The Women On Top

Caroline Pennington: LinkedIn Success Secrets & Making the Corporate Leap

• Valerie Lynn

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Ever wondered how to unlock the full potential of LinkedIn for your business?

I sit down with LinkedIn expert Caroline Pennington, founder of Chilled Vino, who shares her incredible journey from corporate executive recruiter to LinkedIn expert.

Caroline reveals the secrets behind making LinkedIn an untapped goldmine for visibility, with only 1% of users posting content.

She offers strategic advice on balancing personal and professional content, ensuring female entrepreneurs like you can grow your LinkedIn presence effectively.

Discover the essentials of optimizing your LinkedIn profile with tangible tips from Caroline.
Understand the benefits of LinkedIn’s premium version and learn to overcome the common fears of content creation.  Caroline provides a roadmap for developing a structured content strategy, including the empowering step of un-connecting from those who hold you back.

But that's not all!

Caroline also shares her entrepreneurial journey, from launching her product- Chilled Vino during the pandemic, to juggling a side hustle alongside a corporate job.

Hear firsthand about the challenges of prototyping, navigating financial hurdles, and the triumphs of a successful product launch.

This episode is packed with actionable insights and inspiration. It’s a must-listen for any woman ready to take her entrepreneurial dreams to the next level!

Get in contact with Caroline:
Website: https://femininefounder.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cpennington55/
ChilledVino:  https://chilledvino.com/

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Speaker 1:

Hello, gorgeous, and welcome to the Women on Top podcast. I'm your host, valerie Lynn, and, with over 15 years of business experience, I became truly passionate about finding ways to support and hear from way more women, and what we know to be true is that women thrive when they are in their favorite position on top. On top in business, in relationships, in personal growth and on top in being real and authentic to who the hell they are. So I invite you to sit back and enjoy the Women on Top podcast, all right? Well, welcome back to the show.

Speaker 1:

Everybody, I am just thrilled and grateful and flattered, honestly, to be sitting here today with this next guest and this woman that we have here with us today. I'm just so excited for everyone listening in because you're going to get a ton of value. This is going to be one of those episodes where you want to take notes or like hit the replay button a bunch of times so you can go back and back and back to listen to what she has to say. So today we have a LinkedIn expert and founder of chilled vino with us. She's also a former corporate executive recruiter who then became really obsessed about teaching female entrepreneurs and businesswomen how to grow and scale and really like develop their brand through the use of LinkedIn, and the woman I have sitting here with me today is Caroline Pennington, and I am just so grateful that you are here.

Speaker 2:

Thank you so much for having me.

Speaker 1:

So of course, you know LinkedIn. I really want to get into this because we were just talking a little bit before we started recording this conversation about how powerful LinkedIn. Um, we know that social media is like the bedrock for any entrepreneur or business or really anything out there right now. To thrive, you have to have a social media presence. But I feel like we're just so consumed right now with things like Instagram and Facebook, so I'm really curious. Place me with their clients and they said why don't you come work for us?

Speaker 2:

So I said, okay, great, I'll help people get jobs, help companies find the talent Wrong. I got on the phone with business owners, hiring managers, hr professionals, and was calling them and talk about their recruiting needs, and they were hanging the phone on me, cussing me out. It was terrible because it was 2010 and the economy was awful, and so they didn't want to talk about hiring or anything because they just laid off all their staff. So I finally made a temporary placement within 30 days. Fast forward 15 years later, I'm working as an executive search recruiter on the agency side, just placing C-suite professionals. So, to answer your question, I was spending a lot of time in my corporate job on LinkedIn and I was recruiting these six, seven, eight figure professionals on LinkedIn.

