NewNow

Project Manager

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Bonjour Mondays

Transformation Coach

8greenbottles

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29Bottles

Founder

CORE SE

Manager

Associate

RSG Group GmbH

Project Manager International Business Development / Expansion

T.A. Cook & Partner Consultants GmbH

Management Consultant

Tirendo Holding GmbH

Online Marketing Manager

I craft the creative pathways to your breakthroughs | Creative Strategy Consultant | Intuitive Business Coach | Life Coach | creating beauty since 1989

Oriane Brunel

Co-Founder at Unyfy | Use us as your shortcut to success. We focus on optimising your LinkedIn strategy, discovering what sets you apart from your competitors, and converting followers into opportunities. ⚡️

Your competitor just signed your dream client.  
  
Not because they're better.  
Because they showed up. You didn't.  
  
Here's what happened:  
  
While you perfected your service, they perfected their story.  
Now they own the conversation in your market.  
Their LinkedIn posts? Building relationships with prospects you don't even know exist yet.  
  
By the time someone needs what you offer?  
Your competitor is already the trusted voice in their head.  
You never got a chance to compete.  
  
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━  
  
THE PROBLEM NO ONE TALKS ABOUT:  
  
Your competitors aren't winning today's deals.  
They're locking in next year's revenue. Right now.  
  
Every post they write = a relationship you'll never have.  
Every story they tell = a future client choosing them over you.  
  
Every day you wait, the gap widens.  
Your future clients are forming relationships right now.  
  
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━  
  
WHO I AM:  
  
I'm Matt Wheeler-Barrett.  
LinkedIn Strategic Coach.  
Co-founder @ Unyfy—a B2B personal branding agency.  
  
I've coached 500+ business people through Matt Lakajev's Seven Figure Creators cohort, where I run my own content coaching room.  
  
I help founders build tomorrow's pipeline through today's stories.  
  
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━  
  
WHAT WE DO:  
  
▪LinkedIn Strategic Coaching
  
1:1 coaching to turn your expertise into content that converts.  
  
▪Personal Branding Strategy 
 
Position yourself as the obvious choice before prospects even start looking.  
  
▪Content Strategy & Coaching  

Learn to tell stories that build trust and drive inbound leads.  
  
▪Profile Optimisation  

Turn your LinkedIn profile into a lead generation machine.  
  
▪Team Workshops (EGC Content) 
 
Train your executives, sales, and marketing teams to leverage LinkedIn.  
  
▪B2B Agency Services (Unyfy)  

Done-for-you ghostwriting and full-service personal branding.  
  
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━  
  
THE APPROACH:  
  
No templates.  
No growth hacks.  
No vanity metrics.  
  
Just strategic storytelling that makes you the obvious choice.  
  
You stop chasing deals.  
You start attracting them.  
  
Your competitors start copying you.  
Not the other way around.  
  
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━  
  
📩 DM me "STORY" to take back your market.  
  
Because your competitors aren't smarter than you.  
They just started their story six months sooner.

Matt Wheeler-Barrett

This is how you kill your credibility forever in 5 seconds by using automation and listening to AI gurus' BS.

Pitching me on my own service is probably the most embarrassing thing someone could do on here.

It shows you didn't do your research and couldn't care less about a real human relationship.

P.S. Share your worst DM pitch slap below.

Matt Wheeler-Barrett 

Forget the Guru BS. Tell Your Story. Convert Your Audience. | 500+ Coached

My mum asked when I'd actually relax.

I laughed and booked another flight.

Just landed home after a brutal few weeks.

Finally with family. Finally switching off.

Then my phone rang.

A UK AI wellness company. Hosting a retreat in Cape Town. Wanted to meet about personal branding for their team.

2 days later? I was back on a plane.

And now I'm writing this from Cape Town.

Here's what 7 years in the agency space and 3 years relentlessly building my personal brand taught me:

You're going to get knocked down. Constantly.

The market shifts. Deals fall through. Plans change mid-flight (literally).

But running a business? I freaking love it.

Not because it's easy.

Because when you stay relentless and see the bigger picture, things work out long-term.

