In the past few years, I've driven $8M in client sales through X and LinkedIn content for ~50 B2B founders and CEOs (while growing my business the same way).

Here's how we help them:

First off, we use their personal brand. 

95% of the content you see on X and LinkedIn comes from personal brands, not company accounts.

Then here's our process:

• We create content on your behalf (scaling your ideas across the internet)
• We post it 7 days a week
• We give you access to a Tribe Content Team (copywriter, designer, and account manager)
• We iterate weekly and provide monthly reports
• We build custom lists for you of your target audience on LinkedIn
• We connect with your target audience for you daily
• We message your new connections with "Value First Outreach" to start conversations

Our best clients are:

• B2B business owners
• Minimum $30k/mo
• With $20k+ LTVs

(We've also seen a lot of success with course creators/education business owners)

If that's you, drop me a DM or book a call.

If it's not, then hope you still get value from my content!

Matthew Brown

~50% of my clients come through content.

Right now, this is what I publish weekly:

• 7 LinkedIn posts
• 2-3 email newsletters
• 1 YouTube video
• 15 tweets
• 15 Substack Notes

That's ~40 pieces of content per week. 3-4 long form. 7 medium. 30 short-form.

The average time I spend creating content each week for the past 12 weeks is 342 minutes (5.7 hours per week).

And that includes time spent creating digital products and the emails to sell them (2 launches in the past 12 weeks - 21 Days To Better Copy & The Social Selling Challenge).

The only way I'm able to do that is because of my Content Growth Operator. An assistant who's worked with me for the past 2 years and continuously leveled up to the point that he helps me with content. Here are a few ways he helps:

• Repurposing top performing LinkedIn posts
• Creating curation-based carousels
• Weekly content scheduling
• Helping create & fulfill viral giveaways
• Sending welcome DMs for my account
• Uploading and scheduling emails
• Building landings pages and automations
• Turning LinkedIn posts into Substack Notes
• Turning a Loom into a YouTube video

As you can imagine, it's very helpful.

If you're doing content yourself, then I highly recommend hiring and training a Content Growth Operator.

PS - And if you want a guide I put together with 5 of these workflows, comment 'CGO' and I'll send it to you!

Founder at Tribe Digital | LinkedIn Social Selling (content + warm outreach) for B2B founders and CEOs | $10m+ in client sales | DM me “Tribe” to chat in the DMs

Most B2B founders don’t have a “content problem.” They have a “posting random thoughts and hoping someone books a call” problem.

If you sell a $20k+ offer, your feed should be full of posts that do one thing:

Start sales conversations with the right people

I’ve written thousands of posts for 100+ clients and seen the same patterns over and over: A tiny handful of post types drive almost all the leads.

So I built a Notion guide: 10 Types of Content That Get Leads:

• The 10 post formats that consistently generate pipeline
• 2-3 real examples for each (from B2B founders, not influencers)
• Fill‑in‑the‑blank templates you can steal for your own offers
• A simple weekly content schedule so you’re never guessing what to write

Want the guide?

1. Like this post
2. Comment “content”
3. If we’re not connected yet, send me a request so I can DM you the link

I’ll send it over ASAP.

PS – If you’ve been “posting consistently” but not getting leads, this will make it painfully obvious what’s missing.

Want to write better content? Create better inputs.

These are your inputs:

• The content you consume (social media, podcasts, YouTube, shows, books, articles)
• The reflection you do (journaling, Apple Notes)
• The conversations you have (*especially* the ones with AI notetakers in them)
• The things you do (if you look back at your calendar, the things you did are inputs)

As you’re consuming content → take notes of “ah-hah” or “oh wow” moments.

As you’re reflecting → write down wins and think through decisions.

As you’re reviewing conversations → ask what golden nuggets were shared or what your audience might find interesting.

As you’re looking at your calendar → ask what 20% of activities drove 80% of results.

This is your “Content Engine”.

If your content sucks or isn’t as good as you want it to be, improve the inputs.

Consume better content. Reflect more. Have conversations. And do cool stuff.

TED talk over.

PS - if you want the Notion Knowledge Management template I use, comment "system" and I'll send it to you.

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Free work is an amazing way to get clients. But today, I'll share another method that's worked well to get clients:

It’s one most people aren’t willing to do.

But it’s incredibly effective.

Here's what it is (& how to apply it):

You'll notice in the banner image of my profile I have a quote from Naval that says "long-term games with long-term people".

I realized early on you could have a competitive advantage JUST by thinking slightly longer term than most people do.

It's how a business and a personal brand get "compound effects".

Examples from my business:

1. I constantly tell prospects I’m playing the long game—so if they’re not ready to buy today, they can reach back out in 3 or 6 or 12 months—and they do.
2. Because I’m playing the long game, I care about my reputation. I focus on the relationships I build with clients and prospects. Less transactional and more relational. 
3. Over the years, I’ve built a big CRM. Whenever I’m really hungry for a new client, I can go through past prospects, email or DM a bunch of them, and it’s almost guaranteed I’ll land a few clients.

Few people are willing to play the long game.

To compress a ton of value in a tight window, then keep providing it even when you don’t see immediate results. 

The longer you’re in business, the more people will come back to you.

So here’s your actionable tip:

1. Fast forward to where you want to be in 3-5 years. What needs to be true today, tomorrow, and this year to get there?
2. Tell prospects that you're playing the long game. Add as much value as you can, whether or not they buy today.
3. Use a CRM or keep track of the people who show interest in your stuff. Reach back out when you need sales.

