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Becoming an entrepreneur takes grit.
Deciding to do it solo takes courage.
This is 1,000 Routes, the podcast where we explore the stories of solopreneurs who have made the bet on themselves to build a business that serves their life. Every episode you'll hear about the lessons they've learned and the uncommon routes they've taken to stand out in a world that is purposefully trying to commoditize them.
Transcription
HARNESS & HONE | 1000 ROUTES | KORY KIRBY
Episode Transcript
This has been generated by AI and optimized by a human.
Kory Kirby [00:00:00]:
I think a lot of people are like, how do I get my job? How do I make the money? How do I do all these things? And so, like, I was like, I'm gonna choose where I want to live first, and then I'm gonna figure out the money second. And then all the dominoes just kind of started falling, and I've, like, figured it out. My day to day life is a vacation.
Nick Bennett [00:00:24]:
Hey, it's Nick, and welcome to 1,000 Routes, the podcast where I explore the stories of solopreneurs who have made the bet on themselves to build a business that serves their life. Every episode, you'll hear all about the lessons they've learned and the uncommon routes they've taken to stand out in a world that is purposefully trying to commoditize them.
Kory Kirby [00:00:46]:
My name is Kory Kirby. I'm a publishing strategist where I help experts write and publish books that people actually read.
Nick Bennett [00:00:55]:
Dude, I'm excited for this one. I first heard about you and got introduced to you through a mutual friend, Max trailer, because you've helped him publish, like, Ryan publish his books. And those are some of my favorite reads. Cause they're, like, just short and pithy, and I just. I enjoy his writing style. And so I got introduced to you and your work, and I'm fascinated by what you've been doing because, one, I've never. I have not met very many people who are in your line of work. It's very crowded.
Nick Bennett [00:01:24]:
It's very hard to do something different. You're in a very different line of work than most soulprints I talk with, but you've also been at it for a really long time. You've been out for, like, seven years. And so I want to start, like, what did you know seven years ago? What did you see seven years ago that led you to do this thing as crazy as start a business of one? Like, long before, I think, social and the Internet kind of reached the scale of maturity that it's at now where it's so. It's so easy to do it that everybody's doing it, but back then, when you did it, it was a very different place. So, like, what was going on in your life? And how did you make this transition to business of want by origin story.
Kory Kirby [00:02:08]:
Is it's really kind of my coming of age in business, so to say, where I graduated with the wrong degree. Didn't we all, totally. Or maybe it was the right degree. I blatantly didn't show up to some job interviews, and I moved out of my house. I moved onto a bike and I rode my bike down the west coast of the US with a trailer and a surfboard. And that was like, my dream. That was the thing I wanted to do before I died was teach myself how to surf and ride my bike 2000 miles down the entire Pacific coast highway. Canada, Mexico.
Kory Kirby [00:02:45]:
And this is not a pedal bike like human power. And I had a surfboard, like a road bike.
Nick Bennett [00:02:49]:
Like a Lance Armstrong bike.
Kory Kirby [00:02:51]:
Yep, road bike. And I had a surfboard as a trailer attached behind me. And the surfboard was blank. It was like a billboard. And I wanted to send the universe this message to come back to me because all these cars were passing me. And so I decided to write on there, why do you exist? And it was this perfect, like, existential question for like 22 year old me. I'm like, why do I, like, what am I doing? I'm on a bike. I don't know.
Kory Kirby [00:03:15]:
And so I was just meeting these wonderful people and they're like, I exist to teach. I'm a doctor. I exist for my kids. And I was shooting photos of these people. I was nearing the end and I was like, dude, this is a book you need to publish book. This is what you're going to do with your life. There's something around books. And so I finished the ride and I reached out to some publishers.
Kory Kirby [00:03:38]:
I got rejected. And I was like, well, you know what? I'm fuck y'all. I'm gonna teach myself how to do it and I'm gonna do it myself. And I needed money, but I made this other decision to live in my car, essentially to continue to work on publishing this book. And this was like a little bit of this, like kind of dark time, those trying to figure out how to generate an income. But I just knew that the book was like so, so important. And so I published my first book, why do you exist? Cover, cover. Shout out here.
Kory Kirby [00:04:09]:
And I did a couple things. Like, I've always kind of just been doing it my own way. Like, I didn't put my name on the front cover because it's not about me. It's about why you exist. I didn't put the book on Amazon because I felt like the results I wanted weren't from Amazon. I sold it directly to my audience on Instagram. And I got email addresses, I got DM's, and I was like, what'd you think of it? And from this was like my first lead. My very first leads.
Kory Kirby [00:04:36]:
I was like, people were asking me, hey, could you help me publish a book? I love what you did. And so I just started saying yes to people. It was like poetry books, grandma's books, weddings books. I just was learning because I didn't know a whole ton about it. I was very much approaching it through self taught, and I came to the point where I needed a job. And so I started working minimum wage and then night shift for. In a snowboard factory. In this snowboard factory, I could listen to headphones and, like, I was binging on, like, Tim Ferriss, like, the four hour work week.
Kory Kirby [00:05:10]:
And I was trying to, like, put the pieces together to how I could, like, quit this minimum wage night shift job and, like, go all in on books. But I'll just kind of stop there because I think, like, that decision to do this bike trip really empowered me to, like, publish the first book, which I got my first set of leads. But then I was like, oh, shit, what the fuck? How do I make money? And so I was, like, working some minimum wage job, and I don't know if that brings up anything for you that you want to pause on, but I could keep going.
Nick Bennett [00:05:43]:
Well, how long, first of all, how long did it take you to ride 2000 miles on a bike?
Kory Kirby [00:05:46]:
I did it three months.
Nick Bennett [00:05:48]:
So you lived on your bike for three months, you learned all this crazy stuff, and then you were like, this is a book. And like, whoa. You had this moment. You're like, this is a book. I gotta write about this experience. How long did it take you to write the book after? Or did you start writing it while you were on the trip? Like, when did you decide to write the book and how long did it take you?
Kory Kirby [00:06:06]:
So I finished in 2017, and it actually took me, like, 18 months, like, just under two years to, like, formally publish it. And so I was, like, living in my car. I was binging YouTube videos. I was asking professionals, I was learning indesign. I was trying to figure out how to get it printed. I was trying to create my own strategy behind it. And so it took, like, over a year to do that in and of itself.
