WELCOME TO AN ELITE COMMUNITY OF

FOUNDERS & THOUGHT LEADERS

LINKEDIN
YOUR GUIDE TO

INFLUENCER
SUCCESS IN OUR

PROGRAM
BY

HOUSTON GOLDEN

1
TABLE OF CONTENTS

WELCOME TO THE BAMF FAMILY

You’re Now Part Of An Elite Community Of

Founders & Thought Leaders

Here’s What You Can Expect The Next Few Weeks

Trust Our Process To Make This Your Best

Investment

INTRODUCTION TO THE PROGRAM

Time Commitment

Getting Started Action Items

LinkedIn Client On-Boarding Doc: Background &

Tone of Voice 

Anecdotal Stories Outlines

Additional Resources

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MEASURING RESULTS & CASE STUDIES

Program Success Metrics

LinkedIn Influencer Program Reports

Sample Growth/Success Rates

Expected Engagement in Likes

UNDERSTANDING THE PROGRAM

How the Program Works

LinkedIn Versus Facebook

Importance of Vulnerability

Storytelling Versus Thought Pieces-- Why We

Always Start With Stories

Examples of High Performing Posts

FAQs

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CONTENT CREATION

Coming Prepared to Your Ghost Writer Interview

Interview Checklist 

Post Prompt Questions/Checklist

Collecting New Content Ideas

Recycling Content

Content Calendar

CLIENT/WRITER RELATIONSHIP

Responsibilities and Expectations

Privacy Promise

4
WELCOME TO

THE BAMF

FAMILY

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Welcome to the BAMF Family!

You’re now part of an elite community of founders and thought

leaders.

With over 300 million organic LinkedIn views, our clients are the most viewed people on
LinkedIn. We've taken our content creation process that helped BAMF go viral and gain traction
fast on LinkedIn and turned it into a service that turns our clients into influencers. Our BAMF
Bibles, guides, blogs, and tutorials have helped thousands achieve LinkedIn Influencer status.

Through the BAMF LinkedIn Influencer Program, we help founders and executives become
badass influencers by using raw social media storytelling to spread their authentic message to
prospects, partners, press, and fans.

We grow your followers with people and businesses working in your space and interested in
your personal message. We then track your new connections to identify your ideal consumer
and re-target them across other platforms.

Here’s What You Can Expect The New Few Weeks

Week 1:
● Kickoff call
● Complete on-boarding documents
● Defining your ideal prospect
● Getting access
● Primary Goal:
○ Build a foundation for the partnership relationship and campaign strategy.

Week 2:
● Optimize your LinkedIn profile
● Present initial outreach messaging
● Share initial outreach lists sample and search criteria
● Have your first one-on-one call with your ghost writer
● Receive first round of LinkedIn posts within 3-5 days
● Primary Goal:
○ Get approval on initial outreach messaging and lead lists, and launch
auto-connecting campaigns to new prospects by the end of Week 2

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Week 3:
● Present first round of 5-6+ LinkedIn Posts for approval
● Present results of first week of outreach with any insights on initial messaging/audience
performance and how to optimize going forward, i.e. what’s working, what’s not, and
what we’re going to do next.
● Primary Goal:
○ Post first 3 LinkedIn posts and get approval on 2-3 more posts for next week

Week 4:
● Present content engagement stats, as well as connection/audience growth stats so far
● Establish content cadence by posting 3 times a week and having next week’s posts
approved in advance to avoid ever missing a beat
● Primary Goal:
○ Start to nurture your new audience to generate sales opportunities and aim to
have first Hot/Warm Leads or Booked Sales Calls by end of Week 4

Week 5 & Beyond:

● Continue to build momentum with content creation and audience growth
● Continue to build momentum with Sales
● Primary On-Going Goals:
○ Clearly establish yourself as an industry thought leader
○ Consistently generate 30+ Hot/Warm Leads through LinkedIn and Email
Outreach per month for you and your sales team

Trust Our Process To Make This Your Best Investment

Content creation is hard. It doesn’t always come naturally. It doesn’t always click on the very
first go around, so do not get discouraged if you’re not seeing dividends after the first month.

It’s a painful process that requires stepping outside of your comfort zone, but if you trust our
process-- we will take the pain out of your content creation and will without a doubt make this an
incredible investment for your business and personal brand.

The value of our content and outreach compounds over time with most of our clients starting to
see major momentum and traction accelerate in months 2 and 3 of the program.

Lead generation is laborious, time consuming, and a distraction from your core business
activities. Our goal is to take this off your plate entirely and automate your lead generation
through targeted LinkedIn auto-connecting and email outreach, so you can focus on closing.

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Every client has a different sales process with different sales cycles, but we have mastered the
fundamentals which apply across all business development pipelines.

We create scalable systems to build personal professional relationships that lead to long-term
revenue growth for your business.

So, Why Did I Create This New Guide?

Simple: to help you get the most out of our program.

