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5 Ways Imperfect Visibility Still Gets You Remembered
Showing up imperfectly is still showing up. And showing up is what gets you remembered.
Spring 2020. The world had officially gone sideways.
My meetings and events business – the one I had poured years into – went silent overnight. No conferences. No corporate events. No venue walkthroughs. Nothing.
I had been on LinkedIn for years at that point. Using it the way most serious professionals do: building credibility, creating an online presence for my meetings and events industry, and staying visible enough that the right clients would find me when the time was right.
But suddenly I had time to do more. And I had a weird, urgent feeling that something needed to shift.
So I started showing up on LinkedIn talking about LinkedIn. Yes, I know. Very meta. I’m aware.
I wrote about how to use it intentionally. How to optimize your profile. How to stop treating it like a job board and start treating it like the visibility tool it actually is.
Were the posts perfect? No. Were they polished? Sometimes. Were they consistent? Getting there.
But here’s what started to happen.
People noticed.
Not the algorithm. Not some viral post with 10,000 impressions. Real people. In real life. At the networking events that eventually started coming back.
Someone would walk up and say, “Hey, I really like what you’re posting on LinkedIn.”
I’d smile and say, “Oh yeah? Which post?”
And they’d pause. Tilt their head. And say, “The one about LinkedIn.”
The one about LinkedIn. Which was, ironically, all of them. They couldn’t name a specific post. They just knew they had seen me. Showing up. With something worth reading.
That’s when it clicked. Visibility is not about going viral. It is not about having the most clever hook or the most perfectly timed carousel. It is about being consistently present so that when the right person finally pays attention, you’re already there.
If you want to be known for your expertise, you don’t need to post more. You need to show up more intentionally. Here are five principles that made all the difference for me – and for the clients I’ve worked with since.
Principle 1
Done Is Better Than Perfect
I could have waited until I had a content plan. Until I knew my niche. Until I felt confident enough to say something worth saying. I would have waited forever.
The posts I wrote in spring 2020 were not my best writing. Some make me cringe now. But they existed. And existing is everything. Research consistently shows that consistency outperforms quality in building audience trust, especially in the early stages of showing up online.
Post the imperfect thing. You can optimize later. You cannot optimize silence.
Principle 2
You Don’t Need Your Content Pillars Figured Out
I did not sit down in March 2020 and map out three content pillars and a messaging framework. I started posting what I knew. What I was thinking about. What I was figuring out in real time.
Your expertise does not need to be perfectly packaged before it can be shared. A lot of senior-level professionals wait until they feel “ready.” But ready is a moving target. And while you’re waiting, someone with half your experience is already posting.
Start messy. Refine as you go.
Principle 3
Find a Rhythm That Is Sustainable Over Impressive
Here’s what I tell every client who says they don’t have time to post: one post a week is not a failure. One post a week, every week, for a year is 52 touchpoints. That’s 52 chances for someone in your network to think, “Oh, she’s the one who knows about this.”
Sustainability beats frequency every single time. Burnout from posting every day is exactly why people disappear. And disappearing is the one thing you cannot afford if you’re trying to build visibility.
Principle 4
Show Up the Same Way, Even When the Topics Shift
My posts weren’t identical in topic. But they were consistent in voice, in intention, in the kind of value I tried to offer. That consistency was what people were responding to at those networking events. Not a specific post. The overall presence.
Think of it like a radio station. People don’t necessarily remember the exact songs. They remember the station. Be a station worth tuning into.
Principle 5
Visibility Creates Conversations You Can’t Engineer
I didn’t post on LinkedIn in spring 2020 with a plan to get hired to train corporate teams on LinkedIn strategy. That came later. It came from DMs. From people asking, “Wait, what exactly do you do?” From conversations that started because someone had seen me showing up, week after week, with something useful to say.
You cannot manufacture that kind of trust. You can only earn it, post by post, by simply being there.
The people who approach you at events, the DMs that come out of nowhere, the referrals from people you haven’t spoken to in years – they all trace back to visibility. Consistent, intentional, imperfect visibility.
You don’t need the perfect strategy. You need to start. And then keep going.
Imagine what it would feel like a year from now to have people walking up to you and saying, “I love what you post.” Not because you had the best content plan, but because you decided to show up when it felt uncomfortable – and you kept showing up anyway.
What is one thing you could post this week – not the perfect post, but a real and useful one – that would help someone in your network see your expertise?
Ready to make showing up a whole lot easier? I’ve put together 30+ content prompts designed specifically for thought leaders who want to show up on LinkedIn with intention, not overwhelm. These aren’t generic “post a tip” prompts. They’re built to help you draw on the expertise you’ve already earned – so visibility feels like sharing instead of performing.
Cheers,
Leanne
P.S. If someone came to mind while you were reading this – the colleague who keeps saying they “should really get on LinkedIn” – forward this to them. Sometimes all it takes is someone saying: you’re already ready. Just start.
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