AMZ Prep

At AMZ Prep, we’re building the cloud supply chain for marketplaces - one platform that unifies prep, fulfillment, freight, and parcel so brands can scale across Amazon, Walmart, TikTok, Shopify, and beyond with Prime-like speed and compliance.

With 22+ warehouses across North America and Europe, we give sellers and marketplaces the infrastructure they need without forcing them to build it themselves. 

Our distributed network, software, and compliance workflows make it simple for brands to expand globally while staying fast, reliable, and profitable.

What we do best:
- Freight and middle-mile routing into Amazon and Walmart
- FBA prep, kitting, relabeling, and compliance at scale (10M+ units monthly)
- DTC and TikTok Shop 2-day fulfillment in the US, Canada, and Europe
- B2B distribution for retailers like Costco
- Seller Fulfilled Prime (SFP) 2-day fulfillment 

We’re rethinking what a supply chain company looks like - software, logistics, and marketplaces under one roof.

Founder, CMO

Sequence

Advisor

Founder, CMO @ AMZ Prep | Fulfillment for Global Merchants | Follow me to watch us build a 100M Company

At AMZ Prep, our daily mission is to work towards our bold vision: To propel sellers and brands to amplify their global eCommerce footprint through the seamless integration of logistics, fulfillment, advertising, strategy, creativity, and growth within a single, unified solution. 

Our vision may seem audacious to some, but at AMZ Prep, we thrive on embracing challenges, particularly the ambitious and audacious ones. It's this unwavering spirit that has catapulted us into becoming a retail powerhouse that's been quietly making waves.

If you're seeking to be part of a team that's committed to achieving remarkable accomplishments, we invite you to join us on our journey. We're constantly on the lookout for exceptional individuals to become a vital part of our team. Whether your expertise lies in Operations, Finance, Customer Experience, Business Development, or Software Engineering, please don't hesitate to connect with us for any career-related inquiries.

Blair Forrest

Forbes said no yesterday for 30U30

SmartScout award us #1 best logistics solution. 👇

Honored to be recognized by SmartScout this year.

Big award for us.

It’s just super funny timing because I didn’t make Forbes 30U30 yesterday.

And today ranked top logistics company in the Amazon space.

I’m a huge advocate that awards don’t mean much vs the impact we create as a company.

And stay focused on (wins and losses) as they both will come with time.

BUT this award just tells me we’re creating something meaningful and heading in the right direction. 

Appreciate everyone and our incredible team. 

LFG!

Blair Forrest 

Founder @ AMZ Prep | Global Amazon 3PL with 22 warehouses globally for FBA Prep, AWD, DTC, B2B & Seller Fulfilled Prime + 24 hour inbound speed to FBA | Follow me building a $100M+ company

We didn’t pivot. We’re upgrading.

Three months ago, five different brands said the same thing:

“We can’t see where our freight is once it hits your network.”

They weren’t wrong.

 We solved speed a long time ago -  24-hour inbound lanes into Amazon FBA, direct-to-FC, no stops.

 But visibility is the next frontier.

So we’re investing over ~$200K+ into new tech to fix it.

Real-time tracking. 
Middle-mile data. 
Live reporting for the brands that trust us with millions in inventory.

The goal isn’t just to move freight faster anymore.

 It’s to see it faster.

THE LESSON:
 Once you solve the hard problem, the next one shows up in the mirror.

Our customers don’t just want fast.

 They want to know what’s happening every step of the way.

There is no clear ROI but better feedback from merchants. 

BUT good word spreads, and referrals are everything and if we do this well = more opportunities to use our freight into Amazon. 

Is this worth it? Whats your take?

We finally committed to EOS. 

And genuinely, it has been a game changer for us.

A huge thank you to Andrew Turner for pushing us into it.

We now have something we didn’t have before.
Structure. Clarity. Direction.

A 10 year, 3 year, 1 year, and quarterly roadmap.
Weekly scorecards.
Leadership alignment.
Defined roles, culture, values, hiring expectations.
And true accountability across the team.

But the biggest shift wasn’t operational.
It was internal.

EOS forced me to look in the mirror.
Every founder eventually reaches that moment where willpower is no longer enough.
Where instinct and intensity stop carrying the weight.

The messy middle demands systems.
It demands discipline.
It demands a framework strong enough to support the vision.

EOS is helping us build that.

This is what it looks like when a company stops running on adrenaline and starts running on intention.

I have some docs Andrew shared with me, DM me and I promise you it’ll help.

li_at

JSESSIONID

LinkedIn: Log In or Sign Up

Talks about #amazon, #shipping, #amazonfba, #ecommerce, and #logistics

We're turning away hundreds of great DTC brands monthly. 

Small 3PLs - I need your help. 

AMZ Prep® gets hundreds of brands reaching out monthly that want to work with us...

All doing 100-400 orders per month.

Too small for us, but perfect for someone.

Feels wrong turning them away. 

We want to help them win. 

Someone in my network must know great small 3PLs.

Looking for warehouses that:
- Love smaller brands
- Want to grow together
- Have basic tech 
- Care about service

Because here's what matters:

Every brand deserves great fulfillment. 
Every 3PL deserves great brands. 

We all started somewhere.

Know a solid small 3PL? 

Tag them below. 

Click here to apply 👉 https://lnkd.in/d5jgCCTC

You are a small 3PL? Be selfish! Shout yourself out in the comments!

Our close rate jumped 40% after we stopped “selling.”

Because selling was never the problem, trust was.

We used to lead with what we did.
Now we lead with what they need.

The irony is, the less we tried to sell, the more people wanted to buy.

