Built a $2.3M LinkedIn Plan in 23 Minutes for a Beginner

This is Cameron. He quit his six-f

figureure tech job to build software

while traveling the world making more

money than any business [music] could

ever pay him. But what will take Cameron

from where he is right now to scaling

faster is content. And this is how his

software will get the distribution he

needs for free while building authority

and getting leads. So today he's going

to sit down with me and we're going to

be going through every single one of

those steps. And my name is Lara Costa.

I built three, [music] six, and seven

figure businesses using content and

LinkedIn. I built my personal brand from

zero to 300,000 followers and I know

exactly what [music] the bottlenecks

income strategy are and how to fix them

today. The key elements we need to cover

in order to build a profitable brand are

one expertise and how we can own it.

Number two, relevant stories and [music]

how we can use them to drive attention.

And number three, traffic generation and

how to manufacture [music] it. My plan

is simple. Ask some questions, get

keywords, and build a strategy and a

full content system for him to use for

the future and for his business. Okay.

So, today we have Cameron here. He is

starting building his personal brand on

LinkedIn and he has a few problems that

we're going to be addressing today. So,

Cameron, do you want to introduce

yourself?

>> Hello, I'm Cameron and I'm a software

engineer turn entrepreneur. I have two

SAS businesses. I started coding at 13

and yeah, now I build SAS and businesses

for a living. I am currently looking at

starting my LinkedIn journey. I'm having

a few issues figuring out what to write

about, how to go about it, and Lara is

the best person at doing this.

>> Yes. So, what do you think is your main

problem when trying to sit down and

write content?

>> Without a doubt, it's figuring out what

to write about.

>> Yeah. And is it because you don't know

what angles work best on the platform or

you just can't even figure out what to

write?

>> I think I have a lot of information to

share, but it's figuring out how I can

say it in a way that's interesting to

other people.

>> Amazing. So, with your LinkedIn

strategy, cuz you've been coding and you

have all of this knowledge, what is the

problem that's stopping you from

creating content consistently and well

on LinkedIn?

>> Right. So I would say Cleo is great for

writing the content, but I think what I

personally struggle right now is what do

I write about? What angle do I write

about and how do I go around it?

>> And if you were to know like so I want

my personal brand to be this like what

do you want to be known for? Cuz we

start with what you want to be known for

and then your positioning and then the

social proof that goes with it. So what

do you want to be known for first? I

want to be known as the tech guy. The

guy who can come into a company and

build a tech team and just really like

pioneer the technical side of a

business.

>> Okay. So within that, what are the main

skills that you think you need to talk

about or show to educate your ideal

client or user or follower about so they

trust you as that person as a tech guy?

What does a tech guy talk about? So, I

think I need to talk about technical

things obviously, but this is where I

struggle because I personally as a tech

guy, I want to get in the details. I

want to nerd out on everybody, but I

know that not everybody's interested in

the real details.

>> Yeah. So, what if we took away all that

over complication like you have you want

to say everything, what would you

actually be talking about right now?

>> I would like to talk about the code.

>> I would like to talk about things like

tech stack.

>> Yep.

>> New latest AI tools. Yep.

>> How we can use them in Cleo. Yeah.

>> So when it comes to coding, like how do

you make this beginner friendly? If you

were for your ideal clients, they don't

know code. So what do they usually come

to you to talk about? Like what

questions?

>> So I think maybe an angle could be more

like the vibe coding side. So me showing

somebody without the experience how to

build different app, build different

tools and start to sell a product. And

then for tech stacks is the same. So

like they just want to know how to

become more productive, how to do that.

>> Yes. Like what tools can they leverage

to get things done faster?

>> Okay. And then the latest AI tools or

trends. Why is that important to you?

>> Well, obviously Cleo is an AI based app,

but I think in general it's a hot topic.

People want to use the latest AI tools.

If they know certain things are

available, it actually every time

there's an advancement in AI, it opens

up a whole new world of opportunity for

businesses. Okay, that's good. We sorted

that out. So, we have enough knowledge

here so we can build a content strategy.

Now, for positioning, what type of

personal brand do you want to build?

