Building a portfolio of writing businesses to $10M, and sharing my frameworks along the way.

My name is Nicolas Cole, and I am one of the most-read writers on the Internet.

Over the past decade, I have written over 5,000 articles online, and ghostwritten for 300+ Founders, C-level executives, NYT best-selling authors, Grammy-winning musicians, and more. I have also broken records on various digital writing platforms, like becoming the fastest-growing user on Quora in 2014, and becoming the most-read writer on the entire platform (out of 200 million users) in 2015. I have amassed hundreds of millions of views on my writing, and the topics I cover include hard life advice, category design, and digital writing principles.

I have also written over a dozen books, including the best-selling The Art & Business of Online Writing.

I am passionate about paying it forward and sharing what I have learned writing online for more than decade with other writers, creators, and industry leaders.

Here's a quick breakdown of my portfolio of companies, and how to get in touch.

WANT TO GET STARTED WRITING ONLINE?

→ GO HERE: www.ship30for30.com

Ship 30 for 30 is a cohort-based community specifically for people who want to start writing online. In this 4-week program, we help you build your daily writing habit, launch your Social Blog, clarify your niche, and master the fundamentals of digital writing. To date, we have helped more than 3,000 people get started writing online.

WANT TO BECOME A PREMIUM GHOSTWRITER?

→ GO HERE: https://premiumghostwritingacademy.com

Freelance writers charge per word or per hour. As a result, they're underpaid and burned out. Premium Ghostwriters charge per project, work directly with founders, CEOs, and business owners, and are more like "business consultants who happen to know how to write." As a result, they can charge a premium. In PGA, our Premium Ghostwriting Academy, we train writers on how to become Premium Ghostwriters, and learn how to package & price their services in lucrative ways.

WANT TO STAY AT THE FOREFRONT OF WRITING WITH AI?

→ GO HERE: https://writewithai.substack.com

Write With AI is a bi-weekly paid newsletters for writers, giving you strategies and prompts to help you turn ChatGPT into your own personal Digital Writing Assistant. 

WANT TO GET IN TOUCH?

→ GO HERE: www.nicolascole.com

In addition to writing and building my own businesses, I am also an investor & advisor to a handful of media & digital publishing companies. If you'd like to get in touch, please feel free to shoot me an email.

Email: cole@nicolascole.com
Twitter: @Nicolascole77

Nicolas Cole 🚢👻

Last week, I spent 7+ hours building a set of Claude Skills to help you write viral LinkedIn posts faster.

The result?

A Claude Cowork plugin anyone can install to write publish-ready LinkedIn posts in minutes.

It's called the PGA LinkedIn Writing Coach.

And I'm giving it away for free.

Most LinkedIn creators and ghostwriters waste hours:

• Staring at a blank page
• Rewriting hooks 17 times
• Trying to come up with the "perfect" topic

Not because they're bad writers.

But because they don't have the right system.

This fixes that.

This Claude Cowork plugin is built with proven frameworks that have generated millions of views on my content.

Here's what you get inside:

• A Hook Generator that writes 11 hooks in 11 proven formats (so you have the best chances of going viral)

• A Post Writer that generates 15 post ideas and writes the strongest one for you

• A Voice Remixer that rewrites any text in 5 distinct Voice Archetypes (perfect for matching your client's voice)

• A full end-to-end workflow to take you from raw topic to published post in one guided session

Now, I originally built this to share with my team.

But I wanted to get it into the hands of more writers.

So for the next 48 hours, I'm sharing it for free.

Want access?

Comment "coach"

If we're not connected, then send me an invite with the word "coach", and I'll send it across ASAP.

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

I'm a pro writer.

Over the last 10+ years, I have:

• Written 1 fiction book
• 10 Non-fiction books
• 2,000+ thought-leadership articles

And more.

Writing is how I've generated over $20M in the last 5 years.

And I've learned a simple truth:

Great writing doesn't come from "natural-born talent."

It comes from simple, repeatable techniques.

Use these 19 small (but powerful) tips to upgrade your writing in the next 5 minutes:

1. Volume wins

2. Prep the Page

3. Delete adverbs

4. Redraft from zero

5. Ignore word count

6. Don't use semicolons

7. Use "The Tequila Test"

8. Delete the word "that"

9. Use the 1/3/1 sequence

10. Cut all tiny word chunks

11. Delete opening "i" phrases

12. Match language to the audience

13. Write to change the reader's mind

14. Write (and edit) in different interfaces

15. Compress what you're saying into bullets

16. Make the last word the most important word

17. Before you start, do some unintentional writing

18. Increase engagement with the Rate of Revelation

19. Make your first sentence short, strong, & declarative

Get the full breakdown in the Carousel below:

—
📌 My self-published books have generated over $1,000,000.

