Welcome back to The COO Solution Podcast. In this episode, host Derek Fredrickson sits down with LinkedIn strategist, PR expert, and founder of Good Girls Get Rich, Karen Yankovich, to unpack what it really means to build a thought leader brand in today’s digital world.
If you’ve ever wondered how some entrepreneurs consistently attract high-level opportunities, media features, partnerships, and premium clients without constantly chasing leads, this episode will shift your perspective.
Karen breaks down the difference between a personal brand and a thought leader brand, why trust is the new currency online, and how platforms like LinkedIn can become your “money tree” when used strategically. This conversation goes far beyond posting content. It’s about positioning, credibility, visibility, and building relationships that lead to real revenue.
In a world where AI, noise, and content overload are everywhere, standing out requires more than credentials. It requires clarity about what you stand for and the courage to be visible.
In This Episode:
[01:02] Personal Brand vs. Thought Leader Brand
Why being known for something specific builds trust faster than listing qualifications.
[03:16] What Women Entrepreneurs Get Wrong About Visibility
Why many women hesitate to promote themselves—and how to shift that mindset.
[06:08] Imposter Syndrome at Every Level
Why confidence isn’t a one-time achievement but an ongoing practice.
[09:43] Why Your LinkedIn Profile Matters More Than You Think
How your profile can create unexpected opportunities—even locally.
[12:38] Engagement Over Posting
Why LinkedIn isn’t about posting daily, but about building real relationships.
[17:36] Leveraging PR Without a Big Budget
How to strategically land podcast interviews and media exposure.
[24:02] Visibility Builds Trust
Why sharing your beliefs and perspective attracts aligned opportunities.
[28:35] The One LinkedIn Strategy Most People Ignore
How jumping into conversations trains the algorithm and builds authority.
[31:15] The “Money Tree” Mindset
Why LinkedIn works when you nurture relationships instead of spamming.
📌 Why This Matters
Your next high-value opportunity is rarely one cold DM away.
It’s one relationship away.
Thought leadership isn’t about being louder. It’s about being clearer. When your positioning, profile, and presence align with what you stand for, the right opportunities start finding you.
This episode shows you how to:
- Build trust before someone ever speaks to you
- Use LinkedIn as a relationship-building platform, not a resume
- Leverage PR and media strategically to increase credibility
- Attract aligned, high-level clients without chasing them
✅ Action Steps for Listeners:
- Review your LinkedIn profile from the perspective of your ideal client.
- Jump into five conversations a day around the topic you want to be known for.
- Identify one podcast or media outlet that aligns with your message and begin building a relationship.
- Get clear on what you stand for and let your voice reflect it.
🔗 Resources & Links:
Transcript:
00:06
Derek Fredrickson
You can be incredible at what you do and still be invisible. And if people don’t know you exist, they can’t hire you, promote you, or pay you at the level that you deserve. And today’s guest, Karen Yankovich is a LinkedIn and PR strategist who helps women entrepreneurs stop playing small and start positioning themselves as thought leaders. She’s the CEO of Up Level Media and the host of the Good Girls Get Rich podcast. With over 30 years in tech, marketing and visibility strategy, Karen shows women how to leverage LinkedIn and PR to attract premium opportunities without pretending to be someone they’re not. So if you want more visibility, higher level clients, and opportunities that actually match your expertise, this episode is for you.
But first, let’s talk a little bit about why this topic really matters.
01:06
Derek Fredrickson
See, most business owners don’t have a skill problem, they have a visibility problem. And Karen’s work focuses on helping women shift from being great at what they do to being known for what they do. She teaches that visibility isn’t about positioning more content. It’s about positioning credibility and showing up with intention. And here’s what we’ll explore together in today’s episode: why personal branding isn’t enough and what a thought leader brand really means.
Number two, how LinkedIn can be a serious revenue driver, not just a networking site. And why PR accelerates trust and authority more than most marketing tactics. Let’s dive in.
Derek Fredrickson
Hello there, everybody. It’s Derek Fredrickson here from the COO Solution and the COO Solution Podcast, and very excited for today’s episode with our guest, Karen Yankovich. Welcome, Karen. It’s great to have you on the show with us.
00:14
Karen Yankovich
I’m so happy to be here, Derek. Thanks for having me.
00:16
Derek Fredrickson
Of course. I was just making a comment that this must be a good episode because we’ve got our matching blue uniform.
00:21
Karen Yankovich
I mean, it’s the same color blue. It’s not even just the color blue. It’s the same color blue.
00:26
Derek Fredrickson
And for those that follow The COO Solution, you know, I’m all about the color blue. Everything I do is in blue, one way or the other. But we’re going to dive into a lot of different topics today about PR and LinkedIn and thought leadership and publicity and everything else. And uhm so I’d love to just kind of start off, Karen, and ask you a question about thought leader brand. That’s something that I know is very dear to you, and you have a lot of expertise and experience with that.
