The Power of LinkedIn & Human Connection - Scott Aaron

Hey everybody, welcome to the Future of Fitness, where we talk with entrepreneurs, researchers, and practitioners in fitness, wellness, and the health sciences. I'd like to give a big thanks to our sponsors, Level 5 Mentors, helping entrepreneurs achieve the highest levels of freedom in time, money, relationships, health, and purpose. Also, Certified Course Creation, helping entrepreneurs create accredited online certifications that are not only lucrative but highly scalable. Go to level5mentors.com or certifiedcoursecreation.com and learn more. I am your host, Eric Malzone, and once again, welcome to the future of fitness. Boom. We're live. Scott, man, welcome to the show.

Pleasure and honor to be here. So thank you for uh for having me on.

Yeah, yeah, you and I um philosophically see things very similarly. I think we have, you know, stories that have some of the same elements behind them. And now we just really enjoy helping people. And we, you know, I think we're you especially are really just focused on the most important things in your life and in business and helping people. And so let's, you know, like all great podcasts begin, let's let's tell us a story. Give us your backstory and kind of how you got to where you are now.

Yeah, there's always a story, and it's funny. This is where I get kind of caught up sometimes because I've done, you know, full keynotes just on my story. And then there's times where I do a training on LinkedIn and I gotta really give the Cliff Notes version. But I'm a firm believer that you can make a story very powerful in six minutes as you could in 60 minutes. Because, you know, everyone, you know, we've we've talked about this offline. Everyone sees the glory, but they don't know the story. So they see this person doing this, that, or the other, but they've had to go down a path to get there. And for me, entrepreneurship was kind of forced onto me through certain situations in my life. And when I do speak, I talk about impactful and brain tattoo moments. And the example I give is when I am expressing to someone that there's moments in your life that that you really can't forget. And, you know, a perfect example is I remember distinctly remembering exactly when I first heard about 9-11. And I remember driving to college at the at Temple University, and I and I remember hearing about it. And it was one of those things where these brain tattoo moments, they they never leave you. And you may be listening to this, and this could be a death in your family, it could be an illness that you've taken on, it could be any one of those things, but these moments stay with you forever. And one of my big moments was when I was 18, going on 19, and I was going into my sophomore year of college at the University of Pittsburgh. And my father was an entrepreneur as well. He had owned various industrial businesses and had left his last one to actually start working for someone else in the physical rehabilitation industry. And he was managing a bunch of physical rehab companies that had locations in gyms and other wellness facilities. And outside looking in, everything looked great. And I remember coming home from being home in college. It was uh the summer between freshman and sophomore year. We were having a little family dinner out back, myself, my mother, my sister, and my dad. And he said, Listen, we have to have a family talk. We said, Okay, he goes, I just want to let you guys know I'm actually gonna be leaving this company, and with the help of your two grandfathers, I'm gonna be purchasing and running a health club in downtown Philadelphia. We said, Cool, you've always been into fitness, that's what you love to do. And he goes, but the company I'm leaving is actually under investigation with the federal government, and it's involving a $9.5 million insurance fraud case in the middle of it. So we really didn't know what that meant, but he basically prefaced it by saying, there is the potential I may go on house arrest, and that's why I'm removing myself as far as possible from this and taking over this gym, which he did. And for six months he grinded and he ran this gym, and that's what he did every day. Literally, he opened and closed the gym. My family was brought up with a lot of hard work and dedication. And as the case progressed, we got to the date of sentencing because my father did plead guilty and he was obviously working with the federal government to lessen the charges. And when all was said and done, my father was sentenced to 24 to 36 months in federal prison, which is not what we expected. And I remember, I mean, we all lost it. And that that moment that was my introduction to entrepreneurship because whether I knew it at that time or not, the keys to that business were going to be handed off to me when my father went to prison, which they were. And I remember we were driving him to federal prison to drop him off, and he turned around to me and he said, Now you're the man of the house. So at 18, I had to take on this adult role. I left the University of Pittsburgh. I then went to community college for about a year and then transferred to Temple. And I did graduate with a bachelor's and HR, and I was running the gym the entire time. So I had good work ethic. I would wake up at 6 a.m. I would go to school from 8 to 12 and then drive to the gym and get there by 12:30. And I stayed there till nine o'clock at night, shuttling towels back and forth, washing, bringing them back. It was it was a trying time. But in that whole process, I fell in love with the industry. I fell in love with health and wellness. Now, I wasn't, I was always an athlete, but I would never consider myself a fitness person. But when I was in this environment, you couldn't help but see what people were doing and what they were looking like. And this is in the in the late 90s. So this is before any online programs, supplementation really wasn't that big. It was like Metrex and Promax at that time. It really wasn't all these companies there are now. And, you know, eating healthy was eating, you know, a half a pound of tuna salad from the local deli. And I remember I was more of a hippie. So before the gym, I had this big jufra when I had hair, and I would just travel around the country seeing a band called Fish. That's that's what I did. I just, I was, and I still love music, obviously, but I've I've grown up since. But I fell in love with with the business. And I was now responsible for a $250,000 a year business. And I had general managers, managers, floor managers, trainers, instructors. And my mother would go visit my father every Saturday, and myself and my sister would visit my father every Sunday. And I would print out all of the monthly documents from the gym, and him and I would, we would go over the numbers and run specials, and he was running it from afar with me. But I was able to grow the gym in the two and a half years that he was gone from 300 members to nearly 1,100. And the gym was flourishing. He comes back and we start running the gym together, and one gym turned into two gyms. So we opened up our second location in 2002 in Northern Liberties, which is about two and a half miles north of Old City in Philadelphia. And we had two gyms and things were going great. In 2003, we were