Stop white-knuckling it on your own

Hey there,

Back when I was running my first consulting firm, I felt weirdly connected.

My calendar was full. My inbox was chaos. My team, clients, and vendors were all pulling me in 12 directions.

I had people. But I didn’t have peers.

No one to tell me “that offer you just pitched sounds like a nap in PowerPoint form.”

No one to reality-check the genius idea I scribbled on a 1” square post-it and turned into a full-blown landing page by midnight.

Business building didn’t feel lonely — until it really, really did.

And you’d think I learned my lesson.

(Narrator: He did not.)

Doing it all alone — take two

Flash forward to when I was setting out to build Profit Ladder. New name, new vision, new color scheme.

I was explaining the mission to a friend of mine, Mona — a brilliant entrepreneur that I’d met while building my first consulting business. She has a sixth sense for sniffing out your blind spots and helping you reframe your thinking.

I told her what I was building and my plan to grow it.

She listened, nodded, and then asked, “Amazing, Jay. And so why are you going to white-knuckle it all over again on your own?”

I blinked. “What do you mean?”

She smirked, “Jayyyy, you’re about to go full hermit mode again! Find partners who will help you grow!”

And there it was. The pattern-interrupt I needed to hear.

See, the first time around, I had a team — but no real allies.

The second time, I had no team at all — and quickly realized my own active brain wasn’t the best place to beta test every idea.

Different setup, same outcome: Operating in a vacuum, where I was the strategist, salesperson, fulfillment team, board of directors, and echo chamber… all in one.

Why being “smart enough to figure it out” isn’t the flex you think it is

Here’s what I’ve learned (twice):

Loneliness isn’t just emotional — it’s operational.

You second-guess your ideas.

You launch offers and create content that’s fine… but lacks a real punch.

You spend more time circling your own thoughts than you do shipping work that actually moves the needle.

Here’s the fix I had to embody: Stop treating “going solo” as a badge of honor. Start building a circle of allies — not just for cross-promotion, but for real, practical sparring.

How to build real allies

What you’re looking for are smart people who help you think better — the ones who talk you off the ledge from rewriting your homepage for the 4th time (this week).

Likewise, folks who’ll help you get your offers in front of the right audience.

No $25,000 mastermind. No overly-formalized affiliate program.

Here’s how you’ll pull this together: