Growing Personal Brands for Founders & Executives | Aspiring Coffee-Influencer & Founder at notus

Turn your story into your competitive advantage.

I decided to take a gap year in 2018 to follow my entrepreneurial dream, left my hometown in Switzerland, and traveled to the US.

The goal was to figure out things as I went, learn by doing, document my journey, and connect with inspiring people.

Just a few months into this adventure, because I had been posting content and doing free marketing consultations with local businesses, I co-founded notus in the heart of New York City alongside a former employee of GaryVee.

THIS was when I realized how powerful personal branding is.

Since then, we've had the privilege to work with 150+ founders & executives across DACH and the US, helping them strategize, launch and grow their personal brands on LinkedIn and beyond.

At notus, our core offering is the content engine:.

A seamless process that helps you:

- build an audience
- save time
- attract talent
- make more sales.

We capture your authentic voice through podcasts and voice memos...

...turning your raw expertise and unique story into content that builds brand equity and attracts the right people.

Want to talk personal branding?

Just drop me a LinkedIn message, and let's connect!

Outside of work, you’ll find me strolling through the streets of Berlin (probably with a cup of coffee), filming & editing videos, listening to music & podcasts, and drinking a whole lot of water.

Marvin Sanginés

Pls send help. January & February were crazy months for notus. We brought on many incredible new personal branding clients. Now we need someone to interview them and turn their expertise into content:

You'll be working directly with founders and executives of 7-figure+ companies, helping them turn their personal brands into growth engines.

What you'll own:

• Crafting the personal brands' content strategy
• Optimizing their online presence
• Conducting bi-weekly content calls
• Extracting their knowledge and insight
• Managing their entire content operation
• Consulting them across their GTM motion

I'm not interested in your CV or what school you graduated from (if any).

Ideally, this is you:

→ You speak German
→ You enjoy continuous learning
→ You are obsessed about the content game
→ You possess strong emotional skills and empathy
→ You are curious and eager to learn about any topic
→ You are highly organized and able to manage many moving pieces
→ You are a strong communicator who adapts to different personalities
→ You work hard and hold yourself to high standards

What we offer:

• 100% remote (anywhere in the world)
• A full-time role
• A fun, high-performance environment
• The ability to shape the trajectory of our company
• Access to all internal training & development resources
• Support to build your own personal brand

How to apply:

Record a loom video answering 2 questions:

1. Who are you?
2. Why should we hire you?

Send the loom to people@notus.xyz.

No rules. You be you.

Max Dixon and Luca Wetzel will personally review every single application.

notus is looking forward to hearing from you. :)

Building Effective Personal Brands for Founders & Executives with Purpose | B2B Content Engines & Founder-Led Marketing | Coffee Connoisseur & Founder at notus 💆🏽

18 months ago, this guy was my gym buddy. As of last week, he closed $1M+ in contract value as Head of Partnerships at notus:

Back in 2024, Selim Burcu was consulting other companies on operations. At capacity. Debating whether to make his offer more scalable or double down on 1-2 clients.

The more we talked about notus, the more he saw potential in what we were building.

So in May 2024, he joined as a fractional COO on a project basis.

2 months in, we hit a crossroads.

While making progress on operations, Selim hadn't fully found his place. At the same time, I had one critical gap: I needed someone to take sales calls off my plate.

So we pivoted his role to Head of Partnerships.

I won't sugarcoat it. The first 3 months were rocky.

My sales call reviews highlighted plenty of issues:

• He talked 80% of the time
• He wasn't asking enough questions
• Some people found him "too salesy"

But Selim stuck with it.

He ate the dirt. Received feedback. Iterated on it.

With coaching from Levin and consistent feedback loops, his call performance steadily got better.

Then it all clicked in February:

→ he was closing deals consistently
→ he was receiving great feedback from clients
→ he helped double our MRR over the next 6 months

In the process, he also found his style: Calm, laid-back, supportive.

He speaks from a place of abundance, consulting people on what makes sense for them.

Exactly the way I want notus to be represented.

Selim, thank you for pushing through.

I'm forever grateful to call you a friend and partner.

$1M+, check. Next up, $10M?

Jesse Pujji invited me to reveal the AI-enabled LinkedIn system we used to scale notus to $180k MRR & 200+ clients. The result is a 90-minute masterclass breaking down our step-by-step process:

For context, Jesse's a friend, former client and an amazing case study (we helped him scale his founder brand to 30k+ followers on LinkedIn and generated hundreds of qualified leads)

This is the 3rd workshop I've done with him & Andrew Warner for the Bootstrapped Giants B2B Sales Accelerator program.

For this one, I created an entirely new presentation, where I break down our personal brand-led LinkedIn System that we used to scale our agency to 180k MRR and help our partners grow.

And for the first time ever, I pulled back the curtain on how we strategically use AI to amplify human expertise - not replace it.

The session was supposed to be 1 hour, but turned into 1.5 hours because there was so much to cover. I've compiled all the materials into a masterclass that I want to give to you guys for free.

Inside it, you'll find:

→ How to set up a content strategy using our Content Archetype Framework
→ How we create custom voice models that capture each founder's unique perspective 
→ How to turn strategic insights into booked calls using signal-based sales and thought leadership ads
→ The quality control systems that ensure every piece feels authentically human
→ BONUS: Our AI-enabled Content Creation process

The AI handles the mechanics. Our team handles the strategy, voice development, and relationship building that actually drives results.

