Building Your Personal Brand in the Low-Voltage Industry with Josh Bowman

Unlock the secrets of personal branding and elevate your career in the low-voltage industry with insights from our special guest, industry veteran Josh Bowman. This episode promises to transform your understanding of how personal branding can open doors to elite opportunities and strengthen client relationships. We dive into Josh's insights on transcending beyond logos and taglines, focusing on the perception others have of you, fostering a professional identity that resonates and inspires.

Explore the inspiring world of low-voltage contracting where quality and safety are paramount, and learn how these elements can become cornerstones of your personal brand. Our conversation with Josh highlights the significance of mentorship and transparency, showing how sharing field and office experiences can pave career paths for future generations. We discuss the art of crafting an authentic online persona, exploring the strategic use of social media to showcase expertise while maintaining authenticity and vulnerability.

Step up your social media game with our comprehensive guide on leveraging platforms like LinkedIn, TikTok, and Instagram to boost your business branding and career development. Learn about common pitfalls to avoid and the importance of consistency to keep algorithms and audiences engaged. Josh's seasoned perspective offers a balanced approach to harnessing social media's potential without being overwhelmed, emphasizing strategic planning for a sustainable online presence. Join us as we navigate the path to building a powerful personal brand in the low-voltage field.

Chapters

• 0:00 Personal Branding in Low Voltage Industry
• 13:46 Personal Branding for Low Voltage Contractors
• 18:33 Building Authentic Personal Brand Awareness
• 29:05 Social Media Strategy for Contractors
• 39:13 Social Media Mistakes and Consistency
• 47:01 Contacting Josh for Telecommunications Information

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hey, wire and Wonkeys, welcome to another episode of let's Talk Cabling. This week we're talking about personal branding. Welcome to the show where we tackle the tough questions submitted by installers, technicians, project foremen, project managers, estimators, customers. We are connecting at the human level so that we can connect the world. Wednesday night, 6 pm, eastern Standard Time. What are you doing? You know I do a live stream.

Speaker 1: 0:39

You get to ask your favorite you know that's me favorite RCDD any kind of question on installation certification design. You know that's me favorite RCDD any kind of question on installation certification design. You name it, even career path questions. But I can hear you now. But, chuck, I'm driving my truck at Wednesday nights at 6 pm. I don't want to get into a crash. It's okay, I record them and you can watch them at your convenience. Just make sure that you've watched them on letstalkedcablingcom or you know one of the other social media outlets. We'll pump it out to at some point in time, while this show is free and will always remain free. If you find value in this content, would you mind clicking that QR code right there? You can buy me a cup of coffee. You can even schedule a 15-minute one-on-one call with me after hours. Of course, I can ask again any of those questions of your concern.

Speaker 1: 1:25

So this week we're going to talk about personal branding. Now I know here's the problem the audience is split in half. Half of you know what personal branding is and the other half is like what the heck is that? Even if you don't know what your personal brand is, you still have a personal brand and if you can leverage it, you can make yourself become more successful in your career, attain better quality employees, better employers, better customers. So why would you not want to pay attention to your personal branding? And it really seems to fall under. You know, I think the dividing line is the boomer generation. After the boomer generation, you know, after the boomer generation. You know, millennials were raised with computers and they understand that they got an online presence and that they can leverage that online presence to make themselves more successful.

Speaker 1: 2:17

Obviously, I have a personal brand and you know, for example, my catchphrase. You know, everybody knows it. It's knowledge is power. Right, that's my catchphrase. And my corporate colors and my face is my brand and I talk to people all the time they're like oh yeah, I know you. I was sitting at a Bixie conference one time, sitting at the table, the dinner table at the awards banquet, and I was talking to a friend of mine. You should usually sit with people you don't know and this guy finally says to me he goes, I know you, you're the guy with the podcast. So, yes, you can build a brand and that could forge a new relationship.

Speaker 1: 2:56

And I'll be the first to tell you while I may seem to be successful at personal branding, I still struggle with it big time. I really do so, I wanted to there with a big time. I really do so I wanted to. There's a lot of people out there who have social media branding. Some people are really good at it, some people suck at it. So I wanted to do a show and I want to bring on somebody who's well more versed in personal branding than I am, so we can talk about this. So I want to welcome to the show Josh Bowman. Josh, how are you doing, my friend?

Speaker 2: 3:24

I'm doing great, Chuck. Thanks for having me on my pleasure.

Speaker 1: 3:28

So why don't you go ahead and give us the 30-second highlight?