So explain to our audience what does thought leader brand actually mean, and how is that different from what some people think about in terms of personal branding? You have a distinction between personal branding and thought leader brand. I’d love to start with that.
01:02
Karen Yankovich
Yeah. So, you know, personal branding is important. You know, certainly if you’re an entrepreneur or you’re. You’re promoting yourself or something. But thought, you know, in the. In the world we’re living in right now, there’s a. There’s a. Trust is becoming an issue. Right. We don’t even know if we’re talking to real people, Right. If they’re AI or if they’re real people. Right. So it’s really important that beyond your personal brand that you’re known for something. You’re known. People can trust what you’re talking about because they know that you have experience or credibility in the subject that they’re listening to you about. Right? So a lot of times when people are building their personal brand on LinkedIn, which at least I think that’s a best win, right? Because at least they’re not creating it like a resume, Right?
01:49
Karen Yankovich
So they’re moved from resume, which is all about who you used to be, to personal brand, which is who you are and who you’re becoming. Right? But thought leader brand is really like, projecting you into the future, which is really the sweet spot if you’re looking to really build trust with your audience. And that goes beyond. I’m really good at Excel and QuickBooks into, you know, I help people create wealth, you know, that kind of thing. So, so really creating a brand so that people can trust what you’re talking about, beyond trusting your skills, does that make sense?
02:24
Derek Fredrickson
Yeah, it totally makes sense. So it’s almost. I know we’re going to dive into LinkedIn as well, but it sounds like so personal brand. I love that. It’s kind of like who you were, like, almost a little bit of your qualifications, your skill set.
02:34
Karen Yankovich
Right.
02:34
Derek Fredrickson
Thought leadership. Brand is like what you kind of stand for, like what you put a stake in the ground. And like, this is what I believe. This is my. Why is that kind of the idea?
02:42
Karen Yankovich
It is, it is. And I, And I think, you know, listen, I am. I love reading about data, but I don’t. I’m not actually the person creating the data. So a lot of. But the data that I. So I want to just say that I’m not the person doing all this research, but the research that I’ve read, talking about, talks about the fact that’s what is, that’s what algorithms are looking for now. They’re looking for people talking about the same kinds of things over and over so that they can trust when they put your content out that you’re somebody that they, you know, that they can trust that the content is valuable.
03:11
Derek Fredrickson
Right.
03:12
Karen Yankovich
So it’s beyond just your brand. I think even algorithms are starting to reward this.
03:16
Derek Fredrickson
Yeah, for sure. And I know you work a lot with women entrepreneurs. That’s kind of your sweet spot. It’s applicable to men as well. But I know that’s kind of your area, your zone. Uhm Talk a little bit about, you know, what do women entrepreneurs, what do they misunderstand about visibility and thought leadership? Like, what’s the gap there? That’s not, that’s missing the connection.
03:38
Karen Yankovich
Listen, I, you know, I, I work mostly with women because I think women need to feel more included in this work. Not, I don’t. I’m not trying to exclude men. Right. I don’t care what your body parts are, how you identify. I think, I just think I want women to feel more included in promoting themselves. And, you know, women are typically like, “I got this.” Not, “you know, I’m the most qualified person, and here’s why.” We’re like, “I got this.” And then you blink your eyes and it’s done right. And, you know, it’s systemic and we’ve created it and we continue to create it. So I’m not here to try to change the world. Right. But I think individually women need to do a better job of shining a light on their genius.
04:17
Karen Yankovich
Because we are looking to trust people before, you know, before we invest in them. Whether it’s your money or even just your time right there, they, we want to have some trust. And the only way you’re that trust is if you tell people how good you are. You know, and if you don’t, they’re not going to guess. Right? They’re not going to guess. The people that get the opportunities are the people who have done the work in showing why they are qualified for it or have the credentials for it. So, so, and you know, you know, I can’t even tell you, by the way, again, this is not me banging on men here, but I’ve never had a man say to me, you know, Karen, God, my LinkedIn profile sounds like I’m bragging. I can’t tell you how many women have said that.
04:57
Derek Fredrickson
Oh, that’s true.
04:58
Karen Yankovich
Right. And sometimes the most qual, like I’m thinking of a woman who, like she’s been in like legit top 10 women who kind of things and when we did her, we wrote her LinkedIn profile and she’s like, I don’t know, I go, you did all this? Like we didn’t make anything up. Right. So, so women just need to do a better job of shining a light on their genius so that our voices can be heard more in the world.
05:18
Derek Fredrickson
Yeah, that’s so true. And thank you for speaking up about that. I firmly believe in that. You know, I don’t know if I shared this with you when we spoke earlier or, you know, sometimes I think our audience knows this, that, you know, majority of our clients that we work with here at the COO Solution are women. A majority, almost exclusively up to this point are women. All of the COOs that we have that work with our clients are all women. There’s a few guys that we might bring on board. Again, it’s not about men versus women or anything else, but there is a distinction. I think it’s an important message to share with our audience. I have a further follow up question to that.
