EP #088 - The Best Content Is Trapped Inside People Who Think They Have Nothing to Say

I got on a call last week with an executive who runs software implementations for mid-size companies. She's been a controller at multiple companies, has deep expertise in revenue recognition and subscription billing, and solves complex financial systems problems every day.

Ten minutes into the call, she said something I hear from about half the executives I talk to: "Nobody finds me this interesting."

She meant it. She's not on Instagram, doesn't post on Facebook, and barely looks at any social platform. LinkedIn feels foreign to her, and her personality leans toward thinking things through slowly and deliberately rather than rattling off five content ideas in five seconds.

The CFOs and controllers who would benefit from her insights on streamlining month-end close processes from thirty days down to five only care about one thing: whether the information helps them close their books faster. Her comfort level with LinkedIn is irrelevant to them.

And every quarter that expertise stays unshared, potential clients never find it.

The Expertise Is Already There

When I asked this executive to describe how she wants to be perceived professionally, her answer was detailed and specific. She wants clients to know they can come to her to identify pain points in their financial close cycle. She talked about making sure upstream processes are aligned so that when teams get to month-end, they have the right data at their fingertips and the system is configured properly.

She also said something that stuck with me: "My goal in my whole job is to not be the bottleneck."

That one sentence contains more genuine leadership philosophy than most LinkedIn posts I scroll past in a week. She said it casually, as part of explaining how she works, without any awareness that the idea would resonate with thousands of finance leaders dealing with the same challenge.

That casual insight is exactly the point. Her expertise surfaces constantly in conversation, just never on LinkedIn.She can explain why revenue recognition complexity starts with how the sales team configures orders. She knows exactly which upstream controls prevent a messy close cycle.

She just considers all of that unremarkable because she lives inside it every day.

Speaking Unlocks More Than Writing

For executives who don't naturally generate written content, sitting down to write a LinkedIn post from scratch is the worst possible starting point. The blank page activates every insecurity about whether the idea is good enough, whether anyone will care, and whether the final product sounds "right."

But ask those same executives a question in conversation, and the expertise flows. They explain complex topics clearly, tell stories about client problems they've solved, and share opinions about common mistakes in their industry, all without the self-editing that kills a blank page.

One approach I've seen work consistently is simulating an interview environment. Get on a Zoom call with a colleague, a friend, or even a spouse. Give them three or four questions to ask - things like "tell me about a time you saw a company get revenue recognition completely wrong" or "why does month-end close take most companies so long?"

Record the conversation, and the transcript becomes 80 percent of a finished post. The remaining 20 percent is editing and tightening.

That 80 percent matters because conversation removes the performative pressure of writing. Nobody stares at a blank conversation and wonders if their answer is interesting enough. The ideas come out naturally, in your own voice, with the kind of specific detail that makes LinkedIn content actually useful.

Why This Matters for Your Business

I run a company that helps executives build visibility on LinkedIn, so I'm biased. I'll say that plainly. And I keep bringing up cases like this executive because the pattern repeats across every industry we work in.

The most knowledgeable people in an industry are often the least visible because they've spent decades going deep on problems rather than building public profiles. Meanwhile, their competitors with less experience but more comfort with self-promotion end up controlling the narrative in the market.

Take this executive's company as an example. They do software implementations. When a CFO at a growing company searches for help with a broken software setup, the consultants who show up in their feed first will get the call, regardless of who has the stronger technical skills.

Every month this executive stays invisible is a month where potential clients never learn she exists.

That invisibility has a simple fix. Talk about what you know, in whatever format feels natural, and let someone help you turn that conversation into content. A thirty-minute recording session can produce several months of posts when you're only publishing every other week.

And none of it requires loving LinkedIn. You just have to recognize that the expertise you take for granted is exactly what your audience needs to hear.

Social copy: 

I ask every new client the same question: "If you had an hour to give a keynote to 1,000 of your target customers, what would you talk about?"

About half of them freeze.

These are people who solve complex problems every day. They've been controllers at multiple companies, led system implementations, streamlined financial processes that were costing their clients weeks of extra work every quarter.

But ask them to talk about themselves on LinkedIn and they go blank.

Last week, one executive told me she has trouble coming up with topics because "nobody finds me this interesting." Five minutes later, she casually explained how revenue recognition complexity starts upstream with the sales team, and why a month-end close should never take longer than five days.

She had three posts worth of material in that one answer. She just didn't recognize it as content because to her, it was Tuesday.

A thirty-minute conversation with the right questions can produce months of LinkedIn posts because the expertise is already there. 

Most executives just need someone to ask.

— Justin

Justin M. Nassiri | Founder & CEO
M: 650.353.1138 | E: [email protected]
250 Fillmore St Suite 150, Denver, CO 80206
www.ExecutivePresence.io

Executive Presence specializes in helping top-tier executives boost their visibility, activate their network, and position themselves as thought leaders via our premium, fully-managed LinkedIn service.

Our unique process involves ex-McKinsey, BCG, and Bain consultants conducting monthly hour-long interviews with our clients, and turning them into impactful daily LinkedIn posts to establish their unique voice and authority. On average, our clients see a 500% bump in engagement in their first 30 days with us. Data is continuously analyzed to improve engagement and identify impactful messaging that you can use for conferences, podcasts, and internal communications.