B2B My Guest with Brian Cahill

Charli Hunt: Brian, thank you so much for being on the podcast. We are so lucky to have you. I came across Brian because he sent a really cool Loom video to my business partner, Chris.

And we loved it. And then I just had a chat with Brian and he has this whole cool LinkedIn strategy that he does around it as well. And I wanted to share that with everybody. So Brian, thank you so much for being on. Please introduce yourself.

Brian Cahill: Okay. Thanks. I'm really pleased to be here. Thank you so much. I'm Brian Cahill and I'm a health and fitness coach. I'm a father of four, four sons, married 10 years. my oldest is 10 and then we're eight and then we had twins, so loads going on. I suppose, know, you have to be as efficient with your time as possible to run a business, still have fun and still try and make time for great relationships. I've been like a personal trainer for the last, uh, 12, 13 years and I've been fully online for about four years. Uh, apart from a little bit of like in person stuff that we still do, you know, it's good to mix with people and train and have fun.

Charli Hunt: Brilliant. And, uh, tell us more about your story with LinkedIn. How did you start posting and how has it worked for you?

Brian Cahill: Okay. So I remember like, um, I created my LinkedIn profile and maybe like most people created it and did nothing with it for about three, four years, just had a profile. And then I saw a mentorship. And it was an Australian group and they were all about LinkedIn. LinkedIn's so cool. Loads of clients, loads of money.

Let's go. And they shopped me in. So I got into this LinkedIn group and it was, it was all about engagement pods. And so when we say engagement pod, you're in a group of people who go in and maybe comment on your stuff or like your stuff, but they're of no interest in working with you. And I suppose, know, it's nice because you feel you're being supported, but it's not really helping you get clients. but I was really friendly with this Australian guy and, uh, left that group at the same time he left it. And then we got together and we did a wee bit of extra work. And he got me more into LinkedIn, more posting, and different ways to, uh, like outline people. So I think I was using like Expandy in the beginning, and it's like, uh, message systems that are going on.

You have like 20 different messages and you send a message. Now, at that moment, it was working a little bit, got some clients out of it. I got a client who I'm still training today. Three, four years later. Um, you know, even though sometimes it's a bit fake with all these messages, you might find the needle in the haystack. And I did. And I suppose you're looking for those 1 percent of people who were ready. And I got some of those guys and it was great. But I'll be honest. I don't like getting lots of fake messages myself. And when I say fake, you have to get really good to be, to be authentic, you know, and be real. The competition is so tough out there.

It's so hard out there. There's so many people trying these different things. And while I had to let that go, cause it just wasn't for me anymore. I moved on and I think I joined like another mentorship. And I suppose that's when the Loom videos came out. Loom, if nobody knows what Loom is, it is, uh, basically a way to present yourself on your screen.

So if you have a little presentation, or you want to record something to show somebody how something works, you can use your camera and it takes a little video of you. I think it's really cool. I think it's authentic. Some people don't really like it, but I I think it's cool you can show the person who you are. So I suppose like LinkedIn, like most stuff it's posting relatable content, just being real and telling people who you are. I feel like most social media, there's a lot of fakeness in it. So you have to dig deep to find the real people, are they even real people commenting on people's stuff? You know?

Charli Hunt: Yeah, exactly. It has become quite pod heavy, LinkedIn. I used to be part of a, a really small pod. And I think it was good, in a way, because it gave me the confidence to start posting. And it gives you some level of, um, I don't know, just a sense of there being people actually out there looking at your stuff.

But after a while you just realise you're in an echo chamber and none of these people are going to buy from you.

So for me, it was quite a good way to start, but it's just not something that I would use as a strategy going forward now.

Brian Cahill: You still meet some nice people in there. If you have a connection and I'm still friendly with, an Australian guy called Ed Zia. Seems to be big on LinkedIn and we get on well and he, he makes things personal. So I'm part of his group still. Have I got clients through him?

No, but I like Ed. I like him. He reaches out, he talks to me and he gives me little tips and tricks. So, uh, you know, I'll, I'll support him.

Charli Hunt: That's another good reason to use a pod probably and and I think follow LinkedIn trainers as well they're always so useful and there's always Always things that you could be learning on how to use LinkedIn better. And what's the biggest impact that LinkedIn has had on your business?

