Get Leads From Your LinkedIn On Autopilot | Founder @ Hat Tip

If you:

→ Make social content
→ Want to make social content
→ Tried making social content but were unsuccessful

… you’re in the right place.

Truth is, publishing content you’re proud of on a consistent basis is tough.

You get busy. Things come up.

And for most founders, content takes a backseat to whatever fire they’re putting out at their company that day.

That said, its 2025.

Content is king — and the benefits for B2B founders are clear:

→ Drive low-cost brand awareness
→ Generate inbound leads from a new lead source
→ Become a “thought leader” in your space (even though you may hate that word)

And after meeting tons of founders while working in influencer marketing, starting Hat Tip felt like a no-brainer.

You can still benefit from publishing high-quality social content — without worrying about blocking out time to write, being inconsistent, or if you’re making content the “right way”.

Hat Tip handles that for you—while maintaining your voice—through:

→ Bi-weekly content interviews
→ Product and industry-specific thought-starters
→ The will to edit and revise until you’re proud of the content being published

If high-quality, consistent social content sounds like something you’re interested in, DM me or visit the link in my profile to book a call.

Thanks 👋

Christian

📧 christian@hattipagency.com
🐤 Twitter @dibratto

Christian Di Bratto

Client: I've been looking at Gary Vaynerchuk and Ryan Serhant's posts. We should model our content after them. They get thousands of likes.

Me: What are Gary and Ryan selling in those posts?

Client: I mean...motivation? Personal brand building?

Me: Right. You're selling SaaS implementation services. Do you see the disconnect?

Client: But the engagement numbers don't lie.

Me: Do they though? Have you heard of engagement pods?

Client: What's that?

Me: Groups where influencers coordinate to like and comment on each other's posts. Makes the algorithm boost their content. Plus, Gary's been posting daily for over a decade. You've been on LinkedIn for 6 months.

Client: So we can't create engaging content?

Me: You can. But copying motivational posts won't get you there. Your content needs to demonstrate expertise that gets prospects thinking 'this person could solve my problems.'

Client: What should we focus on?

Me: Case studies. Process breakdowns. Industry insights. Content that shows you understand your prospects' specific challenges.

Client: But that won't get thousands of likes.

Me: No. But it'll get you qualified prospects who actually want to buy what you're selling.

My point:  trying to copy big LinkedIn influencers.
(1) Their content serves different goals than yours. They're selling courses and personal brands, not B2B services.

(2) Much of their engagement comes from pods, years of audience building, or a mix of both.

(3) Focus on content that demonstrates expertise to your specific target market instead of chasing vanity metrics.

The end.

Founder @ Hat Tip. Helping startup founders generate pipeline from social.

A founder told me LinkedIn "isn't doing anything" for him. I figured out why in 30 seconds, and gave him a routine to completely turn-around his results.

To be fair to the founder, he was posting relatively consistently (3x/week). The content was good, not great. But still, it wasn't like this is what was holding him back.

...which confused him. He thought he was doing everything right. Then I asked him the following:

(1) How many outbound comments have you left in the last week? Answer: 0.

(2) How many of your ICP have you connected with in the last week? Answer: 1

(3) How many of your ICP have you DM'd this week? Answer: 1

It just isn't enough. You can play the LinkedIn game hoping for 100% inbound, or you can maximize the platform's utility and get way more out of it.

Here's the routine I advised this founder to follow (that you should steal, too, if you're in the same spot):

SETUP:

- Identify 100+ decision-makers you want to get in front of
- Set up custom feed of their content (guide here: https://lnkd.in/eZ2gPmd8)

DAILY:

- Allocate 15 minutes to leave thoughtful comments on their posts (aim for 3-5)

- Connect with 20 of these people per day

- Track who accepts and start DM conversations accordingly (guide here: https://lnkd.in/e3vXpTFP)

More than getting in front of them simply because you DM'd them, LinkedIn will show them your content while they scroll after you've DM'd them. Win-win.

Do this for 30 days. If you still aren't generating any interest, you have bigger problems than LinkedIn.

Founder @ Hat Tip. Founder Brand for startups.