05:52
Derek Fredrickson
Do you think, I’m sure the answer is yes, that there’s maybe a mindset shift or a block about like I can’t be self promoting, I can’t be bragging, but like, you know, a man is like, look what I’ve done and look what I’ve accomplished and look at all of my accolades. Where do you think that happens under the surface for women entrepreneurs?
06:08
Karen Yankovich
Yeah, I mean, listen, I love strategy, but all the strategy in the world isn’t going to get you from point A to point B if you haven’t done the mindset work. Right. So I think mindset work is really important for men and women. I think women probably need to do more of it again, because of that sustainability, systemic, women will be seen, girls will be seen and not heard kind of thing, you know, that we’ve heard our whole lives. And even if we say that’s crap, it’s. We’re still hearing it. Right. So it’s still kind of landing somewhere. So I do think it’s important that there’s mindset work around this. And, you know, it’s never done.
06:39
Karen Yankovich
Like, I, you know, I, I get asked a lot about like imposter syndrome and you don’t ever, I don’t think I’ve never experienced anybody ever getting over imposter syndrome. What happens is you like, get over it and then you hit another level and it’s like, oh, there it is again, you know,
Derek Fredrickson
There it is again, you know, so it’s. So it’s something that we can embrace and just know that it’s a part of who we are and that it’s something that we can choose to work through so that we can get our voices heard by the people that deserve to hear our voices.
07:06
Derek Fredrickson
Yeah.
07:07
Karen Yankovich
Or not. Right, right. But, but if you do want to have the kind of impact on the world that most of the women that I work with, you got, your voice has got to be heard and we have to do the work to be able to get past that so that our voices can be heard.
07:24
Derek Fredrickson
Yeah. So true. I mean, it’s part that we do is, you know, we run their business, we run their operations, we manage their team and everything else. But also part of that is that thought partner, to amplify their voice, to amplify their positioning as CEO, thought leader, founder, and I can’t take the credit for this expression. My wife, who’s a business coach, says this all the time is to take up more space. Right. To be more vocal, to be more heard, to be more present.
07:49
Derek Fredrickson
And I know it’s a lot easier said than done, but at the same time, when you reach that plateau where you’re feeling a bit of resistance, being able to break through that, whatever the mindset work is that you need to do, knowing that there’s no such thing as mindset utopia, you’ll get another level and there’s another breakthrough that needs to happen. So it’s a process. It’s something that needs to be continually worked on.
08:07
Karen Yankovich
And not only that, Derek, I almost kind of feel like it’s, it gets to be a little bit of a relief sometimes for women when they embrace that because then they’re like, okay, it’s okay to just keep learning this. It’s okay to meditate before I do this instead of, you know, doing another load of laundry.
08:23
Derek Fredrickson
Right.
08:23
Karen Yankovich
Like, it’s almost like we’re giving women permission to do the work so that they can take up the space and, you know, and get their voices heard by the people. So in many cases, I think it’s become almost a relief for a lot of women that I’ve worked with that they get to do this and that we’re asking them to do this.
08:41
Derek Fredrickson
Yeah.
08:41
Karen Yankovich
And we’re encouraging them and excited about it.
08:44
Derek Fredrickson
Yeah. And supporting them and applauding them and everything. I love that. Right, so to get a bit tactical then. So I know you are a LinkedIn expert, which I love, because there’s so much that I think is misunderstood or not clear on how to use LinkedIn. What’s the best strategy, the approach? And one of the things that, you know, I found, we talked about this a little bit, is that for some, LinkedIn can feel and seem very corporate, very professional. Right. It’s almost like you said, it’s kind of my resume, my career, my accolades. And you know, I’ve seen these reels online, these jokes of how people use LinkedIn and in real life form and somebody knocks on your door and says, I looked at your profile or something like that, or like they’re celebrating a career accomplishment.
09:24
Derek Fredrickson
That’s all well and good, but how do you leverage it? Let’s talk about how to leverage these platforms. For example, LinkedIn. How do you leverage LinkedIn to amplify your visibility and to showcase your thought leadership, but in an authentic way. So it doesn’t come across as I’m bragging, I’m trying to get all the attention or anything else.
09:43
Karen Yankovich
Yeah. Oh my gosh, that could be a two-hour conversation. One of the things that you said, something that triggered a memory of mine, of one of my clients. You know, first of all, it starts with your profile. Right. And I want to talk about, listen, a beautiful profile without anybody seeing it, is useless. Right. So like, kind of like nailing a flyer to a tree in the middle of the forest. Right. But the profile is where it starts. And it reminds me of a client that I had. She’s a teacher and she was doing YouTube videos for helping teachers with curriculum and she wanted to just build that piece of her business. She’d been like a third grade teacher for like 12 years and she had a PhD, so she’s, you know, really credential.
