Latest / Founder Unfiltered - What Founders Think But Never Say / 2025 in Review: 3 Things That Built Mylance — and 3 I’m Leaving Behind

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2025 in Review: 3 Things That Built Mylance — and 3 I’m Leaving Behind · Founder Unfiltered - What Founders Think But Never Say

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  Welcome to another episode of 6 Figure Secrets for Fractional
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  Experts. My name is Bradley Jacobs.
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  I'm your host, the founder and CEO of Mylance.
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  Today we're going to be looking at a 2025 retrospective for
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  Mylance. I'm going to let you into my
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  inner world because one, it's helpful for me to look back.
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  But two, maybe you will be inspired to not only look back,
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  but maybe some of, I would almost guarantee that some of
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  the things that I have struggled with and some of the things that
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  have worked for me are going to resonate with you.
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  And you might be able to look at your own business and say like,
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  yeah, this worked for me too. Or, or maybe this is something I
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  should try. And also there's there's value
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  in the vulnerability because you basically get this inside, look
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  into someone else and you build trust and you build
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  relationships. And I frankly want you guys to
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  know me. I want you guys to know what
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  it's like to run this business, to maybe be inspired or learn
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  from my mistakes, but also to build that trusting relationship
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  with me that I want to have with you.
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  So without keep going my ramble, I'm going to get right into it
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  and I'm going to share three things that worked that I'm
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  going to be taking with me into 2026.
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  And I'm going to be sharing three things that didn't really
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  work that I'm going to leave behind.
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  I'm declaring right now with all of you that I'm leaving these
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  things behind. So let's get into it #1.
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  What worked is consistency in our marketing.
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  So I'm really proud to say that with the launch, actually this
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  will this episode will be live on the 1st.
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  So we've already done it. We published an episode, a
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  podcast episode, every single week IN202552 weeks in a row.
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  And frankly, we had dozens of episodes in a row before that.
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  So the consistency of the podcast, which also meant that
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  we published 52 blogs and 52 newsletters and well over 300
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  LinkedIn posts. I'm not every day on LinkedIn,
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  but I'd say on average I'm 5-6 days a week.
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  So every single week we showed up, right?
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  And to me, that consistency is so important.
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  I'm not saying it's easy, I have someone holding me accountable,
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  but it's so important to show up.
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  And I can tell you we did 52 blogs and newsletters, because
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  every single podcast turns into a blog and a newsletter.
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  And with that, I will go into #2 which is the systems that
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  enabled this consistency. Because going back to the
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  consistency for just a second, it's when I didn't want to.
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  It's when I didn't have a new idea.
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  It's when I felt like my idea was bad, but I published it
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  anyway. I'm not going to pretend like
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  every single episode is is the most amazing thing ever.
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  Every blog is like your jaw's on the floor, right?
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  Some of the things are like, well, this idea worked and I'm
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  going to redo a similar idea with a different format.
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  Or I'm going to ask Chachi, we need to help brainstorm with me
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  and come up with some new ideas together.
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  Or I'm just going to like take what a customer suggested I
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  should talk about and just take their idea because they're like,
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  hey, this would be helpful. So I'm not saying it's always
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  glamorous or amazing or polished or anything, because it's
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  certainly is not. But I think the consistency,
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  like I'm a true believer in how important the showing up really
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  is. And with that, the second one
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  that enabled that is the system. So one of the things as part of
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  the system is I have my podcast editor holding me accountable
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  and he bugs me until I make the episode by the day that I need
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  to. I also have systems that help
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  create the newsletter, the blog. Some of those are people, some
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  of those are automations, some of those are using AI to
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  repurpose content. You we always finish it up with
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  the human touch after, but we're using AI tools where it makes
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  sense to save us time to increase the efficiency.
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  Some of this is data, like making really clever databases.
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  And I'll give you just a really simple example is that when I
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  come up with a new podcast, I either write the title myself or
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  have AI help me. When I put the title into an air
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  table cell and click go, a bunch of things happen.
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  All these links are created, all these documents are created.
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  And it sounds like a really simple thing, but I can't tell
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  you how much time it saves me when I can click go and all of a
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  sudden the Google Drive folder is created for the new podcast
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  episode in the place it's supposed to be.
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  This document is created with the transcript and documents
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  created with the summary and documents created with the time
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  stamps. All of these things happen.