Boom—that’s it.

Drop me a follow Matthew Brown for more B2B social content + social selling content 🫡

Long term games

I spent 5 hours breaking down 7 real stories that show exactly how writing online can change your life:

1/ Nick Huber 
2/ Steph Smith 
3/ Myself
4/ Nathan Barry 
5/ Nicolas Cole 🚢👻
6/ Syed Balkhi 
7/ Daniel Bustamante 🥷🏻 

Fortunately, they’ve written about their experiences online, so I can share the stories in their words.

But, it did require a lot of digging (old tweets, blog posts, etc.).

I built this more for myself than anything because it inspires me to keep publishing.

However...

Thought you might be interested too.

So if you want it, just comment “examples” and I’ll DM it to you!

linkedin.com/in/mcovbrown/

JSESSIONID

li_at

Security Verification | LinkedIn

I buy real estate and start companies. Owner of Somewhere, Bolt Storage, RE Cost Seg and more.

Leading Growth at Groq

Founder and CEO at Kit - Helping creators build more valuable businesses

I talk about digital writing, ghostwriting, and self-publishing | Co-Founder Ship 30, Typeshare, Write With AI, Premium Ghostwriting Academy | Author of 10 books | DM "👻" if you want to land high-paying writing clients

Founder and CEO of Awesome Motive (We're hiring). Entrepreneur. Investor. Over 30 million websites use our software.

💰 Million-dollar email marketing prompts, tactics, & strategies for LinkedIn/X creators | Email wizard at Premium Ghostwriting Academy ($5M/year revenue)

Getting 5 clients to pay you $3k/mo for a service is orders of magnitude easier than getting 120 people to a landing page each day.

I tweeted this last week and got 150k impressions, lots of agreement, and some vehement disagreement.

Context:

I was responding to a Justin Welsh tweet. To be clear, I really like his stuff. And in his tweet, he shared (paraphrased) that if you can drive 120 people to a landing page each day, you can probably sell 3 of them.

And if that product is $150, then you’d make $165k some year, which is doable outside of your job.

While I don’t disagree it’s possible, it just stood out to me how much easier it is to sell 5 clients a $3k/mo service compared to driving 120 *new* people to a landing page each day.

If we had to assign odds to each, I’d give a 70% chance to anyone who committed to selling a $3k/mo service and a 5% chance to anyone who committed to getting to that scale with a low-ticket digital product.

Do you agree?

If you post on LinkedIn and don’t attract competitors, you’re probably irrelevant.

When you publish for your ideal buyers, you will attract two groups:

1. The people who can buy
2. The people who copy

Founders tell me:
“I only want to attract ideal clients. I don’t want competitors following me.”

Here’s the uncomfortable truth:

You don’t get to separate them.
If your buyers see it, your competitors will too. Period. 

Examples:

Design websites → you’ll attract clients and designers
Ghostwrite → clients and ghostwriters
Fractional CFO → CEOs and aspiring CFOs
Non‑profit exec → donors and other non‑profits

It’s the price of attention.

The only way to avoid competitors seeing your stuff is to also avoid your best buyers seeing it.

So the game isn’t “How do I hide from competitors?”
It’s “How do I become so useful I’m still the obvious choice even when everyone copies the format?”

If you're a B2B business owner and want a LinkedIn system that does that for your brand, DM me “COMPETITORS” and I’ll send you the breakdown we use with clients.

Only 1.8% of LinkedIn users promote themselves and their company. LinkedIn is craving good content and *still* has a massive supply & demand gap. Not to mention:

• LinkedIn continues to grow revenue at ~15% per year
• It now has 1.2 Billion users (230M+ in the US)
• 44 percent of LinkedIn users take home more than $75,000 per year

In other words:

LinkedIn is growing fast. Its users are high-value and are craving good content. Only 1.8% of users are creating content to promote themselves and their companies. 

Sounds like a good opportunity to me.

On a personal note, I’m leveraging LinkedIn to get:

• ~1,000 new followers each month
• 500+ email subs each month
• 15+ booked calls each month for a high-ticket service

And multiples on those numbers for my clients.

Just from posting & sending some messages.

Don’t sleep on it.

We’re giving away $5,000+ of free copywriting trainings. Here’s how you can get a chance to win:

On Nov 21st, Daniel and I are launching 21 Days to Better Copy…

A group challenge designed to quickly level up your copywriting skills by practicing iconic copy pieces for 21 days straight.

And by joining the waitlist, you'll get early access to the product—plus a shot at winning one of 3 amazing prizes:

• 🥇 Grand Prize ($5,000 Value): A private 1:1 coaching call with Nicolas Cole, who's used the written word to generate over $20M in revenue for his different businesses. Plus, free access to the 21 Days To Better Copy challenge.

• 🥈 Second Prize ($1,000 Value): A curated collection of rare copywriting books + free access to the 21 Days To Better Copy challenge.

• 🥉 Third Prize ($200 Value): A bundle of classic must-read copywriting books + free access to the 21 Days To Better Copy challenge.

If you want a chance at winning, do these 3 things:

1. Comment “copy”
2. Tag a friend in the comments who might be interested (for every person you tag, you'll get an extra chance to win the prizes)
3. Enter your email in the waitlist page here: 21daystobettercopy.com

We’ll be announcing the winners this Sunday!

PS - by tagging a friend, you’ll also get free access to our Copy Optimization AI Prompt Vault (think of this like your content quality assistant)

In 2023, I wrote down 7 names—people I admired but didn’t know. I committed to consuming their content before anything else. 24 months later: 

Spoke to 6 of them. 3 became clients, 3 became friends.