1.5 years after graduating, I'm trying to grow my content agency to $1M ARR. Here's a 2025 recap at Hat Tip:

(1) Grew revenue just under 1.5x.

(2) Profit increased, but minimally (made relatively large team investments).

(3) Worked with 12 more Series A-or-beyond startups.

It was a great year by most measures, but I'd be lying if I said I'm remotely satisfied.

There are a few key areas I want us to be better in (which ultimately starts with me):

a. Recruiting. I haven't spent nearly enough time on it, which has cost me more time than I'd like to admit in the long run.

b. Training / process. At our stage, I'm still too involved in many aspects of client delivery. I never want to leave it completely, but I need to actively manage my way back a bit.

c. CRM management. The first two issues lead into this: I need more time to work on sales, and that time will come from solving the first two issues.

d. Ironically, I think I need to stop and smell the flowers more. I'm proud of what we've accomplished and the clients we work with, but tend to strictly focus on the "negatives" around the business...sort of like I'm doing here. Lol.

Anyway, thank you to friends and clients who made the last year great. I'll see you back here next January for my next list of problems.

My 35-minute, 3-step LinkedIn prospecting routine that's getting me 3-5 pitches per week:

20 Mins:

- Use Sales Nav + LinkedIn's recommended accounts feature on previous ICP accounts to find new ones.

- Engage with their most recent piece of content and add them to your tracker (template below). 

*if they haven't posted / commented recently, I skip right to connecting.

5 Mins:

- Update list with accepted connections from the day prior

- Send voice note follow-up to messages you sent 48h or more ago (I keep it as simple as "I know people get busy, so I just want to make sure you saw this")

15 mins:

- Record personalized 0:45-1:00 videos with your phone, introducing yourself + tying something about them/their company to what you do.

Ex: I saw a post from a VP of Marketing who said they think founders/CEOs should be posting on LinkedIn.

But, their CEO wasn't posting on LinkedIn.

So, I opened my video reading her hook word-for-word, transitioning into a quick intro, and getting into what we do (if you're reading this, let's chat).

My point is, if you do this long enough, you will get responses. It's on you to provide as much value to them as possible.

Template for tracking here: https://lnkd.in/eFFv7k9J

After writing 4,000 posts for 40+ founders in the last 3 years, I've identified 5 high-performing post types every founder should steal:

1. Hypothetical Process - Step-by-step “if I were you” playbooks your ICP will save (and act on). Example: https://lnkd.in/eRB4grEN

2. Strong POV - Timely, divisive takes that spark comments & reach. Example: https://lnkd.in/e4Wuze6X

3. Origin Story - A proven narrative framework that earns support and awareness. Example: https://lnkd.in/eUWwRk_E

4. Case Study - Social first formatting that turns client wins into leads. Example: https://lnkd.in/ePuhB5pT

5. Objection Handling - Pulling objections from sales calls and dismantling them on feed. Example: https://lnkd.in/e3Wu86qs

*examples not all clients, but were in my bookmarks.

AND

I just released a video walking through each, with examples, for you to save and share.

Watch the full video here: https://lnkd.in/eyFMKe-U

I hand-wrote 35 cards to friends, clients, and prospects that helped make 2025 great for me.

Last year, I heard Jesse Itzler talk about this on My First Million. I decided to do it.

So, I spent $102 on cards (and $50 later on stamps / postage 😂) to do this.

Then, I spent 2 weekend mornings in November writing them all out.

Some reflections:

(1) The process was nice. Rarely, if ever, do we stop and reflect on individual relationships like this. It was nice.

(2) I got tons of thoughtful messages thanking me for them. It seems like they were well-appreciated.

(3) My handwriting was never good to begin with (much to the dismay of my teacher mother). I can confirm after graduating 2 years ago and barely writing at all, it has gotten worse.

--

Anyway, this is going to be standard practice for EOY at Hat Tip moving forward.

If you're on the fence about doing it, I strongly recommend!

50% of the time I tell a founder they should post 5x/week, they look at me like I have 3 eyes.

"Isn't that way too much?"

