Natasha Walstra: Personal Branding and LinkedIn Strategies Designed for Trust

How to Get More of Nick Berry and tBOJ

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to the podcast on your favorite platform and leave a review. Your feedback helps us bring you more valuable content.

Follow us:

• Nick on LinkedIn
• Nick on X
• tBOJ Podcast on X
• Redesigned.Business

The Business Owner's Journey Podcast host: Nick Berry
Production Company: FCG

[Image Gallery: American Entrepreneur Nick Berry]

Transcript for: Natasha Walstra: Personal Branding and LinkedIn Strategies Designed for Trust

00:00 Why LinkedIn strategy feels harder than it should for business owners  

04:35 From coaching to agency work and real LinkedIn execution  

08:19 Content creation barriers and simplifying LinkedIn content strategy  

11:50 Building authentic connections and trust on LinkedIn  

15:58 Social selling on LinkedIn without pitching or awkward DMs  

20:37 Business growth, confidence, and long-term relationship-based selling  

30:24 Imposter syndrome, visibility, and personal branding for leaders  

39:46 Reframing LinkedIn for authentic engagement and revenue

Natasha Walstra (00:00)

Because most people look at it,

incorrectly and that's why they act weird on it.

Nick Berry (00:04)

And that's a professional diagnosis. We're acting weird.

Natasha Walstra (00:06)

Yeah, exactly. You're acting weird. And

there's good weird and bad weird, you know what mean? So I think find your weird is also totally cool. ⁓ But you don't want to be, they just don't understand how to do it and do it comfortably. Because the other point too is I don't want you to show up on LinkedIn, especially if you're being forced into this a little bit. I don't want it to be uncomfortable or a task. And most business owners I work with, they…

Nick Berry (00:14)

Mm-hmm.

Natasha Walstra (00:31)

are burnt out because they tried doing it on meta or Instagram, right? And didn't see any results from it. It's this like burdensome task that they have to do and be visible and are miserable with it, right? Like that's the last thing I want it to be for you. It should be rewarding and empowering. And it can be, it is, if you're doing it the right way.

Nick Berry (01:04)

Why does having a presence on LinkedIn feel so hard when it should be so easy and LinkedIn is booming? Why do we think that the tactics everyone else is using are working and they won't work for us? And why is that the case on all social platforms? Today's guest is Natasha Walstra and we break down how to make social selling simple and worthwhile. Natasha is a LinkedIn strategist and business coach who helps business owners turn visibility into revenue without trying to play the influencer game.

Expect to learn how to simplify your LinkedIn strategy as a business owner. While expert advice is luring you into playing the wrong game entirely, Natasha's take on social selling without pitching, how personal branding for business owners builds trust, how to approach LinkedIn profile optimization, using real stories for thought leadership, and how to turn LinkedIn visibility into revenue without becoming a content creator yourself. Enjoy the show with Natasha Walstra

Nick Berry (01:53)

I don't like doing this stuff, you're doing it well, you make it look easy, this is gonna be a bottleneck for me, what am I doing wrong here?

Natasha Walstra (02:00)

Most people overthink their LinkedIn strategy and what they need to be doing on there and what they have, all the things. It's actually really quite simple. But we're fed so much information that then they get paralyzed with what do I need to actually do on my profile and what type of content do I actually need to be sharing that's gonna hit. And I think that's where people just get stuck of I actually just have no idea because everybody's saying different things or saying things that just sound absolutely insane.

Nick Berry (02:20)

Yeah.

Natasha Walstra (02:28)

You know, so I think that's kind of the big problem.

Nick Berry (02:29)

Yeah, yeah.

That was part of my frustration. It's like, mean, even there are tons of people out there who will tell me that they can help solve this problem. But I got I still see the problem is still very prevalent and I haven't really seen any of those people show me evidence that like they would work for me.

Natasha Walstra (02:49)

so I think something that I heard and this might be why, one of the like the top personal brand creators on LinkedIn, was saying she had this video and I watched a portion of it and she was telling people that they need to comment two hours a day on people's posts, right? Spend two hours commenting. Who in their right mind's got two hours a day to comment on posts? And then I'm like, a content creator, right?

Nick Berry (03:10)

Her, yeah,

her.

Natasha Walstra (03:11)

Her

that's like her, she built her business. She is a content creator. That is literally what she does. Her business thrives on being creating content, right? Most people I work with are business owners leveraging content to grow their business. They're not content creators. You know I mean? And, and, and nor are they ever trying to be content creators.

Nick Berry (03:27)

Right. Yeah.

Right, then they hear someone, perceived expert telling, saying something like that. And it's like, shit, now, you know, now I've got to do as much of that as possible, which is not going to be two hours, but it's going to be enough to be really mediocre. Yeah, So then I think where,

Natasha Walstra (03:43)

Yeah.

Nick Berry (03:48)

got my attention with you is probably the simplicity and the things that you advise people to do, watching you do it and how natural it looks. And I was like, that's all I'm looking for. If I can just show up and be myself, maybe polish some of the edges, but that would make things a lot simpler, a lot easier for

Natasha Walstra (04:00)

Yeah

Nick Berry (04:06)

how did you figure that out? How did you learn the recipe?