Nick Bennett [00:06:31]:
You figured out fulfillment and, like, printing and all that stuff to get the book into people's hands intentionally, didn't put it on Amazon, and you sold it through Instagram.
Kory Kirby [00:06:41]:
Yeah. And I, my partner, Gianna, is an artist, and so she had this online store going. And at the time, my credit card was maxed out. And I put 20 books on my credit card, which is all the money I had. And I publish this on my post it on my instagram. And I sold all 20 books in, like, literally, like, 20 minutes. And I had all these DM's coming through, and I was out of stock, and I was like, dude, you're blowing this. And my girlfriend, Gianna, thank God, she was like, just say it's in stock and just tell people that you'll fulfill it in, like, four to six weeks.
Kory Kirby [00:07:12]:
And so I opened it up, and then that same day, I mean, at this time, this was huge. Like, I did, like, $2,700 in book sales in a day. And for, like, meeting cash flow, that was seed money. And so just so much respect for Gianna. She was like, open it up. Like, the energy's there. Like, people aren't going to be excited in six weeks when it's back in stock. Just say you'll fulfill it then.
Kory Kirby [00:07:37]:
And so I got that. That amount of money was, like, what I needed to then launch it. And then sense from my book, like, the amount of money it's gotten me from, like, clients is. It's hard to quantify that, but it's everything. Hundreds of thousands of dollars in client work from that book.
Nick Bennett [00:07:54]:
Hands down Instagram influencer. Book sales was, like, not where I expected this to go. So how did you even. I don't want to get stuck on this, but I'm just so curious. How did you get people on Instagram to buy a book? Were these friends? Was this family? Were these just strangers? How many? And then take me through how you got these initial book sales and then how many books have you sold? Like, did you sell at that time? And then kind of totally, just to get an understanding as to what this.
Kory Kirby [00:08:24]:
Totally. So when I was doing the bike ride, I was just writing and posting on Instagram daily, and I just cultivated this little, like, committed, cult like, following to this three month adventure of this why do you exist?
Nick Bennett [00:08:36]:
Or they wanted to see it and.
Kory Kirby [00:08:38]:
They wanted to see the ending of it. And so to this day, I've probably sold, like, 700 books. But direct to an audience is a lot better because that's. You have the ability to get email addresses, and I still use this stuff to this day. And then just direct sales is, hey, you can get, like, $25 a sale versus getting the nuances, but that's a good profit margin for just, like, a simple product for, like, a first launch for me, just trying to get some. Some fricking seed money.
Nick Bennett [00:09:07]:
Yeah. Considering most people only make a few bucks on a book and you're making $25 a pop, that's not bad. Okay, so this is ridiculous. So you write the book, people start buying it. You're blown away by the fact that people care about this book. Then what happens?
Kory Kirby [00:09:23]:
I do a couple projects from that and then leads dry up from the book. And I am like, what do I do? And again, shout out Gianna. She was like, have you heard of this platform called, called upwork? And I had, and I was like, oh, yeah, it's a freelance platform. It's incredibly commoditized. It's where you get cheap freelance work. But I was, like, desperate to get out of a minimum wage job. And so I started looking at it, and I was like, I just feel like people are using this wrong. And so what I did is I posted, like, my dream publishing job, which at the time was, like $7,000 to do XYZ.
Kory Kirby [00:09:57]:
So to be clear, I created a sake client account, posted a fake upwork job. I got all these freelancers bidding on this job. I took every single freelancer's portfolio and every single freelancer's kind of, like, look on upwork. And I curated mine to be the best of the best. I then started massively applying at scale to upwork. And I did, in one quarter, probably, like, $30,000 in upwork, just, like, hustling it out on upwork. And what was cool about this is, on one hand, these are low risk projects that I allowed me just to learn and make tons of mistakes. I just was like, I didn't know how to do some of the stuff, but I got the money, and then I figured it out while doing it with the client.
Kory Kirby [00:10:46]:
And I, again, was just getting more and more money and more and more experience. And then, funny enough, one day I was at the beach, Nick, and I got this invite to a job on upwork. And something about it just looked different to me. And I went to my car, I applied to the job, and it was the person on the other end of it was Katrina Bussell. And I know you know Katrina. Then I got on call with Max and Katrina, and that's how I did Max's first book agency survival guide. And so this, like, period of hustling and upwork allowed me to get good. Like, at this point, I was confident I'd done it for a couple of years, like, following the why do you exist? Leads hustling on upwork.
Kory Kirby [00:11:29]:
Then I got Max trailer, and I worked on his book agency Survival Guide. And what was so fun about Max is, like, he actually listened to me. I feel like people send me their manuscripts, and I'm like, it's too long. No one's going to read it. You need to cut out all the crap. Make these short, punchy poems, and add some illustrations. And Max was like, done. Like, you're my guy.
Kory Kirby [00:11:51]:
Let's do it. And so we published agency survival guide. And then at the end of agency's survival guide, he gets on a call with me, Nick, and he goes, what the fuck are you doing? He goes, you're not a book designer in upwork. He's like, you're amazing. Why are you throwing yourself into this upwork commodity zone? He's like, come to a call of mine. I'll help you. And Max literally mentored me off of that platform, and I was ready at the time into sort of, like, where I then started actually building, I would say, like, a legit, real consulting business. And I just.
Kory Kirby [00:12:28]:
I'm so much so grateful for Max and what he's taught me.
Nick Bennett [00:12:33]:
I mean, I think it speaks to the work that you did. And I know you just recently helped Katrina publish her book, a million reasons why you can't. Is that right? So, I mean, the fact that they're still publishing books with you says a lot, because this was probably five years ago now that you did agency survival.
Kory Kirby [00:12:49]:
Yeah. Five years later, I worked with Katrina on her book, which is super cool. All from a little, like, upwork game job.
