Welcome to Behind the Business. We’re back.
I know. I was actually just thinking this before. I don’t think I’ve ever brought in a guest twice onto the podcast. You were the first. I love this. Well, thank you so much for having me.
Of course. I thought it would be we were overdue because so much growth has happened for you since the last time you were on the podcast. I should have double checked when that actually was, but it was probably a good year ago or more. And so to have you back in this space to share your new wisdom, learnings, all the things, is going to be really, really exciting.
Oh yeah. Like I feel like I’ve had like 40 lifetimes in that time. Like so much has changed. I’ve been through so many transitions and I think that’s what it really happens when you go all in on your growth and on your life—things just change so quickly. So yeah, there’s lots to talk about 100%.
So this podcast is really about looking behind the business of someone’s business, but also behind the human of the business. And I’m a really big fan of this because I think it’s so good and well and easy to talk about everyone’s highlight reels and their wins, which we will discuss obviously because there’s a place for that and it’s so important. But I think what’s so refreshing for people to hear is also like the duality that comes in business and life and how you actually show up in business and navigate those things throughout that.
So, first of all, did you want to share, for those that maybe haven’t listened to that podcast episode, who you are, who you help—just a tiny little bit about you so we’ve got some context, and then we’ll start unpacking things.
Yes, of course. So, I’m Georgia St John-Smith and one of my main things that I support women with is growing their business in a way that’s really aligned with your heart and soul. And so that’s a core piece of my work. And then I have this gift in human design. I have two main gifts. One of them is self-expression and the other one is marketing. So I never really learned marketing other than through my business and actually doing marketing in my business and then getting so geeky about it. We’ve just spoken about this on my podcast as well, but they’re my two zones of genius.
And then a huge platform that I’ve really grown on a lot is LinkedIn. I support people to grow on LinkedIn. I see it as just such an incredible platform for anyone in business because it’s a business platform. It’s the number one platform where the most money in the world gets done between businesses. And so of course we want to be there. And that’s what I help women do in their businesses, but not in the sense of like, oh, let’s blend in, let’s put a blazer on. I’ve been totally different to that. That self-expression piece really comes out on LinkedIn. So, I’ve really created this whole different world on LinkedIn of women who are so free and sharing their passions and their joys as well as their business and getting paid a lot of money through that.
So, amazing. And I know that you also recently just celebrated 70,000 followers on LinkedIn, I believe.
Yeah, literally like yesterday.
Yeah. Congratulations. That’s such an incredible milestone. What would be your three biggest tips when it comes to gaining such a following on LinkedIn that you’ve learned? I know that that’s such a big question, but for anyone that’s maybe already on LinkedIn or considering, what’s some things that from your perspective helped you get to those 70,000 followers?
Yeah. Like number one, have something to say. I had so much to say from day one when I started growing on LinkedIn—so much to say that is actually contrary to what most people are saying on the platform. I have been very anti-9-to-5 from day one. My ex-bosses have all got me on LinkedIn and I’m sure they see my stuff and they’re like, “What is this woman doing?” But I’ve never allowed that kind of fear of judgment to stop me. And I think that’s why I built such a powerful movement—because I’ve just said things that most people are scared to say but a lot of people really agree with.
So number one: have something to say. What do you believe in that is actually quite different to what most people believe in? And I think a lot of people get stuck on this or overthink it. It really comes down to that sense of purpose—this is my purpose, this is what I’m here to do. I remember I was in Ibiza doing this meditation, and it was about taking you back to your purpose from before you were born, imagining yourself traveling to Earth with this purpose. I had this visualization of me going around with a key unlocking people out of cages. I didn’t understand it at the time. A year later I realized—it’s freeing people from the cages they create for themselves in life and business.
And at that point, I was like, “What is this? This is weird. Why am I unlocking people out of cages?” And as time went by, about a year later, I was like, “Oh, this is like freeing people from what they thought they had to be, the cage that you actually create yourself for your life, for your business sometimes as well.” I think so many people think business, professional, blazer—like I have to look this way, everything has to be perfect. And I’ve kind of done the opposite. I’ve shared a lot of very messy things on LinkedIn. And it’s something that I think people have constantly said to me. They said, “This is such a breath of fresh air. Thank you for sharing this.”
