#17 Adam Robinson

Hey all,

A year ago, we kicked off the Good Content Series with our first-ever guest: Adam Robinson. At the time, he was fresh off a LinkedIn breakout, with an audience of 70K, closing in on $1M ARR with RB2B.

Twelve months later, Adam’s back and a lot has changed. His following’s doubled, his company’s at $5M, and his content engine has only gotten sharper. So what’s gone on behind the scenes? Here's one takeaway from our conversation:

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Let's dive in to a couple of the big changes Adam saw in the last year:

1. A shift in format & focus

Adam’s content has remained incredibly successful, but his approach has changed a lot.

Last year, listicles and GTM hot takes carried a lot of the weight of his content strategy. Now, he’s moving in the direction of storytelling. 

As AI-written posts flood the platform, stories stand out. Adam admits a robot could probably generate a story if asked, but he doesn’t think the guts of the post would be nearly as interesting. The performance metrics of story posts are different, but he appreciates the depth of engagement that they produce.

“I might get more engagement on a listicle, but the quality of the engagement on a story is better. They tend to run longer.”

Adam is also leaning heavily into an innovative format great for storytelling: scripts. He takes real conversations he’s had and turns them into back-and-forth, easily digested dialogue posts.

“It kind of feels like you're watching a podcast or something,” he said. “They just do well.”

2. Unf*ck My Startup launched

One of Adam’s biggest content additions this year is his new live show, Unf*ck My Startup. It’s less webinar, more B2B variety show.

Adam programs the webinar live show with a “run of show” that includes four consistent segments:

1. Pitch Slap: A founder pitches the audience live, and the audience votes on how many would convert based on the pitch. Founders with more than 66% success win a swag box, those with over 33% get a t-shirt, and those under 33% walk away with nothing but a reality check.
   
   
2. Expert Interview #1: A tactical deep dive with an expert guest.
   
   
3. Unf*ck My Startup: An attendee explains where they’re stuck and gets advice from the group.
   
   
4. Expert Interview #2: A second tactical deep dive.

The show is nothing like any other B2B webinar out there. It feels more like a TV show, which is probably why it pulls 500+ live attendees per week.

The biggest advantage of the weekly virtual event is that it powers the rest of Adam’s content machine. On most weeks, Adam gets at least one strong LinkedIn post from something a guest says (these are the ones that often turn into dialogue posts).

3. A shifting audience = sharper positioning

A year ago, I did a major deep dive into Adam’s audience. I ran the numbers again this year and compared the stats:

• Marketers were down 7%
• Ops was up 4%
• Finance was up 5%
• There was even more skew toward early-stage founders and teams

He says this is probably a function of how he’s changed up some of his content pillars. He’s posting less about ABM and more about founder psychology and the startup rollercoaster.

He’s also eyeing brand marketing as a new pillar. Adam thinks the tension between performance and brand marketing is ripe for polarizing, belief-driven content — which is exactly what he thinks makes a high-quality content pillar.

“If you can find a pillar that feels like an unsaid truth and you really believe it, that’s the one to bet on.”

It was wild catching up with Adam after a year of major growth. Check out the full episode below to hear the full story on what’s changed.

Next Guest:
Nick Power, Head of Marketing at Noun Project
Thursday, June 5th

Thanks for stopping by, folks. As always, feel free to reach out with questions, feedback, suggestions, or anything else that’s top of mind for you.

Peter

We're on a mission to master thought leadership content for B2B executives and their teams. Follow along to stay up to date with what we're learning, and please consider forwarding to a friend who might find this helpful.

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