Grow Your Career 1% Daily - I’ll Show You How | Follow for Tips on Learning, Professional Development, and Productivity | Professor | MBA + JD

Is this the part where I talk about brand voice, distribution, and storytelling across the funnel? Or say we “help companies scale content that converts”?

𝗪𝗲 𝗱𝗼 𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁.

But what we really do is write content your team doesn’t have to worry about, so you can stay focused on strategy, not sentence structure.

𝗛𝗲𝘆, 𝗜’𝗺 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽𝗵𝗲𝗻. 👋

And my path here hasn’t exactly followed a playbook:
Banking → Law School → Teaching → L&D → Content

(Yeah… it’s been a ride.)

Today, I run a B2B content agency with my wife. We keep it lean and personal — just the two of us, plus our kids and a couple barky mini schnauzers. 

At Damn Smart Marketing, we give marketers writing they can trust and results they can stand behind.

✓ Content that sounds like you (not a template, not bland AI)
✓ Full support from idea to publication
✓ A partner who gets content
✓ Zero fluff, zero hand-holding
✓ More time to focus on what matters

In other words: you get to 🚀 while we handle the ✍️.

𝗟𝗼𝗼𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗮 𝘄𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗻𝗲𝗿? 𝗧𝘄𝗼 𝘄𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝘄𝗲 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸:

1️⃣ 𝗗𝗼𝗻𝗲-𝗳𝗼𝗿-𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘄𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺𝘀.
Blogs, LinkedIn posts, newsletters, case studies. If it’s got words, we’ll write it. You get to run the show without sweating every sentence.

2️⃣ 𝗟𝗶𝗻𝗸𝗲𝗱𝗜𝗻 𝘀𝘂𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗳𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀.
We’ve built an AI-assisted workflow that makes posting easy, effective, and actually worth reading.

If you're curious, DM me. 

No cold, hard pitch, I promise. Just a real convo about where you’re headed and whether some damn smart content can help.

Stephen 😀

Stephen Mostrom

Can I run a theory by you? (about writing, Gen AI, and B2B)

Donna and I call it “the commodification of passable writing.” 



Here’s the gist: 

Before ChatGPT went supernova in ’22, if you needed written content for your business (linkedin, website copy, emails, the works), you had three options. 

Write it yourself 
Hire someone to write it 
Staff in-house folks

Sometimes this led to bottom-of-the-barrel stuff that hurt the brand. But most companies putting out content did the minimum to look good.

Then came the Gen AI revolution
(dun dun dun)

And with it the commodification of passable writing. 

With a free account and a five-word prompt, anyone could generate something that looked fine.

No typos
Some kind of point
Basic structure

AI collapsed the floor of B2B writing, pulling everything toward the middle. 

Everything except the top band. 
Because AI didn’t touch the ceiling. 

Original ideas and data
Writing with your fingerprints all over it
Deep empathy for your audience
Storytelling grounded in experience

That’s always been the gold standard. 
And nothing about that has changed. 

Commodification explains so much about what we’re seeing today. Every channel flooded with lifeless, technically correct words. 

It also explains why companies like Anthropic, OpenAI and Netflix are scooping up world-class storytellers and paying them up to $1M a yr. To meet hyper-aggressive growth goals, they can't afford to sound like everyone else.

We’re living in an era dominated by passable writing. 
100x more middle. 

Here’s the irony…
The middle is where B2B content goes to die. 

Always has been.

B2B Content & Executive Ghostwriting for Tech and Finance | Human words, AI workflows | JD & MBA | Running a two-person agency with my wife (still married)

If even 10% of LinkedIn was written by a human…




I might want to scroll my feed.

Anyway. Back to the 5 people who still deal in original thoughts.

They’ve earned my attention.

"Can I be real a second? For just a millisecond? Let down my guard and tell the people how I feel a second?" 🎶

Yes, you can. And you should. 

Why?

Because stories are the new credibility on LinkedIn. 
Because struggles are the new authenticity on LinkedIn. 
Because lessons learned are the new value on LinkedIn. 

AI has turned everyone with a laptop into a “thought leader.” Except… all the thoughts sound the same. 

