The 2026 LinkedIn AI Strategy (Step by Step)

AI is the most intelligent thing in the whole entire world. But are you using it for meal prepping? To write your emails?

Reports?

To keep that manager of yours happy? Breakup texts, perhaps? You're not getting the results that you need. And it's not ChatGPT's fault, by the way. It's the way you're using it. If you actually want to succeed with it, you need a system, an actual system that will change how you use it forever. By the time you reach the end of this, you'll know how to make ChatGPT know you better than you know yourself. I know it sounds crazy, but it is true. And that is using a feature most people ignore. Why prompt engineering is dead and what replaced it. And the exact framework that is a.

Proven system to go from zero to.

Hundreds of thousands of followers. And a trick with pinned comments that.

Keeps people glued to your posts.

So, guys, I brought in one of my absolute favorite creators on LinkedIn, a LinkedIn celebrity, and that is Charlie Hills.

Cutting your sales cycle in half sounds pretty impossible, but that's exactly what Sandler training did with HubSpot. They use Breeze, HubSpot's AI tools to tailor every customer interaction without losing their personal touch. And the results were incredible. Click through rates jumped 25%, qualified leads quadrupled, and people spent three times longer on their landing pages. Go to HubSpot.com to see how Breez can help your business grow.

The Mindstream team and I were at the AI Summit in London and going to these sorts of conferences gets you a backstage exclusive access to the biggest creators in the AI game. Sorry you were not invited, but we were invited to this pre party and I got to sit down with Charlie in probably the coolest underground club in the city and he gave me a secret hack to his viral LinkedIn posts. And by the way, this is not only to go viral on LinkedIn, this has massively helped Charlie in his business that that's brought him so many leads and amazing opportunities. Charlie went from zero to over 200,000 followers in under 18 months by using AI in a way most people just aren't. And that is no prompt stacking, no generic 10 tips posts, no content that smells like it came straight out of ChatGPT. And here's a problem we are all facing. Even though AI is extremely smart, we're all generating the same exact recycled content, which means your feed is flooded with.

The same old words.

There's an AI slop everywhere the old way, which is mega prompts. ChatGPT will obey is Dead. So how do you stand out? In this episode of the Next Wave, he breaks down the exact framework he uses to make AI content sound human and perform consistently. He's got this four step system that he calls Chef, and it's a really good system that Chardi will break down for you step by step that is guaranteed to have your inbox flooded with leads. Most people think better AI content means better prompts. It doesn't. It means starting with the right context, actually using the features everyone ignores, running your ideas through a framework that makes them stronger, and knowing how to feed that content to your audience so it doesn't just die after the first line, which is exactly what Charlie is here for. And he'll break it down for you in 10 minutes using an acronym which absolutely revolutionizes how you use AI and starts giving you what you actually want. And let me level with you. You may be saying acronyms are cringe, but I'm a millennial, so cringe is cool. So listen up and watch till the end. And just like Chef in a Kitchen, it's all about having the right ingredients before you start cooking. If you're creating with AI and wondering why it's not landing, this one's for you. So let's start cooking.

Charlie, welcome to the Next Wave. Long time no see. Honestly.

Yeah, it's great to see you.

It's been since, you know, since you were in Leamington.

Yeah, the first event, which was so much fun.

That was fun, wasn't it?

It was a good event.

So people know you on LinkedIn. Obviously you're pretty famous on LinkedIn. The people that don't know you. You've grown your audience from 0 to 200,000 followers in a matter of a year and a half.

Yeah, it's nearly 200,000. Nearly 200.

I think it's 200 for me. So let's just keep it on there because you're pretty cool. But for the people that don't know you, this is who you are. They should probably go in on your LinkedIn and like, see what you've been doing, because it's pretty neat. We love it.

Look, you and I both know that 90% of LinkedIn content is now just AI generated slope. To actually hit 200k followers in 2026, you need a human edge. So we worked with Charlie and he's sharing the exact four step system he uses to turn raw expertise into post step build real authority. It also includes over five prompts to add in that human layer that AI can't copy it's totally free. Click the link below to grab the playbook and stop sounding like a bottle. Now, let's get back to the show.

Can you walk us through how people.

Can create authentic LinkedIn content using AI using your frameworks? Because it's been pretty famous lately. It's been going viral. So can you walk us through that?

Of course, yeah. Very happy to share. I mean, when it comes to AI content, especially on LinkedIn, there is a ton of AI slop out there. I mean, there was an interesting study by Graphi conducted recently, and they found that AI content has surpassed human content. So now it's harder than ever to stand out in the sea of AI generated content. It's everywhere. Everybody can publish, even myself. That's why I started in the first place, because of AI. If I didn't have it, I wouldn't be here today sharing my thoughts online. So it can be super powerful when leveraged correctly and with intent and purpose. So I like to follow a certain framework, which is called the Chef framework.

Chef.

Chef, yes.

As in the, you know, the cooking one.

Yeah, cool, cool, cool.

Sounds cool. Yeah, yeah.

