0:00:03.6 Kurt Baker: Are you seeking empowerment and growth in your life’s journey? Have you felt stuck or unsure about your path, yearning for fulfillment and creativity? Once struggling with insecurities and self-doubt, Davidson Hang understands the challenges of feeling lost and unfulfilled. Through his own experiences, travels and learnings, he’s developed a system to empower individuals seeking joy and abundance in their lives. Today he’ll discuss strategies to break free from scarcity mindsets, transform your career, and discover the power of mentorship through LinkedIn. He’ll share inspiring tales of personal achievements and growth, shedding light on the resources available to help you thrive. Davidson, thanks for coming on. This is awesome. I know we met, I don’t know, it’s probably been a month or two now at a chamber event, right? And you were just kind of an awesome guy. I had no idea like what your depth was, frankly, at the time, other than the fact that you were a nice guy and several people already knew you.
0:01:03.2 Kurt Baker: Which kind of, because I’m pretty well known in the chamber and I’m like, oh yeah, I know David. He’s a great guy. He is a great guy. [laughter] He does this YouTube thingy. And I’m like, oh, that’s fantastic. So I go to YouTube and I go, oh, he is got a pretty good video. And then I look up and I go, wow, 700 and some odd thousand followers. That’s pretty good. I guess you’re not… I’m not the only one that’s watched one of your videos apparently. So, that’s pretty cool. So tell us a little bit about like, I mean, ’cause a lot of people have done it, but most of us have like four followers, seven followers, 12. My daughter’s really thrilled she got to 70 recently on the…
0:01:34.8 Davidson Hang: Nice. That’s good.
0:01:35.5 Kurt Baker: She just started a week or two ago, but she’s like, oh, I got 70. That’s awesome.
0:01:38.6 Davidson Hang: That’s pretty good. Yeah.
0:01:39.7 Kurt Baker: But you know, you’re a little bit further along, let’s just say, right?
0:01:42.5 Davidson Hang: A couple days further. Yeah.
0:01:43.9 Kurt Baker: Yeah. Yeah. So, kind of tell us like, what inspired you to start doing this in the first place? I know you have a story there and then like how you kind got it going, I guess, what your secret is.
0:01:53.9 Davidson Hang: Yeah, that’s a good question. A lot of it’s just to save time because people would ask me the same fricking questions every single time. It would be, hey Davidson, how do you build a LinkedIn following? Right? You have 18,000 people, teach me LinkedIn, right? ‘Cause I worked at LinkedIn, so that helped me gain confidence. I wrote a lot of Reddit posts and some of them went viral. So that gave me the confidence like, oh, people actually like my stuff. ‘Cause it’s interesting, right? It’s like the chicken or egg, what comes first? Is it like I just put myself out there and then people, or is it that I actually have value? Right? It’s hard to to say. And so people kept asking me. I would probably, in the last 10 years, I’ve gotten a thousand people ask the same 15 questions, right?
0:02:40.7 Davidson Hang: So I started making videos on it. It would be, hey, can you help me with my resume? How do you leverage, how do you ask for introductions into companies? And then a lot of interview tips like, hey, like how do you give a good story that resonate? Or how do you do research on interview? Like the hiring manager and how do you write thank you notes and stuff like that? So I just kept doing a video and another video. And then anytime someone asks me any question now, I’ll just make a video about it. ‘Cause I’m like, oh, okay, this is the fifth time someone asked me the same exact thing.
0:03:12.6 Kurt Baker: Oh that’s smart. I mean, you mentioned Reddit. I’m sure you’re not the only one to publish on Reddit. What do you think was the difference between just publishing on Reddit and making it go viral? ‘Cause obviously there’s, there were some qualities to that post. Any common thread to the ones that are, ’cause I know I hear this all the time, like post post post and all of a sudden you never really know which one, is my understanding. But when you look back, any qualities that you noticed and the ones that are like, hey, that was really a good one.
0:03:40.0 Davidson Hang: That’s a good push. So I think there’s four common threads for virality. One is have a… Vulnerability is like, I would say my secret sauce. Like, ’cause I think everyone has different things, right? Some people are like, they’re clearly the expert and they just have so much wisdom. I’m still young, so I think people think I don’t have wisdom, but… [laughter]
0:04:01.5 Kurt Baker: Clearly you do.
0:04:03.1 Davidson Hang: I guess so, enough that people are following me.
0:04:05.2 Kurt Baker: Absolutely.
0:04:06.3 Davidson Hang: So I think, so vulnerability is really important and I’m also really good at tagging a lot of people. So like let’s say I write a LinkedIn post, in that post I might tag like 30 people. Like let’s say it’s like the end of the year and I wanna reflect on 2023. I’m like, here are 123 ways or people that I would like to acknowledge for making this year amazing. Right? And then sometimes I’ll even tag like Tony Robbins and other influencers.
0:04:32.3 Kurt Baker: Right. Sure.
0:04:32.6 Davidson Hang: And of course, like people follow them. So then that helps.
0:04:35.2 Kurt Baker: And he calls you and says, “Davidson man, thanks for tagging me. [laughter] I needed this, I needed the visibility,” right?
0:04:40.1 Davidson Hang: Yeah, exactly. Right. And sometimes they’re fine. Like, these guys, like, they’re just, but you know, but if it’s genuine, if it’s authentic, people like that. And then the… So fame, right? They call it fame jacking, that’s the term.
0:04:52.8 Kurt Baker: Sure.
0:04:53.7 Davidson Hang: Right. And then like gratitude and appreciation does pretty well for me. I think everyone’s a little bit different. So like, my secret sauce is like, I’ll do like 30, some days I’ll just like acknowledge 30 people. Like let’s say I went to a networking event and I met 10 people. I’d be like, hey, I learned this from Phil, I learned this from Kurt. Like, you know, it’s so inspiring. And I’m doing a little bit less of that because I think I was over indexing too much on that. And it was like very time consuming. But now I’m teaching my team how to do it for me.
