Ex Account Manager Quits Her 6-figure Job To Become A Full Time Creator and Make $40k/mo

Summary

Sweat Equity by Marketing Examined: Episode 50 Summary

Title: Ex Account Manager Quits Her 6-figure Job To Become A Full Time Creator and Make $40k/mo
Host: Alex Garcia & Brian Blum
Guest: Courtney Johnson
Release Date: October 22, 2024

In the milestone 50th episode of Sweat Equity by Marketing Examined, hosts Alex Garcia and Brian Blum (referred to as Ryan in the transcript) sit down with Courtney Johnson, a dynamic content creator who transitioned from a lucrative account management role to building a personal brand that earns $40,000 monthly. This episode delves deep into Courtney's journey, strategies for successful content creation, personal branding, and insightful advice for aspiring entrepreneurs, especially women.

---

1. Courtney Johnson's Journey: From Corporate to Creator

Courtney Johnson opens up about her diverse background in marketing, spanning sports, real estate, and tech startups. She highlights a pivotal realization that shifted her focus from company branding to personal branding.

Courtney Johnson [00:32]: "I had always put like 90% of the effort into the company brand... every single time I just started to notice this pattern where the tiny percent... superseded the company brand."

Her stint with high-profile teams like the Dallas Cowboys and Dallas Stars provided her with unique insights into crisis communication and the nascent stages of social media marketing.

Courtney Johnson [01:24]: "I was primarily interested in personal brands... working on crisis communication plans... giving education materials to the team members on social media."

---

2. Honoring the Downloads: Capturing Spontaneous Ideas

A significant portion of the discussion centers around Courtney's philosophy of "honoring the downloads" — capturing and acting on spontaneous content ideas to harness their viral potential.

Courtney Johnson [03:00]: "It's really just about giving respect to the ideas that come to us and acting on them immediately."

She emphasizes the importance of not overthinking and allowing the initial energy and emotion of an idea to translate into content, even if it's imperfect at first.

Courtney Johnson [05:44]: "People are going to want to know why you're so mad or why you're so excited because this new thing was just announced."

---

3. Transitioning to Personal Branding and Career Advice

Initially, Courtney's content focused on Airbnb and real estate, which didn't resonate as expected. Her pivot to sharing career advice, driven by friends seeking her input, marked a turning point in her content strategy.

Courtney Johnson [10:49]: "A friend was asking me for career advice. So I started posting about career advice on TikTok, which is something I would have never thought would be a niche at all. And that's really what took off."

This shift underscores the importance of adapting content based on audience needs and feedback, allowing her to discover a niche that genuinely resonated with her followers.

---

4. Developing Content Pillars and Engaging Hooks

Courtney shares her method for developing engaging hooks, which are crucial for capturing audience attention. By saving effective hooks from her social media browsing and making them a reference point, she ensures her content remains fresh and provocative.

Courtney Johnson [14:03]: "I just think you need to be a little provocative."

She advocates for strong points of view and being unapologetically opinionated, even if it means alienating some audience members.

Courtney Johnson [15:23]: "If you get on social media trying to please everyone... your shit's gonna suck."

---

5. Emotional Engagement: Leveraging High-Energy Moments

Emotional authenticity plays a pivotal role in Courtney's content creation. She believes that the heightened emotional states during content ideation should be captured to enhance relatability and engagement.

Courtney Johnson [07:15]: "Nobody wants to hear from, like, a monotone. Like, that's hard to relate to, for sure."

Drawing parallels with actors who channel past emotions into their performances, Courtney emphasizes tapping into genuine feelings to make content resonate.

---

6. Monetization Strategies: Beyond Viral Content

The conversation shifts to the monetization of personal brands versus the fleeting gains from viral content. Courtney highlights that while viral videos can garner significant views, sustainable income stems from niche, high-engagement content that attracts lucrative partnerships.

Courtney Johnson [22:41]: "What I talk about is I'm talking about marketing or whatever... every single software company... comes to me because there's so few career and business creators."

She contrasts this with the limited sponsorship opportunities tied to purely viral, entertainment-focused content.

---

7. Leveraging LinkedIn: A Strategic Platform for Growth

Courtney discusses LinkedIn's unique position in prioritizing personal brands over company brands. She reveals insights from LinkedIn HQ, confirming that personal brands receive algorithmic favoritism, making it a fertile ground for testing and scaling content.

Courtney Johnson [24:40]: "Personal brands... they're making LinkedIn prioritize video content that has been downloaded and repurposed from other platforms."

She advises creators to utilize LinkedIn's emphasis on actionable content, such as day-in-the-life posts and strong points of view, to drive engagement and growth.

---

8. Building a Sustainable Content Strategy: Patience and Longevity

Addressing the challenges of maintaining a content creation career, Courtney emphasizes the importance of patience and persistence. She likens content creation to a marathon, where longevity and consistent effort trump overnight success.

Courtney Johnson [42:08]: "It's a longevity game. It's not necessarily a game of quality or a game of being perfect. It's just a longevity game."

She encourages creators to focus on continuous production, understanding that most competitors drop out early, thus positioning those who persist in the top percentile.

---

9. Empowering Women in Entrepreneurship

A significant segment focuses on Courtney's perspective on gender dynamics in entrepreneurship. She attributes the higher inclination of men towards entrepreneurship to the abundance of male role models and systemic barriers that have historically limited women's visibility in this sphere.

Courtney Johnson [35:08]: "Growing up, I didn't know that women were allowed to be doctors or entrepreneurs... a lot of women, because they don't see other women doing it, they don't think it's possible for them."

Her advice to young women entering entrepreneurship revolves around leveraging unique strengths, emotional intelligence, and creativity rather than mimicking male-centric business strategies.

Courtney Johnson [46:55]: "Don't do your shit like men. You have your own skills, you have your own strengths and weaknesses... learn your unique strengths and lean into that."

She highlights the power of social skills and creativity as key differentiators that women can harness to excel in the business world.

---

10. Final Insights and Future Endeavors

As the episode wraps up, Courtney shares her excitement about expanding her content creation efforts, including establishing her own podcast studio. The hosts express their appreciation for her valuable insights and discuss potential future collaborations.

Courtney Johnson [52:08]: "I have LinkedIn personal brand cohorts every other month... come find me on social."

---

Key Takeaways:

• Personal Branding as a Game-Changer: Shifting focus from company to personal branding can significantly amplify one's reach and influence.

• Immediate Action on Ideas: Capturing and acting on spontaneous content ideas ensures authenticity and harnesses the initial energy behind them.

• Niche Discovery Through Feedback: Adapting content based on audience needs and patterns can uncover lucrative niches.

• Provocative and Opinionated Content: Strong points of view and provocative hooks increase engagement and memorability.

• Sustainable Monetization Over Virality: Building niche, high-engagement content attracts more valuable and consistent monetization opportunities.

• Leveraging Strategic Platforms: Platforms like LinkedIn offer unique opportunities for personal brand growth and content testing.

• Patience and Persistence: Content creation is a long-term endeavor where consistent effort leads to sustainable success.

• Empowering Female Entrepreneurs: Embracing unique strengths and leveraging emotional intelligence can bridge gender gaps in entrepreneurship.

---

Notable Quotes with Timestamps:

• Courtney Johnson on Personal Branding:

  "Personal brand is just a huge cheat code because it's so much more effective and faster." [01:20]

• Honoring the Downloads:

  "It's really just about giving respect to the ideas that come to us and acting on them immediately." [03:00]

• Emotional Engagement:

  "People are going to want to know why you're so mad or why you're so excited because this new thing was just announced." [05:44]

• Monetization Insight:

  "What I talk about is I'm talking about marketing or whatever... every single software company... comes to me because there's so few career and business creators." [22:41]

• Patience in Content Creation:

  "It's a longevity game. It's not necessarily a game of quality or a game of being perfect." [42:08]

• Empowering Women:

  "Don't do your shit like men. You have your own skills, you have your own strengths and weaknesses." [46:55]

---

For those looking to transform their careers and harness the power of personal branding, Courtney Johnson's insights offer a roadmap to success through authenticity, strategic thinking, and leveraging unique strengths.

