At the start of 2024…

LinkedIn gave me a huge pleasant surprise by awarding me the Top Voice badge.

Talk about starting 2024 with a bang.

LinkedIn has truly changed my life.

It has: 
✨ Introduced me to inspiring people who made me brave enough to leave the corporate world
✨ Helped me build my brand as a career coach 
✨ Fostered a community of passionate people who want the best for their careers

So I’m stoked, humbled and thankful to be part of this group of folks who share great insights on careers.

What started as me just wanting to share what I learned from my clients ended up growing a huge community of ~14k followers.

And for that, I’m crazy grateful.

So while there doesn’t seem to be a sure way to get the Top Voice badge, here are some things I did:

1️⃣ Challenged the status quo

I used to BE the status quo.

Good grades, an Ivy League college, and a prestigious career in finance.

I didn’t want to rock the boat, I loved following the path well-trodden.

It wasn’t until I realized the well-trodden path didn’t lead me to happiness.

And I started challenging societal expectations that life turned around for me.

Similarly, on Linkedin, I started off sharing very PC content

But once I started vulnerably sharing hot takes that made me second guess if I should hit “post”...

Things took a turn.

Turns out – a lot of people related to what I had to say.

So don’t be afraid to share your hot takes. We all need them.

2️⃣ Be open about my failures

LinkedIn can be so full of shiny stories of successes.

But that wasn’t what I was about.

Even with the highs, I experience all kinds of lows.

Months without clients, posts that get 0 views, being rejected again and again and again…

All these are part of my journey, they always come with a lesson I want to share.

3️⃣ Be authentic

When I was just starting on social media, I didn’t know what to do so I spoke with a media consultant.

His advice? Share generic SEO-friendly things.

Which seemed like really good advice, so I did.

But no one seemed to buy it – because it wasn’t real to my story.

And so I told myself, screw it.

While those topics may be SEO-friendly, I didn’t resonate with them.

I wanted to share stories based on my expertise and experience, so I did.

So authenticity over imitation, always.

–

I used to think that posting about myself was cringe, but I’m past that.

There’s so much reward from sharing my stories with all of you.

Here’s to all the content creators and storytellers on LinkedIn.

Keep doing what you’re doing. Keep writing. Keep inspiring.

And thank you LinkedIn for the recognition! Sometimes it does feel like I’m writing into a black box.