Demandii

Content Producer Manager

• In charge of creating social media (primarily LinkedIn) content on a monthly basis for a book of 16 clients across 14 industries
• Conducting in-depth research into each client's industry to understand their audience's needs, as well as highlighting trends and noteworthy news items
• Creating 20+ pieces of social content per month per client based on said research. This includes finding/sourcing images, writing captions, creating polls, text pieces and PDF carousel content.
• Creating video/text prompts to then conduct a 1-hour session per month per client to capture video content to edit down to 60-90 second clips
• Liaising with the post-production team to make sure that materials are properly produced
• QAing content once it has all been assembled to then send off to the client for approval
• Liaising with clients to field inquiries as they come up, as well as provide monthly reporting based on their content's performance
• Keeping up-to-date with LinkedIn's algorithm changes to ensure the content I produced is optimized for the platform

Content Producer

Double Density Podcast

Co-host, editor and outreach coordinator for the Double Density podcast - a biweekly podcast centered around tech news and paranormal topics, co-hosted by Angelo Fiorentino, with over 150,000 downloads across 150 episodes. 

Guests have included Casey Liss of the Accidental Tech Podcast, Rob Kristoffersen of Our Strange Skies, author Ian Rogers (Netflix's forthcoming "Every House Is Haunted"), Richard "Spanners" Ready (BBC and Missed Apex podcast), scifi author/pop culture commentator Dan Moren and more. 

New episodes every other Wednesday. Available on all major streaming platforms.

Creator

LANDR Audio Inc.

• In charge of product and marketing copy for the company's flagship mastering product, as well as its music distribution service, and general platform offerings. This includes website and campaign landing page content, promotional and transactional emails, video scripts, in-app modals, FAQ articles, social media posts, ad copy and more
• Working closely with both the design and video teams for the creation and production of assets
• Liaising with various internal stakeholders to ensure that their expectations are met while providing copy of a superior quality that both adheres to industry best practices and is optimized for SEO
• Being a representative of the creative team during weekly product update meetings
• Occasionally providing voice-over for video content

Copywriter

Vision Group Canada 

Primary duties included:
• Creating a variety of assets to fulfill a variety of needs, from technical documents to marketing materials
• Crafting content that includes website copy (including blog articles), email campaigns (both customer journey and one-offs), social media posts, collateral for consumer-facing consumption (from top-of-funnel advertising in a variety of channels to post-procedure communications)  as well as internal documentation
• Ensuring that materials delivered are of a superior quality, while maintaining brand tone/voice and respecting provincial advertising guidelines
• Proofreading assets to ensure that they are grammatically correct while maintaining brand tone/voice
• Liaising with graphic design studio in discussing layout and the optimization of projects for better results

Additionally, I've also been tasked with additional reputation management-centred responsibilities: 
• Responding to comments and messages sent through our brands' social channels
• Creating a process and maintaining documentation for negative customer experiences to allow for proper follow-up
• Creating documentation and giving presentations to call centre agents on how to respond to social media inquiries 
• Crafting press releases as well as crisis response documents when the situation arises

Copywriter / Reputation Management Facilitator

EDge Interactive

Responsibilities included:

• Created content for SchoolFinder Group websites (SchoolFinder.com / ScholarshipsCanada.com / StudyInCanada.com), including articles, lists and more
• Created, implemented and monitored a social media plan for the SchoolFinder accounts
• Created content for SchoolFinder Group email campaigns, as well as helped coordinate content from outside partners
• Helped plan and schedule email content, as well as QA tested campaigns before being sent
• Led projects to better help the user experience on SchoolFinder websites through layout and function modifications
• Managed a team of editors, who were tasked with updating our scholarship and school databases

Content Specialist

Primary duties included:

• Client support
- Supplied our clients with ongoing help and support as it relates to the ezRecruit product 
- Provided training to new clients on how to best utilize the ezRecruit environment
- Liaison for all ezRecruit clients in Eastern Canada

• Project Management
- Aided in the development of ezRecruit tools, as well as client-centered projects
- Assisted new clients in the implementation and deployment of the ezRecruit product
- Co-ordinated with developers, creative team and other internal stakeholders to ensure completion of projects

• Documentation
- Created documentation for both internal best practices, as well as for the purposes of client training and support

Project Manager ezRecruit CRM

Musicdad Artist Management

Responsibilities included:
• Helped guide musical acts towards greater visibility and success through a variety of avenues, and ensure that creative and business decisions get dealt with
• Protected acts' best interests when it comes to negotiating deals with outside entities
• Promoted acts in all appropriate matters
• Booked and promoted acts in appropriate venues, both locally and nationally
• Helped maintain acts' social media presence
• Co-ordinated with press in order to generate opportunities for acts
• Explored cross-promotional branding opportunities, as well as other mutually-beneficial business opportunities

Acts managed include Montreal-based garage folk band Po Lazarus and rock act Rogue Sundown.

