Charles Miller

Facts:

- 90% of businesses fail
- 99% of content creators fail
- Most potential connections will ignore you
- Most jobs reject you if your resume isn’t good enough

Also facts:

- Thousands of new businesses succeed every year
- Thousands of new creators succeed every year
- Any connection can randomly answer you
- Any job can decide to give you a shot

Practicality is useful, but you should only use it to keep your risk at a level where it won’t ruin you if you fail.

Hold onto that, then let delusion take the wheel.

It might take you somewhere incredible.

👇

1. I have a free personal branding course for you. Most marketers would charge $100 for this. Subscribe to my newsletter to get it for $0.

2. I also offer personal brand growth/coaching starting at $300 and have a community. Go to my profile's featured section to learn more about both.

Pick one of those and check it out.

1st try = Hard, scary, probably will fail
2nd try = A little bit better
3rd try = A little bit better
Etc

Then, one day, you realize that whatever you're doing has gotten pretty easy.

Keep going.

Writing isn't about grammar and spelling.

It's about transferring energy and ideas to another person.

It's about making them feel something.

It's communication leading to emotion.

In school, your teachers looked for:

- Spelling errors
- Grammar errors
- Formatting issues
- Word choice nitpicks

In real life, readers look for:

- Interesting hooks
- Useful information
- Emotionally-resonant ideas

Most don't understand this.

If you do, you have an advantage.

I’m not a very social guy.

But I’ve forced myself to:

- Have DM conversations
- Do phone calls
- Go to events
- Form little partnerships

It’s been worth it for me.

I bet it’ll be worth it for you too.

👇

1. I have a free LinkedIn growth course for you. It’s just as good as the paid ones. Hit the “visit my website” button to get it.

2. I also offer LinkedIn growth/coaching services and have a community. Go to my profile's featured section to learn more.

Writing helps you:

- Communicate effectively
- Persuade people more
- Think better

I use it every day in:

- LinkedIn posts
- Newsletters
- Message in Copyblogger Academy

And the only way to get better at it is:

- Learn from the best
- Practice a ton
- Practice even more

Whatever you do in your career, learn how to write.

It’ll pay you for life.

👇

Most LinkedIn growth coaches sell courses for $100 or more.

I give mine away for free, it’s just as good as those paid ones, and it also comes with 67 viral post templates.

Hit the “subscribe to my newsletter” button beneath my bio to get it instantly.

Post Lab is here 🧪 Enrollment will close on the 15th at 5:00 EST. This is what you need to know…

When I create a new offer, it doesn't exist in a vacuum. Instead, it's a correction of what I see others doing in the marketing education space.

Here's what I saw when I did this recently:

1. A ton of self-guided courses. You pay a few hundred dollars, watch a couple hours of video, and then it's done. The creator says they'll keep updating it, but they barely (or never do). It's one dose of value. That's it.

2. A handful of offers that keep delivering more value but also keep charging you. In a lot of cases, that's $30+ every single month. These can be great, but subscriptions are annoying. Lots of people prefer to pay only once.

So I created something that:

1. Keeps delivering you more and more value. When you join Post Lab, you'll get access to video and written reports every week for years.

2. Gives you content ideas, formulas, and strategies, that help you sell and build a strong brand (not just get likes and build a following).

3. Grants you instant access to my top hooks, formulas, and ideas. I'll also break down my unique posting philosophy that gets you growth, brand trust, and sales all at the same time.

4. Only charges you once. Which means you pay a reasonable price today, and then you get these weekly editions for years without ever having to pay again.

One great idea, strategy, or insight can change everything. It did for me 7 years ago when I first got into this game (you can read that story on the landing page).

Now I want to pass that along to you too.

Hit the “visit my store” button beneath my name and bio to get it.

Enrollment closes right at 5:00 EST on the 15th.

I won't let anyone join even a second after that.

If you want in, do it ASAP.

P.S. Why did I choose this photo? Because the first time I posted it, it got me 100,000+ impressions, 100+ email subscribers, and $1,000+ in sales. This is the kind of content I’ll help you understand and recreate for yourself in Post Lab.

Building my personal brand started as a 60 minute per day habit. It wasn’t my main concern.

I spent the rest of my day:

- Looking for clients
- Servicing the ones I already had
- Thinking about how to expand my freelance practice

But I thought that a following would be nice to have, so I started trying.

6 months in, things took off, and it’s been a life-changer.

Whatever you want, give it an hour a day for a year.

You might be surprised when, after a few months, you start winning.

👇

1. I have a free personal branding course and 67 viral post templates for you. Most marketers would charge $100 for this. Subscribe to my newsletter to get it for $0.

2. I also have personal brand growth/coaching services starting at $300 and a community for DIYers. Go to my profile's featured section to learn more about both.

