Atticus

Building LinkedIn founder-led brands for B2B executives. Responsibilities include:

↳ Conducting in-depth client interviews to extract insights, turning expertise into high-performing LinkedIn content

↳ Building monthly content calendars and strategizing content formats that drive traffic, engagement, and leads

↳ Ghostwriting weekly LinkedIn content and newsletters for clients, generating an average of 5-7 inbound leads a month

↳ Managing 7+ client accounts for B2B CEOs and founders, developing content and marketing strategies that drive weekly engagement and pipeline growth

Marketing Director

System Scalers

Helped B2B and B2C brands drive more revenue with content, marketing strategies, and email marketing systems. Generated $1M+ in attributable revenue. Responsibilities and results included:

↳ Built high-converting email and SMS flows and campaigns, increasing client revenue by an average of 25% across all accounts

↳ Ghostwrote LinkedIn content for B2B CEOs, which generated 100K+ impressions and drove an average of 8 inbound leads per month

↳ A/B tested subject lines, CTAs, and content formats to improve email open rates by an average of 30% and click-through rates by an average of 25%

Copywriter and Marketing Strategist

Firmani + Associates Inc.

Worked with clients in healthcare, professional service, and tech industries. Responsibilities and results included:

↳ Wrote blog posts, press releases, newsletters, and social media copy that increased brand visibility by an average of 3x for clients

↳ Pitched media opportunities that resulted in 20+ high-profile press features in industry-leading publications – such as Forbes, FOX, and NBC

↳ Managed digital ad campaigns, optimizing for ROI and increasing ROAS by an average of 2x

Account Coordinator

Public Relations Intern

Seattle Celtic

As a soccer coach, I planned and led drills during training sessions and created outlines of tactics to be used during games. Through my role, I helped players develop individual and team skills they could use on and off the field. While coaching, I emphasized the importance of communication, teamwork, leadership, improvement, and above anything else, having fun.

Youth Soccer Coach

Planet Home

As a content writer for Planet Home, I conducted research and wrote blog posts on various environmental issues and solutions. I focused on tech solutions and wrote stories related to how technology is helping create a more sustainable future. I also helped brainstorm different ideas to be used in articles, social media posts, and marketing campaigns.

Content Writer

University of Washington Bothell

As a podcast intern, I was tasked with producing and promoting four different podcast episodes for the Common Caws for Sustainability Podcast at UW Bothell. Working with a classmate, we produced podcast episodes related to the topic of sustainable transportation in Washington state. 

Throughout this internship, I reached out to different experts in the field of sustainable transportation and invited them onto the podcast. Each episode consisted of an interview with these experts. I then used audio software to edit and distribute each podcast episode.

Sustainability Podcast Intern

WashPIRG

As an intern with the WASHPIRG Chapter at the University of Washington, I helped lead a campaign to get the university to transition to 100% renewable energy by 2045.  Through coalition recruitment and campaigning, we are still working towards a 100% renewable future on campus, but have made large strides toward accomplishing this goal.

Coalition Coordinator Intern

Arena Sports

As a camp counselor, I led groups of kids through various games and activities.  I also worked on a team that shared ideas and helped one another when problems arose.  I gained valuable communication, leadership, and problem-solving skills during my time as a camp counselor.

Camp Counselor

Content Marketer and Brand Strategist with 3+ years of experience helping B2B brands scale through high-converting content, digital strategy, and email marketing.

A bit about what I do:

↳ Ghostwrite LinkedIn and long-form content for B2B CEOs, consultants, and tech startups – generating a combined 2M+ in organic impressions and average of 8+ inbound leads per month

↳ Build email and SMS campaigns that have driven $1M+ in client revenue across weekly newsletters, product launches, nurture sequences, and automated flows

↳ Spearhead content and communications strategy for a VC-backed marketing agency – supporting thought leadership, executive positioning, and omni-channel growth

↳ Publish newsletters, blog content, and interviews spotlighting stories from a range of industries –  including sustainability, technology, and B2B marketing

I'm always stoked at the opportunity to connect with people working at the intersection of impact, innovation, and storytelling. Feel free to drop me a message here or reach out at connor@connorflynn.co.