Transcript

[Ryan]

What's up guys? Welcome to another episode of Sweat Equity. Today we have a guest. We haven't had a guest, honestly, in a minute.

[Alex]

It's.

[Ryan]

We've been going solo dolo. So episode 50. It's good to have Courtney Johnson, who without getting into it too much, you were the first person to even sponsor marketing examine. So kind of full circle, full circle moment here. But we don't do too much on the backstory. We like to get right into like all the advice and kind of the value side. But give us a little bit about your background. Leave out maybe the Burning man, some of the burn. I'm just kidding. But give us a little bit of your background, who you are, how you got here, etc. And then we'll get into it.

[Courtney Johnson]

Yeah, I started off in sports marketing, then real estate marketing, then tech startups and I in developing social media strategies for clients. I had always put like 90% of the effort into the company brand, the company newsletter, the company blog, and like 10% into a personal brand. And every single time I just started to notice this pattern where the tiny percent, the 10% effort and budget of the personal brand always superseded the company brand. So I just went all in on personal brand, on managing other people's personal brands, building courses around personal brand, building my own personal brand, educating on personal brands. I still do company brand stuff, but I think personal brand is just a huge cheat code because it's so much more effective and faster and if you're working with smaller budgets, it's just quick. So that's what I teach on, that's what I create content about and I love it.

[Ryan]

I'm curious, what does working on the marketing team for the Cowboys look like?

[Courtney Johnson]

So that was fun. So I actually was in Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders training camp for two seasons and did the TV show and all of that show. Yeah, yeah, it's resurfacing now cause it's back on Netflix. And so I just kind of weaseled my way into working on some of the marketing team stuff. And same with the Dallas Stars. I was a cheerleader for them and I mainly wanted like, I was mainly interested in personal brands. So I, you know, was mainly working on things like crisis communication plans essentially like the og, like what if people get canceled corporate communications type plans back in like 2013. Yeah. And also giving education materials to the team members on social media. Because this is like when social media was just starting to become popular. All of these different problems kept coming up of like, oh shit. We foresee this being A big press issue, or it could also be a huge asset to the brand. So just like working through those problems.

[Alex]

Yeah.

[Courtney Johnson]

In the infancy of like Instagram and Facebook, that's.

[Alex]

That's really cool.

[Ryan]

So I wanted to start with idea generation because you're somebody that's gone viral. You have videos that have gone. Gotten 10 million plus views. And I want to start with idea generation because I'm. And I don't know about you, Ryan, but I'm bad at when I have a. By an idea, like if I'm on a run or just about my day, writing it down, like, I never write it down. Like, I'll remember it or I'll remember it, like when I'm trying to fall asleep, whatever it is. And you have this idea of like, honor the downloads. And what does that mean? Honoring the downloads that the universe gives you so that then you have like this. This kind of library of video ideas that are either good, bad, whatever, but you're kind of filtering out and always getting good ideas and having a place to store them.

[Courtney Johnson]

Yeah. Well, if you ask any content creator, I'm sure you would say say the same. Those viral videos, those huge videos that you're like, wow, this really took off. Is usually that idea that just like comes to you in the shower or on a run, or you're like, that's not that big of a deal. Whatever. I'm just gonna post this and see what happens. And those are the things you're like, I never would to blow up. So I think it's really just about giving respect to the ideas that come to us and acting on them immediately. Like, if you are on a run, it doesn't matter if you're sweaty, it doesn't matter if there's a ton of noise coming from the street. Record it anyways. Maybe that's just gonna be a V1 of the idea, but at least have something. I think it's like giving yourself permission to do it badly and then iterate on that. Because if you. Wait, if you're like, oh, I'm gonna remember this later when I'm at my desk and I'm creating my content plan. Like, you're probably not. So just start badly and then iterate on that idea.

[Alex]

What do you think you need to do there? Do you think you need to write it down as the idea or actually execute on a full video concept?

[Courtney Johnson]

Execute? It doesn't have to be a full video concept. Maybe it's an Instagram story and you're just writing some text. Maybe it's a thread or a tweet. Maybe it's a bad. Maybe it's a voice memo to your friend, but just get it out. Not for you. Get it out to somebody else. Make it public in some way.

[Alex]

See what the feedback is, too.

[Courtney Johnson]

See what the feedback is.

[Alex]

That's probably one of the biggest challenges a lot of people have is their network notes app being this graveyard of good ideas. And the best way to actually get them out there and see if they were a good idea was to just put that first draft out, you know, because a lot of the times you can refine stuff and get in your head, think, oh, like, this isn't going to be liked very much. So I think that'd be. Yeah, yeah.

[Courtney Johnson]

I think Justin Welsh said you have millions of dollars in your notes app that you haven't tapped into yet. And that's. Yeah, that's. That's big. But I like to create constraints, so maybe try next time you're sitting down to create content. You can't Google anything. You can't open social media. You can't do anything. All you can do is go through your notes app.

[Alex]

Interesting.

[Courtney Johnson]

That's a great way to pull out some of those ideas. Because if you don't have constraints, it's overwhelming. You have all of your meeting notes ever and all of your past content ever and everything. So make a little game for yourself.

[Alex]

Yeah. You can also go down a rabbit hole pretty quickly there.

[Courtney Johnson]

Yeah.

[Ryan]

Do you ever just do a voice memo of, like, the content idea and come back to it? Or like, you're literally. I have to ship it and get it out into the public in some case.

[Courtney Johnson]

I have to ship it asap because I. I have tried that. I know some people have apps where they voice memo and then it, like, emails you a transcription of it. I just will never open it.

[Ryan]

I think that also goes back to something that you told us during cut 30 that. Yeah. Actually matches what you're saying. Where you always film when the energy is high. Like, if the content idea hits you and you're like, that's a good idea. You want to take that energy of it being a good idea and translate it into the video that you make.

[Courtney Johnson]

Yeah. Especially emotion. The emotion around it. Because let's say an article comes out that really frustrates you and you're like, I can't believe so and so is doing this. Like, I'm so frustrated. If you bookmark that article and you're like, I'm going to talk about that in three hours. You're probably not going to be in that heightened emotional state of frustration. And that's like. Emotional state. What, what draws people in. Like, people are going to want to know why you're so mad or why you're, like, so excited because this new thing was just announced. Like, if you wait, that emotion is gone. Like, I think our emotions only last, like, seven minutes or something. Like, you got to get that in the time when you're feeling that emotional state.

[Ryan]

One of my favorite things from Ms. XL, she says, like, content is the. The transfer, the transferring of energy from, like, my. My self to your phone. Something along those lines where. I don't know. I'm sure. Have you seen any of her content, Ms. XL?

[Alex]

Yeah.

[Ryan]

Where it's like, she's so. And she even says, like, she'll only record during, like, some time of day. And she preps and, like, gets her energy high before going and like, recording. Because she's. She has to be a certain kind of way or she doesn't think the content will perform well.

[Courtney Johnson]

Yeah. I think also something that I do is if I'm going to record one video, I kind of force myself to record a couple. Unless I'm, like, on a run. And it's an idea that comes right away. But, like, if I'm recording a video for a brand, I'll just try to knock out a couple of videos because my energy kind of gets higher and higher as I get in the zone of filming. But this is something that actors do a lot. Like, actors kind of go back to emotional moments in their past where they're like, yeah, that thing made me really sad. I'm going to pull that for this scene. You can do that for your content.

[Ryan]

I heard. Go ahead.

[Alex]

No, you go.

[Ryan]

I was going to say, I heard Matthew McConaughey said that he did that for Interstellar during that scene where he's, like, bawling when he's talking to his daughter from the past, where he remembered something that. From like, back in the day that made him cry and then he just, like, snapped. To the director, he's like, film, start filming. Like, I'm. It's about to happen.

[Alex]

Yeah.

