Raised $30 MM in capital for real estate through LinkedIn and Guest Podcasting | Posts about Real Estate, Writing, and Audience Building

CAP X MEDIA

Helping Real Estate Investors Build Their Brand and Raise Capital Through Digital Media.

Founder

Elite Podcast Bookings

*Rebranded to CAP X MEDIA

Revolutionizing real estate investing marketing with guest podcasting and organic lead generation to raise more capital and explode your personal brand online.

Founder 

Boardwalk Wealth

Oversaw and assisted a real estate portfolio of assets valued at $50MM and achieve goals through allocation, monitoring, and risk management.

Asset Management

Leveraged expertise in market research, financial analysis, and risk assessment to drive informed decision-making and optimize returns within the real estate investment portfolio.

Senior Analyst

Managed communications, built relationships with media outlets, and produced engaging content to enhance brand visibility and effectively communicate key messages to real estate investors.

Investor and Media Relations

Rabbit Hole Finance

Conducted insightful interviews with prominent figures in the bitcoin industry, delving into topics of Austrian economics, finance, and global markets to provide valuable insights and perspectives to the audience.

Podcast Host

Real Estate Journeys

114 episodes in syndication, our business podcast has achieved a remarkable feat as a top 400 podcast, offering valuable insights and knowledge to real estate investors.

99% of Real Estate LinkedIn is Chat GPT posts and noise.

There's a better way to stand out online ⤵️

If this sounds like you:

❌ Lack of capital
❌ Feeling tired and burned out
❌ Not growing your presence online

Now, imagine this:

✅ Securing more deals
✅ Successfully raising $5 million in capital
✅ Having a loyal following that knows, likes, and trusts you

If you're a 6-figure real estate entrepreneur who's serious about raising more capital and closing more deals, join my free newsletter, Digital Leverage. 

You'll be in good company with over 300+ entrepreneurs who are making their mark online. 

(See featured section above ⤴️)

Matthew Baltzell 🌴

$7,000 staging job replaced by a $12 AI render. 

Here’s what happens next...


Look at this photo.

Left → AI staging.
 
Right → $3,000/month vacant liability pretending to be a listing.

Buyers make a decision in 8 seconds.

Physical staging?

Trucks. 
Movers. 
Insurance. 
Two days of hassle.
Thousands of dollars. 

AI?

Ten bucks. 
Twelve seconds.
Zero excuses.

Virtual staging isn’t “coming.”
 
It’s already the default mode: cheaper, faster, and built for conversion.

And the investors who pivot first?

They’ll have the lions share of the deal transactions

And the investors who pivot first?

They won’t “win more deals.”
 
They’ll take em  down...while everyone else wonders what just happened.

Agree or disagree?

Matthew Baltzell

$20M+ Raised | LP Pipeline Systems for Real Estate & PE Firms | Build Trust, Fill Deals, Raise Faster

I didn’t know a single missed ID check could unleash $50,000 worth of chaos.
(Turns out…it can)


Back in college, I worked the door at a bar called The Pickle Barrel.

One night, I didn’t check an ID properly.
 
The "kid" was an undercover cop.

The fallout was brutal...

- Liquor license suspended for a week

- $50,000 in lost sales

- Bartender fined

- Manager furious

- Staff treating me like I burned the place down

Ten seconds.

That’s all it took.

And a month later, I got fired (go figure)

Lesson: tiny lapses in process can create massive consequences.

Same in capital raising.

I see operators with great deals lose millions because they don’t have a system to attract investors.
 
No process = no pipeline.

At CAP X MEDIA, we fix that.
 
We build predictable investor pipelines through podcasting + media funnels.

One mistake cost that bar $50K and my job.
One mistake with your investor brand could cost you millions.

2026 rate forecasts explained in 6 seconds...

I failed the Series 6 exam. Twice.

Turns out, failing was the best thing for me.



I used to think passing the Series 6 was my golden ticket into finance.

- Woke up at 5am
- Studied before work
- Spent weekends at the library
- Highlighters
- Flashcards
- Tests

It was overwhelming. 

First try? Missed by 3 points.

Brutal!

But I chalked it up to pacing. 

So I doubled down...

- New prep books
- Study groups
- More pressure

Second try? 

Missed by 7

Sat in the car afterward and thought, "Maybe I’m not cut out for this."

That license felt like the gatekeeper. 

Like without it, I wasn’t legitimate. 

I was just another guy “trying to break in.”

I never took it again.

