Susan Friedmann [00:00:00]:
Welcome to Book Marketing Mentors, the weekly podcast where you learn proven strategies, tools, ideas, and tips from the masters. Every week, I introduce you to a marketing master who will share their expertise to help you market and sell more books.Â
Today, my special guest is Miranda von Frickin. She's the founder and magic maker of Own Your Awesome. Miranda is a global keynote speaker, LinkedIn strategist, and personal branding evangelist. She empowers women entrepreneurs and executives through her best-selling books, podcasts, and workshops. She's a passionate advocate and amplifier of women's voices, showing them how to magnetize and monetize their presence. Known for her bold energy and faith-driven leadership, Miranda inspires others to shine a light on their stories, brands, and businesses online and on stage.
She's the author of the best-selling book Own Your Awesome on LinkedIn, the host of the podcast Own Your Awesome, and the sparkliest LinkedIn trainer ever.Â
Miranda, what an absolute pleasure it is to welcome you to the show, and thank you for being this week's guest expert and mentor.
Miranda von Fricken [00:01:26]:
Thank you, Susan. What a beautiful introduction. I, of course, wrote it, so I knew it was gonna be good. It's awesome to be here. Thank you so much for having me. I can't wait to have this conversation.
Susan Friedmann [00:01:39]:
Well, I'm so excited. I mean, for multiple reasons. One of which is we live really close to each other, relatively speaking. You know, when I talk to people in Australia or Israel or The UK, the fact that you're only about two hours from me is just really cool.
Miranda von Fricken [00:01:57]:
We're so close. We can almost hug.
Susan Friedmann [00:02:01]:
We'll do that afterwards. I was really, like, tickled by the way you introduce your book on Amazon. And I thought, I'd love to just share it with our listeners because I think this is a great example of how you can capture somebody's attention. It goes like this. Welcome to the most exciting roller coaster ride of the social networking world, where stuffy suits are out, emojis are in, and abundance is available to all. And then there's a little longer paragraph, and then Miranda ends this way. Buckle up, friends, because you're about to transform your LinkedIn journey to a sparkly, magical, profitable, and unforgettable experience. Once we're done, your LinkedIn presence will be so powerful and bright, it'll be impossible to ignore.
Susan Friedmann [00:02:58]:
I'm like, o m g. I have never thought of LinkedIn as sparkly, magical, profitable, and unforgettable experience. So, Miranda, where do we start with this?
Miranda von Fricken [00:03:15]:
We start with this. It's literally the title, by Owning Our Awesome. And I feel that for me personally, it's my connection to my calling. It's my ability to lead myself in a way that feels truly authentic, not only for myself, but the women I work with, to be able to describe your work in such a way that it's almost a little embarrassing. It's almost a little almost delusional if you think about it. How big and bold and grandiose. And sometimes people will say, like, it feels almost magical. It feels like we're into, like, a cartoon with unicorns and rainbows.
Miranda von Fricken [00:03:53]:
And although I don't think that's exactly how life is, but that's how I want to be perceived. That's how I wanna feel. That's how I wanna go about my life here on earth. So I just go for it. I don't hold back. I don't sugarcoat, although I do love some sprinkles on my life. But I also make sure that it's fun and joyful and make people smile. And I love LinkedIn, and LinkedIn can be a very masculine platform.
Miranda von Fricken [00:04:21]:
I've been on it for almost a million years, honestly, since 02/2007. But when I got my start, it was very stuffy. I mean, it's a career site originally. So I just wanted to bring my truest self to the platform. And so using it for as long as I have, the platform has evolved as I have. And I feel like LinkedIn finally caught up to my awesomeness. And so now I just wanted to share it.
Susan Friedmann [00:04:45]:
Which is fabulous. And thinking about our listeners and then perhaps thinking, well, how can I show my awesomeness on LinkedIn and any other platform that I might use?
Miranda von Fricken [00:05:01]:
Of course. So being able to do this, I think it's easy because that's just kinda who I am. But I know I work with a lot of introverts or I work with people who are a little more reserved in how they express themselves. But when it comes down to it, if you can't express yourself in a way that's big and bold, then you're not gonna be seen. You're not gonna be found. It's or it's gonna be harder for people to find you in all the noise. And there's a lot of voices on LinkedIn. There's a lot of voices on stages.