[Ryan]

But he, like, tapped into that same emotion to be able to. It's like, find it.

[Courtney Johnson]

Yeah. I mean, I think that creating content too, like, when you are sitting down to write, if you can tap into those emotional states or find a thread of emotion around that thing that you're talking about. So I do this all the time when working with brands because sometimes I'm like, okay, I think this brand is useful. They're paying me a lot of money. I care about them. But am I, like, so passionate about it? So I'll find something about it that makes me passionate and makes me excited so I can be a little bit more emotionally heightened as I'm filming? Because nobody wants to hear from, like, a monotone. Like, that's hard to relate to, for sure.

[Alex]

One thing I want to dig into and I'm super curious about is, like, on your content creation journey, like, when did you start in relation to where you were at in the nine to five, and then after just going to, like, when you felt like it was time to really take that plunge because you had made it big enough personal brand.

[Courtney Johnson]

So 2019, I was working for a sales consulting firm that made it a requirement that if we're on the social media team, we had to post every single day on LinkedIn or we would literally lose our job.

[Ryan]

What company was this?

[Courtney Johnson]

It was called Scaled. It's here in Austin.

[Ryan]

I remember you talking about this a little bit.

[Alex]

Are they still around?

[Courtney Johnson]

I don't know. I can't say it's the best leadership.

[Alex]

But Scaled, you got ca.

[Courtney Johnson]

But I appreciate that, although that was really hard and it was frustrating, I do really appreciate that. And I did learn a lot there. I appreciate the fact that it forced me to post every day. So I've been posting on LinkedIn for, I don't know, what, like seven years now? But TikTok, I only started posting two years ago in Instagram. I started posting about nine months ago.

[Alex]

Gotcha.

[Courtney Johnson]

The reason why I started posting on TikTok is because I saw it was the new year. I think it was 2022 or something. Somebody posted, if you post on TikTok every single day for an entire year, you'll never have to worry about money again. And I took that and I was like, bet I'm gonna try that. Say less because. And I think it's obviously a bit exaggerated. It doesn't mean, like, infinite money is going to come rolling into your bank account, but it does mean that you'll always have a client. You'll always have an opportunity, you'll always have the thing you need. So that's really what triggered me into doing it. I was like, okay, I'm gonna see if this is actually true. And it is true.

[Alex]

Yeah, for sure. And then how'd you kind of, like, find your niche? Like, what was. Was that a combination of things you were interested in or gaps in the market you saw?

[Courtney Johnson]

No, I actually just Started posting about everything I was interested in. I actually, my main topics when I was starting out was like, airbnb and real estate.

[Alex]

Really?

[Courtney Johnson]

And people didn't resonate with it. So I was like, all right, I'm. There's nothing really that.

[Alex]

Why do you think that is?

[Courtney Johnson]

There wasn't necessarily anything that made me unique in that space. I didn't have a ton of experience. I didn't have a ton of properties. I didn't. I was, you know, it wasn't. I didn't have, like, a crazy property that, like a. I didn't have crazy advice because I didn't have a lot of experience. I think it was just very neutral. It was fine. But then I started posting about everything I was interested in. So I started posting about, you know, marketing, personal, brand. Finally, a friend was asking me for career advice. So I started posting about career advice on TikTok, which is something I would have never thought would be a niche at all. I thought these were things that other people knew and were obvious, and that's really what took off. So I'm glad that I tested out everything because had I not tested out this random thing that was totally the opposite of my content strategy, I would not be here today.

[Ryan]

Yeah, I think that's that you just touched on something that we talk about a lot where a way to find your content pillars is things that people come to you for. And somebody coming to you for career advice has now become one of your top, like, series. The problematic career cheat codes. Right. Talk to me about that. Like how even on the marketing side and find those content pillars has it. How did you find those? Was it people coming to you for advice or is it, hey, I have a unique experience here, so therefore I'm going to talk about it. How'd you find those?

[Courtney Johnson]

It's really just patterns of people coming to me for advice. So I like to tell people, what do your friends ask you for advice about? Because that always triggers something in people's brains where they're like, oh, interesting. My friends always like, I was talking to a friend yesterday and she was like, everyone asked me for mental health advice. And that's something she has never posted about, ever. Not once. But consistently. Her friends come to her for that advice. And it's really just seeing the patterns, like, I think with brands too. Like, what questions does your, like, clients ask over and over? What questions are your. What things are your customers dealing with? Like, what's what? Data and patterns can you gather from other areas and bring that into your content Because I think a lot of people sit down and they're like, we need this perfect content strategy. We need to go out this way. But if you can take what you already have, look at the data, look at the patterns, see what people are curious about, that's going to translate so much better into your content.

[Alex]

Yeah, for sure. It's interesting. Also, like, you found series, because that's something we talk about a lot on the show is like, find things that are simple, repeatable, and scalable. Did you go through quite a few iterations of series or was, like, problematic career advice? Like, one of the first ones that was.

[Courtney Johnson]

I know the first one was How I Bought a House. That was the second one. I never go into anything thinking it's going to be a content series. I think that's a waste of time because that's like putting hours and hours and hours into something that might flop. So I just constantly reevaluate what my top performing posts are and make those into series.

[Alex]

That's dope. You seem like a big person who's like, just press, publish. Like, just let it flow. Ship it. Yeah, ship it.

[Courtney Johnson]

I think. Well, it's because I get frustrated because people come to me being like, what hashtags do I use? What time of day do I post? Whatever. And those questions do not matter unless you are actually posting. Like, I'm never gonna answer, what time of day can I post? Unless you show me that you have, like, 100 posts. I think it's the same as, like, if somebody has not started a podcast yet and they're like, well, what camera should I buy? You're like, okay, you're literally on day one. Like, maybe just, like, actually know that you want to do this. Go record something with your phone. Get, like, a cheap camera before you need to invest, like, thousands of dollars into the big thing. Unless you have that resource. And that's great, but it's usually they're procrastinating.

[Ryan]

When you do find a series, though, how often are you repeating that? Like, the episode? Is it a weekly thing? Are you doing it kind of bi weekly? What does that look like?

[Courtney Johnson]

Honestly, I don't have a specific time. I try to do it at least once a week, but really, whenever the ideas come up, but also when I have a series, I'll say the same thing. Like, It'll be part 12, but I'll. I also did part 12 for part two. So I kind of gaslight people into thinking that I have unlimited ideas.

[Ryan]

The same over and over.

[Alex]

Yeah.

[Courtney Johnson]

When I'm Saying, yeah, the same.

[Alex]

I'm a big proponent of that. We'll do like part 37 or something. It's like, this is part one. Yeah, this is, this is the first one.

[Ryan]

One thing that you've talked about a lot at cut 30 was hooks and you kind of talk about the different components that make up a hook on your end. What does that formula kind of look like?

[Courtney Johnson]

So first I think it's helpful if I share how I find hooks. So I just. As I'm scrolling. First of all, mindlessly scrolling is not productive. So you can make it productive by starting saving things. Yeah, saving things. So make a folder in your Instagram or your TikTok or whatever called Good hooks and every time you see a good hook, put it in that folder. Then when you're going to make a video, just go back and look at the good hooks. Yeah, there's structures that work really well. I think that it's almost like there's a good, like proven investment opportunity. That's when it becomes a bad opportunity because everyone knows about it. I think it's the same with hooks. You kind of got to be on your A game and keep trying new things. But yeah, I would recommend just documenting hooks that you like. I don't have a specific formula for best hook. I just think you need to be a little provocative.

[Alex]

Yeah. How much of it is saying the craziest thing you can think of versus something you believe in too?

[Courtney Johnson]

Well, I believe the crazy things. It's just an exaggerated. Yeah, it helps. I have strong points of view and there's all these things that can make you a good content creator. But I think one of the biggest things that people miss is just being a person, being an opinionated person and being a person with a strong point of view. Because if you get on social media trying to please everyone and being like, well, yeah, this, this is a good option, but also this. And I like everything and I'm trying to please everyone. Like, your shit's gonna suck.

