How Brian built and sold a million-dollar content company

Before his indie journey, Brian Dean was a registered dietitian in New York City.

It wasn’t until he read the Four Hour Work Week by Tim Ferris that he even considered being an entrepreneur. The book, which offers a blueprint to free oneself from 9-5 work and create a business, made him realize that anyone could become an entrepreneur.

In 2013, he launched Backlinko to help founders develop actionable digital marketing and SEO strategies. Instead of writing quick blog posts like his competitors, Dean dived deep into the nuances of digital marketing and amassed more than 175,000 subscribers over 8 years.

In early 2022, he sold his content company in a mid-7 figure deal to the publicly traded marketing company Semrush. Learn more about his sale here.

I spoke with Dean — who now is a co-founder of Exploding Topics — about his journey to making millions, what he’s learned, and his advice for founders.

Why did you start a content business?

When I launched my first business I was basically broke. Which meant ads were out. So I needed to learn content and SEO to bring in customers.

How’d you navigate risk?

It didn’t feel like a huge risk at the time. I was young and broke. So I had nothing to lose!

At first, it felt super scary whenever I would make an investment. Now I know that with big investments, some work out, and some don’t. It’s impossible to tell ahead of time which ones will or won’t work out. But it’s usually worth making them.

Any advice for people taking on a risk to start a business?

Cap the downside. Is there a way to reverse the decision if it doesn’t work out? Or even if the investment doesn’t 100% work out, you still get some value. For example, if you buy a site, and the site fails. Do you get to hang onto a valuable domain name?

Tell us about your mindset and what skill you cultivated.

Slow and steady wins the race. Passion is fantastic. But it’s perishable.

Hiring is probably the most important skill I’ve learned. Being able to ID roles the company needs and hiring the right person for those roles. Harder than it sounds!

Copywriting helps with everything: internal emails, launch messages, and video scripts. Even interviews like this!

What did it feel like to make $1M in revenue?

It felt amazing! It definitely wasn’t a goal at first. But as I got closer to 7-figures, I realized that it was possible.

I wouldn’t [set a goal of $1M in revenue] unless you’re already doing 6-figures. Focus on getting to $100/mo, $1k/mo, $10k/mo etc.

Do you see founders make common mistakes? How'd you avoid them?

The #1 mistake is the “if you build it, they will come” approach. Even if your product can solve every problem someone has, it will still require a ton of marketing.

I only learned this from making these exact mistakes several times.

As a solo founder, how did you balance your time?

It was honestly pretty tough at times. I dedicated mornings to “maker time” writing, creating, etc. And the afternoons to admin stuff. … I’m the type of person that doesn’t work a ton of hours. But try to be super focused during those hours.

Do whatever works for you. There’s no secret productivity approach that works for everyone.

Any advice for aspiring entrepreneurs that hope to monetize a product?

Get it into people’s hands as early as possible. That’s the only way you’ll know if you have a winner. This visual explains it best.

Did you encounter imposter syndrome? What was your experience?

I struggled with imposter syndrome for years. The #1 thing that helped me was to meet other people in my space. I remember meeting a bunch of "world-class marketing experts" at a conference. Needless to say, I was nervous. But when I actually met these titans of industry? They were pretty normal. In fact, they were all basically nerds like me. They just started a few years earlier than I did.