table of funtents

1. 👋🏼 it’s me, hi

2. 🔬 the 14 day LinkedIn experiment

3. 💩 no bs reminders

4. 🎁 from my ops toolbox

5. 👑 misfit wisdom nuggets

👋🏼 it’s me, hi

HI MISFITS!

BOY AM I GLAD TO SEE YOU ALL TODAY (truly, the highlight of my week).

I’m afraid the state of the world isn’t much brighter since we last spoke.

A number of global changes (most notably, the American inauguration) have left many (including me) with big feels.

Before we dive into episode 12, I’ll leave you with this: as the name suggests, this is a safe and welcome space to celebrate minority misfits.

In a world currently threatening some of our most fundamental rights, I hope you find comfort knowing these weekly nuggets encourage doing things differently and succeeding because of, rather than in spite of, our unique idiosyncrasies.

Y’all are welcome here.

ICYMI:

1. I posted a plea for happy news (e.g. dog photos) on LinkedIn yesterday, and the people DELIVERED 

2. Last week’s episode was all about pricing your services (the question most of you asked @ sign up stage!)

Now, let’s dive into episode 12.

🔬 the 14 day LinkedIn experiment

I often mention how instrumental LinkedIn is to keshty’s build + success.

LinkedIn offers:

1. a free platform to market yourself and your personal brand

2. a space to develop your writing, connecting and learning skills

3. the opportunity to engage with a WHOLE WORLD you otherwise couldn't

From 25 September 2023, I consistently posted 3-5x a week for one year*

*(check out previous episodes showing what 1 year of LinkedIn data looks like and how I ran keshty’s launch campaign on LinkedIn)

Once I passed the one year mark, though, something changed:

I started viscerally loathing LinkedIn.

I went from having “it’s not that deep” tattooed on my forehead to taking everything more seriously than I cared to. I felt myself:

1. miss learning from real people through their eloquent, medium-form writing vs. bots, random selfies and recycled videos on other social media apps

2. bored by the same people in the same engagement pods oozing over each other’s content vs. authentic, thought-provoking engagement

3. expend energy trying to keep bad vibes out of my writing / overthinking what didn’t matter e.g. “hooks” instead of just writing as myself

So I took two months off, recalibrated and decided to bring it back to something I love: trial and data (trial and error’s more informed 2nd cousin).

PS: thanks to this experiment, I’m actually more excited to get back into LinkedIn than I was at the start. Read on!

1. the content

I primarily write about one topic on LinkedIn: scaling diverse, high-performing teams.

It’s where most of my ideal Fractional / Advisory prospects lurk, so naturally, I want to speak to their pain points where I know they hang out.

Posts always differ slightly, as sometimes I’ll:

• focus on one element: e.g. scale, diverse or high-performing

• talk about how fractionals help founders achieve the same results

• post to re-intro my experience, leadership style and offer to readers

*on rare occasions (<5% of posts), I’ll either share something personal / helpful but unrelated to my key topic.

2. the experiment

For this mini-experiment, I wanted to explore 3 things:

• topic: 95% content linked back to my main topic, 5% other

• cadence: test active vs. inactive posting with 7 days on (my own posts), 7 days off (comments or sharing other’s posts only)

• post type: there’s SO much speculation about text / images / videos (mobile or desktop configured) / links (in posts or comments) - so why not try them all?

Here’s what my 14 day post calendar looked like:

3. the data

I’ll present results in two ways (pick your preference!):

• visual: screenshots of my LinkedIn analytics between 6-19th Jan

• numerical: table with raw data points against each post

Across both, we’ll look at:

• engagements: post interactions (likes, comments, shares)

• impressions: the number of times your post was displayed on screen

• follower count: LI analytics don’t include unfollows, but always assume some!

i. visual

fyi: screenshots taken on 19 Jan @ 5 pm

ii. numerical

fyi: raw data taken today 22 Jan @ 2pm. done intentionally to show you posts can bake, don’t entirely depend on “the first hour” and still make rounds at the weekends

* text only / first posts performed better. guessing because I enjoy writing significantly more than photo / video, it prob comes through in post quality

** 129 new followers in 2 weeks: most came through on the weekend, meaning posts still make the rounds days (even weeks!) after

💩 no bs reminders

🚦 if in doubt, just start

Let’s take easy numbers: say you’re averaging 10k impressions and 25 net gained followers (total follows + unfollows). After one year, you’ll hit over half a million impressions and 1.3k new followers.

