[00:00:00] Dave Polykoff (2): Welcome back to another episode of brand science, all things, personal branding and content creation. And in that universe is also how to apply your content creation through a newsletter. That you can use to attract your ideal client, establish a relationship with them, showcase your thought leadership, and then convert them into, a dream client of yours.
[00:00:22] And that's why we have on today, Jordan Mendoza, who has launched a LinkedIn newsletter called, trailblazing tips, who has amassed over 18, 000 subscribers and counting so far. So he is the man to go to, uh, when we're talking about LinkedIn newsletters. So Jordan,
[00:00:40] thank you for being on the show today, man.
[00:00:42] Jordan Mendoza: Hey, Dave, appreciate the opportunity. Anytime I get to talk about LinkedIn, it's a good day for me. Yeah. It's a big part of, uh, what I do every day with clients and, uh, uh, really where I started to truly build my own personal brand. So I love talking about it and hopefully you can give some value to your audience [00:01:00] today.
[00:01:00] Dave Polykoff (2): Absolutely. Yeah, that definitely will be happening today. And that's exactly where I want to start to is I like to kick off every episode with understanding. All right. So you have grown this success on LinkedIn with a newsletter. What is the backstory behind how you actually got involved in LinkedIn specifically?
[00:01:19] Launching what was the inspiration for launching newsletter? And then, um, kind of, you know, we'll, we'll get into how to do it, but kind of what's been the journey of you
[00:01:28] actually running this newsletter. Are
[00:01:31] Jordan Mendoza: Yeah, perfect. So I think we'll kind of rewind to 2019. It was, uh, I was kind of. At the top of, you know, height of a corporate role, and I was looking to get promoted, and so I was taking on more responsibility, and I actually got a goal, um, to go and find a social media platform we could get our associates engaged on, and I tried all of them, Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, I was trying all these platforms, none of them would really work, and when I stumbled on LinkedIn at that [00:02:00] point in April of 2019, It's actually when video just started to come out.
[00:02:04] So I started, something changed about the platform. It was no longer static text. It was actually people with selfie videos and, um, you know, better quality videos. And, but there were people showing up and I was attracted to that. I was like, man, maybe this is how I can get our associates engaged. And so I. Uh, you know, posted my first video and, uh, it got five views and all of them were me, cause I kept going back and rewatching it, you know, and I had that
[00:02:31] like, man, I sounded stupid. I looked at you like, who's going to even reply to this thing, you know? And, and I remember, uh, connecting with, uh, a guy that's been a mentor of mine, his name is Brian Shulman. Uh, he back then was kind of known as the godfather of LinkedIn. He, one of the original creators and OG video guy, he held, you know, the longest, uh, live stream was with. Was like multiple hours back then. And, and he had these different initiatives. One of them was called what's good Wednesday. And it was literally, he did a video and just said, [00:03:00] Hey, share what's good on Wednesday.
[00:03:01] And I was like, wow, how cool is that? He's getting people engaged. Maybe I could do something like this and get our associates engaged. And. And then I, you know, got up the courage to reach out to the guy. I was like, man, I'm seeing this guy. He's kind of like a celebrity to me because there wasn't really many people creating on LinkedIn back then.
[00:03:17] It was like him and a few other people. And so I reached out to him. I was traveling, I was up in Boston and I remember he got on a FaceTime call with me. He's very generous with his time. And he just said, Hey, share, tell me your story and journey. And so I kind of shared. My actual backstory, which was a lot of adversity growing up, poor beaten by police, almost died in a car accident and stung by 50 plus B.
[00:03:40] I mean, I went through the ringer, you know, as, uh, my life was kind of unfolding. And when I shared that with him, he said, if you start, Sharing people, the things that you share with me. And if you start sharing your knowledge on this platform, one day, you're going to have a brand bigger than me. And for some reason, he said that I got goosebumps and I [00:04:00] just believed him.
[00:04:00] You know, I believe the guy and you know, and really it took about a year and a half later, I actually surpassed his brand on my audience grew larger than his. And I launched a
[00:04:10] podcast and. January 1st of 2020. And you fast forward now four and a half years later, four and a half years later, we're in 75 plus countries.
[00:04:18] And that whole brand was built because of LinkedIn. And there's just so many incredible things, partnerships and business relationships, and I'm doing business internationally now. And all of that has resulted from showing up on LinkedIn and, you know, deciding to, uh, despite how I felt, you know, put out the videos and despite how, uh, I didn't think I was creating impact.
[00:04:42] And I just said, it was really something he said to me, Dave, where he said, just try to inspire one person a day, take the pressure off yourself. Don't go try to impact everybody and conquer the whole world. And when you can do that, it really does take the pressure off yourself. And so I got consistent and, you know, now I've built a [00:05:00] pretty large audience there and, uh, that encouraged me to. launch the newsletter, um, about a year and a half ago, I was saying, you know what? There's gotta be a way to reach more of my audience because, you know, truth be told, it doesn't matter what platform you're on, but not all of your followers or all of your audience are seeing your stuff. And some people don't consume text. Just text only post or just video posts or just polls. And they need kind of a mixed media opportunity. And so I said, you know what, I've got a podcast called blaze your own trail. My company's blaze your own trail consulting. Like, let me give people some tips, some trailblazing tips that I've learned on my journey, and let me start doing some storytelling and, and then maybe have some call to actions and see if this adds value.
[00:05:49] And when I launched, I mean, I, I think I. My first edition, I picked up, uh, almost 10, 000, uh, subscribers, like when I first launched, but, but you
[00:05:58] have to understand, and [00:06:00] again, we're going to get into strategy and kind of the analytics side and the data side of things,
[00:06:05] but, you know, the larger the audience you have. When you launch, you're going to pick up a larger subscriber base. It just makes sense because you're putting it out in front of a ton of people. And what most people don't understand is when you first launch that first edition, it actually goes out to all of your followers, you know, inbox, and it gives them all the notifications.
[00:06:27] So that when you launch, it should be strategic. You should have a decent enough audience to where, you know, you can build up some momentum early on the front end, if that
[00:06:37] Dave Polykoff (2): Well, that's, well, we're going to get into that because yeah, I think that's something that people really don't understand about specifically LinkedIn newsletters is the value
[00:06:46] behind that kind of distribution. Um, but I love everything you were saying in terms of just like. you started showing up and that was like the, you know, the minimum that you, you required from yourself was just [00:07:00] show up and speak your
[00:07:01] truth.
