FinGhost.io

Head of Content & Ghostwriter

Take Action Copy

www.takeactioncopy.com

I write words that make you money.

Founder, Ghostwriter & Copywriter

AllianceBernstein

Team Lead | Assistant Vice President - Regional Consultant

Assistant Vice President - Regional Consultant

Jackson

Covered southeast Pennsylvania, working with financial advisors to identify variable annuity solutions for clients. 

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

Spent 6 years in finance. Quit to write online. | Head of Content @ FinGhost.io | Writer of "Adamant Insights" newsletter. Click link in featured section to subscribe for free.

Worked in finance.

Quit. Moved to Hawaii.

Surfed, led coffee farm tours, and started writing online.

I'm not surfing or leading farm tours anymore.

But I'm still writing online — bringing you leads, making you money, growing your personal brand.

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

Hit 5,000 followers yesterday. 
 
Whoa.  
 
Follower counts are funny. 
 
We look at them as milestones on social media — and for good reason. They are. 
 
But have you ever visualized what your follower count would actually look like in person? 
 
Imagine yourself presenting on a stage in front of all your followers. 
 
2,000 people 
5,000 people 
10,000 people 
 
You'd be nervous, right? 
 
I know I would be. 
 
But you know what else you'd do? 
 
You'd spend the weeks leading up to that presentation in hardcore prep mode. 
 
-> You'd make sure you provided a ton of value to your audience. 
 
-> You'd make sure your message was clear. 
 
-> You'd make sure it was delivered with emphasis.  
 
You'd feel more of a connection with every person who showed up to hear your thoughts. And I know you wouldn't let them down. 
 
Just ... Something to think about. 
 
Anyway, thanks to everyone sits in that theatre for a few seconds every morning to hear my thoughts. 
 
You've changed my life. 
 
Really, honestly, genuinely changed my life. 
 
By highlighting 5,000 followers, I'm celebrating me. 
 
But it's only possible because of you.  


Adam Knorr

Spent 6 years in finance. Quit to write online. Now I ghostwrite for real estate and finance founders. | Head of Content @ FinGhost.io | Writer of "Adamant Insights" newsletter.

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Catch me playing trivia in full makeup on NBC tonight.

Lol. 

I'll be on tonight's (April 16) new episode of Weakest Link:

• 9 EST
• 8 CST
• 7 MST 
• 6 PST 

Or whatever time zone you prefer. (Also going to be on Peacock.)

If we've gotten to know each other on LinkedIn, you'll get to hear my voice for the first time ... Good chance to prove I'm not just an A.I. posting bot. 

Life is silly.
Very, very silly. 

Tune in.

Should be fun.

How important is having a good speaking voice in the professional world?

The only thing worse than losing $75,500 to an animal psychic in a general knowledge contest is hitting the Heisman Trophy pose on stage moments before losing $75,500 to an animal psychic in a general knowledge contest.

It seemed like a good idea at the time.

Last night, I appeared on NBC’s trivia game show, “Weakest Link”. I filmed the show in Los Angeles back in November 2022, which means I’ve been losing sleep over this for 16 months now.

Over the last 24 hours, a lot of people have asked how I got on the show.

Answering that question requires letting you into a personal part of my life so nerdy it would make Urkel push me off the monkey bars, but hey — once you’ve been humbled on national TV, pride is more of a distant memory than a tangible focus.

My #1 bucket list item is to make it on Jeopardy! someday. You can tell this is true because I write Jeopardy! the right way with the exclamation point.

As part of my Jeopardy! obsession, I often go on Reddit to the Jeopardy! community to discuss that night’s episode with other people. (But I promise, I can also throw a baseball, make a layup, and dance at weddings.)

One day, the casting producer of Weakest Link made a post looking for contestants for season 3. About a month before, I had quit my finance job and moved to a coffee farm in Hawaii. I sent her an email highlighting my journey from corporate refugee to surfer bum. She loved it.

Two Zoom auditions later, I found myself standing on the corner of Beverly Boulevard and Fairfax at Television City Studios.

We’re not going to spend much time here on the day of the taping, but I will tell you this: TV is slow. There’s a lot of standing around. A lot of twiddling your thumbs. A lot of trying to remember whether the Turkish currency is the lira or if they’re using the Euro nowadays?

