how to build a million dollar business without ever going viral

Summary

fewer than 1 in 10 entrepreneurs ever generate $1 million in revenue. solo, the odds are 1 in 500. I’ve done it both ways. it took me 18 years.

here’s the year-by-year so you can shortcut it:

• 2008: fitness blog on Blogger. no business plan. just logged my workouts. a few people followed.
• 2010: graduated college, got married, commissioned as an Air Force officer. blog continued on the side.
• 2012: launched One Man One Barbell. first five-figure digital launch. first son born. mindset changed: this could be more than a side income.
• 2013: the side hustle grind. learned automation.
• 2014: launched a top-10 podcast.
• 2015: realized every business needs MRR.
• 2016: wrote a book as a growth lever.
• 2017: hit $1M with zero W2 employees.
• 2018: partnered into PT Biz. took it from 6 to 7 figures in 9 months.
• 2019: built an autonomous team.
• 2020: wrote Killing Comfort.
• 2021: first 30-day vacation. the business grew while I was gone.
• 2022 to 2023: Inc. 500 twice.
• 2024 to 2025: scaling multiple brands, launched an AI company.
• 2026: the playbook that ties it all together.

no single year did anything go viral. every step compounded. the playbook is built from this, not from a fluke.

Transcript

why most entrepreneurs never hit $1m

Fewer than one in 10 entrepreneurs will ever generate $1 million in revenue or more, and that’s if they have a team. If you don’t have a team, you’re solopreneur, your chances of generating that amount of money are one in 500. Now, I’ve actually done both and have created multiple different companies, but it’s taken me 18 years to achieve those feats. So, let me talk about what I’ve learned year by year so you can shortcut this process and it doesn’t take you as long.

All right, I’m going to be going year by year and kind of telling you my story and what I have learned over each stage. It goes all the way back to 2008 for me. Well, I was still in college, but I started a fitness blog. It was nothing other than what I wanted to do was log my workouts. Uh but on Blogger, Blogspot by Google back in the day, people could start to follow you. They could subscribe to your blog.

You didn’t have to have an email newsletter or anything like that. And a few people started following me. I didn’t think anything of it. I was not trying to start a business, but I did start a blog. Kind of got me into the technical side. Like back in the day, these things were hard. You had to learn how to code a little bit. And it got me a little bit more interested in blogging. And again, no idea that I wanted to have a career doing anything like this.

Uh I was already in ROTC going into the military. That was my plan. That was my path. Uh but it is a essentially where I started online was just posting workouts to a blog and a few people started to subscribe.

2008: a blog no one asked for

Two years later, I’m graduating college.

2010: air force officer by day, entrepreneur by night

It’s 2010. I get married to the love of my life. We’d been dating through college. And then I started my journey as United States Air Force officer while I continued to build up this blog on the back end. Again, I didn’t really know that this could be a job, that this could turn into something, but I started to see it happen. I saw other people making a full-time living from blogging. And so, I started to take a little bit more seriously, Uh but again, I had no like I was in the Air Force, I was in pilot training.

I didn’t want to try and start this new career or anything like that. And so I was just thinking, “Hey, maybe I could do something here. Maybe I could launch a product or something and maybe it pays for my car payment. Maybe it can cover my mortgage. Maybe it’s an extra 100 bucks a month, something like that.” I had very low expectations, but ultimately I was I was still doing both at the same time.

2012: my first five-figure launch changed everything

Then we go to 2012 and I things started to develop over those 2 years. I took it a little bit more seriously. And I decided to launch my first program. My first program was called One Man One Barbell. And I launched it. I followed this checklist step-by-step from a book I had purchased and it went really well. It was my first five-figure digital launch. That same year my first son was born and I always tell people I’ve only ever known entrepreneurship while having children.

So if you’re in some sort of boat where you get to focus a little bit more cuz you don’t have kids, I’ve never experienced that. I launched this product, also had a kid that same year. My first son was born and I learned a lot about that first five-figure digital launch. That was a really big deal for me because it changed my mindset. I was very much, “Hey, I’m going to go career Air Force. This is what I’m going to do.

This is how you make money. W-2, you get a paycheck. It’s a set amount, so on and so forth.” But when I generated my own revenue, right, from an audience I created, from a program that I created, from a marketing plan that I executed, it really changed my mindset. That’s That’s when I became an official entrepreneur. I was like, “Okay, this is possible. I can do this. Like this is crazy that you can make money. You can make your own money.” It just completely changed my mindset.

I’ll never forget I walked into a grocery store after I launched the product and I felt like I’d been unplugged from the matrix. I saw everybody like walking around living their normal lives and I was like, “I This is This is a big deal. Like I can I can do this. So that was probably the biggest moment in everything here. Had that flopped I probably honestly would have just been done.