Speaker 2: 3:36

Who's Josh Bowman and who do you work for? Great yeah. So I've actually been in the low-voltage industries for 32 years, which is a lot for a 46-year-old. So I grew up working in audiovisual electronics in the family business. That grew into IT and structured cabling, telephone, obviously the AV controls and security. I've worked as an installer, on the ladder, project manager and operations manager and on the manufacturing side, especially in security, in sales, as well as product management and the big reason I'm here today, of course, marketing. I was recently a director of marketing for a cloud video surveillance and access control product. So I've done a lot and also have my own little podcast called 49 Volts, which you were recently a guest Proud to have you on. You were recently a guest Proud to have you on.

Speaker 1: 4:30

So yeah, very, very big on this message you're giving today about personal branding. Yeah, I had a blast. I certainly suggest to anybody who's listening to the show check out Josh's podcast because it's on low-voltage industry, but his is more focused towards security and stuff. Right now I'm kind of more broad-based. So during your show, when I was on your show, I said I'm not niche, I'm super niche. I guess that makes you super, super, super niche Because you're even further defined than I am Right. So there you go, it's all about niche. So let's talk about basics when you have the low voltage industry in mind. Thinking about this because I also have a degree in marketing too, so I just don't put that out there very often so, keeping the low-voltage industry in mind, how would you define personal branding?

Speaker 2: 5:16

So I think it's pretty easy to define, but I think it's often misunderstood. And I would start to explain that, even to explain what a person thinks of when you say branding for a company. Even you know, a lot of times they'll point, like to the Nike logo on their shoe and they'll say, hey, that's a brand. Well, no, a brand is not the logo. A brand is what you think of when you see that logo. And so, in the same respect, when you talk about personal branding, you really talk about something that's very important, which is what do people think of when they see you, when they see your name, when they see you out and about you know what? What are the thoughts that they have about you? It's a. It's kind of a modern way of looking at reputation. And, like you said, I think you know folks that you know.

Speaker 2: 6:01

Obviously I'm in a weird age, I'm a Gen Xer, that's 46, but I started really young. So I kind of grew up working with all the same boomer generation folks like yourself as well as prior. And you know, there was it back then. It was just, it was almost a direct result of your relationships, you know. So if you hired Tony into the office and Tony worked with Gary and he would say, man, gary was the best estimator ever, you know, or Gary was a great project lead and could run the best project. That's kind of how you knew who was good or not or how qualified they were, or whether you may like them or not, was almost simply just because you knew somebody that knew them. And in this world it's very different now.

Speaker 1: 6:45

It absolutely is. It's way different because I've been in the low voltage industry since 1982. You do the math because you might be listening to this podcast a year from today, so well, over four decades. I didn't start off as young as you because I didn't get into the low voltage industry until I was about 18, maybe a little bit older, maybe even 19 now that I think about it. But it has changed a lot and you're right, it's all about reputation. I mean, when you think about, say, for example, just kind of use some personal branding that I'm kind of aware of because I'm all over social media. It's funny when I teach classes and stuff, if I mention the name Sean Rep, a lot of people in our industry automatically know oh, that's the guy who dresses the cable really nice, that's his brand.

Speaker 1: 7:37

That's his brand and again he's taking it above. Now there might be other people out there who might dress cable just as well as Sean Rep, but they're not putting it out there for people to notice and I can attest several examples. I don't want to call people out by name, but several examples of people who've leveraged their personal branding to get the job that they want or get job offers Because people see it, or get job offers right Because you know people see it. You know this is all we can talk about audiences and where to post and all this stuff later.

Speaker 1: 8:08

But you know that's going to, that's going to garner somebody's attention and they're going to say I've even had opportunities to get people on the show because they know me through the podcast and they would know that if I wouldn't be working on my personal branding all the time. And you know it, personal branding is a, it's a, it's a, it's a life of its own almost, and you gotta, you gotta baby it and you gotta protect it like you're, like your newborn baby child. That's why you know you'll never see me do any posts on politics, ever, ever. You want to divide people.

Speaker 1: 8:44

Yeah, I get it. If I, if I was, if I was just chasing numbers like chasing audience members, yeah, I would do politics and I'd get people riled up and that'd get people you know either for or against or whatever. But that's not what I'm about. Right? I don't measure my personal success by my numbers. I measure my personal success by the number of emails or people coming up to me at conferencing. Chuck man, because of your podcast, I I'm stuck from rcdd now, or I got this job. I learned this, learned that that's how I measure my success. No, don't get me wrong. I pay attention to numbers, just like everybody else does, because that's how the algorithm rewards you.

Speaker 1: 9:19

Right, right, so right. Personal branding for me has been obviously extremely important because of the podcast and all this stuff. Do you think branding, personal branding, not branding, but personal branding is important for the low voltage industry? To the, to the technician in the field, to the, to the project manager or maybe the designer?