What’s not the same?

You. Your experiences. Your unique perspective. 

That’s AI-proof content. And when you craft it right, it’s the fastest path to standing out in a feed drowning in "you should be doing XYZ" posts.

Example: 

One of our ghostwriting clients went viral the other day. 

6,380 likes. 369 comments. 161 reposts.

The post? 
Her journey getting rejected from her dream job… 
And the tweaks she made that finally opened the door.

It was simple. It was one-of-a-kind.
And it resonated. 

Because she was real a second.

In the middle of every prospect call, Donna stops and says the same thing. "Full disclosure: We DON’T stay in our lane."

Yes, we’re writers. Hired to write. 

But after 9 years and millions of words, we've learned to spot what others miss.

A content process that could run smoother. 
An angle that could hit harder.

We surface them every time. 

We can do this because we don't operate like a typical agency. For starters, it's just Donna and me. We put eyes on everything.

We've worked across dozens of clients, hundreds of campaigns. We've seen the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Most importantly, we trust our instincts. And we build relationships where our clients do too.

Getting outside our lane has helped us: 

Turn a finance founder's LinkedIn from in-the-weeds tactics to leadership storytelling. 20k followers in 9 months.

Pitch a Succession tie-in to a bank's blog team. It became one of their top-performing series.

Convince a SaaS CEO client to blow up their newsletter format. One story, one message, no grab bag. Thousands of subscribers followed.

Most agencies live in their lane. 
It's safer that way. For them.

We’re not like that.

After writing 2M+ words for B2B brands, here’s my (very opinionated) ranking of what makes content stick and buyers act:

1/10 - Grammar and spelling
Yes, clean it up. 
No, it won’t save a weak idea.

2/10 - Formatting
White space helps. 
But it doesn’t fix boring.

3/10 - Vocabulary and clever phrasing
Fun to write. 
Rarely the reason someone buys.

4/10 - Word count
Long doesn’t equal depth. 
Short doesn’t equal punch.

5/10 - Headline or hook
A strong opener earns the click. 
The body earns the trust.

6/10 - Point of view
Safe takes get safe results.
A clear stance earns attention.

7/10 - Proof
Metrics. Examples. Testimonials.
Now we’re getting somewhere.

8/10 - Pain
Name the problem. 
The one they vent about after the meeting.

9/10 - Stakes
What happens if nothing changes?
Missed targets. Blown budgets. Career risk.

10/10 - Empathy
Do they feel understood?
Do they think, “This person gets it?”



Most teams obsess over 1-5.
Deals get decided at 6-10.

That’s why Donna and I spend as much time inside the buyer’s world as we do inside the Google Doc.

We sit in on customer interviews. We join case study calls.
We comb through LinkedIn comment sections and debates.

Craft + psychology.
That’s the work.

One of our clients (SaaS CEO, Finance) landed multiple 700k+ impression posts last year. I looked back, and these 4 elements showed up every time:

1. A personal story

Every winning post centered on something emotional and specific:
– Bombing a board meeting
– Absorbing painful feedback early in her career
– Breaking a proven rule to get results

The human story was the wedge. 
We used it to deliver her POV.

2. A dynamite hook

Busy execs don’t read 250-word posts unless the first line earns it.

Her high-performers nailed the hook:
– Picturesque setup
– Hyper-specific tension
– Sparks of curiosity that earn a click

One time, she opened with a tell-all on a thorny relationship she'd had with her past CEO (and what she did about it). 

Readers leaned in.
6,380 likes. 369 comments. 161 reposts. 

3. Real talk, no fluff

She dug into the moments most CEOs keep to themselves.

“This almost broke me”
“Here’s what I got wrong”
“Nobody talks about this part…”

That vulnerability built trust fast.
And it lasted as more and more finance leaders started following.

4. Plain language

I dropped her posts into Hemingway Editor.
Most landed at a 3rd grade reading level.

Complex ideas, easy to absorb. 

Too many leaders try to sound smart on LinkedIn.
But clear is what’s landing.



In 9 months, this CEO went from a lukewarm LinkedIn account to 20k active followers and 10M+ impressions. 

