UpLift Live - Speaker announcement: Kevin D Turner

Speaker announcement: Kevin D Turner

09/08/23 • 10 min

Time for another speaker, and it's the awesome Kevin D Turner. He's coming from Texas to speak onstage in Birmingham at UpLift Live about advanced LinkedIn strategies.

TRANSCRIPT

I'm one of those that I believe that artificial intelligence can be an incredible muse but it's never going to be a complete artist.

Welcome back to the UpLift Live podcast. This is John Espirian from the Mission Control team for UpLift Live, which is the UK's first LinkedIn-focused conference for LinkedIn specialists, power users and enthusiasts.

OK, time for another speaker, and this time we're heading to Texas to talk with one of the absolute top names of LinkedIn: Kevin D Turner. He has phenomenal knowledge of so many aspects of LinkedIn, and he is a number one person for staying on top of new features and changes.

Let's hop aboard and get to the interview with Kevin!

Kevin D Turner, welcome to the UpLift Live conference podcast.

Thank you so much for being here.

Tell everyone a little bit about who Kevin D Turner is.

How did you get involved in LinkedIn? And what do you know about LinkedIn anyway? I first want to say thank you for having me here.

It's an honour.

I love what you're doing with UpLift Live.

I think it's going to be incredible.

And I'm excited to be there, not just to present but to learn and listen and connect with everybody else who is presenting there, because they're all incredible.

And they see things in different ways.

And that, to me, is really exciting.

You know, so for me, it's a learning experience as well, as well as a sharing experience.

Personally, I've been involved with LinkedIn since 2005.

Actually, it may have been earlier, but I think I set up an account and then forgot how to log in.

I was in that first 2 million, right, got the little letter from LinkedIn that said thank you for being in the first group.

Been very active ever since.

And it has actually helped me in my, I guess, career, in the sense, I've had 6 pivots in my career, each one I made choices.

And about halfway through that career, LinkedIn came into effect, right.

And I started to rebrand myself on LinkedIn when I was ready for these pivots.

And it allowed me to do that.

And that to me was fascinating.

The other component of that, I had done a lot of international business.

I've actually lived in several countries, I've done business in 140 countries, and I had these connections.

And before LinkedIn, it was very difficult to stay connected, right, emails, you know, this was, you know, prior to all this advanced conferencing that you could do, LinkedIn became that connection.

It allowed me to keep contact with all those people.

So, I became very active.

And that, to me, was a connectivity, and I truly believe that this is the platform for networking.

And networking always beats not working, right, whether you're looking for a job or it's just that next opportunity, if you're not talking to people, if you're not out there finding out what they need, what you can help them with what you need, what they can help you with, if you're not doing that, then you're really kind of behind the 8 ball, right? You're always then trying to find something, whereas those things will find you if you network.

And that's one of the most incredible, I think, features of LinkedIn, right, that nobody talks about as a feature.

But it's that ability to network on a global scale, on a mass scale, and on a personal scale.

And you and I have met through LinkedIn.

So, this event will be our time to actually like real life meet, right? I don't even know how tall you are.

And all these things, you know.

So, that, to me, is incredible.

And it's even more exciting.

And we build everything here on LinkedIn together, you know, in that sense of that relationship.

And I think, to me, that's the best part about being here.

Yeah, fantastic.

And I am so grateful for having the LinkedIn platform for meeting people around the world.

And I certainly wouldn't have met the likes of you without this kind of connection platform, it is fantastic for that.

What we haven't said anything about is the fact that you're now probably the most known person on LinkedIn with regards to sharing new features about the platform.

So, you're a personal brand strategist.

But you always come to mind whenever something changes, or something is new on LinkedIn.

And I do wonder whether you sleep at times, because you're sharing so much good value stuff.

Now, one of the challenges we have in a podcast several months ahead of time is that there's no way you can predict wh...

Time for another speaker, and it's the awesome Kevin D Turner. He's coming from Texas to speak onstage in Birmingham at UpLift Live about advanced LinkedIn strategies.

TRANSCRIPT

I'm one of those that I believe that artificial intelligence can be an incredible muse but it's never going to be a complete artist.

Let's hop aboard and get to the interview with Kevin!

Kevin D Turner, welcome to the UpLift Live conference podcast.

Thank you so much for being here.

Tell everyone a little bit about who Kevin D Turner is.

How did you get involved in LinkedIn? And what do you know about LinkedIn anyway? I first want to say thank you for having me here.

It's an honour.

I love what you're doing with UpLift Live.

I think it's going to be incredible.

And I'm excited to be there, not just to present but to learn and listen and connect with everybody else who is presenting there, because they're all incredible.

And they see things in different ways.

And that, to me, is really exciting.

You know, so for me, it's a learning experience as well, as well as a sharing experience.