Humans don’t want to be persuaded. They want to be understood.

The best sales strategy is empathy at scale.

When was the last time you stopped pitching and just listened?

We are looking for California brands shipping full trucks into Amazon.

Giving ~$100K in freight credits to prove how much faster we move it:

Context: We are opening our next consolidation center in California.

And Linkedin, I need your help.

For the past 18 months we have been working to build a national consolidation network of lanes for full truckloads heading into Amazon hubs across the country.

It started with New Jersey, Kentucky, and Las Vegas. 

Our trucks are now getting freight into Amazon faster than Amazon themselves.
Now it is time to bring that same speed to the West Coast.

We are launching a pilot program for our new California consolidation center and looking for a few brands / sellers to help us break it in.

If you are shipping ~12+ or more pallets a month, I'll put $1000+  freight credit toward your first inbounds. 

Literally, we are budgeting $100,000 to ~100 merchants to pilot us. 

Why I'm doing this:
 - Amazon’s network is slowing down and brands need more control
 - Consolidation is the fastest way to remove placement fees and check in delays
 - When we move freight through our own trucks, we can predict delivery times 
down to the day, not hope for them
- We don't have investors or private equity behind us, so I can do some crazy s*** like this sometimes :) 

Here is the math:
More volume = more trucks
 More trucks = more lane density
 More lane density = faster inbounds and tighter delivery windows
 Faster inbounds = fewer stockouts and better rank
 More density = better costs for everyone
 Better costs = more savings and more speed

The craziest part is we are consistently beating Amazon’s own timelines with Amazon LTL 

If you are on the West Coast shipping into Amazon, DM me and I'll pay for the cost to help us pilot our new freight lanes 

You can be a brand, a 3PL, or have your own warehouse.
If you are moving trucks into Amazon or have clients who are, this is for you.

We lost 3 deals trying to sound smart.

We won 10 by being blunt.

People don’t want a lecture. They want honesty. They want clarity. They want someone who tells them the truth, even when it’s uncomfortable.

Selling isn’t about flexing knowledge. It’s about making it simple. Making it real. Making it actionable.

Next time you’re in a pitch, ask yourself: Am I impressing them, or am I helping them decide?

Truth wins. Always.

The entire Canadian market is blocked by three letters: NRI.

So let me simplify this.

If you want to start selling in Canada, the biggest unlock you need is an NRI. Non Resident Importer. That’s the whole play.

You do not need a Canadian company.
You do not need a full legal entity.
You do not need to rebuild your entire operation.

An NRI acts as your Canadian identity so you can move product across the border without setting up a corporation. It costs a couple hundred bucks. Takes about a week. After that, you are officially allowed to ship into Canada and Amazon already supports it on their side.

Inside AMZ Prep® we set this up for brands every week through our brokerage partners. Once it is done, the entire Canadian market opens up. Faster delivery. New customers. Less competition. More growth.

Everyone talks about expanding globally. Very few take the simple steps that unlock new revenue.

If you are serious about scaling, Canada is one of the easiest markets you will ever enter.

What is actually stopping you from setting up an NRI?

Every Q4, most brands make one fatal mistake. They rely entirely on FBA.

Here’s what we’re doing differently.

We set up an FBM variant for key SKUs.

So if inventory runs out at FBA or gets stranded (and it will happen), we can immediately toggle to FBM inside Seller Central.

Think of it like having two buy boxes. When FBA goes dark, FBM keeps the sales moving.

You don’t lose momentum. You don’t lose rank.

From an algorithm standpoint, staying in stock, even through FBM, is far better than hitting zero.

We run this setup across every brand every Q4. It’s saved hundreds of thousands in lost revenue.

Have you set up your FBM backup yet?

Amazon operators are finally getting the truth about their inbound speed.

And we built the tool that shows it 👇

My team just shipped an app that automatically tracks your inbound performance to Amazon.

It pulls the real data, shows your placement fees, calculates your storage impact, and gives you a full report card on how fast your inventory is actually moving.

You get a grade on your inbound speed.
You see every Amazon DC you ship to (and % of volume)
You understand your real costs in seconds.

It is badass and the team crushed it.

We already crossed ~60+ downloads in the first week from top tier brands and operators (largest brand that did it crossed ~$600M last year).

If you want to use it, DM me and I will send it to you.

LinkedIn Login, Sign in | LinkedIn

A toxic top performer is more dangerous than an underperformer. 
They infect culture faster than they hit quota.

Culture spreads like cancer. One negative person can destroy an entire team. Doesn’t matter how talented they are, how many deals they close, or how good they look on paper. Toxicity kills momentum, morale, and speed faster than anything else.

I see it all the time. Owners keep the “star” performer who’s actually making everyone miserable because they’re afraid of short-term loss. Meanwhile, the whole team is suffering and execution slows to a crawl.

Audit your team. Be brutally honest. Ask yourself: who’s adding energy, and who’s sucking it out?

Get rid of the toxic ones. Period.

Your culture is your speed. Protect it.

Got my WHOOP last week and I’m loving it.
Not because it looks cool, but because data gives you accountability.

Most people are guessing about their sleep, stress, recovery.
You can’t improve what you don’t track.

Self awareness wins in life.
WHOOP just gives you the receipts.

I spend 30 minutes a day on LinkedIn, generate ~1M+ impressions and

It's brought us millions in deals.

Most CEOs think content is a distraction. They're watching competitors close deals from posts while they sit in another pointless networking event.

Building in public isn't about ego. It's about economics.

THE BREAKDOWN:
Morning coffee = write one post (15 min)
Lunch break = respond to comments (10 min)
End of day = engage with 5 posts (5 min)

That's it. 30 minutes.

