#616 Crack the LinkedIn Code: Myths, Referrals & Real Business Growth with Daniel Alfon

Is LinkedIn working for your business, or is it just another digital distraction?

In this eye-opening episode of Talking with the Experts, I sit down with LinkedIn strategist and author Daniel Alfon to bust common myths and unlock practical strategies that will completely change the way you think about LinkedIn.

From his early adoption of the platform in 2004 to now mentoring thousands of entrepreneurs, Daniel reveals why most professionals fail to generate leads on LinkedIn—and what to do instead. He introduces his 60-second profile review framework, dives into five high-level myths holding entrepreneurs back, and outlines the exact process to build a steady stream of referrals using LinkedIn.

Daniel also explores the surprising truth about leaving LinkedIn at the right time and how to align your online activity with your real-world business objectives.

This conversation is packed with gold—no fluff, no vague advice. Just real-world, time-saving strategies for leveraging the world’s most powerful business platform.

Whether you're new to LinkedIn or feel stuck in the scroll, Daniel’s guidance will help you:
✅ Review and reposition your profile in under a minute
✅ Avoid the pitfalls that sabotage visibility and credibility
✅ Build a referral system that doesn’t feel pushy or salesy

Tune in if you're ready to stop being overwhelmed by LinkedIn and start using it to grow your brand, reputation, and revenue.

✨ CONNECT WITH DANIEL

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alfon/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/danielalfon/

Website: https://www.danielalfon.com/

X: https://x.com/DanielAlfon

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Daniel-Alfon/author/B00N1OSN4W

Quora: https://www.quora.com/profile/Daniel-Alfon 

📌 PROMOTION: https://www.danielalfon.com/store/personal-1-1-session/

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Transcript

Intro | 00:01
Welcome to Talking With The Experts. Here we discuss all things business. By business owners. For business owners. Here is your host, Rose Davidson. 

 Rose | 00:11
Hello and welcome to Talking with the Experts. I'm your host, Rose Davidson from rosedavidson.com.au. Today, my guest is Daniel Alfon and we're going to be discussing things, LinkedIn, how entrepreneurs can leverage LinkedIn organically. Now, a little bit about Daniel. He joined LinkedIn in early 2004. He has made all the mistakes you can imagine, but came back to tell what works and what doesn't. Today, Daniel's clients get results organically. He's published articles, interviews, and exclusive content about advanced LinkedIn strategies to clients on his website, danielalfon.com. Daniel, welcome to Talking With Your Experts. It's such a pleasure to meet you. 

 Daniel | 01:01
Thank you very much. I was looking forward to this chat. 

 Rose | 01:04
I'm so pleased about that. Tell me a little bit about why you chose LinkedIn as your platform. 

 Daniel | 01:10
I would have liked to say that LinkedIn chose me, but truth is, I discovered LinkedIn accidentally. When someone sent me an invitation in 2004, social wasn't even a thing. But then when I was a sales executive, LinkedIn helped me identify the right person to reach out to. Within the organization. And that rose has slashed 30% of my sales cycle. I beat my quota and then I decided to see what's under the hood. And I specialized. And since we started this very chat with talking with the experts, hundreds of people have joined the LinkedIn platform. Every second, three people sign up. 

 Rose | 01:57
Okay, that's interesting. I know LinkedIn is a huge platform and people are, you know, I think they're turning away from other social media platforms to get onto LinkedIn, especially businesses. But what are some of the myths that we can, you know, challenge about LinkedIn. 

 Daniel | 02:17
My pleasure. LinkedIn is a very powerful platform for business, but it's not very counterintuitive. 
 So the first one I would mention for entrepreneurs is the importance of their individual profile roles compared with the company page. And what I mean by that is that many of us think about the page as something the entity that needs to generate leads. But for entrepreneurs, the page is not very important. Looking at your own page, you have a lot more followers on your individual page. Then on the company page, you have thousands on your individual profile. You have less than 100. On your company page, that's the situation for most of us. For all entrepreneurs, So set up the company page. Forget about it. Check it out every three months. Drop something there. But leads will come through our individual profile, which leads to other questions about connections and stuff like that. 

