Get Chosen On LinkedIn Without Shouting Louder

Speaker: Nicole Osborne, Founder of WonderStars

Session Notes and Full Writeup

Speaker Background and Context

Nicole Osborne is the founder of WonderStars, a business she started when her son was still a toddler, after leaving corporate life. She has been working with agencies since 2019 as a LinkedIn and marketing coach. She has spoken at this particular summit on three or four previous occasions, indicating an established relationship with the event and its audience of web agency owners and professionals. Among her past clients she references include Vito and the team at Atarim, and Design Box (whose founder Thomas Amos was also presenting at the same summit).

The session was hosted by Stephanie and framed as one of the most anticipated talks of the summit, with at least one sponsor citing it as the talk they were most looking forward to before the event even began.

The Opening Story: The Berlin Wall, 1989

Nicole opened the substantive portion of her talk not with data or tactics, but with a personal story rooted in her experience as a teenager growing up in East Germany.

The Night the Wall Came Down On the evening of 9 November 1989, when Nicole was 13 years old, it was announced on East German television that the Berlin Wall was coming down. For Nicole's family, as for thousands of Eastern Europeans, this was a moment that had been fought for and longed for over many years. Her family cried, shouted, and danced. Her parents immediately promised that the very next morning they would cross into Western Germany for the first time — their first taste of freedom.

Fear Nearly Stopped Them But when morning came, fear took over. The family was suddenly paralysed by a set of anxieties that feel, as Nicole deliberately pointed out, strikingly familiar to anyone who has hesitated before posting on LinkedIn: What if we do not belong?

We have been told for years that people in Western Germany are so much smarter. What if we are judged harshly?

What if we look stupid?

Despite these fears, Nicole and her mother were brave. They climbed into their blue Trabant (a small East German car), packed a picnic, and drove to the border. What awaited them was the opposite of what fear had predicted. Hundreds of people lined the streets singing songs and welcoming them. They were given sweets (referred to as "Harry Bows") and had one of the best days of their lives. Every fear the family had was wrong.

The Metaphor Applied to LinkedIn Nicole uses this story throughout the talk as the central metaphor: the "LinkedIn Berlin Wall of Fear." Just as fear nearly prevented her family from experiencing one of the most joyful days of their lives, fear is preventing smart agency professionals from showing up on LinkedIn in a way that would win them business. The parallel is intentional and emotionally resonant — the cost of the fear is real, and the reward for pushing through it is also real.

The Problem: Why Smart Agencies Become Invisible

Competence Without Visibility Is Not Enough Nicole is explicit that the agencies she coaches are, in fact, excellent at what they do. The problem she is solving is not a skills gap — it is a visibility and trust gap. When agency owners do not show up on LinkedIn as recognisable, relatable experts, "people simply can't place you. They don't know what you care about. They don't know what your beliefs and your values are."

She makes the commercial stakes clear: failing to show up properly on LinkedIn causes agencies to: Lose business quietly, with no obvious moment of failure Become commoditised — competing on price rather than value Remain stuck at the same price points for years, unable to grow Become interchangeable and even indistinguishable from competitors Miss out on shortlists, because the decision is made before anyone picks up the phone

The Decision Is Made When You Are Not in the Room Nicole points to a structural reality of how agencies get selected: by the time a potential client reaches out, significant filtering has already happened. Someone — a business owner, a marketing manager — has been tasked with shortlisting agencies. They visit websites, run AI comparisons, and look at LinkedIn profiles. If your LinkedIn presence does not communicate who you are, what you believe, and who you are right for, you will be screened out before you ever get the chance to make your case.

The Common Mistake: Safe, Polished, Forgettable Content Nicole describes a specific pattern she sees repeatedly in agency LinkedIn content, which she frames as a comfort-zone default: Sharing generic how-to tips Praising tools (particularly relevant for a technical audience) Listing services and credentials Writing AI-perfect, uber-polished posts Because every agency is doing the same things, none of them stand out. The content reads as competent but does not communicate values, personality, or a point of view. It is "thought leadership" in format only — it lacks the human element that makes it land.

Thought Leadership Without Relatability Does Not Convert Nicole cites a significant data point here: 71% of decision-makers say thought leadership is more effective than sales or marketing at showing a company's value. She uses this not to encourage more thought leadership per se, but to make the argument that if your expertise is strong but people cannot feel you as a person, you are doing all the right things but getting none of the results.

