How to Find Your LinkedIn Story: A Step-by-Step Process from a 10-Year LinkedIn Strategist

Date: June 24, 2026

Reading Time: 8 min read

Key Takeaways

• Your LinkedIn story sits a layer below your credentials. It's not what you do, but why you do it, and that difference is what creates genuine connection

• Two coaches can use the exact same methodology and still attract completely different clients: differentiation lives in motivation, not skillset

• Finding your story requires looking in two directions: inward (your values, life events, and what drives you) and outward (your ideal client and the problem you actually solve)

• Once you know your story, content becomes easier. You have a specific point of view instead of just generic expertise posts

• Your story should surface across your entire LinkedIn profile: headline, about section, featured, experience, and even the recommendations others leave for you

• You don't have to be interesting to your peers. You have to be valuable to your ideal client.

When I look at someone's LinkedIn profile as a social media strategist, I ask myself: can I tell, in the first ten seconds, why this person does this work, not just what they do?

Most of the time, I can't. Not because they lack depth. Because they've never separated their story from their credentials.

That's the gap LinkedIn strategist Anneke van der Voort spends her days closing. Anneke is based in the Netherlands and has spent over a decade helping entrepreneurs and consultants figure out who they are on LinkedIn before they ever start worrying about a posting schedule.

She joined me on Strategy Talks to talk about the one thing most LinkedIn advice skips entirely: the story that has to come before the strategy.

Your Story Is Not Your Credentials

When you ask someone what they do, they'll usually tell you credentials — the degree, the certification, the years of experience. That's the first layer. Your story lives one level deeper.

There's a difference between someone's story and their credentials that I see play out constantly.

Lots of people lead with credentials and then wonder why nothing connects. "I went to business school." "I've been doing this for 20 years." "I had a TED Talk." Those aren't your story. Those are your resume. As Anneke puts it:

“The story is more... when it comes to your story, you actually go a level deeper. It's more about: okay, so this is what you do, but why do you do what you do?”

The reason this matters in practice: two coaches can use the exact same coaching model, the exact same framework, and still have completely different stories, because what drives one of them is peak performance, and what drives the other is purpose. Those aren't the same client. Those aren't the same conversation. And the one who has articulated that difference will get found by the right people.

The Process: Look at Yourself, Then Look at Your Audience

Anneke's approach starts with self-analysis — before it ever touches strategy. What are your core areas of expertise right now? What's your personality like? What are your values, your motivation, the life events that shaped how you work? Then she turns outward: who is your ideal client, what size of organization, what problem do they need solved?

Some LinkedIn coaches start with the audience piece and skip the self-analysis entirely.

Anneke flips it, because if you haven't done the inner work first, you end up building a profile that looks professional but doesn't actually sound like you. The motivational piece is the thread she keeps returning to throughout her client work. Expertise shifts over the years. What gets you out of bed in the morning tends not to.

I've seen this in my own 15 years in business. For a long time, I mostly worked with female entrepreneurs: solopreneurs who resonated with a specific part of my approach. Then my client mix shifted, and I had to look honestly at how my story had evolved. The story isn't a one-time exercise. It's something you revisit as your business grows.

How to Know When You've Found your LInkedin story

Anneke's honest answer is that she knows it physically before she can name it — a felt sense of resonance that shows up when a conversation moves past polished description and into something real:

“I know it when I often feel it literally in my body. Because at a certain stage you feel like, okay, yeah — we need to go deeper.”

The questions that get there: What difference do you make in someone's life? What actually happens in the room when you're working with a client? What do you believe about the problem that most people in your field don't? You keep asking until the real story surfaces from underneath the rehearsed one.

If you articulate something and feel a pull of recognition, not just relief that it sounds good, but genuine resonance, that's usually the signal.

Where the Story Lives on Your Profile

Once you've found your story, it shouldn't be locked in one section of your LinkedIn profile. It should be threaded through all of it. Your headline is the first test: not a list of every skill you have, but enough clarity that someone scanning it in three seconds understands what you do, why it's different, and who it's for.