"I don't want to over-do it"

"Nobody cares about what I have to say"

This is the wrong framing. The right way to think about it:

(1) The compounding effects of your social efforts are measured in posts, not months. That means the less you post, the longer you draw out the time to see the benefits you want.

(2) Why would you intentionally hamper the amount of shots on goal you get per week? 

(3) Look at your competitors. If they're posting daily, you have catching up to do. If they're not, you have an incredible opportunity.

Now, I totally get that going from 0 to 5 posts/week off the bat can be intimidating. Heck, I'm thousands of posts in and STILL feel weird here and there.

So, if I were you and wanted to ramp up posting without feeling overwhelmed or out of place:

- Ramp up to 3x/week
- See how you feel / how it's perceived
- Once comfortable, work to 4/week
- See how you feel / how it's perceived
- After that, move to 5x/week

DM me if you have questions about system / workflow and I'll send you some resources.

My peewee hockey coach mandated each player to shoot 500 pucks/day in the summer. For context, that is RIDICULOUS volume for a kid.

Luckily for me, I was doing it before the mandate. I just loved it (it may or may not have required us to get a new garage door).

Now, I was a terrible skater. Like, really bad. 

But, because I was shooting close to 15,000 pucks/month, I could shoot like it was nobody's business.

It probably kept me on teams I should've been cut from, if I'm being honest.

Now, how the heck does this relate to social content?

Volume.

I wasn't a gifted shooter. My form, to this day, isn't perfect. But putting in a ridiculous amount of reps is what made me good at it.

This works the same way for social content.

Your first 10 posts will suck.
The next 10 will suck, but less.
The 10 after will look half-decent.

But, as long as you keep showing up and put a baseline level of effort into your content, you WILL get better at it.

All the accounts you follow on here who you think have it "figured out" put in the reps.

Now it's your turn.

Factors that determine post performance:

(1) Topic
(2) Hook
(3) Media choice
(4) Overall value the reader derives
(5) Amount of comments it drives.

Factors that do not determine post performance:

(1) Length

Stop worrying about if your post is "too long" or "too short".

Get your message across in a succinct, compelling matter, and move on.

If you're asking "how can we automate this" with anything relating to LinkedIn, you've already lost.

So many people openly brag about building AI agents that find them topics, write content that "actually sounds like them", and engage on their account as if we can't already tell.

Nobody cares for that. 

I can't think of a greater insult to your audience than telling them they're not worth spending time on, but expecting them to buy from you.

After writing 4,000+ posts for over 40 founders, I can confirm this picture sums up ~75% of writing for LinkedIn:

1. Prioritize your hook. 

The first thing the reader sees must give them no choice but to keep reading (if you're reading this, I succeeded).

2. Say more, with less.

No filler words or sentences.

3. Appeal to the reader's brain.

Organize ideas the way the brain likes to. Keep your writing to one idea per sentence.

4. REPS.

The writer didn't include this, but I will. 

Your first post will suck. Good. So will your second, third, fourth, and fifth.

But over time, it will start sucking less. And less. And less.

And eventually, after enough, reps, you'll be good at it!

Save this for the next time you have to write.

If I wanted to guarantee I generated 0 pipeline from social, I would:

(1) Expect results by lunch on the first day of posting.

(2) Write posts with no regard for the hook.

(3) Be terrified of saying anything remotely divisive.

(4) Never repeat a topic or take.

(5) Leave 0 comments on others' posts.

(6) DM nobody.

(7) Only post bottom-of-funnel product updates.

(8) Only post top-of-funnel material.

(9) Use AI to draft posts end-to-end.

(10) Track nothing.

(11) Completely outsource the creation process.

(12) Obsess over posting time and other LinkedIn "hacks".

(13) Join an engagement group.

(14) Write when I want instead of building a system.

(15) Compare myself to huge accounts.

(16) Send 0 connection requests.

(17) Format my posts like LinkedInfluencers.

What did I miss?

