009: Your Passport to Global Opportunities: The LinkedIn Blueprint for Expats

What I learned from 10 months of creating content and going viral

I've been creating content on LinkedIn for the last 10 months, sharing my journey and learnings in marketing and my experience as an expat consistently every week. I've been growing pretty steadily, but I've never had a "viral" moment- until last week.

My friend Dani shared a video of me and it received 45 Million views (that’s x9 the population of New Zealand)! This my first time being part of anything “viral” minus getting COVID in 2020 lol.

Going viral had me thinking about why I first started writing on the platform to begin with—and it all started with my move to New Zealand. The reflection made me realize just how game-changing LinkedIn has been for my career as an expat.

💌 So in this issue, I’m breaking down the LinkedIn blueprint that landed me my first sponsored job in New Zealand just one month after applying—and how it’s helping me future-proof my career abroad.

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What is LinkedIn, Really?

It’s a professional social network with 1.1 billion members worldwide, spanning 200+ countries with 67+ million registered companies.

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Why LinkedIn is an Expat’s Secret Weapon

LinkedIn empowers expats to:

🌎 Easily find and apply to jobs in every corner of the world.
🌎 Connect and network with professionals globally even before relocating.
🌎 Craft a profile that showcases their unique value, increasing chances of work sponsorship.
🌎 Build credibility as a thought leader, attracting borderless career opportunities.

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What Got Me Started on LinkedIn

Look, I get it. Out of all the social media platforms, LinkedIn gives people the most ick. It gets a bad rep for it’s trite professional posts and soulless corporate jargon.

I ignored it for years—until I moved to New Zealand.

When I arrived in June 2024, I had:

🚫 No job prospects
🚫 Few local connections
🚫 A short window to find work
🚫 The added challenge of needing sponsorship— a near-impossible ask in NZ’s competitive job market

Instead of letting these obstacles define my situation, I decided to give myself an edge in the market and use my story and experience as an expat to my advantage. I didn’t want to take the chance of having my application get lost in a sea of other applicants. So I decided to make some noise online, to get in front of potential employers who might be interested in learning more about me.

I started writing about my experience working in Sydney compared to New York City and how it’s given me a unique perspective on work-life balance.

I started writing about what I learned marketing for a tech start up in Australia.

I started writing about my recent move to New Zealand and the changes I had experienced in the last year.

The result?

✅ Landed an awesome job in NZ’s competitive market—WITH sponsorship—in just one month
✅ Received invites to industry events & workshops (with free tickets too!)
✅ Built a meaningful network of professionals in my new city—some of whom, like Dani, have become close friends
✅ Been recognized as an expert in my field—both online and IRL
✅ Gone viral! (Still not over it.)

All of this happened because I took LinkedIn seriously. It wasn’t easy to start (In fact, it felt incredibly uncomfortable to put myself out there at first) but, as an expat, it’s been the most impactful thing I’ve done for my career.

Looking for your push to start? Here’s how I did it. ⤵️

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How to Build Your Personal Brand on LinkedIn as an Expat

Step 1: Define Your Story

Really sit down and ask yourself: What’s my “why”?

Your personal brand starts with a compelling narrative—one that makes people care about who you are and what you bring to the table.

Then share an introductory post about who you are. (I know, it’s scary—but you’ve got to start somewhere!)

Step 2: Optimize Your Profile

It’s time to dust the cobwebs off your profile and

📌 Update your banner, subheader, and bio to reflect your unique value
📌 Make sure your experience section is polished and up-to-date
📌 Ask previous colleagues to write recommendations

Step 3: Network, Network, Network

LinkedIn is a social media platform after all, so make sure you’re engaging and connecting with others and building your digital network.

If you want to do this strategically, I suggest the following:

🔍 Use LinkedIn’s search function and its advanced filters to find professionals in your industry & target country
➕ Once you’ve identified key “influencers” in your industry/ target region, follow them and start engaging with their posts by leaving meaningful comments. You’d be surprised how easy it is to build a rapport with people by doing this.
💬 After you’ve built a rapport, send a thoughtful DM and set up a coffee chat.
💼 Pro tip: If you’re job hunting in a new country, ask about local opportunities, events, or industry groups they can help point you to.

Step 4: Be Consistently & Authentically You

Two of the most important yet under-rated skills on LinkedIn are:

A) Showing up consistently- Only 10% (134.5 million) use the platform daily, meaning it’s less competitive and noisy, making it easier for your personal brand to gain traction. Therefore, half the battle is won simply by showing up.

B) Creating content that is authentic to who you are - and not just a one-dimensional corporate version of you. LinkedIn is trending away from this style of content anyway, in favor of more real and honest posts that show holistic and even raw introspections of people’s personal and professional lives.

If it feels overwhelming at first, just start with one post a week. The most important thing is to start and over time, showing up consistently and being yourself on LinkedIn will naturally attract the right people and opportunities to you. 💖

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Need a LinkedIn buddy to get started? Let’s connect! I’m no personal brand expert or coach, but I can definitely point you in the right direction or give you the extra nudge of support to get started.

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Broads who inspire me on LinkedIn

Give these gals a follow if you want inspiration for how to post authentically and strategically on the platform, build an engaging community, and market yourself to get dream opportunities!

💖 Chanel Clark
💖 Kim Elizabeth James
💖 Simran Kaur
💖 Lara Acosta

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🚨 Exciting update:

"Meet Another Broad Abroad" is now its own dedicated newsletter!

That means next week, you’ll receive a profile of an incredible woman living abroad. I made this change to add variety to these newsletters and give other women’s stories a bigger platform.

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That’s it for this edition.

I’d love to hear from you 👉 If you had to write a LinkedIn post this week about how travel or moving abroad has shaped your career, what story or insight would you share?
Answer in the comments!

Catchya next week!

Muah 💋
Juvi