In this episode of Navigating Major Programmes, Riccardo Cosentino sits down with Mikaila Kukurudza to explore the significance of thought leadership—and some of the biggest mistakes professionals make on LinkedIn. Mikaila Kukurudza, founder of Colada Marketing Ltd., has been instrumental in helping both people and brands tell their stories, including working with Riccardo over the last three years. If you’ve come across any of Riccardo’s LinkedIn articles, chances are, Mikaila is the pen behind them. Is hiring a ghostwriter unethical? Why does personal branding matter for the infrastructure industry—and beyond? And how do social media platforms shape major programs? Riccardo and Mikaila dive into all this and more. “You already have a personal brand, whether you like it or not. It’s just a matter of whether you’re going to define and refine it into something you’re happy with. For anyone listening—even if you’re not actively posting on LinkedIn—you already have a personal brand. It’s up to you to shape it into how you want to be represented online.” — Mikaila Kukurudza
In this episode of Navigating Major Programmes, Riccardo Cosentino sits down with Mikaila Kukurudza to explore the significance of thought leadership—and some of the biggest mistakes professionals make on LinkedIn.
Mikaila Kukurudza, founder of Colada Marketing Ltd., has been instrumental in helping both people and brands tell their stories, including working with Riccardo over the last three years. If you’ve come across any of Riccardo’s LinkedIn articles, chances are, Mikaila is the pen behind them. Is hiring a ghostwriter unethical? Why does personal branding matter for the infrastructure industry—and beyond? And how do social media platforms shape major programs? Riccardo and Mikaila dive into all this and more.
“You already have a personal brand, whether you like it or not. It’s just a matter of whether you’re going to define and refine it into something you’re happy with. For anyone listening—even if you’re not actively posting on LinkedIn—you already have a personal brand. It’s up to you to shape it into how you want to be represented online.” — Mikaila Kukurudza
Key Takeaways:
The conversation doesn’t stop here—connect and converse with our LinkedIn community:
00;00;00;06 - 00;00;29;29
Mikaila Kukurudza
You already have a personal brand, whether you like it or not. It's just whether or not you are going to define that and perfect it into something that you're happy with. But anyone listening, even if you're not actively posting on LinkedIn, you already have a personal brand out there. So it's up to you to harness that and make it into what you want and how you want to be represented online.
00;00;30;01 - 00;00;58;03
Riccardo Cosentino
You're listening to navigating major programs. The podcast that aims to elevate the conversations happening in the infrastructure industry and inspire you to have a more efficient approach within it. I'm your host, Ricardo Cosentino. I bring over 20 years of major program management experience. Most recently, I graduated from Oxford University's business school, which shook my belief when it comes to navigating major problem.
00;00;58;06 - 00;01;17;26
Riccardo Cosentino
Now it's time to shake yours. Join me in each episode as I press the industry experts about the complexity of major program management, emerging digital trends, and the critical leadership required to approach these multi-billion dollar projects. Let's see where the conversation takes us.
00;01;17;28 - 00;01;43;01
Riccardo Cosentino
Hello, everyone. Welcome to a new episode of Navigating Major Programs. I'm here today with Michaela Rusa. Michaela is a colleague of mine. And today we're going to be exploring a different topic in navigating major programs, a topic which is typically not really discussed but is quite important and is the topic of thought leadership and the importance of thought leadership.
00;01;43;08 - 00;01;52;06
Riccardo Cosentino
And I thought to invite Michaela on this podcast for reasons that are going to become obvious as we progress. How are you doing, Michaela?
00;01;52;09 - 00;01;58;29
Mikaila Kukurudza
I'm doing well. Thanks for having me. It's very strange to be on the other side of this podcast now.
00;01;59;01 - 00;02;00;24
Riccardo Cosentino
Why do you say on the other side?
00;02;00;27 - 00;02;11;18
Mikaila Kukurudza
Well, I've been assisting you with developing and producing this podcast since it launched. How long ago did it launch? I should know that's.
00;02;11;21 - 00;02;12;18
Riccardo Cosentino
18 months ago.
00;02;12;18 - 00;02;24;21
Mikaila Kukurudza
Maybe 18 months ago. So and this is the first time that I am on the recording side of things and not behind the scenes during show notes and prepping audio grams and so on.
00;02;24;23 - 00;02;32;27
Riccardo Cosentino
And you've also been doing more than that over the last, what, two and a half years? Three years. How long has it been that we've been working together?
00;02;32;29 - 00;02;42;09
Mikaila Kukurudza
I should have looked that up before we started talking, but I think we're over three years. I think we started in summer 2021.
00;02;42;09 - 00;02;44;15
Riccardo Cosentino
Correct? Yes. Yeah.
00;02;44;18 - 00;02;52;05
Mikaila Kukurudza
Yeah. So or even in spring maybe so. Yeah. I think over three years now we've been working together.
00;02;52;07 - 00;03;19;10
Riccardo Cosentino
So just for the listeners listening, obviously Michaela is being helping me producing the podcast. But as some of you have been follow me on LinkedIn, Michaela is also being instrumental in helping me creating a strong LinkedIn profile and helping me and supporting me in my full leadership journey on LinkedIn. So a lot of the things that you see on LinkedIn have done with Michaela and Michaela support has been a very interesting journey.