From there it moves into your About section, where you have room to tell the whole arc, including the why, your Featured content, your experience entries, and even in the recommendations people leave for you. Anneke reads those recommendations less for the specific compliment and more for what they reveal about the person underneath: are they results-oriented? Human-oriented? Pragmatic?

“I find it important that people find clients through LinkedIn, but I find it more important that the visibility match with who they are. Because that's what I believe in.”

The word that keeps coming back in Anneke's work is alignment. A LinkedIn presence that looks good but doesn't feel like you is ultimately harder to sustain — and harder for the right clients to recognize you through.

Staying Consistent Without Performing

The worry Anneke hears most often:

"My story isn't interesting enough for LinkedIn." Her answer: “You don't have to be interesting, you just have to be valuable. And you don't have to be interesting for your peers. You have to be interesting for your ideal client.”

Once you know your story, content stops being a blank page and starts being a direction. You know which topics belong in your feed, which ones are a detour, and why you're posting in the first place.

On the low-motivation weeks, go back to the why instead of grinding through on willpower. And if you need to post but aren't feeling it, repurpose something older that already performed, rather than pushing something new that doesn't have the energy behind it.

This is the part I want you to hear: consistency doesn't mean posting every day. It means showing up with enough regularity that when someone is ready for what you offer, your name is already somewhere in their awareness. The story makes that sustainable, because it gives you something real to return to.

One Thing to Do This Week

Read through your LinkedIn profile as if you were your ideal client encountering you for the first time. Does it tell them why you do this work, or just what you do? If there's a gap between what's on the page and what actually motivates you — close that gap first, before anything else.

About Anneke van der Voort

Anneke van der Voort is the founder of PRminded and has worked with entrepreneurs, consultants, and business owners across Europe for over a decade. She helps her clients build LinkedIn presences that reflect who they actually are — not just what they've accomplished. Based in the Netherlands, she works with clients internationally and brings a mix of strategic precision and genuine warmth to every conversation.

Connect with Anneke

Find Anneke on LinkedIn as Anneke van der Voort

Enjoyed this episode?

Strategy Talks airs LIVE every Tuesday on Facebook, YouTube, and LinkedIn. Join us live or catch the replay wherever you listen to podcasts. Drop a comment and let us know you were there, even if you're watching months from now!

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between my LinkedIn story and my credentials?

Credentials are what you've done — degrees, job titles, years of experience. Your story is why you do what you do: the motivation, values, and worldview underneath the resume. As Anneke explains, two coaches using the exact same framework will still attract different clients if their underlying stories are different — one driven by performance, one driven by purpose. That difference is what makes a profile memorable.

How do I start finding my story?

Anneke's process: do a self-analysis covering your core expertise, personality, values, and motivation — including life events that shaped how you work. Then look outward: who is your ideal client, what problem do they bring, what happens when you work with them? The motivational thread you find in both directions is usually your story.

How do I know if I've found my real story or just a polished version of it?

Anneke says she literally feels it — a different quality of energy when someone stops describing their process and starts describing what they genuinely believe. If you articulate something and feel recognition rather than relief, that's usually the signal. If you're still in "polished description" mode, keep going deeper.

Where exactly on my LinkedIn profile should my story appear?

Everywhere. Start with your headline (clear enough for a 3-second scan), then your About section (full arc, including the why), your Featured content, your experience entries, and even the recommendations others write about you. Your story isn't one section — it's the thread that connects all of them.

Will knowing my story actually make content creation easier?

Yes. Without your story, content is just expertise posts with no distinctive point of view — something any competitor could have written. With your story, every piece has an angle that's specifically yours. Over time, the people reading your content start to feel like they know you, which is the whole goal.

What if my story doesn't feel interesting enough for LinkedIn?

Anneke's reframe is simple: you don't have to be interesting to your peers. You have to be valuable to your ideal client. The content that feels obvious to you is often exactly what a client needs to hear — because they're not where you are yet. Whatever you'd tell a new client in your very first conversation is your LinkedIn content. Start there.