M
Michael Ashley
· LinkedIn
Founder at Radi8 // Executive Coach // Host of the Inspiring Founders Podcast
Most coaches and consultants I talk to think visibility comes in two flavors, and they hate both.
Flavor one: stay invisible. Do great work, keep your head down, hope the right clients somehow trip over you.
Flavor two: become a "LinkedIn person." Hot takes, humble-brags, a carousel about your morning routine, everything engineered for reach. For a mission-driven practitioner, that's the nightmare. It feels like performing a version of yourself you don't even like.
So they pick invisible. Because if those are the only two options, invisible at least feels honest.
Here's the thing though. That's a false choice.
There's a third option, and it's the one that actually earns trust: a body of work. Not reach-chasing. Not a highlight reel. Just your real thinking, shared consistently, so people can see how you decide before they ever reach out.
And you already produce this thinking. Every week you're diagnosing a client's real problem, talking someone off a bad decision, spotting the pattern they couldn't see. That's not content you have to manufacture. It's work you're already doing in private. Making it visible isn't performing — it's letting the right people watch how you think.
Performative posting optimizes for who's watching this week. A body of work is evidence that accumulates. Buyers don't trust claims. They trust judgment they can see demonstrated over time.
You don't have to choose between hiding and turning into someone you'd mute.
So I'm curious. What holds you back more — not knowing what to say, or not wanting to sound like a "LinkedIn person"?
#IndependentConsultant #Coaching #GoingIndependent #PersonalBrand #ThoughtLeadership
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Told 4 times, Jun 24, 2026 – Oct 4, 2026
· LinkedIn · Open
Why founder-led content isn't marketing.
At least not primarily.
For consultants, advisors, founders, coaches, and experts, founder-led content serves a different purpose.
It's reputation.
Every post is a tiny piece of evidence about how you think.
Your judgment.
Your experience.
Your perspective.
One post rarely matters.
But hundreds do.
Over time, people begin to recognize your name.
They understand your philosophy.
They trust your approach.
By the time they reach out, they've often already decided you're someone worth talking to.
That's not marketing.
That's reputation compounding in public.
The strongest founder-led content isn't trying to go viral.
It's helping the right people understand how you think.
· LinkedIn · Open
Most coaches and consultants I work with hate self-promotion. Good news: what actually builds a practice is something else entirely.
Self-promotion means making claims about yourself. I'm great, hire me. Nobody wants to write that, and nobody wants to read it. A reputation gets built on evidence instead — showing your thinking in public, consistently, until people can see how you work before they ever talk to you.
One is bragging. The other is teaching.
When you share how you'd approach a problem, what a client situation taught you, or the question you'd ask before a big decision, you're demonstrating judgment. The reader draws their own conclusion, which was always the only conclusion that mattered. People trust a pattern they've watched form far more than any claim.
So "I'm uncomfortable promoting myself" doesn't have to hold your practice back. The real assignment is visibility, and visibility runs on teaching, which you already do every day. If you can explain something to a client across the table, you can explain it in a post. Same act, bigger room.
The discomfort is real. I've watched dozens of brilliant people wrestle with it. Notice what it's usually attached to, though: a picture of marketing as boasting. Replace the picture, and the rest gets easier. Evidence, shared consistently, in your own voice.
What's one thing you explained to a client this week that would have been worth sharing with a hundred more people just like them?
#IndependentConsultant #Coaching #PersonalBrand #ThoughtLeadership
· LinkedIn · Open
Here's a way to start showing up when self-promotion feels like it's "not who I am."
Share one thing you already know. Then do it again next week. That's it... no big budget, no perfect plan required.
Most of the coaches and consultants I talk to aren't short on ability. They're brilliant at the work. That "who am I to post?" feeling might be less about whether you're good enough, and more about the title you set down when you went out on your own... the org that vouched for you, the name that said "she's the expert" before she walked in the room. Losing that stings. It isn't proof you're not ready.
Getting seen isn't bragging... it's just sharing what you know, consistently, until there's a body of work behind you. Evidence instead of claims.
I got into all of this on a recent podcast, worth a listen if you're wrestling with it. Link in the first comment.
So what's actually holding you back from posting?
#Coaching #IndependentConsultant #GoingIndependent #ThoughtLeadership #PersonalBrand