This is your official guide for our LinkedIn Influencer clients only--

This should serve as your handbook to understand the process and ensure you have the most
successful engagement with BAMF possible.

In the following pages, you’ll find resources, best practices, templates, case studies, and more
detailed information focussed on what we’ve learned after running this program for more than
50 clients over the past 2 years.

Here’s to a successful partnership over the next 3-months and beyond!

Let’s do this!

Sincerely,

Houston Golden
Founder & CEO at BAMF

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INTRODUCTION

TO THE

PROGRAM

9
LinkedIn Influencer Basics

Time Commitment

Every month, you’ll be spending 1.5 hours in a video or phone call with your personal BAMF
writer.

You can either choose a fixed time or schedule a new slot every month--whatever’s more
convenient for you.

Once you receive a link to the Google Doc with your first round of statuses 3-5 days after the
session, expect to spend about half an hour providing feedback and approving content for
publication.

Additional 45-minute to 1 hour breakout meetings as well as supplemental Q&A docs for you to
fill out may be required if not enough content or information is gathered in the monthly recurring
ghost writer meeting.

Action Items

To get started, we ask that you fill out the document linked below, which contains a list of
questions for you to answer in order to help your ghost writer get a better feel for your
background and who you are as a person:

● LinkedIn Content On-Boarding: Background & Tone of Voice​.

Please fill out the doc at your earliest convenience, in as much detail as possible -- this process
will allow us to ghostwrite for you in the most effective manner.

Start Planning Your Post Prompts & Content Ideas

Please begin the process of brainstorming and compiling a list of your own personal story ideas
in order to come prepared to your first ghost writing session.

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These live one-on-one calls will form the cornerstone of your content creation and they are the
foundation of our proven process for consistently writing highly-engaging content for our
LinkedIn Influencers.

This call audio will be recorded and used for ghost writer(s) to better know your real voice and
extract additional posts throughout the month.

Ideally, you come to the call with 5-10 story ideas for every monthly meeting.

Initially, you might only manage to go over 3-5 stories. But as you become more familiar and
comfortable with the process, you should be able to work your way up to 5-10.

You can either spend time every month before the meeting to come up with story ideas, or you
may choose to sit down, brainstorm, and write a whole bunch of ideas in one go.

Many of our clients keep a personal journal on the notepad of their phone to catalogue their
stories and content ideas on the go:

Here are a few of our favorite note taking apps:

● Bear App​ ​(our all-time favorite)
● Apple Notes​ (native iOS notepad) for a ready-to-go note taking app for Apple
enthusiasts
● Simplenote​ for a lightweight, plain text note taking app
● Google Keep​ for a scrapbook-like approach to note taking

Building A Consistent Content Backlog (Do What Works For You!)

Personally, I like to keep an on-going notepad on my phone with Bear App.

I write new posts ideas and reflections every morning for about 5-10 minutes. When I think of
new posts or content ideas throughout the day, I always try to quickly jot them down in my Bear
notes before they disappear. I do this all throughout the week.

In my notes, I start each week on Saturday morning since those notes would go into the next
week’s potential content ideas or posts. I just demark them in my running log of notes with a full
horizontal bar above and below it write with the header with Week of Date starting on Monday,
i.e. “Week of July 15th, 2019.”

This works for me. It might sound insane to you. Some of our clients prefer to put all their posts
in Trello boards. Others in Google Docs, Google Sheets, and a few do use Bear and have a
similar process to my own.

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That being said, do whatever works for your creative process to consistently document your
ideas and post prompts.

The more you document your ideas, encounters, insights, and post topics, even if they are
incomplete sentences and wouldn’t make sense to anyone else-- the more you are building a
content backlog.

Make this daily note taking a habit, and you’ll set yourself up for success with your ghostwriter to
have an endless stream of content to create and repurpose.

This is key to getting the most out of our program-- to help you become a LinkedIn Influencer.

If you prefer to have additional calls with your ghost writer, rather than keeping too many notes,
we can also accommodate.

Do what works best for you.

Leveraging The Power of Viral Post Outlines

These anecdotal story templates are not required, but highly recommended part of preparing for
your monthly ghostwriter interview calls (90mins).

Here’s the link to the viral Anecdotal Stories Templates:

● Anecdotal Stories [Outlines]

What’s included:
● Two filled in post outlines as examples of how you should approach each outline.
● 25 anecdotal story post prompt templates

How to use:
● Create a copy of this doc for you to edit and make your own.
● Feel free to use one of the prefilled post prompts and follow the outlines.
● Or, we encourage you to replace with your own post prompt in the “Tell me about a time
when you…” section, and use the outline questions in order to expand on your post idea
and provide your ghost writer with what they need to craft the viral post for you.

Look through these prompts in the doc linked above and feel free to fill out as much as you want
(optional) in advance of the call.

This is a list of anecdotal story templates for you to fill out so that I can flesh them out into
compelling stories for your audience.

