Shed Geek Podcast

STEEL KINGS: Make LinkedIn Work For Your Business

• Shed Geek Podcast • Season 5 • Episode 107

Share episode

Send us a text

Your next contract is already researching vendors on LinkedIn, and today we show you how to be the profile they trust. We sit down with author and strategist Al Kushner to break down a practical, repeatable playbook tailored for builders, steel dealers, and manufacturers who want qualified leads without living on the phone. The shift is simple but powerful: speak to outcomes, not offerings; educate instead of pitch; and make your profile the clearest answer to a buyer’s biggest questions.

We dig into what actually moves the needle: outcome-based headlines and summaries that signal expertise, content pillars that balance education, project results, team credibility, and light promotions, plus the underrated force multiplier of LinkedIn newsletters that land in inboxes and bypass spam filters. You’ll hear concrete examples—how to frame a 60x100 build as a schedule win, why decision makers respond to “how we saved three weeks” more than “look at our building,” and how one video can spawn ten posts when you slice by challenge, result, and process.

Then we get operational. Al maps a lean weekly cadence any small team can sustain: 20 minutes a day for engagement, one to two hours a week to batch content, and simple analytics that prove ROI. We cover targeting by role, industry, and geography; using lead gen forms for higher conversion; and tagging sources in your CRM to see shorter sales cycles from pre-educated buyers. Along the way, AI shows up as a draft partner—not a replacement—to help you articulate value faster and keep your voice clear.

If you’ve wondered whether LinkedIn is worth the effort, this conversation gives you the numbers, language, and steps to make it your always-on sales engine. Subscribe, share this episode with a teammate who needs the nudge, and leave a review with one LinkedIn question you want us to tackle next.

Find his book at: The A.I. Linked Advantage

For more information or to know more about the Shed Geek Podcast visit us at our website.

Would you like to receive our weekly newsletter?  Sign up here.

Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, or YouTube at the handle @shedgeekpodcast.

To be a guest on the Shed Geek Podcast visit our website and fill out the "Contact Us" form.

To suggest show topics or ask questions you want answered email us at info@shedgeek.com.

This episodes Sponsors:
Studio Sponsor: J Money LLC

Intro:

Hey, this is Joel Oney at J Money in the heart of the Buckeye State, and I want to personally welcome you to today's episode of the Steel Kings podcast with my good friends Jared Ledford and Eric Olson, better known as the Steel Kings. Be sure to check out JMoneyllc.com for financing solutions for your buildings. And now let's get back to the Steel Kings podcast.

Intro:

What I'll tell you, dude, is I am on the I am Jared Leford. It is time to get motivated about your business. It's time for some personal development. It's time to get out and shake it out of people. I can tell you though, the Steel Kings are about what I mean.

Jared:

What's up, man? What's going on, guys? Welcome back to another episode of Steel Kings Podcast. I am Jared. Oh, you know, enjoying a beautiful day here in uh Ohio. That music cutout was a little bit sudden, but that's okay. What's going on, Eric? How are you today?

Eric:

Happy Monday. Not doing too bad.

Jared:

Yeah, I am Jared. He is Eric. We are the Steel Kings. And we have got an exciting guest today. As always, shout out to the guys at Versabend. If you are in need of a tube vendor, that's the one you want to go with. It's the easiest one to use. It's straightforward. Contact the team at Versabend. Our friends at J Money have been great. They will be great with you helping out with your financing, helping out with your needs that way. And they will get you everything you need, whether it's metal buildings, pole barns, woodsheds, you name it, the team at J Money will help you out. Also, define SEO if you have anything you need in the SEO space marketing, those guys over there can help you out. And Cal for order management. What's going on this week? Getting started on Monday. It's still fairly early for us. Yeah.

Eric:

Getting ready for some calls that we have this week to set up. And really honestly, reviewing my you know, and I I'm spurty on LinkedIn. You know, I had LinkedIn like 10 years ago, and the um and the amount of action we get. I mean, we found our best employee on uh LinkedIn, basically. Not our best, but one of our best. That's true. We've been highly undervalued, in my personal opinion. So I've been looking at my profile.

