What does it take to thrive as a solopreneur and truly love the life you’re building? Liz Steblay knows the answer—and she’s sharing her wisdom from over 20 years of self-employment, coaching, and business-building. In this episode, Liz reveals how she fell into solopreneurship before the term even existed, the hard lessons she learned along the way, and the six essential keys to succeeding as a solopreneur.
From navigating financial independence to finding your niche, Liz's advice is practical, inspiring, and a must-hear for anyone considering taking the leap from corporate America. Plus, she shares actionable tips on building momentum, staying confident, and creating a business you actually enjoy. Whether you’re a seasoned solopreneur or just dreaming of making the jump, this episode is packed with golden nuggets to fuel your journey.
Want to dive deeper? Head to 6keys.info to learn more about Liz and her book Succeeding as a Solopreneur: Six Keys to Taking the Leap, Winning Clients, and Building Wealth.
🎙 Tune in, subscribe, and get ready to be inspired! Oh, and don’t forget to leave us that five-star review :)
Being a solopreneur is awesome but it’s not easy. It's hard to get noticed. Most business advice is for bigger companies, and you're all alone...until now. LifeStarr's SoloSuite Intro gives you free education, community, and tools to build a thriving one-person business. So, if you are lacking direction, having a hard time generating leads, or are having trouble keeping up with everything you have to do, or even just lonely running a company of one, be sure to check out LifeStarr Intro!
What does it take to thrive as a solopreneur and truly love the life you’re building? Liz Steblay knows the answer—and she’s sharing her wisdom from over 20 years of self-employment, coaching, and business-building. In this episode, Liz reveals how she fell into solopreneurship before the term even existed, the hard lessons she learned along the way, and the six essential keys to succeeding as a solopreneur.
From navigating financial independence to finding your niche, Liz's advice is practical, inspiring, and a must-hear for anyone considering taking the leap from corporate America. Plus, she shares actionable tips on building momentum, staying confident, and creating a business you actually enjoy. Whether you’re a seasoned solopreneur or just dreaming of making the jump, this episode is packed with golden nuggets to fuel your journey.
Want to dive deeper? Head to 6keys.info to learn more about Liz and her book Succeeding as a Solopreneur: Six Keys to Taking the Leap, Winning Clients, and Building Wealth.
🎙 Tune in, subscribe, and get ready to be inspired! Oh, and don’t forget to leave us that five-star review :)
Being a solopreneur is awesome but it’s not easy. It's hard to get noticed. Most business advice is for bigger companies, and you're all alone...until now. LifeStarr's SoloSuite Intro gives you free education, community, and tools to build a thriving one-person business. So, if you are lacking direction, having a hard time generating leads, or are having trouble keeping up with everything you have to do, or even just lonely running a company of one, be sure to check out LifeStarr Intro!
*Formerly known as Solopreneur: The One-Person Business Podcast*
Welcome to The Aspiring Solopreneur, the weekly podcast that dives deep into the world of solopreneurship. Join us as we bring you insightful interviews with industry experts and successful solopreneurs who have mastered the art of running their own businesses.
Are you a solopreneur looking for guidance on how to attract clients? Or maybe you're searching for ways to stay motivated and overcome the challenges of working alone. Perhaps you're even struggling with the intricacies of taxes and financial management. No matter what obstacles you face, The Aspiring Solopreneur Podcast is here to provide you with the knowledge, inspiration, and practical advice you need.
In each episode, our hosts, Joe Rando and Carly Ries, sit down with a diverse range of guests, including seasoned solopreneurs, marketing gurus, financial experts, and productivity specialists. Together, they unpack the secrets to solo success, sharing their personal stories, strategies, and actionable tips.
Learn from those who have paved the way before you, as they reveal their tried-and-true methods for growing their company of one.
Subscribe now and join our community of solopreneurs who are committed to achieving their goals, mastering their craft, and creating a fulfilling and prosperous business on their own terms. Get ready to unlock the secrets to solo success and become the best version of yourself as a one-person business owner.
What does it really take to build a thriving solopreneur business and create a life you love? In this episode, we sit down with Liz Steblay, a twenty year veteran in the solopreneur world, to uncover her journey from unexpected layoff to unstoppable success. Liz shares the hard lessons she learned, the 6 keys every solopreneur needs to know, and her strategies for overcoming fear, narrowing your niche, and building lasting financial independence. So whether you're just thinking about leaving corporate or already in the trenches, this episode is packed with practical tips and inspiring advice to help you take your solopreneur career to the next level. So be sure to tune in.
