Making of an Empire

Are followers and likes just vanity metrics, or do the numbers genuinely mean something? Is there a real business and revenue impact that comes from founder visibility?

In the final part of the KNOWN series, Aditi, Rebecca and Victor discuss how visibility can be a business engine, not an ego project: the authority those numbers signal, what happens when a referral pipeline dries up with nothing underneath it, and how committing to being seen is one of the fastest ways past imposter syndrome. 

The honest version of how attention turns into clients, opportunities, and revenue.

Let's Dive Into the Highlights

Vanity metrics aren't just vanity: The numbers carry a story and an impression; they build authority, credibility, and confidence, and as your visibility grows, it starts lining up with your expertise in a reinforcing loop.

The referral honeymoon runs out: Aditi's "pre-referral-pipeline-dry-up" phase feels like growth, but you have no control over it. When the region got shaky, the audience and channels she'd finally built were what she leaned on.

Visibility is the engine, not the extra: Victor reframes Aditi's "no revenue, no business" line, no visibility means no clients, which means no revenue and no business. Being seen is upstream of everything.

Every strategy works if you work it: Video "doesn't convert," until it grows you to 45,000. The lesson isn't a magic format, it's testing, watching the data, and doubling down on what fits your business.

Visibility dissolves imposter syndrome: Committing to a visibility engine forces you to face the "why me" and flip it to "why not me," anchored in the unique intersection of your story, expertise and business that only you have.

About the KNOWN Series

KNOWN is a limited series inside Making of an Empire, co-hosted by business growth strategist Aditi J. Newey with accountability coach Rebecca Scoular (Progress Partners) and LinkedIn growth coach Victor Trieu (Compound). It's the precursor to the free KNOWN workshop series on 22nd, 23rd, 24th September, three co-led working sessions on turning founder visibility into a growth lever.

They Said It Best

"No visibility means no clients, which means no revenue and no business." — Victor

"It's like having a book out there. It just puts people on a pedestal, rightly or wrongly." — Rebecca (on follower numbers)

"You feel like it's growth, but what you forget is that you have no control over that system at all." — Aditi (on referrals)

"Every strategy works if you work it." — Aditi

"None of that would have happened if I hadn't built a visibility engine." — Victor

Key Takeaways

Treat the numbers as signal, not ego. Followers and engagement build authority and confidence, and they line up with your expertise over time. That's business impact, not vanity.

Build the engine before the pipeline dries. Referrals feel like growth but give you no control. A visibility engine is what holds when a market wobbles or a client base goes quiet.

Work the strategy, don't chase the format. Ignore blanket "this doesn't work" advice. Test, read your own data, and double down on what your audience actually rewards.

Shift from growth to conversations. Once the audience is there, the revenue is in the follow-up, engaging the people already in your inbox, not just chasing a bigger number.

Use visibility to beat imposter syndrome. Committing to showing up forces "why me" into "why not me," and grounds you in the one intersection of story and expertise only you can offer.

A Question for You

You already know you should be visible, and you know it drives the business. So what's the real reason you're not, and what would open up if you built the engine instead of waiting for the next referral?

Take the Next Step

Aditi, Rebecca and Victor are hosting the free KNOWN workshop series on 22nd, 23rd, 24th September, three co-led live sessions on turning your visibility into a lever for growth and opportunity. Save your seat at plentitudestrategy.com/KNOWN. Replays are available if you can't make it live.

We all know we should be visible, so why do we start with a burst of enthusiasm and then disappear? In part two of the KNOWN series, Aditi, Rebecca, and Victor get honest about the real blockers: the overwhelm of "this is too hard," the fear of who might be watching, and the financial stress that quietly breaks consistency. 

They also dig into the selfie-versus-no-selfie debate, three very different takes on how personal to get online, and why "I'm a private person" isn't the reason you think it is.

Let's Dive Into the Highlights

"It's too hard" is the number one blocker: Victor names the belief that keeps people stuck, too many platforms, no idea what "good" looks like, AI or no AI, so the whole thing goes in the too-hard basket and tomorrow never arrives.

Perfection is the trap: Rebecca's rule, perfection is dangerous. Scrolling back to a big creator's post number one (versus their post 3,742) is Aditi's antidote to the intimidation that stops people starting.

Money stress kills consistency: Aditi shares the honest one, when revenue gets shaky, content is the first thing she drops, even though staying visible is exactly what keeps the pipeline full. The chicken-and-egg that traps a lot of founders.

The selfie debate, three ways: Rebecca shares openly with photos, Victor stays personal in story but rarely in pictures, Aditi does a mix. All three work, which is the point: "I'm a private person" isn't a strong enough reason not to post.

Content without follow-up is wasted: Victor's shift from 90% creating to 60-70% following up and DMing. The eyeballs only matter if you have a system for what happens next.

