Josh S.

One of the biggest mistakes you can make:

Thinking you can’t control your own luck.

This is something I wish I had known when I started my career.

Look at the people winning right now.
The ones who keep pulling in the big clients and the right introductions at the right time.

None of that is a coincidence.
It's luck they've built on purpose.

There are 3 types of luck in life:

🧠 The luck from awareness
↳ The opportunity was always there, you just learned to see it before everyone else did.

🏎️ The luck of motion
↳ You did the reps, took the meetings, sent the messages. Luck found you while you were already moving.

💡 The luck from uniqueness
↳ You built something so specific that the right people had no choice but to come looking for you.

Once you see luck this way, you can start engineering more of it.
And you can start to take full advantage of them.

Here are 5 ways to grow your surface area of luck:

1️⃣ Focus on your personal development
↳ A fit body and a clear head will out-think a tired one.

2️⃣ Pick up skills people are hiring for
↳ Look at the problems that keep showing up in your industry, then go and learn how to solve them.

3️⃣ Distance yourself from the overly cautious
↳ Your circle sets your ceiling, so spend time with the people making big moves and taking risks. Your default setting will start to shift without you noticing.

4️⃣ Stay endlessly curious
↳ Ask why, then ask why again, then again. Curiosity is how you stumble into the question nobody else is asking.

5️⃣ Help great people more than they expect
↳ Give without keeping score. The people you help today are the people emailing you in 3 years with the opportunity you didn't see coming.

Luck isn't a coin flip.
It's a surface area, and you decide how big it gets.

It's that simple.

How are you creating your own luck?

💾 Save this for the next time someone tells you they got lucky.
♻️ Repost this for the operator in your network building their surface area.
And follow me, Josh S., for more like this.

One of life's most dangerous traps :

Worrying about things outside your control.

An incredible bit of content from the legendary Joseph Rudd 
(Drop him a follow for epic content).

I saw this and had to share because,

I heard a quote the other day that's been stuck in my head...

"20% is the situation. 80% is how you respond"

Control is something we all try to cling to.
We convince ourselves we must manage everything.

I’ve fallen into that mindset myself:

Stressing over what people will think of me.
Stressing over how colleagues would perceive my ideas. 
Stressing over how I'm coming across on social media (ye this sucks).

But that mindset just builds pressure,
And pulls us further from real progress.

So instead, let go of what you can’t influence.
And put your energy into what’s in reach.

❌ You can’t shape how others see your choices.
✅ But you can stand by them with confidence.

❌ You can’t rewrite what happened before.
✅ But you can decide how you move forward.

❌ You can’t control every project’s result.
✅ But you can own the effort you bring to it.

Work and life will always bring uncertainty.
Plans shift, roles evolve, and people move on.

But you can focus your energy on:

- The decisions ahead
- The effort you give
- The values you hold
- The way you respond
- The way you speak to yourself

That’s where true progress begins.

What will you start putting more energy into?
Share it in the comments.

Repost to support someone who needs this ♻️
And follow Josh S. for more.

There's a set of life rules that we never get taught.

But winners use them every day...

We are commonly told to:

- Keep grinding without questioning the goal
- Say yes to everything that comes our way
- Push harder, even when it stops working

But those who truly win in life play by a different set of rules. 
(I know this after working with these people myself)

They’ve learned laws that give them clarity, speed, and focus.

Here are 8 laws the top 1% live by:

1. The North Star Principle
↳ Clarity will always drive conviction. 
↳ Be ruthlessly clear on where you need to go.

2. Parkinson’s Law
↳ Time stretches to what you fill it with.
↳ Set tighter deadlines and get more done.

3. The Law of Diminishing Returns
↳ More effort doesn’t mean more results.
↳ Know when it's right to walk away.

4. The Peter Principle
↳ Promotions ≠ progress.
↳ Always stay learning or you’ll stay stuck.

5. Pareto Principle (80/20 Rule)
↳ Most value comes from a few key moves.
↳ Double down on what matters.

6. Gall’s Law
↳ Complexity grows from simplicity.
↳ Start small and then scale.

7. The Principle of Least Effort
↳ People will always choose ease.
↳ Make the right path the easy one.

8. Goodhart’s Law
↳ Metrics lie when you chase them.
↳ Focus on real genuine human value, not vanity.

These rules aren’t loud.
But they are effective.

What's one life law you live by?
Drop it in the comments 👇

♻ Repost to help your network win
And follow Josh S. for more !

Pixar has built a $30B+ empire on stories people can't stop thinking about.

These are the 22 rules they live by 👇

Shout out to Tara Vracevic for this sick visual!

Storytelling is the most valuable skill you can build right now.

It doesn't matter what industry you're in or what you sell. 
In a world where everyone has access to the same AI tools, the storyteller wins every time.

Don't get me wrong, a lot of these rules were written for screenwriters and novelists.

But the thinking behind them works for any type of writing you're doing, LinkedIn posts included.

Here's a few that hit hardest for me:
(You can see all 22 in the visual ! XD)

1️⃣ What's interesting to you as an audience isn't always what you'd choose to write.

The version of you that reads and the version of you that writes want different things.

Listen to the reader more often.

2️⃣ You won't find your theme until the end. Then rewrite for it.

Your first draft is you working out what you're trying to say.
Your second draft is where you finally say it.

3️⃣ Simplify → Focus → Combine

Cramming in more ideas doesn't make writing stronger.
Take one idea and push it as far as it can go.

4️⃣ Finish your writing. Let it go even if it's not perfect.

The post that goes live will outperform the draft sitting in your notes app.
Perfect is a fantasy, whereas done is a habit.

5️⃣ Give your reader a reason to care about the outcome.

If nothing's on the line, nobody's reading to the end.
Stakes are what keep eyes on the page, so set up what your reader stands to gain or lose in the first three lines.

6️⃣ Come up with your ending before you figure out your middle.

Know where you're taking the reader before you start the journey.

Write the last line first, then build the post backwards from there. 
You'll waste less time, and the writing will feel smoother.

7️⃣ What is your story about, at its most essential level?

If you can't say it in one sentence, you don't know what you're writing yet.
Get the one sentence right, and the rest gets easier.

8️⃣ Putting it on paper only allows you to start fixing it.

The first draft is supposed to be rough; that's where you're building the idea.
Write the messy version first, then edit it into the version you're proud of.

9️⃣ Discount the first thing that comes to mind. Surprise yourself.

The first idea is the one everyone else has too.
The second or third idea is where the post gets interesting and unique to you.

🔟 Why must YOU tell this story?

Readers can tell when you mean it and when you don't.
The writing that travels is the writing that came from somewhere real.

Pixar built a $30B empire on one thing:
Making people feel something.

Carry that into whatever you're writing next, and the rest follows.

What's a story that's stuck with you for years?

💾 Save this for the next time the writing feels flat.
♻️ Repost this for someone sleeping on storytelling.
And follow me, Josh S., for more on building a brand that travels.

I have 169,656+ followers in 3 years of posting consistently.

Here's how I never struggle for ideas 👇

The LinkedIn algorithm has changed again.

Now, 1k buyers will always beat 1M passive followers.

Every post should drive towards one end outcome.

The goal to getting towards there: 
Posting formats.

These are the ways you package information. 
And some can perform significantly better than others

(depending on the outcome you have in mind).

If you're looking for an influx of new ideas. 
Here are 16 posting formats across the funnel.

(See the graphic for all post types !)

📢 TOP OF FUNNEL 
Gets you in front of people who don't know you yet.

1. Niche cheat sheet
→ 1 graphic and 1 topic, all built for your ICP.
→ Best for: Saves and reposts.

2. Broad topic cheat sheet
→ Wider angle, framework-led, designed for reach.
→ Best for: Follower growth and saves.

3. Resources or tools post
→ A curated list your ICP can actually use.
→ Best for: Saves and broad reach.

🤝 MIDDLE OF FUNNEL 
Turns followers into warm leads.

1. Lead magnet post
→ Free resource with a comment trigger.
→ Best for: Email list growth.

2. Personal story post
→ An experience or lesson from your journey.
→ Best for: Building trust with your audience.

3. Personal tools and systems
→ Show what's in your stack and how you use it.
→ Best for: Building authority by staying specific.

💰 BOTTOM OF FUNNEL 
Converts followers into buyers.

1. Case study post
→ Show readers that your work creates results.
→ Best for: Proving your offer before anyone has to ask.

2. Milestone celebration
→ A result with a lesson attached.
→ Best for: Credibility. The milestone earns the right to pitch.

3. Niche how-to video
→ Show the exact outcomes your ICP wants on video.
→ Best for: Warm lead conversion.

Your content mix should match your current goal.

If you need leads now, load up on the middle and bottom of funnel content.
If you're still building, 70 to 80% should be top of funnel.

Build the system first.
Then let the content do its job.

For the full LinkedIn 2026 playbook and a 30-day roadmap to implement it, 
grab the LinkedIn Bible here: https://lnkd.in/eiw3SPtn

What do you find hardest about creating content on LinkedIn?
Drop it in the comments below !

💾 Save this so you can come back to it.
♻️ Repost to help a founder who's still guessing.
And follow me, Josh S., for the full LinkedIn content system.

The all important question in this new AI age...

Which LLM is actually right for me?

Well Chris Donnelly helps us find the answer with this sheet !

AI is moving quicker than anyone expected.

Sure, there are concerns...
But the impact on entrepreneurs and marketers is huge.

We've spent months trialling all the top models.

Here’s how the top 6 compare right now (this may not last):

1. Claude 4.5
The true OG for writers and one I rely on most these days.

Best for: Structured docs, legal tasks, big projects.
Great at long-form reasoning with massive memory.
Downside: Lacks flair when it comes to creativity.

2. ChatGPT-5
I use this dozens of times a day.
(I have a GPT for almost everything)

Best for: Writing, research, automation tasks.
Easily the most flexible and intuitive option.
Downside: Prone to errors in niche topics, and can get pricey.

3. Perplexity
The most reliable AI for straight facts. 
Plus, Comet is epic !

Best for: Data-backed insights, market scanning.
Ideal for founders needing speed and certainty.
Downside: Not great for storytelling or content ideas.

4. Grok 4
Still finding its footing, but full of potential.

Best for: Live trends and monitoring social buzz.
Taps directly into X, with a more human tone.
Downside: Not strong on technical depth yet.

5. Gemini 2.5
The top pick for visual and SEO work.

Best for: Seamless use in Google-based teams.
Built for collaboration inside Google’s ecosystem.
Downside: Outputs often feel stiff or mechanical.

6. DeepSeek V3.1
The leanest and fastest of the bunch.

Best for: Engineers and technical workflows.
Low cost with serious power for coding tasks.
Downside: Lacks the creative spark for writing.

Every AI has its strengths and weaknesses.
But the real edge comes from knowing which one to pull for what.

Which model do you lean on most and for what kind of work?
Let's start a discussion in the comments!

♻️ Repost to help your network choose the right LLM 
And follow Josh S. for more !

Your LinkedIn profile is your best landing page.

But only if it has the right structure.

Shout out to Chris Donnelly for the visual that lays it all out.

Most founders treat their profile as a bio.
But it CAN be a mechanism for conversion.

Every time someone reads your content, they check who wrote it.
That click is your window.

And you have about 40-60 seconds to make them stay. 
Miss that window, and you have lost them.

I've optimised my profile around 3 goals:

📧 Subscribers to my newsletter.
👤 Sign-ups and applications to The Creator Accelerator.
📲 Inbound leads from founders who want to grow on LinkedIn.

The results:

📈 10M+ views across our last cohort cycle.
✅ 20,000+ leads generated in a single 60-day promo period.
📊 136 founders in our most recent sold-out cohort.