THE PAYOFF:
Our biggest client found us through a post about saying no to bad deals.
Three enterprise partnerships started in my DMs.
Multiple seven-figure conversations from content, not cold calls.

Everyone's hiring SDRs and buying lead lists. Meanwhile, I'm closing deals in comment sections.

Content isn't separate from CEO work. It IS CEO work. Every post is a sales call to thousands. Every comment is a relationship. Every share extends your reach.

The CEOs winning tomorrow aren't choosing between content and running their company. They know content IS running their company.

Building in public scales trust faster than any sales team ever could.

What's your excuse for not posting?

People love talking about “the grind.”

But real discipline doesn’t look like hype videos or all-nighters.

It looks like showing up on a Sunday when nobody’s watching.

For me, that’s the morning walk. The 2 miles that keep my mind clear so I can make better decisions later.

Everybody wants to win in public. But the wins start in private.

Do one quiet thing for yourself today. No post. No bragging. Just build the muscle.

We call it “founder sleep.”
It is just stress with your eyes closed.

3am hits and your brain starts running ops reports:

Inventory levels. Cash flow. That email you regret sending. The hire that is not working. Payroll. Whether your biggest customer is drifting. All of it.

You wake up more tired than when you went to bed.

And the world thinks you are living the dream.

“Must be nice being your own boss.”
“You get to set your own hours.”
“At least you do not have a real job.”

Meanwhile, you are calculating runway while brushing your teeth.

I have not had actual sleep since 2019. Just different levels of anxiety with my eyes shut.

Some nights it is placement fees.
Other nights it is freight.
Most nights it is everything at once.

The company does not turn off when you close your eyes.
It just gets louder.

Building something means carrying it everywhere. In your head. On your shoulders. In that blurry space between awake and asleep.

I would not trade it.
But let us be honest. Founders do not sleep.
We just close our eyes and keep going.

What is running through your head at 3am?

Amazon Multichannel Fulfillment (MCF): Is it really worth it for your Shopify or TikTok orders?

In this week’s Whiteboard Wednesday, I broke down the good, the bad, and the expensive sides of MCF.

Here’s the quick summary:
- MCF = FBA for all your channels
- Same stock can fulfill Shopify, TikTok, etc.
- But pricing is steep, per-item fees add up quickly
- Storage fees peak at $2.40 per cubic foot

Great for single-SKU, low-weight orders.
Not great for multi-item, custom-packed, or B2B brands.

There’s a time and place for MCF, but know your margins before diving in.

Watch the full episode for the breakdown, cost comparison, and when to consider a 3PL instead.

Just saved a merchant $2.5 million annually switching from FBA to Seller Fulfilled Prime.

Let me explain 👇

One SKU alone: $63 per unit saved. 2,500 units monthly. That's $1.9 million yearly on a single product.

Amazon charges $150 per pallet for storage. We charge $18. Same Prime badge. Same customer trust. 73% lower costs during peak season.

The merchant was bleeding money on bulky items. FBA fees were eating them alive. Heavy SKUs getting destroyed in transit. No control over packaging. Returns killing their margins.

We mapped out their entire catalog:
• Storage: Down from $150/pallet to $18/pallet
• Shipping: $21.61 average with zone optimization
• Packaging: Added $2-3 for protection, eliminated damage claims
• Control: Direct Seller Central access, cherry-pick orders

The kicker? They're keeping FBA running parallel during transition. Testing both. No risk.

While everyone debates FBA vs SFP, smart brands run both. Use FBA for small items. SFP for everything bulky. Keep the Prime badge. Keep the margins.

They're meeting with Lowe's next week. Home Depot application submitted. Building an empire beyond Amazon while everyone else fights over Buy Box scraps.

Operational flexibility beats operational perfection.

Every. Single. Time.

Who else is running SFP profitably?

People say hard work does not matter anymore.
They are wrong.

There is this new idea floating around that you can think your way to success. Just be strategic. Just be efficient. Just find a smarter system.

The truth is you need both.
Hard work and smart work.
One without the other falls apart fast.

I see it in operators all the time.
Hard workers who do not think end up exhausted.
Smart thinkers who do not push end up stuck.
The people who win mix both.

They stay in problems longer.
They ask sharper questions.
They move faster once they find the right answer.

That is the real advantage.
Not talent.
Not luck.
Just the combination of effort and intelligence consistently applied.

Every breakthrough I have had came from that mix.
Think deeply.
Execute hard.
Repeat until something cracks.

What is the task you know you should attack harder this week? 
Drop in the comments.

I saw this image last week on Linkedin. 
The waiter really did need to do better...

Alex Hormozi posted the full story last week and it hit harder than I expected.

Most people would have taken that “do better” comment and gone straight into victim mode. 

Rant about it. 
Complain about customers. 
Tell the internet how unfair life is.

This waiter did the opposite.

Alex said he showed up the next day and made a decision. Better service. Better attitude. Better effort. He tried to remember names. Smiled more. Paid attention to tiny details.

And the crazy part is what happened next?

Customers responded.
 Tips jumped.
 Energy shifted.
 His job stayed the same, but he did not.

I see this in business all the time. Leadership, sales, operations, all of it.

Bad question: Why is this happening to me?
Better question: What part of this do I control?

When I ask better questions, I get better outcomes.
Same pressure. Same workload.
 
Different results.

Where is one place you know you should be asking a better question?

Don’t let fear of looking small stop you.
Everyone starts somewhere, size doesn’t matter, speed and focus do.

