Ryan Paul Gibson

content lift

We help B2B businesses run investigative customer interviews,
so they can build a more qualified pipeline,
and avoid wasting money on go-to-market activities that don't influence buyers.

We map out a customer's entire journey in their own words.
We find the hidden reasons people are buying your product.

The data helps you make smarter choices with marketing budgets. 
It helps uncover ideas for messaging, campaigns, content and copy.  

All the stuff we do: 

* Primary Buyer/Market Research 
* Voice of the Customer Work
* Brand Perception & Identity
* Subject Matter Expert Interviews

Founder

RPG Marketing 

I work with B2B marketing teams as a fractional senior marketer,
helping build, launch and maintain marketing programs.

The benefits of hiring a part-time senior marketer are:
* Flexibility: I can work on a variety of projects, rather than one deliverable 
* Cost savings:  A senior skill set without an increase in headcount
* Dependability: I'm in independent contributor who can balance strategy and execution

My specialty is research, content and product marketing.
Some of the projects I've worked on for clients:

* Buyer & market research, gathering insights to create new personas and messaging
* Development of content strategies to support the entire customer lifecyle 
* Thought leadership and strategic narrative development with C-Suite 
* Sales enablement programs
* Copywriting for paid search, landing pages and other high-conversion content.
* Traditional PR activities with trade media and other communications tasks 
* Original research for whitepapers, ebooks and other content formats 

Happy to chat, walk you through these various projects and see if I can help in any way.

Fractional Senior Marketer

Invest Ottawa

I teach early-stage entrepreneurs the fundamentals of customer discovery. We cover: 

- different methodologies like Jobs to Be Done and Lean Canvas 
- different types of customer research
- how to define your research objectives and find potential buyers
- how to conduct 1:1 interviews with examples from projects I've run

Mentor - Customer Discovery

GrowthMentor

Mentor - Customer Research 

Rewind

Working with the CMO and the rest of the marketing team, I help the company refine it's go-to-market strategy and oversee special projects.

Senior Marketing Consultant

Managing content team & company strategy.

Head of Content (Interim)

Helping the company with Messaging, Content, PR & Branding as they build out their core team. I have led or assisted in the following projects: 

* Messaging frameworks for multiple products
* Customer research  
* Content strategy
* Tone & voice documents
* Audits & analysis of organic channel performance 
* Overseeing contract writers
* Creation of lead magnets (Reports, Ebooks, etc)
* Customer case studies 
* Content for product launches
* Sales enablement materials

Senior Marketing Specialist

Perth Brewery

Giatec | Smart Concrete Testing Technologies

Member of the senior leadership team, reporting directly to CEO.

Led development of annual operating plan for marketing, ensuring marketing activities aligned with overall business strategy.

Oversaw a team of six direct reports, responsible for Lead Generation (SEO, PPC, Content), Social Media,  Graphic Design and Web Development.

Worked with the product, sales and customer success teams to refine the go-to-market strategy and positioning of core product lines.

Created preliminary key messaging documents, brand guides and buyer personas.

Interviewed customers for success stories and content ideas; during tenure as manager, organic traffic increased on average 175% YOY.

Built relationships with industry analysts and trade media; successfully achieving media coverage goals in annual operating plan. 

Oversaw execution of tradeshows and events.

Worked with designers and UI/UX to improve customer experience and increase conversions on key landing pages.

Copywriting for google ads, landing pages and other high conversion content.

Marketing Manager

Entrepreneurs, Tech, Jobs. Rinse. Repeat.

Helped shape and execute marketing plans, to meet the strategic objectives.

Oversaw creative development of local, national and international campaigns.

Chief architect of the “Work in Ottawa” Campaign, which generated over six million unique impressions through our digital tactics.

Member of Amazon HQ2 Task Force Marketing Committee

Senior Marketing Strategist

Manager, Marketing & Content Strategy

Dan Rascal

P/T with Ottawa's strongest & spiciest video creative agency. 

http://danrascal.com/

Consultant

Northern Army

I help B2B businesses run customer interviews that don't suck / Founder @ content lift 🎈

Today B2B buyers spend most of a buying journey,
figuring stuff out on their own.

They spend weeks, months or years.
Trying to solve problems.
Evaluating solutions.
Trying to determine what’s credible.
What makes sense for them? 

Data from your dashboards & CRMs can help. 
Yet it’s a fraction of the buying story.
And this data typically measures the end.

Marketing teams have to influence the ENTIRE buying journey.
If you don’t have a detailed understanding,
of HOW and WHY you best fit buyer buys,
Then you will FAIL to influence their buying decisions.

In-depth customer investigations (aka interviews),
are the best process for reverse engineering the buying journey.
And the best source of data,
To build marketing & sales programs that win new business. 