Miranda von Fricken [00:05:29]:
There are millions and billions of books in the world. And if I want mine to stand out, I have to make it hot pink and awesome with confetti on it, put my face on it. I just take everything to the next level, whether it's my writing, the visual art of the cover, how I express myself, or how I live my life. And I think it gets easier the more confident we are.
Susan Friedmann [00:05:51]:
This was a brilliant segue because I suddenly thought of the word confidence and, you know, the role that that plays in building, let's say, a personal brand. How can somebody strengthen their confidence? What do you recommend?
Miranda von Fricken [00:06:08]:
Yeah. Of course. I think it starts with our energy. I think it starts with setting real specific intentions, getting quiet with ourself first, and setting a foundation that feels really good. Right? That feels authentic to us. It feels really good. And we say, what's the best case scenario that could happen if I put my most authentic self forward? And instead of being fearful, we end up gaining more confidence because we do things like visualizing what could happen if we end up acting as if we're truly confident. And it's not a fake it till you make it kinda scenario.
Miranda von Fricken [00:06:44]:
I was never really a fan of that. But to me, it's called owning it until it is it. Right? Until you are exactly who you want people to say you are. So this branding isn't just what I say. Personal branding is what I say plus how I'm perceived. So I can go out there and wear tutus on stages and bring confetti cannons to my keynotes. But if the people perceiving me don't think it's authentic or think it's fake or forced, my brand is never gonna take off as that. You know? So I think there's something about this concept of owning who we are and who we want to be is really what gets our personal brand out there, and it starts with our energy.
Miranda von Fricken [00:07:29]:
I mean, that's the first line of my book is energy is everything. Everything is made of energy, and so is the results that we get from our business, from our book sales, from LinkedIn. I love to meditate. I love to sit and get quiet. I love to visualize any of the outcomes I'm looking to get. And once I visualize that, I start to feel it, and and then I start to believe it. And then I just go out there as if this is real, and it ends up becoming real. And I know it sounds kind of woo woo or mystical and magical, but I love that world, and it's worked for for me very well.
Susan Friedmann [00:08:02]:
Yes. And it's a comfort level, as you said. It's owning that confidence, owning who you are, and be able to express it in a way that's authentically you. Yeah. I can't imagine feeling comfortable in a pink tutu on stage and throwing out confetti. That's not me. And I would feel like, what are people thinking of me? Yes.
Miranda von Fricken [00:08:28]:
Yeah. That's actually it. Like, knowing what is you and what isn't you is actually a huge part of all of this. And that self awareness, I mean, is everything. Right? So to become more self aware of who we are, our goals, desires for imaging, and how people perceive us. If we go out there and say, I can be confident as me, not as somebody who wears a tutu because that's not me, then you go out a % or a 20% of who you are. And I think people will start to feel that because there's a knowing that comes with owning exactly who we are. Like, your awesome is different than my awesome.
Miranda von Fricken [00:09:06]:
Right? And when we own our own individual awesome, there comes a certainty with that, and people can feel that because we exude that certainty with our energy and by putting it out there to the world. And they've it's received exactly the way it's supposed to be received because it's a % authentic.
Susan Friedmann [00:09:24]:
One of the ways that women authors often talk to me is about the imposter syndrome. They feel like putting this book out there, yes, they wrote it, but then actually being authentic and putting it out there and getting over the feeling, well, I'm gonna be judged or criticized and being fearful of the self promotion because they think of these used car salesperson, and it seems yucky and sleazy. How do you address that?
Miranda von Fricken [00:10:01]:
I don't believe in imposter syndrome, although I understand the concept, but I don't think you can be an imposter if you're being yourself. You can't. It's not actually possible to pretend to be yourself. Right? So that's why you have to choose to be yourself and get to the place of ownership and claiming exactly who you are and being okay with it, being comfortable in your own skin. Because then when you are who you are, if somebody says you're being an imposter or that's not who you really are, you can confidently come back and say, it's a % who I am. And there's no imposter syndrome there. Now if I was trying to be like an astronaut, I would feel like an imposter trying to be an astronaut, but we're authors. We're not pretending to be something we're not.
Miranda von Fricken [00:10:47]:
We wrote the book. We are a % authors. We probably own the content in a way that we've embodied the content. I'm sure there's experience or research. I mean, my first book, own your awesome on LinkedIn, I am a I hate the word expert, but I have an expertise in LinkedIn, and I own my awesome. So there's nothing that is imposter like there. It's a % me. And I can only imagine that everyone who's written a book, unless somebody else wrote it for you and you had no previous knowledge of it and you've never seen it before and they just put your name on it, there's no way you can be an imposter.
Miranda von Fricken [00:11:24]:
So when you go out and promote yourself and promote the book, you can 100% own this and know that it's truly you, and that will build your confidence and certainty. And then the imposter syndrome or the imposter feeling starts to fade away.
Susan Friedmann [00:11:39]:
And at the end of the day, you're sharing your expertise. You are helping readers with maybe a challenge, a problem, help them over come something. You're giving something of value. So it's not necessarily about the book per se
Miranda von Fricken [00:11:55]:
Right.
Susan Friedmann [00:11:56]:
But rather what's inside the book. Of course. And as you said, their expertise, your expertise, that's what you're sharing.
Miranda von Fricken [00:12:04]:
Or even our experience. Because I know sometimes we write books based on our experience. It's not an expertise per se. We just have experience in that area, or it's our personal story, and we're helping, you know, entrepreneurs be, you know, more fabulous on camera because we've been teaching it for years. Whatever the scenario is, we have experience doing that, and that should make you feel confident too that this is coming from your perspective. You're not telling everyone, I am the only one who can teach you how to do this. You're saying I have great experience, and I'd love to share my ways in hopes that it helps you as well. And I think that right there takes the pressure off of That's another reason I don't love the word expert.
Miranda von Fricken [00:12:45]:
Although I know there are experts, and I value them. But I think having an expertise takes a pressure off, and it also a lot of especially LinkedIn, it changes every single day. For me to say I'm an expert in LinkedIn is probably not even accurate because tomorrow, there's gonna be a new feature, and I'm gonna have to learn it. And then I'll have an expertise in it, but then the day after, it'll have another feature. I have an expertise because I use it all the time, and I'm quick to learn it and quick to utilize it. An expert to me sounds very much like done. I learned the thing. Now I've moved on.
Miranda von Fricken [00:13:19]:
And so when I work with women, a lot of the times, I check the words they're using and that sometimes we reframe the words or make sure that we're describing what they're trying to do in a way that feels authentic and they feel comfortable saying it.
Susan Friedmann [00:13:33]:
What about mistakes that you see people make, let's say, online and especially on LinkedIn? Because as you say, you live a lot of your life on LinkedIn. What are the mistakes that really sort of, like, are glaring and are like, oh, please don't do that.
Miranda von Fricken [00:13:51]:
I see a lot of that. I'm like, I actually have a free course on my website. It's about the direct messages. It's called how you DM is how you do everything because I get so many bad direct messages on the platform. One of the biggest mistakes I see is people coming in hot is what I call it. Either whether it's a salesperson or they're trying to connect with me or have a phone call, they come in hot by pretty much telling me I need what it is they have. Or they'll say, I looked at your website, and there's 15 things you could do differently. Let me show you how to fix it.
Miranda von Fricken [00:14:29]:
Or if it's a health and wellness person, I can help you lose 15 pounds. And I'm like, yeah. I don't even know you. What makes you think I need to lose 15 pounds? Or you know? So I think that's one of the biggest mistakes is assuming you know who was on the other end. That's specifically to the direct message. If we're writing content on LinkedIn, I think some of the mistakes we're making is feeling like you have to be, like I said, the expert, putting out facts or graphs or you can share your personal story. People get real nervous, and they'll say, how personal do I have to be on LinkedIn? And I say, you don't have to be personal, but people like to connect to people. I wanna know your story, your energy.
