Charli Hunt: Thank you so much for being on B2B My Guest, Viktoria.

We're so excited to have you Please explain a bit more about what you do and who you are.

Viktoria Jancurova: And thank you so much for having me. I'm really excited. So I am Viktoria Jancurova and I am a personal brand strategist and developer on LinkedIn. So I help service based founders amplify their voice to build an engaged community of potential buyers and super fans that ultimately converts the eyeballs into paying clients.

Charli Hunt: And I really love the way that you position people on LinkedIn as well. I think it's so important to understand what your position in the market is. So my first question for you is how, how can people, how can people find more confidence to start posting on LinkedIn?

Viktoria Jancurova: I get this more often than you would imagine, to be honest. I speak with people who already post on LinkedIn . And they're confident sharing their stories. But I also talk to people who are just really shying away from being visible, questioning, like, why would even someone want to hear from me?

Right. What do I have to share? So I always say to find your confidence. And the first thing is just know that you are the only person who sees a hundred percent of your content. No one, no one will ever see all of your content that you ever put out there. Like I have around 17, 000 followers right now and I'm certain there is probably not one person who can remember my first post that went out in like 2022, right? I'm the only one who remembers them and I cringe whenever I go back to them and I laugh but I mean those are the posts that got me started and those are the posts that got me where I am today. If you're thinking about posting on LinkedIn, but just are a little bit unsure if you should do it or unconfident, it's like that imposter syndrome tells you that you don't belong there. Just take a very deep breath and know, first of all, your first posts are going to be seen by very few people and even less of those are going to remember them. So if you are cringe at the start, that's okay. We've all been there. No,

Charli Hunt: love that. I really wanted to try and get everyone to start posting their first ever post on LinkedIn and get it into a chain. But I just think it's too hard to go back. It's just so much scrolling to go back to the first one that you ever posted

Viktoria Jancurova: my first post, I still remember that. It was in January, 2022. I took a photo on the beach because I was in Nice, France, my Erasmus year. And I did mine as a part of a challenge. So, um, if you know, pretty little marketer, she ran the challenge at the start of the year. And it was just three posts to kick off the year and get you started posting.

I can't remember exactly the topic. But I just know that I've posted that and I added the photo of the beach, just to add some visuals to the post. I did three posts in January and then my first actual post was on my birthday, February 18th. And that was just my introduction and I was telling everyone that I'm committing to LinkedIn.

And then everyone was going to see a lot more of me and it was just public commitment that I was going to do it. That's the post I remember. I don't remember the first three. I remember the fourth one, which was like, Hey, I'm going to commit to this. And since then, the rest is history,

really.

Charli Hunt: We're so lucky that you started posting on LinkedIn. I I really want more people to feel confident to post on LinkedIn because it's such a brilliant platform. There's so much interesting stuff on there.

Viktoria Jancurova: Yeah, there's so many opportunities. It's just the hardest thing is to hit post for the first time. And it just gets easier from there. Like two years later, I don't double thing. Like I don't question whatever I put out there. Some posts do well, some posts don't do well.

And I'm okay with that. I just build that confidence, right? At the start, I was questioning everything, making sure it's perfect. And that's just a journey of evolution. It's just, if you start as a creator, you'll always question everything before you hit post. And then you're just like, Oh, okay. I mean, people who like it will enjoy the post and people who don't, that's okay.

There is a hundred other posts. They can scroll past mine and enjoy the rest.

Charli Hunt: exactly. I remember when I posted my first video, I was terrified. And if I look at that video now, I just look really scared in the video. Yeah,

Viktoria Jancurova: too. I think I recorded it like 10 times before I actually chose one.

Charli Hunt: But it's so worth it. And I saw something on TikTok recently of this guy saying that if you do anything worthwhile, you have to climb cringe mountain. So at the bottom, everything's really cringy and it's got to be so cringy until you get to the top and then you'll feel fine about it, but you just, if you're going to do anything worthwhile, you've got to, got to climb that cringe mountain.