Natasha Walstra (04:08)

Well, so obviously like I practice what I preach. So I've had to go through all this myself and I still am learning everything. And so everything I learned, I share with my clients as well. but also it was just, it was the evolution of my program. So my first year in business, I coached on everything. as I think a lot of coaches do, right. It's just coaching. I shouldn't say just coaching, but I was just telling you, Hey, this is what we need to do and give, you know, feedback, that sort of thing. but now I've turned into.

you know, part agency and part coach in the sense that there are things that I actually just do for you because I realized you're so close to the thing, your business and you, it's hard for you to figure out what do I need to say on my profile as an example? Like what is the messaging I'm trying to put here? How do I explain this concisely and interestingly so that people get?

or intrigued by this, right? I use the analogy of like the pickle jar, right? If you're inside a pickle jar, you can't read the label on the outside. And so all my clients that were stuck, they couldn't read that label and I could help with that. And then we'd talk through it and everything, but I'm like, why didn't I just do it for them? Because they're getting stuck here on the, let's talk, know, the profile part as an example. They got so focused on that that they didn't, weren't able to.

Nick Berry (05:10)

Mm-hmm.

Natasha Walstra (05:20)

do anything else and have the impact that they were looking to with their content and with the conversations because their profile didn't represent who they are today. And that's a huge thing because it's the foundation. Like it is very important that your profile showcases who you are, what you do. You know, it's very clear. There's a clear call to action, all those different types of things, but that's not your area of expertise at all. And so I just decided, well, screwed, I'm going to do it for you now. And it's a co-creation. So I obviously don't know the ins and outs of your brand, but we talked through it all. asked a bunch of questions.

and then I'm able to pull the right information to then create and optimize your profile and branding that goes with it.

Nick Berry (05:56)

Yeah. And so for the audience, I want to share my experience. So I was not able to go through the Natasha's cohort or program, but she did work something out with me where she could kind of take, do this one-on-one on the side to accommodate my availability. just been like 60 days since she gave me the instructions and guidance said, okay, here's what you need to.

Here's what you need to do. Here are the things that I've done for you. Make these changes and start being this way. And so the thing that I wrote about this in my newsletter, I've shared it with her. There are two things really that I noticed right away. One is just being proud of my profile. it feels organized. feels coherent. It feels coherent and it's on brand.

everything fits. it's intentional. So now I'm proud of it. I didn't realize before that it may be I wasn't. It was just kind of like a thing that was there, a necessary evil. So that was really big for me. And then the other was, I think pretty much immediately I noticed some changes in the engagement that I got. I don't know, know, measurables wise,

The only thing that I can tell you for sure is in the 60, almost exactly 60 days since we posted updates to my profile, I've gained as many new contacts during that 60 days as I had year to date to the beginning of that time. So that's good. there's, I mean, there has to be a connection, right? Cause the only, I haven't done anything, know, the frequency of posts has not gone up.

Natasha Walstra (07:22)

That's huge. Yeah.

Nick Berry (07:29)

I've been about the same person other than, using more stories in post, which was part of that's what Natasha said, start being this more stories. so.

Natasha Walstra (07:41)

I think when

we were talking that day too, you told me a story of a specific client you had just got off. I'm like, that right there, but I don't see it in the posts that you shared. There was no connection even though there was. And I'm like, you need to add that story in there.

Nick Berry (07:47)

Yeah.

Yeah. So,

so let's talk about that as an example of kind of the things, the stories that we tell ourselves where, you know, I had my excuse, right? There, the reason I don't, it, because it takes work to de-identify who the, the client, you know, I'm not, can't, I don't want to go and share things about clients that would embarrass them or that, you know, it's things that they are part of our work. And so,

Natasha Walstra (08:12)

Yeah, of course.

Nick Berry (08:19)

that it was just, that's an easy card to play, right? But it doesn't have to be that way. Can you talk a little bit about, you how do you get someone who's telling themselves that, or maybe some of the other excuses that we give ourselves to like find a way around?

Natasha Walstra (08:34)

Yeah, well, yeah, and of course you always want to respect anonymity with your clients and their privacy. So like you can tweak things so that it doesn't, so it's not them, right? Like there's, it's more the principle and the process transparency or the thought leadership of your, how you guided them. Like that's the piece we're interested in. You know what I mean? And so there are ways to share it so that it,

Nick Berry (08:54)

Mm-hmm.

Natasha Walstra (08:58)

so that it comes out, that it's real, but respecting their privacy, if that makes sense. So definitely like ways around that for sure. But it's just so important because right now everybody can write great content. I say that with quotations for both of those because nobody's writing anymore and it's not that great because of AI, right? And so what people are craving is real lived experience. And that's.

what you do in your day to day, your conversations you're having with prospects, with clients, with colleagues, right? That's what we wanna be sharing. And if you can't share specific things with clients, that's totally fine. You still have conversations all day long around things that you can share. That's what we wanna be hearing because it's unique to you. And so it's just simplifying it, right? It's not like, and actually I think…

Nick Berry (09:40)

Hmm

Natasha Walstra (09:44)

I don't know if this is crazy that I do this for my clients, but I basically have them like, I throw out their content pillars because that was very restricting for people. And they're like, okay, Mondays I have to post on this and Tuesdays I post on this and Thursdays this. I'm like, throw that out. Let's just look at your calendar. What have you been talking about? What questions were asked? What problems were solved? It's that simple, you know?

