3 ways to close more deals with your PERSONAL BRAND

Founders almost always post testimonials the same way they post ads.

- Big logo.

- Client face.

- Boring quote like "Look who we worked with."

And then they wonder why nobody cares.

There’s nothing Midas about them.

I like to call testimonial and case study posts, “Midas posts.”

King Midas turned everything he touched into gold without trying. A good testimonial post does the same thing with every line in it should be doing work, every detail should be paying you, the proof itself should be the gold the reader walks away with.

The problem is most founders post testimonials like 2018 LinkedIn ads. Front-loaded with the offer, ending with a stiff quote. Nobody reads them. Nobody shares them.

They sit at the bottom of the feed pretending to be social proof.

There are 3 Midas post structures that are proving to convert right now. Here's what each one does and why it works:

1. The Slow Burn

This is a long-form with a native hook that reads like a story you're telling at dinner.

1. You open with an observation about someone.
   

2. You walk through what you've watched them do over time.
   

3. The numbers get brought up casually.
   

4. Somewhere in the middle, almost as an aside, you mention you do XYZ for them.

By the time you hit the line "do XYZ for them,” they’re 3 paragraphs deep and the reader has already decided you're worth listening to.

2. The Reflection

This is a short post with an image of the client and a reflection from you.

Hook is usually one of these openers

1. "A testimonial I'm really proud of."

2. "This one means a lot."

3. "Sharing this because I don't post these often."

Humility is the most underused angle in self-promotion. When the founder says "I'm proud of this," it lands differently than "look at this win." Same proof that relies on a completely different psychology.

Then you get to the setup: who they are, what they do, what they said.

The reason this format hits is because the hook is reflective and instead of selling, you're sharing something you're personally proud of.

The reader leans in because the energy is different from every other client-win post in their feed.

3. The Trojan Horse

The Trojan Horse is a Midas post packaged inside a familiar viral content format.

Maybe a screenshot or an iMessage mockup or a tweet-style screenshot with a contrarian take.

The hook reads like organic content the audience is already wired to consume.

This one came to me while I was looking through old New York Times papers and I noticed that they run native ads designed to look like editorial articles, clearly labeled but visually indistinguishable.

The copy used is true and useful. But the visuals are a form of bait meant to stop the scroll, The format is doing exactly what good marketing has always done.

It's meeting the audience inside a context they're already comfortable consuming, and rewarding their attention with substance.

The work this week

Look at the last testimonial post you wrote. Identify which of the 3 structures it should have been.

If you have a big number and a close relationship, write the Slow Burn version.

If you have a quote that hits harder than your own words could, write the Reflection.

If your audience is fatigued and your standard testimonials aren't landing, write a Trojan Horse.

Run it up.

– Wiz

P.S. FTS just dropped Omnisend (our proud partner’s) 2026 Ecommerce Marketing Report and there’s one stat you need to know. Automated emails generated 30% of total email revenue from just 2% of sends which meant that welcome and abandoned cart flows were doing most of the heavy lifting. If you run ecom or just want to study the overall industry trend, read the full breakdown here.