Google Business posting is an activity signal to search engines and an interactive touchpoint for high intent local searchers. Master the mechanics of updates, offers, and events across both native profiles and tools like Bright Local to build a reliable content schedule. Consistent posting directly supports local search engine optimization, drives website traffic, and pushes map rankings higher.

Completing this lesson gives you the exact blueprint to systematically manage client media pipelines and schedule content effortlessly. You will unlock a smooth operational engine that converts casual profile viewers into active website visitors while signaling total relevance to Google.

In this lesson, you will learn:

• Distinguish the core differences between updates, offers, and events to deploy the right content type for maximum engagement.

• Build proactive media gathering workflows using shared Google Drive folders to keep clients from bottlenecking your assets.

• Leverage the Bright Local GBP Post Scheduler to queue up image posts and organize your content archive.

• Bypass tool limitations by scheduling high impact video posts directly within the native Google Business profile backend.

• Repurpose proven social content from platforms like Instagram to maintain posting consistency effortlessly.

• Send key activity signals to Google that boost local search engine optimization rankings and push traffic directly to client sites.

LFG. 🔥

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I’ve never had any sales training, I dress like a skateboarder, I’m covered in tattoos, and I hardly brush my hair.

Yet my biggest strength as an entrepreneur has always been my ability to generate business and close deals.

Today, I will teach you how to do it.

LFG. 🔥

Lesson 1: Work To Become The Authority In Your Space

People love to debate whether you should be a generalist or a specialist. I have taken part in that conversation many times, but let me simplify it for you.

There are pros and cons to both sides, but being a specialist gives you the gift of focus. When it comes to closing deals and building a reputation, nothing fast-tracks your brand like focus.

Your goal is to become the authority in your industry.

I realize this might sound trite, but nothing in business is more valuable than your reputation. I don’t have to grind constantly to generate business anymore because I have a network referring clients to me and an entire industry discussing my work.

I have been 100% focused on being the best lead generation expert in the behavioral health field since I was 24. I just turned 40.

Becoming an authority cost me thousands of unpaid hours. Every meeting taken, article written, free audit completed, and solid result delivered contributed to where I am today.

Most people look for a quick hack or a 12 step framework. The reality is that I built this business by focusing all my efforts on being the best in the world at one specific thing.

It paid off.

Lesson 2: Have Conversations With People

Now let’s get to the tactical side.

Most people start a business by building a website and posting on social media. They say they are doing “marketing” and assume that if they post enough on Instagram, people will hand them money.

That is not how it works.

My personal brand has brought me massive success, so I fully support posting content online. However, real trust, connection, and empathy rarely translate through a screen alone.

Worry less about likes and shares, and focus more on real conversations.

During the first 5 years of Stodzy, I spoke to anyone who would listen. I went to conferences, sent DMs, commented on Reddit and Quora, drove across Florida for face-to-face meetings, collected business cards, and grabbed endless coffees.

Understand the distinction: a social media impression just means you projected your ideas onto someone. A conversation is a genuine human interaction. It creates an emotional bond, which gives you a real place to start.

Building those early connections required real sacrifice. I gave never went out on weekends, I got dumped by every girlfriend who would date me, and I hardly had fun at all.

My life was about …

• eating healthy

• reading books

• working out

• staying sober

• working on my business

I knew I wanted to build a successful business, and so everything else was secondary. But it was worth it because I had so many conversations with people that I was able to get my name out there.

Keep in mind that I am naturally shy and awkward. I dealt with a speech impediment as a kid, and given the choice, I would rather sit in a corner with my coffee and people watch. But I forced myself to get out there, meet people, and build genuine relationships.

Real success is simply a byproduct of your relationships. You truly are the average of the people in your network.

Lesson 3: Collect Leads And Work Them

People will not hunt you down to hand you money.

Your success in sales depends on your ability to generate leads, track them in a CRM, provide genuine value, and close the deal.

The biggest mistake novice salespeople make is walking away after the first rejection.

Sales is a cumulative process dependent on your brand, your trust level, your touchpoints, and the value you bring to the market. Think of sales like a game where you collect contacts and stay active with them. The more shots you take, the higher your odds.

I use close.com as my CRM (no affiliation). I generate leads through my websites, referrals, and SEO, and I track every single one. I log detailed notes on our conversations and set clear tasks to follow up.

It is completely normal for a deal to take months or even years to move from first contact to a signed contract. Stay in the game. You cannot lose if you do not quit.

The best metaphor I ever heard on this concept is a Hormozi story about the 200 sided dye. I highly recommend you list to it.

Lesson 4: Write Great Proposals

One of my secret weapons has always been my proposal process.

Most agencies build flashy slide decks. I write my proposals in Google Docs after spending a few hours thoroughly analyzing the project, the required work, and the total cost.

My philosophy is simple: give away the entire strategy upfront.

I outline exactly what we plan to do and how we will execute it. There are no secrets or hidden frameworks. I lay out the full plan on paper and hand it to the client.

Some people think this is crazy because it gives away the secret sauce.

That perspective is outdated. Anyone can find information online for free. Clients pay for results, saved time, and the freedom to focus on their own business while you handle the heavy lifting.

I work in lead generation, so my proposals feature clear strategies, timelines, and projected outcomes. You may have a different business model than me, but you can adapt this approach to fit your model.

Whatever your structure, customize every proposal to the specific customer. Research their business, pinpoint their unique selling points, and present the scope as if they are your only client.

You will spend extra hours on proposals that do not close, but your conversion rate and overall revenue will soar over time.

Lesson 5: Ask For The Sale

You sourced a lead, worked it for weeks, delivered a custom proposal, and booked another Google meet in order to review the proposal and try to get the contract signed.

You sit through a 45 minute call. What comes next?

Ask for the sale. You have to close the deal.

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, DO NOT GET OFF THE MEETING UNTIL YOU HAVE ASKED FOR THE SALE!!!

I’m fascinated with those Ironman triathletes who go through the entire race and collapse from exhaustion right when they can see the finish line. The analogy is apt, as you spend weeks or month working your ass off to get to this point, just to collapse at the end.

Don’t do that.

Build the emotional fortitude to ask for the deal directly. You need to communicate that it is time for the customer to sign the contract and pay you.

If you get stuck, use this exact line: “Are you ready to get started?”

It is simple, direct, and easy to say. As you gain experience, you can practice advanced closing techniques and handle objections with ease. That confidence comes naturally when you know your industry, your proposal, and your business inside and out.

Do not spend weeks cultivating new business only to shrink back at the final moment. You owe it to yourself and the customer to close the deal.

In Conclusion: It’s Not That Complicated

Plenty of sales experts exist, but I am not one of them. I do not carry a cheat sheet of rebuttals. I simply know my industry better than anyone else.

Stop making sales harder than it needs to be. Do exceptional work, treat people right, keep providing your value, and the deals will follow.

I have proven this model repeatedly in my agency and through my personal brand. I know it works.

The hard part is showing up every day without immediate gratification. Master the discipline of working hard for an uncertain short-term outcome, and you will build a sustainable sales engine.

Love you guys. Talk to you next week.

Tim

I Invite You To Join The Academy: My Personal VIP Business Membership

To build a profitable online business, you don’t need a massive “personal brand” or to be the founder of a tech company. You simply need to solve a specific problem for a specific avatar. You need an cash flow first model.

By joining The Academy, I will hand you the exact, step-by-step blueprint I used to build multiple seven-figure businesses. No hacks. No fluff. Just real insights, community, accountability, and cash flow.

Why The “BORING BUSINESS” Model Is Bulletproof:

• No upfront capital needed: All you need is your first client and you are in business.

• Instantly profitable: Unlike software or media companies, services generate profit right away.

• Built for cash flow: It becomes a cash-generating machine that funds your long-term wealth.

• Work from anywhere: Run your entire empire from anywhere in the world with WiFi.

If you are ready to stop guessing, commit to a framework, and finally start building with clarity and support, then The Tim Stodz Academy is for you.

CLICK HERE TO JOIN THE ACADEMY

This lesson covers exact procedures for submitting, managing, and automating citation workflows using top tier industry tools. You will discover how maintaining flawless business data directly powers local rankings while creating recurring revenue for your agency.

Completing this training equips you to scale citation packages seamlessly and capture new market share. Understanding these strategies positions your agency ahead of competitors as AI search engines redefine digital visibility.

