I help salespeople become sales leaders w/ the Salesblazer Method™️ | Executive Sales Leader

Over the last decade, I helped build multiple multi-million dollar medical device territories by developing new markets and strategic sales teams. I also helped customer-partners build their personal brands and land consulting contracts, which led to developing new products/techniques and enhanced patient outcomes.

Then, in 2023, I hit a fork in the road. Do I continue building someone else's company at the expense of my convictions, or do I risk my comfortable life to gain personal agency, take complete ownership over my future, and craft something worth telling a story about?

Building something on my terms and diversifying my income would be the best pathway towards control over my calendar, autonomy over the work I get to do, and the direct impact I can have.

While this pathway has not been easy, the results have been remarkable.

Since leaving a sales executive role with a great brand, I have been able to replace my income by working for myself with less effort (working smart).

I have launched Sparkbound, a medical sales & marketing organization that goes beyond the transaction and seeks to enrich the lives of others.

Sparkbound not only helps our people build influential careers, increase our partners' influence, or improve our practitioners' patient outcomes, but we also want to help aspiring difference makers become the change they wish they could make... and then help them make positive change happen.

My mission is to help you see that you're not stuck. You don't have to labor and live as others expect you to. My mission is to help you challenge the status quo, lead by design, and choose the impact you wish to have.

I love writing about leadership, specifically leadership without titles, about how high-impact professionals can earn personal agency, purposeful productivity (doing more good, better), and meaningful work.

Francisco Martinez

Find a leader to work for. Not a job to do. 

The wrong manager can hold your career back for years. 

The right managers see your potential, help you unlock your potential, and champion your promotion. 

The best leaders are agnostic to the logo they represent. 
They are believers in the people they are responsible for. 

The best managers prioritize people first, then profit. 

I've worked for great leaders. 

- They believed I had potential.
- They asked about my wife & children. 
- They invested in me even when I deserved to be fired. 
- They designed comp plans around revenue goals, not quota.
- They created roles to solve problems that fit my passion and strengths. 
- They listened - and did not turn on me - when I considered outside offers.

I once struggled because I wasn't sure I wanted to be in this industry. 
My leaders noticed my decreasing excitement, put their arms around me, and said, "Where do you want to be? We'll help you get there." 

They are why I stayed, even though I was offered better pay elsewhere. 
They are the reason I haven't quit the medical device industry.

Ultimately, their leadership has led to several promotions, bigger paychecks, and once-in-a-lifetime career opportunities. 

Choose leaders who want to see you grow today. 

Agree? Let me know your thoughts👇

If you want to look like a leader, get your MBA. 

If you want to be a leader, start leading.

Leadership is simple. 

Leadership is not: 

- Executive titles
- Being a high performer
- Corner office with a view
- Managing a 10K person org

Leadership is:

- Stepping up to care for those around you.
- Getting results while raising up others.
- Creating opportunities to serve. 
- Leading yourself. 

Titles, certifications, degrees, and education amplify your leadership. 

But they don't make you a leader. 

How can someone start leading today?

After 14 years in medical sales (18 total in sales), I've had to reinvent my career several times. 

I have been demoted, stuck, and promoted. 

I have represented large brands and startups. 

Every time, it has come down to these basic but powerful habits. 

Here are the 17 powerful habits of high-impact salespeople:

1. Focus on what you can control: your attitude & actions
2. Learn to say, "I don't know, but let me find out." 
3" Give, don't take. Give away your time, expertise, & self. 
4. The day starts the night before. Wake up to execute. 
5. Practice patience, not passivity. Growth takes time. 
6. Like Navy Seals, train with a pod of peers. 
7. Sundays are for strategy. Plan an ideal week.
8. Get aligned every quarter with your values and mission
9. Always be checking in on your character. 
10. Do what you say you will do, even if it costs you. 
11. First impressions are for impact, not to impress. 
12. Time block high-revenue activities. Ruthlessly stick to it
13. Send a weekly highlight report to your boss. 
14. Send a weekly lessons learned report to your team. 
15. End each day with a self-assessment review of yourself.
16. Solve big problems instead of reacting to fire drills. 
17. Go beyond the transaction and seek to enrich lives. 

Medical sales, and all sales, are more than hitting quota. 

It's about becoming the person you would rave about doing business with. 

What did I miss? 

--
♻️ Repost to help your network become a high-impact salesperson
➕ Follow for more tips on how to grow your sales career

You don't need permission to lead.
You don't need to work 60-hour weeks.
You don't need approval to implement AI.

Don't let anybody tell you otherwise. 

The biggest lies we tell ourselves:

"I need to wait until the culture improves."
"I need to be promoted before I can lead."
"I need to stay in my lane.

Here's the truth:

You have everything you need to make change happen in your company.
The work isn't waiting for permission.
The work is taking responsibility.

How many people do you know who spent years taking orders instead of taking initiative?

The most successful people didn't wait to lead and do great work.

They had a vision.
They took small bets.
They chose to lead and make a change.

Stop waiting to get picked.

Pick yourself and make positive change happen. 

♻️ Repost to help your tribe be the change they wish they had
➕ Follow for more insights on getting unstuck and doing things better.

