Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
*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.
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!
Access LifeStarr Intro: https://www.lifestarr.com/lifestarr-intro-for-solopreneurs
Todd and Leah Getz made a bold move from traditional careers to building a thriving online business without prior marketing experience. So what drove them? Well, determination and a deep desire to be present for their family. In this episode, they reveal how they went from struggling in network marketing to hitting 6 figure months through affiliate marketing and course creation. But it's not just about making money.
Carly Ries:It's about making an impact and a business you actually enjoy running. So if you're feeling stuck in a job you don't love or overwhelmed by the idea of starting an online business, this conversation is exactly what you need. They break down branding, lead generation, automation, and the number one mistake most aspiring solopreneurs make. So tune in to hear their game changing insights. You're listening to the Aspiring Solopreneur, the podcast for those just taking the bold step or even just thinking about taking that step into the world of solo entrepreneurship.
Carly Ries: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 what? We take pride in being part of LifeStarr, a digital hub dedicated to all aspects of solo that has empowered and educated countless looking to build a business that resonates with their life's ambitions. We help people work to live, not live to work. 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.
Carly Ries:We've got your back because flying solo in business doesn't mean you're alone. Okay. Todd and Leah, your story, I'm just so intrigued by this because without any marketing or business experience, you two transitioned from your traditional careers into building an online business. And I would love to know why and how you took that leap.
Leah Getz:Desperation, I think, in all honesty. Yeah. Because at the time, Todd and I had been married for ten years. We had been praying for children this whole time. We finally adopted our first son, and I was now at home with him.
Leah Getz:Todd had to travel for work still. And so at this point in his career, he was doing traveling consulting, and he was leaving Sunday afternoons, flying back Thursday nights and Friday mornings. And after ten years of praying for kids and idealizing this whole family life thing, and then I was a single mom most of the time, and he only got to see our son on the weekends. And that wasn't okay with us. We lived in rural Oklahoma where there were no job opportunities that would replace the kind of income that Todd had.
Leah Getz:And so he had to continue to travel. we actually started with network marketing. I think that's a gateway drug for a lot of people into entrepreneurship. And so we're like, okay, this might be how we do this. Like, this is how we do it.
Leah Getz:And then we totally sucked at it. We ended up coming online trying to figure out how to make that work and found affiliate marketing. And we started to learn actual internet marketing skills, and that's where it really took off for us. so it was really driven by the desire to be home with our kids, to have our family together. And, we started online with affiliate marketing.
Leah Getz:That's where it went great. Todd was able to actually retire from his 6 figure job. I think it was eighteen months or somethng after we had started, and we since went on to launch our own course. And within a year after that, we had hit our first 6 figure month, selling our own courses, teaching lead gen, and the things that we had mastered at the beginning. And you know, our second son has never known what it's like to have parents work out of the house.
Carly Ries:Yay. Well, so I'm just putting my mind in some of our listeners. I'm trying to put myself in their shoes, and they're like, wait. I live in the middle of nowhere. And did they just say 6 figure month and not year?
Carly Ries:So let's say they're like, okay, I want to be with my kids more. I want to work from home more. There aren't a lot of opportunities where I am. What is your advice for that first step in starting an online business?
Todd Gertz:Well, I'd say number one thing that you need to get good at for any type of an online business, even if you're doing things like ecommerce or something like that, you wanna get good at building an audience, building an email list, creating content, branding yourself. I mean, the more and more you look at where Amazon is going, where even SEO is going, when you have a brand, and you're building your own audience, those are the things that companies like Amazon, Google, or even if you've got your own coaching business, your own online course, you know, those are the things that people are attracted to. Brands are ranking higher in SEO. I was just on an SEO webinar that, that's one of the things that they're noticing is that if you have a brand, content is ranking higher than other types of content where there is no brand.
Todd Gertz:In Amazon, if you're doing Amazon products, want to create your own brand. You wanna build an email list. If you're going to sell your Amazon business, if you're building an Amazon business to sell it, having an email list with that increases the value of that business and increases the amount that you can sell it for. So I mean, building a brand, building an audience, and getting good at lead generation, building an email list, that's a very first thing you need to get good at. Even if you don't know what you're going to sell.
Todd Gertz:If you know who you're gonna market to, and you know the kind of people that you wanna work with, start creating content for that. Start building building that list and that audience.
Joe Rando:Can I ask a question ? Because I think we're gonna move on here, and I don't wanna miss it, but that term building a brand, because I see so many different definitions of what it means to build a brand. And there's the traditional, oh, you got your colors and your logo, and you know, some people get your brand voice. But what do you mean specifically by building a brand?