In this lesson, you will learn:

• Why exact NAP consistency across every directory is essential for local ranking power

• How to build a standardized master document to eliminate business profile errors

• The step by step process for leveraging Bright Local to automate citation submissions

• How to clean up bad or scraped directory listings that harm client authority

• How to turn monthly citation ordering into a high margin recurring agency service

• The distinction between technical domain authority and modern AI driven brand authority

LFG. 🔥

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This surprised me. I always thought I explained it well, especially since my goal in writing this newsletter and for the academy is to teach you this exact blueprint so you can replicate it and build your own enterprise.

In today’s article, I will give you a step by step breakdown of how to set up your business and monetization method.

This is how I did it. It worked for me, and it will work for you.

LFG. 🔥

Step 1: Start A Boring, Cash Flow Positive Business

People know me as “the boring business” guy.

Let’s make something clear. I have no problem with high tech startups or complex business models. I’ve invested in a few tech companies and have even cofounded a couple myself.

The reason why boring businesses are so great is because they generate immediate revenue. In this model, cash flow is king. Without it, you have no options.

For example, if you build a home cleaning business, you pull a profit from every single job you complete. It is not a highly scalable tech play, but it puts cash in your pocket right away. Let’s imagine that in time, you build 4 full time teams and you’re generating $15,000 a month in profit. This is a reasonable outcome.

This is real money hitting your bank account every single month.

Now imagine you start an AI tech company that writes LinkedIn cold outreach instead. You invest $60,000 to build the software. Between development costs and monthly overhead, it takes 4 years before you even break even. You’re goal is to sell it for $2,000,000 in 3 years.

Even though the potential upside for the tech company is higher down the road, it produces zero short term cash flow.

Both business models have pros and cons. However, for the business model I’ve developed and executed on, the cash flow is the most important aspect. You need cash. Cash is the lifeblood and the oxygen of your enterprise. Without it, the whole thing collapses.

This is why I love boring businesses. Because they generate cash which gives you options.

Step 2: Work On The Business, Not In The Business

Boring service businesses are elite for generating cash, but they are terrible for organic scale. To reach a point where your company generates real wealth, you MUST operationalize it so it can run without you.

15 years ago, I read a book called The E-Myth Revisited. It is one of the most popular business books of all time, and it completely flipped my perspective on entrepreneurship.

I grew up a blue collar kid, so my worldview was that you had to trade hours for dollars. If you wanted to make more money, you simply had to work more hours.

The E-Myth taught me the critical difference between baking pies and owning a bakery. That is the famous example in the book, and I highly recommend you read it.

For this article, just understand that a boring service business will only unlock massive profits if it is locked in tight with systems, processes, SOPs, and workflows.

“The process is the profits.”

Getting your business to run on autopilot takes relentless execution. You will need to master a mountain of operational skills. For example, you must learn how to:

• Hire and retain the right people

• Build a predictable sales system

• Market online to consistently get leads

• Run profitable paid ads

• Handle payroll and legal compliance

• Manage equipment and inventory

You must handle every backend detail required to run an enterprise, which is always more work than people think. But after a few years of dedicated, hard work and commitment to the end goal, the business will run itself. That is when you step back from daily operations and focus entirely on growth.

Step 3: Buy Assets And Build Your Personal Holdings Company

Once your business is operationalized, your next move is to deploy that cash into assets. But what actually qualifies as an asset?

When I was 17, I read Rich Dad Poor Dad. Out of all the business books I’ve ever read, this one created the biggest shift in my thinking.

In the book, the author argues that the rich buy assets while the poor buy liabilities.

He defines these terms differently than a traditional accountant or lawyer would.

To put it simply, an asset is anything that puts money into your bank account. A liability is anything that takes money out of it. (Literally burn this idea into your brain and never forget it.)

By that definition, your personal house is actually a liability. So is your car. These are not true investments because they drain your cash.

A house becomes an asset only if it actively generates revenue, like a rental property or an Airbnb.

That is it.

Rich people buy things that produce money. Middle class people buy debt and liabilities, meaning that even though they have a high income, they are actually broke. Poor people only generate income through a recurring paycheck.

Below is a visualization of how cash flow moves through these three different lifestyles.

After reading that book, I knew that if I was going to break the financial cycle my family was stuck in, I needed a simple two step strategy:

• Make money through services

• Immediately buy cash producing assets

It has been a 20 year journey, and it certainly did not happen overnight. But building that portfolio is all I have focused on.

Today, I have built an entire portfolio that I call my personal holdings company.

I don’t rely on bankers, I don’t have any investors, and I use my own cash flow to acquire assets. I only invest in things that pay me back.

I have no partners and I carry no debt. My personal holdings company is mine alone. I structured all my businesses as separate entities, and my holdings company owns the equity in those entities.

I still work every day on Stodzy Internet Marketing because my agency is the engine that generates my raw cash, but my actual wealth and passive income are generated purely through my asset portfolio.

That is the entire model.

In Conclusion

The beautiful thing about this business model is its simplicity. My entire enterprise rests on three repeatable steps:

• Build a service based, cash flow positive business

• Operationalize the business so you can work on it, not in it

• Use the profits to buy assets

The entire point of this model is to set yourself up so that your authority, your team, and your capital do all the heavy lifting for you.

When people ask how I manage so many moving parts, my first thought is always that it is actually not as complicated as it looks. The system does the hard work.

This is why I am in great shape, why I still train Muay Thai every week, and why I take my kids to the playground every single day. It is why I my wife and I can fly to Europe or Asia, or head back home to Philly to see my parents, or go camping with the family whenever I want.

This is why I have money automatically depositing into my bank account every month without me even looking at it.

I’m not a business guru or some kind of entrepreneurial genius. I’m a simple guy who developed a simple process and stuck with it.

It worked for me, it will work for you.

Love you guys. Talk to you next week.

Tim

I Invite You To Join The Academy: My Personal VIP Business Membership

To build a profitable online business, you don’t need a massive “personal brand” or to be the founder of a tech company. You simply need to solve a specific problem for a specific avatar. You need an Agency First model.

By joining The Academy, I will hand you the exact, step-by-step blueprint I used to build multiple seven-figure businesses. No hacks. No fluff. Just real insights, community, accountability, and cash flow.

Why The “Agency First” Model Is Bulletproof:

• No upfront capital needed: All you need is your first client and you are in business.

• Instantly profitable: Unlike software or media companies, services generate profit right away.

• Built for cash flow: It becomes a cash-generating machine that funds your long-term wealth.

• Work from anywhere: Run your entire empire from anywhere in the world with WiFi.

If you are ready to stop guessing, commit to a framework, and finally start building with clarity and support, then The Tim Stodz Academy is for you.

CLICK HERE TO JOIN THE ACADEMY

In this lesson, we introduce the core cadence of local optimization: the daily, weekly, and monthly routine required to continuously grow your clients’ Google Business Profiles. By mastering these four main operational criteria, you shift from a one time setup freelancer to a high value, indispensable growth partner.

Completing this training unlocks the exact blueprint needed to build predictable client results and position your agency for ultimate freedom. Once you establish this repeatable cadence, you will be fully prepared to hand off operations to a team, allowing you to focus purely on building your brand, closing deals, and scaling your revenue.

In this lesson, you will learn:

• The 4 Main Criteria for ongoing daily, weekly, and monthly profile growth.

• How to leverage website SEO strength and strategic service page linking as a powerful profile ranking signal.

• Proactive review acquisition strategies to ethically extract email lists and systematically generate high value, five star user content.

• How to treat your GBP like a hyper local social network by publishing keyword rich posts that rank directly in Google search and drive clicks.

• Building hyper local domain authority using BrightLocal’s citation builder and manual local directory spreadsheets.

• The fundamentals of Domain Authority (DA) and backlinks as critical trust signals for the algorithm.

LFG. 🔥

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If you’re serious about wanting to build a business, this is the easiest way to do it. There is no faster path to success than what we are talking about today.

Today, I will teach you how to be the best in the world at what you do.

LFG. 🔥

Why You Need To Be The Best In The World At What You Do

Because the winner takes all the spoils.

It’s not just a cliche, but rather a phenomenon found all around the universe. You know it as the 80/20 rule, the Pareto principle, and even the long tail phenomenon. In business, and in all of nature, a small few gobble up all the results.

For example, 20% of the stars in the universe have 80% of the mass. In the Amazon rainforest, 20% of the plant life takes 80% of the sunlight. In sports, 20% of the athletes take 80% of the payroll cap.