The beauty: it's a playbook any exec can follow. 
If they're willing to drop their corporate armor.

Overrated: sounding smart on LinkedIn.
Underrated: sounding human on LinkedIn.

People have to know and like you before they'll trust you.

Human psychology 101. 
(yes, it applies to B2B)

“I apologize for such a long letter…” 





Mark Twain once said. “I didn't have time to write a short one."

A reminder for anyone who creates.

Great writing isn’t more, more, more.
It’s meaning.

And meaning takes time.

Generic AI writing is a commodity. And it’s the fastest way to go invisible. 

I joined Dorien Morin-van Dam on Strategy Talks to break down what to do when everyone has access to the same baseline of LLM-powered words. 

More, more, more or faster, faster, faster won't help you stand out.
But outwriting AI will. 

And you do that with a unique POV, writing that has your fingerprints all over it, and assets only your business can produce. 

Dorien and I talked about:

- The trap of churning out 160 articles in 90 days (aka the “spray and pray” approach)

- How one of our CEO clients generated 10M+ impressions, 20K+ followers, and pipeline with a simple, human approach to LinkedIn

- Where we recommend deploying AI in the content process, and where human creativity is the only edge left

Check out the full convo here.
https://lnkd.in/gy-V4z_5

Claude called me out on my sh*t yesterday, and I needed it. 

Lately, I've been ending every month by throwing my LinkedIn posts into a painstakingly-built Damn Smart Marketing strategist and asking questions.

Did my posts speak to buyers (or other content people)? 
Did my proof points earn the claims I was making?

Yesterday, I ran my February analysis and… uh oh. 

Exact words: "You're making the argument. You're not proving it. Your best content is sitting in your client work and you're leaving it on the table."

Truth is, my instinct has always been to let the work speak for itself. 

Talk less. Deliver more. Trust that the results will find their way into the right conversations.

In February, this instinct to avoid the “brag” took over without me realizing it. And it hurt my content. 

Because Donna and I have been in the trenches for years. 

We have metrics that prove our strategies work. 
Testimonials that prove our approach delivers.

And I wasn’t talking about it enough. 

So when I made an argument on LinkedIn, it didn’t have the lived-in umph that comes when you’re backed by years of experience. 

My posts risked sounding more like a talking head or an AI-first think piece. Not someone who’s been there, done that. 

No thanks. 

My gameplan moving into March: 

1 - Keep running monthly analysis. With an LLM that’s willing to push back, like Claude, you can spot LinkedIn gaps in seconds. 

2 - Lead with proof. In B2B, it’s the difference between sounding theoretical and sounding earned. 

3 - Learn, adapt, keep going. February's analysis stung. March's content will be better for it.

Now I’m off to dig up data for my next post. ✌️

AI broke content, right? Everyone sounds the same, right?

I'm joining Dorien today to talk about the path less traveled. How the smartest marketers x founders I know are using their empathy instincts and human voice to write things their audience actually wants to read. 

(Oh, and how they're using AI as an amplifier, not a replacement)

See you there!

Writer for B2B Tech & Finance ✍️ | Running a content agency with my wife (and yes, still married) | Human words, AI workflows | JD & MBA

Look who's talking with me this week? 
Stephen Mostrom, the damn smart marketer!

If you are struggling to stand out when using AI, this one's for you, and you and you and you.  

Live at 7 PM ET on 2/24, and of course, the replay will be available too if you can't make it live.

How to Outwrite AI: Ways to Keep Your Human Voice and Stand Out

Helping B2B Teams win more clients in less time by growing an email list of buyers. Join my free workshop. Seats are limited, so apply now!

Most Business Leaders know how to deliver.

Very few know how to stay visible long enough for ideal clients to discover them.I help fix that.

I help B2B and recruitment leaders build an authority engine that increases visibility, drives warm conversations, and fills their pipeline with clients who already trust their expertise.

The system is simple: CLARITY → AUTHORITY → CONVERSATIONS (The CAC System)

1. Clarity - We nail your positioning, messaging, niche, and signature frameworks so buyers instantly understand your value.

2. Authority - I build your visibility tower — daily content, insights, stories, and a strategic narrative that positions you as the go-to expert in your market.

