Special 💌 How I Built My Business (And How You Can Too)

For four years I had no answer to "How did you do it?" Now I do. And for the first time, I'm handing it over. Plus: Why I run my business with a no-hustle culture.

Florian Schleicher

Jun 24, 2026

If you’re happy with your business and your personal brand, skip this one and save yourself the time.

But if you’re not and feel like you want to grow, this is for you…

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You’re good at what you do.

You work hard.

But...

It still feels like the business runs you more than you run it,
and your name doesn’t open the doors it should.

I know that spot. Here’s how I got out of it:

I started my business over 4 years ago to have a good life. Not to get rich, not to get famous, though I’d happily take both. When I left a well-paid job as Head of Marketing at Too Good To Go, my motivation was different:

I wanted time for work I love, time to get better at it, time to explore the world, time with curious people and brands worth thinking about - without hustling around.

The script we’re sold says the opposite. Scale faster. Grind now, live later. Earn the good life back once the numbers are big enough.

That didn’t appeal to me, so I bet on the reverse and built the life first.

Four years in, the work and projects followed. Stable six figures and growing, brands and people I’m glad to work with, and the freedom to take as much holiday as I want.

That freedom is the reason I’m not burned out, and the reason the rest holds together.

So how did it actually work?

I also started with cold outreach. I texted people on LinkedIn (sorry if that was you) out of the blue. I had outbound decks, “just circling back” messages, and a success rate of 0.5%.

Let me tell you: It was fucking exhausting.

It worked at the beginning.

But I don’t do any of it anymore.

My clients come to me.

It doesn’t have to be this hard.

I get to choose who I work with and which projects appeal to me.

Why? Because I built something else.

A personal brand.

This newsletter with +2,500 readers. Three podcasts (this one, this one, that one) with over 100 episodes. The posts on Linkedin and Instagram. My trend report FRICTION RELOADED. The keynotes and panel talks I give. The interviews, the 3 universities that I teach at (and that don’t pay well). Being approached to co-author studies and papers.

Most people file those under content, extras, a nice-to-have next to the real work.

But they are the real work.

They are how I sell now, and they sell while I sleep (or travel).

That sounds like a lot, I know.

But none of it appeared at once.

I added one channel at a time, over four years.

And yes, it’s work, but it’s a different kind of work than chasing people who never asked to hear from you.

One is exhausting because it leads nowhere.

The other compounds, every post and every episode keeps working long after you publish it.

You don’t need my stack. You need one or two channels that fit you, used consistently for the one thing you want to be known for.

Here’s the shift it took me years to see:

Most people treat a personal brand as reach, so to get seen by as many people as possible.

But for me it is different:

By the time someone emails me, they’ve had several touch points with my personal brand already. They already know how I think and what I’m good at (and most importantly, whether they find me sympathetic).

So no conversation starts at zero.

Me in conversation with a business leader

It starts at “I want to work with you.”

Or “I really liked what you said about XYZ…”

That makes pricing simpler as well, because my audience has already experienced the value that I can give them long before we spoke.

That’s the mechanism.

Your brand closes the sale before the meeting.

Cold selling argues your worth in the room, once, under pressure and with far too short an attention span. A brand argues it for years, in the background, while you do something else (best case you work on the first projects).

And that’s why my business carries my life instead of eating it.

Chase clients and you’re never done, the pipeline empties the week you stop. Build a brand that works for you, and you can take the holiday without the funnel collapsing. The channels keep running while you’re gone.

Focus - The uncomfortable part

All of this rests on a sharp positioning. A personal brand with no clear “what for” is just noise, and noise sells nothing. The day a stranger can say in one sentence what you stand for is the day attention turns into paying projects.

That’s not easy. Focus is brutal. Because it makes you choose something and stick to it. But it is the reason why some businesses work and others fail.

That approach, and the way to set up the channels that carry it, is exactly what took me four years to figure out.

Now I can hand it over in six sessions - individualised to you.

✴️ LEAP

Six sessions, 1:1 just you and me, where we build the flywheel I just described, applied to your business, your tone of voice and your pace:

01 Positioning. Thoughts and feelings anyone understands and remembers.
02 Offer & Pricing. A real offer at a price that stops being a negotiation.
03 Network. The fanclub logic. Known by the right people for one clear thing.
04 Content. A plan where every post is proof of your one thing.
05 Conversion. How visibility, a stage or a conversation turns into a paid project.
06 Your Leap. Your 90-day plan and the rhythm you keep running on your own.

In between sessions, you’ll get tasks to work on yourself. After all, the real change doesn’t happen during our conversations, but afterwards, in your actual business.

Get the details

Whom is this for?

It’s for self-employed marketing and creative people whose business runs but doesn’t break through. You miss the structure, the plan or the bigger picture.

If you feel like that is you, then just one final note:

You don’t need me to pull this off.

You can build all of it yourself, the way I did over four years.

LEAP isn’t a safety net, it’s a shortcut.

The only question is whether you want to walk the path alone, or take a few steps faster with someone who already knows it.

What you will get:

✴ A positioning that supports you in your daily life.

✴ An offer at a price you can live with.

✴ A plan to take you to the next level.

And so you know what you’re getting into:

This isn’t a feel-good coaching. In every session I’ll challenge you and tell you the uncomfortable truths, the ones no one else will. I work this way with all my clients because mere reassurance is of little use, and I want to help you solve your problems and overcome your challenges. I want you to succeed.