Global Demand Generation at GetAccept | Paid Ads & Growth Advisor | Prove the impact of running LinkedIn Ads by identifying influenced deals and revenue with Fibbler 🦁

Hey! 

I’m Adam. Dad, marketer, and full-time founder.

Right now, I’m building Fibbler, the future of Paid Ads Attribution for SMBs. We’ve grown to 400+ paying customers in our first 20 months, fully bootstrapped.

If you’re into LinkedIn Ads, founder-led growth, brand building, or just want to see me try to build this company without external capital while competing with VC giants, follow along here on LinkedIn.

Adam Holmgren

Every time I go to an event like LinkedIn for Marketing's B2Believe, it hits me again. LinkedIn is the most powerful B2B platform in the world.

Nothing else even comes close.

And I don’t say that because I run an attribution tool for LinkedIn Ads.

I say it because every day I see how it works in real life.

The people here already know your brand.

They’ve seen your posts.
They’ve watched your ads.
They already trust you before any sales call even starts.

You can’t get that on any other platform in B2B.

The combination of targeting, mindset, intent and professional context is something you can’t recreate. 

That’s why I always tell companies to stop treating LinkedIn like a direct response channel and start treating it like the place where trust is built.

If you show up here consistently.
If you mix paid and organic.
If you focus on value instead of tricks.
…you will win.

Being here, meeting people who already knew Fibbler before we even talked… it reminded me why I love this platform so much.

Here’s a small clip from an interview I did.

#B2Believe #linkedin #linkedinads

Co-founder & CEO at Fibbler | Building the future of Paid Ads Attribution for SMBs | 10+ years in B2B marketing

I’ve been invited to LinkedIn’s HQ in San Francisco to come down and film some content. 🥹🥹🥹

Honestly, I don’t even know where to start with this one.

Over the last few years I’ve been fortunate enough to do some really cool things in the B2B world.

But the way 2026 has started… wtf?? 🤣

You all know how passionate I am about LinkedIn Ads, and that was the reason Fibbler was created in the first place.

But this isn’t about that.

This is about founder-led growth.

I’m there to share learnings from building a company on LinkedIn with other startup founders and marketers.

And honestly, this is something that came very naturally once I started building in public.

I was very fortunate to already have spent a few years building a relevant audience on LinkedIn, and that became the start for the founder-led playbook I’m running today.

What’s still crazy to me is how often I hear this during demos or support tickets:

“Wow, I didn’t realize I would get to speak directly with the founder.”

There’s real power in that.

Especially when, like me, you’re a marketer selling to marketers (so basically selling to someone just like yourself)

So yeah, as you might understand, I’m insanely excited about this trip taking place between February 23rd and 26th.

And yes, a dream I’ve had for years has been to visit the tech mecca that is the Bay Area.

Now I finally get to do it with a real purpose.

Ruby James & Emma Heiden, I won’t let you down!!

PINCH MY ARM.

2026 HERE WE GO.

We launched Fibbler in April 2024 with just $2,500 of our own money.

Our first paying customer came the same month, and I still remember it like it was yesterday.

By September 2024 we had reached 50 customers, and by December 2024 we hit 100 customers and $10,000 in MRR.

At that point we were still running everything on the side of our full-time jobs, squeezing in work during evenings, weekends, and whatever time we could find.

By the time July 2025 came around, we had reached 250 customers and $27,000 in MRR.

That’s when our CTO decided to go all in on Fibbler full time, and honestly, everything changed from there.

We were suddenly shipping features much faster, fixing issues quickly, and supporting our customers in minutes instead of hours.

And people noticed.

Customers started writing about Fibbler without us asking, and we somehow ended up right in the middle of this wave of signal-based tools that started to take off.

At some point even LinkedIn noticed us, and saw Fibbler as a great fit for their SMB customer base, which led to us becoming an official marketing partner in the attribution category.

At that point, it felt like things were just moving on their own.

Maybe this was the product-market fit we’d been looking for?

Around that time I began thinking seriously about going full time myself, and what could happen if we both focused fully on Fibbler.

Six months later, here we are.

Both co-founders are now working on Fibbler full time, we’re at 400+ paying customers, and we’ve just crossed $50,000 in MRR.

2024 was about proving that Fibbler solves a real problem.
2025 was about finding our first true product-market fit.
2026 will be about building a multi-channel product and scaling our GTM properly, with me now fully focused on this journey.

To say that I’m excited would be a massive understatement.

𝗙𝗜𝗕𝗕𝗟𝗘𝗥 𝗜𝗦 𝗚𝗢𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗧𝗢 𝗡𝗬𝗖 🇺🇸🗽

A bit surreal to even write this.

New York is actually the city where we have the most Fibbler customers in the world (!!)

Which still feels a bit crazy.

We’re heading over partly to join the Annual Summit for LinkedIn Marketing Partners, but also to meet customers and hang out with as many great marketers as possible.

𝗪𝗲’𝗹𝗹 𝗯𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝗡𝗬𝗖 𝗯𝗲𝘁𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝟭𝟬𝘁𝗵 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝟭𝟯𝘁𝗵 𝗼𝗳 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵.

So a few questions to my network..

Who’s up for grabbing a coffee and talking marketing, LinkedIn Ads, and startup growth?

Who might want to host two slightly lost co-founders in their office for a day?

And the most important question of all…

Who wants a pink lion? 🦁

We’ll pack one for anyone that reaches out.

See you soon, NYC.

Last week was the biggest challenge I’ve had since becoming a full-time founder.

The kind of thing you dread the most.

𝐀𝐬 𝐚 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭.

Both my kids (1.5 and 4 years old) got the flu.

High fevers up to 40°C (104°F).

And it just kept going all week.

I started feeling symptoms myself, but we decided I’d stay home with the kids the first half of the week, and my partner would take the second.

Those first 2.5 days were the longest of my life. 😅

Trying to squeeze in support replies during naps.

Then I finally made it into the office.

And that’s when my partner started getting sick too.

