Chris Donnelly

Founder (Business Acquired by Croud)

Co Founder of Searchable.com | Follow for posts on Business, Marketing, Personal Brand & AI

Cofounder of Searchable: 

An Autonomous SEO & AEO Growth Engineer 
Analyse, fix, & scale your website to drive customers

Work out how to master AI Search here: searchable.com

The short life story 

I decided to skip the corporate job & start a digital marketing agency at 21. Here is the journey so far: 

Age 21: Bootstrapped Adjust Media at university making websites 
Age 22: Left Uni and rebranded to Verb Brands
Age 27: Acquired DBD Media Ltd, their 20 staff & expanded to digital marketing
Age 28: Won Bugatti & recognised as leading luxury agency
Age 30: Sell entirety of Verb Brands to Croud & LDC in an 8-figure deal
Age 31: Founded Lottie Org w/ Will Donnelly (Grow revenue to 8 figures, raise $35m & hire 100 people).
Age 32: Launch my Media, Education and Investment business
Age 33: Launched the Creator Accelerator and reached 8 figures in revenue
Age 34: Co Founded Searchable

It’s been a journey. 

Through Searchable.com I help founders and marketers to grow their organic traffic on auto pilot with our autonomous Seo and Aeo tool: searchable.com

Through my investment company, we support and invest into Entrepreneurs running incredible businesses, and with our experience as operators, help them scale. 

If you are a founder of a profitable and growing company with approximately $1m+ EBITDA, and you want to see if you can grow faster, reach out. 

If you are not at that level yet, I produce resources to help you get there. 

I run a podcast called Wake Up, and produce content on YouTube, LinkedIn, and Instagram for free.

Commercial enquiries for speaking or brand deals: enquiries@chris-donnelly.co.uk

Co-Founder

Found CRM by Lottie 

A cloud-based care home operation software, mapped and built specifically to the care and retirement industries unique customer journey and supports care homes with CRM, Occupancy, Administration and Finance

Found results in a higher conversion rate, better attribution of marketing spend, saved time and ultimately high occupancy.

SEO, AEO, and GEO aren't the same thing.

Understanding the difference is essential: 

The vast majority of businesses still optimise for SEO alone. 
But that's only because they haven't realised what's changed.

They are now competing for attention with SEM, PPC, and AI Overviews...

They bet losing hands because they refuse to accept the game has changed. 

Visibility is fragmenting across three layers: 

SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)
This is the model we've optimised for over the past 20 years.

AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation)
Get your content extracted into answer boxes, on Google and in AI responses.

GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation)
Get cited in AI-generated responses on ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Claude.

(Btw, If you don't know where you stand in any of these...

We've created this free visibility report to analyse your current gaps: 
https://lnkd.in/g6XApkfm)

Here's what you need to know right now: 

➡️ SEO = Appearing in traditional search engines (Google, Bing)

Focus: Rankings and click-through traffic
Outcome: Your page appears in search results

➡️ AEO = Content extracted into Google Snippets and short AI answers

Focus: Featured snippets, answer boxes, "People Also Ask," quick AI responses
Outcome: Your content is displayed as the answer (often zero-click)

➡️ GEO = Cited in detailed AI responses on ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, etc. 

Focus: Being referenced in longer, synthesised AI-generated content
Outcome: Your brand/content is cited with attribution in AI answers

It's not hard to get ahead of this in 2026. 
There aren't that many brands optimising for all three. 

But the ones that are, are already: 

- Structuring content for extraction
- Building authority for citations
- And reinforcing traditional SEO foundations 

To put it simply: 
Acknowledge the game has changed, and start playing accordingly. 

Do you understand the difference between SEO/AEO/GEO? 
Comment below with your thoughts. 

Searchable is the easiest possible way to prepare for all three at once. 

And our free visibility report is a great starting point to see where you stand.

Find your gaps here: https://lnkd.in/g6XApkfm

You then have a 14-day free trial to plug those gaps !

♻️ Repost this to help others optimise for all three layers.
Follow Chris Donnelly for more on mastering AI search.

Anthropic just released courses worth at least $10,000.

13 free courses to master AI with certificates worth $0:

Everyone is talking about these and rightly so.

This is insane value, and I suggest you jump on it right now.

Whether you're a developer, educator, student, or founder, 
They have a course for you. 

Here's the full list with links 👇

1. Claude Code In Action
↳ Integrate Claude Code into your development workflow.
🔗 https://lnkd.in/eAq7a5nd

2. Claude 101
↳ Learn how to use Claude for everyday tasks.
🔗 https://lnkd.in/e3rQFcqv

3. AI Fluency: Framework & Foundations
↳ Learn to collaborate with AI systems effectively.
🔗 https://lnkd.in/eXek4MAz

4. Building With The Claude API
↳ Covers the full spectrum of working with Anthropic models.
🔗 https://lnkd.in/e8ejEAcD

5. Introduction To Model Context Protocol
↳ Learn to build MCP servers and clients using Python.
🔗 https://lnkd.in/esdrs_Ht

6. AI Fluency For Educators
↳ Apply AI Fluency into your own teaching practices.
🔗 https://lnkd.in/eVGpYn3X

7. AI Fluency For Students
↳ Develop AI Fluency skills that enhance learning and academic success.
🔗 https://lnkd.in/ejkDsUB5

8. Model Context Protocol: Advanced Topics
↳ Discover advanced MCP implementation patterns.
🔗 https://lnkd.in/eSawHD-w

9. Claude With Amazon Bedrock
↳ Part of the accreditation program created for AWS.
🔗 https://lnkd.in/eKVDsCVX

10. Claude With Google Cloud's Vertex AI
↳ Learn how to work with Anthropic through Google Cloud's Vertex AI.
🔗 https://lnkd.in/eXSyE9kE

11. Teaching AI Fluency
↳ Understand how to teach and assess AI Fluency.
🔗 https://lnkd.in/e-XdXciK

12. AI Fluency For Nonprofits
↳ Empowers nonprofit professionals to develop practical AI skills.
🔗 https://lnkd.in/edSk3W6x

13. Introduction To Agent Skills
↳ Learn how to build, configure, and share Skills in Claude Code.
🔗 https://lnkd.in/egppQ7pm

The people learning AI now will have the advantage. 

But these courses won't be free forever.

Act now while the window is still open, 
And you can still pull ahead of your peers. 

What level of AI knowledge would you say you have? 
Drop a comment below. I'd be interested to know where you're at. 

♻️ Save this for later and repost to help others get ahead of the curve. 
And follow Chris Donnelly for the latest AI resources and knowledge.

"LinkedIn is dead now." Heard this a million times.

No, it isn't, you just need the right approach:

So many founders post randomly and run out of steam in weeks. 

A strong brand can change the trajectory of your business. 

But only if you have a strategy to scale it properly. 

I recorded a 19-minute guide to prepare you for all the recent updates 👇
https://lnkd.in/gQFQcRza

Watch the video to get up to date. Then follow these steps:  

(See cheat sheet for the full breakdown) 

1. Your North Star

Your personal brand needs one clear North Star for the next 90 days.

Ask yourself:
What does success genuinely look like 12 weeks from now?

