Why LinkedIn Newsletters Deserve Your Attention with Katie Brinkley

Allea Grummert (00:12)
Hey there, welcome to Happy Subscribers, a podcast that explores how bloggers and content creators can create more purposeful relationships with your audience through email marketing. I’m Allie Grimmert, email marketing strategist, copywriter, email platform expert, and founder of the done for you email marketing agency, Duet. I started as a personal finance blogger in 2016 and have since helped hundreds of bloggers and creators like you maximize your email marketing for more impact, more traffic, and a better connection with your subscribers.

Be prepared for some advanced email talk, as well as tactical tips to help get your valuable content into the hands of your audience faster and easier. I’m excited you’re here, so let’s do it. We can create a deeper, more meaningful connection with the community you love and serve through email.

Katie Brinkley has been leveraging social media to grow audiences and income for over 20 years. Since the time of MySpace, she’s helped her clients build a strategy to attract the right followers and generate consistent inbound leads in as little as an hour a week. From building corporate level growth strategies for AT &T and DirecTV to implementing done for you social media for entrepreneurs, tech startups and consultants, Katie has been at the forefront to the changes and how buyers engage on social media. Utilizing her platform agnostic strategies,

Katie’s clients have been able to see bottom line results at every stage of the sales process. Katie’s history of radio journalism mixed with her social aptitude allows her to bring a unique insight and leverage her clients’ stories to the forefront of their social strategy. Katie, welcome to the show.

Katie Brinkley (01:46)
I need to get that cleaned up a bit,

Allea Grummert (01:48)
You had to watch me study, make sure I knew every word. So, y’all, I met Katie, I remember meeting her at Podcast Movement a couple summers ago. ⁓ And then we actually got to connect more at CEX in Cleveland, summer of 2025. I got to watch Katie speak and boy, you come with so much energy on stage. I wish I, I mean, we’re gonna capture that right now, I’m sure. Unless you’re feeling under the weather, we’re gonna.

Katie Brinkley (02:16)
You feel good. I love being a guest on other people’s shows because when you’re the host of a show, you get to really shine the spotlight on someone else. And so I appreciate you shining the spotlight on

Allea Grummert (02:30)
Yes, of course. since you mentioned it, why don’t you tell everybody what your podcast is and what it’s about so they can go find it.

Katie Brinkley (02:37)
Yeah, so I have a couple podcasts, actually. So I have two. One of them is Rocky Mountain Marketing. I’ve had that show for over five years now. And I talk about different marketing strategies for entrepreneurs with different guests from all over the world. And then I have marketing trends now, which is what’s trending in marketing right now. That’s a weekly episode, 10 minutes or less. And you are going to get some action, action items that you can start implementing right away and, you know, get back to your

your busy business growth.

Allea Grummert (03:09)
I love it. Yes, we will include links to those, both of those in the show notes. Now you mentioned Rocky Mountains. Is that because you live in Colorado? I’m sure.

Katie Brinkley (03:18)
I’m a pretty hardcore Colorado gal. love my mountains. I’m born in Colorado, went to college in Durango, which is like, as my mom put it, it’s the farthest I could possibly get while still getting in-state tuition. ⁓ It’s a seven and a half hour drive from Denver, but yeah, I love Colorado.

been really fortunate. Both my parents were flight attendants, and so I got to see a lot of the world. ⁓ And really, just like Dorothy, there’s no place like home.

Allea Grummert (03:55)
I love that. As a Nebraskan, I’m always just like, hey, over there. we would drive eight hours to Colorado and like call it a weekend. Yeah. So I appreciate that state so much. OK, and now you’re also the author of The Social Shift, which I have right next to me in these beautiful, bright orange, purple colors. love it. It’s even signed. Thank you for that. ⁓ Now, what is the thesis of this book and why does it matter?

in today’s online social age.

Katie Brinkley (04:27)
Yeah, well, so, mean, like you said, I’ve been doing this whole social media digital marketing thing for a long time. And when I started, it was very different than it is today. You think about it, social media is really no different than turning on Netflix. You you open up Instagram or TikTok and you’re like, entertain me. It’s not, hey, how can I?

connect with, how can I see what my friend is up to or hey, how can I connect with my aunt again? One of my favorite features of Facebook is the Facebook Memories feature where I’ll see things from like 2014 and it’s somebody posting on my wall saying, hey, Katie, we should get together for coffee, I’m in town. That’s what we used to go to other, we would.

go to other people’s pages, because we were thinking about them, and post on their wall. Write them a message. Yeah. Yeah. Like, when was the last time you posted on someone’s wall, when it wasn’t a birthday message?

