EP-104: Joseph Diaz: How Instructional Designers Can Network on LinkedIn Without Feeling Gross
👉 Key Takeaways:
Joseph Diaz joins the show to shares his insights on networking on LinkedIn and how to do it effectively without feeling slimy. On this episode, you’ll hear about:
· Engaging with Other People's Content:
Emphasizing the importance of engaging with other people's content through comments.
Discussing the strategy of starting meaningful conversations.
· Curating and Sharing Valuable Resources:
Curating and sharing valuable resources in carousels to spark discussions.
· Benefits of Networking on LinkedIn:
Building connections and finding new opportunities.
Power of commenting on posts and how it can lead to meaningful conversations.
· The Art of Humble Bragging:
How to share accomplishments without sounding like an egotistical jerk.
· Creating Content and Avoiding Burnout:
Tips on maintaining a balance between creating content and avoiding burnout.
· Personal Experiences and Success:
Joseph shares his personal experiences and success in finding job opportunities through networking on LinkedIn.
👉 Mentioned Links:
👉 Recommendations:
📙 My Book
👉 Connect with me:
🙌 Support the Channel!
A tremendous thank you to our sponsors! By supporting them, you support this independent podcast.
IDOL Courses Academy
Use my promo code LUKE to save you 88 dollars off of your enrollment.
Instructional Design Institute
Learn to design meaningful learning experiences in 7-weeks
Brightspace by D2L
Try D2L Brightspace for 30 Days. Get instant access and see for yourself why millions love Brightspace
Transcript:
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:22:05
Luke
Hello learning nerds are welcome on end to the nerdiest podcast you're going to hear today. My name is Dr. Luke Hobson and I'm the host of this show. I'm a senior instructional designer program manager, author, blogger, podcaster and instructor. My purpose is to be able to help you along your instructional design journey, and you can find all the resources that I have for you over at Drlukehobson.com
00:00:22:11 - 00:00:46:10
Luke
Folks, we have a special episode today because today we are going to be hearing from instructional designer and Instructional Design Institute alum, Joseph Diaz. If you don't know Joseph, he has been absolutely crushing it on LinkedIn when it comes to networking, building out a brand and really just meeting and connecting with more people inside of the instructional design space.
00:00:46:14 - 00:01:22:06
Luke
I actually met Joseph because of LinkedIn and he kept on tagging me in these different types of really good posts. And I was like, Who is this guy? And all of a sudden we began to have more conversations. Eventually we have a friendship and we kept on talking more and more and more. And that's why I wanted him to come on this show today to talk more about his best tips and strategies around how do you really use LinkedIn as an instructional designer, whether it comes for networking, thinking more about branding, how to be able to do cold outreaches for people, how to be able to think about different types of topics for content and
00:01:22:06 - 00:01:43:06
Luke
for posts and really everything of sorts. We dove in actually really deep into this conversation today, which is awesome. Not just surface level instructional design usage. We talk more about different types of opportunities are coming up from LinkedIn, who you've been able to connect with over the years, which has been surprising to see who responds back on LinkedIn.
00:01:43:06 - 00:02:03:01
Luke
Unlike with some other different types of social media platforms where maybe they don't connect as much and it kind of feels a little bit odd. But this is a different type of platform when using LinkedIn. But I know that for some of you, LinkedIn is a whole different world. It's a little bit uncomfortable. You're not too sure exactly how to be able to use this.
00:02:03:01 - 00:02:20:15
Luke
So we're going to dove in deep and talk just about how you, as an instructional designer, should be using LinkedIn in 2024 and beyond. So I'm not going to waste any more time. Let's dove into the episode. So here is the one and the only Joseph Diaz. Joseph, welcome to the podcast.
00:02:20:18 - 00:02:22:22
Joseph
Hey, thank you so much for having me. Luke Great to be here.
00:02:23:06 - 00:02:45:23
Luke
Absolutely, man. Absolutely. Can't wait to have you here and to talk more all about everything pertaining to networking because for networking too, in particular, it can feel, especially on LinkedIn, it can kind of feel gross. It can feel slimy. It could definitely feel weird from all those different types of aspects. So I'd love to hear more from your perspective about everything with networking, but before I get ahead of myself, can you please introduce yourself?
00:02:45:23 - 00:02:48:06
Luke
Tell us a little bit more about who you are and why is it that you do?
00:02:48:16 - 00:03:08:20
Joseph
Yes, my name is Joseph Diaz. I'm from Logan, Utah. I'm currently living in Orme. It's around the Salt Lake area. I recently finished a master's degree in instructional psychology and technology at BYU in the in Provo. And then now I'm working for a company called Vivint, and we do smart home technology and home security systems. And I get to work with our Smart home technicians.
00:03:09:03 - 00:03:25:12
Joseph
So it's the people that go and actually install the home security and smart home systems. And so I get to do all the sales enablement training, helping them improve revenue for the company and just making their jobs easier in whatever way I can. So I really love the work that I do and I love getting to help people learn and improve their work, their work balance too.
00:03:26:06 - 00:03:38:02
Luke
So it's kind of funny because I knew about the fact that you did have like a sales background, but I always was just like, how does sales kind of intertwine for what is it that he does now that makes a lot more sense? Yeah, I didn't realize that's what you're responsible for.
00:03:38:16 - 00:03:59:17
Joseph
Yeah, it's a ton of fun. I definitely I had a lot of sales background, not personally, but just throughout college. I had several roommates who did sales. They practice knocking doors with me and I always thought, Wow, this is something that I couldn't do. But then as I interviewed for this role, I realized how much the skills aligned with the things that I liked from my master's program, from prior work experiences.
00:03:59:21 - 00:04:01:22
Joseph
And it's just been a really fun blend. So I've loved it.
00:04:02:05 - 00:04:21:09
Luke
Makes sense, man. It makes sense. My first salaried position was in sales and it was cold calling people to get them to really pick up the phone and try to order something and are really, really glad I don't do that anymore. Customers are not fun. It's not a good time. I've had a lot of very laid back people.
00:04:21:18 - 00:04:42:12
Luke
I it was it was it was a job. And you know what? It's it's fine. I was definitely say it builds up the ability of facing like this type of a either like, you know, quick harsh criticism or for somebody being like really irritated, like, why are you calling me? I'm like, I'm so sorry. This is my job.
00:04:42:12 - 00:05:02:23
Luke
And well, anyway, but we're not talking to ourselves today. Today we're talking about with networking and why I'm so glad. But you're on the show today, Joseph, is because in my opinion, since falling you on LinkedIn over this last year or so, you do everything right. And I know saying like everything right is kind of like a bit of a big deal.
00:05:02:23 - 00:05:23:13
Luke
It's like but it's true. Like you do LinkedIn so well from everything from all these different types of angles and approaches. So I kind of would start by, I'd love to hear more about how you approached LinkedIn when you joined the platform. What did you think about it? What was a goal of yours like? How did you approach LinkedIn in general as a whole?
00:05:24:02 - 00:05:50:11
Joseph
Yeah, so it started about two years ago. So one year into my master's program, I started looking for a new opportunity of work because I had been working as a project manager and I wanted to shift more directly into a job that used more instructional design skills besides just project management. And so as I started trying to make that pivot, I jumped on to LinkedIn and I had like 200 connections and all of them worked in marketing and sales and none of them were instructional designers.