approached by another family to actually sell both gyms to them for a million dollars. So we took the deal. So at 24, I became a millionaire. Things were great. I was running a successful personal training practice, sports nutrition practice. And my dad was, you know, in that year that we were just training, was getting the itch to open up another gym. So we stepped into gym ownership for a third and final time at the end of 2004. But with everything that happened with the lawsuit and my father's imprisonment, it left me with the only credit left available to actually finance the new gym, which I didn't know what any of that meant. But two and a half years after we opened our last gym in around 2007, I found myself in $1.5 million of liability debt. So the complete opposite of what had happened prior to opening this gym. But I pushed harder with my personal training practice, and I had a successful six-figure business, which trainers might be listening to that, and they're like, oh, that's great. I'm like, well, it was great, but I was trading away the most valuable commodity we have, which was my time. I literally would get up at 4 a.m., get to the gym by 5. My first client was at 5. I would train straight through every hour on the hour till 9 p.m., come home, get home at 9:30, eat dinner, watch a little bit of TV, get in bed at 11, and have to wake up all over again. That was my life. And, you know, I didn't know how to balance business and life. And that did attribute to me having, you know, two marriages that didn't work out. Uh, the second one did leave me with my beautiful seven-year-old little boy Taylor, but also it gave me the emotional maturity of what it meant to be in a healthy relationship. And, you know, obviously myself and my fiancee are getting married later this year. And it's really given me the balance of understanding about life. So as things progressed in 2013, I was at a pivotal point in my life. I was soon to be exiting my second marriage. But more importantly, I was approached by a friend of mine in the industry with an opportunity. And it was a network marketing opportunity. And for those of you that may be listening to this that have friends in Beach Body and Isogenics and Herbal Life or whatever, and you think it's a pyramid or it's a Ponzi, people can think whatever the hell they want. But I was always psychologically unemployable and I never had a boss. I was never going to have a boss. But I remember reading somewhere that the average successful person has anywhere between two to four streams of income. And I had one. The gym wasn't paying me because I was making enough money with the memberships to cover the overhead. My training was paying. And my friend said to me, he goes, If you get sick or injured where you physically can't train people anymore, what are you going to do for income? And I was like, shit, I don't know. And he said, Well, you should really consider thinking about bringing this into your business, which I did and I went full force. When I do something, Eric, I literally do it 100%. And I quickly grew this network marketing business to almost match my income as a personal trainer within two years. And the light turned on. I'm like, online business, brick and mortar, online business, trading time for dollars, having more time and monetary freedom. It started to make sense to me. But there were two things that that had to happen to get me to that point. And I talk about these breaking of the barrier points in your life, where, you know, the straw that breaks the camel's back. And I was selling a property that I owned. And when I went to closing, instead of getting the $35,000 of equity that was in the house, I walked away with $837 because what I didn't realize is that one of the loans that was taken out in my name for the gym was being used as collateral for my house. So when the house sold, the bank took whatever money was left to pay off the gym's equipment, which the lease was for. Then my eyes started to open up and I said, you know what, I gotta look at everything. So I started to do some digging and I found one piece of paper that made me realize that I needed to run this business by myself. And if I was going to have a relationship with my father, I needed to cut ties as quickly as possible. And it was the lease of the gym. And I was looking through the lease of the gym and I saw on the final page it had my signature, and below the signature it said guarantor. And for those of you that don't know what that means, when you own your own business, if you're the guarantor of that lease, if something happens to the business, any dollar, any penny that is owed on that lease is turned over to you personally. So for me, that was valued at around $450,000 of additional debt. And at that point, I called my father into the office and I said, listen, Dad, if we are going to salvage our relationship and be father and son, we're gonna have to go our separate ways. And he left the gym, he found another gym to train at, and he never came back. And, you know, we have salvaged our relationship. Uh, we are closer than ever from a father and son standpoint. I am very proud of what he's accomplishing. He's very proud of what I'm accomplishing, but it wouldn't have happened unless I cut the ties, but also didn't hold things over his head. I never lived in regret. I never lived in anger, and I let go of the resentment of what happened because I don't have any problem with my journey. You know, I don't regret the fact that he went to prison when I was 18. I don't have any regret that I had to go through two relationships that didn't work out to finally find the woman of my dreams. I don't regret pulling out all the paperwork that I did because everything had to happen in the exact order that it did for me to be on this podcast with you today. Yeah. The final decision I had was in 2016. I was meeting with my business team, and my attorney said to me, He goes, Listen, you need to make a decision. Your gym is losing about $2,000 a month. You're fully funding it with your network marketing business. And I had just launched my LinkedIn coaching practice, so I had a lot of income starting to come in from that that was then funneling into just keeping the doors open. And he said, You have two choices. You can continue to fund your business or you can file for bankruptcy. And when I heard the word personal bankruptcy, I didn't hear your life is over. I heard your life is about to begin. So on July 1st of 2016, just about three and a half years ago, I filed for chapter seven, personal bankruptcy. And on July 31st, I closed the gym for good and never went back. I wrote a handwritten letter to my staff, to my employees, to my members, to my instructors, thanking them for their 12 years of dedication and service to that gym. Turn the lights off, lock the door, and never went back. So on August 1st of 2016 is when I feel I was truly reborn and living the life that I've truly deserved. And since then, in the last four years, my life has been an absolute rocket ship. And now I know that I have the skills, the tools, but most importantly, the mindset to understand that I can control and create whatever I want if I continue to take action and move forward each and every day. So that's basically my last 22 years in about 15 minutes.