And several of these were people I never thought I'd have access to...

This is exactly how it happened:

• Person 1: played the long game and kept delivering value via DMs. Became a client.
• Person 2: this person came inbound. Benefit to building my brand and playing the long game. Became a client.
• Person 3: this person came inbound because I did a good job with one of my other clients.
• Person 4: I bought their paid product and we became friends. Became a client as well.
• Person 5: several back and forth via email, mainly from me replying to their newsletter.
• Person 6: I reached out via DM & they’d seen my content. Led to some great conversations.
• Person 7: still haven’t had contact with them 😅

A few takeaways from this:

1. A little bit of intentionality goes a long way.
2. There’s hardly a downside to posting content or sending a DM.
3. The upside to posting content or sending a DM can be amazing.
4. The world is flat. With the internet and some agency, you can meet anyone.

If you too want to be intentional about who you spend time with (online or IRL), then I've put the exercise below for you 👇🏼

Happy Thanksgiving friends 🦃

Few things I’m feeling extra grateful for today:

• Turkey, of course
• Family gatherings
• The USA
• Great team members & clients at Tribe
• The ability to start an online business (no matter your age, where you live, etc.)
• Mentors, peers, and friends
• Participating on both sides of Black Friday sales
• The past content I’ve created
• The people who trust me enough to follow my content, join my email list, and take action on my advice
• The 48-hour grace period where calories don’t count

And anyone who pretends to read long posts like this (bless you)

Why do Warren Buffet, Charlie Munger, and others preach to “think long term?” Let’s reason from first principles:

Thinking doesn’t change your reality. The actions you take do. 

So it reasons that thinking long-term changes the way you *behave.*

How?

There are 3 logical ways it changes your behavior:

1/ You delay gratification.

You stop chasing the quick dopamine hits. The cash grabs. Scrolling. Playing small games for small prizes. Instead, you start valuing patience and working towards longer-term, bigger goals.

2/ You eliminate low-leverage activities.

When you think long term, you expose the behaviors that won’t matter in five years. And you’re more likely to stop doing them. Focus becomes more important than “busyness”.

3/ You build things that compound.

You play long-term games with long-term people. You choose work, relationships, and habits that get stronger with time. You focus on the consistent efforts that lead to exponential results - like building a brand, being fit, depositing goodwill into relationships.

And that, my friends, is how thinking long term changes your behavior, which in turn changes your life.

Thinking long term

A few of my clients who sell $3,000+ per month introduced lower-ticket offers with fascinating results:

They've sold way more customers.

Now, a little context:

• They created a separate offer
• They didn’t discount the main one
• The additional offer was congruent with their main one

So for example:

• A $3k+/mo fractional CFO starts selling bookkeeping ($1k/mo) or tax services ($300/mo)
• A $10k+/mo FB ad buyer starts selling creative packages ($2k/mo)
• A $5k+/mo email marketing agency starts selling a $2.5k high-performing welcome flow

It takes less trust to buy a $500-$2.5k one-time service (or low-ticket recurring) than it does to commit to a $5k/mo service with a 3 or 6-month commitment.

So logically, you’ll sell more customers.

This is the game if you have a volume business:

Make an intro offer to get people in the door.

Earn some money. Build some trust. Upsell to the recurring service.

Get paid to acquire customers you can upsell later.

How I’m testing this:

1. Low-ticket digital products → some buyers are qualified prospects for my service
2. Low-ticket or free workshops → teach then pitch
3. One-time offers → make a custom, one-time offer outside of the regular scope of services. Do a great job then upsell

Might be worth considering!

PS - if you want help brainstorming an intro offer, I’ve created a prompt to help you. It will look use these 3 criteria:

• One-time service (ideal) or low-ticket recurring (secondary)
• Aligned with the core offer
• Compelling enough to convert strangers into customers

Just comment “prompt” and it’s yours.

You’ve heard it before. You’re “supposed to” either:

• Sell expensive stuff to a few people
• Sell cheap stuff to a ton of people

The middle is where people die.

Some good anecdotal evidence:

• Elon sold roadsters ($250k) to pay for the mass market cars
• Hormozi has mentioned he only sees agencies doing $10M+ that either sell $300-$500/mo services or go enterprise
• McKinsey & Co is on one end of the spectrum, Costco is on the other

So what does this mean for you and for me?

If you already sell something B2B that is high-ticket, let’s call it $2,000/mo or above, then the obvious solution is to go up market over time. Sure, still sell people your main offer to bring revenue in the door. But start finding higher-quality clients, raising your prices, and adding additional components to your service.

Here’s why I’m doing this and why you might too:

• Better retention: if you charge $5k/mo to a $10k/mo business, you will not retain them.
• Better experience: when you work with bigger clients, they’re less concerned about getting results tomorrow and more concerned with the trend—which means you can do a better job with the service because you can play longer-term games.
• Better business: the quality of your clients directly impacts the “enterprise value” of your business.

So how do you do this tactically?

Easy. Just set qualifications → instead of helping B2B businesses, only help B2B businesses doing $30k+ or $50k+ per month.

You might close fewer people short-term, but will have a better business long-term.

If you can, separate your income from "being a creator" or "doing content". Then you can take swings, miss, and it's not a big deal.

Creating content and putting yourself out there is hard enough. 

When it's your only lifeline, it's even harder.