Instead, I asked a better question:

What if I stopped chasing credentials and just solved real problems for real people with real money?

That’s when things changed.

Fast forward...

✅ Raised $20M+ for investors
✅ Built a 400+ unit portfolio
✅ Help PE firms turn media appearances into LP trust engines

No licenses...
...No letters behind my name. 

Just results.

Lesson?

No one cares about your resume.

They care if you can get the job done.

You don’t need another certification. 

You need clarity, proof, and a compelling story.

Especially if you're raising capital.

If you're a fund manager stuck behind paperwork, jargon, and silence, skip the next credential.

Start telling the right story in the right rooms.

That’s what LPs actually trust.

Cold investors don’t wire capital.

Here’s how to build trust pre call...


Most capital raisers think the hard part is getting the investor to book the call.

Wrong!

The hard part is keeping their conviction long enough to get them to... 

Show up
Stay engaged
And eventually deploy capital.

That week between booking and the call? 
...That’s where founders fumble the raise.

Here’s what strong sponsor's do differently:

1. Send a credibility asset immediately.

A clean one-pager.
A case study.
A short Loom.

Something that says: “You’re in good hands.”

2. Frame the call so they know what to expect.

Investors avoid chaos.
If the agenda is clear, they show up prepared and serious.

3. Build anticipation with social proof.

Past deals. 
Track record. 
Testimonials.

Investors trust momentum more than promises.

4. Drip reminders that actually add value.

Not “friendly reminders.”

Actual insight.
A quick market note.
A short win from your portfolio.

Something that keeps them warm.

5. Reaffirm why the call matters.

You’re not chasing them.
You’re giving them a shot at something they could miss.

By the time an investor hits your Zoom room, they should already trust you enough to lean in...not sit back.

Cold investors don’t wire capital.

Warm, informed, confident investors do.

Start nurturing the gap.

Watch your raise get easier.

if you’re raising capital, read this twice.

most firms can raise their first $5M+ with just 2 channels...


but most founders choose the wrong two because they get seduced by vanity.

the channels that actually produce money:

– guest podcasting (done strategically, not “spray & pray”)
– outbound (cold email + cold DM)
– LP referrals
– partnerships

the channels that drain your time and starve your pipeline:

– organic social
– weekly newsletters
– “personal brand building”

why

because you don’t need “brand.”
 you need investor trust and investor calls.
 
today.
tomorrow.
 
not Q4 next year.

list one makes money.
 
list two burns money until you’re already big.

here’s the founder mistake I see every week:

they build a media company before they build a deal flow engine.
lighting kits.
podcast mics.
LinkedIn posts that get 8 likes.
SEO roadmaps that won’t rank until 2027.
 
zero investor conversations to show for it.

stop confusing activity with progress.

your first $5M–$20M raise is about:

→ manufactured trust
→ borrowed credibility
→ forced distribution
→ controlled conversations

that’s what guest podcasting + outbound gives you.
once you have momentum, then do the cute stuff.

if you skip the “trust engine” stage, you lose years.

CAP X MEDIA exists so you don’t.

Everyone says they want a $1B+ exit...

(Until they see what a 10 figure day looks like)


I was listening to My First Million when Shaan Puri said something that stuck.

People get jealous of the outputs:

The money
The freedom
The “success

But...they never study the inputs.

Shaan shadowed a founder who sold his company for billions.

After watching him grind through non-stop meetings, he realized...
...he didn’t want that life at all.

It made me think:

We worship people’s results without asking if we actually want their routine.

So before chasing someone’s “level,” study their inputs.

Would you trade your day for theirs?

JSESSIONID

li_at

Talks about #creatoreconomy, #entrepreneurship, and #realestateinvesting

Sara Blakely started SPANX with $5,000…


No investors.
No venture capital.
No big checks.

Today?

SPANX is worth over $1,000,000,000 — and she still owns a huge piece of it.

When asked how she did it, Sara said:

• “Start small, think big, scale slowly.”
• “Focus on one thing and do it better than anyone else.”
• “Clarity attracts. Confusion repels.”

These principles apply directly to raising capital in real estate — and most sponsors miss them.

At CAP X MEDIA, we help fix that.

1) Start small, think big.

Investors don’t fund potential…
 …They fund proof.

Your content, your brand, your messaging — they must show competence long before investors wire money.

We help you build that trust strategically.

2) Focus on one thing and nail it.

Most sponsors try speaking to everyone…
…So they connect with no one.

