Compliment, Connect, Conquer: How to Get Free Help from Online Experts

Hello and welcome to the show. Today is going to be an out and about recording. So expect to hear the usual interruptions and OK. So there are a few things I want to share with you guys that are going to be coming down the pipe later. And that's, I was working on having some material on some LMLMSS and that's learning management systems, Nigerian learning management systems, because there are lots of people out there who are looking for business education.

And I figured it's not a bad idea to meet people where they're at. And so if they're these new businesses, apps, websites, whatever, they're trying to make business content available, I figured I might as well be on some of them. Now I know that you guys already know about Udemy. I think Udemy is the, the LinkedIn one. So there's Udemy, there's, I can't remember anyway, but there's a bunch of other services that people use.

I see them on LinkedIn and things like that. So I tried putting together some material that was going to go on some of those sites and there's been a few things that worked out and a few things that didn't. But either way, some of the material that I was recording for Home Grown Nigerian LMS is Learning Management systems. I'm going to make them available over here on the podcast. Then there is, I think it's Learn Skills, Learn Skills Africa.

I've been talking with Learn Skills Africa. We're going to have some courses available there as well. So I'll let you guys know when those are available. But for the material that I recorded that was supposed to be up for free on Nigerian learning management systems, I'm going to make some of them available here on the podcast. I'm letting you guys know ahead of time just so that you're not caught on the wares because instead of sounding like a regular episode, it's going to sound obviously like I recorded it as part of a course or part of a larger curriculum.

So when you come across all those audio samples, then that's what they are, that's what they were recorded for. I'll try and record a sort of like an intro before so that people who are catching it from the first time not going to get caught unawares. So yeah, that's it. Those are a few things that that we can look forward to on the show. But then again, we're still going to have our regular scheduled episodes. So today, this is what I would like us to tackle.

There's a fellow who reached out to me on LinkedIn. His name is Daniel. I'm not going to use his surname and protect his identity, but I'm going to use his real name so that he knows that I'm talking about you. Also so that eventually, if he does start listening to the podcast, then this is going to be a reminder episode for him about how not to conduct outreach on LinkedIn. Now, some of you will know that we'll remember that I've done episodes like this in the past because my mentee, Remi Leko,

Remi Leko Oyeko, this is how we started off our relationship because of outreach as you try to do on LinkedIn. And I made a whole series of episodes about how you could have done things differently and what people's expectations should be for how you can sell effectively on LinkedIn. Because a whole bunch of us are trying to draw more business on social media. And so we're going to try and get clients on Facebook on what?

OK, is WhatsApp social media? OK, no, maybe WhatsApp is not social media, but people are going to try and drum up business opportunities whichever way that they can. So the reason why I make these episodes is just to let you guys know that there is a better way to go about it because some of you are using techniques that will end up shooting yourself in the foot. Remember, I keep saying on the podcast, because we can copy and paste easily on these platforms,

that we can spam on these platforms doesn't mean that we should wake up every day and spam 1000 people and then have 0.001% of 1000 people respond. How about you be much more thoughtful with your campaign? You copy and paste, I don't know, maybe 10 people every day and get two of them to respond every day. The results of getting two people out of 10 to respond every day over the course of a year is better than spamming 1000 people every day and get 0.0001% of them to respond.

Oh well, I haven't done the math. I don't know if it's the same, but you guys catch my drift. It's much more efficient use of your time. And then there's something that the average business owner hasn't quite caught up to yet, which is that when we put things out into the social media sphere or into the Internet or whatever, that we are not just putting out good vibes, but also putting out bad vibes as well. So if you have a series of campaigns that you're running and it depends on you spamming 1000 people and only 0.001% of people you end up doing business with, we forget the fact that that means that you are pissing off 99.00000.

What is that, .002 or something? Basically, you're pissing off a whole bunch of people. And it doesn't help if every single day we're having all these people pissed out about us and those are the vibes that we're putting out into the atmosphere or into the universe. You know, for those of you who are, what's that thing, you know, the secrets and you're manifesting and everything. So you guys are putting out the whole bunch of bad vibes into the universe.

OK, now let's get straight to Daniel. So Daniel reached out to me on LinkedIn and he said that he's done this online certificate thing on e-mail marketing. And his challenge is he's trying to build a portfolio without experience. So now is his question pretty much how do you build a portfolio on Fiverr and on Upwork without having any experience? Now, ordinarily these are the sorts of things that I just delete and I just flashy, but I

figured I admire the guys gumption because it is quite I don't know the word to think that you can build a portfolio without experience. So I figured let me just respond to the dude and let me see if I can help him out on on a bunch of stuff. So I responded and OK, well, I told him to send me a message on on WhatsApp. Yeah, I told him just copy and paste the message on WhatsApp. And then I left it at that because I don't think I've discovered is that the whole bunch of people reach out.

