Charlie Hills

Charlie Hills is a LinkedIn creator and AI content strategist who grew from zero to 185,000+ followers in under two years while earning 7x his previous corporate salary. Before LinkedIn, he co-founded a food tech startup called Kitchen X and spent four years quietly using AI tools in hospitality roles. He runs the MarTech AI newsletter (48,000+ subscribers), a LinkedIn ghostwriting agency called Linked Agency, and teaches creators how to use AI without losing their voice.

Key Patterns

Every system he teaches (CHEF, 70/20/10, engagement circuit) is one he uses daily on his own account
He treats AI as prep work, not finished product, always filtering output through the “stranger test”
Data overrides assumptions in his workflow: he exports analytics monthly and lets the numbers guide decisions
He builds monetization into content from the start through deliberate funnel architecture
He survived six months of invisibility by relying on systems instead of motivation

AI as Tool

The CHEF Framework - AI as Kitchen Equipment — His CHEF framework: Curate Context, Heat with AI, Enhance with Flavour, Feed the Community NotebookLM as a Second Brain — He uploads his entire digital footprint into NotebookLM so AI outputs sound like him, not a generic assistant The Mega Prompt That Cut Newsletter Time by 80% — A comprehensive mega prompt in Perplexity cut his newsletter writing time by 80% Building a Factory, Not a Voice — Custom GPTs produced 80%-accurate output, but the missing 20% was all the distinctiveness; he switched to Stanley If a Stranger Could Have Posted It, Delete It — His quality filter: if a stranger could have posted it, delete it

Content Strategy

The 70-20-10 Content Funnel — 70% awareness, 20% authority, 10% conversion content, sequenced across the week as a narrative arc Three Ugly Graphics Got 480K Impressions — Hand-drawn whiteboard infographics made in Gemini got 480K impressions by breaking the polished-content pattern Sunday Was the Best Day (Data, Not Assumption) — Monthly analytics exports revealed Sunday was his best-performing day, contradicting conventional wisdom The Profile Picture That Changed Everything — Switching to a close-up smiling photo noticeably increased profile clicks and engagement

LinkedIn Growth

Post and Ghost to Community Builder — He went from invisible broadcaster to 30K followers by shifting from posting-and-ghosting to genuine engagement Six Months Invisible Before Traction — Six months of daily posting with no traction, survived by systems, then compounding growth kicked in The 60-Minute Daily Engagement Circuit — A timed five-phase daily routine: comment, publish, reply, DM outreach, connection requests 3.7x Growth and 7x Salary - The Compounding Year — Year two delivered 3.7x the follower growth of year one and 7x his former corporate salary

Community and Background

University AI Project to Secret AI User — His AI journey started with a 2020 university research project, four years before his LinkedIn debut Kitchen X - The Food Tech Startup Before LinkedIn — His food tech startup didn’t make him famous but gave him the entrepreneurial muscle memory for everything after Quit Corporate After Eight Months of Posting — He quit corporate marketing after eight months when LinkedIn revenue made the day job the bottleneck

Monetization

From Creator to Closer - Using Engagement as Intent Data — He treats every like, comment, and profile view as intent data and runs outreach sequences on warm leads Test in the Newsletter, Then Productize — Free newsletter content serves as R&D; if a framework resonates, he packages it into a paid product Sponsorships as Education, Not Ads — Sponsored content is folded into educational walkthroughs so the value stands on its own From Personal System to Productized Agency — He turned his personal content system into Linked Agency, selling his own operating system as a service

Second Brain