2. The Positioning Triangle

Personal brands win when three things overlap:

1. Your expertise
2. A painful market problem
3. Your point of view

3. The Audience Clarity Map

There are only 3 groups you need to speak to: 

- Buyers: The people who will pay you
- Aspirational followers: The people who amplify you
- Learners: Early-stage, curious, watching quietly

4. The Content OS

This is how I structure every content system I build: 

1. Teach – frameworks, tactics, step-by-step
2. Think – opinions, observations, contrarian takes
3. Build – behind-the-scenes, lessons, mistakes
4. Sell – results, stories, clear offers

5. The Attention Engine

Consistency in personal brand requires a weekly execution system.

1. Idea Sourcing (60 minutes)
2. Batch Writing (2 hours)
3. Daily Engagement (15–20 minutes)
4. End-of-Week Review (20 minutes)

6. The Trust Ladder Framework

People buy from you because you’ve earned their trust based on: 

1. Awareness
2. Relevance
3. Authority
4. Proof
5. Action

7. The Content Feedback Loop

Your audience will always tell you what to create next.

Each week, analyse:

- Your highest-performing post
- Your lowest-performing post
- Which topic resonated the most
- Which format could be repeated

8. The 3-Level Personal Brand Funnel

A strong personal brand is built to sell.

Your funnel should follow:

1. Top of Funnel: Content geared towards reach
2. Middle of Funnel: Deeper education (cheat sheets, carousels, etc)
3. Bottom of Funnel: Proof and clear transformations

9. The Growth Scorecard

You only need 5 metrics to know if your brand is working: 

- Number of views
- Follower growth
- Engagement rate
- Inbound leads
- Newsletter signups

Your personal brand is either your biggest asset or a complete time drain.

The difference is the strategy you use to manage it. 

What part of your personal brand are you struggling with the most? 
Drop a comment below with your thoughts. 

If it's the LinkedIn algorithm throwing you off, that's an easy fix. 

My recent video is less than 20 minutes should clear up your concerns: https://lnkd.in/gQFQcRza

♻️ Repost to share this system with your network. 
And follow Chris Donnelly for more on building your brand.

Claude Skills is the most powerful tool you're not using. 

This is your guide to learn it in 60 seconds:

Instead of writing better prompts, Skills lets you build systems.

You can create reusable workflows that appear automatically for certain tasks. 
That means less briefing and far more consistent output.

This is the official guide from Anthropic:
https://lnkd.in/ggmAk7u8

And for a more digestible breakdown...
Here's how to Master Claude Skills:

(Save this to return back to later!)

➡️ What is Claude Skills? 
Skills transforms Claude from a search engine to a team member. 

🚫 Without Skills
You re-explain your role, your tone and your context every session.

✅ With Skills
Claude auto-loads exactly what it needs for each task.

➡️ Anatomy of a Skill

Role: Who Claude is in this context
Rules: What to do, what to avoid, tone and format
Trigger: When the Skill auto-loads

Store Skills in ~/.claude/skills/ as a SKILL .md file per task.

➡️ How to Set Up a Skill

1. Identify a recurring task
2. Create a SKILL .md file
3. Write the role, rules and trigger
4. Test it immediately
5. Refine what Claude gets wrong
6. Build a Skill library over time

Anthropic has plenty of documentation to help with this: 
https://lnkd.in/gfTmszvm

➡️ What Changes When You Use Skills

- ~40 minutes saved per task
- 1 prompt needed
- 10 minutes to set up
- 10x output consistency

You build once.
Then reuse forever.

➡️ The 4 Mistakes That Kill Your Skills

🚫 Writing one Skill that does everything
🚫 Skipping the trigger definition
🚫 Never updating after Claude misses
🚫 Trying to perfect it before using it

Prompt engineering is a must-have skill, but it will only get you so far. 

Founders who build systems that run without their attention are pulling ahead. 

They are creating real time to focus on driving the business forward...
And not just using AI to cover their lack of organisation.  

If you want meaningful automation, Claude Skills would be my first stop. 

Have you tried Claude Skills yet? 
Comment down below. 

----

📌 If you want a high-res PDF of this sheet:

1. Follow Chris Donnelly
2. Like the post.
3. Repost to your network.
4. Subscribe to: https://lnkd.in/eUTCQTWb

We are still very early with AI. But learning Claude alone won't cut it. 

These skills will serve you for years to come: 

Until last year, I thought my level of AI knowledge was pretty high. 
I've been learning it consistently every day for several years. 

But building Searchable has been a humbling experience. 
And I'm more convinced than ever of how incredible this tech can be. 

However, there are some AI skills that are more worth learning than others. 

If I had to start over and learn AI again...
These are the top 10 I'd put my energy towards: 

1. Prompt Engineering
→ This is the difference between average and great output.
→ Learn this to have the AI think like an actual strategist.
Tools: ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity.

2. AI Agents
→ AI that doesn't just reply, it finishes tasks end-to-end.
→ Use it to automate jobs you'd normally hand to an intern.
Tools: OpenAI Agents, Crew AI, LangGraph, LangChain.

3. Workflow Automation
→ Combining tools so routine work happens without you.
→ Use it for tasks that are repeated, like reporting.
Tools: Make, Zapier, n8n, Bardeen

4. Agentic AI
→ AI that can plan, adapt, and self-correct on its own.
→ Use it for complex multi-step tasks like research.
Tools: OpenAI o4-mini, Claude Code, Reflexion, DSPy

5. Multimodal AI
→ AI that works across text, images, audio, and code.
→ Use this to turn a rough idea into a full campaign.
Tools: Gemini, Claude 4.6 Sonnet, OpenAI Vision, Stable Audio

6. RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation)
→ This is teaching AI to pull from your ownable data.
→ Use it for tasks where accuracy is absolutely essential.
Tools: Pinecone, LlamaIndex, Haystack, Elastic

7. AEO / GEO (Answer & Generative Engine Optimisation)
→ This is making sure your brand shows up in AI answers.
→ Use this if your business requires multi-step marketing.
Tools: Searchable (Yep! Just the one... it's all you need 😉)

Our free visibility report will show you where you're at: 
https://lnkd.in/gMNzzNG3) 

8. AI Tool Stacking
→ Combine your best tools so they run as one system.
→ You can then build always-on workflows to cut costs.
Tools: Notion AI, ClickUp AI, Airtable AI, Zapier AI

9. AI Content Generation
→ Content at scale without having a big marketing team.
→ Leverage this for daily posting, video edits, etc.
Tools: Descript, Saywhat, OpusClip, ElevenLabs

10. LLM Management
→ This is about controlling the cost and performance of AI.
→ Without this, you won't be able to properly track ROI.
Tools: Arize AI, TruLens, Helicone, Weights & Biases

There's a lot of buzz around AI "replacing" folks. 
And, depending on what you do, it could happen. 

So my question to you is: 

When AI arrives, will you complain and do nothing...

Or will you take the time to prepare yourself for its arrival? 

----

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1. Follow Chris Donnelly
2. Like the post.
3. Repost to your network.
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Don’t be the person who gets caught producing terrible AI output. 

Instead, steal 1 of these 8 frameworks: 

This is where you should start with AI:
Mastering the art of prompting.

Prompting basic questions will get you basic answers.
Honestly, it is a misuse of insanely valuable technology.

My team and I have learned this deeply as a skill.

The results are amazing:

- Streamlined and optimised operations.
- Tasks are being automated, freeing up time.
- Therefore, more time spent on truly valuable tasks.

These are the 8 prompt frameworks I use to power my businesses:

1️⃣ R-T-F
Role: Specify the role you want the AI to assume.
Task: Define the task you want the AI to perform.
Format: Indicate the format in which you want the output.

