Hello my friends, and happy Friday!

Y’all…

It’s been a crazy 72 hours for team Darmody. Tuesday night my 5-year-old daughter broke her tibia and we’ve been scrambling to get her a acclimated to life in a full-leg cast and wheelchair ahead of starting KINDERGARTEN next Tuesday.

Fortunately, my kids are are more resilient than their parents and my little one is taking this whole thing like an absolute champion. Everything is a new adventure to her. A new opportunity to learn & discover something.

I love kids—they teach me so much about life.

All this is to say…

It’s’ been a long week, so please forgive me if this newsletter isn’t quite as robust as previous editions.

But consistency is important, so let’s ride.

On Linkedin…

Consistency is like compounding interest.

I saw a really great post by Kim Døfler out of Copenhagen this week in which he essentially encouraged people to post on Linkedin even if / especially when no one appears to be paying attention. He talks about consistency being like compounding interest, and I love that analogy. I see a lot of people complaining about “reach being down” and all that, and it’s so refreshing to read something like this.

“Linkedin isn’t just social media. It’s trust media”

Linkedin Creator Manager Dani Markovits posted that “Linkedin isn’t just social media. It’s trust media” citing a recent study that found 94% of marketers say trust is the #1 success factor in B2B growth. He goes on to share a table he created of the top social platforms and their “primary currency.” And of course, Linkedin’s is trust.

And he’s right.

Linkedin is the only platform I’m “verified” on, and that verification is legitimate (via CLEAR ID). People can trust that I am who I say I am there—something of increasing importance in the AI-age. That’s the foundational level.

Linkedin is where I’ve had opportunities land in my lap—life-altering career pivot kind of opportunities—all because I started yappin’ about what I found interesting in business.

Linkedin is the reason I own my home. No joke. I reached out to the prior owner on Linkedin to ask if my in-laws could come check it out during the open house since we couldn’t make it. Turns out she was the enemy of my realtor & they didn’t talk, so when she moved the open house up a week, she told me about it through Linkedin. If that exchange hadn’t have happened, I wouldn’t be in the house I’m sitting in.

Linkedin is the reason I decided to “start-over” at 40 and launch my own business. What most people don’t know is that I have long had a desire to launch a coaching practice centered around Linkedin because it is a platform that is so rich in opportunity and I love helping people manifest that shit. Becoming a poweruser/networker here gave me the confidence to pursue that passion.

Linkedin is where I have earned 44 five-star reviews from actual paying clients. People trusted me with their time and money. Others can trust that I do good work based on the words of those who trusted me in the past. That is GOLD. Linkedin only let’s you request 20 / year, too, so you literally cannot inflate your reviews (sorry growth hackers!) Quality > Quantity.

Talk about trusting a platform…

Now think about your experience on TikTok, Instagram, X, YouTube…

How many of you have:

• Found jobs
• Pivoted careers
• Purchased a house
• Launched a business
• Sustained said business

On any of those platforms?

What if Linkedin wants to evolve into “the place to do business online” someday? With an ever-increasing number of Fractionals and solopreneurs, that’s a demographic they cannot ignore, hence why their premium landing page looks like this:

Linkedin has planted two stakes in the ground for premium:

• Help jobseekers
• Help small businesses owners

The only problem is they’ve got 20 years of helping the jobseekers out under their belt, but small business owners? That’s a whole new ballgame for them and not one I’ve seen them really talking about so publicly until more recently. (I’d love to know when this visual was actually uploaded because I don’t remember it there a year ago.

But the intent is clear - this is a strategic direction.

And if you wanted to be the place to do business online for small businesses, maybe you’d hire a Chief Marketing & Strategy Officer who has experience running marketing for indeed, openTable, and head of Facebook business marketing, instagram, and messenger…

6 months before Linkedin CEO takes on a new job at Microsoft…

(speaking of trust, notice it’s mentioned again by the CMO above?)

Jessica’s got great energy and is wasting no time making herself known to the Linkedin community. She’s more visible than other C-levels.

In just 8 months at the company…

Hrmm….

I think Jessica Jensen will be Linkedin’s next CEO (Ryan’s busy building AI into Excel) and she’s here to evolve the platform into a place for small businesses to market their business and manage customer relationships.

Why let Facebook have the entire market? They’re not as trustworthy as Linkedin…

Anywho, that’s my conspiracy theory. Share it if you think it’s got legs!

Speaking of legs, I’m off to check on my angelic daughter.

Thank you for opening this email and reading it.

I appreciate you and if I can ever help you with anything, you know where to find me.

Hi5,

LD

🌶️