Tara Horstmeyer

Simplifying LinkedIn | Individual + team training you need to succeed on LinkedIn | Executive Ghostwriting | Content Coaching | Hands-on Workshops

"One person posts, and I now know them. Multiple people post, and I now know their company..." - MJ Peters. (Powerful, huh?)

Execs: I believe you were made to lead—NOT exhaustively create LinkedIn content.

Yet:
> Figuring out how to engage + leverage the power of LinkedIn.
> Finding a TRUSTED Executive LinkedIn Thought Leadership team that understand business.
> One that also offers content strategy, company LinkedIn training and high-level, strategic writing execution...

...can feel like another full-time job.

I'm here to remove this burden.

HI! I'M TARA ⬇️

The Original LinkedIn Ghostwriter + Founder of Happy Words. 

My 20+ year career as an award-winning editor, writer + leader gives me a unique understanding of not only what it takes to leverage content in a digital world...

But also what it takes to work with impactful leaders—in the REAL world.

After scaling to 30K+ followers + driving well more than 6-figures of revenue solely from my LinkedIn as THE Original AND highly sought-after LinkedIn Ghostwriter...

My career evolved to building Happy Words: A writing, consulting + training team that supports executives like you.

I’ve since been featured in Business Insider, Vox and Morning Brew as a LinkedIn Ghostwriting industry expert and have spoken at events + workshops while appearing on dozens of podcasts.

This truly sets me apart as I can both appreciate + serve busy executives who desire to impact others through their LinkedIn presence.

Executives—like you.

Bottom line:

You were made to lead, not exhaustively create a LinkedIn presence.

I'm here to help you expand your influence, grow your presence and stand out as the authoritative thought leader you ARE.

LET'S CHAT. HERE TO SERVE YOU ⬇️
Serving individuals, founders, execs, teams + companies:

1. CONTENT: LinkedIn Post Strategy + Ghostwriting
2. WORKSHOPS: LinkedIn Mastery Workshop + Workbook

---

So, that's a little bit about who I am, what I built (for years) and how I've served countless leaders (like you!) on LinkedIn.

I am ALWAYS up for a chat in the DMs. So...

Drop me a note.
Say hi.

DMs always open.
Cheering for you!

- T

Executive LinkedIn + Leadership Trainer

I help executives, companies and teams build their LinkedIn reputation at scale.

------

Leading is a full-time job.
Exhaustively figuring out LinkedIn shouldn't be.

No matter if you are looking to build your executive personal brand on LinkedIn, bring visibility and opportunity to you, your company or team or create an employee advocacy program, I can help you achieve it all.

You were created to lead — not spend your time writing for LinkedIn.

Let’s work together to bring YOU, your business, your team and your company to those who need it the most.

🔥 Expand your influence. Grow your reputation. Ignite your opportunities.🔥

3 WAYS I CAN HELP YOU ⬇️

1. LinkedIn GHOSTWRITING:
Writing WITH you + AS you is what I'm known for.
DM or email for information, packages and availability.

2. LinkedIn 1:1 + Corporate TRAINING:
From corporate workshops to 1:1 consulting + employee coaching, I've worked with the best to leverage LinkedIn.

Shoot me a DM to design your session now.

3. LinkedIn Brand CONSULTING + COACHING:
Whether you are looking for an all-encompassing LinkedIn strategy that works or need a professional editor's eyes on your (or your team’s) posts, I'm your guide to help you along the way. 

Shoot me a DM to discuss a Coaching or Consulting plan or visit me here:

tara@happywordssell.com
www.happywordssell.com

Build right. Hire right. Rebel forever.

I'm a fractional Head of Talent for Series A-C startups and defense contractors. I build recruiting infrastructure companies own forever, ATS workflows, sourcing frameworks, scorecards, pipelines; then close critical hires in under 30 days.

My path wasn't traditional: TGI Fridays → booking bands → managing tours → 14 years in recruiting. It taught me to spot talent fast, sell with conviction, and treat every search like representation. I operate like an agent, take care of both sides, protect the brand, close the deal.