And if people are posting and they're not getting the results that they want What are some tips that you give them to help them start seeing those results and start seeing what it is they want to get out of LinkedIn?

Viktoria Jancurova: That's a great question. So first thing I would definitely say is what does getting results mean to you ? That's the first thing that you need to answer. Why are you posting? What's the ultimate goal. If it's to become the next LinkedIn influencer and you just want to share all the great things and your opinions and potentially get some brand deals and so on, then, okay, that's your goal. If you are a business owner, I would assume that your goal is to get leads. To convert the impressions into paying clients. And that's the goal for many of us on LinkedIn. Once you get really clear on that goal, what that is, how it looks like, the next thing to get really clear of who is the target audience. You got the what, now to who. Who is it for? Who are you writing for? Is it to build an engaged community of real super fans who then will be literally super excited when you launch potential course? Or when you land those partnerships you've been wanting? Or potential clients, right? So who is it for?

And get really clear on the target audience. Not just, oh yeah, it's for potential clients. Who are these people? How do they look like? Where do they hang out? What type of content they consume, what they enjoy. For example, if I am a personal brand strategist and developer, I might enjoy writing about personal brand content. But actually my audience might not necessarily care about the personal branding. What they care is how they can convert the eyeballs into clients. So there is something that they want. If you are a coach, they won't really care about your coaching frameworks.

They'll care about the transformation. What's in it for them? And then when you're writing the content, make sure you remember that. Make sure you have your target audience at the heart of every piece that you do. And then there are other parts of that. So content is just one part of the equation. Then you need to go out there and actually invest into building a community. And I don't mean invest financially. I mean, invest your time, your effort into building the relationships, whether that's through comments and going under your target audience's posts and delivering value, building on top of that, maybe cheering them on. Or whether that's By sending a connection to your target audience and then building a relationship in the DM. That's another thing that people neglect often is the DMs, the messaging, the real magic happens in the DMs. And I don't mean just outreach, cold outreach, like, hi, this is what I have to offer. I mean, building genuine relationships. That then when you realize, Oh, yeah, actually they have this problem that I can help, maybe then you can go into telling them more about how you can help them. But build a relationship first. And there's a thing I always say, when you start a conversation, don't always expect to see, or if you start posting on LinkedIn, don't expect leads flooding in, in the first week of your content. People need some time to get used to seeing you, get to know you better. They need to understand you and they want to feel that you see them, that you understand them, that you get them and that you can help them. And that takes time. It's like this dating analogy. You don't go to a first date and suddenly ask someone to marry you. Build a relationship and you kind of keep dating for a certain while before anything after happens. So just remember that the first date, First conversion or the next conversion. You might have a conversation with someone today. It might take around three to six months before people convert. I think my longest conversion probably almost a year. a year with someone I connected with, had a conversation and then almost a year later they came to me. Was like, okay, now I'm ready. Like I want to work with you. So just remember that this takes time and don't forget about that.

Don't forget if someone says to you, Oh I'm, not really sure if this is for me. It doesn't mean no, it might just mean not yet.

Charli Hunt: Yeah, that's brilliant advice. I always think it's good to offer someone something before you ask them as well so My strategy is always just build a relationship with people by commenting on their stuff And then eventually they'll come around and they'll be your friend and uh,

Viktoria Jancurova: Yeah, exactly. There are so many ways you can kind of speed up the process as well. So as you said, building that relationship, giving away stuff for free. So if you have lead magnets that you can give away for free, do that because that just, proves them that you really know what you're talking about.

And then they use your knowledge into their benefit. And they're like, okay, if I got this for free, what's in it, if I pay for this help, must be much, much better. So that's another thing. And is that consistent nurturing, whether that's through content creations and in videos, offering free advice in DMs as well.

And I don't mean, Oh, don't solve someone's entire business problem in the DMs, but offer them like, okay, if you're stuck at this one piece or this one little problem, just try this, try thinking about it this way, and that might open eyes to them. And that's the value you want to provide to them because that builds a trust.

