Write a LinkedIn thought leadership post in founder voice
intermediateClaude SonnetMarketingContentlinkedinthought-leadershipghostwritingsocial-mediafounder
Use case
Use this prompt when ghostwriting LinkedIn content for a founder, CEO, or executive. The post should feel personal, opinionated, and human — not like polished marketing copy. Works best when the executive has a genuine perspective or experience to share.
The prompt
You are an expert ghostwriter who specializes in authentic LinkedIn content for founders and executives. Write a LinkedIn thought leadership post. Context: - Author name and title:{{author_name}},{{author_title}}- Company:{{company}}- The core insight or observation to share:{{core_insight}}- A personal experience or story behind this insight:{{personal_story}}- Why this matters to the audience:{{audience_relevance}}- Target audience (who follows this person):{{target_audience}}- Tone:{{tone}}(e.g., candid and direct, reflective and humble, provocative, storytelling-driven) - Any phrases or words the author uses regularly that feel authentic to them:{{voice_notes}}Write a LinkedIn post that: - Opens with a hook that stops the scroll — a single bold statement, a surprising observation, or a counterintuitive claim. NOT a question opener. - Tells a brief, specific story or shares a concrete observation (not a generic observation) - Has a clear, singular point of view — not "it depends" or "there are many ways to think about this" - Uses short paragraphs (1–3 sentences max) and generous white space for LinkedIn's format - Ends with a reflection or implication — not a question asking readers to comment, not a CTA to visit a link - Is between 150–300 words - Sounds like a human wrote it, not a content team Produce 2 variants: - Variant A: Opens with the personal story - Variant B: Opens with the bold claim, then backs it with the story Mark which performs better for engagement and why.
Variables
{{{{author_name}}}}Replace with your {{author name}}{{{{author_title}}}}Replace with your {{author title}}{{{{company}}}}Replace with your {{company}}{{{{core_insight}}}}Replace with your {{core insight}}{{{{personal_story}}}}Replace with your {{personal story}}{{{{audience_relevance}}}}Replace with your {{audience relevance}}{{{{target_audience}}}}Replace with your {{target audience}}{{{{tone}}}}Replace with your {{tone}}{{{{voice_notes}}}}Replace with your {{voice notes}}
Example
Input
author_name: Elena Vasquez author_title: CEO company: Anchor Analytics core_insight: the obsession with hiring "senior" people is the root cause of most early-stage startup culture failures — you bring in people whose instincts were built for a different company at a different stage personal_story: hired a "world-class" VP of Marketing from a public company at Series A; she built beautiful processes that created 6-week campaign cycles at a company that needed to move in 6 days; had to part ways after 9 months audience_relevance: founders and early-stage leaders making hiring decisions based on resumes instead of stage-fit target_audience: founders, startup operators, early-stage investors tone: candid, direct, a little self-deprecating — Elena shares mistakes openly voice_notes: Elena says "honestly," uses short declarative sentences, rarely uses jargon
Output
**Variant A: Story first** We hired a "world-class" VP of Marketing at our Series A. She came from a public company. Incredible resume. Built beautiful systems. Established perfect processes. Those processes took 6 weeks to produce a campaign. We needed to move in 6 days. Nine months later, we parted ways. Neither of us did anything wrong — she built exactly what she knew how to build. It just wasn't what we needed. Honestly, that's on me. The instincts that make someone great at a 2,000-person company are different from the instincts that make someone great at a 20-person company. Resumes don't tell you which instincts someone has. The company they came from does. Stage-fit is underrated. We talk endlessly about culture fit, skill fit, functional fit. "Has this person operated successfully at this exact stage of chaos?" is the question I wish I'd asked first. --- **Variant B: Bold claim first** The obsession with "senior" hires is one of the most common early-stage founder mistakes. Not because senior people aren't good. Because the instincts built at a 2,000-person company are different from the instincts needed at 20. [Continues with the same story, compressed to 2 sentences] --- Recommended: **Variant A**. The story earns the insight. Readers invest emotionally in Elena's mistake before arriving at the lesson — which makes the lesson land harder. Variant B front-loads the claim, which works better for audiences who already trust the author. For building an audience, story-first is more effective.
Tips for best results
- 1The best LinkedIn posts share something the author actually experienced or genuinely believes — not a list of best practices they found online. The personal story is what makes it worth reading.
- 2Ask the executive for 3–5 bullet points of what they actually want to say, then use this prompt to shape those points into a narrative. Don't invent the insight.
- 3Avoid the question-ending trap ('What do you think?'). It's overused and signals you're chasing engagement rather than sharing something worth engaging with.
- 4Short paragraphs are not a stylistic choice on LinkedIn — they're structural. Long blocks of text get skipped because the platform is consumed on mobile.
- 5Post at the same time 2–3 times per week for 8 weeks before evaluating performance. LinkedIn's algorithm rewards consistency more than individual post quality.
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