We help you:

• Clarify your message
• Simplify your story
• Own your niche

Because focused messaging raises capital.
Scattered messaging kills it.

3) Clarity attracts. Confusion repels.

Investors aren’t saying no to your deals.
They’re saying no to unclear communication.

We help you articulate:

• Your model
• Your track record 
• Your investor value

Clearly. Simply. Confidently.

Clarity raises capital.
Confusion raises doubt.

At CAP X MEDIA, our mission is simple:

• Build brand authority
• Craft investor-focused messaging
• Help you raise more capital with less friction

Want to raise capital the modern way?

DM “CAP X” and we’ll schedule an intro call.

Struggling to get any traction on LinkedIn?

Here’s the uncomfortable truth…


You can have:

• Solid hooks
• Clean formatting
• Clear CTAs

…and still get ignored.

Not because your content is bad.
 
Because the game changed.

Your text posts are fighting uphill against an algorithm that’s bored out of its mind.

Want to fix it?

Short-form video.

It’s getting 3× more engagement than text right now.

More impressions → more attention.
More attention → more leads.
 
Simple math.

But here’s what most people miss:

This window won’t stay open.
 
Every gold rush ends.
 
Once everyone floods LinkedIn with video, reach tanks.

So you can sit around polishing another text post…

Or you can ride the algorithm while it’s basically begging you to win.

If you’re a real estate investor or entrepreneur who wants predictable inbound leads on LinkedIn...

DM me “video” and let’s build something that actually moves the needle.

I Asked ChatGPT What Would Happen If Every Capital Raiser Started a Podcast (Here’s What It Said)


It said...

Most wouldn’t make it past episode 5.

Because the truth is…

Most capital raisers don’t have a lead problem.
They have a trust problem.

Everyone’s fighting for attention with recycled LinkedIn posts and “our latest deal” emails.

Meanwhile, the ones who win?

They’re the ones who own attention.

A podcast isn’t about going viral.

It’s about getting 100 serious investors to spend hours hearing your voice, your story, your conviction.

By the time they book a call, they already trust you.

They’ve heard you think.
They’ve heard you lead.

That’s leverage.

So no- not everyone should start a podcast.

Only the ones who want to stop begging for capital and start attracting it.

11 years ago, I auditioned for a Jack in the Box commercial…



My role?

A stone r who loved late night tacos.

Spoiler: I didn’t get the part.

But looking back...

Those auditions taught me something about life and business you don’t always get the “role” you thought you wanted.

Sometimes, the rejection just redirects you toward where you were actually supposed to perform.

Fast forward...

I’m not reading side anymore. 

I’m helping founders tell stories that actually land.

The camera changed, but the mission stayed the same: 

Get attention
Be real
Make people feel something

P.S. Still waiting on that chicken cheesy sandwich.

This One Mistake Is Costing You Millions in Investor Capital...



Most capital raisers are horrible podcast guests.

And nobody wants to say it… so I will.

You’re not going on podcasts to “share your journey.”
You’re going on to raise money and grow your pipeline.
 
Period.

But almost everyone screws up the one moment that actually moves dollars:

The Call to Action.

Here’s a real example of what NOT to do:

Host: “Where can people find you?”
 
Guest:

“Go to Capital Group dot com…”
“Or email me…”
“Or Google me…”
“Or contact Laura on my team…”

Four options! Zero clarity. No urgency.
 
A perfect recipe for watching warm leads evaporate.

IF you haven’t seen the clip 🙄 Stop and go watch it. It’s chaos.

Where it went wrong:

Too many choices. 
(Listeners don’t want a scavenger hunt.)

No clear direction. 
(Confusion kills conversions.)

No urgency. 
(Give them a reason to act right now.)

Podcast listeners are primed.
They already trust you.
They want the next step.

And if you don’t give it to them?

They move on. Fast.

How to Fix It (The Operator Way):

1. Pick ONE destination.
One link. One action. One funnel.

2. Make it stupid-simple.
Short. Memorable. Easy to type.

3. Add scarcity.
Eg:
 “Email me at joe@capital.com...
 ...First 3 listeners get a free 30 minute underwriting breakdown.”

Now you’ve created urgency.
 Now you’ve created action.
  Now you’ve created money.

Most people go on podcasts and waste the shot.
 
You fix your CTA, and your conversions will spike like asset prices in 2020.

Want to double your capital raise in 2026? DM me “easy mode."

3 months into learning guitar and I finally understand why most people quit...


