I base many of my insights on Richard van der Blom's yearly LinkedIn Algorithm Report: the most thorough, data-driven breakdown of how the platform actually works. Format performance, posting patterns, engagement mechanics. 

Tactical gold. If you or your team create content on LinkedIn, get the report. Full disclosure: affiliate link. You get the best LinkedIn data available. Richard buys me lunch. 

1. How the algorithm builds its profile of you, which influences your reach
2. Your connections are no longer your distribution
3. Specificity beats authenticity
4. Nurturing: the work after you publish
5. The 9 rules for commenting effectively
6. LinkedIn's algorithm is basically a nightclub bouncer, deciding who gets in and who does not
7. The 5 LinkedIn tips no one tells you
8. LinkedIn’s new 2026 algorithm, what changed?
9. LinkedIn is in 2026 of the most cited sources in AI-generated answers
10. The power of dark reach, the invisible spread of your content
11. How to control what you see in your feed; your dwell time
12. Be aware of the ‘Pod policy’ for friends and co-workers
13. Reposting, ‘instant’ is still the best, and reposts from employees have -30% impact
14. How to set up employee advocacy and employee-generated content
15. ‘Open to work’ as a red flag
16. Your profile matters and makes a huge difference
17. Sources and who to follow

→ How to make your resume ATS-proof.  Around 75% of companies use ATS to scan and auto-reject resumes, meaning if yours isn’t formatted properly, it might never get seen by a human.

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Read more below. And please, before jumping to any conclusions, check the original sources for all insights, nuances, and details. As with everything, these secrets have context.

1. How the algorithm builds its profile of you, which influences your reach

The algorithm sees more than your posts, it has built a model of you. Based on your profile, your posting history, your engagement patterns. 

And your reach is directly connected to that. It's about what the algorithm expects from you. When you post, it checks your content against that model. A match means distribution. A mismatch means suppression.

→ Your topics are your territory. One post outside your lane won't kill you. A pattern of drift will.

Three types of posts that destroy your reach becasue the algorithm didn't expect from you: 

• You announce you're renting out your summer house. Available in August. The algorithm built a model of a senior leader. It finds a property listing. 

• You share your morning routine. 5am. Cold shower. Gratitude journal. The algorithm built a model of a strategy leader. It finds a lifestyle account. 

• You share three lessons from your weekend run. Your audience followed you for industry insight. They're getting a training log.

It can also be more subtle: I’ve built authority around brand marketing, content strategy and AI. Then I start posting about sales funnels and performance marketing. 

Still marketing. Still professional. Still wrong. The algorithm has a model of me. My detour into demand gen reads as noise and a disconnect. 

2. Your connections are no longer your distribution

LinkedIn's feed is no longer built around who you know or follows you. It is built around what the platform thinks you care about. Relationship graph to interest graph. That shift changes how reach works.

→ For companies, it is a warning. Your logo won't carry you. Your executives and subject matter experts are your reach engine. 

The ones who post with clarity and a real point of view and post with sharp topical focus, they can reach people who have never heard of you. If your LinkedIn presence depends solely on your company page, you are building on a foundation that is actively losing ground.

In 2026, 4 separate algorithm teams evaluate and rank every company and personal post before it travels anywhere. Each post is scored across all simultaneously. The ones that travel furthest score well across the board.

• News. Mission: Be first, be credible. Rewards: Breaking news reactions within 60 min. Penalties: Late takes on stale news.
   
• Engagement. Mission: Quality over quantity. Rewards: 12 real comments, 200+ likes. Penalties: Shallow reactions, no discussion.
   
• Trust & Safety. Mission: Keep it human. Rewards: Authentic, distinct voice. Penalties: Spam, bait, AI-generated filler.
   
• Design & UX. Mission: Stay on platform. Rewards: Docs, carousels, text + image. Penalties: External links, off-platform redirects.

3. Specificity beats authenticity

Reach is the old game. Engagement is the current game. And relevance and specificity is how you win it.

The audience hasn't stopped engaging. They've stopped accepting anything less than something worth their time.

In 2024–2025, showing up personally and honestly on LinkedIn was an edge. By late 2025, it had become one of the most overused patterns on the platform. Templated, frequently AI-assisted.

The feed was full of "here's what I learned from failure" posts that look and feel identical. These so-called authentic posts no longer stand out. They're everywhere. That vague vulnerability is now invisible.

What stops the scroll in 2026 is concrete: a real client, a specific number, an actual decision. Specificity plus expertise is the new differentiator.

→ For senior leaders, that changes the brief. Not more content. Better content. One specific insight from a real situation outperforms ten polished pieces written to be broadly relatable.

4. Nurturing: the work after you publish

The post is not the finish line. What you do in the hours and days after hitting publish can multiply your reach by 2 to 10 times. Or leave most of that potential on the table. Nurturing is now as important as the post itself.

→ For executives, the implication is direct. Publishing without staying present is a significant waste of the reach you built. The post is the opening. The conversation keeps it going.

High-performing content in 2026 stays active in feeds for 2 to 3 weeks. The condition: it keeps generating comments and time spent.

• The golden window is the first 1 to 4 hours. Meaningful interactions in that window generate 10 to 14 times more reach than publishing and disappearing.
   
• Authors who reply within 30 minutes generate 64% more total comments and 2.3 times more views. The reply is not courtesy. It is the mechanism.
   
• Reply with substance. An opinion, a specific follow-up question, a new angle. That scores measurably better than a thank-you or a single word.

What not to do: engagement bait; ‘comment XYZ’,  engagement pods; the platform detects the pattern and penalises it, and generic two-word comments. ‘Great post’ or ‘I agree’ goes nowhere.

5. The 9 rules for commenting effectively

Comments are wildly underused on LinkedIn. They’re not flashy or viral, but they work. Commenting creates two-way interaction. 

When people do use them, they often miss the mark. Instead of contributing meaningfully to the conversation, they default to generic, short reactions that do little to build credibility or reach.

→ A comment has 15x the importance of a like (Algorithm Insights 2024 Report by Richard van der Blom)

The common mistake

The most common mistake? Tossing in a lazy “Totally agree!” and calling it a day. That’s not a comment. It’s background noise. It doesn’t show you’ve read the post, and it definitely doesn’t start a conversation. These comments add no context or perspective and usually get ignored by others and the algorithm.

1. Write 15 words or more

Not to fill space, but to show you’ve considered the post. Longer, more thoughtful comments are far more effective in getting attention and starting a conversation.

2. Write it yourself, then improve with AI if needed

Start with your own thoughts. Use AI to sharpen after you’ve written your comment, not before. AI-generated comments are easy to spot. The algorithm notices, and so do people.

3. Add something useful

Respond with insight, not just agreement. Build on an idea. Ask a relevant question. Offer your perspective. The goal is to contribute something useful that sparks conversation.

4. A comment is not about you

This should go without saying, but don’t drop your elevator pitch in someone else’s comments. A good comment shines light on the original post, not yourself. Think conversation, not self-promotion.

5. Timing matters

Comments left within the first hour after a post goes live tend to have more impact. Early engagement helps boost the original post’s visibility, and your own comment is more likely to be seen.

6. Always reply

Whether you give or get a comment, reply. Follow the same rules above. Continue the conversation. Again, the algorithm notices, and so do people.

7. Comment first, like second

Your first interaction matters. LinkedIn values your very first signal, and commenting still ranks higher. This insight surfaced in 2024. It may evolve, but for now, it’s worth the small effort to write before you tap the thumbs-up.

8. The ‘I like yours, you like mine’ policy

LinkedIn actively discourages this kind of mutual back-scratching. Engagement pods and coordinated likes from coworkers often do more harm than good. By default, engagement from colleagues carries less algorithmic weight than interaction from peers or strangers.

Also worth noting: when the same people always comment first on your posts, their impact decreases over time. Mix it up. Focus on real conversations, not choreographed ones.

9. Lastly, be you

Be unmistakably you. Don't try to impress. Or be somebody else. People love authenticity. Especially if you're a bit upfront, quirky, nerdy, and outspoken. 

Final note

LinkedIn gives you what you give it. If you're just here to check a box, expect crickets. But if you use it as a space to connect, contribute, and learn, even in the comments, you’ll start to see it pay off.

Comments may seem small, but when used well, they are one of your most effective tools.

6. LinkedIn's algorithm is basically a nightclub bouncer, deciding who gets in and who does not

There's a bigger system in place so LinkedIn can keep all our feeds as relevant as possible, so that we, the users, keep returning to their platform

If you think LinkedIn is for just posting your content, you’re missing the point. In my daily work, I see many people getting anxious over details and specs while they don’t even know the basics of how and why the platform works. 

→ Before your content is seen at all, you need to get into the LinkedIn feed first.

Rule 1: The algorithm is the nightclub bouncer

1. You don’t look the part. If your post isn’t formatted well, the visual is off, or the text is hard to read, the algorithm notices. Looks matter. 
    
2. You don’t bring the right energy. Flat, generic, mediocre content signals low engagement potential. The algorithm wants posts that spark conversation, not just take up space. Engagement matters. 
    
3. You’re not on the list. Rarely post or engage? The algorithm doesn’t see you as a regular. Just like the bouncer turning away someone who shows up once a year, it won’t prioritize you. Consistency matters. 

Rule 2: AI scans your post before any human sees it

The bouncer from the example above, that's AI. So, before your post even reaches someone’s feed, AI has already judged it. 

This scan is fast and ruthless. Only if your content passes all these checks will you have a chance to be featured in the feed. If you fail, no one even knows your post existed.

Rule 3: Your activity gets you VIP treatment

Being social on LinkedIn matters. The algorithm rewards effort. Engaging with others, sharing insights, starting conversations, and showing up in the comments pays off. That’s why comments are ranked higher than likes. Comments show you’re part of the conversation, not just tapping a button and moving on.

→ Read the full post 

7. The 5 LinkedIn tips no one tells you

LinkedIn is quietly reinventing itself, and it looks like it's borrowing TikTok's algorithmic playbook. It’s shifting from a social graph to an interest graph, and that one change rewrites the rules of reach, visibility, and what actually gets seen.

To keep this overview page a bit manageable → the full article ‘The 5 LinkedIn tips no one tells you’

What you’ll read: 

• In 2025, the big shift, from a social graph to an interest graph
• Tip 1: Long-form is back. Depth and niche expertise are in. Video? Not so much
• Tip 2. Write as you speak, don't try to impress
• Tip 3: Stop asking fake questions. No one’s falling for it anymore
• Tip 4. Obsess on the hook
• Tip 5. Comment and engage
• Company pages: still technically alive, basically useless. Here’s what to do
• How often should you post

8. LinkedIn’s new algorithm, what changed?

This marks a major shift in how the LinkedIn timeline works. It now doesn’t just scan your post, it reads it. Context, tone, and relevance now matter more than hashtags.

Instead of relying on thousands of separate algorithms—one for jobs, one for the feed, one for ads, LinkedIn now runs on a single large-scale language model with 150 billion parameters. It's similar to the technology behind ChatGPT or Gemini.

Here are the 3 biggest changes you need to know. 

From ‘clicks’ to ‘meaning’

In the past, LinkedIn focused on signals like likes and hashtags. 360Brew now actually reads and understands your text. It grasps the context and professionalism of your post. It’s all about content quality and relevance to your audience.

The profile-content anchor

360Brew doesn’t look at a post in isolation; it evaluates how well it matches your profile. It uses your headline and ‘About’ section as the foundation for your expertise score.

If your post aligns with your stated area of expertise, you get a boost. If not, the model may suppress it.

AI detection

In the 360Brew era, the value system has shifted, as mentioned about the importance of comments and saves. But the model is extremely effective at detecting lazy, fully AI-generated content, and often downgrades its reach.

9. LinkedIn is in 2026 one of the most cited sources in AI-generated answers

AI is quietly building its knowledge base and LinkedIn Articles are one of its primary sources. Most brands haven't connected LinkedIn publishing to AI visibility yet.

For B2B queries, Profound tracked it as the #1 cited domain across six major AI platforms.

Semrush analyzed 325,000 prompts across ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, and Perplexity. LinkedIn appeared in 11% of all AI responses, second only to Reddit, ahead of Wikipedia, YouTube, and every major publisher.