Band Manager / Artist Relations

Concordia University

Primary duties included:

• Created and scheduled content for official university Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts
• Produced written content for a variety of recruitment materials
• Created and implemented a social media and marketing strategy with an eye towards a recruitment perspective
• Helped create a digital strategy to mirror the life cycle of a prospective student to figure out when to best serve them content at appropriate times
• Responded to inquiries from interested parties through social media and email
• Engaged in recruitment events, both on- and off-campus. This included leading presentations in front of prospective students and interested parties, as well as visiting schools and other educational forums in order to represent the university
• Used tools (such as Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign and HTML) in order to merge written content and create aesthetically-pleasing graphic content and layout for use for social media, the web, as well as newsletters and other electronic and print media
• Utilized Search Engine Optimization in order to allow our webpages to gain better visibility
• Helped produce, direct and edit videos for promotional use
• Trained staff and student volunteers for a number of projects, including our annual Open House event and our student caller initiative
• On occasion, took appointments with prospective students and informed them of their university career options

Recruitment Communications Specialist

Hot and fresh industry-specific content creation, delivered to your destination of choice.

Be it written, audio or video, the Brian Hastie Content Truck™ will be at your door when you need it most.

Brian Hastie

Founders: You’re not scared of the camera. 
You’re scared of being seen.

I’ve seen it in every founder and CEO’s eyes on day one when we start working together at Demandii.

They say, “I just need help with creating and posting content.” 

But when the camera turns on, what shows up isn’t lack of content.

It’s fear.

Fear of judgment. 
Fear of sounding stupid. 
Fear of finally showing what they really think.

It’s normal to feel that way if you’ve never had to be in a position to “deliver”.

(I used to be the same way before I put myself through dozens of hours of practice to get comfortable with “showing up.” And then sometimes that self-doubt creeps up, but I've had enough training to be able to pause and let muscle memory kick in)

That’s why we practice together in private.
Only the client and I get to see the end result until they’re good with scheduling it.

Because once you stop performing and start talking like a human, the whole game changes.

You don’t just get better videos.

You get a voice you actually trust.

And that’s what separates loud founders from real ones.

Confidence in delivery. Clarity in thought. Trust in communication.

Helping busy CEOs create all their short-form content from a monthly 1 hr interview. -> Demandii.com + podcaster and writer about all things tech and pop culture

No alternative text description for this image

Fact: People generally forget about 90% of what they’ve learned after a seven-day span. What does that mean for founders? Find out now:

What makes exceptional founders different from great ones? Hint: It’s all about the story (or stories) they tell.

We're growing!
Message me if you're interested.

I help CEOs create all their snackable LinkedIn content in 1 hr/month -> Demandii.com

We are hiring (again)!  Highlights:
-> $90,000 (CAD dollars)
-> Up to $39,000 in performance-based bonuses available!
-> 5-weeks vacation (from day 1)
-> Tons of autonomy
-> Work from Home (100% virtual)
-> Full-time (Mon-Fri)

This is great for agency AEs or B2B marketing strategy directors/leaders tired of the corporate hamster wheel. 

We are looking for people who are great at:

- Building rapport quickly and getting people to open up
- Confidently be able to run a call in a structured way
- Are comfortable sitting at the executive table
- Can coach a CEO (without being intimidated)
- Understand B2B enterprise sales cycles
- Love fast-paced environments
- Understand executive KPIs

Day-to-day responsibilities:

- You will interview (digitally) busy CEOs
- You'll manage a client book of 10-12 clients
- You'll turn that interview into snackable social media content (videos, text, images)

Your team will include two post-production people who will help with administrative tasks, graphic design, video editing, etc.

Bonus points if you have the following experience:

- worked at an agency before
- social copywriting experience
- have participated in Meme battles
- have demand gen experience with B2B
- understand the INs and OUTs of social networking & social selling
- can go head-to-head with other executives & understand C-Suite objectives
- know how to sell into complicated high-ticket B2B enterprise sales environments

If you have all the above experience, I'll (probably) hire you on the spot.

As long as you are not boring or beige. You must have some personality to fit in with our oddball culture.

Do not apply if:

- if you do not live in Canada
- if you don't love social media
- if you can't manage a calendar
- if you can't work independently
- if you don't even know the different C-Suite titles
- if you don't have any B2B marketing or sales experience
- if you are not competitive with board games (you’re out!)


If this sounds like your dream career, then here is how you apply:

1—Leave an interesting comment on this post (or DM if you are worried about your workplace finding out you are applying for this killer career opportunity).

2—Email Matthew at Matthew@demandii.com with a subject line that stands out.

3—In the email, explain why you are perfect for the job with a 60-second selfie video. The video does not need any fancy editing. If you can't make a 60-second video of yourself, you will not be right for this role.

4—In the email, include a link to your LI profile in that email.

5—Do not attach your resume. We don't read them. If you send it to us, we will ding you a point for not being able to follow instructions.

PS—Applying is a small test of your attention to detail. If you can't do this, trust me, you won't be able to do this job.

Founders who partner with the right media coach can unlock much more than great content assets. Here’s what else they can expect:

I used to think our clients had “messaging” problems when it came to talking to their prospects.
But... they didn’t.

They actually had translation problems.

They and their teams would tell the same story in every sales call.
Same deck, same examples, same phrasing.
This was an issue for those clients selling into mid-market buyer, or an enterprise team.

And every time, they’d say the same thing afterward:
“It’s weird, some people totally get it, others just stare blankly.”

And it was always the same positions who got it, and the same they couldn't win over.

Here’s the truth I learned working with founders at Demandii:
The message isn’t broken. The mirror is.

Think about a B2B SaaS product and how a founder pitches it.

Same story, over and over, and some folks will be invested and others will just write you off.

The CFO doesn’t care about your bold vision. They want risk off the table.
The CMO wants a story they can repeat to their team.
The CTO just wants to know your tool won’t break their stack.

Same product. Same offer.
Completely different story.

At Demandii, we help founders build the muscle to create story systems that flex, with one strong point of view, translated across every pertinent ICP.

We pull your core truths out of your head, then show you how to tell it three different ways depending on who’s across the table.

When that clicks, everything changes.
You stop pitching. You start connecting with the different stakeholders you meet during the sales process.

Because the best founders don’t say more.
They just say it in the language their buyer already speaks.

Most founders think they need more content.
What they really need, though, is clarity in thinking. Here's what I mean:

I once started working a client… and it was tough.

Month one: Each video was a 5-6 minute take.
Lots of pauses. Restarts.
Second guesses.
“Um”s  and “ah”s everywhere.

(It was only natural, too. Learning to speak in 60-90 second bursts and being concise are some of the hardest things you have to nail.)

But the good news is that we all need to start somewhere.

Six months later...

He’s at an industry event, with a 5-minute spot onstage talking about who he helps and how he helps solve his customers' problems.

And that 5-minute spot was clicking with his audience of both peers and prospects. 

How do we know that?

When he finished, he manage to get a few leads from folks coming up to speak to him.

Practicing privately and getting rewarded publicly.

That's an added benefit of having a media coach.

You can't direct a movie and act in it at the same time. (Very very few people can do this properly. And even then they could benefit from having an outside pro on their side.)

At Demandii, yes, you get LinkedIn posts.

But more than that, you find your voice.

You learn to think clearly under pressure.

You start sounding like the founder people trust to lead.

This is what a media coach does.

And this is what most founders are missing.

There’s one thing that exceptional founders are able to do that helps them close more deals (especially when selling into mid-market and enterprise).

Founders and CEOs partner with Demandii because they want content. What they actually get out of their time with us, though, is something else too:

The Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve says people forget 90% of what they learn in seven days. What does that mean for founders?

Their buyers don’t remember their clever new positioning from last week.

Most can’t even recall your company’s name.

So founders rewrite their message every quarter, thinking it keeps things fresh.

Trying to attract (and retain) eyeballs.

In reality, they’re erasing the very memory they’re trying to build.

Nike still says “Just do it.”
KFC still says “Finger lickin’ good.”

They stick with what works.

In a world where attention fades fast, only persistence makes you memorable.

If you’re tired of repeating yourself, good. You’re finally starting to brand.

And being persistent is the game when it comes to creating your personal brand, too.

Being able to confidently state who you help and how you help them and making sure that message is clear, distinct and repeated means you can burrow yourself into prospects' minds.

Here’s the real takeaway: Keep it simple, and stay consistent.

Better to hammer the point home and have people remember you over time, than to feel like you’re being too clever, but ultimately forgettable.

Founders and CEOs who are looking to refine their messaging need to understand this one basic principle (that also applies to creating content):

“Brian, why do you get me to tell the same story over and over again?”
My client looked slightly annoyed. 

He was a founder I was working with, and this was our fourth month of creating content.

He wasn’t alone, either.

This question comes up all the time after the first few months of helping founders create content, once they start to understand the rhythm.

I realized I had failed him and the end result was a lack of connecting the dots about what we were doing and why it mattered.

Dots I should have already looped together.

I hadn’t taken the time to break down the formula for effective founder-led content, and while it feels like it’s the “same story” over and over, it’s actually not.

The reality is this:

When you create content, all roads lead to the founder’s solution, aka their platform or service.

But the road to get there is where the gold lies, especially when you’re selling into mid-market and enterprise, where you need to multi-thread your relationships.

How do you do that?

You pick an avatar (the ICP you want to speak to), and come up with an analogy (for example, a problem you’ve seen the same ICP in another company face) and tie it together to your solution.

The best founders I’ve worked with become armed with a ton of analogies that make their talking points personalized.

Then they deploy them at just the right time, to the right person.