0:05:23.6 Kurt Baker: Oh, okay.
0:05:23.6 Davidson Hang: So then it’s like a little bit more scalable.
0:05:25.7 Kurt Baker: So when you go and you do the video, then you say, hey, take the content and say, well, here’s the people I mentioned. And they go back and just tag the ones in there. And so that helps to…
0:05:34.2 Davidson Hang: Or I’ll train them, like the copywriter that I just hired, he’s like, hey, what is your template? Right? So I’ll give them like, okay, this is how I go about my hero’s journey, right? First I talk about how I was broke, poor, overweight, and then I talk about how I was addicted to drugs and how I was depressed and I took this Tony Robbins course, and then this is, you know, so when I teach them that, then they can, all the articles they write for me will be in that same format. But will be like slightly nuanced.
0:06:06.4 Kurt Baker: I mean, you could put everything into that frame.
0:06:09.2 Davidson Hang: Yeah, yeah. Every, I mean, if you think about it…
0:06:10.4 Kurt Baker: That’s pretty amazing actually.
0:06:11.7 Davidson Hang: Yeah. Every YouTube video, every viral video always has like the similar, like, it’s like the same format. It’s just they look different. Maybe they’re a female instead of a, you know, or they’re Asian or they’re Indian. Right? But if you really dissect all the top YouTube videos, it’s always like the same exact format.
0:06:30.1 Kurt Baker: Yeah. That’s pretty fascinating. But obviously have slightly different, you have different content, right? So you wanna…
0:06:35.5 Davidson Hang: Yeah. It’s just packaged a little bit differently. But if you really look back at it, it’s always the same thing. It’s like, hey, like I hit this obstacle, right? Or I had this disempowering belief, which in my case was like, oh, I’m a short Asian dude and I’m not a tall six foot seven quarterback looking White dude. So that was my, so it was like, oh, I could never be like a leader.
0:06:54.0 Kurt Baker: Let me just be weird though. [laughter] It’s like, okay. It would be very different.
0:07:02.3 Davidson Hang: Yeah. Yeah. Very different, right? But then I’m attracting that type of audience too, right? So everyone who reaches out to me that’s like, oh my God, your content really vibe with me are usually like insecure people that didn’t have parents growing up, people that grew up with a lot of trauma that maybe they were like abused or whatever. And then, so it’s interesting. But I’m saying if you think about it, the same exact thing as what every other YouTuber is saying, it’s just because I look a certain way, or maybe mine’s like a little bit more focused on like the mental health aspect. And some people are like, hey, I was a model, but the modeling industry was brutal. Right? Because they would judge us and they would like criticize us, but it’s like almost the same exact thing if you really dissect it. So I took a lot of time to study all these things ’cause I was like, okay, why is this post getting 100 views or 100 comments versus this vote only got 15 comments? Right? And then I saw like, okay, there’s a common theme here.
0:07:54.0 Kurt Baker: Okay. Now, that’s with your videos or with other people’s as well?
0:07:58.3 Davidson Hang: Both.
0:07:58.9 Kurt Baker: Okay.
0:08:00.8 Davidson Hang: Yeah. Because you have to like study the market, right? So I’ll look at, okay, what are other Asian influencers that are life coachee type of topics doing? And then I’ll see like, oh, okay, so they have a similar, but then I would say I’m a bit more vulnerable and a bit more approachable where some of these gurus are more I’m the expert and I’m a boss. And more of projecting more of that self-confidence. Whereas like, I would say my secret sauce is more like, I’m just really vulnerable and most people don’t like cry on camera in front of like 18,000 LinkedIn followers. Right? So I would say like, that was what made me kind of go viral versus other people that maybe are getting 50 comments, you know, versus 300 comments, for instance.
0:08:45.4 Kurt Baker: Right? Yeah. I mean it’s, I guess they talk about your voice, right? You find your voice and who you are and how you actually share your experiences with others. And then you kind of attract people that have similar backgrounds. And you have a lot of things that have occurred. So I can see where there’s a lot of areas where you could connect with people, right? You got the issue like growing up, you know, the parents, no parents growing up and then, you know, the addiction issue, the mental health issues. I mean, that’s a lot of issues in society that we’re all really trying to solve. You know, it’s a tough area to do. And I just think that’s amazing. And you pointed out something that I actually saw something like Mr. Beast, which I guess you would know about, right? He’s a biggie.
0:09:18.6 Davidson Hang: Oh yeah. He’s like the perf, everyone always tries to study him. And he’s doing it at a level that’s like beyond, I would say like, the amount of, I think he spends 300 hours just thinking about ideas. Right? It’s just…
0:09:33.3 Kurt Baker: But he spent, my understanding is he spent about two years studying YouTube before he actually made his first video.
0:09:39.4 Davidson Hang: Yeah. That’s insane.
0:09:39.4 Kurt Baker: Which people are like, oh, you just go on YouTube, you start making videos. And so I hear a couple of things. One I hear, I mean, you got to in order to be good, you have to be bad. In order to be bad, you have to try. Right? So the idea is just get out and do these things. It doesn’t matter what it is. Whether it’s dating or a business or employment, whatever it is, you need to kind of get out there and start. Right? Which I find is interesting. But you also have to study, you have to become an expert. Right? You can’t just, like, it doesn’t… You’re just not gonna absorb it like a sponge without going out and looking for what is actually working, right? And how you transition that to yourself. Right?
0:10:19.4 Davidson Hang: Yeah. That’s a good point. I do think the first 100 videos will suck no matter how good you are. Just because YouTube, like you said, it’s so thumbnail focused. It’s so people have just very short attention spans on YouTube. So I think it’s the most brutal out of all the social media platforms, but it’s also the most lucrative as well.