Speaker 2:

So I had to really get on my messaging, like what was I going to say to them to get them to actually respond to me, and then, once they responded to me, how was I going to keep them, continue to be engaged with the search process? So I fine-tuned all of that for my corporate job, but also because I was on a platform a lot of my a chunk of time of my day in my corporate job, I decided to really dig down into perfecting and really learning LinkedIn and, holy moly, it's literally changed my life and here's why Only 1% of people post content on LinkedIn 1%

Speaker 2:

1%, what I had no idea. Drop the mic right there. Okay, so 1% of people post content and there are 1 billion users with a B. Okay, and so LinkedIn has this reputation of a place that people go to their job searching. It's only for recruiters, job searchers or companies that are hiring, the on-post jobs Wrong. It's now a full-blown professional networking website and they've completely changed everything with the tech so that you can have followers versus connections now, and it's this whole thing. So the 1% of content. To be a content creator on there gets you so much visibility so fast because only 1% of people post on there.

Speaker 1:

Um, okay. So here's my question about LinkedIn, because and I'm sure you get this all the time you know you're we're going to be asking some of the questions that I'm sure you hear on repeat, but I'm I'm just thrilled to have your expertise. So LinkedIn to me feels like again more professional, and I've heard comments like it's so annoying I mean, I've even seen in the comments, I think, of my own posts like it's so annoying that people post personal things on here, yada, yada, yada. So where's the line? Are we supposed to be posting like photos of our family on there? Are we supposed to be posting only professional quotes and knowledge?

Speaker 2:

Good question and I actually I get asked this a good bit because it's like you want to be a person on LinkedIn but you also want to be professional. So it's like where do you, what do you post about? And for me, when I really started deciding to really go all in on LinkedIn, that for me looked like posting five days a week and you don't have to post five days a week, but you got to start posting Even if it's one day a week, or three days a week, or five days a week. I don't even touch LinkedIn at all on the weekends, like Saturday, sunday are off limits for me, like I don't do any posting, I don't do any engaging, like I'm done, I'm off.

Speaker 2:

Um, but I will say the more personal stuff I've done and right now, last, the past year, I was sharing personal stuff once a quarter. Now I'm ramping that up and I'm doing once a month. And so what does a personal post mean? I had a post go viral last year. There was a personal post. My husband and I got a new puppy and I just did a quick picture of the puppy me holding it in the car as we were taking her home and I said LinkedIn, community. I'm interrupting my recruiting content today to let you know about a personal update.

Speaker 2:

And then I talked about this, our fur family and that, and people went crazy over it. I mean, like you would be like what. They went professional crazy over dog photos on LinkedIn. But yes, Now, if I did that all the time, people would be like, ah no, be all put by it, but it was once a quarter and so, and, honestly, the other other times I did personal posts were reintroductions and I would reintroduce myself, just like you put on Instagram and say you know, I'm the host of the Femme Founder.

Speaker 2:

Podcast. I am the founder of Chilled Vino. You know, if you want LinkedIn coaching or if you're an entrepreneur on how to start, grow and scale your personal brand or business, send me a DM and a lot of people. The DMs are funny because people are like oh no, I just get SEO people bombarding me marketing me on the LinkedIn. The same magic that happens in the Instagram DMs happens in the LinkedIn DMs times 10.

Speaker 1:

And again, like we were talking about earlier, is you actually are talking to the person, not their staff which is huge because that's like a direct line of access to them, whereas all of the other avenues right now feel really like convoluted and just there's so much junk on there that to say I get I do get a lot of sales messages. So how do we get around that? Because my thought recently has been well, how, how do they know that I'm not just like some other salesperson and that I'm actually just reaching out to say I really like your page, just thought I'd say hello.

Speaker 2:

You personalize it. I reach out to and DM every single person that comes into my LinkedIn network and I'm going to give you some tea here. In the beginning I was plugging my lead magnet, my newsletter, to grow my email list. Now I just slide in their DMs and say, nice to meet you. I look forward to connecting further and my response rate is close to 90%.

Speaker 1:

Oh my gosh, that's amazing. So it's like we're overthinking this thing. Is that? Is that something you would say to people, I guess, like you know, who are new to it? Is that we're just way overthinking LinkedIn?

Speaker 2:

It's got people have in their minds that they think LinkedIn is just for recruiters or job searchers, and it's literally not that place anymore. It's a totally different place and they just aren't embracing it because I think LinkedIn is maybe like square or too professional or like too uptight or something, but it's not. I literally use emojis in every single one of my posts.

