June 11, 2026

You don't have to pick just one.

When it comes to building your authority online, positioning is everything. And one of the most important (and most overlooked) pieces of positioning is knowing exactly who you're talking to.

Not in a vague, "my audience is engineers" kind of way, but in a this specific person, with this specific pain point kind of way.

Because here's what I see happen constantly with the brilliant, multi-passionate people I work with: the breadth of what they can do becomes the thing that makes it hardest to stand firmly in one spot talking to one person.

Yesterday, someone in my Thoughtful Leaders Cohort asked me a question about this as we were walking through how to build a LinkedIn profile that attracts the right person. She said: "Brynne, this is where I always get stuck. My approach isn't just helpful to one type of person. I don't want to exclude anyone."

She's an author and educator who has spent years working with neurodiverse students. She does trainings, speaking, workshops for parents and educators. And she's about to launch a book series — one rooted in her work with neurodiverse kids, but with a broader theme around sparking creativity and resilience in children.

And she's stuck.

If she builds her LinkedIn presence around the neurodiverse community, will she miss the parents who are just looking for ways to ignite creativity in their kids? If she goes broader, does she dilute the very thing that makes her credible?

She's not being indecisive. She's being thoughtful. She genuinely doesn't want to leave anyone out.

It's a familiar question, one that I also heard back in the February cohort from someone whose expertise spanned corporate partnerships, nonprofit sales coaching, and CSR advising. Three real things, all very valuable, all bringing in revenue, and the breadth of it was making it harder to stand anywhere clearly.

Here's what I told both of them.

Your profile can serve multiple audiences eventually, but it needs one primary lens. The right person needs to land on your profile and immediately think: this is for me.

When you try to speak to two audiences at equal volume, you end up resonating with neither. Clarity requires a focal point.

And choosing a focus isn't a constraint. It's actually where the power comes back to you.

Instead of casting a wide net and hoping the right people find you, you get to decide:

→ Who energizes you to work with?

→ Who has the most sustainable budget?

→ Who already sees the value in what you do?

Answer those honestly, and you stop being at the mercy of whoever happens to find you. You get to choose.

Here's a litmus test I use often, as someone who struggles with this, too:

If your dream partner landed on your profile today, who do you most want thinking "we need to work with this person right now"?

That's your one person. That's who you write for. Everything else still gets to exist, it just isn't the loudest signal in the top of your profile.

For the author in my cohort: her deep expertise with neurodiverse students isn't what limits her reach. It's what earns it. Parents of all kids trust her because of her specificity. Once they trust you, they find everything else you offer. Specificity creates credibility, and credibility travels.

What we'll be building for her:

• A banner and headline that strongly signal her specificity and credibility with neurodiverse communities (this is her differentiation)
• Using the About and Featured sections to highlight her broader work in sparking creativity and resilience in kids
• Adding new connections strategically to build a strong network of people who need her help
• Building content clusters around these themes so the signals come through in her content at the right moments

I'll be honest — I've gone in circles on this myself more than once. In fact, just this past weekend, I visited the beautiful Glenstone Museum in Potomac, MD just to clear my head. Art and nature always have a way of kicking my butt when I'm stuck in overthinking mode. I even got caught in a dramatic thunderstorm heading back to my car! Exactly what I needed (no sarcasm).

When I got back home, I built two things to help me start moving instead of just thinking about moving:

I created ICP projects in Claude — personas built from real clients, their language, their fears, their goals. When I'm second-guessing who I'm writing for, I can have a conversation with a version of my ideal client and test how something lands before it goes anywhere public. One of them is direct and brutal and sometimes hurts my feelings, but having access to their honest voice has already brought so much clarity.

And then there's what I've started calling my Elle Woods artifact. She's a Legally Blonde version of myself built with a Claude artifact in a personal project that's already trained on my voice, tone, and positioning — basically a version of me that doesn't overthink, doesn't hedge, and just assumes everything is going to work out. I'm not trying to get into Harvard to win a boyfriend back, but I need that "What, like it's hard?" energy in my life.

When I'm stuck trying to think through every possible angle of something, I open it and let her weigh in. Sometimes the less-thoroughly-considered take is exactly what breaks the logjam. We learn by doing, not just by thinking about thinking.

So if you're in the spiral right now, try the litmus test. And if you're feeling brave, build an ICP persona in your favorite AI tool and channel your inner Elle Woods to move on it.

Write down the one person you most want to build toward. Not the safest answer. The one that makes you a little excited and a little nervous.

Does it surprise you? Does it give you permission to move?

That's your focus, not your ceiling.

Keep showing up!

Brynne

p.s. Aren't we glad Elle Woods' original plan didn't work out the way she wanted? Incredible things happen when we move, build, and grow... even if it takes us to a completely different place than we planned.

🗓️ Two events coming up I think you'd enjoy:

• Join me and Fundraising Coach, Julie Ordoñez, for a LinkedIn Live on June 25: How Nonprofit Leaders Build Trust with Major Donors on LinkedIn
• My brilliant friend, Caroline Griffin, is running a Done by December year-end planning cohort for nonprofits. The nonprofits who joined last year received incredible results, and she's looking for a few more nonprofits to join them this August. Use code CAUSEFOKUS for $100 off!

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