00:05:50:21 - 00:06:06:01
Joseph
And I realized, shoot, I don't have any kind of a network. I don't even know where to begin, who to talk to, to ask about what kind of a job would I be qualified for, what would a day to day look like in a different instructional design job? Is there an industry I'd be interested in? I knew absolutely nothing.
00:06:06:10 - 00:06:30:02
Joseph
And so luckily I was able to, through some Family Connections network my way into a job. But right away I knew, okay, I don't want that to ever happen again. And so I have a really, really great friend. His name is Austin Henline. And one of the things he did was he used LinkedIn all through college and it was about how college students should use LinkedIn, even if they're not having all of these big promotions or new jobs and things.
00:06:30:05 - 00:06:46:07
Joseph
And so I started following him and just seeing what he did. And I thought, this, this is on to something. I thought he was weird a couple of years ago because no one posted on LinkedIn. I was like, We don't do that. You just you make an account because you're required to by school. But the more I saw how he was using it, he was meeting really cool people.
00:06:46:12 - 00:07:06:23
Joseph
Lots of really cool opportunities were opening up. So I just started trying this to learn from him and apply it in a way that worked for me. And so throughout my master's program for that second year, I started just looking and trying to find were there instructional designers in my area where their instructional designers with a role that sounded like something that I would be interested in doing and would they have any advice for me?
00:07:07:04 - 00:07:21:20
Joseph
And so that was kind of how I first started using it a couple of years back, and it was an absolute game changer and it's been really fun getting to stay in touch, even with my friend Austin telling him about how LinkedIn has helped me kind of find direction in my career, making new connections and learn and grow.
00:07:21:20 - 00:07:30:12
Joseph
And so yeah, it definitely is kind of a weird place to get started sometimes, but it really has been a life changing experience for me too. At the same time, as dramatic as that may sound.
00:07:30:12 - 00:07:40:11
Luke
No, no, I get it. I get it. Has he now looked at your profile and be like, What are you doing? Can you teach me what you're doing? Because like, you're crushing it. So I'm sure he's like, What are your secrets?
00:07:40:23 - 00:07:56:09
Joseph
Oh, he's still way crushing it more than I am. But we went out to lunch and it was super fun because we kind of had this chat about like, what are the things that you do that works for you and what strategies do you have? And I think we've kind of both gone through phases where we use it differently depending on our careers.
00:07:56:13 - 00:08:14:11
Joseph
And so that was a really fun discussion to have even like we're having today is how do I use it if I'm not actively looking for a job or why should I use LinkedIn if I'm happy with the job I have now? What if I'm starting from zero? And so it was really fun having that kind of back and forth dialog with him about, Hey, where are you in your career right now?
00:08:14:16 - 00:08:21:20
Joseph
What is the purpose of LinkedIn for you? Do you see that changing and kind of talking about our strategies and what value we've been getting out of the platform?
00:08:21:20 - 00:08:40:14
Luke
So I mean, it's really interesting that you say that too, because I think back to when I worked at Southern New Hampshire University years ago, and I remember it was like a very much so an open office type of environment. And you would just be walking through and just seeing like, you know, cubicles, but there's no walls. So you could actually like see like what people are doing on their laptop.
00:08:40:20 - 00:09:01:04
Luke
And I remember that everyone was using LinkedIn and it's just like and people are going to get in trouble. Like everyone's using LinkedIn on the job, right now. But the goal of the organization was we want you to be active on social media and to represent the institution and to share more about the findings. The work, being proud about everything from the graduates of a new program.
00:09:01:04 - 00:09:08:23
Luke
So they were telling employees like Use LinkedIn more interesting or just not like the individual, but the whole organization was like, No, you need to be on LinkedIn.
00:09:09:20 - 00:09:26:23
Joseph
That's yeah, that's really different from what I've seen. And I think I have yet to kind of find a large group like that where people actively use it, but it's been fun seeing different use cases of people that work in sales using LinkedIn for prospecting versus people who work in recruiting, using the platform to find potential candidates for jobs.
00:09:27:03 - 00:09:32:11
Joseph
Seeing people just trying to grow their own personal network. So it's fun seeing how diversely it can be used. Yeah, absolutely.
00:09:33:00 - 00:09:51:00
Luke
It's so interesting. And you and I, we didn't know each other actually, like you mentioned two years ago. And I want to say that we've now known each other for maybe a year. It may not even be a year. It feels like a round about timeframe or so. And I know we first connected because you just kept on tagging me in things.
00:09:51:10 - 00:10:13:17
Luke
And I remember I kept seeing the same name over and over again, tagging me in instructional design stuff, and I'm like, Hey, thanks man. You're always sharing about my content in my work. But that was so interesting. It was a different approach compared to what I've seen from other people who just try to be able to kind of do like that cold call, reach out on LinkedIn as a message saying like, Hey, can we have a quick chat?
00:10:13:17 - 00:10:27:00
Luke
So great to meet you. Something like that. You took this different approach. So walk me through what you were thinking of when you were like, I'm going to make these posts, I'm going to tag these people, and then I'm going to hope for what? What were you hoping for from that?
00:10:27:05 - 00:10:45:21
Joseph
Yeah, that's a great question. So when I first got on the platform, I started connecting with people and I did do a little bit of cold outreach, just messaging someone and saying, hey, I noticed your experience or your current role or your education and I'd love to chat. And it wasn't terrible, but it definitely felt kind of uncomfortable for me and it wasn't my favorite way to network.
00:10:46:06 - 00:11:02:00
Joseph
And so I just saw that when you started posting, you would start conversations with people that wanted to engage instead of this cold message of like slap, hey, you should talk with me because I'm interested in what you do for work. It was people saying, I like what you're talking about and I want to talk about it too.
00:11:02:05 - 00:11:23:02
Joseph
And then it was a lot easier to go from a comment on a post to a direct message and say, Hey, thanks for your comment. I'd love to hear more of your thoughts. And then if the messages started getting a little too long, sometimes they would even pitch and say, Hey, let's take this on a call. I'd rather just jump on a phone call with you or a Zoom chat, and that was way more preferable for me instead of cold, damning people and saying, Hey, we should talk.
00:11:23:11 - 00:11:41:05
Joseph
And so when I first started posting, I was still only a year into a master's program, still really, really clueless about a lot of parts of the field about jobs, and still am learning a lot. And I wasn't sure what to post about. I wasn't going to just copy and paste from my textbook. And this is the definition of Andrew Garfield.
00:11:41:06 - 00:12:08:01
Joseph
This is what I'm learning about adult learning theory. I was like, I want to find some way to start an engaging conversation. And I saw this idea of curation. So rather than sharing new ideas, was curating other people's ideas and then sharing what was valuable to you and starting a discussion around that. And so since I didn't know anything about instructional design outside of my master's program, I started looking to see, Hey, are there other YouTube channels or videos that I haven't seen yet in my classes that I like?
00:12:08:01 - 00:12:26:14
Joseph
Are there podcasts? Are there books? And so I just started to kind of post some of those things and then I would get people commenting back saying, Whoa, I can't believe you missed this book. I can't believe you missed this podcast. And it really blew my mind because I would have never realized how many books and podcasts and videos there are on instructional design.