[Alex]

Yeah, for sure. It's almost like you have to attract the people that share your opinion.

[Courtney Johnson]

Yeah. And you're gonna also detract and piss people off.

[Alex]

And that's okay too when you become a spokesperson for their inner thoughts. Like that's, that's the real interesting part about like kind of TikTok Instagram now is because it's so interest based instead of social base. Like it's just confirming what people already think. That's, that's why they like content these days. It seems like. Or you're kind of educating them on something they're interested in.

[Courtney Johnson]

That is true. I have a lot of people that tell me, oh, I, I really resonated with this video because it's something I've thought, but I've never been able to verbalize or put into words.

[Alex]

Exactly.

[Ryan]

Is, Is that what you call baiting the fish?

[Courtney Johnson]

Baiting the fish is so fun. Basically, that is where I preemptively think about what's going to piss people off about a video and then bring that to the hook.

[Alex]

Yeah.

[Courtney Johnson]

So love that. Yeah. So, for example, I have a video that is says something like, everyone should be making at least six figures. Here's how you're going to do it. Here's how you're going to use LinkedIn to get your first six figure job. And I know people are going to be in the comments being like, this is impossible for everyone. You can't say everyone in the world can make six figures. So I start the video saying, everybody in the entire world has the ability to make six figures. And here's how you're going to do it using LinkedIn. Obviously that's a little exaggerated, but listen, who cares? Who cares? Also, there are always obvious exceptions. I'm not going to be on every video being like, yes, and there's obvious exceptions to this. There's obvious exceptions to that. Duh. Yeah. We should know that when we're consuming content like media literacy. But I do think that most people with access to a computer and some established skills can have a six figure like salary if they at least backdoor.

[Alex]

Your way into it.

[Courtney Johnson]

Yeah, I think, I think that is true.

[Ryan]

Can you workshop something live about, like how you would bait the fish? If you take something like boring, like how to start a podcast, right? Like something very boring, and then turn it into something where you're like layering in that, that, that piece of baiting the fish.

[Courtney Johnson]

Okay, so I think, well, you guys have an established podcast, but if you were to start a podcast from scratch, I think people would be in the comments being like, we don't need another, we don't need more bros with microphones. I would just lean into it and be like, you know, we're two bros, and we think what? Like we think our message is really important and we have microphones. Like, we're going to start, I don't know, just like play into that and be like, oh, you guys want another bro podcast? Like, there's not enough bro podcasts in the world, so we're making another one. We really saw a Gap in the market, we need more men with microphones. And that's why, you know, like, play. Play into it. It's funny because people are going to say that shit anyways. Like, who cares?

[Alex]

Yeah. It's like, as if you didn't think you had more mansplaining needed about business, period.

[Courtney Johnson]

That's good.

[Alex]

I like that we got you. Yeah.

[Courtney Johnson]

We're going to mansplain you. Yeah. And you could have, like, called it, like, mansplain.

[Alex]

Yeah. I mean, I like to, I don't know, let us know in the comments if we do mansplain, but I kind of think we don't.

[Courtney Johnson]

I'm really. I'm excited that you guys are on episode 50 because I always tell myself I have to do something a hundred times before I can give up.

[Alex]

Yeah.

[Courtney Johnson]

So how are you? How Was the first 50 episodes?

[Alex]

It's been good. I mean, I think we've grown a lot.

[Ryan]

Grown a lot.

[Alex]

If you saw our first episode, like, the setup, you come in here and.

[Ryan]

He'S in that back corner, which was crazy comparison to how much depth and room there is. But I think we've gotten better at having conversations and then knowing when he speaks or I speak, even if it's just ourselves talking to each other.

[Alex]

Also, just like the planning process, like, if you look at our early episodes, God bless everyone that listened to us, because we would just come on here and yap.

[Ryan]

Literally, we would just yap. It would be like, out loud, yap.

[Alex]

About shit for like an hour and 15. And now we have, like, segments, and it's very value driven. So. And I think that's contributed to a lot of the growth, for sure.

[Courtney Johnson]

Yeah. I think if for people wanting to start a podcast, having some sort of segment or structure to play with is that's going to be the difference.

[Alex]

You can go two ways with podcasts. So you can either just yap on the couch and try and have a very funny clip go viral with you and your friends, which I honestly think is most of the stereotypes you're talking about, where it's like, too many bros have a podcast mic. We need to stop selling podcast equipment that applies to that category. And then there's also the other side, which would be very value driven, educational. And it's kind of like deep learning and understanding. And what's challenging about that from a business perspective is it's a lot of upfront investment because you will grow slower. It's very hard to go viral around business education content without really not getting lucky. But I mean, having like an established distribution audience. And so once you get off the ground, though, your audience is much more valuable and you have a lot more monetization opportunities. Because if you're just trying to go viral, you. Your sponsor opportunities are only like, consumer package.

[Ryan]

They're 100% limited.

[Alex]

Yeah. It's like maybe, you know, Bluetooth.

[Courtney Johnson]

Exactly.

[Alex]

That's like, if you listen to part of my take or any of these, like, really, really big entertainment podcasts. Call Her Daddy's one. Also, like, they. They have these really mainstream brand sponsors and that's. Those people only want massive audience because they know it's kind of low signal. Whereas if you're a business podcast, you can actually open up a world of software companies that want to sponsor you and pay for leads and stuff like that.

[Courtney Johnson]

Yeah. I think that's huge for people. Wanting to monetize their personal brands is to look for, like. I think people initially are like, oh, what clothes am I wearing and what car am I driving and what coffee machine do I use every day? But it's. The software is so untapped and they need more influencers and creators. Like, it's crazy. Like, I don't even talk about business that much. Like, I talk about marketing or whatever. But like, every single software company, even if it's something completely related, like, comes to me because there's so few career and business creators.

[Alex]

There's also a need for diversified creators.

[Courtney Johnson]

Yeah.

[Alex]

And that's not necessarily talking about demographically, but just having multiple voices saying the same thing about a product. Like, a lot of software companies need more spokespeople to appeal to different audiences. Like, your audience is probably a little bit different than Alex's. And so it makes sense to sponsor both of y'all. It's not a competitive. They would only choose one of the two.

[Ryan]

So I think we came into it with a mindset too, of how much. How can we give so much free game versus, like, how can we go viral?

[Courtney Johnson]

Yeah.

[Ryan]

And the idea of, like, how much free game can we give, then how can we segment it and package it that. Then it does go viral. But it was never the first thought of how do we get 100,000 views, a million views. It was like very good content that people. That's sticky. Like, people are going to want to listen to episode 1 50, whatever, and then reverse engineer from there.

[Alex]

Yeah.

[Courtney Johnson]

What's so funny about going viral is like, I like, you don't make money from going viral. Like, like, Like, I don't know. I've. Yeah. I guess on TikTok I have the creator program and sometimes like a video get a few million views and I'll make a few hundred dollars. But like, the money, the actual money that I make is like an extremely niche, weird video that like only 500 people see that calls out a very specific pain point. And then it's like, oh, for sure.

[Alex]

And I think that's a big part of, you know, being a business operator versus a creator too. A lot of people want to just make meme trend content and, like, be funny, but ultimately you could have 2 million followers on TikTok and make under a hundred thousand dollars from your account. It's very easy to do compared to high signal 100,000 followers because those people are decision makers at businesses and they can sponsor you and stuff like that.

[Courtney Johnson]

Yeah, this is why you got to post on LinkedIn, because content. Okay. LinkedIn is looking for more content creators.

[Alex]

They're desperate.

[Courtney Johnson]

They're literally desperate. You can repurpose what you have on other platforms onto LinkedIn and B2B brands are going to want to work with you.

[Alex]

It's. It's interesting. I'm. So you've been experimenting on LinkedIn. A subplot of this podcast is that I don't. Usually I don't post all my clips on Instagram, which I'm trying to do.

[Ryan]

A backlog of 50 to 100 clips.

[Alex]

50 to 100 is, is a wild number, but there's probably like 10 to 15.

