Author: Mary E. Maloney

How three executives grew their LinkedIn followers to 30k+ and why it matters

By Mary E. Maloney

Niven Postma was on LinkedIn for more than a decade before she realized that “invisible contributions” didn’t have full impact. She realized she could do more with her executive personal brand, which focuses on strategy, empathy, and impact, if she talked about it. 

And so she did.

In 2020, Postma started posting regularly to LinkedIn about some of her favorite topics in leadership and organizational politics, not only sharing her knowledge but also asking questions and responding to related posts others were making. Now she has more than 30,000 followers.

Postma, a leadership and organizational politics expert from Johannesburg, South Africa; Blake LeMoi, director of business development at Paid; and Joseph Polanin, CEO and fractional COO at Alaka’i Leadership Group, were panelists on a recent Revealing Genius live broadcast on YouTube and LinkedIn about how to amplify your brand by growing your LinkedIn followers to that level. 

Interestingly, the panelists say that talking on LinkedIn about what they stand for helped them clarify not only what they stand for but also how they talk about it, just as the time-proven Excavate-Tell-Affirm™ executive personal branding process from Revealing Genius has done for many executives. (Read more in our past blog about how to use executive personal branding to help you build a superb LinkedIn profile.)

Here’s more advice from our esteemed panelists on how to achieve a 30,000-follower level of brand success on the LinkedIn platform.

Grow Your LinkedIn Followers Strategically

The panelists emphasize growing your list of followers on LinkedIn will come more readily from focusing more on relationships than transactions. 

“Be desperate to serve, not sell,” LeMoi says in the event recording, explaining that sharing insights and helping your audience naturally leads to business opportunities.

Polanin stresses that meaningful relationships must be founded on mutual respect and trust, noting that he seeks connections with people—whether on LinkedIn or somewhere else—who demonstrate integrity across their personal and professional lives.

Niven said her approach evolved from viewing LinkedIn as a means to generate business to something she now values for connection, learning, community building, and paying it forward. 

All three experts agreed that monetary value and business opportunities naturally stemmed from prioritizing authentic relationships.

Of course, the choice of social platform is also a strategic move. 

LeMoi chose LinkedIn because his target audience is B2B professionals who often use the platform. Polanin similarly selected LinkedIn after determining his target clients—executives and CEOs—were most active there. Niven took a slightly different approach, preferring LinkedIn because it aligned with the professional aspect of herself she wanted to share publicly, while keeping her personal life private.

“I believe in life, in business, and in social media, you have to have a vision before you want to go and you have to have a strategy and a roadmap of how you’re going to get there,” Polanin says in the recording.

Terrific Tactics

Tune in to the event recording to hear the panelists discuss practical LinkedIn tactics that they believe helped them grow their followings so effectively. 

For example, they recommend leveraging LinkedIn tools, such as Premium features for connecting and messaging. All three experts also place importance on posting content about topics they’re genuinely passionate about based on their unique experiences, perspectives and expertise. (“You are the niche,” Polanin points out.) In addition, Postma explains that she found positive, thoughtful content performs best even as she avoids “toxic positivity.”

“I like sharing the stuff that I’m thinking about. But then equally, I like hearing what people have to say about it,” she says. “So it’s almost like an R&D space, a container for what I know and what I didn’t know I know and what I’m learning.”

Postma explains that she also likes engaging with other people’s content. “That’s why for me, it feels like a conversation. … I’m giving, but I’m getting a whole bunch as well.”

Some additional tactics the panelists offer include:

• Learn LinkedIn’s algorithm rules and adapt as they change
• Post at consistent times to build audience expectation
• Avoid posting URLs directly in initial posts (add them in comments after 20 minutes)
• Like your own posts and add comments after posting to build momentum
• Achieve LinkedIn’s “Top Voice” designation to add significant credibility

The panelists also discussed the monetary payoff of their efforts.

For example, LeMoi has leveraged his LinkedIn presence to take advantage of recruiting opportunities and break through gatekeepers. Polanin can trace 100% of his current consulting clients to LinkedIn connections, often through indirect referrals. All three noted that authentic content offering valuable insights typically outperforms overly “salesy” content.

