Finding LinkedIn Zen: Brooke Miles Delivers Inner Peace in the Social Media Storm

"Yes Genius!" is a podcast that explores the power of affirmative thinking, celebrating the impact of saying yes to unexpected opportunities and the unknown.

This season of Yes, Genius will give you an opportunity to learn more about our 2024 Social Media Day Delaware speakers and panelists!

In this episode, Jess Burton dive into the inspiring journey of Brooke Miles, who embraced the challenges of the pandemic by launching her own YouTube channel despite her initial fears of being on camera. Join us as we explore Brooke's creative process, her innovative strategies for engaging audiences, and the importance of building genuine connections in the digital landscape. Get ready to be inspired by her "yes" stories and gain valuable insights into digital marketing and personal growth!

Transcript

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Welcome to Yes, Genius, a podcast from Epic Marketing that celebrates the power of affirmative thinking. In each episode, we explore the power of saying yes to unexpected opportunities, career changes, even the unknown, and the powerful results. This season, we welcome our speakers and panelists from Social Media Day Delaware. We hope you enjoy their yes stories and some digital marketing insights. Hello and welcome. I'm your host for this episode, Jess Burton. Joining me is Brooke Miles, a LinkedIn strategist and trainer. Through her company, Delaware Shoutout, Brooke creates customized LinkedIn strategies and implementation plans to leverage LinkedIn effectively. She's worked one-on-one with hundreds of business owners and marketers to help them achieve huge gains in connections, followers, engagement, and traffic to their websites. Welcome, Brooke! Hi, thank you so much. It's great to be here. I'm excited to have you here. I was excited to have you speak at Social Media Day and I know that a lot of the feedback we got from Social Media Day was Where has Brooke been all my life? Where a Social Media Day Delaware been all my life, so, you know, I can't wait for more of those. Me, us as well. We're already kind of in the planning. I mean, obviously, we're already in the planning phases for next year. And I feel like it's going to be kind of 1 of those moments where I'm going to sit down and wrangle all the ideas. But for the current moment, it's just dumping all the ideas onto paper, metaphorically, and digitally, so we can kind of suss them out. So we're going to get right into the topic of the podcast. It is Yes Genius. So you said yes to yourself during the pandemic when you decided to start your own YouTube channel. Yes. You shared with me before that you were scared to be on camera and you weren't even sure how to get videos from your phone to your computer. Correct. So can you tell us a little bit about that decision and how it has turned out? Okay, well, during the pandemic for a lot of us, we're really struggling with our business. And I'm sure you can relate to this. For me, a lot of my business came from one-on-one networking. Well, that went out the window for the longest time. And I remember I was talking with a client, this was around the summer of 2020, and her husband was very well, and actually was like an epidemic expert, and like I think worked with the government, stuff like that. And she said, yep, he says that this isn't going away for a really long time. And I was like, oh! So being in social media for as long as I have been, of course, I've advised clients, oh, video's really good. Video's really good. Gave all the reasons. Would I do video? Hardly ever, because I was too scared of it. But it was easy enough for me to tell other people to do it, of course. So I was like, you know what, I just need to do my own advice here because the in-person networking isn't happening for a while. I need another way to somehow be face-to-face the best way I can. So I decided I would start doing this. And yes, I only had, by the way, an iPhone 6. And the picture on it was even blurry. It turns out I should have just wiped the camera. It would have been fine. That's how bad I was. Yeah, you're right. I didn't know how to get video. I could do an ad campaign with my eyes closed, but I didn't know how to get video, like, I could do an ad campaign with my eyes closed, but I didn't know how to get like a video from my phone to my computer, okay? Like stuff like this is like, you know, where the disconnect was. I just had overall very little video experience. Some other roadblocks for me were, how do I put it? Most of my competitors, quote unquote, on YouTube were like, I mean, I could be their mother, okay? And they're gorgeous and they have symmetrical faces, you know, and I'm like, oh my gosh, like how am I gonna, you know, they're gonna, you know, they look at them, they're gonna look at me, they'll be like, you know, like I was very insecure, very, very insecure to be on camera, even though being in person is like, there's, it's like, there's nothing to hide. You're in