None of that happens without the profile doing its job first.

Here's the full breakdown of what to fix and how:

👤 Profile Picture
↳ Clear, high-quality, and on-brand.

Top tip: 400x400px works best.

🔲 Banner
↳ State your offer and tell people exactly where to go next.

Top tip: Treat it like a billboard. One clear message, one clear next step.

⛓️ Headline and Link
↳ What you do, who you help, and why they should trust you.

Top tip: Lead with the outcome you deliver; no one cares about your job title.

🖱️ Featured Section
↳ Your strongest lead magnet or offer. Visual, clear, and clickable.

Top tip: Only feature 1 or 2 things; too many options mean no one clicks anything.

✍️ Content
↳ Lead with value on every post and push people back to your profile.

Top tip: Every post needs a next step. No CTA means no conversion.

👴 Experience
↳ Include your key roles and a short description to build credibility.

Top tip: Write it for your ICP. Think about what would make them trust you?

☄️ Skills
↳ Pick the top 2 skills you want to be known for and prioritise those.

Top tip: Focus on what your ideal client would search for and match it.

✅ Call to Action
↳ No point fixing the profile if you aren't directing people somewhere.

Top tip: Pick one place to send people and say it everywhere.

Yes, it takes a few hours.
But a profile that converts pays you back for years.

If you want the full system for turning your profile into a lead generation engine...

Grab TCA's free Claude Profile Audit below.

It scores your profile out of 50, rewrites your headline, 
And gives you an action plan to turn visitors into leads.

PLUS, when you download it, you'll get an invite to our webinar today:
How to Generate Leads Using Powerful Lead Magnets.

We'll be breaking down the system for building lead mags that attract the right audience.

👉 https://lnkd.in/eM7AGnCW

What part of your profile needs the most work right now?
Drop it below.

💾 Save this so you have it when you're ready to fix it.
♻️ Repost to help a founder in your network who's leaving leads on the table.
And follow me, Josh S. Sanders, for more on turning your LinkedIn profile into a lead gen engine.

You're using Claude like a basic chatbot.

9 settings and features make it 10x better for content writing.

You've been trying to write at scale and post daily.
You wonder how others do it with no drama...

It's because they've learned to use Claude properly 👇

1️⃣ TURN ON MEMORY

- Claude remembers your voice, tone, and audience across sessions.
- No more re-explaining your ICP or writing style every time.
- Set it once. It works in the background from there.

Takes 60 seconds.

2️⃣ USE PROJECTS

- Keep your briefs, tone guides, and past posts in one workspace.
- Claude pulls from it every time you start a new chat.
- Think of it as your content operating system.

Start with one Project per brand.

3️⃣ UPLOAD YOUR TONE OF VOICE DOC

- Paste or upload your tone doc into a Project.
- Every output already sounds like you before edits.
- Cuts revision time in half.

Build a tone doc if you haven't already.

4️⃣ USE EXTENDED THINKING FOR STRATEGY WORK

- Better reasoning on positioning, messaging, and brief writing.
- Reduces weak outputs when the brief matters most.
- Worth switching on before strategy sessions.

Turn it on and see the difference.

5️⃣ BUILD A REUSABLE PROMPT LIBRARY

- Save your best prompts as reference files inside a Project.
- Stop rewriting the same brief structure from scratch.
- 10 strong prompts are a content system.

Start with the ones you use most.

6️⃣ GIVE DETAILED PROMPTS FOR IDEAS

- Give Claude a role, task, context, and a clear output structure.
- Level 1 prompting gives you generic content. Level 3 is usable.
- The quality of your prompt determines the quality of the idea.

Stop asking, "Give me 10 post ideas." Brief it properly.

7️⃣ ASK CLAUDE TO CRITIQUE BEFORE IT CREATES

- Ask it to flag weak hooks, framing, or gaps.
- Forces deeper thinking before you commit to a draft.
- One extra step that saves 3 rounds of editing.

Add "critique this brief first" before every generation prompt.

8️⃣ USE IT TO REPURPOSE CONTENT

- Feed in one post and ask for 3 format variations.
- Same idea, multiple distribution assets.
- More output without having to invest more time.

Try it with your best post this week.

9️⃣ SET UP A CONTENT REVIEW PROMPT

- A prompt that checks every post against your ICP, hook quality, and CTA.
- Works like a second editor who never misses anything.
- Catches weak posts before your audience does.

Save it inside your Project and run every post through it.

Most of these take under 60 seconds to set up.
The difference between AI-assisted posting and a proper system is this.

On Wednesday at 5:30 pm BST, we're breaking down how to use AI to grow your business.
In our webinar covering the AI systems used inside TCA to help founders do more with less.

AND we're giving away our biggest early bird discount ever 👀

Sign up now ! 👇
https://lnkd.in/eirXAAV2

♻️ Repost to help founders & writers in your network.
And follow me, Josh S., for more on using AI.

Nobody tells you the codes that make Claude go from decent to scary good.

Here are 10 you can steal right now to 10x your output:

These are way more than just basic prompts. 
They change the entire output.

All 10 of these live inside Claude Code, so if you're only using Claude in the browser, this is what you're missing 👇

/init
↳ Generates a CLAUDE.md file with your project, stack, and conventions.
↳ Run this first, always.

/memory
↳ Opens CLAUDE.md for editing mid-session.
↳ Best for updating context without restarting everything.

/agents
↳ Creates specialised sub-agents with their own context windows.
↳ Best for running content, research, and dev in parallel without them bleeding into each other.

/plan
↳ Proposes changes as a plan that won't run until you approve it.
↳ Best for staying in control of what Claude's doing.

/compact
↳ Summarises your conversation to free up space when Claude starts losing the thread on long sessions.

/rewind
↳ Roll back your code, conversation, or both independently if Claude goes down the wrong path.
↳ Best for when an aggressive change doesn't work out and you want your undo button.

/diff
↳ Shows a git diff of every change Claude made in the session.
↳ Best for reviewing exactly what changed before you commit to it.

/batch
↳ Runs repetitive changes across multiple files in parallel automatically.
↳ Best for large-scale updates you'd otherwise do one file at a time.

/cost
↳ Shows token consumption and dollar cost for the current session.
↳ Best for knowing exactly what a session is costing you before it surprises you.

/model
↳ Swap between Sonnet, Opus, and Haiku mid-session.
↳ Best for switching to a cheaper, faster model for simple tasks and saving the heavy-duty one for complex work.

Too many people will underestimate how powerful this is. 
Don't be that person.

Use these, and you'll notice the difference by your next session.

Which one are you trying first?
Drop it below.

💾 Save this before your next Claude session.
♻️ Repost to help a founder in your network get more out of Claude.
Follow me, Josh S., for more on building leverage with AI.

Claude just dropped a load of free AI resources.

Here are the 13 worth your time 👇

These official courses are solid for foundations.

Start here if you want to learn the basics of Claude:

1️⃣ Claude 101
↳ Everyday use cases and how to get started.
↳ https://lnkd.in/e3fTYjcv

2️⃣ AI Fluency: Frameworks and Foundations
↳ Core frameworks for working with AI effectively.
↳ https://lnkd.in/evuRURke

3️⃣ Introduction to Agent Skills
↳ How to build and use AI agents for real tasks.
↳ https://lnkd.in/eSCk7Xki

4️⃣ Building with the Claude API
↳ For founders who want to build with Claude directly.
↳ https://lnkd.in/eiwkpp6R

5️⃣ Claude Code in Action
↳ Claude for coding and technical workflows.
↳ https://lnkd.in/eqhBY5pm

6️⃣ Intro to Model Context Protocol
↳ Build MCP servers and clients from scratch.
↳ https://lnkd.in/emiE_Mkv

7️⃣ MCP: Advanced Topics
↳ Go deeper with MCP.
↳ https://lnkd.in/eq5mDTaM

8️⃣ AI Fluency for Students
↳ AI foundations for students.
↳ https://lnkd.in/ef-D_2p4

9️⃣ AI Fluency for Educators
↳ How to bring AI into your teaching.
↳ https://lnkd.in/eGVFsxJV

🔟 Teaching AI Fluency
↳ A guide for delivering AI education.
↳ https://lnkd.in/e4zPQkrk

1️⃣1️⃣ AI Fluency for Nonprofits
↳ AI fluency for the nonprofit sector.
↳ https://lnkd.in/eJd9ZYJW

1️⃣2️⃣ Claude with Amazon Bedrock
↳ Run Claude through AWS.
↳ https://lnkd.in/egq-tEze

1️⃣3️⃣ Claude with Google Cloud's Vertex AI
↳ Deploy Claude via Google Cloud.
↳ https://lnkd.in/ew5BRE3Z

This list teaches you how Claude works.

The above are great for getting up to speed.
But if you want to use Claude for LinkedIn and lead gen specifically, these are the ones worth downloading 👇

Claude OS — https://lnkd.in/eYnMuH43
↳ The AI workflow system we use to run content at scale.

Claude Lead Gen Prompts — https://lnkd.in/eibaHiDn
↳ Prompts built specifically for generating leads with AI.

Claude Profile Audit - https://lnkd.in/eM7AGnCW
↳ Headline, about section, featured links (all reviewed and rewritten for leads).

Everything above is free.

The Anthropic courses are great for getting started.
These 3 give you the system to use to grow on LinkedIn, generate inbound, and turn your profile into a lead machine.

Click the links above so you can start using them from today.

What's your favourite AI tool for lead gen?
Drop it below !

💾 Save this so you can come back to it.
♻ Repost to help a founder who has Claude but isn't using it properly yet.
And follow me, Josh S., for more on AI, LinkedIn personal branding, and lead gen.

Think you make good decisions?

You might be in the 90% who don’t...

Everyone thinks it's about being the smartest.
But it’s more about how you think.

There is no need for big words or over-complication.
It’s about breaking things down, in their simplest form.

And asking the right questions. Things like:

👉 What am I assuming here?
👉 What haven’t I considered?
👉 What would someone else see differently?

When you think like this:

You stop rushing.
You stop second-guessing.
You make clearer decisions.

Here’s a tool I use all the time:
The 6 Thinking Hats approach

🔴 Red: What does your gut say?
🟡 Yellow: What could go right?
🟢 Green: Any new ideas to try?
⚪ White: What are the facts?
⚫ Black: What could go wrong?
🔵 Blue: Are we thinking in a clear, structured way?

And if you're still stuck, try the other frameworks in this sheet. 
I'm personally a big fan of the 80/20 rule and the OODA loop.

Master this and life becomes far easier because...
Clearer thinking = better actions = better results.

How do you clear your mind to think 
Drop it in the comments ⬇️

♻️ Repost this to help others think more strategically 
And follow Josh S. for more !

When AI writes in your voice, the output is insane.

Here's how to significantly increase your results:

If you open Claude and type "write me a post about X",
You'll get something that reads like a (pretty boring) press release.
 
If your impulse is to accept it,
Then expect generic output that sounds like everybody else.

We've all seen it across LinkedIn. 
Content with no personality and flair

It's honestly draining to read lol.

Instead here's how to get AI to write exactly like you:

Step 1️⃣: Feed it your best work

→ Upload 20-30 of your top posts.
→ AI needs this data to know how you sound.

Step 2️⃣: Write a tone guide

→ List your banned words, formatting rules, and what you never want to see.
→ The more specific, the better the output.

Step 3️⃣: Define your ICP

→ AI needs to know who it's writing for.
→ If it doesn't, your output will sound like everyone else's.

Step 4️⃣: Use voice notes

→ Record yourself talking around a topic and drop the transcript in.
→ Spoken language is closer to your natural voice than anything from a brief.

