Graduate corporate life for entrepreneurial freedom — without jeopardizing your income or family 💚 | Pod: UncageYourself.FM 🎧

Directors. VPs. Executives.
Ready to go Corporate → Founder in ONE Year?

This is the smart path out — without blowing up your life.

We help corporate veterans turn their employer into an investor, compress their job by 50%, and launch a 1-of-1 premium business.

Corporate becomes a short-term asset — not a lifelong trap.

The system is called Corporate Graduation™.
And it works.

You’ve built a strong corporate life. But you’re likely facing 2+ of these:

1) Your time isn’t yours.
2) Work consumes everything.
3) Family & health get leftovers.
4) You’re just going through motions.
5) You know you’re meant for more — but have no idea what.

It’s costing you — emotionally, physically, financially.
You feel stuck. Fading.

That was me.
Divorced. Burnt out.
Later — remarried, rebuilt, and free.

I made my employer my investor.
Cut hours in half.
Launched a business around my genius.
Graduated corporate life — forever.

Now I help others do the same.

Corporate Graduation™ is the system.
165+ have used it to:

✅ Compress their job into 20 hours/week
✅ Exit with runway, not regret
✅ Build a premium service business that reflects who they are
✅ Create leverage through proprietary IP, not more hours

This is how you build your founder future — without burning bridges.

This isn’t about dabbling.
It’s about reclaiming your life.
For your family. Your future self. Those you’re meant to serve.

No “passive income” BS.
Just active transformation — with revenue, clarity, and agency.

Ready to graduate?

👉 DM me “GRADUATE.”

Matt Doan

I left corporate 4 years ago.

Here’s what actually changed:

1) Mondays have energy again.
I wake up early because I want to. Not out of discipline or obligation, but out of genuine excitement for the week ahead. That feeling was gone for years in corporate. Now it’s normal.

2) The Sunday dread disappeared.
That quiet weight that used to settle in by Sunday afternoon — the sense of re-entering a system that didn’t fit — lifted once I started building something I actually owned.

3) My wife became my partner — in a new way.
Cecilia and I now talk about clients, strategy, and impact together. We’re building something side by side. Corporate never could have offered that, and it’s deepened our marriage in ways I didn’t anticipate.

4) My kids see a different version of me.
They see energy instead of depletion. Engagement instead of exhaustion. They’re watching what it looks like to build something you care about... not just talk about it.

5) My health followed my work.
When work creates energy instead of consuming it, everything else responds. Sleep improved. Stress dropped. At 41, I have more capacity than I did at 35.

6) I’m building skills that compound.
Psychology. Sales. Marketing. Persuasion. Category design. These aren’t corporate skills. They’re human skills. They don’t expire when roles or markets change.

7) I finally understand who I am.
Not my title. Not my employer. Me. The founder path forced me to confront things I could avoid for years in corporate. On the other side was clarity I never found climbing the ladder.

This isn’t about hating corporate.

Corporate gave me my Career Capital:
judgment, pattern recognition, credibility.

But it couldn’t give me ownership.

That required a different structure.

---

For those who've outgrown their container.
Jan 19 → https://lnkd.in/esvq8nuY

I messed up a lot in 2025.

9 mistakes shaping everything in 2026:

It's been four years since I left BCG. Four years building Corporate Graduation™. This year made one thing clear: being a founder isn't a career — it's a complete reconstruction of how you live.

Here's my honest accounting:

IDENTITY MISTAKES

1) Positioning to be the authority instead of being it.
I kept "getting ready." Waiting for permission that was never coming. Authority isn't granted — it's declared. In 2026, I'm done preparing. I AM the authority in my space.

2) Tolerating small stages and obscurity.
I've been playing too small. Nothing remarkable is done alone — I need multiplier partners. Stages that reach millions, not hundreds. I've talked about "going big" but haven't truly lived it. Obscurity isn't noble — it's a bottleneck.


FOCUS & ENERGY MISTAKES

3) Saying yes to too many things.
Scattered focus = scattered results. I know this. I teach this. I still violated it. Every diluted yes was a no to what actually mattered.

4) Being distracted around my family.
My wife and four kids deserve my presence, not just my proximity. Too often I was physically there, mentally elsewhere. Unfinished tasks follow you into the evening. In 2026: fewer priorities, cleaner endings, real presence.


RESOURCE MISTAKES

5) Not asking enough of my team, coaches, mentors.
I invested tens of thousands in people who could help me — but didn't nearly extract the full value. I made too many excuses to myself.

6) Over-investing but under-implementing.
I was a collector of insights instead of an executor. The gap between what I know and what I do became too wide. In 2026, implementation is what matters.

7) Being too ad hoc with AI.
Random prompts. No system. I treated AI like a convenience instead of infrastructure. This year, I'm architecting it into how I think, create, and operate.