Yeah, that's that's an amazing story, Scott. So tell me, I mean, well, I have a lot of questions on that. Um, July 31st, when you shut that down, what were the emotions? What were the feelings that went through that? Was it relief? Was it anguish? Was it what was that feeling or the mixture of? There must have been a rainbow of feelings, right?

Well, it was the it was the day that my father's dream died and the day that my life began. Because I was basically carrying out what my father wanted to do with his life, which was to be in the fitness industry. I just happened to fall in love with it. But what I what I fell in love with more was people. You know, I had 65,000 hours in my 18 years of personal training, of working with people one-on-one. I someone said to me the other day, they said, you know, do you miss the gym? Do you miss personal training? And I don't even hesitate. Hell no. Because once you're on the other side, you know, people don't understand, you know, the life of a personal trainer is not as glamorous as it is. You know, you don't have time to take a shit half the time. And you're you're running in between appointments. I my life was just full of stress. And the fact, and I remember, I remember this like it was yesterday. It was that winter. And winter time for personal trainers sucks because if you work at a gym, no one wants to drive to the gym in the snow. Literally, your phone starts blowing up of people canceling. And I remember, I remember waking up and it was snowing outside. And I remember I was driving to the gym that I belonged to. It was the first gym that I was actually paying for a membership for in 20 years. I remember driving to the gym and I'm and I feel so grateful because I remember the feeling, I remember the feeling of waking up on a snowy day and just saying, how many people are gonna cancel today? And and it was living day to day. So I would say it it was a mixture of feelings, but it was a feeling of relief, a feeling of positivity, a feeling of hope, a feeling of excitement because getting calls from the credit card companies and the creditors and the debt collectors, and you know, having judgments filed against the the gym, like all of that was over. And I didn't have to live in fear anymore. I was able to finally take control of my life. So it was more of just feelings of relief and comfort and excitement more than anything else.

Yeah, yeah. It's the ability to move on. You know, and I I remember when I I sold my gym and walking to the bank. I think I may have ran to the bank and uh and depositing the check and walking outside and then just sitting down and being like, okay, that's that. That's a wrap. Like, what's next? I can do anything, I can do anything I want now. And you know, when you're talking about, I think there's gonna be so many people who resonate on this, on this, the listeners who that life of the personal trainer. Everyone gets into it because they have this genuine desire to help people and they love fitness and they have this passion, and then you just see them through the hourly day-to-day just get kind of ground down and beat down, and the passion is lost. They don't like to train themselves anymore. And you know, it's just it's the cycle and it's it's a model that needs to change, and we're seeing it change over time, but it's uh it's a thing, man. And that's I think a lot of people are gonna relate to that. So when you were doing your network marketing, tell us about that, man. What what were the products or or things that you were selling with that?

