📈 The Perception Vs. Reality Format

Read time: 4 minutes

Just this week, I onboarded an experienced creator whose views are down 50% from last year.

She sees big creators posting about toxic bosses and was scratching her head about how to apply that to her niche.

I hear this at least twice a week.

And I get why - this stuff is everywhere on LinkedIn.

So I showed her a visual format that is going viral right now and can be applied to any niche:

Perception vs. Reality

I pulled up Patrick's post as an example.

"Patrick coaches business analysts on AI. Definitely not your typical toxic leadership!"

His results? 478,000 views. 2,000 new followers. One post.

But here’s the thing - Patrick didn't reinvent the wheel.

He just took a format I shared in the Saywhat community and made it speak to his people.

Why This Works

The "Perception vs Reality" format works because it makes your target audience feel something specific:

In this case - "Finally, someone gets what I actually do."

Why?

Because everybody deals with the same problem at some point - people belittling their job.

The Psychology

When someone sees their daily frustrations visualized, three things happen:

1. Instant validation - "YES! This is exactly what I deal with!"

2. Emotional relief - They finally feel understood

3. Compulsive sharing - They NEED their network to see this

And if you make it funny? Even better.

Patrick nailed this with "asking unnecessary questions."

That's why his post did so well.

Not because the ideas were groundbreaking.

But because it made thousands of business analysts finally feel seen.

3 Examples That Prove This Works Across Industries

Here are a few examples that worked across different industries:

• Cybersecurity by Wil Klusovsky (>2,985 likes)

• Marketing by Kobi Omenaka (>2,000 likes)

• AI Engineering by Sairam Sundaresan (>620 likes)

• Kind leadership by Nadeem Ahmed (>3,000 likes)

The winning pattern is consistent:

• Play into the stereotypes (Eg. marketing = coloring, cybersecurity = simple) and make them funny

• Show the common stereotype on the left, then the reality of how complicated the job is on the right

• Use big, easy to read title in bold colors

Notice the pattern? Simple stereotype → Complex reality.

Why Most Attempts Fail

However, I've seen lots of people try this format and flop.

The common mistakes are usually:

• Small, hard to read titles (if people can't read it in 0.5 seconds, they’ll scroll by)

• Weak stereotypes (needs to be something that actually annoys your target audience)

How To Create Your Own

Step 1: List the cliches about your target audience. Pick the most relatable one to three.

Step 2: Ask ChatGPT to list what your target audience ACTUALLY do all day. Include the unsexy stuff.

Step 3: Create the split-screen template in Canva. Add an image of a person using ChatGPT 4o image generation.

The key is picking the biggest stereotypes and flipping them.

And as always, let me know how it goes.

See you next time,

Will

P.S. I found this trending format in Saywhat's Inspiration Database and share more like this every month in the community. Sign for the 7 day free trial here.

Will McTighe

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