All you have to do is:

1. Like this post
2. Comment "notusOS"
3. Send me a connection request saying “notusOS” (if you want it quicker)

And me or a notus team member will make sure to send it over ASAP.

​​I've spent 7 years building 200+ LinkedIn Content Engines for B2B founders & executives. We turned the process into a free template (it’s gotten me 3.8mil impressions in the last 365 days): 
`
This is the exact Operating System we used at notus to manage:

- 200+ personal brands
- Bi-weekly content calls that turn into months of content
- My own schedule with 6+ posts per week

Here's what's inside the Content Engine OS:

→ Content Sources Database (store interviews, podcasts, voice notes as pillar content)
→ Content Pieces Production Pipeline (7-stage workflow from idea to published)
→ Content Archetype Framework (our 4-pillar strategy for balanced content mix)
→ Smart Content Calendar (auto-populates with status, owner, and publish dates)
→ Content Library & Repurposing System (track your best posts for future reuse)
→ Pre-built Outline Templates (key takeaways, supporting points, hooks, CTAs)
→ BONUS: Full video walkthrough from @Max Radman (our head of product)
→ BONUS: Our complete step-by-step content creation process that generates 6+ LinkedIn posts per week

This template has been refined over 7 years and 200+ client projects. It's our most downloaded resource with 2800+ downloads.

If you want it for free, you can grab it from here:

https://lnkd.in/ekXUJFXp

Sometimes I have slow weeks on LinkedIn. Sometimes I have great weeks on LinkedIn. Sometimes I love LinkedIn, and sometimes I hate LinkedIn. But all of that is irrelevant:

Because I do know that my ideal customers spend time on LinkedIn.  

So I show up every single week to keep on nurturing these relationships, to keep on getting more touch points, to keep on staying top of mind for folks, and to create more leverage for notus and for myself.  

day by day :)

Charlotte Ankerstjerne was documenting her work life on LinkedIn. Just another employee at Ramboll, one of Denmark's largest consulting firms, until her posts started getting serious attention:

→ 3,500+ followers
→ 1000s of likes on her posts
→ Content that kept spreading across the platform

Together with a colleague she built a training program and community for employees’ who want to build a voice in their industry using social media. 

She walked her managers through the engagement metrics, showed them the conversations happening around Ramboll's projects, and demonstrated how the colleagues’ personal content was reaching audiences their corporate communications never touched.

The company was so impressed, they created a position that didn't exist before. Just for her:

𝗘𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗼𝘆𝗲𝗲 𝗔𝗱𝘃𝗼𝗰𝗮𝗰𝘆 & 𝗘𝗻𝗴𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗔𝗱𝘃𝗶𝘀𝗼𝗿.

She now leads their 1400+ member employee advocacy community. Runs their internal award programe. She’s a board member of the Ramboll Foundation - elected by her colleagues.  

And she posts content like "a day in the life of a board member" showing the real behind-the-scenes of leadership.

Charlotte didn't pitch employee advocacy as an idea. She proved it worked by doing it.

This is a pattern I keep seeing.

Sometimes you don't need to convince leadership that something works. You just need someone internally who believes in it, does it, and lets the results speak for themselves.

The bigger shift here is that employees are becoming real estate for companies.

People who can build audiences naturally are becoming invaluable assets. Both for their core job function, and the attention and influence they bring to the organization.

This changes the power dynamic.

When you can generate thousands of eyeballs for your company through your personal brand, you become valuable in a way that's hard to replicate.

More companies will start recognizing this. And the employees who figure it out early will have leverage their peers won't.

PS. Shoutout Mathilde Bing for sharing this case study with me.

52 days ago, we made a bet to turn a Lisbon villa into our notus company HQ. Here's what happened so far:

→ 724,111 LinkedIn impressions on my account 
→ 75+ qualified meetings booked 
→ First company offsite of the year 
→ Product shipping faster than ever  

At the time of filming this video, we had the pleasure of hosting:  

→ Max Radman moved from Head of Content to Head of Product. He's obsessing over how to build the #1 personal branding platform.  

→ barash (GTM Lead) works from the "hustle table." He has booked 75+ qualified meetings since we arrived.

→ Luca (COO) runs fulfillment from the fire corner. He's building what I believe will be the #1 client experience in our space.  

→ Mika (Senior Content Strategist) runs deep dive interviews, content calls, and coaching sessions with clients all day.

→ Selim (Head of Partnerships & Sales) operates from the "sales cave." If you've had a call with us recently, it probably happened in that room.  

→ Max Dixon (Team Lead, Customer Success) keeps raising the bar on content quality and how we deliver results.  

It's been so much fun spending time with them and all the other great people rotating in and out of the villa.  

1 month left to make good progress, enjoy the process, and wrap things up with the notus Mastermind feat. Niels Klement , Calvin Hamilton and team notus ofc.

Let's do this :)  

PS. We're accepting the last applications for our personal brand mastermind on March 21-23, so send me a DM if you're interested.

notus just reviewed all LinkedIn content from our 38 active partners to find out what performs best. 3 types of posts consistently got great results:

𝟭. "𝗙𝗮𝗶𝗹𝘂𝗿𝗲” 𝗽𝗼𝘀𝘁𝘀

Most people on LinkedIn only share their wins. We encourage our partners to talk about when they messed up. It makes them more real, more relatable.