Yeah, so it was a company called Isogenics, and I still use their products each and every day. It's but what I can tell you is it was a personal development journey with a compensation plan attached to it. And it was the truth. The the education that I got about entrepreneurship was incredible. You know, and it it was a combination of what I learned about network marketing, but also what I learned about branding and marketing yourself through a passion that you have and taking it online. But I jokingly tell people that, you know, I started reading books and started listening to podcasts, and the last book that I read prior to 2013 when I started network marketing was The First Harry Potter. That's that that's good. Yeah, it was a great, great book. But I mean, it had been like 12 or 13 years since I I actually picked up a book. But once I started picking up books and started realizing that all the power and the potential of my life lied in the six inches between my ears, I I knew that I could create and achieve anything I wanted to. And network marketing for those that want to shit all over it and say that it doesn't like if if you want to go all in with it, that's great. You know, most people don't succeed in network marketing because they're not serious, they're not all in. And I've always been that type of person that when I say yes to something, I don't half-ass it. I go all in. So if you're gonna go all in with network marketing, you could absolutely make money. It took me 22 months to have my first $10,000 month. And when I remember, I remember like it was yesterday. I remember I got a weekly deposit and it was $53.45. And I'm like, I'm sitting in my car and I just had $5,000 deposited into my checking account. And I was like, oh my God, this actually works. And it well, it took 22 months. So so every everyone hears that, they're like, oh, that's great. But no one knows the 22 months leading up to that moment, the compounded effect that had to take place, the way that I describe LinkedIn, which is what I teach now, but also network marketing is like a 401 kick. Meaning, if you want to create wealth, you have to make daily, weekly, monthly, yearly deposit. You don't go to the gym once, never go back, and look like Arnold Schwarzenegger. It's just not, it just doesn't work that way. And it's the same thing with network marketing or any online business. You don't just post once or talk about what you're doing once and then wait for the money to fall from the sky. It's you have to do it every day. So I committed to it, but I learned so much about myself. And I also learned about I would say one of the biggest things in network marketing, circle of influence. The the five people that you surround yourself with most are the ones that you're gonna become most like. So if you find yourself, and I'm gonna preface this by saying, I am not telling you to disown your family and to disown your friends, but you have to pay close attention to who you're taking advice from. If you're gonna take advice from broke people, you're gonna get broke advice. Yes. If you're gonna take advice from successful people, you're gonna get successful advice. So I realize that whether that was a podcast I was listening to or a book that was reading or a coach that I was coaching with, and I'm a coach now, but I don't stop coaching. I'm in masterminds, I do coaching. Uh if you're coach and if you are a coach and you are still not working with something, someone, you're you're actually doing yourself a disservice and your clients because when you think you know everything, you actually know nothing. So that was the big thing is educating myself and learning from those big thinkers and big changers because every single one of us has the same God-given potential to achieve whatever we want. You just have to commit to doing the work. Yeah.

Yeah, and there's interesting, you know, tidbits. In the last few years, I I've really transitioned my focus from income to wealth building. And when you start to understand the difference, is when things really start to go go for you. Like I, you know, I drive the same car I've been driving for 10 years. It's paid off completely. I don't want a BMW because I know that BMW takes me away from my wealth goal. And people, I've had actually very few people ask me about it. People are like, well, how much money do you make? I'm like, well, that's a tough answer to your question because I got revenue streams kind of coming from properties now, from different things. Like, I don't know. I honestly don't know. I don't know. I haven't checked my monthly income statement. I look in my wealth building, and that's my metrics now. And I think that's a critical thing for people to understand and and what you're talking about in this journey. And I I like, I I've unlike anybody else, I get approached by network marketers all the time. I know a lot. I know some people who have been in Advocare, you know, and that that whole thing that went down recently.

Yeah.

But the good ones, the ones that were doing well, are now reinventing themselves very quickly.

