Content ideas from your own work, and 100 proven ones

When you sit down to post with nothing planned, you guess what people want to hear. ChatGPT guesses too, which is why its ideas read like everyone else's. Good ideas come from two better places.

Your own work gives you what only you can say: the questions clients ask, the mistakes you fix, the week you just had. The lists below cover it, grouped by type, so you can post something today.

Posts that already beat their creator's usual views show you what your buyers stop for ^[1]. Raw views won't find them. A video with 1M views from an account that always gets 1M tells you nothing, while 300K from an account that usually gets 50K tells you the topic or the structure did the work ^[2]. The Outlier Method finds those posts, and you don't copy them: you take the idea and tell it with your own experience, opinions and examples ^[1].

Neither tells you in advance which idea will win. Post, then let your own median show which kinds to make more of ^[1].

Your clients hand you most of your ideas. Write down what they ask and what they get wrong, and you'll rarely start from a blank page.

• The question every new client asks in the first call, answered in under a minute.
• Then the one you wish they'd ask, and why it matters more.
• A mistake you fix every month, what it cost the last client, and the one change that fixed it.
• A myth in your field, and what you tell clients instead.
• Before and after: a plan, a contract clause, a listing photo or a pitch, with the client's permission.
• This or that: two options your client weighs, and which you'd pick in their shoes.
• The red flags you spot in a first meeting.
• What happens in your first week with a new client, step by step.
• A case story with names and details changed, told for the lesson.
• The checklist you use yourself, handed over as a carousel.

People hire a person, so some posts should be about you. Keep each one tied to how you work.

• Why you started.
• Ten facts about you that clients don't know, one per slide: where you trained, the first case you won, the job you nearly took instead, the coffee order your assistant knows by heart.
• Your story so far: the first client, the year it nearly didn't work, and where you are now.
• What you're working on this month, and why it matters to the people you help, told in the order it actually happened, mess included.
• A lesson you learned this week from a client or from a mistake.
• The job you had before this one, and what it taught you that you still use.
• Where you want your practice to be a year from now, said out loud so you can check back.
• Why you post at all, and what you hope people get from following you.

The personal brand template turns your story, beliefs and flaws into a year of these.

Everyday posts show what it's like to work with you. They're quick to make because you're living them anyway.

• A day in your working life, from the first coffee to the last email.
• Your morning before client calls: a lawyer reading the file one last time, a coach going over last week's notes, an agent checking new listings before nine.
• How you end the day, and the one thing you write down before you log off.
• What your week looks like, as a calendar screenshot with the names blurred.
• Three things that made you smile at work this week: a thank-you note, a signed deal, a client's small win.
• What's on your camera roll this week: site visits, a whiteboard, the coffee before a hearing.
• A clip from the car between appointments, filmed while parked, rain on the windscreen and one thought for the day about the meeting you just left.
• A photo dump from a conference or a work trip.

In Postmosis, Write has an idea source called A moment from your work this week. You say what happened, and the post tells it as it happened, with no pitch. See the post writer

Clients pay for work they mostly never see. Showing some of it explains your fee better than any line about quality.

• The parts of the job clients never see: the prep before a hearing, the paperwork after a sale, the research before a proposal.
• How you prepare for a first meeting.
• The apps you use every day, and what each one saves you.
• Products you actually use and recommend to clients, like the notebook, the scanner app or the folder system, and why each one earns its place.
• Your editing process: how a phone video becomes a post, from where you film and how the phone is propped up to how long the edit takes. People who might refer you like seeing the work behind the work too.
• Your desk, your bag or your car boot on a busy day.
• How you work out a quote, without the figures.
• A template you use with clients, shown on screen.

Posts about how you keep going tell a client you'll still be around next year. Keep them short and true, and tie each one back to the work.