Nick Bennett [00:12:58]:
I have it. I haven't read it yet, but I do have it, so I'm excited to check out hers. I've read Max's. But anyway, so what I think is interesting is, like, these conversations that I have, there seems to be this, like, generally that there's, like, one person that for some reason saw the thing that we can't see in ourselves and was just like, let me help you. It's like Max changed. It sounds like Max really changed your life. Like, and just helped you see more of what you were capable of doing. So takes you through, helps drag you out of.
Nick Bennett [00:13:28]:
Out of fiverr or upwork and gets you to set. Set up shop as, like, a real. I say real as a consultant, like a more formalized consulting service or productized service. In that way. I'm like, this is like a movie right now. I need to know what happens next.
Kory Kirby [00:13:44]:
There's thinking, and there's doing. And he's like, you need to stay as a publishing strategist in the thinking. And he's like, the thinking. You told me to just have these short, pithy poems with illustrations. The thinking behind the COVID concept that I came up with, and then the illustrator did the doing, but I was the one that was like, hey, this is what cover is going to kind of look like. And so he was kind of teaching me the difference between that. And he's like, you just need to get really, really focused on what you do and what you don't do. And so to this day, someone, the other day, a client was like, hey, could you help me design my logo? I love the illustration on page 26.
Kory Kirby [00:14:25]:
And I was like, no, I don't do logo designs. And all respect to people through brand identity and all that, but I stay specifically on the publishing strategy. What's the concept of the COVID That's the hardest part. And then finding an illustrator just to make it, that's easy. So what's the concept of the distribution strategy? I chose my book to not be on Amazon. Max gives his way for free on LinkedIn. Other books aren't even available for sale. They just get distributed behind the corporate model.
Kory Kirby [00:14:53]:
So he just really was like, you need to stay in this thinking zone and stay really, really focused. And so I still designed things, but I only designed covers. I only design interiors. I don't do anything else. And so he was like, okay, stay focused on what you're doing. You need to package up your service into a product. And so I went from like 2500 and I sold the same exact package for 7000, then I sold the same package for 7500. Then I sold the exact same package for $10,000.
Kory Kirby [00:15:25]:
And I was like, what is going on here? It's just mind blowing.
Nick Bennett [00:15:29]:
And it was like, it rewires your brain when you're like, oh, I can just keep going.
Kory Kirby [00:15:34]:
I was like, oh, my gosh. And then I got on this call and it was like a larger, like a large campaign. And I got off of it and I was like, man, this is like a $20,000 project. And, you know, I called Max and I'm so grateful. And he's like, yeah, just say it's that much and tell them your terms. And I was like, I would need $20,000. I needed 100% upfront. And if it goes over, then it sparks a monthly retainer.
Kory Kirby [00:16:01]:
And the person on the call just didn't blink. And they just said, send me the invoice. I was like, you know, I was like, okay, so this is how it goes. And one of my core beliefs, or I have this manifesto thing I've been working on a solopreneur manifesto, but one of them in there is a proposal, is simply an opportunity to fuck it up. That's all it is. That's all it is.
Nick Bennett [00:16:26]:
I like that.
Kory Kirby [00:16:27]:
And in this proposal, this particular client is like. Like, I was like, I have to be able to tell them what they get in just, like, three points in a casual conversation. You get Kory, the book guy, you get the publishing strategy, you get your book, and that's all that this person needed. And so it sucks when you get sent a proposal from someone and it's like some 20 page document with, like, 15,000 words, and it's, like, incredibly complex. And so that's something that's important, is keep it simple. Conversations matter and stay focused on what I do and what I don't do. That really helped me pivot to the next level of having a real consultancy, not like a freelance thing on upwork.
Nick Bennett [00:17:12]:
So how did you find these first clients? Now that you're out of upwork and you're out of this, like, the high that the initial book launch got you, where did you find these initial clients now that you're an established consultant?
Kory Kirby [00:17:28]:
Yeah, it's always been through showing up to just tons and tons of time on Zoom. So this started happening in 2020, and so 2020 was really well for me because a lot of people had nothing better to do than to write. Covid, like, for some reason, 2020, 2021, people were like, this is the perfect time to write a book. Like, there ain't shit happening. And so I just was like, I don't have anything specific, but it was just hours on Zoom, networking with people, talking to people, showing up to events, and just having these conversations. So I think that that word conversations, I love it. That's what it's about. And it's not, like, selling.
Kory Kirby [00:18:17]:
I'm not pitching anything. I'm not doing no pitch decks. I don't believe in pitch decks at all. It's just like, hey, writing a book's hard. Do you want help?
Nick Bennett [00:18:25]:
No.
Kory Kirby [00:18:26]:
Cool. And talking to as many people as I could, and during this period, 20. 202-021-2022 like, I had so many yeses, and it was really just this, like, up up growth for me.
Nick Bennett [00:18:41]:
You know, there's. There's a. There's a thing that most sole prayers I know struggle with, which is the thing that they do, they haven't necessarily done for themselves or they've. They've, like, tried. They've done it for companies, but not for themselves. There's, like, always this, like, weird I. Gray area, and they're trying to close this gap. And what I love about the way that you've built this thing is you were like, I had to figure out the hard way how to publish a book without a publishing house.
Nick Bennett [00:19:15]:
And you learned a lot of what different things about how to not publish a book. You learned all the dumb stuff, and you're like, all right, never do that again. You optimize the process, and you're like, okay, I got a book written, formatted, printed, and sold, and other people have it in their house. And then you're like, I can show someone else how to do it because I had to do it myself. That whole thing is where so many people, like, the wheels fall off for them because this is where imposter syndrome comes from. It's like they just haven't necessarily done the thing well. It's like, well, yeah, you can't necessarily do the thing because you're not the founder of, like, a tech company, but you've worked for tech companies, whatever, right? Not to lose the plot here, but the whole idea is you took the thing that you figured out how to do, and you realize there's a lot of other people out there who also are trying to figure out how to do that thing, and you were able to build a business from it, and you've continuously optimized that entire process.
Kory Kirby [00:20:14]:
I love that. I've always just felt really a little bit squirmish when I don't really know something or I don't, haven't done it myself. I have to sort of touch it, get handsy and get over it and, like, understand it and have some form of results behind it. And I think I struggle with imposter syndrome. And, like, looking at my, my shelf, I won't show you for the fear of it, but over here, my trophy shelf, and there's, like, 105 books on my trophy shelf. They're all the books I've published in my life. And, like, looking out at that shelf on the hard days, it's like, oh, even if my mind is like, you haven't done it, it's like, oh, there's 105 books sitting on your shelf with results inside of them. And that really shields me.
