Hi, I’m Abby. I help you stop winging it with your personal brand, by pairing content strategy with media coaching so you sound as good out loud as you do in your head!

Abby S.

There is a new-ish trend on LinkedIn, and I call it Facebook-ification.
It is when "storytelling" turns into oversharing because being vulnerable feels like the shortcut to being liked.

And I am watching a lot of smart founders confuse the two.

At this point, LinkedIn is starting to feel like a mix of:
• Facebook in 2010
• MySpace in 2006
• and a therapy circle no one asked to join

Here are 4 real business issues with this, and why it has me cringing so much.

1. LinkedIn is not for impressing our inner circle.
It is a professional network for earning trust with people who don't know us yet.

2. A CEO's job on LinkedIn is to turn strangers into customers, not collect comments for being "so real." 

3.  Our actual buyers are not looking for some vulnerable personal diary 24/7.
They care about: Strategy. Proof. Value.

4. The goal for CEOs is to be remembered for the right thing, like adding insight, not the vulnerable chaotic thing.

But I'm seeing so much mixed messaging, which, by the way, is hurting the bottom line.

That is why at Demandii we push storytelling with structured frameworks. This looks like content that builds authority, connection, engagement, and proof.

And look, I'm not knocking being relatable, I'm just saying it does not translate to being reputable OR credible.

So, while the goal is to aim for it all, we always want to lead with reputation + value first. 

PS. Yes, this image fully inspired the post.

PPS. Just remember that being relatable is not the goal on LinkedIn - there are other platforms for that.   

PPPS. Not sure how to get your content and lead gen goals aligned? Shoot me a DM, and we'll talk.

Abby E. Schachter

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

No alternative text description for this image

This copywriting framework is my absolute favorite to use with my CEO clients because it forces us to stick with a story their ideal buyer connects with. 

It's called P.A.S and is a mini, more potent (IMO) version of the 'why' framework.

→ P – What’s the problem your buyer is living with?
→ A – Why does it suck? What’s it costing them?
→ S – How do you help? What’s the move forward?

And we pretty much build every video and every piece of content around this.

If it fits in PAS, it ships. If not, we redo.
Simple as that. 

The goal is to show how our expertise will make our audience's life better; but we can only do that with proof, and the proof is in the value we add with our storytelling.

CEOs, this kinda sucks but it's true: likeability on its own doesn’t equal trust. 
It means people enjoy your content.
Trust is when they believe you can solve the problem.

Some of the best founders I know, post from the trenches. 
It performs. People relate.

But it positions them as “one of us,” not “the way out.”
That’s why engagement doesn’t turn into leads.

At Demandii, we build content strategy frameworks  for our clients that shift their ideal buyers' perception from: “I relate to you” → “I trust you to lead me out.”

The key is to turn a service offer into strategic content that consistently shows off YOUR expertise by showing:

1-The path forward
2-What you see that others miss
3-Evidence that you  solve problems
4-How you've helped others just like them
5-And a very, very obvious reason to DM you

So, the next time you're stressing over a post with tons of likes but no leads, remember this: Connection without competence doesn’t convert.

LinkedIn marketing isn't about vanity metrics like likes and comments anymore.
Because here's what actually matters in 2026: Dark social intent.
And let me tell ya,  Dark social is sooooo underrated. 

I've seen countless founders chasing viral posts that get thousands of likes but zero new deals...

While others with less engagement are closing mid-market contracts because they pay attention to who is "lurking" in the shadows.

Here's how you can do this too:

1- Tracking profile visits over post likes. 
↳ Most of your buyers won't comment, but they will check your "About" section after reading a sharp insight.

2- Creating for the "Save" and the "Share."
 ↳ Your ideal buyer is secretly sharing your content via DMs with their internal team to build a business case.

3. Opinionated insights over generic advice. 
↳ Stop trying to please the algorithm and start challenging the industry status quo.

High reach doesn't matter if it's the wrong people watching BUT when we focus on shadow consumption first, the pipeline will follow.

CEOs: The LinkedIn posts that "fail" on day one are often the ones that close the deal six months later.

Well that's been my experience.

And it's because we are "baiting" the 95% of the market that isn't ready to buy today. 

They are lurking. They are watching. They are "human-ing" just like us.

If you delete the post, you delete the trail of breadcrumbs they were following to trust you.

Believe me, I know how low engagement feels like a bruise to the ego, but "likes" don't reveal who is secretly reading. 

