I help you craft your social media strategies | Social Media Strategist & Consultant

I help you:

1. Get attention from your ideal clients
2. Clarity and direction - Have a clear plan to follow rather than feeling uncertain or overwhelmed
3. Consistency - Easy-to-follow plan that helps you without the struggle
4. Go after the quick wins

If this sounds good to you, send me a DM

Frank Velasquez

The ghostwriting agencies I've watched fail all had one thing in common. Their content was actually performing.

Their clients still left. Usually around month three or four.

Every workflow these agencies built was optimized for internal efficiency, not for making the client feel heard. It was all about getting new clients and plugging them into the system. And clients don't usually say that out loud when they decide to leave. They just don't renew.

Most of them blamed the writing anyway. Better hooks, more templates, more syncs, more efficiency. They were spending 90% of their energy acquiring new clients and 10% on the ones they already had.

No wonder they kept leaving.

3 places where I see this break down:

1. Onboarding that collects information but never asks what the client wants to be known for, for example.

2. Content calls that feel like data collection instead of actual conversations that might spark good, insightful ideas.

3. Reporting that tracks metrics but never checks for recognition, whether the relationship is healthy, or whether the content actually sounds like them.

The agencies keeping clients long-term are not just focused on adding efficiency. They're focused on retention too.

Consultant and Ghostwriter | Scale LinkedIn presence with strategy & systems. Helping other ghostwriters do the same.

Is a post less valuable if it was written by AI?

I've been watching 2 camps on LinkedIn: 

The first is AI-generated content. LinkedIn broetry style, 5th-grade level, hitting hundreds of likes, teaching something useful. 

The second is the warriors. People calling it out, listing all the AI-isms, counting the em dashes, the "it's not X, it's Y". That content is also getting numbers.

Here's the part that gets me. Most of the people sharing the warrior posts are probably liking AI posts without realizing it. The content probably helped them. They may have saved it, or even shared it. Then two posts later, they're nodding along to someone explaining how to spot the soulless AI content destroying LinkedIn.

So I genuinely want to know: If the content teaches you something real, does it matter how it got made?

Curious where people actually stand on this one.

In the last 12 months, our clients crossed 5M+ organic impressions on LinkedIn. Now we are giving you an insight into how we are doing it 👇

At the start of 2025, Hivemind Marketing had 2 clients and a few consulting gigs. At the same time this year, we are at 8 clients with expanded SOW, 2 new incoming, and several consulting partners.

Our clients are:

1. Walking into events and getting recognized for their content. 

2. They're having their own posts referred back to them mid-conversation. 

3. They're closing clients who came in already convinced.

For 3 days, Harry Phokou will be giving you an insight into how we've managed it all. Especially the content part, we believe there is a big gap to fill when it comes to sharing more stories, more wins, more insights on this platform.

If you or someone on your team wants to learn how we are helping our clients make the most of LinkedIn, join his free live event.

📅 March 6th, 7th & 8th
⏰ 5 PM CET
📍 Live on Zoom
🧑‍🎨 6 guest speakers
🔗 https://lnkd.in/evpgeQX5

Repost and help spread the word 🙏

I stopped writing value-add posts for my clients. Value-add content is almost always written for peers, not the people actually paying.

Adding value isn't bad. Big disclaimer lol

But often, the people you are targeting either already know it or are not the ones executing on it.

I had a conversation this week about a client in the event industry. The first instinct was to pack the posts with value - How to do venue selection, coordinating logistics, managing budgets, etc. 

Real, useful stuff. But the people reading those posts run events for a living. They've already dealt with venues that charge absurd amounts of fees and catering that costs more than the room. 

Writing a tutorial for them isn't valuable. It's noise. They are not starting an event business from scratch.

What actually gets a CEO/Exec to reach out is reading something and thinking:

- Wait, is he right about that?
- I've never heard it framed that way
- You articulated so well something I did not know how to put into words

Curiosity. Mild disagreement. Recognition of something they've felt but never said out loud.

So I shifted the question. 

Instead of "what can we teach the audience," it became "what would make someone in their world stop and feel something." 

That's a different brief. And it's produced a different kind of post.

The goal of executive content, imo, isn't always to be the most educational voice in the feed. It's to be the one that earns a second thought.

Three months into ghostwriting, I stopped building content plans around client personas and problem-solving topics. 