And when you aren’t reliant on your content producing leads tomorrow, you’ll write better content.

Here’s how to not be reliant on social content alone:

1/ Build an email list

If you go out of favor with the X, LinkedIn, or Instagram algorithms, your business won’t be screwed. My friend Kieran Drew is a good example for this one—he built the majority of his 30,000 person email list in a 6-month period. He no longer tries to “appease” the algorithm and doesn’t get as much traffic as a result, but his email list continues driving revenue.

2/ Have some outreach campaigns running

Use content to drive leads next month or next year. Use outreach to feed your pipeline today. Run campaigns, whether via DM or email. No marketing channel beats the reliability of cold outreach. 

3/ Establish a few strategic partnerships

Find a vendor who serves the same customer you do and partner with them. You can pay them a flat monthly fee, a per-referral fee, or have a referral-for-referral swap. The key: don’t rely on their kindness, make sure they are incentivized to refer you new business.

Also - word-of-mouth is great, but it’s far less reliable as a marketing channel because you can’t turn the dial up or down.

~

There are many other activities you can do.

But these three alone allow you to play the long game with content because you don’t have to worry about making rent each month.

A full pipeline = you can operate from a position of abundance.

When you do client work, you learn some clients are more demanding than others. At this point I’ve worked with over 100 clients. Here are 5 lessons on dealing with difficult ones:

1/ Over-communicate.

Agencies sometimes get a bad rap because they’ll sell a client then ghost them.

It’s better to be on the other end of the spectrum. Remind your clients you exist. Let them know what’s going on. The good, the bad, the ugly. And what you’re doing about it.

Services are hard and clients know it. No one expects things to be 100% smooth sailing. Just keep clients apprised when they’re not.

2/ Bring things up before clients need to.

This ties into lesson 1, but with a little nuance.

If you sell quarterly agreements, then clients will wonder when the next engagement period starts. They absolutely want to know statistics and trends you see. If you make a mistake, it's better to own it than to hide it.

Also, if you have another service to upsell a client that they would benefit from, then bring it up early and often.

3/ Identify where the issues come from.

It’s much easier to rectify problems when you know where they are coming from.

For example, if a client has a problem with the content pieces we’re writing, it comes down to either a style issue or a content issue. Style = they don’t like how the message is said. Content issue = they don’t like what message was said.

4/ Do the pre-work

An ounce of pre is worth a pound of post.

Spending some time to prepare for calls, send thoughtful emails, or do some research goes a long way to showing how much you care.

5/ Gatekeepers

An executive will often hire someone to handle an agency relationship.

The problem? Many times that person wants to show the executive how diligent or hard working they are. So they’ll get into the agency’s work and suggest a dozen edits...just swapping adjectives.

Involve gatekeepers as much on the front end as possible so you don’t have to redo your work.

5 lessons

I had a mentor tell me that close rate didn’t matter. He suggested I raise my prices. I did. Close rate dropped.

As you can imagine, I was concerned I’d made the wrong decision.

But here’s the thing about business:

There’s lots of variables you can play with. If you increase your rates, you won’t close as the same rates. But you’ll probably drive more revenue (and most definitely more profit). 

Increase the number of leads you get and it doesn’t matter.

For example, Scenario 1:

• Gets 10 calls/mo
• Charges $2,500/mo
• Closes 3/10 (30%)
• 50% margins
• Adds $3,750/mo in profit
• Delivers for 3 new clients

Scenario 2:

• Get 20 calls/mo
• Charge $5,000/mo
• Close 2/20 (10%)
• 75% margins (b/c higher prices)
• Adds $7,500/mo in profit
• Delivers for 2 new clients

As you can see, in Scenario 1, you have a higher close rate, but more clients to deliver for + less profit.

Meanwhile, in Scenario 2, you work with fewer clients while making more.

The big variable:

Number of leads/calls you book each month.

If you can pull that lever at will, it solves a lot of business problems.

Close rate doesn’t matter

After looking at THOUSANDS of posts' data, I can tell you with certainty these kinds of posts get the highest number of profile visits:

(You can actually see # of profile visits by post—and the data is clear.)

It’s personal stories.

People like to buy from people.

*Especially* if you sell online.

And this matters because the more people visit your profile → the more followers, email subscribers, and leads you will get.

If you don’t believe me, just take a look at your own LinkedIn feed. I'd wager less than 5% of what you see and read comes from companies. It's easier to build trust with a human face than with a company logo.

And it's why if you have a LinkedIn page for your brand, the only thing you need to with it is post 1x per month. 

People want to see that your company is active. That’s all.

But if you want new leads or to convert existing leads, then create educational content around your category on your personal account. 

Be personable. Write stories. Share some memes and some jokes. Use some pictures of yourself. Advertise who you are.

The goal is to get people to know you, then like you, then trust you, then to buy from you.

Let’s make this actionable:

1. Write stuff only you can write

Bad: How to get 10 leads in 30 days
Better: How I got 10 leads in the last 30 days

You get far more followers and profile visits when you include a personal phrase/sentence.

2. Write some personal stories

• Talk about an experience had with a co-worker and what you learned.
• Talk about a recent mistake you made and how to prevent it in the future.
• Talk about what you progressed on over the last week or month.

Give it a try.

It’s easy to sell the inbound leads dream. It’s hard to get inbound leads. Let’s be real:

Very few people want to send 50-100 DMs per day. 

Then send 3-5 follow ups to everyone who engages. Then get on calls with a bunch of cold leads who are skeptical of who you are, what you sell, and want every guarantee in the book.

