Hey {{first_name}}
LinkedIn has rules. Not the written ones about connection limits or message frequency.
The real rules. The ones everyone follows without being told.
Stay in your lane. Keep it professional. Share the polished version. Water yourself down to attract more people. Make it about value, not you.
I followed them for years. Carefully measured how much edge to show. Built a decent business being 70% myself.
But 70% of yourself is exhausting to maintain.
Every post required calculation. How much personality is too much? Will this reference alienate potential clients? Should I tone down the British humour? Hide the drum and bass? Skip the inappropriate joke?
The mental maths of acceptability.
Two weeks ago I decided: profitable rebellion over polite conformity.
Rebellion with a purpose: betting that being 100% myself will be more profitable than being 70% acceptable.
The maths is simple.
Being 70% yourself attracts people looking for that performed version. The mismatch exhausts everyone. The value feels unclear because the person delivering it isn't fully present.
Being 100% yourself might repel more people. But the ones who stay? They're buying YOU. Not your performed professionalism. Not your sanitised system. You, with all the contradictions and edges.
They pay better. Stay longer. Refer more. Because they're getting something they can't get anywhere else: someone who refused to become LinkedIn's version of successful.
I don't know if this will work long-term. This experiment is two weeks old.
The engagement stats are up.
The algorithm I thought would punish rebellion is rewarding it. LinkedIn's users are more starved for authenticity than LinkedIn's best practices suggest.
But I'm betting on something LinkedIn's algorithm can't measure: the compound effect of sustained authenticity.
Every post where I don't water myself down builds trust with the right people. Every inappropriate joke filters out the wrong clients. Every drum and bass reference attracts people who value realness over polish.
Polite conformity was supposed to win the short game. More engagement. More followers. More vanity metrics.
But profitable rebellion is winning both games. Better clients AND better metrics. Sustainable energy AND surprising reach.
The rebellion is already profitable. Just not in the way I expected.
The algorithm I thought I was fighting? It was waiting for someone to stop performing. The market I thought I'd have to educate? They were desperate for someone real.
I was betting that people would eventually reward authenticity.
Turns out they're rewarding it right now.
My strategy is performing as myself. My version of LinkedIn success means staying myself while succeeding.
The system I teach works. But it works better when you're not exhausting yourself maintaining a persona.
Make money while refusing to play by the unwritten rules.
Because conformity is expensive. It costs you energy, authenticity, and ultimately, the clients who would pay premium for the real you.
The algorithm doesn't just reward conformity.
It rewards authenticity today, not tomorrow.
I'm not playing tomorrow's game. I'm winning today's game by tomorrow's rules.
Jack
P.S. My Skool community is for people ready to profit from being themselves, not performing success. $47/month until September 10th, then $97. Or grab the annual at $447 and get an hour's coaching with me (worth $500). You get the complete LinkedIn system plus permission to break every unwritten rule while using it.
