Founder Unfiltered - What Founders Think But Never Say

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151

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Oct 2026

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About the show

Formerly Six Figure Secrets of Fractional Experts, Founder Unfiltered is the show about the stuff founders don't talk about: the identity crisis when you go from operator to leader, the weird shame of self-promotion, the gap between who you are and who your business needs you to be. Hosted by Bradley Jacobs, founder of Mylance — a LinkedIn thought leadership platform for B2B founders — this show gets into the psychology, the patterns, and the honest conversations that actually move the needle. No hacks. No hype. Just the raw truth about what's really holding you back.

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October 22, 2026Episode 13815 min

Your Next Client Is Watching You. They’re Just Not Ready Yet.

I've had people tell me they followed my content for a year or more, never liked or commented once, then suddenly reached out ready to work with me. That used to confuse me. Now I understand it completely, and in this episode I break down exactly why it happens and what it means for how you should think about linkedin thought leadership. The core idea is simple. You don't know when someone's situation is going to change. Maybe they get laid off, maybe they lose their biggest client, maybe something shifts in their business overnight. When that moment hits, they need a solution right away, and the person they call is whoever has been top of mind. That is the entire case for consistent linkedin content marketing: it is not about going viral today, it is about being the obvious call when their moment arrives, whenever that is. I walk through how I think about this with Mylance customers, why patience matters more than most people want to admit, and the three things I tell every client to do alongside posting: get your profile positioning clear, add new connections every day, and message people like you met them at a coffee shop instead of pitching them immediately. None of this is complicated. It just takes longer than people want it to. Build your founder brand with Mylance: https://mylance.co Connect with Bradley Jacobs: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradley-r-jacobs/ 00:00 Why people follow for years before buying 02:22 The one moment that makes a client say yes 05:07 Staying top of mind before the moment happens 05:38 Adding value from your own experience and expertise 08:19 How your content reaches referrals, not just customers 11:07 Three things beyond content: profile, connections, outreach 14:11 Patience, consistency, and why this work compounds

October 15, 2026Episode 13732 min

11 Million Followers, a Burnout, and What He Learned with Swish Goswami

He built a basketball media brand to 11 million followers, sold a company, and still ended up burnt out at 23. My guest today, Swish Goswami, has lived that whole arc, and this conversation is about what he tore down and rebuilt afterward. Swish has been building companies since he was a kid running an imaginary investment bank out of notebooks for his grandparents. He dropped out of university, co-built Dunk into an 11 million follower basketball media brand, grew a personal brand as a LinkedIn top voice, co-founded and sold a data company called Surf, and is now building his newest company, Broker Plus. We talk about how he thinks about product market fit, why customer obsession beats a polished product every time, and how he actually recovered from the burnout that hit him in 2022 after scaling a 36 person team. This one is useful if you care about linkedin thought leadership and how founders build authority without the flashy, look-at-me version of a personal brand. Swish makes a strong case that authenticity, not more content, is what actually works, and that linkedin content marketing only lands when it comes from a place that is genuinely you. We also get into why vulnerability is a strength, not a weakness, when you are building in public. Build your founder brand with Mylance: https://mylance.co Connect with Bradley Jacobs: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradley-r-jacobs/ 00:00 Introducing Swish Goswami 01:15 Deciding to become an entrepreneur 02:45 Building Dunk to 11 million followers 04:08 Product market fit, Surf versus Broker Plus 06:25 Why customer obsession drives 80 percent of success 09:11 Building an internal tool to track feedback 12:34 Growing entirely through organic referrals 16:16 Hitting burnout in 2022 19:39 The intentional habits that changed 20:27 Building a personal brand without cringe 27:45 Shifting from distraction to focus 30:14 The one piece of advice for first time founders

October 8, 2026Episode 13615 min

I Stopped Pitching on Calls. Here’s the Framework That Replaced It.