• Habits that made you better at your job, like the first hour of the day with your phone in a drawer.
• Your goals for this month and how last month's went. Say the target out loud, then report back next month, hit or miss.
• Something you're trying to get better at, such as saying no to the wrong client, and how it's going.
• What you do on the days you don't feel like working or posting, and the smallest step that gets you moving.
• Small rituals that keep you sharp in a demanding job: the walk before a hearing, the same playlist for every proposal.
• Your comfort routine after a hard week with clients, whether that's the long walk, the cooking or the call with your sister, and why it makes you better on Monday.
• What you're enjoying about your work right now.
• Your system for a full client list: the calendar, the folders, the end-of-day list.

Reflective posts give people a reason to save you and send you to a friend. One honest lesson beats five tips.

• Something you wish you'd known in your first year.
• Advice you'd give your younger self on the first day of the job.
• What you're learning right now: a course, a book, a new rule in your field.
• A small lesson that changed how you work.
• What posting online has taught you about your own clients.
• Books you'd hand a new client, and the one line from each that matters.
• A decision you'd make differently now, and why.

Outliers show what works in your field. Your old work and your conversations give you more of what only you can say:

• Your inbox. A reply you've typed again and again this month is a post somebody needs, and the short script structure is built to answer exactly one question.
• Join two old posts that did well, update one that's gone out of date, or film the caption of your best text post as a talking video.
• The opinion you keep bringing up over dinner. If you'd argue it with a friend, it'll carry a post.
• Comments on other posts in your field, especially the ones asking for more.
• Conversation starters: the question you ask in every first meeting, turned into a poll or a question sticker. A coach might ask "What would you do this year if money weren't the problem?", and the replies hand you your next few posts.
• Talks, newsletters and webinars you've already given, cut into one point per post.

A post from the last few weeks that beats its account's median is a topic people in your field want right now. The Outlier Method finds those posts for you: keep its 90-day cut-off ^[1] and run it again every month or so.

For wider trends, TikTok's Creative Center lists trending hashtags and ideas ^[3]. Run any trend through one test first: take the trend's name out of the idea and ask whether your buyer would still care ^[4].

Once you have the list, Postmosis puts each idea on a calendar by month or week, with your posting slots, and sends a phone alert when a post is due. See the content calendar

Choose accounts that sell to the person you want as a client, not only accounts on your topic ^[1]. Use this mix:

• 10 direct peers: same buyer, about your size or a bit bigger. Their wins are the ones you can copy the shape of ^[1].
• 5 from neighbouring fields: same buyer, different topic ^[1]. A divorce lawyer might study a divorce coach and a mediator. A property agent might study a mortgage broker and an interior designer.
• 5 leaders: the biggest accounts your buyer follows. They have fewer outliers, but they show where your field is heading ^[1].

To find them:

• Search 3 to 5 phrases your buyer would type into Instagram or TikTok search, then open the accounts behind the top results ^[1].
• On a good account's profile, tap the arrow next to Follow to see Suggested for you. That list is usually the same field ^[1].
• Look at who your best clients follow. That's their feed ^[1].

Skip anyone who posts less than once a week or hasn't posted in a month, because you need recent data ^[1]. Put the 20 handles in column A of a new Google Sheet ^[1].

You want each account's last 30 Reels with their views ^[1]. There are two ways to get them.

• By hand. Open the account's Reels tab. Instagram shows the play count on every thumbnail ^[1], so you type the views straight into your sheet. A family lawyer checking five other family lawyers can do it over one lunch break, and that's enough for a first pass.
• A scraper is faster for all 20: on Apify, run the Instagram Reel Scraper (by Apify), or the TikTok Scraper (by Clockworks) for TikTok. Paste your 20 handles, set about 30 results per profile, run it and export a CSV ^[1]. Check the scraper's pricing before a big run ^[1].

Set the sheet up with six columns, A to F: creator (the @handle), url (the link to the Reel), views (the play count), posted (the date it went up), hook (the first line) and multiple (the formula below) ^[1].

Views alone lie ^[1]. A big account's average post beats a small account's best one, so compare each Reel with its own creator's median ^[1]. Paste this in F2 and fill it down:

=C2/MEDIAN(FILTER(C:C,A:A=A2))

Each Reel now has a multiple. 1.0 is a normal post for that account, and 3.0 is three times its usual ^[1]. The formula uses whole columns, so it keeps working as you add rows.