The wins don't come from playing it safe.

They come from saying yes when opportunity calls, even when you're exhausted, even when it's inconvenient.

That's the game.

That's what I signed up for.

📌 What's the most inconvenient opportunity you've ever said yes to? And did it pay off?

Master Storytelling That Converts Into Revenue | 500+ Coached @ Matt Lakajev’s Cohort

I started posting on LinkedIn 34 months ago.

The irony? I was building a LinkedIn ghostwriting agency and couldn't get anyone to read my own posts.

For the first 4 months we had 1 or 2 clients, my content wasn't getting any traction, and I wasn't getting any leads.

Then I stumbled upon Julius Bieliauskas on LinkedIn and joined his cohort, and that's when I got obsessed with what was possible. Off the back of that, we acquired more clients, gained team members, and started getting real traction.

Julius introduced me to Matt Lakajev , and that's when things really shifted because I started coaching on Matt's cohort for nearly 2 years, every Monday night from midnight to 2 AM, and that properly built my grit and willingness to keep pushing no matter what.

650+ conversations and every single one made me sharper because you think you know your craft until you have the same conversation 650 times and realise you're still only scratching the surface.

Those Monday nights built the foundation for Unyfy because it wasn't about polished frameworks or AI content plans; it was the real messy work of helping people figure out who they are and what they stand for.

Fast forward to today, and LinkedIn is our number one acquisition channel. We've signed over $420K in contracts from content I've published here, went from 2 clients to 24, and just crossed 20,000 followers.

Here's what actually worked.

1. Defining a content enemy, mine is AI slop and LinkedIn gurus stripping out personality.

2. Being honest about the hard parts because my most engaged posts are where I admitted we lost clients and made mistakes.

3. Posting 3 times per week minimum and commenting genuinely with real thoughts, that's where half my inbound comes from.

4. Doubling down on my tone of voice because the best content is when you write genuinely as yourself.

5. Tracking what converts, which posts led to DMs, and discovery calls.

Everyone's moaning about LinkedIn whilst pumping out AI slop. 

Mate, come on. The bar is on the floor.

The entrepreneurs who'll win are the ones who can genuinely make people feel something through their energy and real experiences.

The Monday coaching taught me that people don't just need content, they need clarity on who they are and what they stand for, and that's what we do at Unyfy now.

I'm reinvesting my profits back into more coaching to get sharper at what I'm teaching because the only way to ensure what I preach is grounded in real thinking is to keep doing the work myself.

It's also led me to start working on a separate entity in the background (more coming soon!) 

If you're wondering if LinkedIn is worth it, it is, but it takes longer than you want and it's harder than it looks.

Start anyway.

Thanks for being part of this ride, here's to the next 20K.

500+ Coached | Bringing the Human Back to LinkedIn | Tell Your Story. Convert Your Audience.

47 is AI's lucky number.  
  
I see it everywhere.  
  
"Sent 47 messages last month."  
"Got 47 replies."  
"Worked with 47 clients."  
  
No you didn't.  
  
ChatGPT did.  
  
People spot this.  
  
Every time they do, you lose credibility.  
  
Use AI to write your content if you want.  
  
But at least edit out the tells.  
  
Or don't.  
  
Your competitor thanks you.

Your LinkedIn posts don't sound human anymore.  
  
And your audience can tell.  
  
Comment "HUMAN" for the fix.  
  
───────────────────
  
Here's the problem:  
  
Your feed is drowning in AI slop right now.  
  
Every consultant using the same prompts, sounding like the same corporate press release, starting posts with "in today's landscape" and "at its core."  
  
And here's what's wild. Most people think the problem is AI itself.  
  
It's not.  
  
The problem is everyone's using AI to sound more professional when what actually gets remembered is the opposite.  
  
The messy client story. The contrarian take. The specific detail that makes it feel real.  
  
───────────────────
  
I spent an entire afternoon building this system.  
  
After coaching 500+ business owners in Matt Lakajev's community, I took everything I learned and built this system.   
  