I stopped pitching on my calls, sales calls included, and now I ask questions to find out whether someone has a project they cannot avoid. The framework comes from Rob Snyder's founder bootcamp and his book The Power of Pull, which I picked up while digging into product market fit and why people buy. Customers buy when a project is sitting on their to do list, and a problem on its own is not enough, since people live with plenty of problems they never pay to solve. I walk through the four parts of the framework: the project to be done, why it is unavoidable, the other options they have (competitors, doing it themselves, doing it manually, or AI), and where those options fall short. Then I apply it to Mylance, where the project is showing up on LinkedIn to demonstrate expertise and attract clients. That is LinkedIn thought leadership, and many founders I talk to have tried AI for their LinkedIn content marketing and found it generic and unlike them. I share the twelve questions I ask every customer, including what happens if you do nothing for six months and how convinced you are that LinkedIn works for you. I cover the signs that someone is ready to buy, why I ask people where their head is at, a recent call where I was pitched for ten minutes without a single question, and a UX designer example that shows how this works for any service or software. Build your founder brand with Mylance: https://mylance.co Connect with Bradley Jacobs: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradley-r-jacobs/ 00:00 Welcome and what Mylance does 00:40 Why I stopped pitching on calls 01:25 Rob Snyder's founder bootcamp 01:50 Customers buy to finish a project 02:20 The six month do nothing question 02:55 The four part framework begins 03:30 The other options customers have 04:10 The framework applied to Mylance 05:30 LinkedIn conviction, AI shortfalls 07:00 The 10 minute pitch I sat through 08:35 The twelve questions I ask 09:45 Any service or software 10:15 UX designer example 12:45 Signals someone is ready to buy 13:10 Asking where their head is at 13:45 The customer who went on vacation 15:00 Try Mylance and design your voice

October 1, 2026Episode 13545 min

Stop Chasing the Next Thing: How to Build a Life That Actually Feels Good with Sloane

I used to think building the business, hitting the number, and checking every box on the list would eventually add up to feeling good. My guest today spent over a decade as a business attorney, built her own law firm, scaled it, sold it, and by every external measure had made it. Then she realized hitting every goal on the list wasn't actually making her happy, and the whole path she had been running on wasn't built for her. Sloane is a transformational mentor who helps high performing women create success on their own terms, and she brings something most people in this space don't: a certification in neuropsychophysiology, combining neuroscience, psychology, and biology to back up what she teaches. In this conversation we get into why so many founders sacrifice themselves now hoping to be happy later, why that trade almost never pays off, and what she calls the slingshot effect of building from alignment instead of pure hustle. We also talk about something founders rarely discuss openly: how the male dominated default of business, the single pointed focus model, differs from what Sloane calls diffuse awareness, and why understanding this matters if you lead a team, run a company, or are building your own version of thought leadership and visibility. If you have ever felt like your linkedin thought leadership or your business success looked great from the outside while something quietly felt off on the inside, this episode is for you. Build your founder brand with Mylance: https://mylance.co Connect with Bradley Jacobs: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradley-r-jacobs/ 00:00 Welcome to Founder Unfiltered 00:45 Meet Sloane, attorney turned mentor 01:22 Building the dream and still feeling empty 03:22 The pattern of chasing the next big thing 07:29 Selling the firm and moving to coaching 09:07 The dinner in Mexico that changed everything 11:31 The two things missing from a fulfilled life 13:59 How this applies to founders 15:16 What happens after you sell the company 16:11 The slingshot effect of building from alignment 20:21 The research behind subjective well being 22:06 Diffuse awareness versus single pointed focus 25:07 Why business culture is built for men 27:11 The four different women in one cycle 28:40 The superpowers hidden in each phase 33:14 Leading with curiosity instead of judgment 36:43 Why true pleasure is profitable 39:40 Sloane's five core beliefs framework 43:07 How to work with Sloane and what's next

September 24, 2026Episode 13416 min

I Thought I Understood Product-Market Fit. I Didn’t.

I thought product-market fit meant people liked what I built. That belief was wrong, and it cost me time. In this solo episode, I walk through what product-market fit actually looks like once you get past the surface-level idea of "people gave positive feedback." I talk about the pain cave, the identity crisis that comes with being a founder, and why nine out of ten people give up before they ever get there. I explain the exact situation I look for in a Mylance customer: someone with a task they cannot avoid, and existing options that are not good enough for very specific reasons. I get into how I use LinkedIn content marketing and LinkedIn thought leadership as the backdrop for this whole conversation, since that is the product I have spent years building. I also share how I separate my identity from my product so I can hear real feedback without taking it personally, and the list of questions I now ask every customer to understand what is actually unavoidable about their situation. If you are building something, whether a product or a service, this is the mindset shift I wish I had earlier. Build your founder brand with Mylance: https://mylance.co Connect with Bradley Jacobs: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradley-r-jacobs/ 00:00 Why building a company is so hard 01:36 The typical product-market fit path 02:42 The emotional weight of putting yourself out there 03:35 What I used to think product-market fit meant 04:57 The unavoidable task and the limits of existing solutions 06:21 Why skeptical customers are not "hell yes" customers 07:27 Building authority versus expecting inbound leads 08:15 Becoming an investigator into your customer 10:31 Separating your identity from your product 12:08 The 12 questions I ask every customer 13:33 Finding your hell yes customers 14:39 Staying detached while believing you will figure it out

