Yo! Welcome to the next episode of The Reeder where you get actionable tips and strategies for creating memorable content every Saturday.

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I’m super skeptical of AI writing tools. But I wanted to give Stanley a try.

So three months ago, I opened Stanley and wrote: “Turn this article into a banger LinkedIn post.”

It got me 85% there. Then I added my Devin-isms and hit post.

To my surprise, it worked.​

152,241 views
1,879 reactions
Top 5 post of the year in 2 hours.

Now I use it every week.

If LinkedIn growth matters to you this year, this is worth a look.

Try Stanley free here.

It pulls your posts and learns your tone in ~2 minutes.

The algo changes every month (week? day??), and nobody tells us the new rules.

And everyone's fighting for the same 8 seconds of scroll time.

So when I find a format that reliably works, I use it fast.

Like "burned through my Claude tokens" fast.

Here's one I've been watching Melissa Rosenthal run lately — and why it works on a psychological level most people never bother to explain.

Context: Mel has always been a great follow on LinkedIn. But for the past few weeks, I've seen her engagement jump like Jordan from the free throw line. And it's all based on this one format.

I call it the Retweet.

Because it looks just like a retweet. How it works:

That's it.

Simple on the surface. But there's real psychology underneath it.

Recency bias is the engine. Humans are wired to prioritize recent information — not because it's more important, but because urgency triggers a different kind of attention.

A factory fire from 1975 is a story. A factory fire down the street right now is an alarm. Same information. Completely different response.

She doesn't just report the news. She makes sense of it. Anyone can share a link. What earns the engagement is answering the question every reader is silently asking: What does this mean for me?

People don't just want to be informed. They want to be guided. Mel tells us how to act differently because of it.

And she makes her case impossible to dismiss. Most people share one stat and call it content. Mel opens at 11%, escalates to 14.3%, then drops the real one: 59% of cited LinkedIn content comes from individual profiles — not company pages. Each number builds pressure.

This format works across every industry, too. Not because the topics are universal, but because the readers are wired the same way.

Christina Ross (serial CFO, founder of Cube) used it when Salesforce announced their first COFO. She opened with "At first I thought it was a typo" — then explained why it signals the future of finance leadership. That’s why it got 662 reactions from her Finance audience.

Anush Mohandass ran a hybrid version when OpenAI acquired OpenClaw. No screenshot — just wrote the headline himself: "OpenAI just showed you their hand. Most people missed what it means."

Then went deep on the strategic implications. One of his top 3 most engaged posts ever.

I did it without a screenshot too. "Whoa! Grammarly just changed their name 😮" — then broke down the acquisition in 8 lines. 204,483 impressions. 332 comments.

The screenshot is optional. The formula isn't.

Notice something? Every single opener has the word "just" in it. That's not a coincidence. That one word signals recency. It turns a data point into a live event.

This is a Reach post — content built to pull in people who don't know you yet.

Most people think reach and credibility are in tension. Pick one. But the Retweet is the exception. Because your perspective is the credibility. You're not just amplifying someone else's headline — you're proving you can read the signal in the noise. That's authority.

It won't replace a complete content strategy. Reach without Teach means you have attention but no trust. You need both. But if you've been stuck writing content that only your niche sees — this is the fastest path to getting on more feeds.

Try it this week: Find a story your audience should care about. Screenshot the headline. Answer one question: What does this mean, and what should they do about it?

The article provides the facts. You provide the perspective.

Want the full system?
The Retweet is one of many proven formats I use to grow my clients' executive LinkedIn profiles. On Monday, I'm teaching the most impactful parts of my entire playbook.

How to Build Your Executive Presence on LinkedIn
LinkedIn Premium Event · May 11 · 10am PT · 45 minutes

This is the core of my 14-week Executive LinkedIn Accelerator — compressed into the highest-leverage moves that drive the biggest results, fastest.

You'll walk away with:

👉 Register here — lnkd.in/djNtgBdr

Just tap "Attend." Drop your biggest LinkedIn challenge in the comments when you register — it'll shape the session.

(Note: This event is exclusive to LinkedIn Premium members.)

There aren’t any shortcuts to growth. But some paths are shorter than others.

The scenic route is nice. Just not my first choice.

-Devin

Pen by Devin Reed​
​Founder, The Reeder​

Follow me on LinkedIn | YouTube | Instagram | TikTok

If you want to get inside the brain that inspired today’s newsletter, this conversation is for you.

I sat down with Melissa Rosenthal — the legendary creative leader and brand builder behind Buzzfeed and ClickUp.

We discussed how to maximize your creativity in content creation, tips for building a killer internal creative team (like she did at ClickUp with nearly 80% of her former BuzzFeed employees), and insider secrets for leveraging viral opportunities.

Plus advice on:

→ Watch and subscribe on YouTube

→ Listen and subscribe on Apple

→ Listen and follow on Spotify

Note: These are affiliate links, but I would recommend them without the commission.