The Conscious Founder Podcast · 2024-07-04 · 10 min
Key moments - from our scoring
Substance score
18 / 100
Five dimensions, 20 points each
LinkedIn's prevalence of positive success narratives - many exaggerated or fabricated, particularly during economic downturns - creates a skewed perception of market reality that damages founder confidence and productivity. Alexei Patalis observes that multiple coaching clients attribute feelings of inadequacy, overwhelm, and jealousy directly to LinkedIn comparisons, despite often executing soundly in their own businesses. The platform amplifies this effect because entrepreneurs, desperate for sales during slower economic periods, post increasingly optimistic (and sometimes dishonest) results. This visibility gap - where the public sees only the 10% success stories while missing the 90% of real struggles Patalis encounters in coaching conversations - distorts entrepreneurs' self-assessment and decision-making. The remedy involves two concrete actions: curate your feed ruthlessly to follow only balanced, values-driven accounts rather than sales-focused companies, and dramatically reduce scrolling while using LinkedIn surgically for direct outreach to target market contacts. Patalis emphasizes that the performance of your business is separate from your self-worth, and that LinkedIn-induced self-doubt directly degrades execution and focus.
LinkedIn amplifies success stories, showing only the 10% of wins while hiding the 90% of real struggles entrepreneurs face; many founders are also posting exaggerated or false successes during economic downturns when they're desperate for sales, creating a false benchmark of universal success.
Curate your feed to follow only balanced accounts that share both wins and challenges, use LinkedIn solely for direct outreach to target market contacts in short sessions, and minimize or eliminate casual scrolling to remove the comparison trap.
No - most entrepreneurs admit that the 'need to stay informed' is an excuse to scroll and distract themselves; the psychological downside of comparison and reduced focus outweighs any informational benefit.
When businesses struggle and sales become harder, entrepreneurs post more (and sometimes false) success stories to create authority, get attention, and attract clients - making the gap between real conditions and LinkedIn perception even wider.
Comparison-driven self-doubt reduces confidence, focus, and execution quality; time spent dwelling on others' apparent success is time not spent optimizing your own business strategy and delivery.
Our reviewer’s read on each dimension, with quotes from the episode.
The episode's central observation - that LinkedIn's positive-skewed content harms entrepreneur confidence - is a real phenomenon, but it is delivered at extreme dilution over 10 minutes with heavy repetition and almost no actionable depth. The 'solutions' offered are generic platitudes that add nothing new.
The solution to this is to follow people and only follow accounts that you know are, uh, more balanced and more measured about what they're putting out.
all of these things are just distractions from you becoming the best performer to and for your business
The episode recycles thoroughly familiar social-media-comparison-anxiety ideas without any first-principles thinking or counterintuitive angle. The iceberg analogy and 'grass is always greener' framing are among the most overused in this space.
And you know, ultimately, it's like an iceberg. You're getting the 10% of what's really going on.
acknowledge that the grass is always going to be greener and that people are going to be putting out the 99% of positive stories
This is a solo episode by a business coach whose credentials are entirely self-asserted with no verifiable evidence of scale or notable outcomes. The claim of 'coaching some of the greatest founders of our time' is unsupported by anything in the transcript.
I, your host, Alexei Patalis, share practical advice, inspiration and wisdom that I've picked up along my entrepreneurial journey and whilst coaching some of the greatest founders of our time.
There are no named companies, no cited data, no specific metrics, no case studies, and no verifiable claims throughout. All evidence is anecdotal and vague, relying entirely on unnamed clients and the host's personal impressions.
Sales were a lot easier before clients were a lot easier to find. It has generally got harder.
multiple clients come to me with a lack of confidence in their abilities and a feeling of overwhelm
As a solo monologue, there is no interviewing to evaluate, but the thinking itself is unstructured, repetitive, and circles back without building toward anything sharper. The host frequently hedges and trails off rather than making crisp analytical points.
