I changed my first name on LinkedIn to an emoji character and put my full name in the last name field . When a sales team buys a contact list or uses an automation tool I get filtered out because the emoji breaks the script or I get an email that starts with “Greetings [emoji]” and those are also easier to filter out on my end.
Oh thank you! I am so going to steal that idea. That’s beautiful.
As for
use a title like “cat herder”
Not only do I use a self deprecating title, I tend to elevate my people’s titles. In a bakery I have, I make some of them things like “X Company VP of West Coast Foods Production”
You need better friends and family. Mine helped me get started and have done nothing but cheer me on since.