not like all the other shmucks [idgaf 025]

Hey Reader,

Social media is noisy AF.

No matter what you do, you've got a whoooooooole lot of competition out there all trying to show up daily as "the expert" in your space.

Which means it sucks when YOU try to show up as the expert, cause you look like all the other shmucks. And THAT makes standing out fucking hard (let's not even get into the whole "getting leads" from social media thing).

So wtf do we do?

Well, there's some people I think are killing it online for totally different reasons, so I thought I'd point out what they're doing and why.

You think you're good at what you do, but does your process reflect that?

It's hopefully clear that part of my job involves writing messaging copy for my clients. So naturally, when I come across people doing the same thing, it doesn't take me long to figure out if they're good or not.

Someone who's great at it is Clémence Lepers. How do I know that?

Cause she's consistent AF on LinkedIn. She doesn't do the whole constant personal story thing or act like a jester (🥲), but she talks about her craft, explains how she does things, explains her thought process, and shows results.

That's normally what I'd tell people NOT to try do cause it's so hard to stand out that way, but she makes it work because she's got strong processes and lots of examples to share that show it.

So basically; she demonstrates her expertise in her service with each post, which gets her loads of leads.

If you want to do this, revisit your processes. What do you do? How do you do it? Why do you do each step? What happens if people don't do it? Start explaining this stuff publicly.

Let's say you're a copywriter. There's SO MANY different things you can talk about to show your expertise.

But... that's what every other copywriter does. It's way easier to stand out if you pick something specific within copywriting, and own that.

A GREAT example of this (in my opinion) is my friend Katie Skelton.

She teaches people to write better, which sounds generic, right? But what she owns is the idea of a daily newsletter. Everything she does is geared towards that. Everything she teaches is tied back to that idea. She lives it with her own awesome newsletter (the only daily newsletter I actually read).

I know for a fact (because she brags all the time omg*) that Katie gets hundreds upon hundreds of subscribers to her newsletter from her posts on LinkedIn, and then her newsletter does an amazing job selling to those subscribers.

* I was just joking about her bragging; she's just super transparent about her business

Why does this work for Katie? Cause she owns one core idea and executes on it. Could she teach people to write social media posts or optimise their linkedin profiles? Probably. Does she? Fuck no. She owns the daily newsletter.

If you want to do this, ask yourself: is there a specific angle or approach I can take to be more "specific" about what I do? Focus on that in a hugely public way.

Okay so my personal favourite approach (obviously) is to inject your personality into stuff.

There are many other web designers, but not many talk the way I do, say the stuff I say, or lack all the fucks like I do.

What's awesome to see online is how many people are doing this now.

We've got my funny graphic design and photographer friend David Smoak, absurd content writer Eli Sundelson, or, if you're into the higher level of professionalism, personal branding guru (except not a horrible person like actual gurus) Nicole Ramirez.

That's just three examples out of like... more than 7 other people doing this super well on LinkedIn.

Each of them show up, leading with personality, and get leads a-plenty.

David mostly posts these amazing pictures of tractors and stuff (except when he posts slander against good hearted Australian people), but combines them with jokes that show what he'd be like to work with.

Eli writes... I can't even explain it. Sheer balls to the wall insanity. But it grabs attention, makes you laugh, and shows you how he could take that same approach for you.

Meanwhile, Nicole posts very unpretentious content about personal branding and showing up as a human online, and leads by example. She shares funny stories with her husband or kid(s?), or conversations with clients, or just riffs off social media trends. The evidence that her stuff works is seen in how her own posts blow up all the time.

In each case, you get a feel for who they are as people, what they could be like to work with, and it helps them stand out against all the "shmucks" doing the same thing. And more importantly, it works.

If you want to do this, you've gotta find your own personality. You don't need to be funny like David, or insane like Eli, or a real grown up like Nicole, but you need to be something.

Yes muahahahahahahhahahahahahahah (deep breath) ahahahahahahahahahahahhahahaaaaaaa.

I gave three different approaches to stand out online, and the plot twist is each person I've named does pretty much all 3.

They all show you how they do things, they have something they kinda own, and they all show their personality in their content.

That's the way you win at all this shit. Personality doesn't work without substance behind it (unfortunately for me). A rock solid process or owning a specific function without having a personality is just gonna be boring AF and get nowhere.

You need to do it all.

Yeah I'm sorry, the plot twist thing was pretty lame.

Anyway, if you don't want to be like the other shmucks: get yourself a strong process, try and own something specific, and show up as the real you (or a version of the real you at least).

Cowabunga,Nick Gulic