Connor Flynn

We book dozens of sales calls a week for clients from LinkedIn outreach. But the other day, our team sat down to brainstorm how we could generate even better results and book more calls, for both ourselves and clients.

So we mapped out every single touch point and signal you could possibly think of. Here are 17 different signals we came up with to improve your outreach (steal these):

1.) Old closed lost leads – not nows, maybes, etc.
2.) List of no shows from previous 3 months
3.) Content engagement from past 6 months from your LI
4.) Content engagement from competitor accounts
5.) Lookalike leads lists using your best client as the persona
6.) Profile views from the past 90 days
7.) Engagement on company content – LinkedIn, blogs, etc.
8.) ICP who recently changed jobs in the past year
9.) Companies hiring for a specific role
10.) Followers of your company page
11.) Followers of your personal LI account
12.) Followers of competitor company pages
13.) People who attend LI lives in your field
14.) Members of relevant LI groups
15.) Companies you can partner with to joint-sell deals
16.) Employee connections and content engagement
17.) Existing or old email list

You don’t suck at sales.

You just aren't reaching out to the right targets.

-

Struggling to drive predictable pipeline from LinkedIn?

On December 12th, we’re running a live masterclass to help 100 founders build their own AI sales system so they can add $50k/month from LinkedIn in the next 90 days.

Grab your spot and register below ↓

Marketing Director @ Atticus | Building founder-led brands with content marketing that drives presence and pipeline | $1M+ generated for clients from organic content

One of the most underrated reasons to write on LinkedIn right now is to build brand visibility with AI search results. Something most people don't realize:

With more people going to places like ChatGPT and Claude for answers instead of just a traditional Google search, you need to start thinking about how your brand is going to show up in those searches.

Now look, I’m not going to sit here and pretend I know everything about how AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) works.

But I *do* know it prioritizes results from websites with a high domain authority.

And because LinkedIn is one of the most credible, high-authority sites on the internet, that’s exactly what AI tools are trained to prioritize.

So if you want to start showing up in those search results when someone turns to ChatGPT?

You need to be building digital proof that you are the person you say you are.

Here’s my recommendation:

- Make sure your message is the same across all channels
- Start posting on LI 3-5 times/week for the next 90 days
- Engage with other niche voices in your space

That’s the type of consistency that builds micro-thought leadership in the short term and AI relevance in the long term.

So if you want to win in the new age of AI search (yes, it’s just going to continue to increase), start showing up on LinkedIn.

Simple as that.

Harsh truth every marketer or creator needs to realize:

Your LinkedIn hook doesn't matter as much as you think it does.

At least, it doesn't after a certain point.

What I mean is, there comes a point where if you’ve been creating for long enough, and if you’ve built enough authority and goodwill in your field, your name itself becomes the hook.

Because at that point, people won’t read your content because of a clever first line.

No, they’ll read your content because they see your name on the timeline and associate it with incredible value.

They read what you put out because *you* wrote it.

It’s the same thing with artists and musicians. Taylor Swift could put out a heavy-metal album, and her fans would still love it because it came from her.

*But* (and here’s the caveat), that only happens once you’ve built enough trust, value, and consistency over an insanely long period of time.

At that point, you earn the right not to need a fancy hook or clever one-liner.

You can’t skip to that part, though. You actually have to get there first — show up every day, share value, say something unique that actually adds to the conversation online.

That’s the ultimate goal with every client we work with.

To turn them into an authority in their field and the most in-demand person in their sphere of influence.

Because with that level of recognition and visibility, that’s when your brand really starts to do the heavy lifting for you, and you'll see the biggest impact.

Yesterday, I was on a call with a client who had been wanting to build a high-ticket offer for the past few months but didn’t know where to start. So we built it for him and mapped out the whole 12-month roadmap on the call:

- High-ticket consulting offer as the first lever
- Cohort-based program once results start coming in
- GTM motion, content engine, messaging frameworks

We didn’t just stop at, “Okay, here’s this thing that you paid us to do.”

No, we gave him the full game plan and long-term roadmap he can follow, even long after our official contract is up.

That’s what people want these days. They don’t just want to work with another vendor who will get them XYZ results. They want to work with a partner for the long run. A partner who can see the bigger picture and be there for them through the ups and downs.

