I design Signature Language Systems™ that shape how premium, expert-driven offers are understood, repeated, and chosen.

My work sits at the intersection of positioning, messaging, naming, and branding. Clients come to me when their offer isn't clear, different, or hasn't kept pace with the results they deliver.

I build the language architecture that stabilizes how expert businesses are understood, described, and remembered, shaping the names, positioning, and referral language that allow premium work to hold its value in the market.

Earlier in my career, I worked on messaging and positioning with Fortune 100 executives, physicians, founders, and leadership teams. Today, I focus exclusively on coaches and consultants who build IP-based offers.

This language work stabilizes how your expertise is described, priced, and remembered.

Brian Berkenstock

Your expertise is making you invisible.
Because the skills that made you an expert and the skills that make you visible are not the same.

Invisible Expert? Not for long | Your language isn’t broken. It was never built | Signature Language System™

Your Expertise Makes You Invisible

Your LinkedIn headline has a headline.
And most people are wasting it.

When you comment on a post, only the first 3-4 words of your headline are visible.

That's it.

That snippet sits next to your name on every comment you leave.

Hundreds of comments.
Thousands of impressions.
3-4 words doing all the work.

I learned this the hard way.

My headline was...
Signature Language System™ | Language builds authority | Cats can be fuzzy. Your language cannot

What showed up when I commented?

“Signature Language System™ | Language”

"Language" appeared twice.
The second one told you nothing new.
Prime real estate. Wasted.

So I switched up my headline...
Signature Language System™ | Authority starts with language | Cats can be fuzzy. Your language cannot

Now readers see…
“Signature Language System™ | Authority”

So now every comment tells you two things:

→ What I built
→ What it gives you

That's a billboard, not a byline.

Here's your fix in 3 steps:

1. Go comment on someone's post
2. Look at what appears next to your name
3. Ask yourself: do those 3-4 words earn a click?

If not, rewrite until they do.

Your headline isn't just at the top of your profile.

It's in every conversation you join.

Treat it that way.

*****
👋 I’m BrianB. I help experts who do $20K+/months explain their work in a way that builds authority, attracts better clients, and is easier to buy.

Authority first. Revenue Follows | Cats can be fuzzy. Your offer cannot | Signature Language System™ for solopreneurs and agencies

Hand your LinkedIn profile to AI.
And face brutal honesty in 8 seconds.

Don’t use your standard, daily LLM.
If you use ChatGPT, it knows you too well for this to work.
Instead, go with Claude, Gemini, Grok, whatever.

Download a PDF of your profile:

1. Go to Resources.
2. Then “Save to PDF.”

Drop your PDF in the new LLM with this prompt…

“Review this document. Tell me about this person:
What do they do/sell? To whom?
What's their brand like -- beginner, mid, premium?
Give me an executive summary.”

NOTE: I didn’t tell the LLM this was MY profile.
These tools are designed to suck up to us.
So keep this exercise at a distance for some objectivity.

Change my sample questions to get the insight YOU need.

My report was on target, which felt good.
It read my profile's signals correctly.
Even guessing my price range correctly.

One finding startled me.
Which was also good.
I dug in for some helpful discovery!

I’ll see if my report fits in Comments.
Including my one surprise and clarifying reply…

Let me know how your review goes.

*****


👋 I’m BrianB

I say “Howdy” though I’m not a Texan and “Cheers” though I’m not a Brit.
And I say, “Sorry I stepped on your toes” because I’m a lousy dancer.

I realized many people never create an offer statement. I think it's a foundational tool to build a compelling pitch, profile, and content.

By Brian B., Founder of Aster Arch Most experts can't explain what they do in one clean sentence. The Offer Statement is the foundation for everything

Open article: The Offer Statement Pressure Test  by Brian Berkenstock • 2 min read

I signup for many, many newsletters. 
(So many. Really. A lot.)
Then I read an issue or two and... unsubscribe.

I feel badly, of course, but there's only so many hours. My delete key must be merciless.

But I have good news.

These folks send newsletters I read every time...

Angeline Soon
Ceres Chua
Henneke Duistermaat
Jenni Reher
Sandra Macele

Give 'em a try!

*****							

👋 I’m BrianB.
🐈‍⬛ Poppy’s best friend!
💡 Architect of language systems for established experts
📜 Writer of “Under the Arch,” news to elevate your authority
💬 DM me if your brilliance/offer/program needs better packaging

Today is Friday the 13th.
Your offer has been scaring off buyers all year.

