Learn how Adam Robinson went from 0 to 80,000 Followers in 18 months

*This is Adam's total engagement numbers from his 18-month journey (through May 29, 2024) 

Introduction

Adam started his journey on Feb 11, 2019 as a content creator on LinkedIn. Over that period of time he’s grown it to 83,000 raving fans. For Adam, it wasn’t about going as broad as possible to capture a large audience.

He went on a mission to figure out how to speak to this ideal customers and convert them into customers. The editions I’ve written about so far have been from personal brands that have gone for growth for the sake of it. That’s not a bad thing - this is just a different approach entirely.

Adam has said a few times that he doesn’t want to ‘well known’ but ‘known well’.

His approach to LinkedIn is just that and that’s why he has created his own creator style category. 

Content Style: Contrarian Unicorn

We’ve all seen a Unicorn (IRL of course) but never a Contrarian Unicorn.

 
Just kidding.

 
There’s all talk about how a B2B SaaS org with a $1B valuation is a unicorn.

 
What about someone who builds their personal brand on LinkedIn to generate 2M views per month and single handedly starts to dismantle 6Sense by trying to get him to stop posting about it on LinkedIn.

Adam not only found a way of having a contrarian opinion that resonates with his audience but he’s able to turn that attention into real business.

Here’s his breakdown of May 2024 revenue from his team (and business). It’s worth a read and tells you why he’s grown so fast. Nobody posts about this stuff (in this way). 

Hence the Contrarian Unicorn Style. 

Here’s the definition of a Contrarian Unicorn

• Posts have an opposite opinion of what everyone else talks about
• Uses mediums others aren’t (Weekly LinkedIn Live and Video) 
• Doesn’t deviate and stays true to the type of content 

There aren’t many others on LinkedIn like this but I’ll try and name a few here. 

Other Contrarian Unicorns Worth Following

Adam's LinkedIn Live Journey (May 29, 2024)

On May 29, 2024 Adam Robinson spent an hour walking the LinkedIn community through his story.  His point of view of how he went to 80,000 followers in under 18 months.  

Here's what I took away from it: 

• Start with a ghostwriter who understands the platform
• Get strategy help when you're ready to create a founder brand 
• It took 12 months to figure out his content style
• Treat your network like it's a bar (and you're the bouncer) 
• Write content that you understand pain points of
• Once it 'clicks', you'll know what to write next 
• Author/Platform/Audience fit is real 
• Video differentiates you 
• Become 'known well' 
• It's hard & expensive

I do want to expand on a few things he touched on but I won't go into full depth (that's what you'll find below). 

Start with a ghostwriter who understands the platform

Adam admits he didn't know what he was doing (in the beginning) so he hired a ghostwriter (named Tommy).  If you're looking for someone to help you, I started a service that will help you get started called Pipeline Catalyst. 

The point of a ghostwriter is to assist you in telling your story (on LinkedIn).  This is something you should do but don't have the time to.  The last thing you need is another thing to do and that's the point of asking for some help.  

It took 12 months to figure out his content style

This isn't because he didn't know what he was doing.  It's because it just takes time to refine the audience you're speaking to.  At first, Adam was speaking to ecommerce store owners but come to find out - they don't live on LinkedIn.  He also wasn't one of them as in... he doesn't own an e-commerce store.  

But he is a founder of a B2B SaaS company and that's what the pivot led to.  It's how he became a Contrarian Unicorn. 

From this point on, he was talking to his audience and it made sense because he is one of them.  Think of it as speaking to your colleagues but with a megaphone and they are all around you waiting to listen. 

He finds his creator style on August 25, 2023 and the hook of the post is: I've spoken to 30 founders over the past six weeks about their BDR teams.  

This post got 719,906 impressions.... 

I talk more about this pivotal moment closer to the bottom of this post.  

Other takeaways I want to highlight 

Video differentiates you

Adam talks about how video differentiates you.  He took that play from Chris Walker who's been doing it since 2019.  I'll be doing a full breakdown of Chris in the future but his point is: "You can't be copied or plagiarized on video."  