 Rose | 03:20
How do we leverage and use our company or how should we be using our company page? 

 Daniel | 03:26
The company page is something I would simply set up. And every three months share something, but the individual profile is where I think our time resources should be invested in. And one simple way to look at it is to ask ourselves three questions. First question, who's my ideal reader? 
 So let's take an example. An ideal reader could be a business owner who's interested in launching a podcast. But they have all sorts of questions about the tech side, and it's not very clear in their head. 
 And then the second question would be, if we could make those aspiring podcasters who visit our profile. What action would we like them to perform after they discover us? And that would probably go to rossdavidson.com. Calm.au and see the programs. And lastly, are we making it as easy as possible for them to immediately understand the next action. And you've done it masterfully because when I visit your profile before I even read anything, the banner, the top banner... It says it all. It says master the art of podcasting using the proven opal system. 
 And then we see how we can book a discovery call and when, where it's at. That is interesting. Saving us a lot of time. 
 And then we start discovering why should we contact you? So first, who's our deal reader? Second, what action would we like them to perform after they visit our profile? And lastly, are we making it as streamlined and easy for them as possible to understand the next action they need to perform. 

 Rose | 05:14
Yeah, I've had a lady, she contacted me and encouraged me to change my banner and her... Strategies were quite useful so thank you for mentioning that I've got those things right. Now let's deep dive into the best way to get referrals from LinkedIn, Daniel. 

 Daniel | 05:34
Excellent. So for many entrepreneurs and service-based entrepreneurs, Referrals... Is the main... 
 Source of business. Because referrals... Are less press sensitive. Referrals tend to stay with us longer and referrals end up by sending other clients or other prospects our way. 
 So we have a real life network, right? And Dall-E have to do is to try and... Use LinkedIn or leverage LinkedIn like we would do in regular networking. What you want to do is for people to... When they hear the question, I think I need to launch a podcast, but I have questions. 
 So what do I do? You want them to hear Rose Davidson, but by someone who has worked with you. And networking is way more important than LinkedIn. And I tell this as someone that I spent all my time on LinkedIn, but From my perspective, I spend my time or invest my time networking. And LinkedIn is just the venue. LinkedIn is just the place it happens. And the biggest secret is to take the conversation outside of LinkedIn. 
 So imagine I run an advanced search and I see an interesting prospect for me as an entrepreneur. And then I discovered that Rose, you are a mutual connection. And I feel I could reach out to you and ask you if you know that person. And if you mind, if you could make the introduction. This action, I would not perform it on LinkedIn. I would leave the LinkedIn platform. I would probably send you an email, which is less intrusive. I can schedule it. I can reply to an earlier mail. I can... See what you're up to, and I will mention something else. 
 And then I will ask, I will include the link to the person so you don't have to work hard. I want really a simple yes/no question. Is this something you Is this someone you know well enough to make the introduction, or don't you feel comfortable doing it? And should you say yes, Then I would probably take more time to write something and ask you if you could send it to the person I want it to be introduced to. And maybe he could see Simi. Which takes a lot of friction from this. Because if you said you could make it, if you reach out to the prospect and say, I know someone who's interested in A, B, and C, would it be a good idea for you two to talk? And the prospect says, yes, please introduce me to Daniel or to Rose. Then you can leave the LinkedIn platform and have a meaningful conversation. Based on your name. Because the prospect would not know our name. They would open the email because it came from Rose. And that gives us a better way of having a meaningful conversation. And it's best to keep the person who made the introduction in the loop and thank them later. 

 Rose | 08:43
Yeah, okay. So I guess what I'm hearing is that you use the email system rather than the messaging system that's already in LinkedIn. 

 Daniel | 08:58
Absolutely. If we want someone not to read the message, then we send them a message on LinkedIn. 

