Jason Vana

Marketing Director

Attract the RIGHT customers to your business | Brand & content strategist | Founder at SHFT | Known as #sassyjason

Struggling to attract the right clients?

You have a brand strategy issue.

Attracting the right people requires understanding why they should buy from YOU, when there are 1000’s of other options easily accessible through Google.

In order to attract, convert, and retain the right clients, you need to:

- Know what makes your business unique
- Communicate what makes your business unique
- Create an experience that shows what makes your business unique

It’s all about highlighting your uniqueness.

That’s where my agency steps in.

Through collaborative workshops, research, strategy, and design, we will help you uncover, communicate, and build an experience around your uniqueness.

Working with us typically looks like:

- industry, competitor, and customer research
- brand and marketing workshops 
- brand and marketing strategies
- design (logos, websites, marketing materials)

It culminates in an Onlyness Action Plan — your 1 year, step-by-step brand and marketing to-do list.

All so you become the ONLY choice for your ideal customers.

And make a lot more money.

Want to learn more?

Send me a message.
Or book a call at shft.agency/discovery

Founder & CEO

We transform B2B service companies into the ONLY choice for their ideal customers. Our clients see a 20%+ increase in revenue with our brand and content strategies. 

Here's how we help:

◼️ Brand Strategy (customers, uniqueness, messaging, touchpoints, story)
◼️ Brand Design (logos, colors, fonts, collateral)
◼️ Content Strategy (demand gen, content creation)
◼️ LinkedIn (strategy, content, profile audits)

Interested in learning more? DM me or book a discovery call below.

I ignore the LinkedIn experts.

Those who sell LinkedIn services, courses, and coaching.

Here's why ↓

NONE 👏🏼 OF 👏🏼 THEM 👏🏼 SELL👏🏼 TO 👏🏼 MY 👏🏼 IDEAL 👏🏼 CUSTOMERS 👏🏼 

Their tactics, post hooks, and advice work for attracting:

- solopreneurs
- who make under 7-figures
- sell coaching, courses, or communities
- and do not have the resources to truly stand out

The exact people I do NOT work with.

My ideal customers:

- make 7-9-figures
- are experts in their field
- have developed something unique
- already have processes and teams in place
- sell 6-to 7-figure offers

And the tactics those LinkedIn "experts" push:

- hook templates
- vulnerable posts
- engagement pods
- posting selfies

Do not work for them.

I have yet to see a LinkedIn "expert" mention their 9-figure, industrial client who landed a 7-figure client using their LinkedIn framework.

🙄

We have industrial clients who have made $1M+ from LinkedIn...
...while generating only 5 likes per post.

Because my ideal customers don't care about going viral.

They want revenue.

Something the so-called LinkedIn "experts" suck at.

Don't listen to "experts" who don't sell to your ideal customers.

Their tactics will ruin your position.
And repel the very people you're trying to attract.

Gross.

✌🏼

#shftyourbrand

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Hey there!

Stoked to hear you're looking to find your unique brand differentiator!

Here's the link to download my B2B ‘Just Be Authentic’ Playbook:

https://findyourdifferentiation.com/?utm_source=social&utm_medium=linkedin&utm_campaign=launch_dm

I've spent weeks working on this resource, and I honestly think you'll find it super valuable.

Let me know if you have any questions as you go through it, and enjoy!

-Jason

Content Driven By Brand Strategy

📌 The best content is driven by a solid brand strategy.

- know your ideal customers
- know what makes your offer unique
- know your position in the market
- know the right tone and voice

Then create content that intersects all three.

You'll never create content your ideal customers love if you don't know who they are.

Want your content to generate real revenue?

DM me today or visit https://shft.agency/content 

Offer -> Brand Strategy

📌 The right offer matters.

No amount of marketing, content, or personal branding will help you sell a sh*t offer long-term.

And it certainly won't be something people pay a premium price for.

Nailing your offer is a core step in creating a profitable brand.

Need help with that?

DM me or visit https://shft.agency/services/brand-strategy to get started.

Clarity Call: Offer

📌 Productizing your strategy or service offer makes it much easier to sell.

Think of it like hiding your strategy behind a core deliverable. 

You sell the deliverable.
And your service/strategy is HOW you create the deliverable.

Need help with that?

We can nail it down in a 1-hour Clarity Call.

DM me or book a call directly at https://shft.agency/clarity 

Go Up Market

📌  You won't be able to successfully stumble up-market.

You need a solid brand strategy to help determine:

- your new ICP
- your new position
- your new price points
- your new differentiation
- your new brand personality

Getting that nailed down will make your transition up-market far more successful.

And by successful, I mean profitable.
For you.

Want to move up-market successfully?

I've helped 125+ businesses reposition their brand for maximum profitability.

DM me for more or visit https://shft.agency/services/brand-strategy 

Brand Strategy

📌 I'm not saying all is lost when you don't start with a brand strategy.

But, starting with one makes revenue generation far easier and faster than just 'testing' what works.

The need to 'test' is often the result of not having the right foundation for your business.

Get that foundation in place and you'll be able to move faster and make far more money.

Need help with that?

I might know a #SassyStrategist who can help.

DM me or visit https://shft.agency/services/brand-strategy to get started today.

Become the only choice | I build brand operating systems that attract higher-paying clients for 7-9 figure B2B service companies | Founder/CEO at Shft.Agency | Known as #SassyJason

I'd rather gouge my eyeballs out with a spoon than read the AI-generated slop some of you pass off as content.

✌🏼

#shftyourbrand

Branding won't work for you this year.

Not if you obsess over:

- Launching a new "disruptive" offer
- Automating everything you do
- Becoming a thought leader
- Fitting into your industry
- Vulnerable content
- Building funnels
- Redesign

Most of my clients tried that list in 2025.

Mimicking the leaders of their industry.
Following advice from fluffluencers.
Launching a new brand design.

But struggled to land higher-paying clients.

A new look, offer, funnel, or becoming a thought leader isn't going to save your business.

These tasks will ↓

1. Extract your UNcopyable IP:

- Something you DO
- That your customers want or need
- And your competitors can't or won't do

2. Build a brand strategy around it:

- Customer research
- Market position
- Offer stack
- Sales staircase
- Pricing

3. Craft an identity:

- Brand personality
- Points of View
- Messaging
- Design
- Story

4. Create an experience:

- Operations strategy
- Marketing strategy
- Content strategy
- Sales strategy
- HR strategy

This is how you create a revenue-generating brand.

Not with a new look or just being yourself.

Operationalizing your UNcopyable IP.

And turning it into a unique market position.

So you attract and convert more high-quality, high-paying clients.

If that's something you're into, that is.

✌🏼

#shftyourbrand

Create a brand system to attract better-fit, higher-paying clients. | I build b2b service brands that stand out + drive revenue. Founder/CEO at Shft.Agency. Brand Strategist. Known as #SassyJason

My LinkedIn reach dropped by 81%.

But I'm attracting larger, higher-paying clients.

- like a $47M ARR manufacturer
- or a $62M ARR SaaS company
- or a $127M ARR automation builder

That's right.

Shft is starting to attract 9-figure leads through my content alone.
Not DMs. Not networking. Not conversations.

They've consumed my content.
And booked a call on our website.

And I struggle to get more than 50 likes on my posts.
(when I used to get 200-500 likes per post)

Here's the secret to my success ↓

1. I know my ideal customers.

I take time every week to study my ideal customers. Zoom chats. Interviews. Documenting their questions and struggles. I have over 600 post ideas just from talking to my ideal customers.

2. Every post is written for them.

I don't try to game the algorithm or focus on getting more likes. I choose to give actionable, practical advice that solves the problems of people who are likely to give me money.

3. I repeat the same message every day.

Repetition is key to being seen as an expert. So I rarely post about my personal life, topics outside of branding, or share selfies. Shft's ideal customers want to work with experts, not algorithm chasers.

4. I push them deeper into my ecosystem.

Most won't see my posts regularly in their feed (per the DMs I get daily), so I push everyone to my weekly email. More actionable. More practical. More resources. It's my best content (link in comments if you want it.

Now, don't get me wrong.

I do send DMs.
I do engage regularly.
I do have a strategy I follow.

But the 8-9 figure leads I attracted last month...
...and will soon be closing with...

All saw my content.
Jumped to Shft's website.
And booked a call.

That's the power of branded content.

Fewer impressions.
Fewer likes.
More money.

I'll take that any day.

✌🏼

#shftyourbrand

Here's how to get AI to sound like you: 

I'm building an AI blog writer for Shft. 

SEO is part of our new marketing strategy. 

And while I used to love writing long-form content... 
(my professors in college docked me for going OVER page limits) 

I don't really have the patience for it anymore. 

I'm running a business. 
Writing blog posts is the lowest priority item on my list. 

But using AI to write my content? 
When I'm a brand strategist and know that tone of voice matters?
And I hate everything AI writes?

🤮 

I've spent the last 2 months developing a system to get AI to write like me.

Here's how ↓ 

→ Step 1: Create Project & Upload Documents
I created a project in Claude and uploaded my brand strategy, messaging, ideal customer profile, and 7+ years' worth of content.

→ Step 2: Create AI Tone of Voice Guide
I told Claude to read all of my content and create a tone of voice guide with:
- Standard tone of voice chart
- Word choices and language preferences
- Formatting and punctuation
- Phrase preferences

→ Step 3: Analyze SEO
I had Claude perform keyword research on my and my competitors' websites. Verified this with my own research in SEMrush.

→ Step 4: Create a Hub & Spoke Strategy
Using everything above, I had Claude create a hub and spoke strategy. 5 hubs, each with 5 spoke posts to create.

→ Step 5: Create Post Outline
I picked one post and had Claude create an extensive outline that I edited and approved.

→ Step 6: Write a Rough Draft
I told Claude to use my existing content, my ICP, tone of voice guide, and the outline to draft a post.

→ Step 7: Ruthlessly Edit
I ruthlessly edited (and in some cases rewrote) the post. This step is KEY.

→ Step 8: Rework Tone of Voice Guide
I fed my edited post into Claude and told it to compare the posts and update the tone of voice guide to write more like me.

Rinse and repeat. 

I anticipate it will take 20-30 blog posts before I don't have to ruthlessly edit. 

Content is a long-term play. 
Not a "dump 100 blog posts today that sound like sh*t" game. 

The key to making this work: 

- 7 years' worth of content to give Claude 
- Extensive ICP document with customer quotes 
- Tone of voice guide based on existing content 
- SEO analysis of ours and our competitors' websites 
- Blog post strategy to follow 

And the biggest key: 

- Reworking the post and updating the tone of voice guide 

Train AI on your expertise and writing style. 

It'll be far more useful to repurpose your content. 

✌🏼 #shftyourbrand 

PS - Want the full breakdown? I'm sharing it with complete prompts in this Saturday's Brand Shft email. Link in comments to subscribe ↓

Confession: I made a cardinal brand strategy mistake.

2025 was a tough year for Shft.

- Revenue was down 50%
- Pipeline was (mostly) dry
- I couldn't close to save my life
- Shft wasn't really a priority

Mama Vana had a lot of health issues.
And they took my time, energy, and focus.

Leaving me struggling to find clients.

So, I did what most business owners do in that situation:

Launched new offers to fit what prospects wanted.

- 1:1 coaching instead of strategy creation
- Slack channel only to ask any questions you have
- Low-level designs (fliers, brochures)

I even started building my own paid community.

🤦🏻‍♂️

I get the need for revenue.

I'm not one of these strategy purists who don't know what it takes to run a business.

But creating offers that don't match...

- your differentiation
- your strengths
- your passions

Will make revenue generation HARDER.

Last month, I cut all of those distractions.
And am focusing on what Shft does best.

Create and install brand operating systems that position you as the ONLY choice.

Revenue is already up.
Our pipeline is flooding.
And we're set to make double our most successful year.

Focus. It really does pay off.

Imagine that.

✌🏼

#shftyourbrand

B2B companies: "We're the industry-leading..."

Also B2B companies: Why aren't we attracting higher-paying clients?

Maybe stop with the sh*tty, generic, overused messaging.

But what do I know?

I've only helped B2B companies generate $40M+ in new revenue.

✌🏼

#shftyourbrand

One tactic most B2B founders sleep on:

Creating a sales staircase.

Making it easy to go from prospect to lead to client.

I install this tactic for just about every client.

Here's how it works:

- Free lead magnet
A framework or template pulled from your main offer.

- Low cost digital product
A DIY solution for those not ready to invest into a high-ticket offer yet.

- Low-ticket offer
The absolute core of what you do. No add-ons or extras.

- High-ticket offer
Your low-ticket offer with add-ons and extras.

- Retainer offer
Ongoing maintenance and implementation work.

All of it builds from your high-ticket offer.

Take Shft's new sales staircase:
(officially relaunching in March/April)

- Lead Magnet: Find Your Differentiation (existing)
Shows we know how to extract your uncopyable IP.

- Digital Product: Brand Vault (new)
DIY frameworks, templates, and lessons to extract and own your uncopyable IP.

- Low Tier: Brand Launchpad (new)
Minimum viable brand strategy to own a unique position in the market.

- High Tier: Brand OS (new)
Brand Launchpad + marketing + content + design. It's a full brand operating system your team can follow to become the only choice.

- Retainer: Brand Accelerator (new)
Lessons, frameworks, and templates to implement your strategy across content, marketing, sales, and operations, plus 1-2 monthly consults with me.

Each builds on the previous step.
Each upsells the next step.

All to pull prospects closer to the Brand Accelerator.

We've already had clients purchase the Brand OS...
...after going through the lead magnet
...and buying the old version of the digital product

Because a staircase let's them engage with our offers at any level.

And makes the next step clear.

Implement one yourself.
Or let me and my team do it for you.

Our clients have downsized their sales team.
While making 2x-3x what they used to make.

All because they made buying from them easier.

Imagine that.

✌🏼

#shftyoubrand

-----
PS - the Brand Launchpad and Brand OS are live on our website. Check the comments for the link to learn more.

Branding is agnostic.

It doesn't matter:

- what you're selling
- who you're selling to
- what industry you're in

The principles of branding don't change.

- Find something you DO that's different
- Build a position and message around it
- Create an identity that matches it
- Craft an experience for customers to feel it

And stick to those things for YEARS.

Case in point:

Shft has created unique and profitable positioning strategies for:

- food processing manufacturers
- vacuum pump remanufacturers
- IoT remote monitoring system creators
- energy & sustainability SaaS companies
- custom website and MVP developers
- custom software developers
- communications agencies
- generative AI developers
- relationship coaches
- IaC system creators
- content creators

Those are as different as you can get.

But the same principles applied.

You don't need a strategist who has worked in your industry.
Or who has created designs for your competitors.

You need a strategist who understands the fundamentals of branding.
And can apply them to any industry.

That will get you the most creative and effective ideas.

All to make you a sh*t ton of money.

If that's something you actually want.

✌🏼

#shftyourbrand

"We don't need a strategy, just a plan of action."

A B2B founder said that to me last week on a discovery call.

They've built a successful business.
$43M ARR. 47% profit margin. On preferred vendor lists. 

But growth has stalled.

Existing marketing channels aren't working.
Outbound sales are getting fewer leads.
Pipeline is drying up.