About the KNOWN Series

KNOWN is a limited series inside Making of an Empire, co-hosted by business growth strategist Aditi J. Newey with accountability coach Rebecca Scoular (Progress Partners) and LinkedIn growth coach Victor Trieu (Compound). It's the precursor to the free KNOWN workshop series on 22nd, 23rd, 24th September, built around the three pillars most visibility advice leaves out: strategy, accountability, and systems for consistency.

They Said It Best

"Perfection is dangerous. Practice makes progress." — Rebecca

"How can you care about the opinion of a stranger on the internet more than the reason you want to do this?" — Aditi

"'I'm a private person' is not a strong enough reason not to post." — Aditi

"There was a very clear voice in my head, and the three words that came to me were: not this time." — Victor

"My content did the job of repelling the kind of person who doesn't need it." — Aditi

Key Takeaways

Beat overwhelm by starting messy. You don't need to master every platform or get it perfect. Pick one, start, and let it get better as you go.

Zoom out on the comparison. The polished creators you envy have thousands of posts behind them. Measure your progress against where you began, not against someone on chapter 100.

Protect content from money stress. The instinct to cut visibility in a lean month is the exact opposite of what keeps the pipeline alive. Build a fallback (recycle an old post) so consistency survives the hard weeks.

Choose the "personal" setting that fits you. Photos, story-only, or a mix, all three hosts prove different approaches work. Privacy is a valid choice, but not an excuse to stay invisible.

Build the follow-up system. Content is only the top of the funnel. Have a human, repeatable process for the DMs and conversations, or you're leaving the money on the table.

A Question for You

Which is really stopping you, the platform, the fear of judgment, or the money worry that makes visibility feel frivolous? And what would change if you committed to showing up anyway, with people holding you to it?

Take the Next Step

Aditi, Rebecca, and Victor are hosting the free KNOWN workshop series on 22nd, 23rd, 24th September, three live working sessions where they bring strategy, accountability and systems together so you actually keep going. Save your seat at plentitudestrategy.com/KNOWN. Replays are available if you can't make it live.

Founder visibility used to be a nice-to-have. In an age where AI writes half the feed, it’s become an annoying, meaningless arena for a lot of founders. 

But the truth is: Your potential clients look you up (or ask ChatGPT who to trust) at 2pm or 2am. And when they do, being findable as a real human has become what wins the work. 

In this first conversation of the KNOWN limited series, Aditi opens up the discussions she's been having off the mic with the two coaches who have helped her create exponential business growth in 2026, Rebecca Scoular and Victor Trieu. 

They discuss why showing up matters more now, not less; how Victor grew from 2,000 to 45,000 LinkedIn followers in seven months by being himself, and working out unique formulas for getting seen and heard, and why, in a crowded landscape, staying invisible costs you far more than showing up ever will.

Let's Dive Into the Highlights

The invisibility tax: In a noisy, AI-saturated landscape, the instinct is to opt out. The three make the opposite case, that invisibility quietly costs you more than visibility, because your buyers keep meeting whoever did show up.

Search behavior has changed: People no longer only ask for referrals. They look you up, absorb your free content, and increasingly throw their problem into their favourite AI search bar. If they can't find anything on you, or if they find more information on an alternative business or expert, you’re no longer in the running. 

Two levers that drive growth: Victor credits his rapid LinkedIn (and revenue) growth to two things: consistency (posting daily since January, "seven shots on goal") and being data-driven about what actually works for him rather than copying what worked for someone else.

Values create trust: Content isn't just information. Shared values and honest, personal stories (Victor's on burnout, Rebecca's on family) are what make the right people feel an instant bridge and reach out.

The known brand wins: Aditi's local-laundry story, faced with several options, she walked into the one with a real online presence. The known person, the known business, the known brand is often the easiest to choose. 

About the KNOWN Series

KNOWN is a limited series inside Making of an Empire, co-hosted by business growth strategist Aditi J. Newey, accountability coach Rebecca Scoular (Progress Partners) and LinkedIn growth coach Victor Trieu (Compound). It's the precursor to the free KNOWN workshop series on 22, 23, 24 September, where the three bring strategy, accountability, and systems into one room to help founders turn visibility into a growth lever.

They Said It Best

"Invisibility is probably going to cost you a lot more than visibility in a crowded landscape." — Aditi

"If you can't beat it, join it." — Rebecca

"It's a disservice to those who need your help if you're not allowing them to find you." — Rebecca

"A lot of that was just me showing up authentically, warts and all." — Victor

"With AI now, a lot of people will just chuck their problem into ChatGPT at 2am. I wanted to be part of that engine, so people could find me too." — Victor

Key Takeaways

Show up because the search changed. Buyers vet you online before they ever reach out. No presence to explore is often a silent U-turn, so give people enough dots to connect.

Choose consistency over intensity. You don't need the perfect post, you need shots on goal. Build the habit first, and let volume plus time do the compounding.

Let the data tell you what works. Don't just copy what worked for someone else. Test your assumptions, watch what your own audience rewards, and double down on that.