The LinkedIn Berlin Wall of Fear: A Taxonomy of Anxieties

Nicole catalogues the specific fears she most commonly encounters in agency owners and professionals. She invited the live audience to identify which fears resonated with them.

These are: "I have nothing interesting to say."

"I need to sound uber professional. LinkedIn is not Facebook."

"If I put myself out there, what will my peers think of me?"

She addresses these directly: On having nothing to say: the barrier is almost never a lack of material. It is the belief that your material is not good enough, or that your experience is not remarkable enough to share.

On professionalism: the desire to maintain a veneer of professional polish is itself a fear response. Professionalism and humanity are not opposites.

On peer judgment: this is perhaps the most pointed response. Nicole notes that when you post on LinkedIn, you are not posting for your peers — you are posting for potential clients. Peer judgment is, in most cases, an imagined audience.

The result of these fears is one of two outcomes, both bad for business: either the profile becomes a ghost town (nothing ever feels good enough to post), or what gets posted is so safe and polished that the agency brand becomes forgettable. Neither outcome serves the goal of winning new clients.

Breaking Through Is Incremental, Not Dramatic Nicole is careful to set realistic expectations here. She explicitly says that breaking through your LinkedIn Berlin Wall of Fear "doesn't happen in one dramatic moment." It usually happens "one post, one braver decision at a time." This framing reduces the perceived stakes of any individual post and makes the action feel achievable.

Relatability vs. Oversharing: Drawing the Right Line

A concern Nicole anticipates — and one she has clearly encountered many times — is that being "relatable" means oversharing. She is direct in separating these two things.

What "Personal" Means (Appropriate to Share) Being personal in a professional context means: Showing how you think Revealing what you value Explaining how you make decisions Sharing what life experiences have shaped your perspective She frames this explicitly as a competitive advantage in the age of AI: "Whether you work with ChatGPT or Claude, they are not really great at this." The things that make a person relatable — lived experience, values, judgment, perspective — are precisely what AI cannot replicate. This positions relatability not as a soft, optional nice-to-have, but as a core differentiator in 2026.

What "Too Private" Means (Not Appropriate to Share) Nicole contrasts the above with content that crosses into inappropriate territory. She describes "too private" as: Things that do not build trust Things that do not serve your audience Things that do not belong in a professional context Her practical test: before posting, ask yourself, "What would my potential clients think and feel if they saw this?" If the answer is uncertain, put it on the back burner.

The Blue Agency vs. Green Agency: A Buyer's-Eye View

To make the commercial argument concrete, Nicole invites the audience to adopt the perspective of a potential buyer — specifically, a busy business owner or marketing manager tasked with shortlisting agencies.

This buyer visits websites and finds them largely indistinguishable: similar case studies, similar service pages, similar pricing. They then use AI tools to compare the agencies further, including their LinkedIn profiles.

The Blue Agency on LinkedIn gives the buyer a feel for how the agency works with clients and how it makes them feel. The content addresses problems the buyer is currently facing in their own organisation. There is a sense of values and personality.

The Green Agency on LinkedIn shows long lists of tech tools, credentials, and award entries. There is no sense of who the team is, what the founder cares about, or how they view their clients' world. They "sound a bit aloof."

Nicole asks: which agency would you put forward internally? The implied answer is universal and obvious. The data she offers supports it: 70% of decision-makers say they are less willing to trust someone whose values feel different from their own (sourced to the Edelman Trust data).

The Relatable Expert Amplifier Model

Nicole introduces what she calls her "Relatable Expert Amplifier Model" — a framework she uses with her coaching clients. She notes with self-deprecating humour that she is German and therefore likes long words.

The model has a simple structure: At the centre sits you as a relatable expert On one side is your expertise — what you talk about and what you are known for

On the other side is what your audience cares about — their real challenges and concerns Surrounding both are your stories and personal brand values — the elements that amplify and give texture to how you come across The practical implication is that you are not choosing between expertise and relatability. You are finding the intersection, and then amplifying it with intentional storytelling.

You are finding the intersection, and then amplifying it with intentional storytelling.

Uncovering Your Difference Factor

A key practical exercise Nicole recommends is sending a specific question to peers, network contacts, and clients to understand what makes you different. She is emphatic that this matters because "the things that make you different are completely obvious to everyone else, but completely invisible to you."