2️⃣ S-O-L-V-E
Situation: Define the context or situation.
Objective: Specify the goals.
Limits: Define any limitations or constraints.
Vision: Outline the vision or goal.
Execution: Plan the steps for execution.

3️⃣ T-A-G
Task: Define the task at hand.
Action: State the action needed.
Goal: Clarify the goal to be achieved.

4️⃣ R-A-C-E
Role: Specify the character you want the AI to play.
Action: State the basic instruction or the job you need to be done.
Context: Provide the background information the AI will need.
Expectation: Describe the outcome you need.

5️⃣ D-R-E-A-M
Define: Define the problem or context.
Research: State the research needed.
Execute: How to execute the plan.
Analyse: How to analyse the results.
Measure: Define how to measure the outcomes.

6️⃣ P-A-C-T
Problem: Define the problem.
Approach: Describe the approach.
Checks: Write about potential compromises.
Test: Define the test or measurement.

7️⃣ C-A-R-E
Context: Give the context.
Action: Describe the action needed.
Result: Clarify the expected result.
Example: Provide an example for clarity.

8️⃣ R-I-S-E
Role: Specify the role.
Input: Describe the input needed.
Steps: Could you ask for steps to follow?
Expectation: Describe the expectation.

AI is the single biggest source of leverage across all my businesses.
But we couldn't have achieved any of it without learning how to prompt.

If you spend 1-2 hours scrolling on Instagram per day...
I know you have time to learn these prompting techniques.

My newsletter shares resources like this, every single week.

There is always something you can apply the exact same day.

Sign up now and join 250k reading weekly: https://lnkd.in/eUTCQTWb

I also have 30+ free learning resources for you.

Which prompting technique will you try first? 
Let me know how it goes in the comments.

♻️ Repost to help your network learn vital AI skills. 
And follow Chris Donnelly for more on leveraging AI in 2026.

Stop wasting months building your first website. 

Here's how to use Claude Code to create it in 10 mins:  

2 years ago, founders needed time and developers to build a website. 

Those days are (fortunately) long gone. 

It's just one of the many reasons everyone's talking about Claude Code. 
But it's a huge one if you're trying to launch this year. 

Especially if you're doing it alone...

ChatGPT can generate code snippets. 
That's helpful for smaller projects. 

But Claude Code can: 

- Build complete applications
- Set up hosting
- Deploys your site
- And give you a live link to share immediately 

Here's how to build a website in 10 minutes:

1. Open Claude Code

Start a new project in Claude Code (claude.ai or desktop app).

2. Define Your Goal

Before you write a single word, get clear on your goal.

Pick one primary goal: Collect email signups... book calls... sell a product, etc.

3. Write Your Detailed Brief

"I need a website for [your business/project]. The main goal is [specific outcome]. Style should be inspired by [reference site 1] and [reference site 2]. Include these features: [list 3-5 key features]. Target audience is [describe who]. The main CTA should be [specific action]."

4. Add Reference Sites

Give Claude 1-2 websites to reference for style and structure. 
Claude will analyse them and apply the best elements to your site.

5. Let Claude Plan

Claude creates a full plan and shows you the structure before building.

6. Review & Approve

Check the plan before Claude builds and make any changes to save time later.

Review Checklist:

☑️ Does the site structure match your brief?
☑️ Are all key features included?
☑️ Does the tech stack make sense?
☑️ Is the design direction aligned with your references?
☑️ Are the pages and sections correct?

7. Claude Builds

Claude writes all the code, sets up hosting, and deploys your site. 
Can take up around 10-20 minutes. 

Go make yourself a coffee or check LinkedIn. 

8. Go Live

Claude provides deployment links. Your website is live and ready to share.

Seems too good to be true? 
I would have thought so too... 

But I've tried it and seen what it can produce. 
Impressive stuff. 

And that's not the only thing founders are using it for. 
Claude Code can create product MVPs, internal tools, SaaS platforms...and more! 

Eventually everyone will learn this and it won't be an advantage. 
But you can still be an early mover if you act now. 

That means learning AND implementing these tools as soon as you can. 

Have you built anything with Claude Code yet?
Comment down below. 

♻️ Repost to help founders in your network move faster.
And follow Chris Donnelly for more on building with AI.

- - - -

📌 If you want a high-res PDF of this sheet:

1. Follow Chris Donnelly.
2. Like the post.
3. Repost to your network.
4. Subscribe to: https://lnkd.in/eUTCQTWb

Claude Cowork is a non-negotiable for non-technical founders.

Here's the full breakdown so you can get started: 

Founders assume they need to handle all the minor details of their business. 

That was certainly true when I started building VERB back when I was 21.
But Claude Cowork has basically removed the need to do any admin. 

You just tell Cowork what you want done, and it handles it. 
Kinda wild.

People are automating entire hours-long workflows down to minutes.

The way we build businesses will, once again, no longer be the same. 

But you probably aren't prepared to handle this shift right away.
Building is hard enough without blindly navigating a new platform...

This all-in-one guide should give you everything you need to get started:  

(Save this sheet so you can test Claude Cowork confidently !)

First of all, what is Claude Cowork? 🖥️

Cowork is an AI assistant that lives on your computer and does things for you.

→ It reads your files and controls your browser
→ Opens Gmail, Google Sheets, Slack, Notion
→ Fills in forms, sends emails, and organises folders

Anthropic's Claude Cowork guide: https://lnkd.in/gkf5tpEK 

I’ve also included a comparison of Code and Cowork in the sheet below 👇

You can start with Cowork and graduate to Code when you need more control.

Coworker Code (reviews + comparisons): cowork-code.com

There's no reason to wait either. 

You can set up Cowork today in about 5 minutes: 

1. Download the Claude desktop app
2. Install the Chrome extension for browser control
3. Mount the folders you want Cowork to access
4. Start with something simple: "Organise this folder by file type and date"

Don’t over-customise at first. Get value first, then add Skills and Plugins for specific tasks.

Claude Help Center: https://lnkd.in/gVT83EM9

The sheet also has details on: 

- Core features
- An example workflow
- 10 prompts you can run today

When I built Searchable, automating admin and repetitive tasks freed up hours every week to focus on strategy and product.

Cowork handles the work that doesn’t need your attention. 

If you're planning on testing Cowork, let me know in the comments. 

I'll give as much guidance as I can to get started ! 

For more on building using AI, you'll want to read my newsletter, Step by Step: https://lnkd.in/eUTCQTWb

💾 Save and repost this so your network sees this.
And follow Chris Donnelly for more like this.

99% of people are learning to use the wrong AI tools.

If you are a CEO, you don't need to understand Claude Code...

Same as if you were a CFO, you don't really need to know Cursor.

What you first need is an understanding of which tool types you need.

Then deciding from there which tool is best for you.

I've broken it down in the graphic below by use case. 👇
(The tool you're probably currently using, and what to replace it with)

1. Writing 
❌ Old: Google Docs
✅ New: Claude

Claude is the gold standard for writing using LLMs.
It has the best conversational tone that matches human writing.

2. Research
❌ Old: Google Search
✅ New: Perplexity Comet

Comet is Perplexity's AI-native browser with agentic capabilities.
Powered by their LLM that excels in detailed market research.

