“I once described a piece of Jacques’s writing as ‘high art’. I stand by that. The man’s an artist.” -Tiffany Markman, multi-award-winning copywriter.
Hello ,
One of my LinkedIn posts recently received 7 191 impressions. I was quite pleased with myself until I realised that an impression simply means that LinkedIn displayed my post on somebody's screen. It doesn't mean they read it, liked it or gave a damn about what I had to say.
Which got me thinking. Why do we bother writing articles in the first place?
Let's not kid ourselves. If we're in business, we'd eventually like somebody to buy something from us. Otherwise, there are probably more enjoyable ways to spend a Sunday afternoon than writing. In my case, playing padel, chess or catching bass.
But I don't think every article should be written to generate a lead, drive traffic to a website or persuade somebody to book a meeting.
I think we're playing a longer game.
People are more likely to do business with people they know, like and trust. And writing is one way of helping that happen, long before there's any prospect of a sale.
Every time you write, you're giving people a little more insight into how you think. What you believe. What irritates you? What you find fascinating. What you're prepared to challenge.
Over time, you're building a body of work that tells people who you are and what you stand for.
And here's the important bit. You're not trying to appeal to everybody.
"Jacques is the Charles Dickens of our age." - Billy Selekane, National President of the Professional Speakers Association of Southern Africa, 2026/27.
You're trying to attract people who see the world in much the same way you do. People who recognise something of themselves in your stories, appreciate your thinking and feel that you're somebody they'd like to work with.
Some people won't like what you have to say. That's fine too. They probably weren't your ideal customers in the first place.
This is at the heart of what I teach through Commercial Decision Design. The idea is to stop being compared with everyone else and start becoming the obvious choice for the people you actually want to work with.
Your writing helps shape that preference long before somebody starts looking for a solution to their problem. And when they eventually do, they may already know who they'd like to speak to.
Which makes me wonder about all the AI-generated stuff we're producing. If your articles sound exactly like everybody else's, what are people learning about you? That you have access to ChatGPT?
I've written hundreds of articles over the years. I use AI to help me these days, too. But the ideas, opinions, peculiar observations and occasional bits of nonsense still have to come from me.
And there's a method to how I turn those things into articles.
On Monday, 16 November, I'm running a free three-hour working session called How to Write Articles That Get Read.
I'll show you how I find things worth writing about, turn ordinary experiences into stories and use a simple six-step formula to develop articles that sound like me. We'll look at the Hero's Journey, pull a few of my articles apart and have a go at writing one of your own.
"I just love your writing. Reading your work makes me feel like a cat rubbing up against you, hoping some of your magic will rub off on me. You have this wonderful ability to capture emotion and bring it to life through words." - Alta Lourens
You don't have to be a writer. But you should have something to say.
Because here's a question worth considering.
If somebody read everything you've written over the last five years, would they have any idea what you stand for?
Or would they simply know that you've published an awful lot of content?
HOW TO WRITE ARTICLES THAT GET READ
Monday, 16 November 2026
09h00 - 12h00
Three hours | Free | The Tryst, Kramerville
You're the job.
Jacques de Villiers
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