Pick one of those and check it out.

A guy with a $50m+ net worth once told me:

“As long as you’re ethical, be shameless. You’re not gonna regret putting yourself out there too much. You probably will regret doing it too little.”

Adopting this philosophy was a struggle for me early on.

I’m naturally more introverted and private.

But, through exposure, I learned how to promote myself without feeling shame.

Now I network, do outreach, and sell my offers in almost every piece of content I create - all without feeling any negative emotion.

With enough practice, you can do the same.

👇

Most LinkedIn growth coaches sell courses for $100 or more.

I give mine away for free, it’s just as good as those paid ones, and it also comes with 67 viral post templates.

Hit the “subscribe to my newsletter” button beneath my bio to get it instantly.

I’ve been a freelance writer for 7 years and a content creator for 6 years…

And I feel like I just figured things out about 6 months ago.

Both of those games take time.

Every career takes time.

Every serious goal takes time.

Keep going.

👇

1. I have a free personal branding course for you. Most marketers would charge $100 for this. Subscribe to my newsletter to get it for $0.

2. I also offer personal brand growth/coaching starting at $300 and have a community. Go to my profile's featured section to learn more.

Pick one of those and check it out.

Copyblogger’s Personal Brand Accelerator opens enrollment tomorrow. It’ll stay open for 3 days. Then it’ll close for at least 3 months.

One person in our last cohort went from $5k MRR to $25k MRR.

Another gained 40,000 followers in 3 months.

Get ready to join.

In the meantime, here’s a great reminder from my partner 👇

ChatGPT is a mediocre writer.
But it's an amazing ideator.

Here's why this prompt works:

1. Pain points are emotional. When you write about them, you catch attention and inspire strong emotion.

2. Solutions are profitable. When you offer them, you get likes, followers, and interest in your offers.

Try this next time you brainstorm ideas.

I bet you'll get inspiration for at least 10 posts.

I get told off in the DMs at least once a week. Ignored dozens of times. Rejected a few.

I've also spent years:

1. Getting ignored and rejected
2. Having ideas I loved not work out
3. Closing down companies and projects
4. Showing up when I don't feel like it at all
5. Doing the same boring stuff over and over

Whatever you do for work, I bet you have to do the same if you want to make serious progress.

So:

- Humble yourself a lot
- Harden your heart a bit
- Build up your discipline a ton
- Have zero expectations for success
- Keep showing up for years no matter what

You're gonna need all five.

My first client treated me terribly. But I couldn't quit because I wouldn't have enough money to pay rent if I did.

That's a reminder that:

- Money isn't just for buying things
- You can also use it to buy freedom
- If you have very little, you'll be trapped

What finally made that click for me was getting fired by that client and having to scramble to replace the income.

Then I kept hustling to get way more, so something like that would never happen again. No matter what.

Don't wait till disaster to start moving.

Get yourself some leverage right now.

The biggest thing that marketers and creators don't understand, or don't like to think about:

1. There are thousands of other people who sell exactly what you sell, and they're taking a lot of your possible customers.

2. If you want to win, you need to accept that and adjust accordingly. No just "doing you" and hoping it'll work out.

3. The way you address it is through differentiation, uniqueness, and positioning (which are all basically the same thing).

4. The way you get those is through niche specificity, philosophy, an especially friendly offer, and your personality.

So, don't ignore the competition.

Especially if you're a service seller.

Instead, differentiate from them.

Combine that with proof, and you'll win.

These were the 7 biggest factors that led to that ramp up around 2018 (so you can level up too):

1. Refining my skills. Results are the foundation of success. If you're not good at what you do, there's no way to overcome that.

2. Getting proof of those skills. Saying you're good does nothing. You have to show it with specific results/outcomes created.

3. Learning how to build offers. I used to just be a copywriter who would do whatever. Selling something specific helped a lot.

4. Positioning. Being good is most important, but being different helps too. Figure out what makes you unique.

5. Building a personal brand. Inbound leads and referrals have made up the vast majority of my revenue over the years.

6. Not being shy about selling or networking. This was tough for me, but if you don't talk to people, you'll never win.

7. Consistency. Yeah, it's cliche, but it's true. This stuff takes forever. You have to keep showing up to have any shot.

Those are the basics.

My Academy gets into all the specifics.

Join for $1. I'll meet you inside.

I keep seeing that same LinkedIn profile mistake. It's driving me nuts. Here it is, so you don't make it...

First, the specific one:

Calling yourself a "leader" or "expert".

Those are things others should call you.

Not things you should call yourself.

But there's a broader point here.

It's an old writing rule:

Show. Don't tell.

