You don't know enough to be a thought leader and that's fine

Two months into your career and people expect you to give great advice and hot takes about an industry you've barely dipped your foot in?

Last week a mentee asked me how she could increase her online visibility. 

I shrugged and I said I don't know. 

You see, I'm the very last person you'd ask about personal branding because I suck at it. 

I have started and failed to continue building my brand on LinkedIn and Twitter. 

I get very anxious before, during and after tweeting. I break out in a cold sweat when someone replies and just press like instead. 

I barely have any podcast appearances. 

I have never created a course. And I loathe courses now because there's always someone who's 3 weeks into a field making one just for the money. 

But I digress. 

I think that this personal branding thing is shit. Because it sets up young professionals for failure. 

How do you portray yourself as a thought leader when you are still figuring things out? You're two months into your career and people expect you to give great advice and hot takes about an industry you've barely dipped your foot in? 

To buttress my point, let's go back to the good ol' days. Yes, you may roll your eyes. 

Many years ago, people were not expected to be great at what they did. It was okay to suck. They didn't have to write a thread about being great at smithing or pottery or masonry. They learnt how to do their work and built mastery over the years. 

I'm done reminiscing and yes, I acknowledge that not everyone couldn't access opportunities back then. I probably wouldn't be here. But I am  🙂.

Now let's go back to woeful reality. 

For this piece to be complete, we have to acknowledge that not being visible online for most people equals career seppeku. 

The loudest are often regarded as the brightest. And the opportunities go to them. 

That's why you have people claiming they work at some big company. And creating weird posts about a fake conversation with a senior copywriter at a cafe that doesn't exist and end by calling them a cold unfeeling human. Or regurgitating some lessons from a book on copywriting that they claimed made their clients millions.  

(All these things actually happened but I'm too lazy to look for the posts and I truly believe that marketers ruin everything 🤮.)

I understand why we do this. I do. We need jobs. We need to feed. We need it to apply for visas. But do we do this because it's absolutely necessary or because there's something wrong with the system?

Why do we have to constantly look like we are doing the work instead of doing the actual thing? We spend hours on the internet posturing and build our Twitter audience and then become the guy who becomes a content creator and a thought leader instead of making handles for plastic doors. Uncrease your brows by reading the story here.  

I think I went off the tangent for a bit. 

Looking at this objectively, if you are still young in your career, you probably don't know enough to demonstrate mastery. 

But what you can show is hunger and curiosity. And you can share your experience of learning a craft. 

Instead of tweets about a fictional blog post that you wrote that earned your client tons of fictional money, you can share how you hate writing intros and the various techniques you have tried. 

Is it boring? Yes. Will it get as much engagement? No. But is it true? Yes. 

And instead of attracting a crowd of vultures, you will attract people who want to help you grow. Or people who are also honing their craft. And it creates something you can refer back to. Here's how far I've come and here's where I am now. 

For me, I've made peace with the fact that I'm not the best marketer or writer yet. I don't have mind-blowing results to impress future employers and immigration officials. I don't know as much as freelance writers who have worked in NYT and have a million years of experience. I'll try to build my skills and commit to getting better everyday. I'll share what I know because I find some aspects of my work fascinating.

Look, if you are early on in your career and you've actual things to share, please do. Posts like that are inspiring and provide a relief from the rubbish we see on the TL. 

But if you are not, think about quality over consistently pumping out doo doo. The internet is full of it already. And if I see another thread on how you can use AI to supercharge anything, I'll burn down the web. 

Anyway, I don't think it's going to change anytime soon so I'm going to rekindle my LinkedIn and mindlessly engage with people who could employ me by saying "great post", "thanks for sharing" and all that. 

And to that one person who's going to comment that personal branding works because they missed the point of this piece, this is for you🖐🏾. 

See ya👋🏽.