Long form articles about Strategy for solopreneurs
Shorter articles about Strategy in a solo business
Don’t outsource your thinking
So I’ve been experimenting with a new ai journalling tool.
It’s good.
Really good.
It gives reflections on your entries, in the voice of the worlds greatest thinkers like Marcus Aurelius, Steve jobs, or whomever your heros are.
What’s more,
they mentor you, it remembers past entries and reflects on them with you in a chat, like it’s therapy.
Each week you get a deeper reflection with suggestions and prompts and analysis, plus some quotes.
It really is brilliant, the advice it gives is on point, nuanced and personal.
But one thing I’ve noticed is that
Since I started using it,
Instead of me scanning my week,
Thinking about it,
Reflecting,
And making behavioural adjustments,
I’m just taking it’s reflections as my own
I’ve outsourced my thinking to the app,
I don’t think deeply about my entries at all,
I just read the reflections,
I’m learning the insights, without absorbing them through experience.
Even if the results are good,
Is it really wisdom if it’s gained 3rd hand?
I don’t think so, that’s just knowledge not wisdom.
And it speaks to a larger trend of outsourcing our thinking to ai.
As we outsource more and more of our lives to ai we are in danger of getting out of the practice of actually coming to our own conclusions,
of becoming weak-minded, and not able to even think for ourselves.
If we are no more than our thoughts,
But our thoughts are provided by AI,
Then what the hell are we?
Simple strategies won’t solve complex problems
Simple strategies don’t work the way they used to.
Social gurus love talking about focus and strategy
This works if you’re chasing simple goals in a simple system
But the world gets more complex everyday
The path to our goals isn’t clear anymore.
Using simple systems in a complex strategy will lead to frustration and failure
We’re told we should always be moving forward
So failure feels like failure instead of learning
Stop going in circles
Start growing in circles…
…👇
In a complex system, with complex goals
There are only two ingredients that lead to success
Consistent failure and adjustment
is the way to achieve your goals in a complex system
Here’s a consistency system for Solopreneurs I use to start on track over weeks months and years…
Know where you’re going…
“When you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there”.
There was a point last year where I checked off all my financial goals, and suddenly realised how it was all taking me somewhere didn’t actually want to go.
It took me a long time to realise I didn’t want to grow or run a big agency.
I started this as a lifestyle business.
If it was going to remain so, and not take over my life, something had to change.
so I had to actively fight a lot of my previous decisions to scale the business back,
which goes against my instinct and ambition and habits.
But sometimes it takes a moment of clarity to see the obvious truth right in front of you…
so I limited the no. of clients I took on.
which meant I earned only half as much.
but I had more time
so I did better work for those few clients
which meant I delivered more value
which meant I got paid more
which meant I didn’t have to take on as many clients
which meant I have more time
which led to me making more money,
which means I don’t need to work as much,
which means I have more time…
and so on and so on.
Once you let go of making more for more’s sake,
you enter a strange self fulfilling loop,
plus you’ll be happier too.
money is not the thing.
time is the thing.
showing up vs giving it your all
Everyday I wake up, stretch and row 1km.
I’ve been doing it about a year.
I do it even when I don’t feel like it. Which is most days.
Here’s something interesting I noticed:
It takes me almost exactly 5 minutes.
On some days I give it everything I have.
I strain
I push
I practically poo myself.
⌚It takes me almost exactly 5 minutes (give or take 10 seconds)
On some days I don’t feel it.
When I feel I’m in danger of not doing it, I allow myself a “cheat” day,
where I put in the minimum amount of effort.
⌚It takes me almost exactly 5 minutes (give or take 10 seconds)
Sometimes putting in maximum effort makes so little difference, that you may as well show up and put in just what’s needed.
This is known as the Pareto principle or the 80/20 rule:
The exact ratio doesn’t always hold,
But the law applies across almost all of life and business:
80% of your leads will come from one source
One client will be the source of all your woes.
Spending 20% of the budget will achieve 80% of the results.
Where else can we apply this principle in your life and business?
Where can we put in less energy for more results?
The answer seems easy.
Just do more of the 20% and less of the 80%.
Telling them apart is the tricky bit.
Concentrate on the vital few vs the irrelevant many.
The least amount of effort, compounds into the same result as “giving it your all” if you keep it up long enough.
Where my head’s at – public accountability statement
Here’s a snapshot of where my head’s at right now…
I’m making a public commitment to hold myself accountable.
I want to look back at this in 5 years and know that I was true to my self and my vision.
For now I’m still running Design Hero about 24 hrs a week.
Design Hero funds my lifestyle just fine.
Eventually Life by Design may be my primary income and primary work
For now it doesn’t make much money, except for some coaching which I enjoy.
But the goal isn’t money just now.
I know Life by Design is more scalable in terms of my time via digital products and freelance coaching.
It’s more rewarding than my client work.
I get to see the direct benefit on people I get to know as friends.
Everyone is selling something at the end of the day.
I’m giving away free resources for freelancers.
I hope that helps someone.
If I can sell something too I’m ok with that.