Use this system to create content that sounds like you (not like everyone else):  
  
▪ The Voice DNA Framework (train Claude to think like YOU, not just copy your style)  

▪ 9 strategic prompts for human content (not "write me a post" garbage) 
 
▪ The Content Enemy Framework (defining what you're AGAINST makes you 10x more memorable)  

▪ The Vulnerability Test (how to be raw without oversharing)  

▪ The Specificity Checklist (kill vague content instantly)  

▪ Before/After breakdowns (why one post lands and one dies)  
  
+ I added The Authenticity Audit:  
'What to Check Before You Hit Publish'  
  

───────────────────
  
How to get it:  
  
1/ Like this post  
2/ Comment "HUMAN" below  
3/ I'll DM you the link  
  
P.S. Repost this and I'll prioritise your DM or have some patience ♻️  
  
───────────────────
  
The feed is full of robots pretending to be people.  
  
Let's flip that.

The Human Voice System

If you're too cool for LinkedIn, you're probably too cool for money...


But if you're a regular person running a business who wants to win, it's:

1. One of the best platforms where stories build real influence + trust
2. One of the best platforms packed with actual decision makers
3. One of the best platforms to win business in the DMs

Good thing the 'cool kids' stay away.

While they protect their image, we're protecting our income.

Don't get me wrong - some people take it too far. There's a whole Reddit dedicated to mocking them.

But the ones actually winning?

They're building real relationships and real businesses by tapping into who they really are. Being human. Showing how they help other humans do great things.

I'm watching founders close deals every week because they stopped caring about looking cool.

Critics stay stuck judging. Users are out here closing deals.

Most people mock LinkedIn so they can feel sophisticated.

Smart people just use it.

The rest? Excuses.

You already know which side pays better.

"If you're going to try, go all the way. Otherwise, don't even start."

That's Bukowski.

And it's the truest thing I know about building a business.

Most people think entrepreneurship looks like freedom. Flexibility. Passive income.

Bollocks.

"This could mean losing girlfriends, wives, relatives, jobs and maybe even your mind."

It could mean not knowing how you'll make payroll.

It could mean 3am anxiety attacks.

"It could mean derision, mockery, isolation."

Here's the thing:

"Isolation is the gift."

All the rest? The sleepless nights, the cashflow panic, the constant bloody doubt?

"All the others are a test of your endurance, of how much you really want to do it."

I've been kicked in the teeth more times than I can count.

Lost clients. Burnt out. Questioned everything.

And honestly?

I wouldn't trade it.

Because "you'll do it, despite rejection and the worst odds."

"And it will be better than anything else you can imagine."

There's no other feeling like that.

"You will be alone with the gods, and the nights will flame with fire."

Entrepreneurship isn't for everyone. And that's fine.

But if you're in it?

"You will ride life straight to perfect laughter."

"It's the only good fight there is."

What keeps you going when everything's falling apart?

I don't have 100k followers.
 
But I've closed high-ticket clients consistently.
 
And honestly? Every single one came down to the same three things.
 
Not brand archetypes or mission statements. That's just creative writing dressed up as strategy.
 
Here's what actually matters:
 
𝟭. 𝗡𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗺𝘆
 
Your positioning isn't about your competitors. It's about the specific problem your client actually hates.
 
Most consultants say "I help you grow" or "I help you scale." But that's not what keeps people up at night. It's the specific frustration they're dealing with right now.
 
When you name what they actually hate, your solution becomes urgent.
 
𝟮. 𝗦𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗺𝗲𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗶𝘀𝗺
 
"I help you transform your business" is what everyone says.
 
Your mechanism is the specific way you solve the problem that sets you apart. Not what you do. How you do it differently than everyone else.
 
𝟯. 𝗣𝗶𝗰𝗸 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘂𝗹𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗲𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝘁
 
Not because it's your only win. Because your audience needs an anchor to remember you by.
 
Matt Gray uses "7-figures." For me, it's "closing high-ticket clients without a big following."
 
Consistency creates memory.
 
Here's the truth: most people spend months "refining their positioning."
 
But your positioning already exists. It's what your last 3 clients hired you for.
 
You just need to articulate it clearly.
 
Once you do? Your content writes itself. Your sales calls close faster. Your audience knows exactly who you help.
 
