Your two favourites, refined, and turned into a system that works beyond LinkedIn. The idea: the face is the brand and never changes; what the character holds tells you the channel. That is how mascot brands stay one brand everywhere.
Penpal stays as you liked it. Sidekick's pencil now lives in its own raised hand, clear of the face, instead of lying across the head.
The master brand. Round, warm, and the face reads at any size. The pen is a prop, so it can be swapped.
The human face of the brand. The pencil is held up in its own hand, like it's about to write, and never touches the face.
The plain face (outlined in orange) is the core logo for the app icon and the website. Each channel gets the same character holding that channel's tool.
The same system for the human character, for team pages, founder-facing moments and onboarding.
Profile pictures and a YouTube thumbnail corner, so you can see the system in the places it would actually live.
Penpal is the master brand. The plain face is the logo everywhere (app icon, website, invoices); the prop versions are used on each channel's profile and in its content. One character, so people recognise it whether they meet you on LinkedIn, Instagram or YouTube.
Sidekick is the human counterpart: use it where the product talks about people (your team page, the founder story, onboarding), never as a second logo.