00;03;19;13 - 00;03;39;26
Riccardo Cosentino
Michaela. I mean, I think I mean, I say you're my ghostwriter, but you're much more than just a ghost writer. You're almost a ghost writer psychiatrist. And so helping me through the difficult journey that is being creating my persona on LinkedIn, then you were really instrumental in doing that over the last few years.
00;03;39;29 - 00;04;26;17
Mikaila Kukurudza
I think you touched on an interesting point there, because so much of personal branding is self reflection and getting over imposter syndrome, which you know well about, and it's so much more than just writing and producing content. It's about really understanding what you want to say and how you want to represent yourself. I remember something in one of our first conversations, and I'm sure we'll get into the history of how we started working together, but one of our first conversations is, I remember saying, you already have a personal brand, whether you like it or not, it's just whether or not you are going to define that and perfect it into something that you're happy with.
00;04;26;20 - 00;04;42;07
Mikaila Kukurudza
But anyone listening, even if you're not actively posting on LinkedIn, you already have a personal brand out there. So it's up to you to harness that and make it into what you want and how you want to be represented online.
00;04;42;09 - 00;04;56;18
Riccardo Cosentino
And I think it's important again, you've helped me with my personal brand. You help me, you know, creating content for LinkedIn, creating this podcast. What's your background when you're not supporting me? What's your other role job.
00;04;56;21 - 00;05;31;00
Mikaila Kukurudza
Yeah. So I went to what is formerly known as Ryerson School of Journalism, and I focused on photojournalism and feature writing and after graduating, I did an internship at a magazine and then started writing freelance for magazines right off the hot. I was then headhunted by a digital marketing agency that was focusing on similar topics to what I was writing about for the magazine, so I kind of fell into marketing.
00;05;31;00 - 00;06;00;14
Mikaila Kukurudza
That wasn't originally the intention, but there's a lot of similarities and correlation between the two. So when I'm interviewing for magazines and getting to know someone's story and helping them articulate their story, I have to do very similar things when I get to know a brand. So in 2020, my husband and I, who is also in marketing but in a in in-house role, I was in the digital role with multiple clients.
00;06;00;16 - 00;06;37;05
Mikaila Kukurudza
We started our own digital marketing agency, Quater Marketing Limited, and our hope was originally to help small businesses make the necessary transition into the online space during the pandemic. But things kind of spiraled and we started getting different types of clients and meeting in different areas that we didn't expect. Yourself being one of them. So, I mean, one of the reasons I fell in love with journalism is because it allows you the opportunity to become an expert in a subject that you wouldn't necessarily get the opportunity to learn about in a different career.
00;06;37;07 - 00;07;11;09
Mikaila Kukurudza
So with yourself, with major programs and infrastructure, that is not a topic that I'm comfortable with at all or had any experience in. It is something that I am very accustomed to at this point in my career, is getting to know a person and a brand and becoming an expert, even if it is just for a day or for an article in that specific topic, in order to articulate it in a way that is friendly, humanized, and digestible to the reader or to the viewer.
00;07;11;10 - 00;07;25;22
Mikaila Kukurudza
And we do all sorts of marketing, not just writing. So that's a little bit of a background about me, but in terms of how you and I started working together, it's a little bit fuzzy to me. But I.
00;07;25;22 - 00;07;26;06
Riccardo Cosentino
Can help.
00;07;26;13 - 00;07;27;10
Mikaila Kukurudza
Yeah. I mean.
00;07;27;13 - 00;07;51;24
Riccardo Cosentino
Well, obviously most of the listeners are also following me on LinkedIn. So, you know, they've noticed over the last three years I've become very active on LinkedIn. And that journey started with what would you, first of all, but even before you and I started working on my personal brand and for my thought leadership journey, I think he started with, I wanted to spruce up my LinkedIn profile.
00;07;51;26 - 00;08;17;11
Riccardo Cosentino
And, you know, that's how I started. I had a very old LinkedIn profile, which needed needed some clean up. I remember a friend of ours, suggested that you could you could help with that because you've you done that. So you helped me. We cleaned up my LinkedIn profile. And at that time, I was watching some LinkedIn learning videos, and I was I watched this video about becoming a full leader.
00;08;17;13 - 00;08;39;16
Riccardo Cosentino
And there was a questionnaire attached to that LinkedIn learning video. And I remember sending it to you because I was very pleased with the work that you did with my LinkedIn profile. I said, would you, you know, would you help me work through this? Since I thought leadership is about personal brand, you're a marketeer. What is something that you could help me and and then you looked at the questionnaire and said, yep.
00;08;39;16 - 00;08;58;28
Riccardo Cosentino
And then I think we spent 6 to 8 weeks working through the thought leadership sort of plan that came with LinkedIn learning. And we develop, we develop a plan on how to go and create my full leadership on LinkedIn.
00;08;59;01 - 00;09;25;19
Mikaila Kukurudza
It'd be very interesting to revisit that, because I think we were so early days that I'm curious of how far aligned we are with that original plan, based on what we're doing now. I think the overall mission is probably the same, but I definitely feel like it's been a slow journey of increasing how much you're comfortable with doing.
