LinkedIn Content Strategy for Leadership Advisors to Founders | Netwarm
LinkedIn playbook · Case study
LinkedIn content strategy for leadership advisors to founders: how a Hamburg decision-making advisor found 48 founders and CEOs among 441 readers
We read every reaction on 27 posts from a Hamburg decision-making advisor and podcast host. 441 people, 48 founders and CEOs. Here is what brings buyers, what brings peers, and the 5 posts we’d publish next.
Max Sawyer · Netwarm··12 min read
The creator in this case studyA Hamburg decision-making advisor and podcast host
Followers13,061
PostsDaily, ~7 a week
Sells
These numbers are from 3 November. Your audience has already moved.
New founders and CEOs turn Hot every week and others go quiet. Run your free scan to see today’s version, with the names.
Decision architecture for founders and CEOs: finding why delegated decisions keep coming back to the top, and fixing who decides what. Speaking, and a free Decision Breakdown to start.
PeriodOct 9 – Nov 3
Ideal client: founders and CEOs of growing companies whose team keeps sending decisions back up, often just after the company stopped fitting in one room.The challenge: The advisor joined LinkedIn in May with “the opposite setup” of most leadership voices: real experience, and content skills by the advisor’s own account “absolutely shit”. The feed is full of other coaches and consultants. Which posts reach the founders who’d send a decision over?
Key takeaways
1 in 9 readers is a founder or CEO.48 founders, CEOs, owners and senior executives reacted in under 4 weeks, among 276 coaches, consultants and other peers.
Guest stories bring 2x more.Podcast guest lessons on leadership brought 15.7% founders and CEOs. Behind-the-scenes posts on LinkedIn and podcasting brought 8.2%.
7 founders and CEOs are Hot right now.They reacted to 5 posts or more. One of them reacted to 21 of the 27.
01
Who actually reads you, and what the LinkedIn algorithm changed
The advisor posts every day about why delegated decisions keep landing back on the boss’s desk, through podcast guests, client patterns and personal stories. 27 posts between 9 October and 3 November, almost all at noon Hamburg time.
The LinkedIn algorithm shows a post to the people who reacted to the last ones, then to people like them. Leadership advice is a crowded feed: founders read it, and so does everyone else selling advice to founders. Reach can’t tell them apart. Who reacted can. We looked at every person who reacted and sorted them by role.
27posts in under 4 weeks
441people reacted
48founders and CEOs
11came back 3+ times
Audience by roleThe 441 people who reacted, by roleFree
Peers are the largest group by far: 276 people, almost 2 in 3. Many of them are leadership coaches, consultants and LinkedIn content people, and quite a few run their own small firm. They push reach, and they rarely hire a decision-making advisor.
The 48 founders and CEOs are the ones who matter. Most run AI, software and service companies, a few run factories, trading firms and clinics. They are a small group, so a single post that reaches 5 more of them changes the picture.
SeniorityAll people who reactedFree
Founder, owner, C-level29.9%
Director, VP4.3%
Manager7%
Independent11.8%
Other46.9%
IndustriesFounders and CEOs onlyNetwarm
AI, software and tech31.3%
Hidden in preview00%
Hidden in preview00%
Hidden in preview00%
Hidden in preview00%
See all industries and company sizes in your free scan.
Core audience11 founders and CEOs engaged 3+ times · 7 engaged 5+ timesNetwarm
11 founders and CEOs keep coming back. One of them reacted to 21 of the 27 posts.See your regulars
Engager company sizeEveryone who reacted, by company sizeNetwarm
Hidden in preview00%
Hidden in preview00%
Hidden in preview00%
Hidden in preview00%
Hidden in preview00%
See which company sizes your founders and CEOs work at.See company sizes
02
What to post on LinkedIn to reach founders and CEOs
Most advisors judge a post by its reactions. An advisor who sells should judge it by who reacted.
We tagged each of the 27 posts by topic, then measured the share of founders and CEOs among the people who reacted.
