Hi Reader,

I lied in my post last week.

I shared that I hit 20k followers, but that’s not entirely true.

10k of those came before I even started my business. And they're not really "followers." They're connections I made, one by one, profile by profile.

Let me explain.

Before NearPoint and before being a sales leader, I spent 5 years as a sales professional whose entire job was to bring in business. So that's what I did. I reached out to people all day, and then in the evenings (before I had a husband, a business and a toddler) I'd sit on the couch, put on a show and…connect, connect, connect. I’d literally max out (100 at the time) my connection requests every single week.

Most of those first 10k followers are in manufacturing, from that chapter of my life. And yes, some of them are clients today. And I love it when people from my past life still pop into my feed wanting to reconnect and work together. But that was years of being intentional, every day, as my actual job.

Now, the other 10k? I've grown that organically since launching my business. Haven’t once maxed out requests (I only send any now unless I actually know the person!). I’ve never used automation.

Why I'm telling you this?

Vanity metrics only ever tell one side of the story.

(In fact, I went on a rant about this with impressions last week. My client's post got 296 impressions, 3 likes, 2 comments (1 from me and one from him) - a total flop by most accounts - yet he 3 people viewed his profile and 2 (!) of them booked calls with him.)

That person with 100k followers? Maybe they built it back when it was “easy” to go viral here (a LinkedIn that doesn't exist anymore). Maybe there's a pod or some automation running in the background you can't see. Or maybe, like me, they just did the unglamorous work of connecting with people one at a time for years.

You don't actually know how anyone got their number. Which means the number tells you almost nothing.

It reminds me of something someone asked me recently: "how do I become a domain expert on LinkedIn?" My answer? Go be a domain expert in real life. Then talk about it here.

Because, so many people are performing their way to authority and the follower count is part of the performance.

So when you're deciding who to trust, who to learn from, who to welcome into your inner circle, look past the follower count.

How you can actually tell if someone's the real deal:

→ Social proof. Are real clients and peers vouching for them, in comments, in tags, in their own posts?

→ Recommendations. The written kind, on their profile, from people they've actually worked with.

→ Earned media. Podcasts, features, stages. Places other people invited them to be, not just spots they bought.

→ Other people talking about them. The strongest signal of all. Not what they say about themselves, but what their world says about them when they're not in the room.

→ Real experience. Have they actually done the thing they teach? Or just talked about it well?

That's what’s worth optimizing for...not the vanity number. The sh!t that you can’t fake.

Which is exactly why "go be a domain expert in real life" is the answer. Do the work. Get the results. Share the results (and let other people share the results, too!)

Until next time,

Natasha

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P.s. I know I didn’t actually lie to you but it does feel like lying to say I have 20k followers. I’m not trying to downplay a milestone either, but I pride myself about being real and transparent and that just didn’t feel right without giving some context. 🫠

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New here? Hi - I'm Natasha! I go on lots of LinkedIn tangents (and a few motherhood/entrepreneurial ones, too). My goal is to help make your experience on LinkedIn empowering AND profitable. Seriously. It's totally possible. Subscribe below! See you in your inbox! Subscribe! ​