This content provides a comprehensive guide to leveraging LinkedIn for B2B lead generation and personal brand building in 2026, emphasizing the strategic use of AI to create high-quality, engaging content that stands out from "AI slop."
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Studies show that LinkedIn is
responsible for generating 80% of all
B2B leads and it's even easier than ever
in 2026 if you know how to use AI every
step of the way. So to show you how to
do this, I brought on Lara Aosta, the
number one female profile on the
platform and she's going to be breaking
down what is AI slop and what is not and
how to stand out in an age filled with
AI generated content. The three proven
formats for authoritatively sharing
things you learn in [music] your
business and telling stories about it.
the two unbeatable writing frameworks
that she uses daily to create viral
content consistently and finally giving
you a full demo of her actual AI
workflow and how she uses it to do all
of this work for her in just [music] 30
minutes. I hope you enjoyed. Lara,
thanks for coming on. Excited to get
into this. I think uh it's no-brainer
player to be getting into LinkedIn and
particularly using AI to to put more
content out, especially when you know
how to use it correctly to not put out
the wrong kind of content because I
think it's all too common now to see the
wrong sort of stuff and that easily
repels people you're trying to track.
So, we have one of the foremost experts
here to walk us through the LinkedIn
content playbook for 2026. So, thank you
for coming on, Laura.
>> Likewise. Thank you for having me. I'm
so excited. Today, all I'm going to show
you guys is how you can build a personal
brand on LinkedIn. It's been the gold
mine for over the last few years and I
think it's still we're still at the
crossroads for anyone to build grow and
scale the brands and be able to make it
profitable faster than ever just writing
not not with viral videos, YouTube
videos, etc. This is the ultimate
playbook that I think every founder
should be implementing in 2026. Just
quickly before we jump in, how much
easier is it now with some of the
systems you're going to walk through
here compared to say two, three, four
years ago to get into LinkedIn and
actually start getting some traction?
>> I think honestly with AI coming along
and with all the new systems that have
been implementing implemented and what
we've been able to see over the last two
years of what what types of content
actually work on LinkedIn. It's
extremely easy if you know what you're
doing. If you're a true expert, the road
map that I'm about to show you is going
to help you go from zero to 10,000 to
even hundreds of thousands of followers
within a year if you do it right.
>> And just some expectation setting on
what that's actually going to involve.
Are there like is that three, four, five
posts a week? Is that seven? Cuz I know
there's like a trick about just posting
once a day puts you in the top like 1%
of users. How much time would people
expect to put in to get some sort of
decent result and maybe 5 10,000
follower growth uh this year?
>> Of course. So like what the thing that I
love the most about LinkedIn and this is
something that I've never seen on any
other social media platform is that you
don't need volume to win. You just need
quality. So actually I've seen the most
success by posting four times a week
every single week for the last 3 years.
Right? I went from zero to over 300,000
followers on LinkedIn doing just exactly
that. No viral videos, no need to hop on
hop on trends. Just literally knowing
how to write a good hook, educating on a
topic, and being positioned as an
expert. That's literally all it took.
So, it can take you between 30 minutes a
a week or maybe two hours if you don't
really know your niche or what you're
talking about yet. But, um, overall, the
best people that I know spend 30 minutes
a week creating content and maybe spend
15 minutes every single day engaging and
making sure that they're getting leads
and creating conversations. So, it's up
to you, but it shouldn't take that long.
>> That's news to me. I thought it was very
much the opposite way around of it being
needing to be a volume platform. So,
this is going to be an interesting conversation.
conversation.
>> All right, cool. So, well, uh, for those
that don't know me, hi, my name is Lara
Costa. And just a quick overview, I've
gone from, you know, freelancer to an
agency owner to building an info product
business and building a personal
branding course as well. Uh, we've
helped over 3,000 people build, grow,
and scale their personal brands. I'm
currently the number one creator on
LinkedIn. I've also made multiple
millions of dollars using just using
LinkedIn. And what's happened here is
that the reason why I did this was
actually I just wanted to get a job. But
then that single thing like idea of me
going out to this jobseeking platform
that I thought was cringe led me to this
gold mine of opportunity which was you
could actually just go viral with
written form content. I didn't need a
video. I just needed content that had a
semi good hook. And then my first post
ended up going mega viral. 400,000
impressions within days. So then that
ended up changing my life and since then
it I built an agency the product
business and also a B2B SAS that just
hit 60K MR. So if that's not enough
proof that LinkedIn is the best platform
to be on right now. I don't know what
else is.
