The LinkedIn + Substack Flywheel: 3 Moves From Mel Goodman (After Her 12-Week Ban)

TL;DR - LinkedIn locked Melanie Goodman out of the platform she had built a business on for ten years. She got back in, but the 12-week gap taught her something most leaders still refuse to learn: every social platform is rented land. In the AI era, where feeds are flooded with auto-generated content, the leaders who win are the ones who own their audience, sound unmistakably human, and run LinkedIn and Substack together as one system instead of betting on either alone.Outline(00:00) – Introduction and Mel’s background(02:48) – The LinkedIn ban story(08:49) – The LinkedIn + Substack flywheel(10:48) – AI and the death of the generic post(13:36) – Start your posts with “I”(14:45) – The LinkedIn Services page(18:58) – Lazy AI vs. strategic AI(21:05) – The research stack(27:25) – The headline problem(31:33) – Using AI without losing your voice(37:01) – The 6-to-12-month forecast(39:07) – Where to startA Few Things That Stuck With MeThe “rented land” frame. LinkedIn can ban you with no warning and no explanation. Mel went through it for 12 weeks after a decade on the platform. If your entire professional presence lives on someone else’s servers, one notification can wipe it out. Mel’s line on this is the one I keep repeating: “On LinkedIn, you’re on rented land.”The 360 Brew test. LinkedIn’s current algorithm samples every post against a small audience before pushing it wider. The single biggest signal it looks for in that first round: does this sound like a real person writing about real experience? Mel’s tactical fix is so specific it borders on mechanical. Start your first two lines with the word “I.” Not “Here are 5 tips.” Not “As a leader...” Just “I.” Then move to the informative content. The word changes your reach.The Services page nobody sets up. Five minutes. One-time. Mel’s words: “If you don’t do anything else, please do that, because you will immediately rank above everybody else.” Almost no senior leader I know has done this. The broader case for search discoverability is in How to Be Seen in the AI Search Era.Lazy AI versus strategic AI. I used this frame on the live and it landed the way it tends to. Lazy AI replaces your thinking. Strategic AI amplifies it. In a feed flooded with auto-generated content, the premium on lived experience goes up, not down. Mel put it this way: “It’s these lived experiences that will propel your content above the next thought leaders or make somebody hire you and not the next person.” I wrote the full case for the strategic side in Stop Delegating Your Brain to AI.(I work with leaders on exactly this, health CEOs, marketing VPs, founders rebuilding how they show up online in the AI era. If it would help to talk it through, my calendar is here.)One Question to Sit WithIf your LinkedIn account disappeared tomorrow, what would you still have?If the answer is “not much,” watch the full conversation above. Mel’s 12-week gap is everyone else’s warning, and the three fixes she walks through take minutes, not months.About Mel GoodmanMel Goodman is the founder of The Link Tank and one of the most sought-after LinkedIn consultants working with senior leaders today. A former real estate lawyer, she has spent more than a decade helping executives turn LinkedIn connections into clients and now teaches the LinkedIn + Substack flywheel to her Substack audience. Subscribe to her work at melaniegoodmanlinkedinconsultant.substack.com.About meJoel Salinas is a Fractional Chief AI Officer for small and mid-sized businesses and nonprofits. Strategy, hands-on builds, and change management. He writes Leadership in Change and also offers 1:1 coaching for individual leaders. If you want help thinking through your own AI strategy or online presence, start here.Written by a human, for humans. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit leadershipinchange.com/subscribe