Suddenly I felt extremely guilty for being away, even though I needed a few focused hours to keep the business moving. 

In the end, I stayed home on Friday as well to help out.

This is the reality of being a full-time founder and a parent to two small kids.

But we’re on the other side now.

The kids are back at daycare.

We’re both healthy again.

P.S. It’s usually not this messy at home… but we were in full survival mode. 😅

We’re FINALLY starting to show up in relevant AI overviews and LLM queries 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝘄𝗲 𝗱𝗶𝗱 𝗶𝘁.

As you probably know by now, I’ve never been super passionate about SEO. 

So towards the end of last year we brought in Sam Dunning and his team at Breaking B2B.

With everything going on as a solo marketer, and everything else I do 😅, I needed help with execution.

Luckily, we already had a really solid domain rating from the start. 

So there was a lot of potential in climbing rankings and showing up on the right queries quickly.

WHERE DID WE START

Pretty early on it was clear that we needed to show up more with the right context next to the bigger players in the attribution category.

The good thing is that over the last few years I’ve used most of these platforms myself. 

That makes it much easier to do an honest comparison.

That part matters a lot to me.

I want to talk about all these players in a respectful way. 

I admire them a lot (especially Dreamdata and how they carry themselves with so much grace).

But at the same time I wanted it to be very clear where Fibbler stands in relation to them, no matter when or where people are looking.

So I started by just dumping all my thoughts and knowledge into a Google Doc.

The team at Breaking B2B then did their own research and started writing the actual content.

After that, I spent a lot of time on each piece editing it. Making sure it matched my POV and actually sounded like me.

RESULTS SO FAR

We’ve pretty quickly started showing up in the AI queries we listed in the initial plan.

Not always as the first option. But always with the right narrative. That we’re a LinkedIn first attribution software for companies that believe that’s enough.

Our organic traffic has already 2x’d in the last two months, excluding brand.

But the most important part is this.

Now that I’ve started taking more demo calls, people have mentioned several times that they’ve read this narrative and they understand exactly where we stand compared to the others.

And that’s the whole point right now.

It’s time to announce our second influencer and this time it’s one of the brightest LinkedIn Ads voices in Europe.

Over the last 15 months, we’ve had incredible people openly sharing how they use Fibbler without ever getting anything in return.

At the same time, as we’ve grown, I’ve always known we wanted to create something more formal. 

A way to give back to those people while also helping their ideas and experiences reach a wider audience.

In other words, a small influencer program.

Last week, we announced our first US-focused influencer.

Now it’s time to announce our second influencer to get better coverage of the European market.

And without further ado…

🥁🥁🥁

Please welcome Philip Ilic to the Fibbler troops.

They’ve been using Fibbler at scale for his agency 𝐊𝐢𝐢𝐧 and have already shared some great content showing how it fits into their workflows and reporting.

But most importantly, the transparent way Philip shares LinkedIn Ads playbooks with the world, without making them overly complex, is something I really align with. 

That’s one of the main reasons I started following him in the first place.

Stay tuned for early results and additional roster introductions!

I lied to everyone.



I told you that I would never run brand ads on Google for Fibbler…

Because you’re basically paying for traffic that would find you anyway.

That was my belief.

Until last week…

For some random reason, I searched for Fibbler on Google.

And to my surprise, I saw two companies consistently appearing at the top of the results.

At this point, I was still determined to not run brand ads. It just felt like a waste of money.

Then I noticed something else.

They were using the Fibbler name all over the place. Sometimes even as a standalone.

If someone searches quickly and just scans the page, it would be very easy to click by mistake.

That is when my mindset shifted.

I spent some time setting up a simple brand campaign.

$25 daily budget.
$2 max CPC.

And I am already at more than 90% impression share. With a really solid top of page rate.

So I will keep it running for a bit.

At least until Google removes their ads for trademark reasons (they have already been disapproved in a few markets luckily 😬).

So yes. 

I lied.

I said I would never bid on my own brand.

Hopefully this is only temporary..

P.S. I’m really proud to say that we now have more than 2,000 branded searches for Fibbler every month, and it’s clear that others see that as valuable.

#googleads #brand

107 engagements.
2,886 impressions.
12 months of campaigns.

The deal?

Attributed to organic search.

Of course it was.

This is the most common journey in B2B:

Someone sees your ads on LinkedIn.
They don’t click.
They lurk.
They remember.

Weeks later they Google your brand.
Click a result.
Submit a form.

Boom.

“Original source: Organic search.”

Perfectly clean report.

Also completely wrong.

That deal didn’t start with Google.

It started way earlier.

With your paid campaigns.

And your organic LinkedIn presence reinforcing them.

Paid created awareness.

Organic search captured it.

They work together whether your attribution model likes it or not.

But most reports still force everything into one bucket.

That’s why we built Customer Journeys in Fibbler.

So you can see:
✅ Paid touches that created awareness
✅ Organic touches that reinforced trust
✅ How both combined to influence pipeline

Not paid vs organic.

Paid + organic.

Because people don’t buy in straight lines.

And attribution shouldn’t pretend they do.

P.S.

Fibbler helps you see which companies view or engage with your LI Ads, tie them to pipeline and revenue in your CRM, and alert sales when it’s time to reach out. Try it free for 30 days at https://www.fibbler.co/.

This is Fibbler’s MRR growth throughout 2025 and what we’re projecting for 2026:

January: $11k
February: $12.5k
March: $14k
April: $18k
May: $20k
June: $22k
July: $25.5k
August: $26k
September: $30k
October: $36.5k
November: $42k
December: $43k

As you can tell, it’s far from linear.

January, August and December were the slowest months for us.

A mix of fewer new paid customers and higher churn.

Then September to November happened.

Around 40% MRR growth in just a few months.

What’s interesting is that nothing major changed during 2025.

Same spend. 
Same channels. 
Same level of activity.

What did change was time.

Brand growth compounded over the year.

We started with below 1,000 brand searches per month. 

Now we’re at over 2000.

To me that’s a strong signal.