person. But you know, I think a lot of people fall into this where like, you know, sometimes you see that camera lens, you like freeze. And I kind of like, that's where I was. But I was like, you know what? I'm just gonna go ahead and start doing this because it's like either like start doing something out of my comfort zone or not pay the mortgage. You know, like you have to kind of like choose 1. So I did it. And so it really surprised me. First of all, it turns out I love making videos. My favorite part is actually editing. It's very time consuming, but it's just something I enjoy doing, even though it really is very time consuming. I've enjoyed the skills I've learned from that. I've also really enjoyed learning about the whole YouTube ecosystem, And I'm educating myself literally every day, Monday through Friday, on it. And that's been amazing. What also happened is that, you would think this is obvious, you would think I would know this, okay? But it surprised me. So imagine you're trying to sell to someone, okay, and they're like, I'll get back to you, maybe, maybe, because you know what, you have to prove yourself. With video, you're building this whole library of videos, okay? People are watching on their own time. You don't even know who's watching your videos and maybe they're watching for a few months, then by the time they reach out to you, they've already convinced themselves because you've already had the chance to prove yourself. So a lot of times now I'm getting people reaching out to me who are like, You don't know me, I know you, how can we start working together right now? I'm like, what? And I'm the same person, but I've had that chance to prove myself whereas before, like, how would I prove, you know? So that has been super cool. I now have clients around the world, because obviously YouTube goes around the world, of course. So I mean, people are people no matter where they are. Most of my business before that was specifically in Delaware. But that's pretty cool. And also, I'm sure you've done the same thing where you've done a Google search and then like some video results pop up. For certain questions, I pop up as 1 of the 3 top results. Another reason, I'm attracting people around the world. These are things I should have thought of, but I didn't. So it's been an amazing experience for me. And I will say that, you know, even though like I am a LinkedIn strategist, this is what people hire me for. I think I'm just as passionate about YouTube as I am about LinkedIn. You know, I really am. So it's been amazing. I love that. I love watching your YouTube videos because it really does feel like I'm like, like obviously I do know you. Yes. But It's almost like it's kind of like having like a 1 way conversation with you, so to speak, like you are on the other side of the screen talking about LinkedIn. But it is funny because it is you're just yourself. And I think that you touched on a couple things. And the 1 is that I, as someone who frequents TikTok and posts to TikTok myself, it is really hard to not get caught up in the symmetrical faces and the perfectly blown out hair and the eyelash, like everyone who, like, and I'm like, I am never going to look like that. And that is fine because that's not who I am. Right. And I think it's such a testimony to the quality of the content that you're putting out that you're like ranking in Google searches with YouTube videos. It's incredibly impressive. Thank you. And I think that you kind of like glanced over that little statistic. And I'm like, no, that's impressive. Not every single question, but for a lot of them, I do. Mostly things that you would search for. You know what I mean? How do I? How can I? How do I? How can I? Yes. And those are the most popular videos that I have. Ironically, though, those are not necessarily the ones that nurture the relationships that attract the clients because usually when someone's doing a search, it's like, okay, I got my answer and they're more likely to leave. So that's why I used to do like all how to stuff. And I've learned actually, you know, you still need some how to stuff to attract people. But now it's actually 20% of my content is search based and the other 80% I'm very like structured in terms of what I what sort of videos I do. Now it's more like strategy, it would show up in recommended or suggested on YouTube, not in a search, but things like, have you thought about this? Or here's a way to tweak your strategy that people wouldn't think of, but hopefully they'll watch the video. And then like, it really helps them even more, I think, than a specific feature, or how to that they might have been looking for on LinkedIn. It's those like next level questions. I think it's those things where they're like, they already know how to upload a video or they already know how to write a post, but they wanna know like, okay, how can I take it a step further? Like I'm not the subject matter expert. How can I glean a little bit more information? Exactly. So you said you liked editing. That's your favorite part of