Diego Borgo ᵍᵐ

Everyone talks about bringing crypto to the mainstream. I'm actually doing it.


With 20+ years in branding and 8+ years in blockchain, I help crypto founders translate complex products into narratives that mainstream audiences understand.


I've advised:

- adidas on their first NFT collection (€24M in minutes, setting the benchmark for how global brands enter Web3)

- Fortune 500s including Prada, Salesforce, Unilever, L'Oréal, and Mastercard on navigating blockchain and emerging tech

- Leading Web3 projects like Pyth Network, Aptos, Cookie3, and Nomina to attract mainstream partners, institutions, and users

Today, I help crypto founders translate their products for mainstream audiences, so they can actually scale beyond the echo chamber.


Here's how I help:

- Clarify your brand narrative so it connects with mainstream audiences and drives adoption

- Define a unique market position that wins recognition, relevance, and long-term growth

- Design go-to-market strategies that accelerate traction and scale effectively

- Coach you and your team to become trusted, influential voices in your industry


My content has reached 50M+ people on LinkedIn. I speak at Web Summit, Paris Blockchain Week, and other global stages.

If you're building in crypto and want to go mainstream, let's talk ❤️‍🔥

Top Voice for Web3 & Immersive Web

Elected LinkedIn Top Voice for Web3 and Immersive Web in 2024 for contribution to the community, content and understanding of Web3 and Immersive Web.

Diego Borgo

In 2018, when adidas first approached me for a potential freelancing project, my heart rate skyrocketed. 


ME? WORKING WITH ADIDAS? WTF?


At the time, I had already been living in Germany for three years and had been REALLY struggling to make friends, find a job I liked, and, most importantly, feel happy.

Being an immigrant in a new country meant starting from scratch, and it was a wild ride, both culturally and mentally. Everything I had previously taken for granted, such as friends, security, stability, and comfort zone, was suddenly gone.

Despite having spent three years trying to figure it all out, I was still stuck. 

But when I started working with adidas, my life changed completely. I finally made new friends, found a new path for myself, and, most importantly, was happy again.

I devoted almost four years of my life to the company, its culture, and the people who make "adidas be adidas".

So, leaving in December 21, after the insanely successful launch of NFT collection "Into the Metaverse," was one of the hardest decisions of my life. 

Why?

1. As a freelancer, adidas was my primary source of income
2. My son was just six months old
3. I had just bought a house in Portugal and didn't know how I would pay for it


But I knew I had to be done.


I knew it, because If I really wanted to push myself to unlock my full potential, I had to burn the rescue boats and cross the rough ocean on my own, even if I didn't know how to swim or how far the shore was.


Why am I sharing this with you? 


With Linkedin becoming such an AI slop machine I believe the only way to keep this platform alive is to show you REAL insights on how things REALLY go down in the REAL world.

I'm here to share publicly the stuff I've been through, because I know that MANY of you are also going trough some sh*t right now and trying to figure the way out.

I understand the feeling of looniness, darkness and hopelessness, but I'm here to tell you: 


You got this.


Even though you may not be able to see the shore and it feels your arms are about to fall off from the endless swimming, you gotta keep going, because the next island you are about to reach, is absolutely worth the effort!


Looking back to 2022 when I was featured on an adidas's campaign is still insane for me to grasp. 

I'm extremely humbled to have gone from "me working with adidas, WTF? " to being on their website and app for the whole world to see.

The world keeps spinning.

LFGrow ❤️‍🔥 
#RightClickSaveAs

Web3 Executive Advisor | Branding & Marketing | Helping Tech Founders Go Mainstream | Global Speaker

When I was 14 years old, if you had told me that one day people would find value in what I have to say to the point that they would want to be mentored by me, I would have laughed in your face and walked off.

I came from absolutely nothing. I moved houses more than 30 times in 35 years, especially when I was a kid.

I got bullied at school for always being "the outsider new guy with a funny accent."

Teachers were extremely harsh on me because they couldn't get my attention, and I never had good grades.

I never felt like I fit anywhere.

My first job was at the age of 16. (not because I needed, but because I wanted.) 
I didn't speak English until I was 24.
I didn't come from money.
I never had a mentor.
I left my country when I was 24 and never looked back.
I worked cleaning construction sites, painting houses, selling shoes, shovelling snow off parking lots overnight, and had many other side jobs.

Those were not "summer jobs for the vibe"; those were jobs I had to do to keep fuelling my dreams.

Coming from Brazil and having lived most of my adult life in first-world countries (Canada, Germany, Austria, and Portugal), it blows my mind to see how much people complain and can't appreciate what they have.

