How Did Daymond John and Claude Silver Help Me Blow Up LinkedIn?

Reading Time: 6 minutes

“How do we blow up LinkedIn?” It was one of the questions we asked ourselves.

Why? Let’s turn to Gary Vaynerchuk’s take on LinkedIn:

“LinkedIn has transformed so much as a platform.… Now, it’s become more of a content platform. …. It’s where Facebook was at 5-7 years ago.”

I’d started a “project” to blow up LinkedIn with Ahmad Imam, a brilliant entrepeneur I’d met on the platform who works as a wealth managament and real estate professional in Sydney, Australia.

The concept? It would be a music video involving lots of people people from around the world. (Many more details follow below. Trust me.)

After we’d gotten over 65 willing participants from 6 continents around the globe, we started to realize our little baby wasn’t so little anymore.

It had grown. Fast. Amounting to a collective number of followers that exceeded 3.6 million followers.

Was it Magic? Hell no. It was hard work, long hours, grueling detail, and very strategic. And of course a refusal to take anything too seriously.

There were definitive parts:

1. The nucleus, the idea, the notion of creating something awesome, unlike anything that had come before. This took hold of everything, from the video editing, our approach to “the skits” to the image chosen for the branding of the video to the “campaign title” of The Most Epic Music Video in LinkedIn History.
2. Being inclusive. (There were people, some very visible personalities on LinkedIn, who were invited and chose not to participate. Our motto was simple: Anyone who didn’t want to be in, wasn’t in. We never begged anyone. Instead, we extended an offer to participate.) This was very important during the video editing when juggling 70 different people so everyone was given their moment to shine.
3. Maintaining a very high standard. Ahmad and I are both perfectionists. While we were tempted to compromise at times, we always came back to pushing until we hit the mark.
4. We leveraged our assets. Ahmad could rap; I couldn’t. I could beatbox; Ahmad didn’t beatbox. I could brand this approaching it like a musical event. Ahmad knew certain high profile LinkedIn people who could support who I didn’t. I knew some high profile folks outside the LinkedIn Community that Ahmad didn’t. I used my love of music, story and pacing for the video editing to weave in a story line (we both share a mischievous sense of humor) and to keep people bopping and laughing. Lastly, we each have a musical ear that was the ultimate synergy and musical vision. So we each really leaned into our respective areas, and leaned in big time on our strengths to bring out the most in the project.
5. The pre-launch and roll-out. Too many people just rely on the creation and the drop, and forget there’s a Before, a During and an After. Ahmad and I are both creative but we’re also entrepreneurs, and we used that entrepreneurial sensibility throughout this project. As part of that, I created a series of “images” we each posted on LinkedIn dropping one week before the video was to make it’s world premier, to build the anticipation. This built a fever pitch about the exact date we’d chosen to drop the video on LinkedIn. Note: just as Ahmad was very deliberate with the lyrics he wrote, I was very deliberate in all words chosen to launch this. That was why I chose the words WORLD PREMIERE instead of something less.
6. Lastly, I reached out to folks in my network who could support the launch outside of LinkedIn and kept them in the loop on key developments as did Ahmad: Who’d “signed on” and such.

This resulted in the INC and Forbes articles and Rhett Power and Amy Blaschka are two incredible folks we thank for their mutual love of the project. Both are rock stars. (INC was the the same day as the world premiere and Forbes was two days after.)

Their amount of support and encouragement was incredible. From Ahmad and I, we love you guys dearly.

Then, Daymond John, The People’s Shark, dropped a post on LinkedIn with the line: “History is made!”

And Claude Silver, Chief Heart Officer of VaynerMedia, was amazingly supportive tweeting, “How far can a ‘HEY!’ travel….. VERY VERY FAR!!”

And ever bubbly Diana Nguyen (aka Dancin’ Diana) dropped a “bloopers reel” within the hour of the World Premiere!

This was the kind of energy this was generating.

The Lyrics

CHORUS:

We Branding!

Expanding!

We all about being outstanding!

We create content that’s magic!

Give it up for my LinkedIn Family

Verse:

Setting LinkedIn on fire

Ahmad Imam + David Brier

Whether you in B2B looking for a buyer

Or a jobseeker trying to get hired.

Gotta build a brand before you learn how to sell for wealth

And the plan is to learn how to sell yourself

Want to be grand? Then play the hand your dealt

And we ain’t got to throw hands! Just hand the belt.

(CHORUS)

2002 was LinkedIn’s birth

Back then, we only had a few experts

Now we got 600 million and change

And everybody’s now an expert on blockchain!

You can’t be different if you staying the same

My advice: be consistent, stay in your lane.

Grow a tribe that know, like, trust your name

And once you earn that trust, you can change the game!

(CHORUS)

The real entrepreneurs raise the bets

So you can bet Gary Vaynerchuk’s buying the Jets!

He said: You wanna be a leader? Gotta connect.

And a little bit of Empathy will get you respect.

Grant Cardone! 10X Growth and you chart

And Daymond John will hit it out the park!

See the art is to start everyday with heart

And out-hustle! Shoutout “The People’s Shark”!

(CHORUS)

What does branding even mean? Let’s ask David

“Branding’s the Art of Differentiation”

Ok, so you got to be unique and make it

That means you can’t simply copy and paste it!

You want to be big? You’re going to have to face it

Want to be heard? Be yourself! Embrace it!

’Cause now we across 200 nations

And shoutout to Jeff Weiner! We made it.

(CHORUS)

Hey! That’s How We Did It!

What’s left to say? Only this:

I invite you to help us tell the world how awesome LinkedIn is and blow this up on YouTube as well (here’s how: click PLAY on the above video and then hit the lower right YouTube words. That takes you to the YouTube video where you can like, comment and share).

Thank you to all who participated in this amazing journey to help us blow up LinkedIn. Let’s see how far this thing can go!