Step 5️⃣: Iterate

→ Once you have a draft, give it your honest feedback.
→ Work with it the way you would with a junior writer.

Step 6️⃣: Always edit the output

→ AI gets you 80% of the way there.
→ Your perspective and judgement are what make it yours. Never publish the 1st draft.

To get incredible results, spend 30 minutes doing this once.

You'll produce 1 week of content in <1 hour that actually sounds like you.

And if you want the full system to write perfect content with Claude...

I built ClaudeOS to handle all of this in one place.
Inside this free resource, you'll get:
 
✅ A complete working system built specifically around Claude and how it thinks
✅ Drop-in prompts across every stage of your content and lead gen strategy
✅ Original frameworks, including the S-O-L-V-E method

Download and use it today: https://lnkd.in/eYnMuH43

Do you use Claude to write content? 
Drop your best tips below ! (let's create a value chain :D)

💾 Save this if you use AI for content.
♻️ Repost to help other founders get better outputs.
And follow me, Josh S., for more like this.

David Ogilvy wrote these 10 rules for writing in 1982.

They apply to LinkedIn now more than ever.

Ogilvy built one of the most successful ad agencies in the world.
Because he knew how to write in a way that made people act.

That's exactly what LinkedIn content needs to do.

Here are his 10 rules, with some slight adaptations
And what they mean for your posts today:

1️⃣ Read the Roman-Raphaelson book on writing.

- The book is Writing That Works, a classic guide on direct business writing.
- The same principle applies to LinkedIn. The more good writing you read, the faster you'll write well yourself.

2️⃣ Use short words, short sentences, and short paragraphs.

- Make your content easy to read, or it will get scrolled past.

3️⃣ Never use jargon.

- Ogilvy called it the hallmark of a pretentious a**.
- Make complex terms simple and easy to digest.

4️⃣ Never write more than you need to.

- Ogilvy's original rule was 2 pages max on any subject.
- On LinkedIn, say what you need to, as clearly as you can, then stop.

5️⃣ Read it aloud the next morning, then edit it.

- Never send or post something on the day you write it.
- If you stumble over a line, your reader will too.

6️⃣ If it's important, get someone else to read it first.

- The best posts have been read by another person before they go live.
- Fresh eyes catch what yours miss.

7️⃣ Make it crystal clear what you want the reader to do.

- Every post needs one outcome.
- This means your messaging needs to be so obvious.

8️⃣ If you want action, speak to people directly.

- Ogilvy said if you want someone to act, go and tell them face-to-face.
- The best posts make readers feel you wrote it for them.

9️⃣ Check your facts before you publish anything.

- One wrong stat destroys your credibility faster than a badly written post.
- Do your research before you post it.

🔟 Write the way you talk (naturally).

- The number one reason posts feel like AI wrote them 👇
- The founder wrote like they were sending a corporate email.

Ogilvy wrote these in a memo to his staff.

He wasn't thinking about LinkedIn.
But he addressed the same problem everyone on LinkedIn faces today.

How do you make someone read what you wrote, and then take action?
The answer hasn't changed in over 40 years.

How do you make sure your content stops the scroll?
Drop it below !

💾 Save this, it'll still be relevant in another 40 years.
♻ Repost to help a founder in your network write better.
Follow me, Josh S., for more practical breakdowns like this.

AI's replacing manual work that used to take a week.

But most are still running a 2025 stack on 2026 problems. 

The right stack saves time and gives you a competitive edge.

You'll find you've got better outputs, faster execution, 
And more leverage across every part of the business.

Here's what's actually changed between now and then:

The 2026 Founder AI Stack

✍️ Writing
↳ 2025: ChatGPT
↳ 2026: Claude

Better tone, longer context, and it sounds like you when set up properly.

⚙️ Content System
↳ 2025: Trello
↳ 2026: Notion

A system that helps you plan and create content.

📢 Outreach
↳ 2025: Copy-paste DM templates
↳ 2026: Claude with a Skills prompt

Personalised outreach at scale without sounding like everyone else in the inbox.

🧲 Lead Magnets (when you're creating from scratch)
↳ 2025: Canva
↳ 2026: Claude in Cowork

Brief it once, get a real file, and publish it the same day.

🧐 Research
↳ 2025: Google
↳ 2026: Perplexity

Cited answers built for decisions, instead of endless scrolling through links.

🎨 Design
↳ 2025: Canva
↳ 2026: Cowork plus Gamma

Describe what you need and get a draft. That way, you skip the blank canvas.

📰 Newsletter
↳ 2025: Writing from scratch every week
↳ 2026: Claude

Your newsletter in your tone, built in half the time.

🌐 Note Taking  
↳ 2025: Otter.ai
↳ 2026: Granola plus Claude in Chrome

Granola handles your meeting notes automatically.
Claude in Chrome handles your research.

You stop switching between tools and start doing the work.

📊 Analytics
↳ 2025: LinkedIn Analytics
↳ 2026: Claude in Excel

Drop your analytics into a spreadsheet. Ask Claude what's working and what to cut.

📹 Video and Repurposing
↳ 2025: CapCut
↳ 2026: Opus Clip plus Claude for captions and hooks

One long-form piece becomes ten pieces of content in an hour.

The tools are only half of it.

Those getting the most out of this stack are the ones who've connected it all into one system.

Which swap are you making first?
Drop it below.

Every week, I break down the systems and frameworks behind this stack in The TCA newsletter.

Subscribe here: https://lnkd.in/eu78xAs2

💾 Save this so you can come back to it.

♻ Repost to help a founder still running their business on a 2025 stack.
And follow me, Josh S., for more on AI, LinkedIn, and founder systems.

Here's a trap that gets almost everyone at some point:

Spending all your energy on things you can't change.

I used to do this constantly.

Worrying about what a client thought of a proposal before they'd even read it. 
Worrying about what a competitor was doing instead of what I was building.
Worrying about how a post would land before I'd hit publish.

None of that ever made anything better. 
It just made me 10x slower.

But I started to remember that what happens to me is just circumstance.
The majority of what happens next is entirely down to how I respond.

Once that actually clicks, a lot of stress just stops making sense.

❌ You can't control what someone thinks of your decision.
✅ You can control whether you stand behind it.

❌ You can't undo something that's already happened.
✅ You can control what you do with it next.

❌ You can't guarantee how a project turns out.
✅ You can control the effort you actually put in.

Business moves, plans change, people leave, markets shift. 
None of that is going anywhere.

But you can focus your energy on:

- The next decision
- The effort behind it
- What you actually stand for
- How you respond when it goes wrong
- How you talk to yourself when nobody's watching

That last one changes more than people give it credit for.

What are you going to stop stressing over starting today?
Tell me in the comments.

♻️ Repost for someone who needs the reminder.
And follow me, Josh S., for more.

Most people using Claude are leaving 90% of it untouched.

Because they never knew another layer existed.

Claude Code has over 80 built-in slash commands.

Most have never opened it.
And the ones who have are maybe using 5 of them !

This is the full reference. 
Organised into 6 categories so you know exactly what to use and when.

Here's the breakdown:

1️⃣ Start and Create

→ Open, set up, and configure a session from scratch.
→ Where every Claude Code workflow begins.

2️⃣ Manage Your Work

→ Plan, branch, set memory, and manage permissions.
→ The commands that keep complex projects from falling apart.

3️⃣ Review and Ship

→ PR reviews, diffs, security scans, and rollbacks. 
→ The layer most people skip entirely.

4️⃣ Automate and Run Agents

→ Batch changes, agent loops, and scheduled tasks. 
→ This is where Claude starts doing the real heavy lifting.

5️⃣ Get Insights

→ Session analysis, cost tracking, context usage, and diagnostics.
→ Know what's happening under the hood.

6️⃣ Shortcuts Worth Knowing

→ The commands that save time and keep sessions clean. 
→ Once you know them, you won't go back.

The graphic is your reference guide. 
Save it.

The sooner you use Claude Code to manage your workflow,
The faster you'll scale.

The commands were always there.
You just needed to know they existed.

For the full Claude operating system for founders and marketers,
and prompts across every stage of your content and lead gen strategy...

Download ClaudeOS today: https://lnkd.in/eYnMuH43

What's your favourite AI tool?
Drop it below !

💾 Save this for when you next open a session.
♻️ Repost to help others get more out of Claude.
And follow me, Josh S., for more AI breakdowns like this.

67% of retailers now use AI specifically for marketing and content.

Aerie banned AI from its marketing completely, the results are crazy:

If you open Instagram right now, all you see is the same 5 AI faces on every other ad.

After a while, none of it registers as a real brand; it just blurs into the feed.

Aerie looked at that and did the opposite.

Picture their old ad calendar, it was probably the same as everyone else's. 
Model shoots, retouching, the usual pipeline.

Then AI-generated people started showing up everywhere in the industry, faster and cheaper than any real shoot.

Aerie could see where that was heading.

Every brand reaching for the same tool, producing the same output. 
So they drew a line most brands wouldn't.

No AI bodies or faces, nothing generated where a real person used to be.

Their bet was simple.
In a feed full of identical AI faces, a real one would be the thing people actually stopped for.

As a result, their comps grew 23% in Q4.

While everyone else was optimising for speed, Aerie bet on the one thing AI still can't fake convincingly.

A real person.

So many brands think the choice is AI or no AI.
It's not.

The choice is knowing exactly where AI earns its place and where it doesn't.

Aerie didn't reject AI everywhere. 
They almost certainly use it across ops, analytics, and a dozen things customers never see.

What they rejected was AI replacing the one thing their entire brand was built on.

Real bodies, real people, real trust.

That's the part brands keep missing.

AI is genuinely awesome at clearing the boring stuff off your plate.
But it's not the thing your customer wants to feel from you.

Taste, trust, and the sense that a human made this decision, that's still entirely on you.

Where's AI earning its place in your business, and where are you letting it creep in somewhere it shouldn't?

💾 Save this to show your team.
♻️ Repost to help another founder think this through properly.
Follow me, Josh S., for more on building with AI without losing what makes you, you.

Followers are not leads.

Most founders learn this the hard way.

Thanks to Chris Donnelly for the inspo behind this idea.

You spend months growing on LinkedIn and wonder why nothing is converting.
Your follower count has tripled, but your CTR is dead.

Nothing you create sells.

Here's the 6-step system we use to fix that :)

1️⃣ DON'T SELL... SERVE

- Show up consistently and actually care about your audience's situation.
- Value the relationship over the transaction every time.
- The founders closing the most deals feel the least salesy.

People can smell a pitch. Help them instead.

2️⃣ SOCIAL SELLING AND DIRECT MESSAGES

- Find your ICP and get into their world genuinely.
- Leave comments that add something. No "great post!" nonsense.
- When you reach out, make it personal. Never pitch first.

Warm the room. Then knock on the door.

3️⃣ OPTIMISE YOUR LINKEDIN AND OFFER

- Your banner, headline, and featured section are selling before you even show up.
- Pain point to solution to offer to benefit. That's the flow.
- If someone lands on your profile and has no idea what you do, fix that first.

Sort your profile before you post anything.

4️⃣ LEAD MAGNETS

- Most founders skip this and then wonder why their audience isn't converting.
- The magnet gets the email. The email builds trust. Trust closes the deal.
- Free value first. Paid offer when they are ready.

The best lead magnets feel like a no-brainer to download.

5️⃣ SEGMENTATION AND PERSONALISATION

- Not everyone in your audience is in the same place. Stop talking like they are.
- Segment by challenge and where they are in their decision process.
- Match your content and outreach to where they are right now.

Wrong message, right person still converts nothing btw.

