Turning LinkedIn into a Cleared Recruiting Goldmine: The Stephanie Holman Story

In the ultra-secretive world of cleared recruiting (think CIA and NSA hires), one recruiter defied all odds by turning LinkedIn content into a pipeline of placements. Stephanie Holman has “done the impossible” – building a vibrant community of security-cleared professionals on LinkedIn that generates hire after hire after hire. And she insists she’s not special: “What she has done is something that every single one of us can do or should be doing,” says Elite Recruiter Podcast host Benjamin Mena. This is the story of how Stephanie went from an unknown career-changer to a 72,000+ follower LinkedIn force in under two years, and the lessons any recruiter can use to start building their own online presence.

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From Higher Ed to AWS to Cleared Recruiting

Stephanie’s path into recruiting was unconventional. She began her career in education, earning a Master’s in school counseling and working in K-12 and college settings. She loved helping students and believed “knowledge is power,” a principle that would later fuel her content strategy. In higher ed, she even recruited for computer science and information security programs, often working with military students who already held security clearances.

Eventually, like many educators, Stephanie hit a financial ceiling in academia. As a U.S. military veteran, she leveraged a Hiring Our Heroes (HOH) fellowship to pivot into the private sector. HOH pointed her toward tech recruiting, and soon Amazon Web Services (AWS) offered her a role – her first job in tech recruiting. Stephanie “cut her teeth” at AWS, diving headlong into recruiting for an intelligence-related division of AWS.

“I won Willy Wonka’s ticket… to learn from some of the best people” in tech recruiting, Stephanie says of her time at AWS. But that experience came with a steep learning curve. She was warned upfront that she’d have to “run as fast as you can” to catch up – and she did, investing in extra training and shadowing top performers.

After about 18 months, however, Stephanie’s role at AWS came to an unexpected end amid broader industry layoffs – an outcome she surprisingly calls “one of the best things that has ever happened to me professionally”. Why? Because it set the stage for her next chapter: going all-in on LinkedIn to build her personal brand and community in the cleared recruiting space.

Why She Started Posting for Cleared Professionals

When Stephanie left AWS, she crafted a humble LinkedIn post announcing her exit – and the response blew her away. Because she had already been sharing content and “talking about the cleared space” on LinkedIn, she had built up visibility in that niche. “I never built that account [for] myself… What I wanted to bring was value for everyone in the cleared space,” she explains. By freely posting tidbits about security clearance careers and hiring, she had unwittingly created a network of goodwill.

The moment her farewell post went live, cleared engineers she’d placed or connected with came out in force. “My LinkedIn messages, my phone lit up,” Stephanie recalls – connections reached out to express support and even referred her to their employers. Thanks to those advocates, she landed “immediate interviews on roles that I didn’t even apply to”. Imagine that: candidates she had helped were now helping her get job opportunities! This powerful lesson cemented her belief in building trust and giving value before ever asking for anything in return.

But even before she needed that community’s help, Stephanie had sensed an opportunity. With her educator’s mindset, she looked at LinkedIn and saw a glaring lack of content about the cleared world. Few outside voices were sharing insights on the CIA/NSA side of recruiting – it was “like this quiet, underground thing,” as Benjamin Mena put it. Stephanie realized if she started posting helpful content for cleared professionals, she could fill a void.

“There’s a massive opportunity for cleared recruiters to jump on this platform and bring more information about the cleared space to LinkedIn, because there’s just not a lot of information there,” Stephanie says. That vision – to provide access to information for cleared candidates – became her guiding mission online.

From Experiment to Community: How Her Strategy Evolved

Starting out, Stephanie approached LinkedIn as an experiment. She watched established LinkedIn influencers and initially thought their success was due to luck or looks – “they’re good looking, they play the part, they speak the part…”. Before long, she discovered the truth: it wasn’t luck at all. Those people were “willing to do it, willing to suck [at first], willing to put the work in” and they had a clear framework for the value they offered. In other words, they showed up consistently with a message, and they improved through trial and error. If they could do it, why not her?

So Stephanie dove in and started creating content for the cleared community. In the beginning, she admits, she made a common mistake – focusing too much on herself. “What do I want to say about me?” was the wrong approach. She quickly pivoted to an audience-centric mindset: “No, no, no… It’s about you, the cleared community. What do you need? What do you find valuable?”. This shift was a game-changer. Instead of self-promotion, she began sharing insights that would educate, inform, or even just entertain people in her niche.