Nick Berry (10:00)

Yeah. Yeah.

for somebody who does what I do, I am, I'm going to have eight or 10 conversations in any given week where we're solving like a pretty significant problem for a client. And there's something in there. And I mean, 97 % of the time at this point, it's something like I've seen the pattern before it's happened. I,

Natasha Walstra (10:13)

Mm.

Nick Berry (10:24)

I, there's some way that I can repackage those stories that like, those are the lessons that I should be sharing because that's what I do. and so I just had to get around the whole, well, it just takes a lot, it's extra time for me to have to make it anonymous. I just probably needed someone to call me on it.

Natasha Walstra (10:42)

Hahaha!

Nick Berry (10:44)

We all need it, right?

Natasha Walstra (10:45)

Well, it was funny because then like the next day I saw your post I was like this and it got really good engagement I think too and I was like this is exactly what I'm talking about because you have such good content and it wasn't calling anybody out though either like it was just incorporating the fact that you that it was something you experienced yesterday you know what mean or whatever the thing actually was

And it's something that I struggled with this too. Most of my content has always been inspired from conversations, but I never made that connection. I would just talk about this idea instead of talking about the situation that came with it. You know what I mean? And that's what was missing always for me. And the second I made that pivot as well, one, it's more interesting because it's a story. And two, it's also a form of social proof because it's showing that I'm doing the thing I say I do in real time with somebody.

Nick Berry (11:28)

Yeah. So like for me, you know, my experience with you, which has been fantastic, been really, it revolved around my profile, getting my profile updated and just kind of starting to work on my perspective, my mindset as it relates to making the social posts. that's what you do is a little bit broader than that. Right. So

what do you address for clients?

Natasha Walstra (11:52)

I help them get more visible and win more sales on LinkedIn. So what does that mean? It's personal branding, it's content and social selling. And when I say social selling, I really just mean having conversations. feel like social selling and sales has like a thing to it still because there's so many people that do such a bad job with it and just pitch stuff you in the DMs and such, but that's not what I teach. I just, help you with showing up on LinkedIn authentically, but that also moves the needle in your business.

Nick Berry (12:18)

Yeah. And now I remember the headline that I used when I wrote about you in my newsletter was you unhid me because I had been hiding. My profile was such that it was going to be hard to find and it was definitely going to be hard to choose me if that's what you were looking for based off my profile. So just getting it cleaned up.

Natasha Walstra (12:26)

that's not funny.

Yeah.

Nick Berry (12:41)

Help me unhide.

Natasha Walstra (12:41)

Yeah,

that's amazing. Well, and you have so much experience and so much expertise behind you, but we didn't see any of that, right? And not people don't necessarily, not everybody knows who you are, obviously, but when they go to your profile, if we see, you the Inc 5000, if we see these brand names behind you, there's that instant credibility by association. So like, I don't know who Nick is, but I know what this means. And that's a big deal.

Nick Berry (12:49)

Yeah.

Natasha Walstra (13:04)

I mean, you've got the trophies behind you to prove it even, but we didn't see any of that on your profile. It's showing off without showing off because it's just the facts here. And so we needed to put that front and center for you.

Nick Berry (13:15)

Yeah. And so I've had, I always had this aversion to being forward with those things. but, but using that as the humility as an excuse to not do it. And I think where you really got my attention was the, way that you were having conversations. I don't mind talking about those things if it's not forced, if it's not, if I'm not having to like go and just broadcast like, Hey, here's what I've done.

Natasha Walstra (13:38)

Sure.

Nick Berry (13:38)

If we can

have conversations, I'm game. And that's what I saw you doing. Right. And so you just said it, it's not really the social selling, it's how to have conversations, right? It's like, let's just go be friendly on LinkedIn.

Natasha Walstra (13:48)

Yeah. Yeah. Which like people

have no idea how to do that. And that's the problem. Like people are super weird on there. Because they forget that there's a human on the other side of the screen. It's like the most interesting thing. I'm like, would you ever say that to somebody in real life? So why would you do that here?

Nick Berry (13:56)

Why? Why do we have so much trouble?

Yeah, I've heard you tell us stories about that, some of the things, conversations that you've had with clients or you're asking like, is that really how you talk?

Natasha Walstra (14:16)

Well, it's funny

because I like, I talk through all this and then I'll give you a specific example of a client where his posts has been going viral, like literally, you know, 15, 20,000 impressions, hundreds of likes, all the things, but he's saying then the DMs, was kind of, you know, silenced. So I'm like, well, what are you, what are you saying in the DMs exactly? And then he read it to me. He's like, oh, you know, Hey, thanks for like my posts, by the way, we do this, that, and that, and I hope I'd love to see if we can explore synergies working with your company. I'm like,

And as he said it out loud, he was like, that was a pitch, wasn't it? I'm like, exactly. That's not what we want to say. And helped him craft what actually we want to be saying there. And it's just literally like saying hi, right? And thank you. And being, know, starting, initiating a conversation as you normally would with a human. We're not trying to pitch immediately, you know? But it's interesting because even somebody else that happened with another client recently where she was sending in mails too, not realizing that that's

Nick Berry (14:51)

Mm-hmm.

Natasha Walstra (15:12)

where she was sending them, which we don't, and most are kind of useless, in my opinion. But sent this long message and the whole thing, and I was like, whoa, whoa, we haven't even connected with them yet. Let's start with that first, you know?