Speaker 2: 9:41

I think it's important to everyone. You know so, again, if you think about, like an example, of a Nike logo, you know what do you think of when you see that that logo, again, it's the brand that you're drawn to because you feel like, okay, it gives me the performance that I want, it's what athletes use, it's you know. I know that it's synonymous with style and quality, whatever it may be. You know that same type of mindset is what we're trying to get everyone here to understand is it's not about being vain, it's not about, you know, getting on and talking about politics and things that get people riled up. It's. It's an opportunity that every day, with just a little bit of time spent, that you can show the world who you are and what you're about, and you can show them. You know, yeah, if you're in the field man showing that quality of work and there's been so many great examples of like. There are people in the cabling industry, for example, like you're mentioning that there are people across the globe that understand the quality of their work and I promise you, when those individuals find themselves in need of looking for employment, looking for another job, they've made themselves very employable and they're going to be very desirable and hopefully, you know, will command a very good salary.

Speaker 2: 10:56

And I think you can do the same kind of things whether you're in the field and I think it's very easy to focus on the quality but also in the office. You know, when you're in the office, a lot, of, a lot of your job is to help bring revenue to the company. Right, you know you got the folks out there doing the work. You need to make sure the work's coming in. Whether you're selling to customers, whether you're you're going after bid work, the same kind of questions always come up.

Speaker 2: 11:29

I mean, do you have examples of the quality of your work? You know, what kind of organization are you, what are your values? I mean these things are all very important and it's part of that personal brand that you can kind of put out there and you can build that and it makes life easier. You know, when you can show people what you're capable of and the type of individual you are really really benefits you. But it's a good point that you made because you could do really really well at that. And if you get on angry one day and you're posting with emotion and not strategically, you can really damage all of that work. So you know it's important that that brand is. It's your way of showing your knowledge, your quality, it's your contribution to the community in your industry and always be focused on that.

Speaker 3: 12:13

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Speaker 1: 12:53

It boils down to messaging, right, you got to pick what your message is and that's why you know if you actually look at all my stuff across the three pillars of the podcast educate, encourage and enrich right, if I post something political that doesn't fit any one of those three and that's the filter that everything I post goes through, and if it doesn't meet one or more of those, then as far as I'm concerned it's none of the world's business. It just isn't, and it can be anything from politics to the type of motorcycle I ride, to whatever it is, what it is, and everything goes through that filter. So, when talking about personal branding, would it look the same as to somebody in the field, as opposed to personal branding to somebody in an office?

Speaker 2: 13:42

I think it could, but it also can be very different Again. So if you're in the field, it's very easy to focus on the quality of your work. Also, the safety of the work that you're doing is very, very important in today's world. It can be a way to highlight your respectfulness to the customer site or to the job site that you're on, as well as provide a window to the world about. You know what a day in your life is. You know there could be some young folks that are coming through school right now trying to figure out what they want to do in life, and you know they may not want to go work in a big office tower somewhere. They're trying to think of what some other jobs are. I mean, here's an opportunity to show them. It may not seem exciting to you that you're loading reels of cable into a van, but that's showing people what a day in the life is. So I think there's a lot of things very specific that you can show in the field that can be a little different in the office, and I think in the office it can be sort of you know the environment that your office has, the knowledge that you have, maybe sharing some of your journey and how you got to the place where you were, you know, moved on from the field and into the office, maybe being able to highlight some of the comparisons for those out there in the field, uh, that maybe want to get to that place. And you know we've all. We've all gotten here because we've had mentors.

Speaker 2: 15:00

And we talked on my podcast last week about, you know, a gentleman named Jim Martin that we both have a lot of experience with.

Speaker 2: 15:07

You know Jim was one of those folks that you know he's like the same age as my dad, but he treated me like a friend.

Speaker 2: 15:14

You know he was always there to offer good advice, help me out if I needed a job when I was younger, tell me what places to go and not to go, how to behave and not to behave and, of course, told me all kinds of crazy stories about when he was younger. That was a lot of fun to listen to. So, you know, as as we move up in the world, we do have a responsibility, and part of our brand, in my view, should be that we're trying to help other folks kind of get on that path and grow their careers too, and I think if you're in the office. That's one of the best personal brands that you could have and we'll pay you back because if you find yourself in need of a job or you're trying to move your career forward, that is the type of leadership and that's the type of environment that all these low voltage contractors are looking for. You know, they're not looking for selfish people to come into the office. They're looking for people that want to come in and and help the team grow.

Speaker 1: 16:10

You said, guys, so much of those stuff here I'm writing notes as we go along. You give me so much stuff for fodder. But yeah, you, I mean that again. So you know, when you, just you just use me as an example. As for personal branding, you know, cause it's to me it's all about giving and and that that can be kind of draining over a long period of time. That's a whole different, that could be different shows. How do you, how do you, find inspiration to keep going when you're doing personal branding and social media? But that's, that'd be a show upon itself. But yeah, you know you. You, what happens is because, because I've got four years into this and people know that now they know me, they know that.