I think back to the first PR agency I worked at, where most of our clients had been with us for 10+ years.

Those are the types of partnerships founders and CEOs want to form — a strategic partner who will grow with them through thick and thin.

So if you're building something right now, stop thinking in the short-term. 

Long-term partnerships are where the real value starts to compound.

LinkedIn, I need your help with something:

Over the past year, I've worked with dozens of founders and CEOs to help them build their content engines and founder-led brands from the ground up.

And if there's one thing I've learned, it’s that the biggest indicator a company is serious about scaling their content (and willing to invest in it) is whether they're actively hiring.

It's quite literally the clearest signal you can get.

Because if they're hiring, that means they have the budget, they know they need help, and they're actively looking to solve a painful problem.

Which is exactly why it's one of the best “warm signals” you can use when doing outreach — find companies hiring for roles within your niche, reach out to them, and offer to help for a fraction of the cost with your service.

With that said, here's where I could use your help:

If you've recently seen any companies hiring for marketing, content, or growth roles (or if your company is hiring), drop them or tag them in the comments below.

I'm looking to connect with teams serious about scaling up their content/marketing efforts and see if there’s any way to collaborate.

Appreciate you all. Let me know who's hiring ↓

Yesterday, I was at an event that helps founders build their GTM strategy. As I'm listening to everyone share their ideas, I realized 95% of founders and business owners have no idea who their customer even is. Here's what I saw:

Most founders were swapping out their target customer every other week because they couldn't decide who their ICP was.

They were building offers that were targeting everyone.

But what they failed to realize is that without knowing your ideal customer, nothing else works.

Not your content, not your offer, not even your product.

It's the same thing with early-stage teams publishing content online — founders and execs end up posting for months and get silence, then they blame LinkedIn or their content team for the lack of results.

But the issue isn't the content or channel. It's that they have no clarity on who they actually serve.

So if you really want to make content work for you?

Focus on literally everything else *before* you think about hitting publish.

Because without a clear picture of who your customer is, what you do, and how you help, you're just adding to the noise.

Every founder and business owner knows the importance of content these days. But most of them have no clue where to start or what ideas to publish. Let me solve that for you in two minutes:

For context, I talk to founders and exec teams every week. They all know they should be posting content, and they all know it’ll drive their business forward. But without a doubt, the two biggest objections I hear are that 1.) they have no time to create and 2.) they have no idea where to start.

The solution to the first is pretty simple — hire a content team to handle the grunt work for you (DM me if you need help with this).

The second is a little trickier, but we’re about to solve it in under two minutes.

1.) Open your calendar and look at every call from the past four weeks:

The discovery and sales calls you had, your weekly client meetings, your internal discussions with your team.

You’re telling me there aren’t at least a *few* ideas you can turn into content?

- What problems popped up?
- What lessons or ideas did you learn?
- What new things did you teach someone else?

Every insight is a story, and every lesson is a post. Truth is, ~70% of all my content ideas come from these types of discussions I’m already having.

2.) Write down three things you believe that most people would disagree with:

The stuff you argue about at dinner, the take that would spark a debate at a conference, the “I know this sounds wild, but…” opinions.

These are your POVs, the content that gets people talking and builds your brand.

Look at that, you just went from having no idea what to share to 10+ different content ideas you can publish next week.

Everyone thinks content is hard. And sure, there’s some truth to that.

But you don’t need to spend hours and hours brainstorming ideas or staring at a blank page.

Your daily work *is* your content.

You just haven’t been documenting it.

-

What’s your favorite way to gather inspiration for your content? Let me know below.

A Good Reputation

People come to me when they want a brand, messaging, and content marketing strategy that connects with customers and decision-makers on a deeper level. Through storytelling-led marketing principles, I help you nail your positioning, get clear and confident in your messaging, and create a compelling brand narrative that informs all of your content. 

The result is a brand that resonates, messaging that attracts inbound opportunities, and a sustainable content engine that leads to a shorter sales cycle with a warm and aligned audience.

Brand Storyteller & Content Strategist

New Narratives Club

Every year, I get a handful of intentional business owners together in person in a magical location to workshop our businesses, create meaningful connections, and build stuff worth building.

