Scan time: 2-3 min / Read time: 5-7 min
Hey rebel solopreneurs 🦸♀️🦸♂️
A solopreneur posts on LinkedIn three times a week. Gets 12 comments. Replies to each one with "Thanks so much!" and "Really appreciate that."
Three months later — still 340 followers. Still wondering why the posts aren't growing.
The posts aren't the problem. The replies are.
There's a 2-prompt fix that takes 8 minutes.
⛳️ Here's the scenario
Meet Maya.
She'd spent 11 years as a project manager at a logistics company. Finally quit to run her own consulting practice.
She was posting on LinkedIn four times a week. Writing about leadership, team communication, and running better meetings. Building her name so corporate clients would find her.
Comments were coming in. Not a flood — but enough.
The problem?
She had no idea what to write back.
She'd stare at a comment like "This really resonates — I've been dealing with something similar with my team" and just type "Thanks, glad it helped!"
Then move on.
She wasn't trying to be rude. She was just busy. And nothing useful came to mind fast enough.
One Friday evening she was at a rooftop bar in the city. Waiting for a friend who was running late.
The woman next to her was typing fast on her phone. Smiling at the screen. Laughing quietly.
Maya glanced over.
The woman was replying to LinkedIn comments. Every reply was long, warm, and specific. One after another.
"How are you writing those so fast?" Maya asked.
The woman grinned and slid her phone over.
Turned out she'd spent 15 years as a community manager for some of the biggest brand accounts in the country. Hilton. Nike. American Express. (Maya nearly fell off the bar stool.)
She looked at Maya's last comment reply. Then she rewrote it on a napkin in 45 seconds.
❌ What Maya had: "Thanks, glad it helped!"
✅ What it became: "That situation is so common — and what usually trips teams up is that no one agrees on what 'done' looks like before a project starts. One thing that helped me: a 5-minute question at the start of every project. Happy to share it if you want."
Same comment. Completely different relationship.
Maya stared at it.
"That took you 45 seconds?"
The woman leaned back and explained two things.
💡 First — your AI sidekick can read any comment and find the one idea worth responding to.
"Most people stare at a comment and go blank because they're trying to think of something clever. Your AI sidekick doesn't go blank. Give it the original post and the comment — and it will pull out the idea, question, or tension hiding in those words. That's your reply material."
💡 Second — once you have the idea, your AI sidekick can write the full reply in your voice.
"You give it your background, your area of expertise, and the angle you want to take. It writes a reply that sounds like you — specific, warm, and real. Not 'Thanks, glad it helped.' Something that makes the other person think: I want to follow this person."
Then she slid the napkin across the bar.
"Two prompts. Run them in order. Eight minutes."
Here's what each prompt does:
▶️ Prompt 1 — Find the angle: Drops the original post and comment into your AI sidekick. It pulls out the one idea worth replying to — so you never stare at a blank screen.
▶️ Prompt 2 — Write the reply: Takes the angle from Prompt 1 and writes a full, ready-to-post reply in your voice — specific, warm, and the kind that makes people click your profile.
Maya opened her AI sidekick and got to work.
🎯 Step 1: Find the angle worth replying to
⏱️ 3 minutes
This prompt takes the original post and the comment and finds the best idea to reply to.
Every comment has one thing most worth responding to — a question, a tension, or a shared experience. This prompt finds it for you.
Here is a LinkedIn post and a comment I received on it.
Post: {paste the full post here}
Comment: {paste the comment here}
Analyze the comment and return:
- The one idea, question, or tension in this comment most worth responding to
- Why that idea matters to this person specifically
- 3 angles I could take: agree, disagree, or add to the idea
- For each angle: one sentence that kicks off the reply
Keep everything plain and direct. 15 words or less per bullet.
Here's what changed:
❌ Before: "Thanks, glad it helped!"
✅ After: "Best angle to reply to: The person isn't just agreeing — they're showing they have the same problem right now.
Why it matters: This is someone who might need exactly what you offer.
Three angles: → Agree: 'Yes — and what makes it worse is most teams don't realize it until it's too late.' → Add: 'That's exactly why I started using a weekly 10-minute check-in. It changed everything.' → Question: 'How long have you been noticing this with your team?'"
[Maya's AI sidekick filled in the remaining options...]
Maya read it back.
She hadn't thought about it that way.
The comment wasn't just a compliment. It was someone showing they had the same problem.
Now she had three directions to take.
Time to write the actual reply.
🔍 Step 2: Write the ready-to-post reply
⏱️ 5 minutes
This prompt takes the angle you picked in Step 1 and writes the full reply in your voice.
A good comment reply does one thing: makes the other person feel seen. Not praised. Not sold to. Seen.
This prompt writes that reply — tied to the post, tied to the comment, and tied to who you are.
I want to write a reply to a LinkedIn comment.
My background: {e.g. 11 years as a project manager, now consulting on team communication}
My area of expertise: {e.g. helping teams run better meetings and clearer projects}
Original post topic: {e.g. why most project delays start in the first meeting}
Comment I received: {paste the comment}
Angle I want to take: {paste the angle you chose from Prompt 1 — e.g. "Add to the idea"}
Write a reply that:
- Opens with 1 sentence that directly addresses the comment — no "great point!" openers
- Shares one specific insight or tip from my area of expertise
- Ends with one question or invitation to keep the conversation going
- Sounds warm and human — not like a LinkedIn thought leader
- Maximum 5 sentences total
Here's what changed:
❌ Before: "Great post! This really hit home for our team."
✅ After: "The moment you described — everyone nodding in the meeting, then nothing happening after — I've seen that kill team momentum more than almost anything else.
What usually causes it isn't laziness.
It's that no one agreed on what 'done' looks like before the work started.
One small fix that helped my clients: one question at the end of every kickoff — 'What does a win look like in 30 days?'
Has your team tried anything like that?"
Maya posted it.
Within an hour, the person replied back.
That reply turned into a DM.
That DM turned into a discovery call.
BAM.
🏆 Maya's results
Before:
Spending 30 seconds on each reply with nothing useful to say
Comments going cold, no real conversations starting
Three months of posting with barely any follower growth
After:
2 prompts, 8 minutes — a reply ready to post
Three comment conversations turned into profile visits within one week
Two discovery calls booked from comment threads in the first month
Total time: 8 minutes. Not 30 minutes of staring and typing.
Her AI sidekick found the angle and wrote the words. Maya made the final call on which direction to take.
Two prompts. Eight minutes.
A comment reply that makes someone think "I want to follow this person" — not just feel thanked.
That's it, my fellow outliers!
Yours 'helping solopreneurs skip the hard way of doing things' Vijay Peduru 🦸♂️