How to Build a Personal Brand That Makes Money BEFORE You Feel Ready, with Ruffin Mitchener

This week's episode is a solo Q&A and i’m answering the questions you’ve been sending me about building a personal brand, making money online, getting clients, creating content consistently, and getting out of your own way. We get into why self-sabotage is usually a safety thing (and the book i think everyone should read if they keep doing it), the systems i use to get content made, and why i think your personal brand needs to come before your 9-5 if you’re serious about building something for yourself. I also get into the stuff people usually overcomplicate: how to get your first freelance client before you technically feel “qualified,” why writer’s block is really just perfectionism, how to go to conferences without paying thousands of dollars, and why sometimes the fastest way to stop feeling cringe online is literally just… block the people making you feel cringe lol. Basically, if you’ve been waiting until you feel more ready, more confident, more legitimate, or less embarrassed before you start building your personal brand… this episode is for you. ➡️ have a question you want me to answer in the next Q&A? drop it in the comments (i'll read them and pull questions from there 👀) 📘 Career Cheat Codes - IT’S OUT!!! My new book Career Cheat Codes is now available to order. It’s a practical guide to building career leverage, growing your visibility, and turning your expertise into real opportunities. Order yours → penguinrandomhouse.com/books/807588/career-cheat-codes-by-courtney-johnson/ 01:22 My work setup now that I’m a mom 03:33 Why you keep self-sabotaging + the book I recommend 06:06 The systems I use to create content consistently 08:55 How to build a personal brand while working a 9-5 10:25 The underrated advice I’d give anyone trying to grow online 12:04 Block the people making you feel cringe 12:35 How to get your first freelance client before you feel ready 14:26 How to go to major conferences for free 19:02 My take on Shelby Sapp + high-ticket sales 23:52 Does personal branding work for product-based businesses? Stay connected with me 📧 Contact: [email protected] 👍 Instagram: @builtinpublicpod 👍 Instagram: @courtlynnjohnson 💼 LinkedIn: Courtney Johnson 🎶 TikTok: @courtney..johnson

Angie Lee just exited Soul, the CBD gummy brand she started with her brother eight years ago. The idea for her next business hit her at 3 a.m., and now she's building WITTI, an ADHD supplement line made for women. In this episode we go over why she's betting on a product instead of an online course, and the checklist she'd run before launching anything physical (plus the kind of product she says takes millions up front). Then we get into the stuff that changes how you show up: the "dead grandma test" that tells you if a habit is really a habit, why she posts at 60% (wait until you feel 100% and you'll post twice a year), and why she thinks humor is what's missing from so much content online. And since this is a cheat codes kind of conversation, we swap our "problematic cheat codes" too, including learning cult tactics and, yes, my now-husband, the boyfriend who paid my rent for 3 months (we'd only been dating for a month when I asked) ➡️ Your turn!!!! comment the name you like for her comedy course in the comments (Funny on Video? Paid to Be Funny? any other funny name???) 📘 Career Cheat Codes - IT’S OUT!!! My new book Career Cheat Codes is now available to order. It’s a practical guide to building career leverage, growing your visibility, and turning your expertise into real opportunities. Order yours → penguinrandomhouse.com/books/807588/career-cheat-codes-by-courtney-johnson/ 03:12 Exiting Soul, the brand she started with her brother, and the law that could block online sales 05:00 WITTI: the ADHD supplement line she's building for women, not bros 06:06 Why she's betting on a product over a course, and the $50 million question 11:03 The 3 a.m. idea she ran downstairs to tell her husband 11:47 Thinking about launching a product? The boxes it needs to check first 15:25 Googling "how do you make money off the internet," and the $60 order that started it all 22:06 Building WITTI out loud 46:24 Our problematic cheat codes About Angie Lee Angie Lee is a podcaster, speaker, and comedian, and the co-founder and creative director of Soul, the wellness brand she built with her brother Mike. A college and corporate dropout, she started a blog in her dorm room and is now the "queen of the BabyGrandmas," a community she also calls her squirrely girlies: women "whose brain moves fast, feels deep, and refuses to play small." She hosts The Angie Lee Show, where she talks about "the realities and hilarities of entrepreneurship & womanhood," and she's now building WITTI, an ADHD supplement line made for women. Connect with Angie 👍 Instagram: @angieleeshow 🔗 angielee.com/ Stay connected with me 📧 Contact: [email protected] 👍 Instagram: @builtinpublicpod 👍 Instagram: @courtlynnjohnson 💼 LinkedIn: Courtney Johnson 🎶 TikTok: @courtney..johnson

