The other day I was talking with someone who was overwhelmed.

They’d tried funnels, paid ads, lead magnets, and four different social channels. Nothing was working.

They asked me:

“Why does this work for everyone else and not for me?”

The answer isn’t the tools.

Selling and marketing haven’t changed. The tools have. The platforms have. But the people receiving your messages haven’t changed at all.

We are still wired for survival. We avoid loss. We seek gain. We follow the crowd. We trust the familiar. We buy from people we like.

That’s human biology.

No algorithm changes that. No platform rewires thousands of years of human nature.

These are the rules that transcend tools and tactics.

They work in person, on a call, in an email, in a post, in a DM. Master them and the medium stops mattering.

But one thing before you read on.

Every rule here requires you to know exactly who you are talking to.

Not broadly - specifically.

One person, one problem, one situation.

Without that, these rules have nothing to work with.

Get clear on that first. Then use what follows.

Subscribe now

1. Humans are distracted.

Most people are not sitting waiting for your message.

They are busy, stressed, and surrounded by noise. Every day the average person is exposed to thousands of messages, adverts, emails, and posts.

The brain filters most of them out without the person realising it. If the first thing they read doesn’t feel immediately relevant to them, they move on.

• Lead with the problem your audience already has, not your name or your company

• Read your opening line and ask: would someone who doesn’t know me stop for this

• Remove anything in the first sentence that isn’t directly about the reader

2. Humans are self-interested.

This isn’t a criticism of people. It’s how the brain works. The brain is wired to prioritise information that affects the person reading it. Everything else gets filtered out.

When someone reads your post, email, or message, they are not thinking about you. They are asking one question without realising it: does this matter to me.

If the answer isn’t obvious, they stop reading.

• Start every piece of communication with the reader’s problem, not your background or story

• Go through your content and replace every “I” and “we” with “you” wherever it makes sense

• Before you post or send anything, ask: if I were the reader, would I care about this

3. Humans avoid loss more than they seek gain.

Two psychologists, Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky, spent years studying how people make decisions. They found that losing something feels roughly twice as painful as gaining something feels good.

The fear of a problem getting worse, or the cost of doing nothing, is a stronger motivator than the promise of something new and better.

Most marketing focuses on the gain. The more effective approach is to help people feel the weight of the problem they already have.

• Describe what happens if your audience does nothing and stays where they are

• Show the real cost of the problem they are living with, in time, money, or stress

• Don’t just talk about what they’ll get. Talk about what they’re losing by waiting.

4. Humans are suspicious of being sold to.

People have been marketed to their entire lives. They have developed a finely tuned radar for when someone is trying to push them toward a decision.

The moment someone feels like they’re being pitched at, their guard goes up. They start looking for the catch. The harder you push, the more they resist.

This is why aggressive sales tactics and heavy promotional language produce the opposite of the intended effect.

• Give genuine value before you make any offer, whether that’s useful content, honest advice, or real insight

• Let people reach their own conclusion rather than telling them what to decide

• Remove any language from your communication that sounds like an advert or a rehearsed script

5. Humans buy with emotion (then logic)

A neuroscientist, Antonio Damasio, studied patients who had damage to the part of the brain that processes emotion. These patients were intelligent and could process information well. But they were unable to make decisions.

They would analyse options endlessly and never choose. What Damasio found was that emotion is not a distraction from decision making. It is a requirement for it.

People feel their way to a decision first, then use facts and logic to confirm it was the right call.

• Open with how your client will feel after working with you, not a list of what’s included

• Use real stories to create an emotional response before you present any facts or figures

• Don’t lead with features. Lead with the feeling, then back it up with proof.

6. Humans need to feel understood before they’ll listen.

The brain is constantly running a background check on every situation it encounters, asking: is this relevant to me, does this person get my situation, is it worth reading on.

If a message doesn’t reflect someone’s reality, the brain files it as irrelevant and moves on.

When someone reads something and thinks “that is my situation,” their defences drop. They give you their attention. They keep reading.

Understanding your audience in detail is not optional. It is the foundation of everything.

• Use the exact words and phrases your audience uses to describe their own problem, not the words you use to describe it

• Talk to your existing clients about how they felt before they worked with you and use that language in your content

• Write as if you are speaking to one specific person, not a broad general audience

7. Humans trust the familiar.

A psychologist called Robert Zajonc identified something called the mere exposure effect. He found that people develop a preference for things because they have seen them before, even if they don’t remember seeing them.

Familiarity feels safe. The unfamiliar feels risky. This is why being seen consistently over time is not vanity. It is a commercial strategy.

• Show up consistently so people see you and your message on a regular basis

• Keep your message, tone, and visual identity consistent so people recognise you

• Don’t disappear for weeks at a time and expect people to remember who you are

8. Humans follow the crowd.

When people are uncertain about what to do, they look at what other people are doing and use that as a guide.

Psychologist Robert Cialdini called this social proof. The thinking is simple: if other people like me have already done this, it’s safe for me to do it too.

Reviews, testimonials, case studies, and numbers are not nice to have. They are proof that removes the fear of being first.

• Share client results, testimonials, and case studies as a regular part of your content, not just on a website page nobody visits

• Be specific about who you’ve helped, naming the types of people, industries, and outcomes they got

• Show volume where you have it. Numbers like “500 clients” or “11 countries” signal that you are an established, trusted choice.

9. Humans buy from people they like.

Social psychologist Robert Cialdini found that liking is one of the most consistent drivers of whether people say yes.

Given two similar products at a similar price, people choose the one sold by someone they like more. This doesn’t mean being entertaining or having a big personality. It means being real, being consistent, and being someone your audience can relate to.

People like people who are honest, who share a point of view, and who feel like a real person rather than a corporate voice.

• Share your opinions and perspectives, not just information and tips. People like people who stand for something.

• Be consistent in your tone and style so people feel like they know you over time

• Stop trying to appeal to everyone. The more specific you are about who you help and what you believe, the more strongly certain people will connect with you.

10. Humans buy from people they trust.

Trust is the single biggest factor in whether someone buys from you. Research from Harvard Business School shows that trust outweighs price, product quality, and convenience in purchase decisions.

Trust is not built in one conversation or one piece of content. It is built through repeated exposure to someone who knows what they’re talking about, does what they say, and has the results to prove it.

You cannot shortcut trust. You can only build it over time.

• Share your knowledge freely and consistently without attaching an offer to every piece of content

• Be transparent about what you do, who you help, and what you don’t do

• Document and share real client results so people can see evidence of what you produce

11. Humans act when the timing is right for them.

Most people who come across your content are not ready to buy right now. Research shows that in most markets, only around 3 to 5 percent of your audience is ready to buy at any given time.

The rest are at different stages. Some are aware they have a problem but haven’t decided to fix it. Some are comparing options. Some will be ready in six months.

The majority of people you reach today are not lost leads. They are future buyers who need to keep seeing you until the timing is right for them.

• Build a way to stay in regular contact with people over time, not just when you have something to sell

• Create content that speaks to people at different stages, not only those ready to buy right now

• Don’t write someone off because they didn’t respond. Follow up over months, not days.

12. Humans need repetition before they believe something.

Seeing or hearing something once is rarely enough to change how someone thinks or behaves. The brain builds credibility through repeated exposure to the same message over time.

Studies in advertising have found that people need to encounter a message multiple times before it feels credible enough to act on.

Saying the right thing once is far less effective than saying it repeatedly.

• Repeat your core message consistently across every channel and format you use

• Don’t assume people saw something the first time you shared it. Say it again in a different way.

• Build a content system that keeps your message in front of people regularly, not just when you feel like posting

13. Humans make decisions based on identity.

People don’t just buy products or services. They buy things that fit with how they see themselves or how they want to be seen.

Psychologist Henri Tajfel spent decades studying how identity shapes human behaviour. He found that people’s sense of who they are influences almost every decision they make, including what they buy and who they buy from.

If your offer feels out of place with how someone sees themselves, they won’t buy it even if they need it. If it fits their identity, the decision feels natural.

• Speak to who your buyer wants to become, not just what they want to have

• Use language that reflects the values, beliefs, and self-image of the people you are trying to reach

• Show people who look like your ideal client already getting results, so the decision feels like a natural fit

14. Humans are paralysed by too many choices.

Psychologist Barry Schwartz studied what happens when people are given too many options. He found that more choice does not help people decide. It makes decisions harder and more stressful.

When people feel overwhelmed by options or confused by a complicated process, they do the easiest thing available: nothing. This is called decision fatigue.

Every extra option, condition, or step you add to your sales process increases the chance that someone walks away without deciding.

• Give one clear offer with one clear next step, not a menu of options for people to work out themselves

• Remove complexity, conditions, and jargon from your sales process so the path forward is obvious

• If you have multiple products or services, guide people to the right one rather than listing everything and leaving them to choose

15. Humans value what they pay for.

Researcher Dan Ariely ran experiments showing that price shapes how much people value something. When something is free, people engage with it less and get less from it.

When something costs money, people pay more attention, put in more effort, and place more value on what they receive.

Price is not just a number. It is a signal. It tells people how seriously to take what you’re offering.

• Charge appropriately for what you deliver and don’t apologise for your price

• If you offer free content or resources, make them substantial and well produced, not an afterthought

• Understand that lowering your price to win clients reduces how much they value what you do

16. Humans are influenced by authority.

Psychologist Robert Cialdini identified authority as one of the core principles of human influence. People defer to those they perceive as experts.

When someone appears knowledgeable, experienced, and credible, others are more likely to trust their advice and follow their recommendations.

Authority is not about titles alone. It is about demonstrating that you know what you’re talking about through the quality of your thinking and the results you’ve produced.

• Share the clients you’ve worked with and the results you’ve produced clearly and regularly

• Write and speak with confidence. Over-qualifying and excessive caveats undermine how authoritative you appear.

• Don’t hide your track record out of modesty. Stating facts about your experience is evidence, not arrogance.

17. Humans remember stories, not facts.

Neuroscientist Uri Hasson at Princeton University found that when someone tells a story, the brain of the listener starts to mirror the brain of the storyteller. Stories create a shared experience in a way that facts and data cannot.

A list of features tells people what something is. A story about a real person solving a real problem makes them feel what it’s like. Facts inform the brain. Stories move it.

• Use real client stories to illustrate every point you make rather than stating a claim and expecting people to believe it

• Structure your stories simply: here is the situation, here is the problem, here is what changed, here is the result

• Make the client the hero of the story. Your job is to be the guide who helped them get there, not the star of the show.

These rules don’t expire.

They worked before the internet existed.

They worked before social media.

They’ll work after whatever comes next.

The tools will keep changing. Human beings won’t.

♻️If this has been useful, share it with someone who is drowning in tactics and missing the principles.

It might save them a lot of wasted time and money.

Every week I break down what actually works to get leads, build pipeline and win clients, if you like the sound of that - don’t forget to subscribe.

Subscribe now

Is LinkedIn Stopping Live Streaming?

Not exactly. But it is changing.

And it’s GOOD NEWS.

From 22nd June 2026, you cannot go live on LinkedIn without scheduling it first. No spontaneous broadcasts. No hitting a button and going.

LinkedIn put it this way: you can still go live on short notice by scheduling your event just minutes in advance.

So the option is still there. You just need to give it a title and a time first. That is the actual change, and it is not as dramatic as some people are making out.

Why LinkedIn is doing this

A few reasons, and none of them are surprising.

• Unplanned streams get no viewers: When nobody knows a stream is happening, nobody shows up. The streamer waits around, delays the start, and ends up talking to a handful of people. Scheduling gives the algorithm something to work with and gives your audience a reason to show up prepared.

• LinkedIn does not want to become Instagram: Some of the spontaneous lives on the platform were a mess. No structure, no topic, no real purpose. Forcing even a five minute planning window means you at least have to give it a title and a reason to exist. That is a good thing.

• LinkedIn wants you inside the platform: Most people streaming through Riverside or Streamyard do not even need to log in. They broadcast and disappear. LinkedIn wants the planning, the promotion, and the audience building happening on LinkedIn. That makes sense from their side.

The opportunity most people are missing

While everyone is debating this change, most people are missing the bigger point.

Live is one of the most underused tools in social selling and one of the highest return activities you can do.

I have done weekly lives for six years.

Every one scheduled.

And we worked out recently that each live generates around $12,000 within 30 days. Within 12 months that climbs to $27,700 per live.

That is not from selling on the stream.

There is no pitch, no offer, no close. It comes from the trust live builds and the conversations it starts.

Here is why it works.

When someone watches you live, something different happens compared to reading a post.

They hear your tone.

They see how you handle questions.

They watch you think on your feet.

That is a completely different level of trust.

It is the closest thing to being in the room with someone without actually being there.

Posts build awareness.

Lives build belief.

Belief is what turns a follower into a conversation and a conversation into a client.

The replay keeps working too. It sits on your profile after the broadcast ends.

People find it days or weeks later. One live can start conversations for months.

Most people avoid live because it feels uncomfortable.

That discomfort is exactly why it works.

Anyone can write a post.

Not everyone will show up and talk openly about what they know for an hour.

That willingness to show up is what separates the people who build real trust from the people who stay invisible.

What this means for you

If you are already scheduling your lives, nothing changes.

If you were going live with no plan and no audience, this change will not hurt you.

You were not getting much from it anyway.

And if you have been putting off using live because it felt too spontaneous or unpredictable, this is actually a good nudge.

Pick a time.

Invite your network.

Show up.

Talk to your audience.

The bar is lower than you think.

One extra step before you go live is not a problem.

It is probably what most people should have been doing all along.

Thanks for your support.

Have a great week.

Dean 🍸

One of my clients started doing this in February.

• 10 messages a day.

• 15 minutes of work.

• Avg 4 calls booked each week.

Subscribe now

How does he decide who to message?

LinkedIn tells you exactly who is already paying attention to you. Every day, three lists update with people who have looked at your profile, followed you, or engaged with your posts.

These are warm contacts. They already know who you are. All you need to do is start the conversation.

Open LinkedIn and check these three places:

• Profile Viewers: Click on who viewed your profile. These people looked you up for a reason.

• Followers: See who has followed you recently. They want to hear from you.

• Engagers: Check who liked or commented on your posts. They are already interested in what you do.

Pick 10 people across those three lists and send each one this message:

[Name], spotted you [action]. I work with [their role] to [outcome]. Is this something you are looking for?

For example:

Alex, spotted you checked out my profile. I work with MSP owners to get consistent pipeline from LinkedIn. Is this something you are looking at?

The reason it works is that these people already know who you are. You are not interrupting a stranger. You are following up on something they did. That changes the whole dynamic of the conversation.

Most people spend their time posting and hoping someone reaches out. This puts you in control. You are starting conversations with people who are already paying attention, and that is where pipeline comes from.

Fifteen minutes a day. Ten messages. It is one of the simplest things you can do on LinkedIn right now, and the results speak for themselves.

Give it a go this week and let me know how you get on.

Subscribe now

You sit down, you know your subject inside out, and nothing comes.

The problem is not your knowledge. You have no system to access it.

A content map fixes this.

Here is how to build one:

Subscribe now

Step 1: Write down your three to five main topics

These are the broad areas your business covers. Not twenty. Not ten. Three to five.

If you work in LinkedIn training, yours might be: profiles, outreach, content, lead generation, personal brand. If you are in sales leadership, yours might be: prospecting, pipeline, objection handling, closing, team performance.

Do not overthink this. These are just the containers for everything you know.

Step 2: Break each main topic into six or seven subtopics

Take each main topic and ask: what are the distinct areas within this?

LinkedIn profiles breaks into: Profile, Content, DMs, Groups, Sales Navigator, Ads, Newsletters, Events, Games etc.

Seven subtopics from one main topic. Across five main topics, you now have up to 35 subtopics.

Write them all out.

Do not filter.

Step 3: Go micro on every subtopic

This is where the content lives.

Take each subtopic and list every individual element.

Just thinking about LinkedIn profiles, you have profile pic, banner, featured section, about section, experience, recommendations, skills, custom links, headline etc.

Do this across all your subtopics and you will have hundreds of specific, usable ideas in front of you.

You’ll now have 100+ micro topics.

Now use these and think up and research common questions, myths, problems people encounter etc.

I like to use Google and reddit for this.

Why you must stay at micro level

Broad topics run dry fast.

You write one post about LinkedIn profiles and feel like you have covered it.

You have not. You have been working at the wrong level of detail.

Teaching broadly also undermines your value.

If your post explains your entire profile optimisation process, why would someone pay to work with you?

Micro topics let you share real value without giving away the methodology that makes you money.

One specific, actionable thing per post.

Useful to your audience. Safe for your business.

How to use the map

Pick one micro topic.

Pick a goal:

• Attract - Gain visibility and engagement

• Nurture - Build trust and add value

• Convert - Drives leads and downloads

That is your post.

For example:

Topic > Subtopic > Micro Topic + Goal

LinkedIn > Profile > Banner

• Attract = Comparison post of different banners = ask which people like

• Nurture = Practical tips for your LinkedIn Banner.

• Convert = Canva Template for Banner

If your goal is practical value, write a step-by-step guide on designing one in Canva in fifteen minutes.

Same micro topic.

Completely different posts.

The map does not just give you ideas. It gives you a repeatable process for turning one idea into many.

Set aside an hour this week.

Main topics first.

Subtopics second.

Micro topics third.

By the end of it you will have more content ideas than you can publish in a year.

Subscribe now

I’ve been doing LinkedIn Lives for six years. They’ve brought me roughly 125,000 leads. About 20,000 a year. All organic. No ad spend.

And they’ve consistently delivered two to three clients a month.

Let me show you how it works.

Why LinkedIn Lives Work

We operate in a low trust environment. People have been scammed. People have been burned. If you want clients quickly and you don’t have a big network or a big audience, you’ve got to build deep trust fast.

Showing your face and giving value in a long form format builds that trust faster than anything else. People see you. They hear you. They get a sense of who you are. And they become more open to talking to you.

Where else on earth can you get 100 to 150 people to pay attention to you for 30 to 60 minutes, and have them be exactly your target audience?

That’s the power of LinkedIn Lives.

Subscribe now

The Five Things You Need To Get Right

If you want two to three clients a month from LinkedIn Lives, you need to hit five milestones:

1. An outcome-centric title

2. Build the event and get 100 people signed up

3. Send reminders

4. A structured delivery that sells the why

5. Follow up

Miss any of these and it falls apart. Nail all five and you’ve got a client acquisition system.

1. The Title Sells The Live

Your title has to attract people who want what you’ve got to offer.

I’m doing one soon called “How To Build A Personal Brand That Sells, Even If You Hate Self-Promotion.”

I know people want to build a personal brand.

But they don’t want it for vanity.

Sure, we all love the likes and followers. But when it comes down to it, they want clients. They want money.

So I’ve put together a title where if somebody signs up, I know I can help them. And they know what they’re going to get.

Your title does the selling for you. If people resonate with it, they sign up. If they don’t, they won’t. So spend time on this.

2. Build The Event And Sign Up People

I always do the event on my own profile, not a company page.

I want to concentrate the brand awareness on me. People might forget your company name, but they won’t forget you.

I do them as LinkedIn Lives, not external links.

Show up rates are better. Rewatch rates are better. And it helps build your brand on the platform because people stumble into them.

Then I invite people. You can invite up to 1,000 people per week. You don’t need to invite 1,000 to be successful. I usually aim for about 100 sign ups.

Here’s the key: invite people who fit your target market.

You can filter by industry and location. Don’t just blast your whole network. Be selective. The quality of attendees matters more than the quantity.

Give yourself at least four weeks before the event.

And give yourself free time before you go live.

You don’t want to be running around like a lunatic. You need that breather to prep yourself.

3. Send Reminders

People are busy. They sign up and forget. You need to remind them to show up.

LinkedIn will send some reminders automatically. But you should send your own too. A couple of days before. The morning of. An hour before.

Simple reminders make a big difference to your show up rate.

4. A Structured Delivery That Sells The Why

This is where most people get it wrong. I know because I got it wrong for ages.

When I first started doing these, I thought if I gave people loads of information and tips, they’d want to work with me. Educate them and they’ll buy.

It didn’t work that way.

What actually happened was people would appreciate all the value and then go try to do it themselves.

I’d build huge trust, but I’d inadvertently push them further away from having a conversation with me. I’d given them a little meal they could eat. They didn’t need me anymore.

So I shifted. And this is a big concept that’s hard to wrap your head around.

Focus on why content, not how content.

If you share how-tos, you’re giving people stuff they can go and do themselves.

When they fail, the logic is they’ll come back to you. Some do. But if you want conversations quickly, why content is better.

Why content helps people see the importance of doing something. Why certain things are happening. Why certain things matter. Why they shouldn’t overlook certain things.

To us, this feels empty. We take it for granted. But for someone struggling with a problem, helping them understand why is powerful. It makes them hungry for the how.

Here’s the difference:

• How content: “Here’s how to write a LinkedIn headline. Use this formula. Put your job title, then who you help, then the result you deliver.”

• Why content: “Most people’s LinkedIn headlines describe what they do, not why anyone should care. Your headline is the first thing prospects see. If it doesn’t speak to a problem they have, they scroll past. That’s why your headline matters more than almost anything else on your profile.”

See the difference?

The how gives them a task to do. The why helps them see the importance. It builds urgency. It makes them want the how.

So on my events, most of my delivery is talking about why it matters.

Why things are going wrong. Diagnosing their situation. Helping them see the value.

5. Follow Up

Don’t wait for people to come to you.

After the event, follow up with attendees. Start conversations. See who’s interested. See who has questions.

If you don’t follow up, you won’t get clients. Simple as that.

The event builds trust. The follow up converts it.

A Few Other Things

Don’t be too slick.

Don’t hide behind PowerPoints. Be conversational. Share little stories. Talk about successes and failures. Weave in objections you’ve heard from clients.

