In a recent LinkedIn post, jessie van breugel discusses a powerful framework for leveraging LinkedIn content to drive business growth, dubbing it the ‘Authority Flywheel.’ Van Breugel, who claims this method has been instrumental in closing multiple six-figure deals directly from LinkedIn DMs after over 2,000 posts, outlines the four interconnected stages of this flywheel and explains why it often stalls for founders.
Understanding the Authority Flywheel
Van Breugel’s Authority Flywheel model is designed to create a self-sustaining engine for lead generation and client acquisition. The process begins with consistent content creation, which serves to place an entrepreneur’s offer in front of the right audience. This initial stage is crucial for visibility and attracting potential clients.
As jessie van breugel notes:
“Content: puts your offer in front of the right people every week”
The subsequent stages build upon this foundation. ‘Conversations’ are initiated when readers engage with the content, leading to direct messages, both inbound and outbound. These conversations are then intended to progress to ‘Calls,’ specifically booked discovery calls where the potential client’s needs can be further explored.
“Calls: conversations turn into booked discovery calls”
Finally, the ‘Clients’ stage involves turning those discovery calls into paying customers. The success and results achieved with these new clients then serve as social proof, feeding back into the ‘Content’ stage for future posts, thus completing the loop and reinforcing the flywheel’s momentum.
Why the Flywheel Stalls
Despite the logical progression of the Authority Flywheel, Van Breugel highlights that it frequently fails to gain traction for many founders. The core issue, according to Van Breugel, lies in the interconnectedness of the stages and the necessary foundational elements required for each transition.
Van Breugel argues that the flywheel only spins effectively when every stage is properly connected, and these connections require deliberate setup. This includes having a well-qualified profile that effectively guides visitors, a content strategy that is authentic to the founder’s voice, a structured approach to handling DMs, and sales assets ready for calls.
“The flywheel only spins when every stage is connected, and each connection has to be built first: a profile that qualifies visitors, a content engine in your voice, a DM playbook, sales assets for the calls.”
The common pitfall, as described by Van Breugel, is that most founders focus on just one connection – typically the habit of posting content. They then attempt to push the entire wheel forward manually, often while simultaneously managing client delivery. This dual burden means that when client work inevitably intensifies, the posting habit—and thus the flywheel—grinds to a halt.
Re-engaging a Stalled Flywheel
Van Breugel advises against simply increasing posting volume as a solution for a stalled flywheel. Instead, the focus should be on identifying the missing or weakest connection between the stages.
According to jessie van breugel:
“Don’t fix a stalled flywheel with more posting volume. Find the connection that’s missing, build that one first, and the same posts start producing conversations.”
By pinpointing and strengthening the specific weak link—whether it’s optimizing the profile, refining the content’s call-to-action, improving DM strategies, or preparing better sales collateral—founders can re-ignite the flywheel. Van Breugel suggests that once the missing connection is established, existing content can then begin to generate the desired conversations and, ultimately, clients, allowing the flywheel to feed itself.
Van Breugel concludes by referencing a ‘Pipeline Leak Finder’ from a previous post as a tool to help identify these critical missing connections within 60 seconds.
📝 About This Content
This article is based on insights shared by jessie van breugel on LinkedIn.
📅 Originally posted on July 7, 2026 | View original post on LinkedIn →