And in business, 20% of the companies get 80% of the results.

“The rewards for being first are huge. It’s not a linear scale. It’s not that if you’re twice as good, you get twice the benefit. If you’re number one, you get ten times or a hundred times the benefit of number ten.”

Seth Godin, The Dip.

The easiest example is Google.

It pays to be the best.

Why Does This Happen?

There are two main reasons for this phenomenon.

First is something called network effects. Network effects dictate that in a system, every node increases the network exponentially. So, the growth chart skyrockets. Once a company finds a slight advantage, that advantage becomes more and more powerful over time.

A good example of this is language. Let’s imagine there are 10 people lost on an island, and none of them speak the same language. The people will start to compete with each other to communicate. Now let’s imagine that for whatever reason, whether sales, persuasion, good looks, or even bribing, one of them is convinced to learn English alongside the English speaking person.

In that case, English has an exponential power advantage. It’s not long before everyone in the tribe learns English, because the people who know English have a huge advantage. This is a simplistic example, but it’s a clear illustration of how small advantages compound in power.

In business, your advantage could be excellent service, a software product you created to automate your processes, or even a blog you created that hogs attention. Whatever your advantage is, it will have a massive impact.

The second reason is convenience. Your brain makes up about 2% of your body’s total weight, but it burns about 20% of its calories. Look at that, another 80/20 rule. Evolution has optimized your brain to intentionally look for shortcuts. So, when making decisions, your brain is hardwired to pick the choice that seems like a sure thing.

Choosing number one eliminates the risk of a bad experience. Choosing number six requires you to spend time researching whether it is actually safe or effective, and most consumers would rather outsource that decision to the crowd.

Your brain, ironically, is a lazy organ. In any situation, it will opt for the path of least resistance. Just look around your house, your car, or even your pocket. You probably have an iPhone or an Android. Why? Do you even know what else is out there?

Of course you don’t. Why would you?

How To Be The Best In The World

Since our brains are wired to choose number one, you need a game plan to get there. In his book, Godin gives 4 strategies to become the best in the world. It’s a short book, so I suggest you go read it. I will summarize the strategies here.

1. Start small and dominate a space

This is why I always tell people to niche down. The idea of being a generalist is great for building a skillset, but if you want to build a business, you want to be the ultimate authority for a specific market.

You can be the best:

• local seo agency in your city

• YouTube channel that helps people and cuts their grass for free (3.4 million subscribers)

• newsletter all about graphic novels

• coffee shop in Edgewater

This is how I got wealthy. I became the best lead gen and SEO agency that focused on drug rehabs. There was no one better than me. Granted, over the last 15 years the space has gotten more competitive, but I’m the best.

And you can keep pivoting until you find an advantage, double down on it, and win.

Sober Nation was my advantage. I had a media brand with tens of thousands of monthly visits all about sobriety, rehab, and treatment. This advantage compounded and rocketed my agency.

I went as small as possible and I became the “go to” in the space.

Now, I’m working to be the best in the world at “helping people start boring and profitable businesses.”

You should do the same.

2. Quit the Cul de Sacs

Cul de sac is French for “dead end.”

Most of you live in a cul de sac. You’re moving, but you’re not going anywhere. You’re walking in circles. And although there is safety in the dead end, there is zero growth.

If you’re in a cul de sac, you must get out immediately. This means quitting. Quitting is for winners.

I’ve quit way more projects than I’ve succeeded with:

• yourboulder.com

• LSATClarity.com

• thecensus.io

• treatmentleads.net

• machinemethod.co

These were endless projects that started and never went anywhere. So I quit them.

Are you in a cul de sac?

3. Push through The Dip

The dip is the middle ground between the fun and adventure of being a beginner, and the comfort and security of being an expert.

“In a competitive world, adversity is your ally. The harder it gets, the better chance you have of insulating yourself from the competition. If you can handle the Dip, you win. If you’re not going to be number one, you might as well quit now... Because being average is for losers. It’s a waste of time, a waste of money, and a waste of opportunity.”

Everyone is excited about their business in the beginning, but hardly anyone pushes through the slog of The Dip. This is my superpower: I enjoy the boring slog of the journey. And this is why I outlast almost everyone who competes with me, because most people don’t have the patience or emotional fortitude to keep going.

4. Avoid being well rounded

Our school system, our job market, and our society at large teach us to be well rounded, to fit into the system, and to be a cog in the machine.

If you got a report card with all B+, your parents would be thrilled. They would be less thrilled if you got Ds and Cs in most classes, but got an A++ and were put into gifted classes for physics.

But the A++ physics student is actually much better positioned for success.

You gotta get in where you fit in.

Personally, I avoid anything that doesn’t meet my gift. I am gifted at writing, communication, sales, and building companies. I am probably the 4th most talented SEO expert in my own company. But no one can do what I can do. No one can sell, organize, and communicate like me.

I wish my teachers had allowed me to lean into English. I won awards for my writing and I excelled at writing papers. But my overall marks in school were terrible and I felt like a loser.

I got lucky because I discovered Copyblogger and decided to pursue my gift. I am much better off being excellent at my craft than being a well rounded PR employee at the latest media startup.

Ask yourself, what’s your gift? What do you love so much that you could do forever?

In Conclusion

Most people see The Dip and they get intimidated. The thought of pushing through the friction is where almost everyone quits. As we said before, our brains are always looking for shortcuts.

But The Dip is your unfair advantage. It’s the most straightforward path to success, because avoiding the challenge is a meandering back and forth exercise that has no endpoint.

This could be your moment. This could be when you claim your financial independence and freedom.

You could keep looking for an easy out, or you could take the real breakthrough that is right in front of you.

You could choose to push through The Dip and become the best in the world.

Up to you.

Love you guys,

Tim

I Invite You To Join The Academy: My Personal VIP Business Membership

To build a profitable online business, you don’t need a massive “personal brand” or to be the founder of a tech company. You simply need to solve a specific problem for a specific avatar. You need an Agency First model.

By joining The Academy, I will hand you the exact, step-by-step blueprint I used to build multiple seven-figure businesses. No hacks. No fluff. Just real insights, community, accountability, and cash flow.

Why The “Agency First” Model Is Bulletproof:

• No upfront capital needed: All you need is your first client and you are in business.

• Instantly profitable: Unlike software or media companies, services generate profit right away.

• Built for cash flow: It becomes a cash-generating machine that funds your long-term wealth.

• Work from anywhere: Run your entire empire from anywhere in the world with WiFi.

If you are ready to stop guessing, commit to a framework, and finally start building with clarity and support, then The Tim Stodz Academy is for you.

CLICK HERE TO JOIN THE ACADEMY

Google has aggressively changed the rules of the game by phasing out the manual product editor for retail businesses and pushing a mandatory shift toward Google Merchant Center. This shift means the old school playbooks are dead, and understanding how to navigate these updates is a non negotiable skill for any agency serious about staying ahead. If you want to dominate the local SEO landscape, you need to know exactly how to leverage this transition to your advantage.

By the end of this lesson, you will know how to successfully navigate Google’s algorithm shifts to maximize visibility for both service based and retail clients. You’ll unlock hidden opportunities in boring, high margin retail niches like tire shops and auto mechanics and transform their profiles into automated, lead generating machines.

In this lesson, you will learn:

• The massive ranking power behind listing individual service and product pages on a profile.

• How Google’s aggressive push toward Google Merchant Center alters your optimization strategy.

• The tactical workaround for showcasing service pages as products, even without a direct website button.

• How to inject high value content into product descriptions to trigger immediate SEO boosts.

• The step by step process to connect a client’s profile to the Merchant Center so products rank dynamically for hyper specific search queries.

• How to spot goldmines in boring retail sectors and scale your agency by managing automated product listings.

LFG. 🔥

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It feels really fucking good to have my company back.

Today, I’m going to tell you the entire story.

LFG. 🔥

How I Had My Mental And Emotional Breakdown

About two and a half years ago, I had a bit of a breakdown. At the time, my son was 3 and my daughter was still an infant. I was feeling an immense amount of pressure with Stodzy, managing my family, and dealing with my business partners.

On top of that, ghosts and traumas from my past were catching up to me. Outside of getting sober, it was the most difficult period of my life. You can only run from yourself for so long. Around this time, things started catching up with me.

I felt like I was going to explode.

One day, I was trying to eat breakfast and my son threw a little plastic spoon at me. It hit me right in the face and it made me so angry. I flung the spoon back at him and it hit him in the chest. It wasn’t a hard throw, it was just a little finger flick, but seeing the way he got scared of me absolutely broke my heart.

