LinkedIn carousel from your idea to a ready PDF
Carousels get people swiping, but making one means writing ten slides and designing them. This prompt has your todo.is agent write the slide-by-slide text from your idea or article, keep each slide short enough to read on a phone, and build a clean PDF document in your colors that you upload to LinkedIn yourself.
The prompt
- Make a LinkedIn carousel about [TOPIC OR ATTACHED ARTICLE]. I am [YOUR ROLE] and my readers are [WHO READS YOUR POSTS]. Write [NUMBER] slides: slide 1 a hook title under 10 words that promises something specific, then one idea per slide with a short heading and no more than 25 words, and a last slide that sums it up with [CALL TO ACTION]. Then design it as a PDF in portrait 4:5 size (1080 x 1350 px pages), with big readable text, my colors [BRAND COLORS], my name and handle [NAME AND HANDLE] in the corner of every slide, and slide numbers. Add the exact text as plain text too, and write a short post caption (under 150 words) to go with the carousel.
What to change
- [TOPIC OR ATTACHED ARTICLE]: e.g. "7 mistakes in first-time manager 1:1s", or attach a blog post or notes.
- [YOUR ROLE]: e.g. "engineering manager at a scale-up".
- [WHO READS YOUR POSTS]: e.g. "new managers in tech".
- [NUMBER]: 8 to 12 slides works well.
- [CALL TO ACTION]: e.g. "follow for more" or "comment which one you are guilty of".
- [BRAND COLORS]: e.g. "dark green and cream", or attach your logo.
- [NAME AND HANDLE]: e.g. "Sam Ortiz · Engineering leadership".
Example result
- Slide text
- Slide 1: 7 mistakes new managers make in 1:1s (I made all of them)
- Slide 2: Mistake 1: Turning it into a status update. Status goes in a doc. The 1:1 is for the person, not the project.
- Slide 3: Mistake 2: Cancelling when you are busy. Every cancelled 1:1 says "you are not a priority". Move it, never skip it.
- Slide 4: Mistake 3: Talking more than they do. Aim for them talking 70% of the time. Your job is questions.
- Slide 5: Mistake 4: Only asking "how is it going?" Try: "What is one thing slowing you down this week?"
- Slide 6: Mistake 5: No notes. Keep a shared doc. Next week, start with what you both promised.
- Slide 7: Mistake 6: Saving feedback for reviews. Small feedback, every week, means no surprises later.
- Slide 8: Mistake 7: Never talking about career. Once a month, ask: "Where do you want to be in a year?"
- Slide 9: The fix in one line: Their agenda first, yours second, notes always.
- Slide 10: Which one are you guilty of? Tell me in the comments. Follow Sam Ortiz for more on engineering leadership.
- Caption
- I became a manager 4 years ago and my first 1:1s were basically status meetings with coffee.
- It took me a year to notice my best engineer had stopped bringing anything real to them.
- These are the 7 mistakes I made, and what I do instead now. Slide 5 is the question that changed the most for me.
- What is the best question a manager ever asked you?
- Design notes
- • Portrait 4:5 pages, 1080 x 1350 px, 10 pages in one PDF
- • Dark green background, cream text, one bold accent word per slide
- • Headline text at least 60 px so it reads on a phone without zooming
- • Name and slide number in the bottom corner of every page
How to do it with todo.is
- Copy the prompt and fill in your topic, role, readers, number of slides, colors and name.
- Attach your logo or an article if you have one, and send the to-do from the todo.is app.
- Your agent writes the slides, designs the PDF and sends it with a plain-text version and a caption.
- Upload the PDF on LinkedIn as a document post yourself. Ask for changes like "bigger text" or "fewer words on slide 4".
Tips for a better result
- The first slide is the hook. Make it a specific promise with a number, not a topic label.
- One idea per slide, 25 words or fewer. If people need to zoom, they stop swiping.
- Use portrait 4:5 pages. They take up more of the screen on phones than square ones.
- Repurpose: send your agent your best-performing text post and ask for it as a carousel.
LinkedIn carousel: FAQ
- How do I post a carousel on LinkedIn? Create a PDF with one slide per page, then start a post on LinkedIn, choose to add a document, upload the PDF and give it a title. LinkedIn shows it as swipeable slides.
- What size should LinkedIn carousel slides be? Portrait 1080 x 1350 px (4:5) is a popular choice because it fills more of a phone screen. Square 1080 x 1080 also works.
- How many slides should a LinkedIn carousel have? Most strong carousels have 8 to 12 slides. Enough to teach something, short enough that people swipe to the end.
- Does todo.is post the carousel to LinkedIn? No. Your agent writes and designs the PDF, and you upload and post it on LinkedIn yourself.
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