You took the words right out of my mouth. I have a very, very good friend of mine, and they were making around $35,000 a month with Advocare. And I remember them sharing with me drop of a dime, July 16th, they get their last paycheck. That's it. But the smart thing they did was branding themselves along the way. Yeah, getting a podcast, mastermind, having their own events. So she had this other vehicle building outside of network marketing. And Eric, you bring up a good point. You know, this is not to scare people that are listening to this. That are in network marketing or to scare people away from getting into network marketing because network marketing, it's honestly a great way to learn how to brand yourself through the eyes of another company. But also, I still get residual income. I'm still getting paid for the things that I started seven years ago. But it also allowed me to branch out and brand myself and realize that yes, can you have unlimited wealth and wealth creation in network marketing? Absolutely. But there's a whole other level to wealth and wealth creation when you're doing it with your own personal brand, because you are the driver of your business. Because for me, my big thing, Eric, is it's not that I don't like rules and regulations, but when you do partner with a network marketing company, you do have to abide their rules and regulations. So I always found this pull because I was having all these people reaching out to me for help. You know, coach me, teach me, teach me LinkedIn. And there was definitely a pull. I was feeling guilty about continuing to build my business, but also taking people from money to coach them on what I was doing. And I had to make that decision with myself to say, you know what? I'm gonna stop building my network marketing business. It's not in alignment if I do both, but I am more aligned with teaching and coaching people how I created the wealth that I did in network marketing and how they can do it too with my system. So I retired from network marketing. I still use the products, I still have a downline, but my full-time business is now teaching and showing others how to leverage LinkedIn.

Yeah. So it's great segue, man. So tell us about what you do now. Tell us about the coaching and and and how you're helping people now.

So it it it actually spurred from personal experience. So about four and a half years ago, I was feeling very dejected and pulled away from one of my one of my big qualities, which is human connection. I love connecting with people. I love building and forming and nurturing relationships. And I found that Facebook and Instagram were not facilitating that. They were facilitating more of personal branding and butts and boobs and pictures and and just things that really weren't sitting with me. It was pulling me away from people instead of bringing me closer to them. But I also remember one of my first mentors said to me, they said, Scott, you gotta wake up each day and look in the mirror. And you have to ask yourself, how am I going to recruit me today? And a light bulb went off. And it was so impactful because in network marketing, you're just taught to like recruit friends and family, which you should never do. You should never blindly just text people in your phone just because they're in your phone. And you shouldn't just like blast before and afters and product pictures all the time. So I found myself posting and praying, scrolling and trolling, and not forming relationships. And I had all these consumers, but no one really building. But I remember I had this profile sitting on LinkedIn. And my mirror image were other gym owners, other personal trainers, and sports nutritionists, just like me. So I jumped onto LinkedIn and I changed my profile around to obviously make it more professional. I started sending warm messages to people that I connected with that were the mirror image of me, asking if they'd like to connect and hear about how we can collaborate. And people started responding back. And your net worth is in direct correlation to your net worth. So if you have a small network, you have a small net worth. If you have a large network, you're going to create a large net worth. And LinkedIn allows you 30,000 connections, which is six times larger than the network that you can grow on Facebook. But also, it's all about money mindset. The average income that someone makes on Facebook and Instagram is $30,000 a year or less. On LinkedIn, it's actually $100,000 a year or more. And I'm like, this makes sense. So I started booking call after call after call and started enrolling people into my business. And my business continued to grow. So I reached out to a friend of mine and I said, Joey, listen, you got to get on LinkedIn and I want you to do A, B, and C and let me know what happens. So he does A, B, and C and a week later he texted me and he said, Call me. So I called him, I said, What's up? And he goes, dude, whatever you're doing, it really works. He goes, I have 14 calls booked this week just from what you told me to do. And I'm like, wow. So that same week, my first business coach, Jeffrey Combs, had me on his live call, which he turns into a podcast. So I was on this live call and he was just he goes, share what you're what you're doing on LinkedIn now. And I just started sharing basic stats and things that I knew. And when I got off that call, I had nine inboxes on Facebook of people wanting to hire me. And what I realized is that number one, no one knew how to use it, and I still feel they still don't know how to use it. Four and a half years I did. Number two, some of the best businesses are created from when you have an idea that solves the problem that a lot of people have. Yes. So the problem that I was seeing, especially in network marketing and online coaching, is one thing. People were lacking human connection. And what I found with LinkedIn, it's the perfect platform because it encourages networking. It encourages connection. It encourages collaboration. It's something that I read in The Science of Getting Rich, one of my favorite books by Wallace D. Waddles. First money mindset book ever written. It was written in 1910. So every book that you guys have ever read that have to do with money is based off of that book Think and Grow Rich, The Strangest Secret, The Secret, Rich Dad, Poor Dad, You're a Badass at Making Money, The Millionaire Mind, all of those books are based off of the teachings and the principles of the science of getting rich. And what Wallace D. Waddles says, he goes, instead of living in a world of competition and comparison, live in a world of creation and collaboration. That is exactly what LinkedIn represents. LinkedIn represents collaboration and it completely embodies creation along with the people that you do collaborate with. And Eric, that's how we connected. I saw you had a podcast. I sent you a message. Would love to hear about the podcast. Let's do a swap. We got on a call, we totally vibe, and now here we are. Yes. And I don't know who's gonna hear this, but someone may resonate with my story and what I do. And guess what? They may reach out to me. So from collaboration and creation comes more impact. So all these people that are quote unquote influencers, you can't influence a single person without establishing some sort of rapport and trust first because with impact, create influence, not the other way around. You got to impact first to enable yourself to influence after.

