Shoaib Ahmed

Founder: Yello Hippo | Host: REBELS Podcast 🎙️ | Building Profitable Personal Brands for Founders & CEOs | 185M+ Organic Views | Winner: Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2023 | Advisor: Limelight

Hi 👋🏽 I'm the personal brand manager behind top 1% LinkedIn accounts. I've delivered:

300M+ organic impressions → VIRAL content marketing 
2.1M profile views → MILLIONS of eyes on offers
£11.2 revenue → TANGIBLE business growth

Thanks to my:

• 5 years experience (built 195+ Founder-led brands)
• First-party data (I've produced 18,750 LI posts)
• PROVEN LinkedIn growth strategies & models

I work with Founders, Coaches, C-Suite teams, Business Execs, Creatives & Freelancers like you to:

a) Scale your LinkedIn growth & presence
b) Carve out a HIGH-VALUE personal brand
c) Win trust, seriously grow pipeline & make ££

So you can:

Stop wasting ££ on bad lead-gen tactics
Build + scale the business of your dreams
Earn life freedom + attract new opportunities

HOW I HELP:

1:1 & Company LinkedIn Coaching:

- Dominate the algorithm & create viral posts
- Scale your following, traffic & engagement
- Turn LinkedIn into an inbound lead channel

LinkedIn Content Ghostwriting:

- Get 'done for you' LinkedIn posts 
- Turn expertise into monetisable assets
- Earn trust as a thought leader & drive leads

CLIENT RESULTS ↓

✅️ Julius got inbound PR invites (Insider, WebSummit, Harvard)
✅️ Maria landed speaking gigs, earning multi-6-figure revenue
✅️ Alex and Katie sold out 96% of their coaching (400% ROI)
✅️ M and A got 55,700 new followers and 200+ quality leads
✅️ David signed brands 625+ tech brand clients in 9 months
✅️ Drew featured in Washington Post & Wall Street Journal
✅️ Harry hit 6.3 million views & got a 733% ROI in 60 days
✅️ Ryan got 14.3 million views and a 6-figure BBC deal.
✅️ Lauren gained 12.7 million views and an £80K client

WHAT PEOPLE SAY ↓

"I got more value, clarity and practical strategy from a 1-to-1 hour with Shoaib than all 4 of the LinkedIn courses I've purchased elsewhere" - Joey

"Shoaib is a genius at crisp content and a true strategist who always has our KPIs in mind to maximise impact." - Katie

"Shoaib is definitely the go-to person for anything related LinkedIn content. I've paid for coaching sessions with other creators and none have been as insightful as this one." - Mat 

"Working with Shoaib was one of the best investments I’ve ever made." - James

"Shoaib grew my LinkedIn 0-100, securing me global media gigs and attracting a ton of business." - Julius

WORK WITH ME ↓

Book my 1:1 LinkedIn coaching (for individuals)
Book my Company LinkedIn Training (for teams)
Book my Ghostwriting Services (for individuals)

Available for media bookings, keynote speaking and brand partnerships.

DM me :)

Founder & Podcast Host

A brand new podcast where you get to hear from rebellious industry disruptors.

In season one, Shoaib is joined by a curated selection of groundbreaking entrepreneurs, creators and business leaders as he delves into their 'against the grain' stories of success. 

This is a podcast where no topic is off-limits. Each episode is packed with raw, emotional and inspiring stories with guests including Lea Turner, Sophie Miller and Lara Acosta.

Watch & listen to S1 now on YouTube, Spotify & Apple Podcasts.

Proudly sponsored by Fabric Academy.

For S2 bookings & sponsorship enquiries visit: www.rebelsbyshoaibahmed.co.uk

Mum, dad...I only went and WON!!! 🏆 🪩  

Lil old me getting a UK BUSINESS AWARD

And this one is extra special 🫶🏽

"Lone Wolf Business Consultancy of the Year"

An award specifically chosen to go to an exceptional ONE-PERSON BUSINESS!!

I am that business.

Hey, hi, hello 👋🏾

It's funny 'cos when I decided to quit agency life and pursue solopreneurship...

So many people saw it as a "step back"

I got sent screenshots from a business WhatsApp ‘community’ full of negative comments about me.

A bizarre way for grown adults to behave tbh.

The reality?

Because my consultancy is just me:

- The bar is high AF and never drops
- Every client gets my full attention
- I maintain 10/10 quality all the time

And the results I get for my clients are so f*cking insane because they work DIRECTLY with me!!

And this award recognises that.

Yipppeeeeee 🕺🕺

The judges reviewed my client work, client references, case studies (loads of indisputable evidence I've not shared on LinkedIn)...

And out of 1000s of business owners...

They chose me to win!!!

Pretty f*cking cool.

Thanks Business Awards UK.

Off to celebrate in true Shoaib style...

By devouring an açaí bowl 🤣

📅 FREE WEBINAR: How to write viral LinkedIn Posts | Register now | Grown 195+ personal brands for founders, coaches & creators | Brain behind 300M+ impressions | LinkedIn coach, strategist, speaker

Fun announcement 🎉
I'm the Head of Content at Limelight.

I've been advising David Walsh on all things personal branding, content & LinkedIn since he launched his company.

Over two years ago.

We make an excellent team.

Dave gave me full autonomy from the start and we've scaled his brand hard.

______

FYI: I'm still FULLY running my own company. It just means I go deeper (1-2 days a week) with one of my favourite founder partnerships.
______

What started as LinkedIn coaching for Dave quickly became:

→ Brand strategy
→ Lead magnets
→ Social selling funnels
→ Content engines
→ Founder positioning
→ Big-picture growth stuff

And that led to this:

25M+ organic impressions.
Tons of viral LinkedIn posts.
40K+ new LinkedIn followers.
Landing 30 speaking/podcast gigs.
Writing foreword to Amazon bestseller.
Features in major media publications.
Named "Top 50 CEO to watch" 2025.

So when he said: "Shoaib, you're practically my Head of Content"

I replied: "yeah, I kinda am."

So we made it official.

Head of Content (part-time).

I'll be doing more of the same, but on a bigger scale.

When you hear me say things like:

"Instead of chasing new clients all the time, do great work for your existing ones."

This is why!!

From a small freelancer contract in Feb 2024.
To being the fractional Head of Content.

Pretty darn cool.

The LinkedIn Growth Expert with receipts 📝 | Grown 205+ personal brands for founders, coaches & creators | Brain behind 300M organic impressions + £11.2M revenue | Multi-award winning LinkedIn coach, strategist, speaker

As a 27 year old, here's what I'm optimising my life for:

1. Getting lost in nature (forests, waterfalls, beaches)

2.  Seeing more wildlife (jungle treks, birdwatching, hikes)

3. More time with friends (casually dropping by for a cuppa)

4. Reading more fiction (getting lost in great stories)

5. Using money smartly (pension, investments, health)

6. Looking after my body (mobility, joints, muscle growth)

7. A calm nervous system (culling access to cheap dopamine)

8. Using my 1-person business to enhance life freedom

9. Travelling (seeing new people, cultures, ways of life)


In this mad world we live in, where "success" is defined by your job title, the digits in your bank account and what car you drive, it's so freeing to prioritise a life that FEELS good over one that "looks good".

What are your priorities in this season of life??

You don't need to 'earn' your rest or your joy.

Just checking you know that???

In the UK, we do this batsh*t crazy thing of putting our happiness behind a paywall and locking it away.

"I must work for 50 years before resting."
"I must hit $10K per month before I do X."
"I must work 12-hour days to justify X."

I think that's dumb.

You have no idea what will happen tomorrow.

Yet, you put off everything that makes you happy.

You're not on rations.
We're not at war 
(yet!!! 🙃)

You have free will.

I used to tell myself...

I'll do that thing I really want to do, but only...

- "When I've ticked off this 17 step to-do list"
- "When I've hit 0 emails in my inbox"
- "When I hit XX revenue in business."

But there is no “done”

Honey, you've been LIIIIIIEEEED to.

There isn't a mythical day when...

Your to-do list is complete
Your inbox is fully empty
Your goals are all hit 

The second you finish one thing, five more appear. 