When we launched AMZ Prep®, our warehouse was just a 400 sq ft shed inside another building. We looked huge online, but in reality, it was just me. Customers wanted drop-offs and I had to make up reasons why they couldn’t come.

That’s the essence of fake it till you make it. But don’t forget the second part: actually make it. Build, ship, iterate, and learn. Stop waiting for perfection. Stop waiting for everyone else to see your vision.

Start now. Adjust later. Crush eventually.

What small start did you have that taught you the biggest lesson?

I’ve grown two agencies from 0 to $120k and $200k p/m in revenue and personally worked with 40+ B2B businesses (agencies + SaaS). I’ve tested over 15+ growth channels over 4 years - hunting for profitable growth channels. In doing so, I discovered how lucrative LinkedIn can be (when done right)

Instead of: 
- Spamming prospects
- Posting irrelevant selfies
- Trying to get likes / comments

Imagine a world where
- Leads book calls inbound
- Sales calls close at 3x higher win rates
- Prospects respect you and see you as an authority 

For Agencies, Coaches & Consultants.... 

If you're good at what you do

And want to make LinkedIn a push channel that gets you Big Clients... 

We’ll show you how we get results like: 

- Lead generation agency adds $22k MRR, closes 4 clients and books 45 calls in 40 days 
- eCom email marketing agency closes $20k, books 28 calls in 90 days
- B2B Paid ads agency adds $100k+ in revenue, closes 5 clients in last 180 days (including Reddit)
- Media Engine book 100 calls in the last 60 days

Book in a call here or DM me 'ABOUT'. 

I’ll tell you what sort of results you could expect. 

https://www.themediaengine.co/lce-elite

Aman Ghataura

We spent $29k on some LinkedIn Thought Leadership ads. 

I was shocked what happened.

Turns out...

They print. 💰

- $2k closed $200k for an agency - 10x ROI
- $9k closed $360k ARR for a SaaS - 17x ROI
- $18k closed $180k for a consultant - 10x ROI

We used to boost random LinkedIn posts... 

Then we studied all the top Thought Leader Ads across multiple accounts 

And made some big changes to improve
- Engagement Rates
- Qualified ICP Commenting / Liking
- Inbound DMs / Form Fills
- Booked Calls 

And now we're consistently driving higher returns for our clients with a combination of 
- Organic LinkedIn Posts
- Automated Connection Requests
- Boosted LinkedIn Posts
- Remote SDR Managing Inbox

Took me ages to work it out 

So I'm sharing a swipe file of the best Thought Leader Ads I've seen 

Even if you're not ready to turn them on right now.

Keep this in your war chest. 

Comment 'ADS' below and I'll DM it over

PS - The best part? These ads don't even look like ads. They blend right into the feed with all the original engagement intact.

Co-Founder @ Media Engine | LinkedIn Content, Ads & DMs

LinkedIn has changed...

This new 5-step playbook closed $6m+

Here we go: 

1. IDEATION

We ingest every source of novel & interesting insight into onboarding flows and our Claude AI brain
- Case Studies
- Internal Processes
- Competitor Posts  
- Industry Media
- Trending Topics (Twitter advanced search)
- Sales Calls Transcripts  (Fireflies.ai / Fathom.ai typically)
- Guided Interviews (Riverside if you want to repurpose to video later) 

↓

2. CREATION 

Ghostwriter (or Founder/CEO) and AI brain work together to create content following PPT framework
- Pain Posts (make ICP feel seen)
- Process Posts (educate ICP with steps, listicles - e.g. this post)
- Trend Posts (capture impressions by brand/trend jacking) 

Formats
- Create text based posts
- When see top 20% post, convert into Loom style video 
- Changes optimizaton from attention to consumption 

↓ 

3. GRADUATION 

Graduate top 10% of posts into LinkedIn Thought Leader Ads 
- Engagement objective
- Upload list of ideal contacts 
- Boost thought leadership ads into ICP
- Retarget website visitors and high intent engagers 
- Monitor key metrics (CPM, frequency, penetration, dwell time and  conversions) 

↓

4. INTENT SIGNALS 

Do this manually first, and then go into automations 
- Identify post likers / commenters (manually use Clay / Unipile) 
- Identify profile views (manually or use PhantomBuster
- Identify ad engagers (manually or use Fibbler / ZenABM)
- Qualify every company (manually or use Clay / Apify / RapidAPI)
- Qualify every lead (manually or use Clay / Apify / RapidAPI)

↓

5. OUTBOUND

Send warm DMs 
- Blank connection requests (if not connected) 
- Messaging using compliments / observations to increase reply rates
- Opt for manual first then automate using HeyReach.io
- Push into Instantly.ai (new integration with HeyReach.io available) or Smartlead


And boooom, you're now a billionaire (lol jk)

But seriously, if you want LinkedIn to start really generating you real pipeline.

This is the playbook you need to be following and building internally

----

P.S. DM if you want to skip the trial & error and install this into your business.

I repeated this hook 8x

7x times it has gone viral. 

The hook followed this formula

"I [ACHIEVEMENT]"

If we find something works on LinkedIn, we do 5x Iterations: 
(I'd argue you can do this for any organic social platform) 

1. Copy the post, but change the image
2. Copy the hook, but change the body and image 
3. Copy the hook, but change the format (e.g. image to video) 
4. Copy the body and image, change the hook 
5. Copy and paste the exact post 

Ever variation gives us new data: 
- Was the hook the reason it went viral?
- Does the image need to look a certain way? 
- Do we need to target specific emotional angles? 

In this case, the winning combination is a very specific opening hook with a specific style of image. Consistently it's helped us go viral AND generate inbound leads in the process. 