Anyway, the show.

If you’ve never seen Weakest Link, here’s the basic premise.

Eight contestants compete for $1 million. All eight contestants are on the same team until the end when only two are left, at which point they go head-to-head. The more questions you and your teammates get right, the more prize money you accumulate. But at the end of each round, everyone casts a vote for the player they want to send home — in theory, the Weakest Link.

So there are eight of us. A fraud investigator, a volunteer, a chemist, a flight attendant, a delivery driver, a student, a psychic medium, and Kirkland brand Tom Selleck.

Want to read the full post? Click here: https://lnkd.in/gvr7eHUW

Go easy on yourself. 
 
This sh*t is hard.
 
• Social media = survivorship bias. 
• You hear from the winners. 
• The losers stop posting. 
 
You see all these people with: 
 
• $20K months
• 7-figure years 
• $497 coaching fees 
 
But you don't see the tens of thousands of people who weren't able to make it.
 
It's been almost 2 years since I quit my job to be a solopreneur. So I guess you could say I've "made it"? 

But I've had massive advantages.

-> I saved up a lot of money before I quit.
-> I don't have a family to support.
-> I could 100% afford to fail.

Nothing happens in a vacuum.

Everyone's situation is different.
 
Look:
 
If you’re trying to build something, you’ve won. 
 
I don’t care if your business never makes $1. 
 
99% of people let life happen to them. Few people decide to live. If you’re taking a risk and trusting your gut, you’re a winner. 
 
At some point, you might decide this isn’t for you. 
 
And that’s cool. 
 
Because now you know. 
 
And you can attack your next endeavor with the security of knowing your previous path wasn’t the right one. 
 
-> Don’t be so angry at yourself. 
-> Don’t be so mean to yourself. 
-> Don’t be so hard on yourself. 
 
The only way to determine the right path is to keep walking down the one you're currently on. 
 
Most paths stop. 
 
A few go on forever. 
 
Keep walking in different directions until you find 'em. 

--

P.S. I'm driving from Rincón back to San Juan today.

Back to Michigan in a couple of days.

Drop me a link to your best post from this week so I can read it once I'm back online. 

How can being kinder to oneself benefit building a business?

How important is taking risks in building a business?

How can survivorship bias affect entrepreneurs on social media?

5 writing hills I'll die on:

--

P.S. Repost this if you found it useful. That would be just peachy. 

5 writing hills I'll die on

Here's the easiest thing you can do be a top 1% writer: 
 
(I've never seen anyone else talk about it.) 
 
We're going to look at a line from the post I wrote yesterday. 
 
(Yes, this is very self-aggrandizing, but I can only speak to my own writing process.) 
 
Here's the line: 
 
"𝗔𝗻𝘀𝘄𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗾𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗿𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗶𝗿𝗲𝘀 𝗹𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝗮 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝗺𝘆 𝗹𝗶𝗳𝗲 𝘀𝗼 𝗻𝗲𝗿𝗱𝘆 𝗶𝘁 𝘄𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗨𝗿𝗸𝗲𝗹 𝗽𝘂𝘀𝗵 𝗺𝗲 𝗼𝗳𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝗻𝗸𝗲𝘆 𝗯𝗮𝗿𝘀."  
 
I like this line. 
 
Here's how it came to be (and how you can use it in your writing). 
 
𝗩𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝟭: "Answering that question requires letting you into an incredibly nerdy part of my life." 
 
𝗠𝘆 𝗜𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗿 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝟭: "'Incredibly nerdy' means nothing. 'Incredibly' adds nothing. This isn't fun, it doesn't grab attention, it doesn't stand out.  
 
"How can I make this more impactful in a way people will relate to? Let's try to get 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰. Who are some famous nerds?" 
 
𝗩𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝟮: "Answering that question requires letting you into a personal part of my life so nerdy Urkel would bully me." 
 
𝗠𝘆 𝗜𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗿 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝟮: "Ok, better. But can we be more specific? What do bullies do? What can people visualize?  
 
"Pushing me down the slide? Not bad, but the word 'slide' doesn't stand out. Ah, what about 'monkey bars'? 'Monkey' is a word that stands out. 'K' is a good sound. "K" is a funny sound." 
 