Carly Ries:
You don't wanna miss this 1. You're listening to The Aspiring Solopreneur, the podcast for those just just taking the bold step or even just thinking about taking that step into the world of solo entrepreneurship. My name is Carly Ries, and my cohost Joe Rando and I are your guides to navigating this crazy but awesome journey as a company of 1. We take pride in being part of LifeStarr, a digital hub dedicated to all aspects of solopreneurship that has empowered and educated countless solopreneurs looking to build a business that resonates with their life's ambitions. We help people work to live, not live to work.
Carly Ries:
And if you're looking for a get rich quick scheme, this is not the show for you. So if you're eager to gain valuable insights from industry experts on running a business the right way the first time around, or want to learn from the missteps of solopreneurs who've paved the way before you, then stick around. We've got your back because flying solo in business doesn't mean you're alone. Liz, we are so excited to have you on today because it's it's such a unique opportunity to chat with somebody that kinda does the same thing or in the same realm of what you do and kinda to go kind of back and forth. So I'm just really excited for this interview.
Carly Ries:
Welcome to the show. We're so happy to have you.
Liz Steblay:
Uh-huh. Thank you. I'm very excited to be here.
Carly Ries:
Well, and in terms of I mean, you have worked for solopreneurs forever, but you have such a unique journey. Can you kind of walk us through being laid off back in the day to your first consulting contract and what the that transition looked like for you?
Liz Steblay:
Yeah. I fell into being a solopreneur before the word was ever even imagined or invented. That was, over twenty years ago back in 2004. I got laid off from my corporate job, and prior to that job, I had worked in consulting for a big global firm, and I had kept in touch with people. I reached out to a former client, and I said, hey.
Liz Steblay:
I just got laid off. Do you have any projects you need help with? And he said, are you kidding? How soon can you get here? So I literally fell into it.
Liz Steblay:
I had my first contract the following week. I didn't even have a laptop yet. And, that first year, like, that project was about nine months long. I made more money, worked fewer hours, didn't have to deal with any big firm BS, and had more quality time with my kid. And I said, this is it.
Liz Steblay:
I'm never going back to a real full time job. So I literally fell into it and, made a ton of mistakes over the next twenty years. I ended up launching 2 other businesses, writing a book. So it has not been the the traditional corporate ladder, but it's been quite the zigzag of experiences. And, now I get my joy from coaching others to live the career of their dreams as solopreneurs.
Joe Rando:
Can I ask a question on that?
Liz Steblay:
Yes.
Joe Rando:
So when you got that first contract within a week of being laid off, and then you went in and you worked for nine months, when that wrapped up, did you get right into something else, or did you wake up and go, uh-oh?
Liz Steblay:
Joe, you just prompted my first mistake I learned when I was a
Joe Rando:
You're not alone.
Liz Steblay:
I was flat footed. I had nothing else lined up. I knew I didn't wanna go back to a full time job, but the type of work I did was was full time project intensive work. And I was so busy delivering the work, I hadn't done anything related to what comes next. I was flat footed at the starting line.
Liz Steblay:
Like, the gun had gone off, and I'm still standing there like a deer in the headlights. I went around and I talked to, some boutique consulting agencies. At the time, I was living in San Francisco. So I talked to a few of them in the Bay Area, and I said, this is my area of specialty, and, you know, how do you work? And do you think you could place me?
Liz Steblay:
And 1 lady told me that, yes. We have lots and lots of projects in your wheelhouse. And I said, well, how does the billing work? She says, well, you know, we invoice the client, and we pay you 65% of whatever we bid you out with the client. And I said, oh, okay.
Liz Steblay:
And then I went home, and I opened a spreadsheet, and I ran the numbers, and I realized, holy smokes. They're gonna make about $45,000 by introducing me to a client. I'm not willing to give up $45,000. I'll find my own work. And so I contacted her the next day, turned that down, and said, this is it.
Liz Steblay:
I gotta find my own work, and I just started hustling. So don't do what I did. Don't get caught flat footed. From that point on, actually, my mantra was, to keep my network warm, always be networking. No matter how busy I would get on a project or delivering the work, my mantra was 1 person in person once a week.