Personally, I've been involved with LinkedIn since 2005.

Actually, it may have been earlier, but I think I set up an account and then forgot how to log in.

I was in that first 2 million, right, got the little letter from LinkedIn that said thank you for being in the first group.

Been very active ever since.

And it has actually helped me in my, I guess, career, in the sense, I've had 6 pivots in my career, each one I made choices.

And about halfway through that career, LinkedIn came into effect, right.

And I started to rebrand myself on LinkedIn when I was ready for these pivots.

And it allowed me to do that.

And that to me was fascinating.

The other component of that, I had done a lot of international business.

I've actually lived in several countries, I've done business in 140 countries, and I had these connections.

And before LinkedIn, it was very difficult to stay connected, right, emails, you know, this was, you know, prior to all this advanced conferencing that you could do, LinkedIn became that connection.

It allowed me to keep contact with all those people.

So, I became very active.

And that, to me, was a connectivity, and I truly believe that this is the platform for networking.

And that's one of the most incredible, I think, features of LinkedIn, right, that nobody talks about as a feature.

But it's that ability to network on a global scale, on a mass scale, and on a personal scale.

And you and I have met through LinkedIn.

So, this event will be our time to actually like real life meet, right? I don't even know how tall you are.

And all these things, you know.

So, that, to me, is incredible.

And it's even more exciting.

And we build everything here on LinkedIn together, you know, in that sense of that relationship.

And I think, to me, that's the best part about being here.

Yeah, fantastic.

And I am so grateful for having the LinkedIn platform for meeting people around the world.

And I certainly wouldn't have met the likes of you without this kind of connection platform, it is fantastic for that.

What we haven't said anything about is the fact that you're now probably the most known person on LinkedIn with regards to sharing new features about the platform.

So, you're a personal brand strategist.

But you always come to mind whenever something changes, or something is new on LinkedIn.

And I do wonder whether you sleep at times, because you're sharing so much good value stuff.

Now, one of the challenges we have in a podcast several months ahead of time is that there's no way you can predict wh...

Previous Episode

Mission Control: Jeremy Freeman

Meet one of the co-organisers of the UpLift live conference, the Human Content Writer, Jeremy Freeman.

TRANSCRIPT

I just couldn't believe that there's been nothing focused on LinkedIn in the UK.

Let's have a change of pace and introduce one of the members of the Mission Control team running the show.

Time to hop aboard and speak to the Human Content Writer, Jeremy Freeman.

Jeremy Freeman, welcome to the UpLift Live podcast.

You are one of our co-organisers, our Mission Control, for the conference project.

But for anyone who doesn't know who you are, tell us a little bit about Jeremy Freeman, and who is a Human Content Writer? Ooh, mystery there.

Well, thank you, John.

It's an honour to be part of the UpLift Live Mission Control team.

So, who am I? Well, I've been in business for over 25 years now.

I started off a digital agency owner.

And I sold that company about 6 years ago.

It was very successful We were part of the very early days of the dot com boom.

But I got a bit bored in digital and everything else.

I got completely burnt out.

And I did marketing, I did quite a few things until I became a proper Human Content Writer in the past year or so.

And it's been really fantastic.

I've actually loved it.

I actually enjoy writing.

I've been writing for years without realising it.

I have to pay special tribute to Gus, who gave me the idea of changing my LinkedIn headline to Human Content Writer.

And that's been a revelation for me, because a lot of people have actually approached me as a result of my headline.

So, big lesson for everyone: think about your LinkedIn headline.

Yeah, absolutely.

And I remember when you were launching that headline, I wasn't convinced about it.

I mean, I've helped loads of people with their headlines on LinkedIn over the years.

I wasn't convinced by that one only because I thought, well, aren't all content writers humans? But you know, you've tried it and it seems to have worked really well for you.

So, fantastic.

So, the question now then becomes, what is a content writer? Why would a content writer be interested in LinkedIn and specifically a LinkedIn conference? Yeah.

Well, what is a content writer? What I do is I write content specifically for LinkedIn and all other digital platforms, including websites, email marketing, company pages, and so on.

I do quite a lot on content.

I also do Google My Business as well, that a big, big thing I'm doing right now as well.

And I mean, the point I want to touch on about being "human" is obviously we all have seen the proliferation of AI and we can see a lot of people are using AI but sadly lots of people are not using it responsibly.

Now, I don't have anything against AI as long as you use it to give you ideas, support.

Yes, you can ask it to generate an article for you and so on, but you do need to show that into a bit more human, coming from your own style and so on.

Otherwise, it's so clear you're using AI.

Why is it so important? For me, content wins every time on LinkedIn.

For any writer or anyone who's thinking about doing more content on LinkedIn or some writing up, it really is an essential part of being part of LinkedIn.

