Life Doesn't Belong on a Ladder: LinkedIn Marketing Manager and Forbes.com Contributor on BEING SEEN Online
Alli Kushner DM'd me last week, now you can meet her LIVE in the Club
I'm a little giddy about this one.
Last week, a Forbes contributor and LinkedIn marketing manager sent me a DM.
This week, she’s going LIVE with us inside the Club.
And that, right there, is the thing I’ll never stop being obsessed with about building this online writing business on the side: You show up. You put your real self out there. And the universe goes,
“Oh, you’re visible now? Cool. Here’s a door.”
Here’s what’s coming (your TOC):
You’re invited!
Who’s Alli Kushner
Why I NEED you in this LIVE
The LinkedIn Substack Flywheel
What we’re covering in our LIVE
A DM on Wednesday. A LIVE on your calendar by the weekend.
Her name is Alli Kushner. And you’re going to meet her tomorrow.
You’re invited!
Tomorrow, Friday, July 24 8:30 AM ET / 5:30 AM PT / 2:30 PM Berlin / 1:30 PM London
“Visibility online, LinkedIn & portfolio careers: how to actually be SEEN online”
Alli and I are inviting you into the live chat. This is a Club LIVE, so here’s your one move:
Who’s Alli Kushner
Let me tell you about this woman.
Alli is a mom, writer, speaker, and operator covering the future of work, nonlinear careers, and how ambition is being redefined.
Her writing digs into the structural shifts reshaping how we build careers, lead, and make decisions about work and life… pulling from lived experience and data, research, and expert voices. On Substack, she has built Off the Ladder
We’re talking a Modern Love essay in The New York Times. Bylines in Fast Company and Business Insider. Keynote stages and panels on nonlinear careers, workplace caregiving, and maternal mental health.
Aaaand she’s also a marketing manager at LinkedIn.
Oh and you have to go and read her Forbes column:
“The Rise Of Portfolio Careers And Lessons For Ambitious Women”
“Visibility Is The New Currency, Whether You Like It Or Not”
Why I NEED you in this LIVE
Because Alli writes about the exact thing that changes EVERYTHING for online writers like us.
Getting seen.
Her Forbes piece, “Visibility Is The New Currency”, hit me right in the chest. Her argument?
The old deal was: do great quiet work, get noticed, then advance. In that order.
That order is dead.
Now?
You have to be seen FIRST. The being-seen is what creates the opportunity. Not the other way around.
And she has a name for the thing that stops most people cold. She calls it the cringe mountain. The idea that to get to whatever you’re reaching for, you have to be willing to be seen trying, in public, before you’ve got it all figured out, when you might look a little silly.
You know that feeling: You write the post. You stare at it. You close the tab.
THAT is the mountain. And Alli’s whole message is: The wince is the price of admission. She’s climbing it too.
The LinkedIn obsession I’ve been quietly building
There’s SO. MUCH. NOISE. about LinkedIn right now.
I’m going to show you my cards, because I don’t trust “get visible!” advice from people who won’t show theirs.
I only started writing on LinkedIn a few months ago.
And the thing that finally made it CLICK was the Substack–LinkedIn Flywheel I built with LinkedIn expert Melanie Goodman .
Your Substack feeds your LinkedIn.
Your LinkedIn feeds your Substack.
The two grow each other, instead of stealing energy from each other.
(Heads up: the next round with Melanie has a waitlist open for August. Get your name on it.)
What we’re covering tomorrow
LinkedIn in 2026 — the newest updates, what’s shifting, and what it means for writers and creators
Portfolio careers — the shift Alli covers in Forbes: consulting, freelancing, creating, founding, and building work that fits the life you actually have
Getting SEEN online — our shared obsession: how to get your work in front of people without burning out or becoming insufferable
The cringe mountain — how to keep showing up when it feels like a humiliation ritual
The Substack + LinkedIn Flywheel — how the two feed each other
YOUR questions — bring the one you’re a little scared to ask
💥Mark your calendar
“Visibility online, LinkedIn & portfolio careers: how to actually be SEEN online”
Set the reminder and bring the question you’ve been sitting on.
We meet Alli TOMORROW: Friday, July 24, 8:30 AM ET / 5:30 AM PT / 2:30 PM Berlin / 1:30 PM London.
Link to join: https://open.substack.com/live-stream/281495
One DM turned into this in a WEEK. That’s what BEING SEEN does.
Now go BE SEEN with us… because life was never a ladder.
See you tomorrow!
P.S. Substack now checks via Pengram whether your story is human-written or not. I’ll cover this in an upcoming post. But just fyi.
You can find it when you hit PUBLISH after writing your post at the bottom.
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