Molly Stovold

A Founder asked me to slow down today.

His LinkedIn personal brand is popping off.

It’s making him uncomfortable.

Everyone else is out here wondering why they have low impressions.

Meanwhile this is what we’re dealing with.

Too much growth.

Not a problem I ever thought I’d have to be completely honest.

Happy Mother’s Day.

To the non-conventional mumma, working hard, keeping strong, being present for her family, holding it all together … just.

Incase nobody told you recently, I am proud of you.

Love Molly x

Happy Birthday to me 🎉

My copywriting mentor is probably crying himself to sleep right now.

He taught me to use phrases like:

- Now...
- Truth is:
- Here's the deal:
- Why?

He said that by using these phrases you leave the reader hanging and compel them to keep going.

“But Molly” I hear you ask…

“These are all AI giveaways, I can’t use those”.

Yes, you are right. AI has ruined proper writing.

Instead, I now spend my days removing phrases like this from my client’s content and purposefully using spelling mistakes and poor punctuation to make them look “more human”.

What is the world coming to?

P.S: in the spirit of keeping it human here is an unedited, no make-up, unfiltered image of me (for once)

How to go viral on Linkedin in 2026

(focus on this, and almost nothing else)

Saves.

Not likes.

Or comments.

… or impressions.

Saves are the strongest intent signal on LinkedIn:

→ A like is passive

→ A comment is non-comital

But a Save shows private intent.

When someone saves your post, LinkedIn reads that as them saying

“this is worth coming back to”

and/or

“this taught me something”.

Saves tell the algorithm more than a 100 likes ever could.

This is why some posts with average looking engagement keep showing up in your feed weeks later.

They are being saved and resurfaced.

Posts that actually get saved do one of three things:

1. They name a problem precisely, in detail and give a whole solution.

2. They are so specific that the reader feels exposed (and low-key triggered).

3. They use language someone can reuse and recount easily.

When your saved post gets revisited, shared privately, or screenshotted,

LinkedIn extends its shelf life.

TLDR: How to go viral on LinkedIn in 2026?

Write so someone thinks:

“I will need this later”.

I couldn’t price my services correctly because I didn’t know what they actually cost me to deliver.

And I had absolutely no idea what that number was.

Six months into running Sitting Pretty, I had a 20-person team, clients coming in, results going out, and pricing that was essentially a feeling I had never properly tested.

My invoicing was in one place, time tracking was somewhere else and my project costs were honestly unknown until a month ago.

So I never actually saw the full picture.

I just assumed it was working because the money was coming in.

Until I actually looked.

I’d been undercharging on a handful of services for months without realising and some of my team were delivering work that was never scoped, tracked, or billed.

I couldn’t fix what I couldn’t see.

Productive 5.0 just launched, and it’s exactly what I needed.

Time tracking, budgets, invoicing, and project management all in one place, plus AI that helps me see what needs attention, surfaces the right insights at the right time, and takes repetitive work off my plate.

For the first time, I actually know what my services cost to deliver.

Which means I can finally price them correctly.

Try it for free: https://lnkd.in/gYrSit-V

How I would start a personal brand on LinkedIn in 2026

*when literally everyone has suddenly decided LinkedIn is worth their time and the bar is higher*

I would tell myself …

1. Your fear of being judged is the content.

I cried the first time I posted (that’s how scared I was of what my employer would think).

I posted anyway and realised that the fear of being seen is what so many others are feeling.

Being honest about my actual experience connected me with them.

They are the ones who became my first loyal followers.

2. Your life is the story, your story is the content.

The posts I get the most DMs about aren’t about strategy or systems or how I 4x’d my salary.

They’re about being covered in acne, 10kg heavier, or seven months pregnant and trying to run my business with my head in the loo with morning sickness.

Nobody shares that version and that is exactly why you should.

3. Build for one person, not the algorithm.

Every post I’ve written that actually converted had one very specific person in mind.

Not a demographic or ICP but a real life actual person.

Like someone I had a conversation with that week or a comment I read on my posts.

You don’t need years of post ideas sitting in your notes that never see the light of day to figure this out.

You just need to start before you feel ready

(which, for the record, is never).

I never used to follow up after sales calls because I saw a coach on Instagram say she "doesn't chase, she attracts".

For years that one line gave me the permission to let my fear of rejection play out in my business.

Last week I got over myself.

Sent follow-up emails to everyone I had a call with.

And...

at this point it's obvious what I am going to say...

It worked.

I made two sales that I probably would not have made if I hadn't touched base after the call.

One of the biggest lessons I am still learning as a baby CEO is to not let my personal sh*t sabotage my business growth.

What about you?

Biggest mistake I see people make is trying to make money.

You don’t make money by trying to make money.

You make money by adding value and doing something that actually helps people.

Focus on being the best at what you do and offering something that is genuinely valuable long enough and the money is inevitable.

P.S: I say this now but I also almost signed up to a pyr!mid scheme before I got into entrepreneurship. Luckily I asked my Dad for advice beforehand and he set me straight (thanks Pa).

If you are posting every day on LinkedIn and still getting low impressions

(this is likely why)

It is not because your content is bad.

It is because LinkedIn has already decided you will show up anyway.

When you post daily and comment constantly, the platform often classifies you as reliable.

So instead of using your content for discovery, it uses you differently.

→ Your posts become engagement glue for other people’s posts.

→ Your comments help keep the feed active.

→ Your consistency props up conversations elsewhere.

That is useful to LinkedIn.

But it is unhelpful for your reach.

Because content that is used for engagement maintenance does not get pushed for discovery.

Another super important piece is how engagement is being evaluated.

LinkedIn does not just look at how much engagement you get.

It looks at:

1. Who engages

2. How fast they engage

3. How deep the conversation goes

4. Whether those people usually help content travel

If the same small group engages every time, LinkedIn reads that as network maintenance (not expansion).

This is why who you engage with regularly matters.

You want familiar faces returning.

And you want new, relevant people entering the conversation over time.

Not more random activity.

More strategic variety in the signals you put out.

Next time you’re berating yourself for making a colossal marketing f*ck up

just remember the time Wicked produced Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo children’s dolls with a adult site printed accidentally on the package.

Mattel meant to print WickedMovie (dot) com but accidentally listed wicked (dot) com, which belongs to a p*rn site studio called Wicked Pictures.

The entire doll collection was pulled from Target, Walmart, Macy’s, Amazon and more within days.

You can now buy one of the relisted dolls on eBay for $500…

And Mattel is facing a $5 million class action lawsuit over the error.

Your mistake doesn’t seem so bad after all now, does it?

It’s that time of year again when everyone who hit their goals shouts about it.

And anyone who didn’t spirals with every celebratory post from their competitors.

If you’re sat there wondering how everyone-and-their-mum is making 6-figures,

While you’re struggling to sell a £100 coaching session despite five plus years of experience…

I have good news.

The reason your competitor is smashing it has nothing to do with paying some magic high-ticket coach you can’t afford.

And everything to do with their personal brand.

They didn’t stumble into some secret corner of the internet reserved for chosen ones.

They did one thing early that most experienced professionals avoid because it feels uncomfortable.

They decided how they wanted to be perceived.

Then went and built their content around that decision.

Then they made sure that content got seen.

In practice this looks like:

→ Repeating the same ideas from different angles instead of constantly reinventing themselves.

→ Investing in support like they know their business will succeed.

→ Actual focused work rather than spending hours procrastinating over a Canva presentation nobody even asked for.

Meanwhile, the “experienced professionals” are:

→ Hiding behind qualifications.

→ Over explaining instead of positioning.

→ Getting riled-up by every Stripe notification post a competitor shares.

They are treating their business like a career.

Showing up like the reliable-employee.

That’s a strategy.

It’s just not a profitable one.

Apparently podcasts are a sales funnel now

(so if you get invited to one don't say yes before reading this)

The worst type of sales strategies are the ones that are borderline manipulation.

This is one of those.

How it works is:

1. You get invited to go onto a podcast via DM

2. The company running the podcast is an authority so that persuades you to do it

Eg: "Podcast by the company that Tony Robbins uses for his sales"

3. They schedule 30 minutes of your time

4. They ask you to complete a detailed plan of what your problems and goals are beforehand

5. You get upsold into a solution that just happens to be exactly what you need after the podcast recording

I almost fell for it.

But then I realised that this whole approach didn't feel right to me.

I gave away 30 minutes of my time for a podcast.

Did my makeup.

Had a nanny with the baby.

Only to realize that the podcast was never about sharing my expertise.

It was about getting me to buy.

The "pre-interview questions" were actually a sales discovery call in disguise.

And the host was trained to pitch me at the end.

Thing is…

I'm not against selling (I actually love it).

I'm against pretending you're not.

