Speaker 1 (00:00):
While you have been looking the other way, LinkedIn has quietly become the single most underused sales and branding platform on the internet for entrepreneurs right now, and it's not even close. In this episode, I'm going to break down three things. One, why LinkedIn is a genuine cheat code for entrepreneurs right now. Number two, how the algorithm has completely changed, including a brand new AI system called 360 Brew, which is essentially rewritten the rules for everybody. And three, exactly how to start using LinkedIn even if the last thing that you posted was updating was updating your job title three years ago. If that sounds interesting, listen to this episode because hopefully you're going to take some learnings. Hey, it's Oliver Bruce and welcome to the Unlock. Previously known as Success is in the Mind. I'm a UK entrepreneur, angel investor, a neurodivergent founder, and I recently exited my first business, which I scaled from my university halls into a multimillion dollar agency with no backing, no funding, just grit, mistakes and determination.

(01:03):
I want to pass on some of the lessons that I've learned, the barriers that I had to overcome and the challenges that I'm still coming up against today. This podcast doesn't grow by itself, it grows with you. If you could possibly share this with friends, family, colleagues, anybody you're in business with, somebody that you think might find this useful, I would be greatly appreciative. Anyway, let's get into it. So let's start with the obvious question then. Why LinkedIn? Why not Instagram? Why not TikTok? Why not X? Why not YouTube? And the reality is it's simple, it's intent. On Instagram, people are scrolling to be entertained, right? They're doom scrolling on TikTok. They are simply killing time on X. They're probably arguing with strangers that they've never met about things they just simply can't control. But LinkedIn people are there to basically work, right? They're there, they're on it during the day.

(01:51):
They are actively engaged, they're looking for solutions. They're looking to hire people, looking to buy people looking to partner with people looking essentially to offset some time for some value, which they will find through LinkedIn. The mindset is completely different and that changes basically the entire game because when someone sees essentially your content on LinkedIn and thinks, Hmm, that's interesting. They're not just double tapping or scrolling on. They're thinking that person might just might be able to help me or should I maybe connect with them? Or we're starting a project and this person clearly knows what they're talking about. I'm going to engage in their content to learn more. They are basically in buying mode. A bit like when you go to Amazon and you look for something through Amazon Shop, for instance, you are there to buy. That is the reason you use the platform.

(02:40):
They're in hiring mode, they're in partnership mode. They're in some kind of engagement mode on LinkedIn because they're actively using it and you just don't get this with any other platform at scale. Here's a number, four out of five LinkedIn members are involved in driving business decisions at their company. That's four out of five. You're not just posting to a feed full of teenagers watching dance videos, hoping for the best. You're posting to decision makers with budgets, people who can actually say yes and move the needle. Now here's the other side of it, 1.3 billion members, and guess how many of them are actively posting content? Well, less than 3%, less than 3% of 1.3 billion members are actually posting content. The rest are what we call data calls. They're passive literally on the platform. They're reading, they're engaging, they're consuming, but they're not posting anything. So let me frame this for you.

(03:40):
Massive audience decision makers actively consuming content and almost nobody is creating it. But if you look at TikTok, you're competing against millions of creators for a slither of the attention on LinkedIn. You are competing against basically nobody. That's the cheat code, high value audience, almost zero competition and an algorithm that is desperate for good content because there simply isn't enough of it. Now, this is where it gets cool, the LinkedIn that you are picturing in your head, the one that you essentially wrote off because all it was was about updating your job description or job title, the platform simply doesn't exist like that anymore. LinkedIn tore up its entire algorithm and rebuilt it from scratch, and if you understand what they have done, you'll realise that the platform is practically rolling out the red carpet for entrepreneurs, for people like you, people like me, people who are willing to show up and be real.

(04:37):
Now, let me explain. At the end of 2024, LinkedIn replaced its entire content ranking system with a new AI model and it's called 360 Brew. Now, this wasn't a small update. This is not them slightly moving the slider. This is them ripping out the engine and putting a completely new one in 150 billion parameter AI that doesn't just count likes and hashtags. It actually reads your content. It's quite spooky. It reads your content, it understands the meaning of your content, it evaluates your content whether what you've posted is genuinely useful to the person seeing it. And under the old system, you could game LinkedIn a little bit, right? You could use engagement pods that worked. You could post generic motivational fluff images, things that maybe move the needle, got quick likes and obviously climb the algorithm because of that. Now, what 360 Brew does is essentially kill that.