Lead with values, not just information. People connect with who you are, your story, your voice, your why, more than a list of what you do. That human layer is what makes them choose you.

Invisibility has a price too. Staying off the platforms feels safe, but the cost is real: the opportunities go to whoever showed up in the feeds your buyers are already scrolling.

A Question for You

If a potential client searched for you today, what would they find, and would it be enough for them to choose you? What is your invisibility quietly costing you while your competitors keep showing up?

Take the Next Step

Aditi, Rebecca and Victor are hosting the free KNOWN workshop series on 22, 23, 24 September, three live working sessions to build your personal brand strategy, your story, and your positioning. Save your seat at plentitudestrategy.com/KNOWN. Replays are available if you can't make it live.

Most founders think visibility is a volume problem: post more, show up more, and hope the algorithm rewards the grind. Victor Trieu built his practice on a sharper idea. In an age where AI can copy what you know in seconds, the one thing it cannot replicate is who you are, and that is the part most people hide. In this conversation, he walks Aditi through the real cost of staying invisible, why he fused educational content with personal story to grow from near zero to more than 42,000 LinkedIn followers in seven months, and how to show up as yourself without burning out to do it.

Let's Dive Into the Highlights

The invisibility tax: When your competitors are everywhere and you are not, buyers see them ten, twenty, fifty times and start relating to the faces they recognise. Invisibility does not feel like a cost until you realise your clients keep meeting your competition instead of you.
Values over visibility: There is a cost to being off any platform, but there is also a cost to fighting your own values to stay on one. The move is not to force yourself onto LinkedIn, it is to ask which platform actually aligns with who you are, because that is the only one you will stay consistent on.
What you know versus who you are: A personal brand runs on two things. AI is fast commoditising the first, so who you are, your story, voice, and why, becomes the real edge and the thing a buyer chooses you for. The data broke his rules: Victor assumed the caption carried the post and that a famous face would be his top format. The stats disagreed. Around 80% of a LinkedIn post is the visual, and his "scientific experiment" reels quietly outperformed both story reels and famous icons.
Gap versus gain: Comparing your first month to a creator pulling 1.5 million views a week kills momentum before it starts. Self-belief is built by looking back at how far you have come, not up at how far you have to go.

Behind the Breakthrough

Victor Trieu is a LinkedIn growth coach and the creator of Compound, a 1:1 program that helps proven coaches, consultants, and experts finally become known for the work they are already excellent at. Compound captures a founder's thinking and rebuilds their content engine in their own voice, inside their own AI workspace, so the visibility compounds and the system stays theirs. His whole approach rests on one anchor: a personal brand is what you know plus who you are, and in the age of AI, who you are is the part that gives you the edge.

His route there was not linear. Victor spent eighteen years in corporate banking, most recently as an executive manager leading a team of ten, with six burnouts behind the title. Three weeks after his team posted the company's highest engagement scores, he was made redundant, and that became his line in the sand. He left corporate in February 2026 at 41 and rebuilt in public, posting every single day from 20 January 2026 and growing from under 2,000 followers to more than 42,000 followers and 27 million impressions in under seven months, with no agency and no ghostwriter. He lives in Sydney with his wife Linda and their daughter Luna.

The Guest Said It Best

"There's no right or wrong, but there's a right or wrong for you as a person."

"Your personal brand is a function of two core things: what you know and who you are. And increasingly in the age of AI, what you know can be commoditised and replaced so easily."

"I always want you to be optimising for who you are, because those are the people you actually want to work with."

"The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The next best time is now. Just starting is actually the hardest bit."

"Self-belief doesn't magically arrive on day one. It's formulated through action."

"The low-tech version, without AI, just using your own thoughts, is super powerful."

Key Takeaways

Decide what you are optimising for. Before you post, get clear on the goal. If a platform genuinely clashes with your values, the cost of fighting yourself can outweigh the cost of being invisible, so choose the space you will actually enjoy showing up in.

Lead with who you are, not just what you know. AI can copy your expertise in seconds. It cannot copy your story, your voice, or your why, and that human layer is what makes people choose you over someone equally qualified. Let the data pick your format.

Test your assumptions instead of trusting them. Victor found the visual does most of the work and his experiment-style content won, so double down on what the numbers reward, not what you expected to win. Just start, then stay out of the gap.

Self-belief follows action, it does not precede it. Measure your first ninety days against where you began, never against a creator who has been at it for years.

Protect your support system. Building alone is lonelier than corporate ever was. The structure and people around you are what let you keep going, so guard those relationships as carefully as your calendar.

A Question for You

Think about the platform you keep avoiding, or the part of your story you keep leaving out. What are you actually optimising for right now, and what is your invisibility costing you while your competitors keep showing up in the exact feeds where your buyers already are?

