In this conversational coaching video, Joe Apfelbaum explains how to use LinkedIn as a primary source of client acquisition in 2026. He contrasts LinkedIn’s authentic, data‑rich profiles with Instagram’s superficial usernames, emphasizing that real identities and detailed professional histories make LinkedIn a high‑value networking platform. Joe introduces three core secrets: (1) treat LinkedIn as a blue‑ocean market by building deep, personal relationships—making phone calls, sending birthday messages, and following up relentlessly; (2) use a birthday‑and‑follow‑up strategy as a lead‑magnet that converts contacts into paying clients; (3) leverage AI‑powered tools, specifically his Evvy AI Chrome extension/web app, to enrich connection data, automate persona creation, and scale outreach tenfold. He also shares his personal credibility (author of five books, Landmark graduate, AI trainer for corporate teams, speaker) and offers a referral partnership with a 20% commission for three years. The dialogue includes cultural references (Jewish holidays, community background) and a proposal for an in‑person breathwork session, illustrating his holistic approach to relationship building. The overall message is that success on LinkedIn comes from authentic, high‑touch engagement rather than viral content.
Chapters
Impressions don't count. You know what counts? Money in the bank, baby.
The number one way to get either a job or an opportunity for consulting is—
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Let me tell you the difference between Instagram and LinkedIn. On Instagram, you see a screen name like, you know, Bootylicious or whatever, right? You don't really know who the person is. But if you look me up on LinkedIn, I texted you my, my LinkedIn profile. If you look me up on LinkedIn, not only do you see my first and last name, Joe Apfelbaum, but you also see where I'm from, Brooklyn, same place as Biggie. I don't know if you're familiar.
Brooklyn.
Same place as Biggie. And you can tell that I'm a single father of 5, that I'm an author, a speaker, a connector, a networker. I am a CEO of multiple companies. You can see everything about me. You can see my services. You can see my 500 written testimonials from my clients. You can see I have 54 You can see my post that I posted an hour ago has 35 likes and 22 comments. You can see what I'm about. You can see that LinkedIn hired me to train their staff on how to use LinkedIn.
You could see I'm a Landmark graduate.
You can see my books. I have published 5 books. So this is a very important thing to like leverage LinkedIn because the people are real. If I can even just connect with 100 real people on LinkedIn, I think it's worth more than 1,000 followers on Instagram. Would you— Your clone's never gonna be you. That's the beauty of it so that you're not replacing yourself. But the clone will help you get much, much better and much faster. The number one way to get either a job or an opportunity for consulting is to start using LinkedIn, especially in 2026 when it's growing at a rate of 3 new members every second. But going viral is not the answer to being successful on LinkedIn or successful in life either. Like, that's not, that's not how you get success in life. Build 1,000 relationships every year.
Call people on their cell, connect with them, build a relationship with them. And then see what that turns into. You know, it's a very, very blue ocean. You know what blue ocean means? There's a red ocean where everybody's hunting and there's tons of blood, and there's the blue ocean that nobody's even there and there's tons of fish.
Right, right.
So I see the— I see the ocean as a blue ocean. That's what I see. I see a place where there's so much to do, so many relationships to build, so many people to connect with, and very few people are doing it.
And the birthday strategy is a strategy that 100% Absolutely works, and it works so well in fact that clients have been signing up to my products and services from me just reaching out to them.
So if they can work with my clients, there's a strategic reason for me to build a relationship with them. See some a lot of people don't get that. They don't realize like oh my gosh, that is cool. It's this is like a lead magnet for me.
Fortune is in the follow up. That's what they say. Most people show up and throw up. I show up and follow up.
Market. in a networking event?
Horrible.
The worst. Don't do that. That's stupid. That's a waste of time.
Right.
My recommendation is going deep, connecting, having these meaningful conversations that last 26 minutes, like we're talking here for the past 26 minutes, and get to know somebody. You know, like I called you out of the blue. I didn't just call you out of the blue. I noticed that I sent you a Hanukkah message a year ago and you haven't responded to me. So then I sent you another one and then I called you. And if you don't respond to me at that point, then I just disconnect and move on. I have 30,000 people to talk to.
Where are you located?
