Built in Public

hi friends!! today I'm sitting down with Rachel Hague, co-host at School of Hard Knocks (yes, THE 23 million-follower media company) and this episode made me want to fire my own excuses.
I've spent actual years being too intimidated to walk up to people I found impressive. meanwhile, this woman casually walks up to actual billionaires on the street with a camera and just... asks. no plan, no permission, no invite. gets a yes anyway.
oh, and she also beat out 950 other women for her job. so my "I'm not qualified enough" is officially retired.
she came on to share exactly how she builds credibility out of thin air, the framework, the mindset, all of it. no "just be yourself" fluff, no vague advice. the real framework.
grab a coffee, this one's a lot ☕️
📘 Career Cheat Codes - IT’S OUT!!!
My new book Career Cheat Codes is now available to order. It’s a practical guide to building career leverage, growing your visibility, and turning your expertise into real opportunities.
Order yours → penguinrandomhouse.com/books/807588/career-cheat-codes-by-courtney-johnson/
02:53 Inside the street interviews: 100% unstaged, and here's how she handles getting rejected on camera
09:41 The neuroscientist quote that ruined "walking into a room" for me forever
20:12 "Authority hacking": steal credibility from anyone, legally
23:50 Credibility k*lls all bad attitudes
30:18 Why she'd rather own "a piece of the watermelon than the entire grape"
31:07 The job every company needs right now and doesn't know it yet
33:55 950 women applied for her role. here's how she got picked
44:11 The confidence quote that stuck with me long after we stopped recording
About Rachel
Rachell got her start filming funny videos with her little sister, who has disabilities, to encourage her through her health journey. That was the accidental beginning of her personal brand. From there, she built a following connecting female entrepreneurs, hosting 100+ in-person and virtual events across Austin and the U.S.
She's now a host at School of Hard Knocks, a 23-million-follower media company, where she runs a channel taking viewers behind the scenes of business owners' real day-to-day. Launched about 6 months ago with zero cross-promotion from the main channel, it's already crossed 100,000 followers. In her words: "I'm truly just being a student."
Connect with Rachel
💼 LinkedIn: Rachel Hague
👍 Instagram: @rachellhague
Stay connected with me
📧 Contact: courtney@smoothmedia.co
👍 Instagram: @builtinpublicpod
👍 Instagram: @courtlynnjohnson
💼 LinkedIn: Courtney Johnson
🎶 TikTok: @courtney..johnson

hey friends!! welcome back to another solo episode. it's been way too long and I have so much to say before my mat leave!!🤰🤍
okay so. I once paid a woman $100 to clean my house, then spent the entire hour standing outside texting her and watching through the window like a complete stalker.
five years later, I run a team of 20+, including a COO, a social media team, sales team, a video editor, and a roster of virtual assistants, and I barely manage any of them directly.
and guess what? I’m sharing the exact delegation system I used to get there. the real timeline, the real numbers, and every limiting belief that almost stopped me along the way, including the ones I was still fighting at 9.5 months pregnant when I recorded this.
this is 45 minutes of EVERYTHING I know about building a team, delegating without losing your mind, and getting out of your own way. and I made a free doc to go with it so you can implement it.
👉 FREE Delegation Guide: grab the exact SOP templates, agency links, and books I mention → docs.google.com/document/d/1VAZ8UI-L3Tx-2qkXIM4VxZk7bCQ_S9V6yd51h0klL5Q/edit?tab=t.0
👉 Ready to hire your first VA?? I personally use and trust NexusPoint. Book a free discovery call with their team here → go.nexuspt.io/courtneyjohnson
📘 Career Cheat Codes - IT’S OUT!!!
My new book Career Cheat Codes is now available to order. It’s a practical guide to building career leverage, growing your visibility, and turning your expertise into real opportunities.
Order yours → penguinrandomhouse.com/books/807588/career-cheat-codes-by-courtney-johnson/
03:53 The $100 house cleaner mistake that taught me how to actually let go
06:17 My first virtual assistant, and why I stopped paying $800 a month for one
16:16 The Beyoncé myth about time that nobody wants to admit is a lie
22:07 The $500 cheat code my friend used to poach the best VA candidates out of a course
28:28 Why "I'll delegate once I'm big" has it completely backwards
31:47 The "waste tax": what it actually costs to grow
45:57 What you're really paying for at $10, $20, $30, and $50 an hour
Stay connected with me
📧 Contact: courtney@smoothmedia.co
👍 Instagram: @builtinpublicpod
👍 Instagram: @courtlynnjohnson
💼 LinkedIn: Courtney Johnson
🎶 TikTok: @courtney..johnson