Yet B2B teams struggle with this.
They tell me:

- We don't have experience in it
- We don't know how to be unbiased
- We struggle with how to use the insights
- We don't have the bandwidth
- We don't want to bother our customers
- We did it before and hadn't seen the value
- Honestly, it can be intimidating

It's hard out there for a marketing team
Always guessing.
Always spending $$.
Rarely moving the needle.

🤔 HOW I CAN HELP:

I help B2B marketers run better customer research interviews 🕵️‍♂️

After working with me you will have:
*  A reversed engineered buying journey, in the words of your ideal client
* A list of the business triggers & motivations for your target buyer (ICP)
* Insights on how to spend marketing $$$
* Possible solutions and action items for each insight
* Fresh messaging, campaign & copy ideas.

🤔 HOW WE CAN WORK TOGETHER:

There are three ways:
* I can run a turnkey research project for you ($$$)
* I can interview your customers & hand over the content ($$)
* I can teach you how to do it ($)

You can read my ONE case study in my "Features" section.

🤔 WHY ME:

I've logged 21+ years in Marketing, Branding & Communications.
I spent 3 years working as an investigative reporter.
I've interviewed over 1900 people in my career.
I've worked with over 100 businesses of all shapes and sizes.

👋 SAY HELLO!

- Feel free to DM me here on LinkedIn
- Send an email to ryanpaulgibson@contentlift.io
- Visit my website: https://www.contentlift.io/

We help B2B marketing teams run investigative customer interviews. 

We map out a customer's entire journey in their own words.
We find the hidden reasons people are buying your product.

The data helps you make smarter choices with marketing budgets. 
It helps uncover ideas for messaging, campaigns, content and copy.  

All the stuff we do: 

* Primary Customer Research 
* Brand Perception & Identity
* Subject Matter Expert Interviews

Nemanja Zivkovic

funky.enterprises

In 2025, we launched Funky Enterprises — a GTM collective built by senior strategists and executors. Not an agency. Not a vendor. A team that builds full-stack systems for positioning, acquisition, and expansion — the kind that drive both present and future cashflow.

We don’t sell 3-month stunts.
We don’t follow trends.
We don’t pitch “more content” as strategy.

If you’re looking for a vendor — keep scrolling.
But if you’re building something big and need a GTM partner who thinks like an owner, let’s talk.

We work with serious companies ready to scale. Not beginners. Not teams chasing quick wins. Our partners have real products and budgets from €30k to €300k+. And they’re done wasting money on tactics that don’t tie back to outcomes.

Here’s what we do:
✅ Strategy that earns attention, not just reach
✅ Execution across brand, performance, ops, and customer marketing
✅ Systems that survive platform shifts, team changes, and quarterly chaos

We don’t just show up with playbooks — we come in with skin in the game.

Our model is different:
→ Retainers are just the start
→ We partner through revenue share, EBITDA growth, even strategic equity — if we’re building your growth engine from scratch

You get a team that makes decisions like the business is theirs — because a piece of it actually is.

If your GTM isn’t compounding yet, you don’t need another agency.
You need a system.

That’s what we build.

Funky Enterprises.
Let’s grow it together.

Senior Partner

Funky Marketing

Built 100+ inbound growth systems across B2B tech and SaaS

Funky Marketing was the answer to a simple question:

What would B2B growth look like if it was actually built by people who give a damn?

So I built a senior-only team. No interns. No buzzwords. Just strategy that gets results.

In year one, we closed 47 inbound B2B deals, all through LinkedIn, using the same approach we now deploy for clients.
Since then, we’ve worked with 120+ companies, helped 80+ startups, and driven 3x+ ROI for firms across the US, UK, DACH, MENA, and the Balkans.

We worked with brands like:
Wix, Deloitte, Generali, Vega IT, NIS Gazprom Neft — and many more that you’ll hear about soon.

Our role?
→ Fix the pipeline
→ Build a GTM system that doesn’t fall apart at each handoff
→ Make sure marketing contributes to revenue — not just activity metrics

It started as a consulting crew. It became a movement.
Now, it’s the core of Funky Enterprises.

Founder & Strategic CMO

Similarweb

I was using Dealfront back when it was still Leadfeeder and Echobot.

It became one of those tools I kept bringing into projects — because it helped us:
→ Identify real buying intent
→ Align sales + marketing around behavior, not just personas
→ Stop chasing leads and start acting on signals

Now I’m a Community Partner, helping others use it for smarter outreach and better conversion plays. And yes — we’ll likely host some events soon.

Brand Ambassador

Dealfront

Community Partner

Favikon

I use Favikon because it gives me something most platforms don’t: context.Not just influencer rankings, but who's actually relevant, growing, and resonating — across industries, niches, and countries.

After using it for B2B creator discovery, employer branding campaigns, and dark social strategies, I became a brand ambassador for Serbia.