You see, for us immigrants, competing for jobs, projects, and gigs is like running against Usain Bolt in a 100m sprint race while starting five seconds later. 

That's exactly how I felt when I moved to Germany 10 years ago, with no money, no friends, no job, and not speaking the language.

But why the f*ck does this matter to you? 
Is this guy with the pink beanie looking for clout?

No, my friend. 

The more I develop on my journey, and the more people I meet throughout it, the more I feel a huge urge to share my story and – hopefully – show other underdogs who are in the same place I was my whole life that there is a fuck*ng away out.

Nobody is coming to rescue you.
You got this.
You are enough.

Grab 2026 by the balls.

LFGrow ❤️‍🔥 
#RightClickSaveAs

Study -> get a job -> work until you are 65 -> follow the path.


That's the only road I saw growing up.


It took me decades to realize that road is just ONE lane on an entire f*cking highway.

I didn't know about work-away programs, neither house-sitting in different countries nor the thousand unconventional ways you can live a life.


Nobody showed me that menu.


I want my son to see all of it.

What if we took care of kangaroos in Australia for a while? Worked a coconut farm in Hawaii? Tried things most people don't even know exist?

Not because those specific things matter. But because I want him to understand:

Life is a crazy menu. 

Go explore, study, work and do whatever calls to you.
This is the only way you'll find something you love.

This is a photo of him on stage with me last year.

His idea. 
He asked me, I said yes. 
We had a blast.

He's 4 and he's already seeing roads I didn't know existed at 24.

This is the mantra I want to leave behind.

Stop driving on someone else's path.
Find your highway.

LFGrow ❤️‍🔥 
#RightClickSaveAs

Executive Advisor to Crypto Founders | Brand Strategy, Positioning & Go-to-Market

Every tech pitch deck I have seen in 2026 be like:

“AI-powered, blockchain-enabled, agentic, hyper-scalable, privacy-first, enterprise-ready platform leveraging cutting-edge synergies to disrupt the future of everything. No demo, no use case, just vibes.”

LFGrow ❤️‍🔥
#RightClickSaveAs

Everyone's scrapping over marginal gains in crypto right now.


Most projects shout:

"We're faster." 
"We're safer." 
"We're more scalable."

Cool.

But here's the thing: to anyone outside the bubble, it all sounds like the same f*cking noise.

Having the product is one thing.
Being seen and understood is totally different.

That's why Daniel Cushing and I are heading to London on Feb 5-6 for the Digital Assets Forum to talk about exactly this.


In our keynote "How to Own a Space to Win" we will talk about:


1. How do you create space to breathe when everyone's screaming the same features?

2. How you can create and win with a category of 1 in a ultra saturated market?

3. How do you get heard when massive fund is deciding where to allocate and your pitch deck sounds like everyone else's?

We're not going to theorize about it. We're going to show how we've done it before for one of the largest blockchian companies to wild success


If you're a tech founder wondering why institutional doors aren't opening...
Or an institution trying to figure out which Web3 projects are actually worth your time...


This is what we're there for.

🌍 Digital Assets Forum
⌛ 11:10 AM - 11:30 AM
📍 Alpha Stage


See you in London?


LFGrow 🚀 
#RightClickSaveAs

I was talking to a Normie friend the other day and she said...


"My cousin had an accident, and I need to send €1,000 to Bangkok. My bank is charging me €75 and says it’ll take 5–7 business days."

My internal crypto bro: "hAvE yOu EvEr HeArd aBouT StAblE CoInS?"

My branding brain: "I know a way you can do that for cents and will hit his bank in literally seconds, I can show you."

So I pulled out my phone and showed her how to:

1. Create a wallet in 30 seconds
2. Buy $USDC with her debit card
3. Send it across the world for pennies
4. Have her cousin convert it to Thai Baht instantly

"Why isn't everyone doing this?" she said.

"Because we haven't managed to bring this to masses yet" was my reply. 

"We are still leaving in a era of legacy systems that are full of middlemen and forex exchanges, who are simply ripping you off."

Wiring money: legacy system vs. stablecoins, here's the difference:

→ 5+ business days vs. SECONDS on-chain — we're living in 2024, not 1974

→ Double-digit fees vs. pennies — banks stealing your money while blockchain respects it

→ Zero transparency vs. verifiable transparency — ever tried tracking a SWIFT transfer? Good fuck*ng luck

→ Centralized gatekeepers vs. permissionless protocols — because your money shouldn't need permission


New technology makes the old way of doing things look...


ABSURD.


Are you still waiting 5 days and paying crazy fees to move YOUR money?
That's absurd.


