College teacher turned ghostwriter | Scaling founders, coaches, and consultants to $100K+ /mo | Writing to build wealth and better self | 98,000 on Twitter (X)

Taylin John Simmonds

3 years ago, a friend lent me $40K to pay off my debt. So I could focus on business.

2 years ago, I offered to pay it back. He said no. Reinvest. Pay me later. 1 year ago, first payment. 

Yesterday, I paid him back!

Find the people who bet on you before it makes sense. Then spend your life proving them right.

College teacher turned Substack ghostwriter | Thoughts about craft, ideas, and AI as a creative partner (not a replacement) | 2B impressions | $4M+ revenue generated | All in on Substack

One pattern I’ve noticed in all the people that inspire me: They live a diverse life.

They layer unrelated skills. 
Read widely. 
And have friends you'd rarely see together. 

A rich life isn't only about money. It's about the range of experiences that made you who you are.

Stop calling yourself a content creator. Content creators chase algorithms. You're cultivating a body of work.

You're not in the content game. You're in the depth game.

And depth doesn't scale. It compounds.

I'm noticing a quiet rebellion against balance. 

People who disappear into their craft. 12, 15 hours a day for weeks. Then step back completely. No guilt. No routine. No splitting the difference. Full immersion, then full recovery. 

Seasons, not schedules.

You don't actually want to stop working. You just haven't found work worth your devotion.

The goal isn't to do less. It's to care so deeply about one thing that everything else becomes noise.

Find that thing. Then you'll never need convincing to start.

Everyone's trying to escape work. Fewer hours. Passive income. Early retirement. That's not freedom. That's avoidance.

You don't want to do less. You want something worth pouring everything into. Work that's worthy of your full attention, your full energy, your full devotion.

Find that first.

If AI is speeding up your writing process, you're using it wrong.

AI should slow you down. Stress-test your ideas. Pressure-test your arguments. Find the angle that actually matters before you write a word.

The bottleneck was never your writing speed. It was your thinking clarity.

You don't need 100 clients. You need a handful of the right ones and the devotion to serve them so well they never want to leave.

No empire. No team of 30. No "scaling to seven figures."

Just craft you're proud of and a livelihood that lets you live well.

A book you highlighted but never practiced is a book you never read.

Understanding doesn't live in the notes you took.

It lives in the choices you made differently afterward.

A life-changing habit I picked up recently: Fifteen minutes of breath work before work.

The breath brings me out of my head and into stillness. A stillness that makes creative work feel effortless.

Your best work is hiding behind the ritual you're skipping.

The real value in the AI age isn't what you know. It's who you can inspire.

Give them an aim, a compelling reason, and the next small step when everything feels overwhelming.

If you want to matter in the AI age, don't just share knowledge. 
Lend direction.

You're behind because you've never given 100% of yourself to the thing you care about.

Subtract everything that isn't it. Give it everything you have. Not 40%. Not most days. Everything.

You've never seen what happens when you actually commit. Find out.

Luke Shalom

CEO @ Grow Solo I help the C-suite turn industry expertise into predictable pipeline

There are two ways agency founders try to turn LinkedIn into a reliable source of clients.



One is by guessing. Posting when there is time. Relying on referrals and hoping the next month is a good one.



The other is by building a system that creates steady conversations, even when client work gets busy.



Our clients choose the second.



→ Joya Dass (Founder, Women’s Leadership Lab)



The problem:



- She spent hours in the DMs to book a few calls.

- Content happened on weekends.

- When delivery picked up, sales stopped.



Some months were strong. Others were quiet.



Even in good months, there was stress about where the next client would come from.



What we did:



We built a simple LinkedIn content system she could run in house. No ghostwriter or agency retainer dependency.



We shifted her content from generic how to posts to insight driven thinking.



That changed the conversations. People in her network showed up aligned and ready to buy.



We added a content led outbound system powered by a setter we hited and trained. The system kept working while she focused on delivery.



Results:



- Revenue grew from $150k to $300k.

- Sales became predictable.

- The pressure eased.



→ Jonathan Crowder (Founder, Founders Ally)



The problem:



- No time for content.

- Unpredictable sales calls.

- Leads with no budget.

- No sales background. A 10 percent close rate.



What we did:



We removed Jonathan as the bottleneck. 



We built a content system using AI supported by his real thinking. It sounded like him, not software.



Trust was built before the call. Outbound went from 10% to 40% response rates.



We focused prospecting on real buying moments, like recent funding to catch buyers at the right time.



We simplified his sales process. Clear outcomes. Clear cost of inaction was communicated to his buyers.



Results:



- Meetings went from 3-5 a month to 10-15 sales qualifed leads a month.

- A visible pipeline. Increase to a 25 percent close rate.

- $300k in pipeline in 60 days.

- $30k in new revenue closed.



→ Brian Dukes (COO, Exit Wise)



The problem



- Ovelry dependent on referrals.

- No LinkedIn playbook.

- No time to write.



What we did



- We clarified positioning.

- Simplified the offer.

- Built a content engine.



Then we added outbound from the founder profile.



Everything was owned and run internally.



Results:



- Consistent posting machine.

- 500 to 6500 ICP followers.

- $740,000 in LinkedIn-driven revenue over two years.



We have helped 100+ founder led agencies replace unpredictable growth with systems they understand and control.



If this feels familiar send me a DM with "Grow", we should talk.

Founder

We help executives to build and monetize their brand on linkedin by scaling your content and turning it into leads, authority and thought leadership.

How?

Engagement + DM flows = Qualified meetings. 

Done with you. Done for you.

Stop sending DMs that get ignored. I booked 1,000+ sales calls from LinkedIn and made $1.3M doing. Steal the exact script ↓

Comment and I'll send it to you.

I used to spend hours crafting the "perfect" DM. Tweaking. Rewriting. Getting ghosted anyway and following up like a desperate ex.

Now I use a 5-message sequence I've tested for 3 years straight. Instead of 18 rejections out of 20, we are booking 20-40 calls a month.

Every conversation feels like it came from them.

Here's what's inside:

- DM 1: Open with context, not a pitch
- DM 2: Follow up without sounding desperate
- DM 3: Uncover their pain in natural conversation
- DM 4: Transition to a call without it feeling forced
- DM 5: Make it stupid easy to book the meeting
- The complete walkthrough...  all 5 messages in action
- 5 mistakes that kill your DM conversion rate
- How to customise the script for your ICP

BONUS: DM Personalisation Framework that gets 80% response rates.
It took me 2 years and 1,000+ DMs to build. Takes you 60 seconds to steal.

Stop using LinkedIn DMs like a cold email channel. 

Start using them like a trust-building machine.

How to get it: 

1/ Connect with me 2/ Comment below and I'll DM you everything

♻️ Repost to skip the queue. 

P.S. We must be connected... otherwise LinkedIn blocks the message.

P.SS The perplexity lead magnet will be coming over today/ tomorrow... keep those eyes peeled!

Founder at Atticus | Predictable LinkedIn pipeline using a founder-led sales system I 100+ clients scaled | Be the next 👉 atticusagency.com

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The Battle

Taylin John Simmonds

Luke Shalom

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taplio

The Battle

Taylin John Simmonds

Luke Shalom

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);}Taylin John Simmonds's LinkedIn Performance

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Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreTaylin John Simmonds's LinkedIn Performance