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• Contact : Courtney Johnson is open to brand partnerships. For collaboration inquiries, reach out via email or connect on LinkedIn, Instagram, and TikTok.
• Start Here : Courtney Johnson is an author and personal brand educator in Austin who helps people beat the fear of being seen and build a brand that feels like them.
• What I'm Doing Now : Courtney is a published author. Career Cheat Codes (Penguin Random House) is out now. She helps 500,000+ people build personal brands that feel like them.
• Work With Me : Courtney Johnson co-teaches the Level Up on LinkedIn Accelerator, a 4-week cohort for professionals ready to build credibility and grow inbound leads.

Best Posts

Start here. These are the posts that best capture who Courtney Johnson is: the author of Career Cheat Codes, a personal brand educator who went from a toxic corporate job to an audience of more than 500,000, and someone who teaches people to get over the fear of being seen online. If you are new here, read these first.

• My Book Career Cheat Codes Is Officially Out : Career Cheat Codes is out now. Courtney Johnson wrote it to share the unwritten rules of the corporate world that she had to learn the hard way.
• The Day My Boss Said I'd Never Be Successful Without Him : When Courtney quit her harassing boss, he told her she would never be successful without him. She is now a best-selling author with her own business.
• The $100K A Year Playbook : Courtney Johnson lays out her step-by-step plan for reaching your first $100K year, starting with cutting distractions and reading the right books.

Book

Everything related to my book. The announcements, the milestones, and the behind-the-scenes of becoming a published author. "Dream Come True: I'm Officially an Author!" is the one that still gives me chills. It had been 1 year, 6 months, and 6 days since that Penguin Random House email landed in my inbox. Writing that post made it feel real.

• The Moment That Made Writing My Book Worth It : At her book launch, a reader told Courtney that posting on LinkedIn moved her career. That story is exactly why Courtney wrote Career Cheat Codes.
• My Book Career Cheat Codes Is Officially Out : Career Cheat Codes is out now. Courtney Johnson wrote it to share the unwritten rules of the corporate world that she had to learn the hard way.
• My Book is Here! : Courtney held her book Career Cheat Codes for the first time and cried. She wrote it because nobody hands you the rules to the corporate world.
• Dream Come True: I'm Officially an Author! : Courtney Johnson announces her first book, Career Cheat Codes, published by Penguin Random House. The handbook she wished she'd had is now real.
• Announcing My Debut Book: Career Cheat Codes : Courtney Johnson's debut book Career Cheat Codes is announced in Publishers Marketplace, with pre-orders live ahead of its April 14, 2026 release.

Career

Career advice I actually believe in. Company politics, income strategies, and the stuff nobody tells you in a job interview. "Problematic Career Cheat Codes: Company Politics Edition" is about navigating company politics, which can feel like walking through a minefield. I wrote it because most career advice ignores the reality of office dynamics.

• Pregnancy Made Me More Money: My Best Month Ever at $107,000 : Courtney had her best month ($107,000) while pregnant. She writes about trusting her team and letting small habits carry the business forward.
• I Have ADHD. So I Built a Business Around It. : Courtney has ADHD and built her business to work with it. Almost no meetings, full team autonomy, and the freedom to do things her own way.
• The Day My Boss Said I'd Never Be Successful Without Him : When Courtney quit her harassing boss, he told her she would never be successful without him. She is now a best-selling author with her own business.
• I Went From $25/Hour to $1,250/Hour. Here's What Changed. : Courtney Johnson once charged $25 an hour for advice that was changing lives. Here's what it took to see her real worth and raise her rates 50 times over.
• Problematic Career Cheat Codes: Company Politics Edition : Courtney Johnson's career cheat codes for company politics: understand what people really want, work on visible projects, and make your results known.
• Wealthy vs Broke People Dinner Topics : Courtney Johnson noticed that her wealthy and broke friends talk about completely different things at dinner, a consistent pattern she couldn't ignore.
• The $100K A Year Playbook : Courtney Johnson lays out her step-by-step plan for reaching your first $100K year, starting with cutting distractions and reading the right books.
• Why AI Makes Emotional Intelligence Your Greatest Asset : Courtney Johnson argues that as AI levels the playing field, emotional intelligence separates those who know what to do from those who can pull it off.
• The 1% Rule for Success : Courtney Johnson explains why she gives all her best advice away for free: 99% of people won't act on it. The 1% who succeed just keep showing up.
• Corporate Loyalty is a Myth : Courtney Johnson argues that corporate loyalty is a one-way street. She lays out why building your own brand and side income is the only real job security.