Without it, you're just another expert in a sea of noise.
 
𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁'𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘂𝗹𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗹𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝟯 𝗰𝗹𝗶𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝗵𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗳𝗼𝗿?

Forget-followers-master-positioning

Nothing quite like getting pitched your own services back to you.

I had to read it twice.

Lmao.

Did you read a single post? Look at my profile for 30 seconds? Google the agency name?

Clearly not.

Because what you're really telling me with that message is that you couldn't be bothered to take the time to get to know me.

But here's the part that really got me. He had the nerve to say he's not a fan of fake interaction.

Let me stop you right there.

Because there are actual people on LinkedIn having genuinely real conversations every single day. Building real trust. Real relationships. Wanting to help each other grow with zero agenda.

That's not fake. That's the whole bloody point of the platform.

In fact, I did exactly this with a few people I connected with back in January and we ended up doing business together. No pitch, no agenda, just two people genuinely getting to know each other.

And with the approach he took? We will never do business together. Not maybe. Not unlikely. Never.

You've dressed up laziness as authenticity. And people can smell it.

Here's what one message did:

• I never replied
• I will never work with him. Ever.

You cannot fake research, and you cannot shortcut trust. 

And here's something people forget entirely. People don't just buy from businesses. 

They buy from people they genuinely like, people they can have a laugh with, people they actually trust. And the fastest way to build that trust isn't a slick pitch or a clever opener. 

It's taking the time to get to know someone as a human being first. What they care about, what they're working through, what gets them fired up outside of work. When you genuinely invest in that, the business side of things tends to take care of itself.

Here's what actually works:

1. Actually take the time to get to know them

Digest their content, understand what they're about, what they stand for and what they're trying to build. Not as a tactic, but because you're genuinely interested in them as a person.

2. Show up before you show up

Get into their world first. Be present, comment on their posts and engage with their thinking for long enough that your name actually becomes familiar to them.

3. Reach out when it feels earned

When you do finally reach out, reference something specific and real that shows you've actually been paying attention. At that point it stops feeling like a pitch entirely because it isn't one.

4. Have a real conversation

Ask questions, be genuinely curious about what they're building, and let the relationship develop at its own pace without forcing it towards a sale.

The DM that converts isn't the cleverest pitch. It's the one where the person on the other end thinks: "Finally. Someone who actually gets me."

No hard feelings to the guy in my inbox. But sort the approach out, mate.

I back you. 🤝

53% of LinkedIn posts in 2025 were AI-generated, and human posts are still getting 3.7x more engagement.

Think about that for a second.

Everyone's rushing to automate their voice, and the data is sitting there telling them it isn't working. 

A KPMG study of 48,000 people across 47 countries (I promise it is 47; the link to the article is in the comments) found that global trust in AI is actually going down, not up. 

Your audience can feel it even when they can't explain why. They just scroll past and move on.

And the gurus selling you these tools? They're not going to tell you this because it kills their business model.

Now look, I'm not saying AI posts don't get traction. Some of them go viral. But here's what nobody's talking about: when you're selling something high ticket in B2B, trust is everything. 

And if you sound like a generated robot, nobody's sliding into your DMs for that conversation. They're going straight to the person who sounds like an actual human being.

That's where you lose the deal. Not on the post. In the trust gap between your content and your DMs.

The bar on LinkedIn right now is embarrassingly low. Everyone sounds the same, posts the same, and wonders why nobody's buying from them.

So if you just show up sounding like yourself, sharing what you've genuinely learned from working with your clients, the real stuff, the messy bits, the honest experiences, you've already got a leg up on most people on here.

That's not some big strategy. That's just being yourself and doing it consistently.

In 3 generations nobody will remember you unless you're Elon Musk.

So you might as well stop playing it safe.

Yesterday I had a conversation in person with someone who created €500M+ in shareholder value and built a transformative European AI leader for sustainable impact.

We both came to the same conclusion about where the content game is heading: content creation is solved, but human distribution is the new moat.

Here's the thing: AI can generate all the content you want, but it can't make people actually care about it.