They want stuff for free, but even when people engage, you know they don't follow up on that. You'd be surprised the number of people that reach out. I give them a simple assignment like this, which is just copy and paste this on WhatsApp and they don't do it. So it's also another easy way I have for dealing with people who just want random free advice. I give them an assignment and they don't do it even if it's as simple as copy and paste this on WhatsApp.

So I said copy and paste this on WhatsApp. My usual assignment and surprisingly the fellow did it and not only did he do that, he also added some more context. And so that was good. And so that's how Daniel and I started having the conversation. Now there are a bunch of questions that I asked him about why the gig economy that's 5 LB Upwork is part of the gig economy. The idea behind the gig economy is this that you have some free time or you have some free capacity.

So you might as well make some money by advertising that free time and capacity on certain websites and then you're going to be able to get customers. So Uber drivers, Uber, OK, no Lyft in Niger. There's Uber. There's what else there's well any you catch my drift? So Uber drivers, that's part of the gig economy. Your car is there is at home. You're not doing anything with it. You've dropped the kids, you've dropped Wi-Fi, you're now back at home.

What can I do? So you advertise the spare capacity of your car on Uber and then you get some business or you work in 95, but then you have three cars lying around at home. One is for you, one is for Madame. There's a third car. Your younger brother is at home on holidays and you're thinking, look, instead of him just staying at home and watching DSTV all day, let's put this car on Uber or any of these other things and then younger brother can make some money.

So that's the idea behind the gig economy. And so people who have skills in copywriting, e-mail marketing, all these sorts of things, they also take part of the take advantage of the gig economy by also advertising themselves on certain websites like Fiverr and Upwork. Those are foreign websites. Then there's also what's it called? The Nigerian one is called Kai. Is this share shareware or some any suppose there's one that is a play on the Yoruba, Yoruba phrase for is there work or there is work?

I think it's Shesherwa. Shesherwa, I think it's Yoruba for is there work or there is work or something like that? And so there's one of these apps that is that is a play on that Yoruba word. So these sites are there both international and also local sites. So I wanted, I asked him a question why the gig economy? And you find out in the moment why we, I wanted us to have that conversation as well. And then I want some of you to consider as well for those of you who are trying to build a portfolio on Fiverr and Upwork and trying to build a business that way, trying to get copywriting clients, e-mail marketing clients and what have you.

So I had some tips for, for Daniel about future outreach. Now, I told him that is a bad idea to try and reach out to people when you don't follow them, when you don't engage with them and when you don't try to show some familiarity. Because I asked the dude straight up like, hey look, how'd you find me? Is it the podcast or speaking engagement? You know, stuff like that. And apparently, well anyway, I like the guys honesty because Daniel was straight up honest.

So apparently it's this LinkedIn recommendation thing where it says people who follow so and so are also following so and so in this space. So follow So it was one of those things. Or he thinks it might have been a group thing where he joined the marketing group and some people were throwing my name around and so he's selling just a shooting shot. So I admire that he was remarkably honest about it. And so I had to be honest with him in return.

For those of us who offer who are professional service providers, it is a really annoying thing. They have one, you know, people reaching out to you every day trying to get stuff from you. I'm not even talking about scammers or 4:00 and 9:00 ask 'cause you know, no one day, no one is normal. I'm talking about legit people who just think they can shoot you up and try and get advice for free. So I told him that it's really an annoying thing because this thing happens on a daily basis and the people who reach out to you, you know, clearly are not familiar with you.

They don't follow your content. They don't engage another part of your community. They just want to come into your DM and then just get free advice and then be gone. So I told him that your odds increase when you actually follow the content. You follow the guy or the girl, engage with their content. You seem to be some familiar person. And then people are much more open to helping out for free. Now, let me give an example.

Let's say I reach out to Brian Tracy. I say Brian Tracy, I beg have this problem, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Here's what I'm trying to do. I ask my question. Send. Now, I doubt that Brian Tracy checks his LinkedIn or his Facebook or his whatever. I doubt he man's it himself. But let's pretend that Brian Tracy actually does. Do you think that the odds of him responding to that message are high, especially given the fact that since he has he's now of international renown, he probably has, if I was to guess,

maybe 100 guys or girls trying to send those kind of messages every day. Let me just guess. Let me be conservative and say 100 you think he's going to respond. But then if I send him a message and he says something like, oh, Brad Tracy, absolutely love your work. I've been following you since Popsy was reading your stuff in the 80s. It's absolutely mind blowing. In fact, I credit my success as a sales coach and as a sales coach and a business growth podcaster.