Todd Gertz:Yeah. So it's what people know you for on the Internet. what they associate your name for. So when people think about digital trailblazer, what do they think about?
Todd Gertz:When people think about Apple or Google, you know, what are, not just the thoughts, but also the feelings that that come to mind. That's really what what a brand is about. So, it has a lot to do with just putting a personality behind the logo, putting a belief behind the logo, right? What do you stand for? That's what your brand is. I guess when we first kinda started building an online business, we had this idea that, oh, yeah, we could just hide behind a computer and create content and not really have to put our faces out there, and we can just have like a faceless business. And there's a number of people that yeah. I mean, you might have been able to do that a while ago, but more and more, you know, you need to put a personality behind it. And really because people want connection. Right?
Todd Gertz:People only buy from those that they know, like, and trust. And it's easier to know, like, and trust somebody that you feel like you know versus a faceless brand that you don't know who you're buying from or what they stand for. So that's what I mean by brand. And kinda getting back to the original point I was trying to make, being able to build an audience online, it's like, McDonald's. Right?
Todd Gertz:McDonald's didn't grow to where it is by selling burgers. They got to where they are by picking the best locations, right? It's location, location, location. When you're good at generating traffic and generating leads, it's like having the best location in the biggest city.
Todd Gertz:Imagine if you've got a McDonald's franchise that was just gifted to you. You could take it over. Most people wouldn't look at that and say, yeah, I could definitely be successful with that. But now imagine that you've got that franchise, but it's in the middle of the desert with no roads going to it. How successful do you think that's gonna be?
Todd Gertz:Versus the same franchise, you put it in the middle of Times Square, New York, where there's upwards of 300,000 visitors per day. Right? There's a world of difference. It's the same product. It's the same brand. it's the same quality. Everything the same, but just that location is different, and it makes a world of difference. And that's what the ability to generate leads and build an audience makes for an online business.
Carly Ries:So would you argue because I think people are like, there's a gazillion online businesses out there, and you're not necessarily gonna have your own unique profession. Like, I'm a marketer, and so is my neighbor. it's just everybody's a marketer. But would you say that that brand is how you stand out in a crowded market, or are there other ways to do that?
Leah Getz:Todd, I was gonna say you got a good antidote with the whole beer scenario.
Todd Gertz:Oh, yeah. So standing out in a crowded market, yeah, that's tough. Part of that is definitely gonna be your brand because that's what people connect with.
Todd Gertz:But more than that, you wanna have something, kind of like a spin or an angle that you take on what your offer is and how you help people and how you achieve the results that you achieve. A good example of this, I think it was Schlitz beer. Is that how you pronounce it? It's a beer company. Schlitz. Yeah. It's not in business anymore, but there's a great story about it where they brought in a marketing consultant. And they were trying to figure out a new marketing campaign to sell their beer.
Todd Gertz:And this marketing consultant was being taken out on a tour of the factory, and he was trying to find an angle. Like, how can we get the edge over these other beer companies? And he saw a part of the beer making process where they were, injecting the bottles with with air or something, and they're doing something with the bottles before they pour the the beer in there. He's like, well, what's happening over there? And the guy that was giving him the tour was like, oh, well, that's just where we disinfect the beer bottles so that, the beer stays fresh for longer.
Todd Gertz:And it's like, there we go. That's our angle. We're gonna say that our beer stays fresh for longer because we disinfect our bottles. And the guy that was giving him the tour was like, well, every beer company does that. That's not a big deal.
Todd Gertz:And the marketing consultant was like, yeah, but nobody else is saying it. so that's gonna be our angle. And so whatever your offer is, a lot of times, it doesn't even have to be something that's unique or something that not everybody else is doing. It could be something that just nobody else is saying, but that's what you want your angle to be. Another good example is P90, right?
Todd Gertz:P90X. They kind of popularized back in the early 2000s, right? Kind of aging ourselves here.
Carly Ries:I fell for P90X
Todd Gertz:Yeah, and it's a great program. They had this idea of muscle confusion, right? And so the way that they presented it was that all these other exercise programs, you do them for about thirty days, and then you hit this plateau and you stop seeing results. Okay, and that's what they call the plateau effect. so the way that P90X is different and better, is that, we introduce what's called muscle confusion.
Todd Gertz:So after thirty days of doing this workout, we mix up the program to introduce muscle confusion, which spikes another thirty days of growth. And then we do that one more time for another thirty days of growth, and that's ninety days of continued progress rather than thirty days of progress and then plateauing. And that was their angle. The thing is that if you ask any fitness expert or anybody else who's doing health and wellness coaching, they would have been very familiar with that concept. They may not have called it muscle confusion, but they were familiar with that concept.
