Content Marketing & Strategy by Dan Fogarty

I produce thought leadership for founders, VCs, and executives — without sapping their time.

My process is simple: I interview them and turn their streams of consciousness into premium content that generates leads, revenue, and goodwill.

It's like talking into a microphone, and out comes premium thought leadership.

Content Marketer + Thought Leadership Ghostwriter

The Bridge Corporation (Bridge Marketing)

I was accountable for all content marketing initiatives to drive traffic, engagement, and leads that delivered sales and retained customers.

Collaborated across functions to deliver an effective content marketing strategy and editorial plan to meet business objectives.

Met challenges with a brand publisher mindset. Created the content the BRIDGE audience was looking for and then optimized their path to conversion.

Work with the data and marketing teams to create original research/content that used BRIDGE’s vast database of information and positioned BRIDGE as a thought leader in the industry.

Developed editorial governance structures so content was consistent with the BRIDGE brand voice, style, and tone.

Developed editorial calendars and workflows to manage and drive leads, customers, and awareness.

Managed digital content hubs and all supporting social channels, including email/newsletter distribution. 

Managed creative resources, including designers, writers, and other personnel.

Partnered with sales and marketing teams to develop custom research projects.

Director of Content

Boston Globe Media

Managed local lifestyle coverage at Boston.com.

Guided overall digital strategy, brought in new talent, and was in the trenches, editing and guiding our writers.

Guided our coverage strategy, which focused on restaurant openings, things to do, viral local moments, sports and culture crossovers, concerts, movie premieres, and more.

Managed a team of writers, freelancers, photographers, and another editor.

Embedded video producers into our team, shaping their content for the platforms that suit them best (like Facebook Live and Snapchat) and guiding our social strategy.

Assigned new stories, line edited existing ones, and identified areas for growth for our writers.

Evangelized edit strategy to our Sales team and used data testing to identify new coverage opportunities.

Senior Editor, Boston.com

USA TODAY Sports Media Group

Oversaw content initiatives across USA TODAY Sports' network of owned-and-operated and affiliate publishers, including The Big Lead, HoopsHype, MMAjunkie, and Big Lead Sports affiliates. Specific emphasis was placed on growing the Sports Digital Properties' audience and increasing efficiency between it and the USA TODAY Sports national site.

Appeared on camera for USA TODAY Sports and For the Win, directed our Fantasy Sports content strategy, and worked closely with Editorial and Sales in developing sponsored content and video properties. As part of our Digital Innovation team, I also worked closely on developing new products. 

Drove editorial strategy and audience development for the Sports Digital Properties (traffic increased 56% year-over-year).

Directed branded video and editorial content strategy for the Sports Digital Properties and For The Win.

Worked closely with the Product team on site redesigns, improvements, and app concepts.

Directed longer editorial features and one-offs for the Sports Digital Properties.

Senior Editor, Sports Digital Properties

Abrams Media

Founding editor of Abrams Media’s sports blog. Duties included writing, editing, content direction, social media, building audience, recruiting, product fixes, on-camera work. Some great things I learned:

*How to launch a website

*How to build a team of hungry digital journalists

*How to work in tandem with Product, Sales, and Creative

*How to write a good headline

*How to build a social media strategy

*The value of data

*Good, consistent content builds an audience.

Editor-in-Chief, SportsGrid

Perseus Books Group

Intern

Clients like Tend, Monday.com, Fortune Magazine, Inclusively, TechNexus, and Mindbloom come to me for content marketing that's tied to real business KPIs. I also ghostwrite LinkedIn thought leadership for founders, VCs, and executives without sapping their time.

My pieces have helped clients secure funding from VCs on Forbes' Midas List of the world's top 100 venture capitalists, generated leads for their biz dev teams, improved deal flow with CVC units, and provided the raw material for entire content engines.

WHO I HELP:

- Startups at any stage that are seeking funding and need to hit home runs
- Director and VP-level marketing and/or comms folks who are overwhelmed and need to build out high-quality, low-cost content (they've likely been burned by large agencies before)
- VCs who want to turn the brains of their best deal-closers into scalable content
- Corporations whose marketing assets are bland and know they need content from their smartest people

Compared to working with an agency, the process is cost-effective, seamless, and generates 10x value. It’s built on sound journalism practices — I'm a former senior editor at Boston Globe Media and USA TODAY Digital.