Kory Kirby [00:21:05]:
That's what motivates me upon is seeing.
Nick Bennett [00:21:07]:
That 105 books over the course of seven years, the majority of which happened in the last three to four.
Kory Kirby [00:21:17]:
Yeah.
Nick Bennett [00:21:18]:
At what point were you like, hey, this thing, this is actually going to work? Like, like this business, like you were doing running this business, you probably published a book or two in the first couple of years, and you were like, at what point were you like, this could actually work. This is a business.
Kory Kirby [00:21:33]:
I think there's a weird thing in entrepreneurs and particular solopreneurs. Like, I've always known it was going to work, which is crazy. Like, when I was starting my business, my family, my friends, they were like, what are you doing? Books. It's 2018. Like, what is going on? And I love this. It's a quote, and there's actually a book titled this now, but I was kind of following this before the book came out. It's called burn the boats. And it's like this old metaphor where Hernan Cortes supposedly landed on an island to conquer the free world, and he got everyone off of his boats, and then he burnt the boats, and he was like, now there's only one option.
Kory Kirby [00:22:16]:
We either, like, conquer the island or we die. And not big a supporter of the horrific acts they did. But I love the metaphor. I quit my job, kind of to go back there. I worked a night shift job. I got my way into a nonprofit, and then I got my way into the university, and each one was a little bit of a pay raise and a little more stability. And then I had six months. Like, I was meticulous in my finances.
Kory Kirby [00:22:43]:
Like, I had six months of a Runway saved, and I was like, if I don't make a single dollar, I'll just get another job. And so I quit my job. I burnt the boats, and I had just this innate belief that I was going to just figure it out. So I had some intention where I had a six month Runway, but I also was at the time, what? Gosh, 2025. No kids, no. No mortgage at this time. So, like, things were pretty low risk for me, and I've been doing it seven years, but I think full time, like, six. Like, full time in and of itself.
Kory Kirby [00:23:18]:
And that six month Runway is just. It's always. It's still there. And, like, there's been periods where it's gotten much, much longer periods. It's gotten a little bit shorter. But, like, that's kind of been. My mentality is, like, I can always get another job, but my dream and what I'm trying to do is to build a job that I can't get fired from. This is the ultimate stability.
Kory Kirby [00:23:38]:
This is the ultimate security, is what I'm trying to build.
Nick Bennett [00:23:42]:
You and me both, bro. It's all of us. Was there ever a point when you did end up where you did apply for a job that you second guessed what you were doing?
Kory Kirby [00:23:52]:
Yeah, I love this question. So I. 2020, I met Max. Things were booming. I had this huge climb. 2021, 2022 was good. And then it was right around, like, that five year mark where I kind of had that feeling of, like, I made it a little bit, which is horrible. I don't know, for some reason.
Kory Kirby [00:24:12]:
Just check mark in your brain, the five year whatever it is. And I let off the gas, and where I primarily let off was in sales and marketing. It's, like, not my favorite area. And my prospecting. I let off the gas and shit. Got super real at the end of 2023. And at the start of this year, start of this year was just crickets. So, so quiet and so confusing.
Kory Kirby [00:24:38]:
And I've never gotten so many nos. I've never gotten so much resistance. I've never just gotten so many ghosts from people. And I'm not sure what's up with that. And so this year, it was like, damn. I did dust off the resume, which was real. It was scary. And life has this crazy, crazy path where I actually went through this full job interview process and I didn't get it.
Kory Kirby [00:25:09]:
And then the next week, I closed the client, and they paid 100% upfront. Like, four days after I found I didn't get the job, I actually got this tattooed on my wrist here. It says, love the process. It's like my life motto. There is no finish line. And so even now, there's no guarantee some work's coming in for me, but I will never get confident like I did in the past. That little, like, five year mark, I will never get confident like that again. And, like, that's so where I went wrong is I thought I had made it.
Kory Kirby [00:25:42]:
Like, I thought I'd found that security, and it just doesn't exist. Like, the good work never stops, and it's, like, never really there. And so I'm still actively just like, hey, what do I need to do? What do I need to do to make this work?
Nick Bennett [00:25:57]:
That's, like, a pretty common theme amongst a lot of people, is letting off the sales and marketing, just overarching business development. Like, things get good, your plate gets full, and then you don't necessarily have the space or whatever it is to try and continue starting new conversations. A couple projects come to a conclusion, and then you're sitting there holding the back. It's a tough thing to balance because, like, there's, how are we supposed to. How are you supposed to do it all? And I don't know if there's a perfect way to do it, but I think we've all learned that lesson. Like, you're not alone in learning that lesson, is what I'm saying.
Kory Kirby [00:26:37]:
Totally say, yeah. And I think where I'm kind of going now, and I'll kind of reverse engineer, like, my most recent client, I reached out to someone maybe six months ago who is kind of a similar area of me, but doesn't do exactly what I do. And I was like, hey, like, you don't do what I do. I don't do what you do. But we could, like, work together in XYZ matter. I didn't hear from them for six months, and then they just referred me this client, and that client came in, and it was just smooth. When it goes smooth, it's amazing. You know, they have the exact problem that I solve, and we get along great.
Kory Kirby [00:27:22]:
And the timing, the budget was there, and we're ahead. We're grinding on the book right now, and it's. It's coming along great. It's beautiful. And so I think those are really interesting to me, is like, like, reverse engineering it. It's like, that 130 minutes call I had six months ago led to $15,000 in revenue. That type of stuff is crazy to think. And so where I'm really going now is, like, the Jared fuller near bound stuff.
Kory Kirby [00:27:45]:
I really. I really love that. It's like, how do I make strategic partnerships? How do I surround my people? How do I build this ecosystem of kind of prospecting? And I can get tons of people just coming in to my doorstep like that.