Todd Gertz:But P90X was the first one that said it. And I mean, product blew up like crazy because of it. And so whatever it is that you're marketing, finding that unique angle is really the big difference in looking like everyone else versus standing out and being different.
Joe Rando:Such a great point. I love that. And you reminded me. I just bought a new car. And one of the things I always do is I go and I check you know, the highway safety, information about the vehicles, to see which ones are rated the highest.
Joe Rando:Because you know, if I'm gonna drive a car on the highway, I'd like to know if I get in a crash. It's got my best odds. And if you look at them, a lot of the cars aren't Volvos. You know? There are other makes.
Joe Rando:But when you say, what's a safe car? Volvo. They own it. So I get what you're saying. I love this.
Joe Rando:I'd never really thought about it that way. But, yeah, you can feature something that isn't unique to you, but isn't being featured by other people. And once you do that, you own it.
Todd Gertz:Yeah.
Joe Rando:It'd be tough for another car company to come off and say, oh, no. We're the safety car company, not Volvo. That would be a tough sell and probably not worth the effort and the marketing dollars.
Carly Ries:So I'm putting myself in our listener's shoes again, and I'm like, okay. I gotta create a brand. Whether they've jumped ship from their corporate job or they're just starting their business, they have to build a brand. What's affiliate marketing? What's SEO?
Carly Ries:There's so much to do, and I have to make a living, and I have to educate myself. and maybe you guys went through this when you left your nine to five jobs. But how do you combat that overwhelm of I have so much to learn and I have to run a business while I learn all this stuff?
Leah Getz:Yeah. It really comes down to doing it one step at a time. Because you're looking at a mountain and you're gonna climb the mountain, but you can only focus on that next step and keep moving forward. And getting the help, getting the training, getting a mentor, a coach, someone to guide you on that process is so valuable. I'm not gonna lie. We would not be where we are today without that, and that really helped us even just to understand the language, understand even what we were learning in a training. It started to make sense when we could talk through pieces of it with someone who knew the industry, knew what was up. So really focusing on just that next step and keep moving forward is the way to go. Because if you are sitting there looking just up at the top of the hill, it's daunting, and you're gonna, slow down or stop.
Todd Gertz:I would even say networking with the people that you wanna build a business like. So for me and Leah, when we started network marketing and trying to generate leads online, we networked with a lot of other network marketers who were building businesses online. And that's kinda what got us into affiliate marketing in the first place, was that we found out that network marketing was actually a small portion of what of their actual income, and most of their income was through affiliate marketing, creating courses, coaching, and things like that. And when we saw that, it's like, okay, well, we can do that too. And that's kind of what drove us into that direction as well.
Carly Ries:So let me ask this. As you were talking about moving forward on next steps, once somebody builds that steady income, how do they scale? I mean, you guys were saying that you figured out your affiliate marketing and all that, and then you started a course, and now you have a podcast and, all these things. How do you scale without adding to that overwhelm?
Leah Getz:That's a big question.
Carly Ries:Is that possible?
Leah Getz:Yes and no at the same time. So you can definitely scale and just increase your workload, and a lot of people do that at first where they're just trying to bring in more clients. They're still doing like one on one coaching or they're doing what they did at the beginning, just more of it. When you're looking to scale, you need to really assess all the pieces of this puzzle and make sure you're choosing the most leveraged options possible. So we're talking about lead generation.
Leah Getz:Maybe, coaches out there have started and they're networking and they're messaging and they're chatting and doing this stuff kinda stuff on Facebook to generate leads for their coaching business. That's not scalable. Like, that may be a good way to get started, to get your first few clients. But if you want to ramp things up, there's only so much time in the day. You can't really just have more and more and more conversations with people.
Leah Getz:So looking at what's a more leveraged version, does that mean using Facebook ads? Does that mean, getting in front of other people's audiences like podcast guesting? what are the more leveraged ways that you can do lead generation? The same goes with the offer itself. So if you're currently doing one on one coaching, it's only so scalable.
Leah Getz:You only have so much time in your day. So what if we move that to a group program or you add low ticket courses? look at some of the ways the deliverables that you can offer and make sure that they're set up to be scalable because otherwise, you will just run yourself ragged. And unfortunately, a lot of people get stuck in that trap.
Carly Ries:Well, so where does automation play into all of this? From a time saving standpoint, like, don't lose your mind standpoint. How do you implement it in your business and how do you recommend others use it?