Speaker 1:

Okay, that's good to know, cause I have sometimes removed emojis for the reason of what we're just saying about it being professional. So, okay, you've, you share personal things, but you know we don't want to jam LinkedIn full of personal things. So what are you posting the rest of the time, like what's kind of the very high level simple content strategy that you use?

Speaker 2:

So it's very easy to position yourself as the thought leader and the go-to person on LinkedIn because of the amount of visibility. And so, whether or not, if you're a coach or you're a service provider maybe you're a cpa or financial advisor or a lawyer you provide something in exchange for a service. You want to get on there and start talking about your service. If you're a coach, you want to get on there and start talking about why you're the expert and why the person should hire you. There's probably a million coaches out there that can be hired, but people choose people to work with, and so you have to go out there and start putting your voice out there, but start talking about things that you know as facts within your industry. So one idea for content that I've done that works really well is pro tips, so you could say pro tip and then say whatever fill in the blank that you know in your industry or in your profession is a fact, because guess what.

Speaker 2:

You might think it's silly or stupid or whatever, but the rest of the people following you and watching you, they don't know.

Speaker 1:

That that's a good one. I like that, the pro tip approach, um, and then you know, as we're coming up with content like that, like things that maybe we're just doing, and I try to challenge myself with that too right, because we always think, oh, everyone must know that, know this thing, but they just they don't. And so I guess, like how, how often do you post? You said you post five days a week, but is that, if somebody is just getting going, is that the recommended amount of time to post to really start getting engagement if they have like zero?

Speaker 2:

engagement. So I'm going to start. I'm going to answer your question in a different way, because I think, if you someone listening to this podcast is interested in starting their LinkedIn journey, maybe they're frustrated with Instagram or Facebook or they've spent time or money trying to grow those account or they've even done the advertising game which I've done that for Chilvino waste a lot of money. And the thing about LinkedIn is it's organic Like. I went zero to 7,000 followers in under a year and I spent no money on promoting anything or ads and my content. I went from zero to over 450,000 impressions in under a year Wow.

Speaker 1:

So I got a ton of.

Speaker 2:

It's all organic, and so, before you start posting, you need to set up your profile and you need to optimize it. And what does that mean? Don't see me send me a DM, but no, really you need to set it up so, for success, before you start posting, because once you start posting, you're going to start getting a lot of visibility and you want the visibility to be looking at the right things. And so what is your? I talk about LinkedIn real estate all the time. What kind of picture do you have? What do you have on your LinkedIn banner? Do you have a call to action? Do you have a name pronunciation so that someone can hear your voice when they come to your profile? You have less than three to five seconds to get their attention, and these are all busy professionals. You want to make sure that they know exactly who you are and what you do in a very short amount of time.

Speaker 1:

Before we got on, so for everybody listening, before we got on this podcast recording, I had asked, I had asked Carolyn last night like hey, do you want to look at my profile? You could use me as an example of like poke holes in what I have going on on LinkedIn. So, knowing you know, seeing what you have from my profile as it is now and you know this is subject to change, especially after- this episode.

Speaker 1:

But what are some things maybe that you noticed, given what you just said about, like the banner, so I'm already thinking about that, like I probably need to make some tweaks there. Yeah, curious your thoughts.

Speaker 2:

Okay, For your profile picture you've got to have, and it's funny because sometimes people still even don't even upload profile pictures or they'll have something of like them and their kid, or like them and their spouse, and I'm like no, this isn't Instagram or Facebook or Tik TOK, this is LinkedIn.

Speaker 2:

Like this is your professional resume. Whether or not you're looking for a job, people are looking at it from a professional lens. So like who are you as the professional? So you got to have a professional headshot uploaded. Your banner behind your headshot is a super, super important spot. It's like waterfront real estate. You want it to be very clear about who you are, what you do and how to find you and have a call to action in there. So, whether that they're you're diverting them to your DMS or your email or your website. You need to have that really clear there.

Speaker 1:

And keep in mind too, what you do in a CTA. Yeah, okay.