And now there's been a creep in of more lately of people putting their, you know, the negative things that have happened to them.
We've all done this. Probably I do this a lot without often even realizing it.
Computed from the transcript - who did the talking, and the words that came up most.
Text Alexi a question or feedback Do you feel overwhelmed or low-confidence after scrolling through LinkedIn? Founders and entrepreneurs often experience feelings of inadequacy, self-doubt, and comparison triggered by the seemingly endless stream of success stories on LinkedIn. In this short solo segment, you’ll discover: Why LinkedIn is making you feel worse about your business How to curate your LinkedIn feed to overcome imposter syndrome and massively increase motivation in your business Listen now to learn how to finally focus on what matters in your business, and overcome comparison. - - - This podcast for founders delves into topics such as high performance in entrepreneurship, burnout, effective communication, resilience, anxiety, and productivity, offering insights on overcoming challenges, achieving success, creating massive impact, and cultivating a resilient mindset in an overwhelming world.
Transcribed and scored by The B2B Podcast Index.
Speaker A: In this solo episode, you'll learn why LinkedIn might be sabotaging your business success as an entrepreneur. And I reveal one simple strategy to boost your productivity. Welcome to the Conscious Founder Podcast. The show enabling founders and entrepreneurs to become the masters of their minds so they can create massive impact with ease. Enjoy the journey and avoid burnout. This is our solo short segment where I, your host, Alexei Patalis, share practical advice, inspiration and wisdom that I've picked up along my entrepreneurial journey and whilst coaching some of the greatest founders of our time. In today's episode, you'll Also discover why LinkedIn is making you feel worse about your business and how to curate your LinkedIn feed to overcome imposter syndrome and massively increase motivation in your business. Now, in today's episode, I want to keep things a little bit more light. Sometimes my episodes can sound or feel like there's some quite deep topics. But today we are literally going to talk very briefly about LinkedIn. And the reason we're going to talk about LinkedIn is because I've had multiple clients come to me with a lack of confidence in their abilities and a feeling of overwhelm and, uh, jealousy and, um, all different types of feelings, negative feelings that when we've broken it down, it's culminated in them realizing that the only evidence, where the evidence has come from as to why they believe that they are inadequate, etc. Is due to seeing how other people are doing on LinkedIn and due to seeing the results that other people are getting now. We've all done this. Probably I do this a lot without often even realizing it. But when I flick through LinkedIn and I read ten plus posts, however many posts you might have noticed, like I have, that the majority of them are positive. They're about how amazing something is going in someone's work. And now there's been a creep in of more lately of people putting their, you know, the negative things that have happened to them. Ultimately, if you've put out content, it's all about putting out stuff that is going to get you a good amount of attention, likes or to create an authority in the space. Now, I want to talk specifically about the posts that are happening more and more often at the moment, which I think is the reason why multiple clients have come to me in the last month with this similar issue. It's because actually during a time when things are not great in terms of the economy, when things have been shrinking, when it's harder for businesses, now we know that that is the case and I know that that is the case because I've noticed the difference over the last two to three years, four years since I started coaching entrepreneurs. Sales were a lot easier before clients were a lot easier to find. It has generally got harder. There are anomalies and there are some founders of mine that, uh, are doing unbelievably. But there are in general, I've seen firsthand them telling me the truth that they are struggling more. It's harder and harder. Now, what LinkedIn is currently saying is that it looks like everyone is doing unbelievably well. And, um, I've noticed that that seems to be what happens is that during a time when people are more desperate for sales, people are struggling more. They end up actually posting more success stories and maybe even more success stories that aren't even true. And now we'll never be able to fact check most of these stories. So we just take them on when we read them. Even if we have an inkling that they might not be telling the truth, we generally still think better of humans. We think good of humans. We think, yes, they are telling the truth, and therefore we interpret it as, wow, everyone is doing really, really well. Now, why this is so important to you as an entrepreneur, uh, is if you felt any feelings like this of God, like everyone else seems to just be doing really well and what is it? It's something to do with me or what am I not