𝗩𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝟯: "Answering that question requires letting you into a personal part of my life so nerdy it would make Urkel push me off the monkey bars." 
 
There. 
 
Isn't that better than saying something is, "incredibly nerdy"?  
 
-> Be specific. 
-> Use imagery. 
-> Have fun with writing.  
 
-- 
 
Was this helpful? Let me know in the comments below. Happy to write more of this type of content if so. 

What are some tips for improving my writing?

The gurus are right. 
 
You can make $100,000 writing emails from the beach. 
 
You just have to: 
 
- Start a business. 
- Get clients from scratch. 
- Make a bunch of mistakes. 
- Become an excellent copywriter. 
- Become an excellent business owner. 
- Do a ton of research for each piece. 
- No, more research than that. 
- Still more research.  
- A little more. 
 
Then you have to: 
 
- Write subject lines that get high open rates. 
- Write emails that get people to read. 
- Write CTAs that get people to click. 
- Write copy that gets results. 
 
But you have to do it better than all the other people who have been doing this for decades. 
 
Oh, and you have to beat AI. 
 
Well, not just beat it. That's easy. 
 
You really just have to convince all the business owners that it's better to pay you than it is to use AI for free.  
 
And Fiverr. 
And Upwork. 
 
Ok — did all that? Great.  
 
Ah. Bad news. 
 
Your emails didn't convert.  
 
This was your first time — what'd you expect? 
 
BTW, they didn't convert because the business owner changed your copy. 
 
(They liked their way better.) 
 
Darn. Sorry.  
 
No case study.  
No testimonial.  
No referral. 
 
Now, go find another person to give you a shot. 
 
And do that over and over again for a few years. 
 
And, if you're really good at this, you'll make a few bucks on the way. 
 
But make sure you're a better business owner than you are a writer. 
 
Make sure you never stop prospecting. 
 
Make sure you're an excellent negotiator who can raise your rates without losing clients. 
 
And if you're a top 10% writer and a top 10% business owner and a top 10% communicator and a top 10% salesperson and a top 10% negotiator? 
 
Then yeah. 
 
The gurus are right. 
 
You really can make $100,000 writing emails from the beach. 
 
All you have to do is ignore everything that goes into it. 

How can I become an excellent negotiator?

How can I become an excellent copywriter?

What kind of impact will AI have on the workplace?

Guru advice: "Disappear for 1 year and it'll change your life." 
 
I did that. Here's what happened:  
 
-> I moved back from Hawaii in April 2023. 
-> Since then, I've worked 6-7 days/week. 
-> Most days, I work 8-12 hours. 
 
Here's the data: 
 
-> I've grown and monetized a newsletter from 0 to ~600 subscribers and $2,100 in revenue. 
 
-> I've grown my LinkedIn following from 800 followers to 5,100 (in 6 months). 
 
-> I've published 400-500 pieces of writing to the internet.  
 
-> I've had better income months writing than I ever did in finance.  
 
-> I've gone from struggling freelancer to overbooked. 
 
Ok, so that's all the good.  
 
What about the bad?  
 
-> I haven't done much socially. 
-> I get up at the crack of dawn. 
-> I haven't taken time off. 
-> I haven't really relaxed. 
-> I've been stressed. 
-> I've been lonely. 
 
For the last year, I've pretty much ... worked. 
 
I know in my head that I *could* address those "bad" things, but the problem is that when extreme inputs lead to success, it's hard to decouple success from those extreme inputs. 
 
AKA: 
 
Adam work hard, and Adam do well. 
 
So if Adam no work hard, Adam not do well?  
 
It's a tricky balance. 
 
So was the guru advice right? 
 
Yeah. For me, it was. 
 
There could be more balance. 
There could be more play. 
There could be more fun. 
 
But it worked. 
 
Is it right for everyone? 
 
No.  
 
But if you're young and hungry, if you have a vision and you have the time, then yes... 
 
You really can "disappear" for a year and change your life.

5 finicky writing tips you'll wish you never bothered to learn

(Psst.)

(Good writing is more about your ability to deliver a message than it is your ability to be neurotic about tiny details.)

--

Find this useful?

Find this useless?

Either way, would be cool if you reposted it. 

What are some alternative writing tips to consider?

5 finicky writing tips

My LinkedIn growth has been awful recently. 