Your topicsWhat your 27 posts were aboutFree
27posts
Delegation & decisions coming back8
Podcast guest lessons on leadership6
Behind the scenes of LinkedIn & podcasting5
Women, AI & health episodes4
Personal life stories4
Topics that attract founders and CEOsShare of each topic’s reactions from founders and CEOsNetwarm
Women, AI & health episodes16.0%
Podcast guest lessons on leadership15.7%
Delegation & decisions coming back12.8%
Personal life stories12.2%
Behind the scenes of LinkedIn & podcasting8.2%
One topic brings almost 2x more founders and CEOs than another. See which.See which topics
Podcast guest stories bring almost 2x the share of founders and CEOs of behind-the-scenes posts: 15.7% against 8.2%. Guest lessons also reach the most of them per post, 7.3 on average.
Posts that brought the most founders and CEOsShare of founders and CEOs in each post’s reactions1 of 5 open
#1Helene’s smart ring was built for bodies like mine20%
#22% of venture capital money goes to women19.2%
#3“My door is always open”, with a face that said “please don’t”18.9%
#4The day the company stops fitting in one room17.9%
#5Peter’s red and green cards17.1%
For comparison, the post about friends who never subscribed to the podcast reached 2.9% founders and CEOs, the lowest share, on one of the biggest reaction counts.
6 rules for LinkedIn engagement from founders and CEOs
These rules come from what worked on the advisor’s own profile, and from the best-performing posts by leadership advisors and CEO coaches on LinkedIn over the last 3 months.
1
Let a guest tell the story, then admit your side of it. The guest brings the scene (a factory board, a CEO’s face). The advisor’s own confession (“I know the boss side of this too well”) turns it into a mirror for the founder reading.On this profile: podcast guest lessons brought 15.7% founders and CEOs, the most per post (7.3 on average).
Open on the founder’s own week. “How many things did you hand off last month that came back?” lands before any theory. The founder answers in their head, then keeps reading.Across the niche: Jordan Murphy’s handoff question drew 288 comments on 650 likes.
Point at the boss’s face, not the team. Founders react when the post shows what they do without noticing: the face, the sigh, the “let’s see”. Blaming the team brings peers who nod; naming the boss’s habit brings the boss.On this profile: the “my door is always open” post reached 18.9% founders and CEOs, the best of the guest posts on leadership. Across the niche, Cabot Earle’s post on what happens after a mistake drew 117 comments.
Give the pattern a name they can repeat. The advisor already has one: the Decision Return. A named pattern travels into the next leadership meeting, with the advisor’s name on it.Across the niche: Kevin McDonnell’s “It has built dependency” post drew 131 comments on 239 likes.
End with one decision they can send you. “Send me the decision they’re stuck on” gives a founder a small, private next step. It sells the Decision Breakdown without a pitch.On this profile: the two posts ending on the free Decision Breakdown brought 17.9% and 17.1% founders and CEOs, against 10.9% across all readers.
Keep the behind-the-scenes posts for the weekend. Posts about podcasting and LinkedIn itself get warm reactions, from peers. Keep them, but not on the days founders read.On this profile: behind-the-scenes posts brought 8.2% founders and CEOs, Saturday posts 8.3%, the lowest of any topic and any day.
When founders and CEOs read: the best time to post on LinkedIn for leadership advisors to founders
We compared the share of founders and CEOs by the day each post was published. 21 of the 27 posts went out around noon Hamburg time, so there is no hour to compare.
Share of founders and CEOs by posting dayAmong the people who reacted to each postFree
11.2%
Mon
14.3%
Tue
15.9%
Wed
16.2%
Thu
15.1%
Fri
8.3%
Sat
11.4%
Sun
Tuesday to Friday bring 14 to 16% founders and CEOs. Saturday brings half that, 8.3%. Wednesday brought the most per post, 7 on average.
Keep the noon slot: it lands mid-morning in London and before work on the US East Coast. Put the guest stories and the Decision Breakdown posts on Wednesday and Thursday, and keep Saturday for the podcast diary.
05
5 posts ready to publish to target founders and CEOs
Each post follows the rules above, in the advisor’s voice. Swap in your own details before posting: the real story is what makes it land.
1Ready to postGuest story + confession
The green card on your own floorRules 1 and 3: a guest’s scene, then the boss’s side of it. Modelled on the Peter Weiss card post (17.1% founders and CEOs).