Leah Getz:Yeah. We are big on automation and Todd's sort of the automation king. I don't know if he wants to chime in on here.
Todd Gertz:Yeah. that's just something that you wanna build one piece at a time. Obviously, very first thing is just lead generation. Like Leah said, a lot of people, when they get started with an online business, they're trying to do things cheap. They're trying to, save as much money as possible, and that's totally understandable. You can get your first clients just by sending messages on Facebook with no funnels or anything else like that. But if you really wanna scale, you need a funnel, right? An opt in page, a thank you page, and then getting people onto your email list and messaging people. And then, I mean, there's so much tech. I think about where we started and where we're at now and the technology that's available to us. there's so many more ways that you can automate now, but also there's a lot of tech that you gotta deal with as well.
Todd Gertz:And so, being able to learn at least some of that. And then once you kinda learn it, you know what you want done, hiring somebody to do that for you or to manage it for you within your business. But there are so many things that you can automate. It's just a matter of building it one piece at a time.
Todd Gertz:Like, I'm trying my hardest not to go down the rabbit hole
Carly Ries:five hours, folks.
Joe Rando:Yes. Exactly. But do tell us what tools you like to use for automation, if you would.
Todd Gertz:Yeah, so things that you wanna, like your email list, you should be building an email list, that should be something that's automated, your email follow-up. So after somebody opts in to a free lead magnet, or to a webinar, or a training that you're doing, you have their name, their email, their phone number, automate an email follow-up sequence to go out to them to nurture them, right? What we call a nurture sequence. all that can be automated as soon as they take that first step of opting in, you know, all that is automated. And some of the tools that we use do that.
Todd Gertz:I mean, we used to use different tools for everything. We used to have a specific tool for our funnel pages. We used have a specific tool for our email marketing. We had another software for our CRM. We had another soft I mean, all these different things, and we had time all together with another software called Zapier, and it was just a big technological nightmare.
Todd Gertz:Now within the past two years or so, we've come out with some really good, like all in one systems that, do everything really well. What we use is called ConvertPoint, and that you know, saved us about $1,700 a month just by switching to this all in one software, just from the other subscriptions that we were doing. So that's what we use, but there are a lot of other good ones out there. So, Kartra is one that does a lot of that stuff. And we've got clients that use Kartra and they love it.
Todd Gertz:So there are a lot of options. It's just kind of a matter of, what your preference is.
Joe Rando:We do everything with HubSpot. So yeah.
Todd Gertz:Yep.
Carly Ries:And that is our choice. Well, let's say people are like, I'm trying to automate. I'm trying to learn. I'm trying all this stuff. Nothing is working.
Carly Ries:Where do you often see people go wrong, and how can they course correct?
Todd Gertz:Yeah. That's a huge especially when you're brand new. Right? you buy a course, you learn a strategy, and it doesn't work.
Todd Gertz:You buy another course, and you learn another strategy, and it doesn't work. And you kind of go from strategy to strategy and from system to system. And, maybe you learn lead generation, and you don't really generate that many leads. So then you learn how to do webinars and you do a webinar, you don't make any sales, you learn challenges and that doesn't work either. And you do all these things and it's not working.
Todd Gertz:It's common for people to hop around from thing to thing to thing like that and nothing works. When really what the issue is is your messaging. It's a like I was talking about earlier in this episode, where it's about coming up with your unique angle and really building an argument around that, about why you're why you're different, why you're better than the competition, why you might be a better choice for for a specific person versus somebody else. The message is what makes the sale. And if your message is not strong, if it's kind of a weak message, if it sounds like other people, then, yeah, you're gonna struggle no matter what strategy you use. Facebook ads are not gonna make the sale for you. A webinar is not gonna make sales for you if your message is weak. Right? So that typically, that's a very first thing that we're looking at. what is the message?
Todd Gertz:Is it strong? Does it set you apart from from the competition out there? Because if people go through a webinar or a challenge, and, you know, they love you, you sound great, and then at the end, you put together your offering, you present it, and they're like, that sounds exactly like this other person's offer, right? Now your audience has options, and when two things look exactly the same, like, imagine that you've got a menu in front of you, and you're at a restaurant, you're trying to decide and all the names may be different of the items, but when you look at the ingredients and what they're doing, they all look like it's the same thing. Right?
Todd Gertz:How do you make a choice about what you're gonna buy? People have this analysis paralysis, and they don't make a decision, or they just look for the cheapest option. And when people are looking for the cheapest option, it's just a race to the bottom of who can sell their product or service at the cheapest price possible. And there's no point in being second cheapest. So you need to find that that angle, that message around your offer needs to be solid because that's what's gonna make the sale.