Most B2B leaders react the same way: 
A new plan or a new channel will fix it all.

But when probed, they couldn't answer some foundational questions ↓

- What makes you different in the market?
- Why should clients choose you over the competition?
- Who are you trying to attract?
- What ideal state are those ideal customers after?
- How do those ideal customers buy?

🤦🏻‍♂️

I'll tell you the same thing I told them:

A new plan, channel, or tactic won't fix your business if you don't have the foundation in place.

You'll just spin your wheels.
Waste time and money.
And see $0 results.

Because pipeline issues are rarely about the wrong tactic.
And almost always are a strategy issue.

Before you look at a new tactic, plan, or channel, get your strategy in line.

You'll be surprised how quickly you'll know what tactic will work.

And what tactics are a complete and utter waste of time.

✌🏼

#shftyourbrand

Your brand is built by every interaction with your business.

- every email
- every call
- every ad
- every post
- every proposal
- every support call
- every website visit
- every price point
- every sales pitch

It all creates the gut feeling in people that we call a brand.

Meaning your brand is NOT a marketing tactic.

And it's NOT something to do later.

- when you have the time
- when you have the money
- when you've magically gotten PMF
- when you've sold enough to know your customers

Your brand is a whole company initiative. 

That you should have a strategy for from DAY ONE.

Because while you're waiting to get PMF...
Or waiting to hopefully land a few clients to test your offer...
Or choose to run some Google ads to see if this thing is viable...

YOU'RE 👏🏼 CREATING 👏🏼 THE 👏🏼 WRONG 👏🏼 BRAND 👏🏼 

One that will take extra time and money to fix.

Because that first impression?

It means everything.
And is incredibly hard to change.

So, go the typical route.

Hold off on building your brand and push your ideal customers away.

Or start today with a brand strategy.

You'll get PMF and revenue much, much faster.

If you're into that sort of thing.

Some of you clearly aren't.

✌🏼

#shftyourbrand

Your brand needs a villain.

Someone or something to fight against.

And, no, I don't mean your competitors.

It's basic psychology.

We often connect over what we hate.

→ that coworker you all can't stand
→ that neighbor who keeps everyone up til 1am
→ that politician who spits on everything you hold dear

Can you guess #SassyJason's villain?

*cough*ThoseDamnFluffyBranders*cough*

Like it or not, villains connect us.

Use that in your brand.

Align yourself to fight the same villain as your ideal customers.

→ branding that is all design but no substance (my real villain)
→ IOT vendors who don't help make sense of your data
→ manufacturers who push equipment, not solutions
→ marketing agencies that produce sh*t content

Every great story has a villain.

Find something that pisses off your ideal customers.
And aligns with what you sell.

Then beat the living sh*t out of it.

(metaphorically speaking, of course)

Your ideal customers will connect with you in a deeper way.

And see you as the hero they've been looking for.

✌🏼

#shftyourbrand

------
PS - Drop your villain below. I'll roast your choice and give you suggestions on how to fight it. 👇🏼

Most businesses amplify confusion and call it a brand.

I chatted with the CEO and CMO of an 8-figure business last week.

They provide IT and verification services for enterprise SaaS companies.

I asked the question I ask of every prospect:

What do you DO that your competitors can't or won't?

Their answer: 15 minutes of the fluffiest differentiators I ever heard.

- We provide the best quality of service
- We care about our customers
- We're the industry leader

And my favorite:

- We can do everything they need

Followed by a breakdown of their 20 services.

🤦🏻‍♂️

A brand amplifies what's already there.

If you aren't aligned on the unique value you bring...
And have 20 offers across 10 industries, each serving a different ICP...

YOU 👏🏼 ARE 👏🏼 CONFUSING 👏🏼 YOUR 👏🏼 PROSPECTS 👏🏼 

Take our IT example.

Their message: Industry-Leading IT Services for Enterprise SaaS
Their content: Buy our industry-leading IT services
Their customer acquisition: all outbound sales

And their competitors? Also, industry-leading IT services

Look, you might be able to get to 8-figures with outbound sales alone.

But breaking into 9-figures?
Scaling the business?
Attracting better clients?
Reducing your sales team?

That takes clarity.

Internally with your team.
Externally in your messaging and marketing.

If you can't explain what makes you different in 1 sentence...

Your messaging will be off.
Your marketing will be off.
Your experience will be off.
Your sales will be off.

And revenue?

It will NEVER hit the levels you want.

Stop amplifying confusion.

Gain clarity around your differentiation.
Wrap your entire strategy around it.
Create an identity that displays it.

And watch as your revenue climbs.

If you're into that sort of thing, that is.

✌🏼

#shftyourbrand

90% of Shft's revenue comes from content.

My LinkedIn, the Brand Shft email, our essays, and our YouTube channel.

None of that happened by accident.

And it sure as hell didn't happen from:

- vulnerable content
- engagement pods
- endless selfies
- being myself

How has our content been so successful?

I stopped thinking in funnels.
And started thinking in buyer awareness.

These six levels of awareness, to be exact:

- Unaware: oblivious to the problem
- Problem Aware: knows the problem
- Solution Aware: actively seeking solutions
- Service Aware: knows about your solution
- Most Aware: ready to buy
- Advocate: purchased and referring clients

Creating content for those levels of awareness ensures:

- I'm meeting prospects where they are
- with the content that matters to them
- and pulls them closer to working with me

No selfies, pods, or fake "living in my car" stories needed.

Your content is an extension of your brand.

If you aren't creating a content mix that draws prospects closer to you...

...you're just creating noise
...that no one wants
...and will never convert

Map your content to those 6 levels of awareness.

And watch prospects start seeing you as the ONLY solution for them.

I shared more in a previous Brand Shft email.

Including examples of content for each level.

You can access the link in the comments.

Or keep posting selfie-riddled nonsense.

I'm sure that will work, too.

NOT

✌🏼

#shftyourbrand

The secret to being seen as an expert:

- repetition
- repetition
- repetition

(see what I did there?)

Psychological studies show us that people need to hear the same message:

- 3-5 times to recognize it
- 5-7 times to remember it
- 8-13 times to associate you with it

Meaning, the more you talk about ONE thing...

...in your content
...on your profile
...on your website
...in your sales cycle
...in your conversations

The more people will see YOU as the expert for it.

That's why I attract 7- to 9-figure businesses as leads through my content.

I've talked about brand strategy
Given actionable advice
Every weekday
For 6 years

I rarely talk about my personal life. 
(my ICP doesn't give a flying crap about that)

I don't talk about topics outside of brand.
(even though everything really is brand)

I rarely post selfies.
(LinkedIn thinks I'm an uggo anyway)

ONE topic.
ONE message.
ONE main point of view.

On repeat for 6+ years.

That's how you get seen as an expert.
And have a line of people around the block wanting to work with you.

REPETITION.

It's psychology. In action.

Give it a try. For years. And watch what happens.

✌🏼

#shftyourbrand

One tool to find and engage with your ideal customers on LinkedIn:

Sales Navigator

I use it every day to:

- find ideal customers
- segment by buying intent
- connect with my ideal customers
- start conversations with them
- engage with their content
- land them as clients

I wouldn't use LinkedIn without it.
Especially when I'm trying to attract 8- and 9-figure clients.

You can even create a custom feed with just the people you want to engage with.

BRILLIANT

I created a mini-course to teach my clients how to use Sales Navigator.

It's part of our new Brand Accelerator — a platform with how-to lessons, frameworks, and templates to implement your brand strategy.

But I pulled it out.
Made it a stand-alone course.

And have just made it live.

Want to find and engage with your ideal customers on LinkedIn?

Grab the Sales Navigator Tutorial today → https://lnkd.in/gYvjN8vQ

It'll make starting conversations with ideal customers much faster and easier than on LinkedIn alone.