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Take the Next Step

Victor helps proven experts turn deep expertise into real visibility through Compound, his three-month 1:1 program, run with a small number of clients at a time by application. If you think you might be a fit, message him on LinkedIn with the word FOUND. Not sure what is keeping you invisible? Start with his free three-minute diagnostic, The Wall Quiz, which names which of eight walls is holding you back.

Website: https://victortrieu.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/victortrieu/
Quiz: quiz.victortrieu.com

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Connect with Making of an Empire

Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Making of an Empire! Our mission is to help you unlock the tools you need to build a business and a life that reflects your highest potential.

Connect with Aditi:

Website: https://www.plentitudestrategy.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aditijnewey/ Substack: https://substack.com/@aditijnewey

Most founders treat their brand as a magnet for attention, never as an asset with a price tag. Stevey Arroyo builds his whole practice on the opposite idea: if you've built a brand, you should be able to sell it. In this conversation he walks Aditi through how brand becomes measurable enterprise value, why the exit starts years before the sale, and how to detach your identity from the business so the thing you built can outlive and outearn you.

Let's Dive Into the Highlights

• The big "if": "If you've built a brand, sell the brand" starts with a real condition. Not every business needs a brand to succeed, but the founders who build one from the start hold an asset most never price.
• Captain to fleet: Founders go down with the ship because their identity is welded to it. The shift is owning a fleet of standalone assets so one can be sold, one can soar, and your nervous system is protected either way.
• Tangibility and valuation: Stevey works to the ISO 10668 brand valuation standard. The boring, tangible side is legal, financial, and behavioral, not color palettes or taglines. Own the trademark, sell for a premium, prove recurring revenue.
• Princess Diana's ring: The same sapphire ring fetches 50 quid on Facebook Marketplace and 50 million at Sotheby's. Value is subjective. Selling a business is no different: the right room and the right people set the number.
• Recurring revenue de-risks the multiple: People don't want the drill, they want the hole. Repeat customers and lifetime value prove demand over time, which justifies a higher multiple. Pimlico Plumbers built that brand and sold for a fortune; the man in the van across the street can never sell.

Behind the Breakthrough

Stevey Arroyo is the founder of The Brand Exit, a brand equity advisory that helps premium lower-mid-market businesses raise their exit value through brand strategy, positioning, and ISO 10668-aligned valuation. His work sits where branding, commercial strategy, and M&A meet, turning intangible brand equity into enterprise value a buyer can understand, trust, and pay a premium for.

His route there was anything but linear. He studied product and industrial design across England and Australia, then became a multi-award-winning competition bartender who treated every drink as a product and every serve as a marketing campaign. From there he moved through business development for a creative agency, then into technology and product management to shovel in the skill he was missing. At 30 he combined branding, product, sales, and tech into one practice built around a single anchor: every business ends, so prepare for that ending and sell the brand when you do.

The Guest Said It Best

“The way we define brand is what makes a customer choose you over your competitors and pay more for that pleasure.”

“When a founder becomes an entrepreneur, they go from the captain of their ship to owning the fleet.”

“If you break down what a multiple actually is, it's the promise of future net profit.”

“It's not the drill that they want, it's the hole.”

“Systems beat hustle every time, but you've got to hustle to create the systems.”

“You've been the warrior, now become the sensei.”

Key Takeaways

1. Admit you'll sell one day. The first stage is acknowledging that at some point you may want to sell. That admission is what unlocks optionality; without an exit strategy, you don't have the option.
2. Prepare years ahead, not weeks. Three years out is ideal and puts you ahead of the game. Under one year makes you a forced seller with a pack of wolves waiting. Preparation is what lets you dictate time, terms, and price.
3. Protect the brand legally first. If you don't own the brand, you can't sell it. A proper trademark search might cost just north of two grand; the cost of not doing it is a disgruntled party filing your name and putting you on the back foot.
4. Build recurring revenue and lifetime value. Repeat purchases and customers who climb through your ecosystem prove demand and de-risk the buyer. That is the financial and behavioral evidence that justifies a premium multiple.
5. Reduce key man risk. Separate your personal brand from the business brand, build systems others can run, and hire the right people so the business works without you. Then sell on the up, while the line is still climbing.

A Question for You

If you decided today that you might sell your business seven years from now, what would you start protecting, systemising, and detaching from right now, and what is it costing you to keep the whole thing resting on you?

Take the Next Step

Stevey helps established founders turn brand equity into exit value, starting with a brand audit that maps strengths, weaknesses, and gaps against the legal, financial, and behavioral standard. If you're beginning to imagine an exit, his work is a strong place to start treating your brand as the asset it already is.

Website: https://thebrandexit.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steveyarroyo/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the.brand.exit/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thebrandexit 

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Connect with Making of an Empire

Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Making of an Empire! Our mission is to help you unlock the tools you need to build a business and a life that reflects your highest potential.