Here is what we need to pay attention to instead:

1. The "Lurker" is the Decision Maker

I’ve seen CEOs get zero engagement from a target account for months, only to have a VP of Sales quote a specific "low-performing" post during a high-stakes discovery call. If that post had been deleted because it "tanked," that connection never happens.


2. Conversations > Conversions

Winning CEOs stop treating LinkedIn like a vending machine and start treating it like a cocktail party. When you focus on starting a dialogue rather than just forcing a conversion, you build actual rapport.


3. Warming the Cold

I’ve watched cold outbound response rates double simply because a prospect "saw the CEO’s name somewhere recently." That "somewhere" was usually a post the CEO almost deleted because it only got five likes.


So, just remember, if you give your content (and your audience) time, they will convert.

Okay? Okay!
 
PS. Demandii Iis really good at this if you need help.

CEOs  I know you're used to competence and being really good at what you do. So personal branding can feel weirdly exposing because you’re building a new skill in public.

So not only are you learning something new … You’re learning where people can see the reps in real-time. It's gross. 

Which is why I tell my founder clients: embrace the suck.
Super comforting, eh? 

Look, I know it’s not what a CEO  like yourself wants to hear,  but it’s what  YOU need to hear… because it’s the reality. 

I've seen it play out hundreds of times.

The first reps are awkward. 
You’ll overthink everything. 
You’ll want to quit.

Don’t. Reps compound.

And every time you show up, you get a little better.
Even 1% a day? That adds up fast.

And like, #StevenBartlett says in this super astute post, “embarrassment” is the entry fee. And it's worth it.

Brand partnership • Founder of Steven.com

Embarrassment is the price of entry - and most people just aren’t willing to pay it. 

they never hit record, write the post, or launch the thing… because the thought of “Dave from work” seeing it and making a snide comment is too much. 

that's so tragic to me.

how much potential are we wasting because we’re scared of what Jenny from our hometown, our mum, or - worst of all - our supposed "friends" might think? 

so many people hold their potential back because they’re scared of what some half-friend on Facebook might think - someone they haven’t properly spoken to since Year 11

I don't think anything holds us back from the life we could have lived more than the opinions of people who don’t even know us.

pressing record that first time felt cringey, awkward, and exposing - but discomfort has so often been a doorway, so I'm ok with it now. I'm okay with people thinking what they wanna think and saying what they wanna say. 

at the end of the day, I'm going to die someday - and so are you. 

So you might as well live.

Too many people wait until they feel ready, polished, or ‘credible’ enough to start but every good thing that's happened in my life started with me accepting that I would have to inevitably "practice in public" - be bad at something in front of the world before I'd figured it out

are you willing to practice in public? 

It's one of the reasons I invested in Stan - because the world needs more creators who launch before they feel ready. I didn't back them just because it's a creator tool. I backed them because they also remove the technical friction so you can get out of your own way.

P.S, don’t be a Dave. Clap and encourage when you see someone practising in public!

We live in a world of instant everything:
-Meals + groceries on demand
-Same-day shipping
-Instant messages

So when our content takes months to show results, what do we do? 

↳ Blame the algorithm
↳ Panic, the content sucks
↳ Pull the plug on the whole thing

And it makes TOTAL sense to feel this way.

However, a feeling isn't data. 

I sat with a CEO who was ready to quit personal branding because he didn't see a lead in 60 days and felt embarrassed that his LI posts weren't getting more than 5+ likes. 

I showed him the receipts: 4 VPs from his "dream" accounts were lurking on his profile every week.

He was focused on the "Decision" phase, but his buyers were still in "Discovery."

If you’re only posting to get an instant lead, you’re going to pivot too fast and break the trust you're building.

That post you wrote today? It's "bait" for the 95% who aren't ready to buy yet. Stay helpful, stay human, and stay top of mind.

I promise, the ROI will come, but only if you don't pull the plug too early.

Matthew Hunt

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

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

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

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

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

I have battle-tested this process with over 250 CEOs.

It works.

We have the data to prove it.

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

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

You can see my whole LinkedIn GTM strategy in this 15-minute video at Demandii.com

---

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

OR 

book time with me via Demandii.com

Founder

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

🚀 HOW WE DO IT:

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

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

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

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

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

🤝 WHOM DO WE WORK WITH:

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

🌐 LEARN MORE:

Demandii.com

Minus 23 doesn't keep these founders from walking and talking! 
Love the Friday founder walks.

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

First Friday founder walk of 2026!

We had Abhinav Jindal, Chloe Gravelle, 🇨🇦 Andrew Jenkins, Kristine White, Craig Colby 🇨🇦, and few others like H. A. Tepha drove in from Milton! 