So I think for you really come back to really what you have to say that’s big, that’s bold, that’s out there. This is what my LinkedIn Leopard Method is like—the leopards always stand out. A leopard doesn’t change her spots. She owns them. And so that’s you, really owning who you are. That would be number one.
Number two, you’ve got to learn how to work the platform. Get geeky with it. Spend time on LinkedIn. I think a lot of people will maybe repurpose an Instagram post, plop it on LinkedIn, maybe it’ll do okay, maybe it won’t. And that’s as far as the effort tends to go. Someone even asked me the other day, “Oh, could I get my VA to repurpose my stuff and put it on LinkedIn?” I was like, yeah, you can if you want to plod along.
I think a lot of people would do that.
So what’s the difference in the energy or effort that should go into it other than repurposing?
Yeah, it’s the same for any platform. Honestly, if you want to go on a platform, you want to own it, you want to dominate, you want to not just plod along but you want to really grow and you want to monetize and make a ton of money from that platform, you have to be invested and you have to have a very core, strong purpose around that. And so if you’re repurposing from Instagram, it’s just minimal effort and it’s going to get minimal results.
It’s actually better than doing nothing—so this isn’t to say it’s the worst thing ever—because I truly believe LinkedIn is a core, strong platform that if you’re not already on there, you do want to be on there as a business owner. It’s only going to get stronger and stronger. But of course, minimal effort equals minimal results. Think about anyone who’s ever done anything incredible on any kind of platform—they’ve gone so geeky and so granular into “let me just learn this platform.” And that’s what I did.
I really sharpened my skills of copywriting. For example, with Instagram visuals are very powerful, and it’s very much around what your reels look like, what it looks like as a brand. And this is actually something that I really love about LinkedIn—people remember you for your words. They remember you for what you have to say. If you want people to actually read your stuff, you want to get really good at copywriting. I’m not talking about messaging and copywriting that you would do on Instagram—this is a real cut above. It’s a whole new world of hooks and really learning how to bring someone in to read every word from the top line.
You want to be adding numbers, statistics, showing before and after—something that sparks curiosity in the top line to get them to read the rest. And then when they’re reading, you want to make it so easy for them to read until the end. Formatting can also be really good for that—having gaps between your sentences, making your words look like a triangle. Simple things, but actually it’s an art. This is what I did that really helped me—I just got so granular into copywriting. I started learning more and more about it. Even though I’ve always been a natural writer, it took it to a whole new level. And you don’t have to be a natural writer—you can learn it as well.
So that’s the top two things. And then the third thing I would say is consistency. If you are going to go on there, post minimum three to five times per week and you will grow your account purely because you’re showing up and you’re learning every single post. Learn what went well, what didn’t go well, how can I improve this thing, and you will do ten times better than other people.
I love that. And do you post—like I know on Instagram you post a lot of reels and stuff—on LinkedIn, do you do that as well or is it mostly just photos that do better?
No. A lot of that kind of B-roll reel stuff will die on LinkedIn. It just doesn’t work. Maybe it will change in the future, but I don’t think significantly. If you are going to do a video… they did trial out video, and I do believe they’re going to bring the video feature back. I spoke to someone who works at LinkedIn and she said they’re working on integrating it back into the algorithm. So I think they will bring back video, but it’s not going to be like lifestyle Instagram—nothing like that. LinkedIn is where they want to see your expertise. People want to learn something and go away a little bit changed.
So talking-heads videos I would do on LinkedIn, or maybe if I’m doing a whole sketch or something just really engaging, 100%. But apart from that, it’s a written platform.
Wow. And from your personal perspective, knowing that video is so strong across the board on pretty much every other platform, why do you think that just doesn’t land? It’s not like they’re different human beings—the people on LinkedIn also would be on other social media platforms where they consume video. So why do you think that’s the case? Is it the intention people come onto LinkedIn for that’s different and therefore it doesn’t resonate?