LEADERSHIP MISTAKES

8) Not pushing my clients hard enough.
They didn't join the Corporate Graduation™ program for slow and incremental. They came to compress a decade into a year. My job is to install new fire — and make them feel the cost of not showing up powerfully.

9) Not being bold enough in what I said.
I softened hard truths. Hedged when I should have declared. Here's what I held back: The work world is being restructured. AI is here. The old playbook is dead. Corporate is a burning platform. I'm done holding that back.

---

These mistakes cost me time, money, energy, presence.

But they gave me clarity.

My "hard lines" for 2026: 
Stop preparing. Start declaring.
Stop tolerating small. Start building big.
Stop over-investing. Start implementing.
Stop holding back. Start saying what must be said.

Which mistake hits home for you?

---

PS - Corporate → Founder this year? 
matthewdoan.com/2026

Monday, your Career Capital starts compounding.

Or it doesn't.

One-time, special event:
https://lnkd.in/esvq8nuY

Here's what most people miss about workshops like this:

It's not information.
It's decision-making.

You slow down and show up.
You become a captive audience — to yourself.
You stop scrolling. Stop reacting. Stop drifting.

And for the first time in months (maybe years), 
you do the actual work:

1) You stop making excuses for your delay
2) You uncover your Career Capital
3) You decide how to deploy it
4) You see what's possible beyond the role
5) You start forging a path no employer could match

That's not just inspiration.
That's the compound effect, taking hold.

Imagine where you'll be 90 days from now.

Not just "thinking about it."
Not merely "planning to start."

Actually in motion.

Energy returning.
Clarity sharpening.
Your family feels the new you.

This is what Corporate Graduation™ looks like.

Those who've already committed to Monday aren't hoping for answers. They're giving themselves permission to move.

One decision.
One workshop.
A new trajectory.

The Career Capitalist™
Monday, January 19
$50: Live + Recording + Assets

One time only.
See you inside.

https://lnkd.in/esvq8nuY

---

PS - Registrants get the IP Builder GPT, Corporate Graduation Readiness Scorecard, category design tools, case studies, and a private 1:1 Founder Game Plan call. Recording included.

Vision isn't just what you see.

It's how you live.

Back in my corporate days, I climbed the ladder on autopilot.

One rung. Then another.
Trusting that's how it worked.

But there was no real vision.
Just a bigger title and the promise of becoming my boss's boss.

Then I looked up.

And realized I didn't want their life.
It looked awful.

That was the wake-up call.

I had sight.
I could see the next step.
But I had no vision for where I was actually going.

So I built one.

I wrote about it. Journaled about it.
Got coached on it. Talked about it.
Surrounded myself with people walking the same scary path toward something that felt impossible.

Vision isn't a destination you arrive at.

It's something you embody.
Every. Single. Day.

You might have sight.
You might see the next rung.

But if that's all you're chasing?

You'll wake up one day full of regret.

What's your vision beyond the next step?

The moment I knew corporate couldn’t hold me.

5 lessons it took too long to learn:

For a long time, I couldn’t name what was wrong.

I was progressing.
Respected.
Trusted.

But every time my thinking stretched a little too far — every time I tried to hold a bigger picture — it was quietly contained.

Not shut down.
Just… redirected.

That’s when the tension started.
Not dramatic.
Just constant.

Here’s what I eventually learned.

---

1) Big thinking can be praised and still be unwelcome.

I’d offer a strategic view and hear, “That sounds good.”

Then came the quiet clause:
“But we’re not taking that outside.”

I wasn’t wrong.
My imagination just didn’t fit the system’s design.

---

2) Being valued doesn’t mean being usable.

I was told my work mattered.

But my judgment had nowhere real to land.

When your best thinking can’t move anything, it doesn’t disappear. It withers.

---

3) Side outlets are signals, not solutions.

Publishing in HBR.
MIT Sloan.
The Atlantic.
Think tanks. External channels.

Those weren’t mistakes. They were proof I was trying to breathe outside the box.

What I didn’t see at the time:
External validation was a symptom, not a cure.

Every byline was evidence of capacity the system couldn’t absorb. I kept finding outlets because the main channel was blocked.

Useful moves.
Never satisfying.

---

4) Breakthroughs aren’t about talent. They’re about ownership of environment.

Everything clicked when I sat in a room full of founders.

They had Career Capital too. Decades of it.

The difference was simple:
They didn’t need permission to create.

They built conditions where judgment could compound.
They said yes to themselves.

---

5) Staying longer has quiet, compounding costs.

The financial ceiling was obvious.

The real toll was energy.
Family.
Self-trust.

Saying yes to work that wasn’t me.
Knowing I could be far more impactful — and accepting I wasn’t.

