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

I Help Corporate Professionals Gain Career Clarity & Fulfillment | Founder @Amplify Your Home | Global AI Tax Copilot Strategist @EY

Don't be fooled by my appearance. Quiet, Asian, tiny girl.

In the last decade, I've...

Successfully navigated the corporate giants: Goldman Sachs, PwC, Deloitte and EY.

Built communities, tax and financial models, and automations. (Excel wizard here)

Empowered employees to own their damn careers,

Challenge their norms to do something special.

That's when Problems become Opportunities,

Strategies into Actions.

You are not Alone.

Ready to redefine your career? Let's make it happen.

Mary Fung

McKinsey just dropped their State of AI 2025 report. The numbers are brutal.

88% of organizations say they're using AI. But only 6% qualify as 'high performers' actually seeing enterprise-level EBIT impact.

Let that sink in. 88% using, 6% winning.

What separates the 6%?

- They're 3x more likely to fundamentally redesign workflows (not just bolt AI onto existing processes)
- They spend 20%+ of digital budgets on AI
- Their senior leaders actively role model AI usage
- They've built actual data infrastructure, not just demos

Meanwhile, 64% of companies are still stuck in 'experimentation' or 'pilot' mode. Two years of pilots. Two years of POCs that never graduate.

The gap between AI leaders and everyone else is widening. Not because of better models - because of better execution.

If your AI strategy is 'let's try some use cases and see what sticks,' you're in the 94%.

That's not a strategy. That's hoping.

Own Your Damn Career | Founder @Amplify Your Home | Head of Synthetic Data & Simulations @EY

The 'AI wrapper' startups are dying. The market is finally figuring it out.

In 2023-2024, you could raise millions by putting a nice UI on top of GPT-4 and calling it a product. Those days are over.

OpenAI keeps shipping features that kill wrapper startups overnight.

Custom GPTs? Dead.

ChatGPT plugins? Dead.

The integrations announced last week? Another wave of startups just became features.

The surviving AI companies all have something the wrappers didn't:
- Proprietary data moats
- Deep workflow integration
- Vertical-specific fine-tuning
- Or actual ML teams building differentiated models

'We make ChatGPT easier to use' was never a defensible business. It just took 2 years for the market to figure that out.

RIP to the AI wrappers. 2023-2025. You will not be missed.

TCS just paid $700M for Coastal Cloud, a Salesforce consultancy. Becoming a top-5 Salesforce partner globally.

Why should you care about a consulting M&A deal?

Because it signals where the big players think enterprise AI is actually going.

TCS COO said the quiet part out loud: 'advancing our AI-led transformation agenda' through Salesforce expertise.

Not building custom AI. Not launching a foundation model. Embedding AI into the platforms enterprises already use.

This is the enterprise AI playbook that actually works:

1. Meet customers where they are (existing platforms like Salesforce)
2. Integrate AI into workflows that already exist
3. Don't ask enterprises to rip and replace - enhance what they have

The AI startups trying to replace Salesforce should be nervous. The big consultancies are betting that AI's value comes from integration, not disruption.

$700M is a lot of conviction in that thesis.

People ask why I’m okay sharing my “secrets.”

Why I teach everything I know.
Give away resources.
Tools.
Playbooks.

Because you can copy the output but
you can’t copy the process.

You won’t have my judgment.
My taste.
My reps.
My scars.

If sharing makes you afraid,
you were never the edge.

7 Lessons from My First Year Leading AI Transformation:

1. Nobody knows what they want until you show them something. Stop waiting for perfect requirements. Build a prototype and let them react.

2. Your biggest blocker isn't technology - it's the person two levels up who's afraid AI will make their team look redundant.

3. Quick wins buy you time. Deliver something useful in 30 days or leadership will move budget to whoever promises faster results.

4. The people closest to the work have the best AI use cases. Stop running executive workshops. Go sit with the analysts drowning in spreadsheets.

5. Governance isn't the enemy. The AI review board that feels like bureaucracy is actually protecting you from the lawsuit that kills the whole program.

6. You will be wrong about timelines. Multiply your estimate by 3, then add buffer for 'unknown unknowns.' You'll still probably be late.

7. Celebrate the failures publicly. When a pilot doesn't work, tell everyone why. You'll build more trust than a hundred success stories.

What Executives Get Wrong About GenAI:

> They think it's plug and play. 'Just add AI to our existing processes.' That's like adding a jet engine to a bicycle and wondering why it doesn't fly.