Favikon is a tool I trust. If you're using creators to grow your brand — or if you're one yourself — you need it.

Brand Ambassador, Serbia

BIZLife

NOVI BIZLIFE SERIJAL: Zašto je LinkedIn nezaobilazna platforma za savremeni biznis?

Kroz seriju kolumni koje će na BIZLife portalu pišemo Dejan Pataki i ja, imate priliku da se detaljnije upoznate sa strategijama koje maksimalno iskorišćavaju mogućnosti koje LinkedIn nudi. Svaka kolumna će razmotriti specifične taktike i metode za unapređenje kako B2B prodaje, tako i employer i ličnog brendinga, pružajući čitaocima praktična znanja koja mogu odmah da primene i time poboljšaju svoje poslovne rezultate.

Columnist

Business Talks Network

In 2022, I co-founded Business Talks Network in Novi Sad, Serbia, with a vision to bridge the gap between business growth and meaningful professional connections. Our mission was to create a platform where entrepreneurs, business professionals, and startups could come together to share their stories and insights.

We built a vibrant community of over 600 members and hosted events that attracted more than 300 participants. These gatherings were more than just networking opportunities; they were forums where clients, partners, and industry leaders engaged in deep, insightful conversations. Each event was designed to elevate perspectives and foster genuine connections, moving beyond traditional networking to create a space for authentic human interaction.

Our commitment to authenticity and community-building extended beyond in-person events. We launched a YouTube channel, Business Talks Network, to share the stories and experiences of entrepreneurs and business professionals with a wider audience. This platform allowed us to reach individuals who couldn't attend our events, furthering our mission to inspire and connect the business community.

Additionally, we maintained an active presence on Facebook, Business Talks Network, where we shared updates, engaged with our community, and provided valuable content to support business growth and professional development.

It's been inspiring to witness the community thrive, grounded in authenticity and the strength of real human connection. Through Business Talks Network, we've created a space where meaningful relationships are formed, and business growth is a shared journey.

Co-Founder

Founder Institute Serbia

In February 2023, I joined Founder Institute Serbia as a startup mentor, focusing on guiding early-stage companies in refining their messaging, positioning, and demand generation strategies for B2B markets. The Founder Institute, established in Silicon Valley in 2009, is recognized as the world's largest pre-seed startup accelerator, with a presence in over 200 cities across more than 95 countries. 
FI

In Serbia, the program aims to strengthen local and regional entrepreneurship by supporting startup teams in accelerating their development, transforming innovative ideas into profitable and sustainable business opportunities.

As a mentor, I collaborated with startups to:

Develop Clear Messaging: Assisting in articulating value propositions that resonate with target B2B audiences.

Strategic Positioning: Guiding startups to identify and occupy unique market positions, differentiating themselves from competitors.

Demand Generation: Crafting strategies to create interest and drive demand among potential B2B clients.

This mentorship experience has been rewarding, contributing to the growth of Serbia's startup ecosystem and empowering entrepreneurs to build impactful technology companies.

Startup Mentor

App Crafters

AppCrafters needed to grow — fast. They had talent, tech, and momentum. What they lacked was a clear narrative and GTM structure.

My role?
→ Build the GTM foundation across Europe
→ Develop positioning, campaigns, and content that turned traffic into traction
→ Mentor internal teams and create marketing rhythms they could sustain after we left

We increased inbound leads by 40% in six months, shortened the sales cycle, and left the team with a strategy built to scale.

Fractional CMO

BioSense Institute

At BioSense Institute, I mentored AgTech startups, guiding them from concept to market readiness with a focus on early traction and proof of concept.

Each startup faced unique challenges. Veles Sense tackled vineyard monitoring by using drone and satellite technology for early disease detection, while EcoPatents introduced a moisture-retaining product to combat drought in orchards. PhenoMap Pro leveraged digital phenotyping to enhance plant growth, optimizing agricultural output.

My mentorship included defining clear problem-solution narratives and crafting targeted strategies. For instance, Beeamond’s urban beekeeping system provided health benefits and supported biodiversity. By positioning this solution to appeal to eco-conscious consumers, we differentiated it from competitors and aligned it with the growing green city movement.

We built demand through well-crafted content distribution, from customer interviews to community engagement. For PhenoMap Pro, pilot projects validated product efficacy, while Beeamond and EcoPatents relied on live demos and workshops to capture attention. These tactics encouraged not only awareness but also trust and credibility.

Scaling strategies focused on community building and partnerships. Beeamond engaged public and private entities to promote urban beekeeping, while Veles Sense collaborated with EU and US-based drone service providers to expand monitoring services internationally.

This hands-on mentorship reaffirmed the impact of tailored, data-driven strategies in helping AgTech startups succeed, providing each with the foundation to grow and make a meaningful industry impact.