---

That’s when I stopped asking how to optimize my role.

And started asking a harder question:

Where does my Career Capital actually belong?

That question led me out of corporate.

Four years later, I’m a founder.
Still answering it.
On my own terms.

---

PS - If you’re standing at the edge of that question, don't miss what's unfolding here: https://lnkd.in/eDEkDVb2

If corporate feels a bit "too small" lately, 
you're not imagining it.

That feeling usually shows up when your Career Capital has outgrown the container it's in.

Most people respond the same way.

They start with business logic.
Offer. Niche. Monetization.

Or they quietly reach for passive income.

Passive income won't solve under-leverage.
Only owned Career Capital does.

That's why so many smart exits stall.

The real issue isn't effort.
It's missing conditions.

You can't access, package, and deploy Career Capital into founder leverage if you don't first create:

Space.
Then Self.
Then System.

A recent client — VP in ops — followed this sequence. It changed everything:

1) Compressed his corporate load by ~50%
No drama. No bridges burned. No reputational cost.

2) Reclaimed control of time
Now works 3–4 focused hours/day. Deliberate. Surgical.

3) Restored personal leverage
Energy returned. Health improved. Relationships at home strengthened.

Only then did the founder work begin.

He codified his Career Capital into language, frameworks, and IP.
He clarified category direction.
He ran his first program and delivered real results.

Corporate became optional because leverage was no longer trapped inside the role.

That's real Corporate Graduation.
Not escape. Not dependency.

Leverage.

---

If you want to do this work in the right order, I'm running a live, private, one-time workshop:

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗲𝗿 𝗖𝗮𝗽𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘀𝘁™
Monday, January 19
$50 (Live + Recording + Assets)

Included with registration:

• IP Builder GPT (to structure your Career Capital)
• Corporate Graduation™ Readiness Scorecard
• Category-claiming exercises you can reuse
• Case study pack + common traps guide
• Private 1:1 Founder Game Plan call

See you on the inside:
https://lnkd.in/esvq8nuY

Has work stopped creating energy for you?
This isn’t burnout.
It’s worse.

Most senior pros describe something quieter.

Disinterest. Going through the motions. Sitting in meetings you've sat in a hundred times, solving problems you solved three years ago. Doing "good work" without feeling engaged by any of it.

(After 15 years, this is how I felt about cybersecurity.)

Work used to create energy. It used to sharpen you. Stretch you. Feed the rest of your life.

At some point, that flipped.

Now it drains energy — and nothing meaningful is replacing it.

That state is not neutral.

When work consumes energy instead of creating it, the deficit shows up everywhere. In patience at home. In health. In imagination. In your sense of building toward a future that's actually yours.

What's really happening underneath is simpler (and more damaging) than most people want to admit:

Your Career Capital — years of judgment, experience, pattern recognition, and hard-earned capability — is going undeployed.

Not unused. Undeployed.

You're applying a fraction of what you've built inside a system that can't fully use it. And when Career Capital isn't exercised meaningfully, it doesn't just sit idle.

It decays.

The most dangerous response here is waiting. Waiting for a reorg. Waiting for renewed motivation. Waiting for something external to force clarity.

Energy doesn't come back on its own.

If work no longer creates it, you have a responsibility to create conditions where it can.

That doesn't require a drastic leap. 

But it does require an environment where your thinking actually matters again — and people who understand what you're navigating.

I'm hosting a private workshop next week for people who recognize this moment and want to think clearly about what to do with the Career Capital they've built.

Details: https://lnkd.in/esvq8nuY

The cost of waiting is quiet. 
But it compounds quickly.

I didn’t know how valuable I was until I stepped outside the corporate system.

Not because I lacked confidence inside.

But because the environment couldn’t show me.

That’s why I built The Career Capitalist™:
https://lnkd.in/esvq8nuY

Happening Monday. A live, private workshop designed to surface, package, and deploy your Career Capital into founder leverage.

Inside corporate, your value gets filtered.

Your judgment gets diluted by consensus.
Your instincts get buried in approval chains.
Your best ideas get spent in meetings that go nowhere.

You’re performing.
Contributing.
Delivering.

But not seeing the full picture of what you’ve built.

It took stepping outside for me to realize:

Every story I lived through → raw material
Every pattern I recognized → deployable insight
Every hard-won lesson → Career Capital to be claimed

And it’s why I hear this constantly from clients once the conditions change:

“Corporate feels simple now. Almost optional.”
“I finally feel in control of my days.”
“I didn’t know I had this much to offer.”

That last one makes me so proud.

Because most people don’t lack value.
They lack the conditions to see it clearly.

Corporate systems are too constraining to reveal what you’ve actually accumulated.

You have to put yourself in founder conditions.
Where your thinking is deployed on your terms.

