Stop asking "is this good?"
Most people edit their writing by asking the wrong question.
They write a post, read it back, and ask: "Is this good?"
It's the wrong filter. "Good" is a feeling, and your feelings about your own writing are unreliable on a Tuesday.
Ask this instead: "Is this specific?"
Because weak writing is vague. Strong writing is concrete. That's not a style preference, it's the difference between a reader trusting you and a reader scrolling past.
Watch what specificity does.
Vague: "I learned a powerful lesson about leadership." Specific: "My employee quit on a Tuesday morning, and I realized I had never clearly defined her role."
Vague: "We had a tough season." Specific: "We lost 3 clients in 30 days and had $58,000 in receivables sitting unpaid."
The specific version isn't just more interesting. It's more believable. Detail creates trust, because detail sounds true. Nobody invents the part about $58,000 in receivables. That's why it lands.
Here's how to find your vague words. Take one hook, one post, one paragraph. Underline every word that could apply to anyone:
➜ hard ➜ tough ➜ powerful ➜ successful ➜ challenging ➜ meaningful
Now replace just ONE of them with something real:
➜ A number. ➜ A quote. ➜ A name. ➜ A moment. ➜ A Tuesday morning.
You don't have to make the whole thing concrete. You just have to make one thing real.
And yes, this is the part where you have to hang up Claude, or Chat, or whatever shortcut you've been leaning on. Because the AI version is the vague version, scaled. No one reads it and thinks, "This person sounds trustworthy." They think, "This says the same thing five times in five different ways. What in tarnation did I just read?"
The good news: writing gets easier with practice. It's still hard, it's always hard. But this one change is simple.
"I don't want to be another newsletter in your inbox. I want to be an actionletter. In every edition, I'll include a 'Go-and-Do' [below] to help you take an action step TODAY that improves your LinkedIn™ performance, your business, or even your life."
Go and Do:
Open a post you've already written. Underline every word that could apply to anyone. Replace exactly one of them with a number, a name, or a moment.
One real detail. That's the whole assignment. Then notice how much more true the whole thing suddenly sounds.
---
One More Thing - The LinkedIn™ Spark Community
If today's edition resonated, you'd love the room I built for people who want to take this seriously.
The LinkedIn™ Spark Community is for people who want three things most LinkedIn advice doesn't deliver together: education, accountability, and real networking.
Inside, we focus on:
· LinkedIn strategy that actually moves the needle
· How to become a sharper writer (because writing is the work)
· Content systems, not content luck
· Guest speakers, "hot seat" sessions, and presentations from members themselves
You also get one 1:1 call with me per quarter. This is not a group where you post once and disappear. It's a community where people show up, sharpen each other, and build the kind of presence that compounds.