What if you can win it all? | I help B2B companies generate revenue from the modern-day B2B buyer through better positioning, planning, and execution. With a bit of funk. | LinkedIn's Rising Star of Marketing

If you’ve outgrown playbooks, burned money on tactics, and still don’t have a system that scales - keep reading.

I build GTM systems with companies that want revenue, equity, and margin. The real deal.

I work with B2B companies in tech, SaaS, and legacy industries going digital. The kind where sales cycles are long, CAC is high, and “just post more” hasn’t worked in a while.

Through funky.enterprises, I lead a team of senior operators who’ve carried numbers, built pipelines, and fixed broken GTM for real.

What we build:
– Positioning that makes sense to buyers
– Acquisition systems that compound
– Expansion loops that survive team shifts and platform changes

We charge through retainers + revenue share, EBITDA growth, or equity, because when you scale, we scale too. Simple.

But in a world flooded with AI content, lookalike brands, and cloned tactics, resonance is the new moat. That’s why what we build cuts deeper because it’s rooted in clarity and built to scale trust.

I’m also building a community for founders and operators who want to implement all this, serious about building systems that last. Only yearly subscriptions, no short-term engagement.

Honestly, I love the fact that I can make an impact on 100+ people and companies at once with activation inside the community.

Workshops. 
Coaching. 
Activations. 
Mentorship. 
Education.

What I do isn’t theory. In the first 18 months of Funky Marketing, we closed 65 inbound B2B deals - no ads, no cold outreach. Just the same system we now build for others.

Since then:
120+ companies. 80+ startups.
Markets: US, UK, DACH, Canada, Dubai, Balkans.
Industries: SaaS, logistics, finance, energy, ecomm and more
Names you’ll know: Wix, Deloitte, Generali Group, Vega IT, NIS Gazprom Neft.

This is the kind of work that compounds and shows up where it matters - in pipeline, in boardrooms, and in actual revenue.

Also:
– Co-author of the first LinkedIn book in Serbian
– Host of two podcasts on growth and implementation (Funky B2B Marketing, Strategija & Implementacija)
– Mentor in programs like Founder Institute, BioSense, and NTP Belgrade

Off the clock? Funk music. Hiking. Partizan. Comics. Epic fantasy.

Because sometimes, the best growth systems start far from the feed.

CEO & Founder

We create demand generation programs primarily for B2B tech-based companies in the growth phase and enable them to generate consistent revenue growth, increase their deal size and shorten their sales cycles using inbound and content strategies.

People think marketing is easy. Hint: it’s not.
People see marketing as black and white, like sales. Hint: it’s not.
Marketing is very very gray. And oftentimes counterintuitive, which is why so many people don’t get it.

We keep delivering on what we promise.

Šetam ovog jutra Novim Sadom. Hladno je, oko nule. Ne šeta mi se ali sam se naterao da krenem, da pešačim, da mi mozak proradi. 

Hteo sam i da trčim, međutim ispalo je da sam ipak prevelika pička da bih trčao po nula stepeni.

Anyway.

Razmišljam o nasleđu koje svi imamo, posebno mi stariji. Ja sam rođen 1984. 

I to nasleđe je prilično jasno: posle srednje moraš da završiš faks, fakultet, i to neki koji će ti dati siguran posao. 

Moraš da budeš dobar student, da nađeš stabilan posao, posao na kom ćeš da ostaneš ceo život. 

Onda da nađeš ženu, da se oženiš, dobiješ decu i tako dalje, i tako dalje.

Mi smo svi naučeni da život ide tim nekim tokom. Kao jedna linija. I da sve mora da se odvija baš tim redom.

Kod mene u gradu većina ljudi radi u fabrici, u Michelinu. Prva, druga, treća smena. 

Ljudi koji nemaju vremena ni da putuju, ni da upoznaju sebe, ni da se zapitaju zašto. Nemaju vremena ni da se odmore kako treba, ni da rade kako treba. 

Sve se svodi na preživljavanje. Za platu koja, realno, nije nešto sjajna.

I onda, kad se pojavi neka prilika, prava prilika, mi često ne reagujemo. 

Kažemo sebi: ajde da izbistrimo. Ajde da razmislimo još malo. 

A u suštini, mi izbistravamo ceo život i vraćamo se opet na istu putanju.

Kao da stalno merimo da li nas ta prilika udaljava od “plana” ili nas mu približava. A realno - to nema veze. Ili bar ne bi trebalo da ima. 

Jer to jeste prilika, a mi je gledamo kroz ciljeve koji, u suštini, nisu za svakog isti. I kroz putanju koja uopšte ne mora da bude naša.

I onda kreneš da živiš i vidiš da to uopšte ne ide tako. Ili bar ne mora.

