I help in LinkedIn Growth 🚀 | TedX & Josh Talks Speaker| Influencer Marketing on LinkedIn| Personal Branding for busy Founders | Ghostwriter for Founders | LinkedIn Organic Growth | B2B Lead generation| Founders PR 🔥

I’m Sakshi Darpan, Founder of SackBerry Media, a personal branding and social media agency that’s helped 250+ founders, CXOs, and investors build their online presence and win trust in the digital world.

In the last 3 years, we have worked with clients across India, Dubai, US & Canada while generating millions of impressions for them!

What I do: 
- Build magnetic personal brands on LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter/X
- Grow visibility for brands through social media strategy, PR, and paid ads
- Use AI-driven systems to scale outreach, content, and operations without adding extra headcount

🌍 What makes me different
I don’t believe in cookie-cutter content. I believe in storytelling that actually makes people stop scrolling, pay attention, and remember you. My clients don’t just get followers, they get leads, speaking gigs, media features, and opportunities they didn’t even know were possible.

📌 Beyond business
I’ve grown my own brand to 90K+ followers on LinkedIn by sharing my learnings in real time
I’ve been invited to speak on panels, podcasts, and judge startup events!
I’ve built an agency that runs on strong systems, so I can take vacations (sometimes a full month!) while the business grows


✨ What drives me
 Helping founders and brands turn their expertise into influence. 

Let's chat: sakshi@sackberry.com

Sakshi Darpan

In 2025, I bought my first real estate; a commercial investment.
Not to mention, 2025 has been the best year revenue wise!

This was supposed to be "the" moment. 
The milestone I had imagined in my early 20s.
The “I made it” phase.
But when it happened…
there were no fireworks.

I was happy, yes. But more than that, I felt grounded. A little humbled.

I realised something slightly uncomfortable:

1. Big wins feel quieter when you grow into them
When progress is steady, milestones don’t shock your system.
They feel earned. Almost normal.

2. The dream life doesn’t arrive with celebration music
- It arrives with responsibility
- With better decisions to make.
- With more things to protect.
 And with the realisation that stability is the reward, not adrenaline.

3. Gratitude and ambition can coexist
 I’m deeply grateful for how far I’ve come.
 And at the same time, my eyes are already on what’s next.
 That doesn’t mean I’m unfulfilled.
 It means growth didn’t stop at one milestone.

I’m living a version of the life my younger self prayed for.
It just looks calmer than I imagined.

What 2025 goals did you acheive?

#PersonalBranding

My mother in law is 4th pass & haven't seen a working bahu in whole family, but relentessly supported me in my career.

I will complete 2 years of married life next month.

In these 2 years I have grown SackBerry to a 15 member team, opened my office & hit the numbers I had set for myself.

Looking back, I realise that she has supported me in a way that my own mother sometimes don't believe.

- She has cooked for me way more than I could ever cook for her.
At times during G-meet, she would sneak & ask when will I come for lunch.

- There are times when she would pack my lunch when I would leave for office.

- I have missed 2 family functions while I was away on work trip, she never questioned it or made a fuss about it.

- At times I miss her calls during work, she understands.

There are so many little moments that are difficult to put into words & explain how much this meant to me.

Here is the most interesting part: 

She refuses to take any gift from me, against me contributing financially in household (she says to my husband bahu ke paise kyu lene hai). Yes, she is old school in a lot of ways, but still supports me for no agenda. 🥰 

Having both parents & in-laws support my dreams is being blessed & lucky beyond words 😍

This auto made me pause.

Not because I saw it myself, but because it kept showing up. Screenshots in group chats. A quick forward with a “this is clever." One of those things people in Bangalore seemed to notice on their commute and then quietly pass along.

I was not an exception, but then I found myself thinking about it a little longer than I expected.

That strange New Year feeling where routines reset, the city feels louder, and going home alone hits a little harder than usual. Nothing dramatic. Just a small, honest truth most people don’t articulate.

