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*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
AI can feel cold and robotic, but Stephen Sakach is here to flip that script. In this episode, he shares how solopreneurs can use AI to deepen human connection and not lose it. From surviving the Wild West days of Internet marketing to creating bliss or build love into scalable systems, Steven breaks down how to stay authentic, avoid burnout, and build a business rooted in empathy. You're listening to The Aspiring Solopreneur, the podcast for anyone on the solo business journey, whether you're just toying with the idea, taking your first bold step, or have been running your own show for years and want to keep growing, refining, and thriving. I'm Carly Ries, and along with my cohost, Joe Rando, we're your guides through the crazy but awesome world of being a company of one.
Carly Ries:As part of LifeStarr, a digital hub dedicated to all things solar ownership, we help people design businesses that align with their life's ambitions so they can work to live, not live to work. If you're looking for a get rich quick scheme, this is not the place for you. But if you want real world insights from industry experts, lessons from the successes and stumbles of fellow solopreneurs, and practical strategies for building and sustaining a business you love, you're in the right spot. Because flying solo in business doesn't mean you're alone. No matter where you are on your journey, we've got your back.
Carly Ries:Steven, I am so happy that you're on the show today because I just signed up for a conference I was telling you about next week and it feels like everything is about AI. But I feel like when people think of AI, they think robotic or it sounds like everybody else. And you kind of bring that human connection back to AI, I think, which is a lot like we work with this guy, George B. Thomas, and he's like, the center of everything is humanity and connecting. So I can't wait to talk to you about everything we're going to dive into today.
Carly Ries:But before we do, I have an icebreaker question for you. I'm so excited because you picked the one that we love when guests pick this because we think the funniest stories come out of it. But what is the wildest thing that has happened to you as a solopreneur?
Stephen Sakach:So my solopreneur career started when the internet was invented. So we did not have that when I was in a kid or when I was in college. So this was really kind of the birth of digital marketing. I would say this is the wild west days of Internet marketing. So I had a regular nine to five job. I would come home and I would sit on my bed with my laptop and figured out search engine marketing. And there was this thing, you know, that all the SEO purists back then were mad about, and that was paid search. And literally, this was like the invention of paid search. And I'm like, oh, so this is the future. So I hopped on there with a company called goto.com we get into.
Stephen Sakach:And I would be in there and I taught myself how to build these crude web pages and everything. I'd be in there and selling stuff. But back then, you could see what everybody was bidding against each other. And so it became really personal with bidding against each other. But it also became this form of torture.
Stephen Sakach:Right? Cause you know if you fell out of first place or into second place, that could cost you thousands of dollars. And so during the holidays, you were on your computer. It's pretty much if you could skip sleep, you would because you just couldn't help but be on there because you know someone's changing that bid on you. So it was this form of madness that we were just locked into back then.
Stephen Sakach:And we're just bidding, bidding, bidding. Eventually, my goal was to make money so when we had kids, you know, we could be able to afford them. And so I ended up at one point, I'm starting to make more money than I'm making at my day job. And, you know, that bidding thing where if I'm not there doing that, I'm losing money going to work. So I was losing money going to work for my day job.
Stephen Sakach:And it's like, okay. well, obviously, I've gotta quit that. At the time, I was working for my mother. It's like, sorry, mom.
Carly Ries:At least she'll love you regardless.
Stephen Sakach:I know. At least she'll love me regardless, but it was like a couple years after divorce, and she's taken over this business. And, we're at least having record years, and I'm like, alright. You're in good hands. I gotta go do this.
Stephen Sakach:But finally, after three or four years of doing this, this madness with these bidding, especially during the holidays, they finally made the bids disappear. And that was, like, sweet release from this torture that I didn't know I was putting myself through for several years. And it was like, oh my gosh. I can't see what everyone else is doing anymore. Oh, suddenly, I just felt, alive again.
Stephen Sakach:But it was, these awful early days of the Wild West Internet. it was just madness back then.
Carly Ries:You see that because it sounds like you're in the trenches, so much what you do now revolves around empathy. And I'm like, do you just have empathy for people because of what you went through?
Stephen Sakach:Yeah. I mean, I was young, and there was no empathy for myself. It's just like, you know, Gen X. We like to grind, I think, a lot. And so it was like, yeah, this is just what you you do.
Stephen Sakach:But, yeah, for sure, that job satisfaction, that work life balance stuff, Yeah, I was feeling it there. You don't want to get that burnout.
Carly Ries:I'm sure. Well, speaking of empathy, you have this acronym BLISS, Build Love Into Scalable Systems. What inspired you to, if it wasn't that, what inspired you to bring empathy into business in this tangible concrete way?
Stephen Sakach:Yeah, so there's this stage in kind of your entrepreneurial journey where you need help at some point if you're doing well. Start to scale. And these days that scaling could come from even an AI agent. Right? It could be.
Stephen Sakach:And you could still be that solo entrepreneur there. But when you scale, you start to systemize. And so what worried me at the time, we were starting to grow as a company. So I went from that solopreneur to 40 people. And we're going growing pretty fast at one point.
Stephen Sakach:And so what I was worried about was the loss of culture. Because before, it could just be me one on one with the clients. You know? And I know that things were gonna be done kind of the way we wanted to do with kind of that empathetic approach, really caring about the best interests of the clients. But I couldn't oversee everything now.
Stephen Sakach:So it's like, we need a guiding principle. And so we came up with, build love into scalable systems. How can we build love into what we're doing? And really, this became the north star of everything we're doing. So no matter what we're doing, whatever part of our business, it was a check-in. it's like, well, how can we build love into this? And I think, you might find when you're doing this, which certainly we did, was really how you are really in service to others. Because this is this very kind of empathetic process, this loving process. You go through all these stages of understanding your clients and your customers and your fellow employees. So through that, you might also find your higher purpose in that process.
Stephen Sakach:So what we did was just basically audit our business by love. It's like, how can we build love into this? And just keep asking that question? And it's like little by little, you know, a little made a lot, and it started just changing our culture, even changing the approach to marketing that we do to really get into this sort of empathetic marketing approach to to what we're doing.
Carly Ries:Well, I love this because you're talking about this with your team, but a lot of the times solopreneurs work with contractors and a lot of contractors who aren't actual employees, but you still have to put processes together, if not more so when they're not under your employee umbrella. So what can solopreneurs be doing as a first step to building love into their systems?
Stephen Sakach:Yeah. I think, just by asking that question, that's a mind shift change for sure. it really is just taking an empathetic look at maybe how you onboard clients. What emotions are they going through?
Stephen Sakach:What are they worried about? How are you showing up where you can alleviate that? Or like your contractors, are we making sure we're doing this the way we wanna do it? So we studied corporate scandals and we kinda broke down their systems where they ultimately failed. And I think there were a couple key areas in the systems.
Stephen Sakach:And they're both very empathetic parts of a system. You don't really think of that, but these were the key areas. And one was the feedback loop of a system. So, a system goes through all these processes and in the end, there's a feedback loop. So in the scandal companies, it was always either ignored or buried or not paid attention to.
Stephen Sakach:So as a solopreneur, I think you really need to kinda actively pursue that feedback from the customers you serve. that's really kind of vital because that's gonna keep you in that empathetic mindset. The other key area where things broke down was around purpose. The purpose of the system or the purpose of the business. So if it wasn't an empathetic purpose, if my sole purpose was profit, well, then you aren't asking, how does this part of my business impact the environment?
Stephen Sakach:Or how does this impact the well-being of customers? Am I selling something that's not in their best interest? this is where you really get going sideways sometimes with your business is when you're not really looking at all the different ways you affect people. Like you mentioned, if you've got partners that you're working with or contracting to, you're affecting them as well. There's a relationship here that you can look into.
Stephen Sakach:Your clients. You really wanna look at that through their eyesight. Kind of what they're going through as a client of yours. But the more we can expand our perspective This is how we evolve consciously. if you're looking at the evolution of consciousness in humans, it's really our ability to take on more and more perspective.
Stephen Sakach:So it's this empathetic process that we get to. So really in a way, this is kind of the future of where business is going, is leaning into more and more empathy as we evolve as humans.
Carly Ries:Well, so let me ask you this. So if people are being empathetic, sometimes that can be a big weight on people's shoulders as well. They might get overly invested into how their clients are feeling or their contractors and all that. It can just be a heavy weight. How can people care a lot without burning out?
Carly Ries:I mean, would imagine some people would just They care so much that they play the yes game and not say no to things, and it turns into a cycle. How can people avoid that?
Stephen Sakach:Yeah, I think I know with my experiences with burnout personally and things like that, it really goes back to trying to find a higher purpose in what you do. and even that higher purpose may even turn into like a life purpose for you. So you want to be able to do hard challenging things. But if you're feeling like it's a soul sucking process, you know, that's gonna burn you out.
Stephen Sakach:And a lot of solopreneurs probably have even left the corporate world because it was just sucking their souls. It felt like they're, you know, opening up a vein every day, nine to five. And all the data right now, says that's what's happening because four out of five workers are disengaged at work right now. So this is a very unhealthy thing where it's this lack of caring, really, though, that that happens. It's not too much caring for each other.
Stephen Sakach:It's really this lack of caring, I think. So if you really lean into the empathy of what you're doing, this often helps you find that higher purpose and gives you energy. And so I think real care is almost actually what helps you avoid burnout. there's this example. I think Simon Sinek told this story about there is this luggage handler who you go to in an airport and he's handling all the luggage for people.