Charli Hunt: brilliant. I love it. And how do you help people who feel that they don't have an interesting story to tell on LinkedIn.

Viktoria Jancurova: So everyone has a story. I have a story. You have a story. And you who is listening to us has a story. It's just about thinking about it from different angles. Your story doesn't have to be, doesn't have to be something remarkable. It can just be, so think back to the day when you decided, Okay, I'm going in. I'm going all in. That's your origin story that so many people connect to without you realizing that you're just like, yeah, I've just decided I'm going to start a business. Why would anyone care? But people care because people want to connect to you as a person. They want to connect to the journey.

We don't just want the final product. We want the journey. As well. We want to know how it was created, how it formed. We want to know about the great part, but also about the not so great part that shaped you into today. So think back, okay, when you started your business, when you decided to start your business, for example, that's a key story there, then think about your success stories.

When you were excited, you're just like, yeah, like, I remember when I saw my first four figure service. I was jumping around the living room, like a mad woman just screaming. So I remember that. But I also remember the not so great part when someone laughed at me on a sales call and told me I was shooting for the stars and I just shared that story. Literally last week with my newsletter. But so many people came back to me and they either shared their stories.

Oh, I can relate to this because this and this was what happened to me. Some came to me and said, Oh, I'm so sorry this happened to you. Some people were sharing tips with me that I then share with my newsletter, okay, this is what you've all came and advised on. And that's the important thing because then it shows that you are just a human after all. The not so great things, the failures happen and people want to know about that because then they're like, okay, I'm not alone in this world having someone laugh at me on a sales call. So the beauty of it.

Charli Hunt: And how do you link that story to? Someone's position on LinkedIn.

Viktoria Jancurova: If we go back to the origin story, you decided that you want to start a business, but you didn't just decide, Oh, I want to start a business just because. There is a why behind that. It might have been because you wanted to make an impact in the world. It's because you wanted to help other people. You wanted to serve them. You had a vision of a better life. And these are all the things that your target audience wants to know. If you wanted to make more impact, bigger impact in the world. Your future clients are a part of that impact, so they are now joined to your why.

They joined the journey. So that's important. Now your success stories. People want to celebrate that naturally with you. Especially if you are building a really lovely space on the internet and have a community that cares, they'll want to celebrate that with you. They'll want to get inspired by your success.

And maybe you'll open eyes to someone that, okay, that is possible. If it's a story of failure. it will make your target audience or your audience in general feel less alone in that. People want to hear about that. So then they feel seen, heard, and understood. As I said earlier, we want, we see connection.

We're naturally, looking for more people around us and looking to build the connections, the relationships. So this just makes that easier.

Charli Hunt: Yeah, I love that. And are there any stories or positions that you see People talk about a lot that you either think are too far to share on social media? Or that you think are shared all the time and that's maybe not a why that other people would connect to?

Viktoria Jancurova: So, um, stories that go too far. This is a hard one because in one way I believe anyone can or should share as much of their life as they feel comfortable with. I'm not saying that if you want to build a personal life, you have to tell them your day to day schedule or your personal relationship status or anything like that if you don't feel comfortable with that. I think that there is a line when you share too much.

Charli Hunt: And

Viktoria Jancurova: that's when it's starting actually to hurt you. And your brand. If you're sharing a story that is too much and actually maybe undermines your credibility, undermines your thought leadership, your positioning. When it's too personal, there's always a debate in one way, it can bring people a lot closer to you. In another way, just make sure that if you share really vulnerable story, 1. Internet can be, or LinkedIn in general, is usually a very lovely place to be in and lovely environment, but there might be people that come in and hate or show some hate on that. So just be ready for that.

Don't share something that if someone is going to say something not so nice or disagree with you, that's going to really hurt you. That's, I would say, when story can go too far. Can you repeat the second question?

Charli Hunt: The second question was is there anything that people share a lot as their position or their story or their why? That you don't think connects with people or is shared too much by too many people.

Viktoria Jancurova: So many people go on to LinkedIn. I want to go viral. I want to go viral. And I'm like, why? Why? There are topics that are universal. And many people can relate to them. So for example, a universal topic would be leadership, right?