00:12:26:14 - 00:12:43:22
Joseph
It just was such a new world to me. And so it just so happened that you also have a book and a podcast and make YouTube videos. And so you kept coming up and I was like, Man, this guy is probably going to hate me for tagging him and everything, but I don't check out your videos or I check out the podcast and I was like, Hey, this is good.
00:12:44:07 - 00:12:55:19
Joseph
And so I would just, I just tag it. And I thought, well, I mean, worst case scenario, it gets like it gets him some attention. And best case, like, I make a connection out of it and I think I lost my train of thought for a second.
00:12:57:13 - 00:13:13:16
Luke
So I mean, it's a best case scenario for all because if it certainly if it wasn't for and I guess like this is a way of like summarizing that too is if it wasn't for you actually doing those things, it's entirely possible that you and I would not be chatting right now.
00:13:14:00 - 00:13:15:00
Joseph
Yeah, absolutely.
00:13:15:05 - 00:13:32:08
Luke
That is like when 100%, especially when I know about like if you look at my inbox right now on LinkedIn, like it's a disaster. The amount of unread messages that I have is just it's not a good time and I like I will follow up everybody eventually will write, but it might take me months, but like eventually I will do it.
00:13:32:08 - 00:13:50:00
Luke
But when you see some of the same names all the time and of course they're being like polite and respectful and super awesome, then it's like, Oh yeah, I do. I definitely want to engage with this person on LinkedIn because they seem great, as opposed to just like hoping maybe inside of an inbox somewhere that someone's going to see a message over time.
00:13:50:00 - 00:14:09:05
Luke
So your strategy was to me, it was different because you approached it like a marketer. Like a marketer thinks about creating content online or like me now a social media person influence or whatever you want to be able to say, unlike with other folks who are trying to be able to do different approaches that still work over time.
00:14:09:05 - 00:14:14:06
Luke
But yours is kind of stuck out from that because you made you make carousels, too. Is that what you were doing?
00:14:14:14 - 00:14:38:00
Joseph
Yeah. And I think that was something that I just kind of picked up on. So it actually kind of ties back to high school. So I was a cross-country runner and I had this idea one day that I was just going to make an account because there was this profile that I followed called runner problems, and they would just tweet and complain about running things, about shin splints, about carb loading, about races and hills and the heat.
00:14:38:05 - 00:14:53:08
Joseph
And then one day they just went completely inactive and stopped posting. And I waited and waited and they never came back. So I made my own account and I started posting and I would just follow the trends. If there was a meme that was really blowing up on Twitter, I would borrow that meme and adopt it for running.
00:14:53:08 - 00:15:12:04
Joseph
Or if there was content that was relevant, I would just kind of jump on the trend and turn it into running content and I ended up growing a decent following. I think I by the end of high school I had like 10,000 followers and it was fun because I was like, Hey, I'm finding this little community of running people that they run regularly, but they complained about it just as much as I do.
00:15:12:04 - 00:15:31:02
Joseph
So that was kind of a fun niche to find. And so I kind of applied the same tactics on LinkedIn was, Well, what are other people posting and what are those trends to jump on? And it's not quite the same because there's not usually like a meme trend on LinkedIn. It's not like there's one meme blowing up and everybody posts that same meme, but there is content trends I had noticed.
00:15:31:02 - 00:15:48:20
Joseph
So I was seeing everyone making carousels and I thought, well, it can't be that hard to jump into Canva and make it carousel. So since that gets better engagement than a text post, I just thought, let me give it a try. And I would do a little bit of comparison. I would post something as a text post and then I would make a carousel version and post that.
00:15:49:04 - 00:16:18:05
Joseph
And nine times out of ten the carousel post would do better. So I realized, Hey, this is working. This is it's a little bit more work, but it gets a lot better conversations going. And so that was something that I just kind of played around with and had a lot of fun getting to be creative, making content in Canva, kind of trying some new design skills that weren't as strong for me and just saying, Hey, I'm going to not only curate some books or curate some podcasts, but then I'm going to try and find a way to lay it out in a carousel and in a content form that's going to be engaging and actually
00:16:18:05 - 00:16:19:08
Joseph
start some conversation.
00:16:19:22 - 00:16:39:08
Luke
I mean, it definitely worked. And hats off to you for doing like AB testing. Did you like well this work versus this because that's something to but is the worst feeling is when you feel like you're going to share something online. It's monumental and groundbreaking is going to help out thousands of people. Even LinkedIn looks at it and it's just like, Nah, not that one.
00:16:39:08 - 00:16:57:23
Luke
And it shows it to like 90 people. And you're like, But wait, but, but no, but when you post something this absolutely top of mind, you're like, Yeah, whatever is going to fire off his LinkedIn post. And then, yeah, 15,000 people see it and you're like, okay, but but why? Like, why does the algorithm love one thing versus another thing?
00:16:57:23 - 00:17:17:15
Luke
Which is something that as someone who posts daily on LinkedIn, I feel like I'm always trying to to chase that and definitely like what you were just saying, I've done plenty of testing to see will it work if I don't share my website link. And instead if I take that same article and I write it on LinkedIn as like a LinkedIn article, does it get more views?
00:17:17:22 - 00:17:35:18
Luke
It does, because of course, LinkedIn is like, I want you to stay on the platform. Don't go. Don't go. Leaving for his website. Stay on the platform and are all right. I can do that. But also I can't put certain things on LinkedIn, but I can post on my website. So I want I still want people to check out the website because that's better.
00:17:35:18 - 00:17:43:04
Luke
But, you know, you're all right. As a marketer, I'm like, I understand. So it's kind of, you know, it's interesting. I'm trying to figure it all out.
00:17:43:18 - 00:17:44:16
Joseph
Definitely.
00:17:44:16 - 00:18:05:06
Luke
So for folks who maybe don't want to create content. So that's definitely one strategy for being able to network, obviously, as you're hearing about right now from a real life event. But if someone is just like now, that's that's not my thing. That sounds like actually this maybe that's not for me. What are some other approaches that people can do for trying to be able to network on LinkedIn today?
00:18:05:19 - 00:18:38:11
Joseph
Yeah, that's a great question. I would say that the first thing that helped me when I didn't feel like I wanted to post was still commenting on people's content. And I know this doesn't work for everybody that you want to be connected with because not everyone on LinkedIn posts regularly. But I have found that there are enough people within any industry that if you want to meet somebody that works in marketing or somebody that works in instructional design, it's super valuable to see if they've posted anything and engage with that first because like you said, that's way more meaningful of a conversation than it is to just cold message somebody and say, Hey, we should
00:18:38:11 - 00:18:55:04
Joseph
chat. And so I think finding people that you can engage with is helpful and kind of getting into those discussions and you can even take it a level further and without being too creepy. You can go on to somebody profile and if they don't have post, you can look at their comments and you can see the content that they're commenting on.
00:18:55:04 - 00:19:16:22
Joseph
And I found that there are people that don't post anything but they comment pretty regularly. And so obviously this has to go outside of people commenting things like, congrats on your promotion. That's amazing. But sometimes people get into these discussions and so as you find people commenting, you can respond to their comments or share your own thoughts and kind of find some of those figures that they're following and engaging with.