3. Coding
❌ Old: Stack Overflow
✅ New: Cursor

Cursor is a complete behavioural shift for coders. 
Simply put, hit a problem:  

→ ask Cursor in your editor 
→ get a solution written for your specific code 
→ apply it in one click.

4. SEO/AEO/GEO
❌ Old: SEMrush
✅ New: Searchable

Cheeky plug, but I do believe we are the market-leading tool for a reason.
With Searchable you get the analytics, actions, and agentic workflows to increase your visibility drastically.

5. Pitch Decks
❌ Old: PowerPoint
✅ New: Gamma

What used to take hours of edits and fine-tuning...
You can now create a near-perfect pitch deck in 5 minutes using Gamma.

6. Outreach
❌ Old: Mailchimp
✅ New: Clay

Mailchimp is a broadcast-style approach - one message to many people.
Clay is a completely different animal. It gives you data enrichment and personalised outreach at scale.

7. Speech To Text
❌ Old: Rev
✅ New: Willow AI

Willow, in my opinion, is the best of the AI-powered voice dictation available.
You no longer need to type. You can now write with your voice at 5x speed.

8. Email
❌ Old: Gmail
✅ New: Superhuman

Forget spending time writing emails in archaic systems.
Superhuman will help you send high-quality and effective emails in a heartbeat.

9. Productivity
❌ Old: Trello
✅ New: Claude Code

I'll be honest, Claude Code is hard to fit into one binary category.
However, it is probably the most efficient AI tool out there on the market.

With these tools, you could probably avoid the outlay of a couple new hires.

And by the time you do hire, you've built leverage with an enormously capable and high-margin team.

I've seen this progress over the years, and I knew I eventually needed to establish my own company in the space.

And once I saw the gap, Searchable was born.

If you are looking to increase visibility and traffic to your business at rapid pace... look no further.

Click this link and grab a 14-day free trial: https://lnkd.in/epgXyFmi

Share your favourite AI tool in the comments, always on the hunt for some great ones !

♻️ Repost to help your network build with AI.
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LinkedIn just replaced its entire algorithm.

And most people have no idea...

This isn't a small update. 

LinkedIn has killed its old ranking system entirely 
And replaced it with an AI language model that: 

- Reads your content
- Judges your profile
- And decides whether you deserve to be seen.

If you'd like to understand what has happened, I made a 19 min video. 
Check it out here: https://lnkd.in/gxFXSsET

The tactics that worked well for you in the past simply won't cut through in 2026.

Most creators won't catch on to this for another 6-12 months. 
By then, the people who moved first will have already locked in the audience, the authority, and the clients. 

This is that window.

In the video I go over: 

1. What LinkedIn's new AI algorithm actually rewards (and what it now punishes)
2. The content format that converts followers at the highest rate right now
3. How to turn LinkedIn attention into actual revenue for your business
4. A pre-validation method that takes the guesswork out of every post
5. Why most personal branding advice is making it harder for you

I did a video like this on my previous channel,
And it went on to become my highest-performing video on that channel. 

Every bit of advice I share comes from my own experience. 
As well as the data we're seeing across 100s of accounts every single day. 

So if you want to start making LinkedIn work for you this year. 
I deeply recommend you give this video a look. 
 
Once again, you can check it out here: https://lnkd.in/gxFXSsET

For those who may not know, after reaching 173,000 subscribers on YouTube. 
I decided to start again from scratch. 

The reason was to start a new kind of channel. 

I loved the podcast and interviews we did previously, but I wanted to share something new.

Something to genuinely help entrepreneurs build exceptional businesses.
Whilst showing how you can utilise leverage, your personal brand and AI.

So if you'd like to support the channel, check it out here: https://lnkd.in/gQFQcRza

I have very ambitious goals with this, so any support early on is very much appreciated ! 

💾 Save this to re-visit later and repost to help others take on LinkedIn
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For decades, marketing operated in a clear funnel. 

Now, it's taken on a completely new shape: 

And most marketers have yet to respond accordingly. 
Some might call it a network, others a web. 

But the point is that it's more complex, with far more touchpoints. 
And most businesses are only showing up at one or two touchpoints.

Therefore missing out on huge opportunities for visibility.

(To find where you're missing out, we actually have a free tool for just that at Searchable. Grab your free visibility report here: https://lnkd.in/g6XApkfm) 

This is what marketing actually involves in 2026... 

☑️ Google Search

What to do:

- Target conversational queries, rather than short-tail keywords.
- Strengthen your E-E-A-T signals by adding and updating content regularly.
- Answer questions directly in the first paragraph to capture featured snippet positions.

☑️ AI Search (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude)

What to do:

- Structure your content with clear definitions, FAQ sections, and schema markup.
- Write in natural language that answers specific questions.
- Get mentioned on third-party sites, forums, and trusted publications. 

☑️ Social Search (LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, X)

What to do:

- Participate in genuine conversations in your niche. 
- Share original educational content that get saved and reshared.
- Publish consistently so the algorithm associates your profile with your topic.

☑️ Video Search (YouTube, TikTok)

What to do:

- Write video titles as questions people actually ask.
- Add full transcripts to every video so AI crawlers can parse the content.
- Create short summaries of longer content and publish them as Shorts or Reels.

☑️ Community & Trust Platforms (Reddit, Quora, G2, Trustpilot)

What to do:

- Seed value-driven answers on Reddit threads relevant to your category.
- Encourage customers to leave detailed reviews that mention specific use cases.
- Monitor and respond to mentions so AI platforms see active brand engagement.

☑️ Traditional Search (Bing)

What to do:

- Don't ignore Bing. ChatGPT pulls heavily from Bing's index.
- Optimise for Bing with clean structure, fast load times, schema markup.
- The brands that do are showing up in ChatGPT results their competitors aren't.

☑️ Voice Search (Siri, Alexa, Google Assistant)

What to do:

- Write in natural, conversational language that mirrors how people speak.
- Answer "near me" and "best for" queries explicitly in your content.
- Format key pages as direct question-and-answer pairs.

Again, to spot where you are missing opportunities...
Highly encourage you to grab a free visibility report here: https://lnkd.in/g6XApkfm

Do you see marketing as a funnel or a network? 
Drop a comment below. 

♻️ Repost to share the new search model with your network. 
Follow Chris Donnelly for the latest updates in SEO and AI search.

If you've been struggling to get good results from Claude...

Anthropic has released the perfect prompt: 

As you may well know, Claude has overtaken ChatGPT. At least, it seems.
(For now, who knows what Sam has up his sleeve).

So, you may as well learn how to use Anthropic's tool.

There's no excuse not to implement this, as it comes straight from their team. 

If there was ever a prompt to steal, this would be this one ! 

Here's the full structure:

🎯 1. Task context
↳ Vague context produces vague output.
↳ Set the scene properly before you ask for anything.

🗣️ 2. Tone context
↳ Tell it exactly how to communicate (direct, actionable, no filler)
↳ Every output should be specific enough to hand straight to a team member.

📎 3. Background data, documents, and images
↳ Feed it everything relevant (URLs, existing content, rankings)
↳ The more context it has, the sharper the output.

📋 4. Detailed task description and rules
↳ Be specific about what you want it to focus on and what the rules are.
↳ Tell it exactly what matters and what to ignore.

💡 5. Examples
↳ Paste in an example of the output format you want.
↳ Claude follows examples better than instructions alone.

🕐 6. Conversation history
↳ If there's previous work or feedback from earlier sessions, include it.
↳ Claude has no memory between conversations unless you give it one.

