Welcome back to Growing Up - stories, lessons, and scars from building B2B content that drives real revenue (not just traffic).

If you have 10K+ LinkedIn followers, you're already influencing pipeline... you just haven’t seen the receipts.

Want to know how much money your LinkedIn presence has already generated your company without you getting credit?

Hey friend,

I'm gonna keep it super short this week.

In 2025, I saw the same 3 patterns destroy content at 20+ companies.

1. Sales-led content

The content person/team just makes whatever sales says they need.

And honestly, I've seen maybe two or three salespeople in my entire career actually *get* content enough to do it well.

Otherwise, you just end up getting asked for customer proof or oddly specific case studies...

No, Barry. We don't.

Truth is, sales-led content matters... but it can't be the whole strategy.

2. Product-led content

The content team makes whatever the product team says they need.

Ex: I looked at a few content calendars last week and it wasn't a "content" calendar at all.

It was their product manager's feature launch schedule with the words email, webinar, blog and social attached.

I can't tell you how many brilliant content efforts are RUINED by breakneck product launch schedules.

You can't build trust with an audience if your only strategy is screaming "new feature!" at them every 45 days.

Truth is, product-led content matters... but it can't be the whole strategy.

3. Keyword-led content

The content team makes whatever their SEO agency says to make.

Discoverability matters more than ever, but if your SEO agency is still giving you an Ahrefs export (sorted by highest volume and lowest difficulty, of course), you're missing so many wins.

Truth is, keyword-led content matters... but it can't be the whole strategy.

... so what's the fix?

If you're none of these, congratulations. You've won the lottery.

For the rest of us, the fix is backing into each of these types of content based on the PROBLEMs our customers have.

Problem-led content is the way we win going forward.

​It's how a previously unknown candidate became mayor of NYC.​

Not sure if your content strategy is problem-led?

​Here's 5 questions I use to answer that in 30 seconds.​

Or, if you want a longer version...

​Here's a 5-minute (free) diagnostic you can run with your team.​

Brendan

PS - Even though my Whoop says otherwise, I've been... exhausted over the last few weeks.

Honestly more tired than I've been in a long time.

Still, I drug my 12yo out to train with me on Friday:

Whatever you're dealing with this upcoming week, it's easier with a friend.

Find somebody to talk to. Get some perspective. Work on something together.

You'll be glad you did.

915 Ridge Road Building 2 - Unit 3254, Munster, IN 46321
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