Hook
Peter Weiss ran factories for thirty years, and the most useful thing he told me was six words: “Don’t know, they never told me.”I had asked him what goes on in someone’s head right before they admit they’re stuck.He had a board in the middle of his factory. Green card, you’re fine. Red card, someone comes down to help.People kept their cards green. Even next to a pile of work that was clearly winning.Because everyone could see the board. Including the boss.Your company has that board too. It’s just invisible.➝ Green is “all good, on track” in the Monday meeting.➝ Red is the message that starts with “just wanted to run this past you”.➝ And the guy looking up at the office window is the one who will send you the decision on Friday at 6pm.I was the office window for years. Someone got stuck, I jumped in and fixed it. I called it support. Nothing ever went red. It just went to me.So here’s Peter’s test, borrowed for your next one-to-one:Ask “what’s red?” and then shut up for ten seconds.If nobody ever says anything, the board isn’t green. Your face is.
Visual · Single imageA simple board with a row of green cards and one red card, hand-drawn. No logos.Check before postingPeter’s quotes and the board come from your episode: check the wording against the recording before posting.
The Decision ReturnRule 4: give the pattern a name. Modelled on Kevin McDonnell’s “It has built dependency” post.
Hook
Every growing company has one. I call it the Decision Return.It looks like this:Monday, 09:14. VP Sales: “Can you approve this?”Tuesday, 11:37. Operations: “What would you do?”Wednesday, 15:42. Finance: “We just wanted to run this past you.”Thursday, 16:18. Commercial: “They’re pushing back. Should we change it?”Four teams. Four decisions. One desk.Nobody on that list is lazy. Each of them did the sensible thing:➝ Nobody ever said who has final say, so escalating is safer than choosing.➝ They own the work, not the risk. Nobody authorised them to be wrong.➝ Conditions changed, and nobody knew if their authority changed with them.So the decision comes home. Like a parcel with your address on the back.Most founders fix this by hiring a COO to catch what keeps landing on them.Cheaper idea: find out why it keeps landing on you first.Which day of your week looks like this?
Visual · Single imageFour message bubbles with day, time and team, all pointing to one desk labelled CEO.Check before postingThe four messages mirror your website. Swap in a real week from a client (anonymised) if you have one.
The handoff that comes back by ThursdayRule 2: open on the founder’s own week. Modelled on Jordan Murphy’s handoff post.
Hook
How many decisions did you hand off last month that were back on your desk by Thursday?I used to send the classic:“Can you take this over? Should be pretty straightforward. Let me know if you have questions.”They had questions.How much can I spend? Who signs off? What if the client says no? Is Friday a deadline or a wish?Every one of those came back to me. So I was doing the work and answering questions about the work. Great system. Very efficient.The handoff wasn’t missing effort. It was missing three lines:➝ What’s yours to decide. “Up to 10k, you don’t need me.”➝ What still comes to me. “Anything that changes the price.”➝ What happens if you get it wrong. “We fix it together. Nobody gets shouted at.”The third line is the one founders skip. It’s also the one that makes the other two work.Try it on the next thing you hand off. Then count what comes back.
Visual · Text onlyNo image. The three lines carry the post.Check before postingThe 10k limit is an example: use a figure that fits your clients’ companies.
Your face makes the decisionRules 3 and 5: the boss’s face, then one decision they can send. Modelled on the “my door is always open” post (18.9%).
Hook
My team never needed me to say no. My face did it for me.A small sigh. A “let’s see”. Eyebrows doing something I wasn’t aware of.They learned fast. Bad news waits. Good news comes straight in.And the decisions they were unsure about? They sent them up. Every single one. Not because they couldn’t decide. Because being wrong in front of that face felt worse than asking.I thought I had a team that didn’t take ownership.I had a team that read faces really well.What changed it was boring:➝ When someone brought bad news, the first thing I said was “thanks for telling me early.”➝ When someone made a call I wouldn’t have made, I asked “what did you see?” before anything else.➝ When it went wrong, we fixed it first and talked about it on Friday.Three weeks later, fewer decisions came back. Same people.Got a decision that keeps landing back on your desk? Send it to me. I’ll write you a private breakdown of why it returns. Free.
Visual · Text onlyNo image, or a short clip of you telling the story to camera.Check before postingUse your real story and timing. Add your Decision Breakdown link at the end.
The Decision Return CheckRule 5 and the lead magnet below: one page founders can use alone. Modelled on Sandra Pellumbi’s self-audit cheatsheet.
