00:00

Welcome to Make More Money Without Selling Your Soul. The podcast for bold entrepreneurs ready to simplify scale and reclaim their time. I’m Polly Lavarello, Evergreen scaling strategist and cushy business pioneer. Join me and my occasional guests as we explore the themes of wealth, selling and well-being, because building a business that works for you changes everything. Let’s dive in.

00:37

Hello and welcome back to the show. Today, I’m joined by Nicole Gottselig. Now before we get into the conversation, I want to share a little kind of disclaimer. So usually the guests on the show are people I have some kind of relationship with, whether we’ve been in a mastermind together, you know, whether we met at some networking event, or whether they’re a client. I do this because it’s really important to me that I bring on interesting guests who have amazing stories to tell. And I’ll be honest, the majority of pitches that end up in my inbox are so formulaic, I pretty much ignore them, which apologies if you are one of those formulaic pitches, do not be afraid to pitch again this time. Make it personal. But Nicole, when she pitched to come on this podcast, not only, I mean, when you learn that she’s a writer, editor, an all around storytelling powerhouse, you can imagine it was a pitch and a half, and I was really excited to have this conversation in which we talk about money, purpose, visibility, and what happens when you stop waiting for permission and go all in on what you really want, but what was so wonderful, and hopefully you’ll hear this in the conversation, is that Nicole arrived a stranger, and by the end, she felt like a friend. It’s a fabulous story. It’s not your typical entrepreneurial story, and I think it’s going to really inspire and motivate those who of us who’ve kind of held back on our dreams, and what happens when we stop stop ticking boxes and we start doing it our own way? Without further ado? Let’s jump in.

02:09

Welcome to the show, Nicole. Please introduce yourself to my listeners so they get to know who you are. Hello, Polly. I’m so happy to be here. You know, we connected several months ago, and I remember thinking when we connected, oh, I have to wait so long until we we finally get to sit down together. So the day is finally here. And I actually just left the office and I felt like it was Christmas morning. I was so excited to meet you. So that’s a bit of a long winded intro here. My name is Nicole gotselag, and I am a writer, editor, content creator and podcaster based in Berlin, Germany, but originally I come from Canada, so please don’t expect me to speak German to you at all.

02:54

I love that. And you’ve also got the vibious website, by the way, with all the Pac Man and everything else going on, it’s so cool. Yeah, I’m also an 80s girl at heart, and I actually DJ a lot, and it’s always a very similar set. It’s usually 80s popper or 80s New Wave. So if that’s something that ever interests you on another episode, maybe we can get to that. So I love that we’re immediate best friends.

03:18

So as you Oh, sorry, Polly. No, no, you jump in. No, no, no. I was gonna say so you’ve probably seen from my website and from my LinkedIn and from my Instagram, I wear many hats, and at the core of all those hats is one thing is people. Is connecting people with their audience, connecting people with their innate purpose, and sharing that with the world. So tell me more. How long have you been wearing all these hats? Probably really for the last 10 years, I went back to school,

03:53

and I did a professional writing program, professional writing and editing, and I always knew that creating content was a space I wanted to be in. So I started off as a long form writer. I started off working for magazines, and then I started to work a lot in house for finance corporations. But one common theme that was happening is that I was writing for other people. I was helping people express themselves through the written word. So essentially, I was a ghost writer

04:24

at a time where it was just called ghost writer, or web writer, or just simply writer. And it’s only now, in the last, say, six years, actually, just before the pandemic happened, where LinkedIn really started to take off and Instagram started to take off, and people started to want to build a personal brand online and monetize on that and actually show who they are outside of just, you know, I’m a content marketing manager at x company, right? So, yeah, and at the end of the day, everybody, people connect with people.

05:00

People, and so that’s what I like to do, through written word, through podcasting, through video hosting, and really through any kind of medium. I’m really curious to know what was it about writing in particular that attracted you to kind of going all in on that? Well, if this is going to sound so cliche, but you know, ever since I was a child, I always wanted to write. And you know, when I was in grade I think it was grade three, eight, no, grade four. I was nine years old. I was in a reading class that was four years ahead of me, so I really devoured books as a child. And I was always drawn to stories, particularly memoirs, biographies. I read the Diary of Anne Frank when I was nine years old. And this is a book that, you know, 13 year olds were actually, were actually reading, but my mom always let me read much like ahead of me, because I could actually grasp the concept. So writing was always, writing in stories was always something that interests me. And I was always telling stories. Everything was a story. And people used to always say, oh, Nicole is the best storyteller. Oh, you got to get her to tell this story. Or, oh, Nicole, can you imitate somebody doing that? So it was something I always wanted to do, yeah, but I never felt good enough, or that I could just write, and my grammar wasn’t that great