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26 LinkedIn Post Prompts To Get You Started:

1. Major life change (moving to a new city, quitting job, starting business)
2. Significant life event (birth, death, marriage, divorce, etc)
3. Overcoming sickness
4. Getting rid of a bad habit (alcohol, etc)
5. Keeping a promise/commitment in the face of consequences
6. Making a choice on a whim/gut feeling
7. Rejection (not being hired or being fired)
8. Hustle for a big opportunity
9. Major mistakes
10. Short-term sacrifice for big gain
11. Starting from the bottom
12. Bad company culture, so you quit
13. Balancing loved ones and work
14. Going against tradition/majority
15. Difficulties of starting a business
16. Competitor to friend/partner
17. Hiring your first employee
18. Someone who helps you get started
19. Significant sacrifices to get where you are
20. Learning from big loss
21. Giving someone a chance/taking a risk on someone
22. Overcoming something outside of your control
23. Bad bosses
24. Bad clients
25. Losing big deals
26. Bad employees

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PROMPT EXAMPLE #1:

Tell me about a time when you...

Had a major life change (moving to a new city, quitting job, starting a new business)

Short & Quick Summary

I started a new job and it was soul-crushing.

Background Info & Beginning, Middle, End Summary

I started a new job as a Skydiving Instructor, but quickly realized that I was afraid of heights and
didn't like doing this line of work. I quit after a few days, and felt a lot better.

What was the moment of highest drama?

When I had to write out my resignation letter after only 2 hours of employment.

How did it make you feel?

I felt miserable.

How did it make others feel?

My boss was upset at first, but we're still friends now.

What did this make you realize?

I realized that you shouldn't work a job that you don't enjoy.

What was the lesson learned?

Don't work a job that you hate.

Any other details that might be important? (2-3 Sentence Elaboration)

Lorem ipsum…

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PROMPT EXAMPLE #2:

Tell me about a time when you...

Prefilled prompt: “Made choice on a whim/gut feeling”
Or, INSERT YOUR OWN POST PROMPT

Short & Quick Summary

fill me in

Background Info & Beginning, Middle, End Summary

fill me in

What was the moment of highest drama?

fill me in

How did it make you feel?

fill me in

How did it make others feel?

fill me in

What did this make you realize?

fill me in

What was the lesson learned?

fill me in

Any other details that might be important? (2-3 Sentence Elaboration)

fill me in

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Additional viral content template outlines: ​100 Viral Post Templates​. Reference this resource by
just doing Command+F to search for the keyword you are writing about where it says ​“Tell me
about a time when you…”

Follow the structure of the actual viral posts which accompany each template to write a
compelling post from scratch.

Optionally, we recommend that you start by going through a couple of outlines to get a feel for
the type of content that works best as well as the type of questions that your ghostwriter will be
asking you.

Additional Resources:
● BAMF Books:
○ 100 Viral Post Templates
○ LinkedIn Influencer
○ BAMF Bible 2017
○ BAMF Bible 2018
○ BAMF Bible 2019
● 26 LinkedIn Prompts
● Post Samples To Send To Clients

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 MEASURING

RESULTS &

CASE STUDIES

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Program Success Metrics
Let’s break down the various ways in which the success of the program can be gauged.

Influence
Influence is the foundation for the success of the LinkedIn Influencer Program. It refers to the
number of connections, followers, 90-day views, and the total number of views, likes,
comments, and shares--with more being better.

The greater your recognition, mission and values buy-in, and the following you develop on
LinkedIn, the more you can leverage it for other purposes.

Recruitment
Finding talent is time-consuming and challenging. Since LinkedIn is a professional platform,
using it to find excellent talent is only natural.

As you put out content and develop a following, more and more people will become emotionally
invested in your values and the mission of your company.

Example
Johnny Reinsch from Qwil recently found a great fit through a LinkedIn post. The candidate was
already interested in his company and familiar with his personal story. In fact, she was so
passionate about the mission that she and her husband along with their one-year-old baby
moved all the way from Boston to San Francisco for the job--after rejecting another offer.

Leads
By carefully adding connections that are relevant to your industry and then putting out content
that is either emotionally or technically compelling, you are also warming up appropriate leads.

Example
A client in the program received a message from a decision maker in a corporation whose CEO
had read, reacted positively to a post, and asked to reach out about working together.

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Brand/Personal Recognition
The influence you gain in LinkedIn transfers outside of the digital world.

Example
Recently when a client went to raise funds a VC told him that he’d been following him on
LinkedIn and appreciated his content. This gave the client a better starting point in the
negotiations.

Campaigns
After you develop some recognition and influence, BAMF can work with you on a tailormade
campaign and charge the same connections that have been consuming and enjoying your
content.

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LinkedIn Influencer Program Reports

Weekly
Every Monday your writer will update and send over a link to a spreadsheet containing your
current number of:
● Followers
● Connections
● 90-day views
● Followers for your company or organization.