[00:07:02] Speak your, speak your story. And that's, that's very difficult for a lot of people. You know, to, like you said, am I adding value to people? Do people care about what I'm, what I'm saying? Um, and a lot of times it's hard for people to, to know if that's happening. If people aren't actively liking or sharing their content, they think, Oh, no one cares about my content, but,
[00:07:21] Jordan Mendoza: Yeah. And that was, that was the turn Dave, right?
[00:07:24] Because people started caring and people started commenting and engaging and posts started taking off and videos would, and things would start to go viral. And then I had to, cause I started getting people reach out. They're like, how did you do this? Like you're consistently, everything you do is I'm like, well, that's a great question.
[00:07:41] Let me reverse engineer this. And that's essentially what turned into
[00:07:44] my first coaching program is like, I had to literally look back and see, because of course I did something like, you know, I did stuff to my profile. I, I thought about the content, you know, there was strategy behind it. I just didn't know I had built a strategy until I went back and, you know, hindsight's always 20, [00:08:00] 20.
[00:08:00] Right. And so that's kind of how my first
[00:08:02] coaching offers were born.
[00:08:04] Dave Polykoff (2): So let's start getting into that because I know that's, that's what our audience is here today for is they want to kind of replicate your success in a way, in the sense of they want to start showing up and publishing, uh, potentially a newsletter through LinkedIn to be able to convert. Those eyeballs into to clients or just, you know, grow some, uh, industry clout, authority, awareness, and, you know, that can show its head in other ways to, um, you mentioned that you already had kind of an active audience.
[00:08:40] On LinkedIn, you were showing up consistently and publishing posts, um, individual posts that were garnishing an audience. And then you had a moment where you wanted to then translate that into a newsletter. Talk us through that moment. Why have you seen other people publishing newsletters? [00:09:00] Why did you make the decision to do that on LinkedIn specifically versus, you know, there are other newsletter platforms out there, um, that are kind of more popular, they have a lot of bit more tools and such that you can use through it.
[00:09:14] So what was the decision to start the newsletter and then why did you decide to choose
[00:09:18] LinkedIn specifically? And
[00:09:21] Jordan Mendoza: the decision to start it was. Uh, I think I mentioned earlier, I wanted to reach more people. I knew that post, you know, uh, algorithms change all the time, right? And your content can't get in front of everybody. And so when I saw that LinkedIn had this new feature, I remembered that I had written one previous article before and, and they were called LinkedIn pulse.
[00:09:42] And I think still in the URL, when you publish, it still has LinkedIn pulse in there on the backend, but, and so I wrote this one article and that one article, Performed really, really well, like people really, uh, enjoyed it and it, it got, I don't know. Couple thousand like engagement pieces, like likes and [00:10:00] tons of hundreds and hundreds of comments.
[00:10:02] And so I, I just put myself back into how I felt about writing that and storytelling and the impact that it had on people and the results that it was getting for people saying, wow, this is helpful. I can apply these tips in my job and things like that. And I said, man, how cool would it be if I could replicate that process over and over and over again, as often as I want to do it.
[00:10:25] Right. Because that's the beautiful thing about a newsletter is you have a captive audience until you don't, you know, so, you know, when you launch, you're going to build some audience and it's their decision of whether they're going to stick around and stay a subscriber or not, but you've got to earn that every single time.
[00:10:43] And the way that I knew I could show up is I have. Tons of lessons, tons of stories, tons of tips, and if I can, you know, decipher that into a short one to two minute read that's easily consumable for people, that has a call to action, that that would get that [00:11:00] job done of reaching the people I didn't think I could reach anymore.
[00:11:04] Dave Polykoff (2): then, so when you decided, all right, I want to launch a newsletter specifically, had you even considered using other
[00:11:12] newsletter systems or you knew, okay, I already
[00:11:14] Jordan Mendoza: Not really, because now, I mean, I already had the audience so it was kind of, it was kind of an easy thing. and and I do have another, you know, uh, I send stuff to my email list and that's, you know, a couple thousand people, but I just said, Hey, if, if, if this is my audience size and if I know what I know about what happens when you launch that it's going to go to all of them, the, the chance of me picking up. Uh, a high subscriber base and if I can stay consistent to grow, that was very, very likely. I mean, I think the odds were really in my favor and, uh, once I found out of course that it, every time you distribute the newsletter as well, it not only goes and hit a notification pops up on LinkedIn, but it also sends them an email. So I, in fact, was, uh, [00:12:00] emailing them as well. So now if you think about it, my newsletter goes out every, um, every single week on Monday and it goes out to 18, 000 email inboxes and LinkedIn notifications every time I hit publish. And so that makes me want to
[00:12:17] do what? Continue to publish because the audience continues to grow as
[00:12:21] it gives me more opportunity to build authority, more opportunity to get to know my audience, introduce other people in through the content.
[00:12:29] If there's collaborations, which we can talk about because that's really cool to do. And then I've now built multiple ways to how I'm monetizing it because, uh, Dave, Would you like to be in front of 18, 000 email, uh, inboxes, um, would that, would that add value to what you're doing in your business?
[00:12:48] Probably. Right. And so now I
[00:12:50] actually sell sponsorship spots for each edition that I've monetized. Right. Cause we're going to get into the monetization, but that's just kind of one little pro tip [00:13:00] as you build it out. You now have an asset folks. You have a vehicle that you can use to get people visibility and you can charge for that.
[00:13:09] Dave Polykoff (2): Yeah. Yeah. Cause I want to like for our audience, who's thinking about, you know, maybe they're active on social media and they want to look for the next channel to introduce and they're thinking, okay, maybe newsletter is that channel. Um, you know, traditionally there's things like sub stack and there's a new one that I use beehive and, and the like that these are separate systems off of LinkedIn where you can run your, your newsletter.
[00:13:34] Deciding on should I run a newsletter and then should I start, should I use one of those third-party systems or should I use LinkedIn specifically, what you're saying here is, all right, if you're already investing your time and growing your audience on LinkedIn, it then kind of plays an additional value in helping you grow your newsletter subscribers because of things you're saying, where every time you publish a a [00:14:00] post, it's notifying them.