Jared:

I agree. I agree. So you kind of let the cat out of the bag. So we're we've got a special guest today. Al Kushner is here, and he is the author of No, that's okay, man. I love jumping right into it, man. I think we get started on it. He's the author of the AI LinkedIn Advantage, which is this book right here. It's one that I got last week with uh help from Alan. I appreciate that. Um, been enjoying it. Um, unleash the power of AI and dominate the competition. LinkedIn, of course, is a social networking platform used by professionals. It is the professional um social media platform, and getting traction on it can be a difficult process. Eric was saying that we've been pretty successful. We have been, we've been using LinkedIn for a long time. We both are well connected, but I think we both can learn something from Al. A celebrated thought leader, award-winning author, innovator in the AI personal branding space. Um, this man has a power and a passion for empowering those professionals to excel through LinkedIn. Um, this book is something you're gonna want to check out, but we wanted to bring Al on to talk about it further. So, without further ado, uh, if everything's working properly this morning, we're gonna bring in Al. Al, can you hear us, brother? How are you?

Al:

I'm great. Thanks to you, uh appreciate the opportunity.

Jared:

Yes, sir, absolutely. Welcome to Steel Kings Podcast. We were just hyping the book up a little bit here, and uh don't waste any time, man. Let's introduce you to the audience and tell us a little bit about what you do and how we can help the listeners today.

Al:

Yeah, well, I've been um using LinkedIn for over two decades. I would say that um a lot of people really are not understanding how powerful the platform is. I mean, right now, I think when I started back in 2006, it was only about maybe 200,000, I guess, um, people on LinkedIn. Now it's over a billion, I believe. So, it's really amazing how it's grown since the time. And it's incredible because of the reach and the opportunity that you can have to uh become a thought leader on the platform is incredible. So I'm glad to uh share some of my insights today about how to uh optimize your LinkedIn uh profile and uh basically dominate the competition.

Jared:

That's awesome, man. I think we all need help in this space. I don't think that they're I mean what if you had to guess off the top of your head, what percentage of the people using LinkedIn using it to the highest effectiveness, if you had to guess.

Al:

I would say less than five percent, I would say, for the most part. A lot of people don't really don't understand it because it is not uh straightforward as other platforms, but it's um it's definitely a powerful platform if you know how to use it the right way.

Eric:

I feel I feel like either when I'm when I'm when I'm scrolling through LinkedIn, either people's profiles got it or they don't got it. And there's a huge gap between people that know how to use it, and then people who just have one because maybe they heard about it, and so maybe they haven't dove into why they have it or how to use it properly, but then there's like a huge jump from that category to this person's doing it really, really well and having good conversations and having good, yeah, like everything about them is like wow, how'd they figure this out? But there's really not a lot of medium, like middle ground of utilization. So I would say just jumping in there because I was looking at my profile, hoping you weren't judging it.

Al:

No, I can look at it, but uh before the show talk about it. So uh yeah, LinkedIn um definitely has a lot of uh possibilities if you know how to use it. So uh, but yeah, you'll find a lot of different um uh profiles that are across the chart. Some professional, most of them are usually not for the most part. And that's something that people don't understand because most people nowadays when you know meet with someone, the first thing they ask you is not a business card, once you look what's your LinkedIn profile, you know, and that's the first thing they go to. And as soon as you they see it, and it's not really up to the standards, they're gonna judge you based on that. And that's really uh where you're gonna be at a loss. So you really need to take it uh seriously if you want to step up your game.

Jared:

We talk about that a lot, right? So when we onboard new employees, we have them do LinkedIn, we have them create it. If they do not already have a LinkedIn profile, we have them create a LinkedIn profile, we have them obviously put that they're working at Dayton Barns or Five Rivers Pole Barns, whichever one that we're looking at that specific time. But I think that utilizing that buys that buys that authority with certain customers in a high-end marketplace where you're where you're spending 20, 30, 40,000 on a product, those customers are going to do an immense amount of research on you. Not just your company, but they're gonna do a lot of research on you personally. So I think one thing about our profession, Al, is that a lot of people out there are utilizing basic social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram, specifically Facebook, and we'll sell sheds or metal buildings through Facebook Marketplace as a platform. So when they go and they look at somebody on Facebook and they see their Facebook page, it's different when they're going to look for your LinkedIn, right? They're expecting a higher, they want something when they're going to look at LinkedIn. Is that fair?