But ghostwriting is how I got paid to write (while I worked on my first book).

So I created a free, 5-day email course to help you:

• Reposition yourself as a ghostwriter
• Charge premium prices for your services
• Land high-paying writing clients on LinkedIn

Get started here: https://lnkd.in/gzNHs2cH

19 Tips To Upgrade Your Writing (In 5 Minutes)

Over the last 5 years, my little business has generated $20,000,000.

The secret?

Email.

For all our digital product launches, we use a specific 20-email sequence.

And now I want to share it with you.

Why?

For 2 reasons:

1. So you can sell your own digital products with email

2. And (more importantly) so you can ghostwrite these launch emails for your clients (and get paid $$$ to do it!) 

Because high-ticket clients don't hire you to "write emails."

They hire you to sell their product.

And if you can show up with a proven launch sequence... you become irreplaceable.

That's exactly what this free playbook gives you.

Inside the Product Launch Playbook, you'll get:

• A 20-email launch sequence (pre-launch + launch, fully mapped out)
• Real examples + fill-in-the-blank templates for every single email
• A deep dive explaining exactly why each email works
• [BONUS] 3 AI prompts to write or ghostwrite the entire sequence 10x faster
• [BONUS] Sequence automations for Kit

Now, I originally built this for our internal team and writers inside our Premium Ghostwriting Academy.

But I'm giving it away free for the next 48 hours.

Want access?

Just comment "launch" on this post.

And I'll DM it to you ASAP.

(If we're not connected, send me a connection request with the word "launch" and I'll send it across!)

Most LinkedIn creators use AI to write their content.

How do I know?

Because I see the same "AI Fingerprints" ruining what they're trying to say.

Here are the 10 biggest AI Red Flags to look out for:

1. Contrast Framing Overload
2. The Rule Of Three
3. Cringe Transition Questions
4. Present-ing Verbs
5. Vague Glazing Opinions
6. Formality First Language
7. Emoji Explosion
8. Extra Em Dashes
9. Everything Is "Symbolic"
10. The Mysterious "Sarah Chen"

Check out the rest of the carousel to learn how to edit these out of your LinkedIn content.

—
📌 Writers everywhere can use AI to make more money online.

And the fastest way is to become an AI-powered LinkedIn Ghostwriter.

So I created the LinkedIn Ghostwriter OS to help you get started.

Inside you'll find:

• Viral LinkedIn content templates (that anyone can use)
• 20+ AI prompts to help you make money writing on LinkedIn
• My "Leaks & Faucets" strategy for finding leads
• My $3M Sales Call script that closes high-ticket deals
• Voice matching prompt to write in anyone's style
• A step-by-step, 30-day implementation roadmap

Want access?

Click here to grab your FREE copy: https://lnkd.in/e4KkbZsH

10 AI Fingerprints That Make You Sound Like A Robot

I'm a 90s kid.

It's hard to overstate how much better life was with:

Pokémon on Gameboy Color + Dominos Pizza.

And most importantly?

NO cell phones or algorithms vying for your attention.

All this technology.

All these advancements.

And I think many of us miss the analog & lightly digital days more than we value the digital-first, AI-in-your-bloodstream reality we now live in.

Wild generation to have been born into.

Millennials are the last generation to know life with technology before it took over. 

But I'll never be that age again.

You blink, and it's over.

So yes, plow resources into mastering the newest technology and AI tools.

But you don't need them to make $20,000/month.

I didn't, and only spent ~20 hours per week working.

Plenty of money for "fun" and the time to enjoy it.

Which is why I recommend becoming a LinkedIn ghostwriter.

This platform has over 1 billion users who:

• Never post
• Know they should be
• Need help building their personal brand

Want a blueprint to help you start ghostwriting & land high-paying clients?

Get it here (for free): https://lnkd.in/giTAbyJT

Ghostwriting is how I went from being a broke freelancer to making $20k/month (in less than 60 days).

But it isn't all about the money.