00;09;25;22 - 00;09;51;27
Mikaila Kukurudza
At first, I remember posting alone was there was pushback on that and how frequently you were going to post and now you're posting very frequently, and I'm no longer editing or rereading the post before you go ahead and do that. And so it's definitely on the far, far away from that initial thought leadership worksheet work sheet.
00;09;51;29 - 00;10;17;24
Riccardo Cosentino
Yeah. And and I think that's natural evolution. I don't you know, I don't even in business, you know the concept of a startup changes many, many times. We've even before going to market. So it was just a starting point. But to my earlier point, you know, ghost writer, psychiatrist, I think at the beginning that you played a even bigger role back then because you were the one pushing me.
00;10;17;24 - 00;10;43;14
Riccardo Cosentino
And then I think we wrote an article or we or we talked about it in other pieces. Yeah. How was even afraid of making comments? And I would just write a comment and the leader. So the idea of even, you know, even just posting something or writing a long form was so daunting and it was, you know, because you push me and you, you made it easier for me.
00;10;43;14 - 00;11;05;15
Riccardo Cosentino
That's how I basically conquered those fears. And I guess that's the lesson, right? I mean, we all need help, right? We all need support. But there are certain things that we're really good at set of things that we're not. In my case, writing is never really come natural. I'm very self-conscious about my writing, and also I don't like it.
00;11;05;15 - 00;11;32;14
Riccardo Cosentino
It's actually not something that, you know, people can see that a write for hours and take a lot of pleasure out of it. And, that's not me. And so having somebody that helped me through that made it less difficult and to a point where now I also sort of revisiting my the concept that I don't like to write, I guess I do enjoy writing, but that's because I got more comfortable with.
00;11;32;16 - 00;11;58;08
Mikaila Kukurudza
You're definitely warming up to the idea and writing a lot more on your own now, but is is something that I strongly believe that if someone strong too is in writing, or just because someone strong suit isn't writing doesn't mean that they don't have something to say and something important to say. And I hope it doesn't hinder people from expressing their thoughts and ideas.
00;11;58;14 - 00;12;29;26
Mikaila Kukurudza
Some of the most brilliant people have a difficult time with communication, so if they can hire someone to help them actively communicate their ideas, then those ideas are going to reach more people. So I don't understand why most people don't, or why some people take issue with ghostwriters. Most politicians, celebrities, even authors, bestselling authors have ghostwriter. So I know that for some people, there seems to be.
00;12;29;28 - 00;12;41;12
Mikaila Kukurudza
I'm at a loss for words with me as a writer. I'm still at a loss for words right now, but there seems to be some pushback on using a ghostwriter in the same way that there's pushback on using ChatGPT.
00;12;41;18 - 00;13;07;14
Riccardo Cosentino
I suppose I think is strange of people. I have issues with ghost writers because ultimately it's a delegation of a task. That's what it is. And just to walk through our process, right? I mean, ultimately, whatever that whatever is written comes from me. I don't physically write it down, but we spend hours discussing through the topics that we published on LinkedIn.
00;13;07;21 - 00;13;29;26
Riccardo Cosentino
And, you know, it is my thought process. It those are my experiences. They are narrated to you and then transferred on paper of digital format on LinkedIn. And so there is just the delegation of the writing, right? It's not. And there are. Yeah. And so that's very common. Most people delegate tasks.
00;13;29;28 - 00;13;58;05
Mikaila Kukurudza
Yeah. To put it simply, I wouldn't be able to write the content that I write without you. It really isn't my content. And even when I'm rereading through some of our or old articles, I don't hear my own voice. I very much hear your voice in those pieces. I'll remember writing that, but sometimes there's even direct quotes that you verbalize on whatever it calls within the article.
00;13;58;05 - 00;14;24;13
Mikaila Kukurudza
And so I think we've come to a point now where it's really easy for me to completely write in your voice. When we first started, we were still developing what that voice was and how we wanted it to be represented. So I would record all of our phone calls and transcribe them at the time, because it was three years.
00;14;24;13 - 00;14;50;13
Mikaila Kukurudza
Go manually transcribe them for free for a while there. Now I'm not at that point. Well, so record some of our calls just as a reminder if I want to relisten as I am writing, I'll still do that. But usually after even just 30 minutes talking on a certain topic, I'll have enough information that I need to go ahead and write this topic.
00;14;50;13 - 00;15;18;27
Mikaila Kukurudza
Now, that's not always the case, because sometimes your pieces are extremely technical, and that's when I take more of a backseat. But with your more humanized pieces, I think we've gone into a really good writing flow that most people who have take issue with ghostwriters. I think if they understood the process more, they'd understand how little I really have to do with the content that's being produced.
00;15;18;27 - 00;15;46;02
Mikaila Kukurudza
I'm simply the pen, if you want to put it that way. It's very different than my writing. As a journalist with as a journalist, when I interview someone, I am trying to completely remove my biases, and the person I'm interviewing is biases so that I can get these factual story. As a ghostwriter, I'm doing the complete opposite. I want all of the biases.
