Penfriend

Penfriend is the best goddamn AI content generation tool out there. Built from my last 10 years of content advising that's resulted in $30.6m in revenue for clients from organic traffic.

We're building Penfriend to be the toolbox for your content team to win in 2024.

Co-Founder and CMO

The Penny Drop

Head Writer

fivethreeoh

Creating SEO sprints to take your SaaS's content team to the first page. Turning 12 months of SEO into 12 weeks.

Founder

Explor Digital

GrowthMinds

Head of SEO

Content Hacker and SEO Strategist at GrowthMinds

Growth Hacker

Walsh - Structural and Civil Engineers

4D visualisation

⚡£23M revenue from Organic Growth for SaaS with Content Marketing Sprints | Storytelling, SEO and Content Marketing ⚡️

Your AI content sucks.
Your competitors' AI content sucks.
Everyone's AI content sucks.

And you know what's worse? You're all paying through the nose for it.

While you're sitting there wrestling with prompts like a cat trying to open a doorknob, we've built something that actually works. Because unlike every other "revolutionary AI tool" (looking at you, [REDACTED]), we know it takes more than 10 prompts and a prayer to write content that doesn't sound like it was outsourced to a drunk toddler.

We use 450+ prompts. Overkill? Maybe. But at least our stuff doesn't read like it was written by an AI having an existential crisis.

Some receipts for the skeptics:
↳ Slapped 400 blogs on our site = 10x traffic in 3 months
↳ Halved content budgets while 5x-ing output (yeah, your Content Manager's been lying about costs)
↳ Helped tiny startups pimp-slap Fortune 500s right off page 1

After a decade watching the B2B content circus, I've seen every "game-changing" tool and "revolutionary" AI writer. Most of them belong in the same trash bin as your last strategic plan.

Here's the uncomfortable truth: Your investors aren't buying your "we're playing the long game" BS anymore. They want to see organic traction, and your three LinkedIn posts from 2023 aren't cutting it.

You need Penfriend.ai if:
✓ Your competitors are living rent-free at the top of Google while you're still "building awareness"
✓ VCs are ghosting you because your "organic presence" looks like a digital ghost town
✓ You're burning cash on content that reads like it was plagiarized from a terms of service agreement
✓ You're ready to stop being the industry's wallflower and start being its problem child

Sound familiar? Then you're exactly who we're looking for.

The hard truth? You suck at AI. But it's not your fault. You've been sold a lie by companies who think "AI writing" means letting GPT go wild after a two-prompt foreplay.

We fixed it. Because someone had to.

DM me "PAGE ONE" and I'll show you how we're helping companies terrorize their competition online.

P.S. If you're happy with generic, soulless AI content that sounds like everyone else's, this probably isn't for you. And that's okay. Someone has to keep the internet boring.

Tim Hanson

Distinctiva Strategies

We build content growth flywheels that works like a 24/7 sales team.

What we do:

- Create killer content strategies across LinkedIn, Newsletters, YouTube & more
- Handle everything from writing to design to animation
- Build lead magnets that actually convert your audience into customers
- Craft content that feels like YOU (but we do all the heavy lifting)

Our no-BS approach:

- We dig into what makes your brand special and where the opportunities are
- We build a content strategy that actually makes sense for YOUR business
- We handle the execution so you can focus on what you do best

I personally oversee every client's strategy (we only take on a handful each quarter) because quality > becoming a sad depressed scammer millionaire every single time.

Want content that builds your brand AND brings in business? Let's chat :)

Founder & Content Marketing Strategist

The Workflow

The Workflow is a bi-weekly newsletter by Sara Lattanzio & Diandra Escobar that breaks down one expert-tested Al and automation workflow in every issue. 

We show you exactly how it's built, what works, and what doesn't, so you walk away with fresh ideas you can actually implement. No "replace your marketing team with 40 agents." No "10 Al tools that will change your life." Just proven, actionable strategies for marketing, growth, and GTM - powered by Al.

Subscribe to get battle-tested Al & automation recipes that ship results, not just vibes.
https://www.theworkflow.digital/

Chief Content Officer & Co-Founder

Backlinko

Organic Social Lead

Content Marketing Strategist 

HeyReach.io

Content Marketing Strategist

Semrush

Brand Partner

Contact Studios

Partner

Built from scratch the inbound marketing and content strategy, outbound sequences, and partnership/ affiliate programs.

Demand Gen & Growth Marketing Manager

Search Atlas

TopicRanker.com

Distribute

Content Marketing Strategic Advisor

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

"Content is like a sales team that never sleeps."

Content changed my business' trajectory and my life.

It's the secret weapon behind every client success story I'm proud to tell.