Here are 7 reasons why I believe every writer should be a ghostwriter:

1. You Get Paid To Learn

2. You Get Paid To Practice

3. You Get Paid To Build Your Network

4. You Get Paid To Know About Trends Early

5. You Get Paid To Experience Different Lives

6. You Get Paid To Learn How To Write In Different Voices

7. You Get Paid To Write About Subjects You're Passionate About

Now, if you're interested in becoming a ghostwriter...

I recommend starting a ghostwriting side hustle.

Just 1 high-paying client can pay you anywhere from $1,500 to $5,000+ per month. 

That way, you can give this a try without worrying about “building a business” or replacing your 9-5 (while only writing a handful of hours per week).

If you want to scale your income from there, great.

You only need:

• 3 high-paying clients
• Paying you $2,700/month
• To make $100,000+ per year

And I have a FREE, 5-step blueprint that’s already helped over 10,000 writers start ghostwriting.

It has everything you need to start landing high-paying writing clients.

Click "Visit my website" at the top of this post to grab a FREE copy of my Premium Ghostwriting Blueprint.

Most people will never make money writing online.

But one skill makes it embarrassingly simple:

Copywriting.

It's how I've generated over $20,000,000 as a writer.

But the secret to writing great copy?

It has nothing to do with sales.

It's all about education.

Because when you successfully educate the customer, they sell themselves.

Here are 7 sales copy sentences my digital business uses to generate millions every single year (steal them for yourself):

1. "This small action will lead to a giant outcome."
2. "This massive problem can be fixed with this simple solution."
3. "The outcome you want isn't far away."
4. "It's not your fault."
5. "You've already done the hardest part."
6. "I couldn't do this either."
7. "I'm going to let you in on a little secret..."

Here's how to use them:

—
📌 The fastest way to make money on LinkedIn?

It's not copywriting.

It's becoming a LinkedIn Ghostwriter (using these 7 copy sentences in your clients' content).

Because right now, ghostwriting demand on this platform is exploding.

Want help landing high-paying clients as a ghostwriter?

I put together a free, 5-day email course to help you.

Click "Visit my website" at the top of this post to get instant access.

7 Sales Copy Sentences Worth $20,000,000

The most misunderstood, misused, yet highest-leverage writing skill:

Copywriting.

It's how I've generated over $20,000,000 as a writer.

And these 7 exercises will turn you into a top 1% copywriter:

——
📌 These are the writing techniques you need to start making money online.

But if you want to:

• Eliminate boring work
• Reclaim hours of your life
• Build your first AI employee

Then join me on February 23rd for my 2-week Claude Cowork Bootcamp.

Here's what we'll build across 6 LIVE sessions:

🤖 Week 1: Foundation & Voice Training

→ Build your Computer Organizer .skill that manages files automatically (so you never waste time hunting for receipts again)

→ Connect Claude Cowork to Notion and train it to write in YOUR voice (not generic AI slop)

→ Create a Meeting Prep .skill that scans your calendar, Slack, and Gmail to brief you before every call

⚙️ Week 2: Advanced Automation & Skill Chaining

→ Chain multiple .skills together for complex workflows (like building client proposals while you work on something else)

→ Deploy a working landing page to Vercel using your Digital Product .skill (and teach your AI to navigate websites on your behalf)

→ Learn to build custom .skills from scratch (so you can scale AI to your entire team)

🚀 The Result: Reclaim 10+ Hours Every Week

→ Stop re-explaining context to AI every single time

→ Build permanent leverage that compounds forever

→ Turn AI from "helpful chatbot" into "digital clone of you"

Click here to secure your spot (before enrollment closes on Sunday, February 22nd at midnight): https://lnkd.in/ghj8DHXr

7 Exercises To Become A Top 1% Copywriter

Terrible advice for writers:

(I wish I'd never done this)

Write "anything" for "anyone."

This is the FASTEST way to become an overworked and underpaid content writer.

Instead, to dramatically increase your income:

Niche Down.

This is how I went from charging $200 per article to ghostwriting thought-leadership articles for founders and executives for $2,000.

So, in this video, I explain:

• The 3 core benefits of specialization
• How to niche down (Service vs. Industry)
• Why niching down doesn’t limit opportunity
• Services I recommend writers should specialize in
• How to find your Information Advantage & niche down

And tons more!

Dive in here:

(Want to watch the video over on YouTube? Search "How To Find Your Niche In Content Writing" to find it.)