And then when it’s time to get to the crucial contract signing stage, every stakeholder on the ICP’s side feels heard, seen, and understood.

There’s power in being able to learn how to tell those stories effectively.

What makes a successful personal brand for founders vs. a failing one? It’s all about reverse-engineering your end result.

Matthew Hunt

Demandii - LinkedIn Demand Generation Agency

Demandii.com helps busy CEOs create all their content for LinkedIn from a monthly 1-hr interview so they can stay top of mind with their warm networks and become micro-celebrities in their niche. 

🚀 HOW WE DO IT:

Step 1: (CaaS - Content as a service)

We meet with the busy CEOs monthly and interview them.   We ONLY need them for 1 hour. 

This interview creates 20 snackable pieces of content:  video posts, text posts, image posts, etc. 

Then, we send that content to the CEO for approval and feedback. This process takes them about 30 minutes to put any final touches on it, so the voice is on point.  

Then, we schedule and post (do all the tedious stuff CEOs should never do) to ensure they are consistent on LinkedIn. 

Step 2: (LI ads)

Should our clients want more eyeballs on their content from their ICPs, we help them sponsor it.

This helps them be SEEN and become micro-celebrities in their niches. 

Step 3: (Leads)

Should our clients want more leads, we help them create a monthly LI event (long-form content) to get more inbound leads and build demand for their products/services. 

🤝 WHOM DO WE WORK WITH:

We work with anyone who sees LinkedIn as a core channel. We work directly with the CEO or founder. 

🌐 LEARN MORE:

Demandii.com

Founder

People love having me speak at their conferences, virtual events, and on their podcasts because I have a no-bullshit approach to helping others avoid the mistakes I've made over the years. 

Here's my journey:

2000-2007: Acting on stages worldwide, I needed to make more money, so I resorted to serving tables and door-to-door merchant account sales.  

2008: My gateway drug for self-improvement was discovered after joining a spammy multi-level marketing company. Read 100 self-improvement books to get my head out of my ass. I never made a dime with MLN. 

2009: I taught myself how to run ads on Google after reading Perry Marshalls's Definitive Guide to Google Adwords. Then, I became the top salesperson at the payment company because of search ads.

2010: Launched a YouTube channel and taught people how to do Local SEO, then had dozens of small businesses asking me to help. So, I launched my first marketing agency. 

2011-2014: I quickly scaled that agency to 7-figures but barely kept any money because I didn't know what a P/L sheet was.

2014: I merged those agencies with two other local marketing agencies because I struggled to run the business and needed help. I learned from my new partners that my biggest mistake was charging too little.

2015 - 2018: Helped scale Canada's fastest SEM and SEO marketing agency, servicing dozens of Fortune 500 companies. However, my journey got cut short due to partner conflicts, which triggered the shotgun clause.  

2019: I launched a cold outbound agency where we spammed people via email and with LinkedIn bots. I didn't love outbound. 

2020-2021: I tested a new service where I helped busy CEOs create all their LinkedIn content in 1-hour. People loved it! So, I killed the outbound agency and turned it into an LI demand gen agency.

2021-Present: Founder of Demandii.com - a LI demand generation agency.

Entrepreneur, Coach, & Speaker 

Automation Wolf

We started off as a spray-and-pray outbound agency where we automated cold email and cold DMs on LinkedIn; however, after a year of this, we discovered we hated it.  So we began testing, to help busy CEOs create all their snackable content for LinkedIn.  It worked!  We love it! Our clients loved it!  So we are now Demandii.com

Powered by Search

🏦 WHAT WE DO:

We helped enterprise companies make digital marketing work through a new method we called ‘The Intent Engine™’. 

🚀 HOW WE DO IT:

Most online marketers get it all wrong.  They are trying to do SEO, PPC, Content Marketing, Social Media Marketing, etc.. but that is not the problem.  The era of tactics is over. 

The real problem is, none of it works unless you understand what makes your ideal customer’s tick. 

We have created a new way to to do digital marketing that allows our clients to acquire customers at a profit faster. 

When you can acquire a customer faster and better then your competitors you win.  

🤝 WHOM DO WE WORK WITH:

We serve companies who already are heavily invested in digital marketing like SEO, Local SEO, PPC Ads (AdWords, Facebook), etc , but who have never quite found that perfect agency who can make it all work for them. 

📈 WHAT MAKES US DIFFERENT: 

• We are performance-based marketing agency.  So when we WIN, you WIN!

• We ONLY have veterans marketers on our team, who love where they work.  Happy team = happy clients.  So you can have peace of mind you have hired the best talent. 

• We have proven systems and processes that have drive over a billion dollars in sales for our clients, so you don’t have to reinvent the wheel & only invest in proven campaigns.

• We removed all the bloat and are agile so you can get the results you want faster without any red tape. 

✅ HOW IT WORKS: 

STEP 1 - It's easy! Contact us for a quick introduction call, where we can learn more about your marketing needs. 