• "LinkedIn is one of the most cited domains across AI models. 
  It ranks #2 in citations in the Semrush dataset, appearing in 11% of AI responses on average across ChatGPT Search, Perplexity, and Google AI Mode.
   
• Your LinkedIn content can directly shape how AI explains your brand. 
  LinkedIn shows relatively high semantic similarity scores in our dataset (0.57–0.60), meaning AI responses often mirror the meaning of the original content.
   
• Educational, original content is cited most often. 
  Long-form articles (500–2,000 words) and mid-length posts (50–299 words) account for the largest share of AI citations, and 54–64% of cited posts focus on sharing knowledge or practical advice, while reshares are rarely referenced.
   
• AI citations reward relevance and consistency more than virality. 
  Most cited posts have moderate engagement (15–25 reactions), while about 75% of cited authors post frequently (5+ posts in four weeks) and nearly half have over 2,000 followers.
   
• You need both Company Page content and individual thought leadership. 
  For example, Perplexity cites Company Pages most often (59%), while ChatGPT Search and Google AI Mode more often cite individual creators (59%)."

What this means for your brand

The brands showing up in AI-generated answers aren't posting more. They're publishing better.

Structured articles. Clear expertise. Consistent topics. Written by people who actually know what they're talking about, not by a content team filling a quota.

→ AI doesn't cite your brand. It cites your content, published by a coworker

That shift, from thinking about LinkedIn as a social channel to treating it as a publishing platform, is the whole game right now. Most brands haven't made it yet.

Your next AI citation isn't a campaign. It's a LinkedIn article, written by someone at your company, published this week.

10. The power of dark reach, the invisible spread of your content

Dark reach on social refers to the unseen impact of your content: those interactions and impressions that don’t show up in the analytics but still matter. Just because you can’t measure it doesn’t mean it isn’t real.

1. Invisible spread

Your content travels through private channels – chats, closed groups, email, DMs – where tracking dies.

• Shared by trusted peers, so higher impact
• Links copied without UTM tags → ends up as ‘direct’ or mystery traffic
• Reposts without credit → lives on in someone else’s feed, quietly

2. Invisible impact

Your content leaves a mark even when no one clicks, likes or comments.

• People might say ‘I see you post every week,’ though no metrics show that
• On LinkedIn, a glance can create an impression, yet it may not be logged
• Unopened emails where the sender + subject line alone build recognition and authority for you

Why this matters

Dark reach equals your content going ‘viral’ in the shadows. It’s the ghost impression that lives in someone’s mind, even if your dashboard shows crickets. Think of it like the friend who never comments but somehow knows your whole life story.

11. How to control what you see in your feed; your dwell time

You can have a say in what content pops up in your feed. Besides engaging with content and creators, you can also do this by controlling your dwell time.

The more time you spend on a post, the more LinkedIn thinks you like it, even if you don't engage with the post. 

Please note, this also goes for content that irritates you. So if you read something annoying and you get all fed up, and continue to read, LinkedIn thinks you appreciate it. The algorithm can’t read sentiment (yet).

So, if you want to see less of that type of content, don’t engage with it. Don’t read it. Scroll on as fast as you can.

Do spend time reading and engaging with content that you like. The more you do that, the more of that type of content you’ll get. And if you really like it, leave an in-depth comment and help the original poster gain more reach.

→ ‘How to comment, with 15x the impact of a like’ (number 7 on the LinkedIn algorithm secrets list) 

12. Be aware of the ‘Pod policy’ for friends and co-workers

Don’t ask your coworkers and friends to like and share your content blindly. LinkedIn has a ‘pod’ policy with penalties. This means you can’t fool the algorithm by asking for engagement just to increase reach. The algorithm recognizes this and lowers the value of the content.

In other words: LinkedIn punishes the ‘I like yours, you like mine’ behavior (the pod policy).

I also know that for a major brand launching a new product, LinkedIn warned them in advance. The warning was about their plan to have thousands of employees post about the product on launch day. LinkedIn noticed, and the content was blocked by the algorithm. This brand is known for these kinds of tricks ;) I can’t mention names (NDA).

13. Reposting: ‘Instant’ is still the best, and reposts from employees have -30% impact

The latest buzz about LinkedIn posts is ‘not to repost' and always create a new post. I don't agree. The best reach for your post still depends on the content and not purely on how you post it. 

That said, let's dive into some details and data. Below, you'll read why I like reposting and how to do it. 

Including that, surprisingly, ‘instant reposts’ are better than ‘repost with thoughts.’ 

Another surprise is that when employees share company posts, the impact is reduced by about 30%. There is a ‘pod’ policy in place, this means that you can't trick the algorithm by asking your coworkers and friends to repost and comment. The algorithm knows and devalues this accordingly. 

Why I like reposting

• It gives more credit to the original source than when you create a new post.
• It shows your followers that you also share content from others besides your own.
• The number of reposts reflects the quality and relevance of the content, or very smart and strong stakeholder management to convince others to repost.

2 Things to keep in mind:

→ If you want your C-suite to share your content on LinkedIn, you must make it as easy as possible for them. I don't see them creating a post from scratch, so reposting works better for them. 

→ If the original post has a ‘link in comment,’ it will disappear, so you need to add the ‘link in comment’ to your repost. 

Repost: ‘instant’ or ‘with thoughts’?

The copy below is ‘borrowed’ from the Algorithm Insights 2024 report, pages 72 and 73, rewritten and edited for clarity and relevance. Follow Richard van der Blom for more insights, tips, and tricks based on data and research, not just opinions.

Before we start, a little definition. ‘Instant’ means hitting the ‘repost’ button without adding your thoughts. ‘Repost with thoughts’ means, well, adding your insights and why you think others should read this post. 

→ Only add your thoughts when it makes sense, and to make it relevant for your followers. Does the original post need your thoughts, or can it do without? If in doubt, please keep in mind that the algorithm prefers the instant repost. 

→ 2 Rules of thumb: first, make an effort; 100+ words and personal. Two, don't repeat what's in the original post. For example, adding ‘we are looking for an account manager’ when reposting a job, that adds no value, isn't needed, is too short, and has nothing personal. 

What's in it for the original author, you wrote the post

1. ‘Instant repost’ of your post within the first 4 hours can increase growth by 40%.
    
2. ‘Repost with thoughts’: adding personal insights cuts the post’s impact by 12x compared to an ‘instant repost’. Oops! This is surprising to me. Based on Richard's research, it's better to encourage ‘instant reposts’ to maximize reach. 
   
   I still believe it’s good to share your thoughts when reposting, as it shows you care and put in effort. But you have to stick to the rules of relevance and length. However, the data from January 2024 tells differently.  
    
3. You always need to engage quickly when others repost your content to favor the algorithm and amplify your reach. 

The reposter's perspective, you repost someone else's post

1. Engagement on ‘reposts with thoughts’ also needs to be fast. Without direct engagement, the visibility of your repost is limited to 8-10% of your typical reach. 
   
   If you get 10+ engagements, you can boost that reach to 15-20%. But, based on the low reach of ‘reposting with thoughts’, you'll need to message your network to engage. 
    
2. Add context: your ‘thoughts’ should be at least 100 words and or very personal. If not and shorter, your ‘repost with thoughts’ underperforms by 3x. 
    
3. Employee versus external repost: when employees share company posts, the impact is reduced by about 30% compared to shares by individuals outside the company, except for infographics, which keep 25%.
    
4. Instant reposts are primarily a gesture to support the visibility of others' content. It boosts the original post’s reach by 4% but doesn’t increase your visibility. 
    

My advice on ‘repost instantly’ or ‘add your thoughts’

Honestly, I don't have a firm answer as to what to do. As with everything in life, it depends.

Whether you add your 100+ word thoughts depends on what you want to accomplish by reposting, your relationship to the original poster, and, of course, the content as in the message and post format. 

Think about the pros and cons of reposting and adding thoughts, so you can decide for yourself what works best for your situation and your followers. 

→ Don't ask your coworkers and friends, there is a ‘pod’ policy and penalty. This means that you can't trick the algorithm by asking them, the algorithm knows and devalues this accordingly. 

In the brand new 30-page update of Algorithm Insights 2024 there are signs of a slight change towards the ‘add your thoughts,' but, based on the current data, the ‘instant’ is still favored (for now). 

14. How to set up employee advocacy and employee-generated content

These two pages give you all the information you need to know:

• Amplify your business page reach on LinkedIn with employee advocacy
  The 5 tips to turn your employees into a LinkedIn machine
   
• Employee-generated content is about to explode; what are you waiting for?
  A new, real, and authentic way to get reach for your brand

15. ‘Open to work’ as a red flag 🚩

I wasn't aware, were you? For sure, I'll never put this up again. Small side note: this mainly applies to the more senior roles. 

What to do instead? Get noticed with a solid personal content strategy. 

16. Tips to create your best personal profile on LinkedIn

As always, Richard van der Blom has your back. He created a simple 33-point checklist for improving your LinkedIn profile. 

My take on his checklist is that these are the 4 easiest fixes that most often go wrong

• Header visual: F'it with the boring corporate visual and big logo; keep it personal and authentic. There are many templates available to help you get started creating something awesome
• Profile picture: let it be professional, yet not too corporate stiff upper lip. And set it open; don't keep it a secret unless you're a celebrity special snowflake
• Spend time writing an amazing headline. Check out Richard's post or scroll down. Make an effort, and don't stick to just your job title; that's boring, and nobody gets excited by that.
• Be active. If your last post, comment, like, or share is more than a few weeks ago, it signals you don't give AF about being social. Nobody likes not-social people

On average, the LinkedIn profiles Richard analyzed ranked 62%. This is your chance to do better and stand out

Check out his complete checklist to improve and complete your profile, and give him a follow for more great LinkedIn content and secrets. He knows.

Your LinkedIn headline is your personal ad

Your profile headline is your own personal ad in 120 characters; make them count and treat it like a mission statement - who you are and why people should connect with you. 

There is no golden formula, yet these are LinkedIn's own great examples to be inspired by. 

My key takeaways

• Write it like a super short elevator pitch without buzz or jargon
• Share something personal in a light-hearted way,
• Strengthen your headline with your profile picture and cover photo; it’s the combination of the 3 that makes you stand out
• It’s not about you; focus on what you can do for the other, for example, as a rhetorical question as your headline
• You can be bold and show confidence

There's magic in your LinkedIn profile summary

LinkedIn gets it. Writing your LinkedIn Profile summary isn’t at the top of your to-do list. Sometimes, you need great examples to see the summary’s magic and figure out how to write your own.

These are LinkedIn's 14 best practices. 

My key takeaways

• Very personal and authentically written in ‘I,’ they write as they speak
• Around 3 to 5 short paragraphs, quite some extended information with a minimum of around ~200 words
• Visually appealing; use break lines, making smart use of whitespaces
• Giving an overview with bullets or numbers where needed

Here are a few more tips

• Describe what makes you tick (in your own words)
• Explain your present role and describe what you do in the simplest terms. Share what problems you solve and for whom
• Highlight your successes, cite the biggest takeaway from your experience section across roles
• Reveal your character, show your personality next to who you are professionally
• Ask for what you want your audience to do after reading your summary; be specific
• Make your first sentence count; hook them
• Include keywords that highlight your top skills; these are the same keywords used in job descriptions
• Cut the jargon, as already mentioned; write as you speak

Below is Santa Claus's LinkedIn summary. Be inspired.  

'About

I'm the happiest guy you'll ever meet. My cheer is infectious, and I get thrills spreading it at scale. I love children too. I thrive on their faith in me. The combination of these two passions is why I’m in the business of making kids smile.

My idea of fun is patiently listening to whiny customers seated on my lap in a mall, and turning their toy requests into $500 billion in sales. I’m proud that I have a direct impact on their behavior too: nice? Gifts. Naughty? Coal.

I can wear many hats: postal worker, reindeer tamer, workshop executive, sleigh pilot, chimney gymnast and elf resources manager. Desk jobs aren’t for me though. I do my best work on the move, flying through the sky.

I manage a team of 300,000 three-foot direct reports who live and breathe generosity and goodness. I know how to get the most out of them too. Since the launch of my elf-training program, my letter-readers have cut time-per-letter by 39% and my toy builders, wrappers and leaders have increased their output by 17%.