Nick Berry (15:25)

Yeah.

for some reason, we go into this mode where we don't converse normally on there. What are you telling your clients how to approach this?

Natasha Walstra (15:32)

Yeah. mean, truly, like, imagine if you ran into this person at the coffee shop or the gym. What would you say to them? And then funny, that first example I gave you, he started laughing because he had just ran into this guy at the gym who was a top account he'd been trying to get to. And they sort of chatted for a split second. He's like, yeah, I didn't pitch him anything, but he was familiar with what I did. And, you know, I'm playing the long game and I'm like, yeah, exactly. And then he came back three weeks later. He's like, yeah, I've got a call with him.

So it wasn't even that long of a game, right? But he was just being a friendly, curious human being, you know what I mean? Versus, yeah, it's really about building relationships. Like know that sounds so simple or cliche even, but like, that's what you're trying to do here ultimately. It's not go straight into the pitch. like, and especially if you can help them, you know that you have a problem, they have a problem that you can solve. I mean, there's ways to…

Nick Berry (16:04)

Jeff DeFranco

Natasha Walstra (16:23)

still talk about what you do, but just don't go straight into it. You know what I mean?

Nick Berry (16:27)

Yeah.

It's the things that you would in a conversation, find common ground, let the conversation evolve, see where there are opportunities to provide some value, give them something to think about. what you receive a lot of is somebody going straight for the kill, like coming.

right, hits you right between the eyes. They, the DMs, which are flooded at this point, they lead with some absurd statement about they, you know, either call me by my last name or they mentioned something about a podcast episode that probably didn't listen to. And then it's like, I do all these magnificent things or I've created this amazing thing for you. Would you mind if I sent it over? don't, don't use that approach.

Natasha Walstra (16:54)

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Nick Berry (17:12)

like the DMs are flooded. How do we stand out?

Natasha Walstra (17:14)

Show genuine curiosity and interest, right? Like have you been following them? Are they posting content? If not, because most people aren't really, is there company? Pay attention to what they're doing. Start to like and engage with that and not just show up and ask for something or pitch them something. Try to be a friendly resource to them as well, right? And if you have something that, like I hate to say like provide value, but if there is something that like you have a very, very good.

lead magnet of some sort or just knowledge that you can say, hey, by the way, I saw this. You know, let me tell you, I can give you some feedback or something along those lines, right? But it's not about, again, going straight for that pitch slap. It's actually funny. I'm testing out going on Reddit because there's so much stuff going on in Reddit these days, right? Well, these days, always. And I got the username for it. I put it as no pitch slaps.

Because I think people just don't understand how important that is to just not go straight in for that. And then why your profile is so important and why your content is so important as well is because you need to be speaking to your ideal clients and to the problems that they have while showcasing social proof. So that as you say hi to them in the DMs and then you create content that is talking to the problems that they have and showing that you solved that problem.

Organically, things end up coming from that ultimately. You know what I mean? But most people don't have their profile optimizes or creating shit content and pitching them in the DMs. So of course you got nothing going for you. You know what I mean? ⁓

Nick Berry (18:40)

Yeah.

Yeah. It's not hard to tell somebody when somebody like that is there that, you know, they just arrived and they're like expecting something to happen quick. Yeah. It's hastily thrown together. But I think that's what we're kind of looking for evidence of the opposite whenever we do go poking around, looking at somebody's profile.

Natasha Walstra (18:49)

Mm.

Mm-hmm.

Nick Berry (19:02)

Does you read a comment that someone makes that's interesting or you see a post that they make that's interesting and then you want to look a little bit further. And so that part of the, what you helped reframe for me is like, just have the information ready for when they want to look further. Don't go trying to smash the information in their face. that's not going to work. nobody's comfortable with that. ⁓

Natasha Walstra (19:25)

Yeah. Well,

and people take a long time to make decisions these days, I think, right? Like I'm thinking about my Amazon cart. I've got a lot of things hanging out my Amazon cart. You know what I mean? Even, yeah, I know, right? It'll go, I'll save it for later and then put it back in. And I think that's how a lot of people are with like things in general when it comes to business, right? Like we, need to be truly convinced, especially because we're in a trust recession right now, right? Nobody believes anything.

Nick Berry (19:35)

Even now, right now it's Christmas.

Natasha Walstra (19:54)

There's a lot of crap out there. People have been duped left and right. I talked to somebody recently who paid like 12 grand for a mastermind and was like, they got nothing out of it. Yeah. So we're, we're understanding where your audience is, where they just are. We don't know what to believe anymore. You have to recognize it's going to take a little bit of time.

Nick Berry (20:13)

at first on the surface, that may be like, ugh, you know, I hate it. But if you're good at what you do, then you should embrace that, right? That's a good thing. You're born with the staying power. The person who's just showing up, trying to get like, I'm going to need to get a sale now. Like they don't have a chance in playing the long game.

Natasha Walstra (20:20)

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm, exactly.

Yeah.