STEP 2 - If we are a good fit, we’ll work collaboratively with you & your team to come up with the right strategy.  

STEP 3 - We will make sure everything is set up to run a marketing campaign that will please all levels of your team from marketing managers to the C-suite.

STEP 4 - We launch a successful marketing campaign & you become another one of our amazing case studies. 

🌐GET IN TOUCH:

www.poweredbysearch.com

CMO, VP of Sales & Partner

COO & Partner

Small Business Online Coach

🏦 WHAT WE DO:
We help small business gain visibility in Google search and Google Maps, so they can show up for search queries that drive immediate sales. 

🚀 HOW WE DO IT:
Most SMBs who are struggling are doing so because they haven’t focused on getting their business in front of hungry buyers who are on the search engines like Google looking to hire a company like theirs.  

We help SMBs gain that visibility they deserve quickly and with a great review reputation, so they can scale their businesses and worry more about delivering a great product/service vs worrying about where the next sale will come from. 

🤝 WHO DO WE WORK WITH:
We work with all different types of SMBs: Lawyers, Dentists, Chiropractors, Independent E-commerce Stores, Massage Therapists, Accountants, and much more!  

📈 WHAT MAKES US DIFFERENT
• We are leading experts in Local SEO, so you can rank well on Google and Google Maps.
• We are experts with Google AdWords and Facebook Ads so we can immediately drive you more leads in as little as 48 hours. 
• We have created a new way to boost your positive reviews online, so more people will choose you over your competitors. 
• We know how to set up the analytics so you know exactly what is driving your sales and phones calls. 
• We guarantee our services and have no long-term contracts. If you don’t get more leads and sales we’ll refund you your money.

✅ HOW IT WORKS:

STEP 1 - It's easy! Contact us for a quick introduction call, where we can learn more about your marketing needs. 

STEP 2 - If we are a good fit, we’ll work collaboratively with you and your team to come up with the right SEM & SEO strategies.  

STEP 3 - We will make sure everything is set up to run a measurable and successful marketing campaign.

Canada Card Processing (Lead Gen)

This was my gateway drug into marketing.

I built a website to produce leads for my straight commission sales of selling merchant services.

I bought a book called The Definitive Guide to Google Adwords.

Taught myself PPC.
Taught myself SEO.
Taught myself how to build WordPress websites.

Then I got inbound leads for credit card processing.

I got 100s of leads per month.
Then would close them over the phone.

This got me out of door-to-door selling and launched my entrepreneurial journey.

Self Employed (Wantrepreur)

various film & theatre companies

Canadian theatre artist who performed various shows across the globe such as 'The Overcoat' produced by CanStage.

Actor

Amber Restaurant 

I served tables, bartended, and worked the door at a busy high-end nightclub in Yorkville, Toronto. Basically, I served rich and famous people drinks and apps, so I could float my theatre career.

Bartender

Merchant Services Companies 

Sold merchant services door-to-door on straight commission.  I ate what I hunted.

Door to Door Salesperson

I help busy B2B CEOs create all their snackable LinkedIn content from a 1-hour monthly interview. -> Demandii.com

I help busy B2B CEOs create ALL their snackable LinkedIn content from a monthly 1-hr interview each month because their biggest obstacle is time.

Once a CEO gets consistent with publishing daily helpful short-form content, the bi-product is:

- Stay top-of-mind with their warm network.
- Soft touches with their team, prospects, and clients. 
- Forces them to become a more effective communicator.
- Leads to speaking and new media opportunities like being featured on Podcasts and Virtual Summits.

Any time a founder can multiply themselves without taking up all their time is a HUGE WIN!

Personal branding on LinkedIn is an evergreen and compounding strategy that ALL B2B founders need to invest in.

I have battle-tested this process with over 150 CEOs.

It works.

We have the data to prove it.

We have driven over 30 million free impressions for our clients and taught them how to build demand for their services without being slimy or salesy.

See over 100 client testimonials and case studies here: https://www.demandii.com/case-studies

You can see my whole LinkedIn GTM strategy in this 12-minute video at Demandii.com

---

If you are interested in working with me, DM me on LinkedIn 

OR 

book time with me via Demandii.com

Demandii.com helps busy CEOs create all their content for LinkedIn in 1-2 hours per month so they can stay top of mind with their warm networks and become micro-celebrities in their niche. 

🚀 HOW WE DO IT:

We start with three 1-hr workshops to better understand your business and what makes your ICP tick. It's the foundation for creating compelling content.

Then, we meet with the busy CEOs monthly and interview them on a tool like Zoom.   We ONLY need them for 1 hour. 

This interview creates 20 snackable pieces of content:  video posts, text posts, image posts, etc. 

Then, we send that content to the CEO for approval and feedback. This process takes them about 30 minutes to put any final touches on it, so the voice is on point.  