all this, of the YouTube journey. It consumes my life, but I love it. Can you kind of walk us through your, not necessarily your process, but like how do you come up with an idea? How do you decide like the layout of your video? And kind of like how has that changed since you first started posting to YouTube? Gotcha. Okay. So, well, when I first started, I don't know if I, I might have unpublished this video because it was so bad. But I basically had a piece of paper and I was just kind of like reading from it and I was still like, umming, uhing and umming, like, and I was like, okay. Like the best I could do is trim the beginning and end of you know when I turn it on. That was like the best I could do and I was like just sitting on my living room couch and it was horrible. So I've gone from that which didn't take too long, but it was pretty bad to I'm gonna tell you right now. It takes me literally 20 to 40 hours to produce a single video. Okay? This is what I mean. And most of it, I see your eyes, and most of it is in the editing. But here's my entire process, okay? Now I will tell you that if it's a search-based video, if I'm going to do that, I want to see where there are content gaps. I'm gonna simplify this process a little bit, but I go on YouTube and I just start like thinking of things that people might want to search for. And I look for topics where most of the people posting about that topic have more views than subscribers, because that means there aren't enough videos about it, especially when smaller channels are going gangbusters, because they could be a small channel with, you know, not too many resources, maybe not the greatest production quality, and they're still killing it with that topic. That tells me the topic is doing well. By the way, none of this have I made up. I just consume myself in YouTube training. I'm just sharing what people with millions of subscribers do, and then I just do that too. I search for those types of topics. After that, I do try to watch every single video I can that's already out there on that topic because I want to see because you know I want to see like you know what are they missing but also some people sometimes have a good point and it's like you know what can you know maybe that's something I should share and give my own spin on it and elaborate on it, that type of thing. So I just wanna see what's there so I can add something new or my own spin. Scripting, I'm working, I spend the greatest amount of time, well, I spend a lot of time on the whole thing, but especially on the first 30 seconds because if, and I know this from examining my audience retention charts with every single video, and people will tell us throughout the YouTube ecosystem, if you're going to lose anyone, it's in the first 30 seconds. So I'm just trying really, really hard to share the pain point, the emotion, hint at the solution, but not give the whole thing away, but at least give them something. I need to give people something of substance within the first 30 seconds. And then I'm also working on with my script mini hooks. In other words, I have the big hook, but what I've learned the hard way is that even if you give a big hook in the beginning, it doesn't mean they're going to watch until the end. Even if like they would get the complete answer throughout the end. So let's say it's 5 things I'm going to share. Like after I even share the first thing, I have to say, you know what, this is really good, but it's nothing compared to the number, you know, this next thing, or wait till you see this next thing. So I have to like build up every single thing because people will leave at any time. And it's like, I have, I'll have to share a story about my church testimony, how I wrote a YouTube script. I was scared people would just leave in the first 30 seconds, just out of their seats and just go. Because I'm just like, now my whole MO is like, I'm afraid people are going to leave in 30 seconds. So what can I do to keep them? So I'm constantly creating mini hooks. And then I also color code things with mini hooks so I can visually look at, do I have at least 1 mini hook per page of script? Do I have at least 1 mini hook per page of script? Do I have at least 1 or 2 bits of humor? Like I actually color code humorous points, or I hope it's gonna be funny. At least I don't know if it will be, but I try. Also, do I mention like the fact that I work with clients, not that I'm selling, but just anything like that because I've had too many people say, oh, I love your videos. Do you actually offer services? So I'm doing this. So now I color code that. So actually my whole thing is color coded. And then I do also want to make sure it's written so I can point people to the next video, except for the last 1 I did, which is a separate thing. I actually tried to, I've actually like said, by the way, I'll offer 1 hour consultation, but almost always in all my videos, I'm pointing people to another video because 1 of the biggest indicators for YouTube in terms of how much they're going to recommend