10,000 followers in 17 days.

Linkedin is easy. So easy I grew this account to 10,000 followers in 17 days, with AI.

Ruben Hassid and Anisha Jain

Dec 24, 2025

∙ Paid

This is my Christmas gift.

And (by far) the most ambitious course I have ever written.

How to grow any Linkedin account from 0 → to 10,000 followers.

But why should you trust me?

See, I have over 700,000 followers on Linkedin.

Exactly 725,000 followers. +342,000 new followers this year.

About +1,000 followers, every single day.

So people keep asking me how to grow on Linkedin.

They think I use shortcuts, secrets, pods, ads, automations…

I am even being (falsely) accused of “buying followers” (don’t ever do this).

But I did everything myself, with my two hands.

People didn’t believe me.

So I did it again.

Twice.

Here is my team, Anisha and Axelle.

In one year, they went from (nearly) zero to → 100,000+ followers.

And I recorded myself growing their account, on a YouTube playlist:

But I had to unlist it.

People didn’t care about it. They couldn’t relate.

It was “too long to watch”.

So I wanted to do it again with my new employee, Maria Zhanette.

We started on November 18th (2025, obviously).

37 connections. 49 followers.

0 post. 0 post impressions.

And yet, 17 days later, this is her account:

Over 10,000 followers in less than 3 weeks.

But this time, I did it differently.

✦ I failed to document my own journey to 700,000+ followers.

✦ I then failed at documenting Axelle & Anisha’s growth to 100,000+.

This time it’s different.

Anisha & I documented everything.

→ From day 1 to day 30.

→ From 0 to 1.4 million impressions.

→ From 49 to over 10,000 followers (it’s actually 18,000 now).

1. How to instantly optimize your Linkedin.

Imagine I am sitting next to you, looking over your shoulder at your Linkedin.

I need to give you the best advice for your Linkedin, in less than 5 minutes.

This is what I would say:

A. Your profile picture sucks.

✦ Smile way more than you think.

✦ Own a color. Instantly recognizable.

✦ Zoom until your entire face is the only thing visible.

✦ Don’t make me confuse: declutter the background, hard color works better.

You must make this quick test: go on Linkedin & check your profile picture from a distance (in the comment section). You must see two things: a smile, a color without a background.

My own profile picture is made by AI (with Gemini & Nano-Banana Pro).

I made a guide right here. But basically, you do 3 things:

You upload a picture of yourself. HD is needed.
You upload a picture of a profile picture you love.
You add this simple prompt: “Generate a corporate headshot of my image in [how you are dressed] in the same style as the 2nd image I uploaded as an inspiration”.

If you don’t have any inspiration, I made this prompt (to mix with your upload):

A professional, high-resolution, profile photo, maintaining the exact facial structure, identity, and key features of the person in the input image. The subject is framed from the chest up, with ample headroom and negative space above their head, ensuring the top of their head is not cropped. The person looks directly at the camera, and the subject's body is also directly facing the camera. They are styled for a professional photo studio shoot, wearing a smart casual blazer. The background is a solid '# 141414' neutral studio. Shot from a high angle with bright and airy soft, diffused studio lighting, gently illuminating the face and creating a subtle catchlight in the eyes, conveying a sense of clarity. Captured on an 85mm f/1.8 lens with a shallow depth of field, exquisite focus on the eyes, and beautiful, soft bokeh. Observe crisp detail on the fabric texture of the blazer, individual strands of hair, and natural, realistic skin texture. The atmosphere exudes confidence, professionalism, and approachability. Clean and bright cinematic color grading with subtle warmth and balanced tones, ensuring a polished and contemporary feel.

B. I don’t understand why I should follow you.

To get 10,000 (or 1 million) people to follow, they must know why.

Businesses call it a “mission statement”. I call it being known as the [X] guy.

You are one step in someone’s journey to being better at [X].

Once you understand this, you must write the most compelling one-liner for your headline. Remember, this is visible everywhere. Both on comments and posts.

This is mine, for example:

Ruben’s mission: “Help people on how to use AI, without coding, to always be ahead of the technology, never to be replaced by it.”

Ruben’s headline: “Master AI before it masters you.”

This is Maria’s one:

Maria’s mission: “People are overwhelmed with guides and creators to follow. So I cut through the noise and curate the ones that matter.”

Maria’s headline: “I curate who is worth your attention.”

I used a custom GPT to create hers. You can access it here, and simply click on “start”: https://chatgpt.com/g/g-67530e1fbcbc819186a9cae1fc734cfe-mission-gpt. Once you click on “Start.” just answer the questions.

Here’s my whole conversation for a lawyer: https://chatgpt.com/share/694a8ac1-d700-800f-bac4-217aef306bcb. You can build up on it and chat with it to make it as close to your “why” as possible.

C. Stop writing for everyone.

You know the number 1 rule of marketing:

If you market to everyone, you market to no one.

It’s the same with content. You must lead a tribe of people who want to [X].

You’re not making content for millions. You’re creating content for exactly one person. That’s it. One ICP (= Ideal Customer Profile).

Yes, I said ONE PERSON and ONE PERSON only.

Here are my favorite examples:

Alex Hormozi talks to Ryan, a 37-year-old male agency owner running a $4M/year digital marketing agency, exhausted from inconsistent client acquisition, desperate to build predictable, high-margin systems and scale to $30M+ without venture capital or burning out his team.
Jordan Peterson talks to Ethan, a 24-year-old male college graduate feeling lost and aimless, struggling with depression and lack of direction, searching for profound meaning through personal responsibility, discipline, and voluntary confrontation with life’s chaos.
Andrew Huberman talks to David, a 42-year-old male tech executive and founder working 70-hour weeks, obsessed with maximizing cognitive performance, needing free, rigorously science-backed protocols to optimize sleep, focus, stress resilience, and daily energy.
Bryan Johnson talks to Marcus, a 48-year-old male tech entrepreneur worth nine figures, terrified of aging and death, willing to spend unlimited time and money on extreme, data-tracked protocols to measure and reverse biological age markers.
Ruben Hassid talks to Sophia, a 40-year-old female independent management consultant in Europe, billing $1,000/day for strategy and change workshops to mid-market companies. She’s anxious that clients now demand AI integration training, but she lacks confidence and practical frameworks to teach non-technical teams how to adopt AI without disruption. So she wants proven playbooks to quickly reposition herself as the go-to AI-upskilling expert and secure bigger retainers.

Again, I made a free custom GPT for you to discover your ICP: https://chatgpt.com/g/g-89NEaQgUI-icp-gpt.

Once you have your mission and ICP, you still need 2x more GPTs.

✦ Red Searcher to find the most viral pain points of Reddit.

The best content (1) targets your ICP’s pain points and (2) solves them. And Reddit is a great source of both hyper-targeted communities + their problems.

Take a look at this chat to see it in action.