I have at least 100 entrepreneur friends with 7-figure businesses.
And while many of them are happy to stay in the shadows…
Behind the scenes…
Don’t want their names and faces out there…
Just as many of them have got something to say!
For example, one top bloke I met a couple of months back has a mid-7-figure online music teaching business.
He wants to start a personal brand helping other musicians earn money online.
Then there’s another friend of mine who owns a public company buying and selling online businesses.
He tweets about that stuff all day long.
Then there’s the agency owner woman I know – bored with the day-to-day and craves an outlet for their knowledge and achievements.
Finally, another friend with a successful career in SAAS startups, now wants to help founders grow.
I could go on.
Why do people want to start personal brands?
They feel their knowledge is being wasted just sitting inside their head.
If you develop expertise in something, it’s natural to want to teach it.
However…
When most people decide to start a personal brand, they get it all wrong.
They start a Twitter account…
They spend half their life writing pointless threads…
They start a personal newsletter and wonder why nobody reads it…
They get on the speaking circuit and spend their life on a plane.
And there's nothing wrong with any of these things – if that's what you want.
But when I started ollyrichards.co last year, my thinking was:
“If I've got something to say… why not also turn it into a profitable business?”
As a one-person business, it can stay with me for the rest of my career.
Can’t be taken away.
No team to worry about.
Minimal costs.
I know myself, and I know that I'm gonna find it more motivating in the long run if I’m also monetising.
Entrepreneurs try to turn everything into a business...
So may as well play to our strengths!
That's why I built this personal brand over the last 12 months, alongside running my multimillion-dollar business StoryLearning.
It’s a pure long-term play with the following advantages:
- It's nice for my ego.
- Satisfies creative impulses.
- I'm capitalising the expertise built up in business (so-called Career Capital).
- The networking has been insane (my inbox is flooded with my favourite kinds of people every day).
- I really enjoy the writing.
- Thinking about these topics makes me perform better inside my main business.
I could go on.
But here's the most interesting thing of all…
Since my little One-Person Empire has already generated over 7-figures in income…
It has completely freed me mentally from the financial attachment to my main business.
I'm no longer dependent on it for income.
This has allowed me to be a lot bolder, more adventurous and playful with financial decisions in the company.
Been a bit of a game-changer, to be honest.
Anyway…
You're probably good right where you are.
Namaste,
Olly