Justin Welsh

The $10M Solopreneur | Helping 100,000+ experts turn their expertise into income.

Over the last decade, I helped build two companies past a $1B valuation and raise over $300M in venture capital. Then, in 2019, I burned out.So, I decided to walk away from my high-paying executive job.But, before I could, I had a hypothesis.I believed building an audience online would be an incredible asset. That attention was the new currency and would play a major part in my success as an entrepreneur.So, I started building my brand on LinkedIn in early 2019. And the results were pretty phenomenal.In just 6 months, I grew from zero followers to over 20,000.And on August 1st of 2019, I walked away from my executive role at a fast-growing startup.Since that day, I've spent my time building a number of one-person Internet businesses.My results:→ $12.5M+ in business revenue at a ~86% profit margin.→ 800K+ people following my journey on LinkedIn→ 560K+ people following my journey on Twitter→ 180K+ people read my weekly newsletter→ 1B+ impressions in the last 7 yearsIf you want to learn more about how I did this, you can take my self-guided masterclass.THE CREATOR MBA DIGITAL COURSEThe Creator MBA teaches you frameworks for turning your knowledge and expertise into a quality product that people will buy. Come learn to build a lean, focused, and profitable Internet business.→ Start watching here: learn.justinwelsh.me/creator-mbaEmail: support@justinwelsh.meX: @thejustinwelsh

Founder

Join 75k+ subscribers to the Saturday Solopreneur. Every Saturday morning, you'll get 1 actionable tip on audience and revenue growth for your online business.

Losers play zero-sum games.

Winners root for everyone around them.

If you don't believe me, look at the vast majority of successful people on this platform.

They aren't jerks.
They don't play games.
They don't hate on each other.

They simply try their best to lift up everyone around them.

Is it a perfect data point? 
Do haters sometimes win?

Of course.

But I'm not interested in the outliers.
I'm interested in what happens 90% of the time.

Lead from the front, be optimistic and supportive and lift someone up when you see them accomplish something worth celebrating.

Be a karma entrepreneur.

Because even if you're successful as a hater, it's far more lonely when you get there, and nobody's there to congratulate you.

If this resonated with you, consider joining 180,000+ entrepreneurs who read my newsletter each week.

It's all about rethinking money, time, and what it means to live well.

You'll also get my bonus 2026 LinkedIn Growth Guide for free instantly.

Come join us here: https://buff.ly/NOgUROV

Your brain is sick and tired of content.

It wants you to be creative.

Over the past 6.5 years, I've written:

- 3,559 LinkedIn posts
- 4,107 Tweets
- 789 Instagram posts
- 456 Threads
- 278 Substack notes
- 266 newsletter issues

And here's what I've learned:

1. The more you create, the happier you are:

On the days I'm sharing my creations, my mood is incredibly elevated. There's nothing better than learning something and sharing it with other people.

2. The more you consume, the more pessimistic you become:

Whenever I go down a rabbit hole on LinkedIn or X, I get bummed out. Culture wars, fighting, lack of empathy for our fellow humans. It's gross.

3. The longer you write, the better at your craft you become:

If you write every single day for a long time, you will eventually become a relatively decent writer. And there's no better way to communicate your thoughts.

4. The more you outsource creative work to AI, the dumber you become:

The more AI does your creative work, the more you forget how to be creative and original. You sound like everyone else. You blend in. You're not interesting.

TL;DR:

1. Create daily
2. Consume less
3. Write until you're good
4. Don't outsource creative

I teach 200,000+ creative entrepreneurs how to:

- Get attention
- Keep attention
- Monetize attention

I'll show you how when you join my weekly newsletter: https://buff.ly/iKAl3na

(→ You'll also get my free 2026 LinkedIn writing guide instantly.)

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the-saturday-solopreneur

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Maybe nobody in your family is an entrepreneur.

Nobody in mine is.

They didn't work for themselves.
Nobody built something from scratch.

My parents didn't bet their income on an idea they had in the shower.

From when I was a kid, the path was always laid out:

Get a degree, get a job, stay for 40 years, and retire.

That was the plan. 
And everyone I know from back home followed it.

So when you say "I want to build something on my own," sometimes you don't have anyone in your corner who understands.

They're not being mean or disinterested.

They just don't have a frame of reference for what you're describing.

I've found that to be a big advantage, actually.

The people who grew up around entrepreneurs usually inherited someone else's playbook.

They work through a set of assumptions about what a business should look like. 

How much funding to raise. 
How hard it's supposed to feel.
How many employees you need. 

Maybe you don't carry any of that baggage.

You get to start with a blank page. 

You don't have to live up to anyone else's expectations about how big your business should be, or how fast it should grow, or what success is supposed to look like.

