Create the Solopreneur Life You Want in 2024 with These Simple Steps

Welcome to Creative on Purpose Live, a show dedicated to helping solopreneurs build fulfilling businesses that fund and fit their ideal lifestyle. My name is Scott Perry. I am your host and your guide in the Close the Gap 90-Day Solopreneur Success Accelerator. And this is a series of broadcasts that I'm doing in advance of the release of my new book called Close the Gap: Build a Fulfilling Part-Time Business That Funds and Fits Your Ideal Lifestyle. And we're just gonna talk about some of the concepts that are unpacked in the book. The book is done, it's, uh, loaded into the KDP, uh, system and will be available on Amazon on Thanksgiving Day USA in November. Uh, if you would like an advanced copy, there is a way that you can do that. That's by becoming a member of the Solopreneur Success Circle of paid subscribers to my Substack. There's a link down below where you can learn more about that. And if, uh, that is not for you but you would like to get a jump start on some of the ideas that we talk about in that program. We've got a free copy of my last book, Onward, available down there in the comments. And Nick Peterson's book Bumpers is also available as a free download down there in the comments. So feel free to check out all of that. I'll also direct you down there to look at an article that is going to go into more detail about our topic for today, which is defining your ideal lifestyle. So a couple things I want to talk about here before we bring in some of the members of the Solopreneur Success Circle into the conversation. The first is that as solopreneurs, as independent business owners, oftentimes the thing that we think that we're optimizing our business for is simply more revenue, more money, more— and, and to do it in less time so that we can free up time for other things. The problem often is that the pursuit of more revenue actually means spending more time and more attention and more effort to try to increase your revenue. What we have found, uh, in my own experience and also in the experience of the folks that I'm working with is that if we actually do an audit of all the resources that we're already using and, and clarify a more meaningful destination for what we want to optimize our business for, what we can do is find that we can recapture most of the wasted resources of time, money, attention, effort, reputation, and so forth, and rededicate those back to building a business that is going to require much less time and effort, and at the same time boost our revenue. So the first thing to do is to define What is it that I'm optimizing for? What is this lifestyle that I want my business to fund and fit around? And rather than look at it as a revenue goal or a time goal, think about what would you do if you had the revenue or the time to dedicate towards the things that you really want in life? And so inside the book, I use an, uh, exercise that I took from Nick Peterson's book, Pompers. Again, there's a link down below where you can go ahead and order yourself a free digital copy. And what we do is we just complete a simple success statement. "I know I am successful when..." That's the way that Nick phrases it. I prefer to repurpose that a little bit into, "I know I'm being successful when..." And then what is that? So just to give you an example, In my own case, what happened for me when I really got my business dialed in, working just 10 hours a week to— and at the same time earning a full-time living— is I was optimizing my business for funding and fitting around my ability to become my grandson's full-time daycare provider, which means essentially my business is built around my grandson's nap schedule. And so That goal enabled me to really dial in what I was trying to accomplish with my business through the revenue it generated and, and through being more, uh, a more meaningful approach to managing the time I was putting into that business. And then the next step is to take a look at exactly what are you currently dedicating, uh, your time and attention, money and effort toward and doing an audit of what your current average week looks like. And when I looked at my current average week, what it looked like is that I woke up at 5:00 AM, I started working, I worked until 5:00 PM, and then I spent a little bit of time with my wife, had dinner, and then collapsed and woke up and did it again the next day. And so I literally took an audit of where I was spending all of my time, attention, money, and effort currently. And then what I did was I planned out what I would like my ideal week to look like. And my ideal week was to wake up at 5 in the morning, work until 7 AM, and then from 7 AM until noon, spend all that time with my grandson. And then from noon until 5 o'clock, I wanted that to be flex time. If I had client calls or community calls to do, I would be able to do that while my wife was taking care of my grandson. And if I didn't have client calls or community calls going on, I could rededicate that time and my attention to spending that time and attention with my grandson and my wife. And so it took me about almost a full year to get from working 80 hours a week to working 10 hours a week, but I was able to do that by getting really clear about what is it that I'm trying to accomplish with my business. What is the ideal lifestyle that I would like to fund through my business and also have my, the, have my business fit around so that I was making sure I was taking care of the things that were most meaningful to me, which is optimizing for that time I was spending with my wife and with my grandson. So my challenge to you all is to think about what is, what does your ideal lifestyle look like. If you go to the link down below, there's a link to the actual chapter in the Close the Gap book that will walk you through the priority statement and help walk you through exercises that will let you know exactly what your current weekly schedule looks like and what your ideal weekly schedule would look like. And then as we continue on through the book, we'll learn how, how do we, how do we optimize for that ideal week? And how do we recapture time, attention, money, effort, and reputation and so forth, all those soft assets so that we can rededicate them to, to building the business that can fund and fit our ideal lifestyle. So that's a real quick look at defining your ideal lifestyle. All the resources I've cited are down below. And it looks like we have a nice collection of Success Circle members, or Solopreneur Success Circle members, and I'm gonna bring them all in and encourage them to join the conversation. So we have Seth Workenizer, one of the rock stars on the Substack platform. If you look at my posts today across the socials and on Substack, you'll see that I featured Seth today because, uh, he is really rocking it on Substack, and it's a platform that we both highly endorse, especially for those of you that would like to escape social media. Seth can tell you more about that. We have Elizabeth Walker, uh, and Penny Harris. Also in the house. Emma's not on camera, but hopefully she'll be able to come on and join us as well. And, uh, yeah, so I would love for any of you to just jump off mic, share any reflections about the topic at hand, which is defining that ideal lifestyle and how, how you might have gone about doing that, or how you're working on it right now. Or we could just sit here in silence and stare at each other in StreamYard, just like real life, just like real class. That's right, just like our usual, our usual meetups.