Nick Bennett [00:28:01]:
I don't think enough people are willing to accept that the work today result, like, creates results or will show up in your bank account in six months where we are all indoctrinated and, like, the loop must be closed. Like, if I send the DM today, I'm going to get the deal, like, tomorrow. And it's just not how it works. The whole point is to build these relationships and to start the conversations that just, like, the whole. There is no endgame. This is the infinite game, right? It's like all of the work you put in day. Like, the goal is, be in business long enough for them to send you a referral, be in business long enough for them to meet when it is time, when the problem is big enough for them to need you type of thing. And that stuff tends to compound over the course of months and years.
Nick Bennett [00:28:52]:
Cal Newport has a new book called Slow Productivity that I'm obsessed with this idea of. They talk about, measure your success over the course of years and decades, not necessarily weeks and months, and it reframes everything that you're doing, because now it's not so much like. And I know you're in the process of writing your next book right now or you're wrapping that process up. And I think it's easy to look at this and go, I didn't get my book done in these few months, but it's a lot harder to look at it and go, look at all of the books I've written over the course of years, of this last decade. It changes your whole perspective.
Kory Kirby [00:29:34]:
Totally. Yeah. There's that quote where it's, you overestimate the amount you can do in a day and underestimate the amount you can do in a year.
Nick Bennett [00:29:42]:
Yeah, exactly right. What's a moment or a decision that you made along the way that you feel impacted the direction of what you're building right now?
Kory Kirby [00:29:53]:
Where I want to go with this is intermixed and kind of my story. I didn't get super granular with it, but I made the decision to move to port Angeles, washington, which is, this is where I live. And I made that decision, like, first and foremost. And why I made that decision first and foremost is because I like living in a small community. I love skiing, surfing, hiking, biking. These are the things that just fill me up. And so I was like, I want to live somewhere where these things I like to do are integrated into my day to day. I'm going to build my life first.
Kory Kirby [00:30:35]:
So on a Wednesday, I can go surf for a little bit, come back and work. I can go walk literally a mile, and I can be at the beach. I can go ride my bike 5 miles, and I'm up on a mountain. I can descend on the mountain. I can jump in a river. I can come home 20 miles later and I can eat dinner. And I think a lot of people are like, how do I get my job? How do I make the money? How do I do all these things? And so I was like, I'm going to choose where I want to live first, and then I'm going to figure out the money second. And so I'm just so happy that I made that decision to move here.
Kory Kirby [00:31:11]:
And then all the dominoes just kind of started falling. And I like, and I've, like, figured it out. My day to day life is a vacation, like, in the stuff that I love to do. And I love tracking this. So I was looking at my stuff from last year. I'm a big tracker. I got 247 days outside doing activities in 2023. So that's 102 days on my bike, 47 days surfing, ten days skiing, 27 days running.
Kory Kirby [00:31:46]:
These are the important metrics to me. So along the way, I'm just glad that I didn't move to somewhere where I couldn't do that stuff.
Nick Bennett [00:31:57]:
That is awesome. I feel like this is the measure, the success over the course of, like years thing where you can look back like, I spent a year of my life on my bike. Like, in a few years from you said you spent 100 something days on your bike in the last year, you'll be able to say, oh, like five full years of my life was spent on a bicycle. And if that's what you want, like, that's, that's the type of stuff that we gotta, that we should be tracking. Like, that's the real KPI of business is, like, how much does this support your life? Build a business that optimizes for your life, not, not the other way around.
Kory Kirby [00:32:37]:
Like, I love, like, I generally just stop thinking after, like three or 04:00 p.m. like I'm very much a morning person. It's like, I love this thing. I call it the am focused where I wake up every day and I immediately do the most important thing right off at like 630. So I work like 630 to 830 on the most important thing of the day right away. Like, I'm literally in my pajamas, like, doing the most important thing then. The important part though is I pause and I'll, like, shower, I'll go for a walk, I'll eat some breakfast. I'll kind of do my calming routine, and then I come back and then I do more, like, I don't know, less creative thinking stuff.
Kory Kirby [00:33:18]:
And then I do a full on bender in meetings and then I stop work at three. And so, like, I love designing my life around that. That works for me. And I want to ask you this. I'm curious to get your thoughts on this. So I track all my time and toggle, and I've never really worked like a corporate nine to five, just so to say, but I work like 25, 30 hours a week. But when I'm working, I'm, like, focused. My mentality is, how do I get this done as fast we and as quality as efficiently.
Kory Kirby [00:33:51]:
So I can go do other shit that I care about, which I feel like some of the opposite incentive of a nine to five. But my hours say I only work 25, 30 hours a week, but I'm dialed in and I'm focused. I stop it when I go to the bathroom. I stop it when I eat. I stop it for these kind of little breaks. And I'm wondering, like, when people say they work like 40, 50 hours and they're in the office? Are they actually focused for that long? Is 25, 30 hours of focused work on my toggle? Is that representative of someone who's just kind of like twiddling their thumbs in the office? Help me understand this a little bit. Do you get what I'm asking?
Nick Bennett [00:34:28]:
Yeah, I mean, I think that the human brain is probably dialed in for about three to 4 hours of real work in any given day. So your 25, 30 hours is probably pretty accurate. You just don't have, like, water cooler to fill in the rest of the time. Like, you ever seen office space?
Kory Kirby [00:34:52]:
Yeah, yeah. You have a water cooler for sure.
Nick Bennett [00:34:54]:
Basically, that's like, real, like, that's like, what is happening in office space is actually what happens in most of corporate jobs or any job. They're just, they're killing time. So, I mean, for people who work 60, 70 hours, I mean, who knows? I mean, I know a lot of solos who work those types of hours, but they have a boatload of client work that they do. Whereas in the corporate world, I don't know. I mean, I think, I think they're working that much probably because they didn't spend the daytime the way they should. I don't know. This is a broad brushstroke.
Kory Kirby [00:35:31]:
Sorry to interrupt you. Just to go back to that, like, designing life. Like, I can't work 60 hours a week. Like, I kind of wish I could because I'm that ambitious of a person, but, like, I just, my brain, I just, I literally can't do it. And so, like, part of it is like, I've had to choose this path of a solopreneur, not to sound super meta. Like, it chose me because I was like, I can't commute. I can't work 50, 60 hours a week. Like, my brain, just like, it doesn't work for me.