4K -> 5K followers moved like a molasses-covered sloth.

• 2K -> 3K followers took me 54 days.
• 3K -> 4K followers took me 45 days.
• 4K -> 5K followers took me 67 days.

So the last 1,000 followers took me 1.5x longer than the previous 1,000.

Why? 

I have a few guesses.

(TL;DR: Less effort = Less growth)

𝟭) 𝗜'𝗺 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗹𝗲𝘀𝘀.

I used to be a madman with my comments (IYKYK). 

It wasn't sustainable.

Less commenting = less engagement = less growth

𝟮) 𝗜 𝗱𝗼𝗻'𝘁 𝘀𝗲𝗻𝗱 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗿𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁𝘀.

I used to send more. 

2+2 = 4
2+3 = 5

Easy enough.

𝟯) 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗵 𝗶𝘀 𝗱𝗼𝘄𝗻.

This is true for almost everyone.

Impressions are lower. So growth is slower.

(But at the same time, we're getting more leads than ever. My suspicion is the algo is pushing content to fewer people, but the people who are seeing it are more likely to be interested in it.)

And then you pair this all with the fact that I'm a ghostwriter ...

Which means 90% of my time is focused on growing client accounts and my own account is pushed to the back burner. 

Which is cool. Because I'd rather grow theirs than grow my own.

But the big takeaway should be this:

-> Growth is not linear.
-> Neither is progress.

Don't get caught up in the day to day.

Focus on putting out quality content as much as possible.

The growth will shoot up.
Then it'll plateau.
Then it'll dip.

Then it'll shoot back up, even higher than before.

It's not supposed to be easy.

If it was, it wouldn't be worth it.

Just keep coming back.

5 dead simple ways to be a better writer (right now):

(Make sure you make it to the 5th slide.)

--

What's your simplest writing tip? 

What is the most important tip on the fifth slide?

What are some best practices for writing?

5 dead simple ways to be a better writer

graphical user interface, text, application

In June 2016, I could hardly tell you the difference between a stock and a bond. 
 
In July 2016, I started working in finance. 
 
By the time I quit in May 2022, I had built up a solid career. 
 
• Promotions 
• Leadership positions 
• Presenting at conferences 
 
And I've had people ask ... "How did you just pick up finance like that?" 
 
It wasn't because I was good with numbers. 
It wasn't because I read Barron's every day. 
It wasn't because I was a master at Excel. 
 
It was because of the single best-kept secret in the professional world: 
 
-> If you show up a little early, do your work the right way, and leave a little late, you'll be ahead of 99% of the world. 
 
The bar for success is so, so low.  
 
And this isn't just true of Corporate America. 
 
It's true of ... Anything. 
 
Most people cut corners. 
Most people stare at the clock. 
Most people want to shirk responsibility. 
 
When I started freelancing as a writer, I realized the same thing.  
 
Clients want you to: 
 
• Do the work right. 
• Do the work on time.  
 
It's that easy. 
 
You don't have to be a genius or a wizard or the CFO's kid. 
 
You just have to show up a little early. 
Leave a little late. 
Do the work right. 
Do the work on time. 
 
Congrats! 
 
The world is now your oyster. 

What are the requirements for freelancing as a writer?

What is the single best-kept secret in the professional world?

I’ve spent 12,000+ hours sitting in a cubicle. 
 
Here’s the most dangerous thing about a 9-5: 
 
𝗠𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝟵-𝟱 𝗷𝗼𝗯𝘀 𝗽𝗮𝘆 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗲𝗻𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵 𝘁𝗼 𝗴𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝘂𝗽 𝗼𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗱𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗺𝘀.
 
- My degree is in journalism. 
- Journalism doesn't pay well. 
- So I got a job working in financial sales. 
 
And let me tell you something: 
 
The easiest way to make $100K+ is to work in sales. 
 
It’s pretty cool... 
 
For a bit. 
 
But then, that 𝗟𝗶𝘁𝘁𝗹𝗲 𝗩𝗼𝗶𝗰𝗲 pops up. 
 
• “Is this really what you want to do?” 
• “Can’t you do more with your life?” 
• “Shouldn’t you follow your dream?” 
 