00;15;46;02 - 00;16;26;07
Mikaila Kukurudza
I want to fully step into that person's mind so that I can lean into their personality as I'm writing. So it's really fun for me because I'm still writing for magazines and doing journalistic work. It's fun for me to go back and forth. And if you weren't my client that I was after in terms of, marketing, we definitely work with more small businesses than we do personal branding projects, but it's really fun for me to jump into your voice and take a break from more factual things and lean into your personal experience.
00;16;26;07 - 00;16;56;10
Mikaila Kukurudza
And really, people care about people. So even when I'm approaching brands, I do try to lean into the person behind the brand. I think that's like a huge mistake that so many people are making on LinkedIn is they're moving themselves from the content that they're producing, they're making it to corporate to scale and afraid to really inject any personality into what they're posting.
00;16;56;13 - 00;17;28;26
Riccardo Cosentino
Yeah. Speaking of LinkedIn, and you know, I think the reason I'm very active on LinkedIn is because of thought leadership, because I really wanted to get my view across. And in your mind, I mean, I had forgotten why I actually wanted to get my voice across and why thought leadership was important. But in talking to me over the last three years, why do you thinking as an external individual, why do you think the thought leadership is important for for a platform like LinkedIn?
00;17;28;29 - 00;18;06;18
Mikaila Kukurudza
Well, LinkedIn is a unique social platform. It is changing. I will say, to become more humanized and people are posting beyond their business endeavors on LinkedIn. Now. But really, LinkedIn's main purpose was B2B marketing and hiring and job search. So really, that's how it started. But now it's being used as the golden standard of professional.
00;18;06;21 - 00;18;09;14
Riccardo Cosentino
Professional social media, I guess.
00;18;09;16 - 00;18;44;03
Mikaila Kukurudza
Yeah, it's a more refined social media platform to share longer form ideas about what you're doing professionally, whatever that may be. Things that you are passionate about that are bigger. Picture. For example, you would not be posting the type of content that you are on Instagram in a refined, small caption. It just wouldn't make sense there. When people are engaging on LinkedIn, they are already in a business mindset.
00;18;44;03 - 00;18;58;19
Mikaila Kukurudza
They're usually at work. They usually have their LinkedIn attached to their work emails. So they're already in that mindset. And it's a great way to connect with like minded individuals in a professional sense.
00;18;58;22 - 00;19;38;09
Riccardo Cosentino
And I think for leadership is important because LinkedIn provides a platform for that, because he allows to share your ideas and views at a larger scale, and he allows better sharing of different perspectives. He kind of amplifies conversation that typically happens in a boardroom or in a small venue as more conferences, and he allows multiple viewpoints, he makes it easier to have multiple viewpoints and multiple stories that normally, you know, ten, 50 years ago was not possible, right?
00;19;38;09 - 00;19;57;01
Riccardo Cosentino
I mean, you would have a blog, but then you wouldn't have the followers. So I think LinkedIn provides that. And the reason for the issue is important is because it allows multiple views. This allows different views. And so to democratize the way that opinions are shared with other people.
00;19;57;07 - 00;20;22;10
Mikaila Kukurudza
I think you brought up an interesting point that the conversations that you're now able to have on LinkedIn used to be limited to the boardroom. So I think something that LinkedIn does really well is it allows you to connect to your counterparts across the world and compare and contrast your professional experiences to ultimately elevate whatever industry you are in.
00;20;22;12 - 00;20;54;14
Mikaila Kukurudza
So I'm able to connect with other journalists and marketers on LinkedIn and see what they're doing, and ultimately it makes me better at what I'm doing. So it kind of breaks that company only barrier that I think existed for so long. If you look at the engagement rates on LinkedIn, the big thing that we're seeing is the humanization of linked in posts has a strong correlation to the success of that content.
00;20;54;17 - 00;21;23;19
Mikaila Kukurudza
So I think that's where people are using LinkedIn incorrectly. And I think for those who don't understand or see the value in investing in their LinkedIn, it could just be that they are not using it properly yet. They're using it simply to pay it their company and reshare their company's posts, and not necessarily sharing and engaging in thought leadership.
00;21;23;21 - 00;21;46;10
Riccardo Cosentino
Yeah, I mean, from my personal experience, I know there's a lot of people that, you know, consume content and all the people. Yeah, a lot of people consume content through LinkedIn, but don't post on LinkedIn. I guess that's that's okay. I mean, not everybody needs to put their ideas out there or getting themselves onto that platform and being vocal on that platform.
00;21;46;12 - 00;22;19;27
Riccardo Cosentino
But going back to for leadership and the importance of it and then connecting it to major programs. I mean, I think LinkedIn has been so powerful for me because I'm able to find like minded individuals to discuss very technical topics, very sometimes controversial topics. As I said, I use the word democratizing, the sharing of information because it's, you know, the algorithm obviously looks at what you liking and what you posting or what you're engaging with and provides you more of the same.
00;22;19;27 - 00;22;54;09
Riccardo Cosentino
So I've been able to learn a lot by engaging with the platform because I the type, the content that I now consume for LinkedIn is a function of the content that I post. So I'm exponentially learning about the topic that I put on LinkedIn. And so that's positive and beneficial for like if we want to link back to major programs because it allows to create a network of individuals and a network of information that should increase and better the major programs environment.