Example:

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Monthly
At the beginning of every month your writer will send you a link to a spreadsheet with the
month’s posts and metrics about their performance, including:
● Feed views
● Likes
● Ratio of likes to views (higher is better)
● Comments
● Shares

Example:

Sample Growth/Success Rates

Johnny Reinsch
In 4 months, Johnny Reinsch went from ​8,529 to 20,157 followers and 976 to 2,837 company
followers.

That’s an average of 2,907 followers and 465 company followers gained per month.

During that time he had 71,164 profile views, 7,596,214 feed, 85,016 likes, and 4,132 comments views on
his content.

That’s an average of 17,791 profile views, 1,899,053 feed views, 21,254 likes, and 1,033 comments per
month.

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Andre Palis

In 3 months, Andre Palis went from ​2551 to 7026 followers and 2315 to 2944 company followers.

That’s an average of 1,491 followers and 209 company followers gained per month.

During that time he had 30,148 profile views, 2,512,025 feed views, 40,487 likes, and 1,414 comments
on his content.

That’s an average of 10,049 profile views, 837,341 feed views, 13,496 likes, and 471 comments per
month.

Expected Engagement in Likes

● 1-50 -- Low
● 50-100 -- Okay
● 101 - 300 -- Reasonable
● 301- 500 -- Good
● 501 - 1,000 -- Awesome
● 1,001 -- 5,000 -- Amazing
● 5,000 -- 100,000+ -- Influencer-status

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UNDERSTANDING

THE PROGRAM

23
How the Program Works
Content that aims to directly sell products or services tends to underperform on LinkedIn.
Although it’s a business platform, people don’t like being sold to directly.

They come to the platform to learn, be entertained, look for work/business opportunities, and
network.

Not to be marketed to.

The solution is to be sneaky about selling.

And there are several ways of accomplishing that.

Storytelling
People are hardwired to listen to--or read--a good story. It must be in our DNA because we’ve
been sitting around fires and listening to tales of courage and suffering since the dawn of
humanity.

By telling stories about your personal/professional life and then tying them back to your
company, your values, and/or your aspirations, you draw attention to your products/services
without raising red marketing flags.

Warming Up Leads
As part of the program, BAMF will be automating adding connections relevant to your industry.
As these new connections see and engage with your content, they will gradually warm up to
you.

Some of them will reach out to you, or you may choose to reach out to those that comment on
your posts if you feel there is the potential for a fruitful exchange there.

Profile Views
As part of the onboarding process, BAMF will optimize the copy on your profile. This is because
people will click on your profile if they like your content.

Clients of the program routinely get tens of thousands of profile views as soon as 2-3 months
into the program.

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From there, it’s a numbers game.

Out of all those profile views, a certain percentage (there are no numbers at this point) will
decide to contact you. Out of those who contact you, a certain percentage will be relevant leads.

A response to a client’s story.

LinkedIn Versus Facebook

When you use Facebook, the people who engage with your content are your friends and
family--people from your network.

In other words, they are your 1st connections. Sure, occasionally and if you post publicly a
friend of a friend might engage with your content, but not usually.

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Most people who start using LinkedIn assume that this is the professional equivalent of
Facebook, and as such, your 1st connections will be the ones engaging with your content.

This is untrue.

The majority of individuals to engage with your content will be 2nd and 3rd connections.

What this means is that you don’t have to worry about saturating your connections with the
same kind of content or themes, as different people will engage with your posts.

Sure, you might develop a core group of connections and followers who will regularly engage
with your content, but, as stated previously, most of the people who engage with your posts will
be unknown to you.

And that’s a good thing.

In fact, it’s thanks to this feature of LinkedIn that the Influencer Program is so successful.

With every post that you put out, there’s the possibility of reaching new, hereto unknown
individuals who might be interested in your services/products.

The other implication is that you needn’t worry about touching on the same themes again and
again, nor about retelling the same stories.

If you find a niche and/or narrative that performs very well, you can revisit it multiple times.

An example would be the story of how you founded your company. If it performed well, you can
retell it, perhaps with a different emphasis.

Here’s an example:

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6445305547125329922/
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6413408649309364224/

The two pieces are quite similar but with a slightly different emphasis on each. Both performed
very well.

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Importance of Vulnerability
People are looking to experience something human. They want to know your flaws and
vulnerabilities. They want to be able to identify with you and if they can’t--if you present yourself
as perfect and infallible--they won’t be interested in your content.

Even superheroes show their humanity and inner conflict.

Otherwise, no one would watch their movies.

The main concern that new clients to the program have is of exposing themselves. Executives
aren’t used to putting their emotions out there. And that’s completely understandable.

The good news is that you can ease into it.

Somewhat.

If your content is making you a bit anxious, that’s fine.

If you’re tossing and turning in bed over it, that’s not fine.

All of the program’s clients, consistently, find not only that they feel increasingly comfortable
being personal on LinkedIn (to the extent that the stories aren’t jeopardizing your business and
its professionalism, of course), but that the act of sharing their failures, struggles, and the pivotal
moments in their careers and personal lives is empowering.