And I've been a huge fan of LinkedIn for the past few years.

But more so in the past two years, where it's gone from maybe 5% of my business to 80% of my business coming from LinkedIn.

Fantastic.

And there's no better way of railing against AI than having community discussions and also actually meeting people face to face.

And that's exactly what we're going to be doing in Birmingham next March.

So, if you want to get a ticket to UpLift Live, the UK's first conference focused on LinkedIn, then come and join us on Thursday 21 March at Millennium Point in Birmingham.

And if you want to get your ticket, you can go to uplift-live.com.

And you'll meet Jeremy and loads of other people.

We've got 7 speakers lined up, and you'll find out who they are very soon.

So, Jeremy, what are you looking forward to in particular at the conference, without giving away who any of our speakers are, of course? I mean, you know, John, we spoke about this idea several months go.

And we thought, got to do something about it.

Why isn't there anything out there like this? We've been to lots of marketing conferences and so on, but but it always seems to be focused on Instagram, F...

Next Episode

Speaker announcement: Gillian Whitney

Our next speaker announcement takes us to Las Vegas! Meet livestream video expert, Gillian Whitney, who is joining us to speak onstage in Birmingham at UpLift Live.

TRANSCRIPT

So, that's why I'm excited about live video, plus live video, you get two bangs for your buck in that you make your live video, and then you repurpose it as recorded video.

OK, we have another international speaker, and this time we're heading to Las Vegas to speak with livestream video expert, Gillian Whitney.

Let's hop aboard and get to the interview with Gillian!

OK, Gillian Whitney, welcome to the UpLift Live podcast, and you are going to be one of our speakers in Birmingham next year.

Gillian, tell us, what do you know about LinkedIn? Ah, LinkedIn is just like my home.

I love LinkedIn.

I'm one of those people that came over from Facebook.

And when I saw LinkedIn, I never went back.

I just am so enthusiastic about everything LinkedIn, for growing your business professionally and privately as well, because you just get to know so many great people, but I'm all in on LinkedIn.

I love it.

Fantastic.

And you are my go-to video person and specifically, live video which you've relatively recently pivoted into as your main niche now.

So, you're going to be coming all the way over from Las Vegas in the USA to talk to us about live video on LinkedIn.

What can you tell people who are thinking about buying a ticket that they might be able to find out about live video when they come to the conference and hear you speak? Oh, well live video is, I'm thinking, the way to sort of combat the AI bots and the fakery and all those crazy videos that are out there right now.

So, live video, it's allowing people to really get to know, like, and trust you, because with a live, you're genuine, it's not this, you know, edited version of you, it's you being the expert that you are.

So, when you can actually lock in and answer a question live, people know that you know your stuff.

So, that's why I'm excited about live video, plus live video, you get two bangs for your buck in that you make your live video, and then you repurpose it as recorded video.

So, that to me is just like let's get our time together so that when doing video once and getting massive amount of leverage out of that take.

Yeah, that's a great point.

I always emphasise this fact that video is the most extensible format.

And we are recording this as a video right now.

But I'm going to be taking the audio from this and turning it into the UpLift Live podcast.

You might be listening to the UpLift Live podcast, as I say these words.

And but yes, like you said, two bangs for your buck there, video and audio at the same time.

And there's no more personal way of creating content than via video on LinkedIn.

And there's no more personal experience than actually meeting people in real life.

So, we really want to see people coming to Birmingham, UK, next year.

The conference is going to be on Thursday 21 March 2024.

And the tickets are now available so you can buy them at uplift-live.com.

Gillian is one of 7 apex operators of LinkedIn who is going to be speaking on stage about various topics about LinkedIn.

Gillian specialises in live video, but we'll have all sorts of other advanced things like Sales Navigator and Recruiter and advanced searching and all sorts of good stuff.

So, if you want to join us, if you want to see Gillian in action, and loads of other good speakers come to Birmingham, it's going to be a wonderful event.

I can't wait to meet you in person, Gillian, now that we've been connected for a few years.

It'll be great to give you a hug and see you in person.

So, loads of great networking potentials.

And we'll see you all there very, very soon.

And thanks for joining me, Gillian.

Oh, I'm so excited.

And as I said before, if you are thinking about coming and doing a road trip to the UK, there is no better time than now.

So, you know, hey, I'm getting on a plane.

I'm coming from Las Vegas.

So, I'll bring a bunch of show girls with me.

Fantastic, I'll hold you to that! Thanks for being here, Gillian, and we'll see you soon.

Cheers.

I absolutely adore Gillian. She's always so helpful with her content and behind the scenes, and I just can't wait to meet her in person.

If you're ready to get onboard, grab yourself a ticket to UpLift Live at uplift-live....

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