Internally, we call that hook formula ("I [ACHIEVEMENT]") a 'Credibility Statements'. 

They're 1 liners that prove you're good. 

E.g. The hook of this post is a Credibility Statement.

I've got internal documentation on credibility statements:
- How to use them
- 100 examples of them 

Comment 'STATEMENT' below and I'll ping it over 

Don't forget to send me a connection request

I am BEYOND excited

Just wrote 33 pages on our Scalable Thought Leader LinkedIn playbook

Took an age to put together and covers all the fun stuff...

- How to differentiate yourself in content 
- Winning content pillars / frameworks
- Identifying what to turn into ads and when 
- How to build audiences
- How to track performance
- How to budget correctly
- How to leverage intent signals

And loads more. 

Just putting the final touches on it. 

It's NOT ready yet, but comment 'WAITLIST' if you want to be the first to get access (I'll send it next week)

Instantly.ai & Perspective do this so damn well.

Their LinkedIn ads look different to other SaaS brands

Why? They've just hit Level 3. 

Level 1: Company Ads
Level 2: Founder Thought Leader Ads
Lever 3: Customer Thought Leader Ads 

They're using posts from customer personal profiles and running them as ads.

And unknowingly, I'm reading a lot of their ads, without realising their ads (until it's too late haha) 

- I know some of their customer names weirdly enough
- And I have a much deeper belief that they're good at what they do.

I don't know Instantly & Perspective numbers but I was on a call w/ another GTM SaaS who revealed their Customer Ads were their top performing in their ad account (and generated direct pipeline) vs the ad run from their founder. 

If you're reading this, you can graduate to Level 3 straight away + start building more pipeline faster. 

It's an easy playbook to run 

1. Reach out to current customers
2. Ask them to post about their experience with you
3. Draft the post for them, let them edit it
4. Once they post it, activate your team to engage with post
5. Head over to LinkedIn Ads Manager
6. Send request access to use their post as an ad 
7. Run it as an ad. 

Which other brands do you see running Customer Ads? 

Tag em below. 

(I want to build a swipe + do some analysis)

Best advice I've recieved:

When stuff is going well...

Remember, it's not going to go well forever. 

Double down, make the best use of the opportunity...

But start diversifying early.

We do the same thing with LinkedIn.

Organic is working. But it won't forever.

Start diversifying into paid ads to build a moat faster than the competition.

Everyone is flocking to this platform.

But you can make the gap wider.

Head of Instagram: "Stop posting" → lower reach 

On LinkedIn? It's the opposite. 

I love Adam Mosseri (Head of Instagram)'s stories. He's incredibly active and  transparent. He gives loads of insights into the Instagram Algo 

And most social platforms operate in similar ways. So it's a no brainer for any marketer to watch his content. 

Multiple times I've seen big overlaps with stuff I've seen on the LinkedIn algo and have been able to take advantage of it. 

STORY TIME: 

On Friday's story he replied to the question: "If I don't post for 4 months, is it hard to get the momentum back"

His answer (slightly paraphrased but keeping core to his message)
- It's true that it's hard to get the same amount of reach / impressions
- The longer you don't post, less information Instagram has about who your content should be served to
- Instagram has more information on other creators (so my inference here is that it will preferentially push their content) 

And LinkedIn probably has similar mechanics...

But from what I've observed, I think they have a different mechanism which takes more weight in the algorithm: 

- If you've never posted before, you seem to get a 'New Profile' boost. Lots of accounts I've worked on have done incredibly well on their first post. I remember reading Jake Ward's first post on LinkedIn and it went absolutely ballistic viral. Objectively, there is very little data on who this content should be served to, but it seems like LinkedIn will push it out widely and give it a very fair go. 

- Accounts that haven't posted for a long time, seem to get a 'I'm Back' boost when they start posting again. According to Insta logic, there is less data on the algo. But again, I think LinkedIn is rewarding an account for returning and dangling a juicy impression carrot. Also maybe it's because the stuff we work on together is better than their old content lol. I also saw this with my own content in the last month. I took a month off and I'm still basking in the 'I'm Back' impression glow. 

This is what it means for you on LinkedIn

1. If you take a month off from posting.... 
That's fine. It won't suck. (But ideally you shouldn't and compound whatever organic presence you've built) 

2. If you're a new account thinking about posting
Take advantage of your first post. Getting it right can get you instant ROI.
A few months ago I remember helping a client write their first ever post. We smashed through 20k impressions, generated ~8 calls and closed a couple deals. Happy to DM my first post framework to anyone who's never posted before on LinkedIn - happy to give you a guiding hand here. 

P.S. I've purposefully included his story here so you can hear his first hand description of it and the exact words he uses as the nuance is interesting. I 

P.P.S Also LinkedIn, who's your Adam Mosseri? This platform's missing that public, transparent creator voice.

2nd / 3rd time founders who want to start LinkedIn personal brands seem to battle internally with the same thing: 

Whenever I speak to them it's clear they have such rich experiences. 

- Acquiring / exiting companies
- Scaling companies to 100s of employees
- Founding, raising money etc 

They're multi dimensional, interesting, and have 100s of unique takes and stories. 

So they begin to find ways to meld all their experiences together and their positioning becomes this mish-mash of things - but in reality will struggle to work on this algorithm. 

They know this. 

So that causes an internal battle. It paralyses them from taking action. 

I've run enough 1:1 positioning sessions to confidently say there is a way to get around this... 

