The best LinkedIn Posts

In my 20, I started working for my dad’s business, and I was making 35 to 55 thousand dollars a year, but I had no expenses. I didn’t go on vacations. I didn’t buy fancy things.

A lot of you think it’s just imperative to make 100,000 dollars from the start. You’re wrong. You have so much time.

So I saved my money, and I saved my money and I saved my money some more. And then when I was 33 and 34 I had hundreds of thousands of dollars. I didn’t have millions. I had hundreds of thousands of dollars. I didn’t own a fancy car, or a watch, or a suit for that matter. I kept my expenses low. I hadn’t bought a home. I was still living in an apartment.

I was 33 years old and I was renting an apartment because I was saving cash to go on the offense. And so when I had a chance to invest in those companies, I put hundreds of thousands of dollars on the line, not millions, but those hundreds of thousands made millions. They made tens of millions.

And so, that’s it. Nothing crazy … I didn’t have any ridiculous unfair advantage or leverage. In fact I had so much less than so many of you coming out of Stanford and Harvard and Penn with the contacts and the network and the money. I didn’t have the internet! You people are growing up in the greatest era for entrepreneurship of all time. There are literally kids who have an iPhone and 600,000 followers, or millions, even....it’s just insane!

But the point is this.

There’s a lot of people that make 55 thousand dollars a year when they’re 23. The problem is they go to Coachella, and they want to buy a watch, and they want to buy a BMW, and I didn’t. I ate shit for 13 years, and then when I had an opportunity I struck. I’m ultimately patient. It’s what I do.

Are you willing to put in the time and wait??

The older I get, the more I realize self-confidence makes all the difference.

It's not about being book smart.
It's not even about "taking action."

It's simply about believing that you can do anything you want.

For example, I am unashamedly confident that I can solve nearly any problem that you give me.

I don't think of it as arrogance.

I just think that problem-solving is fun and that all problems have solutions.

Especially if you approach them with optimism and a passion for difficult challenges.

Almost every exceptional person I know is wired this way.

They're done solving big problems before the pessimist is even finished complaining about how it "Can't be done!"

So, if I could give you any advice in your work/career/life, it would be this:

Be the optimist.
Be the problem-solver.
Believe intensely in yourself.
And steer clear of those who don't.

If you enjoyed this thought, you'd probably like my weekly essay.

Every Saturday, I write a short one on work, money, and a life built on purpose.

It's read by over 180,000 people weekly.

Here's this Saturday's: https://buff.ly/FvXFtjv

As an ex-LinkedIn employee, I reviewed hundreds of profiles. 
Here's the #1 mistake killing your reach:

➡️ YOUR PROFILE AND CONTENT DON'T MATCH ⬅️

You might be playing two different games on the same board.

Tim Jurka, VP of Engineering at LinkedIn, confirmed this in his newsletter last month.

The algorithm ranks content based on:

→ Your skills
→ Your experience
→ The content you’ve shared
→ Your overall profile positioning

Aka, LinkedIn is asking:
“Is this person actually qualified to talk about this subject?”

❌ If NO = Your reach is solely dependent on your EXISTING networking.
✅ If YES = LinkedIn pushes your content BEYOND your network.

Here’s your strategy:

1️⃣ Check IF your profile and content currently match:

→ Copy your LinkedIn profile URL into AI and use this prompt:
→ "Based on this LinkedIn profile, give me the 5 topics you would expect this person to talk about."

✅ If the results match your content = You're golden.
❌ If they don't = Your content won’t be travelling far. Go to Step 2.

2️⃣ Now, be crystal clear what you want to be known for:

→ Fill in these blanks (WITHOUT AI!!):
→ "As someone who [credibility], I help [who] achieve [result] by [method], without [constraint]."
→ Doesn't matter if it's long or messy, just get it out of your head first. Then onto Step 3.

3️⃣ Update your profile by using this prompt:

"Revamp my current LinkedIn profile based on my statement below.
Please give me:
→ 3x LinkedIn Banner wording options with a CTA
→ 3x LinkedIn Headline options
→ Rewritten About Section
→ 5x Top Skills to add
→ Rewritten Experience Section
[Insert your manually written statement]"

Now your profile actually supports your content.
Crazy concept.

4️⃣ Then, engage with the right people:

→ When you scroll your feed, connect and engage with people who are relevant to your target audience.
→ Unfollow, or mark as "not interested", any irrelevant creators.

5️⃣ And always craft high-quality content:

If your content is:

❌ Generic
❌ Full of AI
❌ Engagement baity
❌ Overly salesy

It’s the equivalent of losing your queen. 🏴‍☠️

LinkedIn pushes content that is:

✅ Original
✅ Thought-provoking
✅ Worth engaging with

It'll be shown as "suggested" in the feed of people outside of your network.

That’s how you win the game.

🚨 NOTE 🚨

Nobody knows *exactly* how the algorithm works.
This is just a simple starter guide to ensuring your foundations are in place.

