Jake Ward

Started an SEO agency in 2019. Making $20M/yr for Contact.so clients. Also building: Mentions.so Byword.ai Kleo.so

I’m 27 with 4 businesses and no home.

Here’s how I got here:

Age 0-15:

Spent early life growing up in a hippie commune.

Raised by an incredible single mother who wore both hats. Gave everything to support me.

Overly shy and didn’t speak much.

Seen as a problem by a teacher who suggested there was something wrong with me.

Age 16:

First job stacking supermarket shelves.

Completed high school with bang-average grades.

Started sixth form college.

Age 17:

Quit sixth form college after 3 months due to illness.

Doctor said I was 24 hours away from dying.

Spent my 17th birthday in hospital, tubes everywhere.

Became an apprentice at a print marketing agency. Learnt my way around Adobe’s design suite.

Started doing bits of design work on the side.

Age 18-19:

Discovered search marketing to help get more clients for the print marketing agency.

Became obsessed with SEO. Spent my free time messing around with the websites I built.

Age 20:

Wanted to take marketing more seriously. Quit my job to start a marketing degree.

Quit after 2 weeks.

Started an apprenticeship at an SEO agency where I managed 25 clients and attended college part-time.

Quit after 9 months.

Realised traditional education sucks. I learnt 100x more (and quicker) through self-education.

Went all-in on learning and building whilst living at home with my mum and 2 young siblings.

£0 income.

Age 21:

Got my first 2 freelancing clients on Upwork. They referred me to other clients.

Built a 6-figure business by the end of the year.

Age 22-23:

Started a podcast side project and quickly reached 300,000 listeners per month. Sold it for 5 figures.

Bought and sold 5 websites.

Maxed out my freelancing capacity.

Age 24:

Founded Content Growth and built a team to help companies turn their blog into a 7-figure sales channel.

Started posting on LinkedIn.

Grew revenue by over 200% in 6 months.

Age 25:

Co-founded Byword and launched a platform to help marketers generate articles at scale for SEO.

Sold my belongings, moved out of London and started travelling the world.

Merged Content Growth with Contact Studios to take the SEO agency to the next level.

Helped my mum quit her 15-year corporate job.

Age 26:

Lived out of a suitcase and travelled around 16 countries.

Grown the userbase of my SaaS tools to over 130,000.

Helped multiple unicorn companies scale their SEO with our 25-person team at Contact.

Age 27:

Continuing to levelling up, exploring, following my curiosities, collaborating with great people, and helping family and friends along the way.

Founder

We help software companies get more qualified traffic, sales and revenue through conversion-focused SEO and content marketing. Turn your blog into a 6 figure sales channel.

POV: Building a startup with your friends in London.

I met Lara Acosta on LinkedIn 3 years ago:

- Under 10,000 followers each
- Glorified freelancers grinding it out solo
- No team, no investment... we just had time

But a lot has changed since then:

- 500K+ combined followers
- Multiple 7-figure businesses
- DMs with people we want to talk with
- Inbound opportunities we have to turn down
- Speaking gigs, partnerships, collabs flowing in

All because of posting daily LinkedIn content.

This platform is undefeated for those who want to build a profitable online business in 2026 organically.

And yes, LinkedIn has changed massively since we started 3 years ago.

The algorithm's different. The audience's expectations are different. The competition's different.

But we just spent the last 3 months figuring out what actually works today.

The new playbook for 2026:

- How to get more reach and views
- How to grow your authority organically
- How to get inbound leads from content

All still just through content. And we're going live showing you exactly what we found...

So if you want to know what's actually working on LinkedIn right now, Lara and I are running a free webinar next week (22nd Jan).

It's called "Content to Clients" and we'll walk through the exact strategies we're using in 2026.

We're only letting 1,000 people in, so RSVP here: https://lnkd.in/eUMHYExB

Sergiu Bungărdean

I run a marketing business called Demand Hive and work as a marketing consultant.

At Demand Hive, we unf*ck your messaging in 3 weeks by helping you clearly explain what you do and rewriting your homepage so you can win more projects.