Ja sam, recimo, drop out. Nisam završio marketing, nisam završio ekonomiju, a bavim se marketingom i jebeno sam dobar u tome. 

Preselio sam se u drugi grad, nisam ostao u gradu u kom sam rođen, jer sam znao da ako ostanem - stagniraću. Da neću imati iste prilike. Da neću izaći iz tog kruga.

I mislim da je to najveći problem. I problem koji mnoge mlađe generacije danas možda nemaju na isti način, iz ovog ili onog razloga. 

Mislim da je najveća stvar koju mi možemo da uradimo i za sebe i za one koji dolaze iza nas - da razbijemo pattern.

Da li je neko u porodici imao bolest koju mi danas možemo preventivno da sprečimo?

Da li je neko zauvek ostao u malom gradu, a mi možemo da se preselimo i otvorimo sebi više prilika?

Da li je neko ceo život radio po smenama, a mi možemo makar da sebi damo šansu da probamo nešto drugo?

Ja sam upoznao životnu saputnicu u Novom Sadu. Ne u gradu u kom sam rođen. I to nije mala stvar.

Upravo to razbijanje paterna mi je omogućilo i omogućava mi i danas, kroz sve greške i nesigurnosti na tom putu, da postignem neke stvari u životu za koje sam ranije mislio da su nemoguće. Ili previše daleke. Kao nešto što se dešava nekim drugim ljudima, ali ne meni.

Mislim da je to sasvim dovoljno nasleđe za one koji dolaze iza nas. Ne saveti. Ne uputstva. Ne recepti.

Samo pokazivanje da je moguće.

Eto to mi se mota po glavi jutros dok hodam ka kancu.

Volcano of creativity | I fix wasted marketing spend when the pipeline’s stuck | B2B systems where brand, sales & growth collide into one engine | Biblical (like Oasis)

In the next 12 months, companies will waste millions because they don’t understand one thing: what to buy, what to build, and what to automate.

I keep seeing screenshots like the one above.
“Customer churned after 18 months - we built it internally.”

On paper, it sounds like a smart move. Why pay $300/month for a SaaS tool when you can “just build it yourself,” especially now that AI can generate half the code for you?

But that’s only the surface-level story.

The real shift AI is creating in SaaS isn’t that companies will suddenly cancel all their tools.

The real shift is that more and more companies are about to make the wrong strategic decision, because they don’t actually understand the trade-off between:

- buying a SaaS tool
- building an internal solution
- automating the workflow
- using AI as an intelligent layer on top of everything

That gap in understanding is where the biggest damage happens and nobody talks about it!

AI destroyed the barrier to creation. Ok?

“Vibe coding” lets someone in operations build a custom internal tool faster than a SaaS vendor can answer a support ticket.

People who have never written code in their life are now shipping micro-apps that solve their own problems in a few hours.

And all of this feels like a win… until the part that always shows up:

Maintenance
Security
Access controls
Compliance
API changes
Technical debt.

Your internal developer leaves - nobody knows how the tool works
The workflow breaks on a Friday at 6PM, and suddenly it’s your problem

And the SaaS tool you cancelled?
You’d bring it back tomorrow if you could.

AI makes it easy to build something but brutally expensive to keep it alive.

On the flip side, SaaS companies underestimate how fast internal AI tools will replace anything that isn’t built on deep expertise or real operational value.

Average SaaS is dead.
SaaS built on domain depth survives.

So the real question becomes 

What should you buy? 
What should you build? 
What should you automate?
What should you let AI replace?

Most companies don’t have a framework for that.

They guess
They cut tools they still need
They build tools they can’t maintain
They automate processes that weren’t designed for automation
They ship AI initiatives with no systems beneath them

And that’s where I come in.

I help companies create clarity in the chaos:
- audit the SaaS stack
- identify what stays, what goes, what gets rebuilt, and what gets automated
- design an AI-ready GTM system that doesn’t break under complexity
- prevent AI sprawl and duplicated internal tools
- align product, marketing, ops, and leadership around one system that compounds

AI will not replace SaaS.

AI will expose every SaaS tool, every workflow, and every decision that was built on average thinking.

The companies that win will be the ones that understand the trade-offs and build a system where SaaS, automation, and AI actually work together.

Everyone else is about to pay a very expensive tuition fee.

„Ako želiš mnogo para - moraš da se uprosečiš.“
„Razgovor se vodi na nivou glupljeg.“
„Najsigurnije je da se uklopiš.“

To su rečenice na kojima se ovde decenijama gradi mentalni model uspeha.

I najtužnije je što većina ljudi zaista poveruje u njih, jer je sigurnost kod nas postala vrhovna vrednost - ne rast, ne znanje, ne ambicija, nego stabilnost po svaku cenu, čak i kada ta stabilnost znači odustajanje od sebe.