2013: the side hustle grind & learning automation

Not because I’m the quitting type. I just already had a job. Like this was just kind of a side hustle thing and to be honest if the side hustle didn’t start generating some income, it was going to be hard to justify with you know, a kid and newly married, you know, all these kind of things a serious career job in the Air Force. Like it would have been hard to continue to do those things and justify it if it wasn’t generating some cash.

So it was a big deal that this actually worked out. Wasn’t a crazy amount of money, but it definitely was a crazy life-changing experience. Going up to 2013, I was doing military leadership by day, fitness, you know, digital side hustle by night. I had some other programs that I had launched and did. But ultimately, this is where it became really stressful to juggle both. So if you’re ever in the side hustle mode, I know exactly how you feel because I was working very long hours in the military then I was coming home, writing blog posts, following up with customers, all these kind of things.

And it was it was really hard. But that what I started to learn during this phase is automation. And even automation back then was something that’s possible. It’s so much easier now today with AI and all these other tools, but I started to learn how to automate a lot of my customer journey with email marketing, automated check-ins, automated follow-up process. And I had to learn these things through automation because I had a full-time job. So I think that’s the biggest takeaway is you want to automate things that can be automated.

I we talked to our team all time these days about like not over automating things cuz everyone can do it now so everyone does it. But you have to figure out maybe a back-end process, maybe not a customer-facing thing. Like what can we automate? What we can take off our plate before we ever have to hire someone. And I wouldn’t hire anyone because I knew I didn’t have time to also lead and manage other humans on top of what I was doing in the military.

So automation is a big uh of this if you want to maintain being a solo entrepreneur.

2014: launching a top 10 podcast

2014, I launched a top 10 health and fitness podcast, and my second son was born. So, my first podcast that did really well, it’s called Better Humanology. We were the top three, uh in health and fitness for a while, and I maintained that podcast for a long time. It’s actually this same feed. Better Humanology eventually turned into Better Human Business, which then turned into Better. So, it’s the same feed overall, just to keep some consistency. You can go back and listen those podcasts if you’re on the podcast uh platforms.

Uh just cuz I like to have that continuity of where I’ve been and what I’ve done. Uh but again, 2014, people weren’t podcasting that much. So, we, you know, we launched that, me and my buddy Talon, and it did really well. Learned a lot about audio editing and podcasting and ultimately what it took to, uh stay consistent in creating content, which is the game these days, and really it always has been.

2015: why every business needs mrr

And then, in 2015, I launched Garage Gym Athlete. So, I’d been doing these fitness programs, $49 programs, you know, $100 programs, all these things on the side. I launched a few cohorts of, uh you know, higher pri- higher priced, um you know, programming and coaching. But then, I was getting a lot of traffic, so I wanted to see how a $25 month membership would do. So, I launched Garage Gym Athlete. It did really well. I think we launched with, uh couple hundred athletes.

It was nothing crazy, uh but it was enough with that on top of selling my one-off programs that I was able to maintain some consistency. I think a big takeaway here for people is every business needs some sort of MRR. Because for me, I never wanted Garage Gym Athlete to be the main thing. That wasn’t the goal. It eventually turned into that, but I didn’t want it to be the main thing. I just wanted it to be some sort of consistent baseline monthly recur- recurring revenue source, so I could pay basic expenses.

Like, maybe I get $1,000 a month for myself, and like it could pay for all the software platforms, everything else. Then everything I sell on top of that is all gravy, right?

2016: writing a book as a growth lever

All the basics are taken care of. So, however you want to look at MRR, whether it’s the main business or it’s something just that kind of runs in the background and you provide a good service, um ultimately I think every business should have some sort of continuity program, monthly recurring revenue. Um but you can’t half-ass these things. It has to be really, really good.

2017: hitting $1m with no w2 employees

2016, I could see the writing on the wall. A lot of other people were getting into the garage gym space. So, I kind of wanted to own it. So, I launched the book The Garage Gym Athlete and that’s when uh Garage Gym Athlete really took off, me launching and writing that book and ultimately selling it through ads and everything else. By 2017, Garage Gym Athlete was over a $1 million uh business. We had thousands of athletes um that and like I said, that takes us through 2017.

And what again I learned here is uh handling these things at scale. Trying to go through the entire customer journey of every pain point that they’re going to cover. If there is a question that keeps getting asked, how can I go ahead and solve that problem so it doesn’t get asked anymore? Uh that was the name of the game for me was just trying to minimize customer support through automation, through getting ahead of customer uh issues and ultimately getting as much feedback from customers as you can.