I think that’s a big part of it. A lot of people who are on LinkedIn do not look at TikTok. I don’t have TikTok. I am not interested. I find it the biggest waste of time and a hole I don’t want to get into. That’s one thing. I think a lot of people who go on LinkedIn also go to different places for different things.
You go to a coffee shop to get a coffee, you go to a library to read. LinkedIn is a place where people often go specifically to do business, so they’re in a different headspace. We’re not scrolling late at night looking for a bit of a relaxed time. This is where people are in the day. They wake up in the morning, read LinkedIn like you would read a newspaper or an article. Newspapers are still massive, and there’s a reason.
I remember when I first started posting on LinkedIn, it was wild. Someone messaged me and was like, “Georgia, I love reading your articles.” And I was like, “Articles? What articles?” Then I realized that’s how they were viewing my posts.
This makes so much sense. I love this so much. So, when you’re creating Instagram content, because I know you obviously do that as well, do you just insert an entirely different brain to create that content?
Not entirely different. There’s still the creator and the marketer that comes out when creating both pieces of content. But yeah, different hooks will work better on Instagram than on LinkedIn, and different styles of content and also, to be honest, different conversations. So I guess I am in a different headspace. I love sometimes just sitting and creating some really fun, creative reels on Instagram, and I’ll be in a totally different space to when I’m creating on LinkedIn.
What it helps me with as well sometimes is if I’ve got this awesome reel and I just want a quick amazing caption, I can literally take that from LinkedIn and put it onto Instagram. So if anything, if you are repurposing anything, you can create such strong words—do it from LinkedIn to Instagram.
That makes so much sense. Thanks for sharing. Okay, so now people know your expertise around LinkedIn and that’s one of the things you specialize in with your clients. Tell me a little bit more about—I should have found out the date when you were last on my podcast—but let’s just say over the last year, I know in general you have upleveled both personally and professionally in more ways than I can count on fingers. So what would you say has been one of the biggest lessons you have learned over the last year of scaling your business? It can even be a personal thing that’s impacted business. I know I’m not making this easy, but what’s just one thing that really stands out?
This is like wow. This is the hardest question you could have asked me because I just want to talk about everything.
But it’s good, right? It increases your skills to be able to condense a year into one thing.
Yeah.
Even if there’s a few things, that’s okay, but just some really pivotal things that you believe have played a significant role in being an energetic match for the results that you bring in today. You would have had to uplevel internally quite a bit to hold that.
Yeah. So honestly, the one thing that is just coming through very strongly right now, and I feel like it’s coming through because someone needs to hear it, is boundaries. And it’s not something that I thought I had a problem with before, just to be very clear. And I actually think most people don’t think they have any issues with boundaries in business and life. But what will happen is you’re actually going around with zero boundaries half of the time.
I see clearly now what that looked like. And I will tell you this: when you do start to implement healthy boundaries, people will start to not like you more—like people like you less sometimes. And it’s a harsh truth. People like you, whether that’s a client in your business that maybe starts to change, whether that’s actually a friend or even family. Sometimes certain people like you because they can walk all over you. They like that they get what they need from you. They’ll call you when they have a problem, you’ll fix it.
So for me, within my business, one of the biggest things I did that really helped me was I stopped sales calls. I know a lot of people do sales calls and they love them, and I’m not going to say don’t ever do it, but for me personally, that helped me with my boundaries and also worked with the style of business I like to do. I stopped sales calls, and it was amazing because I was like, you know what? I don’t need to get on a call with people. If you want to buy my thing, you can buy it. Take yourself through that whole clarity call process.
It really updated to have so much more time. That frequency was relayed. So many of my clients have said to me, “Georgia, you know why I signed on with you? It’s because you did not follow up with me. You did not chase me. And it made me think, hmm, why is she not chasing me? It gave me space to feel good and want to invest.” That was a really powerful thing in terms of having boundaries, and also in my personal life as well—what I will and won’t accept, what I am and am not available for—changed a lot.