Your goalposts shift.

So this year?

I stopped chasing “done.”

And instead?

I'm choosing to enjoy life.

All whilst the work still exists.

Guilt-fucking freeeeeee!!!

Even though:

I could earn more
Launch more products
Sign more clients
Post more often
Reply to more emails

I'm happy saying: "Actually... I'm good."

And sometimes even: "Thanks, but not thanks"

Because who the hell would be happy looking back at life and saying:

"I didn't do all things I wanted to in life but hey... AT LEAST I WAS PRODUCTIVE."

I love my job, my clients and my business.

But it's not my entire life.

So yes, this year I will be:

Going on more holidays 
Ticking off more bucket list stuff
Reading fiction books over self-help stuff
Putting social things into my work diary first
Taking slow morning walks in the sun
Spending hours painting pretty pictures
Eating food without my laptop open
Seeing my friends every single week

Without thinking:

"I'm not being productive enough."

Because rest is also productive. 

Because hobbies are also productive.

Because time with loved ones is also productive.

Because exercise is also productive.

Because nourishing the soul is also productive.

Because regulating your nervous system is also productive.

Because caring for other people is also productive.

Because going on side quests is also productive.

Because seeing the world is also productive.

Because sitting in the sun is also productive.

I refuse to measure my life by how many things I can get done in X number of minutes.

Or to define my 'value' as a human being by how much GBP I can charge per hour of my time.

Zoom out for a sec.

We are tiny dots on a floating rock.

And one day, the dot disappears.

(aka you die)

So don’t spend your time being a stressed, beige dot.

Be a sparkly, glittery, fun, dancing dot.

I'm at Manchester Airport on my way to Bali ✈️

To spend 30 days chasing sunsets, exploring nature and scaling my 1-person business - on my terms!

All because 4 years ago I decided:

I want more from life.

I don’t want to spend 50 years climbing a corporate ladder or work 48 weeks to ‘earn’ 4 weeks off from work a year.

I want to prioritise time, location and financial freedom in my 20s.

Sometimes it just takes one decision.

Followed by ruthless daily action.

To change your life forever.

I'm constantly pinching myself that I can do this 🙏🏽

I'm insanely grateful that I've built a personal brand that fuels my business and allows me to travel the world at the same time.

So ready to live my best island life 🌴 🥥 

Bali friends, drop your best recs! 

Things to do, places to eat, trails to hike...

P.S. Who else thinks Karla McNeilage should greet me at the airport with a huge bunch of flowers?? 💐

I won at the Business Awards UK! 🎉 

This definitely beats the "Star of the Week" accolade I got in year 4 for "helping tidy up Mrs Drury's classroom."

Pretty dope.

Read my interview here: https://lnkd.in/ePwTbv3E

Thanks for the write-up Dan Marsh.

I passed my driving test 9 years ago but I've never owned a car in my life.

But if I did buy a car...

I'd get a little used one for < £500.

Ideally, a tiny 2 seater.

So I never have to worry about:

1. Parking (I'm terrible!)
2. Someone stealing it
3. Someone crashing into it
4. Reversing into a lampost (likely!)
5. Having to give lifts to people 😂

A crappy old banger will do. 

The only thing that matters is that it gets me from A to B.

But right now, I choose not to have one.

I work from home.
I live in the city centre.
I travel abroad 10-12x a year.

I could buy a car. It's the thing to do. Right?

But the money I would spend on a fancy car, fuel, maintenance, parking, insurance, etc.

I'd rather put into:

- Flights abroad
- Health investments
- Spoiling my friends
- Bucket list experiences
- Investing in my business

Cars are weird.

If you're into cars as a hobby, go you!
(Seriously, no judgment).

I personally am not.

But I find 3 things bizarre:

1. How OFTEN I get asked about what car I'd buy

2. How OFTEN I get asked why I don't own a car (usually they say stuff like "but your business is doing well!!!")

3. The look of HORROR on people's faces when I tell them what my dream car actually is (+ how much it would cost)

It's a metal box on wheels.

I grew up in a community where cars were the ultimate sign of wealth.

Well then, consider me poor AF 😂

For some people cars are a necessity.

But for many people they can be a status purchase DISGUISED as a necessity.

I’ve watched so many people:

- Hit their first decent revenue month
- Immediately finance a “nice” car
- Lock themselves into 3–5 years of payments

These same people say:

"We can't go on a holiday this year."
"We need to stop getting takeaways."
"Don't put the heating on. Put on a jumper."

Meanwhile...

They've got a Range Rover and an Audi parked on their drive.

Make it make sense.

Nobody is driving past you thinking: “Wow. What an extraordinary human. Look at that Audi.”

They're thinking:

"Look at that Audi."

They're romanticising the car. 

Not you.

Buy stuff that makes you feel good by all means.

But don't buy stuff because you think it will make you "look" good in the eyes of other people.

Focus on pleasing your inner self.

Not your neighbour.

I've cut out people who "talk" non-stop about their goals BUT never take action to achieve them.

I don't judge them.

I just refuse to sit in their delusion 😅

I'm tired of:

The same conversations
The same advice they'd ask for
The same excuses they'd make

I'm au-ADHD, so this also might come into it.

I'm a literal person.

If I say I'm going to create a digital product in 5 days.

By day 3 I'll have the product, the email funnel, the launch material, the graphics, the copy, the social media posts ... all done!

Day 4: I launch it
Day 5: I move to the next thing

I've trained a bias for action.

Otherwise, you get stuck in the "talking stage"

When we talk about doing something, the brain releases dopamine, just as it would if we'd actually done the thing.

So it "rewards" you for doing nothing.

Which is toxic af. Brain, do better 😂


Here are 4 things I do to PREVENT this:


1. I make an upfront investment.

Money creates commitment and the pain of losing it is a great motivator.

Invest in whatever you need ASAP.
(Even better if there's a time limit)

E.g. I paid for 6 passes for a yoga class. But the passes had to be used within 4 weeks.

I booked them all and went.

See?? It works.


2. I bake accountability into it.

Hire a PT if you wanna get built
Hire a biz coach if you want ££
Go to the gym with a friend.

The pain of letting people down is often worse than the pain of doing the thing you said you would.

Which is great for taking action.

This is especially helpful on days when you're feeling lazy.

Or whipping up excuses to not do it.


3. I single-task (not multi task).

Long to-do lists are the enemy of progress.

Subtraction is the secret weapon.

So I cull everything from my to-do list and pick 1-2 priorities.

I clear my diary for that thing.
Assign a limited amount of time for it.
Then go all in until it's done.

Only then do I move on to the next thing.

Multi-tasking = multi-failing.


4. I schedule it into the diary.

If it's not in your diary, you'll allow it to be swallowed up.

Don't lie to yourself.

You'll never make time for it.

So choose a date, time and location to start. (Knocking down the first domino is the hardest part).

Put it in your calendar. Time-block.

Anything else you want to do has to fit around it.

It's basic priority-setting.


All these are pretty basic things that helped me.

Maybe they might help you.

And you can FINALLY get *that thing* done you keep talking about.


P.S. What helps you TAKE ACTION?

Share any tips below and let's not gatekeep.

We can all win together!

2022: Worked every weekend 8am-8pm (said “no” to social invites, locked myself in a box room and went into monk mode). 

2026: Spending weekends hopping between tiny islands in the Indian Ocean with swimming shorts, a book and a water bottle.

In those 4 years, I built a multi 6-figure business from scratch.

And no…

I’m not a trust fund kid.
I don’t have a business degree.
Nobody in my family is an entrepreneur to learn from.

In the first 2-3 years, 90 hour weeks were normal.

I love the idea of “work-life balance.”

But practically, it doesn't work. 

(Especially early on).

To get something off the ground, you have to sacrifice in ways most people simply won’t.

You must be obsessive.

It takes time, graft and commitment to:

Hone your craft (until you’re very good)
Test offers that flop + create good ones
Find your ICP and what niche to target
Set up contracts/ invoicing/ decks
Figure out how to market yourself
Learn how to conduct sales calls
Build standard operating procedures
Make mistakes (hopefully only once!)
Learn the fundamentals of business

These photos are real.

