Jen Allen-Knuth

Founder, DemandJen | Sales Trainer & SKO Keynote Speaker | Dog Rescue Advocate

I help B2B revenue teams stop losing pipeline to buyer status quo. I'm a former Enterprise seller who carried quota for 18 years, closing 7-figure deals with Fortune 500 brands. Now, I run DemandJen, a sales-training firm trusted by Autodesk, GE, G2, IBM, Bloomberg, Instructure, Sprout Social, and more.

From conference stages to company Sales kickoffs, I'm known for:

- Buyer-Centric Frameworks – Practical playbooks for defeating buyer status quo in outbound pipeline generation, running executive-level discovery, building a point of view on cost of inaction (COI), and gaining consensus with larger Enterprise buying groups. 

- Story-First Messaging – Techniques that replace product pitches with problem-centric narratives that buyers remember.

- Engaging Delivery – A direct, humorous style that keeps even your most tenured reps taking notes.

Featured in Forbes, Sales Hacker, and 200+ podcasts, I combine real-world stories with data-driven insight to move audiences from inspiration to application. When I'm not on the road, you’ll find me in the Chicago suburbs chasing my 4 rescue dogs and 4 step-kids.

Head of DemandJen

Delivering SKO keynotes & virtual workshops that won't put your teams to sleep.

B2B Sales & Marketing teams have tried to earn buyer time and attention with a strategy of "more". 

More dials.
More emails.
More content.
More "value" and ROI.

But, 2023 showed us "more" is expensive and no competition against today's risk-averse B2B buying teams.

Instead of motivating the team to do “more”, I help empower teams to defeat customer status
quo and to make their sales conversations a competitive advantage.

Last January, I posted about how I collected social proof from 51 clients in 4 simple steps. It costs $0. I started doing this when I was an AE, but now I do it religiously as a solo business. 

Alejo P. turned the post into this cartoon carousel. 

(If his fun artwork looks familiar, it's because he created my website illustrations & the DemandJen logo cartoon 🤗 )

How I Gather Social Proof 

I help surgeons become trusted digital voices - because in today’s world, trust is your currency and reputation your bank account.

I help surgeons turn trust into leverage. Not followers. Not fame. Real authority that changes how patients, peers, and industry treat them.

I work with surgeons who are technically excellent but don’t have time or skill to build trust and monetize their reputation. I fix that.

Through my Physician Brand Rx™ protocol I help surgeons:
	•	Clarify their message so it cuts through the noise
	•	Show up consistently online in a way that earns trust
	•	Build digital authority that elevates their reputation and expands their impact

At FEED. The Agency - our award-winning physician brand firm - we create:
	•	Strategic brand positioning that sets surgeons apart
	•	Premium, ghostwritten content that accelerates trust
	•	High-impact DOL campaigns that make surgeons the obvious choice for patients, peers, media, and MedTech

My mission is simple:

Help surgeons step into Digital Opinion Leadership- so their expertise isn’t just seen… it’s sought after.

Matthew Scott

The Lakers don't hide LeBron James.


They plaster his face on billboards. Feature him in commercials. Let him build a personal brand worth billions.

And here's the thing nobody in healthcare wants to admit:

This makes the Lakers more valuable, not less.

When Steph Curry becomes a household name, the Warriors sell more jerseys. More tickets. More sponsorships. The star player's rising tide lifts every boat in the harbor.

Now look at hospitals.

A spine surgeon builds a reputation as the best in the region. Patients fly in from three states. Her outcomes are exceptional.
Does the hospital promote her? Feature her expertise? Position her as the face of their program?

Almost never.

Instead, they bury her in the "Find a Doctor" page alongside 47 other providers. They worry she'll "get too big" and leave. Yield to primary care funnel. They treat her success as a threat to institutional control.

Sports franchises figured this out decades ago: star power is an asset, not a liability.

The fear is always: "What if we build them up and they leave?"

Better question: What if you don't build them up and they leave anyway?

Patients don't trust institutions. They trust people.

The hospital that treats its best surgeons like the Lakers treat LeBron will have an unfair advantage for years.

Everyone else will keep wondering why their "Find a Doctor" page has a 12% bounce rate.

Matthew Ray Scott

Top Physician Brand Strategist for Surgeons | Physician Brand Rx™ Creator | Best-Selling Author | Voted Best Cause Marketing Agency by The AMA.