The keyword is vulnerability:

• Name the struggle
• List things you tried that failed
• Share the moment it clicked
• Share how you are doing it now

Example angles from our partners:

"I’m a recovering awkward person…"
"The first time I tried to buy a company, I got outbid…"
"I’ve done a nervous little giggle in serious meetings, tense conversations, and yes, even in somber moments…”

𝟮. 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝗱𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘆 𝗯𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗽𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗲𝘀

Our partners are founders & executives who have big ideas about how to change their industries. By calling out what doesn’t work, they create curiosity, new insight, and maybe a little friction.

How to write it:

• State the "rule" everyone believes
• Show your contrarian data/experience
• Explain why the rule made sense (in the past)
• Prove why it doesn't anymore
• Offer your alternative approach

Example hooks from our partners:

"Everyone’s showing off their AI agents - but here’s what they’re not telling you…"
“I’m done with the excuse of ‘I need more information’...”
“The construction industry has a problem: we treat every building like a prototype…”

𝟯. 𝗕𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝗶𝗻 𝗽𝘂𝗯𝗹𝗶𝗰

My dad still tells me I shouldn’t share MRR updates, but I haven’t stopped.

Showing people what’s happening behind the scenes creates trust faster than pretty much anything else.

Even better, it turns running a company into a hero’s journey. People follow because they want to know what happens next.

How to write it:

• Share some bullet point highlights
• Talk about the challenges you faced this quarter
• Share your focus for the next quarter
• Talk about wins

Example hooks from our partners:

"We’ve had multiple offers to buy us out in the last few months. I politely declined…"
"The evolution of my bootstrapping journey so far…"
"UPDATE: we rolled out a new feature to pilot clients…"

___

What isn’t on the list: sales-y, company-centric posts that provide 0 𝗲𝗺𝗼𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻, 0 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗶𝘁𝘆, and 0 𝘃𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲.

Those are the 3 key ingredients across all content.

All of these categories can trigger strong emotions:

Surprise.
Sympathy.
Curiosity.
Excitement.

They all build on specific stories, perspectives, or contrarian beliefs.

And they all promise value:

Failure:
value = what they learned

Contrarian
value = discovering a new approach

Build in public
value = a model to copy

Content that does this has a good chance of performing well.

With one disclaimer: It has to be real.

We’ve helped 200+ founders and executives build personal brands on LinkedIn. Every single client spends their first 14 days the same way:

𝗗𝗮𝘆 𝟬: 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻

The clients who get the most out of our service are the ones who show up with a well-developed baseline:

• Deep expertise in their field
• Strong track record/case studies
• Good business case with Product-Market Fit
• Typically $5-10M+ in annual revenue

These founders have a clear goal:

They want a content engine that helps them scale their expertise and become the obvious choice in their space.

More awareness → more sales conversations → more opportunities (sales, recruiting, collaborations)

They have the ingredients they need to build this over a long period.

All it takes is a system that makes it consistent.

𝗗𝗜𝗦𝗖𝗟𝗔𝗜𝗠𝗘𝗥:

This doesn’t mean you should wait for $5-10M ARR before getting active on LinkedIn.

I started posting before I even knew what to do with my life. It built the backbone of my B2B business today.

Over time, as the business grew, I was able to invest into a brand team and bring on my own content strategists.

If you’re inspired to make content now, do it.

𝗪𝗲𝗲𝗸 𝟭: 𝗢𝗻𝗯𝗼𝗮𝗿𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴

The sales call with Selim is almost like a free consultation. If someone wants to work with us further, we sign the paperwork and start the onboarding process:

→ Send a questionnaire for background/goals/company info
→ Give free resources to help them get started right away + show value
→ Schedule our kickoff meeting

The official kick-off is when the client meets their content strategist + one of our fulfilment leaders. We align on goals, identify benchmarks and milestones, and most importantly:

Block every single work blocker on the client’s calendar.

The first big blocker is our 2-hour podcast: the Deep Dive Interview. This is where we get:

• Backstory
• Current business case
• ICP trends
• Future vision

In short, this is the client’s competitive advantage: their story.

𝗪𝗲𝗲𝗸 𝟮: 𝗦𝗲𝘁𝘂𝗽

In the background, we’re setting up the rest of the client’s content engine + tech:

→ ICP mapping
→ TAM Analysis + List Building
→ Media Strategy (positioning, value prop, messaging)
→ Competitor analysis
→ Content Archetype
→ Profile Revamp
→ First batch of posts

Client reviews all deliverables async, then we have a meeting to finalize the strategy and content.

𝗘𝗻𝗱 𝗼𝗳 𝗪𝗲𝗲𝗸 𝟮:

• Client’s LinkedIn profile becomes a landing page for their business
• We publish approved posts 1-3x per week
• If requested, we handle community engagement
• Strategists hosts first content call with client
• We start tracking relevant ICP signals

By Day 14, the engine is fully running.

Content calls to collect new ideas. Ideas turn into posts. Posts turn into engagement. Engagement turns into trust. Trust turns into leads. Or hires. Or partnerships.

It just keeps compounding from here.