On paper, my life in Bali made absolutely no sense to leave.

Living in perpetual summer, with a wonderful nanny for Lily, someone who cleaned the house every single day, driver, gardener. We even had a personal chef at one point.

I was genuinely scared to come back to Europe and do it all myself, plus run Sitting Pretty Agency.

I was spoilt and privileged.

And I knew it.

Weirdly though, since landing in Portugal, I’m doing everything again.

And yet, I feel so much more grounded.

There’s something about being in the rhythm of your own life.

Cooking for my family.

Spending time with Lilly and Oscar Horn.

Actually living inside my days instead of managing them from the outside.

It’s not as easy and it’s definitely not as warm.

But it feels right.

And I think that’s the part people don’t talk about enough.

Just because something looks like the dream on paper doesn’t mean it’s yours.

I spent years building a ‘dream career’ that barely covered my rent.

And $60k on a degree just to qualify for it.

But walking away from the safety net was still the hardest decision I’ve ever made.

Not because I didn’t know what I wanted.

But because I’d been taught that the safest thing I could do was stay.

1. Get the degree

2. Work for exposure

3. Get the job

4. Hustle to prove myself

5. Retire at 60 and then 'relax'

I bought it.

All of it.

Until the return on investment was anxiety, burnout and another Sunday ruined by the dread of Monday.

I’ve watched so many women go through the same thing.

Six-figure careers,
more accomplishments that you can count,
and lives that look great on paper but feel quietly suffocating.

If you are like me.

You won’t leave corporate because you’re flaky.

You’ll leave because the cost of staying is too high.

You’ll realise that it was never about safety.

But about power.

And whether you’re willing to take it back.

I thought I had good boundaries.

Until a client called my WhatsApp during bedtime for my baby...

And I picked up.

Stopped singing a lullaby and got straight on my computer.

My client needed me.

They were upset.

I had to help her.

Right?

Wrong.

My baby needs me.

My husband needs me.

After 6pm, they are all that matter.

Any client that does not respect that should not be a client.

But this isn't on them.

It's on me.

I am responsible for maintaining my boundaries, nobody else.

This is how I'm tightening them so this never happens again:

✓ Hiring more Leaders so clients don't need me in the first place

✓ Keeping everything in my dedicated workspace (Slack)

✓ No more giving out my personal number

✓ Muting repeat offenders

Your boundaries will only work if you enforce them.

Stop making yourself available 24/7.

You shouldn't feel guilty for protecting your time.

And your clients should not dictate your life.

You built this business for freedom.

Set the rules.

Stick to them.

Fire anyone who can't respect them.

In February I onboarded a client I knew I couldn’t help.

But he was desperate and I wanted to believe there was a way.

On first glance he had a strong profile.

He had 10k followers, his banner was well designed, he had clear messaging and positioning, and was actually pretty funny.

But then I got to the content 😬

Even though his posts were good he had absolutely no impressions.

Less than 100 per post.

LinkedIn was showing his content to literally nobody.

Over the years he had done what so many others have and destroyed the health of his account.

He had:

1. used automation tools that sent mass connection requests

2. sent the same scripted message to everyone who met his ICP

3. made a few funny jokes referring to political figures

Each of these alone is enough to make it hard to get your account working again.

And one point alone I would have been able to fix it.

But all together? Impossible.

One of the things I’m learning as a baby CEO is that it’s safe to say no even if it means missing out on getting paid or letting someone down.

Can you relate?

LinkedIn changed my life.

I moved to Bali 4 years ago with a corporate marketing job that was burning me out, working nights to please a boss who had absolutely no boundaries and longing for a better life.

I was exhausted, stressed out, and probably not very nice to be around.

Yet, despite it all, my partner decided he still wanted to marry me.

His proposal was the push I needed to do my start building something for myself and go all in on my personal brand.

I did my first post on LinkedIn that week.

I started off by charging £100 for freelance Marketing consultations.

I taught people how to use LinkedIn to get clients.

It worked.

My offers snowballed.

I launched group courses (all on LinkedIn), they sold out every time.

I made enough money to build a 4 bedroom villa walking distance from the beach… in cash.

I married the man crazy enough to ask me to marry him when I was at my lowest.

We run a business together now, bet you can guess what it does?

Helps people scale personal brands on dun-dun-da-daaa …LinkedIn.

Thanks to everyone who has been here from the start. Love you. 🤍

I got scammed of $6500 euros two weeks ago.

