Four LinkedIn humble-brags, and who each one is really about
Four LinkedIn announcements from the past two weeks each carry real news, and each one hands that news to somebody else; a plain rewrite shows where the writer belongs in their own post.
Four announcements went up on LinkedIn between September 15 and September 22, 2026, inside the window this issue covers. One reported a joint venture with a company that turns over about 40 billion dollars a year in retail sales. One reported a promotion to partner. One reported a nomination at a local business awards. One reported a graduate teaching assistantship.
Between them they collected a little over 6,200 reactions.
Each of the four carries news that matters to the writer's career. Each of the four also hands that news to somebody else: to a co-signer with more reach, to the firm that did the promoting, to the chamber that runs the awards, to a professor's filmography, and in the last case to the reader.
Dates below come from the posts themselves. Engagement counts are snapshots taken on September 27, 2026, and will have moved since.
The four specimens at a glance
| Posted | Author and public context | What was announced | Engagement | Who the post is really about |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sept 15 | Steven Bartlett, founder of Steven.com, the company behind The Diary Of A CEO | A joint venture with Authentic Brands Group to invest in creators 1 | 5,585 reactions, 640 comments | The reader, and a hundred-dollar microphone |
| Sept 16 | Adina Holzman, promoted to Partner at Quinlan Partners 2 | Her promotion, published by her and by her firm in the same week | 140 reactions, 42 comments | Her firm |
| Sept 18 | Katrien Heirbrant, who started her own business five years ago in a country and a language that were new to her | A nomination for Solopreneur of the Year at her local chamber's business awards 3 | 18 reactions, 4 comments | The chamber's gala |
| Sept 22 | Malcolm Walker, graduate film student at NYU Tisch | A teaching assistantship with Professor Spike Lee 4 | 480 reactions, 54 comments | Spike Lee |
Specimen 1: the pitch
Steven Bartlett's post opens with the largest announcement of the two weeks: a new joint venture between his company and Authentic Brands Group, built to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in creators 1. The deal is real, and his own post supplies the scale: Authentic Brands Group operates in more than 150 countries and does about 40 billion dollars a year in retail sales.
Then the post belongs to a microphone. Bartlett bought a hundred-dollar microphone from the Apple Store, plugged it into his laptop in a bedroom in Manchester, and recorded the first episode of The Diary Of A CEO that day 1. Years later, he stood on a stage in New York with Authentic's founder, Jamie Salter 1. The figures he gives along the way are concrete: more than 500 creators served, almost 200 people employed.
The closing line hands the announcement to its audience. "Thank god I hit 'publish' all those years ago," he writes, "even though I was worried I might embarrass myself. Maybe it's time you hit publish too!" 1
The handoff then continues away from his page. Within a day, Hans Sahni reshared the announcement to advertise his own vacancies in Los Angeles: "Now is the right time to be part of the Creator Economy! We're still looking for talent in LA (or willing to move). Take our Culture Test and comment or DM if you're best-in-class at any aspect of content production." 5 That version took 15 reactions and one comment 5.
The post drew 5,585 reactions and 640 comments, the largest audience of the four 1. Other people will find a use for a milestone post, and the larger ones attract more of them.
Specimen 2: the duplicate
Adina Holzman's post of September 16 opens the way most promotion posts open. "I'm thrilled to announce my promotion to Partner at Quinlan Partners," she writes, before spending the next four paragraphs on what she learned across four years at the firm: the value of putting clients first, that a team-first mentality is all there is, to prioritize her family and personal life when it counts, and that humor is the secret sauce to everything 2. The thanks go to her husband, to her father's daily reading of the New York Times "from cover to cover," to her mother's bookshelves, and to her children. The post closes on "Let's go!!!!!!!" and it drew 140 reactions and 42 comments 2.
The same week, the firm published its own version of the same promotion, and it appears directly beneath her post on the same page: "Quinlan Partners is delighted to announce the promotion of Adina Holzman to Partner. Adina's career has been marked by exceptional leadership, sharp strategic thinking, and an unwavering commitment to our clients and team. Congratulations, Adina!" 2 Quinlan Partners has 2,243 followers, and its post carries a promotional graphic, the hashtags #Leadership and #CareersAtQuinlan, and a link to a longer announcement 2.
Two accounts, one promotion, one week. The pair contains exactly one sentence that describes the work, and it sits near the end of her post: "continuing to serve clients, manage investigations, and support our truly exceptional team." The firm's paragraph fills the same space with adjectives about leadership and strategic thinking. A reader who follows both accounts reads the news twice and learns about the job once.