There's two types of brands that do

incredibly well on LinkedIn. There's the

storytelling ones like myself, and then

there's education only like Jake's. What

do you want to lean more into? Do you

want to be known for you or for your

skill? I think I would probably lean

towards the story side, but I would also

obviously like to show my knowledge

>> and social proof is the most important.

So, here's how you sort of like

differentiate yourself from every other

tech guy on LinkedIn. So, you've

obviously built Cleo and scale that to

>> 62k.

>> Nice. And then before that, what else?

And who else have you helped do

something of that caliber or something

that people would want to listen to you

for? also built mentions or passive

mentions which is at 20K MR.

>> And what does mentions do?

>> Mentions is a tool which lets businesses

and websites see how they are cited in

LLMs.

>> These two are B2B SAS companies, right?

Okay. B2B

SAS and then anything else?

>> I think really before that my authority

just comes from the companies I've

worked at um mainly just in a 9 toive

job at large corporate American

companies.

>> Okay. Can you say anything about these

companies like four to 500?

>> Yeah, some of they're worth like several

billion dollars.

>> Billion dollar. So the reason why this

is important is that if we can just map

all of this out, people need to know you

for one thing and then they need to

trust you based on that because if

there's no this, they can't really tell

if you're being serious about all of

this. That's where we're going to start

building your content strategy. So we

need to go for high value skills and

then monetizable expertise. So a high

value skill is what you can tell stories

about and what can what you can educate

on. People get this wrong all the time

where they feel like they can only

educate but never storytell. You can

always do both at the same time. Your

high value skill is obviously being in

tech having built businesses from that.

So tell me two stories that we can use

today about you being the tech guy. I

built Cleo to 60k. That's one of them.

Building like building in public in

public. And the next one that would

stand out to me would be you quitting

your job on a whim to go and work with

the Cleo guys, right?

>> Yeah. Quitting 9 to5. And then education

when it comes to high value is how do we

get a stranger to trust me in less than

60 seconds? You knowing what you know

about the market. What do you think

would interest someone like me or Rob or

Jake to work with you? Well, the thing I

see the most is the whole vibe coder

project in order weekend. So, if I can

show people what's possible within one

or two days, maybe they can see well

what's possible with someone with

expertise over a longer period of time.

>> Okay. Anything else?

>> Maybe AI tools which are out there that

they can use like your average person

can use that will help them. So people

will see this and I see this all the

time where you'll highlight, oh you can

talk about this, you can talk about

this, you can talk about this, but

people will be like, okay, but where's

the money or how do I grow? All of

these, if you think about them, they all

lead to a first principle which is

financial. Building in public, you

showing how you built in public leads to

people knowing how they can make more

money. You quitting your 9 to5, you quit

your 9 to5 for a reason to make more

money. So every single thing that we

ever talk about always comes back to the

main principle which is making your

ideal reader the main character. And so

within the first one or two lines of a

post, there always needs to be some

financial incentive or some sort of hint

that this is going to make the user

money. That's what we call unselfish

content and how we make it all about

them. even when you're talking about

yourself. And then the monetizable

skills are, you know, how to build a

SAS, how to buy code in two hours or

less, whatever. Anything else?

>> How to use X AI tool.

>> And then we always say either to save

time, make money, or live a better life.

Cool. All right. So before we get into

actually writing content with Cleo and

AI, we need to understand what your

content themes are going to be. This is

what the part when voice people kind of

like get confused or where they stop

posting content because they use AI and

then they'll be like write me a post for

this but then there's no continuity like

I don't know where this is leading

ideally let's say how many posts a week

do you think you want to write four

>> four or five

>> okay so we're going to be following my 4

3 2 1 framework which aligns well with

you. So four post a week. And so since

you want to build a path of run that's

based on your story but also

storytelling. The split between the four

is going to be one post about education,

one post storytelling, one post doing

both. So edu telling using the slay

framework and then another pose is

educating. This immediately removes

every single constraint of like what do

I write about? You go into a post

knowing that this is going to be an

educational post based on what we talked

about earlier. So then you don't have to

have to decide on the day. You already

know what you're writing. Then the three

is for the three content themes or

content pillars that we're going to be

using. So we already decided that you

want to do education and storytelling.