Someone said to me the other day, “Dean, I’m not good at presenting on LinkedIn. It takes me ages to put PowerPoints together.”

You don’t need a PowerPoint.

Sometimes when we try to be professional and polished, it disconnects us from the audience.

Being a bit gung-ho actually works better. People feel like they’re having a conversation with you, not watching a stiff presentation.

The System

This is what I do every single week. Same thing. Over and over.

125,000 leads over six years. Two to three clients a month. All from doing simple LinkedIn Lives.

Just posting content, as much as I love it and get a kick when a post goes well, I’m not building anything. I’m not building pipeline. LinkedIn Lives build pipeline.

You could do this on other platforms. Facebook. Substack.

But LinkedIn is the only place where you can select and reach your target audience this quickly and easily.

So if you want two to three clients a month:

1. Create an event with a title that speaks to a specific outcome

2. Invite the right people and get 100 sign ups

3. Send reminders

4. Deliver why content, not how content

5. Follow up

Hit all five and you’ve got a system. Miss one and you’re leaving clients on the table.

That’s how you get two to three clients a month from LinkedIn Lives.

Subscribe now

I’ve been hosting LinkedIn live events now for 6 years.

They’ve been the critical part of my success on LinkedIn.

Doing that weekly live has made me £3m+

If you average that out, every live has made me £12k.

When I started doing them, I was making around £20k a month in new business from LinkedIn, today, that’s almost £70k a month.

There is no doubt, they’ve propelled my business.

I’ve had more than 125,000 people on my LinkedIn events since March 2020. Whilst I can track the sign ups to sales, what I can’t track is the full impact, the referrals, the recommendations, the brand building.

So, for me, this 1 hour slot each week has been a pivotable part of my growth.

If someone was starting out now, here is the advice I’d give them…

Subscribe now

#1 - Two-Timers Is Where The Money Is

Of the clients that came to me from LinkedIn, almost 75% of them had signed up for two events.

With LinkedIn events a central part of my strategy, that makes sense, but it also informs how I follow up.

Up until discovering this, I treated everyone the same, now, I try to give the repeat visitors some special attention.

This means getting into a regular monthly cycle.

Do one event every month.

I’ve seen a few people do one, maybe too, or even do them randomly. I do them like clockwork. That’s how you lean, improve and build a rhythm.

#2 - Friday Is The Best Day

When I started out I hosted my events on Tuesdays at 7pm.

But through a random situation, I had to move one of my events to Friday. My show up rate that day was higher.

So, I tested this a few times and guess what? My show up rate is the best it’s ever been on Fridays at 3pm.

If you are going to do them, find a time you can stick to, for me it was Tuesdays at 7pm, then I found Fridays at 3pm works better. Test the times and find what works for you.

#3 - Informal Gets the Best Conversation

When I shoot from the hip more people buy.

When I stack it with slides, people zone out. One of the big learnings is how powerful the lives are for building trust.

Today, with so much hype it is hard to trust, but showing up live, dealing with questions in an unscripted way, really gives people confidence you know what you are doing.

Avoid it being either a QVC sales pitch or death by PowerPoint. Show some personality, relax, enjoy it and don’t be afraid of making mistakes.

My first live, I had three Gins’ beforehand.

#4 - The Replay Is More Powerful Than The Live

I get more people watching post-live than live.

One of the great things about LinkedIn events is how they hang around the platform. If I get 80 people live, it will treble in the week following.

I’ve often had clients feel disappointed at a15% show up rate live. I tell them to wait a few days and check back, that climbs up to very good numbers.

So, don’t stress about the live count.

I make a point to circulate the replay, edit it into clips and rinse it for everything I can.

#5 - Follow Up Matters (Fast)

I was talking with someone who does lives and they said they had got very few clients from them. I didn’t understand this, as her content was good.

Then, I asked about her process.

First - she wasn’t inviting people.

Second - she wasn’t following up. She was waiting for prospects to reach out.

I explained my process and why I proactively follow up.

She gave it a whirl on her next live - boom. She got 3 clients.

Follow up is essential, even if you just offer a conversation. Follow up and don’t wait too long, within a few days the momentum is lost.

#6 - Align Your Live And Your Offer

Teaching good stuff doesn’t automatically lead to clients. You need to share content in the live which leads people to the next step.

Forget the countdown clock, just give some value that is directly connected to what you are selling.

For the first 11 lives, I just fired out value. It built trust, I got appreciation, but it didn’t actually move me any closer to closing some business.

When I started to think about the challenges that people come to me to solve, and themed my LinkedIn events around them, it was easier to convert.

#7 - The Title Is More Important Than The Content

If the title is a problem your target audience has or an outcome they want, you’ll get a ton of sign ups.

If the title is abstract, conceptual or not related to their pains and desires. You’ll get people showing up who are not your ideal customer.

Good luck trying to convert them.

Keep your title aligned to what your audience wants and needs. Make it obvious.

#8 - No Shows Are Profitable

I’ve had so many people book calls with me even though they didn’t come. The reality is carving out 30-mins even to sit on a webinar these days is impossible.

Some people have every intention of coming and then on the day, they forget or another priority comes up.

That doesn’t mean they aren’t interested, it just means they didn’t make it. Even a no show is valuable as it is someone signalling they resonate with your topic.

Don’t write off the no shows.

Why do I do Lives?

At heart, I love sharing my ideas in a format which connects me with people. Often post’s it’s hard to do that….and do it well. Short form video and posts often dilute ideas and the medium itself is suited to short soundbites.

Lives… you have the audience for longer. You get more time to share your ideas and flesh them out.

But… importantly…. they are also a filter.

They filter my ideas and my personality. If someone enjoys the lives, get’s value from the lives and connects with me, it’s a more meaningful encounter.

I love them and I’ll keep doing them. They have been instrumental in my business and my clients growth.

But one word of caution, you have to treat them as a marketing activity - they need a strategy - don’t be gung-ho. Plan it, your bank balance will thank you for it.

Subscribe now

Want to know how to get 2-3 clients per month doing a simple LinkedIn Live?

Join me for next weeks edition.

I’ve been using LinkedIn properly for 14 years.

And I’ve made some horrific mistakes.

When I look back, I can see exactly where they cost me. Where I’d be now if I’d done things differently. Where I could have been if I’d just stopped dithering and committed.

These are the seven regrets I have about how I’ve used LinkedIn:

1. Not picking an audience

2. Emotional posting

3. Adding irrelevant people to grow numbers

4. Posting for engagement, not conversion

5. Not having enough conversations

6. Playing it safe

7. Not owning my lane

If you’re making any of them, stop. I made them so you don’t have to.

Subscribe now

1. Not Picking An Audience

This one plagued me for at least 10 years.

I avoided picking an audience because I was afraid. If I went all in on one group and it didn’t work, I’d lose out. So I thought if I appealed to more people, I’d do better.

It cost me massively.

Instead of saying “this is what I do and this is who I do it for”, I tried to keep all the doors open. And keeping too many doors open left me distracted. It messed up my message. It messed up my focus. I’d end up doing things that added nothing to the business because I was hedging.

I preach this from the rooftops now because for 10 years I didn’t do it. I would have been way further ahead if I’d just picked an audience and made everything about them.

My fear of cutting people off actually cost me more than cutting them off ever would have.

Every time a client comes to me now, I tell them: do not make this mistake. Pick an audience. It really matters.

2. Emotional Posting

This is still a problem to this day.

I would only post what I felt. If I wasn’t feeling it, I wouldn’t post. I’ve written a week’s worth of content and then on the day, just binned it because I wasn’t in the mood.

It sounds like creative integrity. It’s actually destructive.

Think about it. We’re all media companies now. We’ve all got a schedule to fill. Imagine if a newspaper said “we’re not feeling it today, so the front page will be blank.” That’s what I was doing.

I’ve also learned that some of my best posts have been things I didn’t invest much in. The ones I over-engineer because I care too much about them? They bomb.

What I do now is have a schedule that goes out like clockwork.

That’s my TV show, my newspaper.

But I also leave space to share what I think when I feel like it. The schedule handles consistency. The spontaneous stuff handles creative expression. That balance took me years to figure out.

3. Adding Irrelevant People To Grow Numbers

I can’t believe I’m telling you this.

Years ago, LinkedIn had a feature where you could upload a spreadsheet of email addresses and send thousands of connection requests at once. We used to have competitions in the office about who could grow their network the fastest.

I’d get 4,000 connections in three or four days. And the amount of irrelevant people I added to my network is embarrassing.

I’m still paying for it now.

There are probably 10,000 people in my network who are completely irrelevant. Systems engineers. People who couldn’t possibly need my help. Nowhere near my ideal client. But I added them because the number looked good.

I’m convinced this has depressed my engagement and visibility. Irrelevant people see my content, skip it because it means nothing to them, and the algorithm takes that as a negative signal.

Seven or eight years later, I’m still cleaning up the mess. That’s how bad it is.

If you’re accepting anyone just to grow your numbers, stop. You’re hurting yourself.

4. Posting For Engagement, Not Conversion

I know the exact formula you can use to blow up your posts every single day. For a long time, I did it.

I did outbound engagement, commenting on people’s posts so they’d come comment on mine. It works, but as soon as you stop, they leave you in the dirt. It’s just a merry-go-round.

I also discovered that highly emotional content gets loads of engagement. I used to love doing it because the high felt so good. My best post got 24 million impressions, 220,000 likes, and about 14,000 comments. It still holds a special place in my heart.

It got me no business.

Didn’t build my brand. Didn’t do anything useful.

Content can become an addiction. Comments feel like approval. It’s nice when people appreciate your work. But the stuff that performs best often doesn’t lead to any business outcome.

A friend of mine does this every day. Insane engagement. He openly tells me he gets zero leads from it.

I did this for years thinking “if I do enough of it, it will flip over into clients.” It doesn’t. If I’d done what I do now 10 years ago, I’d be unstoppable.

5. Not Having Enough Conversations

I neglected this for too long.

I don’t mean pitching. I mean actually talking to people. Deepening connections. Building relationships with the people who can refer you, advocate for you, support you, do business with you.

I put more effort into content than conversations. That was backwards.

Content doesn’t naturally lead to clients. Conversations do.

Now I start five conversations a day on LinkedIn. Every single day. Some go somewhere, some go nowhere. But I always get referrals and opportunities from them. Curtis on my team does the same. JC does the same. Josh does the same. It’s just what we do.

Starting a conversation is not selling. It’s starting a conversation and seeing where it goes. I used to think “I only want to talk to people who want to buy.”

That doesn’t work.

Nobody’s thinking about buying right now. But more conversations create more opportunity.

If I’d set a goal 10 years ago to start five conversations a day, I’d have more money in my pocket now. Business is about relationships, not just content and marketing. I neglected that, and I wish I hadn’t.

6. Playing It Safe

Worrying about what people think. Worrying about looking professional. Worrying about people who don’t even matter having opinions about me.

This dominated me for too long.

I played it so safe with what I said and shared because I didn’t want to rock the boat. Imagine a newspaper saying “we’re going to play it safe with the headlines.” Nobody wants to read that. Nobody cares about that.