your video to other people is how many people or what percentage of people watch to the end and also click on your next video, or at least are really like this video so much they check out your channel because YouTube wants to keep people on YouTube just like people on LinkedIn wants to keep people on LinkedIn and every social media platform is the same there. So but yeah so that's the process. Filming it's the easiest. That's the easiest part. I mean, I print out my script like a pure Gen Xer, you know, I print it out, I have it on paper. And a 10 minute video will probably take me about 50 to 60 minutes to film because I stutter like crazy. Like, and with you, like, I could just talk, okay? But, like, if I'm in front of the camera, I'm like, it takes me forever just to get it right. Or I'll say something 5 different times and then pick the 1 that's, it feels the most natural and the most excited. Okay, so I'm just constantly going through that. Yeah, and then editing takes the longest time. At first I'm editing out like all the junk stuff I say that's not gonna make it. And then I'm trying to figure out like B-roll, which is like the stuff you show while I'm talking. I've also learned that the more you can show of that, the better. So yeah, that's the easiest part is the filming. I think that's such a good, not reality check's the wrong word, but I think that's such an important thing to really kind of stress a little bit is that when it comes to even like podcast editing and even like video editing for YouTube, like the bulk of the work is before and after you actually record the video. Yes. It's like, the recording is such a small portion of it. And it's funny, because you said, yeah, it probably takes me anywhere from 20 to 50, like 60 hours to edit. And like, I've watched your videos and I can a hundred percent see the amount of energy that you've expended into those videos. And they're great. They're fun to watch. I love all of them. I'm going to be like looking for your little mini hooks now. Oh, you'll see them. I should show you like I'm like a color coding freak now. Because like, because before like, I'd be like, Oh, yeah, I'm sure I have it. But I need to see it. Like I need to see the colors. Like, is there enough teal on like, because teal highlight is teal? No, I'm sorry. Magenta highlights are mini hooks. Teal is humor and yellow is I'm mentioning the fact like give a hint that I actually do business with people. You know, so I want to make sure I see those colors on every page, especially the first 2. Obviously thriving in what you do now with LinkedIn and YouTube. Yes. But you have experience across professional writing, business development and marketing. Have you kind of, have you, has this always kind of been your career path to be in marketing and be a business owner or have you explored or considered other potential career pathways? If I could do my life over again I would have gotten a PhD in linguistics and have been a linguistics professor. I'm just gonna let you know that right now. I'm 53 years old. I just don't have the energy now for it. So I'm just gonna stick with what I'm doing, which is fine. I'm happy with it. And I love helping other people. But and like, I'm like a huge like language learning freak. And like, I like read linguistics books for fun, okay? If I'm stressed, I listen to a linguistics book and it like it actually I go to sleep because I'm so focused on it and so invested in it that the rest of the worries of my of the world go away. Like that's how much I love linguistics, okay. But I actually, my degree is in French technical writing and translation, and I thought I was gonna be a translator. But it's 1 of those things where I, I don't know, like marketing always like interested me, but I just never pictured myself doing it and it's just 1 of those things where I I have like tons of like academic and professional writing like professional experience in writing then I fell into sales and then I was like you know what I I know how to communicate Sales isn't quite the thing for me, but I understand it. Marketing would make sense. And again, it does bring my love of communication into a different realm with the purpose of, you know, hopefully making a sale. So yeah, and then obviously, I mean, when I was born, like in 1971, there was no social media. That would be decades away. So, you know, I wasn't, you know, thinking about being a social media person, you know, it wasn't until like social media came out that it started entering my life and then my career. So moving back, we're so glad that you said yes to marketing as obviously our pseudo tagline is we come from a place of yes. And we're here to talk about saying yes, but I've heard you say you call yourself a no person, which makes me think that that has something to do with setting boundaries and time management. So what kind of, and you are a team of 1, truly. So It's even more impressive that you can get all of this stuff done being 1 person. Because not only are you editing all of this stuff, you're actually meeting with clients. And I feel like Everett, you have at least 1 or 2 or 3 speaking engagements every month, whether they're virtual from your office or they are in person. So what kind of time management or life management or work management advice do you have? Yes. I should also mention we homeschool also. So that's a little bit of that. So, okay. So 2 things, first of all, putting everything on a calendar and setting appointments for yourself. Because you set appointments for the doctor, for the dentist, for everything else, but do you set appointments for yourself? So actually. Do block out times. And then you just have to prioritize, like for example, my clients come first. Okay, so it's like, you know, it's, I always answer that first. 