The AI Why with Liam Lawson

22,000 LinkedIn followers to over 210,000 in just over a year. Charlie Hills did not get there by luck. He got there by reverse engineering what already works, posting with intention every single day, and building systems with AI that most people have not even heard of yet.

In this second appearance on The AI Why, Liam Lawson sits down with Charlie Hills to break down exactly how he goes viral across LinkedIn, Instagram, and TikTok, what his full content creation process looks like with Claude, and why he just launched a SaaS tool built entirely from his own workflows inside Claude Code.

Stories Covered This Week:

The pre-validated content strategy that got Charlie 11 million views on his first Instagram reel

The CHEF framework for creating content that does not sound like AI wrote it

How Charlie uses Appify, Claude Code and Gemini together to reverse engineer viral content

Why organic reach on LinkedIn is dying and what to do about it

Claude Code for infographics, carousels, and eventually video editing from the terminal

Vislo, the branded infographic SaaS tool Charlie just launched in public beta

Pattern interrupts, B-roll clarity and what actually stops the scroll on Instagram

Going from 9 to 5 employee to full time creator in nine months

Episode timestamps:

00:00 Intro and follower count update
01:03 How Charlie goes viral on any platform
04:01 Steal Like an Artist and pre-validated content
04:53 What structure works on Instagram reels
07:36 Speaking coach, scripting and sounding human
09:06 The full LinkedIn content creation process
10:03 Posting cadence and why twice a day backfired
12:19 The CHEF framework explained
15:07 Appify, Claude Code and scraping for content research
17:04 Claude Co-Work scheduled tasks and workflows
20:22 Going deep into Claude Code for infographics
22:06 How Claude Code memory and the MD file works
24:41 Combining Gemini API inside Claude Code for Instagram scripts
26:53 Where AI ends and humans begin in the content process
30:36 Remotion and the future of AI video editing
33:33 Over-engineering with AI and why it is addictive
35:02 The story behind Vislo, the branded infographic SaaS
40:22 Beta feedback and pricing
42:01 Done For You vs SaaS customers
43:57 Expanding beyond LinkedIn to Instagram, TikTok and YouTube
47:12 What the ideal future of work looks like for Charlie
49:12 The Mexico LinkedIn creator house with Mischa and Corey
53:03 University, failed business and the nine month grind
01:00:01 Did not leave the nine to five to earn more, but to live more
01:00:55 Why do you do what you do?

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Anthropic just passed OpenAI in revenue for the first time ever. Google signed a classified Pentagon deal and then invested $40 billion in the company it competes with. And OpenAI just put an expiry date on every custom GPT.

This week, Google locks in a classified defense agreement as Anthropic gets cut out, Google commits $40 billion to its biggest AI rival, Meta posts its fastest growth since 2021 but still watches its stock fall, OpenAI shuts down custom GPTs in favour of autonomous Workspace Agents, and Anthropic overtakes OpenAI in annualized revenue at $30 billion.

If you are a founder, operator or executive trying to keep up with AI, this is your weekly five-minute briefing every Tuesday.

Stories Covered This Week:

Google signs a classified Pentagon agreement giving access to Gemini for sensitive defense work as Anthropic gets cut out

Google announces plans to invest up to $40 billion in Anthropic despite competing directly with Claude

Meta reports $56.3 billion in Q1 revenue, up 33% year over year, but stock falls 7% on AI spending concerns

OpenAI introduces Workspace Agents and deprecates custom GPTs for business accounts by August 2026

Anthropic's annualized revenue hits $30 billion, passing OpenAI for the first time

Episode timestamps:

00:00 Intro
00:20 Google signs classified Pentagon deal
01:10 Google invests $40 billion in Anthropic
02:00 Meta beats earnings but stock falls
02:50 OpenAI replaces custom GPTs with Workspace Agents
03:40 Anthropic passes OpenAI in revenue
04:30 Outro

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Monday.com has 225,000 customers and over 60,000 seats at some of its largest accounts. So when its co-founder says the company completely changed its vision, that is worth paying attention to.

In this episode, Liam Lawson sits down with Roy Mann, co-founder of Monday.com, to talk about the three waves of AI, why managing work is no longer the goal, and how Monday is now betting everything on agents actually doing the work instead.

Roy also breaks down Agent Talent, the marketplace where companies can hire AI agents like employees, why Monday opened its platform to agents as first class citizens, and what adaptability really means when technology is moving this fast.