Something every founder, CEO, and marketing leader should want.

Unless pipeline and revenue aren't important.

Then, by all means, scroll past.

✌🏼

#shftyourbrand

The main reason your 6-8-figure offer isn't selling:

I've spent the last 10+ years diagnosing revenue issues.

- Why businesses aren't attracting ideal customers
- Why prospects ghost after seeing a proposal
- Why sales can't seem to close a deal
- Why revenue keeps hitting a ceiling

Across 30 industries.
For 7-9-figure businesses.
Selling 6-8 figure offers.

The underlying reason for revenue stagnation is always the same:

Lack of clarity on their unique value.

No prospect I've talked with was able to clearly communicate why their ideal customers choose their offers.

And that lack of clarity impacts everything:

- messaging that doesn't resonate
- sales process that doesn't work
- marketing that falls flat
- experience customers don't like
- design that annoys prospects
- website copy that sounds like competitors
- content that lacks a resonating, unique POV
- offers that solve mild annoyances rather than real pains

Looking to move from 6 to 7, 7 to 8, or 8 to 9-figures of revenue?

Stop "testing" new tactics.
Get clarity on why ideal customers ACTUALLY choose you.
Beyond the things every competitor says.

Then build everything around it.

You'll attract more high-paying, long-lasting clients.

The type of clients that push you into a new level of revenue.

✌🏼

#shftyoubrand

My brand designer went all #SassyJason on me.

We're in the midst of a rebrand for Shft.

- new strategy
- new offers
- new message
- new design

I've been running the strategy past him for feedback.
(even strategists need input, boo)

He called me out BIG time.

Especially on this offer list:

- Differentiation Masterclass (paid course)
- Differentiation Vault (digital product)
- Extraction Lab (membership upsell from digital product)
- Positioning Sprint Cohort (14-day group course)
- Differentiation Blueprint (low-tier offer to find your differentiation)
- VIP Positioning Sprint (1:1 version of the group course)
- Brand OS (our flagship, high-ticket offer)
- Fractional CBO (ongoing retainer offer)

8 offers.
Trying to hit ideal customers and solopreneurs.

I should have known better.

He said to me what I say to our clients:

Are you flipping insane?!

You can't be known for 8 things. 
Or scale 8 different offers like that.

🤦🏻‍♂️

We trimmed that mess down to something we can own and scale:

- Brand Accelerator (ongoing retainer to help with implementation)
- Brand OS (brand strategy, marketing strategy, design)
- Brand Launchpad (the brand strategy part of the Brand OS)
- Brand Vault (the DIY version of the brand launchpad)

1 offer.
4 tiers that upsell and downsell each other.

Our clients can start with the Vault.
Move up to the Launchpad to find their differentiation.
Move up to the Brand OS to get marketing and design help.
Move up to the Accelerator to get lessons and consults to implement.

Easier to sell.
Easier to scale.
Easier to stick in their minds.

That's what your brand strategy SHOULD do.

✌🏼

#shftyourbrand

"We book discovery calls, but haven't closed a deal in months."

That's what a B2B founder told me last week.

His team is doing everything right.

- Creating organic content on the right channels
- Sending outbound messages
- Running creative online ads
- Pushing lead magnets
- Sharing unique POVs

All leading to booked calls with their ideal customers.

But his team wasn't able to close any of those leads for months.

Why?

It's not that they are winging it.
Or that their salespeople suck. 
Or that they don't know how to close.

They have a solid offer.
One that has sold in the past.
And are pulling in $9M ARR.

So, why can't they close deals now?

Simple — their sales cycle doesn't match their position.

They provide actionable value in their marketing.
Positioned themselves as experts.

But their sales process made them seem desperate. 

Every prospect gets asked the same question:

"Which offer would you like?"

- You can do A
- Or you can do B
- Or we can create a custom offer
- Or we can patchwork something together

🤦🏻‍♂️

Positioning is more than copy or marketing.

It's how your sales team presents your offer.

Giving prospects a list of options? 

That positions you as a vendor.
Not an expert.

And makes you sound hella desperate. 

Align your sales process with your position.

You'll attract more of your ideal customers...
And actually close them.

Sounds like a win-win to me.

✌🏼

#shftyourbrand

The stage of a new strategy no one talks about:

The awkward middle.

That place where:

- your website still shows the old stuff
- you have some clients on your old offer
- your sales team is starting to push the new stuff
- your marketing is rolling out the new messaging
- you really want to have everyone on your new offer
- your new design isn't finalized but it's made you hate your current design

It's that awkward transition period where everything feels chaotic and wrong and off.

Where you want to have the new strategy fully implemented.
And the old strategy completely gone.

Shft is in that stage right now.

We have a new strategy, new message, and new offer stack.

And I can't tell you how badly I want to burn the old stuff to the ground.

BUT...
And this is huge but...

You need to take your time through this stage.

Rush it too quickly, and you'll lose the revenue you currently have.

Take too long, and you'll miss out on the new revenue you could make.

The awkward middle is a key part of your new strategy.

Going from old to new doesn't happen over night. 

Some of our clients take a year to get through it.
Some take 5 months.
And some take 2+ years.

A new strategy changes your business.

Give that transition time. 

Or you might just ruin your new strategy before it even launches.

✌🏼

#shftyourbrand

-----
PS - I wrote this for me, way more than for you. I want our new strategy implemented NOW.

Roman Pikalenko 🇺🇦🦩

Turning Impact Leaders into Authority Figures Through Powerful Stories | Ghostwriting LinkedIn & Educational Email Courses ✍️📚

Climate tech founders are building world-changing solutions.But most of them are invisible online.Meanwhile, fossil fuel lobbyists have near-infinite marketing budgets. Greenwashers dominate the conversation. Climate deniers spread misinformation to millions.The people actually solving the problem? They're too busy building to talk about it.That's where I come in.As a climate tech ghostwriter, I build LinkedIn thought leadership for Series A+ climate tech CEOs and founders — helping them take control of the narrative and build visibility that compounds.Here's how it works:→ 6-12 month projects built on weekly or bi-weekly interviews→ I extract your expertise and turn it into content that sounds like you→ Full strategy, content planning, and profile optimization included→ Continuous improvement baked in (that's what Kaizen means)I'm not an agency with 47 writers and a sales team. I'm a solo operator with a limited client roster, which means you work directly with me — every interview, every post, every edit.Results my clients have seen:→ Inbound leads and investor connection requests→ Podcast invitations and speaking opportunities→ Top talent reaching out directly→ Measurable traffic to demos, books, and qualification surveysI've worked with 20+ climate leaders across 4 continents, including 3 LinkedIn Top Voices and a Forbes 30 Under 30 founder. Collectively, my clients have raised $200M+.I've ghostwritten 1,000+ posts and have been running Kaizen for almost 3 years.If you're looking to take control of your narrative and start building your visibility, DM me "climate" and I'm happy to talk more.

Growth Marketer

~ Running company social media marketing operations
~ Running paid ad campaigns on social and Google Ads
~ Inbound and content marketing

Sooo I got featured in SUCCESS Magazine last week 👀

Proper 'pinch me' moment. First-ever feature in a magazine for me.

3 years ago, I was struggling to find a single ghostwriting client.

Now I'm being quoted as a LinkedIn expert alongside career writers who've been featured in Forbes, HubSpot, and the BBC.

The article is about LinkedIn coffee chats — something I've done 100+ of since the pandemic.

A lot of it has helped me gain confidence, build great connections, and meet amazing people. Some ended up as clients.

And it's crazy, it's led me to this.

Link to the full article: https://lnkd.in/dC_MXy2j

And a huge thanks to Kayla Ihrig 🌴 for interviewing me!