>> First post going that viral must have
been a one of those chance moments in
your life just like wow this is a this
is a sign I should be going all on this.
It was actually crazy simple and this
happens to most people because LinkedIn
has this thing and I don't think many
people talk about it enough. Um,
LinkedIn wants more users on its
platform. That's what they profit off.
The more users they have, the more they
can upsell to sales navigator, right?
And so when you start posting on
LinkedIn consistently, no one no one no
one says this because they don't observe
it like I do. LinkedIn actually natively
pushes your first few posts onto the
algorithm the most. So you stay on the
platform and you feel like you want to
stay and create more.
>> That's that's what happened to me.
That's what has happened to my
co-founder Jake who I'm gonna talk about
about later. And every single one of my
clients who we've implemented this
strategy for uh they're very smart with
what they're doing. Um LinkedIn is also
a very supportive platform. Uh if you
look at it from hindsight, LinkedIn is a
networking platform. So the more
connections you make, the more
networking you do, the better you
perform on the platform. So, it's
actually quite logical why this worked
when you look at it like that.
>> Cool. Right. What's the what's the big
thing here, the AI SL problem?
>> Well, before I get into any of the
content and how you can build a personal
brand, I want to address the elephant in
the room like you said, and it's the
LinkedIn AI slop content. So, LinkedIn,
as I said, it's literally seen as the
cringiest platform with everyone talking
about how bad it is. Um, I've seen
people on Twitter, on YouTube, on
Instagram complaining about how cringe
it is, how it is the death of um,
content, etc. But in reality, it's not
LinkedIn itself is a people creating
content using AI badly. If you know how
to use AI properly, if you have the
right frameworks and you if you have the
right strategy, you will end up winning.
So most content right now looks like
this. It's just either they're
complaining about the AI slop while also
creating more AI slop. And it's this consistent
consistent
uh volume of content. And I just
want people to think about it. This
right here that you're seeing is your
competition, right? And so for people
like you, for example, you've got a lot
of skill in knowing what a good hook
looks like, knowing what a title looks
like, like good title looks like, what a
good thumbnail even looks like, right?
How to write the script. Same with
people that have created content on X
and Instagram, etc. So the bare minimum
for you is the highest quality on
LinkedIn. So that is it. All you need to
do is go beyond uh the cringe part of
posting on LinkedIn and feeling like a
robot and realizing that once you get
past the stage of like having the egg,
you'll be able to monetize faster by
doing less things and getting higher
quality leads. Because like research
shows, most of LinkedIn's users are
actually decision makers. I we can't
really say that on about X or Instagram
or even YouTube. You know, on LinkedIn,
it's almost nearly guaranteed that a
decision maker will see your content.
So, like I said here, the real fight
isn't about AI versus people. It's about
people using AI right and people using
AI wrong. And I know this because after
I've analyzed over 500 posts on
LinkedIn, I've written thousands of
posts as well. I know that this works uh
if you do the right thing, if you know
your strategy, if you know what you're
good at, and if you follow the right
blueprint. And so some social proof
here. Um during our last launch, we
actually made $230,000 just from our
launch on LinkedIn specifically and
email. So hopefully that motivates
anyone here to start creating content on
LinkedIn and bypass the cringe mountain
that everybody seems to have.
>> Okay guys, very quickly. If you're an
aspiring entrepreneur and want to start
your own AI business and you haven't
already joined my free school community,
it's down there in one of the links in
the description below has my full free
course on how to start your own AI
agency as a complete beginner. And
you're surrounded by over a quarter
million people who are also striving
towards the same things. There's no
better place on the planet right now to
be surrounded by like-minded people. and
you get free weekly Q&As's with me where
you can ask questions directly to me
about how to start and scale your
business. I'll see you in there. Yeah, I
think um it's important for people
whenever you're looking at creating
content. I think I see it quite often in
the in the sort of start an AI business
space that I'm in here, people will just
kind of pick a niche that they want to
go in and then they just pick a platform
that they want to do and it's like, oh,
I want to do YouTube and I want to do it
for this audience and they don't stop to
think, is that where my target audience
is actually going to be? And if it's
like plumbers, are plumbers really
googling stuff about how AI can help
their businesses necessarily or they go
on YouTube searching for it? I don't
know many plumbers who are sitting there
in lunch break looking up AI tutorials.
Um whereas you kind of have to think,
okay, are they going to be on something
like LinkedIn more often? Um or are they
going to be on Instagram? Maybe
Instagram would be a better platform for
plumbers. So LinkedIn being such a a
dense platform for decision makers for a
lot of the kind of B2B um and service
based niches that you're probably going
after uh is definitely the uh the king
in terms of the density of uh of
decision makers on this. So that's a
really good point to make.
>> Cool. So step number one is building a
personal brand worth following. So when
it comes to personal branding like you
mentioned people are too quick to pick a
niche and just a platform but they
forget about what actually makes a
personal brand work. And what I
discovered over time is that it's
actually two main things that people
need to pay attention to. And the best
personal brands do two things. They
storytell and they educate. You know,
the top 1% do do either of them, but the
0.1% do both. And I have some examples
here for people that may be thinking,
okay, like what does that actually look
like? People like Imani, Alex Becker,
Dan Co, uh Justin Welsh, people like
Jordan Platter, and Dan Daniel, they all
educate, but they're also storytelling
simultaneously, but you don't really
realize it because the stories are so
dense in education that you think you're
learning so much, but you're being
retained because of their ability to
storytell. Right now, when you look at
it in terms of YouTube, it's like so
long and it's like you have to think
about the scripting and all these
things. But on on on LinkedIn, you only
need to think about the writing fast.
And this is why I love the writing fast
approach to doing all of this. And
that's why I picked it because I
actually when I started, I was
incredibly introverted. I didn't want to
be on camera. I was actually 20 kilos
overweight. So I needed to find a way to
like bypass all these limiting things
that I didn't want to have and didn't
want to be seen etc. And I was like what
is the lowest friction thing that I can
do writing. So to start I needed to understand
understand
where like what is the thing that I can
actually provide as a freelancer with no
money no clients no nothing. Okay I
found my unfair advantage like what is
the thing that differentiates me the
most right now as it stands and this is
how you actually get engagement. Okay,
so there's two ways of finding your
unfair advantage if you don't know it.
And if you do know it, I will challenge
anyone watching this to rethink this.
Because if you're if you're posting
content right now on LinkedIn and it's
not working, it's because you don't have
a unique differentiator yet. Maybe
you're talking about B2B SAS, but it
sounds the same. You know, you want to
be different. So this is how you do it.
You think about two things. You think
about monetizable expertise and you
think about strategic arbitrage. Those
are the two key pillars that every
single time we implement them, we get
results. So, let me explain what
monetizable expertise is. So, when
you're trying to educate someone and get
clients and get that social proof and
get that authority fast, you need to
tell people what's in it for them. This
is basic psychology and sales
principles, right? Is the same in
marketing and it's the same on LinkedIn
with writing. So monetizable expertise
in essence is knowledge that directly
changes someone's outcome in a way that
they'll pay for. So I have two posts
here that have made us up to tens of
thousands of dollars just from from one
post. So I have one from Jake. Jake, by
the way, um important to say Jake has an
SEO agency. This is a very boring
business niche, right? And so if it's so
boring, then why is it getting 3,000
likes on LinkedIn? So, because he
learned how to use uh monetizable
expertise to his advantage when creating
content, he kind of like pivoted to
going from here's how to build an SEO
strategy to here's a problem that you
think you have. Let me break it down and
add an image on top of it. And it's the
same way here. So, here I broke down my
exact lead genen strategy in 2026. Then
it got me over a thousand likes just by
doing something that most people think
that they're doing. But what we're doing
differently is that we're specifically
telling people from the start what the
outcome is there for them. So how to
make 1 million, how to do it in 2026,
etc. So you're leading with social
proof. And I think this is where the
majority of people are going wrong. And
this is why when people write with AI,
it just doesn't look the same because
it's missing that specificity that that
builds trust.
>> So just as an example on the on on this
side here,
>> what's the the the typical like this is
the good version. What is an example of
the bad version? How do how do people
typically start with this kind of
content that just means it flops?
>> So let's say um I want to talk about my
lead generation strategy. I'll say
here's how to get leads on LinkedIn. Um
and then there's not going to be any
second line. So step number one use
sales navigator. That's basic Chad GBT
could literally do that for me. But what
we did differently here is this is the
exact so specific here lead generation
strategy I'm using. So I move from how
to to how I and that gives me a lot more
credibility because it's how I do things
rather than how Hopspot is telling
people to use LinkedIn. How this other
YouTube video, right? And then the
second thing, and this is important as
well, thank you for pointing it out, is
a second line, and that's called a
rehook. So the rehook is your second
chance to retain someone and get them to
click more. The click more button here
will always appear um on your LinkedIn
post. So like no one's ever going to see
the entire post firsthand. You have to
prompt people or push them to actually
read the entire post. So when the second
line is as compelling as the first. So
that's why I use like specific metric
like this and more specificity like in
numbers it makes
>> instead of going into a list in that
second line, right? So you're like
dragging the hook out a bit longer so
they have to click more. >> Yeah.
>> Yeah.
>> Do you know the like exact character
count that you have to get or can you
kind of like eyeball it? So my rule of
thumb is every single time you write the
first two lines, they need to be eight
words long because that's the cut off
between the this like this side, it'll
cut off on mobile. So you need to make
sure that it's always eight words. And
then oftent times, unfortunately with
LinkedIn, you can't always predict when
it's going to cut off. But ideally, you
just always optimize for the first two
lines to make it the most. Like give
give everything away at the start. Don't
try and be so mysterious and like here's
10 ways I learned how to do this like
it's not gonna work. It doesn't work.
People people are fatigued from this. So
that is the strategy that I use for
monetizes. Cool. Now the second thing is
strategic arbitrage. So taking what
works and using your story or skill to
grow. So for example, I know that on
LinkedIn people love storytelling. Why?
because it's still a social media
platform regardless of what we see it
as. People are still doom scrolling and
they are looking for entertainment,
right? Basic marketing concepts. It's
like, oh, you need to educate,
entertain, and inspire. Okay? On
LinkedIn, it doesn't work. If you post a
meme or a or a viral reel that went
crazy on Instagram, it won't work
because the type of entertainment you
need to provide to your customers and
your ideal audience is different. you
need to satisfy their craving for
transformation or some desire of purpose
of motivation especially that is linked
to a career and so when I storytell I
think okay what do people on LinkedIn
want to read today and it's usually
something about how to make more money
how to make their parents happy how to
make their dreams come true or how to
achieve a specific outcome right so me
knowing this I'm strategically
arbitrageing the topics that I know work
and using my own stories through those
lenses, right? I wouldn't really be
talking about my dad that much if I knew
that this wasn't relevant to my
audience. I would be talking about
something completely different. But me
knowing what I know, people love
supporting others. Like LinkedIn
literally thrives on announcements. They
thrive on synergy exchange, right? So
use that as an advantage. Don't cringe
at it. just think okay this is how the
politics works here how do I manage to
hack it to my advantage so that's what I did
did
>> more so than other platforms you're
saying like you do need to toot your own
horn that's like where the LinkedIn
memes come from but it's for a reason
that's that's why they exist cuz people
like to to make these big announcement
posts and cheer each other on and and
sort of make these big announcements
about their their career and so on but I
suppose we all have that if you're on if
you're on Instagram I guess you're a bit
more hesitate hesitant to make a post
like this, you know, cuz it feels a bit
weird if you're on your personal
Instagram or like even if it's a
business Instagram. Um, you're saying
these feel a lot more at home on
LinkedIn and they get the feedback that
uh you're really looking for on them.
>> I think you need to look to think about
it as different currencies between
different social media platforms. Like
on Instagram, you'll see more Ferraris,
Dubai, yachts, uh alcohol, cigar
launches, right? That is a currency
there. That's how you kind of like
portray yourself and position yourself
as successful. I.e. like all these trips
around the world on LinkedIn is how do
we touch on family values? How do we
touch about on professional achievements
in the right way? And I actually coins a
term on LinkedIn. They call it the art
of the humble brag. So the reality is
that content that is oh my god I'm so
excited to announce at this like no one
cares. How do you still brag about
something that you did but still have
humility when you're doing it? And this
pose is actually a great great example.
So, POV, you became the first
millionaire in your family. And then I
say, I never thought I'd get to write
this post. And then you see photos of my
dad looking proud of me. This if I was
if it was written in a in a completely
different way, people would be like, "Oh
my god, this is horrible. Like, she's so
self-absorbed, I would have ended up in
LinkedIn Lunatics, right?" But because I
did it in such a
non braggy way, but still mentioning the
the subject, but truly making it seem
more so about my family, then it worked
because it it was about that. And when
you learn how to explain yourself in the
right way, like communicate the right
things at the right time, then you're
going to be able to do this instead of
being like, I just became a a
millionaire. Please congratulate me.