It's not your fault that you aren't getting promoted.

Companies love to promote the wrong people: 

People with seniority, big numbers, and loud mouths. 

But don't let that stop you from getting promoted the right way.

Promoting the right way is simple.
It's not about being extraordinary. 
Nor is it about being high performing. 

It's about being a high-impact person. 

High-impact people don't chase what others chase:

🏷 Executive titles
🏢 The corner office
👏 Praise and recognition
🎓 Fancy MBA degrees

High-impact people are simply leaders without titles. 

Lead where you are. 

No hierarchy.
No entitlement.
No permission needed.

✅ Seek impact, not impressions.
✅ Take initiative when others are complacent.
✅ Pursue excellence when no one's watching.
✅ Lift morale when others stick to themselves.

The gap between insignificance and influence shouldn't be authority.

It's the choice to become the leader you wish you had.

What do you think?

The best leaders aren't the smartest in the room. 

More Knowledge won't get you promoted. Try this instead:

Acquire wisdom. 

Here's why:

🧠 Knowledge is about knowing more. 
🦉 Wisdom is about knowing you don't know enough. 

🧠 Knowledge says, "I know the answer." 
🦉 Wisdom asks, "What's the right question?"

🧠 Knowledge recites best practices. 
🦉 Wisdom knows when to break them.

🧠 Knowledge speaks first in meetings. 
🦉 Wisdom listens, then synthesizes what others missed.

🧠 Knowledge focuses on being right. 
🦉 Wisdom focuses on being useful.

🧠 Knowledge collects information. 
🦉 Wisdom connects the dots others can't see.

The leaders who get promoted aren't the ones with the most certifications or the largest vocabulary.

They're the ones who can navigate complexity, read between the lines, and make decisions when the data is incomplete.

They turn information into insight. Problems into opportunities. Chaos into clarity.

Stop collecting Knowledge. Start cultivating wisdom.

Your career will thank you.

What's one moment when wisdom mattered more than Knowledge in your career? Share below 👇

-- 
♻️ Repost to help your tribe be wiser
➕ Like and follow Francisco Martinez for more insights

Making Leaders Remarkable | Follow for systems & strategies for effortless leadership & remarkable work | Founder & Principal building an 8-figure sales agency from scratch

Avoid being the 99% who wait to get promoted.

Trust me when I say:

- mastering influence
- excelling in your role
- crafting solutions as a niche
- teaching others to create success

And above all, being worthy of remark...

Will make it 100x easier to get promoted.

Waiting for an opportunity isn’t reliable. Go create a demand for your skills.

99% of people miss a promotion because they try to do "more". 

Future leaders focus on who they are becoming.

❌ Stop asking, "What must I do to get promoted?"
✅ Start asking, "Am I becoming someone worth following?"

❌Stop asking, "How many more years do I need to wait for that next promotion?"
✅ Start asking, "Where can I initiate, and whom can I begin serving today?"

❌Stop asking, "How can I get noticed by leadership?"
✅ Start asking, "How can I shine a spotlight on others?"

❌Stop asking, "What skills do I need on my resume?"
✅ Start asking, "What real, soft skills can I develop?"

❌Stop asking, "Who can help advance my career?"
✅ Start asking, "Whose career can I help advance today?"

❌Stop asking, "What tasks can I take off my boss's plate?"
✅ Start asking, "What common problem can I bring solutions for?"

If you are frustrated that nothing is changing, stop asking the same questions everybody else asks.

Ask better questions.
You'll get different, better results.

"Quality questions create a quality life." - Tony Robbins.

What questions have you asked yourself to become the leader you wish you had?

You can't just "wing it" in leadership. 

If you want to succeed as a leader, start asking two questions:

"Who will I serve today?"
"Who will I surprise this week?" 

Leadership is simple. 
Leadership is servant leadership. 
Servant leadership is not waiting around hoping to be asked for help. 
Servant leadership is initiating and planning acts of service. 

You will either lead well or not. There's no in betweena. 

You can fail to plan your leadership, but you will plan to fail as a leader. 

How do you plan to lead well this week?

Don't just pray for a great culture.

Be the answer to your prayer.

It's easy to hope for a healthy workplace—one where you feel safe, valued, and seen.

But culture isn't something you stumble upon.

It's something you help create.

Culture is not:

- Pizza, ping pong, or even pickleball
- Unlimited PTO or remote work
- A profitable business unit
- A mission statement
- HR department
- Core values
- The CEO

The success or attitude of individual contributors is not the measure of culture. 
But it is measured by:

- Low burnout
- Employee referrals
- High retention rates
- People celebrate each other
- Alignment of all people and parts
- The way employees feel on Sunday night

Yet, no culture is perfect. Even great workplaces will disappoint at times.
And that's okay.

That's why what matters is how you carry yourself and champion the culture you wish you had.

You bring attitude, habits, and values everywhere you go.

The best cultures aren't found. Courageous people cultivate them.

So yes, pray for a great team, a mission you can stand behind, and a culture that breathes life.

But don't stop there.
Be the person who:

- Gives credit
- Has a bias for action
- Chooses to lead without a title.
- Praises the efforts and success of others.
- Isn't waiting to be asked to serve but creates opportunities to serve.

