STIMY #54

Hello from London!

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👋🏻 STIMIES,

I've been in London for 1+ months!

Can't believe we're one third into 2025.

London as a student versus London as a working adult is very different. Before, student life was all about hustling for the best student discounts/free stuff, booking that coveted library seat, attending lectures and/or completing the dreaded legal essays.

Now?

It's returning to a City that feels both familiar and foreign all at once.

Most friends have left, some dear ones remain, and learning to forge new friendships when you don't have an existing circle to tap into (e.g. from work/school) has been interesting.

Yet also surprisingly easy.

I won't have said this 5 years ago but I can now thanks to STIMY.

Setting aside how popular it is now to run a podcast (everyone seems to want/have one), STIMY remains one of my main ways of getting into rooms & speaking to the most interesting people. Because at the end of the day:

• Having your own 'thing' gives you an element of legitimacy. I'm not a random nobody who's popped up from nowhere. You can track what I've done for years and know what I've been up to
• Everyone loves sharing their own story
• Authority by association is real - don't you want to be featured on the same platform as former US Congressmen & Supreme Court judges?
• People love to learn and understand how other people have built their lives

If you'd like to know more about what I've been up to, I've been posting daily snippets/day in my lives here - vidadeliya. Some snippets:

(1) Spending the day at the Al-Jazeera London office (at the Shard!) with an upcoming STIMY guest

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(2) Checking out a river boat in Central London - the home of an upcoming STIMY guest

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(3) A really cool, posh co-working space at Bank (i.e. financial district)

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Alright, it's time for me to get back to working on the STIMY Build Your Why course.

See you next week!

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P/S: If you want to be part of the STIMY Community Directory (you can find out about what other STIMY members are doing / connect with each other), submit this form.

I'll add you to the Directory & give you access too!

Want to grow your personal brand? Join the Build Your Why course to learn how to tell your story in simple, practical steps. This is a beta launch so if you join now, you get a 50% discount as thanks for believing in a product that doesn't yet exist 🥺 You also get to build BYW with me! Tell me more about BYW!.

LinkedIn Personal Branding Corner

Here some of the most recent, viral LinkedIn threads published that have caught my eye:

1. ​Let’s talk about the agency vs. in-house debate​
2. ​This leaked AI Memo from the Shopify CEO is a must-read for every CEO, entrepreneur, and startup founder. The world just changed:​
3. ​When I first heard Jamie Laing was running 5 ultra-marathons in 5 days, I honestly found it a bit problematic.​
4. ​✍️ Sometimes the smartest copy is the simplest​
5. ​Hey Linkedin, I’ve never really engaged with this platform to date, but as I begin the lead up to launching ooji, thought it was time!​

Personal Branding Tip

The more time I spend obsessing over LinkedIn, the more I'm convinced that the rules are meant to be broken.
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If you've been following me for some time, you might know some of the rules:

• Use short sentences
• Show don't tell
• Use emojis for a burst of colour
• Write like you're 10 years old
• Keep paragraphs short and succinct (with spaces in between)

These are some of the basics of modern writing that work well regardless of platform. If only because we humans have developed such a short attention span!

No one has extra time for you.

Or maybe... they do?

Take a look at some of the viral posts mentioned today.

Most of them AREN'T short reads.

In fact, I'd single out Zara's post in particular and say that if you were to measure it strictly against all the "LinkedIn best practices" out there, she'd FAIL:

• Chunky paragraphs
• No spaces
• No human face in her photos

But the post still took off.

Because what she's got is:

• Authenticity
• A personal underdog story - "I decided to quit my full-time job to start freelance cooking"
• A vulnerability that most are too afraid to share

Here is another founder taking a chance & sharing her story. Achieving the kind of virality and reach that you won't find elsewhere (without paying stupid amounts of money for).

I've no doubt that this reach will give a boost to her business. And who knows where she'll be 5, 10 years from now.

Because at the end of the day, it doesn't matter how good your product is or how brilliant you are at your job.

If people don't know you exist, you're no better than anyone else.

So stop obsessing over the rules, best practices and gazillion things you don't know about writing on LinkedIn.

Just take a chance.

And get started today. 😉

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Ling Yah

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