3. Conversations - Warm engagement, optimised profile touchpoints, and simple outreach loops that turn attention into booked client calls.

This creates for you.
⬆️ More visibility
⬆️ Better clients
⬆️ Consistent inbound
⬆️ Higher perceived value
⬆️ An easier sales cycle

Results my clients have got
✔️ 60k+ impressions in a single post 
✔️ Multiple warm client conversations booked within 30 days
✔️ £500k+ deal closed from visibility built using this system 
✔️ More replies, more reach, more opportunities, without constant grinding

Jonny Umoru

Here is a quick tip for every business owner who wants more monthly revenue.

Record your calls.
All of them.

Not for compliance.
Not for content.

For truth.
When you listen back, two things happen fast.

You see exactly where you’re strong.
You see exactly where you leak value.

Early 2024 forced me to dive deep into my meetings.
As I was booking them consistently.
But clients weren’t converting.

My first assumption was the obvious one.
“I must be bad on calls.”
Wrong.

The real issue was more subtle and more damaging.

I was allowing my prospects to treat the meeting like an open advice line.
Which is helpful, generous but also super unfocused.

There's no clear structure.
There's no solid boundaries.
There's no actual clear commercial direction.

Once I fixed that, conversions followed.

Same calls.
Same experience.
Different outcome.

Recording calls doesn’t just improve sales.
It improves your judgement.

And when you’re running a business, judgment is the real leverage.
More data always beats more opinions.

Client Acquisition Systems for Recruitment Directors

No alternative text description for this image

When a recruitment CEO tells me,
“I’m just lazy on LinkedIn.”

They’re usually wrong.

And it’s rarely laziness, it’s friction.

Most CEOs I speak to don’t lack opinions, insight or experience.

What they lack is a system.

They post once.
Then delivery gets busy.
Then BD takes priority.
Then a big assignment lands.
Then visibility disappears for six weeks.

Not because they don’t care.
But because it’s not embedded.

Consistency that relies on willpower will always lose to revenue pressure.

Honestly, why would you choose to be more visible over finding candidates for an active role?

That’s the real reason most leadership visibility fails.

It’s not a confidence issue.
It’s not an intelligence issue.
It’s not even a time issue.

It’s a workflow issue.

If showing up online depends on.
- Remembering to post
- Writing from scratch
- Chasing approvals
- Logging in manually

It will collapse the moment the business gets busy.
And recruitment businesses are always busy.

The firms that make it work don’t “try harder.”

They install a repeatable system
→ Capture
→ Creation
→ Approval
→ Distribution

Once it’s embedded, it runs alongside the business instead of competing with it for attention.

That’s when visibility starts compounding.
And that’s when founder dependency begins to reduce.

If you’re a CEO who knows you should be more visible, but it keeps slipping…

It’s probably not laziness.
It’s architecture.

DM “SYSTEM”, and I’ll send you the monthly capture structure we use inside 10 – 50 head recruitment firms.

Katie is a consultancy client of mine who was sitting at £10–15K per month and blaming the inconsistency in the market for unpredictable revenue.

The real issue wasn’t the market.
It was the absence of infrastructure.

Revenue depended on effort.
When outbound slowed down, so did growth.
There was no acquisition engine behind the business.

So we built one.

1️⃣ We installed a structured cold email system that put her in front of thousands of relevant prospects consistently.

2️⃣ We tightened her positioning so the right people moved forward instead of circling.

3️⃣ We implemented follow-up that didn’t rely on willpower or reminders.

And within 90 days, she generated an additional £25K in revenue from a £2K investment, with an average deal size of around £5K.

Nothing about the industry changed.

What changed was structure.

Most founders don’t have a lead problem.
They have a discipline problem disguised as a strategy problem.

When acquisition becomes infrastructure instead of effort, revenue stops being emotional and starts being predictable.

A strange thing happens in a lot of recruitment agencies.
They dislike doing outreach.
But they still double down on it.

And avoid creating content completely.
On the surface, that makes no sense.

But the reasoning is actually simple.

Outreach feels closer to revenue.
Send messages → start conversations → win clients.