It’s painfully slow.
Your fingers hate you.
Your strumming sounds like a lawnmower hitting a metal pipe (no joke).

And every YouTube teacher with perfect hair makes it look “so easy.”

Meanwhile, I’m over here celebrating that I switched G to C chord cleanly for once.

But here’s the kicker...

I’m actually loving it.
Not because I’m suddenly good.
Because it reminds me what it's like to learn something new.

That dying thirst for the unknown.

The need to reinvent yourself.
Humble yourself.
And enjoy yourself.

You don’t need to monetize everything.

You don’t need to chase followers.
 
You don’t need a KPI for every hobby.

Sometimes it’s healthy to suck at something.

It wakes you up.
 
It slows you down.
 
And it gives you permission to just be a beginner again.

Business is where I perform.
Guitar is where I breathe.

Three months in, I’m not trying to become a rockstar —
 I’m just trying not to scare the neighbors.

And honestly?

That’s enough for now.

In 2011, Netflix pulled a move 99% of companies are too soft to even attempt…



They didn’t “adjust pricing.”
They detonated a 60% increase overnight.

Customers went absolutely loco. 

800,000 vanished in a single quarter.
The stock got obliterated. 
Twitter mobs (back when that meant something) declared Netflix dead.

But here’s the psychology behind the move...

Weak companies optimize for comfort.
Strong companies optimize for control.

Netflix saw the truth...

DVDs were a slow-motion collapse.
Streaming wasn’t printing cash yet.
 
And trying to keep everyone happy would trap them in the worst place possible:

The middle.

So they did what real operators do...

They took the painful swing that created long-term leverage.

And that moment:

• Severed their dependence on physical products
• Forced total commitment to streaming
• Built the foundation of a global content empire

From the outside, it looked reckless...
...From the inside, it was strategic survival.

This is business 101:

Do what’s easy and your business becomes hard.
Do what’s hard and your business becomes unstoppable.
-
Have you ever taken short-term hate to build long-term leverage?

Don’t say: “6–8% pref.”
Do say: “8–6% pref.”
Here’s why…

Most operators talk about returns in a way that kills investor confidence without ever realizing it.

They anchor low.

“Most deals return around 6–8%.”

Great!?

Now the investor’s brain is locked onto six.

Six feels “normal.”
Seven feels “fine.”
Eight feels “maybe… if the stars align.”

Flip it:

“Most deals in this market land in the 8–6% range depending on structure.”

Now eight feels normal.
Seven feels logical.
Six feels like the conservative downside.

Same numbers.
Different order.

Totally different psychology.

But wait… won’t investors now expect the higher return?

No, because anchoring doesn’t create expectation.

Anchoring creates context.

Investors aren’t dumb.

They know the preferred return is a fixed number in the PPM.

You’re not changing the pref.
You’re shaping how they interpret the pref.

When you anchor high:

- Confidence increases

- The middle feels solid

- The low end feels conservative

The actual deal (say a 7% pref) lands stronger, not weaker.

You’re not promising eight…
You’re making seven feel normal, not disappointing.

This is how sophisticated operators communicate.

They don’t manipulate numbers.
They frame them in a way that builds certainty.

High-net-worth investors aren’t buying math.

They’re buying the conviction behind the math.

Happy Thanksgiving from The Baltzell’s 🦃🍁🎃

No alternative text description for this image

10 Reasons You Shouldn’t Start a Podcast.

 If you’re thinking about it… watch this first.


If you're a real estate investor and you want 2x your capital raises next year DM me "Capital" and I'll give you more details.

Take Action Copy

www.takeactioncopy.com

I write words that make you money.

Founder, Ghostwriter & Copywriter

CRE Digital

Head of Content & Ghostwriter

AllianceBernstein

Team Lead | Assistant Vice President - Regional Consultant

Assistant Vice President - Regional Consultant

Jackson

Sold variable annuities. Yeah. I know. 



Attained Internal Wholesaler Level 3 status -- the highest level available.  

Was named Internal Wholesaler of the Quarter for quarter 3 in 2017 for the Northeast Region, and was awarded "Top Gun", an internal award given to the top performer in a two-day showcase.

Internal Wholesaler

Grand Valley Lanthorn

Assigned and edited stories, wrote up to four pieces a week, and ran the Lanthorn sports Twitter account. Covered beats for GVSU football, men’s basketball, and baseball.

Sports Editor

Wrote and edited stories and briefs while covering a variety of games and athletic events.