Telling is labeling yourself:

- Copywriting expert
- B2B marketing leader
- Master ghostwriter

Showing is proving that claim:

- Analytics screenshots
- Total revenue driven
- Testimonials

A bit of nuance:

1. Some offers (ones without quantifiable results) are harder to show with, but you can always find a way to do it. Spend some time to figure out how to show.

2. It's often a good idea to show and tell. Not just show. But I still wouldn't use a cliche label. Something straightforward or with positioning in it would be better.

I wrote a mini-essay on this in my Academy recently. It was one of 7 mini-essays that week, along with 2 new videos and the 6 courses that always live in there.

Join us for $1 and check all that out.

This is a cool story. But there are two additional details you need to know about if you want to do something similar:

1. I was very good at what I did. The service was ghostwriting and social media growth. If I wasn't good, I probably wouldn't have gotten the referral. If I did, I would've had the clients churn out quickly. You have to have proof that you know what you're doing, and you have to deliver results that are clearly more than your client is paying.

2. I had a personal brand. That's how the guy found me. If I didn't have that, I would've never even had the opportunity to have a conversation. Being known compounds that power of being trusted. By a lot.

My Academy is all about stuff like this.

Join us for $1 and see what's inside.

This is funny. But persuading clients and employers doesn't come from jargon. Here's how to actually do it:

(I talk about these in my Academy all the time)

1. Show You Can Deliver Results

- Specific results driven in the past
- Total/general results driven
- People/brands worked with/for
- Portfolio of work (if applicable)

2. Show That You're a Bit Unique

- Specializing in a certain niche
- Having a unique philosophy
- Your offer being especially friendly

3. Show That You're Likable

- Don't be afraid to show your personality
- Use a bit if humor if it comes naturally to you
- Make it clear that you get along with others

4. Show That You're Low-Risk

- One and three above both do this too
- A service seller can add a guarantee to their offer
- Be generally reliable and professional

If you do all those, you'll get hired and sell.

If you don't you'll struggle.

Elon Musk keeps telling people to delete LinkedIn. I keep telling people to go all in on it. Here's why:

1. It has more decision makers on it than every other platform. That means getting hired full-time and for freelance gigs.

2. Users are high-budget in general. Even if you want to sell to consumers, most people on here have some cash to spend.

3. Users are more positive and friendly than other platforms. You'll get some hate here and there, but it's a better community overall.

4. I've seen massive success stories firsthand in my Academy. Adding $20k MRR in a few months, closing $50k deals, and more.

I'm such a believer in it that my Academy is now 90% devoted to it. It used to be more generally about content marketing.

Join us for $1 if you want to learn how to use it properly (profile setup, content, cold outreach, basic funnels, etc).

I'll meet you inside 🤝

This is an awesome win. But let's make it useful. Here are the 3 best post types for generating sales:

1. Pure results. Though these don't get much engagement, they're very persuasive to current followers, and they live on your profile so that people who find you later might see them too. You can post case studies, testimonials, screenshots of results driven, and other stuff like that.

2. Results + value. I like this better than the first. It's when you show or mention a result, but you also give your audience something applicable, like a strategy. This post is an example of it. The reason it works better is that the value generates engagement, which means more people see the result too.

3. Opinions about what you do. For example, I used to close a ton of clients by talking about content that generates leads, not just likes. That's a common angle now, but when I was using it years ago, it wasn't. This differentiated me from other ghostwriters and made service sellers more likely to hire me.

Viral bait is fine for certain purposes.

But it rarely leads to sales.

If you want to earn, work those into your strategy.

As I've been saying a lot lately:

1. I don't completely hate AI
2. It just doesn't do great work
3. It does do okay work quickly
4. But certainly nothing great

When AI companies aren't even using or getting results from their own tools, you know there are issues with this technology.

Here's what I tell people in my Academy:

- Learn the foundations of persuasion ASAP
- Use them to do manual work right now
- Use AI as an assistant if it helps you
- If AI gets better, start using it a lot
- Use those foundations when you do

I say my Academy makes you "AI-proof."

Not because I'm teaching prompts.

But because I'm teaching:

- Foundations
- Strategy

Learn those, and you'll be fine no matter how good AI gets, or if it doesn't become great at all.

Some people find this story motivational. But there's an applicable lesson in it for service sellers:

Don't charge by the hour.

(Unless your service requires you to)

If you charge hourly, prospects will have a limit for how much they're willing to pay that's just based on what "seems like too much."

Instead, charge:

1. By the month (or some other period)
2. By the result (like a revenue share)

That way, you're separating time from money, and you can potentially earn $1,000+ an hour without explicitly charging that much.

Someone in my Academy charges $5,000 a month for conversion-rate optimization. On his end, that means:

- 2 hours a month brainstorming tests
- 2 hours a month implementing tests
- Doing over $1,000 per hour

But on his clients' end, they get:

- Consistently rising CR%
- An extra $15,000+ in profit every month

So they're happy too.