The first person in any family to do something different has one thing nobody else has: 

The freedom to define their life and business from absolute scratch.

You just have to be willing to figure it out without a map.

I write about this path every Saturday for 180K+ entrepreneurs.

How to build a lean, simple, profitable business as a solo operator (especially when nobody around you has done it before).

If you want one email a week that feels like the mentor you're looking for,  join 180,000+ weekly readers here: https://buff.ly/t4J7aFD

As a free bonus, you'll also get my 2026 guide to LinkedIn growth (how I built 830,000+ followers) when you sign up.

See you inside.

Image credit: tiffani kilgore

Unhappy people ignore the basics.

They make life insanely complicated.

They sleep poorly.
They neglect their relationships.
They destroy their health while building.

The happiest people I know do four (boring) things really well:

1. Marry someone who compliments them.
2. Spend time working on their health.
3. Build a business they own.
4. Protect their time.

That's it.

Sure, there are lots of other things that are nice to get right, but if you nail these?

You're miles ahead of the average person.

The basics aren't sexy.
But they're the whole game.

If you're overcomplicating your life, maybe it's time to revisit the building blocks.

I write about this every Saturday for 180,000+ entrepreneurs. One short essay that helps you rethink money, time, and living well.

Join us here: https://buff.ly/j3X8mQw

I quit a job making $550,000 per year.

People thought that I was "very stupid."

Maybe I was.

But I'd rather be crazy than spend another decade wondering "what if I tried?"

Most people fail because they never try at all.

They talk themselves out of it before they start.

Too late.
Too risky.
Too uncertain.
Too competitive.

The excuses are endless. 
And they all sound reasonable.

But the people who win aren't the ones with the best ideas or the most talent.

They're the ones who actually do the thing.

Send the email. 
Launch the offer. 
Post the content. 
Ask for the sale.

While everyone else is waiting for permission or certainty, they just go a hundred miles an hour.

You can do whatever you want with your life.

But you have to actually believe that. 
And then you have to act like it.

I built a free 30-day course for people who are ready to stop waiting.

It's called The Expert OS.

It takes the thing you're good at and turns it into a real business. 

You'll get:

- All my templates
- All my launch emails
- All my sales page designs
- All of my AI prompts to speed you up
- Everything you need to make $1,000 in 30 days.

Start day 1→ https://buff.ly/1c87Alu

Pessimists are right.

Optimists are winners.

It sounds cheesy and cliché, but the fact is, you attract people like yourself.

So, if you're one of these people that complains about everything, and life is terrible and unfair, and everyone and everything is against you...

You're going to lose.
Misery is contagious.

Those people are downright awful.

You can get 1000x farther simply by being an upbeat, enthusiastic, wildly inspiring cheerleader.

Be excited.
Have confidence.
Support everyone around you.
Make connections that are helpful.

Whatever you lack in skills and knowledge can be at least partly made up for in your sheer attitude.

I just wrapped up with some of the coolest, most upbeat, most excited people down at Kajabi HQ in Newport Beach, and we put together a new, completely free course for folks who want to build their own business.

But you can't be some down-on-your luck sad sack if you're going to make it happen.

If you've got good energy, good vibes, and believe in yourself, come check it out. 

It's called The Expert OS.

Over 30 days, I'll walk you through what to sell, how to build it, and how to get paid.

You'll also get:

- My $12M sales page template
- My 10-email launch sequence that sells
- My AI prompts for when doubt is a little louder

It's free.

Have a business in 30 days with the right attitude.

Start here if you're ready → https://buff.ly/arpZ2Om

The richest people I know aren't multi-millionaires.

They're people with empty calendars.

They hardly have any meetings. 
They don't have Slack on their computer. 
Sunday night is just like Thursday night...

No dread.

They designed their businesses primarily for peace of mind.

Everyone else is on autopilot, doing the exact opposite.

More clients.
More projects.
More revenue.
More complexity.

And every time they add more, they get less of what actually matters in life.

I know because I did this for a long time. I took a startup from $0 to $70M and nearly destroyed myself in the process.

Not sleeping. 
Coping with alcohol. 
Paramedics at my house after a panic attack.

Nobody told me to live like that. I just kept saying yes to the next logical thing until I looked up and didn't recognize my own life.

So when I built my own business, I designed it around one question: What do I want my average weekday to look like?

Here's how I approached it (and how you can too):

1. Set your "enough" number. 

Not your dream number. 
The one where money stops being a daily worry. 
Build to that and don't go beyond it.

2. Work backwards from your ideal day. 

What time do you stop working? 
How many meetings do you have? 
When do you exercise, eat, read, hang with fam? 
If the model doesn't fit the life, change the model.

3. Subtract before you add. 

Every new project costs you your time. 
Before adding, ask "what does this take away from?" 
If it takes away something important, don't add it.