The person who can tell your company's story in a human and relatable way will always beat the AI-generated corporate post that sounds like every other post in the feed.

Employee-Generated Content isn't really about reach, it's about resonance.

It's about real stories told by real people who can connect with your audience in a way that feels genuine, not regurgitated AI prompts pushed out from your brand page.

The companies building human distribution systems are going to win, and the ones just churning out AI content are going to disappear into the noise.

Which one are you building?

You think your competitor is the enemy.

Wrong. Your client's problem is.

Most people get this backwards.

They position against other businesses:
"We're faster than Agency X."
"We're cheaper than Consultant Y."

But your clients aren't thinking about your competitors.

They're thinking about their problem.

Here's how to find your REAL content enemy:

STOP ASKING: "What do I offer?"

START ASKING: "What does my client hate?"

Not dislike. Not prefer to avoid.

Hate.

The thing that wastes their time.
The thing that makes them angry.
The thing that costs them money or sanity.

That's your enemy.

Here's the 3-level test:

LEVEL 1: Surface Problem
"I need to implement new software."

This is what they say. It's not what they mean.

LEVEL 2: Real Problem
"We're wasting money on tech that our team doesn't use."

Getting warmer. Go deeper...

LEVEL 3: The Enemy
"We're bleeding budget on unused subscriptions whilst our competitors move faster because their systems actually work."

There it is.

Specific. Painful. Urgent.

Why this matters:

When you position against the enemy (not your competitor):

→ Your content resonates immediately
→ Your sales calls become easier
→ Your clients remember you

You're speaking to their pain, not your features.

Here's the secret:

Once you've identified the enemy, drip it into every piece of content you create.

Don't just mention it once and move on.

Repeat it. Reference it. Make it your signature.

Matt Gray constantly talks about "7-figures."
I constantly talk about "closing clients without a big following."

Consistency creates memory.

When your audience sees your name, they should immediately think of the enemy you fight.

That's when your positioning becomes magnetic.

Let me be clear:

Weak positioning:
"I help companies implement tech solutions."

Strong positioning:
"I help companies stop bleeding budget on software their teams refuse to use."

See the difference?

One identifies the enemy. One doesn't.

Forget what the 100K LinkedIn inbound gurus are saying...


If you're a small business, coach or consultant, you need to focus on the following:

First, understand this: LinkedIn is an ecosystem with 3 parts that need to work together as one.

1. Your content
2. Your profile
3. Reaching out to new people

If one's broken, the whole system fails. Now here's how to get each part right:

1. Nail your positioning

Be specific!

Weak positioning:
"I help companies implement tech solutions."

Strong positioning:
"I help companies stop bleeding budget on software their teams refuse to use."

2. Research your ideal client's pain points

You need to learn how to write how they speak, not with your technical lingo and trying to sound clever. It's like speaking to someone in gibberish.

3. Master storytelling

Not telling them that you used to be ex [position] or got x award. Sorry to say, but you're really not that special and that doesn't tell them how you're going to help them. Remember, when someone sees themselves in your story, they see how you can help them.

4. Make sure you're drip feeding in your ICP

Use Sales Navigator, online media, and word of mouth to connect with the right people. Stop connecting with Karen that works in IT when you're trying to sell to Janet in OOH Media.

5. Get better at conversations

Not pitch slapping people in the face so they instantly block you. Have a bloody human conversation! People like to work with others they can genuinely relate to.

6. Get your mindset right

If you're a small business owner, stop obsessing over the impressions and vanity metrics, you silly sausage. See your content as a trust/credibility tool that allows you to move better in the DMs.

Mark my words, if you work on getting all these right, you will freaking crush it on here. 

I back you!

----

After years of coaching, I've built something I've become incredibly passionate about working on in my weekends.
If you want to stand out from all this AI BS while still using it to optimise your work, DM me "The real ones" and I'll explain how.

You're outsourcing your thinking to a tool.

And it shows.

Everyone's following the same prompts, consuming the same outputs, and wondering why their content sounds like everyone else's.

Here's why. The best storytellers aren't built by tools. They're built by what they read, what they experience, and who they learn from.

