We recently connected with Kevin Dowling and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Kevin, thanks for joining us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?
Funnily enough, the spark for my business started with me sucking at the Playstation game, FIFA.
During the pandemic, I was working as a teacher, starting to feel burnt out, and like many people, I found myself dusting off my old PlayStation as a form of distraction.
I fired up FIFA (a game I used to dominate in back at Uni), and to my horror, I was absolutely terrible. Like, embarrassingly bad… And something about that bugged me.
I couldn’t accept that I’d just lost it, so I made it my mission to get good again. I started playing more, and what hooked me wasn’t just the football — it was this game mode called Ultimate Team. You build your own squad by completing challenges and earning rewards. It became addictive, but also weirdly motivating.
Around that same time, I’d quit my job and was trying to build a business from scratch on LinkedIn. The pressure was real: if I didn’t make money, I’d have to go back to a job I no longer loved. And the truth was — I hated most of the work involved in building a business. The marketing, the sales,, the follow-ups… it all felt like a grind.
That’s when the lightbulb went off.
I thought, what if I could apply the same game mechanics from FIFA to my own business-building tasks? So I created a gamified system where I earned points for completing key activities like posting content, sending DMs, booking sales calls — and suddenly, I started enjoying the process. I was competing with myself instead of comparing myself to everyone else.
Momentum kicked in fast. I started signing clients, showing up consistently, and actually having fun — because I turned business into a game I wanted to win. And even build in a rewards system for maintaining a streak.
And the thing that excited me most? I hadn’t seen anyone blending gamification with client acquisition. We’ve got Duolingo for languages. Fitbit for fitness. But nothing like this for growing your business.
So I built it. What I created is basically the Duolingo of client acquisition — turning daily income-generating tasks into challenges, rewards, and progress tracking. I started sharing it with my clients and saw the same results: more motivation, more consistency, and better outcomes.
Since it solved a real problem I had, and one I knew others faced too, I went all-in with it. One big reason why it’s so good is because it helped me reward effort, not just results, which builds intrinsic motivation. It made the journey more fun, more sustainable, and a lot more human.
And now? My whole community runs on these principles. Because I truly believe that business is a game of skill — and if you can enjoy the reps, compete with yourself, and stay in the game long enough… you win.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Before I became a coach, I was a teacher. I worked a lot with non-native English speakers, and I loved it — especially because it gave me the freedom to travel. I taught in China, worked in universities, and honestly, teaching’s in my blood. I’ve always been drawn to helping people learn, especially in ways that feel fun, creative, and empowering.
But over time, something shifted. I started to feel burnt out, undervalued, and boxed into a system that didn’t reflect what I was capable of. The pandemic became a huge turning point. It gave me space to think — and like a lot of us, I realized I didn’t want to go back to life as it was. I wanted more freedom, more creativity, and to do work that actually lit me up.
That’s when I pivoted into coaching.
Today, I work with multilingual entrepreneurs — people who don’t speak English as their first language, but are building businesses and creating content in English. Most of them are coaches, consultants, or creatives trying to grow on LinkedIn, but they often feel stuck. Either they’re battling mindset blocks like imposter syndrome, or they have skill gaps when it comes to marketing, content, or selling their services. Sometimes both.
That’s where I come in.
I help them build real, foundational business skills — like how to position their offer, create compelling content, run DMs and sales calls, and deliver their services in creative, scalable ways. But I do it in a way that feels good. I’m not about burnout or bro-marketing. I bring in creativity, playfulness, empathy — and a lot of gamification.
My clients go from feeling lost on LinkedIn to feeling confident, clear, and actually enjoying the process of growing their business. They stop comparing themselves to everyone else and start competing with themselves — and that’s when the momentum kicks in.
Right now, I offer three main things:
1. 1:1 Coaching – A holistic program where I help clients dial in their strategy across offers, DMs, content, sales, and delivery. I even do sales call role plays with them so they feel confident before jumping into the real thing.
2. Multilingual Mastery – My gamified community where we do weekly coaching and workshops. Members earn points, win bonuses, and stay focused by turning client acquisition into a game.