I can brave arctic temperatures and overcome sleep deprivation. I can shimmy up and down chimneys in a flash – without making a peep. No chimney? No problem. I’ll figure out how to get in.

I’m the kind of guy who is so meticulous that when I make my list in Excel, I check it twice. I have an uncanny ability to know when my customers are sleeping, and when they're awake.

Despite the demands of the job, I’ve never missed my annual deadline. Ever. Some people don’t even believe in me, yet I still deliver to them on-time.

Once you nailed your LinkedIn profile, it's time to share content.'

Source: ‘What Santa Can Teach Us About LinkedIn Profiles’

17. Who to follow

If you do want to know all the ins and outs of getting likes and comments, these gents know their game and share knowledge — no fuzz, no b*lls*t, no jargon, just honest, upfront advice and nailing it. 

Richard van der Blom,  Sam Browne, Matt Barker, and shout out to Dickie Bush. 

Sources

Check out Richard; he's got great insights on LinkedIn reach.  
LinkedIn cheat sheet below via Alexander Greb 
Credits to Auke van der Grinten, via the link how you can ask him to send you the Nextfields B2B LinkedIn handboek 
And big thanks to Sam Browne for his LinkedIn secrets of the algorithm V2 
And follow Christ Coolen for his insightful content on marketing psychology and content (Dutch only). 

Disclaimer

This page is updated frequently. Whenever I get new insights worth sharing, I'll add them to this page. 

Your authority can't come from AI working off a junior brief. It takes human craft at a senior level that understands the brand, and most don't have anyone in that role. Which means that there's a staffing gap right where it matters most: brand is the most important competitive asset in marketing.

Your content now has an AI audience

According to the 2026 Thales Bad Bot Report, 53% of all global web traffic is now automated. Bots outnumber humans for the second year running.

Some of that traffic is AI crawlers, indexing your content so a model can retrieve it later. They don't decide anything the moment they visit. They decide what gets stored. And stored is what gets cited, whenever someone asks an LLM a question.

Authority comes from your voice

AI-generated content is usually voiceless slop produced at scale. It has no authority, no original claim, and no point of view. It reflects what's already online—the average of existing content. LLMs have no reason to retrieve or cite it.

→ AI doesn't create authority. It retrieves it.

You need a voice. Voice comes from craft. Craft earns human trust. Human trust builds authority. Authority gets you cited.

Your voice can't be delegated

I'm not saying you shouldn't use AI. You absolutely should. But use AI to assist you, not to replace you. You bring the ideas, the perspective, and the voice. AI helps you write faster, organize your thinking, and refine the execution.

The thinking is yours. The writing is AI-assisted. Not the other way around. Authority can’t be outsourced. Your voice is what makes you you. It's what gives you authority. It's also the one thing AI can't generate. 

→ The difference is simple: AI-generated scales content. AI-assisted scales voice and authority.

Your voice is built on three things only someone with genuine expertise can create:

• A distinct point of view, the perspective only you can hold
• Structure and storyline, the architecture of how ideas connect
• Real copywriting and creative craft, the skill that makes people stop, read, and remember

This is not a junior task. It's not brand guidelines. It's the thinking behind the content. That requires a senior strategist. And it's the most under-resourced role in marketing today.

Three questions for your leadership team

Are you producing content that earns authority, or content that fills a calendar? Are you measuring citations and voice consistency, or reach and volume? Are you using AI to cut costs, or to scale craft?

→ Your 2027 budget decision isn't about which AI tool to buy. It's how you protect the most important competitive asset in marketing: your voice. It’s how your brand is brought to life. And only a human can create that.

Disclaimer: GEO and SEO are bigger than this. Most advice covers the mechanics. This piece covers what gets skipped: the thinking that has to happen first, and the senior craft it takes to do it.

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→ TLDR: I deleted 7 old resumes from my account. Relevant recruiters showed up. Job suggestions improved. 

I also cover why your headline and your content need to match, and where I stand on the Open to Work badge.

1. Delete your old resumes from your LinkedIn profile

If you've ever uploaded a resume, LinkedIn uses that. It uses all that data to read you and build a picture of you. Even the hidden resumes that no one but you can see.

If your saved resumes are old or written for jobs you no longer want, you're sending mixed signals. Mixed signals means not showing up in the right recruiter searches.

Here's how to clean it up.

• Go to Settings & Privacy → Data Privacy → Job Seeking Preferences. 
   
• Look for two settings: ‘Save resumes and application data’ and ‘Share resume data with recruiters.’
   
• Turn them off first, then delete every resume that doesn't match anymore. All of it.
   
• Then upload your current resume, the one that reflects the role you want. If you're targeting two different tracks, upload one for each.
   
• Before you switch those settings back on, check that your profile and your resume align. Same dates. Same job titles. Same keywords. LinkedIn uses both to build its picture of you. If they contradict each other, that picture gets blurry.
   
• Toggle the settings back on. Done.

→ I deleted 7 old resumes from my account.

All credit for this goes to Emily Worden. Follow her for great practical content for job seekers.

2. Your job suggestions will improve too

I did this cleanup and the difference was immediate. The vacancies LinkedIn suggested actually match what I'm looking for now.

The junior roles disappeared. Just like that. My old resumes were so outdated and off-target they were pulling my entire profile down. LinkedIn had built a picture of me I no longer recognised.

I should have done this years ago. It would have saved me a lot of frustration.

3. Your headline shouldn't be your job title

Recruiters don't browse profiles. They search with keywords. If those keywords don't appear in your headline, bio, or work experience, you won't show up.

Write the headline for the role you want, not a description of the job you have now. Then carry those same keywords through your bio and experience. That's how you get found before you apply.

Need inspiration? Santa's LinkedIn profile is genuinely worth a look.

4. Your headline and your content need to match

This one matters beyond job seeking. It applies to anyone who posts.

LinkedIn evaluates your profile and compares it against the topics you post about. The stronger the alignment, the more LinkedIn sees you as a credible voice. It pushes your profile to the right recruiters and amplifies the reach of your posts.

Here's a fast way to check.

• Go to your profile, click Edit, delete your headline, and hit ‘Write with AI.’ 
   
• Look at what it suggests. That's LinkedIn's read of you. 
   
• Now compare it to what you actually post about. Same territory? You're fine. Completely different? That's your reach problem.

One thing: don't use that suggestion as your actual headline. It's terrible. LinkedIn’s AI is a diagnostic, not a copywriter, no matter what LinkedIn says. Use it to see how LinkedIn reads you, then write your own.

‘Write with AI’ is a LinkedIn Premium feature. Free one-month trials come up regularly. Worth doing this check before the trial expires.

All credit for this goes to Alicia Teltz, follow her for more.

5. How to write your open to work post

The best practical guide I've seen on this is Emily Worden's framework. I edited it for my own use. When I posted my open to work post in March 2025, it landed me 2 new projects.

LinkedIn will nudge you to write a post when you activate your Open to Work settings. It will even draft one for you. Don't use it. ‘Hi everyone, I am looking for a new role and would appreciate your support’ tells nobody anything. It's lazy and won't get you results.

Write your own. Short paragraphs, short sentences, bullet points and line breaks.

Here's how.

• Start with a story. Not ‘I am looking for a new role.’ Something real: ‘After being laid off in December and taking time to regroup with my family, I'm ready to work.’
   
• Say what you're looking for. Job title, industry, the skills you want to use. Be specific. Vague gets ignored.
   
• List your best results. Numbers, not descriptions. Impact, not just responsibilities.
   
• Optional: add a human or fun fact. LinkedIn has gone more social. People connect faster when they know something real about you.
   
• Close with a specific ask. ‘If you know anyone hiring product managers, send them my way. Like or comment to help with visibility.’ People want to help. Make it easy.
   
• Offer to return the favour. One line is enough.

→ Repost every three to four weeks. Most people didn't see it the first time.

6. The Open to Work badge: signal or red flag?

The debate is back. Should you use it or not.

My view is simple. For junior or mid-level professionals, use it. It's a clear signal and recruiters respond to it.

For senior leaders and C-suite, don't. It doesn't read as availability. It reads as desperation. There's a difference, and the people you want to attract know it.

I've never had a recruiter not reach out because I didn't have the badge. It has never stopped them. Not once.

More insights on LinkedIn's algorithm secrets 

I collected all my monthly updates on the All LinkedIn algorithm secrets archive page. 

What you'll learn:

1. How the algorithm builds its profile of you, which influences your reach
2. Your connections stopped being your distribution
3. Specificity beats authenticity
4. Nurturing: the work after you publish
5. The 9 rules for commenting effectively
6. LinkedIn's algorithm is basically a nightclub bouncer, deciding who gets in and who not
7. The 5 LinkedIn tips no one tells you
8. LinkedIn’s new 2026 algorithm, what changed?
9. LinkedIn is in 2026 of the most cited sources in AI-generated answers
10. The power of dark reach, the invisible spread of your content
11. How to control what you see in your feed; your dwell time
12. Be aware of the ‘Pod policy’ for friends and co-workers
13. Reposting, ‘instant’ is still the best, and reposts from employees have -30% impact
14. How to set up employee advocacy and employee-generated content
15. ‘Open to work’ as a red flag
16. Your profile matters and makes a huge difference
17. Sources and who to follow

Special edition: How to make your resume ATS-proof with AI and LinkedIn

And please, before jumping to any conclusions, check the original sources for all insights, nuances, and details. As with everything, these secrets have context.

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→ Two letters between agent and agentic. And three skills standing between you and a system that runs itself.

Nobody explained it clearly. Until now. 

Prompting → one input, one output, every time

You write the prompt. AI responds. 

Nothing runs without you. And you start from scratch every time, new question, new prompt. 

→ Realize that your bad prompt doesn't stay bad. It travels. Into your agent. Into your agentic system.

Agent → build it once, let others use it

You invest time upfront. Write the prompt once, configure that in the agent, and it's ready. 

You can share agents with your team. They don't need to know how the agent works. They just give it input. The agent does the thinking, based on the prompt you’ve built into its settings. 

→ Someone still presses ‘go’.

Agentic → runs by itself

The agent is the basis of agentic. The only difference is what starts it. For agentic, that's a scripted trigger based on ‘if this, then that’.

→ Build once and it completely runs by itself. That's agentic.

The agentic logic can chain multiple actions. 

• If it's Monday 7am (the trigger),
• then the agent pulls last week's most relevant updates on marketing and AI from trusted sources, gives it context and meaning, sends it from my gmail, and lands them in your inbox.

• If a new email arrives from a potential client (trigger),
• then the agent creates a project folder, drafts a reply outline, and drops a bespoke pitch deck in the folder. Ready before you've opened your inbox.

Agentic requires new skills and responsibility. To decide what condition triggers it. And to build the logic that runs without supervision; safe, reliable, and auditable.

Skipping steps and skills breaks it

Prompt to agent to agentic is a clean model with sequential skills. You need to master the first, before you can move to the second. 

In practice, organisations skip steps. The tools make it too easy. But automating something you don't fully understand makes it harder to trust the output, audit the process, fix what breaks or even update it. 

→ The order from prompt to agent to agentic exists for a reason.

Read more about the 7 levels of AI.

More skills, more return

Each level is a different discipline with progressive skills. Prompting is about talking to a machine. That's communication. Building an agent is about configuring a system. That's design. Agentic is about logic, triggers, dependencies. That's architecture.

Each level asks more. Each level returns more. The order is not optional.

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1. Requirements for ATS-proof resumes
2. Use AI and LinkedIn
3. Prompts for your cover letter and highlighting skills 

Before we start, in 3 bullets what you need to know about ATS systems. 

• ATS stands for Applicant Tracking System, like Workday or Homerun.
• Around 75% of companies use ATS to scan resumes, and that might filter and auto-reject yours before it gets seen by a human recruiter.
• Recruiters react accordingly to the overflow of AI-optimized and tailored resumes with fast and scalable assessments that balance candidate experience with accuracy.

Some systems are running on older legacy systems, so your resume has to be idot-proof for them to be able to read it. 

Your ATS-proof resume should look boring

The first is a screenshot of my 1-pager, a beautifully designed resume in PDF. The second is ATS proof, boring, very clean, and a few pages, but if that is what gets me over the ATS wall, I'll settle with it. 

