Most leaders don't think about their LinkedIn presence until they need it.
By then, they’re already behind.
That’s not a criticism. It’s a pattern Nina Froriep has watched repeat for years. As an Emmy-winning producer turned LinkedIn content strategist, she has helped hundreds of business leaders and entrepreneurs build a professional presence that works before a crisis forces the issue. Her conversation with Kim Bohr on the Courage to Advance podcast is a practical reset for any leader who has been treating LinkedIn like an obligation rather than an asset.
🎧 LISTEN: Hear Nina’s Full Story
Want to hear the complete conversation? Listen to Nina Froriep’s episode on Courage to Advance, where she and host Kim Bohr break down why most leaders misread the platform entirely, how to build a presence that creates trust before you need it, and the specific habits that keep your network warm without taking over your week.[Listen Here!]
LinkedIn Is Not Social Media
The platform has a completely different job than the others.
Nina is direct about this. LinkedIn is not TikTok. It is not Facebook or Instagram. It has a different flavor, a different algorithm, and a different purpose. The leaders who write it off as noise are measuring it against the wrong standard.
“People gravitate to people,” she told Kim. Business pages collect dust unless you are Coca-Cola or American Express. What actually builds presence, trust, and pipeline is a real human showing up consistently with something worth reading.
The leaders who are most visible on LinkedIn are not necessarily posting the most. They are posting with intention. Nina’s general guidance for leaders selling higher-end coaching, consulting, or services: once a week is enough. What matters far more than frequency is showing up reliably, and actually responding when people engage.
The Professional Cost of Going Quiet
“A little bit goes a long way,” Nina said. The goal is not to perform activity. It is to make sure that when you do need your network, you are not starting from zero.
Kim framed it well during their conversation: most leaders treat LinkedIn the way some people treat old friends. They only reach out when they need something. By then, the relationship has gone cold.
Nina’s answer to this is the list of 25.
It does not have to be exactly 25. It can be 15 or 50. The point is to have a running list of people you stay warm with, even when you are buried in your actual job. That might look like:
- Sharing an article that is relevant to someone specific
- Sending a note when you see someone hit a milestone
- Making an introduction in a DM because two people in your network should know each other
- Commenting thoughtfully on a post instead of just liking it
Why Consistency Beats Volume Every Time
The algorithm is, in Nina’s words, innately lazy.
It wants to know who you are, peg you, and reliably find your content on the same day at the same time. The moment you start posting in bursts and then going silent, it stops looking for you. Your reach shrinks. The audience that was quietly expecting you stops expecting you.
Nina’s single most important piece of advice for LinkedIn: be consistent, even if that means posting less.
A planned absence handled well looks like this: your last post before you go explains where you are going and when you will be back. It creates a bridge. People know what to expect. The algorithm has context. Compare that to simply going dark, which leaves a void that gets filled with questions you did not intend to raise.
The Trust Case for Showing Up as a Full Person
This is the part that tends to stop people.
This is where Nina’s background as a filmmaker shapes her thinking in ways most LinkedIn advice misses.
She is not talking about oversharing. She is talking about the specific kind of three-dimensional presence that makes someone memorable and relatable, rather than just another person posting about their area of expertise.
Her framework is practical: pick three things from your life that you are comfortable sharing publicly. For Nina, it is her dog, her photography, and splitting time between New York and Switzerland. Those details do not replace her expertise. They surround it. They make her the Swiss Nina with the dog who is a LinkedIn expert, rather than one of fifty people posting about the LinkedIn algorithm.
“If we create a void, it will be filled with conjecture,” she said. “So give them something about you personally.”
Kim connected this directly to SparkEffect’s trust research, which found that trust is fundamentally relational. People extend it where they feel seen and understood. That dynamic does not stop at the office door. It plays out on LinkedIn the same way it plays out in a one-on-one conversation.
Sharing something personal, in context, is not a distraction from building a professional brand. It is how you build one.
What to Do When You Do Not Know What to Say
For leaders in transition, or those who have simply been heads-down in a role for years and realize they have no narrative ready, Nina’s advice is to start by listening.
Read what people like you are talking about. Notice what interests you. You do not need a fully formed personal brand before you start. You need an opinion and a topic you can talk about intelligently.
What she cautions against is the messy middle: the venting, the “poor me” posts, the emotional processing done in public. That is not the same as vulnerability. Contextualizing your experience, speaking from your personal vantage point rather than declaring universal truths, that is what creates connection without creating risk.
“My experience is,” Nina said. “Not, this is the truth. My experience is. And then it comes from a personal vantage point that no one can really argue with.”
Your LinkedIn Profile Is Your Business Card
Nina closes with an image that lands.
When you go to a conference, you think about what you are wearing. You get your hair done. You put care into how you present yourself because you know people will form an impression.
Your LinkedIn profile is doing that work every time someone looks you up before a meeting, before a hire, before a conversation. If you would not hand out a business card you are embarrassed by, do not leave a profile you have not touched in three years sitting at the top of your professional presence.
The fix does not require a complete overhaul. It requires some thought, maybe a small investment in a good headshot or a cleaned-up summary, and a commitment to showing up once a week with something real to say.
One More Thing Worth Sitting With
LinkedIn is not a safety net you build after you fall. It is infrastructure you build while things are good.
That is exactly what SparkEffect’s Trust Study found inside organizations: the leaders who had already built relational trust before disruption hit were the ones who came out stronger. The same principle applies to your professional presence. The network you invest in today is the one that shows up for you when you need it.
The question is not whether you have time to be on LinkedIn. It is whether you can afford not to be.
Related Resource
Download the Complete Research
Get the full SparkEffect Trust Study with detailed breakdowns by industry, organization size, and leadership level.
[Research link]
The Science of Trust in Coaching
Explore the neuroscience behind why trust is the foundation of every leadership breakthrough. Download the free ebook.
[Ebook link]
Leadership Development Programs
SparkEffect’s leadership development courses help organizations build the conditions where people actually stay, grow, and perform.
[Leadership Development link]
Hear Daniela’s Full Story
Listen to the complete Courage to Advance conversation, including how her seven-factor methodology surfaces what surveys miss, why she recommends CEO-led motivation interviews, and what measurably changes when companies start asking the right questions.
[Podcast link]
Work with SparkEffect
If your organization is facing the kind of crisis Tammy inherited, or you want to build trust infrastructure before crisis hits, we can help. Schedule a conversation to explore how:
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About SparkEffect
SparkEffect helps organizations build trust that bends without breaking. Our Trust Performance Index and consulting services give leadership teams the tools to diagnose trust gaps and build the infrastructure required for lasting transformation.
The Courage to Advance podcast features leaders building the organizations they wish existed, proving that business doesn’t have to be dehumanizing.
Looking for more on what effective leadership development actually looks like in practice? Explore these conversations on the Courage to Advance podcast.