What I respected was how gently Supertails chose to speak to that feeling.

No sadness-led storytelling. No emotional pressure around adoption.

Just humour and warmth, placed on the backs of autos and around bus stands woven into everyday movement across Bangalore.

You notice the QR only if you’re already curious.
You realise it leads to shelter partners only if you pause long enough.
The idea doesn’t chase you, it waits.

From Delhi, it still landed for me. And that’s what stayed.

Because this didn’t feel like a message trying to convert.
It felt like a city acknowledging something quietly human, and offering companionship without insisting on it.

There’s something rare about that kind of confidence, the kind that trusts people to arrive at the thought themselves.

Makes you think how often the most meaningful work doesn’t announce itself, it just shows up,at the right moment, on the way home.

My definition of growth have evolved over the years!

Earlier, I thought growth meant:
– faster months
– more clients
– bigger top-line numbers

Now, I look at growth very differently.

Growth is when:
– revenue doesn’t fluctuate with my mood
– one slow week doesn’t create panic
– saying no doesn’t feel risky
– money supports decisions instead of dictating them

That shift didn’t come from earning more.
It came from changing how I think about money.

Here’s the mindset that runs my business today:

📍 Money is a tool, not validation
I don’t use revenue to prove I’m doing well.
I use it to design stability, for the business and for myself.

📍 Predictability is power
I’d pick consistent money over erratic big months any day.
Predictable income gives you leverage, with clients, with your team, with your own time.

📍 Good money is calm money
If income comes with anxiety, over-dependence, or constant firefighting, it’s expensive.
The goal isn’t more money.
The goal is clean money.

📍 Growth should reduce pressure, not increase it
If every step forward makes your life harder, something is broken.
Real growth simplifies.

📍 Growth should buy me freedom
The ability to step away when needed, to take off on a Monday, but still choose to work 7 days straight if needed. 

Most importantly, growth should be about compounding over months & years! 

Compounding systems, trust & money! 

#system #personalbranding

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I’m a Gen Z founder.
And my entire team is Gen Z too.

Which basically means two things happen at SackBerry every day:
📍 Nobody is impressed by “working late” as a personality trait
📍 Everyone is obsessed with making work feel lighter, faster, and repeatable

Here’s how we build founder brands like a system (Gen Z style):
- We stopped posting “smart” things and started posting clear things.
- We removed fancy words and replaced them with lines that sound like the founder actually speaks.
- We added proof without making it loud.
- Not testimonials everywhere, but small signals of competence placed naturally.
- And we made consistency predictable.

The results were honestly my favourite kind.

You could see trust building quietly:
➡️ More saves than likes
➡️ More “I’ve been reading for a while” DMs
➡️ More warm enquiries that didn’t ask basic questions
➡️ More conversations that started with context, not convincing

Gen Z teams get judged for being “too impatient”.
But here’s the truth:
We’re not impatient.
We’re allergic to inefficiency.

So when we build brands, we build them the same way:
– Clear positioning
– Repeatable content buckets
– Proof that feels natural
– Consistent execution
– Zero drama

What’s one thing you could simplify in your content today?


#GenZFounder #PersonalBranding #FounderBrand #LinkedInGrowth #ContentStrategy #BrandBuilding #MarketingAgency

I have achieved 90% of my 2025 goals. 
If you feel your 2026 goals create mental clutter, this is the post for you!

I have built a simple system to organise my ambition.

Here’s what changed everything for me ⤵️

Step 1: Separate thinking from doing
Your brain keeps shouting because it thinks everything matters now.
It doesn’t.
Some goals are for this quarter.
Some are for this year.
Some are just ideas waiting their turn.
Mix them together → instant overwhelm.

Step 2: Put every goal into one of these 4 buckets

1️⃣ Now (next 90 days)
If it doesn’t move your life meaningfully in 90 days, it doesn’t belong here.
Max 3–5 goals. No exceptions.
2️⃣ Next (6–12 months)
Real goals. Just not urgent.
You design them & not execute daily.
3️⃣ Someday (parking lot)
This is where ideas go so they stop haunting you.
Writing it here ≠ abandoning it.
4️⃣ Standards (non-negotiables)
Not goals.
Rules for how you live and work.
These reduce chaos more than any planner ever will.