4. Automate earning money. 

Your sales page, your emails, your delivery. 
Everything should be automated. 
If you have to be "on" 24/7, it's not a business.

5. Protect empty time like it's revenue.

The white space on your calendar is yours.
It's where your best decisions happen. 
Fill it, and everything gets worse.

Save this post and revisit it often. 

It's the difference between building something that makes you money and building something that makes you absolutely miserable.

I write about this stuff every week in my newsletter for 180K+ entrepreneurs. 

What's working, what I stopped doing, and what I'm still figuring out.

As a free bonus, you'll instantly get my 2026 LinkedIn Growth Guide when you sign up. 

It's the playbook I used to go from 2,000 to 830,000 followers.

Get it all here: https://buff.ly/t4J7aFD

Living well comes down to 5 things.

Here's my personal take on it:

1. Help people: 
A life of service gives you purpose.

2. Get healthy: 
Nothing matters unless you're in good health.

3. Love your family: 
A close-knit circle warms life incredibly.

4. Build cool $h*t: 
The best vehicle that lets you achieve this.

5. Travel the world: 
Learn how others live so you can relate.

(and of course, for each person, there are other additions)

Things not on this list:

1. Working weekends.
2. Climbing the corporate ladder.
3. Chasing the most money possible.
4. Working to impress people you don't even like.

The crazy part is that most people spend 90% of their time on the second list.

Then they wonder why they feel empty when they "win" that game.

Here's what I've learned building my business:

The more I subtract, the more I can focus on the first list.

Fewer projects to manage.
Fewer obligations on my calendar.
Fewer things that pull me away from what matters.

You don't need more. 
You need less of the wrong stuff.

Protect the five. 
Ignore the rest.

👋 If that resonates, join 180,000+ weekly readers learning to make more money, reclaim their time, and live a life most people won't: https://buff.ly/t4J7aFD

Come join our tribe of people living differently.

Who cares about revenue?
Who cares about followers?
Who cares about press coverage?

None of that stuff will ultimately make you happy.

Here's what an awesome life looks like:

You wake up without an alarm.
You spend some time working out.
Your calendar has nothing you hate.
Your work fills you with incredible joy.
You spend quality time with your family.
You get to go outside and be in nature.
You get a little time to yourself, too.

What a life.

And guess what?

If you prioritize fulfillment over status, your dream life probably costs less than you think.

Every Saturday morning, 180,000+ people open my newsletter to learn more about building a life they love, supported by work they enjoy.

Why? 

Because it's the one email that makes them feel less crazy for wanting a smaller, slower, richer life.

You belong in there: https://buff.ly/t4J7aFD

The older I get, the more I realize how much work can screw up your health.

Especially if you're in a terrible environment.

- Awful boss
- High pressure
- Poor communication
- Unrealistic expectations

You'll grind all day, for years.

You'll work yourself to the brink of physical and mental exhaustion.

And then one day?

*Poof*

It all vanishes.

Why?

Because the board wanted to cut costs, or your productivity looked a little light on the spreadsheet that quarter, or maybe it's time to give bigger bonuses to execs.

Forget that. Don't ever let that be the position you're in.

That's why I always recommend you own something of your own. Even a little side hustle.

Something. Anything. You need some leverage.

If you've never built an audience or business online, I'll show you how to do it, for free, over the next 30 days.

You can sign up for The Expert OS (free) and you'll get:

- All of my templates
- All of my prompts
- All of my pages
- All of my emails

And one video per day that shows you how to get your first paying customers.

Start here: https://buff.ly/1c87Alu 

Take your life into your own hands.

A lot of the people who get promoted before you aren't necessarily better employees.

They're just a lot louder.

That's one of the truths about how the world works that most folks don't want to accept.

The best person doesn't always win.
The most visible person wins.

That's inside your company, in your industry, online, and basically everywhere.

You think these "top voices" are top at what they do?

Absolutely not. 
They are the loudest. 
And they get paid because of it.

So if you're sitting around thinking, "My work will speak for itself..."

It doesn't and never will. 

The people with the most attention, the best opportunities, landing all of the high-dollar clients are the loudest, not the most talented.

They put themselves out there unapologetically.

If you don't know how to do that, follow this simple framework and see what happens over the next 30-60 days:

1. Stop sharing what you know.

Instead, start talking about what you've solved.

Share a framework, talk about a client who had a problem that you fixed.

Toot your horn and tell the world! That stuff gets saved.

2. Comment on 5 posts a day from people in your industry. 

Don't write "Great!" Go out there and have conversations. Maybe challenge someone or provide a contrarian take. Get into it. Have fun. Use respect, but show your expertise.

