How to Leverage LinkedIn as a Speaker with Daniel Alfon.

Welcome to Public Speaking with Peter George. Do you want to be calm, confident, and credible every time you speak in public? Then stay tuned as Peter and his guests discuss public speaking tips, techniques, and tactics that help you increase your impact, influence, and income. Here's your host, the author of The Captivating Public Speaker, Peter George.

Are you active on LinkedIn? If you are, are you leveraging your presence to get leads — or have you merely listed your job titles and employment dates? My guest Daniel Alfon shows you how to increase your exposure, credibility, and business with a change in mindset and a few targeted tweaks to your profile. Daniel has been helping business owners and professionals gain new clients with the power of LinkedIn since he joined the platform in 2004. He is the author of Build a LinkedIn Profile for Business Success. Here's my conversation with Daniel Alfon.

Profile as Website, Not CV

Peter: What do you mean by "treat your profile like a website, not a CV"?

Daniel: Instead of thinking about your LinkedIn profile as a record of where you worked, think of it as another website. Ask one simple question: how do I convert my ideal reader into performing the action I'd like them to perform? Who is my ideal reader — the event organizer, the corporate buyer? What action do I want them to take — reach out to me, book a gig? And am I making it as easy as possible for them to understand that instantly?

When you run a Google search for a speaker's name, in many cases their LinkedIn profile tops the list — above their own website, even above their TED Talk. You need to manage it purposefully. A CV says you worked for Company X from 1990 to 2005. A profile website says: because of that experience, I can do this for you. Same facts, completely different framing.

The Headline: Your Most Valuable Real Estate

Peter: What's the best way to use a headline?

Daniel: The headline is the most expensive real estate on LinkedIn. By default, it just says your job title and company name. But the headline is the first thing people see in a search — even before they visit your profile. Make it count. Think about your ideal reader and the first thing you'd like them to understand about you. Yours says "award-winning author, public speaking coach" — I see that within two seconds. That's what your headline should accomplish.

Personal Profile vs. Company Page

Peter: Should speakers focus on their personal profile or their company page?

Daniel: Forget about the company page. Set it up, check it every six months. But if you're a speaker who doesn't work for a Fortune 500 company, your LinkedIn profile is the engine that will give you gigs, exposure, and stages. Your personal profile has thousands of followers. Your company page has dozens. The LinkedIn profile is way more important — full stop.

Making Your Profile Viewer-Friendly

Peter: How can we make our profiles viewer-friendly when LinkedIn is designed to make us talk about ourselves?

Daniel: The first sentence of my book is: your profile is not about you. It belongs to you — but you need to write it for your ideal reader. Answer their questions in the order they ask them. What do you do? Is it relevant to me? How do I get in touch? That's roughly the sequence for most people. Three questions to ask yourself: who is my ideal reader, what action do I want them to take, and have I removed every obstacle between finding me and contacting me? A simple exercise: ask someone you're not connected to to pull up your profile on their device in a Zoom call and tell you what they see. What would they do if they were looking for a speaker and had never heard of you? You may be surprised by the answer.

Most Connected vs. Best Connected

Peter: What are the upsides and downsides of connecting with people you don't know?

Daniel: Here's the question I ask every speaker: in three years, would you rather be the most connected or the best connected? You can't have both. If you build a large network, you gain broad exposure — every post, every appearance, every book will reach more people. But you dilute your ability to gain meaningful introductions. If you build a quality network of people you actually know, you can pick up the phone and ask them to introduce you to your ideal client — and that introduction comes with their reputation behind it. Both strategies can drive contracts and income. But they're mutually exclusive. Choose before you connect, because undoing a quantity strategy is very hard.

Handling the Flood of Unsolicited Connections

Peter: I'm getting bombarded with solicitations on LinkedIn. How do we deal with this?

Daniel: Don't be that person yourself — but we can skip past that. For the 10 percent of incoming invitations that look genuinely interesting, reply without accepting. There's a link I can share that lets you respond to an invitation request without connecting. Something like: "Thank you for the invitation, John. I see you're with XYZ — I don't recall having worked with you. Can I be of help?" Most won't reply. But occasionally someone will say, "I heard you on Peter George's podcast and I'd like to discuss a training opportunity." That's a real conversation. Give it a process. Delegate it to a VA if needed. And ignore the spray-and-pray automation that clearly hasn't looked at your profile.

Content Strategy and the Right Kind of Exposure

Peter: When and how often should speakers share content on LinkedIn?

Daniel: Think about your ideal reader first. Produce or curate content that is top-of-funnel, educational, and ideally evergreen. Help people move from a place of doubt or fear toward the next step — your website, a strategy call, your list. Content isn't the only way to get exposure on LinkedIn. A warm introduction from someone who knows you well is worth more than a thousand cold impressions. If you overdo it, if people see the same type of post from you constantly, they'll unfollow you. Ask yourself quarterly: what is the best piece of content I've consumed that is genuinely relevant for my network? Share that. Four times a year is the minimum. But quality and relevance matter far more than frequency.

And one more thing on exposure: five event organizers asking you to schedule something is worth more than 1,500 random followers who've never heard of you. You need the right kind of exposure — which means being found by the right people using the right keywords. Ask a client: if you were looking for someone with my skill set, what terms would you use? Their language may be completely different from yours. Include those terms naturally in your profile. LinkedIn indexes everything from your headline to your skills section. Make sure your profile speaks the language your ideal client searches in.

Peter: Daniel, this has been excellent. Where can people connect with you and learn more?

Daniel: Thank you, Peter. It's been a pleasure. Everything is at danielalfon.com.

Thank you for listening to this episode of Public Speaking with Peter George. Are you ready to be calm, confident, and credible every time you speak in public? Then visit petergeorgepublicspeaking.com and let's make it happen. I'll see you next time.