(05:31):
Now, here's what the algorithm actually cares about, and there are three key things to bear in mind. Number one is dwell time. So that's not clicks, that's not likes, that's time specifically, how long is somebody actually spending reading your posts or watching your video if they scroll past in the first two seconds, the algorithm takes that as a signal that it's maybe not worth showing to other people. If they stop and they read it for 30, 40, even 50 seconds, a full minute, the algorithm goes, this is quality. So it shows it to more people. This is a massive change. It means that you can't fake it anymore. You can't just write clickbait hooks with empty posts underneath and hope that frankly someone will click like three or four times and it climbs the algorithm. The content has to actually deliver period. And that's great news, right?

(06:19):
That's great news for anyone who actually knows what they're talking about. You can't game it anymore. Now, number two is conversion quality. Not did people comments, but what did they actually say? What's the value? What's the context? What's the meaning behind their comment? Is it valuable? 360 BREW can basically tell the difference between 10 people writing great post and three people writing thoughtful multi sentence responses that genuinely starts a conversation. And those three real comments are worth far more than a hundred empty ones. Another part of it is saves. This is the nobody's talking about part. So when somebody bookmarks your post and comes about later, that's now one of the most powerful signals of quality in the entire system, right? And the same can be said for other social channels admittedly, but on LinkedIn as well specifically right now saves drive roughly five times more reach than a like that's five times more reach than a like.

(07:18):
So if you are creating content that people want to actually reference later frameworks how-TOS, breakdowns, actionable advice, a little bit like this podcast, then you are feeding the algorithm with exactly what it wants and it will push you up the algorithm and get you seen by more people. It's as simple as that. Now, number three is topic consistency. And this is a big one for entrepreneurs. We can have that magpie effect, we can get distracted, we can look at other things, we can talk about pointless subjects that we are interested in, but we're going off piece ever so slightly. Now, 360 BREW doesn't look at your post in isolation, right? What it does do is it looks at your profile, it looks at your content history, it asks, does this person's headline match what they're actually posting about? Do they have a consistent track record or expertise in this area, right?

(08:06):
So do you have the authority to speak about what you are talking about? If you are posting about marketing, for instance, on a Monday, crypto on a Wednesday and fitness on a Friday, the algorithm doesn't really know what to do with you, doesn't know what you stand for, it can't categorise you into a section so it limits your reach. But if you pick two or three core topics and you stay in your lane for 90 days, the algorithm starts to recognise that you're a genuine expert in what you're talking about. And once that happens, it starts pushing your content to other professionals in that space. People who have simply never heard of you before. And essentially what that means is the audience will start to grow organically with no budget, no ad spend. Just using the algorithm, the game has changed. You can no longer hack.

(08:54):
It has to fundamentally trust you. If the algorithm doesn't trust you, you are not going to be seen. And here's why it should properly excite you under the old system, big accounts dominated, right? If you had 50,000 connections, you got reach, simple as that. But under 360 Brew a founder with literally 500 connections who posts genuinely useful, specific expert content, can literally outperform a user with 50,000 connections who posts just generic rubbish. It's no longer a game of how many people are following me or how many people am I connected to? It's how much authenticity, how much use, how much education, how much impact am I giving my audience big or small? Because if it is impactful, if it is genuine, if it is consistent, then I will rank higher. The playing field has literally changed. It is quality over quantity, authenticity over volume. That is the new game.

(09:51):
And frankly, it favours. You can speak exactly about your swim lane, your expertise, your industry, your background, whatever it is that interests you, that you are an expert in, speak about it openly, passionately, and authentically, and you will climb the ranks. Now, this shouldn't come as any surprise to anybody, but the power of personal branding is obviously one that is growing, right? So what I'm about to tell you is even more important because of the algorithm changes. So LinkedIn's algorithm in 2026 massively favours personal profiles over company pages. Personal profiles take up 65% of what people see in their feed company Pages take up 5% of what people see in their feeds. So if you're an entrepreneur and your whole LinkedIn strategy is posting from your company page, then I'm sorry, but you're literally invisible. The algorithm is literally working against you and you probably didn't even know it to be honest.