How I post 6-7x per week on LinkedIn and hit 400k+ impressions/month with one 60-minute conversation per week:

𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝟭: 𝗪𝗲𝗲𝗸𝗹𝘆 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗖𝗮𝗹𝗹

I rarely sit down to write. Instead, I have a recurring 60-minute call with my content strategist every week that I don't cancel.

If you don't have anyone to talk to, a recurring video journal works too. It's great therapy.

𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝟮: 𝗣𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝟰 𝘁𝗼𝗽𝗶𝗰𝘀 𝗯𝗲𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗹

My strategist comes prepared with one topic per pillar, using our Content Archetype framework:

→ Tactical: a specific how-to I can walk through step by step
→ Aspirational: a recent win with real numbers
→ Insightful: my honest take on an industry topic
→ Personal: what's actually happening behind the scenes right now

They review performance data and the content calendar beforehand, and walk in with 3-5 researched questions per topic.

I also share whatever is top of mind that week. It keeps things current, and it's where the journey + building-in-public content comes from.

𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝟯: 𝗥𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗿𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻

We use Riverside to host the call. It records both sides in high quality and auto-generates the transcript. Open the browser, hit record & talk.

My strategist runs the conversation, pushes for specifics, and steers it back when I ramble

60 minutes gives around 8,000 words of raw transcript with my stories + opinions + takes.

𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝟰: 𝗗𝗲𝗯𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗳𝘆 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗮𝘀

The strategist uploads the full transcript into notusOS (our platform). Any LLM works here, it just might not be as good.

From there, the transcript gets broken down into individual content ideas. The more my strategist adds their own notes, the better. We don't want to rely on AI alone here.

This step also surfaces ideas from things I said in passing. (offhand comments that would normally disappear after the call)

𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝟱: 𝗧𝘂𝗿𝗻 𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗮𝘀 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝗱𝗿𝗮𝗳𝘁𝘀

notusOS generates a first draft for each idea based on the transcript and the strategist's outline. He then refines it, edits it, and adds it to my review queue.

The output sounds like me because it is pulled from how I talk.

𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝟲: 𝗢𝗻𝗲 𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘁𝗼 𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄, 𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗿𝗼𝘃𝗲 & 𝘀𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗱𝘂𝗹𝗲

This is where I spend my second hour. I go through every draft and ask:

→ Does this sound like me?
→ Is the insight clear?
→ Would I post this?

If something is off, I rewrite it. I add my own takes, my own nuance. Nothing goes out without my sign-off, because I sell personal branding. 

Light edits. Final approval. Schedule. Done.

52 calls per year = 208-416 pieces of content.

Two hours blocked every week allows me to post 6x per week on LinkedIn. It has become our most valuable marketing process.

P.S. If you want a step-by-step guide on how to run this process yourself, comment "notus" and I'll send it.

With 35+ years of experience, this doctor was ready to become a thought leader in Swiss healthcare. He just didn’t know how to get his voice out there. We helped him secure 2 strategic board mandates through LinkedIn:

Joerg Leuppi has worn many hats during his long career:

Medical resident. Senior physician. President of an extra-parliamentary commission of the Swiss government.

The same vision has driven him throughout his career:

That every person in Switzerland should have access to world-class healthcare.

Reality doesn’t always measure up. Digitalizing the Swiss system would make it more efficient. Jörg believed he could play part in that - but he needed his voice to reach further.

He asked us if we could help him connect with key decision makers on LinkedIn. He wanted to start posting, but was worried about balancing authenticity and professionalism online.  

With notus roots being in Switzerland, we were passionate about the cause and excited to help. So we took him through our signature Personal Brand Takeover process:

1.) Strategic Foundations

We began with a Deep Dive interview to discuss Jörg’s background, goals & expertise.

From there, we revamped his profile into a landing page for health policymakers & hospital leadership.

We created a Content Archetype with 4 pillars drawn from Jörg’s own experience:

• Tactical: advice on healthcare digitization and strategic leadership
• Aspirational: case studies for digitized care, research successes
• Insightful: sharing new health proposals/laws, innovative tech
• Personal: moments from across his extensive medical career

These pillars were the starting point for the next step:

2.) Content Engine

We hosted regularly Content Calls to:

• get his latest updates on healthcare trends and policy
• hear stories from his decades in the industry
• turn this raw material into posts in his authentic voice

Jörg reviewed, edited and published these posts on his LinkedIn profile.

The first one we did went viral and we’ve been stacking impressions ever since.

3.) The results

In 2.5 years, Jörg has transformed himself into one of LinkedIn’s authoritative voices on Swiss healthcare.

He had under 900 followers when he started with us. Today, that number sits at 10,527 and growing. 500,000+ people read his posts every year.

But those aren’t the most important metrics.

What we’re most excited about: since working with us, Jörg has secured 2 strategic board mandates. He says his LinkedIn presence played a key role in landing those seats.

He was also featured on SRF as a leading voice in Swiss healthcare.

This is why we’re on LinkedIn: it’s one of the best places on the internet for professionals to meet and connect.

These connections are the real value we pursue for our partners.

It just takes the right strategy.

A huge thank you to Jörg for this amazing and ongoing collaboration.

49 employees at this $50 mil. ARR SaaS company are active on LinkedIn with hundreds of thousands of combined followers. They've been mastering the highest-leverage B2B growth play since 2021:

I am talking about Chili Piper & their employee-led marketing playbook.

