Thinking Out Loud

I just kept seeing shit advice about finding a job.

I'd spent more than 20 years on the hiring side, and I kept seeing people confidently telling jobseekers things that just aren't how recruitment works. So I sat in my bedroom, put my phone in front of me and started talking about it.

There was no studio and no plan. For a long time it was the same chair and the same black T-shirt. Then the numbers started getting a bit stupid: a combined audience of just under 195,000 in January 2025, and more than 635,000 by the end of that year.

All of it happened alongside a full-time career and a family, in ten-minute gaps, evenings and weekends. The products came later, because giving things away for free turned out to cost money.

There are thousands of people online selling a "proven system". I don't think one exists. This book is what I've actually done, what I've changed my mind about and what I'd do differently. There isn't a £997 course at the end of it.

This book is for you if

• You know your subject inside out and wonder whether anyone would listen
• You're an introvert, and the idea of filming yourself sounds horrible
• You've got a full-time job and can't spend eight hours a day on content
• You've built a following and want to sell something without feeling grubby about it

What's inside

Fifteen chapters, from where the ideas come from to selling something people will actually pay for. Among them:

Thinking out loud

Where the ideas actually come from, without a six-month content plan.

You don't need to be interesting

Why a fairly normal life is no barrier to building an audience.

Pick something you actually know about

Start with what you know from the inside, not what looks popular.

Stop trying to sound clever

Talk like a person, not a press release.

Nobody gives a shit about your content

Why that's the most freeing thing you'll learn.

Find your formats, and steal from yourself

Make content easier to create, and get far more out of every idea you've already had.

Viral doesn't mean valuable

Enjoy the big numbers without chasing them.

Get people off social media

Why your followers are borrowed, and why email matters more than you think.

Make something people will actually pay for

Useful isn't the same as buyable.

Selling without becoming a bellend

How to sell what you've made without feeling like the bloke at the barbecue.

The stuff I never planned for, and what I wasted my time on

The opportunities nobody tells you about, and the things that felt like work but moved nothing forward.

What I'd do if I had to start again with zero followers

The plan, if every account disappeared tomorrow.

About Lee

Lee Harding has worked in recruitment for more than 20 years, in agencies, in-house and in recruitment leadership. As The Introverted Recruiter he has built an audience of more than 700,000 followers and subscribers across Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, YouTube and email, alongside a full-time job and a family.