Nick Bennett [00:36:02]:
I don't think people are getting good work at that many hours, though. Like I said, your brain can't really handle much. A high intensity task, deep work, whatever you want to call it, for more than three to 4 hours a day. And everything else is like, especially when you count tasks switching and everything else that goes on in the day, things that break your focus, whether in the office or out of the office. So I don't, I don't think you're too far off. I think you just truncate it into, like, a shorter amount of time. People stretch it probably across, you know, 10 hours a day, whereas you're like, I'm going to cram this into like 6 hours a day and be whatever it is and be done with it. So where.
Nick Bennett [00:36:45]:
Where are you at right now? I think it's like, let's fast forward. Let's get to today. So. And I know you just did this, like, week long. I don't know what you wanted, like, this, like, book sabbatical and. Or something, and you took this time, and you were like, I need to hammer out this book. You're like, I've been putting it off, and I've been kind of dancing around and trying to get things done here and there. Talk to me about your.
Nick Bennett [00:37:05]:
How you took this time and wrote your book and kind of what's next for you on that front.
Kory Kirby [00:37:09]:
Yeah. So I just. I do really well, and I think a lot of people do, too, of course, with open space and, like, focused on one thing. Like, task switching is really, really hard for me, and so it's hard for everybody.
Nick Bennett [00:37:25]:
Nobody's good at test switching. I don't care what everybody says. They're all lying. 100%, I think. I'm pretty sure they're all lying.
Kory Kirby [00:37:30]:
Working out this book throughout kind of end of summer, end of the fall, and so kind of to set the scene, I'm on draft four of a book. It's a 50,000 word manuscript. It's. I'm determined to make it be the book on publishing books for experts and thought leaders. And it was just slow. And I was like, I keep mentioning Gianna because she's wonderful. She's my sounding board. She's also a solopreneur.
Kory Kirby [00:37:58]:
She's an artist. And I was, like, confessing my angst about that. I couldn't work on it enough and fast enough. And she's like, you just need to block off a week. And I was like, I can't. Blah, blah, blah. Excuses. I got that client my email, blah, blah, blah.
Kory Kirby [00:38:11]:
And she's like, you own your business. Like, look out and block a week off. And I was like, okay, you're right. And I looked out. Blocked off seven full days out of office. People asked me what I was doing. I was like, I'm out of office. I'm out of service.
Kory Kirby [00:38:26]:
And it was beautiful. People were like, okay, cool. And they just, like, respected that and just went quiet. And I'm like, perfect.
Nick Bennett [00:38:32]:
Jeff. Yeah? Your clients love to see you take time off. Like, people think this is, like, you own a business, and therefore, it's hard to take time off. I mean, like, it. It is harder than it is if you work for somebody else, but your clients love to see you take time off. They're like, oh, wow, you went, that's so great.
Kory Kirby [00:38:46]:
And so I blocked off seven days. I told the people I needed to know. And then on day one, and actually, I coached people on this, is I did something a little bit different, is on the day one, I cleaned my house, I vacuumed it, I did the dishes. I went to the grocery store. I got tons of food, I got everything prepped. Like, all the little distractions that, like, kind of get you from home. Like, I took my inbox and I, like, just plopped it up to my assistant, and I just, like, removed a bunch of things. I set intention.
Kory Kirby [00:39:16]:
That was day one. And then day 234567, you know, I put in, it was like 38 focused hours at my book, and I rewrote the entire part one. And the part one of my book is the most strategic, it's the most thinking, it's the thinking about. I call it the alignment phase. It's who's the book for? What's the book that the who cares about? What problem is it solving? Why should the who care in the first place? And then why are you doing it? Why are you doing this? To fuel for the fire? How are you going to approach the writing process? What bodes well for your personality? Are you a talker? Do you want to talk it out? Max talked out his books. Are you someone that can just sit down and ping out writing? Are you a great presenter? Do you have a podcast? Do you have a bunch of content that just needs to be filtered into a book? Like, how are you going to approach your writing process? When are you going to work on it? What is your schedule? What is realistic, that amount of time that you have for working on the book? Are you a morning person? Are you a night person? And then with who do you need to build your publishing team? And so this is the part one that I completely rewrote is through this strategic way to approach actually, like, one thinking about your book. So it gets the results that you want, and everyone's results is a little bit different. It's designed in an intentional manner so that it pulls you in the direction that you want to go by solving your who specific problem.
Kory Kirby [00:40:45]:
And then it actually gets done because you've approached it through a strategic way of writing it, and you know when you're going to actually, like, work on it. And so I rewrote that entire part in this week long session. And what's so cool about this is one of the biggest reasons anyone should write a book is clarity, is I have so much clarity around this now to just talk about on the podcast, to do whatever, and then I can lead with my book and like, hey, this is what my engagement looks like. It's detailed in part one, part two and three. I get very technical. It's kind of like a step by step guide. And then I have that in there just to be like, hey, this is what the journey is like. Like, this is how I know it.
Kory Kirby [00:41:27]:
And then I'm gonna. I'm using the book in the exact same manner that I coach my clients on, which is on integrating your book with your offer, aligning it with your business credibility, and then getting more conversations. And so I think this concept of offer credibility in conversations relates the stability as a solopreneur. And so I made an intentional decision to write my book for a week to help with this goal of stability. And that's kind of where my, where I'm going next is I want to launch this book, I want to relaunch a website, I want to launch a newsletter, and I want to, like, optimize my social, my customer facing areas. And then I have so much content I can roll out for my book, LinkedIn, videos, whatever. Like, I can just take this 50,000 words and just spit it out. And so that's kind of, that's what I'm working on right now, and that's where I'm going.
Nick Bennett [00:42:19]:
I like that you talk about, like, it brings clarity. Like, I'm a firm believer that clear writing is clear thinking. And I think the hardest part that most solopreneurs face is they don't know exactly what they think about certain things. This isn't like a knock, it just is what it is. There's so many conflicting inputs, and taking the time to hammer that stuff out is hard. And it's like, how do you decide what you think other than to create the forcing function of write it down?