If you want a full deep dive, rewatch my most recent 2h+ Masterclass: https://lnkd.in/gdTUjTem

___

PS: I’m significantly better at LinkedIn strategy than I am at chess with Alex.
#WhyDoestHeAlwaysWinForFuckSake

"What advice would you scream at 10 year old Steven?".. someone asked me at our event in Germany this week... my answer👇🏾

The things you love at 8 years old are more aligned with your true nature than the things you think you should love at 25...

because as a kid you don't perform passion, you just follow it...but adults perform what they were told passion is allowed to look like

therefore, to find yourself, you probably don't need to look forward - you probably need to look backwards

also, all these people you're desperately trying to impress won't be in your life in a couple years - the energy you're wasting trying to fit in should be spent on things that actually matter - future you will be annoyed that you wasted so much worry on all these temporary people, and neglected the permanent people.

someday all the ways that people think you're weird, different and strange - all the things you're currently trying to hide - will be all the things you value the most...your quirks will become your competitive advantages, your weirdness will become your worth.

And....nobody cares

they don't really care when you succeed, and they don't really care when you fail. Not because they don't love you - but because people are so busy focused on themselves - that they don't have the space to think about you all that much.

Let this be your permission to take on hard challenges, fall flat on your face, pick yourself back up, and try again, and again, and again and again.

.....Funnily, the advice you’d give your younger self is usually the same advice you need to hear now.

What is one piece of advice you would give a younger version of you? 💭

Most founders don't take their personal brand seriously, because they think it takes too much time.

Here's a simple structure I use to create 30x pieces of content in < 60 mins of my time every week.

1. Team interview me on topics I want to talk about.
2. We record the interview.
3. The answers are turned into short, 30-90 sec videos.
4. We add captions (tech like CapCut does this automatically).
5. We then export the video AND the SRT file (the text file of the captions).
6. Video goes on TikTok.
7. SRT file gets pasted into LinkedIn. Add context or image if you want - this post came from a video.
8. If both do well, we turn the text into a carousel on Canva for Instagram last. Because instagram is the hardest to grow on.

This is the main reason I record all of my content in video format.

Even if I end up hating the video, the idea and the content is documented - and can therefore be executed by my team, without much more of my input.

If you can't find 30-60 mins a week to build your founder brand, your competitors will.

💜

A lot of B2B marketers treat MQLs as the finish line:

- "They signed up for a webinar, it's sales' job now"
- "This inbound lead booked a call already, we're good"
- "The interactive Q1 2026 report generated 500 MQLs"

They see GTM as a linear flow:

Marketing → Lead (MQL) → Sales

And often, it's not their fault. It's just the way the business built the GTM function: in silos.

But here's the truth:

An inbound lead doesn't necessarily mean a sale.

- A lead can book a call, then ghost.
- A lead can come to a webinar, then ghost.
- A lead can download 20 resources, then ghost.
- A lead can follow the sales process, then turn cold.

Now, here's where it gets interesting.

Marketers still have a lot of influence after a lead is "marked as MQL."

Here are 4 inbound-first workflows that make sense in 2026:

1. Workflow 1: Tier-based Sequence

Sort MQLs by fit score and run a different sequence for each tier. Your best-fit accounts get custom ABM, the rest are invited to a group webinar.

2. Workflow 2: Educative VSL

Instead of a "book a call" page, you host a short VSL presenting your offer. Then, you follow up by contacting them to book a follow-up call.

3. Workflow 3: Sales Enablement Content

Here, the content team creates sales enablement content for the sales team. In 2026, each piece of content can be personalized with AI.

4. Workflow 4: Inbound-led Outbound

Collect website signals and downloads to personalize and automate outbound sequences. Get higher reply rates by focusing on high-intent leads.

How I would start a personal brand on LinkedIn in 2026

*when literally everyone has suddenly decided LinkedIn is worth their time and the bar is higher*

I would tell myself …

1. Your fear of being judged is the content.

I cried the first time I posted (that’s how scared I was of what my employer would think).

I posted anyway and realised that the fear of being seen is what so many others are feeling.

Being honest about my actual experience connected me with them.

They are the ones who became my first loyal followers.

2. Your life is the story, your story is the content.

The posts I get the most DMs about aren’t about strategy or systems or how I 4x’d my salary.

They’re about being covered in acne, 10kg heavier, or seven months pregnant and trying to run my business with my head in the loo with morning sickness.

Nobody shares that version and that is exactly why you should.

3. Build for one person, not the algorithm.

Every post I’ve written that actually converted had one very specific person in mind.

Not a demographic or ICP but a real life actual person.

Like someone I had a conversation with that week or a comment I read on my posts.

You don’t need years of post ideas sitting in your notes that never see the light of day to figure this out.

You just need to start before you feel ready

(which, for the record, is never).

Viele beschweren sich über "harte Arbeit".

Dabei haben sie nie wirklich hart gearbeitet.

Ich auch nicht.

Ja, ich hab auch mal 16h Tage.

Oder hatte meinen 1. Job mit 13.

Zeitung austragen, kellnern, Kisten schleppen.
Studium mit Musik und Nebenjobs finanziert.

Aber ganz ehrlich:

Ich sitze heute im Warmen an meinem Laptop.
Mit Kaffee und der Freiheit, selbst zu entscheiden.

Mein Papa dagegen?

Der stand früher stundenlang auf der Baustelle.
Bei Wind und Wetter.

Oder Menschen in Pflege, Service, Sozialberufen.

DAS ist hart arbeiten.

Wir an unseren Laptops?
Das ist ein Privileg.

Sei dankbar für das, was ist.