LFGrow ❤️‍🔥
#RightClickSaveAs

Recruiter: "So, being honest, why do you think you are a good fit for this job?"


Me:


LFGrow ❤️‍🔥 
#RightClickSaveAs

"Oh here we go just another fuck*ng AI slop..."

That was me, sitting in El Salvador last year and almost writting off one of the greatest applications I have seen for Industrial AI so far.

A new XFounders Accelerator Stories episode is live.

And this one follows Victor Amaya and Gloria Polío from CIRO AI.

When I first heard their pitch, I very was confused.
Not because it lacked ambition, it had sh*t tons of that, but the biggest issue was, it tried to explain too much and all at once.

That usually means one of two things:

Either there is no real core.
Or there is a very real one buried underneath.

Once we slowed it down and sat to work together to work on their value prop and brand narrative, the problem became obvious.

Most companies are not using AI to run operations.
They are using it to analyze what already went wrong.

A shipment fails.
AI explains it later.

Quality drops.
AI reports it after the damage.

Money leaks.
AI summarizes it weeks later.


Ciro is built to predict it, before it happens.


They are building a real-time AI co-pilot for operations teams which can:

> Ask questions in plain language.
> Connect every data source.
> See what is happening now.
> Act while it still matters.

As a cherry on top, this episode is worth watching just bceuase the founding duo themselves:

Victor is the engineer brain.
Reluctant leader.
Deep systems thinking.

Gloria is the operator.
People leader.
Has managed thousands of workers before.
Knows how execution really works.

Together, they are building AI that lives on the factory floor, not a vibe-coded “just cancel your subscription” app that nobody needs and that will likely scam you.

What REALLY got me excited about this project is that it all started from real operational pain inside a family business, not because they wanted to build something that is trending and hot right now.

It is a clear example of what happens when AI stops being a buzzword and starts becoming useful.

Watch the episode, tell me what you think, hit the share button, leave a comment blaa blaaa blaaaaaa you know the drill.

Link in the comments.

LFGrow ❤️‍🔥
#RightClickSaveAs

Microsoft's Marketing team: "Hey, look, we're kicking Slack's a**!"

Microsoft's Customer: "Why am I forced to use this and suffer every day?"

#RightClickSaveAs

Remember when Web3 was supposed to actually change sh*t?


Not chase pumps, flip narratives but actually solve problems for real humans.

The original promise was simple: 


Give people control of their data, cut out the predatory middlemen, build systems that actually work for everyone.


Then came ape JPEGs and token dumps.

We lost the f*cking plot.

I've spent years as Brand and Marketing advisor advising Fortune 500s and Web3 founders. 

Here's what I learn:

Here are projects I worked with that are winning because they solve real problems.

1- Pyth Network streams real-time prices for global markets. 
2- Rise made global payroll actually work.
3- Addressable.io cracked how to actually find and reach crypto users at scale.


Web3 doesn't have to be complicated, it just needs to be useful.

If you're building something that makes people's lives suck less, drop it in the comments. 

I want to see what's actually happening out there.

LFGrow ❤️‍🔥 
#RightClickSaveAs

Claude is the real winner here.


#RightClickSaveAs

All of my 2026 conversations so far summarized in one picture.


LFGrow ❤️‍🔥 
#RightClickSaveAs

Most Bitcoin startups avoid mining.
Everminer went straight at it.


A new XFounders Accelerator Stories episode is live.


This one follows Max Matrenitski and Artur Matrenitskii from Everminer.

I have a lot of respect for founders who choose hard problems, and for the democratization of Bitcoin mining is one of the hardest in the industry.

Very capital intensive, hyper competitive, mostly dominated by big players and almost impossible to explain to normies.

Most teams I have seen working on it, either ignore it or overcomplicate it.

But Everminer did the opposite, they started by asking a simple question:


What if anyone could mine Bitcoin without knowing what mining is?


No hardware, energy bills, maintenance neither expertise.

Three clicks:

1. Google sign-in
2. Top up
3. Start earning

From a brand perspective, we worked really hard on the positioning being 

"Instead of selling machines, we are selling access."

A small, affordable piece of real mining power with no ongoing costs and an option to exit it anytime.

At its core, Bitcoin was built to decentralize money, but with time, mining has slowly re-centralized into the hands of corporations and big players.

Everminer is trying to reverse that by making mining boringly accessible again.

During the bootcamp, they already crossed real milestones.
Revenue, users, operations on multiple continents with a great product that people actually use

This episode is democratizing something everyone thought was out of reach.

Watch it if you want to see where Bitcoin infrastructure is really going. 

Link in the comments.