That exact moment was one of the lowest points of my life. My whole body filled with shame and guilt. It still haunts me.

I knew in my heart I wasn’t trying to hurt him. But I also knew that he was just a little boy and I’m a grown man. I’m the one responsible for my emotional stability, and in that moment, I had collapsed.

Right then, I made the decision to leave Stodzy. The original plan was for me to buy my partners out, but they wanted to buy me out instead.

I agreed, and we parted ways.

What Happened Next

Well, I was lost. I meandered around, trying to figure out who I was and the kind of person I wanted to be moving forward.

Confronting myself in the way I needed to was very hard, but in a weird way, it was also very liberating.

The last two years have been an incredible experience because I got to experiment with my life and rediscover who I am. I learned what I like, what I don’t like, and everything in between.

Speaking from a strictly professional standpoint, here’s the quick timeline of what went down:

• Machine Method: I thought building a product attached to my personal brand would give me purpose. It was a good experience and made about $180k in a few months, but I learned that I hate running membership sites and B2C. Ultimately, I rolled Machine Method into Copyblogger Academy.

• Quantum Leads: I wanted to try building an agency completely outside of the healthcare space. We scaled to $1M plus in about 9 months, which was a massive success. But it also taught me just how valuable it is to have an established team, deep networks, and built in SOPs. Starting from zero was way harder than I remembered.

• Partnering with Chase: Chase is probably the smartest person I’ve ever met. We created The Shop AI and Directorly. One of the best things to come out of this entire period is my friendship with him. He’s so cool and I love the fact that we can meet in person and hang out.

• Venture BHM: Through a serendipitous series of events, I met the team building Venture and came on board to manage their digital marketing and help scale the company. I’ve done these types of partnership deals twice before and had made some mistakes. This time, I’m bringing a career’s worth of lessons to the table to do something incredible.

I won’t lie, this whole phase has been deeply uncomfortable. When I got sober years ago, I think I made an unconscious decision to always be in control. Because I spent so much of my youth living in chaos and destruction, I built an adult world where everything was predictable. It kept me safe, it kept me from hurting people, and it kept me out of jail.

But looking back, I can see that control was often just a mechanism to cope with fear. Waking up every day for two years not knowing what was going to happen was stressful as hell. But it forced me to grow, and I’m grateful for it.

The Breathwork Session That Changed Everything

As some of you know, my wife is a breathwork instructor, and she has been absolutely selling out events here in Denver. About two months ago, I attended one of her sessions, and it sparked a massive shift in me.

During the session, a single phrase started looping in my head over and over again like a mantra:

“It’s my fucking company.”

“It’s my fucking company.”

“It’s my fucking company.”

Breathwork is so powerful, and my wife’s events have always given me the downloads that I needed. The fact that this download was so powerful, I knew I had to take it seriously.

In that moment, I realized I had been lying to myself. I had spent two years telling myself “it’s not a big deal,” or “it’s just a business,” or “who cares if it still has your name on it?”

Building a business is deeply emotional. I spent 12 years building Stodzy, the team, the brand, the reputation, and a life centered around serving our clients. Then, one day, I just walked away from it.

When I finally got honest with myself, I realized how much I missed Stodzy. I missed being Stodzy! That’s me. It’s literally my name.

After that session, I put my intentions out into the ether. I decided I was getting my company back. Then, everything moved fast.

How It All Went Down

Truthfully, it was incredibly seamless.

I hadn’t spoken to my old partners at all during the hiatus, but when I reached out, we picked up right where we left off. It felt like the universe was conspiring behind the scenes, because they had also been feeling a misalignment with the company while I was gone.

I made an offer. They accepted. Within a week, we had an agreement. I’m not sure if our relationships will ever be exactly what they used to be, but it was great to connect with them again.

There’s a natural ebb and flow to life; we all needed a break from each other, and everyone is walking their own path now. That makes me happy.

Moving Forward: The Future of Stodzy

First of all, it feels amazing to have my team back. Rebuilding systems from scratch at Quantum made me realize just how elite the Stodzy framework is.

Structurally, Stodzy is absorbing Quantum Leads. Quantum will act as the parent brand housing Stodzy, The Shop, and Digital Commerce (mostly because my entire life is tied to my quantumleads.com email and I’m not changing it now).

The company has the perfect leadership, the best talent, an undeniable brand, and incredible marketing. It feels like a closed circle. Everything is back exactly where it belongs.

I didn’t expect this process to be so emotional. When the deal was closing, it just felt like moving puzzle pieces back into place. But now that it’s official, and I am “Stodzy” again.

My operations are locked down, I have a 10 out of 10 CEO running the show, I have the team I spent years training back by my side, and most importantly... I have my name back.

Stodzy belongs to me. No one else. It’s mine.

Fuck yeah.

Love you guys. Talk to you tomorrow.

Tim

I Invite You To Join The Academy: My Personal VIP Business Membership

To build a profitable online business, you don’t need a massive “personal brand” or to be the founder of a tech company. You simply need to solve a specific problem for a specific avatar. You need an Agency First model.

By joining The Academy, I will hand you the exact, step-by-step blueprint I used to build multiple seven-figure businesses. No hacks. No fluff. Just real insights, community, accountability, and cash flow.

Why The “Agency First” Model Is Bulletproof:

• No upfront capital needed: All you need is your first client and you are in business.

• Instantly profitable: Unlike software or media companies, services generate profit right away.

• Built for cash flow: It becomes a cash-generating machine that funds your long-term wealth.

• Work from anywhere: Run your entire empire from anywhere in the world with WiFi.

If you are ready to stop guessing, commit to a framework, and finally start building with clarity and support, then The Tim Stodz Academy is for you.

CLICK HERE TO JOIN THE ACADEMY

Bright Local is the industry-essential tool required to handle advanced local optimizations and get your client ranking at the top of search results. For an agency starting out, this is the one non-negotiable software investment you cannot shortcut.

This lesson covers how to set up your master analytical dashboard and unlock a bird’s-eye view of your local performance. By configuring these basics correctly, you will identify hidden local weaknesses and expose massive opportunities to upsell your clients.

In this lesson, you will learn:

• How to leverage Local Falcon as a seamless alternative if Bright Local is unavailable in your country.

• Why securing owner-level access instead of manager access is absolutely vital when connecting your client’s profile.

• How to automate core reports to effortlessly track ranking fluctuations, live citations, and multi-source reviews.

• How to configure a local search grid to visualize exactly how your client’s keyword rankings shift across different sectors of the city.

• How to run a local search audit to instantly evaluate a profile’s links, authority, and on-site health.

• How to create premium upsell packages using citation and directory data to expand your client’s reach and boost your agency’s revenue.

LFG. 🔥

Read more

I’ve been sitting at my desk for 30 minutes, thinking of what I should write this morning.

As I wrote that first sentence, the idea came into my head.

Today, we will talk about why the work comes before the inspiration.

LFG. 🔥

The Action Comes Before The Outcome

I spent the last 30 minutes reading articles, scrolling Twitter, and looking at press releases, trying to find something that inspired me.

Nothing worked, so I simply opened a blank page and started putting words on paper. Suddenly, the idea came to me.

This is how it always works. If you want to know what you should do, you need to start working.

If you’re stuck in life, the answer is almost always to take action. You simply need to start doing things. Whatever the final result becomes won’t be anything close to what you originally conceptualized, so stop trying to predict it.

Newton’s First Law Of Productivity

When you are planning, creating your vision board, or watching YouTube videos of people who inspire you, you are still an “object at rest.”

As you know, objects at rest stay at rest, while objects in motion stay in motion. Once you generate momentum, the work suddenly lays itself out in front of you.

This concept applies to your day to day when you’re feeling stuck, and also to the big picture when you feel like your vision is too far out of reach.

To beat the paralysis, you have to solve for both scales.

Solving the micro

Some mornings, I just don’t feel like working. For whatever reason, getting going feels difficult.

To solve the micro, I focus on small actions to force my body into motion:

• Complete a small task, like paying a bill

• Go for a walk (this is my go to)

• Work out

• Jump in the cold plunge

I have this feeling at least once a day. I can always recognize it because I start “clicking around”, which is when I know my brain is stuck in a pattern.

So I take action to break the pattern.

Solving the macro

It’s a totally different ballgame when you are embarking on a big project like starting a business.