And she didn’t nail it overnight. Stephanie treated her LinkedIn like a laboratory: “Trial and error, experiment, experiment, experiment,” she says of those early days. Some posts fell flat; others struck a chord. “Listen to your comments, responses, impressions – LinkedIn’s gonna tell you… this piece of content worked, this didn’t,” Stephanie advises. By paying attention to what resonated and iterating, she gradually honed her voice and content mix.

Two years later, the results speak volumes. Stephanie’s following exploded to over 72,000, with roughly half of those being folks who hold security clearances (the other half are aspiring to get into the cleared field). That audience growth wasn’t by accident – it grew because Stephanie consistently delivered the content they craved. All those “little” posts and interactions added up to a powerhouse personal brand. “The account’s taken off, absolutely,” she says, noting it really gained momentum in the past two years.

Crucially, this community isn’t just vanity metrics – it’s directly fueling her recruiting success. Stephanie estimates dozens of placements have come via people who discovered her through LinkedIn. In fact, many senior engineers she’s hired were “ghost profiles” – they never post or engage publicly, but they were silently watching her content for months. “They’ll never like a post, never comment… But they continuously see me in their feed,” she explains. When the time came that those passive followers were open to a new job, who did they trust and reach out to first? Stephanie. “People want to know that you will advocate for them and that they can trust you,” she says – and her LinkedIn presence had already proven that to them.

Even employers have taken notice. By “showing up” consistently online, Stephanie has landed invitations to speak at high-profile industry events and gotten “numerous employment opportunities” from companies who liked what they saw in her posts. “You never know who is watching your account,” she says – an executive at a clearance jobs platform spotted her and invited her to present at their events. Other firms have approached her about joining them because her LinkedIn page functioned as a living resume and reference, demonstrating how she interacts and adds value in professional circles. In short, her content turned into warm leads for both candidates and career opportunities.

Key Pillars of Her LinkedIn Strategy

How exactly did Stephanie build this community and trust? Here are the core principles behind her content strategy that any recruiter can apply:

1. Show Up with Authenticity (Not Salesmanship)

From day one, Stephanie opted to be real and relatable rather than overly polished or salesy. She isn’t on LinkedIn shouting “I’m a top recruiter, hire me!” or spamming job ads. Instead, she shares stories, advice, and pieces of her day-to-day life. “I do videos, I post pictures, I sprinkle in a little bit of my personal life,” she says – whether it’s a quick video explaining a hiring process or a photo of her kids showing the human side of a working mom. By letting cleared candidates see the person behind the recruiter, she makes it easy for them to connect with and trust her.

Importantly, Stephanie avoids negative or divisive posts. In fact, she’ll pay you $100 if you can find a single disparaging or trolling comment on her LinkedIn profile – “It does not exist,” she insists! She steers clear of drama and office politics debates on social media. Why? Because every post reflects on your professional reputation. Stephanie’s content stays positive, constructive, and focused on helping others. That doesn’t mean everything is sunshine and rainbows – it means even when she addresses challenges, she does so with a solutions-oriented tone. “I just don’t find the negative stuff valuable… I’m not fighting people on the Internet,” she explains. This authenticity and professionalism make people feel safe engaging with her. They see she’s in it to uplift, not to rant or brag.

Crucially, Stephanie’s authenticity also extends to how she talks about her work. She highlights her company and team wins in a genuine way. “If you work for a good company, tell people about it… People trust people [more than] any marketing advertisement,” Stephanie says. She often posts shout-outs to projects or thanks colleagues, effectively promoting her employer’s brand by sharing her honest perspective. This soft advocacy humanizes the company to potential candidates. It’s never a hard sell – it’s more like, “Here’s what we’re working on and why I’m excited about it,” which subtly invites interested talent to come along. By being a cheerleader rather than a salesperson, she attracts candidates who align with that positivity.

2. Share Helpful Content, Not Just Job Posts

Stephanie’s mantra on LinkedIn: give value, value, value before you ever expect anything back. She realized early that generic “We’re hiring!” posts weren’t going to build a loyal following. So instead, she became a free resource for the cleared community. Her content covers all the little things a cleared professional might want to know about careers and hiring.