That's awesome, man. I I think you and I have very similar um philosophies when it comes to business too. I I've spent the last better part of the last two years very intentionally building a network. And I've done a lot of it through LinkedIn, to be honest with you. I mean, I use more automation than you do, at least to get things started in the conversation. And then from there I make it as human as possible and find out what's going on in their business and just get to know people. And my first intention, and I had Bob Berg on my podcast recently too, who's the author of The Go Giver, who, funny enough, how we met is that I gave a new client his book, which I oftentimes do. Um, she posted on LinkedIn, right, saying, Thank you, Eric, for the book. Bob Berg, tagged Bob Berg, saying, Hey, so great to read your book. Uh, I messaged Bob afterwards, like, I'd love to have you on my podcast. Bob said yes. He came on the podcast. I talked to Bob afterwards. I'm like, how can I help you? What are you working on? And he mentioned a project. I'm like, well, why don't we adapt it to the fitness industry? Now, long story short, in 2020, we're working on a project for the fitness industry with an author I've always wanted to work with, right? Why? Because I helped one person, I gave them one thing with nothing, zero expectations of anything in return, right? Now that's that does that happen every day? No. But you do it enough, and these things happen. And I I'm a I mean, man, I'm so tired of Facebook. I I still have by habit go on it, and I have a Facebook group and and Instagram seems seems like a foreign animal to me. Um, but LinkedIn is I've seen a lot, right?

It's it's it's it people don't get it. Like for all the network marketers and the online like business, Mark Zuckerberg hates network marketers. He hates them. He hates, I mean, that's why the algorithm is always and you know what the whole algorithm stuff, it's all bullshit. It is. Everyone, you know, the algorithms change, no one's seeing my stuff. If you know the core principles of Facebook and Instagram, you'll know what you should and shouldn't post. You know, they don't want any clickbait. They don't want people posting before and afters all the time, you trying to sell a product. And it even went this far. One of my other business coaches that I worked with, Todd Falcone, he did a Facebook Live a few months back and basically said a network marketing company got themselves blackballed from Facebook completely. Facebook completely made them invisible because they were teaching their associates to just drop links to people that were unwarranted. So, my best advice for anyone in network marketing is whatever you're being told by your upline, do the exact opposite. And you're gonna learn from their mistakes. And the way that someone built their business back in the day is different than the way that you have to build it now. To think that Facebook works the way that it did in 2012 and 2013, you're just lying to yourself. And if you're being told that, they're lying to you. And you and I discussed this right now, as you guys are listening to this episode. LinkedIn is having a Facebook 2012 moment. Engagement has never been higher organically. Organic reach has never been higher. Visibility has never been higher. So if you're in network marketing, if you're a business coach, if you have a coaching program, you are leaving hundreds of thousands of dollars on the table, not by selling on LinkedIn, but by connecting with people on LinkedIn and building that no like and trust factor that is very difficult to do now on Facebook and Instagram because those are the barbecues of social media, whereas LinkedIn is a global networking event every single time you log on.

Awesome, man. So without giving up, you know, what your secret sauce is and what you coach people with, what what can you tell us about LinkedIn? What are people doing wrong? What should we be doing right? What can you give us?

Well, what they're doing wrong is you should never, number one, never automate anything on LinkedIn. Do not use a poster, um, a posting app. Um, never ever, never ever use some sort of automated messaging system either. That is your quickest way to LinkedIn jail. And the other thing is that if you're going to message someone on LinkedIn, do not sell them anything. And I'll give you a perfect example, Eric. I, it was uh about three months ago, this guy sent me uh a connection request and he added a note. And just to let you guys know, you can send connection requests without adding a note. LinkedIn will say, you know, you have a higher chance of getting the uh request accepted. If you add a note, there was a third party that came in and they did a study. They sent a hundred connections with a message or with a note and a hundred without. Connection rate acceptance was the same. So this guy sends me a note and he goes, Would love to connect with you. Not looking to sell you anything, just want to connect. Two days later, what do you think happened? Sent me a message to sell me something. So he completely violated my trust in him because he told me he wasn't gonna sell me anything. And as soon as I accepted, two days later he tried to sell me. So the mistake that people make on LinkedIn is they're selling too much and they're connecting too little. So you need to focus on connecting, building rapport, building collaboration, building trust, building all of those things that give you the right to actually offer and sell someone something. You don't have the right to sell anyone anything if you haven't earned that person's trust, their rapport, the relationship with them, and above all else, the connection between that person and yourself.

