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What if you could save 12+ hours per week in your business? Being a solopreneur sometimes focuses too much on the “solo” part: doing all the jobs, figuring things out yourself, and spending too much time in your business. But we didn’t start out own solo business to spend all of our time at our desk.
We did it because we want freedom: to travel; to spend time with our family; to watch a movie in the middle of a week day. That’s why Streamlined Solopreneur exists.
Each week, host Joe Casabona talks about how you can build a better business through smarter systems and automated processes. He does this by bringing on expert guests, and sharing his own experience from years as a busy solopreneur parent — so that being a solopreneur feels…less solo.
With every episode, you'll get insights, great stories, and 1-3 actions you can take today to improve your business processes and spend your time the way you want.
I want to get to know you better.
One of my big goals for 2024 is to slightly change the direction of this show to make it more relevant to you, the listener. And while the goal and topics have changed through this show many times over the 400 plus episodes, I wanna take a moment to learn a little bit more about you, so that I can better tailor the content to help you win and achieve your goals.
So, if you would be so kind as to head over to [howibuilt.it/survey], I have just a few short questions for you. And that will help me plan out the rest of 2024. Again, that's over at [howibuilt.it/survey]. Thanks so much.
I sweat bullets over finding the right tools. My wife and I are on opposite ends of this particular spectrum. I am an overthinker. I often ask my wife why she doesn't use the advanced grocery list app that I decided to get. The one that sorts everything by type and aisle and sale and store. She just uses reminders because it's on her phone and it's easy.
I need to find the perfect thing that handles all current and future use cases. I suspect it's because of my 20+ years of being a Software Engineer, when writing code, I was taught to think through a lot, if not all of the details, all the cases, all the potential things that could go wrong. And we will never get everything. There will always be edge cases, but that's why we need to try solutions and test.
Now, did you catch the important bit there? We'll never get everything. And even though I know done is better than perfect when it comes to finding the right tools, I overthink. I try to find the perfect solution for anything I could possibly need from this tool. Even though I can't possibly foresee the future needs of my members, I'm not clairvoyant after all. But that's also why I've switched membership platforms four times in the last three years. That's why I've moved to Substack, even though I thought as I moved to Substack, well, maybe I should just use a WordPress plugin instead. I mean, I could build the perfect solution. I have that ability and I have that skill.
I mentioned that my wife and I are on the opposite end of this spectrum because I suspect most people are like my wife. They don't think about these things the same way I think about these things. I have lots of friends, many who are Software Engineers who don't sweat the details this much. They evaluate solutions and use the best tool for the needs that they currently have. And by and large, that is an asset to me, the way I think through these things. But occasionally, occasionally, it causes crippling analysis paralysis. I've spent every day of this very young year thinking about the implementation for my membership, even though I know the simplest solution is to use Substack.
And last week I would've told you that that's the end of the story. But it's not. That's what I want to talk to you about today. I'm going to tell you about my “Be Everywhere” strategy why I moved to Substack, and how I'm currently thinking through the implementation of my membership. For members, I will talk about how I'm managing multiple publishing platforms, how I'm trying to build the right system in place, and what exactly “Be Everywhere" means, in case you missed that. You can sign up over at [howibuilt.it/join]. Or if you're listening in Apple Podcasts, you can subscribe right in that app. But without further ado, let's get to the intro and then the episode.
Hey, everybody. And welcome to How I Built It, the podcast that helps busy solopreneurs and creators grow their business without spending too much time on it.
I'm your host, Joe Casabona. And each week, I bring you interviews and case studies on how to build a better business through smarter processes, time management, and effective content creation. It's like getting free coaching calls from successful solopreneurs.
By the end of each episode, you'll have 1-3 takeaways you can implement today to stop spending time in your business and more time on your business, or with your friends, your family, reading, or however you choose to spend your free time.
Okay, so let me talk about why I moved to Substack in the first place.
In November, I conceived my “Be Everywhere” strategy, and this is something that I am loosely borrowing from CGP Grey, one of my favorite podcasters and YouTubers. He decided to be everywhere, everywhere being YouTube, Patreon, and Substack because he got locked out of his YouTube account. And that's the way he makes most of his money, I think, at least at that time.
In an effort to diversify his income streams and not be SOL, If YouTube locked him out again or forever, he moved to a couple of other platforms. Platforms that actually have an export function. Because if you are not familiar with YouTube, if people are paying you for a membership, you don't have access to their data, or if YouTube decides to change their algorithm, they could tank your views and therefore your advertising money. You are very much at the mercy of the platform.
