How One Simple Post Starts Everything

It was one of those weeks where I’d nearly talked myself out of posting again. But a quick nudge from Justin Welsh—just ship, just hit post—finally broke the cycle. If you’re reading this, you probably know the feeling: staring at the draft longer than you should, wondering if now’s the time.

So I wrote something simple, blew the dust off my courage, and hit send. It was, honestly, nothing special. But that single post opened a door I hadn’t managed to push through before.

The truth? Those first few posts barely saw the light of day. Maybe a handful of views, one or two likes. Each time, I questioned if it was worth it. Would this be good enough? For others? For me? I thought I’d see results straight away, but nothing much happened. Learning how to network consistently took weeks of showing up before I recognized that visibility doesn’t happen on day one. It shows up only after you start showing up, again and again, inside a weekly career growth system.

I’m not immune to perfectionism. AI turned things around for me. Not by writing every word, but by helping me get unstuck. When I was fussing with sentence order or hesitating to ship, shipping a credible v0 draft with a prompt was enough to get me out of my own way and keep moving.

Here’s where momentum kicks in. If you can carve out time for one value-first post and one genuine conversation per week, you’re already ahead. You don’t need ten thousand followers; you need the right fifty paying attention, responding, and engaging. Consistency builds trust, and small signals compound faster than you think. That’s how relationships start, opportunities form, and reputational risk fades. Don’t wait for perfect. Just ship. The work compounds.

Four Common Blockers (and How to Lower the Bar)

You probably know the blockers. I’ve lived inside all of them: perfectionism that keeps drafts in limbo, limited time, the low-level dread of posting to an empty room, and that nagging thought—you need a big audience before it counts. If any of those ring familiar, you’re not alone. I’ve met ambitious engineers with full notebooks who never ship, and it’s why consistent networking for engineers matters. And honestly? I used to think the same way until real progress forced me to admit it out loud.

Learning how to overcome perfectionism in networking starts with recognizing how sneaky it is. For me, it showed up as endless rounds of tinkering. I’d polish a LinkedIn draft so much it eventually felt brittle, like the idea had been overhandled. What shifted everything was spotting the problem as activation energy. The mental overhead required to even start.

Once I started lowering the threshold—using AI to rough out a first draft, time-boxing edits, leaning on templates, and a 20-minute shipping routine—the bar to getting moving dropped dramatically. Just framing my initial concept simply, with AI as a silent co-pilot, erased the friction. When the first version existed, momentum took over. Output wasn’t perfect, but it was alive. That’s what you want. Motion over mastery. If you keep waiting for everything to be “just right,” you end up posting nothing.

Time? It’s never abundant. I started treating content like micro-sprints. Set a fifteen-minute timer, capture a single insight, land one clear takeaway. If you keep a short queue—a handful of half-written thoughts—weekly throughput becomes sustainable. You don’t need a morning or a mood, just a window.

Now, about that fear of low engagement or posting to a small crowd. Growth has been slow, but the trend? Up. What matters is not spikes, but the slope. Every good signal gets you in front of one more attentive person, and each week builds quietly on the last.

Reputational risk gets easier, too, when you anchor posts in value, not attention. You’re not gambling your career on any one post. You’re practicing a weekly rhythm that compounds. Remember Justin’s nudge. Keep shipping, stay consistent. That’s where trust starts, and doors open.

A Low-Energy System for Consistency, Connection, and How to Network Consistently

Let me strip away the fluff and say this plainly. The system that got me from worrying over single drafts to shipping 100 posts is incredibly simple. To practice how to network consistently, each week I sit down and commit to two habits: ship one value-first LinkedIn post, and start one real conversation—just one. I treat both as small bets. They’re tiny enough that I don’t try to talk myself out of doing either, but meaningful enough that, when repeated, they build momentum. Track them if you want (I do. Quick spreadsheet, two columns), but the trick is repetition over scale. It’s not about doing more; it’s about always doing just enough.

Six months ago, my posts would stall for days because of one awkward sentence I couldn’t get right. Now I just move on. It isn’t perfect, but it goes out anyway.