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  And then I can just go and I and then and then I have the
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  automation put those links in the air table.
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  So any given moment I can go to this air table and say like, OK,
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  this podcast episode On this date has all of these folders
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  and links and everything right there.
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  So myself or anyone on my team can easily see any given day
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  over the last two years, what podcast episode, the relevant
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  blog, the relevant newsletter, the relevant transcript,
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  everything, It's all in one place and it happens
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  automatically because of the system I set up.
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  So having these systems and automations essentially save me
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  tons of time and energy and allows me to focus on the needle
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  moving activities, not making Google Drive folders.
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  I know that I cannot rely on my motivation to keep these things
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  going. Like motivation comes and goes,
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  feelings come and go. I know that I need a system that
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  can set me up for success every single week so that on the
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  outside as a customer, you are constantly seeing the content,
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  mylance, value add, education, inspiration, all of it every
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  single week. Like there's not a week that go
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  by that if you are exposed to our, you know, network, whether
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  it's on LinkedIn or the podcast or the the newsletter, the the
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  e-mail list, you're always being touched by us.
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  Like you're getting a touch point.
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  And frankly, there are many of you that have been on the e-mail
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  list for two years and then you'd come to me and like, I'm
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  ready to buy. And somebody else might be like,
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  Oh my God, like that person just showed up.
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  It's like, no, that person didn't just show up.
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  I've been, you know, having touch points with them for two
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  years. So the consistency really does
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  matter #3 We made a really big pivot this year because at the
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  beginning of the year we were doing lead generation.
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  We had done for you lead generation.
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  We had an internal software that came up with lead lists.
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  We had a community. I had a much bigger team and
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  frankly it wasn't working as well as I wanted it to for this
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  customer like fractional executives.
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  I mean you guys know you don't have big budgets, you have some
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  inconsistent revenue. You don't, you're not, most of
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  you are not B2B sales folks. And so you're not really sure
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  how to use a lead list. If we give you the lead list and
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  then trying to run an agency on top of software and do a million
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  things for us, doing content creation for you, trying to do
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  all of these things right and make it a 10 out of 10
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  experience was draining, challenging and frankly not
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  working nearly as well as I wanted it to.
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  And so we made a massive pivot. We really narrowed our focus to
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  1 customer, one problem and one tool, and that is our LinkedIn
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  thought leadership tool that helps you build content
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  consistently online and making that, just simplifying the
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  business like letting go of what wasn't working despite how much
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  time, energy, money I put into building that and making it
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  amazing. And part of that was changing
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  the team as well as we moved on from some team members,
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  simplified the team, made everything a lot, frankly
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  smaller and simpler and more focused.
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  And I'm certainly taking that into 2026 with me.
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  In fact, even more so now those three things that I'm certainly
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  bringing with me to 2026, consistency systems and
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  automation and simplified focus. I will say there are also things
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  that didn't work that I'm totally leaving behind.
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  And this is probably much more important of what am I not going
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  to do in 2026 that really didn't work.
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  Number one is accommodating 2 different kinds of customers and
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  too many different requests from different customers.
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  At the end of the day, we get to find the balance between
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  delivering an amazing product and understanding what customers
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  need for it to be amazing, which is new features or more customer
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  service or more support, but also having clear boundaries.
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  And if I try and do everything for everyone, we're never going
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  to be able to really grow to the scale that helps thousands and
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  millions of entrepreneurs grow their businesses.
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  So being super clear what we do and what we don't do is going to
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  be really important. So what I'm leaving behind here
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  is all of the I need this, I need that.
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  What like can you accommodate my request?
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  Can you? No, like we're going to keep it
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  really simple that we serve this customer in a specific way.
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  That's B to B founders that are revenue generating that see the
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  value in LinkedIn, maybe are already starting to show up in
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  LinkedIn, but they need a System 2 show up LinkedIn on LinkedIn
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  authentically, genuinely with content that's going to resonate
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  with their ideal customer where they need to save time.
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  That is who we're focused on in 2026.
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  The number two, what I'm leaving behind is frankly taking too
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  many of those, Hey, can I pick your brain?
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  Can I talk to you kind of calls. As much as I would love,
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  genuinely love to talk to everybody, I frankly can't.
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  Like I would be on the phone 24/7 365.
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  I would never have time to build.
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  I would never have time to get customer feedback.
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  I'd never have time to do product brainstorming.
