Five Professional-Development Influencers to Follow

If you’re eager to polish your professional skills, improve your daily attitude, or learn superior business tactics, consider a tried-and-true method: looking to other successful people for inspiration. Though the term “influencer” is often associated with recreation or branding, there is another subset for the more career oriented. Professional-development influencers offer freely accessible business advice you can apply to your everyday actions, no matter which sphere or industry you occupy. Take a deep dive into five popular accounts that may spur some revolutionary changes in your career.

Juanita Barkley-Head (@resumesbyjuanita)

This professional resume writer, staffing agent, and career coach has several years of experience advising job-hunting professionals, including veterans and transitioning service members pursuing new careers. Barkley-Head boasts an 87 percent success rate helping these individuals land offers, promotions, or lucrative pay raises, which can be chalked up to her incredibly perceptive knowledge of both the application and hiring processes. You can sample her expertise on her steadily growing Instagram page; read her posts about “7 Common Mistakes to Avoid as a Job Seeker” and frequent resume pitfalls, for example, and you may just boost your chances of landing a rewarding new role.

However, the advice on Barkley-Head’s socials may resound with just about all businesspeople, not only job seekers. She provides excellent tips to help you to identify your key professional strengths and develop skills you can leverage in pitch meetings, sales conversations, client interviews, team meetings, and many other situations. Because the ability to self-promote is central to business, applying Barkley-Head’s wisdom can impact how you approach daily tasks, enabling you to reap numerous benefits.

Marie Forleo (@marieforleo)

With millions of followers across multiple platforms, Forleo has undoubtedly made an impact in the business world as the owner of Marie Forleo International, a “socially conscious digital empire” that Inc. ranked among its five hundred fastest-growing companies. She has also authored a #1 New York Times best-selling book, Everything Is Figureoutable, and hosts a self-titled podcast that has amassed over twenty-nine million downloads. Oprah has even dubbed her a “thought leader for the next generation.”

To get a glimpse of Forleo’s international appeal, check out her popular Instagram Reels dedicated to advice on topics such as shaping a new business model around your passions, gaining your first round of clients, and balancing your workweek to prevent burnout. Just as impactful are her tips for maintaining positive mental health in business, including thought exercises that can help you identify your core motivation to succeed.

Neil Patel (@neilpatel)

This ultrasuccessful entrepreneur has many remarkable credits under his belt, including owner of the global marketing agency NP Digital, which was named Adweek’s top fastest-growing large international agency in 2022; New York Times best-selling author; and face of a YouTube channel with over one million subscribers. These achievements make Patel a valuable motivating force to which just about any professional should lend an ear.

One of Patel’s many roles is as professional-development speaker, and he frequently posts free, insightful clips of these highly venerated talks to his profiles. Follow him on multiple platforms to learn about the basics and key benefits of omnichannel marketing, discover why you should frame your customer-service strategies around the “peak-end rule,” and get insight into the potential pitfalls of TikTok marketing. When you’ve hit a client-engagement wall and need to restrategize your marketing, Patel’s firsthand tips could inspire some solutions.

Jordan Stupar (@jordanstupar)

As a salesman-turned-CEO, Stupar founded his own highly successful training program, where he guides salespeople on how to confidently converse with more leads, successfully obtain more deals, and overcome numerous other challenges. He certainly has the chops to back up this advising position, having propelled his own sales-software-program company, Sales Domination System, to a six-figure revenue between 2018 and 2020—at which point he successfully sold it to move on to his next project.

Stupar’s rapidly growing socials offer teasers of some of his most impactful sales advice, including a “formula” for addressing customer objections head-on and retaining their interest. He also shares how sending personalized notes to clients can be a game changer for improving back-end customer support and recommends lifestyle habits for boosting morning productivity. Overall, his compelling counsel is meaningful not only for sales professionals but also for anyone who leads a sales team or seeks better client-retention strategies.

Justin Welsh (@thejustinwelsh)

Welsh is a self-professed “solopreneur” whose most impressive career achievements include building two companies into billion-dollar valuations and raising over $300 million in venture capital. Now a mentor by trade, he guides other solopreneurs through their own endeavors via his popular digital courses, which are comprised of step-by-step advice for progressing from innovation to business ideation and, eventually, to goal realization.

Subscribe to Welsh’s Instagram for incisive professional wisdom such as “Most successful entrepreneurs I know . . . are just regular ol’ people with a lot of confidence and a heavy bias for action.” Or join the over 150K folks who have subscribed to his Saturday Solopreneur newsletter, which offers readers this lofty promise: “Launch, grow, and monetize your internet business in less than four minutes.” If you’re on the precipice of founding a new venture, Welsh may be one of the best mentors to help direct your strategies.

Often, the greatest limit to professional advancement is adhering to the same daily routine and mindset. If you want to propel your personal ambitions and organization to new heights, take inspiration from these influential businesspeople, each of whom may provide a fresh perspective, profound insights, and proven tips to succeed.

TAKE ACTION:
Follow each of these influencers today, and reflect on how you can apply their seasoned advice to your workday.