Al:

Yeah, absolutely.

Jared:

Yeah, yeah. I think that that's where kind of where Eric and I are at. Obviously, things like the Better Business Bureau, all these kind of verifying factors, but LinkedIn plays a huge part of that. Um specifically, why, Al, do you think that like steel building dealers and manufacturers, um do you think that they should do this? I mean, what's the why behind the ass? Because there's a lot of people that are going to be listening to this that do not have a LinkedIn. I'm actually kind of amazed in this industry how seldom it's used, honestly.

Al:

Well, well, LinkedIn isn't just a social network, it's where your customers are actively solving problems. The steel building dealers, the decision makers you're trying to reach, you know, general contractors, developers, architects, project managers, they spend a significant time on LinkedIn researching solutions, comparing vendors, and seeking expertise. And here's the hard data LinkedIn is 277% more effective for lead generation than Facebook. Uh B to B marketers see up to double the conversion rates on LinkedIn compared to other platforms. Most importantly, 80% of LinkedIn users influence buying decisions within their organizations. And for your listeners in the steel industry, this means the procurement manager, the project architect, and the owner, the people who decide whether to build a steel building, pole barn or barn dominium, are on LinkedIn looking for guidance. And if you're not present there, your competitors are.

Jared:

Yeah. Yeah. And like I said at the onset, Eric and I have been what we would consider to be pretty heavy LinkedIn users. Now we don't post regularly on there. Um, is that something that you'd recommend for somebody trying to sell a product? If someone is trying to sell a shed or a metal building or a pole barn, is selling a product direct to consumer something that you think would be worthwhile through LinkedIn? Or is this more of a B to B presentation?

Al:

Well, the fact is that you should be posting rarely, at least at a minimum of once a week. I'm not sure. Do you do any newsletters at all on LinkedIn?

Jared:

We haven't taken advantage of newsletters. We have done specifically like we've ran promotions with their advertising for hiring. So they have a feature where you can actually mark if you're hiring, and they'll give you certain breakdowns on boosting like an ad for a hiring position, things like that. We've taken advantage of it from staffing, but never from a lead gen perspective. And you saying that just sparks my interest a little bit because obviously the people who have LinkedIn and are dedicated to LinkedIn are the ones who can probably have buying power. They're customers that are gonna have the buying power to really purchase something. And I think that that's a good point.

Al:

Yeah, it's a great way to keep in touch. I send out uh weekly newsletters, and I have um five different newsletters that go out, you know, for different segments of the people I'm trying to connect with. For me, it's referral partners, attorneys, CPAs, um, and other individuals, financial planners, and they look forward to receiving that uh newsletter. And what's great about the newsletter is it has such a powerful reach, it goes beyond LinkedIn, it goes directly into their inboxes outside of LinkedIn because of the high authority that it has, that uh it bypasses spend filters. So you you're really missing out on an opportunity that's tremendous by using not using newsletters because your competitors are, you know. So guess what? You better start working.

Jared:

Yeah. I really like that idea. I've never even thought about doing it that way. But what you're saying is utilizing LinkedIn to create a professional newsletter or some sort of announcement base to keep customers and clients both in tune on what's going on with your business. What you're seeing is not only sharing it through LinkedIn, but because of the power of LinkedIn, it shares directly to that uh to that LinkedIn member's like inbox through LinkedIn. So it bypasses all of the hurdles that you would normally have with trying to send out your own newsletter through like MailChimp or you know, any of the email servers out there. Um, I think that's a really high level. And see that, you know, to me, we could talk to you for hours about this kind of a thing because you could dig in, you could dig in piece by piece, and that's something that you do, right? You do offer that as a service. So we'll be sure to we want to talk about that a little bit. Yeah, we want to talk about that. You know, if you're hearing, you know, if you're hearing something on this podcast today and it strikes an interest in you, we'll make sure that we have all of Al's contact information, not only here, um, but on all of our social media platforms as we that lead up to this episode dropping and things, because we want you to be able to reach Al if you have any questions. I know Al's pretty wide open as far as you know, giving some consultation, and then he does have some premium services he offers as well. I think the big question that comes to my mind, because I had talked to a couple of people, um I had man Friday was just busy for us. We met with Stor- Mor Portable Buildings, we met with premium steel buildings, um, you know, it was just a busy day for us. But I did make mention of LinkedIn to a couple of them, and I think the big question that I got from them was you know, we're already busy. We've already got so many different media, you know, social media platforms and different things, but why is LinkedIn like why is LinkedIn the next step? Or really should it be your first step when you're starting a business? Because I couldn't, I can't stress to you enough, Al, these two businesses we talked to, Stor-Mor is they are like the top of the top. They have just imagine the let's just say Coca-Cola. They're all over the place. They're spread all out over the nation, they're a huge company. And then you've got something like you know, I'm not really sure, like uh like the highest end local Boba team that's really popular in its area, and maybe it's gonna go on a run and it can be a huge company in five years. You've got the opportunity here with premium. Premium is a great steel manufacturer, they do great, great things that are just getting started. And we actually might have the opportunity to work with them a little bit closer with their website and different things. But why would you tell them LinkedIn right out of the game? I think you'd probably say LinkedIn is the most important, wouldn't you?

Al:

Well, it's the most common objection and it's valid. But here's the reframe LinkedIn isn't another task, it's your lead generation system working 24-7 while you sleep. So think about it differently. You're spending time on sales calls, estimates, and follow-ups. LinkedIn compresses this timeline. So when you have consistent content and a strong presence, qualified leads come to you already educated about your business and ready to talk specifics. You know, so for your listeners, this translates into fewer cold calls needed because your LinkedIn presence pre-qualifies leads. I mean, they're seeing your they've seen your posts about steel building advantages, your case studies about how clients save money or time, your expertise about barniniums. When they contact you, they're not starting from zero. They're already sold on the value of what you do. So the time investment is actually manageable. You know, 30 minutes per day to engage with your network and one or two hours per week to create content that gets repurposed across platforms done right. This generates two to three qualified leads per week with minimal ongoing effort once the system is established. So compare that to making 50 cold calls to generate two or three leads, LinkedIn is the better investment.

Jared:

Awesome. I I think the question that I have now, and Eric, you got something. I know you do. You're Stewing.

Eric:

I was gonna say, you know, I've got it to a place where I think it evolves. I love talking about social media. LinkedIn is the most unique one because it's like it connects companies and then people from the companies, which is a huge, yes, there's social aspects to it, but it's better because a lot of the stuff isn't like personal opinion. I've got my LinkedIn to a place where I want, like, for example, we're gonna we're going to trade shows out. When people come to our booth and they find us and we have a LinkedIn tag and they go to it, it is painting a professional vibe to them. Because I've got quite a bit of there's over 20,000 connections on mine, and I do post somewhat regularly. Um, and you can look at the work history and things like this. It's basically a brief rundown of what the person's been up to in their career, like their adult career life, which I think if you're gonna approach a company or a time, it's really like a preliminary way to check them out too. Not only just to get a job, but if um, you know, for example, like him and I, like Jared and I are going to trade shows, people are gonna be meeting us for the first time. So, they're gonna want a place to catch, we're gonna want a place to catch them when they look for it. And so, it's a, it's a it's a first impression digitally. And it matters how like what you're saying, Al, it matters what it looks like.

Jared:

Yeah, it's better than a business card, right? It's that digital handshake.

Eric:

It's good for lead acquisition. I and in some in some in some, I would say, verticals, like different industries. Uh, it's probably not the best for selling sunglasses, but it's probably good for selling services. I could see it's good for a podcast landing spot. So, there's I I'm in agreement. I'm in full agreement, actually.

