35 min
I Asked My Clients Why They Hadn't Replaced Me With AI: Jake Ross on What People Really Buy From an Agency
Jake Ross asked his clients why they hadn't swapped his LinkedIn agency for AI. Their answers: accountability, idea extraction and confidence. Episode and FAQ.
agency positioningLinkedIn contentAI in agenciesideal customer profiledelegationfounder burnout
Guest
Jake Ross
Founder, Build You
Jake Ross is the founder of Build You, a Boston-based agency that writes LinkedIn content for business executives. He started it from his dorm room at Babson College after winning his first client at a pitch competition, then grew it through referrals from founders who liked how he wrote. Before Build You, he built a sports trading card YouTube channel to about 12,000 subscribers while still in school.
Key Takeaways
- 1.Ask clients why they haven't replaced you — when AI threatened his business, Jake asked clients directly why they still paid his team, and the answers showed him what he was actually selling.
- 2.Clients buy accountability, idea extraction and confidence — not the writing.
- 3.The real reason people buy defines the ideal client — for Build You, an executive at a $15–20 million company that still sells through relationships and has no one in-house for content.
- 4.Build communities, not audiences — use LinkedIn to stay top of mind with people you already know.
- 5.Use AI for the first draft, humans for the rest — a post that took about 45 minutes now takes about 20.
- 6.Act on feedback to earn more of it — showing each team member what changed based on their last feedback is what made them keep giving it.
- 7.You don't need to rush — the biggest mistake he made was trying to scale as fast as possible.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Why don't clients replace their LinkedIn ghostwriter with AI?
When Jake Ross asked his clients, they gave three reasons, none of them the writing. They wanted someone to hold them accountable so they kept posting. They wanted help pulling ideas out of their heads through interviews. And they wanted confidence that each post would land with a network of people they know personally.
How does Build You use AI to write LinkedIn posts?
Each client does a 45-minute brainstorm, then short live interviews of six to eight minutes per post. The team feeds the transcript into a Claude project trained on the client's voice and a detailed internal writing guide. That produces a draft about 65% of the way there, and a human writer finishes it before the client reviews and approves it.
How much time does AI save on writing a LinkedIn post?
In Jake's process, writing one post used to take about 45 minutes and now takes about 20. The interviews, the human edit and the client's approval all stay in place.
Who is the ideal client for a LinkedIn ghostwriting agency?
For Build You, it's an executive at a company of roughly $15–20 million who still sells through relationships, knows they need to post, has the budget for help, and has no one in-house doing it. Jake found that by asking existing clients why they buy.
What's the difference between building a community and an audience on LinkedIn?
An audience strategy tries to reach as many strangers as possible. Jake's community approach uses posts to stay top of mind with people you already know or have met, so the second and third touchpoints build trust and lead to referrals and introductions.
How can young founders avoid burnout?
Jake's advice is to stop trying to prove yourself by working every hour, build systems and delegate so you can actually unplug, and fix whatever keeps you up at night at the root. He says the biggest mistake he made was rushing to scale.
Related Resources
SolutionRize for AgenciesTrack where team time goes as AI shortens drafting work like Build You's post process.Learn more →SolutionAI EfficiencyMeasure the time AI actually saves on content production — Jake's 45-to-20-minute claim, verified.Learn more →FeatureClient ReportingShow clients the work behind each deliverable — the accountability and confidence Jake's clients pay for.See the feature →ToolProposal GeneratorTurn what clients actually buy into a scoped proposal for your next engagement.Try the generator →
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