Through Hey Sergiu, I work directly with founders on consulting, advisory, and custom marketing projects. This includes quick input on specific problems, ongoing support, or hands-on help on clearly defined initiatives.

I’ve done this for 100+ founders across design agencies, IT companies, software houses, consultancies, solopreneurs, and more.

Founder & LinkedIn Personal Brand Manager

We help solopreneurs, founders, coaches, CEOs & executives build their personal brand on LinkedIn in order to increase visibility, generate inbound leads and improve credibility.

I need less than 10 minutes to place an order for a $1,000 smartphone, $3,000 laptop, or $40,000 car, but I need 3 sales calls and wait for 2 weeks to get an offer for a B2B service.

Does no one see a problem here?

Marketing and sales will always be hard if you overload the buying process.

There are 2 simple rules a lot of founders miss:

1) Make it clear.
2) Make it easy to buy.

Then it's just a matter of distribution, which isn't hard to do.

P.S.: Most of the marketing and sales problems are often because of your messaging. Fix it.

B2B Messaging & Marketing Consultant | Founder of Demand Hive & Hey Sergiu

Today, I turn 29.

I put together a list of 29 things I learned so far:

1. Stop writing bullsh*t lists every year
2. Stop writing bullsh*t lists every year
3. Stop writing bullsh*t lists every year
4. Stop writing bullsh*t lists every year
5. Stop writing bullsh*t lists every year
6. Stop writing bullsh*t lists every year
7. Stop writing bullsh*t lists every year
8. Stop writing bullsh*t lists every year
9. Stop writing bullsh*t lists every year
10. Stop writing bullsh*t lists every year
11. Stop writing bullsh*t lists every year
12. Stop writing bullsh*t lists every year
13. Stop writing bullsh*t lists every year
14. Stop writing bullsh*t lists every year
15. Stop writing bullsh*t lists every year
16. Stop writing bullsh*t lists every year
17. Stop writing bullsh*t lists every year
18. Stop writing bullsh*t lists every year
19. Stop writing bullsh*t lists every year
20. Stop writing bullsh*t lists every year
21. Stop writing bullsh*t lists every year
22. Stop writing bullsh*t lists every year
23. Stop writing bullsh*t lists every year
24. Stop writing bullsh*t lists every year
25. Stop writing bullsh*t lists every year
26. Stop writing bullsh*t lists every year
27. Stop writing bullsh*t lists every year
28. Stop writing bullsh*t lists every year
29. Stop writing bullsh*t lists every year

See you at 30. 🤘

The moment your car starts making a weird noise, you turn the music down and pay attention.

Before that, you’re just chilling and enjoying the road.

I see this happen every day with B2B services.

Everyone promises big outcomes and prospects reply with, “Cool, but I’m fine for now.”

They’re fine because they don’t hear, feel, or see any noise.

And that’s usually because you don’t talk about it.

You've been told to focus on outcomes, promise the sun and the moon.

But people don’t buy those in plain sight. At least not if they’re not trying to get rich overnight.

They pay for specific solutions that make their pain go away and then generate an outcome.

That's why a lot of businesses fail because of messaging.

They never make the prospect turn the music down and pay attention.

And if you don’t do that, it doesn’t matter how good your service is.

They’ll keep enjoying the road and pick someone else the moment they hear a weird noise.

A founder told me they know their positioning very well. When I asked what it is, they said they need to search for it in Google Drive.

Perfect.

Because when a prospect is looking for a solution, they obviously ask for a Google Drive link.

Then they spend 15 minutes scrolling through a 30-page PDF, hoping to find a sentence that explains what the business actually does.

That’s how buying works, right?

The same way you don’t take a headache pill if you don’t have a headache, people don’t pay for services if it’s not clear what problem they solve.

Literally, one of the easiest ways to make your marketing more effective and your pipeline more predictable is to clearly tie your solution to a specific problem (or set of problems).

Not outcomes or big promises. Problems.

And once you have that, say it clearly on your homepage, content, emails, everywhere.

This is just a small part of what we cover in the Messaging Sprint at Demand Hive.