Specimen 3: the shortlist
Katrien Heirbrant's post is the smallest of the four and the cleanest example of the shape. "Five years ago I would have never imagined starting my own business in a country and a language that was not my own," she writes. "And today, I'm beyond proud to announce that I'm nominated for Solopreneur of the Year with Carleton Place and District Chamber of Commerce." 3
Most of the post carries the chamber's copy, because her post is a reshare of the chamber's announcement. That announcement lists every nominee across six award categories, congratulates all of them, and closes by selling tickets to the gala on October 15 at Stonefields Estate 3. Her post took 18 reactions and 4 comments 3, and the result it announces arrives almost four weeks after it was published.
The nomination is real work being recognized by a real body, and the ceremony is somebody else's. What an early-career reader can take from this entry is the scale. Compare it with the 5,585-reaction post and the shape holds: a sentence of news, a body borrowed from an organization, a formal occasion where the result will be read out. The template runs the same at both ends of the feed, and most people meet it at this end.
Specimen 4: the tribute
Malcolm Walker's announcement is the shortest news of the four. "Humbled and honored to announce that I've been selected to serve as Professor Spike Lee's Teaching Assistant at NYU Tisch School of the Arts Graduate Film and Television program," he writes 4.
The next hundred words belong to the professor: Spike Lee as a staple of the NYU community for over 30 years, as the auteur of some of the most influential films ever made, as a titan of showcasing the Black experience on screen 4. Walker then states his own mission as a filmmaker and promises to continue the professor's standard 4.
The post runs roughly 200 words. Twelve of them carry the appointment, and the rest carry the filmography of the man he will work for. A colleague reading the post finishes it knowing how good Spike Lee is, which the colleague already knew, and still unable to say what the assistantship involves from week to week.
One part of this post is worth copying outright. The thanks name people and their contribution: Associate Dean Patti Pearson and the professor, thanked for trusting Walker with the position 4. At 480 reactions and 54 comments, the tribute format traveled further than the news inside it 4.
The feed's counter-signal
The platform now writes this joke for you.
Max Noxon's post of September 24 removes the announcement and keeps the ceremony: "I'm humbled to announce that I'm excited. I wasn't sure when I'd be ready to share this, but the excitement has reached a point where remaining privately excited no longer serves my network. Thank you for respecting this next chapter." 6 It took 86 reactions and 14 comments 6.
James Frogale, a lawyer who posts regularly, put the observation in one sentence on September 19: people are constantly "humbled" and "honored" to announce an accomplishment they appear neither humbled nor surprised by 7. He recommends telling an actual story instead, then reports what his own honest posts brought him: lunches, friendships, referrals and co-counsel relationships. That post took 40 reactions and 11 comments, and one of the comments came from a defense lawyer explaining a point of civil procedure in response to a story Frogale had told about opposing counsel 7.
Paul Adcock went further and wrote a song. "LINKEDIN HEARTS" opens with "Good morning, network. I'm humbled to announce... I am humbled to announce... that I am humbled to announce... Absolutely nothing," and its chorus runs "Big applause. Little proof." 8 The page showed no public reaction count when it was checked.
A four-word opening now works as a punchline with no setup behind it. That tells you how completely the audience has learned the template.
The sincere rewrite
Here is Walker's announcement with the writer as its subject, in the form you would use to tell a colleague.
I'll be a teaching assistant for Professor Spike Lee's graduate film class at NYU Tisch this term.What the role covers, for anyone wondering: the weekly screening schedule for the class, office hours on the assignments, and getting student scripts to Professor Lee with notes before the workshop.Thank you to Associate Dean Patti Pearson and to Professor Lee for the offer.I'll write about what the class is working on once the term starts.
The rewrite keeps the appointment, adds a job description a colleague can picture, thanks two people for something specific, and ends on the news itself. It drops the filmography, the mission statement, and the word "humbled."
For your next announcement:
- Put the news in the first sentence. Name the role, the organization, and when it starts.
- Add one concrete detail of the work. A team size, a system you will own, a problem you were hired to solve.
- Thank two or three people for something specific. A named person and their contribution beats a room.
- Let the official version be official. When your employer or school publishes the ceremonial announcement, your post adds nothing by repeating it.
- End on the news. A closing instruction to the reader turns your milestone into a favor you are asking of them.
References
- 1Steven Bartlett, joint venture announcement\
linkedin.com
- 2Adina Holzman, promotion announcement\
linkedin.com
- 3Katrien Heirbrant, award nomination post\
linkedin.com
- 4
- 5Hans Sahni, creator-economy recruiting post
linkedin.com
- 6Max Noxon, parody announcement
linkedin.com
- 7James Frogale, post on writing plainly
linkedin.com
- 8Paul Adcock, parody lyric
linkedin.com
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