📈 You're Delusional Until You're Right

Read time: 4 minutes

Let's just call it for what it is.

Posting on social media is humiliating.

Especially at the start. When your content is rubbish. When you're still finding your voice and "brand pillars".

Because you have no choice but to learn and embarrass yourself in public.

I remember being a few weeks in and my dad asked me "Will, what do you even have to teach anyone?"

When he said that, part of me wanted the ground to swallow me up.

Because he was partly right. My posts were getting 8 likes. My content was all over the place.

I'd post something and immediately feel: Everyone can see I have no idea what I'm doing.

But in reality, nobody was actually watching.

And the feeling of humiliation?

Totally normal. Everyone feels it.

But it's only those who push through who get what they want in life.

What My Dad Missed

Despite that, I kept posting.

Because what my dad (and many others) miss is this:

There's always someone two steps behind you.

Most people forget that because they've forgotten how far they've come.

When I first started posting, I did calls with people who reached out to me.

I remember speaking to a recent university grad trying to get a job in Finance. I was showing him how to reach out to recent alumni at banks on LinkedIn.

He asked me: "What is the goal of a cold email?"

It shocked me. I thought everyone knew what a cold email was.

But it reminded me of something crucial:

We all have knowledge blindness.

We forget what it's like not to know what we know.

Just Two Steps

After embarrassing myself many times in my career, I've learned something important:

The 2-Step Rule: You only need to be 2 steps ahead to teach someone something valuable.

That's it.

Not 20 steps. Not expert level. Just 2.

Think about it:

• A third-year can mentor a first-year

• Someone who lost 10 pounds can help someone starting their journey

• A founder 6 months in can guide someone on day 1

The gap doesn't need to be massive. It just needs to exist.

And trust me, your posts don’t need to be perfect.

Everyone Starts Terribly

If you're feeling stuck, look at two of my first posts:

• "How to use Twitter for BD"

• "What crypto I would invest in"

They suck but I’m sure none of you have ever seen them because by the time people actually pay attention, you've gotten better!

How to Start Building in Public

First, figure out what you know that others don't.

Seriously, just think back 6 months. What were you googling? What mistakes were you making?

That's your content.

Then write about it using this dead-simple format:

"I used to think [wrong thing], but I learned [right thing]."

Add a specific example. Share what actually worked. Post it.

Give yourself 90 days of terrible content.

Not 90 days to get good. 90 days of being bad.

Find someone else who's at the same point in the journey.

Make a pact: "We're going to suck together for at least 90 days."

Text each other daily. Celebrate the losses and the small wins.

Look what can happen when you just keep going:

• Month 1: 8 likes from my mum

• Month 18: 2-3 million views per week

• Revenue: $0 → $500,000+

I still have to pinch myself sometimes.

But it all started with 90 days of focus.

The Bottom Line

My dad was wrong.

I did have something to teach. We all do.

We just forget that someone else is standing exactly where we were 6 months ago.

They don't need you to be perfect. They need you to be 2 steps ahead.

Start badly. Start today.

Because someone needs exactly what you learned last week.

See you next time,

Will

P.S. Shout out to Kevin Donovan who applied last week’s Perception vs. Reality post format to Enterprise IT Architects, gained 1,000 niche focused followers and did 5x better than his previous best-performing post. Get more like this in the Saywhat community.

Will McTighe

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