If you’re ready to fix unclear messaging, here’s more: https://lnkd.in/dJpdfTCq

I always tell founders that the biggest cost of bad messaging isn't revenue. It's their time. Money comes and goes, but losing 6 months of opportunities and momentum hits 10x harder.

If you’re not willing to invest €2,000 in a messaging project, at least copy-paste the structure in the image below and try working through it yourself.

Or if you just need some help or a second brain, I also do 1-hour consulting calls. Just DM me.

I’ve had clients add €50,000+ worth of leads to their pipeline or charge up to 4x more just by fixing their messaging.

You don't have to hire me, but you really can't afford to sleep on this.

I’ve been doing marketing and selling B2B services since 2010. I can say this confidently:

Things changed a lot in 2025, and 2026 will push this even further.

Marketing is saturated in every possible way.

1. Everyone can use AI, spend a few hundred dollars, and reach thousands of people.

2. More business owners are using AI to do certain marketing activities by themselves.

3. There are hundreds of service providers that promise the sun and the moon for a pizza.

The ones who will feel this the most are business owners.

1. With everyone doing things, the competition is getting bigger and bigger.

2. Using AI for marketing activities might feel like progress, but it's often a trap.

3. It becomes difficult to find skilled people who can provide hands-on support.

My take?

The businesses that will make it in 2026 and beyond will stop treating marketing as a set of isolated activities.

Things like posting, ads, emails, funnels, etc.

Instead, they will think in terms of a full selling process.

You should worry less about "what should we post today?" and focus more on "what should we do to sell our service better, easier, and faster?"

This means you need to master and focus on both marketing and sales at the same time.

P.S. Just my 2 cents. Curious how you see it.

"Our pipeline and revenue are unpredictable."

This is what several founders told me this week.

I'll tell you exactly what I've told them:

Predictable revenue requires repeatable understanding.

People need to:

- Recognize themselves in the problem you describe
- Understand quickly if you are relevant to them
- Know when they should book a call with you
- Know why you instead of the alternatives

If they don't, only a small percentage of them will push through.

Those are usually referrals or people already half-convinced.

The others will just leave without saying a thing.

I think you don't realize how much you're losing if your messaging is not clear.

If your content doesn’t bring clients or your outreach gets no replies, it's usually because of this:

You're either not talking about a problem at all or you're talking about the wrong one.

I've said it 1,000 times before: people don't buy because of "isolated outcomes."

They buy because something hurts right now.

That's why "increase revenue" alone doesn't work, but "we keep getting leads that don't convert" does.

You need to identify the problem and its symptoms, then use them as input for your marketing.

I know this isn't easy, so I turned this way of thinking into something practical: Push Until It Hurts GPTs.

3 custom GPT prompts that help you:

- Uncover the real problem you solve
- Identify the daily symptoms people actually feel
- Turn those symptoms into content and outreach

Get all of them for €9: https://lnkd.in/d2jkgrpj

(no paid ChatGPT subscription needed)

How can you tell if your messaging is unclear?

Easy. Look at these three signals:

1. Your sales pipeline and revenue aren’t predictable month to month.
2. Prospects are sometimes confused about how you can help them.
3. Marketing efforts don’t pay off, so you rely mostly on referrals.

Now, here’s how to read them:

If 1 out of 3 is true, it might be a messaging issue. Dig deeper.

If 2 out of 3 are true, there’s a high chance messaging is the problem and it needs attention.

If 3 out of 3 are true, it’s definitely a messaging problem and it should be fixed sooner rather than later.

That’s it. ✌️

I’ve seen quite often lately how founders struggle to book sales calls because they don’t match their messaging with the way prospects think and act.

Because of this, they just make the entire sales process heavier and often prospects give up.

I’ve recorded a quick 1-minute video to explain how this works and how to solve it:

taplio

The Battle

Jake Ward

Sergiu Bungărdean

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taplio

The Battle

Jake Ward

Sergiu Bungărdean

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);}Jake Ward's LinkedIn Performance

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Performance ScoreJake Ward's LinkedIn Performance