Miranda von Fricken [00:15:09]:
I wanna feel like I'm connected to you when I'm reading your content. And so often, they'll try to write the perfect LinkedIn post. But I only post when the spirit moves me, and I say that all the time. And what I say on LinkedIn, although there is kind of a formula to the content that really, like, captures people's attention, but I say it in a way that brings joy, laughter, usually some emotions. It's storytelling. Right? So instead of telling a story about their experience and their life, they will come hard with some facts, and they will say this is the best way you need to do this. And I think people get real nervous on LinkedIn about being that expert when really you can just be yourself, and you'll get a lot more people interested in connecting with you because they feel drawn to your energy.
Susan Friedmann [00:16:00]:
You mentioned that you have a formula for your content. Talk to us about that.
Miranda von Fricken [00:16:06]:
Yeah. So I like to shock them a little bit. There's gotta be a hook. Here is, like, the content post broken down. There's gotta be a hook. Then, like, there's the main topic, but you want them to want more. You wanna keep them hanging on your every word. You can't just say, these are the three things I do today to make $5,000,000.
Miranda von Fricken [00:16:25]:
1, 2, 3. Go do it. Good luck. I don't think that's gonna connect me. It's gonna give me an answer. That's cool. I'll go do it, see what happens, but it's not gonna make me want to return to you and see what else you have to say. I tell a story, of course, but I also engage with them in a way that makes them wanna join the conversation.
Miranda von Fricken [00:16:44]:
My formula is a little different based on what type of topic I'm speaking about or my intentions for the post. Some intentions are just to put my course out and see if people wanna buy it. Sometimes it's the same with my book. Most of the times, actually, I really wanna engage in a conversation. So I treat my LinkedIn post as if I'm in a networking room, and and I'm walking up to someone for the first time. And so it's a little bit of an introduction, but a little bit of sharing some type of knowledge and story, and then asking them their thoughts. I'd love to hear from you. Or would you mind telling me how you do this? Like, asking for advice or offering up a solution.
Miranda von Fricken [00:17:23]:
It's a conversation. And I think when people look at LinkedIn as a potential conversation, the game changes.
Susan Friedmann [00:17:31]:
I'm sure that I commit a lot of these errors. It's the fact that, you know, that conversation is like I put a lot of information out there. Obviously, my podcast goes out every week, and we do a couple of posts. But it's the conversation, part of it, I think that I could well be missing. So maybe our listeners share that as well. Talk to us more about mistakes. I know that our listeners love mistakes. They can never hear enough of them because, obviously, they don't want to make them.
Susan Friedmann [00:18:06]:
And, so
Miranda von Fricken [00:18:08]:
Well, some mistakes from the confidence perspective would be the trying to be something you're not. I think that's probably the biggest mistake whether it's on LinkedIn, whether it's your personal brand, selling your book, writing the book, trying to be something you're not because you feel you have to or you feel that's what's hot right now. Trends drive me bonkers because I know they're popular and it gets you a lot of traction. But if all you're doing is putting stuff out there based on a trend, we know next week there'll be another trend. And so you'll just be one of these cookie cutter people that just put out these pieces of content or act in a way that is typical for what's hot right now. But if you stay true and I actually see this a lot with LinkedIn trainers. There are some really big ones right now, and there are some huge ones that were there probably, like, five years ago that are no longer LinkedIn trainers. They're barely even on the platform because they burned themselves out or they just continuously went with the trends to go viral or to, you know, attract a huge audience, but their business went under because they didn't actually get clients.
Miranda von Fricken [00:19:17]:
What I've done it's like that. What is it? The turtle in the hair who are slow and steady kind of rinse the hair. For me, it's be completely engaged with who you are. Own essentially your expertise. You're you're awesome. Get some real good confidence. Work with clients or get results. Some social expertise or evidence of your awesomeness is actually what I call it.
Miranda von Fricken [00:19:39]:
Some social proof of you being able to help people say and do what it is you say you have an expertise in, and then continuously share that. Some people sometimes think that if they repeat themselves too much, they'll burn out their audience. But think about LinkedIn. What is it? Like, 10% of our audience sees our posts even if they engage with us. So unless you've created yourself some real true fans that come to your page every single day, not everyone's seeing your post, so you have to, like, repeat and tell them stuff. But my thought is if you continuously be who you are and kinda keep it going, right, and build momentum, you will have a business that lasts. And it'll have such a solid foundation for you personally, for your business, for your client base, for referrals, you'll never run a business. So I have been a LinkedIn trainer for about ten years, and I've seen so many others come and go because they're so focused on going viral.