(It’s taken me this long to get over it enough to tell you about it)

Now I can finally laugh at myself...almost.

I was a total fool and you have full permission to tell me so.

It happened while I have been planning our move to Portugal.

As I stayed awake late into the night searching for the perfect home for my little family.

And I found one.

Or so I thought.

It was almost too good to be true.

Exactly what I had been manifesting.

The “landlord” was lovely, he had a family too.

He had a wife and would tell me stories about how he would take us for dinner when we arrive.

So my Dad booked flights to go meet him and view the property.

And I transferred a sickening amount of money to “lock it in”.

He sent a contract.

A copy of his passport.

Proof he owned the property.

Except, it wasn’t proof was it.

It was all fake.

How, you may be asking, did he fool me?

A woman who has lived in Bali (aka the Wild West when it comes to renting property) for the last 5 years?

Urgency.

And scarcity.

Every time he needed a payment it was layered with urgency.

Every time we spoke he had “just got off the phone” with someone else who was interested.

Sure, he was a great con-man.

But you know what else he was?

A salesman.


P.S: this experience was definitely not in the cards 🫠

Mean girl marketing is having a moment on LinkedIn.

(except here it’s mostly men.)

And it’s being called “just being honest”.

Except it’s not.

Mocking someone’s photos is bullying.

Quote posting someone’s content to “teach a lesson” is clout farming.

If you’ve been targeted,

please don’t give up and vow to never post again.

Instead, take peace in the knowledge that these creators are not the authority.

Their message is not going to be heard by your people.

It is all a performance for cheap attention.

I doubt that anyone who posts this kinda thing is following me but...

Just incase you are, you know that people don’t get better because you embarrassed them, right?

They grow because someone showed them the way.

So if you want to be a trusted voice with actual expertise all you need to do is two things:

1. Teach people how to do better

2. Be kind

It is really not that hard.

At 27 I was unemployed and living with my Dad.

My Sri Lanka business had to close because of covid.

And I was sent back to England with my tail between my legs.

Desperate for money I taught yoga to the old ladies on the block.

Tried my hand at online yoga videos (you will not find them.. I burned them 😅)

And walked the neighbours’ dogs.

All so I could buy the fancy apple cider vinegar from Waitrose and contribute to rent.

That was about as far as the money would stretch.

In the space of 3 months I went from owning a retreat centre in Sri Lanka,

surfing every day,

and frolicking my heart out.

To living with Pa (his new wife who I barely knew) and their 6-month-old baby.


I had a First Class degree from a top UK uni.

And more online course certificates than I could count on my fingers and toes.

Yet there I was, hustling for apple cider vinegar.

Eventually I landed an online marketing job and an actual pay check.

So I moved out of my dad’s and into a campervan.

At the time I loved the van.

My life was an adventure.

And although I could now afford my fancy vinegar, I was still broke.

It took 2 years for me to take the leap and start my online business.

By the end of Q1 of that first year I’d already made my corporate salary back.

By the end of Q2 I’d hit 6-figures.

That’s what a comeback looks like.

If you are sitting in your own “apple cider vinegar era” right now,

wondering if it is ever going to turn around, this is your sign.

2026 is your year, you got this ♡


P.S: picture of me and my name shift desk recording my first ever online course.

He relaunched himself on Tinder.

Only this time, he treated it like a Marketing campaign.

My friend, a bachelor in Bali, recently redownloaded his dating apps.

Instead of using the random images on his phone where he looked pretty good, he was strategic.

He researched the top hobbies and skills women like to see in a romantic partner.

Then he launched his marketing campaign.

Each image on his profile was based on his analysis.

The top hobby was reading.

✅ Picture one was him in a coffee shop, book in hand.

The second was being able to play an instrument.

✅ Picture two was him sat at the piano.

The third was being able to cook.

You can guess what that picture was.

And so on it went.

He is one month in to his ‘campaign’ and it hasn’t just worked…

He has 3x’d his conversions.

Same person he was before, only packaged in a different way.

Turns out attraction is just good positioning.

I wish the 2023 me knew that burning her career to the ground

Saying no to the promotion

And going all in on her silly little LinkedIn business.

Would lead to building a life, family and home in Bali.

Scaling that LinkedIn business to $100k months.

And realising the risky decision was never leaving corporate. It was staying.

Even when I was broke I still surrounded myself with millionaires.

They studied at Oxford.

Had been on Sharktank.