 Rose | 09:05
Okay. Yep. It makes sense. I think, but does, you know, I, What if you don't know your connection very well? As in, We get a lot of connection requests and we... 
 Well, I do personally, Connect with these people because I've got, you know, something in common with what I'm doing or they have something that I may be interested in sometime down the future. But that's not always the case. A lot of times I'll get to... Connection requests from podcast marketers and podcast SEO experts. And, you know, they become quite annoying, I must say. Bye. 
 So how do we get, how do we, I guess, because. As the person with the profile pick out the best do we pick first level second level or third level. 

 Daniel | 10:04
Good. The initial question I would like to suggest is, If you had to pick one... In three years time, would you rather be the most connected, or the best connective. 

 Rose | 10:18
I think the best connection... I think I'd be the best connected. Thank. 

 Daniel | 10:22
You. Excellent. That means that you need to know your network well. And the benefit of that is that if you know your network well, then the second-degree contacts are people you can be introduced to. You have... 40,000 connections, then you don't know them well, but you have exposure. If you have 400 connections and you know them well, You're good because you can identify excellent prospects via search and have someone introduce them to you. The danger zone is not deciding which one we'd like. Because we started by knowing people we know well, And then we started getting all sorts of invitations and we said, yes, okay, so I will connect with that person and then another one. But the truth is, we need to pick. We need to pick one side Because exposure starts today with tens of thousands of connections. Let me give an example. Say when I share something on LinkedIn, maybe 2% rows will sit. 
 So if I only have 400 connections, that would mean eight people. The benefit of knowing our network is not exposure, it's the ability to get introduced. Second scenario, imagine I have 40,000 connections. Then even those two mean 800 people seeing my content, which is great. But what happens if instead of sticking with 400 or going all the route to 40,000, People kept telling me, Daniel, you need to grow your network. You need to grow your network. And I listened to them. And I increased my network tenfold. Now I have 4,000 connections. Most of them I don't know. But how many people will see The content I share, Only an additional $72,000. Which doesn't make sense. It's easier to pick 70 people and message them than to do that. 
 So exposure Happen when we have thousands of connections. Exposure happens when we have tens of thousands of connections, which brings us to the initial question. Quantity or quality. And you can't have them both. We want to have them both. I made the same thing. Everything I mentioned, I paid the price. I think it's best to pick one. Unless you pick one, you're likely to have very marginal exposure. And you would pollute or dilute the quality of your network. Because imagine I visit your profile and I see half a dozen mutual connections. One of them is someone you know well. And five are people you don't really know. Truth is, you will not be there to tell the person, you know what? Yes, please ask Michael D. Levitt, or please ask Joey Billast, both podcasters. Maybe with someone who doesn't know you. And when we ask them about your services, They will tell the truth. I don't know. Rosie's fine, but I've never launched a podcast. We would rather have only people who can recommend us as our mutual connections because that increases the likelihood of you We're getting another discovery call and helping another podcasters. 
 So pick one. Either quantity or quality. 

 Rose | 13:53
Yeah, I think it's still quality. I think to me quantity to me is just egometric. 

 Daniel | 14:05
What do you do with incoming invitations from intriguing people? 

 Rose | 14:12
No, well, I see it's their profile. I see perhaps that we have something in common. If we do, then I may accept that connection request. If we don't or we've got some mutual contacts, you know, a number of them, more than just one or two, I think my benchmark's about 10. 
 Yeah. We've got to have a few mutual connections that way that we can as you say network along and be introduced to each other in some way. 

 Daniel | 14:46
Excellent. So you know the importance of systems with the Apollo system of organizing, producing, launching the podcast. The same would apply here. Have a system. We have a certain bandwidth. Maybe your bandwidth is 10 times better than mine, but still we have limited time resources. 
 So Once we accept a mutual connection, If we don't know that person, it makes more sense to reach out to them and to try to better understand what they're doing. 
 And that means that when we accept someone's invitation, instead of saying, wow, I'm popular, we should ask ourselves, okay, down the road in six months' time, When LinkedIn shows me that person's birthday is today, Will it be important enough for me? To stop everything I do, and check that person out and read what they shared and message them outside of LinkedIn. And saying how they've been and either refer them or send them something that could be interesting. And if we don't have time to nurture our network, then we end up with a network that is under... Support. It's not. Quality enough. To build a system that works for you. 