A good way to go about this is to start outside of your comfort zone but not wander too far if
you’re not ready.

So maybe you can talk about the time you worked as a waiter and what that taught you, and
when you feel a bit more comfortable, talk about losing $1M.

But there’s a right and a wrong way of telling such stories.

The wrong way is to focus on the failure and not show how you’ve changed.

The right way is to present a failure/problem, how you overcame it, and why you’re a better
person--and your business is a better business--as a result. And then, going one step further,
how the people who read your content can take these lessons now to improve their lives and
businesses.

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Storytelling Versus Thought Pieces -- Why We Start
with Stories
“Story” implies an account of a true-life event.

“Technical piece” implies information, conclusions, or advice about a specific industry or

practice.

And “thought piece” implies an opinion about a current event, industry-related subject, product,
service, etc.

Stories vastly outperform technical or thought pieces in terms of traction--views, likes,

comments, etc.

That doesn’t always mean they’re superior.

A story can go viral and reach millions of feeds and not result in a single lead, while that a
technical/thought piece can reach only several thousand feeds but result in a strong lead.

However, it is always better to start with stories and only later incorporate thought/technical
pieces as well.

There are several reasons for this:

1. It is much easier for your writer to write stories. Thought/technical pieces on the other
hand require a deeper familiarity with both your thinking and your industry. That
familiarity will develop with time--the more sessions you have, the more your writer will
understand the way you think.
2. Stories help develop a following. More people become interested in you as a result of
your stories.

Examples of High-Performing Posts

Example #1
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6445305547125329922

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I got my dream job at ​Google​.

But I still had to borrow money to make ends meet.

The above two lines are the hook. When people scroll through their LinkedIn feeds, this is the
*only* portion of the post that they see. And they may or may not choose to click “see more”
based on whether they find it compelling.

In this case, what makes the hook compelling is that on line one we have someone fulfilling an
aspirational dream by getting a job at one of the world’s top tech companies.

And in line two, we are told that he *still* has to borrow money to be able to pay the bills.

The incongruence between the two--the tension--immediately invokes questions in the reader’s
mind.

If he got a job at Google, which supposedly should pay well, why did he have to borrow
money?!

The ensuing curiosity makes it nearly impossible not to want to expand the status and find
answers to the question.

My wife was a starting psychotherapist and her salary was low.

Here the reader is given more background and a partial answer to the question above.

I got an entry-level position at​ Google​ and figured I’d get promoted in time.

More background. The reader is told that it was an entry-level position and that the protagonist
*assumed* a promotion, and thus greater pay, would be forthcoming

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Meanwhile, my dad sent me money every month so we wouldn’t have to live on rice—

Now the reader finds out that it was the protagonist’s father who was sending him money. “We
wouldn’t have to live on rice” serves to make the story more relatable and identifiable. This isn’t
someone who lived in luxury--they just wanted to have their basic needs met. It makes it
personable and universal.

Sao Paulo is the most expensive city in Brazil with purchasing power much lower than the US.

Another question is answered--not only was it an entry-level position, but in the city of Sao
Paulo where the cost of living is high and wages are lower than the US.

A year passed.

I wasn’t promoted.

This digs further into the pain. The reader is already on the protagonist’s side because of
everything established earlier. It not only moves the plot along--”I need to know what happens
next”--but also creates a stronger emotional resonance as a set up for the post’s ending.

I talked to everyone who did to learn how they managed. I worked twice as hard. I gave it all I
had.

If he hadn’t tried as hard as possible to get promoted, it would be difficult to identify with him.

Next year I wasn’t promoted.

I was devastated.

“I can’t do this anymore,” I told my wife, holding back tears.

I wanted to start a family. I had ambitions. And yet I still lived off my parents.

The above 4 lines dig deeper into the pain and establish the stakes. No adult wants to depend
on his or her parents. We all have ambitions. Many of us want to start families--or anything else
that equals progress in life.

The thought of leaving​ Google​ was terrifying.

The stakes are high. The reader already knows that the proganosist is considering leaving--it’s
only natural--but is reminded that there are consequences. A job at Google is still considered
good and there is no guarantee that he will fare better if he leaves.

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But staying wasn't right.

This is a situation many of us have faced. There’s fear in changing your circumstances ​but you
already *know* that the status quo is no longer appropriate for you.

Tulio​ was crazy enough to leave with me and a closing agency gave us all their clients,
including​ Discovery Channel​.

The co-founder is tagged and already the reader gets a sense of relief--he might have
succeeded!

Three months in, I told my dad I didn’t need his help.

The reader is already rooting for the protagonist. There is a growing sense of catharsis, like
cheering on an athlete as he/she approaches the finish line.

Five years later,​ Raccoon Digital Marketing​'s got 270 employees, has won multiple Premier
Google Awards, and works with clients like Sony Pictures.