—
📌 Once you niche down, you need a proven technique to land new, high-paying clients every month.

Which is just 1 small part inside my FREE Premium Ghostwriting Blueprint.

Inside, you'll also learn how to:

• Charge a premium
• Land dream ghostwriting clients
• Find your own lucrative niche (like Sophia did!)

Want a copy of my free blueprint?

Click here to get instant access: https://lnkd.in/gU5WB3st

Last November, my little writing business crossed $20,000,000 in lifetime sales.

It took us over 5 years to reach this milestone.

But we could have gotten here a whole lot faster with everything we know now.

Here are 12 of the biggest lessons I wish I knew when we first started our 8-figure digital product business:

1. Operational complexity is the moat

2. Subjectivity doesn't scale

3. Customers want outcomes, not more content

4. Wanting something new is avoiding improving what works

5. Entrepreneurs live in max risk—so de-risk personal finances

6. Only pay commissions while reps are on the team

7. Paid ads is a way to pay down "ignorance debt"

8. What gets measured grows. What's "maintained" dies

9. Every new channel means a 1-year learning curve

10. "Fast and easy" = slow, hard, expensive

11. When high-performers hit a ceiling, create roles or incubate entrepreneurs

12. After ~$3M/year, video is one of your best investments

Check out the full breakdown here: 

—
📌 Do you want to quit your day job in 2026?

Then don't sell digital products.

Instead, become a LinkedIn Ghostwriter.

Ghostwriting is how I hit $20,000/month in less than 60 days.

I put together a blueprint that's helped 10,000+ people become Premium Ghostwriters in 5 days.

Want a FREE copy of my proven blueprint?

Click here to get instant access: https://lnkd.in/gTmQ872p

12 Lessons From $20,000,000 in Writing Course Sales

I paid Alex Hormozi's team $35,000 to help me scale to $1,000,000. 

And I just got back from their workshop in Vegas.

For the better part of 2 years now, we've been stuck trying to hit this goal.

But I emerged with extreme clarity on what to tackle this year.

Here are the 5 "Big Rocks" they said I should work on right now:

1. Clean up your org structure before it cleans you out

Our team nearly tripled in size this past year.

And it wasn't until the Hormozi team walked me through what a healthy org at our revenue level actually looks like that I realized how blurry our lines of ownership had gotten.

• Who's responsible for what?
• Who owns which outcomes?

When everyone's responsible, no one's responsible.

2. Crystal-clear clarity at every level of the business.

Move your biggest cash to the front end of the sale.

Right now, what we've been doing is:

• Sell a 16-week program
• Then, upsell continued coaching on the back end

But the Hormozi team recommended we flip it.

Instead, lead with the full year upfront.

And THEN downsell the 16 weeks if needed.

More cash upfront = more ad spend = more students, faster.

3. Build a media team that can actually scale your content

I'm making a significant investment in YouTube and media in 2026.

And I had a lot of unanswered questions about what that actually looks like:

• How many editors do you need?
• Do you separate short-form and long-form?
• Does one person own each platform?
• Does one person own each channel?

The Hormozi team helped me find the clarity I was looking for.

Basically, we have about 70% of the team we need.

And the move is to break out individual platforms and give each one a dedicated owner.

4. Follow up with leads in 15 minutes or less, every time

The Hormozi team made it very clear how much revenue we're leaving on the table every time we don't.

The big rock for my co-founder @dickiebush will be building the outbound infrastructure to make near-instant follow-up the default.

5. Stop asking "what's next?"

Instead, start asking:

"What's working and why aren't we doing more of it?"

This one hit hardest.

At the end of 2025, we ran our first paid 3-day challenge and it turned into our biggest revenue month of the year.

So when the Hormozi team asked us:

"If one challenge did that, why are you only doing one a year?"

The answer was obvious.

Do more live webinars and challenges.

But all of this just makes one thing even clearer for me:

Our business is NOT the right type of business for 99% of people to go build.

If you're just getting started, the operational complexity is too high.

Instead, I'd recommend building a 1-person ghostwriting agency.

It's how I went from $0 to $20,000/month in less than 60 days.

Want a (FREE) copy of my proven blueprint?

Click here to get instant access: https://lnkd.in/gtF7dwNj

I can't believe how many people don't realize this:

Making money writing online is simple.

For context:

I have generated over $1M as a writer.

Not just once.

Not just twice.

But across 8 different writing business models:

1. SaaS
2. Services
3. Consulting
4. Self-Publishing
5. Paid newsletter
6. Group/High-Ticket
7. Low-Ticket products
8. Cohort-based courses

Here's the simplest path anyone can take to go from $0 to a 6-figure writer:

—
📌 The fastest way to hit $100,000/year as a writer?

Ghostwriting.

It's how I went from making $0 as a freelance writer to $10k/month in 60 days.

But if I was starting over in 2026, I'd become a LinkedIn Ghostwriter.

Why?

Because this platform has 1.15 billion users. And less than 1% are posting content consistently.

(Despite knowing they should be!)

Which means there is an *enormous* amount of opportunity for LinkedIn Ghostwriters right now.

So I wrote a free, crash course showing you how to land high-paying writing clients on LinkedIn.

Click here to get instant access (for FREE): https://lnkd.in/g6aJBDgP

Become A 6-Figure Writer In 5 Simple Steps

Over the last 10 days, Claude has been down 6 times:

• Feb 25 → 3 Hours 14 Minutes
• Feb 26 → 6 Hours 35 Minutes
• Feb 27 → 4 Hours 27 Minutes
• Feb 28 → 2 Hours 52 Minutes
• Mar 2 → 2 Hours 45 Minutes
• Mar 3 → 0 Hours 48 Minutes

20+ (!!!) hours in total.

This is another reminder:

You can't 100% rely on AI.

Instead, make sure you master the skills you need to do your work manually.

Using AI is then an added bonus and a way to increase your leverage.

This is why the top 1% ghostwriters don't need AI to deliver for their clients (although it makes them way more efficient).

Just like how they don't even need to write well to get paid 6-figures.

They've simply mastered these highly in-demand skills:

• Premium positioning
• Irresistible offer creation
• Consistent client acquisition

And more.

Which is how they're making $100,000+ per year with just a laptop.

The good news?

Right now, LinkedIn is the fastest-growing social media.

And many of the smartest people in the world have just realized they need to be on this platform.

So, I put together a 5-day blueprint to teach you how to:

• Charge premium prices
• Create your irresistible offer
• Find your lucrative ghostwriting niche
• Land new, high-paying clients every month

In other words...

Everything you need to start LinkedIn Ghostwriting in the next 5 days.

Click "Visit my website" at the top of this post to get instant access to my proven blueprint (for FREE).

This writer made $25,000 by working just 1-2 hours before work and on weekends.

In just 3 months, Torunn Jegleim ACA:

• Made about $25,000
• Writing for Fractional CFOs
• As their Premium LinkedIn Ghostwriter

Her secret?

She followed a proven blueprint and spent her limited hours focused on what would actually build a lucrative writing side hustle.

(Alongside her full-time 9 to 5.)

Because making money writing from a laptop has nothing to do with how many hours you work.

It's ALL about what you *actually* do during those hours.

(Even if all you have is 1-2 hours per day.)

I put together a blueprint that's helped 10,000+ Premium LinkedIn Ghostwriters get started in JUST 5 days.

Want a (FREE) copy of my proven blueprint?

Click "Visit my website" at the top of this post to get instant access.

In 2012, my parents told me I should study journalism.

I didn't.

Instead, I majored in fiction writing in college because it was more interesting to me.

Everyone said I was lighting money on fire.

But since then?

Journalism has basically died.

And fiction & creative writing have made me a millionaire.

So, when I have kids of my own, I'm going to tell them:

"Study whatever is most interesting to you."

Every single industry is going to get affected by new technology/AI... so the game isn't "picking the perfect/most lucrative industry."

The game is picking an industry you:

• Won't give up on
• Love enough to sink your teeth into
• And will stick to for the next 5+ years

Despite all the headwinds and uncertainty.

So, you can ride the AI wave while your industry evolves.

Or you can get PAID to learn the most highly in-demand skill right now (job listings asking for any AI-related skill are up 650%).

How?

By becoming a LinkedIn Ghostwriter.

Ghostwriting is how I hit $20,000/month (in less than 60 days).

And it's the perfect way to learn the AI skills you need to future-proof your career.

So I put together a free blueprint to help you become a LinkedIn Ghostwriter in just 5 days.

Even if you:

• Suck at sales
• Don't have an audience
• Have never ghostwritten before

Want access to my proven blueprint that's helped 10,000+ start ghostwriting?

Click here to grab your free copy: https://lnkd.in/g2TEQtDi

This writer landed a LinkedIn Ghostwriting client paying him $3,000/month.

But the problem?

It almost didn't happen.

Mark had one MASSIVE faulty belief:

Getting paid this much is "absurd."

And you know what?

He's absolutely right.

When I was just a freelance writer, I thought it was wild to make more than $200-$300 per article.

But then I repositioned myself as a Premium Ghostwriter.

And *suddenly,* clients had no problem paying me $1,000+.

For the EXACT same work.

This completely broke my brain.

Which is why I love seeing wins like these every day inside our Premium Ghostwriting Academy.

And they all start from changing your Positioning.

So, I put together the Writer Positioning Playbook mini-course with 30+ minutes of training from me to help you:

• Nail your positioning as a ghostwriter
• Attract more ghostwriting opportunities in your niche
• Use AI to find 5 specific target clients that need your help

This is everything you need to start making more money as a writer.

Click here to get (FREE) instant access to my Writer Positioning Playbook mini-course: https://lnkd.in/gyq9kPwu

My business generates $600,000 per month.

But it runs on just $8,215.

These are my top 7 no-code tools in my tech stack:

1. Kit ($1,179/mo)

This handles all our email marketing.

2. Stripe (2.9% + $.30 per transaction)

Tons of transactions processed with 0 issues.

3. Carrd ($19/yr)

We scaled Ship 30 to $1M with this simple landing page software.

4. Airtable ($1,134/mo)

Every product, lead, and customer lives here.

5. Zapier (~$749/mo)

This automates 200k+ tasks/month & replaces at least 5+ full-time assistants.

6. ChatGPT ($20/mo)

We use ChatGPT to research, brainstorm, and outline.

7. Substack (Free or 10% of paid subs)

A simple platform, perfect for beginners & where we host our paid newsletter, Write With AI (currently doing $427,000 in ARR).

—

📌 But if I had to build a new writing business from scratch, I'd only use 3 tools:

• Kit for email
• Stripe for payments
• Carrd for landing pages

This is all you need to make your first $1.

And you can easily scale to $100,000/year by ghostwriting for high-paying clients.

(It's how I went from $0 to $20k/month in less than 60 days.)

Want a free blueprint to help you start ghostwriting & land high-paying clients?

Get it here: https://lnkd.in/dk_-ryX3

7 No-Code Tools Running My 7-Figure Writing Business

I've been thinking about the impact of AI a lot.

And you might not like all my opinions:

1. AI is a NUANCED tool.

And unfortunately, most people can't hold 2 opposing ideas in their head at the same time. 

2. The more I use AI, the more value I see in learning how to build skills without it. 

The reason is because AI's biggest strength is also its biggest weakness:

It allows you to "skip to the end," which is great.

But simultaneously deprives you of the necessary learning process. 

3. We underestimate the long-tail implications of a society that can quickly "skip to the end" of tasks without understanding how or why those micro or macro destinations are valuable (or correct) in the first place. 

4. If you use AI to skip over skills you don't have, and jump to end-products you don't understand, AI becomes an inhibitor of learning & future skill development.

(Research studies already prove this.)

5. But if you use AI to add leverage to skills you DO have, and create end-products you DO understand, AI becomes an accelerator.

Capitalism is already proving this on a daily basis.

As a result:

The strengths & weaknesses of AI entirely come down to your own individual relationship with the technology.

If you are undisciplined and live in a constant state of seeking "quick results?"

Yes AI will deprive you of learning, deprive you of skill development, and make you dumber over time. 

But if you are disciplined and use AI with intention to amplify skills you're building SEPARATE from the technology?

AI becomes your Archimedes lever.

Which allows individuals to accomplish the work of hundreds.

Or even thousands of other laborers. 

Whenever I see people making broad proclamations about whether AI is "good" or "bad," it's a neon sign they are incapable of thinking in nuance.

📌 The good news is:

Right now, you can get PAID to master highly in-demand skills such as:

• AI
• Sales
• Writing
• Positioning
• Offer creation
• Brand building

And more!

How?

By becoming a LinkedIn Ghostwriter.

Ghostwriting is how I hit $20,000/month (in less than 60 days).

And it's the perfect way to learn the skills you need to accelerate your career & income.

So, I put together a complete crash course on how to become a LinkedIn Ghostwriter.

It has everything you need to get started.

Click here to get (free) instant access: https://lnkd.in/gNzDRssF

At 27, I lost a $30,000 deal.

Here's how it happened:

I walked away from that meeting realizing I had no idea how to "value my value."

And I see this all the time with writers.

They flinch at the thought of raising their rates:

• "I'm afraid the client is going to say No." 
• "I'm afraid the client is going to get upset."
• "I'm afraid I'm not worth what I'm asking for."

These faulty beliefs are all wrong.

Once I learned how to charge a premium for my work, making money as a ghostwriter became simple.

In less than 60 days, I hit $20,000/month.

So, I wrote a free, 5-day crash course to help you start landing high-paying LinkedIn writing clients.

Want access?

Click "Visit my website" at the top of this post.

Over the last few months, AI has completely flipped the writing world upside down.

And I'm excited.

New tools like Claude Cowork are changing how we should think about writing in the age of AI.

And a TON of ghostwriters I speak to are worried that clients are going to vanish and the whole game is getting automated away while they sleep.

Every day, I get DMs like this:

• "Am I falling behind with AI? Will this kill my career?"

• "How do I land clients FAST when AI is doing everything for free?"

• "I feel like I'm competing with robots AND thousands of other writers. How do I win?"

Most writers are paralyzed by panic right now—which means the door is wide open for the ones who know exactly what to do next.

So here's what I'm doing about it.

On Thursday, February 26th at 12 PM ET, I'm hosting a FREE 60-minute live Masterclass where I'm pulling back the curtain on the EXACT 8-step system we share inside our private ghostwriting coaching program.

The same roadmap that's turning everyday writers into top 1% earners with more clients than they can handle.

And I'll show you how to implement it with AI.

Get your free ticket here:

Dickie Bush 🚢, Ruben Halfhide and 1 other connection attending

View event: AI Client Accelerator Masterclass

I talk about digital writing & personal progress

Here's a quick rundown of how I've spent my last 5 years:

1. Studied math and played football at Princeton. I graduated in 2018 with a degree in financial engineering and played center for the Tigers. In college, I was a 280-pound offensive lineman, so for the last 5 years, I've had to completely rewrite my personal operating system on the health & fitness front. I currently weigh 185 pounds and have learned a lot along the way!

2. Graduated and immediately started working for BlackRock in New York City. I worked as a junior hedge fund trader for 4 years, focusing on global macro markets. This was my dream job and the only corporate job I've ever had. In fact, it's the only job *interview* I've ever had (since I interned there as a junior in college).

3. Realized working for someone else was not going to be the long-term path for me. 12 months into working on Wall Street, I saw someone in their mid-40s ask their boss for permission to go to their son's Little League game. At that moment I realized I wasn't cut out to take directions or instructions from other people for very long.

4. Started to write on my old blog, then on Twitter. Rather than quit immediately, I started to passively explore other opportunities by writing online, starting out on my old blog (which no one knew existed), then transitioning to Twitter in July of 2020.

5. Changed my trajectory with a 30-day writing challenge, which led me to start Ship 30 for 30. In September 2020 I was ready to give up writing entirely. But I gave it one more shot, this time moving from a weekly blog post to a daily Twitter thread. The challenge was a huge success. It took me 9 months to reach 100 followers and 1 month to go from 100 to 2,000. And that personal writing challenge turned into the foundation of Ship 30 for 30, which started as nothing but a Slack accountability group to help people publish consistently.

6. Scaled Ship 30 while working remotely for all of 2021. I built and scaled Ship 30 with Nicolas Cole to over 2,000 students in 2021—all while continuing to work full-time (remotely) for BlackRock. But towards the end of 2021, Ship 30 hit an inflection point and it no longer made financial sense for me to continue working on Wall Street.

7. Left BlackRock in March of 2022 to write and build on my own. After weeks of weighing the pros and cons and trying to project my path forward, I made the decision to leave BlackRock and chart my own path. 15 months into making that decision and I'm confident it's the best one I've ever made.

Dickie Bush 🚢

Recently, I coached a small mastermind of entrepreneurs with one ambitious goal:

To grow take-home profit by 50%+ during our first 6 months working together. 

So, I wrote the manifesto I wish someone handed me 5 years ago.