0:10:39.3 Kurt Baker: Yeah. That’s awesome. We’re gonna take a quick break. You’re listening to Master Your Finances. We’ll be right back. Welcome back. You’re listening to Master Your Finances. I’m here with Davidson Hang. And this is just awesome ’cause I love how successful you’ve been. And what’s interesting, you look pretty young to me. And you said you’ve been doing this for 10 years, which I think is awesome. So I think one of the things that I don’t, you know, probably know Russell Brunson, he talks about every time I’m going out there trying to provide information, I’m always thinking about, he always talks about 12-year-old Russell. Right? So you have to go back and think about the expertise that you have now that you take for granted that you didn’t know back when you were younger. And you’re going, and you have a relatively short career, so to speak, but you’ve learned a lot during that period of time.
0:11:22.7 Kurt Baker: And anybody who’s like five or 10 years behind you can learn from what you’ve figured out. And then you talked about your template, right? Like how you frame things and what you’ve learned from that. Can you kind of walk us through that process? Because I think a lot of people think you just go out and just make content and people are gonna watch you and all that. There’s an art to it, but there’s definitely a science and you have to really learn and nail that science down to make it all kind of work the way you see like a Mr. Beast or a Russell Brunson or yourself, like, come together. Right?
0:11:52.3 Davidson Hang: I love how I was in the same sentence as those two.
0:11:54.7 Kurt Baker: You’re awesome.
0:11:55.6 Davidson Hang: That just made my day. [laughter] Yeah. Copywriting is such a valuable skill and I think it’s like the hardest skill to master. Right? And you would think being in professional B2B sales, I would’ve mastered it. But even in B2B sales, it’s still not hooky enough. T’s like very marketing templated. It’s like product marketing. It’s very fluffy. And I learned this the hard way because the first 400 videos weren’t getting that many views. Maybe 120-300 views on average. Which, you know, in the grand scheme of the.
0:12:31.3 Kurt Baker: The first 400, how many have you made? That’s a lot.
0:12:33.4 Davidson Hang: Yeah. Yeah. I’ve made 600 videos.
0:12:34.9 Kurt Baker: Oh wow. I didn’t realize it was that many. I knew it was a lot. I didn’t know it was 600. That’s awesome.
0:12:37.8 Davidson Hang: Yeah. And now looking back I’m like, man, if I just focused like 50% of my energy just on the first minute, it would’ve had… And I think one of the advantages I had, ’cause Ali Abdaal always talks about your unfair advantage, to your point. So I realized when I worked at LinkedIn, I was getting a lot more visibility, ’cause people always want to learn, hey, what is it like working at LinkedIn? Because it’s such a competitive company and everyone wants to work there, at least in tech. I had 114 other people that I competed against to get the job at LinkedIn.
0:13:12.9 Kurt Baker: Wow. I didn’t realize that. That’s amazing.
0:13:15.4 Davidson Hang: It’s crazy how many people wanna work there. But it was like, I can write the dumbest thing and it went viral. And like a lot of, because everyone’s just like, oh, this guy works at LinkedIn.
0:13:22.9 Kurt Baker: That’s true celebrity status when you can pretty much say anything and people are like, oh my gosh, look what he said. It’s great.
0:13:28.0 Davidson Hang: And that’s how I felt like it was at LinkedIn, ’cause I would say, objectively, my content’s a lot better the last two years. But just because I worked at LinkedIn, like everything I wrote had, ’cause LinkedIn at that time had 14,000 employees.
0:13:41.4 Kurt Baker: Well, you have an implied expertise because you’re connected to an organization that has a lot of expertise, so they just assume that you know what you’re talking about. Right?
0:13:51.2 Davidson Hang: Yeah. And so I think knowing that it’s like, oh, I would’ve used that more to my advantage, I think. I would’ve been doing like, hey, if you wanna get viral on LinkedIn, these are the steps you would take. But I just took it for granted ’cause it was almost like a false ego boost where I was just like… And then when I, once I left LinkedIn, a lot of the stuff wasn’t going as viral. And I was like, oh man, am I a crappier writer now? It’s like, no, actually I’ve gotten better but I just didn’t have the clout of working at LinkedIn versus like, I was working for like a small tech startup that was like series C coach. So that’s interesting. Where like, just being able to play to those advantages helps out a lot.
0:14:32.9 Kurt Baker: Maybe touch a little bit on LinkedIn since you have so much expertise, because this is one of these things we’re in business. I remember when I first, somebody said, “Are you on, are you LinkedIn?” Or something, I forget the term. I think they said, “Are you LinkedIn?” I go, “I don’t know. Is it like, can I get a pill for that? Or, I mean, do I need see the doctor?” You know, when I first heard, I’m like, I didn’t even know what it was, frankly ’cause nobody was on LinkedIn really. I mean, to speak of.
0:14:53.8 Davidson Hang: It’s relatively new.
0:14:55.3 Kurt Baker: This is years ago, obviously. And then I go, oh, well get on LinkedIn. I go, okay, great. I got on LinkedIn. So I started linking all these people together and I’m like, okay, I got all these people, now what? Right? And to me it’s kind of like, it’s one of these things where you have to be on LinkedIn, you’re supposed to be on there and I’m posting some content, I’m doing things like that. But I know there’s a whole another level, which obviously you’ve kind of entered into. How do you actually get real engagement? Any kind of quick tips on like, you know, ’cause there’s a lot of business owner on LinkedIn that are under utilizing it. Or utilizing it the wrong way. Like they’re spamming you. Like, oh, hi. So I reviewed your profile and I think we should work together. Let’s set up a time to call.
0:15:32.1 Davidson Hang: Oh God. It’s so crazy.
0:15:32.4 Kurt Baker: Here’s my Calendly link. And we’re like, first of all, you didn’t use my name. Secondly, you’re the third boilerplate exact same verbiage that I just got from you in the last hour.
