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Michael Ashley
· LinkedIn
Founder at Radi8 // Executive Coach // Host of the Inspiring Founders Podcast
Hashtags are a small thing that quietly tells you something bigger: most founders are still managing their presence one post at a time, in their head, instead of turning what they've learned into a system.
Here's what I mean. Every channel has its own unspoken rules. LinkedIn suppresses reach on posts that push people off-platform, so links belong in the first comment, not the body. Hashtags work differently on LinkedIn than they do on X — a handful of categorization tags at the end here, almost none there. None of that is complicated. It's just a set of preferences you have to remember and apply, every single time, forever. That's exactly the kind of repetitive judgment that never gets done consistently when it lives only in your head.
So I recorded a short walk-through of how I actually run this inside Claude.ai, driving Radi8 directly. In it I check how I've been using hashtags, set hashtag preferences per channel, walk through my scheduled LinkedIn and X posts to add them, and turn "move the LinkedIn link into the first comment" into a standing preference so I never have to think about it again.
The point isn't the tool. It's the shift underneath it. I'm not asking AI to decide what to say or how to sound — that's mine. I'm asking it to remember my rules and apply them the same way every time, so consistency stops depending on my memory on a busy Tuesday. AI amplifies the preferences, focus, and voice you feed it. It doesn't invent them. That's why the founders getting real leverage from it aren't the ones automating the most — they're the ones who got clear on their own rules first, then handed the execution off.
I am the founder of Radi8, so this is me sharing the journey in public, not a pitch. Happy to point anyone who's curious in the right direction.
For the founders here: how much of how you show up online lives as an actual repeatable system versus a decision you re-make from scratch every time you post?
#Founders #Startups #Entrepreneurship #AIforBusiness #MarketingSystems
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Told 4 times, May 30, 2026 – Jul 30, 2026
· LinkedIn · Open
Thursday I was in San Jose facilitating a workshop on AI and social media marketing.
I pivoted about ten minutes in.
The room was full of aspiring and early-stage business owners — people who've been pouring everything into getting their business off the ground. As I looked around, it became obvious the AI demo wasn't what they needed most.
So we went back to basics. Brand and voice. Defining your customer. Understanding what a marketing funnel actually does — and why none of the tools matter until that foundation is solid.
After the session, several people came up and shared their stories. One founder had been trying to get his business off the ground for 18 months and couldn't figure out why nothing was gaining traction. He hadn't yet clearly defined who his customer was, what problem he was solving, or why anyone should choose him over the alternative.
I've seen this pattern for 25 years. These aren't rookie mistakes. They're the gaps that never get addressed when you're just trying to survive the launch.
The most sophisticated AI in the world won't fix a messaging problem. It'll just make the wrong message louder.
If you're an early-stage founder who needs a room of people who get it — join the Inspiring Founders community on Skool. Free, no pitch, just founders helping founders.
👇 https://www.skool.com/inspiring-founders-5861/about
· LinkedIn · Open
When Claude has an outage, I book a tee time.
That's half a joke. The other half is the actual point.
My LinkedIn presence runs on an AI system now. It drafts in my voice, stays on brand, and keeps me visible on the weeks I'm heads-down with clients. When the model goes down for an hour, nothing urgent breaks. I go hit a few balls, and it's back before I've three-putted.
Here's the part people miss when they hear that. The AI isn't what makes it work. What makes it work is everything underneath it: a clear picture of who I serve, the problems they'd describe in their own words, the way I think about their work. Feed a tool that, and it amplifies it. Feed it a vague "I help people grow," and you get vague content, faster.
I watch a lot of coaches and consultants reach for AI hoping it will hand them a strategy. It won't. It can't decide who you're for or what you stand for. That's still your job, and it's the part nobody taught you inside the org, where the brand behind you did the vouching. Get that decision sharp, and a tool can turn it into consistent visibility while you do the work you're actually great at.
The tee time is real. So is the reason I can take it.
If you've tried using AI for your own content: did it save you time, or mostly make the missing message more obvious?
#IndependentConsultant #Coaching #AIforBusiness #Positioning #PersonalBrand
· LinkedIn · Open
Most founders I talk to already know they should be more visible. What they can't do is make it sustainable.
You write one good post, it lands, and then three weeks vanish because the actual business needs you. The intention was never the problem. The system was.
I've watched this quietly stall otherwise strong companies — not because the founder has nothing worth saying, but because turning hard-won expertise into a consistent, on-brand body of work is real work, and it's the first thing to fall off a busy week.
AI changes the math here, though not the way most people assume. It won't invent your positioning or your point of view. Feed it a blurry message and it will produce blurry content faster. But once you're clear on your promise and your voice, it can take the part that used to eat your week — drafting, designing, scheduling — and compress it into something you can actually keep up with.
That's what I'm walking through in a live workshop.
📅 July 23rd, 11am
💻 Online — join from anywhere
Hands-on, we'll cover:
• Generating posts that sound like you, not like a robot
• Creating brand-aligned images without a designer
• Scheduling a full month of content in about 30 minutes
It's built for founders who are tired of starting from zero every week and want a repeatable system — not another burst of activity that never compounds.
Seats are limited. Register with the link in the comments.
#Founders #Startups #Entrepreneurship #AIforBusiness #MarketingSystems