Learn Brian LeManna's Strategies for Transforming His Profile into a Pipeline Powerhouse
Master Viral Content Styles From Top LinkedIn Creators
Each week, I breakdown how (and when) a top creator hit their viral moment, so you can weave it into your strategy.
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*This is Brian's total engagement numbers from his 10-year journey (through September 4, 2024)
Introduction
Brian has skyrocketed to becoming a LinkedIn Sales influencer in a short 5 year period.
- He has achieved President's Club status five times by the age of 27.
- Brian transitioned from a Sales Development Representative (SDR) to a distinguished Account Executive at Gong.
- He developed and advocated for a multi-channel prospecting strategy, significantly enhancing engagement and response rates from potential clients.
- Brian emphasizes the importance of discovery as a critical skill in sales, refining techniques to understand and address client needs effectively.
- He actively engages in content creation to build his personal brand, sharing insights and experiences to educate and inspire others in the sales community.
- Committed to mentoring others in the industry, Brian shares valuable lessons learned from both successes and failures to foster a culture of continuous improvement.
But what's most impressive is his commitment to consistency.
It's wild to see someone capture the learnings of how to succeed at such an early age in his career.
Content Style: Sales Leader
Brian speaks to B2B SaaS AEs and is looked up to as a sales leader.
He may be an Account Executive at Gong but his influence on LinkedIn is much more than that.
He's started his own newsletter 'Closed Won' and has been joining Podcasts to share his learnings throughout the last 4 years. Join his newsletter community here: https://closedwon.xyz/
But let's get started on understanding where he started so we can understand how he got to where he is today.
We All Start Somewhere
With the majority of the creators I’ve reviewed in the past, it was easy to say they started on LinkedIn at a particular time. But this is not the case with Brian LaManna.
Although Brian shared his first post on August 15, 2014, he really didn’t "start" on LinkedIn at that time.
After sharing his first post in August 2014, Brian took a long break and didn't post anything until August 2016 - exactly 2 years later.
Even August 2016 was still not when he "started". He was just testing the waters.
Check out Brian's first LinkedIn post here:
Did you see that?
There were no likes, no comments, no reposts on his very first post 10 years ago.
Why?
Good question!
Check it again, and you’ll see that the post is literally empty - not a single letter of the alphabet was on the post.
As of now, Brian has shared several hundreds of posts on LinkedIn, having 266k+ reactions, 27k+ comments, and 2.7k+ reactions.
Still, this was his starting point - we all start somewhere!
Brian shared his second post exactly 731 days (2 years + 1 day) after the first, on August 16, 2016.
This was a repost of the content shared by another LinkedIn user, and Brian had 1 like on the post.
After that second post, Brian shared another one in 2016 with no reaction.
WOW:
Google handles 1.2 trillion searches a year. (14 reactions)
Despite sharing his last post in August 2017, Brian didn’t post anything until about 16 months later, and this was his only post in 2017.
Now you see why it’s a bit tricky to tell when he actually became a user. That wasn’t even 2018 ‘cos he shared only 9 posts in that year.
Brian didn’t actively start using LinkedIn until much later.
I want to publicly thank the Global Sales Workshop for shaping me into the professional I am today... (83 reactions, 4 comments)
This was Brian’s 5th post ever in his 4 years of using LinkedIn, and his first post of the year. Yet he had 83 likes. That’s pretty impressive.
Although it may be hard finding what really sold this post, I found few things just reading through his 2 paragraphs and looking at it as a whole. Check out these 3 things:
1/ There’s a picture
Media files are really powerful in attracting scrollers attention on any social media platform.
On LinkedIn, pictures, videos, infographics, carousels, etc., do the magic. When scrolling through feed and seeing different letters arranged together, things get pretty blurry. A good picture could be a real breather from all those. And that’s the power of media files.
2/ There are mentions
2 of them actually. The first is the Global Sales Workshop and the second is Kelly. Despite not using "@" for the mentions, a mention is still a mention.
3/ There’s a story
People relate to stories more than you think. This is story is about an event and how it has benefited Brian. Storytelling is one of the core skills of communication and community growth.
As the holiday season is approaching, I've always found it important to give back in one way or another. (13 reactions, 2 comments, 1 repost)
Last year about this time, I choose against making my typical New Years Resolution's. I instead wrote down just one thing in my notebook "win every day." (75 reactions, 2 comments)
Just by looking at this, the things that stand out with this post are:
- Perfect timing. Talking about new year resolutions and a better way of approaching your dreams and achieving them.
- Good structure. You can see a fair use of white space, bullet points and paragraphs.
- Storytelling
Hey network - I am at Adobe Summit in Las Vegas this week (42 reactions, 2 comments, 1 repost)
Salesforce paid a premium price tag to bolster it's MarTech Stack by purchasing Tableau to compete against Microsoft's Power BI… (20 reactions, 2 comments, 1 repost)
I was very excited to hear this morning that I was accepted to become a mentor at Bravado! (52 reactions, 9 comments)
The selling point for this post is value delivery. People generally gather around where they get value, not get their time wasted.