[00:14:01] So it's almost like. You know, one kind of grows the other, um, and your subscriber base kind of grows organically along with like your organic content as well. So I guess one of the things for, for our audiences, all right, if you're thinking about growing a newsletter, you're already active on, on LinkedIn, not to say that you can't start a newsletter off of LinkedIn in the future, but maybe a good start, especially I think, because a good start would be to start on LinkedIn, but also, uh, for the reasons you mentioned, I think another reason is because.
[00:14:33] The lift to learn how to start one and to publish on LinkedIn is so much easier than learning a completely separate tool.
[00:14:41] Um, and how that all process works. So let's get into, okay, you've decided I'm going to start, uh, a newsletter on LinkedIn. What are the first steps for someone, you know, our audience member to say, to actually start and
[00:14:52] create a newsletter.
[00:14:54] Jordan Mendoza: Yeah. Well, I think it's the function of how to actually create it, right? Because a [00:15:00] lot of people get lost because LinkedIn, for whatever reason, has made it very difficult for people to figure out how to actually do it. So I'm going to just give you guys a visual. If you're, if you pull up LinkedIn and you can pause this and then go pull up LinkedIn and get there, right?
[00:15:14] So if you pull up LinkedIn and you're on your profile where it says to start a post, okay, right under that, it says, Uh, new published newsletter or publish article. You have to actually click publish article. Okay. Now here's where it gets a little tricky because you think I click publish article. So now it's going to publish an article, but that's not the case.
[00:15:35] There's the ability. Once you're in the article publishing section where you've got to click three dots, and then you have to now select create news, LinkedIn newsletter. Okay. So again, I wanted to give that walkthrough and some of you will probably still get lost and just reach out to me. He'll, he'll probably put my info on the show notes if you want me to help you.
[00:15:57] But if you get stuck, it's because it's [00:16:00] complicated. If you make it through congratulations, and that's how you. Now, once you hit create, that's only where it begins because now you've got to decide, okay, what's my title name? And, and, and, uh, you know, spoiler alert. They don't give you many characters. So trailblazing tips is what it was.
[00:16:18] It's on brand for me. Does that make sense? So think about something on brand that when people read, they can identify with it. Okay, that's what your newsletter title should be. Um, it, it might, shouldn't maybe be, you know, Jordan's newsletter. Like, that probably wouldn't, you know, bring a lot of people in, you know. Um, and then you have to
[00:16:37] write, you know, your description for the newsletter, which again, they don't give you many characters. I think maybe close to, uh, 200 to write out a description. You pick your cadence, which is, am I going to show up weekly, bi weekly, monthly, so on and so forth. You upload your logo for the newsletter.
[00:16:51] It will give you the dimensions and sizes. So you have to have a nice graphic for that. And then there'll also be kind of a logo for the [00:17:00] newsletter as well. So, you know, there are some assets that you'll need to create in order to launch. You don't have to have them to launch, but just understand that once you create it, it will essentially be.
[00:17:10] Be searchable. And when people find your profile, it'll show your newsletter without a logo and with zero subscribers. And that may not be the best move. So I would say, get
[00:17:21] your ducks in a row, have your assets created. Of course, go look at the dimensions, but that's how you get one started. Right. And so that's, again, there's a lot of things you need to do in order to get to that point now. Once you have started it, which is like the creation standpoint. Now it's going to basically take you to the newsletter area, which again, you're going to upload your, your cover photo. You, you have the ability to write, you know, a headline text for each newsletter, just like you would see in a article or something like that.
[00:17:51] And then you have. The, the body of the post where you can add in text, uh, images, links, call to actions. Um, I always [00:18:00] recommend you put in about the author section and we'll, I'll send you, Dave, my newsletter. If they want to see kind of an example, they can just copy that example, but you have that in every section because it enables you to build.
[00:18:10] Backlink and point people to certain places, right? So my name points them back to my LinkedIn profile, my website takes them to my website. And so it gives you the ability just like articles do to backlink different places. And so as you're thinking about the content, you should think about the beginning and the end.
[00:18:29] So here's the value I want to give, and here's what I want them to do next. And that should be how you build out the, what the content for your newsletter.
[00:18:37] Dave Polykoff (2): Yeah. I love that. Yeah. I, I, I call that bottom section, the, uh, the, the wire, which I think it's called, uh, but W Y R, uh, when you're ready. Um, ways I can
[00:18:51] help
[00:18:52] Jordan Mendoza: There we
[00:18:53] Dave Polykoff (2): W I C H and front in that section list out all, you know, your, your free assets, your, [00:19:00] um, you know, your paid digital
[00:19:01] products, your book of calls and all that
[00:19:04] Jordan Mendoza: sponsors, right? That's where your sponsors are going to go. If you have a, someone that sponsored that
[00:19:08] particular edition. And again, you, what's nice about people that sponsors, they also get a link, right? So to go to where they are, which gets in front of whatever your newsletter size is, right? So always be thinking outside the box.
[00:19:20] And I hadn't heard of anyone that had ever done that. I've done that and I said, well, I'm going to do it. And a lot of people are like, I want to be in front of that many people and it's worth it if they just get one conversion, it pays for the investment.
[00:19:34] Hey, Dave here... obviously, but I want to just pause this episode real quick and say, thank you so much for tuning in to this episode of Brand Science. I hope that you're getting as much value as a viewer or listener as I've gotten as a host.
[00:19:49] And if you are getting value from this episode, It must mean that you enjoy nerding out on all things personal branding, content creation, and strategy, which means you're my type of [00:20:00] person. So I want to connect. Once you're done this episode, go down to the show notes where you'll find my LinkedIn profile. Click on that link, head over to my profile and send me a request. When you send the request, there'll be that little pop-up that comes up, that you can add a note in the request.
[00:20:17] Just tell me that you found me from a brand science episode so I know that you are one of those loyal, awesome listeners of mine. And let's connect and learn together. Anyway, just want to say, love you. Thanks for listening. Let's connect on LinkedIn and a yeah. Back to the episode.
[00:20:33] Dave Polykoff (2): so we know how we to actually physically create a newsletter, but what should we be thinking about when it comes to like the premise of a newsletter? Right. Like what, what are we, what are we saying in. What are we showing up every week or bi
[00:20:49] monthly with value?
[00:20:52] What are we including in that? And you, we mentioned like titles and
[00:20:57] thumbnails and all that kind of stuff, like the branding behind [00:21:00] it. How should we be conceptualizing like our approach and strategy
[00:21:03] of the newsletter overall?