Carly Ries:And you said there's no point in being second cheapest. I went straight to, if you ain't first, you're last. So there's my 2¢ for this conversation? I do wanna ask one more question before we get into the ones that we always ask our guests. And we actually asked this to a guest last week, and I really wanted your take on it.
Carly Ries:And that is how do you recommend people not only run a successful business, but one they actually like running? Because there's a huge difference. You can be successful, but you could also be miserable. So how did you find that path?
Joe Rando:Been there.
Leah Getz:Yes. I think it's important that you're not only passionate about what you're delivering, which you do need to be passionate about that, that this is something that you get excited about, that you enjoy talking about, that this is part of your mission and what you just lights you up. But on top of that, how are you building it? Do you enjoy the strategies that you're using to build it? Because especially at the beginning, you're gonna be spending a lot more time on the strategies to build it than actually doing the thing.
Leah Getz:Right? Because you need to actually get the clients before you can serve the clients. And if you hate the strategies that you're doing, you are not gonna succeed. And you're gonna hate every minute of it. You might get some initial traction, but it's gonna be like pulling teeth and you're gonna start to load your business.
Leah Getz:So I've seen this many times where people will find us because we help them set up their automations and their funnels and their systems and all of that good leveraged thing, those good leveraged things. And they come to us because they're starting to hate their business because they got started messaging people on Facebook and it was working. And they didn't really like it, but it worked so they did it. And now they're stuck doing it and now they hate what they do and they're ready to quit their business if they have to message one more person on Facebook.
Joe Rando:Wow. I can see that.
Leah Getz:Yeah. So making sure that you're passionate about what the offer is but that you also are enjoying the actual strategies. And if you don't, you need to really learn from or get help from people who you like their strategies, that you enjoy going through their processes or their content or what they're doing. That will help you identify things that you would actually would be in alignment for you for your business.
Carly Ries:Yeah. Well, such great advice you guys. I feel like that's a great pivot into our question that we ask all of our guests. You help people find success in creating an online business. So what is your favorite quote about success?
Leah Getz:Mine's actually a Bible verse and I have it on my wall right here. And it's Philippians four thirteen. And it's I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. And for me, that's huge. Like, we have done amazing things in this business, but that whole entrepreneurship, like, you know, a meme. Right? Like, yay. Oh, it sucks. Oh, it's amazing. Oh, I'm dying. I should quit.
Leah Getz:Like, that whole emotional journey of entrepreneurship is rough. And toughening yourself up for that, kinda putting on your armor, being ready to stay the course and do the thing. for me, that helps. Like, that verse just reminds me, you know what? God gave me the gifts that I need to succeed and I need to trust and move forward.
Leah Getz:I just gotta move my feet. He's got my path. And so that's a really big one for me.
Carly Ries:Yeah. Todd, did you have one too or is that on behalf of both of you?
Todd Gertz:Yeah. The one that always stuck around in my mind, especially when we were first building our business was, and I don't even know who said this, but I will either find a way or I'll make a way. And for us, that was it. we had this goal in our mind of what we wanted to achieve, and we saw that other people were successful, and we knew that we weren't any stupider or, worse looking than anybody else on the internet. It's like if they can figure it out, then there's a way for us to figure it out.
Todd Gertz:That model you know, I'll either find a way or I'll make a way, that kept me going for a long time.
Joe Rando:Reminds me of one of our other guests, Jay Schwedelson, said something like, his uncle came to him and said, well, stupider people than you have done it.
Joe Rando:Little different spin on it.
Carly Ries:Well, you guys, you seem to know what you're talking about. So if people want to learn more about you and everything you offer, where can they find you?
Leah Getz:Yes. We would love to have them. Check us out at digitaltrailblazer.com. That's where we have, great resources, great information, all kinds of stuff to check out. And we have a podcast that we would love them to come check out.
Leah Getz:It's digital trailblazer podcast, and it's all things building your online business really in sales, marketing, messaging, all of the different things. we kinda like funnel hack people live and go into all their strategies that are working really well. So it's super fun. You can geek out on all the marketing and business stuff, and it's just really, really great information.
Carly Ries:Yes. Love it. Well, thank you so much for coming today. And listeners, thank you so much for tuning in. As always, we love that five star review.
Carly Ries:We love to subscribe on your favorite platform and on YouTube, and we will see you next time on the Aspiring Solopreneur. 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 one 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 one person business community where you can go to meet and get advice from other solopreneurs.
Carly Ries:Sure to join in on the conversations at community.lifestarr.com.