That's beautiful. Yeah, I agree, man. You know, one of the little hacks that uh, and I don't you I don't like that term hacks, I wish I didn't use it, but um, I think both of I uh in our LinkedIn profiles we have an emoji uh in front of our name. I I use that not, I mean, A, it does make it a little bit more noticeable, but I do that because it helps funnel out automated messages. Because if someone says, hey, because I use little uh microphone or like headphones for broadcaster, and uh if people, if I see that in the the when they're addressing me, I'm like, okay, it's an automated message delete. I'm not even accepting their friendship. That that's like one little thing because you it comes through so much. And there's one thing there's a lot of network marketers on LinkedIn too, and they're always trying to sell you right away, right? Um, and it's so it's so blatant. So that I I get that.

You have to earn that right. But also, I I think the the other mistake that people are making is that they're they're treating it like Facebook and Instagram. It's not you you have to use each social media platform the way that it was meant to be used. Right. So you don't want to put butt and boob pictures on LinkedIn. You know, the the best posts on LinkedIn are educational posts, how-to posts, and list posts, where you always want to do a CTA, which is a call to action. So if anyone follows me on LinkedIn, I'm just Scott Aaron. And you'll see I'll do videos, I'll do educational videos, I'll do articles, I'll do regular posts, and I'll ask you, tell me what you feel, or let me know your thoughts, or what's holding you back, leave a comment below. You're on LinkedIn to engage and network. So, yes, is it important to build your network and message people to connect and collaborate? Absolutely. But outside of the nucleus of that, you are literally putting yourself into a black hole of nowhere if you are not taking advantage of the platform to be the undisputed champion of content creation. Content creation is number one right now on social media, but also number one on LinkedIn. And on LinkedIn, if there was one piece of advice I can give you guys of what you should go all in with as far as the type of content creation is video. Right now, 50% of all people online consume video and voice content. So, what is video and voice? It's a video. It's one thing for people to read what you're passionate about and what you're saying. It's a whole other level when not only are they reading what you're gonna be talking about, but when they can hear your passion, they can see your inflection, they can see how fired up you are about giving them content. And again, giving without expecting anything back in return. So literally, you give as much for free as possible because you will always get what you give and vice versa. So give without expecting anything back in return.

Scott, what do you know about the uh speaking of video, creating video? Um, I have had high engagement in some of the videos I've I've posted for sure. Um, usually clips in my podcasts like this. But there's also the ability to go live now in LinkedIn, which I'm not quite sure on. Do you have were you granted that? Like I I've applied twice for that. Me too.

I've applied four times, so I'm on the whitelist right now. And they they don't even there's the the one thing that I will say, they have no rhyme or reason. It's still in beta test phase. Yeah. And they, you know, I've been producing video content for six and a half years. I know how to do video. I I've been speaking for longer than that. I have the network to support it. I have over 27,000 connections. I have close to 400 written recommendations on my profile. I've emailed them multiple times. Like, guys, I'm producing two to three videos a week. They're getting great engagement. I I would really love to have, and it's you're just basically asking for permission. Live video is so important. That's why I that's why I still love Facebook for one thing. I love Facebook for Facebook Live. I there's there is nothing better than having a live audience with you. But until they get it out of beta test phase into just anyone can use it, I would still just focus on producing two to three videos per week. And the the don't make it too long. The the longest video that you can upload is 10 minutes. If it goes over 10 minutes, you gotta upload onto YouTube and then funnel it back through LinkedIn, which will devalue the content because LinkedIn wants you to host it from their platform. But just to give you, there's there's really no rhyme or reason behind the time. Uh, I did a video last summer of me doing a can opener off of a diving board. And the title of it was Never Forget to Always Be a Kid. And it got like 3,000 views. And that was just me literally over a sec, seven-second clip of doing a can opener. So it it's it's the message behind what you say that is always gonna be most impactful. But you can apply to get on LinkedIn Live, but don't don't let that stop you from producing video content. You keep producing video content until they see the impact that you're having, and you'll eventually get it. That's awesome.