——

What are the Friday Founder Walks? 

It’s not a mastermind, not a networking event — just founders (or CEOs) walking and talking. 

No agenda. No slides. Just space to think, swap stories, and connect with others who get it.

This is not meant to be an exercise—just a nice chill way to start your Fridays by connecting with some like-minded people. 

When: Every Friday at 7:30 - 8:30 am (rain or shine) 

- It's on the east side of Toronto (meeting location is Withrow Park)
- The walk is approximately 4 km long and takes about 40 minutes to complete.
- Its meeting location is Withrow Park.
- We take a pitstop at the Riverdale Perk coffee shop (beside Withrow Park), so you can grab your caffeine fix and then end the walk back where we started. 

Lots of free parking around the park at that time in the morning.

If you’re a founder (or CEO) in Toronto and would like to attend, DM me.

---

P.S. - If you were there, please comment and share your experience, including who you spoke to and what was helpful or fun for you.

You can't control the wind, but you can definitely build a bigger sail. Most people think a personal brand is just "posting."

You can be the most brilliant strategist in the world, but if nobody knows what’s inside your head, you are statistically likely to stay exactly where you are. You’re waiting for a "break" that has no way of finding you.

I decided to treat my LinkedIn feed like a public research lab. I post my best SOPs. I shared the "failures" that cost me $50k. I gave away the very thing I used to charge for.  I share helpful tips every day, both as posts and as comments.  

The results weren't "lost revenue." It was a flood of "luck." 

- I didn't have to pitch for speaking gigs anymore
- I didn't have to hunt for partners
- Amazing talent started hunting me down 

This is how you become a luck magnet.

When you increase your surface area by being helpful, "luck" becomes an inevitability, not an accident.

Who agrees...?

Most people screw up DM selling, here's why:

2026 Founder Credibility: Your social profiles are your new website.

When someone hears about you, they check your social first (like LinkedIn).

No content = no credibility. 

It's the modern "we're legit" business card.

If you are not showing up here, you look like you might be out of business.

PS - I know a guy who can help you with that problem. ;)

Demandii is 5 years old now!  I hear from others, "I want to run a 7-figure agency, too! How'd you do it?"

But when I ask, "What are you doing right now to generate sales to get there?" the answer is usually silence. Or worse, it’s "I’m tweaking my logo" or "I’m updating my website."

Building a successful agency takes 5 years of grinding. But most agency owners fail because they focus on the destination rather than the day-to-day revenue-generating tasks required to make the business. They get paralyzed by the gap between where they are ($10k/month) and where they want to be ($400k/month).

Luckily, closing that gap is simple if you know how to use the Reverse-Pyramid Framework.

The secret is to stop looking at the mountain and start looking at your feet.

Step 1: Lock in the 5-Year Goal. Visualizing $5M isn't enough. You need to do the math. That looks like roughly $416k/month in revenue. That’s 104 clients at $4k/month, with a team of 25. 

Tip: Be specific about the math.

Step 2: Calculate the "1-Year", "Monthly" and "Weekly" bridge activities. 

You don't leap to $5M. You climb—one step at a time.

To stay on track, you may need to hit $1M ($83k/month) by the end of Year 1. That means this Month, you need to add 2 new retainers. 

Yes, you will have to do other things, operations, customer success, etc, but you rinse and repeat each thing for all departments.

And, whatever your sales are, you'll likely need to do much more than you want due to natural churn (about 30% annually in agencies), but to keep this example simple, we'll ignore that for now.

Step 3: Execute the "Right Now" Marketing & Sales Actions. 

Based on your monthly goal of 2 new clients, what must you do today? 

You need 10 sales calls. To get 10 calls, you need to send 100 cold DMs/week on LinkedIn and post a helpful daily tip or resource. 

So, your "Right Now" task is simple: Write a helpful post. Then send the first DM; rinse and repeat 20 times/day.

Who agrees that we sometimes overcomplicate the process and allow busywork to get in the way of real revenue-generating work?

Most CEOs don't know what content to create (until now).

Here's a great punch list leveraging Demandii's ACES Method:

1) AUTHORITY
(Micro TED Talks & Expert Positioning)
- The Counter-Intuitive Truth: Challenging an industry "norm."
- The 5-Year Prediction: Where your industry is heading.
- Your Proprietary Framework: Explaining your unique "how."
- The Cost of Inaction: The real price of not solving the problem.
- Lesson from the Trenches: A high-level insight from a recent win.
- Industry Deep Dive: Breaking down a complex technical topic.
- The "CEO Perspective": How you view the market differently.
- Framework Breakdown: A step-by-step "Micro-Masterclass."
- Leadership Philosophy: Your core principles for building a team.
- Debunking a Viral Myth: Using data to disprove a common belief.