That our narrative is starting to resonate with the right people.

That we have a product people actually love using.

Yes, we probably could have grown much faster by raising money and spending more.

But we’re ending the year with around 25% profit margin.

Our fate is fully in our own hands.

There’s something very powerful about that.

𝗔𝗻𝗱 𝗶𝗳 𝘄𝗲 𝘄𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲:

At a minimum, I think we’ll grow at roughly the same rate.

Again, brand compounds over time.

On top of that, we’re going to add a few add-ons for other channels, like Google Ads and Meta Ads, which should increase ARPA slightly.

So my guess is that we’ll end the year at…

🥁🥁🥁

𝗔𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱 $𝟭𝟮𝟬𝗸 𝗶𝗻 𝗠𝗥𝗥, 𝗼𝗿 𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝗹𝘆 $𝟭.𝟰𝗠 𝗶𝗻 𝗔𝗥𝗥.

With only two people on the team.

That’s about $720k ARR per employee (!!!)

Let’s see how right or wrong I am. 😬

Regardless, I’m just so excited about putting my full time into something I’m genuinely passionate about.

#saas #startup

It’s time to introduce our third influencer that I’m genuinely excited to work with.

One thing I didn’t fully appreciate when we started Fibbler was how many smart people would start sharing their experiences with the product, completely on their own.

As the company has grown, that’s something I’ve wanted to protect.

And also find a way to give something back.

That’s how this small influencer program came to life.

We’ve already started building coverage in the US and Europe.

Now it’s time to expand further. 

🥁🥁🥁🥁🇧🇷🇧🇷🇧🇷🇧🇷

I’m very happy to welcome Sheila Coque to the Fibbler roster.

We actually first connected in the comments on LinkedIn.

Her replies always stood out to me. 

Thoughtful, authentic, and coming from real experience.

When I later started following her content more closely, it carried the exact same energy.

I’m really looking forward to building something together and starting to grow our presence in Latin America with her.

More soon. 🦁

THE FIBBLER FAMILY IS GROWING


And no, it’s not a baby...

Or another colleague...

I was simply sitting down one evening, thinking about how we could stand out a bit more.

As you do.

How to do something different.

How to do something fun.

Something that could represent Fibbler when we show up at events and meet-ups. 

And somehow we ended up with the biggest pink lions we could possibly find. 😅

They are huge.

Like… way bigger than we imagined when we ordered.

These lions aren’t just going to sit in a corner and collect dust though.

They’re coming with us.

To conferences.
To meet-ups.

To places where a giant pink lion probably shouldn’t be… but absolutely should be.

𝗡𝗼𝘄 𝘄𝗲 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝗼𝗹𝘃𝗲 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝘁𝗶𝗻𝘆 𝗱𝗲𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗹.

Has anyone here actually tried bringing giant stuffed lions on a plane before? 

Because I’m pretty sure this will raise some questions at security.

Asking very seriously.

Most teams don’t struggle with LinkedIn Ads because of budgets or targeting. 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗴𝗴𝗹𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗱𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗼 𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝗮𝘂𝗱𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲.

If the message and creative don’t connect, nothing works, no matter how much budget you put behind it.

What’s changed recently is how that content gets distributed.

Thought leader ads have made it easier than ever to distribute content through people instead of brands. 

And that matters, because people listen to people, not logos.

But the core question hasn’t changed. 

𝗪𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗼𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗺𝘆 𝗮𝘂𝗱𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲?

And this is why many companies still hesitate to run thought leader ads. 

Not because the format doesn’t work, but because it quickly reveals whether the message is strong enough or not.

At the same time, when teams do get this right, I haven’t seen any other format on LinkedIn that comes close in terms of attention and engagement. 

𝗧𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗴𝗮𝗽 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗼𝗻 𝗜’𝗺 𝗱𝗼𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮 𝗹𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝘄𝗲𝗯𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗿 𝗼𝗻 𝗝𝗮𝗻𝘂𝗮𝗿𝘆 𝟮𝟴𝘁𝗵 𝘁𝗼𝗴𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 Casper 𝗮𝗻𝗱 SparkForce.

We’ll walk through real examples, showing ads that clearly moved people and others that didn’t, and talk through what actually changed the outcome.

We’ll also cover why paid and organic can’t be treated as two separate things anymore, and how that disconnect is often the reason campaigns feel off.

This is a practical session for B2B marketers who feel like engaging their audience shouldn’t be this hard.

#linkedinads

thought leader ads that influenced €3.1M on LinkedIn

You’re spending $5K on paid ads and it works. You scale to $50K and it doesn’t. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺 𝗶𝘀𝗻’𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗮𝗱𝘀…

You know that feeling when some of your paid programs are finally working?

You’re spending around $5K per month.

Awareness is building.
Engagement looks solid.
Pipeline is starting to show up.

So you do the obvious thing.

You scale.

$10K.
$50K.

And that’s when it gets weird.

The numbers don’t follow the spend anymore.

Costs go up.
Quality feels off.

And suddenly you’re wondering if something broke, even though nothing really changed.

That’s the part most teams get stuck in.

At lower spend, you can focus on a few things that work really well and just double down on those.

When you start scaling, that simplicity disappears.

You add more formats.
More channels.
More experiments running in parallel.

And suddenly it’s not about one campaign working anymore, it’s about how all of it fits together.

𝗧𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲𝘅𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗼𝗻 𝗜’𝗺 𝗱𝗼𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮 𝗹𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝘄𝗲𝗯𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗿 𝗼𝗻 𝗙𝗲𝗯𝗿𝘂𝗮𝗿𝘆 𝟭𝟮𝘁𝗵 𝘁𝗼𝗴𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 Matthis Janssen, Tim Rath 𝗮𝗻𝗱 YOYABA.

This is something you don’t want to miss if you’re scaling paid ads this year.

👉 Sign up here: https://lnkd.in/ehdwxUbK

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This is what my weekly calendar looks like when running a product-led startup. 𝗜𝘁 𝗱𝗼𝗲𝘀𝗻’𝘁 𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝘃𝗲.