That’s when Career Capital stops being theoretical.

And starts compounding.

---

Details for The Career Capitalist™
Monday, January 19
$50 (Live + Recording)

Included:
• IP Builder GPT
• Corporate Graduation™ Readiness Scorecard
• Category-claiming exercises
• Case study pack + common traps guide
• Private 1:1 Founder Game Plan call

https://lnkd.in/esvq8nuY

This is a one-time, private event for people who are done playing small inside a big system.

Burnout isn't the real problem.

You've reached a structural mismatch.

After years in the arena, you've built something substantial.

Pattern recognition.
Lived experience.
Relationships.
Reputation.
Judgment.
Talent.

Taken together, this is your Career Capital.

It's stacked. It's real. And it's valuable.

The problem is that the system you're in can only use a tiny fraction of it.

Not because you're capped.
Because the environment is.

Corporate systems are designed for efficiency, predictability, and control. They define a role, reward you for staying inside the lines, and call it success.

Over time, that role becomes a box.
And then a box within a box.

No matter how much Career Capital you accumulate, the system can't meaningfully expand to meet it.

Even changing teams.
Even changing companies.
Even "one more promotion."

The system is the system.

So while your Career Capital keeps compounding, its expression gets constrained.

Your best ideas die in approval chains.
You're solving problems you solved three years ago.
Work that energized you now = going through motions.

That's when the tension starts.

Not because you're ungrateful.
Not because you've lost motivation.
And certainly not from a lack of ambition.

But because you've outgrown the container—which will never change enough to hold who you're becoming.

This might be your first quiet signal that something else is required.

Not a better role.
But a different relationship with corporate altogether.

And a deliberate decision about where your Career Capital will compound.

---

PS - I'm writing deeply about Career Capital this month. The first long-form essay drops on Substack this Saturday — it's about the hidden tax you pay by staying put and what happens when you stop tolerating it.

Subscribe: https://lnkd.in/eDEkDVb2

Career Capital doesn’t sit idle.

It either compounds — or quietly decays.

Inside corporate, decay is the default.

Not because you’re underperforming.
Because the system is designed to consume judgment, not multiply it.

Your experience gets spent in meetings.
Your insight gets diluted by consensus.
Your best instincts get buried under endless “alignment.”

Over time, something subtle but costly happens.

You’re still “successful,” but your optionality shrinks.
Your leverage flattens.
The work takes more energy and gives less back.

That’s not burnout.

That’s Career Capital being used up instead of built on.

Here’s the distinction most people never make:

Most professionals let their Career Capital decay inside systems they don’t own.

Founders decide — deliberately — where it compounds.

Not louder.
Not riskier.
More intentional.

They choose where their judgment is deployed — and who benefits from it.

At some point, the question stops being:
“How do I make this role better?”

And becomes:
“Where does my Career Capital actually belong?”

That question changes everything.

---

PS - I’m writing deeply about Career Capital this month. Saturday’s Corporate Graduation essay breaks down the hidden math of staying put — and what most pros never calculate.

https://lnkd.in/eDEkDVb2

The quiet frustration you feel isn't burnout.

It's trapped leverage.

Your career capital is decaying right now.

Not because you're losing skill.
Because you're not deploying it.

Yesterday I ran The Career Capitalist™ workshop.

Here are the five ideas that hit hardest.


1) Career capital is stored energy.

Years of judgment, pressure, and decision-making accumulate as untapped power. But stored energy doesn't stay neutral. If it isn't released into the right environment, it implodes.

Career capital needs motion, leverage, and somewhere to be used (hint: someone else's system won't do.)


2) Career capital must become a compounding asset.

Your career capital can only compound when converted into something you own. Left unconverted, they get spent linearly through effort.

Ownership is the difference between earning repeatedly and compounding over time.


3) Labels suffocate career capital.

SVP. Director. Consultant. Coach. Speaker.

These are pre-priced containers with fixed ceilings. The market decides what they're worth.

Labels come with limits. Founders build the room.


4) Career capital has a window.

Experience is sharpest when it's recent, relevant, and energized. Delay too long, and it decays.

Not from lack of ability. But from missing your window of opportunity.


5) You must intentionally package and deploy it.

Unpackaged career capital goes to waste. If you don't turn it into assets — frameworks, language, IP, owned systems — it never compounds.

It just leaks out through time, effort, and obligation.

---

This is what I wish I understood five years ago.

Career capital isn't something you simply have.

It's something you either convert and compound.
Or you quietly lose it.

---

PS - If this resonates, doors are open for the February cohort of our Corporate Graduation™ program. DM me "LEVERAGE" for details.

Your career capital has a shelf life.

If you don’t claim it, it dies.

Most people assume experience compounds automatically and forever.