3. Use the "before and after" format. 

Start with an incredibly messy scenario and how you cleaned it up. Take people behind-the-scenes and show them how a real expert gets the problem solved. Show the end result.

4. Say the thing everyone in your industry is thinking but nobody's posting. 

Most people are too afraid to go out there and actually say that thing. So, say it. Don't be afraid to ruffle a few feathers. For every person who gets irritated, 10 more will look at your profile and wonder how you can help.

Just remember that the person charging 5x more than you isn't doing better work, they're just 5x more visible, 5x louder, and 5x more confident.

You can learn to talk about what you do without becoming someone you hate or someone who constantly feels "salesy." 

If you're ready to stop being the best-kept secret in your industry, I built a free 30-day challenge called The Expert OS.

I'll walk you through packaging all of the stuff you know, getting loud, putting it in front of people, and getting paid for it.

You'll also get:

- My $12M sales page template
- My 10-email launch sequence that sells
- All of my AI prompts to speed up your build

It's free. 

Start now, and you'll have a business in 30 days.

Get it all here → https://buff.ly/arpZ2Om

P.S. Bookmark this post and revisit it each Monday for your plan of attack.

Quiet people don't win.

I hate that, but it's true.

Look around at who's getting all of the opportunities, the clients, and the attention on social media.

I guarantee you that most of the people with the biggest followings aren't the most talented people around.

They're the hand-raisers.
The people who post the thing.
The guys and gals who send the DMs.

The world doesn't reward you for having the best-kept secret.

And if you think your work will speak for itself? Think again.

Will someone notice if you just keep your head down? Probably not.

The facts are:

The people winning aren't smarter than you.
They're probably not more qualified.
They may not even have better ideas.

They just decided to speak up.

They got over the cringe of being public.

They stopped waiting for someone to hand them a mic.

They started acting like they belonged in the conversation.

And guess what?

It never stops feeling a little weird.
You just get used to it.

You realize that staying invisible is a choice with consequences.

So if you're sitting on some expertise, ideas, or a business you believe in, please stop hiding it.

The world isn't coming to find you.

You have to go find the world.

That's exactly what The Expert OS does for you.

It's a (free) 30-day challenge where you'll put yourself out there, build a small profitable offer based on your skills, and sell it.

In 30 days, you'll have your first paying customer.

It includes:

- My emails
- My templates
- My landing page
- My automations
- My AI prompts for ease

Start here: https://buff.ly/HdEvVii 

Your expertise deserves an audience. 

Go get one.

The smartest people on earth are finding time away from their job to build something small.

Something lean.
Something profitable.
Something they can earn with.

A micro-business or side hustle or whatever the heck you want to call it.

Because building something of your own is the truest way to become a better person.

There's power in building.
There is learning in building.
There's failure, adversity and success.

And in order to get ahead in this world, those are things you're going to need.

Yes, you might fail.
Yes, there will be days that suck.
And yes, someone will make fun of you.

Who cares?

Do you want to sit around for the next decade and wonder when the robots are coming for your job?

Or do you want to be proactive in taking control of your life, career and family?

I know what my decision is.

So go out there, get curious, learn about something incredibly useful and then come share it here on LinkedIn.

A few years later, you'll have the leverage you need to completely own your life.

-----

📌 Want to learn how to market yourself here on LinkedIn like I do?

Download my 2026 LinkedIn Growth Guide (free - how I grew to 830,000 followers) and join 200K+ in my newsletter: https://buff.ly/arpZ2Om

Habib Malass

I think you already know the best thing you can do for your business. You know how I know it?

Because it's as easy as picking what you're most afraid of.

Fear and discomfort are the one-two punch  predictors of "stuff I should be definitely doing." 

Things like:

- Sending that first piece of content out.
- DM'ing someone you greatly admire.
- Asking someone to buy your offer.
- Building in public.

You've been thinking about this stuff for months or weeks.

Maybe you're distracting yourself and stalling by reading, thinking, and talking all about it.

Maybe it's time to stop all that?

Because doing something makes it REAL.

And real means you might fall on your face and look a little silly.

But it's nearly impossible to do something great without looking like a fool for some period of time.

That's just part of the journey.

The longer you wait...the louder that fear's gonna get.

I've got a simple solution for you.

I will grab your hand (digitally) and walk you through the first 30 days of building an online business for free.

One step at a time, so the fear never gets to make the decision for you.

It's my new 30-day challenge called The Expert OS.

I'll show you how to choose a niche, craft an offer, set up a funnel, and get moving.

You'll get free stuff, like:

- My $12M sales page template
- My 10-email launch sequence that sells
- My instructions for building a lead magnet
- All of my AI prompts for when your brain is frazzled

It's free.

Have a business in 30 days.

Start here if you're ready → https://buff.ly/arpZ2Om

P.S. This week only, sign up and get a live session with the Kajabi team before your trial ends. 