Allea Grummert (05:28)
Yeah

Directly? No, I don’t know. It’s 2014.

Katie Brinkley (05:38)
Yeah,

and social media has completely changed. It’s a reactive sort of experience now instead of a proactive experience. And ⁓ this is where I think that we can still really enjoy social media. I think that most people kind of have a love-hate relationship with it because they’re like, well, I’m on social media. I have to be, you know, and I have to do this. I have to do that.

Honestly, if you go in with intention and try to build community, it makes social media a whole lot more fun and you get way better results. So that’s what the thesis of the book is about is going back to how all these social media platforms started and the cultures and the communities that are there. Because you think about it, the culture on LinkedIn is very different than the culture over on TikTok and the way that the content is being created and presented.

And I love, know, Metricool is one of my favorite tools out there ⁓ for scheduling. These schedulers are great. These schedulers are great. But you can’t just copy and paste things across all the platforms and expect to have great results because people are going to identify and connect with things differently depending on the platform. ⁓ the book is about taking a step back.

refocusing your energy and refocusing how you show up online.

Allea Grummert (07:08)
Yes, man, because my thought was social media. I don’t quote unquote do a lot with social media. Definitely more than I used to, but it still feels scarce. But, you know, it takes me back to 2010 when I worked for a small ad agency and we just looped everything on Hootsuite, maybe just, you know, and you just it was a matter of volume. And part of it was also like the fear, if you will, or the reality of, you know, I remember spending like hours writing Twitter posts.

And then on the flip side, know that Twitter post is gonna last about 20 seconds in the eco-sphere. So it it defeating to even do it. And so would you say that that’s how social media feels like as on the creator side in most cases?

Katie Brinkley (07:54)
Well, I think it’s changed even more now because of AI. You you think about it and it, you can, I don’t know, maybe people have gotten better, like, you know, attention entrepreneurs, megaphone emoji, you know, like you can spot an AI written caption real fast. And I know when I see that I’m like, scroll, they, I’m not even worth my time. And so now we’re just,

creating tons of content that nobody really even cares about. It’s just white noise. So not only are you trying to create content that builds community, but too that stands out in the sea of noise online. And you’re trying to fight for space on a feed where people are hundreds of thousands of dollars in ads to get in front of the right people. it’s really hard to stand out online.

And I understand why people are like, oh, well, I tried doing social media. It just doesn’t work for me. And it’s because of how things have shifted over the past two decades.

Allea Grummert (09:02)
Yeah. So is part of the solution kind of like what you alluded to, like a reframing of how you’re creating the content with the intention of community. And if so, what makes that intention so effective on the results end?

Katie Brinkley (09:18)
Well, and I think too, you know, if you have a podcast, makes things way easier. ⁓ I do think that everyone should have a show. being a podcaster isn’t for you. Being a podcast guest is also great. If you are a writer and you enjoy blogging, ⁓ you have, you know, the world is your oyster. If you’re creating some piece of long form content, whether it’s written, audio or visual, like a YouTube channel,

you’re going to have a ton of content four months at a time. So I think that first thing is understanding where’s the content going to come from. And then two, what platforms do you like to be on? So like I alluded to earlier, all these platforms have a different community, they have a different culture, they have a different way of creating content. So which one do you like to be on?

And I know for me, my geriatric millennial is showing, but I like Facebook. ⁓

Allea Grummert (10:20)
I

love it. I love Facebook.

Katie Brinkley (10:22)
I

like LinkedIn. TikTok is not for me, as you guys all have figured out, we’re about 10 minutes into today’s episode. And I think I’ve hogged about 80 % of the minutes, but I’m a little long winded. And so TikTok is hard for me to get things to the point. It’s not for me. Instagram, really, the culture shifted a lot. I used to love Instagram and now it’s kind of turned into TikTok.

I think they have a big identity crisis. But I I digress. It wasn’t serving me. It wasn’t filling me up. And so I was like, I don’t want to create content on it. I’m not opening it up and killing time on it. Is it worth my energy? And so I said goodbye to it. Back in 2023, I recently started trying to give it a second chance. So I’ve been posting over on Instagram for about three months now, but I left it for two years because it wasn’t serving me.