(10:42):
Now, when you post from your personal profile, if you are a founder, if you are the human being, which we all are, I hope the algorithm literally works for you. So it pushes your content to connections to their connections. And if engagement is strong, then it will push that out to people that are third, fourth, fifth in line, let's say the complete strangers that you've never come across and are so far removed. So this is where it becomes super exciting for entrepreneurs, but also where entrepreneurs can go wrong. They think that LinkedIn posting means corporate updates posts like we're thrilled to announce this or welcome this person to the team. And reality is nobody really cares. Nobody's really ever cares about that kind of stuff. That's not content. That is a press release wearing, as I like to call it, a content costume. And the algorithm, it kind of sees right through that, especially now 360 breweries in play and it's designed to detect content that feels templated, feels corporate or frankly, and this is the real killer feels AI generated without any personal voice or any layering on top.

(11:50):
So if you post a piece of content that is copy and pasted from chat GPT or sounds like it's written in chat g, PT, or you didn't even bother, then the reality is it's going to get buried. It's never going to get seen. It's going to be invisible, and it's kind of game over in that sense. So what actually works? What does the algorithm actually reward? Well, it rewards as we kind of already alluded to, real content from real people about real things being human, being authentic, being heard, the literal messy stuff. So the lessons, the failures, the honest opinions, the behind the scenes, the mistakes, the trials, the tribulations, kind of everything this podcast is all about. And here's what that kind of looks like. Okay? So I'm going to give you a quick breakdown. I lost my biggest client last month and here's what it taught me about pricing.

(12:38):
That post gets thousands of impressions. Why? Because it's real. Because other founders read it and think, yeah, me too. I've been there, I've done that. I can relate to it because it's useful, it's vulnerable, and it's authentic all at the same time. And because people stop scrolling to actually read it, the dwell time goes through the roof. Now, how about this one? Three years ago I started this business from my kitchen table. Yesterday we hit seven figures and here's what I'd do differently. Now that's not necessarily bragging though. I can see how that could come across. That's a framework disguised as a story. That's kind of how I'm looking at it. So people save that post, they bookmark that post, and saves are one of the strongest signals in the algorithm as we've kind of alluded to already. So when that happens, you will climb the ranks, you will be seen by more people and you'll get more engagements.

(13:31):
Let's try this one. Everyone says raise prices. Here's why I did the opposite. And here's what happens. Now, it's a contrarian take. I admit it's a real experience and it's somewhat provocative, but it sparks genuine interest, genuine conversation in the comments. People either agree or people either disagree. People write three paragraphs reasoning as to why they do agree or why they don't agree. And then you're sort of stimulating some kind of conversation, right? And every single one of these comments pushes that post further and further up the 360 brew algorithm. And do you know what the common thread is amongst all of those different examples? It's very simple. It's you. It's your face, it's your name, it's your experience, it's your opinion. It isn't a logo, it's not a corporate message. It is you people buy from people. That is so much more important in today's day and age than ever before.

(14:22):
It's not just a saying, it is literally how the algorithms are now working. So the next unlock is video. Now, video on LinkedIn is becoming ever, ever, ever. So more powerful. In fact, it takes everything that I've talked to you about throughout this podcast and it multiplies it by 10. It takes it to the moon and beyond. Now, if you take one thing from this episode, make it this section. So LinkedIn has basically gone all in on video. They've rolled out a dedicated video tab in the mobile app, a TikTok style sort of full screen swipeable vertical video feed specifically for essentially professional content, right? So career advice, business insights, how-tos, industry experience, all in a format where people can scroll through it endlessly on the tube, on the train, on flights in the car, wherever it is. LinkedIn has its own literal TikTok and almost nobody knows about it.