Brian Cahill: Well, I gained some really top clients out of it. My first worldwide client. In U. S. Seattle, I think, and that helped me become worldwide in terms of my reach and my coaching have an impact, and it's great to impact people so far away, especially when you're from quite a small country and it's great. I have clients who are only a few miles away from me and we've never met maybe, well, we've met maybe like once, but they come to me, they want coaching, they want programming, want some accountability, and they want the know how of how to get the result and that's what I'm bringing to the table for them.

At the same time, you have people who want exactly the same thing. Thousands of miles away and I suppose, you know, again, some top clients, very knowledgeable people big in business and I learned from them and they were able to help me and give me some tips and tricks, in terms of getting other leads. In terms of just being, uh, smarter, you know, and having a real hunger inside to learn more and obviously stand out amongst the crowd, talk better, speak better and speak to people in a way that their ears prick up when they listen.

Charli Hunt: Yeah, I love that. So we met we met through the Loom video that you sent to chris Can you tell us a bit more about what you include in the videos? We talked before about the strategy that you have around them as well Can you tell us a bit more about that?

Brian Cahill: Okay, so, you know, we're trying to be authentic, let's talk about someone who's not authentic first, I suppose. Okay. And it might be wishy washy message from someone's VA. It's like asking them, they're having a good day. People just don't believe it. It's either automated or it's AI.

And I don't like getting that myself. Why is this person asking me some question? He doesn't even know me and they're pretending to be my friend. So why would you want to be like that to get more leads? So I suppose to be more authentic with where I'm going with this is, uh, to use Loom to your advantage. was in another mentorship, uh, Apollo, and, uh, one of their things was to go, you know, uh, someone's profile and then you could see more about them. And obviously there's a lot of information on there. So you're having a little creep and you're speaking about something that they're doing or the last post they did.

Obviously you have to have an interest. So you have to read it, you have to look at it. And some of this stuff's way over my head. You know, I have no idea what these guys are talking about, but I had to work hard to pick out some things. That I could speak about and interact with them. So then I could use Loom. So we go to their profile and we'll record a short Loom video. While on their profile and we're speaking directly to them. Why are you speaking to them? You don't want to waste their time. This is what I'm offering. This is what I do. And if you're interested now or interested later, give me a shout, you know, message me back. Now, the thing about Loom is you can see who's watched your video. And if some people ignore it totally fine, they're busy, busy people, but some people maybe watch it. And they say, Hey, this is a great video. And there's a bit of conversation. And there we go. We've, we've started the conversation. Now that person may then watch your stuff over the next year and then potentially come to work with you. Or you get someone who just watches it and they say nothing and this person may actually need your help, but they're just not ready to buy yet. So with Loom, you can tell who watches it and you could actually message and say, Hey Charli, I know you watched this video. Perhaps, uh, you don't want to talk, you don't want to speak over Loom and you just want to have a quick, honest conversation. And you start up another conversation from there and the person's like, Oh, you noticed I've watched it. Maybe that works. It does work in some cases, but it doesn't work all the time. You know, I suppose with leads, it's like one in a hundred, you may get a big hit.

Charli Hunt: Yeah, for me, what transformed sales was that idea that you've got to speak to 100 people, you've got to get 100 nos or you've got to get 99 nos before you get one yes. And it just helps so much with the rejection because you just keep going until somebody says yes. It makes it so much easier and it really, really grinds my gears when people send that, Hey, Charli, how are you?

And then you're replying saying, fine. Thanks. How are you? And then they'll reply, good. Thanks you. And you're like, what is this for?

Brian Cahill: Yeah, you feel like you've wasted 20 seconds or more of your life. And I've done it and I've not enjoyed it when I was doing it. So you have to ask yourself, do you go straight in for the sale? Do you go straight in and say, look, this is what I do. If you're ever interested, check out if you've got them, check out my testimonials, check out my results. I help these people, you know, ask me any questions you want. I think that's the best way to go about it. Cause at the end of the day, you're in sales. You have to sell, how bad do you want it?

Charli Hunt: Yeah. Yeah. I like that. So you said some of your clients might take a year to convert after you've sent them this video. So how do you keep them interested, how do you keep in touch and keep them interested?