⁓ Facebook is where when I’m sitting in the line at Starbucks, I open it up and I’m giving Facebook my time. That’s what they want is my time and my data. so ⁓ if I’m going to be over there just scrolling, that counts in the algorithm because they say like, here’s Katie’s account. She’s giving us her time. If you, and this is extremely important. If you are willing to spend time on an app,

That’s what they want. That’s the biggest thing is what they want. That’s why I say these schedulers are great, but if you’re not actually going in over there and engaging, scrolling, seeing what’s trending, it’s really just a waste of everyone’s time.

Allea Grummert (12:10)
Yeah, because then you’re just publishing and being basically like being like Facebook you up like in my case. Yeah. Yeah. Versus like Instagram saying like, she’s like already like, you know, a regular will exactly benefit that.

Katie Brinkley (12:15)
booty call

And if you think about it too, and then I promise we can move on. But I mean, if you think about it, one of the, so in March of 2023 on Instagram, I use this example a lot. Actually, maybe it was 22. Anyways, it was a while ago. I was super burnt out. I had just hosted a live event. I was doing all the things. I was writing my book. I was trying to get it all done. And I just couldn’t bring myself to create content. I couldn’t, you know, I have a team, but I…

have plenty of assets, I just couldn’t bring myself to say anything. I was really burnt out. However, that month of March was one of my best sales months ever. it’s because I had the content in my feed that said what I did, who I served, how I could help them, and it was good content. But I was still going in at the carpool lane, opening up

the old IG app and engaging. And so people that were my ideal audience was like, hey, who’s this I am Katie Brinkley person. Thanks so much for commenting on my account. Do we follow each other? I’m gonna go check out Katie’s page. ⁓ this is what Katie does. That’s cool. I had no idea. I need this help. I’m going to follow her. And those turned into conversations, it turned into sales. And it was all just for me being nice and.

building community, talking to people online, responding to their posts. I wasn’t creating content. I was just showing up authentically. And because I had good content in my feed, you know, on my, you know, on my profile, the right people saw it and they said, I want to go one step further.

Allea Grummert (14:11)
Okay, so is your primary goal to get people into the DMs and chat with them there, or how are you engaging folks, or were you hoping that they’ll connect with you?

Katie Brinkley (14:21)
Well, think that it’s social media is not, it’s like SEO. It’s a long game. it, and going viral is not a business strategy. ⁓ it’s real, real hard to grow your business from a viral post because it’s, you know, who knows if there, if you’re, especially if you’re a local business. So, ⁓ I think that with having intentional social media that says, okay, that’s what this post is for. This is who this post is talking to. It lives on forever.

You know, it sits in your feed and when people come there, they can click it and they say, ⁓ this is what they do and how they can help me. And I think that when you show up intentionally and engage with your ideal audience, so mean, like you can search, like if you want to find food bloggers or whatever, you can search that in Instagram and it’ll give you all the recent posts for people that talk about food blogging.

How great would it be just to go and be like, I love this recipe idea, or I’ve never thought about doing it, and you’re just engaging with them. They click, say, thank you. Who is this person? Now they come over to your page. You can see who your new followers are. You can reach out to them and say, hey, thanks for following me. I loved this post you did. And start actually talking to them. And it’s not necessarily all for leads. There’s so many people that…

I’ve become really good friends with just by doing this strategy. ⁓ And it’s all because you’re just showing up with intentionality and really that give first mentality.

Allea Grummert (15:56)
Yeah, intentionality is a huge piece. And I used to feel weirded out about like, like, I feel like I’m targeting people. And my old business coach was like, or you’re being intentional. Like, if you have young kids and you move to a new town and you want to make friends, you go to the play, you know, you go to the park. Like you go meet other moms, your kids make friends like you’re being intentional. You’re not being creepy. That’s part of what it means to make those new friends and get new circles.

⁓ So do you have any tips because there’s posting content and there’s building community? How can one build like post content that does build community? it, ⁓ I mean, you mentioned there’s different types of content like written and video, but is it a call to action or how are you, what’s the glue there that’s making it impactful?