Now, I'm under no delusion that I'm anything like CGP Grey, except that we both have podcasts and we both have a presence on Substack. But I still really like this strategy of his, albeit for different reasons.
CGP Grey has this strategy in place because if one platform fails, he still has contingency plans. But for me, it's about discovery. Discovery is a problem. In fact, the problem with posting your own site is that there's no built-in discovery function. It's an issue with podcasting, generally speaking, that YouTube has solved insanely well for video. So, with my membership site, pretty much just being through an email list and a WordPress site, I face this same discovery issue. I'm not getting any help growing my audience except for the people recommending me through ConvertKit's Creator Network. Cheers to you. You are the real MVPs.
However, SUBSTACK has a great recommendation engine. And now they have notes too, which is very social network like. Substack has the kind of community and discovery features that give me a small creator the opportunity to reach a wider audience. And for 10% of each payment, that's completely worth it. I would trade $10 per year for $90 per year. It's much better than $0 per year. But there's another reason I'm thinking more about discoverability.
2023 seemed to be a pretty crappy year for social media in general, more so than previous years. We actually talked about this on episode 401 with Matt.
Going into 2023, people thought they figured out the algorithm how to go viral by copying people who already have massive audiences. But that didn't work because those people already have massive audiences. Plus, Twitter/X saw a mass exodus, LinkedIn changed their algorithm and tanked engagement.
Maybe I'm turning into a crotchety old man, but I grow tired of the social media game. So much so that I've deleted all of the social media apps off of my phone. Now I only use social networks from my computer. lest I suffer their mobile websites, which are not good. Not that I think social media was appreciably helping me anyway. It's not in the massive grow of My audience sense, at least. Though I fully recognize that that could be due to a lack of clarity and consistency. I just don't wanna live a life where I have to post the same sort of thing at the same time and pray some algorithm shows it to enough people.
I want to get in front of a quality audience, not just a big audience. Going viral on X or TikTok isn't going to cut it. You know what did cut it? When my friends Sara Loretta and Chenell Basilio shared my newsletter with their audiences. It worked like gangbusters.
I believe that Substack can offer me that same sort of growth, but there's still something in the back of my mind, something saying, what if you just built this with WordPress? And that's what I'm gonna talk about after a quick word from our sponsors.
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Hey, there. One of my goals in life is to help busy solopreneurs and creators like yourself win back your time and spend less time in your business. It took three kids and a global pandemic for me to understand the power of using my time wisely. And I wanna make sure that you don't need to go through the same thing I went through. That's why I want to tell you about my membership. If you want more insights into how creators build their businesses, more automation tutorials and templates, and even more great content, you should become a member. You'll get ad free extended versions of this podcast, access to My Automations Library, my Friday members-only newsletter called the Automated Solopreneur, Livestream Archives, and more. All of that for less than two cups of coffee from Starbucks.
So if you want to win back your time and get even more insights into how creators build their business, head on over to [casabona.org/join] and sign up today. You won't regret it.
Ok.So what if I just build this with WordPress? After all, Substack is not some drama free paradise. And I'm not one to comment on current events with hot takes publicly. Not anymore, at least not after what happened in the mid 2010s. So I won't comment on the ongoing story with Substack except to say that with the platform were leaving, more writers might leave and will have a Twitter style exodus. And while Substack is undeniably a great product, more on that in a minute, it would defeat the main reason I moved there in the first place.
I'm also somewhat worried about creating a disjointed experience for my members. At this point, I don't have a lot of members, but even the small number I do have, they have three access points, three different access points for my content. Some of them purchased through ConvertKit subscriptions or ConvertKit commerce, which I thought was actually good, but it's not. Some of them purchased through Thrivecart. And some of them now can purchase through Substack.
That's confusing for them and for me because when someone asks about their membership, I first need to figure out where they signed up and how much they signed up for and what the benefits were. That's part of the problem with constant experimentation. But if I'm going to stay true to the “Be Everywhere” strategy, it's a necessary evil for now. After all, I have subscriptions enabled on Apple Podcasts and membership enabled on YouTube. The goal is to make it easier for people on those platforms to pay me.