Wanna join? Next one is May 13-16 in Mexico City.

Co-Founder & Host

Ridwell

Created storytelling-led content on Ridwell’s various social media channels that doubled engagement, grew accounts by 300-1,000 new followers a month, drove signups and grew the brand’s presence across markets.

Social Media Marketing Manager

Off the Grid

Ran the marketing department of an innovative and established event startup with a storytelling-led content approach. Biggest wins included: 
 
• Growing newsletter subscriber base by 10K and open rates to 36% from 6% in under 6 months.
• Leading editorial strategy and execution for weekly B2C & B2B blogs that increased clickthrough, engagement & leads by 25% in under 6 months. 
• Growing social media following on IG, FB & TikTok by over 10K in under 6 months and average engagement by 35% year over year.
• Recruiting and managing a team of talented content creation contractors. 
• Leading influencer marketing campaigns that drew over 1M impressions. 
• Launching PR, Partnership, Advertising & Social Media campaigns that doubled company’s revenue year-over-year for community markets and drew an estimated 10,000 people the grand reopening of Off the Grid’s marquee weekly Friday night destination market at Fort Mason Center in 2022.

Head of Marketing & Editorial Content

Taavi

Founded a content startup for mothers that got acquired as the marketing arm of a tech-enabled platform connecting new mothers with community and professional support. In a nutshell:

TAAVI (Takes a Village) is a micro-community platform that connects expectant and new parents in small, intimate chat groups based on lifestyle and location. TAAVI helps families find meaningful friendships, build supportive communities, and get instant access to critical services.

Co-Founder, Head of Marketing & Content

Renee Lynn Frojo

After having a baby, I knew it was time to build my own freelance business. Here's what I did for a handful of amazing companies over the course of four years:

• Researched, wrote and edited strategic SEO-rich content for startups looking to grow brand awareness and engage with new audiences. Clients included Amy's Organic, Bi-Rite Market, Tonal, Ziraffe Store, and Kettle & Fire. 
• Managed a team of freelance and contract writers on behalf of clients. Heavily edited some pretty bad content. 
• Researched and reported stories on a variety of topics within the hospitality, retail and nonprofit industries. Stories appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Business Times, Marin Magazine, SF Weekly, Zagat and the SF Bay Guardian.
• Founded a successful a food blog—www.laurelstreetkitchen.com—and gained a 10K following on IG, which quickly became tiring and lame.

Freelance Content Strategist & Creator

Sun Basket

As a founding team member, I helped build Sunbasket’s website, brand and editorial content. Responsibilities included:

• Building and leading our editorial content strategy across channels. 
• Developing, researching and writing storytelling and  SEO-rich content. 
• Creating and maintaining company’s editorial calendar.
• Managing a team of in-house and remote writers.

Head of Content & Media Relations

San Francisco Business Times

My beats: Restaurants, retail, hospitality, philanthropy and startups. As one does in a newspaper job, I developed original story ideas, wrote breaking news and shot accompanying photographs for daily articles. 
Biggest accomplishment: I helped grow the paper's audience and credibility in the restaurant and hospitality space. I also helped them figure out the social media marketing thing.

Startup & Small Business Reporter

Freelance

I took a gap year to travel the world and did some reporting while I was at it! Published articles on travel and culture in Bay Nature Magazine, BBC Wildlife Magazine, Christian Science Monitor, Global Post, San Francisco Business Times and SF Bay Guardian.

Freelance Writer, Editor & Photographer

Atlantic Information Services

Reported on regulatory, business and legal issues concerning the healthcare industry. Got plenty of insight into the disfunction on Capitol Hill.

Editor

The curious content marketer who cares ✨ Partnering with purpose-led small businesses, startups, and entrepreneurs to connect through storytelling and collaboration.

My ability to spot a good story is what landed me my first job in journalism. But it was my decade of profiling startups, small businesses, nonprofits and some of San Francisco’s most influential people that taught me how to tell one. 

A move into marketing and another decade dabbling in the creator economy—first with a food blog, then a motherhood magazine—taught me how to use those stories to build communities through content and collaborations.  

Now, my mission is to help purpose-driven people and brands build loyal audiences who don't just want what you offer, but love what you stand for.  