September 17, 2026Episode 13346 min

From $1.65 an Hour to Multimillionaire: The Brain Science Behind the Leap with John Assaraf

I sat down with John Assaraf, someone who has built five multimillion dollar companies, written 18 books including two New York Times bestsellers, and appeared in 14 movies including The Secret. But none of that is why I wanted him on the show. I wanted to know what actually happened in his brain the day everything changed. John dropped out of high school after 10th grade, was working for $1.65 an hour in a factory, and by his own account was heading toward jail or worse. Then at 19, one conversation with a mentor named Alan Brown shifted the entire trajectory of his life, not because of a single piece of advice, but because it forced John to choose between being interested in his goals and being committed to them. We go deep on what it actually took to rewire his identity from the inside out, the belief work he still does every single day at 65, and why fear of success is just as dangerous and far less talked about than fear of failure. John breaks down the neuroscience of prediction, why your brain is constantly trying to keep you safe from embarrassment and rejection, and how he taught himself to turn fear into fuel using tools any founder can practice. We also get into why consistency beats intensity, what he's doing today with AI to run 80 percent of his business, and the daily non negotiables that have kept his mindset sharp for over four decades. If you have ever felt like you know what to do but cannot get yourself to actually do it, this conversation is for you. Build your founder brand with Mylance: https://mylance.co Connect with Bradley Jacobs: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradley-r-jacobs/ 00:00 Intro to Founder Unfiltered 00:21 Meet John Assaraf 01:32 The $1.65 an hour years 02:20 The lunch that changed his life 04:21 The 1980 goal setting guide 05:32 Interested versus committed 06:50 A mentor says yes 08:03 Rewiring identity from scratch 09:26 Creating new beliefs on day one 11:30 Reading and feeling the vision daily 12:15 Reverse engineering the sales goal 13:01 The cold call script 14:15 First deals and first wins 16:00 The exceptional life blueprint today 17:20 Understanding the brain's mechanics 18:32 Two paths after the opportunity 19:14 Sick and tired of being sick and tired 21:25 Escaping the old environment 22:52 Owning your gifts without arrogance 24:17 The podcast mistake that humbled him 25:48 Fear of success explained 26:17 The brain's prediction loop 28:21 What fear of success is protecting 29:57 Self regulating the nervous system 31:23 Practice versus reacting in the moment 32:59 The hardest part of business today 34:05 Bradley's own avoidance pattern 35:04 Understanding your role on the team 36:57 Disappointment avoidance in sales 37:59 Separating rejection from self worth 39:22 Changing the meaning changes the feeling 41:09 Daily non negotiable practices 43:18 Consistency before complexity 44:34 Relearning to walk after surgery 45:20 Where to find John Assaraf

September 10, 2026Episode 13216 min

Why You’re Scared to Grow Your Business (And What to Do About It)