While most people were obsessing over webinars, e-books & white papers, they built an army of content creators inside their own company all the way back in 2021.

Here are some people from their team who are still crushing it:

→ Alina Vandenberghe (Co-founder & Co-CEO, 47k followers) drives roughly 50% of Chili Piper's pipeline through her personal LinkedIn. (according to an interview she did in 2025) Her content is raw, personal, and funny. She recently posted about 10 years of building the company. Real depth, not corporate fluff.

→ Roxana Irimia (VP Marketing, 58k followers) mixes tactical breakdowns with personal stories. Posts about how to generate millions in pipeline. Show-don't-tell energy.

→ Tainah Subtil (SDR Manager, 11k followers) helps other SDRs start better conversations. A week ago she posted a meme about "outbound is dead" and tied it into Chili Piper's team closing 180% of their 2025 goals. Does her own thing, but naturally weaves in the company.

These are just the ones that come to mind - there are many more out there.

Back in 2021, while most companies were posting corporate fluff twice a week, Chili Piper had already figured out unified social presence:

- They created the #chili-love Slack channel where employees would drop posts for instant team amplification. Engagement pods before engagement pods were cool.

- They'd run coordinated social takeovers during product launches. Complete media kits with pre-written sample copy for every employee. (pouring fuel on the fire)

- They encouraged employees to post about whatever they wanted, turning social activity from a chore into personal brand development. Complete freedom meant an abundance of authentic content.

Four years later, this system still seems to be running to a certain extent.

They have 260+ employees on LinkedIn. Only around 40-50 are currently active, but they all have a unified brand stamp. That pepper emoji 🌶️, orange borders & orange backgrounds on profile pictures, [Title] at Chili Piper in their headlines.

Even if employees don't post but just interact here and there, they're creating a positive brand impression of Chili Piper and stamping themselves all over LinkedIn.

They pioneered what most companies are only waking up to now.

Your company page will never have what your people have:

→ peers who relate to them
→ personal networks built over years
→ the credibility of doing the actual work

Founder-led content is powerful. Employee-led content is how you scale it.

Chili Piper understood this early, wonder who's going to be next?

P.S. If you want the article from an ex-Chili Piper employee breaking down their 2021 strategy, DM me a 🌶️ and me/another notus member will send it.

Last week I took a full ski vacation and didn't open my LinkedIn once, yet we still managed to post 7x that week and generate 110k+ impressions. All because of a content engine we've built over the years. Here's how it works:  

𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝟭: 𝗣𝗿𝗲-𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗻 𝘁𝗼𝗽𝗶𝗰𝘀 𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗻𝗼𝘁𝘂𝘀 𝗳𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗲𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸  

barash uses our content archetype to map out the content calendar weeks in advance. It's made up of 4 pillars:  

• Tactical: Immediately actionable information (like this post) 
• Aspirational: Case studies & success story breakdowns 
• Insightful: Industry insights & opinions on trends 
• Personal: Behind-the-scenes stories & building in public  

This helps him generate relevant ideas and stay consistent with the topics we cover. Before my vacation, he already had the full week mapped out.  

𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝟮: 𝗣𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗹  

Once topics are locked, Barash does additional research and prepares targeted questions designed to pull my POV, contrarian takes, and stories.  

We hop on a call recorded in Riverside. Sometimes I also send voice notes or draft posts myself on topics I want to cover.  

Either way, everything gets uploaded into our platform notusOS, which creates great first drafts.  

𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝟯: 𝗕𝗮𝘁𝗰𝗵 𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗿𝗼𝘃𝗲  

Before my ski trip, I sat down and reviewed everything Barash had prepared. Because the system was already running, I could approve an entire week's content in one 2hr session.  

That time gets me 6-7 LinkedIn posts, repurposing material for our newsletter, and evergreen content we can revisit later. Our rule of thumb: every three months you can repurpose your best content.  

𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝟰: 𝗘𝘅𝗲𝗰𝘂𝘁𝗲 𝘀𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆  

Barash schedules everything. Posts go live. I'm on the slopes, daydreaming about the lunch buffet and the notus empire.  

This is how I post 6x per week while running a 20+ person agency. The content feels authentic because it comes from real conversations about what's actually happening in my business.  

It's also the same system we implement for our clients at notus.  

P.S. Want our content engine template we used to manage all of this? Comment "ENGINE" and I'll send it over. :)

The CEO of a $156 billion company carved out time to personally interview celebrities on 33 podcast episodes. Yet founders with teams of 20+ still say "content isn't a priority right now."

Jim Farley runs Ford. One of the largest automakers in the world.

And yet he personally hosted DRIVE, a podcast where he interviewed T-Pain, Rob Gronkowski, Kelly Clarkson, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Tom Brady, and many more celebrity guests.

He didn't delegate it to a different host. He didn't hand it off to his communications team. He decided to spearhead the communication himself and be the face of Ford's content distribution.

The comments on auto forums say it all:

→ "This podcast makes me want to buy more Ford vehicles"
→ "Jim is one of us and a rare CEO with both knowledge and passion"
→ "Jim is out front talking up Ford while Mary Barra at GM keeps a fairly low profile"

There's a clear pattern: people are drawn to Ford over other brands because it feels human and personal.