Game-Changing Advice

Throughout the discussion, the experts emphasize authenticity, relationship-building, audience understanding, and consistent action as key principles for LinkedIn success. They encouraged attendees to start taking action immediately rather than waiting for perfect strategies, saying that even understanding just 20% of what you’re doing on LinkedIn is enough to begin making meaningful progress.

The session concluded with fantastic big-picture advice from each of the panelists.

LeMoi: “Share your insights, help your audience. When your audience is ready, they’ll come to you because you’re the one that has nurtured them through the education, through the process.”

Polanin: “Build great relationships and you can’t go wrong. Life isn’t about what you can achieve. It’s about what you can become.” 

Postma: “Have fun” and “Change your definition of success.” In other words, focus on creating consistent content about topics you love rather than focusing on follower counts.

A LinkedIn Follower Growth Checklist

Here’s an outline of the key takeaways from the roundtable that you might find useful in growing your number of LinkedIn followers:

☐ Be intentional and authentic

☐ Understand an act on platform mechanics

☐ Focus on your unique content niche

Doing executive personal branding using the time-proven Excavate-Tell-Affirm™ executive personal branding process from Revealing Genius will help you clarify your brand, believe in it with conviction, and learn to better tell others about it. All this makes it a great underpinning on which to build your LinkedIn follower growth efforts.

Check out our Brand Leadership Summit or sign up for our signature Brand Declaration offering. We’d be honored to support you in amplifying your brand.

Mary E. Maloney, FACHE

An executive advisor, educator, speaker, author and producer, Mary E. Maloney is the founder of Revealing Genius and the expert that accomplished leaders trust for positioning, messaging and brand strategy for themselves, their teams and their organizations. A former CEO and CMO, Maloney guides C-suite leaders, founders, physicians and board directors to powerfully and strategically message their expertise and “why” so they lead with conviction and achieve their most coveted goals.

Revealing Genius Mastermind Spheres of Influence take a cue from Ben Franklin’s roundtable.

By Mary E. Maloney

Masterminds have been around throughout history. And groups of masterminds have been forming to share ideas and support one another for just as long. Maybe you could say masterminds have a long history of “masterminding” good for themselves and the world.

All joking aside, consider the benefits created by the group of masterminds Ben Franklin formed. A renowned inventor and statesman, Franklin formed his “junto,” which means “together” in Spanish, in 1727 as a self-improvement club. 

The junto met weekly for several decades, organized largely around the discussion of Franklin’s 13 “virtues” (temperance, silence, order, resolution, frugality, industry, sincerity, justice, moderation, cleanliness, chastity, tranquility, and humility).

The group’s diverse members included printers, surveyors, a cabinetmaker, a clerk, and a bartender.

Taking a Cue From Franklin’s Junto

I can attest that masterminds are still meeting regularly to mastermind good for the world. I facilitate such a group every week. It’s the Revealing Genius Mastermind Sphere of Influence (SOI).

The seasoned leaders we attract self-identify as changemakers, outliers, innovators, trailblazers, pioneers, visionaries, disruptors. game-changers, groundbreakers, truthseekers, way/pathfinders, catalysts, architects, builders, futurists and alchemists. They all have experienced imposter syndrome. 

In the Revealing Genius Mastermind Spheres of Influence, we formalize our resolve to be intentional about our personal brands and to support one another about where we should focus our precious energy in six vital areas captured on a Vision Grid: spirituality, health & style, relationships, work/finance, recreation/fun, learning/education. I often remind myself that what we say “yes” to speaks volumes about our personal brands. 

We do an exercise called “More of this, please!” to help members excavate what fills their cups—what matters to them most and sometimes even more importantly—what needs to be shed.  

Why a Mastermind Sphere?

What makes a Mastermind Sphere so powerful? 

It’s not just another networking group. It’s a transformative collective of like-minded individuals committed to turning each group member’s “someday” into “today” by developing and actioning a strategic plan for their personal brand. Here’s why these groups work so very, very well:

✅ Collective Accountability: No more solo struggling. Join, and you’ll have a dedicated group that checks in on your progress, celebrates your wins, and helps you navigate challenges weekly.