So those are not the content pillars.

What we're doing is either talking about

total addressable market content. So

something that goes viral because that's

how you're going to increase your

followers. That's how you're going to go

viral. Then we're going to do growth

content. um which is similar to total

addressable market content but this is

going to grow you as a person. So people

getting invested into your brand rather

than just what you're educating on and

then this is like sales content. So for

total addressable market content is

where we talk about something that you

have the unfair advantage to talk about

that not that many people do which is

LinkedIn has these eight keywords that

it loves pushing. One of them is AI. The

other one is productivity. The other one

is remote work. Um the other one is

LinkedIn itself. LinkedIn loves it when

you talk about LinkedIn. So you already

have four. And so when you think about

this, you already have the cheat codes

to create content that actually performs

well without really doing that much

extra work because someone else that

doesn't work remotely, that doesn't know

how to use AI, will have to kind of

figure out how to link everything back

to but you don't because you

automatically already talk about these

things. Then growth content is going to

be stories that again are linked to fast

principles. Your 9 to5, quitting your

job, building a SAS, talking about

money, these things. And then sales

content goes back to how we're actually

monetizing you. Will you be promoting

Cleo in your content?

>> Yes.

>> Yeah. And then will you be selling your

consultancy or anything else or just

Cleo only?

>> At this stage, I just want authority.

>> Okay. So, we only want to drive traffic

to your main SAS or your two SAS. And

then the thing here is the two. So

there's two types of personas that you

want to talk to every single time. Most

marketers always focus on one and that

is your ideal client persona. Right?

Everybody talks about this. There's

another one. It's called the IFP, ideal

follower persona. The people that are

18, 19, 20 that can't afford our

product, but they can afford to support

you. These are the people that we want

to get the most because they're going to

push this type of content to your ideal

client. Okay. Now the last thing is my

favorite one. What do you think this is?

One thing a week that I love so much.

One lead magnet

>> magnet a week. So at first like one of

my core principles as people know is

lead magnets. Why do you think we need

lead magnets every single week for a

personal brand?

>> To capture their emails.

>> Yes. The thing with lead magnets on

LinkedIn is that they serve in two

different ways. So when you post a lead

magnet, you get emails. But the second

thing is that these are some of the most

viral formats on LinkedIn because you

automatically get more virality because

people always want free stuff. So if

you're consistently pushing lead

magnets, people get to follow you, they

find you, they know you, and they trust

you, which is like literally what we're

trying to do with all of these these

things. But this is all in one. But most

people don't poison them because they

don't know how. But you know how because

we built some magnets together. Okay,

cool. Now we are you clear on this?

>> I'm clear on this. So let's revisit. So

the four posts. So if you were to

educate on something today, what would

it be?

>> By coding.

>> Okay. B coding. And then so if I said

how to b code assass in 2 minutes. That

does that make sense?

>> Something like that.

>> Cool. Storytelling. Your next

storytelling post would be about

>> quitting my job.

>> Okay. And then how do we make it

interesting to someone else?

>> We

>> use Cleo.

>> Use clear.

>> And we link it back to a problem that

they have. So I quit my 9 to5 to go fly

to Canada. Here's exactly how you can do

it as well. That's the second thing. But

clear can also help us do that. And then

storytelling using the slay. So if you

were to tell a story about something

like B coding, the way that we would do

it is like I started by coding when I

was 15.

Since then, I built two B2B SES that are

nearly six years each. And then here's

how. So that's how we retain that

authenticity but still educate an

audience that is in your IFB and then

your ICP. Okay. And then again, we

educate back and then you can create a

how-to step by step how to build a SAS

product. Cool.

>> Yeah.

