Modern Creator
Lara Acosta · YouTube

page 3 proves how to beat LinkedIn

A 27-minute takedown of the old LinkedIn playbook, backed by the platform's own engineering research paper.

Posted
today
Duration
Format
Talking Head
educational
Views
479
52 likes
Big Idea

The argument in one line.

LinkedIn's own 2025 engineering paper proved the old engagement-velocity playbook is dead -- the new algorithm matches content to interest from text alone, giving small accounts with specific positioning a structural advantage over large accounts built on the old rules.

Who This Is For

Read if. Skip if.

READ IF YOU ARE…
  • You have been posting on LinkedIn for months and watching reach drop without understanding why.
  • You are a freelancer, consultant, or small-account creator who wants to grow without an existing large following.
  • You have been following popular LinkedIn advice (post at a specific time, use hashtags, educational content only) and it stopped working.
  • You want to understand the actual algorithm change, not a secondhand summary of it.
SKIP IF…
  • You already have a large engaged LinkedIn audience and are not seeing any reach decline.
  • You are looking for a quick hack rather than a foundational positioning rethink.
TL;DR

The full version, fast.

LinkedIn replaced its old engagement-velocity system with a text-embedding model called 360Brew that reads your profile and content as an AI prompt and matches it to the right audience without needing follower history -- which means small accounts with clear, specific positioning now outperform large accounts posting generic content. The video debunks four myths (educational-only wins, text kills reach, links kill reach, video does not work), explains the two-feed architecture (connected vs. unconnected content), and delivers five steps: optimize your profile as a targeting brief, pick one topic lane, match format to how your brain works, audit your engagement habits to recalibrate your audience signal, and post something today so the algorithm has data to work with.

Free for members

Chat with this breakdown — free.

Sign in and you get 23 free chat messages on us — ask for the hook, quote a framework, find the exact transcript moment, generate a markdown action plan. Bring your own key when you want unlimited.

Create a free account →
Chapters

Where the time goes.

00:00 – 01:14

01 · Cold open + credibility build

Hook claiming LinkedIn's own engineering team disproved popular advice. Credentials established: number one female creator, 7-figure revenue, 6 figures before 100K followers.

01:14 – 04:07

02 · Why the old LinkedIn is dead

Old algorithm mechanics explained (specific post time, first-hour engagement, trending topics). Then the drop: impressions cratered for large accounts posting the same content that used to work.

04:07 – 07:05

03 · The buried research paper

LinkedIn published and then withdrew an engineering paper. The creator found it, read it, and warns that most commentary on it is incomplete or manipulated to suit existing narratives.

07:05 – 10:52

04 · Four myths debunked

Claim 1: educational content wins (false -- format-person fit matters more). Claim 2: text-only is worst format (false). Claim 3: external links kill reach (false, changed 2 years ago). Claim 4: LinkedIn video does not work (nuanced -- works with visual hook and 500-word copy above).

10:52 – 12:15

05 · Beginner luck is real now

360Brew paper data: performance gap is largest for accounts with fewest interactions. Small accounts now have structural advantage because the system understands content from text alone, not follower history.

12:15 – 16:15

06 · Two feed types + unconnected content

Connected content (follows) vs. unconnected content (interest-matched strangers). Network is now a distribution system. Shareability and comment-worthiness drive reach to new audiences.

16:15 – 18:00

07 · The 3 P's framework

Positioning (clarity of what you do and who for), Packaging (framing ideas simply), Proof (screenshots, testimonials, measurable results).

18:00 – 19:55

08 · Profile as an AI prompt

Every profile field is fed into LinkedIn's AI model. Specific headline equals right audience distribution. Vague headline equals wrong audience, no matter how good the content.

19:55 – 22:02

09 · Relevancy over recency

Algorithm reassesses content continuously. Posts resurface weeks after publishing. One good post generates leads for weeks.

22:02 – 22:42

10 · Sponsor: Kleo

AI writing tool built with the creator's expertise and a co-founder with 190K LinkedIn followers. Free trial in description.

22:42 – 24:38

11 · Step 1 -- Optimize your profile

Headline should state exactly what you do and who for. Every section (experience, skills, certifications) should point at the same specific thing.

24:38 – 26:15

12 · Step 2 -- Pick one topic lane

One main topic, adjacent subtopics that connect back to the core. Off-topic posts damage distribution for all your content, not just that post.

26:15 – 27:18

13 · Step 3 -- Content founder fit

Logical brain types do frameworks and step-by-step. Creative brain types do stories and hot takes. Copying someone else's format fails because the platform detects the mismatch.

23:28 – 24:23

14 · Step 4 -- Audit your engagement habits

What you like and comment on signals the algorithm which audience to file you under. Engaging with motivational content places your posts in the motivational content world.

24:23 – 25:24

15 · Step 5 -- Just post today

Do not wait for a perfect framework or reverse-engineer gurus. The algorithm cannot build a picture of you until you give it something to work with.