Uh, you know, uh, so Scott Perry, it's taken a long time to actually get to a place where I, uh, stick to the idea of doing the important thing first. So I'm always the one that says that, right? Is that what's worked for me is, uh, figuring out how to do the, the most important thing first thing in the day, um, and to be careful of your mental clarity and use that to your strategy, uh, but you know, it's taken, uh, it's taken— I'm coming up on my 1-year anniversary of the podcast So it actually has taken some practice, but it's working.

Awesome. So, Elizabeth, go ahead and share what your podcast is because people can also find that on Substack. Is that right?

That's right. So I am Elizabeth Walker on Substack. So you can see the Dear Business Coach podcast there. And of course, all of the ads for live events there too.

And Elizabeth has also recently published her first edition of her brand-new magazine and is taking the ultimate risk by putting me as one of the featured guests on that magazine. So be sure to check that out as well. But the, the Dear Business Coach podcast is a fantastic endeavor. So be sure to check that out. What else do we have, Seth, Penny?

I never lived this way before, so it's to think about what I want. I, I'm learning. I'm, I'm like Elizabeth referred to, waking up. What's the most important thing? What do I want to get from today? And these are not questions that I ask myself on any regular basis anyway.

What's the experience been like for you, Penny? What, as you're starting to kind of put your own priorities front and center, what impact has that had on your well-being, but also just the way that you're thinking about your business and those that you seek to serve?

I think it's adding a sense of strengthening my confidence by having me. I think I feel more confident when I'm making those decisions, assessing where I am and where I want to go. I think it's, um, yeah, I feel more, um, human, I guess.

Oh, I love that reflection.

I didn't, I, you know, little girls weren't taught this kind of thing when I was growing up.

Little boys either, for that matter. But, you know, here's what I love about Penny's reflection. It ties into something that I've written about in the past, which is this idea— most of the folks that would tune into this podcast or broadcast are solopreneurs, which simply means independent business owners. And they are building a business that is trying to leverage who they really are, what they're really good at, and where they really belong, and trying to make a meaningful difference in the world. And one of the things about people that operate from this position of being a Difference Maker is that we tend to be generous, giving, compassionate people. And we are often externally focused: How can I help you? How can I serve you? What can I do for you? And so it's always this posture of putting others ahead of our— others' interests ahead of our own. And what I have found among solopreneurs is that you can give and give and give and give until you give out. And what is really, we have found to be crucial, is that if you are going to have a successful business, you have to learn to operate from the inside out. You have to take care of yourself, make sure that your cup is full, and then you, you are in a better position to take care of other people. And one of the things that I often say is Can you— or the question I would ask of anyone who questions whether or not putting themselves first is actually the best way to serve other people is, can you truly be empathetic and compassionate towards others if you're not able to first practice those things towards yourself first? So I really appreciate that, Penny, and I hope that additional reflection is helpful.

Yes. Yeah, I just will say, I think I've run my life— as you were talking, I was thinking, well, I've always worked to build the community, to do just what I'm doing now. But I, but I just was working outside, taking everything in. And, and when I ran my business, I, I wasn't in my mind running a business where I was— I just had clients one after another, so I was busy and I just didn't organize anything inside, but I'm glad I am. That's good.

Well, we'll unpack busyness as being a different thing than making progress or making a difference in just a minute. But Seth, what do you have to say for yourself?

Yeah, a big thing for me is just something you said a while back of just, have you suffered enough? And, you know, there's work that I do that I suffer through. I mean, not true suffering, but it's just like head against the wall kind of work, beat my head against the wall. And but that has— that time and energy that goes into that, not just the time and energy but also my negative, uh, attitude about it, uh, doesn't do anyone any good. And especially me, because how can I— the work I'm trying to do and trying to be, you know, a positive impact for, for people, uh, support them in their journey of relying less on social media. If I'm harried and angry and like upset over other works, like, so it's been motivation. Have I suffered enough? Yeah, I've suffered enough that like I'm now super duper like doubling down on like what, what works? What— how can I do this? How can, how can I replace that income to move more into the, the world that I, that I want to inhabit? And like, and be calm and chill and ready to like hop on my calls and stuff like that and not be worried about like a to-do list of things today that I deem just so annoying and I just want off my plate. Uh, I know there's to-do lists for what we do, but like there's, there's just some work that I that I, I don't think some of us are set or destined to do.