6️⃣ UNDERSTAND YOUR FUNNEL

- TOFU: Curious but not ready. Educate and pull them in.
- MOFU: Exploring options. Keep showing up until you're the only name they think of.
- BOFU: Ready to buy, so make it easy to say yes.

Most founders only create TOFU content and wonder why no one is buying lol.

Vanity metrics feel good, but revenue metrics tell the truth.

Followers are a byproduct of doing this well.

Leads are the outcome.

If you want to go deeper and get leads, download TCA's free Conversion Playbook.

Inside, you'll find the exact profile framework that turns visitors into leads, 
A step-by-step content strategy built around your funnel, 
And the CTA structure that gets people to take action.

You'll also gain access to a free webinar next week on Wednesday:
How to Sell on LinkedIn & Social Media.

So if you are growing your audience but not converting it, this one is for you 🫡

Grab it now: https://lnkd.in/eCtBCSY4

Which of these 6 is the biggest gap in your current setup?

Drop it below :)

💾 Save this to write content that converts.
♻️ Repost to help a founder who is stuck in the followers trap.
And follow me, Josh S., for more like this !

7 Wake up calls if you are lazy but ambitious.

Here's how to really get the needle moving:

Stop telling yourself you’re planning
Stop saying you’ll get to it "later" 
Stop hiding behind procrastination

Here’s your wake-up call

1. Overconsuption is the fastest path to underdeliver.
You inhale videos, books and threads. But none of it sticks
Apply one thing before you scroll again

2. You glamorise the grind
Hustle isn’t an aesthetic, it’s action
Do the thing in silence without posting about it

3. You’re not too busy... you’re just manual
You’re not short on time, you’re just working manually. 
Instead, let tools do the heavy lifting...

This is where I need to talk about OpusClip

Because as someone managing multiple different channels...
(And who sucks at video editing)

They have saved me SO much time (and stress lol).

Opus turns long-form into bite-sized clips in seconds.
Handling all of the captions, cuts and even publishing for you.

No more “I didn’t have time to post”
Just record, upload, tweak and ship.

4. You don’t hold your word to yourself 
Every flake chips away at your self-trust.
Make one promise today and actually keep it.

5. Your goals are too vague
You’re not unmotivated, you’re just directionless. 
Simply write 15 goals, circle 3 and ditch the rest.

6. You blame time instead of choices
“Too busy” is often a cover for poor time hygiene.
Track your hours and cut one time-sink today.

7. You wait for the “perfect time”
Later is mainly just fear in disguise.
Instead, start scrappy and get movinggg.

If this felt personal, good...
Because now it's time to take action.

Honour one promise today.
Start using tools like OpusClip to lighten your load.
And ship something messy.

Which one hit hardest?
Tell me in the comments

♻️ Repost this to wake someone else up 
And follow Josh S. for more like this

#OpusClipPartner

I have posted on LinkedIn almost every day for 3 years.

But this year broke most people’s strategy...

Cheers Chris Donnelly for your tips on this.

Everything shifted between 2024 and 2026:

2024: Virality ruled.
↳ One post could reach a million people and add thousands of followers overnight.

2025: Everything changed.
↳ Reach dropped, and niche authority started winning instead.

2026: Growth is slower. 
↳ But the quality of that growth is on another level.

As you can see, the algo's shifted so now...
One thousand people who buy from you always beat one million who scroll past you.

LinkedIn is still the best platform for founders to grow and monetise an audience.

But the playbook has changed again.

Here is how to master it in 2026:

⭐️ Know your north star

Why are you posting? Get specific.
Spend more time on leads and less on cold outreach.

🗣️ Know your ICP

Write down the one person you are posting for.
Their title, biggest frustration, and what they need to hear from you.

🕌 Lock in your content pillars

Pick 3 to 5 topics you genuinely own and can go deep on.
Every post for the next 90 days should sit inside one of them.

🛬 Turn your profile into a landing page

Your Headline, About section, and Featured links are either converting visitors or losing them.
Optimise each section with your ICP in mind.

🤝 Comment and build relationships

List 10 to 20 founders in your space and comment on their content (daily).
Genuine, specific comments build faster than any growth hack.

🗺️ Map your content funnel

Not every post should do the same job.
Some build awareness, some build trust, and some convert.

💡 Stay hot on ideation

Follow the best creators in your niche and study what they do.
Pull ideas from Instagram, X, and Pinterest and bring them to LinkedIn.

✏️ Write well and design well

Decent writing earns the read. 
A clean visual earns the first impression.

🔀 Track, test, and adjust

Post with intention and measure what performs.
Then, double down on what works.

This is the exact system we build inside The Creator Accelerator.
And lucky for you, TCA Cohort 7 applications are open now.

We have helped 750+ founders across 6 cohorts generate real leads and revenue through LinkedIn.

So there is no reason why you can't be next.

If you want 2026 to be the year your LinkedIn presence finally starts working for your business, 
Subscribe to the TCA Newsletter: https://lnkd.in/eu78xAs2

How are you going to grow your LinkedIn reach?
Drop it below ! 👇

💾 Save this as your 2026 LinkedIn playbook.
♻ Repost to help a founder in your network who is still using last year's strategy.
And follow me, Josh S., for more on building a LinkedIn presence that converts.

The simple yet quite profound truth:

No-body has it all figured out.

I've helped Chris Donnelly scale past 1 mil followers,
And thought some of the fastest growing creators on LinkesIn

But 3 years ago I was a marketing exec with 0 LinkedIn followers.
And 0 clue what personal branding even meant.

(My first boss told me to add people to hit the magic 500 connections 😂)

To be honest, when I started, I felt like a complete fraud every time I posted.

Here's what changed everything:

I figured out that no-body really knows whats going on. 
There is no immediate magic answer.

It's just learning small things over time. 
And being relentless with this process every day.

This changed everything for me. 
I stopped aiming for "perfect post"

And instead treated every day as an experiment.

Every successful person I've spoken to, goes through the exact same process:

Every milestone feels terrifying at first.
The imposter syndrome still hits daily.
The pressure never really goes away.

But neither does the growth.

And so really... 
When you stop comparing yourself to others,
Or When you stop thinking everyone else has cracked the code...

That's when real progress begins.

So instead, focus on:

- Showing up consistently. 
- Actively learning from your mistakes
- Be the first to adapt to new things.

The people who "make it" aren't special.
They just refuse to let the fear of looking stupid stop them.

So if you've been holding back because you don't feel ready...
Nobody does :)

Start messy. Start imperfect. But start today.

What's one thing you've been putting off because it doesn't feel "ready" yet?
Let me know below !

♻️ Repost this to spread the message 
And follow Josh S. for more !

Your AI stack is the reason your content looks like everyone else's.

Here's how to distinguish yourself with 1 sheet:

Shout out to my good friend Will McTighe for the visual here!

When you open Claude or ChatGPT and ask it to research, design, write and measure in one prompt.

You get a flat draft that took 3 hours to produce.

The model is doing its job. 
You've just asked it to do 5 other jobs at the same time.

Every tool in the AI stack got good at solving one specific job.

But when you layer the right ones together...

You've got a system that does more than any single model can on its own.

Here's the stack I use to run LinkedIn, broken down by the job each tool does:

1/ Business & Comms

The admin layer no one talks about. 
Get this right and everything above it moves twice as fast.

Zapier, Loom, Fireflies, Slack, Gusto and Wispr Flow are what keep my business ticking day to day.

2/ Research

One of the most important steps that so many people rush past. 
Do it properly here, and the writing gets way easier later.

Perplexity, Gemini, Saywhat and Claude Cowork are where I go to pressure-test ideas and find stronger angles.

3/ Design

Where the idea becomes something people want to save and screenshot.

Figma, Saywhat, Nano Banana, Opus Clip and Gamma all give you output you'd be happy to post.

4/ Writing

The drafting layer. 
This is where so many people lean on one tool and end up sounding like everyone else.

Notion, Claude, Saywhat and ChatGPT are what I rotate between to get a first draft in my voice.

5/ Systems

The layer that stops you from doing the same manual job 40 times a month.

Zapier, Claude Cowork and Perplexity are where I build the workflows that take hours off my week.

6/ Analytics

The feedback loop. 
If you skip this, you'll be straight back to guessing what's working.

SayWhat and Claude are what I use to work out what's actually driving reach.

No single tool sits in every layer, and that's the point.

The trick is knowing which tool to use for which job.

Build the stack once, and you stop guessing what to post next, because the system tells you.

That's the difference between treating AI for random tasks and treating it like leverage on top of skills you've already built.

Which layer will you upgrade first? 
Drop it below.

💾 Save this for the next time you sit down to plan your content stack.
♻️ Repost this to help your network build a better AI stack.
And follow me, Josh S. , for more breakdowns like this.

I hit 150,000 followers this weekend.

But here’s the actual reality of that:

Number of times I’ve wrote a post 5 mins before: 41
The Times I’ve said I'd try another platform: 33 
Time I've spent on the platform: 1000+ hours. 
Times I've felt like a massive imposter: 89 
People who started with me, who quit: 412
Times I've heard "LinkedIn is dead": 65 
Times I’ve said I’d give up: 389
Amount of days I’ve missed: 153

I wish I could tell you it's been fun and easy. 
It hasn't.

In fact, it's been a scrappy one. 
I've neglected my own brand a lot over the last year. 

But regardless, I am so glad I kept going.

Because no one can beat consistent effort over a long periof of time.

And off the back of it, I've worked with some dream brands. 
Made some awesome friends who have taught me so much. 
And most importantly drove revenue to the business.

Genuinely feels like we're just getting started again :D

My 3 main takeaways:

Always learn from others - don't think you know it all.
Don’t become complacent - Be aware of what is working. 
Experiment all the time - Data is king !

How many times have you heard "LinkedIn is dead?" 
Let me know below XD

94% of people post on LinkedIn without a strategy.

The top 1% of creators do something else...

They understand the strategy of the content funnel.

I've spent years building this exact funnel across my own audience
And inside The Creator Accelerator with 800+ founders.

From understanding exactly what job each post needs to do, we've generated 40,000+ leads using this same system.

Here's the 3-column system that you can steal today to 10X your output.

🔵 Top of funnel: Get seen
Job: Stop the scroll for people who've never heard of you.

Examples: 
↳ Broad cheat sheet: one topic, wide enough to travel outside your niche
↳ Reactive post: Borrow attention from whatever the feed's already talking about
↳ Educational post: Teach one thing someone can use in under 20 minutes
↳ Tools and resource post: Share a curated list of resources

⚪ Middle of funnel: Get remembered
Job: Turn a scroller into someone who knows your name.

Examples:
↳ Personal story: A moment and the lesson it taught you
↳ Niche cheat sheet: One topic, built specifically for your ICP
↳ Lead magnet post: Gate something useful behind a comment
↳ Short video: Face on camera, teach something, solve one problem

🔵 Bottom of funnel: Get paid
Job: Turn trust into a buyer.

Examples:
↳ Case study: Real before and after, with numbers and stats to back it up
↳ Objection post: Answer the reason they haven't bought, before they ask
↳ How-to video: Show the exact outcome your ICP is chasing
↳ Milestone post: A result with a lesson, earns you the right to pitch

3 things to remember when you're building this out:

✅ Every post needs a reason to exist.

If it's not moving someone closer to your funnel, it's just noise. (noise is AI)

✅ Your split depends on your goal.

Growing an audience = more top of funnel. 
Needing sales this month = more middle and bottom.

✅ Your ICP should learn at every stage.

If they wouldn't stop scrolling for it, it's not doing its job.

This is the exact framework we teach inside The Creator Accelerator by Chris Donnelly.
And it's the difference between an audience and a pipeline.

Which stage of your funnel is weakest right now?
Tell me below, and I'll help you fix it.

💾 Save this before you plan your next month of content.
♻️ Repost if your team needs to see this.
Follow me, Josh S., for more on building LinkedIn into a sales channel.

Don’t stay somewhere that drains your soul.

It’s the slowest road to a life of regret:

Whether that’s staying in:

- A role you dread
- A draining relationship
- A group that holds you back

It’s never worth the cost to your well-being.

But why do we cling to places that harm us?
The main reasons often include:

↳ Feeling like we’ve invested too much
↳ Fear of what happens next
↳ Loyalty taken too far

Here’s what to try if you feel stuck in the wrong space:

1. Reflect and write it down
↳ Give yourself time to see the full picture
↳ List the ups and downs with total clarity

2. Lean on others
↳ Share your thoughts with people you trust
↳ Try online communities to see a different perspective

3. Start improving yourself
↳ Pinpoint what could help you grow from here
↳ Learn, study, or upskill for your next chapter

4. Set your timeline to leave
↳ Break down each step and set dates
↳ Track progress and adjust as needed

5. Make your exit
↳ Take action and commit to your decision
↳ Have support around you as you transition

Know that leaving won’t be simple.
It might be the toughest step you take.

But life’s too short to be stuck in resentment.

When you’re in the right space, you become:

- More energised
- More at peace
- A version of you that thrives

And who doesn’t want that?

♻️ Repost this to help someone else find their right room
And follow Josh S. for more!

You think you're getting the most out of Claude.

These 8 daily habits say otherwise...

Claude's changed a lot since you first opened it. 
Cowork and skills didn't exist a year ago, and memory's come a hell of a long way since then too.

So, if you're only using it for one-off chats, you're missing a huge chunk of what it can actually do for you.

Here are 8 habits I'd drop straight away, and exactly what to do instead of each one 👇

1️⃣ You open a new chat for every task
↳ Instead, build a project for each part of your work. 
↳ Every file and instruction lives there permanently, so Claude already knows your context the second you open it.

2️⃣ You write every post or email from a blank page
↳ Give Claude your tone and banned phrases upfront, literally once.
↳ Then, every draft comes out sounding like you already.

3️⃣ You use Claude the same way for everything
↳ What you need to do is match the tool to the job. 
↳ Chat for quick thinking, cowork for a finished output, skills for anything you're doing weekly

4️⃣ You redo the same task from scratch every single time
↳ Instead, turn it into a skill after the second run. 
↳ It's saved for good, ready to run again in minutes.

5️⃣ You try to type the perfect prompt
↳ It's better to speak it because you naturally give more context speaking than typing.
↳ Wisprflow turns your voice into text automatically, so a 10-minute prompt takes you 1 min to say.

6️⃣ You brief every project the same way no matter the size
↳ Use cowork for anything with a finished deliverable.
↳ Chat for anything you want to think through with Claude first.

7️⃣ You treat Claude like it only remembers the current chat
↳ Projects are there so the context carries across every conversation in that workspace.
↳ Click new project, upload your files and instructions once, and every chat inside it starts already knowing your work.

8️⃣ You hand Claude a task and walk away
↳ You need to ask it the clarifying questions and give it a structured prompt before it starts. 
↳ That extra 5 seconds now saves you a rewrite later.

When you start using Claude this way, it turns from a chatbot you occasionally open into a system running alongside your work every day.

Pick one and fix it this week.

It's honestly the difference between getting real leverage from Claude and just chatting with it.

💾 Save this before you open your next chat.
♻️ Repost it for people still doing this the old way.
Follow me, Josh S., for more on getting the most out of Claude.

I've been posting on LinkedIn for over 2 years now.

Here are the 6 features I wish I knew sooner:

LinkedIn is a lead generation machine most founders never properly switch on.

The platform is sitting on 10 features that handle prospecting, 
inbound and reach for free.

So many people leave every single one untouched.

These are the ones the founders pulling inbound from LinkedIn rely on every week 👇

🔍 Prospecting and intent

Custom filtered feed URL
↳ Open LinkedIn on desktop, hit the search bar, press enter without typing anything.
↳ Filter by Posts, sort by Latest, tick "Posted by 1st connections", then bookmark the URL.
↳ This gives you a chronological, ad-free feed of your network only.

Search appearances and "who viewed your profile"
↳ Built-in intent signals showing who's already looking at you (full list needs Premium).
↳ The warmest possible outbound list, hiding in plain sight.

Plain English search
↳ You can now search LinkedIn in normal language.
↳ Type "founders in fintech posting about fundraising" and you'll get the right profiles.
↳ Describe your ICP in one sentence, pull 20 to 30 profiles a day to comment on. That's your new prospecting list.

📩 Inbound and lead capture

Automated away message as a lead magnet
↳ Open your messages, click the 3 dots in the top right, hit "Set away message".
↳ Drop a free resource link in the message so every inbound DM gets your lead magnet on autopilot.

📊 Analytics and growth

Follower vs out-of-network reach split
↳ New metric in your post analytics splits your reach into followers vs total strangers (out-of-network).
↳ A high out-of-network number means the algo ran with your post beyond your existing audience.
↳ This is the number to chase for growth.

📣 Content and reach

Profile-to-PDF and AI alignment check
↳ Click the Resource button at the top of your profile and hit "Save to PDF".
↳ Then upload it to Claude with the prompt: "Based on this LinkedIn profile, give me the 5 topics you'd expect this person to post about."
↳ If the topics don't match what you post, your reach is being capped by a positioning mismatch.

LinkedIn is already a full lead gen stack.

So why are you using about 10% of it?

Pick 3 of these and test them this week.

You'll get more out of LinkedIn in 7 days than most people do in a year.

Which of these are you already using?
Drop the number below.

💾 Save this for your next strategy session.
♻️ Repost to help another founder unlock more out of LinkedIn.
Follow me, Josh S.., for more on building a brand that converts.

Here’s how to 10x the results of your meetings.

In under 2 minutes:

Recently, I’ve been using Granola to speed up a lot of the admin around my meetings.
 
And honestly… the time it has saved me genuinely blows my mind.

Here are prompts you can use across 3 core meeting types 👇
(You can literally copy and paste these !)

📞 Client meetings

✅ Before the meeting:

"Pull every interaction from the last 30 days. 
Surface the open threads and the one concern they've raised twice."

✅ Action notes after the meeting:

"Extract every committed action. 
The format should follow: who, what, and deadline.
Skip anything that wasn't agreed."

✅ Next steps follow-up:

"Draft a short email summarising the three decisions, actions assigned, 
and the next call date."

👥 Team meetings:

✅ Full team meeting:

"Summarise in 3 sections:
What was decided, what's blocked, and what we agreed to revisit. 
Focus on the outcomes only."

✅ 1:1s:

"Pull the 3 things your team member flagged, 
and mark which actions sit with me vs them. 
Track recurring themes across the last 4 sessions I need to be aware of."

✅ Quarterly performance reviews:

"Compare 1:1 notes from the quarter against the goals from the last review. 
Surface real progress, where they're stuck, and what they've said about themselves."

🎯 Prospect meetings:

✅ Pre-call research:

"Pull everything we have on the prospect from past calls, emails, and notes. 
Summarise their stated problem, decision-maker, timeline, and any objection patterns. 
5 bullets max."

✅ Objections and concerns logged:

"Extract every objection, hesitation, or concern raised on the call. 
Follow this format: The objection, what was said, the response, and whether it landed."

✅ Follow-up that closes:

"Draft a short follow-up referencing the specific concern raised,
the value to send across, and one clear next step.
Please ensure it's direct, helpful, and under 100 words."

Without Granola, none of this would be possible. 
It's the system I literally rely on to be far more efficient with my meetings.

And if you’re new to Granola, you can get a free month !

Just sign up here: https://lnkd.in/ebTRE7e5

♻ Repost to help another founder build a solid meeting system.
Follow me, Josh S., for more on how founders are actually using AI.

#ad #granolathenotes

We've helped 750+ founders generate inbound from LinkedIn.

And I'm giving you the exact post types behind it for FREE 👇

Comment "BLUEPRINT", and I'll send you the full playbook.
(I wish someone had shown me this when I started on LinkedIn !)

There's a big difference between bad content and wrong content.

Here are the 5 post types that actually generate inbound:

⚠️ The Problem Post

→ Describe the exact pain your ICP is living right now.
→ Best for: Stopping the right person mid-scroll.
→ Why it works: Recognition drives action. 
→ Tip: Be specific ("Posting 3x a week for 6 months and still no inbound").

⚙️ The Framework Post

→ Break your process down into clear, numbered steps. 
→ Best for: Positioning yourself as someone with a proper system.
→ Why it works: Frameworks signal expertise. They also get saved and revisited.
→ Tip: Name your framework with a credibility-building title.

🔍 The Proof Post

→ Share a specific outcome (a client result, metric, or a before-and-after).
→ Best for: Moving someone from interested to convinced.
→ Why it works: Proof tells people you're worth hiring.
→ Tip: Use stats like "47 inbound leads in 30 days".

📢 The Contrarian Post

→ Challenge a piece of advice your audience has heard 100 times.
→ Best for: Attracting people who've outgrown basic advice and want more.
→ Why it works: Disagreement creates conversation, and conversations create DMs.
→ Tip: Share a hot take, and offer the better alternative.

🧲 The Lead Magnet Post

→ Offer something genuinely useful in exchange for a comment or a click.
→ Best for: Turning reach into a list of people you can follow up with.
→ Why it works: It filters for intent. Anyone who responds already cares.
→ Tip: Offer a resource that's packed with value for your ICP.

Most founders post content that performs.
They get impressions, likes, and the occasional repost.

But none of it connects to the next step.

These 5 types do :)

Comment: "BLUEPRINT" below, and I'll send you the Lead Generation Blueprint for free.

Inside, you'll have the exact playbook for how to build a lead gen system.

💾 Save this and check your last 10 posts against it.
♻️ Repost to help a founder posting without seeing results.
And follow Josh S. for more on LinkedIn, lead gen, and building a personal brand.

Most founders haven't unlocked 1/2 of what AI can do.

Because the features are buried where they never look.

The founders getting the most out of AI know what each platform does.

They treat each tool differently.
Because each one does something the others do not.

Here are 12 hidden features across ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini:

🔒 CHATGPT
1️⃣ Custom Instructions [HIDDEN]
This makes every response far more accurate and “you”.
↳ To change go into settings, personalisation, then custom instructions.

2️⃣ Tasks [HIDDEN]
This automates tasks that you shouldn't have to think about.
↳ Enter settings, then go into the task section.

3️⃣ Canvas [HIDDEN]
This lets you edit long documents in less than 1/2 the time.
↳ Open Canvas instead of the standard chat window.

4️⃣ Temporary Chat [HIDDEN]
This starts a conversation without it being stored.
↳ Click toggle at the top of the chat.

🔒 CLAUDE
5️⃣ Projects [HIDDEN]
This remembers your TOV and assists with writing.
↳ Upload your brand files and TOV. Create a Project in the left sidebar.

6️⃣ Extended Thinking [HIDDEN]
This reasons through your problem before answering.
↳ Toggle below the model selector before you prompt.

7️⃣ Memory [HIDDEN]
This one saves key context about you across every chat.
↳ Go to settings, then memory and integrations, and then memory.

8️⃣ Scheduled Tasks [HIDDEN]
This gives you a weekly content breakdown without you lifting a finger.
↳ Go to Claude Desktop, then customise, then tasks.

🔒 GEMINI
An important note: NotebookLM is now built into Gemini (as of April 2026). 
You don't need a separate app.