Founders and business owners come to me when they need a strategic storyteller and networked creator. 

The results?

1. A clear brand narrative.
2. A simple, sustainable plan and process for consistently sharing that narrative through content across all channels. 
3. A bank of differentiated ideas pulled from stories and experiences to use everywhere. 
4. A shorter sales cycle. 
5. A community of collaborators.
6. An overall less time-consuming (and more enjoyable) way to do content marketing. 

In short: I help you figure out what you need to say and where you need to say it to develop your brand, find a community of collaborators, and connect with the right people.

Because with so much noise and competition, we all need a reason to care—we need to feel a connection. 

If you can do that, not only will you stand out, you will find exactly where you fit in. 

Ready to get started?

Renee Lynn Frojo ✨

My seven-year-old learned two opposing views of Thanksgiving at school yesterday, and it gives me hope for the future.

Some people, she told me, view Thanksgiving as an opportunity to practice gratitude and celebrate togetherness.

Other people observe it as a day of mourning for the land that was stolen. They see it as a necessary day to protest ongoing oppression. 

I told her that when I was in second grade, I was cutting out paper turkeys on construction paper. 

Then I asked her how she sees Thanksgiving. 

“I guess both can be right,” she said. “It’s just good to understand all perspectives.”

Why can’t adults be this civilized?

They tell you to tell your story. I show you how. 🧡 Brand storytelling & content strategy for creators, founders, solos & startup teams. Ask about my Short-Form Storytelling Workshop for your community or organization.

One idea that’s changed my life is the belief that everything that happens—including the hardships and tragedies—does not just “happen for a reason.” 

Stuff happens. Then, you can choose to give it a reason. 

You can make meaning out of the mess. You can understand how the things that happened have shaped you or your environment, for better or for worse.

Through this lens, everything that happens to you in life is either a good lesson or a good story. (And the best ones are usually both.)

While it's not always easy to make meaning when you're working your way through the mess, looking for the lesson or the story can give you:

- A greater sense of agency, 
- A deeper understanding of other people, and
- Control over the narrative the world has of you and you have of yourself.

We’ll never be able to control what happens to us, and sometimes it's just random and unfortunate. But we can always choose how the story gets told.

If you hate social media and see it as a necessary evil to getting visibility for your business or big idea, maybe you should stop focusing so much on doing what works and putting yourself out there in a way that works for you.

What kind of content do you like to engage with and create, even if it doesn’t “perform.” What would you want to read or see that doesn’t exist? Do that.

We've got to be the change we want to see, right?

They tell you to tell your story. I show you how. 🧡 Brand storytelling & content strategy for creatives, solopreneurs & startup teams. Ask me about my Short-Form Storytelling Workshop for your community or organization.

My kid with a bad cold, miserable and sobbing because she can't sleep: "Can you give me anything to make it better?"

Me: "Unfortunately, there is no cure for the common cold."

Her: "So they're making robots to replace us, but they haven't invented anything that could solve my actual problems?"

Me: "Sam Altman works in mysterious ways."

Most of us don’t quit because the work is hard. We quit because the work feels empty.

When I left journalism to start my first online content business, I figured the best way to make it sustainable was to build it around something I loved.

So, I started a food blog to marry my passion for storytelling with my passion for cooking.

It took off faster than I expected. Within a few months, I built a large online following, was closing brand deals, and fielding plenty of freelance opportunities to keep me very busy. 

Not only was the work steady, but the hours were flexible and the food was great (if I do say so myself). 

On paper, it looked like every solo entrepreneur’s dream.

But before I even hit year two, I started to feel worn out.

It wasn’t that the hours were long. (The most I put in was 30 a week.) Or that I didn’t enjoy it. (I was getting paid to make food and take pretty pictures of it.)

It was that I didn’t care enough about why I was doing it or why any of it mattered to keep me motivated.

I felt like I wasn’t solving any real problems in the world or making an impact on anyone’s life. It felt kind of…empty.

By building something around my passion, instead of a deep sense of purpose, the work got harder and the hours felt longer.

Now, three years into my fourth go at building a sustainable business, I finally understand that the meaning you give your work plays an oversized role in determining its difficulty. 

