Chelsi Mehta's Linkedin Analytics

I want to talk about something I'm seeing more and more these days. With AI tools becoming a standard part of our content creation process, there's a growing temptation to use them to craft a "better version" of ourselves online. Someone who sounds more authoritative, more polished, or more like a thought leader than we naturally are. The problem is that the moment someone meets you in real life or jumps on a call with you, that facade crumbles. You can't fake personality. Not for long, anyway. When your LinkedIn persona speaks in perfectly written industry jargon, but you don't use those terms in conversation. When your content presents you as an authority on topics you're actually still learning about. People notice these disconnects. And once they do, your credibility takes a massive hit. By all means, use AI to enhance your content creation process. Let it help with editing, ideation, and formatting. But make sure the voice and perspective remain authentically yours. The most powerful personal brand is one that's consistent with who you really are - online and offline.

Everything is Experience-as-a-Service. I've been thinking about this lately. At its core, every business is selling an experience. Whether you realize it or not, the experience is what people are paying for. When Apple sells you an iPhone, they're selling the experience of effortless interaction, status, and belonging to a community of users. When Starbucks charges $6 for coffee you could make at home for pennies, they're selling the experience of a consistent "third place" with familiar ambiance and reliable quality. When Netflix streams content, what they're really offering is the experience of instant entertainment gratification without friction. When SaaS companies talk about their features, what customers actually buy is the experience of solving problems without headaches. Even B2B services ultimately succeed or fail based on the experience they deliver. The enterprise software with terrible UX but powerful features is creating a negative experience that eventually drives customers away. Every touchpoint matters: - How easy is your product to use? - How does customer service feel? - What emotions does your brand evoke? - How frictionless is your buying process? - How does your packaging look and feel? The companies that intentionally design and deliver exceptional experiences win in the long run, regardless of category.

Just a small experiment. Are you watching videos (>15-30 seconds) here on LinkedIn? If yes, what hooks you for longer? If no, why not?

distribution isn't just about algorithms and timing. it's about building enough trust that people actually want to share your ideas

I think we've over-romanticized the "hustle culture" narrative. Everywhere you look, someone's selling the story that success comes from grinding harder, being more talented, or wanting it more. But the uncomfortable truth is that the biggest factor is often just timing. Being in the right place at the right moment. IMO, timing explains success more than talent or effort, but we hate admitting that because it feels completely outside our control. I've watched incredibly talented people struggle for years, while others with half the skill caught a lucky break and skyrocketed. The tech boom made millionaires out of average programmers who happened to be at the right startup. The housing crash destroyed brilliant investors who were simply born a decade too early. We tell ourselves stories about merit and hard work because the alternative, that so much is random, is terrifying. Does this make you uncomfortable? Good. It should. --- Inspired by The Content Lab Newsletter by Josh Cons and team at Notice Me(dia) (Vol. 016) Question: What’s your most unpopular opinion on success?

LinkedIn analytics now has a "custom" option. Much needed ngl.

Most founders understand they need distribution, but there's confusion about what that actually means. Here's my take: Distribution is about creating the pathways. That's it. What pathways? Content that reaches your target audience. Email sequences that nurture relationships. Social media that actually drives engagement. Community building that creates word-of-mouth. SEO that brings qualified traffic. Whatever channels connect your product to the people who need it. I help companies build those pathways - the consistent channels that put their products in front of the right people. But what happens next? Many businesses confuse distribution with sales. They expect the person handling distribution to also close deals, convert leads, and drive revenue directly. This confusion creates problems. Distribution gets you in front of potential customers - but turning that attention into revenue requires different skills entirely. Distribution isn't sales. It isn't marketing. It's the bridge between what you've built and the people who might want it. When I work with founders, I'm clear about this distinction. I can help get your product in front of potential customers through reliable systems and content that actually reaches people. What you do with that distribution - how you convert those eyeballs, how you close those leads, how you turn that attention into revenue - that's on you. Too many companies fail because they've built something valuable but can't figure out how to connect it with the right audience. They have the destination but no road leading there. I'm in the business of building roads, not destinations.

Silicon Valley's "build it and they will come" mentality is dangerously wrong. The market doesn't care how revolutionary your solution is if nobody knows it exists. Companies with objectively superior technologies fail while competitors with mediocre products but strong distribution channels dominate markets. VHS beat Betamax. Windows overtook early Mac. Not because they were better products, but because they were better distributed. TL;DR: The gap between having a good product and having customers discover that product is where most businesses die. That gap is called distribution. Now what needs to be done is simple (not easy). Bring distribution to equal status with product development. Spend as much creative energy on how people will find your product as you do building it. Identify distribution channels before finalizing features. Test acquisition strategies alongside product prototypes. Because an average product with excellent distribution will outperform an excellent product that nobody discovers.