Content feels uncertain.
Post something → hope someone sees it.

So recruiters stick with what feels more controllable.

Even if they don’t enjoy it.

The problem is that outreach works very differently when people already recognise you.

When your market has seen your thinking before.
When your name already feels familiar.

Suddenly, replies increase.
Conversations start more easily.

Because you are no longer just another recruiter appearing in their inbox.

Content doesn’t replace outreach.
It makes outreach work far better.

That’s the part many agencies miss.

Something has quietly changed in how companies choose recruitment partners.

Ten years ago, winning a client often came down to 3 things.
• Who you knew
• Who called first
• Who had the candidate

Today, something else happens before the conversation even starts.
And that is hiring managers actually look you up.

They look at.
→ Your LinkedIn profile
→ What you talk about publicly
→ Whether you seem to understand their market
→ Whether you look credible in your niche

It is a silent evaluation.
And it happens before they reply to your message.

This is why two recruiters can send similar outreach and get completely different responses.

One looks like every other recruiter.
The other looks like someone who understands the hiring problem.

That difference matters more than many agencies realise.

Because client acquisition is no longer just about who reaches out.

It is about who looks credible when they do.

The recruitment firms that win consistently tend to have three things working together.
1️⃣ Visible expertise in their niche
2️⃣ Consistent outreach to the right companies
3️⃣ Regular insight shared with their market

When those things combine, conversations become easier to start.

Because the market already understands how you think.
And that changes how people respond.

P.S. How are you standing out as a recruiter?

One of my clients wanted more replies and more meetings from email.

I told him to focus on five things.

The next month, his replies tripled.

If you want more responses to your emails, read this carefully.

1️⃣ Accept that not everyone is ready
→ Some people will never buy, and that is fine.
→ Email is not about convincing everyone.
→ It is about finding the ones already leaning forward.

2️⃣ Make sending emails normal
→ Sending when you “feel like it” will never build momentum.
→ Sending emails should feel like brushing your teeth.
→ More volume creates more surface area for replies.

3️⃣ Stop hunting for the perfect template
→ There is no magic framework.
→ Connection principles matter more than scripts.
→ Optimise the inputs, not the ego metrics.

4️⃣ Most people obsess over meetings booked.
→ Track: Open rate, click-through rate and reply rate.
→ Positive response percentage is your North Star.
→ If the inputs improve, the outcomes follow.

5️⃣ Always send yourself a test email
→ Broken links can make you look bad.
→ Formatting errors and spelling mistakes.
→ Small mistakes quietly kill credibility.

Email is not complicated.

But it does require emotional maturity, consistency, and attention to detail.

Most people are missing at least one of those.

I help exec search and recruitment firms build authority that turns into client calls

Most recruitment businesses focus on the company.

The logo.
The website.
The awards.
The job posts.

But clients don’t buy logos.

They buy your experience and judgement.

This is where most agencies quietly dilute their authority.

The business posts.
The page shares updates.
The reposts.

The marketing manager schedules content.

But the senior leadership team are silent.
Or just inconsistent.
Or posting randomly without alignment.

Everyone is going in different directions.
From the outside, it creates noise.
From the inside, it feels like “we’re doing marketing.”

But authority doesn’t compound at company level in recruitment.
It compounds at the individual level.

Clients don’t say.
“I chose that firm because of their banner.”

They say:
“I’ve seen what he writes.”
“I’ve followed her insights.”
“I trust how they think.”

When five leaders show up with different messages, different tones, different positioning…

You don’t get leverage.
You get fragmentation.

The firms that scale properly align leadership around one north star.

Different voices.
- Same direction.
- Same positioning.
- Same commercial narrative.

That’s when visibility turns into leverage.
And that’s when founder dependency starts to reduce.

If your brand is visible but your leaders aren’t…
You’re missing the multiplier.

DM “SYSTEM”, and I’ll send you the monthly capture structure we use inside 10 – 50 head recruitment firms.

Too many recruitment businesses focus on the whole instead of the individual.

Their online presence tells people more about the company and its accolades than the people actually driving the revenue.

But there’s still a problem.