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  I'd never have time to run the business because I'm frankly
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  helping everybody else. And there's always a balance,
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  right? Because some of those, hey, can
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  I talk to you? Some of those turn into
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  customers and they, and I help someone and I ask, you know,
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  like they're, they're great things that come out of those
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  calls, but I need to be very particular in which ones I say
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  yes to because if I say yes to all of them, I will always be on
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  the phone. It drains my energy.
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  It fills up my calendar. And frankly, one of the things I
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  love about being a founder is being able to kind of sit down
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  on my computer and just build shit.
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  Like I love building. So it's interesting.
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  I'm a founder that loves talking to people.
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  I love building, I love coaching, I love working on the
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  business. I love working in the business.
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  I love doing all the things and I really get to focus on what
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  the business needs the most. Like what is the business need
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  from me this week, today, this month?
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  And that often is not having someone pick my brain for free
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  to say like, OK, how can I help them jumpstart their consulting
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  business so that they can learn from mine?
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  And that's also part of the reason that we do this podcast,
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  right? Like we published tons of
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  content. So if someone wants help
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  launching their business, they can go to our content, which
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  stands for itself and doesn't require my time.
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  Over and over and over and over #3 similar with #2 is the
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  constant distraction that is so easy to get sucked into.
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  There's two kinds of distractions.
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  I bucketed them. One is the internal in my work
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  distraction. Like I could be in Slack, my
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  LinkedIn DMS, e-mail and like the the random pings all day,
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  literally all day. Like if I kept Slack and
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  LinkedIn and e-mail open, I will be there all day and I will do
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  nothing, right? I'll respond to a few customers,
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  great, but I will make no move, no rocks forward in the
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  business. So there's the internal
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  distractions and then there's the external distractions of
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  whether it's the news or I personally like checking crypto
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  prices, texting with people or different friends.
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  I'm always like checking things and frankly there it requires a
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  lot of discipline from me to put away everything, put my phone in
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  a different room, to use the app blockers on my computer.
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  So I'm not even allowed to text or check Instagram or check
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  crypto or whatever it is and do deep focused work.
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  Like for me, sitting down for even an hour at a time, maybe
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  two or three hours in the day and just doing deep focused work
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  to move forward a project in the business is so important.
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  And also I get an incredible amount done when I do that.
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  When I don't do that and I have allow all these distractions to
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  come into my life, then nothing happens.
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  Nothing good happens, frankly. So totally leaving behind
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  distractions, creating focused time, especially in the morning,
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  that's when I am most effective for the deep work so that I can
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  really get into the different projects.
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  I can come from a place of creativity, I can add tons of
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  value. I can really get my mind like
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  fully engrossed in the project that I'm working on so that I
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  deliver a really, really great and thoughtful output.
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  So with that said, if I summarize this episode, this is
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  really about going being narrower and deeper in my focus
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  in who we serve and what the product actually looks like in
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  who I talked to. Basically having fewer bets
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  almost, but taking everything I've learned to go as deep as
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  possible in the existing bets that I have.
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  So that 2026 is a profitable growing value add year for
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  myself and everyone like this is about me winning, you winning.
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  Everybody gets to win. There's no, there's no win loss.
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  Like we can all win at the same time.
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  The market's big enough. Everyone, there's room for
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  everybody. So I hope you got a lot of value
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  out of this episode. I'd love for you to share this
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  with someone if you learned something or, or found something
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  insightful from it. And I would love for you to come
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  check out our LinkedIn thought leadership tool.
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  It's been really amazing for the people using it of showing up on
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  LinkedIn because frankly, your buyer is there.
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  Your buyer is on LinkedIn and it is an absolute no brainer to
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  show up even two or three times a week and just share something
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  you learn, share your experience like it's not rocket science.
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  And we built this tool just to make it easy to to take all the
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  decisions off your plate to save you time.
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  It learns your voice. It you do positioning work with
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  me upfront. So we nailed down your content
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  strategy. It's really been amazing.
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  So come check it out. Shoot me a note on LinkedIn if
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  you got some value out of this episode.
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  Would love to hear from you and have an amazing new year and
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  amazing 2026. It's going to be an incredible
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  year of growth and prosperity and abundance for all of us.
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  I can really feel it. So if you're willing to step
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  into that with me, I would love to invite you on the journey.
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  And with that, have an amazing rest of your day.