VCs laughed Ruffin Mitchener out of interview rooms for posting on TikTok. Four years later, she's the angel investor writing the checks.
Now she’s built a six-figure creator business, landed recurring deals with brands like TurboTax and LinkedIn, and built one of the fastest-growing investing communities for women in startups and VC.
Ruffin started in accounting at Deloitte, moved into fintech startups, got her MBA at UCLA during COVID, and realized early that founder content was going to become mandatory. She was one of the FIRST WOMEN in venture capital and startup investing actually building publicly online while everyone else thought it was cringe!!
In this episode, we get into why personal branding matters before you need it, why founders should start creating content years before fundraising, and how Ruffin used TikTok and LinkedIn to build real leverage in venture capital. She also breaks down the exact cold outreach strategy she used to land brand deals, how she pitched hundreds of companies herself before hiring management, and why niche B2B creators are making more money than creators with 10x the audience size😲.
Oh, she even tells us how she is using Claude as a social media strategist and why cohort-based live courses are replacing recorded programs.
Plus: pregnancy as an entrepreneur, creator management contracts, and the one thing every creator is keeping secret right now... good short-form editors 😭
If you’re waiting until you feel qualified enough to start posting, this episode is your sign to stop waiting.
📘 Career Cheat Codes — IT’S OUT!!!
My new book Career Cheat Codes is now available to order. It’s a practical guide to building career leverage, growing your visibility, and turning your expertise into real opportunities.
Order yours → penguinrandomhouse.com/books/807588/career-cheat-codes-by-courtney-johnson/
00:00 Pregnancy as an entrepreneur is a wild ride
03:54 The moment Ruffin realized content was the future of business
07:03 Your digital footprint is the new resume
08:53 The UCLA MBA post that changed everything for her content
10:13 People are done buying recorded courses
11:20 Ruffin’s full creator tech stack: CapCut, Descript, Claude
11:45 The relationship-building strategy founders ignore before fundraising
16:24 The biggest mistake Ruffin made building her brand
18:57 How she landed brand deals before having management
20:24 Why niche B2B creators make more money than giant influencer
About Ruffin Mitchener
Ruffin Mitchener is the creator and founder of Brydge Club, a media and investing community empowering 200K+ women to understand and navigate the world of angel investing and entrepreneurship. Less than 2% of VC funding goes to all-female founded teams - and less than 15% of venture capital decision-makers are women.
Ruffin has personally angel invested and led syndicate opportunities for Brydge Club angels into companies like POCA, Alinea Invest, Offe Market, GOB, Bumo, and Hey Jane. Investing alongside firms like Offline, True Ventures, and Baukunst. Prior to Brydge Club, Ruffin worked as an operator at an Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) consumer fintech startup, which brings hands-on operational experience to everything she backs today.
Connect with Ruffin
👍 Instagram: @ruffinmitchener
💼 LinkedIn: Ruffin Mitchener
🎶 TikTok: @ruffinmitchener
🌐 Website: brydgeclub.com
Stay connected with me
📧 Contact: courtney@smoothmedia.co
👍 Instagram: @builtinpublicpod
👍 Instagram: @courtlynnjohnson
💼 LinkedIn: Courtney Johnson
🎶 TikTok: @courtney..johnson

