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: courtney@smoothmedia.co
👍 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: courtney@smoothmedia.co
👍 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: courtney@smoothmedia.co
👍 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: courtney@smoothmedia.co
👍 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

📘 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/
02:43 You don't need a million followers (here's what you need)
03:16 Cheat code #1: brand partnership marketplaces
11:58 Do this today: apply to 20 marketplaces
12:26 Cheat code #2: work with an agency
15:53 How to find an agency
17:09 What brands really pay (and the $50K deal I've never gotten)
19:14 Is affiliate marketing worth it?
19:55 The LinkedIn trick brands can't ignore
22:00 Why I always turn one post into a series
23:36 How to cold outreach brands (without an agency)
25:49 My final brand deal rule
Stay connected with me
📧 Contact: courtney@smoothmedia.co
👍 Instagram: @builtinpublicpod
👍 Instagram: @courtlynnjohnson
💼 LinkedIn: Courtney Johnson
🎶 TikTok: @courtney..johnson

hi friends. did i tell you how I turned $8,500 I didn't have into a program that's made me $300,000 in the last year?
that's basically what this whole solo episode is: me opening up my bank account and walking you through it.
I'm covering my 100 free calls strategy, the exact questions I ask people to build a real offer out of thin air, and then I rank almost every single way I've ever tried to monetize my content, close to 29 of them, from the ones that pay my rent to the ones that were honestly a waste of my time.
some of these numbers are going to surprise you, some of them are small, and I'm not gatekeeping any of it.
let me know in the comments if you want the actual templates I used to turn my free call transcripts into content and offers!! ⤵️
📘 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/
01:08 How I make money from my content
02:12 My 100 free calls strategy
14:29 The advice two multi-millionaires both gave me
19:03 Ranking every way I've made money
21:51 Patreon and the "1,000 true fans" math
34:07 The challenge that made me $60,000 in a week
30:05 Why I charge $1,500 an hour for pick my brain calls
37:14 The free script that fixed my worst webinar
39:36 How Maven made me half a million dollars
40:58 My six-figure book deal, and paying it back
44:17 My brand deals: $10,000 to $250,000 a year
49:43 My rule for picking affiliate partnerships
Stay connected with me
📧 Contact: courtney@smoothmedia.co
👍 Instagram: @builtinpublicpod
👍 Instagram: @courtlynnjohnson
💼 LinkedIn: Courtney Johnson
🎶 TikTok: @courtney..johnson

I've been wanting to bring this guest on for a while, because she's one of the main reasons I have a book at all.
I'm sitting down with the incredible Thea Diklich-Newell, the editor who acquired and shaped Career Cheat Codes, to talk about how my dream happened and how it can happen for you too.
a little snippet of what we got into and how it all started: a coworker of hers sent her my TikTok series one day, she saw something in it, and she emailed me asking if I'd ever thought about turning it into a book. that's it. that's the whole "how do I get discovered" story everyone assumes is more complicated than it is.
so I brought her on to break down what editors are looking for when they're scrolling your content, what "authority" means to a publisher if you don't have a fancy degree behind your name, the real red flags that make her pass on a pitch, and the one boring, unsexy habit that made her whole team want to work with me before we'd even signed anything.
this episode is the roadmap for anyone who has this constant thought "I should write a book about this"
📘 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/
06:36 Inside the Big Five: what an imprint is and why it matters
08:27 What "authority" means to an editor if you don't have the credentials
12:41 The free "hot tip" hiding in the back of every book you own
15:47 The one habit editors wish more authors had (it's not talent)
21:15 Why "my book is for everyone" is the fastest way to sell zero copies
28:36 Why you have to be okay hearing no 100 times before the one yes
30:48 The actual cheat code for landing a book deal, and it costs nothing
34:46 Why self-publishing doesn't close the door to a book deal anymore
36:47 The books Thea can't stop talking about this year
39:25 What she's telling authors to write about next, in the age of AI
42:03 Her two-question test for finding your own book idea
About Thea Diklich-Newell
Thea Diklich-Newell is an editor at Ten Speed Press, part of the Crown Publishing Group within Penguin Random House, where she focuses on prescriptive nonfiction: self-help, career, parenting, and relationship books built on real authority and lived experience rather than just a big following. She joined Ten Speed in 2024 after editorial roles at Little, Brown and the Stuart Krichevsky Literary Agency, where she got her start vetting manuscripts from the agent's side of the business. She's also the editor behind Career Cheat Codes.
Stay connected with me
📧 Contact: courtney@smoothmedia.co
👍 Instagram: @builtinpublicpod
👍 Instagram: @courtlynnjohnson
💼 LinkedIn: Courtney Johnson
🎶 TikTok: @courtney..johnson

okay so I recorded this one about to burst, and my baby is already here. wild!!!!!
so this whole episode is a Q&A, straight from what you all sent me. the spiciest, most unhinged personal brand questions in my inbox, answered.
in this one: why "I'm multi-passionate" isn't a real problem, why you'd never let a friend treat you the way your boss does, and the exact system that kept me posting daily even at nine months pregnant.
heads up, "fuck your niche" gets said more than once. I stand by it.
let's get into the questions.
📘 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/
👉 Want your question featured on a future episode? Subscribe to my newsletter, that's where I send these out and where I answer some of them directly, for free → artisanal-originator-6888.kit.com/0e038bf26a
📱 Joel Monteleone, for help getting events and community sponsorships → @joel_monteleone 🛠️
01:14 Why "how do I make an extra $5,000 this month" is the wrong question to ask
05:23 fuck your niche
07:42 my daily co-working system that ended my procrastination for good
11:06 The corporate LinkedIn fear question i keep getting
21:44 The client who proved "I'm multi-passionate" was never really the problem
29:57 Stop posting "AISLOP" if you want LinkedIn to actually show your posts
36:20 How to build your "video muscle" without spending hours editing
Stay connected with me
📧 Contact: courtney@smoothmedia.co
👍 Instagram: @builtinpublicpod
👍 Instagram: @courtlynnjohnson
💼 LinkedIn: Courtney Johnson
🎶 TikTok: @courtney..johnson