But they’re the reward, not the starting point.

And ALSO a reward that I have to maintain.

I work incredibly hard when I'm in 'business season' so I can indulge in this time off, guilt-free. (And I do it all solo - my marketing, my sales, my newsletter, my content, my client delivery, my operations).

Early self-employed life is stressful, lonely, confusing and financially inconsistent.

Fullstop.

And for context:

I don’t have kids or dependents.
I don’t have a debilitating disability.
I don’t have a pet tying me to one place.

That makes digital nomad life easier.

(There are elements of privilege here for sure!!!)

But it doesn’t remove the work.

You can't shortcut that.

So if you’re seeing posts with pictures like these, but without the context I've given in this post and thinking:

“How do I get there???”

The answer is simple:

Mute the people selling you a false dream.

And focus on the work.

Put in the hours.
Cut out your distractions.
Invest in real experts to help.
Work on needle-moving tasks.
Start building your personal brand.

Do the boring stuff.

Now, 4 years in, I don’t chase “balance.”

I practice work-life integration.

I work in seasons.

Some months I go all in - by choice.

Other months I slow down. Travel more. Live life fully.

Freedom isn’t constant relaxation.

It’s optional intensity.

And this freedom is only obtained once you’ve set up the foundations.

Most people chase this freedom with no foundations.

They never make it.

Build and strengthen your foundations first.

When I started posting on LinkedIn I never expected to be body-shamed by strangers 🙃

Last month, it happened 5 times.
(and all from different people)

Why is this a thing???


"You've got chubbier in the face.”

"Stop skipping leg day bro"

"Your back is like a woman's" (body-shaming and misogyny ... double whammy!)

"Someone give this man some food.”

"You'd look a lot better if you lifted.”


For context, I'm self-employed and building in public. So often, my posts have pictures of me travelling and working from cool spots.

I try to visually show the behind the scenes of running a business as a 27 year old digital nomad.

But one thing I'll NEVER understand?...

How someone wakes up and decides “you know what, I’m going to make THEIR body MY business” 

Feel free to challenge my thoughts about business.

But commenting on a body?

Not cool.

Last year, I went through 6 months of therapy for an eating disorder.

I was also diagnosed with au-ADHD - which comes with a higher risk of addictive and compulsive behaviours.

All this can affect body-image, eating, substance abuse, etc - and I relate to a lot of this stuff!!

So there’s that.

In the last 12 months, I’ve done a lot of work on myself (therapy, PT, nutritionist, etc) and I’m so proud of that.

So silly comments don't harm me.

That's not the point.

You never know what someone is carrying when you fire off a “joke” or a flippant remark about their body.

You never know who ELSE might see your comment and what effect it might have on them.

I choose to post content online.

What I am not consenting to is commentary on my weight, shape, or appearance.

So if you’re ever tempted to comment on someone’s body...

Please think twice.

1. Is this kind?

2. Is this necessary?

3. Is this actually about them or about me needing a moment of superiority?

We can do better than this.


P.S. Sharing this post after just leaving the gym and thinking to myself... I fcking love this body and what it allows me to do. Negative nellies will always find *something* to be negative about.

I sat in a rooftop cafe, spent 4 hours painting some pretty flowers and listening to my fave albums 🌸

Morning well spent!

I'm a 27 year old, multi-award-winning business owner.

For 4+ years,
I've been building a "successful business"

This year I'm taking seriously another goal:
To build a "SUCCESSFUL LIFE"


So I operate in modes:

1. WORK MODE - spent part of my day locked in, delivering client work, smashing KPIs, delivering 1:1 coaching, running my 1-man business. 

• I'm caffeinated
• All my supplies are with me
• I get into an ADHD flow state.

2. LIFE MODE - do something that genuinely fills my cup and has nothing to do with making money, saving time or being 'productive'.

• My laptop stays at home.
• All notifications are off.
• I don't give myself "time" limits.


Some of those things include:

⛰️ Going on long walks with hiking boots, waterbottle, binoculars and no Google Maps!

🎨 Painting, knitting, building lil wooden ornaments - doing any form of 'creation' with my hands (screen-free!)

🏋️ Spending hours in the gym (rotating between working out, sitting in the sauna, facetiming friends on a treadmill or lying by a pool)

📖 Reading fiction books and getting lost in stories with a hot drink (usually peppermint tea, tropical mango tea or decaf coffee).

🥯 Planning a mid-week daytrip - where I go out for brunch, do an activity (galleries, zoos, museums) and see friends IRL.

🌅 Sitting on a beach, a cliff or in your garden and watching the sunset, appreciating nature


Remember: "productivity" isn't just measurable by money or time.

Being productive can also mean:

- resting and recovering
- observing the world around you
- having quality time with loved ones
- doing something purely for joy
- learning a new skill (with no intention to monetise it)
- reading, writing, composing
- listening to your body
- trying new things (even if you fail)
- having fun

ps. how do you "fill your cup?"


Oh and the albums I listened to were:

Stripped - Xtina
Waking up - One Republic
Wasteland Baby! - Hozier
My 21st Century Blues - RAYE

I'm 27. And last week on a work Zoom call I was rudely told off like a naughty schoolchild.

Never felt so humiliated 😅

I was accused of being "distracted" because I wasn’t making eye contact.

When I asked why he (business owner in his 50s) thought this...

He said I was "fidgety".

And "that's not making a good first impression."

Yeah...

I'm literally au-ADHD.

I struggle with eye contact and sitting still.

When I'm having a conversation, my eyes dart around the room rather than fixing on a camera.

This is because I'm processing what you're saying in real time.

Movement helps me do this.

So I often have a pen, a mug or a knitting needle in my hand (literally anything that I can find) to help anchor my thoughts.

It's called "stimming" 

And it's a form of self regulating behaviour which helps me focus and avoid sensory overload.

I once had someone ask me to repeat what they'd said - as a test - to catch me out.

The audacity!!!

The funny thing is that if I'm just stood still, staring at the camera and not fidgeting…

THEN I've 100% zoned out.

So it was actually the opposite of what this person thought.

I was super invested in the call!!!

In this case, I politely explained my situation.

The person rolled their eyes.

(Final strike ❌)

I said goodbye and ended the call.

I won’t be talked down to like a schoolchild at the age of 27.

Especially as this guy wanted MY HELP with his personal brand, yet went on to belittle and insult me.

What a world we live in.


P.S. Does ANYONE actually stare directly into the camera on a call? That’s psychopathic behaviour to me 😂

I wrote a LinkedIn post that got 74,802 likes.

It hit over 1.2 million impressions 🤯📈

- 5,186 comments.
- 1,192 reposts.

Fair to say, it BLEW UP!! 

Tomorrow, I'm showing the post to my mailing list.

And I'll break down:

1. How I sourced the idea for my client
2. Why I wrote that specific hook
3. What viral writing techniques I used

Sign up here if you want it in your inbox.

It's free: https://lnkd.in/eVKs-RrT

I think I just hired the best virtual assistant in my business.

And it’s not a real person 😂

Until recently, I was spending 3-4 hours a week doing the most boring admin imaginable:

– Client onboarding
– Sending links and folders
– Chasing forms / invoices
– Drafting the same emails
– Scheduling follow-ups

Now it takes me 15 minutes.

I stopped forcing clients into my internal tools and built one simple, client-facing portal instead.

Everything lives in one place:

Contracts + invoices
Onboarding docs
Forms + files + context
Automatic reminders
Clear next steps (for them and me)

And I’m no longer hunting through Slack, email, Drive, Notion and WhatsApp like a gremlin.

This is the kind of AI-enhanced software I love.

The “get this off my plate so I can do my actual job” type of AI.

I’m a one-man band.

So I quickly fall in love with any tool that:

a) saves me time
b) doesn't sacrifice quality
c) makes clients' lives easier

If you want to see what I’m using, comment "PORTAL" and I’ll send it over.

Brand partnership • The LinkedIn Growth Expert with receipts 📝 | Grown 205+ personal brands for founders, coaches & creators | Brain behind 300M organic impressions + £11.2M revenue | Multi-award winning LinkedIn coach, strategist, speaker

My client just fired me.

