How This Creator Built A $10M Solo Business On LinkedIn (Copy Him) — Transcript

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1. 0:00Justin Welsh is quite possibly the
2. 0:02single most successful person on
3. 0:04LinkedIn. Starting as a burnt-out sales
4. 0:06executive, he now has over 885,000
5. 0:09followers. He's built a one-person
6. 0:11business that does over $10 million in
7. 0:13revenue. Yes, $10 million in revenue
8. 0:15from LinkedIn with no employees and no
9. 0:18paid ads. He frequently goes viral on
10. 0:20LinkedIn with one of his posts reaching
11. 0:22over 4.7 million impressions. So, I
12. 0:24figured what he's doing on LinkedIn has
13. 0:26to be studied so I can share what he's
14. 0:28doing well with you guys so you can
15. 0:30replicate some of that success. So, I've
16. 0:31spent the last week doing a massive,
17. 0:33massive deep dive on all [music] things
18. 0:35Justin Welsh. I've spent days and days
19. 0:37inside his newsletters, his interviews,
20. 0:39his posts, his whole LinkedIn ecosystem,
21. 0:41and I have found exactly what he does,
22. 0:44and I know now why it works so well. In
23. 0:46this video, I'm going to show you his
24. 0:47very best tips and tricks that you can
25. 0:49steal for yourself. His three-line
26. 0:51opener formula that is behind every
27. 0:53successful post he's put out there, the
28. 0:54scoreboard he uses to decide [music]
29. 0:56what to post and when to post, and the
30. 0:58comment rule that built his whole entire
31. 1:00audience on LinkedIn. I've even found a
32. 1:02trick he uses to make sure he never runs
33. 1:04out of content ideas. So, by the end of
34. 1:06this video, you'll have his exact
35. 1:07formula, his tried-and-tested cheat
36. 1:09sheet that he's used to go from zero to
37. 1:12885,000 followers, and the secret drive
38. 1:15behind his building of a $10 million
39. 1:17business. What I've learned in my
40. 1:18research, I'm 100% going to use on my
41. 1:20own LinkedIn profile, and I'm going to
42. 1:21show you exactly [music] what that is in
43. 1:22this video. Let's get into it.
44. 1:27Now, first I want to quickly run through
45. 1:29the Justin Welsh story because it's not
46. 1:31the rocket ship to success you'd think.
47. 1:33Before it all, Justin worked in sales at
48. 1:35high-growth software companies. His own
49. 1:37LinkedIn about page says he was chief
50. 1:39revenue officer there at the age of 33.
51. 1:41And in 2018, whilst he still had that
52. 1:43job critically, he started posting on
53. 1:45LinkedIn every day. His early posts got
54. 1:48almost no engagements. So, what did he
55. 1:50do? Well, he copied a popular creator's
56. 1:52style before he developed his own voice.
57. 1:54He started exactly where you and me are
58. 1:56at right now. He was getting some
59. 1:58success doing this until he completely
60. 2:00burned out, which saw him leave the role
61. 2:02as CRO at his business in August 2019.
62. 2:05Luckily, just about around that time, he
63. 2:07had his first breakout LinkedIn post
64. 2:09that went absolutely viral. He went from
65. 2:11zero engagement on post 1 2 3 4 5 until
66. 2:14one post suddenly took off. It was about
67. 2:16his morning routine and it got saw over
68. 2:181 and 1/2 million times. Now, Justin
69. 2:21wasn't happy and content with his
70. 2:22success. He wanted to replicate it. So,
71. 2:24he studied exactly what that post had
72. 2:26and tried to understand what made it
73. 2:28take off versus hundreds of other
74. 2:29LinkedIn posts that didn't. This was the
75. 2:31start into his research of what wins on
76. 2:34LinkedIn and how to be a successful
77. 2:35LinkedIn influencer. By April 2020, he
78. 2:37started to share his learnings on
79. 2:39LinkedIn in a course that initially sold
80. 2:41for only $50. He kept studying, he kept
81. 2:44learning, he kept refining his LinkedIn
82. 2:46strategy until he was the best in the
83. 2:48business. By honing his craft on
84. 2:50LinkedIn, going viral on a weekly daily
85. 2:52basis, he managed to build his business
86. 2:54by June 2025 to over $10 million. It's
87. 2:57just so crazy to me, particularly
88. 2:59because so many people I speak to think
89. 3:01you cannot scale a business on LinkedIn.
90. 3:03This is proof you absolutely can scale a
91. 3:05business from zero to 100 on LinkedIn if
92. 3:08you have the formula that's going to
93. 3:10drive it forward.
