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If you don’t know which job a piece of content is doing, it isn't doing one.
👋 Welcome back to Content to Commas, where every Saturday I break down one thing I’m doing to turn content into growth.
Almost 4,000 of you are new this week, so welcome to the community.
I spent this week rebuilding my marketing plan for 2027. I’ve been running a new content system that I'll share more in depth next year.
But this year was definitely the year of one goal and 2027 I'm focusing on four things.
I'm calling it “G. R. O. W.” (I'll explain, just keep reading 👇)
This issue is the whole framework.
📌 In this issue:
the four jobs every piece of marketing has to pick from
the job I ignored, and what I'm doing about it
how to tell which one you're overdoing right now
...and the rebalance I'm running every quarter 😉
Let's lock in.
Brandon
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📬 if you're new, start here
I'm Brandon. I spent a bit over a decade doing social and content inside brands, at startups, then Ralph Lauren, Squarespace, and most recently Kickstarter as Director of Content and Creative.
I started this newsletter back in March 2025 as a passion project, quit the day job that August, and this is my first year doing it full time. My son is two months old tomorrow, so everything I build right now has to run on a few hours of me a week.
Each Saturday, I share a business or marketing strategy I'm using or noticing, along with a tip you can use.
If you want to catch up fast, these will do it…
🧰 8 Unsexy Systems I Run My Business On: the systems behind my week, starting with talking instead of typing → Read last week's issue
💵 4 posts that get you paid: four kinds of posts built to bring in income → See the four posts
🗓️ The Seasons of Content: how I plan content around the months my business makes its money → Map your seasons
🔁 Learn from my mistakes: the five things I’d do over from my first year, starting with the email list I should have launched sooner → Steal the start-over list
🗺️ my entire 2027 marketing plan
Ask me how business is going and the easy answer is a number. Followers, impressions, subscribers, sales, leads, etc.
So here's the whole plan. I've been saying every post needs a role since 2023, and this is where that idea ended up.
THE G.R.O.W. FORMULA
G is Generate. Bring in people who've never heard of me.
R is Retain. Give the people I already have a reason to stay.
O is Optimize. Turn attention into money.
W is Widen. Make sure I'm not standing on one platform.
Every post, email, video, and partnership has to belong to one. If it can't, I don't make, post, and spend time on it.
I got pretty good at Generate, and I mean almost all of my hours went there.
But I promise you, doing three of these badly beats doing one of them well.
Which job gets most of your time right now?
G is Generate: where almost all my time went
Now let me be fair to Generate.
It works, and it's the reason almost 4,000 more of you showed up this week, mostly from posts where you comment a word and I send you something.
And no, I'm not telling you to quit chasing new people. I'm still going after them in 2027.
I'm just giving it fewer hours.
Right now that's one long YouTube video a week and four or five short ones, plus the trial reels I told you to run back in September and haven't run enough of myself.
R is Retain: the job I’m focusing more on
You were already here reading every Saturday, and you got whatever was left after I went looking for new people.
When you subscribe you get a survey with a bunch of questions, and some of my ideas come straight out of your answers.
Past that, my lead magnets send you a link and then, honestly, I disappear. So in 2027 I'm launching a community where I actually work with you on your content, and I'm doing more webinars for the people already here.
(stay tune for that!)
O is Optimize: turning attention into money
This newsletter is free, and sponsors are the reason.
The brand deals stay, and in 2027 I'm adding more consulting and advisory work on top of them.
Here's how I find what to fix…
for one offer, I write down four numbers: readers, clicks, buyers, and price. The smallest one is my next project.
for this newsletter, the one I'm watching is clicks. Out of every 100 of you who open an issue, 4 or 6 click something.
W is Widen: not standing on one platform
My biggest audience is on LinkedIn, and that's the reason I can't let it be the only place people find me.
Me personally, I want to own my audience, and this email is the only piece I actually own.
About five months ago I added YouTube. The channel went from 6 subscribers to 900+, and I want 1,200 before the year is up.
In January I'm speaking at the 1 Billion Followers Summit in Dubai, and I'm doing a lot more keynotes next year.
I didn't add YouTube until LinkedIn and this newsletter were working btw.