Speaker 2:

And keep in mind, you can change out your banner at any time. I mean, depending on what I'm doing, if I'm promoting Shilvino or um, I have a membership program called ladies that link when that opens up, that goes on my banner. When it closes, it comes off. Right now I'm promoting my podcast. My my banner is focused around my podcast, and so you can change it out and see what's working based on what you're selling or what you're offering.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I think right now, based on what you just said, I don't have in the, in my banner specifically, I also need the headshot adjusted. Um, but in my banner I do think I need some more information. Like, I recently added an email and just like a couple of things about what I do, but I think even more than that, there needs to be more specific information on there about, like here's more where you can find me or connect with me, or here's what we're promoting, cause I feel like it's it's so easy to just create a banner and just throw something. I mean, we're used to Facebook banners that are just like oh, let me just throw a photo behind this and that's that.

Speaker 1:

But I like what you said about this is like waterfront real estate, so we need to be thinking of that like in a completely different way. I feel like let's add to that. So those two things are like the main things, cause that's what people see right away. But then, but then what, like? What else stands out to you, especially being, you know, your executive recruiter background and all of that?

Speaker 2:

You need to have your titles underneath your name in a setup in a way that, at the end of the day, in a setup, in a way that, at the end of the day, linkedin is an SEO tool. So when and then I just got off a group coaching call about this when you Google Caroline Pennington yes, I have a podcast, yes, I have a product my LinkedIn profile pops up first. So, right under your name, you need to have your titles of exactly what you're doing.

Speaker 1:

So a lot of people make the mistake.

Speaker 2:

They say like project manager at XYZ company and they're given their company a huge amount of power and space in their profile. They should be saying like C-suite, executive, coo. I know project manager is not executive, but I'm just go with me here, yeah, and having the titles of exactly what you do, or I help busy professionals accomplish X Y, z, so people know exactly what you do and how you can help them. And then, too, I mean a lot of people ask me do I do the free version? Do I have the paid version? You can get away and have a great profile on LinkedIn using their free version. The only difference I've found and I do pay for the premium version personally because underneath my name, every single time I post, I can either switch it out for call to action button, visit my website, subscribe to my newsletter or request my services, and so that means every single time I post or comment, that's right there under my name and to me that's worth the additional $30 a month it.

Speaker 1:

That's right there under my name and to me that's worth the additional $30 a month. Oh, I didn't know where that came from. I've seen that on other people's posts and I had no idea that was the premium version. This is good to know about the premium and like what it gets you, because I think that that is something that's really helpful. You can promote different services and you get additional visibility. To that. What else would you say? Like where people commonly you know you've coached quite a bit of people about this, about LinkedIn where are people kind of commonly like misstepping or I mean you already mentioned like with the photos and things of that nature. But are there other things that you see? Like, are they just not commenting on people's posts? Like, what are those other things that we could do to like really maximize our presence on there?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so number one, because LinkedIn is so visible and only 1% of people create content. Most people are scared to create content because they don't know what to say, or they don't want their coworkers to see, or they don't want their boss to see, or they don't want their ex-boss or Susie Q from high school. And my answer to those people are just unconnect from them. And why do you need to be connected to Susie Q from high school? Anyways, you don't. So just go in there and unconnect from her. She's never going to know, she's not going to get a notification and if they're holding you back like that's a problem, Like don't let those people hold you back.

Speaker 1:

So content creation people actually put themselves out there.

Speaker 2:

Number one is very scary for people because the visibility is so high. Number two they don't know what types of content to create. Number three if they are creating content, they don't have a strategy, which is just like the other platforms. You can post all day on Instagram or Facebook, but unless you have a strategy, you're not going to grow.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, do you support people in building that strategy out as well, for how they?

Speaker 2:

yeah, yeah. And content creation strategy, all the setting of your profile to optimize it, because I think you have. You have to have all three pillars to set yourself up for success and then, at the end of the day, you actually have to do it.