What about the individuals who want to bill more?

If you don’t show up for your audience as yourself, you get forgotten.

This is something I see many recruitment directors and top billers go through.

At first, they think showing up online is pointless.

Then they realise they should be visible, but convince themselves they don’t have the time.

Then they get trapped in the cold-calling cycle.

Where the only way to grow revenue is to cold call all day, and each year the returns get smaller.

It’s time to shift the focus.

Encourage individuals to build their own authority online.

It benefits the company.
It benefits the individual.

The uncomfortable truth is this.

Many recruitment businesses don’t encourage personal brands because they’re afraid of losing control.

But if your top biller can only win because of the logo, you don’t have leverage.

You have a fragile business where revenue walks out the door the moment someone leaves.

And if your growth depends on keeping people small, you don’t have a scalable model. You have control disguised as strategy.

For years, most agency owners relied on three things.
Referrals, LinkedIn posts, and outbound.

But the game has changed.
The algorithms changed.
The buying process changed.
The attention span changed.

And the founders who keep waiting for inbound luck instead of building inbound systems are getting left behind.

Here’s what the best founders I’ve been speaking to are now doing differently:

1️⃣ They’re building assets, not chasing leads.
Every conversation starts with a lead magnet
→ Something that earns trust before asking for time.

2️⃣ They’re creating content with a funnel, not just a feeling.
Each post points somewhere: a magnet, a scorecard, or a conversation
→ Not just a like.

3️⃣ They’re automating nurture, not losing warm leads.
They’re turning every download, every click, every open
→ Into a tracked, re-engageable prospect.

4️⃣ They’re seeing marketing as a system, not a person.
Because systems scale
→ People burn out.

If you’re still relying on hope.
You’ll always be behind the ones relying on process.

This next wave of recruitment founders are marketers as much as they are recruiters and that’s exactly why they’re winning.

If you want to see what this kind of system looks like inside a recruitment agency.
DM me the word SYSTEM and I’ll send you the visual map.

A lot of recruitment founders say they want more inbound.

What they actually want is less pressure.

Less pressure to chase.
Less pressure to always be “on.”
Less pressure to be the only one bringing revenue in.

Because here’s the uncomfortable truth.

Most agencies don’t have a lead generation problem.

They have a dependency problem.

One person drives most of the new business.
One person has the strongest relationships.
One person is visible.
One person carries the commercial weight.

And when that person gets busy…

Pipeline slows.

That’s not a marketing issue.
That’s a structural issue.

I’m not interested in helping recruitment agencies “post more.”

I’m interested in helping them remove that single point of failure.

When 2–3 leaders in a firm are visible.
When outbound is structured instead of reactive.
When there’s an owned email list compounding quietly in the background.

Revenue stops feeling fragile.

You don’t notice it at first.

But the pressure drops.

And that changes how you run the business.

Most founders think they need more leads.

What they actually need is a system that doesn’t rely on them.

Take 30 days away from new business development.

No new outreach at all.

What happens to your client pipeline?
How many new hiring conversations appear next month?

From the system itself.

For many recruitment agencies, that question exposes a quiet risk.

Because their pipeline still leans heavily on the founder.

The director is still the one.
• Sending outbound
• Warming up relationships
• Posting when there’s time
• Stepping in when meetings slow down

It works.
Until delivery gets busy.

Then three things quietly happen.
1️⃣ Outreach slows
2️⃣ Visibility drops
3️⃣ New conversations dry up

Growth starts to stall again.

The agencies that stabilise their pipeline install three simple engines.

Authority
Sharing insight so the market understands how you think before you ever reach out.

Acquisition
Consistent outbound that starts new conversations every week.

Nurture
Staying visible to prospects who are not hiring today but will be soon.

Recruitment firms rarely struggle because they cannot deliver.

They struggle because their pipeline still depends on effort instead of infrastructure.

And effort eventually runs out of hours.
Whereas infrastructure doesn’t.

Most recruitment agencies are stuck in the same cycle.

Delivery → panic → outreach → new client → delivery → panic again.

I had a few conversations with recruiters this week, and the pattern is always the same.

They know they need more clients.
But they are buried with outreach and delivery.

