LinkedIn ghost-writing and strategy for CEOs // EO Member

Sales doesn’t fail from lack of ideas. 

It fails when teams default to cold outreach instead of building a system.

Every business owner starts as salesperson, marketer, storyteller, and tribal leader - all in one.

That works well but founder fuel burns fast... 🔥

At first, your energy sells the vision. You’re close to every customer. And you are the leader of your tribe. 

But usually, around the 5–20 employee mark, cracks begin to show. You want to move from working 'in' your business to working 'on' your business - so you hire someone to take over marketing.

Your first junior marketer arrives and…
- Launches a cold outreach campaign.
- Subscribes to HubSpot for $800/month.
- Tries a podcast.

Then, the cold outreach gets paused after no one replies. The HubSpot account sits dormant because you're too busy to hand over your contacts. And the podcast dies after seven episodes because it didn't bring ales. 

And you think: Marketing doesn’t work for us. Do I have to keep doing this myself? 🤨

Good news: You don't. 

Over the past 25 years, I’ve built five businesses, sold three, and advised on 75+ marketing projects.

Because of what I’ve seen, I believe marketing simply fails because nobody makes these 3 calls:
- Choosing one strategy every team member can explain and believe in.
- Sticking with that one strategy long enough to make it work.
- Holding everyone (including you, the founder) accountable with KPIs.

Making those 3 calls is what I call the CMO Gap.

→ Founders want to step out of marketing and need a CMO who makes decisions. But they can only afford a junior marketer who can’t do that.

Our program, CONTENT TURBO, closes that gap: In six months, we implement a repeatable and customised marketing system your team can run on their own, no agencies, no tool bloat, no false starts. 

Just a system that delivers at a fraction of a CMO's cost. 

It's the CMO I wanted in my five businesses but could't afford.


👉 If you’re ready to outgrow the marketing chaos, let’s connect.

✉️ Email me: chappuzeau@storylux.com
💬 WhatsApp me: +44 7375 428 095

Simon Chappuzeau

Viral posts and AI don't build businesses.

Systems do.

A while back I explored how people go viral on LinkedIn and what impact that had on the business.

It was fascinating, fun, and insightful but not one viral post moved the needle for the businesses of my guests.

If you want to revisit that, it's part of the StoryLux podcast (link in the comments).

In season 2 I dove into AI’s role in content creation and found that, yes, it’s powerful but that AI can’t fix a broken marketing systems.

That brings me to the announcement of this new season, Season 3.

This time we'll be talking to business owners who have crushed their lead generation with focus and consistency.

It’s about the quiet power of focus and repeatability.
→ One ICP.
→ One channel.
→ One proven cadence, done consistently.

No shortcuts, no hacks.

So far, I had two inspiring conversations with Glain Roberts-McCabe, PCC, CTDP (she/her) who's built a solid coaching business with simple processes.

And another inspiring call with Marcello Gortana, MBA, who turned out to be a (fellow) South African, now living in Canada!

So, if you want to hear inspiring stories of businesses that grew by focusing (less is more), then season 3 might just be what you need!

It’s launching soon.

Stay tuned.

I turn founder stories into marketing systems that can be run by their teams.

Marcello Gortana, MBA and Glain Roberts-McCabe, PCC, CTDP (she/her)

No alternative text description for this image

Is LinkedIn slowly turning into TikTok?

Here’s what I’ve noticed:

My feed no longer starts with posts from people I chose to follow. Instead it starts with a (viral) post from someone I’ve never heard of.

Yes, the post is often relevant, even interesting to the point that I find myself, ten minutes later doom-scrolling trying to remember “Why did I open this app again?” 🤔 

The shift feels subtle, but I thinks it’s not: 

It’s changing LinkedIn from what I liked about it:

A network-driven platform to an interest-driven one.

It's replacing relationships with reach.

I follow people for a reason. Not just because they had one great post, but because I believe in their thinking.

I’ve read their books, and studied their frameworks.

That trust is the glue of a real professional network.

When the algorithm sidelines those relationships in favour of single-hit posts, something gets lost.