It's not that your product, service, or offer is lousy. (I hope.)

You lose sales, referrals, and pricing power because buyers can’t quickly grasp, remember, or repeat what you do. 

That’s it. That's my whole post.

(I'm off to test my luck by walking under a ladder while carrying a black cat. See you tomorrow. Maybe...)

*****							


👋 I’m BrianB

I say “Howdy” though I’m not a Texan and “Cheers” though I’m not a Brit.
And I say, “Sorry I stepped on your toes” because I’m a lousy dancer.

I give you one name.

Not three finalists. Not a deck of options with rationale. One.

Most agencies hand the hardest part back to you. Here's a shortlist, now you decide. They mean well. But you hired someone because you couldn't decide. You've been carrying this thing for months. Sometimes years.

So I do the deciding. Or rather, the process does.

Two deep sessions. Hours of listening to how you speak. Questions most people have never asked about their own work. I'm pulling out what you can't see from the inside — and building something that sounds like you, not me.

By the time I present, the reaction is almost always the same:

"You read my mind."
"How did you get to something I couldn't find myself?"
"This feels like it came out of me."

It's not mysterious. Much of the language was already inside the work. I just find it and build it into something honest.

And then that long exhale.
The weight of an unsolved problem, gone.

*****	

👋 I’m BrianB. I say “Howdy” though I’m not a Texan and “Cheers” though I’m not a Brit. And I say, “Sorry I stepped on your toes” because I’m a lousy dancer.

Cats can be fuzzy. Your language cannot.

I help solopreneurs doing $20K+/months explain their work in a way that builds authority, attracts better clients, and is easier to sell. 

And I love this work!

Last week, I delivered a Signature Language System (SLS) to a solo with a brilliant, category defining offer. 

Here’s what he said…

“I’ve been going through the assets you sent as part of SLS on the Google Drive and I have to say…. 

I feel seen and understood. Not a hyperbole, it brought a tear to my eye. 

Thank you for everything you have done to make this happen.”

Hey, I’m not crying, you are!

How lucky am I?

Signature Language System™ | Custom language builds premium authority | Cats can be fuzzy. Your language cannot.

A consultant sits in a coffee shop, laptop open. 
She scrolls through a competitor's website. 
Her jaw tightens. 

Their language… gleams.
It’s sharp, certain, undeniable.

Then she scans her own.
The words feel soft.
Generic.
Like they could describe anyone.

Across town, a potential client types her problem into Google.
She scans five websites.
Four sound the same.
One makes her stop, lean forward, and click.

It isn't the consultant in the coffee shop.

That night, the consultant opens her testimonials folder.
Twenty-three emails.
Clients whose businesses doubled.
Whose teams transformed.
Whose voices crack with gratitude on recorded calls.

She reads one: "You changed everything for us."

Then she opens her homepage.

The gap between client words and website words makes her stomach turn. 

Her proof sits, unseen, in her inbox.
She is admired by twelve people.
It should be twelve hundred.

Her work is a ten.
Her words are a four.

And the world only sees the four.

*****						

👋 I’m BrianB
🐈‍⬛ Poppy’s best friend
💡 Architect of language systems for Invisible Experts
📜 Publisher of "Under the Arch" — where language gets built
💬 DM me if your brilliance/offer/program needs better packaging

I’m sayin’ it. 
The coaching industry is addicted to marketing.

Funnels.
Content calendars.
Personal brands.
Lead magnets.
Pricing psychology.

Coaches can diagram a nurture sequence in detail, but when they try to describe their offer, the language flops.

Most are trained to sell before they are trained to build. They generate demand for something that has never been structurally defined. Then they compensate by refining hooks, rewriting bios, fussing with positioning, and raising prices in an attempt to signal “premium.”

Sometimes these tactics work — for a time.

They convert.
The launch fills up.
Revenue spikes.

But an offer with no clear progression, no named mechanism, and no defined transformation creates “explanation fatigue.”

That’s an architecture issue.

The coaches marketing skill is visible. The offer construction usually isn’t.

When the experience relies heavily on the coach’s presence and live explanations, “articulation drift” sets in. 

Authority that rests solely in a person and not in a structure is fragile.
Authority grows, stabilizes, and solidifies when language architecture is deliberate.

This is where a language bottleneck occurs.

This is where expertise outgrows language.

This is where a Signature Language System™ becomes infrastructure.