Brian Cahill: Well, perhaps they've messaged you back and then they might like one of your things at some point. Or you know, you've got a little bit of information on them and you can just message them back and tell them about something that you're doing and doing this. I've got this new cool program. Or sometimes I suppose the lead might say, yeah, I want to lose weight or I want to get healthier and get fitter, but I'm not ready to do it now. And then, you know, when, when are you ready? Just ask them, like, when are you ready? When do you think you'll be ready? And they might say, and then go back to them and, you know, arrange a point. Okay. Do you want me to message you back in 12 weeks time? You gotta to keep your leads. You got to note it down and go back and ask them and maybe they're still not ready. But eventually, they might come back to you and say, look, I'm ready to work now. I'm ready to do something. And you start the process all again. But I suppose over that year, you've built trust and you've built some authority and you've proven that you walk the walk. And you're talking the talk and you're doing what you actually said you're going to do, which is get results.

Charli Hunt: Yeah. So there's two sides of it which are, well there are three sides I guess. So there's the outreach, there's the staying in touch and make sure you're following up, and make sure you're, Not that you're not taking a no for an answer, but you're qualifying the nos, so you know what it is that's holding them back.

And then the third thing is to create this content so that they can still get value from you while they're kind of waiting to buy, I guess.

Brian Cahill: Yeah. And some of that content may touch on some of the stuff that they've already spoken to you about. You know, obviously if they've said get fitter, get healthier weight loss, you can talk about why weightloss may help you, you know, just that line of content. My latest lead came in and it was something I said, I was like, you can't out-run a bad diet.

You're not in your twenties anymore. You can't train all the time, eat what you want and, and, and out-train your bad diet cause it'll catch you and I'll catch you good and bring you down. well that clicked on that guy. And we had a bit of a conversation. one thing about LinkedIn leads, that I've noticed. They're busy. If you get a real good strong lead, they're busy with business. And there has to be a sense of urgency about it, while maybe on Instagram there were some messages going back and forward, and you're finding out lots of information about somebody, because you're trying to qualify this person. While on LinkedIn, while they've reached out to you for a reason, there's urgency, they want help now. Stop being wishy washy and get them on a call or propose something to them Uh, that's what i'm finding at the minute. So How can I create urgency and how can I show authority? But you still need to find a little bit of information out about them .

If you get them on a call and you show you're personal, or you send them a little Loom video, uh, proposal, they may like you and then, well, they may sign up with you or sign up with you at some point.

Charli Hunt: So it's about adding that personal element rather than them feeling that you've asked that question to everybody on LinkedIn.

Brian Cahill: Yeah. Yeah. I was just thinking about this the other day. I get results through honesty. I do expect people to answer the question because I want to get to a personal level with them. It has to get to the root level of the issue or you're never going to fix it. Um, so it's just I simply want to lose weight. All right. Want to get fitter, build muscle. We've got to find out why. Now the question of finding out why is working out the right time to do it. But if this person's not prepared to answer those questions, I don't believe you're going to get results with them because they're not being honest with themselves and they don't want to go to that place.

Charli Hunt: Yeah That's really interesting. We talked about this before actually, so how I loved what you said about how important health and fitness is for, um, helping with your personal brand and how you come across on LinkedIn. And I read something recently, I don't know how true it is.

So, um, take this with a pinch of salt, but I read something recently that said the CEOs of the biggest companies in the world, the one thing they can find in common, and we don't know if this is correlation could just be a coincidence, but the one thing they have in common is that they work out in some form almost every day.

So it is, it's so important, um, whether there's a correlation or causation or just coincidence, who knows any of the C words. But yeah, I'd love to hear your take on, on how important health and fitness is to your personal brand.

Brian Cahill: Okay. Well, yeah, you're totally right Charli, just in terms of these top earners, these top entrepreneurs, they do put their health and fitness first. They love working. They love making money. They love having an impact. And they love changing the world with what they do. and to do that, you gotta be fit.

You gotta be healthy. You have to, you know, say no to lots of stuff. And, uh, I think it's so important because what I find is that, of a lot of people when things get tough in their business world or their family world. What's the one thing that they say no to or they give up on? It's the health and fitness side. It's the going out of the one thing that makes these guys feel better is exercise and eating better and going out of the way and doing the shit that they don't want to do, which is the reps. They don't want to go and do the reps. But if, you know, when you're struggling, if you go and do those, you will feel better and you come back to your work and your business with a clear head and more focus when you're, when you're exercising, or maybe you just go for a run or a walk, it clears your head and gets you thinking, and it gets you thinking at a good pace.