Meanwhile, everyone dreams of ideal prospects coming to them. Filling out a form and saying how much they loved XYZ post you did. And that they’re interested in seeing if they’re a good fit for your service. (Oh, and don’t forget they’re doing $5m/year already.)

For context:

Last month, I booked about 8 calls from content (inbound leads) and 8 from outreach (outbound leads). And I sell a high-ticket service. Both are working for me.

I’ve got two things to say to you:

1) Re: Inbound — it’s absolutely worth striving for. But throw your 2 week time frame out the window. If you’re gonna grow your brand, start posting content, look at results every month and make improvements. Make sure you’re moving in the right direction and play the long game—it will work, it’s just going to take time.

2) Re: Outbound — there is no lead gen channel more reliable than outbound. You’ll get to the point where you know for every 150 messages you send, you book 4 calls and close 1 of them. Sending those 150 messages is a hassle, but if you just do the work, you’ll get the result. So if you’re looking for reliability in your business, add outbound.

We do a mix of these at Tribe Digital.

We post ~5x per week for our clients to help build the brand, answer questions at scale, and drive inbound demand. We also send connection requests and messages to start conversations with our clients’ ICP. 

In my experience, pairing these is overpowered.

Hormozi says he’s never seen an agency that sells to SMBs get to $10M+ in annual sales & that the pathway to doing so is either:

1. Sell a $300-$500 service. SMBs can pay it on their worst months.

OR

2. Go enterprise. $5k/mo feels like $500/mo to them.

Do you agree?

I help coaches and mentors turn their LinkedIn into a steady stream of clients (without having to write a single word themselves.)

Most of the people I work with tell me the same things:

1. "I don't know how to write effectively."
2. “I’m too busy running my business to sit down and write.”
3. “When I do try, it doesn’t even sound like me.”

Honestly, I get it. 

Writing is hard.

Even harder when you keep showing up, putting in the effort, and still don’t see any results.

That’s literally what I do for you.

I’ve written and published every single day for the past 3 years. 

Over 15,000 posts. 15 million+ impressions. 

It's safe to say I know how to keep the lights on, content-wise.

Here’s how I make it easy for you:

• I get to know how you actually talk and what you stand for.
• We chat so I can pull out all the expertise and ideas stuck in your head.
• I turn that into posts that actually *sound* like you wrote them.
• I plan, write, and post them for you—every single week.
• You stay visible, stay top of mind, and keep bringing in the next client.

This approach has helped my clients:

• Get 40 leads and 200 new followers from just one post
• Hit 950+ reactions and 250+ comments from just two posts
• Generate over 935,000 impressions for my content last year alone

You focus on closing deals and serving your clients.

I’ll make sure through the content that the clients keep coming in.

If you want to chat about working together, just DM me.

If not, no worries. Hope you get some good ideas from my posts anyway.

– Kush

Kush Shah

I'm 30 months into my ghostwriting biz.

- I've never even gone viral on this platform
- I don't have a huge team of writers
- I literally work 4-5 hours a day
- I don't have a fancy funnel

I've made well over $50k+ doing that so far.

(wayyyy more than I expected lol)

Which is pretty wild, considering all I do to run it is:

- Write on LinkedIn
- Send 40-60 DMs per week

My goal is to reach $20k/m. 

(We're at around $5k/m now)

What's next for me is:

- MORE cold outreach
- Explore newsletter ghostwriting
- Build lead magnets to keep the funnel running 

All in all, I'm still figuring things out.. 

Let's see what happens 👀

I help coaches turn LinkedIn into a lead machine • Helped 25+ coaches generate leads consistently over the past 3 years

Last week, I met my ex-colleague at a cafe.

Him: "Yooo whatsupp my dude."

Me (trying to stay calm): "Hey, how have you been?"

He orders a vanilla latte with oat milk, extra sugar + decaf. First red flag.

"So, what are you up to?"

Me: "I'm a ghostwriter."

Him: "Ha, writing for ghosts?"

(So fed up of this joke honestly)

Me: "Kinda, writing for founders, coaches, etc."

Him: "Ok but what do you do for real?"

Me: "That's literally what I do."

Him: "Come on man, you can't make real money doing that. When are you getting a proper job?"

Me: "Never."

Him: "Okay bro... your loss"  -  smirks his way out of the cafe holding his pretentious decaf BS he ordered.

Listen, I don't hate corporate jobs.

I have massive respect for people who thrive in that environment.

But the assumption that doing something on your own terms isn't "real work" is hilarious to me.

I traded a fancy title and office politics for:

• Money that reflects my value
• Time with my family
• Work I actually enjoy

Sure, I don't have a boss to impress anymore.

(My boss is me, and I'm pretty easy to impress tbh)

But I also don't have someone breathing down my neck at 9 PM asking for "just one more revision."

EVEN when people judge my choices:

I'm building something real.

Working on my own terms.

So yeah, maybe it's not a "real job" by corporate standards.

But it's a real life.

And I'll take that trade any day.

Happy Saturday everyone!

Just a friendly weekend reminder to:

• Watch your fav sitcoms
• Indulge in more pineapple pizza
• Order takeout instead of meal prepping
• Take that nap you've been putting off all week
• Binge on a TV show (currently binging on 'The Boys' and 'Pluribus')

Just chill tf out and you do you.

It's okay to wind down on your weekends and not follow a productivity guru's advice.