*****

👋 I'm BrianB.
💡 I turn "Wait, what do you do?" into "Oh dang, I need that."
🎯 Signature Language System™ = your offer, but impossible to forget
💬 DM me if you're tired of sounding like everyone else
🐾 My cats approve this message (my kids are still deciding)

He didn't have an offer statement.
He had a LinkedIn About section.
Carefully written and genuinely impressive.

But the six pieces that make an offer work were scattered like clues in a scavenger hunt.

Some clear. Some implied. Some missing.
Before we spoke, I pulled it together.
His words into a six-part framework. 
Five of the six parts held up.

But the differentiator — the one that answers "Why you and not someone else" — was vague. Implied, not stated.

Present in his head, cloudy on the page.

When he saw the breakdown on screen, he said,
"You're right. I have a differentiator. I'm just not conveying it clearly enough."

That sentence is worth a lot of money.

Because his differentiator — he actually has two — was something his competitors lacked.
 
The fix wasn't cosmetic. We just didn't polish some language.
We found the element creating the most drag, named what was true about him, and rebuilt the statement around it.

By the end of the session he had a tighter offer, a revised LinkedIn headline and, more importantly, a clearer answer to the question every buyer asks, “Why you?”

That's what the Offer Statement Pressure Test does.
Sixty minutes.
Six elements.
One friction point identified and fixed.

If you're an expert who struggles to translate your value to others — this is probably why.

*****

👋 I'm BrianB
🐈‍⬛ Poppy's person
🔧 I build language systems for Invisible Experts
💬 DM me to give your work the language it deserves

Your work is strong. Stronger than how it comes across to the market.
And you’ve tried to fix it.

So the big question is: Are you workin’ on the right fix?

The coaches, consultants, and experts I can help don’t usually come to me right away.

First, they endure months of slowing sales and see their authority soften.

They know their work should connect with people faster than it does.

So they tweak the offer, try a new funnel, and pump out more content.
They experiment with pricing and hope something clicks.

Some spend months in this doom loop.

Meanwhile, the real friction lies elsewhere.

What I see — again and again — is simple and easy to miss…

There are two varieties:

1. Your work evolved, but the language around it never did.
2. You never had a language system powerful enough to support your work. 

By the time people connect these dots

— from “lost opportunity” to “a language deficit” —

they’ve already dumped resources into fixing things that weren’t the cause.

Unfortunately, it’s often quite long before someone says “language” out loud.

If you thought, “My work is solid but something isn’t clicking…”

Today’s thought bubble may feel familiar.

*****
👋 I’m BrianB. I help experts who do $20K+/months explain their work in a way that builds authority, attracts better clients, and is easier to buy.

I'm about to describe your week.
And you're not gonna love how seen you feel.

Hope you won’t feel exposed, but I’m gonna name your Big Fears.
Stuff that keeps you up at night.

That weight on your shoulders.  The throb in your temples.

But…

After I name the pain, I’ll show you the path forward.

Here's my plan:

1. Show what you experience.
2. Say what causes it.
3. Tell you the fix.

If you hear yourself in the following statements, you’re not alone.

*****

👋 I’m BrianB.
🐈‍⬛ Poppy’s best friend.
💡 Architect of language systems for established experts
📜 Writer of “Under the Arch,” news to elevate your authority
💬 DM me if your brilliance/offer/program needs better packaging

Naming Your Big Fears

You've built something powerful.
But when someone asks what you do, your explanation takes longer than it should. And the words don't match the value of the work. You've tried to fix this yourself. And paid people to fix it. Nothing works.

That's not a you problem. That's a language problem.

Your offer, results, and proof are real. But no one ever built your language system to deliver it all. 

The first experience any potential buyer has with you, your brand, or your offer is the words used to describe it. Before they see your results, experience your process, know anything about you — they read.

Your program name, headline, offer description, About section. That first read is where they decide to stop or scroll past.

Most experts never engineered their language for that first read. It was written once under deadline, borrowed from a competitor, generated by AI, or cobbled together over time. It's an accident. And accidental language produces a predictable result: the buyer leaves before they ever discover what you do. I call that a First Read Failure — and it's the single most common reason great offers stay invisible.

That makes you an Invisible Expert.

You're not unknown because you're unqualified. You're under-recognized because your language was never engineered to carry what you built. First Read Failure is almost always the reason why.

The fix isn't better copy. It's Language Architecture — the complete language system behind your offer: Naming, positioning, messaging. Designed together and created to work together, so every word carries the weight of what you've built.