And then you go back and you work harder. So, why do they give up the one thing that makes them feel better? Makes them move better, you know, think clear, have more focus, have more clarity, more energy. Why do they give that up? And that's what we're trying to get to the bottom of.

Charli Hunt: And let's say you're a business, busy entrepreneur, a busy business owner, what are the things you can do now to just make a small, the small changes you can make now to affect your health and fitness?

Brian Cahill: Okay, well, for me, uh, you gotta cut back on the ultra processed food, processed food, and eat more real food. There's a lot of controversy within the health and fitness industry of counting calories. Do I have to count calories and it's okay to eat sugar as long as it's in my calories and processed stuff? And to a certain aspect, yes. You can fit certain things into your calories, but if you want to feel good, if you want to truly feel good, then you have to eat more real food. I 100 percent believe that. I think that, like, that's the best advice you can give someone. Let's take my parents, right? Cereals. Breads, biscuits. Okay. These are big issues with people. Three things just constantly and what you're doing when you have those things with processed foods, they break down into sugar, they spike your blood sugar level and you get this high and then you crash and then you're ready to go again.

You know, you want more. Go give me another biscuit. or maybe they're bloated. They don't feel that good from it. Well, they're not real food. All right. It's processed stuff you're eating. Your body is not going to like it. Now to someone who eats that stuff all the time. No, they're not going to just come off it completely and it will take a long time.

So let's say you're drinking Cokes and Pepsis and eating wraps all the time and sandwiches and these cereals. All these processed things, you have to wean your way off that and eat more real food. What's real food? So we have like fats and proteins. Real meats. I love eating eggs and cheese and stuff. And it gives me good energy, and I feel great. Um, sweet potato, rice, and stuff. But, I'm not someone who would tell you never to eat ultra processed. At the end of the day, sometimes I do want to have some crisps, or I do want to have something, uh, that is seen as a bit dodgy, but not all the time. So back to that question, what's the one thing you can do? Eat more real food. That's it. Eat more real food, real food for breakfast, real food at lunchtime, real food for dinner, or maybe, I'm a two meal type of guy a day. So I eat two meals a day and they're pretty big meals. One of them's definitely got eggs in it.

Generally got cheese in it. and I might eat some meat that I've cooked the night before. And then in the evening. That's when I would go more into the carbs side of it because carbs break down into sugar and I'll be going potato or sweet potato or rice.

I like Eddie Abu, he's on Instagram and his big thing is about eating more real food and I relate to that so much.

Charli Hunt: Yeah, that's really good. And it's so recent that we found out that cereal and a sandwich Which is what people used to have so frequently so cereal for breakfast and then a sandwich for lunch And then probably meat and two veg for dinner and in the uk, but yeah, I think It's just crazy how recently we've learned that that's all really processed.

Brian Cahill: Yeah, totally. Like my last client he couldn't lose weight. And when we, we sat down one day and we, we wrote out basically what he's eating and it was, it was bread at lunch breakfast and all right, he was having some eggs, but he's having two bits of toast and then, so we got that little spike because the, the bread will break down in the sugar and then it was biscuits at 11 o'clock and then it was more bread at lunchtime and then we had biscuits or a bun or something at two o'clock you're just constantly going up and down.

So, you know, my advice to him was to cut all of those things out. You know, do you want to lose weight or not? Do you want to feel better? I'm very black and white and some people don't like that. But if you must have bread and you must have those carby things and you must have biscuits, save it till later on. Because to be honest, you know, you can only eat so much of it at one go before you literally feel sick and I think that works.

Charli Hunt: So that's, that's what you recommend. So eat, try to eat healthily during the day and then evening. That's when you can have a bit of the naughty stuff.

