Kason Knight was a successful mechanical engineer in the oil and gas industry when a sharp downturn hit. His job vanished overnight, leaving him with a newborn daughter and a mortgage to pay. Instead of returning to the corporate world, Kason doubled down on a side hustle he'd started with a single 3D printer in the corner of his kid's playroom.

That small bet turned into ISOLIDS, a massive 3D printing company that now operates 160 printers out of a nearly 9,000-square-foot facility. Serving high-stakes industries like aerospace, agriculture, and medical, Kason's business now generates over $500,000 a month. He transformed a self-funding hobby into a manufacturing powerhouse by focusing on strategic growth and building key relationships.

In this interview, Kason sits down with Ryan Atkinson to break down his incredible journey from layoff to CEO. He shares the blueprint for scaling a manufacturing business, the best way to manage your product development, the strategies he used to land major B2B clients by punching above his weight class, and why constant, strategic evolution is the key to sustainable business growth. If you're looking to turn your side hustle into your main gig , Kason’s entrepreneurship journey is definitely worth looking into.

Takeaways:

- Preparation Creates Luck: Having a side hustle for two years before being laid off provided a foundation to go full-time, proving that consistent hard work puts you in a position to capitalize on opportunities.

- Start as a "Self-Funding Hobby": Beginning with the simple goal of making a hobby pay for itself removes the initial pressure of profitability and allows a business to develop organically.

- Set a Hard Deadline: When going full-time, give yourself a clear timeline to become profitable. Kason gave himself two years, creating a benchmark for success or failure.

- Scaling Requires Strategic Pivots: The tactics that get you to your first major milestone won't get you to the next. You must be willing to pivot your strategy and invest in better tools—like upgrading from "shovels to an excavator"—to reach new levels of growth.

- Win Big Clients by Focusing Small: To land large B2B clients, focus on building a strong relationship with a single engineer or decision-maker within the company. Solve their specific problem, and they will become your internal champion.

- Embrace Constant Evolution: Entrepreneurship is a never-ending cycle of improvement. Be prepared for your processes to constantly change, as what works at one stage of business will not work at the next.

- Practice Mindful and Sustainable Growth: Rapid, uncontrolled growth can be dangerous. Aim for consistent, strategic growth where you can implement changes, evaluate the data, and confirm they had the desired impact before moving on.

- Your Definition of Success Will Change: The "dream" you have on day one will evolve. Acknowledge when you achieve your original goals, even as you set new, more ambitious ones.

- Know and Leverage Your Niche: Combine your unique background with your business idea. Kason's expertise as a mechanical engineer gave him a competitive edge in the technical 3D printing space.

- Support Your Gut with Data: Confidence to take risks comes from understanding your business metrics. Kason's decision to scale was backed by the predictable data that every new printer added a specific amount of revenue capacity.Tags: Side Hustle, Entrepreneurship, 3D Printing, Product Development, Business Growth

Resources:

Start Your Business Today: https://links.upflip.com/4mR2COI

Connect with Kason: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kason-knight

Dan Nikas went from chasing criminals as a police detective to building a multi-million dollar e-commerce brand. After a sudden medical retirement at 36 upended his life, he was left with a family to support and no backup plan. With zero experience, he pivoted to e-commerce and scaled his clothing brand to over $4 million in revenue in just one year, proving that a relentless work ethic can overcome any lack of experience.

In this episode, Dan gives host Ryan Atkinson a masterclass in his digital marketing playbook. He breaks down his exact three-stage Facebook ads funnel for lead generation, his method for creating organic content that works, and the key metrics every founder should track. If you want a no-fluff guide to building and scaling an online business, this conversation is packed with actionable strategies you can use today.

Takeaways:

- Skills from seemingly unrelated careers are highly transferable; a detective's ability to find people who don't want to be found is directly applicable to finding customers in digital marketing.

- Successful advertising requires a three-stage funnel approach (Top, Middle, Bottom). Don't immediately ask for the sale; nurture the customer first by building awareness and trust.

- At the top of the funnel, the goal is to create broad awareness cheaply and allow potential customers to "self-filter" by engaging with your content, rather than trying to sell to everyone.