✅ Strategic Support: Your sphere of influence will help you focus on four critical pillars:

• • Your success MODEL
  • Powerful MESSAGING
  • Effective MARKETING
  • Winning MINDSET

✅ Helpful Facilitation: Among other helpful exercises, you’ll identify what you need to shed elegantly and say “no” to gracefully to make space for what you desire most. You’d be amazed at just how powerful this is. You may even breathe a sigh of relief. 

Imagine having a group that has your back as you refine your strategies, challenges your limiting beliefs, holds you accountable for making necessary power moves, and keeps you laser-focused on your “keystone goals.”

Franklin’s junto meetings led to such innovations as volunteer fire-fighting organizations, improved security through night watchmen, a public hospital, and—something Franklin is famous for—the first public library. All arguably initiatives that impact the 7th generation.

What will your participation in a Mastermind Sphere of Influence make possible?

Mary E. Maloney, FACHE

An executive advisor, educator, speaker, author and producer, Mary E. Maloney is the founder of Revealing Genius and the expert that accomplished leaders trust for positioning, messaging and brand strategy for themselves, their teams and their organizations. A former CEO and CMO, Maloney guides C-suite leaders, founders, physicians and board directors to powerfully and strategically message their expertise and “why” so they lead with conviction and achieve their most coveted goals.

Discover and deliver on your ‘why’ with a bedrock Brand Declaration.

Deciding to buy—whether that’s investing in a product, a business relationship, a new hire or a business relationship—means deciding to trust. And a 2024 study, Trends in Personal Branding National Research, found that 74% of Americans are more likely to trust (and therefore buy from) someone with an established personal brand. 

Another striking data point: 67% of all Americans would be willing to spend more money on products and services from companies of Founders whose personal brand aligns with their values. 

In perhaps the most powerful statistic, 82% agree that companies are more influential if their executives have a personal brand they know and follow. 

The data points to a stark realization that a trusted personal brand is not considered to be a game of vanity or popularity but a more critical component to how consumers make purchasing decisions. 

But how do you build that trust-inspiring personal brand?

Let’s first look at the most trusted corporate brands for lessons on the important link between branding and trust. Then let’s dive into how you can develop your own executive personal brand using a Brand Declaration from Revealing Genius as your launching pad. This will be good for you, the people you most want to serve and the world.

In the words of educator, author and philosopher Howard Thurman:

“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” 

Corporate Brands Rated Tops for Trust Reap Benefits

Andre Benjamin, VP/strategy and partnerships for HundredX, which partnered with Forbes to develop its 2025 most-trusted corporate brands list, underscores the idea that top trust rankings correlate strongly with future purchasing decisions. 

“The higher you are on the list, the more people want to buy from you,” says Benjamin in a Forbes feature article about the list. “It’s not squishy. It’s real.

“No one loves their phone company. No one loves a cable company,” Benjamin says. “But if you are doing a great job focusing on what those customers need and what engenders trust, you are rewarded relative to your industry.”

Being Good at What You Do Isn’t Enough

At this point, you might be wondering, “Can’t I just be good at what I do?” “Won’t being really good be enough to make people trust me?”

I’m sorry to say it, but no. They need you to express what your brand stands for.

A recent guest on my The Great Work of Your Life™ Interview Series, Dr. Ming Wang explains this well. As Dr. Wang sees it, the proverbial “10,000 hours” of doing something is simply the ante for doing it well. (Catch the episode and be sure to subscribe to the Revealing Genius YouTube channel!)

“What drives me and gives me the energy is the why,” Wang says. An M.D. and a Ph.D. in physics and the subject of the movie “Sight” starring Greg Kinnear, his “why” is to witness the moment when someone goes from being in darkness to seeing the light—because he has restored their vision.

“It is the ‘why’ we have to keep on identifying, sharpening and focusing,” he underscores in the show. Consider this: Leaders that people will die to follow know their “why.” 

