There's a version of this I hear from CEOs all the time.

"LinkedIn isn't really my thing."
"I don't have time for social media."
"My work speaks for itself."

I get it. I used to feel some version of that too.

I'm an operator. I've spent most of my career thinking about companies, teams, customers, products, numbers. The idea that I should also spend time thinking about my own visibility didn't come naturally to me.

For a long time, "the work speaks for itself" sounded pretty reasonable.

The problem is that the work can't introduce itself.

If you're the CEO, you're part of how people experience the company. When you walk into a room, speak on a panel, appear on a podcast, publish something under your name, or someone looks you up before a meeting, they're trying to answer one question: can I trust this person?

That starts before the proposal. Sometimes months before you know that person exists.

LinkedIn is one of the rooms where that happens for me now. It isn't the only room.

This Became Part of the CEO Job

Early in my career, visibility looked different.

I spoke at conferences. I dealt with the press. I sat on panels where reporters were waiting for something worth quoting.

There was no LinkedIn strategy because there was barely a LinkedIn.

The channels changed. The need to show up didn't.

The right channel isn't the same for every CEO. If your buyers are at industry conferences, be on those stages. If they listen to podcasts, be in their ears. If you operate in a technical market, one thoughtful article in the publication everyone reads may be worth more than fifty LinkedIn posts.

For my business, LinkedIn makes sense. The founders and executives I work with are there.

That doesn't make LinkedIn the strategy. Being where the people you need to reach can actually encounter you is the strategy.

There's a cost to being known only by the people who already know you.

Someone hears you on a podcast because a colleague sent them the episode. Later they read something you wrote. Six months after that, they're sitting across from you in a sales conversation or deciding whether to make an introduction.

They aren't starting from zero.

I've watched that happen in my own business. I've also watched CEOs opt out because showing up publicly felt separate from the real work.

I'm not sure it is anymore.

You Already Have Things to Say

One objection I hear is, "I don't know what I'd talk about."

I believe that one.

Most executives aren't walking around composing LinkedIn posts or planning their next podcast monologue.

They are thinking about the person they promoted who isn't working out. The board conversation from yesterday. The customer who changed their mind. The hire they made too early. The decision their leadership team keeps avoiding.

That's the material.

The problem usually isn't a lack of ideas. You've just stopped recognizing which parts of your everyday experience might be interesting to someone who wasn't there.

Maybe you don’t want to do it by yourself. That’s also where collaboration can help. Someone from your marketing department. Or an outside social media or writing consultant.

A good one hears the story inside something you've started treating as ordinary. They ask another question. They notice the part you skipped over. Sometimes the throwaway thing you said ten minutes into a conversation is actually the whole point.

The thinking has to be yours. The format comes later.

Safe Usually Means Forgettable

I've watched founders make a real effort to become more visible and get very little from it.

Sometimes they decide the channel doesn't work.

Then I look at what they're putting out.

Everything has been sanded down. No real story. No meaningful opinion. Nothing anyone could possibly disagree with or remember.

You hear it in podcast interviews where the guest spends forty-five minutes saying nothing. Contributed articles that could have been written by anyone. Conference panels where five smart people give the safest possible answer to every question.

Showing up isn't quite the same as being visible. People still have to encounter you.

I had a client who was direct, sharp, and perfectly willing to tell you what he thought when you were sitting across from him.

Online, he became careful. Polished. A little watered down.

Anyone who knew him could feel the gap.

The goal isn't to sound impressive. It's to let people see enough of how you actually think that they remember you for the right reasons.

People Want the Person

We ran an experiment on my own LinkedIn feed once.

We posted a polished infographic. The kind of thing you'd expect to perform well.
Then we posted a selfie. Nothing special. Just me.

The selfie won by a lot.

I don't think the lesson is that everybody needs to start posting selfies. (Please don't.)

I think people wanted the person.

That matters even more now because producing content has become incredibly easy. AI can generate a competent post, article, or talking point in seconds. Your competitors have access to the same tools.

There's no shortage of professionally formatted information.