Most days aren’t packed with meetings.

That space is where the work happens.

Once you start finding some real fit in the market, something changes. 

The product starts doing the selling for you. 

You don’t have to explain every feature or convince people why it matters.

They already know the problem.

One thing I’ve really noticed over the last 15 months is how tech savvy marketers are. 

Most of them know exactly what they want. 

If the product is clear and works well, they’ll figure it out on their own.

I see a lot of startup content that makes a full calendar look like success. 

In reality, being busy and making progress aren’t always the same thing.

I don’t know if this is the right way forever.

But right now, it feels like the right way to build.

#saas #startup

𝗜’𝘃𝗲 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿 $𝟳𝟬𝗸 𝗼𝗻 𝗟𝗶𝗻𝗸𝗲𝗱𝗜𝗻 𝗔𝗱𝘀 in the last 12 months, and it completely changed how I think about what actually works on LinkedIn.

For a long time, we treated paid and organic as two completely separate things.

We ran ads.

And then we posted organic content.

But it doesn’t work like that anymore… and there’s three major shifts I’m seeing right now:

1️⃣ 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗳𝘁 𝗵𝗶𝘁 𝗺𝗲 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝗜 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘀𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗿𝘂𝗻𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗱𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗶𝘀𝗼𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗶𝘀𝗻’𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗼𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗮𝗹 𝘄𝗮𝘆 𝗼𝗳 𝗱𝗼𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝘁

Organic content is no longer a nice to have.

For me, organic is a testing ground. I post ideas, see what resonates, and then only put money behind the content that already works. 

2️⃣ 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗳𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝗜 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗮

There is so much hype around third party intent tools, while some of the strongest signals are already sitting in your own data. 

When someone has seen your content multiple times and interacted with it, they are more likely to remember you when they are ready to buy.

3️⃣ 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗿𝗱 𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗳𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗮𝗯𝗹𝘆 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗮 𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗽𝗿𝗶𝘀𝗲, 𝗖𝗥𝗠 𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗯𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗺𝗶𝘀𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝗯𝘂𝘆𝗲𝗿 𝗷𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗻𝗲𝘆𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗺𝗲𝘀𝘀𝘆

People see ads for months.
Talk to peers.
Google you multiple times.
Consume content across channels.
And only then convert into a demo.

And the CRM gives all the credit to whatever happened last (or first).

That pushes companies to over invest in capture and under invest in brand. And then a few months later they wonder why pipeline slowed down…

I go much deeper into all of this in the full video and explain how I think about LinkedIn Ads after spending $70k of my own money on them.

#linkedinads

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗟𝗶𝗻𝗸𝗲𝗱𝗜𝗻 𝗮𝗹𝗴𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗵𝗺 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝗻 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿. I made it my mission last year to figure out how to make it work anyway.

Before I get into what I changed, here’s some context.

Last year I reached more than 500k people, generated over 2.5M impressions, saw around 50,000 engagements, and grew my follower base by 12,000 people.

Those numbers look great now. 

But early 2025 was… not that good haha.

My posts slowly stopped getting the same traction. Reach went down, engagement was terrible, and at the same time LinkedIn started filling up with more and more AI content.

That was the moment I realised I couldn’t blame the algorithm anymore.

It was on me to start creating content people actually wanted to read.

So I did something I’ve never done before.

I sat down and defined how I wanted my writing to feel.

I went through my old posts that had actually worked and asked myself a few simple questions:

Why did this post resonate?
Are there any traits that show up over and over again?
Which parts sound like me, and which parts feel too polished?

That process led me to two words that now guides almost everything I post.

𝗔𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆𝘁𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴.

I want people to feel like they’re coming along with me. Into a decision, a mistake, a realization, or something that actually happened. 

Not just scrolling past another tactic or success story.

After that, I rebuilt my content pillars.

LinkedIn Ads, brand building, and building a startup in public became the three big ones.

Those two changes are what made 2025 the best year I’ve ever had on LinkedIn. 

And a big reason why Fibbler even got off the ground in the first place.

To make it clear.

It’s easy to blame the algorithm.

But if you put in the work to actually find your voice, I’m almost certain you’ll see results.

#linkedin

Connecting Startups & Scaleups with Marketers that fuel business growth| Talk to me about Talent Acquisition, Candidate Experience, Market Insight, Job Searching, D&I, Headhunting, Career Progression

I don’t just “send CVs.”
I help founders, CEOs and CMOs hire marketers who actually move the needle and help great marketers land where they can do their best work.

I’ve seen the cost of getting it wrong: wasted spend, stalled growth, burned-out teams.
And the upside of getting it right: pipeline compounding, CAC improving, careers taking off.

I’ll challenge the brief, push back when it’s vague, and fix broken processes.
From CAC payback to PLG and ABM, I speak marketing so you don’t hire a unicorn JD for £35k or a “Head of Everything.”

If you want bums-on-seats, I’m not your person.
If you want the right marketer, right now let’s talk: sinead.willis@propellondon.com | +44 7858 425 481

𝐅𝐨𝐫 𝐂𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬
I speak to marketers all day, every day from first hires to VPs. 
Most are leaving because they’re underpaid, undervalued, or stuck proving their worth to people who don’t get marketing.

If that’s you, you’re in the right place.
I’ll help you benchmark your value, prep for interviews, and get clear on where you’ll actually thrive, not just survive.

My inbox is open whether you’re actively looking or just need to sense-check your next move.
No fluff. Just honesty and strategy.

𝐅𝐨𝐫 𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝗪𝐡𝐨 𝐅𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐬 𝐌𝐲 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭
I’m not here to sugar-coat the market.
I’m here to say what everyone in marketing is already thinking > out loud.

The overworked “one-person marketing team.”
The £35k “Head of Growth.”
The Marketing Directors that a parachuted in to fix everything that's broken.
The “we want creativity but here’s our template” brief.
The marketers that are sick of hearing, just make us go viral and just put something on LinkedIn.

I write about it all.
Real stories, real data, and the real state of hiring in 2025.
If you want insight without the corporate spin and you care about better work, better leadership, and better marketing, and you also want to laugh along the way, then hit Follow.

