Answer extracted from the Young and Profiting with Hala Taha (Entrepreneurship, Sales, Marketing) podcast — listen to the full episode below.
How did early adoption of LinkedIn and podcasting provide competitive advantage in building a personal brand?
Being first on an emerging platform creates an exponential networking advantage before saturation. Lewis Howes joined LinkedIn in late 2007 when only 12 million people were on the platform and wrote one of the first books about it in 2009, which allowed him to build powerful connections early on. He then became an early podcaster in 2013 alongside creators like Pat Flynn and Rich Roll, which positioned him to pioneer video podcasting around 2015 and eventually monetize over 1,000 searchable and shareable YouTube videos — generating nearly a billion downloads across 1,400+ episodes in a decade.
Building credibility before the platform crowded
When Howes joined LinkedIn in late 2007, only 12 million users existed globally — a fraction of today's 900+ million. Writing one of the first books about LinkedIn strategy in 2009 positioned him as an authority on the platform itself, not just another user. This early credibility compounded: he built powerful connections with other early adopters, many of whom became collaborators, clients, and amplifiers of his future work.
The advantage was structural, not accidental. As a detailed in the episode, being an early voice on an emerging platform meant fewer competitors for attention and a natural network effect — each new connection was disproportionately valuable because the ecosystem itself was still forming.
Podcasting adoption in the second wave — 2013 and beyond
Howes launched The School of Greatness podcast in 2013, during the second wave after Joe Rogan, when podcasting was still perceived as fringe by mainstream media. Alongside Pat Flynn and Rich Roll, he positioned himself as an early voice in a space that would explode a decade later. In the first year, the podcast reached 750,000 downloads — by year two, 1.5 million; by year three, 3-4 million. This growth trajectory reflected both content quality and early-mover advantage.
Around 2015, Howes then pivoted to video podcasting on YouTube — another platform adoption ahead of mainstream creators. As explored in this conversation, he invested five years in video content without monetization before turning on ads, building over 1,000 searchable, shareable videos that would eventually become a core revenue stream and discovery engine for his personal brand.
"What's the unique talents and gifts we have? Figure those out over our journey. Try to help as many people as possible on the pursuit of our dreams and goals."
Lewis Howes — Host of The School of Greatness Podcast. Howes rose from homelessness and unemployment during the 2008-2009 financial crisis to build a global personal development brand. He leveraged early adoption of LinkedIn, podcasting, and YouTube video to create a nearly billion-download empire across 1,400+ episodes in 10 years, becoming an authority in entrepreneurship and personal growth through consistent early-platform investment.
The verbatim insight here reflects Howes' underlying strategy: identify your strengths, find the emerging channels where they can compound, and commit to helping others at scale — which, as a deeper dive into the full episode reveals, included building over 100 million weekly lives through his content and events over time.
See also
What is a 'sweet spot' and how can entrepreneurs discover theirs to find meaningful work?
A sweet spot is the intersection between your unique talents and skill sets and the available tools and mechanisms you can monetize through them. Discovering your sweet spot requires understanding both your strengths and the platforms or channels available to leverage them effectively.
Why should entrepreneurs avoid attaching their identity solely to one professional mechanism or platform?
Lewis Howes avoids labeling himself as just a podcaster, author, or any single profession because if that mechanism disappears, he would feel unable to continue his work. Diversifying your identity across multiple platforms and skills protects your personal brand from platform-specific risks.
What is the definition of greatness and how does it relate to personal mission?
Lewis Howes defines greatness as discovering the unique gifts and talents within you, pursuing your dreams and goals through that discovery, and making an impact by helping as many people as possible. Greatness is directly tied to aligning your mission with your individual strengths.
Key takeaways
- Joining LinkedIn at 12 million users in 2007 and publishing early expertise on the platform created an authority moat before competition saturated the space.
- Launching a podcast in 2013 during the second wave of adoption positioned Howes ahead of mainstream creators, leading to exponential growth from 750K to 3-4M downloads by year three.
- Investing in video podcasting on YouTube from 2015 onward, without monetization for five years, built a searchable library of over 1,000 videos that became a long-term revenue and discovery engine.
- Platform diversification across LinkedIn, podcasting, and video protected his personal brand from single-channel risk and created compounding reach across emerging ecosystems.