Linkedin doesn't work for my business
Advice for building your Linkedin presence that isn't generic 'tips and tricks' and comes from someone who's actually done it.
I’m Samantha, and I could tell you I’m a ‘personal stylist’, but I kinda broke the personal styling industry.
I’m the one behind those leaders you look at in your industry and think ‘wow, she’s killing it.’
Yes we do wardrobe, but we also do business, strategy, content and blowing up any idea of what you thought was possible.
This publication is for women in business who want to become the walking sales page for their offers.
I am a Linkedin TopVoice and have around 20,000 followers - it’s been one of my biggest platforms for lead generation and in this article, I am sharing how you can use the platform for any type of business.
‘Linkedin doesn’t work for us, we use Instagram’ - that’s what a mentor told me when I first began my business.
As someone who has gone onto mentor other stylists, I now understand that one of the core principles is guidance, not dictatorship. It should be: “Here’s what I have found: you are a critical-thinker, use this information as you see best.”
And it should also be based on evidence - not assumptions.
I’ve never been one to blindly follow someone’s word (hello Aries, we lead), so of course I questioned ‘why?’ and like with so many things that styling mentors who came before me replied when I asked: *shrug* ‘that’s just the way it is. Instagram is a visual platform.’
As I had discovered, Instagram being a visual platform was actually a problem, not a positive.
Sure, when you are establishing yourself as a personal stylist, it helps that you can demonstrate your skill to actually, well, dress.
And in 2025, it is simply not enough to like clothes, or to think you have a keen sense of style, when your style equals t-shirt and jeans. But I digress.
I had been an editor in an age of digital revolution. Every day of my career, I was working on how we could convert print revenue into digital. To cut a long story short, I knew a f*ck-load of stuff about content, socials and digital.
I was unwilling to earn a ‘maximum of £60 per hour’ (what I was told was ‘industry standard.’)
I was unwilling to cap my content to ‘here’s how to wear these 5 new things from Zara.’
And I was unwilling to take ‘we don’t use Linkedin’ as a final answer.
Here’s why Linkedin works for any business
The thing you’ll find on Linkedin? People. Who wears clothes? People.
Yes, even when they are at work (if you are reading this in your pants working - be a grown up and get dressed!)
If your ideal client is a business person or anyone with ambition, what do you think they’re hanging out on Linkedin for? It’s certainly not for s*ts and giggles.
They are there to do business.
And a big part of business - whether people want to acknowledge this or not - is what you wear.
What you wear informs how you behave. There have been numerous studies on ‘Enclothed Cognition’ - when you wear clothes your brain associates with traits like ‘organisation’ and ‘productivity’, you will behave as an organised, productive person.
We also have plenty of evidence that we are judged on our clothing. I know us humans like to think we are well-developed past this, but we are still looking for connection and community, and wardrobe is a way for us to assimilate.
I don’t like that women specifically are judged on what they wear; but I recognise the choice.
We can either pretend we get to opt out of the conversation, limit how hard our wardrobes work for us and not get the agency, credit or money we deserve (whilst also participating in a toxic fashion industry which treats garment workers appallingly and damages the environment)
or:
Learn about wardrobe, fashion and our participation, use style strategically, make more money and have the kind of agency that means we get to make actual change to the system.
Of course what to wear is a work issue.
And so is whatever it is that you do.
You’re a nutritionist? Isn’t it important that people are well-fuelled so they can think clearly and have the stamina to get things done?
You’re a relationship coach? Aren’t relationships a huge part of business?
It’s not that your business ‘doesn’t belong on Linkedin’ - it’s that you haven’t established the value from a business perspective.
Everyone knows (or has a basic understanding) of what an accountant does. The accountant’s job is to help their ideal client understand why them.
But as a non-traditional business, you have to establish why you, and why this.
And rather than viewing this as an additional hurdle, I’d invite you to get excited.
When you are the one who has to establish your industry, you get to be the leader.
You are not simply a skillset, you are the name. When other people begin to mimic your language or borrow your ideas, everyone notices.
If you begin to think of yourself as the name, not the skillset, you’ll realise you not only belong on Linkedin, but you can dominate.
You’re telling yourself ‘my industry isn’t on Linkedin’ because you’re stuck in follower energy.
When you are the name, the leader, the outlier, people aren’t coming to you for generic advice or tips and tricks. And you’re right - that level of content doesn’t belong on Linkedin.
But thought-leadership? Showcasing your depth and experience? Shifting people’s perspective on your industry? That’s the stuff that thrives on Linkedin.
3 tips to establish yourself as a Market of One
1. Stop speaking to anyone but your ideal client.
This sounds harsher than I’ve intended. Linkedin and other platforms are invaluable for building community, and I wouldn’t have the business I do without mine.