Speaker 1: 16:48

You know, my show is not about. There are people out there do stuff just to make money, and there's people, and there's nothing wrong with that, ok, but that's not the intent of the show. But because of the approach that I take, I've had many people say, oh, check, well, you've given so much of this industry, let me help you with that, or let me help you, you know, and they want to be a part of this journey. And that's what I find, find, find find you know so successful. And when you're talking about you know you know personal branding and stuff. You're talking about doing social media. Maybe a project manager? Maybe you might do a thing on project management tips or how to work through certain situations. Estimators you might do a show on different types of estimating how to talk to a customer who they just don't want to put in the right cable or they want you to splice the cable against standards. There's lots of ways that you can approach this. I mean lots of ways and I will say this the technicians, they're hands-on, they're tactile learners, so they love showing their work. I have no lots of ways and I will say this the technicians, you know they're hands on, they're tactile learners, so they love showing their work. I have no problem with that. I love looking at good cable work. But I will tell you this if you start posting your work on social media two big hurdles and you touched base, you touched one of them already Make sure you have permission from the customer to be taking pictures of there's very sensitive networks, right?

Speaker 1: 18:10

Because yes, I've seen it more than once. Somebody posts a picture of Iraq at somebody, at some client's place, and it's got like on the on the surface, it's got the IP address. Yeah, you open yourself to all kinds of problems, all kinds of problems there. Get permission first, and then the second thing I highly suggest is, if you're gonna be taking pictures of your work, make sure that you're doing it right. Right, there's a lot of people they do. I go by the 80 20 rule. You 80% of the people are doing the work almost perfectly. I look at pictures all the time and they focus on one thing, like dressing in the cave. Oh, that looks so beautiful, yeah, but I don't see the rack is not bonded to the ground yet. I see you didn't put the caps on the ladder rack. Make sure you got all your I's dotted and all your T's crossed, because you will be setting that example if you're doing it on the technical side, right On the hands-on side.

Speaker 1: 19:10

The technical side, because there's lots of people out there now. There's All Green Lights, there's Low Volt Warby, there's I already mentioned Sean Repp and there's several others out there. You know Geek IT, tech and Avenger Security and a bunch of other people doing all kinds of stuff. Yeah, how do you stand out amongst the crowd of low voltage content creators now?

Speaker 2: 19:33

Well, I think the first thing is to get started. You're never going to stand out, not getting involved. And I think another good tip that I always have is to get started. You're never going to stand out, not getting involved. And I think another good tip that I always have is to be yourself.

Speaker 2: 19:42

You know, if you try to copy and mimic someone else's persona, their brand, and you're not being yourself, that makes you kind of phony and that is not attractive to people. You know we don't sort of like you know, chuck, we don't need another Chuck, we have Chuck. You know what we need, sort of like you know, chuck, we don't need another Chuck, we have Chuck. You know what we need is someone else that brings something else to the table. And I think we're all, even when we have similar roles and similar jobs and similar tasks, we all kind of bring our own touch to things. And so I think the best way to stand out is to not be afraid to get involved. And to your point, you know if you, if you put yourself out there, you're going to show a mistake now and again, or you're going to make a mistake or you're going to say something incorrectly, and you know part of your brand should be that openness to have discussion, you know, with the community and learn from it. I think that is very appealing to everyone, including a potential employer down the road.

Speaker 2: 20:40

But, you know, don't be afraid to get out there and do it. Don't be afraid that you're not going to be perfect, because no one is. But then don't go out and try to repeat what somebody has already done. I mean, I can't tell you, if you just look at YouTube out there, if you got kids like I do, you know they all know about Mr Beast. You know he's this giant YouTuber with just millions and millions of views on every video. And there are millions and millions of people out there trying to pretend to be Mr Beast and no one cares, no one watches their videos because we already have a Mr Beast, you know.

Speaker 2: 21:13

So, be yourself, be authentic, be sincere, be genuine. That is what is most appealing to people online when they're looking at things like this. You know, if you're, if you're going to go out and be that inflammatory type of person, I think that's a whole other career and do that somewhere else. But then you can be whatever you want. But if you're going to, if you're going to be speaking to a community of professionals. You know they of professionals. They want to see somebody who's really being themselves and I think people really identify with that.

Speaker 1: 21:45

Yeah, yeah. You gain credibility if you show people that you are vulnerable, that you make the same mistakes that they did. I did it. Now this has been two years ago, now it's been quite a while. I did a show on something or another. I don't even remember what it was now and whatever it was that I did, or whatever it was I said, was wrong. And then somebody in the comments said point out to me, chuck, that's wrong, said oh my gosh.