I'm in Hillside, um, near Linden. You know where Linden, New Jersey is? Yeah, sure. I figured you know where Linden is more than you know where Hillside is, but whatever.
Yes, yes, yes. Any advice you have? I'm a lot in Monsey. At the moment I'm in Monsey, but I live near Monroe.
Oh, nice. So you're a Satmar? Are you a Satmar? Are you part of the summer?
I'm, I'm, I mean, you want to really go deep? I'm a Ger.
Oh, that's beautiful. You're a Ger?
I grew up in Satmar.
That's amazing.
I consider myself, I consider myself a Ger.
A Ger or Ger Hasidim?
No, I consider myself a Ger. Okay. I converted from, I'm, I converted from Satmar to Judaism.
I love that.
I love that. That's beautiful.
If you know, if you know what I mean.
I know exactly what you mean. You became a real person. You became a whole human being instead of being part of the system. And I love that. I love that for you. And by the way, I feel the same way. I feel the same way. I think we have a lot to talk about. I would love to get together with you someday in the near future. Doesn't have to be right away. Let's do it. I'm actually doing a talk on the 31st. Somebody hired me to talk to their company about artificial intelligence. They're going to have probably 25 people there. People hire me to speak about AI, to train their companies on how to use AI and how to use LinkedIn, 'cause I'm very deep into AI. Um, I, I have, I have a training session I do every month for 3 hours with people that want to go deep into AI and really get to know how it works and how to build robots and how to build voice agents and how to clone themselves and how to do all that stuff.
So, Wow.
I'm an expert at all that because I've been teaching it for 3 years since ChatGPT came out. I've been, I've been paying for people to teach me For many, many hours, and then I go and I teach other people what I learn.
Get it? Well, well.
So I hire the top—
Listen, I definitely wanna, wanna get in contact, Stankin' Mechanic. Maybe I can offer even— I would, I would— not maybe. I would definitely offer you even the— if you're into breathwork, I will offer you a free session just to experience, experience my, my take.
I've done it, I've done it many, many times, and I always— do you ever do workshops in groups, or you just do personal breathwork?
Not yet. At the moment I do one-on-one.
If you do a workshop in a group, those are the ones that I really like to do. Um, if you want to get together and do a breathwork session with me, I'm happy to welcome you. I'm only— we're only like 30 minutes away from each other, so you can stop by. You know, you take the Garden State Parkway 30 minutes down, you'll get to me. Maybe 40 minutes.
Definitely, definitely want to connect in person.
All right.
And I would offer you— I would offer you a session just to get a feeling too.
My pleasure. My pleasure. Thank you very much, Ellie. Happy Hanukkah. If you know somebody that wants to learn LinkedIn and wants to have an authentic way of using it, maybe one of your clients and they have a sales team, even better. I will pay you 20% commission for 3 years.
I definitely know people, but I need to get more feeling of it to see it.
When I, when I, I'm not, I'm not the, you know what I can do is I can send you a webinar. I can send you my last webinar. Um, I have a webinar, I have a webinar replay. that you could look at where it's an hour-long session. So it's a little long, but it's a pretty good class that I gave that I think that you'll get, I think you'll get value from the class. It's not just me just selling something. It's a class that you actually learn. So what I'm gonna do is—
The way I refer people mostly, not by referral fees, not by kickbacks, I refer it by knowing what I'm referring and really feeling it.
Adding value. Got it.
And adding value. It's not just— I mean—
Your motivator is not making extra money because your father's very rich and you're set for life.
No, I can use the money, to be very honest. I can use the money, to be very honest. But it's not my value to— I mean, if I will take, I will share it with my client that I'm making something about it. It's not something that I— you're not going to persuade me to refer your services by offering me money because I respect much more the relationship and the honesty and the credibility than the money. But I need to feel what it is. I need to really connect to it. I need to believe in it. So thank you.
Thank you for talking to me today. I appreciate it. My team's telling me I have to hop on another call and then I have to run to Manhattan. But I do appreciate you very, very, very, very much. And I truly give you brachos. And only good things in your life. And may you be blessed to make $1 million in profit in 2026. B'ezrat Hashem.
Aman. You too, and much more.
Aman. All right, we'll talk to you soon.
Okay.
Take care.
Thank you. Happy hunting.
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