1 of the areas that I really had to work on was that, I'm happy to answer a quick question here or there, but if I'm being paid as a consultant, there are just still a lot of people who would just try to sneak in a free consultation. Like, and even someone recently said, hey, let's schedule time so I can ha-ha get a free consultation. Like, just like, I'm like, I really do have a spine. Like I really do. So, you know, I just learned and I actually have like a whole bunch of different answers like on a document and then I cut and paste. That's neat. That's so smart. Yeah. Basically, you know, just, you know, just sharing, you know, hey, this is how I earn my living. And to be fair to my paying clients, you know, you know, who pay for my services, you know, I would ask that, you know, that you pay as well, you know, and you know, here's, here's what I offer, you know, let me know if either these are good for you. But I've just had to share with people, again, if someone has a super quick question, because in my YouTube videos, people ask questions all the time in the comments and usually it's something really specific and I'll answer that or my LinkedIn posts, obviously, that people ask a question, I'll answer it. But it's when someone DMs me and not only asks a quick question but, hey, can you look at my LinkedIn profile and give me an audit and tell me what you think. And so I just have to give a very, like I'll share like 1 quick thing. I'll say there are lots, you know, but I just have to very quickly go into, you know, this is how I earn my living and I need to be fair to my clients. So I've just had to learn to do that. I mean, I will say that growing up, I was definitely a people pleaser. So it's been very hard for me to set those boundaries, but for my mental health and for to make sure that I'm available for my family and making sure I'm available for my other priorities in life, I have to do this. Absolutely, it's your job. It's my job, it's just another thing I started doing is I used to do like a half hour discovery call. Like in other words, like you know, thinking of working with me, like talk to me. What I found was a lot of people were trying to sneak in free consultations with that. So what I've learned is, I do a 15 minute. So you can either hire me like immediately for a 1 hour consultation, like you hire And you pay in advance, and I'm all set, and you get a really solid hour. You see how quickly I speak. You get a lot of information in an hour, okay. And I listen. Like you know, they get a lot. Or let's say you want like a ten-hour package. You know, I do a 15-minute call. It's a 15-minute call now. So that way, all we really have time for is getting to know each other and seeing if it would be a good fit. And you know, making sure that you know expectations are set so that they're happy when they do work with me. So I will say going from a half hour to the 15 minutes has really helped immensely as well. I've also learned how to, I've gotten really good at like, even looking at someone's LinkedIn profile, figure out they're going to be a good client. Like you can like sense narcissism, I hate to say this, from a mile away on a LinkedIn profile. And now I'm like, this person's, and in the time that I'm like, I'm like, oh, I don't think this is going to work well. And then I speak with them and I'm like, yeah, this isn't going to work well. They're not going to, I'm not going to give them what they want, which is a lot of validation and stuff like that. But I've learned how to know when a client isn't going to be the best fit. I'm very blessed to have lots of phenomenal clients, but I have to say a lot of that has to do with the fact that I've just learned how to give myself that permission to make sure the client is a good fit for me as much as they're making sure I'm a good fit for them. That is, I think that is a key point, too, about balancing your time. Like, if you already know that somebody isn't going to work well, why beat around the bush and try and make it work if it's not going to happen? It's just kind of not just a waste of your time but also a waste of their time. It is a waste of their time and I you know I don't feel comfortable taking someone's money unless I feel like I'm really going to give them like what they're expecting