How I Post on LinkedIn (Now That I Have 200K Followers) (Exit Five Newsletter)

Hello and welcome to the Exit Five Weekly Newsletter — read by 42,000 B2B marketing professionals around the world. Exit Five is a membership site designed to help you build a successful career in B2B marketing. Join 5,700 other members at exitfive.com.

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TOGETHER WITH WALNUT

📝 Did you know: 71% of small B2B teams use AI to create most of their content

And they’re not just using AI for fun, they’re using it to publish faster, smarter, and with less headcount.

In a new report from Walnut, 100+ B2B teams reveal how GenAI is moving from side project to core workflow, with small, scrappy teams leading the way.

In this report, you’ll learn:

• Top Use-Cases & Volume Trends
• What the 2025 AI Tool Stack actually looks like
• How to use AI with confidence and protect quality and brand voice
• Skill evolution and change management tips to get your team ahead

Don’t let AI pass you by, see how top teams are already putting it to work.

71% … Is that good? Or bad? Where do you fit?

💡 I Answered 12 Questions About Work And Life from the Exit Five Team

Editor's Note: Dave here. This newsletter is a little different. No big lessons. No frameworks. Just me answering random questions from my team. We covered: my LinkedIn process (spoiler: it's less strategic than you think), how often I'm in Slack, what I'm reading, my life story. Some were about marketing. Some were more personal. But honestly? It forced me to think about stuff I don't usually talk about. So here's what came out of it.

Everyone wants to share their wins, their strategies, their perfect morning routines. They want to look good.

And I get it! I do all of those things too.

But the real stuff? The stuff that makes us human? We keep that hidden.

So here's my challenge: be more honest about who you are.

Not just what you do, but what you struggle with. What motivates you. What keeps you up at night.

Because the more real you are, the more people will connect with what you're building.

Let's get into it.

1. How I Post on LinkedIn (Now That I Have 200K Followers)

People ask me all the time about my LinkedIn process.

So here's the truth: I used to treat it like a full-time job. Now I don't. Life is way too short to be taking it so seriously.

I keep ideas in Apple Notes, write them between 6-9am, and post almost every day (weekends can be sneaky good for engagement).

Sometimes I schedule posts using LinkedIn's native scheduler, but I've noticed scheduled posts get less reach. Being online when your post goes live helps.

The feed is getting full of AI slop, so I'm leaning into writing that sounds like me. Typos. Weird capitalization. Rants about whatever comes to mind, typos and all.

2. I Check Slack Way Too Much

How often do I check Slack and email?

Email gets checked way less. That's mostly external stuff. The most important people I can respond to are my team. They're in Slack.

So yeah, I spend way too much time there. But I also know things solve themselves if you let them breathe a little.

My ideal flow? Catch up on Slack in the morning, check the Exit Five community, then do it again in the afternoon.

Reality? I’m not quite there yet.

3. What I'm Reading (And Why I Buy Every Book Someone Smart Recommends)

A mentor once told me: no one has ever gone broke from buying a book. So if someone smart recommends something, I buy it immediately.

I didn't think I was very smart growing up, so I used books to study. The more I studied, the more successful I became.

So my twenties and early thirties? I read every business book under the sun.

But now I've read most of them, so I’m mostly on to other topics.

I read a bunch of books at once. Right now I'm reading Harry Potter with my daughter, Project Hail Mary (the audiobook narrator is incredible), and a golf book called The Match.

4. My Perfect Day Involves Zero Meetings

What does a perfect day look like?

Wake up early. Work out. Get the kids to school. Work from 9am to 3pm with zero meetings. Just deep work.

Pick up the kids. Hang out with them. Have dinner with my family.

Then after they go to bed? Maybe watch some TV. Read. Journal.

That's the dream.

The reality? My calendar is packed. But I'm working on it.

5. The Quality I Wish I Had (And Why It Matters)

If I could gain any quality or ability, it would be not caring what people think.

I care way too much about what people think of me. I've gotten better, but I still struggle with it (I think most people do).

The irony? I built Exit Five because I wanted to create the community I wish existed. And that forced me to put myself out there and not care what people thought.

So I'm working on it. Every day.

6. The Best Career Advice I Ever Got

David Cancel at Drift told me to double down on my strengths instead of trying to round myself out.

He gave me a book called Managing Oneself by Peter Drucker. The lesson: you'll make more impact becoming an A at something you're already good at than trying to turn a D skill into a B.

He was right. That push to focus on creativity, content, and copywriting was the best thing that ever happened to my career.

You still need to know enough about other areas to be an effective leader. But you don't have to be great at everything. You need to be exceptional at one thing.

7. How I Stay Motivated When I'm Not

I think about my friend Matt.

He was in the Marines and got deployed to Afghanistan. He has seen things I can't even imagine.

So any time I'm struggling with something at work, I think about him and remember that whatever I'm dealing with is not even a fraction of what he went through.

It's grounding. It helps me suck it up and get through the day.

8. How I'd Prove I'm Human (Not AI)

Someone asked: if you only have 5 minutes to prove you're human over text, how would you do it?

I think I'm way funnier than AI. At least right now, AI is pretty corny.

I'd tell a joke that sounds like me. Show them my writing with all the typos and weird capitalization.

What a world we live in where someone accusing you of being AI is an insult. "No, no. I actually wrote that."

9. My Biggest Pet Peeves

Where do I start?

People who lack self-awareness. People who can't read the room. People who don't have empathy.

Also: too many air fresheners in an Uber.

And the people who point over the glass at Chipotle and get way too close. Step back.