Miranda von Fricken [00:20:39]:
They're so focused on that, drawing in hundreds of thousands of followers where I'm happy with my 20,000 followers and it's growing steadily because I actually can say I probably either engaged or worked with or they've engaged with me or taken one of my courses, and I don't feel like these are all strangers. I feel connected to them. My biggest thing is that I think if people can just stay true to who they are, build momentum from it, and slow and steady, and don't get trapped in the trends, you'll be fine. You'll see true success, and it'll feel good when it happens to it. It won't feel fake. You won't have to reinvent the wheel next month because this thing is no longer a trend. Now there's a new trend. So if you just kinda keep going the course and be true to who you are, I think you'll find that outlasts everyone else.
Susan Friedmann [00:21:30]:
And the slow and steady, it's so funny that you talk about the hare and the tortoise, is I just use that in an article that's gonna come out next week. Because, you know, talking about book marketing, it's the slow and steady. It's a marathon versus a sprint. I think it's the same sort of concept that you're sharing, but, you know, you're relating it to LinkedIn. I have a question. And that is that I see these platforms, these social platforms, as you're building a house on rented land. And you've got 21,000 followers, and it's growing steadily as you said. If LinkedIn went away tomorrow, how many of those people would you, let's say, have on a mail list?
Miranda von Fricken [00:22:22]:
A fraction of that. A fraction of that. So for a couple of reasons. One, because I have been on LinkedIn for so long, I didn't even have an email list in the beginning. Right? So my email list is probably, I'd say, maybe three years old. So I am slowly building that. I've got a few thousand on the email list, so I wouldn't panic. And I actually have an episode on my podcast where LinkedIn kicked me off for twenty one hours.
Miranda von Fricken [00:22:51]:
And I freaked out, and I was like, oh my goodness. And it was such a wake up call for me. I've heard people talk about this all the time. So diversify your outreach. Right? So I've got LinkedIn. I've got Instagram. I've got a podcast. I've got the email list.
Miranda von Fricken [00:23:05]:
And so there's multiple ways that people can connect with me. Should LinkedIn go down, I mean, I would be really sad because I really love the platform, but I would still be able to connect with them through my email. But I didn't learn that until probably later in my entrepreneurial experience.
Susan Friedmann [00:23:24]:
Yes. And as we've seen, it it's happened to Facebook. And it's gonna happen in the whole talk about TikTok. It's teetering on the edge, so you just never know. Do you have a strategy that you can share in order to get people from LinkedIn to sign up for your mail list?
Miranda von Fricken [00:23:48]:
Of course. So I have some freebies that I offer. And everyone, they have to enter their email address to receive it, and so they get on my email list. And then I just nurture them from there. I offer them ways to get on my newsletter or my email list on my podcast through content. There's a link in your LinkedIn profile where you can write a little blurb, whether it says, you know, check out my website or you say grab my freebie here. I make sure that that's obvious. I put a freebie in my featured section.
Miranda von Fricken [00:24:17]:
So there are multiple opportunities for people to get on my email list. And I often do this too with like, you know, I'm being interviewed on a podcast here. You know, I mentioned the freebie how many times. Right? So I'm already, like, infusing the fact that there's an opportunity for all of your listeners to get something free from me in addition to hearing this podcast. And the hopes is that, you know, they'll also be an email follow-up or something where or in the show notes, there's gonna be opportunities. Being introduced to other networks is a huge opportunity for me and for the people who are interviewing me too because now I'm going to share your information and free them to get on your email list. And I think collaboration is a huge way for us to ensure we're growing our email list. But from LinkedIn, I do the same thing.