06:21

as the years went on, after, you know, high school, I wasn’t really, I don’t know. I just felt like I needed, like, some fine tuning and some some polishing. So I chose to go back to school and get all that foundational stuff in. And that’s where I started to find my voice as a writer. Yeah, yeah. And there is, as you mentioned, after looking at your website, you see there’s a huge variety in how you’ve used words and how you’ve helped different businesses. Can you tell us a bit more about that? Yeah, I knew when I went into writing that people would say to me, Oh, you can get writing as a freelancer. You can, you can hustle up work, and you can, you know, get paid 50 cents of word for doing this and this. And I knew then that I never wanted to be a starving writer. I never wanted to go into something. First of all, I was passionate about it, but I didn’t want to struggle. I didn’t want to be broke. I wanted to start making money right away. So what I did right fresh out of school, and I just was like, You know what? How can I make this into a business? So I looked for companies that hired in house, and I went into roles like communications, where I knew there would be a heavy writing component, knew I could get paid well, I knew I would have steady pay, and I knew I wouldn’t be hustling for work all the time and sending pitches to journalists and such, which a lot of people from school were doing that. And I was like, no, no, no, no, I want to make money, and I know your podcast is about monetizing and how to, you know, turn your passions into, you know, purpose filled career. So I always looked for opportunities where there was a budget where, you know, in house, not even writings in house, communication experts were valued. And I’m sorry, but I just love that phrase. I always look for opportunities where there was a budget where I feel like that should be, like, plastered on people’s walls when they’re thinking about looking for work. Because, yeah, that whole kind of poor poet type thing is not the one

08:22

when you want to feed yourself and pay your bills, right? Absolutely. And I never, ever actually wanted it. So when I got out of school, I went from, I mean, and I went back to school. A bit later, I was like 30, when I went back into to this program, and a lot of people were making, you know, pitching article. So we say maybe making at the time, let’s say 500 USD for, you know, a big article. And I went, No, that’s not going to be enough, you know. So I found a job right away, after school, after I did this writing program with a big financial company in Canada. I had no money at the time. I had a student loan to pay for this program, and I had just enough to move cities to kind of restart myself into a place where there was a lot of job opportunities within three weeks of arriving in said town, I gave myself one month I had a job working for one of Canada’s largest financial institutions As a communications writer, making $100 an hour, and that was about 11 years ago, so I went from making zero to a six figure salary in one month. I love that. It’s interesting because on a recent podcast I recorded, I talked about where if you don’t allow something to be a possibility, it’s amazing what you manage to achieve, and hearing what you’re saying is such beautiful evidence of that. When you decide I’m not available for not being well paid, I’m not available for hustling, I’m committed to making a certain salary, you then look for the opportunities that make that even a possibility. And there was some bravery there, and you moving. And it wasn’t without any risk.

10:00

Risk, but you were, you were rewarded for that bravery. And what happened next? I didn’t even know what manifesting was then. This is about 11 years ago, and people used to say, oh, Nicole, she’s so great at manifesting stuff. And I didn’t know about human design, or I kind of knew what this stuff was, but I didn’t, but it was really this determination, and I think it’s because I never wanted to be hungry, and I never had a fallback plan. I never had a plan B, and I never had help from, like, family. I didn’t just have like, Oh, I could call mom and dad or, yeah, I had resources, but I’ve always had really good taste. I love to travel. I like nice clothes. I like having experiences. I don’t want to be I don’t want to have to say no to anything, right? So, oh, my goodness, I’m laughing because I so relate to everything you just said.