Katie Brinkley (16:50)
Well, I’m a little biased, but I developed a whole strategy on it because I’ve been doing social media for 20 years now. I got two young girls, they’re eight and 11. And ⁓ I’ll never forget when I, my 11 year old, she was maybe two, we went to the park and it was a beautiful day. And we were sitting outside, she was playing in the creek and I looked over and there was a group of teenagers and they were all huddled in a…

corner like this with their on their phones. So for you folks not watching, I just pulled my phone out and pretended to be on it, but they weren’t even talking to each other. They weren’t engaging. And I was like, man, it’s a beautiful day and everyone’s just sitting on their phones. What kind of like, is this really what my kid has to look forward to? Well, I haven’t changed the world yet. It is still what my kid has to look forward to right now, which is why she doesn’t have a phone. But it made me really sad because I was like, man, I don’t want to like

Social media is great. It changed my life. I started with MySpace, helped, met so many cool bands and had great experiences because of social media. I want that for my daughter. I’m not gonna be that mom that says no social media, but at the same time, like, I don’t want her just to always be on her phone. I want her to enjoy spending time with the people that she’s with. And so I started looking at

all these different platforms. And I was like, man, there has to be some, like, how could I just create the content that’s gonna get seen? And for this reason. And so I joined a lot of different masterminds, went through a lot of coaching, worked with some of the best people that I consider in their fields. And I was like, okay, so this is what works best on Instagram for this type of end game. This was what works best on TikTok. This is what works best on LinkedIn.

So what is my main goal ⁓ from this post? And ⁓ because I think that if you want someone to sign up to work with you, it’s very different than just, I want someone to engage with the post and comment on it or like it, right? And so anyway, so that’s where I came up with the four post strategy and each post is intentional. So it’s awareness, elaboration, community, and then action. And so…

Allea Grummert (19:01)
Okay, yeah.

Katie Brinkley (19:15)
The first post is designed to draw awareness from your ideal customer and awareness in the feet so that more people see your problem, the problem that you’re talking about. Elaboration is where you get to step into the spotlight and be the thought leader. Community is the fun post where you get to see how you overcame this problem or how you helped a client overcome it. You get to share. It’s more of a storytelling post. And then action is asking people to leave social media to go one step further.

Allea Grummert (19:45)
And you do that all in separate posts, not like four parts of one post.

Katie Brinkley (19:50)
No, yeah, all separate posts. I mean, so like, if you think about it, this podcast episode, this is an entire week’s worth of content right there from the awareness to action post, you know. So if you’re on ⁓ Facebook, you could do the awareness post saying like, how many times do you think that you should post in a week? Just asking a question, because you’re going to draw awareness around the problem of, ⁓ how many times do I post? I don’t know. Let me go back and look. OK, now I’m going to comment with my answer.

and you’re starting the conversation. By people engaging with your post, now they’re going to see your next post where you can elaborate on it and you can do, you know, you can go live, you could do a long written article, you know, or like long form content like on LinkedIn. I always do this as my LinkedIn newsletter. ⁓ And then take that and say, OK, well, remember how, you know, common misconception is that you need to post daily on social media if you want to get leads.

I recently spoke with Katie Brinkley and she broke down how she, you da da da da da. And you can explain what we talked about today. The third post is the community post where maybe you say, ⁓ I used to never post on Facebook because I thought it wasn’t going to work for me. And then I just decided to post one post and see if this whole four post strategy thing was any good. And my engagement shot up 1100%.

And this happened and this happened. I booked two sales calls and you could just be a picture of you and me like from this recording, you know, it doesn’t need to be. This is again, just telling your story so people can say, I see myself in this story too. And then the action post is then, you know, I sit down with Katie Brinkley and this week’s episode and she gives us her entire framework on how we can show up less online and get more results and build our audience.

Allea Grummert (21:48)
I will.

Katie Brinkley (21:48)
But

comment podcast below and I’ll send you the link.

Allea Grummert (21:52)
So right now I just post one time and it is go listen to my podcast Well, I guess I also include it at link in the email as well

Katie Brinkley (21:59)
But this is where too, like, I think we’re all guilty of it. You know, like, OK, here’s here’s the episode. Go listen. But honestly, I’ve never gone to Instagram to listen to a podcast ever. You know, if I want to listen to a show, it’s probably because somebody told me about it in their email, because there is more context around why I should care. And.