Have you seen the same? 

What are your thoughs?



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I preparing the third season of my podcast, featuring founders who built their companies with a single target audience, a single offer, and a single acquisition path.

If you’ve taken that route and want to share the system behind it, please direct message me.

The biggest challenges marketers face:

Convincing the founder to trust facts.

I can't count the number of times that I found myself in discussions with business owners, junior marketers, sales people and other stakeholders about what would be the most effective thing to do in marketing. 

The predicament in these situations?

They come from an anecdotal viewpoint. They saw the one influencer who went viral. One email list guru who's doing 7 figures by sending one weekly email. Or the TikTok influencer who's cracked the code and now selling millions.

The problem is that these successes are anecdotal. Not empirical.

They skew the perception of what's likely to work.


As a marketer, I can't operate from a strategy of luck. That's what these 'success' stories are: anecdotal evidence that something works. 

I can only act based on empirical evidence and frameworks that have proven to work - mostly not to that wild success of the one in a million TikTok influencer. But more often than one in a million. 

As long as a strategy delivers a positive ROI it has worked well enough (and definitely better than an anecdotal success story that can't be replicated).

So, the question really is:

Do you trust statistical evidence that something will work enough to not be tempted by 'success' stories?

If so, your marketing is highly likely to make you money. 



-------



Most small companies can’t afford a $10K/month CMO to build a working marketing system. We help founders fill that gap by installing a marketing system and training their team to run it.

Follow me to learn how to build a marketing system that fits your business model.

From £0 to £22m with laser focus. How a self-funded food business grew in one of the most competitive industries in the world.

In December 2016, George Taylor started cooking clean meals in his one-bed flat, hand-delivering them to local gyms.

By 2023, he had turned Lions Prep into a £22m-a-year subscription business.

How did he do it without spreading himself thin on dozens of channels or burning cash on ads?

Here’s the marketing playbook behind Lions Prep’s early days:

1️⃣ George picked a niche and stuck with it.
→ The brand was built for gym-goers.
→ Messaging, meals, and visuals all screamed: “Performance fuel.”
→ That clarity made them memorable and referable for gym-goers.
Most businesses are not that clear on their ICP.

2️⃣ George treated his deliveries like market research.
→ George delivered meals and gathered insights from his customers.
→ Local gyms became live market research labs.
→ Every conversation shaped the product, the positioning, the promise.
Most businesses disconnect sales & delivery from marketing research.

3️⃣ George used storytelling as their main marketing driver.
→ Behind-the-scenes kitchen content built operational trust.
→ Instagram was built credibility through transparency.
→ Customers shared transformation photos.
Radical transparency built an avid audience.

4️⃣ George grew cash-flow before spending on campaigns.
→ Subscriptions created predictable revenue.
→ That stability funded consistent service and slow, strategic growth.
The new subscription model supported a healthy cash-flow. 

5️⃣ George didn’t advertise until he was sure it would work.
→ Paid ads only came in 2020–2021, once:
✔ The message was clear
✔ The audience was loyal
✔ The systems were stable
Most business advertise when they lack that clarity, wasting money. 

Effective marketing is about relentless focus on the right audience, the right channel, and the right message.

That’s what most businesses skip.


P.S.: In 2022 Lions Prep became Frive and successfully expanded their ICP. But that's a story for another time... 



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Most small companies can’t afford a $10K/month CMO to build a working marketing system. We help founders fill that gap by installing a marketing system and training their team to run it.

Follow me to learn how to build a marketing system that fits your business model.

Jason Fried and his team built a $1M+ revenue business, with only 1 product and 1 channel. How did they do that?

In 2004, Jason Fried and his team at 37signals were a small web design agency in Chicago, drowning in email threads and missed deadlines.

Because available alternative like Microsoft Project were too big and clunky, they simply scratched their own itch and built a project management tool that did what they needed.

That internal tool became Basecamp.

On February 4, 2004, Basecamp officially launched.
- No press release.
- No newsletter.
- No lead magnets.

Just a blog post on Signal v. Noise (the company’s internal blog). Jason Fried said:

“We just blogged about what we were building. People followed along and shared it.”