[00:21:04] Jordan Mendoza: Yeah. So, I mean, I, I use a very simple framework and it's what I teach to all my clients that I work with as well. And, you know, your newsletter, I, I always welcome the audience. So I always say, Hey, Trailblazers, right? The exclamation point. So I'm welcoming them. I want it to be fun. I want it to be something that they want to invest in reading, if that makes sense.
[00:21:23] And then from there, I go into a little bit of storytelling. Uh, and then from there I'll go into, you know, A few tips that can help them on their journey. And then from there I'll, I'll have, you know, extra resources, the things that you mentioned earlier that you have towards the bottom, right? So I keep it very short and simple, or, you know, the kiss factor, keep it simple, stupid. You want it to be, uh, Easily consumable. So the, when I'm writing it one line sentences, uh, I've noticed it converts way higher than chunk paragraphs. People don't want to invest the time, uh, if they see that. And so your writing style should be [00:22:00] the way that you'd want to consume it as well, which most people will invest, uh, in things that look easy. Uh, and so you keep it short and simple. You give maybe, uh, Telling a story, you give value. I mean, there's even opportunity here. If you think about it this way, like, Hey, if if I'm going to do a monthly newsletter, three additions are going to be all value with CTAs. And then the last one is, is going to be maybe a testimonial and then, uh, a really strong call to action that you've got five spots left for whatever you've got, does that make sense?
[00:22:29] Because you've given value, you've over delivered on it. And again, it's just giving you a way to get in front of more people than you would. Just by putting out your daily posts that you're going to put out
[00:22:43] Dave Polykoff (2): Right. And so what I, what I'm hearing is at the top, you kind of have to eat your vegetables before the dessert here, right? So at the top of the
[00:22:52] newsletter,
[00:22:53] You are, you are being friendly, introducing them kind of into your universe with a, you know, [00:23:00] welcome back type of thing, then you're giving them. You know, the vegetables, this
[00:23:04] is the value, the high protein stuff.
[00:23:07] And then they go, wow, this was so incredible. And then it sounds like sometimes you even throw in additionally,
[00:23:15] you'll throw in like, yeah, so like, a testimonial too. so like you know, I know what I'm talking about. Other people understand that I know what I'm talking about. And then, Hey, if you want to be like this person, you're in
[00:23:29] that kind of bottom wire, rich, if you will. And you're, you're using kind of that template
[00:23:34] each time.
[00:23:35] Jordan Mendoza: yeah, I'm using the, using the template each time.
[00:23:37] and it's just insert whatever the goal, the goal is. Right. If I'm helping them with mindset, if I'm helping them with social media growth or maybe podcasting. Right. So it just depends. We're just going to insert, but the framework's going to be the same.
[00:23:49] And I think the most fun that I had was I wrote a LinkedIn newsletter about how to, um, Optimize, uh, launch and grow a LinkedIn newsletter with the CTA to a [00:24:00] LinkedIn newsletter class, and that's converted a bunch of people that
[00:24:03] have signed up for the class. But I mean, it was like, right again. So anybody listening to this, think about your vertical on what you could teach that could get them to go to the thing that you teach.
[00:24:12] Right. And it's, and it's just, it's, I don't want to say it's as simple as that, because again, there is a lot of strategy that goes behind it. And there's a lot of. Yeah.
[00:24:26] Dave Polykoff (2): I think is important is that you kind of follow the same structure for each newsletter. So it's not like you're coming in and trying to reinvent the wheel every time you want to post. And I think that's important for our audience because when they think about writing a newsletter, they might feel it's very overwhelming and they have to write this novel every time that they go to create a new newsletter, but really, if you kind of structure it, it's very simple.
[00:24:48] And templatize it, you know, it, it feels templated to you, but to the audience, if they're seeing it every two weeks. Yeah. Um, and so I think one of the big [00:25:00] issues that we all face is the ideation phase of like, what to actually talk about. How do you come up with the topics that you want to include as the vegetables, as the
[00:25:11] value.
[00:25:12] Jordan Mendoza: Yeah. So that for me is pretty fun. So sometimes it's centered around, you know, an initiative, right? If I have, uh, a new cohort or something, I want to fill, then the value is going to be around some of the, Nuggets that are inside of that. And so that's what the additions are going to be. Right. And so it's like, Hey, wow, I got a lot of value on this.
[00:25:33] I got a lot of value on this. I got a lot of value on this. And then it's going to point to the main. thing. Does that make sense? And so again, it's, it's just another way of the same thing. I would say, if you're building a content strategy, it should be value, value, value, value. And then you have some type of CTA or an ask on the fifth day, right?
[00:25:51] It's that same, same structure, but just kind of built within a newsletter that gets them to the place that you want them to go. So again, if you [00:26:00] have, You know, every business owner, you should have revenue goals, right? And you should know that, Hey, in order to hit these revenue goals, I need to get hit these certain metrics.
[00:26:08] And so you have to have revenue generating activities that get you to those metrics. And the newsletter is no different. It's, I look at it as another revenue generating activity that's outside of the other ones that I'm already doing.
[00:26:22] Dave Polykoff (2): So you correct me if I'm wrong, you're looking at what is kind of the call to action goal that you want from the post? Where do you want them
[00:26:32] to either lead
[00:26:33] Jordan Mendoza: Yeah, it could be to a podcast I was on as a guest. Right. And so I take content from
[00:26:38] that. I will rewrite it, storytelling, and then that's to drive traffic maybe so that they go listen to that, or then they get more coaching on me and more. And does that make sense? And it gets them more into my ecosystem, which brings them back over to want to take Some of the actions that could be an example.
[00:26:54] It could be, uh, like you said,
[00:26:56] um, I've got, you know, this product and I want to [00:27:00] help them help kind of solve their problems through the content and then show them, Hey, if you get stuck, here's how I can help you, you know, get the rest of the way there.
[00:27:08] Dave Polykoff (2): Okay. So yeah, looking for the topics for your post, look at what already the long form content, you might already have YouTube videos. Um, podcast episodes or just like assets you have, maybe you have a master class or a lead magnet and your goal is, I want to lead through this newsletter. I want to lead them to that, those long form pieces, the lead magnets and such. So then now you're evaluating, okay, what is that master class about? What does that lead magnet about? What is that YouTube video about? And you're distilling the nuggets down into a story format and you're
[00:27:44] putting that as your newsletter.