10:22
Karen Yankovich
And the first thing we did was we worked on a LinkedIn profile with her. And, and literally the mayor of the town knocked on her door and said, I want to meet, I like to meet the most influential people in our town. And I, I came across your LinkedIn profile and I said, I need to know this person. Right? Like so, so just by doing a great job on your LinkedIn profile and building in keywords that people are searching for and creating it, not from a place of just I checked all the dots or, you know, but from a place of, I’ve got strategy behind it’s going to start to be seen by more and more people. And P.S.
10:56
Karen Yankovich
The end of that woman’s story is before she, like within, I think 12 years, she’d been in the same job within like two months, the vice principal of her or the assistant superintendent of her district came to her as well and said, how did I not know you worked here? How did I not know you better? We want to create a position. And they created a coaching position for her. So it’s like crazy. So just, so just by owning who you are, how good you are at it sometimes can be. It’s a huge start. It’s the place we all need to start, right? Yeah, because the first, the first thing we want to do is have that spot, but then we want to be driving people to see it, right?
11:30
Karen Yankovich
So like if you’re even just going to local networking events, you don’t walk up to people and say, hey, I’m here in, you know, I have a hundred thousand social media followers. Like, you don’t say that, right? But you can. But you connect with them the next day on LinkedIn and they’re like, oh, wait a minute, right? Like this is who she is. Like, she does this and this, right? So it gives you the opportunity to just be yourself and let your profile do the heavy lifting for you, right? So about your accomplishments and stuff. And for many women, that’s a huge relief, right? Because they’re, you know, they don’t, you know, they have to brag about their accomplishments. They can let their LinkedIn profile do it. For them.
12:02
Derek Fredrickson
Right.
12:03
Karen Yankovich
But then, you know, the. Probably the question I get asked the most and it’s the question, kind of the wrong question to ask me is like, well, how do I get more eyes on my content? And of course there’s some kind of mathematical thing that says the more eyes, the more visibility, the more blah, blah. And I want you to have that. But the question on LinkedIn to me, is it measuring how many people saw your post, but how many people you’re engaging with? Right. Who connected with you and by the way, when they’re connecting with you, like follow up with them, get, try to book a call with them, like, look, use LinkedIn is a place to do virtual networking.
12:38
Karen Yankovich
It’s not the place to just spam your network with, like, just have a huge network of people and putting out a ton of content. In fact, LinkedIn’s latest algorithm reports, again done by people smarter than me, are showing that LinkedIn doesn’t even need you to post once a day, like a times a week is going to bring the most people to your profile. So it isn’t about a ton of content or a ton of strategy. There is strategy behind the content.
13:03
Derek Fredrickson
Right.
13:03
Karen Yankovich
But it’s not the most important thing to think about on LinkedIn is who are the people you need to meet and how can you build relationships with them. Right. So, so we forget that sometimes. You know, I can give you example after example. I have a client who was a podcast host and she wanted to speak at a conference and she’d been emailing them, doing all this stuff and they’re just responding to her and I’m like, did we go LinkedIn company page, you know, and she went to their LinkedIn company page and within half an hour had a call book with somebody to be for a sponsor for her podcast. Right. Like, so, you know, it’s really about using LinkedIn to build the kinds of relationships that are going to take whatever it is you’re looking to do with LinkedIn to the next level.
13:46
Derek Fredrickson
Yeah, I love that there’s so many nuggets in there. I just want to reflect back a couple things that you share that I think are really like, I’m getting. And also I think for our listeners as well. One is not the quantity of what you post, it’s the quality of what you post. Right, we know that, we believe that, but keep that in mind and what we’re doing and showing up and how we’re positioning ourselves and kind of being present for our audience. I also feel that in some respect, the way you were describing it with the LinkedIn profile, I think for some audiences, for some businesses, the LinkedIn profile is just as important as their website.
14:20
Derek Fredrickson
And if you think about how much time managing effort we put into the website in terms of lead gen and SEO and lead capture and content and everything else, or just updates to pages and everything else, when was the last time. There’s a question for the audience. When was the last time you looked at your LinkedIn profile and looked at it as if you were your ideal prospect, your ideal client, and
Karen Yankovich
100%
Derek Fredrickson
that are attracting you as if you were your own client and really being present to the things, whether it’s the positioning, the SEO, the keywords, just all of that really needs to be dialed in and then it gives you that platform. Because we may have a lead that comes in from the website.
14:55
Derek Fredrickson
We’re like, I got a lead from the website, I’m going to reach out to them, I’m going to contact them. But if somebody is connecting with you on LinkedIn, they probably saw your profile, there was something that sparked their interest. And we need to engage in that way with that potential. Not like it’s a potential client, but just a potential relationship in some respect.
