Inside A One Person Business - An Interview With Belen Wagaw
Join Ellen as she sits down with Belen Wagaw a thought leadership consultant who is a expert in helping B2B CEOS and execs craft compelling stories online, to connect with their audience and become leaders in their category on Linkedin. Enjoy this deep dive into Belen’s background and learn how she went from climbing the corporate ladder to forging her own entrepreneurial path. Learn her strategies for growth, sales and how she leveraged her own skills and interests for storytelling into a powerful one person business.
Belen Wagaw is a LinkedIn pro and founder of MarkMind. She’s curated an engaged audience of 22,500 followers by sharing her thoughts and advice on how CEO’s and business owners can leverage their stories on LinkedIn to generate trust, credibility and leads. Her thoughtful approach to her business has seen her combine her experience in corporate climbing the ladder and her life long appreciation and love of storytelling. Belen, like many one person business owners, has her own unique approach to her offering, crafting her services by listening to the needs of her audience and becoming a visible expert in her field. In this thought-provoking and honest interview, Belen shares her journey to becoming a solopreneur, her strategy and struggles with sales as well as her top tips for leveraging LinkedIn for growth.
Listen or watch this episode to learn more about:
How Belen was able to connect the dots looking backwards in her career: from her love of reading stories as a child, to surviving the pressure of Board-level meetings to this one person business built around her Unique Contribution
The realities of bridging what brings you joy with what brings you money and how she manages the tension between the two
The process Belen uses for creating opportunities for her business and some personal struggles with the sales cycle when having to ‘prove’ herself to colder leads
The pros and cons of using LinkedIn vs having an ‘owned audience’ and why her newsletter is currently on pause and her website non-existent (for now)
Belen’s plans for growing her business beyond LinkedIn thought leadership content and the strategy she’s exploring to get there
Her best advice for service based business owners writing on LinkedIn and using hooks to grab attention.. if that's you listen up!
Catch up with Belen on LinkedIn.
Read on for the full transcript.
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ED: Hi, Belen. Thank you so much for joining us on the asks one person business interview series today. How are you doing?
I'm doing fantastic. Thanks for having me.
BW: Yeah. Excited to dig into your background and what you're up to. So I've seen you on LinkedIn. You're, you've blown up.
You, you've got some amazing stuff going on on there. So we're excited to hear more. And you are a thought leadership consultant for B2B businesses, CEOs. to share a bit more about, yeah, what, what is it you're up to right now before we get into the detail?
BW: Yeah, sure. So I help either B2B CEOs or executives or their C suite on kind of leveraging thought leadership on LinkedIn. How can they take their insights to drive either more demand to the company? Raise our brand awareness. So yeah, that's kind of an initial idea.
ED: And we were dying to know, like, how did you get into this field? I can see in your backstory that I think it's on your Twitter. You put something like climb to the corporate ladder and decided it wasn't it or something like didn't like the view. You're in Lisbon today with like a amazing view around you. Like you're no longer in corporate. Tell us a bit about how you ended up where you are now.
BW: Yeah, I don't know if I talked the top of the ladder. There's many, many things to climb, right? But for my age and experience at that time, I think I went pretty far.
So my background was, I was at a really large company called SAP, 100, 000 people. I did have, had many jobs, but also was the chief of staff to an organization of 30, 000 people, like supporting the leader of that organization. When that person left, I became a chief storyteller. So that was my last big role before going on my one person business or self employment.
And so that's a pretty big jump and I saw a lot, I got to work with board members, you know elite customers and all of that. And I realized I could play this game really well, but do I want to became the kind of the, the question behind and I've always had an inkling of kind of doing something on my own. I love the power of storytelling. In a way to also kind of capture consumer's interest and all of that. So that's how I got here, but I had a lot of fun in corporate and I think, yeah, I played a really, you know, I enjoyed the game. I said post a lot about that as well. If anyone's curious and wants to go dig in the archives.