Which gives them the illusion that they are doing the right thing.

Then the project finishes.
The pipeline dries up.
And suddenly they have to start “doing marketing” again.

That is not a business.
That is survival mode.

If you run a recruitment agency, there are only three things that actually matter.

Everything else is noise.

Outreach
I’m actually getting annoyed hearing people say they do not do outreach like it is something to be proud of. It is not. You just sound scared of rejection.

Marketing
If no one knows you exist, no one will buy from you. It does not matter how good you are at recruiting.

Delivery
If the service is poor, clients will not come back, and they will not refer you. Eventually, the business dies.

I see so many agencies only focus on one or two of these.
Then they wonder why revenue never really grows.

And most of the time, the thing being ignored is marketing.

Which is why they stay trapped in the cycle.
Delivery → panic → outreach → new client → delivery → panic again.

If you run a recruitment agency and want to fix this.
I’m offering a free trial to help you start building the marketing and distribution system that most agencies are missing.

Message me TRIAL, and I’ll send the details.

If you think sales is just about how much effort you put in.
You are wrong.

You can work all day on sales and get none because you are doing the wrong things.

More calls with the wrong people.
More follow-ups that focus on the wrong part of the funnel.
More posts that talk about the wrong topics.
These things lead to more stress.

But if deals only move when you are actively forcing them forward.
That is not a motivation issue and it is not a market issue.

It is a system issue.
Fix the leak by slowing down and understanding the race youare actually in.

If you stopped doing BD for 60 days, what would actually happen in your business?

Not hypothetically but realistically.

If most of your highest-value assignments originate from you…

Then you don’t just have a scaling problem.
You have a revenue risk problem.

This is something I see constantly in 10 – 30 head recruitment businesses.

They’re doing strong numbers.
£150k months, £200k months, £300k months...

But scratch beneath the surface, and growth still runs through one or two people.
- The founder who can't let go of responsibility.
- The top biller who can sell ice to an eskimo.
- The rainmaker with all the great relationships.

When they’re busy, the pipeline slows.
When they’re on holiday, activity dips.
When they’re deep in delivery, visibility disappears.

And you can’t blame the market.
Because it's a structural problem embedded in the business.

Most firms rely on brute-force outbound.
And cold calling works.

But it resets to zero every week.

Authority compounds over months and years.

When senior leadership consistently shows up in their niche, conversations warm up before outreach even happens.

Mandates come in with context.

Trust builds before the first call.

Dependency reduces.

You don’t need to remove outbound activity.
You need to reduce how much your business relies on it.

And that changes the business's ceiling.

If stepping back for 60 days would slow your firm down dramatically…

That’s the real bottleneck.

DM “LEVERAGE” if you want to see how we diagnose and fix that inside founder-led recruitment firms.

If you’re a recruitment director and your marketing “isn’t working,”

It might not be your marketing team.
It might be you.

Before that triggers you, just consider this.

Have you clearly defined?
• The niche you dominate
• The type of client you avoid
• The hiring philosophy you believe in
• What makes your approach different

Or did you hire someone and say?

“Smash the phones and bring us jobs.”

Marketing can’t create clarity.
It can only amplify it.

Most recruitment agencies have a positioning problem.

So the marketing team posts generic updates.
The website sounds like everyone else.
Outbound feels cold every time.

And the director concludes.
“Marketing doesn’t work in recruitment.”

But it does.
But only when it’s built on a clear point of view and a system.

Otherwise, it’s just activity and is doomed to fail.

Recruitment directors know they need to be posting on LinkedIn.
Especially when they’re trying to break into a new market.

But the week usually looks like this.

Monday
A client needs CVs urgently.

Tuesday
A candidate drops out.

Wednesday
You’re chasing feedback.

Thursday
Another role lands.

Friday
You finally get a minute to breathe.

That LinkedIn post idea you had on Sunday…
…never happens.

So what happens instead?
You prioritise the work right in front of you.

Which feels smart in the moment.

But the trade-off is this.
Every time delivery gets busy, marketing stops.

And when the roles finish…
You suddenly need exposure again.