You're not just a recipient of great culture.
You're crafting it... every single day.

What are the best ways a leader without a title can impact their culture?

The best medical sales reps don't sell. They serve.

After 14 years in medical sales, I've watched too many reps crash and burn trying to be the smartest person in the room.

Here's what actually works:

Stop trying to impress doctors.
Start trying to improve patient outcomes.

This mindset changes everything.

Here are the non-negotiables for high-performing medical sales reps: 

✅ Lead with patient impact, not product features
✅ Create opportunities to serve your customers. 
✅ Play the long game and build trust as you build your pipeline.
✅ Educate, educate, educate. 
✅ Don't knock the competition. 

Here's the interesting truth:

When you stop selling and start serving, your numbers go up.

In medical sales, we don't just move products.
We're integral to someone's healing.

Act like it.

What's the most important lesson you've learned about putting people before profit?

♻️ Repost if this resonates
➕ Follow for more on character-driven sales leadership

The #1 credential for leadership is character. 

Without high integrity, you can't influence people effectively. 

Character is more important than your certifications.
Character is more important than your degrees. 
Character is more important than your experience.
Character is more important than your success. 
Character is more important than your content.
Character is more important than your mission.

Character is the most foundational aspect of leadership, as everything flows from it. 

Your hard work. Your motivation. Your goals for your people. Your servant leadership. Your trustworthiness.

All of it flows from the person you are when nobody is watching.

Before you ask what you should do to be a leader, ask, "Who am I becoming?"

Character is a slow brew. It is shaped and developed through testing over time. 

So be patient. 
Know who you want to become.
Be that person. 
When you fail, own up to it. 

That's what the people around you need most. 

Then watch yourself naturally work on being and having all those other things essential for success with people. 

Do you agree or disagree? Comment and let me know.
♻️ Repost and like if you agree

P C.

Don't quit. Don't give up. Turn that frustration around. 

Because success is not a corner office, a title, or a bigger role. 

Thinking in terms of vanity metrics almost destroyed my career. 

Thinking I could impact lives if I had that bigger role hindered my effort. 

I realized that it wasn't my managers keeping me from bigger and better things. 
It was me. 

Once I chose to be a salesblazer, making positive change happen right where I was and leading without a title, my career blossomed. 

Here's the mindset that finds success with or without titles:

- You make change happen for the sake of others. 
- You initiate solving common problems your way. 
- You think beyond your role. Create a rising tide. 
- You are willing to ask for help from your tribe.
- You are faithful with what you've been given.
- You detach from outcomes. Create systems. 
- You know what makes you unique. 
- You don't hate small beginnings.
- You adopt the 12-week year. 
- You aim to work hard. 
- You excel. 

The result? 

You build an impactful and successful career.

The brutal truth about starting your own business: it doesn't give you the freedom, security, and everything you dreamt about when first starting.

Well... at least not at first.

Ben Horowitz said it best:

"As a startup CEO, I slept like a baby. I woke up every two hours and cried."

While my trust in the Lord keeps me sound asleep at night, that doesn't mean I don't wrestle with stress and anxiety over the business and the people that have come along for the ride. 

Building a medical sales agency from scratch has taught me:

- Relationships are priceless, and integrity - even when it costs you - is the glue that keeps them together.

- While you have a sense of ownership over your calendar, you're owned by the customer and your people. 

- When your people don't show up, you have to... even if it's on the weekend. 

- No such thing as a cushy savings account because cash goes quick when you're scaling fast. 

- More time with your family? No such thing. 

Everybody dreams about starting a business.

But nobody wants to sacrifice and prepare for the cost of actually building a business from scratch. 

Starting a business isn't about freedom.

It's about trading one set of problems for another — except now they're all yours.

And there's no one to blame if things don't get done except yourself 😂 

Is it worth it? 

100%. 

What matters most is to count the cost before you leap. 

Because the business builders who survive aren't the ones with the best ideas.

They're the ones who knew what they were signing up for — and chose it anyway.

What's the hardest part of starting a business nobody warned you about?

The biggest mistake I made in building an influential sales career:

Not being generous.

Not monetarily, that's easy.

But sacrificial with everything else.

Now I give away my:

- Expertise to customers with zero strings attached
- Strengths & skills to develop others
- Time in the trenches with our reps
- Ideas to improve our organization

Giving binds people into a community.

Salesblazers are better together.

Take your work seriously, but not yourself seriously.

One of the greatest mindsets for doing great work without running over people:

- Think of yourself less (& others more)
- You’re not that important
- Commit unwaveringly to your mission
- Leave a mark on those you serve
- Decide to involve the skills and talents of your team
- Have fun

Nobody likes to work with arrogant jerks. 

The humble way, while more challenging, brings everybody together to accomplish your important work.

Caring isn't a strategy you implement. 

It is a lifestyle you embody daily.

So stop acting like you care. Start actually caring. 

❌ Don't perform empathy for your team 
✅ Genuinely invest in their growth

❌ Don't fake interest in customers
 ✅ Detach from profit and connect as humans

❌ Don't care for the applause 
✅ Care because it's a person you can impact

If you feel you are acting, tell yourself to care genuinely.

