Transcription of Episode
Intro/Outro 0:04
Welcome to Investing Across Borders with Lauren Cohen. Every week she will share valuable information that you need to know in order to successfully invest in real estate and other business endeavors in North America. We believe in helping clients invest, live, work, and play across borders. And now, your host, Lauren Cohen.
Lauren Cohen 0:26
Good morning, everybody. I am Lauren Cohen. And I am here today with my special guest Ed Zia, all the way from Australia, and I am learning all about the different places in Australia, there are many of them. There’s the South Shore. And there’s the north part. And I mean, I don’t really know very much about Australia, the only thing I knew about prior to Amir Michelle joining my team really was Sydney and Melbourne. And that’s it and some clients that have come from different places, but not really the extent that I’m learning about these places now. So anyway, I am Lauren Cohen, international, legal and real estate expert and the host of this podcast investing across borders, I help people navigate a path to invest, live, work, and play across borders. And I would invite you to join subscribe to this podcast on Apple, wherever you’re listening to it. Google, however, works for you. And if you would be so kind as to give us five stars, because those five stars help us to get even better guests on the podcast. But I don’t think the guests get much better than this lovely man adze. I feel like I’ve known you and literally for years. And it’s probably because of that Commonwealth connection. Australia, Canada, you know, it’s just a natural affinity. So please say hello and introduce yourself.
Ed Zia 1:46
Oh, it’s a pleasure, Lauren. Also, too, I think you’re just an exceptional human being. So how can I not get to know someone like you?
Lauren Cohen 1:55
Thank you.
Ed Zia 1:56
Seriously, thank you, it’s an honor to be here. So yes, I’m an international master coach. And I tend to focus on helping people become big business influences. So I spent a lot of my life on LinkedIn running events, talking to people running zooms, and pretty much just helping people globally really take off and win big in their own unique way.
Lauren Cohen 2:17
And your special focus is my favorite social media platform, LinkedIn. And why did you choose LinkedIn?
Ed Zia 2:27
I think in a way LinkedIn chose me, I think is the way to do it. Because I found LinkedIn law. So I spent a bit of time on Facebook and Instagram, found it a waste of time, but one of my friends said I should get a LinkedIn and I’m not exaggerating, I achieved more in terms of follower growth and close business on LinkedIn and three months that I didn’t three is a Facebook. So you know, to me, pretty much within a month that’s using LinkedIn, I was already I went from skeptic to zealot very quickly.
Lauren Cohen 2:55
Yeah, I agree with you. I mean, the difference. I actually have two paid consults today from people that I connected with on LinkedIn now, whether they turn into clients or not, I don’t know. But it’s definitely worth your time to invest in LinkedIn. It’s been my best platform. And I think the differences when you’re doing b2c, or maybe you’re in retail, or something like that, and you want to get to the masses. You might use Facebook or Instagram or both, or all of the above or Twitter. I’m not a big Twitter fan. I love clubhouse. I know you do, too. I think that clubhouse is an awesome forum. That’s actually how I met Amir. I’m not sure if you knew that. But Amir and I connected on clubhouse so but the reality is LinkedIn when you’re doing b2b, and pretty much all of my businesses b2b in some way, even though my clients may not be in business in the US yet, but it’s when you’re doing b2b and you want to connect at a higher level. LinkedIn is definitely the place to be there’s no question. So Ed tell us what brought you to 87,000 followers, is it now?
Ed Zia 4:00
On almost 90,000 followers. And my business page is 140,000 plus followers, so I’m really happy so I’ve been really taking off exponential lately. So it’s been it’s been incredible because I know you appreciate this into our beautiful listeners as well. When you get a lot of followers it makes your business so much easier because you know when you have a lot of followers, you have so much business coming to you and it’s great. I used to be the ambulance chaser per se I used to be the guy always chasing people for business and now it’s good being the other way around and it took me a decade but we got there in the end Lauren
Lauren Cohen 4:36
You know it’s the slow and steady wins the race. It’s it’s funny because with as you know, Amir and I are partners at the XP Realty and that’s a cloud based real estate company. And I’ve been building my tribe slowly, but surely just like I build my business I’ve never been, I mean, I guess I sprint around during the day to get things done. But sprinting in business ends up You end up hitting walls. And I would rather go through a marathon than a sprint and make sure that I’m covering everybody and giving them the attention they deserve Ed, because you can’t in two months on LinkedIn achieve what you’ve achieved in 10 years. Right? It’s just not possible. So tell us the difference, because this is something that I am actually working on literally right now, as you know, tell us the difference between a follower and a connection on LinkedIn.
Ed Zia 5:27
Brilliant questions. So a connection is someone who you literally linked to on LinkedIn, it’s pretty much what LinkedIn is about, in a way, it’s like being a friend on Facebook, you’re directly connected to each other, you see each other’s details, you see the sage, others content, and you can message each other. So it’s quite, it’s basically being like being a friend on Facebook. Yeah, that direct connection with someone. What a follower is, is someone who follows your content. So a follow up maybe a connection, a follow up may not be a connection, you can have someone who’s a connection that doesn’t follow your content, you can have someone is not a connection, follow your content. So follow a means that is purely following your content, whether they’re a connection or not.
Lauren Cohen 6:07
So you’re not necessarily following their content, then unless you follow them.
Ed Zia 6:13
Unless you choose to slow works on LinkedIn is if you connect with someone, you automatically start following each other’s content, right? Unless someone chooses to unfollow Where is, quite often when someone follows you. They’ve either seen some of your content they’ve liked common and shared, or they’ve intentionally chosen to follow you.
Lauren Cohen 6:31
So the beauty of followers is that there’s no limit to the number. That’s why you have a almost 90,000 followers, whereas connections are limited to 30,000. on LinkedIn?
Ed Zia 6:43
Yeah. So for example, I’m I always hit I had a big problem, actually, about a year ago, almost hit about 30,000 connections. And I just got rid of a lot of useless connections, basically people that just didn’t talk to me, right, I got rid of a stack of connections. So right now I’ve got about I’ve always sat on about 29,000 connections, because I’m always removing people and that sort of thing. And some of is adding people room, people. So my followers are going through the roof, but my connections have actually held constant on about 29,000.
Lauren Cohen 7:10
Yeah, but you have to because otherwise, you’re done. Now, is there a way to change a connection to a follower or vice versa?
Ed Zia 7:19
To change your connection to a follower? Well, basically, if that person’s following your content, and then you choose to remove them as a connection, that might work. But when you remove people’s connections, it’s like breaking up with someone they then hate you.
Lauren Cohen 7:33
Like when you unfriend them on Facebook, and it’s like, why did you find me? Well, your politics are a little drastic for me. Sorry, I just prefer not to see all of that every single day.
Ed Zia 7:44
So unfriending someone’s like insulting their mother, basically. That’s Yeah, that’s what is your relationship with that person?
Lauren Cohen 7:51
That’s right. It’s like without, especially without warning. So you know, you’re in Australia, and you’re 14 hours ahead of us and on the east coast in the US and Canada, and 17 hours ahead of West Coast right? of LA. So does that how does that impact your business? Now I was on a zoom call with you this morning at 6am our time 8pm your time. And by the way, I’m going to beg you to please have a meeting in the evening your I’m sorry, in the morning, your time some day. So it’s easier for me I’m much better to contend at night, just because I have a kid. But in the meantime, like how does that impact your business? that huge time difference? does it impact your business?
Ed Zia 8:33
Absolutely. Because interestingly, over half of our revenue comes from outside of Australia. So we run a as defined by the Australian Government, we run a an export business, you know, majority of our revenue comes from outside Australia. And interestingly on that one bar, and what I’ve found is that I’ve had to think globally, I’ve had to think in a very global fashion. So when I put out an event, I’m not just thinking about my friends down the road, I’m thinking about my friends in Canada and Dubai and London and that sort of thing. So you’re never going to get it right. You never go if you’re running zooms, for example, you might get half the world but you’re not gonna get the other half the world. So you’re you’re forever doing what you can, taking whatever shot you can get to hit as many people as possible. The biggest thing that I’ve learned is in answering all that is listening to your market. So I’m very, very big on listening to what people tell me. So for example, now zoom events every Thursday 8pm Sydney time, they used to be every Thursday 6pm Sydney time
Lauren Cohen 9:32
That’s 4am for me. That’s a problem for me.
Ed Zia 9:35
Exactly. And all the feedback was aired this time. The time is insane, put it two hours later. And when I listened to the market, about two hours later, our attendance went up by 50%. So, to me, it’s about listening to your market because at the other day your fans tell you where you’re hitting the market when you’re missing the mark. And same goes for content. If you’re putting out content that’s not very good. Your fans are gonna tell you either directly or by not engaging but when you put out content they love. They’ll hit that LIKE and SHARE they’ll tell you. And so to me listening to your fans makes that international global business operation so much easier.