Jared:

I think the question that I think the question that I have, Al, so I was one of those guys, right? I I've been a high-end LinkedIn user, but I can understand where if you haven't been on LinkedIn and you're successful with your business, why would you spend the time? But I think the next question that comes to my mind is how do we find the right customers on LinkedIn? How do we make LinkedIn work for us that way so that we're actually getting the right customers that want to buy from us, whatever that product or service is. In this case, it's steel buildings, woodsheds, and coal barns. But again, I think it goes across the board, right? How do we get the right customers?

Al:

Well, this is where LinkedIn targeting position becomes a game changer. You're not broadcasting to everyone, you're speaking directly to your ideal customer profile. So for steel building dealers, your ideal prospects are general contractors, uh developers, project managers, and construction and procurement specialists. LinkedIn allows you to target all of these by job titles, industry, company size, and geographic location. So, here's the strategy. First, optimize your profile. Make it clear that you understand your customers' pain points. A profile that says we sell metal buildings loses to one that says we help contractors deliver 40% faster with flexible steel building solutions. The second profile speaks uh to outcomes. And second, create content and speaks to decision maker problems. Don't post, oh, check out our new building. Instead, post why this developer choose a 40 by 60 SIL structure over traditional construction and close X Scrow earlier. Decision makers engage with content that solves their problems, not promotional content. And third, use LinkedIn's lead gen forms. You know, these pre-fill information uh from a prospect's profile so they don't have to type. The average conversion rate for uh LinkedIn lead gen forms is 13%, which is significantly higher than the 2.3% the industry standard for landing pages. This means more qualified leads with less friction. And fourth, engage strategically. When a prospect posts about a construction project, uh a challenge they're facing, uh, industry trends comments thoughtfully. This builds visibility with decision makers who are already thinking about the problems you solve. So the result is you're attracting genuine decision makers, people ready to buy, not tire kickers wasting your time.

Jared:

I like that. And I think that that's where there's a huge disconnect between the traditional social media audience and the audience that needs to be on LinkedIn. So we're not posting just promotional, hey, we're running the 20% off of our current metal buildings or whatever that offering is. We're talking more about how we can help them, how we can solve a problem, how we can be institutional in their processes. Because one of the things that I've really looked at a lot over the last year is working with municipalities. I think that's a huge underserved audience. I'm on a, you know, I'm a city council member in my community, and I know that that's one thing that we've talked expressively about is you know, all of the different things that it takes to run a municipality, but also finding the right partners in each individual, each individual avenue that you have to work with within a municipality. Um I think for me personally, so now we've talked about the why, we've talked about we've talked about the why LinkedIn works, and we've talked about why we should go after the audience there, but I'm not necessarily a social media guru, even though me and Eric are pretty good at it. We're not we're not experts or anything, especially not in LinkedIn. And I know that our audience is sitting back thinking, okay, we're not experts either. We kind of know what you're talking about, but give us the nuts and bolts on exactly what kind of content, because most of the people listening to this are not going to be social media gurus. They're gonna be builders, they're gonna be contractors, they're gonna be you know, salesmen. What should they be posting on LinkedIn to get those right customers?

Al:

Well, I would say that every project is content, every challenge your team overcomes is content, every customer success is content. You just need to repackage it uh what you're already doing. So, content pillars for steel building dealers, for example, educational content, which is about 40%. I would post about industry trends, uh, how to evaluate builders' financing tips, maintenance guides, comparison between steel buildings and pole barns. This attracts prospects in the research phase and positions you as an expert. Uh, for example, five questions asked before hiring a steel building contractor. Most builders miss. Uh, another one is a project showcases, share before and after project photos, behind the scenes, looking at your team, unique customer applications. This humanizes your brand and shows real results. Uh, for example, this 60 by 100 steel building went from permits to completion in eight weeks. Here's how. Uh, team and culture, for example, show your team, celebrate certifications, share company milestones. People buy from people they trust. Showing your face and your team building that trust is key. And direct promotions also share specific offerings, promotions, or case studies. But keep it light. Too much selling drives people away. I think the beauty is one video of a project that uh can become you know 10 LinkedIn posts when you extract different angles. The process, the finish uh results, an interesting challenge to overcome, a customer testimonial, a team highlight. So you're not spending more time, you're just repurposing what you already create.