00:19:17:04 - 00:19:33:06
Joseph
And I found that to be a helpful way to kind of maybe get your foot in the door with somebody that you don't know rather than just trying to send that connection request. And sometimes LinkedIn, if you don't have premium, you don't even get to send a note. And so your connection request might just get lost and sit there for forever, which I don't think is anything personal.
00:19:33:06 - 00:19:56:17
Joseph
I think, like you said, everyone's LinkedIn has tons of connection requests, tons of message requests, and it's hard to stay on top of it all. But when you can engage with comments and people's like other people's content, I think that's super powerful still. And so I would say that if someone doesn't want to post their own original content, I would still encourage them to go and comment on other people's content because that still shows up in the feed too.
00:19:56:21 - 00:20:12:01
Joseph
If you leave a comment and say, Hey, this is a really great article, I agree with what you say or I disagree that still pops up in the feed and people can still see you sharing your thoughts. And I even had classmates in my program say, I've been seeing you comment on stuff on LinkedIn and you've all some really interesting people.
00:20:12:01 - 00:20:33:10
Joseph
How did you find them? And that had me thinking like, Wow, I don't even know anything about this field yet. I'm still super new, but people see me engaging in a community and that was really meaningful too. So I would say comment is probably like the next step that I would say is really, really valuable and I think feels a little bit safer than just throwing your thoughts out there to the world and hoping that someone's going to engage with it.
00:20:33:23 - 00:20:56:11
Luke
Yeah, no, I love that tip, man. I love that tip. And like you're saying, too, I've had also colleagues who have noticed that by their because they follow me on LinkedIn and now since they like they click on because of course the magical algorithm is that they're like, oh, we clicked on something or we liked one thing and then therefore it always shows my stuff up in their feed because they are engaged with some of the past content.
00:20:56:18 - 00:21:17:05
Luke
So because of that, it's constantly it's like reinforcing those points. So your friends and your colleagues are seeing who you're commenting on and what you're doing, because I'm sure they notice something before in the past. So now it's just like that's all they keep on seeing about. Which is also really interesting because then in the real world, as they're having conversations with you, they can then talk about that.
00:21:17:05 - 00:21:35:11
Luke
So they're like, Hey, I saw what you talked about so-and-so the other day, or you commented on blah blah, blah, and you're like, Oh yeah, I did do that. Like, Okay, okay. So it kind of goes in a different types of conversations, which is always what I hate is when you see someone and you haven't seen in a long period of time and it's always like, Hey, how are you?
00:21:35:12 - 00:21:58:02
Luke
How's it going? Oh, nothing much. Just the same old, same old. And like, the conversation dies and you're like and instead what I found, because I keep on sharing stuff online and people will follow that, it's like, that kind of just goes right to that conversation. I'm not just like, Hey, how are you? I'm just like, But I saw your video the other day or so you commented on blah blah blah the other day, and it instantly sparks a different conversation and you're like, Yes, I don't need small talk.
00:21:58:08 - 00:22:02:21
Luke
Let's talk about something meaningful. So it has that type of fuel to the fire, which is awesome.
00:22:03:05 - 00:22:21:15
Joseph
Yeah, I would say going off of that, I think that just engaging with people on social media, especially LinkedIn, helps with professional conversation because sometimes networking chats can be awkward because it's, Hey, what do you do for work? This is what I do. Oh, that's really cool. And like you said, there's not a whole lot to talk about, but I had an experience back in February.
00:22:21:15 - 00:22:38:09
Joseph
I got to present for the first time at a conference and I posted about it and my networking chats were so much fun because people would say, Hey, that was super cool. You got to speak at that conference. Tell me about it. And we talked about that and it helped get the conversation rolling and it was so much easier than not knowing where to start.
00:22:38:09 - 00:22:40:10
Joseph
And so I think that's a great point that you make.
00:22:41:06 - 00:23:12:12
Luke
So going off of that, you actually just jogged in memory mind for one of the questions I wanted to be able to ask you about, and we're going to get more into networking for a few other things. But how do you humble brag post on LinkedIn? Because I feel like this is an art of like how we want to be able to share an accomplishment without sounding like an egotistical jerk, but to still be like, Well, I want to share about it because it's awesome and I don't want to talk about it, but you're trying to not sound like you have a huge inflated ego.
00:23:12:18 - 00:23:16:05
Luke
What's your way of doing it? I mean, but I want to hear what's your way of doing it?
00:23:16:05 - 00:23:41:17
Joseph
Yeah, I would say I think the nature of that feeling comes from most people just post on LinkedIn when they get a new job or a promotion. And so it feels like if you don't post content and you're just going to throw something out there, it just feels like you're bragging. And so what helped me was trying to shift from just sharing my accomplishment to sharing takeaways and lessons to other people could get from my accomplishment and maybe what I learned along the way.
00:23:41:17 - 00:24:01:00
Joseph
So during my master's program, as I worked on my master's project, I wrote 40 something pages. I didn't want to just post and say I got my defense approved and I'm amazing, but I thought, well, I kind of suck at writing and I was really struggling with this project. So how on earth did I get here from struggling to being done with this project?
00:24:01:05 - 00:24:19:14
Joseph
And there were a lot of things I learned about setting aside time to write and using different tools and how to focus and being able to get feedback and revise and iterate. And so instead of just saying, I'm amazing and I passed my master of defense, I said, Here are some lessons I learned about writing as I passed my master's defense.
00:24:19:17 - 00:24:35:06
Joseph
And it was still kind of celebratory. But then I was able to share some takeaways or same thing goes for rather than just sharing, Hey, I got this promotion or I succeeded in this project. You can kind of zoom back and you can think, Well, what are the lessons I learned if somebody else was in my same shoes?
00:24:35:06 - 00:24:53:10
Joseph
But six months ago, starting the same project, starting the same challenge? What do I wish I would have known back then that would have maybe just given me a little bit of a head start on that project. And you can say, here are three or four things that I learned that helped me be successful in this project at work or in learning this new skill.
00:24:53:18 - 00:25:07:15
Joseph
And then you're still able to celebrate and say, I learned a skill or I did something meaningful, but it's not all about you. There's also that giving back aspect of saying, and if you want to do something similar to what I just achieved, I think this might be helpful to you. So that's something that helps me a lot.
00:25:07:23 - 00:25:25:01
Luke
Yeah, it makes sense, man. Makes sense. One of the things that I now do all the time, I don't even think about it anymore just because I guess that instant type of reaction for everything is that if I did a talk or a webinar conference or whatever it was, what I would always do is I would privately then message the person again just to thank them.
00:25:25:01 - 00:25:40:12
Luke
Thank you for the invitation. Thank you for the time. Thank you for allowing me to talk to your class kind of a thing. And then I realize I was like, Wait a second, why don't I publicly thank them? So that then becomes the post of being able to tag them and say thank you and then say the institution's name.
00:25:40:17 - 00:25:59:00
Luke
And then when I noticed when I started doing that is then the institution itself would then comment on it to actually say like, you know, thank you so much for coming. Dr. Hobson It was a great talk about blah, blah, blah, whatever. So in turn actually helped out promoting the organization where I talked with as well as the individual I'm tagging.