25:24 – 27:25

16 · The midwit bell curve

Three types: beginners (post authentically, sometimes win), midwits (obsess over hacks, get worst results), experts (stay specific, consistent, let the system work). Do not be a midwit.

Atomic Insights

Lines worth screenshotting.

  • LinkedIn's own engineering paper confirmed that smaller accounts benefit most from the new algorithm -- the performance gap is largest for members with the fewest interactions.
  • The new LinkedIn feed has two types: connected content from people you follow, and unconnected content pushed to strangers based on interest matching -- the second is the growth lever almost nobody is optimizing for.
  • Your LinkedIn profile is now processed as an AI prompt every time you post -- a vague headline sends your content to the wrong audience regardless of its quality.
  • What you like and comment on does not just affect what you see -- it directly signals the algorithm which audience category to file you under, affecting who sees your posts.
  • A specific headline like 'I help D2C founders build brand identities that convert' reaches a completely different distribution pool than 'brand designer' -- same person, same content.
  • External links no longer kill LinkedIn reach -- that changed two years ago. What kills reach is a post with no story or a message that mismatches the link destination.
  • Text-only posts have outperformed carousels and infographics recently, especially from domain experts with something real to say.
  • One good LinkedIn post keeps generating leads for weeks because the algorithm continuously reassesses relevance and can give a post a second distribution wave long after publishing.
  • Copying someone else's content format does not produce the same results because the platform can tell the difference between content that matches the creator's natural communication style and content that does not.
  • The midwit trap on LinkedIn: knowing just enough about the algorithm to obsess over posting times and engagement hacks produces worse results than both beginners who post authentically and experts who stay specific and consistent.
  • Your network is not just your audience -- every person who comments on or shares your post exposes it to their network, making shareability more valuable than raw follower count.
  • The algorithm builds a picture of who you are from every field in your profile -- if that picture is blurry, your content goes nowhere regardless of its quality.
  • Going off-topic even once damages distribution not just for that post but for everything else you have built, because it adds noise to the signal the system is using to place you.
Takeaway

Specificity is now the LinkedIn algorithm's currency.

WHAT TO LEARN

LinkedIn replaced engagement-velocity scoring with a text-embedding model that reads your profile and content as an AI brief -- which means vague positioning and copied formats get filed under the wrong audience, regardless of effort.

  • The new LinkedIn algorithm reads your entire profile as a targeting prompt every time you post -- a generic headline sends your content to a generic audience, no matter how good the writing is.
  • Smaller accounts now have a structural advantage because the system matches content to interest from text alone, without needing years of follower interaction data to understand what you do.
  • Your engagement habits are an audience signal: what you like and comment on tells the algorithm which category to file you under, directly affecting who sees your posts.
  • Two separate feed types exist -- connected content from people you follow, and unconnected content served to strangers based on interest matching. The second is the distribution lever that most people are ignoring.
  • Format-person fit outperforms format-trend chasing -- logical communicators win with frameworks and step-by-step content; story-driven communicators win with narratives and hot takes. Copying the format that performs best for someone else fails because the platform can detect the mismatch.
  • Going off-topic even occasionally damages distribution across all your content, not just that post, because it introduces noise into the consistent signal the algorithm uses to place you.
  • External links no longer suppress LinkedIn reach -- that changed roughly two years ago. What kills reach is posting a link without a compelling story or mismatching the post message with the destination.
  • A single well-positioned post can generate leads for weeks because the algorithm continuously reassesses relevance and can resurface old content to new audiences when someone finds it useful.
Glossary

Terms worth knowing.

360Brew
LinkedIn's text-embedding recommendation model described in their 2025 engineering research paper. It reads profiles and content as text to match posts with interested audiences, replacing the older engagement-velocity scoring system.
Connected content
Posts from people you already follow on LinkedIn -- the traditional feed type that most creators have been optimizing for.
Unconnected content
Posts LinkedIn surfaces based on your interests and what your network is engaging with, from people you have never followed or interacted with -- the new growth distribution channel.
Content founder fit
The alignment between a creator's natural communication style (logical/framework-based vs. story/experience-based) and their chosen content format on LinkedIn.
Profile as prompt
The mechanism by which LinkedIn's algorithm converts every field in your profile into text that feeds directly into its AI model to determine who should see your content.
Resources

Things they pointed at.

03:05linkLinkedIn 360Brew engineering research paper
16:45linkRishi LinkedIn Senior Director of Product October 2024 statement
22:02productKleo AI writing tool ↗
09:05channelAlexis Bertholf LinkedIn profile
23:18toolLinkedIn Profile Optimizer GPT ↗
08:20productFree 7-day LinkedIn course / Algorithm 2026 Playbook ↗
27:00productThe Known Club private mentorship ↗
Quotables

Lines you could clip.