My grandfather Joe showed me what language failure actually costs.

Smart man. Accomplished. Experienced. He received a letter from the government, and while it was technically correct, it was written for the institution that sent it, not for him. It made him feel stupid. He wasn't. The language just never considered him.

That moment planted something in me. When language fails, the reader pays the price. Every role I've held since — in journalism, marketing, user experience (UX), PR, and executive communications — ran on the same instinct: Strip away everything blocking the real message. UX writing sharpened it most. Thousands of real interactions. Language tested daily against how people truly respond, not how we hoped they would.

This worldview became a method. 
The method became the Signature Language System™.

Effective language is engineered. 
If yours never was, that's where I start. 
DM me.

*****							

👋 I'm BrianB
🐈‍⬛ Poppy's person
🔧 I build language systems for Invisible Experts
💬 DM me if your work was never given the language it deserves

Co-Founder at Unyfy | Use us as your shortcut to success. We focus on optimising your LinkedIn strategy, discovering what sets you apart from your competitors, and converting followers into opportunities. ⚡️

Your competitor just signed your dream client.  
  
Not because they're better.  

Because they showed up. You didn't.  
  
Here's what happened:  
  
While you perfected your service, they perfected their story.  

Now they own the conversation in your market.  

Their LinkedIn posts? Building relationships with prospects you don't even know exist yet.  
  
By the time someone needs what you offer?  

Your competitor is already the trusted voice in their head.  
You never got a chance to compete.  
  
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━  
  
THE PROBLEM NO ONE TALKS ABOUT:  
  
Your competitors aren't winning today's deals.  
They're locking in next year's revenue. Right now.  
  
Every post they write = a relationship you'll never have.  
Every story they tell = a future client choosing them over you.  
  
Every day you wait, the gap widens.  
Your future clients are forming relationships right now.  
  
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━  
  
WHO I AM:  
  
I'm Matt Wheeler-Barrett.  
LinkedIn Strategic Coach.  
Co-founder @ Unyfy—a B2B personal branding agency.  
  
I've coached 500+ business people through Matt Lakajev's Seven Figure Creators cohort, where I run my own content coaching room.  
  
I help founders build tomorrow's pipeline through today's stories.  
  
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━  
  
WHAT WE DO:  
  
▪LinkedIn Strategic Coaching
  
1:1 coaching to turn your expertise into content that converts.  
  
▪Personal Branding Strategy 
 
Position yourself as the obvious choice before prospects even start looking.  
  
▪Content Strategy & Coaching  

Learn to tell stories that build trust and drive inbound leads.  
  
▪Profile Optimisation  

Turn your LinkedIn profile into a lead generation machine.  
  
▪Team Workshops (EGC Content) 
 
Train your executives, sales, and marketing teams to leverage LinkedIn.  
  
▪B2B Agency Services (Unyfy)  

Done-for-you ghostwriting and full-service personal branding.  
  
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━  
  
THE APPROACH:  
  
No templates.  
No growth hacks.  
No vanity metrics.  
  
Just strategic storytelling that makes you the obvious choice.  
  
You stop chasing deals.  
You start attracting them.  
  
Your competitors start copying you.  
Not the other way around.  
  
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━  
  
📩 DM me "STORY" to take back your market.  
  
Because your competitors aren't smarter than you.  
They just started their story six months sooner.

Matt Wheeler-Barrett

This is how you kill your credibility forever in 5 seconds by using automation and listening to AI gurus' BS.

Pitching me on my own service is probably the most embarrassing thing someone could do on here.

It shows you didn't do your research and couldn't care less about a real human relationship.

P.S. Share your worst DM pitch slap below.

I started posting on LinkedIn 34 months ago.

The irony? I was building a LinkedIn ghostwriting agency and couldn't get anyone to read my own posts.

For the first 4 months we had 1 or 2 clients, my content wasn't getting any traction, and I wasn't getting any leads.

Then I stumbled upon Julius Bieliauskas on LinkedIn and joined his cohort, and that's when I got obsessed with what was possible. Off the back of that, we acquired more clients, gained team members, and started getting real traction.

Julius introduced me to Matt Lakajev , and that's when things really shifted because I started coaching on Matt's cohort for nearly 2 years, every Monday night from midnight to 2 AM, and that properly built my grit and willingness to keep pushing no matter what.

650+ conversations and every single one made me sharper because you think you know your craft until you have the same conversation 650 times and realise you're still only scratching the surface.