Currently: Fractional Head of Talent at EarthDaily Federal (geospatial intelligence, defense). Board member at Underground Admins.

Author: Head and Heart: Winning the AI Recruiting War

richie@rebeltalentsystems.com | rebeltalentsystems.com

Richie Lampani

I’m Richie. I’m a recruiter. I'm doing one of THESE posts... A REINTRODUCTION for the linkedin purists that adore these posts. i gained 48 followers since the last one so I thought it was time. 


I’ve been doing this for 14+ years and I still love it, which either means I’m dedicated or slightly unhinged. Probably both.

I grew up in Grand Rapids, Michigan really closer to Grand Haven, on the west side near Lake Michigan. Before I ever touched a résumé, I ran music venues and booked bands. That world teaches you how to read people fast, work in chaos, and build something out of nothing. Turns out that’s just recruiting with a louder soundtrack.

My music and recruiting career took me to NYC, then to Chicago. 

I’m based in Atlanta now. I run Rebel Talent Systems. Currently that's Fractional Head of Talent at EarthDaily Federal, building their recruiting systems from scratch, filling critical roles, and making it a turnkey operation on the recruiting end. 

Open to the right fractional clients alongside that.

I also hold a board position at Underground Admins, an HR agency that I brought recruiting to. I do some recruiting for them but agency is a weird world right now. 

What’s new:
I have a book coming out March 31st called Unfinished Rooms: Why Great Employees Keep One Foot Out the Door. It’s about the moments people decide to leave and how those decisions usually get made long before anyone notices. Not in the exit interview. In the first interview. If you’ve ever lost someone you thought was locked in and wondered what actually happened, this book answers that. It’s not a culture manifesto or a retention playbook. It’s about causality.

I also write a newsletter called Rebel Built. 7,000+ subscribers, no ads, no funnels(I mean i promote my book and website, but not like a whole masterclass or anything). Just ideas about hiring, leadership, and the weird psychology of work. If you like what I post here, the newsletter goes deeper. 

Most days I work on systems and hiring at EarthDaily Federal, recruit for them and a few other long-term Underground Admins clients, and spend the rest of my hours building things, books, tools, and ideas for people who actually care about doing this right.

If you’re new here, welcome. I post a lot of meme's.

If you’ve been around a while, thanks for sticking with me.

Say hi. Drop a follow. Tell me what you’re building.

Maybe we can build something together.

Richie 🙂

Fractional Head of Talent | Series A-C Startups & Defense | Author & Talent Strategist | Former TGI Fridays Flair Champ

I got recognized at Costco yesterday.


Guy walks up, points at me, and goes "You're that recruiter."

I said "Depends. Are you hiring or mad at me for ghosting you or something?"

He said "Neither. I just see you everywhere and wanted to make sure you were real."

Then he bought a 48-pack of paper towels and left.

No follow. No handshake. No "love your content." Just a man confirming my corporeal existence between the rotisserie chickens and the tire center.

I've never felt more seen and more invisible at the same time.

This is what 50,000 LinkedIn connections gets you.

A stranger in bulk goods aisle 7 performing a wellness check.

Anyway I'm still taking clients.

Also, who would tune in for the below podcast? I'm trying to talk Shaun Hervey into starting it back up. 

Richie

We have several finalists on this. Holding for now. 

Remote - 10-99 - IT Admin role - part time! 
Pay is DOE but targeting 50-75/hour
Role: Part-Time IT Administrator
Engagement: 1099 Contractor
Time Commitment: Part-time, flexible

Location: Remote, EST Time zone preferred, must be US Citizen living in the US. 

Overview
EarthDaily Federal is looking for a part-time IT Administrator to support our internal systems and act as the primary liaison between our internal team and our external IT and security partner.

This role sits at the center of everything technical inside the company. You will own the day-to-day IT administration work while coordinating with ISI on security, compliance, and higher-level infrastructure items.

This is a startup-style environment. Many basic IT processes are either incomplete, undocumented, or need to be cleaned up. The right person is comfortable walking into a messy system and methodically making it better.
Some people love that. Some people hate it. We want the ones who love it.