00:25:59:00 - 00:26:15:07
Luke
And of course, I'm still just doing the polite, normal thing of just saying thank you for the opportunity. So that became my way of like, here is how I kind of humblebrag, but like I'm doing this to actually just like thanks someone but it makes sense kind of a thing. So now that you know my secret, you receive it a lot on LinkedIn really.
00:26:15:07 - 00:26:18:12
Luke
I does post that all the time. It's like, yeah, that's that's my way.
00:26:19:04 - 00:26:44:11
Joseph
Yeah. I think it's a great way to go about posting content. And I think the caller that you mentioned of tagging other people in your posts is such a good way to start discussion. I think this kind of ties back to when you said, well, why did you take me and all that stuff with books and podcasts? That was another thing too, is if you just post and say, I read this book and it was great and you just post it and don't tag anybody and you've never post it on LinkedIn, you're not going to hear a word.
00:26:44:11 - 00:27:03:20
Joseph
But if you post and say, Hey, I read Dr. Hutchison's book and I thought it was interesting and tags and tag you. If you respond, that completely transforms the kind of engagement that you're going to get. And so I think that's a really even though, like you said, it's also taking the humblebrag and turning it into a little bit of a thank you or a help to somebody else.
00:27:03:20 - 00:27:21:20
Joseph
I think it also boosts a lot of that ability to actually start a conversation because instead of your post getting kind of lost to the feed and never being seen by more than 90 people, if you tag somebody you at least know, you're going to start one conversation. Hopefully, hopefully the person you tagged is going to respond. And I think that's better than nothing.
00:27:21:20 - 00:27:41:04
Luke
So no, it's true. And the other thing, too, going off of that is that if you do tag those people and you and they comment as well where anything of the sort. One thing I found to keep the conversation going is then to ask a question and to end like that. So of course you can always just say thank you and it ends the conversation.
00:27:41:04 - 00:27:54:15
Luke
But when you realize the conversation is over though, and you're like, Oh, wait, I shouldn't have done that. I wanted to be able to keep this conversation going. If you then like comment on your own comment like that, it gets kind of kind of weird and instead it's just like, well, you can just go and ask that person then another question.
00:27:54:15 - 00:28:16:08
Luke
So if someone if you take the example that you just mentioned about that, if someone tags me for my book and of course I'll say thank you and everything, but if I say, What was your favorite chapter in the book, then that's now has more of a conversation. There's dialog and we're going to be going back and forth instead of just like it's over and then we're going to both move on and maybe out in the future, who knows kind of a thing.
00:28:16:08 - 00:28:19:02
Luke
So that's another kind of like random tip that I found.
00:28:19:02 - 00:28:40:06
Joseph
Yeah, kind of works. I think it's something that, like you said, it becomes second nature at first. You maybe don't realize that by just liking someone's comment or saying thanks for your comment, you kind of end the conversation right there. But if instead of just saying thank you, you've ask a follow up question or respond with something more in depth, you oftentimes they reciprocate and they'll respond with their own thoughts.
00:28:40:06 - 00:28:47:06
Joseph
And so if you take the time to write a couple sentences out and share your thoughts, you might get a response. So I think it's super meaningful to keep that in mind.
00:28:47:15 - 00:29:03:20
Luke
Absolutely. So if we do have folks, though, who actually want to follow your path for the whole content creation path for everything, what could they start doing? Can you just give us some ideas about additional ways for creating content while still trying to be able to build up your network?
00:29:04:05 - 00:29:22:17
Joseph
Yeah, I think one good place to start is to find people who are posting content similar to what you want to write about and then try and mirror some of their style, but then not just steal. So obviously if I go in and I just copy your post and repost it, that's not going to be helpful. And it's going to probably ruin the relationship.
00:29:22:18 - 00:29:48:10
Joseph
But you can go in and also look and see like, Oh, that's really cool. Dr. Hobson posted about this conference he attended and he has some cool takeaways. Maybe there's a conference that I went to recently that I could share some takeaways from, especially during the summer months where there's lots of conferences going on. And so it's just kind of paying attention to your feed, paying attention to the people in your industry, what they're talking about, and then trying to think about, Well, what can I add to this conversation?
00:29:48:16 - 00:30:09:06
Joseph
And so if you see people are posting a ton about these are the three tools I use in my instructional design job. You can think and say, have I used it at all in my job? And if you haven't, maybe before you post something, try out a new tool and then post about it and say, I tried using charity for the first time at work and this is what I liked and this is what I didn't like.
00:30:09:12 - 00:30:28:10
Joseph
And looking for those trends, I think helps because then you're not just starting from a blank canvas of I'm just going to post whatever and hope it sticks because if you know people are already this or discoursing around a topic and they're already interested in something like AI or a new e-learning tool that's coming out or people are talking about portfolios.
00:30:28:19 - 00:30:45:20
Joseph
Well, what's your take on a portfolio? Do you have one? And then that's even a point where you can kind of humblebrag a little bit. And you see, hey, people are talk about portfolios a lot right now. Guess what? I just finished mine and here are some lessons I learned while building my portfolio. By the way, check out my portfolio too, because I want people to look at it and give me feedback.
00:30:46:02 - 00:31:06:16
Joseph
And so I think that looking around and just looking for inspiration and then actually writing those posts is just a great place to start because if you don't if you don't post, you're not going to get that feedback. And then also just knowing that your first posts probably won't do amazing I think is helpful to to not come in and think how come I don't have 20 reactions and five comments right out the gates?
00:31:07:00 - 00:31:22:17
Joseph
It's okay because I think maybe you can say that the algorithm is cruel. And so if you haven't been posting anything, your initial content isn't going to get pushed out to a lot of people. But then as you start to publish more, you'll start to see some people that come back, people that engage with your stuff, and then they show up again.
00:31:22:17 - 00:31:40:04
Joseph
And so I think that's really helpful. And then one last tip goes back to what we were talking about earlier, is finding people you can tag. And so if you find somebody that you want to mention and start a conversation with, I think it's always okay to tag them because worst case scenario, again, they don't respond, you tag them and they just leave the post.
00:31:40:12 - 00:31:48:15
Joseph
But best case scenario, they respond and say, Hey, thank you for mentioning me. I appreciate it. And you at least start that one conversation, if not more with other people.
00:31:48:15 - 00:32:07:10
Luke
I'm so glad you said, by the way, too, about the whole don't get discouraged if your posts aren't going anywhere. I think because that's real. That is real. We're like once again, like you put like your your heart and soul into a post, then no one sees it and you're like, Well, okay then. And there's been plenty of times too, when I was starting off with LinkedIn that it didn't gain any traction.
00:32:07:10 - 00:32:26:03
Luke
I would just delete it. And of course, like, that's not the right thing to do. It's just like it's kind of weird, especially because some people are like, I swear I saw your post, but now it's gone. And I was like, Yeah, well, LinkedIn said it was only going to get like 20 impressions. So I got upset and I, you know, it's like, no, it's not really the whole point of it.
00:32:26:05 - 00:32:46:15
Luke
Even if you have even if you just get one conversation from your posts like you don't. And maybe this is kind of just like where we are as a society for things, but you don't want to go viral like I've had. Obviously, I've never gone viral, but I've gone popular enough where some things where I was just like, Oh, that's not good.