It’s funny, but this whole creator streak reminds me of engineering A/B tests. Waiting for perfect models or flawless code gets you nowhere. Ship version one, see what lands, tweak version two. MrBeast famously tries, fails, learns, and iterates. The results live in the reps, not in the first attempt.

On the conversation side, my bar is even lower. Reach out once a week, specifically. Maybe I DM Allan Wu to send specific appreciation notes for a thread on prompt framing, or trade a question with Charlie Hall about LLM deployment. Sometimes, it’s asking Hamid Moosavian about a shared challenge, or riffing with John Crickett on engineering roadblocks. Weaker LinkedIn ties actually boost job mobility more than strong ties, making outreach to new or distant contacts a real lever (source). Sometimes I hesitate, but every time I take the step, a new window opens.

You don’t need a massive following to start. The Kevin Kelly “1000 True Fans” idea lives here: a handful of engaged peers offers more opportunity than chasing audience size. Most of my biggest shifts came from a short list—a few regular readers, a DM thread, a connection intro. It’s easy to trick yourself into thinking growth only matters after you cross some big number. I know because I kept thinking that. But the real power is in the relationships that form early and stay present. A tight circle beats a faceless crowd every time. Consistent networking habits—the kind that feel boring in the moment—create those circles. That’s what keeps doors open long after you hit “send.”

Attention-Seeking vs Value-Creating: The Split That Matters

The more time I spend on LinkedIn, the clearer it gets. There’s a sharp split between attention stealers and actual value creators. You see it in the endless cycle of posts chasing engagement. Controversial takes crafted purely for clicks, and those empty “nice post!” comments that only add noise. Early on, I almost fell for it myself, believing that virality was the only measure of impact. But I sat with the discomfort and made a choice. I’m here to build, not to bait. It’s a commitment, not a boast.

If you’re wondering what the “value path” looks like from the inside, it’s pretty simple. You share something that helps, and use a Net Value gate so each weekly post truly adds insight—whether that’s an insight from a project, a lesson learned the hard way, or a resource that saves somebody else time. You lift others up. No performative praise, just honest encouragement. You put your energy toward genuinely helping people grow. That’s what sticks.

All along the way, I’ve had help—real, specific help. I wouldn’t have reached 100 posts without learning from Madhan Vadlamudi, who always challenges my assumptions. Maliha Abdul Kabir, for her clarity around audience. Mason Campbell, whose approach to technical storytelling unlocked things for me. And Megan Frate, who kept me honest about practicality versus polish. Their influence shaped outcomes I wouldn’t have reached alone.

Back to what I said earlier. Even if you’re not the type to interact, your attention matters, and I’m grateful you’re here.

100 Posts Later: What Actually Changes

Hitting my hundredth post feels almost surreal. Not so much a victory lap as a marker in a longer journey. It’s lined up with other big transitions for me, professionally and personally. A year ago, I’d have called my growth erratic (a fitful graph at best), yet now the steady upward slope tells a different story. The resilience comes not from big swings, but a rhythm—a quiet commitment that persisted even when feedback was sparse, motivation dipped, or life got loud.

Most of what’s changed isn’t visible unless you zoom in. The wins look small on paper, but they add up fast. A connection with Nick Cosentino led to a referral I never expected. Rajveer Prasad kicked off an opportunity that shifted how I think about deployment. Sam Szuchan shared a resource that changed my workflow. These, plus dozens of quieter threads—DMs, comments, intros, new faces in my feed. It’s proof. Progress isn’t tied to audience size. The compound interest of consistent posts is what brings the right people around, period.

I’m still asked, by practitioners and friends alike. Is this worth the time? Do tiny audiences count? What if a post falls flat, or messes with your reputation? I get it. I’ve circled the same doubts. And honestly, I still catch myself comparing my progress to people chasing huge engagement instead of depth. I haven’t figured out how to avoid that part entirely. Maybe I won’t.

So here’s a challenge. Take the next seven days and start a networking routine as an experiment. Ship one value-first post. Start one real conversation. Tag it #YourMove if you want accountability. Repeat weekly. Don’t measure by likes. Measure by streak.

You don’t have to be ready. You just have to start. Ship imperfectly, keep showing up, and let the quality attention compound. That’s how you open every door that matters.