y'all! in this week's episode i'm joined by Bradley Jacobs, former Uber exec turned founder of Mylance. He scaled Uber Freight into a $1 billion business, quit with zero plan, and made up a consulting rate out of thin air. They said it was too much. he held his ground instead of caving. turned it into $25k a month !!! Now he runs Mylance, and in this one he hands over exactly how he did it: the DM strategy that landed his first client with zero case studies, the easiest pricing trick, the positioning shift that'll change how you show up on LinkedIn, and why he built his own AI tool because ChatGPT and Claude write posts that sound like garbage. Press play before you talk yourself out of charging what you're worth. 📘 Career Cheat Codes - IT’S OUT!!! My new book Career Cheat Codes is now available to order. It’s a practical guide to building career leverage, growing your visibility, and turning your expertise into real opportunities. Order yours → penguinrandomhouse.com/books/807588/career-cheat-codes-by-courtney-johnson/ 04:08 Building Uber Freight from scratch into a $1B business 06:32 Quitting Uber 08:19 The "ridiculous calculation" behind his first consulting fee 16:22 Why "fractional CMO" is the laziest positioning you can pick 18:06 The "ice cream store vs. gas station" analogy that changes everything 18:52 You only need 3 clients: the real LinkedIn outreach math 26:35 Why you shouldn't use ChatGPT or Claude to write your LinkedIn posts 36:25 Leaving corporate was more confronting than he expected 38:08 Building a personal board of directors to replace corporate structure 39:45 The nightly ritual he's done for years to stay on track About Bradley Jacobs Bradley spent 4.5 years at Uber across Rides, Eats, and Freight, launching Uber Eats in Miami and Milan and helping scale Uber Freight into a $1 billion business. He left in 2018, sent 12 DMs to see if anyone would pay for his expertise, and landed his first consulting client at $25K/month working part-time. Over the next two years he built an independent consulting practice working with seed and Series A startups on marketplace launches and scaling, then turned what he learned into Mylance, the platform he founded in 2020 to help consultants and solopreneurs build predictable, sustainable businesses through LinkedIn content. Mylance has since helped 1,000+ founders and consultants grow their businesses using the same content and outreach systems Bradley built for himself. Connect with Bradley 💼 LinkedIn: Bradley Jacobs 🔗 mylance.com Stay connected with me 📧 Contact: [email protected] 👍 Instagram: @builtinpublicpod 👍 Instagram: @courtlynnjohnson 💼 LinkedIn: Courtney Johnson 🎶 TikTok: @courtney..johnson

hey y'all, this episode is a little different than usual. today i'm sharing my full pregnancy and birth story: trying to conceive, the pregnancy itself, giving birth, and where i'm at now in postpartum. quick heads up before you press play: this one gets real about mental health during pregnancy, and some of it may be heavy for some listeners. please take care of yourself, and feel free to skip this one if now isn't the right time for you 🤍 i was depressed for most of my pregnancy, and i also went through a mental health experience i haven't heard many people talk about openly. if you're pregnant, trying to conceive, or have been through something similar, i hope sharing this helps you feel less alone. 📘 Career Cheat Codes - IT’S OUT!!! My new book Career Cheat Codes is now available to order. It’s a practical guide to building career leverage, growing your visibility, and turning your expertise into real opportunities. Order yours → penguinrandomhouse.com/books/807588/career-cheat-codes-by-courtney-johnson/ 07:30 Finding out I was pregnant 11:46 My theory: every pregnancy has one challenge 12:39 My challenge 15:14 I lost my ability to speak 16:00 The hallucinations started 19:57 My birth story starts here 27:55 Giving birth to Santi 30:38 Postpartum has been so fun and so good Stay connected with me 📧 Contact: [email protected] 👍 Instagram: @builtinpublicpod 👍 Instagram: @courtlynnjohnson 💼 LinkedIn: Courtney Johnson 🎶 TikTok: @courtney..johnson

you don't need a million followers to get paid by brands. you don't need an agent. you don't even need to be famous. this is your no-bs guide to your first brand deal: how i went from $5,000 my first year to $250,000-$300,000 this year, every platform and agency i use, and how my husband, with only 3,000 followers, has landed a $50,000 brand deal i've never gotten with almost a million followers. so yeah - let's get into this. grab my brand outreach templates below ⤵️ docs.google.com/document/d/11FhKsM8bTHbLvnjs-GSTdUqZ78ET-rRz/edit?rtpof=true&sd=true&tab=t.0