👋 Hey Reader!

Here’s what I’ve got for you in today’s issue of WFH Dads:

• 3 steps to build your personal brand on LinkedIn (without being cringe)
• What I’m watching - Only Murders in the Building | Season 3

3 steps to build your personal brand on LinkedIn (without being cringe)

This past weekend, a friend of mine messaged me. He told me he’d like to build out his LinkedIn presence.

He isn’t looking to start a side-hustle or anything, but wants to establish himself more in his industry.

Share what he knows.

Potentially create new opportunities for himself.

But isn’t sure how.

And he ended his messaging with:

So here’s a bit of what I shared with him (in 3 easy steps).

Why build a personal brand?

The term personal brand is thrown out a lot, often when referencing celebrities. But you don’t have to be a celebrity to have a personal brand.

Personal brand = reputation

What are you known for?

When people think of you, what comes to mind?

When it comes to ‘building’ a personal brand, people usually do this online.

While many people build a personal brand in order to grow a side-hustle or business, you don’t need one in order to benefit from a good online reputation.

A strong online personal brand is insurance against job loss.

You don’t want to be the person who begins updating your LinkedIn and sharing your expertise AFTER you get fired.

Dig the well before you’re thirsty.

Establish yourself as an expert in your industry.

Start developing those new relationships with others in your industry now.

LinkedIn is a great place to do that.

Step 1 - Update your profile

Profile picture -

It doesn’t have to be a professional headshot.

Just make sure you’re:

✅ taking up most of the frame
✅ well-lit
✅ smiling

Avoid:

❌ multiple people in the photo
❌ photos too far away (where you’re visible from the waist up or further)
❌ distracting backgrounds or filters

📌 Pro tip - Use Canva to remove your background and replace it with a color. Tutorial here.​

Headline -

Keep it simple.

[role] at [company]. [What you love chatting about or what your company does].

• Software engineer at Facebook. Love chatting about engineering, fatherhood, and coffee.
  ​
• YouTube strategist at Kit—the email-first operating system for creators who mean business.
  ​
• Product Manager at Google. Passionate about building great products and mentoring new PMs

Step 2 - Spend more time commenting

Now that you have refined your profile, the highest leverage way to grow your personal brand and is to start commenting on other people’s posts.

Use this as an opportunity to share your perspective or experience.

Avoid comments that aren't adding anything to the conversation (ie. Great post!).

Notice that your headline appears under your name every time you comment.

This gives people more insight into who you are and what perspective you bring.

The more they see you posting insightful comments, the more likely they are to connect and engage.

If your home feed is like mine and full of people OUTSIDE of your industry, you can create a custom feed that only shows people in your industry you’re interested in engaging with.

​Here’s a short tutorial on how to set that feed up:

Step 3 - Begin posting your own thoughts

This is the part most folks struggle with.

First, it’s good to set expectations - even if you write really amazing content, it likely will not get any visibility or engagement for a long time.

Building a personal brand takes time.

I’ve been actively posting almost every day for 5 months and many of my posts will still only get a handful of likes or comments.

So stop worrying about putting out ‘the perfect posts’ because most of your posts aren’t going to get much visibility to begin with.

Write the way you would write a friend. Talk about how YOU specifically solve problems or do things in your industry.

✅ How I ______.
❌ How to ______.

Aim for 3 posts a week and spend more of your time engaging in the comments of other posts.

To help you generate ideas, try this AI custom GPT by Justin Welsh.

It doesn’t write the prompt for you - it just gives you ideas. It’ll ask you what your business is all about, but you can just say:

I’m not starting a business, just need want ideas to build my personal brand. i’m the [role] at [company] and want to post content about [topic].

​See a video tutorial here:

Just 15 minutes a day

Once you update your profile, here’s how you can spend 15-20 minutes per day on your personal brand:

See what kinds of comments and posts spark more conversation and engagement.

Then try doing more of that.

Building your personal brand can open doors down the road, creating unexpected opportunities or safeguarding you in case of job loss.

It’s worth 15 minutes a day.

If you give this a shot, let me know how it goes.

Send me a LinkedIn post that didn’t do well and I could give you some tips to improve it.

Just reply to any of my emails or shoot me a DM on LinkedIn.

What I'm watching / listening to:

Only Murders in the Building | Season 3

I don’t care for mysteries OR musicals…but somehow I got sucked into this one which is kind of both. It’s a murder mystery set on a theater stage. There’s even this song in it that I found myself listening to as I drove the kids to school this the other morning.

I found myself getting emotional.

It’s about a nanny who cares for these kids as if they’re her own.

There’s a line:

Even writing it out makes me think about my own love for my kids.

I still think musicals are dumb, but somehow this one got through to me.

Maybe you’ll enjoy it too.

You can hear the song here:

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Thanks again for being a part of this community!

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Thom Gibson Founder of Work-From-Home Dads ​​​

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P.S.

If you're really looking to build your personal brand and side-business so you can leave your 9-5, I recommend my friend Justin Brook's newsletter. You can subscribe below.

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