And left me this 3 minute voicenote.

I really have no other words.

Most people: advice you to send 50 cold DMs a day on LinkedIn, create a 17-step AI workflow and automate + outsource everything, including visiting your 87 year old gran. #efficiency 

Me: teach you how to write viral LinkedIn posts that boost visibility, get business results and all in less time - by using proven marketing psychology and LinkedIn growth techniques I've used with REAL PEOPLE. 


I think my method is better.

Why?

1. You learn key writing principles you can apply everywhere (landing pages, emails, ads, offers etc.)

2. You spend less time creating mediocre, bland posts that anyone could say.

3. You master how to tell great stories and build a standout, impactful and memorable personal brand.


⏰ In 4 hours, I'm hosting a live FREE webinar.

"How to Write Viral LinkedIn Posts"

Register + get the link: https://lnkd.in/eGvesmwM

It's open to anyone.

It'll be packed with ACTUALLY helpful advice.
Stuff that I use daily. (For me and clients).

See you there!

I woke up in Bali this morning.
Alarm went off at 5:56am.
Snoozed it. Slept for 2 more hours.
Walked 15 mins to the gym.
Spoke to some strangers in the street.
Met Karla McNeilage there.
Did 45 minutes of weight lifting.
Had a shower.
Jumped on a motorbike.
Arrived at a cafe.
Had a protein breakfast bowl.
Opened my laptop at 11:31.
Spent 3 hours working.
Phone away. Full deep mode.
Responded to 7 emails.
Wrote a few posts for clients.
Accepted a speaking invite.
Signed a brand deal.
Jumped on a bike (again).
Arrived at an overnight oats cafe.
Had lunch.
Facetimed a friend.
Whipped out my laptop.
Worked for another 2 hours.
Helped my client prep for a podcast.
Rewrote a LI profile for a Founder.
Delivered 1:1 LinkedIn coaching.
Closed my laptop.
Taking Karla for dinner now.

There's nothing exceptional here.

It took 4 years of self-work, therapy, au-ADHD coaching, scaling an agency, burning said agency down, dealing with addiction and finally understanding how my brain works and how I can thrive best.

Not just as a 'business owner'.

But as a real human being.

With flaws, a chaotic schedule and a neurodivergent brain in tow, that still surprises me every day! 😅

So to me, a day like this - which embodies the financial, time and location freedom I've prioritised - is a huge achievement.

I'm 27.

And I feel like I'm living my dream life.

Society tells us to chase:

More.
Bigger.
Faster.
Status.
Upgrades.

But I'm happy right where I am.

Prioritising:

Health.
Community.
Intentionality.
Purpose.
Freedom.

I dunno why I felt so emotional watching this clip.

But I did. 

It even took me by surprise haha.

Thanks James Lamb, for creating such a welcoming space for me to share my story.

(And ofc lots of LinkedIn tips and advice).

You can watch and listen here: https://lnkd.in/ewPzJkUK

I kinda ate February up ngl!!! 🥥🌊
Here's what I got upto...

🎂 Celebrated my 27th birthday with my bunch of school pals in Leeds. Had a Thai curry followed by cheesecake. In bed by 9:30pm. Perfect night.

🫡 Became Limelight’s Head of Content (to extend my current partnership with David). I’ll be leading strategy across personal branding, content marketing and LinkedIn. (The nerdy, data-backed, revenue-generating kind.)

✈️ Flew across the world for 30 days in Indonesia - to island hop, chase sunsets and go into “monk mode” in a few business areas. Escaped the dark, depressing 7am UK mornings. Sorry Britain. I love you. But respectfully, no.

🏆 Won the Lone Wolf Consultancy of the Year Award at the Business Awards UK - the judges recognised “exceptional client results” as the winning factor.

🏋️ Ate 17 smoothie bowls (so far!). Drank 14 protein shakes. Spent 40+ hours lifting weights in the gym and read 3 books (all of them were so good, so I'll pop them in the comments!)

🧠 Ran my 2nd LinkedIn masterclass of the year: “How to write viral LinkedIn posts”. 300+ people signed up to learn my proven, data-driven tactics to amplify the visibility of their content.

🤝 Signed a 3-month creator partnership deal with a brand (co-owned by Steven Bartlett). It’s one of the first AI tools I’ve seen that supports real copywriters without turning everyone into beige, robotic LinkedIn clones.

📈 Two clients upgraded their LinkedIn personal branding package size with me to amplify the scale and output of the work I’ve been doing. Always a good sign when clients say “Let’s do more together!”

🎙️ Took a daytrip to London to appear on James Lamb’s new podcast. Honoured to be his 2nd guest. I spoke all things freedom-building, lifestyle businesses, self-belief, unconventional careers and of course, LinkedIn.

😅 Jumped on my first and very chaotic LinkedIn live (+ overshared, iykyk) with my pals Hannah del Herrera, Karla McNeilage and Louis Butterfield.

📧 Grew my email subs by 200+ founders, marketers and business leaders. Welcome!! I’m really focused on adding insane value. So if you want all my best LinkedIn personal branding insights & breakdowns, subscribe: https://lnkd.in/eVKs-RrT


Negatives:

- I got caught in a 3-day flood in Lombok (an island near Bali) and had to wade through muddy floodwater barefoot to get to the gym / cafes / coworking spots. (By day 3, it was just part of the daily routine 😂)

- I got 2 invites for speaking gigs this summer at big marketing events and BOTH were on the same day. Had to decline one. What are the chances?!?

- I had to end a potential client call because a founder (who wanted me to build his brand) said, "even though you're in Bali, I'd expect you to fully work on a UK timezone to accommodate my diary." Dude... you HAVING A LAUGH?? Bye.


PS. What’ve you been upto? Win of the month?

LMK and let’s celebrate 🎉

In < 48 hours, I'm going "live" 🎤

To over 250 wonderful people!!

I'm teaching business owners, coaches & creators...

"How to Write Viral LinkedIn Posts" 📈📈

In 30 minutes, they'll learn:

✔ 8 top copywriting principles
✔ What visuals/formats to use
✔ The anatomy of a viral post
✔ How to master post hooks

It's 100% free. 
Open to everyone.

It will be jam-packed with value.

You're welcome to join.

Register here + get the link: https://lnkd.in/eGvesmwM

Come hang out with us!! 🫶🏽

This will be a fun LinkedIn live between 4 friends.

Ask us anything and walk away with lots of insights for building an authentic, high-trust personal brand.

Without all the silly shenanigans.

I can't wait to see some of you there!

I love this lineup so much.

$2M generated from 1 video/week → 122/250 founders (and counting)

3 people who've built ~60,000 followers each.

Literally 100's of clients between them.

Going live with Shoaib Ahmed, Karla McNeilage and Hannah del Herrera to break down what actually makes strangers trust you online.

Not the stuff you've heard a thousand times on the feed.

Like what is the EXACT way they did it from 0-60,000?

So you walk away knowing exactly how to do it yourself.

Les do it.

The stupidly simple way to build a brand + win strangers’ trust

Roman Pikalenko 🇺🇦🦩

Turning Impact Leaders into Authority Figures Through Powerful Stories | Ghostwriting LinkedIn & Educational Email Courses ✍️📚

Climate tech founders are building world-changing solutions.But most of them are invisible online.Meanwhile, fossil fuel lobbyists have near-infinite marketing budgets. Greenwashers dominate the conversation. Climate deniers spread misinformation to millions.The people actually solving the problem? They're too busy building to talk about it.That's where I come in.As a climate tech ghostwriter, I build LinkedIn thought leadership for Series A+ climate tech CEOs and founders — helping them take control of the narrative and build visibility that compounds.Here's how it works:→ 6-12 month projects built on weekly or bi-weekly interviews→ I extract your expertise and turn it into content that sounds like you→ Full strategy, content planning, and profile optimization included→ Continuous improvement baked in (that's what Kaizen means)I'm not an agency with 47 writers and a sales team. I'm a solo operator with a limited client roster, which means you work directly with me — every interview, every post, every edit.Results my clients have seen:→ Inbound leads and investor connection requests→ Podcast invitations and speaking opportunities→ Top talent reaching out directly→ Measurable traffic to demos, books, and qualification surveysI've worked with 20+ climate leaders across 4 continents, including 3 LinkedIn Top Voices and a Forbes 30 Under 30 founder. Collectively, my clients have raised $200M+.I've ghostwritten 1,000+ posts and have been running Kaizen for almost 3 years.If you're looking to take control of your narrative and start building your visibility, DM me "climate" and I'm happy to talk more.