I didn’t tell people “if you do that, it’s going to fail.” I’d say “it might not be the best thing.” Why didn’t I just say what I meant?

Maybe it was because I was younger.

Maybe it was the corporate world where you don’t draw attention to yourself.

But I didn’t want to be disliked. And that made people feel nothing about me. Not dislike. Not like. Just indifferent.

That’s the worst thing. People feeling nothing.

When you share your opinions, people who agree are drawn to you. That’s how you build a crowd.

I was so afraid of being disliked that it cost me being liked.

Mashed potato is mashed potato. It’s a side dish. Jalapenos, people either love them or hate them. I was mashed potato for too long.

7. Not Owning My Lane

When I started on LinkedIn, I wasn’t selling LinkedIn help. I was a marketing generalist. Websites, branding, social media content, brochures, print design. All of it.

But people kept asking me about LinkedIn because that was the channel I liked most. We morphed into it gradually.

And I fought it. For years.

I didn’t want to be “the LinkedIn guy” because I’m more than that. I can help with email copy, positioning, messaging. Being labelled as the LinkedIn person felt demeaning. It grated on me.

So I actively fought owning that lane because I felt I was capable of more. I didn’t want to close the door to other things.

That was a mistake.

Look at Liam Neeson. He made his name properly with the Taken films. Since then he’s done variations of the same thing. He’s typecast. And he’s made a fortune from it. He went from supporting actor to major Hollywood star by owning that lane.

Tom Cruise did the same with Mission Impossible. He owns that lane. And because he owns it, he gets to choose what else he does.

I spread myself thin protecting against what might go wrong instead of going all in on what could go right.

I was trying to build a broad base all at once. It doesn’t work. If I’d nailed the LinkedIn thing, owned the social selling thing, I could have built out from there.

The Pattern

All seven of these come from the same place. Protecting against what might go wrong instead of committing to what could go right.

Fear of losing out. Fear of closing doors. Fear of being disliked. Fear of being labelled.

I was so busy hedging that I never fully committed to anything. And that’s probably the biggest regret of all.

I see the same patterns in my clients. When I do, I tell them what I’m telling you now.

LinkedIn’s algorithm changed in 2025. It now checks your profile to verify your credibility before distributing your content. Your profile tells the algorithm whether you have the authority to talk about your…

Read more

You want to post.

You know you should post.

But every idea feels stale. Someone else said it last week. Or you said it six months ago.

So you close the laptop and tell yourself you’ll do it tomorrow.

I get it. I’ve been teaching social selling for 14 years. I’ve talked about LinkedIn profiles more times than I can count.

And I still find ways to make it interesting.

Not because I’ve discovered something new. Because I’ve learned to look at the same thing differently.

You don’t need new topics. You need new dimensions.

Let me show you. I’ll take one topic, LinkedIn profiles, and turn it into three different posts.

Subscribe now

Dimension 1: Change The Angle

TOPIC + FAMOUS NAME / BRAND

“How I’d optimise Captain Kirk’s LinkedIn profile.”

I borrow a familiar face and apply my expertise to their situation. Same advice I always give about headlines, about sections and banners. But the Kirk angle makes people stop scrolling. It’s fun. It’s unexpected. The lesson lands because it doesn’t feel like a lecture.

I could do this ten more times. Darth Vader’s profile. Hermione Granger’s profile. Gordon Ramsay’s profile. Each one a fresh post.

Try this: Take your core topic and apply it to a fictional character, a celebrity, or a historical figure. The advice stays the same. The packaging makes it new.

Now, I could make 10 posts mapping out different “known names” could approach their profile.

Other Examples:

• Accounting + Famous Name: How Elon Musk pays no tax.

• Accounting + Famous Name: How Starbucks moves it profit around the world

• Accounting + Famous Name: How Donald Trump lost $900m and was worth $2bn.

Dimension 2: Add Perspective

TOPIC + YOUR BELIEFS / OPINIONS

“I’ve reviewed thousands of LinkedIn profiles. These three mistakes show up every single time.”

I share the patterns I see from the outside. The errors people make without realising. I’ve looked at thousands of profiles. They’ve looked at one. Theirs. That gap is the value.

I could write ten more of these. Three mistakes in headlines. Three mistakes in about sections. Three mistakes in banners. The patterns keep coming.

Try this: What do you see repeatedly in your work that your audience doesn’t see? What mistakes show up again and again? Your outside perspective is content gold.

Other Examples:

• Coaching + Beliefs: Why I believe manifesting is junk

• Coaching + Beliefs: Why I think the coaching industry should be regulated

• Coaching + Beliefs: Most mindset work is just wishful thinking

Dimension 3: Add Experience

TOPIC + PERSONAL EXPERIENCE

“I was working with a client who couldn’t figure out why her inbox was empty. Then I looked at her profile.”

I tell a real story. She was posting great content but her profile positioned her as a generalist. We fixed it. Three discovery calls in two weeks. The lesson lands harder wrapped in a story.

I could share ten more client stories. Different situations. Different fixes. Same core lesson about profiles.

Try this: Think about a recent client win, a conversation that shifted someone’s thinking, or a problem you solved. Wrap your expertise in that story.

Other Examples:

• Cybersecurity + Experience: One of our clients decided to cut corners, here’s what happened.

• Cybersecurity +Experience: Client’s careless employee cost them $20m getting hacked.

• Cybersecurity + Experience: When we audit clients, these are the 3 vulnerabilities they ignore.

The Maths

One topic. Three dimensions. Thirty posts minimum.

And that’s just LinkedIn profiles. I also talk about content, conversations, connection strategies, events, newsletters. Each of those topics multiplied by three dimensions.

You can dig down deeper and deeper into one topic and find endless ideas.

The best part is, they are all unique and we’ll have never been shared that way before.

I’ll never run out of ideas. Neither will you.

Your Next Step

Think about your expertise. What’s the topic you’ve already said everything about?

Run it through these three dimensions:

• Change the angle. Apply it to someone unexpected.

• Add perspective. Share the patterns only you can see.

• Add experience. Wrap it in a real story.

You’ll never stare at a blank screen again.

What’s your “said it a hundred times” topic?

Tell me in the comments and I’ll show you how to find new dimensions in it.

Subscribe now

In 2013, I was working as a consultant for a media company.

I got to travel all over the world.

The Middle East. America. I loved it.

For somebody from a working class background, son of a coal miner, my first big international trip changed everything. I went to the US on my own.

It changed my life.

Changed the way I saw the world.

Then a few years later, I started building my own business. That all stopped. And somewhere along the way, that business became me sat behind a desk, staring at a screen, doing work I didn’t enjoy.

I don’t know whether it was the pandemic or turning 40, but around 2022 something shifted.

I decided I was done with the desk. I wanted to travel again. I wanted to see the world.

Here’s how LinkedIn helped me make that happen.

Subscribe now

The Problem With Building a Business By Accident

I spent almost 10 years building a business unintentionally. I was on LinkedIn. I was making money. I was getting clients. But none of it was compounding into anything I actually wanted.

I was busy. I was successful by most measures. But I wasn’t building towards anything specific.

I’m not alone in this. 45% of small business owners want to quit but feel trapped running their businesses. 42% have experienced burnout in the past year.

Most people start a business for freedom and flexibility. Somewhere along the way, it becomes the very thing that controls their life.

That was me. Reacting to whatever came my way instead of designing something intentional. 56% of small business owners feel like they’re flying completely solo, solving problems with no clear direction. I was one of them.

Activity without intention is noise. And noise doesn’t build the life you want.

Designing the Business I Actually Wanted

I wanted to travel. That was the starting point.

The only way I could travel was to either build a business that gave me loads of free time (still haven’t figured that one out) or to have customers and clients in the places I wanted to go.

Despite me being the ‘master of my own destiny’ I was on of the 35% of small business owners that had no formal growth plan in place. I was winging it and I wasn’t happy with where that had got me.

So I got intentional. I shifted my whole LinkedIn strategy to build my business in the cities I wanted to visit. Miami. Orlando. Tampa. West Palm Beach. Dubai.

I started connecting with best fit prospects in those specific cities. I mapped out my audience by location. I built a network of people in the places I actually wanted to be.

My niche became something unexpected. I help people win clients on LinkedIn. But my niche, for me, is helping people win clients on LinkedIn in warm, tropical locations.

That’s not a joke. That’s my strategy.

Building Services Around Where I Wanted To Be

Connections weren’t enough. I needed reasons to go to these places.

I have some big corporate clients, which is great. But I also have thousands of small business customers. They’re not paying huge amounts individually, so I needed a different model.

I launched in person workshops in those cities.

Maverick now runs 150 of these workshops. We do them regularly in the places I want to go.

I’m writing this from Orlando. On Tuesday I’ll be in Tampa and West Palm Beach. On Friday I’ll be in Miami. Then I’m heading to Vegas.

This didn’t happen by accident. It happened because I was strategic about two things:

What I wanted my business to look like.

Where I wanted that business to come from.

Why This Matters For You

This is an article about social selling and LinkedIn. But here’s the truth: unless you define what you want out of your business, going on LinkedIn and making noise won’t help you.

You’ll get clients. You’ll make money. But you’ll end up like the 45% who feel trapped in something they built but never designed.

Before you post another piece of content, ask yourself:

• Who are the clients who will bring the most joy to what you do?

• Who do you actually want to work with?

• Where do you want to be in five years?

• What does your ideal week look like?

If you had to design your business from scratch today, what would it look like?

I spent a decade building something I didn’t want. Then in 2022, I got clear on what I actually wanted and relentlessly pursued it.

LinkedIn became the tool to make it happen. But the clarity came first.

TLDR

Define what you want your business to look like before you start making noise on LinkedIn.

Get clear on who you want to work with, where you want to be, and what your ideal week looks like. Then build your LinkedIn strategy around that. Your business should serve your life, not trap you in one you never designed.

What does your dream business look like?

I’d love to hear it.

Subscribe now

LinkedIn has over a billion users. Most of them are invisible.

They post. They comment. They send connection requests. Nothing happens.

Here is why:

• The platform is saturated. Everyone is shouting. Nobody is listening. Your content gets lost in a sea of noise. Your profile looks identical to thousands of others offering the same thing.

• There is no differentiation. When someone lands on your profile, they need to understand your value in seconds. Attention spans are brutal. If you look like everyone else, you get ignored like everyone else.

• There is no trust. People buy from people they know, like and trust. Most LinkedIn activity builds none of these. Random connection requests and generic posts do not create relationships.

• The message does not resonate. Too many coaches and consultants speak in vague terms. They talk about “transformation” and “results” without being specific. Vague messaging attracts nobody.

• The appeal is too broad. Trying to help everyone means connecting with no one. When you speak to a generic audience, your words land with zero impact.

• There is no process. Even when leads appear, most people have no system to nurture them. No way to move someone from stranger to paying client. Opportunities slip through the cracks.

The problem is never LinkedIn itself.

The problem is the approach.

The Fastest Way to Make Money on LinkedIn

I call it the Five Ones.