She positions this as the antidote to "manufacturing a plastic personal brand" or "fabricating relatability." The difference factor is already there — it needs to be uncovered, not invented. She provides a set of questions agency owners should work through: How do you not want to come across? (Too salesy? Too corporate? Miss or Mister Know-It-All?) If your current LinkedIn reflects those traits, fear is likely the cause.

What does your audience really care about? What keeps them awake at night? (She suggests listening back to client call transcripts for clues.) What areas of expertise are you happy to talk about for the long term? (LinkedIn rewards consistency of topic, so these need to align with the services you actually offer.) What conversations do you want to be known for?

What stories prove you understand their world?

If your current LinkedIn reflects those traits, fear is likely the cause.

Trust Data and the Shift Toward Human Authority

Nicole grounds her argument in a broader cultural shift around trust. She references several data points: 71% of decision-makers say thought leadership is more effective than sales or marketing at showing a company's value (LinkedIn research) 70% of decision-makers say they are less willing to trust someone whose values feel different from their own (Edelman Trust) 81% say trust is more important than anything else when making decisions about suppliers She also notes that trust in traditional authority figures — fancy job titles, impressive logos, industry awards — is declining. Trust is shifting toward human sources: people who demonstrate understanding, show relevance, and exhibit integrity. This is the opportunity she wants agency owners to seize. A person like themselves, showing up consistently and authentically, is now "one of the most trusted sources globally, often ranking above traditional authority figures."

The three qualities that define a trusted advisor in this context are: Sound judgment — showing that you can make sense of complexity Human empathy — demonstrating that you understand the client's world from the inside Relatable context — providing a frame that helps the client see themselves in your content

The StoryFinder Tool

Near the end of her talk, Nicole references a proprietary tool called the StoryFinder, which she offered to attendees via a QR code displayed at the end of the presentation. The tool is designed to help agency owners identify which stories from their experience they are comfortable sharing and which will actually serve their audience — strategic story choices rather than an overwhelming inventory of possible anecdotes.

She clarifies what the StoryFinder is not for: shock value, "crying CEO" moments, or exposure for its own sake. It is about showing empathy and relevance through stories that have been deliberately selected.

Because Nicole has spoken at this summit multiple times, she also offered attendees bespoke LinkedIn post ideas as an additional bonus — personalised content suggestions tailored to the agency audience.

The Closing Call to Action: Find Your Blue Trabant Moment

Nicole closed her talk by returning to the opening story. She reminded the audience of the moment her mother and she climbed into the blue Trabant despite their fears, drove to the border, and had one of the best days of their lives. Every fear they had was wrong.

She asked attendees to find their own "blue Trabant moment" on LinkedIn — that one brave act that breaks through the wall of fear. She acknowledged that all the smartest people she has worked with carry these fears. She reassured the audience that once you acknowledge the fears, they become easier to tackle. And she closed with an encouragement: "You don't need to become someone else on LinkedIn. You don't need to shout louder. You just need to show up as a human being."

Post-Presentation Discussion

Following Nicole's talk, host Stephanie shared audience comments from the live chat, which reflected strong engagement:

• Multiple attendees identified with all three of the fears Nicole listed, with the fear of peer judgment appearing most common.
• The Berlin Wall analogy drew particular praise and recognition as a powerful metaphor.
• Zachary, the summit's social media manager, noted that the talk articulated exactly why automated, AI-generated content fails, "none of their personality or familiarity shines through," a sentiment echoed by other attendees.
• Thomas Amos (Designbox), who was in attendance and presenting later at the same summit, noted in the chat that he struggles with the feeling of being judged by people who do not know him, a real-world example of the fears Nicole had described.
• Beatrice noted that she exists on "the weird side of LinkedIn where people don't take themselves so seriously," treated by Nicole as an example of someone who has already broken through their wall.
• Nicole noted that Stephanie herself, having shared a personal and powerful story on stage, would find LinkedIn much easier going forward.

The conversation ended with Nicole encouraging all attendees to "just send that one post."

and see what happens.

About the speaker Nicole Osborne Wunderstars

Nicole Osborne runs Wunderstars, where she helps founders and agencies build a presence on LinkedIn that earns attention without resorting to attention-seeking tactics.