Now there is a strong sense of satisfaction. Not only are the protagonist’s circumstances
improved, they are *vastly* improved.

And my wife and I have a gorgeous little son.

All the narratives of the story are resolved, even that of starting a family. The protagonist is
celebrating the fruits of his labor, courage, and dedication, and the reader is celebrating along
with him.

If the ceiling you’re under is crushing you—

Dare to dream big and jump outside.

You may just find yourself flying.

The ending, just like the hook and everything else, is extremely important. With these three
lines, the protagonist is taking the culmination of his heroic journey and offering them to the
reader.

He is inspiring and encouraging. He’s saying, “If I did it, so can you.” That’s uplifting and
empowering and the imagery being used makes it all the more powerful.

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There’s a visual sense of a barrier coming down and brushing you. There’s daring to dream and
gathering the courage to leap out of the situation--to save yourself and make a change.

And finally, there’s the possibility of flight--that greatest of human aspirations and all that it
symbolizes: reaching as high as possible to a level above where your life is now.

Example #2
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6394929942844571648

I don’t care whether you come into the office at 7AM.

I don’t care what your background is.
I don’t care how hard you work.

The hook here does a good job of grabbing the reader’s attention. It’s confrontational and edgy
-- “What do you mean you don’t care about these things that *everyone* should be caring
about?”

There is also a pleasing literary aesthetic here -- the first three words of the three lines are
identical and the second and third lines are shorter than the first and second, respectfully.

What I care about is results, and I will do everything in my power to help you accomplish them.

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The writer addresses the reader directly. From challenging to empowering creates further
intrigue. More questions.

When I make a new hire at​ Qwil​, we negotiate. I say, “What can you get done in the span of a
year?”

Now the reader is starting to understand -- the topic here is recruitment at the writer’s startup.

Then I argue against my best interests, whether it be code or sales. “That’s a lot, are you sure?”

More intrigue -- “Why would you argue against your best standards?”

But in my mind, I already know what numbers I need to justify your proposed salary package.

Once we agree, you tell me what you need to be successful, and I show up for you.

9 out of 10 cases, I’ll pay for training, tools, and resources.

A balance is struck here between being supportive and realistic regarding expectations and
deliverables. This isn’t a fairytale.

Then you can go meditate in the caves of the Himalayas.

Treat yourself to squid ink paellas in Barcelona.
Circle volcano rims in Costa Rica.

Following the same structure as the opening lines, the reader gets three strong examples of
activities that anyone holding a normal job can see themselves enjoying.

Or just come into the office—

As long as you meet your goals.

I won’t be looking over your shoulder. But I will expect you to come see me if you need more
support. And I will make myself available to you.

There is a liberation here. Almost everyone has had an unpleasant experience of being
micromanaged and controlled. No one likes that. The writer addressing the reader personally
gives the letter a sense that this is a real possibility -- being trusted and empowered and
supports, a universally desired experience.

The days of running adult daycare centers are over.

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The writer increases the stakes and drives the point further home by likening businesses that
micromanage and limit freedom to adult daycare centers. There’s a satisfaction in that
acknowledgement, a release. “I’m not crazy for wanting something different!”

Here’s my advice to anyone hiring:

Agree with crystal clarity on the deliverables—

Empower your employees—
And get out of their way.

The last three lines follow the same format of the first three and are important to finish the piece.
This isn’t just empowering to employees and employers, it’s also solid, actionable advice that
can be used right now to improve recruiting and employment processes.

But more so, there’s a furthering of the catharsis -- “This is how things should be. I should be
trusted to fulfil my work. I’m fed up of being treated like a child and having someone -- and a
CEO, at that -- put my feelings into words is deeply satisfying.

Example #3

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6429716073460822016

I bombed my GMAT test.

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Failure works very well in drawing readers in. Everybody’s experienced the bitter taste of failure.
Everybody’s been the underdog and thus likes rooting for the underdog.

Every top 10 university I applied for rejected me.

The second line digs into the pain further. Not only did he fail his GMAT, but was rejected by all
the top universities he’d applied to. Also, everyone would love to go to a top university.

I was stationed in Afghanistan. I had to wait 6 months to take the test in the only approved
center in the country.

Background: not only has he struggled with academic admittance, he was also serving in the
military.

The week of the test we were out chasing the Taliban after they stole election ballots.

They didn’t believe in democracy.

But we did.

Not only is this a compelling narrative, but the reader begins to suspect that scoring low on the
GMAT was not his fault.

“Isn’t your GMAT today?” said my Commander. “Go find a helicopter and take it.”

The plot moves forward. And just when we thought that he might not make it to take the test.

We’d just retrieved the ballots so I flew out, dirty and sleepless from combat.

More sympathy for the protagonist.​ ​He didn’t even have time to shower and get dressed, not to
mention prepare properly.

I scored 570.

All the business schools I applied for told me it was too low.

Now we come full circle to the hook--to where we started.

I felt awful.