Content

Posts about content creation, personal branding, LinkedIn strategy, and what actually works in marketing right now. I practice what I preach here. "What B2B Buyers Actually Trust in 2025" is a wake-up call. If you are still marketing like it is 2015, we need to talk. I wrote this because the playbook has completely changed.

• How Gigi Robinson Became a Sports Illustrated Model From a LinkedIn Post : Gigi Robinson landed a Sports Illustrated shoot from a single LinkedIn post. Courtney talks with her about building a brand by being fully yourself.
• What B2B Buyers Actually Trust in 2025 : Courtney Johnson explains why B2B trust now comes from real people, not logos, and why 71% of buyers are Millennials and Gen Z who want authentic voices.
• The Personal Brand Advice You Need Before 2025 Ends : Courtney Johnson's best personal brand advice: stop posting when inspired and commit to a daily schedule. Consistency beats intensity every time.
• How to Go Viral on Social Media (The unethical way) : Courtney Johnson shows how to get noticed on social media by being bold and taking a stand, without resorting to fake or cringe tactics.
• Un-Gatekeeping LinkedIn: Part One and Part Two : Courtney Johnson shares her two-part podcast series on LinkedIn, covering profile setup, audience growth, and the opportunities most people overlook.
• Your Brand Is Dead: Why Employees Are Your New Marketing Department : Courtney Johnson makes the case that personal content gets 5x more engagement than corporate posts and explains how to turn your team into creators.
• Level Up Your TikTok Game: Short Form Video Accelerator : Courtney's Short Form Video Accelerator is a course for content creators ready to show up on video without the overwhelm or cringe factor.
• The Sunrise Content Club : Courtney Johnson's Sunrise Content Club brings creators together for daily live sessions, prompts, and real-time collaboration so you post consistently.
• 5 Podcasts to Help Monetize Your LinkedIn Presence : Courtney Johnson shares five podcast episodes that shaped how she thinks about value, visibility, and building a LinkedIn presence that actually gets paid.

General

The catch-all category. Media features, personal reflections, headshots, and anything else that does not fit neatly somewhere else. "I Was Featured in Fast Company" covers how I started posting consistently about marketing and career on LinkedIn and then TikTok, and everything took off over the past few years. Fast Company wrote about it, which still feels wild.

• How to Go to Cannes Lions for Free! : Somebody DM'd me last week: "Ughhhh, must be nice. I wish I could go to Cannes. I can't afford it." I get it. Cannes is expensive. The tickets alone are…
• SXSW: Why Getting in the Room Changes Everything : Courtney on SXSW: getting in the room creates osmosis learning and shifts how you think about your work. Community is not a nice-to-have; it is essential.
• Why I Changed My Podcast Name : Courtney renamed her podcast from Slay the Gatekeeper to Built in Public. It now covers real personal brand stories, completely free with no paywall.
• When Does This End? Women Are Tired of Having Their Work Stolen : Every woman Courtney talks to has a story about her idea getting ignored, then repeated by a man and praised. She's had enough, and she's not alone.
• How I Hit 50,000 Followers by Doing the Opposite of What I Was Told : Courtney Johnson grew to 50,000 followers by sharing the stories she was scared to tell. Authenticity, not polish, is what made people connect with her.
• To Everyone Who Doubted Me: Thank You for the Motivation : Courtney Johnson's open letter to every boss, ex, and critic who tried to make her smaller. The doubters didn't stop her. They built her.
• I Paid $5,000 for a Social Media Strategy I Never Used : Courtney Johnson paid $5,000 for a social media strategy she never posted. Fear of being seen, not a missing strategy, was what held her back.
• I Was Featured in Fast Company: How 2 CareerTok creators are preparing for the TikTok ban : Courtney Johnson was featured in Fast Company on how CareerTok creators are preparing for the TikTok ban and building more resilient personal brands.
• Small Habits, Big Changes : Courtney Johnson on why consistency beats intensity: start smaller than you think you need to, show up daily, and prove your potential one habit at a time.
• The Unspoken Truth About the Spiritual Community : Courtney Johnson shares why she broke up with the spiritual community after seeing the gap between its language of power and real accountability.
• Headshots of Courtney Johnson : Courtney Johnson's official headshots for speaking and media appearances, available as high-quality, print-ready downloads with and without background.