And the more you care about the problem you’re solving—and believe in the impact of your solution—the more clarity, creative fuel, and resilience you have to keep going when things get hard.

It’s why a 12-hour day working toward something that deeply matters will energize you, but a 2-hour task on something that feels meaningless will drain you.

For me, that meaning is anchored in helping people connect with themselves so that their ideal audience can connect with their work.

It’s why I built  New Narratives Club as a space to step back from your daily routine, reflect on what truly matters, and get clear on the next chapter you want to write—both personally and professionally. 

(Because, as hard as we try, we can’t untangle the two.)

And speaking this stuff out loud with a group of people who get it helps you see what you’re missing. 

So if you’re feeling drained, stuck, or uninspired by your work, ask yourself: Do I actually believe in what I’m building? 

If not, the problem might not be the work. It might be the meaning you’ve attached to it. 

And my purpose is to help you find it.

I guess it can take a lifetime to stop being afraid of being seen. 

My newsletter got a ton of reponses yesterday (for which I’m so grateful), but none could top this one from my mom.

Each of us is on our own journey, but it sure helps to have a loving parent in your corner.

Creating content for social media means experiencing every possible emotion about the same post.

Writing it: Genius.
Posting it: Meh.
5 minutes later: Why did I do this?
First comment: Oh thank god.
Analytics: What even is engagement?
24 hours later: We go again.

And now, the moment my 14K followers have all been waiting for....

Applications for the New Narratives 2026 Retreat for entrepreneurs building intentional businesses are officially open!

If you’re in the very special 1% of this 14K who actually gets to see this today, then it must be a sign that you need to come this year.

Get the details over at New Narratives Club, and check the comments for proof from past attendees that this event is both good for your soul and your business.

I bet you don't know what the actual definition of trust is. And until recently, I didn't either.

Apparently, there are more definitions and research papers on trust than on any other sociological topic—even more than love. But ultimately, they all boil down to this:

Trust is the willingness to be vulnerable and open to risk because you’re confident in another person or organization’s integrity, reliability, and ability.

Rachel Botsman, who wrote the most recent book on the topic, defines it even more simply as, “a confident relationship with the unknown.”

Think about that for a second.

Trusting someone or something (say, a service provider or government) means opening yourself up to the possibility of being let down. It's almost more about belief and hope than it is about proof.

No wonder trust is so hard to give and get. It exposes us. 

And depending on how many times we’ve been burned in our lives, each of us has varying degrees of this confidence in other people or things.

But I think the thing we miss (or at least, I've missed) about trust is that the risk goes both ways. If trust is a confident relationship with the unknown, then vulnerability is the equal exchange that keeps trust balanced.

In theory, that means that when you show us the messy middle—the uncertainty, the learning, the human side of you behind the polished thing—we feel safer trusting you because you’ve done the risky thing first. 

Am I making any sense? Doesn't that seem like the most important thing we can do to earn trust when it feels like we can trust nothing?

One of my storytelling cohort students had her best-performing post ever last week, and guess what? She completely panicked.

The post did exactly what it was intended to do. It got hundreds of thoughtful comments and several DMs—including a couple from prospective clients.

Score, I thought. Proof that the stuff I teach actually works.

I was thrilled for her. And I expected her to be thrilled, too. But when I asked her how she felt about her successful first attempt at public personal storytelling, thrilled wasn’t it.

The feeling, she said, was "deeply uncomfortable."

Wait a minute.

Isn’t this exactly what we all say we want? To be seen and recognized? To have our words and ideas land somewhere and spark a conversation that leads to tangible business outcomes?

And then I remembered that it’s not that simple.

I also get all tangled up in conflicting emotions when I get noticed by a large group of people.

Imposter syndrome creeps in, and I start spiraling with the same nagging fears that I hear many of my students speak out loud about being misunderstood or boring or unoriginal.

We say we fear obscurity, but the truth is that visibility is even scarier because standing out means standing wide open. 

And that tension we feel comes from the collision of two deeply human needs:

1. To be seen, and
2. To feel safe.

So what do most of us do?

We stick to “what works.” We echo what’s already been said (and liked and reposted).

And then we wonder why everything—from brands, to architecture, art, and people—feels like it came out of the same agency, firm, AI tool, or Justin Welsh coaching program.