Stephen Sakach:But he's gotta go in during Christmas, the middle of winter. And this sounds like it could be leaving his family. And this is not a fun time to be leaving your family and having to do all this. And his son was asking like, Hey, dad, why do you have go into work? And he's like, Well, I've got to go there because there are grandpas and grandmas trying to get to their families right now.
Stephen Sakach:And dad has to help them do that. And it's like that higher purpose, finding that higher why of what you're doing. That's what gives you the energy to push through those things that could be like these very burning out kind of activities. So I think that is really the key is probably not I know as we've got clients and you do care about them and you worry and sometimes you know, may even wreck your sleep. But I do think that that care is really the lack of it is what gives us more burnout.
Carly Ries:Yeah. I love that approach. I just feel like you bring such, human qualities to a world that I feel like it's lacking in so many different areas. On that note, you co founded AI CMO, which is an AI powered marketing platform. And there are so many solopreneurs that kind of use AI or are curious about using AI, but they just don't fully utilize it the way that they could be.
Carly Ries:So what is your advice for getting started without losing that feeling of authenticity?
Stephen Sakach:Yeah. So, with our platform, as AI chief marketing officer, it's really our most active users are solopreneurs, I think. So we look at them, they're really in there. but with our platform, we're doing a few things around that authenticity issue. So the first thing we wanna help you do is dig into finding that higher purpose in your business.
Stephen Sakach:We take you through this process and probably something as a solopreneur, maybe you've never even gone through. But it digs into your values, what's important to you, and helps you articulate that why around what you're doing. And so you go through that process. You'll basically come up with a purpose. it doesn't necessarily have to be the most eloquently tight purpose.
Stephen Sakach:But it's a purpose that speaks to the deeper parts of who you are and what you do. So we're gonna use that kind of as an anchor to guide where you're going with your marketing. We wanna make sure we're always speaking around that purpose because that's going to really bring out that authenticity in what you're doing. There are other things in there too. Like, we're looking to differentiate you from your competitors or or we'll scan your whole website and look at your brand voice, whatever you're doing to kinda make it sound like you too.
Stephen Sakach:But ultimately, when you get down to it for that real authenticity, it's going through this exercise to determine what is really truly important to you and get to that real authenticity because that's really what's gonna shine through, I think. And we really want AI to kind of prompt you to be a better human by kind of doing this. You know, not we're thinking always about prompting AI. This is really AI coming at you to prompt you going through these exercises to really kinda elevate what you're doing.
Carly Ries:So how do you use AI to deepen that human connection with your audience and your clients?
Stephen Sakach:So it goes back to that authenticity aspect. So when you show up like that in marketing, that's when you're gonna build that emotional connection. And so those out there who maybe don't know all the the deeper parts of, building emotional connection in marketing, this tool really does a good job on doing that. So it's not just, the marketing that you're doing, you know, on your ads and stuff like that and your blogs, but it's also the consumption experience of your product or service.
Stephen Sakach:So there are, people may not realize this or care, but there are 17 different emotions when it comes to consuming your product or service. And some are negative and some are positive. And you definitely, wanna avoid those negative ones. So one of the great ways to create that emotional connection is through surprise and delight. Right?
Stephen Sakach:So when you're dealing with a customer. we've got a tool in there just for that. So this is going to come up with all kinds of ways to kind of surprise and delight your customers. This kind of purple goldfish thing elements at your business. And so this really helps you make that human connection.
Stephen Sakach:Because it's tying into these positive experiential emotions that people go through when they're interacting with Obviously, we want to be good people, but we don't know sometimes what we don't know. So this is really helping you to do that. ultimately, with our platform, it's not so much about, again, prompting AI. It's about prompting us. Like, here are some things you can do to build deeper connections in your business with people when they walk in or they're interacting with you via Zoom.
Stephen Sakach:Comes up with all kinds of amazing ideas with that. So, yeah, I love that tool in there. If you're gonna use the tool, we have free trial and everything. But it really does help to build that emotional connection.
Carly Ries:I love that. Well, so in addition to this, as a chief marketing officer platform, what do you think the top, let's say, three things should be that solopreneurs be implementing from a marketing standpoint using AI?
Stephen Sakach:I think using AI I'm gonna focus particularly on the marketing side for sure. one of the things we do is take you through this emotional customer journey. So here's your customer. Here's what they're going through at these different stages of before they're a customer, as they become a customer. This is really an empathetic exercise for you.
Stephen Sakach:And this really has nothing to do with even writing stuff. It's just getting in their head kind of thing to set up how you're going to talk with them, how you're gonna communicate with them, to really understand them. Again, building that emotional connection with them. So I think using AI for understanding that customer journey on a deeper, a much deeper level than you've ever even thought about, it's really good. It's really good at that.