Zato i dalje ogroman broj ljudi sanja o poslu u javnim ustanovama, jer ideja „da ne radim mnogo, da uzmem neku lovu i da me niko ne cima“ deluje kao vrhunac životne udobnosti. Možete umesto javne ustanove da dodate "rad od kuće".

To je zamrznut prostor u kojem se ništa ne dešava, ali ima dovoljno vazduha da traje ceo život.

Ja sam iz Pirota i znam taj mentalitet iznutra. Većina ljudi stremi da radi u fabrici - Michelin, prva–druga–treća smena, sigurna plata, poznat ritam, stabilan kolektiv. 

I nema ništa loše u tome dok god si iskren prema sebi. Problem počinje onda kada taj obrazac postane izgovor da nikada ne saznaš ko si zapravo i koliko daleko možeš da ideš ako samo jednom izađeš iz zone komfora.

Ista priča je i u biznisu, na LinkedInu i u svakom sistemu koji te nagrađuje za uklapanje, a kažnjava za iskorak.

Većina ljudi ne razbija sopstvene paterne, ne razbija tuđe, ne rizikuje mogućnost da bude bolja verzija sebe, jer postoji taj duboko usađeni strah „šta ako ispadnem glup“, pa je lakše da niko ne vidi ni tvoje slabosti ni tvoje snage.

Umesto toga, svi pišu iste postove, iste savete, iste rečenice, iste teme, iste formate, iste pokušaje sigurnog angažmana i onda se iskreno iznenade što im se vraća isti rezultat.

Ljudi biraju ono što trenutno nosi mali benefit, ne shvatajući da je to manje od 5% onoga što bi dobili kada bi samo jednom svesno iskoračili u nepoznato. 

Pre nego što imaju „intent“. 
Pre nego što razumeju algoritam. 
Pre nego što se usklade sa stadom. 

I ne vide da stadno razmišljanje ima najveću manu od svih - zarobi te tačno tamo gde ti je najudobnije.

Istina je brutalno jednostavna: ekstremni rezultati traže ekstremnu odgovornost, ekstremnu posvećenost i ekstremnu neprilagodljivost proseku. 

Ne znači to ludilo, nego odlučnost da ne igraš igru na najmanji zajednički sadržalac samo zato što je lakša. Znači da ne izabereš rutinu koja te štiti, nego rizik koji te menja.

A tu dolazimo do dve stvari koje su najteže, ali najvažnije:

1. Razbijanje paterna
2. Učenje brzog zaboravljanja.

Razbijanje paterna znači da prestaneš da živiš po automatizmu koji si nasledio, a učenje zaboravljanja znači da svesno puštaš stare verzije sebe da bi mogao da usvojiš nove. 

Dok god ostaješ vezan za ono što si nekada bio, nemaš prostora da postaneš ono što možeš da budeš.

Ako osećate da ste već neko vreme zaglavljeni u tuđem paternu, znajte da niste sami, ali isto tako znajte da niko neće doći da vas izvuče.

To morate vi. I sve počinje od jedne odluke: da prestanete da birate sigurnost i da po prvi put izaberete sebe.

Number 1 in Growth & Lead Gen for Serbia says Favikon

Apparently. It changes every week, but whenever I post, I'm number one. 

I’m sharing this for a very simple reason - I’m laying in bed with a stomach flu and I’m bored.

Otherwise, I don’t usually share rankings.

Not because they don’t matter, but because they’re almost always misunderstood.

I consider myself a person who shares insane amounth of value here daily. I don't think I have competition in that (and I'm not even modest).

This year, Favikon says I’m:
- in the top 9% of creators worldwide
- number 3516 on LinkedIn worldwide
- number 68 on LinkedIn in Growth & Lead Gen worldwide
- number 1 on LinkedIn in Growth & Lead Gen in Serbia
- number 1 on Twitter in Marketing & Sales in Serbia
- number 6 on LinkedIn in Serbia overall (all industries)
- number 6 in Marketing & Sales in Serbia (all platforms)
- valued at ~$617 per sponsored post

Not one platform. Not one niche. Growing globally.

Cool data. But here’s what actually matters.

None of this came from:
- hacks
- templates
- posting “what works on LinkedIn”
- chasing reach
- optimizing for impressions
- beautiful women on visuals

It came from doing the opposite.

For years, I treated content as infrastructure, not marketing.

A place to:
- think in public
- document decisions
- explain tradeoffs
- say the things clients usually say behind closed doors
- connect marketing, sales, leadership, and execution

This way of thinking came from working inside companies.

From sitting with founders, CEOs, CMOs, sales leaders and ops teams.
From building and fixing systems with teams at some of the best companies in the world. You can see some of the names in my cover photo.