15:11
Karen Yankovich
Right. Because you don’t know who they know. Right. They might be able to introduce you. Even if that conversation is so good to get to know you, I love what you do. You know what I’m thinking here? You really need to meet this person and this person. Right. Even if that’s the conversation, those are the kinds of conversations that bring in the biggest money. And there, you know, I ask 100 people where their biggest opportunity came from. 99 of them are going to tell me a referral. Yeah, right. Like they got business from other stuff. They got business from their website and SEO. We get business from our social media. But our big opportunities come from referrals. So build more. Build your network out in a way that you are giving yourself the opportunity to get more referrals and be intentional about it. Right?
15:49
Karen Yankovich
Be intentional about it. Because then those conversations are not, here’s what I do. Give me your credit card right there. Here’s what I do. Let’s talk. Maybe there’s an opportunity to collaborate. Who do I know that can help you? Who do you know that can help me? And those are the kinds of conversations that are the most valuable on LinkedIn. And they’re not the thing that first comes to mind when people think about LinkedIn exactly.
16:12
Derek Fredrickson
I think what people think about and comes to mind, especially with LinkedIn, is that they’re believing that they think it’s a tool for them to get clients. Right. And I often say you don’t get clients from social media because they’re getting.
16:26
Karen Yankovich
Spammed all day long from people saying, hey, by myself.
16:30
Derek Fredrickson
You get clients through the opportunities that are presented through LinkedIn. And it might be a conversation, it might be a connection, it might be a partnership, it might be something that you don’t necessarily know what the end result is going to be, but you treat that connection and that partnership as if it was a real relationship. Relationship as if you’re meeting somebody in a networking event. Right. That’s really. I think the point here is to be able to not get fallen into the trap, especially with AI and everything online and virtual, that, especially when it comes to making connections and human-like connections and having conversations, you can still do that with intent and with meaning and with purpose through LinkedIn.
17:03
Karen Yankovich
Right.
17:03
Derek Fredrickson
You also talk a lot about, like, PR and media and getting other attention in other ways. So how can someone. My, my belief, and I might be a student here in some respect, is that, you know, sometimes it might be hard to get the kind of publicity or PR or media exposure for somebody that doesn’t have the right connections or doesn’t have the willingness to pay, to get featured on certain outlets. How does somebody who’s looking to get that type of visibility, if we’re looking to differentiate how you can get noticed for opportunities, how does somebody leverage that as another outlet to get exposure?
17:36
Karen Yankovich
So, I mean, listen, you have a podcast, I have a podcast. I get pitched all day long, every day from people that want to be on my show. And I don’t know them. Half of the pitches are terrible. And I mean, we don’t even need to go there.
But if you listen.. listen closely, everybody. If you are listening to me on the show and then you check out my podcast and you’re like, wow, and you share this episode on LinkedIn and say, “Hey, you got to listen to this episode with Karen and Derek. They talked about this, they talked about that. I love that. Blah, blah,” Tag me. Tag Derek. Now you’re providing value to us. And then you DM me and you say, “Karen, love that episode. You guys talked about A, B and C. Have you thought about D?
18:10
Karen Yankovich
Because I didn’t really. I noticed that I hadn’t really seen you talk about that on your show. Would you be interested in talking about D?” Right, right. I am much more interested in that kind of pitch than I am. A hundred people just DMing me, like, you know, I want to be on your show. I want to be on your show. Right? So, so it’s, it seems like it takes longer, but if you’ve had a commitment, let’s just say to be on five podcast interviews a month, right? You’re gonna have a lot more success with that strategy than you will by just, you’ll have to DM, you know, or email 100 to 200 people to get those same five, five shows. You’re gonna probably get, if you do your research properly, you’re gonna probably get a high level of success. Right?
18:48
Karen Yankovich
So going on, like, for example, I’m just gonna give you all the tips for going on. Like if there’s somebody who you think if you heard a guest on a podcast, right? And I consider that media, by the way, you heard a guest on a podcast, you can go to Applecast, see what other shows that guest has been a podcast on, right? And just, and then connect with the hosts of those other shows on LinkedIn, listen to an episode or two and book yourself on five podcasts, right? Because you know that your message is probably aligned because this person that you think has an aligned audience and message to you has been on that show, right? Yeah, so like, that’s just one strategy. If you’re a local business owner, make sure that you are and, or not, by the way.
19:29
Karen Yankovich
But even if you’re, you know, like, have an audience internationally, get. Build relationships with the local news media who’s writing for the local media. This, like, I live in New Jersey. I know all the people, all the journalists that write about business in New Jersey. You and, you know, And connect with them and make sure, like, share their articles, tag them in those articles, like, be a resource to these people. If you’re having a grand opening to something, invite them to it. You know, I mean, it’s really about the same, it’s the same strategy that we just talked about for getting clients, right. Build a relationship with the media. So when I’m building relationships on LinkedIn, I’m looking to build relationships in three categories. One is who can buy my stuff?