That once you’ve earned judgment, pattern recognition, and credibility, it stays available, waiting patiently for whenever you’re “ready.”

That’s not how it works.

Career Capital behaves like any other form of capital.

If it isn’t surfaced, packaged, and deployed while the window is open, it decays.

Corporate environments are very good at using your best thinking. They are terrible at helping you own it.

So the decay is quiet.

Your instincts sharpen, but only inside meetings.
Your judgment matures, but stays behind the logo.
Your leverage increases, but never sees daylight.

Over time, a dangerous gap opens.

You are highly capable.
And increasingly under-deployed.

Directors, VPs, and executives feel this most.

Not because they lack opportunity.
But because they’ve outgrown permissioned contribution and haven’t yet claimed authority.

The people who notice this early make a different move.

They don’t rush.
They don’t panic.
They don’t freelance their way out.

They slow down long enough to extract what they’ve actually earned.

They turn experience into language.
Judgment into frameworks.
Reputation into owned direction.

They understand one simple truth.

Capital that isn’t claimed gets spent by someone else.

That’s why I built The Career Capitalist™.

A one-time, live workshop for Directors, VPs, and execs who know they’re sitting on real leverage and refuse to let it expire unused.

This isn’t about quitting faster.
It’s about learning how to own what you already have before the window closes.

The Career Capitalist™
Private workshop + recording + working tools
Monday, January 19

Secure your spot: https://lnkd.in/esvq8nuY

This experience is built to create motion, not inspiration.

---

If this resonates, trust the signal.

Hidden Career Capital doesn’t unleash itself.
It gets claimed — or it withers.

The Legal Profession’s Top Ghostwriter | 25M + views on LinkedIn | Creative Director at CONTENDER | Co-Founder of UNrationed | Author of In the Creative Arena

If you're an attorney, the people you want to talk to—potential clients, referral sources, and talent—are all on this platform. 

And while your traditional marketing channels are intensely competitive, the feeds of the people you want to reach on LinkedIn are ripe for the picking. 

We're still early in the content creation game on this platform, which has more than a billion users worldwide and ~200 million in the United States. 

Very few attorneys or law firms have even made an effort to stand out.

CONTENDER helps attorneys produce LinkedIn content that resonates with the people you want to reach, so they can Know, Like, and Trust you.


ARE YOU READY TO...

- Become a trusted AUTHORITY in your market?
- Grow your audience and dramatically increase your reach on LinkedIn? 
- Build a recognized PERSONAL BRAND?

🟦 GHOSTWRITING SERVICES 
- Our done-for-you LinkedIn content produces results for growing your presence and your firm. 

🟦 LINKED LAWYER BOOTCAMP
- I’ve developed the premier training program for lawyers looking to level up on LinkedIn. 

About Me 

I’m a former lawyer and current serial entrepreneur based in a forest north of Toronto, where I live with my wife and 2 little monsters. 

I’m the author of In The Creative Arena: Why Creativity Is Key To Building Your Future.

I’m also a co-founder of: 
CONTENDER (www.contenderllc.com)
Unrationed (www.unrationed.com)

Anthony Albrecht

Jelson sent me a cold DM asking if I need a VA. 
I don’t. But yesterday, I sent him $600 anyway. 

Why'd I do that? 

I like running experiments out here. 

And the peculiar truth is, Jelson Jr. Grothe DM'd me at a time when I'm not looking for VA support...

I am, however, in the market for someone to send $600 to. 

And without knowing it, Jelson sold me. 

How? 

He’s posting consistently. 
He’s generous in how he’s showing up. 
After reading a few of his posts, I'm interested in Jelson. 

He’s got a wife, a 1-month-old daughter, and a sincere desire to put in the work to make good things happen. 

Very quickly, I was rooting for him. 
Watch this video, and I think you’ll be rooting for Jelson too. 

That’s how he became my guy. 

I've run a lot of LinkedIn experiments over the last 4 years.
This one's different.  

I seriously don’t need a full-time VA right now. I’m posting this video hoping that somebody might. 

And I’d love it if getting $600 from a total stranger for no reason was the second-best thing Jelson gets out of this.  

I'll keep you updated. ;-)

Tony Albrecht

Taking lawyers from invisible to unforgettable on LinkedIn | “The Yoda of LinkedIn” for Lawyers

I’ve generated > $1,000,000 in revenue from LinkedIn. But let’s rewind to October 2021…

I was walking away from the practice of law 6 months after moving to Canada. 

My buddy Joshua and I had hatched a plan for me to join his consulting company. I was going to be MMG’s first Director of Business Development. 

My job—

Sell Salesforce implementations to nonprofit organizations. 

It was Josh who said to me, You’re going to need to learn how to do LinkedIn. 

I was not excited. 