Here's a few points to help guide you on that journey 

1. Know your LinkedIn identity is not your whole identity. You're allowed to present a version of yourself on here that's not your complete in-person identity. 
2. Make the decision to solely focus on 1 thing for the purpose of LinkedIn for the next 6 months. This isn't permanent. It's an experiment
3. Work through all your professional experiences and cherry pick the specific stories that mirror who you want to attract inbound. Only tell those stories on LinkedIn. You're being selective about the version of yourself you present. 

Now over time, you'll get to stage where you can make your online identity more multi faceted. Where you can introduce your side quests, your hobbies.

If we treat activities as temporary, and not permanent. 

It's much easier to get started

And hey, let's have fun in the process.

Our new LinkedIn workflow 

Responsible for $2m in pipeline in last quarter 

Here we go: 

1. IDEATION
We ingest every source of novel & interesting insight into onboarding flows and our Claude AI brain - and then surface the validated ideas (proven to work on social) 
- Case Studies
- Internal Processes
- Competitor Posts 
- Industry Media
- Trending Topics (Twitter advanced search)
- Sales Calls Transcripts (Fireflies.ai / Fathom.ai )
- Guided Interviews (Riverside if you want to repurpose to video later) 

↓

2. UNIQUE INSIGHT 
We layer on our unique insight beyond the validated idea. 
- What's our unique take?
- What first party data do we have? 
- Are we for or against the general idea and why? 

↓

3. FORMAT MATCHING 

Ghostwriter (or Founder/CEO) and AI brain work together to create content following PPT framework
- Pain Posts (make ICP feel seen)
- Process Posts (educate ICP with steps, listicles - e.g. this post)
- Trend Posts (capture impressions by brand/trend jacking) 

Formats
- Create text based posts
- When see top 20% post, convert into Loom style video 
- Changes optimizaton from attention to consumption 

↓ 

4. REPURPOSE FOR CONSUMPTION 
We take our winning posts and repurpose into a longer form video asset
- Graduating from 'Attention' into 'Consumption'
- From text/image into Loom / Tella video / walkthrough
- Unlocks 'Video Watch Time' data inside Ads Manager
- Encourages deeper consumption and leads to higher quality leads

↓

5. REDO POSTS
Identify any posts that didn't get leads but got >2x impressions
- Understand why they received more impressions
- Redo post to capture more impressions (ride wave)
- Redo post to target more qualified user but still get impressions (narrow down) 

↓

6. GRADUATION

Graduate posts that generate qualified leads / profile viewers into LinkedIn Thought Leader Ads
- Engagement objective
- Upload list of ideal contacts
- Boost thought leadership ads into ICP
- Retarget website visitors and high intent engagers
- Monitor key metrics (CPM, frequency, penetration, dwell time and conversions)

↓

7. INTENT
Do this manually first, and then go into automations 
- Identify post likers / commenters (manually use Clay / Unipile) 
- Identify profile views (manually or use PhantomBuster)
- Identify ad engagers (manually or use Fibbler / ZenABM)
- Qualify every lead (manually or use Clay / Apify / RapidAPI)

↓

8. OUTBOUND
Send warm DMs 
- Blank connection requests (if not connected) 
- Messaging using compliments / observations to increase reply rates
- Opt for manual first then automate using HeyReach.io/ Aimfox
- Push into Instantly.ai / Smartlead


If you want LinkedIn to start generating real pipeline.

This is the playbook you need to save and share with your team. 

----

P.S. I'm launching a 34 page playbook this week. It's taken me 3 weeks to write. Early feedback: "This is INSANELY good - are you sure you want to give this away?" 

Save this post & comment 'WAITLIST' to get access

I've never seen Meta or Google do this

LinkedIn tells you what % of people your ads have reached.

It's called Penetration Rate. 

Penetration Rate =  Unique Reach / Audience Size * 100%
Example = 3000/15000 * 100% = 20% Penetration Rate

If you have a small potential list of clients (few thousand people) it's stupidly powerful to know what %age of your audience are actually seeing your ads.

For most businesses, just having you target client aware you even exist is half the battle. 

And Penetration Rate can infer some interesting things about your campaigns: 


LOW PENETRATION RATE

If Penetration Rate = low AND you've bid high / spent budget: 
--> Likely your audience is inactive on LinkedIn. 

FLAT PENETRATION RATE

If Penetration Rate = not increasing AND you're bidding & spending more
--> Likely you've hit your full LinkedIn active audience

HIGH PENETRATION RATE

If Penetration Rate = high AND no conversions 
--> Likely your audience is seeing your ads, but somethings wrong. The messaging isn't landing / offer isn't converting / marketing cycle is longer than you think 

If you know:
- Your audience is active on Linkedin
- Your offer is converting / getting traction
- You've got a few grand in ad budget

It's a no brainer to start forcing content into your audience on LinkedIn

Organic posts + thought leader ads = Best 2025 LinkedIn strategy 

Here’s the step-by-step play


1. MAPPING

Create an exact list of 500-1,500 companies you’d like to become clients of yours. We don’t necessarily need a list of contacts (found you get 90% match rates vs 60% when uploading companies vs contacts) 


2. VALUE PROPS 

Define exactly what 
Makes you different to competitors
Makes you safe to buy 
Makes you specific to your ideal customer

For example, you could be an ads agency that creates high volume AI ads and only work with fashion brands, and you have lots of internal data to prove that your mechanism works better than everyone else 


3. CONTENT

Create 30 amazing pieces of LinkedIn content. Speak exactly to your value props and your mapped accounts you’re targeting. 

We want these posts to perform well organically. Go for 100% text / text + image posts. Don’t do any video (yet)

When a post does well, do it again but this time make it Loom / screen share video (we want this for later) 


4. BOOSTING

We’re now going to boost your top 15% of posts into your mapped accounts. Make sure every post is edited with CTAs & links so we can measure clicks to landing pages.