11:14
“Your network isn't just your audience. They're also your distribution system.”
Reframes a fundamental assumption about LinkedIn in one tight sentence→ TikTok hook↗ Tweet quote
15:55
“One genuinely good post keeps on generating new leads weeks after you published it.”
Contrarian to conventional high-volume posting advice; punchy and specific→ IG reel cold open↗ Tweet quote
14:40
“The profiles winning right now aren't the most impressive ones. They are the most readable.”
Counterintuitive, memorable, actionable→ newsletter pull-quote↗ Tweet quote
26:07
“LinkedIn is dead. The marketers killed it. But it's not dead for everyone.”
Strong declarative open followed by immediate qualifier -- classic hook structure→ TikTok hook↗ Tweet quote
25:40
“Do not be a midwit.”
Meme language as punchline; works as clip-ending line→ IG reel cold open↗ Tweet quote
The Script

Word for word.

Read-along

Don't just watch it. Burn it in.

See every word as it's spoken — crank it to 2× and still catch all of it. The same dual-channel trick behind Amazon's Kindle + Audible.

metaphoranalogy
00:00Everything the biggest LinkedIn experts have told you to do has just been proven wrong by LinkedIn's own engineering team. In 2025, LinkedIn quietly published a research paper showing you how the algorithm actually works. I'd already been proven what it showed for years before the paper even came out.
00:16It's made me number one female creator on the platform, built me a 7 figure revenue stream across three different businesses in under three years. I hit 6 figures in profit before I even had a 100,000 followers, and it helped me help hundreds of brands add 6 figures to their top line, all by ignoring every piece of popular advice that LinkedIn's published paper proved I was right about all along.
00:40Every how to beat the algorithm video you watched was built on assumptions their own research just dismantled. Even LinkedIn's senior director of product has publicly confirmed the shift I've been teaching. Right now, almost nobody has adapted, and I have the paper that they tried to bury and three years of data showing who the new algorithm rewards and who it buries.
01:04This is your window. The people who understand the new rules are already pulling ahead. Everyone else will miss their window unless you understand what actually changed.
01:14So before I get into anything else, I want to explain why the version of LinkedIn you're using right now is dead. You see, for a long time, LinkedIn was working exactly the way everyone said it was. You posted a specific time, your friends commented on it in the first hour, you stopped your post with the vague life lesson that everybody wanted you to talk about, and then you got thousands of likes.
01:35The system back then was a collection of separate little scoring systems, each one doing a single job. One track trending topics, one measure how fast you got engagement after posting, and if you hit the right triggers, it pushed your content out to more people.
01:48And it worked. I used it to build a 7 figure empire on the platform and it worked for everyone. But then something shifted.
01:56Impressions started dropping not just for small accounts. I am seeing creators with hundreds of thousands of followers posting the exact same content that used to get them millions of views, suddenly getting a fraction of that.
02:11And nobody could figure out why. And the response from almost everyone was to do more of the same thing. Post more generic content, use more hashtags, copy what big creators are doing, and run the old playbook harder.
02:23Use Charjibouti generated copy to double down on content, post two times a day, look at the best performing formats that unofficial reports are saying work.
02:33But the data I was seeing told me a completely different story. Something had fundamentally changed about how the platform was working, and doing more of the old repeated things was not going to fix it. And to be honest, spamming different strategies still I figured out what worked wasn't something I really wanted to do.
02:52So I started out reaching out to other people, telling creators what I've been seeing and the result was pretty surprising. Most people pushed back hard on that. There was no way I could possibly be onto something.
03:04I guess the gurus, the big accounts, the people who had built their entire businesses around teaching the old playbooks just didn't want to admit that the possibility of everything that they've been teaching and building a brand around was gone.
03:18But the data doesn't care. The more I looked through the numbers, the more it became clear that LinkedIn almost wasn't LinkedIn anymore. They published it, and later they withdrew it, but I found it before it disappeared.
03:30I read it back and forth multiple times, and before I continue to reveal what's in this paper, I need to remind you of something. Not everything is what it seems.
03:39I almost didn't record this video, but to be honest, I feel like I have to because the information taken from this paper has either been exaggerated, completely reengineered to suit a certain narrative, or just being talked about in an incomplete way.
03:53But as someone that spends day in and day out on the platform studying what the data shows and what is being said, I can tell you exactly what this paper mean for your content strategy and why 99% of people are getting it completely wrong. So let me just show you exactly which of the LinkedIn must dos are gone and which ones remain.
04:12One of the first claims I've seen around since the paper was released is that educational content is the best viral format. Now go look up the top performing LinkedIn posts right now, and you will immediately see a contradiction to that statement.
04:27Educational content does go viral often, but not for everyone. And what data from hundreds of creators I have worked with shows is that education versus storytelling does not necessarily produce a significant difference in performance.
04:41What makes the biggest difference is whether the format aligns with how specific that person communicates naturally, and most people are using the wrong one entirely. The second one is that text only content is statistically the worst format.
04:55But in the past three months, I have personally seen more viral text only posts than carousels, infographics, and photos plus text combinations combined, mostly from beginners and more recently from domain experts who have something real to say and wrote it clearly enough to get attention.
05:15Now the third thing is that external links kill your post. That's the reason why your post failed to perform. LinkedIn themselves have confirmed that this is factually incorrect.
05:26Links that used to tank reach and that changed around two years ago. The myth continues because of two specific mistakes, either because the post has no story or insight and the post just works as a click this link prompt or the messaging on the post and the link do not align so the audience feels misled. And the fourth one is that LinkedIn video does not work on LinkedIn.
05:49This one is hard to admit, but it does when it's done right. I believe the opposite for years, but I have been proven wrong many times by my own clients, more times than I can count. Alexis blew up her LinkedIn because of video.