Short content + maximum value is the order of the day.
Make every line count.
Hi all! This morning I published an article on LinkedIn on the basics of Google's newest algorithm change & industry trends in search. (66 reactions, 3 comments, 3 reposts)
As I'm approaching my 2nd full year at BrightEdge it’s time to share what we’ve learned! (153 reactions, 14 comments, 3 reposts)
This is the first time Brian hit 100 reactions, and crossed it. So far, this post has performed the best since he started using LI.
You can easily tell why it has a good performance from the screenshot.
- Good structure - short paragraphs with good white space.
- Mention top industry leaders in each of the paragraphs.
- Interesting hook - from the hook, you can tell what you’re going to gain from the copy. That’s a great appetizer. Good use of numbers.
- Good conclusion - drop the banger and close the conversation.
- Value delivery - we can’t overlook this. It forms the backbone of any post. Deliver value for your readers’ time.
Those Friday #SEO Vibes. Great day to win the day. (150 reactions, 15 comments, 1 repost)
This is the entire content - the hook, the body, the conclusion.
Aside from the hashtag, we can’t overemphasize the power of media in any post. This post got this many likes and comments solely because of the picture.
I'm incredibly fortunate to work at a company that was able to successfully navigate the challenges of 2020… (49 reactions, 3 reposts)
This Friday marks my official last week with BrightEdge… (258 reactions, 72 comments)
The first time hitting the 200 reaction mark.
At this point, Brian understands the power of using the right media, mentions (people, companies, places), and writing in paragraphs.
Job. Seekers. Market. (180 reactions, 6 comments)
Quick PSA to all my sales folks: There’s no Q5. (67 reactions, 2 comments)
Testing Phase
2022 was the year Brian started posting on LinkedIn a bit more consistently. This is when you can say he started using LinkedIn (as a creator).
Over the last 7 years since he shared his first post on the platform, Brian has posted only 53 times - sometimes with very long breaks between posts. He had 1831 reactions, 160 comments, and 62 reposts in the entire 7 years.
In 2022, he posted 98 times, having 20,474 reactions, 3,557 comments, and 179 reposts.
This was an impressive performance in just this one year.
And yes! He started commenting on each comment he gets on his posts. This massively improves your engagement.
1,000+ employees!?!? In just over 5 years? 
(117 reactions, 4 comments, 1 repost)
Regardless of the response - I really 
when prospects respond. (131 reactions, 11 comments, 4 reposts)
In this phase, Brian’s Testing Phase, you can tell that his copywriting skills have improved.
Gone are the days when you have all your points in one long paragraph.
Today, 1-2 sentences/paragraph gives the best readability.
Your copy must BREATHE.
This allows your readers to breathe and easily scan through the content.
Saving them time - the most valuable commodity.
Every sentence must carry a complete point, and be short.
The shorter, the better!
The 1st day of the month (or quarter) is my favorite. The best don't just go full steam ahead into business as usual. (94 reactions, 15 comments)
For those that know me, I rarely ever "fully unplug." (196 reactions, 21 comments)
More sad tech news: Shopify laying off 10% of workers. (1085 reactions, 59 comments, 14 reposts)
With Brian's more recent improvements, having massive engagements on some of his posts is not so surprising.
Of course, not every post that tick the marks will fly, but be sure that if the algorithm favors you, there’s a reason to fly.
Brian shared the most recent event in one of the worlds leading ecommerce company. Be the first to talk about the most recent event.
He didn’t only share the news, but also gave a little background to the event, giving more insights to SDRs on what to watch out for in their companies. He also shared the way forward (from his perspective). This is sharing value with your posts.
Everyone in sales can relate to this as it concerns one of the big companies in the world of sales. And everyone can imagine what it means to be laid off.
Share a post that appeals to people’s emotions, you win their hearts.
When you win their hearts, you win their hands - they easily engage your posts.
Me going into the office for the 1st time since March 2020 (257 reactions, 31 comments, 4 reposts)
Finding Brian's Creator Style
$1 million+ sourced. 178 qualified meetings. 87% show rate. (464 reactions, 70 comments, 4 reposts)
At this point, Brian decided to fully launch his creator mode by posting everyday on LinkedIn.
And talking about great content structure, this post definitely pass the test.
He also gave a good CTA, and continued engaging all his audience in the comment section of his posts.
Guess what?
His comments and engagements adds to the metrics.
Q4 is off to an ice cold start for me 
(2169 reactions, 210 comments 5 reposts)
Nothing beats being real on LinkedIn.
One of the things that makes people trust you the more is when you share EVERYTHING - the good, bad, and ugly.
It’s the first time hitting 2k reactions on a single post and the post that hit the mark was not a "win" post
Why??
Every SDR has been there - so every SDR understand and can relate to the situation.