[00:27:45] Jordan Mendoza: Yep.
[00:27:46] Dave Polykoff (2): Yeah, perfect.
[00:27:47] Okay. All right. So we, we have an active newsletter. Um, we're, we're publishing. What are some of the, is there kind of like tips and tricks of like promoting it, getting people to see it, I know LinkedIn does some of that for you, but
[00:27:59] [00:28:00] like, how are you, is it set it and forget it? Like, what are you
[00:28:03] doing after you
[00:28:04] Jordan Mendoza: Yeah. Definitely Definitely not set it. Forget it. That's for sure. So what's cool is every time you publish a new edition, uh, it actually takes the newsletter and it puts it into a post, which you now type more information that goes out to potentially new subscribers and new followers and new audience in addition to your followers in addition to your connections, if that makes sense.
[00:28:27] So that is kind of like the initial PR push every time you publish. You have that push that goes out. Okay. And then, so what I do is I have built communities, you know, whether that's um, broadcast channels, whether that's, uh, Facebook groups and other places where I have other communities where I talk about LinkedIn. And so I also go to those platforms and I will share the link and say, Hey, I just dropped the latest LinkedIn newsletter. Like I have a whole Facebook group and it's literally people that all they want to do is learn about LinkedIn. So of course my [00:29:00] newsletter, they need to consume that because.
[00:29:02] Dave Polykoff (2): is a group of you created.
[00:29:03] Jordan Mendoza: Exactly. A group that I have created and I have another group that's about social media when LinkedIn is part of social media. So it'll go there. Does that make sense? So, um, I say, wherever you have influence, that's who should see it. Right. And that's where you should go put it. And I think
[00:29:18] a lot of people do the set it and forget it.
[00:29:20] And they're wondering why there's no growth and why no one's, there's no conversions and it's because, well, what did you do to get it in front of more people? And I think you brought up an interesting point earlier about a lead magnet. So, um, a lot of people that watch or listen to this, Dave, probably have a lead magnet that helps them build their traditional email list.
[00:29:40] So what if your CTA on LinkedIn was to drive traffic to that lead magnet, and now you get them into your other ecosystem, which you can now nurture those relationships. Does that make sense?
[00:29:51] Dave Polykoff (2): Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's really, it's a funnel if you will. Right. Like you're, you're,
[00:29:56] you have to map out what that funnel looks like and see what the end [00:30:00] result is, which for many of us, if you're a coach consultant is probably like book a strategy call or, you know, some type of thing. Right. Um, if you're a course creator or something, maybe it's to actually purchase the course, but that's the
[00:30:10] end result you
[00:30:11] Jordan Mendoza: Buy your book, right?
[00:30:12] Listen to your podcast, right? Again, insert whatever that is.
[00:30:16] Dave Polykoff (2): Right. Yeah. And then kind of work backwards of like, okay, what's the step before that? Yeah. That leads them to that. And ultimately it kind of all starts with LinkedIn, posting newsletter, calls to actions at the bottom there that lead them to maybe even like if they download your lead magnet, maybe that puts them into like an email campaign and
[00:30:36] from the email campaign leads to, you know, booking a call.
[00:30:42] Jordan Mendoza: That's it.
[00:30:43] Dave Polykoff (2): So it's great that you have these kind of. Networks that you can tap into to promote the, the newsletter. It sounds like again, one can all kind of build the other two in the sense of like maybe people who [00:31:00] your newsletter, but don't know about your communities, you can
[00:31:03] you can build the community and vice
[00:31:05] Jordan Mendoza: Yeah, it's really, it's an ecosystem, right? and you're leveraging your digital
[00:31:10] ecosystem for, you know, the human ecosystem, you know, and you're getting everybody kind of integrated into it at some point, right? So that way there's cross pollination, there's multiple touch points and, you know, people buy from people they know, like, and trust.
[00:31:25] And the more that they, you can get in front of them and then you can truly add value, the easier it is for them to say yes down the road.
[00:31:32] Dave Polykoff (2): sure. And so you're promoting it, you're getting new eyeballs. What, what kind of growth have you seen? I know you started with a community already, but through these strategies, what kind of growth could maybe the average person expect, you know, we don't want people to come in and expect, to see your kind of immediate growth,
[00:31:52] but for the average, you know, LinkedIn, uh, account, what should we expect in terms
[00:31:58] of results when we start publishing? [00:32:00]
[00:32:00] Jordan Mendoza: Yeah. I mean, based on what I've seen, you know, if you look at your audience size, so, um, if you have creator mode on, which I think everybody should now on LinkedIn, it'll tell you your followers versus, you know, just your connections. And so when you look at your kind of your total audience size, what I've seen just working with clients is typically you're going to convert, you know, 10 to 20 percent of your audience on the first time you publish your first edition.
[00:32:25] Okay. Does that make sense? So if you've got a couple thousand, you might get a couple hundred subscribers, right? And then you, you kind of build, build up from there, but that's been, uh, the standard, I think, you know, the larger, the audience, obviously the, the bigger the growth, because I'm in, I think I've published 17 or 18 additions in the last, you know, Seven or 18 months.
[00:32:45] And I've gotten to 18, 000. So again, I think mine might be a little different because I've got 60, 000 plus followers at the time, you know, that I launched. And so it went out to a larger group of people, if that makes sense. And every time that I publish a new [00:33:00] one, it's also going to a larger group of people, so I'm, I can pick up subscribers.
[00:33:05] And so it is advantageous to obviously grow your audience and have the strategies around growing, because as you grow, everything will grow.
[00:33:14] Dave Polykoff (2): we're publishing and you mentioned you publish once a month. Do
[00:33:18] you advise that that's probably no, I'm doing once a week now, I was doing once a month now now I'm doing once a week? Yep. Okay.
[00:33:25] Um, a significant, you know, like uptick in engagement since I changed my cadence to once a week.
[00:33:33] interesting. Yeah. Yeah. I think for our audience, who's kind of. Content creation can be kind of a, a tough task for them, you
[00:33:42] know, start with whatever you're comfortable
[00:33:44] Jordan Mendoza: A hundred percent. Yeah. Start, start with what you can actually do, you know? So if it's like bi
[00:33:49] monthly, then by all means, do it. But that, you know, if it's monthly, if it's bi weekly, yeah. Don't take off, you know, you know, too much. Um, now again, it doesn't mean you can't go in and edit your cadence because you can [00:34:00] a hundred percent do that.