Do the work to make an impact, not just to impress.

What's one way to embody authentic care?

♻️ Repost to inspire leaders to care
➕ Follow and like for more unconventional musings

The system for promoting salespeople is broken.

And it's costing companies their best leaders.

5 metrics nobody is using to discover true leaders:

Old metrics:

- Seniority
- Expertise
- Big personality
- Quota achievement
- Number of direct reports

Better metrics:

- Flexes between extrovert and introverted personalities
- Develops and creates more leaders (not just followers)
- People passionately following their mission and vision
- Obsesses over people first over quota
- Initiates acts of service

The common denominator? 

Not quota achievement or high-performing. 
But pouring into people because that's the right thing to do. 

Traditional credentials make a manager. 
People make the leader.

What's one trait youve seen in a great leader that never shows up on a performance review?

The system for promoting salespeople is broken

No matter how experienced you are, selling can be daunting.

Here's how to stay calm (without hacks):

Overthinking ➡️ Write out strategy 
Uninspired ➡️ Read customer stories
Scared of rejection ➡️ Practice your pitch
Stuck in a rut ➡️ Call a mentor
Tired of cold-calling ➡️ Rehearse your why
Confused ➡️ Leverage AI
Frustrated by mgmt ➡️ Go lead
Burned out ➡️ Create a system
Impatient ➡️ Impatient
Unmotivated ➡️ Read a book

What would you add?

Find a leader to work for. Not a job to do. 

The wrong manager can burn you out and hold back your life. 

The right managers know your emotional and physical capacity and help you maximize it, not exhaust it. 

The best leaders are agnostic to "hustle culture."  
They not only push their people to greatness but also protect them from burnout. 

The best managers prioritize people first, then profit. 

Choose leaders who want to see you succeed without crashing. 

Agree? Let me know your thoughts👇

Create Content that Sells | Content Strategist & Demand Gen Marketer @contactstudios → SEO, Content and Video for Online Businesses

Content changed my business' trajectory and my life.

It's the growth lever behind every client success story I'm proud to tell.

I firmly believe it's one of the best things you can do for your growth.

It's how you build trust and a reputation in your industry at scale. 

What I call: Content-Led Growth.


At Distinctiva we help you build your content strategy from the ground up.

With content & creative strategies, copywriting/ghostwriting, design and video editing/animation. 

You have the whole package to grow on platforms like LinkedIn, Newsletters and YouTube.

We create across all formats - from text, videos, carousels, one-pagers to full content machines that compound over time.

The results?

• Clients going from unknown to 10K followers in 3 months
• Some approaching 80K (more than I have!)
• YouTube channels hitting 6K views on their 2nd video
• Newsletters with 60%+ open rate in every single issue
• Millions of impressions, hundreds of podcast invitations
• Posts ranking #1 in Google Search

Best part?

Their content is one of the main sources of revenue. 

• One attributes 80% of their leads to LinkedIn Organic.
• Another credits LinkedIn as their top referral source (3x'd their website traffic!).
• Another scaled from $1.2M to $3.6M ARR through LinkedIn alone.


I only accept a limited amount of clients a quarter. And make sure I'm behind your strategy always. 

I don’t believe in massive hiring and scaling because I prioritize lean, focused teams that drive impactful results.


Thinking this might be right for your business?

Let's hop on a call and figure it out together. 

I'll take a look at where you're at, where you want to go, and we can map out if content could be your growth engine.

And hey, if content isn't the right fit or you're looking to grow on other platforms, I'm happy to point you toward the right people who can help.

Diandra Escobar

I got interviewed by Forbes, Blic Biznis and Bloomberg for national TV...

All in one day.

And no, I didn't wake up with a PR team or a media strategy.

Here's how it actually happened.

I went to a conference in Belgrade. Showed up, talked to people, stayed curious.

But rewind further.

That conference happened because one day I chatted with someone who recommended me to someone else… who is now my client.

That client happened because one day I decided to start posting on LinkedIn. Terrified. No followers. Celebrating 10 likes like I'd won the lottery.

And that happened because someone close to me was already posting and I thought… if they can do it, maybe I can too.

None of this was planned.

There was no master strategy. No 5-year media roadmap. Just a series of small decisions that kept stacking on top of each other.

One post became a connection. One connection became a client. One client became a conference. One conference became Forbes, Bloomberg, and Serbian TV on the same Tuesday.

Life's opportunities are a compounding effect.

You don't see the return on day one. Or month one. Sometimes not even year one.

But every time you put yourself out there (even when it feels like nobody's watching) you're adding to the stack.

The interview didn't start in Belgrade.  It started the day I hit "post" anyway.

P.S. If you're ready to finally hit that post button, I'm breaking down every strategy that got me here on my YouTube channel: https://lnkd.in/d8BUX-J5

Building content engines | LinkedIn · Newsletters · YouTube | Founder, Distinctiva.io → we grow B2B brands through organic content | Content Strategist | Speaker

Friday I spoke at the Microsoft centre for the unlockit conference...

Topic: How to Build a Content Engine That 3X Your Growth.

