Maven - Verified by Usage. Not Self-Declared.

I was not looking for this. I found it by accident, inside a settings menu I had never opened before.

Most professionals assume the tools they use every day are just utilities, quiet and neutral, with nothing to say about how well you actually use them. I was browsing Gamma this week, the platform I build client presentations, event and wedding case studies, and event proposals in, when I opened Account Settings and landed on a tab called Achievements. Sitting there: Maven, Gamma's highest tier, Tier 4 of 4. I had no idea it existed. I had no idea I had been tracked into it.

There was a button to share it, and out of pure surprise, I clicked it.

LinkedIn launched Connected Apps on June 17, 2026, about a month ago. It lets specific software platforms report your real usage-based skill level directly onto your LinkedIn profile, verified by the platform itself, not self-declared. Gamma was one of the first apps live with it, with four tiers: Creator, Storyteller, Trailblazer, Maven.

Maven is awarded to Leeza for creating and publishing advanced, interactive presentations, documents and websites in Gamma, working with teams on clients and professional projects.

This is the part worth sitting with. For twenty plus years my expertise lived in delivery: the room, the run of show, the client relationship. It was real, but it was mine alone to describe, tucked away where no one could verify it but me.

Now the tools I use every day are starting to describe it back to me, without being asked, before I even think to look.

That changes what personal branding actually means. It is no longer only about telling people what you know. It is about the trail your actual work leaves behind, whether you are paying attention to it or not.

Top ten percent of users. Tier 4 of 4. Sitting there, already true, before I ever clicked share.

The work you do when no one is watching is the work that eventually gets counted.

Leeza A. Harris

15.6.2026