Last week I mentioned two groups from the research I've been reading. The journalists who felt trapped by their digital footprint and went quiet. And the health professionals who built digital identities that evolved alongside their careers.

The difference between those two groups wasn't discipline or willpower. It was approach. The journalists were managing their digital presence defensively — cleaning up, avoiding, retreating. The health professionals were building theirs intentionally — treating their digital identity as something that develops in parallel with who they're becoming professionally.

That distinction matters more than it sounds like it does. Because most of the advice we get about our online presence is defensive. Delete old posts. Curate your image. Be careful. And careful has its place. But if careful is your whole strategy, you end up like the journalists — silent, safe, and invisible in the spaces where your career actually develops.

So here's a framework I've been working with. I'm calling it the Digital Identity Audit — and it's something you can come back to whenever your career shifts or you're feeling misaligned with how you're showing up online.

Step 1: Map what's there.

Pick the two or three platforms where you're most professionally visible. For each one, look at your last 20 posts or interactions and ask: what would a stranger think I do, care about, and know about? Write that down. That's your current digital identity — not who you are, but who your platforms say you are.

Step 2: Name the gaps.

Now compare that to where you're actually headed. Not where you were six months ago, but where you want to be in the next year. Where's the disconnect? Maybe you're posting about experiences you've outgrown. Maybe you're invisible on the platform where your next opportunity actually lives. Maybe you're performing expertise you don't really want to be known for anymore.

The gap between your current digital identity and your evolving professional identity is where the discomfort lives. And naming it is the first step to closing it.

Step 3: Pick one thing to shift.

Not an overhaul. One thing. Maybe it's starting to post about a topic you've been thinking about but haven't spoken on publicly yet. Maybe it's leaving a platform that no longer serves where you're going. Maybe it's just updating your bio to reflect who you're becoming instead of who you've been.

The health professionals in that study didn't get it right because they were perfect at personal branding. They got it right because they treated their digital presence as something alive — something that should change as they change. They gave themselves permission to evolve in public.

Step 4: Revisit regularly.

This isn't a one-time cleanup. Your career is going to keep shifting, and your digital identity should shift with it. I'd say quarterly at minimum — but honestly, any time you feel that low-grade discomfort of "this doesn't feel like me anymore," that's the signal to run through these steps again.

The goal isn't a perfectly curated online presence. The goal is alignment — between who you're becoming and how you're showing up. That's what the health professionals had that the journalists didn't. Not better content. Better awareness.

This isn’t a one-and-done exercise, so save this to come back to when you have some space to think.

Next week, I'm getting personal. We're talking about the cost of performing a version of yourself that isn't actually you — and why it's more draining than most people realize.

Talk soon,

Tamilore

P.S. You can find the study here

Remember: always do your own research and take your time with applications. You got this!