Connect with Aditi:

Website: https://www.plentitudestrategy.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aditijnewey/
Substack: https://substack.com/@aditijnewey 

Most founders are still using a photo that is three to five years old. It no longer matches who they are, so they show up less and quietly shrink the vision. Laverne Wyatt fixes this for a living, and as this conversation shows, it is rarely about the photos. It is about closing the gap between who you are inside and how you appear to the world.

Let's Dive Into the Highlights

• Shame sharing: When your visuals do not match your ambition, you post out of obligation. That image carries an energy of shame, reads as amateur, and pulls in clients and revenue at that level.
• Like attracts like: A four-year-old photo shows a half-capacity version of you, so it draws opportunities at that level. Raising the price or retweaking the landing page does not fix it if the image stays the same.
• The invisible founder: Smart, ambitious people talk themselves out of being seen. The real barrier is fear of the camera and the risk of a result they cannot use.
• Discomfort is the signal: If a pose feels comfortable, you are probably slumping. The slight strain of holding it right is the first sign you will look good on camera.
• She cannot make you like yourself: An hour into a shoot, a client kept hunting for flaws. Laverne named it. She can handle the styling, posing, and lighting, but not the self-criticism. The client shifted, relaxed, and the photos changed.

Behind the Breakthrough

Laverne Wyatt is a brand photographer and strategist and the founder of Onbrandia. After more than 23 years in brand design across Norway, South Africa, and global markets, she saw that what founders were missing was not better photos. It was a process built around who they are becoming.

She shoots on location across Europe in natural light, with no filters and no AI editing. Her work combines brand strategy, styling, and direction so the result is a set of usable assets, not just nice pictures. She is known for making the process fun and for helping founders feel safe in front of the camera.

The Guest Said It Best

“You need to look like the price you want to charge now.”

“My job is to hold a vision of who I see them becoming.”

“I can put makeup on you, help you, show you how to sit, what to wear, all of those things. But I cannot help you to like yourself.”

“The only reaction that matters to me is, wow, is that me?”

“Technology is not a miracle, it's not going to save us. Everyone thinks a new technology is going to save them. You have to focus on emotions.”

Key Takeaways

1. Audit your assets for gaps. Review your website, LinkedIn, posts, and speaker sheets first. The goal is a usable shot list, not 30 nice photos you cannot use.
2. Plan before you shoot. A good shoot starts weeks earlier with a strategy session and a founder questionnaire. That work sets the location, wardrobe, and direction so the day itself feels safe.
3. Build a signature look around your brand colors. You do not need a whole new wardrobe. Add a few core pieces and brand-colored accessories so you still feel like yourself while sending the right cues.
4. Practice your poses in advance. Run through poses in the mirror to build muscle memory. Expect mild discomfort on the day. That strain means you are doing it right.
5. Do the inner work too. Styling cannot replace self-acceptance. Deciding you are worth showing up as your best self is what makes everything else land.

A Question for You

Think about the photo you keep using because updating it feels risky. What is that old image costing you in visibility and opportunity, and what would change if you let yourself be seen as the founder you are becoming?

Take the Next Step

Laverne creates founder photoshoots planned and shot on location across Europe. Visit her site to download her guide to professional poses, then book a Photoshoot Strategy Call.

Website: https://www.onbrandia.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/laverne_ws/ 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lavernewyatt/ 

________________________________________________________________________________

Connect with Making of an Empire

Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Making of an Empire! Our mission is to help you unlock the tools you need to build a business and a life that reflects your highest potential.

Connect with Aditi:

Website: https://www.plentitudestrategy.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aditijnewey/

Substack: https://substack.com/@aditijnewey

Every business owner knows the sick feeling of an unpaid invoice. The work is done, the relationship was good, and then the payment simply does not come. Zakia Khalid recovers that money for a living, and she does it without the baseball bat. This conversation is about asking for what is yours, and why doing so is not the thing that damages a relationship.

Let's Dive Into the Highlights

• It takes two hands to clap: Chasing an invoice four times does not make you the one harming the relationship. The party who stopped honouring the agreement took the first step.
• Are they really your best client? A customer who places lots of orders but never pays on time may not be the asset they appear to be.
• The compounding cost: An unpaid bill costs twice: once for the work already done, and again for the time and energy spent chasing it.
• The missing S: One client chased payment for ages with no reply. She had been sending invoices to an email address missing a single letter. Once corrected, the payment came through.
• Pay the small businesses first: Aditi shares her own early policy of letting a large telecom bill default before ever leaving a small supplier waiting, because the small business feels it and the giant does not.

Behind the Breakthrough

Zakia Khalid is an independent solicitor, authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, specialising in debt recovery and litigation from pre-action conduct through to enforcement. Her model is built around accessibility and affordability, giving small and medium-sized businesses the kind of legal support that larger firms often price out of reach.

She is a trusted partner to finance companies, debt collection agencies, and businesses across the UK and internationally, known for clear, commercially sound advice that favours resolution over the courtroom. She also hosts the podcast Calm the Conflict: The Art of Resolution.