The logic made sense at the time. Upload the client's profile, find the problems their audience has, write posts about how to solve them. 

That's what you learn. Lead with the pain, deliver the solution. 

The issue is that most of our clients aren't in the business of teaching people how to do what they do. They're in the business of getting hired to do it themselves. Their audience isn't looking to execute, they're looking for someone they trust enough to hand it to.

The content that actually gets clients hired doesn't explain how to solve a problem. It says something their audience has felt but never put into words. An insight that makes someone stop and think "I've never heard it framed that way." 

That's what prompts a DM. Not a tutorial.

Once we understood that, the whole content process changed. We stopped looking for topics and started looking for the way our clients think.

The best content advice I give doesn't work on me.

I tell clients to build a story bank. Keep a running list. Mine your past, your decisions, your patterns. And it works - I've watched it work for people I coach and people I work with every day.

But sitting down to do that for myself, after a full day of delivery, is a different thing. My brain isn't there. I know the stories. But finding them on demand takes energy I usually don't have left.

So I stopped trying to mine stories reactively. 

Everything I know - the context, the examples, the patterns I've noticed - it all goes into a project. When I sit down to write, I just point at what's already there and can build from there.

It's made consistency feel like a different thing.

Most agency owners spend 90% of their time on content and 10% on their clients. Then wonder why clients leave after 3-4 months.

I've watched this play out enough times to know it's not a coincidence. Somewhere in the process, the client stops feeling like the priority.

The 10% looks like this in practice: bare minimum delivery, no check-ins, delegating the exact stuff clients hired you for. 

What people miss is that clients don't buy an agency. 

They buy the person whose name is on it. 

You don't have to be in every call. But you have to be present enough that they feel it. That's not a systems issue. That's a priorities issue.

The part that gets me is that most people think they're growing during this period. Sometimes they're not. They're replacing. Every new client covers someone who quietly left. At some point, the math stops working, and there's nowhere left to grow into.

Keeping a current client happy takes a fraction of what signing a new one costs. A check-in. Sitting in on a content call. Actually solving something when they bring it up. That's it.

Most agencies figure this out too late.

We spent 90 minutes extracting a founder's story. Then an hour realizing we hadn't actually written one.

We were reviewing a post a while ago, and it went through his life year by year. Dates, milestones, company names, funding rounds. 

All accurate. But completely boring...

There were no stakes. No problem that we were trying to solve. There was no journey. It was just facts. This happened, then this happened, and then this happened.  

It was basically a Wikipedia entry.

Here's what the draft said: "In 2003, my dad took out a $70,000 loan to fund my company."

Here's what it should have said: "In 2003, my parents put their house up as security. We went all in as a family."

Same fact. One reports it. The other makes you feel it.

Reporting answered: what happened?

Storytelling answered: what was at stake?

Reporting becomes the default because it's safe and fast. You're not inventing anything, you're just organizing what the client told you. But organized facts aren't stories. They're timelines.

The client's life has real stakes with real consequences and real moments where things could have gone wrong. Your job isn't to compress their career into bullet points; it's to find the part where the reader holds their breath.

That's the difference between a post someone skims and one they send to a friend.

The first few months I was ghostwriting, I was basically writing as myself with different topics.

I didn't notice it for a while. The posts were performing fine. Clients weren't complaining. But looking back at the drafts, everything had the same rhythm, the same sentence length, the same way of ending a thought. 

That was me, not them. 

I'd taken what they gave me and run it through my own filter so many times that nothing original was left.

The fix was just learning to be uncomfortable leaving sentences that felt slightly off to me but were exactly how the client spoke.

Big impressions are easy to get excited about. 

They're also easy to hide behind. 

A post that gets 50,000 views and zero DMs is not a good post for a service seller. It's just a popular one. Top-of-funnel content attracts top-of-funnel audiences, people who found the post interesting but have no reason to reach out. 

What we track when we get a viral post are things that could lead to results. Resume submission, meeting requests, DMs, conversations, etc.

The agencies I've seen struggle with this aren't producing bad content. They're optimizing for the wrong metric and calling it growth.

Someone builds a following on LinkedIn → People start asking for help. → They think, "Let me do this for clients." → They start ghostwriting. 

If this is you, here are 4 things worth knowing before you take on your first client:

1. Your voice is a liability here. Everything that made your content work was built around how you think and speak. The instinct to write that way doesn't disappear when you're writing for someone else. You have to actively fight it.