00:32:46:22 - 00:33:06:23
Luke
It was like, Why is this getting so popular so fast? Like, I talk about instructional design for a living that's like, that's not a good so you don't want to go viral. And if you get like one or two meaningful conversations from a poster or a thread or from anything like that, that's awesome. That's what you want. It's not to be popular.
00:33:06:23 - 00:33:09:00
Luke
It still is to get those converse.
00:33:09:00 - 00:33:28:10
Joseph
That's absolutely I would say that because people call them on LinkedIn especially, they call them those vanity metrics. How many likes, how many impressions that and it helped me a lot when I stopped focusing on that and I started just going and looking at comments because some posts will absolutely flop and you get like 100 impressions and two likes.
00:33:28:10 - 00:33:46:23
Joseph
And one of them's my mom because she saw that I posted and she wanted to go and give me a thumbs up and I love that. But then if I got two comments from people that I never had a conversation with, I have to kind of change my mindset a little bit and say, You know what? That was a win because I got to have a conversation with somebody about a topic that I genuinely care about.
00:33:47:05 - 00:34:02:15
Joseph
And that conversation wouldn't have happened if I hadn't put myself out there and just written that post. So I think, like you said, shipping that focus from I want to go viral and I want content to blow up to shifting towards this mindset of I just want to have good conversations with people I think is a really important mindset to keep in mind.
00:34:03:00 - 00:34:35:09
Luke
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. So one thing that isn't talked about as much as we're talking about all these different networking topics is just how time consuming this can be. Because if anyone Google to be able to fire up like best ways to grow your network on LinkedIn, I think like the number one thing it is always talked about is post daily and some people are like post two times a day to grow your followers, whatever, and you're like, I mean, you can, but also you get to talk about something meaningful and not just like spurting out nonsense.
00:34:35:09 - 00:34:52:13
Luke
So it's a lot of work to be able to to build out your network as far as for this goes. And I know that both you and I are very active on LinkedIn, what do you do for trying to be able to keep on creating content and talking with people while also not getting burnt out from it? Because it can be a lot?
00:34:53:01 - 00:34:53:21
Luke
Yeah. Again.
00:34:54:05 - 00:35:15:17
Joseph
I would say that my strategy has had to shift all the time because when I first started I was just I was so excited with learning about and learning about a new social media platform, figuring out an algorithm, trying to find people to connect with. I was probably spending 2 hours a day during my master's program making content and reading and engaging and curating resources.
00:35:15:17 - 00:35:33:11
Joseph
And like you said, it was really time consuming because if you add that up, that's like a part time job doing 10 hours a week of LinkedIn. And so I had to really scale it back. And once I started getting some traction and I had a little bit of a system for how I would jot down ideas and how I would engage, I set a timer and so I put on my screen.
00:35:33:11 - 00:35:49:19
Joseph
Time limit was like 30 minutes. And so if I hit that 30 minute limit, then I had to know is like, Hey, that's enough LinkedIn for today. And so I had to be strategic about, well, if I'm going to spend my time doing LinkedIn, what is going to be the most meaningful time and it's not scrolling on the home page.
00:35:50:03 - 00:36:05:08
Joseph
So I had to just start making lists of like, these are the 15 to 20 people that typically post content that I learn from. So I want to make sure I check their content and I want to make sure I engage with it. And then as far as being on platform, I try to kind of keep it at that.
00:36:05:08 - 00:36:28:15
Joseph
Unless there's comments I need to respond to on my own posts or comments that people are responding, maybe I'm going back and forth in a thread, but then I try and limit it to that. And then the rest of the time is maybe 30 to 40 minutes when I can just writing. And I think it's hard to do and that's why it's for me personally, I have a hard time keeping that consistent output a post a day.
00:36:29:01 - 00:36:51:08
Joseph
But I've still found that when I don't post, I just don't feel as connected or as engaged with my network. And so even if it's just one post a week or one post every other week, I still find that when I take that time to sit down and write and reflect and find ideas, it's still meaningful. And so some weeks I'll be really on top of it.
00:36:51:08 - 00:37:16:22
Joseph
Maybe I'm just really locked in, going to bed at a good time, getting up really early, and maybe I'll spend 30 minutes a day writing. And then other weeks life gets busy and I write one time for 10 minutes and and it happens. And I think it's kind of allowing yourself this flexibility to realize that just because some people on LinkedIn are putting in 2 to 4 hours a day and going viral and blowing up, there's no expectation that you have to do that.
00:37:17:00 - 00:37:39:00
Joseph
That's that's not what you need to do to get something out of LinkedIn. It can really be like you described that one conversation that you start and then that's good enough. I had one really good conversation about instructional design tools or project management or leadership, and I'm really glad I had that conversation this week because I took some time to comment or I took some time to write a post, and I'm glad I could I could have that learning experience.
00:37:39:08 - 00:38:00:01
Luke
Absolutely. I found, too, that if you post more and I guess this is going to go against some of the words of wisdom of the LinkedIn gurus out there. But if you post like two times a day or whatever, it's just it's so much extra work and it's really not giving you any extra type of reward. But also like what you're seeking is engagement.
00:38:00:05 - 00:38:21:16
Luke
And I know that word can be like kind of weird in our instructional design feel, you talk about engagement and people are like, What does it mean to be engaged? But like for LinkedIn, it's like you're trying to connect with over humans. That's the whole point for for everything. So if you're trying to be able to keep on doing that, I've actually found that if I make a post and it's going well, people are commenting, I'm coming back and forth and kind of there's things of that nature.
00:38:21:16 - 00:38:41:10
Luke
It's not like the conversation dies immediately, 24 hours later. It still could keep on going on two days later, three days later. And when I see that, I'm like, Oh, well, then why am I just going to try to keep on, you know, just crushing myself to make new content when the other content I just posted two days ago, people are still talking about it.
00:38:41:10 - 00:39:02:18
Luke
So I'm not going to, you know, try to be able to go and just like write something really fast and put it out there. As you were saying, you know, 2 to 4 hours a day or anything like that, because that people can do that. And if your goal is to go viral, then sure. But like, I don't think any of us who are on this podcast right now are listening at home.
00:39:02:18 - 00:39:11:22
Luke
I like I want to become the next like Kim Kardashian or next person. Like I don't that's not my goal. And I'm not sure about you, man, but like I'm good. I don't want to be that.
00:39:12:12 - 00:39:30:22
Joseph
There is some Kim Kardashian instructional designer out there that's going to blow up a power to them. And I think it is just important to keep in mind, like you described earlier, one, it's totally okay if your content's flopping and too, it's okay if you're spending a little more time than you would like to at the beginning. Because I think it does take that time to figure it out.
00:39:31:04 - 00:39:54:16
Joseph
So if you feel like you're taking a long time just finding people to connect with, that's totally okay. If you're having a hard time and it takes you forever to write that one post, that's good. But don't let it stress you out and ruin the whole experience for you because it's really easy to get discouraged and bogged down and say, Man, I'm putting 2 hours a day into this thing and I'm not getting job offers or I'm not connecting with leaders in the field.
