Hey {{first_name}},
Maryanne Thomas is one of the sharpest leaders I know. She runs transformation for a large retailer, she is deep in AI, and by her own admission, she has barely been on social media in her life.
But at the start of this year, she decided that she had to change and that she would post on LinkedIn. But she was terrified.
So do you know what she did?
She wrote her first few posts and scheduled them, because she did not even want to be online to watch them go out.
I love that, because it is the most honest picture of courage, and if you have read my book “The Bold Move”, you would know that I speak about this phrase constantly…
Confidence doesn't come first. Courage does.
Maryanne did not feel ready; she felt exposed.
But, she did it anyway, and the confidence arrived afterwards, once the first few posts were out and the sky had not fallen in. That is the order it always comes in, and it is the wrong way round from how most of us wait for it.
Maryanne didn’t start with the hardest post.
She is now known for her views on AI. But she did not open with AI.
She started with what she already had the words for. Leadership, and the real, unpolished version of dropping to four days a week for her daughter's first year of school.
She wrote what she knew cold. The braver topics came later, once posting felt ordinary instead of terrifying.
I share with my coaching clients that you do not have to lead with the post that would impress people. You lead with the one you could talk about for ten minutes without notes.
The payoff she did not expect
Here is what surprised her, and it is the reason I am writing to you about this at all.
Posting in public did not just build her an audience. It made her a better storyteller in the room. She got noticeably sharper at articulating her value to an executive audience, at saying things in language people actually understand.
The visibility was practice for the boardroom.
That is the piece women miss. Not only does it build reputation, but it also makes you clearer about your own worth, and clarity about your own worth is exactly what gets you promoted and hired.
And you never know where a single post lands. A recruiter who has been quietly reading. An old colleague who thinks of you the moment a role opens up. A conversation you could never have planned. You cannot pick which post does it. You only know that staying invisible guarantees none of them happen.
One post this week
Follow Maryanne's method exactly.
Pick the topic you already know, not the impressive one. The one you have real opinions about.
Write three or four short posts in one sitting.
Then schedule them, and close the laptop. You do not have to be there when they go live.
That is the whole task. You are not building a personal brand this week. You are getting the first one out of the way, so the second one is easier, and the tenth one is nothing.
The full conversation with Maryanne is up now. She is proof of every word of this.
Then hit reply and tell me the one topic you already know cold. That is your first post, and I will tell you the angle I would take with it.
With confidence,
Georgie 💜
P.S. If putting yourself out there is the thing you keep meaning to do and never quite start, that is exactly what we get moving inside Bold Moves. Building your presence is inside one of the three pillars, and you are not doing it alone.
If you want to find out more, and when I am opening the doors for the September cohort, you can book a call here
