedIn and you can upload videos of yourself, you can host, you can, you can do so much. And at one time, you know, the LinkedIn feed wasn't the most conducive for networking, but I think it's, it's really, I mean, it's really turned around. So this is a place where you can talk about your success stories and talk about your learning opportunities and talk about the knowledge and answer the questions that you keep getting over and over and over again. And you can put it out there for people to see.

That's a great idea. So, I mean, as an, as an example, if, you know we have a common alliance, you're in Pennsylvania and he's an agent that I've also known for a long, long time. But I know that our friend Steve probably has around 10 people in his office. So he's got 10 people that are constantly getting questions day long for people about their insurance program. Right?

Yeah.

What a great opportunity to just go around the office. Hey, what kind of questions you getting today? All of a sudden I've got a list of 20 questions and that's what you start putting out as content to build your expertise.

Is that absolutely a good idea? And actually we can even pivot this a little bit too.

Take it.

So talking about our friend Steve Gannon, I have, we have to say his last name so he knows. And I'm gonna email him and let him know we've been talking about him. That's why his ears have been itching.

But if Steve Gannon gives you any trouble, let me know.

I will. He would never, he would never. He's, he's awesome. Anyway, so let's think about that agency. And you do have people working for you, right? You can help them with their profiles and make sure that they look fabulous because they're dealing with your clients just as much as you are. Right. So it's not just the head honcho. It's all of those people who are, who are interfacing and interacting and you want them to look amazing. Right. And, and when they look great, they're going to attract amazing people in as clients. And then if you even were to say to them, hey, you know, could you just once a month, I'm not even asking for anything huge, not once a week or once a day, but once, once a month, let's post maybe a, you know, just what, what's going on? I know Steve does the, the, the lemonade stands and he does so much, you know, he gives so much back to, to the community. Take pictures and have them put it up there on their page. So what you're going to find is not only is it now, it's now just not you, but it's all of the people on your team.

Yeah. And I'm looking at it right now. They become your brand ambassadors is what you teach.

It's exactly right.

That's fantastic. I mean, there's so many things that you can be doing. Thank you for helping us think outside the box. You know, we were just talking about a who, not how. And I definitely want to pull this out of you during our time because we could go on for hours, which we already discussed. But if, if somebody is looking to update their LinkedIn profile or their online presence and they are thinking to themselves, I just don't have the time, etc. Etc. Etc. You can help them with that, correct?

Oh, absolutely, absolutely. We can help you, we could help your team. But, you know, it's really about listening to you, understanding strategically who your target audience is, what do they need to know about you? And then, and then taking that off your plate, you know, and not saying, okay, well, here's how you do it. We will do that for you.

Right, so it's Donna Serdula, S E R D U L A. How can they find you? Just connect with you on LinkedIn.

Yeah, they can connect with me on LinkedIn or they can visit my website, LinkedIn-makeover.com say that slower. LinkedIn- or hyphen or minus whatever you want to call that little line. So LinkedIn-makeover over.com fantastic.

So find Donna Cirdula S E R D U L A on LinkedIn or go to LinkedIn hyphen or-makeover.com and you can find out more. I was on there last night and they got lots of great information there on the website. You can check it out and look who not how is a book that we were talking about before we started by Ben Hardy, a great book. And I was thinking about it over the Weekend. I'll go ahead and share. I was up at our mountain home working on the weeds because we. We have a big house on a hill and you've got to. For fire protection and other reasons. Got to clear it out before the summer gets too hot. So I was up there doing that and I was mentioning to Donna before we started, this will be the last year I'm going to get a who to get it done. Got to make the time to go find that who, which is my excuse, which is piss poor, as a matter of fact. So anyway, all right, I'm letting go of myself. Here we go. So, Donna, thank you for sharing. This has been absolutely incredible. Anything you'd like to add before we get into Eagles preseason football?

You know, I, I think. I think the only thing that I want to say is, you know, recognize that you have something to give. That's why you're doing what you're doing. And it's okay to own your story. It's okay to put that stuff out there. People do. They really do care and they want to know. And you have that control. You can shape how others perceive you.

Don't hide behind the shadows. That may be coming out again multiple times. I think that's absolutely fantastic. And let me make sure I minimize that right there. Yeah. Just put more of you out there, the real you. Because like Bob said, people refer and do business with people they know like and trust. And being you is what they either learn to like or they don't. Right?

Yeah. You want to find your tribe, make it easy for them to find your.

Find your tribe. I love that. I love that. So, Donna Cirdula, thank you.

Thank you, Mike. Thank you so much for having me.

It has been absolutely my absolute pleasure. And I can't wait to stay connected and keep connected. You've got lots to offer. So again, check Donna out. Either find her on LinkedIn Donna Serdula, s E R D L A or double check here link. Our website is LinkedIn makeover.com. check it out. You'll be glad you did. And by the way, if this is your first time on the podcast, welcome. My name is Mike Stromso. I'm widely recognized as a leading author, speaker and coach for the independent insurance agency industry. You can learn more about what we do@unstoppableprofitproducer.com everything we do is designed to help independent insurance agents grow their business, create wealth and have more freedom. All based on our own independent insurance agency of more than 35 years. And we Just share everything that we learned to do exactly those things. Grow, create wealth and have more freedom. And why are you here? Please? Before you get on to the rest of your day, go to our podcast website, which is unstoppable profitpodcast.com go up to the top, click, subscribe so you don't miss one valuable episode. Like I talked with Donna, it just takes one or two gold nuggets that can change everything. And you've given us multiple gold nuggets today, so thank you for that. So make sure you subscribe. And if you got great value out of the podcast today, please share Unstoppable Profit podcast or this episode with somebody else that you care about so they can also get the gold nuggets and help not only themselves, but help others grow as well. And you can find our podcast out there on all the channels, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, our YouTube channel, Amazon, and more. Donna Serdula. Thank you.

Thank you, Mike.

Appreciate you being on the podcast. Until next time, everybody, thanks for joining us. Get out there, make a difference, be unstoppable. Leave no regrets. You got this. We believe in you. I'll see you on the next podcast.

Welcome to the Unstoppable Profit podcast. This podcast will give independent insurance agents all of the tools to grow your business and live life on your terms. Wherever you are today, if you're starting with nothing or well on your way to the success you desire, with the right people, processes and promotions in place, you will be unstoppable. And now I'd like to introduce your host, Mike Stromceau.