Kurogo

Content Writer

We create thought leaders through personal branding

Post-Grad Survival Guide

Took over the publication from my friend Tom. With 44K+ followers on Medium, we're one of the biggest publications on Medium. We help 20-somethings live happier & healthier lives.

Editor in Chief

FinGhost.io

Helping finance and real estate professionals build their audiences on LinkedIn

Writer

Foundry 

Writing content for world-class professionals and industry leaders across niches such as Law, Tech, AI, Business, and more.

Kohort

Head of Content

Building the copy for the website, creating eye-catching LinkedIn posts for the founder, and writing informative articles, among other things.

Ghostwriting & Copywriting Consultant

Mobco Media

Helped build the CEO's personal brand through LinkedIn and writing articles on highly reputed websites like Forbes.com and Entrepreneur.com.

Ghostwriting Consultant

LinkedIn

The LinkedIn Creator Accelerator Program is an initiative designed to invest in creators. In India, 200 creators were selected from all over the country and given financial grants, resources, and mentorship from the country’s leading creators and executives. I was one of the youngest people selected for the program and worked alongside thought leaders from various industries.

LinkedIn Creator Accelerator Program India 2022

upGrad

I was a part of the Business Intelligence team for most of my tenure at the company. Among other things, I also worked in Talent & Acquisition, helped organize and manage the National Sales Meet 2021, and worked on researching colleges and subject matter experts in the course-building process.

Business Intelligence

WellnessCalendar.ai

Wrote, edited, and published content, based primarily in the niches of Health, Wellness, and Fitness. I also wrote captions for Social Media, emails, and posts for the Founders’ handles.

Torrey Pines Foods

Responsible for designing, creating, and publishing all of the company’s Social Media content, campaigns, and generating leads through Social Media platforms and other online mediums.

Social Media Strategist

Content @ Kurogo | LinkedIn Creator Accelerator

I just moved from Bangalore to London on a fully sponsored writing job. Here's my story so far:

Age 17: did 4 internships in a gap year before my undergrad
Age 18: started writing online on Instagram, Medium, and LinkedIn
Age 19: signed my first ghostwriting client
Age 20: graduated uni with first-class distinction
Age 21: one of the youngest members of LI's creator accelerator, got paid lakhs to write here (wild)
Age 22: beat 700+ people to get my dream job in personal branding
Age 23: dropped out of a Masters degree from KCL
Age 24: moved back to London for work

I've had quite the unconventional story. 

The fact I'm the proudest of isn't any of the "achievements" but that I did it all my way.

I write mostly to my younger self. 

My journey is an example of how your life can change if you refuse to conform and earn the right to play your own game.

Today, the clients I work with at my job are multi-millionaires dominating their industries. I'm lucky I get paid to learn from them everyday.

If you'd like to get in touch with me, email me at varunkhadri@gmail.com.

Varun Khadri

What people see:

1. Financially sorted
2. Moved to London at 24
3. Get to ghostwrite for a living
4. Work with the smartest people

What people don't see:

1. Said no to everything and saved £ for years
2. Felt alone and depressed for a long time
3. Hated every job and gig before this
4. Outgrew almost everyone I knew 
5. Chronically anxious

Social media is never the full picture.

Don't compare your dark moments to their highlight reel.

I ordered Paneer ghee roast. I was served Prawns ghee roast.

I was too hungry to notice the visual difference in the texture so I took a couple of bites.

I'd never eaten non-vegetarian food in my life before, so I quickly realised something was off upon tasting it.

This was a week ago, I was on vacation with my family, in one of the most popular restaurants in Coorg.

Understandably, I was fuming.

And I wanted to throw up.

But I knew I had a choice.

I could cause a scene, hold the restaurant accountable, post bad reviews, get into a screaming match, demand reparation, etc.

For my non-Indian audience, this might feel like an overreaction.

But we Indians take our vegetarianism pretty seriously 😅

So the mistake the staff made was pretty much the worst thing you can do in F&B here.

But it was just that, a mistake.

The waiter/chef simply misheard our order.

Getting into a fight wouldn't fix or undo anything.

So I sent the food back, let the manager know what'd happened, and told them I wasn't pleased.

They apologised, served us the correct dish, I ate it half heartedly (having lost some of my appetite), and moved on with my life.

Sometimes, you just gotta put a pin in things, be the bigger person, and leave it at that.

Who among us hasn't made a bad mistake at our jobs?

So why is it hard for us to empathise when someone from the hospitality sector makes one?

Being kind in situations where being unkind would be an understandable reaction is what reveals the kind of person you really are :)

P.S.
My no. 1 pet peeve is people who treat waiters badly, I instantly lose respect for these people.

P.P.S.
What would you do if you were in my place?