00;22;54;11 - 00;23;26;26
Mikaila Kukurudza
Absolutely. And I think you touched on an important point there that if anyone's listening and is posting on LinkedIn and is discouraged of the lack of engagement that they're receiving on LinkedIn, I wouldn't let that prevent you from continuing to invest in the platform, because I think a lot of the conversations in your experience and in my own experience happen offline through other meetings and functions.
00;23;26;28 - 00;23;54;07
Mikaila Kukurudza
But still, about the content that you posted online. So it is still elevating the conversation around major programs, even if it isn't shown in your analytics on LinkedIn. Maybe you want to touch on that a little bit, but I know that we've had some posts that we've been like, excited for. That had been a flop, but not necessarily been a flop because of the feedback that you've received elsewhere.
00;23;54;09 - 00;24;18;07
Riccardo Cosentino
That's, you know, I think the vanity at the beginning, there's a lot of vanity associated with those numbers. You know, the engagement, the comments, the likes. But when in reality, you know, the number that you see is the impressions. So there's the number of people that have seen your post. And so even though people might not leave a comment or do a like a review post, they're still seeing it.
00;24;18;07 - 00;24;42;10
Riccardo Cosentino
And the amount of times that other people walking up to me and say, I really enjoyed your post, and I know for a fact that person didn't like no comment on the post, but they read it, they saw it. And so at the end of the day, my line of thinking, as long as there's one person looking at it, that's all I really need because I, you know, I'm sharing this for everybody's benefit.
00;24;42;13 - 00;24;46;25
Riccardo Cosentino
And so it doesn't really matter how many people engage with it.
00;24;46;27 - 00;25;11;01
Mikaila Kukurudza
And that is music to my ears, because there was a point in time not that long ago where Ricardo had specific goals of the number of connections he wanted on LinkedIn or followers he wanted on LinkedIn. And that's no longer the goal. And I think that's a really important thing across all social media platforms is what is the goal.
00;25;11;01 - 00;25;40;04
Mikaila Kukurudza
And staying true to that and not getting sucked into those vanity numbers. And we don't even really discuss those analytics anymore, because the overall goal of elevating the conversation around major programs, we know that's been achieved. So it no longer matters. So how many people liked this? Now, if the comments section starts to get heavy and there's a lot of back and forth debate, that's something we still get excited about.
00;25;40;04 - 00;25;47;29
Mikaila Kukurudza
But we're not necessarily looking at how many people like a certain poster, how many connections you got in certain week.
00;25;48;02 - 00;26;09;09
Riccardo Cosentino
And that's why it was important to do that plan at the very beginning of For Leadership is like articulating what we're trying to do, and that helped us in the journey. Because, you know, what is the goal? The goal is to elevate the conversation about major programs. So, I mean, that's the goal. The goal is not to increase the number of connections or the engagement on the content that I post.
00;26;09;15 - 00;26;31;00
Riccardo Cosentino
That was never the goal. The goal was elevating the conversation, which I think we've achieved, and I'm quite proud of that. But it has been the journey. I mean, you make fun of me a little bit, which is fine, but it has being a journey is being is being a challenging journey. I mean, I had to overcome a lot of insecurities.
00;26;31;02 - 00;27;06;21
Riccardo Cosentino
The engagement was part of that insecurity, right? I mean, why am I doing this? Why, you know, is people even listening if I don't increase the number of people in my network, does that even make says those? Are they insecurity and vulnerability that you have to face? And then again, having a plan to begin with is super helpful because whenever you like having challenges or finding it difficult or feel particularly vulnerable, you can lean back on lean on the plan that you wrote and remind yourself why you're doing this.
00;27;06;23 - 00;27;26;29
Riccardo Cosentino
But it's not been an easy journey, but it's one that I now look back and, and I'm very proud of because of what I'm doing today. I could even dream to do three years ago. I mean, you mentioned, you know, not being able to pause. I remember, I remember that, I was like, no, no, I'm only gonna post every two weeks.
00;27;26;29 - 00;27;32;04
Riccardo Cosentino
I'm now posting at least twice a week, you know, one way or the other, you know.
00;27;32;07 - 00;28;20;02
Mikaila Kukurudza
There has been consistent pushback for every milestone. But it's great because in our initial deck, our initial strategy marketing deck, it had speak on panels and podcasts as one of the goals. And you're like, well, that will never happen. And now you have multiple podcasting. I don't know how many panels and lectures you've spoken at. So it has been a little bit of self-reflection and motivation throughout the three years, but I think it would be really interesting for you to talk about where you started, in terms of what went through your mind when you went to leave a comment on someone's content that you thought was interesting on LinkedIn, if you can go all the
00;28;20;02 - 00;28;34;12
Mikaila Kukurudza
way back in your mind, because we will kind of go through some practical tips people can use to elevate their LinkedIn. But let's start at where you started at in case someone else is experiencing that right now.
00;28;34;14 - 00;29;03;14
Riccardo Cosentino
Yeah, I mean, at the beginning I would only so I would read a lot of posts, but then, there were certain posts that I wanted to engage, maybe because I didn't agree with a point typically. And so it was really difficult for me to articulate contrasting comment that was contrary to what the post was saying. And and so that was, you know, again, it was difficult, but looking back and I never thought of this.