2. Your templates won't transfer. What worked on your account was built for your audience, your service, and your positioning. A different client means a different buyer with different reasons to reach out. The format might look the same. The results won't.

3. Scaling before you have a repeatable process just means making the same mistakes faster. Most people hire a writer before they've documented what good actually looks like for each client.

4. Viral posts and conversion posts are not the same thing. Your audience grew because of one. Your clients need the other.

I've worked through most of these in consulting calls, these are always easier to sort out and learn before you make mistakes and damage your reputation. 

My advice: get in touch with people already killing it on different aspects of your service. Content, outbound, DMs, AI, etc. Then offer it to others for an entry price before scaling. I don't believe you should do it for free, but also not at full price before you know you can do this.

We've written this hook for five different clients in five different industries. It works every time. The formula: 

Past struggle + present contrast. 

Take a founder's real low point. Put it next to where they are now. Two sentences. The reader fills in the entire journey between them.

My first job was cleaning locker rooms with a finance degree. Now I run content operations for a ghostwriting agency across three time zones. That took one sentence to set up. And maaaybe you want to know what happened in between.

Nothing about this is manipulative. The failure is real. The recovery is real. We just put them in the right order.

However, there are instances where these were performed, but we felt they could have done better. The issue was giving too much away in the hook. So the reader is left like, "Well, why do I have to click 'see more '?" 

Hard for me to say when I'm doing it, it's usually something I see after the post has gone live.

One of the easiest wins I've gotten from AI for content: a project that turns one winning post into 10 content angles. Here's what I mean:

I take a client's top posts from the last 9 months, sort by impressions, and drop them into a project I built. It identifies what type each post is, then generates follow-up questions covering angles we haven't touched yet.

The next time we have an interview, we explore those other angles.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝘆𝗽𝗲𝘀 𝗶𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝗽𝘀 𝘁𝗼:

 1. Actionable 
 2. Emotional 
 3. Reflection  
 4. X vs Y 
 5. Contrarian
 6. Vulnerable
 7. Deep dive
 8. Educational
 9. Observational
10. Edutainment
11. Listicle

For example, if the post was 𝗔𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 (a specific guide on how to do something), we can ask follow-up questions to make it a 𝗥𝗲𝗳𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 (lessons learned or mistakes made), or 𝗫 𝘃𝘀 𝗬 (we compare the first time they followed the guide vs what it looks like now).

A post that already performed proved the theme works with that audience. What we see now is how many ways we haven't told that story yet.

Most of the time, we're not running out of content. 

We're running out of angles on what already worked.

I spend more time on the hook than the entire post. If I nail it, the rest flows. If I don't, nothing else matters. Sometimes I realize it's already written.

After a post is done, I scan it again. 

I look for a line the client said, buried in the middle or at the end. It's usually the punchline, closing statement, or point of the post.

That's what I want to use as the hook, if possible.

Most people decide whether to keep reading in the first two lines. We used to save the strongest line for the end as a payoff for readers who finished the post. But if it's already specific, creates tension, and sounds like them, it does more work at the top.

We're now trying to lead with the point of the post. 

The hook needs to give people enough information to decide whether to keep reading. If they don't get that in the first two lines, nothing else matters.

We had this whole thing set up. Send the client a list of questions; they record voice notes on their own time, we get the material, and we write. It felt efficient and considerate of their schedule.

What we kept getting back was that because we were structuring the questions around specific posts we wanted to write, we were basically scripting their answers before they gave them. 

The content was basically written before they even answered.

We scrapped async entirely and moved to live interviews. No questions sent in advance. Just a call, us asking things we were genuinely curious about, and them just talking.

The difference was that in a real conversation, people stop performing. They stop trying to give the right answer and start just explaining what they think. They use their actual vocabulary. They go on tangents that end up being the best material. You can't manufacture that with a voice note prompt.

What we pull from those transcripts sounds like someone who just happened to sit down and write what they were thinking.

Now, by the time we open Notion, the hard part is already done.

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.

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.

Nothing quite like getting pitched your own services back to you.

I had to read it twice.

Lmao.

Did you read a single post? Look at my profile for 30 seconds? Google the agency name?

Clearly not.

Because what you're really telling me with that message is that you couldn't be bothered to take the time to get to know me.

But here's the part that really got me. He had the nerve to say he's not a fan of fake interaction.