ED: Yeah. Some tales, some, some of your own storytelling about that, that time, I'm sure to be found there. But if we look at your one person business journey, then give me a sense of what it is that you spend your time doing day to day. What are you up to?
BW: Yeah, day to day, I am, if I'm working with the client full on, right, the full extreme of what I do is I really help them extract insights.
So let's say CEO comes in, knows they have a pretty good idea of what they want to write about or what the purpose of what I want to do on LinkedIn is I help them kind of condense their thoughts, ask them a lot of questions, kind of in an interview slash therapist way, right, to see what are the, Like burning desires of their customers, what stories of the CEO have that they find a little bit, maybe not worth telling, but I realized, no, we can package it in a way.
So part of that is like the interview process of me really getting the knowledge extraction from the person. And the other part is also writing on their behalf, right? So the ghost writing comes in, which also takes up a good chunk of my time. And ghostwriting, a lot of times there's a lot of misconceptions.
People think that it's a very hands off process, but where I bridged my previous roles as either being a chief of staff or advising others in their communication, the big part is like being a sparring partner with whoever that is, and really getting the right info for them. So my days are spent kind of becoming other people and really trying to get into someone else's world.
And if it's also coaching and supporting them in that sense.
ED: I think you're describing my dream role. It sounds so interesting. It's like, yeah, you're like interviewing people, right? I used to work in headhunting and then telling them what's exciting and interesting about themselves. It's hard to see that, like, you can't see the label from inside the jar and that's what you're doing. And then getting to sit down and write about their, their journeys and like coming up with content. So how, how do you feel that your background Ground your particular skills, strengths, personality. I call it your unique contribution. It's the packaging of everything that is you. How do you feel that you've mapped that into what you're doing as a service today?
BW: Yeah, I love this so much because you can only connect the dots when you look backwards, right? So in a way, my corporate experience has helped me a lot because one, I have been in those rooms with those people that are thinking about quarterly results and Big vision strategy with like the pressures from the board, right?
So I know what they want to get from their content online, but I also love storytelling I've always loved to read just from from like a very young age and till this day nothing brings me, you know More joy than either listening to a really great podcast or listen to people's stories I always say like I I'm very fascinated with people's like memoirs and all of that So I think my interest in people's stories while understanding like company You Goals and what an executive's day to day, you know, struggle is like really positions me well to work with them and say, okay, this is not just like a, you know, fluffy stuff we're doing on LinkedIn just for you to have a thought leadership voice. It's no, you have a reason to be on there and let's make sure that your company goals are aligning with what we're publishing.
ED: I really like this idea of the intersection of like your background from a professional perspective. You know, you've been in those rooms, you were a chief of staff. A lot of chief of staff responsibilities are like extracting key insights and packaging up for the rest of the organization. ANd you’re clearly carrying that thread through, but because you get to define what you do as a one person business owner, you've carried the other thread, which is storytelling. Like I'm sure you've read so many stories over your lifetime that you know what makes a good story, the narrative arcs, the personalities, the enemies, all that stuff. And. You've made your business fun by the sounds of it by having that really strong component of Play in there. Does it feel like play to you? Running this business or yeah, what's your experience?
BW:
I would be lying if I said everything was was like play right because as soon as you bridge what brings you joy, what makes you money, then something always shifts, right?
But again, the play part definitely is in the interview, knowledge extraction, researching, diving deep into like someone's world brings me so much joy. So that part definitely feels like play. There are other parts of the business, you know, running a business that is hard. I think anytime that you have to always I don't know that's, you know, I'm jumping the gun, but you know, there are some parts that feel a little bit more difficult, the very opsy side, right?
The process driven, like, really of how the day to day of how the business works, that is not my strong suit. So, yeah
ED: yeah, I think many people can relate to that. You obviously get different personalities, types, and all sorts of business, but One of the ones you hear a lot is the creative who's got all the ideas and like loves to build the product.