If your New Year's resolution was to post more on social but you don't know what to post about, here are 20 post ideas:

1. What are outdated strategies your ICP is trying to use to achieve their dream result?

2. Share your company’s origin story in detail.

3. What’s one trend in your industry you don’t like and why?

4. List five to 10 pro tips your ICP can use to get the desired result.

5. Share an early failure you had with your company. How did you overcome it?

6. What is an industry prediction your peers disagree with you on?

7. What’s your favorite interview question to ask a candidate, and why?

8. Share a case study of a successful client.

9. What are the top 5–10 traits of an [ICP job title]?

10. Pick the most common FAQ you get from prospects and answer it.

11. Share a growth strategy you didn’t think would work but did.

12. What’s your company’s tech stack? Tag the companies.

13. Highlight a specific feature or part of your service and why it helps your ICP.

14. Comment on relevant news in your industry. Make sure to add value here.

15. Share an unconventional behind-the-scenes story of how you grew your company.

16. What’s your favorite founder framework that helped you grow your business?

17. List every stat your ICP should track and why.

18. What is the ROI of using your product or service? Illustrate it.

19. What’s one recruiting take or opinion people will disagree with you on?

20. Share a hot take around your industry / space.

Get 400 more + an 82-page guide on generating pipeline from social here: https://lnkd.in/eFFv7k9J

We generated 83 high-intent lead magnet opt-ins for a client, many of which from massive logos, using something I see nowhere on LinkedIn.

*I say "high-intent", as submissions were only counted after prospects went through 15+ questions (in which they let us know exactly what they were struggling with in relation to our client's product.

This is NOT your typical "I got 4,000 leads from this lead magnet" post.

We got 83 qualified* people who put their hand up and voluntarily filled out 17 questions worth of information about their pain points in relation to the client's product.

Here's what we did:

1. Brainstormed an idea for an interactive lead magnet their ICP could fill out and receive something at the end of.

2. Came up with 17 questions prospects could answer that would help get to their desired outcome (we did this by combining source knowledge + directly asking the client for his expertise).

3. Used Tally to make an interactive lead magnet with name + email + qualification questions on Page 1, and toggled partial submissions. 

4. Ran it as a comment-to-get giveaway on the founder's LinkedIn.

5. Followed-up with commenters who didn't fill out the lead magnet for ~1 week after the fact.

NOTE: This is without* putting spend behind this post or enrolling prospects into a nurture sequence.

If you want us to run this exact same playbook for you, DM me.

1. Origin story
2. Tech stack
3. Industry myth-bust 1
4. BTS story 1
5. Case study 1
6. Industry commentary 1
7. Hiring take 
8. Fundraising story
9. Objection handle 1
10. Favorite interview question to ask
11. FAQ answer 1.
12. Product update
13. Team member shoutout 
14. Early mistake 1
15. Industry commentary 2
16. Framework for ICP 1
17. Core values explanation
18. Industry meme / shitpost 1
19. Top 3 traits of [user job title]
20. Good vs bad [function] process
21. 80/20 of doing [function] right
22. Industry prediction for 2030
23. Industry trend you think is underrated
24. Biggest interview red flag.
25. FAQ answer 2.
26. Industry myth-bust 2
27. Right way vs. wrong way [function]
28. "If I were [job title], I would..."
29. Underrated metrics to track for [ICP]
30. Objection handle 2
31. Unconventional things you do internally.
32. First 5 customers story
33. Team member shoutout 2
34. AI take / opinion
35. Existing [function] audit process
36. Best city to build in opinion
37. Fundraising lessons learned
38. Early mistake 2
39. Last 30 days recap
40. Specific feature highlight
41. Underrated candidate trait
42. Personal interest/hobby post
43. Industry meme / shitpost 2
44. Early mistake 2
45. [Big company] strategy breakdown
46. Customer churn lesson
47. Company momentum (use metrics)
48. How you build culture
49. Scariest moment story
50. Case study 2
51. Industry trend you think is overrated
52. Unpopular industry opinion
53. Remote vs in-person opinion
54. Unconventional pro tip for ICP
55. How you make roadmap decisions
56. BTS story 2
57. Biggest interview green flag
58. Industry open role roundup
59. Step-by-step process guide
60. ICP common mistake highlight

Founders: I don't want to hear that you "don't know what to post about."