The Guest Said It Best

“It takes two hands to clap.”

“Are they actually your best customer if they are not paying you on time?”

“Time is energy. So give it, put it in the hands of a specialist.”

“It can be done with compassion. It can be done with grace, debt recovery. It doesn’t have to be all ugly.”

“Don’t be afraid to ask for what is yours.”

“Every business deserves to be paid for the work that they do.”

Key Takeaways

1. Reframe who is harming the relationship: If you have chased politely and repeatedly, you are not the one putting the relationship at risk. The non-payer already did.
2. Build a one-page credit control process: Write down when invoices go out, when reminders follow, and the point at which you escalate. Most digital invoicing tools can automate the reminders for you.
3. Make payment terms and methods crystal clear: Put your terms, any late penalties, and your bank details plainly on the invoice or in a signed contract. Vague or unsigned agreements make recovery slower and harder.
4. A formal demand signals seriousness: A solicitor’s letter before action shows the other side you are ready to take the next step, and it often moves you up a long line of waiting creditors.
5. Pick up the phone before sending another email: When a larger client stalls, the finance team is often detached from the work. Speaking directly to the people you work with moves things faster than another reminder in the inbox.

A Question for You

Think about the invoice you have been putting off chasing. What is really stopping you from picking up the phone today, and what would it take to ask, plainly, for what is already yours?

Take the Next Step

Zakia helps businesses recover unpaid invoices and trains credit control teams across the UK, including those contracting with parties abroad. She also hosts the podcast Calm the Conflict: The Art of Resolution, on mediation and alternative dispute resolution, available on Spotify, YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and other platforms.

Website: www.zakiakhalidlaw.co.uk 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zakiakhalid/ 

Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/40xJaA8cXxnLhHWkvCJT9U?si=c1256d6870214eaf 

_______________________________________________________________________

Connect with Making of an Empire

Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Making of an Empire! Our mission is to help you unlock the tools you need to build a business and a life that reflects your highest potential.

Connect with Aditi: 

Website: https://www.plentitudestrategy.com/ 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aditijnewey/ 

Substack: https://substack.com/@aditijnewey 

What does it take to climb 25 years to the top of the corporate world, managing director, CEO, every box ticked, and discover the summit is empty? In this episode, Aditi sits down with executive performance advisor Bassam Alaujan for a conversation about the moment external success and internal collapse arrived at exactly the same time. This is not a story about slowing down. It is a story about learning to regulate the one system every leader runs on and most never think about: themselves.

Let's Dive Into the Highlights

• The Top of the Mountain Moment: Bassam ticked every box on the way to managing director and CEO, then reached the summit and found nothing he was looking for. Why arriving felt like emptiness, not victory.
• The Double Hit: How a near-bankruptcy and a divorce landing at the same time became the rock bottom that forced him to stop and ask what he was actually doing.
• The Untamed Horse: Bassam's image for the mind, and the gym-like, repeat-it-daily practice of nervous system regulation that turns it from master into servant.
• The Reset Between Meetings: Why five minutes of breathing between one meeting and the next is the difference between showing up clear and exploding on whoever happens to be in front of you.
• Running From or Running Toward: The question Bassam puts to clients caught in the hamster wheel, and why most people would rather not know the answer.

Behind the Breakthrough

Bassam Alaujan spent 25 years building companies, teams, and a career that looked, from the outside, like it was working. He served as Managing Director of JCDecaux Saudi Arabia, Director General of the Saudi Exports Development Authority, and CEO of a fintech startup. Along the way he navigated near-bankruptcies, led through COVID, and delivered results under sustained pressure. What the results didn't show was the cost. When that gap became impossible to ignore, it began a different kind of investigation, one combining performance neuroscience with intensive contemplative practice, including silent retreats and breathwork immersions.

Today, Bassam works as an Executive Performance Advisor and Coach. He works with CEOs and senior leaders who are performing at a high level and beginning to sense it isn't sustainable. His focus is the physiological foundations of leadership performance: sleep, nervous system regulation, and cognitive load. He holds an Executive MBA from INSEAD, is fluent in Arabic, English, and Japanese, and is based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

The Guest Said It Best

"You can't control every outcome. The only thing you can do is show up and be the best version of yourself." 

"When I reached the top of the mountain, I did not find what I was looking for." 

"The problem is that our mind is giving us that perceived fear that we are living in, but the reality is not."

"Lonely is when I don't feel heard, when I don't feel seen, when I don't have people who feel what I feel." 