At first, Basecamp was used only by 37signals themselves and their own clients. But it quickly resonated with other freelancers, agencies, and small teams - people just like them.

The user base of Basecamp wasn’t built through paid traffic or launch campaigns, it grew organically through their essays, reflections, and product updates.

And: they didn’t call themselves 'thought leaders', they were just thinking in public.

How did that impact their growth?

Here are the numbers that I could find:
- 2004: Launched with 45 paying customers in month 1
- 2005: Hit $1 million in annual revenue (100% bootstrapped)
- 2006: Published Getting Real, a book on building simple software
- 2008: Reached 2 million users across all accounts (free + paid)
- 2010: Basecamp had become the company's flagship product and they rebranded to Basecamp, stopping any agency work. 

How did they do it? 

1️⃣ With relentless focus on one ICP: small, overworked teams. 

2️⃣ With relentless focus on one channel: their blog. 

3️⃣ And through relentless focus on one message: Simple tools for calm work and no engagement-optimised content.

Now you will say to me, Simon, that was in the early 2000s! 

Well, I believe things are not really that different today, people still love original thought. 

Real thinking still resonates with people, whether on a blog, a podcast, or a LinkedIn post.

What made Basecamp work wasn’t when they built, it was how they built:
- One clear product
- For one clear audience
- Shared through one consistent point of view - for years!

That’s still the most reliable marketing system there is, simple scales but only when the thinking is sharp.



-------



Most small companies can’t afford a $10K/month CMO to build a working marketing system. We help founders fill that gap by installing a marketing system and training their team to run it.

Follow me to learn how to build a marketing system that fits your business model.

Most small business owners overcomplicate content.

They chase trends, read SEO blogs, and try to “rank.”

But content doesn't sell because it’s optimised but because it addresses the information gaps that prevent a buying decision.

There are the five types of content buyers are quietly searching for:

Price
How much does something cost? We are all looking for this, aren't we? Yet, most websites bury this. 

Problem Discovery
The real use of an FAQ section? To reduce buyer anxiety by surfacing past client questions or objections.

Competitor Comparisons
Your buyer is already comparing options. Why not help them - and do it with integrity.

“Best Of” Lists
These pieces signal quality by giving a clear benchmark. Buyers want to know the bar before they commit to any option.

Reviews and Testimonials 
If your reviews and testimonials reinforce the previous four, trust is built, and buying becomes easy.

When it comes to what you write on your website and LinkedIn, you don’t need to reinvent the wheel.

Simply address what keeps buyers from buying.

Replace: “What should we post this week?”

With: “What’s still unclear to someone trying to buy from us?”

That question will build you a better content calendar than any AI prompt or SEO checklist.


P.S.: Bonus thought: if content is hard, it's often because the ICP is too broad. Have a razor blade ICP and these five content areas become as easy as simply interviewing your sales team. 



-------



I'm preparing the third season of the StoryLux podcast, featuring businesses that grew by focusing on a single target audience, a single offer, and a single acquisition path.

If you’ve taken that route of focus, please direct message me.

From £0 to £22m with just one ideal client persona.

How a self-funded business grew by niching down.

Lions Prep (before it became Frive) didn’t grow by serving multiple client personas or being present on all social media channels. 

It instead started to grow with a relentless focus on one ideal client persona (gym goers), and one channel (direct sales in gyms). 

In 2016, George Taylor started cooking clean meals in his one-bed flat and hand-delivering them to local gyms. By 2023, it had become a £22m-a-year subscription business.

So how did they do it, without spreading themselves thin across a dozen channels or serving multiple ideal buyers (just to be safe)?

Here’s the marketing playbook behind Lions Prep’s early growth:

1️⃣ They were bold and narrowed down on a small vertical.
→ The brand was built for a very specific kind of gym-goers.
→ Messaging, meals, and visuals all screamed: “Performance fuel.”

Most businesses are afraid to narrow down on one ICP.


2️⃣ They treated their product delivery like discovery calls.
→ George delivered meals and gathered insights from his customers.
→ Every conversation shaped the product, the positioning, the promise.