00;29;03;14 - 00;29;24;19
Riccardo Cosentino
So I'm like, I'm thinking on my feed. But looking back, that's probably the toughest thing to do. Right is probably much easier if you will really want to engage with the platform, start with like providing positive comments or agreeing with the comment or agreeing with the position rather than trying to articulate the counter position to a particular comment.
00;29;24;19 - 00;29;47;07
Riccardo Cosentino
Because you know, that makes you that creates vulnerability and so that you not only you need to articulate a strong point, but then you feel so vulnerable because there might be fuzziness, people reading it. But having said that, a lot of people, you know, we have lots of keyboard warriors having the code of people that just, very happy to write comments because they can hide behind the keyboard.
00;29;47;07 - 00;30;03;25
Riccardo Cosentino
But that was never me. So that was my experience. So and then I just forced myself, I think I think you were keeping track. I think I had to engage worldwide two, three times a week. And I mean, you were keeping track and telling me if I didn't write.
00;30;03;27 - 00;30;31;25
Mikaila Kukurudza
Yeah, I will, I'll go through our initial checklist, I think, just in case someone wants to start. But if you right now are not actively engaging on LinkedIn, what I would start with or suggest starting with is just thinking about what you want to say and how you want to show up. You don't need to go through the Thought Leadership workbook as Ricardo and I did.
00;30;31;27 - 00;31;00;27
Mikaila Kukurudza
Although if you're serious about elevating your online presence, I definitely would recommend it. And I actually think you and I are due to revisit that. But just even if you can jot down in some notes, what do you want to say? What's your goal, your professional goal, and then starting to break down your key areas of focus? So for Ricardo, major programs was a huge one.
00;31;01;00 - 00;31;26;26
Mikaila Kukurudza
But leadership also was a secondary topic that we knew we were going to talk about. And then under those topics we had then sub topic. So under leadership, a common theme that you'll see on Ricardo's LinkedIn is imposter syndrome. You'll start to see a lot more on mentorship. And we're kind of expanding on those topics. So you don't need to know everything right off the bat.
00;31;26;26 - 00;31;49;14
Mikaila Kukurudza
But if you have some key areas of focus, things that you know you'd like to talk about, another one I just thought of for you, Ricardo, it's kind of developed over the last year is AI. So now that's definitely a column and a theme throughout your content calendar. So then the next step would be setting up a content calendar.
00;31;49;14 - 00;32;23;13
Mikaila Kukurudza
And you can do this on Google Sheets. You can do this in your notes however makes the most sense for you. But once you start laying out a month with your key topics. So for example, for Ricardo major programs, now we have the podcast leadership AI. You can see how quickly your month starts to fill up, and it becomes an easier to think of the topics or be on the lookout for content that you would like to repost and add your own narrative to.
00;32;23;16 - 00;32;48;20
Mikaila Kukurudza
So that will just help you stay organized and stay consistent. If you are starting from scratch, you may want to revisit your about on your LinkedIn and try adding in keywords based on your profession and the things you want to show up in your algorithm, and the things that or the people and places you want to show up and other people's algorithms.
00;32;48;23 - 00;33;13;08
Mikaila Kukurudza
And think about your headline on LinkedIn. And I know that this is something that we discussed to great lengths, and we even revisited a couple times now. But your headline on LinkedIn does not need to be your current job title, nor should it be your current job title. It really should be, again, connected to your mission and your goal of what you want to say.
00;33;13;13 - 00;33;40;25
Mikaila Kukurudza
Not just on the platform, but in your career. So then, once you've gone through all of that and if you can handle more, I would start to manage your endorsements. So this is something that you can do by bi yearly and go through whoever you've worked with in the last couple of years and leave them an endorsement and ask for one in return.
00;33;40;27 - 00;34;12;09
Mikaila Kukurudza
This is very helpful just for your overall LinkedIn profile and the checklist that I sent to Ricardo that you may want to implement is responding to any comments from your recent posts. You may not have any at the beginning, and that's okay. I'm responding to firm requests engaging you can like but it would be great if you could comment as well on at least five relevant posts from within your industry.
00;34;12;09 - 00;34;37;13
Mikaila Kukurudza
This will help your algorithm get to know you and help when you post later on, help you to show up in the right places and in front of the right audience, and then send to strong friend requests relevant to your industry and who have engaged with your peers. So that is a little bit of searching. Usually you'll find those people to connect with on content that interests you.
00;34;37;15 - 00;35;03;08
Mikaila Kukurudza
So that is a LinkedIn checklist that you can do three times a week under ten minutes. And it kickstarted a lot of things for Ricardo. So I am quite confident that it will help others kickstart their comfort levels and then build with it on that. So that's no longer a checklist that you adhere to, right? Ricardo? You do a lot more than that.
00;35;03;08 - 00;35;25;29
Mikaila Kukurudza
But that is what we initially sent as nuns. That was your homework each week is to kind of do ten minutes, three days a week and follow those steps. If you don't know where to begin and how to engage. Now, you engage in all sorts of ways on LinkedIn. I'm not even aware of which is the goal.
00;35;26;02 - 00;35;47;19
Riccardo Cosentino
Thank you for that. I hope the listeners are gonna find that useful, but I think it's important we touched upon this and and it's there's a reason why there's a lot of content about imposter syndrome, because one of the reason why I wanted to engage with LinkedIn was also to come out of my shell. At the time, I didn't know it was imposter syndrome.