0:15:42.7 Davidson Hang: That’s a good question. So how I figured out how to use LinkedIn was like, I was fundraising for a lot of non-profits. So we were building schools in Africa and then helping orphans in Vietnam. And that was the first taste of LinkedIn where I was like. So for context, like every person I’ve met, like even just once at a networking event, like we, even if we had like a 30 second conversation, I would just add them on LinkedIn immediately. Right? So that’s like my first advice. Some people, they’re, they pick and choose who they add. I’m like, no, just add everyone ’cause you just never know. Right? Like, one of my high school friends, she took over as a president of this huge manufacturing company. And I, you know, when I’m in high school, I’m not thinking like, oh, how can I leverage? Right? How am I gonna leverage that to make millions?
0:16:27.6 Kurt Baker: You never know, right? Yep. Yep.
0:16:29.4 Davidson Hang: But it’s just like, it’s just, you just never know. So that’s my first advice. The second one is, I think people are afraid to be vulnerable. Like really put themselves out there. Like people still think, oh, LinkedIn’s this professional. Like, I have to wear my suit. But actually like, people crave that authenticity because it is one of those platforms where people are a little bit still guarded. So all of my posts that did really, really well, that got thousands and thousands of engagements were the ones where I was just pouring my heart out and I was just like, hey guys, I just got to let go from this job. And I’m like really struggling and if anyone can help me, let me know, and then I would have like 100 people call me.
0:17:09.8 Kurt Baker: Wow.
0:17:10.2 Davidson Hang: I mean, it wasn’t like overnight, but it was like over the course of a week, and then my phone was blowing up. I was like, holy crap. Like, this is the power of LinkedIn. Don’t be afraid to ask for help is another, because every time I’ve had a struggle, like, I’m like, hey guys, I’m actually like struggling with my identity or whatever. Like any vulnerable topic, there would be a lot of people that, and they don’t always write comments, but they’ll send me DMs on LinkedIn or they’ll straight up just call me. And the community’s like really strong on LinkedIn ’cause it’s like, I would say more trustworthy still compared to some of the other platforms. And I think, yeah, business owners aren’t using it correctly because like, they’ll just spam like marketing material.
0:17:55.1 Davidson Hang: It’s like storytelling. It’s like maybe a client, like you had a really good interaction with a client and more like, you’re promoting your client instead. Right? Instead of doing your own thing and then people would see that and they’ll be like, oh, okay. Like, this person actually caress about their clients instead of like the generic marketing stuff that everyone else does. That’s the, I would say the number one thing that people misuse LinkedIn for is, and then the recommendations helped a lot as well. I have 76 LinkedIn recommendations and that is like, has been super helpful because anytime I reach out to a client, they’re like, dude, like how do you even have that many? You must be… But then it’s bad because then people sometimes like have expectations or you must be incredible because you have 70, like 70 something.
0:18:40.7 Kurt Baker: So how do you solicit for these recommendations?
0:18:43.4 Davidson Hang: That’s a good question. Usually, like if I’m giving like free advice, I’d be like, hey, I’m more than happy to help you but if this is valuable, would you be open to writing a recommendation for me? They’re like, yeah, of course. And then they usually do. But it’s usually the first thing I say to them, or if it’s like a really good session, I’ll ask them afterwards.
0:19:07.0 Kurt Baker: Okay, that’s, yeah, I never really think about LinkedIn too often. I know things Google reviews, things like that people talk about. And a lot of companies don’t use that properly.
0:19:15.4 Davidson Hang: Yeah.
0:19:15.9 Kurt Baker: But I think the smart part is it’s a part of your framing, right? For your part of your framework, okay, here’s the things that I have to do. And I think that’s good. Because I thought the one thing I heard of the storytelling, which I thought was very interesting was a lot of times people talk about their own story. But when you’re talking about your clients or your customer stories, that definitely shows empathy. And it also shows, to me it’s showing like who you care about and who you serve.
0:19:40.4 Davidson Hang: Yeah.
0:19:41.3 Kurt Baker: And you go, hey.
0:19:41.8 Davidson Hang: FoMO too, yeah.
0:19:42.6 Kurt Baker: If those are somebody that I can identify with, then that might be a vendor that would also understand me.
0:19:50.4 Davidson Hang: Yeah.
0:19:50.6 Kurt Baker: Right? If you kind of understand who they’re talking about, they’re like, oh, we’re kind of in that same affinity group so to speak. They have similar issues and similar problems to what I have, and that vendor actually solved it.
0:20:00.3 Davidson Hang: Yeah.
0:20:00.4 Kurt Baker: So now you kind of take away and you get a little more of a social like credibility kind of mark there, don’t you?
0:20:05.8 Davidson Hang: Humans are strange, right? Where there’s a bit of like FoMO. So sometimes, like I’ll host like my monthly happy hours in New York City. And then people would just see it and people I haven’t spoken with in like months, right? But they’ll see like other accountants, like partners of accounting firms I work with. And then I’ll post and tag them. And then like people reach out and be like, oh, I didn’t know you’re… Like other accounting firms would be like, hey, sorry, I wasn’t able to make it. So it’s just good because they’ll reach out to me proactively, because they’re just like, I kind of want to know what happened.
0:20:36.4 Davidson Hang: What are you doing with that partner at Citrin Cooperman or whatever, right? So it is a bit of that FoMO. And then when you’re highlighting your client success, maybe I worked with Better Buzz Coffee, right? And I’ll tag the head of HR. Well, I have other coffee clients that I’m trying to get in door with, and they see that. And they’re just like, tell me more. Like I saw that you tagged Amalia, like, oh, I actually went to college with her or I met her at a conference. And then they’ll like bring it up themselves. It’s just like one of those weird things that like psychology wise, people are always like, man, am I missing out? What does Davidson know that I don’t know, right? And then they’ll reach out sometimes. So it is interesting how all that stuff works.