Assistant Sports Editor

Local Sports Journal

At this Muskegon prep website, I wrote feature stories profiling high school athletes and teams. My main focus was football, though I branched into soccer, volleyball, and tennis. I also helped with editing, which involved monitoring our WordPress page, reviewing stories, and posting them to www.localsportsjournal.com.

Sportswriter

FOX 17

With FOX 17, I shot video at local sports events, edited the clips for broadcast and wrote scripts. I covered high school basketball, Grand Rapids Griffins hockey, West Michigan Whitecaps baseball, and various Division I and II sports. I also wrote news releases for the FOX 17 website.

Freelancer

Grand Valley State University

More than 4,000 incoming students went through freshman orientation during summer 2014, and 
I assisted every one. Over the course of 40 orientation dates, I worked closely with faculty members, professional advisers and other student assistants to help freshmen choose courses and ease into college life.

Orientation Assistant

During my time as a staff writer, I covered golf, lacrosse and cross country, as well as club sports like hockey and rowing. I wrote two stories a week, either features or game recaps.

Staff Sportswriter

Getting financial advisors millions of dollars & impressions | $20+ million in capital & AUM raised from LinkedIn | 100+ million client impressions | 400+ meetings booked | $1+ million in client courses sold

If you work in finance or real estate and want to add clients or capital through LinkedIn, send me a DM.

If you want to write a memoir or lead-gen book, send me a DM.

Adam Knorr

Last Wednesday, I knocked on 11 doors and invited 11 strangers to dinner. But the story doesn’t start there. 

In October, I was on a flight from Houston to Austin. 

When I’m on a flight, I like to honor the miracle of air travel by becoming the least approachable human I can be. Hood up, laptop out, headphones over the ears. I’m Simon Cowell with a toothache, Gordon Ramsay judging a toddler bake-off. I’m the Grinch — stuck in economy. 

But on this particular flight, I was sabotaged. 

Her name was Kay, and she was in her 70s. 

Kay caught me with my headphones down and started chatting me up. 

After a few minutes of small talk, Kay looked at me:

“This is nice,” she said. “No one talks on airplanes anymore.”

“Tell me about it,” I beamed. “A travesty.”

Kay went on to tell me how she puts on social events for her friends back home in New Mexico. She talked about how community is dying. How we're all in our phones to stay in touch, forgetting that those phones just keep us out of touch.

Six months before this flight, I had been invited to a dinner in Toronto by Tony Albrecht. 

Tony got some people from LinkedIn together and treated us all to a family-style dinner. 

I told Kay about this — and about how cool it was — and she asked me:

“Do you have anyone you could do that with?”

“Well,” I said. “I have 11 neighbors on my apartment floor, but I never see any of them. I guess I could put together a dinner and knock on their doors.”

So Kay made me promise that I would. She even gave me her personal card — the one she started carrying after she retired and no longer needed a business card — so I could tell her when I did it.

And that’s how, last night, I hosted a dinner with nine new friends. 

Turns out, knocking on doors gives you what tapping on screens promises you.

Gratitude post for all writers who continue to use the em-dash in the face of libelous AI allegations.

We will rightfully protect what's ours.

Do not surrender ground.

I stand with you.

Write in paragraphs if you want people to take you seriously.

Not walls of text — never walls of text. But use two sentences. Even three.

Yeah, white space is good. But if it's all you use, you're telling your audience you don't deserve their attention.

My profile appeared 87,495 times across LinkedIn from Nov. 11-18. 41,018 of those appearances were from comments.

Every week, someone sends me a DM saying:

"How do I get more engagement on my posts?"

And I respond saying:

"How often do you comment? DM? Engage with other people?"

And then, 9 times out of 10, they don't respond.

The irony.

Goodness, gracious.

The irony.

Elementary schools should be teaching personal branding, not biology.

Everyone laughs at Gen Z/Gen Alpha for wanting to be influencers.

Do you realize how much of a cheat code having an audience is?

I made my first post on LinkedIn in October 2022.

Since then, I have:

• Made more than $500,000 from writing.
• Created 5 different income streams.
• Been hired to write books. 
• Charged $400/hour for consulting calls.
• Worked with founders, CEOs, and celebrities.

And most importantly, I have built a distribution network for my future work.

When you build distribution, you create optionality and flexibility for yourself.

If every single one of my clients fired me tomorrow, I'd create a new offer and push it on all 15,259 of you so fast you'd think I was Pablo Escobar at a Korn concert. 