Roman Pikalenko 🇺🇦🍉

I turn $10M+ Series A climate tech founders & execs into LinkedIn thought leaders to attract capital & talent | Helped 3x LinkedIn Top Voices & 10+ climate tech founders | Obsessed with solar right now ☀️

Just signed my 7th client. 3 months upfront. 

Solar software founder. First call was with their marketing manager — who became the internal champion (as they usually do). 

The only real challenge? Helping them decide between posting in German or English. I've had clients wrestle with this before, so I put on my consultant hat and broke down the trade-offs. 

The close happened on the 2nd call. 

This is my 3rd solar client now. And what I've noticed is that the more specialized you get, the faster the sales calls go. 

You've already solved their problems for someone else. You already speak their language. 

It's one of those times when I pat my past self on the back and say: "Great job niching down on climate tech, dude." 

February is off to a great start. 
Onwards.

Most solar companies grow by expanding into new territories.

These three grew by going deeper — block by block — in Brooklyn.

Meet T.R. Ludwig, Gaelen McKee, and Mark Cunningham — CEO, President, and CTO of Brooklyn SolarWorks.

Before founding BSW, all three were building careers in solar. T.R. and Gaelen were at Sunrun, driving out to New Jersey and Long Island to install panels on suburban homes.

But they all lived in Brooklyn. And every day, they were driving past a massive untapped opportunity.

The problem? NYC's rooftops aren't like the suburbs.

Flat roofs. Fire code restrictions. Limited space. HVAC equipment everywhere. One of the most complex building codes in the US.

NYC desperately needed solar. But traditional racking systems couldn't work here.

So in 2015, they decided to build solar where they lived — and invented a way to make it possible.

Their idea: the Brooklyn Solar Canopy.

A patented system that elevates panels above rooftop obstacles — creating usable living space underneath.

Mark leads design and engineering, ensuring every system works within NYC's notoriously complex code. 

Gaelen runs operations and product development — turning their hyperlocal insights into a scalable national product. 

T.R. drives business growth and industry advocacy.

Instead of expanding outward like every other solar company, they went hyperlocal.

90% of their 2,500+ projects sit within just 15 zip codes, all reachable from their Gowanus headquarters by car, bike, or even foot.

That local focus gave them deep expertise with NYC's zoning, permitting, and code — and a level of accountability to the communities they serve that's hard to replicate.

→ 2,500+ residential and commercial installations across all five NYC boroughs 
→ Over 40,000 tons of CO2 emissions avoided 
→ Launched Brooklyn Solar Canopy Co to sell their system nationwide 
→ Named a Top Solar Contractor by Solar Power World 
→ T.R. named "Trailblazer in Clean Energy" by City & State New York 
→ T.R. helped pass NYC's City of Yes Carbon Neutrality amendment, unlocking rooftop space for solar across the city

They even donated a full canopy system to CHiPS, a Park Slope nonprofit running a soup kitchen and housing program — right down the street from their office.

I'm convinced every European capital could replicate their success (or partner up with them).

—

Do you think urban solar should be the norm?

—

I share stories of exceptional climate leaders every Monday for #ClimateFounderMondays

Follow me by clicking the bell icon on my profile to be the first notified next week.

Small life update: I'm thinking of going back to study.

It sounds a bit overwhelming.

I'm running a full-time business. Working 6 days a week. And building a new vertical.

But I now have the resources and opportunity to pursue one of my oldest dreams—give it a go at STEM.

Here's the thing:

I sucked at science in middle and high school.

Just completely terrible at it.

But at 27, I'm genuinely curious about it for the first time.

I know how to learn now. And I actually want to understand the science behind the climate work I've been writing about for years.

Helsinki has two great unis for it:

→ University of Helsinki
→ Aalto University

The problem is:

My current degree is a BBA in International Business, so I'd need a new Bachelor's.

And I'm not 100% on the direction yet, but I want it to be climate-focused eventually.

Likely will start with Open University to figure out which path makes sense.

What I'm curious about:

Is there anyone who's done full-time work and full-time studying?

What advice would you give yourself before starting this?

I'd love to hear what worked, what didn't, and what you wish you'd known going in.

—

PS. Working in STEM will also make me a better ghostwriter for climate founders. Understanding the science side of things can only help, right?

He grew up in Oman surrounded by pristine beaches, corals, and desert.

Then he discovered a dead zone the size of Florida sitting right off his country's coast.

Meet Talal Hasan, Founder and CEO of 44.01.

Talal was born into a family of environmentalists in Oman. But he didn't take the obvious path into climate.

He studied French and Business Management in London. Became a corporate lawyer. Spent 10+ years working on energy transactions in the Gulf.

Then he helped launch IDO Investments, a $130M VC fund for the Omani government, investing globally in technology.

The turning point came while working at the sovereign fund.

He read that Oman's coast had the largest ocean "dead zone" in the world — a lifeless stretch of water caused by CO2 emissions being absorbed by the sea.

As someone raised by environmentalists, he couldn't look away.

When he investigated, he found something remarkable:

The problem and the solution were literally right next to each other.

Oman's Al Hajar mountains contain the world's largest surface deposits of peridotite — a rock that naturally turns CO2 into stone.

This process happens in nature. But it takes decades.

Talal's question: what if we could speed it up?

In 2020, he founded 44.01 (named after the molecular weight of CO2).

Here's how the technology works:

→ They capture CO2 from the atmosphere or from industrial processes
→ Dissolve it in water (essentially fizzy water — no toxic chemicals)
→ Inject it into peridotite formations underground
→ The rock mineralizes the CO2 in under 12 months
→ It becomes part of the mineral crystal lattice.

If something did leak? It's a puff of CO2 like opening a soda bottle.

The results have been extraordinary:

→ $47M raised ($42M Series A led by Equinor Ventures)
→ Backed by Bill Gates' Breakthrough Energy Ventures
→ Amazon's Climate Pledge Fund, Siemens, Air Liquide, and Sumitomo also invested
→ Won Prince William's Earthshot Prize in 2022 ("Fix Our Climate" category)
→ Won $1M XPRIZE Carbon Removal Award against 1,300+ teams from 80 countries
→ Won another $1M XFACTOR Award in April 2025
→ Partnered with ADNOC to scale in the UAE
→ Partnered with Climeworks (world's leading direct air capture company)
→ 50+ employees across Oman, UAE, and London

And peridotite isn't only in Oman. It's found on every continent.

The US, Canada, Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia — all have deposits.

Which means 44.01's technology could scale globally.

Their goal: mineralize 1B tonnes of CO2 by 2040.

For context, the IPCC says we need to remove 1 gigaton per year by 2030. 
That's equivalent to all global air travel emissions.

—

Did you know about Talal and 44.01's work?

PS. I share more stories of exceptional climate leaders every Monday for #ClimateFounderMondays

Follow me by clicking the bell icon on my profile to be notified next week 🔔

"The ignorance of how important and efficient LinkedIn is pissing me off."

— Cornelius Schmahl, who helped climate techs raise over $1bn in funding.

This came from a comment exchange last week.

Cornelius works with exits and fundraising at the highest level.

And he's frustrated.

Because founders keep making the same mistake:

They post AFTER fundraising.

Or worse. They ignore LinkedIn entirely until they're desperate for investor intros.

That's backwards.

When you wait, you're stuck with the "normal" rejection rate. 200 asks. 1 yes. And everyone tells you that's just how it is.

But it doesn't have to be that way.

Two of my clients right now:

→ One in sustainable materials
→ One in deep tech

Both are getting investor inbounds every single month.

All because we’ve been building their visibility for the past 2 years (largely before they needed money).

If you scramble last-minute for intros = desperation.
If you build visibility proactively = credibility.