Happy weekend everyone ✌️

P.S:

Can you guess what this magnificent beast of an ice cream is called? 👀

I'm 33. New dad. I run a ghostwriting agency.

Yesterday's routine was near perfect:

- 2 hours with my daughter until she dozed off
- grabbed lunch at 11AM
- walked to the cafe with Brian Tracy in my ears
- ordered my first americano of the day
- sat down to write client content
- knocked out 15 LinkedIn posts in 90 minutes
- ordered second americano
- completely lost track of time writing
- realized I'd been there 4 hours straight
- walked home for dinner
- spent evening with wife and baby
- both fell asleep by 10PM
- grabbed my fiction book (Old Man's War 2)
- read exactly 2.69 pages before dozing off myself

All in all took about 8 hours.

Can fatherhood get more balanced than this?

Nothing gives me the ick like AI-generated comments.

You already know the ones:

- "This resonates deeply. 🔥"
- "Couldn't agree more. 🎯"
- "Absolutely spot on. 💯"

Honestly, that's the easiest way to:

- sound like EVERYONE else
- make me reach for the report/block button
- show me you put zero (or less) effort in reading the post

Here's what I do instead after 1.5 years writing on LinkedIn:

- I think before I type
- I share real experiences
- I avoid generic responses
- I write what I actually think
- I skip posts I can't relate to
- I take time to be genuine
- I don't copy-paste responses
- I don't pretend to be excited
- I avoid meaningless platitudes
- I don't use AI for engagement
- I don't use comment templates
- I read every post I comment on

Honestly, to everyone posting comments full of emojis and platitudes:

It takes 2 minutes to write a genuine comment ffs.

And in case you didn't know, it takes 1.69 seconds to spot a fake one.

Your profile is your billboard. 
Your comments show who you are.

Your authenticity matters.

So maybe, just maybe, try being real.

(Or if you'd like your billboard to say "[First name], your thoughts about bla bla bla resonate deeply. I'm curious to know what is your process on thinking bla bla bla?" go ahead and keep doing what you're doing.)

Just hit 7,000 followers 🎉

A quick reintroduction:

For those who don't know me, I started writing online 1,413 days ago and haven't missed a day since.

Turned it into a ghostwriting business a little over 2 years ago.

Initially focused on X/Twitter content exclusively. Then slowly shifted our focus to LinkedIn and Substack because clients were getting better results there.

Now we help 7-8 figure coaches and founders build thought leadership + generate consistent leads on LinkedIn.

It's been a wild ride.

A few highlights:

• Worked with 30+ coaches and founders so far. Helped one coach get 40 leads from a single post. Another went semi-viral with 950+ reactions from just 2 posts.

• Struggled with transitioning from X to LinkedIn. Also struggled moving from "content will bring leads" to "I need to send DMs to get leads." Been sending 40-60 DMs weekly since then.

• Grew my own LinkedIn first. Hit 1,000 followers in 20 days. Then started pitching the same results for other people.

• Learned painful lessons about creating systems and SOPs while scaling. Tough but super rewarding. Wouldn't have it any other way.

• Now I work 4-5 hours daily max. Courtesy: Became a dad 3 months ago. My priorities instantly shifted from "work all day" to "work intentionally" so I can spend more time with my daughter and wife.

My wife has been my biggest supporter through it all. Probably the only family member who knows exactly what I do.

My parents still think I write for actual ghosts. It's been going on too long and honestly it's fun watching my mom explain ghostwriting 😂

That's a brief look into my world these past few years.

My goal for this platform is to write highly actionable, daily content that helps you build your LinkedIn into a sustainable business.

Thanks for being part of my journey 🥂

P.S: This is was my first day in Bali. Can you guess from the picture I was sleep deprived, jet lagged & got food poisoning from having authentic Balinese cuisine? 👀

One of the best choices I made in 2025:

Working just 4-5 hours a day.

Back in the day, around 2023-24, I used to be all over the place.

I worked whenever I felt like it.
I was always on my phone or macbook.
Pretty much distracted all the time from the present.

Which resulted in 8-10 hours of haphazard, unfocused work on the wrong things.

Soon, I got frustrated because it felt like I was doing everything I can and yet making progress in the wrong direction.

In July, we had our daughter.

And that INSTANTLY shifted my priorities. 

I no longer could afford to waste any time.

I no longer could afford to be distracted.

I no longer had the luxury of working on the wrong things all day.

So I:

• Setup cold-turkey 24 hours a day for 3 months straight (impossible to bypass btw)

• Throw my phone in a lockbox 18-20 hours a day (so I'm not distracted all the time)

• Got a physical tag, Unpluq & also use Opal to manage my screentime on the phone

Now, I work just 4-5 hours a day and get more sh*t done than I ever did in those 10-12 hours before.

My point being:

Working more does not mean progress.

Working on the right things does.

Create an environment where focus is your default and you'll pretty much be unstoppable.

Thanks for reading.

I'm the WORST ghostwriter to follow on here.

Seriously, I'm terrible at this game:

- I don't call myself "premium"
- I don't wake up at 5am
- I don't "hustle" all the time
- I still use Google Docs + Apple Notes
- I don't have a content system (I transcribe my voice notes, put it in MagicPost and polish)

My stats are embarrassing too:

- No 6-figure months (yet)
- No massive team of writers
- No viral posts for myself
- No productivity hacks

I literally just turn on a study with me video, blast synthwave, and write for 4 hours.