Bring your questions, your half-built funnel, whatever — we'll work through it together so you actually launch.

Imagine being 100% free to take your kids to school on a Wednesday morning.

You're not in a rush.
No need to be on Slack by 9 a.m.
Not checking your phone in the parking lot.

You just walk them in, drive home, make some coffee, and start your day.

The majority of people can't do that.

They're dropping their kids off with one eye on the clock and one on their inbox.

And they miss all that little stuff in the morning because someone else demands their time.

There's a better way to build your life and business.

It's really, really hard. 
It takes a ton of prep.
It requires incredible curiosity.
You have to be willing to fail often.

It's building your own thing.

And the truth is, you probably have something people would pay you for.

A skill. 
Some knowledge.
You know you do. 

You've probably thought about it in the shower, on your commute, or at night when you can't get to sleep.

But by tomorrow morning, you'll convince yourself it was all BS and head into work deflated.

Maybe it's time to recapture your Wednesdays? 

If you're ready to start building something with your mornings instead of giving them away, I built a free 30-day challenge called The Expert OS. 

45 minutes a day.
Before work.
After work.
Doesn't matter.

I'll personally walk you through picking an offer, building it, and getting paid.

You'll get everything you need to succeed: 

- My framework for knowing what people will pay for.

- My plug and play $12M sales page you can steal.

- My 10-email sequence that sells while you're making coffee.

- My AI prompts for the mornings you've got 30 minutes (and no energy).

It's free.

You can literally start this morning.

And 30 days from now, you'll have something that makes money whether you're at your desk or not.

Start Day 1: https://buff.ly/arpZ2Om

There's nothing worse than holding onto a terrible job because you have to.

But a lot of people are in that situation exactly. It sucks.

I can remember being there back in the mid 2000s.

$35,000 in credit card debt, living paycheck to paycheck, trying to figure out how to find a better job that would pay me a little more.

Something I actually enjoyed.

Back then, there weren't that many additional options.

But today? There are more options, at low-to-no cost, than ever before.

- Selling an eBook
- Producing digital products
- Landing a few consulting clients
- Doing some coaching on the side
- A community of people with similar interests
- Productizing anything you know or are good at

The world is literally your oyster.

It's not easy at all.
It takes time.
It takes energy.
It takes effort.

But life (and work) is infinitely better when you have options.

If you don't know how to start, try building an audience first.

I'll show you exactly how inside my free 2026 LinkedIn Growth guide.

It'll break down:

- The one posting strategy for 10K+ growth
- Why networking is the winning strategy
- How to write for massive attention
- The #1 thing I did to hit 800K+

Get it free when you join 200,000+ in my newsletter here: https://buff.ly/iKAl3na

Everyone wants to start once the fear goes away.

Newsflash: It doesn't go away.

It doesn't once you've made your first sale, or your first post, or $10,000, or $100,000.

Fear just morphs into something else during the entire journey of entrepreneurship.

In the beginning?
You're scared no one will care.

Then?
No one will buy.

Once they buy?
They won't keep buying.

On and on and on it goes for the rest of the time.

You'll literally always be worried about something, whether you like it or not.

Here's why I'm telling you this:

If fear doesn't go away, then what the hell is the point of waiting?

Start the idea before it's finished, sey sell before the product is perfect, and ship before you're confident.

All that confidence you're sitting around waiting for will finally show up the moment you decide you're sick and tired of waiting, and you just DO something.

It's like going to the gym. 
Reps, everyone.

That's how stuff gets built. 
Not with some big plan.

With motion.

If you're tired of sitting around waiting to feel ready, I built a free 30-day challenge called The Expert OS that will get you up and building a business today.

And you'll get one short action item every morning to continue.

Inside, you'll also find everything you need:

- My process for profitable niches
- My $12M sales page template
- My 10-email launch sequence that sells
- All of my AI prompts for momentum, not motivation

It's completely free.

Start today, and you'll have a business in 30 days.

Join us here: https://buff.ly/arpZ2Om

P.S. This week only, sign up and get a live session with the Kajabi team before your trial ends. 

Bring your questions, your half-built funnel, whatever — we'll work through it together so you actually launch.

Build your life first.

Build your business second.

Most people mess up and do it in reverse.

Here's what that mistake looks like in reality:

- Not paying attention to your spouse
- Not prioritizing your health and wellness
- Not being fully present with your family
- Being too tired to enjoy the money you make
- Not being able to sleep because you're stressed

I've been there and done all of that stuff. It sucks.

The reverse is a helluva lot easier:

- Sacred coffee time
- Scheduled family walks
- Always present when it matters
- Getting great sleep and feeling refreshed
- Sacrificing a little money to live a real life

Is it easy? Hell no.
Does it take time? Of course.
Will you make less money? Maybe.

