The LinkedIn Post That Changed My Entire Business Approach

Two nights ago, I was scrolling through LinkedIn like I always do. Then a headline stopped me cold.

Kill Bad Ideas In These Five Steps

The questions in that post hit me like a glass of cold water to the face. They made me realize something painful: I'd been working really effectively… but on all the wrong things.

I was working. Really productive. But I was waiting for my content to build relationships with people who actually needed what I was creating. Worse, I was creating solutions for problems that weren't painful enough for people to pay to fix. And even if they wanted to fix them, the audience I was writing for didn't have the money to hire me.

The Old Way That Was Kind of Working

Like many creators, I'd been taught to follow a specific system:

1. Create a free offer

2. Get people to sign up

3. Then upsell them to paid solutions

This approach can work. I was modeling successful creators. Yet for me, it worked just enough to be a teaser… I was running hard to stay in the same place.

Here's what I was doing:

I'd build out complete solutions for ideas that I had or problems I was having. I'd work hard to get everything perfect. Then after I created, tested and got some small results, I'd show it to people and hope they'd buy.

Why did I do it this way? Because in the past, when I'd meet with prospects and share ideas, they'd always ask: "Do you have a working example to show me?"

When I said no, they'd lose interest. I didn’t know how to handle that kind of objection from a luke-warm prospect because I had not discovered how to identify THEIR pain.

So I started building everything first. But that meant I was paying for all the research and development time while trying to prove my idea to one prospect.

The Real Problem

I wasn’t filtering out clients who weren't ready to pay, I was actively spending time recruiting them with free offers.

I wasn't talking to the right people and I didn’t have an approach to having discovery calls that help me find the ones who were really feeling the pain that I could solve and had the budget to solve it.

Instead, I was publishing.

Trying to show value to a vague cloud of ‘visitors’ - people who weren't sure they even had a problem.

My process looked like this:

• Build content based on ideas or by modeling what others were doing online

• Put everything online

• Offer a 7-day free trial to make it "frictionless"

• Then charge $34 per month after the trial

It was kind of a bait and switch. Get them in with the promise of earning passive income, then hit them with the actual work required to build success online.

Once people joined the free trial, I'd offer a 30-minute call. I'd create a copy of the recording for them, I’d create a custom business plan. I'd spend hours formatting reports, processing videos, and uploading content.

Then - they'd ever-so-quietly… leave.

They'd cancel after the free trial. Or after one month. Or after two months of doing nothing.

Why?

Because I was selling them a dream of passive income. But when they got inside, they realized the actual work was much harder than they thought. They didn't do the work. They didn't get results. So they cancelled.

I'd spent hours with people who didn’t have the pain, nor the budget.

The Approach That Is So Logical In The World of AI

This LinkedIn contact showed me a completely logical way.

Instead of putting the conversation after building everything, he puts that conversation first. The conversation happens right at the beginning. Before anything else.

That first conversation is a filter. It tells you right away:

• Is their pain big enough that they'll actually pay to fix it?

• Do they realize there is a solution for their pain?

• Do they have the current budget to redirect to this change?

This insight and approach change my entire content focus.

Taking Massive Action

He gave me a great introductory email template. I used AI tools to help me adapt it—Perplexity, NotebookLM, Claude, Google, and ChatGPT. I analyzed my own content based on his strategy.

Then I jumped in.

Within a day and a half:

• I changed my LinkedIn profile

• I built a Book A Call page

• I changed all my call-to-action links

• I updated my personal website

• I contacted 16 people

Then something amazing happened.

The author who had just shaken me awake… sent me a follow-up message on LinkedIn. (you know that feeling when a celebrity replies to your comment?)

We talked back and forth. And he sent me another tip to make my message even better.

He didn't have to do that. But he did. He's really reaching out and helping people.

Why This Changes My Daily Routine

This approach gave me something I didn't have before: the psychological framework to reach out and have conversations up front.

Before, I was putting things in the wrong order - and I didn’t realize I was trying to speak to three different customer profiles in a single conversation. Most importantly, I realized that my top customers will not stick around for passive income hacks.

Now my daily routine is just as busy, but now I’m organized to reach out for the conversation right at the beginning. And that helps me qualify whether they have the budget and the pain. Then I invest hours of my time where my solutions fit the need.

I'm not chasing the crowd of readers to find the gem. I'm not convincing with frictionless sales pages and 7 day free trials.

I'm replying to social media comments, I’m following those who like and clap. Then I’m reaching out and meeting people, helping, and qualifying.

And I'm super excited about where this is going.

If you're tired of the old creator economy myths and want a better approach to building real business relationships, Adam Egger is the guy you need to connect with. Adam Egger on LinkedIn. (his substack)