7 unhinged things I did to build my dream life that paid off:

1. Ended a 3-year relationship that wasn’t going in the right direction

2. Dropped out of a Masters program at one of the best universities in the world

3. Moved to another continent for a remote job I could do from anywhere

4. Cut off childhood friends who I knew were toxic and bad for me

5. Stopped aimlessly partying, getting wasted, and chasing girls

6. Played multiple sports at a competitive level until I became a Jack of all trades

7. Invested 50% of my income for 3 years straight, lived way below my means

The result: I’m healthier, happier, freer, and wealthier than I’ve been in years.

This is your reminder to make the “crazy“ choices that make sense for your personal goals.

Seek advice from others, but remember only you know what’s best for you ✌🏼

Top 5 feelings I love:

- Drinking a hot cup of coffee on a chilly morning and having it slowly warm you up from the inside

- Going through a client’s LinkedIn posts and only seeing triple digit reacts

- Cutting open a piece of burrata and watching it melt over the pizza

- The sound of a feather shuttle when I hit a jump smash with a newly strung racquet

- Being in bed after a warm shower at night in fresh sheets

I’m trying to appreciate the little things in life that we take for granted more.

What’s your favourite feeling?

Friendly reminder: if you don't ask, the answer will always be "no" :)

I’ve experienced heartbreak, almost lost all my money once, and survived childhood trauma for years.

But leaving my friends and family behind and watching them cry at the airport,

Will always be the most painful thing I experience.

These are the people who’ve stood by me for a decade.

My flights from Bangalore to London are always a teary mess.

But this time, I’m choosing to remind myself that for a few weeks a year, I still get to live life, travel, and laugh with my day 1 people. 

Not everyone gets that.
Not everyone is so lucky.

There are still tears as I write this while touching down at LHR - but some of them this time are also happy tears and me thanking God I get to live this life ❤️

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Taking care of myself is a non-negotiable.

Not because I love self-care.

But because I want to be the best version of myself.

I want to be the best writer, athlete, and person I can be.

This means eating right, sleeping enough, reading more, not drinking as much, and cutting off bad energy.

I do these things because I have high standards for myself and big goals.

So I better align my actions with my ambitions.

High performance starts with taking care of yourself better.

“Being the best in the world requires you to set your standards higher, and to demand more of yourself than anyone else ever would” - Graham Weaver

3 lessons I've learnt the hard way this year:

- If you don't have your health, nothing else matters.
- Narrow your focus, don't try doing everything at once.
- You're allowed to outgrow the people/places you still love.

What's been an eye-opening lesson for you in 2025?

I've been on my first real break from work all year.

Here's what I've been up to over the last 2 weeks:

- Being a tourist in the city I grew up in has been fun
- Playing sports each evening (padel, Badminton, pickleball, Football)
- Playing FIFA every other night with the boys
- Spending time with the people I grew up with
- Plotting my next move on my content journey (YouTube)
- Trying out as many breweries and cocktail bars as possible 😅
- Dentist visits (9+ cavities filled in one week, I'm dead)
- About to go on an annual trip to Goa with my closest friends

Life is good.

I'm very lucky I get to experience the best of both worlds - my life in London and the comfort of being in familiar territory with my people back home.

As my India trip comes to an end, I can't help but think how grateful I am to have the kind of inner circle around me that I do.

Your people are who shape you, so be mindful whom you allow around you!

A good friend asked me what to post about on LinkedIn.

I write LinkedIn posts for a living, this is what I told him 👇

1. Document your journey, tell people what you’re learning, show them the life you’re living, share your wins and losses, your story is more interesting and relatable than you think

2. LinkedIn isn’t a journal though, make sure you’re adding in something valuable for the audience to take away in each post, even if it’s just stirring a positive emotion in their minds

3. Packaging is everything, format your posts carefully, nobody likes reading long paragraphs, add in personal pictures whenever possible, insider tip: aesthetic pics with your face in them do better

4. To write banger hooks, ask yourself: what’s the most interesting part about the post, lead with that, remember - the hook is THE most important part of a post

5. Don’t overthink it, nobody cares as much as you assume they do, yes - some people will judge you and make fun of you for posting here, but I guarantee you: if someone’s trying to pull you down, they’re already beneath you anyway (literally and figuratively speaking)

Posting on LinkedIn can change your whole life, it’s certainly changed mine :)

P.S.
Please don’t post crying selfies though. What’s your most hated LinkedIn trend?

My weird visualisation routine that sets me up for a calm workday:

I visualise everything that can go wrong.

The client who's being a pain, the colleague that's on your case, the mistakes that I'll make at times...

I picture it all.

Then, I inevitably think about how I'd deal with it.

- What's the kind of mindset I need to have?
- What are some possible solutions?
- Where must I be extra careful?

