So, you want to be a content creator?

Elena Verna says she started creating content to share useful patterns and experience that were trapped inside companies, not to become an influencer. She describes growing first on LinkedIn with short posts, contrarian takes, patterns, and memes, then building a Substack to own distribution, earn income, and keep sharing long-form ideas.

She also lays out the tradeoffs: chasing likes can distort incentives, content can become a grind, criticism can get personal, and public writing exposes changing opinions in real time. Her advice is to reply to comments, be yourself, and find a specific area where your knowledge is genuinely useful.

Reading notes

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• She started posting because she saw valuable company knowledge staying inside teams instead of being shared.
• Her early LinkedIn rule was to post about anything she had said or shared three times in normal conversation.
• She says content that works often fits two buckets: contrarian takes and patterns.
• Memes became part of her style because she found them effective for expressing hard truths.
• She says chasing impressions can become addictive, but impact matters more than followers or views.
• She started Substack to own distribution and publish deeper writing as social platforms became less reliable.
• Content now gives her extra income and more career optionality.
• The upside for her is hearing that posts helped people’s careers or promotions.
• The downsides include schedule pressure, criticism from people who have not read carefully, and personal attacks.
• She says her writing follows her current work, so topics change as her job changes.
• Her advice is to engage with readers, stay authentic, and build around a real specialty and underserved niche.