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Overwhelmed? Feel like your business can't run for a day without you? You're not alone.
When you're a solo business owner, everything ends up depending on you. You're the only one who can do the work, answer the email, keep the plates spinning. So you're on the hook every day: nights, weekends, even the vacations you do manage to take. The overwhelm never really lifts.
But being a solopreneur doesn't have to mean doing it all yourself. With the right systems, parts of your business can run without you. That's what gets you your time back, and gives you the freedom to take a real break. And the freedom to do the work you actually want instead of the work you feel stuck doing.
Joe Casabona learned this the hard way. He went from so overwhelmed he had a panic attack to taking 4–6 weeks off a year, worry-free, and he's helped hundreds of solopreneurs build systems that give them their time back.
Every week, one clear idea to help you get your time back without hiring a team...or selling your soul to AI. Start listening, then grab the free newsletter at https://streamlinedsolopreneur.com.
Well, we are entering the gauntlet of Black Friday and Cyber Monday. And, you know, for a long time, I did Black Friday sales. In the last few years, I just haven't. I haven't had a product to sell. Um, this year, I think I'm going to do something a little bit more targeted and, uh, I'm raising the price of my business system assessment in 2026. I kind of realized that like, the price I was selling it at did a disservice to the value that was being offered. And I think people could, the feedback was I, I, that disconnect was felt. So I will be like promoting a thing, but I'm not positioning it as a Black Friday sale. I'm just positioning it as I have 10 slots available for December to, uh, do an assessment on your business systems and your automations ahead of 2026. Uh, But the reason I'm recording this is because I feel like, you know, I'm getting a lot of, I just got 2 emails from solopreneurs who are offering Black Friday sales. And I don't really know that they should. You know, like, and this is my experience, offering a Black Friday sale just for the sake of having a Black Friday sale doesn't usually do well. My most successful Black Friday sales were when I was selling something that was going away or deeply discounted. Um, you know, I think I did like 66% off all of my courses. Uh, I did a membership sale uh, that was basically a lifetime deal. Like those, those were high value things. I don't really have anything like that. To sell this year, and I feel like just doing one on my services is not like that would undervalue the service. So, instead, I am promoting 3, you know, I sent out an email, I wrote a blog post on 3 Black Friday deals that I think are worth it. Um, they are, I'll link it in the description, but uh, it's eCam live is doing 40% off, I think, for your 1st year. Um, and then, uh, Oh, wow, you can get. Well, I mean, it's not going to help now because 40% is better than 15%, but I forgot I had a coupon for 15% off eCam live. But anyway, so eCam live, and then uh, tella.tv, which is what I've been using for videos. If you use my affiliate link, you get 20% off your 1st 3 months. And then Kit, formally convert Kit, is doing 60% off your 1st 3 months, which is big because they just raise their prices for the 1st time ever. So, Those are 3 that I, uh, I promoted to my email list. It's the only time I'm going to promote them. My content strategy does not revolve around affiliate income. And I think, honestly, I think the best way to do affiliate income is to really focus on a niche or a niche. and promote products in that niche, right? Like Stephen Robles on YouTube doesn't, and just, I think, an incredible job of this. Like, he focuses on Apple products and like his I watch every single one of his accessories videos. Just, I love them. Um, he's testing out a bunch of stuff and uh, it's really cool to see that in action. Uh, you know, there are there is um, Nomads Nation. They do bag reviews, which great niche, just great niche. But like, you know, they make money off of affiliates. And so I think like that is, I'm sure they make money other ways, but if you're going to do affiliates, you really need to go all the way in on affiliates and not just like put your link here and there, right? Like, If I decide not to do sponsorship in 2026 and instead do affiliates, I would need to change a lot of my content strategy for the podcast and the YouTube channel. to really figure out like what is the best affiliate strategy for me? And how can I really go all in on it? Um, you know, maybe if Zappier offered a a affiliate program, maybe I would do it, but, uh, you know, that's what I am talking to a few folks, and and their affiliate programs look appealing. So it is something for me to think about for the in the next month, how I want to approach monetization. But All of that is to say that, like, affiliate, for me, is not, like, the best way for me to make money is by selling my services. And I would love to launch a product in 2026. I've tried a couple times this year and I got talked out of it. And honestly, like the coaching business is doing well. So, you know, I want to experiment, but also, I don't want to mess up something that really feels like it's starting to get traction. So all of that is to say, I guess the big takeaways from this episode, I'm really, I'm really tired. I'm going to do another episode on the Alex versus A-Rod documentary. I learned a lot and I really enjoyed it. But I stayed up too late last night watching that. So, um, the big takeaways here are, I don't like, I don't think small business owners need to have a Black Friday sale. especially if you're service-based. And if you are going to do the affiliate thing, I think you should make it really focused. For me, if I were to do it, it would be around content creation tools probably. Uh, I mean, all 3 that I promoted in my newsletter today were, uh, and the ones I just mentioned, um, were around content creation, 2 are specifically video creation. And so, you know, that's kind of how I streamline my content creation process. So maybe that's something I can really go all in on in 2026. Um, But, you know, that's it. I don't know what just beeped in my office, but I'm going to take that as a sign that I should end this recording. Um, but let me know what you think over at streamlined feedback.fm. Nope. streamlined feedback.com. Whoops. streamlined feedback.com. Let me know what you think. Have a great weekend. And look for my gift guide episode on Monday. It's a good one. I love doing that one and that is really focused this year. All right. Until next time, I hope you find some space in your week.