LinkedIn Christmas Gift Guide

Welcome to the nerdiest
Christmas Gift Guide

If you asked 10-year-old Lara the Hannah Montana super fan what she thought she’d be writing an email about in her 20s…

I don’t think a LinkedIn gift guide would’ve been an answer.

But given that my acting career did not happen…I am here to present to you the MUST HAVE Wish List for any Linkedin newbie or pro who wants to elevate their 2025 content.

Video is all the hype right now, but even if it dies a good setup for content will never hurt you (just your bank account).

If I had to start from 0 with my tech stach and video stach I’d buy all of this all over again. Curated with love and lots of trial and error.

Here are the links to everything 🙂 

Video stack:

Sony A7siii (big investment, try your iPhone camera first)
Amazon Ring Light (works well)
Elgato teleprompter (it’s ok not crazy good)
Shure SM7B (Must have, crisp audio)
Elgato Keylight (I love this one as it’s got a desk attachment)
Neewer Lights (cute backdrop lights)
Focusrite Scarlett (No idea why I need it but I need it)
Rode Arm (can get more affordable ones tbh)

Tech stack:

Kleo (for scripting)
ChatGPT (for therapy, I mean writing)
Literally Academy (So I can see your beautiful face)
Tweethunter (for content ideas)
Perplexity (for data gathering and easy info)

Bonus: Promptsmart for teleprompting app (it’s buggy tho)

If you only get 1 thing, get a nice mic.

It truly elevates your presence when you speak.

Rhode and Shure are the safest and highest quality bets.

You can get some portable rhode ones too here. If you do more iPhone content 🙂 

Lara’s golden video tip

Master the art of presence and positioning.

A good set up is a good aid and a good cue to get you into character but learning how to speak like a pro has made 10x the impact.

Read 1-2 pages of a book out loud every morning
Force yourself to talk more about your work (I do this at networking events)
Learn how to add emphasis to your words avoid monotony

Here’s a great person to follow to learn more on speaking 
Here’s my favorite tongue twister vid I watch before filming
Here’s my favorite music to get me into a good energy flow state

I’d argue these are more important than the set up as energy is no.1.

but your fav experts don’t tell you because it’s not what anyone wants to hear 🥲 

If you have all of the above but you just need help creating the content:

Hire my YouTube editors here