Charli Hunt: Obviously,

Viktoria Jancurova: if you are a leadership coach, you would want to talk about leadership, right? But if you are someone like me. Personal brand manager. If you are someone who runs their own podcast, if you are someone who is, let's say a system strategist or a coach. Not necessarily the leadership space. Um, it's a topic that is used so, so often, and unless you're talking about it from a very unique point of view, it might be almost pointless to share that. Just because we hear about it all the time from everywhere. It's such a universal topic or right now an opinion on AI. That's another thing that just drives me crazy, right? You can have an opinion. It's great. And when it was really popular, every other post went viral that it was speaking about AI and in one way I get it, but if you're like, if I was now to talk about AI and I AI to help me sometimes, it might not necessarily bring any value to my clients at all. They might see the post and be like, well, okay, and why should I care? Again, what's in it for me? So, I think that's the thing. Don't aim to go viral on a topic that is spoken about so much. Just because you might end up doing the exact opposite and less and less people will care about that.

Charli Hunt: And we've already talked about it a bit, but I just, I wanted to have a sort of a segment that's about this. So how can people build an engaged community on LinkedIn?

Viktoria Jancurova: So that's one of my favorite topics to talk about. Cause whenever I started, I remember I was like, I started posting my content when I was like 92 connections. And that was my friends and university peers. And I was just like, okay, I want to build this platform. space, not necessarily with just anyone.

I want people to talk to. And I really seek the connection because I was still a student and I was suddenly becoming a business owner and I knew no one. So community was my most Most important goal or like my number one goal. And I decided that whatever I do, I will always focus on building an organic community.

So no paid ads, no pods, nothing like that. And that's what I do for my clients too. And how to build that. So number one is always have your target audience that you're trying to attract at the heart of everything, what you do. Deliver value. But this is such a buzzword. And every time I say it, I'm just like, again, I'm saying that I'm hearing myself say value and I'm like, ah, okay. So value is not just teaching people something that they can implement. So it's not just nurturing your target audience. There's value in personal posts. There is value in your personal story. There's value in the nurture type of content. So when you actually teach them something, show them something. And there is value in you sharing and talking about your offer. And I would say 95 percent of my posts are always like, okay, I'm sharing this because there is one person that I'm going to help today. So whether that's a personal post, making them feel less alone, making them feel like they can do it too.

Maybe inspiring them, maybe motivating them, whatever really it is. So my personal story, sharing it not just because I want to, show how amazing I've done or anything like that. It's because I want other people to get to know me and feel like maybe they're less alone out there. So that's in it for them. Nurture style of content. That's very clear, very straightforward. Giving tips away so that they can implement them. And even when it's a conversion style of content, obviously less people are going to be ready to buy from you, but it's still important to some people because they might want to know how can they work with you? What type of services you have to offer? Maybe there is someone who is just on the hunt. For a person who does exactly what you do, they come across your post, it's a conversion style of post. They'll be like, okay, I'm going to reach out and speak to this person. So there's value in all the posts, but with building a community, you have to make sure that you are doing it for them and that you build a relationship, whether that's in the comments, that's in the DMs and that you're sincere. Don't try to be someone that you are not.

Charli Hunt: Yeah, I think it's so easy to feel like you could just pretend to be somebody else on LinkedIn. And really you've just got to find the parts of your personality that people like and lean into those rather than create a new persona.

Viktoria Jancurova: Exactly. It's so hard when people say, Oh, be authentic. Well, okay. What is that exactly? And it's just be yourself, be yourself. And as you said, you said it brilliantly learn what people resonate with and then lean into that a little more.

Charli Hunt: And when you're first creating content, it's really hard to keep going when you've only got like a few engagements on each post But to feel like it's worth it. You need to see those metrics growing.` What are the important metrics that you should look out for on LinkedIn?