Let me stop you right there.

Because there are actual people on LinkedIn having genuinely real conversations every single day. Building real trust. Real relationships. Wanting to help each other grow with zero agenda.

That's not fake. That's the whole bloody point of the platform.

In fact, I did exactly this with a few people I connected with back in January and we ended up doing business together. No pitch, no agenda, just two people genuinely getting to know each other.

And with the approach he took? We will never do business together. Not maybe. Not unlikely. Never.

You've dressed up laziness as authenticity. And people can smell it.

Here's what one message did:

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

You cannot fake research, and you cannot shortcut trust. 

And here's something people forget entirely. 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. And the fastest way to build that trust isn't a slick pitch or a clever opener. 

It's taking the time to get to know someone as a human being first. What they care about, what they're working through, what gets them fired up outside of work. When you genuinely invest in that, the business side of things tends to take care of itself.

Here's what actually works:

1. Actually take the time to get to know them

Digest their content, understand what they're about, what they stand for and what they're trying to build. Not as a tactic, but because you're genuinely interested in them as a person.

2. Show up before you show up

Get into their world first. Be present, comment on their posts and engage with their thinking for long enough that your name actually becomes familiar to them.

3. Reach out when it feels earned

When you do finally reach out, reference something specific and real that shows you've actually been paying attention. At that point it stops feeling like a pitch entirely because it isn't one.

4. Have a real conversation

Ask questions, be genuinely curious about what they're building, and let the relationship develop at its own pace without forcing it towards a sale.

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 to the guy in my inbox. But sort the approach out, mate.

I back you. 🤝

53% of LinkedIn posts in 2025 were AI-generated, and human posts are still getting 3.7x more engagement.

Think about that for a second.

Everyone's rushing to automate their voice, and the data is sitting there telling them it isn't working. 

A KPMG study of 48,000 people across 47 countries (I promise it is 47; the link to the article is in the comments) found that global trust in AI is actually going down, not up. 

Your audience can feel it even when they can't explain why. They just scroll past and move on.

And the gurus selling you these tools? They're not going to tell you this because it kills their business model.

Now look, I'm not saying AI posts don't get traction. Some of them go viral. But here's what nobody's talking about: when you're selling something high ticket in B2B, trust is everything. 

And if you sound like a generated robot, nobody's sliding into your DMs for that conversation. They're going straight to the person who sounds like an actual human being.

That's where you lose the deal. Not on the post. In the trust gap between your content and your DMs.

The bar on LinkedIn right now is embarrassingly low. Everyone sounds the same, posts the same, and wonders why nobody's buying from them.

So if you just show up sounding like yourself, sharing what you've genuinely learned from working with your clients, the real stuff, the messy bits, the honest experiences, you've already got a leg up on most people on here.

That's not some big strategy. That's just being yourself and doing it consistently.

In 3 generations nobody will remember you unless you're Elon Musk.

So you might as well stop playing it 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.

Forget what the 100K LinkedIn inbound gurus are saying...


If you're a small business, coach or consultant, you need to focus on the following:

First, understand this: LinkedIn is an ecosystem with 3 parts that need to work together as one.

1. Your content
2. Your profile
3. Reaching out to new people

If one's broken, the whole system fails. Now here's how to get each part right:

1. Nail your positioning

Be specific!

Weak positioning:
"I help companies implement tech solutions."

Strong positioning:
"I help companies stop bleeding budget on software their teams refuse to use."

2. Research your ideal client's pain points

You need to learn how to write how they speak, not with your technical lingo and trying to sound clever. It's like speaking to someone in gibberish.

3. Master storytelling

Not telling them that you used to be ex [position] or got x award. Sorry to say, but you're really not that special and that doesn't tell them how you're going to help them. Remember, when someone sees themselves in your story, they see how you can help them.

4. Make sure you're drip feeding in your ICP

Use Sales Navigator, online media, and word of mouth to connect with the right people. Stop connecting with Karen that works in IT when you're trying to sell to Janet in OOH Media.

5. Get better at conversations

Not pitch slapping people in the face so they instantly block you. Have a bloody human conversation! People like to work with others they can genuinely relate to.

6. Get your mindset right

If you're a small business owner, stop obsessing over the impressions and vanity metrics, you silly sausage. See your content as a trust/credibility tool that allows you to move better in the DMs.

Mark my words, if you work on getting all these right, you will freaking crush it on here. 