That said, there are some types of content that speak to empowered buyers - and other types of content that speak to disempowered non-buyers.
Watch where you are speaking to disempowerment - likely without realising.
For example, when you use words like ‘struggle’ or ;stuck’, you are speaking to someone who is struggling or stuck.
Struggling and stuck are both mindset issues and would indicate that your job with this client would be so much harder than someone who is moving and shaking. Why? Stuck or struggling people need convincing. They often also have thoughts like ‘I can’t afford it.’
What they don’t seem to understand (and it’s not your job to convince them of this) is that anyone they perceive as ‘doing well’ began in a similar position, but instead of staying where they are, they decided to make it work, not one day, not someday - now.
You get to where you want to go by moving. Not by staying ‘stuck.’
And you need clients who are willing to move by themselves, without expecting you to push them.
I know that ‘give value!’ is the big thing you’re told to do in order to establish yourself as an expert.
And as you’ll know from my article on discovery calls — that is not how to attract the kind of clients you actually want to work with.
2. Don’t concern yourself with what she’s doing.
When we start businesses, we think that the way to build momentum is surround ourselves with a community of peers. And whilst in some industries, that’s a good strategy - my experience in the personal styling industry is: that’s a terrible idea.
Find yourself a mentor (like me) who has the knowledge, skills and experience to help you. Then focus on finding clients, not on finding other people in your niche.
Why? Because you’ll start to waiver from your mission. You’ll look at what she’s doing and think: ‘that got lots of likes, maybe I should do something similar.’
If your main source of content ideas is a ‘competitor’, then you do not have a business.
You should be so jazzed about your services, so lit up about changing your industry, and so curious about the world, that ideas pour out of you like a burst pipe.
This is not to say you have to know how to refine your content to perfection (there are plenty of incredible copywriters around) - but you do need to have ideas to begin with.
If you’ve started a business because ‘that looks easy’ then, my friend, you have made a mistake.
You have to be so fired up about this thing that you are fuelled through every late night, every early morning, every rejection, every problem and mistake until you have gained the momentum where things start to feel easier.
If you’re at the beginning of your Linkedin journey, do not follow or connect with [industry peers].
I know, I know: Samantha, that’s mean!
Is it? Or is it actually a better way of supporting your industry?
Surely the way you become an advocate for the industry, help the world see it as important and therefore encourage people to seek the help of professionals like you… is to be a massive f*cking success.
3. Care about impact, not likes.
I know someone with tens of thousands of social media followers, who can not for the life of them monetise their platforms. Why? People have come to view them as a free resource for content that’s pretty, well, devoid of any impact.
It takes very little effort to tap ‘like’ and people ‘like’ content when it affirms their beliefs and lets them stay in a comfort zone. Or - content that makes them feel like they’re doing something productive (when they’re not). For example, a post that says: ‘live, laugh, love’ - gives a quick dopamine hit to click the thumbs up.
But a post that invites someone think differently, challenges their behaviour and pulls them out of their comfort zone? Of course they aren’t going to ‘like’ it.
And the type of people you want to work with? The ones who will invest at high levels and most importantly, show up for the work and get the results? They will respond.
Most of my clients have never ‘liked’ one of my Linkedin posts. Imagine if I’d succumbed to the beige and mediocre that seems to be ‘popular’ with algorithms. Imagine if I’d let ‘nobody likes my posts’ stop me from showing up.
In your Linkedin Celebrity Era
Anyone could learn the strategy. Anyone could implement what I’ve shared about and have some success…
But what’s the thing that makes the difference between doing ‘OK’ on a platform, and blowing it the hell up?
Your energy.
Energetics are a huge part of my work — that’s because your wardrobe isn’t clothes, it’s physical manifestation.
Everything you wear is informing your frequency, which then brings in whatever you’re seeing in the physical realm.
Energy is also that final piece of sales psychology. When someone is the real-deal, you can feel it. There is a frequency to their wording, their videos, their stories, the way they show up (what they wear, how they come across) that is convicted.
When someone is saying all the things from a place of ‘but that’s what she did over there and it looks like it works’, you can also feel it.
I have a training called Linkedin Celebrity Status, but it’s not for women who want average results.
It’s for the ones who:
Want to have event organisers approaching them on Linkedin asking ‘can I pay you to talk at this event?’
Clients in the DMs (without you ever having sent a cold pitch)
Want to see their content replicated, their language seeped into the Kool-Aid everybody’s reading
Connections in their messages saying ‘I swear you wrote this’ (you did)
This is not a ‘how to’ generic strategy borefest from someone who doesn’t have the results to back up what they’re saying.
I won’t be telling you things you’ve heard before.