It’s great to be able to share my LinkedIn Posts with you here. To comment on the actual post, please make sure to open it in LinkedIn by clicking here and of course, ask me to connect and follow me. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this post.

Expert, do you let your clients grade your ‘homework’? It’s an interesting question and one I sometimes find myself caught up in.

The truth is, most of the #linkedinprofiles I write are so precise they receive one or two edits, maybe a keyword here or there, or a phrase I’ve made up for the client that needs adjusting.

But sometimes, I get EDITS.

And I mean EDITS.

It happens very rarely and is usually pre-cursored with ‘This is great, I’ve made minor edits’ but when I open the file I see complete paragraphs re-written or deleted.

There is a huge part of me that wants to act the student. The feeling that the teacher just gave me a “C+” and their edits are gospel. After all, isn’t that what’s drummed into us by teachers from a young age? Including ‘the customer is always right’.

But as I sit with their changes and try to smooth them out ready to publish, the more my expertise riles up and says “No! This just won’t work. There is a reason I wrote it the way I did”.

And then I remember myself.

I am the #expert here. I know what works – and this doesn’t!

And as the expert they’ve hired, it’s my job to tell them!

Usually I emailed back. Sometimes I jump on a Zoom call.

And after I’ve walk them through the logic of what I’ve written and why, they usually revert back to the original draft, happy with what I’ve written.

Sometimes with corporate clients, I have had to point out they hired an Expert NOT a freelancer, and had to stand my ground with their marketing manager.

This is HOW YOU DO IT… I have 10 years of specialist experience here! Your re-write/formula is boring and won’t achieve your desired outcome.

It’s not always easy to push back. I want to give the client what they’ve asked for but sometimes as I try to meet their edits, I realise I am falling out of INTEGRITY with my expertise.

And when I hear myself say “Gosh, I don’t want put my name to this” I know I’ve gone too far, and I pull back because I am no longer being an expert.

I am no longer delivering the value they paid for.

I am being a student taking a grade on a paper, as though the client is my teacher and knows best. They know themselves best, yes. But they don’t know how to write an engaging LinkedIn Profile that works with the psychology of the platform, and how people buy.

Have you ever found yourself in this position?

Do you find it easy to push back?

Do you stand confidently behind your expertise and for what is right?

Or have you ever handed over work just as the client wanted knowing that its not fit for purpose and thus not, wanted to put your name to it?

How do you handle situations like this?