✅ 7. Immediate task description
↳ After all the context, tell it exactly what you need today.
↳ Specific, scoped, with one clear request.

🧠 8. Think step by step
↳ Ask it to reason before it responds. 
↳ This step alone dramatically improves output quality.

📐 9. Output formatting
↳ Tell it how to structure the response before it writes anything.
↳ Summary, top priority fixes, secondary recommendations, and quick wins.

We actually use this prompt structure when using Claude whilst building Searchable.

And you can use the same, in our free AI SEO Agent.

You can use it to: 

- Analyse your visibility across ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews
- Get specific recommendations for actions 
- Ask strategic questions about your competitors.

Try it out for free here: https://lnkd.in/gasKu7jB

Let me know how you get on !

---

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The number one most ineffective phrase within business: 

”Let’s create a plan”. Here’s why: 

An incorrect plan means poor execution and no growth.

In order to approach your business with clarity... 
Adopt these 3 types of planning 👇

Strategic Planning 🗺️

What is it:
Sets the long-term vision and direction for the business.

Timeline:
3-5 years out.

Use case:
Deciding to expand into a new market.
Choosing to build a product vs acquire one.
Planning a fundraise or an exit.

Suited to:
CEOs, Founders, Co-Founders, Board Members.

Top tips:
Keep it to 3 priorities max.
Decide what you WON'T do.
Revisit it annually.

Common errors:
Setting goals so vague they could mean anything.
Avoiding the hard trade-offs.
Trying to go after 5 markets at once and winning none.

Tactical Planning 🔀

What is it:
Turns the strategy into specific initiatives and projects.

Timeline:
1-3 years ahead.

Use case:
Launching a European sales team to support expansion.
Hiring 10 engineers over 6 months to ship a new product.
Running a paid beta programme for a new features.

Suited to:
Head of Departments, VPs, Senior Managers, COOs.

Top tips:
Assign one owner per project.
Set quarterly checkpoints.
Kill projects that aren't working.

Common errors:
Taking on too many initiatives at once.
Building plans that sound good but have no clear owner.
Spending 3 months planning and 1 month executing.

Operational Planning ⚙️

What is it:
Daily and weekly execution of tasks and processes.

Timeline:
Days to 12 months.

Use case:
Weekly content publishing schedule.
Daily sales outreach targets and pipeline reviews.
Monthly reporting cadence.

Suited to:
Team Leads, Managers, Project Managers, Individual Contributors.

Top tips:
Build SOPs for anything done more than twice.
Track the 2-3 KPIs that actually matter.
Keep plans realistic.

Common errors:
Confusing being busy with making progress.
Losing sight of why you're doing the work.
Overloading teams with tasks.

I see many teams blending all three and lack clarity to progress.

When you separate it into these three approaches, it's a bit of a progress unlock to be honest.

Give your team the clarity they need to grow !

Anyway I'm curious to hear your experience with planning in your business...

Is it something you or your team typically struggle with?
Let me know and I'll see if I can provide guidance.

- - - -

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I'm 35. I started building businesses at 21.  

If I were to do it again, I'd focus on these skills: 

I've spent the better part of 15 years growing startups.
And when I say I've learned lessons the hard way, I mean it. 

Some mistakes were unavoidable, but others could have been solved faster. 

It really all came down to the skills I did or didn't have. 

If I could snap my fingers and have learned these at 21, I would. 
It would have saved countless hours of making and learning from mistakes. 

There are others, of course, but these are my top 10: 

1. AI Literacy
↳ AI is the biggest shift in how work gets done since the internet. 
↳ If you don't understand how to use it, you'll be left behind. 

2. Agency
↳ Agency is the belief that you can change your circumstances. 
↳ Without it, you'll always be waiting. Start small, but start now.  

3. Adaptability
↳ The entire business landscape will be completely different in 5 years. 
↳ If you can't adapt quickly, you'll be stuck in a dying market.

4. Critical Thinking
↳ Most people accept information at face value. 
↳ Critical thinkers question assumptions and make better decisions. 

5. Systems Thinking
↳ Systemising anything makes it easier to handle. 
↳ If you can't see the system, you can't fix it or scale it.

(Try subscribing to my newsletter to work on this !
Here: https://lnkd.in/eUTCQTWb)

6. Public Speaking
↳ Your ability to communicate ideas clearly determines your outcomes. 
↳ It's a non-negotiable.

7. Negotiation
↳ Everything is a negotiation. Salary, contracts, partnerships, deals. 
↳ If you don't know how to negotiate, you leave money and opportunity on the table.

8. Time Management
↳ Time is your only non-renewable resource. 
↳ If you can't manage it, you'll be "busy" without making progress.

9. Delegation
↳ You can't scale if you're doing everything yourself. 
↳ Learning to delegate effectively is the only way to grow beyond yourself.

10. Pattern Recognition
↳ The best founders spot patterns early.  
↳ Pattern recognition is how you get ahead of trends.

Find the full breakdown in the carousel below 👇

Save this. You'll need it as things start to move quicker and quicker and quicker...

If you're in your 20s, learning these will put you ahead, I promise.
And if you're not, it's not too late to start. 

But do start now. Things will only get more competitive with time...

For more in-depth advice on what it takes to build smarter today, 
Subscribe to my newsletter Step by Step: https://lnkd.in/eUTCQTWb

What's one skill you're focused on in 2026? 
Comment down below. 

♻️ Save this and repost to help others upskill early on. 
And follow Chris Donnelly for more resources like this.

 I'm 35... 

SEO was never "easy"... but it was simpler.  

Then the behavioural shift happened that you cannot ignore.

And now SEO is not just about Google anymore. 

It's expanded to LLMs and AI Overviews on Google. 

You might not even know if you're visible in these AI responses or not...

(Btw, Searchable has a free tool that checks your visibility and gives you a full report: https://lnkd.in/g6XApkfm)

ChatGPT processes 2.5 billion searches daily.

And a good chunk of those are going to determine purchases...

Businesses are still in denial about it, but I suggest you don't be. 

Here's what you need to know 👇

1️⃣ There are 3 types of search visibility: 

SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)
Outcome: You rank higher on Google, so more people find your website.

AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation)
Outcome: You become the direct answer Google gives.

GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation)
Outcome: AI tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini cite your brand.

2️⃣ Old SEO is not the same as New SEO. 

Old SEO focused on:

- Keyword density and exact match phrases
- Backlinks at volume (quality was secondary)
- Page rank and domain authority
- Getting clicks to your website

New SEO focuses on:

- Natural language and question-based content
- Authoritative citations from trusted sources
- Entity recognition and schema markup
- Being cited before the click happens

3️⃣ You need to be found inside LLMs. 

There are 4 levels to this.

Level 1: Crawlable
AI can access your website.

- AI crawlers are not blocked in robots.txt
- Site loads fast, clean HTML, updated sitemaps
- But being crawlable doesn't mean being visible

Level 2: Understandable
AI can make sense of your content.

- Schema markup implemented 
- Clear headings, Q&A formatting, short paragraphs
- Answer-first structure so AI can extract what it needs

Level 3: Trustworthy
AI recognises you as a credible source.

- Backlinks and citations from high-authority domains
- Real author bios with visible credentials on every page
- Wikipedia, Wikidata, and Google Knowledge Panel claimed

Level 4: Citation-Worthy
AI actively recommends and cites your brand.