The obstacle here isn’t morning fatigue. It is the fear of making mistakes.

The trick to macro momentum is accepting inefficiency. Most people go into projects thinking they need to do everything correctly in order to succeed. It’s actually the exact opposite. If you’re ready to go after your dreams, you need to realize that you will do almost everything wrong at first.

Nothing works perfectly on the first try. Most of your experiments will fail, and along the way you will realize that your original plan wasn’t even a good plan. But the only way to find the good plan is by process of elimination.

Successful people have a massive action bias. They don’t think too hard about whether something will work or whether they will fail. They just do things, and they accept that failure is simply a data point.

Ironically, the ones who experience the most failure are the ones on the fastest route to success.

Get Out Of Your Head And Start Doing Things

This willingness to fail is the only real cure for that voice telling you that you are a fraud.

In fact, stop even using the phrase “imposter syndrome.” It’s a stupid idea because anyone who is learning to do something they don’t know how to do yet is technically an imposter. Action is the only thing that turns an amateur into a professional.

Yes, write a plan and have a basic guideline. Write your ultimate outcome statement and stick to it. But stop obsessing over the outcome.

Whether you are staring at a blank page at 5:41 AM or trying to launch a massive company, the rule of physics remains unchanged. You cannot steer a parked car. Nudge the car by doing the next right thing, trust the process, and let momentum do the heavy lifting.

It will work. Your future self will thank you.

Love you guys. Talk to you tomorrow.

Tim

I Invite You To Join The Academy: My Personal VIP Business Membership

To build a profitable online business, you don’t need a massive “personal brand” or to be the founder of a tech company. You simply need to solve a specific problem for a specific avatar. You need an Agency First model.

By joining The Academy, I will hand you the exact, step-by-step blueprint I used to build multiple seven-figure businesses. No hacks. No fluff. Just real insights, community, accountability, and cash flow.

Why The “Agency First” Model Is Bulletproof:

• No upfront capital needed: All you need is your first client and you are in business.

• Instantly profitable: Unlike software or media companies, services generate profit right away.

• Built for cash flow: It becomes a cash-generating machine that funds your long-term wealth.

• Work from anywhere: Run your entire empire from anywhere in the world with WiFi.

If you are ready to stop guessing, commit to a framework, and finally start building with clarity and support, then The Tim Stodz Academy is for you.

CLICK HERE TO JOIN THE ACADEMY

Now that I am back to writing every morning, I am getting an influx of replies to my newsletter. A lot of people are asking how to get started with building their personal brands and creating a business for themselves.

Today, I will give you the playbook.

This is what has worked for me, and hopefully it will work for you.

LFG. 🔥

1. Be Yourself

When people create content online, they almost automatically start imitating others. Mostly one of the Hormozis. lol

Look, when you are just starting out, do whatever you need to do to hit publish. If you need to get inspiration from someone you look up to, do that. Everyone knows I have been heavily influenced by Seth Godin, Brian Clark, and Fred Wilson.

However, understand that no one will follow or engage with you if you are just another version of what they have already seen. You need to be unique. You need to be a purple cow.

As soon as I decided to go all in on myself, my platform took off. There is no one out there like me. There is no one who will:

• Be so open about sobriety and my past troubles with the law

• Give such raw, behind the scenes access

• Share real world experience instead of just handing out generic advice

• Talk about cash flowing, boring businesses while focusing on the only metric that matters, which is money in your bank account

I am the only TimStodz out there. I am not a replica of someone else.

Once you find your unique voice, the world will open up to you.

2. Volume Wins

I will say this until I am blue in the face.

No one has any idea what kind of content will do well. You do not know if your post will go viral or if it will flop. You cannot predict the outcome ahead of time, and anyone who says they can is lying.

So your best bet is simply to share as much content as you can (once a day is my sweet spot) and let the results take care of themselves.

Trying to hijack virality is a terrible strategy.

3. Be About Something, And Be Against Something Else

Every personal brand is an advocacy group. If you do not stand for something, you are just a wet towel.

I stand for:

• Using content to generate sales, not empty likes, shares, and follows

• Closing deals, because everything else is just a means to that end

• Being of service to your audience

• High probability outcomes

• Building agencies and using cash flow to invest in your personal holding company

• Staying fit and healthy because being rich and out of shape sounds awful

• Building systems and hiring a great team so that you make more while doing less

Subsequently, you need to be anti something else.

For example, I am anti:

• Toxic hustle culture

• Borrowing money when you could bootstrap, make just as much, and eliminate half the stress

• Being a creator because creators are usually broke, while entrepreneurs are wealthy

• Spending money on dumb shit when you could invest that cash and easily become a multimillionaire

You do not need to write a manifesto, and you do not need to stir up manufactured controversy. In fact, almost all the people online who drive engagement through sensationalism go broke and end up anxious and stressed out.

I do not want that for you. I simply want you to have a message that resonates deeply with a specific group of people who you are excited to serve.

4. Don’t Monetize Your Personal Brand Directly

I just wrote about this the other day, but it is worth repeating.

People are nuanced. As an individual, you are complicated, complex, and limitless. When people follow your journey, what they want to see is you. They want to know your life, your insights, your struggles, your successes, and what makes you 1 of 1.

So do not pigeonhole your reputation into a single business or a specific product outcome.

Share your journey transparently, and then leverage that attention to build an actual business separate from your name. Your reputation should not be the product itself. Doing that will put huge limitations on your future scalability.

Use your voice to spread awareness and build your community. If you do it right, your following will become your biggest advocates, which leads to massive monetary gains in the long run.

No one has done this better than Casey Neistat. He sold a relatively unsuccessful tech product for 20+ million dollars simply because he shared his journey along the way. (Crazy this was 10 years ago. Man time flies …)

5. The Whole Point Is To Build An Email List

You already know this, but let me explain the mechanics of why it matters.

I have seen a lot of people build massive audiences on social media platforms like Instagram, YouTube, or LinkedIn. When you rely solely on those networks, your only real way to generate income is through sponsored brand deals.

Companies pay you to promote them on your channel or create a post about their business.

But if you funnel that traffic to an email list, you own the audience and you control the medium. This way, you will never get crushed by an inevitable algorithm change, and you can generate way more revenue by selling your own products and services directly.

Plus, you can still do the brand deals on top of that if you want.

I have 22,000 email subscribers. I generate about 15 new subscribers a day.

That is still a relatively small list by comparison, but I generate 10 times more revenue than accounts with massive social followings because I own the destination. I have used my email list to close investments, buy companies, and generate leads for high ticket sales.

Soon, I will tell you the story about the latest deal I just closed, which is an absolute game changer and a direct result of this exact newsletter.

In Conclusion: Don’t Overthink It

The gurus on the internet overcomplicate this process by design. They want you to think that if you buy some kind of secret framework, system, or hack, you will find a fast track to success.

I am not here to knock anyone’s ideas. I am simply saying that for me, trusting the process and doing my own thing has been way more fruitful than trying to follow someone else’s blueprint.

In business, you want to have strict rules, SOPs, and processes. But in personal branding, you want to be free flowing, consistent, and open.

Simply commit to the process, ignore the short term results, and keep doing it forever.

That is the actual hack that no one wants to hear.

Love you guys. Talk to you tomorrow.

Tim

I Invite You To Join The Academy: My Personal VIP Business Membership

To build a profitable online business, you don’t need a massive “personal brand” or to be the founder of a tech company. You simply need to solve a specific problem for a specific avatar. You need an Agency First model.

By joining The Academy, I will hand you the exact, step-by-step blueprint I used to build multiple seven-figure businesses. No hacks. No fluff. Just real insights, community, accountability, and cash flow.

Why The “Agency First” Model Is Bulletproof:

• No upfront capital needed: All you need is your first client and you are in business.

• Instantly profitable: Unlike software or media companies, services generate profit right away.

• Built for cash flow: It becomes a cash-generating machine that funds your long-term wealth.

• Work from anywhere: Run your entire empire from anywhere in the world with WiFi.

If you are ready to stop guessing, commit to a framework, and finally start building with clarity and support, then The Tim Stodz Academy is for you.

CLICK HERE TO JOIN THE ACADEMY

Google Business Profile optimization is a highly valuable skill that is in massive demand right now.

This lesson covers the exact best practices you need to outrank competitors, even those with hundreds of reviews, simply by setting up the basics correctly.

In this lesson, you will learn:

• How to safely include keywords in your business name and description to show up number one in local search results.