So the cycle becomes.
→ Delivery
→ Silence
→ No visibility
→ Outreach again
→ New roles
→ Delivery again.

Which is why breaking into a new industry feels so difficult.
You’re constantly restarting your visibility from zero.

The agencies that break into new markets fastest do something differently.

They keep their authority in that niche visible even when the desk gets busy.

So when companies start hiring in that space…
They already recognise the recruiter who understands the market.

You have a choice right now, which is to be prepared and put things in place or scramble when you have no jobs.

So ask yourself, are you actually being efficient in your business, or are you making it up as you go?

❤️ PS - DM me for your Recruitment GTM Monthly Plan

Something has quietly changed in how companies choose recruitment partners.

Before replying to your message, many hiring managers check first.

They look at:
• Your LinkedIn profile
• What you talk about publicly
• Whether you understand their market
• Whether you look credible in your niche

It is a silent evaluation.

And it happens before the conversation even starts.

This is why two recruiters can send similar outreach and get completely different responses.

One looks like just another recruiter.

The other looks like someone who understands the hiring problem.

That difference matters.

Client acquisition is no longer just about who reaches out.

It is about who looks credible when they do.

This mistake slows down most agencies.

They only focus on business development when the pipeline starts to feel thin.

So the pattern looks like this.
Pipeline strong → delivery busy → outreach stops.

A few months later, the pipeline weakens again.

Then outreach restarts.
This cycle repeats in many agencies.

Not because the team lacks effort.

But because business development is still treated like an activity, not part of the operating system.

The firms with more stable pipelines do something different.

Outreach continues even when delivery is busy.
Visibility continues even when roles are being filled.
Follow-ups continue even when revenue feels comfortable.

Over time, this creates something most recruitment agencies never quite achieve.

A pipeline that keeps moving, even when the team is focused on delivery.

Most recruitment owners aren’t invisible because they post too little.
They’re invisible because they sound like everyone else.

Scroll through LinkedIn on any day, and you’ll see job ads, team selfies, and generic “we’re hiring” posts.

Different agencies.
Same message.
Same tone.

Here’s the truth.
Clients don’t buy from the agency that posts the most.
They buy from the agency that feels different.

The one that sounds human.
The one who understands their pain better than they can describe it.
The one that stands for something beyond “we fill jobs fast.”

When you finally stop blending in, people start saying.
“I’ve seen your stuff everywhere.”
“I like how you talk about hiring.”
“Can we have a chat next week?”

That’s not luck, it’s clarity.
👉 Right person.
👉 Right message.
👉 Right conversation.

That’s what turns content into clients for businesses.

So this week, ask yourself.
Would your ideal client recognise your voice?
Even if your name was removed from the post?

I looked at 50 recruitment agencies trying to build authority on LinkedIn this month.
And I noticed something uncomfortable.

Most of them are accidentally killing their consultants’ authority.

Not intentionally.
But structurally.

The good things I see.
→ Strong branding
→ Clear company positioning
→ Many support great charitable causes

On the surface, everything looks professional.

But when you actually analyse the posts, the problem becomes obvious.

The content is built for the whole company, not the consultant and not the audience.

So what happens?

Consultants share perfectly branded posts that.
→ Say nothing interesting
→ Get almost no engagement
→ Create zero inbound conversations

It becomes a compliance exercise.
“Marketing told us to post this.”

Here’s the uncomfortable truth most agencies avoid.

Clients don’t hire logos.
They hire people who understand their problems.

And the fastest way for a consultant to prove that on LinkedIn is through.
- Opinion
- Insight
- Real market perspective

But most agency content strips that out completely.

Which means the company gets “brand exposure”.
And the consultant gets silence.

If recruitment agencies want more top-of-funnel exposure from potential clients, the shift is simple.

Stop treating LinkedIn like a company newsletter.
Start building consultant authority.

That’s what actually drives conversations.

If this is happening inside your agency and you want to fix it.
DM me and we can look at how to turn your consultants’ LinkedIn into a real client acquisition channel.

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taplio

The Battle

Stephen Mostrom

Jonny Umoru

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Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Stephen Mostrom's LinkedIn Performance

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