06:02Konorata here has outlier resource with it, and even top founders like Tiko here post mainly video and get more engagement than most text posts on the platform. There are two things that determine whether a video works on LinkedIn. The first three seconds need a visual hook that compresses the entire concept, And the second thing is that the copy of the post above of the post of the video needs to be around 500 words long.
06:26The hook becoming the main context, a user would need to stop and watch the video, and the video in reality needs to have all winning elements for it to perform like it would in any other platform. And also, fundamentally, you need to be considering the relevance of your video in a corporate platform such as LinkedIn.
06:46This paper right here and the research I've been conducting since it came out confirms every single one of those narratives is dead. So now that everything we've known about their platform is gone, what's next? Well, the first thing is that if you are someone who was never really serious about posting on LinkedIn, then congrats.
07:06You're now the primary beneficiary of the whole change. You've got a bigger advantage than mega corporate accounts with millions of followers that has been posting consistently for the last ten years.
07:16Beginner luck on LinkedIn is real now, and smaller creators now have a structural advantage. The new LinkedIn paper shows that the performance gap between the new system and the old one is largest when a member has the fewest interactions, meaning smaller accounts benefit the most.
07:34And this is a simple byproduct of switching from a system that needed years of interaction data to understand you to one that can understand you from text alone. The old system was biased towards people who already had big audiences because if you had 50,000 followers, more people saw your content just because more people were connected to you.
07:55The new system matches content to interest, and hence why profile optimization and specificity in your content today is ultimately one of your best bets.
08:06So if you write a piece of content which is specific and clear enough for a defined audience, the system goes looking for that audience even if you only have 500 followers, and a great post from a small account now genuinely can outperform a mediocre post from a big one.
08:25Specific content, however, still needs to be well written. Your content needs to be skimmable enough for someone who is literally scrolling on the platform because the system can find your audience, but it can't make them stay.
08:39This is simple in theory from writing a scroll stopping hook that isn't too generic to focusing on retention so people like, comment, and save your post. Now, of course, there are simple frameworks and routines that can get you there. I actually outlined seven of the best starting points in my free seven day course for you to grab below.
08:57If you're a freelancer posting specifically about the exact problem your ideal clients face, the system, the LinkedIn system is actively pushing your content to the people who need to hire someone exactly like you. This is why content like this one and this one outperform regardless of the format. The key for all of this is more relevance and packaging of this big idea.
09:19There has genuinely never been a better time to start posting on LinkedIn than right now. The second thing confirmed both in the paper and publicly by LinkedIn's own senior director of product management, Rishi, in October 2024 is that there are now two completely separate types of content on your feed. The first type is connected content, posts from people you've already seen and follow and that is one that everybody has been optimizing for.
09:46Business as usual type of content that follows the typical content calendar and repeats in topic, angle, and order to build your domain expertise. That's fine. The second type is what he calls unconnected content.
09:59Content that LinkedIn services to you based on your interests, your professional experience, and most importantly, listen to this part specifically, what your network is engaging with from people you have never followed, never connected with, and never interacted with once in your life.
10:19This per my own research as the paper didn't have any examples looks like this in practice. A brand new post from someone you've never ever seen will show up on your feed because someone you do follow liked it, commented on it or reshared it with their own thoughts. And the best part is that these posts don't even need to be viral to gain this advantage.
10:40They simply just need to be useful or relevant for someone else to share it or comment on it. Case in point right here. Look at my own feed.
10:49Now LinkedIn is making an active effort to show these a lot more than before rather than posts from your fast connections and people you follow, which means your network isn't just your audience. They're also your distribution system, and you being aware of this is key as it changes everything about how you should think about your content strategy.
11:10Now there are two things. Let me explain. Shareability and how common worthy your LinkedIn post is matters more than ever, literally.
11:18Now this isn't about joining an engagement pod or having random people comment on your post, but more so about having relevant people who live in lookalike audiences and networks to engage with your content and share it. LinkedIn is now actively pushing your content to complete strangers not because they follow you, but because the LinkedIn algorithm decided the match was relevant.
11:40Whether that was content, investing, business, growth, strategy across different industries, I've shown interest in it. The algorithm specifically showed them to me and as a result, I can't assume that it's doing the same for my content and showing it to others that are interested in what I have to talk about.
11:55A personal example of this is the amount of recent connection requests I've received from third connections who were showing my content recently as I began to test this theory. This is actually working. I've seen a fast hunt with myself and again with our clients at our different consulting businesses and software who test out the same theories when we tell them to try them.
12:15So tldr, this works. I've seen a fast hunt with myself and again with our clients at our different consulting businesses and software who test out the same theories.
12:24Today, you do not need a big audience to get in front of the right people anymore. Your content and profile need to nail what I call the three p's. P is for positioning, insane clarity of what you do and what you talk about across your profile and your content.
12:38This is what makes people find you and follow you. The second p is packaging. This is how you frame and present what you know in formats that make the ideas at hand feel simple enough to want to read them more.
12:51This is what makes people save and implement your content. Now the third p is proof. Rock solid and undeniable evidence that you can deliver the outcomes your content speaks about, screenshots, testimonials, and measurable results.
