Write with ChatGPT LIVE Workshop

Personal branding isn’t a new idea. It’s been around for thousands of years.

I experienced big personal brands in my youth, and what I saw led me to hate 99% of them.

My story today begins in my 20s in the very strange world of Christian ministry….

If you don’t want to read this story (it has nothing to do with AI or LinkedIn), just skip the end of this newsletter. I’ve got good value at the end of this section. Lately, I have been kicking off my newsletters with random thoughts about life and building an online business… Just in a philosophical era here, haha….

Just a little reintroduction here for all of you.

Hi, my name is Luke, I’m 39 years old, and I work remotely from South America, building my online LinkedIn marketing business.

I spent years working in construction and, prior to that, spent years in ministry work as well. I grew up learning entrepreneurship from my mom and have, for the most part, always been a contractor/self-employed.

Anyways, back to the story…

I spent my early 20s in Christian ministry and it's where I encountered the dark truths of personal branding.

I was a part of the Pentecostal denomination, and well, it was quite extreme as far as Jesus believers go.

• We prayed for healing.

• We studied the bible obsessively.

• We had extreme values (no sex until marriage)

The church is where I first learned about personal branding because, in actuality, the leaders of the church had personal brands.

Pastors, speakers, and teachers are the heroes of the Christian church.

I observed them working one or two days a week (all they had to do was preach the Bible to their church attendees and meet some people for coffee).

The best of them would travel the world as well. Preaching from the bible and being paid to speak and prompt their teachings.

Church attendees would sit in the audience and listen to the guy/girl on the stage. Let’s just call the person on stage a “guru” and make it easy.

The guru taught all the "secrets" from the bible, and these people were lucky to learn from them; that was the vibe anyway.

• Every speaker had their own style and schtick.

• Every speaker had a fee for what they shared.

• Every speaker had a book or an audio series.

Sound familiar?

These motivational speakers claimed to care about people and god and be all about kindness and love, but in actuality, the power, money, and clout from their personal brands corrupted them. 

Why did they do this?

Because they learned what message/keynote would bring in the most book and course sales and what keynote didn't sell.

Like any good personal branding expert, they analyzed the data and pivoted to what sold well. They changed their message to appease the crowd and generate more sales.

This disappointed me greatly because I value truth, and I saw these gurus for what they were.

Frauds, fakes, and wolves.

Every guru I observed sold out and took the clout and the money.

They changed their message and stopped speaking their truth.

Fast forward almost two decades later.

I am no longer in the Christian church; in fact, I am agnostic now. I left religion ages ago because I lost faith in ministry and in the god they represented.

But I find myself here at a crossroads again.

Except now, I'm not in the crowd anymore.

I am at the top of the pyramid scheme.

• I am surrounded by leaders who change their message.

• I am one of these "speakers" and "gurus" now.

• I am tempted daily to break my values.

• I really wish I could sell out.

• I have tried to sell out.

In the last year, I have become tame and robotic and stopped speaking from the heart. After my seventh ban, I had to pivot and focus on sharing what works.

Educational content, LinkedIn growth, AI, and fun memes.

But you know what?

I hate what "works."

I’ve realized over the past month as I struggle to finish my own guru course…

I have a deep hatred of personal brands.

This despite having one of my own.

99% of what I see in the personal branding space is valueless, void of soul, and sells a false dream.

What sucks is that you, the reader want a shortcut, so you fall for cheap lies.

My experience in 8 years of making money on Instagram and LinkedIn is that most of the personal branding industry is corrupt and full of morally bankrupt cheats.

All I see is flowery words and deals with devils behind the stage.

It all deeply upsets me me so much ...

Why?

Because it hits what I found to be true in Christianity and in humanity. The top 1% is corrupt, and the rest love it.

The business world and Religion is no different. It is the same.

The 99%, aka the sheep, buy from the wolves, aka the gurus.
The wolves lie to the sheep, and the sheep love it.

This is the cycle of human life.

So yes, I realize I hate a lot of things, and this rant may cause you to unsubscribe, and I accept that.

But I'm not alone. I know many of you feel this way, but you don't say it.

What’s even more discouraging for me, is I’m one of the few I know who has put in tons and tons and tons of real hours and real time.

Yet I’m accused of being the cheater.

While the people I know are cheating and lying get away with it.

So I'm left feeling like.

What's the point?

What is the point in taking all of this on?

That's what I ask myself every day.

I don't know anymore.

I really don't.

(read on for LinkedIn tips and AI content, and thanks for reading my rant)

🤖 Lead Magnets & Landing Pages

It’s difficult to get big volume and traffic on LinkedIn posts but it is possible. One method I’ve been using a lot since last October is…

→ Creating high-value lead magnets.

Last month, my content generated:

1571 Gumroad product downloads.
890 Newsletter subscribers.
8,864 LinkedIn Followers.
3 high-ticket clients.
2 Brand Collabs.

+ dozens of leads that I couldn't handle so I referred them on to other writers.

My posting strategy in 2024 has been simple but intense.

I share 3 posts per week, and I make every post like a blog post.

While most of the platform is going with short form text and video content I am sticking with long form posts. I add a lead magnet to 69% of posts that I share.

My thinking is to zig while everyone zags, and I want to build an expectation that every post that I share has either a very bold story and is entertaining or is sharing high-value educational content.

No fluff. Now lead magnets are a key to the educational posts…

For those that don’t know:

I am obsessed with lead magnets.

Here's my method:

1. I research a pain point in my niche.
2. I write an educational post to fix the pain.
3. I create a lead magnet tailored to that post.
4. I use Distribute to create a landing page with AI.
5. I ask for a repost my content for a link to the page.
6. I collect ur email when you sign up for the lead mag.

🤖 Write with AI (LinkedIn LIVE) Tue at 2pm EST

Watch me create posts LIVE using AI:

I'll write a week's worth of content in this session.

Here's the process:

1. Utilize the Content Matrix in ChatGPT to get hooks
2. Pick a hook that I like.
3. Go to PerplexityAI and type in the hook
4. Analyze the answers/article results
5. Go back to ChatGPT and combine the info+prompt
6. Analyze the results and reprompt
7. Go to AuthoredUp and edit post

I'll be LIVE next Tuesday at 7pmUK (2pmEST)

Q/A at end.

Watch on YouTube:

That’s it for this week, hope you all come hang out with me or subscribe to my YouTube to watch the replay.

Cheers,
Luke