Brian Cahill: Yeah, like, if you need to have some chocolate in the evening, have it, I would say save it till after five o'clock, you usually have a really good dinner at that point, maybe whatever time you eat dinner. And it'll take you a long time to get to the point of really understanding what foods make you feel good. So for me, I love having eggs at lunchtime and I might eat chicken and, uh, I literally might add some green beans or something with that. but you have to get out of your way and prep that. And if you have no time to prep that, well, you better stop watching all those episodes on Netflix and start prepping up stuff on the night before. One of the things also is when you start to eat more real food, your body, you feel good inside, you'll feel good and you'll think clearer and you'll have more clarity and you know, your energy will be better because you're not spiking up and down. Um, and your body craves that. So one of my things is if I do go have a dodgy meal or something, I don't know, crisps and chocolate. I have to follow that up with something real, something good. So follow it up with something good follow that up with something good.

Charli Hunt: I really like that. So to bring it back to LinkedIn, we just talked before the call. So you had your first inbound lead or was it conversion or lead?

Brian Cahill: Yeah. There's a lead. I'm going to send a little proposal.

Charli Hunt: Brilliant. And because there's so much rubbish on LinkedIn, it feels like other people are getting new clients every other day. They started posting a week ago and now they have all these clients. So where did the lead come from and how long did it take for you to get your first inbound lead?

Obviously you've had loads of brilliant outbound leads, but how long did it take to get that first inbound one?

Brian Cahill: Well, this guy had has connected with me, I think, maybe for two years, and a lot of people who maybe want to work with you. They like your stuff. They actually don't like any of it. But they're watching in the background and then slowly, slowly, you're building trust, you're building some authority, and then maybe they're ready to reach out.

And you know, I have a mini presentation and I could bring them through that and speak about some of the things they've already told me why they want to get fitter.

I love what I do. I'm so fulfilled about helping people and getting clients and pushing them to the next level. And you know, let's do it. Now that person may still not want to work with you for a little period of time.

And it may take another three weeks. Charli before or longer before they're ready to do it.

Charli Hunt: Brilliant. That's really good to know because that's the main thing for me that I've learned with LinkedIn is that it's consistency and it's building networks and it's, Reciprocity. And yeah, that's what gets you places.

Brian Cahill: Yeah. So a big thing as well is getting in front of people. My latest two clients. didn't come from LinkedIn. They didn't come from social media. Yes, I had that presence on there and maybe there's trust to be shown from my, uh, profiles. But I was in front of these people, I met them and I'd spoken to them and well, they knew what I was about.

Like, did they want to work with me right away? No, it still took another four weeks and yeah, I had to go out of my way. This is how far I had to go to get a lead. We didn't exchange numbers. Knew I could help this guy and change this guy's life.

He was bending my ear about his, his problems. Right. But we didn't exchange numbers, should have exchanged numbers. I knew where he worked though, and I got his work number and I phoned up his work. I said, Hey, it's Frank. How's it going? Uh, we started the conversation. So I was keen for the business.

I wanted it because I could help him. And well, that maybe took another two, three weeks. And you know what we are two months in. He's a stone and a half less, his hips, his mobility, his movement, everything's improved. He's playing golf better. He's drinking less, eating less, eating real food. He's feeling better. He's thinking clearer. Fucking brilliant. You know, I'm changing this guy's life.

Charli Hunt: That's brilliant. And if you could leave our listeners with just one helpful tip, uh, especially for their personal brand or for using LinkedIn, what would it be?

Brian Cahill: So building a personal brand, be prepared to open up about you, your wants, your whys, why you're doing this in the first place. Expect some backlash in some way. There's always negativity, uh, all over internet, all over social media. Once you get past that, once you brush that stuff aside

there's people under there who will love you, and they'll do what you say and they will get results and you will change their lives.

Charli Hunt: It's amazing. And if people loved you on this episode, where can they find you? And how can they work with you? I

Brian Cahill: Okay? You can find me on Instagram, Frank fit me. Same on Facebook. I have a website, frank fit me.com. But most of my work and my chat is on LinkedIn and Instagram, I'm, all the time I'm putting stuff up and posting and, and dms there. And you can find me on there and have a real personal conversation with me. And I said, Frank fit me what my name's Brian, but my nickname is Frank. And 20 years. So I called my business Frank Fit. I was in Frankfurt and at the time, Germany, and I just became a PT. And I thought Brian Fit sucked.

Charli Hunt: Love the alliteration. Brian, thank you so much. Thank you so much for being on the podcast. That was so valuable and I can't wait to share all the tips with everyone. Thank you.

Brian Cahill: You know what Charli? It's been my absolute pleasure. Thank you.