Investors can smell the difference.

If you're fundraising in the next 6-12 months:

1/ Pick a posting frequency that feels comfortable (once/week or every two weeks)

2/ Pick 3 content styles to rotate:

→ Founder journey
→ Industry commentary
→ Problem-solving content

3/ Publish and stay present.

Everything else is optimization.

You don't need a perfect strategy.
You need to start before you're desperate.

Tag a founder who needs to see this.

Last Friday, I spoke at Climate Drift's Thought Leadership for Humans program.

The Q&A after was fire. Here are 6 questions I got from people in climate (and my honest answers):

Q1: Will AI replace ghostwriters?

Think of AI like Photoshop was for graphic designers. It's a tool, not a replacement. My job isn't writing posts — it's building your presence, course-correcting when things go sideways, and extracting stories you didn't know you had. AI can't do that. If anything, AI raised my client cap from 5 to 7.

Q2: LinkedIn reach is dropping. Should I even bother?

The reach is declining because LinkedIn is going the Facebook route — incentivizing people to pay for distribution that used to be free. But you don't need 50,000 impressions per post. You need the right 50 people to see your post and start a conversation. Focus on profile views, # of conversations started, or revenue as the right metrics.

Q3: Should I start with LinkedIn or an email newsletter?

LinkedIn is your distribution channel. Email is your middle channel. If you start a newsletter without an audience, you'll need to drive traffic from somewhere anyway. Start on LinkedIn. Build the list from there. Then email becomes your insurance policy when the algorithm gets worse.

Q4: I have multiple goals — speaking, advising, growing my business. How do I choose?

You can't pursue them all at once. Something always has to give. For example, if you want to speak and advise? Podcasts are a stepping stone — you build credibility for advising while getting reps as a speaker, without traveling.

Q5: Should I expand to Twitter or Bluesky?

Only if you've maxed out your current platform. Take your 20-50 best-performing posts from LinkedIn and use them as your starter library on the new platform. If you don't have that library yet, you haven't finished building your foundation.

Q6: How do I build an audience in a niche I'm new to?

Borrowed credibility. Highlight people already in the space. I do this every Monday — I pick a lesser-known climate tech founder and tell their story. Tag them. Connect beforehand. 2 out of 3 times, their network engages and a chunk of them follow you. You're borrowing their audience by giving them recognition.

—

These questions came from a variety of people:

Small business owners
Heads of startup incubator programs
Jobseekers
Climate scientists

If you're in climate and want to start building your LinkedIn presence but don't know where to begin, follow me. I share stuff like this regularly.

What question would you add to this list?

PS. Huge thanks to Katie Gilbert and Marco Morawec, for inviting me as a speaker once again 🙏

≈30% of climate tech prospects tell me the same thing:

"We want to try ghostwriting in-house before outsourcing."

Easier said than done.

Their exec or founder needs to be on LinkedIn.

But has zero time to write.

Hiring a ghostwriter feels expensive ($5-10k/month) or culturally off.

So marketing gets told: "figure it out."

The problem?

Marketing teams at Series A climate startups (usually 1-3 people) don't have ghostwriting training.

They can write blog posts. Press releases. Website copy.

But exec LinkedIn? That's a completely different skill.

You need to:

→ Sound like the founder (not like marketing)

→ Extract ideas without making it a homework for the CEO/exec

→ Write posts that drive business outcomes, not likes

Most marketing teams are left guessing.

So I'm thinking of running a workshop to teach climate marketing teams how to do this in-house.

One high-quality post per week so your exec/CEO/founder has a consistent presence.

Something you can execute with the existing internal resources.

Before I build this, I want to understand if it's actually useful.

Two questions for climate marketing teams:

1 - Have you ever considered building in-house ghostwriting expertise?

2 - If yes—what's your BIGGEST blocker right now?

Drop a comment or DM me.

I want to know what would make this a no-brainer vs. just another workshop nobody rewatches.

I've ghostwritten for the same climate tech CEO for 20+ months. Last week, he told me my questions had become useless.

He was right.

For the first 12-14 months, every weekly call produced gold. I'd ask about customer stories, product updates, market reactions — and he'd give me frameworks, contrarian takes, and insights I couldn't find anywhere else.

350+ posts later, I noticed a change.

His answers started getting shorter. Fewer details. I'd ask about a new customer and he'd say "it's the same story, you can make it up.”

I kept pushing. Better questions. Different angles.

It didn't help.

Then last week, he said it directly: "Your questions don't uncover more depth. They feel repetitive."

And he was right. I’ve hit the ceiling with my question bank and was going out of my way to be ‘creative’ and uncover ‘novel’ angles.

That wasn’t working.

So now we're rebuilding the system:

→ I double down on research. Industry data, policy shifts, market examples.

→ I draft the angles and bring them as finished concepts instead of questions.

→ His role shifts from answering questions to correcting my framing.

→ The calls go from weekly to bi-weekly. Shorter. More focused.

I'm betting his corrections and disagreements will produce better content than my questions in the last 1-2 months did.

We're testing it now. I don't know if it'll work yet.

But it got me thinking:

The best ghostwriting relationships aren't static. The system that works at month 3 might break at month 15.

If it does, it’s a signal that your content partner has absorbed enough context to operate differently.

And that’s ok.

—

PS. If you're talking to a ghostwriter, ask them for examples of how their process has evolved when working with clients for over a year. This will give you a good idea whether they are someone who can adapt to you or if they are too rigid.

Had a wild conversation with a client this week.

He used to run a solar company. Built the team. Set up the processes. Hired good people.

And one day he's sitting in his office thinking: "I have nothing to do."

Not in a good way. He felt useless.

What messed with his head the most:

Someone on the warehouse floor asked him a simple question. Something like "hey, we forgot to do this on a job — should we go back?"

His gut said: "Yeah, go back."

But that one answer? That was him making a decision his manager should've made. Without context. Without the full picture. Without anyone else knowing.

And every time he did that, he was quietly undermining the people he hired to run things.

So he had to unlearn the one thing every founder is wired to do — solve problems on the spot.

Instead, his answer became: "Talk to your manager. Follow the process. They'll figure it out."

Brutal for a problem-solver. But necessary.

Once he stopped being the answer machine, he had all this mental bandwidth. 

So he started tinkering with a recurring problem he kept seeing across the industry.

That problem became a product. That product became its own company. He eventually exited the first business entirely.

The "useless" phase wasn't a dead end. It was a signal that he'd outgrown the role — and was ready to grow as a CEO. Or, in his case, to also build the next thing.

This is the kind of stuff that comes up in my weekly calls with founders. I frequently get feedback like:

"I didn't expect this to come up today."
"Idk how you pulled these out of me."
"Came completely unprepared. Yet we covered so much."

This is my bread and butter.

The tiny details.

The stuff that no AI will ever be able to replicate.

—

Have you ever felt useless in your own company?

Curious if other founders can relate.

I haven't talked to one of my clients in over a year. And she's one of the best-performing accounts I manage.

Her exec syncs with me monthly. She reviews content in 10-15min per batch. 
And her posts consistently attract investors, partners, and customers in her space.

How?

We spent months building the foundation — her voice, her positioning, her themes. Once that was locked in, the system runs without her needing to be in every conversation.

But that's not how most of my client relationships work.

Here's the full breakdown across my 7 clients right now:

- 4 clients are on a weekly cadence. 45-50min calls where we go deep on what's happening in their business, industry, and head. I ask questions. They talk. I turn it into content.

I like weekly because it keeps the context fresh. New deals, new conversations, new opinions — that stuff has a short shelf life. If I wait too long, the moment's gone. These are also founders that are involved in the daily business activities so they have rich context to share.