[00:34:01] But you know, it does definitely does suck when you commit to something and then you, you can't actually stick to it. So
[00:34:07] Dave Polykoff (2): Oh, trust me.
[00:34:08] Jordan Mendoza: say just,
[00:34:09] Dave Polykoff (2): I was shooting for two podcasts a week earlier, uh, when I, when I first launched this and quickly realized one, one is enough for now.
[00:34:17] Um, but yeah, we'll work our way up. Um, so, okay. So we have an active newsletter, we're promoting it because we can't just set it and forget it. LinkedIn does some of that, uh, there's some promotion for us, but really we need to be kind of promoting this.
[00:34:34] And now the
[00:34:34] value again, going back to the purpose of the newsletter, it has some brand equity aspects to it. But at the end of the day, we really are doing it because we want to be able to convert that, those eyeballs into, uh, leads and clients
[00:34:50] and, and business
[00:34:52] Jordan Mendoza: and books and yeah, all of it. Right. Yeah. Whatever their goal is for
[00:34:55] Dave Polykoff (2): Yeah. Yeah. So. You, we've talked about this before, but that bottom section, [00:35:00] that's, that's kind of the key to that all is you've captured their attention.
[00:35:05] You've shown value, you've shown that you know what you're talking about, and now it's diverting it to the next part. Step in your funnel.
[00:35:14] How are you approaching that from like a strategic standpoint? Is that templated or do you
[00:35:19] customize that per post?
[00:35:21] Jordan Mendoza: Yeah. So, um, for the most part, that bottom section is templated. Uh, it just, it makes it consistent. It makes, it gives people that they can see, Ooh, it's, it's there again. Okay. And maybe this time I'll click on it. Right. It's still there, you know, but, um,
[00:35:35] and, but just keeping that consistent now, of course, where it changes is when, you know, if I do have a sponsor for that particular edition, there is going to be a logo and there's going to be, you know, a CTA that's in there.
[00:35:47] And so I might. On that one, I'll typically take out a CTA to me and it'll just be positioned for that sponsor, if that makes sense. Cause I want to give them the value of that real estate.
[00:35:58] Dave Polykoff (2): got
[00:35:59] it.
[00:35:59] Jordan Mendoza: still have the, [00:36:00] about the author, but my
[00:36:00] CTAs will be gone.
[00:36:02] Dave Polykoff (2): if you don't it's your, you're basically the sponsor.
[00:36:04] Jordan Mendoza: Yep. I am. Yep. it's like, Hey, stuck on the entrepreneurship trail, book a call below book a free 30 minute call. Right? So I'm little, I'm telling him, Hey, I realized that you might be stuck because everybody gets stuck, but go ahead and book a call. And then of course, what's, what's nice. And again, if you have your systems and processes dialed in on the backend, Anyone that books a call with you should also now be on your CRM and on your list. Does that make sense? And tagged appropriately. And so again, that those are things that having, you know, having this stuff in there is one thing, but making sure the backend is truly set up and dialed in so you can do all the things that you want to do to continue nurturing and building relationships, that's just as important. And that usually is set up before a lot of this stuff is even set up. And
[00:36:50] Dave Polykoff (2): So, so the, the mindset here is that this long form newsletter. Is to really kind of win hearts and minds. And then that [00:37:00] just gets the attention and directs them to the thing that's going to win wallets because you have to kind of get them into like, you
[00:37:07] know, your, your sales funnel at that point.
[00:37:09] Jordan Mendoza: don't forget folks, if you're trying to build your personal brand, your newsletter ranks in Google, meaning it's going to help your online presence. It's going to help you rank in Google. Like if you go to Google and you type in, you know, Jordan Mendoza, LinkedIn, I have all the real estate, but I've been publishing content there since 2019.
[00:37:27] Right. But. But that helps you. And so that helps you rank and it helps with your digital footprint and all of that. So the more content you publish and the more opportunities you have truly to be found on platform and off platform.
[00:37:41] Dave Polykoff (2): Sure. That's a little bit, uh, level 200 stuff here, but it sounds like what you're saying is your LinkedIn newsletter. Can also show up if someone was, so if you write a newsletter about, you know, um, how to do your business taxes, [00:38:00] uh, or whatnot, if someone types that into Google, in theory, your
[00:38:04] newsletter can show up in the search
[00:38:06] Jordan Mendoza: 100%. Yep,
[00:38:07] Dave Polykoff (2): So granted that, you know, that's a lot of SEO search engine optimization stuff to think about in a way. And I know that's a little bit level 200, but you know, if you just kind of use the right keywords, if you're thinking about it strategically from a, from a title perspective of the newsletter, what would someone search in Google to answer this question?
[00:38:26] Maybe and stuff like that. There is a by product
[00:38:29] that can happen where you can get some
[00:38:31] Jordan Mendoza: 100%. It's not happening overnight, but it can uh, over
[00:38:35] time, right? Over time, it's gonna increase everything that you're doing.
[00:38:38] Dave Polykoff (2): Yeah. Um, so has there been, besides. You know, the garnishing attention and then directing that attention to wherever you want to send them, whether it's a lead magnet or another community or you know, purchasing your course or, whatnot. Um, I know, I want to get into kind of the [00:39:00] sponsorship side of things too, but have you seen kind of a by product result of having this newsletter that maybe isn't Quantifiable, if you will, that, you know, people are maybe saying, Hey, are just noticing that you are investing more into your brand.
[00:39:13] And that's kind of helping in other avenues of your, of your personal brand as well.
[00:39:17] Jordan Mendoza: Yeah, I mean, it definitely creates more visibility, you know, because again, I think the unique thing about it is there, it just gives, People, multiple touch points. So not only do they get a notification that they can choose to click on or not, which, you know, they have that choice, but it also gets delivered into another place like on their phone or their laptop, where now they can read it.
[00:39:41] And here's the, here's the other kicker. Anything that you have linked. In that newsletter is clickable in their email as well. So if you, if you think about it, you have a couple of different opportunities, whether they read the post, they got delivered to their LinkedIn inbox, or they went to their email.
[00:39:59] You have a [00:40:00] few different opportunities for those, you know, potential conversions. But from an authority standpoint, yeah, I get a lot more feedback now. I'm loving your additions. I love that they're more consistent and that is helping the, um, the overall Each one consistently gets, if that makes sense. So, so those
[00:40:18] increase over time.