Speaker 1: 22:14

I was wrong, and so I did the very next show. I did the whole entire show about Chuck messed up. I was wrong Because, you know what? There's not a person walking on this earth right now who hasn't made a wrong decision or made a mistake in their life and learned from it. So the best you can do is show that you are human and you're walking the same pathway as everybody else.

Speaker 2: 22:38

No question, tdm. Those are two pretty big books. They don't appear to be getting any smaller. Nobody, regardless of passing that exam or not, nobody remembers everything all the time and you're going to encounter new situations that you've not seen before. Or maybe you're working with a new product and you've not worked with it before and you're just not familiar with how it was intended to be used. Um, I've worked for manufacturers for a decade now. Let me tell you they don't always think about you know the real world out there, so you know they take for granted sometimes that something will be obvious. That is not. So never, yeah never be afraid to to be wrong about something and to learn, and you'll find that your community you know they'll be honored at the opportunity to provide some feedback and to help you out.

Speaker 1: 23:32

And it becomes a two way street. At that point it does, and that's what it boils down to. People want to relate, people want to be able to be in a relationship and you can't be in a relationship with somebody. And when I say relationship, I don't mean boyfriend, girlfriend, I mean talking. It could be anything from peer to peer, friend to friend, whatever. You know, we are social animals and we want to be part of something, and if you've got somebody that you perceive never makes a mistake, you put them up on a pedestal. You will never relate to that person. Never relate to that person. I'll be the first to tell you, I make mistakes all the time. I probably made three mistakes already today.

Speaker 2: 24:15

That's my quota.

Speaker 1: 24:19

The key is what do you do with those mistakes, right? Do you just sit there? And dwell on them or do you learn from them? That's it's, it's what you do with, that is what really kind of Well, you have to think about yourself.

Speaker 2: 24:28

Are you drawn to somebody who is so overly perfect that they almost feel arrogant and kind of stuck up? And you know that's nobody's really into that and we don't expect people that we care about to know everything under the sun or to never mess up, and you know it's it's it's about having a mutual respect. But a big thing that you're pointing out here and saying that as part of the value of this personal brand is the fact that you know, as you build an audience, these are people that build a relationship with you even though you've never met them and you're really you're providing a lot of value and benefit to people. I mean, this is part of the appeal of what people kind of say and I have to say it in a negative way but you know this, this new influencer economy that exists and it's really how a lot of marketing is done now, you know, through these influencers, because the audience builds a relationship with them. So, as you said, we're niche and super niche here. You know we're working on kind of a smaller, more focused type of an audience.

Speaker 2: 25:32

But you know this kind of stuff is important to people. You know they're looking for content that helps them grow. They're looking for people that they can relate to. You know, for the younger pups out there, they're looking for good role models to help them learn and grow and get better in their career. So you can really set a great example. There's always somebody.

Speaker 1: 25:53

There's always somebody who doesn't have the same amount of experience that you have and they're looking to learn and they're watching you. You know, being a parent, you learn this pretty quickly. Kids. You have to treat your kids as if they're watching you all the time. Because they are watching you all the time, because I mean I can tell you as a parent. You know, more than one occasion I had my kids say something. I'm looking, I'm like where'd you get that from? From you, dad. And then you think about and you go oh, yeah, yeah he did get that from me.

Speaker 1: 26:23

Good or bad, right?

Speaker 1: 26:24

so yeah, good or bad right and you do and I love the word relationship because you know I I'll never be a beast and giving you know, multiple millions of people following and stuff and I've got a really small audience when you compare it to that. But my audience if I miss and it doesn't happen often, if I miss publishing out a podcast on a Monday, tuesday, sometime Tuesday, by end of Tuesday I guarantee I'll have 15, 20 emails. Chuck you okay. What happened to you? You didn't publish something tonight Because I built a relationship with them.

Speaker 3: 27:03

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Speaker 1: 28:14

You know, when you look at the vast array of social media platforms out there right there's Clapper, tiktok, instagram, facebook, linkedin, youtube and probably a dozen more that I'm not naming Right how does somebody choose which one's going to be the best for them, keeping in mind we're doing a professional brand?

