Building your house on the rocks

Being from Northern Ireland, like a lot of my contemporaries, we went to Sunday School every week after church. I know all my Bible stories. This week, one landed particularly!

The wise man built his house upon the rock (3x) And the rains came tumbling down. Oh… the rains came down as the floods came up (3x) And the wise man’s house stood firm.

The foolish man built his house upon the sand (3x) And the rains came tumbling down. Oh… the rains came down as the floods came up (3x) And the foolish man’s house went splat.

I think we shouted the UP and the SPLAT bit... but that's a long time ago now. 😂

I can sing that song in an instant - we must have been given the lesson regularly.

This week, the rains came tumbling down on me and my business in the form of legal exchanges regarding my book cover. The rains continue to come down! We need a bigger boat folks (ok sorry, now I have jumped from Sunday School to JAWS)

If you are new to this newsletter, a quick catch up - I have written a book called Raise Your Visibility On LinkedIn which is ready to go on sale. I have spent the best part of a year writing the book (probably longer if I am honest).

I hired a copy editor, type setter, proof reader and designer. We have some wonderful testimonials from people who have read the book proof. I am creating a book launch group and supporting materials for people who buy the book and want to implement what they learn.

Then my good friend Miranda ⭐️ VonFricken sent me a little note to check I had complied with the trademark request team. Thank heavens for friends!

Complying with Trademarks

Here's what I know:

If you want to write a book that includes the word LinkedIn in the title, there are specific rules to follow.

The book cannot begin with the word LinkedIn ✅

The book cover can contain no blue ✅

You must include a disclaimer in the book ✅

So far so compliant.

THEN. The rains come tumbling down.

Once you engage with trademark requests, they go looking.

I have spent a few hours this week checking and double checking my website and business for where I am including the trademark for LinkedIn.

You can USE the trademark, but you cannot use it in a product name. Which is fine.

As one example, I have now switched the name "LinkedIn VIP" package to "Visibility VIP Package"

It has made me take a step back and look at our business and what we offer clients.

Yes we focus on helping clients with LinkedIn. But we actually do more than that. Along with the LinkedIn content, we offer

✅ Blog Writing: We write long form content and will be doing more of that.

✅ Video Content: short form, long form, livestreams, webinars - we love video and it can be shared on different platforms as well as embedded into your website.

✅ Capsule Podcasts: a short six-eight series of podcast episodes to share directly with your team, clients or audience. We take care of everything, from the ideas, the podcast host, the publishing and promotion

In 2025, I am going to be hosting a membership helping you with all things online. More of that to come.

How do you build your house upon the rocks?

This is where I am glad of a few things, and I would like you to take note and do this yourself too.

1. Do not build your business on any one social media platform. You DO need a website. No matter what any social media influencer or coach tells you. You need a piece of the internet that only you are in charge of. Mine is www.louisebrogan.com
2. Start your email newsletter sign ups today. I have 1300 people on my email subscriber list. Which is not many, considering I have 104,000 on YouTube and 5700 of you subscribe to this very newsletter I am writing.

If you'd like to join the email I send out weekly, this is your invitation! This link will also send you an invitation to join this week's free masterclass - Six Steps to Planning LinkedIn Success in 2025

3. Diversify. I know we are all told to niche, niche, niche.... but you might have noticed in the last year, I talk about video, YouTube AND LinkedIn. Video content can be used anywhere. We create our client's video content for LinkedIn specifically, but we are working with at least one client to post that content onto YouTube as well.

4. Stick to the rules

I am a rule follower anyway. It makes no sense for me to ignore direction from a gigantic corporation when they have a lot of money and lawyers. Plus I like staying within the lines!

5. Make things better

I now have a different book cover. Drum roll..

I love it. I think it's better anyway! What do you think?

How do we sell workshops that help companies leverage LinkedIn? We simply call it something different but write really good descriptions that talk about how to use LinkedIn.

We still create content that helps our potential clients learn how to use LinkedIn and we will pull people in to have calls and conversations that way.

My house on the rocks welcomes many collaborators and referral partners. Showing up, connecting and being seen as a thought leader in a space will bring people to you.

You are very welcome to come inside and take a seat. Starting with our webinar this Tuesday. It might take me a while to replace the blue that I use in all of my images... but Rome wasn't built in a day and neither was this business.