Most businesses disconnect sales and delivery from customer research.


3️⃣ They learned the product isn't the story.
→ George obsessed over the product and facts.
→ Growth slowed, until they started telling stories around the business.

Most business still believe that 'they will come if we build it'

George chose to show behind-the-scenes content, customer transformations, and what life looked like at Lions Prep.

Instagram went from a gallery of nice pictures to a diary, a credibility engine. That one shift from features to stories unlocked broader traction.

Good marketing is about focusing on one ideal client persona until you get everything right and growth happens. 

Most businesses don't see growth and think they have to diversify.




-------



Most small companies can’t afford a $10K/month CMO to build a working marketing system. We help founders fill that gap by installing a marketing system and training their team to run it.

Follow me to learn how to build a marketing system that fits your business model.

Your brand is not what you say it is. 

It is what your customers say it is. 

The other week I was evaluating a refurbishment company. The website was beautifully designed, perfect layout, with great photos. I was intrigued.

Then I checked the handful of Google reviews.

One five-star rave obviously written by a family member (same rare last name).

And another one was a page-long takedown describing step-by-step operational issues with that company.

Where it really got interesting was the fact that several positive reviews described completely different projects:

Not luxury refurbishments, Hamptons league, but simple backyard upgrades.

Outch.

The problem wasn’t the bad review, it was the contradiction:
- The website promises prestige.
- The public describes patch-up jobs.

A sleek website used to be the signal when it was expensive to build a website. The fact that someone had the resources to build a expensive website was in- and on itself a trust signal.

But that's different today: everybody can design a great website in minutes. And with that, websites have lost their trust signal quality. 

The only thing we are left with is what other people say about a brand.

And we've gotten really good at picking up nuances in reviews, whether they are fake, a friends favour review, or an over-demanding client. 

What matters today is: consistency between a braind claim and what customers report publicly about a brand.

If the claims of a website don't match reviews and other indicators, every brand  collapses like a balloon at a kids party.

A brand is not what you claim.

It is what your customers say.



-------



I'm preparing the third season of the StoryLux podcast, featuring businesses that grew by focusing on a single target audience, a single offer, and a single acquisition path.

If you’ve taken that route of focus, please direct message me.

BlackBerry went from niche pager to $3.4 billion in profit in under a decade by focusing on ONE:

- one ICP, 
- one product, and 
- one channel.

To anyone who's too young to remember 😉 : Before smartphones were a thing, BlackBerrys were the coolest phone to have. 

How did they achieve that in barely a decade? (And why did they disappear in an even shorter period of time?)

BlackBerry had a relentless focus. Their entire go-to-market strategy was built around telecom carriers serving enterprise IT departments.

- One channel: carrier + procurement partnerships
- One ICP: enterprise professionals
- One message: secure, instant communication

BlackBerry owned an entire category and erased itself in a few short years.  

How did that happen?

In the early 2000s, mobile email was slow, insecure, and unreliable. Executives depended on laptops, VPNs, and delayed sync.

BlackBerry built a device that solved one problem for them:
- instant, secure email in your pocket.

That single use case turned into one of the fastest enterprise adoption waves in tech history. By the mid-2000s:
- BlackBerry had millions of enterprise users
- It dominated corporate mobile communication
- Governments, banks, and law firms standardized on it globally

Their entire system was built with relentless focus:
- One user: enterprise professionals
- One buyer: IT departments
- One promise: secure real-time communication

Then Apple launched the iPhone in 2007. BlackBerry initially dismissed it as a consumer toy and kept optimising what had always worked. 

This insistence was reinforced from its founder Mike Lazaridis (the guy in the picture). He believed the needs of their ICP would always be keyboard-first, security-first. 

The problem was that the needs of their ICP changed when they saw the iPhone: The same executives who once demanded keyboards now wanted touch-screen navigation, and app ecosystems.

BlackBerry lost sight of their changing ideal buyer's needs and thus lost their ideal buyers. By the time they shipped serious touchscreen competitors, the platform gap was already unbridgeable.