Liz Steblay:
Could be someone new, could be someone I hadn't talked to in five years. It could be just walking down to the sandwich shop to bring the lunch back to our desk. Could have been with a client. Could have been somebody from the systems integrative company. But 1 person in person once a week to develop relationships, strengthen relationships, and keep that network warm.
Joe Rando:
Yeah. You're in the Bay Area, so you could do that in person thing.
Liz Steblay:
Now, not so much. Right? I've since moved to Nevada.
Joe Rando:
Oh, yeah.
Liz Steblay:
California refugees. And, then during COVID, right, I would still do 1 person, but not really in person, but 1 person once a week. And I'd reach out to clients and colleagues, and they'd say, you wanna schedule a virtual cocktail? And we'd meet via Zoom, and we'd each bring our own cocktail. We'd do it, like, at five, five thirty in the evening, and we would just talk about how are you holding up, how's work, what's stressing you out, what problems are you facing, and just to strengthen those relationships and develop trust.
Carly Ries:
Liz, what I love about you is so many people advise solopreneurs without actually having been in the trenches and figuring it out on their own. It's like you don't have any ground to stand on. You don't know what it's like, but you do, and you do so much to the point that you wrote a book called the 6 keys to succeeding as a solopreneur. And you may have have already gone into 1 of those with the networking, maybe not. But can you dive into some of those 6 things?
Liz Steblay:
Yeah. Actually, the the publisher insisted on a shorter title for the book, which is succeeding as a solopreneur. Then the subtitle is 6 keys to taking the leap, winning clients, and building wealth. Yep. They're all the 6 keys are interrelated, but the first one, it's just undoubtedly the most important because it never fully goes away or is handled.
Liz Steblay:
And that is be prepared to vanquish FUD, fear, uncertainty, and doubt. I always refer to this as the FUD monster. Like, I imagine a little gremlin sitting on my shoulder nibbling away at my confidence. Like, who are you to start a business? Who are you to negotiate a contract?
Liz Steblay:
What are you doing leaving a full time job? You're out of your mind. You're gonna die. You're gonna fail. Like, we all have those thoughts.
Liz Steblay:
And now that I've been self employed for twenty years, I can tell you that never fully goes away. The FUD monster still raises his ugly head and whispers in my ear, like, revenue's gonna fall off a cliff. How are you gonna make money? Whatever it is. But that's the first key is be prepared to vanquish FUD, the FUD monster.
Liz Steblay:
You know, need to learn how to name it, tame it, deal with it, and and gets go from there.
Joe Rando:
Is that related to, imposter syndrome?
Liz Steblay:
Yes. Actually. So, FUD stands for fear, uncertainty, and doubt. So there's lots of phrase, fake it fake it until you make it, right, which is which is fine. I'm a believer in that.
Liz Steblay:
But at some point then, imposter syndrome flares up. Right? And and you're like, wait. How do these how are these people believing what you're doing? You know?
Liz Steblay:
And that whole imposter syndrome, that's uncertainty. So that is a part of FUD for sure. But, yes, talking yourself out of that and steps for mitigating that are in the book.
Carly Ries:
Right. are you able to dive into any of the other steps, or are they hush-hush?
Liz Steblay:
No. book, literally, having read the book. actually, after publishing the book, there's so many of my hard lessons learned and embarrassing moments and things in the book that I was quite exhausted once it was published, not just from the process of publishing, but so much it, it's not often that you look back on twenty years of your career and you have it all in 1 place, all the hard lessons in 1 place. And I realized, no wonder I'm tired because I had to survive all of these things as a solopreneur and as a single mom. Then that year that I got laid off and fell into being self employed, I also got divorced.
Liz Steblay:
So I was, a single mom doing all this on my own in a very expensive city of San Francisco. And I'd like to inspire people who are stuck with FUD and thinking, I would love to do this, but, you know, I've got to save for college or, divorced or I'm a single parent. You can still do it. It is possible.
Carly Ries:
Oh, well, yeah. So let's talk about some of these other things. I have a friend of mine, who is going through divorce, and that's her first thing. She's like, she was working part time. Now she has to work full time and is trying to figure it out.