Here are 9 business principles that have served me well:

1. Speed is king

Your goal as an entrepreneur is to:

• Build things faster
• Collect cash faster
• Answer questions faster
• Respond to people faster

This does not mean act recklessly.

But it does mean questioning the tempo & timeline of the way you & your organization currently operate.

2. Raise your standards

You are exactly where you are because you tolerate it.

Your employees perform exactly how they do because you tolerate it.

Growth requires a raising of the minimum amount of performance you tolerate.

3. Think bigger—no one else will

To raise the standard, you must have something that motivates you to put forth new discretionary effort.

This will fall into either:

• Family impact
• Social impact
• Customer impact
• Or material goods

You tolerate the current level of your business because (whether consciously or subconsciously) it is meeting the demands you’ve placed on it.

4. Profit, profit, profit

You must obsess over the profitability of your business.

5. Data, then decisions

Doing things is easy.

Figuring out the right things to do is hard.

And it’s hard because you lack the information to make the right decision.

Which is why you need a tracking system that makes decisions for you.

6. Do the money math

Every single goal you have in this world is a simple set of equations.

And that’s especially true in business.

You should have clear models of:

• Every marketing platform
• Every payroll allocation
• Every sales process

Each should be modeled well in advance so you know exactly what you are building.

7. Solve in sequence

The people who move fastest:

• Work on things in the right order
• At the expense of everything else they could work on
• For months and years on end

This is the discipline you are going to need.

8. Care for your customer

It’s a shame, but most people in the internet education space do not give a single F about the people they work with.

9. Enjoy the ride

I can look back and smile on every single moment of my 4 years as an entrepreneur, even though I was not smiling in the moment.

Which means you can take the same approach now, no matter how challenging something is.

—
📌 The fastest vehicle to take home 50% more money right now:

Ghostwriting.

All you need to add $36,000/year is to land 1 client paying you $3,000/month.

I started a ghostwriting side hustle while working 50+ hours per week at my corporate 9-5.

And demand here on LinkedIn is huge.

Want to know how to land high-paying writing clients in 2026?

This free, 5-day email course has everything you need to get started: https://lnkd.in/gpPJpAS9

Here's some advice for anyone afraid of being laid off and replaced by AI:

Clear your entire calendar for the next week.

Use that time to immerse yourself in new AI tools like Claude Cowork.

Don't fear AI.

It won't replace you if you are:

• Using it intelligently
• To remove bottlenecks in your work
• And build yourself leverage that compounds forever

This is why I'm hosting my 2-week Claude Cowork Bootcamp starting TOMORROW.

Here's the schedule:

• Session 1: Setup & build your first Claude Skill
• Session 2: Write in-depth newsletters in minutes
• Session 3: Prepare your mind & materials before every meeting
• Session 4: Chain complex workflows together
• Session 5: Templates and browswer automation
• Session 6: Build your own custom Claude Skills

And no, you do not need ANY coding or AI experience.

But don't wait!

Enrollment closes TONIGHT at midnight.

Click here to secure your spot (before doors close): https://lnkd.in/gDzCitKk

Last January, this writer got fired.

And 2 days later?

My team & I started mentoring him.

And Warren's been running his digital business full-time ever since.

Just look at this small handful of wins he's collected so far:

• 3 sales calls & 1 new client in a single week
• Made his first $3,000 as a ghostwriter
• Booked a 6-month ghostwriting retainer
• Landed a $5,000 email course project

And if there's ONE thing you should know about him:

He's got an insanely good work ethic (even on the tough days).

For example, he got *every* possible response you can get from outreach in a 24-hour period:

• A lead telling him to “drop it”
• Another just brushing him off
• And a 3rd wanting to hop on a call

But he still kept going.

This is how I know Warren's one of the most committed students we've seen inside our Premium Ghostwriting Academy.

And clearly, it continues to pay off for him.

So, let Warren be your reminder never to give up.

I promise you, it's worth it.

📌 The good news?

It gets easier when you have a proven blueprint to follow.

That way, you can use your limited time on the simple actions that will *actually* help you make money the fastest.

Even if you:

• Suck at sales
• Don't have an audience
• Have never ghostwritten before

Click here to get instant access to the same proven blueprint Warren used: https://lnkd.in/gVpFVgvi

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The Battle

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Dickie Bush 🚢

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The Battle

Nicolas Cole 🚢👻

Dickie Bush 🚢

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);}Nicolas Cole 🚢👻's LinkedIn Performance

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