13:05This is what makes people believe and invest in you and your personal brands. This goes back to the basics of personal branding, being known, liked, and trusted. Now, the third thing that the paper outlines is that your profile is now treated like a prompt.
13:21The system takes your entire profile, your headline, your job history, your skills, your certifications, every single field, and it converts it all into text that gets that directly into an AI prompt. If your profile is vague or generic, the system has nothing to work with and your content goes nowhere regardless of how good it is.
13:42A freelance brand designer whose profile says brand designer gets shown to a completely different audience than whose profile says, I help d two c founders build brand identities that convert. Same person, completely different distribution just from how their profile is written.
14:00By the way, I just remembered that my team actually built an AI GPT for this problem to be fixed once and for all, so click down below in the second link for you to download it for free. This again comes as no surprise. Keyword search in SEO has always worked.
14:13Google ranks the pages that are clearest, most authoritative, and answers specific questions.
14:18LinkedIn now is in the same page. The thing that I find the most interesting from all of this is that this also mirrors how human memory actually works. We don't remember people who are vague.
14:29We remember people who are specific. The brain tags information by category.
14:35The profiles winning right now aren't the most impressive ones. They are the most readable, readable to one AI that is deciding in seconds whether your content deserves an audience and memorable enough to humans who then recognize you when they see you again.
14:52Because, ladies and gentlemen, even with all of this AI talk and these studies, what we need to keep in mind at all times is that at the end of the day, is a human the person who ends up interacting with your content, following you, and ultimately buying from you.
15:08Now the fourth thing is relevancy over recency. The paper describes your poise now get a second wave of distribution, which is why you sometimes are seeing three week old content resurface on your feed.
15:22The old algorithm decided if your post was hot based on immediate engagement and then forgot it existed after a day or two. The new algorithm consistently reassesses content in real time and can give your post a second lifeline weeks after it was first posted because someone else found it relevant again.
15:41And the reason I can confidently talk about this is because I've seen this before. The new YouTube algorithm works in a very similar way. Hence why on here, you'll see a year old YouTube video on your recommended feed as it found who to allocate it to, which is you.
15:55Now on LinkedIn, one genuinely good post keeps on generating new leads weeks after you published it. So this is essentially good news for you because you can post for a week straight, put out good content, then sit back and watch LinkedIn literally comb the entire Internet to find you leads that are willing to pay you what you want without asking two things about it.
16:15Here's exactly how to use all of this whether you are a business owner trying to get leads, a freelancer trying to land clients, or a student trying to get hired, or just someone trying to build something on this platform. Quick one, while we are on the topic of writing, this video is brought to you by Cleo, an AI writing software that writes content for you better than you and faster.
16:36I built this tool with my own expertise and I collaborated with my cofounder Jake Wood who has over a 190,000 followers on LinkedIn. I have over 320,000 followers on platform and we both built the tool that we wish we had when we started.
16:49So if you wanna try it out for free, I'm gonna leave the link down below with a free trial code for you so you can try it and start writing better content faster that's specific to your one thing. Alright. Let's get back to the video.
16:59Step number one is your profile. This is the most important thing you can do right now because the LinkedIn algorithm reads your entire profile as a brief every single time you post. Your headline should not be your job title.
17:14It should say exactly what you do and exactly who you do it for. A freelancer whose headline says graphic designer is invisible to the algorithm.
17:25A freelancer whose headline says, content designed to attract your ideal audience on LinkedIn slash working with b to b software founders slash Fiverr top 1% freelancer will get matched with the right demographic and even beyond that. It's the same with your experience section, your skills, your certifications in every single field.
17:45They all need to point at the same specific thing because the system is building a picture of who you are from all of it and if that picture is blurry, your content goes nowhere. So go through your profile today and ask yourself, if someone read this, would they know immediately and specifically what I do and who I help?
18:04If the answer is no, fix it before you post another thing. Now step number two is picking your name. One single topic.
18:14Not three, not five. You pick one topic and then adjacent subtopics that all connect back to the same core thing you do.
18:22But at all times, you need one clear link so the algorithm can file you under that. For example, if you're a business owner trying to get leads, then that lane is a specific problem your business solves and the specific person it solves it for. Take my cofounder, Jake Wood.
18:38His main business is an SEO agency. His profile does not alternate across the three other businesses he runs, one of them being Clear, our software. The main reason for this is that the times that this has been tested, content ultimately underperformed.
18:53The best way we found to tie it back to his expertise is by tying it to business, not content creation or personal branding. Now if you're a freelancer trying to land clients, then that lane is a specific skill you have and the specific need your clients have.
19:08If you're a student trying to get hired, then that lane is a specific area you are building expertise in in the specific type of role that you're trying to go for. If you go off topic even once in a while, if it's not connected to your domain skill, you are adding noise to a picture that the system is building off you and your distribution drops across everything, not just that one post, but everything else that you've been building.
19:32This is true as much as I'd like to say otherwise and confirm the idea that you can be the niche. Unfortunately, you are not the niche.
19:40Your niche is a niche, and it makes sense. When we're building on a platform that is data heavy, the algorithm needs clean data to work with to help you. And clean data means consistent signals.
19:55If the signal changes week to week, the system can't confidently place you, so it stops trying as hard. And this, magically, is also how trust works in the human brain. We remember specialists, not generalists.
20:09We refer the person who does one thing exceptionally well, not the person who does several things pretty well. This new algorithm is essentially modeling human behavior at scale.