3. Custom Frameworks – I build visual, easy-to-use systems for client attraction like:
• RAIN for DMs (Rapport, Aspirations, Interest, Negotiation)
• ICE for launching (Ideation, Creation, Execution)
• HEART for storytelling (Hook, Empathize, Advise, Repeat, Tag)
What sets me apart? It’s a mix of things — my teaching background, my obsession with systems and frameworks, and my energy. I bring golden retriever energy to coaching. I care a lot. When a client invests in me, I invest in them. I’ll be out on a walk and suddenly message a client with an idea I had to help them. I can’t switch it off.
I also don’t believe coaching should feel clinical. A lot of my clients become friends. Because this isn’t just business — it’s their dream. And I take that seriously.
My brand is built on six core values: creativity, empathy, mastery, playfulness, contribution, and freedom. I want people to believe they can do this. I want them to go from “I’m not good enough” to “I’m proud of how far I’ve come.” That’s the magic for me. Not just building a business but building belief.
And what I’m most proud of? Honestly, going from zero skills in marketing and sales to building a business that supports my lifestyle, all organically on LinkedIn. I’ve helped clients get their first-ever clients after months (or years) of no traction. I’ve had clients go from zero to 3 clients in 27 days using my gamified system. And I’ve done this while traveling too — like spending three months in Brazil without my business falling apart. That freedom means the world to me.
We’re just getting started. And if there’s one thing I want people to know — it’s that this whole journey? It’s a game of skill and anyone can play. Because when you learn to play your game, and you stay in it long enough, it’s only a matter of time before you win.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
One of the biggest lessons I had to unlearn was that failure is the end. Turns out — it’s actually the beginning.
I grew up in the school system like most people: conditioned to chase perfect grades, fear mistakes, and avoid anything that might make you look bad. There’s this silent rule — fail, and you’re behind. Fail, and you’re not good enough. Fail, and people laugh at you.
And that mindset makes people play small. They avoid risk. They hide their creativity. They stop exploring their potential.
When I became an entrepreneur, that belief crept up again… Because suddenly, failure was everywhere.
I fell on my face more times than I can count. I launched offers that flopped. I posted content that only got liked by my girlfriend. I had a client block and ghost me, making me question everything.
But slowly, I started to see failure differently. It wasn’t something to fear — it was data. It was progress. It was necessary. And once I stopped tying my self-worth to outcomes, everything changed.
I stopped chasing perfection and started embracing the messy middle. I began to see problems as features, not bugs. And that’s where gamification came in too — because when you treat business like a game, failure isn’t shameful, it’s just part of levelling up. Missed the shot? Cool. Reset, learn, play again.
So yeah, the biggest mindset shift I had to make was this: failure isn’t a stop sign — it’s a sign you’re trying. And if you keep playing long enough, time catches up. You win by staying in the game! And it’s not even about winning, it’s about finding a game you never want to stop playing.
Entrepreneurship is that game for me. Where failure is the beginning, the messy middle, the last quarter, but never the end!
Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?
Yes, one of the most impactful things I ever watched was a TED talk by Sir Ken Robinson called “Do Schools Kill Creativity?”
That talk spoke to me in ways I still can’t express, but I’ll do my best…
I’ve always been wildly creative, but somewhere along the way — like many people — I lost touch with that. School trained it out of me. And Robinson’s talk put words to something I’d always felt but couldn’t articulate: that the education system conditions us to fear mistakes, suppress curiosity, and trade creativity for conformity.
It connected deeply with my own story — as a teacher-turned-coach — and as someone who now helps entrepreneurs reclaim their creativity through storytelling, gamification, and play. Watching him speak reminded me that creativity and curiosity isn’t optional in life, it’s the Iife-blood of who we are as people. Not just in business, but in how we live and learn.
Sir Ken’s storytelling was also masterful — funny, emotional, insightful — and it influenced the way I write on LinkedIn today. I started telling more personal stories, and the more I leaned into that, the more clients came to me. People felt me. Because stories are how we connect — they’re how we remember, and how we make meaning.
That TED talk shaped how I think, challenge conventions, and even how I show up as a communicator.
And in the future, one of my bigger dreams is to build some kind of education platform for the next generation of entrepreneurs. Something rooted in creativity, storytelling, gamification — and failure. Because I know what it’s like to feel like your uniqueness doesn’t fit the system.
And I want to build something that tells people: you’re not broken… the system is.
Also? I’d love to do my own TED talk one day — as a tribute to Sir Ken Robinson, and as a message to every creative kid who’s ever felt like they didn’t belong!
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