Jared:

I really like that. I really like that formula breakdown. Yeah, we you know, you're gonna educate the customer, which me and Eric talk about. Yeah, Eric and I talk about that all the time, right? We're not necessarily in the sales business anymore, we're in the education business. We're teaching these customers what they need to be successful when they purchase a building, you know, an outbuilding, portable building, whatever. Um, I love the idea of showcasing the products. We do that on a high level anyhow. And I think that most of the listeners right now are utilizing product showcase, you know, um, to really get those customers in through all the other social media channels. So, you can utilize content across social media platforms, but I think where you really hit the nail on the head is talking about individual, what makes your business unique and special, because people do buy from people that they trust, right? Focusing on the team. Um it was funny because we actually just did a series of meet the staff, right? We posted that out on our social channel. So, if you haven't checked it out, check us out on you know Facebook. And now I'll be saying check us out on LinkedIn because we're going to be sharing those on LinkedIn because I think that that's a valuable, certainly a valuable thing to be sharing on LinkedIn. And you kind of jumped back to say direct promotion's okay, but keep it keep it limited. Let the audience know, hey, we are running a promotion, but don't blitz them. Don't make it an everyday thing, don't make it an every hour thing. Maybe once or twice a month would be probably the max, just to keep the audience engaged on what's going on with your content and going on with your products. Um, does that kind of cover it? I know that I know I repeated what you said, but you went into the nuts and bolts. I was trying to give the overview. Does that kind of hit it on the head, Al?

Al:

Yeah, yeah. You basically got an overview, and the idea is just to really um you know be consistent at it and use it as a template moving forward. So, you have uh you know a way to uh gauge whether or not you're getting uh interest, and I think that's invaluable.

Jared:

Awesome. Okay, so we've talked about the why, we've talked about kind of the how. Now, I think the next question on my mind is when I get on LinkedIn, I don't necessarily feel like I am being seen. So I've got kind of two questions in one. Do we run ads? Is this something that you recommend for small businesses, large businesses? What's the cutoff? Is there a cutoff? But also, how do we stand out on LinkedIn? How do we get past the other thousands and thousands of people that are in our in our shared space? How do we become someone that someone looks to on LinkedIn?

Al:

Well, I would focus in on uh take a look at profile views. Are people finding your profile increasing month to month means your content is getting visibility? Look at your engagement rate, how many likes or comments or shares on your post? Higher engagement means your content resonates with your audience. Also, look at the click-through rate. How many people click links in your post or ads? This indicates genuine interest. Also, there's lead source tracking. Most important, tag leads in your CRM as coming from LinkedIn. After 90 days, you'll see how many LinkedIn leads uh convert to customers and what's the average deal value. There's also a cost per lead. If you're running LinkedIn ads, divide your ad spend by lead generated uh LinkedIn average CPI. I think it's 28% lower than Google AdWords, so your ROI should be strong. There's also a sales cycle reduction, so track how many days it takes from LinkedIn to uh lead to close deal uh compared to leads from other sources. Many deals, many dealers report 20 to 30% shorter sales cycles with LinkedIn leads because they're pre-educated. So set up recommendation, I'd say use your CRM if you have one uh to tag all leads by source, create a simple dashboard tracking these metrics weekly. After 90 days, you'll have a clear data on LinkedIn ROI. And if LinkedIn leads convert to a higher rate or a shorter timeline than other sources, double down, if not, pivot your strategy.