10:52

Like, I like, I like to spend money, and I like to have a good time, and so not making money was just never an option for me. Yeah, I love that. And so since then, what happened, since that six figure jobbing? Did you say it was in Canada? This was in Canada. And you know, you’re in Berlin now. So there’s, there’s been a journey from there to here. Tell us more about that. I’m in Berlin now. So that six figure salary was actually a six month contract, yeah, and they wanted to extend. But then I was like, No, I want to go into something full time. So I took another full time rule, and the pay was a bit lower, and it wasn’t heavy, heavy writing. And then I got kind of bored in that. So see, you know, life is not linear, right? That you can have really great years, and you’re like, just rolling in, and everything’s good, and then life will hit you, and you’re like, Oh God, I got to go down, and then I got to come back up out of the hole again. So yeah, I played around a bit. I mostly was working in corporate. And then out of the blue, a contact I had from Vancouver said, Hey, we need an editor to help us edit literally, a million words in one year for all this content that was going to be coming out for the Pan Am Games. So like a Commonwealth Games to any of your UK listeners, the Pan Am Games happen in North America, North America and South America. So all types of public information needed to be edited, so anything from way finding to signs to advertising copy to brochures to manuals. So I thought, why not be an editor for a bit? Right? Writing is actually kind of hard. So I did that. That was another contract. And while I did that contract, a digital media company in Canada called Yellow Pages group found me somewhere, I don’t know how. And they say, We need somebody to start writing stories. We need you to tell stories on behalf of other people, so that they can get people to come to their business. So we can see the patterns here again. So started off in sort of this communications role, writing for people. Again, it’s always about telling people stories. So one year, I wrote more than 50 long form pieces online, where I would go and interview business owners and I would tell their business story through their eyes, so that when a customer or a potential customer would find them online through this online directory, they could say, hey, oh, I feel connected to this person, you know, say we were talking Holly’s business. Oh, wow. Polly has three cats and she has two kids and Oh, wow. She just seems like a really nice person, you know. I mean, connecting humanness with who your business, right? So that really got my I was really sinking my teeth again into people and sharing stories. And from there, it was sort of a snowball effect. Another magazine found me. They hired me to do more of these stories. I interview people, I help share their story. And then another city publication, the town of Whitby, which is a pretty big suburb outside of Toronto, Canada, they hired me to do more of these, these business profiles as well. So I did that. So I was doing full time and freelance, and that was pretty I was hustling pretty hard back then, actually,

14:10

but again, making good money so I could go on all my trips and do all my fun. So see, there’s also a thing here. I like to work a lot, but I also like to play a lot. Yeah, yeah. And then I also wrote for the the government, the Ontario government as well. I was a speech writer for a minister in the Ministry of Energy. Amazing. I mean, there’s so much variety there. So of all the because there’s such variety in all the work you’ve done, have you gradually, kind of gotten clearer on the stuff that really lights you up, that you’re leading towards, or are you still a big lover of kind of variety and varying opportunities? Now I’m more focused in at this point in my life. The last seven years, I’ve been working in tech, and I am doing more my content medium has totally.

15:00

Shifted with because of AI and because of where I’m at in my life now as well. So it’s not writing anymore. It’s more spoken word, like this podcast. It’s more video, it’s more events, way less writing. I’m still writing, but not as much. How does that feel? At first, it was hard. I was working for a really cool tech company called Hotjar a few years ago, and I was hired on as a brand editor. So to I worked with a lot of freelance writers, and we were building up long form content about life and culture and mental health. So if there is one theme and one topic I love to talk about is always going to be the softer stuff, finding purpose, managing your energy, overcoming obstacles, meditation, which has completely changed and saved my life in so many ways, wellness, well being, how to connect with other people, How to bring people how to bring people into your audience. So the topics are so varied, right? So it’s hard for me to say I just write about mental health, right? Yeah, I just write about writing kind of thing, or I just talk about writing or content or things like that. But the one common denominator is my life, purpose and soul mission is to bring people from darkness into light, helping people to see where their strengths and their skills are, and helping them to show that to the world. So that’s really where I actually thrive. So in any role I do, from podcasting to tech, etc, it’s always about lifting people up. Yeah, Hotjar, they saw me as this writer, this editor. I’m cranking out content. I’m working like inside, like, insane hours. And then somebody saw, you know, I see you’re really good with people. I see the way you speak to people. I see the way you talk. We’d love it if you could start a podcast for us, and then we’d also love it if you could do videos. We also love it, if you could be the voice of our company. And I was like, Who are they even talking about, right? I was always the one behind the scenes, the editor, helping everybody, making everybody else look good. And then all of a sudden, it shifted on to me coming out more into the spotlight. And it was somebody who helped lift me up and get into that. But before I was very