Speaker 2:

So a lot of people ask me they'll meet with me for a one-on-one clarity call or consultation and be like okay, yeah, this is great, I'm still going to do all this stuff. Can you just do it for me? And I don't want to do it for you because I can show you how to do it and then you won't need me anymore. Or we're working together on a one-on-one basis, but what I'm teaching is literally not rocket science, like I was an executive search recruiter, I'm a founder of a company, a podcast. Like I didn't have these skills, Like I'm completely self-taught and so if I can do it, you can do it.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I think that's all the more reason people want to work with you is because it's really relatable and it's not like fluffy. You know, sometimes we see these creators out there like I can teach you how to go viral on TikTok and you're just like, okay, there's like 9 million of you. But I think for you, you're very real about your experience and I think it's all been organic, which is a good reminder to all of us that this is like. I mean, I feel like this is like the platform that we're missing, that we're missing out on.

Speaker 2:

This is like the black sheep, I mean, and I think more and more people are getting curious about it and like reactivating their LinkedIn account or coming back to it and revamping it, because it's a different place. I mean because it's got the two portions. Now, where you can, they want creators on LinkedIn, so they have the followers and the connections. It's not as stiff and serious as it used to be.

Speaker 1:

Where do you think it's going to be in like five years time? Where do you think LinkedIn will be by then?

Speaker 2:

I think if you jump on the bandwagon now, you have the opportunity to really explode. I don't care if you're selling offers, services or products. I have both the services-based business and a product-based business. And LinkedIn is the place to be because you don't have to spend the time or the money. You don't have to deal these trends like Instagram, with getting the trending audio and the dancing and the you know the la-di-la-di-la, like I'm tired.

Speaker 2:

You can get on there and just be yourself or be a professional, and you can really create a lot of organic growth for yourself. I think people are going to start posting a lot more on LinkedIn, so the competition will get stiffer, like it has on the other platforms but I think you've got a runway of a couple of years.

Speaker 1:

That's good to know. I think this is also, like that's a marketing point for LinkedIn is, if you're like tired and just exhausted by trying to keep up with all the other trends that are going on with audio and like I don't even know. Like you said, hashtags, do you put it in the comments or do you put it I don't even know? There's just too many rules and they constantly change every day and I just it's, I've got a job already. So something I want to get into is how you have this other company called chilled vino, which I just love. I also love that. You know LinkedIn is supporting that. So I feel like they kind of inner intertwine a little bit. And, if I understand the story correctly, chilled vino was started because you were drinking wine out of like a crappy cup and you were like there's not really a good option for it to stay cold and I don't want to put ice cubes in this thing, so I'm just going to create my own glass. Is that, is that accurate? Do I have the story right?

Speaker 2:

you do have a story right. So in 2018, my husband and I were vacationing and I ordered a glass of rosé by the pool and it came in this, like you said, crappy little plastic, whatever for like 18 or 19 dollars, like ridiculous. And you know I had to chug it because you put ice cubes in it.

Speaker 2:

So I wouldn't you know, but I wanted the experience to be better. Okay, that was my whole point, and so when we got back, I went down a rabbit hole looking to see if there was something online I could find that's like it, that looked and felt like a wine glass but was also shatterproof, and I couldn't find it. So. So I put my recruiter hat on and I was reading the wall street journal one day, and normally I don't even read that paper, so I don't know what.

Speaker 1:

I was doing, it just was fake.

Speaker 2:

And I read about the platform Upwork. I knew about Fiverr already for marketing, but I wrote about Upwork and I knew I needed to hire a mechanical engineer to do this thing for me with me, and so I wrote a job. I wrote an hire a mechanical engineer to do this thing for me with me, and so I wrote a job. I wrote an ad and mechanical engineers applied, which, if you've ever talked to a mechanical engineer, it's like Forza city and yeah. So I finally I interviewed them and I hired the guy who was most excited about me and my idea went down the path of creating it. You have to get the prototyping and drawing it, everything, and I have a patent on the product and trademarks, and that process took about a year and a half and I finally got to a final point after eight prototypes and we had a finished product that I was satisfied with. And so then we had to go out and shop manufacturers. If and if anyone tells you that sclam is, they're full of shit, because it is not like I had to interview.

