CEO at GroLink.io & Gro3.io I Get more leads with AI

Data leader with 10+ years amplifying brands like Apple, Google, Uber, and Amazon through actionable insights. At Engine, I launched our London strategic research practice and unified fragmented data into a singular analytics platform. I founded data & insights teams at Social Chain and Flight Story. As Flight Story's Chief Data Officer, I unveiled the Flight Deck platform, addressing market intelligence gaps for clients. I actively invest in digital startups and speak on AI, Web3, and branding. With certifications in data science, I build with Python and SQL and am experienced in OpenAI's API. I thrive on transforming challenges into success in fast-paced settings.

McVal Osborne

we built a free tool for GroLink that audits any linkedin profile in 10 seconds. engagement rate benchmarked against audience size, top performing posts, content mix, posting consistency.

no login. no email. paste any profile URL and see what prospects actually see.

been using it to audit prospect profiles too, which is a whole other use case. knowing what someone engages with before you message them changes the conversation.

check it out here >> https://lnkd.in/e7_cFgVN

Co-Founder, Crest Labs | Building Human-Centric AI Automation Tools | Former CDO @ Flight Story

nobody cares about your roadmap.

they care about the problem they walked in with.

solve that first. then you've earned the right to show them what's next.

the fastest way to lose a deal: answer the question you wish they'd asked instead of the one they actually asked.

everyone hates linkedin automation tools. and they're right to.

the reputation is earned. spray-and-pray connection requests. copy-paste messages to 500 people. "hey [first_name], noticed we're both in [industry]" templates that fool absolutely nobody.

the linkedin automation industry built its reputation on volume over relevance. and now the whole category pays the price. even tools doing genuinely different things get lumped in with the spam machines.

but they're conflating automation with human-in-the-loop ai tools that actually drive engagement engagement.

automation = doing things to people at scale. sending messages they didn't ask for. connecting with people you'll never talk to. blasting sequences.

engagement = doing things with people consistently. commenting on their posts. sharing their work with your take. building familiarity before you ever ask for anything.

these are fundamentally different activities. but because they both happen on linkedin and both involve tools, people assume they're the same thing.

spray-and-pray automation response rates have been declining for years. linkedin actively detects and restricts it. recipients are numb to it.

engagement-first outreach leads to response rates 3-5x higher than cold. linkedin's algorithm actually rewards it (better comments boost your visibility). recipients remember you.

the future of linkedin outreach isn't more automation. it's better engagement with less automation.

the tools that win won't be the ones that help you message 1000 people. they'll be the ones that help you engage meaningfully with 50 of the right people.

the companies that understand this distinction early will own the next wave. the ones that keep building spam tools will keep poisoning the well for everyone.

i lost a deal last week because i was too excited about the wrong thing.

a prospect reached out asking about one of our tools. a specific one. they'd seen it, they had questions, they were interested.

but i'd been deep in building something else. a different product. better market fit, clearer use case, more interesting problem. i was genuinely pumped about it.

so when we got on the call, i led with the thing i was excited about. not the thing they asked about.

the conversation went flat. they asked polite questions. then went quiet.

two days later: "not the right fit for us right now."

here's what took me a full day to accept:
they didn't ask about my new thing. they asked about the thing they found. and instead of answering their question, i answered the question i wished they'd asked.

the tactical lesson is simple:
answer the question they came with first.
solve the problem they know they have.
then expand to what you're excited about.
not before.

the emotional lesson is harder:
your enthusiasm isn't the sale. their problem is the sale.

when a prospect asks about x, they're not ready to hear why y is better. they're ready to hear that you understand why they need x.

i've been in sales for years. i still made this mistake. the excitement of building something new overrode the basics of listening.

the fix isn't complicated. it's just hard to remember when you're genuinely excited about what you're building.

keeping this one pinned for the next time i get too pumped about the wrong thing on a call.

Hey I’m Ash 👋🏻 

I’m the Founder at Great Influence where we work with brilliant entrepreneurs helping build their personal brand, tell their story and share their ideas to millions of people on social.