So we know we should create video content. We know we should focus on human interaction. What other tidbits about what we should be doing versus what not be doing?

Well, again, I think going back to the core foundation of human connection is connecting more and selling less. You know, everyone is looking to build their income. People are always looking to right now. Chris Harter, who's one of my friends and mentors, I was in his mastermind, he's got a great podcast called For the Love of Money. And he did an episode back in December, towards the end of the year, that basically said, if you want to make a change in 2020, and you know, we're in 2020 now, it's the new year. He said, If you if you don't change what you're doing in 2019 and try to repeat that in 2020, your business is gonna go under. And he said, more so, if you're gonna be socially selling on Facebook and Instagram, you're gonna have a really tough time. You have to build the trust. So, my number one tip for people that that really want to utilize LinkedIn, I don't care if you get my book or work with me or not, but take the time to over-deliver it. Over-deliver on everything that you produce, whether it's a post, whether it's an article, whether it's a discussion in a group or a video. And if you are gonna message people, really have the intention of that message to do nothing more to see if that person is willing to get on the phone so you can share each other's stories, to see how you can support one another on LinkedIn. If you do those things, whether you work with me or not, you will see a change in your business this year.

That's awesome. How much time do you spend, let's say, on like a daily or weekly basis on LinkedIn?

Average to see results that I've seen. My business has 12x in the last four years from using LinkedIn. I can spend as much time as I want, but I try I try to average anywhere between 20 to 30 minutes a day. And that is through producing content, that is through connecting with my new connections, that is planting some new seeds, that is responding to some people, sending some gratitude, whatever it is. Um, but I spend the most time on there because I coach people. So I coach people on how to build out their LinkedIn. So I do, I have anywhere between, I would say, six to seven elite level clients a week. Um, and they spend about a 30 to 45 minute time span with me over four weeks. So most of the time that I'm on LinkedIn is basically teaching other people how to do it, but obviously I still allot those 30 to 45 minutes for myself to continue to grow my business as well.

Right on. Awesome, man. Um, I want to respect your time because I know you got a lot of things to do. So tell us about the services that you actually provide.

So there's uh a number of things that that I do. Obviously, I have my own podcast, uh, which you will be on uh later this quarter, and that's called Network Marketing Made Simple. You can find it on iTunes, Spotify, and it's not just for network marketing, it's for you know business owners and online entrepreneurs. So you can get some free stuff from there. My website, ScottAaron.net, there's a free download for your uh profile infographic on LinkedIn, but also you can go to Amazon and get my best-selling book. It's called the LinkedIn Book for Network Marketing, and there's a lot of key takeaway sections. And then I do have some virtual programs and elite level coaching and also speaking. So if if people are interested in having me come out and do some free workshops or some paid speaking for large corporate events, I do those as well. And all that can be found at www.scottarin.net.

Right on. Scott, thank you so much for this, man. I think it's uh it's so valuable. I've been preaching LinkedIn for for a long time. And you know, I put actual minimal effort into it, and it's it's been really fruitful, you know. And uh I look forward to to learning more from you and and and how you do it. But I would urge people to take a second look. And I think people look at it, they're like, ah, it's kind of you know, boring and and you know stuffy too stuffy, right, right. Nah, it's it's not, it's people. And you know what? I think a lot of people are going there because they're like me, like, I if I if I see another cat video, I don't need it in my life. You know, I and I don't like getting sucked into the vortex of Instagram and Facebook. And you know, because you go there to to do a post, next thing you know, it's like 20 minutes later, like, where how did I get here, right? Oh, I followed a booty shot somewhere and now I'm watching that, right? And uh, you know, but it LinkedIn's very different, and I like that people are there specifically for the reason of networking, and I like that um, you know, you've kind of put it to a science to it, and I think it's really, really valuable for people. I think especially people in the fitness and health industry. So, man, Scott, thank you again for coming on. Um, love your philosophies on life, love your story. Thank you for sharing and being so vulnerable with that and uh keep creating value for people, man. It's it's awesome.

All right, thank you so much, and just appreciate you and just grateful for this opportunity and thanks for having me today.

Yeah, ladies and gentlemen, Scott Eric. Hey, it's your host, Eric Malzone. Thank you so much for listening to another episode of Future of Fitness. If you enjoyed it, please do me a huge favor by going to the website and signing up for our newsletter. Website is future of fitness.co. Again, that's futurofitness.co. We've got some big, big announcements coming down the fight, and we want you to make sure that you are on top of it. Thank you again.