(The premium ghostwriters must laugh at me)

While they're grinding 12-hour days, I'm:

- Working 4 hours max
- Binging Netflix sitcoms
- Reading sci-fi novels
- Spending time with my wife and daughter
- Actually enjoying my life

Maybe not being a premium ghostwriter is the best strategy?

- You get freedom to do whatever you want
- You spend real time with family
- You scale without burning out
- You don't sacrifice your life for clients

I'll never be a premium ghostwriter.

My focus is freedom and family time.

But that's how I like it.

3 years ago, I was literally begging for clients.

Last week I had 60 content pieces due in 2 weeks....

Careful what you wish for, right?

Here's what my "streamlined content workflow" actually looked like in those 2 weeks:

- Working until 3 AM
- 47 browser tabs open at once
- Diet Coke spills covering my desk
- Tried switching to matcha (it sucks)
- Functioning on 2-3 hours of sleep most nights
- All while my 3-month-old decided sleep was optional

While 98.69% of people in my space talks about their "98-step workflow that lets you write content in 30 mins while taking a dump,"

... it wasn't the case for me.

It was messy & chaotic.

But I was incredibly grateful when I was done with this.

While I was drowning in work, I thought back to 3 years ago.

Beginner me. 
No clients. 
No income. 
Desperate for any opportunity.

That version of me would've killed for this problem.

I’m exhausted, but I’m finally building the life I wanted.

90% of good LinkedIn content comes from:

- doing cool stuff offline
- living outside your comfort zone
- learning new stuff
- finding + working with clients
- write one storyworthy moment from the day

Then just document your journey online doing all of that.

- lessons you learned
- takeaways you had
- processes you built
- results you got
- how your life changed

TL;DR

Double down on your experiences. That's what's gonna help you standout from all the AI generated crap you see on the feed.

And also make you a more credible person to buy from, regardless of what you offer.

Easiest way to build a killer personal brand here.

I need to get this off my chest.

For the last time, it’s:

• Espresso, not expresso.
• Strategy, not “stratergy”
• Niche, not “nitch”
• You’re, not “your”
• Definitely, not “definately”
• Lose, not “loose”
• Entrepreneur, not “enterprenure”
• Etc., not “ect”
• Macchiato, not “machi-uhh”
• SaaS, not “sass”
• Algorithm, not “algorhythm”
• LinkedIn, not “linkdinn”
• Espresso, again, not “expresso”
• Meme, not “me-me”
• Cache, not “cash-ay”
• GIF, not “jiff” (we’re not doing this debate today)
• Data, not “dah-tahh” (unless you’re feeling British)
• Nuclear, not “nuke-you-lar”
• Quinoa, not “quin-oh-ahh”

What else would you add?

3 reasons why I stopped giving a s**t about going viral: 

1. It doesn't pay your bills
2. It just inflates your ego
3. 90% of the time, its not even your target audience

(notice how I said 90% and not "all the time")

I never went viral on this platform even once..

(Well, maybe once last week when I talked about how I've never went viral lol)

And I've been writing here for almost 2 years now.

Actively CHASING virality is total BS.

Try it.

F**k going viral and start writing from your lived experience instead.

Your audience will thank you for it.

I have a confession to make.

You'll judge me HARD for it. And you probably should.

I haven't read a book in the past 2 years. 

I.e A non-fiction book.

(Just started reading some $100M money models last week to start easing in)

Books about:

- Self-help
- Psychology
- Copywriting

etc etc.

I know.

"Kush, how are you even alive?"

(Okay Karen, that's extreme.. but here's my answer to it)

I've been more focused on ACTUALLY doing the work really. 

- Handcopying
- Understand the algo
- Client work + deliverables
- Breaking down post + hook structures

... instead of reading about endless frameworks, tips, tricks, quotes etc.

I read a few copywriting + marketing books back when I started, and honestly I think I have pretty much everything I need from those anyway.

I just did the stuff, made mistakes, figured shit out and then kept going.

I started 4 years ago at with zero idea of how the whole writing online + building a business works.

And now I:

- have 7k followers on X
- 7240 on LinkedIn
- written over 17,000 posts (including tweets, threads, newsletters, linkedin posts etc)
- made $50k+ doing so

It's pretty crazy.

So if you want to takeaway a lesson from this.. it's pretty simple really:

Don't get bogged down in obsessing over the best books tools, courses, frameworks, resources etc.

Just get started. And keep going until you start winning.

That's basically it.

Sad news: I just had a cappuccino.

It was amazing. And I hate myself for that.

I was pretty bored that day. Had so much stuff to do I'd lose my mind if I didn't take a break.

So I just stopped doing what I was doing. Slammed my laptop shut. Took out my kindle. Started reading some sci-fi while I ordered a cappuccino (you magnificent milky beast 😪)

But that tiny 30 min break to go have that creamy cuppa (so delicious 😤) reminded me to be grateful for the life I've created for myself. 

1) I don't have to ask permission to take a random 30-minute break.

I can literally just NOT work for a bit and my boss (which is me) won't come after my ass. At least when he's caffeinated. Most people don't have that luxury. I do, and I'm super grateful for that.

2) I can just change my workspace whenever I like.

If I feel like sh*t, I can just pack up my bag and go to a different cafe and have a cappuccino (!!!!) there to reset my brain. Can you do that if you were working a corporate 9-5? Again, super grateful to be able to do that.

3) I can just take the day off if I feel like it.

People think freedom = living the beach life and working from cafes. It's true for the most part. But it also means having the luxury to travel & work from wherever tf you want, decide who to work with & maybe just take the day off. If that's not freedom, idk what is. 

