RevenueZen

"Better to be silent and be thought a fool, than to write comments with ChatGPT and remove all doubt". Okay, that's harsh. But the real test of whether a LinkedIn comment is good or not, isn't actually whether the characters were typed by a GPT, or by human fingers. No: It's all about the CONTEXT. Let me explain. Was your comment all of these things? 1. Thoughtful 2. Not desperate 3. Credible If so, it's probably a good comment! (In theory, these kinds of comments could have been written by AI, though it's extremely rare for me to come across any good AI-generated comments.) The real test is this: → Did your comment enhance your credibility? (And if not, was it at least neutral?) Doesn't actually matter how the words of your comment were compiled, if it meets that test and the words are authentic. -- Thanks as always to the awesome Apollo.io video crew who scripted and shot this clip. If you haven't taken the full free course, it's available at apollo.io/academy 🙏🏻

Ken isn't messing around with this one. Crucial to growing quickly and sustainably.

The "secret" that underpins $13.21M in sales from companies I've founded... It's easier said than done: Balance immense effort with as much detachment as you can muster. ❌ You can't let every small failure affect your sense of self-worth, or you'll give yourself a heart attack within 12 months. Failures happen all the time. In the big picture, they're actually more frequent than successes. ↳ More ideas, proposals, cold calls, etc fail than succeed. ↳ There are more "previous/cancelled" Aware customers than there are currently-active ones. I could say, "get used to it." But that's not helpful. Instead, I'll say: Accept the fact that you're human and you will never be perfect at not taking things personally, but that you can grow more and more accustomed over time to recovering quickly after internalizing any kind of failure. Then, put in the work. Practice. Read "The Four Agreements", listen to everything Peter Crone has published, consume all of Ram Dass' wisdom. You don't need to go to an Ashram, but you do need to recognize: Your growth in this world... financially, as a brand, personally, etc... will come down to the degree to which you can remove the constraints that both society, and you personally, have placed upon yourself. 𝗔𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗶𝗴𝗴𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗼𝘄𝗻 𝗯𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗲𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘂𝗻𝘄𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗵𝘆, 𝗮 𝗳𝗮𝗶𝗹𝘂𝗿𝗲, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗮𝗻𝘆/𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗿𝗲𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘀𝗵. When you believe the voice in your head telling yourself that, it saps your ability to care deeply about others. Remove the constraint. Allow yourself the freedom to tap into the love you have for the world around you. Suddenly, listening actively to your market and your customers (not to mention your wife, kids, friends, etc) becomes a whole lot easier. You slowly stop holding back as much. You take bigger swings. Some of those hit. You win faster. It's all about being able to detach, to therefore, paradoxically, allow yourself to give a damn.

Planning your 2025 Demand Gen Strategy? Let’s talk about your SEO agency. Are they driving results—or just racking up irrelevant clicks? Here’s the difference between Traffic SEO and Performance SEO. 🚨 Traffic SEO (a.k.a. Vanity Metrics Central): ❌Chasing shiny numbers: “Check it out, search volume is up!” ❌Hoarding keyword rankings: “The more, the better, right?” ❌Celebrating random traffic wins that are not linked to a buying outcome. ❌Pretending all traffic converts equally. ❌Bragging about blog hits as if they print money. ✅ Performance SEO (Where the Magic Happens): 🔥Targeting high-intent keywords: Build “money pages” that rank where it matters. 🔥Teaming up with RevOps: Attribution is about clarity, not grabbing credit. (It should also be a big part of how you decide to allocate budget.) 🔥Driving SQLs and pipeline: Forget vanity metrics—this is how you win. 🔥Growing domain authority with a purpose: It’s a tool to rank high-intent pages, not the finish line. 🔥Prioritizing traffic quality: Unqualified visitors? *le sigh*... High-intent visitors? 💲💰💲. SEO isn’t about traffic for traffic’s sake. It’s about revenue. Ultimately, we need to ask this question: does it actually make the sales team happy? If that answer is "No" then you need to take a good long hard look at the strategy. There’s a reason we’re not called ClickCollectors. (though, maybe I should check on that domain name…brb)