Lauren Cohen 10:10
When did you first know that you were going to be doing this on a global scale?
Ed Zia 10:16
Well, what am I I used to be very summit in Sydney, Australia. I used to be very Sydney myopic.
Lauren Cohen 10:23
Really? I find that hard to believe.
Ed Zia 10:32
Probably only two years ago, I think it was two years ago, what happened was I started getting all these clients into state law as in through other states, such as you know, Queensland, which is like Florida, Victoria, which is, I suppose, like our candidates raising their air. So it’s not getting those clients room.
Lauren Cohen 10:50
It’s not freezing in Canada right now. Just say, and it’s funny yesterday, I was on a zoom with them with Israel. And I’m often you know, I’m that seven hours. It’s halfway, halfway between here and there. And I was holding part of me. I love Israel. Me. Me too. So I was holding my little dog who’s 15 pounds, and he’s black and fuzzy. So the woman in Israel says to me, said to me, why are you wearing the scarf? Is it really cold? where you are? What are you talking about? I didn’t, I said, What are you talking about? She goes, Well, you’re have a Canadian flag. And she forgot. I’m in Florida. And I said, Well, that’s my dog. And anyway, it’s not called where I’m from. I’m from Toronto, it’s very warm. Right now, it was just so funny, because there’s just this automatic assumption that Canada’s always cold. And right now, some days in the summer, it’s actually warmer than here in Florida, but that’s inside. It’s just, you know, everybody, I think that you the beauty of what you do is that it resonates with everybody. And you are such a empathetic, kind, generous entrepreneur, a true impact entrepreneur, if I do say so. And I’ve only known you for less than a month, although it does feel like much longer, make everybody feel important, even those that don’t generally get those kind of accolades. And I think that that’s important, because, you know, people like us, are used to people rooting and saying, Oh, my gosh, and cheerleaders and, you know, global impact and all of this and it’s wonderful. But then there are people that just don’t have that opportunity, and you give them that platform and that’s a big deal. And you do it from your heart. It’s not like you’re there’s not an ulterior motive. It’s just natural, instinctive for you to you and last, your lovely wife, and business partner to share that kindness and generosity and to help. I know you have many groups specifically for women and helping them get connected through LinkedIn internationally. One of what’s the one called international business women. The International it’s lassies. International boss ladies summers. Firstly, is that Yeah, Boss Lady. So I did a vision board last week and had Boss Lady a few times on there. I don’t I don’t think I want to be the boss. What do you think? I think you’re already a Boss Lady. You’re a Boss Lady way before we you know me already, you see that we haven’t even met but you know me. So tell us like your top five tips for people that are building a global presence on or trying to build a global presence on LinkedIn. The first one, by the way, is that I would suggest joining Ed’s vault of information and being a part of his community, because truly, he brings you up, he really elevates you and helps you to shine and helps you to be seen in the world, especially on LinkedIn. But tell us five tips if you would.
Ed Zia 13:50
Well, that’s a great tip. So, joining our community and giving Edward Z money is a great place to start.
Lauren Cohen 13:56
And I will share the link in the notes.
Ed Zia 13:58
But no, thank you. No, seriously. So tip number one is spend a lot of time on your LinkedIn profile, like spend a day on or whatever, put in a really good photo, spend a bit of time updating it, like putting your previous job history, update all the details, make sure it’s perfect. Imagine you’re going for a job. And they’re going to check out your LinkedIn. So get your LinkedIn profile. That’s tip one, spend a good time on your profile. Tip two is connect with everyone you know, you might have an old style business cards you might connect with people from that you’ve worked with in the past, connect with all the cool, wonderful people that you know, step two. Step number three is start sharing amazing content, you might just start by sharing other people’s content and leaving comments. And you might actually work your way up to actually creating your own content. You might start using text only to type out tips. You might be ready to do some photos and videos, or what you might do is what we’re doing you might interview some of your friends over zoom and upload the recording to LinkedIn. That’s a great move. Tip number four His support your friends, because at the end of the day, the more you like, share and comment other people’s stuff is, the more you’re going to get back to help you take off. And then it brings me to tip number five. And this is the most important one is talk to people one on one. So when you get a connection, send them a voice message, say hello. And this is the point of LinkedIn. And this is in Microsoft who owns LinkedIn, in Microsoft’s own words. LinkedIn is a professional networking platform. So interestingly, if you speak to anyone from Microsoft, and you call LinkedIn, social media, they’re a bit uncomfortable that they actually don’t like it. If you speak to it, like LinkedIn being called social media, because they don’t see it that way. They see LinkedIn as a networking platform. And that’s what I’ve seen is I actually, to me, LinkedIn is not social media. It has elements of social media, but it’s actually a networking platform, with social media functionality. That’s the way Microsoft sees it. And that’s the view that I’ve come to really adopt over time.