(15:18):
Now, video is the fastest content form on the platform. Uploads are up 34% year over year native video. That's video that's uploaded directly into LinkedIn, not a YouTube link that's embedded gets up to 69% more coverage than other formats. That's 69% more performance if you upload a video natively into LinkedIn than if you were to for instance, hyperlink to YouTube. But here's how to get your point across clearly on LinkedIn. Here's how to actually sell on LinkedIn, and this is the part that I think you should sit up and properly listen to. 78% of B2B buyers prefer receiving a message via video, not necessarily a direct message into their inbox saying Buy now, but a message that is put into a video, talking to a problem, talking to a solution, whatever that might be. 78% of B2B buyers prefer that method. 9% prefer text. That's 78% versus 9%, and that's not a marginal difference.

(16:23):
That's a material difference. A Grand Canyon, if you will, of difference. And most people are still standing on the wrong side of it, posting copy, posting text, sometimes posting image, which is halfway there, but nevertheless, they're not doing video. And this is why 360 Brew works so well for video specifically because it's the part that everybody misses. Now, if you remember reason one was dwell time, right? So dwell time is the number one signal for 360 Brew. How long are people spending with your content? If someone watches your video for 60 seconds, you've just held their attention for a full minute, a text post gets literally skimmed through in seconds maybe. Now video is a dwell time machine. You are feeding the algorithm with exactly what it's hungry for and it will reward you for that with distribution. Reason two, again, remember, trust in 2026, AI generated text is literally everywhere.

(17:16):
Everybody's using it. That churning out slop, it doesn't work. Every feed is full of perfectly polished nonsense, but if you show up on camera with your face, your voice, the way that you pause when you're thinking this is super difficult to recreate, sure there's gen AI platforms out there that can try and recreate video and that is to a certain extent, but it's not going to be used and it's not going to be optimised by 360 Brew because it isn't authentic, because it isn't real, because it doesn't get the engagement. And frankly, you can just tell real video can't be faked. Authenticity can't be faked, storytelling can't be faked, experiences can't be faked. A real person on a video is the fastest trust signal on the internet right now, literally and 360 Brew knows it. The algorithm will reward authentic content. So video and its authenticity.

(18:09):
Authenticity is literally the purest way. It is the purest way to cut through with 360 Brew. Now, reason three is the video tab, and this is essentially a free discovery engine. So when you post a native video, it doesn't just appear on your connections feeds, it can surface in the video tab. So when people are actively scrolling through professional video content or discovering new creators, they can come across your piece of content. It's a separate distribution channel, and right now it's so unsaturated, hardly anybody is using it. There isn't enough good video to fill it. LinkedIn is actively looking for your video to fill that gap. Your competitors don't even know this, they don't even know it exists. This is your competitive advantage to just get on with it, produce video content and serve it to your audience. So reason number four is recall essentially.

(19:02):
So simply put, if you are pushing out on LinkedIn, some text or some copy, the chances are somebody's going to maybe read that copy. They probably won't take it in. They definitely won't remember who you are, what your name is and what you do. But if you put a video out there, you are more authentic. Let's just say you've got more of a personality, you're speaking facts, you are more engaging, you're talking through a problem, a solution, a story, whatever that might be, they can probably relate to you in a little bit more of a human kind of way. So they're more likely to recall you when actually you post another piece of content, right? Your name will pop up. They'll go, ah, that's that person. I like that content. I'm going to engage with it again. So I number four is recall. Super important to make sure that actually you are being heard, being seen, being real.

(19:42):
They're more likely to remember who you are rather than if you just wrote an essay and posted it on LinkedIn. Now, I guess the other part of this, and one of the more important parts of this is the objections. So you guys will be sitting there going, that's all well and good, but I dunno what to say. I don't feel comfortable on camera. And look, I get that it's super difficult and the truth really is you don't need to be comfortable on camera. I mess up my words as I've just done there on the podcast. The prime example, what you need to be is you need to be real. The best performing LinkedIn videos are not the polished productions with graphics packages and background music. Whilst that is lovely and there is a place for that. It ain't on LinkedIn. There's somebody at their desk, literally at their desk looking at a camera, sharing a thought, a lesson, an opinion, 30 seconds, two minutes, no editing, no introduction, just you going, Hey, look, my name's Ollie.