Your actual experience is harder to replicate. What happened when you made the wrong call. The opinion you developed after twenty years in the business. The argument you've had with three different leadership teams that keeps ending in the same place.

Someone can help you find those stories and shape them. They still have to come from somewhere real.

Showing Up Means More Than Publishing

Visibility doesn't end when something gets published.

You can post something thoughtful, get a few interesting comments, and never respond to any of them.

That's like walking into a networking event, giving a three-minute speech, and immediately leaving.

If you're speaking at a conference, stick around afterward. If you go on a podcast, engage with what comes from it. If someone reaches out because something you wrote resonated, answer them.

The content creates the opening. You still have to be there for what happens next.

Go Where Your People Are

I don't think every CEO needs to become a LinkedIn personality.

The question is simpler.

Who needs to know you exist? Where are they? And what would help them understand how you think before they ever sit across from you?

That answer will change as the company grows, as your buyers change, as platforms come and go. You adjust.

What I don’t think you can do anymore is decide visibility isn’t part of your job at all. Your personal brand is important to your company’s brand.

My work still has to speak for itself.
I just stopped expecting it to introduce itself too.

Leadership, Communications

Visibility Is Part of the CEO Job

I don't think every CEO needs to become a LinkedIn personality. The question is simpler. Who needs to know you exist? Where are they? And what would help them understand how you think before they ever sit across from you? That answer will change as the company grows, as your buyers change, as platforms come and go. You adjust. That I don’t think you can do anymore is decide visibility isn’t part of your job at all. Your personal brand is important to your company’s brand.

Leadership, Personal Development

How You Look Is Part of How You Lead

Most founders and executives I work with are uncomfortable talking about how they look. It feels shallow. Not the point. I get it. They started their companies because of a vision, not an ego. By the time they're working with an advisor, they're wrestling with real problems: who belongs in which seats, how to build accountability, how to run a leadership meeting. Thinking about personal image can feel self-indulgent by comparison.

Organizational Dev

You Can't Scale the Company Without Scaling the Culture

Founders tend to think about a major transition as a singular event. You prepare, announce, close, and now you're a different company. In my experience, the company starts changing well before any of that happens. I've been through this several times now, and the details were different every time. The weirdness was pretty consistent.

Growth Strategies, Leadership

Not Every Idea Deserves to Be Fully Baked

Sometimes exploration is worth it. Sometimes you just spent a week of the team’s attention answering a question the founder could have tested in an afternoon. That is the part I think leaders underestimate. Ideas do not only cost money. They cost time, focus, and brainpower long before anyone approves a budget. The question I’d want answered is: how much of the organization does this idea deserve yet?

If Everyone Is Playing Defense with their Goals, Nobody Is Trying to Win

Ask a room of leaders why they set goals and most will say accountability. That answer creates the problem. Goals exist for alignment. The company needs to reach a number, so this group does this, that group does that, and together the math works. Everyone is pointed in the same direction. Focus comes second. A good goal tells you what to say no to.

Leadership, Organizational Dev

If Ten People on Your Team Agree, Nine of Them Are Unnecessary

The instinct to build a team that moved in the same direction, at the same pace, with the same set of perspectives is limiting. Consistency is created at the expense of range. The goal isn't alignment of strengths. It's coverage. The most dangerous teams I've seen weren't the ones with conflict. hey were the ones with none. Where every conversation ends in agreement. Where nothing gets surfaced. Where the people who see things differently may have learned to stop saying so.

Leadership

Shiny Object Syndrome Will Break Your Company. It's Also What Built It.

The same restlessness that makes it hard to stay on plan is what made them start the company in the first place. The wandering mind, the refusal to be satisfied with what already exists, the ability to see something before it exists: that's not a disorder. That's the source.

The Bridge to the Moon

If you're building a company, knowing your role isn't optional. The visionary needs someone who will build what they see without getting in the way of the seeing. The integrator needs someone who will point at the moon and mean it and keep pointing at the same moon long enough for the bridge to get built. The mistake I see most often: trying to be both or hiring someone who mirrors you when you need someone who complements you.

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