They all came to me, inbound.

Different industries.
Different markets.
Same patterns.

That’s also what we do at funky.enterprises & Funky Marketing.

We build systems.

We help companies align:
- positioning
- demand creation and capture
- content and distribution
- sales and customer-facing teams

So growth doesn’t depend on one channel, one person, or one lucky quarter. 
We do much more than marketing, for a while now.

That’s why the niche matters more than the number.

When you’re clear about:
- who you help
- what problems you actually solve
- what you won’t touch
- how decisions are really made inside companies

the audience self-selects.

The uncomfortable truth is this - most people use LinkedIn to look competent. I use it to be precise.

That precision compounds. Slowly. Brick by brick.

Visibility doesn’t happen. It’s actually built.

And rankings?

They’re just lagging indicators of systems that have been running quietly for years.

If you’re trying to “grow on LinkedIn,” don’t ask what to post.
Ask what you actually stand behind when no one is watching.

Everything else follows.

p.s. I'm here for the comments

Favikon Rewind

Content isn’t marketing anymore. It’s how trust is distributed at scale.

And most companies haven’t caught up to that shift yet.

They still treat content as a tactic: posts, impressions, engagement, leads. Something the marketing team “handles” while the rest of the company focuses on the “real work.”

That model is already broken.

In modern B2B, trust is the product you ship before the product itself. Buyers don’t move through funnels anymore. They observe, compare, and wait. And what they’re really evaluating is not your offer, but your consistency.

One brand account cannot win in 2026.
Not in complex B2B. Not in long sales cycles. Not in categories where risk is high and decisions are slow.

But 20 employees can.

When those 20 people show up with shared context but different roles, something changes. The market doesn’t see a company trying to look smart. It sees a system that knows how it thinks, how it decides, and how it behaves under pressure.

That’s where trust actually comes from.

This is also where most companies make the same mistake.

They push for demand before they’ve earned credibility.
They invest in external campaigns while internal communication is still fragmented.
They want reach, but they haven’t aligned language, beliefs, or priorities inside the company.

Inside, teams are telling different stories.
Marketing sounds one way. Sales another. Leadership a third.
Employees don’t know what they’re allowed to say, or why their voice matters in the first place.

Then leadership concludes that “content doesn’t convert.”

It’s not a content problem.
It’s an internal clarity problem.

Once communication inside the company is fixed, everything outside becomes easier.

Content becomes consistent without being scripted.
Sales cycles shorten because buyers already feel familiar with you.
Hiring improves because candidates self-select.
Demand creation stops feeling forced and starts feeling inevitable.

Internal voices matter more than polished campaigns.

Not because employees are influencers.
But because buyers don’t trust posts. They trust patterns.

When the same thinking shows up across product, sales, customer success, and leadership, trust compounds. And only then does demand creation actually work.

Not as a funnel.
Not as a hack.
But as a natural byproduct of clarity, repetition, and visibility.

Content isn’t marketing anymore.

It’s how trust moves through the market.

And companies that understand this won’t need to shout in 2026.
They’ll already be heard.

If your brand only exists on the company page, you don’t have a brand. You have a publishing channel.

Real brands live in people.

Još jednom hodam do kancelarije, opet maguština, jebeno hladno, kao da smo u jebenom Sibiru, a ne u Novom Sadu. I pričam ja da treba da smo na Tajlandu, ali nismo na Tajlandu. 

I zato, dok mi se ruka smrzava na putu do kanca i dok diktiram ovaj tekst da mi tehnologija transkribuje, evo par stvari direktno i iskreno.

Gledam već neko kolege i koleginice kako izbacuju neke rezultate, bilo LinkedIn, Ads-i, content, neka usluga... I čudno mi je. Javne zahvalnice, screenshotovi, promovisanje usluga. 

I sve bi to bilo super, by all means, da ti rezultati nisu toliko mali da su praktično beznačajni. Beznačajni.

I onda se to ponavlja iz dana u dan i samim tim se uvere drugi da je to to. Da su oni te face. Da oni znaju. Jer kao, ako se stalno promovišemo, sigurno je to nešto ozbiljno, a ovi drugi ne znaju svakako značenje. A u suštini, to je ono klasično fake-uju till they make-uju.

Poseban problem je što se gledaju potpuno pogrešne metrike. Gledaju se impresije, recimo, za LinkedIn, a ovd, impresije i vidljivost su nešto što vi date nekom kad ih tek aktivirate. To nisu vaši rezultati. To je njihova reputacija, njihova mreža, ono što su oni radili pre vas. Vi ste ih samo učinili vidljivim.