→ The more plain and boring, the more the ATS likes it

1. Requirements for ATS-proof resumes

This is what matters if you want the ATS software to scan your resume easily and get seen by a human recruiter.

Simplify your formatting

Beautifully designes resumes with complex layouts, graphics, or unconventional fonts confuse ATS. What to do instead:

• Use default fonts and the standard layout for headers and sub-headers. Minimize your styling like bolding, italics, and underlining.
   
• Stick to standard section headings like ‘Work Experience,’ ‘Education,’ and ‘Skills’ to make sure the ATS can correctly identify each part of your resume.
   
• Avoid infographics, images, charts, or tables, as ATS has difficulty reading these.

The more plain and boring, the better. There are resume templates provided by Canva or Word. The ones with the nice two-column layout, I don’t know if it’s smart to use them. It looks nice, but…

• From your user perspective, it’s a hassle to create and adjust the document.
• From a hiring manager’s perspective, the cognitive load is high, it makes me search for relevant information in the document.
• From an ATS perspective, is the hierarchy clear and simple enough to scan and evaluate accordingly?

If my objective is to get past the ATS automation, I stick to a super simple, boring-looking text only PDF document.  And honestly, this breaks my strategic, creative, and content heart, but it is what it is.

Optimize your keywords

Here’s the automation magic. The ATS software scans your resume based on the keywords in the job description to rank your application. It is a bit like SEO: the better the match, the higher the ranking.

• Match keywords: when you use the right skills, job titles, and qualifications in your resume, you tell the ATS, ‘Hey, I’m exactly what you’re looking for!’
   
• Be accurate, no keywords stuffing: don’t just plug in keywords for the sake of matching. 

Use compatible filenaming

The naming of the file should be clear and straightforward: FirstName_LastName_Resume.pdf. No need to include a date or a version number, keep it as simple as possible.

2. Use AI and LinkedIn to ATS-proof your resume

This is what you need to do:

1. Download your LinkedIn profile as a PDF; go to your profile, click on the ‘resources’ button in your bio, and ‘save to PDF’.
    
2. Copy the job description.
    
3. Go to AI and use a prompt similar to this: Imagine you want to apply for [job title]. Can you help me adjust my resume and make it ATS proof? Please use the job description below and my resume uploaded as a PDF. Job description: “ [paste the copied job description here] ” and upload your LinkedIn profile PDF in the same prompt.
    
4. Check the response; seriously, AI can hallucinate and adjust your work experience freely. Make sure there are no lies and that what is written is accurate. Adjust if needed.
    
5. Shift to Word: once you’re happy, copy the response and paste it into Word. You can also ask AI to create a .doc or PDF, but I noticed that sometimes that download is missing paragraphs.
    
6. Adjust further by adding or deleting paragraphs. This manual edit makes it more authentic. 
    
7. Save as PDF: review and refine a bit more in Word and export as PDF.

Let’s be clear: ATS-proofing your resume is no guarantee of getting an invite; your experience and the human match still define success.

3. Prompts for your cover letter and highlighting skills 

Stolen with pride, these prompts help you with finetuning your resume and communications. Please check the original post for all the prompts. 

Resume summary section
’Create a compelling summary section for my resume that encapsulates my professional experience, key skills, and achievements, tailored to a [job position] role at [company] in the [industry] sector, while reflecting the [company culture/value].’

Cover letter
’Integrate key points from my resume into a cover letter paragraph that highlights my unique qualifications for the [job position] at [company], emphasizing my [specific skill/experience] that aligns with [company's mission/vision].’

Technical skills section (or other skills)
’Detail the technical skills, software proficiencies, and certifications that make me a strong candidate for the [job position] at [company]. Tailor the list to focus on tools and technologies emphasized in [industry/role-specific needs].’

Soft skills demonstration
’Craft impactful examples of how my soft skills, such as [communication, leadership, or teamwork], have driven positive outcomes, tailored for enhancing the soft skills section of my resume for a [job position] at [company].’

Feedback and revision suggestions
’Provide actionable feedback for revising my current resume to better align with a [job position] at [company]. Focus on improving [layout, language, and relevance to the role] while ensuring clarity and professionalism.’

How can I check if my resume is ATS-proof?

Simple, use a tool like Jobscan, Resume Worded, or Zety.

Now it’s all up to you. 

Good luck!

Disclaimer: original publication date November 2024, updated in June 2026. 

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No ranking, the first is just as good as the last.

June’s book of the month: 'Barking Up the Wrong Tree: The Surprising Science Behind Why Everything You Know About Success Is (Mostly) Wrong' by Eric Barker

Everything others tell you about success? Some of it is wrong. Most of it is incomplete. All of it is worth questioning.

Eric Barker backs that up with research. How schools reward conformity, not potential. And that context is everything for qualities that make people wildly successful or sometimes destroy them.

Each chapter flips a conventional belief on its head. Then gives you the science to back it up.

The most important decision you can make is figuring out what the right game is for you. Read it before someone else defines your line of success for you.

Marketing and Strategy books

1. ‘Alchemy’ by Rory Sutherland
     [June 2025 book of the month]
2. ‘No Bullsh*t Strategy’ by Alex M H Smith 
     [February 2024 book of the month]
3. 'Chaz's 100 Things a Planner Should Know' by Charles Wigley
     [October 2025 book of the month]
4. ‘Building a StoryBrand’ by Donald Miller

5. ‘Obvious Adams’ by Robert R. Updegraff
     [January 2026 book of the month]
6. 'Insanely Simple' by Ken Segal
7. ‘Unreasonable Hospitality’ by Will Guidara

8. ‘They Ask, You Answer’ by Marcus Sheridan

9. 'Influence' by Robert B. Cialdini 
     [November 2024 book of the month]
10. 'How Big Things Get Done' by Bent Flyvbjerg, Dan Gardner
11. 'Reinventing the store', ‘Het geheim van bol.com’ by Michael Schaeffer  
     [December 2023 book of the month]
12. ‘How not to Plan: 66 ways to screw it up’ by Les Binet and Sarah Carter

13. ‘Leaders eat last’ by Simon Sinek
14. 'Measure What Matters' by John Doerr
15. 'Start with Why’ by Simon Sinek
16. ‘Let my people go surfing’ by Yvon Chouinard
17. 'Good Strategy, bad strategy' by Richard P. Rumelt
18. 'Epic Content Marketing' by Joe Pulizzi
19. 'The Infinite Game' by Simon Sinek
20. 'Leading the Starbucks Way,' by Joseph A. Michelli
21. ‘Eat your Greens’ by Wiemer Snijders
22. ‘Nudge' by Richard H. Thaler, Cass R. Sunstein
      [May 2024 book of the month]

Content and copywriting books

23. ‘Very Good Copy’ by Eddie Shleyner
     [August 2024 book of the month]
24. ‘A Self-Help Guide for Copywriters’ by Dan Nelken

25. ‘Writing for Busy Readers’ by Todd Rogers and Jessica Lasky-Fink
26. ‘Simply said’ by Jay Sullivan
27. 'Creativity. A Short and Cheerful Guide' by John Cleese
     [July 2024, October 2025 book of the month]
28. ‘The Copywriter's Handbook’ by Robert W. Bly

29. ‘Copywriting Secrets’ by Alan Sharpe
30. 'TED Talks Storytelling' by Akash Karia
31. 'Everybody writes' by Ann Handley
32. 'Advertising for skeptics' by Bob Hoffman
33. 'Make Your Idea Matter: Stand out with a better story' by Bernadette Jiwa

Mindset and Psychology books

34. 'How to Win Friends and Influence People' by Dale Carnegie
35. ‘Barking Up the Wrong Tree’ by Eric Barker
     [June 2026 book of the month]
36. ‘Pitlane Lessons’ by Marc Priestley
     [May 2026 book of the month]
37. ‘Learning to Learn’ by Barbara Oakley
     [October 2024 book of the month]
38. ‘Thinking Clearly’ by Rolf Dobelli
39. ‘The Let Them Theory’ by Mell Robins
     [February and March 2025 book of the month]
40. 'Think Faster, Talk Smarter' by Matt Abrahams
41. 'The Power of Vulnerability' by Brene Brown
    [September 2024 book of the month]
42. ‘Comfort Crisis’ by Michael Easter 
     [August 2024 book of the month]
43. ‘Slow Productivity’ by Cal Newport 
     [April 2024 book of the month]
44. 'The Art of Gathering' by Priya Parker
45. ‘Invisible Women. Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men’ by Caroline Criado-Perez
    [June 2024 book of the month]
46. ‘Body language’ by Vanessa Van Edwards in Dairy of a CEO
      [January 2025 podcast of the month]
47. 'Get Your Sh*t Together’ by Sarah Knight
48. “The ONE Thing” by Gary Kelly and Jay Papasan
49. 'Thrive' by Arianna Huffington
50. 'If I Could Tell You Just One Thing' by Richard Reed
51. 'Daily Reflections for Highly Effective People' by Stephen R. Covey

52. ‘Don't Sweat the Small Stuff' by Richard Carlson

53. 'The Ideal Team Player' by Patrick M. Lencioni
54. 'Atomic Habits' by James Clear

55. 'Mindset' by Carol S. Dweck
56. 'Living with a SEAL:' by Jesse Itzler
57. 'The 5 Second Rule' by Mel Robbins
      [March 2026 book of the month]
58. ‘Unmasked’ by Ellie Middleton

(Auto)biographies

59. ‘Careless People’ by Sarah Wynn-Williams
      [July 2025 book of the month]
60. ‘Be Useful’ by Arnold Schwarzenegger 
      [January 2024, November 2025 book of the month]
61. ‘Kitchen Confidential’ by Anthony Bourdain

62. ‘Before & Laughter’ by Jimmy Carr
     [August 2025 book of the month]
63. ‘Screw it, Let’s Do It' by Richard Branson
     [December 2024 book of the month]
64. ‘The Art of Resilience’ by Ross Edgley

65. ‘The story of Lululemon' by Chip Wilson

66. 'Can't Hurt Me:' by David Goggins



1. ‘Alchemy. The Dark Art and Curious Science of Creating Magic in Brands, Business, and Life’ by Rory Sutherland 

Initially, I was skeptical about this book. But, man, it didn't disappoint, and I've already listened to it. Twice. 

A combination of Kahneman's ‘Thinking Fast and Slow’ and ‘Creativity’ by Cleese. ‘Alchemy’ is about logic and reason, written and read by a Brit, including the accent. 

This should be on every marketer's reading list. It's about how embracing irrationality can lead to innovative solutions, emphasizing understanding human psychology over pure logic to influence behavior and create impactful ideas.

2. ‘No Bullsh*t Strategy’ by Alex M H Smith 

Mandatory reading for every marketer and (self-proclaimed) strategist. In "No Bullsh*t Strategy," Alex M H Smith gives you a simple but powerful line to define strategy: 'You are the only X that does Y.'

This is the unique value your business brings to the market with the strategic philosophy ‘Only is better than best.’

A well-written strategy brings razor-sharp focus by making decisions on what to do and, above all, what not to do.

If Alex doesn't ignite your mind in the first chapter, this is not a book for you, and you'll never get it. 

For the lazy ones, here's a 🎙️ great podcast hosting Alex and his ‘No BS Strategy.’

3. 'Chaz's 100 Things a Planner Should Know' by Charles Wigley

This sweet, short little book is the kick in the but you sometimes need to get unstuck and gain new inspiration. It's written for planners on the agency side, but equally, if not more, important to marketers at the client side. 

His book costs about as much as your over-foamed oat milk macchiato. But it lasts longer.

4. ‘Building a StoryBrand’ by Donald Miller

One of the best books on content and storytelling I have read in recent years. Learn how to build your story with your customer in mind. 

→ It's not about you; it's about how your brand solves your customers' problem(s). 

Once you know this trick, you will recognize it in every great Hollywood movie. Your message will change for the better. 

“The first campaign he released went from nine pages in the New York Times to just two words on billboards all over America: Think Different. When Apple began filtering their communication to make it simple and relevant, they actually stopped featuring computers in most of their advertising. Instead, they understood their customers were all living, breathing heroes, and they tapped into their stories. 