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

Content never gets sick, takes a vacation, or shows up late. 
Content can close sales with multiple customers at once.
Content is always on message. 

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

What I call: Content-Led Growth.


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

With content & creative strategies, copywriting/ghostwriting, design and video editing/animation. 
You have the whole package to grow on platforms like LinkedIn, Newsletters and YouTube.

We create across all formats - from text, videos, carousels, one-pagers to high-converting lead magnets that turn audience into customers

The results?

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

Best part?

Their content is one of the main sources of revenue. 

One attributes 80% of their leads to LinkedIn Organic. 
Another can attribute LinkedIn as their top-performing referral traffic (3x'd their website traffic!)


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

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


Thinking this might be right for your business?

Let's hop on a call and figure it out together. 
I'll take a look at where you're at, where you want to go, and we can map out if content could be your growth engine.

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

Diandra Escobar

Building to 700 subscribers with just 1 issue published. Here's the content strategy and system that got us here:

We launched The Workflow's first newsletter 2 weeks ago. 

I'm leading content strategy alongside my cofounder Sara, who handles editorial and strategy.

The scorecard: nearly 700 subscribers, 1 issue live.

Here's the honest breakdown:

1. Strong foundations
Having a cofounder who excels at strategic positioning? Crucial. Sara's sharp marketing strategy and Swiss Army knife-level organization set us up right.

2. Design that stops the scroll
Our designer Salomé at Distinctiva is a creative genius. She brought our idea to life and created our logo, look and feel, and color palette.

3. Hyper-organized systems
We run a detailed Kanban board tracking exactly where each task and post is in the pipeline. Our shared drive has prompts, outreach templates, and pre-written messages. No reinventing the wheel.

4. Manual mapping (yes, really)
Each issue has its own complexity. Every interviewee explains their workflow differently, but we keep our format consistent. I use Miro to manually create The Workflow Diagram for each issue—showing the exact process and tools used.

5. Launch smart, not just loud
We optimized launch posts for algorithms and personally reached out to our networks for genuine engagement.

6. Think three steps ahead
We recorded every interview knowing we'd turn them into highly produced video content later. This prevents the content hamster wheel.

7. Maximize each piece
Every newsletter becomes 5+ content pieces across Substack Notes, personal profiles, and company pages.

8. Create space for creativity
Having this content engine working smoothly gives us mental space for crazier, more innovative ideas. The system handles the baseline—we focus on what's next.

9. What's next
Creating PR packages for our guests that make them look amazing (not us). This turns contributors into champions.

10. Embrace reality
That post we were convinced would blow up? Flopped. Typical. You iterate or you stagnate.

On automation:

We haven't automated anything yet. Why? Because automating a process you haven't perfected is just efficient chaos.

We're still refining messaging, adjusting formats, fixing mistakes. Yes, we use AI where it makes sense.

But once we nail THE NEWSLETTER WORKFLOW? 
You'll be the first to know.
Because even one channel requires a content flywheel and system.

Full context:
We spent months before launch on positioning, branding, design, templates, and interviews. Then ran pre-launch content for 1.5 months to build our following before publishing issue # 1.


Building in public means sharing the messy middle, not just the wins. 

So here's the full picture...not just the ≈700 subscribers.

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

Creating BOFU content that actually converts is harder than most marketers want to admit. You’re writing for buyers who are already weighing options, not scrolling for generic advice. They want proof, facts, specifics, and reasons to choose you over the competition. 

Most miss that completely. 

You get generic listicles, keyword stuffing, and zero connection between what sales hears and what content says.

Lashay Lewis spent years in agency trenches dealing with this exact problem. She wasn't losing deals to other consultants - she was losing them to content tools.

So she built BOFU.ai, a system that turns messy product docs and sales calls into content that actually converts.

Her framework fixes that by starting with actual customers, not keywords.

What she does instead: pull sales calls, listen to how prospects talk about competitors, use their exact words. That's what separates content that converts from content that sounds like everyone else.

This week's The Workflow issue breaks down her full system:

- How to extract BOFU insights from product docs and sales calls
- Competitive landscape mapping that finds positioning gaps
- The BOFU Radar for high-intent keywords across Google + LLMs
- Content brief templates that eliminate blank-page panic
- Exact prompts to speed up each step

Drops this week! 
https://lnkd.in/eVGABaVr

The BOFU Workflow for killer product-led content

Every solo marketer doing design NEEDS to see this. 

I’m genuinely jealous this didn’t exist when I needed it most.

I used to spend six hours on one design. 

Moving boxes. Picking fonts. Making sure nothing looked like a middle school project.