Kory Kirby [00:42:56]:
Totally. Totally. So my book is, it's gonna be titled pressed. And I love the word pressed. Like the printing presses of old. It's, you have to lean into that pressed feeling. That feeling of pressure is how you make a good. And so a book that's pressed is designed in a pursuit of unobstructed self expression.
Kory Kirby [00:43:18]:
It's around you. This creates originality because you're a unique lens of the world, but needs to be designed for the user experience. What your who wants, the problem that your who has. We need to balance your expression and what your who wants, like, need to balance you with your who. Because just because, like, I care about something, but it doesn't solve their problem. It's not gonna like, doesn't matter to them. So it has to be designed from you, but it needs to be reverse engineered around your who's problem. Then a book that's pressed is edited and it's tested.
Kory Kirby [00:43:54]:
A lot of books are edited. They forget the testing is your. Can you. Can you send your book out to your ideal client and get feedback? Have you, have you gone through the process like, I have, like 105 times. And then the last point is synergy is how do you have your book and your business all like, harmonious and flow together? And so it pulls you in the direction that you want your business to go. And these are like, the main points of my. Of my book that, like, it took me months and years of writing to, like, distill it into this one little organized flow that I just released on YouTube.
Nick Bennett [00:44:33]:
Dude, I love that because what I heard was that your book is not about you. Like, this isn't a biography. And this is probably something I would imagine is really hard for people who are writing a book that is not a biography, to not make it about them, to make it about the problem, and to make it about the reader, because no one wants to read your biography. You're not Michael Jordan. You're not interesting enough in that way for people who want to read your biography. But if you get the problem and you can articulate it in a really clear way, boom, we got a good book. You tried to get me to press one of my email course into a book. You were like, this is a book.
Nick Bennett [00:45:15]:
And it's like, I don't think it's a book, dude.
Kory Kirby [00:45:17]:
It's totally a book. Totally a book.
Nick Bennett [00:45:19]:
Soon enough. Soon enough, there will be a book coming. I'm committing to that right here, right now. There will be a book. I don't know what specifically yet, but there will be a book, and you're gonna publish it for me. Well, with me, like, we're gonna. I'm gonna hire you.
Kory Kirby [00:45:34]:
I love it. That's the first thing.
Nick Bennett [00:45:35]:
Don't worry about it.
Kory Kirby [00:45:36]:
Designed for the user experience. What problem are you solving? And I know you're huge at that.
Nick Bennett [00:45:42]:
That's my thing. That's like, I will die on that hill. So, looking back at all of the seven years of craziness, what's something you would have done differently?
Kory Kirby [00:45:56]:
Well, first, I love that the decisions I made made me in who I am today. I think I would have hired an assistant way earlier. I think, as a solopreneur it's really hard to be like, I have enough consistent income or I can do it all myself or whatever self limiting belief that you have. I would have gotten assistant earlier. It's the best money I spend every single month just to take that low hanging administrative tas, and, like, I track my time. So I went from doing, like, 30% administrative last quarter, I did 8% administrative work. Like, that has a huge, huge decrease in the percentage of my time. So I would have gotten an assistant earlier.
Kory Kirby [00:46:41]:
I would have called and asked people for help more. And I want to do this into the future. It's amazing. When I pick up the phone or I send an email and I ask someone for help, it just blows me away how people are willing to help. And so I think I would have hired an assistant. I would have asked for help earlier. And the final point is, I wish I could have just worried a little less. What we do and what I choose to do is stressful.
Kory Kirby [00:47:12]:
It's uncertain. And so I deal with consistent low grade anxiety around it all. And I wish, looking back, I would just worry less and enjoyed the journey a little bit more.
Nick Bennett [00:47:24]:
There's definitely something to be said for ask for what you want. That's, like, a recurring theme in almost all my conversations here, is that everyone wishes they would have done that more often. The assistant thing is interesting. I've heard a lot. I don't have one, but I've. I feel like everyone, a lot of people bring it up. I definitely. I feel like I should explore this.
Nick Bennett [00:47:48]:
Cause it seems like it's great.
Kory Kirby [00:47:51]:
It's like, it's wonderful. It's a game changer.
Nick Bennett [00:47:56]:
I'm like, I don't know. I feel like I hold to these tasks so close that I'm just like, it would be harder for me to explain to someone how to do it than to just do it myself. Like, that's the kind of person that I am with this stuff. And I don't know, maybe that's just, like, I'm holding myself back.
Kory Kirby [00:48:13]:
And this is something that I love telling people about books is like, just start recording your screen and just start, like, tracking your emails and just start being, like, a little bit better with your, I call it knowledge management. Like, you have a lot of digital sawdust that's left. You have a lot of, like, kind of things that you're outputting is just being a little bit better organized with that. And so even things that you struggle to explain, just, like, record your screen and then just send it and just be like, hey, I need you to do this. And at first, they gotta learn it. But, like, you can make standard operating procedures and all sorts of wonderful stuff just right off of screen recordings, and you don't even have to explain anything. That's something that has changed my life completely.
Nick Bennett [00:48:55]:
One of the things that was, like, very hard for me was to even offload the production of this show. Yeah, I produced the first ten episodes of this show myself, and it shows. I mean, they were. They were okay. I'm definitely not a great podcast producer, but I feel like I had to do it because, one, I had to learn, like, why, like, how to be a better host and how to run these, run the show. But also I had to value the process, because I didn't. I was going to send it to, or choose to, like, trust to do that work. I wanted to really value that work and understand, like, it's not super easy.
Nick Bennett [00:49:34]:
I mean, it might be easier for them because they do it professionally, but mastering the audio and taking out all the filler words and all this stuff makes it and just cleaning it up. So, yeah, I totally get that. But it was hard. It was hard to explain my creative process and my thinking and why I chose certain. Why I made certain creative decisions. So to try and do that for mundane tasks, I don't know. This is. I've gone off the rails on this one.
Nick Bennett [00:50:03]:
But I agree. I think it's something that probably more people. More people should do, because we all get bogged down with this stuff.