Much love x

Sinead Willis

The strongest marketers I know have the “messiest” careers.⁣
⁣
They’ve worked inhouse, freelanced, taken breaks, been laid off,⁣
jumped into startups that blew up and startups that blew apart.⁣
⁣
Every one of those moves built perspective.⁣
They’ve learned to do more with less, build from zero, and fix what’s broken.⁣
⁣
But too many job descriptions still cling to linear career logic⁣
as if the only valuable experience is uninterrupted, upward, and corporate.⁣
⁣
The next decade belongs to marketers who’ve done the messy stuff 
because they’re the ones who know what to do when the playbook stops working.

Sinead Willis 

The Marketing Recruiter | I help Tech Startups & Scaleups build marketing teams that actually drive growth | Mentor, advocate, ally for my audience.

Long live the messy marketer.⁣
⁣
The one whose CV makes hiring managers nervous because it reads like:⁣

• agency⁣
• in-house⁣
• startup that blew up⁣
• startup that blew apart⁣
• role created from scratch⁣
• role inherited mid-chaos⁣
⁣
Irony is, that marketer has probably fixed more broken systems than the tidy one.⁣
⁣
They have launched with no data.⁣
Scaled with imperfect data.⁣
And cleaned up after leadership decisions they did not make.⁣
⁣
That is not instability.⁣
That is resilience under real conditions.⁣
⁣
If your business is complex, your marketers experience should be too.

Exciting news today!!! I’m happy to share 😊

After now almost 12 years in marketing recruitment, here’s what I still don’t care about in 2026: (and neither should you)

If you have a non linear CV
If you had a short stint
If you were laid off 
If your role disappeared after a restructure
If your CV looks “messy”
If AI changed your job
If your last company panicked instead of planning
If you took a break because burnout finally caught up with you
If you’re over 45
If you’re under 30
If you’re still using the Open To Work banner
If your job title doesn’t match the JD exactly

None of that tells me if you’re good at marketing.

If you’re filtering people out for any of the above, 
you’re not protecting your business.
You’re protecting your bias.

And marketing pays the price every time.

And for any new followers here's what I care about:

I care about whether you can do the job.

-How you approach problems
-How you learn when things change
-How you deal with uncertainty
-How you adapt to change
-How you think commercially
-Whether you know what not to do
-Whether you stay curious
-How you treat people

That's it

Isn’t it sad that in 2026, a basic requirement for a marketer at work is still⁣
⁣
“go somewhere people treat you nicely.”⁣
⁣
Not growth.⁣
Not learning.⁣
Not impact.⁣
⁣
Just basic human decency.⁣
⁣
I had multiple conversations with marketers last week and one theme kept coming up.⁣
⁣
“I just want to go somewhere I’m treated well.”⁣
⁣
That was it.⁣
⁣
Often followed by stories of being spoken down to, ignored, micromanaged, or blamed when the goalposts moved.⁣
⁣
Not bad marketers.⁣
Not underperformers.⁣
Just people worn down by how they were treated.⁣
⁣
If “being treated well” feels like a perk, something is seriously broken.⁣
⁣
Being treated well should not feel like a luxury.⁣
⁣
What’s worse is most people reading this will recognise it.⁣
From where they work now.⁣
Or somewhere they worked before.⁣
⁣
Which tells you it’s not rare.⁣
It’s normal.⁣
⁣
And it really shouldn’t be.⁣
⁣
I’m genuinely curious.⁣
If you’ve seen this, what do you think is driving it?

#TheMarketingRecruiter #TheHonestRecruiter #ImHiring

Job titles in marketing are one of the worst signals we rely on.⁣
⁣
I’ve met:⁣
– Heads of Marketing who never managed anyone⁣
– Directors of Marketing who were deeply hands-on⁣
– Senior Managers who led entire functions of 20+⁣
⁣
Yet we treat titles like truth.⁣
⁣
They’re not.⁣
⁣
They’re marketing.⁣
They’re politics.⁣
They’re context-free.⁣
⁣
Real recruiting starts when you stop asking:⁣
“What is there title?”⁣
⁣
And start saying:⁣
“Let's have a chat”⁣
⁣
Because titles don’t hire well.⁣
Conversations do.

Marketing has quietly become the emotional support function for bad leadership.⁣
⁣
No strategy?⁣
Marketing will “figure it out”.⁣
⁣
Conflicting priorities?⁣
Marketing will “be flexible”.⁣
⁣
Everyone wants something.⁣
No one agrees on what matters.⁣
And marketing is expected to make it all work.⁣
⁣
Every request starts with:⁣
“Could you just…”⁣
⁣
As if:⁣
– strategy takes five minutes⁣
– infrastructure appears by magic⁣
– execution doesn’t require trade-offs⁣
⁣
When it doesn’t work:⁣
“Why isn’t marketing performing?”⁣
⁣
When it does:⁣
Sales hit target 🎉⁣
Leadership takes credit 👏⁣
Marketing… gets another request.⁣
⁣
This isn’t a talent problem.⁣
It’s an alignment problem.⁣
⁣
And it’s why so many good marketers aren’t leaving the work.⁣
⁣
They’re leaving the chaos.⁣
⁣
If your marketing team is exhausted,⁣
it’s probably not because they’re bad at their jobs.⁣
⁣
It’s because they’re doing everyone else’s.