For example, Stephanie writes about hiring timelines (how long security clearance hiring can take), explains the steps of the hiring process, and offers tips on navigating the quirks of government contract roles. She’ll describe “what happens at placement” – e.g. what a candidate can expect after accepting an offer – demystifying the process. She discusses candidate experience best practices, showing that she genuinely cares about applicants, not just fees. And yes, she also posts about specific roles and teams she’s hiring for, but always with context. A typical post might highlight a cool mission her client works on or a success story of someone she placed, rather than a cold list of job requirements. As Stephanie puts it, “You name it, I’m talking about it – as long as it’s not classified!”.

This education-first approach does two things: 1) It builds trust and credibility – readers learn that Stephanie knows her stuff and isn’t afraid to share knowledge. 2) It creates engagement – useful posts get saved, shared, and commented on, extending her reach. Over time, Stephanie became the go-to “personality” of cleared recruiting on LinkedIn, simply by answering the questions people in that world commonly have. “A lot of people don’t know about the cleared space – how to even look for a role where you can get clearance sponsorship,” she says, so she covers those fundamentals. By educating her audience, she stays top-of-mind so that when someone is ready for a job move, she’s the recruiter they think of first.

Just as important is what Stephanie doesn’t post. She isn’t posting “Top 10 Tips to Be a Great Recruiter” or bragging about her billing numbers. In fact, she avoids cookie-cutter content and corporate buzzwords. “I’m not a fan of the ‘1 to 10, here’s what you gotta do to be successful’ guides,” she notes, because one-size-fits-all advice isn’t genuinely valuable. Everything she shares is rooted in either her personal experience or actionable information for her specific niche. This makes her content feel original and authentic in a LinkedIn feed full of copy-paste platitudes.

3. Be Consistent – Even If No One’s Listening (Yet)

One of Stephanie’s biggest secrets is simple: she kept showing up, even when the early traction was modest. Building an online community takes time, and it can feel discouraging when a post only gets a couple of likes. But Stephanie treated LinkedIn as a long game. “There is definitely a return on investment with the time that I put in on LinkedIn. If there was not, I would not do it,” she says frankly. In her case, that ROI took the form of hires and opportunities, but it didn’t happen overnight.

Early on, she had to post consistently before the followers came. Some days she probably wondered if anyone cared. But behind the scenes, those future candidates were watching quietly. Remember those “ghost profile” engineers who never engaged publicly? They told Stephanie later that they appreciated her posts even though they never clicked the Like button. This is a great reminder to not equate low engagement with low impact. Your ideal audience might be consuming your content silently. Stephanie’s advice: stick with it, because “the more you do that, the stronger you get at it”. Every post, even with no comments, is practice refining your message and building your digital footprint.

Another key to consistency is making it sustainable. Stephanie often writes her content “before and after hours, on the weekends”, fitting it around her recruiting job. She treats it as part of her work, but she’s also careful not to burn out. She mixes up formats to keep it interesting for herself and her audience – some days a quick text post, other days a video or graphic. “Test it all,” she encourages. If you’re camera-shy, start with written posts. If you hate writing but enjoy conversations, try short videos. Stephanie occasionally features her kids or personal tidbits in posts, which helps her avoid running out of purely professional content while still staying relevant (because lots of her audience are working parents too).

Most importantly, be patient with yourself. “Everybody has fears – you’re not going to be perfect right out of the gate,” Stephanie says. She openly admits that when she started posting, she was far from a LinkedIn expert. But by giving herself permission to experiment (and even fail), she gradually found what works. “Be willing to fail,” she urges. “I would have never in a hundred million years thought I would have 72,000 followers… I’m just a regular person”. In other words, you don’t need to be “LinkedIn famous” to start – becoming influential is a byproduct of consistent effort. If you stick with it, “it’s not too late. You can start at any time… Age, what you look like, it doesn’t matter. People want access to information and value,” Stephanie says emphatically. Her success came in large part because she outlasted the initial phase where most people give up.

4. Build Trust First, Business Will Follow

Stephanie’s story illustrates a fundamental truth of social media: trust is the real currency. By showing up authentically and sharing useful content consistently, she built goodwill with an audience long before she ever asked for anything (in fact, she still rarely “asks” for anything directly). That goodwill has translated into very tangible business outcomes for her recruiting desk.