00;35;47;19 - 00;36;13;26
Riccardo Cosentino
It was more like, I want to get out of my shell. I want to be more engaged in, you know, public speaking and just voicing my opinions, my, finding my voice. And so the LinkedIn was almost a way for me to achieve that, to make myself more vulnerable, put myself out there. So it was actually interesting because I always felt, well, it's not really me.
00;36;13;26 - 00;36;36;20
Riccardo Cosentino
I don't really you know, I don't really engage on on social media, but I think some of it was, you know, excuses that I was making for because I was uncomfortable. And so if you listen to this and you're thinking, oh, you know, and it's not really it's not really me, LinkedIn is not really me. But try because maybe you also have imposter syndrome.
00;36;36;20 - 00;37;00;19
Riccardo Cosentino
And maybe this also is a way to start overcoming some of it. For me, I think I realized that I needed to work on it is because I always looked at the content on LinkedIn and was always disappointed on the quality, and I always felt, well, I have good things to say. Why am I not saying them? And I realized that I was never actually shy.
00;37;00;22 - 00;37;33;10
Riccardo Cosentino
Call it whatever, but I just I knew I had to overcome certain fears so, you know, that checklist that Michaela mentioned was really my own quirks to get out of my comfort zone. So even if you don't think you need to improve your personal brand, even if you think you know LinkedIn is not for you, but try it because ultimately it could be a good way of, you know, being more vulnerable and even putting yourself out there, trying something different, getting completely out of your comfort zone.
00;37;33;13 - 00;37;59;14
Mikaila Kukurudza
And it should snowball into you really without being too deep. But it should really help you define who you are and what you want to say in the world. And that seems a little out there. But as you go through the process, as you start to develop content, you'll start to realize what's actually important to you and the areas that you want to speak on.
00;37;59;17 - 00;38;13;27
Mikaila Kukurudza
So regardless of what the outcome is on LinkedIn, it should spiral and snowball to help you within your own professional career and personal life as it has with yourself. Ricardo, in many, many ways.
00;38;13;29 - 00;38;32;07
Riccardo Cosentino
Yeah, and we talked, I think, before pressing record. We're talking about social media. And, you know, I mean, we all live a digital footprint on social media, right? I mean, if you have your Facebook account, your Instagram account. So we always careful obviously what we post there because there's going to stay there and it's going to define you.
00;38;32;07 - 00;38;54;16
Riccardo Cosentino
Right. People are going to look at your profiles. So I mean having a strong LinkedIn profile. And then this goes to the point of having a personal brand I mean that's your footprint. That's that's what anybody is going to look at when you're, you know, apply for a job or even go to a on a panel. I mean, the amount of time I go on meetings and I want to see who is sitting across the table from me.
00;38;54;18 - 00;39;23;01
Riccardo Cosentino
And I looked at the LinkedIn profile to understand what this person is all about. And so the more content you have there, the, you know, the the more people are going to know who you are and what you stand for, which is which is helpful in the business setting. So this is not just in order to get a better resumé or to get a better job, but even just to define who you are, because it is now the business card, your LinkedIn profile is, you extend the business card.
00;39;23;04 - 00;39;29;28
Mikaila Kukurudza
I couldn't have said it better myself, and I feel as the student has become the master.
00;39;30;00 - 00;39;52;09
Riccardo Cosentino
This podcast, I mean, is the podcast is about navigating teacher programs. So this is a little bit is not complete tangible is a little bit of a tangent. And you raise that with me. Why are we recording this? And I think you would just didn't want to be on the podcast. So you were trying to dissuade me from recording this because it wasn't really fitting in the so doing the structural the on navigating media programs.
00;39;52;09 - 00;40;13;06
Riccardo Cosentino
But I think, I mean, this is leadership, right? I mean, we're talking about leadership and we're talking about creating strong leaders because that's what major programs need. We need strong leaders. And having a personal brand, having being a thought leader is what some of the steps needed to create strong leadership and strong leaders.
00;40;13;09 - 00;40;41;05
Mikaila Kukurudza
Absolutely. And I think there's too many thought leaders who their title is their only position. Keynote speakers whose full time job is keynote speakers. But I'm far more interested in those actively within an industry who have something to say on that industry. So I think it's really important that we're constantly developing new thought leaders of every scale within each industry.
00;40;41;05 - 00;40;55;10
Mikaila Kukurudza
And I think that's what you've done really well. And you've found a lot of other thought leaders within the industry along the way that you may have not been able to come across if you weren't so active on LinkedIn.
00;40;55;12 - 00;41;14;06
Riccardo Cosentino
Oh, that's yeah. I mean, there's been the joy of doing all of this, right? Even the podcast, I mean, being able to have some really interesting conversation. And that's why I always say is a conversation to happen to be recorded because that's all they are for me. It's just I'm having really, really stimulating conversations. And then I just post them.
00;41;14;09 - 00;41;36;21
Riccardo Cosentino
And so he's given me a really good platform for me to learn and grow, one that I'm enjoying, I need to get. He does get easier, by the way. I think I need to stress this because even the mental process or the mental strain, you know, recording my very first podcast, you know, it took a lot of energy, took a lot of emotional energy to do it.