Ako hoćeš da znaš da li si stvarno uradio dobar posao, ne gledaš impresije. Gledaš koliko je ljudi posle prvog posta otišlo na profil. Gledaš koliko je ljudi sačuvalo taj post. Čuvanje posta znači da si izvukao pravu stvar iz te osobe. Gledaš koliko je ljudi prosledilo taj post nekom drugom u LinkedIn inbox. To znači da je neko rekao: ovo mi je vredno treba nam to.

Gledaš da li ti se javilo 50 ljudi koji nemaju veze s onim što radiš ili jedan pravi čovek koji ima smisla. Gledaš da li je neko posle prvog posta dobio razgovor. Da li je posle drugog posta došao konkretan posao. To su metrike. Sve ostalo je BS.

I sad dolazimo do kolega i koleginica. Pitaju me zašto ne komentarišem devojke i žene koje izbacuju svoje fotografije. Da budem jasan, nemam ništa protiv toga. Lepe su žene, dao im bog. Nisu to nužno ni obnažene fotografije, iako ima i takvih. Ima seksipila i pažnje.

Problem koji ja imam je što je od momenta kada su krenule da izbacuju takav sadržaj, prestao da postoji kvalitet u tekstu. Sve je površno. Sve je zarad lajkova i followera. Nema ničega što neko može da uzme i da mu koristi. 

E sa tim imam problem. Izgubio sam poštovanje.

Ono što me stvarno plaši je vreme u koje idemo, pričam juče sa Miroslavom. Vreme u kome možeš dovoljno dugo da guraš svoju istinu, a ljudi ne znaju. I ako si uporan i stalno ponavljaš, to postaje istina.

Zato se trudim da igram drugu igru. Neću da se borim sa ljudima koji tek kreću, koji fake-uju pipeline, koji fake-uju rezultate. Biće ih uvek.

Moj jedini cilj je da isplivam ispred svega toga. Da budem autoritet bez pogovora. Da ljudi koji su radili sa mnom mogu da kažu: da, radili smo s njim, dao nam je rezultate, pomogao nam je, radimo i dalje zajedno. Znamo njega. Znamo njegov tim.

To mi je cilj.
To je ultimate goal.

Everyone is suddenly hiring “storytellers” because the old system that used to “carry” their story is collapsing. Nooooot because they discovered the magic of narrative LOL.

WSJ dropped a set of numbers that basically confirms what’s been happening in practice:

1. LinkedIn says U.S. job posts that include the term “storyteller” doubled in the year ended Nov. 26. 

2. That includes roughly 50,000 listings under marketing and 20,000+ under media & communications mentioning the term. 

3. Executives said “storyteller/storytelling” on earnings calls and investor days 469 times this year, vs 359 in all of 2024, and 147 in 2015 (FactSet).

This isn’t a “cute new job title” moment ladies and gents.
This is a credibility market forming in real time.

I've been talking about this for a while. In case you were carefully following, you know it.

Because the world they relied on for narrative distribution is shrinking. Let's analyze 👇 

Medill’s State of Local News reports U.S. print newspaper circulation is down 70% from 2005 levels, and the top 100 papers’ sites are down 40%+ in page views on average over the last four years. 

Even the job category itself reflects the trend. BLS shows “news analysts, reporters, and journalists” is a defined occupation with ongoing contraction and pressure (and it’s not exactly a growth party). 

So what happens?

Companies don’t get “earned” narrative the way they used to. And they don’t trust the internet anymore, because AI turned “pretty words” into wallpaper.

So they go hunting for the thing they can’t generate at scale: believability.
BELIEVABILITY is an amazing word.

That’s what “storyteller” means in corporate language.

Not “someone who writes nice.”
Not “a content person.”
Not “make the brand sound inspiring.”

Storyteller is someone who can take messy reality (product, strategy, leadership, customers, culture) and turn it into something humans recognize as true.

And thaaaaat’s also why “storytelling” is showing up on investor calls.

Because when growth is harder, CAC is higher, and attention is fragmented, narrative stops being a brand exercise and becomes a business function:

- recruitment
- and trust
- and category positioning
- and customer expansion
- aaaaand crisis resilience

One more thing people will hate hearing, let me say it to you ⤵️ 

Most companies will still try to solve this the lazy way. They’ll hire a “Head of Storytelling,” keep internal comms broken, keep leadership vague, keep teams silent, and then wonder why the output feels like AI slop with a salary.

The companies that win won’t be the ones with the best storytelling department.

They’ll be the ones with:

- real internal voices
- and clear decisions
- and specific tradeoffs
- aaaand leaders who don’t outsource conviction

Storytelling didn’t suddenly become important friends.
Trust did!

And stories are just the last delivery mechanism people still give a chance.

taplio

The Battle

Ryan Paul Gibson

Nemanja Zivkovic

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taplio

The Battle

Ryan Paul Gibson

Nemanja Zivkovic

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);}Nemanja Zivkovic's LinkedIn Performance

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