Exactly. Yeah, it's funny. had it like on the reverse side somebody I was trying to

I was hiring somebody and I had two different people I talked to and one, I couldn't, I don't think they had the experience, but they were going straight in for the kill with me and I felt like a prospect the entire time on the call. Honestly, I left the call feeling super bummed out actually, but they were pushing me to get on the call, schedule the next call with them, I said I need to think about things. It was just one of those things, I'm this is not how I want to be feeling whatsoever, whereas the other person.

clearly had the experience was very knowledgeable, zero pressure. I'd sign with them on the call. You know what I mean? And that's the difference. So I'm saying that maybe it takes a little bit longer. It actually maybe doesn't either, right? Because if you, like you're saying, if you have the experience, the expertise and can show it, people will feel that, they'll tell that, you know? That's what, you know, having the good profile content and conversations, like that's what all that leads towards, if that makes sense.

Nick Berry (21:06)

Yeah.

Yeah,

And you're able to give people the space that they need to make, to do their buying process. And for some people it may be really fast and others it might be slower, but you you have to accommodate that. can't expect to force everybody into a single way, you know.

Natasha Walstra (21:37)

Yeah.

Nick Berry (21:45)

So let's talk about a little bit about your business and like, how did you get here? And because this year, 2025, congratulations. I mean, you owned it. It's, I love getting caught up with you and hearing about the successes. It's like, it's a constant whirlwind. And then you show up and you're so.

Natasha Walstra (21:54)

Thank you.

Hahaha

Nick Berry (22:07)

at peace and like have everything under control. And then I read an email and it's like this person telling a different story. So I don't know if this is a facade, but if so, well done. But you've had a big year.

Natasha Walstra (22:13)

You

Well, no, I I feel great right now because I had this realization last week. I mean, when we talked a couple of weeks back, I was not in this place. was my head was definitely kind in my hands like what the fuck? The email you're referring to just for guests here, I sent this out because I was doing a reflection at the end of the year here and.

And how it started, I was $38,000 in debt. We had a newborn who was just spent four weeks in the NICU, who was born two months early and moved across country. And I now realize I was going through some pretty bad postpartum depression. So like didn't think I was gonna get through that at all. And then to end off this year, know, debt-free, we actually just bought a house.

Businesses, I'm overbooked and that was kind of my realization is like I'm still operating as if I'm in debt and not getting clients next month. that's not where I'm at now. So now it's time to breathe and enjoy the fact that I made it out of that. And that my son's about to start walking any day now, literally. I wanna be present. That was the whole point of me starting having my business is to be able to do all this stuff and not get caught up in all the…

the scaling, all the things. so, yeah, I feel better now that I realize I don't need to keep at that pace. I'm like, okay, I can breathe.

Nick Berry (23:34)

Yeah.

mean, another congratulations because be, you know, figuring that out, having that epiphany before it knocks you down is a little bit unusual, but now you've got an opportunity. You kind of getting out in front of it and you can catch your breath. Like take this period over the holidays and, reorganize and enjoy what you've accomplished for the year and get the battery charged up for next year.

Natasha Walstra (24:00)

Yeah.

Nick Berry (24:00)

because I'm

sure you have big plans, right?

Natasha Walstra (24:03)

Yeah, yeah, I mean, when I say slow down, mean, like, I'm not, I don't know if I know how to slow down necessarily, but I, the mindset, the anxiety that I had of us feeling like I was drowning, because we were for so much of this year.

that's gone now. So I'm like, wait a second, I am not desperate or anything. I hate to use that word even, but I'm in a really great place. I've got pipeline, I've got my group program I launched, I've got all the things happening, that it's time to now focus on the pieces that I haven't been focusing on since I started my business just over two years ago is the foundations, right? Because I launched my business and a few months later found out I was pregnant. So I've always been in this revenue generating mindset.

given to my backgrounds and sales, but my husband, you he used to be a butcher. And when we looked at cost of childcare versus what he could make, it just didn't quite add up. So we decided to put all the eggs in my basket and he takes care of everything else. And we absolutely love the situation. But of course, it's it did add a little bit to the pressure, as you can imagine. so it's just it's been it's been the craziest year. to end where I am right now, too, honestly, like I just never would have believed it even even just six months ago. Yeah.

Nick Berry (25:04)

Ha ha.

Mm-hmm.

I don't know, the more I get to know you, the more it's like, I think this is kind of your way. I mean, when you decide that you're going in a direction, you're gonna go in that direction. You're gonna figure out how to make it work. Because I I've learned more about you as we've gotten to know each other over the course of the year. I mean, you've done a lot of things, right? You've got some interesting chapters in your life.

Natasha Walstra (25:21)

Hahaha

I

Nick Berry (25:38)

Didn't you live in Argentina? Right.

Natasha Walstra (25:40)

Yeah, I was there for six years. My first my first cold calls were in Spanish, actually. I was doing real estate by apartment rentals and stuff. So was cool calling into owners.

Nick Berry (25:42)

Yeah.

And then you have also been in the tech space, right?

Natasha Walstra (25:54)

Yep, I worked at a unicorn 3D printing company in Silicon Valley.

Nick Berry (25:58)

And then you've also been in, I think, publishing.

Natasha Walstra (26:02)

Yep, Forbes books. Yeah.

Nick Berry (26:04)

Yeah, you've got

some chapters.