So to speak in your case, you know, deliver the service and then less structured around the operational side. You have other types who love delivering the product, like I don't coaching, but don't want to do the sales and marketing side. Like, yeah, if you could pick and choose your favorite activities, your ideal day, what, which bits would you keep in that puzzle?
ED: Hmm. I would definitely keep the, the strategy activity and like really figuring out what, what types of stories of what types of angles or what kind of pain points, what desires do we need to amplify? So really, I mean, good writing or good storytelling comes from the thinking, right? So that part I feel really strongly about and I love and that's why I get so much energy from also getting off of calls from the subject matter expert, right?
And whether the CEO, the CTO, like an executive, whoever that is, like, I love that because. I'm a very curious person. The part that is more on the ops, right? Like, again, nitty gritty stuff of like, this is the tool that you have to use to invoice or however that is, or even sales. Not creating marketing, right?
Not like talking about what I do, per se, but the actual conversations, to this day, I still find it a little bit icky. And I'm just trying to get over the idea that I'm actually taking something, right? Just because there's like a monetary exchange. I don't know where it comes from. I've paid for so much coaching and for so many things in my life.
I have no issue giving money. So I don't know how I have the issue on the other way. But for some reason, when it's like a real, when it becomes like a sales conversation, I, I, I still have some trouble with it. So that's probably just a mindset thing that I need to, to really dig through. Even though I've done, I've done the work. Maybe not enough work.
ED: Yeah, I'm not going to try and coach you right now on this, on this point.
BW: Oh, please do!
ED: But it's like I think it's really helpful for you to share that and thank you because a lot of people can see from the outside, oh, Belaine's smashing it, like, look at all these cool clients she's working with, and that might feel really great to you once they're your client.
And you might love sharing the story around that client journey, but like you say, that actual pinch point of like getting them on a discovery call, like sending a proposal, getting the agreement, getting the start date in place. That bit of the, of the journey can actually be quite full of mindset stuff, as you say, boundaries.
So I can resonate with, with some of what you're saying for sure. What what is your typical process to get clients? Like where do they tend to find you? How does that journey work?
BW: Yeah, so typical process is actually they find me on LinkedIn, which is yeah, my main channel. They discover me on LinkedIn, then they'll probably follow me for a while.
I have a lot of lurkers, right? People that don't really engage. I don't really even know that they do, they might not be even in my large following. And then one day they either send me a message or schedule a strategy call directly because that's one my booking items. We get on a discovery call.
And then we see if there's like needs to be a proposal call where I kind of walk him through the offers and then we sign the other way is also just like a referral, right? Either an existing client or someone that is in my previous network, people that I've worked with, people I've chatted with will connect me, they might bypass some of that, you know, longer LinkedIn content.
You know, digestion or whatever you want to call it. Yeah, that's usually it.
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ED: Yeah, it sounds like it's either kind of one or two routes. When you get the referral, it's quite warm. That person tends to know the story of their friend or whatever quite well. And they're like quite invested in that process versus following you, not sure if they even need what you offer. But then something one day clicks and they're like, Oh, I better reach out to Belaine. And that, those lurkers that you described are really common in this, And it can feel sometimes like we're not getting traction or engagement, but that most of the time that people that like and comment on your posts are like peers and supporters, I find people that actually buy are typically not commenting.
They just hear about them one day and they spend thousands of pounds or dollars. Okay, got to keep showing up.
BW: Absolutely, they might view your profile, even that, that might be a push. I've seen that time and time again with my clients as well, where it's not a lot of people that are liking or commenting. Maybe it's the people that are viewing your profile, potentially the followers, but there might be also like people that are just like none of the trackable metrics. And for that, yeah, there are two ways. Sometimes even from the, you know, people that are coming through LinkedIn, some of them are very warm, right?
I've had clients that they follow me for like a year or longer and they're like, okay, finally. And so by the time they get it, they're fully bought on and they just want to know like the logistics. So like, of course the investment and all of this, but there's not that much need of convincing or something.