And then that 𝗕𝗶𝗴 𝗩𝗼𝗶𝗰𝗲 chimes in: 
 
“Yeah, but look at how much money you’re making.” 
 
And every few months, 𝗟𝗶𝘁𝘁𝗹𝗲 𝗩𝗼𝗶𝗰𝗲 finds enough courage to pipe up again… 
 
And 𝗕𝗶𝗴 𝗩𝗼𝗶𝗰𝗲 shuts it up. 
 
There isn’t anything wrong with 9-5 jobs. 
 
For a lot of people, they’re a great option: 
 
But if you're like me, you want more.  
 
And that 9-5 job silently becomes lethal. 
 
Because in 30 years, what are you going to regret? 
 
A) Quitting your 9-5 to pursue your true calling  
 
OR 
 
B) Picking comfort over your potential 
 
Most 9-5 jobs pay you just enough to give up on your dreams. 
 
Is that paycheck worth it to you? 

--

P.S. I'll be back tomorrow! Is LinkedIn still here? Have I gone viral yet? Did I kill all my progress by posting and ghosting for a week? 

What impact can pursuing one's dreams have on personal growth?

How does choosing comfort over potential growth affect one's career?

If you're reading this, I'm gone. 
 
I'm sorry. 
 
I'm in Puerto Rico. 
 
And I'm not going to respond to your comments today. (And I didn't yesterday or the day before, either. Oops.) 
 
I'm taking a vacation this week for the first time in ... A long time. 
 
Leading up to this week, I had a decision to make: 
 
Do I: 
 
A) Not post at all for 7 days while I'm on vacation? 
 
Or  
 
B) Schedule 7 posts and resist the temptation to log in? 
 
I ended up going with B. 
 
On October 1, 2023, I told myself I was going to post every day for 365 days — and I intend to stick to my word. 
 
So hey — I'm sorry I'm not here commenting today. 
 
And I'm sorry I'm not here to comment back on your posts. 
 
But in fairness, I was really pale. 
 
And I think the sun is going to do me some good. 
 
-- 
 
P.S. I had this scheduled for 8:00 AM but Taplio decided not to work again. This frustrates me. I like being on time. I do not like being late. So yes, I am manually posting this on vacation.  
 
-- 
 
P.P.S. If you see me commenting on LinkedIn this week, please berate me in the DMs. 

What are the latest news and developments in Puerto Rico?

Why is it important to post every day on LinkedIn?

My post got 123 impressions yesterday. 
 
Here's what I think happened: 
 
Yesterday, I repurposed a post. 
 
I first posted it in October 2023. 
 
It got 14,945 impressions then — one of my best. 
 
Yesterday, it flopped. 
Got completely throttled. 
LinkedIn wasn't showing it to anyone. 
 
So what did I do wrong?  
 
1. I messed up with the photo.  
 
The first one had a photo of me surfing (with a shirt on). 
 
This one had a photo of me surfing (with a shirt off). 
 
I wonder if that lascivious display of skin turned LinkedIn off.  
 
(If I'm being honest, I think this was probably it.)  
 
2. I didn't change enough about the post. 
 
Repurposing is a huge part of content strategy, but you need to be smart about it.  
 
I rewrote a few sentences, but the hook and 90% of the post were the exact same.  
 
I suspect LinkedIn notices this and flags it. 
 
3. It doesn't matter.  
 
Post enough and this sort of thing is going to happen.  
 
It really doesn't matter.  
 
World's gonna keep spinning. 
 
 
The takeaway? 
 
Repurpose your best content... 
 
But be smart about how you do it.

What are some best practices for repurposing content?

What are some recent developments in the LinkedIn algorithm?

How can I improve the performance of my LinkedIn posts?

Did you know there’s an equation to happiness?

Happiness = reality - expectations 

When reality exceeds expectations, happiness.

When reality falls short of expectations, disappointment.

Take a second.

Decide how you feel about that.

-----

I used to believe that equation.

But there are a couple of problems with it.

We’re solving for happiness. And to get there, we have two variables — reality and expectations.

But reality is a tough lever to yank. You can tweak your reality through choices, effort, and actions, but no one can fully manipulate reality.

So that leaves expectations.

If the happiness equation is real, then it's simple. All you have to do to be happy is lower your expectations.