Core Responsibilities
-Serve as the primary IT point of contact for EarthDaily Federal
-Act as the liaison between internal teams and ISI
-Coordinate requests, troubleshooting, and follow-ups with our external security provider.
-Manage internal user access, permissions, onboarding, and offboarding
-Administer Microsoft 365 environment including SharePoint and Teams
-Support employee endpoint setup and basic troubleshooting
-Maintain and improve internal IT documentation and processes
-Partner with engineering leadership to support basic IT needs as required

Environment and Tools
-Microsoft 365
-SharePoint
-Teams
-Internal SaaS tooling supporting engineering and operations

Preferred Background
-Experience working in small or early-stage environments
-Comfortable operating with limited documentation and evolving processes
-Prior exposure to secure or compliance-driven environments is a plus
-Awareness of CMMC concepts is a bonus but not required
-Strong communication skills and comfort acting as a bridge between vendors and internal teams

What Success Looks Like
-Internal IT issues are triaged quickly and resolved cleanly
-ISI communication is organized, tracked, and effective
-Users know exactly where to go for IT help
-Systems become cleaner, more documented, and easier to manage
-Leadership gains visibility and confidence in the IT function

Interview
Talk to me
Talk to COO
Talk to CTO

Rock and Roll. Looking to get someone in ASAP

Notes
This is not a maintenance-only role.
This role exists to stabilize, clean up, and bring order to foundational systems that grew faster than the structure supporting them.
If you enjoy building order from chaos, this will be a great fit.
If you need everything perfectly defined on day one, it will not be.

3 fully remote roles for Underground Admins clients. 2 Engineering and 1 sales. Please share.

🚂 Production Engineers (x2)
Stop. Don't send me your DevOps resume.
Two Production Engineer roles. Fully remote. $150K-$250K base.

But here's the filter:
If your day is CI/CD pipelines and Jira tickets, this isn't it. If you've never owned a production service end-to-end, this isn't it. If your incident response is "check the runbook," this isn't it.

This is for software engineers who moved into production because they gave a damn about how their code behaved in the wild.

The work:
60-70% hands-on C# on modern .NET, building and owning services
30-40% reliability, observability, SLOs, systems design
Zero L1 support. No on-call circus. No finger-pointing at infra.
Python for tooling. PostgreSQL on AWS. Legacy migrations that don't burn the house down.

Requirements:
3-7+ years owning production systems as a software engineer
Strong C# and Python
U.S. citizen, living in the U.S.

Interview process: Two technical rounds. One alignment conversation. Done.
DM me with the nastiest incident you've ever fixed and what you changed so it never happened again.

🪖 Head of Defense Sales
$200K base. Uncapped commission. And you're building this from zero.
One of my clients needs a Head of Defense Sales to own the entire DoD go-to-market. Not manage existing accounts. Build the function.

This is a closer role, not a farmer role.

What you're walking into:
Full ownership of defense sales strategy
Pipeline you build yourself
Direct line to executive leadership
Future team-build potential when you prove it works

The work:
Identify, qualify, close new DoD logos
Build relationships with primes, integrators, and program stakeholders
Translate complex tech into mission outcomes
Shape capture plans, proposals, pricing
Carry quota. Deliver.

Non-negotiables:
Proven track record selling software into DoD
Experience closing new logos, not just renewing contracts
You understand defense procurement, budgeting, acquisition cycles
Can build pipeline independently in a fast-moving environment

Preferred:
Active or recently lapsed clearance
Background in data, analytics, cyber, AI, or privacy tech
Startup or growth-stage experience
Network in Army, SOCOM, Space Force, Navy, Air Force, or COCOMs

Location: US based. East Coast or DMV preferred. Huntsville, Denver, Colorado Springs, Tampa, San Diego also work.

If you've opened doors and closed complex software deals in defense, DM me.

Underground Admins clients - NOT EDF. If you're interested hit up myself or Amy and we'll set you up with a screen.

Sooooo... after all of my kicking and screaming, I think I’ve landed in the “hire for attitude, train for skills” camp

but with a twist.
Not vibes based hiring.