I didn't just talk about content flywheels at the Microsoft centre on Friday. I built one on stage.

The presentation itself was the flywheel in action:

→ Growth: The hook about how AI rewrote the rules
→ Authority: The framework (4 content buckets, 1:8 ratio)
→ Personal: My story of getting fired and building a six-figure agency
→ Conversion: Booked calls, YouTube subscriptions, newsletter signups

One insight. Multiple formats. Each with a different job.

Repurposed into: this post, future posts, youtube video, blog, newsletter.

The shift from content calendars (start from zero every time) to content flywheels (each piece feeds the next).

The 4 buckets we use with every client:

Growth (40%) - brings new eyes
Authority (30%) - builds trust
Conversion (20%) - drives action
Personal (10%) - makes you human

Not from one viral post. From the system.

Thanks to everyone who came up after to chat. Your questions made it even better.

And special thanks to Vukasin Vukosavljevic for thinking of me for this opportunity.

And to Cam Trew for being the best supporter.

The highlight was definitely meeting these amazing humans...

Bojana Vojnović, Bojana Petkovic, Enrique Hoyos, Ravish Agrawal, Tanja Kuzman, Mina Draskovic, Briana Dilworth, Nick V., Marija Jevtić, Sasa Popovic, Sarah Finegan, Cristina Ispas, Nenad Pavlov

Thank you Belgrade, you showed up. 💙

I went through all 9 pages of LinkedIn's Algorithm research paper so you don't have to. (watch this If your reach dropped)

They killed your reach on purpose and rebuilt everything from scratch.

Why? Fake engagement was destroying the platform. Bots, pods, clickbait. LinkedIn needed AI to spot what's real.

Everything you thought worked doesn't anymore.

Here's what I cover in my latest YouTube video:

→ How the old system worked vs. the new one
→ What LinkedIn's AB tests revealed about who wins now
→ Why that blocky, unformatted post got 85K impressions
→ The exact engagement signals the AI tracks (hint: it's not likes)
→ Why smaller accounts (5-10K) now outperform bigger ones (25-50K)

This is 18 minutes of strategy pulled from LinkedIn's own engineering team.

Plus data from 50,000 posts that proves execution now matters more than audience size.

If your reach tanked and you're wondering what changed, this breaks down exactly why it happened and what actually works now.

Watch the full breakdown here: https://lnkd.in/dDY5xkwM 

Drop a comment if this changes how you approach your content.

Building content machines | Founder, Distinctiva.io - Organic Content Production House | Content Strategist | Speaker

Semrush just analyzed 89,000 LinkedIn URLs cited by ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Mode. And the posts getting cited most aren't the ones going viral.

LinkedIn is the #2 most cited domain across all three AI search platforms. 

Meaning when someone asks ChatGPT or Perplexity about your industry, your topic, your niche - LinkedIn content is what comes up.

And the posts getting cited? 95% were original content. 

Most had between 15 and 25 reactions. Not thousands. Not viral. Just consistent, original, knowledge-driven posts from credible authors.

This is exactly what we've been building for clients at Distinctiva. 

Content that builds authority over time and shows up everywhere - including in AI answers.

LinkedIn was already the highest organic reach platform in B2B. Now it's also one of the most powerful surfaces for AI visibility.

Your LinkedIn profile and your content aren't just for the people scrolling your feed anymore. They're being read, indexed, and cited by the tools your buyers are using to make decisions.

If you're still treating LinkedIn like a place to post when you have something to say, this data tells you everything about why that's not enough.

Semrush LinkedIn AI citations study

POV: You believed in yourself, started posting on LinkedIn.

And went from first podcast in 2022 to keynote speaker in 2026.

I didn’t come from a high network country. no connections, no strategy, no clear plan.

I got fired by one of my closest friends right around that time. he said “i just know you’re an entrepreneur” and honestly… i wasn’t so sure.

But i kept posting anyway. the DMs came first. Then the clients. then Semrush, Backlinko, HeyReach, multimillion dollar exit founders.

A six-figure agency built entirely on inbound.

Zero cold outreach. ever.

I’m not saying this to flex. i’m saying it because the gap between where i was and where i am now is just… consistently showing up with something real to say. With intent. With a real desire to connect and learn.

This is the era where that matters more than anything.

Your personal brand is every post, every reply, every take you were willing to put your name on.

It’s your point of view. The way you see your industry that nobody else sees exactly like you do.

The best content strategies don’t peak. 

They stack. Each post builds on the last until your name becomes the first one people think of in your space.

LinkedIn is still the only platform that is purely built for business… and can actually change your life.

There is no other platform today where a single post can get you on a podcast, in a Forbes article, and on a keynote stage - all in the same year.

Trust me if a 22 year old Colombian built her way here with no strategy, you can too.

So many real subject matter experts are invisible online while people with half the knowledge are building audiences, landing deals, and getting on stages.

And so many resources you can learn to actually build something with a strong strategy from the start.


P.S. If you're ready to finally hit that post button, I'm breaking down every strategy that got me here on my YouTube channel: https://lnkd.in/d8BUX-J5

I stole my way to $1M on LinkedIn.

