I’m back to building in public
Back to details on what it's like to run 3 small businesses day to day
The last few months I’ve felt lost.
Everything’s felt a bit foggy.
I haven’t been able to quite put my finger on it, but I’ve struggled to connect some dots.
I’ve spent a lot of time reflecting on the last year and everything we’ve gone through.
Our first full year into our 2nd small business acquisition, we lost 65% of revenue.
yeah, brutal.
2024 was the hardest year of my life.
You can read some details here.
Through that journey I’ve learned a lot.
More thoughts to come on this, I can talk for hours about it.
We’re far from being “in the clear”, but for the first time ever I’ve had the chance to take a step back and reflect on what I’ve learned and the father, husband and the entrepreneur i’m becoming.
3 years in
I’ve been writing content consistently for nearly 3 years.
I’ve posted on LinkedIn 4-5 days a week for nearly 3 years and have generated over 10M impressions.
Truly wild.
I never would have guessed I’d be writing that statement.
I began writing because I “left tech” and started consulting. The first week I posted, I had over 100 peers reach out asking how they could do the same.
Frankly, I had no clue how to do it so I decided to build my consulting business in public.
My goal was simple: help others learn from my mistakes as a new entrepreneur.
People loved it.
I appreciated the accountability it created for me now that I was a “Solopreneur” and didn’t have a team to work with daily.
I built in public consistently for ~6 months.
Somewhere a long the way, I started to lose my voice.
My avatar became blurred. It was unclear who I was writing for.
Am I writing for sales people? Other entrepreneurs? Aspiring tech people wanting to buy a small business?
In addition to this, I felt this urge to post a certain way, write a certain way, post a certain type of content.
Worst of all: I fell trap to sugar coating some details.
As I’ve reflected back on this journey the last few months, I’ve found myself struggling to find any passion in my writing.
Something I had previously loved.
Something that was an outlet for me, a way or unloading all my thoughts and allowing others to learn a long the way while I figure out how to buy, build and hopefully scale some small businesses.
With that said, I’m back.
I’m back with a commitment for more authentic, real and raw content.
Stuff like:
Day to day of running 3 small businesses
Financial updates and quarterly earnings
Details on our strategy, what’s working and what’s not
How I’m optimizing my life in many other aspects outside work. Especially this arena
What I’m doing to find my identity outside of my career (no small task)
So, I’m here to say, I hope you enjoy.
To start: help me with my avatar. Who am I writing for? Give me some ideas. Reply to this email, tell me who you are.
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I’m honored you’ve read this far.
I’m grateful for the support each of you have shown me, many of which I don’t even know.
If you have any feedback, thoughts, questions or comments please don’t hesitate to reply to this message. I’d be so grateful to have any feedback at all.
Here’s to more content, and the most truest side of myself and our businesses that I know.
Cheers. 🥃
Avatar over here! Pick me!
Thank goodness for Substack. LinkedIn is great, but I feel like I can show up as me here.
Excited to follow the journey while I strike out on my own journey