I love that answer so much because it’s so true that what we tolerate in our life, if it’s unaligned or time-consuming, plays a role in our energy, and our energy plays a big role in the results that we’re going to get in our lives. Thank you for sharing that, because I’m sure people listening—someone needed to hear that—and can take from that: where am I letting people walk all over me and how is that stopping me from holding more? I can already imagine for some people they don’t want to sign on more clients because currently they people-please and bend over backwards for people. The thought of having more clients just means more of that. And if that’s exhausting and you’re at your capacity now, then even if consciously you want more clients, subconsciously you don’t have space for it. Letting go and creating space is really important to be able to expand and grow more.
Yeah, massively.
I love that. Now, tell me a little bit about some of the challenges that you have had to go through also to get here. This is where I love knowing the human behind the business and the success, because everyone sees on Instagram, on LinkedIn, all the places, everyone’s stats and figures and highs—but what about some of the lows that you’ve had to learn, like the duality of business? Has there been anything in particular that stood out for you that you’ve had to navigate as you’ve grown as well?
Yeah, growing my business in terms of having different things in place like legal and contracts. It was something that I naively never thought I would have to have in my business. I think, hang on a minute—it’s a business. Every single business has a legal department. I remember when I first had my first contracts, I thought it was just so everyone was on the same page and you know what you get, that we’re kind to each other. I truly had the best intention, and I still love this about myself—that naivety of thinking everyone has good intentions.
But actually, not everyone does have good intentions. There are people in this world who are just out there looking to get something back. So what’s really helped me is knowing that I have a team for this—I don’t have to handle it myself. I have people who are going to handle that for me. If at the very least you don’t have a team, just have solid contracts. That’s been an incredible thing that’s really helped me within my business.
It’s something I’ve learned to navigate, realizing that when you grow quickly, you become a different person. If I rewind back to a few years ago when I was making maybe two grand a month—everyone likes me when I’m making two grand a month and this girl is trying. Then suddenly it’s consistent 10k months and I’m not doing any sales calls. It’s like, whoa, that doesn’t make sense to some people. At that time, people started to test me more: “Oh, are you all about the money now?” And I’m thinking, why do you think that just because I make more money? I still have a heart and soul.
It’s actually broken my heart sometimes, the messages I’ve received. It does hurt when someone questions you in a way you can’t believe. There have been times where it’s been sad and challenging, thinking, I can’t believe I spent all this time trying to help and support this person from a genuine place. But at the end of the day, sometimes you can’t change someone—they have to change themselves. If they don’t want to, there’s nothing you can do about it.
When that first happened, I was so sad about it, talking to my friends. Now I’m much further removed from that process. If anything, it’s made me more loving and given me more compassion for people, while also giving me rock-solid boundaries so that’s not something that will affect me anymore.
I love that. Thank you for sharing that because it’s not easy to receive those sorts of projections—really, that’s what I’m going to call them, right?—because it’s not a fact. Someone’s saying that you’re all about the money, when I obviously know you personally and I know that’s not your number one focus. It’s a byproduct of the impact that you make, right? And it really does hurt, you’re so right. That’s why I like talking about this stuff, because this is the stuff that happens to everyone, but it’s just not spoken about publicly nearly enough. So when it does happen to people as they grow their business, they start to take it personally because there’s no evidence that it happens to anyone else other than themselves. That’s why I love bringing these conversations forth—so when it happens to someone listening as they grow their business and they receive unkind messages or projections or have to go down the legal route for their terms and conditions, they don’t make it mean something about them. It’s actually just a business thing, right?
Yeah. And I love this—it’s like, you know Leila Hormozi? She openly said she spends half of her time in litigation. I remember watching that YouTube video and thinking, holy crap, imagine that. Imagine if half your time in business goes there. But that’s the reality of a 100-plus million dollar business. As you grow, people think that life’s just amazing and you get all this stuff, and yeah, you do—but also there’s the flip side of that. There’s duality in everything in life, and that’s another thing that happens. You get more duality to hold.
Yeah. And people expect more of you. This can be good—it can challenge you to rise and become a better human and a better business owner as well.