Stephen Sakach:I think where a lot of people can go sideways with AI is, like, if I'm using, say, ChatGPT and I go in there and say I'm installing blinds or something like that as a business. And I'm out writing me an article about blinds and installing it. Well, someone a 100 miles away may be doing the same exact prompt, not very sophisticated. They're gonna get a very similar result from the AI. So this is not going to be something that sounds unique or authentic to you.
Stephen Sakach:And it's probably gonna fall pretty flat when you're delivering that way. So That's one of the things we tried to do is just make sure that we're bringing all these other elements like your higher purpose, differentiating your brand voice, things like that into this conversation before you even make that query in there. Because, I think that's a lot of people's first experience with AI. Everyone has to still be prompt engineers and thinking really through the process. Otherwise, they're gonna get very similar results out. I'd say avoid that for sure. Avoid that sameness. And then really, I think one of the other good ways that will help you in business wise is maybe you don't have a mentor or a coach. Just tell AI to act like whatever. You can be in ChatGPT and act like whatever mentor you'd have. And take on that persona and provide you some feedback about some question about your business.
Stephen Sakach:It can really do a good job of kind of elevating you or getting you to think outside things you just don't know about. So there are a lot of ways you can really use it, as a solopreneur. I Think that I wish I had, you know, twenty years ago when I first started out.
Carly Ries:Well, speaking of when you first started out, what would you say one system is that you wish every solopreneur would put in place today?
Stephen Sakach:So, I kind of inherently knew this, and that's really that whatever you're doing, do it with love. I just kind of knew that. And I didn't know until one day that my grandfather came up to me. He's 80 years old. And he said the same exact thing to me.
Stephen Sakach:He was all, Hey, I was just starting out my solopreneur career, having some success there. He's all, Whatever you do, do it with love. And I was like, Okay, this is a guy who's got eighty something years of life experience. So maybe what I'm thinking about love in business is really It does have a strong place for it. But I didn't know for many years kind of how to make that play out in business.
Stephen Sakach:And it really is that simple thing of just asking yourself what's the loving thing to do here. And I think there are ways we can do that in business that'll help us stay true to that love. And that can be taking more of like a triple bottom line approach to your business. Right? So you can think about profit.
Stephen Sakach:This is what we all think about in business. But maybe we can have metrics toward people or planet. These other parts of bottom lines that we can have. This is what we're doing for the planet. This is what we're doing for our customers and things like that.
Stephen Sakach:You can really start to measure some of those other elements beyond that that sole profit approaches, which really where we kind of focus on a lot. I wish I had that bliss mindset. The building love in a scalable systems. Because what happens is you start to systemize kindness in what you're doing. And instead of it being this random act of kindness, it becomes systemized act of kindness and it repeatedly happens.
Stephen Sakach:And that impacts others. And when you can do that with consistency, there's this ripple effect in what you do. And so I think, really, if you just keep asking that question and you kind of build something so that it's not this one time thing, it's gonna make a big difference around you.
Carly Ries:Yeah. Absolutely. Oh, I love that answer. Stephen, you are so great. I think what you're doing in the AI world is so important and often so forgotten.
Carly Ries:And hopefully, you help so many people find success with it through this podcast and obviously with everything that you're doing. So speaking of success, we ask all of our guests this question. What is your favorite quote about success?
Stephen Sakach:So there is this quote from Marumi about eight hundred years ago that it translates to you are what you seek. And so I think too often, we define success by money in the bank. Right? You know, that's what we seek. And we probably do that because it's something we can measure and something we can compare to others and determine, hey, how well are we doing?
Stephen Sakach:But success can be the lives you've impacted, the kindness that you put into the world or the wisdom that you built. It can be many other things. So are you seeking something that's in service to yourself? Fame, adoration. Or are you seeking something that's in service to others?
Stephen Sakach:And I think, when we really try and think about it, maybe even on our deathbed at some point in time, it's that love that's really important to us ultimately, that love of others. So the more we can seek that, I think, that's where true success will lie. So, you are what you seek. And so what are you seeking is what I'd ask.
Carly Ries:So great. Well, Stephen, if people want to learn more about you, AICMO, where can they they find all that information?
Stephen Sakach:Well, go to aicmo.io. And if you go to aicmo.io/start, we have a free seven day trial and no credit card is required. But if you do put in a credit card and use promo code solo 30, s o l o 30, you can get a thirty day free trial. So you can try it out and experiment it and you can get a lot done in those thirty days, trust me. So yeah, go there, check that out. We'd love to have you part of our movement.
Carly Ries:Awesome. That is so great. Thank you so much. And all that will be in the show notes. But thank you for coming on today. This has been wonderful.
Stephen Sakach:Thanks. It was great. I loved it.
Carly Ries:And listeners, thank you so much for tuning in. As always, please share this episode with a friend, leave that five star review, and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform. And we'll 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.
Carly Ries: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. Be sure to join in on the conversations at community.lifestarr.com