Natasha Walstra (26:07)

Yeah, really

very random to it all does connect though now, which is so cool to see. But in the moment, I remember especially like I was, you know, four years at the three printing company and and really like awesome company. Like there's so many cool things about it. That's where I learned all the things I do with three with LinkedIn primarily because I had no idea what I was talking about. But I was speaking to VPs of engineers and CTOs and I'm like, gosh, why should they trust me? And so I started to share what our clients and partners were up to, like

Ford, Lamborghini, Adidas, right? So looked really cool. And I used to go viral back then with the posts I was doing, because this is before LinkedIn is what it is today. when I had the opportunity to go to Forbes Books, it was a VP level sales position. people thought I was nuts. mean, even my mentor, he's no longer a mentor of mine actually because of the situation, he's like, you're leaving this 3D printing tech.

Unicorn, you've established your name for yourself and you're going into book publishing, like dying industry kind of thing. So, and I actually drank the kool-aid. went from, that's what brought me out to South Carolina now, right? I'm from California, but I moved here because they're, they're headquartered downtown here in Charleston. But yeah, it was, that was a very seemingly random pivot, but obviously imagine like book publishing, what greater way to…

increased thought leadership than by becoming a published author. And so I saw like how well that works for business development, for sales. And that's what my, the person that brought me on, they noticed that I was very aware of that. I had no idea what personal branding was at the time. I was just, I had built one. I didn't know that that's what it actually was though. So that, well, no, was out of, mean, truly it started out with like fear and competition. Cause I hate, was so bad at cold calling. My first position I was in, I had to cold call into,

Nick Berry (27:41)

It just came naturally to you.

Natasha Walstra (27:53)

hard dealerships, you can imagine how bad that was. And I'm an introvert, I used be super shy too, so it was brutal. But that's how I discovered using LinkedIn as a way to connect a network and then warm call because I couldn't cold call, but I really needed, I'm super competitive, I'm like, I can't do this, I was crying every day, nightmares, all the things. So grateful for that experience regardless. But yeah, for me was just, it kinda happened organically of like, oh, if I start showing up and

networking and creating content, it turns out people are much more receptive to that.

Nick Berry (28:26)

And so now that your, your understanding of personal branding is kind of helped, I guess that's what's brought help bring the agency aspect of what you're doing to life, right? Cause that's you're having to come in and kind of absorb or extract, maybe even help someone who doesn't have it established, like determine how to, you know, what kind of brand they want to build.

Natasha Walstra (28:34)

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, yeah, it is. am. And it's, it's so funny, even though like I'm doing the thing. Imposter syndrome still hits me so hard with this because my background is in business development and sales. Like I don't in my mind see myself as a personal branding expert, but that's literally what people are see me as. Like I was just featured on a list yesterday. I'll have to send it to you over the Fabicon top personal brands in the world. Number 15. was like, what?

And I was like the weird, and I like looking at this and like, we're like so confused by that. And even with my clients, like I, when with my group cohorts, I my one-on-one program in my group. The group, there's still a one-on-one portion, but part of it's done via Loom, kind of like what I did with you. And I was, I get nervous to send it via Loom just in case, you know, what if they don't like it, all this stuff. And everyone was, you know, I love this, this is so good. I've never think of it this way. And it's like the craziest.

thing to get this type of feedback because I'm nervous sending it to them because I'm like, who am I to be telling them how to do their messaging? Which is crazy. But I mean, I do it. This is my area.

Nick Berry (29:46)

Amen.

Yeah.

I think, you know, there's a fine line, I suppose, where you want to keep yourself honest, right? You're more than like a self-anointed expert, but you want to continue to earn that level of expertise. You want to make sure that you know what you're doing and that people are getting value out of what you're doing. I think that's healthy, but then we also run the risk of pushing it too hard and kind of taking for granted.

we've accomplished beating ourselves up a little bit. The imposter peeks his head in there, but again, on the outside, you look like you've got it under control.

Natasha Walstra (30:19)

Yeah.

Well, mean, I still like I have a coach I work with on basically this exactly a confidence and in my in writing primarily because I think, you know, we were looking at where I want to go to next year. And in order to hit that revenue goal, what type of person do I have to be? And I mean, I think confidence is a big part of that. Like I still I don't see myself as a good writer, which I know is crazy because this is literally what I do.

But I shouldn't necessarily say that, because I get good engagement and I know it all works, obviously. But it's hard. It's still really hard. The newsletter and the post I did today, I had to message Boxer, my coach, be like, this too much? Help me out. Am I crazy to be sharing this? Is this good? All the things. I needed a little bit of hand holding as well, because it's really hard to do personal posts. And in a way that…

Nick Berry (31:13)

Yeah.

Natasha Walstra (31:14)

I mean hitting that post button this morning was really hard.

Nick Berry (31:17)

Yeah. Yeah.

understandable. like you've been through some things too, right? what I hear you talking about is like your, your identity as a leader of your business and, your, your life.

And thinking about what kind of leader do you need to be? What does your identity need to be for you to do the things that you want to do in the future? And you're like using that to pull yourself, you know, and, guide your growth. And so there probably for people like that, there are always going to be things that we can, that we'll need to work on or we'll want to work on that. Like that's okay. Right. Cause without that, we would have no mission, man, be no way to live.

Natasha Walstra (31:56)

Totally.

Well, I mean, as they say, right, like that discomfort is how you grow. So I'll give you an example. did another personal post a couple of weeks ago and it took me seven months to publish that one. This one took me a week to get through, but, you know, I'm making that a little bit easier. But the thing is too, in the post that I was talking about was talking to other

Nick Berry (32:13)

Yeah.

