Why Your LinkedIn Profile Is the New Landing Page | Michael Kurson, FirstTouch | Ep. 19

Can you build a B2B pipeline on LinkedIn with no ad spend, no cold calls, and no cold emails? Michael Kurson did exactly that, and he tracked every step.   Michael is the co-founder of FirstTouch, a platform that turns LinkedIn into a measurable go-to-market channel by attributing every comment, connection, and DM back to HubSpot. Before tech he sold something harder to move: hard seltzer, one three-hour liquor-store tasting at a time. He joins Justin Obey on Return on Reputation to explain why trust is the real product now, why the people are the brand, and how to earn attention on social before a buyer ever needs you.   This conversation is for founders, sales leaders, and marketers who believe what we believe: people buy from people they know, like, and trust, and the companies that lean into the personal brands of their founders and their team will outperform the ones hiding behind a logo.   What you'll learn:   Why "digital eye contact" in the comments beats cold outreach every time The exact commenting routine that tripled his connection-accept rate (from ~20% to 60%+) Why your profile is the new landing page, and the website is not where buyers live anymore How AI search (AEO) is changing discovery, and the best question to ask in a first call Why AI-generated comments quietly damage your reputation How the people, not the logo, became the brand (Lovable, Clay, Whisperflow)   Questions answered in this episode:   How do you build trust on LinkedIn without being salesy? What is the highest-ROI activity on LinkedIn for a busy founder? Is cold calling and cold email dead in 2026? How do you make LinkedIn drive measurable pipeline? What does reputation actually mean for a B2B company today?   Chapters  0:00 Cold open  0:25 From hard seltzer to software: what selling drinks taught him about trust  4:30 The trust gap in the age of AI  7:45 Micro-conversations and "digital eye contact" in the comments  11:30 Talk less, win more: the 49% talk-rate rule  14:00 Why almost nobody comments (and why that's the opening)  16:00 What FirstTouch does: making LinkedIn measurable  20:30 The anatomy of a comment that works  25:00 Your profile is the new landing page  27:30 Social as the new battleground, and AEO  33:30 Human-in-the-loop vs automation  38:00 67% attribution: when the light bulb goes on  42:30 The people are the brand (Lovable, Clay, Whisperflow)  46:45 If a busy founder had 8 minutes a day  48:45 "LinkedIn is cringe" and the perfect-post trap  49:40 If you're not on social, you disappear  51:25 Rapid fire  53:55 What reputation means