Your Two Brains and
Your LinkedIn Profile

In this guide I'm going to explain why so many LinkedIn Intro sections don't cut the mark and how you can avoid the mistakes most people make.

Did you know that you have two brains? 🤷🏻‍♂️

Well, not really 2 brains but 2 different systems operating inside one brain.

This is a really important concept to understand when you create anything that will be read on the internet, especially your LinkedIn profile.

Let me explain...

You see, when you create stuff, including your LinkedIn Profile you generally use the smarter of your 2 brains. But when your audience reads it they tend to use the highly efficient but less smart brain. As you can imagine, there is often a disconnect!

So, let's learn a little about these 2 brains...

Nobel Prize winner, Daniel Kahneman (along with his colleague Amos Tversky), came up with the concept of two systems to represent how our higher brain (generally considered to be the frontal lobe) and our lower or less conscious, automatic brain (generally considered to be the ancient reptilian or lizard part of the brain) work together to make decisions in life.

He called them System 1 and System 2 and wrote about them in great detail in his famous book, Thinking, Fast and Slow (one of my favourite books ever - I strongly recommend reading it if you'd like to know just how fallible we really are!)

Rather unceremoniously, I thought it would be more fun to call them Larry the Lizard Brain and Freddy the Frontal Lobe. 😬

The image below show's Daniel's representation of the 2 systems and my 'improved' naming convention.

Now, the problem is that 95% of the time we are using Larry and not Freddy, even though most of us like to think otherwise. And this is especially true when we're surfing the Internet.

The sheer volume of information thrown at us on the Internet would overload Freddy very quickly so Larry handles it. And this is where the problem arises.

This is because Larry is not that smart. Very hardworking, yes. But not smart.

So when you create your LinkedIn profile using Freddy, being very creative, rational and smart, you think it's great and that the crowds will come running to see it.

However, when someone clicks on it, Larry is well and truly in control and gets so confused by it that he just moves on!

So how do you overcome this?

Well, it's simple. Not easy, but simple.

You create your profile, or at least the Intro section of it with Larry in mind.

Now, apart from being hard-working and not very smart, Larry also scares easily and doesn't have much initiative which means he loves to be led by the hand to do things. Not scary things though!

His primary job is to help us survive or thrive so he's constantly on the lookout for danger and when he decides there is no danger he's looking for other things that might help him thrive.

The easiest way to let Larry know that your profile is something that might help him to thrive is to remove anything that is not absolutely relevant and familiar to him and focus on simplicity and things he knows about.

YOUR HEADLINE

When writing you headline section make sure it uses no jargon and that it clearly states who you help, the problem you help them solve and the amazing outcome they get by working with you.

Here's an example to help you...

The last job I did in the corporate world was a product manager. On paper it was a great job, well paid with awesome benefits, company car, etc. People were envious of me. However, I hated it. Not the job itself but just hated that I felt so unfulfilled and knew I was supposed to be doing something else.

I found it hard to get out of bed on Monday mornings and I knew I had to get out and do something that would light me up and give me freedom.

Imagine that I was looking for someone that helped people in my situation and I can across a profile on LinkedIn that had something like this as the headline: "I help people solve their problems and live a wonderful life".

OK, it covers who they help (basically anyone!), what problem they solve (kind of) and the outcome they get, BUT it's so generic that it doesn't really speak to my lizard brain. I may or may not have continued reading the profile, who knows. (probably NOT). 😉

Now imagine that I came across a headline that read: "I help unfulfilled PRODUCT MANAGERS who are tired of the corporate world to find their passion and freedom by starting their own gig".

Larry would have gone into overdrive! This statement was written about him and his problems and he would be banging down Freddy's bedroom door to wake him up to come and take a look!

But how do you get this laser focussed with your headline? 🤷🏻‍♂️

Well, step 1 is to make sure you have a niche. I'm not talking about 'professionals' or 'companies'. I'm talking about a very specific group of people. It could be CEO's, sales managers or parents of LGBTQ+ children. Being this specific will definitely get Larry's attention!

Now, I know it's not always easy to pick a niche, especially for coaches. If you're struggling with it yourself I suggest you make it your mission to settle on one as soon as you can. You can always change it by the way so don't worry about jumping around different niches a little.

Then, for the problem and outcome you need to talk to your niche. Ask them 2 questions and write down their answers word-for-word. Speak to at least 30 people, preferably 50+ so you collect a meaningful sample of data. The questions you ask will be in relation to you offer but the basis is this:

• What's your biggest challenge right now?
• Supposing you could solve that problem what would change, what would life look like for you?

As an example, the questions I ask are these:

• When it comes to using LinkedIn for your business what's your biggest challenge?
• If you could solve that challenge what would be different, what kind of results do you think you'd get using LinkedIn?

Simple! It's hard work and takes time but it will give you so much insight about your audience and it will also give you the kind of language they use to describe their problems. When you use that same language in your headline Larry is all ears!

You can use Canva and create one for free. Use these dimensions if you do: 1584px x 396px. Here's one of mine asking people to take my LinkedIn Health Check.

It may not be the best looking background image BUT it works well for Larry! It's clear, simple and not too scary.

Now let's take a look at a bad one...

You could argue that this one is more aesthetically pleasing. And Freddy might agree. Larry would most likely disagree though!

For a start, it's just too busy. Secondly it's showing all sorts of logos that don't mean anything to Larry. They aren't familiar to his problem or outcome so they aren't getting though to him.

And to top it off there's text with a line through it which is even more confusing - should he read it or shouldn't he? Should he wish he could build that business or shouldn't he? 🤯

You get the idea... By the way, this one will be updated very soon! 😅

When you create your LinkedIn profile section this way, the outcome and the results will be very different. You'll get more enquiries and conversions and people will want to know more about working with you.

Click here if you'd like to create your own background photo with a CTA to guide your potential clients to take the next step with you.

If you want some help with your profile, why not book a LinkedIn Profile Audit with me? I will go through your profile in detail with you, pull it to pieces and help you put it back together again in a way that speaks to your audience and potential clients.

Click below to find out more. And tell Larry and Freddy that I said hi. 😊