42 LinkedIn Lessons I Learned From Three Years of Posting
12. Aug. 2026
42 lessons. Three years of failing in public. Here is what actually works on LinkedIn.
I am not going to make you scroll through all 42. But these are the ones that changed everything for me:
→ It is not a press release site. It's stories for humans.
→ If you post about everything, you reach no one
→ Nobody wants to be sold to in the face. Corporate reports, services, nothing.
→ Plain language beats industry jargon every time
→ One (true) personal story beats a page of credentials
I learnt none of this quickly.
I signed up for courses. I hired a coach. Yes, coaches have coaches too. I tested, failed, adjusted, and tested again. Three years of showing up before it started making sense.
Then clients began arriving with the same line: "I have been following you for months."
That's the sunny side of learning in public.
I put every lesson that actually moved the needle on a list. It came to 42. I gave it away on my birthday in January and then buried it in a comment thread where nobody could find it again.
Classic.
So here it is properly. Free. Link: Get the 42 LinkedIn Lessons
What is the one thing keeping you from posting?
Why visibility is a second skill, separate from competence
The forty two lessons are about LinkedIn, but the pattern underneath them shows up everywhere I coach. Senior leaders spend years building a skill and assume the market will notice on its own. It rarely does.
→ Say one true thing you actually believe, in your own words
→ Do it often enough that a pattern becomes visible
→ Let the credentials stay in the background and let the thinking lead
I see the first version of this constantly with clients preparing for a director or partner promotion. They have the results. What they are missing is a track record anyone outside their own team can see. That is a different conversation from doing good work, and it is the one covered in who decides on Big 4 partner promotion.
Three years of posting taught me the same lesson from the writer's side of the desk. Nobody remembers a polished sentence. People remember a specific story told plainly. That is the whole argument behind The Change Republic: give away the thinking, keep the judgment for the room where it is earned.
If this resonates and you want the practical list, I have a free **42 LinkedIn Lessons** pack that distils three years of what actually works into one list, tested in public, mistakes included. Leave your email here and I will send it over: https://www.thechangerepublic.com/free-resources