[Ryan]

Oh my gosh.

[Alex]

Anyway.

[Courtney Johnson]

Wait, so you post them where? TikTok?

[Ryan]

Nowhere. Well, this is the ongoing joke.

[Alex]

Okay.

[Ryan]

Like, he doesn't post them anywhere, but he has them.

[Courtney Johnson]

Do you have a fear of being seen?

[Alex]

No, I'm terrified. No, it's, it's more so I, I didn't love a lot of my early clips, and so I wasn't trying to put them out there when I should have just published. Anyway, yeah, it doesn't matter. Anyways, I just posted an original video on Instagram and it got like 50 likes, went nowhere, posted the same video on LinkedIn and it's going to cross 500 likes today.

[Ryan]

I'd already crossed it. I'm already looking at it.

[Alex]

It crossed three must haves.

[Ryan]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I wrote it, but.

[Alex]

Yeah, he certainly didn't write it. I was his ghostwriter, actually. But anyways, it's just, it's, it's interesting how LinkedIn is like really pushing stuff like that. It's a great opportunity for people, if you're slow on other platforms, to get some traction.

[Ryan]

Well, tell me you also went to LinkedIn HQ and they gave you kind of the blueprint for how to win on LinkedIn. What was in it?

[Courtney Johnson]

Well, LinkedIn told me that company brands are deprioritized. They confirmed that. So if you have a company brand on LinkedIn, you need to also be putting that content out and content out on a founder, sales team, whatever. Personal brands must do that. They. I was just surprised that they confirmed it. They're like, yeah, pay to play company brands. That's all.

[Alex]

That's awesome.

[Courtney Johnson]

Yeah, it's crazy. But personal brands, they also said they are. Their algorithm is prioritizing video content, vertical video content that has been downloaded and repurposed from other platforms. So they're straight up telling creators, go download your TikToks, your reels and post it on LinkedIn.

[Alex]

And we want the watermark.

[Ryan]

With the watermark, you can use a.

[Courtney Johnson]

Tool like Snap Tick and it'll take off the watermark. And they didn't say anything about the.

[Alex]

Watermark, but because that's a big no no on the others, you have to clean your metadata on Instagram and TikTok.

[Courtney Johnson]

Yeah, I would. I mean, I would take off the watermark just because I don't think it's going to matter that much. I think they're desperate for me.

[Alex]

It'd be kind of fun to like go viral with a TikTok watermark on LinkedIn, just to be disrespectful, you know.

[Ryan]

What else did they say? Any other. What are they looking for? Like, what kind of content do they want?

[Courtney Johnson]

They want. They want more going a little bit more lifestyle. They want people to see what is a day in the life of a project manager look like.

[Alex]

I love it. They just want everyone to get canceled again for fucking off on the job. That's awesome.

[Courtney Johnson]

Yeah, that Facebook video was funny. They want more. They said they want stronger points of view, so less generic content, more points of view. And then. Yeah, what life is like in your role, which I think is really cool and really interesting because they said a big part of LinkedIn, obviously getting jobs, but also discerning jobs, discerning what path you want to take, what role you want next because of the education of the content. I find that to be really interesting.

[Alex]

Yeah, no doubt.

[Ryan]

I think one thing that's interesting too is your Flywheel starts on LinkedIn. You'll test, going back to ideas, you'll test it on LinkedIn and then kind of put it everywhere else. Talk to me about that flywheel.

[Courtney Johnson]

Yeah, I've been testing things on LinkedIn just because I've been a LinkedIn content creator for the longest, but LinkedIn just feels low stakes to me. And also LinkedIn, you're never gonna get as many likes and comments and views as other platforms. So for me it's just not as scary. I guess if it totally flops, I'm like, oh, it's just LinkedIn, it's whatever. But also LinkedIn is pretty text heavy. Like they are prioritizing videos. Carousels work great, photos work well, but in any piece of content the copy is a really big part of it where it's not in other platforms. So yeah, that just creates an interesting like testing ground.

[Alex]

Yeah, for sure.

[Ryan]

What data are you looking for? Something gets a lot of likes. Like what it. What is telling you that, hey, I should scale this.

[Courtney Johnson]

Yeah, I'm look, I mean, honestly, I look for DMs, like people reaching out and being like that really resonated with me. If I get one or two DMS from a post on LinkedIn, I'm like, oh, this is going to be good.

[Ryan]

Interesting.

[Alex]

Yeah, no wonder my shit's flopping. I haven't gotten a DM one time.

[Ryan]

Not one.

[Alex]

I'm kidding.

[Courtney Johnson]

Just be spicier.

[Alex]

Yeah, I think, I think generally I do need to be spicy.

[Courtney Johnson]

Talk about what you don't like, talk about what people are doing wrong.

[Alex]

So that's actually something. We've talked about this like, I have some very spicy takes, but I've always been hesitant to publish them.

[Courtney Johnson]

Why?

[Alex]

That's a great question. Like, what would you say to someone who's worried about posting on the Internet with their spicy takes?

[Ryan]

Well, give an example of how spicy you're thinking.

[Alex]

So I would say a spicy take that I have is that not everyone should get to vote.

[Courtney Johnson]

Okay, yeah, that's too spicy for LinkedIn, but that's not. I don't think that's too spicy for tiktokers.

[Alex]

And what I mean by that is I don't mean anything regarding any sort of gender, demographic, stuff like that. I mean, if you're uninformed about issues and you are a stakeholder in a business situation, you should not have an opinion in that room if you're uninformed. And so I don't know why that's.

[Courtney Johnson]

Not spicy at all.

[Alex]

There's a lot of people who get to vote on things when they have no fucking clue what's actually going on.

[Courtney Johnson]

Wait, this is literally a slam dunk and a kitty hoop because you have the perfect hook, the perfect agitation. If you will be like, why not? I want you vote. What the fuck are you saying that for? And then you have it coming in with like a nuanced and reasonable take that. Like, anybody would be like, even if they don't agree with you would be like, oh, well, yeah, that's reasonable. I think that's a perfect spice level.

[Alex]

So I. I've thought about. I've been actually teasing the idea of just like starting a kind of Yap TikTok account just to have these type of takes, because I feel like I have two to three of these takes a day just in my head, like walking the treadmill and I'll have like some stupid rabbit hole idea. But I don't know, I don't publish because at the same time, sometimes I'm worried, like, oh, like one of my clients is, you know, a really big brand in Target and they're going to be like, brian, what the hell was that video? And so that's what's always held me back, is because a lot of my takes, that, that one is spicy, but I don't know, give us some of.

[Ryan]

The crazy ones, huh?

[Alex]

I know. I'm trying to think of some of the other crazy ones right now.

[Ryan]

Is why you need to be able to put these down into your notes app or just get them out.

[Alex]

Why you need to act on this level.

[Courtney Johnson]

Very spicy take that made LinkedIn very angry at me.

[Alex]

I love it.

[Courtney Johnson]

Okay. On LinkedIn, people have those green open to work banners on their profile picture. I think that looks desperate. I think that kills your salary negotiation leverage, like, any that you might have. I think that it lowers your perceived value. And I posted that. I'm like, it literally makes you look desperate. I think that that is the equivalent of like, if you're single and wanting to date and you put like single heart, heart, heart in your Instagram bio, like, that's the same shit. People got so mad because they were like, well, people want jobs and you're not supporting people getting jobs or whatever. I'm like, no, it looks desperate. Like, I'm sorry, but again, there's exceptions. If you are really desperate and you don't care about leverage, leveraging more money, and you are early in your career and you don't really know what you're doing. Like, okay, who the fuck cares? It's not like a moral judgment. I just think it looks desperate. But that's like the level of thing. That's a good amount of spice. I think what I want to see more of is people calling out processes Tools in the business world that are like archaic. That why the are we using them anymore?

[Ryan]

Like I want to say Grammarly actually sucks and makes your writing boring kind of grammar. Yeah, it does suck.