Viktoria Jancurova: So first thing I want to say is I don't believe that there is such a thing as vanity metric. I think that all the metrics matter in some way. They should not be taken out of context, of course. But they do matter. If you are building a community or if you're just starting out on LinkedIn and you want to look at something so first obviously look at your Impressions and why you look at impressions don't look at the seven days zoom out and look ideally at least 28 days. That's a kind of what LinkedIn analytics shows you at least 28 days ideally 90 days. And why is that? Because that's going to give you a bigger picture of what's really happening. What the impressions are going to show you, they're going to show you the content that one, resonated the most with your target audience. That most people are interested in. So obviously there's algorithm works around that.

So it will show your content to the people that are interested that maybe some keywords that are in your content. It will then depend on who sees the content. So look at impressions to identify the topics that your audience enjoys reading. Second is look at the engagement.

Again, zoom out 28 to 90 days and look at what are the types of posts or what are the topics that you spoke about that got the most conversations in. So what sparked the most conversation in the comments, in the posts? Maybe likes or like the reactions. So you want to understand that that's just Not to tell you. Oh, you just have to post about that It just gives you a better understanding of the content as a whole and the topics you've been talking about And then the last thing well, last but not least, really, is the followers growth and then in the followers growth or in the followers tab on LinkedIn, there are two things you want to look at. One is the actual graph and zoom out again and see if there was any spikes, maybe go back to the post you've posted on that day. So you can see, okay, one day you've got a hundred new followers. What were you talking about? So that's one thing to look at. And second thing, if you scroll down at the bottom of the page, when you have the audience open on LinkedIn, there is top demographics. So you wanna know who is in your audience. So if you're targeting, for example, let's say job title. So if your target audience are founders and CEOs, if they are not shown in the top five, then you're doing something wrong. You're targeting the wrong audience. You're speaking to the wrong audience. If you are maybe speaking to people, depending on seniority and you want, let's say, um, lower level management, they need to be the top five. So you want the top percentage to be the people you are trying to talk to, the people who are your ideal clients.

This is the four metrics. So it's, impressions, engagement to get a good idea of the content, audience, and then in audience, who exactly is a part of your network so you can understand if you're speaking to the right people.

Charli Hunt: Oh, I like that. That's very clear. So you only need to worry about four of them. And how do you make your online content sound like the offline version of you?

Viktoria Jancurova: So there are different ways you can do that. First is remember that when you are online. It's like speaking to your friend who is not in your industry. So who doesn't know what you're doing on a coffee, right? So imagine your coffee and the friend asks you, okay, what do you do actually?

And then you go into explaining, you wouldn't use, specific kind of jargon. You would really simplify that for them. That's the first thing, or someone calls it the grandma test. So make sure your grandma understands it. And second thing, I like doing it's just opening a page, deciding on what I'm going to write about, and just writing.

No edits whatsoever. Just writing and then editing and kind of cutting the words that don't have to be there, cutting maybe the sentences that are just extra but don't add to the context. And the last but the most important thing is read it out loud. If you read it out loud and you sound like a corporagene, probably that's not the way you wanna, not the direction you wanna take it to, right? So you need to find out the words that just make you sound like the corporagene and simplify them. Because the easier your content it is to read, to understand, the more time will people spend actually reading your content and when they go away, they won't remember the jargon necessarily, they'll remember the easy words and that will stick with them. So, write the content, edit, and then read it out loud. When you read it out loud, you will see that, Oh, actually I can split this sentence or I can add a white space. For example, when you hear yourself, like really having to focus and slowing down, that means that you just need to edit a little bit more because it's harder to read. So it points out so many little things you might not see when you're typing. So by actually zooming out and then reading it out loud, it helps you identity where you can edit and what.

Charli Hunt: Yeah, I have to do that with LinkedIn posts. I have to read them out loud, although it's so embarrassing. I feel like my neighbors probably think I'm always talking to myself.

Viktoria Jancurova: Maybe, maybe don't think that you're talking to the dog and reading a story to your dog. So

Charli Hunt: I always talking to him, so it's alright. And how long did it take you to feel comfortable with writing for LinkedIn and posting on LinkedIn?