Surgeon Thought Leadership Idea: The Sideline Hall of Fame

Imagine a surgeon with a content series around the unsung people in their OR. 

The scrub tech who's been with them for 15 years. 
The rep who's driven 400 miles to make sure the right implant was there. 
The scheduler who's quietly protected their block time through three hospital administrators.

A surgeon posting about their "sideline crew" would stand out in a sea of clinical content. 

And it would show patients something important: this doctor notices people.

I just have to SUCK-LESS than the DMs they receive. 


Imposter Syndrome eliminates 70%
20% can’t resist and try to sell stuff
3% tried it few times and didn’t work
7% become virtual (at scale) 

Dinosaur sales bosses are indifferent

You will be ridiculed for doing (medtech)

The irony is simple. The thing you are afraid to send is still better than the nothing or hustle for appointment they are currently receiving.

The Most Radical Leadership Model in Healthcare Didn’t Come from Business-It Came from Mr. Rogers.

Fred Rogers did something most leaders never learn to do. He made people feel safe enough to think.

He didn’t teach by authority.
He taught by regulation.

That matters more in healthcare than almost anywhere else.

Before patients understand information, they scan for safety.
Before clinicians absorb strategy, they assess emotional threat.
Before teams perform well, they need regulation, not motivation.

Mr. Rogers never talked down.
He translated complexity without stripping dignity.
He explained hard things slowly, clearly, and without ego.

Mr. Rogers moved slowly on purpose.
Slowness creates room for people to show up as humans, not just performers.

He also separated worth from productivity. You mattered because you existed, not because you produced.

In a system obsessed with RVUs, throughput, and metrics, that distinction is quietly radical.
Burnout is not always about workload.
Often, it is about identity collapse.

And perhaps most importantly, he modeled presence over performance.
There was no gap between his values and his behavior.
No leadership persona.
No mask.

Mr. Rogers understood something we keep relearning the hard way.

Feelings are not a distraction from the work.
They are part of the work.

The leaders who understand that are not soft.
They are precise.

That is a neighborhood worth building.

Watching Adrienne Towsen, MD  build her next chapter has been a masterclass in quiet confidence.

She is launching a new orthopedic practice while competing as a dancer on the world stage, and instead of hiding the transition, she is documenting it with clarity, grace, and intention. No performative hustle. No overexplaining. Just disciplined work, creative expression, and self-trust.

What makes it powerful is not the pivot itself. It is how she is doing it. With elegance. With ownership. And without asking permission.

For anyone watching from the sidelines wondering if it is possible to evolve without burning bridges or diluting credibility, this is what it looks like when growth is done with class.

This is how I imagine her entering The Orthopreneurs Symposium this year. 

Chris McClellan, DO 
Ryan “Saw-Bones” Molli, D.O.

Surgeons do not need a social media strategy. They need a reputation architecture.


Most surgeons still think their website is their digital front door.

It is not.

Your website is static.
LinkedIn/YouTube is alive.

LinkedIn is now the modern-day surgeon website, except it does something your website never could.

It lets people watch how you think in real time.

Peers.
Media.
MedTech.
Hospital leaders.

They are not coming to your site first.
They are forming judgment based on what shows up in their feed.

Long-form LinkedIn posts are no longer “content.”
They are positioning.

Each post becomes a living page that answers one question over and over again.

Is this surgeon worth paying attention to beyond the operating room?

That is why the surgeons winning right now are not explaining procedures.
They are publishing perspective.

Then comes YouTube.

And this is where most surgeons get it wrong.

YouTube is not Instagram.
YouTube is not TikTok.

It is not an interruption platform.
It is an intent platform.

People go to YouTube to be educated.

They search.
They slow down.
They try to understand.

Not anatomy.
Not techniques.

Themselves.

The surgeons doing YouTube well are not teaching surgery.
They are documenting their patient-centric process.

How decisions are made.
How expectations are set.
How different patient personas move through care.
How uncertainty is handled before anyone talks about an operation.

LinkedIn builds authority at scale.
YouTube builds trust with intent.

And the bridge between them is a branded, proprietary patient protocol that turns perspective into experience.

This is not social media marketing.

This is reputation architecture.

The surgeons who understand this are not louder.
They are clearer.