But who cares??

Do you really need to spend 40+ years just trying to survive so you can finally enjoy some semblance of a normal life once you retire?

I dunno. Never sat right with me.

If you want to build something that fits around the life you actually want, I built a free 30-day challenge called The Expert OS.

I'll walk you through building one simple offer that makes money without consuming your entire calendar.

You'll also get:

- My $12M sales page template
- My 10-email launch sequence that sells 
- All of my AI prompts so you can build in hours

It's free.

You'll have a simple micro-business in 30 days.

Start here if you're ready → https://buff.ly/arpZ2Om

Smart and miserable is a bad combo.

But it's everywhere.

You've got opinions on why everyone's wrong.
You can spot a bad strategy from a mile away.
You're the smart one who knows it all...

Meanwhile:

You're burned out.
You dread Mondays.
You haven't taken a real vacation in years.

If you're so sharp, why does your life look like this?

Being smart isn't the same as being effective.

Having the right answers means nothing if your results say otherwise.

I used to be exactly like this when I was younger.

Thought I was smarter than everyone else around me.

Meanwhile I was 40 lbs overweight.
Working 70 hour weeks.
No energy.
Exhausted.

Brilliant, right?

The shift came when I stopped trusting my opinions and started trusting the outcomes.

My life was the scoreboard.
And I was losing.

So I changed.
Built something small.
Something that worked for my life.

Now I work when I please.
No employees.
No meetings.
No deadlines.

All because I got honest with myself.

If your results don't match your confidence, something's off.

Maybe it's time to build something different.

Something small. 
Something you can manage.
Something that doesn't eat your soul.

I teach 180,000+ entrepreneurs how to build that kind of online business every week in my newsletter.

Join here: https://buff.ly/gqZIz2O

(and get my free 2026 LinkedIn growth guide as a gift)

Every big leap in your life starts mid-air, with no guarantee, hoping like hell the landing's there.

That's the key to understanding life and business.

Trusting. The. Process.

Nobody buying your thing?
Trust the process.

Friends starting to look at you funny?
Trust the process.

Awake at 1 am, stressed about entrepreneurship?
Trust the process.

Most people don't quit because it isn't working. 

They quit because they can't handle feeling like it isn't working.

That feeling IS the process. 

The doubt, the silence, the "what am I even doing?" 

That's not a sign you're failing.
That's just a random Tuesday.

Every single person making a living from their expertise has had hundreds of those Tuesdays.

You don't need more ideas.
You don't need more time.

You need a process you can follow on the days you don't believe in yourself.

That's why I built The Expert OS.

A free 30-day challenge that shows you exactly how to build your business and have paying customers in one month.

I'll personally walk you through picking an offer, building it, and getting paid.

You'll get my landing page templates, email sequences, funnels, and 100 social media templates that grow your following and get attention.

All free. No catch.

You said you'd trust the process.

Well...here it is.

Start now: https://buff.ly/arpZ2Om

Grow & Monetise Your Personal Brand on LinkedIn™ → Unlock Leads & Leverage 💸 | Founder & CEO @ Stealth AI Startup ✨

I looked fine on the outside.
Inside, I was falling apart.

In my early 20s, I was burnt out, addicted, and disconnected from myself.
One night, sitting alone in a bathtub, I was ready to end everything.

I had no one to talk to about what I was feeling.
So I learned to sit with myself.

And in that silence, something cut through the darkness.
Not a solution. Just a warm, golden inner voice that said:

“If you can end this story at any time…
why not see how high you can go?”

That question didn’t fix my life.
But it woke me up.

What followed was a decade of rebuilding.
My nervous system. My identity. My self-worth. My sense of purpose.

No shortcuts. No gurus.
Just learning how to live again from the inside out.

And eventually, it worked.

I built businesses. I reached goals I once thought would fix everything.
From the outside, it looked like success.

Inside, it still felt empty.

It wasn’t until I let go of the trauma that had been quietly running me,
and learned how to live from a calmer, clearer inner state,
that things finally shifted.

That’s when success stopped feeling hollow.
And purpose became clear.

That journey became Unbroken You.

And then it became Yui.

Yui is the guide I needed back then.
Now built as an emotionally intelligent AI companion.

Not motivation.
Not a therapy replacement.

A calm, honest presence that helps people reflect, regulate, and rebuild.
One habit. One thought. One day at a time.

What I focus on now:
• Trauma-aware personal growth
• Emotional intelligence in the AI age
• Building AI systems that support real human change

I’ve built this 100% solo because I believe the future belongs to individuals with clarity, leverage, and soul.