20:21It distributes you to the people most likely to find you relevant, and relevance requires clarity. Now let me give you an example.
20:29Timo did this very well. His post was about going to a chicken shop to give away bugs and free chicken, but he tied it back to entrepreneurship and the younger generation.
20:41It's not that you can't talk about many things that you do, it's more so that they all need to tie back to your one thing at all times. Step number three in this, and this is my favorite, is your content format, and this is what I call content founder fit and it is the thing that most people get completely wrong. If we go back to the start of this video, I mentioned that there is no singular winning format.
21:05What I found after being on LinkedIn consistently over the last three years, posting over a thousand posts, most of them going viral, is that there is only the format that aligns with how you actually think and communicate. Some people are logical brain types, naturally wired to break things down into frameworks and step by step explanations.
21:23Guy Macey is that, Chris Donnelly is that, Jake Wood is that, their content performs at an outlier level because they are doing the thing that actually fits how their brain works and how their ideal followers and customers' brains like to consume content as well. But that is just one subsection of creators.
21:43Other people are more like the creative brain type, naturally better at telling stories and sharing experiences and taking hot takes on things. Henry from Salt is that.
21:54Yasmin Alec is that. Harry Steving is that. Even I am that.
21:59Our content works for the same reasons. We are doing the thing that fits how our brain works and how our followers like to read our content as a result. The mistake most people make here is copying the format they think performs best instead of doubling down on the one that actually fits them.
22:15And this is why so few people are actually seeing results in this new LinkedIn algorithm because they are copying someone else's format and it seems easier. I mean, you don't have to think about it. You do something and then it feels like progress.
22:29But the platform today can tell the difference. And again, so can you. This again is why when you copy a format, the result isn't the same because it doesn't match who you are or how you explain things.
22:39Let me show you another example of this. Alan Greening, one of my clients, he could have easily tried to go the infographic type of content if he was to follow the claims that the best formats that were best are infographics and educational content, etcetera. But instead, he chose what resonated with him.
22:57In this case, it was stories and memes. The result?
23:01Outlier content versus when he tried infographics, they underperformed. Now for instance, even me, I do a lot of educational content, but every time I bring in an a personal story, it outperforms everything else I put out.
23:15In order for you to succeed is that you need to find your pocket and stay in it, and the results will compound. Step number four is your engagement habits. Remember what I was saying about connected and unconnected content?
23:28Well, this is how you maximize that information and turn it into action. What you like and what you comment on does not just affect what you see, it directly affects who sees you. If you are a freelance designer trying to land startup clients but have been spending years engaging with generic motivational content, the algorithm then has placed you in the motivational content world and is showing your post to people in that world, not startup founders.
23:58If this feels like you, then here's a quick idea that you can do right now. Go through who you are engaging with right now and ask yourself honestly if those are the people you actually want to be in front of. If they are not, then you start shifting.
24:12Every interaction is a signal telling the algorithm who you are and who should see your work. Step number five is just posting something on LinkedIn today. Not something perfect, not something that follows a brilliant framework.
24:26Don't look at everyone else for inspiration on this one. Looking at what the gurus are posting and then trying to reverse engineer the format is one of the most common piece of advice out there right now, and it's quietly killing your account. I've personally given this advice many times before, but today in this new linked algorithm, this won't serve you unless you understand the one thing perfectly, perfectly and the fastest way to validate that and do that is by just posting stuff until you understand what that thing really is for you.
24:53So what I would recommend instead is to lean on to something specific and honest about what you actually do and who you actually help because the algorithm cannot start building a picture of who you are until you give it something to work with. The post you post won't expire after twenty four hours or forty eight hours. If it's generally useful to the right person, the system will keep finding new people to show it to for weeks.
25:16Now here's an honest picture of where most people sit with all of this. There are three types of people on LinkedIn right now. On the left, we have the beginners who do not know any of this exists and they post authentically, and some of them actually end up doing pretty well because of it.
25:31On the right, there are the people who actually get it. The people who understand that all of this complexity comes down to one thing, being good at something, staying consistent with it, and then let the algorithm figure out who needs to see it.
25:46Now in the middle, we have what I call the midwits. The people who know just enough to be dangerous, obsessing over posting times and engagement parts, and trying to hack every little signal and getting worse results than both the beginner and the people on the right.
26:04Do not be in the middle. Do not be a midwit. Move to the right side of the curve as fast as you possibly can.
26:12Real expertise shared consistently is the format that actually fits who you are. Pick your lane, stay in it, and let the system, the new algorithm, and humans do the rest.
26:22LinkedIn is dead. The marketers killed it, and the people who killed it are still all here right now posting the same boring content and following every new trend and strategy instead. But it's not dead for everyone.
26:34It's dead for the version of you that is still following the people who broke it. The chef that buried the spam, slop, and generic advice created the biggest opportunity this platform has ever had for anyone willing to show up as a real specific person with something relevant to say.
26:52The small accounts have the advantage right now. The leads are there, the clients are there, and almost no one has realized that the door has just opened for them. So essentially, all of this to say, you can stay in that version and keep wondering why nothing is moving or you can use what LinkedIn's own engineers published to become one of the people getting the leads and opportunities that the big accounts built on the old rules that we're about to lose.
27:20So, ladies and gentlemen, that's it for today. I'll see you in the next video. Bye.
The Hook

