You know you should be posting on LinkedIn.
You've seen it work for other founders. You might even have a list of ideas somewhere.
But when you sit down to write, nothing comes out.
I've worked with dozens of founders on this exact problem. And the thing that keeps them stuck is usually the same.
They're asking "what performs well on LinkedIn?"
The founders who break through ask a different question: "What do I actually know?"
Writing content on LinkedIn is sharing knowledge you've actually earned.
You solved a hard problem. You learned something about the world that most people don't know. You share that.
But even once you understand this, most founders skip straight to "what should I post today?" That's too far down the chain.
Here's the sequence that actually works:
First, positioning. What do you want to be known for?
Then, your content calendar. A bird's-eye view of what you're building.
Next, content types. The three or four themes you'll keep coming back to.
And finally, your first post.
That's what we're covering today. I'm saving ideation for next time - this is about the foundation. The stuff you figure out before you start generating ideas.
Let's get into it.
POSITIONING
This is where most founders get stuck.
They assume positioning has to be internally consistent, future-proof, and broadly legible before it's allowed to exist. So they try to solve everything upfront. They stare at their LinkedIn bio for an hour, rewriting the same sentence, trying to make it perfect.
That's a trap.
Here's what positioning actually is: the pattern people notice over time.
If someone sees your name and thinks "this person explains hard tradeoffs clearly" or "they always have a grounded take on building with constraints," that's your positioning.
You don't announce it. You earn it through repetition. Every post is a small vote. Over time, those votes add up to an expectation in someone else's head.
So stop asking "how should I position myself?"
Start asking "what do I keep noticing that others seem to miss?"
The Three-Circle Framework
Positioning comes from the overlap of three things:
What do you have expertise in?
The stuff you've actually done. The problems you've solved. The knowledge you earned by being in the room, not by reading about it.
What is your audience interested in?
The questions they're already asking. The problems keeping them up at night. The stuff they'd pay attention to even if it wasn't you saying it.
What is relevant to your product or work?
The topics that connect back to what you're building. The conversations where your company naturally becomes part of the answer.
The overlap of these three is where you post.
If you're posting about something you have expertise in, but your audience doesn't care, you're talking to yourself.
If you're posting about something your audience cares about, but you have no real expertise, you're blending in with everyone else.
If you're posting about something interesting that has nothing to do with your work, you're building an audience that will never convert.
The sweet spot is smaller than you think. That's fine. Narrow is good. Narrow means people remember you.
Finding Your Positioning
I built a prompt to help you work through this. Copy and paste it into Claude or ChatGPT, and it will walk you through the questions one at a time. At the end, you'll get a positioning brief you can actually use.
You are a positioning strategist for founders and operators building their public presence. You help people discover what they should actually be known for—based on what they've done, who they want to reach, and what they're building.
NEVER:
- Ask more than one question at a time
- Move to the next question until the user explicitly confirms they're ready
- Suggest vague or generic positioning like "thought leader in innovation"
- Use corporate jargon or abstract concepts in your questions or output
ALWAYS:
- Wait for the user's answer before proceeding
- Ground your final output in specific examples from their answers
- Keep your responses conversational and direct
Your job is to guide the user through a positioning discovery interview, then synthesize a clear positioning statement they can use.
This happens in two steps.
STEP 1: THE INTERVIEW
Ask these 5 questions one at a time. After each answer, ask if they're ready for the next question:
1. What have you spent real time learning or doing in the last 2-3 years? Be specific. "Marketing" is too broad. "Running paid acquisition for a B2B SaaS selling to HR teams" tells me something.
2. What do you keep noticing that other people in your space seem to miss? The patterns you see. The mistakes you watch people make. The obvious things that apparently aren't obvious.
3. Who do you actually want to talk to? Describe a specific person—their role, what stage they're at, what problem keeps them up at night. "Founders" is too vague. "First-time founders trying to hire their first 5 engineers" gives us something to work with.
4. What are you building or selling right now? What does your product or service actually do for people?
5. If someone followed your content for 6 months—what should they get better at? What shift in thinking or skill should happen because they paid attention to you?
Do not proceed to Step 2 until all 5 questions are answered.
STEP 2: THE OUTPUT
Once you have all 5 answers, generate a positioning brief _ content pillar for LinkedIn with these sections:
YOUR POSITIONING IN ONE LINE:
A single sentence that captures what you should be known for. Format: "[Name] helps [specific audience] [do specific thing] by [your unique angle]."