The big thing about Garage Gym Athlete that is true, has been true, um and always was true is I’m just a big part of the community myself. I’m a Garage Gym Athlete. This was not launched as some like uh you know, income strategy. I didn’t identify a target market. It’s just what I was. It’s what I still am today. Um and so, if you’re really passionate about things, these things are fairly easy to continue on.

2018: partnering at pt biz (6 to 7 figures in 9 months)

Um now, in 2018, it’s pretty interesting. I started to that the book uh got a lot of um you know, interest. People were reaching out to me for podcast appearances and stuff. Uh and then what started to happen is people were starting to ask me for business coaching cuz they realized I’d been doing this for a while. I was really squared away. Whenever we’d have off the you know, sidebar conversations not recorded on the podcast, people were asking me like how I’m getting leads, how I’m doing this, how I’m selling cuz they could tell things were starting to go pretty well for me and this was before really people were kind of doing this thing.

So, I started to take on a couple of business consulting clients here and there when they would ask. Again, it was never anything I intended to turn into a business whatsoever. But one person who interviewed me at the time, his name’s Danny Mattei, he wanted me to be his business coach for online business. And so, I started to do that. I think it was around 2017 the same time like Growth Hacking had really hit and that the book was out and everything.

And we worked together for a while, then eventually we decided it would just be better if we partnered as opposed to, you know, having this consulting role. And so, I partnered at PT Biz and within the first year it was a six-figure business already when Danny showed up, low six-figure business, and we turned it into a seven-figure business in 9 months. And also in 2018, my daughter was born. And the reason I’m throwing my kids in here is because I just want everyone to know like none of this has ever been easy.

And I’m not even talking about everything I’ve done in my life.

2019: building an autonomous team

Like there’s real estate investing on the side here, there are remodels, there’s stress, there’s a whole lot of things that have gone on, but ultimately life is going on as I’m doing all of these things. I’m starting to juggle more and more. So, I became a partner PT Biz, took it from six to seven figures in 9 months. My daughter was born. 2019 was just incredible growth year. We tripled PT Biz revenue and we started to build an autonomous team.

And this is 2019 is where I started to really dive into operations and to start to flex my leadership muscle a little bit more because what I didn’t realize at the time was how much of a head start I had in leadership compared to most every other entrepreneur. Because if you don’t know what ROTC kids do in college, well at least what I did in college in ROTC was they train you on leadership. And they are constantly putting you in different scenarios.

They’re teaching how to lead, they’re teaching how to manage, they’re teaching how to do both, and they’re grading you on these things all the time. Then you go to all like basic training, they’re doing the same kind of stuff, Uh you know, basic training for officers. And then you get into actually being an Air Force officer where I’m in immediately in charge of teams.

2020: why i wrote killing comfort

And that’s not how most entrepreneurs, if they don’t have that background military experience, they don’t have the leadership muscle. And I’m not saying I was perfect, but I had a huge head start in being able to lead people. And so that’s what I started to do uh building an autonomous team. Really start to flex the leadership muscle and skills that I had and really diving into like, okay, I know how to make money, but how do I generate free time?

And so that’s the big thing. And that’s why I talk about boring ops, bigger life all the time. The more you can get into operations and leadership after you learn how to market and sell, the more actual time freedom you have. Cuz you can get financial freedom. You learn how to sell stuff, boom, you got financial freedom. You can buy you can start to ride in first class and you can buy a nicer car, nicer house, but if you still don’t have time freedom, in my opinion, you’re still poor.

Now in um 2020, I released my second book called Killing Comfort. And this is what I wanted to write in this book was just kind of something that tied everything together. Um I can give Killing Comfort to a brand new athlete I was coaching and it made sense. I could give Killing Comfort to someone I was coaching in business um who was just getting started and it made sense. That was the goal of that book is like, hey, the prerequisite to extraordinary results is Killing Comfort.

It is being able to sit with discomfort. So I needed a book that could kind of marry my two passions here of getting really good at business and really good at coaching and coaching people. Um and I wanted a book that could do that. So I wrote that book. Now from the business side, the what do these books actually do? They add a ton of credibility. So I highly recommend you write a book if you are an expert in your field, you feel like you have something to give.

You can sell these books. You can um you know, give them as gifts. You can do whatever, but ultimately if you have a process, you’re good at what you do, I highly recommend a book being a part of your entrepreneurial strategy. And for me, it’s been a huge um growth lever, ultimately. Um, Killing Comfort wasn’t necessary.

2021: my first 30-day vacation (the business grew)

That wasn’t the goal, but it’s my most popular book at this point and what a lot of people know me for. Um, and it just gives you that extra credibility. So, I know there are a lot of entrepreneurs who don’t have as much credibility. Like for me at this point, I’ve been doing this for 18 years. I’ve, you know, we’ll talk about some other accomplishments here. Uh, made a ton of money, had a lot of success.

