Low-Risk Confidence Ladder
Start where self-expression feels safest, prove the habit, then expand
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 4
- Confidence
- 97%
Murray-Serter describes confidence-building as a sequence rather than a leap. When he wanted to develop a public identity after a company failed, he chose LinkedIn because being an entrepreneur made that channel feel credible and least impostor-like. He wrote honestly about failure and work in progress, built an audience, and later used successful LinkedIn posts as evidence for what he might try on Instagram. The mechanism is graduated exposure: select the channel where your real identity supports the message, practise there, learn which ideas connect, and then carry proven material into a more uncomfortable format. This does not eliminate fear; he still describes a persistent belief that nobody wants to hear him. It lowers the first risk enough to create experience and evidence before the next step.
Origin
Extracted from The Diary of a CEO
Core principles
- 01Confidence can be built through graduated exposure
- 02The first environment should fit an identity you can defend
- 03Existing evidence can lower the risk of the next step
- 04Old peers often loom larger in fear than in current life
How to run it
- 1
Locate the fear
Name the format, audience, or imagined critic that makes expression uncomfortable. Distinguish lack of confidence from lack of knowledge.
Pro tip Identify the specific person or peer group you imagine judging you.
Watch out Fear is not the only reason to abstain; competence and privacy also matter.
- 2
Choose the safest credible channel
Start where your current identity and experience make the contribution easiest to defend. Use real work and honest learning rather than a manufactured persona.
Pro tip Pick the place where you feel least like an imposter, not necessarily the largest platform.
Watch out Comfort should enable practice, not permanent avoidance.
- 3
Build evidence
Publish consistently enough to learn what feels authentic and what helps the audience. Save the ideas that receive meaningful responses.
Pro tip Value useful replies over raw follower counts.
Watch out Popularity does not validate factual claims.
- 4
Climb one step
Adapt a proven idea for a slightly more uncomfortable platform or format. Increase exposure gradually and repeat the process.
Pro tip Repurpose the insight rather than copying the post blindly.
Watch out Do not let an imagined school-era audience control a present-day decision.
In the wild
Murray-Serter began on LinkedIn, where his entrepreneurial experience made him feel credible. He wrote about failure and unfinished ventures, grew from roughly 3,000 to nearly 25,000 followers by his account, and later adapted high-performing posts for Instagram after discussing his reluctance with Bartlett.
→ A lower-risk platform created practice and reusable evidence for a more uncomfortable one.
Common mistakes
Starting with the scariest format
Demanding maximum exposure immediately can make avoidance more likely when a credible intermediate step exists.
Building a false persona
The ladder depends on expressing real experience, not performing certainty or expertise that is absent.
Is it for you?
Best for
Professionals with useful experience who avoid public expression because of imposter syndrome or fear of old peers' judgment.
Not ideal for
It is not a reason to publish outside one's competence or to treat engagement as proof that a claim is accurate.
From the transcript
“choose a place build confidence and go on from there”
“if it was popular there I guess it'll be popular let's have a go”
From the episode
Overcoming Depression, Burnout, Anxiety and Insomnia with Dan Murray-Serter