Then, we schedule and post (do all the tedious stuff CEOs should never do) to ensure they are consistent on LinkedIn. 

🤝 WHOM DO WE WORK WITH:

We work with anyone who sees LinkedIn as a core channel. We work directly with the CEO or founder. 

🌐 LEARN MORE:

Demandii.com

LinkedIn paid for my kids’ private school.
No joke.
LinkedIn — literally funds everything in my life!

I know that sounds pretentious and "bougie", but it's true.

It paid for my kids’ private school (they got the gift of dyslexia from my genes...  and the public school system was not equipped or supported to help them... thankfully, LinkedIn marketing works!).

LinkedIn will even pay for their university.

This platform takes care of my wife, my kids, and my extended family.  I even took my extended family on an all-paid-for trip this year. 

No investors.
No debt.
No grants.
No viral moment.
No “overnight success.”

Just a solid, cash-flowing business built on three things:
1) Consistent short-form content posted on LinkedIn
2) Boosting that content with LinkedIn ads.
2) Drive them to DMs, ladder to long-form content which drives -> sales! 

That’s it.

I practice what I preach, too! 
Unlike many other fake LI gurus.

That formula built my business.
And it’s now helped over 250 other B2B founders do the same.

I'm feeling super generous, so I am making my online course 100% on how to do this.  I have 93 hours of training, SOPs, and swipe files all in this course. Nothing is held back. 

LinkedIn is a goldmine for businesses that run B2B operations.

If you want access to my course, then:

1) Like this post
2) Comment: course

PS - ensure you have connected with me first.

If they can do it, and I can do it, you can too.

I had the opportunity to join Peter Lang's Orlando M&A and Exit Lab this past Friday, and truth be told, I wasn't going to attend. 

I had fears of buying another agency.

I worried it:
- F'up my current great culture
- Amplify any chaos I had in my business
- Suck me back into operations
- I would have to carry loads of debt

It'd be ONE GIANT distraction from what I'm focused on.

Well, all those limiting beliefs were burst.

After attending the lab and receiving a playbook, I feel very differently.

It was a mindset shift I had to go through, moving from operator to owner.

After talking to people like James Kwon, Tristan Pelligrino, Mark Homer, Corey Quinn 🎯, and many other very honest and open people in the room, they've changed my mind that growing through M&A's is an excellent way to:

- Bolt on talent
- Bolt on revenue
- Bolt on diversity in products
- Bolt more security and opportunities for my team

As Dan Sullivan says, it's not HOW, but WHO.

I am excited to begin this journey in 2026. 

I have been building businesses since 2007, so I am not so naive as to think this will be easy. I know it will be full of potholes, pain, and disasters... but what business isn't?!   That's part of the game. 

I am inspired to push myself beyond thinking like an operator to start thinking more like an owner. 

For those of you who have already crossed this bridge, I'd love to hear: 

- one fear you had before an acquisition
- one benefit that came from acquiring another company
- one mistake you made and how to avoid it 

Your advice is not just for me, but for the whole community of business owners who are considering growth through M&As.

We all stand on the shoulders of giants (who did it before us), and your advice in the comments below is greatly appreciated.

I say, it's irresponsible for founders and CEOs not to be building their personal brand online today.  These stats prove that.

CEOs can't ignore social media anymore

If you’re doing cold outreach on LinkedIn, but not posting content… you’re shooting yourself in the foot.

Here’s why: Every person you message is going to click your profile.

And if it looks like you haven’t posted in months?
You look like you are out of business.
Or worse — like a spammer.

So if you want your connection requests accepted (and your DMs replied to):

1) Turn your profile into a landing page. Make it painfully clear who you help and how you help. Have lots of social proof. Make an offer to get into your marketing funnel(s).

2) Post 2–3 times a week with content that is helpful and immediately useful. It builds trust before you ever message someone.  It positions you as an expert.

Remember: people judge a book by its cover. Your LinkedIn profile and your LinkedIn content are your cover.

---

PS - And don't post AI slop, unless you want to make fun of how stupid it is!

Don’t reward heroics. Reward systems.

A manager pulled off three client handoffs while covering two vacations last week. I told them the same thing I tell every ops lead:

“You did great. But you shouldn’t have to do that again.”

Heroic effort is not a sustainable business model.

Every time someone saves the day, ask: “How do we make sure this never needs saving again?”

Systems win over heroics every time.

Agree?

How can you reach customers when ninety percent of LinkedIn has turned into AI slop? 

I've helped over 250 CEOs build their brands on LinkedIn and published over 50,000 short-form posts, giving me an unfair advantage in seeing what works and what doesn't.

Here is what cuts through the AI slop:

1) Specificity
Talk about one situation, one moment, one mistake. Generic content is identical to AI content.

2) Scar tissue
If you have never bled for the lesson, do not post it. Buyers smell borrowed wisdom instantly.

3) Perspective
Do not recap consensus. Say what your market is afraid to say. The truth travels faster than templates.