Through 12 years as a lawyer, I’d more or less ignored LinkedIn
I had roughly 368 connections here. 
And I’d met just about every one of those people out in the real world. 

But I told Josh I’d try. 

I did Justin Welsh’s Operating System course. 
I paid more attention to LinkedIn. 
In January 2022, I started posting daily. 

I got the hang of it.

More views. More followers. More conversations. 

But 1 thing I did NOT get…
More sales. 

9 months into my time with MMG, I had sold precisely 0 Salesforce implementations to nonprofit organizations. 

Zero. 

But I did sell my first LinkedIn ghostwriting contract that month. 

Josh and I had a heart to heart. He told me I might want to take a proper crack at LinkedIn ghostwriting, a thing that would have occurred to me as a way to make money a year earlier. 

He offered to be my partner or my investor. 

So that’s what we did. 

3 years later, here we are. 
CONTENDER has generated more than $1 million from this platform. 
A team that started with just me is now 9. 
A future I’m excited to pursue. 

I tell you all that to tell you this—

I’ve sucked at LinkedIn far longer than I’ve been good at it. 
If you suck at LinkedIn today, I feel you. 

Once it clicks for you, things can flip very quickly. 
And it’s worth it.

Over the last ~3 months, I’ve spent > $10k on 4 people I mention in this post. 

In October, I joined 60 other creative entrepreneurs at Robb Gilbear’s Do Bold Shit event in Toronto. Many in that room have become friends over the last couple of years. 

2 days after the event ended, I bought my ticket to DBS 2026. 

There’s a bit of the $10k I mentioned. 

At that event, I met Kyler Miles, who was capturing video content for Robb. He also gave an awesome talk about how to build a high-leverage YouTube channels. 

Kyler and I are working together for the next 6 months as I take a proper crack at YouTube. 

There’s another chunk. 

Also at that event, Natalie Evie shared that her company is shifting directions. She wanted to help her excellent VA Nath find her next role.  I told Natalie to put me in touch. 

Nathslei Gerona has been a full-time CONTENDER for a month. She's doing an awesome job. 

Finally, I watched Rina Rovinelli and Dan Shaikh give a talk about the power of telling your story from stages. 

5 minutes later, I walked up to Rina and said, "We need to work together.”

I signed on for speaker coaching. 10 days from now, I’m taking the stage in my first Speaker Slam competition. 

That’s the fourth piece of that > $10k I’m talking about. 

(I've also reserved a booth of 8 for the Speaker Slam event. Of the 8 people who’re coming, my wife Sawil is the only person I did not meet through LinkedIn.) 

Why am I telling you all this? 

Everything I'm talking about in this post has happened directly because of LinkedIn. 

Very few people see the value of building your Linkedin network. 

And a lot of folks who DO seem some utility view it primarily as a way to GET something (money, clients, etc) rather than an opportunity to GIVE something. 

I am a node in this network. 
So are you. 

So are Robb and Rina and Kyler and Natalie and Nath. 

The more we invest INTO our networks (with our time, our attention, our money, etc), the more we will receive. 

So yes, I’ve spent a good deal money with the people. And I’m grateful to have the margin to do it. 

But I’m not being altruistic here. 
I’m placing bets. 

I’m betting that strengthening my bonds with these other nodes in my Linky network will lead to compounding benefits for me, my business, and my family. 

You can do the same thing. 
With money, your time, and your attention. 

At the risk of engagement baiting....

You leaving a comment on this post, for instance, is you placing a bet that you're strengthening the bond between you and me just a little bit. 

Placing that bet isn’t likely to pay off for you today. 
But over time, those little bets can create a stronger bond between us. 

It’s that bond that leads to opportunities. 

I fear this post is too woo woo for some.
My hope is it helps 1 person think different about LinkyLand. 

We'll see. ;-) 


----
I got 4 of 25 spots left for my Linky Foundations workshop next Friday: 
https://lnkd.in/efZncmZe

This is a straight-up sales post. 
I'm running a 90-minute workshop on Jan 23. 

If you've been wondering: 
• How do these people come up with enough ideas to post this much? 
• I get what a DM IS. But who in god's name would I send one TO? And WHY? 
• How do I send DM's that other folks will actually respond to? 
• Why don't my posts break 2k impressions and theirs get 9 million?
• Using real words...Can anybody explain what a personal brand is? 
• Can I actually use this thing to get new clients? 
• Why does the stuff on my feed always seem to suck? 
• Photo? No photo? Selfie? 
• Is your beard real, Tony? 

I'm going to answer all of these questions and more during my LinkedIn Foundations workshop. 

My goal for this workshop is that you're going to get more insight into how to navigate and leverage this platform in these 90 minutes than throughout the rest of your career combined. 

Or at least I'll take a crack at it. 

