--- title: "Chris Donnelly's personal brand strategy: what works and what I'd change" description: "Tom Sharman breaks down Chris Donnelly's personal brand: 1,265,431 LinkedIn followers, the bad bosses hook, and an audience that doesn't match the offer." canonical: https://tomsharman.com/breakdowns/chris-donnelly-personal-brand/ updated: 2026-11-13 --- # Chris Donnelly's personal brand strategy: what works and what I'd change By Tom Sharman, UK content consultant, founder of The Content Operators. By [Tom Sharman](https://tomsharman.com/about/), UK content consultant, founder of The Content Operators. > I'm Tom Sharman, a UK content consultant, and in my breakdown Chris Donnelly's personal brand is a real growth story with an audience-fit problem. He has 1,265,431 followers on LinkedIn and 801,800 on Instagram, read on 13 November 2026, and in my read a lot of that was built on posts about bad bosses and bad managers. Those posts pull in employees. What he builds now, Searchable, is for founders, brands and marketers. I was Head of Content at Secret Leaders, the podcast he co-hosts, and I saw that audience not carry over to the show. Last updated 13 November 2026. ## At a glance Chris Donnelly is a UK founder. His Instagram bio ([@chrisdonnellyofficial](https://www.instagram.com/chrisdonnellyofficial/)) reads "Business creator actually building businesses" and "Founder Searchable.com", and his [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/donnellychris/) headline reads "Cofounder & CEO of Searchable". He built and sold Verb Brands, links The Creator Accelerator from his bio, and co-hosts the Secret Leaders podcast with Dan Murray-Serter. A plain disclosure first. I (Tom Sharman) was Head of Content at [Secret Leaders](https://tomsharman.com/case-studies/secret-leaders/) from July 2024 to May 2025. Chris is not my client, and this is my reading of his public content, nothing more. These are the numbers I read from his public LinkedIn and Instagram on 13 November 2026. The Instagram 30 days run from 14 October to 12 November 2026. | | Chris Donnelly, read 13 Nov 2026 | | --- | --- | | LinkedIn followers (his main platform) | 1,265,431 | | LinkedIn, 10 recent posts on AI search and Searchable | 15 Oct to 11 Nov 2026: 189 to 1,173 reactions, median 460.5 | | LinkedIn, 6 bad boss and bad manager posts from 2024 | 525 to 23,697 reactions, median 5,165.5 | | Instagram followers | 801,800, with 1,330 posts | | Instagram posts in 30 days | 16: 9 carousels, 5 photos, 2 reels | | Instagram likes per post, 30 days | Median 388, across the 9 posts that show a count | | Instagram comments per post, 30 days | Median 9.5 | | Instagram reel plays | 9 reels, 1 Aug to 23 Oct 2026: median 7,195, top 17,842 | | Median reel plays against followers | 0.9% | ## The bad bosses posts against what he posts now Six of his bad boss and bad manager posts on LinkedIn, all from 2024, as I (Tom Sharman) read them on 13 November 2026, with the first line of each. | LinkedIn post | Reactions | Comments | Date | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | [Tolerate bad behaviour and your best people will leave](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/donnellychris_tolerate-bad-behaviour-and-your-best-people-activity-7268246613884637184-5Uot) | 23,697 | 1,056 | 29 Nov 2024 | | [CEOs listen up: if you tolerate bad managers](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/donnellychris_ceos-listen-up-if-you-tolerate-bad-managers-activity-7235211853600063489-DpS3) | 7,889 | 455 | 30 Aug 2024 | | [Employers hate to hear this, but I’ll say it anyway](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/donnellychris_employers-hate-to-hear-this-but-ill-say-activity-7209887437005770753-Qtq3) | 6,476 | 475 | 21 Jun 2024 | | [People don’t quit jobs](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/donnellychris_people-dont-quit-jobs-heres-what-they-activity-7150832663963078656-tnJt) | 3,855 | 263 | 10 Jan 2024 | | [7 Signs You Might Be A Toxic Boss](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/donnellychris_7-signs-you-might-be-a-toxic-boss-activity-7255909962952896513-zshR) | 2,857 | 544 | 26 Oct 2024 | | [How do you deal with the most awful