40 million LinkedIn views a month. Two to three videos a day. And she built it after returning venture capital money because she realized she hated the company she was building 😲
In this week's episode, I sat down with Avni Barman, founder of Gen She, creator, speaker, and one of the smartest people I know when it comes to audience building and career leverage. She started with a two-minute cold outreach habit in college and turned it into a network, a business, a media brand, and a global community for women in tech and entrepreneurship.
We get into the exact outreach system that helped her land opportunities before she had experience, why most people overcomplicate networking, and how she grew LinkedIn into a platform driving 40 million monthly views. She explains why virality is overrated if it’s not converting into real community, why she stopped chasing a million followers, and how she thinks about building content that actually gets people to care.
If you’ve been waiting to feel qualified before you start posting, networking, pitching, or building something, this is your wake-up call!
📘 Career Cheat Codes — IT’S OUT!!!
My new book Career Cheat Codes is now available to order. It’s a practical guide to building career leverage, growing your visibility, and turning your expertise into real opportunities.
Order yours → penguinrandomhouse.com/books/807588/career-cheat-codes-by-courtney-johnson/
03:01 The survival strategy that turned into her networking system
04:22 The two-minute cold outreach routine that changed her career
09:24 Speaking at Harvard Business School changed her perspective on entrepreneurship
10:17 She ran a 16,000-person paid virtual conference during the pandemic
17:28 She flew to India without sponsors or an event plan, and Microsoft joined the day before
28:14 How she hit 40 million LinkedIn views a month with video
29:17 “I’d literally rather die than get a job”
About Avni Barman
Founder & CEO of Gen She, a media platform and fund shaping the next generation of female founders. With 1M+ community, 400M+ views, and a 150K+ subscriber base, she has built one of the fastest-growing platforms for the next generation and is a leading voice on personal branding, virality, and building in the modern digital economy.
Connect with Avni
👍 Instagram: @avnibarman_
💼 LinkedIn: Avni Barman
🎙️YouTube: @avnibarman
🌐 Website: generationshe.co
Stay connected with me
📧 Contact: courtney@smoothmedia.co
👍 Instagram: @builtinpublicpod
👍 Instagram: @courtlynnjohnson
💼 LinkedIn: Courtney Johnson
🎶 TikTok: @courtney..johnson

I've just hit $200K on Stan. And John Hu built the platform that made it happen.
John is the founder of Stan, the platform that has now made over $500 million for creators, and he started it because he needed it for himself 😲
In this episode, John gives us his full take on why your first digital product is probably already sitting in your Google Drive, why the creators making the most money on Stan aren't the most talented ones, and why asking your audience what they want to buy is always the right first move.
We also get into why employee-generated content is one of the most slept-on growth strategies for founders right now, what being in rooms with Gary Vee and Steven Bartlett has actually taught him about obsession and hiring, and why watching your team members leave to build their own thing is a flex, not a failure.
Oh, and he walks us through Stanley: Stan's new AI head of content, and what it's already doing for engagement in the first three days of using it.
If you've been stuck in your head about your niche, your first offer, or your content strategy, this episode is going to shake all of that loose.
📌 Try Stan free for 3 days → stan.store
📘 Career Cheat Codes - IT'S OUT!!!
My new book Career Cheat Codes is now available to order. It’s a practical guide to building career leverage, growing your visibility, and turning your expertise into real opportunities.
Order yours → penguinrandomhouse.com/books/807588/career-cheat-codes-by-courtney-johnson/
03:10 The employee-generated content strategy every founder is sleeping on
06:28 What to tell the leader who's afraid their team will get too big and leave
08:17 The Taylor Swift strategy: niche first, expand later
10:07 Why "I help everyone" is why no one follows you
11:00 What Steven Bartlett taught him about obsession and hiring
13:57 The one thing every billionaire, athlete, and top comedian has in common
32:10 How to figure out what your audience wants to buy
33:07 Why your DMs and comments already have the answer
40:00 What to do when your first product isn't selling
43:00 Introducing Stanley: Stan's AI head of content
47:00 What Stanley is already doing for engagement in the first three days
About John Hu
John Hu is the founder of Stan, the all-in-one creator store platform that has generated over $500 million for creators worldwide. He built Stan originally for his own account and grew it into one of the most trusted platforms in the creator economy. He's also the creator of Stanley, Stan's AI head of content built to help creators scale their content without needing a full team.
Connect with John
👍 Instagram: @jayhoovy

🎶 TikTok: @jayhoovy
💼 LinkedIn: John Hu

🎙️YouTube: @jayhoovy
Stay connected with me
📧 Contact: courtney@smoothmedia.co
👍 Instagram: @builtinpublicpod
👍 Instagram: @courtlynnjohnson
💼 LinkedIn: Courtney Johnson
🎶 TikTok: @courtney..johnson