I share writing & editing lessons so entrepreneurs & founders can attract + convert high-value clients | Edited 3M+ words | Former Head of Content | Running on seltzer 🤩

You’re doing $30K, $50K, maybe $80K months. You should feel amazing. But instead you’re custom-scoping every deal, rebuilding proposals from scratch, and one client churn away from a panic spiral.

You’re successful. You’re also exhausted. (Two things can be true at once.)

I co-founded Duo with Nick Bennett after rebuilding my own business five times. Cohorts, courses, group coaching. I tried all of it before landing on a model that doesn’t drain my energy.

At Duo, we help solopreneurs (specifically B2B service providers) fix their offer, fix their positioning, and build systems so they can stop being the bottleneck in their own business.

Our clients have gone from $40K to $80K MRR in 60 days. 

From $300K ARR to $2M ARR in 13 months. 

From relying on referrals to every inbound prospect saying “found you through your content.” 

From dreading sales calls to prospects showing up ready to buy.

From white knuckling it to the end of each week to running a business that gives them energy. 

It’s not magic, but there is a formula: we helped them standardize their offer, delegate the stuff draining them, and actually articulate why they’re different.

I also write a lot on here about content strategy, our MP3 framework, my business journey, and the occasional rant about my toddler twins slapping me on airplanes.

If you’re doing $30K+ months and having a “wtf do I want this business to actually BE?” moment, DM me.

Website: duoconsulting.co
Podcast/mini books: howsolosscale.com


Erica Schneider

The hardest part of a platform like LinkedIn is shallow thinkers “win” the day. People with little experience share tips and tactics that feel easy to understand and even easier to implement. People hit like because it makes their dopamine go whoosh. 

“I can do this!” 

Yeah, you can. And it’ll make you feel good in a world of make believe thumbs but prove useless in a world of real money. (Money is also a construct but I digress.)

This game of shallow thinkers makes deep thinkers feel… shit, to be honest.

Your deep experience and proven ideas get shoved to the sideline. You lose the popularity contest. Nobody loves you. You feel resentful, frustrated, unseen and unheard.

You think, why the f*ck would I waste my time in a garbage in garbage out place like this?

And you don’t have to. You really don’t. There are other ways and places to market.

But I’ve found pockets of excellence here, and that makes it worthwhile to me. You can find them too if you hit unfollow and not interested on the shallow game. If you hit connect and dm with the deeper minds. If you market the problem, process, and proof and radically accept lower engagement in exchange for elevated conversations.

There is a way. I am proof. Our clients are proof. Our friends are proof.

But the choice must be yours to make. Either commit to it with conviction or don’t bother.

Complaining endlessly, however, is a waste of your time and mine. That’s what makes people hit unfollow and not interested.

My take on the state of things.

Growth consulting for scaling solopreneurs & micro agencies | Co-Founder @ Duo Consulting | Running on seltzer 🤩

70% of Brian’s leads now come from LinkedIn. A year ago, that number was zero.

And this morning, Nick and I got to train the 3 contractors Brian has hired since his business exploded to build their own LinkedIn presence.

What a full circle moment! 

The backstory:

A year ago, Brian was stuck. He was doing $25K months off referrals alone with zero inbound. He was scared referrals could dry up at any moment, and he wasn’t getting enough leads to aggressively scale.

So over the past year, we helped him get known for a specific problem he solves. 

Rebuilt his content around marketing the problem, process, and proof. 

Started real conversations with the right people. 

And within months, ~70% of his prospects were coming from LinkedIn. 

This influx of leads helped him scale from $25K to $150K a month. 

To execute on delivery, we coached him through hiring 3 senior contractors, standardizing his engagement model, and freeing up his time so he can focus on strategy, biz dev, and marketing.

And now here we are: training his team to do the exact thing we helped him do a year ago. 

So the business keeps compounding without Brian being the single point of awareness.

Watching his contractors get fired up about building their own presence, knowing we’ve been part of this thing from the jump, I don’t know. It just hit different.

