The legacy of LinkedIn

We're starting a new week. 

And it remains to be seen if the Epstein File Bukake of News will finally fade out. As in all past Trump transgressions, ethical, criminal and moral missteps that would have sunk the career of any other politician, I believe this will fade from our collective memory. And be relegated to one of those corrugated cardboard boxes gathering dust in a chandeliered bathroom at Mara Lago.

But today's post concerns, I thinks concerns is probably not the right word choice here, is the disappearance of the LinkedIn Ladies of Personal Brand Building.

They were popular about 10 years ago. The same time Gary Vaynerchuck was crushing the Crush Rush and Grant Cardone, the gazillionaire real estate huckster was promising to 10X your income, your protein consumption, and your penile tumescence.

Thankfully, I don't see their posts anymore. 

I suspect that's because I whipped out the "R" word -- retired -- and let the LinkedIn algorithms that I was no longer looking for copywriting opportunities. Hence my brand was already built. If you can call it that. And was now entering a slow steady state of decay.

And with that I was no longer being shown the Limber Ladies of LinkedIn who danced profusely while spewing personal nuggets of career wisdom that only a 25 year old Kappa Kappa Gamma could dish on their iPhone videos.

"You have to believe in yourself. If you don't, who will?"

"Discover what makes you, you. And let the world in on you."

"Kale."

Similarly, Gary V. no longer pops up in my feed. I don't miss his online videos either. Particularly when he'd get overly excited and spittle would fly from his mouth while urging viewers to crush this, crush that, and go all Godzilla-style and crush small towns and hamlets. 

It might be the timber of his voice, in addition to his vapid platitudes, but this is the only crushing I'm interested in:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7k6XTvlGc_s

Finally there's Mr. Cardone. Happy not to see him pimping his school of "real estate secrets." Geez, who else do we know that made billions in real estate by siphoning federal subsidies, stiffing contractors and sharing his proprietary methods and sources...

But I still doom scroll at LinkedIn. After all, if my close to 10,000 followers, and again, I don't know how that happened...

...were to purchase a T-shirt or a hat or a coffee mug from my new online store, I'd safely be able to avoid ending up in a dirty nursing home. Or at least I'd have one of those rooms with a panoramic view of the parking lot.