[00:40:19] And as that number increases, you know, conversions happen when more people see it and more people decide to take action.
[00:40:26] Dave Polykoff (2): Yeah. Well, speaking of people viewing your newsletter, obviously that then. Attracts advertisers that go, well, we want some of these eyeballs as well. And
[00:40:36] Jordan Mendoza: A hundred
[00:40:37] Dave Polykoff (2): mentioned a couple of times in terms of sponsorships. So people are audiences publishing consistently. We're getting a growth in terms of viewership and subscript subscribers.
[00:40:47] That's now getting the attention of people who want to get, um, you know, involved in that. What was, what's kind of step one? Are you going out to potential? Um, you know, [00:41:00] advertisers, are they coming to you? Like how, how's the average person able to kind of handle getting, um, those
[00:41:05] advertisers in their, their newsletter?
[00:41:07] Right.
[00:41:09] Jordan Mendoza: things I would think about before you try to, you know, sell a slot for sponsorship. And that is, you know, it is the audience that's going to consume this, a potential person that's going to invest in that product or service. Like, that should be your first thing, right? Because again, uh, I would, me having, you know, like, uh, A dinner, like a restaurant or something like wouldn't probably make sense for me, like a restaurant in Chicago, like on my sponsor, probably wouldn't make sense for them.
[00:41:37] Right. And because, you know, the chance of there being somebody in my network that reads my newsletter, that lives in there, then goes there, it's probably not going to happen. So again, that's what I'm saying is just think about it before you do it. And so like, I want to partner, like one example is I had a company that they do. Um, LinkedIn, you know, lead gen automation. They have a platform that helps with that. [00:42:00] Well, that can directly help any of my clients and it can help directly help my audience because I don't have a software that does that, but I do everything in between them needing that software, if that makes sense. So it's a natural evolution for my audience to get that, especially if they're listening to what I'm teaching them and they've done it. Okay. So that to me is a perfect sponsorship. And so that was a great partnership for them to be on. Does that make sense?
[00:42:26] Dave Polykoff (2): Yeah. It's complimentary.
[00:42:28] Jordan Mendoza: A hundred
[00:42:28] percent.
[00:42:29] Dave Polykoff (2): Um, and so are they, they
[00:42:32] coming to you? Does LinkedIn
[00:42:34] Jordan Mendoza: So, so no, so the, I've, the ones that I've actually gotten, I've gone out and done my own outreach. And, and again, the. You have to do research before you do outreach. And so I knew because the guy who has the company, we're also coauthors in a book. So we knew each other and I said, Hey, like this would be a great opportunity to get you in front of, I think it was a time at 16, 000 people.
[00:42:57] And he's like, yeah, of course. What's it look like? [00:43:00] And, oh, just one time. Perfect. And it was a, it was a no, no brainer, right? He's pay a one time cost. And what's nice is that, uh, that, um, Newsletter, as long as LinkedIn goes away, it's evergreen, meaning people can find it years and years down the road and they could potentially click and get to their product or service.
[00:43:18] So again, uh, when you're pricing yourself, don't undervalue yourself because if you have an active audience and if it is the right fit There's there's a ton of value there and I, I often find people charging way too little and that's something I coach my clients on is really charging what you're worth and thinking about what it took you to build the asset that you're giving them as a mode of transportation to get to their goals.
[00:43:43] Dave Polykoff (2): Sure. Well, I know I don't, I don't want you to have to give away the cow here, but like for what are people typically asking that is, that is undervaluing their newsletter and And what multiples of that do you think
[00:43:55] they should really be focused on?
[00:43:57] Jordan Mendoza: Yeah, I mean, I, I would say if you did, you know, [00:44:00] if, well, and again, there's a lot of data that goes in here. You gotta, we gotta know how big your newsletter is. We gotta know how, what, how many views your average one is reading, right? Because we got to calculate all of that stuff. So I, I would say it's not an easy, you know, number to spit out.
[00:44:15] And it's going to be different for every creator because, you know, not everyone's going to launch and get, you know, 10, 000 views. People, if that makes sense. So you got to start somewhere.
[00:44:24] But, but what I, what I mean by undervaluing is like knowing what the value for a conversion means to them is important, right?
[00:44:32] Because again, you might charge someone a hundred bucks for a feature and you, you, let's say you get 500 views on each newsletter. Um, that's out of that 500, if one of them did it and their average value is 50,000 like you just really shortchange yourself. Does that make sense? So again,
[00:44:49] that's why I say it's, it's, it's not cut and dry.
[00:44:52] You have to understand, you know, what the value of your newsletter is worth. And you have to understand what the value of they're going to make off of [00:45:00] a conversion. And then you've got to figure out what that number looks like.
[00:45:03] Dave Polykoff (2): sure. So it sounds like, you know, having a newsletter, super valuable, having a newsletter on LinkedIn, very valuable, especially if you're already
[00:45:16] Jordan Mendoza: Creating content.
[00:45:18] Dave Polykoff (2): LinkedIn, right?
[00:45:18] Yeah. Cause one supports the other, um, and the goal of a newsletter. There are some qualitative, um, benefits in terms of just overall brand equity and awareness and such, but you know, kind of what we're all kind of showing up here for is to grow our business.
[00:45:38] And so that can mean lead generation. It could mean linking off to a paid digital asset. It could mean just getting more subscribers to a separate email system. But as we're talking about here, there's monetize your newsletter.
[00:45:53] As a digital asset as well. And so,
[00:45:56] you know, if you're looking at yourself as a business, that's [00:46:00] another revenue stream for you.
[00:46:01] Has that, I mean, we don't have to get into numbers, but like in terms of, you know, uh, monetary fruitfulness, is that become kind of a good
[00:46:11] side product for you?
[00:46:12] Jordan Mendoza: Yeah. And, and I don't offer it, um, a lot really, because again, it's gotta be the ideal fit. So I, I think since I've had the 18 months, I've sold six sponsorship spots for it. But again, those, the ones that I sold, they actually made sense and it, and it ended up being a return for them. And that's, to me, that's what's most important.
[00:46:31] Like I want them to get an ROI for what they're doing and I want it to make sense for what I'm promoting as well.