(here’s how)

There's a line in "Steal Like an Artist" that changed how I build content.

And it's how I went from fired at 23 to building a nearly $1M agency by 25.

All from one platform. All from content I stole.

But here's the thing: stealing doesn't mean copying. It means collecting from everyone who figured something out before you, studying how they think, and making it yours.

”You don't want to look like your heroes, you want to SEE like your heroes”

That's exactly what I did. And it's what I teach every client.

Here's what I cover in my latest YouTube video:

→ Good theft vs bad theft (and why most people get this wrong)

→ The 3 sources to collect from (sales calls, docs, expert interviews)

→ Why obscurity is actually good when you're starting

→ The exact 5-step framework: collect, copy, transform, adapt, compound

→ The workflow we use at Distinctiva to extract expertise at scale

This is 10 minutes of strategy pulled from building real content systems for B2B companies.

Not theory. The actual process we use to turn founders and executives into recognizable voices in their industry.

If you've been stuck trying to create "original" content from scratch, this will completely shift how you approach it.

Watch the full breakdown here: https://lnkd.in/dzEGi9c3

Let me know if this changes how you think about content.

What being a woman taught me about B2B SaaS…


😂

Turns out, a lot.

Anyone who knows me knows I'm not one to write posts like this one.

But it's our day.

I'm proud of making my mom proud. 
I'm proud of making my grandma proud.

Because when they were my age, the business I'm building, the tables I'm sitting at, the stages I'm speaking on... that wouldn't have been an option for them.

Especially not in a country like Colombia.

Every generation carries its own version of hard.


Happy Women's Day to all you girls working like a girl. 🩷

Someone paid a LinkedIn "guru" $15k/month. After 3 months of motivational quotes and sunset graphics with zero CTAs... their leads dropped 22%.

The guru's response? "The algorithm isn't rewarding us right now. Trust the process." 🫠 

Having a big following on LinkedIn means you figured out how to grow YOUR audience. 

That's a completely different skill from knowing how to grow someone else's.

And on LinkedIn specifically... there's no universal playbook. 

A $50M SaaS founder doesn't need the same content strategy as a boutique agency owner or a VP trying to build a personal brand before a product launch.

What works is understanding where a client actually is and what their content needs to do right now.

At Distinctiva, every piece we build has a job.

 📣 Growth content (40%) brings in new eyes.
🎯 Authority content (30%) builds trust.
🤝 Conversion content (20%) turns that trust into action. 
💬 Personal content (10%) makes you memorable.

The ratio shifts depending on the client. 

A founder launching something new needs more growth. Someone sitting on a warm audience but no inbound needs more conversion. 

This is why the intake process we run goes deep before we write a single word. 

Calls, past content audits, ICP mapping, pipeline context. 

We need to understand where revenue is coming from, where it should be coming from, and what role content plays in closing that gap.

You can't do that from a motivational quote calendar.

A big following is social proof of one thing: that person knows how to grow their own account.

Ask for case studies. Ask what the pipeline looked like before and after. Ask which posts drove actual DMs that turned into deals.

If the answer is JUST "trust the process"... that's your answer.

"Use storytelling"
"Just be consistent and comment 300 times"
"Why aren't we going viral yet, we've posted 3 times."

What's actually behind an account that drives real pipeline:

Positioning. ICP research. Profile optimization. Keyword strategy. Content buckets. Hook writing. Storytelling from real experience. Batch creation. Posting cadence. A daily comment routine. Power lists. Early commenting for visibility. Warm DMs. Repurposing frameworks. Call transcript mining. Newsletter strategy. AI search visibility. Design. Video. Analytics. Flywheel thinking...

All of this running at the same time. All connected. All intentional.

Most people skip straight to "what should I post" without ever answering "who am I talking to, what do I want them to think, and what do I want them to do next."

LinkedIn isn't hard because content people love complexity.
It's hard because building something that compounds takes an actual system.

The accounts getting consistent inbound aren't posting more than everyone else.

They just stopped guessing and started running an engine.

And the difference shows up in the pipeline.

I got off stage at an event last month and someone walked up to me and said "I've been following you since you were an SDR."

And then it happened again. Twice. In separate conversations.

People I had never met, telling me they'd been watching since before Distinctiva existed. Before any of this.

That stopped me.

Because we all assume people aren't paying that much attention. That the posts we made three years ago disappeared into the feed and nobody remembers them.

They do.

You might be somewhere completely different today, but there is someone out there who still remembers Day 1 you. 

Maybe not every single post. But they remember the pattern. 

The way you show up. What you stand for. What you talk about when nobody's clapping yet.

Your content is working even when you're not. 

The people who will eventually hire you, refer you, or show up in your DM have been quietly watching for longer than you think.

Post with intention. What you put out there is building something whether you're paying attention to it or not.

Your content is a long game. The person who books a call with you in 2027 is probably already lurking on your profile right now. 

They're not commenting. They're not liking. They're just watching, building an opinion about whether you're someone worth trusting.

That's why consistency matters more than virality. That's why your point of view matters more than your production quality. 

And that's why the posts you make when you have 200 followers are just as important as the ones you make when you have 20,000.