👉 Book a 20-minute exploratory call with me here: https://calendly.com/dan-fogarty-content/20min

I moved from a metropolis to a midsize city, and I couldn’t be happier.

In September, I moved from New York City to Madison, Wisconsin. My fiancée is from the area and got into a local graduate program. The move made sense for a variety of reasons, including cost.

But initially, I was worried. I’m a born and raised New Yorker, and on our first trip to Madison I saw a lot of strip malls and sports bars. I pulled the classic city slicker move and projected an image of suburban hell onto the place without knowing much about it.

𝐁𝐮𝐭 𝐬𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐡𝐬 𝐚𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐦𝐲 𝐦𝐨𝐯𝐞, 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞’𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐲 𝐈 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐬𝐚𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐦𝐲 𝐬𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐝𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬.

→ Madison is one of those "emerging" innovation cities you see on lists from the Wall Street Journal every few months. I quickly found out why.

→ It’s a great city for entrepreneurs. I got into the Level Set program at StartingBlock Madison, Inc. (Shoutout Leslie Weissburg and Scott Mosley.)

→ This gave me access to mentorship and a community of smart people, made me shift my thinking about my business, and got me six free months of office space.

→ I then got into the MERLIN Mentors program. My mentors are Tad Milbourn, Susan LaBelle, and Michelle Venturini, (she/her/hers). We had our first meeting last week at a coffee shop. It was amazing.

→ The people in Madison are genuinely kind. They have a lot of pride in where they live and want to help each other.

→ My quality of life is better here. That’s mainly because I have access to nature.

→ There is a lake five minutes in either direction. There are bike paths and parks everywhere. My area is walkable. 

→ It's a CITY. There are Michelin-starred and James Beard restaurants here. The artistic community is alive. I've acted in two plays and made some great friends.

→ I’m a book nerd, and believe libraries are one of the best FREE third spaces available, where everyone in the community can come together to read, learn, relax, or work. The Madison public library system is great.

→ I breathe better here. I need humans around. I need access to good food, talented professionals, and an art. Right now in my life, I also need to see lakes and touch grass.

→ This is NOT an “I hate NYC” post. I'm a born-and-raised New Yorker and it's embedded in my heart and soul. Things happen in NYC that simply can’t happen anywhere else. 

→ And I still think spending your 20s in a dense environment like NYC is some of the best training you can get professionally and personally. 

→ But I’m extremely happy to call Madison home.

→ One last thing: 🏀 GO KNICKS! 🏀

Dan Fogarty

Content that generates leads and improves deal flow | Ex Boston Globe Media + USA TODAY

What's StartingBlock Madison, Inc. known for?

How does access to nature improve quality of life?

It took me years to write my novel, and I did it while recovering from a mild traumatic brain injury and building a business.

I had the massive privilege of being single and not having kids, which allowed me to be selfish with my time. 

BUT because of my injury and the fact that I was building my freelance business while I wrote the book, whatever brain cells I had left had to work efficiently.

𝗛𝗲𝗿𝗲’𝘀 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝗜 𝗱𝗶𝗱 𝗶𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗜 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗲𝗱 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗳𝗼𝗰𝘂𝘀 𝗮𝗹𝗼𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗮𝘆:

→ The only way I could get cognitively hard work done was to cut out all distractions. No Slack, no texts, no doom scrolling. 

→ I turned off my phone and put it in a drawer in another room. 

→ I deleted all social media apps from my phone.

→ Flow states are overrated. Hard work is hard work, and sometimes I had to drag myself through the mud. That meant sitting down to do cognitively hard work, even when it was painful (which was often).

→ “Deep Work” by Cal Newport taught me how to focus and kicked my butt into a deep work program: https://lnkd.in/g9XNe-az 

→ The Pomodoro Method rules. 25 minutes of deep work, 5 minutes of rest. Here’s a free Pomodoro timer: https://lnkd.in/gF2pNsgc 

→ The 5 minutes of rest were best spent moving my body, even if I just walked into another room. Stretching was good, too. So was a quick meditation.

→ “Catching Pomodoros” became a game after a while. Pomodoros only counted if I spent the whole 25 minutes working. 

→ I built up my Pomodoros-per-day stat line over time. At the height of my powers, I was averaging 10 pomodoros a day — and would sometimes hit 14 or even 16. 

→ BUT I was usually only good for 5 hours of cognitively hard work per day, and it took me a while to get there.