20:14
Karen Yankovich
But that’s probably the lowest on the totem pole for me because I think, I think if I do the other two categories, well, those clients are coming to me, right? And the other two categories are who else has an audience of people like mine, like JV partner type people Building relationships with them. And who is in the media that talks about what I do. And you know, there’s like I think of one client I had that is a real estate agent in Washington state, right. And he had a great LinkedIn profile. So I’m going to start with that. He had a great LinkedIn profile. So he saw and what he saw an article by on NBC news.com and loved it, shared it, connected with the journalist, shared it.
20:56
Karen Yankovich
You know, dm, the journalist did all the things and just never once did he say, use me next time. And a week later she said, you know, I’m writing another article. Can I ask you a couple questions? Turned into a full page article about the housing crisis on NBC news.com and if you’re thinking like, well, why does that help a guy in Washington state if somebody in Maryland reads it? Right, right. Well here’s how it helps you print it. And when you are on housing like listing appointments, right, to get listings and you drop that baby on the table. I was NBC News as a housing price specialist, right? It gives you that credibility. So to me, the PR and the visibility isn’t just for ego.
21:32
Karen Yankovich
It’s for that credibility so that you can get the business, right, so that you can make the money, so that you get the contract. That’s to me what it’s about. So that’s why I built it into LinkedIn. Because a lot of the women that I work with or in some kind of transition, even if that transition is it’s time to make more money, right? But maybe they’re leaving corporate or maybe they’re changing direction, right? So they don’t have a lot of maybe testimonials or references in their new world. That credibility is going to get them the business. They don’t have to. They’re not starting from scratch. They’re starting from this place of beautiful experience. And the PR gives them the credibility to be able to do that, to be able to get those bigger contracts and not build their way back up.
22:13
Karen Yankovich
If that makes sense. Sense.
22:14
Derek Fredrickson
It makes total sense. And what I’m getting from this, and I hope our audiences as well, you know, I, I think historically when I hear PR media, etc, I think traditional PR media like news and you know, TV, radio, etc. It’s podcasts, that’s kind of like the new form of PR and media. And I think in some cases you’re right. Some people say, oh, I need to be featured, I need to get more publicity, I need to get more exposure. And they think, “Well, I need to be on more podcasts” But, like, that could be the end goal. But there’s some work that needs to be done. You need to be very intentional. You need to be very strategic about which podcasts, which topics, which episodes are going to resonate with you and go through.
22:55
Derek Fredrickson
I’m going to say step by step process, which is what we do with our clients. But it’s like the end goal could be an opportunity, it could be a client, it could be engagement. But you have to do the work, you have to do the research, and you can’t just say, I want more features and appearances on podcasts. You have to find out which ones: be intentional about the ones that would be the ideal and do the work to find them, contact them, build the relationship, and then see and be open to what the opportunity is. Yeah. Okay.
23:20
Karen Yankovich
And, you know, there’s one, there’s. There’s one thing that we have. Well, it’s a couple things we haven’t talked about. Two things that I want to make sure we get to before we. While we’re still talking. But one thing that aligns with this is the world we live in right now. People are hesitant to put your voice out there if they don’t know what your voice is. They’re hesitant to hire you, they’re hesitant to give you their money if they don’t know what, where your beliefs align, where you know how, what your position is in the world. I mean, it just is what it is. Right. This isn’t me being polarizing or political. This is. I personally have not hired people not because of their beliefs, because they didn’t know what their beliefs were. And I, and I. So I think it’s. I don’t.
24:02
Karen Yankovich
We don’t live in a world anymore where it’s, “Don’t talk about politics or religion.” I think it’s important that your voice is out there with this, with. And, and the publicity gets us that opportunity. Right. So if, you know, if you were thinking about bringing me or Derek onto your show, this interview right here, is going to help you make that decision. But if you can’t find one of these interviews, you’re going to just go on to somebody else. Right. Because we don’t want to. Our brands are dependent on the people we align ourselves with. Right. So it’s just.
24:31
Karen Yankovich
So the better job you do of being really clear on what your goal is and how you show up in the world, the better chance you’re going to have of aligning with the kinds of people you want to be aligned with and getting those opportunities. And, you know, it just isn’t. It’s an interesting time to be a business owner, but it’s an important thing to say. Yeah, it’s. It’s important to talk. The more your voice is out there, the easier it’s going to be to get hired by somebody.
24:59
Derek Fredrickson
And I think it goes back to what you said earlier about the trust. Like, I think what you’re saying is that when we speak more of our Why. Why we speak more of, like, why we do what we do, and that. That is your belief, right? That is your truth. That’s what you. That’s what you, like, you hold true here. And when people see that, watch that, hear it, share it, whatever it might be, it resonates and it brings them in alignment. It’s. It’s. It’s traction marketing, if you want to call it that. Right. Where they’re more resonant.