These are enough posts ideas to last you a full quarter.

Save them.

Getting financial advisors millions of dollars & impressions | $20+ million in capital & AUM raised from LinkedIn | 100+ million client impressions | 400+ meetings booked | $1+ million in client courses sold

If you work in finance or real estate and want to add clients or capital through LinkedIn, send me a DM.

If you want to write a memoir or lead-gen book, send me a DM.

Adam Knorr

Sometimes I drink fish tank cleaner.

(And 5 other questionable health things I do) : 

1. I drink methylene blue. 

Methylene is a textile dye. It's also an industrial-grade fish tank clear. 

I also drink it, because some Bro Scientists think it slows aging, improves mood, sharpens cognition.

It tastes like someone stirred a glass of water and Malort with a Sharpie.

2. I've taken peptides.

Only BPC-157 to speed up injury recovery.

It's not FDA-approved, which I feel is a great sign.

3. I eat 15-18 lbs of plain Greek yogurt a week.

Those 3-pound Kirlkland tubs. Always with frozen blueberries, sometimes with honey if I want a nice little treat.

4. I mix my own electrolyte powder.

LMNT just posts their recipe on their website. Shoutout LMNT.

So I mix all the ingredients together and create my own. It's a bunch of white powders and I have to weigh everything on a scale, so I like to play Pusha T while I do this.

5. I drink ~800 MG caffeine a day. 

1-liter French Press before the coffee shop opens at 6:30.
2 16-oz coffees at the coffee shop from 6:30-11.
Sometimes a 100-200 MG energy drink in the PM. 

After writing this out, I realize I might actually need to get this under control. 

6. I tie my mental health to a social media algorithm.

I hope this post gets a lot of impressions.

Getting financial advisors millions of dollars & impressions | $20+ million in capital & AUM raised from LinkedIn | 100+ million client impressions | 450+ meetings booked | $1+ million in client courses sold

Recycling your best-performing posts isn't lazy. 

It's the correct strategy.

Just... Make small adjustments so you're not outright lying to people.

Why you can't expect to make money on social media by copying what works for the gurus: Exhibit A.

I know it's easy to dunk on Hormozi. And I genuinely like a lot of his ideas. 

But I also know that if he saw this post, he'd agree with me. 

The ultimate irony:

To get to the point where you can post zero-calorie platitudes and get 2,600 likes, you have to create a tremendous amount of valuable, insightful, unique content that only you could have created.

Then, the bigger you get, the more beneficial it becomes to morph into a human fortune cookie.

I quit my finance job in 2022 to become a writer. 

Now, I write LinkedIn posts. Not what I dreamed of. 

But you know what?

It works. 

My real dream is to get paid for my own content. I want to write books and blogs and screenplays that people shell out millions for. And, candidly, I expect that will happen.

But had I tried that on day 1, I would've been broke by day 30. 

See, when I started in 2022, I had no audience. I had like 1,100 connections on LinkedIn and a Wordpress full of college newspaper sports recaps.

So even if I did write a mindbending novel, it wouldn't have mattered. 

What would I have done with it?
Who would have seen it?
Where would it go?

So you know what I did instead of trying to write something I was passionate about?

I accepted a contract from Progressive Insurance to copyedit their policy docs.

And that's how I made my first few thousand dollars as a "writer."

Since then, I've made LinkedIn ghostwriting my primary service offering. Turns out I'm pretty good at it, and it pays me well. 

I have some plans in 2026 to write and sell you all some original writing. That's a big part of why I try to avoid writing content that's only "7 LinkedIn Growth Hacks!!!!"  

I want to see how people respond to my voice — not just my meta LinkedIn content about LinkedIn on LinkedIn.

If I've earned the right to give any advice to people who want to write for a living, I'm going to commit the worst possible sin a writer can and plagiarize someone else's work.

"You can be idealistic and fail, or you can be pragmatic and succeed—while continuing to fulfill your ideals as best you can."

Lot of insurance companies out there. 

Lot of policy docs that need to be edited.