Viktoria Jancurova: for me personally, it was quite fast just because I was in a position that I was in my Erasmus year, as I mentioned, and before that I worked in hotels, restaurants, and I was just so tired of the hospitality and customer service world. I just wanted out. So I put myself an ultimatum and I was like, whatever it takes. I'm gonna make a change. If it meant posting for LinkedIn putting myself in front of hundreds of strangers and just building from there, I was okay with it. If it just meant that if I do this, I don't have to go back to being a waitress. I was like, we're going to do it. We're going to do it.

So posting for me wasn't as hard. It was more showing up on lives, showing up on one to one networking calls, sales calls. That was the hard part for me because that just meant it was interaction, right? When I posted content, could post it, throw my phone away and just be like, okay, we're going to take a breath, don't open LinkedIn or phone for an hour.

And then I would go back and just be like, okay, these are nice comments. You know, like, it's actually nice to read the feedback. But yeah, when I was on the call, something then 10 minutes before, um, Then have the call and then I would just go off and be like, okay, we can calm down now.

It's okay. You know? So that was a lot harder for me.

Charli Hunt: Yeah. And is there anything that you still feel nervous about doing on LinkedIn or to do with LinkedIn?

Viktoria Jancurova: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. So there is a certain style of posts that whenever I post them, I'm always like, okay, this is a little stretch, but I go for it anyway. In particular it's video content. So now I don't mind Being on the masterclasses and delivering them and workshops because I feel like it's the closest, um, environment and I feel a little bit safe . But whenever I put like a phone in front of my face and I'm like, okay, we're going to hit record. That's when my voice just goes into the pitch, like high pitch, can barely speak and barely put my thoughts together. And everything is just a mess. So, yeah, the video content when it's just, um, camera in front of me and I have to say something. I still find that really, really hard. That's why you don't see me posting as many videos as I would like to. Just because I am avoiding that.

Charli Hunt: Yeah, well, we all, we all have one thing that we're avoiding doing, I think. And what's one tip you'd leave us with to create the best possible content for our personal brand or business?

Viktoria Jancurova: So I would go back to the beginning. So as I said, set a plan of exactly why you are posting, who is it for? Get really clear on that. And then anything you post, make sure it's for them always. Don't overthink how your content is structured. If your hook is strong enough, if your call to action is brilliant, post the content and this will come naturally.

As you learn more about writing and about what resonates with clients. But as long as you post it for them, they'll still come to you and be attracted to you.

Charli Hunt: One, actually, one more question. What do you think of templates on LinkedIn?

Viktoria Jancurova: So I personally enjoy templates. So when there's another creator sharing templates, I'm like, let me have a look. And I've created templates as well. For my audience. I found them really helpful. And for people who just feel stuck, potentially feel like, okay, I've nailed maybe my messaging.

Now I just want to nail the visual part of how it reads. So it's really easy for them to just take the template and plug their ideas in there. I don't think there is nothing wrong with them. Obviously if there is one style of post seen all over the feed, it's not ideal. But there's so many templates available that just makes it so much easier for people to write their content. And that's what I'm all about. If I can make content creation easier, why not? Why not? Five posts can easily take three, four hours, you know, someone who is new to this. So why wouldn't you want to halve that? you have a good content template. So I'm a big fan.

Charli Hunt: Perfect. Thank you so, so much for being on the podcast. Where can people find you? And if they loved this episode, how can they work with you?

Viktoria Jancurova: Obviously the best place to find me and connect with me would be LinkedIn. You can find me just under my name, Viktoria Jancurava. I also have an Instagram that's LinkedIn with vikyj. linkedin_with_vikyj or there is a website, but you can find all of that on my LinkedIn or Instagram. I would love to have a chat

Charli Hunt: Amazing.

Viktoria Jancurova: thank you so much for having me.

It was lovely.

Charli Hunt: Thank you so much for being on the show honestly, I can't wait to edit this one. So many great things.

Viktoria Jancurova: Thank you.