You don't build trust with a viral moment. 

You build it post by post, over time, with people who are paying more attention than you think.

I used to go insanely viral, post consistently and made $0 out of LinkedIn. And I know creators double my size struggling with the same. What changed: realizing every piece of content needs a specific job to do.

Here's exactly what I break down in my latest YouTube video:

→ The 3 mistakes killing your results right now
→ How to build the positioning doc that makes your AI project actually work
→ The 4-bucket content funnel (and the exact ratio to use)
→ The Notion + Drive + Claude infrastructure stack that makes writing easy
→ The 5-step writing process I use for every single post
→ The engagement layer that builds real relationships

And the infrastructure piece matters more than most people realize.

Without a system to capture ideas, store them, give them a job, and actually move them to publish, your strategy stays in your head.

That's where most content dies.

Together, these pieces form a system where every post has a purpose, every week has a direction, and your content is actually doing sales work for you. That's what it looks like in practice.

This is the exact system I run for myself and every client at Distinctiva.

If you've been posting consistently but not seeing business outcomes, this will show you exactly why and what is the system you need to build to change that.

Watch the full breakdown here: https://lnkd.in/dRMbe557

The people who know the least post the most.

And the ones who actually know what they're talking about? They stay quiet.
It's called the Dunning-Kruger effect.

When you know nothing about a topic, your confidence is through the roof. You're sitting on top of what they call "Mount Stupid."

But the more you actually learn… the more you start second-guessing yourself.

That's the valley of despair.

And that's exactly where most real founders and subject matter experts are stuck.

They know too much to oversimplify. They've seen too many nuances to speak in absolutes. So they just… don't post.

Meanwhile, the person who read one blog post is out here writing "10 rules to scale your startup" with full confidence.

The irony? The people we need to hear from the most are the ones holding back.

I'm building this video series for exactly those people - the real subject matter experts who have something worth saying but haven't figured out how to show up the right way.

Follow along: https://lnkd.in/dQ_StE_T

We got a client 101k impressions on one post and 731 saves + 228 followers on another. 

The strategy behind both? 

Newsjacking. 

Most people treat it like a reporting job. That's not how we use it.

Newsjacking and brandjacking are growth posts - meaning their only job is to bring new eyes to your profile. They're 40% of your content mix, not the whole thing.

Newsjacking = you're one of the first to report on trending news or industry events, with your take on what it actually means.

Brandjacking = you piggyback on a big brand moment that's already trending and tie it back to your world.

⚠️ But they only work if two things are true: the news is actually relevant to your world, and you have a take that nobody else is saying.

Our clients aren't just posting "X thing happened in the industry." 
That turns you into a news source, not a thought leader.

They're posting "X thing happened, and here's what it means for [the exact problem their audience has]."

Add your unique point of view:

→ How does this trend relate to your work?
→ What insight can you share that others aren't seeing?
→ How does your experience give you a different angle?

Example: Everyone's talking about a new AI tool launch?

Don't just say "New AI tool dropped, check it out."

Share how it impacts your clients, what problem it actually solves, or why the hype might be missing the point.

Your perspective is what makes growth content valuable.

One thing most people skip though: if all you post is newsjacking, you get reach with no relationship. People find you and have no idea what you actually do.

You still need authority, conversion, and personal posts to turn that reach into something real.

how we grew a client's LinkedIn: 300k+ impressions 

Everyone tracks likes and comments. 

Almost nobody tracks the metric that quietly drove our client's post to 80K impressions.

📌 731 saves.
📩 50 sends.

Here's the problem with LinkedIn advice that says "engagement = comments."

Comments matter. But saves and sends? They're the algorithm's love language right now.

Our client's post wasn't designed to spark debate in the comments. It was designed to be useful. The kind of thing you bookmark and come back to later.

The post? A breakdown of marketing tools and automation for a lean SaaS team. Practical. Specific. Something people actually need to reference.

The results:

→ 397 reactions
→ 216 profile views
→ 228 new followers
→ 80,915 impressions
→ 50 sends on LinkedIn
→ 731 saves (that's a 92% save rate compared to comments)

When someone saves your post, they're telling LinkedIn: "This is valuable. I need this later."

When someone sends it, they're saying: "This is so good, someone else needs to see it."

Both signals push your content to more people.

The lesson? Stop chasing comments for the sake of comments.

Start creating content people actually want to reference. Frameworks, tools, specific strategies, real examples.

Make it saveable. Make it sendable.

That's what scales reach in 2026.

You don't need to be technical to audit how AI talks about your brand.

You just need to know where to look.

Your buyers are going to ChatGPT and Perplexity for recommendations before they ever Google you. And most brands have zero idea what AI is telling them.

I'm not a developer. I'm not an SEO expert. I run a content agency.

But I wanted to know what happens when someone asks AI about the services we offer. So I audited my own brand using Scrunch.

Here's the exact process I used (step by step in the one-pager):


Step 1 - I ran a page audit on our website.

Plugged distinctiva.io into Scrunch and it scored how AI-ready our site is. We got 90% overall - access controls and content delivery were perfect.

But content quality scored 45%. 

Why? Our site loads content through JavaScript and when AI bots crawl with JavaScript disabled, they're reading a stripped-down version of our page. AI was seeing a skeleton of our site and I had no idea.


Step 2 - I set up prompt monitoring.

Scrunch tracks how your brand shows up when people ask AI specific questions. I set it up for prompts related to what we do - ghostwriting, content strategy, social media management.

The result? 

When someone asks "which services provide ghostwriting for social media and email content?" … AI isn't mentioning us. Across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and Gemini.


Step 3 - I checked who AI is citing instead.

Scrunch shows you the exact sources AI pulls from. For our industry, it's Wikipedia, Clutch, Reddit, and Hootsuite. Not a single citation back to distinctiva.io

Not because we're bad at what we do. But because AI doesn't pull from LinkedIn engagement or client results. 

It pulls from web mentions, third-party articles, and content spread across platforms.


Step 4 - Now I'm doing something about it.

→ Fixing the JavaScript issue so AI reads our full site
→ Getting cited alongside the topics we want to own
→ Using Scrunch to track whether it's actually working
→ Building third-party mentions across guest articles, podcasts, and community discussions


The biggest lesson? 

Being findable and being recommended are two completely different things.

If you're a founder or CEO who's never audited how AI talks about your brand, start here: scrunch.com/brand-audit

#ScrunchPartner #PaidPartnership

Pro athletes figured out something most founders still haven't.

A few years back, no one would imagine saying: 

Athletes are building their personal brand on LinkedIn.

But here they are. Taking meetings, connecting with investors, closing deals - while still competing.

… They're not waiting for retirement to start building it.

According to a new piece from Front Office Sports, pro athlete profiles on LinkedIn are up 31% since 2021. 

For decades the model was: play, retire, then figure it out. That era is over.

Athletes are realizing that the window to build a personal brand is now. Not after the final whistle.

And LinkedIn is where they are putting their bets on. Not instagram, not TikTok, not X. 
Because the audience on this platform is different. 

The weight of every connection, every post, every story you tell here carries more than anywhere else.

LinkedIn is the only platform where a complete unknown can walk in today and be in front of a buyer tomorrow.

Your personal brand on LinkedIn is an asset that compounds over time. The posts, connections, stories - they keep working long after you hit publish.

If athletes learned that the hard way. 

Insane to think founders, executives and businesses are still waiting for the right moment to start.

Tomorrow i'm joining Andrei Zinkevich and Vladimir Blagojević on Full-Funnel Live to talk about something most B2B teams are getting wrong.

Content that doesn't connect to pipeline. 

We're breaking down the content flywheel framework we use with clients generating 80% of their pipeline from LinkedIn organic.

How to build it, what to stop doing, and how to defend it to a CFO who only speaks revenue.

If you're a CMO or marketer trying to make content actually work in 2026, this one's for you!

March 11 | 10:30 AM EDT 🤸🏼‍♂️ 

→ https://lnkd.in/dX7E6WbZ

I just took the AirOps Marketype Quiz and got absolutely called out.

It named me "The Craft"

Translation: quality over everything, peer-reviewing my own work constantly, and refusing to ship anything until it's actually ready.

Most likely to ship at 11:59 PM because it wasn't ready at 11:58. Favorite phrase: "let's take one more pass"

…yeah that tracks 😅

This is literally how I run Distinctiva. We keep a lean team and limited clients per quarter specifically because I won't compromise on quality just to scale faster. 

My team can confirm I've said "let's take one more pass" approximately 50 times this month alone.

If you work in marketing, take this. It's quick (90 seconds) and weirdly accurate → https://lnkd.in/dfu9FsC9

Sara Stella you should take this - now I’m curious what your results will be. 


🤑 P.S AirOps is giving away $50 DoorDash cards to the first 100 people who share their result + 3 WHOOPs up for grabs. Ends 2/27.

#AirOpsPartner

Search Engine Land’s editors are earning more than ever. Because of AI.

Most companies use AI to cut headcount. They used it to cut production time from 4 weeks to 1 - and gave the savings back to their editors.

Search Engine Land has been publishing trusted SEO content since 2006. 

But each long-form guide took 3-4 weeks to go from outline to publish. 

Hiring more writers would've scaled the bottleneck, not the output.

So Kyle Atwater Morley and his team built The Harmony Workflow: a hybrid system where AI drafts and humans refine.

The result?

→ production time cut from 4 weeks to ~1 week
→ ~15 evergreen guides per month
→ editors better compensated than ever before

The efficiency gains didn't replace people. They went straight back to the humans.

In our latest issue of The Workflow, we break down the full workflow step by step: keyword research, outline creation, AI drafting with custom writing guidelines, and the final human checkpoint before content reaches 1M+ readers.

Plus, grab the exact SEO content writing guidelines Kyle's team baked into their system.

🔗 theworkflow[dot]digital

taplio

The Battle

Francisco Martinez

Diandra Escobar

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreFrancisco Martinez's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreDiandra Escobar's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

The Battle

Francisco Martinez

Diandra Escobar

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);}Francisco Martinez's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreDiandra Escobar's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreFrancisco Martinez's LinkedIn Performance