00:39:54:16 - 00:40:16:23
Joseph
So whatever, this isn't worth it. You have to maybe just scale back your expectations and say, Hey, I'm hoping to have a really good conversation with somebody in my field today. And so I'm going to share my thoughts. I'm going to go comment and see if I can't get a response and and recognize that those expectations are going to change from where you're at, how much time you actually have available to commit to engaging and spending on the platform visits.
00:40:17:03 - 00:40:22:19
Joseph
It is social media at the end of the day. And so like you can only give it so much time. There's so many other priorities in life.
00:40:23:04 - 00:40:41:19
Luke
Oh, yeah. Oh, my God. Yes. So it's not the end all, be all. So I'm glad you said those amazing words. Wisdom, something that I do want to chime in on that kind of just like goes from what I was just saying, though, which I found to be extremely interesting, is that on LinkedIn specifically, everyone now has LinkedIn account.
00:40:41:20 - 00:41:07:09
Luke
Every celebrity, every athlete like people have tried to be able to go away from Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and now everyone's on LinkedIn. But what I think is really interesting is that people will write back to you on LinkedIn, and that was something that I have. I've been seeing that trend over time. And now at this point of time, I've had some conversations with some people who I'm like, Why are you responding back to me?
00:41:07:17 - 00:41:25:06
Luke
Kind one of like those Hail Marys where I was just like, Hey, man, just want to say about like, I love your music. I reached out to Alex for The Chainsmokers, but listening to Chainsmokers for forever, right? This blogger music, he's on LinkedIn now. And I saw that he was making all this content on LinkedIn, talking about venture capitalists.
00:41:25:06 - 00:41:39:07
Luke
And he has LinkedIn learning courses now in a master class or whatever. He has some other type of, of course on that line right now. And I just shot him a message just saying, like, just, hey, just want to say I'm enjoying your posts. They've been extremely interesting. I'm not in the VC world, but I've been learning and love your music.
00:41:39:07 - 00:41:55:06
Luke
So hey, thanks so much. And he wrote back to me and I was like, Why are you writing back to me? Same thing with some NFL players and some other folks around. Like, This is weird, man. I mean, it's just like when Snoop Dogg has a LinkedIn, it's like, that's how you know that like this is this is like the new platform for thing.
00:41:55:06 - 00:42:00:15
Luke
So how have you connected with someone where you're like, Wow, why is this person talking back to me right now in this platform?
00:42:00:23 - 00:42:23:10
Joseph
Yeah, you know, I really wish I could say that Snoop Dogg DNA me back and that's not the case. But I will say it. I think I've had that experience in that I've been looking at like books. For example, when I first started posting, I was like, Hey, this is a LinkedIn book or not an Arlington book. I would say, Hey, this is an instructional design book that looks interesting, so let me know what you think.
00:42:23:13 - 00:42:42:10
Joseph
Have you read it? Is it worth reading or I'm reading? Map It by Kathy Moore and Kathy Moore comments and is like, Hey, thanks for reading my book. And I'm like, No, wait, that's so cool. And then the same thing happened just earlier in this year that Dr. Keith Keating released his book, The Trusted Learning Advisor. And I had several people recommend it to me.
00:42:42:18 - 00:42:58:16
Joseph
And so I posted and I said, Hey, I just bought this book. I'm excited, read it. And he commented and he said, Hey, let me know what you think about the book. And I thought, Oh, that's, that's kind of cool. And then I was I'm a part of Slack group called the Lady Collective. So over there one of the admins said, Hey, do you want to run a book club?
00:42:58:16 - 00:43:16:09
Joseph
And just trying to encourage some discussion around a book. And so I was running it and I posted on LinkedIn. I said, Hey, I'm hosting this book club on Dr. Keith Keating's book. If anybody wants to join, let me know. And then I sent him a connection request and just said, Hey, I'm reading your book, started a book club on it, just wanted to say thanks for the time you put into this book.
00:43:16:15 - 00:43:34:09
Joseph
And he responded, It was like, Hey, I love your feedback on the book. If there is things that you liked and I was blown away. I was like, This is somebody who's a leader in our field that took the time to write and publish a book. And then he responded, like, if I go tweet at J.K. Rowling and say, I like Harry Potter, there's not a chance she's going to say anything back.
00:43:34:09 - 00:43:53:21
Joseph
And so I found it really cool, like you mentioned, that you can find people that create content that you enjoy and they actually do respond. You can say, Hey, I love this book you did, or I love this video did. And people that do podcast episodes and if I go message them and say, Hey, I saw you did a podcast episode that was so good, they respond back and I think it's super, super cool that way.
00:43:53:21 - 00:44:07:19
Joseph
So not anyone like Kim Kardashian, Snoop Dogg, Love, all that has responded. But I've had a lot of really cool conversations and I think it's like you said it, it really boils down to the platform being different and that people do respond and they're willing to engage in conversation.
00:44:08:03 - 00:44:25:17
Luke
I mean, I just love the fact that it's the actual real people and it's not like a bot or a paid actor essentially to be able to like run their social media account or something. It's always, always seems to be the person. Yeah, like, well, I mean, I and for one of them, one person I talked with, I didn't believe it was actually him.
00:44:25:18 - 00:44:42:19
Luke
And then we jumped on a zoom call and it was him. And I was like, Oh, dude, it's him. No, it's like this. Definitely not. No, this isn't real. It kind of a thing. So is LinkedIn does have that type of power around it where as for trying to be able to connect on IG or something, it's is it's just not the same.
00:44:42:19 - 00:45:02:12
Luke
So I don't know, it's just an interesting thing and I'm so curious to see where that's going to go from because when I hear the question around like what types of opportunities can come from LinkedIn or how do you find clients to be able to work with? How do you find employers to be able to connect with for anything like that?
00:45:02:12 - 00:45:25:09
Luke
And my answer is always actually my network on LinkedIn. That's that's where I find people to be able to want to collaborate with, share ideas with. When it comes to freelance projects or anything, it's like it's always LinkedIn has been my, my go to as far as for with any opportunity have you been to land some types of cool opportunities as well because of your networking habits on LinkedIn?
00:45:25:17 - 00:45:45:18
Joseph
Yeah, I would actually attribute the role that I'm in right now to those efforts from networking on LinkedIn, because throughout my master's program I had no idea what corporate and structural design even looked like, and I was totally oblivious. I knew a little bit about some higher Ed being a professor, and I thought, Well, I'm really interested in learning about the tech space.
00:45:46:02 - 00:46:04:04
Joseph
And so I started just finding people in the Salt Lake City area that worked as instructional designers for tech companies and reaching out to them and saying, Hey, I really want to get into the tech space in instructional design. Tell me about what you do for work. Tell me about what advice you would have for me, what would help me get into a role like the one that you're in.
00:46:04:13 - 00:46:32:02
Joseph
And it was through those efforts that I started to learn a little bit about the language that they use in tech and what they're looking for. What are the skills I needed to highlight when I was interviewing? And then it was through Sarah can estrus content that she posts about finding your landing niche that helped me really start to narrow down what were the roles I wanted to apply to because I was about six months out from graduation and I was just submitting applications for anything that said instructional design, just hoping that something would stick.