[Courtney Johnson]

Yeah, it does. I, I worked with. They were actually. Never mind. I, I did a brand partnership with them, but I wouldn't do it again. No, it's okay. I'm.

[Alex]

Sounds like she didn't want it again.

[Courtney Johnson]

Yeah, I don't wanna, I don't wanna work with them again. It was the most edits I've like ever had on a, on a video.

[Ryan]

So if you're, if you're like going into a piece of content, right, and you, you think of the idea, you're like, I'm gonna film this now. How do you like kind of structure your storytelling? Because that's where it's hard for me. Like I have to script it so I could like formulate it. But for you, are you just like, hey, I know I'm always going to talk like this. Point one, point two, point three, like, how do you even go about it?

[Courtney Johnson]

I just talk. I just talk. And I know it's probably going to be bad. Like the first, the first one usually isn't that good, but it's that one out of ten times that, that's the one that's going to go viral. But I think that overthinking can lead to like a constriction of your content and your creativity. I think it's really good because the planned content should make up the bulk of your content. That's consistent, repeatable, you know what's going out, people know what to expect. That's great. But just leave room to break every single rule.

[Alex]

So speaking of like some of your. I thought a lot of your concepts were really cool because they have a massive tam, right? There's a huge market of people that can be interested in a lot of your takes. Like corporate life is fake. Problematic career hacks for nine to five people. I loved the rich versus poor habits one.

[Courtney Johnson]

Oh, that actually was my most.

[Alex]

That's a spicy one.

[Courtney Johnson]

I keep privateing that and then unprivating it and then people get really mad. I private it again. That's my most controversial video I've ever posted.

[Alex]

I loved it because it's something that. Okay, that'd be a good idea on my end is I would never hire someone that talks about their bets at the office. Like, I would never hire some bro who's just trying to talk sports gambling around the water cooler. Like, I need serious people. You Know. And that's just an unserious behavior.

[Courtney Johnson]

Yeah. I've had people tell me that they will not hire someone if they were not some sort of athlete in their past.

[Alex]

Yeah.

[Courtney Johnson]

Like athlete, military or something like that. I'm like, that's. That makes sense. Like.

[Alex]

Yeah. I think that's kind of a hard out take.

[Courtney Johnson]

I don't know that is a hard take. But I. I mean I know so many sales leaders where they're like athletes, military. Ex athletes. Ex military only. And I. I think that's reasonable maybe for certain roles.

[Alex]

Definitely in sales.

[Courtney Johnson]

Definitely in sales. But I've also seen people say like, I wouldn't hire someone that like isn't in shape. And I feel like that's where I could get problematic because that's a reasonable take if you have a really disciplined whatever thing. Like maybe sales. But also like that's something that then you get into like legal. Like. Is that discrimination?

[Alex]

Yeah, for sure. I mean, is it discrimination? I don't hire as we record on.

[Courtney Johnson]

And I feel like that's discrimination.

[Ryan]

That's a heart take.

[Courtney Johnson]

Yeah. I don't hire men because I just like working with. I like. I like spending the most of my day with women.

[Alex]

Yeah.

[Courtney Johnson]

So I. But I don't know if that's problematic.

[Alex]

I think it's very fair. I don't like hanging with dudes either.

[Ryan]

That's true.

[Courtney Johnson]

You're into that. I love, I love working with men. I just think like it like people that are managing my personal, personal stuff day to day. I just feel more comfortable and like vibe more with girls. Like I feel like you guys in this office probably like you can be more bro y. It's not like women in here, you know?

[Alex]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's three pictures of Michael Jordan.

[Courtney Johnson]

Yeah. But these are like new. You're right. Nuanced, like semi problematic takes that it's like.

[Alex]

So do you think. Do you think men or women make better employees?

[Courtney Johnson]

That's a good question. No, no. I actually think that, that men and women have very like not all men. Not all women. There's always exceptions. I do think that there's like different skills and the workplace is very masculine.

[Alex]

Yeah.

[Courtney Johnson]

And it's not a place where like women can always thrive in these traditional work environments. Even things just like we have periods and a cycle and our energy differs like by week where like men's differs by day. So even like the productivity books that we're reading and the way the workplace is set up, it's like really not built for women. And So I. Yeah, I mean, I think that there's just, like, different skills and we can work together in a way that's, like, supportive. But, like, if women try to work like men, we won't be able to do it as good as men. But if we try to work like us, then we can have our own unique, like, magic that comes for sure.

[Ryan]

To be honest, we haven't had women on the podcast. You're the first woman on the podcast.

[Alex]

Yeah.

[Ryan]

And I don't know why, though. I don't know if it's because we keep it too bro y or. Or what.

[Alex]

But I mean. Well, something I actually did want to dig into with you was if you had an opinion on why men seem to be more inclined towards entrepreneurship.

[Courtney Johnson]

I think it's because there's a lot of. You just have more role models. Like, growing up, I didn't know that women were allowed to be doctors or I didn't know women were legally allowed to be, like, you could run for president. I didn't know women were allowed to be entrepreneurs. I grew up in an environment where women didn't work and I didn't know that they were allowed to. So, like, I didn't have that. That vision. And I also think a lot of women, because they don't see other women doing it, they don't think it's possible for them.

[Alex]

Yeah.

[Courtney Johnson]

So I want to be like, a person that can show other people that it's possible. Yeah.

[Alex]

It's cool when that role model side of things comes into play too, because my girlfriend has a couple of first.

[Ryan]

Time you talk about her on the pod.

[Alex]

My girlfriend has a couple of, like, prominent influencers like Mel Robbins and a lot of these folks that she follows. And when I showed her your content, I was like, oh, this is. This is someone in your age demographic, actually, who you can kind of like, role model after, which is cool.

[Courtney Johnson]

That's amazing.

[Alex]

Thank you. But it's, like, where I feel like there's not to. I mean, not to demean us, but, like, there's a million of, like, Alex myself. Like, there's a lot of, like, guys out there just trying to talk about marketing. It seems like there's a big opportunity for more women to get involved in content creation and stuff like this.

[Courtney Johnson]

This is also another. I did a podcast episode with this girl I'm friends with who is. She's super, super problematic online, but I love her. I love her content. It's really interesting. But she talks about how to, like, leverage your unique skills as men or Women in, like, a problematic way. She's like, as a woman, you can kind of, like, people aren't gonna suspect as much. So, like, with your competitors, you can, you know, kind of go in a little sneaky. And, you know, if you're a man, you're gonna. You. You can play with the boys. So, like, lean into that and just talk about. Instead of, like, getting so angry about, like, why is this not, like, completely equal? She's like, it's different. And, like, learn to lean into your unique strengths. And that's like, what's gonna be like, that's your sneaky path, and that's not just gender. It could be like, maybe you are connected to a certain type of people. Or, like, one of my friends, she told me the best way she's made friends in Austin, and she's like, her boyfriend has a boat, and she's like, that's her strength that she's playing into in business and in life. And she's like, I don't care. Yeah, that's like this fudgeing privilege. Whatever. I'm going to lean the fudge into it. My boyfriend has a boat. I'm going to, like, bring all my clients on the boat. I'm going to, like, impress people with this fucking boat.

[Ryan]

And, like, do that with your house a little bit, too.

[Courtney Johnson]

Kind of like. Honestly, one of the reasons why I bought my house, I'm like, this is a crazy house. Like, it's going to perform so well on Social. Although I've actually had my house on my vision board when I was in middle school.

[Alex]

Oh, that's cool.

[Courtney Johnson]

So I'd always been obsessed with that specific house.

[Ryan]

Like a tree house kind of vibe?

[Courtney Johnson]

No, I had that exact house on my vision board.

[Alex]

Wow.

[Courtney Johnson]

Because it used to be, like, a popular Airbnb, and I.

[Alex]

You sniped this thing?

[Courtney Johnson]

Yeah. And I just remember, like, seeing it on Airbnb when Airbnb first came out in, like, 2006 or something, and being like, oh, my gosh, I want to go visit this house. And then turns out, yeah, all these years later, I own it.