Vulnerability and emotion always make a post more compelling.

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“There’s a professor at UNC who’s always sending us food,” my unit’s chaplain told me.

So I emailed him.

He responded after 5 minutes.

And personally submitted my application.

A twist in the plot. Maybe he has a chance after all. The reader can’t help but to keep reading.

“I will work as hard as humanly possible,” I told the admissions officer when he interviewed me.

I had the 2nd lowest score in my class.

But they accepted me.

Now there is the beginning of catharsis. This hero we’ve been rooting for, who clearly did not
deserve rejection--no one does, do they?--triumphs.

A couple years after graduating,​ University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill​ awarded me as a
Distinguished Young Alumnus.

Only 2 other individuals had ever won it in the history of the b-school.

Michael Jordan won it too.

Not only was he admitted to a top school, he graduated with one of the most distinguished
awards possible, along with a well-known public figure, proving all the supposed naysayers
wrong.

That underdog who’s not a picture-perfect candidate on paper?

Give them a chance.

They might make up for it with more heart than you’ve ever seen.

As mentioned previously, the ending is very important. Here we are told explicitly that a piece of
paper doesn’t tell us everything about a person. That more so, someone who doesn’t look good
on paper might do even better than someone who does.

It’s cathartic because it’s universal. Everyone has had the experience of inferiority, of being
seen as less worthy or valuable than others.

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The notion that one placed in that position can still prevail is very compelling indeed.

FAQ

How Do I Deal With Trolls?

Trolls have become a fact of life on the Internet. And although LinkedIn is much better than
most other platforms in terms of respect, etiquette, and professionalism, there are still people
who choose to engage negatively with others’ content.

You’ve got three ways of dealing with them, depending on context and preference:

● Ignore. Just let it be. Don’t feed them

● Delete comment and block profile. It’s important to not stop at deleting as otherwise the
offender may become upset and ramp up harassment
● Engage thoughtfully and compassionately. Take the high road and treat them
respectfully while making your point. Whatever you do, avoid ad hominem attacks--it
doesn’t look good

Do I Need to Respond to Everyone?

In short, no.

As the program gathers momentum and there are more and more people commenting and
messaging you, it’s your right to be selective.

If you feel like responding to the aspiring entrepreneur from India, great. He or she will surely
appreciate it.

But if you don’t have that time, fair enough.

Initially, try to respond to everyone, at least through comments. This’ll help the process of
building a following and converting curious readers to the kind of followers that engage with
more and more of your posts and help spread them in the LinkedIn ether.

But with time, and especially if it gets to be too much, don’t worry about it.

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A quick scan should let you know whether a comment or lead is worth addressing. Unless, of
course, you enjoy the conversation.

What If I Run Out of Stories/Ideas?

Not going to happen. Things happen every day. Ideas bubble up to the surface of your
consciousness every minute.

You may find that you’ve told the stories that you consider to be the most impactful in your life,
but there will be hundreds of other ones that you either don’t normally think of, attribute
importance to, or that simply haven’t happened yet.

A chance conversation with an Uber driver can become a compelling story. A brush with a
stranger. A retail experience.

Anything that you found interesting enough to stay with and bring up in your interview with the
writer can be transformed into a compelling status.

Should All My Stories be Business-Related?

No, they don’t have to be. Any high-impact story will do, from any time or place in your life.

The reason being that anything can be tied back to your business. That story about how you
persevered in kindergarten? Tie that back to perseverance in your company. A story about how
a stranger showed you kindness? Tie that back to why kindness is central to your company’s
structure. A story about a travel experience that shaped you? Tie that back to why you
encourage your employees to explore the world.

Etc, etc.

How Do I Provide Feedback to my Writer on the Content?

Use comments to indicate inconsistencies, statements you’re uncomfortable with, or anything

else necessary to move the statuses to a state of approval.

If a status is approved, highlight its heading and add a comment that says “Approved.” This will
ensure that your writer has absolute clarity as to whether you’ve approved or not.

Try to provide feedback and approve statuses as soon as possible so that the review process
doesn’t drag into the following content cycle.

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CONTENT

CREATION

39
Coming Prepared
It’s important to come prepared to the interview with your writer.

You can choose to sit and brainstorm--either alone or with a team member--and note down
dozens of stories. You may do so chronologically or in any order.

Since every post will have a different readership, chronology is not important for the program.

If you put down a whole bunch of stories and ideas, all you have to do is choose a few before
the call--ideally, the ones you’re most excited or passionate about.

Otherwise, you can also let the preparation simmer in the back of your mind and note down
stories and ideas as they come up, choosing the 3-5 most compelling ones before the call.

If it helps, put all stories/ideas in a Google Doc, share it with your writer, and cross out those
that you relate.

Collecting New Content Ideas

At some point, you might run out of the juiciest stories you’re used to telling.

That’s okay.

Clients of the program have been able to continue to come up with compelling content even
months and months into the program.

Consistently.