They did this by (1) identifying what their customers wanted (to be seen and heard), (2) defining their customers’ challenge (that people didn’t recognize their hidden genius), and (3) offering their customers a tool they could use to express themselves (computers and smartphones). Each of these realizations are pillars in ancient storytelling and critical for connecting with customers.”

5. ‘Obvious Adams. The Story of a Successful Businessman’ by Robert R. Updegraff

Written in 1916. Still sharper than most marketing today. This short, powerful book should be mandatory reading for anyone in marketing or communications. It will completely rewire how you think.

A quick 40-minute listen on Audible, you'll never regret.

6. 'Insanely Simple. The Obsession that drives Apple's Success' by Ken Segal

Keeping things simple and keep your focus, are two of the most underestimated success factors in business. We want everything for everybody. Almost out of a fear of missing out on customers or business. By making it over-complicated -- you achieve the opposite. Great in combination with 'Good Strategy, Bad Strategy' by Richard P. Rumelt. 

This is my go-to book for most of my clients. With my humble advice 'Better whole-ass one thing that half-ass everything'. 

7. ‘Unreasonable Hospitality’ by Will Guidara

A gem of a book. ‘It’s about how you make people feel' and challenging the status quo to do better. It not only applies to the hospitality industry. Also very relevant for brands, marketers, agencies, and employers. A very nice read or listen, with great insights.

Such as the 95-5 rule. 95% frugal and splurge insanely on the 5% in the details that matter, and create an unforgettable experience. 

8. 'They Ask You Answer: A Revolutionary Approach to Inbound Sales, Content Marketing, and Today's Digital Consumer' by Marcus Sheridan 

This book is mandatory reading for everyone working in marketing and or content. The ‘They Ask, You Answer’ is the way to create content to align with your (potential) customer's needs. 

SEO and AI search ranking
A great way to rank high in SEO and attract organic traffic. It’s also AI search-friendly because it prioritizes your customer. I take it further by writing FAQs based on customer prompts, resulting in ChatGPT and Perplexity frequently appearing in my web traffic analytics.

9. 'Influence, New and Expanded. The Psychology of Persuasion' by Robert B. Cialdini 

This is an updated classic. Three reasons why you should read it

First, it explains how Booking.com realized +700% conversion by introducing social proof and scarcity in their booking process with ‘XX other people booked this accommodation today’ and ‘only 2 rooms left’. 

Second, the reason why waiters give you a sweet when they hand the check is not because it's a custom; it's because of the small gift they get up to 21% more tips. 

Third, in this update, Cialdini adds the new ‘unity’ principle. 

Cialdini's Principles of Persuasion:

• Reciprocation
• Commitment and Consistency
• Social Proof
• Liking
• Authority
• Scarcity
• Unity, the newest principle for this edition

10. 'How Big Things Get Done: The Surprising Factors That Determine the Fate of Every Project, from Home Renovations to Space Exploration and Everything In Between' by Bent Flyvbjerg, Dan Gardner

What I love the most about this book is the 'think slow, act fast' principle. Always take your time to think, plan, create space in your project planning for iterations to learn and improve and if needed, create mockups to test and refine. However tempting it is, never start immediately in the action modus; that is a guarantee for failure.

The second thing I love is the 'start with the end in mind' principle. This is the same principle that Amazon applies: write the press release before you create a project plan. What's in it for the end-user? How can they benefit from your product or service? Only when you have that crystal clear, you work your way backward to the beginning, the project plan.

11. 'Reinventing the store', ‘Het geheim van bol.com’ by Michael Schaeffer 

This book is a little gem. Breaking the rules, challenging the status quo, David versus Goliath. A look behind the scenes at how bol.com succeeded and challenged Amazon. How to nail e-commerce, get inventory, and test with concepts, products, and categories. Fail fast, learn faster. All are based on data. And with real customer-centricity. 

Even though the book can also be seen as one brilliant big commercial for bol.com, I'm still inspired. 

UK version ‘Reinventing the store’ 

Dutch ‘Het geheim van bol.com’, also available as an audiobook on Podimo. My affiliate link (you get a free month and 10h audiobooks, and I get a free month)

12. ‘How not to Plan: 66 ways to screw it up’ by Les Binet and Sarah Carter

f*ckin' brilliant... No brainer. Just read. “Digital data is often daily of hourly, making it easier to measure short-term marketing effect. But much hard to measure long-term effects. They get lost in the noise.” “Get it right, and you can move from Big Data to Big Insights, Big brands, and Big Profits” (in the chapter 'How not to see the wood for the trees'.)

Mandatory for everyone who works in advertising, marketing and or communications: client and agency. The reviews speak for themselves.

13. ‘Leaders eat last’ by Simon Sinek

What I took away from this book and my reasons why you should read this. 

Honestly, the book was not what I expected it to be. It's not a book on ‘how-to’ leadership, it's different; pleasantly surprised by the socioeconomic background and explanations of why we need leadership. 

1. Explanation of how we got where we are as a society. From the roaring ‘20 to the depression, to WOII, to baby-boom, to materialistic egocentric 80 into the now. Simon explains the social circumstances, technology, and innovations that caused our current egocentric, materialistic society; and how we got from a human-focused to a money-focused world, including the first mass layoffs in the 70s. Read part 4 ’How we got there'
2. Why we have a maximum span of 150 friends or people around us. If it are more, you need a middle layer in the hierarchy at the office.  Or you need to ditch some friends ;)
3. It's about balance. Nature and we humans, we always strive for balance. The more extreme the event, the more equally extreme the counter-reaction to create a new balance. 

14. 'Measure What Matters: How Google, Bono, and the Gates Foundation Rock the World with OKRs' by John Doerr

Mind-blowing easy to keep track of why and what you do. Measure what matters. Love this, from KPI to OKR: 'the Objective is simply what is to be achieved', Key Results' benchmark and monitor how we get to the objective. Effective KRs are specific and time-bound, aggressive yet realistic. Most of all, they are measurable and verifiable.'

A tangible example by Intel. Objective: 'Demonstrate the 8080’s superior performance as compared to the Motorola 6800.' Key Results: 1. Deliver five benchmarks. 2. Develop a demo. 3. Develop sales training materials for the field force. 4. Call on three customers to prove the material works.' (p27)

https://www.whatmatters.com/ 

15. 'Start with Why’ by Simon Sinek

This is a classic. ‘No brainer, just read it. Even better than his TED talk. “Is a customer who buys your product for a second time a loyal customer or just plain lazy?” and more of this ‘food for thought’. Simon Sinek is straight to the point and inspiring.

“Some in management positions operate as if they are in a tree of monkeys. The make sure that everyone at the top of the tree looking down sees only smiles. But all too often, those at the bottom looking up see only asses.” (page 113)

16. ‘Let my people go surfing’ by Yvon Chouinard

How to apply your purpose to your brand, explained by Patagonia and do some storytelling along the way. Amazing example in the book ‘Let my people go surfing’ by Yvon Chouinard.

N=1, first part, grab a bottle of wine and just read it, the second part gets really interesting how their (initial) mission statement “Build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis.” is applied to all aspects of their business: from marketing to HR and finance.

17. 'Good Strategy, Bad Strategy' by Richard P. Rumelt

Good strategy is creating focus and making choices.

"A good strategy does more than urge us forward toward a goal or vision. A good strategy honestly acknowledges the challenges being faced and provides an approach to overcoming them."

"The core of strategy work is always the same: discovering the critical factors in a situation and designing a way of coordinating and focusing actions to deal with those factors."

18. 'Epic Content Marketing' by Joe Pulizzi

One of the best books on content, 7 years old and still relevant in this fast-paced industry.

'You do not lead by hitting people over the head - that's assault, not leadership' quote by Dwight D. Eisenhower (p3)

'Remember, customers don't care about you; they care about themselves and their problems. We often forget that point when we describe how wonderful our widget is (that no one cares about).' (p75)

The ***** reviews on Amazon speak for themselves.

19. 'The Infinite Game' by Simon Sinek

"Do you know the game you are playing?" An infinite game with a finite mindset is to set up for failure.

"The motivation to play in an infinite game is completely different—the goal is not to win, but to keep playing. It is to advance something bigger than ourselves or our organizations. (p. 32)"

"Where a finite-minded player makes products they think they can sell to people, the infinite-minded player makes products that people want to buy. (p. 10)"

Any leader who wants to adopt an infinite mindset must follow five essential practices: Advance a Just Cause, Build Trusting Teams, Study your Worthy Rivals, Prepare for Existential Flexibility, Demonstrate the Courage to Lead (pp. 24-25)

https://simonsinek.com/the-infinite-game

20. 'Leading the Starbucks Way, 5 Principles for Connecting with Your Customers, Your Products, and Your People' by Joseph A. Michelli

Be inspired by how Starbucks grew its business. Amongst others, involving the people on the work floor in the decision-making that impacts their daily work. Light and easy to read.

21. ‘Eat your Greens’ by Wiemer Snijders

'Razor-sharp overview of the marketing myths, misconceptions, dubious metrics and tactics that bear little relation to our actual buying behavior'.

Again... absolutely love this book: crap-cutting nonsense eliminating inspiration, no-brainers, and opening doors at the same excellent level as the 'How not to plan' by Les Binet.

Cherry-pick the chapters that are relevant to you and your job, industry, or profession. To be honest and speaking for me, myself and I: not every page of this book was equally interesting ... and I skipped a few of them due to the subject or the way the chapter was written.

"First, we diagnose the situation of the brand via consumer research and understand just what is going on. Secondly, we use that diagnosis to build a clear and simple marketing strategy. Finally, with that strategy in place, we select the appropriate tactics to deliver the strategy and win the day. Strategy is a very complicated thing to work out, but should be a very simple thing to eventually explain."

"Who am I targeting? What is my position to that target? What are my strategic objectives for that target market? My current estimate is that around 20% of brands could adequately or semi-adequately pass this test, and the rest have not the faintest clue how to even approach these questions."

"Talk to agencies about the quality of the briefs they currently receive from clients, and you will get the kind of hard stare usually reserved for the most outrageous agency gossip." (all three quotes in Chapter 3 Mortification, Tactification, Communification and digitization by Mark Ritson)

Get this brilliant collection by Wiemer Snijders with great minds like Mark Ritson, Peter Field, Eaon Pritchard, Robert van Osnabruggen, Phil Barden, Bob Hoffman, Tom Goodwin, and many many more:https://www.amazon.co.uk/Eat-Your-Greens-Wiemer-Snijders/dp/1789016754

22. ‘Nudge' by Richard H. Thaler, Cass R. Sunstein 

It's not often that I recommend a book for just 2 chapters. This is one of them. How to nudge people in the direction you want them to… reading these chapters is like kicking in an open door and refreshing your mind on what you already know – good to get nudged yourself. 

• Chapter 1, ‘Biases and Blunders’: about how we have a pre-trained and preset mind
• Chapter 5, ‘Choice Architecture’ → how you can influence the choices your customers make by presenting your product or the options

After Part I, honestly, I tuned out and skipped the rest. Like many books, a very strong opening, a less strong middle, and a moah end. 

23. ‘Very Good Copy’ by Eddie Shleyner 

‘This book gives you more sound, simple copywriting advice per page than anything I read’ (Drayton Bird, Ogilvy). I second this. I ate the book for breakfast on a Saturday morning. 

You will be inspired. 

Read it. 

24. 'A Self-Help Guide for Copywriters: A resource for writing headlines and building creative confidence' by Dan Nelken

Another gem on copywriting. If you want to be inspired and know all the tricks for great headlines, don't look any further. 

Dan teaches you how to think in buckets, how to fill these buckets, and let your creativity flow. 

For me, the most valuable was ‘the benefit of the benefit’ to get your headline. If you think about the benefit of your product, what's the benefit of that benefit? 

• If you buy a playhouse for your kids, the benefit is they'll have fun with it; the benefit of the benefit is that you'll have some rest when your kids are playing.
• If you buy a new bed for your dog, the benefit is that your dog will love it and sleep in (on?) it; the benefit of the benefit is that the hairy scruffy dog will not sleep on your bed anymore. ‘all you buy is more space in your bed’

25. ‘Writing for Busy Readers’ by Todd Rogers and Jessica Lasky-Fink

You have to simplify your writing to get busy readers to read. In this book, you'll learn how to write better to communicate more effectively. Todd explains it all by 6 princpiples. 