Those Monday nights built the foundation for Unyfy because it wasn't about polished frameworks or AI content plans; it was the real messy work of helping people figure out who they are and what they stand for.

Fast forward to today, and LinkedIn is our number one acquisition channel. We've signed over $420K in contracts from content I've published here, went from 2 clients to 24, and just crossed 20,000 followers.

Here's what actually worked.

1. Defining a content enemy, mine is AI slop and LinkedIn gurus stripping out personality.

2. Being honest about the hard parts because my most engaged posts are where I admitted we lost clients and made mistakes.

3. Posting 3 times per week minimum and commenting genuinely with real thoughts, that's where half my inbound comes from.

4. Doubling down on my tone of voice because the best content is when you write genuinely as yourself.

5. Tracking what converts, which posts led to DMs, and discovery calls.

Everyone's moaning about LinkedIn whilst pumping out AI slop. 

Mate, come on. The bar is on the floor.

The entrepreneurs who'll win are the ones who can genuinely make people feel something through their energy and real experiences.

The Monday coaching taught me that people don't just need content, they need clarity on who they are and what they stand for, and that's what we do at Unyfy now.

I'm reinvesting my profits back into more coaching to get sharper at what I'm teaching because the only way to ensure what I preach is grounded in real thinking is to keep doing the work myself.

It's also led me to start working on a separate entity in the background (more coming soon!) 

If you're wondering if LinkedIn is worth it, it is, but it takes longer than you want and it's harder than it looks.

Start anyway.

Thanks for being part of this ride, here's to the next 20K.

Matt Wheeler-Barrett 

People with less experience than you are winning clients on LinkedIn. We fix that in 90 days, done for you · 500+ Coached

I've had people screw me over.
I've been accused of "j*erking myself off on LinkedIn."
I've been told I'm "too intense" and "need to tone it down."
I've been underestimated by people who now ask me for advice.
I've had friends quietly unfollow me because I wouldn't play small.

Proper mental, that last one.

Before you start posting consistently, you need to accept this: not everyone's going to cheer you on.

Some will mock you. Some will question your intentions. Some will project their own insecurities onto you because deep down they wish they had the courage to show up too.

You've got to be okay with that.

Because if you let the fear of judgement stop you, you'll stay stuck playing it safe and staying invisible.

Last night, I read this from Bukowski and it hit different:

"Isolation is the gift.

All the others are a test of your endurance, of how much you really want to do it.

And you'll do it, despite rejection and the worst odds.

And it will be better than anything else you can imagine.

You will ride life straight to perfect laughter.

It's the only good fight there is."

LinkedIn requires you to go all in and stay consistent as hell if you want consistent results out of it.

Not everyone will get it, and that's fine.

The right people will.

If you're too cool for LinkedIn, you're probably too cool for money...


But if you're a regular person running a business who wants to win, it's:

1. One of the best platforms where stories build real influence + trust
2. One of the best platforms packed with actual decision makers
3. One of the best platforms to win business in the DMs

Good thing the 'cool kids' stay away.

While they protect their image, we're protecting our income.

Don't get me wrong - some people take it too far. There's a whole Reddit dedicated to mocking them.

But the ones actually winning?

They're building real relationships and real businesses by tapping into who they really are. Being human. Showing how they help other humans do great things.

I'm watching founders close deals every week because they stopped caring about looking cool.

Critics stay stuck judging. Users are out here closing deals.

Most people mock LinkedIn so they can feel sophisticated.

Smart people just use it.

The rest? Excuses.

You already know which side pays better.

"If you're going to try, go all the way. Otherwise, don't even start."

That's Bukowski.

And it's the truest thing I know about building a business.

Most people think entrepreneurship looks like freedom. Flexibility. Passive income.

Bollocks.

"This could mean losing girlfriends, wives, relatives, jobs and maybe even your mind."

It could mean not knowing how you'll make payroll.

It could mean 3am anxiety attacks.

"It could mean derision, mockery, isolation."

Here's the thing:

"Isolation is the gift."

All the rest? The sleepless nights, the cashflow panic, the constant bloody doubt?

"All the others are a test of your endurance, of how much you really want to do it."

I've been kicked in the teeth more times than I can count.

Lost clients. Burnt out. Questioned everything.

And honestly?

I wouldn't trade it.

Because "you'll do it, despite rejection and the worst odds."

"And it will be better than anything else you can imagine."

There's no other feeling like that.

"You will be alone with the gods, and the nights will flame with fire."

Entrepreneurship isn't for everyone. And that's fine.

