Reader, You know how sometimes you meet someone who looks incredibly beautiful and impressive.

And then they open their mouth and you're like… 🤮

Something very similar happened to me about 1.5 years ago.

I'd just quit my corporate job and was looking to start out as a ghostwriter. I made a new LinkedIn account for this purpose.

One day, I came across a post by a Personal Branding Strategist on LinkedIn.

She'd just hit 20k followers, and she was offering a free 15-minute call to the first 5 people who reached out.

I signed up on the form thinking I'd learn something valuable.

To be honest, I was very intimidated and TINY-BIT jealous🙊. I mean, she was far younger than me, still in college but clearly ‘making it’ in her life.

And here I was, after an MBA and 2 years in corporate, still trying to figure my life out.

Anyways, I went on the call. And you know what happened?

She didn't even have basic communication skills to lead the call. I was the one who had to take initiative, ask questions, keep the conversation going, while she scrambled for what to say next.

What surprised me the most was that she didn't have a SINGLE strategic answer to any of the questions I asked about LinkedIn.

Her only advice was:

• Post in the evening
• Attach multiple images.
• If I wanted, she said she would add me to her WhatsApp group with 100+ people where everyone engages each other's posts.

That's it. That's all she had to tell me.

When I asked about her work with clients, it turned out she hadn't worked with any clients and was looking to start working soon now that she had 20k followers.

I was losing it, but kept calm on the outside.

The call ended, and I felt slightly cringed.

This wasn't the kind of advice I expected from someone with 20k followers.

I expected something more strategic, more insightful. Instead, I walked away with generic advice anyone could've given me.

Now, I'm not saying posting personal pictures is wrong. I do it myself sometimes.

But that can't be your ENTIRE growth strategy, right Reader?

Now, either one of these can be true:

1. She didn't want to disclose her strategies and secrets in a free call, which is okay, I get it. But then why would you even offer a free call to your followers if all you're going to tell them is “post pretty pictures” and “join my engagement pod”?😂
2. Or maybe she started posting back when AI was new and there wasn't much noise on the platform yet, and that's how she built her initial following. (plus that Whatsapp group of engagement pod did its magic)

Either way, it was a waste of time for me.

So I went back to her profile and scrolled through her last 20-25 posts.

That's when it clicked.

All of her past content was random, preachy content.

Leadership, Motivation, Patience. Blah Blah. The kind of stuff anyone could write with Claude in 2 minutes.

She hadn't shared any real experiences, or insights of her own.

She also seemed to be pretty well-off. Upscale cafes, expensive outfits, exotic locations, 3-4 of these images were attached to every single post.

This call taught me that not everyone who looks like they're winning on this platform actually is. We shouldn't trust everything we see at face value.

Anyways. In the last year since then, I've worked with a bunch of clients, gotten them viral posts, gotten them real leads.

I'm in a much better place now. My account got hacked earlier this year, so I'm still sitting at only a thousand-something connections on my new account.

But I've got far better insights to offer than she ever did on that call!

Cheers,
Priyanka

​
​