The peculiar truth is that we're all ON LinkedIn because we felt like we NEEDED to create profiles for our jobs.

But we all learned LinkedIn the wrong way. 

This platform is not the place to: 
• look for jobs
• stash your digital resume, and 
• share firm press releases. 

I mean, you can do all those things here. But that's just scratching the surface. 

What I discovered back in 2022 (and have spent the last 4 years studying every day) is that when you understand some basic principles about how energy and attention move out here, leveraging the platform to attract attention and create opportunities gets—I won't say easy—let's say readily doable. 

I've been playing around with the 4 foundational P's: 
• presenting (how you show up) 
• positioning (where you sit in the network vis a vis everybody else—this matters a ton)
• posting (you know this one), and 
• participating (DM's, comments, and so on). 

I've generated more than $1M in revenue directly from LinkedIn. 
I've worked with a bunch of the best-known lawyers on this platform.
I've studied this game from dozens of vantage points while amassing 70M + views. 
I've helped generate referrals, hires, clients, speaking opportunities, and an invite to the Bachelorette. 

And yet, I've spent 3x as long ignoring this platform during my career as an attorney as I have leveraging it as....whatever it is I am now. ;-) 

I'm designing this workshop with entrepreneurial lawyers in mind, but the ground we'll cover will apply across a lot of different industries. 

It's at noon EST on Friday, Jan 23rd. 

You can register here: 
https://lnkd.in/efZncmZe

Cost is $167. If you're strapped for cash due to circumstance or geography but really want to be in this zoom room, DM me. I'll bet we can work it out. 

7 of the 25 spots are already locked down. 

Let me know if you've got questions, and thanks for reading this far. 

You got any burning questions about LinkyLand?

Why'd I sign up for an inspirational speaking competition? 

I feel like the "right" answer is—
To inspire people with my story. 

Is my story all that inspiring though? 

I don't know. I think of my story largely as the story of a guy who:
• was very lucky in life
• almost screwed it all up with booze and
• managed to avoid catastrophe by learning to get out of his own way.  

If there's something inspiring in my story, it's the idea that change is possible. 

A guy could wake up in a Guamanian jail cell 3 months into his career as a lawyer...
way down a hole toward moral bankruptcy and self-destruction...
And turn it around. 

But I didn't apply to be on the Speaker Slam stage tomorrow might because I think anybody needs my story. 

I applied because getting on stage freaks me out. 
And I needed a new creative challenge that feels like an edge. 

I've spent 6 weeks preparing a 5-minute speech with the help of Daniel Burns. 

Yesterday Sawil Ghorany and my kids helped me figure out what I'm going to wear. 

If you're interested in coming out or watching the livestream, ticket info is here: 
https://lnkd.in/ePFJgxBF

I feel ready. We're going to let it rip. 

Should be fun...I think.

Here are 37 guesses as to why your LinkedIn strategy isn't working. 

1. You’re too focused on vanity metrics (likes, impressions, etc).

2. You haven’t played the game long enough to get good. 

3. Your favorite thing to post on LinkedIn is how much you dislike LinkedIn.

4. You're not standing out from the other 10,000 people who say they do the same thing.

5. You’re afraid of what your boss, coworkers, former colleagues, friends, acquaintances, or total strangers might think of yours posts. 

6. You think posting is enough. 

7. Your posts read like SEO blog posts.

8. You see LinkedIn as a billboard to post ON, not a network to tap INTO.

9. You are falling into the fuzzy math trap (if I can get X followers and Y number of them buy my $38 product) I’ll make 2 gajillion dollars). 

10. You’re selling something people don’t want. 

11. You’re selling something people say they want but aren’t willing to pay for. 

12. You’re selling something people do want, but can’t afford.

13. You’re selling something people want and can afford, but they don’t see you as THE person qualified to deliver. 

14. You sell in every post. 

15. You’re aiming your offer at the wrong group of people.  

16. You’re selling something you don’t understand. 

17. You don’t know what Personal Branding means. 

17. You don’t care about the thing you’re selling. 

18. You think you’re selling a product or service when you need to be selling a solution to a problem. 

19. You think Personal Branding is stupid, fatuous, vacuous, hideous, and/or insidious. 

20. You’ve priced your thing too low. 

21. You have not learned the difference between lead gen and demand gen.

22. You don’t even know what demand generation is. (I didn't before 2023)

23. You’re playing this game as a lone wolf.

24. You don’t show the POV (point of view) from your corner of the universe. 

25. You’re selfish with your attention. 

26. You don’t comment on other people’s posts. 

27. You don’t even try to find posts interesting enough to comment on. 

28. You haven’t decided who your target audience is. 

29. You haven’t clarified your ICP (ideal client profile). 

30. Your ICP is not specific enough. 

31. Your ICP is the wrong ICP. 

32. You’re allergic to the DM’s (because of spam). 

33. You’re allergic to the DM’s because you don’t want to be spammy. 

34. You’re one of the people sending DM's that makes other people sneeze. 

35. You don’t have a strategy at all. 

36. You haven’t found product market fit—yet. 

37. You haven’t gotten into the flow out here—yet. 

But you can. 