LFGrow ❤️‍🔥  
#RightClickSaveAs

2026 will be the most boring year in crypto, and that’s great.


Crypto learned to entertain itself.

We built perfect hamster wheels: tokens, points, farms, airdrops, liquidity games. All of that is great, as long as you’re already in the bubble.

“Growth” became wallet musical chairs.
Same crowd, same money, new UI.

Looks like innovation, but it's not.

Most founders I talk to struggle with that, they feel their are being taken hostage by the degens.

But as they try to move outside of the bubble, they fail because their product assumes the mainstream speaks the jargon, trust the system, and want to spend time in the casino.

Reality is, the mainstream couldn't care less.

If you want to make them care, you need to understand that the "new narrative" is ruthless clarity.


That’s how mass adoption has always worked.


How do you do this?


Your most important asset this year is your brand, because that's the translation layer between emerging tech and real people. Brand lowers fear and says, quietly, “oh this feels familiar.”

You have to stop mining attention from exhausted wallets, replace it with earning trust from people who never touched a hardware wallet.

Look at Stripe, PayPal and Visa.

They won by being obsessively trustworthy: clean copy, predictable UX, predictable mechanics, clear regulation.

If your brand still screams “degen playground,” normies will leave. 

As you work on your 2026 goals, here's the simple takeaway: 

Your job is to make the unremarkable feel like quiet, steady progress.

Because trough brand is how you make boring feel inevitable.


LFGrow ❤️‍🔥 
#RightClickSaveAs

Thumbcorp is growing and we need help. 📢 


We've been closing deals, onboarding clients, and now we need extra hands to keep up with the momentum.

Looking for freelance Webflow developers who want to work alongside us as the scale engine for visionary challenger brands.

I'm looking for independent developers and freelancers who can move fast, communicate clearly, and ship solid work fast.

If you're fluent in Webflow and want to be part of something that's scaling, hit me up by DM with:

1. Your portfolio
2. Your hourly rate or project rate
3. Your availability


Keep it fuck*ng simple.


PS: No agencies.
PS1. This is not a full time role.

LFGrow 🚀 
#RightClickSaveAs

STOP SPEAKING ALIEN


What is the key benefit of tokenization?
Democratizing access to high-quality assets.

THAT'S IT

Tokenization is about letting regular people invest in stuff that used to be locked away for the rich - real estate, art, private equity, whatever.

Here's the thing:

The mainstream doesn't give a f*ck about tokenization.

They care about: 
→ Not being left out of opportunities 
→ Having the same access as wealthy people 
→ Building actual wealth, not just collecting tokens

Your grandma doesn't want to hear about blockchain rails and fractional ownership protocols.

She wants to know: 

"Can I finally invest in that building downtown without needing a million dollars?"

That's the translation of meaning right there.

Tokenized assets are already here, but most of the industry still leading with "real world asset tokenization" and "on-chain assets", its time to swim upstream.

Lead with the human benefit. 

The access, fairness and opportunity that was stolen from regular people for centuries.

The blockchain part? 
That's just how you deliver it.

LFGrow ❤️‍🔥 
#RightClickSaveAs

LIAM DARMODYᵍᵐ

Personal Brand Strategist & Networking Coach → I help entrepreneurs, executives & teams build brands to attract clients, talent & opportunity | Family Man | Connector | AI & Blockchain Bull | Hot Sauce Aficionado🌶️

I help founders, entrepreneurs, and executives build businesses by becoming trusted, visible, and referenceable in their space. My work sits at the intersection of personal brand strategy, go-to-market execution, and AI-enabled operations. I help people understand how to show up across LinkedIn, search, and AI-driven discovery and how that visibility turns into real opportunity over time.

Currently, I'm working with Brandi (mybrandi.ai), helping companies understand how they show up inside AI-generated answers and recommendations, and how brand visibility, trust, and demand are increasingly shaped by systems they do not directly control.

Seeing this shift up close has changed how I help individuals and teams show up online.

A core part of my approach is what I call Voice Enablement with AI.

Instead of writing for people, I teach them how to use AI to think, draft, and create content in their own voice. Most clients stop writing from scratch and start editing instead. Content creation becomes faster, more consistent, and still unmistakably human.

How? Because we are using your actual voice!

What I help with most often:

• Founder and executive positioning and LinkedIn profile strategy
• Personal narrative clarity for humans, AI systems, and decision-makers
• Relationship-based networking and social selling without pressure tactics
• Using AI to streamline content creation, engagement, and workflows
• Measuring what actually matters in brand and go-to-market efforts

Alongside my advisory work, I take on select fractional go-to-market and operations roles, supporting teams during growth, transition, or strategic realignment.

