How to Double Your LinkedIn Followers Each Month with Mia Gradelski
How to scale thought leadership with a $0 marketing budget…
The Setup:
👀 Hear a creative take on personal branding outside of a traditional marketing role
👋🏼 Meet Mia Gradelski, a FinTech student at NYU with 12,000 LinkedIn followers
🛠 Learn how confidence and taking ownership can give you personal branding freedom
Intro:
Mia Gradelski is the first student I’ve featured in the Personal Brand Brief, and she’s also the first person I’ve interviewed that I didn't know.
I heard about Mia after a friend mentioned that Mia’s LinkedIn account was blowing up: she was doubling her follower count every month. 🚀
I reached out to see if she’d want to share some of the magic behind her engagement with you, and she said yes. And now we're here.
Mia brings a unique perspective from outside of the traditional marketing industry as a sophomore at NYU concentrating in FinTech & Entrepreneurship. She writes the blog Boiled Not Fried, which she started last year and now has over 10k subscribers.
She is a lifelong learner and personal finance advocate. She believes that financial literacy is a skill all must learn to live a financially free life and achieve one's goals. She also strives to break the gender gap in male dominated fields such as business and STEM.
And she’s a BrewU Ambassador for the Morning Brew newsletter. ☕️ (Austin and Alex, you've got a great one)
Let's dig into her answers and see how she operates:
JH: What do you consider to be signature elements of your personal brand?
MG: As a student, I’m most authentic when I’m relatable, personable, vulnerable, and not trying to impress anyone except myself. I understand I’m the CEO of my life.
People just want to feel good. They don’t remember you for what you told them or gave them, and I try to highlight that.
JH: What’s the best weekly habit that drives relationships in your life online?
MG: Checking in with the most diverse people from random backgrounds. 🔎
As a student concentrating in FinTech & Entrepreneurship, more randomness the better! Business is such a diverse open broad field that more creativity the better!
JH: What’s your favourite under $100 investment you’ve made in marketing this year?
MG: $0
Yep, zero. 💵
My best marketing investment has been keeping my bio short and sweet and tagging my personal finance blog which led to consulting opportunities and more readers to learn about personal finance!
Side-note from Joel here: When Mia says she keeps her bio “short and sweet,” she doesn’t mean it’s lacking value. Check out these killer value statements from her bio that she lives by: 🔑
-Health = Wealth
-There's no I in Team
-Regret regret, nothing else
-Listen more, speak less in order to truly learn
-The quality of your mind = the quality of your life
-Never fail due to a lack of effort because effort requires no skill
-The best investment is in yourself, it pays dividends for a lifetime
Pretty epic, eh?
JH: How intentionally do you build your brand? When did you start?
MG: I quit all social media 6 years ago, and now I only have LinkedIn.
I try to engage on LinkedIn a couple of times a day since this is the only social media platform I use. I comment deliberately on posts that really stand out, make me feel good, or teach me something.
As for posting, I started in May 2019 with my first post and have continued since!
JH: What do you think people often forget when trying to build a personal brand?
MG: Everyone else is already taken.
Be you; don’t try to fake it till you make it.
It takes time, patience, diligence and consistency. Build your brand to teach others lessons, become a better writer, and form a community – not to gain followers or focus on metrics.
ACTION BYTES 📲
If a 20-year-old can grow a LinkedIn account and a blog following while pursuing full-time school, there are literally no excuses for starting your personal branding journey.
📍You don’t have time? Make time.
📍You don’t have the resources? Start with a free platform.
📍You’re afraid of what people will say? Do it anyway.
In the words of Mia, “If you weren't scared what would you do and where would you be today?”
Grab a pencil and write down your answer to that question. ✏️ It might surprise you.
Riff of the Day
One of my friends, Tiffany Zhong, is launching a new platform for creators to monetize their audience. I got the early invite to check it out, and I wanted to ask what you think? Check out the profile I'm building and let me know if you like the style. P.S. She’s hiring.
Special thanks to Mia for joining us today especially during finals season.
If you have any ideas that sparked or you want to suggest someone to be featured, drop me a note here!
Stay outta’ trouble and catch you next week.
✌🏻 Joel