2022: Quit my job, had 0 clients.

2025: 51 clients. Here are the numbers:

-> LinkedIn Ghostwriting:

$2,650–$4,000/month
7 clients (1 churned)

I've worked with my clients for 7 months–2+ years.

Deliverables: LinkedIn posts, interviews, content strategy, account management, image sourcing, scheduling.

-> Email Newsletters:

$95–$200/email
4 clients

Usually email is a ghostwriting client saying, "Can you write my emails too?"

To which I say, "Yes."

-> Twitter/X Ghostwriting:

$500–$1,900/quarter
2 clients

I never quite got my pricing right for this.

-> Advisor GPS (Course + Community):

$2,199–$6,997
12 members

An accelerator program for financial advisors.

I built this with two partners, so the revenue is not 100% mine.

-> Skool Community:

$900/mo
10 members

I edit 3x weekly posts for clients, provide 1:1 consulting, community access, and coaching calls.

Yesterday, I edited 3 posts for a client. The posts totaled 567 words. I left 1,571 words of feedback on why I made the edits I made.

It's time-consuming, so I'll be raising the price, but I love this community.

-> Agency Work:

$2,500–$5,000/mo
2 clients

Content strategy, ghostwriting, systems work.

-> One-Off Projects: 

$497–$5,875
9 clients

Book ghostwriting, funnel builds, AI systems, guest speaking, tour scripts.

-> Consulting Calls:

$297–$347/hour
16 calls (15 people)

Raising the price on these, too. Prep, 60-minute calls, and follow-up add up. 

--

In total, I worked with 51 unique clients in 2025.

I don't really know what to say next. Because in my head, I'm still 28-Year-Old Adam From 2022 Trying To Figure This Whole Thing Out. And I think I'll feel that way tomorrow. And next year. And in 2030, 2035, 2050, and 2060, Lord-willing and the creek don't do that thing it tends to do.

When I had just started doing this, I paid another ghostwriting agency owner $400 for a 1-hour call. He was doing like $50K a month at the time.

I asked him: "Does this ever feel insane to you? What you've built?"

"Honestly man?" he said. "I've had my head down in the day-to-day for so long that I've never really had a chance to step back and look at it like that."

I couldn't understand that at the time, but now I do.

You could tell me the last 3 years have actually been 3 days. Or 30 years. I wouldn't blink at either.

Time stops being neatly packaged when you're trying to build something. It turns into a forever-unspooling piece of yarn, where every Monday is a Saturday, every Saturday a Monday. April is December. You eat your midnight snack at sunrise. 

It all blurs together, and nothing feels like it ever changes. When I went to sleep last night, I was still 28-Year-Old Adam From 2022 Trying To Figure This Whole Thing Out. When I woke up this morning, I was the same.

But when I pick my head up and look around, somehow everything has changed.

I never expected this. Not in 100 lifetimes.

But man.

I sure am grateful for it.

If I were starting as a ghostwriter with zero clients, here's how I'd close my first within 7 days:

Step 1: Go to YouTube. Click on videos in my niche.

Step 2: Watch the ads the algo serves to me in my niche.

Step 3: Look up the creators of those ads on LinkedIn.

Step 4: Make a list of the ones with no LinkedIn presence (it'll be 90%+).

Step 5: Go watch their 3 most popular YouTube videos.

Step 6: Write 10 LinkedIn posts for them for free. Include visuals.

Step 7: Message them on every platform offering those posts for free until they either agree to test them out or tell me to self-immolate. 

Step 8: Repeat with as many creators as possible.

Assuming you're good at writing LinkedIn content, you will 100% land a client within 7 days doing this.

Last week, I wrote about how I drink 800MG of caffeine a day. People told me that was concerning. But you know what?

