Thijs Kraan

I help designers sell their expertise through writing content.

Before 2023, 100% of my design clients came from referrals.

→ I had zero control over when my next project arrived

Today, 88% of my clients come through LinkedIn – inbound.

Learning “how” took me 1065+ days of sharing expertise:

- Positioning & articulating the value of my expertise
- Experimenting with writing high-performing hooks
- Converting attention into inbound business leads
- Talking to 1000s of designers and design leaders
- Finetuning my profile for the highest conversion

I was a poor design student, so I self-studied:

- I consumed 1000s of posts & 100s of videos
- I read 100s of books & 100s of articles
- I wrote more than 1200+ posts

Obsessed with mastering the nitty-gritty of content.

And that meant making countless mistakes:

- I tried appealing to everyone, so I never got to stand out
- I wasted 100s of hours on meaningless content iteration
- I pivoted direction 50+ times so nothing compounded
- I got 3M+ impressions without winning a single client
- I ignored 1000s of hand-raisers right in front of me

To this day, I still learn new things every day.

Even after investing 3 years in learning:

€10k+ on courses/coaches
1000+ hours on reading
2500+ hours on writing

But now, I've turned everything into one framework to:

- Share your unique expertise more effectively
- Become the go-to expert for your audience
- Start getting inbound leads (on auto-pilot)

My LinkedIn Growth Framework. 

After 10+ iterations, I'm confident it works:

- A design founder added €100k+ in revenue (in 6 months)
- A design leader landed a new €150k+ job (in 3 weeks)
- And many designers won new 5-figure project deals

All from sharing their unique expertise (on LinkedIn)

So, if you want to learn from my biggest mistakes.

Take my free 5-day LinkedIn Growth Strategy:

growexpertise.com/linkedin-growth-strategy
(or click my LinkedIn profile buttons above)

PS. For 1:1 help, DM me or visit valuepositioner.com

Design Content Consultant

I help design leaders, founders, and freelancers do 4 things:

1. Understand & position your unique value
2. Create your design content strategy
3. Systematize content creation
4. Start creating habitually

By:

1. Analyzing your existing customers, content & data
2. Strategizing toward your ideal future positioning
3. Producing content for authority, talent & leads
4. Upgrading your content, profiles & funnels

Together, this will help you:

- Get inbound leads
- Attract new talent
- Build authority

Want to learn how? 

Send me a message.

If you need inspiration on how to approach LinkedIn as a studio founder:
 
1. Greg Isenberg – co-founder of Late Checkout
2. Max Ottignon – co-founder of Ragged Edge
3. Roman Stikkelorum – co-founder of Verve
4. Tobias van Schneider – founder of HOVS
5. Simon Dixon – co-founder of DixonBaxi
6. Sunny Bonnell – co-founder of Motto®
7. Soren Iverson – founder of Iverson
8. Nick Pattison – founder of Primary
9. Fons Mans – founder of Offgrid
 
Top-tier work, insights, or stories. 
 
All with a distinct angle.

Who did I miss?

Founder-led growth partner for design studios

Journey

Director of Admissions and Marketing

MedCerts

Led team of Career Coaches who assisted students by meeting 1:1 to enhance their career prep skills. 

Achieved increasing employment rate by 37% bringing employment rate to above national average.

Manager of Career Services

ThriveDX (formerly HackerU)

•	Secured career opportunities for graduate employment for 5 different technical programs taught by 
        ThriveDX at Kansas State University and University of Wisconsin at Madison utilizing search engines, 
        ZoomInfo, LinkedIn, and LinkedIn Sales Navigator on a daily basis.
•	Conducted business development by contacting hiring managers, meeting via zoom to present 
        skillset of graduates from various programs, and develop partnerships to create opportunity 
        pipelines.
•	Acted as liaison between career coach, graduate, and employer
        while implementing a consultative approach. 
•	Collaborate and strategize with the Career Outcomes team to meet all metrics for each cohort.

Employer Engagement Manager

Valley College

• Created and implemented a successful integrated career growth system built specific to all program 
  curriculums and personalized to each student’s career path. The “Customized Career Plan” consisted of 
  Several one on one meetings with their Career Services Advisor, mock interviews, resume and interview 
  skill building.
• Achieved School of Distinction by the Accrediting Commission of Career Schools in 2018 during the 
  college’s first year with the agency for achieving a spotless audit.
• Successfully met and surpassed all metrics in both graduation and placement percentages in every 
  cohort and program during my tenure. 
• Executed successful Career Fairs and Business Networking   
  events to provide optimal opportunities for students and graduates.
• Responsible for performance of Career Service Advisors team to meet and exceed all metrics required 
  by the accreditation agency. Managed team of CSAs, providing weekly, monthly, and annual training.
• Interviewed, hired and trained all new CSAs for programs.

Director of Career Services

Stonerise Healthcare LLC

•	Responsible for full cycle admission of patients that generated profitable insurance care plans at a 
        260 bed short term/long term care facility. 
•	Daily evaluation of medical diagnoses of patients, insurance approval, and coordinating staff to 
        handle admission duties.
•	Met with physicians, orthopedic surgeons, and patient families daily to coordinate all activities. 
•	Exceeded admission goals each quarter achieving bonus benefits.
•	Achieved Medicare five-star rating during two consecutive facility visits.

Shenandoah Community Health

•	Created and launched both internal and external healthcare focused marketing campaigns via newsletters, email, and social media.
•	Attended health fairs, volunteer events, and other community events representing SCH and the many services they offer. Recruited volunteers from staff to assist at events.
•	Developed and led a marketing committee with representatives of each department that met weekly to collaborate, strategize, and update campaigns and events.
•	Responsible for all logo printed materials, designing brochures for facility and departments, social media posts, website design and functionality.
•	Partnered with the social work department to launch multiple assistance programs including the launch and progress of The Affordable Care Act, Special Population (Immigrant), and Homeless outreach efforts.

Marketing Coordinator

Quad

•	Full cycle recruiting, interviewing, hiring staff for multiple departments.
•	Presented full orientation to all new staff consisting of benefit enrollment, new hire forms, safety training, and onboarding. 
•	Certified Forklift Trainer as backup for departmental trainers.
•	Performed all Employee-Centered services including benefit changes, tax forms, policy and protocol discussions and advisement.
•	Accurate documentation in staff files, trusted with confidential information.
•	Assisted in coordinating and executing all team and corporate events of small to large scale.

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The Battle

Thijs Kraan

Amy Moyer

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taplio

The Battle

Thijs Kraan

Amy Moyer

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);}Thijs Kraan's LinkedIn Performance

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