I placed a candidate last year who most companies would have rejected instantly.⁣
⁣
“Too senior.”⁣
“Overqualified.”⁣
“Won’t be happy.”⁣
“Will leave.”⁣
“Flight risk.”⁣
⁣
Why?⁣
⁣
She’d been a Head of.⁣
Led a team of 15+.⁣
Senior leadership role.⁣
⁣
The role I was hiring for?⁣
⁣
Mid-level.⁣
No team.⁣
Hands-on.⁣
Standalone.⁣
⁣
If she’d applied directly, her CV wouldn’t have made it past the first filter.⁣
⁣
But from my conversations with her, I knew two things:⁣
She was excellent.⁣
And she had done this exact kind of role before.⁣
⁣
Here’s what a CV can’t tell you.⁣
⁣
She didn’t want to manage people anymore.⁣
⁣
She said to me, very clearly:⁣
“I’m done with management. I want to do the work again.”⁣
⁣
Not a step back.⁣
A conscious choice.⁣
⁣
She wanted to be close to the craft.⁣
To ship.⁣
To execute.⁣
To focus.⁣
⁣
So I put her forward.⁣
I called the hiring manager and said "Look past the title, she's excellent, just meet her"
They met her.
She got the job.⁣
And she is absolutely smashing it.⁣
⁣
This idea that someone’s previous job title defines what they want forever is so narrow-minded it hurts.⁣
⁣
And I know for a fact there are companies who will skip a CV the moment they see “Director” or "Head of" when they’re hiring for a less senior titled role.⁣
⁣
People change.⁣
Life changes.⁣
Priorities change.⁣
⁣
So next time, instead of skipping the profile…⁣
speak to the person.⁣
⁣
A conversation will tell you far more than a title ever will.

If you’re a marketer who’s ever left for any of these reasons, I salute you 👏
⁣
If you walked away to protect your sanity⁣
If you left because the goalposts moved every month⁣
If you joined to lead but weren’t trusted to decide⁣
If the role quietly tripled in scope with no pay change⁣
If your founder rewrote your campaigns⁣
If “alignment” really meant approval⁣
If targets doubled but budget disappeared⁣
If headcount was promised, then pulled⁣
If you were blamed for results you weren’t resourced to deliver⁣
If staying meant burning out or going numb⁣
⁣
That’s not a lack of commitment.⁣
That’s self-respect.⁣
⁣
People don’t leave great roles quickly.⁣
They leave environments that set them up to fail.

Ever left for one of these reasons?
Did I miss any?

Apparently, once you’ve been promoted in marketing to Head of or Director, there’s an unwritten rule:⁣
⁣
You are now legally required to manage people forever.⁣
You must keep moving upwards.⁣
⁣
According to many people screening CVs, you may no longer:⁣
⁣
– enjoy doing the actual work⁣
– want a standalone role⁣
– prefer depth over scale⁣
– value focus over politics⁣
– want fewer meetings and more output⁣
– choose peace⁣
⁣
If you apply for a “Manager” role, your CV will likely be skipped by whoever’s reviewing it because, in their opinion you are a:⁣
⁣
❌ Flight risk⁣
❌ Over-experienced⁣
❌ Just wants a stopgap⁣
❌ Too far removed from the detail⁣
⁣
This out dated thinking is clearly broken because, Some of the best individual contributors I know:⁣
⁣
– began as hands-on specialists⁣
– became leaders after years of strong delivery⁣
– balanced people management with deep craft expertise⁣
⁣
And then they thought:⁣
⁣
“Actually… I want to do the work again. I don’t want to manage people.”⁣
⁣
Some of them have even freelanced purely to prove they can still execute at a high level, fast, and without layers.⁣
⁣
Not a step back.⁣
A fully informed decision.⁣
⁣
So if you’re reading this and you screen CVs:⁣
⁣
Career progression is not a one-way escalator.⁣
⁣
Some people don’t want bigger teams.⁣
Some people don’t want endless stakeholder management.⁣
Some people don’t want to spend their days translating strategy instead of delivering it.⁣
⁣
Some people genuinely want to be hands-on again.⁣
⁣
They are not a flight risk.⁣
They are clear on where they do their best work.⁣
⁣
And filtering them out is how you miss exceptional talent.

Remember, a conversation tells you far more than a title.

When I see a business restructure marketing for the third, fourth, fifth time in a few years, I know what’s underneath it.⁣
⁣
Not a talent problem.⁣
Not a capability gap.⁣
Not even a performance issue.⁣
⁣
It’s unresolved leadership problems being pushed downstream.⁣
⁣
No clear strategy?⁣
Restructure marketing.⁣
⁣
Conflicting priorities?⁣
Restructure marketing.⁣
⁣
Growth stalled?⁣
Restructure marketing.⁣
⁣
Sales under pressure?⁣
Restructure marketing.⁣
⁣
Instead of fixing:⁣
– unclear direction⁣
– decision paralysis⁣
– misaligned leadership⁣
– unrealistic expectations⁣
⁣
Marketing gets reorganised.⁣
⁣
New roles.⁣
New titles.⁣
New reporting lines.⁣
New org charts.⁣
⁣
Same problems.⁣
⁣
And eventually:⁣
Burnout.⁣
Attrition.⁣
Disengagement.⁣
⁣
Then the narrative becomes:⁣
“Marketing isn’t performing.”⁣
⁣
When in reality, marketing has spent months or years absorbing instability that leadership wouldn’t resolve.⁣
⁣
Marketing becomes the emotional support function for broken systems.⁣
⁣
And when that system finally cracks,⁣
marketing becomes the place blame quietly lands.⁣
⁣
If your marketing team keeps getting restructured every year, maybe it's time to look in the mirror...

I scrolled through my LinkedIn just now and it’s full of:

“I’m excited to announce…”
“Thrilled to be joining…”
“So grateful for the opportunity…”

Which is genuinely brilliant. Truly.

But it did make me think about everyone still in the in-between.

So just in case those posts are doing the opposite for you and instead of inspiring you, they’re quietly making you question yourself, here’s a dose of reality.

What you don’t see when someone posts their new role is:

the months of rejection
the interviews that went nowhere
the roles that vanished
the offers that fell through

So if you’re looking at those updates and feeling like you’re falling behind, please know this: most of the people posting them were struggling quietly not that long ago.

And if those posts are hurting more than inspiring you right now, there is nothing wrong with you.

You’re navigating something genuinely hard, with as much grace as you can.
This part is heavy. It takes time.