I’m here…

• To help people come back to themselves
• To return to who they were always meant to be
• And to become the highest version of themselves

I’m building this openly, so no one has to figure it out alone.

William Choi

Vibe coding is a lie.

I "vibe coded" an app for 6 months.
I thought it would take 6 days.

A weekend "why not" became my life.

Here's what no one tells you:

AI lets you build apps now.

No coding experience needed.
It looks amazing on the surface.

Then you look under the hood.

Pure chaos.

But you've seen what's possible.
So you're too committed to stop.

100% vibes. 0% understanding.

That's a recipe for disaster.

So here's everything I learnt:

→ AI gets you to 80% fast
→ Last 20% takes 10x more
→ That's where everyone quits

→ AI can create anything you ask for
→ But "can create" ≠ "should ship"
→ Anyone can throw paint at a canvas
→ Few can create something of value

→ You can't debug what you don't get
→ AI builds fast. You fix slow
→ I spent 3x longer fixing than building

→ Always use top models (Opus 4.6 imo)
→ Smarter = less errors & headaches
→ More expensive but you regain time

→ 45% of AI code has security flaws
→ That's not my opinion. That's data
→ Never leave API keys in the front end

→ No version control = no undo button
→ One mistake can erase weeks of work
→ I learnt this the hard way

→ The real skill is "vibe engineering"
→ Think like an architect, not a passenger

→ Building for yourself? Prototype away
→ Building for others? Raise the bar

→ Think security. Scalability. Cost.
→ Then let the AI do the heavy lifting
→ Bad thinking in = pretty garbage out

→ Starting an app is super easy
→ Finishing one is a different sport

What did I actually build?

An AI life companion with 5 tools:

Automatic mood tracking.
Journaling. Life insights.
To-dos. Real memory.

+

Real conversations.
Deep encryption.
100% privacy.

AI collapsed them into one app.

That's why it took 6 months not 6 days.

I wasn't building a copy-paste app.
I was building a new kind of ecosystem.

I asked Claude to estimate the build
without AI.

Its answer: 5 people. 12 months. $1.5M.

I did it solo. In 6. For almost nothing.
That's the power of AI done right.

Clear thinkers will own the future.

Not coders. Not non-coders.
The ones who direct AI precisely.

No one is teaching that yet.

P.S. Tried building something with AI?
How did it actually go?

Be honest 😅

Building Yui: AI life companion for mental health ✨️

A candid photo of a man working alone at a clean minimal desk late at night, lit only by the warm golden glow of a single monitor. Dark room, near-black background. The screen casts soft amber and gold light (#FFE55C, #D4AF37) across his face and hands on the keyboard. Warm cream tones on the desk surface. Shot from slightly behind and to the side, shallow depth of field, the monitor slightly out of focus. The mood is quiet, focused, determined — someone deep in building something that matters. No text, no logos. Natural lighting only from the screen. Shot on a Canon R5, 85mm f/1.4, editorial photography style, grain, moody, intimate.

I disappeared for 6 months.

No announcement. 
No "taking a break" post. 
No dramatic exit.

I just... stopped.

And I need to tell you why.

I spent a decade building.
12 businesses. 8-figure valuations. 
The money. The team. The applause.

And at the top?

I felt nothing.

I kept trying to prove my worth.

To others.
To parents.
To myself.

To the younger me who believed that money solved all problems in the world.
Because his trauma stemmed from a lack of it.

So the chase to the top is what drove me.

And on that journey I sacrificed friendships, moments, time.
All of which I can never get back.

Then the person I trusted most took everything overnight.
The company. The team. The assets. Gone.

I relapsed. Hard.

The vices I thought I'd outgrown rushed back like they never left.

But now? I had run out of places to run.

So I did the opposite. 

For the first time in my life...I stopped.

10 days. Silent meditation retreat. 
No phone. No speaking. 

Just me and the truth I'd been avoiding for 20 years.
And in that silence, something revealed itself.
Not a new version of me.

But...the original one.

Underneath the trauma. 
Underneath the proving. 
Underneath the performing.

For the first time in my life I wasn't chasing anything.

I was just... still.

And in that stillness I realised something that changed the direction of my life.

"I don't need to prove anything anymore. I never did.
And now I need to help others see what I almost didn't.

That they were never broken in the first place."

So I went silent. 
Not to find myself. 
I'd already done that.

I went silent to build.

I spent 6 months writing a 550-page book about everything I've learnt rebuilding my life from rock bottom. 90 truths across 10 pillars. Identity. Mind. Body. Relationships. Purpose. Enlightenment.  

All of it.

Then I spent another 6 months vibe engineering an AI companion called Yui from the ground up. Solo. No team. No funding. No coding background.

An emotionally intelligent & hyper-personal AI that listens, remembers, and helps you see yourself clearly every single day.