Not “culture fit” as a cop out.
I mean hiring for how someone thinks, then proving they can actually learn what the role really demands.

What consistently works for me:

💡 Hire the person who asks precise questions instead of pretending to know everything.

💡 Hire the person who can explain a real mistake, what they changed, and how they measure “better” now.

💡Hire the person who has shown they can learn fast in messy, ambiguous environments, not just recite clean textbook answers.

I’ve interviewed literal geniuses for one company and had them rejected because they had 1 year of AWS instead of the 2 needed and 8 years of Azure.

Got the rejection.

Turned around and placed the same person with a manager who wasn’t obsessed with ticking every box and cared more about talent and attitude.

That manager thanked me for knowing what I was doing.
Because let’s be honest;

Whoever hired Spider Man did not say:
“Does he have 5 years of web slinging experience?”

“Oh… only 4.5? Let’s keep looking.”

They saw trajectory, judgment, and upside and built around it.

Important disclaimer:
Some companies absolutely have to follow OFCCP rules and enforce minimum qualifications.

In those environments, flexibility is limited and that is reality.
I am saying when you do not have to, maybe flex.

Most hiring failures come from mindset, adaptability, and judgment, not from a missing skill that could have been trained.

At the same time, roughly half of technical skills go stale within a few years.

Betting purely on box checking is a short term play.

That is exactly how we operate at EarthDaily Federal.

One of the first things our VP of Engineering said to me was:
“Look, we hire skilled people. But I am looking for talent and attitude first.”
Then comes the part most companies skip: structure.

➡️ Clear expectations in the first 30, 60, 90 days.

➡️ A real training plan.

➡️ A named human accountable for leveling them up.

“Attitude” without a system is gambling.

“Skills” without the right mindset burns out fast.
The real sweet spot:
Mindset that fits the work

evidence they can learn

a system that actually trains them.
I will not be going back to the other side.

This is the way.

Once you see it as a demonstration and not an audition, everything changes.

You’re not begging for approval.  

You’re showing how you actually work.

Candidates: You’re not “on stage.” You’re giving a preview. And finding alignment. 

Companies: You’re not “judging talent.”  Or “selling an opportunity”. You’re showing what it feels like to be on the inside. And finding fit.

No offense but i don't care what you thought of the Superbowl or the Halftime show. Here's what I do care about...


I am looking for people with podcasts, relevant to HR and Hiring Psychology, that will read my book "Unfinished Rooms" and tell me what they think. 

The rules are (Read This Before you ask)
If you want an early copy, here’s the deal:
You read it. All of it.
Skimming and “great thoughts!” emails don’t count. If you don’t finish, don’t bother.
You give real feedback.
Notes, pushback, disagreement, questions, margin comments.
If nothing annoyed you, you didn’t read closely enough.
You’re willing to say where I’m wrong.
This is not a hype squad. I want clarity, not compliments.
You’re open to a live conversation.
Podcast, panel, roundtable, recorded discussion or Linkedin Posts
If you won’t stand behind your opinions publicly, this isn’t for you.
You keep it private until launch.
No excerpts, screenshots, summaries, or “subtle posting.”
Respect the work.
You have actual HR or Ops scar tissue.
If you’ve never had to clean up a hiring mess, this won’t land anyway.
You understand this is not consensus-driven.
I’m not trying to offend, but I’m also not trying to be safe.

-------------------------------------------------

I am looking for Customer Success, Sales, Product, Engineers, GIS, etc that have some experience with DoD or startups, that can be cleared, to talk to.

Also, this is an image of a late night Caprese that I made living in Weehawken NJ after I got home from work in NYC.

Looking for a few HR and Ops heavy hitters to sanity check something for me.

I’ve been working on a new book about psychology in hiring. It started as a section in Head and Heart and grew so much I had to give it its own name and spin it out. It’s scheduled to drop on March 31st.

This time, I want to really promote it, conversations, podcasts, panels, the whole thing. I’m proud of Head and Heart, but I feel a different kind of love for this one.

If you’re in HR or Operations and want an early read, I’d love your feedback.