Stories Covered This Week:

The three waves of AI and why wave three changes everything

Why Monday changed its core vision from managing work to doing the work

Agent Talent: hiring AI agents like employees with real job postings and qualifications

Selling to agents, not just humans, and what that marketing looks like

The SaaS apocalypse and whether the per seat model is actually dead

OpenClaw, open source AI, and why Roy thinks this is a democratic technology

The future of work, abundance vs scarcity, and why adaptability is the only skill that matters

Timestamps:

00:00 Intro
00:45 The three waves of AI
03:42 Customer reception to agents
07:16 The developer who went from terrified to empowered
10:33 What personality traits succeed in the agent economy
12:16 Monday's internal AI infrastructure
19:44 Agent Talent and selling to agents
24:50 How to sell to an agent
27:37 Testing and qualifying agents with Sensei
30:22 Why open source matters
32:22 The future of work
36:44 Is the per seat model dead?
39:51 OpenClaw and local models
44:04 Paperclip and multi-agent orchestration
52:09 Roy's ideal future of work
56:42 Betting everything on agents with Monday stock down 76%
01:00:00 Where Monday's adaptability comes from
01:01:43 Why do you do what you do?

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The AI model that was too dangerous to release just got breached. Anthropic entered the design software market. And OpenAI dropped its biggest model yet, just six weeks after the last one.

This week, the NSA is using Anthropic's Mythos despite the Pentagon blacklisting the company, Claude Design takes on Figma and sends its stock down 7%, Yelp transforms into an agentic consumer app, Mythos gets accessed by an unauthorized Discord group, and OpenAI fires back with GPT-5.5.

If you are a founder, operator, or executive trying to keep up with AI, this is your weekly five-minute briefing every Tuesday.

Stories Covered This Week:

NSA uses Anthropic's Mythos Preview despite the Pentagon declaring the company a supply chain risk

Anthropic launches Claude Design, a prompt-to-prototype design tool that sent Figma stock down 7%

Yelp's upgraded AI assistant can now book restaurants, doctors, and more in one conversation

Anthropic investigates unauthorized access to Mythos through a third-party vendor environment

OpenAI releases GPT-5.5, scoring 88.7% on SWE-bench with a 60% drop in hallucinations vs GPT-5.4

Episode Timestamps:

00:00 Intro
00:20 NSA uses Anthropic's Mythos despite Pentagon blacklist
01:10 Anthropic launches Claude Design
02:00 Yelp's AI assistant goes full service
02:50 Anthropic investigates Mythos breach
03:40 OpenAI drops GPT-5.5
04:30 Outro

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Two years ago, Mischa Collins was let go from her marketing manager role at a startup. After months of applying to jobs she was overqualified for and hearing nothing back, she decided to stop playing the victim and take control. She posted about her journey on LinkedIn. It went viral. Then she posted again. That went even more viral. From just two posts, she signed three clients and launched her career as a full-time LinkedIn creator.

Today, Mischa has grown to over 50K followers in just 18 months, runs a ghostwriting agency, coaches founders on personal branding, and is currently living in a "LinkedIn Influencer House" in Mexico with business partners Corey Blumenfeld and Charlie Hills. In this conversation with Liam, she breaks down exactly what's working on LinkedIn right now, why the algorithm has shifted more in the past month than in her entire time posting, and the specific content formats (infographics and cheat sheets) that are massively outperforming everything else. She also shares the real numbers behind her content: how a single post with a text overlay hit 80,000 impressions while the same post without one got just 5,000.

Key Topics Covered

How getting fired became the best thing that ever happened to her career

Going from fashion to tech sales to full-time LinkedIn creator

The 2 LinkedIn posts that went viral and signed her first 3 clients

Growing from 0 to 50K LinkedIn followers in 18 months

Why the LinkedIn algorithm has shifted more in the past month than ever before

Dwell time: the metric that matters most on LinkedIn right now

Infographics vs lifestyle images: 80K impressions vs 5K from the same creator

How to run a ghostwriting agency and what clients actually need

Brand partnerships on LinkedIn: what makes a good campaign vs a bad one

Platform dependence: why relying on one social platform is risky

The "LinkedIn Influencer House" in Mexico with Corey Blumenfeld and Charlie Hills

Building a personal brand while staying authentic

Why rock bottom is the best place to build from

Episode Timestamps

00:01 - Introduction and the LinkedIn Influencer House in Mexico

02:01 - Origin story: fashion to tech sales to LinkedIn

03:33 - How LinkedIn content landed her marketing manager role

05:02 - Getting let go and the two months of rejection

05:49 - The viral LinkedIn post that launched her solo career

08:00 - Growing to 50K followers: what worked

15:07 - What's working on LinkedIn right now (algorithm shift)

16:36 - The 80K vs 5K impressions experiment

17:41 - AI's impact on LinkedIn content creation

22:00 - Building a ghostwriting agency

27:00 - Niche vs expanding your content topics

31:55 - Platform dependence and branching to Instagram/TikTok

36:00 - The creator economy on LinkedIn

40:00 - Revenue streams: brand deals, coaching, ghostwriting, cohorts

47:03 - Breaking down her income sources

50:00 - Helping brands run better LinkedIn creator campaigns

55:00 - The future of personal branding

01:00:00 - Building a life on your own terms

01:10:34 - Why you don't need to stay in your lane

01:11:06 - Where to find Mischa

Mischa's Socials:

LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/mischacollins/

Instagram — @mischabuildsbrands

Partner Links

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