So what actually killed BlackBerry?

Not their relentless focus. 

But that they treated a preference of their ideal clients as a permanent feature. Their real mistake was freezing their internal model of that customer while the market evolved.



-------



Most small companies can’t afford a $10K/month CMO to build a working marketing system. We fill that gap by installing a marketing system and training their team to run it.

Follow me to learn how to build a marketing system that works for you.

Helping 9-5 pros build their Corporate Offramp | Land 1st client in a 1-person business you control

You’ve outgrown your 9–5. 
Now what? 

You’ve built a solid career. Maybe even a great one. But lately… 

The Sunday scaries hit a little harder.
You keep wondering, “Is this really it?”

You don’t hate your job. You’ve just outgrown it. And the money is the only part that serves you. 

You’ve done everything right.
But you still feel boxed in by meetings, org charts, and the constant anxiety of “restructuring.”

You know your skills are worth more – but no one’s shown you how to turn them into something of your own.

You're not trying to blow up your life.
You just want to know it’s possible.

That’s what the ‘Corporate Offramp’ is for.

It’s my step-by-step system to help high-performing professionals:
→ Package their skills into a client-ready offer
→ Build a simple audience of people ready to work with them
→ Land their first client in 120 days—without quitting their job

You’ll start earning outside your 9–5 and finally take control of what’s next.

This isn’t about quitting tomorrow.
It’s about progress. Building something – before you need it. 
And when you’re ready to start having control over your time. 

What others are saying:

“What really stands out about Brian is his authenticity. And his responsiveness is in a league of its own. His mix of broad entrepreneurial knowledge, specific expertise in areas like LinkedIn strategy, and straight-talking advice puts him at the top of my list.” 
– Melissa, ex-ed tech exec

“I started building while still in my 9-5, and landed my first client within 3 months (..before being let go by my company!).”
– Cassie, former tech manager

Here’s how to get started:

📥 Grab the Free 5-Day Solo Business Blueprint in my Featured section – and get the exact roadmap to land your first client without quitting your job (or even changing your LinkedIn profile). 

🎯 Want a faster path?
Join me for the Fast Track to Freedom Workshop – where I’ll walk you through:

• What to focus on (hint: not your website)
• Where 90% of your effort should go
• How to build an audience (without posting daily)
• The path to your first paid client – in 120 days

🎟 Save your seat: simplemanguide.com/workshop

Your 9–5 got you started.
Your next move is on your terms.

Brian Gallagher

The real risk isn’t leaving your job.

It’s staying just long enough that the comfort…

Becomes overwhelming.

People frame risk as walking away from stability. But stability’s not real. Just ask the people who thought they were ‘safe’ at Amazon or Microsoft.

The real danger is slower. Quieter.

You start caring a little less. You’re no longer motivated by what you're doing. You move through your days on autopilot.

You get lulled into sleep. Unsure what even makes you feel alive anymore.

You let people steal your time with fake urgency and pointless meetings.
You tell yourself you’ll make a move when things calm down.

But that moment never comes.

I remember when it started happening to me. The pay got better. The hours eased up.

On paper, everything looked fine.

But I didn’t like what the years ahead looked like.

I watched people higher up the ladder still asking permission for the simple things — a doctor’s appointment, a softball game, a random Tuesday.

And I knew if I didn’t draw a line, I might never draw one. I’d wait for the next bonus. Then the next. Then the next.

And 20 years later, I’d be so deep in it that walking away would feel impossible.

That’s how comfort works.
It feels just good enough that you stop questioning it.

Comfort doesn’t just keep you in the job.
It keeps you from becoming the person who’d ever leave it.

It’s a slow slide toward a life you never chose.

In my last role, I was a VP in investment banking.

On paper? Looked great. But in real life… 

Yikes.

I’ll admit – the instant status it gave me when I told people what I did made me feel important. 

But I was constantly stressed. 

If I wasn’t at the office, I was dreading the next email ping from a managing director. 

Why? Because I had no visibility as to how my week would look. 

One minute I had a long weekend train trip planned. And an email ping could mean having to cancel everything. 