> They underestimate the data problem. Your AI is only as good as your data. And your data has been accumulated across 47 systems with no consistent formatting for 15 years.

> They expect immediate ROI. GenAI is infrastructure, not a feature. You don't ask 'what's the ROI on electricity?' You ask 'what can we build now that we have power?'

> They compare themselves to tech companies. Google has 10,000 ML engineers. You have Dave who took a Coursera course. Calibrate expectations accordingly.

> They skip the change management. The AI works. Your employees are terrified it will replace them. Guess which problem kills your project?

> They buy platforms before defining problems. 'We need an AI strategy' leads to expensive enterprise licenses collecting dust. Start with 'we waste 400 hours/month on X.'

Prompt engineering is just Googling with extra steps. It's not a career.

Hear me out. In 2024, we created job titles around 'prompt engineering' like it was some mystical new discipline.

Every time a new technology emerges, we create artificial scarcity around basic skills. Remember when 'social media manager' was exotic? Or when knowing HTML made you a 'webmaster'?

Prompt engineering is the same pattern. Within 2 years, it'll be assumed competency - like knowing how to use a search engine. The people building careers around it are standing on melting ice.

The real skill isn't writing prompts. It's knowing what problems to solve and having the domain expertise to evaluate the outputs. That's not prompt engineering. That's just being good at your actual job.

The “AI experiment” phase is over.

New data out of Wharton shows 75% of companies already see positive ROI from AI.

Less than 5% see negative returns.
Nearly half of business leaders use AI daily themselves.

That matches what we see on the ground.

This isn’t about prompts anymore.
It’s not “improve this email” or “summarize this doc.”

That was Phase 1.

Phase 2 has started and it’s bigger:
• “Solve this customer’s problem”
• “Handle this contract end-to-end”
• “Optimize CSAT”
• “Run this workflow”

AI is moving from accelerating steps to owning processes.

And that’s when productivity actually compounds.

The companies still stuck debating pilots and guardrails are about to feel very behind, not because AI is new, but because process always beats tools.

We’re just exiting the first act.
The second one is about systems, not shortcuts.

And once AI is embedded in how work flows - not how tasks are typed - there’s no going back.

What a time to be alive!

Why does every job posting say 'AI experience required' now?

I've been watching job boards. Finance roles want 'AI skills.' Marketing wants 'AI experience.' HR wants 'familiarity with AI tools.' Even admin assistant postings are asking for it.

But 90% of these roles don't actually need AI skills. They need people who can think critically about when NOT to use AI.

What's actually happening:
- Recruiters are adding 'AI' because everyone else is
- Hiring managers don't know what AI skills actually means
- Companies want to signal they're 'modern'
- Nobody has defined what 'AI experience' looks like

My advice to job seekers: Don't panic. 'AI experience' usually means 'can use ChatGPT without supervision.' That bar is not high.

My advice to hiring managers: Stop adding buzzwords you can't evaluate. If you can't test for it in an interview, don't put it in the job posting.

I wish I could ask Copilot about a meeting I forgot to record.

Here's the trap:

> Option 1: 'Only during the meeting' - Copilot uses temporary speech-to-text. Meeting ends, data deleted. You can't ask questions later.

> Option 2: 'During and after' - Requires saving the full transcript. Now you have retention, compliance, and legal implications.

There's no middle ground.

Missed the meeting? Too bad. Forgot to enable transcription? Too bad. Your organization restricts transcript storage for compliance? Too bad.

What I wish existed:

> A 24-hour summary window. Copilot gives you the highlights, then the raw data is deleted.

> Personal-only transcripts that don't create discoverable records.

> Retroactive summary requests. 'I was in a meeting at 2pm, can you recap?' should work.

> Graceful degradation. If full transcript isn't allowed, at least give me action items.

The 'catch up on meetings I missed' use case - the one Microsoft demos constantly - only works if someone remembered to hit record.

That's not AI. That's a tape recorder with extra steps.

taplio

The Battle

Stephen Mostrom

Mary Fung

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Performance ScoreStephen Mostrom's LinkedIn Performance

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taplio

The Battle

Stephen Mostrom

Mary Fung

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);}Stephen Mostrom's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreMary Fung's LinkedIn Performance

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Performance ScoreStephen Mostrom's LinkedIn Performance