0:21:15.1 Kurt Baker: Well, that’s really awesome. We’re gonna take another quick break. You’re listening to Master Your Finances, we’ll be right back. Welcome back. You’re listening to Master Your Finances. I am here with Davidson Hang. And we’re talking about really like he’s a YouTube like phenomenon, so to speak. He’s doing really well. Worked at LinkedIn for a while. And I guess we’ll go in maybe some more tips about that. I think that’s something is very much underutilized and misunderstood. And a lot of us in business are probably not using it correctly. And so maybe we’ll talk a little bit more about that. So you talked about tagging people, putting content, doing stories that are client or customer-centric, like telling their stories and publishing those, what I think is really smart.
0:21:57.8 Davidson Hang: Yeah.
0:21:58.5 Kurt Baker: That is, sometimes we’ll go to an event where we’ll post some photos, but I think posting actual a little bit of content, it sounds like is what you’re talking about.
0:22:04.6 Davidson Hang: Yeah.
0:22:05.1 Kurt Baker: And then put it up on there, right? So any other kind of ideas along the LinkedIn avenue that maybe we should be all be following? What about when you message somebody? ‘Cause a lot of times, rarely do I get, maybe one in 100 do I actually go, oh, that’s an actual message. Right? If it’s from somebody I don’t know.
0:22:23.1 Davidson Hang: That’s a really good question. I love this topic, ’cause to your point, people, I hate it because people are butchering LinkedIn right now and it can be used in such a better way.
0:22:32.4 Kurt Baker: Right.
0:22:32.8 Davidson Hang: So I’ve been lucky where I’ve had some of my best friends now are people who like just did a crap ton of research on me.
0:22:38.5 Kurt Baker: Okay.
0:22:39.5 Davidson Hang: Listen to my podcast episodes, and like really, like wrote like a super thoughtful message. And then we became best friends, ’cause I’m like, man, this person like listened to five episodes, he dissected his learnings and shared about like his takeaways. But you can use that same format to find clients, right? So being in sales, like I’ll listen to people’s like podcast interviews or the articles that they write. And I’ll usually write my takeaways, hey, I really enjoyed like this review that you did or whatever it is, just dissecting it. And so the format that I go, it’s usually one is like a compliment, right? It’s like some acknowledgement, hey, I really get that maybe it’s like a CHRO. I really get that you under… You really love your team, right? It’s evident by the careful words that you use and the thoughtfulness of the acknowledgements, and you just seem, your energy seems really positive. And it was inspiring to see that level of dedication to your team members, right? And who’s not gonna like that.
0:23:38.3 Kurt Baker: Right, sure.
0:23:38.3 Davidson Hang: At least like they’ll right back saying, no thank you or something, right? So the first one’s acknowledgement. The second one is, I would say go above and beyond. So what I do is I’ll look at one of their recommendations, like maybe someone like one of their former employees it’s hey, Catherine’s like a really good boss. This is what I learned from her. And without her I wouldn’t be anywhere I was, right? So I would say, man, it seems like Catherine… Based on what I read, Catherine really respects you as a leader. And that’s actually one of the reasons why I’m reaching out to you, right? Because I’m helping with… I’m helping Fortune 500 companies build their high potential programs for women that want to break into the C-suite, right? And then that’s usually where I tie in what’s the reason why I’m reaching out. But I think like the best way to use LinkedIn is the second degree connections, right? So I remember there was a big bank up in North Jersey that had around 300 employees.
0:24:34.9 Davidson Hang: And I asked one of my friends I go hiking with, there’s a hiking group that we do once a month hiking for, I think it’s been like 12 years now. And I saw that he was connected. And I was like, hey how do you know Mike? He’s like, oh, we go to the same racket club. I’m like, oh, interesting. Would you be open to make an introduction for me? So I pick up the phone, I call him. And I was like, I’ll ghost write everything for you. So all you have to do is literally just copy and paste it into a message. You don’t have to think. And then he’s like, sure, that makes my life a lot easier. And then people don’t follow up because they’re busy, inherently busy. Just send them a voice note, be like, hey, I’m thinking, just thinking of you. Just send you friendly reminder, because some people do forget, right? I think we all make the mistake of not following up because either we’re like, oh, maybe he doesn’t want to help me. But it’s like, no, he just forgot. Like, he has a billion other things.
0:25:21.8 Davidson Hang: So I think people don’t follow up enough. But as long as the follow up is like thoughtful, right? It can’t just be hey, just pinging you like for no reason. Like if you’re maybe it’s you do like a little, you spend one and a half minute looking at their LinkedIn, it’s, hey, I really liked your article. So you don’t even have to say, hey, can you like follow up with that introduction? But you just saying, oh, that really it’s oh, yeah, okay, Davidson’s top of mind. Let me just finish that. Right? And that’s I think the best use case for LinkedIn because I’ve gotten so many introductions of really, really high end clients just through that method alone.
0:26:00.0 Kurt Baker: And what I’m hearing hear is you need to analyze and kind of enter their world, not ask them to enter your world.
0:26:06.3 Davidson Hang: Yeah, exactly.
0:26:07.3 Kurt Baker: So, and I’ve heard this before. But I think most of us, if you really want to connect with a high value client on LinkedIn, and as you know, many people on LinkedIn are very high value.
0:26:15.6 Davidson Hang: Yeah.
0:26:16.3 Kurt Baker: You can’t be like sending them some generic message, why not spend 10, 15, 20 minutes, whatever it is, minimum analyze their LinkedIn profile, look at some of the articles because they might actually, as you know, that you’ll see the other channels they’re on, you can search them. Either they have a YouTube channel, they have whatever, and say, oh, Twitter, whatever it is and say, oh, and actually connect to something that they care about, right? They’re posting or writing about it. That’s something they care about. And if there’s a connection and you have a commonality, they’re gonna respond naturally, because like, oh, yeah. I just wrote that article last week about such and such. And you’re actually adding comments to the, whatever that conversation is.