9️⃣ Deep Think [HIDDEN]
This forces the model to reason before answering. 
↳ Switch to Gemini Pro + Deep Think.

🔟 Scheduled Actions [HIDDEN]
This creates prompts that run overnight. 
↳ Go to settings, then scheduled actions.

1️⃣1️⃣ NotebookLM [HIDDEN]
This remembers your files, docs, and links across every session.
↳ Open Gemini, go to the left sidebar, and create a notebook.

1️⃣2️⃣ Gems [HIDDEN]
This builds a custom AI assistant with saved instructions.
↳ Go to the left sidebar and hit Gems.

You're probably already paying for these.
You just haven't found them yet.

You don't need to pick 1.
But you do need to know what each tool is built for.

The stack was always there. 
Now you know how to use it.

Which AI tool did you not know about?
Drop it below 👇

For the full system for getting more out of Claude specifically,
ClaudeOS has the frameworks, prompts, and setup guide to make it work for you.

Download it today 👉 https://lnkd.in/eYnMuH43

💾 Save this before your next AI session.
♻️ Repost to help a founder still leaving features on the table.
Follow Josh S. for more on AI workflows and founder marketing.

I'm giving away our best Claude marketing prompts.

Here are 40 examples for FREE 👇

Comment "PROMPTS", and I'll personally send it to you !

LinkedIn is drowning in AI-generated slop.
And you may be a part of the problem.

Here's why:

Vague inputs = vague outputs. 
It's as simple as that.

So if your prompts have no ICP, positioning, and no clear outcome... 
You're just creating cr*p content at scale.

To fix this, we built 150 Claude prompts.
(Specifically for founders who want leads from LinkedIn.)

Every single prompt maps to 1 outcome: 
The right people in your pipeline.

8 categories, 40 prompts. All free:

→ Profile optimisation
Get Claude to analyse your profile and fix what isn’t converting.

→ Personal brand positioning
Define exactly what you stand for and who you're for.

→ Content strategy
Build a content plan mapped to your ICP.

→ Post ideation and hooks
Generate writing that stops your ideal client mid-scroll.

→ Lead magnet creation
Create lead magnets that attract your ICP.

→ DM and outreach copy
Write outbound messages that start conversations.

→ Funnel and nurture sequencing
Map out the journey from 1st impression to booked call.

→ Audience targeting and ICP clarity
Get crystal clear on who you're talking to.

Each prompt is pre-briefed for lead generation.

Fill in your details and then start running it
And get output that ties back to your business.

This is part of a bigger pack: 150 Claude marketing prompts for founders.
Every category you need to turn LinkedIn into a lead generation machine.

All pre-briefed. All mapped to an outcome.

If you want all 150 prompts, comment "PROMPTS" below, 
and I'll send the full pack directly.

What do you find hardest about using Claude? 
Drop it below.

💾 Save this for the next time you open Claude.
♻️ Repost to a founder getting nothing useful out of AI right now.
Follow me, Josh S., for more Claude breakdowns built around lead generation.

LinkedIn is dead....

According to everyone on LinkedIn.

Every year, people will become motivated to post on here. 
Often they'll see momentum fast.

But then change happens...

A new format or algorithm change arrives
And often people aren't fast enough.

They will continue to use the same techniques as before. 
And their results and motivation will start to diminish.

But here's the brutal reality...

LinkedIn (like most social platforms) change ALL the time. 
To keep up you need to adapt fast and be very resilient.

So here's 6 tips for staying on top of the changes 
And how to adapt fast.

1. Kill the ego

- Understand that the algorithm doesn't care about you 
- The more sharable the content, the likely it is to perform

2. Always keep audience at the top of mind

- Your content should always serve your audience 
- Think about the psychology of how your content stops the scroll

3. Study the best people in your industry

- Great creators adapt fast. So follow those who adjust at speed 
- If someone changes up, check it out and break down why

4. Experiment all the time

- Do not continue to use the same format if it doesn't work 
- Treat each post like an experiment and test different variables

5. Accept things with a pinch of salt

- There is a lot of misinformation spread on here 
- What will work for others may not work for you

6. Play the long game

- Remember 0.1% growth compounds daily 
- Those who quit, never see the benefits

LinkedIn is not dead. 
It's dead for those who are unwilling to change.

What's 1 thing your working on changing in your content? 
Let me know below !

Ps Chris and I built a new epic resource for LinkedIn 
Check it out here: https://lnkd.in/eEbAgsaW

♻️ Repost this to encourage others to post on LinkedIn
And follow Josh S. for more

Most people are optimised for LinkedIn in 2024.

Here's the winning formula for 2025:

Let's be real, the platform isn’t broken.
And no, you don’t need to just post more XD

The brutal reality is... 
If your foundation’s weak, everything else falls flat.

If they are strong, you can build a brand that:

- Drives mass attention 
- Builds trust 
- Converts followers into customers

But here's what you need to have down:

1. Finding your foundational “why”
Your content won’t land if no one knows why you’re here.
Every piece of content should lead towards this why.

2. Focussing on a clear ICP
If you try to reach everyone, you’ll reach no one.
Define exactly who you speak to and use their language.

3. Optimised Profile
People check your profile before they follow or buy.
Treat it like a landing page, and optimise everything.

4. Strong Positioning
You should be known for something specific.
Pick 3–5 pillars and repeat until your name is tied to them.

5. Digestible Copy
Long blocks of text get skipped.
Use white space, short sentences and make it scroll-friendly.

6. Beautiful Branding
You don’t need a designer...but sloppy visuals kill trust.
Ensure you have clean formatting and consistent colours.

7. Consumer Psychology
You’re not selling products, you’re selling belief.
Use stories, proof and real emotions within your posts.

So before you try the latest LinkedIn "hack" 
Go back to the basics.

Because have these nailed and you'll build...

A large audience who trusts your opinion !

Which of these are you strongest at right now?
Drop it below 👇

♻️ Repost this to help others get the LinkedIn fundamentals down
And follow Josh S. for more!

There are 1000s of posts showing you how to use Claude.

Here's 1 cheat sheet to make it simple:

Most people input random prompts and get generic outputs.
There's no real system behind it.

I spent a long time figuring this out the hard way.
This is the version I wish someone had handed me on day 1.

The best place to start is knowing which model to use:

👉 OPUS 4.6: Deep work.
↳ Use for: Strategy, writing, planning, anything that needs proper reasoning.

👉 SONNET 4.6: Day-to-day tasks. 
↳ Use for: Drafting, brainstorming, quick turnarounds.

👉 HAIKU 4.5: High volume, low complexity. 
↳ Use for: High volume tasks where you need speed.

👉 EXTENDED THINKING: Complex decisions.
↳ Use for: Anything where you need Claude to reason through a problem before it responds. Slower, but the output is on another level.

The biggest mistake people make is using the wrong model for the wrong task.

Get the basics working first, then add layers when you hit friction.

Now here's the full system:

Step 1️⃣: Set Up Claude Properly
↳ Download the desktop app; that's where the full set of features lives.
↳ Learn the 3 modes before you do anything else.
↳ Chat for quick questions, Projects for recurring work, and Cowork for deep work.

Step 2️⃣: Organise Your Files and Give Claude the Context It Needs
↳ Build 1 folder with 4 subfolders: About Me, Projects, Templates, and Outputs.
↳ Write a context file covering who you are, what you do, and how you write.
↳ Upload it once to your Project, and Claude never needs re-briefing again.

Step 3️⃣: Build Your Prompt System
↳ Stop typing a new prompt every session.
↳ Build 1 master template and use it as your starting point.
↳ Same context, tone, and format. Better output every time you open Claude.

Step 4️⃣: Add Claude to Your Existing Stack
↳ Connect 1 tool you already use: Notion, Slack, or Google Docs.
↳ Claude stops living in a separate tab.

Step 5️⃣: Scale It and Put It on Autopilot
↳ Build a shared Project so your whole team benefits from the same setup.
↳ Schedule 1 recurring task. You wake up to finished work.

Here's what this looks like in practice:

👉 Upload your context file.
↳ Claude reads your tone, ICP, and content pillars in one go.

👉 Brief your content batch.
↳ Paste your prompt template and add the week's topics. Claude drafts 5 posts in your voice.

👉 Review and refine.
↳ Claude flags anything that needs adjusting. You edit 1 line.

👉 Posts go into your scheduler.
↳ Claude moves to the next task. You close the laptop.

2 hours of setup for weeks of better output.

That's all it takes to build a system most people never get to.

What features are your favourite in Claude? 
Share it below !

💾 Save this for when you open Claude on Monday.
♻️ Repost to help people stuck on random prompts.
Follow me, Josh S., for more on AI workflows and founder marketing.

I've worked with 750+ founders.

And I still see the same mistakes every week.

Shoutout to Nader Alnajjar for the breakdown.

If you're posting consistently on LinkedIn and still not seeing leads coming in...

You've got a structure problem.

The founders winning on here have one thing in common.
A system behind everything they post.

Here's what that looks like: 

1️⃣ Define your ICP (Ideal Client Profile)

Not just "founders." Which founders, at what stage, and at what point do they need what you offer.

Do this: Write one specific sentence that describes your ideal client.

2️⃣ Understand their pain points

The problems they've tried to fix three times and failed.

Do this: List the top 3 things your ICP is actively searching for answers to right now.

3️⃣ Create an irresistible offer

Write, "I help [your ICP] achieve [specific outcome] without [common frustration or barrier]."

Do this: Rewrite your offer in one sentence. Specific person, specific outcome.

4️⃣ Build an ecosystem that drives leads

You need content that attracts, a newsletter that nurtures, and a lead magnet that captures.

Do this: Work out which of those three you're missing and build it this month.

5️⃣ Remove risk with proof

Proof should live in your content and profile before anyone books anything.

Do this: Pick one client result and turn it into a post this week.

6️⃣ Make the next step easy

If "book a call" is the only option, you're losing warm leads who aren't ready yet.

Do this: Add a lower-commitment CTA to your next post. Something like "comment X for the guide" or "grab the free resource in my bio."

7️⃣ Ask for referrals

Your best leads come from happy clients, but most founders leave this completely to chance.

Do this: Find the moment in your delivery where a client is happiest. That's your referral trigger.

Structure beats randomness every single time.

The founders generating consistent inbound aren't luckier than you.

They're just more deliberate about it :)

If you want to dive into this some more, TCA's Sell By DM's is your playbook.

👉 https://lnkd.in/ehUfszUt

Inside you'll find the exact framework for turning your LinkedIn into a consistent lead gen engine.

✅ Covering how to set up your profile to convert.
✅ How to build a lead magnet your audience actually wants. 
✅ And the full funnel from content to paying client.

All for free !

Which of these 7 are you missing right now?
Drop it below, would love to see where most people are getting stuck!

💾 Save this for when you're building out your lead gen system.
♻️ Repost to help a founder in your network who's posting without a pipeline.
And follow me, Josh S., for more on writing content that sells !

The brutal truth no one wants to admit:

Ideas are easy. Execution isn’t.

The most successful people I know are good at one core thing:

Speed of execution.

Ideas come from everywhere, whether in the shower or on a walk.
But if we don't execute, they get left in our notes or worse, our heads.

The idea could be incredible... but nothing happens
Because you didn’t execute immediately.

And that’s where 99% of people will get stuck.

So here’s how to start moving fast on your ideas
(In 5 simple steps)

1. Strip it back
↳ Ask yourself: what’s the core problem you're solving?
↳ Turn it into the simplest version possible.

2. Timebox it
↳ Give yourself a very tight deadline.
↳ This brings clarity by reducing overthinking time.

3. Share it rough
↳ Get early feedback from people who’ll be honest.
↳ Don’t wait until it’s perfect, just get it out.

4. Track what clicks
↳ See what people are talking about the most.
↳ Notice what gets people curious, confused, or excited.

