S1E50: Chasing clout on LinkedIn: the fine line between being real and self-serving

Jun 5, 2025

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Can we be real when it comes to celebrating professional milestones and branding ourselves?

Synopsis: The Usual Place host Natasha Ann Zachariah hunts for new perspectives on issues that matter to young people.

A recent viral post on LinkedIn has cast the spotlight on how some users have pushed content about their jobs and professional endeavours into something more self-serving and performative.

Just a couple of weeks ago, Ms Janney Hujic shared about what she claimed was a “chance encounter” with former DBS CEO Piyush Gupta in a cafe in Bali, where she praised his “quiet conviction” and how he had shared wise words for her upcoming all-women’s expedition in Mongolia.

The whole thing turned out to be a fake interaction. But it sparked a conversation about humble bragging, toxic positivity or exaggerating professional interactions in the quest to stand out on LinkedIn.

In this episode of The Usual Place, Ms Crystal Lim-Lange - co-founder of Forest Wolf, a leadership consultancy that specialises in leadership transformation and personal growth - dropped by to talk about how we can be real when it comes to celebrating professional milestones and branding ourselves.

Our conversation also turned to the importance of career visibility, how this incident highlights about the temptation to appear connected or successful, and how to avoid being performative.

Highlights (click/tap above):

2:12 Many reasons why people show up differently on social media

4:05 The casual racism behind the viral LinkedIn post, and why we need to be conscious of what we say

8:16 Career visibility is important, but when does it become self-serving or a humblebrag?

13:59 Crystal’s checklist for her LinkedIn posts: Is it educational, entertaining or inspirational?

20:20 What does building career visibility entail?

30:39 Record and share insights from your work, avoid being performative to sell yourself

36:07 How do we recover from a professional gaffe?

Ms Lim-Lange’s Comfort and Growth podcast is available on:

Spotify: https://str.sg/bTzR

YouTube: https://str.sg/9Bhh

Host: Natasha Ann Zachariah (natashaz@sph.com.sg)