0:26:54.9 Davidson Hang: Yeah. Yeah.
0:26:56.0 Kurt Baker: They’re gonna be like, hey, okay. That’s a conversation they already want to have, obviously, right?
0:27:00.9 Davidson Hang: And this is a bit riskier, but you can even challenge their article a little bit, right? Because it just shows like a bit more executive presence. So you can be like, hey, I agreed with x, y, z. So maybe points one, two and three, and you’d list them. But have you ever thought, have you ever considered this point of view, and then that they’re like, oh, who’s this guy.
0:27:19.4 Kurt Baker: There you go.
0:27:19.8 Davidson Hang: And that that separates you as well, just like adding value through like something that gets them to think a little bit, oh, I’ve never thought of it that way. That’s it. Or say, hey…
0:27:29.2 Kurt Baker: So don’t be a yes man, actually be a peer. That sounds like being a peer.
0:27:32.6 Davidson Hang: Yeah, exactly.
0:27:33.2 Kurt Baker: I mean, a peer is going to challenge you on a concept, even just please explain this. How did you come to that conclusion? Yeah, I’m not seeing your point of view. Here’s what I’m thinking. Right?
0:27:42.3 Davidson Hang: Yeah.
0:27:43.4 Kurt Baker: And that way, they actually know you’re not just reading it, you’re actually thinking about it.
0:27:47.9 Davidson Hang: Yeah, yeah. Or you just plant just a little bit of uncertainty where they’re like, alright, I gotta take a meeting with this guy.
0:27:53.7 Kurt Baker: Right? Because they have a different point of view. And maybe I can learn something that I didn’t know before.
0:28:00.1 Davidson Hang: Yeah.
0:28:00.4 Kurt Baker: Because if they’re already experts, they already know a lot. And if you’re actually adding some value, they’re like, oh, okay. This is somebody I might actually be able to, I may learn from this person.
0:28:08.8 Davidson Hang: Exactly.
0:28:09.5 Kurt Baker: As well. So, that’s pretty cool. I never really thought of that. But that’s, it makes a lot of sense when you kind of walk through the process. So you worked for LinkedIn a long time. And so, any other recommendation on LinkedIn you can think of? These are all pretty good, I have to say.
0:28:24.6 Davidson Hang: I think there’s this new feature that’s it’s like they have AI-generated prompts based on your expertise. So for me, they automatically put me in like the business networking category.
0:28:38.8 Kurt Baker: Okay.
0:28:39.1 Davidson Hang: So it’ll automatically say, hey, what do you want to contribute to this? So say what are the best ways to be a thought leader in XYZ? Right? And then you’ll get a badge, like a LinkedIn badge, they’ll say Davidson Hang top voice for life coaching or business networking, for instance, was the most recent one. So you just give insights or just like a thought leadership on that specific topic. And there’s a lot of different prompts. So let’s say you’re more into marketing, digital marketing or copywriting, right? There’s like a category for each of them. And you’ll get badges that will just help you stand out.
0:29:15.3 Kurt Baker: Right.
0:29:15.6 Davidson Hang: So anytime someone goes in your profile, like they see this huge badge, it’s oh, LinkedIn top voice, and it just gives you credibility. So that’s a brand new, they just rolled that out a month ago.
0:29:23.8 Kurt Baker: That’s funny because you mentioned that and I got some of these messages, and I thought it was spam at first. And I’ve actually tagged them, because I’m like, I realized it was from an actual LinkedIn employee. I’m like, oh, this is actually legit. Maybe I needed to learn. I’m glad you’re explaining this because I’m like, what do they want me to do with this exactly? What are they really looking for here? Because it sounds like a good idea, but I’m not really sure how to respond necessarily, right? So you’re just saying just write about whatever they’re asking for. Is that kind of what the deal is ’cause it…
0:29:56.4 Davidson Hang: Yeah, so usually, like using artificial intelligence, they’ll classify your profile for years, like it might be like personal, like finance might be like a category, right? Or entrepreneurship might be another category for you.
0:30:09.5 Kurt Baker: It was a pretty specific question, is my recollection.
0:30:11.4 Davidson Hang: Yeah, it’s very specific. So you just, and if you get into it earlier, that’s even better because one of the earlier ones, you’ll get more likes.
0:30:19.6 Kurt Baker: Okay.
0:30:20.4 Davidson Hang: And then if you write enough articles, and people are upvoting it, like people are liking it or hearting it or they’re celebrating it, which is like the clapping song.
0:30:28.0 Kurt Baker: Right, right, right.
0:30:29.7 Davidson Hang: After a while, like maybe you do it for two weeks, you’ll get a badge. And then that lasts for, it’ll last for a certain amount of time, like 60 or 90 days.
0:30:35.0 Kurt Baker: Oh, really. Really? It’s a decent amount of time.
0:30:38.1 Davidson Hang: Yeah, yeah. So I was able to get one for sales management was a topic. But it just looks cool, right? And then you can kind of post, hey, I’m proud of myself. I was able to get this, and then people will like it. And people because LinkedIn is all about that aspect of it, too, right? So people like it because they want the networking component to it.
0:30:57.2 Kurt Baker: And I would, and I don’t know, I would think that their algorithm is now going to actually connect you to more people, kind of like a YouTube or Facebook, right?
0:31:04.5 Davidson Hang: Yeah, that’s what they’re trying to do.