Add a fifth platform before the first one works and you just own five quiet accounts.
how I rebalance every quarter
The four jobs never get equal time, and they're not supposed to.
Every quarter I look back at the last twelve weeks and ask which job got the least of me. That job gets my time first for the next twelve.
For the start of 2027, Retain goes first. Q1 is my quiet season for brand deals anyway, so it's the right time to take care of the people already here.
See you next Saturday,
Brandon ✌
📌 ICYMI…
Each week, I share content on social, branding, and growth strategies. Catch up in case you missed anything.
Posts You Missed…
💸 Keep, cut, trim (with Relay): I’m a spender who runs a business, so I ran every expense from last quarter through three buckets. Comment RELAY and I’ll send you the framework → Watch the reel
💰 My 8 income streams from content in 2026: ranked smallest to biggest, one year after I quit corporate → See the breakdown
🪪 Your LinkedIn profile isn’t a resume: a lot of people get this wrong. Here’s what to fix in your headline, your About, and your Featured row → Read the article
⚖️ I’m an advisor at Social Docket now: they help creators and founders with their legal contracts, and I joined their founding Creator Advisory Board → See why I joined
🧰 The 8 unsexy systems that run my business: the Instagram post is past 17,000 comments. Comment FLOW and I’ll send you the guide → Get the guide
Keep Reading…
💪 How to get your content in shape: Build your content plan the way you'd build a gym plan. One goal for 90 days, a weekly split of reach, trust, and revenue posts, and a 15-minute weekly check-in → Build your plan
🪜 The 6 Levels of Building in Public: Six levels of sharing your work, from posting when you feel like it to letting your story lead. Find your level and the one move that gets you to the next → Find your level
📮 The First 1,000 Subscriber Playbook: Five steps to your first 1,000 email subscribers, starting with the platform where people already follow you → Steal the playbook
💸 How to Monetize Before 1K Subscribers: Three ways to make money before your list hits 1,000. A small cohort, paid contributor work, and a local newsletter → Pick your offer
🧮 The Substack Hoax: Substack is a channel, and paid subscriptions are one of the hardest ways to get paid for writing. See the math and a better path → Run the numbers
Worth every penny…
The tools, equipment, and systems that power my content.
🐝 Beehiiv: This newsletter goes out from here every Saturday. Start yours and the list pays for itself → 30 days free + 20% off for 3 months
🧾 Collective: They run my S corp now, books and taxes included. Get yours off your plate → Get your first month free
🎙️ Wispr Flow: I talk, it types. Everything you write gets faster, no keyboard required → Talk instead of type
📝 Granola: Sits in on my calls and hands me the notes after. You never take meeting notes again → First month free
🧠 Notion: Where my whole business lives. One place for everything instead of twelve tabs → Free 30-day Plus trial, no card needed
💾 Notion: The hub. Every list, calendar, and system I run lives in here, including the Season Map → Try Plus free for 30 days
📅 Cal.com: Booking links without the Calendly price tag. Open source, and it just works → Lock in 20% off for a year
💬 Manychat: The "comment a word and I'll DM you the link" machine. Builds your list while you sleep → Build the flow, 30% off
🎛️ AI Fiesta: ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, and Grok side by side on one $12 subscription instead of paying for five → Try all five for $12
🗺 Poppy AI: My content whiteboard. It knows my brand and can help me brainstorm with a visual template. → Try Poppy AI
📊 Gamma: AI presentations and one-pagers. Elite. Elite. Elite. → Try Gamma
Resources Built For You:
🗓️ The 2027 Content Calendar (free): 52 weeks pre-mapped by pillar, monthly themes, and a repurposing column so one idea becomes five posts. Plan the year in one sitting → Grab the calendar
🎯 The 2027 Goals Planner (free): quarterly goals, a revenue-goal section, and a review cadence built in. The whole year on one page → Get the planner
💼 The Brand Deal Tracker (free): the exact Notion CRM I use to log every brand deal, from first DM to paid invoice → Steal the tracker
✍️ The Ultimate LinkedIn Post Writer : a Claude skill that writes LinkedIn posts in your voice, with nine hook formats and a pre-flight check so AI-sounding filler never hits your feed → Get the skill
Brandon Smithwrick, Creator of Content to Commas
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