25:26
Karen Yankovich
And it repels the wrong people.
25:27
Derek Fredrickson
Exactly.
25:28
Karen Yankovich
It repels the wrong people, which is also great. Who wants to have those conversations, right? So it helps you just stay aligned with your perfect people, which, you know, I mean, it sounds like, you know, sounds a little like Oprah, but I’m. Okay. It sounded like Oprah. Right. I mean, you know, but it helps you stay aligned with your perfect people. And that’s. And that just makes it easier to go to work every day and do what we do if we’re. If we just. I mean, I can’t even tell you how grateful I am for the people I get to work with. You know, like, they’re just amazing. And. And that alignment helps. That alignment helps.
25:58
Derek Fredrickson
It’s one of the things we do with our clients. I firmly believe. I know this is not for everybody. People call it different things in different ways. We have developed what, what we call our core values in our company. And it’s something that we work on not only internally with our team, but also with our. we share that with our clients because it helps demonstrate why we do what we do and what we believe and what we stand for and what’s our truth. And we help our clients. Call it a mission statement, call it core values, call it like, what you believe, as opposed to just you’re doing it for the sake of making a buck or you’re doing it because that’s just what you’ve always been doing.
26:28
Derek Fredrickson
And I’ll just share, I’m sure you know, of this video as well, but one of the most impactful videos that I’ve seen in recent memory that really echoes this theme that we’re talking about is the Start with Why video from Simon Sinek, which is. Do you know. You know about that one, I’m sure. Yeah, it’s all about. Yeah, like, I love the phrase. I think in the video, it’s like, why do you get out of bed in the morning and why should anyone care? And when you can speak that and share that and have people like you say, align and resonate and attract, and it might repel others that don’t want to do business with people that do things in that way. That’s fine. There’s plenty of fish in the sea. So I think the message here.
27:02
Karen Yankovich
Exactly.
27:03
Derek Fredrickson
Turn up the volume. Turn up the volume on your. Why?
27:05
Karen Yankovich
Yeah. And the more you fly your freak flag, the more you’re going to attract the exact, right people. You know, like I talked about Realtors. Like, if. if a realtor’s on LinkedIn and talking about how they’re going to Feng Shui your living room and sage your house and paint Reiki shingles in your garage, it may sound like you’re going to repel people and maybe you will. But do you know how many people you’re going to attract? You know, because they’re going to be like, wow, that’s exactly what I want. Like, I love that. Come to me. Come here. I want you. But every realtor thinks they have to be exactly like the other realtors in town, you know?
27:34
Derek Fredrickson
Sure.
27:35
Karen Yankovich
And if you stand out with what you do that’s different and amazing, you’re gonna. Yes, there’ll be a few people that think you’re not for them, but you have can’t even imagine how many more people are going to come your way.
27:46
Derek Fredrickson
Exactly. Yeah. And it goes back. It’s the quality, not the quantity. What?
27:49
Karen Yankovich
Right.
27:50
Derek Fredrickson
This has been great and I know we could keep going, but is there like another gem, another nugget, another. Another resource strategy idea, hack in the Karen universe of what you know about everything we’ve talked about or others that you’d like to share with our audience? Like, what did we not touch on that you think you’d like to land on?
28:06
Karen Yankovich
Okay, so there is something. Because there’s something that we’re talking before. I’m like, I didn’t get to this and it’s important. You know, we talked about, “You don’t need to post a lot and you need to have a great profile and all that stuff.”
But the one thing we didn’t talk about, which is probably the most important thing to do on LinkedIn and it has been, you know, when I say the word algorithm, the minute I say something the algorithm does, they change it. Right. So I’m not here to tell you this is how the algorithm works, but historically, LinkedIn and probably most other social media platforms, algorithm always rewards you jumping into other people’s conversations.
28:35
Karen Yankovich
If you leave this interview with one thing that you’re going to do on LinkedIn differently, it is jump into five conversations a day around the topic that you want to be known as a thought leader on and make it easy for yourself. Go up to the search bar and type the topic in. If it’s imposter syndrome, type imposter syndrome into the search bar. Pull up all the conversations about imposter syndrome and jump into five conversations. Right? Like if you do just that every day, it’s gonna get your amazing profile in front of all those people you don’t know, you’re training the LinkedIn algorithm for what you want to be known for. It’s, You’re providing value so it doesn’t feel gross like you’re slamming people. Right. And do it in a way where you’re actually joining the conversation.
29:13
Karen Yankovich
No – “love this or great point”, you know, like. Add your point of view, talk like, jump into these conversations. That one thing alone is really what’s going to make you stand out from everyone else. And it’s what’s going to bring more and more opportunities to you. Because you, because if you’re jumping into those conversations, all those people in that conversation now are getting, are seeing you. Right. And your headlines popping up when they look at you and all that stuff. Right. So forget about spending two hours in front of your computer trying to figure out what to post and just jump into conversations. And that right there is probably the number one thing you can do to move your thought leader, brand, trust, brand forward more quickly.