94. 3:14That formula is exactly what we're going
95. 3:16to go through in the rest of this video.
96. 3:17But before I get into that, I want to
97. 3:18quickly call out that if you are
98. 3:20enjoying this video, please do like and
99. 3:21subscribe. This is just one video I'm
100. 3:23doing on a massive massive series on all
101. 3:25things LinkedIn. How to win on LinkedIn,
102. 3:27how to find leads on LinkedIn, how to
103. 3:28sign clients on LinkedIn, how to make
104. 3:30money on LinkedIn, how to go viral on
105. 3:31LinkedIn. Whatever you're trying to
106. 3:33achieve on LinkedIn, this is the channel
107. 3:34where you find out how to do just that.
108. 3:36I'm trying to build the biggest online
109. 3:37community on YouTube of people like you,
110. 3:40like me, trying to grow on LinkedIn and
111. 3:41I want you to be a part of it. So, make
112. 3:43sure you subscribe so you don't miss out
113. 3:44on any of that cool content and let's
114. 3:45get back to the video.
115. 3:50Now, through all my research, I
116. 3:51basically condensed it into five
117. 3:53pillars. Five things Justin is doing,
118. 3:55which is the secret behind his entire
119. 3:57success on LinkedIn. So, we're going to
120. 3:59go through in the rest of this video.
121. 4:00Pillar one is what I call the trailer.
122. 4:02This pillar is the secret behind that
123. 4:04post I mentioned earlier in the video
124. 4:05that got 4.7 million impressions. Justin
125. 4:08calls the opening of any LinkedIn post
126. 4:10the trailer, and he writes it after the
127. 4:13main lesson of the post, which he calls
128. 4:15the meat. So, the meat of the post comes
129. 4:17first, then the trailer gets written
130. 4:18second. He then ends the LinkedIn posts
131. 4:21with a short summary of what he's gone
132. 4:23through and a question to encourage
133. 4:25engagement on the rest of the post. So,
134. 4:26that is ultimately his posting formula:
135. 4:28the trailer, the meat, the ending, which
136. 4:31is the summary, and a question. Now, the
137. 4:33trailer is the most critical part of any
138. 4:35LinkedIn post, which is why he writes it
139. 4:37at the end. Because ultimately, the
140. 4:38trailer is the only thing that's visible
141. 4:40when they first see your LinkedIn post.
142. 4:41The rest of the post is truncated behind
143. 4:43a see more button. So, the trailer needs
144. 4:45to be so effective to entice the viewer
145. 4:47to click see more and view the rest of
146. 4:49the post. Luckily, Justin has a formula
147. 4:51that we can use to write 10 out of 10
148. 4:53perfect trailers. They come in three
149. 4:56lines. Line one is a relatable enemy
150. 4:58plus something negative. It's almost a
151. 5:00shock factor. For example, the
152. 5:02nine-to-five is getting pummeled.
153. 5:04Something relatable plus something
154. 5:05negative. Line two will flip the script
155. 5:08and have a hero plus something extra
156. 5:10extra positive. For example, the great
157. 5:12resignation is growing faster than ever.
158. 5:14Line three is a short reaction and a
159. 5:16question to those first two points. For
160. 5:18example, and I love it. Here's why.
161. 5:20Justin himself says that line one
162. 5:22matters more than 95% of the rest of the
163. 5:24post. This three-step formula is so
164. 5:26simple. I'll include it in the
165. 5:27description so you can copy and paste to
166. 5:29use in all your future LinkedIn posts.
167. 5:31Pillar two is the scoreboard. Now,
168. 5:33Justin doesn't have a content strategy,
169. 5:35he has a scoreboard, and I love it. In
170. 5:37Justin's newsletter, he breaks every
171. 5:39post he puts out there into four parts
172. 5:41and then scores each part. Each of those
173. 5:43four parts of the post is scored by a
174. 5:45different metric. For example, the
175. 5:47opener, he scores that by impressions.