Miranda von Fricken [00:25:05]:
I have LinkedIn lives. I interview women every Wednesday in my LinkedIn live show called awesome conversations, where I draw my audience in to meet a new guest. I give them an option for a freebie, and so does my guest. And so I'm continuously inviting them to an opportunity to either deepen the conversation through email or to learn more through a Phoebe, which would get them onto the email. Lots of different ways. Even on my podcast, I'll say, find me on LinkedIn or find me on Instagram in order to engage and be interactive and not just listen to the podcast and turn it off when I stop driving or I stop listening. I always wanna continue the conversation, and it's even something I say at the end of my episodes is if you would like to continue this conversation or if this conversation is important to you, let's continue it. Find me here or check out this.
Miranda von Fricken [00:25:57]:
And it's just I find it helps because people, if they're listening to the podcast, they must be interested in either me or what I have to say, that topic specifically. And if they wanna learn more about it, I've got multiple options for them to do that. One other way that's actually pretty abundant that not a lot of people take advantage of is LinkedIn has a newsletter feature. And the first time you send out a newsletter, every single person that follows you gets invited to that newsletter. So I have 21,000 followers. I put out a newsletter today for the first time. 21,000 people get a notification not only in their LinkedIn notifications, but to their email. As soon as they say yes to it, it'll start going to their email list.
Miranda von Fricken [00:26:40]:
So I find that that's a next level opportunity that LinkedIn has given us. And then every time somebody connects to me from that point forward, they get an invitation to my newsletter. And in that newsletter, I'm driving them to my email list. So lots of opportunities to get people to the place where you can own that conversation versus borrowing a space to have it.
Susan Friedmann [00:27:04]:
And that's brilliant. And what an incredible segue into getting more specific about how our listeners can find out more about you.
Miranda von Fricken [00:27:13]:
Yeah. So, of course, LinkedIn.
Susan Friedmann [00:27:16]:
Oh, surprise.
Miranda von Fricken [00:27:17]:
Yeah. Surprise. I would love to connect with people on LinkedIn. Just tell me this is where you heard me, and we'll have a nice conversation. I'd love to hear your favorite episode too from this show, so that'd be kinda cool too. So connect with me on LinkedIn. My website is MirandaVonFrickin.com. My podcast is called Own Your Awesome, and my book is called Own Your Awesome on LinkedIn.
Miranda von Fricken [00:27:38]:
Yeah. Find me there, and let's continue this conversation.
Susan Friedmann [00:27:41]:
Excellent. And the book is available through Amazon, I know. Is there any other way it's available?
Miranda von Fricken [00:27:47]:
I actually have a book club with my book too. So it's available for if you want to deepen your knowledge of LinkedIn and ultimately own your awesome on the platform, I host a four week book club with my book. You could just DM me book club, and I actually send you the book, and we have a conversation for four weeks about it. It's pretty cool. But Amazon is where it's sold mostly, and anywhere else you buy books.
Susan Friedmann [00:28:11]:
I have not heard that before. What a wonderful tip. Thank you.
Miranda von Fricken [00:28:15]:
You're welcome.
Susan Friedmann [00:28:17]:
Which is, again, another great segue into as you know, I was asked my guests to leave our listeners with a golden nugget. What's yours?
Miranda von Fricken [00:28:28]:
When you own your awesome, your clients will too. How about that one? Your clients, your potential clients, and the world. But it starts with you.
Susan Friedmann [00:28:37]:
That's beautiful. And what I've gotten from our conversation is how personable you are and how inviting that just your presence. I am hoping that many listeners are like, I wanna get to know more about this woman.
Miranda von Fricken [00:28:56]:
Well, I hope so too, and I will keep you posted.
Susan Friedmann [00:28:59]:
I love it. Well, thank you so much for sharing your wisdom. It's been a wonderful experience.Â
And by the way, listeners, if your book isn't selling the way you wanted or expect it to, let's you and I jump on a quick call together to brainstorm ways to ramp up those sales because you've invested a whole lot of time, money, and energy, and it's time you got the return you were hoping for. Go to bookmarketingbrainstorm.com to schedule your free call. And in the meantime, I hope this powerful interview sparks some ideas you can use to sell more books. So until next week, here's wishing you much book and author marketing success.
Here's how to connect with Miranda:
Website: MirandaVonFrickin.com
Book: Own Your Awesome on LinkedIn.
Podcast: Own Your Awesome,
https://LinkedIn.com/in/MirandaVonFricken
https://Instagram.com/MirandaVonFricken
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