Lauren Cohen 15:56
Yeah, I think that that’s very true. And it is definitely a different type of engagement as a result, and you don’t want to be sending pictures of your kids. I mean, unless you get to that point. That’s that’s just not the appropriate way to undertake engagement. And I think that there’s a special type of engagement because it is a biz to biz platform, whether it’s called social media, or it’s not it is a platform. And the most important thing that I found is engagement is the key. You can have 30,000 or 29,800 connections, and do no business or you can have 6000 connections and do a ton of business. The difference is engagement. So if you can’t do it yourself, hire VA. And also, as Ed has taught me, and as I’ve learned, because I’ve been doing LinkedIn for a long time, and I will tell you that I’ve spent 10s of 1000s of dollars, and I’m not kidding, probably overtime, I’ve spent at least 15, or more probably $20,000. Okay, on LinkedIn, and I’ve been on there a long time, I have a lot of connections. But that does not mean that I always have had the type of engagement. One thing that I noticed, and we can talk about this a little is you’ll put a post, and I get lots of views. But until I joined its community, and this is the truth, I barely had any comments. So I would get these notification saying you’ve had 387 views? How do you engage them to comment? So I would put these posts up and people were interested, but they wouldn’t be engaging. And so it’s really important that you are part of a community that’s going to bring you up. And you know, even if they come in and say great news, whatever the case is, it’s an engagement. And it brings you up in the rankings, and it gives you an opportunity to engage back.
Ed Zia 17:48
Right, absolutely. And just adding to that as well. One of the biggest things that I couldn’t agree more Well said, Laura, and one of the things I’ve learned as well is, when you do videos on LinkedIn, and you say very interesting points, that gets a lot of engagement. So find video. And when, let’s say you do a quick 234 minute video on LinkedIn, and you might give some tips that gets a lot of engagements. I think if someone sees a photo, it’s more like you just like and comment. It’s not a lot to do with a photo. But if you’re doing a video giving some profound ideas, you’re giving people more opportunities to engage with you. And another thing that also gets a lot of engagement as well, I polls. I’ve been doing a lot of polls lately. And polls are crazy. Like I did a poll last night I got 7000 views, and it was a pretty average poll. I did a really all four days ago and it got like 28,000 views. So polls as well. forces people to engage with you. The whole point of a poll is people have to engage, they have to vote. And I think what makes polls so interesting is that, and this is why I am people don’t know the results when they vote, they then see what everyone else is thinking. So it’s a bit of curiosity, then you might see a poll and you want to vote on it, because you want to see what everyone else is thinking. So I think there’s a lot of really cool, engaging viral tricks that Microsoft and LinkedIn is used there to make as engaging as possible. So my advice to everyone is more videos, more polls, and that will help drive better comments and better interaction ultimately get you in front of the right people in the LinkedIn platform.
Lauren Cohen 19:19
Yeah, agreed. Would you say now I know that your main focus, focal points are Canada, US and Australia. You’re also i’m sure getting clients from the UK and other alien country Dubai,
Ed Zia 19:35
Australia right across from Dubai Actually yes it bias are pretty much everywhere. It’s we’ve got clients all over the place now. It’s incredible. It’s a it’s just incredible because I think in what we do is we don’t attract people from a certain part of the world. We attract the type of person that can exist anywhere, any place in time
Lauren Cohen 19:55
And how has the pandemic impacted this for you?
Ed Zia 19:59
For us? And I say this with respect to all those affected by the pandemic negatively. The pandemic was a moment of triumph. So like talking pre 2020 pray the original global lockdowns last night he and I weren’t, we had a small following, but we, we weren’t that well known. At the end of lockdown. We basically tripled our follower base. So I started locked down less, you know, like 20 30,000 followers, and a lockdown were like, you know, this this page was like 80,000, my page was 60,000. So for us, it was it was a moment of triumph, because when lockdown began, it forced me to get really good at my content I did I really focused on my content, and then we just both took off. So for us pandemic actually helps grow our business. And again, I say that with respect to everyone.