This is the foundation everything else builds on. Get this right and everything becomes easier. Get it wrong and nothing else works.

• One Problem. Choose a single, specific problem you solve. Not five problems. Not a category of problems. One problem that keeps your ideal client awake at night.

• One Offer. Productise your expertise into a clear, packaged solution. People do not buy “consulting”. They buy a defined outcome with a defined process.

• One Audience. Pick a specific group of people who experience that problem. Not “business owners”. Not “leaders”. A defined audience you understand deeply.

• One Message. Develop a clear, simple message that speaks directly to that audience about that problem. When people hear it, they should think “that is exactly what I need”.

• One Process. Build a repeatable system for finding leads and converting them to clients. Something you do week after week that consistently generates opportunities.

Most people spread themselves thin. They chase multiple audiences with multiple offers using multiple messages. They wonder why nothing gains traction.

The Five Ones forces focus.

Focus creates clarity.

Clarity creates results.

5 Ways To Make Money On LinkedIn

What Is Productisation?

Productisation means packaging your expertise into a defined offer with a clear scope, clear deliverables and clear pricing.

Instead of selling “I will help you with marketing”, you sell “I will audit your LinkedIn profile and give you a 30-day action plan to generate leads”.

One is vague and hard to buy. The other is specific and easy to say yes to.

Why Productise Instead of Bespoke?

Bespoke work means every project is different. You scope each one individually. You price each one individually. You deliver each one individually.

This is exhausting. It does not scale. And it makes selling harder because prospects have nothing concrete to evaluate.

Productised offers sell faster because buyers know exactly what they get. They deliver more consistently because you follow a proven process. They scale better because you are not reinventing the wheel every time.

The 5 Models

Here are five ways to package your expertise:

1. The Audit. You analyse their current situation, identify the gaps and give them a roadmap. “I find the problems and give you the plan.” Example: A LinkedIn profile audit with recommendations, or a sales process review with improvement priorities.

2. Productised Done-For-You. You build the thing for them using a standardised process. “I create the asset.” Example: Writing their LinkedIn content for a month, or building their lead generation system.

3. Consulting and Advisory. You guide their decisions so they move faster and avoid mistakes. “I advise so you execute better.” Example: Weekly strategy calls to review their approach and course-correct.

4. Implementation Support. You work alongside them as they execute, providing hands-on help. “I help you do the work.” Example: Co-working sessions where you guide them through building their system.

5. Fractional. You take ownership of a function and its results on an ongoing basis. “I own the outcome.” Example: Acting as their fractional head of business development, responsible for pipeline generation.

Pick the model that fits your expertise and your lifestyle.

Each has different time requirements, different pricing potential and different client relationships.

What Makes a Good Productised Offer

A good productised offer answers three questions instantly.

• What do I get? The buyer should know the deliverable in one sentence. “A 60-minute audit of your LinkedIn profile with a prioritised action plan.” Not “I help with LinkedIn strategy.”

• What does it cost? Fixed price. No “it depends” or “let’s scope it out.” A number they can say yes or no to.

• How does it work? The buyer needs to understand the process. How long does it take? What do they need to do? What happens after they pay?

Deliverable. Price. Process.

If your offer is missing any of these, the buyer has to ask questions before they can decide.

Every question is friction.

Every bit of friction reduces the chance they buy.

Make it obvious and you make it easy to say yes.

Why High-Ticket Wins on LinkedIn

Here is something most LinkedIn gurus will not tell you: selling low-ticket offers as your primary revenue source is brutal.

To make $10,000 per month selling a $100 product, you need 100 buyers.

Every single month.

That requires massive reach, constant content and a large audience.

To make $10,000 per month selling a $2,500 service, you need four clients. That is achievable through conversations, not volume.

LinkedIn is built for conversations. It is a relationship platform, not a broadcast platform. The algorithm rewards engagement, not reach. The format favours depth over breadth.

High-ticket services sell through trust. LinkedIn builds trust through repeated contact, valuable content and genuine connection. The platform and the pricing model align perfectly.

Low-ticket has its place. Use it as a “land and expand” strategy. A small purchase opens the door to a bigger engagement. But do not build your business around volume sales on a platform designed for relationships.

The sweet spot for LinkedIn is $2,000 or more per deal. At that level, you need a handful of clients to build a substantial income. That is achievable. That is sustainable.

How To Sell Your Productised Offer

Now for the practical part. Here is exactly how to make money on LinkedIn.

Step 1: Optimise Your Profile

Your profile is your shopfront.

When someone lands on it, they should immediately understand who you help, what problem you solve and why they should care.

Align everything to your Five Ones:

• Your banner should communicate your value proposition visually. Not your logo. Not a generic image. A clear statement of what you do for whom.

• Your headline should speak to your audience and their problem. “I help [audience] achieve [outcome]” works better than your job title.

• Your Services section should list your productised offers. Make it easy for people to see what they get.

• Your Featured section should showcase proof, resources or ways to work with you. This is prime real estate. Use it.

Step 2: Grow Your Network

Your network is your audience. The bigger and more targeted your network, the more opportunities you create.

Use Boolean search or Sales Navigator to find your ideal prospects. Boolean search uses operators like AND, OR and quotation marks to filter LinkedIn’s search results.

Example: “Marketing Director” AND “SaaS” AND London

This finds people with “Marketing Director” in their profile, in the SaaS industry, based in London.

• Add 20 connections every single day. Be consistent. Stick to one audience so your network fills with the exact people you want to reach

• Send connection requests without a message. Blank requests have higher acceptance rates than pitchy ones. The message comes after they accept.

Step 3: Send Thank You Notes

When someone accepts your connection, thank them. But do not pitch.

Quirky messages get better replies than boring corporate ones. “Hope you are well” is forgettable. Something unexpected is memorable.

After the thank you, engage with their content two or three times before reaching out again. Comment on their posts. React to their updates. Build familiarity before asking for anything.

This builds trust. It shows you are a real person who pays attention. It makes your next message land differently.

Step 4: Host a LinkedIn Event

This is where the money gets made.

Set up a LinkedIn event with a title focused on an outcome or pain point. Not “Marketing Webinar”. Something like “How to Get 5 Clients Per Month from LinkedIn Without Cold Outreach”.

Schedule it three to four weeks out. This gives you time to fill it.

Use the invite feature to invite your connections. LinkedIn lets you invite up to 1,000 people per week. Use that allowance. Every week. Your targeted network means these invites go to the right people.

If your audience and title align with the problems and outcomes your audience wants, you will easily get 150 people signing up. This means 150 people are interested in solving that problem or outcome.

You only need 2-3 clients, so you have more leads than you need.

Deliver a 30 to 45 minute live session. Mix client stories with helpful guidance. Share what works. Be generous with value.

At the end, offer to talk further with anyone who wants that outcome or is struggling with that problem. Share social proof conversationally. Not boring case studies. Real stories about real results.

People on the event have self-selected as interested in your topic. They have given you their time. They are warm.

Step 5: Follow Up

Everyone who registers for your event gets follow-up.

Two or three messages. Not pitching. Offering to talk more.

Your opportunity to make money comes from having conversations about their pains and challenges. Every conversation is a chance to understand their situation and show how you help.

Some will book calls. Some will buy. Some will not be ready now but will remember you later.

That is it. Repeat this process over and over.

This is how I built my business to seven figures. It is simple. It is repeatable. It works.

What Happens Next

You now have the system. The question is whether you will implement it.

Some people read guides like this and take action immediately. They get results.

Others read, nod along and then do nothing. They stay stuck.

If you want help implementing this, I run a programme called the Social Selling Accelerator.

It is a coaching, mentoring and implementation programme designed to help coaches, consultants and small business owners win clients on LinkedIn without cold pitching, chasing engagement or playing the volume game.

The focus is conversion, not attention. Resonance, not reach.

Inside, you get:

• A go-to-market strategy session defining your focus and LinkedIn priorities

• Lifetime access to the Signal OS framework and all five conversion paths

• Lifetime access to weekly live group coaching calls

• Implementation guides, templates and checklists so you know exactly what to do

• Lifetime access to the private community for ongoing support

Our clients typically sign two to three new clients per month once they implement the system.

If you want to learn more, book a call with my team. We will talk through your situation, your goals and whether the Accelerator is the right fit.

No pressure. No hard sell. A conversation to see if the Accelerator is a fit for you.

[BOOK YOUR CALL HERE]

Whatever you decide, I hope this guide helps. The system works. Now it is your turn to make it work for you.

There is an oversupply of coaches on LinkedIn.

The market is crowded, the noise is deafening, and most coaches struggle to stand out.

Many coaches have built their businesses on referrals.

That works well until it doesn’t.

When referrals dry up and they turn to LinkedIn, they flounder.

Here is why.

Why Most Coaches Struggle on LinkedIn

Coaches spend a lot of time doing hours with other coaches. This creates a shared language. This language then gets put into their marketing.

Coaches love words like “transformation,” “alignment,” “unlocking potential,” and “stepping into your power.”

Buyers don’t think in those terms.

They think in pains, problems, and outcomes.

They want to know what changes in their day to day life.

Coaches talk about what they do, not what it does. “I’m an executive coach” means nothing to a prospect.

• What problem do you solve?

• What does life look like after working with you?

Don’t cast a wide net.

Coaches often struggle to define a specific transformation because what fits one client won’t fit another.

So they try to appeal widely without the budget or time to take on a wide audience.

They end up competing with noise without the resources to do it.

And believe me, LinkedIn is noisy.

The Real Shift Coaches Need to Make

If you want clients to come to you, zero in on why people buy.

They don’t want coaching.

They want transformation.

A change from their current day to day to a specific better future.

Until you articulate that clearly, in language your buyers use, you will keep getting referrals and no opportunities from LinkedIn.

How to Win Clients as a Coach in 2026

You are a great coach.

You have a lot to give. Trying to do everything will burn you out.

Instead, own one problem and one audience.

Without this, you cannot build a message and approach that resonates.

Solve one real world problem via coaching. Yes, you solve many. You cannot market many and resonate.

Map out the problems you solve.

Then limit your focus so you gain traction more quickly.

On average, it takes 11 touch points for someone to actively consider buying from you.

If you are vague and woolly, you extend that by a factor of 5.

This is what many people miss about niching.

They think they are keeping their options open by appeal broadly.

In reality, they are creating confusion and friction.

They have market harder to overcome it.

Do you really want to slow down people “getting” your value or would you rather accelerate it?

Niching allows you to resonate and convert faster.

Pick one problem to solve.

Here is what a good niche looks like versus a bad one:

• Bad: “I help leaders get unstuck.” Why it fails: Vague. What does unstuck mean? Unstuck from what? Every leader has different challenges. This resonates with no one specifically.

• Good: “I help first time engineering managers stop losing their best developers in the first 90 days.” Why it works: Specific audience (first time engineering managers). Specific problem (losing developers). Specific timeframe (first 90 days). The right person reads this and thinks “that is me.”

• Bad: “Executive coach for senior leaders.” Why it fails: A job title, not a solution. No indication of what changes for the client. Isn’t that every executive coach?

