Category: Entrepreneurship

Imagine this:

You start a side hustle. Maybe you sell planners or lead workouts in the park.

You make a few thousand dollars during your first year. It’s fun beer money, but not enough to quit your day job.

But you keep growing. You run this as a one-person operation, though you bring on freelancers or independent contractors.

Your revenue grows into the five figures. Then six figures. After a few years, you’re running a one-person, million dollar company.

This sounds like a pipe dream, right?

But it’s the true story of Laszlo Nadler, who created a line of planners and calendars. It’s the true story of Stacy Berman, who started leading 5:30 AM fitness bootcamp classes in the park.

And it’s the true story of hundreds of other solopreneurs interviewed by business journalist Elaine Pofeldt, who took a deep-dive look at the lives and businesses of entrepreneurs who run companies that gross more than $1 million, but have no employees.

In today’s episode, we take an inside look at the secrets behind one-person, million-dollar businesses.

If you’ve ever considered starting a side hustle or business of your own, don’t miss this.

This episode originally aired in March 2019.

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Grant Baldwin felt burned out.

He worked as a youth pastor, which felt like a 24/7 profession. He had to attend student events held late into the night, which left him exhausted.

One night, he came home to find his wife crying. She told him that she felt like she had a roommate, rather than a husband, because he was gone so often.

So Grant did something drastic: he quit his job, with negligible savings, when his wife was four to five months pregnant.

(Editor’s Note: WAT?! Who does that?!)

For the following year, he waited tables and worked odd jobs, cobbling together gig-economy money while raising a newborn. During his rare unscheduled moments, he started crafting a new career for himself as a self-employed public speaker.

Today, Grant Baldwin is a speaker, entrepreneur, coach, and author of The Successful Speaker. He’s earned multiple seven-figures in speaking fees and has helped over 2,000 people become professional speakers.

He shares how he made his dream a reality in this episode.

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Ash Ambirge grew up in a trailer park in rural Pennsylvania.

She never met her biological father. Her father-figure mentor passed away when she was 14. Her disabled mother, who raised her on government assistance, passed away when she was 20.

Her childhood goal was to join the middle class. She dreamed of becoming one of those people who eats poppyseed bagels and lemon pepper chicken. After all, what’s more middle class than that?

Ash’s future changed the moment she received a need-based, full ride scholarship to college. After she graduated, she snagged a marketing assistant job and negotiated a $30,000 salary.

Ash had finally made it; she joined the middle class. To celebrate, she bought a brand-new car, financed a $5,000 mattress, and rented a luxurious apartment. Yet she felt that something was lacking (and it wasn’t the lemon pepper chicken).

Unfulfilled, Ash set out to answer two burning questions:

“What does it mean to live a good life?”
“What does it look like to do work that I’m proud of?”

Throughout her childhood, the answers to these questions had been elusive. Her mother hadn’t worked, and Ash had no idea what a “good life” involved. She had no role models.

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