A Trusted Personal Brand Starts with a Brand Declaration™  

A Brand Declaration is arguably one of the most important exercises you will engage in to pursue meaningful work. Think of it as a tool to excavate your True North, streamline the vocabulary and language to clearly and consistently articulate what your personal brand stands for, and affirm what you value most until you can feel it in your bones. 

It consists of three parts: 1) defining your purpose, why you exist to serve; 2) your why, at what you are the best in the world with the transformation you create when you’re rooted in that zone of genius; and 3) your hows, your non-negotiable floor of excellence in terms of how you show up in the world. 

It’s a time-proven tool to ground you in your core values and enable you to say yes to what gives you energy no matter what age or stage you’re in, particularly in times of transition. It will also enable you to gracefully shed things that don’t serve you anymore. It’s the foundation from which to build a trusted personal brand. 

Here is the simple template for the output:

My Purpose

(This is why you exist to serve.)

My Why

(This describes at what, you are the best in the world, and the transformation (before and after experience) you facilitate when you are tapped into your zone of genius. Formula: To <contribution> so that <impact.>)

My Hows

(These are non-negotiable. In the absence of them, you cannot create an impact. Start with an action word. Up to nine is the best practice. )

Here are two examples: 

Tomas A, US Marine Corps, First Lieutenant, former Director Public Health Workforce Data Systems for the CDC Foundation & Bureau Director for PA Dept of Health, public speaker, mobilizes resources at scale

My Purpose

Stirring Bravery

My Why

To immerse myself in service so that people and organizations shine.

My Hows

Exemplify service above self

Do the work

Stay calm and focused regardless

Help people to help themselves

Move with agility

Champion the trial of new things

Have fun

Exude confidence and excellence

Internalize the compliment (take it!) 

————————————————————————————————–

Dawn M, Board Director, Finance Chair, Enterprise Transformation Leader, expatriate

My Purpose

I exist to serve by Embracing Grace

My Why

To drive systemic, lasting change by involving and honoring people so that they feel empowered and comfortable (even courageous) to forge untested paths and find the adventure in overcoming great challenges.

My Hows

Exude uncompromising character, integrity, humility, trust, respect

Raise the bar on accountability, by my example

Ideate to problem solve

Reconcile underlying assumptions

Listen then act

Strive for wisdom

What Happens When You Have Your Brand Declaration in Hand

With your Brand Declaration established, your network will see that you’re walking your talk. They will trust that you will consistently deliver on your purpose, your why, your hows and therefore be more inclined to “buy” from you. As a tangential bonus, you’ll also walk through any doorway with a palpable sense of agency and conviction. 

The Brand Declaration leverages the Excavate-Tell-Affirm™ process which is quick, fun and iterative. You’ll not only clarify your brand now but also gain a process to revisit your brand at any time. Here’s a quick outline of the three steps:

1. Excavate: Deep dive into your experiences, strengths and aspirations to uncover what you are uniquely equipped to offer to the world 
2. Tell: Identify signature stories, the only thing the competition cannot duplicate, that effectively communicates your brand and potential impact 
3. Affirm: Build clarity, confidence and conviction through targeted feedback and support.

Your Brand Declaration should feel authentic and, when it does, it will be heard, trusted and actioned.

We’ve seen our clients accept dream jobs and coveted board seats, give Ted Talks to standing ovations, make major pivots into having even more impact after accomplished careers and so much more, once they are grounded in their Brand Declaration. As Dr. Wang describes, knowing your “why” will give you energy—you’ll know you’re on the right track, doing what you do best in the world.

You don’t have to build your executive personal brand  alone. In just two calls, we can help you  create a Brand Declaration, in which you “give words” to your true North and calling. We believe it’s a leadership imperative. Schedule today! We will be honored to assist you with this important work.

Mary E. Maloney, FACHE

An executive advisor, educator, speaker, author and producer, Mary E. Maloney is the founder of Revealing Genius and the expert that accomplished leaders trust for positioning, messaging and brand strategy for themselves, their teams and their organizations. A former CEO and CMO, Maloney guides C-suite leaders, founders, physicians and board directors to powerfully and strategically message their expertise and “why” so they lead with conviction and achieve their most coveted goals.