📈 How To Stand Out When Everyone Uses AI

Read time: 5 minutes

I got a great message from a reader this week: 

“It's starting to feel like verbal diarrhea on LinkedIn. Everyone is using the same playbook. How do I stand out when everyone sounds the same?"

I saw this message on Tuesday morning while I was staring at a LinkedIn feed filled with “10 top productivity tips”.

I completely get it. 

With AI, templates and playbooks, it is easier than ever to create content. 

Particularly text-based content.

Our feeds are overflowing with “leadership lessons” and “signs of a toxic workplace”.

And don’t get me wrong, I’ve written posts like this too.

That's actually how I learned firsthand that the problem isn't that there is a playbook.

It's that most people apply it blindly without adding their own personal twist to capture attention.

Aka, they are building brands, but not personal brands.

So what separates those rare standout posts from the sea of sameness?

When I look at top-performing posts in Saywhat, the ones that are killing it are doing at least one of three things differently.

And none of them require you to be a professional writer or have a massive following.

The Same-Same Content Problem

Ok, so what is the problem exactly?

Well, most cookie cutter LinkedIn content fails because it makes one of these big mistakes:

1. Generic advice with boring hooks (e.g. “be consistent”)

2. Saturated titles that everyone's doing (e.g. “10 signs of a great leader”)

3. AI sounding templates that could have been written by anybody (literally 40% of LinkedIn)

I see people making these mistakes everywhere, but there's good news: the bar for standing out is surprisingly low.

Here are three proven ways to cut through the noise.

Three ways to cut through the noise

1. Hook with your experience 

My two favorite ways of doing this are:

A: Hooking with authority (6,220 likes)

After 24 years in Navy, 17 leading in the Navy SEALs, 
one of the most brutal truths I learned:

Jon Macaskill’s post went on to give conventional leadership advice but he told people why they should stop and listen to his version of the story above anyone else’s.

Ironically, you can even write the same “10 productivity tips” after you’ve told people WHY they should listen to you above everyone else. 

You can do this with your authority or use someone else’s.

B: Hooking with a story that creates curiosity (2,225 likes):

When I was VP Sales, one of my top AEs closed a $440K outbound deal in just under 90 days.

Readers are left curious to know how the AE closed such a big deal.

Don’t feel limited to using just one of these strategies, you can use them both in the same hook.

2. Talk directly to your niche 

The narrower, the better. Will’s hot take on modular home construction got 570 likes and more than 200 (spicy) comments even when he has just 1,392 followers!

He spoke directly to his niche and led with a hook that built up a lot of tension:

“Look, I’m going to ruffle some feathers here.”

3. Say something actually contrarian, uncomfortable or unique 

Cesar’s post got >150,000 likes and followed the 10 top tips framework but he did two really powerful things that made this post stand out:

1. He came up with a unique title that had a desirable quality in it (everyone wants to be intelligent)

2. His first point “cheating on their job with a side hustle” is unique and makes readers have an “aha” moment.

Similarly, Michal’s light-hearted but controversial post about stereotypes of software engineers got >50,000 impressions and 94 likes when he had less than 800 followers.

The point is: say something controversial enough to make you wince a little just to see how it performs.

If you’re struggling to find controversial things to say, I use this Saywhat Collab prompt to help me to come up with interesting points.

Just to wrap this up - these three strategies share one common thread: they all inject something uniquely you into your content that its harder for others to replicate.

The key is just practicing them and seeing which work best with your experience and audience.

Try one of these strategies this week and let me know how it goes!

See you next time,

Will

P.S. I write all my posts in Saywhat Collab - it has helped me get >113,018,189 impressions since 1st January. You can try it without spending a penny.

If you’re curious, here's what our users say about it.

Will McTighe

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