or more. I'm not interested in their business otherwise. It needs to be, you need to pursue win-wins all the time. Absolutely. Yeah. You speak very highly of your clients. Can you tell me about the 3 most influential people in your life and how they have impacted you? So I mean I do have a lot of really amazing clients who are just brilliant but I have to say if I'm going to if I could just name 2 like go for it like it's it's actually my parents neither of whom have done business with me, but like, that's okay. They gave me life. They, so like, when I was born, they were 21 years old. And if I know the story correctly, like my mom like quit college and my dad wasn't even thinking of college at the time. He didn't even think he was like college material. He was a taxi driver. My mom ended up being stayed home. So you can imagine just like it was, you know, we weren't the richest family whatsoever. But I watched them because they were so young when I was born. Like I watched them grow but I remember them through most of their 20s. Okay, because I started having memories when I was 2. Okay, so like I remember Those are 20s. I remember my dad getting braces when he was 30. It was really neat. But I saw them pick up their life and build from it. My mom went back to college and she ended up becoming a teacher. My dad was finally convinced, probably by my mom, like, no, Howard, you're smart. You can do this. He went to college. He went to, and by the way, all while working, by the way, he was a Philadelphia police officer, then a detective. And he ends up going to law school. He worked during the day and went to law school at night, and did all of that. And it's just like, so I just saw them build their life. And so I think it's just like, I mean, work should not be the number 1 thing you do. And I wouldn't say it was for them but I will say that they've had an incredible work ethic you know and that has always that has always stood out to me I would say and yeah I just and they're very down-to-earth people So they've been incredibly influential in my life and they're very caring, loving parents. I'm very lucky to have them because I hear a lot about stories of people who just have had very unfortunate circumstances with their parents and that was not me. And I'm like, I know I'm blessed with that. So yeah. Sorry, I'm getting a little emotional. I know, I'm over here like, oh my God, I gotta call my parents. Sorry. I'm gonna call my parents. Sorry. I'm gonna call my parents. Did you call them on Thanksgiving? No, I, oh my God, yeah, I just saw them at Thanksgiving. Well, they're, my parents are retired. They have done nothing but travel So they're somewhere in the Carolinas right now. That's okay We're gonna move on to our this or that portion of our podcast. So we've kind of come up with some linked inish related this or that, and you just have to pick 1 or the other. So the first 1 is long form content or short and snappy posts. Short and snappy. Do I explain why or do I just say it? If you wanna explain why you can, if you are like, it speaks for itself, you don't have to. Yeah, and keep in mind, I mean, they both have their role, okay? But I will say from a content creation standpoint, short and snappy is usually easier. You can take something long form and then just break it up into 10 different short and snappy posts. But also when people are on social media, it's not, I don't think it's an attention span thing, it's an expectation thing. People are just a little more scrolling mode. So having really quick blurbs of wisdom, I think goes really far. So, OK, sorry. And you kind of answered this 1 earlier, but in-person networking events or virtual mixers? Oh, believe it or not, OK, I'm going to say in-person, but just with a slight edge. I will say virtual mixers have been more productive for me, but there is something about being three-dimensional that's really cool. Next 1 for your, this is for a personal LinkedIn account. Personal branding or company branding on your personal LinkedIn account? Personal, personal. Does that change if you are like the founder of a company or like a CEO? Still personal. So OK, when I say personal, keep in mind, it's like when you go to an in-person networking event, you are still representing your company, OK? But you're selling your company brand through your personal brand. LinkedIn is just the virtual version of that. So you're still showing up personally, but as a representative for your brand. So you're still posting about stuff related to your field and you're still generally talking about stuff related to your field, but you know, but it's still you. Like you don't go to a networking event with a paper bag over your head with your company logo on it, okay? Does a company page have a, you know, have a place? Absolutely, okay? But It's the personal brand that makes the difference on LinkedIn. So, yeah. Do you prefer visual content, so visual forward content, so pictures, imagery, or text-based content? Visual. I prefer writing text. It's easier for me, but as a