If you have low expectations, you’ll never be disappointed. In fact, you’ll always find yourself pleasantly surprised.

Right?

-----

Here’s where the equation falls apart.

On paper, it works.

• If you constantly nuke your expectations, reality will exceed them.
• If reality exceeds your expectations, you’re never let down.
• If you’re never let down, you’re generally happy.

But think about that in practice.

If you constantly nuke your expectations, you’ll set a new baseline for your outlook on life. You’ll never expect anything. You’ll stop feeling anticipation. 

You’ll fill yourself with thunderclouds in hopes that the sun will surprise you by peaking through, but you’ll soon realize a few minutes of warmth will do nothing to dry out the persistent dampness of low expectations.

You can’t expect to achieve happiness through low expectations because expectations themselves are a source of happiness.

Think about your last vacation. Wasn’t half the fun of it in the planning? In the anticipation? In talking about it weeks before it got here?

You expected it to be great. And even if the reality let you down, those expectations brought you joy.

What about your goals in life?

Whether your goals are about your family or your career or your hobby, having high expectations will influence your pursuit of those goals. And when you expect great things to happen, you’ll find joy in that pursuit. You’ll daydream, you’ll visualize, you’ll hope. And in those moments propelled by expectations, you’ll find happiness and fulfillment, even if reality ends up falling short.

• How else are you supposed to grow?
• How else are you supposed to improve?
• How else are you supposed to push yourself?

And without those things, how are you supposed to be happy?

-----

So, no, you shouldn’t manage your expectations.

You should let them run wild. You should set yourself up for disappointment. You should expect to accomplish things far greater than you can achieve, because falling short will have brought you more collective joy and growth than exceeding mediocre expectations ever would have.

The reality about the equation to happiness?

There is none.

There is you and there is now.

And you should expect great things from both of those.

5 ways to write better LinkedIn posts 
 
(Without practicing) 
  
𝟭) 𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗮 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘀𝗶𝘀 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁.  
  
What is the 1 takeaway you want your audience to learn from your post?  
  
Write that before you write your post.  
 
Make sure every line works toward the thesis.  
  
𝟮) 𝗨𝘀𝗲 𝗳𝗿𝗮𝗴𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀.  
  
There’s only one grammar rule on LinkedIn:  
  
Communicate clearly.  
  
Do that however you can.   
  
𝟯) 𝗪𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗲 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗱𝗼𝘄𝗻.  
  
You’re not going to remember that thing you said you’d remember.  
  
My Notes App is filled with:  
  
- Half-baked thoughts  
- Life observations  
- Hook ideas   
  
If it crosses your mind, write it down.  
  
𝟰) 𝗣𝘂𝘁 𝗮 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗶𝘁𝗷𝗮𝗰𝗸𝗲𝘁 𝗼𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘄𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴.  
  
Constraints create creativity.  
  
Blank pages have endless opportunity. (That's a bad thing.)  
  
Define your limits before you start writing.  
  
- What’s your max word count?  
- What’s your thesis?  
- Who’s it for?  
  
𝟱) 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗵𝗼𝗼𝗸.  
  
Write your hook, then deliver with the body.  
  
I started this by saying “5” tips.  
Not 7.  
Not 3.  
  
It helps me tie that straitjacket over the page.  
(And you know exactly what you’re getting.)  
  
--  
  
What other tips would you add?  

What are some best practices for writing LinkedIn posts?

How can setting limits help me write better LinkedIn posts?

How can I keep track of my ideas for LinkedIn posts?

You probably know my story by now.

• Worked in finance for 6 years.
• Quit my job one morning.
• Moved to Hawaii.
• Started writing.

Four bullet points. Easy, right? Nice clean decisions I can stack up and lay out.

Concrete actions. Black and white.

But, of course, that’s not how it really happened.

Between each of those bullet points were mountains of internal struggle and oceans of invisible nuance.

There was gray area. Doubt. Enough “what-ifs” to get to the Pacific and back.

-----

In life, we all want to make the best decisions. As humans, we crave certainty.

But there are a few problems with that:

1) Clearly defined best decisions rarely exist.
2) Outside of death, taxes, and cliches, certainty doesn’t exist.

So instead of taking action, we stagnate. Because it’s easier to let life happen to us and accept the outcome than it is to make changes and put ourselves in potentially negative situations of our own doing.