Growth Marketer

~ Running company social media marketing operations
~ Running paid ad campaigns on social and Google Ads
~ Inbound and content marketing

Sooo I got featured in SUCCESS Magazine last week 👀

Proper 'pinch me' moment. First-ever feature in a magazine for me.

3 years ago, I was struggling to find a single ghostwriting client.

Now I'm being quoted as a LinkedIn expert alongside career writers who've been featured in Forbes, HubSpot, and the BBC.

The article is about LinkedIn coffee chats — something I've done 100+ of since the pandemic.

A lot of it has helped me gain confidence, build great connections, and meet amazing people. Some ended up as clients.

And it's crazy, it's led me to this.

Link to the full article: https://lnkd.in/dC_MXy2j

And a huge thanks to Kayla Ihrig 🌴 for interviewing me!

Roman Pikalenko 🇺🇦🍉

I turn $10M+ Series A climate tech founders & execs into LinkedIn thought leaders to attract capital & talent | Helped 3x LinkedIn Top Voices & 10+ climate tech founders | Obsessed with solar right now ☀️

Just signed my 7th client. 3 months upfront. 

Solar software founder. First call was with their marketing manager — who became the internal champion (as they usually do). 

The only real challenge? Helping them decide between posting in German or English. I've had clients wrestle with this before, so I put on my consultant hat and broke down the trade-offs. 

The close happened on the 2nd call. 

This is my 3rd solar client now. And what I've noticed is that the more specialized you get, the faster the sales calls go. 

You've already solved their problems for someone else. You already speak their language. 

It's one of those times when I pat my past self on the back and say: "Great job niching down on climate tech, dude." 

February is off to a great start. 
Onwards.

Most solar companies grow by expanding into new territories.

These three grew by going deeper — block by block — in Brooklyn.

Meet T.R. Ludwig, Gaelen McKee, and Mark Cunningham — CEO, President, and CTO of Brooklyn SolarWorks.

Before founding BSW, all three were building careers in solar. T.R. and Gaelen were at Sunrun, driving out to New Jersey and Long Island to install panels on suburban homes.

But they all lived in Brooklyn. And every day, they were driving past a massive untapped opportunity.

The problem? NYC's rooftops aren't like the suburbs.

Flat roofs. Fire code restrictions. Limited space. HVAC equipment everywhere. One of the most complex building codes in the US.

NYC desperately needed solar. But traditional racking systems couldn't work here.

So in 2015, they decided to build solar where they lived — and invented a way to make it possible.

Their idea: the Brooklyn Solar Canopy.

A patented system that elevates panels above rooftop obstacles — creating usable living space underneath.

Mark leads design and engineering, ensuring every system works within NYC's notoriously complex code. 

Gaelen runs operations and product development — turning their hyperlocal insights into a scalable national product. 

T.R. drives business growth and industry advocacy.

Instead of expanding outward like every other solar company, they went hyperlocal.

90% of their 2,500+ projects sit within just 15 zip codes, all reachable from their Gowanus headquarters by car, bike, or even foot.

That local focus gave them deep expertise with NYC's zoning, permitting, and code — and a level of accountability to the communities they serve that's hard to replicate.

→ 2,500+ residential and commercial installations across all five NYC boroughs 
→ Over 40,000 tons of CO2 emissions avoided 
→ Launched Brooklyn Solar Canopy Co to sell their system nationwide 
→ Named a Top Solar Contractor by Solar Power World 
→ T.R. named "Trailblazer in Clean Energy" by City & State New York 
→ T.R. helped pass NYC's City of Yes Carbon Neutrality amendment, unlocking rooftop space for solar across the city

They even donated a full canopy system to CHiPS, a Park Slope nonprofit running a soup kitchen and housing program — right down the street from their office.

I'm convinced every European capital could replicate their success (or partner up with them).

—

Do you think urban solar should be the norm?

—

I share stories of exceptional climate leaders every Monday for #ClimateFounderMondays

Follow me by clicking the bell icon on my profile to be the first notified next week.

Small life update: I'm thinking of going back to study.

It sounds a bit overwhelming.

I'm running a full-time business. Working 6 days a week. And building a new vertical.

But I now have the resources and opportunity to pursue one of my oldest dreams—give it a go at STEM.

Here's the thing:

I sucked at science in middle and high school.

Just completely terrible at it.

But at 27, I'm genuinely curious about it for the first time.

I know how to learn now. And I actually want to understand the science behind the climate work I've been writing about for years.

Helsinki has two great unis for it:

→ University of Helsinki
→ Aalto University

The problem is:

My current degree is a BBA in International Business, so I'd need a new Bachelor's.

And I'm not 100% on the direction yet, but I want it to be climate-focused eventually.

Likely will start with Open University to figure out which path makes sense.

What I'm curious about:

Is there anyone who's done full-time work and full-time studying?

What advice would you give yourself before starting this?

I'd love to hear what worked, what didn't, and what you wish you'd known going in.

—

PS. Working in STEM will also make me a better ghostwriter for climate founders. Understanding the science side of things can only help, right?

He grew up in Oman surrounded by pristine beaches, corals, and desert.

Then he discovered a dead zone the size of Florida sitting right off his country's coast.

Meet Talal Hasan, Founder and CEO of 44.01.

Talal was born into a family of environmentalists in Oman. But he didn't take the obvious path into climate.

He studied French and Business Management in London. Became a corporate lawyer. Spent 10+ years working on energy transactions in the Gulf.

Then he helped launch IDO Investments, a $130M VC fund for the Omani government, investing globally in technology.

The turning point came while working at the sovereign fund.

He read that Oman's coast had the largest ocean "dead zone" in the world — a lifeless stretch of water caused by CO2 emissions being absorbed by the sea.

As someone raised by environmentalists, he couldn't look away.

When he investigated, he found something remarkable:

The problem and the solution were literally right next to each other.

Oman's Al Hajar mountains contain the world's largest surface deposits of peridotite — a rock that naturally turns CO2 into stone.

This process happens in nature. But it takes decades.

Talal's question: what if we could speed it up?

In 2020, he founded 44.01 (named after the molecular weight of CO2).

Here's how the technology works:

→ They capture CO2 from the atmosphere or from industrial processes
→ Dissolve it in water (essentially fizzy water — no toxic chemicals)
→ Inject it into peridotite formations underground
→ The rock mineralizes the CO2 in under 12 months
→ It becomes part of the mineral crystal lattice.

If something did leak? It's a puff of CO2 like opening a soda bottle.

The results have been extraordinary:

→ $47M raised ($42M Series A led by Equinor Ventures)
→ Backed by Bill Gates' Breakthrough Energy Ventures
→ Amazon's Climate Pledge Fund, Siemens, Air Liquide, and Sumitomo also invested
→ Won Prince William's Earthshot Prize in 2022 ("Fix Our Climate" category)
→ Won $1M XPRIZE Carbon Removal Award against 1,300+ teams from 80 countries
→ Won another $1M XFACTOR Award in April 2025
→ Partnered with ADNOC to scale in the UAE
→ Partnered with Climeworks (world's leading direct air capture company)
→ 50+ employees across Oman, UAE, and London

And peridotite isn't only in Oman. It's found on every continent.

The US, Canada, Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia — all have deposits.

Which means 44.01's technology could scale globally.

Their goal: mineralize 1B tonnes of CO2 by 2040.

For context, the IPCC says we need to remove 1 gigaton per year by 2030. 
That's equivalent to all global air travel emissions.

—

Did you know about Talal and 44.01's work?

PS. I share more stories of exceptional climate leaders every Monday for #ClimateFounderMondays

Follow me by clicking the bell icon on my profile to be notified next week 🔔

I'm speaking at Climate Drift on February 9.