Over the past five weeks in my storytelling cohort, I’ve watched a brave group of entrepreneurs navigate this tension.

Week after week, they've shown up with stories that left them feeling exposed. Stories that made their voice shake when they read them aloud.

And week after week, they kept finding that the more they opened up, the deeper the connection with themselves and with each other.

Hearts were opened, tears were shed, and work collaborations were made.

While letting yourself be seen might always feel a little (or deeply) uncomfortable, the more you do it, the more you realize that vulnerability isn’t a liability as much as it’s a magnet.

If it feels hard, then congrats! You’re doing it right.

Unless you’ve already cracked the code with tons of engagement and a waitlist full of dream clients, I guarantee you’re either too expert or too elite.

And until you figure out your primary archetype and make some adjustments to position yourself somewhere in the middle, no amount of storytelling will get you both the reach and resonance you might be after.

According to Rob Henderson (who first introduced me to this framework), experts are people who know things, like specialists, beat reporters, or engineers. It's anyone whose credibility comes from technical competence.

Experts tend to be detail-oriented and cautious, and focused more on what’s right than on who’s listening.

Their biggest problem is that they lack reach.

Their work is only as influential as the number of people who understand it, and they tend to talk within their field instead of to the public.

Elites, on the other hand, are people “who move things,” and their mission is to influence people to act.

These are your politicians, executives, media personalities, and influencers. They’re the big-picture thinkers and persuasive communicators who can rally people around a shared goal and tend to shape culture.

But because they depend on status and consensus without any poof to back up their ideas, their problem is that we don’t trust them to deliver.

Here’s why it matters: The people we tend to trust, follow, and hire are often performing both roles at once.

And while it’s a spectrum, most of us tend to lean toward one archetype or the other.

I work with lots of experts who are credible and experienced but virtually invisible. People respect them, but their ideal clients don’t know they exist because their reach is usually limited to other experts.

On the other end, I have plenty of peers who are elites. They're popular and get tons of engagement, but have no real influence that leads to meaningful business outcomes. Without proof that what they’re selling works, we don’t trust them enough to take action.

The bottom line is that to build a brand online (or anywhere), you need to be both right and resonant.

You need to tell stories that inspire and demonstrate your expertise.

You need to build a body of work that not only proves you know something worth hearing, but also communicates it in a way worth spreading.

When I first started building my brand online, I went all in on expertise and managed to capture the attention of peers who respected me, but weren’t buying what I was selling.

Then I swung in the opposite direction (my true nature) with big ideas that got tons of reach, but failed to show the concrete steps or tactical application to help my ideal client understand my process or see proof that it worked.

When I finally understood my primary archetype and shifted to land somewhere in the middle, both my content and my inbound took off.

That's where I am now. My content generates lots of likes and brings in plenty of business.

Where are you?

In case you need to hear it today: You can build a fully inbound business without relying on social media. 

I have. And it’s what saves me from feeling like I’m at the mercy of every algorithm change or posting when I’d rather be offline doing the deeper work or engaging with humans in the real world.

While it's true that showing up on social keeps you visible and helps you stay connected with your online community, I've found that investing my time in other activities pays off even more for getting better quality inbound leads. 

They include:
-Podcast appearances where I can just be myself
-Newsletters where I can speak directly to an audience that takes immediate action
-Blogs and other discovery platforms where I repurpose my work
-Guest teaching in communities that house my ideal audience
-Speaking at local live events to build authority
-In-person networking that creates immediate trust
-Referral partners who cross-promote
-Keeping up with past clients who already know, like, and trust me

Some of these bring leads in a day, while some take seasons. But all of them compound.

Social media can be a great discovery platform, but it’s just one place to tell your story. And it's not worth spending all your time here.

So if you need permission to post a couple of times per week while you focus on other high-impact marketing things, here you go. Permission granted. 

Where else can you tell your story that I missed?

taplio

The Battle

Connor Flynn

Renee Lynn Frojo ✨

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taplio

The Battle

Connor Flynn

Renee Lynn Frojo ✨

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Connor Flynn's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreRenee Lynn Frojo ✨'s LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreConnor Flynn's LinkedIn Performance