How the "Rule of One" led to a $4,985 month

Nothing is better than watching someone take your advice and achieve remarkable results in their business.

Especially because I believe that everyone has valuable knowledge or skills that some corner of the internet desperately needs.

The challenge is turning that expertise into something people will actually buy — marketing and selling isn't easy.

Your business will take off when you nail two parts of an important equation — having something valuable to offer AND presenting it in a way that attracts the right buyers. Once you find that sweet spot, revenue should start to accelerate.

I offer a few advisory calls each month, for people who want my advice on their personal situations. And a guy named Paul booked a call with me back in July. Despite having a valuable offer, Paul’s business had zero revenue for three months in a row.  He was frustrated and questioning whether he should continue with what he was doing.

The Zero-Revenue Reality

So when Paul and I got to chatting, the first thing I wanted to know was how he was spending his time. And sure enough, I uncovered a very common problem — Paul was trying to be everywhere, serve everyone, and sell everything.

Here's what his typical day looked like:

• Scheduling Instagram posts at 7am
• Writing LinkedIn content at noon
• Recording TikTok videos in the afternoon
• Commenting on hundreds of other posts in between

This guy was exhausted, frustrated, and not making any money. There's no worse combination than that.

The Rule of One Solution

So I encouraged Paul to break from his routine and try something different — something I call The Rule of One.

For 90 days, I asked him to commit to one platform (LinkedIn), one specific offer (fixing email sequences for e-commerce stores), and one specific customer type (Shopify stores doing $20k to $50k in monthly revenue).

No other platforms. No other offers. No other customer types.

Most people would look at this strategy and say "I'm limiting my opportunities!" And that was Paul’s hesitation too. But after some convincing, he agreed to give my strategy a try.

The 90-Day Transformation

For the first month, Paul zeroed in on one thing: sharing email marketing problems that Shopify store owners face every day. No generic marketing tips. And no broad e-commerce advice. Just specific, painful email sequence issues that keep Shopify store owners up at night.

And at the end of each social media post, we agreed he’d make an offer:

"I'll audit your email sequences for free."

The idea was simple — get some free clients, prove you can solve the problem, and then use those results to attract paying customers.

And it worked. Three store owners took Paul up on his offer, giving him the opportunity he needed to demonstrate his expertise. And even more importantly, it gave him real results he learned from and can now share with future prospects.

From Free to Paid Clients

So the next month, that's exactly what Paul did. He started sharing real results that put concrete numbers behind his work:

• A pet store boosted repeat purchases by 22%
• A small fashion brand doubled their welcome series conversion
• A craft soup company increased cart recovery by 34%

And after nine weeks, something interesting started to happen. Store owners began reaching out to him. And not for brain picking calls, either. Or free audits. They were asking for help with their email sequences.

So Paul opened his calendar for short discovery calls — but only for stores in the specific target range we agreed on — $20K to $50K per month in revenue.

Over time, Paul streamlined these calls to make sure they followed the same path: review the current email setup, identify gaps, and if they were a good fit, offer his $997 program.

The Results

After 90 days, Paul had five clients at $997 each, a waitlist of three more, and a reputation as "the Shopify email person."

This approach created more opportunities, not less. Because when you're known for solving one specific problem really well, people remember you, and refer you to other people with the same problem.

Just think about it. Imagine you’re a Shopify store owner. Who would you hire to fix your store's email sequences? Someone who "does digital marketing" or someone who specializes in "fixing email sequences for Shopify stores just like yours"?

The answer is obvious, and it's exactly why I often harp on the importance of being the "it" person in a small niche.

The Hidden Benefits

The Rule of One doesn't limit opportunities. It creates them. And there are several other benefits that come from niching down:

• Paul’s content got better because he focused on one specific topic
• His expertise deepened because he solved the same problem repeatedly
• His positioning became clearer because he wasn't trying to be everything to everyone

How to Implement This for Yourself

Ready to try The Rule of One? Remember, the concept is simple:

1. Choose one platform where your ideal customers actually hang out
2. Choose one offer that solves a specific, expensive problem
3. Choose one customer type to target — defined so narrowly that most people are automatically disqualified

Then commit to this focus for 90 days. No platform hopping. No offer tweaking. No audience shifting.

The hardest part will be resisting your urge to expand. But even when you start seeing success, stick with your "one" until you've mastered it and gained some good traction.

Believe it or not, this is fun work. I hope you’ll give this exercise a try. And if you do, please tell me how it goes. I love hearing about your results.

That’s all for today. See you next week.

P.S. Want to dive into strategies for using LinkedIn to grow & monetize your audience? Then check out my LinkedIn Operating System course. It's packed with frameworks to help you build a focused, profitable online business by using LinkedIn like I do. Join 27,000+ students here.