Or else I’ve just gone on like Apple or Spotify and been like, okay, I’m searching to learn about XYZ. And then I listened to that episode, see how the reviews are. Or it’s word of mouth. So I mean, like, it’s not necessarily going to drive a ton of listenership just by posting like, hey, new episode alert. You go about it and get the right people interested in like, hey, this is what the problem is. This is what I’m talking about throughout the week. It allows you that more opportunities to get the right people listening.

Allea Grummert (22:56)
Hey, if you enjoy what you’re listening to and want even more of this, go to duet.co.uk for a few different free resources. And while you’re there, you can also join my email list, which is where I share so much valuable content that you really cannot get anywhere else. Plus you can reply back at any time to any email and it will go to my inbox. And if you’re curious about Duet and our services and how we work with clients, you’ll find links to that there as well.

Go to duet.co slash happy and I’ll include the link in the show notes so that you can grab more.

Yes, it reminds me of like an email campaign where you prime your audience before you just like pitch them.

Katie Brinkley (23:38)
Yeah, exactly. It’s like what you do, like with all of the sequences.

Allea Grummert (23:42)
Yeah, so you don’t really just hit somebody with like, and here’s a hard sale. I mean, you can like on a tripwire page or whatnot. But when I’ve written for webinar funnels and whatnot, it’s like teasing out that something is coming or getting them thinking about the content they know is coming that they don’t know is coming yet, just to get them primed and thinking about that topic before you pitch a webinar topic. Pitch an offer. I like it.

Katie, thank you. Thank you from me to you and then all the listeners as well. Yes, I am curious. This is just roll with me on this. Thinking about I’m also a millennial. I grew up with an elder millennial sister, but I want a picture real quick. Like, what did community look like for you at 15? Because we didn’t have phones.

Katie Brinkley (24:32)
know. ⁓ So I mean, when I was 15, it was, so I played sports and so it was 100 % my sports teams. And I think that that too opened up, like I had friends that didn’t go to my school, because I played competitive sports. I had some friends at school, which I wasn’t a loser. think I had some friends at school, I…

Most of my best friends went to different schools. And so I think that for me, community was, you know, being willing to go outside of what was, guess, kind of presented to me like, okay, well, here’s your school. Here’s where your friends are going to be. ⁓ And maybe that’s why with social media, I’ve always been open to like having conversations with strangers, ⁓ you know, because you never know what kind of relationship could

could grow from it. you know, lots of my good friends I’ve, I only see once a year, but, you know, we are really good friends because of social media. They live all over the country and it’s, think that social media can be an incredible way of building your network and building out your friend group and especially if you’re an entrepreneur, it can be very lonely. And this, you know, really trying to kind of

Allea Grummert (25:52)
Mm-hmm.

Katie Brinkley (25:58)
Find your people.

Allea Grummert (26:00)
Yeah. What I love, like, when we were teenagers, like, those social events were built in. Like, I played soccer. So you’re practicing soccer every day after school, right? And or cross country or I did FCCLA. So we were just like in each other’s ecosystems in that way. ⁓ But I just remember also, like, if you wanted to talk to a friend, you had to call them. And I guess there was MSM Messenger as well by the time I was in junior high. ⁓

But yeah, it just makes me think of like those, that kind of intentionality of like, what does it mean to show up like in a regular way for those people who are also choosing to gather there.

Katie Brinkley (26:41)
Yeah, and I think that the best thing is to have a community of people that say your name in a room that you’re not in. You know, like that is one of the best compliments of like, ⁓ you need to know so and so. You’re like, this is exactly what they do. I have to introduce you. You want to, I mean, if you can have someone say your name in a room that you’re not in, that is community. And that’s where I think that if you show up,

just with that give first mentality. I mean, you have a podcast. I think that’s one of the most giving things that people can do because you’re bringing free information for someone to help grow their business, to help grow their brain. And so I think that one of the best things to do is have that give first mentality because those are the people, the regular listeners of the show, they’re talking about you in the room when you’re not there.

