May 31, 2025
As a CPO at a high-growth startup, I have approximately 30 seconds of free time each day. Yet somehow, I need to build thought leadership, prepare for board opportunities, and tuck my kids in.
The solution? I've built an automated personal branding system using three tools that work while I sleep: Claude (with Model Context Protocol), Gumloop, and Webflow. Here's exactly how you can steal my system.
The Problem: Invisible Expertise
Most product leaders I know are brilliant. They're making decisions that affect millions of users, building teams that ship incredible products, and solving problems that didn't exist five years ago.
They're also completely invisible online.
Why? Because turning your daily insights into thought leadership content feels like having a second job. By the time you've finished your actual job, the last thing you want to do is stare at a blank LinkedIn post.
The Revelation: Your Work IS the Content
Here's what changed everything for me: I realized I don't need to create content. I need to capture and transform the insights I'm already generating.
Every week, you're:
- Making strategic product decisions with fascinating reasoning
- Spotting patterns in user behavior and market trends
- Building frameworks for your team
- Learning from wins and failures
That's not just work. That's a thought leadership goldmine.
The System: 3 Tools, 30 Minutes a Week
Tool 1: Claude + MCP (Your Thinking Partner)
Model Context Protocol (MCP) is Claude's new superpower - it can connect directly to your tools and data sources. Instead of copy-pasting, Claude can now:
- Read your product metrics dashboards directly
- Access your meeting notes and strategy docs
- Pull from your Slack conversations (with permission)
- Connect to industry news sources
My Weekly Claude Ritual: Every Friday at 4pm, I record a 15-minute voice note reflecting on the week. I upload it to Claude with this prompt:
Transform my weekly reflection into:
1. A LinkedIn post (contrarian insight + data point + question)
2. A newsletter section (deeper dive with Webflow example)
3. Three tweet-worthy insights
Style: Optimistic but data-driven, like a mix of Julie Zhou's thoughtfulness and Scott Belsky's creative energy.
Tool 2: Gumloop (Your Content Factory)
Gumloop is where the magic happens. It's an automation platform that connects everything. My three core automations:
Automation #1: Competitive Intelligence → Hot Takes
- Monitors competitor a, competitor b, and competitor c for updates
- Claude analyzes what they shipped
- Generates my perspective on what it means for the industry
- Proposes ideas for how Webflow can best counter position
- Delivers a draft LinkedIn post every Tuesday
Automation #2: Internal Wins → External Stories
- Pulls our weekly metrics (anonymized)
- Identifies surprising patterns or achievements
- Creates a "How we did X" story framework
- Outputs to my content calendar
Automation #3: Industry Synthesis → Board-Ready Insights
- Aggregates top VC newsletters and tech news
- Claude identifies patterns across sources
- Generates contrarian viewpoints
- Creates monthly "CPO Perspective" long-form piece
Tool 3: Webflow (Your Dynamic Portfolio)
Here's where most people mess up: they create a static personal website. Instead, use Webflow's CMS to build a living portfolio that updates automatically:
// Webflow CMS Collections:
- Insights (auto-populated from Gumloop)
- Speaking Events (pulled from calendar)
- Product Wins (quarterly updates)
- Parenting hacks (pulled from my personal calendar)
The beauty? When Gumloop creates content, it automatically pushes to Webflow. Your site is always fresh without you touching it.
The Exact Setup (One Weekend)
Saturday Morning: Infrastructure
- Buy domain (15 minutes)
- Get yourname.com or clever variant
- Point to Webflow
- Generate a Webflow template using AI (or use one of our thousands of Webflow templates) (30 minutes)
- Start with Article template
- Add CMS collections for Insights, Wins, Speaking
- Set up Gumloop webhook endpoints
- Create Gumloop workflows (2 hours)
- Use my templates (link below)
- Connect to Claude API
- Set up scheduled triggers
Optimize when you have time
- Fine-tune Claude prompts for your voice
- Set up analytics to track what resonates
- Schedule your weekly 30-minute content time
The Results After 90 Days
Here's what happened when I stuck to this system:
- LinkedIn: 5x follower growth, 10x engagement
- Speaking: 3 conference invitations (including one keynote)
- Board conversations: 2 initiated by people who read my content
- Time invested: 30 minutes per week
But the real magic? I'm not creating content. I'm documenting my journey ... and letting automation handle the distribution.
The Psychology: Why This Works for Product Leaders
As product people, we're wired for systems and leverage. This approach satisfies both:
- Systems: Once set up, it runs itself
- Leverage: One insight becomes 3-5 pieces of content
- Data-driven: You see what resonates and double down
- Low friction: Voice notes remove the blank page problem
- Compound effect: Content builds on itself over time
Your Unfair Advantages
As a product leader, you have unique advantages:
- Access to data others would kill for
- Strategic perspective on where markets are heading
- Team stories that illustrate leadership principles
- Failed experiments that make great lessons
- Technical depth to explain complex topics simply
Use them.
The Scripts That Convert
Here are my highest-performing content templates:
The Contrarian Take:
"Everyone thinks [common belief]. But our data shows [surprising insight]. Here's what we're building instead..."
The Behind-the-Scenes:
"We just killed our most requested feature. Here's why [counterintuitive reasoning]. The result? [unexpected positive outcome]"
The Future Prediction:
"The next $1B opportunity in [space] isn't [obvious thing]. It's [non-obvious insight]. Three reasons why..."
Start This Weekend
Don't overthink it. Here's your weekend checklist:
- [ ] Set up basic Webflow site (2 hours)
- [ ] Create one Gumloop automation (1 hour)
- [ ] Record first voice note (15 minutes)
- [ ] Publish first piece (5 minutes)
- [ ] Track results (ongoing)
The Meta Point
This blog post? Created using the exact system I described. Voice note → Claude → light editing → published. Total time: 32 minutes.
Your expertise is too valuable to stay trapped in your head. Build the system once, then let it amplify your voice while you focus on building great products.
Rachel Wolan is CPO at Webflow, where she's building the future of visual development. She writes about AI, product leadership, team building, and the future of the web.