Back it up. Or take it down.
A while back, I met a woman online who identified herself as a Founder.
I love founders. Seriously, the startup world is my JAM and founders are my PEOPLE. And one of the things I do is connect founders to resources. So I went to learn about her business, see what she was working on, maybe find people to introduce her to.
I clicked over to her Experience section.
Crickets. (Or rather, the written version of crickets. White space?)
Okay. Maybe she put it in the About section.
Nope.
Projects? Featured? Anywhere on the entire profile?
NOT A THING.
So I DMed her: Hey, I saw you’re a founder, would you mind sharing a bit about your business and your founder’s journey? I love connecting founders to resources.
Her reply: “Oh, I run my business on Instagram, so I didn’t include the details here.”
The “details.”
She didn’t include “details.” She didn’t include anything. Not even the link to her IG page. And her handle wasn’t even her name, so I couldn’t even find her. I know because I tried.
Nothing on LinkedIn — the platform on which she’d just told the entire internet she was a Founder — said she was running a business.
I asked a follow-up question. She ghosted me.
And that was the moment I decided: people need to back up the claims in their headlines. Or take them down.
What “back it up” actually means
Your headline is the first thing anyone reads about you. It shows up in search results, comment threads, connection requests. It’s the only part of your profile some people will ever see.
So when you put a word in there, you’re making a promise.
🔹 “Founder” promises there’s a business somewhere on this profile. 🔹 “Speaker” promises there are talks. 🔹 “Author” promises there’s a book. 🔹 “Thought Leader” promises there’s evidence of, you know, thoughts. Being led.
And here’s what happens when someone reads your headline and goes looking for the receipts.
🔹 If the proof is there, they walk away convinced. 🔹 If the proof isn’t there, they walk away questioning everything else on your profile.
You don’t get a do-over on that first visit. And you probably won’t get a second.
Speaker is the worst offender
“Speaker” might be the most-claimed-without-proof word on the entire platform.
I bring this up to people constantly. They laugh. They tell me I’m right.
And then they don’t change anything.
I genuinely don’t know what to do with this. You agree the headline is making a claim your profile doesn’t back up. You agree it’s hurting more than it’s helping. And you still leave it there. Why?
(If you have a real answer to this question, please tell me. I want to understand.)
Where the proof has to live
Different claims live in different sections. The fix isn’t complicated. It just has to actually happen.
If your headline says “Founder”: Experience section, with the company listed. About section that mentions the work. Projects or Featured pinning whatever’s most important. At absolute minimum, a link to the business somewhere on the page.
If your headline says “Speaker”: Publications section with the talks. Featured section with photos, links, recordings. Activity section where you’ve shared the talks or commented in your field.
If your headline says “Author”: Publications section for the book. Featured section with the buy link. About section that mentions the work and why you wrote it.
If your headline says “Thought Leader”: Activity section that shows actual thought leadership. Posts. Articles. Comments in industry conversations.
If your most recent activity is liking something from 2023, your headline is writing checks you’re not cashing.
Every claim has a section that proves it. Your job: find that section. Build it out. It’s really that simple.
The “Speaker | Advisor | Thought Leader | Activist” problem
This stack of nouns separated by pipes is everywhere.
The issue isn’t that the words are wrong. The issue is that four claims means four sections that need to deliver. And usually… none of them do.
So now your headline is making four promises and your profile is delivering on none of them.
Pick the ones you can prove right now. Drop the rest until you can.
What to do this week
Open your profile. Read your headline out loud. For every claim, ask: where on this page would someone find the proof?
If the answer is “nowhere,” you have two choices.
Back it up. Add the proof. The business link. The talks. The book. The articles. Whatever section your claim demands.
Or take it down. Pull the claim out of the headline until you can back it up.
Both are honorable. Both make your profile stronger immediately.
What is not honorable is leaving the claim there hoping nobody scrolls.
Because they will scroll. And whoever was about to help you — connect you, hire you, book you, fund you — is going to see the gap. And quietly close the tab.
Just like I closed the tab on the Founder.