How this LinkedIn creator grew 26,000 followers in a year

^{Making a living as a creator shouldn’t be some elusive thing. And what’s the best way to learn how creators are making it work? To go behind-the-scenes. These bi-weekly interview issues are like having coffee with your favorite creators. If we haven’t met before, I’m Amanda Smith. I write about solopreneurship and the creator economy.}

Good morning. I love so many things about this week’s creator story. 

She’s a mother, who went viral with a humorous marketing spin on her picky eater toddler. She’s gone all in on one platform and it’s working out well. She’s just had a second baby, and she’s built her creator business in a way that allows her to take three months off. 

She’s built her entire brand around being a marketer, mother, and millennial. 

Let’s dive in. 

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As a journalist, Nicole Ramirez was always more comfortable with the written word. She worked in magazines and newspapers at the dawn of Buzzfeed when everything was going online, and found herself stumbling into digital marketing, too. 

In 2024, when Ramirez was laid off at her marketing director role at Forbes, she was tired of being tied to a title and company – and wanted to try her hand at personal branding. 

Not wanting to be on video, LinkedIn was the best place for her to build.

Within a year, Ramirez grew to 26,000 followers and is ranked in the top 50 LinkedIn Creators in Digital Marketing in the U.S. by Favikon. Her words have attracted brand partnerships, speaking gigs, collaborations, and opportunities she didn’t know even existed. 

“The posts that do the best are what I like to call my jackpot posts that hit on multiple content pillars. My content pillars are marketing and brand expertise, humor, and personal and career growth stories. Then I have my sub pillars which are my advocacy for things like parental leave, affordable childcare, and motherhood in general,” she said.

If a post has hits on marketing, motherhood and is also humorous, it’s usually a winner. 

“I had a post about how I feed my toddler salmon but I call it beach chicken, and how motherhood is just marketing. You just have to know your customer. It went so viral that I ended up in The Today Show, Newsweek, MSN and other media, all from a six-line text post,” Ramirez shared. 

The press dramatized it a bit, with polls asking their audience if it’s okay to lie to your children. That post transformed her business. “I always say, come for the humor, stay for the insights. People usually find my humor posts, follow me, and then read about my background, and reach out realizing they need fractional help.” 

Ramirez now works with brands needing marketing and content support, executives looking for ghostwriting, and aspiring LinkedIn creators. In 2026, she’s launching various offerings including one-on-one coaching, a 90-day program, and six-week group cohorts. 

Here’s what Ramirez recommends: 

“There’s a need for niching down but not too much. You don’t want to put yourself in such a small box that you can never get out of it.  Content pillars aren’t written in stone. You can always change them, but don’t give your audience whiplash,” she said. 

“Stay in the realm of what makes sense for your content and who you’re showing up as online. There’s so much that makes up a person and that will seep through into your content.” 

LinkedIn only started being able to label posts as brand partnerships about two years ago, because it wasn’t a thing on the platform before. 

But that’s changing. 

“A lot of B2B brands are leaning in and there are LinkedIn influencer agencies popping up. Creator Authority run by Brendan Gahan is one that I’m part of. He saw this opportunity to lean into thought leaders to match them with B2B brands.” 

Ramirez said one of her favorite partnerships was with Canva. They reached out to her to collaborate on an annual report on what’s going on in the marketing industry. 

“I’ve had people say to me they didn’t even realize that certain posts were brand partnerships because it sounds just like my content. I make sure that I’m working with brands that I already use and that I have authority over what I’m saying, so it doesn’t sound like an ad,” she said.  

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