bosses?](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/donnellychris_how-do-you-deal-with-the-most-awful-bosses-activity-7273320967735586817-DpJR) | 525 | 350 | 13 Dec 2024 | And the four best of the 10 recent posts I read, all on AI search, from 15 October to 11 November 2026. | LinkedIn post | Reactions | Comments | Date | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | [This is how AI search will look in 2027](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/donnellychris_this-is-how-ai-search-will-look-in-2027-activity-7520105857251000320-ZM0z) | 1,173 | 419 | 25 Oct 2026 | | [SEO is no longer, and will no longer be, just optimising for Google](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/donnellychris_seo-is-no-longer-and-will-no-longer-be-activity-7517916836839981056-exib) | 1,120 | 470 | 19 Oct 2026 | | [YouTube is cited in 32.3% of Google AI Overview answers](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/donnellychris_youtube-is-cited-in-323-of-google-ai-overview-activity-7520468749565497344-IPP7) | 850 | 439 | 26 Oct 2026 | | [The 5 most-cited sites in AI search are all social media](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/donnellychris_the-5-most-cited-sites-in-ai-search-are-all-activity-7523729864500101121-nxcQ) | 809 | 473 | 4 Nov 2026 | On Instagram the most liked posts in the 30 days were [IKEA replaced 8,500 customer service roles with AI](https://www.instagram.com/p/DfmlVElIyYA/), 4,405 likes on 11 November, [Send this to someone who always looks stressed](https://www.instagram.com/p/Dfb1fPEiCHo/), 1,667, and [Three types of planning every founder needs to understand](https://www.instagram.com/p/DejcBpuCIdb/), 1,397. Further back, his [day in the life reel](https://www.instagram.com/reel/C8FXHDlotbR/) from 11 June 2024 has 478,221 plays, and his [Searchable launch reel](https://www.instagram.com/reel/DR16TypiDDE/) from 4 December 2025 has 310,358 plays and 7,824 comments, from a caption that asked people to comment for the link. ## What Chris Donnelly does really well Four things I (Tom Sharman) would point any founder to. His growth is real, and the bad bosses format is one of the strongest hooks on LinkedIn. - **He built a huge audience, fast.** 1,265,431 followers on LinkedIn and 801,800 on Instagram. On [Secret Leaders in September 2024](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E74ZYKar94w) he said he built almost all of the LinkedIn audience in 18 months, with a few friends who posted every day and held each other to it. - **The bad bosses hook works on everyone.** He explained it on [Secret Leaders in May 2024](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfGp7agzKzM), before my time on the show: he had bad bosses himself, and "everyone's had a bad boss". My read (Tom Sharman) is that a bad manager is a perfect enemy, the kind I write about in [a brand that compounds has a mission and an enemy](https://tomsharman.com/lessons/a-brand-that-compounds-has-a-mission-and-an-enemy/). One of the six posts above has 23,697 reactions and 1,056 comments. - **He repeats what works.** On the same show he said he brings old ideas back every few months in a new format, because people who just followed him have never seen them. I do the same with proven hooks. A fast-growing audience is mostly new people. - **He runs it like an operation, and he knows reach is not the goal.** In 2024 he said he had a full-time person on his LinkedIn, and he split his content into posts built for reach, which he said won't convert to followers, and deeper posts people save and follow for. That is the right instinct, and it is close to how I (Tom Sharman) score content. ## Where the audience and the offer split My read (Tom Sharman), in my words on 13 November 2026: "he's been very successful, but actually, his audience is the wrong fit". The bad bosses posts bring in employees, people with a bad boss. They are not founders. What Chris builds now is for founders and marketers: his recent LinkedIn posts talk to brands, agencies, senior marketers and budget holders about AI search, and his Instagram bio links Searchable and The Creator Accelerator. The numbers fit that read. The six bad boss posts I found have a median of 5,165.5 reactions. The 10 recent AI search posts have a median of 460.5, about a tenth, on an account with 