Allea Grummert (27:36)
Yeah, and it was sweet. was at a conference last week and people who listen to the podcast were like telling me they’re like she the one gal was like it’s she knows who she is. She’s good because she’s going to listen to this episode. But she looked at me. She goes, it’s so weird hearing you talk in person. I’m just used to hearing you in my bathroom when I’m getting ready and just like, ⁓ and that’s so sweet. But like with a lot of things we do online, we don’t really know the impact we have because we don’t like it’s a

kind of putting it out into the void. And so I was like, please tell me, thank you. I’m so glad that you’re a listener and you enjoy it. So I do want to talk about email marketing as listeners are like, isn’t this an email marketing podcast? is. Subscribers can mean a lot of things, subscribers, followers, I suppose. But I am curious because I know during your talk at CEX, you talked a lot about LinkedIn and I have been in a mastermind that talks a lot about that as well. But what strategies

Do you have in place for either gaining email subscribers with, I don’t know how the LinkedIn newsletter works, if you actually get a list of email addresses or not, or if you’re directing them somewhere else like Kit or Flowdesk.

Katie Brinkley (28:46)
So the LinkedIn newsletter features, feel one of the best. I hope it’s not a kept secret anymore. if the secret’s out, you need to have a LinkedIn newsletter, especially if you’re already writing emails. And people might say, well, wait a second, wouldn’t that mess with my email stats? If you want to just send it the same day, send it the next week, whatever. It is a great way to get more visibility. So I mean, with my email list,

I have about a 32 % open rate, which is good. I’m not, I’m not poo-pooing on that at all. ⁓ But with my regular email list, it’s around like a 30 to 32 % email open rate. With LinkedIn, it’s in the high fifties and sometimes sixties. And I have more subscribers with my LinkedIn newsletter than I do with my personal. I just went through and moved everything over to high level, did a massive cleanup. So I’m kind of rebuilding it, but.

I have a way bigger email subscriber list on LinkedIn. Now the reason why this matters to me is because not only are people being shown it in their feed, but it’s also the LinkedIn newsletter also gets emailed to them. So if it’s important information that I want people to see and engage with and click with or sign up for, it has to go in that LinkedIn newsletter. ⁓ So I think LinkedIn newsletters are one of the best tools.

for anyone that’s creating content, any business owner.

Allea Grummert (30:18)
Do you own that list of subscribers? Like, can you download that list of email addresses and take it with you? Or is it just with a LinkedIn?

Katie Brinkley (30:26)
see

who is on the list, but I have to go through it manually and get all of them. Like all the emails. Yeah. So, I mean, you can see who it is, like, and it tells you all the stats of like, this is what city they live in, what their job titles are, which I feel like you kind of get more information from this if you’re doing like target, you know, demographic research and everything. So you get a lot more insights into who actually is seeing your content as opposed to just, you know, Katie.

katibrinkley.com or anything.

Allea Grummert (30:57)
How do people opt in for your LinkedIn newsletter? Do they see it in their feed and say, I wanna follow this or I’m subscribing? How does that work?

Katie Brinkley (31:06)
So there’s two ways. One, when you make a new connection, it asks them if they want to sign up for the newsletter. This is a good insight to like, hey, go out there and make connections, meet people because you’re going to grow your newsletter list that way. Additionally, it’s just like with any other sort of post that you do on LinkedIn. We’re spending a lot of time in 2014 on this episode, but just like LinkedIn now, their algorithm is a lot like 2014 Facebook where

If I like a post, it’s going to show up in your feed because, Katie likes this post. So it’s going to get shown to a lot more like friends of friends instead of just like, hey, well, random person engaged with this and you kind of have a similar buying behavior. So we’re just going to show you stuff. So it’s a lot of like, you know, six degrees of Kevin Bacon sort of algorithm there. And it’ll get shown. I mean, it’s

Again, everyone listening, this is your reminder just to engage with people that you care about, that they’re providing great content. Just comment on it. Just like it because it helps them in the algorithm, more people see their stuff.

Allea Grummert (32:18)
I love it. I mean, I love the strategy. LinkedIn, however, whenever I open it, Katie, gives me like a minor aneurysm. Like there’s so many buttons. There’s so many buttons. open the web and you’ve you’ve got navigation on the top. You’ve got buttons on the right hand side. And every time I click on my network, it’s like so and so six people connections away commented on this thing. And I’m like, I don’t care about that. Like, I feel like I need to go in and do like some real housekeeping of what gets shown to me and what doesn’t. Because I’m like, how am I supposed to

keep up and I’m in there once every two weeks. And so it’s like 20 plus notifications every time and I’m like, you know what? I’d rather not. And so I need to heal my relationship with LinkedIn and all the dang buttons.