Caffeine doesn't even affect me. And who are you to tell me what to do? Sure I get up at 4AM without an alarm and maybe twice per week I can't sleep past 3 and yeah maybe I feel like part of The Walking Dead every afternoon while I'm "crashing" or whatever but what do you even think that has to do with caffeine, anyway? You don't know me and you don't know my life. I know you claim to be "worried about my heart," but when I hurt my back again last month none of you said bupkus. And while we're on that topic, no one is every giving me any credit for showing up here darn near every single day WITH A HURT BACK and STILL posting to LinkedIn consistently. I'm like the Rob McClanahan of LinkedIn content, and you guys treat me like I'm Ralph Cox. Which is kind of a funny thing to bring up as a comparison because there's no way caffeine at the 1980 Lake Placid Olympics was like caffeine is in 2026. People wonder why everyone is so anxious nowadays, meanwhile all the corporate girlies are shotgunning afternoon Alanis after their morning double-shot iced mocha and wondering why oh why they feel so much existential dread about the trajectory of their life when everything is so good on paper. I'm telling you they did not feel this way back when Eruzione was lighting the lamp on the Soviets, they were just sitting in the chalet and maybe having a Miller Light and a drag or two of a Marlboro and getting energy from Cold War patriotism instead of cold-can-concoctions of cotton-candy-caffeine. I'm not saying everything is perfect or anything like that, but we used to be a proper country back before we pretended like Auston Matthews was enough to take us to gold in Italy and we left Jason Roberston offer the roster. Like, yeah, let's leave the leading goal-scorer over the past year in the NHL off the team and pretend like that's gonna work out for us, great call Bill Guerin, why don't you go back to mixing up D-pairings in Wilkes-Barre. 

So I don't know why y'all keep saying "800 mG iS toO mUcH cAfFeiNe."

It doesn't affect me like that.

The CEO of Goldman Sachs has 1.4 million LinkedIn followers. I'm just a few spots behind him on the list of top finance creators.

The playing field is more level than you think.

I can sit here and scream about how powerful writing content can be, or I can point to this Favikon list that has me ranked in the same breaths as:

• David Solomon
• Michael Kitces 
• Josh Brown

Dawg. I had my Series 7 for a couple years and sold a few muni bond SMAs. And they've got me a Blackstone's throw away from the guy who runs a $300 billion bank and winters in Baker's Bay.

Now that I'm done bragging, here's the point:

You are not competing against the biggest accounts. You are competing against the people who actually care, and most big accounts don't.

Most of these "thought leaders" have comms teams, PR approvals, and layers of approval processes that result in compliance-filtered, template-driven, toothless content. 

Meanwhile, you have the ability to actually be yourself. 

And being yourself can be powerful enough to get you in the same conversation as people with 1000x your resources and platform size.

Idk, guys. 

I want to talk about how ridiculous this is, but it's not ridiculous. 

It's the whole point.

Friendly reminder that the best way to use AI to write your LinkedIn content is to tell AI to forget everything it knows about writing LinkedIn content. 

LLMs are trained to write LinkedIn content based on LinkedIn content, and the worst thing about LinkedIn content is that it sounds like LinkedIn content. Ideally, you want your LinkedIn content to sound nothing like LinkedIn content.

So when you're using AI to write LinkedIn content, it's best you don't even bring up the fact that you're trying to write LinkedIn content, because then you'll end up with content that sounds like... LinkedIn content.

"How do I sell to people in the DMs?"

Tell them you're selling to them. 

If you genuinely think your service can improve someone's life, it is your obligation to sell to them.

If you do not think that, you are selling snake oil, and you should go do something that doesn't rip people off, like medieval jousting or leading tours on a coffee farm in Hawaii.

I am ashamed to admit I spent the last 3 years and 9 months referring to myself as a "Founder." Is there a more self-important title in the world? 

I did not "found" anything. I paid LegalZoom like $500 and started pressing buttons on my computer.

I've been writing for a living for 3.5 years.

Here are 5 ways to be a better writer: 

♻️ Repost if this helped you and because I paid money for someone to design this for me and I want to feel better about that investment.

I generated 59 million views for clients last year.

10 writing insights you won't get anywhere else: 

1. Create a common enemy. Attack them in third person.

The best content unites you and your reader against a shared villain — Wall Street, conventional wisdom, the Cleveland Guardians, whatever. 

When you throw stones at the enemy, use "they." When you pivot to help your reader, switch to "you." 