 Rose | 16:08
I guess it's mapping out that system though and finding out, you know, how to Create it. Is probably a lot of things, a lot of times, the thing that we get stuck with. 

 Daniel | 16:21
It is. But we have a real-life network and a real-life personality and a real-life system. We don't have to invent another Rose or another Daniel for the sake of LinkedIn. We need to take what worked for us and see how the platform can serve us Rather than us entrepreneurs serving the platform. 

 Rose | 16:46
Yeah, that can be a challenge, though, if you're first starting out on it and you don't understand the workings of LinkedIn and the strategies that you need to, I guess, get your content seen. 

 Daniel | 17:01
Absolutely, but let's discuss contents. Some entrepreneurs have produced high quality content, and for them, it's great to share that content across the LinkedIn platform, both on their profile, as they do in the featured section, and as posts, and in groups, and whatever. But some entrepreneurs don't have that. That much. Hi. Quality content. 
 So one way, one possibility for would be to Q-rate. Or share other people's content that they find interesting for the ideal readers. In other words, I could... Discover something that would be interesting for podcasters. That will not come from a competitor. It will come from the industry. It would come from Alex and Philippe and Podmatch. It would come from an event. 
 And then it resonates with our audience to share it. And it takes a lot less effort for us to highlight that content. Rather than produce the episode or the podcast. You produced over 600 podcasts. Most people... Can't even get past the 60 board. 
 Yeah. Thank you. 

 Rose | 18:19
It's been a journey to get to where we are. Where I am at the moment and, you know, I've only been going, well, nearly five years now. 
 So I'm really proud of, you know, where I've reached it. And so, yeah, it would be better, it would be nicer, I think, if... I could get more engagement there. 
 So I don't know how to do that without spamming the text. It's my name LinkedIn. 

 Daniel | 18:54
So the truth is that most of our network is not that keen into seeing a lot of our content. So one way to do it is When you have a new episode you'd like to release, You obviously listen to it. 
 So instead of saying, hey, episode 522, where I speak with Conor O'Connor about his laugh acronym and the way to add humor to the presentation, that's a real episode, of course. What we could do is pick an interesting quote or even better, an interesting question. From the podcast you recorded. And you would start some sort of Sorry. And I want to see the end of the story. 
 So at the end, you would mention the episode. It's fine. The link is there. But instead of looking at it from our perspective, here's episode X. You would look at it from the reader's perspective. Do we have to be funny to have fun presentations? That is not giving away the answer. That is just intriguing. And maybe that would make more people want to discover the content because they will never think, see and know, I know this is another episode. They will say, okay, so what is the answer to that question?.. 

 Rose | 20:23
Good strategy, Daniel. I hadn't thought of it that way, but I will take that on board and I will start using that. I think that is wonderful. Thank you for sharing that. Daniel, you know, what other things should we be looking at in bettering our LinkedIn profiles. 

