Your Content Is Your Product
It reflects how you think, attracts who you need, and compounds while you sleep.
read time 6 minutes
Your family members are posting reels. Your coworkers are LinkedIn poets. Your friends are sharing fitness diaries, travel guides, and outfit inspiration. Everywhere you scroll: posts, threads, reels, stories, articles. It feels like everyone is creating.
It’s easy to feel like you missed the memo. But in reality? Most people are still silent. Maybe even you. Here's an analogy that brings this into focus:
The internet is the world's longest Zoom call — and most of us are sitting with our cameras off and microphones muted.
In real life, you wouldn’t sit through a meeting or show up to a party without speaking up when it mattered. You’d share a sharp take, tell a story, ask a better question, something to shape the room with your perspective.
But online? We stay silent. We lurk. We scroll. And we let the feed thinks for us.
The cost of this silence has never been higher.
Because in the age of AI, where output is infinite, your lens is your edge. And the less you share it, the more the algorithm fills in the gaps.
So ask yourself: How are you showing up to the most important Zoom conversation of our time?
Content Is the New Currency
We’ve always shared ideas — to be seen, understood, and remembered. What’s changed isn’t that instinct, but the economy around it.
Content isn't just how you communicate anymore, it's how you compete. It's currency.
We’ve moved beyond the information age into the identity age:
Where your perspective is your product
Where your voice compounds in value over time
Where attention follows authenticity
The old game: “Establish credentials, gain position — then speak with authority.”
The new game: “Speak with clarity — and the right opportunities and people will find you.”
The creator economy gave everyone a mic. AI made it easy to generate noise. And suddenly, it’s not about who can speak, it’s about who people want to listen to.
Most people default to extremes:
"Stay private. Keep your head down. Focus on 'real work.' Don't feed the algorithm."
"Build in public! Document everything! Content is king! Grow your audience!"
The real challenge isn't whether to create content, it's how to share your perspective without feeling like you've compromised your integrity or wasted your time.
Not everyone wants to “be a creator.” But everyone benefits from being understood.
Content is no longer a vanity project, it’s a visibility system. It’s how you think in public and leave breadcrumbs for future collaborators, customers, or your next self. It’s not just for followers, it’s for leverage.
We need a framework for thinking about our online presence that feels aligned with who we actually are and what we actually value. It starts with a reframe:
Content as Product, Not Performance
Your content isn't a performance. It's a product.
When you treat content like performance, you chase validation. You count likes, tweak headlines, and play the algorithm’s game.
But when you treat it like a product, the posture shifts. Products solve problems. They have users, feedback loops, a purpose. They’re built to work, not just to impress.
Your content should do the same.
The Three Jobs Your Content Should Do
Like any good product, your content does specific jobs for its users (both you and your audience):
Thinking Tool — Helps you clarify what you actually know. It’s your public notebook. A forcing function for fuzzy ideas.
Distribution Layer — Your best insights travel ahead of you. The right people find them before they find you.
Trust Signal — It shows how you think over time, not just what you say. That’s what draws the right people in.
Case Study: How This Works in Practice
Meet Nicole, a product manager at a mid-sized tech company: For years, she stayed quiet online. Scrolling, consuming, never posting. Then came the pressure: “Everyone’s posting about AI.” So she caved. Posted once. Overthought every word, every like. Deleted it. Later, after launching a new feature she was genuinely excited about, she decided to write a short post (not for clout, just to unpack her thinking.)
That single post:
Helped her clarify her decision-making framework (thinking tool)
Got shared by her VP to the exec team (distribution layer)
Led to 3 other PMs reaching out for mentorship (trust signal)
She wasn't performing, she was building a product that served both her thinking and her reach.
The Content Framework
NYT research shows we share content for two big reasons:
To express who we are (68%) — Mirror
To connect with others (94%) — Magnet
Every piece of meaningful content does one (or both) of these:
Mirror — It reflects how you uniquely process the world.
Magnet — It attracts people who process the world in compatible ways.
Sometimes your content serves as self-therapy, clarifying your own thinking. Sometimes it's a clear signal to find your people. Both matter, both compound.
In a noisy market, clarity compounds. So don’t perform or pretend, just ship YOUR product.
The 3C Content Filter
When deciding if something's worth sharing, I run it through this filter:
Curiosity: What am I genuinely exploring or questioning?
Credibility: What have I actually lived, built, or studied?
Clarity: Can both a 21-year-old new grad and a 60-year-old exec understand it?
If it fails more than 1 out of 3, don't share it.
This isn't about setting a perfect bar for quality. It's about alignment: making sure your content reflects how you think, and why it matters.
Write like you’re inviting the sharpest person in the room to think with you.
Then trust the right ones will tune in over time.
The Content Practice: Start Small, Think Long
You don’t need a content strategy. You need a practice — one that compounds, sharpens, and reflects you over time.
Just like a product gets better with every version, your content gets clearer every time you show up.
Treat every scroll like a Zoom call
Would you speak up in this conversation?
Would you drop a thoughtful comment on that post?
Would you share your take — not to impress, but to move the dialogue forward?
Why join the room just to watch or listen?
You didn’t sign up for LinkedIn to scroll. You signed up to be seen.
If your work is strong, doesn’t your voice deserve to be heard?
This isn’t about constant broadcasting. It’s about showing up with care, in rooms that matter to you.
Your Immediate Next Action
Post one thing this week that helps future-you get hired, trusted, or understood:
A build log of something you created
A sharp question you’ve been thinking about
A story behind a decision you made
A perspective you wish more people considered
Don't post to perform. Post to participate.
This is how trust is built in the new world: Not by shouting. Not by hiding. But by thinking out loud — consistently, and with care.
Just like in a real Zoom room, the person we trust isn’t the one who speaks the most in one meeting, it’s the one who keeps showing up, sharpens the conversation, and helps the room move forward, every time.
Don’t wait to be discovered, be understood from the start.
Turn on your camera and unmute yourself, because the conversation is better with you in it.
— Akash
Thanks Akash, this is super insightful!
I’ve really found it hard to think of the content I want to create as a product instead of just performing and wondering what others are going to think of me.
But it’s definitely something that I want to do and I’m going to do from now on!