Joshua B. Lee

For a long time, I believed the biggest opportunities came from big moves, viral posts, major campaigns, and big-name partnerships. But now? The biggest growth in my business has come from the smallest signals.

Opportunity hides in micro-moments, the reply to a comment, the DM you almost didn’t send, and the “thank you” that had no pitch attached. 
That’s social selling. 👊

It's not about visibility at scale; it’s about intimacy at depth. It's not about who sees your content; it’s about who feels seen by it. The founders and execs I spend time with are often surprised when the quietest post leads to the biggest deal. But that’s how trust works. It doesn’t shout; it listens.

Here’s what I’ve learned: 
🔵 The right message to 10 people can outperform a viral post to 10,000. 
🔵 A real conversation in comments can out convert an entire nurture sequence. 
🔵 A private message with empathy builds more trust than any perfectly optimized CTA.

Social selling isn’t about what you post; it’s about how often you connect without expectation. When you stop treating LinkedIn like a billboard and start using it like a relationship engine, everything changes. The Human Algorithm works in the small stuff.

The unseen reach outs, the comment replies, the “just checking in” notes. 
If you’re measuring success only by likes and impressions, you’ll miss the moments that actually move the needle. Social selling doesn’t need to be loud, it just needs to be human.

Learn how to create consistent, connection first touchpoints on LinkedIn without burning out or selling out, get your free guide here 👉 https://lnkd.in/gRJWdE-a
 
#SocialSelling #Leadership #ContentStrategy #Marketing

Marc Benioff just declared Salesforce the king of the “Agentic Era.”
At Dreamforce, he unveiled Agentforce 360, a platform built to “elevate people, not replace them.”

It already powers Reddit’s ad support bots and Williams-Sonoma’s chat agents.
And yet, the current agent failure rate? 70%.

Salesforce isn’t waiting for the market to evolve.
They’re naming it into existence.
They want to be the operating system for every semi-smart agent that lives, dies, and bills hourly.

But here’s the question:
If these agents still fail most of the time, is this leadership or marketing?

Because the companies racing to automate the future aren’t just building tools.
They’re shaping our expectations for what “helpful” looks like.

In a world full of half-baked agents, trust is the real differentiator.
Let’s YOUmanize before the “Agentic Era” becomes another slogan for speed over substance.

#YOUmanize #Salesforce #Agentforce #AIandAutomation #FutureOfWork #HumanFirst

I made a ridiculous AI video using Sora 2. Some people laughed, some were impressed, and a few reacted like I deep faked the Mona Lisa and committed a digital felony. The video was absurd on purpose, I’m not the punchline, I’m in on the punchline.

Yes, it was AI-generated. 
No, I wasn’t trying to trick anyone. 
And no, I haven’t traded in my soul for a few likes and a viral dopamine hit.

Sora 2, launched by OpenAI on September 30, is a next-gen AI video engine. It creates cinematic, multi-shot videos with sound, dialogue, and realism, all from a single prompt. You can literally drop yourself into a scene, and it looks so real your mom might text asking if you landed a movie deal.

So yeah, I used it. Intentionally. Satirically. And instead of enjoying the absurdity, a few people came swinging with, “You’re the YOUmanize™ guy, how dare you?”  “This is sad.”  “This is unoriginal.”

Look… I get it. It’s weird, new, and fast. And for a lot of people, it’s unsettling. But we’ve got to stop assuming that using a tool automatically means abandoning your values. Intent is what defines authenticity, and that’s the point so many people are missing.

I’m not ignoring the real concerns here, there are some big ones. A recent study from Hugging Face revealed that generating a 6-second AI video can consume the same energy as running a microwave for over an hour. That’s not nothing, especially when we consider how quickly adoption is scaling.

Then there’s the copyright situation. Just days after the launch, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced they would give rightsholders the ability to “opt out” of having their characters or content used in AI videos. So yeah, we have to be asking real questions about sustainability, economically, legally, and environmentally. That part is serious, that part does need attention.

But I’m not a compliance officer. I’m a CEO navigating the frontlines of AI, digital trust, and personal brand building. And from where I stand, these tools are already reshaping how we communicate, how we market, how we influence, and how we lead. You can fear it, or you can lead through it.

That’s what YOUmanize™ is for. We’re not anti-AI, we’re pro-intentional, pro-human, and pro-not-being-boring.

If it made you laugh, good. If it made you think, even better. If it made you mad? Well, that says more about your comfort zone than it does about my ethics. Let’s YOUmanize™ while we still can, because the robots are coming, but they still can’t take a joke. 🤖 (that was a joke for those of you who struggle with a sense of humor)

#Sora2 #AI #CreatorEconomy

Some relationships in business begin with a handshake. Others begin with aligned values, deep conversations about legacy, and, in this case, tacos 🌮 and Texas football 🏈. That’s exactly how it’s been with Scott Danner.

Scott isn’t just a powerhouse in the wealth management space. He’s a leader with heart, someone who’s built success not by chasing transactions, but by investing in people. His journey, from growing up in a loud, loving Italian family to founding Freedom Street Partners, and now serving as EVP and Head of Legacy at Steward Partners is rooted in something we talk about often at StandOut Authority: trust that’s earned, not positioned.

When Scott and I first connected, it wasn’t because he needed “marketing help.” It was because, like so many seasoned leaders, he had built an incredible career offline but was still invisible online. He told me, “I’ve done the work. I’ve built real things. But LinkedIn doesn’t reflect the impact I’ve made.” That’s a conversation I’ve had with dozens of executives, founders, and entrepreneurs at the top of their game.

That’s exactly why we created the YOUmanize™ Launchpad. It’s not a content factory. It’s not about chasing likes. It’s about discovering and activating the signals that LinkedIn’s algorithm and your audience actually trust.

With Scott, we didn’t reinvent anything. We surfaced what was already there: the clarity, the conviction, the human behind the role.

Now, when someone discovers Scott on LinkedIn, they don’t just see a title or a track record. They see a voice, a legacy, a leader who knows exactly who he is and isn’t afraid to let the digital world see it.

This is the work that lights me up. Helping people like Scott become as trusted online as they already are in the room. Because visibility isn’t about vanity, it’s about making sure the right people find you, trust you, and remember you when it counts.

If you're a leader who's built something real, but your digital presence still doesn’t reflect the value you bring, this is your reminder: the right message, delivered with heart and strategy, changes everything. 
https://lnkd.in/d4ngJifP

#Leadership #PersonalBranding #Marketing #StandOutAuthority