Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Josefine Wanner. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Josefine, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

My name is Josefine Wanner. I’m an Entrepreneur and Business Growth Strategist, and I help my clients to build and optimize their online offers.

Just a few years back, I was a successful executive director at Switzerland’s largest bank.

Or let me rephrase that – from the outside, I looked as the Picture Perfect of Success.

I had a high profile, fancy job, multiple 6-figure salary.
I had worked for not one, but 2 of the Big4 companies
I traveled around the world for work

But I had started to count my days to my retirement. Only 7300 more days to go…

I had sleepless nights and stomach ache.

I hated Sundays, and yelled at my husband and our sons.

I was in a toxic, male dominated industry – and I didn’t feel aligned to how the corporate values were NOT lived.

I was angry, frustrated, and sad – all at the same time.

And that made me into a person that I didn’t want to be.

And I started to think that maybe, maybe the ticket to freedom, to really make a difference, and do something else would be to become an Entrepreneur.

I even spoke to potential business partners, we did SWOT analyses – and we got stuck in analysis paralysis.

Because we didn’t have the guts to do anything about it.

We didn’t dare to leave what I call our golden cages.

We were stuck.

I was stuck.

Until a day in August 2019 when my father called me and said “I now know what it is. I have pancreatitis cancer”…

I quickly googled what it was – had never really thought about it before – and my google research said that my father would have 3 more months to live.

3 more months.

My father was 71 back then. That meant that if I would work until my retirement in that same environment – I could have 6 years of freedom.

If I lived for that long that is.

And that was my wake-up call. The kick in the butt that I needed to do something about my situation.

4 weeks after that phone call I handed in my resignation. I had no clue what I wanted to do, or how to accomplish anything.

I just knew that I had to get the hell out of there right then – or I might never be able to escape.

But I had a DREAM – and that was that I want to become a public speaker.

I wanted to be like Mel Robbins.

I wanted to inspire and motivate people, and I wanted to help others to pursue their dreams – because when I quit my job – EVERYONE but one said they wanted to do the same.

And I didn’t want for anyone to feel the same way I felt back then. In your mid 40-ies and totally lost, and realizing that you had pursued a career you didn’t want to have in the first place.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

But I also realized to achieve my dream, I needed to become a public person. I needed to embrace Social Media.

And Social Media honestly scared the crap out of me.

Back then, I had no profile picture on LinkedIn, and my Instagram profile was very private. I had 2 pictures from 2013. One of my kids, and one of when I crashed my car.

I only accepted connect requests if I knew and had met the person, I never liked or commented on anything on Social Media – and I would never, ever even dare to think that one day I would post regularly on any platform at all.

Or even dream of that my main source of income would come from connecting with people on Social Media – mainly on LinkedIn.

But I realized I needed to overcome that fear, I needed to become a public person.

So I started walking. I took one step after the other. I took courses and joined programs, I connected with people asked them what works for them, and what doesn’t. I completed my coaching degree. And after a while I started to show up regularly on LinkedIn.

I started with wanting to help other corporate women, who were stuck in their professions, but didn’t know what they wanted – or how they could even figure out what their next steps could be.

Until one day.

I had been serving these women in a multi-day event, and I sat there and realized that they aren’t my Dream Clients. They absolutely need coaching, but they don’t need me. They need someone who is way more patient.

I wanted to work with action takers, and I wanted to help other people to build their businesses – their Lifestyle Businesses, so that they could create their desired lifestyles.

A business that is designed so it fits their desired Lifestyle, not a Lifestyle that fits their business.

So, I took a big step back, and decided to launch my very first 6-months Group Coaching Program that I called the Empowered Entrepreneur.

It was a hit – I had 6 clients joining in that very first launch, the second launch went really well too – an additional 5 people joined. The clients were amazing, and got amazing results themselves with people joining their programs – they were making a difference, and I could see the snowball effect of impact through my own business.

And I could also see how my business would take off in January 2022 with my next big launch…

Ads were set up, working well.

Leads came in, looking promising.

I was super excited about my January launch!

On December 27th 2021 I ended up in the Emergency Room. A malignant tumor on my right kidney was detected, and I had life-saving surgery in January – and obviously my business launch had to be postponed.

During my recovery I started to doubt EVERYTHING. My clients’ results, the leads that were coming in etc. etc. I started to doubt myself.

2022 was the year that I had to re-build my confidence. And the main takeaway from my scare was that NOTHING I do on Social Media can kill me.

So I started to become more active on LinkedIn, the platform that had scared me the most before. And I started to attract new clients organically through LinkedIn.

Last year people started to approach me asking me to help them with their LinkedIn – they saw me everywhere, they liked what I was doing, and they wanted the same thing.

I hadn’t really thought of the system that I used, and that I had also taught my clients. It hadn’t been that organized until then. But by following my own approach – designing and selling a program before it’s built (Designed-To-Sell),

I defined the LinkedIn Clarity Framework, based on what it is that I do myself, and that my clients do, and then I kicked off a a pilot testing for it.

And it worked!

My program helped my Client (who at the time only had 600 LinkedIn connections) to get 3 new paid speaking engagements within 8 weeks after she had started my program.

Last week, I got to share the LinkedIn Clarity Framework to an audience of over 550 people online.