29:55
Derek Fredrickson
Okay, love that. That is, that is huge. Because what I’m getting from this is that we think to be more present on LinkedIn, to be more active, to be more visible, it’s content, it’s posting, it’s content, it’s posting. It can be, but it doesn’t have to be just that.
If you’re looking for engagement can be by stepping into the conversation and the, the visual that I had in my head, which is going back to in-person when we’re doing in-person. And you know, we’ve been around for a long time before Linkedin.
30:21
Karen Yankovich
Right, exactly where this all comes from. Right?
30:24
Derek Fredrickson
Exactly. And if you’re going to imagine this. You’re at a business networking event, a conference, a trade show, whatever. And imagine there’s a group of people over there’s four or five people. You step into that conversation, you listen to what the conversation is that’s going on, you have something to contribute and you stand there and you say, great point, and then you leave. Right. That’s not contributing to the conversation. But you also don’t show up and be like, oh, you should visit my website and check out what we offer. Right. It’s not about that either. It’s about real, genuine authenticity, authentic, transparent conversation. I love that. Thank you for that, Karen.
30:54
Karen Yankovich
Exactly.
30:54
Derek Fredrickson
Amazing.
30:55
Karen Yankovich
Exactly. And it, yeah, and it’s funny. You get to meet new people. And often, I mean, Derek, I personally have an example of somebody who did not know who I was. You know, 10:00am in the morning, saw me jump into a conversation, went to my LinkedIn profile, saw how to book a call with me for the same day, and gave me their credit card for a 11k package.
31:15
Derek Fredrickson
Okay.
31:15
Karen Yankovich
That same day. So they didn’t do that because they listened to 300 episodes of Good Girls Get Rich. They didn’t do that because they didn’t know who I was at 9 o’ clock in the morning and gave me their credit card for $11,000 package at 4 o’ clock in the afternoon.
31:28
Derek Fredrickson
Okay.
31:28
Karen Yankovich
And it’s personally happened to me. Right.
31:31
Derek Fredrickson
That’s amazing. I know that doesn’t happen to everybody, but sometimes you just need one example. But it works.
31:36
Karen Yankovich
It could and it could. And the only way it’s going to do it is if you’re. And again, I didn’t pitch them. I wasn’t spamming my LinkedIn network. You know, I call LinkedIn my money tree. And all those people all those people spamming LinkedIn with, you know, “Buy my stuff.” Those are the weeds, right? Like, just pull the weeds. Don’t ignore the, don’t let the tree die because of the weeds. You know what I mean? Just continue to nurture it. Continue to nurture your network. Continue to nurture your, you know, the people in the world. And I promise you, it’ll be your money tree too.
32:04
Derek Fredrickson
Okay? Love that. Money tree. Money tree. Okay. LinkedIn is your money tree. Excellent, Karen. Thank you. For those that are listening, watching, reading, how do they find out more about you, about Karen, about what you do, how you can help them? Where can they go?
32:18
Karen Yankovich
Well, connect with me on LinkedIn. Tell me something about this interview. I mean, connect with me on LinkedIn and by the way. That’s why, like, if you look at my LinkedIn network and say, “Karen, you say you don’t need to have a million connections, but you have a lot of connections. I have a lot of connections because I do this, right? This is what I teach. You do not need 10,000 or 20,000 connections. 2,000, 3,000, 4,000 connections can get you a very healthy business. Right. 200 connections. Right. But connect with me on LinkedIn. Let me know what you thought about this. Of course. Share it and tag both Derek and I. I think that’s always. We always love that kind of thing. If you think we wake up every morning to that, it doesn’t happen as often as you think. So we’ll know it and we’ll notice it. Right.
32:54
Karen Yankovich
And you know, I mean, listen, there’s lots of ways I can help, but if you are Interested in the PR piece, we have a free resource at LinkedInforPR.com that just gives you some tips. There’s a lot of tips there, but if you just take one of those tips and implement one of them, it’s better than, you know, you’re one step further than you were yesterday. And that’s at LinkedInforPR.com and excellent.
33:13
Derek Fredrickson
Well, thank you. So connect with Link. Connect with LinkedIn. Connect with Karen on LinkedIn. LinkedInforPR.com Is the URL correct? And we’ll put that in the show notes as well. It is.
33:21
Karen Yankovich
It is, yeah.
33:23
Derek Fredrickson
Well, thank you, Karen. This was a very informative, insightful and just engaging conversation. I’m sure our audience would find it.
33:30
Karen Yankovich
It was a lot of fun. Fun. It was a lot of fun. Excellent.
33:32
Derek Fredrickson
Thank you so much, Karen. Thanks everybody for watching.
33:34
Karen Yankovich
We’ll see you next time. Thanks for having me.