[00:46:37] Dave Polykoff (2): Yeah. Is there anything else we should be thinking about when it comes to our LinkedIn newsletter to make it
[00:46:43] successful? Love
[00:46:45] Jordan Mendoza: would just say, you know, have fun with it. You know, no one wants to read boring stuff, so make sure that the tonality, you know, uh, A is your voice, um, because, uh, you know, everyone knows with technology and everything that's out there, there's a lot of things that [00:47:00] aren't written by actual people, so you have to make sure that your voice is shining through.
[00:47:05] And again, I have no problem with that. Leveraging technology for ideation and all of that. But yeah, it has to be you and people will tell, people will be able to tell. It's gotta be your stories. It's gotta be your point of view. It's gotta be your actual content. And that's, uh, I think what's going to help you, uh, continue to grow it and continue to build up the subscriber base and, and honestly build your credibility and your authority, which is what all of us want, right?
[00:47:29] We want more visibility. We want more credibility and authority, uh, and this will help you on LinkedIn.
[00:47:34] Dave Polykoff (2): it. Well, what I like to do at the end of the podcast is kind of have this bonus rounds, a little bit of a lightning round of questions for everyone who stuck it out through the entire, uh, podcast. This is kind of your dessert at the end of it. Um, so first question is you talked about, you started to show up on LinkedIn and publish consistently.
[00:47:56] Um, and you saw success, but I'm sure in those early [00:48:00] stages, there were some hurdles and mistakes that you made. So if you could go back to that Jordan years ago and give him one piece of advice on mistakes to avoid, what would be like the number one mistake you would tell him
[00:48:13] to avoid?
[00:48:14] Jordan Mendoza: Um, I would say don't, um, join a bunch of, uh, groups and start sharing your stuff because, because that will slowly die out and it will not be sustainable. So that, that would be, you know, my advice. Because in the beginning, I was in all these different, and it was just like, you can't keep up and then people, you know, and it could frustrate people. Uh, and it just wasn't a good move, but it, and, but I know the attractiveness of it, it is very attractive to be able to see your content moving and things like that. But, um, once that stops, it takes a while to kind of reset everything and you have to, you have to build back up.
[00:48:52] Dave Polykoff (2): Yeah. And to that point too, I know a lot of people are interested in these like engagement groups, if you
[00:48:58] will, like, you know, yeah, you, you [00:49:00] publish something and like you mentioned publishing it into a community. Of like minded
[00:49:04] people that
[00:49:06] you, you
[00:49:07] Jordan Mendoza: Yeah. Yeah. That's going to benefit
[00:49:09] from it. Exactly.
[00:49:09] Dave Polykoff (2): yeah. But to then go into like a group of people who are just there
[00:49:14] just to like,
[00:49:15] Jordan Mendoza: Yeah. And again, I, I made that mistake
[00:49:17] early on and, and I saw what
[00:49:20] happens as a result of it and it took time for me to build back up. Right. Because it's like all the same people and then all of a sudden they're not right. And so it, yeah, it looks really weird and, and yeah, just don't make that mistake.
[00:49:34] Dave Polykoff (2): Yeah. Love it. Um, I guess within LinkedIn, it's been making a lot of. Updates to its platform recently that I think
[00:49:43] even recent, uh, recently they are adding kind of more
[00:49:46] like a tick tock Instagram real
[00:49:48] Jordan Mendoza: Video feed.
[00:49:49] Yep.
[00:49:50] Dave Polykoff (2): What do you see? What's your predictions of where LinkedIn is going? Um, and kind of vesseled into like how this will support personal brands
[00:49:58] over the next, like three to five [00:50:00] years.
[00:50:00] Jordan Mendoza: Yeah, definitely. Vertical video is they are beta testing it right now. I've got some folks. I know it's access and yeah, it essentially is a tick tock feed. So I would say if you haven't started publishing your tick tock or your reels or your Facebook or your shorts. On LinkedIn, start bringing them over now, you know, and start getting more short form video content.
[00:50:22] And I've even seen some longer form. They're, they're testing out some longer form, but a lot of platforms, and again, the algorithms always change, right? TikToks now saying you can upload an hour or more, right? Before it was 10 minutes and everyone thought they were crazy. And now you can do an hour on TikTok so you could do a whole podcast interview, which I'm going to go test because anytime there's a new feature, They actually push that content.
[00:50:44] So that's just kind of a little note to keep in mind if they're pushing a new feature, if they're testing it, then they're pushing it. And so you want to do more of whatever that is. Okay. The other new features that came out that maybe someone, uh, listening, this wouldn't know. Is they recently [00:51:00] just enabled you to feature profile recommendations, licenses, and certifications in your featured section, which is pretty interesting, right?
[00:51:08] So I always suggest that you have one CTA in your featured section. Like mine's always been my newsletter and you gain passive subscribers there. That's just a little pro tip. And now. Since I have the ability to add those recommendations, now I put them there because it gives more social proof and it shows people can just click and see, okay, here's how we help that person.
[00:51:29] Here's how we help that person. And that's going to help people make decisions on whether or not to work with you. So that's just another cool feature that's recent. And the other feature they just rolled out. And so if you don't have a company page for your business. For your podcast or your brand, definitely start creating one because they just now upgraded to where you can do premium company pages.
[00:51:51] And so it helps you with more insights and more leads and things like that. And so again, whenever they release new tools, I always tell my clients like, [00:52:00] get on the train and start doing those things. Uh, because they are going, they're putting more time and resources and efforts into them. And it's going to help you gain more visibility by doing it.
[00:52:10] Dave Polykoff (2): That was, that was a podcast in itself right there. I feel like that was a definitely worth, worth the dessert at the end here. Well, we're going to, we're going to end on that. But before we do, if someone wanted to learn more about you and your system and your, your newsletter,
[00:52:25] where can they go?
[00:52:27] Jordan Mendoza: Yeah, I mean, we'll, we'll make it a super easy. If you just find me on LinkedIn, it's, you know, linkedin. com slash I N slash Jordan. Jay Mendoza. It's pretty easy. Uh, message me, uh, message me on LinkedIn. Uh, let me know. You heard me on, you know, Dave show and, and, uh, if you need help, if you need help with LinkedIn, if you need help starting a newsletter, I'd, I'd love to just learn about what your business does, see if it's a good fit and, and, um, potentially help you out.
[00:52:54] Dave Polykoff (2): Appreciate it, Jordan. This was awesome.
[00:52:56] Jordan Mendoza: My pleasure. Thanks for having me on.