I’m known for helping people:

• Clarify what makes them meaningfully different
• Build trust before asking for anything
• Turn visibility into opportunity over time
• Turn chaos into organized chaos ;)

I call this manifesting serendipity.

It’s not luck. It’s intention, consistency, and showing up in the right conversations long before you need something. It's being in someone's orbit often enough that you become the first person they think of when they need your product or service. 

It's about being top of mind. 

Outside of work, I’m a husband, a dad of two, an early-morning lifter, and a proud hot sauce aficionado 🌶️. 

If you’re building a brand, a business, or your next chapter, I’d love to jam with you. 

Hi5, 
LD

Founder

I help executives, founders, and their teams build magnetic brands that attract clients, talent, and opportunity on LinkedIn. 

My services include: 

My services include: 
- Profile Optimization
- LinkedIn feature training
- Core content strategy
- Ghostediting (ask me about it)
- Content performance analysis 
- Sales Navigator training

Liam's Brand Stand was born out of my passion for personal branding and belief that LinkedIn is the ultimate platform for professionals and organizations to manifest serendipity and unlock opportunity.

This passion started as a fascination that turned into a hobby, then to a side hustle, and now, my full-time focus. I started creating content and being more intentional about building my brand here in January 2020 and since then I've amassed 35,000 followers and my content has garnered ~23,000,000 impressions, ~600,000 reactions, and ~100,000 comments. 

Completely organically.

Pretty crazy, especially when you consider I'm just a suburban dad who took to LinkedIn as a way to have conversation with other adults while cooped up in my house with my wife, a toddler, and an infant during a pandemic. 

That's the kind of opportunity that exists on LinkedIn and I'm on a mission to help more people experience it for themselves. 

If you're interested in doing so, visit: 

liamsbrandstand.com to learn more 
-or- 
calendly.com/liamdarmody to book time with me

Thanks for stopping by! 

Hi5, 
LD

LIAM DARMODY

Today I stepped on the scale & clocked 278lbs. 

I know that sounds like a weird flex, but I have not been in the 270s since August 2016.

Nearly 10 years. 

When I started my business in August 2023, I was 347lbs. 

I couldn’t walk a mile without running out of breath.
I couldn’t walk upstairs without the same.
I feared my kids asking me to play because I knew how hard that would be for me. 

I had spent the better part of 30 years using food as medicine to heal wounds from childhood, which started at A&D burgers in Mississauga, Ontario. 

I decided enough was enough. 

Joined a gym.

Started with 3x per week, which was all I could do back then. 

Then 4x per week. 
Then 5x per week.
And now 6x per week (sometimes ;)

it's the hardest thing I've ever had to do, not just because of how challenging the physical workouts are, but because it hasn't garnered massive results overnight.

I've been an all or nothing kind of guy since the beginning of time and I've started and stopped trying to lose weight many times before.

I wanted three months of hard work to magically undo 30 years of unhealthy habits.

It doesn't work like that.

I'm at the point now where the scale doesn't even really matter that much to me because I've realized that which really matters is that I'm showing up in that gym every weekday.

putting in the work to be healthier.

day by day.
Week by week.
Month by month. 
Year by year. 

I may still be round but I'm in the best shape of my life. 

And it feels amazing.

My advice to anyone who has struggled with weight loss is to try this: 

1) Find a gym with coaches & classes. Expert accountability and community are massive motivators. 

2) Go 3-5 days per week for 3 months. Non-negotiable. 

3) Meal prep. Every Sunday I throw 4 lb of ground chicken, a bag of hash brown potatoes, and 15 eggs on a blackstone flat top and make a meal for myself that has 100 g of protein. That's breakfast after the gym every day. 

If you do that, you will notice a change in yourself, not just on the scale but mentally. You will start to believe that you are capable of things you never thought you were capable of. 

And that will motivate you to keep going.

I’m still on my journey. I’ve got a long way to go, but I have zero doubt that I will get there now. 

And that is something I haven’t felt ever before. 

It’s liberating as hell. 

Good luck. 

My DMs are open if you ever want to jam about it.

I’ve got to go carry both of my kids up the stairs now, and I’m proud to say I won’t be winded. 

Hi5,
LD
🌶️

Personal Brand Strategist & Fractional GTM Operator helping founders build their businesses with LinkedIn & AI 🌶️ Hot Sauce Aficionado 🌶️

No alternative text description for this image

HUGE NEWS! 

My incredible wife Megan Bailey Darmody has a new job! She’s swapping floral fragrances, petals, and stems for wax, wicks, and fragrance sticks by joining CandleScience to lead performance marketing. 