Hook
Before you answer the next “quick question”, run this 60-second check.Because every decision that comes back to you comes back for one of three reasons. And the fix is different for each.1/ They didn’t have the facts.Signs: they ask for numbers, context, “what did the client say?”Fix: send the facts and give the decision back. Don’t decide it for them.2/ Nobody knew who’s allowed to say yes.Signs: “just wanted to check”, “is it okay if…”, three people copied in.Fix: say who decides. In writing. With a limit.3/ It was actually your call.Signs: it touches price, people or the strategy you haven’t explained yet.Fix: make it. Today. And stop pretending you delegated it.Most founders treat all three the same way. They type the answer. Thirty seconds, problem gone, back next week.That’s not a fix. That’s a subscription.P.S. I turned this into a one-page Decision Return Check, with the questions to ask before you reply. Want it? Comment CHECK and I’ll send it.
Visual · Single imageThe one-page check: three columns (facts, authority, your call), signs and fix under each.Check before postingPut your Netwarm Reveal link in the P.S. so you can see which founders download the check.
Free forever: unlimited scheduling through LinkedIn’s official API, with images, video and PDF carousels.
06
LinkedIn lead generation: lead magnets that work to target founders and CEOs
Reactions show interest. A download shows intent. The fastest way to find out which founders are serious is to give them something useful and see who takes it.
For founders stuck in the middle of their own company, these formats get the most requests:
Format 1The self-audit cheatsheetOne page that names where the founder’s time and decisions leak, with one question at the bottom that shows them their own case.
Format 2The templateThe exact document used with clients to stop being the bottleneck, sent for a one-word comment.
Format 3The named frameworkThree parts with names in the post, the full version for a comment. The names do the selling.
Our pick for you: “The Decision Return Check”Built from the three reasons the advisor already uses (no facts, no clear authority, actually the boss’s call), with the signs and the fix for each, on one page. Offer it in the P.S. of post 5, and point the next step to the free Decision Breakdown.With a Reveal link, every person who downloads it is shown by name, with their role and how warm they are. Your first Reveal link is free.Create your free Reveal link
07
From reactions to clients
Content brings founders and CEOs to the profile. It doesn’t say when to reach out. Most never comment, so they stay invisible, and a founder reading every post in October may have hired someone else by January.
On LinkedIn, the right moment to start a conversation is when someone keeps coming back. We call that Hot: 5 or more points over 90 days, where a reaction counts 1, a repost 2, a download or a reply 4.
Hot right now7 founders and CEOs · not contacted yetNetwarm
7 founders and CEOs are Hot. See who to message first.See who’s Hot
First messageAn opener for each Hot person, based on the posts they readNetwarm
Hi Jordan, you’ve been reading my posts on decisions that keep coming back. Which one lands on your desk most often right now?Hi Sam, I saw you reacted to the post about the company that stops fitting in one room. Is that where your team is right now?
A first line for each of them, ready to send.See the openers
Netwarm sends nothing for you. It tells you who and when, and you write the message. It also works inside Claude and ChatGPT: ask “Who’s Hot today?” and get the list.
08
FAQ
Guest stories and client patterns about the boss’s own habits brought the most founders and CEOs here: 15.7% for podcast guest lessons, against 8.2% for posts about LinkedIn and podcasting. End with one small, private next step, such as sending one decision.
For this advisor, Thursday brought the highest share of founders and CEOs (16.2%), then Wednesday (15.9%) and Friday (15.1%). Saturday brought the lowest, 8.3%.
This advisor posts every day, and 11 founders and CEOs came back 3 times or more in under 4 weeks. Daily works when the weekday posts carry the method, and the weekend keeps the lighter posts.
Look at who reacts, not how many. Group reactions by role, measure the share of your ideal clients per post, and follow the people who keep coming back. A free Netwarm scan does this for you.
Yes. Netwarm only reads public reactions to your own posts. It never logs in as you, never asks for your password, and never messages anyone for you.
How we made this playbook
We read the public reactions on 27 posts published between 9 October and 3 November 2026 (the first 100 people on each post), and sorted the 441 people by role. Comments were not counted, so engagement figures are a floor. One post written by someone else and two posts without reactions were left out.
Niche rules come from top posts by leadership advisors and CEO coaches over the last 3 months. Role groups are approximate, and some founders sell advice to founders too; a Netwarm scan matches people to your own ideal client.