→ Focus is a muscle. I couldn’t expect to deadlift 300 pounds the first time I walked into a gym. I also couldn’t expect to sit at a desk and crank out 5 hours of good work off the bat, especially when dealing with TBI symptoms.

More tips in the comments 👇

How does the Pomodoro Method work and what are its benefits?

What are some strategies for working through TBI symptoms?

I’m anti-Slack. Here’s why:

I make money doing cognitively hard work. I take complex ideas from founders and VCs, and make these ideas more accessible while doing justice to their intellectual heft.

Often, I’m swimming in deep bodies of water: the nuances of corporate venture ecosystems, cloud computing, back-office fintech, cap table management tools — you know, easy stuff. 

I would have no hope of doing these topics justice if I was getting pinged by someone every five minutes. My brain isn’t big enough to multitask like that.

But I’m privileged, because I’m hired by companies to do a specific task. I’m not managing a team at a large org.

I completely understand why some of the marketing folks I work with NEED to be on Slack — assets need to be cleared, posts need to be scheduled. They’re doing all this while ALSO doing heavy cognitive lifting.

But sometimes, clients will push me — really push me — to get on Slack. 

I don’t budge. If there’s an emergency, text me (there’s never an emergency). 

You will get your work on time, and it will be GOOD. 

And it will be good because I had the time and space to focus on it. Deep work always wins.


Why is deep work important for cognitively hard tasks?

I just point-blank told a potential client, “if I was spending your budget, I wouldn’t spend it on me.”

And yes, prepare for some good old-fashioned LinkedIn virtue signaling.

(But also, I want to find someone great for this client.)

→ We started off the call talking about content. So far so good, I do best-in-class content for founders, VCs, and private equity.

→ Then we learned that what they REALLY need is SEO content. Sort-of check — SEO isn’t my bread and butter, but I can technically do it.

→ Upon further review, we learned that what they really, really, REALLY need is someone who:

✅ Can help them research keywords with a niche audience

✅ Win these keywords and generate great content that gets people to interact with a chatbot

✅ Measures this journey to a PAINSTAKING degree and can make necessary tweaks as needed

✅ Can start with a small campaign, prove it out, then scale it up

→  I told the client I can give them better content than anyone. I can generate content that targets specific keywords. We’ll measure it and see what’s working. But it’s not my bread-and-butter. 

→  What is? Interviewing their company’s smartest people, turning that into thought leadership, then turning THAT into a full content engine.

→  So: If you know anyone who can help the client above with their ask, tag them in this post.

→  And if you’re looking for help with what I AM good at (or have a content question that may lead to me saying, “I’m not actually the guy you’re looking for, but here’s how I’d spend my money…”)

→  Book a free 20-min meeting with me here: https://lnkd.in/gE4Sg5n7  

How can I excel in thought leadership content?

What do I need to know about SEO content?

“I run a business. How do I find time to post on LinkedIn and generate investor interest or high-level leads?” 

I hear this a lot from early-stage founders and solopreneurs. They’re not ready to invest in a ghostwriter to help them.

➤  Here’s my advice: record yourself talking.

→ If you’re looking for a way to capture your thoughts without interrupting your workflow too much, pop in some AirPods and record a voice note while you go for a walk or a run. 

→ Then, transcribe that voice note automatically with an app like Otter.ai. 

→ Staring at a blank page is the hardest part of writing, but you’ve bypassed that. You now have a “block of clay” to sculpt.

→ The best way to sculpt it is by hand. Follow the structure and length of someone else’s post you like on LinkedIn, but fill in that structure with your own thoughts and content. Do NOT plagiarize their content.

→ Yes, you can also use ChatGPT to fashion your block of clay into a LinkedIn post.

→ BUT beware: ChatGPT will probably mangle your voice. You want to prompt it in a way that keeps as much of your own way of speaking as possible. There must be human touch to this. 

→ Here are some interview questions to get you started on your walk or run:

➤ What turns of phrase make potential investors or customers light up in a meeting? What do they “get” about your product? Talk about why you think this is. 

➤ What’s been the biggest surprise in the way customers use your product?

➤ What problem do you solve? Talk about why it’s a problem and what happens if it goes unsolved.

➤ Pick an industry-relevant news article that people in your circle are talking about. Offer an opinion on it. (Run this one by a co-founder or peer before posting).

→ This is one way you can experiment and see if posting on LinkedIn fits into your workflow.

→ If it doesn’t, don’t do it. If part of it works, take only what you need.