Step 3: Choose ONE primary goal
Ask yourself:
“If this works, what else becomes easier?”
For me, it’s usually either:
– revenue stability
– or visibility
Everything else becomes secondary.

Step 4: Stop managing tasks. Start managing containers.
I don’t chase 50 to-dos anymore.
I track only 3 containers:
- Money
- Visibility
- Energy
Every week I ask: “Did I move these forward?” That’s it.

Step 5: Weekly reset (15 minutes)
Once a week:
Look at what’s in "Now".
Move guilt-creating goals to Next or Someday
Release the pressure.

The truth?

Clarity isn’t about having fewer ambitions.
It’s about deciding what deserves your attention right now.

What’s your top 2026 goal?

#PersonalBranding #Goals #MarketingAgency

After rejecting 200+ assignments for a LinkedIn ghostwriter position, I am really frustrated, disappointed & genuinely alarmed.

Most people aren't bad at grammar or structure.
But because almost everything sounds the same. 

What worries me isn’t AI or chatGPT,
It’s how easily people have outsourced thinking to it.

Most submissions feel like someone prompted a tool, lightly edited the output, and sent it across hoping the assignment is good to go!
It's not.

Anyone who has spent even a little time with founders, markets, money, pressure, and decisions can spot it immediately.

The uncomfortable truth is this:
If your writing works equally well for a SaaS founder, a D2C founder, a coach, and a creator, then it’s not ghostwriting. 

It’s generic content. Period.

So yes, we’re still #hiring at SackBerry.

But, we’re not looking for someone who knows prompts, hooks, or frameworks.
We’re looking for someone who already has writing skill & just need AI to make it better!

Reach out: talent@sackberry.com

Tag someone who is a great fit!

#Ghostwriter #contentwriter #personalbranding

As CEO of Iconify Consulting Group and a PhD scholar in personal branding, I help enterprises and leaders leverage LinkedIn as a strategic channel to build distribution. 

My work sits at the intersection of Personal, Corporate and Executive branding and GTM (through LinkedIn).

I’ve partnered with 270+ leaders across YC, Fortune 500, Nasdaq, Inc. 5000, Silicon Valley, and Wall Street; recognized as an award-winning LinkedIn creator and ranked among top voices in LinkedIn personal branding worldwide. 

I love sharing my insights and have delivered executive sessions at IITs, IIMs and top B schools, drawing on 14,000+ mentees and five years operating LinkedIn as an enterprise channel. 

Featured in various national and international publications like: The Business Times (US), The Economic Times, NDTV, Hindustan Times, India Today, CEO Review Magazine, Money control etc.

Open to consulting, advisory and brand collaborations.

Email: mishka.rana@iconifyconsultinggroup.com

MISHKA RANA

If you think sharing your story is 'cringe' or 'promotional, read this story about my client. It will change your entire perspective on 'bragging’.

He has one of the most incredible "Zero to One" journeys I’ve ever seen.

• Landed in London from India with $0 in his pocket.

• Built a tech empire from scratch.

• Took his company public on the Nasdaq. (twice)

He wanted visibility in the industry and attract investors. 

But when I told him, "We need to share your story" he froze.

He looked at me and said: "It feels promotional. It’s too vague. People will laugh. Who cares about my struggle?"

This is the "Humility Trap" that kills more opportunities than bad markets do. 

He thought sharing his journey was "bragging." I knew it was Risk Mitigation for investors.

It took weeks of convincing. But we finally hit "Post."

We didn't just write a "success post." We engineered a Trust Narrative:

1. The Hook: 
We anchored it in his "Day 1" vulnerability ($0 in pocket), not his "Day 1000" success.

2. The Middle:
We highlighted the cultural nuance of being an immigrant founder in London (connecting two massive markets).