- Original research and proprietary data
- Content that answers specific questions 
- Recently updated and fact-checked regularly

When we built Searchable, we implemented all this knowledge into the product to help businesses rank inside LLMs 
(Without working harder)...

And I'm thrilled with the results so far: 

£1 million turnover in 60 days
700+ paying customers
Winning clients daily from legacy SEO competitors.

It's completely automated to find gaps and fix them autonomously.

Which you can find with our free AI Visibility Report: https://lnkd.in/g6XApkfm

Has your business started optimising for the new SEO?  

💾 Save and Repost to share this guide with your network. 
And follow Chris Donnelly for more on SEO/AEO/GEO.

There are countless new AI tools on the market right now. 

After 1000s of hours of experimenting, this is my ranking:

And after months spent building Searchable, The Creator Accelerator, 
And LeverBrands, I've narrowed down that list considerably. 

Here are the tools that are actually worth your time in 2026:
(Ranked in order from best to worst...) 

🏆 S TIER
The best of the best. Use these every day.

Claude: The most intelligent AI assistant available. My default choice. 
Searchable: The only platform that optimises your visibility automatically.
(Try it yourself here with a 14-day free trial: https://lnkd.in/epgXyFmi) 
Claude Code: AI-powered coding that transforms what a small team can ship. 
Lovable: Build full-stack apps from a prompt. Genuinely remarkable. 
Cursor: The AI code editor that's become indispensable for our engineering team.
Saywhat: AI-powered content creation tool specifically for LinkedIn.

🥇 A TIER
Excellent tools. Earn their place in your stack.

Gamma: AI presentation builder. Creates polished decks in minutes.
Notion: The AI features have made an already great tool even better. 
Zapier: Automates workflows between your tools without code. 
Framer: The best AI-assisted website builder for design-conscious teams. 
Gemini: Google's model for research and data-heavy tasks (and images, apparently).
Perplexity Comet: AI browser agent that handles tasks autonomously.
Clay: Transforms how you build outbound pipelines. 
Replit: Collaborative AI coding environment.
Julius: AI data analyst. Upload a spreadsheet and ask it anything.

🥈 B TIER
Solid. Not essential.

ChatGPT: Still capable, but Claude has overtaken it for me. 
n8n: Powerful automation tool. More flexible than Zapier. 
Granola: AI meeting notes that are actually useful.
Descript: Decent AI video and podcast editor. 
Superhuman: AI-assisted email. Fast. Just not a must-have.
Zendesk: The AI features are functional rather than exciting.

🥉 C TIER
Use with caution. Better options exist.

Deepseek: I wouldn't trust it with sensitive business data.
Grok: Has moments. Inconsistent.
OpusClip: Does what it says, nothing more.
Make: Redundant if you're using Zapier or n8n. 

🚫 D TIER
Not there yet.

Microsoft Copilot: Underwhelming in practice.
Apple Intelligence: Reality has not matched (high) expectations. 
Sora: Impressive demos. Actual output has a long way to go.

Not every tool on this list will help you build and operate smarter. 

So be selective. Start with Tier S; those are the must-haves !

Test it out and see for yourself.

What AI tools are you using on a daily basis? 
I’d be interested to know which ones are the most popular. 

♻️ Repost to help founders in your network build a smarter AI stack.
And follow Chris Donnelly for more on building with AI.

If you want to start a business, you need to know the rules.

These are 15 KPIs every Founder should know: 

Follower growth can boost confidence and visibility. 

But those types of metrics don't drive sustainable growth and profitability. 
Without tracking the right KPIs, it's impossible to grow your business.  

That's why I've combined the top 15 into one cheat sheet. 

You should save it if you're serious about scaling this year 👇

But I'll give you a quick rundown here as well: 

(See the cheat sheet for how to calculate each one) 

1. Net Revenue Retention (NRR)

Measures revenue kept after churn, contractions, and expansions.
This is the north-star for SaaS/AI businesses.

2. Customer Lifetime Value (LTV)

Average revenue a customer generates over their relationship with you.
Always paired with CAC to prove ROI of growth.

3. Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)

Average spend required to win a new customer.
Set budgets and check efficiency of growth.

4. LTV to CAC Ratio

Compares lifetime value of a customer to acquisition cost.
Validate sustainable growth. Rule of thumb: >3 is strong.

5. Monthly Active Users (MAU)

Number of unique active users in a month.
Measure adoption and stickiness.

6. Churn Rate 

Number of customers or revenue lost in a period. 
Track retention. Rising churn = weak product-market fit.

7. Burn Multiple 

Cash burned for every $1 in new ARR. 
Use it during fundraising and growth phases. 

8. EBITDA 

Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, amortisation. 
Measure profitability at scale.

9. Operating Cash Flow 

Net cash from operating activities. 
Confirm the business can fund itself.

10. Customer Retention Rate 

Percentage of customers who continue to buy from you over a set period. 
Measure loyalty and product-market fit.

11. Revenue Growth Rate 

Percentage increase in revenue over a given period. 
Show business momentum and scalability.

12. AI Search Visibility 

Share of prompts where your brand/product is surfaced in AI answers. 
Measure discoverability in AI-led search.

13. Runway (Cash Runway) 

How many months your business can operate before running out of cash. 
Balance growth vs. cash preservation.

14. Experiment Velocity 

Number of product, content, or GTM experiments shipped. 
Track speed of iteration and learning.

15. Gross Margin 

Profitability after direct costs, including AI infra. 
Prove scalability and efficiency to investors.

Social media is useful for many things. 

But it tells you very little about the long-term health of your business. 

These are the metrics that matter if you want to scale. 

What are the primary KPIs you're tracking in your business? 
Leave a comment below. 

--

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LinkedIn is the 2nd most cited domain by AI. 

That puts it ahead of every major news publisher...

Not to mention Wikipedia and YouTube. 

I've spent years posting about how powerful LinkedIn is as a business asset. 
And this study has proven just how true that really is. 

11% of all AI responses reference LinkedIn content directly.

For anyone building a business around LinkedIn and organic search, 
These two worlds are colliding in the best way possible. 

Potential customers are asking AI questions about your industry.
And LinkedIn content is shaping the answers they receive.

If that content comes from you, your visibility will be untouchable. 

And, to make things more interesting, the content getting cited isn't "viral." 
The average cited post has just 15 to 25 reactions. 

So, even if you don't have the engagement you want now, 
It's in your best interest to keep posting high-quality content. 

Here's what the cited content looks like:

✅ Original
↳ The vast majority of what AI cites is written by the person posting it, not recycled from someone else.

✅ Educational 
↳ Content that answers a real question clearly and directly.

✅ Consistent 
↳ Authors whose content gets cited show up regularly, not occasionally.

✅ Credible
↳ Real people with genuine expertise in a specific topic or field.

A few things worth acting on immediately:

1. Use the exact language your customers search for in your taglines. 
↳ AI matches conversational queries instead of keywords.

2. Build authority content around your core area of expertise. 
↳ If you consistently own a topic, AI will associate you with it.

3. Write posts that answer specific questions directly. 
↳ Not thought leadership for its own sake, but answers to real problems.

This is the marrying of two spaces I've believed in for a long time.

Build a strong personal brand on LinkedIn,  
Create content that genuinely helps people,  
And answer the questions your customers are actually asking...

This is still the best strategy for growing an audience.

It just turns out it's also the best way to show up in AI responses. 