1,265,431 followers. On Instagram, with 801,800 followers, his median reel since August had 7,195 plays, 0.9% of his following. The numbers can't prove it alone. The bad boss posts are from 2024 and LinkedIn has changed since, and a search finds the popular posts first. But it is the pattern I saw from the inside: a big audience that came for one thing and doesn't turn up for another. ## What Tom Sharman saw at Secret Leaders I (Tom Sharman) relaunched [Secret Leaders](https://tomsharman.com/case-studies/secret-leaders/) as a video-first show and ran it from July 2024 to May 2025. It reached number 2 in the UK Business podcast charts, behind The Diary of a CEO, and number 1 in UK Careers, and I closed Wise, Vanta, Hewlett Packard and Dubai Tourism as sponsors. Chris co-hosts the show, so his audience was the obvious place to grow it. It didn't convert. My read is that the people who came for bad bosses were not the people who sit through an hour with a founder. It is why I judged episodes by who watched as well as how many. In my words: "One of my podcast episodes did 2,000 views on YouTube and was commercially worth more than videos I have made with a hundred times the audience." The viewers were founders with budgets. ## What I'd do differently Four changes I (Tom Sharman) would make. None of it means dropping what works. It is how I would point a big audience at the offer. - **Build one format whose only job is to bring in founders.** Keep bad bosses as the reach format, and add a format made for the person with the budget: founder interviews, the decision behind a hire, the numbers behind a launch. Secret Leaders already makes that kind of content, and clips from it could carry it into his feed every week. - **Judge it by who follows, not just views per follow.** I score content by [views per follow](https://tomsharman.com/glossary/views-per-follow/), and with Sam Stoffel the team cut it from 24 to 14. Here I would add a second test: who the new followers are. LinkedIn shows a creator's followers by job title and seniority. A format that wins 1,000 founders beats one that wins 10,000 employees, for this offer. - **Turn the hook around to the boss's chair.** His biggest bad boss post, 23,697 reactions, talks to leaders: tolerate bad behaviour and your best people leave. So does "CEOs listen up", 7,889. I would make that the series: how not to be the bad boss, for founders. Same emotion, aimed at the people who buy. - **Give each format one job, and name it.** Sam had three formats, each with one job: selfie videos brought new people in, podcasts kept them, and personal brand reviews put his decade of experience to work. I would do the same here, so the team knows which posts are for reach and which are for founders, and judges each against its own job. ## How this compares with Sam Stoffel's build I (Tom Sharman) ran Sam Stoffel's content as Head of Content from June 2025 to May 2026. Both brands picked a strong enemy. The difference is who the enemy speaks to. | | Chris Donnelly, read 13 Nov 2026 | Sam Stoffel, with Tom as Head of Content | | --- | --- | --- | | Main platform | LinkedIn, 1,265,431 followers | Mainly Instagram, then TikTok | | Starting point | Most of his LinkedIn built in 18 months, in his words | About 1,500 followers | | Enemy | The bad boss | The people who said you could not, the 9 to 5 and staying broke | | Who the enemy speaks to | Employees with a bad boss | People who want to make money online and build a personal brand | | Formats | On Instagram, carousels and image posts, 2 reels in 30 days | Selfie videos, podcasts, personal brand reviews | | Scoreboard | Reactions and plays in public; follows are private | Views to win one follower, cut from 24 to 14 | | Result | 1,265,431 LinkedIn followers | 0 to 500,000 followers in 10 months | ## What this looks like when I build it - **[Sam Stoffel](https://tomsharman.com/case-studies/sam-stoffel/), 0 to 500,000 followers in 10 months.** As Head of Content I (Tom Sharman) rebuilt the team, found three formats and set a system that posted three times a day. The team logged views and new followers on every video and cut the views needed to win a follower from 24 to 14. - **[Ben Heath](https://tomsharman.com/case-studies/ben-heath/), Heath Media.