Speaker 2:

I had to reach out to and solicit thousands of manufacturers. No one would talk to me, no one knew who I was. I got ghosted. I don't even know how many times finally found one manufacturer that agreed to work with me and we started the process. And when you have a physical product, you have to buy what's called a tool, which is something that you own within a manufacturer, and that tool is what makes your product, and that tool that you pay for is yours. You own it, but it's very expensive. So I had a lot of money I had to invest. I was still again at my corporate job, you know, making a six figure salary, so that money was going to fund this and, on top of my bills and everything else, I had to invest in it and make sure I could bring it to life. And when you work with a manufacturer, you have what's called a MOQ, which is a minimum order quantity, and so I had to order thousands off the bat.

Speaker 2:

Oh my gosh Before I could bring it to life. And then also this was, by the way, in the middle of the pandemic life, and then also this was, by the way, in the middle of pandemic and so getting it to me was a nightmare, because everything I paid triple on shipping like you know and at the time, I.

Speaker 2:

So I'm on Amazon now and I have warehouses with that, but at the time everything was coming to my physical house, and so the shipping company said no, we're not shipping this to your house, you have to come get it in Savannah, georgia, where the port is. So my husband and I had to rent a van like the hillbillies and drive down to Savannah and get all my boxes of inventory back to our house. It was like I've got pictures of the whole thing.

Speaker 1:

Oh my gosh, we need to see more of this journey.

Speaker 2:

We need to see more of this journey, like the BTS of how chilled we know started. Oh, it's interesting, but um, I wouldn't change it for the world. I mean, my first day I launched I sold hundreds of products and since then I've sold thousands and I've only had three returns.

Speaker 1:

Oh, my goodness, how exciting such a journey I was that was going to be. My question was like would you change anything? Because that I feel like I was just having this conversation with someone else the other day about like you have to be so in love. She was like you have to be so in love with the problem If you're really going to go create something, and so the problem that you were really in love with was like hello, I want to not have to chug my wine.

Speaker 2:

Well, I live in South Carolina and we like to drink wine on the patio by the beach and the pool out. We're outside a lot in general, and so I just wanted to have create a nice drinking experience so that I didn't have to put ice cubes on wine or have to chug it because it was like a hundred degrees.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I love it, though I mean, you were really committed to the process and I think that that's something that you know. It's really important to highlight this story, because things take time and I feel like I'm sure like were there moments you just completely were like oh God, what did I get myself into? Is this all just a waste of time and money?

Speaker 2:

Oh yeah, there's been plenty of moments that I just want to burn the whole thing down, but I don't. I keep digging in and keep growing and it's been worth it and I wouldn't change it for the world.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, how. How are you marketing your product Like what was the launch, like what did you learn from that experience?

Speaker 2:

I made a lot of mistakes in the marketing department and they have cost me tens of thousands of dollars, a lot of money, yeah. And in the beginning, when I launched it because, again, at this time I was still working full time as an executive recruiter they knew, my employer, that I had the side hustle going on and it was happening. They didn't care, they were like you do your side hustle, it has nothing to do with recruiting, just continue working here making us money Said okay, I'll do both, and I had the time and the capacity as well. And so and I needed the money for Sheldvina, for my corporate job, so I launched it in the beginning myself, and then I knew I needed to give it legs, and so I've invested in all the wrong ways and marketing agencies with content creation and ads on Facebook and Instagram and everything, and so I've kind of been on a roller coaster with that, because that is an expensive habit or vein to feed, and so it's not sustainable, depending on how much I'm making in my corporate job, which is all over the place too, cause when you're a recruiter you work on commissions.

Speaker 2:

So I would hire an agency, get up, go, blow it out. I'd run out of money, I have to spill the plug. Go book my corporate job. It's looked like that, and now a lot of it I do. I did hire a marketing firm to help me out with the Amazon management. That was too much of a bear. I couldn't do it by myself.

Speaker 1:

I tried, and so they helped me with setting up my shop, my ads, everything on there, and so a lot of my activity comes from Amazon now, yeah, that makes that feels like a good Avenue to have your product on and to manage it through, just because of the large channel and probably some of the organization. I just hear these stories and I always think to myself like I don't know how I would stay sane for one and like I don't. I feel like organization would be key, like having all of your systems just somehow documented, because what a thing to manage, and especially during the pandemic. I can't believe like I'm just envisioning you guys driving this van.