Carly Ries:
So let's discuss those other 5 things.
Liz Steblay:
Yeah. The other keys well, actually, there is a whole chapter in the book. I think it's chapter 3, that are the things to consider before taking the leap to being self employed. I have also a blog on this, which is 9 things to consider before taking the leap, because it's not the right path for everybody. It's the hardest job you'll ever have being self employed because you have to push your boundaries.
Liz Steblay:
You have to learn new things. You have to do things you've never done before, and you have to wrestle with that stupid fun monster all the time. So it's a hard job. But it's doable. Like, things like this book didn't exist when I fell into this twenty years ago.
Liz Steblay:
Right? We just figured it out. Now you can ask your AI assistant or you can read my book or you can go to courses or you can become a member of, Professional Independent Consultants of America, the organization that I run, and there's help now. But the second key, and this is the part that a lot of people struggle with, is they think they should go to market as a jack of all trades or Jill of all skills when actually the reverse is true. You need to narrow your niche, be known for something, and be memorable because that's what leads to referrals.
Liz Steblay:
That's what leads to repeat business.
Liz Steblay:
sure, you can do a lot of things, but what's the tip of your spear that's gonna that's gonna have you pop into somebody's mind when the need for your expertise pops up? That's 1 of the hardest parts.
Joe Rando:
Oh, I say this all the time. I think people are sick of me saying it. Thank you for saying it instead. I love it. Tip of the spear.
Joe Rando:
I always just say get the point on the chisel. love it.
Liz Steblay:
So you know. I mean, yes, you can do a lot of things, but you gotta get your foot in the door. And but most importantly, think about it from your perspective client's point of view. They wanna hire an expert. especially if you're in consulting, they're gonna be spending tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of dollars to solve this problem or seize this opportunity. They don't wanna hire somebody who may have done it before or has done it once or twice. They want the expert, especially when they're spending that kind of money.
Joe Rando:
Yeah. an accountant, but I also can do plumbing, and I'll walk your dog.
Liz Steblay:
Exactly.
Carly Ries:
Well, so once you find that niche and what you're gonna do, what's next? What are some other pieces of advice?
Liz Steblay:
Well, we already talked a little bit about, how you have to constantly grow and nourish your network because most solopreneurs get their work through referrals. And at some point, your inner circle knows you and knows of you, and you're present in their world, and they'll refer you. But at some point, that's not enough. Right? You need to expand your network.
Liz Steblay:
Adam Grant made this he didn't invent this, but he made this, concept more popular, and that's called the power of weak ties. At some point, you saturate your core network, and you need to establish new ties or weak ties, and that often leads to new referrals in new business. So you need to constantly grow and expand your network. I talk about in the book a little bit like being Johnny Appleseed, who is the story goes, he, was spreading apple seeds, and some of them grew into orchards, and some of them, you know, didn't produce anything. But in reality, you need to do the same thing when you're self employed.
Liz Steblay:
You never know where your work's gonna come from. I was talking to 1 woman. She was a member of the organization, PICA, and she said, you know, I end up finding a lot of work through my kids' birthday parties. Because, you know, you take your kid to the party. You're standing around like the kids doing whatever they're doing, and you're chatting with the other parents.
Liz Steblay:
She said, I've gotten 2 or 3 clients that way. So you just never know. I also always carry a hard copy business card. And, you know, I'm a big snow skier. I'm on the chairlift.
Liz Steblay:
And somebody says, oh, you know, what do you do? I'm like, oh, well, I just published a book on how to succeed as a solopreneur. Like, really? I've been wanting to do that. I hand them the business card.
Liz Steblay:
I'm not gonna whip out my cell phone when I'm a hundred feet up in the air, and there's 10 feet of powder below me. Right? But I will hand them a business card. So, yes, you never know where you have to be like Johnny Appleseed because you never know where things are gonna take root.
Carly Ries:
Oh, I love that. Any any other words of wisdom? I do have a financial independence question for you if you wanna dive into that.
Liz Steblay:
Oh, yes. Get me started on that, and you we will not keep this within the time limit, but go ahead.
Carly Ries:
So you say that there are 4 ways to reach financial independence as a solopreneur. And I'm curious what those are as well as just if they're specific to solopreneurs or if it's just a general advice for people who are are running a business.