• Why photos are the most important factor for turning searchers into paying customers, and how to use them to drive emotional decisions.

• How to choose primary and secondary business categories so Google fully understands what your client offers.

• Why setting business hours to 24 hours can win your clients more deals, along with how to handle the incoming calls.

• How to keep your business name, address, and phone number (NAP) perfectly consistent across your website footer and online directories to build trust with Google’s algorithm.

LFG. 🔥

Read more

This will make or break your success.

LFG. 🔥

Naval Ravikant Was Wrong

I’ve been heavily influenced by How to Get Rich, a podcast series by Naval Ravikant and Babak Nivi. I still listen to it once in a while to remind myself of the lessons.

One of the most impactful episodes was about leverage and its importance. Naval argues there are four kinds of leverage:

• Media

• Code

• Capital

• People

Naval claims that labor, or people, is the worst kind of leverage. This is where he gets it wrong.

Understanding Leverage

To see why he is wrong, we first need to look at the other three forms of leverage for context.

Code: Naval argues that code is the most powerful form of leverage. It is a hard point to argue. We use software, AI agents, and programs to do work for us. The leverage code applies is almost infinite, limited only by electricity and data costs.

Media: A thousand years ago, if you wanted to spread your message, you had to stand on a soapbox and yell. In 1440, the printing press enabled you to spread your message through print. Now, I can create a LinkedIn post or publish a newsletter and reach hundreds of thousands of people a day. Media is powerful.

Capital: Money is the easiest form of leverage to conceptualize. If you invest $100 into a company, you can apply code, media, and people to grow that $100 into $200. Capital moves mountains.

People / Labor: Getting people to work for you has the lowest return on a ratio of resources spent to resources gained. People require rest, encouragement, and a sense of purpose. People are emotional, which brings a degree of natural inefficiency to an operation.

Looking at it strictly through this economic lens, it is easy to see why Naval argues that labor is the worst form of leverage. Why bother hiring an employee when you could just make YouTube videos and use an army of AI agents to do the work for you?

Here is why.

You Can’t Be Great Without The Greatness Of Others

Shoutout to Coach Nick.

It sounds nice to be a lone wolf, to avoid dealing with anyone, to be a solopreneur, or to exist in a world where media, money, and robots do all the heavy lifting.

But business never actually works out that way. No matter how smart you are, there are massive gaps in your skill, insight, and perspective.

If you want to build something great, the most important decisions you make will always be who you bring onto your team and who you choose to work with.

The AI revolution has actually made this concept even more true. If code is now a cheap commodity, then the ultimate differentiating factors become your network, your soft skills, your ability to build a team, and your reputation in the industry.

Who wants to work alone with AI robots anyway?

My Team Is A Joy

When I look back at my career, the moments that make me smile are never the abstract milestones.

Sure, I can celebrate a big contract signing or the day I bought Copyblogger. But in the end, what I actually remember are the laughs I have shared with Charles and the memories I built with Bryan and Tricia.

It is the feeling I get when Ermy tells me how much I have helped her family, or when Vinness sends me pictures of her son at graduation and tells me that working for me was the best thing that happened to her.

People fill the pragmatic gaps in your organization because you cannot scale alone, especially if you want to build wealth without working 80 hours a week.

But even if you could do it alone, would you really want to?

You are going to die one day, sooner than you realize. So why not surround yourself with people you love and enjoy?

In the end, that is the only thing you will remember.

Love you guys. Have a great weekend.

Tim

P.S. - Lesson 3 on the 7 Figure Google Business Agency course gets published on Monday.

I Invite You To Join The Academy: My Personal VIP Business Membership

To build a profitable online business, you don’t need a massive “personal brand” or to be the founder of a tech company. You simply need to solve a specific problem for a specific avatar. You need an Agency First model.

By joining The Academy, I will hand you the exact, step-by-step blueprint I used to build multiple seven-figure businesses. No hacks. No fluff. Just real insights, community, accountability, and cash flow.

Why The “Agency First” Model Is Bulletproof:

• No upfront capital needed: All you need is your first client and you are in business.

• Instantly profitable: Unlike software or media companies, services generate profit right away.

• Built for cash flow: It becomes a cash-generating machine that funds your long-term wealth.

• Work from anywhere: Run your entire empire from anywhere in the world with WiFi.

If you are ready to stop guessing, commit to a framework, and finally start building with clarity and support, then The Tim Stodz Academy is for you.

CLICK HERE TO JOIN THE ACADEMY

This is a stark contrast from a few years ago, when one of the main selling points of good schools was that “every kid gets an iPad.”

I thought about this a lot last night, and I realized that real life is now a higher income luxury, while screen time has become a lower income crutch.

Today, we will talk about the second order effects of this digital divide, while also diving into some business opportunities to take advantage of.

LFG. 🔥

Understanding The Inverse Premium: Screens Are Now The Inferior Good

In economics, an inferior good is something people consume more of as they have less money (like fast food or public transit). Today, digital screen time has officially become an inferior good, while human interaction is the luxury alternative.

As Common Sense Media recently highlighted in a study on this digital divide, screens are appearing more in the lives of the poor and disappearing from the lives of the rich.

The richer you are, the more money you spend to be off screen. Rich people are now buying screen free time, or analog time.

The reason for this divide is straightforward. Lower income parents often cannot afford the massive amount of time, effort, or resources required to live a completely analog life.

• Parents can’t take afternoons off, so YouTube becomes a babysitter.

• There are more single parent households managing tight schedules.

• There is less free time in the afternoon for parks and extracurricular activities.

When you don’t have the capital to buy your way out of the digital ecosystem, the algorithmic screen becomes the default supervisor.

The High End Analog Opportunity

Because of this exhaustion with the digital world, I foresee “analog” becoming a very hot topic in the near future. High income families are actively seeking screen free activities for their kids, but also for themselves. The steady increase in search volume for the keyword “analog” is a key indicator that this trend is going mainstream.

Rich people will continue to pay a premium to seclude themselves away from screens. For entrepreneurs, this shift opens up some massive market opportunities.

• Spiritual Events: My wife is a breathwork instructor and she is selling out every event she hosts. We are already working towards hosting 4 day and 7 day long retreats because people are starving for deep, in person experiences.

• Micro Hospitality: Now would be a great time to start buying small cabins and campers located about 2 hours outside of major metropolitan areas. The demand for weekend digital detox retreats is skyrocketing.

• Travel And Leisure: Having time to relax, completely disconnected from your phone, is becoming the ultimate status symbol. Because of this, owning Airbnb properties, running Airbnb consulting agencies, and even starting travel blogs are going to crush.

• Analog Productivity And Book Clubs: I guarantee you’ll start seeing a wave of membership products focused on productivity journaling with fancy notebooks, fountain pens, and mail ordered reading materials such as physical magazines or newspapers.

Analog is back, but weirdly enough, it is returning as a high income commodity. This means the markup on analog products and experiences is going to go way up. I’m not saying it’s fair, I’m just saying this is the reality of the market.

Putting My Money Where My Mouth Is

I’ve been thinking about this concept for months, observing through my own experiences how much people are starving for real world connection.

Darrell and I are already betting on this trend. We purchased an events business where we will host a yearly, in person conference for content entrepreneurs.

On top of that, Jules and I are looking into buying an Airbnb property in Mexico so that we have a permanent homebase to host these physical retreats. There is a massive frontier ahead for anyone who can successfully sell analog as a brand or as an industry.

To be honest, I’m still wrapping my mind around the full weight of this conclusion. It is wild to think about how our lives have reached a point where digital is the baseline norm, and simply touching grass has become a luxury item. But here we are.

I will keep my eye on this trend, and I will continue to report on it as I learn more.

Love you guys. Talk to you tomorrow.

Tim

I Invite You To Join The Academy: My Personal VIP Business Membership

To build a profitable online business, you don’t need a massive “personal brand” or to be the founder of a tech company. You simply need to solve a specific problem for a specific avatar. You need an Agency First model.

By joining The Academy, I will hand you the exact, step-by-step blueprint I used to build multiple seven-figure businesses. No hacks. No fluff. Just real insights, community, accountability, and cash flow.

Why The “Agency First” Model Is Bulletproof:

• No upfront capital needed: All you need is your first client and you are in business.

• Instantly profitable: Unlike software or media companies, services generate profit right away.

• Built for cash flow: It becomes a cash-generating machine that funds your long-term wealth.

• Work from anywhere: Run your entire empire from anywhere in the world with WiFi.