I had no design skills and no budget for a designer.

The design struggle for marketers isn't just a time suck. 
It stops you from shipping.

You delay posting because the visual "isn't quite right." 
You overthink slides instead of refining your message. 
The tool becomes the bottleneck, not your ideas.

Now Gamma exists 🔥 
And I’m kind of jealous of everyone who can take advantage of this. 

This is how it took me literally 60 seconds to create my carousel: 

 1. I wrote out exactly what I wanted each slide to say (no formatting).
 2. Picked a theme.
 3. 30 seconds later, I had a full carousel.

I spent another 15 minutes tweaking a few things, but the structure and design? Done.

If this existed when I was starting out, I would've launched so much faster. 

The bottleneck was never my ideas.
It was turning them into something people could actually look at.

Now we have designers. But if you're building solo, this is the difference between shipping and staying stuck in Canva hell.

👉 Try it here: https://gamma.app/

I checked where my brand shows up in ChatGPT yesterday. Turns out, we don't. At all.

800M people are searching AI engines monthly and most brands are invisible on ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude.

Then I found: AirOps.

The only tool built to track your visibility AND fix it, if you’re not visible in AI search.

Companies like Carta are getting 75% of pages cited in under 3 days.

Here's what AirOps found after analyzing 21,311 brand mentions across ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity.

→ 68% of brands only appear in ONE AI model
→ 9 out of 10 third-party mentions come from listicles
→ 85% of citations come from third-party sources, not your own website
→ You need both owned content AND external validation working together

Carta used AirOps to scale content without losing brand voice or compliance:

- 300% increase in content velocity
- 75% of new pages cited by AI search
- 3 days average from publish to citation

The brands winning in AI search aren't guessing. 

They're tracking where they show up, identifying gaps, and creating content that gets cited.

AirOps shows you where you're invisible, what competitors are doing, and helps you create optimized content - all in ONE platform.

If you're not tracking AI search visibility, you're flying blind on where 800M+ people are discovering brands.

Check out airops.com

AirOps insights from 500+ AI searches and Carta use cases

Our clients regularly hit posts with 8K to 34K+ impressions. Despite the algorithm today. And without huge followings

And here's the thing - these are all from the same company. They trusted us with multiple team members' LinkedIn presence because the system works.

When we started working with them over a year ago, their LinkedIn profiles were basically empty. Deep expertise, but no audience.

Today? Growing audiences - one at 28K followers and climbing.

- Posts consistently getting thousands of impressions. 
- Recognized by industry platforms as a creator worth following.
- Invitations to podcasts. 

But here's what most people get wrong:

They see posts like these - 8K, 22K, 34K impressions, hundreds of reactions, dozens of comments and think "they went viral.”

That's not what happened.
These posts worked because of the SYSTEM we built over the last year.

What we actually did:
We didn't chase viral moments. We built a content flywheel.

STEP 1: Clarified their positioning:

Practical industry insights + personal reflections on growth and career. Not just tips. Real voices.

STEP 2: Established content pillars:

- Actionable expertise from their field
- Industry commentary
- Lessons from their work experience

STEP 3: Built feedback loops:

Every week, we tracked what worked. Doubled down on topics that resonated. Treated LinkedIn as a testing ground.

STEP 4: Strategic engagement:

We helped them understand that commenting isn't just engagement - it's relationship building. Their comments started driving as much traffic to their profiles as their posts.

STEP 5: Consistency over virality:
Posted with rhythm. The algorithm rewards consistency. So does trust.


The results:
- 0 to 25K+ followers in a year (100% organic) across multiple executives
- Collaboration requests from other industry leaders
- Posts consistently hitting high engagement
- Podcast invitations

And posts like these (8K, 22K, 34K impressions) aren't flukes.
They're the result of a system that compounds.

Growth isn't about "going viral."
It's about building repeatable systems that compound over time.

These posts got those numbers because of the hundreds of posts before them that built their authority.

That's what "million-dollar" LinkedIn content actually looks like.

I broke down 21 LinkedIn mistakes with HeyReach.io. 
Mistake #20 is the one I regret most (cost me 3 years of growth)

Expertise doesn't speak for itself on LinkedIn. 

You can be genuinely exceptional at what you do, have a decade of experience and still get zero traction if your positioning is wrong. Why? Because nobody can tell. 

Here’s a sneak peak of 7 mistakes:

 1. You post randomly whenever you feel like it

Here's the problem: when YOU don't have a set schedule, it's way easier to skip days and fall off completely. You need the discipline of a routine.