3. The End: 
We framed the NASDAQ win not as a destination, but as "Validation of Grit."

He thought people would roll their eyes.

But it blewwww up! It didn't just go viral. It exploded.

1 Million+ Impressions.
Thousands of comments from ex-colleagues in India, mentors from the US, and peers in London.

But here is the "Magic" metric:
8 to 10 qualified Investors slid into his DMs within 48 hours.

They didn't ask for a pitch deck. They said: "I read your story and I’d love to invest in your startup. Can we talk?"

Not just that he was bombarded with job applications from top talents. 

Never underestimate the power of storytelling (on LinkedIn)!  

The Lesson:

You think your story is "promotional." The market sees it as Context.

You think your struggle is "weakness." Investors see it as Proof of Work.

In 2026, capital is abundant, but Trust is scarce.

When you share your journey, you aren't bragging. You are building a Context Moat that separates you from every generic AI pitch in the pile.

The world is ready to listen. 

Have you ever held back a win because you were afraid of looking "promotional"?


#FounderStories #NASDAQ #PersonalBranding #InvestorRelations #Entrepreneurship #Storytelling

CEO & Chief Storyteller @ICG | LinkedIn Thought Leadership + Personal Branding for Founders & C-Suites | B2B LinkedIn Marketing | Trusted by Nasdaq, Silicon Valley & YC Leaders

my first office ever. firsts are always special ❤️

it’s been an year here and tomorrow we’re starting next chapter - at a new space. 

Iconify Consulting Group (ICG)

#founderlife #entrepreneurship

I removed 1648 LinkedIn connections over past few months and tbh it feels great. 

(as a distribution decision.)

most people treat their network like a vanity metric. 

more connections, more optionality. 
that logic breaks once you’re building something serious.

here’s why this matters:

linkedin doesn’t distribute content evenly to all your connections.

it tests your post with a small slice of your network first. 

that initial cohort decides whether your thinking travels or dies quietly.

if that early audience is full of:

– inactive profiles
– people from chapters of your life you’ve outgrown
– random sales bots or recruiters from years ago
– or people who no longer care about what you do

the outcome is predictable: low early engagement → weak signal → reduced distribution.

it’s not that your content is bad, but the room is wrong.

we tested this with a founder client last quarter.

he had ~28,000 followers and consistently low engagement (around 80-100 likes per post). 

we didn’t change his content, positioning, or posting cadence. 
we changed the audience.

over three weeks, we removed roughly 3,000 inactive or irrelevant connections.

result:
average reach increased ~45% in the first month.

same posts. different initial audience. completely different outcome.

—> if you want to do this properly, here’s a simple filter that doesn’t burn bridges:

• people who pitched once and never engaged again

• industries you no longer serve or want visibility from

• profiles with no visible activity in years (they aren’t seeing your posts anyway)

• cleanup every 6 months to keep your network aligned. 
or a deeper reset once or twice a year makes sense when your role, market, or priorities change.

and honestly, prevention matters more than pruning.

a simple rule i’ve been following: i don’t accept a connection if any one of these is true

• i can’t tell what they do in 5 seconds
• they’re outside the industry i’m building for
• their profile shows no recent thinking or activity
• our only interaction would be transactional
• i wouldn’t want my content tested on them

that one filter does more for long-term growth than deleting hundreds later.

think of your network less as an audience size and more as an initial distribution layer.

1,500 active, relevant connections >>>  15,000 passive ones


#network #linkedin #algorithm #linkedingrowth #linkedinstrategy

LinkedIn just removed thousands of "Top Voice" badges worldwide.

and honestly, this is the best thing that could happen for the platform.