176. 5:49So, he studies the openers of the top 10
177. 5:51posts he's ever put out there and finds
178. 5:53similarities. What are those doing that
179. 5:55other posts aren't? The body of the
180. 5:56post, he measures that by likes. The
181. 5:58ending, well, he sorts that by comment
182. 6:00rates. How many comments are there on
183. 6:01this video? The image, the fourth and
184. 6:03final part, has influence on all three
185. 6:05of those things. So, he tracks all these
186. 6:07metrics. He's got data points attached
187. 6:08to every post he's ever put out there on
188. 6:10the opener, the body, the ending, and
189. 6:13the image. He even said in his own
190. 6:14interviews, he's equally obsessed with
191. 6:16the ones that have done badly as the
192. 6:18ones that have done well because they're
193. 6:19data points, too, to see what to avoid
194. 6:21in future postings. Now, this seems like
195. 6:23a very big job, but it's something you
196. 6:24can do in bulk. I suggest you do it
197. 6:26every quarter, just reflect on the posts
198. 6:28you've done in the previous quarter, and
199. 6:29try and find patterns as to
200. 6:31best-performing openers, bodies,
201. 6:32endings, and images. I guarantee you, if
202. 6:34you start treating your LinkedIn posts
203. 6:36like data, you'll start seeing
204. 6:37engagement skyrocket. Pillar three is
205. 6:39the 30-minute rule. In a post from
206. 6:41February 2024, Justin said the secret to
207. 6:44any successful LinkedIn post is replying
208. 6:46to every single comment you get in the
209. 6:48first 30 minutes. To this very day, yes,
210. 6:50even at 885,000
211. 6:52followers on LinkedIn, Justin still sets
212. 6:55in 30 minutes of his day every single
213. 6:57day to reply to comments. He has done
214. 6:59this for 5 years. 30 minutes a day for 5
215. 7:02years, weekends included. As a beginner,
216. 7:05this is even more important, and
217. 7:06actually, as a beginner, you want to
218. 7:08double that to be an hour. Why? Because
219. 7:10you want to reply to comments on your
220. 7:11own posts for 30 minutes, but also,
221. 7:13critically, put comments on other bigger
222. 7:15creators' posts, too. This is a
223. 7:17fantastic way for you to borrow their
224. 7:18attention. If you're just posting on
225. 7:20your own profile with a small following,
226. 7:22you're just shouting into an empty room.
227. 7:24Whereas, if you comment on the posts of
228. 7:25bigger creators that are already getting
229. 7:26engagement, you're stealing attention
230. 7:28where it exists. Justin absolutely
231. 7:31understands the power of commenting, and
232. 7:32you should, too. Pillar four might be my
233. 7:34favorite. It is the 20 by 20 rule. This
234. 7:37is the pillar that, if you deploy it,
235. 7:38you'll never, ever say again, "I've run
236. 7:40out of ideas for a LinkedIn post." Your
237. 7:42content strategy will be evergreen and
238. 7:44endless. So, what is the 20 by 20 rule?
239. 7:47It is to take your 20 best-performing
240. 7:49LinkedIn posts and rewrite them 20
241. 7:51different ways. It's absolutely genius.
242. 7:54Because they're your best 20 performing
243. 7:56posts, you know that it's a winning idea
244. 7:58behind them. But, you can repurpose that
245. 8:00idea and repackage it many different
246. 8:02ways, different formats, carousel,
247. 8:04video, image, graphic, infographic. And,
248. 8:07of course, the idea can be packaged in
249. 8:08many different ways when it comes to the
250. 8:10text body, too. The LinkedIn algorithm
251. 8:11tells you that it likes that topic,
252. 8:13likes that subject, likes that post. So,
253. 8:15just redo it 20 different times. It's as
254. 8:17simple as that. A lot of LinkedIn, and
255. 8:19in particular Justin Welsh's LinkedIn
256. 8:21strategy, is identifying what success
257. 8:23you've had on LinkedIn and replicating
258. 8:25it. So, that's the 20 by 20 rule. Go and
259. 8:27find your best 20 LinkedIn posts and go
260. 8:29and rewrite them 20 different ways. If
261. 8:31you want to start, you can probably do
262. 8:32this on a smaller scale by finding your
263. 8:34five best performing LinkedIn posts and
264. 8:36writing them five different ways. If
265. 8:37that works, maybe then you can scale up.
266. 8:39I love it so much because you don't need
267. 8:41a thousand ideas. You need a handful of
268. 8:43really, really good ideas and you can
269. 8:44repurpose them many different ways. The
270. 8:46fifth and final pillar might actually be
271. 8:48the most important one because it's what
272. 8:50directs to revenue, money in his back
273. 8:52pocket. It's the driving force behind
274. 8:54the $10 million revenue generated by his
275. 8:57business every year. It is the owned
276. 8:59funnel. He has assigned almost $7
277. 9:01million of the $10 million revenue to
278. 9:03this signed funnel. So, it really is the
279. 9:05driving force behind his total revenue.
280. 9:07The owned funnel is ultimately taking
281. 9:09his audience from LinkedIn to his own
282. 9:12funnel off LinkedIn. Now, he does this
283. 9:14in lots of clever ways, but ultimately
284. 9:15stripping it all down is taking his
285. 9:17audience from his LinkedIn network to
286. 9:19sign up to a marketing newsletter where
287. 9:20they have his attention and his
288. 9:22intention only. Because remember, when
289. 9:23you're engaging your audience on
290. 9:25LinkedIn, it's great, but you're also
291. 9:27competing amongst loads and loads of
292. 9:28other creators and influencers also
293. 9:30fighting for their attention on
294. 9:31LinkedIn. As nice as it would be to have
295. 9:33a timeline only filled with your own
296. 9:34posts, as you know, you're competing
297. 9:36amongst loads of other posts for
298. 9:37people's attention. Take that audience
299. 9:39offline into your own funnel, suddenly
300. 9:41you're not competing. You're speaking to
301. 9:42them directly. Now, the way you do this
302. 9:44is in your LinkedIn profile, and Justin
303. 9:46does this so, so well. Justin uses his
304. 9:48LinkedIn profile as a sales page. It is
305. 9:51his best salesman, even better
306. 9:52converting than his website. So, he has
307. 9:54a banner that promotes his business and
308. 9:55his service. He has a tagline that
309. 9:57doesn't try and be too clever, it's just
310. 9:59very, very clear. What he does, who he
311. 10:01helps, and how he helps them. His
312. 10:02featured posts are very well poised. If
313. 10:05you notice his featured section, it
314. 10:06always to places that he owns, his
315. 10:09newsletter, his products, his websites.
316. 10:11This is what I mean by owning the
317. 10:12attention. That's the next step he wants
318. 10:14people to take when they see his
319. 10:15LinkedIn profile. He wants to take the
320. 10:17attention off of LinkedIn so that he
321. 10:19owns it. This is something Laura Costa
322. 10:21does very well, too, and really is maybe
323. 10:24the main driving force behind anyone
324. 10:25making lots of money on LinkedIn. Build
325. 10:27the attention on LinkedIn, when you have
326. 10:29the audience, take it off LinkedIn and
327. 10:31own it.
328. 10:35So, that's it. That is Justin Welsh's
329. 10:37entire LinkedIn system, the secret
330. 10:39behind his virality and his
331. 10:41multi-million pound business. I hope you
332. 10:43enjoyed it and found it useful cuz I
333. 10:44really did spend weeks and weeks
334. 10:46researching and studying all things
335. 10:47Justin Welsh so that you can copy his
336. 10:49strategy and get some success on
337. 10:51LinkedIn yourself. Now, we've talked
338. 10:52lots about Justin Welsh's strategy, but
339. 10:54we actually have our own system at
340. 10:55Leader. We call it the ROI system,
341. 10:58recognition, outreach, and inbound. Do
342. 11:01those three things on LinkedIn, they're
343. 11:02the three most important things behind
344. 11:04any business and any business owner. If
345. 11:06you do these three things, you are
346. 11:08absolutely going to have a successful
347. 11:09marketing funnel in place. So, what I
348. 11:11want you to do right now is to go and
349. 11:13take our very own ROI scorecard. It's a
350. 11:15free online assessment and it only takes
351. 11:172 minutes. After answering a few
352. 11:19questions, you'll be scored on each of
353. 11:20those three pillars, recognition,
354. 11:22outreach, and inbound, based on how
355. 11:24you're currently performing under each
356. 11:26one of them. As well as your score on
357. 11:28completion, you get a free personalized
358. 11:29PDF breaking down where you're strong,
359. 11:32where you're weak, and how you can
360. 11:33improve. Lots of business owners have
361. 11:34taken this already and they say it's
362. 11:36been critical to them in improving their
363. 11:38marketing funnel. It's completely free,
364. 11:40link in the description, go and check it
365. 11:41out. Let me know how you get on and let
366. 11:43me know what scores you get. If you
367. 11:45enjoyed this one on Justin Welsh, I've
368. 11:46done another one very similar on Laura
369. 11:48Costa. If there's any other LinkedIn
370. 11:49influencers you want me to study and
371. 11:50give me another week of homework, put
372. 11:52them in the comments and I'll see what I
373. 11:53can do. If you haven't already, please
374. 11:55like and subscribe. Lots and lots of
375. 11:57exciting LinkedIn content coming your
376. 11:58way. Have a great day. See you on the
377. 12:00next one.