CandleScience is one of the largest suppliers and educators in the candle making industry and I am so excited for her (and to have more candles around the house…;)

Megan is an absolute boss and I’m so proud to be her husband. She inspires me every single day. 

Please join me in congratulating her on the new role!

Hi5,
LD
🕯️

Brand Strategist and Fractional GTM Operator helping founders grow their businesses with LinkedIn and AI • Hot Sauce Aficionado 🌶️

This is not okay. 
This is not what America is supposed to be.
This is not what “law enforcement” looks like. 

This is not “the land of the Free”
This is not “the Home of the Brave” 
This is not “one country, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all”

This is barbaric.
This is cowardice.
This is fear mongering. 
This is absolutely devastating.

This is the execution of an American citizen exercising his unalienable constitutional rights. 

And it’s f*cking unacceptable.

I am astounded that this continues to happen with seemingly zero repercussions. 

What are we doing? 
How did we get here?

And most importantly, how do we stop it? 

I don’t care what side of the aisle you’re on politically, if you are willing to stand by and watch this without speaking up or taking action, you’re not my kind of people. 

Political differences are acceptable—appreciated, even. 

Staying silent as American citizens are murdered by masked “men” beating their chests and brandishing weapons to fuel their bravado is not. 

My heart goes out to the families who have been impacted by these devastating displays of government overreach. 

I cannot begin to comprehend your pain and nothing I say could possibly fill the void left by such a tragic loss.

But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t say something. 

I will never forget this image. 

Especially not at the polls.

☮️&❤️

This one's for my fellow dog owners... 

The other day, a weird triangle box showed up on my doorstep while I was working and when I opened it, I found this AI-generated portrait of my dog, Lucky DarmoDoodle, looking far more classy and refined than is reality. 

Turns out my wife found this site called Vogue Paws that will turn any photo of your hound into a portrait worth framing. 

This is not an ad for that service, I just think it's cool. 

I'm curious...

Do you have a pet? 

Hi5,
LD
🌶️

Dear Leaders, 

Please stop putting random hour-long meetings on people's calendars without context. 

Sincerely, 
Everyone who's ever worked for someone else.

Underrated life hack: 

Make others feel seen, heard, & understood.

Too many people think that all you have to do is show up a few times per week on Linkedin, write a few posts, and start drinking from a lead firehose. That doesn’t work here anymore.

5 years ago it may have, but not now. 

Building your brand/business on Linkedin requires so much more than simply publishing content.

Linkedin is a signal farm and your ability to pay attention to and engage with those signals is what determines your success here. 

I view it as a funnel exercise.

Once you see it that way, you can’t unsee it. 

I always say that Linkedin is the world’s largest CRM, and the leads are already built in and pre-qualified for you (if you build your network right). 

This is the Linkedin Signal Funnel. 

Do you view it this way, too? 

Hi5,
LD

graphical user interface, text, application

Today I went for a 30-minute walk and talk where I actually held my iPhone up to my ear the entire time like it was 2007. It was weird. Do not recommend.

I bet I’ve said “I wish I knew how to code” hundreds of times over the last two decades. I definitely have had no shortage of app ideas. 

I’ve been hearing so much about vibecoding and dabbled a little bit, but never built anything that actually worked on my phone.   

Until last night, when Sitting in front of the TV watching football, I vibecoded my first functional mobile app using ChatGPT and Claude Code.

I:

-> installed Node.js
—> used it to run Expo from the terminal
—->used Expo Go on my phone to preview the app

Things I knew nothing about prior. 

And in 2 hours I coded a functional MVP of an app I’ve been thinking was a good idea since becoming a father. 

It ain’t pretty (yet), but it’s functional. 

And I’m feeling pretty proud of myself, not to mention I really enjoyed the whole experience. It’s kind of like solving a puzzle.

All in my native tongue. 
No programming knowledge necessary. 

What a time to be alive! 

I’m curious… 

Have you used AI to build any software yet? 

Hi5
LD
🌶️

Are you a generalist or a specialist? 

I spent the better part of the first twenty years of my career feeling pretty insecure about the fact that I was more of a Swiss Army knife than a specialist. 

I was genuinely surprised when I would get new opportunities with higher titles because we've been taught to believe that you don't climb the ladder unless you have a very specific set of skills and scope. 

But being a generalist has always been my natural motion. I’ve always been too curious and too fascinated by too many things to just focus on one. 

These days I see articles about how “the future belongs to generalists” and companies are focusing on cultivating T-shaped talent—people with depth in one area and breadth across many others. 

I'm excited about this narrative and a lot more comfortable embracing that jack-of-many trades moniker nowadays than ever before.