I imagine in 2035, I'll be making money online in a way I never considered in 2025.

And that's a heck of a lot more valuable than learning about peas and some guy named Gregor.

I edited 75 posts from financial advisors.

Here are the 5 most common mistakes: 

1. You're burying your hook. 

So many people bury their best content in paragraph 3. 

I'm constantly telling people to move their most compelling line to the front. 

Most common hook fixes:

• Replace vague statements with specific dollar amounts
• Kill the setup — get straight to the point
• Lead with emotion, not explanation

2. You're posting Google-able content

No one goes to LinkedIn to learn that the 2025 401k limit is $23,500.

Instead, write about the emotional reality of money decisions. 

The client who had $2MM and still couldn′t sleep at night. 
The couple fighting about a $400 purchase.
The specific mistakes you've prevented. 

3. You're not being specific enough. 

Instead of: "I saved a client a lot of money" 

Write: "I saved a client $34,317 in taxes with one phone call in August."

Specific numbers stop the scroll. 

4. You're writing white papers. Stop doing that. 

Most advisor content reads like a braided leather belt gained sentience.

If I ever see you write "strategic plan" again, I am kicking you out of my cohort.

5. You're mixing Impression Content and Lead Content 

Trying to make every post convert kills your reach and makes you sound salesy.

You don't need to shoehorn every personal storytelling post into, "Here's what watching the Ryder Cup with my toddler taught me about Roth Conversions."

It comes off as reallllllllly disingenuous. 

You need to give your audience credit. They're not dumb. They can tell when they're being rope-a-doped into a pitch and when you're sharing a genuine story or thought. 

--

P.S. When's the last time you added an unrelated photo to a hyper-specific post to try to game the system and rack up impressions?

I sold this truck for $2,500 yesterday.

It marks the second business I've failed.

Three years ago, I was a brand new freelance writer.

More accurately, I was calling myself a writer, but I barely had any work. 

So, to sleep better at night, I decided to hedge my bets.

And I started a second business.

I opened an LLC — 616 Event Rentals. I bought a truck, a trailer, tables, chairs, and a dance floor, and started taking calls and emails.

I figured it my writing business failed, I could fall back on this.

Luckily, my writing business didn't fail.

(Knock on wood.)

I started getting more and more business as a writer, so the idea of hauling a 4,000-LB trailer across Grand Rapids at 6 AM to set up 8 tables and 40 chairs by hand all of a sudden didn't appeal like it once did.

So I stopped doing it.

When I stopped, I was $20,420 in the hole.

I had made $434 in revenue.

And I started selling everything.

Took a bath on all of it. And not like the kind of bath you give your newborn in the sink. This was a cannonball into the Roman Baths — during Nero's reign.

And, as of yesterday, 616 Event Rentals is officially dead.

This is the second business I've "failed."

I also once launched a writing service called The Emergency Editor that I made a grand total of $0.00 from.

I also once sunk a couple thousand into potentially buying a landscaping business before bailing. 

This cockamamie writing business thing where I write LinkedIn posts for people happened to work, but  this is the first business venture I've had any success with since I illegally sold candy marked "not for individual sale" in 5th grade. 

I've launched just as many things that have failed as things that have succeeded.

And if I have any sense in me...

I'll keep trying to fail as often as I can.

Every year, I work from my dad's office over the holidays. It's a good reminder that I've had more advantages than 99% of freelance writers.

I've been writing professionally three years. I'm finally sort of comfortable claiming I've had a little bit of success — but if I want to claim success, I have to tell the truth about where it came from.

And the truth is, I have had every single advantage.

My dad was a freelance copywriter. It was the first job I knew you could do. Before I ever dreamed about playing shortstop for the Detroit Tigers, I saw myself alone in a quiet office, armed with a red pen and an AP Stylebook.

My parents were both entrepreneurs — my mom in real estate — so I grew up watching early mornings, stress, sacrifice. But because it was all I saw, I didn't realize it was remarkable. It just was. That's how everyone works, right?

As a kid, I wrote a lot. Since the guy who determined my bedtime was also a professional writer, I had access to high-quality feedback. I charge $900/month for that now, but he did it for free.

I'm good at writing. It's what I'm supposed to do with my life. But it certainly doesn't hurt that I got professional guidance before I ever put down a Junie B. Jones book for the last time.

I studied journalism, but took a job in finance. It hurt my heart to stop writing, but it helped my bank account.