DM me if you’re open to reviewing it and chatting about the ideas live with me on yours or my podcast.

(the reason I'm not asking recruiters is I am one and I know we all read at a 5th grade level at best. No shade)

(just kidding if you're a recruiter and want to read it early and will give notes, I'll send it to you if you send me your SAT/ACT scores)

I once got fired from a job I didn't even like for being “maniacal.”


Not late.

Not incompetent.

Not toxic.

Maniacal.

Translation: I moved too fast, asked too many hard questions, and kept fixing things no one had formally scheduled to be fixed.

In my defense, there were problems.

In their defense, I probably looked like a caffeinated consultant who had just discovered Slack.

There is such a thing as being overqualified.

There is also such a thing as being three steps ahead of an organization that is still debating step one.

And yes, there is such a thing as needing to dial it down from “operational reformer” to “employed adult.”

Here is the part no one tells you:
Sometimes you are not wrong about the work.
You are just wrong for the room.

If you are in a place where:
Hard questions get labeled “maniacal.”
Fixing obvious problems is treated like a threat.
Speed is praised in decks and punished in practice.
You are not a culture fit.
You are a future fit, trapped in a past tense company.

So before you internalize that feedback as “too intense” or “too much,” ask a better question:
Is the problem my ambition, or is the problem that this room was never built to hold it?

Because sometimes you are wrong.
Sometimes you do need to slow down, listen more, and stop trying to refactor the entire org chart in week three.

And sometimes you are right, you are early, and you are still extremely annoying about it.

But if you keep getting punished for seeing what is obviously broken, the lesson is not “stop seeing.”

The lesson is “find a better room, or at least one that understands your brand of crazy"

I learned a bit of both and have not considered working for Outback Steakhouse since. Nor will I again.

I mean, this is the raddest recruiter merch ever. Thanks for the idea Victor DeJesus

Also if you're in the cleared/GovCon space, you should follow him and these peole....

Jessica 🌿🌙 Reynolds (ft. MHRM, MBA)
Aaron H.
Amy Israeli
Matt Schwope
Sean Vary
Sean Jönsson
Amanda Davis
Marisol Maloney
Kristin M.


and many more in my network. I can honestly say I've been working the cleared space for a while now and even with everything in the job market being screwy, we've ALWAYS had open roles.

New Edition - The Effort it Takes to Ruin a New Hire.

They’re already leaving. Not because of comp bands, or remote policy, or your latest engagement initiative. They’re leaving because of what their brai

Open article: The Great Resignation Doesn't Hold A Candle to What's Next...  by Richie Lampani • 8 min read

The Great Resignation Doesn't Hold A Candle to What's Next...

Looking for some test subjects for a very intense psychological experiment - reading..

Early Preview Rules (Read This Before You Ask)

If you want an early copy, here’s the deal:
-You read it. All of it.
-Skimming and “great thoughts!” emails don’t count. If you don’t finish, don’t bother.
-You give real feedback.
-Notes, pushback, disagreement, questions, margin comments.
-If nothing annoyed you, you didn’t read closely enough. This is a relationship/pysch theory I stole for hiring. not to mention i'm annoying as a hobby.
-You’re willing to say where I’m wrong.
-This is not a hype squad. I want clarity, not compliments.
-You’re open to a live conversation.
-Podcast, panel, roundtable, recorded discussion or Linkedin Posts
-If you won’t stand behind your opinions publicly, this isn’t for you.
-You keep it private until launch.
-No excerpts, screenshots, summaries, or “subtle posting.”
Respect the work.

You have actual HR or Ops scar tissue. I would love to get HR in on this. I think it is a great theory that can help with offer acceptance through retention.

If you’ve never had to clean up a hiring mess, this won’t land anyway. 

You understand this is not consensus-driven.

I’m not trying to offend, but I’m also not trying to be safe.

If that still sounds fun, let me know!

taplio

The Battle

Tara Horstmeyer

Richie Lampani

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The Battle

Tara Horstmeyer

Richie Lampani

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

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);}Richie Lampani's LinkedIn Performance

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