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

Rebecca Jenkins

Sales Director UK & I

Working with leaders to deliver revenue growth through strategy, execution and scaleable processes. I previously scaled to £55m in annual sales, I now help leaders secure and scale revenue. Author | NED

ARCHITECT YOUR REVENUE GROWTH

Secure, Scale & Sustain High Value Client Wins.

I partner with founders and CXOs to align strategy, trust, and execution into a revenue engine for sustainable multi-million-pound growth.

When growth plateaus, or sales teams struggle to win and expand strategic accounts, the issue is rarely effort. It’s usually a leadership and strategy gap:

• Weak positioning of trust
• Lack of alignment between sales, marketing, and delivery
• No scalable method to secure and expand high-value clients
• Overreliance on senior leaders in every deal

I partner with leadership teams to close those gaps with precision.

WHY TRUST & ALIGNMENT DRIVE GROWTH

Enterprise buyers don’t want another vendor. They want a partner who de-risks execution, aligns with their strategy, and delivers results they can trust.

Trust isn’t soft — it’s the multiplier that creates alignment across your commercial function and turns unpredictable deals into reliable growth.

Most companies fail to land and grow large accounts because they:
→ Sound like suppliers, not strategic partners
→ Struggle to speak the language of the C-Suite
→ Can’t align internal teams around account growth
→ Don’t measure the moments that build long-term trust

I change that by embedding trust, aligning leadership and teams, and executing your revenue architecture.

PROVEN RESULTS

• £250M in new contractual revenue secured
• 130% profitability increase for a logistics firm
• Enterprise wins with Cisco, ASDA, and The Body Shop
• 8.67x growth for a scale-up in under 12 months
• Doubled client lifetime value with aligned account growth strategies

WHO I WORK WITH

I partner with ambitious founders and CXOs ready to:
✔ Break through a revenue plateau
✔ Align leadership and teams around one growth strategy
✔ Build a revenue engine that scales without chaos
✔ Earn trusted-partner status with key clients
✔ Expand and retain high-value accounts with strategic precision

READY TO RAISE THE BAR?
Message me for a confidential conversation,
or download the 2025 CEO Revenue Architecture Briefing in my Featured section.

Founder | Director

Working with ambitious business owners and executives to transform sales and business growth.

Key Projects include:
Strategic planning, leadership 
Business growth strategy and implementation
Commercial development

 
Delivery of Sales & Key account transformation programme across various sectors to achieve key account growth, partnership status, success mindset. See testimonials below from Cisco and PLB

"The techniques, skills, and methods that I gained enabled me to deliver significant new business with a totally new project that wasn’t in the budget.” Cody – PLB Account Manager

“This programme is transformational on so many levels, I can replicate the success with all customers to create a massive sales funnel” – Nisar, Cisco

Business consulting - strategy development for Rhenus Logistics
Development of a cross-country key account management and sales strategy.

CML
Business performance consultancy - 
Sales - Winning of profitable accounts.
Customer Experience - Helping achieve silver then gold investors in customers.
Marketing - Positioning of business expertise, increasing lead generation.
Financial Performance - improved financial performance & divisional turnaround.
Leadership – leading sales, marketing team & mentoring of management team.

Asda – To You
Customer Experience Consultancy Project.	
Workshops to develop client pledges to support new market proposition. 

Latham Direct - Business Consulting project 
Development and implementation of the business and marketing strategy. Testimonial below.

'We have won new business and developed a healthy pipeline of prospects, and significantly enhanced our brand image. I would like to say how much I value your support, skills and knowledge throughout". – M. Hughes,  M.D.

Past Veuve Clicquot Businesswoman of the Year finalist
MBA guest Lecturer | keynote speaker

There’s a classic sign your culture is stopping your revenue from scaling.

It's when everyone comes to you for the decision.
Every opportunity needs your sign-off.
Every issue escalates to you.

By the end of the day, you’re exhausted.

When decisions can’t move without the leader, growth slows.

In this clip from the Hard Skills Podcast with Mira Brancu, PhD, PCC, we talk about the difference between responsibility and ownership.

Responsibility delivers the task.
Ownership delivers the outcome.

Ownership means thinking commercially.
Thinking ahead.
Understanding impact.
Taking initiative.

If ownership isn’t embedded across the business, revenue never becomes predictable.

Revenue scales when ownership does.

Watch the Hard Skills Podcast on Youtube, Spotify and Apple podcast.

Partnering with CEOs to build revenue that scales - win, expand & retain strategic accounts | Built business to £55m | Former FTSE 250 Sales Director | Author “Winning Big in Sales” | People → System = Scale

On the Hard Skills Podcast, Mira Brancu, PhD, PCC and I also discuss something leaders often overlook.
Structure.

Growth doesn’t mean pushing the sales team to sell more. 

It happens when there’s a clear system in place.

Predictable outreach, moving from transactional sales to transformational, defined ownership, aligned capability and a progressive and empowering culture.

taplio

The Battle

Stephen Mostrom

Rebecca Jenkins

Followers

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Performance ScoreStephen Mostrom's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreRebecca Jenkins's LinkedIn Performance

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taplio

The Battle

Stephen Mostrom

Rebecca Jenkins

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 ScoreRebecca Jenkins's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreStephen Mostrom's LinkedIn Performance