17:23

terrified to speak to people or speak out loud. I suffered terribly from anxiety, terribly imposter syndrome, always thinking I was doing a bad job, right? And I know this sounds probably like doom and gloom, but it’s it was really like I didn’t see the way. I didn’t see myself the way others did. So when others started to sort of pull those out of me. Then different opportunities started coming. So I never thought I’d stop being a writer or editor, and now I’m like, I don’t even think that’s I think that chapter is sort of closed now, and it’s more uplifting people, helping people share their stories online. Yeah, and still using all those skills I have as a writer as well. Much anymore, I don’t think what you said is doom and gloom at all. I think it’s really honest. And I think there’s so many of us. I mean, I know I’m a very kind of introverted person, and I love words too. I’ve never skilled up in the way you have with them, but words have always been my favorite format to communicate in and as in, you know, there’s some people who love being in front of the camera or standing on a stage. Now, I would if I could just spend the rest of my life writing blogs that would be my happy place like it really would.

18:32

So what you shared, I just think is really kind of refreshingly real. Because I think sometimes people look at someone who’s hosting a podcast and assume, well, they’re really confident I couldn’t do that, and oftentimes it’s an opportunity like the one you were presented with that kind of gets us out of our own way. And what you shared about being too close to yourself to see yourself in that way is something that I mean, it’s why I do the work I do, because anyone is too close to themselves and often has blind spots that can only be revealed by working closely with somebody else. So I just, I think that’s beautiful, and I think that’s amazing. And now, how do you feel about podcasting? Now, I imagine very differently, because you come across very composed, very eloquent, very relaxed, very seasoned.

19:22

I laugh, because if you knew how much inner work I’ve had to do, the meditation comes in.  Oh, it’s accommodating. Meditation, yoga, therapy, I stopped alcohol eight years ago.  Like no masking, like no no hiding behind anything that would, you know, take away my shyness or my my insecurity, moving abroad? Yeah, so much I still struggle with it, but what lights me up so much is meeting, even being with people like you. As soon as I feel the energy, the connection, so I something happens in me, and I come alive.

20:00

So I’m really I come alive when I’m connecting with with people and the right people. And I’m actually not an extrovert. I’m actually very introverted, yeah, so I come across as something different, but I recharge alone, and I recharge in in solitude, but when I’m helping people align into their life purpose and lift up and share information with them that helps them. Then it’s like, ah, yeah, this is what I’m this is what I’m supposed to be doing, and this is what I want to be doing in this new part of my life. Now, the second half, as we want to call it, really, you know, it’s, it’s like that. So did I even answer your question there? I don’t know. Look, I just sort of went around and, like, it was a pretty broad question. But no, you have because, you know, shared about being introverted and the work you’ve done to support that. And again, I similarly on a journey of kind of quitting with alcohol. And so I really, you know, resonate with your words around the masks and the numbing and the coping mechanisms we can use.

20:59

But it’s, you know, I really celebrate that you’re doing that, you know, doing the work to to be your most I guess it’s balancing being your most authentic self, but also not hiding away those amazing skills and talents you have and allowing them to be I mean, I think this is one of the things I love about running an online business, is that, you know, you initially start out trying to have a flexible career that creates money for you, but the self development work that tends to happen alongside because ultimately, at some point, similar to your situation where someone says you could have a podcast, you can either keep on walking away from opportunities, or we have to do the inner work to be able to actually meet those opportunities and take them on and recognize will never be perfect and it will never be the best to begin with, and that that’s okay, because oftentimes what we consider perfect is well above any standard anyone else would expect anyway, and are good enough is perfect to somebody else. So, so I think that’s amazing. So I’m curious to know, obviously, had the hot jar podcast fill us in with what’s happened since then. Oh, the hot and the hot jar podcast. Podcast was so cool because they kind of just gave me free reign. They say you bring out the best in people. So just go with it. So I got to plan the topics, I got to pick the guests, I got to do the scripting. So it was like I felt like a kid in a candy store talking about topics I absolutely love. And from there, then they brought me on to to lead a team of folks for a huge conference that they were holding in New York. So they wanted me to lead all our speakers, like all the planning, making sure everybody felt connected and knew what they were talking about when they got on the stage. And I think there were over 50 speakers as well. So it took me totally out of writing. Took me totally out of podcasting. And then I was there managing a huge event in New York City,