Startup life can be complete CHAOS at times.

But when I've already pictured the worst in my head and thought of ways to cope,

Very little can faze me throughout the day.

Negative visualisation centres me. Try it tomorrow and let me know how your Friday goes :)

The best consistency hack I’ve discovered with habits I want to build:

Never miss 2 days in a row.

One day is okay - life happens.

But 2 days missed? 

That’s a choice :)

I had 1:1s with our new starters this week at Kurogo - Personal Branding Agency.

These are the 3 biggest pieces of advice I gave them:

- You’ve already made it.
You beat hundreds of people to get the job.
You’ve earned your seat at the table.
So give yourself a pat on the back.
We’re all rooting for you.

- Our goal is to be the best personal branding agency in the world.
Nothing less.
Of course, we’re all human and have crap days at times.
But keeping our North Star top of mind is key.
We can’t forget that what makes us an elite team is our standards.

- The hardest part about working in content is not burning out.
What looks like all fun and games from the outside,
Is bloody hard work in the day-to-day.
Pace yourself and take care of yourself well.
At some point, the sheer volume can get overwhelming, but don’t burn out pls.

What’s something you wish you'd been told when you started your job?

Things nobody taught me to do but are insanely important at my writing job:

1️⃣ How to stick to daily deadlines

This is unheard of for my corporate friends who have project deadlines that span months. 

In 2+ years at my job, there hasn’t been a single time I’ve missed a deadline by more than a day.

2️⃣ How to talk to clients

We have very different conversations with our startup clients than we do with the CEOs managing thousands of people. 

Some clients need to be hand held, others want to be left alone. 

Some send us too much info, others are a closed book. Knowing what each client needs is something you develop with time and experience.

3️⃣ How to get figure things out

I’m a copywriter. But I’ve also written PR blurbs for clients, written tweets, edited videos, designed graphics, and god only knows what else. 

Most of what you do at a startup/agency isn’t going to be in your job description. 

But you gotta learn. 

If you’re always saying “that’s not my job”, you’re not going to get very far in this game.

I’ve written 5475 LinkedIn posts over 3 years.

A short guide to high-performing hooks:

Hooks that win nail these basics:

- Short (under 12 words)
- Emotional or tense
- Outcome-driven (why this matters to me)
- Pattern-breaking (something surprising or contradictory)
- Specific to your worldview

Hooks work best when they signal:

➡️ Stakes
➡️ Shift
➡️ Tension
➡️ Contradiction
➡️ Earned wisdom
➡️ Future insight

Hooks that stop the scroll leverage psychology:

· Curiosity gaps
· Authority claims rooted in lived experience
· Contrarian tension 
· Identity hooks
· Strong POV 

How good your post is doesn’t matter if you can’t get people hooked in the first 2 lines.

P.S. My fav hook I spotted on LinkedIn this week: 
“How are people in jobs finding time to cheat on their partner?”
Tell me yours in the comments 🤝🏻

3 reasons I ghostwrite:

- I’m naturally a curious person and get paid to amass knowledge about new industries everyday. 

- I get to learn from the smartest minds in the world.

- I get to practice my craft and put in the reps, this improves my personal writing tremendously.

Ryan Holiday is a multiple times bestselling author and still occasionally ghostwrites books.

That’s a pattern across all the greats.

They say yes to things that enable them to learn.

Ghostwriting is a cheat code for personal growth - and this weekend I’m extra grateful I get to do this for a living.

Remember this feeling.

Remember how much you f*cking hate losing.

Then tell yourself that I'm going to do everything in my power not to lose at the next thing.

Use every loss to remind you how important it is to:

- Have the right prep
- Build the right team around you
- Win

Use every loss to remind yourself how hungry you are to win and how important winning really is to you.

Remember how much you hate this feeling and do everything you can to never feel this way again.

Sam G. Winsbury

We Create Thought Leaders Through Personal Branding | 150+ Personal Brands Built | Founder & CEO Kurogo

We turn entrepreneurs into credible thought leaders through personal branding so they can scale their businesses, unlock untapped opportunities and outlast their competition.

If you’re anything like our clients, you’re an expert in your field. One of the best.   

But you just don’t seem to have the reputation you deserve.   

You want to be the go-to authority in your industry and become an opportunity magnet.   

That way you could…  

- Generate inbound leads consistently 
- Win clients and customers with ease 
- Attract media features   
- Attract top talent 
- Speak on stage  

The list is endless.   