Charge for results. Not time.

That's how you level up.

This meme is real. But let's make it useful. The 3 most important ingredients for getting up to $100+ per hour:

1. Proof. Nothing persuades better than showing that you've delivered great outcomes in the past. You often have to work for free or cheap to get that proof, but once you do, use it everywhere. Profile, DMs, content, landing pages, and more.

2. Positioning. If you have enough proof, you don't need to be unique, but it helps no matter what, and it especially helps before you get your proof. You can make yourself different through some combination of niche specificity, philosophy, and offer.

3. Selling yourself skillfully, consistently, and shamelessly. There's about 25 hours of education on this on my community, so I won't try to summarize in one post. But you should be networking, sending sales messages, and posting almost every day.

None of those are easy.

But they're doable.

If you want it, work for it.

Never be ashamed of:

- Getting fired
- Shutting down a business
- Never using a skill you learned
- Being rejected by anyone in any way

Be proud of losing.

It's a sign that you tried.

And an opportunity to get better.

Hope you're having a good week ✌

Fun story. But let's make it useful. Here's what I did differently from almost anyone using or teaching on this platform:

I focused on persuasion and conversions.

In everything I did. Profile, posts, DMs, etc.

You might say "obviously, we all do that."

But from what I've seen, almost nobody does.

This meant I wasn't:

- Posting goofy selfies
- Talking about burnout
- Writing anything with AI
- Scrolling my timeline a ton
- Networking without a purpose
- Focusing on value instead of sales
- Posting workplace leadership platitudes
- Posting random listicles and infographics
- Complaining about or calling out other creators

Instead, I was:

- Building awareness for my offer
- Building trust in me and my offer
- Sending conversational sales DMs
- Treating my profile like a sales page
- Differentiating from my competition
- Treating my content like advertisements
- Networking with potential referral partners

Again, those all might sound obvious to you. But the secret is in the subtleties, not the high-level strategy.

These days, I:

- Trade stocks
- Take about 1 consultation a week

If you want one of those consults, grab it.

I'd love to help you build a persuasive brand.

One that gets consistent conversions.

Happy Wednesday ✌️

Elon Musk: "Delete your LinkedIn"
Me: Used LinkedIn to semi-retire at 32 years old

Book a consult and I'll give you 1v1 help with:

- Profile
- Positioning
- Offer (if needed)
- DMs (sales and networking)
- Content (no goofy selfies or cliches)

You've seen all those words before.

Maybe you've even gotten education on them.

But in my experience, 99% don't do them right.

Especially when learning from a "LinkedIn coach" who has only ever successfully sold LinkedIn coaching.

Grab your intro 15 minutes.

Then I'll spend 2 more hours on whatever you need (usually Loom videos and profile rewrites, not conversation).

Talk soon ✌

Funny meme. But also true. Here are 5 factors that took me from $500 clients to $5,000 clients:

1. Offers. That includes your full paid offer and the small free offer you use to get your foot in the door.

2. Optimized profile. That mostly comes down to clarity, proof, and positioning. 99% of people on LinkedIn do this wrong.

3. Conversational sales outreach. No hard pitches. But also no pretending you're not selling. Gotta find the sweet spot in between.

4. Persuasive content. That doesn't mean cliche posts about leadership. It means raising awareness and trust for your offer.

5. Results. When you create serious ROI, you can prove your skill and charge serious prices. Simple to say. Difficult to do.

I can't teach you how to get skilled.

That's a yearslong project.

But I can help you sell skill a lot more.

Book a consult to make that happen.

Talk to you soon ✌

There's a reason why my Academy has:

1. A course on cold outreach, which covers both sales and networking and gives you rough templates for both.

2. Guidance on how to get referrals from current clients and network connections at the end of that course.

3. A personal branding course, which makes all your networking efforts much easier because your profile/brand are optimized.

4. A content course, so you can attract opportunities to you instead of having to seek all of them out.

The reason is that network is absolutely crucial.

Invest in yours. Every day or close to it.

It takes a while to start paying off.

But it's 100% worth it.

Two stories. One from 7 years ago. Another from a few months ago. We'll start with the old one:

My first major client was pretty awful.

Rude. Bad pay. Demanding. Easily angered.

But I only had two clients at the time, and the bad one accounted for about 70% of my income. I was stuck with him till I fixed that.

I didn't have options, so I put up with it.

Now here's the newer one:

I booked an extremely high-budget client.

He paid me more than any client has ever paid me.

But he wasn't good to work with either.

Demanding. Inconsistent. Abrasive.

So, I politely told him our first month would also be our last. That meant walking away from $60k+ over the next year, but it was worth it.

Lessons:

1. Get money, so you can walk if you want
2. Get options, so you can fall back on them

The more leverage you have, the better.