Liz Steblay:
Well, when no. If you're solopreneur or entrepreneur, the principles are the same. I believe so strongly that well, key number 4, you didn't ask, but key number 4 is to be to be professional and be set up as a business, not as a freelancer, not as a subcontractor, but find your own work and bill directly. Ten ninety nine basis, business to business basis. I feel so strongly about that, but I've trademarked the phrase friends don't let friends w 2.
Liz Steblay:
If you find your work through a matchmaking platform like Cadillac, Graphite, Talmix, or through an you know, a boutique agency, they're going to try to pay you on a w 2 basis like a temporary employee. I'm not gonna get into legal reasons why they do this. Legally, they don't need to do this in most cases, especially if you, have a business license. But in any case, being paid is a $10.99 on a business to business basis. The key to creating wealth is is twofold.
Liz Steblay:
Squirrel as much money away as you can towards your retirement, whether that's through a solo four zero one k or a IRA, and a lot of people miss this other 1, a health spending account. You need to have a high deductible insurance plan in order to set up a health spending account, but then you can save an additional it's almost $5,000 a year now, 8 over $8,000 a year for a family. And that money grows tax free, and it's not taxed when you use it for health expenses. So the retirement options when you're self employed are much greater. The limits are, like, 3 or 4 times higher than your typical four zero one k.
Liz Steblay:
And here's the trick for squirreling that money away. I have no financial discipline whatsoever despite running 2 businesses and having an MBA and all this other thing. But if I log into my, like, normal bank and I say I have $8,000 in savings, I'll say to my daughter, hey. We've got enough money to go on vacation. Where do you wanna go?
Liz Steblay:
Even though I know I've got quarterly taxes or whatever. So the first time I was caught short for quarterly taxes I can't learn from my mistakes. Don't do this. I think I needed to come up with, like, $10.12,000 dollars, and I didn't have it. And, of course, I freaked out because interest and penalties, you don't wanna go down that rabbit hole.
Liz Steblay:
I think I borrowed the money from my brother, but I said from then on, I'm never gonna get caught short again. So every time a client paid an invoice, I put 40% into a different bank because then it was out of sight, out of mind. And, yes, there were times I had to in lean months, right, when I didn't have enough income, I would borrow from the secret bank, but then I always paid it back. Then for quarterly taxes, I transfer the money to my normal bank, pay the taxes. And then this is where the magic happens. the annual tax return, I'd have 20 or $25,000 left over.
Liz Steblay:
That went into the SEP IRA. I'm not taxed on that 20 or $25,000. I invest that money in a gross tax deferred until retirement, and that's the case that lays the golden eggs. The other side to that coin is to minimize your expenses and take as many tax deductions as possible, which you cannot do if you are paid on a w 2 basis.
Carly Ries:
Yeah. Also I like that it's coming from you because we've had a lot of financial experts on the show. Obviously, people will trust financial expert, and they're like, yeah. But you tell people how to do this for a living. This is your profession.
Carly Ries:
It comes so easily to you, but you just said that's not in your background. And so
Carly Ries:
I'm so happy that you said this as, you're not a CPA. You're not a tax or financial professional. So, yeah. And I don't wanna say, if you can do it, anybody can do it because that's not true.
Liz Steblay:
Well, it's somewhat true because I really am bad at math and accounting.
Carly Ries:
There you go. So yeah. But I am glad because you said we didn't circle back to steps five and six or not, not steps, but keys.
Liz Steblay:
The keys.
Carly Ries:
Five and six. Yeah. Can we circle back on that?
Liz Steblay:
Sure. Well, the other part of building wealth is make enough money. Right? So key number 5 is to be confident and charge what you're worth. This is probably the, biggest mistake I see people make when they step into self employment or even years after being self employed is they're not charging what they're worth. there are lots of ways that the reasons why this happens. 1 is that they'll calculate their what their salary and bonus was, divide by 2,000, and say, oh, well, that's a reasonable hourly rate. But it's not because you have to pay for your own health insurance, your business administration, your self employment tax. You need to add at least another 30% on to whatever that number is. So the 2000 is the rough amount of hours in a working year if you take a two week vacation.
Liz Steblay:
So if you took your full salary, your bonus divided by 2000, then add 30%, then you're at least getting in the ballpark. So that's number 1. Number 2 is a lot of people bill by the hour because it's the easiest. It's what clients expect or are used to.