22:55

bringing people together, helping them share their stories, helping them talk about who they are. So for me, it’s only been about opportunities. I never actually set out to say, I help people tell stories, or I I do this with people. It’s like what you said, being open to the possibilities and not saying no to opportunities when they actually come up. Here in New York City there, I’m managing people and helping to run this beautiful event, and then out of the blue, I was I was cut. My was laid off. The company was bought by another big company, and most of the workforce was cut. And then I didn’t know what I was going to do for me. It was like, I have, here I am in my dream job, and all of a sudden, boom, it’s gone. I didn’t realize at the time though I was actually totally burnt out. I went from two tech companies back to back, where I put my everything into it, so I was just pouring into a cup that was just getting more and more empty. And when I got my sort of my layoff, I just sort of was like frozen for a bit at the same time, I was so happy.

24:01

I was so relieved, because then I was like, Okay, who am I if I don’t work in a company anymore? Who am I if I don’t have who actually am I? So for 20 years, I had been working non stop, hustling, writing, proving myself, you know, like just I was on a hamster wheel right, and then I just sort of was like, I’m just going to see where life takes me. And two weeks after being laid off, a company in Canada calls me out of the blue. They found me on LinkedIn, and they said, We want to start a podcast for our brand. We want it to be authentic. We don’t care if we even have one listener. They said, as long as one listener felt that their life was impacted for the better, that’s our only ROI. I love that I went and I went, what is? What is? How did this come in? Right? How did this opportunity come in, and they said, and you know, you know, we want you to be the host of this. We want you to bring this to life.

25:08

Because we heard your podcast with Hotjar, we saw what you’re writing about on LinkedIn. So this is why I’m saying this as well, for your audience. So anybody here who’s listening, who thinks that their voice and what they say on LinkedIn or Instagram or whatever. Doesn’t matter. It does matter. We never know who is watching or listening to us. I didn’t know these, these people from this company at all. How would I know they heard anything? I didn’t get a like. I didn’t get a reaction. So we can’t look at those vanity metrics, and we can’t worry about likes or things like that. We have to just keep showing up authentically. Oh, I love what you’re sharing here. It really resonates with something I regularly say to my clients, which is, you know, build your content like a body of work. You know, it’s like you say, ignoring the vanity metrics and more understanding that someone could land on your content any day. So is that content, you know, something that they’ll want to dive deeper into or is it going to be? Because that’s the challenge, right? If we get distracted by the whole how do we get too many likes? That’s when we get distracted with tactics and stuff which go, they’re the antithesis of storytelling, really. They’re all about quick wins, and that’s really it. And even myself, I go into this like, my Instagram count is really low, but my LinkedIn is really high. And I’m like, people might think like, I mean, I do it too, right? But it’s always like to like, would you say that to a friend? Like, when I say that to you, I’d say, Polly, you know, you got to just keep going. You never know who’s going to but when I talk to myself, it’s sometimes a very different conversation. Yes, right? So we have to be our own best friend as well. Let’s go into another thing. So then this company out of the blue, says we want you to do a podcast for us. Okay? So there we go. And the podcast is called connect with purpose, right? And again, I get to pick the guests. I get to create the topics, scripting everything I have free full ring. You really are a master manifester. I mean, I’m not a huge believer in these Well, you know, it’s not something I talk about or kind of have a huge understanding around, but I do know I meet some people in life where I’m like, wow. When you decide you like something and you do the thing in alignment with that, it’s amazing what drops in and hearing everything you’re sharing. It’s like every time you kind of allow yourself something, universe provides actually a really great reminder for me, and this is a really good mirror for me right now, because I’m also trying, I’m also climbing and trying to get to something else again, and I’m thinking, sometimes my brain goes, it’s never going to happen. Why is it taking so long? I’m getting too old. And then I go into these old scripts, right? These old stories, right? But when you step out of that, when you take that out and you just sort of actually surrender and it all happens in timing. I mean, even the way I got the job with Hotjar is actually another example. Seven years ago, I was in Berlin, I met a woman at this company called factory, which I’m at right now, community co working space. And she said, Hey, I need a writer. Can you interview some people from these companies for our brand? And I said, absolutely right. I interviewed someone from Hotjar, and I remember getting off the phone with her. It was one of the best interviews I’ve ever done. And I remember thinking, one day, I’m going to work for this company. I don’t know how it’s going to happen. I don’t know how it’s going to happen. This is my dream company. This is where I’m going to work. And I wrote it down. That was it.