00;41;36;24 - 00;41;59;28
Riccardo Cosentino
And, you know, 30 episodes it is now, I don't know, doesn't take the same amount of emotional energy, you know, is still work. You still have to do it and you. But it doesn't drain me as much as it used to do before, because before I had to overcome so many fears. And so, you know, what I've noticed is that that skill then translates in everything else I do, right?
00;41;59;28 - 00;42;33;23
Riccardo Cosentino
Even my public speaking. It takes less emotion, not emotional, but like it takes less mental energy to do it. You know, because I've done so much, I've overcome those fears and so certain things are now becoming easier because of the journey that I undertook with for leadership. So there are side businesses which we knew or we knew when we were, you know, putting yourself out there was one of the objectives, enablers, because I needed to overcome to become certain fears, to become a better public speaker.
00;42;33;23 - 00;42;36;13
Riccardo Cosentino
And and I think that has been accomplished.
00;42;36;15 - 00;43;07;01
Mikaila Kukurudza
Absolutely. I've watched that firsthand. And I believe it's really evident in watching the progression of the topics you're discussing on LinkedIn, just how comfortable you've become. And I think and hope that your followers have also seen that there are topics that we're discussing now that are far more in depth, both technically and personally, than we would have ever touched upon our very first article on LinkedIn working together.
00;43;07;01 - 00;43;35;06
Mikaila Kukurudza
And I think your very first article on LinkedIn, period, unless you post it without me, but I don't believe so. Your very first one was a simple reading recommendation list, which we still do, but now you're writing and telling stories about what Inside Out two has done for your emotional state and mental health. And those are two very different things.
00;43;35;06 - 00;44;07;15
Mikaila Kukurudza
So hopefully when people look at the evolution and I encourage you to go back, if you haven't done so, and gone go through Ricardo's old articles and kind of watch that progression, because you don't need to start where you see Ricardo at now, and you should and you should go through the process of becoming more comfortable and developing what areas you are going to want to discuss on LinkedIn and and elsewhere within your professional career.
00;44;07;18 - 00;44;42;08
Riccardo Cosentino
Yeah. And I think this a perfect example of vulnerability, right? I mean, I was not vulnerable enough at the beginning. I did not I and by vulnerability, I mean what other few people are going to think. What if they don't like my article? What if I have nothing interesting to say? You know what? If people make fun of me so that those fears, the vulnerability or the lack of vulnerability, I was only prepared to do something as neutral as reading recommendation, right?
00;44;42;11 - 00;44;44;15
Riccardo Cosentino
That was a safe starting point.
00;44;44;21 - 00;44;55;29
Mikaila Kukurudza
And even then there was still back and forth of that which books. And yes, I think overthinking of how those recommendations would be perceived.
00;44;56;02 - 00;45;19;28
Riccardo Cosentino
Yeah. I mean, and then but that's the journey, right? That's the journey. And, and I think you said it beautifully is like, now I can write about my most internal fears, my challenges, my mental health challenges, and I can just do it. And that's because I've enjoyed this journey. So it's more than just being a full leader is more than just sharing your ideas on LinkedIn.
00;45;20;00 - 00;45;47;08
Riccardo Cosentino
There is so much more to can you can achieve by that process. And overcoming and being more vulnerable is one of them, and which is now, I think is one of the most important thing I have achieved left here. Okay, I think that's enough for this podcast. Now, you know what was behind the great work that is happening on my podcast, on my LinkedIn, it's Michaela and Michaela.
00;45;47;08 - 00;45;54;06
Riccardo Cosentino
Thank you very much for joining me. This was, great conversation. I'm glad I was able to convince you the way I.
00;45;54;06 - 00;45;59;14
Mikaila Kukurudza
Look forward to going behind the scenes again immediately after this.
00;45;59;16 - 00;46;05;19
Riccardo Cosentino
Now, you know how I felt three years ago. So now we understand each other even more.
00;46;05;22 - 00;46;32;20
Mikaila Kukurudza
Absolutely. I was giving you a hard time for being nervous, and now I completely understand. But I commend you on having 30 podcasts under your belt and just the growth that you've had over the last three years. It's been super informative to me, learning about your industry, and it's helped me in my own development within my industry. So thank you for the opportunity.
00;46;32;23 - 00;46;37;20
Riccardo Cosentino
Thank you very much and stay tuned for the next podcast.
00;46;37;23 - 00;47;01;08
Riccardo Cosentino
That's it for this episode of Navigating Major Problems. I hope you found today's conversation as informative and thought provoking as I did. If you enjoyed this conversation, please consider subscribing and leaving a review. I would also like to invite you to continue the conversation by joining me on my personal LinkedIn at Ricardo Cosentino.
00;47;01;11 - 00;47;27;28
Riccardo Cosentino
Listening to the next episode, where we will continue to explore the latest trends and challenges in major program management. Our next in-depth conversation promises to continue to dive into topics such as leadership, risk management, and the impact of emerging technology in infrastructure. It's a conversation you're not going to want to miss. Thanks for listening. To navigate the major problems, and I look forward to keeping the conversation going.