Liz Steblay:
But the longer you're self employed, the more you should shift to a fixed fee or package pricing or project based fee. Because the more times you do something, the faster you do it. You get better at it. And if you're exchanging time for money and you're working faster, you're making less money. So that's when it's time to switch to a fixed fee pricing.
Liz Steblay:
But that's not always the best advice if what you do is not in your hands to control. So let me explain. I used to do change management strategy and implementation programs for big, hairy tech projects on a global basis for global companies. I had no control over the project timeline. there's always a tech problem or some other thing, and it was always behind schedule.
Liz Steblay:
It was out of my control. I would be crazy to charge a fixed fee in that situation because I can't control the timing of the outcome. In those situations, what you might want to consider is hybrid pricing. If there's a piece of the work that you're looking at doing and you can do that as a fixed fee, maybe it's the assessment work or the initial initial, initial assessment or diagnostic and say, okay. I can do that in three weeks.
Liz Steblay:
I'm gonna charge 25,000. And then after that, doing the project plan, whatever, I'll do that by the hour or whatever. But you can mix things up. It doesn't have to be just by the hour or just fixed fee. Hybrid pricing is totally reasonable and becoming more common.
Liz Steblay:
But when you can switch to a fixed fee in your pricing, you'll make more money.
Joe Rando:
1 of the things that I did in my last startup, which is related to this, but I think it was interesting was that we would actually, do an implementation for the customer. And 1 of the things we would say is, here's the timeline we're agreeing to. And if there's a delay in the timeline, then if you delay your part of it for three weeks, that doesn't mean we're getting pushed out three weeks because we might need to do something else with that time and be put on something else. So you're taking a big risk, and it really worked well because people knew that they could wake up and find out that their three week delay cost them two months.
Liz Steblay:
Yes. Clients don't often understand that there's so many interdependencies. Right. And you can't just sit idly by and not have that time be billable. That you might need to go to another client for sure.
Joe Rando:
And that was the thing. So we would kinda hammer this point home to them before they sign the contract so everybody nobody could say, well, I didn't get it. It was like and we'd still get some some complaining, but most of the time, there weren't delays, which was really interesting because people just knew, you know, this better be a priority or somebody's gonna get yelled at on their side.
Liz Steblay:
Most solopreneurs don't have as much control over what it is they're doing. If you're an executive coach, financial planner, yes. Probably so. You that's a lot in your control, the timing of things. But even then, a lot of times, people will do a fixed price.
Liz Steblay:
Let's say it's for a one day off-site. In fact, I represented a client through 1 of my businesses and with Nike, and then we put it in as a fixed fee. I don't remember what it was now. Let's say $15,000. Well, Nike moved that rescheduled it twice.
Liz Steblay:
And the second time it was being rescheduled, the consultant said to me, I'm beginning to feel like I'm losing money because this is wrecking havoc on my whole book of business that I have to keep reschedule because they reschedule. I have to reschedule other people. And just administratively, it's taking so much time. So you just never know what's gonna be in your hands and what and whatnot. Oh, but the other part about charging what you're worth, % confidence.
Liz Steblay:
you just need to have the confidence to say, my rate is $500 an hour, and that's what clients pay for me, and that's what I'm worth. I have another story about that, I put forward four consultants to do some work. The rates ranged from 300 to 800 an hour. Client chose the $800 an hour 1. I said, you know, you picked the most expensive 1.
Liz Steblay:
Are you sure you don't wanna go back and look at the others again? They said, nope. absolutely not. We definitely want that. We definitely want that 1.
Liz Steblay:
And she was no she was just as skilled as the others. Right? There was nothing unique about it, but she had the backbone to say, my rate's $800 an hour.
Carly Ries:
rate is $800 an hour.
Joe Rando:
This podcast is over.
Carly Ries:
I'm building that confidence.
Liz Steblay:
So, Carly, you did ask me actually what were keys five and six. So 5 was to be confident and charge what you're worth. And key number 6 is pay less tax and keep more of what you earn, and we already did talk about that a little bit.
Carly Ries:
Yeah. No. that's all wonderful advice. Joe, I will not charge you $800 an hour yet, but I will build the confidence to get to that point.