But if I ever use the high pressure sales tactics that some preach,
and that I’ve experienced myself,
then I have lost my way.
Life By Design, I haven’t 100% figured it out yet as it’s still a passion project that gives me purpose in my life.
I made a commitment to write every day for a year, sharing what I know about growing a solo business.
So that’s what I’m doing. Writing like a mofo. It helps me figure stuff out.
Whatever results from that will happen.
But I’m not setting any fixed targets around money, or followers or no of students.
What will be will be.
My goal would be to help freelancers get past that hump where they are working like mad and earning less than a 9-5.
I want to help them design their lifestyle first and build a business around that, without all the burnout and pressure.
Over past few years I paid over £10k for courses and coaching about courses and coaching 🤣
I learned a lot.
But they all focus on selling courses and coaching, or social growth.
No-one is telling you how to actually get better at teaching people.
And I just don’t agree with a lot of the high pressure sales tactics promoted in a lot of these courses.
So I’ll need to learn how to be a better coach, and deliver better courses on my own.
The high-ticket coaches promoting high pressure sales?
Sure, they are all making huge £.
But now I see a rash of “high ticket” coaches and freelancers are burning out, quitting, miserable.
I’m glad I didn’t listen 😂
It reaffirms that my content about lifestyle is more important than content about growth and sales.
Even if it’s less attractive or harder to sell.
You can’t just keep handing out candy like crack.
Sometimes the people need to be forced to eat their veg.
I’d rather grow slower, and learn as I go, than sell out for a quick buck.
Purpose in my vision.
Consistency in my actions
Time on my side
If you want a simple life, seek competence
If you want a simple life,
spend extra to work with competent people.
Here’s what happens when you work with people who aren’t competent.
- They expect you to solve all their problems
- They don’t follow up
- You have to take on responsibility for the project
- They aren’t able to run through a repeatable process
- They aren’t able to respond succinctly to questions
- They aren’t able to deal with unexpected situations
- You need to explain the same thing several times
Sometimes this seems to be 80% of people.
This is fine.
But occasionally you will meet people who ooze competence. When you work with competent people, your life is easier, smoother, less stressful.
- Here’s how to spot them.
- they don’t use lingo or jargon.
- they don’t waste time.
- they can summarize succinctly.
- they are organised.
- things happen correctly.
- things happen with polish.
- they assume responsibility
- things get finished.
- things happen seemingly by themselves
- you don’t need to spend time hand holding
- you don’t need to tell them the next step
seek out and spend extra to work with competent people.
Success is just knowing what you want
People want “success” (usually monetary) but haven’t considered what they actually want.
I worry that most people are seduced into wanting the quick win, the silver bullet, the magic pill.
The problem goes deeper:
Speed sells, so social media blasts us with content promoting speedy success.
You can see this reflected in the content we consume.
Most of the content we consume nowadays is short form, surface level snacks on social media.
Even as I write, part of my brain is working on how to segment this newsletter into x4 bit-size social posts.
It’s a harmful myth that makes people feel crap about where they are.
We all have different starting points, different responsibilities and advantages/disadvantages.
The truth is if you want you grow your own business, if you want true freedom, if you want to escape the ratrace…
then it takes many years, often working hard for little reward.
I guess that’s the point I’m getting round to:
Great things take time.
Success means different things to different people.
But most are measuring their success by their revenue.
Don’t use the wrong measuring stick.
Clarity is key.
If you don’t know what you want, you can’t measure your success.
The best opportunities don’t have signposts
The best spots on any hike don’t have paths or signposts.
An extension of this thought….
On the way up the Fairy Pools on Isle of Skye there was a giant volcano with a huge crack down the middle.
The “crack of God” as I’m calling it.
It wasn’t on the map.
The path stops at the top of the fairy pools.
Of course, I wanted to get up close to that crack and poke my head in.
Sometimes there isn’t a clear path you just have to point yourself in the right direction and start walking.
It’s not obvious, but you can just wild hike up to the crack then walk right in to the mountain.
The bests kept secret on skye?
1 If there’s no clear path, set a direction and start walking.
2 The best opportunities are where people aren’t.
Seek the path of most resistance
The path of least resistance, often leads you astray
On a recent hike, I noticed people on same path never take quite the same route.
On a straight rocky path, we come across a deep puddle…
Immy goes left , I go right, and doggo goes straight through the deepest bit (of course 😅)
The path was just as easy to the left as to the right.
What made me go one way and Immy another?
I didn’t consciously decide.
We all pick the optimum route without thinking.
Momentum, instinct, my grip, my gate, current trajectory all changed the final route in a split second.
Micro decisions you aren’t even aware of can result in a completely different path.
And we follow the path of least resistance by default without consciously deciding.
Be more aware of micro decisions, and beware the path of least resistance, as it may lead you somewhere you don’t want to be without realising.
FAQs from solopreneurs about Strategy
More topics for solopreneurs
Ask me about Strategy in a solo business...
Your contact details will be private. The answer to your Question will be public so other solopreneurs learn from it.