When you let AI create your voice, you set yourself up for a problem. The second you hop on a call with someone who's been reading your content, they'll notice the disconnect.

The way you speak doesn't match the way you write. And that kills trust faster than anything else.

You need better inputs, not better prompts.

Stories that connect don't come from ChatGPT. They come from real books, real conversations, and real experiences that shape how you see the world.

People don't connect with perfect copy. They connect with you. Your perspective. Your voice. Your lived experience.

And no tool can create that for you.

I've put together a carousel with 6 books that will sharpen your thinking and help you tell better stories. Not tactics. Perspective.

Swipe through if you're serious about building a voice that's actually yours.

Stop feeding AI prompts. Start feeding your brain.

The LinkedIn gurus preaching authenticity are letting automation tools write their posts.  
  
You're being sold a lie.  
  
You can spot it immediately because everyone's posts look the same now with the same hooks, structure, and energy, all because they're using the same bloody tool.  
  
Look, I'm not anti-AI. I use it myself to sharpen my thoughts and to comb through documentation so I don't miss any of the good bits that a client or someone has said on a call.  
  
But there's a massive difference between sharpening your content and automating your voice.  
  
Want to use AI properly?  
  
Download your sales calls, your discovery calls, anything where you're actually talking like yourself, and use that to train your tone and keep yourself sounding like you.  
  
Letting Stanley suggest ideas and write most of your posts just makes you blend into everyone else using the same tool, and honestly, that's lazy.  
  
And it's not just the content either. So many people are now touching up their imagery with AI, making themselves look better than they actually are.  
  
Here's what happens when you do this: You sit down in a boardroom one day, and one, you look completely different, and two, you sound completely different.  
  
What do you think that does for your credibility?  
  
It kills trust, because you're basically not being yourself online.  
  
The way to stand out isn't through a template that formats you into sounding generic or an AI filter that makes you look like someone else.  
  
It's telling stories you've seen through your own eyes, raw and in the present moment, sounding actually like you.  
  
The gurus won't teach this because it's harder to sell and it requires actual bloody effort.  
  
It requires you to think, to write, to sound like yourself.  
  
But that's the only thing that works now.  
  
Everyone else sounds the same, which means if you sound the same, you're invisible.  
  
Stop letting tools write your content and start using them to sharpen what you're already saying.  
  
That's the difference.

Your content isn't converting because you're speaking your language, not theirs.

And that disconnect is costing you clients.

Look, I've coached 650+ founders on LinkedIn through Matt Lakajev's community. Every conversation taught me something new about what makes content actually connect.

Seen them go from zero engagement to inbound enquiries.

Seen them book sales calls from content that actually connects.

Those 650+ conversations gave me the accumulated learnings to help my clients' content get better and better.

The shift is simple, but most people miss it completely.

Here's what works:

1. Understand your ICP's pain points deeply, not just surface level
2. Learn how their business actually operates day to day
3. Speak their language, not your industry jargon

But here's the thing most people get wrong.

They write to sound smart instead of writing to be understood.

Magdalena Robinson came to me struggling to connect with her conservative ICP. Her content was brilliant, but it wasn't landing because she was speaking her language, not theirs.

We shifted the messaging to align with how her ideal clients actually think and communicate.

Within the first week, she got 2 inbound enquiries from her exact ICP and booked 3 sales calls.

Each prospect said her content made them feel heard and understood.

That's the difference.

When someone feels themselves in your story, they see how you can help with theirs.

Stop writing to impress your peers. Start writing to connect with your prospects.

I back you. 🤝

PS: If your content isn't converting, you're probably making this exact mistake.

Stop trying to appeal to everyone. Start pissing off the right people.

A quick few content learnings to go with your morning coffee:

1. If you want your content to grab attention, you need to define a content enemy.

Mine? People looking the same with AI content, LinkedIn gurus, and automation (lack of actual bloody effort).

2. Learn to write content that borrows credibility and helps you fight against the content enemy.

3. Always double down on your TOV.

What phrases do you love to use? What words do you never use?

Here's the thing:

The best content is when you educate, stand up for something, and write genuinely as you.

Period.