Because I like to approach AI content the same way that a chef would when they're cooking up a dish.

Oh, perfect.

Yeah, yeah. And it really comes down to having the right ingredients and processes in place to cook up some fire content.

Fire content.

Love that.

It feels like you're talking to me.

Into ratatouille or something right now, which is pretty awesome. Continue.

Yeah. So, I mean, the framework is so essential because instead of writing generic how to content, which anybody can publish online, you have to come from a place of expertise. And how I did it exactly. Because now someone can go to any AI model and generate 10 tips, 100%. But no one can replicate your unique story. So that's what it really draws out. And the first step is context. I think we're starting to understand the importance of context engineering now, because in 2023, 2024, it was all about prompt engineering. You've probably seen those mega prompts, you know, copy and paste this and ChatGPT will obey all your orders.

Yeah, yeah.

Well, now it's all about context stacking. And the more context you have, the more powerful your outputs will become. And that's the first letter in the Chef framework. It's curating that context like a chef would. Getting the ingredients from the pantry, going out to the shop, and collecting the right pieces. And to do that, there's multiple different ways that you could approach this. For me personally, one of the best hacks that I love is running a Deep research report in ChatGPT, my favorite tool, honestly. Same same here.

Love it.

I mean, I've been flirting with Claude, but ChatGPT is untouchable, still my go to. So for me, I do this for myself and clients too. And essentially what you want to do is to go into ChatGPT, select the deep Research mode, which a lot of people don't know about. It's just hidden when you press plus and then enable Deep Research.

That sounds new to me.

No way.

Really?

Well, because all the major LLMs offer a similar feature. They've got it in Gemini, they've got it in Claude. Flexd also has a Deep Research model too, and it's so, so powerful. Essentially what I do is I'll export my LinkedIn profile and say, conduct a deep research report on Charlie Hills. I'll attach his LinkedIn profile so you can ensure you're finding the information out about the right person. And this can be applied to anybody. And typically with deep research reports, it will ask you a series of follow up questions just to clarify exactly who they're researching. And I like to give it a very simple framework saying, yes, I want to know as much about Charlie as possible, but not just like business achievements, like personal stuff.

Yeah.

So I ask it for a background story, my achievements and my future goals and mission, which, yeah, we can AI everything it needs now to then, you know, spend 10 to 20 minutes.

You fed it enough information, the stuff that it needs.

Exactly. We need to feed it.

Yeah, yeah.

Which is the last step of the share framework. But essentially then it will run. In this instance, it spent 16 minutes searching, it did 47 searches and found 17 sources and it found a very comprehensive amount of information out about me. Like it knows why I started building my personal brand. It knows more about me than I know about myself, which is, which is nice.

Scary.

Nice and scary. But it's so, so, so comprehensive and it's a great way to build out your story to then feed into the AI in the context. Yeah, I mean, not everybody has an online footprint. So you could do this manually. Yeah, you could follow that framework I mentioned your background story, your achievements, your future goals and mission, or if you.

Can find someone online, you can obviously do this manually is what you're trying to do.

Yeah, of course, but I hate staring at a blank page.

Yeah, yeah. So do something.

Yeah, yeah, I'm just going to let AI do it for me. And I find that so, so powerful because once you have this Then this is so much content. I mean, the depth is insane.

It's insane. And deep research is like. ChatGPT is basically secret weapon. People are not using it.

100 it really surprised me. And I suggest anybody just to do a little deep research.

Yeah.

Report on themselves and just see what it comes up with. It's pretty fun.

We'll be right back to the show, but first, I want to tell you about another podcast you're going to love. It's called My First Million, hosted by Sam Parr and Sean Puri and is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network. My First Million is one of my favorite podcasts. I listen to it almost every week. They have some of the best business stories, startup stories, and really, if you want to learn more about business or starting a company, it's the best podcast to listen to. And recently they've been talking a little bit more about AI, so I highly suggest you check it out. Listen to My First Million wherever you get your podcasts.

So that is step one of the share framework, because once you have that, then you can also gather more context about previous content you've created.

Right.

So let's say in the case of LinkedIn posts, you could gather as many of them as possible, and then you have a complete repository of your story stuff you've written well. And then actually ask AI to reverse engineer your style. So I'd upload it to ChatGPT and say, you are a precision analyst. Reverse engineer. This style and the tone, the rhythm, everything that makes my content unique.

And that's the keyword people should use.

Reverse engineering.

I love reverse engineering. Rarely do I write prompts from scratch. I just reverse engineer and prompt the prompt.

Such a good hack. Honestly.

Yeah, honestly. It's the best way. It is the best way. So now, yeah, we've created all this context and we have all the ingredients we need. We've got the bread, we've got the butter, we've got the spices, we've got the, you know, we're ready to cook. And that's where it comes to the heat section of the chef framework. Now we're ready to start cooking.

Yeah.

And it's relatively straightforward. You know, you could just go into ChatGPT and hit generate. But one of my favorite workflows is to build a project.

Okay.