100%. Every single challenge that I’ve had in my business I’m so grateful for. Especially when I’d started making 10k cash months and thought, wow, this is amazing—but then all these challenges started to happen. I’m so grateful they did, because then by the time we did $80,000 in sales in February, I was so much more ready for that. It didn’t feel like a thing. Someone actually messaged me saying, “Whoa, I can’t imagine how it must be to go from such a jump.” And I was like, actually no—it feels like I’m ready for it and I feel good about it now because I’ve been through so many things that prepared me for that. So the next time something even bigger happened, I was just like, okay, no worries.
Yeah. And I think this is another really important conversation because business is not linear and there’s this huge ripple effect and compound effect that happens. In the beginning of business, it really feels like this one big plateau—everything is hard, far away, and uncertain. Then you get your first result, and getting the next result is so much faster because there’s the belief. That belief, confidence, and skill set that’s grown in that time just increases and it gets easier and faster to get results.
Sure, you don’t see those big jumps early on, but eventually it becomes the norm where you can quantum leap because you’ve earned the right to—you’ve become an energetic match for it. I think so many people earlier in business see these wins and think it’s unfair, but those people have done the reps to make those jumps happen. That’s why you felt normal with it—because you’d expanded your capacity. It wasn’t luck. It wasn’t an accident. You earned that. You created that. And not necessarily from harder work or working double time—it’s just that you’re better and you work smarter. There’s the trust within yourself, and there’s also the trust in your brand externally because of that ripple effect of showing up consistently.
Yeah, exactly that. I think so many people underestimate how many reps the people you look up to have put in—more than you.
100%. 100%. So many people don’t even know the half of it. I literally did a post on this today on social media about all the things I did in the beginning of my business outside of just posting content. I see so many unhealthy expectations these days—someone will start a coaching business, all their content is copy-and-pasted from ChatGPT, and they’re like, “Why isn’t my business growing? Why am I not making money?” I’m like, because it’s literally from AI and you’re not doing anything outside of that. You’re just hoping it all works out.
You’ve actually got to go out of your way in the beginning—that’s just my belief. I’m grateful I didn’t have AI when I started, because I had to learn the skill set and build it. I use it now and love it, but I’m glad I had to learn on my own because I did so many things outside of just creating content—putting flyers in letterboxes, running in-person retreats, running workshops, sending emails, collaborating with people, running events. I did everything I possibly could to expand my network and grow my audience, in addition to “just posting content.” Do you feel the same when you started?
Oh yeah, massively. Throughout the whole of COVID, I was doing two yoga sessions a day online and frantically doing everything I could to grow my business in between. I did not stop. I was sending DMs to brands like Pretty Little Thing to do collaborative yoga sessions online—that did really well. I did in-person yoga sessions when I was in London on the side of my job. I started to build a personal brand before I even quit my job.
Then I hosted so many retreats in Ibiza when I didn’t have any qualifications to host a retreat. I’d done my yoga qualification, Reiki, and meditation, but no one really teaches you how to do a retreat. I learned so much doing that. I invested $10,000 to hire a villa for a week in Ibiza back in 2022—and it worked. I just put my neck on the line more than most people are willing to do. I trusted it would work. And I’m still doing those things today—still putting my neck on the line in ways I don’t see many people do.
I think in business, actually taking risks is key. Are you taking risks? Because if you’re not, that’s a key part of business.
I 100% agree. Putting our neck on the line just looks different now. I might not be putting flyers in letterboxes, but I’m putting money into Facebook ads—there’s risk in that. I’m paying for a team—there’s risk in that. I’m putting myself out there in so many ways, and there’s risk in all of it. But you also get the results from that. I wanted to hear your perspective because so many people look at success and don’t realize how much truly went into it.
Even for example how you don’t do sales calls anymore—you did so much in the beginning and built your way up to that point. There’s all this stuff beforehand that gave you that permission slip to run business in a smoother way.
Oh yeah. I had a post go viral in 2022 on LinkedIn. I was booked up with sales calls for a month and a half—9 till 5, sometimes 6 or 7, on sales calls. I really got my reps in and knew how to take someone through a sales process. Now I can do that so much quicker—through my content or even just one DM voice note. There are so many things I can do faster now because I did all that legwork.