doing? That's right. And ultimately you could be doing everything right. It could just be the current environment and, or the current specific type of people you're selling to and what you're selling. The most important thing from this that I want people to take is that you need to separate performance of your business from who you are. Because you might just have a product that not everyone wants right now. Maybe it's something that in 10 years time it might be the most popular product. Does that make you inadequate? Does that make you feel bad about yourself or think lower of yourself? It shouldn't, because that's also not useful to you. If you feel less about yourself, you're going to lower confidence, et cetera. And therefore that's why, to bring it back to that point, just being aware of the fact that LinkedIn, currently, right now, and other platforms like this, they're going to leave you probably feeling less inspired than they used to. And that is partly because a lot of people are either falsifying or bringing up more of their success stories. And that is with one simple aim. And I don't blame them that you can't stop people from doing that. Hopefully they are telling the truth. But even if they're not, that's not my responsibility as a person. My responsibility is to acknowledge that the grass is always going to be greener and that people are going to be putting out the 99% of positive stories. And you know, ultimately, it's like an iceberg. You're getting the 10% of what's really going on. And the other 90% I seem to get in my coaching conversations, which is where I've learned what's actually going on with entrepreneurs. I'm lucky enough to be able to see a plethora of different founders in different industries and how they're doing. Now, of course, I can't apply that to every single founder or entrepreneur and the business market how it is now. But this is just one trend and one theme that I've seen come up in my coaching and I thought it's very important to be aware of it. Now. What is the solution to this? Solution to this is to follow people and only follow accounts that you know are, uh, more balanced and more measured about what they're putting out. They're putting the good and the bad and you filter it out to just those people. You filter it out to people that post about motivating things or inspiring things or things that you want to learn about and not just about the results of their business. And often it will be because you're following a hell of a lot of sales focused companies rather than brand focused companies who might be delivering a certain amount of value. The second is probably pretty obvious, is to not look at posts on the platform. Now a lot of my clients and even myself have resisted this and I've. The first thing that comes to mind usually as well, you know, I need to keep informed and I need to keep up to date. And ultimately when we break into that, you don't really need to keep informed. It feels nice to keep informed with the odd person, but is it worth? The downside is the question that you have to pose for yourself. And when I've done that with clients of mine, founders, entrepreneurs, they've ended up saying no, it's just an excuse. It's an excuse to stay on these platforms and scroll through and distract ourselves. And yeah, so what I've ended up doing is only using LinkedIn as a tool for what I want to use it for, and that is reaching out, searching directly for people that I want to get in touch with. I still scroll through, but only scroll through target market people. And I do it in very short stints. There's also just the awareness of realizing that, as I mentioned earlier, a lot of people are not telling the truth and that will help. Uh, but ultimately I completely reduce my use for scrolling through my network. Uh, I don't see huge benefits in it, I just see more of the negative effects. And the negative effects are, as I've said, you think about how that lack of confidence or that jealousy is affecting your focus, is affecting the way that you work, is affecting how you execute. We've all had those days where we just can't stop thinking about that particular person that posted that thing and is doing really well and we can't understand why, because of X, Y and Z. You know, they started later than us or this and uh, the other. Now, is that conducive to good performance in your own business? Most people would answer that, no. So ultimately all of these things are just distractions from you becoming the best performer to and for your business. So I encourage you to observe the way that you are using LinkedIn, the way that you feel and do. Get in touch if you've, um, if you felt any of this. I'm interested to know how other people and other founders and entrepreneurs have and use. Continue to use LinkedIn for what it is, is a great tool, but whilst reducing the negative impact it has on you and your business, let me, uh, know. Get in touch. Hope you enjoyed. Thank you for listening to this episode of the Conscious Founder podcast. If you found this valuable, hit the link in the show notes to find out more ways you can become a master of your mind and achieve the success you desire.
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