00:46:32:12 - 00:46:54:17
Joseph
And then she talked about this idea that you should apply for roles based on skills that you have. So I went to LinkedIn Search and I was like, Well, I'm using SharePoint a ton in my job right now, so let me see if there's any instructional design jobs that use SharePoint and maybe PowerPoint. And I started just typing in tools that I was using like technology and project management and skills that I liked.
00:46:54:23 - 00:47:18:14
Joseph
And that was how I found the role that I'm in right now, because the job description was full of those kind of buzzwords, but not just buzzwords, because they were things that I could do and I was doing in my current role. And so when I went into that interview, I also had found people on LinkedIn that talked about interviewing, people that talked about interview skills, how to prepare, what to expect, common questions, how to respond, and not just general.
00:47:18:14 - 00:47:40:01
Joseph
Tell me about yourself, but how to talk about instructional design projects, how to tell the story of your portfolio, how to highlight your skills. And so I honestly don't think I would be in my current job if I hadn't taken the time to network on LinkedIn because one, I probably wouldn't have found the job. And two, I don't think I would have known how to talk about what I do in a way that was meaningful for an interviewer.
00:47:40:07 - 00:48:02:02
Joseph
And so that's probably been the biggest achievement for me that I think I would say I've gotten out of networking on LinkedIn is that it's given me that clarity too in finding an industry that I like being in, in a role that uses skills that I enjoy using day to day. Because I got really nervous thinking like, Oh, I'm, I can do e-learning development, I can do storyline, but I don't want to be a storyline developer.
00:48:02:02 - 00:48:27:07
Joseph
Like, that's just not my strong suit. I don't make the best storyline modules. And then through networking on LinkedIn, I realized that's not the only thing you can do as an instructional designer, and that really helped give me that direction in my career. So all of that comes from, like you said, there are not just you but comes from the discussion we've been having of taking time to network, taking time to have conversations, building relationships, getting to know what people do, asking for their advice.
00:48:27:07 - 00:48:31:01
Joseph
And people are just always so kind to give a helping hand and share advice.
00:48:31:23 - 00:48:47:03
Luke
I think that's something that people don't realize enough, is that if you do try to be able to connect on LinkedIn and even going into like the cold networking aspects that we were talking about, the amount of people responded back to me when I was first starting off in the field that said, yes, it was mind blowing. And like, why?
00:48:47:13 - 00:49:09:10
Luke
Like what? Like I have nothing to offer is why do you want to talk with Better John to help out a fellow person in the field? I was like, Oh, well, that's nice of you. So many people did that. And I always hear that now from people on LinkedIn who are just finding out about instructional design today with the main thing is that they're like, I can't believe how supportive this community is.
00:49:09:10 - 00:49:28:18
Luke
Like, Yeah, we're, we're pretty tight knit bunch. So it's like we all know one another in some capacity. So like, yeah, let's help out each other to be able to grow, right? So make sense and also shout out to Sarah, by the way, she's been on the show. She's amazing. So yeah. And to surprise me at all that you're able to take that away from her content for sure.
00:49:28:18 - 00:49:52:17
Joseph
Yeah, fantastic stuff. And I think just echoing what you said, the people, not just in instructional design, but I think people on LinkedIn genuinely are that kind and it can be scary coming from a platform like Instagram or Tik Tok or X. Sometimes people won't respond to though, gosh, you or there's kind of that negativity. It's helpful to come in knowing, hey, generally people on LinkedIn are pretty kind of you reach out, you're going to get that helping hand.
00:49:52:17 - 00:50:11:19
Luke
So yeah look at you calling Twitter expire as appropriate now I will never know. Sorry I saw Elon tweeted the other day when it was just like, be honest, do you call it Twitter? X was like, who calls it X? I mean, is there any way so so as far as how I feel about rebranding a whole.
00:50:12:09 - 00:50:43:15
Luke
Yes. Anyway, that's a whole different conversation for another day. Joseph, thank you so much for coming on the show. You dropped some incredible words of wisdom for us to be able to think more about for networking, connecting with people, using LinkedIn. And like I said, for anyone who is not following you, they really should because you once again, in my opinion, have really been using LinkedIn in an amazing way to be able to drive like true engagement and not just likes and things of that nature, but people genuinely commenting saying like, Thank you, this was so helpful.
00:50:43:15 - 00:50:53:08
Luke
This is so interesting. It was so great. So clearly you're doing something right. So with that being said, where can people go to be able to find more, learn more about you and connect with you?
00:50:53:14 - 00:51:11:10
Joseph
Yeah. Thank you. I really appreciate just all those compliments. I would say it probably is meta, especially if somebody found this episode on LinkedIn and then went and listened to the podcast. But I would just say, go back to LinkedIn and send me a connection request or comment on something because I love having those conversations, I love connecting with people.
00:51:11:10 - 00:51:36:10
Joseph
And so don't be afraid to send a note or to leave a comment or just shoot me a message because I do love getting to connect with people in instructional design and just in the professional space, because I think we all have so much to offer one another. Like you said, even if you feel like I don't know what I have to give back, I found that sometimes even talking with somebody who is struggling to find a new job or struggling in a career transition, they help me learn things about my myself and my skills.
00:51:36:10 - 00:51:49:14
Joseph
And so go ahead. And I would invite everyone to just go show me a connection request. And I'd love to chat with anybody that wants to talk about how to use LinkedIn or just about skills in instructional design, things they're working on and just talk shop. That's always my favorite.
00:51:49:14 - 00:51:53:17
Luke
So I love it, man. I love it. Why, thank you so much for being here today. I really appreciate it.
00:51:54:02 - 00:51:56:16
Joseph
Yeah. Thank you so much again for having me. It's been a huge pleasure.
00:51:56:21 - 00:52:15:05
Luke
Joseph, once again, thank you so much for coming on the show. And folks, be sure to reach out to him, connect with him on LinkedIn as the whole topic of LinkedIn was really all about. For this episode, be sure to connect with them and say hello to tell me. Go into the comment section, whether on YouTube or if you're sharing this post via LinkedIn.
00:52:15:05 - 00:52:31:19
Luke
And just tell me a little bit more about what was your main takeaway from this episode? We talked about a lot of different topics on LinkedIn, so I'd love to hear more from you about what you really did take away from the last 60 minutes or so that we have been talking about how to use LinkedIn as an instructional designer.
00:52:31:23 - 00:52:52:17
Luke
Of course, if you enjoyed this episode and be sure to be a friend and tell a friend about this type of podcast. And of course, wherever you are listening, if you want to be able to leave review, those reviews are always welcomed. We also dabbled a little bit inside of talking about from Instructional Design Institute, and that was the course that Joseph went through a couple of months back.
00:52:52:20 - 00:53:20:15
Luke
If you want to be able go through that type of learning experience as well, then be sure to go down to the show notes and apply today because the next cohort starts actually pretty darn soon. July 15th is when the next seven weeks is going to begin from that type of perspective. So if you want to be able to learn about instructional design with other people and go through a cohort, have live workshops, be able to get some real type of hands on work, get my feedback along the way and everything else of sorts.
00:53:20:20 - 00:53:37:10
Luke
Then Instructional Design Institute is right for you, so Be sure to go down below and apply today and hey folks, that is all I have for you once again, thank you so much for being here and thank you for spending time with us. And that's really all I have for you. So, hey, stay nerdy out there now. I'll talk to you next time.