Adam took that and ran with it.  

It's hard & expensive

Adam spends close to $50k/month on all this.  Yes... per month. 

It doesn't have to be like that.  It's possible to just get started without all the bells in whistles in the spreadsheet he shared below.  

The biggest thing you need to remember is that you just need to hit publish.  

You'll figure out the rest along the way. 

Now, read the details below to get more on his full 18 month story.  

There's a lot to unpack so I hope you enjoy. 

We All Start Somewhere

Adam first posted on LinkedIn on February 11, 2019. This was also his only post throughout the year 2019 through 2022.
Let’s start off with his first post. 

Do you notice something here?  

Only 9 likes and 4 comments. 

Back to my original point here, we all start somewhere. 

Good things take time to grow and building up your personal brand is well worth it but remember that good things take time. 

This was the only post for the first 3+years of his journey. 

It wasn’t until September 15, 2022 that he decided it was time to post again. 

Here’s the opening line (hook) to his second post:

I'm going to start posting daily about #startups, #marketing, #ecommerce, #emailmarketing and #entrepreneurship.

You’ll see as we go through this journey further that the next few months are all about sharing about startups, ecommerce and marketing. Mostly, he shared tips and tricks that would help marketers drive more sales. He also began sharing other top marketing creators' opinions that resonates with him.

Here are some other examples of what happened as he was exploring how to share his experiences:  

September 20, 2022: Capture 10-15x More Emails with Resolve. Click through to learn more. (9 reactions, 2 reposts)

September 20, 2022: Grow your abandonment Email and SMS revenue by up to 10x with Reclaim. (11 reactions, 1 repost)

This was his second week of posting after the long break - despite not having his foot on the ground, he started posting twice-a-day (inconsistently). He would still go on to miss some days. But he got that started anyway.)

Let’s get into what I noticed and why it matters in his journey. 

Testing Phase

On September 21, 2022, Adam attached a viral post from another creator, Chase Dimond, and also mentioned Chase in his post. This was his 6th post ever on Linked and it got over 1k reactions.

The original post by Chase Dimond had 700+ reactions.

I believe this is where Adam has hired help (as he talks about during his Live session here).  

This is a pivotal moment in her testing phase.  It may not seem like it from an engagement perspective but you’ll notice a shift. This is not just about him, but about other top creators whose posts have gone viral and people resonate with their ideas. 

September 26, 2022: Adam featured a twitter post from another creator.  Notice the consistency in style and also giving due credit to them.

Let's see more of Adam's viral posts following this style.

September 29, 2022:

October 3, 2022: 

October 11, 2022: This is so true. Can anyone else relate? 😂 h/t Tommy Clark

(1,763 reactions, 107 comments, 68 reposts)

October 24, 2022: Great (much needed) reminder! h/t Daily Copywriting

(2,036 reactions, 40 comments, 91 reposts)

October 26, 2022: Think people 'hate marketing?'

(6,105 reactions, 138 comments, 546 reposts)

November 03, 2022: Always a good reminder. h/t Junae Brown

(4,813 reactions, 113 comments, 350 reposts)

December 21, 2022: Marketing is psychology. Great reminder Junae Brown

(8,664 reactions, 164 comments, 608 reposts)

January 07, 2023: Marketing is psychology. Agreed Ross Simmonds!

(3,255 reactions, 120 comments, 184 reposts)

January 27, 2023: The best way to network is to be a nice person. Love this Tommy Clark

(13,716 reactions, 180 comments, 661 reposts)

(First post to cross 10k reactions and his most viral post till date.)

February 11, 2023: Friendly reminder: most of your audience is NOT ready to buy. Great stuff Daniel Murray

(5,464 reactions, 117 comments, 370 reposts)

March 04, 2023: Bad copy feels like a pitch, good copy feels like a conversation. Great advice Chase Dimond / Daily Copywriting

(3,233 reactions, 70 comments, 164 reposts)

April 20, 2023: Founders: do you agree?