• Good: “I help CFOs who have been promoted from finance director stop working 70 hour weeks and start leading strategically within 6 months.”

• Why it works: Clear audience (newly promoted CFOs). Clear pain (70 hour weeks, stuck in operational work). Clear outcome (strategic leadership). Clear timeframe (6 months).

Pick a Subset of Your Market

Not a million people. More like 20,000.

This is a corner of your bigger market that resonates with the problem you have chosen to own.

Now you own the problem and the audience more easily.

Let’s face it.

You don’t need hundreds of clients.

20 would probably max out your capacity.

A 20,000 person market is small enough to build your authority and brand, and big enough to sustain your business for the foreseeable future.

Map Out How the Problem Shows Up

Now you get specific.

How does that root cause problem show up in their day to day?

• What does it look like? What does it feel like?

• What are they saying to themselves?

This is where your message comes from.

Here is an example. If you coach newly promoted engineering managers who are losing developers:

• How it shows up: They are in back to back meetings. They have no time to code anymore and miss it. Their best developer handed in notice last month. They feel like an imposter. They are firefighting instead of leading. Their skip level meetings are awkward. They don’t know how to have difficult conversations. They got promoted because they were a great engineer, not because they knew how to manage.

• What they are saying to themselves: “I was better as an individual contributor.” “I don’t know what I’m doing.” “Why did I take this promotion?” “I’m going to get found out.”

This is the language you use in your content and profile.

Not coaching jargon. Their words.

Build Your Message

Your message needs to reflect across your profile, posts, and outreach.

The aim is that your audience sees their lived experience in what you share.

Not conceptually. Tangibly.

Use their common phrasing and words to describe their situation.

This does two things.

It causes them to pay attention.

And it builds massive trust, because you understand them.

Here is the difference:

• Vague message: “I help leaders develop their leadership skills and reach their full potential through personalised coaching programmes.”

• Resonant message: “You got promoted because you were the best engineer on the team. Now you are in meetings all day, your best people are leaving, and you feel like a fraud. I help first time engineering managers become the leader their team actually wants to follow.”

The second version describes their lived experience. It names the feelings they have. It speaks to them directly.

One important point on content. People don’t buy because they saw one post. They buy because they have consumed 2 to 4 hours of your content. That means a consistent message that builds trust, connects you with them, and deeply resonates with where they are at.

Content is your long game nurturing.

Build a Lead Generation Process

You cannot rely solely on content.

Placing your business and lead generation into the hands of an algorithm that owes you no loyalty is foolish.

It is a lottery, not a strategy.

You need a repeatable process.

My preferred approach is LinkedIn Newsletters and LinkedIn Events.

They favour depth over short form posting.

Over the last 5 years, I have hosted more than 200 LinkedIn events and generated more than 80,000 leads. I only need 200 clients per year and I am done.

This might seem overkill.

For you to close 2 to 3 clients per month, you need around 100 leads per month.

Why 100?

Some won’t be ready yet.

Some will need more nurturing.

Some won’t be a fit. That is why 100 matters.

One event per month is all you need.

Why LinkedIn Events Work So Well for Coaches

Most coaches tell me their biggest problem is not converting leads.

When they get on calls, they close the majority.

The issue is a flow of leads.

LinkedIn events solve that easily and quickly.

The reason I advocate for them so strongly for coaches is simple.

Trust.

Coaching is deeply personal.

It is not only “will this coach get me where I want to go?”

You have to fit.

The client needs to see you as a guide they want to work with.

Events let them experience you. They see how you think, how you communicate, whether you understand their world. That builds trust faster than any amount of content.

Watch my 60-min live on building a coaching business on LinkedIn:

The Beauty of This Approach

It does not require tons of activity.

Host an event once per month. Follow up and start conversations. Next month, repeat.

It is predictable. It is not all consuming. And it is easy for anyone to get started.

Your Action Plan for This Week

• Day 1: List every problem you solve as a coach. Write down at least 10. Be specific about the symptoms, not the root cause.

• Day 2: Pick one problem from your list. Choose the one where you have the most proof, the most passion, or the most experience. This is your focus.

• Day 3: Define your subset audience. Not “leaders” or “executives.” Get specific. What industry? What role? What stage of career? What situation are they in? Aim for a market of around 20,000 people.

• Day 4: Write down 10 ways this problem shows up in their day to day. What do they experience? What do they feel? What do they say to themselves? Talk to past clients if you need to.

• Day 5: Rewrite your LinkedIn headline using the problem and audience you have defined. Use their language, not coaching jargon.

• Day 6: Plan your first LinkedIn event. Pick a topic that addresses the problem directly. Something like “How [specific audience] can [solve specific problem] without [common frustration].”

• Day 7: Create the event on LinkedIn and invite your connections who fit your target audience.

Repeat the event monthly.

Follow up with every attendee.

Start conversations. Book calls. Close clients.

Next steps for you

If you’d want build that flow of leads each month - Schedule a 1:1 call with me

Most articles are written to inform.

Very few are written to convert.

This is a practical guide to writing conversion-focused articles using a simple five-part structure you can reuse every time.

Subscribe now

1. PROMISE

Earn the next 30 seconds or lose them forever

Your opening line has one job - make the right reader keep reading.

Not educate.
Not explain.
Not introduce yourself.

A strong promise is:

• Specific

• Outcome-led

• Slightly uncomfortable

Bad promise:

“In this article, I’ll explain how to write better content.”

Good promise:

“Why smart, [audience] write great content that never converts.”

If the reader doesn’t feel personally called out in the first line, you’re already behind.

Rule of thumb - if the promise could apply to everyone, it will convert no one.

2. PAIN

Make the problem feel expensive to ignore

This is where most articles fail.

They describe problems.
You need to diagnose them.

Pain is not:

• “You’re struggling to get leads”

• “You want more clients”

Pain is:

• Doing the work and seeing nothing happen

• Second-guessing whether it’s even worth posting

• Knowing you’re good at what you do, but being invisible

Name the specific frustrations your reader hasn’t said out loud yet. but might think and feel.

If they see their situation in your writing, you’re doing it right.

Remember - people don’t act when they understand the problem.
They act when they’re tired of living with it.

3. PICTURE

Show them the version of themselves they want

Now you shift gears.

Not features.
Not steps.
Not tactics.

Paint the after. The future where this problem is fixed.

What changes when this problem is solved?

• How does their week look?

• What stops being stressful?

• What becomes predictable?

Example:

Imagine publishing one article a week and knowing exactly who it’s for, what it does, and how it leads to conversations - without chasing engagement or playing the algorithm game.

This is emotional permission.
You’re letting them see themselves on the other side.

Logic comes later.
Emotion opens the door.

4. PROOF

Replace claims with credibility

By now, they’re interested.
They’re not convinced.

This is where most people panic and start listing achievements.

Don’t.

Proof is not bragging.
Proof is relevance.

Use:

• Short stories

• Specific outcomes

• Honest caveats

Example:

This is the same structure I use when helping consultants turn LinkedIn posts into sales conversations - not viral hits, but consistent inbound from the right people.

Notice what’s missing:

• No hype

• No inflated numbers

• No “game-changing” nonsense

Believability beats impressiveness every time.

5. PITCH

Make the next step obvious and small

If you’ve done the first four parts properly, this isn’t a hard sell.

Your reader has already decided.
They just want clarity.

Bad pitch:

“Let me know if you’d like to work together.”

Good pitch:

If you want help turning your content into a system that reliably creates conversations, here’s the next step.

One action.
One direction.
No menu of options.

Confusion kills conversion.

This is the same structure I use inside the Social Selling Accelerator to help people turn content and outreach into consistent leads and client conversations.

If you want help applying it to your business, book a call.

Subscribe now

Happy New Year!

Hope you’re head doesn’t hurt too much this morning.

One of the worst headaches I get is when I’m struggling with ideas about what to post.

So, I’ve put together 30 idea prompts which will draw out your knowledge and help you put your own spin on your niche and topic.

Here they are…

Subscribe now

Week 1: Challenging the Status Quo

Goal: Stop the scroll by being the “contrarian” voice in the room.

Mon: The Industry Lie

Prompt: “Stop doing [Common Advice]. Everyone says it’s the ‘best practice,’ but it actually causes [Problem]. Here is what to do instead.”

Tue: The Decision Logic

Prompt: “I don’t start a project until I can answer these 3 questions: [Q1, Q2, Q3]. If you can’t answer these, you aren’t ready to spend money.”

Wed: Busy vs. High-Value

Prompt: “In [Industry], it’s easy to spend 40 hours on [Low-value task]. But the real growth happens in the 2 hours you spend on [High-value task].”

Thu: The Messy Middle

Prompt: “A project was failing last month. Here is exactly where I messed up, the logic I used to pivot, and how we saved it.”

Fri: The Invisible Leak

Prompt: “Most people ignore [Small Symptom]. But in 6 months, that turns into [Expensive Disaster]. Are you ignoring it?”

Week 2: Proving the Thinking

Goal: Move from “service provider” to “strategic partner.”

Mon: The 2027 Prediction

Prompt: “By 2027, [Standard Tool/Skill] will be obsolete. The people who win will be those who master [New Skill] today.”

Tue: The Proprietary Framework

Prompt: “I use a system called ‘The [Your Name] Audit.’ Here is one phase of it and why it prevents [Common Error].”

Wed: The Unpopular Opinion

Prompt: “I might lose friends over this, but: [Bold Statement]. Here is why I’m willing to bet my reputation on it.”

Thu: Lesson from the Field

Prompt: “I was working with a client today and realized [Insight]. It changed how I think about [Topic] entirely.”

Fri: The Red Flag Checklist

Prompt: “5 signs your current [Strategy/System] is a ticking time bomb. If you see #3, stop what you’re doing immediately.”

Week 3: Quality of Thought

Show that you value standards over “easy” money.

Mon: The Starting Over Rule

Prompt: “If I had to rebuild my [Career/Project] from zero today with $0, this is the first thing I’d do. (Hint: It’s not what you think).”

Tue: The “No” List

Prompt: “I say ‘No’ to [Project Type] and [Client Type]. Here is why I refuse to take their money—and why it’s better for my actual clients.”

Wed: The Anti-Trend

Prompt: “Everyone is talking about [New Tech/Trend]. I’m ignoring it. Here is why I’m sticking to [Foundational Principle] instead.”

Thu: The Data Deep-Dive

Prompt: “I track one metric that most people ignore: [Metric]. Here is how it proves whether a [Project] is actually succeeding.”

Fri: The Cheap Option Tax

Prompt: “Hiring a junior to do a senior’s job doesn’t save you money. It just defers the cost. Here is the ‘tax’ you pay later in stress and rework.”

Week 4: Establishing Reliability

Prove that your results are a repeatable process, not a fluke.

Mon: The Talent Myth

Prompt: “[Success] isn’t about being ‘gifted.’ It’s about doing [Boring Process] every single day for 6 months.”

Tue: The Logic Shift

Prompt: “Before working together, my client thought the problem was [A]. After one hour, they realized it was actually [B]. Here is the shift.”

