Turning One Founder’s Reputation and Expertise Into a Clearer Strategy Across Three Brands
The challenge is not a lack of content. It is deciding how Ryan’s personal reputation, Studio Sherpas, and Tell Studios should work together online without becoming three versions of the same brand.
This concept project explores how his existing podcasts, newsletters, client work, business lessons, and public presence could be organized around clearer roles for each brand—and used to support visibility, education, community, and commercial priorities without requiring constant new creation.
The Challenge
Ryan already has the expertise, reputation, source material, and businesses. The challenge is deciding how those assets should work together online.
His personal brand, Studio Sherpas, and Tell Studios serve different audiences and commercial purposes. Without clear roles, the same ideas can easily be repeated across all three—or valuable material can sit unused while each brand continues creating from scratch.
The strategic question is: what should Ryan be known for personally, what should each business own, and how can years of existing work support those priorities without making him a full-time content creator?
What the First 90 Days Could Look Like
- Map Ryan, Studio Sherpas, and Tell Studios against their audiences, offers, priorities, and commercial roles.
- Define what Ryan should be known for personally and what each business should own in the market.
- Audit podcasts, newsletters, case studies, talks, footage, and client work for material that still supports current priorities.
- Build distinct editorial directions for the founder brand, education/community brand, and client-facing production business.
- Create a realistic publishing model that uses existing material first and only asks for new founder input where it adds something genuinely necessary.
- Review audience response, business priorities, and source availability to shape the next content cycle.
THE FIRST 90 DAYS WOULD FOCUS ON DEFINING CLEAR ROLES FOR EACH BRAND, THEN PUTTING EXISTING ASSETS TO WORK.
Social Media Content Direction
Examples of how I would turn Ryan’s existing podcasts and newsletters into content for different brands, audiences, and business goals.
Success looks different for everyone.
For me, this one looks like building something that still feels worth showing up for ten years later.
This podcast started as an experiment: teach what I was learning, meet good people, and help grow what we were building.
500 episodes later, it gave me conversations I never would have had, friends and collaborators I would not have met, and a place to keep learning in public with this community.
Somewhere along the way, it stopped feeling like just another marketing channel.
So yes, I got a little emotional.
We made it to 500.
The full episode is now live on YouTube, Spotify, and wherever you like to listen.
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I started this podcast because I thought it could help us grow a business.
What I didn’t expect was how much it would change the person running it.
Over 500 episodes, I’ve talked with hundreds of people I wanted to learn from. I’ve had to put words around what I believe about business, filmmaking, leadership, storytelling, and life. I’ve asked questions I was already wrestling with and learned in public while other people learned alongside me.
That became part of the value.
The show helped market the business, yes. But ten years later, I can also see how much it shaped the way I think, lead, and work.
Listen to the latest episode here.
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The value of your content does not always show up in the metrics first.
This podcast started as a marketing tool, and there were seasons when the audience grew slowly enough that I wondered whether it was worth continuing.
But every episode also made me think more clearly. I learned from people I respected. I worked through business problems out loud. I got better at articulating what I knew.
That compounds too.
Views, subscribers, and leads matter. So do better questions, stronger ideas, useful relationships, and sharper judgment.
Sometimes content grows the business by growing the person running it.
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There are plenty of “I built a successful business” stories. Fewer talk about the marketing efforts they almost gave up on.
There were seasons when this podcast grew slowly enough that I seriously wondered whether I should stop and put that energy somewhere else.
At the same time, Tell Studios and Studio Sherpas were growing.
That forced me to look beyond downloads and ask what else the show was creating: hundreds of conversations, stronger ideas, clearer thinking, relationships, and a better ability to articulate what I knew.
Sometimes the business is growing while the platform feels slow. Not every worthwhile marketing effort looks impressive while you’re in the middle of building it.
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Ten years ago, I started a podcast to help market a brand I was still figuring out. I didn’t know if I’d make it to 100 episodes.
Now there are 500.
Along the way came friendships, mastermind cohorts, Onward Summit, collaborations, and a community of people who understand what it’s like to build a video business.
None of that was on the original content plan.
I thought I was building a podcast. Turns out, we were building a place for people to learn and grow together.
If you’re building a video business and want to be around people who get the wins and the hard parts, come join us at Studio Sherpas.
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People overcomplicate starting a show.
If you’re a video business owner thinking about creating content, don’t wait for the perfect camera, buy gear before you know what you need, or compare episode one to someone else’s episode 500.