I still remember the moment, sitting at my desk, staring at another practice test paper, feeling completely empty inside. Lockdown had stretched on for months, and while everyone else was baking sourdough or learning TikTok dances, I was drowning in exam prep. I was tired. And it made no sense to pivot at the time. Classic sunk cost fallacy situation. I had spent months preparing for competitive exams, everyone expected me to nail them, and I was supposed to have a "proper career path." The world had stopped, but somehow the pressure hadn't. But underneath the surface, something was shifting. A friend noticed I'd been writing more during those isolated days - diary entries, poems, the same things I'd done since childhood, but now with more intensity. "Start a blog or something." So I did. Started posting my words online, sharing pieces of myself I'd kept hidden for years. Six months later, a DM popped up. My first client wanted me to write for them. Paid writing. For words that came naturally to me. That single message changed everything. I realized my hobby, this thing I'd done to escape, could become my livelihood. Three years later, I'm still writing, but now it's my business, and my freedom. P.S. In these three years, I've run a solo content business, dropped out of MSc Chemistry, and completed a remote MBA. Sometimes the "wrong" path leads exactly where you need to be. When was the last time you bet on yourself? ---- Inspired by The Content Lab Newsletter by Josh Cons and the team Notice Me(dia) [Image: Old vs New setup - not much significant changes, but I like how it looks now.]

Content is not a must-have. It's a should-have. If your business is dying, content won't save you quickly enough. If your product is fundamentally flawed, the most viral blog post won't fix that. If your unit economics don't work, a clever Twitter thread won't suddenly make them work. Content is powerful, but it's not magic. It's not going to: - Save a failing business overnight - Fix core product issues - Replace direct sales when you need immediate revenue - Solve fundamental business model problems What content WILL do is amplify what's already working. It builds momentum gradually. It compounds over time. It creates leverage when your fundamentals are solid. The businesses that benefit most from content are those that already have product-market fit, a working business model, and a clear understanding of their customers. Get those fundamentals right first. Then content can work wonders for you in the long run. Content is a long game. Not a quick fix.

my wild hypothesis is that men are inventing things for men elon musk shared this video on X fka Twitter today and here's what i think- a humanoid robot doing chores like taking out the trash or cooking food could be seen less as solving a household need universally and more as fulfilling a desire not to engage in domestic labor: a task that, in many cultures, has disproportionately fallen on women. and when you zoom out, it's not just robotics. a lot of “life hack” or “smart home” tech comes from the same impulse: automate what we don’t want to do what would robots look like if more women or non-men were building them? maybe they’d prioritize care, community, or emotional labor, not just chores. what gets automated first hints at our culture's hidden assumptions about what matters, and to whom.

A founder's account (I used to manage) got followed by a CEO with 150K+ followers on X. A LinkedIn post I (ghost)wrote in 2023 ranks #1 for a search query. An executive's post led to a meeting with an author they admired. These aren't overnight wins. These aren't typical metrics you can track. Countless such incidents. ROI that's unquantifiable. The common denominator is that you need to be in the game long enough for these opportunities to find you. (One more common denominator is that I used to write for/manage their accounts :P) Make what you will.

Can we talk about unpaid internships for a moment? My brother's been searching for a Python/Flutter internship, and 90% of what he finds: 3-6 months of unpaid ones. Zero compensation for full-time work. Unpaid internships are: a. a luxury only some can afford. b. gatekeeping talented developers who can't work for free. c. devaluing the craft we all pour our hearts into. And I can bet he's exactly the developer companies claim they want. More details on him: - CS undergrad (8.88/10 GPA) with Flutter/Python expertise - Published the "wallman" library on pub.dev - Developed accessible apps (Orbcura - won a hackathon, SmartClean - internal use in University) - Open-source contributor experienced with Provider, GetX, Riverpod, Firebase, Supabase - Backend skills in FastAPI/GoFiber + MongoDB Companies, you want talent? Respect talent. Pay your interns. If you know of any PAID Python/Flutter internship opportunities, please DM me for his full resume. Repost for karma :) cc: Hemish .

In other news, I got featured on the LinkedIn Lunatics subreddit. Did I finally make it?