From Selfish Freelance Writer To Selfless Business Owner – Exclusive Interview With William Ballard
- Brainz Magazine
- Jul 4, 2023
- 5 min read
Updated: Jul 5, 2023
It’s been said that William has the mind of a businessman and the heart of a minister. He is the founder of the Business Insider Newsletter (3,000+ subscribers) and the Business & Entrepreneurship newsletter at LinkedIn (2,200+ subscribers in the first month of launch).
William has over 15,000+ engaged followers on LinkedIn, and a following of 3,000+ loyal readers to his Medium column.
Coming from a middle-class family, William has a heart for serving people who feel they have so much more to give but can’t seem to escape the rat race. With the wisdom he has absorbed from having many mentors in his life, and his many years in collegiate training, he enjoys adding extreme amounts of value to his engaged and growing community.
William and his team specialize in helping small business owners and entrepreneurs bring their organizations to scale by creating authority positioning content, as well as authentic, magnetic messages that inspire and change lives.
“Dreamers fantasize; thinkers materialize” – William Ballard
William Ballard, CEO, Business Coach
Introduce yourself! Please tell us a little bit about you and your life, so we can get to know you better.
Well, first of all, it’s a pleasure and an honor to be here. I’m truly humbled by the opportunity to be able share a little bit about myself. But most of all, I’m thrilled by the opportunity to be able to provide some great value to your readers.
I was born and raised in a suburb of Dallas, Texas, but I’ve had the privilege of being able to travel to many different places. Traveling has always been a joy of mine. I enjoy going to new places and meeting new people. I find myself now living in the cute royal town of Ada, Oklahoma.
When it comes to my passions, my first love has always been writing. And I’m someone who values learning. So, I’m more than just an avid reader, I’m a ferocious one.
I’m also very passionate about real estate and photography. I operate a commercial photography business, but I also just like to go out in nature and take photos of landscapes. It’s the perfect mix of art and exercise.
I also served in the military for a few years before becoming medically retired. I ended up breaking both of my hips, which ended my military career. Despite that, I always find great joy and being able to serve my fellow veterans and military personnel.
Finally, I am single, recently closed on a new house, and more importantly, adopted a three-month-old Golden Retriever – her name is Peanut.
Tell us about a pivotal moment in your life that brought you to where you are today.
To tell you the truth, I’ve had quite a few pivotal moments in my life that have played a part in getting me to where I am today, but for the sake of time, I’ll just share one of the most important ones.
I had an English teacher in high school ask me a pretty life-changing question, but I didn’t pay much attention to it back then. What she asked was, “William, have you ever thought about writing for a living?”
Back then the answer was no because I was more interested in becoming the first Hispanic in the NBA. And it wasn’t until I got into college that I found out I didn’t have what it takes to make it to the pros – no matter how hard I worked, or how many after practice hours I put in.
It took some serious soul searching to realize that that was not what I was created to do.
It was around that time when an English professor asked me the same question the English teacher back in high school asked – “William, have you ever thought about writing for a living?”
That was when I began to think to myself that there must be something to this.
I started to read everything I could get my hands on about the writing and publishing industry, about journalism, and then I came across the wonderful world of freelance writing and copywriting.
It wasn’t long before one of my writing mentors gave me a little kick in the butt to pitch my first article idea to a publication, which happened to be a piece I wrote for Entrepreneur, and then that is when my whole world changed.
What inspired you to start this business, and how has it evolved over time?
I started my business back in 2014 as a freelance writer. At that time, I was also going to school for my bachelor’s in business management (with a concentration in small business and entrepreneurship). And I eventually went and earned my MBA.
I’ll be honest, I started that business more for selfish reasons.
But then I began to feel a calling towards other aspiring entrepreneurs and small business owners. I truly believe no entrepreneur or small business owner should have to go through building a business alone.
That is the heartbeat and foundation my business is built upon now. It is less about me and more about serving and adding value to others.
With that said, my business has evolved from being a solo freelance writer, to more of a business coaching and marketing consulting firm.
I still do a lot of freelance writing for various publications, but I do see myself doing a lot more business coaching lately. And I’m nurturing and building a team of worldclass marketers who help business owners transform from merely surviving operations to truly thriving organizations.
And we accomplish that by creating authority positioning content, as well as authentic, magnetic messaging that inspires and changes lives. That is our passion and what wakes us up excited to go to work every morning.
What are your future plans and goals for your business? Are there any upcoming projects or developments that you're excited about?
We do have a few projects we are developing that we are super excited about. We have two book projects in the works, which we will also develop into courses and will be what we use to launch our digital course department side of the house.
One of the book projects we are working on, and that I’m free to share with you now, is entitled, “Success in 3D: Three Dimensions of Personal and Professional Achievement” (the title is subject to change once we go to printing).
My objective with this work is to be able to help our readers discover what their highest marketable skill set is (what we refer to as your strength zone), as well as what they’re passionate about (their desire zone). And then the rest of the book is all about bridging the gap between the two.
Staying true the idea of dimensions, the book is broken up into three unique frameworks:
Height: You’ve Been Given Permission to Soar! Height is mainly about discovering your highest marketable skillset (strength zone) and developing it.
Width: You’ve Been Given Permission to Grow! Width is really where all the magic happens – where the bridge is – because we believe it’s the most important piece, but often forgotten in all of professional development – of course, I’m referring to relationships here (the connection zone).
Depth: You’ve Been Given Permission to Achieve Greatness! And depth is all about discovering what you are passionate about (your desire zone) and using it as the soil to grow from.
The next big development we are excited about is our partnership with the John Maxwell Leadership Team. You can find out more about my contributions to the Maxwell Leadership Certified Team Member community at my page here.
Finally, if I may, I encourage your readers to consider becoming a part of our growing community at the Business Insider Newsletter. Those that join will get a free copy of the book Success in 3D, as well as the online course once it’s ready. We look forward to you joining us for our book launch party.