All of this — the doubt, the uncertainty, the stagnation — is a function of being scared to make the “wrong” decision.

But “right” or “wrong” is subjective. The only objective truth about life’s paths is that each path has a best possible outcome — and you have the ability to find it.

Was it the “right” decision for me to leave a salary, benefits, and six years of career progression?

I don’t know.

But it doesn’t matter.

Because the second I made that decision, it was my responsibility to find the best possible outcome of that path.And that meant not dwelling on what could have been.

Remember: The grass will always be greener on the other side.

And since humans are hardwired to avoid pain, your mind isn’t going to create hypothetical nightmare scenarios about the path you rejected. It’s going to create fantasies — and it’s going to make things seem better than they were.

So when it comes to making big decisions, keep a few things in mind:

1) The path you chose not to take will always be drenched in sepia and glittering with fool’s gold, but that’s just a mirage. There’s no way to know what would have happened.

2) The decision you made was the best one you could with the information you had at the time.

3) Since there’s a best possible outcome for every decision, the decision isn’t the most important part — your response is.

-----

I can sum up one of the most impactful decisions of my life in four neat bullet points. But those bullet points don’t show the years I struggled over which path to take. They don’t show the endless hours of prayer and phone calls with family. They don’t show the uncertainty that clouded every step.

They don’t show that the catalyst to finally pulling the trigger was a simple realization: The right decision wasn’t going to clearly reveal itself — because the right decision didn’t exist.

So next time you’re at a crossroads, just remember: Regardless of what decision you make, a best possible outcome exists.

It’s up to you to make that outcome a reality.

How can we improve our decision-making skills?

I used to work 2,390 miles away from the nearest mainland.

I’ve never felt more connected to the world.

I was a tour guide on a remote coffee farm. Every day, guests would come from all over the planet for a quick cup of 100% Kona coffee. They usually ended up listening to me squawk at them for an hour.

During my opening spiel, I’d share my “I’m-Here-Because-I’m-Going-Through-A-Quarter-Life-Crisis” story. 

And after almost every tour, someone would come up to me and say:

“I feel the exact same way.”

These people came from everywhere.

The U.S.
Japan.
Germany.

And they weren’t just in their 20s. People in their 40s, 60s, and 80s. 

On the surface, they didn’t have much in common.

But all these people sprawled across the world, who spoke different languages, who were born in different eras, who had never interacted with each other … All these people felt the same desire — the desire to take control of their lives — deep in their core.

So here’s my promise to you:

You are not alone.

For me, it was that feeling of a quarter-life crisis. General malaise over the direction of my life. And as I started to talk about it, not a day went by where I didn’t hear from someone who said, “Hey, I just wanted to let you know I feel the same way.” 

Since we’re bombarded with images of success, it’s easy to forget we’re not alone in our struggles.

• “Wow, that person is making a lot of money. Why aren’t I?”
• “Those people seem like they love their jobs. I wish I felt that way.”
• “All my friends are getting married and having kids. Why am I so far behind?”

Pick any emotion. Pick any circumstance.

No matter what you’re feeling, millions of people around the world have felt — or are feeling — the same way. 

Feeling this way — feeling aimless, confused, behind — is just a symptom of being human. Being open about personal struggles is starting to hit the mainstream, but it’s still far more infrequent than boasting about successes. 

And as a result, it’s easy to feel isolated and to think that our struggles make us less.

You aren’t. They don’t. 

Look, the concerns I’ve had about my career and my life path aren’t really a quarter-life crisis. As one guest kindly pointed out to me, I’d have to live to 112 for that to have been 25% of my life. 

Those concerns are just … life. And concern about your direction doesn’t illustrate that you’re lost — it illustrates that you care enough to want more.

Before I stepped off my previous life path, I fought constant internal battles. I felt stranded. I always wished I could talk to someone who felt what I felt. But I wasn’t sure anyone else did.

Then as soon as I started talking about it, I heard from scores of people who felt the same way.

Big or small, gleeful or miserable, exciting or dull — remember: 

No matter what you’re going through, you’re not alone.

Why is it important to be open about personal struggles?

What are some tips for dealing with a quarter-life crisis?

How can feeling lost be a part of personal growth?

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