So yeah, I really, I really appreciate that. And that whole idea of the to-do list ties in, I think, a little bit into what Penny was saying around busyness. And one of the things that I'm really fond of doing with clients, and we've talked about this inside the community, is, you know, it's one thing to have a to-do list, but what should be on your to-do list is the necessary things, not all the things. Because what so often happens with solopreneurs as independent business owners is we try to act like we are one of the big brands that has a huge budget and a huge team, teams specialized for marketing, sales, fulfillment, etc. And, and, and we simply can't do that if you're going to maintain your sanity and maintain your energy and your focus for doing the work that you actually started your business for in the first place. And I truly did find, like Seth was alluding to, that this idea of, have you suffered enough, is something that we're— we don't pay attention to until it's too late, when we're already burning out, when we're already blowing ourselves up. And one of the things that happened for me you know, when the forcing function of becoming daycare for my grandson arrived, it was like an early intervention. And I realized it made me take a hard look at my schedule because I couldn't possibly work 80 hours a week in my business and spend 70 hours, 75 hours a week with my grandson. Something had to give. And so you can, uh, you, before you blow up or before you burn out, you can take a look and You can decide when you suffered enough. Doesn't have to be after everything has gone sideways, upside down, and, and you've depleted yourself. You can actually decide that you've suffered enough right now and take a cold, hard look at why did I start this business for in the first place? How much of my time am I spending in my business making the difference that I started my business to make? And how much of my time am I spending in my business trying to get business so that I can make that change that I, that I started my business to make? And if, if the difference that you make is less than the time you spend trying to just get people in your pipeline or in your client roster to make that difference, you've got some definite work to do. So I really, I really love that reflection. I also just want to add, Seth, because you and I are are musicians. Clay was just here a moment ago. He's also in the music world. We all know, if you hang around musicians, we all know that old, bitter, jaded guy that is always whining about not getting the breaks and nobody's paying attention and why aren't we playing enough of my songs and all the things. Those are people that have not yet suffered enough. And I remember very, very clearly that moment for myself when, you know, I began my career as, oh my God, I can't believe I get to do this and people pay me for it and I can pay my bills doing work that I actually love. And then 10, 15 years into my career, becoming one of those old bitter jaded guys, catching myself and saying, oh my God, I am doing this thing entirely wrong. And deciding that I had suffered enough and I was going to return to that place of generosity and gratitude and build a business on those things instead of all those things that were beyond my control, like better gigs, more money, better audiences, bigger audience, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. So Emma, I don't know if you're able to come off mute and chime in, but I'm, I'm gonna open up the invitation if you would like to do that. And then Elizabeth Penny, Seth, if you have any final reflections or questions to share, please, please do that before we go ahead and wrap this, wrap this episode up. It looks like we have said everything that is to be said on this topic, at least for now. Were you going to say something, Seth?

I, I, yeah, I was gonna say, uh, a, a bit of wisdom from our, our friend Nikki. Um, me and her have this talk of like, I built this business, like, it should be my dream job. Like, what— I'm in charge of all this. Why, why should— you know, like, I'm the boss. I can give myself a long lunch, you know, or build that in. Like, so, so much of that in all of this has been any new ideas I have up here, this, that, and the other, it's just like, is this busy work? Is this gonna like add 18 more things to my day, my to-do list, whatever? Like, we gotta build it. Like, we're the only ones that are going to build it, and we can't let also to our clients walk all over us and demand 18 hours a day from us either. Like, we got to put those boundaries. So like, no one's going to put up those boundaries or build that perfect business for us except us. And like, that's a tall order, but it's got to be done.

Wow.

Well, I really love that. The, the, the idea of boundaries and bumpers and guardrails, um, and establishing those for yourself is so crucial. In fact, that should maybe be the topic of an upcoming episode because we could spend a lot of time there. Um, Nick Peterson's book Bumpers, which is available in the comments, uh, is a book that's worth looking at if you're trying to build those guardrails and so forth. I also love your comment, Seth, because I remember when I first started my business, I started it with the premise that if you're going to work for a jerk, you might as well work for yourself. And it wasn't until 30 years later that I realized, oh, you actually don't have to be a jerk. You could actually be the boss that you always dreamed of having. And so just a much much happier and healthier place to, to live from and to work from. Well, I want to thank Seth and Elizabeth and Penny, Emma, Clay, who had to jump off early. He sent his apologies. But it's great to have you all contribute and be a part of this conversation. These are folks that have all got early access to the book. If you would like to join them and start making some meaningful progress before the end of this year towards clarifying the direction that you want to head in your business, crafting your unique path to achieving that unique destination and collapse time to target, then feel free to join us in the Solopreneur Success Circle. That's simply done by joining the Substack as a paid subscriber, $9 a month or $7.50 a month if you join with the annual program. Gets you 4, uh, uh, access to 4 conversations a week with a group of folks just like you that are trying to make a difference in the world doing work that matters with people they care about. And we'll look forward to seeing everyone in the next episode.