Six years later, when I finally walked away to try freelancing, I had the thing most new writers never get: time. Runway. Margin for error.

I knew I could go a full calendar year without making any money and still be OK.

Most people trying to make it as a writer don't have this breathing room. Turns out, it's easier to score goals when you aren't white-knuckling the stick. Yeah, I was still tightrope walking, but my safety net was so close it was scraping the rubber off my soles.

For my first 20 gigs, my dad edited everything before I sent it. He introduced me to his contacts in the industry. 

The first time I charged more than $2,000 for a project came when my sister-in-law put in a good word for me at her company.

Yeah, I've worked hard. But I never had to work scared.

My family wanted to see me win, friends wanted to see me win, and strangers wanted to see me win. And instead of just golf-clapping from the sidelines, they each got in the game and dished me some assists.

So, yeah.

When you're comparing yourself to other people, remember that you're not seeing the invisible advantages baked into someone's default assumptions.

One morning, I quit my 9-5 job and said, “I’m a writer now.” 
 
Want to do something similar? Listen. 
 
Quitting my job to bet on myself is a decision I agonized over for years. 
 
But when it came down to it, the actions it took to create my reality took me less than 24 hours. 
 
-> Woke up  
-> Printed a 2-week notice 
-> Gave an 8:00 A.M. presentation 
-> Quit at 9:00 A.M. 
 
When you're "stuck" in the day-to-day grind, it's easy to get tunnel vision. And it’s hard to grasp the vastness of opportunity that simply being alive offers you. 
 
And because the years whip by at breakneck speed, it can feel impossible to find the time to break patterns. 
 
So instead of taking advantage of the limitless sandbox of the human experience, you blink and years have passed and you still haven’t progressed toward That Thing You Wanted To Do. 
 
But the life you live is simply a result of the actions you take. 
 
Most outcomes are determined by your input — not by random chance. You have control to change situations you don’t like. 
 
And look — these don’t have to be drastic things. They usually aren’t. I know plenty of people who love their patterns. Their jobs. Their relationships. 
 
But you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who doesn’t have something they want to change. 
 
So whether that’s quit-your-job-and-move-4,000-miles-away drastic or man-I’m-sick-of-eating-the-same-thing-every-day mundaneness, the actions it takes to change your situation are often less daunting than your brain makes them seem. 
 
Remember: 

Who you are is who you choose to be.

Anthropic (the company that created Claude) is hiring two writers for $255,000-$320,000. 

The ultimate irony:

AI is making the best writers *more* valuable.

The more people lean on AI for writing, the fewer talented writers exist.

The fewer talented writers exist, the more valuable they are. 

The more valuable they are, the more they get paid.

AI is making writing a high-income skillset.

I suggest you learn how to do it.

I have been paid $30,000 in a single day for a writing project, but nothing will ever beat closing my first client for $500.

It was October 2022, and I was living in Basecamp — a one-story, tarp-covered house on the bottom of a Kona coffee farm.

There were eight of us living in the house. At 28 years old, I was the Old Man By the Mango Tree, nearly a decade older than all my roommates. 

Often, I would wake up at 4:00 AM to start my day, fist-bumping a couple of roommates I passed in the hallway on their way to go to bed for the night. 

Between the eight of us, the farm provided two vehicles. I figured if I was going to be living in Hawaii, I didn't want my adventures to be constrained based on vehicle availability, so I found a guy with a car rental business.

I also figured if I was going to wear Hawaiian shirts and sport a mustache, I owed it to Tom Selleck to drive something better than a Hyundai Sonata, so I signed up for a long-term rental on a silver Dodge Challenger.

I met the owner of the rental business in the parking lot of a Shell station in Kealakekua, Hawaii.

When he handed me the keys, I pounced:

"Hey man. I respect what you're doing with your own business. I'm actually self-employed, too. I'm a copywriter — I write websites and things like that. I noticed your website still needs to be written. Would you be down with me sending you a proposal for what I would charge to write it?"

His website existed, but it was full of Lorem Ipsum placeholders. He agreed to take a look at my proposal, so I cruised back to the shack and fired it off.

A day later, my phone rang.

"Hey Adam. Let's do it."

I was breathing like I had just done a Polar Plunge into the Pacific, but I managed to choke out:

"Sounds good. I'll send you the invoice."

Then, I hung up, sprinted out to the living room, and high-fived every 19-year-old roommate I could find.