I’ve been an Air Force officer. Like, I have the experience now to where I feel really confident going to anything. A lot of people are just getting started. And it’s like, I don’t like, what credentials do you have to fall back on? Why should someone listen to you? And you might have nothing. You might You like, a lot of people start with that in entrepreneurship and I get it. Write a book. To be honest, if you think that you can write a good book and you have something to talk about, write a book.

That can kind of be your first check box to gaining that credibility and the credentials that you need. Uh, in 2021, after I kind of started to flex that leadership model muscle, I got really good at operations, building my own operating system, all these kind of things, I took my first 30 vac- 30-day vacation. That was a big deal for me because it was something that I couldn’t do previously. I couldn’t leave for more than three to four days at a time without things falling off the map in previous years of entrepreneurship.

By 2021, I’m able to take 30-day vacations and not just, you know, let the wheels fall off for 30 days and I put it back together when I come back. I’ll never forget, I took those 30 days off and the company actually grew. Everything was still taken care of. And that’s what happens when you have a really awesome team.

2022: 2023: inc. 5000 twice

Because I moved from solo entrepreneurship earlier on to having this team once I got into, uh, you know, more of PT Biz, like I said, flexing the leadership muscle. So, I achieved the $1 million uh, with no W-2 employees, uh, just a few contractors here and there. And then I got to multi-seven figures, uh, by really operations and leadership was ultimately what I did and I was able to take off a lot of time. Now, we’re rolling through 2022, we hit the Inc. 5000 at number 447, which is the fastest growing privately held companies in the United States. 2023, we hit the Inc. 5000 again, this time at number 152.

And then we also launched and partnered with Patch marketing agency. You can check them out at the patchsystem.com. Jeremy is the CEO there. He is really the brains behind it all. I’m not going to try and take credit, you know, for the full-on success of that company.

2024: 2025: scaling multiple brands + launching an ai company

Jeremy is an amazing entrepreneur and has done incredible things. But it is another, you know, partner, another company that I’m part of that I have helped grow and you know, just starting to juggle more and more and I would not be able to do this if I didn’t understand operations and leadership. Now, 2024 was just that juggling act that I’m talking about. Operated multiple seven-figure brands across fitness, marketing, education. And this is where I’m starting to really find out like do your systems work?

Um, because if you are Sometimes people want to run multiple different companies and generally I advise against that if you don’t really have one company figured out really well. But this is where I kind of put my feet to the fire. I’m like, okay, this is how you run companies. I had none of this documented at the time, but I had an operating system, right? I had how I ran the company meetings. I had how we did calendars, how we did reporting, how the team worked, how they were more autonomous than me having to do every single thing.

And 2024 was really that like, okay, this is a lot. Like can your operating system actually handle it? And at the end of the day, it could. And that’s when I was like, this is something. Like this is something I need to start talking more about. And then 2025 just to add to the mix, we launched an AI trans transcription company. We got zero to 1,000 users in a couple months, which is pretty hard for like a SaaS company.

It’s called Claire. If you want to go check it out at transcribe.notes for clinicians.

2026: the playbook that ties it all together

And then again, running it off all the same principles. Then in 2026, what I did this year was I put all of those lessons together and put it in a playbook. A lot of people who follow me or know you’ve already downloaded this thing, but if you go to better.biz, which is the website now, you can download this playbook. It’s the call to action everywhere. So, go download that playbook. It’s 128 pages and it’s really going to dive into the deeper versions of everything I’m talking about from being a solopreneur, acquisition strategies, how to run your team, leadership, checklist, planning, everything’s in there.

Everything that I’ve done slowly, everything I’ve developed over the last 18 years is in this playbook. And you either know or you don’t know. It’s like the game recognize game. I have somebody uh right now who’s following this playbook step-by-step. They already earn They’re making about $300,000 a month. They’re reaching out to me frequently about how valuable this playbook has been for them in growing their business. Only and it’s only been like several a couple weeks, maybe a month that they’ve been at it.

Like I said, game recognizes game. Like if you actually are running a business, you understand a business, you understand how valuable this playbook is. But it’s 128 pages, it’s given to you for free. So, most people aren’t going to respect it. And I understand that 100%. It’s just another 128 page thing. You think it’s not going to move the needle. Is it worth your time? It’s absolutely worth your time. It’s been worth my time. It’s taken me 18 years to figure it out.

So, if you really want to cut through all the noise, this thing’s 100% free. Go to better.biz, download your copy, and you will be better off for it. Go build a better business, build it faster than I have. Don’t take 18 years. Build a million-dollar solo practice solo company, build a million dollars with a team, whatever, then go multi-million, go 10 million. The sky’s the limit these days and AI and everything else is making it easier and easier.

But if you want to shortcut the process as much as possible, go down my playbook.