The value of writing
While many people encourage daily posting on LinkedIn to boost your followers, the type of writing I have found particularly valuable is longer-form articles.
I believe writing is a great unlock for people’s careers and often advise folks who report to me or I mentor to start writing because it can:
Create and catalyze dialogs with others who share your passion for a topic
Think through ideas around a topic in a more structured way
You share knowledge with others (in a scalable way)
Establish you as a someone knowledgeable on the topic
Build your reputation/personal brand
My process
People often struggle to create content. Sitting down to create an article feels intimidating and often you don’t know where to start, so they just don’t do it.
I have discovered that breaking it up into stages works well. I use the following process
1. Inspiration:Â Have an idea, add it to my board with a quick sentence
Often when I am on a call, I will write down ideas to come back to later
Podcasting is a great way to push yourself to articulate ideas in your head. When your podcast is published listen to it and you’ll find a few great ideas
Take a walk and listen to great podcasts while walking. It is a great way to clear your mind and get inspiration
LinkedIn is a great source of ideas. Read others’ posts and share a comment. That comment could be an article
2. Ideation:Â Â Create a google doc and add a few more ideas in adhoc way
3. Outline:  When the doc has enough content, set aside 30-60 mins to outline. No pressure to actually write coherently, just structure my ideas
"If you are going to write, make yourself a writing session. How long are you going to write? Don't just sit down with an open-ended session. You've got to control what your brain can take. You've got to know when it is going to end. You have to have an end time to your writing session." Jerry Seinfeld on creating a system for writing (see full discussion on Tim Ferris' Podcast)
4. Draft:Â Â Set aside another 30 mins to write a rough draft
5. Post (Optional):  Share a short version of your article in a LinkedIn post. The comments can provide new insights and also generate people for the next step
6. Refine with Input: Engage a few people knowledgeable on this topic for feedback. This provides a few benefits:
Improve your article with input from experts
Source great terrific quotes (makes articles more engaging)
Reinforce your relationship with these people
7. Publish: Publish the article (don’t forget to tag the people from the step above;). I don't have a strong view on where to publish (medium, linkedin....). I don't write frequently enough or on a single topic to do substack. Personally I like publishing long-term articles on LinkedInÂ
💡Tip: I have found that AI is a powerful tool when you are drafting. If you are having trouble wording something, try asking Chat GPT for suggestions.Â
Ways to leverage your writing
I write articles on topics I speak about frequently and therefore regularly share these links with people including:
People I advise:Â Â Give a clear playbook they can build on
Peers:Â Â To continue to pressure test and refine my thinking
People you manage/mentor:Â Â Make advice on the soft-skills actionable
Podcasts:Â Â Frame the topics we can talk about
Other Tactics
Link between your different writings. That way when a person finds one of them, they can self discover the depth of your content
Distribute through a newsletter / substack. It helps increase how many people see your content
Other inspiring pieces on writing
Article by Nir Eyal on tactics to make the time to write (time boxing, the importances of getting comfortable with discomfort)
Podcast by Sam Hinkie around the power of writing to help others understand your thought process and engage with you
Sarah Guo on how writing led to an amazing new dialog
Andrew Chen on how he met Marc Andreesen by writing
Kyle Poyar's playbook for writing. If you don't subscribe to his content, do!
Do you know how to build your brand?
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