• 3x or more is an outlier. Sort column F from high to low ^[1].
• Keep the top 5 per account. 20 accounts with 5 each gives you 100 proven ideas ^[1].
• Drop giveaways, collabs with much bigger accounts and anything older than 90 days. Those won for reasons you can't repeat ^[1].

The idea lives in the first lines. For each outlier you need the hook, which is the first sentence, and ideally the full transcript ^[1].

• Fast: a transcript tool like Supadata takes an Instagram, TikTok or YouTube link and gives you back the transcript ^[1].
• By hand: watch the first 3 seconds and type the hook into column E. For 100 posts that's about 10 minutes ^[1].

Export the outlier rows (account, views, multiple, and the hook or transcript) and paste them into Claude ^[1] with the prompt below. Fill in the brackets first.

Below are outlier posts from accounts in my field. Each one got at least 3x that account's usual views.

For each post, give me one line each for:
1. The hook type: number, contrarian, story, question, before and after, list or warning.
2. The promise: what the viewer gets if they keep watching.
3. The structure, as 3 to 5 beats.
4. Why it probably beat that account's usual.

Then, across all the posts, list the 5 hook types and the 5 topics that show up most among the biggest multiples.

My buyer, in one sentence: [who you want as a client and what they're stuck on].

[paste rows]

Save the answer. It tells you how your field likes a post to open, build and close, and every idea after this one follows that pattern.

Same chat, next message:

Turn every outlier above into one content idea for me. Keep the idea and the structure. Change the story.

For each idea, give me:
- a working title
- the hook in my words, one breath, under 15 words
- what makes it mine: a case from my work, my opinion, my example, or how I film
- the format: talking head, faceless, screen recording or carousel

Rules: never reuse their words, script lines, footage or examples. If an idea only works by copying, drop it.

About me: [what you sell and to whom], [two or three results you can back up], [opinions you'd argue for], [paste 3 of your captions so it sounds like you].

Read the list once and cut anything you couldn't say with a straight face ^[1]. Anything left goes in your plan.

Pick 10 ideas your buyer cares about and you can make this week, and post them ^[1]. After 72 hours, run the same formula on your own account: every post divided by your median ^[1].

Anything at 2x or more is a winning topic. Don't move on from it: make 10 more videos on it ^[1]. Repurpose content shows how to get new angles out of one winner.

The Postmosis social media audit runs this check on a public Instagram or TikTok account for you. Each of your last 30 posts is rated against your own median, then you see what to double down on, fix or stop. See the social media audit

You need a Google Sheet and a Claude chat. A scraper and a transcript tool make it faster, but you can do it all by hand.

These post types suit someone who sells their own expertise. Each one is paired with the format it fits best:

For prompts sorted by format, see Instagram post ideas and LinkedIn post ideas. To keep a month of ideas from all landing on one topic, group them into content pillars.

• 20 accounts, all posting at least once a week ^[2].
• Every multiple is against the account's own median, never raw views ^[2].
• Nothing older than 90 days, no giveaways, no collabs ^[2].
• Every idea has a line saying what makes it yours ^[2].
• No hook reuses the original creator's wording ^[2].
• You cut every idea you couldn't say with a straight face ^[2].

• View counts are public, and they're only part of the picture. Saves, shares and comments matter too, and you can only see some of them ^[1].
• Scrapers and transcript tools have their own pricing and limits, so check them before a big run ^[1].
• An outlier from 6 months ago may have been riding a trend that's gone. Stick to the last 90 days ^[1].
• Take ideas, never content. Their words, footage and examples belong to them ^[1].
• Small fields may not have 20 accounts that post every week ^[1]. Widen to neighbouring fields that sell to the same buyer, or lean on the lists above until you have enough of your own posts to score.
• No list tells you which idea will win. Post them, then let your own median show which kinds to make more of ^[1].