If you've been posting on LinkedIn, you have an enormous head start.
But even if you start now, the window is still wide open. 

The first step is knowing where you currently stand in AI search. 

Most businesses are completely in the dark on this.

Searchable has a free visibility report that will tell you in minutes: https://lnkd.in/gQTVD-CW

Are you posting on LinkedIn consistently? 
What's holding you back? 

Leave a comment below with your thoughts. 

♻️ Repost to help your network understand what's changing in AI search.
And follow Chris Donnelly for more on building visibility in the age of AI.

84% of people have never used AI. That's quite shocking.

Here’s how you can take advantage of this: 

There are 8.1 billion humans on the planet. 

Of those, around 1.38B (16%) use a chatbot. 
And between 15-25M (~0.3%) pay ~$20 per month to use AI regularly. 

Of course, it's a bit skewed as some countries do not have the tech yet. 

But it's still huge if you think about the competitive advantage. 

When you're in the AI space, it might feel like you're falling behind. 

But I like to think of it in a different way...

The vast majority of people haven't even touched AI.

And as someone who has built an AI start-up to over $1.5m ARR in 60 days...
This is where we are headed... And fast. 

(It's happening faster than any other tech development in history.) 

That means if you can start seriously building with AI, 
You'll be miles ahead. 

That's what we did with my new business Searchable.
We took advantage of this rising tide and went all in. 

And it's easier than it sounds. 

All you need is to start learning and applying those lessons every day. 

Choose 2-3 tools and become very knowledgeable about how they work. 
Then start to implement them to automate parts of your business. 

It can be messy at first, but the point is you're getting started. 

ChatGPT has ~800m monthly active users.
And look at this graph, it's only the beginning. 

If you can get out ahead of this, the implications will be massive. 

This is true of building your business and getting your name out there. 

We've seen the rise of people asking ChatGPT questions, rather than Google.

Now, when they shop, they get immediate and direct answers.
As opposed to a wave of blue links...

The businesses that position themselves now will benefit from this shift. 

But the window won't stay open forever. 

Most of your competitors are still figuring out if AI is a fad.

You can be the one who's already ranking in ChatGPT when they finally show up.

If you want to see where your business ranks in AI search right now, 
Try Searchable's AI Agent: https://lnkd.in/gVwCJJDX

It's a free tool you can ask any questions RE SEO, AEO, or GEO.

That will be your first step to capturing millions of clicks.

♻️ Repost if this shifted your perspective on AI.
And follow Chris Donnelly for more practical insights like this.

Relying completely on Google SEO is a thing of the past. 

AI citation should be your focus:  

99% of marketers are still optimising for Google. 

Meanwhile, ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude are reshaping search.

(If you want to quickly check how they are impacting your website, 
We have a free agent you can try: https://lnkd.in/gasKu7jB)

Each AI engine handles citations differently. 
Here's how to optimise your content for all three: 

ChatGPT: The Volume Engine
↳ Citations appear in separate "Sources" panel
↳ Needs authoritative domain signals
↳ Loves structured FAQ formats
↳ Target high-volume topics with current data

Perplexity: The Transparent Engine
↳ Shows inline citations with direct links
↳ Prioritises recent, authoritative sources
↳ Needs precise, quotable statements
↳ Creates actual referral traffic

Claude: The Context-Aware Engine
↳ Focuses on well-reasoned content
↳ Prefers detailed methodologies
↳ Values balanced, objective viewpoints
↳ Targets professional use cases

The Cross-Platform Strategy:
Create content that works for all three:

→ Lead with clear, quotable statements
→ Include comprehensive background
→ Add detailed methodology
→ Use structured headings and data

Citation Readiness Checklist:
✅ Author credentials displayed
✅ Publication date prominent
✅ Sources documented
✅ Statistics verified
✅ Scannable formatting
✅ Regular updates scheduled

Weekly Actions:
✅ Test your brand in all three systems
✅ Screenshot citation appearances
✅ Track competitor mentions
✅ Update underperforming content

Proactive businesses won't wait until they're already behind. 
They'll start optimising for AI now to dominate visibility all year. 

While your competitors are still focused on Google, you'll already own: 

→ Traditional search results
→ AI Overview features
→ ChatGPT recommendations
→ Perplexity citations

If you want to see where your business stands, 
Try the FREE agent out today: https://lnkd.in/gasKu7jB

The shift to AI search is happening faster than expected. 

How are you preparing for the new era of search? 

----

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Deciding to hang up my football boots at 18 and chase entrepreneurship changed the entire trajectory of my life.

Here’s what happened next:

2018: Quit professional football after representing Scotland at youth level. No plan. Just a feeling that there was something bigger out there.

2019: Joined university and stumbled into entrepreneurship at Bright Red Triangle. Learned my first lessons in sales, content, and surviving off side hustles — video editing, PT, selling double glazing… whatever paid the rent.

2020: Founded a health-tech startup with BRT’s support. We won 2 international awards. We also learned the hard way what “too early” and “too ambitious” really mean. Paused the project.

2021: Joined another mental health tech startup. We nearly closed our seed round but missed it. Another painful lesson, but it sharpened my understanding of GTM and investor psychology.

2022: Landed my first pure sales role at OnceHub under the mentorship of Adam Parnell — the guy who shaped how I lead teams today.

2022: Moved up the sales value chain into Shine Interview. Got my first official leadership responsibilities. Fell in love with outbound and GTM.

2023: Quit to launch my own fractional marketing consultancy. Hit $5K MRR but couldn’t break through. Failed forward.

2024: Started Traction — a tiny outbound agency with a big obsession for client results. We hit 95.2% success rate, kept clients for 6+ months, and passed $20K MRR. Most stable thing I’d ever built.

2025: Moved to Australia alone. No network. No safety net. Hit the $25K MRR ceiling… and then Instantly.ai entered the picture.

I joined as the lead of Instantly’s first-ever done-for-you outbound programme — Instantly VIP — and helped turn it into one of the fastest-growing GTM services in the world.

If you’re not yet at the stage where you’re scaling a full outbound engine then maybe my team at Instantly can help.

🔗 Website: https://instantly.ai/vip

🔗 VIP Resources: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7384166190551572480/

🔗 Speaking / Podcast Appearances: email aaron@instantly.ai

Aaron. Reid

How to sell $1M+ to complete strangers in 90 days.

Sounds hard. It really isn't.

Imagine you sell branded t-shirts for corporates.

You send 15,000 cold emails a day.
You offer to send and present a free mocked up t-shirt with their logo on it.
That gets you 50-60 sales meetings.
You come into the call wearing their branded t-shirt.

Then you make buying even easier.
"If 10 people don't compliment your t-shirt within a month, we'll give you your money back." (obviously they will because your t-shirts are so cool 😉)
You close 20 of the 50 meetings.

Each customer is worth $1k.
$20k a day. $20k a month in costs
(15k for cold email and 5k for t-shirt mock-ups and shipping)

5 x $20k ($400k pm) = $400k - 20k = 380k profit (19x ROI)
x3 months = $1.1M

If you can do it with branded blends of cotton, you can do it with anything.

The model is simple.
👉 Give a $500+ offer for free
👉 Turn the offer into a meeting
👉 Give more value in the meeting
👉 Show testimonials (proof your thing works)
👉 Show them the ROI against their current solution
👉 Reduce the risk with your pricing and guarentees

Make it unreasonable for them to say no
Stop selling. Start serving.