- Use the middle of your funnel to proactively answer common customer questions and overcome objections. Create content around your warranties, manufacturing process, brand story, and social proof.

- Your organic social media posts are the perfect testing ground for paid ads. If a post performs well organically, the algorithm has already validated it, indicating it will likely perform well with ad spend behind it.

- Marketing Efficiency Ratio (MER) is a more crucial metric than platform-specific return on ad spend (ROAS). Track your total marketing spend across all channels against your total gross revenue for a true measure of performance.

- Before you run ads, you must calculate your breakeven Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC). Knowing the maximum you can spend to acquire a customer without losing money is essential for profitability.

- The key to a successful organic content strategy is consistency over virality. The algorithm rewards a consistent posting schedule, which builds reach and engagement over time.

- You don't need to create brand new content every single day. Repurpose your best-performing posts from a few months ago by changing the thumbnail, copy, or format.

- When starting out, a great product is more important than great marketing. A bad product will eventually be found out, no matter how clever the marketing is.

-The core of marketing is persuasion. If you can convince someone to do something when there is no benefit for them, it's far easier to convince them when they get a great product or service in return.

- Don't get emotionally attached to your ad creatives. Let the data and results tell you what's working and be ready to turn off a campaign that is failing, even if you love the creative.

Tags: Digital Marketing, Tech Ventures, Facebook Advertising, Lead Generation, Ecommerce

Resources:

Start Your Business Today: https://links.upflip.com/3H40FiI Connect with Dan: https://www.instagram.com/elite_brands_with_dan_nikas/

This isn't a story about shortcuts. Brian’s big break didn’t come from an investor pitch; it was earned through years of hard work in a coffee shop. When his boss and future partner faced a crisis, Brian’s loyalty and commitment proved more valuable than any business plan. He was offered a co-founder position not because of what he had or because of his entrepreneurship experience, but because of who he is - someone with high integrity and capable of bringing out the best in others when it matters most.

That same principle is now the backbone of his restaurant, Bird Bird Biscuits, and its incredible company culture. In this episode, Ryan Atkinson and Brian dive deep into what it takes to build a team that genuinely cares. Brian shares his business leadership philosophy of "tending the garden"—nurturing his people while actively pruning bad habits—and gives a masterclass on creating a positive work environment that reduces turnover and drives success. Tune in for an honest conversation about servant leadership and how to build a business where your team is proud to show up.

Takeaways:

- Enter markets that are not saturated. Finding an underserved niche, like biscuit sandwiches in a taco-dominated city, provides a significant competitive advantage.

- Live or die by focus and simplicity." Instead of offering a wide range of products, concentrate on perfecting one thing to build a strong reputation.

- The most powerful marketing is a product and experience so good that customers become your biggest advocates through word-of-mouth.

- Company culture starts at the top. Leaders must personally live the values they preach, as their actions set the true standard for the entire team.

- View your culture as a garden that needs constant attention. You must actively nurture the good elements and "prune" the negative influences to keep it healthy.

- Establish core values that are action-oriented (e.g., "Blow people's minds") rather than passive, single words, as this makes them more practical to implement daily.

- The first and most important step in becoming a better leader is to work on yourself. Tend to your own "garden" of personal faults and opportunities for growth.

- Trust is forged in adversity. Proving your loyalty and reliability during a crisis can build the foundation for a strong and lasting business partnership.

- Don't rely on your own opinions. Create a system to test everything—from products to processes—and let customer feedback and data guide your decisions.

- Be prepared to pivot. The forced change to a service-window model during COVID unexpectedly maximized their kitchen's potential and boosted revenue.

- Integrity can be more valuable than capital. You can earn opportunities, like a business partnership with no buy-in, through demonstrated hard work and character.

- Approach leadership with the philosophy that "we're all just walking each other home." Seeing your team and customers as fellow travelers on a shared journey fosters empathy and unity.

Tags: Business Growth, Entrepreneurship, Business Leadership, Company Culture, Data Driven

Resources:

Start Your Business Today: https://links.upflip.com/46F5nxJ

Connect with Brian: https://www.instagram.com/birdbirdbiscuit/?hl=en