If you:
- want to, 
- are determined enough to stick with it, & 
- get maybe just a little bit lucky.  

I can rattle off 37 Linky mistakes because I’ve made almost every one of these. 😉

We're all learning in real time. 
You can too. 

Any favorite mistakes you've made from my list? 

----
PS - 5 spots left in my LinkedIn Foundations workshop on Jan 23: 
https://lnkd.in/efZncmZe

I have a new client who posted 50 times in 2025.
With our first 3 posts over the last 2 weeks: 

• 2 have already spread farther than 31,867 views (his top post last year) and 
• 2 are among the top 3 posts re: engagements. 

My client is the same law firm owner who's been showing up out here. He hasn't changed much over the last month. 

So how can we do that? 

Why am I able to take somebody who’s been trying to make LinkedIn work and dramatically improve their performance overnight? 

You might see these stats and think I’m running a scam over here. That the reach and engagement are a product of pods (basically paid engagement) or shenanigans. 

That’s not what I’m doing. 

I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about what the "secret" (if there is one) might be. 

I think it boils down to 2 things. 

1. After writing thousands of posts, I understand how to shape writing to fit LinkedIn. 

This is the technical side of what we do. 
Writing hooks. 
Including details. 
Keeping posts aerodynamic. 

That’s a big part of it. 

But I think the second thing is more important. 

2. I’ve learned how to get the ‘good stuff’ from clients. 

By that, I mean I’ve learned how to mine a person’s career and life to find stories that can resonate with folks. 

This client’s best 2 posts ever have now come in the last 2 weeks. 
But the subject matter of those posts happened years ago. 

My guy just needed some help getting those stories out. 

If you want to make posts that spread out here, you don’t need to hire CONTENDER. 

You probably do need to learn these 2 skills. 

If you’ve got any questions about how to do that, feel free to drop them below, I’ll do my best to answer. 



------------
My LinkedIn Foundations Workshop happening Friday is sold out. 
The last of the 25 seats got snapped up Monday. 

I'm going to do it again on Friday, Feb 27. 
You can find the info and registration for that one here: 
https://lnkd.in/eKD9dcyn

And I'll DM an original poem of gratitude to the first 2 people to register. ;-b

Here’s 1 counter-intuitive thing that can absolutely destroy a post’s reach out here—

Posting a link with the auto-populated image. 

Marshall Friday ran into this one a couple weeks ago. He posted about how a post of his that included a link just didn’t move. 

Marshall’s conclusion in the moment was that Linky still hates links in posts. 

But no. Linky is fine with links in posts. I promise. 

What happened was when Marshall dropped the link in the draft, Linky automatically generated that visual of what the link leads to. 

That’s what killed the post. 

It makes no sense that this is true. 

But I’ve made this mistake enough times that I can confirm it’s a thing. 

How can you avoid this pitfall? 

When you drop the link in your draft, the image pops up. 
If you hover over the image, you’ll get a little X up there. 
Click that. 

The image disappears. 
You’re good to go.

I ran a new experiment out here last week. 
This was the experiment—

If I post a poll asking if folks are interested in a workshop on the basics of gaining traction on LinkedIn...

a) would anybody raise their hands? and if so
b) would any of those people be totally new on my radar? 

I only kept the poll open for 24 hours (instead of 3 or 7 days). 

37 votes. 

20 for "Yes where do I sign up?"
9 for "Maybe depends on my mood."
2 for "Naw dude, I'm good." 
And 5 for "I'm sorry but...Who are you?" 

So I had 29 folks raise their hands to say they'd like to know more. 

My next experiment is seeing how many of those folks actually register. 

At this workshop, we'll run through some LinkedIn 101 stuff about: 
• positioning
• personal brand 
• content creation and ideation 
• engagement (commenting and dm'ing). 

I’ve spent the last 3 years helping lawyers attract attention and opportunities here. 

3 of the top 10 US lawyers on LinkedIn per Favikon are on my roster. 

My goal here is that we meaningfully improve your understanding of LinkedIn and your content game in 90 minutes. 

I'm limiting us to 25 people in the zoom room on Friday, Jan 23rd at noon EST. 

If you're interested, details are here. 
https://lnkd.in/efZncmZe

Feel free to dm me with any questions about the workshop, LinkedIn more generally, the meaning of life. I've got thoughts on all of the above.

Be consistent. Be generous. Be yourself. | “The Yoda of LinkedIn” for Lawyers

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