(with Instantly.ai ofcourse 😉)

Leader of the Instantly VIP Team, GTM Voice [20k+ Opportunities Created], Former Agency Owner, 2x Founder & Ex-Pro Footballer.

For those who don't know me, I'm Aaron, a 26-year-old Scot living in Aussie who runs Instantly.ai's first ever done-for-you cold outbound programme - Instantly VIP.

Instantly.ai is one of the biggest go-to-market (GTM) platforms in the world, it allows you to launch top-quality AI-driven GTM strategy in seconds. 

My journey has been very odd, where I have tried and failed thousands of times and only now am I actually getting success and hitting the goals that I've always wanted to reach.

It's been a hectic couple of years with some major highs and lows. My journey to where I am now has not been the most conventional.

⚽ 2018 - At the age of 18 I quit professional football where I played with a number of Scottish football clubs and got the chance to represent my national team at youth level.

🎒 2019 - Joined university and Bright Red Triangle (Edinburgh Napier University) where I first found "entrepreneurship", I also became a part-time video person, personal trainer and sold double glazing windows 🤣 

🏥 2020 - With the great support from BRT, I founded a health tech start-up and we won 2 international awards, but we ended up putting the project on pause.

💊 2021 - I joined another health tech focussing on mental health, we almost closed our first Seed round but we never quite got it over the line.

👨‍⚕️ 2022 - I joined OnceHub which was my first ever sales role, mentored by the great Adam Parnell (he shaped the way I manage my team today)

📈 2022 - I moved up the sales value chain and joined Shine Interview where I got my first leadership experience in sales and discovered outbound!

🆕 2023 - I left Shine to make my own fractional marketing consultancy (I couldn't get past $5k MRR) 

🚀 2024 - I formulated my agency Traction, spent ages perfecting the product and we reached a point where 95.2% of clients got results, 80% of clients have been with us for 6 months + and we hit the $20k MRR milestone! 

🌎 2025 - Was an odd but my best year. I moved to Australia all alone knowing nobody and I was finding it super tough to break the $25k ceiling...then Instantly.ai came into the picture. I couldn't turn this down (a career defining logo) and regrettably had to off-board some of the most amazing clients. 

🚀 2026 - This is already becoming my hardest year but where I will learn the most. My learning curve is steepening by the day, 2025 me compared to 2026 me is almost a different person.

Here is what I've learned:
1️⃣ Build, break, fail and scale things in your early 20s. Don't get a grad job whatever you do.
2️⃣ Use this learning + traction to land a big job. You will learn massive lessons, build experience and get access to knowledge you wouldn't get till your 40s. This can be used to scale quickly in a company or even back out on your own down the line!
3️⃣ Move country and make new experiences. You can build any business you want now from anywhere with a wifi signal. No excuses 😉 

What has everyone else learned about their journey?

It’s 6am in my crazy coffee shop and someone asks me “how do I win at outbound?”

My Answer:

Think of your prospects biggest outcome (in relation to your offer) then think about the biggest hurdle stopping them from achieving it.

Imagine you fired everyone of your users/clients and focussed your whole product/service to this specific prospect.

Now think…how could I make this offer super low in resource/time/cost to deliver (even automatic) while retaining as much of the value as possible so someone would still pay $100+ for it.

Come up with 3/4 of those free lead magnets, send 10k emails and decide which one performed the best. Double down and scale.

No results? Repeat process until you win.

Then test a bunch of approaches to max meetings set and meetings closed.

Voila, there is your outbound motion. 

Enjoy your coffee

How to sell your 100k service for 1k in 10 months.

*oops typo (but I got you 😉), 1k service for $100k in 24 hours.

Everyone lands at 8pm.
Regardless if they travel economy, business, first class.

So why are competitors charging 10 times more than you while offering an identical service to you?

Hormozi cracked the code:
Value = (Dream outcome × Belief it works) ÷ (Time to results × Effort required)

First class maximises the top and minimises the bottom. Your service can too.

5 shifts you can make today and this quarter:

👉 Sell the thing they want (usually more revenue), not the "how" you do it.
👉 Show proof, don't claim quality.
👉 Deliver it faster than Usain Bolt.
👉 Reduce risks to purchase through "skin in the game" pricing
👉 Remove their effort entirely

One rule: this only works if your product is actually good.

How to sell your $1k service for $100k

A friend of mine is a personal trainer.
She asked me how to scale her business.
Instead of giving her my opinion, I did something different.

In 20 minutes, I set up an AI board of directors on her laptop.
I installed Claude Cowork, connected it to her Notion, Gmail and calendar.

Created three advisors, each one channelling a different business legend. Every time she has a decision to make, a client she's unsure about, or a growth problem she's stuck on, she opens it up and asks the board.

Here's how each one thinks and what they asked her on day one.

Rory Sutherland is a behavioural economist. He studies why people actually make decisions, not the logical reason they give you, the real one. He asked her one question: "What does every personal trainer on the Gold Coast do poorly? and what would the opposite look like?"
That question unlocked everything. Not how to compete. How to be the thing nobody else is. His fix wasn't marketing, it was finding the gap that everyone in her market had collectively ignored and planting a flag in it.

Alex Hormozi built a $100M business teaching people how to construct offers so good that saying no feels irrational. He asked her one question: "If a genie could grant your client their dream result tomorrow what would they wish for, and what would they pay for it tonight?"
She knew the answer immediately. And it was nothing like what she was currently selling. Nobody buys training. They buy the feeling of walking into a room and knowing they look incredible. His fix: build the offer around that wish, guarantee it, and price it accordingly.

Frank Slootman turned three companies into billion dollar businesses by declaring war on comfortable, incremental thinking. He asked her one question: "If everything you're imagining for 12 months from now was already true today, what's the first thing you'd look back and say you should have done immediately?" She listed three things. He said: so why aren't those three things happening today? His fix wasn't a strategy. It was a mirror. Kill everything not directly generating results. Raise prices now. Move at a pace that makes you uncomfortable.

Three legends. Three questions. All of them ones she'd never thought to ask herself.

Connected to everything she does. Available any time she needs them.
Set up in 20 minutes. This is what AI looks like when it actually works for you.

How I’d turn a $0/mo B2B SaaS into a $10M scale-up within 6 months using cold email:

➡️ Cold Email Setup (using Instantly.ai)
Map my Total Addressable Market (TAM)
Auto-setup 300 mailboxes and 100-150 domains
Deploy an AI reply agent so meetings are booked on auto-pilot

➡️ Campaigns, testing and offers
Create 5-6 irresistible offers and test them
Double down on the best performing offer
Use develop a money-model which removes perceived sign-up risk

➡️ Optimise the buyer lifecycle
Maximise positive reply to sign-up conversions
Maximise free sign-up to paid conversations
Re-engage the full market every quarter
Iterate on my product so users stick around for longer

After 5-years in the B2B sales market, scaling companies is actually a super simple exercise when you look at it this way.

1. Go after a starving market in need of a solution who have money to spend (doesn't need to be your passion)

2. Lead with the best offer possible which delivers value as quick as possible.

3. Stack your offer with an overwhelming amount of social proof

4. Design a pricing model which makes it super easy for users to buy your thing

5. Engage your entire market every quarter with your offer

6. Maximise conversions of each stage of your B2B funnel

Voila.

Credits: Alex Hormozi $100M Offers Book

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