And you will come out the other side too ❤️

#TheMarketingRecruiter #TheHonestRecruiter #ImHiring

I disappeared for 4 weeks and my world did not, in fact, collapse.⁣
⁣
I went completely offline.⁣
No LinkedIn.⁣
No checking.⁣
⁣
I scheduled my posts to run once a day and left.⁣
⁣
In that time I:⁣
• Swam with 50 sharks⁣
• Climbed two volcanoes⁣
• Watched a volcano erupt with my own eyes⁣
• Got norovirus and was sick more times than I care to count⁣
• Picked up a parasite for good measure⁣
⁣
I do not recommend repeating the last two.⁣
⁣
Coming back, I had mixed emotions.⁣
⁣
Refreshed.⁣
Still a bit broken from the parasite.⁣
Excited about 2026.⁣
And yes, nervous.⁣
⁣
Opening LinkedIn after a month offline is weirdly intimidating.⁣
You start imagining everything that might have moved while you weren’t glued to the screen.⁣
⁣
So on the 5th, I opened it for the first time.⁣
⁣
629 new connection requests.⁣
One of my pre scheduled posts had gone viral.⁣
My most viral post ever.⁣
⁣
3.5k likes.⁣
300 comments.⁣
170 shares.⁣
And I’d hit 40,000 followers.⁣
⁣
What really made me stop was this.⁣
⁣
If I'd have been online, I would have been convinced myself that this was all due to my being online.⁣
Replying to every comment.⁣
Watching the numbers.⁣
Staying visible so it “kept going”.⁣
⁣
But I wasn’t online.⁣
I was nowhere near LinkedIn.⁣
⁣
While I was away, two candidates were placed as processes wrapped up.⁣
And in the last 24 hours, three new roles have landed.⁣
⁣
So yes, I can say this with confidence.⁣
⁣
The world does not end when you step away.⁣
⁣
You do not need to be permanently online to be relevant.⁣
You do not lose momentum by logging off.⁣
And good work still works, even when you are offline, sick, climbing volcanoes, or very much minding your own business.⁣

If you are waiting on a reply from me, I’m working through everything now.⁣
Thank you for the patience.⁣
⁣
Right.⁣
Let’s get back at it.

2026 Marketing Predictions 

– Job descriptions only list one role. Just one.
– “Strategic” actually means strategic, not “do everything yourself”
– Budgets are agreed before targets are set
– Senior marketers are hired for their experience and then… trusted to use it
– Full autonomy is given, without needing permission for every decision
– Marketers are given the titles that match the work they’re actually doing
– Senior marketers have a real seat at the table, not a calendar invite after decisions are made
– Marketing is involved in strategy, not asked to “make it look nice” at the end
– Decisions are made by people who own the outcome
– Marketing is given time to generate results, not judged after six weeks
– Brand and performance stop being pitted against each other
– “Quick wins” are no longer demanded constantly 
– Senior hires are made before the money is spent, not after

Marketers sleep.
Campaigns compound.
No one is burned out.

…….Just kidding 😂

If you have got this far I do hope you noticed this was a joke. I can indeed confirm not a huge amount has changed. 

The job description still wants a unicorn.
The budgets are still “below market rate”.
There’s still a committee.
And no one on it owns the result.
And someone asked me last week if ChatGPT can do the role instead.

But hey.
We can dream.

Happy 2026 😉

The irony is that in marketing, one of the fastest-changing functions in any business, we still hire for predictability.⁣⁣
⁣⁣
Neat CVs. Linear careers. Long stints that look safe on paper.⁣⁣
⁣⁣
But marketing rarely rewards safety.⁣⁣
⁣⁣
The marketers who tend to operate best in chaos are often the ones with the messiest paths.⁣⁣
Not because they lack direction.⁣⁣
Because they have perspective.⁣⁣
⁣⁣
They have rebuilt when things broke.⁣⁣
Pivoted when strategy stopped working.⁣⁣
Learned the hard way which levers actually move the needle and which ones just create noise.⁣⁣
⁣⁣
That experience changes how someone shows up.⁣⁣
They stay calmer when plans shift.⁣⁣
They ask sharper questions earlier.⁣⁣
They spot problems before they become expensive.⁣⁣
⁣⁣
Messy careers do not create chaos.⁣⁣
They create operators who know how to steady the ship when it matters most.⁣⁣
⁣⁣
In a function that keeps changing, adaptability is not a risk.⁣⁣
It is the advantage.

That CV that looks like it’s been through a war zone?⁣
⁣That’s the one you should be hiring.⁣
⁣
The startups that exploded.⁣
The startups that imploded.⁣
The roles that don’t line up neatly on paper.⁣
The short stints.⁣
The pivots.⁣
The contracts.⁣
⁣
To a risk-averse hiring market, that CV looks messy.⁣
Uncomfortable.⁣
Hard to explain to a committee.⁣
⁣
But to anyone who actually understands marketing, it tells a very different story.⁣
⁣
That person has been in the trenches and the weeds.⁣
⁣
They’ve shipped campaigns without perfect data.⁣
They’ve rebuilt funnels mid-flight.⁣
They’ve adapted when budgets were cut, leadership changed, or strategy flipped overnight.⁣
They’ve learned judgement the hard way.⁣
⁣
Marketing is not a classroom exercise.⁣
It’s live fire.⁣
⁣
And when things go wrong, which they always do, you don’t want someone who’s only ever operated in calm, well-resourced environments.⁣
⁣
You want the person who has:⁣
• Seen chaos before⁣
• Stayed calm under pressure⁣
• Fixed what was broken⁣
• Made decisions without a playbook⁣
⁣
Yes, their CV looks like a battle map.⁣
That’s because they’ve already been through it.⁣
⁣
And when you’re hiring for a role that will involve uncertainty, change, and impossible expectations,⁣ that’s exactly who you'll want by your side.⁣
⁣

From the outside, marketing looks easy.⁣ Just post something.⁣ Run some ads.⁣
Make it go viral.⁣

Generate leads.⁣ Fix the funnel.⁣ Build the brand.⁣ Hit pipeline.⁣
This quarter.⁣
⁣
From the inside?⁣

It’s constant trade-offs.⁣ Limited budget.⁣ Unclear priorities.⁣ Conflicting stakeholders.⁣
Pressure to deliver fast and long-term at the same time.⁣
⁣
Most marketing roles don’t fail because of bad marketers.⁣
They fail because the complexity is invisible to everyone else.⁣
⁣
Everyone else thinks it's easy. 
Opinions are free.
Ownership is heavy.

