Writing for the right audience matters

I'm curious your opinion, and I appreciate your help... Writing is something I enjoy, and it's a medium that seems to engage well on this platform. I have enough substance to talk about to write an oped every week for years, but to do that I have to wait for timing approval from the platforms where I share my opinions. Would you: Continue writing oped pieces because the credibility and authority lended to me by third party entities with audiences is valuable. Or... Start writing my own newsletter with the same content, using substack to build my own audience and authority. The slow burn to the longer play. I appreciate your insights. Questions are welcome.

I used to spend hours on every post. Here's what that actually cost me. What I needed to hear was: If you've given real value, hit a real pain point, and you'd actually use the advice yourself, it's ready. Hit publish. I spent years being a perfectionist about my content. Editing the same post 11 times. Sitting on drafts for a week. Waiting until it felt polished enough. And while I was perfecting, I wasn't publishing. While I wasn't publishing, I wasn't building. While I wasn't building, someone else was, with a messier post and more courage. Your audience doesn't need a perfect post. They need a relevant one. A post that's 80% polished and 100% published will always outperform the post that's 100% perfect and still sitting in your drafts. The algorithm rewards consistency, not perfection. Your audience builds trust through repetition, not one flawless piece of writing. Your voice gets sharper by publishing, not by waiting. Not every post has to be your best work. It just has to be honest, specific, and useful. That's enough. More than enough. What's sitting in your drafts right now that you keep telling yourself isn't ready? Go publish it today. #PersonalBranding

One thing that really struck me in yesterday’s brief writing intensive… Most marketers don’t actually struggle with filling in a template. They struggle with slowing down long enough to properly think. What’s the real problem here? What are we actually trying to achieve? What does the audience really need to understand, feel or do? What’s the one thing that matters most? That’s usually where the hard work is. Not in writing the brief. In getting genuinely clear before you write it. And interestingly, once teams do that properly, the work tends to get sharper, faster and far less painful for everyone involved 😅

I wrote one post and landed a $10,000 client. You've seen that one. Probably twice today. Nobody posts the 47 drafts they deleted before that. Content writing looks simple from the outside. You open a doc, you type, you post. But that's like watching someone play piano and thinking it's just pressing keys. The difference between writing that sits there and writing that actually does something isn't talent. It's knowing that every word has a job to do. It's understanding you're speaking TO someone not performing AT a wall. It's realizing one good post is a moment. A consistent plan is a brand. Most people skip straight to writing. The pros start with the question nobody wants to slow down for: who is this actually for, and what do I want them to feel when they finish reading it? That question changes everything. If your content isn't working, it's probably not a writing problem. It's a clarity problem. This month I'm breaking down how to fix that from the first sentence to the last CTA. Follow along if you're done writing into the void. Happy New Week, Let's get started 🤝

The number 1 way to write wrongly is to write for everyone. When you write for everyone, you write for no one. Your content becomes noisy. Polished. Hollow. Forgettable. Connection is specific. It lives in the details only certain people recognize. Pick one person. Write to them. Ignore everyone else. The more specific you get, the wider your reach. Write for one. Reach thousands.

The 3 Big Intent Categories (Inform, Sell, Guide) Most content fails because it mixes intent. Instead of matching the person’s job-to-be-done, you accidentally write for everyone which means you end up persuading nobody. Here’s the simple framework: 1) Inform (Educate / Understand) Intent: “I want to learn.” Typical signals: “what is…” “how does… work” “beginner guide” “examples of…” informational keywords Your job as the writer: Make the concept understandable Teach fundamentals Answer the “first questions” clearly Build credibility without pushing too hard Best formats: blog posts explainers glossary-style pages videos/how-tos

We hear a lot about writing routines—discipline, consistency, daily habits. From the outside, it all looks neat and productive, like everything’s under control. But that surface-level structure can be a little misleading if you don’t stop and look closer. So, here’s something worth asking: how do you actually begin when it’s time to write? That starting moment matters more than most people realize. It quietly sets the tone for everything that comes next. Maybe you pick up where you left off yesterday, map out a quick plan, or just chase the idea that feels strongest right now. Each choice pulls your session in a different direction. And let’s be honest—there’s no shortage of advice out there. With so many “right” ways to write, it’s easy to borrow routines without really questioning them. You end up following habits that sound productive, even feel productive, but don’t always lead to meaningful progress. It’s not about finding the perfect method or copying someone else’s system. The real question is simpler—and more honest: is the way you start actually helping you move forward, or just giving you the comfort of feeling like you are? 👇 Take a look at the carousel and cast your vote in the poll below https://lnkd.in/dzA2Q_ef #CreativePulse #Poll #MiroslavOupic #Writers #WritingProcess #CreativeDiscipline #WritersLife #ContentCreation #Storytelling #CreativeWork #WritingCommunity #Productivity #CreativeThinking #WritersOfLinkedIn Results of yesterday's poll: Q: Do you think that a specific guerrilla marketing approach can be successfully used today? People seem pretty split on this approach. Some still swear by it—they’re getting strong results, sometimes even better than before. That suggests it hasn’t lost its value entirely; it just works best when used in the right setting or with the right expectations in mind. At the same time, there’s a solid group that sees it as outdated and out of place in today’s landscape. And that contrast is telling. What feels effective to one person might fall flat for someone else, especially as writing styles, tools, and expectations keep evolving.

I don't know about you, but I used to get confused a lot about these two concepts. If you're a writer, you might be familiar with the "one big idea" and the "angle." One big idea: What you want to say. Angle: How you choose to say it. It's pretty simple to remember, right? Especially for those who can differentiate quickly. But for me, this was something I struggled with since my school days. If you recall, in theory, there are questions on exams asking to distinguish between two terms. And for a few months, I also struggled with understanding the difference between the big idea and the angle. (But since I practice writing copy enough, it's not an issue anymore.) Okay, but why am I telling you this? If you read my last post, you might know about the challenge I started. So, as part of that challenge, I need to post something useful every day. But today, there's no takeaway (I think I should really have a content plan). Until then 👋.

Most founders think ghostwriting means handing someone a topic and getting back a post. Here's what actually happened with one of our clients last month. He sent a 4-minute voice memo on a deal that almost killed his company in 2021. No structure. No thesis. Just him talking through what went wrong and what he learned. We turned that into 3 posts. Each one performed in his top 10% for the year. The system isn't about generating content. It's about capturing the stuff that's already there... the war stories, the pattern recognition, the specific numbers a founder remembers at 2am... and putting it on paper in their exact voice. The memo had everything. We just knew where to look. What's sitting in your voice memos right now that your audience has never heard?

60% of your readers know this but they won't tell you. And I think it's high time you know this too. People can tell when you're not speaking from a place of authority. When you're timid with your words, the chances of your post converting, immediately drops. Because it is clear you don't even believe in what you're saying. I know this because that's how I used to write in the beginning. But ever since I realized that authority writing is not being boastful, it was a game changer for me. So, here are 3 ways to sound more authoritative in your content: 1. Stop over-explaining every point. Strong writers trust their message. 2. Replace “I think” and “maybe” with conviction. Own your perspective. 3. Speak from experience, not performance. People connect faster when it feels like your story not a copy from the internet. At the end of the day, it's not your words people are buying. It's how strongly you stand behind them. Happy Thursday, my people.🤎🤗 What’s one thing that instantly makes a writer sound confident to you?