Key Takeaways

1. Awareness is the Starting Point: You cannot change a pattern you cannot see. Becoming the witness of your own thoughts and body sensations is where every shift begins.
2. Regulation is a Muscle, Not a Mood: Breathwork and presence aren't one-off fixes. Like training in a gym, they're built through daily repetition until returning to centre becomes the default.
3. Mind What You Consume: The information you take in shapes your nervous system the way food shapes your body. What you scroll before sleep becomes the first thing your mind reaches for at dawn.
4. Bookend the Day with Gratitude: Opening on gratefulness fills your cup. Opening on your to-do list puts you in deficit, owing more than you have to give.
5. Enough Safety to Drop the Mask: Find the one person, coach, mentor, or friend, you feel safe enough around to take off every cape and hat. That, not advice, is where the real work gets done.

A Question for You

Bassam reached the top of everything he was chasing and found it empty, then rebuilt by getting still rather than getting more. So if you paused right now and honestly asked yourself what you are running from, or running toward, what would the answer be?

Take the Next Step

Bassam runs an Elite Performance advisory practice for CEOs and senior leaders who are performing at a high level and sensing it isn't sustainable. If that's you, his work is built for exactly that moment.

Connect with Bassam: 

Website: https://bassam.alaujan.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bassamalaujan 

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Connect with Making of an Empire

Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Making of an Empire! Our mission is to help you unlock the tools you need to build a business and a life that reflects your highest potential.

Connect with Aditi: 

Website: https://www.plentitudestrategy.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aditijnewey/
Substack: https://substack.com/@aditijnewey 

What does it take to go from 138 kilograms, 80-hour work weeks, and $2 million of debt to running across the Sahara Desert, building a team of 13, and writing life insurance cover for families worth half a billion dollars? In this episode, Aditi sits down with her long-time collaborator Rickson Dsouza for a conversation seven years in the making. This is not a story about overnight success. It is a story about radical clarity, earned one hard decision at a time.

Let's Dive Into the Highlights

• The Misguided Ambition Phase: Rickson's name for the season of his life where more transactions, more hours, and more hustle felt like the only path forward. And why the data eventually proved that wrong.
• The Neil Moment: A chance conversation at a Strategic Coach session in Toronto that rewired everything Rickson believed about how a business should work. Four deals a year. $4 million in revenue. A completely different game.
• The Debt That Sharpened the Focus: How $573,000 of debt compounding at 30% per annum forced Rickson to stop saying yes to the wrong clients and start engineering a model built for the right ones.
• The 60 Appointments Bank: How Rickson structures his entire year around 60 client appointments, a fixed number with a specific goal attached. And why that constraint has produced more results than 132 transactions ever did.
• Your Bad Day is Someone Else's Best Day: Rickson's closing philosophy on comparison, mentorship, showing up, and trusting a process that has delivered 18 consecutive years of Top of the Table results.

Behind the Breakthrough

Rickson Dsouza is the founder of Successio Global, a Dubai-based succession planning and advisory firm helping high and ultra-high-net-worth entrepreneurs protect and transition their wealth with clarity and purpose. With over 25 years of experience, he specialises in legacy and succession planning, large-value life insurance, and cross-border solutions for family businesses across the Middle East, Africa, and the Indian subcontinent.

A 23-year MDRT member and 18-time consecutive Top of the Table qualifier, Rickson is also the founder of Successio Academy, creator of The Advisors Growth Program, and bestselling author of Take CONTROL: The Financial Advisor's Guide to Exponential Income Growth. His mission is to put 5 million financial advisors through his programme and have $3 billion of life insurance in force by 2030.

Beyond the business, he is a two-time Marathon des Sables finisher, an Ironman-distance athlete, and a firm believer that the discipline required to finish a race across the Sahara and the discipline required to build a legacy business are, at their core, exactly the same thing.

The Guest Said It Best

"There is a limited amount of time. Even if you want to say there's 14 hours a day available to work, even then, it's still limited."

"I didn't come up with any solutions on my own. I just looked at people who were more successful than I was, figured out what they were doing, and just copied and pasted that solution."

"Do you need to be doing everything just because you can do it? Or wouldn't it be amazing to be in your zone of excellence, in your unique ability space, and be able to delegate everything else?"

"Your bad day is somebody else's best day. What you're calling your situation today is somebody else's ideal situation. They want to be in your shoes."

Key Takeaways

1. Clarity of Audience is a Revenue Strategy: Rickson went from 132 transactions a year to 4 new clients a year, and grew his income significantly in the process. Knowing exactly who your right fit client is and having the discipline to wait for them is not a luxury. It is the model.
2. The God Complex Will Cost You: The belief that you are the only person who can do the work is the single biggest bottleneck in most businesses. Rickson's team of 13 is not overhead. It is the engine that allows him to show up in his zone of genius every time.
3. Let the Data Lead: Rickson does not set goals based on ambition alone. He sets them based on what the previous year's data tells him is possible and necessary. That removes ego from the equation and keeps the process honest.
4. Enough is Not a Weakness: Knowing when you have done what you set out to do, and choosing not to chase more for the sake of it, requires more discipline than growth. Rickson calls it thinking from abundance, not from comparison.
5. Find Your People and Show Up: Mentors, coaching programmes, honest conversations. Rickson credits the rooms he chose to be in as much as the decisions he made inside them. The right support group does not just encourage you. It pulls you forward.