Until you sit in the seat,
you don’t see the weight.

And that’s the difference.

I spoke to a marketer yesterday who’s at final stage for a role and she hasn't met a single human. The whole process has been AI.

No hiring manager.⁣
No future peer.⁣
No one.
⁣
100% AI.⁣
⁣
I asked her how it felt?⁣
⁣
She didn’t feel brought into the business.⁣
She didn’t understand the culture.⁣
She didn’t know how people actually work together.⁣
⁣
And more importantly…⁣
⁣
It did give her concerns over the fact that the company hadn’t wanted to invest time in meeting her yet.⁣
⁣
Hiring is supposed to be a two-way decision.⁣
But this isn’t two-way in any stretch of the imagination.⁣
⁣
This is:⁣
“We’ll assess you through everything.”⁣
“And if you make it… then we’ll show up.”⁣
⁣
That strips candidates of the ability to decide as they go through a process.⁣
It concentrates all the power on one side.⁣
It turns people into inputs, not participants.⁣
⁣
I’m all for using AI to speed things up.⁣
Scheduling.⁣
Admin.⁣
Even early signal.⁣
⁣
But removing humans entirely until the final moment?⁣
⁣
And if you won’t invest time in meeting someone…⁣
What does that say about how you’ll invest in them once they join?⁣
⁣
Curious what others think.⁣
Is this genuinely the future?⁣
Or have we crossed a line?⁣
⁣
Because for me, hiring without human connection isn’t progress.⁣
It’s a red flag.

Nothing tells me a marketing decision was made by committee faster than 
a QR code on a social post 😆 

 That is what happens when common sense gets voted out of the room.
And yes.

 This same company will later ask why engagement is down.

#TheHonestRecruiter #TheMarketingRecruiter

This is what 𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭 disqualifies marketers in some hiring processes.⁣
(𝘐𝘵 𝘥𝘰𝘦𝘴𝘯’𝘵 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘮𝘦.)⁣
⁣
If you’ve had a short stint, 𝘐 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥𝘯’𝘵 𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘴⁣
If you took a break to breathe, reset, or recover, 𝘨𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘺𝘰𝘶⁣
If you were made redundant, 𝘐’𝘮 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶⁣
If your last role didn’t work out, 𝘪𝘵 𝘥𝘰𝘦𝘴𝘯’𝘵 𝘮𝘦𝘢𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘹𝘵 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘯’𝘵⁣
If you don’t have a flashy job title, no stress, 𝘐 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘣𝘦𝘺𝘰𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘪𝘵𝘭𝘦𝘴⁣
If your CV isn’t “perfect”, 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘨𝘰𝘰𝘥, 𝘸𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘰𝘶𝘵⁣
If you’re over 50, 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘥𝘰𝘦𝘴𝘯’𝘵 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘪𝘳𝘦⁣
If you have the open to work banner, 𝘐 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘪𝘵, 𝘪𝘵 𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘱𝘴 𝘮𝘦 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶⁣
If your CV isn’t two pages, 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘢 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘣𝘭𝘦𝘮⁣
If you’ve changed industries, 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵’𝘴 𝘢𝘥𝘥𝘦𝘥 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦⁣
If you’re figuring it out as you go, 𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘯’𝘵 𝘸𝘦 𝘢𝘭𝘭⁣
⁣
None of that tells me whether you’re a good marketer.⁣
⁣
What does?⁣
How you think.⁣
How you learn.⁣
The results you've drove⁣
And how you show up when things get messy.

I’ve lost count of how many women I’ve spoken to this January alone who are £15–20k out of sync with the market.⁣
⁣
And almost every time, they say something like,⁣
“Well… I’m currently on £60k, so I thought £60–65k would be fair.”⁣
⁣
That’s the anchor.⁣
Their last salary.⁣
⁣
Not the role.⁣
Not the scope.⁣
Not the level of responsibility.⁣
Not the market.⁣
⁣
Just what they happen to be earning right now.⁣
⁣
And this is the bit that honestly breaks my heart.⁣
⁣
Because I’m sitting there thinking,⁣
I’m speaking to so many people with half your experience earning significantly more than this.⁣
And you’re better.⁣
⁣
Hypothetically, the market for someone with their experience might be £80k.⁣
But because they’re on £60k today, they don’t even let themselves consider it.⁣
They anchor to the past, not to reality.⁣
⁣
So I ask,⁣
“Has anyone ever told you that your expectations are way below market?”⁣
⁣
Almost always, the answer is no.⁣
⁣
The danger is, no company is going to stop the process and say,⁣
“Just so you know, you’re underselling yourself by £15k. Let us fix that.”⁣
⁣
They will pay what you anchor at.⁣
And the cycle continues.⁣
⁣
Ladies, if your reading this, please remember, your current salary has absolutely nothing to do with your market value.⁣
It is just your last data point.⁣
That’s it.⁣
⁣
Market rate is driven by demand, scope, impact, and what businesses are actually paying for that level of experience right now.⁣
Not what you were paid previously.⁣
Not what feels like a “reasonable uplift”.⁣

This is why the gender pay gap persists, because we are locked in these endless cycles and we can help improve this if we are informed.
⁣
This is why checking the market matters.⁣
You don’t need to be actively looking.⁣
You don’t need to want to leave your job.⁣
⁣
But you do need to be informed.⁣
⁣
Because anchoring low once doesn’t just affect your next move.⁣
It follows you.⁣
And too many brilliant women are quietly doing themselves a disservice simply because no one ever sat them down and told them the truth.⁣
⁣
Know the market.⁣
Anchor there.⁣
Not to your past.

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