The bait, then the rug-pull.

LinkedIn published a research paper proving everything their own platform's biggest coaches have been teaching is wrong -- and then they pulled it. The creator found it before it disappeared, read it against three years of real account data, and built a 27-minute takedown of every myth still circulating on the platform.

Frameworks

Named ideas worth stealing.

12:15acronym

The 3 P's of LinkedIn

  1. Positioning
  2. Packaging
  3. Proof

Positioning = clarity of what you do and for whom. Packaging = framing ideas simply enough to want to read. Proof = undeniable evidence you deliver outcomes.

Steal forPersonal branding audit, profile rewrite brief, content strategy framework
09:54model

Connected vs. Unconnected Content

Two separate feed types on LinkedIn. Connected = posts from people you follow. Unconnected = interest-matched posts from complete strangers. The second is the new growth lever.

Steal forExplaining why shareability and comment-worthiness matter more than posting frequency
25:24model

The Midwit Bell Curve

Three categories of LinkedIn users: beginners who post authentically (some succeed), midwits who know just enough to obsess over hacks (worst results), experts who stay specific and consistent (win).

Steal forAny less-is-more or simplicity-beats-optimization argument
21:00concept

Content Founder Fit

The match between a creator's natural communication style and their content format. Logical brain types win with frameworks; creative brain types win with stories. Copying the wrong format always underperforms.

Steal forContent strategy sessions, helping clients find their native format
CTA Breakdown

How they asked for the click.

VERBAL ASK
08:20link
“I actually outlined seven of the best starting points in my free seven day course for you to grab below.”

Soft mid-video CTA embedded naturally inside the value section. Hard CTA at the end directing to free algorithm playbook and profile optimizer GPT.

MENTIONED ON CAMERA
22:02productKleo AI writing tool ↗
23:18toolLinkedIn Profile Optimizer GPT ↗
08:20productFree 7-day LinkedIn course / Algorithm 2026 Playbook ↗
27:00productThe Known Club private mentorship ↗
FROM THE DESCRIPTION
PRIMARY CTAWhere the creator wants you to go next.
OTHER LINKSAlso linked in the description.
Storyboard

Visual structure at a glance.

animated open
hookanimated open00:00
host intro
promisehost intro00:28
old playbook gone
problemold playbook gone04:07
Claim 1
valueClaim 107:05
360Brew chart
value360Brew chart10:52
two feed types
valuetwo feed types12:15
3 P's framework
value3 P's framework16:15
sponsor Kleo
ctasponsor Kleo22:02
Step 1 profile
valueStep 1 profile22:42
Step 5 post today
valueStep 5 post today24:23
midwit bell curve
valuemidwit bell curve25:24
close + CTA
ctaclose + CTA27:00
Frame Gallery

Visual moments.