28:22

Three years later, I’m in Thailand, height of the pandemic. I had my second vaccine, so I was able to actually travel and go to Thailand. The tech company I was at let me work from Thailand. I was like, I gotta get out of Berlin. I gotta get out of here. Like, you know, we were all in lockdown for so long. Wasn’t really happy in my job. I was getting ready to make a move. I was like, Please universe, just anything. Christmas Eve in Thailand, I get a message from a recruiter at Hotjar saying, We found you online. We have this job that just came up. Would you like to interview with us? Ah, so your Christmas ring came early.

28:59

That was it. So three years later. So plant the seed. We never know when it’s going to come. Yes, yeah, it’s not even woo anymore. It’s actually like, really science based. No, exactly. I’m always saying, if you think something’s gonna fail, you’ll seek all the evidence as to why it’s gonna fail if you believe something is possible. And I think one of the things that challenges people the most is this kind of Amazon Prime mentality of like, if it’s not arrived the next day, it’s not coming at all, which really infuriates me to observe, and I can be guilty of that too, but at the same time, yeah, there’s a groundedness in everything I hear you sharing, and that trust piece of trusting that it’s coming and You don’t necessarily need to have a tight grip around how or when or where, but simply claiming it, I’m sure, got you closer to where, where when it landed, and for you to see the value in it when it did land. Amazing. So what’s your kind of focus now moving forward? Because, oh my goodness, you’ve accumulated so many phenomenal things.  Nominal experiences under your belt up until now.

30:04

Considering you know, you get everything you design, you just mentioned the thing you want isn’t landing as fast as you want it. To tell us more about what that is really right now is how to build all this experience, like how to take all these years of experience, all these things I love to do, and actually turn that into something that is completely mine right now, I’m working, I’m working in marketing for just the most, coolest software company here in Berlin, and I’m helping, you know, there are people behind the scenes really, you know, level up on LinkedIn and really show themselves online, because the product itself is it’s a great product. There’s so many, you know, intelligent people in this company, and nobody’s actually sharing who they are and what they’re doing. And so I’m bringing influencers in, and we’re doing live virtual events, we’re doing podcasting, we’re doing a lot of stories on LinkedIn. So again, I’m interviewing people, talking to people all day, and showing them how to get content out a lot faster, without overthinking it. I write a lot of content too. I use AI to help me a lot as well. Okay, we have to dive into this because into the AI stuff. I mean, not necessarily. I mean AI slightly, but more importantly, LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a bit that really intrigues me, because I’m an Insta girly, as you might have noticed, like I’ve got my following on there. I am on LinkedIn, but I’ve been kind of lazy and essentially just repot, you know, reshare the stuff that works me on Instagram to a certain extent, and just never been able to find a community or a flow there. I find that every time I go on there, I just get frustrated by the amount of pitches in my DMs, and I have a really relationship with it. But if there’s been a common thread in a lot of what you’ve shared so far is that a lot of these opportunities have kind of come to you, partly through your or predominantly because your presence on LinkedIn and what you’re sharing there, and that as you’ve had all these amazing career opportunities, I imagine sharing about those on there has helped then bring in the next so tell me a bit more about that, because you’re obviously a master of content, and so you know what works and what doesn’t. And I know there must be some people listening to you right now just thinking, Oh, my goodness, I wish I could write. I wish I knew what stories to share. There’s one thing online business owners regularly complain to me about, is overwhelmed with social media, writing something for like an hour, and then it getting like one, like nobody responding, feeling like it’s futile and just general overwhelm at all the different things that people say works. They’re like, should I be getting really good on video? Should I be launching a podcast? Should I be posting three times a week? Should I be posting three times a day? So what would your advice be?