- 2 clients are on a bi-weekly cadence. Heavier travel schedules, board-heavy months, more visionary people. We batch more per call, and I lean harder on async — voice notes, Slack messages, articles they've shared.

- And then the monthly setup I mentioned above.

There's no single "right" cadence. The best setup is the one that matches:

How a founder actually works
Their communication style
And their schedule

Some founders think best out loud on calls. Others drop fire voice notes at 11pm. One client sends me regular articles he reads with his thoughts on it.

I even had a CEO who'd jump on random WhatsApp calls for 10-15min in the moment of inspiration.

My job is to meet them where they are.

—

If you've been putting off LinkedIn because you think it means another weekly meeting on your calendar — it doesn't have to.

What's your best format for sharing your thoughts? On calls? Via text? Voice notes?

Would love to know.

Earlier on Monday, I woke up tired. Again.

After some self-reflection, I realised I'm a workaholic. And it's kicking my ass.

It's cut into my personal life, my health, and my future goals.

→ I've become more irritable (because I'm always working)
→ I've become obsessed with sleep optimization (because I wake up tired)
→ I've become afraid of actually committing to big goals like studying (because I'm overworked)

Not exactly peak decision-making state.

My coaches, Loz & Baz, helped me figure it out.

So I'm doing something that might sound trivial to most, yet kinda crazy to me:

→ I want to start working only 5d/week. At least for a couple of months.

I'm fast approaching a 3-year anniversary of my business, and for as long as I can remember, I've worked 6-7 days per week.

It's caught up with me.

No bueno.

My plan:

→ Keep all calls to Mon & Fri only
→ Have strict lunch & dinner breaks
→ Work on writing efficiency for clients

And learn how to do nothing for 1 day a week 🫠

Anyone else working 6-7 days a week and pretending it's fine?

PS. A friend of mine once told me I need to get out and touch grass more. Guess it's time lol

PPS. Photo of me in Japan when I wasn't a workaholic (felt good).

In 2025, I got invited to LinkedIn's HQ in Amsterdam.

Cool experience. Met some great people. But one thing stuck with me that I haven't talked about publicly.

The core topic of the event? How to use LinkedIn's advertising tools to boost your personal profile posts.

Not company page ads. Personal posts.

Two years ago, this wasn't even an option. Boosting was only possible through company pages.

Now, there's a little button at the top right corner of every post that says "Boost." You put in 50, 100, 200 and LinkedIn pushes it to more people.

Why does this matter for you as a climate tech founder?

Because the platform is evolving in the same direction as Facebook.

LinkedIn is incentivizing people to pay for reach that used to be free. And the more people boost, the less organic content gets distributed to make room for it.

That's why your reach feels like it's been declining. It's not your content getting worse. It's the platform shifting its model.

So what do you do about it?

I'm not a fan of boosting. I'm very much an organic-first person. But I won't pretend it doesn't exist.

If you want to experiment with it, do it.

But it'll dilute your organic data. If you publish 10 posts without boosting and 1 with, you can't compare them the same way. You'll need to treat boosted content separately when analyzing what actually resonates.

The core idea behind posting hasn't changed.

Your content strategy shouldn't depend on the algorithm being nice to you. It should depend on whether the right 50-100 people see it and whether it starts conversations.

That means:

1/ Stop obsessing over impressions. Start looking at who's viewing your profile after you post. Are they investors? Customers? Partners? If yes, your content is working — even if the numbers look smaller than last year.

2/ Use your posts as conversation starters, not performance metrics. The DMs, the replies, the introductions — that's where LinkedIn actually converts for founders.

3/ Double down on content analytics as a skill. When organic reach shrinks, you can't afford to keep posting stuff that doesn't land. Learn to read your own data — what topics your audience actually engages with, what formats fall flat, and what's worth doubling down on. Now is the time to 5x the effort on quality.

4/ And build your email list. You own that. You don't own your LinkedIn reach. If the algorithm keeps going this direction, having a direct line to your audience is insurance.—

Have you noticed your LinkedIn reach dropping?

Curious how others are experiencing it.

📸: Met the legendary Harald Friedl at the same event.

Aaron Nichols has generated 1.5M+ LinkedIn impressions in the solar industry using 4 storytelling rules. 

I took his framework and made it 10x easier to apply (with AI's help): 

Quick context: 

Aaron is a marketer at Exact Solar who built his entire audience by doing what most companies refuse to do... 

Leading with story instead of stats. 

His 4 rules are designed to help you: 

- Open posts with stories people actually feel (not data dumps) 
- Speak to what your audience already cares about 
- Simplify your message so a 14-year-old could get it 
- Sound like a real human, not a corporate press release 

His framework was great. 

But there was one problem: 

Aaron shared the "what" but not a system to apply it consistently. 

So I took his rules and built: 

- A pre-publish checklist to audit any post against all 4 rules 
- And a copy-paste AI prompt that scores your draft and tells you exactly what to fix 

Want to give it a try? 

Like this post 
Comment "story" 

I'll send it to your DMs. 

PS - The AI prompt alone is worth grabbing. Paste any draft in and it returns a scored audit with specific rewrite suggestions. Takes 30 seconds.

Aaron Nichols' 4 Rules of Storytelling Framework

I spent 3 years building a 4-level batching system so I could take a 2.5 week vacation with 6 clients.

Here's how each level forced the next (and why I'm now scaling to 7 without adding hours):

The forcing function was Japan.

I planned a 2.5 week trip and realized my system would collapse if I stepped away. So I spent 2 months building a month's worth of content buffer for all 6 clients.

Just to buy myself a real vacation.

That constraint became the catalyst for Level 4.

At first, I was batching one week at a time.

Ideation → hooks → outlines → drafts → edits → visuals → submission.

All in one go.

Worked fine for 2-3 clients. Broke immediately at 4.

So I increased batching to 2-3 weeks per client.

Longer calendar blocks. Smoother process.

Better. Still felt like racing the clock.

Then I split the process.

Day 1: Ideation, hooks, outlines, v1 drafts.
Day 2: Finishing drafts, visuals, editing, submitting.

Got me to 6 clients. Where most people stop.

But here's where it gets interesting.

I noticed every client has daily themes. My sustainable materials founder:

→ 2 posts/week on denim insulation
→ 1 post/week repurposing from 300+ archive
→ 1 post/week on Australian manufacturing
→ 1 post/week on company updates

Instead of batching by "weeks," I started batching by topics.

Pick "denim insulation." Create 4-6 weeks of content on that single theme.

Then "Australian manufacturing." Same thing.

But here's the key—and this is what most people miss:

I combined this with a buffer.

Weeks 1-2: Create the standard 2-week batch.
Weeks 3-4: With everything ahead, I have breathing room to focus on topic-based batching.

By week 3, I have almost a month's worth prepared. 80-90% done.

By weeks 4-6: The compounding is so efficient I can plan and draft content for the next 1-2 months.

This is the system that lets me manage 6 clients without working weekends.

And it's the same system I'm now using to scale to 7 — without adding hours.

—

Most climate tech founders I work with have the opposite problem.

They're not batching 6 clients' content. They're struggling to post consistently for themselves.

They know LinkedIn matters for fundraising, hiring, and partnerships.

But they don't have time to figure out the system.

So every Monday, I send out the exact strategies I've built ghostwriting for climate tech leaders who've raised $10M+ — broken down so you can use them yourself in 10 minutes per week.

430+ climate founders already get it.

Join them here (free): https://lnkd.in/ezCxpYcH

"Our proprietary bio-based polymer formulation provides a functionally equivalent alternative to petroleum-based packaging substrates." 
Vs. 
"We make packaging from farm waste instead of oil. It's just as strong." 

Same company. Same technology. Same facts. 

But only one version gets read on LinkedIn. 