Lauren Cohen 20:51
I think that part of courses around 4000 bc was Alexa. I don’t know what she was talking about. But I think maybe they thought you said Alexa, instead of Lassie with to be so careful. What would you say who were talking to? So we’re 1000 bc? I don’t know what that is. But anyway. Pardon? Google’s Listen, is what I was gonna say that I think that part of that or no, that part of that is because everybody is now able to join you on zoom. And everybody’s able to join your tribe. It’s not the world has become smaller, because zoom is now the norm. Before it was much very much the exception. I mean, I’m zoomed out every single day, my aching eyes. I had LASIK. And I keep saying I think that Right, exactly. So but I wouldn’t trade this opportunity to really create strong relationships and relationship capital is your definitely number one asset, right? I think it’s everybody’s number one asset, except for those that are true hermits and I become a hermit, and a little bit of a sense, because I’m home much more. And I used to be out a lot. But now we can do all of this electronically. I can speak at events all over the world, and I don’t have to leave my home or worry about common coverage for my kids. So it’s makes life easier and more challenging in some ways, because we definitely need that belly to belly.
Ed Zia 22:21
Absolutely. And I’m going to make a good point on that one. Say for example, I’m all with you on that one. In using meetup, we actually run a lot of face to face maps across Australia. So tomorrow morning, like it’s actually it’s 11pm. Our time, in five hours, I wake up and I’m off to the airport to fly into state to help Amir run a meet up
Lauren Cohen 22:45
And it isn’t meant to be a hybrid or it’s just live. In other words, you’re not doing it online are you?
Ed Zia 22:50
Face to face, belly to belly only. So if you’re not there, you’re gonna miss out.
Lauren Cohen 22:56
Well, I don’t think I’m gonna make it even if I left this minute. I wouldn’t make it anyway. It’s a little too much traveling. I think it’s 24 hours to get there. Right?
Ed Zia 23:07
Yeah, so for me, it’s a two hour flight tomorrow. So after we assume I’m gonna run home, brush my teeth, dive in bed, get up five hours later and off to the airport and go kick some air. So it’s gonna be funny.
Lauren Cohen 23:18
Well, I super appreciate your time and making the time for me. It’s such a pleasure getting to know you being part of your world. And I’m looking forward to working with a lot of people in your tribe that are looking to expand their businesses across borders. Please give us your last parting words and how people can connect with you.
Ed Zia 23:36
You’re the best. Well, firstly, the thing I want to say is please connect with Lauren. If you are not following Lauren, please connect with her. Lauren is integrity to the maxim. And you want to connect with me. Best way to do is add me on LinkedIn. And when you hit the Connect key density at the Connect key say, Hey, I was listening to Lauren Cohen’s podcast and connect with me that way and get some parting words as well is, you know, LinkedIn, great platform. It’s owned by Microsoft and the mission of LinkedIn. And I love the mission of LinkedIn is to create global opportunities for everyone. And that’s what LinkedIn does. So it doesn’t matter where you are in the world. If you’re on LinkedIn, if you’ve got a decent phone and internet connection, you’re connected to the world and then it’s up to you what you want to do.
Lauren Cohen 24:17
The world is truly our oyster, especially these days. I thank you again, I’m Lauren Cohen, international legal and real estate expert here with my friend Ed Zia, whom I will eventually meet in person one day when I am either in Australia which will happen or when it is here in the US or in Canada where we can definitely meet please, Lauren Cohen, investing across borders, please subscribe to my podcast on Apple, Google Spotify, wherever you so choose. I look forward to connecting with you. If you are interested in exploring opportunities so that you can invest live, work and play across borders and make sure that you do it legally and with the right and proper counsel. Every step of the way. We are a one stop shop and we would love to work with you. I’m signing off for today with Ed Xia. And I thank you for joining us. It’s been a pleasure as always, thank you.
Intro/Outro 25:15
Thanks for listening to Investing Across Borders with Lauren Cohen. Make sure to check the show notes for any links and for guests contact information. If you have questions for Lauren, please reach out to her at FOUNDER@ecouncilglobal.com. If you enjoyed today’s episode, please subscribe, rate, review, and share the podcast with a friend.