I love that I get to wake up and do this every day. 

DM me if you’re Brian a year ago and ready to scale revenue + reclaim your time.

The traditional agency model is a trap for most scaling solos. 

High overhead. 
Constant hiring. 
Managing people all day. 
Moving further and further from the craft that made you great.

Plus, the idea of building an agency makes most B2B consultants we know nauseous. 

They didn't build expertise for 13 years to spend their days chasing invoices and managing people who don't care as much as they do. 

Ok, so then how DO you scale to $1M-3M without going the traditional agency route?

At $30-$50k months, you're fast approaching capacity. You've likely hit a revenue ceiling. You're probably burning out.

You can't scale without operationalizing, but operationalizing means delegating, which veers into agency territory.

So here's our POV:

You're not building an "agency." You're not removing yourself from running client accounts or doing the work.

Instead, you're building a microagency with a pod structure.

A tiny, senior delivery team organized around you, not below you. 

You stay close to the work. 
You stay close to the clients. 
You don't become a manager in the traditional sense. 

You become the person who designs how the work gets done while a small squad of senior people helps you do more of it.

It's not an agency. It's not a solo practice. It's something in between. Which is why we've been calling it a microagency.

One founder running the show, a small pod delivering the work, and a business that can hit $2-3M without sacrificing quality and 60%+ of your margin.

One of our clients recently scaled past $150k months with three senior contractors and he's on the path to $3M. He's at 70% margin.

Another is restructuring his team into a pod right now, and already seeing his capacity open up and his energy come back.

So yeah, this is what we're seeing working for B2B solos who refuse to go the agency route but know they can't keep white-knuckling it alone.

We're going to be talking about this a lot more. 

If this sounds interesting to you and you're a B2B consultant doing $35k+ months, DM me. Let's talk about a better way to scale.

Part of the bottom 99% of designers. Building Kleo. Serving teams with fractional product design.

I help product teams move faster with fewer bottlenecks.Trusted by startups who have raised over $350M.I’ve partnered directly with founders, PMs, and heads of design.Web + mobile. Fast-paced. Strategic + hands-on.U.S.-based and async-friendly.If you need part-time design that feels full-time reliable, reach out. ⤵https://tidycal.com/trevordesign/chat-with-trevor

Trevor Nielsen

My Monday morning hot take:
AI hype is louder than AI adoption.

If you only read social media, you’d think:
Designers are dead.
Developers are dead.
Entire teams replaced overnight.

That has not been my experience.

I have worked with strong product teams recently.
Modern. Talented. Moving fast.

Most of them are experimenting with AI.
Dabbling. Testing. Exploring.

They are not rebuilding their workflows around it.
They are not replacing entire departments.

Adoption is much slower than the internet suggests.

A lot of what we see online is clickbait.

“AI is taking your job.”
“If you’re not using it, you’re behind.”

Fear drives comments.
Comments drive reach.
Reach drives sponsorships.

But inside real product teams, the tone is calmer.

Here’s what I think is true.

You should try AI.
There is no reason to avoid it.

But the idea that you are “falling behind” if you are not using it constantly makes no sense to me.

If AI does what it promises, it makes your job easier.

So how are you behind for understanding how to build products without it?

If you can design well without shortcuts, you understand fundamentals.

AI should amplify skill.
Not replace it.

The bigger risk I see is homogenization.

So many products are starting to look the same.
Same layouts.
Same patterns.
Same tone.

The work that stands out now is the work where someone thought harder.
Pushed further.
Added originality.

That matters more than ever.

And think about this..

Designers have been using UI kits for years.
Design systems.
Component libraries.
Shared patterns.

We have always built on top of existing work.

AI is not some alien concept.
It is a faster remix machine.

The internet makes this feel like a revolution happening overnight.

Inside teams, it feels more like gradual experimentation.

AI is not the apocalypse.
It is not the miracle either.

It is a tool.

And tools tend to amplify whoever is holding them.

Freelance Product Designer | Helping teams build great products

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The Battle

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