Carly Ries:
Well, Liz, I just think this is such valuable information. for the people that are thinking about leaving corporate America that are listening to this podcast and they haven't made that leap yet, if maybe they think they're gonna get laid off, but maybe they're gonna do it intentionally. What piece of advice do you have for them? The 1 big piece of advice you would give them before jumping ship.
Liz Steblay:
Read the blog article, 9 things to consider before becoming a solopreneur. Because that's really my 1 piece of advice leads to 9 other pieces of advice.
Carly Ries:
Yeah. No. Is there 1 thing on there that you could 1 of the 9 that you can give a little nugget for right now?
Liz Steblay:
Yeah. it would be to evaluate your mental outlook. It takes an enormous amount of confidence to strike out on your own. Sure. The FUD monster, your fear and certainty, doubt is gonna come up and nibble away at you and tell you all the reasons why you shouldn't do it.
Liz Steblay:
But, if you're smart enough to get the answers or to get the help you need, you're probably smart enough to make the leap and do it.
Carly Ries:
Mhmm. Oh, nope. That is such great wisdom, and we will include a link to that blog post in our show notes. But then my other question that I wanted to, end with before we get into our quote about success is what advice do you have to for people to not only run a successful business, but 1 that they actually enjoy running?
Liz Steblay:
Yes. That's the constant battle because it always shifts over time. So I've been self employed twenty years. First, I was just doing the independent consulting work. Then I started my first business while I was still also doing consulting work.
Liz Steblay:
Then I stopped doing consulting, was just running the business. And then I started Professional Independent Consultants of America, and then I wrote the book. I mean, it's it's always shifting. And, so 1 of the things that I do when I'm thinking, am I really fulfilled? Is this really what I wanna be doing?
Liz Steblay:
Is I take out a piece of paper, draw a big circle on it. And on the outside, I write do less of dot dot dot. And on the inside of the circle, do more of dot dot dot. And then as I go about my work over the next week or two, sometimes longer, I'll jot things down. I wanna do less of social media.
Liz Steblay:
I wanna do less of webinars. I wanna do more 1 on 1 coaching. I wanna do more of podcasts, more speaking, whatever. And that sorta helps sift the the nuggets from the the junk, the sand that that gets into gears. I don't know if this analogy is making any sense.
Liz Steblay:
I'm a very visual person, so it helps for me to, instead of, doing, a spreadsheet of pros and cons or whatever, I just jot these things down, and then I can look at it and say, okay. Well, what am I doing in my work that that how can I rejigger what I'm doing so that I'm doing more of the stuff I like?
Carly Ries:
That is great. Well and that kinda ties into like, that was so motivational that it ties into the favorite quote about success. And I have a hunch this is a list original.
Liz Steblay:
Okay. So I have 2 for you. I have original and another 1. So, the first is by Michelle Obama, and she says that success isn't about how much money you make. It's about the difference you make in other people's lives.
Liz Steblay:
So as solopreneurs, that's, I think, particularly important. But then going to my own quote, momentum is the engine of solopreneur success. It takes time to build momentum. And once you have it, you have to keep it going, and how can you capitalize on it? Particularly when it comes to building your own book of business, establishing your brand, it just takes time to build momentum.
Carly Ries:
Mhmm. Couldn't have said it better myself.
Carly Ries:
This has been so wonderful. If people want to learn more about you, where can they find you?
Liz Steblay:
The easiest way to find out more about me or the book, both my name and the book style are hard to spell, is to go to 6keys.info. Not .com because that was expensive, and I'm all about keeping expenses low. So 6keys.info.
Joe Rando:
Is that the number 6 or 6 spelled out?
Liz Steblay:
Good question. And both will take you to the same place.
Carly Ries:
Oh, I like it. And listeners, thank you so much for tuning in. As always, we would love that 5 star review. We'd love that click on the subscribe button on your favorite platform, YouTube, you name it. We still appreciate it, and we will see you next time on The Aspiring Solopreneur
Carly Ries:
You may be going solo in business, but that doesn't mean you're alone. In fact, millions of people are in your shoes, running a 1 person business and figuring it out as they go. So why not connect with them and learn from each other's successes and failures? At LifeStarr, we're creating a 1 person business community where you can go to meet and get advice from other solopreneurs. Be sure to join in on the conversations at community.lifestarr.com.