 Daniel | 20:42
Well, The question we would ask is, what is the destination, the single most important link we'd like to highlight? So if we want to highlight that, we can have a call to action at the top of our profile. And the featured section, which we mentioned, is very important. It takes less than a minute to add content to the featured section. Which means that anyone discovering your profile And seeing that powerful banner and seeing the way you help podcasters. As even if they don't see the Launcher Podcast today call to action here, Our eyes grab that visual information. Which means that we're likely to click on one of the links here And now we can discover your program, we can go to your website and rosedavidson.com.au. Has a better conversion than LinkedIn. 
 So we want to send people to our destination. And not keep them within the LinkedIn platform. Which Rose is exactly... The opposite of what LinkedIn would like us to do. LinkedIn would like us to live within the gated content of LinkedIn and never leave the platform. But the conversion happens elsewhere. We'd rather have A discovery call can translate into revenues. Than 500 connections that don't translate into anything. 
 So build a system. You have a business system. We should have a business system. You should not listen to earlier episodes of Talking with the Experts. And when you have a system, Ask yourself, where does LinkedIn fit within our existing system. LinkedIn simply is a black box. If you have a discovery call system and you have, say, five discovery calls every week. And you know that you convert three of them into paying clients. Imagine you could leverage LinkedIn to double the number of discovery calls. And even at the same ratio, that would mean twice as many revenues from your time. 
 So analyze your system. And then ask yourself, where is the best way that LinkedIn could feed that system? And you mentioned content. Content that works for most entrepreneurs. Is top of funnel, Educational content. We can get an example if you'd like. Will you be okay for me to mention an example? 

 Rose | 23:29
Yes, please. 

 Daniel | 23:32
So, I'm sure you heard Tons of questions from aspiring podcasters. And what you could do instead of sending them to the program right away, you could ask... Questions that you're struggling with. 
 So where should I start? Why do I need podcasting? Does it mean that I have to invest in a home studio? How would I find guests? How do I edit or produce the episode? Do I have to go live? All sorts of questions that you heard hundreds of times. If we want to meet people where they are, We pick one of those questions We educate them. And we basically help them move from point A to point B. We provide clarity. 
 And then... We show them point C and point D. And this is where you move them to your gated content or to a discovery call or to something else. 
 So pick a question that they're struggling with. Help them understand the basics and have them move once they were confident. They look back and say, hey, I have taken this baby step and Rose can show me now how to move to the next step. Sum it into the next step. Now you don't have to sell. I want to buy. 

 Rose | 25:01
It makes perfect sense. Daniel, you can If you want to work with Daniel and find out more about LinkedIn and how it can work for your business, you can find him on LinkedIn at Alfon and on Instagram at Daniel Alfon. His website at Daniel Alfon.com and on Twitter. And on Amazon. And what if you go on Amazon, Daniel? 

 Daniel | 25:31
Back in the day, I released a book, I self-released a book on the importance of LinkedIn profile, how to build them in 12 steps. That was back in 2014. It was an amazing journey. I know you hosted book authors and helped people launch their books. 
 So it was an amazing adventure. 

 Rose | 25:55
Great. Yes, I've often thought about writing a book. I've got two in mind, but actually I've got three, but I haven't got the courage to go out and do it yet. You can find Daniel on Quora. 
 So yeah, check him out. And he's offering a personal one-on-one session on his website. And what types of people, Daniel, do you work with? 

 Daniel | 26:20
Entrepreneurs. Who have a good idea of how their ideal client looks like, and are not sure about the way to use LinkedIn. In other words, all you have to do is to be able to identify the clients you'd like to work with. If you don't have that clarity, then maybe I'm not the right fit. Maybe you need to go through some process. But once you know. Who's the ideal client you'd like to attract to, then we can figure out LinkedIn and it's less difficult than what it seems. 

 Rose | 26:52
Sounds perfect. Daniel, it's been a pleasure. Thank you so much for joining me today and sharing your wisdom on how we can better our profiles on LinkedIn. 

 Daniel | 27:02
Rose, it's been a blast. Thank you very much for having me on Talking with the Experts or maybe the Business Brilliance Show or Expert Edge Podcast or Voices of Impact, whatever it ends up. 

 Rose | 27:13
Yeah, I've decided not to rebrand. I think I just like the title the way it is. 

 Daniel | 27:18
So talking with the experts it is. 

 Rose | 27:20
All right. Bye-bye for now. 

 Daniel | 27:23
Thanks. 

 Outro | 27:25
You've been listening to Talking With The Experts, hosted by Rose Davidson. Make sure you have a look at our back catalogue over at talkingwiththeexperts.com. And be sure to subscribe to our podcast so you don't miss out on any episode. We look forward to your company next time.