→ Have any content questions about LinkedIn? Ask below.

How can recording oneself talking help with writing LinkedIn posts?

How can Otter.ai help me with my LinkedIn posts?

What are some best practices for structuring a LinkedIn post?

ChatGPT is a refinery. The raw material you feed it determines its output.

→ If you ask ChatGPT to write marketing copy, it will pull from the same pool that everyone else pulls from. Your output will be generic.

→ But when you ask ChatGPT to pull from specific information — like, say, an interview you did with your company’s best thought leader — things get more interesting.

→ The output will contain more unique turns of phrase. It will contain valuable insights and more complex ideas that help nurture leads and close deals.

→ But the output still needs a writer’s love. A lot of it.

→ ChatGPT is prone to hyperbole; everything is “revolutionary” or “cutting edge.”

→ Its information still needs to be vetted, because it’s prone to hallucination.

→ But this output is much better than the generic outputs everyone else gets. It’s a block of clay you can sculpt.

→ The key is to feed it good material.

Why are unique turns of phrase important in marketing copy?

How does the quality of input affect the output generated by AI?

What are some tips for interviewing a thought leader?

I helped a client get Series B funding from a VC on the Forbes Midas List.

Four other VCs on the list (top 100 VCs in the world) contacted this client as a direct result of my work.

Want to write content that attracts investors? Here's a lean version of my workflow to get started.

Can be used by small marketing teams or the founders themselves.

Sign up here for a free coaching session: https://lnkd.in/gSnsp-eW 

What are the key aspects of the Forbes Midas List?

What are the essential steps in a content creation workflow?

Content that attracts investors

Overworked marketing people at startups, VCs, and PE firms:

Here are two B2B content goals for the remainder of the year:

➤ Turn the brains of your company’s smartest people into scalable content.

➤ Create social proof content (like case studies).

→ You can do the first one by interviewing your leadership team, top deal-closers, top builders, and up-and-coming voices.

→ Here’s how to get started: https://lnkd.in/gGpbwezv 

→ It will be hard to add to your workflow in the beginning, but will pay big dividends.

→ Traffic, engagement, deal flow, and intellectual momentum will improve.

→ You also get the added benefit of having your brand look and read much better across channels.

What are the benefits of creating social proof content like case studies?

How can interviewing the leadership team help create scalable content?

How can social proof content improve deal flow?

Business in the front, party in the back. The best content strategies do both. 

You don't have to choose between "personality-driven" content and content that goes deep on expertise.

You can do both. In fact, I encourage it.

Your favorite magazines and digital publishers have done this forever, mixing hard news and expertise pieces alongside opinion sections, lifestyle content, and utility content.

You CAN post personality-driven content that forms a relationship with your audience and gives them insights into who you are. If it's served in an easily digestible, highly engaging way, even better.

You can also mix in material that goes deep on your industry, nerding out in a way that's accessible but clearly exhibits expertise.

"Hardcore" content makes the lighter fare hit better. 

And vice versa. 

What are some examples of effective content strategies?

How do magazines balance personality-driven content with industry-specific material?

How can I exhibit industry expertise in my content?

If you're a VC firm, how do you increase inbound deal flow on LinkedIn?

You post good content.

How do you post "good content?"

→ Put your best thinkers forward. Who are the deal-closers and emerging stars at your firm? Give them a platform.

→ Go deep on emerging categories and innovation. It's not enough to say "we want to invest in X type of company." WHY do you want to? Display intellectual credibility in a given category and you'll attract the best founders.

→ Chop deep insights into snackable content. You can go long on LinkedIn newsletters and Substack. In fact, I encourage it. But you should also chop up your deep insights into shorter posts that have a higher engagement ceiling. 

→ Include a CTA. Let people know that you're looking for builders in the areas you're talking about. There are ways to do this without being salesy or desperate.

→ Work efficiently. Your best people are busy and always chasing deals. Make sure your process takes up the least amount of their time possible.

→ Ship fast and learn. Button things up, but don't spend forever on the diving board looking down at the pool.

→ Create an inbound deal flow KPI. For LinkedIn, I like taking the number of GOOD founders that look at your profile and dividing that by the number of posts you've done in a given time frame.

→ Need help? Get in touch. I help VCs do everything above, quickly and efficiently. We can chat for 20 minutes. Even if we're not a fit, I always give free strategic advice: https://lnkd.in/gE4Sg5n7

What impact does deal flow have on VC firms?

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