If you are ready to stop guessing, commit to a framework, and finally start building with clarity and support, then The Tim Stodz Academy is for you.

CLICK HERE TO JOIN THE ACADEMY

Data is the boring stuff that no one likes to think about. But data tells a story and allows you to pass the buck of decision making because you simply do what the numbers tell you to do.

Today, I will talk about how to use data to stand out in the marketplace.

LFG. 🔥

The Data You Should Care About

Not all data is valuable. Sometimes, we surround ourselves with so much noise that we lose sight of what we are actually optimizing for.

The way to use data properly is to start at the ultimate outcome.

What is the primary goal behind what you’re working towards?

For example, my business is all about lead generation. The metrics we care most about are qualified phone calls and lead forms. We use call tracking software to measure these results, which allows us to easily organize exactly where our prospects originate.

We can effortlessly attribute leads back to channels like:

• Google organic

• Social media

• Google ads

• Google business profiles

• Virtually any tracking source imaginable

Once you have that foundational layer set up, you can reverse engineer the rest of your strategy. The secondary data points only matter in context to the main objective.

An Example Of How To Keep The Main Thing The Main Thing

Let’s say that we have set up all our tracking tools properly. We are measuring traffic numbers through GA4, organic rankings through Search Console, and our social media reach through Publer.

Now, imagine we are generating 5,000 hits a month: 1,500 hits through Google organic and 3,500 through social media.

What do we do with those numbers? How do we make decisions based off of top line traffic?

The truth is that we can’t. If we do, we are misinformed because that data is only valuable in the context of how it generates the bottom line objective, which is leads.

In our call tracking metrics, let’s imagine that we have 10 leads and 3 closes from Google organic, and we have 4 leads and 1 close from social media. Well, now we are talking. Now we have a true baseline that allows us to make real business decisions.

The Conversion Breakdown

To take it one step further, we can look at the exact efficiency of each channel.

Looking at this matrix, the next right move becomes crystal clear. We need to divide the marketing budget in a way that invests heavier into Google organic.

We likely won’t kill the social media budget completely, but the return on Google is significantly higher. We want to put our money where it generates the greatest return.

This Looks Obvious, But You Have To Start At The End

You’re probably reading this thinking, “thanks for the advice Tim, but this is common sense.”

The numbers are clear, but where most people slip up is by failing to start at the finish line.

When you’re measuring data, you must start at the end point. Ask yourself, “what is the ultimate outcome I want to produce?”

Most of the time it’s sales and revenue, but not always. I have always kept my main KPI focused on qualified leads and phone calls, because the sales numbers simply back into that core ratio.

Good leads generate sales, so that’s been my focus.

Your case will be different. What is it that you want to achieve? What is the main objective behind the work you do?

Identify that target, and then work backward from there. If you fail to take this critical step, you’ll have no direction. You’ll be working hard, but heading in the wrong direction.

Love you guys. Talk to you tomorrow.

Tim

I Invite You To Join The Academy: My Personal VIP Business Membership

To build a profitable online business, you don’t need a massive “personal brand” or to be the founder of a tech company. You simply need to solve a specific problem for a specific avatar. You need an Agency First model.

By joining The Academy, I will hand you the exact, step-by-step blueprint I used to build multiple seven-figure businesses. No hacks. No fluff. Just real insights, community, accountability, and cash flow.

Why The “Agency First” Model Is Bulletproof:

• No upfront capital needed: All you need is your first client and you are in business.

• Instantly profitable: Unlike software or media companies, services generate profit right away.

• Built for cash flow: It becomes a cash-generating machine that funds your long-term wealth.

• Work from anywhere: Run your entire empire from anywhere in the world with WiFi.

If you are ready to stop guessing, commit to a framework, and finally start building with clarity and support, then The Tim Stodz Academy is for you.

CLICK HERE TO JOIN THE ACADEMY

I took the email lists from my healthcare newsletter and my AI newsletter and imported them into my timstodz.com list.

It was a huge mistake.

Today, I will explain why.

LFG. 🔥

Personal Brands Are Personal

If you want to build a personal brand, you need to avoid the trap of “branding yourself.” The reality is that people are weird, nuanced, and complicated. It is incredibly difficult to build a business around a single personal brand topic because your real life story will inevitably bleed through.

For example, I am an expert healthcare marketer. I have generated tens of millions of dollars in this field, both for myself and for my customers.

But I am also:

• A fitness enthusiast

• A die hard Eagles fan

• A Muay Thai practitioner

• A husband, dad, and cool dude

Because people are multi-dimensional, it is impractical to pigeonhole who you are into a rigid, one-topic box.

A Business Brand Is A Business

When a brand operates strictly as a business, your strategy becomes straightforward.

For instance, when my healthcare newsletter was its own distinct entity, the purpose behind every single article was clear.

The goal was to grow my reputation in the industry and generate leads for my company.

That was the only reason I published content. This singleness of purpose left zero room for creative expression, nor should there have been any.

My error was assuming that these audiences would overlap and that readers would be interested in everything I wrote. That is simply not the case.

Healthcare professionals want to read about healthcare business. Up and coming entrepreneurs want to read my daily blog to follow my journey, and AI nerds want to read about AI.

Mixing these worlds together diluted the value for everyone.

Your Business Brand Is To Share Your Experience, Your Business Is To Make Money

When you publish content under your personal name, you are better off not trying to monetize it directly.

The funny part is that I already knew this. Years ago, I wrote an article about how writing online acts as a serendipity vehicle, and how the absolute best way to monetize a personal brand is to not try to monetize it at all.

For a moment, I forgot my own advice and tried to take the easy way out.

In doing so, I alienated the subscribers who sought me out specifically for my healthcare insights. Now, I have to earn that trust back from scratch.

If you are thinking about building a platform, do not try to merge your personal identity and your commercial business under the same banner.

Separate the two.

Use your personal brand to share your experience and attract unexpected opportunities. Use your business brand to grow your authority, generate leads, drive sales, and put money in your bank account.

I will never make this mistake again, and going forward I will be sure to share the journey of rebuilding my healthcare media brand.

Love you guys. Talk to you tomorrow.

Tim

I Invite You To Join The Academy: My Personal VIP Business Membership

To build a profitable online business, you don’t need a massive “personal brand” or to be the founder of a tech company. You simply need to solve a specific problem for a specific avatar. You need an Agency First model.

By joining The Academy, I will hand you the exact, step-by-step blueprint I used to build multiple seven-figure businesses. No hacks. No fluff. Just real insights, community, accountability, and cash flow.

Why The “Agency First” Model Is Bulletproof:

• No upfront capital needed: All you need is your first client and you are in business.

• Instantly profitable: Unlike software or media companies, services generate profit right away.

• Built for cash flow: It becomes a cash-generating machine that funds your long-term wealth.

• Work from anywhere: Run your entire empire from anywhere in the world with WiFi.

If you are ready to stop guessing, commit to a framework, and finally start building with clarity and support, then The TimStodz Academy is for you.

CLICK HERE TO JOIN THE ACADEMY

I realize this seems like an obvious step, but you would not believe how easy it is to lose deals or damage the relationship by not acting with speed and urgency.

You want to make it as easy as possible for your prospect, and you want to get this step out of the way so that you do not need anything else from them moving forward.

As promised, I have created a guide that you can send to your customer so they can follow it and complete the step themselves. Get your copy by clicking the link below.

Once you are looking at the google doc, simple go to file → make a copy and it’s yours.

Read more

It’s a big milestone, and one that has generated a lot of positive results for my business and my life.

Today, let’s talk about the business of building a personal brand, and why you should build one for yourself.

LFG. 🔥

I Hit 1,421,719 Impressions Over The Last 7 Days

It’s pretty staggering to think about.

To put it into context, the biggest stadiums in the world hold about 100,000 people. My content, and subsequently my name and brand, has been viewed by 14X the amount of people who would attend a concert at Wembley Stadium.

I realize that the value of this attention is drastically different, but regardless, it is incredibly powerful.

Followers Are Great, But What’s The Value?

Having a big audience is one thing, but generating value from that audience is very different. There is a massive difference between having attention and generating revenue.

If your goal is to build a business with actual dollars and cents going into your bank account, then here are a few simple tips.

1. Use social media to funnel a low ticket offer: It’s easy to say that you should build a high ticket business, and I fully agree with that statement. But the reality is that 99% of the people who follow you on social media are general consumers. That doesn’t mean these people can’t be upsold to a high ticket item, but it’s best to keep the net wide.