When a highly cleared professional encounters Stephanie on LinkedIn, they can immediately get a sense of who she is and how she operates. “My LinkedIn representative – my avatar – is out there,” she notes, “so someone, without talking to me, can go, ‘Huh, okay, I see how Stephanie interacts. I see what she finds valuable…’”. By the time a candidate messages her or responds to her outreach, half the selling work is already done – they already trust her expertise and intent. She’s not a random recruiter cold-calling them; she’s “that helpful recruiter I’ve been seeing on LinkedIn for months.” This pre-earned trust shortens hiring cycles and lowers barriers. Candidates open her InMails eagerly, and client hiring managers respect her credibility in the niche.

Stephanie’s layoff anecdote is perhaps the ultimate proof of the trust she built. How many recruiters can say that when they lose their job, their candidates start calling them with job leads? That happened because Stephanie treated every candidate interaction as a relationship, not a transaction. “Watch how you treat people,” she advises – it all comes full circle. By being a genuine advocate for talent (answering their questions, educating them on the process, and showing that she cares about their careers), she created a community that was eager to help her in return. Even if you’re not facing a layoff, adopting that help-first mentality will set you apart from 90% of recruiters out there.

Finally, Stephanie also built trust within her company and industry, which paid off in other ways. Her management and peers saw her huge following as an asset, not a distraction – because she always handled herself professionally online. She even opened doors for partnerships; for instance, colleagues and even former bosses now collaborate with her on content or refer clients to her, thanks to her elevated profile. All of this came from leading with value and letting the “asks” happen naturally later. In your case, that might mean your LinkedIn posts eventually generate inbound client inquiries or referrals – but you have to earn that by contributing consistently without a hidden agenda.

Speaking to Recruiters: Ready to Build Your Brand?

If you’re a recruiter reading this and thinking, “This sounds great, but where do I even start?”, take heart from Stephanie’s journey. Two years ago, she had zero followers and had never made a placement through LinkedIn either. She started by simply sharing what she knew and cared about. You can do the same in your niche. You don’t need a perfect strategy from day one. Start small: post a short tip you wish more candidates knew, or share a quick story of a challenge you overcame in recruiting. It might only get a handful of reactions at first – that’s okay. “Give yourself the chance to fail,” as Stephanie says. Those “failures” are really just steps in the process of finding your voice.

Also, don’t fall into the trap of thinking you have to present as an “expert” to post on LinkedIn. Stephanie certainly didn’t brand herself as the world’s top recruiter. She positioned herself as a resource and a peer. Her tone is more “Here’s something I learned that might help you,” rather than “I know everything.” In practice, that might mean acknowledging challenges (“obtaining a polygraph clearance can be stressful – here are two things I’ve seen ease candidates’ nerves…”) or asking questions to the community. Ironically, being open and curious makes you appear more trustworthy and knowledgeable than constantly touting your successes.

Remember, the community you build can become your competitive advantage. Stephanie’s content turned into a magnet for high-value candidates who were otherwise invisible. It differentiated her in a crowded market of recruiters. You can carve out your own corner on LinkedIn by consistently showing up for your audience. Whether your specialty is cloud engineers, nursing managers, or sales reps, start posting about the pains, processes, and passions of that crowd. Do it with genuine intent to help, and your audience will grow – and eventually, so will your pipeline.

Stephanie’s story proves that even in a “quiet” industry, a single recruiter’s voice can make a huge impact. “I’m just a regular person… I also know maybe a hundred other recruiters who are fantastic at what they do,” she says, underscoring that there’s nothing magical at play – only effort and heart. If she can do it, why not you?

So, will 2026 be the year you build your own recruiter community online? The best time to start was yesterday. The second best is today. Take Stephanie’s playbook: show up authentically, share helpful insights, stay consistent, and focus on trust over transactions. You might be amazed where you are in a year or two – and you’ll have a fun, engaged community to show for it, not to mention a healthier recruiting business.

(Call-to-Action): To dive deeper into Stephanie Holman’s journey and her detailed tactics, listen to her full episode on The Elite Recruiter Podcast. And if you’re hungry for more growth strategies, don’t miss the Recruiter Sales & Business Development Summit kicking off January 26, 2026 – it’s a free virtual event packed with recruiting business insights (with on-demand replays for community members). Finally, consider joining the Elite Recruiter Community – a private network where you can learn directly from top billers (including Stephanie) and get support to level up your game.

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