And I'm starting with the thing most people get dead wrong:

Metrics.

Someone tells you to "post consistently" and "build thought leadership."

You start posting.

You check likes. You check impressions. You check follower count.

But none of that tells you if it's actually working.

The thing most coaches, courses, and gurus won't tell you:

→ Follower count means nothing if no one's buying
→ Likes don't pay your bills
→ Impressions are out of your control

The metric that matters most? Revenue.

Full stop.

Then you work backwards:

What's your actual goal in the next 6 months? Speaking gigs? Partnerships? Investor intros?

That becomes your North Star metric.

Not likes. Not engagement rate. Your goal.

Then—and only then—do you reverse engineer which social metrics actually correlate to that goal.

On LinkedIn specifically:

→ Likes correlate to topic quality
→ Comments show if people care enough to engage
→ Reposts signal shareability
→ Profile views show if you're attracting the right people

You can't optimize for all of them. You have to pick one.

—

This is what I'll be covering in the first week of Climate Drift's Thought Leadership for Humans program.

It's a 60-minute Q&A on February 9 where I'll walk the cohort through:

• How to tie your content to revenue (or your real goal)
• The hierarchy of social metrics that actually matter
• Platform-specific metrics worth tracking
• How to pick ONE metric and optimize around it

I'll be building a live Notion guide during the session that participants can use after.

If you're in climate and you've been stuck posting without a real strategy—or avoiding posting altogether because you don't know what success looks like—this might be for you.

Katie Gilbert is running an incredible 6-week program to help climate leaders finally build a sustainable thought leadership practice.

And I'm honored to kick it off on Day 1.

Applications close today.

Apply here: https://tally.so/r/68eJDJ 

Tag someone in climate who needs to hear this.

—

PS. Big thanks to Katie Gilbert, Marco Morawec, and Climate Drift for having me. Can't wait to meet the participants.

"The ignorance of how important and efficient LinkedIn is pissing me off."

— Cornelius Schmahl, who helped climate techs raise over $1bn in funding.

This came from a comment exchange last week.

Cornelius works with exits and fundraising at the highest level.

And he's frustrated.

Because founders keep making the same mistake:

They post AFTER fundraising.

Or worse. They ignore LinkedIn entirely until they're desperate for investor intros.

That's backwards.

When you wait, you're stuck with the "normal" rejection rate. 200 asks. 1 yes. And everyone tells you that's just how it is.

But it doesn't have to be that way.

Two of my clients right now:

→ One in sustainable materials
→ One in deep tech

Both are getting investor inbounds every single month.

All because we’ve been building their visibility for the past 2 years (largely before they needed money).

If you scramble last-minute for intros = desperation.
If you build visibility proactively = credibility.

Investors can smell the difference.

If you're fundraising in the next 6-12 months:

1/ Pick a posting frequency that feels comfortable (once/week or every two weeks)

2/ Pick 3 content styles to rotate:

→ Founder journey
→ Industry commentary
→ Problem-solving content

3/ Publish and stay present.

Everything else is optimization.

You don't need a perfect strategy.
You need to start before you're desperate.

Tag a founder who needs to see this.

Last Friday, I spoke at Climate Drift's Thought Leadership for Humans program.

The Q&A after was fire. Here are 6 questions I got from people in climate (and my honest answers):

Q1: Will AI replace ghostwriters?

Think of AI like Photoshop was for graphic designers. It's a tool, not a replacement. My job isn't writing posts — it's building your presence, course-correcting when things go sideways, and extracting stories you didn't know you had. AI can't do that. If anything, AI raised my client cap from 5 to 7.

Q2: LinkedIn reach is dropping. Should I even bother?

The reach is declining because LinkedIn is going the Facebook route — incentivizing people to pay for distribution that used to be free. But you don't need 50,000 impressions per post. You need the right 50 people to see your post and start a conversation. Focus on profile views, # of conversations started, or revenue as the right metrics.

Q3: Should I start with LinkedIn or an email newsletter?

LinkedIn is your distribution channel. Email is your middle channel. If you start a newsletter without an audience, you'll need to drive traffic from somewhere anyway. Start on LinkedIn. Build the list from there. Then email becomes your insurance policy when the algorithm gets worse.

Q4: I have multiple goals — speaking, advising, growing my business. How do I choose?

You can't pursue them all at once. Something always has to give. For example, if you want to speak and advise? Podcasts are a stepping stone — you build credibility for advising while getting reps as a speaker, without traveling.

Q5: Should I expand to Twitter or Bluesky?

Only if you've maxed out your current platform. Take your 20-50 best-performing posts from LinkedIn and use them as your starter library on the new platform. If you don't have that library yet, you haven't finished building your foundation.

Q6: How do I build an audience in a niche I'm new to?

Borrowed credibility. Highlight people already in the space. I do this every Monday — I pick a lesser-known climate tech founder and tell their story. Tag them. Connect beforehand. 2 out of 3 times, their network engages and a chunk of them follow you. You're borrowing their audience by giving them recognition.

—

These questions came from a variety of people:

Small business owners
Heads of startup incubator programs
Jobseekers
Climate scientists

If you're in climate and want to start building your LinkedIn presence but don't know where to begin, follow me. I share stuff like this regularly.

What question would you add to this list?

PS. Huge thanks to Katie Gilbert and Marco Morawec, for inviting me as a speaker once again 🙏

≈30% of climate tech prospects tell me the same thing:

"We want to try ghostwriting in-house before outsourcing."

Easier said than done.

Their exec or founder needs to be on LinkedIn.

But has zero time to write.

Hiring a ghostwriter feels expensive ($5-10k/month) or culturally off.

So marketing gets told: "figure it out."

The problem?

Marketing teams at Series A climate startups (usually 1-3 people) don't have ghostwriting training.

They can write blog posts. Press releases. Website copy.

But exec LinkedIn? That's a completely different skill.

You need to:

→ Sound like the founder (not like marketing)

→ Extract ideas without making it a homework for the CEO/exec

→ Write posts that drive business outcomes, not likes

Most marketing teams are left guessing.

So I'm thinking of running a workshop to teach climate marketing teams how to do this in-house.

One high-quality post per week so your exec/CEO/founder has a consistent presence.

Something you can execute with the existing internal resources.

Before I build this, I want to understand if it's actually useful.

Two questions for climate marketing teams:

1 - Have you ever considered building in-house ghostwriting expertise?

2 - If yes—what's your BIGGEST blocker right now?

Drop a comment or DM me.

I want to know what would make this a no-brainer vs. just another workshop nobody rewatches.

I've ghostwritten for the same climate tech CEO for 20+ months. Last week, he told me my questions had become useless.

He was right.

For the first 12-14 months, every weekly call produced gold. I'd ask about customer stories, product updates, market reactions — and he'd give me frameworks, contrarian takes, and insights I couldn't find anywhere else.

350+ posts later, I noticed a change.

His answers started getting shorter. Fewer details. I'd ask about a new customer and he'd say "it's the same story, you can make it up.”

I kept pushing. Better questions. Different angles.

It didn't help.

Then last week, he said it directly: "Your questions don't uncover more depth. They feel repetitive."

And he was right. I’ve hit the ceiling with my question bank and was going out of my way to be ‘creative’ and uncover ‘novel’ angles.

That wasn’t working.

So now we're rebuilding the system:

→ I double down on research. Industry data, policy shifts, market examples.

→ I draft the angles and bring them as finished concepts instead of questions.

→ His role shifts from answering questions to correcting my framing.

→ The calls go from weekly to bi-weekly. Shorter. More focused.

I'm betting his corrections and disagreements will produce better content than my questions in the last 1-2 months did.

We're testing it now. I don't know if it'll work yet.

But it got me thinking:

The best ghostwriting relationships aren't static. The system that works at month 3 might break at month 15.

If it does, it’s a signal that your content partner has absorbed enough context to operate differently.

And that’s ok.

—

PS. If you're talking to a ghostwriter, ask them for examples of how their process has evolved when working with clients for over a year. This will give you a good idea whether they are someone who can adapt to you or if they are too rigid.