Talk about something you care about. Use what you already have. Publish before it feels polished. Pay attention to what works and adjust as you go.
Give yourself 10 episodes before obsessing over the setup.
You’ll learn more from making those first 10 than from another month of planning.
You don’t need to know your final format before you start. The first few episodes are where you find it.
Ready to spend less time overthinking and more time building? Come join us at Studio Sherpas.
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Early in my business, I had a weird relationship with money.
I wanted to be a good person, and somewhere along the way I started connecting that with charging less, wanting less, and feeling uneasy about making more.
That belief shaped business decisions more than I realized.
Over time, through my faith, conversations with other business owners, and a lot of questioning my own assumptions, I started seeing money differently.
More money can mean investing in your team, supporting your family, giving more, and building a healthier business.
Sometimes the thing holding your business back isn’t another pricing tactic. It’s the belief underneath the decision.
If you want to build the business behind the creative work, check out Studio Sherpas.
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carousels
The phone in your pocket is enough to test the part that matters first:
Do you have something useful to say, and are you willing to keep showing up to say it?
No camera upgrade can answer that for you.
Start with the equipment you already have.
Make enough content to understand what needs to improve.
Then spend money on the tools that make the work better or easier.
Subscribe to my newsletter if you want the next one.
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I’ve had 10 years and 500+ podcast episodes to build the setup I use now. Someone starting today does not need to begin there.
Your first videos will tell you what equipment research cannot: what you enjoy talking about, where your explanation needs work, what people respond to, and what you want to make again.
Once you know the problem, upgrade the equipment that helps solve it.
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My Approach
START WITH THE BUSINESS, THEN DECIDE WHAT CONTENT NEEDS TO DO
Ryan already has successful businesses and established credibility. The first question is not what to post. It is what each brand needs social media and content to support—and where Ryan’s personal reputation adds the most value.
GIVE EACH BRAND A REASON TO EXIST ONLINE
Ryan, Studio Sherpas, and Tell Studios should not become three versions of the same feed. Each needs a clear audience, purpose, point of view, and relationship to the wider business ecosystem.
REPURPOSE THE IDEA, NOT JUST THE ASSET
One podcast may contain a founder story, a business lesson, a client-facing insight, and an educational point. The value comes from deciding which idea belongs to which audience, brand, and business priority—not simply turning one asset into several formats.
USE THE EXPERTISE THAT IS ALREADY THERE
A decade of podcasts, newsletters, client work, founder lessons, workshops, and business stories already contains enough material to support years of useful communication. The job is to identify what is still relevant now.
What the Strategy Needs to Coordinate
- Founder reputation: Clarifies what Ryan should be known for personally and how his visibility can strengthen the businesses without making everything dependent on him.
- Brand roles: Gives Ryan, Studio Sherpas, and Tell Studios distinct audiences, purposes, and reasons to exist online.
- Business priorities: Connects content decisions to the offers, communities, events, newsletters, partnerships, and services each brand is trying to support.
- Existing intellectual property: Identifies which podcasts, newsletters, client stories, lessons, and long-form material still deserve attention—and what should be retired.
- Buyer and audience understanding: Uses different content to answer the questions, concerns, and interests relevant to each brand’s audience rather than broadcasting the same message everywhere.
- Distribution: Decides where an idea belongs based on audience and business value instead of publishing everything on every channel.
- Operating model: Creates a repeatable way to move from source material to decision, production, publishing, review, and reuse without relying on Ryan to personally create every piece.
CLIENTS I'VE SUPPORTED HAVE BEEN FEATURED IN
Nicole is one of the best people I have worked with.
She consistently demonstrated a strong work ethic at Scaleup Consulting and a dedication to success. Her performance at Scaleup Consulting is golden. Her leadership and organizational skills have been invaluable to the company. For Nicole the job is always the most important thing to do. Very positive attitude towards work. Certainly worth recommending.
Jayen Ashar
Founder of Scaleup Consulting Australia
We've really seen our collaboration grow along with our community.
Working with Nicole was a real pleasure. We've really seen our collaboration grow along with our community. Her curiosity and desire to innovate has resulted in posts of a very high quality, going far beyond simple community activation and sharing real knowledge. Her independence has kept our collaboration light and fluid, which isn't always easy to find; I really hope we'll work together again.
diane drubay
Pioneering Strategist, Curator, Speaker
Founder of We Are Museums
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