I want to tell you about something I almost didn't admit out loud. I shipped a feature I'm genuinely excited about, one that finds the people commenting on your posts, scores them against your ideal customer profile, and even drafts a reply for you. It's working, and I told almost no one. No email to my customer list, no newsletter blast, no LinkedIn post. In this episode, I dig into why I did that, and why so many founders do the same thing without realizing it. The honest answer is fear. Not fear of failure exactly, fear that if the product isn't perfect, that says something about me. When you're a solo founder, or when you are the product, like a fractional COO or independent consultant, that fear gets even sharper because there's no cofounder in the room to call it out. I break down the real loop every growing business depends on: build something imperfect, put it in front of real customers, get their honest reaction, and iterate. That loop only works if you're willing to be seen before you're ready. I talk through how to separate your worth from your product, how to notice the voice in your head that's actually running the show, and what it really takes to keep showing up every day even when the thing you built has bugs in it. If you're a founder who has been sitting on a launch, a post, or a feature because it isn't polished enough yet, this one is for you. Build your founder brand with Mylance: https://mylance.co Connect with Bradley Jacobs: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradley-r-jacobs/ Timestamps 00:00 Welcome to Founder Unfiltered 00:35 The feature I shipped and hid 01:28 Why I didn't tell anyone 02:22 The fear underneath the silence 02:40 Shipping before it's perfect 03:27 I coach founders on this daily 04:13 The hypothesis every founder is running 04:34 The vulnerability of being the product 05:19 Getting judged by the market 06:16 The feedback and iteration loop 07:14 Why this hides in the shadows 07:46 Not telling anyone about your product 08:30 The unconscious fear behind the story 09:07 Making it about you, not the work 10:03 Distraction and procrastination as avoidance 10:37 What you would tell someone else 11:05 Owning the truth about building 11:45 Separating yourself from your product 12:32 What makes a great founder 13:09 Naming the voice running the show 13:29 Realizing it's not true, it's not you 14:17 A daily battle, not a one time fix 15:21 What Mylance does with your story 16:10 Ratings, thanks, and sign off

September 3, 2026Episode 13146 min

The Mirror Test: What Every Founder Needs to Confront with Chris Deaver

Chris Deaver spent his career shaping culture inside Apple, Disney, and Dell. Then he went out on his own and learned what that culture work actually costs a person. In this conversation, Chris and I get into what "brave" actually means when you're a founder with no big company behind you. We talk about the mirror test, a principle from his book that pushes you to get quiet enough to ask what you actually need to do differently, instead of copy pasting someone else's playbook. We go deep on the difference between being brave alone and being brave together, why deleting priorities is harder than adding them, and why the best leaders lead with questions instead of answers. Chris also gets real about his own valley. Right as his book was launching and his career should have been peaking, his marriage was ending, his company was getting acquired out from under him, and he couldn't get out of bed to shoot a video with his own co-author. He shares what actually pulled him through it, and why he thinks becoming a founder might be one of the most spiritual experiences available to us today. If you've ever felt like your business identity and your personal identity got tangled up in a way that isn't working, this one is for you. Build your founder brand with Mylance: https://mylance.co Connect with Bradley Jacobs: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradley-r-jacobs/ 00:00 Intro to Chris Deaver 00:45 What brave means for solo founders 01:44 Why bravery alone has limits 02:42 Getting stuck without knowing why 04:08 The mirror test explained 05:44 Why the founder journey is confronting 06:25 Ed Catmull and asking better questions 07:14 The hero's journey and sacrifice 09:21 The Warren Buffett top five method 10:23 Steve Jobs and the sacrifice question 10:53 Why deleting is harder than doing 11:25 Ed Catmull, take care of the baby 12:35 Amazon's sequential build lesson 13:57 Culture as the golden goose 14:14 Leaving big companies to go solo 16:55 What it was really like eating glass 19:41 AI disruption and founder priorities 20:11 The bottom falling out moment 21:28 The Weekend at Bernie's video shoot 22:16 A hand on a tree 25:07 When founder identity confuses with the business 27:30 The solar startup culture turnaround 30:04 Building a brain trust 32:39 From 15 million to 150 million 34:41 Finding your tribe at a company 35:37 Spock and Kirk co-founder dynamics 36:28 Softway and the trust question 38:06 Ice baths and stacking habits 39:03 The spiritual side of building 40:23 Leading with questions, not answers 44:32 Asking for help and refining leverage 45:23 A team that rocks together 46:13 Where to find Chris Deaver

August 27, 2026Episode 13011 min

Trying to Get Visible While Staying Invisible | The Fear That's Costing You Clients