Speaker 2:

I mean we look like the Clampettes. I mean it was like not sexy. I was like sweating and like moving these dusty boxes from this port around, like it just was a whole thing. Like it's funny because I love Sarah Blakely the inventory of spanks, obviously and she posts a lot about her like behind the scenes in her early days, and like it is like that it's no joke and you gotta be committed and you gotta be ready for it, because yeah, I feel like entrepreneurs who really are in it are scrappy, like.

Speaker 1:

I just feel like I would describe them as like you have to be like scrappy and willing to go through it and know that it's going to just take a while. It's not just like, you're not just going to go viral and then all of a sudden, your problems are solved. It's not as easy as that.

Speaker 2:

No it takes. I love the quote. It takes a long time to become an overnight success. And it's funny because people at the beginning will be like, oh, how's your little product? She'll be no. And now like, I want Amazon and I've been in it for four years and I've sold thousands and thousands of products and they're like, oh, the tone is a little different. So it's funny because a lot of times people don't start because of that beginning Right, it's such a great like I love.

Speaker 1:

I love seeing business women who have, who are multi-passionate, who have things that aren't just the business Not that that can't be an awesome source of energy for for folks too but I love it when there's like someone who's a CEO and then they also have like a hot sauce company. I actually know someone who does that and you know you can talk about both and I feel like you probably get energy from both. So that was going to be kind of the question as well is do they each kind of feel you in different ways, or how has that felt to you having both of the businesses that you have?

Speaker 2:

They do and people have. People have mentioned to me before. They say, okay, most people either have a service-based business or a product-based business, Like we really meet people that have both, and but both have been something that I've been really passionate about because they help. They help different people solve different problems, and so a lot of the things I do with my coaching business and my membership and everything is me physically, it's my time exchange for whatever fill in the blank that looks like and should we know? I've had to learn how to outsource the things that I can't physically do anymore.

Speaker 2:

And so, but in the beginning I did all of it. So I mean the packing of the boxes, like the thank you note from me, like it was me doing all of it.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I. I'm like picturing somebody drinking a chilled vino or out of chilled vino and creating their LinkedIn profile at the same time, after listening to this podcast, like there is a way to combine the two.

Speaker 2:

They need to get a Chilled Vino while they journey.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, exactly Was the goal for you to leave corporate when you were creating Chilled Vino. Was that like the mission that you were on?

Speaker 2:

Always, and I, everybody knew that it wasn't a secret. And then the LinkedIn thing started and that blew up even faster than she'll do. You know, and yes and I, I didn't know, once I started my LinkedIn journey, what the end goal was going to be.

Speaker 1:

I didn't know if I was still at my corporate jobs.

Speaker 2:

I love my corporate job. The people I worked with. The company was amazing. They let me, you know, basically do what I needed to, as long as I continue to generate revenue for them. But I knew I didn't want to work for someone else and report to anyone else anymore and I just needed to figure out how to continue to grow and scale what I was getting really good at so that I could break free falling.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and LinkedIn really kind of helped you do that. Yeah, 100%.

Speaker 2:

And I did it very visibly because I was connected to all my coworkers, the executive team within my company, the CEO of my own company, like everyone, was watching me and they never censored me, which I was so thankful for, but they were watching me very closely and actually a lot of them like DM me and mess with you right now and they're like show us what you did. I'm sure my waitlist and everything like. They're the first emails coming in, so you never know who's watching, is my point.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I I'm impressed that you were so visible, because I think that's been one of the harder things also for me. I've experienced that, you know, working in the corporate and it's like, how much do you want to show up? And only recently have I kind of been like you know what. It's all good and everyone. I think what I love about this time in life is there's a lot of folks who have side hustles, who are expressing themselves in different ways, and so this isn't like a new thing and um, yeah, but regardless, I'm really impressed that you were just so visible to that and that they got to watch your journey and that's inspiring.