0:31:05.9 Kurt Baker: So if you have more, like value, because I know the whole YouTube thing now is basically make really, really good content that people actually want to watch. And we will spread the word. It’s kind of like, don’t try to trick us. Just do good stuff that people actually want to see. So which is really what it should be, right/ But apparently, they’re getting pretty good at analyzing actually actual good content, right? That’s my understanding, right?
0:31:35.2 Davidson Hang: Yeah, yeah. So LinkedIn, I think, is trying to copy a similar format. So that’s why they do that, because they want to build communities around specific, like thought leadership.
0:31:43.5 Kurt Baker: Right.
0:31:43.8 Davidson Hang: So for instance, I recently have been writing about Tony Robbins a lot. So I’ll get other Tony Robbins fans that will just like my stuff. Oh, I don’t even know how this guy found me. But I think because I’m writing about Tony Robbins, it’s showing up on his newsfeed to other Tony fans.
0:31:58.0 Kurt Baker: That’s awesome. There’s a lot of those out there. All right, we’re gonna take another quick break. You’re listening to Master Your Finances. We’ll be right back. Welcome back, you’re listening to Master Your Finance. I’m here with Davidson Hang, and we’re having a lot of fun here. And I’m learning a lot, LinkedIn and the YouTube thing, I think is great. And that’s really taken off a lot. And just before we sat down, you told me something I didn’t know when I met you at the chamber event. You’re now on your own, right? You’re now a YouTube influencer officially, because this is now your primary income, which is amazing. So can you walk us through a little bit about that? Because, as we all know, well, I don’t know if we all know this but people are like oh, I’m gonna go in and be an influencer, YouTube influencer. And you hear about these people making like bookoo bucks and all this money, and I’m going to retire in two weeks, and it’s all done. Well, you’ve been doing this for 10 years, first of all, and you’re pretty good at it. And it’s a process, obviously, right? So take us through a little bit of that process. And then you said, hey, now I feel pretty comfortable. Tell us kind of what you have that you feel hey, this is going to continue to work for me, right? And I can take that leap, kind of out on my own, so to speak.
0:33:05.5 Davidson Hang: That’s a great question. I think it’s crazy, because I remember seeing a stat where like kids nowadays, like the number one thing that they want to be, like a YouTuber is up there, which is crazy, right? Because back when we were younger, it was like astronaut or something else, right? Something different.
0:33:19.8 Kurt Baker: Right.
0:33:20.1 Davidson Hang: So it is interesting to see how much influence YouTubers have now. Like Mr. Beast, I would argue has more influence than probably most celebrities at this point.
0:33:30.4 Kurt Baker: Sure. I would agree. Yeah.
0:33:32.2 Davidson Hang: Yeah. So it is scary, because there’s like less of a playbook on what happens, right? It’s not oh, I get my CPA or get my CFA level one, two, three, right? That’s a little bit more clear. I think, and people don’t know this, but a lot of YouTubers make actually most of the money outside of YouTube. So let’s say they’re making 185,000 on YouTube, do selling courses, whether it’s a copywriting course, whether it’s video editing course, that’s where they’re making like 600 700,000, right? So for me, it would be the YouTube would funnel into my self-development courses, like transformation courses, right? And how I was able to come up to that realization to have the confidence, hey, how can I give up like a stable job where I was making on average like 200k over the last three years, right? To like doing something where it’s gonna be much more unpredictable.
0:34:29.1 Kurt Baker: Right?
0:34:29.3 Davidson Hang: Was because if I really look back, even in my corporate gig everyone kept asking me to do workshops, like at LinkedIn or at all the companies I was at. And it was always like team bonding exercises. It was like life coaching exercises. And I was like, okay, so even when I was at LinkedIn, all of my time was spent doing a DENI stuff or social impact stuff, like fundraising for charities or social chair at LinkedIn, right? And it was like me coordinating things with like Google and Amazon and Spotify and all their ERGs, which is like the Asian groups that I was a part of. And looking back at I’m like, actually only spent like maybe 15 hours a week doing like my actual job, which was sales. And the other 25 hours were actually doing all these other leadership development related things. I’m like, I should probably just double down on that. And actually, like have faith and trust in myself.
0:35:22.6 Kurt Baker: I’m assuming you enjoyed that part of it.
0:35:24.7 Davidson Hang: Yeah, so much. Yeah, so much more than I did sales. And that was like the hardest breakthrough, right? Because I’ve been in sales for like 18 years. So I’m like, it was just part of my identity. So I didn’t realize. I thought that’s what I’m known for. But it’s actually when I take a take a step back, it was no, like every time someone calls me, it was always life coaching related like, oh, I’m going through a divorce or I’m thinking about I just… My wife just beat the crap out of me. And it was all like life related things. It was never hey, Davidson. I’m trying to make 300k this year, like people don’t usually reach out to me on those types of topics. Although sometimes they do but it’s rare, like I would say it was more of hey, like I’m thinking about starting a YouTube channel or I’m thinking about publishing a book or things like that.
0:36:09.7 Kurt Baker: Yeah, I think what I’m seeing here is you’re learning through the process, the feedback from what people are needing, and you’re providing that service “to the hero,” right? You’re like the Yoda. What things are you good at actually helping people with, and they’re responding to and the people that you connect with, right? So I think you’re guiding these people. And I think you found kind of your your following and your group and your tribe, so to speak, right? So you kind of found your people and you’re like, hey, they really need me. And I can provide these services in a way that we really connect and I can benefit them. And I think part of that was really it sounds like that feedback from them. And you kind of identified with that.
0:36:52.2 Kurt Baker: So here’s a new problem I have, right? Like my my wife’s beating me or whatever the case is, right? I can identify with the issues that you’re having. And I can help you get through that because I was at that place many, many years ago, and I can help you get to the other side. Because most of these things in life, hopefully, if we understand them, we can get through to the other side. But when you’re living it, it’s traumatic. When it’s kind of in the rearview mirror, you can say, oh, now I can reanalyze this thing and say, all right, how did I actually get through this?