And I think that's what I struggle with going back to the last question when it feels very much like proof to me, maybe it's cause I'm a Virgo, maybe it's like related to other things, you know, any people believe in that, then it's just feels like a little bit more, Well, very interesting timing of this conversation.
ED: I've discovered I'm a projector in human design recently, which I didn't know much about, but they're apparently not great at like convincing strangers of things. It's much more like they have to come to you, which I was like, Oh, that makes a bit of sense. So yeah, I do think there's something like, whether you call it spiritual or just your strengths, like there is something about, Finding your version of sales and marketing and client engagement, and it's not going to look the same as others.
I will say from the outside, it feels like you have a very good time of it in the sense that like you have one channel that you've done really well on. You've got 22, 000 followers, which I imagine you weren't about to share. So I will share that for everybody listening, which is amazing. And your target clients are on LinkedIn, right?
So you kind of go LinkedIn to discover a call to client which is quite a clean clear process But does it feel like that to you like what have been any upsides or downsides of that being the primary method?
BW: I don't think there is a downside.
What I think about often is I know that I kind of have to de-platform and also have an owned audience. I have launched a newsletter, and since paused that newsletter, that is also something that I'm happy to share, right? Like, sometimes things that you start, you don't continue with.
So that's still something I want to do because there is something powerful of connecting with your audience on on a one on one like somewhere where like an email is coming through because even though I have a large audience and I've been very intentional and I'm very proud of it, right? Like, in terms of best practices, I think I haven't accepted everyone or a lot of that. So the following is good, but I still want to deep platform have a newsletter just because it's better and also create a more yeah. I want them to see me more, right? So that's what I want to change more.
That it's not just text, adding video. So there are things I want to do better. So I think the process makes sense because my clients are on LinkedIn, but there are still ways to make it better.
ED: Absolutely. We're never done, but I like that you've Given that you're full focus, that's worked out at a starting point.
Like I couldn't find and correct me if I'm wrong, a website, for example, like you've given that LinkedIn your focus and that, that can work really well. And now it's okay. How do I get the algorithm to not be the be all and end all for me? Well, maybe it's a community, a newsletter, a membership, whatever. So watch this space, I guess, for everyone.
BW: For both, for both actually.
ED: So we'll, we'll come back with those updates. Yeah, no, I'm curious. And how do you think about growing your business as a one person business? Do you plan on having a team one day? Like, what do you see as your version of scale?
BW: Yeah, I absolutely do see having a small team a small agency or consultancy, however you want to call it, so that I can, one, serve more clients, but also serve clients more deeply.
Like my biggest passion and my strengths are in comms and general communication. So I do want to kind of extend that. The thought leadership piece, executive comms in general, and come into companies and kind of either help them with both their internal comms from like CEO communication, whether it's like all hands, you know, the weekly messages that they're sending to their employees, all the way to everything else, external comms for their executive companies, right? So, or their executive team. I don't just see this being thought leadership on LinkedIn. I really see myself owning that category or that piece. So that's how I want to scale. I, again,
There's something that really feels so much fun to me. It is comms at a company level. I think it's the most underrated and I think that as a company that if you do it well, and if you can get your company, your customers and employees behind your idea, make sure they're understanding where you're headed, really give them all the tools and you know, share your journey as you're going along and growing the company. It's really powerful.
And I see this being done so poorly so often that the CEO sends a message when there's like a huge change, a bad change crisis comes, right? Or they're not really being transparent or in a way that feels like. Human and very, you know, less corporate jargon BS, quite frankly. So that's how it's, it's both like having, of course, servicing more clients, but having a bit more deeper offers and that whole executive comms like brand.
ED: That's really exciting. And I think what I love about this is that you've very much approached your business from a problem first perspective, like the problem of corporate comms being not. Optimized or CEO is not leveraging their voice when it comes to growing their businesses and you then go, well, what can I offer around that? It's a bit of this, it's a bit of that. And going forward that opens all these avenues for yeah, executive comms and internal operations. So it's it's a growing space and you seem like you really have that unique contribution fit to your business. So I'm, I'm really yeah, I say proud of you and we don't know each other, so I can't say that.