But if you're in it?

"You will ride life straight to perfect laughter."

"It's the only good fight there is."

What keeps you going when everything's falling apart?

Nobody remembers your content because you're not standing for anything.

Stop that.

Here's what actually makes content land:

Work out what you stand against and own that stance.

For me, it's LinkedIn gurus recycling the same tired advice, people letting AI strip away their voice, and this obsession with hacks over actual effort.

When you're against something, people feel it. That's what makes them pay attention.

Show how you've actually helped people.

Don't just share your opinions and hope people believe you. Show how you've helped others. What problem did they have before working with you? What were they struggling with? What did you solve for them?

That's the difference between sounding like you know what you're talking about and proving you do.

Work out what makes you sound like you.

What do you say when you're explaining something over a coffee? What words do other people use that make you roll your eyes?

That's your voice. Lean into it hard.

The content that works isn't about being the most polished or the most clever. It's about teaching something you actually believe matters, taking a stance on it, sounding like yourself the entire time, and giving actual evidence.

If nobody disagrees with you, you're playing it too safe.

I almost didn't post this.
 
Tonight two entrepreneurs from London were sitting in my study.
 
Brainstorming their business on my whiteboard.
 
Three years ago that wouldn't have happened.
 
Here's why it did:
 
I fell forward when others stayed still.
 
I studied on weekends when others were out.
 
I learned from every failure instead of quitting.
 
Everyone wants to win.
 
Nobody wants to do what it actually takes.
 
That's the difference.
 
Building a business is brutal. It's not easy by a long shot.
 
But I'm not done yet.
 
And neither should you be.
 
Stop waiting for the perfect moment.
 
Stop fearing what others think.
 
Go all in or don't go in at all.
 
The people you're meant to help are waiting.

"Matty, no word of a lie, every single meeting we sit in, someone brings up our LinkedIn."

Matthew Grobler is a friend, close to me, and I'm constantly getting feedback from him about how well this is working for them.

ACEPAK came to us with two goals: build brand awareness and attract top-tier talent.

Here's what happened:

They spent $3,000 on LinkedIn job ads. Zero hires.

Then they worked with us to build their founders' personal brands on LinkedIn. Last year alone, they made 11 key hires directly from content Matt and Nick have been sharing.

They've also arguably sold machines through LinkedIn (though with their complex sales process, it's hard to pin down).

But what stood out most? Matt told me his personal brand isn't just building awareness. It's building trust. It's changing the tone of every meeting they walk into.

People buy from people. Not company logos.

We're now targeting US manufacturing, logistics, and renewables companies.

So many American businesses are already investing in South African talent. They know the quality, the work ethic, the resilience.

We've proven we can help founder-led brands replace expensive job ads and trade shows with authentic content that generates real business.

Chris Kleyweg is going to be the driving force behind this push into the American market. He's based in NYC and understands what founders in manufacturing, logistics, and renewables are dealing with.

If you're a US founder looking to build a pipeline of talent and customers through your personal brand, let's talk.

We're ready to bring what we've built for Acepak to America.

You're outsourcing your thinking to a tool.

And it shows.

Everyone's following the same prompts, consuming the same outputs, and wondering why their content sounds like everyone else's.

Here's why. The best storytellers aren't built by tools. They're built by what they read, what they experience, and who they learn from.

When you let AI create your voice, you set yourself up for a problem. The second you hop on a call with someone who's been reading your content, they'll notice the disconnect.

The way you speak doesn't match the way you write. And that kills trust faster than anything else.

You need better inputs, not better prompts.

Stories that connect don't come from ChatGPT. They come from real books, real conversations, and real experiences that shape how you see the world.

People don't connect with perfect copy. They connect with you. Your perspective. Your voice. Your lived experience.

And no tool can create that for you.

I've put together a carousel with 6 books that will sharpen your thinking and help you tell better stories. Not tactics. Perspective.

Swipe through if you're serious about building a voice that's actually yours.

Stop feeding AI prompts. Start feeding your brain.

A mate of mine once told me I'm so "lucky" to have this big audience...


I had to stop them in their tracks.

Look, I don't believe in luck. I don't believe in hope as a strategy either. 

I believe in hard work, complaining less, and putting your head down to do the work when everyone else is looking for shortcuts.

Here's what I told them: "You're comparing your Chapter 1 to someone else's Chapter 12."

Then I shared something most people don't know about me. 