9,800 reactions, 427 comments, 365 reposts

This time, Adam used his branded image for the post. Not from someone else, and it went viral, and yes, still posting twice most weekdays.

While he has a number of viral posts, sandwiched between them are several other posts with less than 50 reactions and comments with no reposts.

Also, he constantly engaged the comments on his posts.

In November, 2022, Adam became more consistent with his content posting twice daily

Finding Adam's Creator Style

From Around July, 2023, Adam pivoted from the viral branded reposts from other creators. He shifted to posting about his knowledge, experience and observations in the industry. He also started focusing more on his company as a B2B Founder vs. speaking to ecommerce store owners.  

The majority of his posts from here were just long form text content.

July 09, 2023:

Hook: If you're over 40 you might not recognize this guy, but every serious entrepreneur needs to study him.

(3,954 reactions, 309 comments, 86 reposts)

August 25, 2023: I’ve spoken to 30 founders over the past six weeks about their BDR teams.

(3,379 reactions, 697 comments, 136 reposts)

This was all texts but delivers value - 7 most controversial (and surprising) things I learned

September 06, 2023: This will not be a popular thing to say on LinkedIn, but my bootstrapped $20M ARR SaaS just shrunk our sales team from 15 to 4 reps and growth SPED UP (!).

(3,845 reactions, 565 comments, 87 reposts)

November 04, 2023: Revenue leaders are getting the Outreach/Google announcement wrong. It doesn't mean the death of cold email. In fact, cold email is about to become even MORE POWERFUL, but the playbook looks very different... 👇

(2061 reactions, 566 comments, 99 reposts)

December 28, 2023: 99% of startups think they need to maximize predictable revenue. They're wrong. The next crop of $1B unicorn startups will solve for sales velocity above all else. Here's 9 reasons why velocity will define the new world:

(2,296 reactions, 287 comments, 95 reposts)

January 25, 2024: The Great SaaS Pipeline Crisis of 2023-2024 (explained in 60 seconds):

(1,803 reactions, 203 comments, 79 reposts)

March 30, 2024: Last week the founder of Clearbit (acquired by Hubspot for $150M cash) told me, “VC, as we know it, is dead.” What makes this so nuts? He runs a big VC fund! Here's why the model is broken:

(1,000 reactions, 157 comments, 59 reposts)

April 23, 2024: Yesterday 6sense threatened to sue me over a viral Linkedin post. Here’s a copy of their Cease and Desist and what they are demanding I do:

(1,669 reactions, 911 comments, 50 reposts)

May 23, 2024: Nobody realizes that Apollo and ZoomInfo were both stuck at single-digit ARR for YEARS. When they finally got unstuck, unlocked rapid growth, and hit billion dollar valuations, both companies had ONE THING in common:

(1,230 reactions, 257 comments, 13 reposts)

So what does all this mean for you?

The Contrarian Unicorn: Is it for you? 

I made up this term because I really think Adam is a unicorn.  He's a B2B SaaS founder willing to do things others are not.  He's building in public and sharing everything along the way.  

This is a contrarian move.  

Most CEOs and founders: 

• Have investors 
• Don't fully understand what this can do for them

The tagline that Adam mentioned was: "I know this is doing something for me but I'm not sure what."

Most CEOs and Founders need to show something for their efforts and quickly.  

Adam's approach was (and still is) to just keep going without worrying about it.  That's not an approach most companies take because they have investors and obligations where Adam is the bootstrapped founder just building it all in public.  

It's beautiful to watch.  Keep it up Adam. 

Conclusion

Here’s what you should take away from Adam's 18 month journey (so far) and 80,000 followers: 

• Get help from the beginning (ghostwriter & strategist) 
• It took 12 months to figure out his content style 
• Use video to differentiate yourself

This was a really fun one to put together. 

I am looking forward to seeing you next week where we'll be breakdown down the Sam Jacobs's (CEO of Pavilion) journey.  He uses the same LinkedIn strategist as Adam but he's been at this for a much longer period of time (and isn't using much video). 

Until next week... I'll see you on LinkedIn.