A Question for You

Rickson built 18 consecutive years of Top of the Table results not by doing more, but by getting clearer. Clearer on his client, his process, his team, and his definition of enough. So what is the one area of your business right now where more clarity, not more effort, would make the biggest difference?

Take the Next Step

Rickson's book Take CONTROL: The Financial Advisor's Guide to Exponential Income Growth is available now through Amazon and leading retailers worldwide including Barnes and Noble. If you are a financial advisor or independent professional looking to build a more focused, sustainable practice, this is your starting point.

• Website: https://ricksondsouza.com 
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/askrickson/ 
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ricksondsouza/ 
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@askrickson 
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/askrickson 

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Connect with Making of an Empire

Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Making of an Empire! Our mission is to help you unlock the tools you need to build a business and a life that reflects your highest potential.

Connect with Aditi:

• Website: https://www.plentitudestrategy.com/ 
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aditijnewey/ 
• Substack: https://substack.com/@aditijnewey 

The most ambitious version of you already exists. She is not waiting in the future. She is already in the room. In this episode, Aditi sits down with Rebecca Scoular, founder of Progress Partners, to explore what it actually takes to build a business without losing yourself in the process. Think less noise, more clarity. Less isolation, more community. And a whole lot more permission to stop.

Let's Dive Into the Highlights

• The Thinking Gap: Why the most successful entrepreneurs are not the ones working hardest, but the ones who protect space to think clearly, make better decisions, and lead from a calmer place.
• Failure as a Filing System: Rebecca and Aditi unpack why the best entrepreneurs do not just survive failure, they mine it for wisdom and reframe it as the most honest teacher in the room.
• The Mindset Muscle: Is a growth mindset coachable? Rebecca makes the case that it absolutely is, and shares the simple daily practice inside Progress Partners that trains the brain to find the win, even on the hardest days.
• The Energy Flow Framework: Why time management alone is only half the system. Rebecca introduces her framework for matching the energy you bring to the tasks that need it, so nothing important gets your leftovers.
• The Accountability Levels: From a soft check-in to a full level five 'no excuses' sprint, Rebecca explains how to choose the right kind of accountability for where you actually are, not where you think you should be.

Behind the Breakthrough

Rebecca Scoular has spent over two decades in rooms with entrepreneurs. She has seen what separates the ones who thrive from the ones who stall, and it rarely comes down to strategy. It comes down to clarity, the courage to ask for help, and the willingness to stop long enough to actually think.

She is the founder of Progress Partners, an invitation-only community built on three pillars: clarity of thinking, accountability, and the kind of peer community where egos get left at the door and real relationships take their place. Through weekly sessions, in-person workshops, and structured accountability, Rebecca has created a space where founders can step off the treadmill, see their businesses clearly, and move forward with confidence.

Her approach is not about adding more to your plate. It is about creating the conditions where you can finally access the answers you already have inside you.

The Guest Said It Best

"If you've got anything where you think it's perfect, you're in trouble."

"The best entrepreneurs out there are the ones that have probably failed the most. And they see themselves not as failing, but as having an opportunity to learn."

"You have the answers inside of you. That's really what coaching is. It's just drawing the answers out of you."

"If you don't take a break, your body's going to do it for you."

Key Takeaways

1. Space is a Strategy: Protecting time to think is not a luxury, it is the foundation of every good decision. If you are always in the doing, you are running the business blind.
2. Reframe Before You Move On: Processing failure is not wallowing. It is the work. Moving straight past it means carrying it into your next decision, from a scarcity headspace.
3. Wins Are a Daily Practice: Waiting until the end of the year to acknowledge progress is too long. Small, daily wins compound into a mindset that is genuinely resilient, not just performing resilience.
4. Match Energy to Task: Switching between tasks that need different energy types is one of the most draining things you can do. Batch by energy, not just by time.
5. The Right Community Changes Everything: Accountability only works when there is genuine respect, likability, and a shared rhythm. The wrong room is worse than no room.

A Question for You

Rebecca says that the future version of you is not out there somewhere in the distance. She is already inside you right now. So what would it look and feel like if you stopped chasing that version of yourself and started making decisions as if you were already her?

Take the Next Step

Ready to find your community? Rebecca's work through Progress Partners is designed for established business owners who are ready for their next level, without burning out to get there.

Connect with Rebecca:

• Website: https://progress-partners.co.uk/ 
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebecca-scoular-14763a7/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/scoularrebecca/

________________________________________________________________________

Connect with Making of an Empire

Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Making of an Empire! Our mission is to help you unlock the tools you need to build a business and a life that reflects your highest potential.

Connect with Aditi:

• Website: https://www.plentitudestrategy.com/ 
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aditijnewey/ 
• Substack: https://substack.com/@aditijnewey