I spent the better part of two years marketing myself.
It wasn’t always with the intention of starting something new. But it didn’t hurt.
After 30 years in sales, I kept seeing people posting on LinkedIn and thinking, “I have that knowledge, too. Why don’t I put myself out there?”
So I set a goal: post at least twice a day for a year.
I kept it simple. One sales-focused post. One general motivation post. Every day.
I didn’t wait until I had it figured out. I just started posting. And I made plenty of mistakes along the way.
I didn’t have a big following. Maybe a couple thousand connections. But they were people I knew, and they were receptive to me putting myself out there.
A few posts hit good numbers. Most didn’t. That was fine. My goal wasn’t to go viral. It was to improve myself and follow through on a commitment.
There were a few times where someone would say "Yeah, my sales manager says they love your videos" or "They tell me they watch every video you post". The funny part about this was that I wasn't even connected to those people on LinkedIn. They saw it with a banner that says "[Your Connection] follows Roy Waterhouse". I used to think that "Impressions" number was just some fake number, but some of those impressions may be concrete.
I think more people should market themselves. You never know who would be seeing what you share. Share something from their week. Comment on someone else’s post. Stay connected.
Twice a day was my goal. Your pace should be different. It should fit what you want.
Start with the people who already know you. Share one thing you know that a customer would find useful. Then pick a pace you can keep.
You don’t need a big audience to start. You need something useful to share and the commitment to keep showing up.
What’s one thing you know that would help a customer this week?
Here's my best performing LinkedIn post from the week:
