The LinkedIn Success Mindset book excerpt
Oct 19, 2023
Find Your Superpower newsletter 031
Read time: 6 minutes
Topics covered: LinkedIn professional branding, masterclass launch
An excerpt from the LinkedIn Success Mindset introduction chapter:
Life sometimes takes you dragging and screaming
Life is mercurial. When it deals us an unexpected hand it may force us to abruptly change our career plans altogether.
From pandemics to mass layoffs, bankruptcies, economic tailwinds, chronic illness, disability, pregnancy and childcare, elderly caregiving, divorce or the death of a loved one, so much can happen that is out of our control.
When our cards are dealt, we have to find a path forward, sometimes begrudgingly and painfully. We have to wake up every morning and say out loud, “Not today!”
2018 and 2020 were milestone years for me, and I was forced to make two career pivots:
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2018: my sudden and unplanned resignation
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2020: the global upheaval from the COVID-19 pandemic
In 2018, I decided to resign as I was not holding up very well. I had a toddler and an infant at home. I had a packed research and lecturing schedule. I was also running a blossoming science magazine, called the Asian Scientist. I was barely getting enough rest. I did not exercise.
For those reading this who are putting out fires in all directions 24-7, I know from experience that you can’t be excelling in everything—because your energy, time, health and power are being splintered into many tiny little pieces.
Energy at an all-time low aside, I felt that, despite the huge risk I would be taking by leaving my iron-rice-bowl job behind and launching an entrepreneurial career without a safety net, my passion could keep me going through the darkest hour.
I therefore decided to pivot to my calling—I would start a science media company focusing on my mission “to help make Asian scientists household names.”
In 2018, digital publishers were shaping up to become a formidable entity of their own. It was an era when Buzzfeed and Vice reigned supreme (update: the former has lost more than 90% of its stock value, and the latter is bankrupt and being sold for parts).
Print products and in-person events were still reliable marketing channels and raking in money and eyeballs. That year, my company ran 14 in-person events, one of them with a Nobel Laureate and standing room only, and another with nine doctors and a sold-out crowd.
Circa 2018, I had an account on Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn, but I would say that my social media strategy was lacking. I instinctively knew that I had something to say and a lot to give, but what would I write about? What would I discuss?
What did my voice sound like?
Who would engage with my posts?
I had many questions, but no answers.
The pandemic push to digital
Because running a growing business is a full-time job and my kids were entering their terrible twos and threes, I very quickly relegated my social media strategy to the bottom of my to-do list.
2020 however, swiftly brought all of my best-laid plans to an end. The sudden onset of the COVID-19 pandemic turned all of our lives upside down. Flights were grounded and everyone was instructed to shelter-in-place. Some countries closed their borders, and others imposed draconian measures like quarantines and lockdowns.
Suffice to say, all in-person events were canceled and print became somewhat irrelevant.
I think 2020 was one of those moments of reckoning. It was like the tide went out and revealed that all of us were swimming naked, lacking in a coherent digital branding strategy.
Those furloughed or laid off overnight scrambled to build a digital profile as it was the only channel left to communicate with potential recruiters.
Companies that had no viable digital strategy completely “disappeared” for the next few years, at a huge financial and opportunity cost, as they struggled to build up their digital marketing teams.
I decided that COVID was a watershed moment for me and my company.
I had two choices: Gain mastery of digital communication, or acknowledge that my company was not meant to make a leap into the digital realm.
It was sink or swim. I decided to throw everything I had into building a professional brand on the internet.
To use a poker analogy, I was all in.
You are your own professional brand
Besides infecting billions of people with the coronavirus, 2020 also ushered in a new era where everyone became their own company and brand.
Earning an income as a remote worker, consultant, solopreneur, freelancer and/or gig worker became desirable overnight for the GenZ and Millennial crowd.
Portfolio careers became more attractive and accessible given a proliferation of remote opportunities and as an income diversification strategy. It was also a rejection of iron-rice-bowl careers favored by the Baby Boomer generation.
What used to be a full-time job for one person working in an office, could now become a “gig” split among five remote workers all across the world.
Dissatisfaction with the status quo and the realization that no job is safe also led to the genesis of new terms like “quiet quitting” and “the Great Resignation.”
… continue reading!
T-5 days to the launch of The LinkedIn Success Mindset course
My LinkedIn Success Mindset e-book and video course is launching in five days. Professor Kishore Mahbubani, former Singapore ambassador to the UN, has kindly written me a foreword. LinkedIn's Frank Koo and LinkedIn Top Voices David Wee, Chris Do, Chuen Chuen Yeo and Amanda Cua have all written me generous reviews and can be read here.
A gentle reminder that you can still pre-order at 30% off with the discount code "ABUNDANCE30" until 24 October. Once the course launches, it will revert back to its retail price.
Course buyers will be invited to attend my LinkedIn Storytelling Secrets workshop and Q&A session on 23 November, 11AM-12PM (Singapore time) on Zoom. Please kindly soft book the date on your calendar.
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Thanks for reading issue 031 of my weekly Find Your Superpower newsletter.
For those of you who are new to my newsletter, Find Your Superpower is subscribed to by 26,000+ people, and discusses the following three goals: (1) Making a career transition, (2) Professional branding on LinkedIn, and (3) Reinventing ourselves for the future of work.
Here’s how we can stay in touch:
1. I would recommend you pre-order my e-book and video course, The LinkedIn Success Mindset, at a 30% discount before it launches on 24 October 2023. In this all-in-one guide to LinkedIn, we will learn how to manage our mindset, take action and avoid making cardinal sins on the platform. It will be accompanied by a LIVE storytelling workshop on Zoom on 23 November 2023.
2. If you are new to LinkedIn, consider my masterclass on LinkedIn professional branding, Find Your Superpower: How to Rebrand Yourself on LinkedIn. This 1h on-demand video course that will help you identify your professional brand, write a brand statement from scratch, and launch your brand on LinkedIn.
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