Matt Barker

3 years ago I was single, 28lbs overweight and lived in a 6 bed house share in London.

2 years ago I met my girlfriend Serine, had lost 36lbs and moved in with my best mate Brad.

1 year ago I moved in with Serine, then moved to Cyprus and quit my 9-5 job.

9 months ago I started my own copywriting business, posting on LinkedIn and getting a tan.

Now, I have:

- Sun
- Health
- Love
- Wealth (relatively for me)

4 things I didn't have 3 years ago.

I'm happy.

P.S. if anyone visits Cyprus, this pic is taken at Cavo Greco at sunset. It's beautiful.

12 months ago I left a £35,000/year job in London with nothing lined up.

I was still working from home from the pandemic. We had no office.

It was very cushty. Challenging, but cushty.

Me and my girlfriend decided we wanted to try living in Cyprus.

So I asked to continue working remotely.

No dice.

I handed my notice and off me and my girlfriend went to Cyprus with:

- No job
- No LinkedIn presence
- 1 months salary each leftover

F**K.

-

Shortly after I resigned, I posted on LinkedIn asking if any of my connections had any remote work going.

An old boss from my first ever job reached out - they needed copy written.

I’d written copy before, for the exact products they sell, so it was both an easy yes and a lifesaver for us financially.

(I still produce some copy for them now)

Then driving home from a NYE party very hungover I said to my girlfriend ‘I want to do something for myself, start my own thing’.

She said ‘just do your copywriting’.

So I did.

A weird epiphany moment (anti-climactic too).

But the next week I started posting on LinkedIn.

To start I was posting about anything from Kanye West to email copywriting + random shiz.

Then I learned about educational content.

I’d seen content dripping into my LinkedIn feed about personal branding and stuff like that. It had me hooked and convinced that it was the way forward.

(Thanks personal branders, you're not too bad after all)

-

8 months later, I’m Ghostwriting for multiple clients making more money than I ever have.

And I work from wherever I want in the world.

I am fortunate enough to have a brilliant support system (family, friends, girlfriend, her family).

But my advice?

If you want that freedom, just go for it and make it work.

Take the risk and bet on yourself.

You might win.

P.S. This is me on a beach in Cyprus, c. October 2021.

3 years ago I was single, 28lbs overweight and lived in a 6 bed house share in London.

2 years ago I met my girlfriend Serine, had lost 36lbs and moved in with my best mate Brad.

1 year ago I moved in with Serine, then moved to Cyprus and quit my 9-5 job.

13 months ago I started my own copywriting business, posting on LinkedIn and getting a tan.

Now, I have:

- Sun
- Health
- Love
- Wealth (relatively for me)

4 things I didn't have 3 years ago.

I'm happy.

P.S. if anyone visits Cyprus, this pic is taken at Cavo Greco at sunset. It's beautiful.

(oh and btw, i can help you start writing on LinkedIn - get 30 templates & tips here: mattbarkercopywriting.com)

3 tips to write concisely (without spending 5 years studying copywriting):

How I make LinkedIn carousels (under 15 minutes):

I like a drink.
I don’t meditate.
I hate coffee chats.
I compare myself.
I don't take cold showers.
I struggle to switch off sometimes.
I could push myself harder.
I don’t travel Bali or South East Asia.
I don't always do focussed, deep work daily.
I don’t have systems for everything.
I run 5km only when I can.
I shower probably every other day.
I do actually do everything myself.
I wouldn’t call myself an entrepreneur.
I barely read 1 book per year.
I don’t care if I’m ‘falling behind’ on AI tools.
I am not happy every single day.
I have never listened to a TED talk.
I don’t understand why everyone is.
I have days where I don’t get much done.
I consume too much content sometimes.
I don't plunge myself into ice baths.
I often get less than 7 hours sleep.
I lay in past 7am sometimes.
I drink coffee past 12.

According to the rules of 99% of productivity/lifestyle/digital nomad based content, I am an absolute f**k up.

Yet I live a content, financially free life.

Social media sucks, guys.

Try and focus on yourself.

All that matters.

P.S happy Sunday 🍻

This is how I get 10 post ideas in 5 minutes:

1. I open Twitter
2. I scroll the feed to see a viral post
3. I click on their profile
4. I use Twemex to see their most viewed posts
5. I open Notion
6. I create a page for this creator
7. I copy the URL links for their top 5 posts
8. I paste it into their page on Notion

I do this 2 x a day.

Then when I come to writing posts, I have 200+ ideas.

Just gotta pick 1 and write.

P.S. nothing is 100% original on LinkedIn, get over yourself :)

I wrote a 384 word LinkedIn hook writing tutorial (steal this for FREE):

3 simple LinkedIn post types I used to get 128 inbound leads (steal these):

5 copywriting misconceptions you'll be kicking yourself thinking they were true:

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If you like this content, follow me Matt Barker . I help you become a better digital writer every weekday.

P.S. ♻️repost this to your followers

I absolutely hate this LinkedIn advice:

"Every post should drive conversions."

No. It shouldn't ya freekin goon.

If you write a weird story and expect engagement, connection requests, email signups, inbound leads - everything all at once - you'll always be disappointed. ALWAYS.

The post didn't fail. Your EXPECTATION did.

Here's what I'd suggest:

Attach ONE goal per post.

Then the expectation you're wanting from it is singular.

> Engagement post → likes and comments
> Authority post → saves and DMs
> Conversion post → clicks and signups

A funny hook with a newsletter CTA is a mismatched post pulling in the wrong reader.

Might get ya lots of clicks, but what kinda clicks are they?

Pick the job → Write for the job.

P.S. if you're struggling with your LinkedIn posts, I teach 14,500+ people how to write 'em so they get more visibility and grow for free at mattbarker.xyz.

My best tip if you MUST use Claude to write LinkedIn posts:

Try "Ask me questions first" vs writing 500 word prompts.

> questions force you to clarify what you actually want
> one question saves 17 prompt revisions later
> turns vague ideas into specific content briefs
> long prompts make AI guess your context

(fwiw: i prefer to use magicpost.in to create and manage my linkedin posts because i just click some buttons and it writes from my whole linkedin post history of 2,500+ posts. so it basically nails every post it drafts for me.)

e.g.

You might write a detailed prompt getting Claude to "write a LinkedIn post about productivity for busy founders" or something like this.

But instead you can write "ask me questions about productivity for busy founders, then write a linkedin post from my answers."

Claude will ask:

> who's the founder?
> what's their time drain?
> what have they tried?

Suddenly you're not writing generic tips. You're writing about a SaaS founder you know who wastes 2 hours in Slack.

That's specific and usable.

Interactive prompting = posts written from your actual Lived Experience.

Makes writing LinkedIn posts way faster and easier.

I show 14,500+ legends how to grow your LinkedIn, writing fast, easy & fun posts here: mattbarker.xyz.