Now if a sales leader can have a cold Q4 start as this, and puts it out there, it does more than encourage every rep reading the post.
I believe creators that share both their UPs and DOWNs on LI are more likely to build a stronger community.
Option 1: Lose deals, miss your Q4, blame on economy (456 reactions, 74 comments, 7 reposts)
I’m happy to share that I’m starting a new position as Mid-Market Account Executive at Gong! (1391 reactions, 126 comments)
Received this email & they signed 6 hours after: (1003 reactions, 162 comments, 13 reposts)
Won the largest deal of my career [by 2x] on Friday (833 reactions, 119 comments, 2 reposts)
Having found his voice, Brian has chosen his unique long-form content style to work with.
He also mas mastered the art of storytelling in a compelling way.
Not only is he teaching from experience, Brian also adds a few extra lessons to help SDRs.
I sourced 73 meetings via email as an AE in 2022(2391 reactions, 275 comments, 96 reposts)
56% win rate - when I have 3+ people engaged.
Took me 4 years to learn, and I'll teach it in 2 minutes. (2575 reactions, 227 comments, 35 reposts)
See that hook!
There’s no way you’re an SDR and you don’t want to read that.
First, there’s a statistic - even though it may be objective, the #s and % pops.
Also, there’s a prompt of value for time. If you get to learn what took someone 4 years in 2 minutes.
You’ll likely think “that’s a good ROI.”
Then, Brian went on to practically teach the process of getting the big win over huge accounts.
And at this point, he’s posting everyday, including weekends.
49+ companies 𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐲 𝐡𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 for AEs, SDRs, AMs and CSMs.
Let's turn this into a live job board: (1349 reactions, 366 comments, 238 repost)
See why it's not surprising that this post has that many comments and reposts.
It doesn't have to be only you... this is how to convert your audience to your writers.
Brian re-edited this post to include other companies as other people add them to the comments.
Super excited to share I surpassed 150% YTD and auto-qualified for Gong's President's Club!!! 
(1590 reactions, 380 comments)
I’m happy to share that I’m starting a new position as Strategic Mid-Market Account Executive at Gong! (3121 reactions, 345 comments)
One of the last photos with my mom. (2039 reactions, 197 comments)
This was one of the best days of my life. (2014 reactions, 217 comments, 1 repost)
Conclusion
Here’s what you should take away from Brian's journey:
- Weave personal stories into your public persona
- Use data and dates in hooks (to capture attention)
- Building in public works magically
Look, it's not magic that Brian is now one of the most powerful and influential creators of our time. It's not by accident either. I haven't talked to him (yet) about how he decided to weave together this strategy but it sure works.
From those Classified Creators that have come before Brian, there are some similarities and some differences.
Let's focus on what's different and why it worked for Brian.
Below you'll find details of why his approach is different and how you can apply this to your adventure on LinkedIn.
1
Weave personal stories into your public persona
Brian didn't hold anything back here. He shared everything from pics with his mama to the latest major step in his life - proposing to his future spouse.
These posts are very recent but the point I'm making is that some of the most powerful posts and moments are when you can share a personal story. This brings your audience closer to you and feels empathy for whatever challenges come ahead in your life.
Think about how much (or little) you'd be open to sharing something like this. It matters (to your audience).
2
Use data and dates in hooks (to capture attention)
Across most of his most popular post, there is use data and numbers. How can you do the same?
Here are some of the most interesting examples:
As you can see, leveraging numbers, percentages (and dates) can turn your posts into something that get someone to hit that 'See More' button.
3
Building in public works magically
Brian is building his career and life in public.
This is not about building a company. This is about building HIM. That's what stands out and is drastically different from other creators that I've highlighted in this newsletter.
It's about his life, his fears, dreams, successes and failures.
By sharing all the areas in his life along with his career, he's speaking directly to individual contributors at B2B SaaS companies looking to do the same.
He also continues to capture attention from other sales leaders and because of what's he's built here - he's never going to have an issue building his career in B2B SaaS.
Congrats on how you've built your LinkedIn journey here Brian.
It's inspiring for all of us to follow along.
I can't wait to see what the next 5 years holds for you.
This has been a wonderful week and I've learned a great deal from Brian's journey.
I hope you have too!
See you next week.
Master Viral Content Styles From Top LinkedIn Creators
Each week, I breakdown how (and when) a top creator hit their viral moment, so you can weave it into your strategy.
100% Free. Unsubscribe anytime.
Connect With Me Here:
ANDREW MCGUIRE
Pipeline Catalyst Founder
From burnt out exec (3 exits & 15 years experience) to effortless growth by finding my creator style.
Living in Bend, Oregon and taking advantage of all the outdoor adventures.
If you can't find me, I'm probably lifting some weights in the gym, sweating in a sauna or freezing in a cold plunge.
Now I'm on a mission to help you understand how top creators have gone viral so you can weave it into your growth strategy.
Copyright 2024 Andrew C McGuire, all rights reserved.