Skip to content

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Profile — When people click on your name to see your LinkedIn profile, it is KEY to make a good impression and keep them interested in what you have accomplished and how you can help them. A correctly designed profile can make a BIG difference.

As part of my series of interviews about “How to Use LinkedIn To Dramatically Improve Your Business”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Michael Potorti.

Michael is Founder of Aurelius Resources and created a LinkedIn based methodology called Lightning Leads (https://linkedinlightning.com) which is a non-advertisement, non-salesy approach to put clients in a One-on-One conversation with their Prospects in order to build Organic relationships and close more business.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

I realized that LinkedIn is a great way to meet other business owners and have conversations. One of the complaints I kept hearing was that ad spend was too expensive and companies wanted an alternative so that they could generate quality leads. I developed a methodology for myself to grow leads organically and it worked very well. In fact, one of my LinkedIn Groups called Best Lead Generation Strategies has grown from 0 to approximately 4,000 members within a 12 month period.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started this career?

The most interesting story was a result of inviting an individual to my LinkedIn group and our conversations in DMs led to introductions between clients having similar interests. This led to a multi-million $ transaction which generated $ thousands in commissions.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

A funny mistake (I didn’t think so at the time:) was when I was conducting a hosted webinar for a client and forgot to hit the Record button! We record our clients’ webinars so they can use as content for posts and send to individuals who could not attend. Thank goodness one of my colleagues recorded it as a backup.

Which social media platform have you found to be most effective to use to increase business revenues? Can you share a story from your experience?

I find LinkedIn as the most effective for our clients. One of our clients started a group on LinkedIn several years ago but had minimal membership growth. After we implemented our Lightning Leads strategy, we more than doubled members in a few months and increased DM activity significantly. This led to several sales that would not have occurred without our efforts.

Let’s talk about LinkedIn specifically, now. Can you share 5 ways to leverage LinkedIn to dramatically improve your business? Please share a story or example for each.

My clients and I have used LinkedIn successfully to start conversations with decision makers who make sales happen.

Here are 5 effective ways incorporated into our LinkedIn based Lightning Leads Program:

  1. Profile — When people click on your name to see your LinkedIn profile, it is KEY to make a good impression and keep them interested in what you have accomplished and how you can help them. A correctly designed profile can make a BIG difference.
  2. Groups — A lot of people are unaware of LinkedIn Groups that can be created and the power they have on generating Leads and sales. These groups are the “arena” where you can get to know your target audience better.
  3. DM’s — Direct Messaging (DM’s) is a great way to start conversations with your target customer with the ultimate goal of getting them on a call to bring them on as an ACTUAL customer. Once they accept the invite to your group, you started a one-on-one conversation and your sales staff can work their magic from there.
  4. Webinar / Training — Webinars / Training sessions are a great way to provide free information to those who are interested and capture lead data at the same time. LinkedIn is a great source to convert your target audience to attendees where you can provide value and connect further.
  5. CRM — Your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Tool is critical to nurturing potential clients and ultimately getting the sale. LinkedIn profiles usually have target client emails, websites and sometimes phone numbers which make communication and follow up easier.

Because of the position that you are in, you are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂

I usually hold free virtual training sessions for anyone who has a business and is looking for an alternative to paid advertisement to generate leads. I feel that clients need to be nurtured and relationships should grow organically rather than a “spray and pray” method that comes from advertising. This is why I put together my Lightning Leads package and offer “hybrid” or “done for you” services to tap into the power of LinkedIn.

Some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them 🙂

Wow there are so many! Elon Musk, Warren Buffett and any of the Shark Tank crew would be awesome if you can arrange it! These individuals have made a HUGE impact on my and countless others’ lives through conveying their wisdom and helping humanity.

Thank you so much for these great insights. This was very enlightening!

Thank you for having me here! If I can help anyone further please visit https://linkedinlightning.com/ and let’s connect.

Michael Potorti of Aurelius Resources: How to Use LinkedIn To Dramatically Improve Your Business was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.