Curation as a Content Strategy
Curate more, create less?
A Content Strategy for Leaders
If you lead a company or cause, you’ve probably felt it:
The pressure to “post more.”
The guilt of not having enough “original ideas.”
The overwhelm of trying to keep up with everything.
Here’s what I want you to consider today:
It’s not about creating more. It’s about curating better.
You don’t need to invent brand-new ideas every day. But you do need original takes.
In a world flooded with content, that’s how you stand out.
Creation vs curation (and why “everything is a remix”)
Most content advice still focuses on volume: post more, publish more, be everywhere.
The problem is that your audience is already drowning in content.
Newsletters pile up. Podcasts go unplayed. There are more LinkedIn threads, hot takes, and “must-read” articles than anyone can reasonably process.
Your job as a personal brand leader isn’t to add to the noise.
It’s to help people make sense of what’s already out there.
That’s where curation comes in:
Creation says, “Look at this thing I made.”
Curation with perspective says: “Here’s what matters, here’s what it means, and here’s how I’m applying it.”
Your audience needs more clarity, not just more content.
Why curation is your most underrated content strategy
Curation isn’t just sharing links. It’s a leadership skill.
Done well, curation:
Positions you as a filter in an overwhelming landscape
Shows how you think, not just what you consume
Builds trust because you’re not trying to be the expert on everything – you’re the bridge between complex ideas and the people you serve
Anyone can repost an article. Very few people say:
“Here’s the signal in all this noise.”
“Here’s how I’m using this insight.”
“Here’s what this means for you, in your role, right now.”
“Here’s my own unique perspective on an otherwise common thing.”
That’s the opportunity for founders, executives, and leaders:
Curate like a practitioner, not a broadcaster.
What curation looks like in practice
Here’s a simple version of my own system. Every week I pull from:
Newsletters across marketing, branding, nonprofit, startup, and social impact
Podcasts I listen to on walks
Forums and comment sections (including places like Reddit) for unfiltered reactions – not for memes, but for real sentiment and lived experience
When something catches my attention, here’s what I do:
Capture it — I save the link or take a quick voice note.
Question it — I ask:
Do I agree with this?
Where do I disagree?
Where does this feel incomplete?
Connect it to my audience
How does this matter for people building brands or leading causes?
What would my audience miss if they only saw the original content?
Turn it into something useful — that might become:
A short LinkedIn post
A section in my newsletter
Slides in my next workshop
Prompts for a team discussion
In my newsletter, The Intersection, I treat each edition as a small “lab” for this process.
It’s not just a roundup, though. Instead, it’s more like:
Here’s what I’m seeing
How I’m connecting the dots
Why it matters if you care about brand, impact, or growth with purpose
Weekly Workflow
A simple curation workflow you can use
If you’re trying to build or improve your content strategy, you don’t need a complicated system. Try this:
1. Choose your inputs (15–20 minutes)
Pick 3–5 trusted sources:
A few newsletters
A couple of podcasts
One or two forums or communities where your audience hangs out
Skim, don’t read everything in depth.
2. Capture 3–5 ideas (10 minutes)
Save only what genuinely makes you pause:
“That’s interesting…”
“I haven’t heard it framed that way before.”
“My team/clients keep asking about this.”
3. Ask the perspective questions (15 minutes)
For each idea, journal or voice note:
What do I actually think about this?
Where do I agree or disagree?
What’s missing from this conversation?
How does this connect to my audience’s real problems this week?
4. Turn one idea into one piece of content (20–30 minutes)
You don’t need to publish everything.
Pick one idea and turn it into:
A LinkedIn post
A short video
A section of your next newsletter
A post your company account can also repurpose
Try leading with my format:
“Here’s what I’m seeing. Here’s how I’m thinking about it. Here’s what it might mean for you.”
Questions to reflect on as a personal brand leader
If you’ve been quiet online because you “don’t have anything original to say,” try sitting with these:
What are the 3–5 newsletters, books, or podcasts you always recommend to others?
What’s one trend in your industry that you quietly disagree with? Why?
What’s a concept you keep hearing that you think is misunderstood or overhyped?
Where are you already curating in private – for your team, your board, or your clients – that could be shared more publicly?
You might already be doing the hard part: reading, listening, analyzing. You just haven’t been hitting publish.
You don’t have to reinvent the wheel.
If you take nothing else from this, remember:
You don’t have to be the first person to say something.
But you do need to be the one who says:
“Here’s what actually matters in all of this.”
“Here’s how I’m applying it.”
“Here’s how it might help you move forward.”
Your perspective, not your posting volume, is what makes your content worth paying attention to.
If you’re building a personal brand and want your content to feel more like leadership and less like shouting into the void, start with curation. Be the bridge.
