#32 The advice isn't the problem

I've written a lot about LinkedIn profiles in this newsletter.

How your profile is a cheat sheet for the people trying to help you. How the language you used inside Amazon doesn't travel outside the building. How most senior people have never actually had to explain what they do to someone who doesn't already have the context.

And a lot of you have taken that and done something with it. Updated your headlines. Rewritten your About sections. Tightened up the language.

Some of you have told me it's already making a difference — more recruiter outreach, better conversations, people actually understanding what you do when they land on your profile. Which is badass and I love to hear it.

But I also get a lot of these messages:

"I read your advice. I updated my profile. And it's still not landing."

I'm not really surprised when I get them, because there's a limit to what I can do in a newsletter. I can tell you that your headline should answer "why should someone care about this person?" in five seconds. That's true. But answering that question for your specific background, your specific direction, your specific mix of skills and seniority — that requires me to actually understand your desired move and some of what makes you you. And I can't do that in a broadcast to 600 people.

Because the answer for a product marketing leader leaving Amazon to target fintech is completely different from the answer for one that's targeting startups or an ops leader moving toward edtech. Same principle. Totally different executions.

And that's the part you can't get from a newsletter or a LinkedIn post. That's the part where someone who's seen hundreds of these profiles needs to look at yours specifically and say "this is what's off and here's why."

So if your profile still isn't pulling the way you want it to, before you rewrite another word — ask yourself whether you can actually answer the question: why you, for this role, right now? Not "I'm a senior leader with 15 years of experience." The real answer. The one that makes a recruiter stop scrolling. Because most of the profiles I see that aren't landing aren't a copywriting problem. They're a "you haven't answered that question yet" problem. And the language can't be right if the answer isn't.

That's what I've been thinking about, and I'm building something for it.

In mid-April I'm running a small, hands-on workshop where I work through LinkedIn profiles live — headlines, About sections, positioning — with direct feedback on your specific situation. Not a talk-at-you lecture. More like what happens when we work together 1:1, but focused entirely on your profile.

I'll share the details — date, time, price, how to grab a spot — in next week's newsletter.

Either way — next time you look at your profile, don't ask "does this sound good." Ask "would someone who doesn't know me know exactly why they should talk to me?" That's the bar.