>> All right. So, we're going to hop on to

Cleo. This is my Cleo. So, it doesn't

have your information, but ideally what

we would have done is that we will put

everything that we just went through

from the content that you're going to

talk about educating and storytelling in

some context about you and how we just

put it in your knowledge base. Then,

we're going to write like me because

this is my writing style on Cleo. And so

how are we going to write your first

post? The prompt is I want to write five

ideas for my next LinkedIn post. I want

to be known as the tech guy in my

industry. I want to talk about Vive

coding, etc. Give me hug ideas that

match fast principles. Add urgency scars

to your firmware if needed. And then

make this total addressable market

content. On top of this, I'm going to

add a secret cleo swipe file that we

created that has all the knowledge in

here. You can also find it within the

writing frameworks, right? the

>> viral SOP.

>> The viral SOP is somewhere here. So once

we have that, it should give us five

amazing hook ideas that can make you go

viral tomorrow, huh? Yeah. So the first

one, I built two six figure SAS products

using Vive coding. You don't need clean

code to hit six figures. Vive coding is

dead in 6 months. I left my corporate

job to build worse software. Wow,

>> it's an angle.

>> Most engineers will never build a

profitable product. I think this is

good. Okay. So then we actually prompted

to write it. Ideas are good because they

teach you exactly how you need to take

your idea and actually make it a topic

that people are interested in rather

than just a topic that you're interested

in. And obviously then Cleo is going to

write it here. So most engineers will

never build a profitable product. I was

one of them for years. Oh, this is

great. What Cleo is doing here, we are

doing to a few things. So most

engineers, so we're categorizing one of

your ideal audiences that will follow

you and then they they want to know how

to build a profitable product. So

immediately we're giving them the

payoff. And then the second thing is

you're then relating back to you. So

this is entertaining while they're

educating and this defeats the typical

viral LinkedIn slop which is like here's

how to build a productivity app. It's

about them through the lens of you

because everybody wants to build a

profitable product in seconds and then

you know you write the entire post based

on whatever Cleo gives you. Any

question?

>> No. That's good. If you were to leave

now, what do you think would stop you

from being more consistent or feeling

like you're on track?

>> I think would be probably like

validation of my ideas. So, I think what

I would probably do is I'd probably

split out each of the different pillars.

I'd probably come up with ideas for each

of the pillars. But then until I guess

I've I've done the practice and I I've

seen what works and what doesn't, my

first question would be, is this a good

idea?

>> Okay. So, how I would validate the idea

is using Cleo's swipe file because how

we we've built it is we can tell what

people are saving right now. And so, if

you take a validated idea that someone

else has saved, then you put it next to

your post that you wrote, you can sort

of like see what type of content is

doing well on the platform. And that's

exactly how I built my content. It's

like by understanding patterns, not just

regurgitating what other people are

saying. Like, is this formatting working

right now? is this topic and angle like

negative, positive. Oh, this person used

a lot of images. Maybe I should do that

for myself. And it's about testing and

iterating until it works. The topics

that you want to write about are always

going to perform well, but you just need

to find out the right way to promote

them. Does that make sense? Usually, a

fast track is always telling stories and

always using a photo. Let's go back to

let's say me on my LinkedIn strategy.

What I realized is that I was playing

LinkedIn on hard mode because I was

trying to be really cool and not really

use any photos because I was like, I'm

too good for that. But then I realized

like LinkedIn is a social media platform

where you need to retain attention. A

fast way to retain attention fast is by

adding a graphic because what people

don't kind of see is that when you put a

graphic on your post, it takes over the

entire feed. And so that gives you more

time to win someone over and get them to

actually read your posts rather than

just doing texton content. So another

hack and hence why we're here in London

is to get as many photos as possible so

we can almost position you as a tech guy

doing tech guy things and also talking

about tech, right? Because people right

now need this extra validation that

you're not just doing the thing, but you

also are that thing. There's too many

LinkedIn personal branding experts right

now talking about personal branding with

10,000 followers or thousand followers.

But now, how do we get someone that has

a thousand followers but also is worth a

100,000 followers to look the part by

using the right content in the right

cues? Yeah.

>> Yeah. So, do you ever go through and

find a viral post and even though it's

not necessarily in your niche?

>> Yeah.

>> Do you then just copy say the formatting

or try and then relate it to one of your

four pillars?