And clarity is what attracts peers, media, MedTech, and the right patients all at once.

No alternative text description for this image

You do not need more friends.
You need six men who will answer at 3:00 a.m. and carry you when life breaks.

If that sentence makes you uncomfortable, you need to read this now.

Chris Lisle 
G. Bryan Cornwall, PhD, MBA, PEng

Finding Your 6

Why We Stopped Chasing Med Tech and Went All In on Surgeons.

Why Physicians Need Short-Form Video in a Zero-Trust Era.


I discuss how physicians can build credibility. 

Rather than viewing short-form video as marketing or self-promotion, we explore how authentic video content serves as verification of your professional presence. 

I break down how your face, voice, cadence, and restraint act as trust triggers that AI cannot convincingly replicate at scale, and why thoughtful LinkedIn videos prove you are real, think carefully, and remain accountable to your perspective.

Borrowed Attention Is Not a Strategy: Why Surgeons Are Building Their Own Narrative in 2026.

Surgeons are about to find out how long “normal” can actually operate.

The current orthopedic model was never designed for this level of administrative drag, reimbursement compression, and emotional exhaustion.

It survives by volume.
And volume is becoming harder to maintain.

We talk about burnout as if it’s a personal failing.

It’s not.

It’s a system running past its design limits.

That is why ideas that once felt taboo are now being discussed openly.

Concierge care.
Cash components.
Hybrid models.

Not because surgeons suddenly want something different.

But because the existing structure is no longer viable for many practices.

These models will be unpopular.
They will be criticized as elitist.
They will be framed as abandoning patients.

But the uncomfortable truth is this.

When a system stops working, people build workarounds.

This isn’t ideology.
It’s engineering.

-The real risk isn’t that surgeons explore new models.
-The real risk is pretending “normal” can keep operating when the warning signs are everywhere.

- - - 

If any other profession accepted rising costs and falling pay indefinitely, we’d call it unsustainable. Why is surgery different?

- - - 

I’m working with a surgeon who is building a new payment model.

It won’t be popular at first.
There will be arrows in his back.
That always happens when someone moves before the system is ready to admit it needs to change.

What’s interesting is not the criticism.
It’s the timing.

Because when operating costs keep rising and reimbursement keeps falling, stone-throwing eventually turns into imitation.

The ones criticizing today will be forced to redesign tomorrow.

This isn’t about being right early.
It’s about being honest before the math makes the decision for you.

I’ll post something on LinkedIn that gets 250 or 300 impressions.


No spike.
No dopamine hit.
No algorithmic fireworks.

And yet, those posts quietly generate the biggest ROI of anything I write.

Here’s why.

When a post is hyper-niche, it is not designed to attract everyone.
It is designed to repel almost everyone.

The only people who click are the left-handed, one-eyebrowed orthopedic and Neurosurgeons who are done with KOL politics, interested in building trust (at scale)m want to monetize their reputation, and are thinking seriously about becoming a (DOL) Digital Opinion Leader. {MY TRIBE}

That is not a metaphor.
Those are the people who end up calling me.

LinkedIn has a funny way of questioning your identity when you do this.
It asks why you’re posting.
It tempts you to chase likes.
It nudges you toward safer, broader, more agreeable content.

And to be clear, there is nothing wrong with writing for reach.
Likes matter.
Visibility matters.

But thought leadership is a different game.

Thought leadership is about precision.
It is about speaking so specifically that the right people feel seen and everyone else scrolls past.

Riches don't have to come from the masses. Read Kevin Kelley 1000 True Fans. 

[They come from the niche that recognizes itself in your words.]

If you are writing content that feels almost too specific to post, you are probably closer than you think.

Low impressions do not mean low impact.
They often mean the opposite.

Riding for a local Northwest Arkansas brand this weekend.

Most people build alone.


They write the book solo. Launch the course by themselves. Start the podcast with no co-host.

And most of them quit.

Not because the idea was bad. Because the weight of doing everything alone eventually breaks you.

Here’s what I’ve learned after: 

- co-authoring a bestselling book with two buddies. 
- releasing Physician Brand Rx with Scott Sigman MD 
- co-building three $7-figure business units with talented friends.  

1+1=3.

Two people committed to the same creative project don’t just split the work. They multiply the output.