This isn't just brand affinity. Farley understood something strategic: when founders control their narrative directly, as Lulu Cheng puts it, they "shape the information environment their companies need to thrive." They build movements, not just businesses.

CEO-led content isn't limited to automotive.

One of our partners, Hubert Rhomberg, CEO of one of the largest construction companies in Austria, saw this firsthand. When we launched his YouTube channel, the response was immediate. 

15,900+ subscribers and hundreds of thousands of views later, people consistently comment about how refreshing it is to see the authentic perspective of a CEO who built a billion-dollar company.

The smartest founders understand something counterintuitive: your communication responsibility grows with your company, not shrinks.

The more momentum you have → the busier you get → the more important it becomes to keep communication active and own the narrative.

Both cases prove the same thing: when founders show up as real people, audiences respond.

Your passion, vision, and conviction can't be simulated by others. The story is your product. And the CEOs who take responsibility for their company's voice are building trust and competitive advantages their competitors can't buy with ads.

If the CEO of a Fortune 500 company has time for a weekly podcast, you definitely have time to post on LinkedIn.

Adam Robinson bootstrapped RB2B from $0 to $7.5M ARR using LinkedIn as his main growth channel. After studying his journey for days, here's what makes his founder-led content play one of the best I've ever seen:

𝗕𝗔𝗖𝗞𝗚𝗥𝗢𝗨𝗡𝗗

Adam Robinson has built three successful companies from the ground up:

• Robly Email Marketing: built and exited for 8 figures after 9 years
• Retention(dot)com: scaled to $20M ARR with zero funding
• RB2B: launched Sept 2023, now at $7.5M ARR

RB2B seems to have grown the fastest. And it was built (almost) entirely through his personal LinkedIn presence. Here's what he did differently:

𝟭. 𝗛𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁-𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁 𝗳𝗶𝘁 

Adam had been building a LinkedIn audience for twelve months trying to sell e-commerce tools through Retention(dot)com. The content helped his reputation in that space, but it wasn't booking him demos.

Adam asked his consultant at the time: "Do you mind if I just start writing for B2B people like myself that we'd be selling into?"

Before his pivot, posts averaged 50-70 likes. His first B2B post about why "BDR wasn't working anymore" hit 3,000 likes.

He also wrote about why the predictable revenue model was dead. It was controversial but resonated. 

His followers exploded from 20,000 to 40,000 in 7 days.

Adam's test: "If these do well, then I know how to write on LinkedIn. If they don't, then I'm still sort of lost." 

𝟮. 𝗛𝗲 𝘄𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗶𝗻 𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗽𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗰𝘆

Adam shared everything. Revenue. P&L statements. Churn rates. Failures.

When RB2B hit a wall, he publicly declared it "dead" on LinkedIn. When 6sense sent him a cease-and-desist letter, he posted it directly & got 1,600+ likes and 900+ comments.

He maintains a public Baremetrics dashboard showing real-time revenue.

𝟯. 𝗛𝗲 𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗯𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝗮 𝗳𝘂𝗹𝗹-𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝗷𝗼𝗯

This is the part most people miss.

Adam spends a big part of his working hours on his personal brand. Posts daily. Spends a lot of his writing time just on hooks. Invests money into working with amazing consultants like Alec Paul.

He built a 2,000-person waitlist before RB2B even launched. Today he has 140,000+ followers and drives a big portion of RB2B's traffic through LinkedIn alone.

Paid ads got no ROI (or at least not enough to justify the $100K/month spend). LinkedIn organic founder-led content was one of the main things that worked.

𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗥𝗕𝟮𝗕 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗼𝗱𝗮𝘆

• $1M ARR in 16 weeks
• $7.5M ARR by February 2026

Adam said it himself: "Building a personal brand on LinkedIn is the fastest, most efficient, and highest leverage way to grow a startup that has ever existed."

Most founders post for 3 months, see slow results, and quit.

Adam posted for a long time before finding his voice & first "big win"

Then he doubled down.

PS. I recorded a 27-min breakdown analyzing his entire content playbook in depth.

Comment “RB2B” and I’ll send it your way :)

This $300M ARR SaaS company recently shared that they have 15+ employees posting content on LinkedIn, 5 of them with 20K+ followers. Here's why EGC is the most underpriced channel in B2B:

I am talking about ClickUp. Their "EGC" aka. employee generated content playbook is worth paying attention to. Here are some of the people behind the movement:

→ Chris Cunningham (Founding Member, 32K followers) is the architect behind the whole program and posts about it publicly. He shares takedowns of outdated marketing playbooks, creator-led growth case studies, and origin stories from ClickUp's earliest days.

→ Zeb Evans (Founder and CEO, 55K followers) posts his personal founder journey. Laptop notes from 2013, AI agents saving him 4-5 hours a day, bets he made before anyone else was paying attention.

→ Kyle Coleman (Global VP of Marketing, 144K followers) shares revenue-org playbooks. How to do pre-call research, SDR tactics, pipeline wins. The kind of content you only get from someone who's actually doing the work.

→ Gaurav Agarwal (COO, 19K followers) owns the milestone posts. G2 awards, 11 straight quarters of growth, $300M ARR. Clean, proud, and team-first. COO-level transparency that builds trust inside + outside the company.

→ Trent Wakefield,(Commercial Account Executive, 21K followers) posts the frontline AE life. Super Agents with names and personalities, sales mindset, personal stories. Raw sales content.