April Whitney was eating under 1,200 calories a day, training like an elite athlete, and still couldn't figure out why her body wasn't changing. Then she started working as a copywriter in pharmaceuticals, and the answer was right in front of her the whole time.
April is a former competitive fencer, pharmaceutical copywriter, and the founder of Petite PWR, a fitness and nutrition platform built exclusively for women 5'4" and under. 
In this episode we get into how she went from posting her body transformation on a secret Instagram account to building a business with 4,000 coaching clients, a team of 20, and a 150,000-person email list with a 48% open rate !!!!! 
Here’s something you probably didn’t know but it’s freaking important and probably relevant to you: April posted every single day for five years STRAIGHT without missing one day, including Christmas. 
She talks about why continuity and consistency are what build a brand, why getting views and building a brand are two completely different games, and the secret sauuuuce behind her best-performing YouTube videos. 
👉 PRESS PLAY. Your niche is about to feel a lot less scary.
📘 Career Cheat Codes - IT’S OUT!!!
My new book Career Cheat Codes is now available to order. It’s a practical guide to building career leverage, growing your visibility, and turning your expertise into real opportunities.
Order yours → penguinrandomhouse.com/books/807588/career-cheat-codes-by-courtney-johnson/
04:09 The secret Instagram account she started because she was too embarrassed to post
08:06 Why your customer knows what they want but not what they need
10:08 What AI did to the coaching industry
13:29 The funnel: from free content to 4,000 coaching clients
21:00 Why she gives 99% of her content away for free
35:41 Why continuity and consistency are the only content strategy that works
43:35 Five years of posting every single day without missing once
About April
April Victoria Whitney is a former competitive fencer who spent 18 years in the sport with dreams of making the Olympics. After retiring, she worked as a science copywriter in pharmaceuticals, where she worked on early GLP-1 research, before founding Petite PWR, a fitness and nutrition platform dedicated to women 5'4" and shorter. What started as a $65 ebook has grown into a coaching business with 4,000 clients, a team of 20, and a 150,000-person email list. April is not just building a brand, she is building a movement.
Connect with April
🎙️ Youtube: April Whitney
👍 Instagram: @aprilvwhitney
🎶 TikTok: @aprilvwhitney
Stay connected with me
📧 Contact: courtney@smoothmedia.co
👍 Instagram: @builtinpublicpod
👍 Instagram: @courtlynnjohnson
💼 LinkedIn: Courtney Johnson
🎶 TikTok: @courtney..johnson