And your audience? They're creatures of habit too. They check LinkedIn at similar times every day. If you're not showing up consistently when they're online, they forget you exist. People have packed calendars, endless notifications, and their own fires to put out. You're competing for mental real estate

 2. You're still formatting like it's 2022

Every. 
Single. 
Word. 
Gets. 
Its. 
Own. 
Line.

When everyone does it, it becomes wallpaper. Your brain tunes it out. Write how you naturally write. Be readable. Standing out means not looking like every other LinkedIn coach from two years ago.

 3. You only share wins

Every post is "we hit 7 figures" or "just closed the biggest deal." People don't connect with perfection. They connect with struggle and relatability.

Share your failures. Share what went wrong. Vulnerability builds trust, and content is a trust game.

 4. Your posts just end

No CTA. No next step. People read it, maybe like it, scroll away forever.

Ask a question. Link to something. Give them a specific action. This also boosts engagement, which tells the algorithm to push your post further.

 5. You treat DMs like cold email

"Hi, thanks for connecting. Here's a wall of text about my offer."

This is a relationship-first platform. Start with context. Reference something from their profile. Ask a relevant question. 

 6. You never repurpose your best content

You posted something 4 months ago that crushed. You never touched it again.

 Most of your followers never saw your best post from months ago. Take your winners and rewrite them with a fresh angle. 

 7. You're creating content in a vacuum

You're guessing what your audience wants instead of studying what's already working.  Study top performers in your niche - what formats, hooks, and topics get engagement. 


Go check out the other 14 mistakes in HeyReach.io's video! 

Especially mistake #20
You gotta watch the video for that one (yes, I will be that guy 🫢)

It's the mistake I regret most and I broke it down so you don’t make it. 

Watch the full breakdown of all 21: https://lnkd.in/emShCTyf

Scaling HeyReach.io's content operation. Here's how we took their CMO's already strong LinkedIn presence, 2-3x'd the reach, and are building it into a full scale content engine:

We started working with HeyReach earlier this year.

It began with LinkedIn coaching for their CMO Vukasin Vukosavljevic.

Now? I'm co-hosting their YouTube channel and building content systems their entire team can use.

Here's exactly how it happened and how one coaching engagement turned into their entire content operation:

 1. Start with one person, nail the fundamentals:

Vuk's LinkedIn was already getting decent engagement. But he knew there was untapped potential.

Better hooks. More strategic posts. A system that didn't require starting from scratch every time.

We worked on it together. Tested everything: carousels, videos, images, text-only.

Built feedback loops. Tracked what actually worked with his audience. Doubled down.

Result: 2-3x reach with better audience quality (actual qualified leads, not just vanity metrics).

 2. Prove the system works before you scale it:

HeyReach didn't want to stop at one person's LinkedIn.
They saw the results. They wanted the system for their whole team.

The ask evolved from "coach our CMO" to "help us build a content operation that works across the entire brand."

So that's what we're building now.

 3. Expand into adjacent channels strategically:

Now I'm:
- Co-hosting videos on their YouTube channel (breaking down LinkedIn strategy)

- Creating influencer content for a new feature launch

- Building frameworks their team can replicate across platforms

 4. Build systems, not just content:

The best clients don't want you to just 'do their content.'

They want to understand how it works. They want their team to replicate it. They want systems that scale beyond any one person.

When you deliver real results and show them the process behind it? Clients don't just renew. They expand.

 5. What I learned:

People don't just want the content done for them. 
They want to understand the system so they can use it themselves.

That's what the Distinctiva team is working on now.

Turning everything we've built for clients into frameworks and systems others can actually use.

More on that soon.

Best part of cofounding with Sara? She's hilarious 😂

Here's what nobody tells you about building anything worth building: 

Finding someone you align with, feel supported by, and genuinely enjoy spending time with matters more than their experience, their network, or their skill stack.

Someone who makes you laugh when you're deep in the weeds. Someone who gets your vision and makes the hard days easier just by being there.

This applies to everything. 
Co-founders. Clients. Bosses. Partners.

Life's too short to choose to be around people who don't make your life better.
Sara doesn't just keep The Workflow running - she makes it worth running.

And honestly? 
Every single guest we've featured (Lashay included) fits this exact category. 

Real people doing real work. 
Humble about what they know. Open about sharing it. 

Amazing humans and marketers who make this whole thing feel less like "content" and more like conversations with people we genuinely want to be around.

The guests we have lined up? Same energy. All of them.

We're editing next week's issue on BOFU content strategy with Lashay Lewis

Issue #4 featuring Lashay drops next week with her framework for turning product docs and customer pain into pipeline driving content. 

No fluff. Just BOFU content that actually converts. 

And lots of fun.

Subscribe at https://lnkd.in/eVGABaVr before it hits your inbox.