10. My Most Gifted Book

I can't say I have one favorite book, but the book I've gifted the most is Ryan Holiday's Daily Stoic.

That type of thinking is really helpful for me. I've given copies to my family and I love seeing it at their houses when I visit.

There's also this golf book called Paper Tiger by Tom Coyne. He committed a year of his life to trying to become a professional golfer. Played in tournaments, got a trainer, got a coach, documented everything.

I would love to do something like that. Document it. Film it. Write about it. Do it for a year. What a great concept for a book.

11. If I Had to Swap Lives with a Team Member

I'd pick Anna. She's 23 or 24. And they say youth is wasted on the young.

I'm 38 now and my life is better in so many ways. I have stability, a wife, kids. I'm blessed.

But sometimes when I'm tired, I think about how nice it would be to have a Sunday where I could nurse a hangover, order Chinese food, and watch Netflix all day.

I don't get those anymore. But I wouldn't trade what I have now.

The other person I'd pick? Dan.

He has a daughter who's almost two and another on the way.

My kids are eight and six. They're not babies anymore, but I wish I could go back to that phase just to squish them one more time.

12. If Exit Five Didn't Exist…

If I wasn't running Exit Five, I'd probably be a CMO somewhere.

I'm a good marketer. I want to stay sharp. And being a CMO or head of marketing is the best way to use my skills.

But if I could do anything and not worry about money? I'd be a DJ. The problem is I go to bed at 8:30pm. So I'd need midday gigs.

Also: I think I'd be a great on-course golf announcer.

🫵 What This Means for You

We all take ourselves too seriously sometimes. Especially in B2B marketing where everyone's trying to look like they have it all figured out.

Nobody does. We're all just figuring it out as we go. And it’s ok to be real about that.

Thanks for hanging out with me for this one. I know it was a little different.

– Dave

P.S. Now I have a question for you. What’s some of the best career advice you’ve ever gotten (you already know mine)? Hit reply with your answer. I'll read them all.

📺 UPCOMING EVENTS

[TODAY] Attention and the Inbox: How Great Marketers Are Rethinking Email and SMS in the World of AI

“Email is dead.” “Messaging is dead.” “Nobody reads anymore.”

That can’t be true.

Because every week, marketers are still driving millions in revenue and pipeline through these channels. So maybe it’s not that email or SMS are dead. Maybe the playbook just has to change.

In this live Exit Five session, we’re talking about how to capture (and keep) attention when inboxes, feeds, and brains are flooded with AI-generated noise.

Jess Lytle (Head of Marketing, Exit Five) will host a conversation with Gabby Kustner (Sr. Growth Marketing Manager, Customer.io), Alyssa Armstrong (Email Marketing Specialist) and Joe Cunningham (Email Marketing and Copywriting Consultant) on how marketers are using email, SMS, and in-app messaging to drive growth. They’ll share what’s actually working today and how to make your messages stand out in a world flooded with AI content.

You’ll learn:

• The right (and wrong) ways to personalize messages today
• Real campaigns that cut through crowded inboxes
• How to build trust when attention is harder than ever to earn
• How top teams are using AI to stay human in their communication

Bring your questions. This will be an open, live conversation with hundreds of B2B marketers in the chat.

Save your spot

🏢 Open Roles

Who's hiring right now?

Swivel is hiring a Demand Gen Coordinator to help run its end-to-end revenue system for B2B clients. You’ll own campaign execution, paid media, and performance reporting—working directly with leadership to deliver results that actually matter: leads, meetings, and pipeline. This role is perfect for someone early in their career (1–2 years experience) who’s detail-obsessed, tech-savvy, and ready to level up fast in a small, senior team.

Customer.io is hiring a Senior Demand Generation Manager to scale its global partner ecosystem and drive serious pipeline growth. You’ll own partner-focused GTM programs while collaborating with sales, product, and marketing to turn integration partners, agencies, and marketplaces into growth engines. This role is perfect if you thrive in ambiguity, love building from scratch, and know how to make partnerships actually move revenue.

Other open roles on the Exit Five job board this week:

• Ross Video is hiring a Marketing Specialist - Automation
• Tread Technologies is hiring a Head of Marketng (Demand Generation)
• Inovautus Consulting is hiring a Marketing Advisor (Manager)
• Inovautus Consulting is hiring Marketing Specialist (Coordinator)
• Peak Support is hiring a Content Marketing Manager
• Vector is hiring a Demand Gen Marketer
• Animalz is hiring a LinkedIn Content Marketer
• Doist is hiring a Growth Marketing Lead
• Spark Advisors is hiring a Director of Demand Generation
• Affinity is hiring an Organic Growth Specialist
• Affinity is hiring a Paid Media Manager
• Affinity is hiring a Social Media Manager
• Affinity is hiring a Sr. Product Marketing Manager
• Affinity is hiring a Director, Brand Marketing
• Steno is hiring an Art Director
• Steno is hiring a Director of Brand
• Steno is hiring an Events Marketing Manager
• TLDR is hiring a Senior Growth Marketer - Paid Acquisition
• TLDR is hiring a Senior Growth Marketer - Lifecycle & Automation
• Dragon360 is hiring a Demand Gen Strategist
• Vapi is hiring a Head of Marketing
• Tatari is hiring a Senior Manager, Customer Marketing

See all open roles

Have an open role and want to make sure the best B2B marketing talent sees it? Just reply to this email and we'll send over more info on how you can post it on our job board + get it in front of 42k+ marketers.

✍️ NEW CONTENT FROM EXIT FIVE

Do you need to learn more about AI in Marketing?

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Click here to subscribe to The Prompt and we can help you get an A in AI. 🍎

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