Use Engagement objective. Create a separate campaign for every ad so you can really manually control bids and ad spend. Rotate in and out content.

LinkedIn even shows you exactly how much you penetrated your target list and how often they saw your content

After 5-7x rotate out the ad and push a new one in.  Use this formula to work out monthly budgets: Audience Size * 50% Activity Rate * 5x Frequency * CPM / 1000

5. HOT AUDIENCES

Build audiences of people who’ve engaged with your image ads, watched 50% of your videos. This will feed into your retargeting pool. Push all your posts that make you ‘safe to buy’ into them.

LinkedIn even shows you which companies got paid impressions / engaged with your content etc. 

Send this data into Clay, enrich and hook up to a tool like HeyReach to send automated outreach. 

If you want to avoid paying a hefty tech stack, do this every week. And then every day open every single ad and send connection requests and message to likers, commenters, and profile viewers. 

CONGRATS - If you've run this playbook - you're officially a Scalable Thought Leader 

Like these three clients we worked with 

- Consultant spends $5k and closes $55k every single month
- Agency spent $3k and booked $2.5m pipeline in 90 days 
- B2B SaaS spent $9k, booked $1.9m+ in pipeline and closed $350k

P.S. I can set this up 1:1 with you - DM me. 

Save and share this post with your team for later.

Last week, a LinkedIn post got a client a $200k lead

But he posted it 4 months ago. 

- Posted it 4 months ago
- The post did well 
- So it graduated into a Thought Leader Ad

The key was uploading an ICP list to LinkedIn

1. Scraped a full list of the ICP using Clay & LinkedIn
2. Enriched with some extra data from Apify 
3. Uploaded that list to LinkedIn Ads Manager
4. Decided which job titles we wanted to see that post 

It wasn't the only post that made it to LinkedIn Ads. 

Every time we saw a post: 
- Generate qualified profile views / followers and/or getting leads, they were contenders for graduation
- Get 3X average impressions organically they were typically investigated and then the hooks repurposed into other posts to improve organic performance of lead generators 

They were then edited - adding CTA links at the bottom and making the hooks tailored for the ICP --- not the algo 

And then every post was tracked for Commenters / Likers / Engagers. And a remote SDR would work on those leads. Their job was to start conversation with warm traffic (instead of trying to convince cold leads that our client is Safe, Different and Relevant to them.

My post got 300 impressions

It’s not because I chose a bad idea:
-> The idea was bad.

It’s not because I wrote a bad hook:
-> The hook was bad

It’s not because I used a bad image:
-> The image was bad


Equivalently…


My post got 10,000 impressions

It’s not because I chose a great idea. 
-> The idea was good

It’s not because I wrote a great hook
-> The hook was good

It’s not because I used a great image
-> The image was good



I used to blame myself for every failure and take credit for every win.

And that’s just a rocky dopamine junkie rollercoaster

It’s far easier to remove yourself

- Act like a consultant
- Measure objectively 
- Forget the time you invested


I teach my clients the same thing

1. It’s not you -> don’t blame yourself

2. It’s not the algorithm -> don’t blame 
something you can’t control 

3. It’s the post -> you can change that


We’re on an awesome run with a client I’ve featured in the images (not revealing so we can keep going without attracting too many competitors) 

- Booked 30+ calls with 8/9 Figure ICP clients
- $800k+ in pipeline value
- 5 contracts sent out




—-
P.S. @bonusfootage on Insta summed this up so well I had to post it here.

graphical user interface, text, application

Posted on LinkedIn.

3 months later, that same post is booking in 1 call / day. 

The algorithm gave it a boost for around a week.

But what gave it long term longevity was:

1. Uploading a list of target companies to LinkedIn
2. Editing the post with a link at the bottom to book a call 
3. Creating a campaign inside LinkedIn ads manager
4. Turning the post into a Thought Leader Ad
5. Boosting that Thought Leader Ad into target companies
6. Guaranteeing impressions with the perfect ICP

This is what I call the 'Scalable Thought Leader' 

Put energy and effort into creating organic content.

And then just pay for the distribution to make sure it keeps getting in front of target customers.

And to start only costs $1k-$3k in ad spend per month. 

Peanuts compared to the ROI.

I took a consultant through the PPP framework in 90 minutes. They closed just over $100k in the following 12 weeks. 

PPP = Person, Pain, Problem
Why = To get the exact client you want INBOUND. 

Here's the framework (save it down) 

P1: Person
- Define the person you're selling to firmographically
- What are the attributes you would put into a lead database
- Job Title
- Company Size
- Location 
- Revenue 

P2: Pain 
- What are the things that the Person says out loud as complains
- If you were unwell, this would be the symptoms you were suffering from
- E.g. "Runny nose" --> "My clients churn fast" 
- E.g. "Headache" --> "CPMs are really high this quarter" 
- The more 'present' and 'symptomatic' these are, the more you should reference them early in your posts 
- This is what your Person understands. 

P3: Problem
- What are the root causes of the Person's Pain
- This is what the Doctor diagnoses because of all your Symptoms
- E.g. "Runny nose + Headache + Winter" = Flu? 
- E.g. "High Client Churn + Team Churn + Can't Delegate" = Culture Issue? 
- You'll find your clients have many Problems for their Pains.
- You need to choose the Problem you can solve, how fast you can alleviate their Pain, depending on your Solutions 

This framework is general enough it works for any niche
And specific enough it'll actually help you

Particularly useful for experienced individuals who can speak to LOADS of different People - but need a little help focusing on their exact ideal. 

