LinkedIn profile strategy
Your LinkedIn profile is
doing you dirty.
Let's fix that.
Most profiles read like a dusty online resume nobody asked for. Yours should be a strategic engagement tool that works while you sleep, attracting clients, opportunities, and the right people.
Not sure where to start? Get a Strategic Profile Audit for $147 →
Love Your LinkedIn Profile is for people who've done extraordinary work and have a LinkedIn profile that doesn't even hint at it.
Your profile exists. But is it actually working?
Most LinkedIn profiles are bad. Not because the person is bad, or lazy, or doesn't care. They're bad because nobody ever taught us how to use LinkedIn strategically. We threw it together in 2014 between meetings and updated it once when we changed jobs. That's it. That's the whole story.
So now you've got a profile that's invisible in search, reads like a copy-pasted resume, and gives zero reason for anyone to reach out. You post and get crickets. You update your headline and get more crickets. You wonder if LinkedIn is just dead. (It isn't. People who say LinkedIn is dead are saying this... on LinkedIn. And then expecting to be taken seriously. Also, they're using it wrong.)
A LinkedIn profile isn't a 2D résumé. It's a 3D strategic asset, a dynamic engagement tool that should be doing real work for you while you sleep.
That's the difference. A resume is a flat document about where you've been. A LinkedIn profile, done right, is a three-dimensional thing: it tells your story, makes your case, and gives the right people a reason to reach out. Every section pulling in the same direction.
That's the work. Not adding keywords. Not picking a better headshot. Building a profile that does a specific job, the job you need it to do, so the right people land on it and immediately think I should reach out to this person.
A real example.
Most people open with their job title. It's the safest, most boring choice. Here's what that looks like, and what we'd do instead.
Before
Global Marketing and Communications Consultant | Digital Marketing | Content Creation | Copywriting | Nonprofits | Fundraising
After
Small Nonprofits, Powerful Stories | I will absolutely over-research your mission | My jokes are hilarious (according to me)
The first one tells me your title. The second one tells me who you serve, how you work, and just enough personal interest to make me want to keep reading. That's the magic of a great headline. It's an invitation.
The rest of your profile is your professional narrative and should be absolutely clear, every section sharp, intentional, doing a job. When your profile delivers on what your headline promised, the rest is, as they say, history.
How do I know this works? Within a few days, this client had people reaching out because they loved her headline. She has fewer than 500 connections.
Real client stories
What happens when your profile
actually works for you.
Job offer, profile half-done
"A client I'd been bugging for two years finally said yes. We started at the bottom of her profile. Barely into Experience when she started applying. Within a week, job offer. They viewed her profile, made the call in an hour. Profile still not finished."
— Medical professional, 1:1 client
Twelve connections, one conference
"Same conference, twenty years. Same industry, same people. Always came home with a few business cards. This year she came home with more than a dozen connection requests. Before she even got home."
— Entrepreneur, 1:1 client
Speaking gig, profile half-done
"She didn't think her speaking experience was relevant. I insisted we add it. Before the profile was finished, she was offered a speaking gig. She knows that's why they picked her."
— Consultant, 1:1 client
Start at the bottom. Yes, really.
Most people open LinkedIn, scroll to the top of their profile, stare at the headline, and freeze. Then they tinker. Then they give up. This is exactly the wrong order.
The headline is the hardest section to write. It has to compress everything about you into 220 characters, and you can't write it well until you know what you're actually compressing. So we start at the bottom, in the sections most people ignore. Skills. Recommendations. Projects. Publications. That's where your evidence lives. That's where we find the proof of what you've actually done.
Goalevidencenarrative
Once we know what you've done and who you're trying to reach, the Experience section practically writes itself. The About section becomes your closing argument. The headline gets sharp. The banner stops being a stock photo of a city skyline. Every section pulls in the same direction, telling the same story.
That's the whole approach. Goal first. Build from the bottom. Let the narrative emerge from the evidence, not the other way around.
Things we're thinking about.
See all posts →The five LinkedIn sections most people never bother to fill out, and why that's costing them work.
Everyone obsesses over the headline. Almost nobody touches Publications, Projects, or Featured. Which is exactly backwards, because those sections do the heavy lifting your headline can't.
Why "I help" headlines never actually help.