For the last 3 years, I've tracked my time on LinkedIn, and on average, I've spent 3.7 hours on this platform every single day.

They looked at me like I'd lost the plot. "That's crazy."

Maybe it is. But I've had plenty of people tell me I'm crazy over the years, and it's never bothered me because I know exactly what I'm working towards.

When I first started on here, I had no strategy. I wasn't an expert. My posts barely reached anyone.

But I kept showing up anyway because LinkedIn isn't a place where things happen overnight. It's a slow burn, just like building real relationships.

Here's what actually matters:

1. Every post you publish is a step forward, even the ones that get no likes. 

2. Every DM conversation is a chance to grow your network. 

3. Every email sign-up is momentum building. Every piece of content teaches you something about what works and what doesn't.

The best way to build credibility and trust is ruthless consistency in what you do. 

Just showing up and doing the work over and over again until people start to notice.

There will never be a perfect post or a perfect time to start.

If you've got something to say, say it now.

Stop waiting for luck. Put your head down and do the work.

I back you. 🤝

PS: I've added a photo of my profile from 3 years ago to remind you that everyone started from the bottom.

Your content isn't converting because you're speaking your language, not theirs.

And that disconnect is costing you clients.

Look, I've coached 650+ founders on LinkedIn through Matt Lakajev's community. Every conversation taught me something new about what makes content actually connect.

Seen them go from zero engagement to inbound enquiries.

Seen them book sales calls from content that actually connects.

Those 650+ conversations gave me the accumulated learnings to help my clients' content get better and better.

The shift is simple, but most people miss it completely.

Here's what works:

1. Understand your ICP's pain points deeply, not just surface level
2. Learn how their business actually operates day to day
3. Speak their language, not your industry jargon

But here's the thing most people get wrong.

They write to sound smart instead of writing to be understood.

Magdalena Robinson came to me struggling to connect with her conservative ICP. Her content was brilliant, but it wasn't landing because she was speaking her language, not theirs.

We shifted the messaging to align with how her ideal clients actually think and communicate.

Within the first week, she got 2 inbound enquiries from her exact ICP and booked 3 sales calls.

Each prospect said her content made them feel heard and understood.

That's the difference.

When someone feels themselves in your story, they see how you can help with theirs.

Stop writing to impress your peers. Start writing to connect with your prospects.

I back you. 🤝

PS: If your content isn't converting, you're probably making this exact mistake.

Stop trying to appeal to everyone. Start pissing off the right people.

A quick few content learnings to go with your morning coffee:

1. If you want your content to grab attention, you need to define a content enemy.

Mine? People looking the same with AI content, LinkedIn gurus, and automation (lack of actual bloody effort).

2. Learn to write content that borrows credibility and helps you fight against the content enemy.

3. Always double down on your TOV.

What phrases do you love to use? What words do you never use?

Here's the thing:

The best content is when you educate, stand up for something, and write genuinely as you.

Period.

Just got pitched LinkedIn sales systems by someone who clearly didn't spend 30 seconds looking at my profile.

You know, the profile where it says I run a LinkedIn personal branding agency.

I had to read it twice.

Lmao.

This silly sausage is literally asking me if LinkedIn could "realistically become a proper sales channel" for my business. Mate, LinkedIn IS my business.

It's what I do for a living. I help people build their brands on this exact platform every single day.

Did you read a single post? Look at my profile? Check what the agency actually does?

Clearly not.

Because what you're really telling me with that automated message is that you couldn't be bothered to do even the most basic research.

And this is exactly what's killing trust on the platform right now. Everyone's trying to automate their way to relationships, and people can smell it from a mile away.

You're not building a pipeline. You're burning bridges before they're even built.

While you're running sequences and blasting DMs hoping something sticks, your competitors are getting in front of your prospects first. Because they actually showed up like humans.

Here's what one lazy message did:

• I never replied
• I will never work with him. Ever.

You cannot automate research, and you cannot shortcut trust.

People don't just buy from businesses. They buy from people they genuinely like, people they can have a laugh with, people they actually trust.

The fastest way to build that trust isn't a slick pitch. It's taking the time to get to know someone as a human being first.

Here's what actually works:

1. Do your bloody research first

Spend 2 minutes on their profile. Read their content. Understand what they actually do. If you're pitching someone their own services back to them, you've already lost.

2. Show up like a human, not a bot

AI can't replace genuine interest. It can't replace curiosity. It can't replace actually giving a shit about the person you're messaging.

If your outreach could be sent to 1,000 people with a name swap, don't send it.