Speaker 2:

Well, I want to add to that too, because a lot of people in general they like to focus on the highlight reel, so they like to focus on oh wow, you're close to 10K followers, you had this membership group and blah, blah, blah. All these stuff now. Okay, that's great, but let's go back like eight months ago, when I was really fumbling, trying to do content. I didn't know what I was doing. It's all messy. Shilvino was messy in the beginning. Linkedin was messy in the beginning.

Speaker 2:

You have to be okay with a mess before you come out and get the highlight reel and people just want to go from a zero to the highlight reel and working with me can speed that process up. But you've got to put in the work. You've got to do the grind and you've got to. You've got to really stay focused, because one thing about LinkedIn is you have to stay consistent. So it's like driving a car Once you put the foot on the gas and you got to go like you can't let it off, because if you let it off, all of the work that you did to even create some kind of momentum is just going to go away and it's so worth it to just stay in it and LinkedIn has so many options. Now, with scheduling Like it'll, you can schedule stuff for you. Most of my stuff that you see is scheduled Um the comment and the engagement is me.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, um, so if you have stuff in life going on, like you're traveling, or kids or parents or whatever, fill in the blank. They have tools in there that you can use so that you can schedule around it we're gonna have to take a look at that.

Speaker 1:

I I know you have a ton of resources, so for anyone listening right now, we're gonna drop her links in the show notes so that you can definitely have ways to access um getting in touch with her.

Speaker 1:

She's got the ladies that link, which I was seeing that such a cool membership to be a part of just so many uh, resources and things that I think can really help amplify our success on there.

Speaker 1:

So I'm I'm just so thrilled that we were able to have this conversation today, um, and as we, you know, kind of come to the end of our chat, I have been asking every guest I interviewed to leave a quote for the next guest, not knowing who they are, and so you'll get the opportunity to do the same, but I want to share with you what the last guest left for you, and she said your light is magnetic and once you shine your light, you attract all of what's meant to be, and I feel like you've been doing that and I just I hope that that you know lands in some kind of way and encourages you to share all of that light, um, like you have with us today. So and curious, you know if anything comes to you, what you would like to share. It can be a quote, it can just be a piece of advice or wisdom.

Speaker 2:

I think I'm going to share it too with you, and I'm maybe breaking the rules here, but I love the it takes a long time to become an overnight success quote. I'm not sure who did that. And then one of my other favorite quotes is from Sarah Blakely is an education will earn your living. A self-education will make you a fortune.

Speaker 1:

Oh, I don't know that I've ever heard that one. That one's great. I love that self-education piece. I think we undervalue that or underestimate the power of that actually, and they go hand in hand actually, like both of those quotes go hand in hand. So I love that. I think that's going to be. It's so interesting asking, you know, these questions because I feel like, for whatever reason, each person who leaves the last quote like it just resonates with the right people. So I'm just, again, I'm so glad that we were able to connect and I just have to say a huge thank you to you for being willing to jump on this, this podcast. I'm thank you honestly, too, for all the education that you're giving, um, especially to women out there. I'm really passionate, of course, about amplifying women's voices and leadership in this world, and I just feel like you really embody that. You are a woman on top, um. Lastly, like, where can everybody come find you? Where can we get in contact with you? Obviously, linkedin.

Speaker 2:

You can come DM me on LinkedIn. You are going to be talking to me, not the staff. For the record, my website is feminine foundercom. I have ways to work with me one-on-one there. I have the wait list for the membership. It'll be launching again in September and then digital courses available If you're just starting out your journey and you don't really know, you're not really ready to commit to a coach yet, but you want to just dip your toe in there there too.

Speaker 1:

Thank you for all of your stories, your wisdom. This has just been so amazing, and I just appreciate you so much.

Speaker 2:

Thank you so much for having me.

Speaker 1:

Thank you for tuning into the show today and before you go, I just have one quick favor to ask of you. There is a really simple way that you can help support me and help support this show, and that is to hit that follow button on whatever app you're listening to the show on. I'm trying really hard to level up the content and deliver unique value and amazing guests and just hitting that follow button is the magic that will help continue to empower that and remember that the world deserves to hear your voice and your stories and you deserve a place at the top.

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Valerie Lynn

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