TL;DR I was on a podcast recently in London talking about mindset, growing a personal brand, and overcoming the cringe with Matt Essam for his podcast Creative Courage. You can listen to it here.

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My hands were shaking when I published my first LinkedIn post.

I still remember it like it was yesterday.

"Who am I to post on LinkedIn? Why would anyone even care?"

Now I write about alll the things. Anxiety. Feeling scared. Losing my shit. Not always knowing what I'm doing, and what I'm learning every day.

Does writing about all of that make me any less competent at personal branding?

No.

I've learned that it just makes me human. And a bit more relatable and interesting lol

You might have the perfect plan and strategy... and still not post on LinkedIn.

It's mostly a mental blocker. Fear of judgement. Fear of being cringe or not good enough.

One day I realised: I shouldn't CARE about what alllllll the strangers think.

It's like dating.

You can't force a connection. With some people it won't click. And if it doesn't feel right, it doesn't. Same goes for clients or a new job.

The people who judge me were never going to become my friends, my clients or my employers.

They don't like me. And that's OK!! It's better than catering to everyone, actually.

Matt Essam put it best during our recent conversation for his podcast:

"it's almost like a self-filtering mechanism... it rules out those who you wouldn't want to work with anyway"

Last month I did a "reasons to follow or unfollow me" post. It mentioned I've been vegan for 10+ years.

Same week, I got an email from a startup incubator in Berlin asking for a personal branding workshop, because I'm "mission aligned".

If I filtered my opinions and values and stayed boringly neutral on LinkedIn, NONE OF IT would have found me.

Posting led to me quitting my job a year ago. Starting my communities. Working with startup incubators like Kickstarting For Good. Hosting events for amazing tools and teams like Tally and Notion. Partnerships with brands I LOVE like Toggl, Pitch, Framer, Outsite, Make.

A few weeks ago I met with Matt in Hyde Park and talked about all of this.

Posting from a place of purpose, why so many people don't even like the content they post, and how to enjoy posting instead of dreading it.

The podcast episode is live now. You can listen to it here.

(would love to hear how you liked it after! <3)

Do you remember your first LinkedIn post? How did it feel?

Maria

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