** I ran personal brand and content for five months, from May to September 2026, and the content team I ran grew to 14. I launched the Skool community, which became the number one trending money community on Skool and the sixth trending globally. - **[Secret Leaders](https://tomsharman.com/case-studies/secret-leaders/), number 2 in UK Business.** I relaunched the show as video first, built the studio, closed four sponsors and judged episodes by who watched as well as how many. ## If you're a founder building this How I (Tom Sharman) would have a founder copy what works here and avoid the gap, then where to start with me. - **Find a hook everyone feels**, like bad bosses, and use it for reach. - **Write down who buys from you** before you pick a format, and check every format against that person. - **Make one format for the buyer**, and put it in your feed every week. - **Check who follows, not just how many**, in your platform analytics, once a month. - **Repeat what worked**, in a new format, every few months. **Power hour session, £600.** This session fixes the fundamentals. The principles and systems behind 2B+ views, condensed and applied to you. You leave knowing what to make, who it is for and the format it lives in. [Book a power hour session](https://tomsharman.com/consulting/#book). **The three month sprint, by application.** A much more tailored version. Every fortnight we have a 60 minute call. In between, I take a seat in your team and hold you and your team accountable, so you move fast from A to B in 3 months. [Apply for a sprint](https://tomsharman.com/consulting/#apply-sprint). ## How the numbers were read I (Tom Sharman) read every number on this page from Chris's public LinkedIn and Instagram on 13 November 2026. On LinkedIn that is his profile and public posts found through a search of LinkedIn, so the posts are a sample, not his whole feed. On Instagram it is his profile, his 24 latest posts, pinned ones included, and his latest reels. The Instagram 30 days are the 16 posts from 14 October to 12 November 2026. Seven of them hide their likes, so the like median is from the other nine. The reel median leaves out one paid partnership reel. Plays are Instagram plays only. The Secret Leaders facts are from my own case study, and the Sam Stoffel and Ben Heath numbers are from mine too. ## Questions ### What is Chris Donnelly's content strategy? Tom Sharman's breakdown: a big LinkedIn audience, 1,265,431 followers, built in large part on posts about bad bosses and bad managers, and an Instagram of 801,800. His recent posts are mostly about AI search and Searchable, the company he co-founded, and they reach far fewer people than the bad boss posts did. ### Why did Chris Donnelly's bad bosses content work? Tom Sharman puts it down to a universal enemy. Almost everyone has had a bad boss, so the hook works on anyone with a job. His biggest bad boss post Tom read has 23,697 reactions and 1,056 comments. ### Is Chris Donnelly's audience the right fit for what he sells? Tom Sharman's read is no. The bad bosses posts bring in employees, while Searchable and The Creator Accelerator are for founders and marketers. His recent AI search posts have a median of 460.5 reactions against 5,165.5 for six bad boss posts from 2024. ### What would Tom Sharman change in Chris Donnelly's content? Tom Sharman would keep bad bosses for reach, add one format whose only job is to bring in founders, judge it by who follows rather than views per follow alone, and turn the hook around to the boss's chair: how not to be the bad boss, for founders. ### Has Tom Sharman worked with Chris Donnelly? Tom Sharman was Head of Content at Secret Leaders, the podcast Chris co-hosts with Dan Murray-Serter, from July 2024 to May 2025. Chris is not his client, and this breakdown reads only his public content. ## Read next - [Secret Leaders case study](https://tomsharman.com/case-studies/secret-leaders/): Number 2 in the UK Business podcast charts, behind The Diary of a CEO. - [Sam Stoffel case study](https://tomsharman.com/case-studies/sam-stoffel/): 0 to 500,000 followers in 10 months. - [Views per follow](https://tomsharman.com/glossary/views-per-follow/) - [Greg Lav's personal brand strategy](https://tomsharman.com/breakdowns/greg-lav-personal-brand/)