[Ryan]

Wow. That's crazy. Yeah, that's crazy, right?

[Alex]

Okay, so switching gears a little bit, I have a question for you. When did you realize corporate life was fake?

[Courtney Johnson]

I've always thought it was fake because it's so silly. None of it makes sense. And I don't know why other people. Honestly. Probably because I went to a Catholic school, and I realized the whole time during. And it was an extremely strict, culty Catholic school, and the Whole time I'm like, this is not real. Like it's not real that we're like doing like, why are we doing all this shit? And then when I got into corporate world, it just seemed like the same thing. It seemed like a culty environment where I couldn't ask questions and I couldn't propose new ways of doing things. And we had to stay in this like established fucking, like, I don't know, culture. It's just weird.

[Alex]

Yeah.

[Courtney Johnson]

And I was frustrated because I'm like, why does nobody around me see that? This is fucking weird.

[Alex]

But one of the things you talk about is that no one knows what they're doing and that all these execs don't seem to. They don't. All these execs at big companies don't know what they're doing any more than the average person. So was there a story where you kind of realized that?

[Courtney Johnson]

Yeah, mainly in my ghostwriting. So I have been a ghostwriter for a lot of tech CEOs for the last eight years of my career. And a lot of them are pretty prominent. They've raised and made millions, tens of millions of dollars. Some even grown billion plus dollar companies. And they're just like regular people that just have a little bit of delusion, like, that's all. They're not any. I mean, some people are really intelligent, but like, they're not any smarter than you. They're not any more special than you. Also came from dating too. Just like dating people that were really successful and being like, okay, you're just like a normal dude. I can do that too. Fuck it.

[Alex]

Yeah, for sure.

[Ryan]

What is the difference between those CEOs or founders that have a company doing 10 million versus a billion? Kind of the characteristics.

[Courtney Johnson]

The billion dollar. Yeah, the billion dollar companies. The characteristics is they are, and I mean this in a positive way, they're more like entitled and delusional and they delegate way more. They're just like entitled to. Yeah, I'm running the ship, but I'm doing it my way and I am doing all the things that are going to satisfy my need of like, showing up as best as I possibly can. So, like selfish in a way that's productive. Like the. They're just way more selfish than the million dollar businesses. And I try to emulate that. Like I want to be selfish about my time and selfish about how I'm showing up and selfish about how I'm taking care of myself. Yeah.

[Alex]

Who's more fun to date? A billionaire tech CEO or a $10 million tech CEO?

[Courtney Johnson]

I don't know. I've never, I've never dated any of them. I feel like with my dating and overcoming imposter syndrome was a lot of like real estate investor bros and real estate investor bros are not that smart.

[Alex]

No, it's actually notorious.

[Courtney Johnson]

Yeah.

[Alex]

I feel like everyone says real estate is where you go get rich if you're not that smart. No, shade.

[Courtney Johnson]

Exactly.

[Ryan]

Or if you're a bartender in Austin, you end up being a realtor. Yeah, that is the other.

[Alex]

You said bartender like he wasn't trying to say bottle girl.

[Courtney Johnson]

Bottle girl turned realtor is a definitely a pipeline.

[Ryan]

100%.

[Courtney Johnson]

Yeah, 100%.

[Alex]

So if you could go back in time, what's some advice you would give to your nine to five self?

[Courtney Johnson]

That's a good question. Hmm. I would say learn to play the game. Don't resist it so much. At first I had so much resistance being like, this is stupid. I don't want to do it this way. But it's a game that I'm not going to be able to change. Like, I can't change the entire corporate culture of America and I am not going to be able to do that alone. So I wish that sooner I would have learned the strategies and the chess and like playing the game rather than resisting it. And I think that would've got me.

[Ryan]

A lot farther piggybacking off of that. Once you quit your 9 to 5 went full time on you, there's obviously now you like new learnings to go from where you you were at to where you are now. What advice would you give that person? Like day one, okay, I'm going all in on being a creator, employing myself, building my own things. What advice would you give there to now? The person that's making 30, $40,000 a month.

[Courtney Johnson]

Yeah. I would tell her to, like, have patience. And it's a longevity game. It's not necessarily a game of quality or a game of being perfect. It's just a longevity game. Like, you have to keep going. I would just set the expectation of like, grind it out every single day. It's fine. You're going to get there. Because that is true for like any type of media that you're creating. The more successful. Even like a TV show, a podcast, it's just longevity. It's like, how long have you been doing it? Because most people are going to stop. Like, most people are probably gonna stop after episode 20 of their podcast. You're not competing. Like, everyone's like, oh, the podcast, it's so saturated. It's not.

[Ryan]

It's not.

[Courtney Johnson]

Because 90% of them don't go past 10 or 20 episodes.

[Ryan]

Like social media, you always talk about.

[Alex]

It's what she's referencing. It's like no one makes it past episode 20.

[Ryan]

But like once you make it past episode 20, you're like in the top one percentile or something like that for sure.

[Courtney Johnson]

It's like on LinkedIn, if you post once a week, you're in the top 1% of the whole platform.

[Alex]

Wow. We honestly, we from the jump compared ourselves to the best marketing podcasts because we knew that we weren't going to quit. And so I also think that's helpful is if you just frame yourself against the competition being the best in the industry, then that's like, it's a better way to get closer to being really, really good.

[Courtney Johnson]

Yeah. Cause it's gonna happen like it's gonna naturally evolve and you just can't do that on day one.

[Alex]

And that's the standard. If the standard is excellence, then your 80% effort's gonna @ least result in good.

[Courtney Johnson]

Yeah, yeah. Most people just don't have longevity. It's like any skill. It's the dip. Most people are gonna quit at the dip.

[Alex]

Yeah.

[Ryan]

They're not running marathons.

[Courtney Johnson]

Yeah.

[Ryan]

The last thing I wanna end on is grown. So growing an account more.

[Alex]

I wanna give her a chance at a viral clip.

[Courtney Johnson]

Okay.

[Ryan]

Get it, hit it.

[Alex]

What are some of these Rich versus poor habits?

[Courtney Johnson]

You're gonna get me canceled. Wait, I interviewed on this podcast that had like a list of hooks and every time I answer the question they're like, actually, can you redo that and have this hook? And I was like, wait, that's.

[Alex]

They gave you the hook?

[Courtney Johnson]

Yeah, they had like a hook. Like a printed out hook list.

[Alex]

Did it rip? Like, did they work when they published on.

[Courtney Johnson]

Honestly, I've only published one. I'm gonna publish some more to see how they work. Yeah, we'll see. I think that they over edited the clips, but whatever.

[Ryan]

Did they. Did that ruin like the, the conversation aspect in the, in the episode? It did, but like that'd be the weird part.

[Courtney Johnson]

Yeah, it made it a little, a little bit forced, but it's. I don't know, I think maybe because.

[Ryan]

You could just re record those hooks after the fact.

[Courtney Johnson]

That's true. That's true. Also, I think that once you get like. I've gotten better at framing how I answer questions in a way. Like on podcasts that you know, social just by doing social content. Okay. So rich versus poor habits. Yeah. You're going to get me canceled. But I created a TikTok video about things that my broke friends talk about at dinner versus my wealthy friends. Because I have a lot of broke friends and I have a lot of wealthy friends. I was broke, like two years ago. So it seems in the patterns that I observe that my wealthier friends.

[Ryan]

In the patterns I.

[Courtney Johnson]

That my wealthier friends talk more about, like, goal setting. They talk more about what they're working on, their fitness. Like, they share their. Oh, here's my CPA or here's my financial advisor or whatever. And they seem, probably because they have money to be able to. Their mind is freed up so they can talk about more like existential topics, like spiritual topics or philosophical topics. My broke friends tend to talk more about sports, celebrity gossip. Surface level shit.

[Alex]

Yeah.