The reason is simple: as you move through your week, stuff happens.

Maybe at work. Maybe at home. Maybe at the gym.

Doesn’t matter.

Or maybe your thoughts about business, technology, or culture are evolving.

Keep a notepad, whether digital or not, with these stories/ideas as they come up.

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And you’ll have enough ammo to keep you going for as long as necessary.

Recycling content
LinkedIn users have a short memory. They consume content weekly or even daily. And because
most of the people who engage with your content are 2nd and 3rd connections, we’ve found
that recycling well-performing content going 2-3 months back by tweaking it slightly works well.

Examples:

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6356197166758928384/
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6400356856593809408/

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6359067420392587266/
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6437379171974025216/

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6391661715658018816/
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6422837072821915648/

Content Calendar
You might find it helpful to work with a content calendar. This should help prepare you for your
weekly call by structuring the way you come up with ideas.

So instead of thinking of ideas randomly or as they occur to you, you can plan the nature of the
content you put out, and even align it with your long-term goals.

Below is an example of what such a calendar might look like. Feel free to work with your writer
to on reshaping it according to your goals/preferences:

LinkedIn Weekly Content Calendar Draft

Monday
What​: Quote. Optional: include something personal about why it’s significant
How​: Choose a quote every week and think about importance and/or relevant stories

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Tuesday
What​: Personal story; where the stakes are as high as possible.
How​: Either dig into past and retrieve narrative and/or choose something compelling that
happened in the previous week

Wednesday
What​: Thought piece; ideally about impactful themes such as healthy culture, management
modeling right culture, micromanaging vs macromanaging, etc
How: ​Come prepared with an idea that is, at least to some degree, fleshed out

Thursday
What​: Industry-specific post; content to position David as thought leader and expert in his
industry
How: ​Come prepared with an idea that is, at least to some degree, fleshed out

Ghost Writers will submit content for review/approval via Slack as well as in this Content
Calendar Google Sheet: B ​ AMF: LinkedIn Content Calendar

Interview Checklist
● Have 5 stories/ideas prepared.
● Spend time considering their impact.
● Are they compelling enough? Are they worthy of being told?
● If you’re not sure whether what you’ve come up with is compelling, share it with a
friend/spouse/colleague whose opinion you esteem and ask them if it is.
● For stories, make sure you have a coherent narrative with a ​beginning, middle, and
end​, as opposed to something that meanders and fizzles (“My cat knocked my cereal
down” as opposed to “I turned down a $0.5M because my gut told me it was wrong and
in the end I was right”)
● To do so, ask yourself:
○ What​ ​happened? When? Whom did it affect? How did you/they feel? Why is it
important? How was it resolved?
● Also ask yourself:
○ Can I share this? Are there any details that would have to be changed for this to
go public?
○ Is this presenting me or my company in a bad light? (there’s no harm in making
mistakes as long as you own the consequences and resolve to do better next
time)

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 CLIENT &

WRITER

RELATIONSHIP

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Responsibilities and Expectations
The responsibility of arriving prepared to the interview lies with you.

The responsibility of the interview lies with the writer.

In every interview, the purpose is to obtain 5-10 stories/pieces. It is always preferable to elect
quality over quantity. In other words, if spending more time on an idea in order to develop it fully
comes at the expense of fitting in a 4th or 5th idea at the end, that’s fine.

Consider this: within the program single posts have routinely gotten hundreds of thousands and
even millions of feed views--as much as dozens of average-performing posts put together.

Your role within the interview is to relate the story from beginning to end.

During the process, your writer may interrupt you. That’s okay. It’s the writer’s job to keep you
on track and to dig for the kind of details and nuances that will make a post shine.

In order to derive the most value from the interview, please cooperate with and trust your writer.

Another reason for interruption is that your writer may already be constructing a narrative or has
already found a compelling angle for the story and needs more detail from you to complete it.

Another important point to keep in mind is to forget about the message or takeaway. You may
feel strongly about the moral of the story, but your writer may choose to emphasize the story
differently in order to maximize its impact.

It’s better to leave discussion of the takeaway or message until after the story is told. If you
focus on it while relating information, it might shape what you choose to share in a way that is
not favorable to the creation of compelling content.

Remember that this process becomes easier, more natural, and even enjoyable with time.

Privacy Promise
Your writer is committed to your success. Along with the job of creating compelling content on
your behalf, your writer also undertakes the responsibility of protecting your privacy and only
publishing content you have approved of.

What you speak about during your weekly interview remains confidential.

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But for the purpose of providing good raw material, it’s preferable to relate details that will later
be omitted whenever possible.

The idea is that when you are relating a story, you shouldn’t already be thinking of omitting
details. You should tell the story in full, convey your concerns/needs to the writer, and leave
them with the responsibility of shaping it accordingly.

For example, you can call out a company during the interview but request the writer to veil its
identity. This can be done easily by saying “a Fortune 500 financial institution” instead of JP
Morgan Chase.

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