Kory Kirby [00:50:11]:
Finding the right people is huge. You know, it took me a couple kind of different people and experiments and all that. And just like, with you, with the podcast is like, having that safe and, like, release some of those things we all feel is like, if you have the right person on the other end, it makes it a lot easier, and it's hard to find the right fit.
Nick Bennett [00:50:31]:
Now that this book is coming out, what is next for you?
Kory Kirby [00:50:37]:
I feel like I've cracked this inner code a little bit on book writing, like, the nitty gritty book writing, and so I'm really excited to sort of pivot into authorship myself. Like, I've to be clear, I've published three books. I'm working on my fourth. I've helped other people do it 100 times, and so I still wanna help others do it. That's, like, the core way I make my income. But I'm really excited to sort of launch this book. This would be, like, my first really, like, full length prescriptive nonfiction book, and how it's gonna like, impact my business. I know it's gonna be big.
Kory Kirby [00:51:20]:
And then I have, like, so many other books behind the scenes now from everything I've learned. And I wanna set up this kind of operation of, like, churning out quality books from myself as an author. And I think that's kind of like the main next focus is just stability around my consultancy, having consistent, not so much feast or famine. And I'm looking forward to partnering with you on that and helping me through some of my own challenges there and then building corey, the author, getting some of my own consistent passive income and books and going from three books to four to five to six and seeing where that takes me.
Nick Bennett [00:52:07]:
I feel like you are the man for the job. Without a doubt. It is clear that this work is, like, crazy meaningful to you. I don't have the patience to probably sit around and help people and squeeze out these ideas from people and help get it all right. But if you can tell how meaningful it is for you to help people really make their mark or leave their legacy in these types of books, that you're creating 105 books is. Is wild. And so I love what you're doing. I love that you've got pressed.
Nick Bennett [00:52:46]:
Almost pressed. When is that coming out, by the way?
Kory Kirby [00:52:48]:
Oh, that's the million dollar question. Oh, gosh, no. It needs to get out as soon as flipping possible. Like, let's say February of 25. Let's do this. I'm excited because a lot of people do print on demand. Long story short, I'm going to do mine like an offset print run. And it's going to be beautiful and it's gonna be like.
Kory Kirby [00:53:10]:
It's gonna be unlike any business book. And so I gotta wait for books to get printed. But it's all. It's all go time for me. 2025 is gonna be a sweet little rebrand for me.
Nick Bennett [00:53:23]:
Right on, man. I cannot wait to read it. Let me know when it goes live. I don't know if you're gonna sell this one on Amazon, but I'm getting a copy. So I appreciate you, Mandev, thanks for coming on and sharing your story. It is. It is a wild ride. Like, quite literally.
Nick Bennett [00:53:41]:
That was a pun I don't. I'm not proud of. But yeah, man, thank you for coming on and sharing your story. It is you. You've been at this a lot longer than a lot of people in the space right now. And I think it is. It is. There's always going to be, like, ups and downs to this entire thing.
Nick Bennett [00:53:55]:
No matter how long you're at it, and it's just like, stay the course.
Kory Kirby [00:53:59]:
Stay the course.
Nick Bennett [00:54:01]:
Appreciate you, man.
Kory Kirby [00:54:03]:
Thanks so much. I love what you're doing here. I love listening to the show. I love the routes idea. Actually, when you first came out, thousand routes, I was like, damn, that's a good idea. I wish I had that idea. I just love people's journeys and so it's fun to listen to. Respect.
Kory Kirby [00:54:19]:
Thanks for having me on.
Nick Bennett [00:54:21]:
I appreciate that, man. I mean, you're kind of on, like a similar thing. You could do the thousand books like, you're doing. You're telling a thousand stories. I'm just doing in a slightly, like, I'm telling them. I'm telling the story of their business, but you're telling a different, a different story. You could do it. You don't just take it and go do it.
Kory Kirby [00:54:41]:
Love it, love it.
Nick Bennett [00:54:42]:
I appreciate you, man. I'll talk to you soon. Hey, Nick, again, and thanks for listening. If you've enjoyed this episode, you can sign up for the 1000 Routes newsletter, where I process the insights and stories you hear on this show into frameworks and lessons to help you build a new and different future for your own business. You can sign up at 1,000 Routes.com or check the link in the show notes. What would be your last the meal on earth?
Kory Kirby [00:55:20]:
I love brunch, and so I'm thinking, like, egg scramble with potatoes and pancakes and fruit. Maple syrup, really good. Espresso with coconut milk. Like, I love just that fatty, creamy coconut milk and espresso. That would be my last meal, and I'd love to have, like, my people around to me, you know, 11:00 on a Sunday brunch vibe. You're hanging out. You got your people just slow roast type of vibe. That would be my last meal.
Nick Bennett [00:55:53]:
I like it. When does breakfast become brunch? Is it just the time of day? Or do you feel like there's, like, a specific food? Like, I feel like an eggs benedict would be as, like, a brunch food to me. I don't know if I would eat it for breakfast. I mean, I probably would. I'd eat it whenever, but what's like, the brunch food? I feel like, is there mimosas? Are you drinking bloody berries? What's going on?
Kory Kirby [00:56:14]:
I think it's more so kind of like the patience, like the slow roast. It almost doesn't matter the time, but it's kind of like, is it breakfast? Is it lunch? I don't know. We're kind of just hanging out, and I think that's what's important.
Nick Bennett [00:56:28]:
We've got nowhere to go and all day to get there is basically the vibe. Is the brunch vibe. All right, I'm tracking. I'm down with that. I don't know. Everyone's like, let's do brunch. I'm like, they're like, let's get. And then you eat pancakes.
Nick Bennett [00:56:40]:
Like, isn't this just breakfast at lunchtime? But I guess that's, like, what brunch is. I don't know. Some people are like, no, brunch is like a specific type of food. It's breakfast with booze. I don't know. I mean, anything's possible. Totally.
Kory Kirby [00:56:50]:
And I think that's what's fun about it, is you get to make it up. Like, if you want some mimosas, that's amazing.
Nick Bennett [00:56:57]:
There are literally no roasts.
Kory Kirby [00:56:58]:
Yeah, yeah. I think that's why I like it, for sure. The openness says a lot about.
Nick Bennett [00:57:03]:
It's a lot about you.
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