32:55

Well, I’m going to give advice that I would give to not to myself, to everyone else, first of all, and I’m saying that because to do all this yourself is really challenging. Yeah, Writing is hard, full stop. There’s nothing easy about writing and making something actually that people want to read. Writing is not easy. Yeah, it really isn’t, and it’s a skill that takes time to to hone and really make work. LinkedIn uses a lot of formulas, a lot of copywriting formulas, a lot of hooks. You’ll see a lot on LinkedIn. It’s like, all these formulas, right? Which is fine. And so it’s, I understand when you say, you go on to LinkedIn, and you’re like, oh, and then you get all these DMS and sales LinkedIn can feel very salesy in your face, very, you know, egocentric. This is what I did. This is what learned. And, oh, don’t you want to follow me? Because I’m so great, you know, I can help you. I can help you, you know, supercharge your business with 10 easy steps. And, you know, make 10,000 it’s just like, Oh, you’ve just summarized it so well. I’ve never really quite figured that, but yes, actually, that’s why, like Instagram, it’s more of a storytelling platform, because the kind of direct salesy stuff doesn’t really land so well there. So there’s much more about showing your story and being the story and, well, like you say on LinkedIn, people tend to be a lot more direct with their kind of Yeah, click baity hooks and the whole here’s why I’m the best in the industry, or here’s how I highlight I’m the best in the industry without directly saying it, but kind of directly saying it, and it’s like nobody wants to read it. Yeah? The LinkedIn posts I read line by line, usually are written from a like, a unique point of view, they’re usually sharing something that’s only that’s original to them, right? So say, probably, if you were on LinkedIn, you know, and you talked about, maybe a recent trip you went on, I know sometimes you go to, is it Gibraltar I’ve seen on your Yeah, so maybe you talked about, you know, I don’t know.

35:00

Businesses in Gibraltar do these four things, blah, blah, blah, and then you have a photo of you in Gibraltar that would make me feel more aligned with you than if you were writing about something that just was totally just seemed like you sounds good to say kind of thing, right? So it’s really about bringing your own unique perspectives and stories into that. And one of the easiest ways to do that is to pick up your phone record a voice note. Okay, today I met with talk about your day, and really just voice it into a voice note. From there, you can put it into an AI like Cloud or chat GPT, and you can start to sort of just say, hey, what can you what would be interesting to say, you know, women between the ages of 35 and 50 who want to start their own business, and is there any kind of an angle in here that I might not be seeing? Right?

35:53

AI won’t do all of that, but it’s about letting it hear your voice a little bit more, so that you can plug into that, or, even better, have somebody actually interview you? Yeah, you know, because I see things that you won’t see necessarily within yourself, but it’s about you can speak a lot into AI and it can spit back some some ideas to you, or sit down with someone like me, for example, we talk for in half an hour. I ask you a lot of great questions, and then from that, we could have like five or six posts. For example, one of the CEO I work with, I usually sit down with him, like every two weeks, and I say, Okay, let’s talk about AI this week. What are you working on? How is it helping other people? What did you learn this week? What’s the best thing that happened to you this week? What’s the worst thing that happened to you this week? What do you wish you had more time to do? Like anything? I love these and you could, I guess, get AI to interview you similar, I mean, not exactly the same questions, but you’re short on inspiration. I imagine there’s certain prompts you could give it to help kind of squeeze the juice out of what you’re saying. I mean, obviously I don’t think anything ever what’s the word replaces a human, and the way we respond to a human who we know and is actually interested in us versus a bit of AI. But where a human is absent, there are ways to help prompt those questions too, amazing, but that’s a way to stand out on LinkedIn, so that you’re out of the gross sales stuff and you’re more into the human contact. It doesn’t have to be Facebook or Instagram, but it’s sharing more of the human to human side of everything. Another CEO I know well, and her LinkedIn is just incredible. She shares everything from her notes, like, everything from sometimes what she ate in a day to how many meetings she had to, I mean, really benign stuff to, you know, an argument she had with a colleague and how they resolved it. But like, and she posts almost every day, and it’s all text based posts, but it’s totally real, and you never feel like she has an agenda. She doesn’t want you to like her, to follow her. It’s just like her actually telling her story, right? So it’s always about, like, when you go in, it’s like, why are you doing this? Is it because you, you’re, you know, you’re broken, you need to make some money. Okay, that’s fine, but, you know. But, like, think of your intention. Why? Yeah, you know. And what’s your take on engaging with other people’s content. Like, because, again, another thing that AI actually frustrated me, like, one thing I hate about AI is the AI generated comments that have started popping up on LinkedIn, where someone goes That’s a really relevant viewpoint on blahdy blah and then adds a little reflection. That’s obviously like an AI again. It just makes you think, what’s the point in even trying? But one thing that someone has said to me, because obviously I’m so lazy with LinkedIn, is, you know, obviously posting is good, but it’s only going to be effective where you also start to kind of curate your own community and engage with people. So what does that look like in terms of, kind of adding value? Because I think people also feel a certain pressure around that too, like, is that a misnomer? Do we need to be doing that? And if we are doing that, what does that look like in a effective way that’s not going to totally burn us out, that’s a really, that’s just so great. And actually, for you, as soon as you speak that to me, I think of so many voices online where I could see you actually commenting and getting a lot of traction, right? See? So that’s how way my brain works is. I I start connecting. I’m like, oh my god, Paulie needs to talk to this person, this person, this person, this person, this person. And that’s where the opportunities and things go. That’s actually the most natural and organic way you can do it, right? Even look at trending topics. Look at people who are have a point of view that sort of aligns with you. Maybe it’s their podcast or like, maybe it’s Mel Robbins, per se, right? Look through a post by Mel Robbins and you see all this like, you’re like, oh.