What you'll learn:
- How to research BOFU content that sells
- The 4-step system behind high-converting product-led content
- Why customer research drives keyword research (not the other way around)

P.S. - Lashay's framework is called the BOFU Radar. Not "Baby #3." We're keeping things professional... mostly. 👀

Our clients keep getting mentioned by other major leaders on LinkedIn. 

Here's what we do to build that kind of presence.

When the right people start talking about you without prompting, you've built something that works for you 24/7.

We see this happen with our clients all the time.
Clients whose LinkedIn presence we've built and managed from the ground up.

Below are screenshots of LinkedIn creators with massive followings and credibility shouting out our clients, unprompted.

Not because they asked for it.

Because they built the kind of reputation that makes people want to talk about them.

How we did this and what we actually do differently:

Are there basics we follow for every client? 
Of course.

But every client's industry, audience, and goals create a completely different world.

- We've found newsjacking works incredibly well for some clients.
- Some clients get massive reach tagging industry leaders in their space.
- Some clients we push video content because their audience responds to it.
- Some industries need controversial takes to cut through the noise.
- Others require measured, data backed perspectives to build credibility.

One of our key strategies is community expansion.

Getting shouted out happens because we focus heavily on growing their network within their industry. 

We do specific strategies like collab posts, strategic engagement with the right people, and connecting them with other industry voices.

Most agencies focus on content creation. 
We focus on relationship building at scale.

We know how important community expansion is on LinkedIn, so we treat every piece of content and every engagement as a way to expand their circle of influence.

Most agencies give everyone the same playbook and wonder why results vary wildly.

We dig into what makes each client's world tick.

Their audience's behavior.
Industry dynamics.
And the specific conversations happening in their space.

When you build a reputation instead of chasing visibility, you get: easier intros, warmer conversations and opportunities that find you.

Our clients mentioned by other major leaders on LinkedIn. 

The best posts I've ever written came from my actual life. The worst ones came from trying to sound smart. AND that’s all AI does… try to sound smart.

Actually being smart isn’t just about having the right answer. 

It’s about having the tacit knowledge… the unspoken know-how that only comes from actually doing the thing.

It’s about depth that comes from actually living through something.

LinkedIn has become that graveyard of AI posts.

Generic “lessons learned” with no specifics. 10 bullet points that could apply to literally anything.

And here’s the thing: it’s working. Kind of.
These posts are getting impressions. 

But they’re not generating revenue.

I came across this study from Graphite recently. As of November 2024, AI generated content has officially surpassed human-written content on the web.

More than 50% of articles being published right now are written by AI.

But here’s what the study actually found:

These AI articles don’t perform well in search. They don’t show up in Google or ChatGPT results. And they sure as hell don’t generate revenue.

So if AI content can’t win at SEO (“where it’s about ranking”) why would it work on LinkedIn, where success depends entirely on trust?

On LinkedIn, you’re not competing for rankings. You’re competing for trust.

Look, I’m not saying don’t use AI. If you don’t, then I’d ask you if you live under a rock. 

It’s about learning how to use AI right.

Most people are using raw ChatGPT with zero context.

Meanwhile, you could create a custom GPT or Claude Project and feed it:

	•	Transcripts from your client calls
	•	Your ICP documents
	•	Your product pages
	•	Past posts that performed
	•	Your tone of voice examples
      •     etc

Suddenly, the AI isn’t guessing. It’s working from your expertise.

That one change makes a massive difference. But most people skip this step entirely.

And then, come ooonnn, at least read what AI gives you. Take out the words you’d never actually say. Edit it. Proofread it. Make it sound like you.

So where does real content come from?

Your actual life.

The client call you just had. The mistake you made last week. The system you built that actually worked.

That’s your content. Not “10 tips for success” that ChatGPT could write in 3 seconds.

AI can generate a thousand posts about “leadership lessons.”

But it can’t tell the story of the hard conversation you had with your team yesterday. 

It can’t share the exact mistake you made that cost you a deal. 

It can’t explain the system you built that finally fixed the problem.

That’s what people actually want to read.
Your specific experience. Your actual insights. Your real voice.

AI can help you write faster. If you aren’t using it at all, you’re making things harder for yourself.

But if you’re using it to replace your thinking? You’re just adding to the noise.

The goal isn’t to write faster. It’s to write better, and that only happens when AI amplifies your expertise, not replaces it.

No alternative text description for this image

taplio

The Battle

Tim Hanson

Diandra Escobar

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreDiandra Escobar's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

The Battle

Tim Hanson

Diandra Escobar

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

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

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreDiandra Escobar's LinkedIn Performance