That may not seem like much when comparing yourself to peeps boasting exponential growth stats (they’re lying, btw). But could you imagine 1300 people crowding a room to hear what you have to say?

Only 1% of LinkedIn actively posts weekly, so if you’re thinking of starting - just do it. If your hurdle is time, make it. If your hurdle is ideas, pick a topic, do a braindump and make 5x posts out of it. If your hurdle is feeling cringe, I feel ya - but you’re leaving money, friendships and opportunities on the table. If in doubt, just start.

🗣️ embrace comments

Stop commenting on Steven Bartlett or Alex Hormozi’s posts, y’all. No beef, but they’re not going to engage back, their posts are surrounded by comment bots and you’re competing with thousands of overly keen users.

With that said, I’ve found comments to be a seriously close second to posts. This isn’t about playing with the algo, btw - this is about actively participating in real conversations and meeting others to learn with. I’ve made friends, had fab discussions and generated post ideas simply through comments.

Pick 10 people (with humble followings) you love learning from, hit the bell on their profile to get notified when they post, then comment authentically if (and only if) you can contribute a point of view. PS: “agree!” or anything by ChatGPT doesn’t count.

💚 focus on what matters

I’ve had a few posts go viral, and let me tell y’all: it’s overwhelming. Not only do a bunch of randoms follow you (who’ll never become clients or friends), but you’re suddenly inundated with comments / DMs you’ll feel compelled to respond to.

Focus on what matters to you: whether that’s building authentic relationships, improving written communication, keeping your brain sharp or learning.

If you hate making carousels (me) or cold DM’ing (also me), DON’T DO IT. Do what brings you joy and, above all, makes you a consistent, effective user on the platform.

🎁 from my ops toolbox

Staying on brand, what do I use to write?

🧰 In my toolbox: Obsidian (free)

I could shout about Obsidian forever, knowing full-well I’ve only scratched the surface of all its brilliant functionality.

The biggest wins for me are:

• It’s offline, and in my case, in dark mode meaning zero distractions or friction. I get SO much written on Obsidian.

• I can make folders for DAYS (which my brain loves), then connect rambles in the form of nodes to bigger, thematic nodes. Obsidian then outputs a visual representation of your brain for easy connection and flow.

• It’s a second brain that adapts to you vs. other writing apps that make you feel forced to adapt to them.

I haven’t dabbled in these yet, but Obsidian aficionados also swear by the Canvas feature and both community / efficiency plugins. Eventual review to come.

If you’re interested, this article by an Obsidian pro is a great place to start.

👑 misfit wisdom nuggets

✍🏼 Selena Coles, legendary human and Founder of BUILD Networks for Good, writes:

“Focus less on making the “right decision.”

I spent a lot of time in anguish trying to figure out if I was going to the “right” university, getting the “right job”, collecting the right experiences. And you know what? I often picked wrong. We aren’t as good at decision making as we think we are. 

For example, I probably wouldn’t sign up to be a nanny for four kids under eight in Paris, knowing how it turned out. I’ve never been so depressed and lonely, but I managed to learn some French, which offered many opportunities personally and professionally. 

I’m not an “everything happens for a reason” person but there’s some relief in letting go a bit. There are so many sliding door moments but also so many opportunities to course correct.

Actually, I probably still need this advice today.”

📣 HEY MISFIT! If you’d like to be featured in an upcoming issue, email me with your answer to this question and LinkedIn profile. Let’s learn together 🫶🏼

Thanks for joining episode 12, misfits! As always, I’m only ever an email away for questions / comments / thoughts 🫶🏼

Before you go, let me know what you thought of this issue with the pulse check below! Good intent feedback is always welcome ⬇️

xo, Neds