Let me know if this is helpful.

I've got a few more frameworks like this.

A client just graduated to Level 5 of LinkedIn 

Why? To add $20k+ new MRR monthly

Level 1: 
• Post from Founder account
• Send outreach from Founder account

→ Now we want to increase volume.. 

Level 2: 
• Post from Founder account
• Send outreach from Founder account
• Send outreach from 1-3 team profiles 

→ Now we want to double down on our best posts

Level 3: 
• Post from Founder account
• Send outreach from Founder account
• Send outreach from 1-3 team profiles 
• Run Thought Leader Ads from Founder account

→ Now we want to scale organic impressions without the Founder

Level 4: 
• Post from Founder account
• Send outreach from Founder account
• Send outreach from 1-3 team profiles 
• Run Thought Leader Ads from Founder account
• Post content from 1-3 team profiles 

→ Now we want to diversify ad content mix 

Level 5: 
• Post from Founder account
• Send outreach from Founder account
• Send outreach from 1-3 team profiles 
• Run Thought Leader Ads from Founder account
• Post content from 1-3 team profiles 
• Run Thought Leader Ads from Customer accounts

→ Next step - activate more of the team 

Level 6: 
• Post from Founder account
• Send outreach from Founder account
• Send outreach from 3+ team profiles 
• Run Thought Leader Ads from Founder account
• Post content from 3+ team profiles 
• Run Thought Leader Ads from Customer accounts

To go from Level 1 to 6 requires you to:
- Use the right software
- Set up right databases
- Build the right AI prompts 
- Incentivise your team correctly
- Engage with customer accounts intelligently 

We had to build the systems to help out clients go from Level 1 to 6. 

I've recorded a Loom video showing how you can go from 1 to 6 too. 

Comment 'SYSTEM' and I'll share it.

"When should I run LinkedIn Ads?"

Are you a Cautious Cory or a Confident Cam? 

Cautious Cory: 
- Want to know their ad dollars are spent efficiently
- Have limited budget and it needs to show ROI in 3 months.

If you're a Cautious Cory, wait till:
- Know specific hooks get you impressions
- Know specific posts generate them leads 
- You can budget $5k to $9k ad spend over next 3 months

Cautious Cory opts to spend more time in Organic land before boosting into Paid. 

Confident Cam: 
- Know their audience lives on LinkedIn 
- Know it's a trust game and it takes time
- Can spend on ads for 6 months+ without an issue 
- Have a proven offer that's worked on LinkedIn or another channel

If you're a Confident Cam, don't wait 
- Start boosting content and measuring pipeline signals
- Get going before you're competition wakes up to LinkedIn 

Confident Cam typically gets going faster. They make more bets. 

I work with Cautious Corys and Confident Cams all the time. 

Both get awesome results and become scalable thought leaders. 


---
P.S. I'm 70% through my Scalable Thought Leader Playbook. It generated $2m in pipeline from LinkedIn Ads for a single client. Comment 'Waitlist' and I'll send it to you when it's done.

Don't copy big influencers on LinkedIn.

Here's what they're doing:
- Optimizing for the biggest market
- Selling to the 'beginners' 
- Selling low cost services

On the other hand - if you're selling expensive, sophisticated solutions, you need to get comfortable with ignoring the impressions metrics and focusing (mostly) on qualified profile viewers, followers and of course leads.

The best way to achieve this is to use the TIMELINE EXPERT framework. 
(I've introduced this to a few consultants this week and they're loving it) 

--> This is not explained in the video so read it here.

PAST: 
- Talk about your previous experiences.
- Open posts with "When I was a" or "When we", "At [LastCompany]" 
- Only experts have war stories and real experiences. Lean into these as the bedrock of why you're competent

PRESENT: 
- Clearly state why you're an expert today
- Do this with credibility statements that you pepper into your content. Some examples of competency statements for example are: 
- Written 6,000+ LinkedIn posts. Worked on over 200+ LinkedIn accounts. Driven $5m+ in Revenue from LinkedIn. Etc....

FUTURE: 
- Provide your commentary on what's happening in today's market.
- This brings your expertise into the relevancy of NOW
- Example "This is what AI means for EV market" or "Figma's IPO is a warning signal for consumer sentiment" 

There's of course more to being an expert than these tips.
- Have high standards for a future customer
- Genuinely good at what you do
- Spent years doing it 


New post format - what do you think? 

P.S. Comment SPEAR and I'll share with your my post templates that generate leads (not likes)

LinkedIn ABM ads tech stack 

(quick and dirty edition)

1. LinkedIn Sales Navigator ($125 /mo)
- Build your account list
- Build your lead lists 

2. Clay ($134 /mo) 
- Qualify every single company / lead
- Create a clean lead / company list to upload 

3. LeadMagic ($60 /mo)
- If uploading contacts to LinkedIn, use to get verified emails (required for matching) 

4. Fibbler ($89 /mo)
- Initially you don't need this, just click over to the Audience Companies tab to see exactly who engaged
- Worth investing if you're looking for cleaner UI / better reporting / ad scheduling

5. Supermetrics ($43 /mo)
- Don't need until you want a bit more automation
- Send LinkedIn ads data directly into spreadsheet for analysis 

I see 1 & 2 as non-optional. 
You can cancel 2. once you're done. 
3, 4 and 5 are dependent on your situation

taplio

The Battle

Blair Forrest

Aman Ghataura

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreBlair Forrest's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreAman Ghataura's LinkedIn Performance

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taplio

The Battle

Blair Forrest

Aman Ghataura

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);}Blair Forrest's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreAman Ghataura's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreBlair Forrest's LinkedIn Performance