Earlier year, I spent 25 hours writing a detailed paper on how marketers need to approach marketing as an ECOSYSTEM going into the middle of the decade. I think it's reasonably prescient. And I'm sharing it here for the first time. 🚨 Fair warning: it's a DENSE piece of "Marketing Philosophy". Not a neat tidy 'snackable' LinkedIn post. P.S. You don't have to comment on this post to receive it, and you don't need to give me your email or be connected to me :) -- I wanted to include one excerpt... 𝗕𝘂𝘆𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝘀𝗽𝗼𝗸𝗲𝗻, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆’𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗼𝗹𝗱 𝘂𝘀 𝗹𝗼𝘂𝗱 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗰𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿: “B2B has become stale and boring. We’re craving what’s new, interesting, exciting, and insightful.” “We’re more distracted than ever. If I don’t know you or haven’t heard of you, stop cold emailing me or I’ll mark you as spam and block your domain for our entire company.” “Just because I downloaded your ebook does NOT mean I want to be spammed by you until the end of time. And the ebook sucked anyways. By the way, none of this means I have ‘intent’ to buy your software.” “I still use Google to search, but most of the blog posts out there are all saying the same things. So I put less stock in blogs from companies I don’t know.” “I don’t want to follow most brands on social media, and most influencers make me cringe, but I go to LinkedIn to learn from certain people whose thought leadership I really like.” “AI generated content sucks, it’s just regurgitated garbage that all sounds the same: give me something new, real, and organic.” “I don’t really watch webinars anymore because they’re one-sided sales pitches and I always get too much sales follow-up after. I’d rather be in small, tight-knit communities.” -- For the rest, well... hit the "Download" button, save this, read it when you have 20 mins to go through it. I'd love to hear your thoughts.

WHICH FORMAT SHOULD I USE FOR MY LINKEDIN POSTS? It's a very common question nowadays. Everyone's looking for an edge. The answer? There isn't one "best" format. The main thing to keep in mind is not which format is "better", full stop. Instead, ask yourself these questions: → Based on the message that I'm trying to convey, what format or media type might be the most compelling? → How can I maximize not just comprehension but also Belief Change, in my network? → Could mixing multiple types of video, all honed in on the same core message but approached from different angles, help convey my core message better? I have a very similar answer when asked how long your written posts should be. → However long it takes to make your point, and not much longer! So yes: There are some interesting trends in the data. Video tends to be better for unpacking complex topics, and giving people a chance to "meet you face to face", on LinkedIn. But people read faster than they write, and sometimes an image is just less exhausting than a video or a full blown carousel. Mix it up. No format "wins" all the time. Fit your format to your message, not the other way around.

I’m going to Falcon Punch the next person that I see post about the difference between “good SEO content” vs "pure thought leadership". Thought Leadership and SEO Aren’t Mutually Exclusive Anymore. I will say it again for the folks in the back. Thought. Leadership. And. SEO. Aren’t. Mutually Exclusive. Anymore. Let me put you on game. A lot of folks toss around terms like “thought leadership” and “SEO content” without realizing how outdated their definitions are or worse, without context. I hear a lot about how “SEO content” isn’t “working” anymore. I feel sorry for these people. Who have probably been burned before by a $997/month (for a limited time only!) vendor who sold you on fluffy blog posts that generate approximately…. nothing. Sound familiar? Let’s clear up what’s going on here. “SEO content” used to mean something, it had it’s place. You could find some “high search volume and low competition” keywords that you thought made sense, churn out hundreds of articles aimed at those regardless of search intent or usefulness. You could make it rain with lazy nonsense. “Thought leadership”, as I keep my ear to the streets, seems to only mean “the CEO saying something random on LinkedIn or a webinar", that yes, is 110% unique to their precious minds, but that no customer has ever asked for or sought out. But guess what? It’s not the 2010s. These two concepts aren’t at odds anymore. They HAVEN'T been for awhile. Here are quotes from Google’s own documentation on content requirements: 👉🏾 “Does the content provide original information, reporting, research, or analysis?” 👉🏾 “Does your content clearly demonstrate first-hand expertise and a depth of knowledge (for example, expertise that comes from having actually used a product or service, or visiting a place)?” 👉🏾 “If someone researched the site producing the content, would they come away with an impression that it is well-trusted or widely-recognized as an authority on its topic?” Original. First hand expertise. Widely recognized authority. Starting to get the picture? Google’s algorithm ties search rankings to user engagement, domain authority, and—get this—the actual unique expertise of your authors. Also, the LLMs that are eating search market share source information using some of the same considerations as Google. Structuring your content using key technical SEO principles for crawlability, or finding your next topic based on market research or existing search behavior, is just good business. OF COURSE publishing 101-level content that you regurgitated from 10 competitors and put into ChatGPT to spin into an article isn’t effective. But that's not SEO not anymore. Use all of the data available to you when building a strategy, then share your unique perspective, then show up for people once they engage. Gonna go walk outside and touch grass while I calm down. I hope today is the best day of your entire life. #b2bmarketing #content #seo #saasgrowth

B2B Marketers and growth nerds everywhere, this is for ya'll. Shoutout to Josh M. Carney for teeing up this Q and Eric S. Yuan for advocating for a 4 day work week. I did this in one take. #AI #BigIdeas2025 #B2BMarketing #SEO