Speaker 2: 28:40

I think, first of all, don't sleep on LinkedIn. I know there's a lot of silliness with you know some of the recruiters telling stories about what they did as an executive of their one person company. So the stories don't seem possible. There's a lot of you know, on any social platform you're going to have some posing and some stuff like that, but in general that is like a directory now. I mean I kind of see LinkedIn as the modern phone book. So if you are a business, you need to have a LinkedIn page and it needs to be carefully curated as far as the brand of the business it needs. And you'd be surprised how many local contractors don't do that. I mean that's why I started my company. I mean it's just a huge missed opportunity. And that is your chance. When you go out and bid on a project, you know, with the large GC, with the large architectural firm, there's your chance to show them what you are. I mean to show your work, to show your experience level, to show your people. By having a company page, everybody can be associated with that and yes, I am walking a long path here, but you know so it's very important from a company perspective. Now extend that to yourself. You know, think about why you're doing this. You're trying to build a career for yourself and you're trying to build a community that you're a part of and you're trying to build a following that will you, that will understand the value that you bring, because again in this modern age, we have this advantage we didn't used to have. And so, starting first, where should you go? Linkedin, I mean. That is a business first community there. But also, don't sleep on, I tell you, I, from a marketing perspective, I've really embraced social more and more over the last few years and you know kind of wish that I had embraced it many, many years ago. And one that I've come around on which, from a cybersecurity perspective, it's. It's not perfect in my eyes, but TikTok has a huge following. I mean you can develop and that Avenger security is an example of where that guy gets. I think he had, in the last quarter, 1.6 million views, I think he said when he was on my other podcast.

Speaker 2: 30:50

I mean you know you can take and repurpose a lot of these same videos in the same four by three format and post it on LinkedIn, you can post it on TikTok, you can post it on TikTok, you can post it on Facebook. So I mean, I think the answer to that question is actually always going to change. I think LinkedIn should always be a component of it, because of the business value and, in fact, your employer. If you're putting out content that is positive and is a good reflection on them, the fact that you associate your profile with the fact you worked at that company and you tag your employer, you know, when you're posting these things, you're providing great benefit to them. That is never going to hurt your career. But then go out. You know, honestly, I think you're going to do a lot.

Speaker 2: 31:32

We've seen a lot, especially in the security industry.

Speaker 2: 31:34

There are a lot of accounts that do extremely well on Instagram and they primarily focus on producing reels TikTok again.

Speaker 2: 31:43

There's a huge opportunity there. You'd be surprised how many people are getting news and information on TikTok now. It's not just funny music videos like it used to be. Yeah, facebook is still pretty big too, and don't be afraid to engage in those groups on Facebook as well, as well as Reddit. You know, I've actually been able to share a lot of information and learn a lot of information on Reddit. So I think I think you kind of start with LinkedIn and then I think you know you're going to grow your most of an audience, or more of an audience, faster on something like TikTok or Instagram. You know where you have a lot more users, but you know kind of let your own preferences guide you from there. You know, if you want to use a social media tool, if you want to spend 10, 12 bucks a month and use a scheduler, you know you could probably very easily push that content to all those platforms or focus on the two or three that mean the most to you.

Speaker 1: 32:44

Yeah, the social media scheduling tools are a lifesaver. A lifesaver, and my advice is pick one social media platform first, depending on which audience you want Work with that. Find out what resonates with that one before you move on. Because if you try to apply what resonates with the LinkedIn audience to what is going to resonate with the TikTok audience, you're going to find it's not going to resonate somewhere Because those are two different audiences.

Speaker 1: 33:10

Yeah, right, and LinkedIn right now is the wild, wild west it is. I mean, their algorithm is really favorable to content creators right now it is. So if you look at my LinkedIn content, that content is usually more geared towards professional development and engineering level audience Okay, or people who are really interested in a career. My TikTok audience is more geared towards people in the field, right, people working with their hands. And you hit the nail on the head TikTok is TikTok. My TikTok audience is growing way faster than any of my other things right now. That's why I'm kind of real leery. That's why I got on Clapper, because of all the talk about TikTok being banned and all that stuff and I was looking for a backup and stuff and even Clapper I've only been around for a few months. I'm already at like 500, and I haven't really been working on it that hard. I mean because I got to figure out how to put Clapper in my scheduler tool.

Speaker 1: 34:14

Some reason it's not allowing me to do it yeah, you're gonna find it down sunday nights I do all my posts sunday nights and and then you know, bam, bam, bam, it puts it out, you know, throughout the week. So that way, I'm not because it can, it can be a treadmill, you can't that. You'll get on there and you start thinking about the social media posts and and it's exciting at first, you know it's exciting at first, but then you know, when you're six months into it, a year into it, it's a weight around your neck and that's something you've got to balance Well and.

Speaker 1: 34:44

I think you've got to.

Speaker 2: 34:46

No, as I said I mean. That's why I think it's important also to understand what your mission with this is. So if you don't have to go to the extent that maybe Chuck or Josh goes to with this, you know I'm building a marketing agency and I'm also marketing organizations and helping people market themselves. Lot of time in the social media scheduling tools right, I mean it. It it's a lot of work, but as an individual, you know, just set enough time aside that you can have some fun with it and that you're at least participating and getting your feet wet and getting started.