THE OVERLAP:
Show where their expertise, audience interest, and product relevance intersect. Use their actual words.
3 CONTENT PILLARS:
Specific themes they can own. Each should be something they can post about repeatedly without running dry. Include 2-3 example angles for each territory.
WHAT THIS RULES OUT:
Topics they should avoid. Things that might be tempting but fall outside their positioning.
ONE THING TO START:
A single, specific content idea they could post this week that plants a flag in their positioning.
<starting_message>
When the user begins, say:
"Positioning comes from three things: what you have expertise in, what your audience cares about, and what relates to what you're building. The overlap is where you post.
Most founders try to figure this out by staring at a blank bio. That doesn't work. You need to answer a few questions first.
Ready to start? I'll ask you 5 questions, one at a time. At the end, I'll give you a positioning brief you can actually use."
</starting_message>What Positioning Rules Out
Good positioning tells you what to say no to.
If you're the person who helps early-stage founders build their first sales process, you probably shouldn't be posting hot takes about macroeconomics. You shouldn't be weighing in on every trending topic. You shouldn't be sharing random productivity hacks.
Those posts might get engagement. But they don't build the expectation you want in someone's head.
Every post outside your positioning is a wasted vote.
This feels limiting at first. But constraints are useful. They make decisions easier. When you know what you're about, you stop asking "what should I post?" and start asking "what's the next thing I can say about this?"
That's a much easier question to answer.
CONTENT CALENDAR
Once you know your positioning, the next step is building your content calendar.
A content calendar is how you visualize every post you're going to publish. The goal is to figure out everything except the writing. Format. Funnel stage. Timing. Content type. All of it decided before you sit down to write.
This is what makes writing easier. When you take one hour to write a post, you're not also deciding what to write about, who it's for, and what format to use. Those decisions are already made. You just write.
The Constraints
Every post in your calendar should have these things defined:
Format. Is this a text post? Text with an image? A carousel?
Funnel stage. Is this top of funnel (ToFu), where you're reaching new people? Middle of funnel (MoFu), where you're building trust? Or bottom of funnel (BoFu), where you're converting attention into action? [I'll go deeper on funnel stages in a future issue.]
Content type. What kind of post is this? There are four types I use with clients: Add to the conversation. Question the default. Lessons from work. Connect the dots. More on these in a moment.
Topic. What specific topic template are you using? This is where it gets granular.
When you have these things locked in, you've built the container. Now you just need to fill it.
The Template
Here's the Notion template I use with every client. LINK
It looks like this:
Each row is a post. Each column is a constraint. You can see at a glance what format each post will be, where it sits in the funnel, what content type you're working with, and what topic you're covering.
With my clients, I build 90-day content calendars using this template. We know what's going out for three months. The posts aren't written yet, but we know exactly what each one will be.
The Topic Library
Over time, I've built a library of 49 topic templates that work for founder content. Here are some examples:
Origin Story. The story of why you started your company.
Company Update (Monthly). What happened this month. Wins, losses, lessons.
ICP Pain Points Listicle. Three to five problems your ideal customer faces.
Lightbulb Moment Narrative. The moment something clicked for you.
Customer Call Anecdote + Hot Take. Something you heard on a call, and what it made you realize.
Industry Hot Take. A contrarian opinion about your space.
Value-Based Listicle. A list organized around a core principle or belief.
Case Study. A specific result you got for a customer.
Here’s the full list of topics that I use. You don't need all 49. But having a library to pull from makes planning easier. When you sit down to fill your calendar, you're not inventing from scratch. You're picking from a menu.
How This Works in Practice
Say you're planning a middle of funnel post. The format is text. The content type is "Connect the dots." The topic is "Value-based listicle."
Now you're not staring at a blank page asking "what should I write?" You're asking a much more specific question: "What are three to five things I believe about my category that I can tie together with a core principle?"
That's an easier question. You brain dump everything you know. Then you improve on what you wrote.
This is the power of constraints. They turn a creative problem into a fill-in-the-blank exercise.
When it's time to write, you pick a slot and fill it in. No decisions left to make except what words to use.
Now let's talk about those four content types.
CONTENT TYPES
There are four ways to think about coming up with content ideas:
Add to the Conversation
Question the Default
Lessons from Work
Connect the Dots
All four follow the same principle: knowledge you've earned, packaged to help others.
Add to the Conversation
Keep it constructive. Agree with a premise and add something useful.
Four ways to do this:
Validating experience. "I also experienced this… here's what I noticed."
Tactical process. "Here's how you could implement this."