Jared:

Okay. I think that that's fair. I mean, I think that for those people, the messaging that we're getting across today, and I know we've been kind of heady and it's a lot of information to digest, but what I can tell you is if you're not on LinkedIn, you shouldn't. I think that's the very first step, is if you're not there, you shouldn't be. Because if someone goes to look for you and you're not there and your competition is, what exactly do you think that they're gonna do? Now, unless you have a really engaged relationship or you've met them in person, which unfortunately in our industry, steel buildings, whole barns, and wood sheds, that's not a guarantee. You're not guaranteed that you're gonna meet these people in person. A lot of times you get that contact and you might be able to get them in. But think about how it would be if they could go to a website, and I know that I'm dumbing this down, but I know that there are so many people in this space that do not even have a LinkedIn. That's why I thought this was such a powerful conversation to have because it helps those that are on the platform, like Eric and I. Eric and I have a lot to learn, and I'll be honest with you know, the LinkedIn Advantage, the AI LinkedIn Advantage, this book right. Here, check this thing out. I would encourage you to do that because I think it touches on all the bases. It starts at the beginning and works you through a progression, and it's going to take you along the way. And for those of you who are not uh on LinkedIn, this is your call to action. You know, the peak behind the curtain, as Eric says, pro tip. The pro tip of the day is if you don't have a LinkedIn, you need to do it. That's just that's a fact. Um, Eric Ben, do you have anything? I know you're soaking it in. Eric's taking notes and soaking it in.

Eric:

I'm just if you have if you have if you don't have a LinkedIn, you need one. Um once you have one, you'll once you have it, you'll find the way to utilize it. Like, like right now, I mean, to legitimize Dayton Barns specifically, and then like the podcast and pull and all the other stuff that we're doing, like when we go to trade shows and different things and we get into bigger circles, which we are doing now, like people look your they don't look at your Facebook, they look at your LinkedIn when you get to some level. And so it's important to have it, not only just from a starter perspective. If you're a person who is entering the workforce from college, you should have a LinkedIn because it is a resume that is constantly updated, it shows a little bit of about your personality, obviously, along the way. I'm not in that mode, so I don't use it that way, but um, so there's many ways to use it. I mean, um I remember when JW got a LinkedIn, I made him get it. I mean, and I'm not saying it got him a different job, but it certainly was a place that that cre painted Dayton Barns as a professional company. Um, and then we kind of grew into it, and then having the resume of all the positions that you've done at a company is important. I know it has nothing to do with AI, but um, but AI can help you do those things along the way to make it look better, uh, articulate your vision better of who you are.

Jared:

And I think and I think having I think having you back, Al in a few months is probably a beneficial topic because what we've done today is we've really talked about LinkedIn at its core. We've talked about the why behind LinkedIn. As we do, so Eric and I have done several episodes now on AI, but we want to do an AI series probably around March, just to drop you guys a little bit of a nugget. We've got several AI conversations on the horizon because Eric and I are big believers that AI doesn't necessarily replace, it benefits and it makes better what you already have, it makes the best parts of you easier to manage. So we talked with Dan Van Orden from Idea Room, and he talked about efficiency through AI. Um, I can tell you it makes me more efficient for sure. And when I'm putting together something as simple as an email, I have a program that automatically sets a reply to every email that I have ready to go in my inbox. Now I can go in and I can tweak those replies. LinkedIn has options and AI features, lots of different things that you can utilize. And I think that that's something that not only the book talks about, but Al's, I mean, your position is yourself, not just you haven't just positioned yourself, but you've become an authority figure on this particular subject, which is AI utilization through LinkedIn. And we want to make sure that we get you the time in front of the audience when that time comes. Um, I got one more question, and I think this might be the icing on the cake for everything. Because again, the one thing that we talk out, I talk a lot about, we talked with Carly a few weeks ago about burnout, and I think that this is always the question that comes up with anything. So, we're asking the team, we're asking the listeners to do a new task, which is if you don't have a LinkedIn, get one. If you have a LinkedIn, work to make it a little bit better, fine-tune it, put it back in the forge. But how do we keep that momentum sustainable? Because I know for me, like I'll get really amped up about LinkedIn for a couple of days, I'll get really focused on it. But how do we do that? How do we keep that fire burning without burning ourselves and our team out on the way now?