Honestly, it was chaos. 
But I kept telling myself it was “worth it.” 

Everyone seemed impressed with my title, so I was on the right path. That’s what I thought. 

Eventually I caved and said yes to something different. 

I started a fitness studio concept with a friend (while still at my job). 

Just a few classes a week. Nothing fancy.
But it was ours. We made the calls.

It didn’t make me rich. And unfortunately, it didn’t become my forever thing. 

But besides being the most fun I’ve ever had ‘working’, it did something else for me: 

It broke the cycle.

And once I got a taste of calling my own shots,
I couldn’t go back.

Now I help other people build something of their own too.

Because I’ve experienced both sides: 

Waking up dreading the work day. 
Waking up excited about what I get to build. 

And know I’m certain on which I’ll keep choosing.

I did a breathwork session last week.
Two words kept repeating.
And they stayed with me all week.

Kindness.
Vulnerability.

Two simple words. But they are the difference between forcing connection and creating real connection.

Kindness reminded me that everyone I talk to is carrying something I cannot see.

Clients. Prospects. Friends. Family members.
People on here scrolling through their day.

When I remember that, I show up better. My coaching is better. My conversations are better. My patience is better.

Vulnerability reminded me that the people I trust most are the ones who let me see the full picture.

Not the “everything is amazing” picture.
The human one.

So I am choosing to bring more of that into how I show up here.

And I will start today.

I am going through a breakup.

It has been difficult, but being around family, and keeping my schedule full, helps.
Movement helps. And so does work.

And during that breathwork session, something small set me off, and I realized how much I had been holding.

And yes, for a bit, I pulled back on some things while I got my footing again (work included).

But this experience is giving me something important.

A deeper appreciation for how much our personal lives shape the way we show up in our work.

A deeper understanding of what my clients feel when they are trying to build something while holding the rest of their life together.

And a deeper commitment to lead with kindness and vulnerability in every part of my life. Not just my business.

I want the people who follow my work to feel that they are seen, not judged.

And I want them to know that building a solo business is not separate from real life. It happens inside real life.

Work does not happen in a vacuum. Life does not pause while you build something meaningful. 

Who you are matters just as much (if not more) as what you do.

That breathwork session reminded me of that.

And it marked a change how I plan to show up here moving forward.

My brother’s dog, Norman, always helps too :)

“It’s been four months and I still feel stuck.”
Someone told me this the other day.
Here’s what many underestimate when starting out: 

Just how easy it is to waste time trying to figure everything out on your own. 

And when building while still employed, it’s not helpful to see 15 different paths. All promising places to start, but unsure as to which is most viable. Which leads to revenue fastest. Which has the least speed bumps. 

So what do I see most people do? 

Dabble. Start researching. Build a website. 
Try one thing, then second-guess themselves and switch. 

And four months go by. Then six. Then a year. 

And somewhere quietly in the background, they’re thinking:
“I thought I’d be further along by now.”

Time spent stuck doesn’t just slow you down.
It starts to convince you maybe you weren’t meant for this.

You can figure it out alone. Lots of people do. 
But it usually takes them 18–24 months of guessing, circling, rebuilding, and trying to reverse-engineer the right sequence.

Or…

You get help. You get a map. You talk to someone who’s already walked the road.
And you collapse that timeline down to a fraction of what it would’ve been.

Some of my clients have signed their first client in less time than most people spend thinking about how to start.

Most people don’t fail.
They just run out of time and energy they didn’t know they were burning.

So if you’re four months in and still stuck, nothing’s wrong with you.

You’re most likely trying to navigate a process in the dark that someone could’ve lit up in a single conversation.

The question is no longer:

Can you do it alone?

It’s:

How much is the extra 12–18 months worth to you?

taplio

The Battle

Simon Chappuzeau

Brian Gallagher

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Performance ScoreSimon Chappuzeau's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreBrian Gallagher's LinkedIn Performance

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taplio

The Battle

Simon Chappuzeau

Brian Gallagher

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Simon Chappuzeau's LinkedIn Performance

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