Elaboration. "Let me explore this in more detail."
Spin-off angle. "This connects to another idea worth considering."
To make this work, you need a library of content you actually love reading. Curate accounts based on taste, not reach. Build a swipe file of posts that make you think.
Then ask yourself one question: do I agree with this premise?
If yes, add your perspective. If no, note why. That becomes fuel for the next content type.
Question the Default
Defaults are everywhere. Best practices we follow without thinking. Ideas that dominate top-ranking content. Assumptions we make on autopilot. Messages that show up in every competitor's marketing. Things prospects say on sales calls.
Here's the thing: defaults are often wrong. Or oversimplified. Or missing nuance.
Your job is to collect them. Find edge cases where they don't hold up. Point to real situations where the default doesn't match reality.
Then share a smarter way of thinking.
Bad example: "Everyone says X, but I think Y." No proof. No edge case. Just opinion.
Good example: "We followed X for 18 months. Here's what actually happened and why we switched to Y."
The difference is evidence. You're not just disagreeing. You're showing why the default breaks down in specific situations.
Lessons from Work
This is where most people mess up.
They share experiences that make them look good but don't help anyone.
What actually works: share a lived experience, then connect it to a generalizable takeaway. Some advice. A framework. A new way of thinking the reader can apply to their own work.
Where to find these:
Hard problems solved. What did you, your team, or your company struggle with that you eventually figured out? Others are struggling with the same thing.
Remarkable stories. What have you lived through that's inherently interesting, with useful lessons?
Processes you've built. What systems have you created that others could replicate?
Meta content. The process of creating something. Building in public works because people find this genuinely useful.
If you feel like you have nothing worth sharing: make something worth sharing. Run an experiment. Document it. Talk about that.
Connect the Dots
Every industry has a constant stream of events. Hiring, firing, companies growing, companies shrinking, new products launching.
You have context other people don't. Your experience. Your understanding of how things work. What you've seen play out before.
Use that to help people understand what's happening and learn from it.
This requires a lens. A lens is just a way you look at things that happen in your industry. Anytime something happens, you analyze it from your perspective. You talk about your expertise in relation to that thing.
Every person has a lens. Founders have lenses. Operators have lenses. Marketers, salespeople, engineers. You have a perspective on how things work.
Use it.
Now you have your positioning, your calendar, and your content types.
One thing left:
THE FIRST POST
It matters because it sets an expectation.
Not about quality or reach but about frequency.
When you publish your first post, you're quietly telling the market: I'm going to show up here now.
That does a few things.
It announces intent. People don't need to follow immediately. They just need to register that you're going to be around.
It lowers the bar for future posts. Once you've signaled consistency, no single post has to carry meaning on its own.
It shifts the success metric. Early on, consistency matters more than likes.
The first post isn't an attempt to perform. It's an announcement of cadence.
So What Should That First Post Be?
Your origin story.
The real moment where something clicked for you.
What was the lightbulb moment? What problem did you see that nobody else was solving? What made you actually move instead of just thinking about it?
This is the "why" behind everything you do. The thing that pulled you into motion.
A good origin story answers a few questions:
What was broken, confusing, or frustrating before you started?
Why did that specific problem bother you enough to do something about it?
What did you see that others missed?
When you write this, you're not trying to impress anyone. You're trying to orient them. After reading it, someone should understand what drives you. They should have a sense of what kinds of problems you think about and why you care.
This becomes your foundational post. Anyone new can read it and understand what pulled you into this work. And it naturally opens the door to everything you'll write next.
Writing Your Origin Story
I built a prompt to help you write this. Copy and paste it into Claude or ChatGPT, and it will walk you through six questions to pull out the real story. At the end, you'll get a draft you can post.
You are a content strategist helping founders write their first LinkedIn post. Your job is to pull out the real story behind why they started—the moment that actually mattered—and help them turn it into a post that orients people on who they are and what they care about.
NEVER:
- Ask more than one question at a time
- Move forward until the user confirms they're ready
- Let them write a pitch disguised as a story
- Accept vague answers like "I wanted to help people" or "I saw an opportunity"
- Write corporate origin stories that sound like press releases
ALWAYS:
- Push for the specific moment, not the summary
- Wait for explicit confirmation before the next question
- Ground the final post in their actual words and details
- Keep the tone conversational—this should sound like a person, not a brand
The first post matters because it sets an expectation. Not about quality or reach. About frequency.
When someone publishes their first post, they're telling the market: I'm going to show up here now. That announces intent. It lowers the bar for future posts. It shifts the success metric from likes to consistency.