These are not ClickUp posts. They are Zeb posts. Kyle posts. Gaurav posts. Trent posts.

A group of experts documenting their day-to-day work. None of them are directly pitching ClickUp. They don't have to.

Since they publish content around their work-life & interests, the products they use naturally become part of the conversation. Turns out all of them use ClickUp.

In doing so, they become the bridge between an audience that trusts them and the company they work for.

One more thing worth noticing: almost every active ClickUp employee on LinkedIn has the same style profile picture:

→ Clear background 
→ Corporate headshot
→ Looking straight into the camera

But there's a twist. A lot of them wear a superhero ClickUp mask in the brand colors. 🦸🏻

This is a great way to create brand familiarity across employees and to actually stand out in the LinkedIn feed.

I see other companies do this with just background colors or emojis in employee names. But I really like how ClickUp is executing on this.

As Chris said himself “your team is your distribution engine. Start using it.”

Plus, your company page will never have what your people have:

→ peers who relate to them
→ personal networks built over years
→ stories from real life experience

Founder-led content is powerful.
Employee-led content is how you scale it.

ClickUp clearly understands this, who else does it well?

Sam Parr is leaving money on the table with LinkedIn. If I were running his profile, here's what I'd do to turn it into Hampton's nr.1 acquisition channel:

𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝟭: 𝗙𝗶𝘅 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗳𝗶𝗹𝗲

At the moment, Sam's profile isn't doing any work:

• No Hampton value prop
• No CTA in bio
• No Hampton promo in featured section
• No custom URL to the "Are you a fit?" form
  
If someone discovers Sam and lands on his profile, theres no context about Hampton nor guidance on how to apply. 

You don't need a corny purpose statement. But at least include some CTAs to drive traffic to the application form.

𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝟮: 𝗟𝗶𝘀𝘁 𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻

Hampton's ICP is already crystal clear: founders and CEOs of tech-enabled companies doing $3M+ in revenue, $3M+ in funding, or a $10M+ exit.

These people spend a lot of time on LinkedIn (lucky for us).

So the move is simple: segment them by location, industry, etc., build simple lead-lists, and start sending blank connection requests through a tool like HeyReach.io

𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝟯: 𝗕𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝗮 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗘𝗻𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗲

Sam posts a lot. His humor is authentic. You can tell it's actually him. But there's no clear system behind it.

He's also sitting on a goldmine of member stories and barely tapping into them. Great raw material. Not being used to its full potential.

I would organize everything into four content pillars:

• Tactical: Founder advice from building The Hustle and Hampton, plus proven member playbooks
• Aspirational: Case studies and success stories of Hampton members
• Insightful: Sam's take on trends and shifts in the founder space
• Personal: Building in public on all things Hampton
  
With that base, you can still sprinkle in off-the-cuff content on top.

(don't get me started on the potential of lead magnets...)

𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝟰: 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘁 𝗦𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘀 𝘃𝗶𝗮 𝗗𝗠𝘀

Sam already gets strong impressions. The question is what happens after someone engages.

I'd place an appointment setter in his DMs and use an external tool to track ICP LinkedIn signals (profile views, engagement, followers)

The setter now has a warm lead list to work through daily.

𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝟱: 𝗥𝘂𝗻 𝗔𝗱𝘀 𝗔𝗴𝗮𝗶𝗻𝘀𝘁 𝗕𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗢𝗿𝗴𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗰 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁

Once we have 3-4 months of organic content data, I'd boost the best-performing posts as thought leadership ads (focused on Hampton case studies). 

I'd target the same ICP list from above + retargeting layer.

I'd also make sure every ad includes a CTA to the Hampton form.

𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝟲: 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗢𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗧𝗲𝗮𝗺 𝗠𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿𝘀

Once this is working, I'd apply the same playbook to other Hampton team members to multiply the reach and signals beyond Sam's account.

Sam, you’ve built something awesome (& I love MFM). The audience is there. The stories are there. LinkedIn could be one of Hampton’s biggest growth channels.

LMK if you need help with building this out. That's our bread and butter at notus.

PS: connection request still pending :D

James Sweeney

AE @ Jargon Group 🧑‍💻 Founder of Sweeney’s Blogs 💬 Changemaker for The Youth Group 👐 Digital Storyteller 📚

Wondered what it feels like to jump out of a plane at 12,000 feet? 🪂

I’m James Sweeney, it’s lovely to meet you! 

Growing up in the Swansea valleys, I’m incredibly passionate about people - whether it’s our culture, background, passions or the ways in which we process and understand the world around us, it’s something that absolutely fascinates me 🌍

Having gone through life as somebody with a stutter, in addition to facing troubles with my physical and mental health, one of my biggest aspirations in life is to help shape a community in which I can help as many people as possible. 

I’m a very keen writer, starting my own blog page in 2018, called Sweeney’s Blogs, where I shine a spotlight on the topics that genuinely mean something to each and every one of us as people. The page has become a key part of my life, and is one of the reasons how I found out about LinkedIn too, as it goes ✍️

I run a weekly series here called Sweeney’s Song of the Week. For these posts, I shout out some incredible people, mixing in my love for music and making the world a better place at the same time. 