4) Proof
Stories, numbers, internal tensions, tradeoffs. The stuff operators recognize immediately.

5) A point of view
Your take is the differentiator. Not your polished corporate jargon speech.

Wrap this into monthly community and events where you meet real people who are craving real human connections, and it's a recipe for growth!

I wasn’t supposed to make it.
I grew up middle-class poor.
I’ve got dyslexia.

If a teacher asked me to read cold, I’d freeze.
I had low confidence in myself as a kid. Thought I was the dumb kid in the room.
But I didn't give up. I'd study for hours. Some teachers gave pity Cs and Ds just for trying hard.

I wasn’t dumb. I just learned differently. I know that now, but back then, no clue.

In high school, I discovered acting because I auditioned for a show as a joke to my buddies.  I discovered that if I memorized the lines, I was actually pretty good at acting.  It led to 10 years of acting on stages around the world. It taught me how to communicate. How to read a room. How to perform under pressure.  But most of the time, I was broke.

Between plays, I worked every kind of blue-collar job you can imagine. And somehow, I’d always end up in management. Not because I wanted to climb. Because I would fix things (without being told).

But two things would happen at some point: every company would not fix some things that seemed obvious to me to fix, so I’d either quit or they’d fire me because I wouldn’t shut up about fixing them.

Turns out, that’s called entrepreneurship.

Later, I tried my hand at door-to-door sales, and that’s where it clicked that I could make money. I was good at selling. All those years of acting made me unafraid of rejection. If you can sell, you can have an unlimited income. It made me want more.

It led me to the internet. I taught myself how to build websites, SEO, run Google Adwords, etc.  I had 12 side hustles in the fire. I’ve got ADHD too, so focus never came easily.  

By 31, after years of talking about starting a business, I finally did it.

It took my girlfriend getting pregnant (now my wife) to force me to jump in with two feet and to focus on 1 opportunity. I’ve learned to focus now — painfully — over time, after smashing my head into walls for years. 

Since 31, I've built 5 businesses now:

The first one, I merged my agency with two bigger ones.
The second, I exited after a shotgun clause due to partner conflicts (that was fun—not!)
The third flopped completely, lost $40–50K and a year of my life, but I wanted to start something so badly to prove to myself I could build a business without my batshit crazy partners. 
The fourth evolved into the fifth — it is what I’m doing today with founder-led content at Demandii.

And this one’s working.
Finally!!!

Twenty years later, it feels like the training wheels are off.

Still making mistakes, but fewer now.
Still learning, never a dull day in building a bootstrapped business. 

If there’s one lesson I can leave you with, it’s this:

Don’t quit.

It’s not about perfection.
It’s about progression.
If you don't quit, you'll get there eventually.

You know your team's levelling up when they don't need you in the room anymore.  

There's a moment every founder hits.
You join a client call out of habit and realize… they've got it handled.

That happened this past week (for our onboarding workshops).

I hopped into a client onboarding and halfway through thought, "They don't need me anymore."

It is a double-edged sword. Not being needed is an odd feeling, but not being the smartest in the room also feels like freedom, to me. 

I've realized that my mission is to build up people's skills.

I've also accepted that, as I do, new people will need to use my business as training wheels to adopt new skills. This means I've become comfortable with bad things happening ... such as great clients leaving, etc.

It's not instant. I've spent months (even years) teaching frameworks, language, and muscle memory. But when it clicks, I get so excited for my team!

The mistake I see most new founders make is that they jump ship too soon. I used to make that mistake, too.

I would abdicate instead of learning the true art of delegation.

Delegating is empowering others by transferring responsibility with clear instructions and support while maintaining oversight, whereas abdicating is abandoning responsibility without guidance or accountability.

This means you need to coach a lot longer than you want to. It can be slog at times, but you got stress their skills in many situations. 

What have you discovered the best founders/leaders do to train up their teams?

Not a million impressions, so I must suck, right?

I don't care if you only get 10,000 impressions in a year.

What impresses me more is if you post helpful content every day.

The results will come if you put the reps in.

As they say, we overestimate what we can do in a year, but underestimate what you can do in a decade.

I told my team something most CEOs won’t say out loud. “I don’t want more clients next year. I want better ones.”

When you narrow your ICP, your cost per lead goes up. Your volume goes down.
But your retention skyrockets, simply by focusing in on who your best customers are. 

So then your margins expand.
Your team gets calmer, too. 
If the team is happier, better work gets done.
It creates a flywheel of positive energy in the right direction. 

Keeping or selling the wrong customers can lead so much drag in our businesses. 

Never be afraid to redirect your bottom 5% customers each year.
It's good for them.
It's good for you.
It's good for your team.

Everyone loves “scale.” Few understand the cost of scaling in the wrong direction. I witnessed it too many times, that I avoid it now like the black plague. 