Since then, the numbers have gotten bigger and the projects more exciting, but I have never felt the same high as that first client — and I don't ever expect to again.

Not everything you post on LinkedIn has to be shoehorned into a fake lesson about what you learned. 

You can just tell good stories because it's fun to tell good stories.

And as a bonus, people won't want to vomit you when they read your content.

If you want to learn how to consistently break 10,000 impressions on LinkedIn, read this:

I’m sending out an email tomorrow to 828 people that breaks down the easiest way to create viral content on LinkedIn.

It’s too long for LinkedIn, so I can’t post it here. 

DM me your email address if you want to be added before it goes out at 9:00 AM EST tomorrow.

graphical user interface, text, application, chat or text message

What would 21,018,197 views do for you?

What about a measly 3,546,825?

These are some screenshots from content performance for myself + clients.

(Note that the ones around 3.5 million are less than a year into working together.)

These are all folks in commercial real estate and finance (and me). 

And before you ask...

Yes, this does lead to results.

-> 500+ booked calls
-> $20+ million invested
-> $1+ million in paid transactions

I'm going to tell you something that risks cannibalizing my business:

This stuff isn't hard.

Writing great LinkedIn content is literally:

• Applying hook formulas
• Understanding topic selection
• Telling stories and sharing controversial opinions

I can teach you how to do all of this in just 30 days.

As of today, enrollment is open for the Q1 2026 cohort of The Advisor GPS starting in January.

If you're a financial advisor who wants to learn how to do this stuff yourself, send me a DM today.

Spots are limited.

--

P.S. From current Advisor GPS students:

"I loved it!!! I thought it was great. Super useful stuff in there and I want to go back through a few times to really sink in a lot of these new ideas about writing content. My only regret is not working with you sooner"

"I thought the program was great! Definitely a lot of information that I will be revisiting."

"Seriously though this course and community is awesome. I am learning so much and stretching my comfort zone more than I thought possible."

I've helped people land 1,000+ clients on LinkedIn.

3 simple DMs will book you the most calls:

I'm breaking them down in my newsletter at 9:00 AM EST tomorrow.

Join 821 subscribers here:

(And get a free gift!)

https://lnkd.in/gM87JAVf

Yesterday I taught a session inside Mando Sallavanti III, CFP®'s LinkedIn community — 83 financial advisors who are already investing in their growth on LinkedIn.

If you were there, you got a preview of the system I use to help advisors generate leads and smash impressions in 30–60 days.

If you want to go deeper, I’m opening up 5 new spots for my 30-Day LinkedIn Accelerator in January.

This includes:

• the complete Advisor GPS LinkedIn system
• weekly live coaching with me
• access to our private community
• templates, scripts, and growth frameworks
• and full support for 30 days

DM me "GPS" and I'll send you the details.

Stuff My Clients Say

I've written 4,100+ hooks. One mistake kills engagement more than any other: 

Assuming your audience knows who you are. 

Most creators have a "World Revolves Around Me" mindset.

You think people are paying attention. You think people have been following along. You think people have been reading your stuff, connecting the dots, building a mental map of your expertise, your offer, your point of view.

They haven't.

Most people skim. 
They catch a post here and there. 
They don't remember what you wrote yesterday.

So every single post, you should be starting from scratch.

When you write a hook that skips the authority, skips the context, skips the problem-naming — because you assume your audience already knows — it has zero chance at getting inbound leads.

Yeah, it's going to get comments from the same 15 people who show up every day...

But they were going to be there regardless. It doesn't mean the content was actually good — it just means you successfully clicked "post."

It's an inconvenient truth for 99% of creators, but you actually have to be good at copywriting if you want inbound leads.

You have to understand:

• Audience awareness levels
• Problem awareness levels
• Solution awareness levels 

This is why persuasive writing was destined to become a high-income skillset since Johannes Gutenberg started monkeying with his tiles in the 1440s. 

And this is why most people are deluding themselves into thinking ChatGPT can "write" content well enough to get inbound leads.

If you understand this stuff? 

Sure.

If not? 

You're going to keep showing up for another year wondering why no one is DMing you "financial freedom."

taplio

The Battle

Matthew Baltzell 🌴

Adam Knorr

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreMatthew Baltzell 🌴's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreAdam Knorr's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

The Battle

Matthew Baltzell 🌴

Adam Knorr

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);}Matthew Baltzell 🌴's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreAdam Knorr's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreMatthew Baltzell 🌴's LinkedIn Performance