A few months ago I got on a call with a business owner who almost canceled on me twice. She runs a real consulting business, real clients, real revenue, and she's smart and experienced. But when we finally connected, she told me something I hear constantly: she's trying to grow her visibility while staying invisible. She wants more clients and more reach, but she doesn't want to actually put herself out there to get it. In this episode I dig into that contradiction, because it's one of the most common things I see in founders, consultants, and fractional executives. I ask her the question I ask almost everyone in this spot: what are you actually afraid of? Her answer was blunt. She's scared to fail in public. Scared of bad takes. Scared people will read what she posts and think less of her. I walk through why that fear feels so real and so specific, and why it almost never matches what actually happens once people start posting. If you've ever sat on a draft, rewritten a headline five times, or talked yourself out of hitting publish, this conversation is for you. This is the fear that quietly costs founders clients, and I want to help you name it so you can move through it instead of around it. Build your founder brand with Mylance: https://mylance.co Connect with Bradley Jacobs: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradley-r-jacobs/ 00:00 The client who kept rescheduling 00:53 Why founders stay invisible 01:26 Naming the real fear 02:33 Fear with no actual consequence 03:10 The vulnerability of putting yourself out there 04:09 The founder who never posted once 05:04 What actually happens after a bad post 05:51 Why posting daily doesn't bombard anyone 06:30 The algorithm myth everyone believes 06:53 Your content isn't about you 08:18 My own fear before hitting publish 09:15 Why nothing is ever perfect at launch 10:02 The hardest part of being a founder 10:30 The exercise: name what you're avoiding 11:02 Let your vision be bigger than your fear 11:33 Closing and where to find Mylance

August 20, 2026Episode 12937 min

13 Years to $180M: What Bootstrapping Really Looks Like with Gregory Galant

I sat down with Gregory Galant, co-founder and CEO of Muckrack, the leading PR software platform, and co-founder of the Shorty Awards. Greg bootstrapped his company for 13 years on roughly $200K in angel funding before raising $180 million. That's not a typo, and getting there was not a straight line. We talk about persistence, and how to actually tell the difference between an idea worth sticking with and one you need to walk away from. Greg shares the story of spending two years building a podcast ad network that never found its market, even while competitors were getting funded by Sequoia and Kleiner Perkins, and how that experience shaped the way he evaluates decisions today. He also gets into one of his most useful habits: writing a private memo before every major call so he can go back later and separate a good decision from a lucky or unlucky outcome. We get into mindset too. Greg is honest about how hard it is not to take a failing business personally when your identity is wrapped up in it, and the mental model he uses to treat entrepreneurship more like running experiments than staking his self-worth on every outcome. We also cover why he thinks courage and judgment matter more than ever now that AI has made tactical knowledge nearly free, why Muckrack went all-in on remote work over a decade before it was normal, and how he actually measures performance on a distributed team. If you're building something and wondering whether you're pushing a boulder uphill or riding a market that's actually pulling you forward, this conversation will give you a real framework for figuring that out. Build your founder brand with Mylance: https://mylance.co Connect with Bradley Jacobs: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradley-r-jacobs/ 00:00 Intro to Gregory Galant 00:47 The single biggest factor in success 01:50 Knowing when to persist vs. pivot 02:31 Two years on a podcast ad network 03:45 Competing against Sequoia-backed rivals 04:28 Pushing a boulder vs. market pull 05:19 A mediocre team in a great market 06:07 Learning it wasn't him, it was the market 07:25 The Edison filament analogy 08:41 Giving yourself entrepreneurial longevity 08:57 How the Shorty Awards went viral in 24 hours 10:14 Talking mindset and imposter feelings 11:09 Separating identity from outcome 12:18 Treating decisions like experiments 13:07 Writing private memos before big calls 14:35 It's not about you, it's the market 15:26 Why this never gets easier 15:59 AI and the death of tactical advantage 17:41 Why Silicon Valley insiders had the edge 18:00 Courage and judgment as the new differentiators 19:21 Why AI won't give you conviction 20:06 The Felix Dennis paycheck-addiction line 21:09 Founder mistakes that actually cost him 22:00 Building tech before proving the business 23:32 Launching a dozen side projects 24:29 The angel investors who called him unfocused 25:05 Discovering Muckrack's real audience 26:19 What changed to make him double down 27:02 Muckrack's first $8,000 in MRR 28:15 The market kept pulling harder 28:51 Going remote before it was normal 30:08 Why they never made anyone commute 31:38 Giving up the New York office for good 32:26 What remote work exposes about culture 33:31 How he measures performance remotely 34:04 The Andy Grove input/output framework 36:09 Advice to his younger self 37:13 Where to find Gregory Galant