I credit a lot of it to you and all the material that you've been putting out there. I just wanted to reach out and connect. I love the work that you do. God bless your hustle. Send. I don't say anything. So I send that message. First. I join his, let's say he has a LinkedIn group. I joined the LinkedIn group. I'm engaging on the LinkedIn group. I'm commenting on stuff, you know, every now and then. And then of course, Brian Tracy was invited by Lioness, Lioness of Korea, I think, I can't remember the name of his business, but Lioness of Korea that the folks that brought,

well at least they tried to bring Brian Tracy to Nigeria, to Abuja. That was last year. I didn't follow up on all the publicity, so I don't know if they actually did it. But let's say now he's coming in and I now send a message saying, oh, Brian Tracy or Remember Me, I'm the guy who sent this message, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I heard you might be in Niger for this event, blah, blah. I'm going to make myself available, whatever it is you need.

Just let me know if I'm available to help. You know, I'll help. Wait, you, you catch my drift. Anyway, I'm trying to be familiar. I'm trying to be helpful. I'm trying to farm out. I'm trying to farms, I'm trying to be a fanboy. Now, let's say he does listen to he does handle his messages personally. And of course we know that he doesn't, not just because he's old, but because like I said, he has international renown. So he probably has too many of these messages.

But just in case he was the kind of person who used to handle his own box, because there's some people who handle their own inboxes, like Gary Vaynerchuk. Gary Vaynerchuk handles his own inbox. Who else there? Some of them shall handle their own inbox. Now, over time, who do you think is most likely to be listened to? The person who clearly is a worker pass who wants to get something for free in the inbox or the person who clearly is a fanboy or a fan girl and he's trying to get something from his, I don't know, digital mentor or whatever, or digital hero.

So your chances go up when you actually follow, engage, try and show that you're familiar. I mean, be humble. Try and be a fanboy or a fan girl. You're trying to get something for free. This is how it works. So following, engaging, commenting, complimenting, flattery, whatever that works. And that is better than just coming straight up into somebody's inbox as a workout pass. Then I also told Daniel that you ought to offer something of value before trying to take something for free.

And it's something that I mentioned to Remi Leko the first time and it's something that she took on board. And trust me, these things work. And that's one of the reasons why anytime Remi Leko is in is in a fix. If she sends me a text message, I will answer. If she calls, I will answer because she helps me out. I do not like PowerPoint. I do not like presentations. And I tell organizers of events that look, this is me, I don't like it.

They say, OK, sure, no problem. And then it's time for the event and they start saying how far with the slides. I'm like, but I told you guys, I do not do slides. Anyway, now there are Miller Queens in my life and now that she likes these sorts of things, I just call up and say, hey, I beg, are you free? So and so events? This is what I intend to say. Just gave me some slides so she gets it done. I still don't use the slides anyway, but at least the slides are there.

I hand it to the AV person and I go and do my presentation. If the AV person can click along as I'm talking, then you know, that's right. That's no problem. But just so you know, for those of you who have events and you're trying to look for speakers in the future, I do not do slides. But only if you need. Remileko will be there and she, you know, she'll prepare them so you guys will have them so that you orga. There's no going to fire you because, you know, you brought the speaker who didn't come in with enough collateral.

So I'm offered something of value before trying to take for free. And those are the tips that I gave Daniel about how he ought to reach out to professional service providers. Now there's a whole bunch of stuff that we talked about that I'm going to skip to the next episode because we're already at 17 minutes. I looked at the me and Daniel. We had a frank conversation about whether you can build a portfolio without experience.

And I would like to share that with you guys. Let's see what else and then possible solutions about how you can build that sort of portfolio. Then the question on why he was focusing on the gig economy, because the legitimate question, why Fiverr and why Upwork? Apart from the fact that there are Nigerian alternatives, do you really think that is the best way to start pushing yourself out into the market as an e-mail marketing,

copywriting, you know, kind of a professional? Do you think that's the best way to get to gain traction quickly? And then we looked at much more proactive solutions about how if you're busting into the market with skills that you want to promote, what's the best way to go about it? So we had a whole bunch of those conversations. And since we're at roughly 20 minutes, I think I will skip that to the next episode. But summary, if you're Daniel or you are a Remi Leko or you are a Daniela or you are inadequately or you are a Usman or whatever,

and there's somebody on LinkedIn that you want to hit up because you want free advice from the person, slow it down. Don't just send a message like a waka pass and expect to get results. In fact, when I asked Daniel like, how successful has your campaign been? You know, he, he, he answered honestly that I am the only one who has responded. Everybody else has ignored. So I hope you guys see that what it is that you're doing this thing does not work.