5. Keep moving
↳ Start scrappy and improve things with speed.
↳ Do not stall, use momentum and speed to build something awesome.

Here’s the good news... execution is becoming easier.
Especially if you work in content or marketing.

I’ve been keeping an eye on Aha lately.
They’ve been building something incredible for creator campaigns.

Instead of marketers juggling outreach, follow-ups, reporting...
They handle all of it, from start to outcome.

This includes things like:

- Matching creators
- Automatic invitations
- And even price negotiations

Which means you can execute faster,
And focus on the one thing humans do best:

Creative strategy.

Because when execution becomes reliable,
Brands can stop hesitating and start scaling.

Resulting in better results for the creator AND the brand :D

Which is why Aha is a trusted AI agent for influencer marketing !
Check them out here: https://aha.inc/

What idea have you been sitting on?
Drop it below and let's start bringing it to life.

#Aha #MillionDollarAITrustBet #Ahapartner

The best meeting of your week won't save a bad follow-up.

And by the time you notice, the deal's already gone cold.

So many people prep hard for the call, then wing everything after it.

That's exactly where and why deals/actions get lost.

I've been using Granola to pull the follow-up straight out of the call itself.
So nothing gets left on the table after I hang up.

For anyone who hasn't used it, Granola sits in the background of your calls and turns them into clean & structured notes.

Yes... that means no scrambling to remember what was said.

And because it's all captured properly, you can prompt it afterwards to pull out exactly what you need.

Here are prompts you can use, with the help of Granola, across 3 core meeting types 👇
(Save, copy and paste these... trust me, you'll thank yourself XD)

📞 Client Meetings

✅ The recap that keeps you accountable:

"Pull every commitment made on this call.
Format: Who, what, and deadline.
Skip anything that wasn't explicitly agreed."

✅ The priority check:

"Look at everything we covered on this call.
Tell me which point needs addressing first, and why it can't wait."

✅ The check before you send:

"Compare this call against the last one.
Flag anything we said we'd do that still hasn't moved."

👥 Team Meetings

✅ The 1:1 follow-up:

"Pull the 3 things they flagged.
Mark which actions sit with me and which sit with them.
Note any theme that's shown up across the last 4 sessions."

✅ The team recap:

"Summarise in 3 sections:
What was decided, what's blocked, what we're revisiting.
Draft this as the message I'll send the team straight after."

✅ The quarterly close-out:

"Compare this quarter's 1:1 notes against the goals set last review.
Show where they've moved and where they're still stuck."

🎯 Prospect Meetings

✅ The objection log:

"Pull every objection or hesitation raised on the call.
Format: The objection, what was said, how I responded, whether it worked."

✅ The decision-maker check:

"Pull out who else was mentioned as being involved in this decision.
Tell me who I still haven't spoken to directly."

✅ The gap check:

"Compare this call to our last touchpoint.
Tell me what's changed in their situation and what hasn't."

Without Granola, none of this gets written up properly.
And the follow-up either doesn't happen, or it goes out super generic.

To do you one EVEN better, Granola now has a built-in follow-up feature !
So it legit captures the call and helps you close the loop on it.

Which is exactly why it's become my go-to for transcripts AND next steps.

New to Granola?
Don't worry my friend, if you hit the link below, you can get a free month.

Sign up here: https://lnkd.in/ebTRE7e5

♻ Repost to help another founder stop losing deals in the follow-up.
Follow me, Josh S., for more on how founders are using AI.

#granolathenotes #granolapartner

Nobody backseat drives their accountant.
Nobody rewrites their lawyer's contract before signing it.
Nobody opens the developer's code and starts changing things.

But marketing? Every person in the room has an opinion.

Here's why 👇

Shout out to Tom Pestridge for the idea here.

You've been marketed to since you were a kid.
1000s of ads, 1000s of campaigns, decades of exposure.

So it feels like you know how this works.

But really... you don't. 
You know how to consume it.

That's a completely different skill to knowing how to build it.
And that gap is exactly why so many marketing hires get overruled on day 1.

You'll recognise the moment and someone in the meeting says:

→ "Can we make the logo bigger."
→ "Maybe we play it safer here."
→ "Can we squeeze one more thing in."
→ "I'm just not feeling this colour."
→ "I saw something like this fail once."

At the time, none of these sound dramatic.
That's the problem.

One tweak here, one downgrade there, and the strategy that was supposed to convert has been rewritten by committee.

Meanwhile the person who actually gets blamed if this underperforms isn't the person who gave the feedback.

Think about why you hired a marketer in the first place.
It was never to execute someone else's opinion.

You hired them for the thinking behind the campaign.

Every time you override that thinking, you're paying full price for a skill you've decided not to use.

So pick one.

Trust the person you hired to do the job.
Or don't hire anyone and run it yourself.

Seen this play out on your team?
Let me know in the comments.

♻️ Repost if this is too familiar.
And follow me, Josh S., for more on building marketing systems that convert.

I built an 8-figure cohort business without ever getting on a 1:1 call.

Here's the roadmap and the tool doing half the work I used to 👇

1:1 coaching caps out the second you run out of hours in the day, but cohorts don't.

That's why Chris Donnelly and I decided to build one.

Since we started, we've taught 750+ founders through cohorts and generated over 20,000 leads doing it.

(Without trading my time for every single one of them.)

We built the entire system on Circle.

And with their recent launch of Circle AI, it literally changes the game for entrepreneurs short on time and long on ideas.

For anyone who hasn't come across it, Circle AI doesn't just tell you what to do; it actually builds it:

Spaces, access, pricing strategy, the lot... that's what let us run TCA lean.

Here's the exact roadmap we used to build TCA:

1️⃣ Nail the idea

Pick one audience, one pain point, one offer.
Get this wrong, and everything downstream will instantly get harder.

👉 Circle AI's seen the setup behind 20,000+ communities, so ask it before you guess what converts.

2️⃣ Design the leanest version

Forget building the perfect thing first; get something decent live that people can join ASAP.

👉 Circle AI can build your whole community structure, spaces, and access levels from one conversation.

What used to be an entire weekend job can be done in literally one convo.

3️⃣ Pre-sell before you build it fully

Get paid before the product's finished.
That way you find out fast whether people will pay and stay.

👉 Circle AI drafts the sales page copy in your voice, so you're pre-selling instantly.

4️⃣ Deliver and listen

Adapt constantly based on what members say; that's how you scale without losing the feel that got them to join in the first place.

👉 Circle AI can moderate and handle the admin, so you're free to focus on the community itself.

5️⃣ Launch with urgency

The bulk of sales show up in the final 2 weeks, every time.
All you need to do is build a waitlist.

👉 Circle AI help you plan the engagement push around it.

6️⃣ Build the community that keeps them

Selling out fills that cohort once. 
What you build after is where your testimonials, referrals and next cohort come from.

👉 It can set up points, badges, and leaderboards so retention isn't riding on you alone.

None of this is instant.
Building a cohort business still takes work, and plenty of it.

But doing it with a tool that already knows your members, voice, and content from day 1 changes how much of that work falls on you.

Paid partnership with Circle, but this is genuinely how TCA runs.

Up until now, Circle AI has only been available for a small few. But it’s now live for everyone.

If you're building anything community-shaped, get in now. 
Use my link to get a FREE trial + 1200 AI credits.

📍 https://lnkd.in/gD3Rx75e

#CirclePartner Circle

You've followed every "proven" marketing playbook.

Here are 10 rules nobody's teaching:

I've spent years of testing, launching, and selling on LinkedIn.

These are the 10 rules I'd hand anyone starting today👇

1️⃣ The One Offer Rule

- Confusion kills deals faster than a bad product.
- Pick 1 offer, position it clearly, and make it impossible to misunderstand.
👉 "I help founders turn LinkedIn into an inbound lead engine" is better than "I help with content, strategy, and growth".
 
2️⃣ The Pipeline-First Principle

- Attention without a place to go is wasted reach.
- Before you post, know where you're sending people.
👉 Every post I publish points to one of 3 things: TCA, the newsletter, or a follow and repost line.

3️⃣ The Consistency Tax

- Pay in discipline now, or in lost growth later.
👉 The founders who disappear for 3 weeks then post daily for 4 always plateau by month 2.

4️⃣ The Audience of One

- The more specific your message is for your ICP, the harder it hits.
- Write for 1 person with 1 specific problem. 
👉 "B2B SaaS founders doing £500k who can't get inbound" pulls more than "founders who want to grow".

5️⃣ The Vanity Trap

- 500 likes and no inbound means nothing. 
- If your content isn't driving DMs or calls, you're running a content page instead of a lead engine.
👉 One of my posts did 80 likes and 3 high ticket sales, another did 4,000 likes and 0.

6️⃣ The Authority Gap

- People buy from the person they see most.
👉 If a founder thinks "personal brand" and your name doesn't surface in 3 seconds, someone less qualified took your spot.

7️⃣ The Content-to-Conversion Bridge

- Every piece of content needs somewhere to go.
- Add a CTA to every post (a lead magnet, newsletter, or booking link).
👉 Ending a post with "comment BRAND and I'll send you the playbook" turns readers into a list you own.

8️⃣ The Inbound Advantage

- The best leads come to you.
👉 Position yourself clearly, post consistently, and let your content do the talking.

9️⃣ The Personal Brand Tax

- Your profile is your landing page, so treat it like one.
- Optimise your headline, banner, and about section to speak directly to your ICP.
👉 Headline = who you help + what you help them do. Banner = social proof or offer. About = the problem, your solution, the next step.

🔟 The Obsession Edge

- The people who win are the most obsessed with understanding what works.
- Study your analytics, test your hooks, and review what converts. Then build on it.
👉 I've got a Notion doc with every hook that's done over 100k views, sorted by format.

Once you build these 10 rules into how you market...

Your inbound will start to look very different.

Which of these marketing lessons have you learned the hard way?

💾 Save this and come back to it.
♻️ Repost to help another founder in your network.
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9 Free University Courses From 3 Elite Universities.

To help you land higher-paying roles:

Gain knowledge from some of the best institutions in the world:

👑 Harvard 
👑 Yale
👑 MIT

Your future success starts with what you learn today.
Invest in yourself and build the skills employers value most.

Explore these 9 free courses,
Covering key areas like:

- Personal growth and happiness
- Public speaking and communication
- Leadership and career development

Take control of your career progression.
Start learning today with these top courses:

1. Persuasive Writing and Public Speaking
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2. Leadership: Creating Public Value
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3. Negotiating Salary
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4. The Science of Well-Being
https://lnkd.in/e_2ZWMc6

5. Managing Emotions in Times of Stress
https://lnkd.in/eTRxw3R9

6. Financial Markets
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7. Building and Leading Effective Teams
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8. Introduction to CS and Programming Using Python
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9. Managing Innovation and Entrepreneurship
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The highest achievers never stop learning.
Your next opportunity starts with the skills you develop today.

Which course stands out to you? 
Let me know below!

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Here's a rule most people get backwards:

Your career grows faster when you stop making it about you.

Yep, I know, it sounds odd.

Because surely you're better off putting your energy into your own progress?

Well... to be honest... no.

When you give something to the people around you, it comes back around.
Especially the ones a step ahead of you.

I know this because I've tested it myself.

→ Posting the stuff that's working for me instead of locking it behind a paid course.
→ Helping people I know with 0 expectation of getting anything back.
→ Showing up for the people I work with, even when I don't have to.

The payoff has been far bigger than the effort put in.
The first one, especially.