consuming content, I prefer seeing more images and graphics. Same. And then for your profile picture, a staged headshot or a casual workplace photo? I would do. Or does it depend? It depends on your brand. I will say if it's staged headshot, what you could always do is do a staged headshot and then change the background so it looks like your office background. So I have a photo like that actually, where it's in a place that I've never been. How often should you update your profile picture? More often than I do. So I just updated mine after 13 years. It's just because like, you know, I had fewer wrinkles and it was really pretty. And again, let's go back to my insecurity from earlier in this conversation. I would say as long as it still looks like you, it's okay to keep it. Maybe every 5 years or something like that might be good. Yeah, but I will say, let's say you change industry and the background you have doesn't represent that or there's something outdated about it, then you may want to change at least the background. Or maybe you want to change the background so it goes with your banner behind you. I love doing that now, actually, with clients. That's kind of fun. You have to go check mine now. And on your personal LinkedIn, for recommendations, because people can leave you recommendations. Could you seek them out, so ask for them, or just wait for them to appear organically? They generally appear organically, but I will tell you, if I'm talking with a client and they're just like super excited, because that's usually, that's the time to ask for it, I will say that if I haven't had a Google review lately, I will actually ask for the Google review first because that is actually more important than, I believe it or not, than the LinkedIn recommendation. As long as I have like 1 LinkedIn recommendation a year, I'm good with it. Honestly, at this point, I have so many. That sounds like I'm bragging, but I'm just saying like I have so many that if I just have once a year, that's current enough, but I wanna make sure I have Google reviews that are even more current. Makes sense. I feel like Google is like the predominant review place people look to. It is. It is. Also, I don't know how many people scroll all the way down to recommendations on LinkedIn, whereas in a Google search, I mean, it's like right there. Yes. Yeah. Absolutely. So the next section is rapid fire. These have nothing to do with marketing and they have to do with you. So all you, These are like rapid fire. So question, answer, question, answer. Okay. All right. Here we go. What was your first job? I was working in a bakery of a Jewish deli. I grew up Jewish, so I was fired because I just sometimes I would just not show up. I wanted to see my boyfriend. I didn't know that it turns out you're supposed to be like dependable and reliable. Like I had no idea that was a value that was needed. I'm so glad that you have changed your tune. I'm glad too because yeah I would not be paying the mortgage otherwise so yes I think dependability is my thing now but I who knows. You know what people's brains are not formed until they're like 22 so like in all fairness I was 16. I still had 6 more years of brain development to go through. Correct. So in all fairness, yeah. Are you a dog person or a cat person? More of a cat person. But My son, am I allowed to elaborate or are you going to be like, you can elaborate. Okay, got it. My son, my 22 year old son just got a dog and he brought the dog over for Thanksgiving weekend. And it was very, it was a very positive experience. So yeah, I might change my tune. I'm not sure. You can be both. You can be a dog person. I'm not really an animal person. I'm vegan, but I'm not really an animal person. That's fine, too. Yeah. Do you collect anything? And if so, what? I don't collect things. Oh, no, no, no. That's not true. I collect recipes like crazy, and I test a new recipe every single week. I actually roll dice, and that tells me which cookbook and which page to go to. So if I randomize it, it's not based on my mood anymore. It forces me to really experiment with different cooking techniques and ingredients. I have a whole data. And then like, it has to be like, if it's an amazing recipe, that ends up in my Excel spreadsheet, which I have coded in different things. So it's really nerded out. Oh, I should mention that after homeschooling, if there's time, I'm going to be starting a vegan cooking channel. Amazing. So that will be. But I'm not doing it yet. I have to free up a part of my life before that happens. I was just gonna say, I feel like homeschooling probably takes up a good chunk of time. Yeah. Outside of work. Less now than before. Less than now than before. My son is more and more independent every year, and he is in 11th grade now, so. Perfect. So he's almost there. He's almost there, yeah. What is 1 thing that you wish you enjoyed more? Large gatherings of people. It's not that I don't enjoy people, I do. I'm an introvert, so going into a large room with lots of chatter and sound bouncing and stuff like