I mean, it surprised me how many people haven't actually leveraged projects. Many people have experience with GPTs.

Yeah, yeah.

But projects are like a secret weapon.

Yeah, yeah.

Because the context compounds versus GPT, which will forget what you told it yesterday. So you can upload your previous pieces of content, your deep research, and then you have a content engine ready to go. And the beautiful thing that I love about projects is that if I ask it something quite nuanced, like how to win on LinkedIn, if I prompted that into ChatGPT out of the box, it'd give me the most outdated answer.

Generic thing.

Yeah. Like use hashtags, engage in groups. It's like, who does that anymore?

It's like 2016.

Exactly. It's so 10 years ago versus because I've given it previous posts and expertise that only I've spoken about. When I ask it something so nuanced, it gives me the exact blueprint that I would recommend.

Yeah.

I'm looking at this output and it's like, this is what I Talk about on LinkedIn. This is me. And that's what makes it so, so powerful, because it can just recall the context effortlessly. So then when it comes to creating a post, writing a newsletter, doing anything content related, it's way more unique and authentic.

Yeah, yeah. It's targeted now.

Yeah.

It's not just like random people's thoughts online. It's my thoughts, it's my story, it's me. Which is beautiful.

Love it, Love it.

Yeah, yeah. And you can again, do this in any LLM, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, NotebookLM, they all offer a kind of project style.

Feature, their own stuff.

Yeah, yeah. So you're not tied to ChatGPT, because then once you've got the initial base, the draft, then it's time to enhance. Enhance with flavor. Time to sprinkle in your unique seasoning, your spices, your secret sauce that makes your food, your content, your dishes. Yeah. Unique. And, you know, chef's kiss.

So it needs a bit of cumin, like.

Exactly. We need to sprinkle that in. And this process is probably quite manual, to be honest. I don't overly rely on AI to change the entirety of my content. I find that when you prompt it to change the entire thing, quality drops.

Yeah.

But a feature, again, Underrated in ChatGPT is to highlight a specific section and then use the Ask ChatGPT feature. Like, have you used it? You can, like, highlight and then prompt.

Sometimes it annoys me because I'm trying to copy something, but then I know I should target this sentence, but maybe I should use it more often rather than get annoyed at it.

So probably 100% in this instance, I was writing a blog and instead of saying, like, make this blog more exciting and actionable, I'M just going to highlight the intro and say, let's make this more first person, let's add in this bit of context. And you can add in more context into this because AI doesn't remember the conversation we're having right now unless I give it to it in context. So that's your opportunity to sprinkle in the seasoning but also add more context. And that works really well. And also very on brand here. But to enhance it with flavor, especially when it comes to writing LinkedIn posts, it's to use the Spice framework, which stands for situation. So you want to give some context in the first few lines of text because I find that so powerful that authentic storytelling rather than just saying here's how to do this. It's like, here's the struggle I went through, here's the problem, which is the next phase, the tension or the constraint. And then the intervention. What did you do step by step, how did you overcome it? And then the change and the outcome or insight. And then finally the evidence, the receipts that you actually did it.

The receipts, yeah.

You have to prove that you actually did this. Otherwise it's like is this ChatGPT? And that's by situation, problem, intervention, change, evidence. And it's a great copywriting framework, really fits in with the CHER framework. And the final point, it's to feed, feed the community.

Okay.

Because this, the most important thing when posting anything online is that you can press, publish, but if you don't hang around and engage with people and to build genuine relationships, then it's going to fall flat.

Yeah.

Like you can write the most, the best piece of content, but you actually have to build up those relationships with people to make it stand out. And thing I like to do here is use my pin comment GPT. Yeah, I love it. I use it every single day. And basically.

I know, I see it.

You see it.

Yeah. People love these comments because they're little extra insights which I add into my LinkedIn posts. And one, it means people spend more time on my posts, which helps with the overall performance and also they engage more with it. And I use AI images here. You know, you don't always have to use a real image of yourself.

Yeah.

And it's just an extra little bit of insight or story that you can add to your post and people love it. And that really builds that sense of community. And also talking with people in the DMs, those are like the extra little hacks which you created. The perfect dish right now it's time to serve it now it's time to feed it to the people. And that's for the best way of creating authentic AI content at scale.

Yeah. Love it. Thank you so much. Do you have anything else that you'd like to say to the people when it comes to this and how to use it from A to Z in terms of, like, the steps or, like, should I follow the steps letter by letter?

For sure. I mean, I think. Yeah. Follow the exact framework, curate, heat, enhance, and then feed. Yeah. The feed section is optional if you're sending out a newsletter.

Right.

You don't have to, like, reply to every email that comes in. But, like, that context is so important.

It is.

Instead of prompt stacking, it's context stacking.

Yeah, yeah.

Gather as much information as you can.

Yeah.

And then. Yeah, that's how you create awesome AI content at scale.

Well, thank you, Charlie. That was amazing.

Thank you so much.

Course. No, thank you for having me. It's great to share it.

We'll see you next time, though.

Yeah, definitely. Can't miss it.