Wed: The Vendor Warning

Prompt: “A common lie ‘big players’ in my niche tell is [Lie]. They say it to sell you [Product], but you actually need [Solution].”

Thu: The 60-Second Audit

Prompt: “Ask yourself this one question: [Diagnostic Question]. If the answer is No, you have a gap in your [System] that needs fixing.”

Fri: The Stress Tax

Prompt: “How much is it costing you to carry [Problem] into another weekend? The mental load is more expensive than the fix.”

Week 5: Insider Methodology

Humanise the expert and show the “math” of your value.

Mon: The Competitive Edge

Prompt: “My most successful clients all have one habit in common: [Habit]. It sounds small, but it’s the reason they beat their rivals.”

Tue: The ROI Breakdown

Prompt: “My advice costs [X]. But it prevents [Disaster] which costs [10X]. Let’s look at the math of prevention.”

Wed: The “It Depends” Argument

Prompt: “If someone gives you a ‘simple’ 3-step answer to [Complex Problem], they’re selling you something. Real experts know it depends on [Nuance].”

Thu: Behind-the-Scenes

Prompt: “Here is a photo of [My Workspace/My Research]. This is the unglamorous part of being an expert that no one sees.”

Fri: The Result Trap

Prompt: “Stop hiring for ‘help.’ Start hiring for ‘outcomes.’ Here is the difference between a task-taker and a problem-solver.”

Week 6: The Authority Manifesto

Draw a line in the sand and create resonance.

Mon: The Bold Bet

Prompt: “In 3 years, the only people who will be ‘un-fireable’ are those who can [Specific Skill]. Are you building it?”

Tue: Sustainability

Prompt: “I don’t build things to work for a week. I build them to work in a year. Here is why ‘slow and steady’ wins in [Industry].”

Wed: The Non-Negotiable

Prompt: “I will never compromise on [Standard]. It has cost me clients in the past, and I’m okay with that. Here’s why.”

Thu: The Hard Way Logic

Prompt: “The ‘extra steps’ I take are exactly why my clients don’t have ‘surprise’ bills or failures 3 months later.”

Fri: The Weekend Audit

Prompt: “Before you log off: Check [A], [B], and [C]. If these are clear, you’ve earned your weekend. If not, let’s talk Monday.”

These won’t make you famous, but with your perspective, on your topic, for your target audience, they will get you LEADS.

Found this helpful? Don’t forget to subscribe to the newsletter and share this with others to help them kickstart their 2026 content.

Subscribe now

I’ve been in this game for 14 years.

For a long time, I did what everyone told me to do: I worked harder, I chased more leads, and I stayed “active.”

But even with a decade of experience, I was still stuck in the same cycles you probably feel right now—pitching, chasing engagement, and living at the mercy of the next referral.

My breakthrough happened in 2018.

I realised that “more work” wasn’t the answer. I stopped trying to supply more effort and started building a system that created demand.

That shift changed my life. It took me from the daily grind to building a seven-figure business and a team of 30 people.

It moved me from a “hunter” to an operator who owns a predictable engine.

📩DOWNLOAD: Download the full doc on how to do this here

Subscribe now

The Philosophy

Most people fail on LinkedIn because they treat it like a popularity contest.

They chase likes and aim for virality, but “views” don’t pay bills. This strategy works because it shifts the focus from volume to value. Instead of needing a massive audience to sell a cheap product, you are positioning yourself as a specialist who solves a high-stakes problem for a small, targeted group.

This is easily done in just 30 minutes a day because it removes the “noise.”

You aren’t creating content for the masses or scrolling aimlessly.

Instead, you are performing three surgical strikes daily: growing a hand-picked network, posting high-resonance insights, and starting direct conversations.

It is a lean, repeatable system designed to land 3–5 high-ticket clients a month—which is all you need to reach $10k.

Step 1: Identify a “Painful & Observable” Problem

Don’t pick a conceptual or “weird” problem.

It must be something your persona can see and feel right now.

• The Problem: It should be something that is hurting them, costing them money, or keeping them up at night. This can be financial, career-focused, or personal. Is the problem costing them at least $100k a year? - this means they’d pay $10k to solve it.

• The Persona: You must map out exactly who feels this problem the most. You want to focus on a small group so the problem is well defined and in your mind’s eye you can visualise and understand how it might be affecting them.

Too specific: I help CEOs called Adrian overcome self-doubt which stops them making decisions

Too broad: I help CEOs overcome self-doubt that stops them making decisions.

Goldilocks: I help tech CEOs in fast growing start-ups, overcome self-doubt and start making decisions.

Always think of 3 points of relevance -

• Person - Who are they? Role etc

• Place - What is their org, industry, etc

• Problem - What is going on for them?

For most people, their niche problem needs a total addressable market of 20,000. This will give them a sustainable flow of leads for many years.

If it’s not an observable problem, they won’t buy it. If it’s an outcome without a problem, it’s a nice-to-have. It has to be a concrete frustration.

Step 2: Build a High-Ticket Solution & “One-Pager”

The goal is to work with 5 people or less to hit your $10k goal.

It’s important to remember that for a prospect to invest $2k with you, they’ll need to mentally feel that it is worth $20k of benefit/relief.

Whilst you might not deliver a financial gain directly, every prospect will do their own maths. So, it’s smart, your one-pager helps them add up the benefits, but also the cost of not taking action.

• The Price: Focus on a “Quality Way” to solve the problem. Price your solution at $2k+

• The Asset: Create a simple One-Pager. This document must state:

  1. The specific problem you solve.

  2. Exactly how you solve it.

  3. The specific details of your package.

Avoiding “cheap” solutions means you don’t need a massive volume of customers.

Step 3: Position Yourself As A Specialist

Your profile must communicate that you are a specialist for that specific problem.

• Alignment: Your profile copy must speak directly to the Problem, the Persona, and the Offer.

• Update your banner, headline and about section. Use the 3 points of relevance.

• The Featured Section: You must link or pin your offer/One-Pager here.

This allows people to learn how you help them before you even talk to them.

When you connect with people, they check out your profile. Your profile then gives them relevant context and if they see relevance they’ll accept your request.

Step 4: Targeted Connection (5–10 Daily)

LinkedIn is “Rich Person’s Social Media”—use it to find your perfect-fit clients.

• The Action: Manually connect with 5 to 10 people every single day who fit the persona you identified in Step 1.

This brings them into your “network” so they start seeing who you are and what you’re about.

Step 5: Post “Resonant” Content

Forget about everyone else; post only for the 5–10 people you are adding daily.

The Content: Post a couple of times a week. Talk about the pains, how the problem feels, and give practical solutions.

The Resonance Test: To resonate, you must say exactly what they are thinking, feeling and going through.

Social Proof: If you have testimonials, put them out there.

When they see your content, they should think: “You are talking about exactly what I’m going through.”

Step 6: The “Soft-Ask” Messaging

After people have been in your network for a few weeks, reach out personally.

The Message: Ask two simple questions:

• Do you have this problem?

• Would you be open to looking at my ideas on how to solve it?

Here is an example:

Might have something for you [firstname]

Are you struggling with / to get [problem / outcome}?

If they say YES.

I’ve created a X-step process to achieve [outcome], are you open to looking at it?

The Close: If they say yes, show them your solution (your One-Pager) and book the call.

Waiting a few weeks before you send this means they’ve already seen your content and know you’re a specialist.

It gives them a chance to be more familiar with you.

Stop Playing the Volume Game. Start Winning Clients.

Most people on LinkedIn are effectively “professional beggars.” They are trapped in one of three exhausting cycles:

1. The Pitch-Slapper: Blindly spamming DMs only to be ignored, blocked, or deleted.

2. The Engagement Chaser: Performing for the algorithm, chasing likes and comments that don’t pay bills or put food on the table.

3. The Referral Waiter: Sitting by the phone, praying for a referral to drop while their revenue remains entirely out of their control.

I built a seven-figure business and a team of 30 people by doing the exact opposite.

I didn’t reach the top by being an “influencer” or begging for attention

I built it by installing systems that turns LinkedIn into a predictable revenue engine.

I’ve helped hundreds of people 1:1 and thousands through my workshops stop guessing and start winning.

If you are tired of the hustle, the noise, and the “hope-based” marketing, it’s time to move.

I’ve already built a seven-figure machine.

I can show you how to build yours.

Start Winning Clients

Subscribe now

A lot of brilliant people struggling with sales calls.

Whether it is the feeling of awkwardness of selling yourself or just not knowing what to do.

It’s not easy or cheap to get leads, so if you struggle with those calls it’s highly likely you’re losing money because you’re not closing deals that should close.

So, I’ve put together a simple framework for you to use on your next call:

Subscribe now

The GP Framework

Most anxiety on sales calls comes from the pressure to convert. That pressure makes you do silly things, like talk to much, explain to much and not listen to your prospective clients pains and needs. A good sales call won’t feel awkward, it will feel like an appointment with a Doctor.

A Good Doctor doesn’t come to appointments with an agenda to prescribe a specific treatment, a good doctor will want to understand the issue first.

Doctors are effective because they don’t persuade.

They help people understand their problem clearly, then recommend the obvious next step. Because the logic is clear and the intent is trusted, there’s no resistance. Good sales works the same way.

So, we do all our calls like a Doctor would….

Officially it’s called the Calgary–Cambridge model, which is used widely in consulting of all kinds.

This is what it looks like:

Once the pleasantries are out of the way, this is the exact structure you MUST follow:

Step 1. Opening – identify the problem

What you ask
A single open question. Something like: Can you walk me through what prompted you to have the call with me?

Why this matters

• The buyer frames the problem in their own words

• You learn what they think is wrong

• You avoid solving the wrong thing

What goes wrong if you skip it

• You start talking about a problem they don’t recognise

• They feel sold to instead of understood

Step 2. Symptoms – understand the shape of the problem

What you are doing
You are collecting facts.

• How long it’s been happening?

• What they’ve already tried?

• What currently isn’t working?

Why this matters

• It stops you guessing

• It shows whether this is a real issue or a minor annoyance

• Patterns start to appear

What goes wrong if you skip it

• You recommend the wrong solution

• You sound generic

• Trust drops because your advice feels detached from reality

Step 3. Impact – confirm the problem is worth solving

What you are checking
Whether the problem has a meaningful cost. How much is it impacting them, their goals and their day-to-day life.

This can be:

• Time

• Money

• Energy

• Emotions

• Missed opportunities

Why this matters

• Not all problems deserve action

• People only change when the cost of staying the same is higher than the cost of change.

What goes wrong if you skip it

• The call ends with “I’ll think about it”

• There is no urgency

• You mistake interest for intent

Step 4. Diagnosis – prove you understand the problem

What you do
You summarise their situation back to them.

Not word for word. But an overview of their position.