The same thing goes for people who use substack. And there are a lot of features I like about substack. Like I said, Substack is a really fantastic platform. Creating free previews is super easy. Importing and exporting users and subscribers is easy. Substack connects directly to Stripe so it's effortless to move around if you need to. I think that's part of the reason why a lot of creators like Substack in the first place, but then are so easy to move because of what's going on with Substack right now. They can easily export their list and move the Stripe subscriptions over to a new system. And depending on the size, it takes a little bit of know-how. But if you have a big presence, you can hire somebody who has that know-how.
They also have remarkable podcast support, like really impressive private podcast support. They have a built-in community feature with chat and they're working on video. It's a really nice, well-thought out platform. You don't get a lot of this out of the box with WordPress or any other DIY platform, especially when you're building it yourself. That said, I am adding one more place to “everywhere”.
I'm hedging a little bit because I do have a skillset that allows me to set up a membership site quickly. I set one up in an hour over the weekend using wishlist member on WordPress. Why Wishlist member? There are so many membership plugins. I've tried many of them. I'll probably do like a, tools palooza sort of thing on membership tools in the near future on this show. If you want to hear that, let me know on @jcasabona everywhere, or you can email me joe@casabona.org.
But I picked wishlist member here for two reasons. First of all, I have a lifetime deal through App Sumo. I don't like App Sumo, I don't love lifetime deals, but wishlist member has been around since I think 2008, and I'm a little shocked that this far along over 10 years in, they offered a lifetime deal. But, I mean, I don't know why or whatever. I know that they have staying power, I guess is what I'm saying. So that's number one.
Number two, as far as I can tell, they're the only WordPress membership plugin that directly integrates with Thrivecart, which is how I'm currently selling my membership before moving to Substack. That means I didn't have to set up and test a checkout page. I just connect wishlist member to Thrivecart and I was done. I didn't even need to change the current join slash cart page. I didn't have to do anything. They just seamlessly integrate.Of course, it's not as seamless as setting up a Substack.
Substack is a well-oiled battle tested machine at this point. And with wishlist member, I did have to figure out how to paywall some of my content while still offering a free preview. I ran into caching issues because of course I ran into caching issues. It's a WordPress site. I don't really like the redirect experience when you do have content that is members only. It just kind of redirects to this very bland looking page. I need to fix that. And there's no community feature built in. I need to add that separately.
I don't have to worry about any of those things with Substack. Sure I can't add features myself, but I also never have to hear the word cash on my Substack.
Now I'm doing this because it could benefit me long-term. I may find that substack isn't for me after all, or I might find that substack is the only place I want to be. Either way, because of Substack fantastic export features, I'm not locked into this platform like I would be on. I don't know…well, I don't know about Patreon, but YouTube certainly, or even Apple Podcasts, right? I don't know who the subscribers are for Apple Podcasts. I'm locked in there. I'm not locked in on Substack. And that's, that's really nice.
So as we reach the thrilling conclusion of this episode, I need to ask, am I still overthinking this?
A good story is supposed to have three acts with a conflict, character, growth, and a satisfying conclusion. I tend to agree with the eternal words of meatloaf here. Two outta three ain't bad. It's too soon to have a satisfying conclusion.
The Be Everywhere strategy is also an experiment. As I continue to hone a clear and unique value proposition for my membership, I may find that one platform is much better than any other. If I get a thousand people on Substack, I'll know my audience is on Substack, and it makes the most sense for me to live there at least for a while. But I do need to give this experiment a fair shake. So for now, I'll be publishing in several places. Stay tuned. I'll be sure to share my findings when I have them.
And of course, for members, I will be talking about how I'm publishing in those several places. So, I generally only wanna have one call to action. Go to [howibuilt.it/join]. But because I'm talking about this “Be Everywhere" strategy, let me quickly list for you all the places you can sign up for my membership content.
[howibuilt.it/join] is the preferred place to go. But you can also join me on Substack. Just search for Joe Casabona or go to [joecasabona.com]. That's the domain I've decided to point to Substack. If you are listening in Apple Podcasts, you can subscribe to the show in Apple Podcast. You even get a, I think a week Free trial there.
Or, if you're on YouTube, hang tight, I'm still working on that, but you can become a member of my YouTube channel as well. You'll get basically all of the benefits. Sadly, on YouTube, you'll only get the members only videos because I don't get your email address. But, if you sign up via [howibuilt.it/join] or Substack, you'll get all of my content.
So there you go. It's confusing, right? Just go to [howibuilt.it/join]. That's the easiest thing for you to do.
Thanks so much for listening. I really appreciate it. Thanks to our sponsors. And until next time. Get out there and build something.