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Your expertise is unique. Does your content show it? Stop repeating familiar advice. Start showing what makes your perspective different.

Don’t try to copy other people’s stories. Find the recurring human angle that is uniquely yours.

If we read too much about optimization, what we should do, and what we should not do in our writing, the more we lose our voice until we all sound the same. And it is not so easy to rediscover our voice that is uniquely ours under all that advice and optimization.

For years, I looked too much at the big names in my niche and what they were doing - and lost my unique voice. And then I wondered why people did not connect to me. The answer was not that I did not know enough or did not provide enough value in my content. There just was nothing in my content my audience could connect with.

Not every good content idea is a good content idea for your business. The right topic sits where audience needs, your expertise and your business goals overlap.

I just saw this somewhere and I love it. I should do it when everybody starts tucking at me and demanding my time (family) and I have to argue that I need some time for me (work AND something for my well-being): Schedule your months like this: One lunch date with a friend (I make it dinner and per week) One full day out in nature (full day is special, I usually just squeeze in a couple of hours) One day doing absolutely nothing (that is going to be the hardest, how will people not judge me?) One day trying something brand new (easy, go to my mountain house, choose something broken and fix it) One at-home movie night - no computer while watching One day serving others (how am I going to tell that to my mom: 1 day, not 30) One self-car and pamper day for yourself One day waking up early to watch the sunrise (or if you are like me: one day sleeping in) One day watching the sunset ( watch sunsets almost every evening when I am on my mountain) One solo cafe date for yourself (I will make that a hike including a break at a mountain cafe)

My best post ideas come from working on other content like books, blog posts, newsletters. There is so much potential in larger content pieces, we just need to open our eyes and see it.

This is so crazy: I went for a run down in the valley. I met a lady with her beautiful Bernese Mountain Dog. We started talking (she saw my Newfoundland dog in the car). I explained that I bring my old dog and spend a little time with him by the creek so that he can enjoy a different scenery than my home lawn. I made a joke: The trip down to the valley has to be worth it. She asked where I live. I told her. She said: My father was born there. No joke, there are 4 houses up here on the mountain - and none of the others can be the one she was talking about (she did not know which one exactly it was). Now my fingers itch to dig into the paperwork of my house and see if I can find the name of her father’s family somewhere in them. Life writes the best stories.

Do you think you have nothing interesting to share? You are asking the wrong question. Find the stories hidden in everyday experiences, unexpected moments and lessons you have learned. Your life is so much more interesting than you think!

I am wondering why it is always made into: Either this or that. Do I really have to delete Instagram to love Substack? Do I need to leave Twitter to start using LinkedIn? Do I have to bash one thing to make something else worth it?

People don’t connect with information. They connect with people.

The best part of your content might be the part you leave out. Your mistakes, adjustments and lessons can make familiar advice worth reading.

Your content might not need more facts. It might need more conviction. Compare these two statements: "I think this could help you improve your content." "This will help you improve your content." The first leaves room for doubt. The second makes a promise. Of course, confidence doesn't make a bad idea good. But if you don't believe in what you're saying, why should your audience? Sometimes the problem isn't what you know. It's how much you stand behind it.

If your content isn’t getting traction, the problem might not be your strategy – it might be your energy. It is like getting ready for a party, dressing up, and looking into the mirror with a feeling of “Wow, I do look good today.” If you enter the room with this conviction and charisma, you will notice a difference in the attitude of others toward you. I have experienced both, days when I rocked the party and days when every social encounter felt like hard work. So I know the difference, and I know that the difference comes from the inside. Bring that same confidence and conviction to your content. It changes how you show up — and how people experience your message.

Good ideas often grow in the off-time. New angles, new inspiration, new thoughts - they need the air to breathe.

Quick content creation tip: What is Your Content's Real Value? Instead of: "Time management is important for everyone." Try: "Save 2 hours a day with these time management shifts." Same topic, one makes you keep reading.

So, I wasted my time on this webinar about detecting AI content - or avoiding what sounds like AI. I think it was a waste of time, but maybe someone wants the list of notes I took. Here is what they said is typical for AI: Em Dashes Short sentences Here’s what It’s not about X. It’s about Y. Not X. Not Y. But Y. AI likes the rule of 3 - see above. The truth is to be perfectly honest honestly (Honestly (🤪), I have a couple of more signs of what AI does that you should delete or change if you copy and paste)

If readers have to read your sentence twice, rewrite it.

I use AI for recipes. And it clearly shows where the limits of AI are. I love cooking. I am a creative cook, I rarely do anything as the recipe tells me, I adjust, swap ingredients - or most of the time I have ingredients in the fridge and ask myself what I can make from them. That is where I go to ChatGPT and tell it what I have and for whom I am cooking. I get a suggestion. And here comes where I think it is revealing: the first answer is usually a good idea but clearly not made by a cook. If you follow the advice, you would burn something, get something boring or just not very tasty. My first response is usually: but if I do it like wouldn’t this happen? And then we iterate, adjust and fine tune the recipe until something unique and awesome comes from it. And that is what is wrong with AI slop content: people use AI as if it is their brain, but AI is still stupid and not an expert. It has dry facts - but no lived experience, it has not made the mistakes and learned from the failures. But it can do research so much faster that we would be stupid not to use it. We still need our own expertise to filter the answer, tweak and optimize until it is correct, useful, good to read and easy to follow. If you don’t know enough about a topic to create the content yourself, you probably don’t know enough to create useful content with AI. (I still recommend writing yourself, because that is your voice and people will connect with it)

You don't have to talk about your personal life to make business content personal. You can tell stories about: - something that happened with a client - a mistake you made at work - something you learned - a project that went sideways - an interaction that changed your thinking - an unusual way you solved a problem - something you repeatedly notice in your industry The subject can be completely professional. The way you tell it and what you make of it is where your personality comes through.