Here’s how leveraging LinkedIn has changed my life and my business:

I’ve been able to connect with people all over the world, and it consistently generates leads but more importantly clients to my business – a bunch of leads won’t do us any good if we can’t turn them into clients now, can they ;-)

I’ve been speaking on stages in Paris and Rome, and am continuously invited to speak at other people’s events, summits, podcasts and programs.

Why is this important?

It defines you as an authority and expert within your field – and not to speak of – remember that dream I had, of becoming Mel Robbins?

Well. Back then, I gave myself 5 years to become a public speaker.

By being on LinkedIn I managed to shorten this with 2.5 years!

So from having ZERO online presence, taking the detour over Instagram, adding Covid, lock-down and even cancer into the mix, I got the request to speak in Paris on LinkedIn within 2.5 years after I had made that promise to myself to become a public speaker.

Being on Linkedin, building my personal brand there – has also given me unexpected support from my prior colleagues.

Some of them even become my clients, and I get to support and inspire others.

So the trolls that I envisioned – how I would be judged by my prior “old” network – that was all in my head.

It wasn’t real.

I don’t know all the Google Chrome extensions that are out there, to analyze your LinkedIn data.

I don’t write posts that go viral every 2 days or have 10k followers.

I currently have +4k connections.

And yet it works for me.

And what I want to say by that is that you don’t need to be a LinkedIn guru.

You don’t need to pay a lot of money for extensions and applications that you don’t really want to use.

You don’t need to have 10k followers – and you can still use LinkedIn to generate significant revenue to your business, to land important speaking gigs and co-operations that will help you build your brand and your authority as an expert within your field.

My entire business changed (heck, it started!) the moment I chose to embrace LinkedIn as my main Online Platform to generate leads, opportunities and clients for my business.

And trust me, if I can do it, anyone can do it!

LinkedIn is the place to be. It is where you will find your clients and collaborators.

LinkedIn is recognized as the preferred platform for B2B marketers and is known to generate significantly more leads than any other social media platform.

Its professional environment fosters meaningful connections.

As with all things in business, and life for that matter, it is about taking action… even just one action – one step at a time – will get you to where you want to be eventually.

Perfection is your enemy!

I know how that can keep you stuck – speaking from being a recovered perfectionist.

I follow the simple principle of Building and Optimizing in my business. To build, rinse and repeat, to optimize before you can scale.

And the same goes with building your presence and audience on LinkedIn.

Nothing is set in stone, and nothing you do on that Platform will kill you.

BUT if you don’t really know what you’re doing – the Platform will not work for you. It might even work against you. You will be spending loads of time on things that might not even work.

And that’s why I started to share my simple 5-step Framework to step up your LinkedIn Game and Crush it on that Platform.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

I have worked within Financial Services for almost 20 years, and I’ve been a Senior Executive at two of the Big4 companies.

Being in that environment means that you can not show any weaknesses, you need to ALWAYS be the specialist. And if you ask any questions, it has to be the RIGHT questions – or else you’re afraid you won’t be taken seriously, judged or that people will even distrust you and think that you’re incompetent.

So, when I first started to build my very first online program – I bought the course (on how to build online programs ;-) ) and I started to build it. But I didn’t ask ANYONE what they wanted, or needed. I thought I had to know it all BEFORE I could share it with them.

It took me 10 months (!) to try to build it on my own. And that course was never even published!

And that’s the story of way too many entrepreneurs, and the reason why they don’t succeed. They think they have to have it all figured out BEFORE they can start selling.

The moment I started asking questions, and didn’t build and design any programs or courses based on what I thought would be best – but really based on my clients’ input, and what they want and need – that’s the key moment when everything changed.

By listening to what our clients’ say – their thoughts, fears, challenges, ideas – we get to build the best offers there are. Adding ourselves into the mix, that is what makes the programs and courses we build irresistible.

But it doesn’t stop there – just because someone says they want and need it – doesn’t mean that they want to pay for it.

So, BEFORE you start building – you need to get it validated. You need to sell it – before you build it. Otherwise you might end up building a product that’s never even sold – and it can be the best product in the world, but if no-one thinks they need it, it won’t sell.

How’d you meet your business partner?

I love being in Communities and Group Coaching Programs – because then I’m in a world where everyone has the same challenges, fears and dreams as I do.

I’m originally from Sweden, but I live in Switzerland and have lived here for many years. But I’m still Swedish in my heart, and every time I hear someone from Sweden in an international setting, I always reach out.

I was in a big, high-ticket Group Coaching Program by an American Business Coach, and one day I hear my Swedish Accent (well not from me, but from someone else ;-). ) – so I sent this woman (Angela Sundust) a chat to connect.

Angela is a launch expert, and I help my clients to build and optimize their offers. So I had a launch coming up, my Business Manager had just resigned – and I needed extra support. So I reached out to Angela, asking whether she would be interested in supporting during my upcoming launch – and that is the start of our co-operation.

I have met so many amazing peers by being in various Business Mentoring Programs. Those connections alone are worth the investment of being in the right room.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.josefinewanner.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/josefinewanner/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/josefine.wanner/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josefine-wanner/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@josefinewanner
• Other: FB Group LinkedIn Clarity – for those that want to leverage LinkedIn for their Business, but don’t yet really know how: https://www.facebook.com/groups/linkedinclarity