Linkedin Remix
this is what professional looks like
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This picture will take you to the Linkedin post in all its glory. The comments are 90% inspiring and 10% trolls
THIS IS WHAT PROFESSIONAL LOOKS LIKE
That line above is a hashtag thats gotten Linkedin all riled up over the last couple of months. There has been a slew of beautifully tattood people baring their arms and their souls on the social media platform usually reserved for biz-talk. Here's the gist for those of you who haven't seen it: successful people posting pictures of themselves and waxing poetic about their coming to grips with being both successful and tattood. Spoiler alert: you can have both. You can be totally awesome at your job and totally tattood. This is 2022.
This is a topic that hits a nerve with me. I know it, because I'm one of these people waxing poetic. Instead of rehashing what I posted last month, I'll just post it here.
LINKEDIN POST FROM JANUARY 2022:
This is what professional looks like. But it hasn’t always been this way, at least not for me. When I started my professional career 12 years ago I was told to hide my tattoos. For me, that meant long sleeves and pants 12 months out of the year. Even worse than pants, were the dreaded black tights and cardigans on a NC July day. Even without the tattoos, I felt like I stuck out in the commercial real estate industry. To further add to my fast developing complex, I went to school for art and my only job experience was working in restaurants. A good amount of my energy in those early years were spent trying to hide all of that.
It was more than just covering up the tattoos. There was a period I tried going by Patricia instead of Patty and wore glasses all to make myself seem more, “official”. I hated it. Did it work? Did I fool everyone? In hindsight, I don’t think anyone cared as much as I ever did.
I came to realize that people liked me because I am different. What I thought was a liability was actually my greatest asset. I threw away all of my tights and cardigans about 2 years ago and it feels great to have my professional life align with my personal life. I no longer feel like I’m trying to live two separate lives out of one body. It’s exhausting and I don’t recommend that anyone put themselves through what I did. 10 years is a long time to hide. Times have changed, I’ve changed, and I’m grateful for others to have posted their stories and in turn inspired me to do so.
PEOPLE KEEP ASKING ME WHAT IT WAS LIKE FOR MY POST TO GO VIRAL.
At this point, the post has 83k views, nearly 1000 likes, and over a hundred comments. I'm not sure what "going viral" really is, but this is by far the most attention I've gotten on the web. My conclusion one month later: no one cares. People have asked me if I've gotten any business or new clients from the post. No. Nope. Absolutly not. I've got countless connection request from men all over the world. That sounds viral right there.
I tried posting a few times immedietly afterwards in hopes that something had changed. You know, the idea of striking while the iron is got. That iron cooled off really quickly. I'm back to having 6 or 7 people think my content is cool. I don't have any wisdom to drop about 5 minutes of fame, the internet, or life lessons learned. If anything, I am left with gratitude that my message had such a far reach and resonated with so many of you out there. If my post inspired anyone to ditch their year-round cardigan, then I've done my duty.