Katie Brinkley (33:03)
It’s a fun little platform. They do have vertical video now, because mean, everyone has vertical video. ⁓ But I mean, it’s a different type. It’s not trending type of stuff. It’s the whole talking head, hey, here’s value. So I mean, it’s a different platform. It’s a different culture. It’s a different feel. But I think if you’re feeling overwhelmed on LinkedIn, ⁓

Open it up on mobile. That’s a little bit easier. And then clean up your notifications. Like, OK, clean up a lot of the notifications. You can say, like, I don’t care about this. Stop showing me it. It’ll seem way better.

Allea Grummert (33:41)
Okay, can I ask you one more question about LinkedIn? My dear local resident expert. ⁓ Okay, I get strangers who add me on LinkedIn all the time. And I started out in the day, Katie, when like you, I’m for sure you did too, where you only add people that you actually know on LinkedIn. And so that, think that’s also part of what’s like breaking my brain. Cause I’m like, well, if you want to go see my free content, I mean, like you can follow me on LinkedIn, that’s fine. But being a connection.

I just, know people used to say, I see that you’re a connection with so and so on LinkedIn. When did you work with them? And there’s going to be so many people whose names I don’t recognize that I can’t vouch for.

Katie Brinkley (34:17)
Yeah, it’s, LinkedIn has a little bit of like a spam problem right now, but you know, especially too, if you have like the word podcast in your title anywhere, it’s like, oh, I’m an Apple, you know, podcast promoter and it’s so annoying. But it’s really, if you think about like this, not as like a friend, like a friend request on Facebook, it is someone trying to network with you.

And if you think about it in that regard of like, okay, this person’s trying to grow their network. Why? Why would they want to grow their network? What did they do? And are they looking to like, you know, actually network or are they just trying to grow their, their connections? ⁓ So, I mean, just being like, I’ve got like over 200 connection requests. I’ve just kind of stopped paying attention to them. So if you do connect with me, always send me a message and say how we know each other. You know, like, Hey,

I saw you at CEX, it was so great to talk with you, blah, blah, blah, blah. Then I’ll accept it. But I mean, if you just go in and start making all these connection requests, people are gonna be like, I don’t know who you are. So make sure it’s an actual networking request, someone that wants to potentially do business with you or refer business your way, and then you can accept it.

Allea Grummert (35:32)
Okay, I will get refreshed on my LinkedIn situation. That feels like a good thing to do while watching Netflix, like go through and update ⁓ my settings in LinkedIn. Thank you for that. Yes, this is like helping me, helping Ali get through 2014 or 2014’s LinkedIn strategy, million years ago. Okay, so I love that. Learning about the LinkedIn newsletter. And it sounds like in my case, it could be a completely different audience of people.

that the folks on my email list. What are your thoughts on Substack? Because it feels like it could be a really similar type of situation on Substack where people join, you send an email, though I know that’s a kind of a different social space, but it is one to kind of operate that way.

Katie Brinkley (36:17)
Yeah. I mean, I’m full transparency. I’m still trying to figure out Substack and how it works into our strategy. You know, we’re trying a number of different ways of like putting podcast content on Substack. I keep hearing how great it is for growing your show. I haven’t figured that one out yet. So ⁓ TBD, is we’re in the works of trying different strategies and learning different things. Once I have it, I will let you know. Yes, I test. Well, that’s the thing is like I try and test all these things out.

Figure out what works and then I’ll just put it out there for everyone. Yeah. I mean, that’s where, you know, the four post-treatment, like, Hey, you don’t need to post, you know, you don’t need to do a 30 days of reels challenge. Honestly, nobody cares. So you just want to do like three reels. That’s good. If they’re good, you know, yeah. Say what you do and how you can help them.

Allea Grummert (37:06)
Yeah, absolutely. For me, when I think about like, I mean, and this comes from an email marketer who knows you can download your list from MailChimp or Flodesk or Kit at any point and move them to other platforms. Like there’s the kind of the spaces that you own, the content that you own. And I know in Substack, I’m pretty sure I say I know and I’m sure. You know what? I’m not sure. Pretty sure. You can download your list of subscribers there and you know, you could do the same thing. But it helps if I look at like my email marketing.

mine that has my brand’s name on it is not owned by another platform is my home, my foundation. Then it makes it more fun to go play around in those different audiences, but not, they’re not intending to replace my email marketing strategy. Just like I always tell my clients, I’m like, you don’t want to, you don’t want to host all of your content on sub stack. You want to host it on a proper website. Like there’s just some things that are just fundamental.

