Before You Post on LinkedIn Again

This isn’t theory. I’m figuring it out while living it.

Posting more. Rewriting LinkedIn. Asking for referrals.

And still not getting much traction.

That’s usually because the visible stuff only works once a few deeper things are nailed down.

If people can’t place you, the rest does less than you think.

People might see you. They just don’t know when to think of you.

1. Being easy to say yes to is part of the problem

Most fractionals go broad because narrowing feels risky.

If you say you work with any B2B company on growth, more people can technically hire you.

The logic makes sense.
The math doesn’t work out.

Being easy to say yes to also means being easy to deprioritize. Easy to compare. Easy to underprice. Easy to pass on when the budget gets squeezed, because you’re useful but not essential.

I know this because I’ve had to get more honest about it in my own work.

I do my best work with founders who have real conviction in the product, know their customer, and need a thought partner who can help with branding, strategy, and product design without slowing things down.

That’s a much truer sentence than something broad like “I help companies grow.”

I’ve also learned I don’t work well with people who want a lot of input but don’t have a strong point of view. Or people who treat taste like decoration instead of part of the job.

I don’t work with teams where I can’t get to the founder. That’s non-negotiable.

The fractionals who get hired fastest aren’t the ones with the widest appeal.

They’re the ones where a specific kind of person thinks: that’s exactly what I need right now.

Broad feels easier on your side. On theirs, it creates more work. They have to figure out whether you fit their situation. Specific does that work for them. And most people overestimate the cost of ruling people out.

2. Sharing your work is more personal than tactical

A lot of fractionals don’t post because it feels uncomfortable. Not because they don’t know how.

Most people get stuck because they’ve spent years being the person behind the work. The reliable one. The one who fixes things, makes them better, and moves on.

Not the one talking about it in public.

So when people say “just post more,” they’re skipping over the hard part.

Sometimes people will know your thinking before they know your work.

And if you’ve spent ten years quietly solving the problem, posting can feel a little like showing up late to take credit.

My own version of this was not some big reinvention.

I deleted five or six posts and asked myself: what do I actually give a shit about?

Not what I think other people want.
Not what I think I should say.
What I actually care about.

That’s the shift from private reputation to public reputation. One grows through referrals and word of mouth. The other grows because people can see your thinking before they ever meet you. That’s why this feels weird for a lot of people. It’s not really a tactics problem.

3. Referrals usually break because the ask is too broad

A lot of people do ask for referrals.

They just ask in a way that’s too broad to help.

“Let me know if anyone comes to mind” sounds polite. It also gives the other person almost nothing to work with.

The people who trust you probably want to refer you.

They just don’t know what to do with a vague ask.

Most referral asks fail for a simple reason: the other person has nobody specific to picture.

So instead of asking in general, give them a real situation to match against.

Not “someone who needs help with growth.”

More like “a founder with 20 people, decent traction, and a product that still takes too long to explain.”

That’s when it gets easier for someone to actually do something with it.

One of the projects I’m most grateful for came from someone I barely knew. He sent it my way and said, “Just pass it forward.” It turned into the biggest project I’d taken on, and I have passed it forward.

That’s what good networks feel like when they’re working. Not transactional. Just real people helping each other at the right moment.

4. Posting works slower than people want it to

In my experience, this part takes longer than people want it to.

You might see signals earlier: better DMs, warmer calls, replies that feel more considered.

But the first sign usually isn’t more volume.

It’s better quality.

It’s the call where the person already knows what you do. Already trusts how you think. Already feels half-convinced before the conversation starts.

Or they say, “I’ve been reading your posts for a while.”

A lot of people quit in the gap between posting and being remembered.

I think the only reason that timeline becomes survivable is if you’re writing about something you actually care about.

The posts that got replies weren’t the ones I thought would land. They were the ones I almost didn’t publish.

The first payoff is usually that people start recognizing you, not that your numbers suddenly jump. If you’re only looking for obvious traction, it’s easy to quit too soon.

5. Peer networks only work if they go both ways

People love saying “build a small, trusted peer network.”

That’s good advice.

What usually gets left out is that these networks quietly stop working when they become one-way.

If you’re always hoping people think of you, but rarely thinking of them, people can feel it over time, even if nothing is said.

The fractionals who get the most from their networks are usually putting the most in.

They refer people out. They make introductions. They send work around. They help without keeping score.

The more specific you are about who you’re for, the easier it is for peers to think of you, and the easier it is for you to return the favor in kind.

That’s what makes the network compound instead of drain.

It’s not just that you know good people.

It’s that you’re one of the good people to know.

Here’s what to ask yourself

Who do I actually do my best work with?

What work do I keep taking that I already know I shouldn’t?

What usually has to be true before someone should hire me?

Where am I still being too broad because it feels safer?

Who already knows what I do well, and what would a better ask sound like?

What signals have I been ignoring?

What do I actually care enough about to say out loud?

A lot of this only becomes obvious after the fact.

I’ve stayed in projects too long because I wanted them to work. I’ve ignored early signals. Now when I see them, I stop.

It took me too long to learn that.

Maybe it takes you less time.

Thanks for reading,
Gev