Because no one walked beside me on that journey.
And I don't want anyone else to walk it alone.

I don't know if any of this will work.
I don't know if the book will land.
I don't know if anyone will use the app.

But I know why I'm doing it.

And for the first time... that's enough.

So here I am.

Back on LinkedIn.
Back in public.
Back with something real.

If you're still here after 6 months of silence...

Thank you 💛

And if you're in the middle of your own rebuild right now...

Stay close. This is going to be a wild ride.

P.S. What's one thing you walked away from that everyone thought you were crazy for leaving? 

I'd love to hear below~

I spent my whole life trying to prove my worth.

Better grades.
Better body.
Better job.

Better everything.

And every time I hit the goal...

The voice came back.

"Now what?"
"Is this finally enough?"
"Do they love me, or what I do for them?"

So I kept climbing.

The hustle. The healing. The habit stacking.
The productivity apps. The self-help rabbit holes.

But nothing ever filled it.

Because here's what nobody told you:

You weren't born feeling unworthy.

That was taught.

By the school that ranked you as a number.
By the parent who only praised your wins.
By the world that said...

"Be useful, then you'll be loved."

And you believed it.

So you became the overachiever.
The caretaker. The fixer. The performer.

All to feel "enough."

But here's the harsh truth: 

"No amount of external validation...
Will ever fix internal self-rejection." 

Your worth isn't tied to your bank balance.
Your follower count.
Your job title.

You are not a role.
You are not a result.
You are not a resume.

You are the one who gets to decide what you're worth.

And the moment you stop outsourcing that decision?

Everything changes.

Not because you become more worthy.

But because you finally realise you already are ✨

Btw...

If this hit home, repost it so you have it with you 💛
Then read it again on the days you forget that...

I spent my whole life trying to prove my worth.



Better grades.

Better body.

Better job.



Better everything.



And every time I hit the goal...



The voice came back.



"Now what?"

"Is this finally enough?"

"Do they love me, or what I do for them?"



So I kept climbing.



The hustle. The healing. The habit stacking.

The productivity apps. The self-help rabbit holes.



But nothing ever filled it.



Because here's what nobody told you:



You weren't born feeling unworthy.



That was taught.



By the parent who only praised your wins.

By the school that ranked you like cattle.

By the world that said...



"Be useful, then you'll be loved."



And you believed it.



So you became the overachiever.

The caretaker. The fixer. The performer.



All to feel "enough."



But no amount of external validation...

Will ever fix internal self-rejection.



Your worth isn't tied to your bank balance.

Your follower count.

Your job title.



You're not a role.

You're not a res

A $12M company was stolen from me.

(Yes I got Zuckerberged...)

Last year I had a solo business at $50K/Mth.

I wanted to scale it so I looked for a partner.

This partner promised the world to me.
The team, the aligned vision, the passion.

So I gave them all my industry secrets.
That made me and my clients so successful.

That partner promised me and my clients 10X results. 
Fully automated with AI.

All I had to do was market it with my personal brand.

And I did.

10,000 waitlist, all old and new clients converted into this startup. Healthy MRR from the jump at 20x valuation as it was AI.

Then the reality hits.

AI is not there yet. Team is not at the level promised.

Partner keeps telling me...

"This is normal what did you expect". 
"I don't want to get VC money." 
"Have patience".

My clients all start to get cold feet. 
My clients all no longer trust my offer. 
My clients all stop wanting to continue.

All because my partner took them on and massively underdelivered.

Then, he took my IP and the team and vanished. 
Only to go to Dubai and raise VC money.

The irony. The pain. 
The $12M lesson learnt.

Sigh. 

This is why I'm back to being a solopreneur.

7/10 business partners I've had in my life have done this.
They've been an anchor, not a lifeboat or a rocketship.

People that see my success, want it, and take it from me. 
And I'm always left with an expensive lesson.

The only reason was I felt like I wasn't enough alone. 
Like I didn't have enough knowledge, skills, or scalability. 

And that self-limiting belief is what got me there.

Now?

I've realised I have it all.

The marketing. 
The product design. 
The customer understanding. 
The business acumen. 
The right vision.

And with AI? 

I never need to rely on a partner or a team again.

The timing could not have been better.

Because now I'm working on something I believe in.

Not for external success, but to truly help others.
Those who silently suffer under the heaviness of their own minds...

I now exist to serve you and only you.

(heyyui.app if you're one of them)

BTW... 

What's the craziest betrayal you've ever experienced? 

Free therapy & hugs in the comments below 🥺

Rock bottom → Sober → 8-figure empire → Ego death → Unbreakable peace. I wrote down exactly how. Now building the world’s most empathetic AI | Author of Unbroken You 📖 | Creator of Yui ✨

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Justin Welsh

William Choi

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