But then you can go play around with those other platforms and how you engage with them to drive them back to you. LinkedIn driving to sales or Substack driving to content on your blog. There’s different ways you can use those tools.

Katie Brinkley (38:05)
Yeah, whether it’s

Well, if you think about it too, and it’s something that’s been happening regularly, I’ve been seeing on my Facebook feed, all of a sudden, Mark Zuckerberg takes away someone’s account. Facebook just shuts it down. Let’s be honest, there is zero support with Facebook. It’s all bots now that you’re trying to talk to and work with. And so what happens if that were to happen to you? What would happen if all of a sudden Facebook deems

you were not following Facebook’s guidelines. It’s like, wait, what do mean I wasn’t? Can I talk to someone? I’ve been spending years here and it just disappears. I can’t stress this enough. I love LinkedIn newsletter. Do not just abandon your email list. It’s something that you own. This is your one way of getting in touch with people if social media goes away.

Allea Grummert (39:09)
Yeah, if something hits the fan. With ⁓ LinkedIn newsletters or posts, are we penalized for sending people off of the site? Like if you were to share a lead magnet every now and then or to share a link to a podcast episode?

Katie Brinkley (39:23)
Yeah, so I think that one of the most important things to keep in mind is that they want you to stay on their platform. And so there’s workarounds for it by saying like, comment this word below and I’ll send you the link. And then you get into the DMs with them. It’s a little bit of a longer end game or just putting the link in the comments. That won’t hurt you in the algorithm if you have the link in the comments. That goes for Facebook and for LinkedIn.

Obviously for Instagram, it’s a little different, but just put the link in the comments and it won’t hurt your reach in the algorithm.

Allea Grummert (40:04)
Well, Katie, thank you so much for your time. Before we completely wrap up, I do want to encourage people to follow you on LinkedIn or wherever else you want to send them. Do you want to tell them where that would be?

Katie Brinkley (40:14)
Yeah, you can connect with me at katibrinkley.com and then kind of choose your own adventure from there. I’m on social media, whichever one you are on the most, connect with me there. And I an email list. I got a bunch of free things over there. So katibrinkley.com is the place to go.

Allea Grummert (40:31)
Nice to go. Well, I’ll include that in the show notes. Can you share with people what it is you send out over email and why, like what they would benefit from for being on your email list?

Katie Brinkley (40:41)
Yes. So if you want to grow your digital marketing, if you’re tired of kind of just throwing the spaghetti at the wall, ⁓ in my email list, I talk about different entrepreneur strategies, digital marketing tips and strategies and ways that you can grow your business by working smarter. just like I said before, I try all the things out and see if it doesn’t work. And then when I figure it out, here you go. Here’s the keys.

So that’s what I give in my email list every week.

Allea Grummert (41:13)
I love that. I was going to say it if you weren’t. was like, guys, Katie’s already doing all of the work. Just listen to what she has to say. I love it. Katie, thank you so much for your time and sharing your wisdom, your expertise, and all the trends and tools that you’ve been following and so graciously shared with us.

Katie Brinkley (41:27)
If you’re the best, thank you so much for having me and I love your show and I appreciate the opportunity to join you.

Allea Grummert (41:34)
Absolutely, thanks for being here.

Thanks so much for listening to happy subscribers and our conversation about email marketing today. I hope you feel inspired to take action, even if it’s a small change, so you can more confidently share your valuable message with your community through email. Special thanks goes to my team who makes it possible to produce and share these episodes with you. Seriously, thank you guys. If you want to hear more email marketing tips, strategies, and success stories to help you develop deeper,

or meaningful relationships with your email subscribers, be sure to subscribe to Happy Subscribers so you don’t miss an episode. If you have a few seconds, I invite you to share this episode link with a friend or post it on social media so your peers and community can benefit from it as well. And if you have a few minutes, I’d appreciate if you’d leave a written review of the podcast since that helps more people hear about it. And I believe we need more creators sending more valuable emails to their audience with more confidence. If you want to reach out to me directly, the best way to do that is to join my email list.

through one of my top freebies listed in the show notes. You’ll get regular emails from me that are packed with value. And if you hit reply to any of those emails, it’ll land in my inbox and I can’t wait to chat with you there. Until next time, let’s do it.