The first post isn't a performance. It's an announcement of cadence.
The best first post is an origin story. Not a polished narrative. The real moment where something clicked. What pulled them into motion.
Guide the user through an origin story interview, then draft their first LinkedIn post.
STEP 1: THE INTERVIEW
Ask these 6 questions one at a time. After each answer, ask if they're ready for the next:
1. Before you started what you're building now—what was broken, confusing, or frustrating? Describe the specific situation. Not "the industry was inefficient." Tell me about a moment where you felt it.
2. Why did that bother you specifically? Other people saw the same thing and moved on. What made you unable to ignore it?
3. Was there a single moment where you decided to actually do something? A conversation, a failure, something you read, a situation you couldn't accept? Walk me through that moment.
4. What did you see that other people in your space seemed to miss? The thing that felt obvious to you but nobody was talking about.
5. What did you have to give up or risk to pursue this? What made the decision hard?
6. If this works—if you build what you're trying to build—what changes for the people you serve? What becomes possible that wasn't before?
Do not proceed to Step 2 until all 6 questions are answered.
STEP 2: THE OUTPUT
Once you have all answers, generate:
YOUR ORIGIN STORY POST
Write a LinkedIn post (150-250 words) that:
- Opens with the frustration or broken thing they experienced
- Moves to the moment they decided to act
- Ends with what they're building toward
Use their words. Keep sentences short. No jargon. No "I'm excited to announce" energy.
Format for readability—short paragraphs, line breaks between thoughts.
WHY THIS STORY WORKS
2-3 sentences explaining what makes their specific angle compelling and what it signals about the kind of content they'll create.
WHAT TO POST NEXT
One specific idea for a follow-up post that builds on this origin story. Something they could write in the next week.
<starting_message>
When the user begins, say:
"Your first post sets an expectation. Not about quality—about showing up.
The best first post is your origin story. The real one. The moment something clicked and you couldn't ignore it anymore.
I'm going to ask you 6 questions to pull that story out. One at a time. At the end, I'll draft a post you can use.
Ready to start?"
</starting_message>Now let's talk about the system that ties all of this together.
ROAD TO 10K FOLLOWERS
The Smallest System That Works
The goal is a system that removes daily decision-making. You want to sit down, know exactly what you're writing, and execute. No friction. No "what should I post today?"
Here's the system.
Step 1: Fix Your Positioning
Use the positioning prompt from earlier. Answer the five questions. Get your positioning brief.
This gives you two things: a clear statement of what you're known for, and the content pillars you'll post about. Do this once. Don't revisit it for at least 90 days.
Step 2: Build Your Calendar
Start small. Plan the next seven days, not the next 90.
Use the Notion template. Fill in the constraints for each post: format, funnel stage, content type, topic. You're not writing yet. You're just deciding what each slot will be.
On Friday or Sunday, sketch next week's posts. Note the format and a one-line idea. That's it.
This creates relief. You're no longer asking "should I post today?" You're executing what past-you already decided.
Step 3: Pick Two Formats Only
Early on, fewer formats create more momentum.
Most founders do well with:
Text posts for thinking, stories, and observations.
Carousels for structured, tactical content.
Ignore everything else until this feels easy. Video, polls, newsletters, all of it can wait. Master two formats first.
Step 4: Lock a Weekly Rhythm
A system works when each day has a default job.
Here's a simple starting rhythm:
Monday: Text post. A story, moment, or observation.
Midweek: Carousel. Tactical or list-style content. Clear, structured, useful.
Then flip or adjust based on what feels natural and what performs. The point isn't optimization. It's repeatability.
Step 5: Write Your First Post
Use the origin story prompt. Answer the six questions. Get your draft.
This is your foundational post. It tells people why you're here and what you care about. Everything else builds on top of it.
Step 6: Show Up
One hour a day. That's all you need.
You already know your positioning. You already know what you're posting this week. You already know the format and the topic.
Now you just write.
A system is small enough when skipping a week feels harder than following it.
That's it.
Everything you need is here. Now go write something.
— Samyak
If you want help doing this faster
This is what we do at Polysearch.
We sit down with founders for an hour and pull out the insights through interviews. We extract it from you directly.
Then we plug you into our creator ecosystem that helps you grow faster. Other founders. Distribution support. The things that take years to build on your own.
We've built audiences for founders who didn't think they had anything to say. Turns out they had plenty. They just needed someone to pull it out.
If you want us to do this for you, book a call.