I think the main problem for people when it comes to this is that they think it needs to be some crazy grand gesture.

But it doesn't.

It can literally be the smallest thing that ends up mattering most:

✅ Connecting 2 people who should know each other with no strings attached.
✅ Commenting when someone's post deserves more eyes on it.
✅ Giving away what you know instead of sitting on it.

Do this consistently, and the results stack in ways you won't see coming at first.

We noticed the exact same thing building TCA.

The founders who grew quickest were consistently the most generous with what they knew.

It got to the point where sharing was the whole culture of the programme. 
Which is exactly what we set out to build.

But this mindset works just as well outside a cohort.

It's something that should be part of your everyday life.

So let's start this right now:

Give someone credit in the comments.
Tag them and tell them why.

💾 Save this to keep reminding yourself of it.
♻️ Repost this for someone who needs the reminder.
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3 years ago, I was waiting for a shot that wasn't coming.

Then someone saw something in me that nobody else did.

I'll never forget the moment Chris Donnelly took a chance on me.
Even though on paper, I was the least experienced.

At the time, I was applying for a job that could fundamentally change my life. 
And I was the least experienced candidate for the role.

But Chris decided to take me on anyway. 

And in the months that followed, 
We scaled his audience from 180k to 750k.

What I've realised since is this...
The only thing that opens those doors is the work you do before anyone's watching.

Here's what that looks like in practice:

1️⃣ Obsession over the craft 🔥

The kind of obsession where you know every hook structure and post format.
We were on LinkedIn for hours daily, studying every post that overperformed.

2️⃣ Pattern recognition before the tools existed 🧠

This was pre any specific ideation tools like SayWhat.
We were tracking any and every pattern in a spreadsheet before there was a tool to do it for us.

3️⃣ Showing up before you're ready 🚪

Before I had the interview, I was sharing loads of ideas with Chris.
This was the way I could stand out from others.

4️⃣ Relentless reverse engineering 🔄

We pulled apart every high-performing post, and asked why it landed.
Then we rebuilt it around Chris's insights.

5️⃣ The ability to stay in the room 🪑

Both physically and mentally. 
When things move fast and pressure builds, keep your head down and execute.

I had no right to get the job and then build that business 
But ruthless obsession and persistence opened a door for me.

The people who break through don't wait for the conditions to be perfect.

They start before they feel ready, and let the work make them ready.

When was the last time you took a leap of faith?
Drop it in the comments.

💾 Save this if it resonated.
♻️ Repost for a founder in your network who needs to hear this.
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I’ve written 1000s of LinkedIn posts in the last 2 years.

Each post has its own objective. Let me explain:

The key to building a large profitable personal brand 
That brings leverage to everything you do:

Creating content across the funnel.

- Top of funnel - High growth content
- Middle of funnel - High trust-building content
- Bottom of funnel - High conversion-based content.

Here are 15 formats of content 
To grow and monetise your personal brand on LinkedIn:

Growth:

- In-depth broad topic carousel
- Broad topic cheat sheet
- Resources/tools post
- Reactive trend post
- Viral billboard
- Viral video

Trust building:

- Lead magnets
- Personal stories
- Your personal tools/systems
- Reactive content with your expertise

Conversion:

- Testimonials
- Case studies
- Milestone posts
- Niche “how to” video
- Sharing your processes

This will allow you to build an audience that is:

↳ Large 
↳ Engaged in you 
↳ Future customers

Your content strategy should directly reflect your goals.

Want more customers quickly? 
Focus hard on MOF/BOF content.

Want to reach more people?
Focus on TOF content.

Which part of your matrix is your favourite? 
Let me know below !

♻️ Repost this to help others in your network win LinkedIn 
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7 Crucial Productivity Mistakes

And How to Avoid Them.

Ever felt like you're always busy but never getting ahead?

Sometimes, it's less about how much you work.
And more about working smart instead of hard.

Those who fall into these habits
Will often feel like:

- They're always busy
- They're consistently overwhelmed
- Results seem far and few between

Break this cycle today.
Be aware of the mistakes… and how to avoid them:

1. Thinking “Busy” is Productive
↳ Just because your calendar is full doesn’t mean you’re productive.
↳ Focus on the 20% driving 80% of your results. Double down on that.

2. Neglecting Your Health to Get Work Done
↳ Sacrificing health for work reduces efficiency.
↳ Make health non-negotiable. Move daily and eat nutritious foods.

3. Avoiding Breaks to “Power Through”
↳ Powering through without breaks slows your brain down.
↳ Take regular short breaks. 5 minutes can make a big difference.

4. Trying to Multi-Task
↳ Multitasking scatters focus and overloads the brain.
↳ Focus on one task at a time for better results.

5. Trying to Achieve Perfection
↳ Perfectionism can be paralysing and stop progress.
↳ Focus on progress over perfection. Start and iterate fast.

6. Failing to Prioritise Tasks
↳ An overloaded to-do list causes important tasks to be missed.
↳ Use the Eisenhower Matrix to prioritise urgent and important tasks.

7. Having Unclear Goals
↳ Unclear goals lead to a lack of focus and drive.
↳ Ensure your goals are clear, purposeful, and urgent.

The key here:

Recognising these productivity mistakes for yourself.
As no one will fix them for you.

Remember…

Smart work will always beat hard work.

What’s your top productivity tip?

♻️ Repost to help others work smarter
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The top 1% have an unfair advantage on LinkedIn...

They think in systems. Here's how you can do the same:

Most founders overthink posting on LinkedIn.
They stare at their laptop for hours and come up with... nothing.

And the reason is pretty simple: 
You'll stay stuck like this without a good content system.

When founders stop posting, it's normally down to a lack of good structure.

Those generating consistent leads are thinking way less about what to post.

Instead, they're using a 3-layer framework that makes LinkedIn work for them 👇

1️⃣ Content Pillars (3-4 max)

Know which topics you own, and the areas you can talk about for hours.

Find yours by asking yourself:

- What do clients always ask you?
- What could you teach a full day workshop on without preparing?

E.g. Lead generation, personal branding, AI workflows, founder marketing.

Those are your pillars. Pick 3-4 and stick to them :)

2️⃣ Content Types (5 formats)

There are 5 types of LinkedIn posts you can write.

- Educational cheat sheet: a clear, structured breakdown your audience can save 
- In-depth carousel: a longer, in-depth format that walks through a topic 
- Comparison style cheat sheet: a side-by-side format that breaks down a contrast 
- Visualised infographic: a single graphic that makes complex ideas simple
- Stories and lessons: personal wins or failures that show your thinking

3-4 pillars x 5 types = 15-20 content directions at any given time.

The blank page becomes a menu.

3️⃣ Batching Calendar

You only need 3 focused blocks per week.

- Research day: find pre-validated ideas inside your content area. Look at what's already working, then build on it.
- Batch design day: produce your cheat sheets and visuals in one session. Design first, so your writing has direction.
- Writing day: write captions based on the designs you've already built. The hard thinking is done.

Engagement is a daily habit you build alongside everything else.

The whole workflow lives in a Notion calendar so everything stays on track.

Without pillars, your audience never knows what to follow you for.
Forget content types, and every post starts from scratch.

And no calendar means posting only happens when inspiration strikes (which means it often doesn't lol).

Consistency beats creativity, every time.

Because you'll have a bank of ideas ready for when you're running on empty.

Which of the 3 layers is missing from your approach?
Drop it in the comments :D

For more insights on building a personal brand system that works for you, the TCA newsletter is your playbook.

Subscribe here 👉 https://lnkd.in/eu78xAs2

♻️ Save this and repost to help a founder stop starting from zero.
And follow me, Josh S., for more on building a personal brand minus the writer's block :)

Everyone and their dog is talking about how to win sales on LinkedIn.

Our FREE masterclass today teaches you how to actually do it (across multiple industries !).

Find out more here: https://lnkd.in/eSnPZYYm

So many founders on LinkedIn have built the hard part already: 
An audience that knows who they are and likes what they post.

Then you ask what happens after someone reads that post and likes it... and they like at you like :S

And that's when they do 1 of 2 things:

They post and hope, which gets them the one-off response and nothing consistent.
Or they open the DMs and start pitching cold, which gets ignored, making them not want to do it again.

What sits between those 2 is a system, and it's a hell of a lot simpler than people think:

👉 An offer built to do most of the selling before anyone speaks to you.
👉 An inbound engine that pulls the right people towards you while you're offline.
👉 An outbound engine that finds the exact buyers you want, without any of it reading like spam.

You may read that list and think, yeah yeah sure.

But that's exactly why Chris Donnelly and I are breaking it down live TODAY at 5.30 pm BST.

We'll be covering the entire 8-figure LinkedIn sales system: 
The offer, funnels, inbound, and outbound, live.

All for FREE.

By the end, you'll walk away with a working sales system that takes you from 0 chats -> consistent inbound.

If you're a founder who's posting consistently and still can't point to a single lead from it...

We both know what you need to do rn 👀

Seats are limited, so grab yours before it fills up.

📍 Save your seat: https://lnkd.in/eSnPZYYm

💾 Save this so you don't lose the link.
♻️ Repost for someone who's got the audience and needs the system.
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If you wanna become the go-to expert in your niche.

You need 1 thing only...

This Document:

Or as I call it, the LinkedIn Positioning Document.
🔗 https://lnkd.in/gYwAmN-x

Every founder has something that makes them different. 
All you need is the right positioning to make sure the world actually sees it.

And once you've got it locked in, everything else gets easier.

Content, DMs, even sales calls.
They all start from a place of "I already know exactly what this person does."

All you need to do is follow the document and build your version of it, step by step:

1️⃣ Diagnose the gap

👉 Audience gap: People aren't sure who you serve.
↳ The fix: Swap "founders" or "business owners" for the specific role you help.

👉 Outcome gap: They don't know the specific result you deliver.
↳ The fix: Pick one result and repeat it everywhere.

👉 Method gap: They can't tell why you're different from the 10 other people saying the same thing.
↳ The fix: Add the one thing only you do, e.g., a framework you built for your specific ICP.

2️⃣ Build your one-line positioning statement

I help [audience] achieve [outcome] through [approach].

Example: "I help founders turn attention into inbound leads through content systems."

Make it specific enough that your ICP reads it and thinks that's exactly them.

3️⃣ Say it the same way, every time

Instead of "I help people with LinkedIn," try "I help founders build a lead generation engine on LinkedIn, without relying on cold outreach or paid ads."

Repeat it consistently until it becomes impossible to be misunderstood.

4️⃣ Back it with proof

This is where experience, expertise, and evidence come in.

Chris Donnelly and I grew his LinkedIn from 180k to 750,000 followers in 6 months.

Purely from studying what worked and doubling down on it.

5️⃣ Know when it's working

If people stop asking what you do and start asking how to work with you instead, the positioning is doing its job.

If they're still confused after a month of consistent messaging.
Go back and rebuild the statement before you touch the content again.

6️⃣ Test it before you trust it

Send your one-liner to 3 people who don't know your business.
If they can repeat back what you do without reading it twice, you're done.

9 times out of 10, weak positioning is usually why good content doesn't convert.

Get the sentence right, and every post from here on out does all the work for you.

If you want the exact system behind this, you're in luck !

The 2026 LinkedIn Bible has it all.

This doc PLUS the full positioning framework, the ICP breakdown I use with every founder inside TCA, the content pillars that turn this into daily posts, and the 90-day plan to put it all into motion.

It's literally yours for the taking XD
👉 https://lnkd.in/gYwAmN-x

♻️ Repost for people who need better positioning.
And follow me, Josh S., for more on building a LinkedIn presence that converts.