Charlie Hills

Summary:

Charlie is a solopreneur who earns $90K / year. He founded a LinkedIn agency less than 12 months ago (in Dec 2023) 🤯 This guys isn't even 25 years old yet and with his recent launch of digital products, he is ready to scale and build a business that facilitates his lifestyle. Check it out...

Tell us about yourself and what your business does?

Hey there, my name is Charlie Hills and I am a solopreneur running a company called Cognified.io.

Today, Cognified.io is a LinkedIn content agency where I help CEO’s, founders and C-suite employees, grow their LinkedIn presence and position themselves as thought leaders. Naturally, being on LinkedIn, I predominately work in the B2B space. As everyone does nowadays - I use a lot of AI in my workflow. It not only saves me time, but it also adds value and impact to my clients.

However, this is not at all where I started. When I first launched the company, I focused on coaching & training people on how to grow their own LinkedIn accounts. It didn’t take long for me to realize that, no matter how much you train and teach people, they simply don’t have the time to manage it all themselves. So after struggling to get traction with this model, I pivoted into a “done for you” service, which is where I’m at today.

All in all, I handle LinkedIn content creation, ghostwriting, graphic design and video editing for my clients. It’s a full content creation service that completely takes the process off my clients’ hands.

What is the specific problem that your business solves?

Many CEOs and C-suite executives are too busy and lack the time to create consistent, engaging LinkedIn content. But it’s super important to do this nowadays in order to build your brand and drive business leads. This is where I come in.

I also address the challenge of integrating quality video content and graphic design assets into their content strategy. These are extremely time consuming tasks and are often too technical for my ICP.

How did you find your business idea?

I didn’t start the conventional way. 

Most people start with the problem and then build the solution. I started with my lifestyle goals and worked backwards from that. 

I knew that I wanted to be a digital nomad, I knew I didn’t want to work 9-5, I knew that I wanted to travel and be able to live in places like Bali and finally, I knew that I had marketing expertise (this is my background and what I studied). This led me to investigate a bunch of options, but LinkedIn ultimately stood out as the most appealing. 

So on Christmas day in 2023, I sat down and set myself a goal for Q1 of the following year - I was going to post on LinkedIn daily, hit 3000 followers and acquire 1000 newsletter subscribers. That’s it. That’s all I wanted. After Q1 I would see how things go and take it from there. I didn’t put too much pressure on myself as I wanted it to flow naturally and I didn’t want it to become a “chore that I had to do”. 

After a while things started to take off. I now have 46 000 followers on LinkedIn and just by consistently posting daily, I have found what resonates with people and I have found my niche which is “AI content marketing”.

How did you find your first customer?

True to my business, my first client came to me. He inbounded thanks to my consistent posting. He was a fan of my LinkedIn posts, had been following me for a while and eventually reached out to me directly. 

Now a challenge came up when we were on our first sales call and he asked for proof that my system worked. He wanted past client examples (curve ball… didn’t see that coming)... 

I was honest. I told him that I have no prior clients. However, my experience managing my own LinkedIn strategy and the fact that he reached out to me, gave me some form of credibility that the proof is in the pudding. He eventually took a leap of faith, and signed up. We have now been working together for almost 6 months and he has seen the positive impact of our partnership firsthand.

How do you find customers on a regular basis nowadays?

All my customers come to me through inbound as a result of my content. I don’t do cold outreach. I personally dislike receiving cold messages myself. Instead, I focus on creating consistent, high-quality content that resonates with my target audience. Occasionally, I engage with social selling by reaching out to commenters on my posts or those who send connection requests, as these are high-intent leads. But that is as cold as my outreach gets.

What are your current revenue streams and how much do you earn from each?

From client services, I charge $2.5K per month for five weekly LinkedIn posts. I currently have two clients on this package, bringing in $5K per month. 

Coaching packages are $997 per month, adding up to $7K MRR (monthly recurring revenue). 

Sponsored posts bring in around $1K per month. 

I recently launched a LinkedIn masterclass priced at $99 USD. But this literally went live 3 days ago, so I haven’t made any sales yet. Passive income is a big focus for me moving forward.

What are your future plans with the business?

I aim to build a sustainable, scalable business that supports a digital nomad lifestyle. My goal is to reach $10K MRR consistently, which would allow me to hire a full-time employee and sustain my business long-term. I also plan to transition my services entirely to a “done-for-you” model and scale my client base.

I am not here to build a billion dollar company. I am here to build a self-sustaining business that I love and that offers the lifestyle I want to live. This means I will be able to travel, live comfortably and most importantly, live on my own terms. Yes, money is important, but that’s not the only reason I went the entrepreneurial route. Freedom is the main driver.

What type of life has running your own business allowed you to live?

Running my own business has given me freedom and flexibility. I wake up excited to work, knowing I’m building something I love. It’s about living life on my own terms, deciding where I go and what I do. I’m working toward becoming a digital nomad and living the "four-hour workweek" lifestyle. I have already had a taste of this through this journey and it is only going to accelerate as I grow. 

What piece of advice would you give to someone wanting to start a business?

Start with an MVP (minimum viable product) and test your ideas before investing too much time or money. In my first business (that ultimately failed), my co-founder and I spent years building it and then 2 years taking it to market and trying to sell it. We had invested so much time, effort, money and energy in the product before seeing if anyone would even buy it. It failed because the model didn’t make sense. Margins were way too low. Although I learnt a lot, it was ultimately a pretty large waste of time and money. You HAVE to validate the idea first to make sure you are not wasting your time. 

Be knowledgeable about the industry you’re entering, as the learning curve of entrepreneurship is steep. Just running a business is hard (you have to worry about building a website, invoicing, taxes, sales, marketing, client management etc. etc. etc… the list is infinite). Now if you are trying to do something in an industry or role you have no experience in, you then don’t only need to learn how to run a business, but you also need to learn how to do the thing you are trying to sell. This is set up to fail. 

Lastly, don’t overthink it. Just take action and do it. You only know if you try.

Where can people find you & your company?

You can find me on LinkedIn, which is my main platform. I also have a landing page at Cognified.io where you can get hold of me.