2) CONNECT
(Heart, Gut, and Funny Bone)
- The "Rock Bottom" Moment: Sharing a failure and what it taught you.
- The "Why" Behind the Brand: The personal mission driving you.
- Reality Check: A "messy" look at the CEO's life (not the highlight reel).
- Relatable Industry Memes: Humour that only your peers/clients get.
- A Personal Milestone: Celebrating a win outside of the office.
- The "Work-Life" Struggle: Honest thoughts on balance and boundaries.
- Mental Health Minute: Normalizing the stress of leadership.
- Tribute Post: Honouring a mentor or teammate who inspired you.
- Coffee Chat: A casual, "unfiltered" thought on your mind today.
- What I’d Tell My Younger Self: Advice for your 22-year-old self.

3) ENGAGE
(Conversation Starters & Pulling Back the Curtain)
- "Help Us Choose": Feedback on a new logo, colour, or feature.
- The CEO AMA: "Ask Me Anything" session in the comments.
- The "What Am I Missing?" Post: Asking for audience advice on a project.
- Sneak Peek Video: A raw look at a product still in development.
- Decision Polls: "A vs. B" options to include them in the journey.
- Whiteboard Session: "Here’s how I’m thinking about this—thoughts?"
- Office Tour / Team Culture: A look at the inner workings of the team.
- The "Caption This" Photo: Using humour to get people talking.
- Question of the Day: A simple, high-engagement industry question.
- "Unpopular Opinion" Poll: Asking the audience to weigh in on a debate.

4) SHOW
(Demonstration, Results, and Proof)
- The Transformation Reel: Before & After results for a client.
- Video Testimonial Highlight: A client sharing their success story.
- "The Win" Screenshot: Tangible proof of growth or revenue.
- Case Study Deep Dive: How we achieved [X] result in [Y] time.
- The Outcome Walkthrough: Showing exactly how a client uses your tool.
- Client Spotlight: Celebrating a partner's recent achievement.
- "Receipts" Post: Sharing data, analytics, or award certifications.
- Project Time-Lapse: From the first meeting to the final delivery.
- Success Montage: A compilation of various client wins and smiles.
-  The "Evidence" Post: Highlighting 80+ case studies and success stories.

Helpful? (click save)

There are many myths surrounding how to share content on this platform; these 3 link-sharing ones drive me nuts.

MYTH 1: You must put your link in the first comment to avoid an algorithm penalty. 

TRUTH: LinkedIn is now hiding those comments. If your link is hidden, your click-through rate drops to zero.

I’ve tracked dozens of posts over the last 30 days. Posts with the URL in the main body are getting more engagement because people actually see the call to action.

MYTH 2: External links in the post body "tank" your reach. 

TRUTH: Low-quality content tanks your reach. If your hook is strong, LinkedIn will show the post regardless of where the link lives.

The "penalty" for an external link is negligible compared to the penalty of a "link in comments" post that nobody can find.

MYTH 3: You should edit your post to add the link after it goes live. 

TRUTH: This often triggers a re-indexing that can actually slow down your initial momentum.

The "edit trick" is an old-school hack that the algorithm caught up to months ago.

Stop putting your links in the comments to avoid decreasing reach. Just include the URL in the primary post copy. It’s fine. Seriously.

3 Myths About Adding Links to Your LinkedIn Posts

Everyone is getting the SDR role wrong.

It is because the title "Sales Development Representative" creates the wrong intention.

When your team thinks their job is "Sales Development," they focus on the transaction. They "spray and pray." They bother people in the DMs.

I am proposing a rename: Starting Deeper Relationships.

Why? Because names lead to intention.

Starting Deeper Relationships (the new SDR) starts with care:

1. Giving - Share a resource or a point of view that helps the lead without asking for anything back.

2. Probing questions - Ask something that shows you actually read their profile. Not "Can I have 15 minutes?" but "How are you handling [specific problem]?"

3. Meaningful commenting - Don't just say "Great post." Add to the conversation.

4. Real social selling - Build a presence so that when you do reach out, you are a familiar face, not a stranger with a pitch.

If we did this, LinkedIn would be a better experience for everybody.

Who agrees?

CEO's: Thought experiment for you. (EGC) Employee-Generated-Content isn't just a marketing strategy. It is a training strategy.

