How to Create a LinkedIn Substack Flywheel & Become a LinkedIn Top Voice in 2025

Use LinkedIn as a funnel to get paid subscribers, clients, sell your products and services

LinkedIn is a powerful place to get noticed—especially by professionals who don’t (want to) hang out anywhere else online.

However, the algorithm decides who sees your work and when as you’re building on rented land.

You might remember my podcast episode with

Simon Owens

where we talked about the death of followers and the real metric: subscribers.

That’s why more business writers and creators are turning to Substack.

✅On Substack, you own your audience.

✅Every subscriber is someone who chose to hear from you—and every post lands in their inbox, not in a feed you have to fight for.

Online Writing Club members book coach

Neera Mahajan

from

Author Circle

and Senior Partner Manager at ActiveCampaign

Gunnar Habitz

from

Writing in Cafés ☕️ Marketing Your Book 📖

are capitalizing on both platforms.

As I know many of you are thinking about…

• getting on LinkedIn

• connecting LinkedIn with Susbatck and

• building a LinkedIn-Substack or

• Substack-LinkedIn Flyhweel

So today at 4pm EST and 1pm PT you can meet Neera and Gunnar for a masterclass on the LinkedIn-Substack Flywheel!

🔏You can find the Zoom link here or in the Chat for paid members.

⭐Not a paid member yet? Join us today and meet us later today for our LIVE masterclass.

We’d love to see as many LinkedIn and Substack users as possible there to connect and learn from each other.

Neera Wrote on LinkedIn for 100 Days and Became a LinkedIn Top Voice

One person who has lived both sides of this journey is tribe member

Neera Mahajan

, ghostwriter, book coach:

“I started writing on LinkedIn in January 2022 as an experiment,” she shared.

Neera had no background in social media. But she showed up anyway—posting daily for 100 days, as she shared in our popular podcast interview..

By the end of those 100 days, everything changed:
Real followers. Real friends for life!

“Many of those early connections are still in my life today. I meet them whenever I travel, and we’ve continued supporting each other over the years.”

✅In 2023, she joined a LinkedIn writing challenge—30 posts in 30 days—and finally started understanding how the platform actually works. It was about connection. And it paid off in ways she never expected.

✅In 2024, she took LinkedIn seriously. Joined a cohort and learned how to write content that moves people. And then—

Neera was Named a LinkedIn Top Voice

📩 An email from the LinkedIn Editorial Team.
She was one of only 300 people globally invited into their internal ptrainingrogram.

And in August 2024, Neera was named a LinkedIn Top Voice—a badge given to thought leaders who share consistently valuable insights.

It came from being real. From writing consistently. From showing up with a point of view. In our podcast interview she already shared some tangible tips and tricks.

And yes—she lost the badge in March 2025, after a busy stretch of travel. But like she said,

“I am almost certain to regain it with continued original writing and making an impact that fits what LinkedIn is looking for.”

Also Neera and Gunnar are growing their Substack newsletter, getting clients, selling their books and coachings with their, as I call it, LinkedIn-Substack Flywheel.

If you’ve been following me for a while you know I love the Medium-Substack Flywheel for all smart writers who want to build an audience of followers and convert them into subscribers with Substack as tribe member

Dana DuBois

now does.

So what’s the LinkedIn-Substack Flywheel then?

What’s The LinkedIn-Substack Flywheel?

LinkedIn is great, but as mentioned you don’t own your followers there, similar to Medium.
Only Substack gives you that direct relationship to your subscribers—straight into the inbox.

However, together, they’re a loop. A flywheel. A long-term strategy that builds momentum over time.

As I always say: LinkedIn is the peanut butter. Substack is the jelly.

GIPHY; was in April; for some every day is a Peanut Butter & Jelly Day thugh :)

If you’ve been wondering how to stand out, grow your business, or just be remembered for the right reasons... It’s time to connect the dots, don’t you think?

So here’ waht we’ll also cover in today’s live session at 4pm EST:

Why Does The LinkedIn-Substack Flywheel Work?

For Gunnar and Neera the flywheel means this:

• LinkedIn = discovery. It’s where people find you primarily via short form but also via written long form content, video or images. You can introduce yourself, your ideas, thoughts, skills, expertise.

• Substack = depth. It’s the NEXT step. It’s the place where people trust you. On Notes you can post short form content but most newsletters include long form content. This keeps the conversation going and you build deeper relationships with your subscribers via DM, Chat, Livestream or simply your newsletters getting in the intimate inboxes of your audience.

How To Get The LinkedIn-Substack Flywheel Spinning?

I shared Neera’s approach already, Gunnar’s is similar and interesting to take a closer look, too:

#1 Add a Substack CTA to Your LinkedIn Profile

Gunnar added a call-to-action button that says: “View my newsletter”.

If you click that button you’ll get linked to Gunnar’s Substack publication.

#2 Repurpose Your Content on Substack and LinkedIn

With the flywheel it’s really not about doing more. That’s very important for me for you to understand.

Here’s an example from Gunnar’s latest post on LinkedIn where he celebrates 9 month in Sydney! (Congrats, especiall for meeting our mutual friend

Veronica Llorca-Smith

there. And your wonderful job at ActiveCampaigns. You’ll soon tell us more about your tools)

and on Substack Notes featuring his long form newsletter post:

When you check both posts you’ll see Gunnar is fully embracing, living and spinning the flywheel. His key relections from living in Sydney on Substack are the same as on LinkedIn. Only the photo is different.

#3 Talk About Your Offers, Services and Products

And since Gunnar is a smart LinkedIn-Substack writer, he’s adding this to the end of his story to convert casual readers to subscribers, paid susbcriber and/or customers.

Thinks that’s a great summary of what he has to offer.

Hope this is already a great inspiration for you.

I’m also on the fence of connecting my corporate and side hustle life… so I’m really looking forward to this session with Neera and Gunnar joining us.

Today at 4pm EST and 1pm PT you can meet Neera (and Gunnar) for a masterclass on the LinkedIn-Substack Flywheel & Top Voices badge in 2025.

🔏You can find the Zoom link here or in the Chat for paid members.

⭐Not a paid member yet? Join us today and meet us later today for our LIVE masterclass.

We’d love to see as many LinkedIn and Substack users as possible there to connect and learn from each other.

One more thing, you’ll also get Neera’s LinkedIn Playbook!

See you later!

GIPHY