I’ve been receiving messages all day: "where did my Top Voice badge go?" or "why did this influencer lose theirs?"

here’s the inside scoop on what changed:

till 2025: the blue badge felt like a lifetime achievement award. once you got it, you kept it.

in 2026: under the new policy, the badge is now a 6-month renewable license.

linkedin is conducting strict quarterly reviews to check for "active authority."

who got cut?

mostly "legacy" holders who drifted from their original niche or took breaks longer than 2 weeks. 

my clients held onto theirs because we didn't treat the badge as a trophy. we treated it as a job and stuck to a strict strategy that the editorial team loves:

if you are targeting the blue badge (or trying to protect yours), here is the new standard:p


1/ the "2-week" rule

consistency is the primary filter. my analysis shows that creators who took breaks longer than 14 days were the first to be flagged by the system .

-> commit to posting 2-3x weekly. if you go on holiday, schedule your content. silence is viewed as "dormancy."


2/ stop drifting, stay vertical

the editorial team awards badges for specific expertise (e.g., "finance," not "general motivation").

-> audit your last 10 posts. if more than 3 are generic "life advice" or off-topic, you are diluting your signal. pivot back to your core niche immediately.


3/ optimize for "humans"

linkedin is training its editors to spot AI-generated stuff. if your post sounds like a generic summary, it gets marked as low-quality.

-> the fix: use data visuals, screenshots, or personal stories. "lived context" is the only thing that proves you are a human expert, not a prompting expert.


4/ the "reply" ratio

top voices are expected to spark discussion, not just broadcast.

-> don’t post and ghost. spend 15 minutes replying to comments. the algorithm is now weighing "conversation depth" as a key metric for badge retention.


5/ kill the "pods" & engagement bait

this is where most creators got burned. 

if you have 500 likes but they all come from the same "support group" (pod) or if your posts rely on cheap hooks like "agree?" to inflate numbers, you are out.

-> stop forcing the algorithm
50 genuine comments >  5,000 artificial likes
organic resonance is the only metric that counts for the badge.

the only takeaway you need is: build for the "editorial standard” not the badge

#linkedinnews #topvoice #personalbranding #expert #futureofwork

I have deep respect for anyone who walks into Shark Tank India  

presenting your life’s work on national television, knowing you could be rejected, questioned, or misunderstood, takes a kind of courage most people never experience. entrepreneurship looks glamorous from the outside. it’s anything but that on the inside.

yesterday, one moment from the episode stayed with me.

Ravi Gupta carried years of sacrifice with him. selling family gold.
mortgaging his house.
putting his family’s security on the line just to stay alive.

watching that wasn’t "inspiring" in the typical feel-good way. it was heavy.
because this is what building actually demands, long before it ever rewards.

he didn’t walk away with a cheque.
but that’s the part people fixate on too much.

what made that moment meaningful was the response from aman and mohit.
they didn’t just say "no." they shared context, lived experience, and a roadmap.
capital is fuel. but direction is what keeps you from burning it.
this is why shark tank india matters.

over the last few years, it has quietly done something revolutionary: it made entrepreneurship visible.
it’s something families watch together now. women, kids, first-time founders. "equity" and "gross margin" are now dinner table conversations, not just boardroom jargon.


2025 has been a bloodbath for startups.
the "growth-at-all-costs" era is dead. efficiency, clarity, and credibility are the new non-negotiables.

and yet, founders are still showing up.
still putting their stories, their mistakes, and their hopes on the line.
that resilience deserves to be seen.

shark tank india airs at 8 pm on sony liv. 
worth watching, especially if you’re building.


#sharktankindia #entrepreneurship #founderstory #startups #funding

My clients run $50M+ companies. 
they do not write their own LinkedIn posts. and honestly? they shouldn't.

if you are a CEO/CXO, your hourly rate is likely $1,000+.

and if you see a CEO running a $50M+ company, raising a Series B, and managing 200 employees... and they are also posting perfectly formatted, high-level thought leadership every morning at 8 AM?

they have a system.

there’s a misconception: most people think "Ghostwriting" is about faking it.
it’s not. it’s about leverage.

when a CEO gives a keynote speech, they don't set up the chairs or adjust the microphone. 
they just show up and deliver the message.

your LinkedIn presence should work the exact same way.

the exact 30-Minute System we install for busy founders to publish 4x a week:

we operate like Biographers.