Speaker 2: 35:21

You know you don't have to take it all. You don't have to eat the whole elephant in one bite, um, you know and kind of find your groove, find your fit, find you know what, what's appealing to you, because if you're not having fun with it, your audience isn't going to enjoy it either, you know. So give yourself a chance to wander through it a little bit and find your cadence. You know that works for you. Because, again, I think that's the big thing in all of this is that you're not trying to be Chuck, you're not trying to be a vendor security, you're not trying to copy what somebody else is already doing. You know you gotta be you. And it may sound weird, but when you first start recording yourself, we don't always know who. We are right, we're not used to looking at ourselves.

Speaker 2: 36:04

We're not used to. Just you know and and I've you know if you look at some of the places I've worked and in marketing, there's thousands of videos of me out there. It's kind of funny over the time where you can watch and kind of see how it really changed. You know where I kind of arrived at who I am and what I really do, and that has been where I've been most successful. But you don't know that at first because you're not. It's not normal for all of us to be on camera. You know, think of how many people don't even want to have the camera on when they do a Google meet or a Microsoft teams meeting. You know those cameras are always off. So, uh, it takes a minute for you to get comfortable and find yourself.

Speaker 1: 36:44

So, yeah, it's called finding your voice and you're absolutely right. I mean, every once in a blue moon I'll go back and listen to my first episode, and I only listen to it, just so I can appreciate how far I've developed my skills. Don't get me wrong, I got plenty of room to develop even further, but sometimes when you get in your daily grind you don't realize how far your journey has gone until you sit back and reflect, and that's why I listen to it. I still can't make it all the way through that first episode Very monotone and it's funny.

Speaker 3: 37:18

And here's something.

Speaker 1: 37:19

I don't think I've ever put this out there publicly, but that very first episode I recorded it in my closet with a bunch of coats and stuff hanging, the sound deadener so that way the sound would be real. So I was in my closet with my laptop on my on my lap and then the microphone in front of me and you and you mentioned the thing about cameras. You know you do. A lot of people, a lot of people, don't like cameras and in fact you know when I, when I first started going, when I first started my first stuff on camera let's Talk.

Speaker 1: 37:53

Camera is not my first vlog slash podcast attempt. It's the one that's most successful and the one I put the most energy into, but it's not the first. I've had other ones out there and I was always the person who didn't like to be on camera. I hated being on camera. My company sent me to New York to corporate to make some videos and I did so horrible that they couldn't use any of the footage. That's how bad I was and the way that my brain operates is. I don't like to fail and I came back so humiliated I was like I'm going to fix this and that's what kind of got me into being in front of the camera.

Speaker 1: 38:34

I started off with those other vlogs first and then I kind of, at some point I was like you know, I'm at the end of my career, I need to make an impact in my industry and that's why I kind of shifted and started doing the lifestyle game. So nobody's natural about being in front of the camera, so don't, don't be. And you know, another thing I hear quite hard to do is people, people die, people will, will not do anything from analysis, paralysis. They'll sit there and they'll. Oh, I gotta get this equipment or I gotta get that, I gotta do this, I gotta do that. And, to quote think media, sometimes you just gotta push record and just go. Yeah, you just got to go.

Speaker 3: 39:13

What are some of the common mistakes that you?

Speaker 1: 39:15

see as a person with a marketing background and social media presence. What's a common mistake that you?

Speaker 2: 39:23

see people make. I think it's the things that I keep mentioning. First of all, I think, trying too hard to copy someone else and not allowing yourself the space to find your own voice. I think that is a very frequent mistake and one that really causes people to get discouraged and not keep going. I think the other mistake is just what you said paralysis by analysis, where we're so focused on what we see out there and what we think is the ideal content and then never being willing to put any of our own content out there because we're not immediate. I mean, just imagine someone trying to make a home movie and trying to keep up with a Tom Cruise movie. Well, you can't compare where somebody is 30, 40 years into their journey to where you are on day one. It's. You're never going to get anywhere, so you know not giving yourself a chance to start somewhere and get better.

Speaker 2: 40:22

But I will tell you, a big mistake that I see people make is you know you're in that social media environment. You're going to deal with bots. You're going to deal with bots. You're going to deal with people that are trolls, that probably don't know anything about what you do. They don't care, they just want to make you angry and lash out at them because they have nothing better to do. And the bots mimic that behavior or just going out there and, just like you said, driving a nail in your own heart by getting political or posting with emotion and anger.

Speaker 2: 40:53

You know, remember why you're there. You know you're you're. You're focused on your community. You're focused on building your personal brand. You're focused on educating and being part of the community. You're not there for that other stuff, but that other other stuff's going to be there.

Speaker 2: 41:06

You know you need to scroll past it. Don't engage with it. Don't use it as a method to you know it's not a stress reliever. Don't go into a public space and use it as a stress reliever. Deal with that off camera and always post with the right intentions. Always think strategically, not emotionally. Those are the kind of big mistakes that I see out. There is either not getting involved at all or giving up before you get anywhere, or then ruining all the good that you've done because some political things going on and you're all hopped up and you're angry and you think your audience wants to hear that. What you're going to find is half your audience doesn't want to hear that at all and now. The other half of your audience is now following you for a completely different reason, and that doesn't help your personal brand at all. There's plenty of politics out there. I mean that that's not going to bring you anything good, right.