0:37:19.7 Davidson Hang: Right?
0:37:19.9 Kurt Baker: Because at the time, you’re kind of overwhelmed.
0:37:21.8 Davidson Hang: Yeah.
0:37:22.7 Kurt Baker: And it’s always good to have that guide out there saying, okay, well, here’s how we get you to that next place. Right? And you seem to become very good at that. That’s what I’m seeing at least.
0:37:32.8 Davidson Hang: I’m curious to get your thoughts on this, right? Because this is a show about finances, right?
0:37:36.6 Kurt Baker: Sure.
0:37:36.8 Davidson Hang: But every time I made more money, I thought it would make me happier, but actually didn’t necessarily make me happier.
0:37:43.9 Kurt Baker: Yeah, that’s a common misunderstanding. People that earn, that the issue that people have sometimes is they go out, their goal is to make more money, right? They go, I want to make more money. I have a number, you hear about the number, what’s your number? How much you need to make? X 200,000 500,000, a million a year, right? But if you look at money as how do I want to provide the most impact in an area that matters to me, what happens is the money follows you. Look at all of the wealthiest people out there now, right? What is Elon Musk? What is he actually after? Right? What does he want to do? He doesn’t want to make electric cars. He doesn’t want to launch rockets. Elon wants to go to Mars.
0:38:27.4 Davidson Hang: Yeah.
0:38:27.8 Kurt Baker: And everything that he does is focused around the impact about how he wants to save civilization by learning how to do something that’s literally at the moment impossible. So everything that he does is focused on his impact. And that’s what drives him. It’s not the money, the money has nothing to do with what he’s trying to do. That’s the vehicle. So wealthy people, the ones that are happiest, are really focused on how am I impacting? Well, how am I using my financial capabilities to maximize impact and the more I do that, the better I feel about myself. So in your case, you’d say, hey, what do I need? What do I really want to do to help in a way that matters most to me? What matters most to me? How can I do that? And you can use your resources to accelerate that.
0:39:19.1 Kurt Baker: And when you put it in that perspective, now the money is a tool to help you with the impact. Money in of itself is worthless, frankly. It’s what are you doing with it? And how are you affecting things that matter to you? That’s what really needs to happen. And that’s the thing that I love working with wealthy people about is because a lot of times business owners will get into this like vicious cycle where they create businesses they’re actually not happy about where they make a lot of money, but don’t enjoy it. That’s because they’re probably not impacting the people they care about in the way that they care.
0:39:49.8 Davidson Hang: Yeah.
0:39:50.3 Kurt Baker: And actually, Russell Brunson talked about this once. He built this business to the point where he said, “I was miserable because I hated my clients.” He goes, “I wish I was an employee so that my employer would fire me so I could go off and find another job.” And then what he did is he realized, who do I really want to impact? In his case, he likes to help entrepreneurs leverage the internet to have their impact. Right? So once he realized who he loves to work with, he literally changed his whole business process. And now he never wants to retire because he’s like, he won’t even sell the business because I enjoy doing this too much.
0:40:21.3 Davidson Hang: Yeah.
0:40:22.0 Kurt Baker: Right? And that’s really have to how you have to design your business career has to really align with what you care about and how you want to impact the world long term.
0:40:30.0 Davidson Hang: That’s awesome. You don’t hear too many CFPs, no offense to other CFPs, say this, right?
0:40:36.4 Kurt Baker: That’s what I were… That’s my personal view. Yeah.
0:40:38.7 Davidson Hang: Yeah, yeah, that’s awesome. That’s great to have people like yourself. Right? Because obviously, other people like no, like you got to take care of the family you have… You know what I mean? Like there’s obligations. But that’s cool. It sounds like you…
0:40:52.1 Kurt Baker: That’s kind of the given. The problem is many, and I don’t want to go too hard while in your subject, but the problem is many are really like investment advisors are not actually wealth management, helping people to really put their life in perspective in a way that makes them happier and actually adds more impact to what they’re trying to do long term. They’re really saying, well, here was your return this year and all that. That’s all fine. That’s important. That’s a piece of what you do. But that’s not really the conversation that the wealthy have. They want to be healthy. They want to have impact. They have goals well beyond the money. And that’s what you really have to address, frankly. So, anyway.
0:41:28.9 Davidson Hang: That’s awesome. Yeah, very holistic. It’s refreshing to see that because like to your point, every industry has like a couple of bad apples that ruin it for everyone. So that, yeah, that’s refreshing to hear that there are people like yourself that are actually…
0:41:45.0 Kurt Baker: We do exist. Absolutely.
0:41:47.2 Davidson Hang: Like holistic. Like more holistic take and less about like S&P 500. And which is like a vehicle, right? But it sounds like you’re looking…
0:41:56.4 Kurt Baker: Well, that’s just a commodity that you have to plug in to get the goal. But yeah, so but now that you’re out on your own… We’ll have a few minutes left. So I’ll make sure we get this. But now that you’re out on your own, so what have you done to… What are you doing next? What’s your goal now? What is your impact?
0:42:11.1 Davidson Hang: Yeah, yeah.
0:42:12.2 Kurt Baker: What are you headed for? What are you going for now?
0:42:14.3 Davidson Hang: I’ve created this like 52-week mastermind program because I spent $150,000 traveling the world doing all these seminars. I’m like, oh, I like that about that. I like this about Tony, I like this about all these conferences and making it to like a more holistic program that addresses everything instead of like, I feel like certain programs only address like the mental or the physical or the health, but I haven’t seen anything that’s totally comprehensive, like the whole being. So that’s my exciting new course that I’m launching.
0:42:43.9 Kurt Baker: That’s awesome. I can’t wait to learn about it. You’re listening to Master Your Finances, you go to subscribe at masteryourfinances.us And thank you very much for listening.