I’ve been helping entrepreneurs to do this for the last 10 years and have had the honour of leading personal brand strategy, social and content for some of the best in business including:

- Steven Bartlett. The Diary Of A CEO & Dragons Den
- Gary Neville. Founder @ Relentless Group & Sky Sports Broadcaster
- Matthew Syed. Best-Selling Author
- Jordan Brompton. Founder @ myenergi & Entrepreneur Of The Year 2022
- Julian Hearn. Founder @ Huel
- John Amaechi. Sunday Times Best-Selling Author & Founder @ APS Intelligence
- Sacha Lord. Founder @ Parklife + The Warehouse Project
- Katy Leeson. CEO @ Relentless Media
- Thomas Hal Robson-Kanu. Founder @ The Turmeric Co & Sports Broadcaster. 
- Oliver Cookson. Founder @ Myprotein
- Natalie Wills. VP @ Booking .com
- Debbie Wosskow OBE. Founder @ Allbright
- Carrie Rose. CEO @ Rise At Seven

Ash Jones

Exhibit A - How to use CEO content well 
Exhibit B - How to use CEO content badly 

McDonalds & Burger King are both going viral this week for the stark difference in how they are doing CEO content.

McDonald’s CEO looks like he’s been forced against his will to eat a burger that he describes as “the product”.

Burger King have captured their CEO in a genuine moment that isn’t forced and comes across as fun.

CEO content is being leveraged by the worlds biggest brands now, but there is an actual art to doing it well. 

One brand knows that what people want to see is the CEO in genuine moments and have managed to capture that perfectly.

The other has forced their CEO to sit down and create some content they were probably never on board with doing in the first place.

Personal Brand Advisor & Founder at Great Influence.

THE VIRAL CEO BURGER BATTLE! 

After McDonalds CEO went viral and Burger King’s responded, other fast food chain CEOs have now started making burger-tasting content.

I won’t lie, I absolutely love this! 

I feel like CEO content needed a viral moment that gave brands a use-case. 

After an initial pile-on (including from myself), people are actually loving the McDonald’s CEO and how the brand themselves responded by getting in on the fun was brilliant (They promoted the new burger with the caption “Take a bite of our new product”). 

What was bad yesterday has turned good thanks to smart & reactive brand comms. 

Everyone is a winner from this viral moment that started with McDonald’s being brave enough to do CEO content that has earned them insane organic reach globally. 

I can’t wait to see what comes next for CEO content. 

🍔

Imagine you hired a Head of Marketing and their first suggestions drove $1m in pipeline in the first quarter. You'd want to know what they did right? 

The answer:

Executive Content. 

Kristen van Laren was that Head of Marketing hire.

She identified something that was already having great impact (their CEO talking to customers, investors and partners every day) and scaled it. 

Here's her takeaways from implementing a system for Exec Content that drove nearly a million dollars in pipeline in one quarter: 

1. They made it low friction for the CEO. Voice notes, memo's, things he was saying in meetings. 
2. They spent time getting the strategy right first. From positioning to messaging. So many people overlook this and don't have a strategy!
3. They turned it into a repeatable process to avoid having to be creative for every new piece of content. 
4. They were patient. Month one was slow but by month three they started to see compounding returns.

I believe that Exec Content is going to be the Head of Marketing's secret weapon in 2026 and Kristen's post will be the first of many we see on here in the next few months 👏🏻

Every brand that sells burgers has put their CEO in front of a camera this week but there could be a real domino effect trend if a non-burger brand spots the opportunity 💡

graphical user interface, text, application

Most founders want to build a presence on LinkedIn. 
But it almost always falls to the bottom of the to-do list.

The issue isn’t wanting to do it, it’s making the process of it easier. 

Here is how to make posting on LinkedIn effortless:

1. Stop waiting for a grand idea

Trying to write the "best post ever" is a trap. Instead, just look at what is happening around you. 

Open your calendar on a Friday and review your week and write out a list of ideas that you could potentially turn into a post. 

2. Time-block 20 minutes

20 minutes is all you need to ideate and write a couple of posts. But if you haven’t scheduled the time for it, it probably won’t get done. Do not leave it to an ad-hoc thing you will do on the day you want to post. 

3. Create several posts in one go

Where most people fall down is creating post by post. If you can get a bank created it will not only save you time but also make being consistent easier. 

4. Steal from yourself

You don’t need a brand new idea every day. Every few months, review your past content. Take a post that performed well, update it slightly, and post it again. The people who see it today will likely be different from those who saw it 3 months ago.

Founders, what is your biggest struggle when it comes to posting on LinkedIn? I would love to know.

taplio

The Battle

McVal Osborne

Ash Jones

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Performance ScoreMcVal Osborne's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreAsh Jones's LinkedIn Performance

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taplio

The Battle

McVal Osborne

Ash Jones

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

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);}McVal Osborne's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreAsh Jones's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreMcVal Osborne's LinkedIn Performance