>> Oh, 100%. So there's someone that I

really admire in the industry and his

name is Jake Ward. What Jake did that

broke LinkedIn two years ago and I

personally say this because I saw it he

wouldn't say it because he won't admit

it. Jake became the best technical

writer on LinkedIn which allowed many

people like myself understand how to

write technically. He [snorts] writes

about SEO. I write about marketing but

then I realized that he was breaking

down such complex topics in such depth

and so I copied it. So let's say this

one, the new SEO game if SEO search is a

real optimization. I don't know how to

do SEO in 2026. So I'll see this and

there's two things I can think. This

doesn't have anything to do with me, so

I can't copy it. Or I can be like, this

worked well. Let me reverse engineer

why. And so I'll take this and I'll be

like, okay, how can I break down

LinkedIn marketing or personal branding

in 2026 and do it exactly how he's doing

it? So what levels can I actually break

down? They don't need to be six like he

has here, seven. It can be three. But if

we just do it in micro steps like he's

broken it down, then I know I can

potentially get a similar result. So you

can do that as well. Whenever I don't

have any information about any client, I

just go and look till the ends of the ad

for any blogs, any content, any YouTube

stuff that I can take and then

immediately just use context. So context

is Jake's post because it's giving us

the the winning format. And then proof

that you've done something similar from

YouTube, blogs, you can either even use

your SOPs, whatever. Then we're going to

add it here. So, write me a post on my

strategy to scale B2B SAS Zaga. Would

you say good?

>> Here's some info. So, this removes all

the friction between finding the idea,

finding what you want to write about,

finding the best hook to talk about, and

then it's just the final draft is done

for you in 2 seconds or less. It's 80%

done. Obviously, you need to go back and

shift things, but that's exactly how

I've been doing it manually this entire

time, and that's how Jake did it

manually this entire time. But now, you

can do it in 2 seconds. Now the last

thing that I want to add before we wrap

up is that the images play a really big

part on this. So whenever people use AI

and even if it's charged etc. Where

people fail in the execution is that

they'll try and copy a viral post but

they won't copy it correctly. They won't

emulate it. You need to emulate from the

structure the hook the formatting uh

even the CTA but also the image that

you're using. So obviously you and I

can't make this right now right? But

what can we do in less than an hour

today or like whatever time allocation

we have to write a post. We can go on

Canva. We can try and make something

similar. We can add a photo of us

working. So we can just add that. And

then maybe your SEO strategy is on the

screen. So we always want to give

context. One person that does this very

well is Richard Moore. He has this

strategy where he doesn't really use

infographics, but he always use candid

photos of himself which positions him as

an authority always because he's always

speaking. He's always in a suit. So he's

sort of like telling people who he is

without that. So for you it would be

like you looking like a B2B SAS nerd and

in your laptop because that's exactly

what your ideal client and someone

looking for you wants to see. You being

yourself. That's pretty much it. We walk

through actually understand how to build

your positioning, what strategy is

better for you, how to build it, the

type of post that you need to write and

then actually writing the final post in

seconds. Do you have any questions? How

do I remain authentic and make sure that

it always sound like me?

>> So when we built your content pillars at

the start and even your strategy, we

focused a lot on your story and what you

specifically educate on and your social

proof, right? That is the main thing

that will keep you authentic and what is

going to pull people to you. So when

we're using AI, when we're emulating

other people's content, when we're using

people's swipe files, your content won't

always sound like them as long as you

prompt it, right? So even the outputs

that we had for AI content earlier, they

sound like you because we gave a context

about you. And that's how we kind of

like beat that from being just generic

AI fluff that Chad GPT writes. This is

what makes tools like Cleo so different.

And also the tool is basically built on

you. So when you are on boarded onto the

platform, you already know this, but for

people watching this, we know the about

you, your story, etc. Which means that

every single time we create content, it

will always be backed on your story in

your beliefs rather than just copy and

pasting the viral format. What we've

trained Cleo to do is follow formats,

but not the content, just the context

ideally. So that's how you stay

authentic and not a typical viral fluff

person on LinkedIn. Cool. Let's go. Come

first as viral post tomorrow. High five.