that is overwhelming to me. And I have to force myself into situations so to like enjoy that. So I'd rather have like a quiet one-on-one with someone or talk in a small group kind of thing. There have been many a networking event where I drive home with like the radio off in my car. Yes. And the final question for your pseudo rapid fire is, finish the phrase, the first thing I do when I wake up is? I do 15 minutes of Bible study by audiobook every day. Yep, I'm going to the Book of Matthew right now. It's taking months. I love that. I love that. That's amazing. I think the first thing I do in the morning is like wonder if I can go back to sleep for 15 minutes. That's so funny. That's so funny. OK, so the last section is chatbot says, and we've asked AI to come up with a series for The series title for your newest LinkedIn course. I will warn you, some of them are a little bit off the wall. Of course, yes. As to be expected with AI search queries. So here we go. Finding LinkedIn Zen, Brooke Miles delivers inner peace in the social media storm. So what do you mean? Do you like react to it? I will read them off and you can pick your favorite. Okay got it. Okay. The LinkedIn alchemist, Brooke Miles turns leads into golden opportunities. The LinkedIn adventurer, Explore the uncharted territories of professional networking with Brooke Miles. And the final 1, which I don't really know where this came from, but it's funny, that's why we included it. Become a LinkedIn pirate. Plunder the treasure trove of professional opportunities with Brooke Miles. That sounds so AI. Gotta love those analogies and metaphors or whatever. Believe it or not for me, it's a Zen 1 because I think a lot of people, because yeah, is there work involved with LinkedIn? Absolutely. What happens so many times is people overthink it. Okay. And like, it's, it's, you know, if you just don't worry about the algorithm, don't worry about, you know, the new feature that's just come up or this change or that change or should I just think about you know do people can you make people know like and trust you okay and then and then like how do you and then like actually I just have a video like actually about this okay here's a great way to make sure people can know you here's a great way to make sure people like you and to trust you and just focus on human psychology. Don't focus on all the little moving pieces that are going to change every single second. Just think about relationships. I think a lot of times when I'm working with clients, it's actually just trying to get rid of the overthinking and say, okay, we're building a strategy, but we need to simplify this. And because I don't want to create something where like someone's more stressed out, like I'm already high strung. I don't want to make other people high-strung. I want to get people just calmer and just like, okay, let's develop something that's going to work. Let's create a plan that makes sense for, you just have 45 minutes a week to work on this? No problem. Let's see what we can do in those 45 minutes that is realistic for you. And maybe you'll have some fun with it too. So I try to create some zen. I mean, obviously it has to be something that is going to set them up for results, of course. They're not doing this for their health. But if it's not sustainable and if it's not enjoyable to some degree, it's not going to work. So I think you have to create the zen for everything else to fall into place. So Brooke, I wanted to thank you for joining us today and sharing us your yes story about joining YouTube and putting yourself out there. And I, I know we are, but I am personally very glad that you are a part of our inaugural Social Media Day Delaware. Thank you. If people would like to connect with you, where can they find you? Gotcha. So, let's see, on LinkedIn, it's, if you type in Brooke Grubb Miles because there are different Brooke Mileses out there, you'll find me that way. If you go on YouTube, type in, my company name is Delaware Shout Out by the way, so type in Delaware shout out LinkedIn strategies. You'll find me there. You can also go to my website, which is de shout out.com, which is short for Delaware shout out. So those are 3 main ways to find me. So yeah, but I really, I really appreciate this interview. Like You always do a great job with interviewing people and making people feel comfortable, so I appreciate that. Absolutely, it's gotta be a conversation. I don't like formal interviews. I'd rather just like conversate with people and like get where we need to get through conversation because that's what I want to listen to. Yes. Well, thank you so much for joining us and until next time, it was great chatting with you. Thank you. Thank you for listening to Yes Genius, a podcast from Epic Marketing. Join us again to hear more unique stories. In the meantime, find us on social media or online at EpicMC2.com. You can also connect with Delaware's digital community at socialmediadede.com. Don't miss out. Remember to follow or subscribe, wherever you get your Genius content.