Natasha Walstra (32:20)

founder moms who are balancing business, entrepreneurship and raising kids or their kid. And the like circus that it's been for me trying to manage all that and how much I don't have it figured out whatsoever. I'd written that six months when my son was six months old and like in a total haze literally because I've got really bad postpartum brain fog as well. So I can't remember anything at this point.

But like sharing that, the reason why that like, yeah, it's personal posts and obviously want to be careful with those, in like making sure that it drives back to your audience. But the reason why it was important to share that and why it's meaningful is because I serve and work with a lot of female moms, founder moms, right? Like I'd say, I don't know, 70 % of those in my cohort are, have experienced that or going through it or have been through it. And like we can connect over that. And that's why it's so powerful to

share the right type of content. Like I'm not trying to do like something Natasha show over here by any means, but it's showing like all sides of what we're doing here and how we can connect over that, you So.

Nick Berry (33:22)

you mentioned not being a good writer and that having some effect on your think you are an excellent communicator. And I think that shines through. I'm sure that the skill of writing, which I did not have there are benefits to it, but I think that you communicate really well.

think that comes through in your writing, it comes through in conversation. And I'm sure that that's part of what, where the authenticity lands. complimentary.

Natasha Walstra (33:47)

Thank you. I mean,

to be fair to you, guess that's why I'm so grateful to have AI now. I'm all about starting with my original thought, but thank God I can have AI to help me flesh out and come off as a better writer. Because I might have good ideas, but if you don't articulate it well, then that's kind of stuck there.

Nick Berry (33:58)

Yeah.

You just got to watch that AI will also drag us off the reservation and turn our

Natasha Walstra (34:03)

Mm.

Nick Berry (34:09)

what we thought was a good point or had a good point buried in it. It turns into this lukewarm mush that doesn't mean anything. But

Natasha Walstra (34:12)

Yeah.

Yeah.

Don't wanna go down that route, but well, that's a filter I always use before I post anything. And again, I always start with my original thought, but a question I always ask is, could AI have written this? Because if yes, that means my competitor could have, it also means my seven-year-old nephew could have. So yes, use AI, all for leveraging it to amplify your voice, but make sure it's still your original thought.

Nick Berry (34:19)

Right.

Mm-hmm.

So then when the answer is yes, AI could have written it, what do do? Do you just take an A step back? Do you start from scratch, blow it all up?

Natasha Walstra (34:53)

Typically I look to see where I can add a story into it. Like what's missing then? If AI could have written that means I'm not doing any storytelling.

Nick Berry (35:00)

Yeah, yeah, that's it. That's your secret ingredient, right? But everybody has one. So no matter what the recipe is that anybody else could make, the you ingredient, the story is the part that makes it unique.

Natasha Walstra (35:05)

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Yep.

Nick Berry (35:16)

So let's talk about your program. when is your next program open or when are you going to be running it? And tell us a little bit about the details.

Natasha Walstra (35:25)

Yeah, sure. Thank you. So I just kicked off this group cohort. took me a while to finally do that. I was a little bit anxious about group, as you can imagine, for so many reasons. But it's been amazing. My first cohort just finished. The second one's kicking off. And I'm filling out my third one, It's a hybrid program. So there's still a one-on-one portion to it, because I don't want to lose that messaging and profile piece that is so important. So yeah, we do.

Profile optimization, messaging, branding that goes with it. On the content front, I have a whole system to help make it so easy that you can't not create content basically. And it's awesome to see people who never thought they would write content. So aside from my group program, I also work with sales teams and B2B teams.

And I have one guy who was like paralyzed. like, there's no way he was ever going to do this. And he was forced into this, right? Cause of his company. Um, and now he's like, got his content all set for the next like two months video included. And it's like the coolest thing to see just because I've like found a way to make this. Easy, truly, you know, cause that's the thing. A lot of people do get stuck on like, what am I writing about? How do I write all those things? And I just, I have a good process for that. And, um,

Nick Berry (36:26)

Mm-hmm.

Natasha Walstra (36:37)

And then the social selling piece, like what, now what, right? How do you get, start conversations, who do you need to be engaging with, all the elements that are around business development, but specific on LinkedIn and off LinkedIn, right? Because the thing that, you know, this sounds kind of crazy because I've built my whole business around LinkedIn, but I'm on LinkedIn to get off of LinkedIn, right? That's what fills my cup and that's what moves the needle in my business. And I just.

teach you how to do that same thing and guide you with actual like specific things that's geared towards your business and industry and that sort of thing. ⁓ but yeah, the cohort itself, it's, it's a eight week, structured workshops. And then it goes into four months of a group community program that, didn't realize I was building a community, but I've got one. So, yeah, right. was like, this is, I've got a community here to stop. Cause that's the whole thing. It's not just about learning LinkedIn. It's.

Nick Berry (37:11)

Mm-hmm.

Surprise!

Natasha Walstra (37:29)

about building your network and relationships. The program is called the real relationship growth method. It's the real way of growing on LinkedIn. Like this is how you're gonna do it. It's through your network, you know, and real network, not just connections.

Nick Berry (37:42)

Yeah. So for someone like the guy who said, you know, he would never be creating content. Like what's their reason? What's the logic that they're telling themselves? Like why will they never?

