F-it Mode

What if you said the real thing?

The Sustainable Solopreneur is a weekly newsletter about seasonal, cyclical, supportive business strategy for solopreneurs and creative souls who want more out of life than the status quo, hosted by business coach and strategist Jenni Gritters.

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Last week, someone brought a great question to our SUSTAIN group coaching call about LinkedIn and the freaking performance of it all.

She’d recently written a hot take post that went semi-viral on LinkedIn and was in a spin about how to replicate that momentum. She wondered if she should be getting more clients and leads from LinkedIn, too; at the moment, potential work often came from referrals and former managers moving to new companies.

Am I doing it right? She asked.

There were three important reframes I shared with her, that I want to share with you, too:

First: When we are writing for the outcome, we often feel blocked.

There is absolutely nothing worse for content creation than trying to perform. It squashes every single authentic thought, overrun by trying to be accepted by everyone instead. Performative writing is contorted, disembodied and often, too surface level to be interesting. It’s as if by trying so hard to do it right, we remove any life from the words— which makes them so unrelatable that the whole thing flops.

Social media, and LinkedIn especially, often feels like a really noisy networking session at a conference. Everyone is trying to Win The System and Catch the Algorithm and Make Connections. The irony is that the best way to stand out in that setting isn’t to be louder or more perfect. It’s to be more yourself. All of that is a permission slip to release the exhaustive performance, stop trying to replicate viral content you’ve seen elsewhere, and start saying what’s true for you instead.

Second: Viral audiences are typically not good leads.

My first Big Job was working as an editor at a viral media company. Every morning, I woke up, used a pile of tools to help me figure out which stories and keywords were “spiking,” then assigned those concepts to my team of writers so we could capture as much attention as possible. I was responsible for bringing in one million page views per month with a team of five writers.

Do you know what kind of fresh psychological hell that is? It was a masterclass in audience development, sure. But when the stories we published went viral, it was generally a miserable experience. I was hooked to my computer, monitoring the well being of my writers and the absolute explosion that was the comments section, for hours. And: Very few of the people who saw those viral stories became loyal readers.

That’s true in your business, too. I wouldn’t wish a viral moment on anyone, if I’m being honest. Instead, I believe in long term, authentic relationship building via soulful content. Then, the people who are attracted to your style of doing business will stay in your orbit. (And truthfully: By trying to be for everyone online, you may be missing those special people altogether.)

On LinkedIn, that often means not trying to catch viral waves. Instead, growth is usually about showing up consistently (that’s a loose way to say, a few times per week if you can, a few times per month if you can’t). When you do show up, send a mix of authority-driven content (which shows your expertise) and aspirational content (which centers desired results) into the world.

LinkedIn gets to be a portfolio for interested clients to look through when they’re curious about you. And yes, maybe someone new discovers you via a post you’ve written — but that’s not your job to manage. Your only job is to create.

This client admitted that the viral post she’d written had netted exactly zero leads for work, which made a whole lot of sense. What if you leaned into where the work is actually coming from? I asked. Spoiler alert: Her work comes from pre-established relationships, not shiny viral objects.

Finally: What if you approached your content with naturalness? With saying the things you want to say?

The whole group walked away giggling when I shared with them that the moment when you say “fuck it, I may as well just try” is the best moment in business.

When you stop performing and just freaking say what you want to say, things move with a flow that you cannot force.

This particular client admitted that she loved snark. She loved to call the media industry on its crap and suggest new ways of thinking and being.

What if you let that be your LinkedIn strategy? I said. Why? Because it turns out that this approach is exactly why her clients hire her. They love her sharp wit, her willingness to see through established ways of being and choose something new. By running her marketing in this way, which is 100% her, she gets to attract ideal clients while no longer needing to perform.

Simone Grace Seol, one of my favorite coaches, is well known for her garbage posting challenge, where she invites her students to post whatever comes to mind every day, for 30 days, without edits, across any form of social media or email.

The wild part: It works because it takes away that posturing, spinning part of the creation process— the part where you edit your posts so much that you sanitize them of all humanity. Within the challenge, you’re just letting it rip. You’re saying fuck it. And people can feel that authenticity!

And remember: Authenticity is a sign of trust and safety for all of us. We want to be around the truth.

So, y’all: Embrace the fuck it mentality and say what you want to say. Yes, really. Stop trying to follow the rules of LinkedIn and zig where everyone else zags. Tell the truth.

It’s the best “sales” strategy there is.

xo,

Jenni

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Curious about my background? I’m a writer and business coach living in Central Oregon. My goal is to teach everyone who will listen that it’s possible to build a simple, stable, successful business that supports your human needs first. Join my group coaching program, SUSTAIN, for more conversations like this (and a community of people who are all about the path less taken), and follow me on LinkedIn & Instagram.