I’d rather grow profit with fewer, better clients than chase revenue with the wrong ones.

What's been your experience?

Everyone glamorizes the early grind.
Everyone fantasizes about the exit.
But nobody talks about the middle.

The stage where you’re too big to be scrappy and too small to have real leverage.

I told my team this point blank: “This phase is where founders have heart attacks.
This is the stage that breaks people.”

Most founders don’t fail at the beginning of the start-up stage.
They fail in the messy middle.
They fail at the stay-up stage.

The only way through is replacing yourself layer by layer.
Admin.
Delivery.
Marketing.
Sales.
Leadership.

One rung per year if you’re lucky.
It takes way longer than most think.
It's painful, especially if you haven't reached 5M yet, which is required to afford senior leadership roles. 

If you don’t overcome the replacement ladder, the business will collapse beneath you.

But if you do make it, you'll reach the scale-up stage, and that's when it gets exciting again.

Founder-led content doesn't work if you don't read the signals of people engaging with it, and then connect and DM them.

I ask every one of my clients this: “Can you take a 12-month sabbatical and the business keeps growing without you?”

Every founder knows the answer before they speak it.

No.

The real job of building a business is replacing yourself.
Not doing more.
Not proving your value.
Not heroics.
Replacement.

Until you can disappear for a year and the machine runs without you, you don’t own a company.

You have a job (with help).
The company owns you.

If you want to figure out how to replace yourself, get around other founders who've done it.

This is one of the reasons I love our founder's walks in Toronto that happen every Friday.

It gets me around people who've done it before.

I get to learn from their mistakes.

I get to fast-track my results.

If you are a founder living in Toronto and would like to attend the next founder walk, DM me.

Most people don’t have a content problem.
They have a 'content networking' problem.

They think content marketing means:
“Post stuff → Get inbound leads → Profit.”

That’s NOT how LinkedIn works.
Content is a conversation starter.

If you stop at likes and views, you’re standing at the bar talking to yourself.

The game is: content → connection → conversation.

Here’s how that actually looks in practice:

1. Likes → Comment back
If someone likes your post, that’s a micro-hand raise.
Click through. See who they are.
Drop a genuine comment on their next post within 24 hours.
or reach and thank them for "liking" your post.
You’ve now gone from “stranger” to “familiar face.”

2. Comments → DM
Someone leaves a thoughtful comment?
Acknowledge it publicly, then follow up privately.

“Hey [Name], loved your take on [topic]. Curious, how are you handling that inside your company right now?”

Continue a public conversation privately to build a relationship.  Be helpful. Be normal. Ask questions. It will lead to bigger things if you play your cards right. 

3. Profile views → Connection request
Profile views are buying signals.

Send a short, human note:
“Hey [Name], I saw you checked out my profile, I appreciate it. Looks like we both work in [space]. Let’s connect so I can see your content or trade notes."

No pitch. Just context.

4. Connections → DMs
Once they accept, don’t drop a sales pitch.
Pitch slapping is weird. Please stop.
Engage with a few of their posts first.
Then start a real conversation:

“Hey [Name], been enjoying your posts. Curious, what’s working best for you on [topic] right now?”

5. DMs → Conversations → Opportunities
The goal isn’t to sell in the DMs.
It’s to earn a conversation.

Ask questions. Trade ideas. Build trust.
When it’s clear that there’s alignment, move to asking more probing questions, and when the timing is right, jump on the phone to learn more about them. 

The founders who make LinkedIn work view it as a content networking platform, not a content marketing tool.  Once you incorporate the networking aspect, it will generate JV partners, referrals, inbound leads, and free PR, among other benefits. 

If you’re only posting and waiting, you’re missing 80% of the opportunity.

The 80/10/10 Model for strategic ad spend.

Here’s how I run every LinkedIn ads program now:

80 percent: Proven winners
These are the ads with a real track record. Not one lucky week. Not one dashboard spike. I want three to four consistent cycles of performance. These get the bulk of the spend because they’ve earned it.

10 percent: Methodical tests
Think of this as your R&D lab. New hooks. New angles. A different narrative. These tests are grounded in actual buyer psychology, not random brainstorms.

10 percent: Outlandish experiments
This is where the magic hides. The rule is simple: if it makes someone on the team uncomfortable, it belongs here. Some of my cheapest leads have come from ads that looked wrong in the mockup. Funny enough, so many of my UGLY ads end up being the winners.  Most companies will not let me do them without proof b/c they still think pretty and corporate wins the day. It doesn't; it leads to boring and beige. Ignored. But, hey, it's a journey and people, and I let the data speak for itself.

taplio

The Battle

Brian Hastie

Matthew Hunt

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Performance ScoreBrian Hastie's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreMatthew Hunt's LinkedIn Performance

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taplio

The Battle

Brian Hastie

Matthew Hunt

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);}Brian Hastie's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreMatthew Hunt's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreBrian Hastie's LinkedIn Performance