I back you!

----

After years of coaching, I've built something I've become incredibly passionate about working on in my weekends.
If you want to stand out from all this AI BS while still using it to optimise your work, DM me "The real ones" and I'll explain how.

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.

The LinkedIn gurus preaching authenticity are letting automation tools write their posts.  
  
You're being sold a lie.  
  
You can spot it immediately because everyone's posts look the same now with the same hooks, structure, and energy, all because they're using the same bloody tool.  
  
Look, I'm not anti-AI. I use it myself to sharpen my thoughts and to comb through documentation so I don't miss any of the good bits that a client or someone has said on a call.  
  
But there's a massive difference between sharpening your content and automating your voice.  
  
Want to use AI properly?  
  
Download your sales calls, your discovery calls, anything where you're actually talking like yourself, and use that to train your tone and keep yourself sounding like you.  
  
Letting Stanley suggest ideas and write most of your posts just makes you blend into everyone else using the same tool, and honestly, that's lazy.  
  
And it's not just the content either. So many people are now touching up their imagery with AI, making themselves look better than they actually are.  
  
Here's what happens when you do this: You sit down in a boardroom one day, and one, you look completely different, and two, you sound completely different.  
  
What do you think that does for your credibility?  
  
It kills trust, because you're basically not being yourself online.  
  
The way to stand out isn't through a template that formats you into sounding generic or an AI filter that makes you look like someone else.  
  
It's telling stories you've seen through your own eyes, raw and in the present moment, sounding actually like you.  
  
The gurus won't teach this because it's harder to sell and it requires actual bloody effort.  
  
It requires you to think, to write, to sound like yourself.  
  
But that's the only thing that works now.  
  
Everyone else sounds the same, which means if you sound the same, you're invisible.  
  
Stop letting tools write your content and start using them to sharpen what you're already saying.  
  
That's the difference.

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.

No one's DMing you because your content is forgettable.  
  
You know what you're doing, but you're too scared to sound like yourself, so you post safe sh#t that could've been written by anyone.  
  
Then wonder why no one's reaching out or replying to their DMs. 
  
Your audience doesn't need another "how to" post.  
  
They need to know how you actually fixed the problem they're stuck on.  
  
Not theory or frameworks, your actual experience.  
  
That's what builds trust. That's what gets clients.  
  
But you're too busy trying to sound clever, or professional, or like that person with 50K followers.  
  
So your content sounds like everyone else's, which means it's invisible.  
  
Here's what changes it:  
  
Stop performing and start sharing what actually worked for you.  
  
The mistakes you made, the messy bits you normally hide, your actual journey.  
  
That's your positioning.  
  
Not some polished version of someone else's playbook.  
  
When you finally trust yourself enough to sound like yourself, the DMs start coming.  
  
"Your stuff just hits different."  
  
"How do I work with you?"  
  
"Been following for months, ready to talk."  
  
You were always credible. You just didn't believe it.  
  
Stop writing for the algorithm. Write for the one person who needs to hear what you learned the hard way.  
  
Get out of your own way.  
  
I wasted 6 months copying everyone else before I figured this out.  
  
Don't be that person.

In 3 generations nobody will remember you unless you're Elon Musk.

Seriously. What are you so scared of?

You see what happens when you act like a human?

You need to learn how to stand up for something.

The bar on LinkedIn is incredibly low right now. Gurus selling you sh*t, AI tool sellers making everyone's posts look identical, and everyone wondering why no one's buying from them.

The way to win business is to become memorable. And by memorable, I mean sharing your genuine learnings and experiences with your clients. Not some AI suggestion spat out by a tool.

And you cannot be memorable if you sound like everyone else.

You think I'm worried about what people think of me? Absolutely not.

I'm worried about my clients doing well, getting results, and tapping into what makes them genuinely unique.

That's all I care about.

Be human. Stand for something. Sound like yourself.

Watch what happens.

But please, if you're using AI tools to do all your work, keep doing it. You'll help me win more business.

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.

taplio

The Battle

Frank Velasquez

Matt Wheeler-Barrett

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Performance ScoreFrank Velasquez's LinkedIn Performance

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taplio

The Battle

Frank Velasquez

Matt Wheeler-Barrett

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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);}Frank Velasquez's LinkedIn Performance

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Performance ScoreFrank Velasquez's LinkedIn Performance