1/ before we write a single word, we study the human.

• we binge their old podcast appearances.
• we analyze their sales call recordings.
• we study their email syntax.

we map their "Lexicon Fingerprint"—the specific words they use, the way they structure arguments, the pauses they take.

if they say "folks" instead of "people," we know it. 
if they hate the word "synergy," we never use it.

2/ we don't nag them for ideas daily.
we send a Strategic Questionnaire: heavy, deep, and specific.
they answer it once (or we record a call), and we extract weeks of content from the nuance of their answers.

3/ what happens when industry news breaks? w have a "Rapid Response" line.
clients don't need to sit down and type.
most of them just hit the record button on WhatsApp, send a 30-second voice note or a quick text while commuting, and say: "here is my take on the new merger."

we take that raw audio and turn it into a polished, strategic asset.

4/ the 20-minute approval
because we have done the forensic work, the first draft is usually 95% accurate.

• we don't send daily drafts.
• we don't need constant feedback loops.
we present a monthly content calendar.
the Founder needs one 15-20 minute slot per month to scan, approve, and get back to work.

their audience thinks the Founder is spending hours online.
the Founder knows they are spending minutes.

you don't need ‘more time’ to build a personal brand.

you need a system. 

Iconify Consulting Group (ICG)  
#PersonalBranding #Productivity #LinkedInStrategy

7 myths costing you millions in lost opportunity: 
I’ve spent years building LinkedIn personal brands for billion dollar founders and C-Suites, sat in boardrooms and still heard the same excuses.

i’ve watched leaders go from "industry best-kept secret" to securing board seats and M&A deals just because they finally turned the lights on.

yet, even at the c-suite level, these myths exist:

1. “my work speaks for itself.”

in 2026, your work doesn't speak. it whispers.
without amplification, excellence is invisible. linkedin data shows decision-makers are 3x more likely to engage with a leader they’ve seen posting versus one they’ve only heard of.
if you don't narrate your success, the market assumes you are stagnant.


2. “i don’t want to brag.”

sharing expertise isn’t bragging. it’s accessible leadership.
McKinsey & Company ’s state of organizations report found that visible leaders score 31% higher in trust among employees and peers.
when you hoard your insights, you aren't being humble. you are withholding value from your industry.


3. “personal branding is just for influencers.”

tell that to satya nadella.
his linkedin presence didn't just get "likes"; it anchored microsoft’s cultural shift.
Indra Nooyi’s visibility built public trust that outlasted her tenure.
influence isn't vanity. it is currency. regardless of company size.

4. “i’m too senior to ‘need’ linkedin.”

the opposite is true.
the higher you climb, the smaller your peer group gets.
your visibility dictates your access to panels, government influence, and board seats.
most of these opportunities come from people who have never met you but have observed you.

5. “niche posts limit my audience.”

good. you don’t need 1 million followers. you need the right 500 decision-makers.
one of my fmcg clients hit 12 high-value enterprise leads in 10 months with 95% niche content.

a stadium of fans is useless if none of them can sign a cheque.


6. “personal brand = posting daily.”

frequency does not beat strategy.
high-signal leaders don't spam; they curate.
some of my best performing clients post 1-2 times a week.
they trade volume for velocity, high-impact insights paired with targeted commenting in the right rooms


7. “people already know who i am.”

inside your bubble? maybe.
outside? you are a stranger until you are visible in their spaces.
people trust individuals 3x more than brand logos.
no visibility = no trust.

personal branding in 2026 is about reputation insurance and opportunity acceleration.

if you don’t own your narrative, someone else will and they won’t get it right.


#personalbranding #leadership #executivepresence #marketing #reputationmanagement

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Sakshi Darpan

MISHKA RANA

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The Battle

Sakshi Darpan

MISHKA RANA

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Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Sakshi Darpan's LinkedIn Performance

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