If you're a climate tech founder posting technical content that gets 12 likes from your team and zero engagement from investors, customers, or talent... 

The problem isn't your ideas. It's your language. 

I built a free guide that teaches you how to simplify any LinkedIn draft using 5 Hemingway rules specifically adapted for climate tech writing. 

It includes:

→ 5 rules with climate-specific examples (kill adverbs, active voice, short sentences, plain language, one idea per sentence). 

→ 5 full before & after rewrites across solar, water tech, sustainable packaging, energy efficiency, and alt proteins. 

→ A jargon-to-plain-language swap table you can reference anytime. 

→ A copy-paste AI prompt that takes your draft and returns a simplified version with a change log for every edit. 

The AI prompt is the real gem. It scores your draft on complexity, flags the exact sentences dragging it down, rewrites the whole thing, and explains every change. 

Want it? 
Like this post 
Comment "hemingway" 

Send me a connection request so I can DM you

I'll send the link ASAP. 

PS - Unlike the free Hemingway app, the AI prompt inside actually suggests edits and ranks your drafts in a more iterative way so you don't have to pay for Hemingway AI Pro.

My solar client said something the other day that stuck with me.

We were talking about solar installation and maintenance.

He said: "Anyone can install a panel. But are you gonna be there when something breaks?"

He made a point about offering ongoing O&M services as a source of revenue.

And you know what?

It's the exact same thing I have to explain with AI and content.

Anyone can open ChatGPT and write a LinkedIn post.

Cool. You got a post. Maybe it's even good.

But what happens when:

→ Your engagement drops for 3 weeks straight?
→ A post accidentally misrepresents your tech?
→ Your messaging needs to pivot mid-fundraise?
→ Your content attracts the wrong audience?
→ You run out of things to say by week 4?

ChatGPT won't diagnose that. It won't jump on a call with you. It won't adjust your strategy based on what the data is telling us.

That's what a premium ghostwriter is for.

The true value of a ghostwriter isn't the writing.

It's the maintenance and ongoing consulting.

The weekly calls. The pattern recognition. The "hey, this angle isn't landing — let's try this instead."

It's someone who knows your voice, your audience, and your goals well enough to course-correct before things go sideways.

AI will only amplify the mistakes you make along the way.

—

If your LinkedIn content feels like it's collecting dust, send me a DM.

I offer free 45-min LinkedIn funnel audits for anyone in the climate space.

Your competitors' founders are posting 3x a week.
Yours hasn't posted in 3 months.

I've watched this play out with dozens of Series A marketing teams.

The CEO says "I don't see the ROI."

And you're trying to convince them otherwise.

When talking to the CEO, remind them of these 3 risks:

Risk 1: Your sales cycles stay at 12-18 months when they could be 6-12.

Founder visibility builds trust before the first call. When prospects already follow your CEO, they walk in saying "we've been watching you for months."

Risk 2: Competitors own the narrative while you stay invisible.

When buyers search for solutions in your space, they'll find your competitor's CEO. They'll see their takes, their frameworks, their POV.

Risk 3: You waste 90% of your organic reach by relying on the company page.

Personal profiles get 10x the visibility of company pages. Every post your CEO doesn't write is reach you're leaving on the table.

So what do you actually say to a CEO who "doesn't see the ROI"?

Stop positioning LinkedIn as social media. Reframe it as:

→ Series B prep (you need 12-18 months to build momentum)
→ Talent magnet (top candidates look at founders before applying)
→ PR strategy (journalists scan LinkedIn to decide who to cover)
→ Sales enablement (gives buyers the proof they need to convince their boss)
→ AI search optimization (the better your content is, the more likely it shows on AI searches)

And it's especially true if you're in climate tech.

—

What are some other risks you see from NOT building your visibility online?

"The country that's first to fusion powers the global economy for generations."

— Bob Mumgaard, CEO of Commonwealth Fusion Systems.

As I explore STEM opportunities, I couldn't stop researching fusion energy and Bob's work.

Here's why this matters (and how it's connected to the climate crisis):

Bob Mumgaard wasn't always a fusion CEO.

He was a Nebraska kid who met his future COO on day one of Math 106 at University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

They became roommates.

Years later, Bob went to MIT for his PhD in plasma physics. His buddy Steve Renter got an MBA at Harvard and worked as a drilling engineer at BP.

For years, they had a standing meeting:

Every Thursday night at the Muddy Charles pub in Boston.

Bob talked fusion. Steve talked startups.

By 2018, those beer meetings became Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS).

By 2026, they've raised almost $3 billion.

Their core idea:

Traditional fusion reactors are massive and take decades to build.

Bob's team at MIT figured out how to make them dramatically smaller using high-temperature superconducting (HTS) magnets.

In 2021, they built and tested the most powerful fusion magnet ever created on Earth.

10 tons. 8 feet tall. 165 miles of superconducting tape.

That magnet proved the physics works.

Now they're building SPARC — a compact tokamak in Massachusetts designed to produce net fusion energy by 2027.

If SPARC works, it’ll change the entire industry.

—

Why this matters for climate:

Solar and wind are great. But they're intermittent.

The world needs clean, 24/7 baseload power that doesn't depend on whether the sun is shining or the wind is blowing.

Fusion is that solution:

→ Unlimited fuel (hydrogen from seawater)
→ Zero carbon emissions
→ No radioactive waste
→ 24/7 power, rain or shine

Google signed a 200 MW power purchase agreement with CFS. The largest corporate fusion energy deal in history.

Eni signed a $1B+ deal.

And if SPARC hits its target in 2027, Virginia gets the world's first commercial fusion power plant (ARC) in the early 2030s.

400 MW. Enough for 150,000 homes.

And they’re not the only ones.

China has invested $6.5B+ in fusion since 2023.

The race is on. And it's closer than most people think.

What makes Bob's story stand out to me:

He didn't wait for governments or universities to move slowly.

He took decades of MIT fusion research, commercialized it, and convinced Google, Bill Gates, and NVIDIA to bet billions on his vision.

From Thursday night pub meetings to building the sun on Earth.

That's the kind of audacious climate tech thinking we need more of.

—

What "impossible" climate ideas are you following?

And whose work shall I feature next Monday?

#ClimateFounderMondays

7 days ago, I co-hosted a workshop for Thought Leadership for Humans — a cohort program for climate leaders building their public presence.

My topic: how to pick the right metrics for your thought leadership so you don't waste 3 months tracking the wrong thing.

The session was a lot of fun. 

So I decided to open-source the whole thing.

Some context:

Most people who start posting on LinkedIn default to tracking likes and followers. Because those are the most visible numbers.

But likes are what I call "lobby metrics." They're the first thing you see when you walk in the door. They feel validating. And they almost never connect to what you actually want.

I worked with a climate tech founder who had 2,000 followers. Nothing flashy. But within 3 months, two investors mentioned her content on calls. A journalist reached out. And a potential customer DM'd saying "I've been reading your posts."

Meanwhile, I've seen creators with 50K+ followers who can't fill a workshop.

The difference? She was tracking the right metric from day one.

In the session, I broke down a simple framework for figuring out what that metric is for YOU:

→ Layer 1: Your ambition — the real-world outcome you actually want. Not "more visibility." Something specific.

→ Layer 2: Your outcome metric — the measurable signal you're getting closer. This almost never lives inside LinkedIn.

→ Layer 3: Your platform metric — the ONE number to optimize in your content. Just one.

Different ambition = different metric = different content strategy entirely.

The full resource includes the framework, walkthrough examples for different archetypes (founders, job seekers, nonprofit investors, scientists), common mistakes, and an AI prompt that helps you define your own metrics in minutes.

Want full access?

Here you go: https://lnkd.in/dzMD56Db

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