After selling Copyblogger, I decided to put my offer directly into Substack. At just $19 a month, The Academy appeals to the masses.

This doesn’t prevent you from building more high ticket relationships once you start building trust. It is simply about meeting people where they are.

2. Sell through the DMs: Most people make the mistake of thinking that content alone will lead to sales, but that’s wishful thinking. Sure, great content and great copywriting can absolutely generate sales, but the secret sauce of monetizing a personal brand is in the DMs.

Send DMs, reach out to people, be curious about them, promote your offer, and do it in a way that is genuine.

If your offer can help people, then you are morally obligated to promote it. The best products solve a problem. There’s no reason you shouldn’t be promotional about your contribution to the world.

3. Volume wins: The worst possible thing you can do is try to go viral. It’s not that going viral isn’t great, it’s that no one has any idea what will go viral and what won’t.

You’re much better off creating a cadence of daily content. Be consistent with your cadence and also with your messaging.

The viral posts will come, but trying to manufacture them is a waste of time.

4. Relationships come first: Over the last 3 years, I’ve probably generated $350,000 in profit from sales directly generated through social media. This is a lot of money, but it’s nothing in comparison to the value I’ve generated from the relationships I’ve built through my personal brand.

Any real entrepreneur will tell you that the people you surround yourself with is the ultimate determining factor of your success.

Through my personal brand, I’ve:

• formed the relationship that led to me buying Copyblogger

• formed the relationship that led to my equity in Digital Commerce Partners

• met Chase, and together we built directorly.app and The Shop AI

• met Charles, who helped me build Copyblogger to what it is today

Most importantly, my personal brand has given me a level of credibility. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been on sales calls where people look up my LinkedIn account and say, “whoah, you have a lot of followers.”

I always close those deals.

In Conclusion: Call Me A Believer

I’ll be the first to admit that I used to be a personal brand hater.

Understand, I made most of my money through inbound marketing. SEO, Google ads, and organic content marketing are where I excelled. It always seemed to me like social media marketing generated a lot of attention without generating a lot of revenue.

I was wrong.

Since I started investing in building my personal brand, I have generated great revenues, opportunities, partnerships, and profits.

It’s worth it. It has not been an easy process, as there were plenty of mornings when I thought, “what’s the point of doing this?”

But it has been a simple process, where all I had to do was continue adding value and publishing my ideas.

Over time, it started to work.

Now, every post generates dozens of new email subscribers, a few daily customers, and builds my reputation.

Yes, it was worth it.

Love you guys. Talk to you tomorrow.

Tim

I Invite You To Join The Academy: My Personal VIP Business Membership

To build a profitable online business, you don’t need a massive “personal brand” or to be the founder of a tech company. You simply need to solve a specific problem for a specific avatar. You need an Agency First model.

By joining The Academy, I will hand you the exact, step-by-step blueprint I used to build multiple seven-figure businesses. No hacks. No fluff. Just real insights, community, accountability, and cash flow.

Why The “Agency First” Model Is Bulletproof:

• No upfront capital needed: All you need is your first client and you are in business.

• Instantly profitable: Unlike software or media companies, services generate profit right away.

• Built for cash flow: It becomes a cash-generating machine that funds your long-term wealth.

• Work from anywhere: Run your entire empire from anywhere in the world with WiFi.

If you are ready to stop guessing, commit to a framework, and finally start building with clarity and support, then The Tim Stodz Academy is for you.

CLICK HERE TO JOIN THE ACADEMY

Siri Is Now Your Personal AI Assistant

I have said from the beginning that AI is only as valuable as its underlying dataset.

Your iPhone is a supercomputer that sits on a deep dataset of text messages, emails, photos, applications, and calendars. Now, you can communicate directly with Siri to have all this data at your fingertips.

The best way to understand this new update is to see it in action. There is a video in the press release that shows why this is so powerful. Watch it here.

As someone who generally thinks most AI announcements are overhyped, I admit that this is pretty awesome.

Apple Cashes In On Google’s Investment

Apple has taken a controversial stance by choosing not to invest billions of dollars into AI infrastructure.

Building and maintaining a frontier model requires a sustained capital and talent investment that Apple does not want to make. OpenAI has raised $180 billion and loses money at a negative 122% operating margin. Anthropic raised $65 billion at a $965 billion valuation and pays SpaceX $1.25 billion per month for compute. Apple has $170 billion in cash on its balance sheet and would rather redeploy that into hardware, services, and stock buybacks than into a model race it views as commoditizing. - Build Fast With AI

Instead, Tim Cook made a deal with Google where Apple will pay Google $1B a year to use Gemini as the default LLM.

The advantage Apple always had is that they own the rails. All the high end attention is on the iPhone, so all the other tech players have to go through the iPhone in order to be seen. Now, Apple is finally releasing a product that leverages this advantage.

Sure, this deal also works out for Google, who makes an easy $1B a year to lease Gemini. But Google and Apple have made deals like this in the past, and there is no reason to think this won’t be a great move for Apple.

AI That Actually Makes Your Life Better

I predict this will be a huge success because this AI product has real world applications for your daily life.

It is easy to see how regular folks like you and me could use Siri AI to find events, organize our calendars, recall information buried in our phones, and be more productive at work.

Personally, I think Apple has been playing this perfectly.

Let everyone else pay hundreds of billions to build out data centers and manage the compute. Apple owns the railroad system that everyone else needs to transport their product. Apple is the railroad of attention, so leasing out compute to Google while focusing on what makes Apple special is a perfect plan in my view.

Thanks for reading. Talk to you tomorrow.

Tim Stoddart

On Monday, Darrel announced The Content Economy Expo. 🚨

Content marketing is more important than ever. When AI can commoditize content, the content that will win is the content that is personalized, evocative, and builds community.

That’s why were hosting an annual conference. The Content Economy Expo is for real content entrepreneurs.

Get your early bird tickets here before the prices rise.

A Full Breakdown Of Siri AI

Watch the video for a full breakdown of the product.

But also, I show you insights as to how you can hack and use Siri AI to grow your business and generate more customers.

Enjoy. :)

I Invite You To Join The Academy: My Personal VIP Business Membership

To build a profitable online business, you don’t need a massive “personal brand” or to be the founder of a tech company. You simply need to solve a specific problem for a specific avatar. You need an Agency First model.

By joining The Academy, I will hand you the exact, step-by-step blueprint I used to build multiple seven-figure businesses. No hacks. No fluff. Just real insights, community, accountability, and cash flow.

Why The “Agency First” Model Is Bulletproof:

• No upfront capital needed: All you need is your first client and you are in business.

• Instantly profitable: Unlike software or media companies, services generate profit right away.

• Built for cash flow: It becomes a cash-generating machine that funds your long-term wealth.

• Work from anywhere: Run your entire empire from anywhere in the world with WiFi.

If you are ready to stop guessing, commit to a framework, and finally start building with clarity and support, then The Tim Stodz Academy is for you.

CLICK HERE TO JOIN THE ACADEMY

This is a big deal because Google is notoriously vague about giving explicit ranking instructions, so getting this level of step by step detail feels off.

Yet these guidelines were released specifically to help marketers and business owners get found through AI mode.

Personally, I feel as though AEO is the next big wave in lead generation and online marketing. If everyone is finding their information through AI, then naturally, that’s where you want to be to get found.

So these strategies and tactics are very important to learn, understand, and master.

Watch the video for a full breakdown.

Love you guys. Talk to you tomorrow.

Tim

I Invite You To Join The Academy: My Personal VIP Business Membership

To build a profitable online business, you don’t need a massive “personal brand” or to be the founder of a tech company. You simply need to solve a specific problem for a specific avatar. You need an Agency First model.

By joining The Academy, I will hand you the exact, step-by-step blueprint I used to build multiple seven-figure businesses. No hacks. No fluff. Just real insights, community, accountability, and cash flow.

Why The “Agency First” Model Is Bulletproof:

• No upfront capital needed: All you need is your first client and you are in business.

• Instantly profitable: Unlike software or media companies, services generate profit right away.

• Built for cash flow: It becomes a cash-generating machine that funds your long-term wealth.

• Work from anywhere: Run your entire empire from anywhere in the world with WiFi.

If you are ready to stop guessing, commit to a framework, and finally start building with clarity and support, then The Tim Stodz Academy is for you.

CLICK HERE TO JOIN THE ACADEMY