40:00

Okay, this. This is another woman who is an entrepreneur or a founder. She has some cool points of view. I love this comment, what she said on Mel’s post. So it doesn’t have to be to Mel. It can be on somebody who’s kind of got like, a similar vibe to you, yeah, as well. And then you can make friends online. So think about making more friends online, then making new like, you know, businesses like, or sorry, making clients right away, yeah, sort of, yeah. Okay. You’re convincing me. You’re convincing me.

40:33

I do need to. I can already think of so many places for you to actually go on. I’m like, Oh, my God, Polly would be so good on LinkedIn, right? So LinkedIn looks like it’s sometimes like the worst place on Earth, and then it’s also like the best place on earth too, right? It’s where I get all my business from, everything amazing. I barely even post anymore. I mostly comment. I’ll go into people’s DMS, I’ll be like, like, like, yours I saw on Instagram. I’m like, Oh my God, who is Polly and why is her podcast so cool? And I love her Instagram, and I found you through someone else. And so that’s how it works. And people come to me and do that too. Yeah, right. So I think the commenting is one of the easiest and most effective ways to do it. And set yourself a small goal, just maybe say, like, okay, you know, five comments a week, right? You know, let’s that’s one a day. You can handle one that’s so manageable. You said that, I think you say per day. I was like, oh, can already, like, hear excuses cropping up my head as to how I don’t have capacity for that. But five a week definitely. And I would totally batch that and just get it all done in one afternoon so I didn’t have to think about it again. And also, I guess I love going on Instagram, because I have such a community there now, and my DMs are always popping off with people responding and sharing stuff, and it makes it really enjoyable to be there. And I imagine LinkedIn similarly, when you break the back of it, and you actually have people who you have relationships with on there that you want to hear the latest from, and you want to hear their latest update, it becomes a more exciting place to be, so right? I am officially motivated and excited, and I’ve so enjoyed hearing your story. I love the fact that you started out with the intention of making money. Have made that happen. And from what I’ve heard from your journey, it’s been constant iterations of essentially, moving further and further towards your zone of genius and what genuinely lights you up, and it feels like we’re at this beautiful periphery. That’s not the right word, but you’re this jumping off point into even more true to you business, which feels super exciting. If anyone’s been listening to you and thinking, oh my goodness, I need a Nicole asking me questions and helping me find five to six posts and beyond. Where can they find you?

42:45

LinkedIn, of course, obviously. So you can find me on LinkedIn. My name is Nicole Gottselig, and Polly will have my name up for sure. Instagram, I would love to connect more, because I’m doing a lot more storytelling now through video and through reels, which I absolutely love to do. So Instagram is like a playground for me, like you Polly, that’s where I can connect with people a little bit more on a personal, personal level than LinkedIn. I feel a little bit freer actually, on on Instagram as well. So I am Nic underscore gottselig, and I see underscore, G, O, T, T, S, E, L, I, G, amazing. And the links will be in the show notes. So anyone who’s concerned about writing surnames, which is always the case in my surname, Lavarello, you’ll be able to find everything in the show notes. So Nic’s super easy to find. Thank you so much. I’ve so so so enjoyed this conversation. I feel like I could have poured myself a coffee and stayed for another hour, but no, thank you. I was feeling the same. I was like, No, we’re not done. This isn’t finished yet. No, amazing. Thank you.

43:53

Well, I think it’s safe to say that Nicole delivered, if this episode gave you the nudge to show up, louder, bolder or finally, hit publish. Mission accomplished. All her links are in the show notes, and if you loved it, pass it, share, review, subscribe. You know the drill by now, up until next time go own your story. And of course, keep it cushy.