3. Build rapport before you pitch anything

Comment on their posts. Engage with what they're saying. Be present in their world long enough that your name becomes familiar.

The best sales conversations don't feel like sales at all.

4. Stop treating LinkedIn like a cold email list

The ROI isn't in how many messages you send. It's in how many real conversations you have.

I've done business with people I connected with in January. No pitch. No agenda. Just genuine conversations where we realised there was a fit.

The DM that converts isn't the cleverest pitch. It's the one where the person on the other end thinks: "Finally. Someone who actually gets me."

No hard feelings toward the silly sausage in my inbox. But sort the approach out.

I back you. 🤝

How to kill your credebility in 3 messages

Merriam-Webster made "slop" the 2025 Word of the Year.

Their definition?

"Digital content of low quality that is produced usually in quantity by means of artificial intelligence."

2.4 million people called it out last year. Usage of the term increased 9X from 2024.

And if you're on LinkedIn right now, you know exactly what they're talking about. The "thrilled to announce" posts, the ChatGPT listicles, the engagement bait where everyone sounds exactly the same.

And look, they're not wrong. 

LinkedIn is exhausting right now. 53% of posts are AI-generated (Semrush). Same templates, same hooks, everyone's playing the same bloody game. It's like the platform got cloned 100,000 times.

Everyone's complaining about AI slop. Meanwhile, some people are out here building actual businesses. And they're not using ChatGPT to write their posts.

What's different about them?

Half the "personal branding experts" on here are just generating AI slop that gets loads of engagement...

Meanwhile behind the scenes, they're still trying to figure out how to actually run a business. But people are paying them to run their content when they haven't even figured out their own business yet.

And if you're a coach or someone selling your experience, relying on AI tools to extend your voice is bloody dangerous. Because when you get on a call with someone, they're going to notice the disconnect. Your posts sound one way, you talk another way. That's when trust dies.

The people winning on here? They don't automate their DMs with some AI tool. They just talk to people like normal humans. They write like they'd explain it to a mate over coffee, not like a LinkedIn guru selling you a $2,000 course on how to sound exactly like everyone else.

The algorithm doesn't reward volume anymore. It rewards time spent. How long people actually stop and read. People don't stop for slop. They stop for real humans with real takes.

The bar is on the floor right now. Everyone's pumping out AI content, chasing engagement, sounding exactly like everyone else.

You don't have to do any of that. Just figure out what you know that your audience doesn't, and share it like you're explaining it to a mate.

That's literally it.

Don't sound like AI and you're already ahead of 53% of people on here.

HubSpot surveyed 3,400 marketers for their 2026 State of Marketing report.

One stat jumped out that nobody's talking about.

77% of marketers rated lead quality as high or very high. That sounds good, right?

But here's the problem. 70% of those same marketers report leads come to them later in the buying process now.

Why? Because your prospects are researching you for weeks before they ever message you. They're reading your LinkedIn. Your posts. Your comments. All of it.

And if you sound like ChatGPT wrote your content, they're moving straight to someone who sounds like an actual human.

That's what the LinkedIn gurus selling you AI content tools won't tell you. Because it kills their entire bloody business model. They're flogging you AI post generators, AI comment bots, AI everything, and meanwhile your prospects are scrolling right past it.

Windmill Growth just published data from 185 founder clients showing AI-generated content gets 40-50% lower engagement than human-written posts.

Your prospects can feel the difference even when they can't explain it.

Look.

A client came to me struggling to connect with her conservative ICP. Her content was brilliant, but it wasn't landing because she was speaking her language, not theirs.

I taught her how to write for her ICP. How to make them feel understood. How to be herself.

Within the first week she got 2 inbound enquiries from her exact ICP and booked 4 sales calls. Each prospect said her content made them feel heard and understood.

That's what happens when you write like a human instead of a robot.

Your prospects are watching you long before you know they exist. They're deciding if you're the real deal or just another person who sounds like a robot.

So write like you talk. Share real experiences, not hypotheticals. Be yourself.

Stop writing to impress your peers. Start writing to connect with your prospects.

I back you. 🤝

taplio

The Battle

Brian Berkenstock

Matt Wheeler-Barrett

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreBrian Berkenstock's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreMatt Wheeler-Barrett's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

The Battle

Brian Berkenstock

Matt Wheeler-Barrett

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);}Brian Berkenstock's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreMatt Wheeler-Barrett's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreBrian Berkenstock's LinkedIn Performance