So really you guys stop it. It does not work. There are much more effective ways of going about it that increase your odds or first of all, let's have realistic expectations. Even when you do it right, you are still going to be ignored by most of the people. So even if you take my advice and follow and engage, try and build familiarity, compliment the person engaging some flattery, offer something of value, still my guess is maybe 7

out of 10 people will ignore you. But The thing is, for the seven people that ignore, at least you're not leaving a bad taste in their mouth. You're just a worker pass. And you're putting out, you're only putting out bad bad vibes into the universe. You know, for you universe people who are manifesting to the universe, you be putting out bad vibes into the universe. And for the three who do respond, you never know what kind of opportunities might come from that.

So please stop being a work up ass and spamming people in their WhatsApp DMS, LinkedIn DMS, Instagram DMS and all of that. So if you must do this kind of cold outreach, follow the person first. Does the person have a podcast? Listen to a couple of episodes so that when you reach out, you can say, hey Bros, I like the episode on this, this, this, this. Remember that for Remi Leko, when she did listen to my own podcast, she didn't agree with everything I said.

And for me, it was really, really nice that this young lady said, oh, I like the podcast. I agree with this, this, this, but I don't know how this one works. After all, what's the whole point of being on LinkedIn? Is it not to sell? And that led to a series of fruitful conversations that I've shared over here on the podcast about how best to sell on LinkedIn. So like, I gave you the person's content, doesn't mean you have to agree with everything 100%.

You can disagree in a very assertive but polite way to say, I understand this. This I'm already implementing, but Bros or but sister, I don't see how this will work or my contacts is different or something like that. It is something. So follow their content, read the blog posts, do the subscribe to the LinkedIn newsletter or whatever, and then engage. If they're a member of the community, engage with the community. Let the community managers see your name, like, oh, we know this guy or we know this girl.

Let them see you offer something of value to the community managers and to the person who owns the whole setup. Then when you've done that for about a month or so, when you now start asking for free advice, you're not going to be a worker pass. You're going to be somebody like who is like, oh, that's Daniel. He's a strong member of the community and what's his problem? OK. And then people are now trying to help you out to solve the problem.

Even if you don't get a response from the person who owns the community, like, OK, listen, like Niger brand chick, another Niger brand chick, she has a bunch of communities, whether Telegram or adult. So Niger brand chick might not respond herself to your inquiry. But because you're a member of the community, people have been seeing you in the community, have been seeing your activity. Community members would now start responding and saying that OK, for this your problem, try this for this your problem.

This is how I solve this or Niger brand chick. She was in podcast episode where she said this. Listen to this or she put out a A blog post where she said that. Read it. The answer to your solution. Sorry, how how is that? How does it go the solution to your question? Yeah, solution to your question is there. So that is how you go about it. Please, future Daniels and Remile Kunz and Abdul Kadiros and whoever realize that there's a better way to go about it.

I will not stop making these episodes. OK, well, the time I'll stop making these episodes is when I stop receiving these messages in my in my inbox. Our Lord knows if I'm receiving this kind of activity in my inbox. Me that I'm a small boy. I can imagine what Dangote is Instagram DM must be like. Or Nigel. Yeah. Nigel Branch chick. I can imagine what hers must be like. In fact, Tony Elumelu, I wouldn't be surprised if maybe after a while he even shuts down his LinkedIn account because all of this is too much.

Anyway, you get the point. It's over 23 minutes, so let me wrap it up here. Tomorrow, we'll continue with the Daniel conversation. And then after that, expect some resources that I had recorded to be on an LMS, but I might as well just share over here on the podcast. So connect with me on LinkedIn. My name is Tara Shima. I'm the host of the show. You can find the correct spelling of my name on my e-mail address from the link.

We're listening to this episode. When you connect with me, please, You know, I have no problem with fruitful conversations or if you have questions about things I put up on the podcast. But if you're a worker pass, let me be frank with you. I ignore most of the worker passes, although once in a while I see someone like I saw something in Remy Leko and I saw something in Daniel, and I said, OK, you know what? Let me engage.

Let me give this person one or two tips. Let me see how I can pay a couple of things, a couple of things forward. Also, connect with me on WhatsApp. The phone number is 08064662140. The country code is +234. For those of you who are not Nigerian, thank you very much for your time and attention. I'll catch you guys at the next episode where we will continue with conversations with Daniel.