PayPal’s Hiring for It. LinkedIn’s Optimizing for It. You Can Monetize It.

The personal brand playbook just went enterprise. Here’s what smart founders need to know.

Hello & Happy Friday, my Friends. We made it!

Lots to talk about this week, so let’s jump in.

PayPal Drops A Quarter Million On Personal Branding

PayPal just posted a job that should make every business leader pause: "Head of CEO Content" with a salary range up to $237,000.

This isn't marketing or PR. Someone's entire job will be crafting and amplifying the personal brand of PayPal's CEO.

Can you say bullish?

It’s one thing for the Irina Novoselsky, CEO of Hootsuite, to invest in her personal brand, that makes good business sense for the CEO of a social media scheduling tool. But the world's largest fintech? That's the signal we've been waiting for.

Personal branding just crossed from "nice to have" to "business infrastructure."

Giddy up!

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LinkedIn's Algo Chiefs Spill The Tea

One thing I’ve noticed this year is a pretty significant increase in the amount of content coming from Linkedin execs, especially on the Product & Marketing side of the house.

Rishi Jobanputra, LinkedIn's Senior Director of Product Management for the Feed, recently answered the platform's most persistent question: Do links hurt your reach?

His answer was nuanced, which he himself acknowledged, but pay attention to this:

The simple answer is no, we don't intentionally limit the use of posts. The best way to figure out this is with your own so if your post leads with value - the knowledge, the insights, the takeaways - that's amazing. The link is just there to supplement what you post and create value for your users.

On the other hand, if the sole purpose of your post is to drive traffic to that link, well that's not going to create much value for the user.

- Rishi Johbanputra, Sr. Director of Product Management for Linkedin Feed

This is bad news for all those people who love to just post links to their latest sales offering without providing any of that juicy knowledge, insight, and takeaways that Linkedin is hoping you’ll include.

So yes, include links. But only as the cherry on top, not as the whole sundae. In other words, don’t do this:

I’ve been testing this out for a few months now because Publer (one of the scheduling tools that Linkedin gave direct access to their analytics API) makes it easy to add signatures to my posts automatically, including links.

Thus far, more than 400 people have clicked links to my Stan Store and I haven’t noticed any material variance in distribution, which is the benefit of including links in posts for an entire month — you would notice if EVERY post was down, but i’ve had plenty of posts with 5-digit impression counts including links and others that barely hit 1,000.

Point is, the link wasn’t suppressing everything, so I’m team link now!

Some other Linkedin leaders worth following for updates & pointers include:

• Dani Markovits from the community team

• Katie Carroll, Director of Global Community Programs

• Gyanda Sachdeva, VP of Product Management for Feed

• Tim Jurka, VP of Engineering

• Jessica Jensen, Chief Marketing & Strategy Officer (and my bet to be Ryan Roslansky’s successor).

• Julia (Cabral) Flavin, Sr. Director of Product Marketing (great video content)

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The Magic Of Making Money Online

Greg Isenberg, CEO of Late Checkout, recently shared something that stopped my scroll and resonated deeply with me as someone who is still new to the entrepreneurial journey and not quite sure how to put what I feel into words (ironic, I know).

Basically, Greg did that for me in his post.

These parts especially:

Once you ship your first idea on the internet, it rewires your brain. You go from consumer to creator. You see the matrix now. The first time you wake up to Stripe notifications from strangers buying something you built on a weekend, you're done.

Once you've tasted building for your own audience, employment feels like a costume you wear. You can't unknow what you know. Can't unsee the opportunity. Can't go back to asking permission.

Most people die with ideas inside them. You're going to die with shipped products and an audience that remembers you.

AI makes it so anyone is a founder if you want it.

I can relate to all of that.

The feeling of someone paying you for your knowledge and expertise is like nothing else I’ve experienced in business. It’s pretty intoxicating. There’s a rush to it.

And I often find myself asking: “why didn’t I do this sooner?”

My advice to anyone deeply passionate about something is to think about how you might be able to monetize that passion because I truly do believe that this moment in time is one of the greatest opportunities for individuals to build a meaningful personal brand and profitable business, both of which are fueled by their passion and the fire burning deep in their soul.

“AI makes it so anyone is a founder if you want it.”

The opportunity is massive, IF you take it.

Will you?

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Is LinkedIn Finally Going After Pods?

LinkedIn just announced it will limit the visibility of comments made via automation tools. For those unfamiliar, engagement pods are groups where members automatically like and comment on each other's posts to artificially boost engagement.

LinkedIn's new stance: "We may limit how many comments a member can make in a certain time period. We may also limit the visibility of comments made through automation tools."

Translation: The days of gaming the system are numbered. LinkedIn is prioritizing authentic engagement over vanity metrics.

Hallelujah!

This is honestly a long time coming personally I think that this is one reason so many people are griping about distribution right now.

The fact is: Linkedin has decoupled engagement from distribution—I’m almost certain of it—and that likely means that AI is in the driver’s seat when it comes to impressions, not engagement.

Meaning…

Linkedin is getting smarter at determining what types of posts will resonate with what types of people and no longer has to factor in engagement as a primary measurement of content value.

Translation: engagement pods are f*cked.

People using engagement pods may still be getting loads of engagement, but that no longer determines distribution, so they’re probably getting squeezed on the impression front.

This ultimately obliterates the single iota of value they that engagement pods had, and I suspect those who run them will need a new set of shenanigans going forward.

Also worth noting that Linkedin has essentially forced 3rd party platforms that violate their Terms of Service to stop operating on the platform (I’m assuming by threat of legal action). The popular scheduling, analytics, and commenting platform, Aware, is shutting down at end of August.

Poof.

Just like that.

Linkedin giveth, and Linkedin taketh away.

The main point here is:

It’s not worth risking your access to the platform to cut some corners. You’re building your personal brand on this platform, your professional legacy. Don’t cut corners. Just put in the work and reap the rewards.

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What This All Means

These stories connect in a way that tells us everything about where business is heading.

PayPal's six-figure investment shows personal branding is now business infrastructure. LinkedIn's algorithm rewards genuine expertise over tactics. Entrepreneurs like Isenberg build massive businesses through authentic value creation. And platforms are cracking down on fake engagement.

The common thread? Authenticity wins.

Your personal brand isn't separate from your business strategy anymore. It is your business strategy. The companies and individuals who invest in building real relationships and sharing genuine insights have unlimited potential.

The question isn't whether you should invest in your personal brand. The question is whether you'll treat it with the same seriousness that a Fortune 500 company just demonstrated.

Thank you for stopping by.

Hi5,

LD

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