Excited about the future.

I’m curious: 

Do you consider yourself more of a specialist or generalist? 

Hi5,
LD
🌶️

P.S. this post started as a comment on Conor Grennan’s recent post about generalists. Go follow him for fantastic AI thought leadership content.

I don’t know about you, but I’m seeing a lot of new faces viewing/following/connecting these days and for the most part they are exactly the types of people I generally want to be talking to:

Founders at tech companies
Fractional executives 
Executive coaches 
Marketing folks
Comms folks
Ops folks
AI folks 

Come to think of it, that is a lot. I guess I like to talk to a wide variety of people, but regardless, I’m seeing a lot more of them and I like it. 

I think LinkedIn’s new 360Brew AI system is brewin! 

How’s LinkedIn treating you these days? 

Hi5,
LD
🌶️

I just crossed 300,000 words whispered through Wispr Flow 
(apparently that’s the equivalent of three books!) 
Over the last six months, I’ve dictated an average of 103 words per minute, across 79 different apps. Slack. LinkedIn comments. Emails. Texts. Notes. Everywhere.

Wispr Flow is the best tool I found in 2025. 

It’s one of those special products that revealed a problem I didn’t realize I had—I didn’t realize how much mental load typing created until I didn’t have to do it anymore.

Same way Uber changed how I thought about taxis.
Same way Tesla changed how I thought about driving.

Once I stopped typing and started thinking out loud, everything just felt so much more natural.

With AI, I can dictate stream-of-consciousness thoughts and let the machine do the cleanup. The result is faster output and more authentic writing. I’m no longer switching modes from “thinking” to “typing.” 

I just think and talk. 

That’s a massive unlock.

I’m usually an early adopter with a pretty high bar, which means I moves on quickly from most new products I try. 

Not this one. 

Wispr Flow is now core to how I work.

If you want to try it, you get 2,000 words free. Fair warning though… there’s a very good chance you’ll end up paying the $15/month.

(Sorry, not sorry)

Check it out here and get in flow!!!! 

👉 https://lnkd.in/epMgJFez

Hi5,
LD 
🌶️

P.S. Not a paid partnership. I just genuinely love this product!

It's now been a little more than three years since ChatGPT launched on November 30th, 2022. And it's so wild how much AI is changing virtually every aspect of our lives. 

I started using ChatGPT the day it came out and was a paid user within a week.

Then Claude hit the scene and I started using that. 
Then Perplexity. 
Then Gemini. 
Then Grok. 

ChatGPT's first mover advantage is strong in my case, which gives it an unfair advantage over the others because I do use it as my default for most things. 

I like Claude better for writing. 

I'm intrigued to see how much market share Gemini is gaining though I haven't really committed much time to using Gemini myself.  

I don't really mess with Grok. 

I know some people who are all-in on one thing. I know other people who use different LLMs for different purposes. I think I fall into the latter bucket but ChatGPT remains my primary for most things. And I struggle to balance usage across all effectively. 

I'm now at the point where I might be looking for that thing I did the other day and having to check multiple LLMs. 

One of my goals in 2026 is to streamline my AI stack and focus on deciding which one is really the best one for me all-around rather than defaulting to ChatGPT because it's been around for me the longest.

And so, I'm curious...

If you could only use ONE of the major AI LLMs going forward, which one would you pick? BONUS POINTS for telling us why in the comments. 

The author can see how you vote. Learn more

If I had to pick just two social networks to spend time on, it would be Substack and LinkedIn. 

Why? 

Because they're pretty complementary to one another and most people on Substack link to their LinkedIn profile, you can easily find and follow in both places. 

Admittedly, I spend more time on LinkedIn than I do Substack right now, because I’ve built a larger and more engaged following here. But I plan to increase the time I spend on Substack significantly.

Why? 

Because Substack lets me build a more direct, owned connection with my audience and because it’s a much better platform from a usability standpoint. 

It’s like Substack has gone to all the other socials, taken notes about what sucks, and built the solution. 

I’m increasingly starting to view the two this way: 

Linkedin is where you build your personal brand. 
Substack is where you build (and monetize!) your personal media empire. 

Linkedin is top of funnel.
Substack is middle of funnel. 

Going forward, I’m: 

Incredibly bullish on Substack. 
Incredibly bullish on LinkedIn. 
Insanely bullish on the two of them paired together. 

Are you on substack? 

Drop your link below if so. 

Here’s mine: https://lnkd.in/eEZA6RHN

Hi5,
LD
🌶️

“DAD!! Stop using ChatGPT to play Monopoly!” 

Whoops.