I've had people screw me over.
I've been accused of "j*erking myself off on LinkedIn."
I've been told I'm "too intense" and "need to tone it down."
I've been underestimated by people who now ask me for advice.
I've had friends quietly unfollow me because I wouldn't play small.

Proper mental, that last one.

Before you start posting consistently, you need to accept this: not everyone's going to cheer you on.

Some will mock you. Some will question your intentions. Some will project their own insecurities onto you because deep down they wish they had the courage to show up too.

You've got to be okay with that.

Because if you let the fear of judgement stop you, you'll stay stuck playing it safe and staying invisible.

Last night, I read this from Bukowski and it hit different:

"Isolation is the gift.

All the others are a test of your endurance, of how much you really want to do it.

And you'll do it, despite rejection and the worst odds.

And it will be better than anything else you can imagine.

You will ride life straight to perfect laughter.

It's the only good fight there is."

LinkedIn requires you to go all in and stay consistent as hell if you want consistent results out of it.

Not everyone will get it, and that's fine.

The right people will.

No one's DMing you because your content is forgettable.  
  
You know what you're doing, but you're too scared to sound like yourself, so you post safe sh#t that could've been written by anyone.  
  
Then wonder why no one's reaching out or replying to their DMs. 
  
Your audience doesn't need another "how to" post.  
  
They need to know how you actually fixed the problem they're stuck on.  
  
Not theory or frameworks, your actual experience.  
  
That's what builds trust. That's what gets clients.  
  
But you're too busy trying to sound clever, or professional, or like that person with 50K followers.  
  
So your content sounds like everyone else's, which means it's invisible.  
  
Here's what changes it:  
  
Stop performing and start sharing what actually worked for you.  
  
The mistakes you made, the messy bits you normally hide, your actual journey.  
  
That's your positioning.  
  
Not some polished version of someone else's playbook.  
  
When you finally trust yourself enough to sound like yourself, the DMs start coming.  
  
"Your stuff just hits different."  
  
"How do I work with you?"  
  
"Been following for months, ready to talk."  
  
You were always credible. You just didn't believe it.  
  
Stop writing for the algorithm. Write for the one person who needs to hear what you learned the hard way.  
  
Get out of your own way.  
  
I wasted 6 months copying everyone else before I figured this out.  
  
Don't be that person.

A mate of mine once told me I'm so "lucky" to have this big audience...


I had to stop them in their tracks.

Look, I don't believe in luck. I don't believe in hope as a strategy either. 

I believe in hard work, complaining less, and putting your head down to do the work when everyone else is looking for shortcuts.

Here's what I told them: "You're comparing your Chapter 1 to someone else's Chapter 12."

Then I shared something most people don't know about me. 

For the last 3 years, I've tracked my time on LinkedIn, and on average, I've spent 3.7 hours on this platform every single day.

They looked at me like I'd lost the plot. "That's crazy."

Maybe it is. But I've had plenty of people tell me I'm crazy over the years, and it's never bothered me because I know exactly what I'm working towards.

When I first started on here, I had no strategy. I wasn't an expert. My posts barely reached anyone.

But I kept showing up anyway because LinkedIn isn't a place where things happen overnight. It's a slow burn, just like building real relationships.

Here's what actually matters:

1. Every post you publish is a step forward, even the ones that get no likes. 

2. Every DM conversation is a chance to grow your network. 

3. Every email sign-up is momentum building. Every piece of content teaches you something about what works and what doesn't.

The best way to build credibility and trust is ruthless consistency in what you do. 

Just showing up and doing the work over and over again until people start to notice.

There will never be a perfect post or a perfect time to start.

If you've got something to say, say it now.

Stop waiting for luck. Put your head down and do the work.

I back you. 🤝

PS: I've added a photo of my profile from 3 years ago to remind you that everyone started from the bottom.

taplio

The Battle

Oriane Brunel

Matt Wheeler-Barrett

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreMatt Wheeler-Barrett's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

The Battle

Oriane Brunel

Matt Wheeler-Barrett

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Matt Wheeler-Barrett's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreMatt Wheeler-Barrett's LinkedIn Performance