Sell. Create. Dream. (In that order.)
Here's how we like to think our businesses run:
1. Dream
2. Create
3. Sell
First you develop the work. Then you build it. Then, finally, when it's polished and ready and you've earned the right, you tell people about it.
It's a lovely story. It's also backwards.
Here's how it actually goes for the businesses that grow fastest:
1. Sell
2. Create
3. Dream
They start by putting their ideas into the world. They talk about what they're thinking. What they're learning. What they're trying to solve, before it's solved. That visibility creates opportunity. Opportunity leads to projects. Projects produce the work.
Read that again, because it's the whole thing: revenue doesn't usually begin with the work itself. It begins with being known for the work.
Most people get this exactly wrong. They spend years perfecting what they do before they let themselves talk about it. They wait until the offer is flawless, the brand is "right," the website is done. And while they wait in private, someone less polished but more visible is winning the clients they wanted.
The people who accelerate their careers share while they're building.
Show the thinking behind the work. Let people watch the process. Because the process is where your values show and your knowledge, and your taste, and the way your mind works. When people understand how you think, they start to trust what you do.
And trust is the thing that turns expertise into business.
(Building in public has its critics, and that's fair, not everything belongs on a public timeline. But the instinct to hide until you're "ready" costs more people more momentum than oversharing ever has.)
You don't have to wait until it's perfect to talk about it. Talking about it is part of how it becomes real.
"I don't want to be another newsletter in your inbox. I want to be an actionletter. In every edition, I'll include a 'Go-and-Do' [below] to help you take an action step TODAY that improves your LinkedIn™ performance, your business, or even your life."
Go and Do:
Pick one thing you're currently building in private, an offer, an idea, a project you're "not ready" to talk about.
Write one post about the thinking behind it. Not the finished thing. The process. Share while you're still building.
One More Thing - The LinkedIn™ Spark Community
If today's edition resonated, you'd love the room I built for people who want to take this seriously.
The LinkedIn™ Spark Community is for people who want three things most LinkedIn advice doesn't deliver together: education, accountability, and real networking.
Inside, we focus on:
· LinkedIn strategy that actually moves the needle
· How to become a sharper writer (because writing is the work)
· Content systems, not content luck
· Guest speakers, "hot seat" sessions, and presentations from members themselves
You also get one 1:1 call with me per quarter. This is not a group where you post once and disappear. It's a community where people show up, sharpen each other, and build the kind of presence that compounds.