Bootstrapped Stories Guillaume Moubeche

Justin Welsh is the indisputable “King of LinkedIn” — he’s grown to 300K+ followers and more than $2M in online income, in just 3 years.

His business is built like a machine — he’s set up systems for himself that allow him to consistently publish content, lead an audience into his newsletter, and generate revenue through a variety of different channels.

Best of all? He does it all by himself, as a one-man-show.

In this episode, we chat with Justin about his content strategy, his business, and his marketing funnels. There’s a lot to unpack in this episode — get ready.

⏱ What you’ll find and when:

00:00 Intro
03:09 Overview of Justin’s different income streams
07:18 Justin’s $2M marketing funnel
12:20 Going from LinkedIn to Twitter and beyond
14:47 Building a lifestyle business
18:50 How Justin built his audience from scratch
21:26 Justin’s 7-step content production system
28:27 How to build deep relationships with other creators
36:42 When is the right time to start a newsletter?
39:19 How do you find your niche?
42:00 Justin’s mindset on comments and engagement
44:25 Flash questions

🔗 Connect with Justin:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justinwelsh/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/thejustinwelsh
Website: https://www.justinwelsh.me/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thejustinwelsh

How do you balance being a high performer and not burning out? What is burnout, anyway? How do you know if you’re burnt out and how can you prevent it?

Sherry Walling, clinical psychologist and author of “The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Keeping Your Sh*t Together” talks to us about mental health as an entrepreneur and high performer.

We speak about balancing working hard and resting, how to prevent burnout, how to understand your capacity, and balancing family life and entrepreneurship, especially with kids.

⏱ What you’ll find and when:

00:00 Intro
02:30 How Sherry helps entrepreneurs with their mental health
04:48 Why is mental health so taboo for entrepreneurs?
06:38 How should entrepreneurs manage their mental health?
08:20 What is burnout and how do you prevent it?
13:31 How do you get high performance without risking burnout?
18:15 How Sherry prevents herself from burning out
23:39 Balancing business with family and kids
33:25 How much time should you work? How do you organise your time?
38:14 Sherry’s new book: Touching Two Worlds
42:01 Flash questions

🔗 Connect with Sherry:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/sherrywalling
Website: https://www.sherrywalling.com/
ZenPodcast: https://zenpodcast.com/
Sherry’s Book: http://touchingtwoworlds.com

How do most people get content marketing wrong? How can you differentiate yourself and do it in the right way?

Rand Fishkin from Sparktoro talks to us about his unique mindset of publishing content online, what he thinks about the accuracy of attribution, and what he thinks of before deciding a distribution strategy for a piece of content.

We also talk about his thoughts on fundraising vs. bootstrapping, why the press doesn’t cover bootstrapped businesses, and what he thinks of Elon Musk buying Twitter.

⏱ What you’ll find and when:

00:00 Intro
02:41 Transitioning from Moz to Sparktoro
05:07 Thoughts on bootstrapping vs. VC funding
10:06 Why the press doesn’t talk about bootstrapped businesses
13:23 Sparktoro’s unique funding model
24:46 What Sparktoro does – finding more media channels
30:08 Thoughts on attribution
38:18 Rand’s unique content mindset
43:49 Content distribution the right way
51:03 Choosing the right titles for your content pieces
53:27 Thoughts on Elon Musk acquiring Twitter
57:34 Flash questions

🔗 Connect with Rand:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/randfish
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/randfishkin/
Sparktoro: https://sparktoro.com/blog/

As a four time entrepreneur over more than 15 years, what are the biggest lessons learnt in management, levelling up as a founder and coming up with business ideas?

Jason Cohen from WP Engine talks to us about why he decided to raise funds after bootstrapping successfully in the past, and how he comes up with business ideas.

We also talk about evaluating your managers, how managing your executive team is very different from managing other members of the team, how the role of a founder evolves over the years and the different ways that you can level up as one.

⏱ What you’ll find and when:

00:00 Intro
07:33 Reasons to raise funds after being a successful bootstrapper
12:50 Jason’s thoughts on financial reporting
23:45 The best way to evaluate your managers
30:05 Acquisitions: impact, challenges, successes
38:18 Coming up with $1B business ideas
44:36 How the role as a founder evolves over time
51:25 Levelling up as a founder
57:52 How to successfully manage an executive team
69:33 Where you can find Jason

🔗 Connect with Jason:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/asmartbear
Blog: https://blog.asmartbear.com/

How do you grow through word of mouth? How can you get customers to recommend you to others? Can you get enterprise and mid-market clients through this?

Muhammad Younas from vFairs talks to us about how his company grew to $30M through word of mouth, even during the pandemic, and being fully remote from day 1.

We talk about the importance of customer satisfaction, the similarities between online events and weddings, and how you can structure your support team to make sure that customers are happy.

We also speak about managing a 260+ person company while being fully remote, and the biggest challenges he faced while building the company.

⏱ What you’ll find and when:

00:00 Intro
01:19 Intro to vFairs and key stats
03:51 How did the pandemic impact growth?
05:44 Why they decided to stay bootstrapped
08:30 Key metrics to understand the health of the business
12:43 How to get more word of mouth
14:06 Getting their first mid market and enterprise clients
18:34 How a support team is structured for success
24:27 Sales cycle differences between mid market and enterprise
29:25 IPO plans 31:52 Managing a fully remote company
40:12 Biggest challenges faced while building vFairs
43:11 Flash questions

🔗 Connect with Muhammad:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/younas/
vFairs: https://www.vfairs.com/

How do you build a strong culture among a team that’s fully remote? How do you make sure people are motivated and goal-driven? What do you need to look for when hiring a coach for your team? What is non-violent communication and why is it important?

Nicolas Vandenberghe from Chili Piper is a serial entrepreneur, and he’s been there and done that. In this episode, we discuss all of the above, and also talk about their acquisition channels, raising money as a bootstrapped founder, and challenges faced by solo entrepreneurs.

⏱ What you’ll find and when:

00:00 Intro
02:38 Raising money as a bootstrapped founder
09:51 How do you decide the right moment to raise money?
13:26 The secrets to building a strong culture in the sales team
21:49 Hiring coaches to grow your team stronger
26:49 Acquisition channels to transition into something bigger
30:54 Advice on customer success and account management
32:08 Chili Piper’s ideal customers
36:36 Challenges towards $100M ARR
41:09 Difficulties and challenges faced as an entrepreneur
47:09 What it’s like to work with your wife
49:02 Some golden advice for solo founders
51:26 Flash questions

🔗 Connect with Nicolas:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nvandenberghe/
Chili Piper: https://www.chilipiper.com/