What Nick Richtsmeier Made Me Say Out Loud
The room that claps for you isn't the room that pays you — and most of us figured that out too late.
Nick Richtsmeier runs a podcast called Damns Given, and he asked the kind of questions that make you forget there’s a microphone.
No pre-approved talking points. No safe lanes.
We went places I didn’t expect the Discover Podium origin story, walking away from a $4–5M acquisition, the addiction behind the hustle, why I permanently deleted LinkedIn, and what fatherhood broke open in me that the algorithm never could.
Nick did that.
🎥 Watch on YouTube 🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts 🎧 Listen on Spotify
Something We Didn’t Get To
Many of you already read Why I Finally Called It Quits With LinkedIn — the most-read, most-shared piece in this newsletter’s history. The podcast with Nick is the unfiltered backstory behind that article—every detail I couldn’t compress into the written version.
But in both the article and the conversation, I circled something I never said directly.
The platform that rewards you with attention is not the platform generating your revenue. And most of us confuse applause for pipeline until the math forces the question.
I built a company on LinkedIn. Scaled it past a million in year one.
Spent five years refreshing ProFinder leads at 3 AM so my team could eat.
And when I finally audited where my actual revenue came from, the deals that changed my life, the clients who stayed, the engagements worth six and seven figures—almost none of it traced back to the LinkedIn feed.
The executive who hires me at that level doesn’t scroll.
They’re not in my DMs. They heard my name from a board member over dinner—or a peer who dropped it in a private Slack thread I’ll never see.
Usually it’s just a text message, “Call Jacob, trust me.”
Meanwhile, the algorithm kept feeding me attention from a room that felt like my market but wasn’t. Every hour I spent performing for that room was an hour I wasn’t in the room that mattered.
This isn’t just a LinkedIn problem. It’s a clarity problem.
If you’re spending four hours a day somewhere—ask yourself where your last three best clients came from.
If the answer isn’t that platform, you’re not building. You’re performing.
The exit isn’t always deletion. Sometimes it’s just proportion. But you have to see it first.
I wrote about this from the inside out—the revenue data, the addiction, the family cost—in Why I Finally Called It Quits With LinkedIn. If you haven’t read it yet, start there. It’s an important piece in the archive.
New Here? Start With These
60+ articles deep. If you want the concentrated version of what this newsletter is about, these five will get you there:
Why I Finally Called It Quits With LinkedIn — The piece behind the podcast. Why I permanently deleted my profile—and what the revenue data actually revealed.
How to Network Without Becoming a LinkedIn Influencer — How to build a high-leverage network without posting “thought leadership,” sending spam, or eating bad cheese at networking events.
Why Executives Leave Millions on the Table: The Werewolf Game Theory of Negotiation — Why most leaders negotiate like villagers instead of winners—and what information asymmetry has to do with it.
Executive Loneliness: Why Climbing Higher Means Feeling Lonelier — What happens when the ladder narrows your world—and how the most effective leaders are reclaiming their humanity.
How Senior Leaders Build Strategic Networks That Create Executive Opportunities — You don’t have a marketing problem. You have a sales problem. This is how real leverage actually moves.
Free Resources You Should Know About
I built a Complete Job Search Course — free, no paywall, no catch.
Full process from positioning to close. If you’re in transition or think you might be soon, start there—and share it with someone who needs it.
For Paid Subscribers
Three things worth knowing:
Career Calibration Calls — Paid subscribers get 25% off one-on-one sessions. We look at your specific situation, your leverage, your timeline — and we build the plan. These calls get credited towards retainers if we end up working together further.
Jacob GPT — A custom AI trained on my frameworks, scripts, and negotiation playbooks. Not a replacement for working with me directly. But it’s the next best thing at 2 AM when you’re staring at an offer letter and your brain has gone quiet.
Monthly Group Office Hours
A live session where I work through real career and compensation challenges with premium members. I send the link via email the Tuesday before each meeting.
Ready to discuss your career? Book a strategy session.
Stay fearless, friends.
I can’t wait to listen to this! After teasing some of these topics with Lenny, you left me curious, especially as I’m also have a medically complex kiddo. I really appreciate when people share more about their personal journeys that lead to breakthroughs instead of just pure business advice. Big thanks for that.
I really enjoyed the interview you had with Nick. Your vulnerability about addiction/obsessiveness was especially insightful and relatable because yeah... the internet definitely feeds us back the worst in that regard, and it doesn't seem to be getting any better.