He Built 55K+ Followers on LinkedIn by Ignoring Every “Best Practice”

Everyone tells you to post consistently, stay in your niche, and use AI to scale. Every “best practice” is really about optimizing. JC optimized one thing instead; Meaning it. 

In this episode, Jake and Ding sit down with JC Pollard, sales leader at Gong with 55K+ followers on LinkedIn, to talk about why it's more important to be authentic than to optimize your content for analytics in search of virality, how you can grow and scale on social media without religiously following all the advice you see online, and more:

• Why niching down isn't as necessary as everyone says
• The problem with letting AI write your posts
• Why chasing virality is the wrong goal
• What it means to build a brand people trust
• How to handle criticism online
• Why you shouldn't be so obsessed with your analytics

This episode is proof that there's more than one way to build an audience and grow on social media. Tune in now to find out how!

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00:00 - Intro Trailer
00:53 - Welcome to the show
01:01 - Guest introduction
01:41 - Who is JC in 30 seconds
02:31 - JC's golf YouTube channel and why he stopped
02:57 - Wanting to be the CEO of YouTube
04:21 - How Ding got into rapping
05:19 - How long has JC been making content on LinkedIn?
05:58 - Why did JC start making content?
07:15 - How he's thinking about making content now
08:10 - Tactical vs. Personal approach to LinkedIn content
09:55 - Dispelling the myth about Gong
12:45 - Why 99% of great sellers never post
14:53 - The Berlin Marathon
16:02 - Building a home gym
18:19 - Good Ole Days Golf YouTube Channel
20:10 - The YouTube golf community
21:10 - The other type of content JC's doing
22:35 - Ding Freestyle Segment
25:22 - How cold calling made him a better freestyler
26:09 - JC's cold call opener
26:50 - Why he loves cold calling
27:50 - The Masters hat gifting story
29:53 - Rapid Fire: Sales or Golf Content?
30:12 - Rapid Fire: A creator you're studying right now, or watching?
30:59 - Rapid Fire: Which is better at getting people's attention, comments or DMs?
31:21 - Rapid Fire: Most underrated LinkedIn advice JC has for people on LinkedIn
32:32 - Are we losing original thought?
33:16 - How Ding actually uses AI
34:06 - Your brain is a muscle
36:02 - Handling hate online
38:58 - Crabs in a Bucket
40:16 - Favorite way to work out
41:15 - Running and letting go of the ego
42:40 - Don't turn your hobby into a second job
43:38 - Outro