Like that is the wrong way. what what's
in it for people reading this thing
about you achieving something? What are
you going to give them? So, that's one.
Then the second one, and I think this is
the easiest one to replicate for most
people uh that don't really want to do
anything with storytelling, is how do
you take a topic that is currently
trending online and then make it yours?
So, my friend Jake, again, uh he's my
co-founder. He saw this as a tweet,
right? And he was like, "Okay, so
something's happened to the Reddit
stock. I want to write a post about this
immediately." And so he literally just
said exactly what happened. Reddit just
lost 82% of its AI citations overnight.
That's that's all he had to do. 2,000
likes. He hadn't posted in 3 weeks,
right? His account was ter like
technically dormant. But by posting
something like this, he knew that if he
tapped onto a trend early enough, he
would be able to ride that wave and then
rekindle or revive his uh LinkedIn. So
this is actually quite easy, especially
for anyone that is consistently
chronically online. LinkedIn gets news
like a week later. So it's actually
easier for anyone to tap on trends to be
honest because um
>> same with uh same with YouTube. A lot of
the time you can just keep an eye on
what's happening on Twitter.
>> Twitter snag some like interesting
things and then make a make a video
about it.
>> Yeah. And you can also like even use AI
to even do this like hey write me a
LinkedIn post about this. Uh use a hook
that's eight words long. But uh we can
get into that as well. So hopefully that
is um relevant and actionable enough for
anyone watching this. I truly feel like
if you understand these two things,
you'll be able to start cracking pastel
branding uh faster than you trying to
pick your niche and your content
strategy and deciding deciding how many
times to post a week and what the best
posting time is. Like don't do that.
Focus on how can you position yourself
as a as an expert as fast as possible
using these two things. Now, you can
also use AI and I've been doing this
from the very start. Like I started my
ghostwriting agency. It was like a solo
solo agency. I've literally handled over
12 clients by myself using AI when it
first came out 3 years ago. And so how I
did it was simply I adapted these two uh
terms and then I was like okay based on
everything I know about myself or about
my clients please write me a list of
what the offer advantages are for this
client the monetizable expertise and
strategic arbitrage arbitrage topics so
I can educate and storytell in content
based on my personal brand and then
ideally you ask the AI whatever you use
you can use charg you can use cleo um
always ask it to give you hawks for each
idea. So instead of you having yet
another strategy that you are never
going to use, you actually have
something that you can go off and write
something about instead. I always find
that the hooks are the hardest part for
most people because they they require
different things like oh my god is it
how to is it how I is it a number. So
when you get an AI to do it for you,
like 90% of the work is already done for
you, right? The problem with chargebt is
that it gives you average output and so
that's why LinkedIn is full of AI slop
because it doesn't understand the
copywriting basics that you actually
need to succeed on LinkedIn. But tools
like Cleo, for example, which is my
tool, um they are able to well they're
built off my brain. So it knows how to
write for LinkedIn because I built it.
So you can either
>> get a demo demo later, right?
>> We'll get a demo as well. But um
basically that is in a nutshell. You can
also train charge to do it for you by
the way. Um so but that will take time
etc. But yeah so that's how you validate
your thoughts, get content ideas and
make it easy to write content from
scratch. And I think based on every
single thing that I know about my
clients is that people don't struggle
with writing. Like they don't need
faster content. Otherwise, Chad GPT
would have created so many multi-million
dollar personal brands with over
hundreds of thousands of followers. The
problem is they they struggle with
specific and clear content that actually
works. So that's why ChadBt is just not
the one for writing. just for my my
audience watching this, say you're
starting an AI agency of some form, an
AI business. And if we just go back up
to those those two buckets that you have
there of content. Um, yep. So, say
they're just starting off and they've
landed their first client or they've
done their first free project or
something and they are looking for some
sort of insight to pull out of that and
take into a a piece of content that
would fall under the monetizable
expertise and that like we just we just
delivered this we just delivered this AI
voice agent for a client. Here's three
things we learned or like can you give
us an example for say an early stage AI
business owner that was fun each of those?
those?
>> I can write you one. So, what you're an
ali you just you just signed your first client.
client.
>> Yeah. Say you've just delivered your
first free project and you're kind of
trying to pull a bit of that credibility
over to uh to LinkedIn.
>> Yeah. So, um last night I signed
>> So, immediately you're like putting it
in adding in like exactly when it
happened. So, it feels like a story, right?
right?
>> Yeah. Last night I signed my first ever client.