The phrase that's been clogging LinkedIn for a decade, and what to write instead.
How to position a non-linear career on LinkedIn (without apologizing for it).
If your background looks like a Jackson Pollock painting, this one's for you.
Your About section is your closing argument, not your introduction.
The single mindset shift that changes everything about how you write this section.
Find the right fit
for where you are right now.
DIY with the best LinkedIn course on the internet, or hire me privately to build it with you. Whichever way you go, you get the same framework.
Optimize
The self-paced video course that walks you through every section of your LinkedIn profile.
- 50+ video lessons covering every section of your profile
- The same framework used in my private 1:1 sessions
- Worksheets, templates, examples, resources
- Go at your own pace, implement as you go
- Built to be picked up by AI and people, in that order
Also included
Dozens of real profile examples
Worksheets and resources
Step-by-step instructions
Lifetime access
Private · 1:1
The Authority Protocol
Private 1:1 sessions where we build your LinkedIn presence together, live, in real time. The full experience, done with you.
By invitation · 4 spots/month
Learn more →Group cohort · Coming soon
Optimize Lab
The Optimize course plus six weeks of live group sessions. Get your profile done with real-time feedback and accountability.
$2,497 · group cohort
Learn more →Quick · 15 minutes
Profile Audit
A 15-minute expert video review of your profile. Find out what's working, what's hurting you, and where to focus first.
$147
Get your audit →There's a book, too. Love Your LinkedIn Profile →
You probably want to know.
Is this just another LinkedIn checklist?
Not a chance. Checklists tell you what to do but never why. So you make the updates and still wonder why nothing changed.
This is a strategic framework that starts with your goal and builds your professional narrative from the ground up. Every section, every word, every piece of media is deliberately chosen. You walk away with a profile that sounds like you and works like a business development tool.
Who is this actually for?
Consultants. Executives. Founders. Career professionals who know their LinkedIn profile isn't doing them justice. Even students and recent graduates are benefiting.
If you've ever felt embarrassed to share your LinkedIn link, struggled to explain what you do, or wondered why you're not getting more traction, this is for you. If you're already thrilled with your profile and drowning in inbound opportunities, you probably don't need me.
Where should I start?
Depends on how you work.
Move at your own pace? Start with Optimize, the self-paced course that walks you through every section of your profile.
Want it done with you, privately? Apply for The Authority Protocol.
Not sure? Get a Profile Audit first. Fifteen minutes and you'll know exactly where you stand and what to fix.
How fast will I see results?
Faster than you'd expect. Clients regularly see results, job offers, speaking invitations, inbound messages, before their profile is even finished. Not a fluke. When your positioning is right, the right people notice immediately.
One caveat: networking isn't a passive activity. Keep that up, on and off LinkedIn. The difference is that your audience is much more likely to act on your efforts when your professional narrative is clear. The conference client I mentioned above? She has fewer than 400 connections and is rarely on LinkedIn.
Do I need a huge following for this to work?
No. This has nothing to do with follower counts, posting schedules, or going viral. It's about making sure the right person, a potential client, employer, or collaborator, sees what they need to see when they land on your profile. Works whether you have 200 connections or 20,000.
The speaking-gig client? Fewer than 400 connections. Her profile closed the deal. The conference client? Also under 400. Also rarely online. (She owns a bricks-and-mortar business.) Numbers aren't the point. The profile is.
Natalie BertheLinkedIn Strategist & Author
Meet the founder
Hi, I'm Natalie. And I'm a little obsessed with LinkedIn.
I started fixing LinkedIn profiles because most of them are awful. Not because the people behind them are lazy or careless. Because nobody ever taught us how to use LinkedIn strategically.
What I figured out working with consultants, executives, and career professionals is that updating a profile isn't the real work. The real work is figuring out your professional narrative. Who you are. What you actually do. Why it matters. How to communicate that in a way that makes the right people want to reach out.
"I don't just tell you what to do. I explain the purpose and the leverage. And then I show you exactly what to do."
So my approach is different. Goal first. Build from the bottom. Every decision strategic. No guesswork, no generic checklists, no one-size-fits-all nonsense.
Clients leave with clarity, a killer profile, and that very specific feeling of holy sh*t, this is actually me. And then the opportunities start showing up. Sometimes before we're even done.
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