Had a wild conversation with a client this week.

He used to run a solar company. Built the team. Set up the processes. Hired good people.

And one day he's sitting in his office thinking: "I have nothing to do."

Not in a good way. He felt useless.

What messed with his head the most:

Someone on the warehouse floor asked him a simple question. Something like "hey, we forgot to do this on a job — should we go back?"

His gut said: "Yeah, go back."

But that one answer? That was him making a decision his manager should've made. Without context. Without the full picture. Without anyone else knowing.

And every time he did that, he was quietly undermining the people he hired to run things.

So he had to unlearn the one thing every founder is wired to do — solve problems on the spot.

Instead, his answer became: "Talk to your manager. Follow the process. They'll figure it out."

Brutal for a problem-solver. But necessary.

Once he stopped being the answer machine, he had all this mental bandwidth. 

So he started tinkering with a recurring problem he kept seeing across the industry.

That problem became a product. That product became its own company. He eventually exited the first business entirely.

The "useless" phase wasn't a dead end. It was a signal that he'd outgrown the role — and was ready to grow as a CEO. Or, in his case, to also build the next thing.

This is the kind of stuff that comes up in my weekly calls with founders. I frequently get feedback like:

"I didn't expect this to come up today."
"Idk how you pulled these out of me."
"Came completely unprepared. Yet we covered so much."

This is my bread and butter.

The tiny details.

The stuff that no AI will ever be able to replicate.

—

Have you ever felt useless in your own company?

Curious if other founders can relate.

I haven't talked to one of my clients in over a year. And she's one of the best-performing accounts I manage.

Her exec syncs with me monthly. She reviews content in 10-15min per batch. 
And her posts consistently attract investors, partners, and customers in her space.

How?

We spent months building the foundation — her voice, her positioning, her themes. Once that was locked in, the system runs without her needing to be in every conversation.

But that's not how most of my client relationships work.

Here's the full breakdown across my 7 clients right now:

- 4 clients are on a weekly cadence. 45-50min calls where we go deep on what's happening in their business, industry, and head. I ask questions. They talk. I turn it into content.

I like weekly because it keeps the context fresh. New deals, new conversations, new opinions — that stuff has a short shelf life. If I wait too long, the moment's gone. These are also founders that are involved in the daily business activities so they have rich context to share.

- 2 clients are on a bi-weekly cadence. Heavier travel schedules, board-heavy months, more visionary people. We batch more per call, and I lean harder on async — voice notes, Slack messages, articles they've shared.

- And then the monthly setup I mentioned above.

There's no single "right" cadence. The best setup is the one that matches:

How a founder actually works
Their communication style
And their schedule

Some founders think best out loud on calls. Others drop fire voice notes at 11pm. One client sends me regular articles he reads with his thoughts on it.

I even had a CEO who'd jump on random WhatsApp calls for 10-15min in the moment of inspiration.

My job is to meet them where they are.

—

If you've been putting off LinkedIn because you think it means another weekly meeting on your calendar — it doesn't have to.

What's your best format for sharing your thoughts? On calls? Via text? Voice notes?

Would love to know.

Earlier on Monday, I woke up tired. Again.

After some self-reflection, I realised I'm a workaholic. And it's kicking my ass.

It's cut into my personal life, my health, and my future goals.

→ I've become more irritable (because I'm always working)
→ I've become obsessed with sleep optimization (because I wake up tired)
→ I've become afraid of actually committing to big goals like studying (because I'm overworked)

Not exactly peak decision-making state.

My coaches, Loz & Baz, helped me figure it out.

So I'm doing something that might sound trivial to most, yet kinda crazy to me:

→ I want to start working only 5d/week. At least for a couple of months.

I'm fast approaching a 3-year anniversary of my business, and for as long as I can remember, I've worked 6-7 days per week.

It's caught up with me.

No bueno.

My plan:

→ Keep all calls to Mon & Fri only
→ Have strict lunch & dinner breaks
→ Work on writing efficiency for clients

And learn how to do nothing for 1 day a week 🫠

Anyone else working 6-7 days a week and pretending it's fine?

PS. A friend of mine once told me I need to get out and touch grass more. Guess it's time lol

PPS. Photo of me in Japan when I wasn't a workaholic (felt good).

In 2025, I got invited to LinkedIn's HQ in Amsterdam.

Cool experience. Met some great people. But one thing stuck with me that I haven't talked about publicly.

The core topic of the event? How to use LinkedIn's advertising tools to boost your personal profile posts.

Not company page ads. Personal posts.

Two years ago, this wasn't even an option. Boosting was only possible through company pages.

Now, there's a little button at the top right corner of every post that says "Boost." You put in 50, 100, 200 and LinkedIn pushes it to more people.

Why does this matter for you as a climate tech founder?

Because the platform is evolving in the same direction as Facebook.

LinkedIn is incentivizing people to pay for reach that used to be free. And the more people boost, the less organic content gets distributed to make room for it.

That's why your reach feels like it's been declining. It's not your content getting worse. It's the platform shifting its model.

So what do you do about it?

I'm not a fan of boosting. I'm very much an organic-first person. But I won't pretend it doesn't exist.

If you want to experiment with it, do it.

But it'll dilute your organic data. If you publish 10 posts without boosting and 1 with, you can't compare them the same way. You'll need to treat boosted content separately when analyzing what actually resonates.

The core idea behind posting hasn't changed.

Your content strategy shouldn't depend on the algorithm being nice to you. It should depend on whether the right 50-100 people see it and whether it starts conversations.

That means:

1/ Stop obsessing over impressions. Start looking at who's viewing your profile after you post. Are they investors? Customers? Partners? If yes, your content is working — even if the numbers look smaller than last year.

2/ Use your posts as conversation starters, not performance metrics. The DMs, the replies, the introductions — that's where LinkedIn actually converts for founders.

3/ Double down on content analytics as a skill. When organic reach shrinks, you can't afford to keep posting stuff that doesn't land. Learn to read your own data — what topics your audience actually engages with, what formats fall flat, and what's worth doubling down on. Now is the time to 5x the effort on quality.

4/ And build your email list. You own that. You don't own your LinkedIn reach. If the algorithm keeps going this direction, having a direct line to your audience is insurance.—

Have you noticed your LinkedIn reach dropping?

Curious how others are experiencing it.

📸: Met the legendary Harald Friedl at the same event.

Aaron Nichols has generated 1.5M+ LinkedIn impressions in the solar industry using 4 storytelling rules. 

I took his framework and made it 10x easier to apply (with AI's help): 

Quick context: 

Aaron is a marketer at Exact Solar who built his entire audience by doing what most companies refuse to do... 

Leading with story instead of stats. 

His 4 rules are designed to help you: 

- Open posts with stories people actually feel (not data dumps) 
- Speak to what your audience already cares about 
- Simplify your message so a 14-year-old could get it 
- Sound like a real human, not a corporate press release 

His framework was great. 

But there was one problem: 

Aaron shared the "what" but not a system to apply it consistently. 

So I took his rules and built: 

- A pre-publish checklist to audit any post against all 4 rules 
- And a copy-paste AI prompt that scores your draft and tells you exactly what to fix 

Want to give it a try? 

Like this post 
Comment "story" 

I'll send it to your DMs. 

PS - The AI prompt alone is worth grabbing. Paste any draft in and it returns a scored audit with specific rewrite suggestions. Takes 30 seconds.

Aaron Nichols' 4 Rules of Storytelling Framework

I spent 3 years building a 4-level batching system so I could take a 2.5 week vacation with 6 clients.

Here's how each level forced the next (and why I'm now scaling to 7 without adding hours):

The forcing function was Japan.

I planned a 2.5 week trip and realized my system would collapse if I stepped away. So I spent 2 months building a month's worth of content buffer for all 6 clients.

Just to buy myself a real vacation.

That constraint became the catalyst for Level 4.

At first, I was batching one week at a time.

Ideation → hooks → outlines → drafts → edits → visuals → submission.

All in one go.

Worked fine for 2-3 clients. Broke immediately at 4.

So I increased batching to 2-3 weeks per client.