[Courtney Johnson]

And I'm not saying that I. I created this video because I wanted to show that maybe a part of gaining wealth is the mentality of the things that you're talking to your friends about and the things that you're consistently reflecting on. And if the only things that you're talking about in consuming is just sports and celebrity and pop culture, like, you're a vessel. Like. Like you.

[Alex]

I love that we called people mouth breath.

[Courtney Johnson]

Like, that's. And there's nothing wrong.

[Alex]

But vessel is a good one. I'm gonna incorporate that.

[Courtney Johnson]

But there's. There's nothing wrong with sports. This whole places, like, sports decked out. There's nothing wrong with, like, talking about the Netflix show you're watching or celebrity gossip. But, like, honestly, if you are trying to, like, get your bag, like, stop watching Netflix. Like, stop, like, take a break from being so obsessed.

[Ryan]

Yeah, if you don't have a bag, you can't be watching. No, no, you have a bag. Watching Netflix is okay. It's a little bit better because I.

[Courtney Johnson]

Cut out my streaming services. I haven't watched anything in years because I'm like, I'm not ready. I'm not in a place where I'm satisfied enough to just go sit down for four hours and do nothing. Like, if I'm doing nothing for four hours, I might be. I might as well be, like, nourishing a relationship. Like, talking to friends. Like, that's a waste of fucking time.

[Ryan]

Agreed.

[Alex]

Yeah, couldn't agree more. What advice would you give to any young women out there looking to break into entrepreneurship? Like, how should they get started?

[Courtney Johnson]

Any young woman wanting to break into.

[Alex]

Entrepreneurship, I would say career change. I don't know. Which one do you think would be better?

[Courtney Johnson]

I Think entrepreneurship. Okay, yeah. Any young woman wanting to break into entrepreneurship, I would tell them, don't do your shit like men. You have your own skills, you have your own strengths and weaknesses. And if you just try to copy the way that men are doing entrepreneurship, you are going to burn out and it's not going to work for you. Open any productivity book. The first page. Thank you to my wife for doing the dishes, taking care of the kids, managing and supporting my mental health. Thank you for coordinating every, all the logistics of our day to day life. It's like, okay, Mo for most women, especially if you're a mother, like, you can't fucking do that. Like, like, oh, that's why they wrote a productivity, that's why they wrote a productivity book because they have someone like doing all their admin shit for them. So like, first of all, stop reading all these books. Some of them are helpful, but stop like reading them as fucking biblical of like, I have to follow this path and I'll be like this person. Like, that's not going to work for you. Like, go learn about your cycle, learn about your unique strengths and lean into that because you have strengths that are going to, that you'll be able to compete with the men without having to work like them for sure.

[Alex]

And it's true. I mean, energy levels are a huge aspect of productivity. Jerry Seinfeld had this clip go viral the other day where he was talking about, how did he say so energized. And he just meditated all the time. And he made an awesome point. This blew my mind. He was like, look at your bed after you sleep and tell me if that looked peaceful because the bed is always so messed up. The pillows are ruffled, the sheets are everywhere, all this stuff. And he's like, meditation is the only way that you can control your body and be totally still for an extended period of time. And that's how you rest. And it's so interesting. I think what you're saying is really important is energy levels matter. And so if there's different aspects of energy that appeal or apply to women versus men, they should definitely leverage that too.

[Courtney Johnson]

Yeah, absolutely. Meditation is the advice I would give anyone, anywhere, anytime. Everyone go meditate.

[Alex]

Yeah, what, what, what skills should, should young women be looking to pursue to get ahead these days?

[Courtney Johnson]

Yeah, it's not nice to say, but like women are better at emotional social manipulation. Like learn those, learn the social skills for sure. Like that's, that's where social skills and creativity as a woman is. What's going to, you Apart in entrepreneurship. Because most men are never going to be able to be as sneaky at your social chess game. And most men are probably never going to be able to be as creative. They're going to be more logical and like that. Like, in my business, those things are where I've really, like, not that it's competition, but like, really, really, like, beat out other people is because social skills and creativity.

[Alex]

Yeah.

[Courtney Johnson]

So like, lean in to what? You know, if I'm trying to be like, the most productive and organized whatever person, like the bros that I'm not going to. I'm not going to succeed that way.

[Ryan]

So read 48 laws of power.

[Courtney Johnson]

Read 48 laws of power. Yeah. That's Robert Green, right? Have you read his Art of Seduction?

[Ryan]

I haven't read Art of Seduction. I've read the 50th law, 48 laws of power, and then Mastery.

[Courtney Johnson]

I love Robert Green, but Art of Seduction is the nastiest book I've ever read. It basically tells you how to, like, seduce people based on their childhood trauma. It's so fucked up. But I think it's really important. Like, I love his work because it's on gatekeeping, like the cheat codes to life. But I highly recommend reading Artist Seduction. And also the whole time you're reading it, you're gonna be like, what the actual fuck? Like, the only reason I think it would be helpful is for, like, a spy that has to, like, seduce people. But it literally is like, oh, raising capital.

[Ryan]

It'd be perfect.

[Courtney Johnson]

Yeah. No, it literally is like, oh, your partners mom was an alcoholic. You need to go get really drunk and like, recreate that scene. Get them in that emotion, but, like, go harder. And then bring it down to a level of where you're calm again and then react. And then they'll be in the most, like, heightened sexual, like, peak.

[Ryan]

Interesting.

[Courtney Johnson]

It's. Yeah, shit like that. It's really fucked up, but it's interesting. Robert Greene is fascinating.

[Alex]

He's a dog.

[Courtney Johnson]

Yeah. But I would never. I would never implement that.

[Ryan]

No, the point is, like, you. You read that and then you see Robert Green.

[Courtney Johnson]

I know.

[Ryan]

This is so strange.

[Alex]

Yeah. He has no motion.

[Ryan]

Yeah.

[Courtney Johnson]

Yeah. I think he's just an observer.

[Alex]

Yeah. Which is weirder.

[Ryan]

Well, shit, Courtney. It's been one a pleasure to fucking meet you in person. We've known each other for, like, three years.

[Alex]

This was all a remote relationship. Yes.

[Ryan]

Yeah. Like three years at this point.

[Courtney Johnson]

Yeah.

[Ryan]

And we, like, had moments where we were in a cross path. Never got to it. And then when I Thought about. I was like, wait, what? Because I think we. We. She was on cut 32 weeks ago. I was like, why haven't you come on the pod? Why haven't you come to the office? Like, we need to. We need to fix this. So 1. I appreciate you being here. I appreciate you dropping all the knowledge. Not gatekeeping. And we'll have to run it back.

[Courtney Johnson]

Yeah, run it back on my podcast. Yeah, I actually just set up a studio that's really cool.

[Alex]

At the Treehouse.

[Ryan]

Yeah, I was gonna say you have to do it at the treehouse.

[Courtney Johnson]

That's great. Yeah, I finally set it up yesterday. I've been like, doing zoom and bopping around to, like, different places. It's just. I want my own space.

[Alex]

For sure.

[Ryan]

It's much easier to have your own space that you just sit down, record, press buttons and go.

[Courtney Johnson]

Yeah. So finally pulled the trigger and. Yeah.

[Alex]

Nice. Well, thanks for coming on.

[Courtney Johnson]

Thank you.

[Ryan]

And where can people find you? Like plug, Plug all your socials, plug all your products, your courses, etc.

[Courtney Johnson]

So my podcast is called Slay the Gatekeeper. You can find that all the podcast places. Instagram, Courtland Johnson, Tik Tok Courtney, period, period. Johnson. I have LinkedIn personal brand cohorts every other month is. And a lot of digital products that are really helpful. A lot of post ideas, hook ideas. So, yeah, come find me on social.

[Ryan]

I'll drop one of your. I think you have like a lead magnet and I'll drop it here. I think it's like the 21 hooks or 21 tick tock hooks. We'll drop that. So you guys do want that. We'll put in the description and sign up for that. But I appreciate you joining.

[Courtney Johnson]

Thank you.

[Ryan]

Blast.

[Courtney Johnson]

Thank you for having me.

[Alex]

Yeah, thanks.