The Cleveland Guardians keep stealing your division. They succeed from devil magic. You deserve fair baseball.

2. When your reader IS the problem, use third person anyway.

Sometimes you need to call out a mistake your ideal client is making. 

Don't say: "You all suck at writing."

Say: "8 in 10 financial advisors write the wrong way." 

Third person lets them opt into the criticism instead of bracing against it.

3. Write "poorly" on purpose.

My job in 2022: "I know how to write properly. I will help you."

My job in 2026: "I know how AI writes. It's too proper. I will make it worse."

I sort of hate all of you who just copy and paste stuff from ChatGPT. It's embarrassing. You're an adult. At least pretend like your brain works.

I know I just violated rule 1. 

4. Nuance kills reach.

"I hate all of you" >>>> "I sort of hate all of you" 

If you're going to have an opinion, have the whole opinion. 

5. If it reads well but means nothing, kill it.

"It's all about strategy." 

Cool. 

What strategy? 
Why does it matter? 
What happens if they ignore it? 

If you can't answer those questions, delete the sentence.

6. Only ask questions people will answer publicly.

"What's your deepest darkest secret you've never told anyone?" might spark internal reflection. 

But nobody's typing that out for their boss to see. 

7. Proper nouns beat common nouns.

"Geek Squad" is more visceral than "tech support." 

"Zillow" hits harder than "real estate apps." 

Branded specificity makes abstract ideas concrete.

8. Write so specifically you never have to name your audience.

"I see this with [target audience] all the time" feels engineered. If your copy is specific enough, they'll see themselves without you pointing.

10. Intentionally skip one number in every listicle.

People will call you out for this in the comments bc they feel very smart and it will boost your engagement. 

--

Anyway, what's your deepest darkest secret you've never told anyone?

I am working within 15 minutes of opening my eyes every morning. 

Wake up (0.0001 seconds)
Scroll social media on my phone (13 mins, 56.9999 seconds)
Turn off my white noise machine (3 seconds)
Make coffee (1 min)

Then I fire up my laptop, put the Maggie Rogers Tiny Desk on my TV, and start arguing with Claude. 

By the time 8:00 AM hits, I have 4 hours of deep work done. At 11:00, I eat chicken and a boiled potato at my desk. By noon, I've worked an 8-hour day. Sometime between 4:30-5:30 PM, I generally shut it down and go to the gym.

Twice a week, I do 45-60-minute cardio sessions on the stationary bike. I had a friend at the gym 3D print me an attachment so I can snap my laptop onto the stationary bike and work during those cardio sessions.

Some Saturdays and Sundays, I sleep in until 5, but it's usually the same routine. I might start with the Phoebe Bridgers Tiny Desk or the Scarface Tiny Desk, but I run the rest of the playbook the same way.

My average work week is 70-80 hours.

And gosh, is it fun.

I'm always torn between how to post about my work online.

On one hand, I want to tell people to do what I did. Quitting my job and building my own business is the best decision I've ever made. And had I not seen content from other people who did it, I never would have done it myself.

On the other hand, survivorship bias. 

So — I think this post is the right middle ground.

I spend ~80% of my waking hours working, but only ~20% of those hours actually feel like work. The rest, genuinely, feels like play. 

Admittedly, it does go in seasons. I've had months where I've wanted to stab my laptop with a basilisk fang just in case the soul of Ebenezer Scrooge got horcrux'd in there somehow. 

And then I've had months that have gone by in the time it takes me to turn off my white noise machine.

The most important factor in your ability to successfully work for yourself is self-awareness. You need to know if you're actually talented, you need to know if you're actually a hard worker, you need to know if you actually love it — or if you just don't want to be doing the other thing you're currently doing. If you lie to yourself about any of these things, you're done. 

And even if you have a little bit of success, there will always be something in the back of your head telling you, "Tomorrow, this might all come crashing down."

So that's why I am working within 15 minutes of opening my eyes every morning.

taplio

The Battle

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Adam Knorr

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taplio

The Battle

Christian Di Bratto

Adam Knorr

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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);}Christian Di Bratto's LinkedIn Performance

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