• Less is more
• Make reading easy
• Design for easy navigation
• Use enough formatting, but no more
• Tell readers why they should care
• Make responding easy

This book is a must-read for everyone. From the CMO and senior marketing manager to the content producer and intern. It's so good that I even dedicated a page to it: ‘Writing for busy readers; simplify your writing to make reading easy’. 

26. ‘Simply said’ by Jay Sullivan

I thought I knew quite some tips and tricks on presenting, writing and how to behave in meetings… this book taught me some new sh*t. Again. And again. And again. A must-read for anyone who can put their ego to the side and wants to improve their communication skills.  A few highlights on how to put and keep your audience in the first place. 

• Persuasive format: a very simple and effective ppt template to get your audience into action within 8 slides (p28)
• Knowledge pyramid: ‘you don’t know what you don't know' is the greatest information out there (p73). And how to get this unknown information to the table by asking closed or open questions
• How to tell your story and keep your audiences' attention with a graph or chart without overwhelming them: RIDE. Read the headline, Identify the graph, Define the parameters and main points, and Explain why you are showing your audience this information (p104)
• Amazing tips for better and clearer writing
• And much much more

27. 'Creativity. A Short and Cheerful Guide' by John Cleese

A sweet and short book on how you can provoke creativity, why the best ideas become even better after a night of sleep, when and why panicking has value, and how to kill your darlings for brevity and soul for not boring people.

On Audible, it's an entertaining and fast listen of just 60 minutes -- the best 60 minutes you can spend.

28. ‘The Copywriter's Handbook’ by Robert W. Bly.

‘A copywriter is a salesperson behind a typewriter.’ This sums up the main reason why you should read ‘The Copywriter's Handbook’ by Robert W. Bly.

What works for great headlines in content can also work for your social copy: writing to get the attention, that selects an audience, delivering a complete message, and drawing the reader into the body copy (or to click through).

‘But the goal of advertising is not to be liked, to entertain, or to win advertising awards; it is to sell products. The advertiser, if he is smart, doesn’t care whether people like his commercials or are entertained or amused by them. If they are, fine. But commercials are a means to an end, and the end is increased sales—and profits—for the advertiser. This is a simple and obvious thing, but the majority of copywriters and advertising professionals seem to ignore it.’

29. ‘Copywriting Secrets’ by Alan Sharpe

Absolutely love this. The proven copy rules: old school advertising print craft by DDB for Volkswagen, can also be applied for social, content, digital, and more these days. Please, read and learn.

"Before you can write great copy, you need to have a big idea, and before you can have a big idea, you need to have a great insight, and before you can have a great insight, you need to do lots of research." (chapter 1)

"One of your main jobs as a copywriter is to translate product features into benefits. People buy benefits, not features. Just so we’re clear: a feature is what a product does, and a benefit is what that feature does for me. How do you communicate that benefit in an original way? With a headline that states the feature and a photo that communicates the benefit." (secret 10)

Or take the video class:https://www.skillshare.com/classes/30-Copywriting-Secrets-from-the-Best-Ad-Campaign-of-All-Time/1238746914/reviews

30. 'TED Talks Storytelling: 23 Storytelling Techniques from the Best TED Talks' by Akash Karia 

Checklist for every speaker, steal those cherries with pride to refine your own non-TED deck.

"The word “you” is regarded as one of the most powerful words in the English language. Why? Because people are interested in themselves!" (p. 47)

31. 'Everbody writes' by Ann Handley

Stuck in writing? or producing content? Just read this book to get started. With 11 hands-on tips and tricks. One of the very few books I have in paper and do not loan without a significant deposit ;)

“Giving your audience a gift, how can you best serve them, with a mindset of generosity?” (p29)

“Produce The Ugly First Draft: that’s basically where you show up and throw up. Write badly. Write as if never one will ever read it.” (p30)

“Start with ‘dear mom’ and keep a real person in mind. Someone you like, because you want to help this person.’ (p55)

32. 'Advertising for skeptics' by Bob Hoffman

"Advertising has gotten worse, not better. Rather than creating advertising that is “more relevant, more timely and more likable” we are creating advertising that is more annoying, more disliked, and more avoided."

"One study showed that of all forms of advertising, the eight types most disliked by consumers were all forms of online advertising."

For the necessary critical view on online advertising by Bob Hoffman -- Advertising For Skeptics

Must read book to broaden your horizon with a different perspective.

33. 'Make Your Idea Matter: Stand out with a better story' by Bernadette Jiwa

Great no-nonsense checklist to make your idea, brand, product or whatever you are doing, sparkle. A few quotes:

• The story makes the product better.
• No matter what you’re pitching, selling or talking about, talk to one person. You might want to appeal to.
• Most companies wonder how they will get their product noticed, before thinking about why on earth it will matter to customers.
• What makes anything you do unique is your voice. The story that only you can tell, from a perspective that nobody else can have. There is more than one way to say something important that needs to be said, and there are a million ways to bring ideas that matter to the world.
• Unsubscribers, critics and naysayers are a gift. Say a mental thanks to them for saving you the job of working out who your right people are. Then go out and do everything in your power to woo the people who matter.
• What you want your website to do is probably very different from what your customers want it to do. The trick (as with most elements of your business) is to build for customers and community first so you can realize the benefits later.

34. 'How to Win Friends and Influence People' by Dale Carnegie

One of the best books ever. Loved and love it. Written in 1938 and still amazingly relevant. The best-kept secret in people and expectations management. 

35. ‘Barking Up the Wrong Tree: The Surprising Science Behind Why Everything You Know About Success Is (Mostly) Wrong' by Eric Barker

Everything others tell you about success? Some of it is wrong. Most of it is incomplete. All of it is worth questioning.

Eric Barker backs that up with research. How schools reward conformity, not potential. And that context is everything for qualities that make people wildly successful or sometimes destroy them.

Each chapter flips a conventional belief on its head. Then gives you the science to back it up.

The most important decision you can make is figuring out what the right game is for you. Read it before someone else defines your line of success for you.

36. ‘Pitlane Lessons: What F1 Can Teach You About Life and Work' by Marc Priestley

F1 runs on individual glory, but it is built on collective performance. Priestley writes from the inside — the pitlane, not the podium.

Chapter two hit hardest: innovation isn't what you do, it's how you think. The rest follows from there; teamwork, how to celebrate properly, why failure is as essential as winning, how to stay humble when everything is on fire. Simple ideas. Harder to execute than they sound.

If you think you already know how to work well with others, this book will quietly prove otherwise.

37. 'Learning How to Learn' by Barbara Oakley PhD

If you want to improve and speed up your learning skills, this book is for you. Barbara explains why your mind needs to wander to be able to focus, how your brain makes connections, and how you can learn better by using metaphors. Also, how to tackle procrastination effectively and much more.

I had the pleasure of meeting Barbara in person; I have no words for such an amazing, lovely lady who blows you away with her knowledge and explains in great detail how your brain works and how you can let your brain work for you.

Initially, this book is for children, but don't let that fool you. Anyone can use a little help learning to learn. 

'Learning How to Learn: How to Succeed in School Without Spending All Your Time Studying; A Guide for Kids and Teens' by Barbara Oakley PhD, Terrence Sejnowski, PhD, Alistair McConville

38. ‘The Art of Thinking Clearly’ Paperback by Rolf Dobelli

It is 99 sweet and short chapters with wisdom and things you already knew yet forgot. Some common sense about confirmation bias, prejudices, and false truths. 

A dear friend recommended this book, and as soon as I started to listen on Audible, I realized I already read it on my Kindle. Hence, if I have it double, for sure, it's worth the read. Everybody can learn something from this book. 

39. ‘The Let Them Theory, A Life-Changing Tool That Millions of People Can’t Stop Talking About’ by Mel Robbins 

How do you let go of the need to control or overreact to others’ behavior? And instead of getting frustrated or trying to change people, you can ‘let them’. While you let others act as they will, you also say, ‘Let me,’ and focus on what you can control. 

An excellent, inspiring read with recognizable examples and frustrations we all encounter daily with coworkers, family, and friends. Also available as 🎙️  podcast. 

Highly recommend. Small personal note: don't listen to the audiobook in one go; her high energy can be a bit overwhelming and a bit too much for us Europeans. 

40. 'Think Faster, Talk Smarter' by Matt Abrahams

This book is more than about ' how to speak successfully when you're put on the spot'. I'm blown away by the simple insights, from common sense and wisdom, sanity checking the reality (and yourself), to how to calm your nerves. In the meanwhile, it's putting things in perspective and emphasizing having joy in what you do. 

It is a unique and inspiring combination of ‘How to win friends and influence people' by Dale Carnegie and the TED talks and public speaking books. If you're presenting or speaking or just want to improve your communication skills in business and personal life, read this book. 

41. ‘The power of vulnerability’ by Brene Brown

This is one of the books I listen to and re-listen. At least twice a year, if not more often. 

It's about daring to show your strength by daring to show your weakness. It's about not taking things overly seriously. It's about not giving a f*ck what others think as long as they are not in your shoes. This made me a different woman. 

'It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.

 The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; 

who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.' [Theodore Roosevelt]

Next to that, how Brene tells her story on stage is contagious and inspires me to do better. To be vulnerable and have fun at the same time. 

42. ‘Comfort Crisis’ by Michael Easter 

‘Today’s comfort is tomorrow's discomfort'. This book is all about how we continuously move our goalposts. When we reach our desired goal, we're happy and content for a brief moment, and almost immediately, we strive for the next better, more, richer goal. 

Pretty relevant for today's fast-moving, over-consuming, high-self-expecting, crazy-driving society. 

A very nice, light, and easy read on a heavy topic. 

Highly recommend, I loved every moment of it. In an entertaining story of a freezing and starving backcountry 30-day adventure in arctic Alaska where he needs to shoot wildlife to get food, Michael taps into topics that f*ck up today's society and human mankind. 

43. ‘Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout’ by Cal Newport 

According to Carl, we achieve more by doing less. I fell in love with this philosophy, and it makes total sense. 

1. Do fewer things.
2. Work at a natural pace.
3. Obsess over quality.

If you focus on one thing at a time, when you are most productive, and obsess about quality, you'll produce great work. For me, it works: doing fewer things in the early morning and only publishing what makes me tick. 

Give it a try. The audiobook can be quite a tough, monotonous listen from time to time; stick to it, and you'll not be disappointed. 

44. 'The Art of Gathering' by Priya Parker 

‘An exciting new approach to how we gather that will transform the ways we spend our time together—at home, at work, in our communities, and beyond.’ The 4,6 rating on Amazon speaks for itself. 

It makes you rethink how we meet and gather and how our choices can influence the outcome. If you want to have more effective meetings and better meetups and improve your hosting skills, this book is for you. 

Just to be clear, Priya writes about purpose on a very abstract level while feeding your brain with daily examples. This book is not a to-do list or checklist for improving your meetings, it makes you think and do better. 

45. ‘Invisible Women. Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men’ by Caroline Criado-Perez

This eye-opener on how the world is biased for men is underpinned by data and research. Caroline spoons up all the stories, which can be a bit much and overwhelming. If you get angry easily, my advice is not to binge the book from cover to cover. 

• Crash test dummies: Car safety tests use male dummies, which makes vehicles less safe for women, who are 47% more likely to be seriously injured in crashes. Volvo changed this in 1995, and only in 2019 did it launch an initiative for equal representation in crash test dummies.
• Medical research: Women are underrepresented in clinical trials, resulting in misdiagnoses and ineffective treatments, as female-specific symptoms and responses are often overlooked. This underrepresentation is caused by historical bias, hormone variability, and lack of awareness.
• Public transport: Public transport systems favor male commuting patterns, from A to B and B to A, neglecting women's 'trip-chaining A-B-C-D-A' needs. This makes it less convenient, more expensive, and more time-consuming for women.

46. ‘Body Language' with Vanessa Van Edwards in ‘Dairy of a CEO’ podcast

This month, it's not a book; it's a podcast that blew my mind. An interview with Vanessa Van Edwards about how body language and voice are important for good communication. 

• 82% of first impressions come from warmth and competence. Research shows that sitting within 25 feet of a high performer can improve your own performance by 15%. TED Talks that went viral often had speakers using more gestures. 
   