Why this matters

• This is the moment trust is earned

• People buy from those who understand their problem better than they do

What goes wrong if you skip it

• Your solution feels random

• The buyer can’t see the connection

• You sound like every other seller

Step 5. Recommendation – introduce the solution

What you do
You explain:

• What you recommend

• Why this approach fits their situation

Why this matters

• The solution now feels logical, not pushy

• The buyer can connect the dots themselves

What goes wrong if you skip earlier steps

• This feels like a pitch

• Objections increase

• Price resistance shows up early

Step 6. Agreement – decide what happens next

What you are doing
Checking alignment, not applying pressure.

Why this matters

• A “no” here saves everyone time

• A “yes” is cleaner and more confident

What goes wrong if you skip it

• You chase

• You follow up endlessly

• You mistake politeness for interest

The simplest way to remember this

Each step answers a question:

1. What is the problem?

2. How does it show up?

3. Does it matter enough?

4. Do I understand it correctly?

5. Is there a sensible solution?

6. Do we move forward or not?

Doctors follow this order for a reason.
Sales works the same way.

If you liked this or found helpful, please do two things for me

1. Subscribe for more content like this

2. Reshare it on your socials, so others can benefit.

Thanks and Happy New Year!

Subscribe now

I have to confess something.

Two of my favourite songs right now are Taylor Swift’s.

Opalite and Fate of Ophelia. If you show up to one of my events, they’ll probably be playing as background music.

Whilst I’m not a Swiftie, you can’t help admire how Taylor has built her music career and her audience of die-hard fans.

Her music is her content.

And people love it.

So, I want to share the Taylor Swift content strategy that you can deploy on LinkedIn.

#1 Every piece of content is based on her experience

If you look all of Taylors song’s map to a relationship, feeling or struggle she personally had.

I’d never want to date Taylor Swift.

Because if we broke up, she’d probably write a song about me.

But this is the power of her music, it’s coming from her own story.

Rather than presenting some factual information, she’s loading every song, with what happened to her, how it impacted her.

• What experiences have you had which can translate into content?

• How can you share your message wrapped up in your context?

• Instead of sharing stats, tell stories around the facts

• Get into the nitty gritty of the reality not just high level concepts.

#2 Her experiences overlap with audience experiences

If you look at Taylors music, it always is a shared feeling, something both the listener and the performer have seen or experienced. That create connection.

When audiences feel you see their world. When they can identify with what you are sharing, they resonate.

Resonating is simply just where they feel or see what you see.

You are in alignment.

• What feelings and experiences do my audience have, that’s I’ve seen too?

• What common struggles do we both have?

#3 Her message rotates around a small number of themes.

You can break down Taylors message into a small number of themes, which she circles in all her songs.

• Falling in love

• Losing love

• Being misunderstood or judged

• Growing up and changing

• Power, control, and reclaiming yourself

• Memory and meaning

Often we can try to talk about too many things when the reality is we need to circle just a small set of themes.

Notice as well, many of these themes circle feelings and emotions, not just events or situations.

• What are the evergreen themes you can circle?

• How can you share them in different ways, different media, contexts?

• Lock in 3-4 themes, start sharing your stories around them

• Rotate between them to give you diversity and prevent creative block.

#4 Her songs are about one thing

Coming to my favourite song. Fate of Ophelia. It’s about one thing. How she was rescued from heart break.

Her loss of love and how it was hurting her so badly.

The song was so popular it drove increased search for Ophelia.

Ophelia’s fate in Shakespeare’s Hamlet is tragic: after her father Polonius is murdered by Hamlet and she is cruelly rejected by him, she descends into madness, eventually drowning in a brook while gathering flowers.

There is one concept in the song…. Taylor was rescued from that fate.

There is a story, there is drama, there is emotion… but one clear point.

3 minutes and 46 seconds is devoted to that one point.

• Make one point in a post.

• Layer in a story or analogy.

• Show the stakes of why it all matters.

#5 She doesn’t over explain

Taylor didn’t spend 2minutes of the song giving context.

She didn’t tell us who Ophelia was.

She didn’t explain.

That removes the intrigue, the curiosity and frankly it would bore people.

She dived straight in.

She didn’t try to prove her point, justify her point or try to make it all make sense.

She just shared it.

Those who were curious then googled Ophelia.

This is something fundamental to lead generation and marketing.

Over-explaining tends to make people switch off.

They need just enough info to prompt them to want to take the next step.

Content isn’t about convincing, it’s about making people curious and wanting more.

That gap of curiosity keeps people coming back.

Too much info, overloads people, make people curious.

• Are you leaving a curiosity gap in your content or explaining everything?

• Don’t obsess about sharing “how to” instead post about “why”

Music. Tv shows. Movies. Posts.

They all do the same thing.

Hook the audience.

Help them resonate with the message.

Leave them wanting more.

That’s how you build die hard fans.

That’s what your need in your content.

Subscribe now

There is a sentence I hear a lot from people who sell services.

“What I do is hard to measure.”

It usually comes up when I’m helping people build their offer and we discuss the outcomes of their services. Sometimes it comes up when a client comes to me after no closing any business for a while, despite having leads.

At the moment someone decides whether to buy, they are not asking deep questions about philosophy or meaning. They are trying to determine one thing. They are asking something very simple.

Subscribe now

Is this worth $X?

They may never say it out loud. They might talk about timing, fit, or confidence instead. But that question is always there.

This is where things get uncomfortable.

We like to think that some kinds of work sit outside money.

Things like confidence, clarity, leadership, or support feel different. Softer. Less direct. Almost exempt. We think aspirational marketing can bypass that mental arithmetic. You can’t.

Buyers still weigh the price against what they believe will change. They think about whether this will help them make better decisions, save time, avoid mistakes, or stop problems from repeating.

Those things already have a cost:

• Bad decisions waste hours.

• Confusion slows work down.

• Weak leadership leads to people leaving.

• Low confidence shows up in lost sales.

So when someone tells me, “It’s hard to measure,” the real issue is not measurement. It is that the value has been left vague.

And vague value creates risk.

When the value is unclear, the price feels risky. It feels like a lot of money for something nice-to-have. When the price feels risky, people hesitate. When people hesitate, they delay or walk away.

This is not because buyers are unfair. It is because they are trying to protect themselves. They don’t want to invest their money for a low return.

The Mental Maths

Let’s say I offer mindset coaching - totally intangible.

Let’s say It’s $6k for 12 sessions.

People will not pay $6k unless their expected transformation outweighs the investment.

At the point of making a decision, your clients will go through their own mental maths.

They’ll weigh up…

• If this works, what gets better?

• How often does this problem happen right now?

• What does it cost me each time it happens? (time, stress, lost money)

• If this reduces that problem, how much does it really save me?

• How long before I notice a difference?

• What happens if I do nothing for another 6 months?

• What else could I spend £X on instead?

• Which option feels safer?

• If this only half works, is it still worth £X?

• If it does work, will I regret not doing it sooner?

They’ll assign numbers to this and compare it again your price. Then they’ll weigh it all up.

For you to sell successfully, you need to think about how your marketing, messaging and conversations can help frame these better.

The work, then, is not to defend the price or argue that you shouldn’t compare it against the price. The work is to make the change clear.

It doesn’t matter what you sell, when it comes to exchanging money, you’re offer will always be put through your clients mental maths. They’ll compare the price against the expected change.

• What is different after someone works with you?

• What problem does that difference reduce?

• What does that problem cost if nothing changes?

The answers do not need to be perfect. They just need to be honest and visible.

Because in the end, everything gets compared to money. Not because money is everything, but because it is how choices are made.

Nothing is exempt from that.

And the sooner you accept it, the easier selling becomes.

Subscribe now

LinkedIn no longer relies on simple signals like hashtags, clicks, or posting frequency.

It uses a large language model called 360Brew to understand meaning.

That’s a big shift.

Instead of asking “Did this post get engagement?”, LinkedIn now asks:

• What is this person actually about?

• Are they credible in this topic?

• Does their content match who they claim to be?

360Brew “reads” your profile, posts, comments, and interactions as one connected body of work.

Which brings us to your 360 profile.

What Your “360 Profile” Really Is

Your 360 profile is not a setting you can edit.

It’s the mental model LinkedIn’s AI builds about you.

It’s formed by cross-referencing everything you do on the platform, including:

• Your headline and About section

• The topics you post about

• How you comment on other people’s content

• Who engages with you, and how

• How people interact with your posts beyond likes

The goal of the AI is simple.

Work out who you are, what you know, and who should see you.

If your activity is unclear or inconsistent, distribution suffers.
If it’s focused and coherent, reach improves naturally.

The Signals 360Brew Actually Cares About

Here’s what LinkedIn’s current system seems to prioritise.

1. Profile Alignment

Your profile and your content should tell the same story.

If your headline says “B2B Sales Coach” but your posts bounce between mindset quotes, AI tools, fitness tips, and random takes, the model struggles to place you.

When the AI is unsure, it plays it safe and limits distribution.

Clarity beats creativity here.

2. Content Quality (Not “Virality”)

360Brew evaluates structure, logic, and usefulness.

It favours content that:

• Is clearly written

• Stays on one idea

• Develops a point logically

• Offers insight or experience

It actively downweights obvious engagement bait and recycled platitudes.

The days of “Agree?” posts doing heavy lifting are numbered.

3. Meaningful Engagement

Not all comments are equal.

The model looks at:

• Depth of comments, not volume

• Who is commenting, and their credibility

• Whether discussion actually progresses

Generic comments and engagement pods don’t help. In some cases, they hurt.

A smaller number of thoughtful replies from relevant people is far more valuable.

4. Saves and Dwell Time

This is one of the biggest shifts.

A post that gets saved or read slowly sends a stronger signal than a quick like.

That tells LinkedIn:
“This content was useful enough to come back to.”

That’s gold.

How To Optimise Your LinkedIn Presence For 360Brew

You don’t “game” this model.

You align with it.

1. Define Your Expertise (Clearly)

Your headline and About section should answer one question instantly:

“What problem do you help with?”

Be specific.
Be boring if needed.
Be obvious.

The AI uses this as the anchor for everything else you do.

2. Stay On Topic

Pick 2–4 core themes and stick to them.

That doesn’t mean repeating yourself.
It means exploring the same problem from different angles.

Consistency helps the AI understand:

• Who your content is for

• Who should be shown it

Random variety works against you now.

3. Write For Humans First

360Brew is very good at spotting AI-patterned writing.

Focus on:

• Natural language

• Clear openings

• One main idea per post

The first few lines matter more than ever. That’s where context is established.

If the opening is vague, the rest doesn’t get much help.

4. Create Real Conversation

End posts with prompts that invite thinking, not clicking.

And spend time commenting properly on other people’s content in your space.

Those comments are part of your 360 profile too.

They reinforce your expertise just as much as your own posts.

The Bigger Takeaway

LinkedIn is moving away from “who can hack engagement”
and toward “who is actually useful and consistent”.

That’s good news if you:

• Know your lane

• Have experience

• Prefer substance over theatrics

The algorithm isn’t something to beat anymore.

It’s something to make sense to.

And when it does, distribution tends to look after itself.

Next steps you can take...

1. Win clients on LinkedIn in 30-mins per day - Check out the Accelerator

2. Help your friends and followers, share the post.