We help our clients do just that through the power of personal branding, by: 

1. Giving them clarity on their brand and positioning them as industry leaders.
2. Blowing up their social profiles and landing them high-profile media features.
3. Helping them convert their new-found reputation into meaningful opportunities and ROI

And having built 300+ personal brands, we’ve got quite good at it, achieving results like these in the process:  

🚀 Jack generated 2.5M views and 6 figures in revenue in 90 days with us 
🚀 Joe and Olly generated millions of views and saw a record month
🚀 Guy added 5 figures of pipeline value in a matter of months
🚀 Olie added £50K of inbound revenue to his pipeline
🚀 Sue generated over 8.3 million views in 4 months
🚀 Jemma increased her views by 51,347%
🚀 James became an Amazon Best Seller 
🚀 Tom generated 5M views in 3 months 

Your reputation is your biggest asset.   

Take control of it! 

If you want to see how we could help you build your personal brand, shoot me a dm saying ‘Personal Brand’

If you're not quite ready yet, I post daily content on here showing you how to do it yoursel

Founder

On paper, I look self made: 

- Started Kurogo at 20
- Entirely bootstrapped 
- No loan from mum and dad

 But in reality: 

- Parents never questioned me
- Mentors helped when they didn’t have to
- Friends liked my posts before anyone cared
- My first clients took a chance on a kid with no portfolio
- Teammates believed in the vision when it was just an idea

Every “self-made” story has invisible scaffolding: support, belief, opportunity.

Ps. Who's supported you recently?

300+ Personal Brands Built | Sky, Entrepreneur, Insider | Founder & CEO Kurogo | We Create Thought Leaders Through Personal Branding

Career advice to 18 year olds:

- Work for free to build your network
- Work for someone you admire
- Upskill in your spare time
- Do the apprenticeship
- Learn on the job

Just don’t think you need more knowledge to get started.

Ps. I speak to a lot of very rich people and they admire initiative. Show some.

7 ‘unscalable’ things I did to get from 0 → 1M revenue:

(I still do some of these today)

1. Took proposals at 3am 
2. Worked for free for my first clients
3. Wrote for and managed 20+ clients alone
4. Tailored every project to overdeliver for clients
5. Sent 100s of personalised looms to connections 
6. Shadowed an entrepreneur around London for free
7. Travelled to clients offices to deliver free in person trainings

If you’re just getting started:

Don’t worry about ‘systems’, ‘efficiency’ or ‘balance’
Worry about signing clients, delighting them and gathering xp. 

You can do the fancy stuff later. 

My approach:

Do what no one else will until you have the ability to do what no one else can. 

-- 

With me? Hit repost. You might just help a first-time entrepreneur.

PS. You ever done any of these?

2015: you won by being the best.
Today: you win by being the authority

You can have a great product…

But if no one knows you
If no one sees you as an expert
If no one trusts you

You’ll never get the credit you deserve.

(And there’s no nobility in being your industry’s ‘best kept secret’ btw)

So of course, ensure your product is good.
But please, ensure your presence is too.

How?

Leverage your senior team.

1. Pick your key profiles
2. Position them as industry experts
3. Optimise their profiles
4. Publish consistent thought leadership
5. Align content with wider marketing pushes

Within 1 month: momentum

After 3 months: recognition

Get to 6 months: authority, pipeline, leverage

Your senior team are your no. 1 marketing channel.

Get the exec personal brand blueprint here: https://lnkd.in/e_uXTgUK

Ps. Prediction: SLT will become the most effective marketing channel in 2026

2015: Few channels, trusting consumers, little competition

2025: Many channels, sceptical consumers, lots of competition

The same tired company campaigns that worked in 2015 don’t cut it now.

Consumers see through it.

Instead, they want to consume content from your people instead.

So turn your senior leaders into brand advocates:

1. Build personal positioning strategies that complement company messaging
2. Update their profiles (no more CV profiles!)
3. Publish content weekly (trends, opinions, predictions, stories)

3 steps and you’re ahead of 90% of your competitors.

Each one will reach, engage and build trust with 100,000s of people per month.

(Or you can stick to the 15 likes you’re getting on the company page)

Want to turn your senior team into brand advocates?

Here’s how: https://lnkd.in/e_uXTgUK

Ps. Hubspot nailing it. Anyone else you’ve seen doing this well?

I keep having to remind myself: 

- This is where I dreamt of being 5 years ago
- This is where I should enjoy the journey most 

But that’s tough to balance with ambition. 

So I’m reading this note daily.

(maybe) controversial advice to grads: 

Take the lower salary if the job will teach you more. 

A job that pays £2,000 less now but teaches you 10x more is worth an extra £200,000 over the next 10 years.

taplio

The Battle

Varun Khadri

Sam G. Winsbury

Followers

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Performance ScoreVarun Khadri's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreSam G. Winsbury's LinkedIn Performance

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taplio

The Battle

Varun Khadri

Sam G. Winsbury

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);}Varun Khadri's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreSam G. Winsbury's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreVarun Khadri's LinkedIn Performance