And yeah, I’m constantly putting my neck on the line. I just did it for this massive venue for an event I told you about—we haven’t even launched it yet. You were like, “Do you know how you’ll get 200 or 300 people there?” And I said, I just know they will come. That’s going to be a massive investment of time, energy, money—but I’m going to do it and I’m so excited.
Yeah. And I love that unwavering belief. That’s why I asked—because it’s such a big commitment. I love your trust and certainty within yourself. I think that’s essential for business success.
Yeah. And when you have a vision, allow yourself to envision the most amazing thing you could be doing in your business right now. When I did that and saw this venue, I thought, this is it. Luxury, wellness touches I love, a stage, pools, hot tubs. This is the biggest, most beautiful vision for my business. When you allow yourself to dream big, you can start taking action toward that dream.
I love that so much. Thank you for sharing. Before we start to wrap up, I’m curious—do you have any rituals or routines, specific things from the mindset side of things or in your personal life that support your business growth?
Oh yeah, this is huge. The amount of personal growth and mindset work I do is wild. I love tapping. I do tapping a lot. Meditation, yoga, going for runs—those are non-negotiables. I’m always feeding my brain with positive things, whether it’s listening to a podcast like this or voice notes I know will be positive. I love this app called To Be Magnetic—it’s a manifestation app. I spend hours journaling, writing, doing long deep meditations—that’s also where one of the visualizations I told you about earlier came from.
Reading books—I’m constantly in personal development. My whole life is a dance of personal growth. Every person I meet, I learn from. I’m in Morocco right now and met this entrepreneurial guy who helped me with a photo shoot. I offered to pay him, and he asked if I could help with his LinkedIn. We spent two and a half hours on it, plus had philosophical conversations. Everything in life you can learn from.
I have a puppy right now that I adopted here in Morocco. Raising a puppy is hard—I didn’t know what I was getting myself into. She’s amazing, but there are nights she wakes me up, or she bites a cushion, or wants to play when I’m tired. But I tell myself, this is the greatest gift. I do the same with challenges in business—legal stuff, whatever it is—it’s the greatest gift. She’s teaching me presence at a time when I’m scaling to seven figures and beyond. Presence and patience are the most important things I could have.
Wow. I love your mindset and how you flip something that could be frustrating into a gift that flows into every area of life.
Yeah. And trust me, I had the breakdown too—crying, saying this is too much. But on the other side, you choose what it means. Your whole life is determined by what you make something mean. This podcast, these two and a half hours we’ve spent together—what do we make it mean? An amazing collaboration and enriching conversation.
Yeah. And sure, it could feel tiring, but my cheeks hurt from smiling for two and a half hours.
Me too. I need to frown more.
I’m listening.
No, it takes more muscles to frown, actually.
Oh, I didn’t know that. Makes sense.
When it comes to challenges—maybe in your personal life, or when something happens in business—what’s your go-to?
I regulate myself. If you’re frustrated, upset, feeling a certain way—that’s dysregulation. I’ll run, journal, meditate. I quickly flip the script, find the learning even if I don’t fully believe it yet. I tell myself, this is going to be the best thing for me. That’s why I did the whole “Phoenix season” when I had a horrific breakup, plus lost my car through no fault of my own. It was a lot. From day one I was gutted, but I also thought, this is going to make me rise. That delusional sense of hope creates incredible things in your life.
Wow. Thank you for sharing that. I think that’s powerful for people to hear, so if they’re going through a challenge, they ask, what’s the lesson here?
Yeah, always. I think that’s why I did so well regardless of that—I didn’t make it something I had to process forever. I processed it, took three days off, looked after myself, and then went back to business, alchemizing my pain into something productive that could help someone else.
I love that. This has been such a powerful conversation. If people want to learn more about you and how you can support them, where can they find you?
Oh my gosh, you can find me on LinkedIn: Georgia St John-Smith. You can find me on Instagram: Georgia St John-Smith. And also my podcast, On Georgia’s Mind, where you’ll also find an interview I just did with Sofia.
We’ll link all of that below so people can find you. Thank you so much for your time, love, and energy. I know everyone’s going to love this.
Thank you.