You had one job…

I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve gone to an ATM in the last 365 days. Today was one of those rare visits (to get money for babysitter tonight, which is literally my only use case for cash anymore), and of course…

Looking for a job in 2026? Read this. 
 
On Thursday January 8th, my good friend Angie Callen, PCC, MJSC and 25 of her closest career coaching friends are hosting the 2026 Job Seeker Summit, a FREE virtual event showcasing expert advice from globally-recognized career coaches, resume writers, recruiters and... 

Somehow me. 

Fun fact: my first foray into Linkedin coaching was in 2009 when I launched TalentFish Consulting on a mission to help jobseekers cast a wider net. It was after a layoff and I thought: "teaching people how to network their way into their next opportunity sounds fun... let's do it!"

Only it was short lived because I networked myself into a new job shortly thereafter and didn't have time for side hustles. 

But the principles I taught then are even more valid today and 2026 is going to be a big year on Linkedin, so you might as well jump into some of these sessions to learn from those who know it best. 

The 2026 Jobseeker Summit starts at 9am MOUNTAIN time on Jan 8th and here's the lineup: 

9AM: Event welcome + resume AMA
10:30: Resume Breakout Sessions
11:30: Interview AMA: Real talk on Modern Interviews
1:15: Job Search AMA: Beyond the Boards
2:30: Job Search Breakout Sessions
3:30: AI Panel: From ChatGPT to CareerGPT (this is the one I'm on!)
4:15: Mindset Panel: Bounce Back & Burnout Recovery

Hear from 25 different career coaches, resume writers, and recruiters. 

For free.

Don't pinch yourself. It's true. 

Whether you're looking for a new job or not, the things you'll learn at the Job Seeker Summit are worth the time and price of admission (remember, it's FREE). 

Pre-register for access to giveaways during the day and ALL recordings from the event here: https://lnkd.in/eeGfPgdG

See you there! 
LD
🌶️

2026 Job Seeker Summit - Jan 8th - 9AM MT - FREE!

Unexpected benefit of taking two weeks off of LinkedIn: “it can only get better from here” 🤪Happy to be back. I love this place.

Appreciation post for founders who value operations & core operating principles: 388 impressions. Post about ATM not functioning: 10,000 impressions. Checks out. 

Remember: exciting or frustrating as they may be, impressions are not the metric that matters most on Linkedin. Far from it. 

Fill your network with active people who might be interested in seeing your content and post about: 

Who you are
What you know
Why you're here
How you help

Start conversation with those who show interest

Consistency & patience compounds over time.

One day that 388 impression post might bring in a opportunity. 
Or maybe the 10,000 impression post does it.

The point is: 

When in doubt, zoom out. 

It's not about the performance of each individual post. 
It's about the whole being greater than the sum of its parts. 

We're building personal brands here, folks, and those last as long as we do (and beyond), so don't let short-term frustration prevent long-term success. 

How do you handle ups and downs? 

Hi5. I'm rooting for you, 
LD
🌶️

I don't hit play on many LinkedIn videos.
 
But when Jule Kim, PCC Kim posts, I watch.
 
Not just because her content is good. It's because she's one of the few people on this platform who can hold my ADHD brain's attention long enough to actually finish what she started.
 
Nearly a year ago, I DM'd her and told her I loved her videos. 
 
Eventually we jumped on a virtual coffee that turned into a two-hour conversation that felt like catching up with an old friend, even though we'd never actually met.
 
At some point she mentioned wanting to start a podcast and she asked if I'd be interested in co-hosting. 
 
And so... we're did!
 
Permission Not Required is our answer to all the things we think but don't say. 
 
The insecurities we hide. 
The vulnerability we're afraid to show. 
The human stuff that gets filtered out of our carefully curated professional feeds.
 
In a digital world increasingly being dominated by AI, we can't afford to lose the human element.
 
Who we are matters.
How we feel matters.
What we think matters.
 
And we shouldn't let our own doubts and insecurities convince us otherwise.
 
Our first episode is live now. 
 
If you've ever felt like you had to ask permission to be yourself—this one's for you.

https://lnkd.in/eGe7cDnt
 
Would love to know: 
 
What's something you think but rarely say out loud professionally? We'd love to know what you'd love to hear! 
 
Hi5, 
LD 
🌶️ 
 
p.s. you can really tell who the true video pro is based on the photo below, eh? I look like a hostage being interrogated in a dark room while she's all about the chill vibes. This is going to be fun.

taplio

The Battle

Diego Borgo

LIAM DARMODY

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taplio

The Battle

Diego Borgo

LIAM DARMODY

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Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Diego Borgo's LinkedIn Performance

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