(20:35):
I started a company where I was 18 years old at university and here's all the crap that I went through. That kind of thing. Be authentic, be real, and be heard. You don't need to be a television presenter. And if you are sort of stuck on format, let's say, then there's a format that I like to call the one thing format, and it literally is because you start off with the hooks or the hook is at the beginning of the video, you start off with the hook and you say, one thing I've learned about whatever your topic is that nobody else is talking about, right? Or the one thing that idea is that nobody else is doing, or the one thing that I would do differently if I had my time again, that kind of thing. So the structure always start with the hook. That hook is the one thing.

(21:13):
Then you explain what that one thing is and then you end with a question, right? So you open it up to your audience. Your audience will then hopefully comment on the posts and thus that will mean that engagement increases. 360 Brew will push you up the algorithm and off we go. So in 60 seconds you can have a piece of content done. You can batch five of these into 20 minutes on a Monday morning, schedule them literally across the week. Each one reaches thousands of people who you've never even heard from, and then you sit back and you let the algorithm work. But one thing, make sure you shoot vertically. The video tab is a vertical feed. So we're also used to it now with reels and TikTok, et cetera. Make sure you capture your content vertically. So that is nine by six sitting your phone, a window of lights and a clip on mic is literally all you need to do this.

(22:05):
That is the setup. The total cost, 30 quid. I mean, you've got an iPhone already, I'm sure. Now start ugly and get better. Nobody is perfect to start with. The first one is always the hardest. The 10th, it'll become a bit more normal by the 50th. People are DMing you going, I feel like I already know you. Here's my money. Work with me. I like you. Your content's great. That kind of vibe, right? Just keep going, chuck stuff out there. You will get better. You will teach yourself how to improve. You will be authentic, be real and be relatable. So let's talk about money because that is what it's all about, right? You want to generate some revenue, you want to make some capital, you want to grow your business. And most entrepreneurs think of sales as outbound. Okay? So cold calling, cold emails, LinkedIn, dms, the kind of dms that read, hi first name.

(22:54):
I noticed that you worked at whatever company you worked at and I'd love to set up a quick call. Now if that came through to me, I would delete that immediately. I'm sure they would as well. And frankly, I'm sure you guys would if it came into your inbox. Now, here's the really interesting thing. 360 Brew is actively penalising that kind of behaviour. So automated outreach patterns are no more or will become no more as the algorithm becomes more intelligent. So engagement pods, spray and pray messaging. The algorithm detects it and it suppresses it. It will suppress your visibility in tandem. The cold outreach era on LinkedIn is dying and I am well up for that. But here's what replaces it, and I think it is so much better. It is you post consistent, you post authentic, and your ideal customers starts to see you, not because you've messaged them, because the algorithm matched your content with their interests.

(23:51):
They're seeing your face, they read your name, they get your take, they watch your video, they think you are the person, you get it. That is the person I need to work with. Then they see you again next week and the week after, and they start to form an opinion. They start to trust you. They start to feel like they know you and then one day, weeks, or even frankly months later, because this isn't quick, they have a problem and they know that person who can solve that problem is you. They don't Google it. They don't ask chat GPT, they message you on LinkedIn because you are already top of mind. You have been there the whole time. Now I call this inbound by default, if you will revert to original, be real, whatever you want to call it, you are not chasing clients. Clients are coming to you, right?

(24:41):
That's where everyone wants to be. If clients just came to you and you no longer had to go out and find them, how much happier would you be as a business owner? And they arrive, they are hot leads, there is no qualification needed. The sales conversion shifts from can you convince them to how do we start? That is the difference. That's what consistent content on LinkedIn builds and the numbers, frankly, the numbers back this up as well. So LinkedIn messages get 10 to 25 response rates, right? Email gets a 5% response rate. It's hardly worth doing. Posts from personal profiles convert two to five times better than any company page post, right? Employee advocacy, your team posting from their personal profiles generates 800% more engagement than any company. Page alone, 800% more. The maths is just super simple. Show up, be real. Share what, let the platform distribute it and watch as people who should be buying from you starts to reach out.

