#18 - Nick Power

Hey all,

This week, I caught up with Nick Power, Head of Marketing at Noun Project — aka the guy who “broke LinkedIn” by doing the exact opposite of what every “LinkedIn guru” tells you to do.

You won’t find polished essays or click-baity takes on Nick’s feed. Instead, you’ll see a few short, lowercase posts per day, sharing stream-of-consciousness thoughts (think: 2010s Twitter energy). 

And it’s working. In March, Nick racked up 4.5M impressions. Then came the ripple effect — 300+ people started posting their own “Nick Power-style” riffs. Someone even made fan art of their cat dressed like his profile pic.

Let’s break down how Nick built all that traction by breaking the rules.

How Nick broke LinkedIn’s unspoken rules

Most LinkedInfluencers follow somewhat of a structure. Post 2-3x per week. Nail the hook. Use a list. Pick a niche. The kinds of things I preach about every day.

Nick blew that all up.

Instead, he leaned into something he calls “chaotic authenticity” — a term he coined years ago and (correctly) predicted would catch on. Here’s how Nick ditched all the “best practices” and built something better.

Broken Rule #1: Post long, polished thought leadership

The default post template: a spicy hook, 3–5 tidy paragraphs, and a clean, key takeaway at the end. 

Nick’s posts read more like texts: short, frequent, and inviting.

“I’ll spend maybe five or ten minutes on a post. I start to get cranky if I don’t write one,” he laughed.

Nick doesn’t see his posts as thought leadership in the traditional sense. He’s aiming for connection. 

“Facebook and Instagram are about consumption. No one really wants to be on Twitter anymore. But people are coming on LinkedIn to get that community feel they’re missing.”

You’ll notice that Nick’s posts usually rack up over a hundred comments. His short texts are just the entry point — the content experience Nick creates is actually more about the conversations he starts.

Broken Rule #2: Stick to your niche

Nick’s posts cover everything from AI dread to capitalism to parenting, with a good dose of existential humor and millennial nostalgia mixed in.

“I started off writing standard thought leadership… but it was the same stuff everyone else was writing in slightly different language. So I just started writing jokes to process what I was feeling. And it resonated.”

There’s no rigid content strategy here. Nick’s sharing thoughts he actually has, filtered through one guiding question: Will someone else see themselves in this?

He’s keeping his audience at the center of his content without pigeonholing himself into rigid pillars. His audience can trust they’ll resonate with his posts, even if his topics shift. 

Broken Rule #3: Offer a clear takeaway for your readers

The LinkedIn culture loves a tidy arc: conflict → insight → resolution. But Nick intentionally breaks the pattern.

“Sometimes things are just bad. You don’t need to wrap it up in a ‘but here’s what I learned.’”

Instead of pretending every experience is a life lesson, Nick’s writing posts that are radically honest.

He talks about being a dad. He talks about mental health. He questions whether any of us are okay. His radical honesty is an invitation to his audience, even when there’s no clear tip or takeaway. It’s building the kind of trust that classic “credibility-boosting” posts never could.

So… should we all throw out the playbook?

While Nick’s exact strategy isn’t one that will work for everyone, I do think there is a lot to be learned from studying his (extreme) case study against the normal playbook.

“Chaotic authenticity” isn’t about posting funny, lowercase posts 4x a day. It’s about showing up as yourself, without all the structure, rules, or posturing. 

Nick’s bet is that more people will start dropping the formalities, letting out their human, and letting the conversation become the content.

And with more and more competing content being taken over by bots…that sounds like a good way to stand out.

For the full story on Nick’s philosophy, check out the full episode here.

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Next Guest:
Rachel Kim, Founder of Manifest Advisors
Thursday, June 19th

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Meanwhile at Good Content…

Top news:

• We are excited to welcome 2 new clients this month.

Top learnings:

• Richard van der Blom’s annual Linkedin Algorithm Insights Report is always a gem.

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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

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