• Gestures matter: Gestures add power to your story. When your hand movements align with your words, they create a sense of trust and honesty that resonates. Our brains are hardwired to notice gestures because they reveal real emotions and intentions. For example, when someone emphasizes a big point with big natural gestures, it makes the message clearer and more engaging.
  
  It’s also incredibly hard to lie with gestures—our hands rarely betray us. When what you say matches how you express it, it reinforces your authenticity and credibility. 
   
• Confidence in speech: Vocal variety is about changing your tone, pitch, and volume to make your message clear and interesting. For example, using a "Ted Talk voice" can show importance and make your audience pay attention.
  
  Switching your voice style, like using a "numbers voice" for statistics, helps organize your ideas and makes key points easier to remember.
  
  How you finish your sentences also matters. Speaking with a downward tone shows confidence, but an upward tone can sound unsure and hurt your credibility.

📺 'Diary of a CEO’ on YouTube

🎙️ ‘Diary of a CEO’ on Apple podcasts or Spotify

47. 'Get Your Sh*t Together’ by Sarah Knight

“But the mental clutter was slowly taking up residence in my brain the way my extra luggage was taking up space in my friend’s basement” (page 264)

Ever felt like being ‘stuck’ and not moving forward in work and or life? Then this is the book for you, read her hands-on tips and tricks on how to get your mental sh*t together and do get those things done. Rereading this every few months when I start procrastinating ;)

48. 'The ONE Thing' by Gary Kelly and Jay Papasan

Ever felt being stuck and procrastinating? Get that sh*t done by "creating your own strategy is to focus and to make a choice. You simply cannot do everything simultaneously."

"… the quality of the answer is directly determined by the quality of the question.

• Ask the wrong question, get the wrong answer.
• Ask the right question, get the right answer.
• Ask the most powerful question possible, and the answer can be life alternating." (chapter 10 The Focusing Question)

49. ‘Thrive’ by Arianna Huffington

Redefining success and adding the third metric to 'money' and 'power'. Fell in luv with especially the first half of the book. Could feel a bit feminine for some of the men, shuffle your ego dudes and get to her point on success and how to thrive in life.

"Lacking a line of royalty in America, (..) one gains today's throne not by fortune of birth but by visible markers of success, money and power."

"... over the long term, money and power are like a two-legged stool - you can balance on them for a while, but eventually you're going to topple over.'

50. 'If I Could Tell You Just One Thing…: Encounters with Remarkable People and Their Most Valuable Advice' by Richard Reed

"If I could tell you just one thing"… it is to read this book.

Great for inspiration and insights. The * reviews on Amazon speak for themselves. 

51. 'Daily Reflections for Highly Effective People: Living the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People Every Day' by Stephen R. Covey

Love Stephen Coveys' daily no-brainers' advice.

"Most people say their main fault is a lack of discipline. On deeper thought, I believe that the basic problem is that their priorities have not become deeply planted in their hearts and minds. They attempt to give priority to important but not urgent activities and integrate them into their lives through self-discipline along." Long story short: it is not the lack of discipline, it is a matter of choice.

52. ‘Don't Sweat the Small Stuff' by Richard Carlson

'There are two rules for living in harmony. 1) Don’t sweat the small stuff and 2) It’s all small stuff. (p. 3)'

Great quote for that often much-needed reality check :) in ‘Don't Sweat the Small Stuff' by Richard Carlson.

'Turn Your Melodrama into a Mellow-Drama, (...) we blow things out of proportion and make a big deal out of little things. (...) When I get too worked up or start taking myself too seriously (which happens more than I like to admit), I say to myself something like, “Here I go again. My soap opera is starting.” (p. 147)'

53. 'The Ideal Team Player: How to Recognize and Cultivate The Three Essential Virtues' by Patrick M. Lencioni

Not often that I am blown away by a book, inhaling the words cover to cover in less than 24h. Complicated stuff explained in a simple way. How to find the ideal team player: humble hungry and smart,

54. 'Atomic Habits' by James Clear

How to get long term gain? In Atomic Habit James Clear explains the science of forming habits with hands-on tips and tricks. Must read!

"Small changes often appear to make no difference until you cross a critical threshold. The most powerful outcomes of any compounding process are delayed. You need to be patient."

"We are so focused on figuring out the best approach that we never get around to taking action. As Voltaire once wrote, “The best is the enemy of the good.” "We do not change by snapping our fingers and deciding to be someone entirely new. We change bit by bit, day by day, habit by habit."

55. 'Mindset: The New Psychology of Success' by Carol S. Dweck

Never stop learning. How to get a growth mindset: to learn, to thrive, to fuel yourself with feedback.

In 'Mindset' Carol Dweck explains the power of mindset. 'In this brilliant book, she shows how success in school, work, sports, the arts, and almost every area of human endeavor can be dramatically influenced by how we think about our talents and abilities. People with a fixed mindset—those who believe that abilities are fixed—are less likely to flourish than those with a growth mindset—those who believe that abilities can be developed.' 

Note: the second visual is stolen with pride from Google, not directly related to Dwecks' book. 

56. 'Living with a SEAL: 31 Days Training with the Toughest Man on the Planet' by Jesse Itzler

Dare to challenge yourself. As we all know, out of your comfort zone is where the magic happens. If you dare to push your (physical) limits, you'll grow mentally. Jesse takes you on his journey.

 Be inspired; that's all I can say. Even better if you read 'Can't hurt me' by David Goggins first.

57. 'The 5 Second Rule. Transform your Life, Work, and Confidence with Everyday Courage' by Mel Robbins

What if the biggest thing holding you back is the five seconds between having an idea and talking yourself out of it?

Mel Robbins’ simple rule is this: the moment you feel the impulse to act, count 5-4-3-2-1… GO and move before your brain starts inventing excuses.

It’s a small trick with a surprisingly big impact. It helps you stop procrastinating, start the thing you’ve been avoiding, and break the endless doom-scroll loop.

From personal experience: it actually works.

58. 'Unmasked. The Ultimate Guide to ADHD, Autism, and Neurodivergence' by Ellie Middleton

Struggling with why you do certain things or have typical habits? This is for you. Ellie is an autistic and ADHD creator, writer, and consultant. She unveils how and why autistic, ADHD, and ADD function at their best. 

Sounds a bit fuzzy, yet this book brought me so much insight to understand why I need my morning run to clear my mind, why I hyperfocus and can't let go of things, or why I like to be alone after social events. 

And most importantly, I learned to embrace these odd, quirky behaviors of mine and thrive, not despite them but because of them. 

59. ‘Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism’ by Sarah Wynn-Williams

This is a behind-the-scenes look at Meta, which has been much discussed and controversial. Sarah critiques the company's internal culture, leadership decisions, and ethical lapses, highlighting its global sociopolitical impact.

It reads a bit like a thriller from a different, greedy world, yet it is an autobiography. It fits very well in our current (April 2025) unstable geopolitical climate.

Warning, this is not a light read. 

60. ‘Be Useful’ by Arnold Schwarzenegger

‘Arnold’s stratospheric success happened as part of a process. As the result of clear vision, big thinking, hard work, direct communication, resilient problem-solving, open-minded curiosity, and a commitment to giving back. All of it guided by the one lesson Arnold’s father hammered into him above all: be useful. As Arnold conquered every realm he entered, he kept his father’s adage close to his heart.’ 

‘Too many of us struggle to disconnect from our self-pity and connect to our purpose. At an early age, Arnold forged the mental tools to build the ladder out of the poverty and narrow-mindedness of his rural Austrian hometown, tools he used to add rung after rung from there. Now he shares that wisdom with all of us. As he puts it, no one is going to come rescue you—you only have yourself. The good news, it turns out, is that you are all you need.’ (Audible)

61. ‘Kitchen Confidential' by Anthony Bourdain

Just because there's nothing wrong with a biography from such greatness that shakes up kitchen and displays the other side. With lots and lots of love for food. 

What I learned from his book… always be honest. Even if it's the ugly truth, as long as you're honest, you can always be proud and look at yourself in the mirror. 

62. ‘Before & Laughter' by Jimmy Carr 

What stuck with me most and made the biggest impression from his book is how comedians are most successful when they're brutally honest. They say the things no one else dares to say, but wrapped in humor, they get away with it. Marketers could really learn from that. I know I certainly did.

It’s a sweet, honest must-read for anyone who wants to improve themselves and their communications.

63. ‘Screw It Let’s Do It. Lessons in Life and Business' by Richard Branson

If you ever are looking for a nudge to start your own business or take that leap? This book is for you. 

No more words needed; just read it and let me know if it sparked to change your life and work. 

64. ‘The Art of Resilience: Strategies for an Unbreakable Mind and Body’ by Ross Edgley

Wow. In one word. From the stoic to the smile to get through the pain. Inspirational. And makes you stop whining and complaining. You always can do better and realize you have an unmet potential that will surprise you. 

65. ‘The story of Lululemon: the stretch black pants’ by Chip Wilson

All about market insights, strategy, and marketing. Chip Wilson tells the story behind the brand and the business. Along the way, he explains how he uses trends in society and innovation to thrive in business.

66. 'Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds' by David Goggins

It's almost scary what you can accomplish if you set your mind to it. And if you're willing to go deep. David takes you into his darkest place. Weirdly reading him suffer makes me dig deeper to achieve my own goals.

They are the canary in the coal mine. It didn't die yet. It just got angry. 

And nobody in the boardroom noticed.

They're not afraid of AI. They're afraid of what they're becoming

You assume the young ones will sort this out for you. This is the generation that grows up with AI. The only one that has never known a world without it. You think their fluency means comfort. It doesn't.

• 79% believe AI makes people lazier
• 62% think it makes them less sharp 

They're saying it from inside the tool, after years of daily use.

Their fear isn't about robots or redundancy. It's internal. Cognitive. They feel something being taken from them and they can't name it precisely.

I'll name it: the craft you build before you know you'll need to defend it.

The junior years aren’t inefficient. It’s how craft is learned

The tasks AI replaces aren’t just tasks. They are how craft is learned and judgement gets built. Writing the first draft. Doing the research that goes nowhere. That work might feel low-value. It isn’t. It’s repetition. And repetition is how you learn.

A 2025 MIT Media Lab study* measured this in brain scans. Participants were split into three groups: one used ChatGPT to write essays, one used search engines, one used neither. The AI group showed the weakest neural connectivity across all measures. The brain-only group showed the strongest. The gap widened over four months.

The detail that is hard to forget: 83.3% of AI users could not quote a single sentence from an essay they had written minutes earlier. In the brain-only group, that number was 11.1%. They couldn't remember what they just wrote. The researchers call it cognitive debt. Not offloading. Debt. And it accumulates.

The research shows correlation between higher AI use in younger people and lower critical thinking scores. Not causation. 

A designer who has never composed a layout will struggle to brief a tool or challenge what it returns. But a strategist can build that judgement through different work. There is a craft-dependency.

That's why this can't be left to chance.

Nobody decided to stop giving junior people the reps that build craft. It just happened.

→ The decision your board hasn’t made: which groundwork still needs to be done by hand before AI gets started. 

A copywriter who has never written a brief can't tell you if the AI-generated brief misses the point. A data analyst who has never built a model can't spot when the output looks right but isn't. These judgement problems don’t show up until the moment they matter most.

That decision needs someone with the authority to see it. At board level, or it doesn't happen at all.

What you can do

→ The craft has to come before the prompt. Decide which craft that is. Then protect it.

The canary is still alive. It's waiting for someone in the boardroom to take action. So the organisation builds employees who understand the craft and who can work with AI.

You can start this today. Start with one role. Decide which craft this role must own before AI gets opened.

Sources*

New York Times poll via Michelle Goldberg — Graduating Into A.I. Pessimism, NYT Opinion May 23 2026 

Gallup / Walton Family Foundation / GSV Ventures — The AI Paradox: More Exposure, Less Confidence Among Gen Z, April 2026 

Wharton / Gallup / Walton Family Foundation — How Gen Z Uses Gen AI and Why It Worries Them, HBR January 2026 

Kosmyna et al. — Your Brain on ChatGPT: Accumulation of Cognitive Debt when Using an AI Assistant for Essay Writing Task, MIT Media Lab, preprint 2025. This is a preprint, not yet peer reviewed. One task, 54 participants, all from Boston universities. Treat it as strong early signal, not settled science. But the direction is consistent with everything else the data is showing.