(25:49):
No cold messages, no ad spend, no begging for calls, just value, consistency, and guess what? Patience, right? So this is a very, very quick playbook just to round off this episode, I guess, because I don't want you guys going away with any excuses. I don't want you guys overthinking anything. I don't want you to think I'm going to do this next month. I haven't got time. Now the reality is you can start now. It's super simple. So step one, fix your profile. If you haven't got a profile that talks exactly to what you're doing and you're posting content that confuses it, then 360 brewer isn't going to serve the content. You're not going to get ahead. You're going to quit before you even start because the algorithm doesn't believe you are who you say you are. So fix your profile. Step two, three posts a week.

(26:33):
Try doing two text posts and one video from your personal profile. If that works, start to gear it up slowly. Step three is win the golden hour. So the first 60 minutes, essentially after your post has been deployed, if you will, the algorithm shows your content to a fairly small number of people, and obviously that's where the algorithm starts to learn if it's actually interesting or it's not interesting. So make sure that you're optimising for saves, for comments, and essentially for dwell time, as we've suggested. Step number four is engage with other people's content. And I know that takes time and I know that you're going to think, yeah, but I haven't got enough time to produce my own content, let alone engage with other people's content. The reality is you're probably going to be sitting on a tube or a train or a plane or in the back of a car at some point over the next couple of days.

(27:19):
Just spend 10 minutes a day or an evening or whatever it is. Just leaving comments, just engaging, just posting on other people's content, great posts, something like that. Really enjoyed this. Something that will either start a conversation or will put you in their domain, if you will. Step five is a fairly obvious one. It's stick in your lane, right? So it's have the authority to speak about what you are speaking about If you don't understand, if you are trying to copy and paste from chat, GPT, if you are trying to wax lyrical about something that you are not able to speak openly and professionally or indeed, interestingly about, forget it. Give it up. Don't do it. Find three key things. Let's just say raising money, entrepreneurship and ai. Speak about those deeply, speak about those openly and speak about those consistently. It's as simple as that.

(28:08):
And here's what I want you guys to take away. I want you guys to understand that LinkedIn is not a recruitment platform. It's not a place for corporate jargon and synergy updates, if you will. It's a platform with over a billion users. It's got a brand new algorithm that actively rewards humans who share genuine expertise. It's got a video tab that surfaces your content to people who have never heard of you before with the greatest respect obviously. And your ideal customer is scrolling through that platform that feed right now. Right now they're looking for someone who actually knows what they're talking about. And that person, that person could be you. Almost nobody in your space is using this channel properly. You don't even have to be a content creator. You don't need to be an influencer. You don't even need to go viral. You just need to show up, be yourself, share what you know, and just do it consistently.

(29:03):
The algorithm, the algorithm was literally rebuilt to find people like you. The entrepreneurs who figure this out in 2026 are going to build audiences, pipelines, and brands that their competitors simply cannot touch. Why? Because everyone else is spending money on ads and grinding through cold outreach, and they'll be getting inbound leads from people who are already trusting them because they put content out there that they believe that they can buy into, that they can see as real for free. Three posts a week, one video, be real, be useful, be consistent. That is the whole game. That is the unlock. Now go and play. Appreciate you listening to the podcast. Hopefully you found it useful. For those that want to read up or learn more, head over to my LinkedIn page, Oliver Bruce online, where you'll find a weekly newsletter called the Brucey Bonus where we double click into more detail and give you more tips and tricks around how to scale your business.

(29:57):
If you want to share this with friends, family, colleagues, business owners, people that are in your circle then might find it useful. I would be super appreciative if I said at the beginning of the podcast, this does not grow on its own. This grows with you and we do it for you. So thank you so much for listening and catch you next time. I mentioned earlier, but I do think something that you guys might find super useful if you're running a business and managing multiple transactions across multiple platforms is in card. It's a new financial platform for modern online businesses, giving you guys multicurrency accounts, connected banking and smart spend managements all in one place. You can open up an account in minutes, attach cards for expenses, and earn up to 2% cash back on everyday spend like ads, SaaS, and travel. Check out incar using the link in the description. I.