animated open00:01host intro00:28Frame at 00:48 from page 3 proves how to beat LinkedIn00:48Frame at 01:05 from page 3 proves how to beat LinkedIn01:05Frame at 01:26 from page 3 proves how to beat LinkedIn01:26Frame at 01:45 from page 3 proves how to beat LinkedIn01:45
animated open00:01host intro00:28Frame at 00:48 from page 3 proves how to beat LinkedIn00:48Frame at 01:05 from page 3 proves how to beat LinkedIn01:05Frame at 01:26 from page 3 proves how to beat LinkedIn01:26Frame at 01:45 from page 3 proves how to beat LinkedIn01:45Frame at 02:10 from page 3 proves how to beat LinkedIn02:10Frame at 02:34 from page 3 proves how to beat LinkedIn02:34Frame at 02:45 from page 3 proves how to beat LinkedIn02:45old playbook gone03:13Frame at 03:25 from page 3 proves how to beat LinkedIn03:25Frame at 03:53 from page 3 proves how to beat LinkedIn03:53Claim 104:13Frame at 04:30 from page 3 proves how to beat LinkedIn04:30Frame at 04:52 from page 3 proves how to beat LinkedIn04:52Frame at 05:09 from page 3 proves how to beat LinkedIn05:09Frame at 05:36 from page 3 proves how to beat LinkedIn05:36Frame at 06:00 from page 3 proves how to beat LinkedIn06:00Frame at 06:12 from page 3 proves how to beat LinkedIn06:12Frame at 06:39 from page 3 proves how to beat LinkedIn06:39Frame at 06:54 from page 3 proves how to beat LinkedIn06:54Frame at 07:16 from page 3 proves how to beat LinkedIn07:16360Brew chart07:33Frame at 07:56 from page 3 proves how to beat LinkedIn07:56Frame at 08:25 from page 3 proves how to beat LinkedIn08:25Frame at 08:49 from page 3 proves how to beat LinkedIn08:49Frame at 08:57 from page 3 proves how to beat LinkedIn08:57Frame at 09:19 from page 3 proves how to beat LinkedIn09:19Frame at 09:37 from page 3 proves how to beat LinkedIn09:37Frame at 10:06 from page 3 proves how to beat LinkedIn10:06Frame at 10:27 from page 3 proves how to beat LinkedIn10:27Frame at 10:39 from page 3 proves how to beat LinkedIn10:39two feed types11:01Frame at 11:36 from page 3 proves how to beat LinkedIn11:36Frame at 11:41 from page 3 proves how to beat LinkedIn11:41Frame at 12:15 from page 3 proves how to beat LinkedIn12:15Frame at 12:23 from page 3 proves how to beat LinkedIn12:233 P's framework12:41Frame at 13:10 from page 3 proves how to beat LinkedIn13:10Frame at 13:30 from page 3 proves how to beat LinkedIn13:30Frame at 13:46 from page 3 proves how to beat LinkedIn13:46Frame at 14:08 from page 3 proves how to beat LinkedIn14:08Frame at 14:27 from page 3 proves how to beat LinkedIn14:27Frame at 14:57 from page 3 proves how to beat LinkedIn14:57Frame at 15:08 from page 3 proves how to beat LinkedIn15:08Frame at 15:30 from page 3 proves how to beat LinkedIn15:30Frame at 15:56 from page 3 proves how to beat LinkedIn15:56Frame at 16:16 from page 3 proves how to beat LinkedIn16:16sponsor Kleo16:27Step 1 profile17:00Frame at 17:10 from page 3 proves how to beat LinkedIn17:10Frame at 17:39 from page 3 proves how to beat LinkedIn17:39Frame at 17:52 from page 3 proves how to beat LinkedIn17:52Frame at 18:11 from page 3 proves how to beat LinkedIn18:11Frame at 18:40 from page 3 proves how to beat LinkedIn18:40Frame at 19:01 from page 3 proves how to beat LinkedIn19:01Frame at 19:21 from page 3 proves how to beat LinkedIn19:21Frame at 19:42 from page 3 proves how to beat LinkedIn19:42Frame at 20:02 from page 3 proves how to beat LinkedIn20:02Frame at 20:29 from page 3 proves how to beat LinkedIn20:29Frame at 20:34 from page 3 proves how to beat LinkedIn20:34Frame at 21:04 from page 3 proves how to beat LinkedIn21:04Frame at 21:23 from page 3 proves how to beat LinkedIn21:23Frame at 21:54 from page 3 proves how to beat LinkedIn21:54Frame at 21:58 from page 3 proves how to beat LinkedIn21:58Frame at 22:26 from page 3 proves how to beat LinkedIn22:26Frame at 22:42 from page 3 proves how to beat LinkedIn22:42Frame at 22:58 from page 3 proves how to beat LinkedIn22:58Frame at 23:23 from page 3 proves how to beat LinkedIn23:23Frame at 23:49 from page 3 proves how to beat LinkedIn23:49Step 5 post today24:19Frame at 24:21 from page 3 proves how to beat LinkedIn24:21Frame at 24:50 from page 3 proves how to beat LinkedIn24:50midwit bell curve25:21Frame at 25:31 from page 3 proves how to beat LinkedIn25:31Frame at 25:52 from page 3 proves how to beat LinkedIn25:52Frame at 26:04 from page 3 proves how to beat LinkedIn26:04Frame at 26:33 from page 3 proves how to beat LinkedIn26:33Frame at 26:54 from page 3 proves how to beat LinkedIn26:54close + CTA27:14
Watch next

More from this channel + related breakdowns.

15:01:11
ken tjandra · Tutorial

How to Make Viral Reels (Full Course)

A fifteen-hour personal-brand course given away free in one unbroken upload, walking a solo creator from blank identity to viral short-form publishing across seven phases: brand, consume, ideas, script, film, edit, and reps.

October 16th 2025
Chat about this