Michael Gerlich — AI Tools in Society: Impacts on Cognitive Offloading and the Future of Critical Thinking, Societies January 2025 

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→ Identity

In 7 steps and 15 minutes, you’ll have instructions and reusable prompt to paste into Claude, Copilot, or any AI tool you use. After that, your AI stops defaulting to generic and starts sounding like you.

Why it matters 

Your AI defaults to the average of everything. That average sounds like everyone else. Feed your AI your identity and the output changes  — not slightly, but recognizably. 

→ The time you save is the side effect. Sounding unmistakably like yourself is the point.

Step 1. Collect

Collect examples of copy that sounds like you. It can be an email, a piece you’ve written, or even your LinkedIn bio; that’s how I do this when creating a tone of voice for C-suite ghostwriting.

I’d say 3 x 200 words minimum and 500 words maximum. 

You have to give AI something to work with.

Step 2. Use this prompt

Use the prompt below. It’s an oldy from the early days of AI, but it still works. Don’t fix a prompt that isn’t broken and steal from the best.

The [examples] placeholder is where you copy and paste what you collected in step 1. 

’You are a tone of voice analyst. Your job is to study the writing examples below and produce a precise, detailed analysis that another writer could use to replicate this style accurately.

What to analyse: - Word choice: formal or informal, simple or complex, technical or plain - Sentence structure: length, variation, rhythm - How the author addresses the reader: direct, warm, authoritative, conversational - What the writing does not do — what it avoids is as revealing as what it uses

Examples: [examples]

After your analysis, write a clear style briefing. It should cover everything a writer needs to reproduce this voice: the patterns, the tone, the rhythm, and the boundaries. Be specific. Generic observations like 'clear and engaging' are not useful. Name what is actually distinctive about this voice and why it works.’

Step 3. Go to AI

Go to your AI and paste the prompt from step 2, including the examples from step 1.

Step 4. Analyse the response

Do you like what you read? Great.

If not, tweak until it sounds like you.

My tip. Don’t go overboard and be too detailed or too specific. AI has a working memory, not an infinite brain. Being meticulous is excellent, but you can push it too far, and AI gets an error and it becomes worse instead of better. 

Step 5. Add details

This can be contrary to what I mentioned above, but by not overloading AI at the beginning, you leave room to add details now.

This list is yours to build, and can be details like

• ‘Write in B1 language without dumbing it down, and keep the jargon where it’s absolutely needed.’
   
• ‘Use the writing for busy readers philosophy to keep the content clean, crisp, and sharp.’
   
• ‘Vary between longer and shorter sentences. Keep the copy conversational, fluid, and natural as if you’re speaking to a business friend.’
   
• ‘Put yourself in the users’ shoes, reason from their perspective, ‘what’s in it for me', ‘why should I care’
   
• And of course, the ‘Don’t over use em dashes’.

→ My advice: stick to 3 to 5 details. Again, if you list too many details, it becomes too complicated, causing AI-brain freeze and the output becomes worse instead of better.

Step 6. Analyse again

Ask AI to give you the complete tone of voice analysis: ‘Can you give me the final result?’

Check it. Do you like it? Great, continue to step 7.

Don’t like it? Go back to step 5 or even to step 1, maybe you’ve selected the wrong examples.

Step 7. Ask AI to make your prompt or instructions

Last step in the process. Now you ask AI to create a prompt or an instruction you can use in the settings of your AI tool.

'Based on this analysis, write a tone of voice instruction I can save and reuse.' or ‘Can you turn this analysis into a tone of voice instruction I can paste into your settings?’

Then use it as a prompt or paste it in one of these places: 

• Claude: Settings → Profile → Personal preferences
• Copilot: Microsoft 365 Copilot prompt box, pinned as a custom instruction
• ChatGPT: Settings → Personalisation → Custom instructions

Save a copy in your notes. You'll want it when you switch tools or onboard someone new.

See below what my tone of voice and the prompt look like. 

Explained by example, my tone of voice

This is the result when I let AI define my personality. 

My result of step 4

• Direct and Candid: The author speaks directly to the audience, without sugarcoating the message. Phrases such as "fcking expensive," "Cutting corners and wanting it cheap hurts my brand and content heart," and "Remember, sht in is sh*t out" are clear indicators of this straightforward approach.
   
• Knowledgeable and Authoritative: The author displays a deep understanding of the topic and offers clear guidance. Statements such as "These are the ballpark numbers" and "The ballpark split is minimal, 40% - 60%" exemplify the confidence with which the author speaks on the subject.
   
• Passionate: There's a strong sense of care about the topic of content quality and investment. This is evident in lines like "Cutting corners and wanting it cheap hurts my brand and content heart" and "Mediocre content harms your business more than no content.”
   
• Slightly Provocative: The author isn't afraid to challenge common beliefs or practices, as seen in lines like "And having AI creating your content is not the solution" and "if that’s you, I recommend not to start at all.”
   
• Educative: The text aims to instruct the reader, providing clear breakdowns, guidelines, and advice on content budgets and the role of AI in content creation.
   
• Balanced: Despite the direct and occasionally provocative tone, the author does provide a nuanced view on certain topics, like AI, where they highlight the benefits and drawbacks.

My result of step 7

‘The tone of voice in this copy is direct, authoritative, and slightly informal.

It uses strong language and metaphors. The author is not afraid to be blunt and even a bit confrontational in their language to make their point clear.

However, they balance this with a friendly and approachable tone, offering practical advice based on their own experiences.

Overall, the tone is confident, knowledgeable, and passionate, with a sense of urgency to get the message across.’

That's it. One prompt. Every AI tool you use from here on sounds a little more like you and a lot less like everyone else.

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→ Once you configure it, you'll understand why. Applies to ChatGPT, Copilot, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity and any other AI tool.

My results went from good to great. 

Here's how to set up your custom instructions. Two steps 

Here's what you need to do. Below is that example for ChatGPT. You can apply the same thinking to any AI tool. 

1. Enter ‘What would you like AI to know about you to provide better responses?’
2. Tell ‘How would you like AI to respond?’

Keep in mind that AI saves your data, builds a profile, and probably is going to use that for (commercial) objectives. You voluntarily feed the AI with your most personal and private data.

Below,  you’ll find a practical guide on how to use Custom Instructions in AI. Please notice I’ve stolen with pride from Dan Shipper and some free AI courses. Check the last paragraph for all credits.

Why Custom Instructions matter

Using Custom Instructions in AI makes its output tailored to you. By adding your personality, your preferences, your information needs, and how you want AI to answer you, the quality of the response improves immediately and noticeably.

Not using it means you dip into standard settings, and you get the standard output with some AI-generated variations. It’s the default answer and tonality.

If you tell AI that you’re an expert in your industry with 20+ years of experience, you list your favorite authors and industry geeks, and you describe your tone of voice, the output is tailored to you. No more generic explanations. AI goes straight to the depth you need, references the thinkers you follow, and responds in your tone — not the default.

The benefits of Custom Instructions

• Fewer prompts: AI already knows your context
• Your voice, not the default: output that sounds like you
• Better creative output: results that match your thinking, not the average
• Time saved: less back and forth, faster to a usable result

Step 1. Create your profile, so AI knows who you are

This is your answer to 'What would you like AI to know about you to provide better responses?’

Now, you tell AI who you are, what keeps you busy, your objectives, and, if applicable, your personal situation. Below is a suggestion. When relevant and to your liking, you can add stuff like ‘personal situation and relationship’ or even ‘medical history’ and much more. Check out what Dan Schipper wrote about this. I'll stick to the more business-like information as I use AI mainly for work and my research.

There's no right order. No wrong answer. Write it the way you'd brief a smart colleague. The only real constraint is a character count, so make every word count. 

Name and bio

If you’re stuck for inspiration, use a summary of your LinkedIn bio; if you use AI on a more personal level, enter your Instagram bio.

I wrote mine like this (slightly edited for privacy)

My name is Fleur; I’m a content strategist and a writer. I have been an independent contractor for over 20 years in the content industry, with in-depth knowledge of strategy, brand strategy, marketing, content, and communications and a passion for writing and design. I’m working in all domains for well-known brands and working worldwide. Next to that, I’m a keynote speaker and lecturer.

Projects and goals

What do you do for work? What are some goals you have?

I wrote mine like this (also slightly edited for privacy)

I want to embrace my creativity. Based on my knowledge and experience in my industry. I’m always looking for new assignments and opportunities in the market. My motto is ‘can do,’ and we’ll figure out later how we are going to do it. Yet I’m not overly opportunistic; I’m honest, open, and bold. I want to be known for my expertise in the content and AI domain.

I am working on better me-marketing. Especially as I am a woman in a male-dominated world, that can make me unsure. I don’t like to boast and make myself bigger than I am.

My power is in my honesty, clear, and direct communication style. I am eager to learn and open-minded.

Most people see me as very tough and inspirational, while I can be very insecure about myself. People tend to think I am very extrovert, while I’m an introvert and I can be very shy.

What do you like?

List your hobbies, passions, and interests. What subjects can you talk about for hours?

I love the sea, sports, CrossFit, skiing, the mountains. I'm a big fan of electronic dance music and old soul music. I am a foodie and wine lover.

Tone of voice

This is where you add your tone of voice. If you’re stuck for characters, you can add this to ‘how would you like AI to respond.’

My writing style is bold, open, clear, simple, and humble in natural human conversational language, with lots of tangible examples.

Step 2. Define your communication preferences

You can give your communication preferences in the answer to ‘How would you like AI to respond?’

Here, you add stuff like ‘How formal or casual should AI be?’ or the 'length of the responses’. You can even define if you want AI to have an opinion on topics or remain neutral.

Dan Schipper's examples are the best I've found. So, I borrowed and adjusted them to my preferences.

Push you toward self-development

If you see an opportunity to help me be less agreeable or prone to shame, or making myself smaller than I am, take it.

Miscellaneous

And I added some more. Again, the only limit is the character count. 

I am very open-minded, analytical, intuitive, creative, and I love to do research and use data

I love sports and music analogies

I am a big fan of famous quotes, authors like Simon Sinek, love Apple, love high tech sports brands

Treat me as an expert in all subject matter

No moral lectures

Discuss safety only when it's crucial and non-obvious

If your content policy is an issue, provide the closest acceptable response and explain the content policy issue

No need to mention your knowledge cutoff

No need to disclose you're an AI

If you write headlines or titles, please do not use a capital for every word in the headline or title. I prefer a more modern approach to writing

Please be sure to vary in sentence length; no jargon, no overly informal language, please.

Please make sure to keep it light and airy.

Updating your Custom Instruction frequently

I updated my Custom Instructions every few months. As I grow and learn, and as AI becomes smarter, the way we work together must adapt as well.

My last edit was adding the ‘B1 intermediate language level' and ‘reading level 8’ and ‘please don’t use em dashes or hyphens'.

ChatGPT, Copilot, Claude, Gemini or Perplexity

This customization and personalization works for any AI tool. In each tool it’s named and works slightly differently, you’ll find your way around in your profile settings. And you can always ask AI to help you create the custom instructions for itself. 

Final thoughts: why this is worth your time

Using Custom Instructions in AI makes a difference. However, be aware that your data and input will probably be used to build your profile and could be used commercially in the future, especially if you enter more real personal data on relationships and medical history.

I've never gone back. Once you configure it, you'll understand why.

For ChatGPT, there are two fields to fill in. But you can apply this thinking to any AI tool. 

1. ‘What would you like ChatGPT to know about you to provide better responses?’
2. ‘How would you like ChatGPT to respond?’

Try it yourself and let me know what you think.

Disclaimer

This page was originally published in October 2023, updated in May and October 2024, in February, April, and July 2025 and one more time April 2026. Tools keep on changing, so do we.  

Original sources and credits 

All credits to Dan Shipper  for writing ‘Using ChatGPT Custom Instructions for Fun and Profit’ 

There are many free AI courses that are worth your time; get insights without too many technical details and tips and tricks for prompt engineering. Speed the videos up to 1.125 or 1.5 (you’ll thank me later).  Start with the first and end with the last. 

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