Every summer, the same feeling shows up.

You sit there with your laptop open.

Sun outside.
People on vacation.
Kids running around.
Friends sending pictures from places that look like freedom.

And you’re still checking Slack.

Still replying to emails.

Still squeezing life into evenings, weekends, and a few approved weeks off.

That's when the question gets louder:

“Is this really it?”

Go to school
↓
Get a job
↓
Climb the ladder
↓
Ask for permission
↓
Take a few weeks of vacation
↓
Pay the mortgage
↓
Repeat until there's not much left to repeat.

Don't get me wrong...this is not about disliking work.

It’s the contrary.

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I know that feeling too well.

Yes, I had a great role, fantastic salary, a big team and lots of responsibility.

It looked great from the outside.

But something in me kept thinking:

“Is this really it - is this what I worked so hard to reach?”

I was hi-jacked 24/7. I was constantly in meetings or doing/preparing some big presentation.

I was stressed out and had lost the joy in what I was doing.

And the thought kept coming back to me more and more often:

"I want to build something of my own"

6 months before I left my job I started building my audience on LinkedIn.

I posted daily...

6 months in I left my job and didn’t really have a clear plan.

2-3 months in to my career break I took the decision:

I'm gonna do this.

Then I started a LinkedIn newsletter, and kept posting daily. I got my first customer. And another one, and then one more...

That's how freedom starts for most people.

Not with a dramatic exit.

(well, I actually did quit like that and people thought I was crazy - but most people don't do that)

To the builder who needs more business: build your audience.
To the person who are me 4 years ago: build your audience.

Building an audience on LinkedIn will open doors you can't imagine.

When you make that commitment to yourself, you will see people:

And suddenly the cage gets a little smaller.

Because now you have proof:

You can monetize your knowledge in so many more ways than just selling all of your time to an employer that can dump you in 5 seconds when they are done with you.

This is what I want more people to understand:

You don't need to quit your job tomorrow.
You don't need a perfect business idea.
You don't need a huge audience.

You need to start building leverage from what you already know.

Your experience, story, skills, lessons, point of view = is worth a ton.

Helping someone who is a few steps behind you, can become content.

With time, that content becomes trust. Trust becomes a small offer.

A small offer can become your first online income.

[I wrote more about this here]

And your first online income can change how you see everything, and make you realize that you are capable of so much more than just building someone else's dream.

This is the work I care about.

Helping people build something that gives them options.

Summer has a way of showing us what we actually want.

Listen to that voice.

Then build.

Talk soon,
Hanna

📌 PS. If you’re ready to turn your LinkedIn profile, content, and newsletter into inbound clients, reply to this email or go here for more info on how I can help:

Don’t be shy, talk soon 👋