I got 14 questions about building my "one-person business" on LinkedIn and thought I'd turn them into a short podcast episode here for all of you creators, entrepreneurs, or just curious followers.

1. What's the breakdown of revenue per SKU (community membership, recruiting, ads/sponsors, etc)?
2. If you were starting from scratch today, what SKU would you start with?
3. Will you do this forever?
4. Do you have a long-term goal with Exit 5? What's your long-term goal?
5. Do you ever consider building a micro-saas?
6. How many hours do you work a week?
7. How many inbounds across all channels do you get per day?
8. Now that you're a little ways in, do you think it was the right decision to move from DGMG (personally branded) to Exit 5?
9. Do you think about platform strategy much? eg: Focusing on LI versus X versus email? What mental models do you use there?
10. What term do you like best for ppl like you? Influencer, Creator, B2B Creator, something else? You’re unique because you’re now a founder more than a creator.
11. How many miles did you run this weekend?
12. Do you get spotted in public much?
13. What do you think of crypto/NFTs?
14. Do you believe in aliens?

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The Path to Solopreneurship: Where to Start

One of the more frequent questions in my inbox is about the path to solopreneurship and creating your own business. Here's how I think about it.

***

“How to Make Millions With Your Ideas” is the title of a book published in 1996 by Dan Kennedy.

27 years later the advice is more relevant than ever.

If you want to own your own business, create your own schedule, be your own boss, and generate income to provide for your life, there’s an alternative path to becoming an entrepreneur.

- You don’t need to sell a physical product
- You don’t need to write code and build software
- You don’t need to buy a storage facility
- Your don’t need to get into real estate

Those are great paths.

But there’s a different path. If you have expertise in an industry, you can build an information business. A knowledge business. You can “make millions with your ideas.”

In 1996 people we didn’t have the tools we have now. Today we have digital platforms like LinkedIn, X, a website, and a podcast to share knowledge and ideas with the world.

Over time sharing that knowledge can spread and lead to building an audience, and an audience matters because if you have something you want to sell, people need to know who you are first. They need to know you exist. And they need to believe that you are a trusted authority on that topic.

You can get customers other ways too of course, but it’s a lot easier this way.

The other way is like going door to door. You might have to knock on 100 doors to get your first customer.

But with an audience you can reach your ideal customers directly. They will start coming to you. And there’s nothing better than inbound opportunities.

It’s not going to happen overnight. But it might go something like this:

You might write for months online and see nothing. Then one day, you get a DM from someone who’s been following your writing on SEO. They want to know if they can hire you for a quick SEO project for their business. That’s how it starts. You do a great job for them and get a referral from another business, and a testimonial to back it up.

You might get an invite to go on a podcast in your industry and share some of your lessons with someone else’s audience. That interview brings more people back to find you after online. More people begin to see your message and your audience and opportunities grow.

After a year you’ve picked up a few side projects. But the hours are tough. Then you realize that you keep getting the same 5-10 questions over again. You realize that people want this information that you have. So you decide to spend a weekend mapping out all your answers, writing, and creating a video course on SEO. You set up your website and promote the SEO training on LinkedIn where you’ve built a small audience. You get your first five customers.

That’s how it can happen.

That’s the path you can take today if you want to build your own business today.

davegerhardt.com

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It takes courage to build your own business or start your own brand.

Whether you decide to start a company, create a podcast, start a YouTube channel, open a small business, or write online, someone somewhere will laugh in some way.

- Oh really? She's starting a channel about yoga and mindfulness? Yikes her videos are cringey. I'm not sure who's going to follow that.

- He's really going to start a podcast about sales? I mean there's hundreds of them already..

- You're going to start a podcast Dave? Ha. OK.

They might not say it to your face but someone someone is thinking it.

And if you can't accept that and get over that hurdle, you're going to rob yourself from potentially building something awesome.

I know for a fact people thought I was a big dork when I started my first podcast. But that podcast later ended up being the thing that led to my big break. It was through my podcast (Tech in Boston) that I interviewed Drift founder David Cancel. We connected, they were hiring a marketing manager, and I ended up getting the job -- which four years later to be the job that changed the course of my life and career.

So, pardon me if say this: F*CK EM.

You can not care what people think if you want to build your own thing.

It is so much easier to talk shit about someone else's idea (because you're afraid of sticking your neck out there and opening yourself up for feedback) vs. actually going out to try and build something of your own.

I'm writing this because I hope you get over that hurdle and go do the thing you've been wanting to do.

***

I have a friend that runs a golf coaching and golf simulator business in Vermont.

He was a teaching professional years ago, and when he decided to make his own brand, get a logo, a website, and start to build a brand around what he was doing, his peers in the industry laughed at him. They made him seem like he was doing something wrong. Hey, no one does that man, relax.

But today, he's changed his career from golf instructor to entrepreneur - and instead of spending 12 hour days at someone else's golf course grinding out 1 hour lessons to make his paycheck, he now owns a business that he's scaling and he's producing 2-3x the income he was making before. He has control of his time and schedule. He has built a brand.

And you know that somewhere the guy who was poo-pooing his idea is still talking about how it's not going to work, or it's dumb for whatever reason. Because that's how those people will always be.

Go and create.

Ignore them.