Longer calendar blocks. Smoother process.

Better. Still felt like racing the clock.

Then I split the process.

Day 1: Ideation, hooks, outlines, v1 drafts.
Day 2: Finishing drafts, visuals, editing, submitting.

Got me to 6 clients. Where most people stop.

But here's where it gets interesting.

I noticed every client has daily themes. My sustainable materials founder:

→ 2 posts/week on denim insulation
→ 1 post/week repurposing from 300+ archive
→ 1 post/week on Australian manufacturing
→ 1 post/week on company updates

Instead of batching by "weeks," I started batching by topics.

Pick "denim insulation." Create 4-6 weeks of content on that single theme.

Then "Australian manufacturing." Same thing.

But here's the key—and this is what most people miss:

I combined this with a buffer.

Weeks 1-2: Create the standard 2-week batch.
Weeks 3-4: With everything ahead, I have breathing room to focus on topic-based batching.

By week 3, I have almost a month's worth prepared. 80-90% done.

By weeks 4-6: The compounding is so efficient I can plan and draft content for the next 1-2 months.

This is the system that lets me manage 6 clients without working weekends.

And it's the same system I'm now using to scale to 7 — without adding hours.

—

Most climate tech founders I work with have the opposite problem.

They're not batching 6 clients' content. They're struggling to post consistently for themselves.

They know LinkedIn matters for fundraising, hiring, and partnerships.

But they don't have time to figure out the system.

So every Monday, I send out the exact strategies I've built ghostwriting for climate tech leaders who've raised $10M+ — broken down so you can use them yourself in 10 minutes per week.

430+ climate founders already get it.

Join them here (free): https://lnkd.in/ezCxpYcH

"Our proprietary bio-based polymer formulation provides a functionally equivalent alternative to petroleum-based packaging substrates." 
Vs. 
"We make packaging from farm waste instead of oil. It's just as strong." 

Same company. Same technology. Same facts. 

But only one version gets read on LinkedIn. 

If you're a climate tech founder posting technical content that gets 12 likes from your team and zero engagement from investors, customers, or talent... 

The problem isn't your ideas. It's your language. 

I built a free guide that teaches you how to simplify any LinkedIn draft using 5 Hemingway rules specifically adapted for climate tech writing. 

It includes:

→ 5 rules with climate-specific examples (kill adverbs, active voice, short sentences, plain language, one idea per sentence). 

→ 5 full before & after rewrites across solar, water tech, sustainable packaging, energy efficiency, and alt proteins. 

→ A jargon-to-plain-language swap table you can reference anytime. 

→ A copy-paste AI prompt that takes your draft and returns a simplified version with a change log for every edit. 

The AI prompt is the real gem. It scores your draft on complexity, flags the exact sentences dragging it down, rewrites the whole thing, and explains every change. 

Want it? 
Like this post 
Comment "hemingway" 

Send me a connection request so I can DM you

I'll send the link ASAP. 

PS - Unlike the free Hemingway app, the AI prompt inside actually suggests edits and ranks your drafts in a more iterative way so you don't have to pay for Hemingway AI Pro.

My solar client said something the other day that stuck with me.

We were talking about solar installation and maintenance.

He said: "Anyone can install a panel. But are you gonna be there when something breaks?"

He made a point about offering ongoing O&M services as a source of revenue.

And you know what?

It's the exact same thing I have to explain with AI and content.

Anyone can open ChatGPT and write a LinkedIn post.

Cool. You got a post. Maybe it's even good.

But what happens when:

→ Your engagement drops for 3 weeks straight?
→ A post accidentally misrepresents your tech?
→ Your messaging needs to pivot mid-fundraise?
→ Your content attracts the wrong audience?
→ You run out of things to say by week 4?

ChatGPT won't diagnose that. It won't jump on a call with you. It won't adjust your strategy based on what the data is telling us.

That's what a premium ghostwriter is for.

The true value of a ghostwriter isn't the writing.

It's the maintenance and ongoing consulting.

The weekly calls. The pattern recognition. The "hey, this angle isn't landing — let's try this instead."

It's someone who knows your voice, your audience, and your goals well enough to course-correct before things go sideways.

AI will only amplify the mistakes you make along the way.

—

If your LinkedIn content feels like it's collecting dust, send me a DM.

I offer free 45-min LinkedIn funnel audits for anyone in the climate space.

Your competitors' founders are posting 3x a week.
Yours hasn't posted in 3 months.

I've watched this play out with dozens of Series A marketing teams.

The CEO says "I don't see the ROI."

And you're trying to convince them otherwise.

When talking to the CEO, remind them of these 3 risks:

Risk 1: Your sales cycles stay at 12-18 months when they could be 6-12.

Founder visibility builds trust before the first call. When prospects already follow your CEO, they walk in saying "we've been watching you for months."

Risk 2: Competitors own the narrative while you stay invisible.

When buyers search for solutions in your space, they'll find your competitor's CEO. They'll see their takes, their frameworks, their POV.

Risk 3: You waste 90% of your organic reach by relying on the company page.

Personal profiles get 10x the visibility of company pages. Every post your CEO doesn't write is reach you're leaving on the table.

So what do you actually say to a CEO who "doesn't see the ROI"?

Stop positioning LinkedIn as social media. Reframe it as:

→ Series B prep (you need 12-18 months to build momentum)
→ Talent magnet (top candidates look at founders before applying)
→ PR strategy (journalists scan LinkedIn to decide who to cover)
→ Sales enablement (gives buyers the proof they need to convince their boss)
→ AI search optimization (the better your content is, the more likely it shows on AI searches)

And it's especially true if you're in climate tech.

—

What are some other risks you see from NOT building your visibility online?

"The country that's first to fusion powers the global economy for generations."

— Bob Mumgaard, CEO of Commonwealth Fusion Systems.

As I explore STEM opportunities, I couldn't stop researching fusion energy and Bob's work.

Here's why this matters (and how it's connected to the climate crisis):

Bob Mumgaard wasn't always a fusion CEO.

He was a Nebraska kid who met his future COO on day one of Math 106 at University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

They became roommates.

Years later, Bob went to MIT for his PhD in plasma physics. His buddy Steve Renter got an MBA at Harvard and worked as a drilling engineer at BP.

For years, they had a standing meeting:

Every Thursday night at the Muddy Charles pub in Boston.

Bob talked fusion. Steve talked startups.

By 2018, those beer meetings became Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS).

By 2026, they've raised almost $3 billion.

Their core idea:

Traditional fusion reactors are massive and take decades to build.

Bob's team at MIT figured out how to make them dramatically smaller using high-temperature superconducting (HTS) magnets.

In 2021, they built and tested the most powerful fusion magnet ever created on Earth.

10 tons. 8 feet tall. 165 miles of superconducting tape.

That magnet proved the physics works.

Now they're building SPARC — a compact tokamak in Massachusetts designed to produce net fusion energy by 2027.

If SPARC works, it’ll change the entire industry.

—

Why this matters for climate:

Solar and wind are great. But they're intermittent.

The world needs clean, 24/7 baseload power that doesn't depend on whether the sun is shining or the wind is blowing.

Fusion is that solution:

→ Unlimited fuel (hydrogen from seawater)
→ Zero carbon emissions
→ No radioactive waste
→ 24/7 power, rain or shine

Google signed a 200 MW power purchase agreement with CFS. The largest corporate fusion energy deal in history.

Eni signed a $1B+ deal.

And if SPARC hits its target in 2027, Virginia gets the world's first commercial fusion power plant (ARC) in the early 2030s.

400 MW. Enough for 150,000 homes.

And they’re not the only ones.

China has invested $6.5B+ in fusion since 2023.

The race is on. And it's closer than most people think.

What makes Bob's story stand out to me:

He didn't wait for governments or universities to move slowly.

He took decades of MIT fusion research, commercialized it, and convinced Google, Bill Gates, and NVIDIA to bet billions on his vision.

From Thursday night pub meetings to building the sun on Earth.

That's the kind of audacious climate tech thinking we need more of.

—

What "impossible" climate ideas are you following?

And whose work shall I feature next Monday?

#ClimateFounderMondays

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