Speaker 1: 42:05

Yeah, the all great points, all, absolutely great points. The only thing I could even add to all those points that you brought up is consistency. Consistency, it doesn't matter if you do it once a day, it doesn't matter if you do it once a week. Yep, it does matter. If you start doing it maybe only like once a quarter, I'm sorry If you're publishing out content once a quarter and you're calling it a podcast, that's not a podcast, that's a sales audio thing.

Speaker 1: 42:35

You got to be consistent, because that way people start expecting it and you do get to. You find yourself in a groove where it becomes easier. I know for me I got around right in my head right now, this very moment I've got at least a dozen show topics in my head right now that if I had the time, if I didn't have a day job, if I didn't have a farm, if I didn't have a, well, I'm always going to have my wife.

Speaker 1: 43:02

If I had unlimited time or unlimited resources, I could easily make a dozen episodes right now. Bam, because I got so much stuff in my head. And so be consistent, because there's people out there that I literally have not posted an episode on their podcast for over a year. Yeah, why do you have a?

Speaker 2: 43:18

you're starting all over again, yeah yeah, oh yeah and it's.

Speaker 1: 43:22

You've lost all that momentum you have.

Speaker 2: 43:24

I mean there's and there's two ways that you're getting momentum. One is your actual audience. You know, because now you have, we all have a show we watch, right? What happens when that show goes on hiatus for two or three years? I don't even remember what was going on, I don't care anymore. And your audience is going to be the same. I mean we are.

Speaker 2: 43:42

We have shorter attention spans right now, not because there's anything wrong with us. We have so much more information coming at us than we did 20, 30 years ago. So if you're not going to stay in my algorithm, I'm not going to remember you. There's too much else to follow. But the other thing is, speaking of algorithm, these, you know, social media platforms reward you for consistent contributions. So if you are getting good engagement from your posts and you're consistently posting, it is now going to say, OK, we need to help this creator. You know and it's not consciously knowing that it's just all part of how the algorithms work, how the models work, and it's going to push your content to more and more people and more and more people will see it.

Speaker 1: 44:32

And be aware of this.

Speaker 1: 44:33

Algorithms change oh boy change all the time yeah be willing to adapt what's clinics would say when that movie um adapt. Overcome right, because you have to be able to be able to. You know, change it the at the at the breeze, changing from east to west, because they'll sit down. Like TikTok did an algorithm change I don't remember how long it was now where they wanted to people start creating content longer than one minute, so they shifted the algorithm to reward videos that were longer than one minute. You have to stay somewhat plugged into what the algorithm wants in order to get it out there and get that message out there.

Speaker 2: 45:15

Sometimes Well, even size limits formats. Also, there's a great career to be had for anyone out there If you really enjoy this stuff and you want to start your own digital marketing agency, like I've done. I mean there's a great career path there, but it is frustrating. Nothing has changed faster and more frequently and requires more upkeep in terms of knowledge than trying to deal with all the different social media platforms. And there are some good newsletters out there. There's a company that sells a scheduler tool, but they have a free newsletter. They're called hey Orca, so if you look them up and subscribe to their newsletter, they actually send you an email.

Speaker 2: 46:01

I think it's like every day with all of the latest. You know what's the new size format for Instagram. You know what's going on with their algorithm, what is it rewarding, what is it not rewarding, and for all the different platforms. So you know, find yourself a few newsletters like that, because you would be shocked at just how frequently and drastically the rules change on these platforms, which goes back to your point. You know, don't eat the elephant all in one bite. You know, start with one or two platforms that you really get to know and get familiar with and get comfortable with before you try and deal with like all 50.

Speaker 1: 46:42

Yeah, I'm not. I'm not on all platforms by any stretch of the imagination, and but I am on. Probably have to count them up, maybe eight or nine and I don't. I'm not looking to grow anymore just because of the time commitments as it is now. I mean, just there's only so many hours in the day. Josh, great, great show, but appreciate you coming on today. If someone needs to get in touch with you cause they want to find out more about you, and what do you do how do they get in touch with you?

Speaker 2: 47:11

Yes, I mean I am most active on a personal level on LinkedIn, but I'm also on all the various platforms, and the easiest way to find a link to everything that we offer in terms of how to find us and how to get in touch with us is to go to BowmanVisionMediacom.

Speaker 3: 47:28

That's it for this episode of today's podcast. We hope you were able to learn something.

Speaker 1: 47:34

Make sure to subscribe so you don't miss out on future content Also leave a rating so we can help even more people learn about telecommunications Until next time be safe.