Adama posted her first YouTube video to about five views, most of them people she already knew, while working full-time as a site reliability engineer. She never quit that job. She built a 180,000+ subscriber channel and she still hasn't left engineering.
And in this episode she gives away the exact system to build, and maintain, 2 full careers exactly like hers.
We get into how she built a personal brand as a full-time engineer without ever going all-in, why she started on the platform with the highest barrier to entry instead of the easiest one, and how she turned "I have 20 different passions" from a branding problem into an actual formula.
She shares the formula she uses with people who feel too scattered to niche down (skills times passion times energy, to the power of values), why she turned down a fitness video that was already pulling 100,000 to 200,000 views because it wasn't the brand she wanted to build, and the real reason her first in-person event sold out almost entirely from YouTube. 
Depth beats reach in ways most creators underestimate. 200,000 people on YouTube gets you a sold-out room. 200,000 on TikTok gets you nothing when you need people to show up in real life. Adama explains exactly why watch time built her opportunities in a way follower count never could.
Oh, and she names the one book that reframes every "disadvantage" you think you have as your actual unique positioning. It's a two-word title, and it might change how you describe yourself on your resume.
📘 Career Cheat Codes - IT’S OUT!!!
My new book Career Cheat Codes is now available to order. It’s a practical guide to building career leverage, growing your visibility, and turning your expertise into real opportunities.
Order yours → penguinrandomhouse.com/books/807588/career-cheat-codes-by-courtney-johnson/
3:59 The opportunities that came from building trust, not just an audience
7:56 Why FOMO, anger, or wanting to prove yourself are legitimate reasons to start
9:04 The "Renaissance" framing that gives you permission to take a season off
12:00 Why she wouldn't take brand deals that spent down her audience's trust
12:35 Why she stopped calling herself a "creator" and started calling herself a founder
16:26 "Crack Mode": the season she disappeared from her social life to write her book
23:00 The Formula: Skills x Passion x Energy, to the power of Values
25:40 Why she turned down 200,000 views on a video that was already working
About Adama
Adama is a site reliability engineer and content creator with 180,000+ YouTube subscribers, known for building a personal brand around self-improvement and multiple passions while working full-time as an engineer. 
Connect with Adama
🎙️ Youtube: Adama Lorna
👍 Instagram: @adamalorna
💼 LinkedIn: Adama Lorna
🎶 TikTok: @adamalorna
Stay connected with me
📧 Contact: courtney@smoothmedia.co
👍 Instagram: @builtinpublicpod
👍 Instagram: @courtlynnjohnson
💼 LinkedIn: Courtney Johnson
🎶 TikTok: @courtney..johnson

Tobias Allen was knocking on doors at 16 with no job, no connections, and no plan, and by 25 he was Director of Marketing at Acquisition.com working directly with Alex and Leila Hormozi.
And in this episode he gives away everything.
We get into how he went from door-to-door sales as a teenager to working with two of the fastest-growing personal brands on the planet, Hormozi and Simon Squibb. 
He shares the backdoor job application hack that gets you in front of decision makers, why being the best student in the room is the most underrated career cheat code, and the pizza box stunt that landed someone a job at a major company. Yes, really.
We also get into money. Brands are quietly paying creators between $15K and $50K a month for consistent content. 
HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS OF DOLLARS are moving out of traditional media and into the creator economy right now. And the creators who understand how to position themselves for that are going to win big. Tobias explains exactly how.
Oh, and I asked him what both Hormozi and Simon Squibb do that almost nobody else does. His answer is 2 words. And it's probably the thing you've been putting off.
📘 Career Cheat Codes - IT’S OUT!!!
My new book Career Cheat Codes is now available to order. It’s a practical guide to building career leverage, growing your visibility, and turning your expertise into real opportunities.
Order yours → penguinrandomhouse.com/books/807588/career-cheat-codes-by-courtney-johnson/
04:01 The MAN formula: how to find clients who already have a budget
07:22 The backdoor job application hack that gets you in front of decision makers
09:39 The pizza box stunt that landed a sales job
12:01 How much he invested in himself, and why it was worth it
16:39 What putting your life on hold actually looks like
19:11 The three-act storytelling framework behind Simon Squibb's brand
25:14 How to find your content format by looking internally
26:06 The outlier method, double down on what's already working
About Tobias
Tobias Allen is a growth strategist and content expert who served as Director of Marketing at Acquisition.com under Alex and Layla Hormozi and now works with Simon Squibb, one of the fastest-growing personal brands in the world. Starting with door-to-door sales at 16 and investing over $100K in his own education, Tobias built his expertise from the ground up and has since helped scale some of the biggest creator brands on the planet.
Connect with Tobias
💼 LinkedIn: Tobias Allen
Stay connected with me
📧 Contact: courtney@smoothmedia.co
👍 Instagram: @builtinpublicpod
👍 Instagram: @courtlynnjohnson
💼 LinkedIn: Courtney Johnson
🎶 TikTok: @courtney..johnson