Most people don't remember what they read or watch in training.
It's not their fault, it's normal.

Most companies try to ramp up new hires using the top two layers:

Reading: "Here is our Notion wiki." (10% retention)

Audio-Visual: "Watch these 15 Loom videos." (20% retention)

Then leaders get frustrated when the team fumbles the pitch or our CS team can't explain the roadmap 30 days later.

Companies are setting their team up to fail. 
They are feeding them information in the format they are biologically wired to forget.

Here's how we've fixed this at Demandii:

We don't just ask the team to "learn" the product.
We practice in private teardowns.
We practice our verbal brand.
We make time to capture the content.
We give them time teach it publicly and make it safe to do so.

Instead of reading the SOP?
Rewrite it in your own words.

Instead of watching the demo?
Record yourself doing it and post it.

Instead of listening to the sales call?
Write a LinkedIn post about the objection you heard.

Why this works:

To write a coherent post about a complex B2B topic, you cannot fake understanding. You have to synthesize it. You have to structure it. You have to anticipate questions.

Making short videos makes you a more effective communicator.
Writing makes you a more strategic thinker.

We are forcing them into the "Teaching Others" tier (90% retention).

If they can't write about it, they don't know it.

Stop optimizing for "content distribution." 
Start optimizing for "competence distribution."
The by-product is more experts on your team, more people impacted, and more new business.

The real ROI is a team that actually understands what they sell.

What companies do you know that invest in Employee Generated Content?

I barely see any.
Most companies will never do this.
Why?
They haven't trained their senior leaders on how to do it (yet).
Those who can handle this advanced content strategy get to kill two birds with one stone. 

What are your thoughts...? (comment below)

I'm helping three dozen B2B business's run their LinkedIn ads. I've discovered the founder's best-performing content becomes their best ads. 

Just add CTAs to winners.

The best part:

No creative risk, better performance, lower costs.

Why LinkedIn ads is the fastest way for you discover if you content marketing fit.

I analyzed a CEO's LinkedIn last week.

Posts daily. 50,000 impressions per month.

Zero leads from LinkedIn.

He couldn't figure out what was wrong. Engagement looked solid. Followers were growing. Comments were positive.

But nobody was booking calls.

The reason? He was measuring the wrong thing.

Impressions.

He wanted more impressions!

So he posted platitudes and reposted viral leadership videos swiped from popular IG reel accounts.

Folks, impressions are a vanity metric.

It tells you how many people scrolled past your content. But it doesn't tell you who actually knows you, trusts you, or would buy from you.

There was zero PoV. 
There was zero thought-leadership.
There were zero useful swipe files that his ideal buyers could use.
There were zero bridges to long-form content.

He thought going viral mattered most to get more eyeballs.  Totally wrong. When you do CEO-led content marketing, you are doing education content, not entertainment content. 

The metric that actually matters?

Content Minutes.

Content Minutes = the total time a single person has spent consuming YOUR content.

Not impressions across all viewers. The cumulative time ONE person has invested in you.

Here's why this changes everything:

At 5 Content Minutes, they're a stranger. They've read 3 posts. They barely remember your name.

At 30 Content Minutes, they're curious. They've consumed a dozen posts. They're starting to get your perspective.

At 120 Content Minutes, they trust you. They've spent 2 hours with you. They feel like they know you.

At 300+ Content Minutes, they'll book a call. You're not a stranger on the internet anymore.

This is why you need both daily posts AND monthly events.

Daily posts create visibility. They rack up 2-3 Content Minutes per viewer. Awareness only.

Speed it up by running LinkedIn events (aka webinars).

LinkedIn events create buyers. A 60-minute webinar delivers 60 Content Minutes in one shot. Deep trust. Easy sales.

The strategic shift:
Stop optimizing for "reaching new people."
Start optimizing for "getting the same people to come back."

50 followers who attend your LinkedIn events will outsell 100,000 followers who only read your posts.

You're not trying to go viral. You're trying to take the RIGHT people from 5 Content Minutes to 300 Content Minutes as fast as possible.

That takes daily visibility + monthly depth.

Are your posts designed to drive people to binge-watch your other content (both shorts and longs)? 

If not, you have set the wrong objective up.

taplio

The Battle

Abby S.

Matthew Hunt

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreAbby S.'s LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreMatthew Hunt's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

The Battle

Abby S.

Matthew Hunt

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Abby S.'s LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreMatthew Hunt's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreAbby S.'s LinkedIn Performance