Natasha Walstra (37:53)

They just never thought that they didn't see the connection to it honestly, like, or like, and it's interesting, especially in the B2B world to like, yes, so many people now understand the importance of thought leadership. There's still a huge disconnect of understanding how content differs from what marketing puts out versus what a person puts out. You know what I mean? And so and I think add on, you know, when we think of social media and sharing things, it's, you your life.

on Instagram or Facebook, right? It's a little, it's very different type of content on LinkedIn. And so most people, actually, I'll give an example of my brother, who's like one of the most outgoing extroverted people I know. When we'd travel as kids, he would, could make friends with anybody left and right in 10 minutes, you know, in other languages. He did this in Spain. It was so cool. But tried getting him to post on here. He, I had to hold his hand through like literally each section of it because

it was so uncomfortable for him. he just, was like a totally different type of interaction. And I think especially those in the sales world, like they're really good at the behind the scenes stuff, but they've never had to be that sort of front and center or feel like it's front and center. You know what I mean? So that's why actually, I guess I should share like part of my program of like a big portion of what we talk through is mindset and how to reframe LinkedIn and of how you need to be showing up on there. Because most people look at it,

Nick Berry (39:04)

What was?

Natasha Walstra (39:15)

incorrectly and that's why they act weird on it.

Nick Berry (39:18)

And that's a professional diagnosis. We're acting weird.

Natasha Walstra (39:20)

Yeah, exactly. You're acting weird. And

there's good weird and bad weird, you know what mean? So I think find your weird is also totally cool. ⁓ But you don't want to be, they just don't understand how to do it and do it comfortably. Because the other point too is I don't want you to show up on LinkedIn, especially if you're being forced into this a little bit. I don't want it to be uncomfortable or a task. And most business owners I work with, they…

Nick Berry (39:28)

Mm-hmm.

Natasha Walstra (39:46)

are burnt out because they tried doing it on meta or Instagram, right? And didn't see any results from it. It's this like burdensome task that they have to do and be visible and are miserable with it, right? Like that's the last thing I want it to be for you. It should be rewarding and empowering. And it can be, it is, if you're doing it the right way. what, doing it the…

content creator way or the way a lot of gurus quote unquote say to do it, of course it's gonna make you feel bad because you're not a content creator. We're not chasing algorithms here. We're trying to build relationships. You know.

Nick Berry (40:19)

Yeah. So I think part of what I took away from it, from all of this is, regardless of your personality type or communication style or preferences, um, there should be a way for you to use LinkedIn platform and, uh, comfortably to support you reaching your goal. Uh, and if there, and if you, just because you haven't found it doesn't mean it doesn't exist, but there, there is a way. if you're willing to

like keep looking, then my recommendation is to talk to Natasha because that's, mean, that's what I, that's where I was at. I was like, you know, I'm just, I'm sure that there's a way, but I haven't seen it yet. Maybe it'll slap me in the face. and, and I think, yeah, she just made it pretty apparent to me. Like, look, you just, you don't have to try to fit the mold that, or that is your perception of, whatever is out there. It's like we can.

Natasha Walstra (41:11)

Sure, yeah.

Nick Berry (41:14)

configure things to work for you where it's comfortable. You know, it's still aligns with the way that you are and the things that you want to do. And then it's like, okay, to me, then it started to feel rather than a thing I had to do in addition to the work I needed to do. It became more of a, like a by-product of the work that I did. So it it wasn't burdensome. it was me leveraging my work further.

Natasha Walstra (41:39)

Yeah, yeah, I love that. I appreciate you saying that.

Nick Berry (41:39)

And that was a big help too.

I appreciate you helping me out. it was definitely a, a paradigm shift for me that's why I harassed you about, need to do this interview because I know that there are a lot of other people in a position like I'm in that feel the same way about it. And, they're either.

avoiding it the way that I was or trudging through it, or they're paying someone else to do the same, the mediocre job that they would have done themselves. at the end of the day, it's not the same thing. It's still not, you're not getting the juice that you should be getting from the squeeze. And so, I think that's an important and probably getting to be more and more important as we go problem that needs to be solved. And it's.

Natasha Walstra (42:06)

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Nick Berry (42:26)

fantastic to find a solution for So that's what I'm doing.

Natasha Walstra (42:29)

I love it. I appreciate that because it is, it's so rewarding to see when they figure out LinkedIn and do it in a way that like fits their business and their life. It's like the coolest thing because there's so much opportunity on there, but it can be very frustrating otherwise. So yeah.

Nick Berry (42:45)

Yeah. I mean, it's

you're able to help these people who, mean, there's a lot of, a lot of talent and skills and value and fulfillment out there. That's, that's not being reached. It's not being like opened up until you help remove that barrier. It makes a huge difference. And it's helping somebody like, like a me or, know, in another case, it could be as somebody like you, who just needed to reframe things a little bit. And all of a sudden it's like,

They can unleash their gift. That's powerful.

Natasha Walstra (43:11)

Yeah, I love it.

Nick Berry (43:14)

So well done.

Natasha Walstra (43:14)

I love that.

Thank you. Thank you.

Nick Berry (43:15)

Well, thank you very much. Thank you for the work that you've done with me. I appreciate that. And thank you for joining and sharing. This is exactly what I wanted you to be here for.

Natasha Walstra (43:24)

Thank you for having me and giving me the space to talk through this. If you couldn't tell, I really enjoy what I do. if I can spread the word, I appreciate it. So thank you.

Nick Berry (43:31)

That's great.