BW: I'll take it. I'll take it.
ED: I admire you, it's probably a more normal thing to say to you. We had a little chat at the start. So I feel like I know you a bit more. But so I, I feel like this is a slightly selfish question, but it's probably other people wondering the same. Do you have any like go to best practices for LinkedIn from a one person service based provider perspective?
Like what would you give the audience as advice for doing well on LinkedIn for getting growth or clients?
BW: Yeah, great question. I think one thing is writing 101 or writing guideline 101 is your hook is the most important part of any post that you create, right?
So your hook is usually either the first or, you know, two sentences. If that's not interesting and if it doesn't grab someone's attention, then most likely they won't read the rest. It doesn't mean that you need to write like everyone else, right? There are very, you know, copy paste formulaic things on LinkedIn, which I'm not a fan of, but the point is if you're writing a post about changing careers, don't say that you're changing career in the sixth sentence of an eighth paragraph thing.
Right? So start with that. It's a bit, some people might call it clickbaity, but if it's, it's not, if you're actually talking about what you're talking about don't be afraid to share your personal story, right? Like at the end of the day, and also, especially now in the world of AI or however it's happening One thing that we really need to keep in mind is people can take your stories away, right?
So the difference of you talking about how the, the, you know, the tips you learned as a project manager and a very specific company, what makes it that different is if you talk about anecdotes, you know, you add that bit of you, that's really important and don't post and ghost is what I always say.
Like LinkedIn is a very engagement focused platform to, you know, however, how much you like it or not. So the point is when you create content, make sure that you're Showing some love to other people that you respect, you know, dropping some insightful comments and then sticking around for a bit to also answer things as they're coming in.
In the beginning, maybe you won't have a lot of people writing, but yeah, that's, those are the top three tips I would give.
ED: Really great tips. Thank you. Yeah, I've written them down. I think it's the opposite of what I do, not every time, but sometimes, you know, you're like, I need to get a LinkedIn post out.
Let me just, blah, blah, blah. And then you're like, Oh, yeah. It's not great. So I'm just going to close that and forget that happened.
BW: We've all done it. I still, if I was to read stuff, I'm like, there are things that I read from a couple of months ago and I'm like, Oh, not my best work. It happens. Like no one will, you know, it's not about the one post. It's just about keeping it up. Like, you don't look at your stuff over a week, look at over the last three months and see.
ED: Yeah. And I also believe like a good post will be. The day and time of the week, right? Like, you can post at, like, a terrible time, like a Sunday afternoon, if it's a great post, it'll eventually get the views. And so I think it's more important to focus, like you say, on, like, Yeah, getting the attention, first of all, and engaging, if you can get that right, then you're ultimately going to make it work. So yeah, we will have to get you back for like a LinkedIn masterclass or something one day. What about you? Like, how can people stay connected to you, maybe even work with you? I know that you're more B2B, but you perhaps have something else coming up. So do you want to share a bit more about how you'd love to connect with people?
BW: Yeah, absolutely. So the best place to connect with me is on LinkedIn.
You can send me a DM, send a connection request, happy to chat. I, yeah, I usually work with B2B, so CEOs or their executives, but I'm also doing kind of one to one coaching and accelerators on people that are like, okay, I want to stop being a bystander on LinkedIn. Kind of really start doing this personal branding thing. So either it's like content strategy, coaching, copy coaching, and really kind of showing them how they can take their own stories. So either or, but yeah, LinkedIn is the best place.
ED: Well, it's been a pleasure. Thank you so much for sharing your, your journey and yeah, looking forward to hearing more about what you're up to this year and hopefully a trip to Lisbon.
We'll, we'll have to say hello in person.
BW: Yes. I hope so. Bye.