Ran unicorn startups.

I was a copywriter living in a campervan.

I spent the majority of my 20s being the least impressive person in the room.

My ego took a bit of a beating.

But it was great for my sense of belonging and drive.

I watched these friends pitch themselves, get rejected, then pitch again the very next day.

I saw them work until the early hours of the morning for a job that drained them.

But instead of complaining, they had solutions.

The entrepreneur always had another funder up her sleeve.

The guy who was up all night had a get out plan.

He was retiring by age 30 (he actually ended up doing this btw).

Not once did I see them feel sorry for themselves or play the victim.

Each of them had a deep sense of belief in their own capability to succeed, some way, somehow.

They were going to be a success AND they were going to live an extraordinary life.

I wanted that too.

It took me a few years, but eventually, I went and got it.

You know the saying “show me your friends and I’ll show you your future”.

Well…

Next week I’m moving to live in the same place as this same group of friends.

Only this time, I’m not in a van parked on their drive.

I’m in the villa next door.

This time last year I was covered in acne, 10kg heavier, and struggling.

I was also launching… again.

I was the self-declared queen of the anti-hustle club.

Yet there I was, hustling.

Even though I was 7 months pregnant.

And didn’t need to launch from a financial point of view.

Instagram had persuaded me I was not doing enough.

All the women shouting about working 4 hours a week and making six-figures got to me.

So I told myself, I could work 4 hours a week.

Easy peasy.

Thing is, it is never only 4 hours.

And before I knew it I was duck-walking my way round my office as I DM’d yet another hot lead because, as I told my husband,

“it’s just one more message”.

(it wasn’t).

That’s the thing about January,

everyone tells you it needs to be your best month,

that it determines your entire year,

that you must succeed.

Full disclosure, I also tell my clients that.

Because it’s true.

People buy this time of year.

So, if you’re a coach, you best get to work.

Or…

Maybe you are done hustling yourself to the bone.

What if this year you stop wearing all the hats in your business just to keep up with that girl on Instagram.

And you instead show up as a CEO and hire experts to take the load off.

You give your nervous system a break so you don’t end up like me last year…

(covered in acne and incredibly stressed).

If this year is the year you invest in support.

I can help with that:

https://lnkd.in/guKUpve7

I grew up being taught that money was there to be spent.

I never learnt how to save, invest, or be strategic.

I was told to live in the moment.

If YOLO was a lifestyle, my parents lived it.

As I started to earn more this became a problem.

I got stressed out because I knew I should be doing something with the money I was making.

I just had no idea what.

I’ve spent the last few years trying to figure out what.

Now at age 32 I have multiple sources of income, I invest and I save.

This has been my journey so far:

1. Working on the mindset and my core beliefs around money (read all of Jen Sincero’s and Morgan Housel’s books)

2. Saved an emergency fund

3. Started investing a tiny bit every month into low-cost index funds

4. Bought a villa, rent it for short-term rentals

5. Actually live in a rental house that costs substantially less than I make from the villa

6. Have an experiment allowance every quarter which I invest in something that begins with a C-and-ends-in-an-O 👀

I’m sure this may look very beginner to some.

For me, these small changes have made the biggest positive impact on my wellbeing.

Understanding what to do with my money, even at the beginner level, really did set me free.

I’ll drop the books below and would love it if you drop your recommendations too.

A couple of years ago I lost my entire business.

The hackers wiped all my business data, including my LinkedIn.

I went from having 8000 followers on LinkedIn,

more testimonials than I could count,

and a loyal engaged audience

… to nothing.

When I lost it I had a choice.

Option 1 (the easier route):
Hone in on Instagram where I had 10k followers and forget about starting LinkedIn.

Option 2:
Start building again from scratch on LinkedIn using the exact marketing strategies we use at Sitting Pretty Agency

I started with option one.

Realised Instagram was way more savage than LinkedIn

(posting 3x per day to stories AND reels did not match well with the freedom-seeking lifestyle I started this entrepreneurial journey for in the first place).

So, as you’d expect Option 1, aka Instagram, burnt me out quickly and I resorted back to option two.

This has been my progress since then:

- I have gained 64,000 followers (in just over two years, the first of which I only posted twice per week).

- averaged $40,000 CASH months the first year. Now making regular $100k months.

- and got 98% of my clients through LinkedIn even when I was just starting out again and had 0 following.

I've said it before and I'll say it again...

Clever marketing makes you money.
‌