Al:

Well, um, I think the important thing is to look at is what your goal on LinkedIn is. If you want to establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry, you have to be present uh to be there. And it can be as simple as, for example, sending out a newsletter once a week. You know, it's especially if you have uh people who are followers of that, they subscribe to it, they're looking forward to receiving your information, you know, keep them in the loop. Um that's at a minimum, you know, and that's something that will be important. I would say um work on uh content collection, you know, designate one or two team members to identify project stories or team highlights or customer wins. That takes about 15 minutes per week. Uh content creation, um, you can use a VA or a team member to write posts or design graphics, schedule content. That maybe cost about $500 a month average. Uh engagement, someone spends 20 minutes daily commenting or engaging with industry conversations. There's also analytics, uh, review metrics, adjusting strategy based on uh data. With this structure, your team spends two or three hours per week total, and you have consistent, valuable content without burnout. Many dealers we work with, I guess they use tools like Canva for design templates and scheduling platforms to batch create content monthly, then schedule it out. This way you're not scrambling for content ideas, it's systematized. So that would be my recommendation is to you know use those things I pointed out that helps you not get burnt out, but you know, staying on top of mind with people.

Jared:

I like it. I think one thing that we talked about too, Al was don't if you're sitting back, you're the business owner, the founder, the CEO, whatever you are, you're the boss. Don't be the only one posted on LinkedIn. Have your team work with you. And I think that that's a huge, huge call out here in these different tasks is you can set specific team members, just like Al said. You know, the strategies outlined by the owner, the content creations done by the team, content creation forward into engagement, into analytics. That can all be done on a scheduled basis. We use Canva and PicMonkey and different things. Lots of people are using that. There's so many tools at your disposal. But I can tell you, we're at the we're at the breaking point, unfortunately, for today. But I do want to drop a nugget for probably March, March or April, Al, I think we want to have you back. Talked about how we can talk about how we can really take LinkedIn to the next level. We're gonna continue to motivate our listeners to get on LinkedIn and get some real good traction going that way. But anything you want to leave us with, Al, any final messages, any calls to action, anything like that?

Al:

Yeah, I do have on my website uh a way that you can optimize your profile. It's a worksheet. It's free. Uh you can get it at linkvantage.com /audit, and you'll access to a uh free uh optimization worksheet. It'll give you some tips on how to optimize your profile, how to stand out, and things to avoid when you know creating uh content for your profile. So, I think that'll be helpful for your listeners. Hopefully they can uh understand that. And you can also follow me on LinkedIn and I'll share some insights on my uh weekly newsletter.

Jared:

Perfect. And we will have that link to the LinkedIn Advantage, LinkedIn Advantage um to do that with Al. We'll have that linked on all of our social media platforms, including LinkedIn, um, when this episode drops. So be on the lookout for that. TheSteelKings.com, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, whatever you listen or watch on YouTube, um, we'll have all that posted for you to connect with Al. Eric, man, I know it's been a quick one, but man, you got anything for us this week, man?

Eric:

We're gonna if you're a listener and you have access to a computer or a smartphone, you should download LinkedIn today. And find the Steel Kings podcast. Let us be your first connection.

Jared:

Yep.

Eric:

That's my that's what I'm leaving you with today.

Jared:

Drop us a nugget on LinkedIn or on the social media platforms. Check us out. We want to, we definitely want to help you out. I can tell you in the meantime, man, we are out for this week. But we will be back at you next week with another episode of the Steel Kings Podcast. For myself and Eric, for myself and Eric, get out in your communities and do something good for somebody else. It'll make you feel good. You'll feel great when you do it, and we will be back at you next week with another episode of the Steel Kings Podcast. I'm Jared, he's Eric. We're out for Al. Appreciate you, brother. Have a good day, guys. We'll talk at you later.

Outro:

Before you go, the J Money team wants to thank you for listening to today's Steel Kings podcast. Remember, money is king, and if you need a financing option on your portable woodsheds or steel buildings, we are here to help. Just check us out at jmoneyllc.com for more information. And don't forget to catch the next episode of the Steel Kings podcast and have a great day.