You show up on the days your partner can’t. They show up on yours. The accountability alone is worth the “cost” of sharing credit.

But it goes deeper than that.

Your network plus their network. Your skills plus their skills. Your blind spots covered by their strengths.

The book you’ve been “meaning to write” for five years? You’d finish it in six months with the right partner.

The course sitting in your head? It would actually exist.

The side hustle you keep talking about? It would generate revenue.

The math isn’t complicated. The courage to partner is.

This is exactly what we’re building at Content Crib 6.0 in Bentonville, Arkansas. A room full of healthcare leaders ready to find their creative partner and finally ship the thing they’ve been sitting on.

If 2026 is the year you stop building alone, join us.

DM me for invitation.

This is me talking to the version of Matthew who is tempted to explain instead of insist.

He would warn you against explaining yourself too much.

The more you try to make your work legible to everyone, the more you collapse the tension that makes it valuable.

He would say:
 -If everyone understands it immediately, it is not premium.
 -If everyone agrees with it, it is not leadership.

He would specifically caution you about drifting into marketing language.
 Deliverables.
 Cadence.
 Content calendars.
 Packages.

Those are comfort blankets for buyers who want certainty.
Your buyers want conviction.

He would also warn you about metrics theater.
 Impressions.
 Engagement.
 Follower growth.

He would remind you that premium buyers do not buy dashboards.
 They buy relief.
 Clarity.
 A feeling of being seen and positioned correctly.

Finally, he would warn you against borrowing authority from surgeons instead of transferring it back to them.

If your voice ever becomes louder than theirs, you become the brand.
And premium clients do not want to rent someone else’s identity.
They want to author their own.

- - - 
We created a unique conference. See if you can discover your journey on this topic and community.

Content Crib 6.0 exists to prove one plus one equals three.

One surgeon and one thinking partner create a third thing - authorship. One med tech leader and one marketer partner to create a new thing - digital thought leadership. 

And so on/forth. 

This has never been offered in healthcare because the system rewards product marketing, not thought leadership.

What if you understood the step-by-step process?

You have an idea. You put it away for now. Years pass by. Select a creative partner and finally deliver. 

I will share my personal journey of co-developing businesses. How to find, develop, and deliver with creative partners.

I will debunk how 1 + 1=3 ($7 figure thought leadership businesses). Once you learn how partnering with one other person, can punch imposter syndrome and finally deliver your uniqueness to the marketplace. 

DM me if you want a personal invitation to attend.

Matthew Ray Scott, MS

Surgeon Reputation Architect | Physician Brand Rx™ Creator | Best-Selling Author | Voted Best Cause Marketing Agency by The AMA.

Authentic Surgeon Thought Leadership:: Building Reputation Through Research and Voice

The new standard is not “robotic.” The new standard is “repeatable.”


What I’ve learned as a surgeon reputation architect:

The words we use shape what we measure. And what we measure shapes what we improve. So if you’re using the wrong category, we’re optimizing for the wrong thing.

Why Surgeons Fail to Monetize Their Reputation: 5 Critical Mistakes

The Three-Step Formula to Build Authority on LinkedIn as a Surgeon


(2m and 40s)

I discuss how physicians can navigate LinkedIn's algorithm by shifting focus from attention-seeking to building genuine authority. 

We talk about three essential steps: 

1. developing consistent digital thought leadership that showcases your unique perspective.

2. establishing authorship through branded and proprietary protocols that become synonymous with your name.

3. leveraging proactive outreach to connect with decision-makers by sharing ideas rather than selling. 

I explain how this approach helps surgeons align with like-minded partnerships and monetize their reputation authentically.

This is me talking to myself before the temptation to scale replaces the discipline to matter.

He would recognize that you are not chasing scale.
You are chasing significance.

You are choosing a narrow audience.
Surgeons who care about judgment, reputation, restraint, and legacy.
Not surgeons who want more clicks.

He would say this is exactly how premium categories are formed.
Small.
Specific.
Authorship. 
Hard to join.

Figure out how SMALL is big enough.

taplio

The Battle

Jen Allen-Knuth

Matthew Scott

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreJen Allen-Knuth's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreMatthew Scott's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

The Battle

Jen Allen-Knuth

Matthew Scott

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);}Jen Allen-Knuth's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreMatthew Scott's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreJen Allen-Knuth's LinkedIn Performance