In October 2018, I jumped out of a plane at 12,000 feet raising over £900 for The Alzheimer’s Society, which has to be one of the best (and scariest!) experiences of my life 🪂

Do you want to join me on my journey! Be sure to drop me a request and a message, I’d love a chat. 

Thanks for checking out my profile and I hope you have a cracking day 👋

Changemaker

A Sweeney in Gloucester...

Last weekend, 25 of us from the undefinable community travelled over to Gloucester for our Winter 2026 Retreat ☃️

Wonderfully organised by Cat, Jamie and Robert, this trip was focused on our shared value of Emotional Bravery. 

Here are some of my highlights from the trip ⤵️

🎧 Dan and Sanya ran us through a fab session all about music, and how it can trigger emotions that a lot of people aren't even conscious of at first. 

😊 Running the Saturday evening activity, all about the emotion of joy, with my fantastic co-host Emanuele Maccotta. 

Bringing people together and being intentional in talking about what brings us genuine happiness in life was so much fun to do - it's definitely something I'll be doing a lot more moving forward!

👐 Seeing the range of emotions covered was fascinating to me, with sessions on surprise, fear, sadness, joy, anger, love and a whole load more. 

Plus, seeing how everyone made space for one another, regardless of how they were feeling, was so wonderful to see. 

Emotional bravery, for me, is all about embracing conversations and experiences with honesty, connection and growth, even when staying guarded or perfectly polished may seem easier.

This was my ninth retreat with the Undefinables, and boy, what a journey these last three years have been. I wouldn't have it any other way 🩵

As Head of the Cleaning team too, very happy with how everyone got stuck in and helped out. Solid work team 🫡

Let's see what retreat number ten has in store, then! 

What does emotional bravery mean to you?

How's your week going so far?

I'd love to hear what you think 😁

Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a lovely day!

PR and Comms Professional 🧑‍💻 Founder of Sweeney’s Blogs 💬 Mentor at One Million Mentors 👐 Digital Storyteller 📚

Want to know one of the most underrated parts of LinkedIn?

Connecting with and getting to know people from all over the world 🌍

I've been posting triweekly here for around seven years now, and in that time, I've had the pleasure of speaking to people from so many countries. 

Whether it's:

🇺🇸 Aidan, Carson, Manny, Sarah, and so many more from the US of A
🇩🇰 andreas and the Shield team out in Denmark
🇳🇿 Hamish, Lachie and the guys over in New Zealand

This is without even mentioning people originally from the UK who have moved overseas, like Ashley and Zack (Dubai), Joe (Thailand), Karla (Bali), and Joe (Florida). 

I could add way more names to the list, but I think you get where I'm coming from here 😂

Every person has their own stories, perspectives and cultures, and every conversation teaches you something new.

Content creation isn’t just about broadcasting your thoughts out into the world. It’s the listening, learning, and understanding experiences beyond your own that helps you become a better storyteller 🤝

One post from a small village in South Wales can reach people in Auckland, Copenhagen and even Texas.

It's crazy when you think about it 🤯

I get to be in the position where I can travel the world, and because of LinkedIn, meet up with so many fantastic people - it's such a cool thing to do. 

I am forever incredibly grateful for all the amazing people I have met and will go on to meet through this platform. 

Here's to loads more meet-ups, conversations and good times to come 😎

Who’s someone you’ve met through LinkedIn that you never would have crossed paths with otherwise?

I'd love to hear your thoughts 😊

Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a lovely day!

When you wake up knowing it's Pancake Day... 🥞

Time for Sweeney’s Song of the Week 🎵 🎶 

Every week, I pick a “Song of the Week”, which I feel perfectly reflects the news and events of the last seven days.

This week’s song: You’re Gonna Miss This - Trace Adkins

What’s in this week’s Sweeney Summary?

👉 Alex announced the rebrand of his business, from Truenorth to Rumbo - it’s been fab following along with this journey for you so far, Alex, can’t wait to see what’s coming next 🕺🏼 

👉 Chi announced that she has joined beehiiv as a Global Social Lead - huge congratulations Chi, hope you’re settling in okay 💃

👉 Freddie shared that he and the team at Ingrained Digital have just signed on their first fixed HQ in London. 

This sounds like a super exciting time for you all, Freddie!! Congratulations🥳

👉 I had a lovely introductory call with Matthew this week - so good to get a chat in Matt, here’s to loads more to come 🤝 
 
👉 Jack and the Tank team helped run a session, encouraging students at Nottingham to enter into a career in PR. 

Watching how this industry is evolving and how we can help improve the entryways for future generations is such a fascinating thing to chat about to me 🙌

Comms/ PR Tip of the Week: When working with freelancers, particularly remotely, how we phrase emails (on both sides!) really matters.

It’s easy for tone to get lost — whether that’s around a brief, constructive feedback, or a quick question that’s been typed in a rush. 

Taking a moment to reread a message and think, “How else could this land?” can make a huge difference to morale and trust. Thanks a lot to James for getting me thinking about this! 

Quote of the Week: “Don’t worry about the failures, worry about the chances you miss when you don’t try” - Jack Canfield

How’s your week been? What’s your song of the week? 

I’d love to hear your thoughts ⤵️

Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a lovely day!

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The Battle

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James Sweeney

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The Battle

Marvin Sanginés

James Sweeney

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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);}Marvin Sanginés's LinkedIn Performance

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