And that, my friends, is what a good cup of cappuccino does to you (ughhh 🤢)

NEVER AGAIN.

Last week, 2 of my posts exploded.

3 takeaways from getting over 28,000 impressions in a week:

(Ironically one post mentioned me not going viral on this platform ever lol and it got 160 reactions 😂)

1/ More impressions ≠ More $$$

Sure, the dopamine hit feels good for a while. But do you know what feels better?

Booked calls, leads, clients.

Coz at the end of the day, that's what's gonna pay your bills. 

(But if you've tried paying for your americano with likes and impressions, do let me know)

2/ Lived experiences = content gold

I literally just wrote about a conversation I had with an ex-colleague. 

Sure, the takeaway from that post was generic and all that, but you know what wasn't generic?

My experience with that takeaway.

So, double down on your lived experience to standout from the crowd.

3/ Learn how to steal content ethically

Not many know this, but both were literally posts I stole from someone else.

I literally:

- Opened MagicPost 
- Went to inspirations
- Found top performers
- Copied them to the editor
- Tweaked it to make it my own

That, my friends, is ethical stealing.

Learn how to do this and you'll never run out of content to talk about.

Bottom line:

Steal content.

Write from your lived experience.

And most importantly, focus on making $$$ instead of going viral.

I'll see you around 👋🏻

I've been telling my clients to double down on their personality in their posts. It's tough, sometimes uncomfortable. But they also:

- Help you standout from the AI slop
- Builds stronger trust with your audience
- Ooze more of your HUMAN side (god knows LI needs more of that)

(All through our monthly content interview calls, literally sound like therapy sessions sometimes lol)

They get some amazing impressions too.

An absolute GENIUS way to connect with your target audience & ultimately build trust in your offer.

Best way to get someone to be NON-GENERIC.

e.g.

When I write content for myself, my hooks usually have:

I, me, my.

Take a look at my top 10 posts from last month below.

I'm literally showing them:

"Hey, this is working for me, so lets double down on it for you.."

So, if you're looking to build a killer personal brand and get more leads for your business:

Use personality..

Tough, but pretty damn effective

✌️

10 writing rules I wish I knew 1417 days ago.

(I.e when I started writing online)

- I had absolutely no idea what I was doing 
- I thought writing was just blog posts & essays
- I had zero clue about what I should be writing about

Mostly just started by getting in the trenches head on.

Anyway, here are the rules I wish I knew (that could save you hours, days, weeks, years or even decades (??!!!!) of wasted time and effort):

- It's okay to repurpose older posts.
- Dive deep into the copywriting world.
- Write about specific problems you solved.
- Learn how to ethically steal ideas that worked.
- Double down on your experiences + credibility.
- Make your first sentence the most important one.
- Make your writing skimmable and easily readable.
- Map out the emotion first before writing anything.
- Don't get too attached to likes, impressions, followers etc.
- Batch write + schedule content so you don't have to think too much everyday.

Another friendly reminder here is that if you're just starting out, it's going to suck, A LOT.

While initially uncomfortable, you have to EMBRACE (🤢) the sucky phase. 

The more reps you put in, the easier it gets over time.

What else would you add to this list?

I'm not trying to get my clients more "likes."

I'm trying to get them known.

Last week one of my clients said that she got invited to a podcast in her niche because the host was following her content for a while.

She's a fitness and wellness consultant. Been working together for about 4 months now.

And man... this is the stuff that gets me going.

The right people are starting to notice her.

That got me thinking about this analogy I love.

Imagine you walk into a huge room full of people.

Now imagine everyone in that room already knows who you are.

They've seen your face. They know what you're about. They trust you before you even open your mouth.

That's what showing up here & building a personal brand does.

Not more reach (though that's also something you get.) 

Recognition.

Most people sleep on personal brand because the ROI isn't instant. You don't see it right away.

But 4 months in? Strangers in her industry are finding her.

That's the game.

So if you're posting and it feels like nothing's happening...

Keep going.

The right people are watching.

They're just not telling you yet.

5 day-to-day rules I'll never break:

(I'm building my dream life this way)

1. Throwing my phone in a lockbox after 6pm
2. Not compromising on wifey + daughter time
3. Working just 4-5 hours per day
4. Say no to what doesn't serve my goals
5. Judge people who add to milk to their coffee

(especially that last part since I just had a cappuccino last week)

While some people are busy grinding out 14 hour days, I'm not going to be one of them.

(At least not that frequently anyway.)

I know this'll make me less $$$ in the long run.

And honestly, I don't care.

If I don't get to enjoy life on my own terms with the people I love the most.. what's even the point?

I don't want to be a millionaire.

I just want to:

- Spend more time with my family
- Make enough to spoil them with gifts
- Take random days off to take them on a holiday

And that's never going to change for me.

-

P.S:

If you’ve been meaning to “do LinkedIn properly” but life keeps happening… 
My newsletter might help. 
I share:

- What’s working on LinkedIn
- What I’m testing with clients
- What’s getting them results
- What to ignore completely

Hop in here:

https://lnkd.in/dedTkMcV

LinkedIn growth hack:

Go for a walk.

Just do it.

Will not explain.

taplio

The Battle

Matthew Brown

Kush Shah

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreMatthew Brown's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreKush Shah's LinkedIn Performance

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taplio

The Battle

Matthew Brown

Kush Shah

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);}Matthew Brown's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreKush Shah's LinkedIn Performance

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Performance ScoreMatthew Brown's LinkedIn Performance